#spoilers through endwalker obviously

[alicesadventuresinffxiv]

In another time, another place

There’s just something about characters speculating how their lives could have gone differently that is pure catnip to me! Especially characters where, but for a few key choices, they might have wound up as a hero rather than a villain, or vice versa.

Now combine that with having an NPC cosplay alt, meaning that I spend a not-insignificant portion of my FFXIV playtime wondering what that character would think about lots of random stuff.

End result: an entire menagerie of Fordola-centric plot bunnies! This post will be an attempt to corral said bunnies into a form that’s at least somewhat organized. It will also grow over time as I add writeups for new AUs if and when they become relevant to what I’m posting on this sideblog!

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To Catch a Falling Star: Instead of leaving for Doma, Lyse spends Stormblood infiltrating the Skulls, with the ultimate goal of convincing Fordola to defect to the Resistance. When your army gets decimated, just steal the other guy’s one, you know?

Eventual Fordola/Lyse, with a complicated enemies-to-lovers arc.

Note that I'm writing scenes from this as they fit the FFxivWrite prompts, not in chronological order. So here's a second list, with the entries listed in the order they occur in the timeline (though there are still large gaps and lots of missing scenes I haven't done yet!)

Take our quarry alive!

Plans Hatched Behind Bars

Narrow Horizons

For a Morsel of Acceptance

Who wants to steer the Reaper?

Those Fleeting Halcyon Moments

A Telling Emotion

Deleterious Relations

Sally forth, to endings unwritten

Aftermath of a Duel

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WoL!Fordola AU: Not WoLFordola like the ship, WoL!Fordola as in the original Warrior of Light, the Meteor Survivor who fought at Carteneau, who destroyed the Ultima Weapon, who ended the Dragonsong War… he died to Zenos at the end of Stormblood. Oops!

Now Fordola is the only one left who has the fighting skill needed to even have a chance of filling his shoes.

This is the timeline I’m basically writing as I take my alt through the MSQ. It starts out as a continuation of TCaFS (so technically TCaFS is one of my WoL’s backstories in a roundabout way haha). But it gets even weirder. Fordola might be the new WoL, for example, but it’s Krile who is the shard of Azem!

Fics in this AU:

A Nostalgic Adventure (end of Eureka)

Falling through memory, hand in hand (during 5.2)

Third-Rate Azem (after 5.3)

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WoL was out fishing, Fordola did the sidequests instead: Not an AU so much as a common premise I use. Fics in this series assume that everything is the same as in canon, including there being some non-specific WoL (maybe even your WoL!) who exists and follows the normal MSQ. However, while they’re busy offscreen somewhere, Fordola is forced to pick up the slack for them and do sidequests where she doesn't usually appear.

My first FFXIV fic (Sympathetic Resonance aka "why is Fordola in Eureka?") would be part of this series, as would my WIP Sorrows of Werlyt fic.

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8th Umbral Calamity: Shadowbringers never specifies whether Lyse and Fordola are killed by Black Rose in the bad timeline. What if they weren’t? Lots of fun (and by fun I mean tragic) ways that could play out!

Originally, this was going to be a kind of Apocalypse/Road Trip AU, with Lyse and Fordola traveling through a Black Rose-devastated Ala Mhigo and trying not to to kill each other before they reached Cid and the Ironworks.

Then I was writing an FFxivWrite entry and realized it would be interesting to combine it with another AU I had, where Fordola gets executed by the Resistance and winds up accidentally bodysharing with Lyse…

[tritoch]

the witch of the cave: matoya, y'shtola, and the night's blessed

long rambly and extremely unedited post about y'shtola and matoya, two characters i really feel like we don't talk about or take seriously enough. i think the popular (and in many ways intended) perception of FFXIV as a game about dramatic high-tension moments and attendant emotional catharsis makes it easy to overlook the fact that there's plenty of subtext to mine from, especially for characters like these two who can come off as somewhat reserved and also have very little screen time together. i find the night's blessed very helpful for thinking about them both. spoilers through endwalker below. tl;dr version of the post can be found by reading the bolded text below.

on my first playthrough the whole rak'tika thing felt very underdeveloped, and i still think a lot of the story beats are weak. here's y'shtola she's your last member to rejoin she has a new village now(?) and OH she's dead again WAIT she's back and then we're off into "zodiark and hydaelyn are primals" land and there's no time to think anymore about the night's blessed. but on reflection i think this works out okay imo because the night's blessed are only just barely there for plot reasons. they serve instead, like the outfit redesign, to establish the game's new baseline concept for who y'shtola is going to be as a character going forward. the night's blessed let the writing shorthand a lot of y'shtola's off-screen development and set her up as a powerful and extremely self-actualized person, using matoya as her foil.

in brief: matoya is implied to have lived her life prior to the sharlayan exodus constantly at odds with the (imo obviously sexist and hide-bound) forum. as a result, she was pretty isolated from and in conflict with much of sharlayan society, to the point that while y'shtola leaves with everyone else in the exodus to presumably matriculate at the studium and earn her archon's marks, matoya stays behind, with no company but her familiars.

and this is agonizingly sad, i think. 15 years alone in a cave. dravania's isolation means she has no one to talk to but frogs she has magic'ed and trained into familiars. little to occupy her but her work and her memories, and her memories of y'shtola are so painful to her she locks them away. even when y'shtola returns to eorzea after ten years away she can't find the time to see her until the scion's issues demand it (to be fair to y'shtola, getting to matoya overland means traveling through ishgard and dravania, and prior to the calamity they're totally occupied with that and afterwards there's the whole dragon thing).

(hey also this whole thing is even SADDER when read in light of the encyclopedia eorzea text that "the day [Matoya] begins to remember her students fondly will be the day that her work ends." she won't let herself take these memories back until she retires!)

they barely talk at their reunion, and while there's some brief honest fondness from matoya early on they soon turn to their characteristic deflecting and sardonic back-and-forth for what little time they get to talk, before matoya delivers a poorly-translated and confusing warning on aethersight and exits the 3.0 story. even by the time of shadowbringers, y'shtola can't bring herself to admit that when alone in a foreign land, she took on her master's name, and neither will straightforwardly admit to missing the other. in a game full of effusive and warm relationships between master and pupil or guardian and ward, matoya and y'shtola's relationship is warm, but specifically characterized by distance and deflection, consistent with how matoya has rejected (and/or isolated herself from) others her whole life.

that's not to say there's not love there, obviously, and not all expressions of love look or the same. but this is not how y'shtola behaves elsewhere. when she visits you at the annex in endwalker, she's quite sincere and direct there, coming to you with her concerns and stating plainly that doesn't want to see you harmed, making it clear she was actively worried about how you were doing. she even pre-emptively apologizes when she fears she's inappropriately joked about your misfortunes. she's also obviously much more direct and deflects less with the night's blessed themselves, or runar, or urianger after rak'tika, or zero. she can be funny or glib or arch, but she makes no effort to conceal how much these relationships mean to her, or how she feels at any given point.

y'shtola can be sharp, she can be sarcastic, she can go for the throat or be dismissive and imperious, but she's generally not those things with people she cares about in private conversation. for a woman who makes it quite clear that she cares a lot about the image she projects to others, she is never ashamed of her own feelings or afraid to voice them, but neither is she harsh or cruel. the one time she does the matoya-style thing of being so honest and brusque it tips over to backbreakingly blunt, it's to thancred in rak'tika, over her concerns that as the sole guardian of an isolated young ward, he isn't doing enough to affirm her as her own person or to be emotionally honest and supportive of her. i have some thoughts as to why that might be; you may be able to guess what they are!

so shadowbringers sets up a parallel for the player: remember matoya in the cave, having spurned sharlayan politics, left to pursue her research and guard the antitower, a solitary hermit for fifteen years? well here's y'shtola as matoya, in a cave, having spurned the lies and half-truths of two specific sharlayan men. she initially comes off alternately distant and brusque, unable to recognize you and perhaps changed herself. the fact that y'shtola's not just the local cave witch to the night's blessed ends up being a sort of narrative reveal, and her characterization as a beloved and respected leader who feels a deep attachment to the community in turn shows how much she's grown and surpassed her mentor. (and note in turn urianger, over there in fairyland pretty much actually doing the matoya thing except, in accordance with his whole deal, in a way that is both slightly healthier and much weirder).

and there's narrative payoff for this: y'shtola, having been fairly closed-off and mission-focused up until now, flings herself into a fucking pit and casts "hope this doesn't kill me lmao" the very second she learns the night's blessed have been harmed and she has a chance to save them (and that's not a romance thing; she has no idea runar's been harmed. she only knows the villagers of slitherbough have been poisoned, and an antidote exists). and from her (annoyingly obviously fake) death you learn that she isn't just valued and respected by the community, but has formed close enough relationships for people to feel real and deep attachment to her.

y'shtola notes at several points that she and master matoya dedicated their lives to the pursuit of truth above all else. but in the end y'shtola was also a student of louisoix, a man who far valued compassion for the plight of others above all else (and, not for nothing, he's not exactly #1 parent/guardian/mentor of the astral era either). in rak'tika, all the finest qualities of y'shtola reach a kind of culmination. the relentless pursuit of what is true and what is right, but as part of a healthy, caring community, without the isolating and painful pride of her mentor. and she sacrifices nothing of herself to attain this. she is exactly who she was before rak'tika, if anything a little more brusque. she's even still a little withholding about herself, noting that she cultivated an "image of restraint" among the night's blessed. but none of this interferes with her ability to be a powerful and respected and admired leader of a close-knit community.

and again none of this is really a critique of matoya, who i have enormous affection for as effectively the game's only representation (until endwalker) of an older woman in STEM. but she is a product of what her circumstances allowed: where matoya, as a sincere believer in truth, had only rivals in a deeply conservative and isolationist society, y'shtola, carrying forward the same principles, has friends and comrades in an increasingly open and free world. she turns her mentor's unflinching honesty from an alienating political weakness into a pillar of both slitherbough and the scions. matoya's self-imposed exile from sharlayan is, by her own acknowledgement, petty and in some ways goes against her own values. and listen you've gotten far enough in this rambling, we can all be real for a second: matoya is definitely kind of an asshole and went into self-imposed exile and sealed up her research because of a disagreement with the Forum over weapons development. y'shtola's leveraging the integrity and searing honesty she learned from matoya to far more altruistic ends!

i think a lot of players have a vision of y'shtola somewhere on a continuum from badass avatar of destruction to powerful and solitary archmage. and i agree that's cool as hell but i also think ffxiv is a game that believes, at its core, that community is one of the most important things in the world, both in terms of what it can do for a flourishing society and as a critical element for people to find value and fulfillment in their own lives. y'shtola developing her own close attachment to a community in shadowbringers is meant to serve as shorthand for how she has come into her own as a person and found a fulfilling and meaningful life in line with her ideals, living up to matoya's ideal of all knowledge existing to advance mankind. it is no coincidence that this happens at the same time as she goes from "a pretty good mage" to being consistently portrayed as one of the more powerful mages in the setting and the scions' magical powerhouse. the genre trappings and the character arc work in harmony.

i think what this means becomes a little clearer set against characters like thancred (who spends 5.0 getting to "can have a mostly emotionally honest conversation with his surrogate daughter and make her feel loved and valued") and estinien (who, after twenty years living in and dying for one walled city, had one of the worst months anyone has ever had and ever since can't be in the same place for more than two seconds). their permanent states as vagabonds reflect their lack of close ties (what with all the tragic death) and still-healing emotional wounds. by contrast, y'shtola has achieved the wisdom and grace to live life as part of a connected whole, and has found a way to bring her values to bear in all parts of her life and in her leadership of this community, in so doing improving the lives of herself and everyone around her. y'shtola doesn't settle down with the night's blessed as a natural progression of her life or as a precondition to her maturation, but instead is capable of forming this kind of attachment to the night's blessed precisely because she has developed the integrity and emotional honesty to live in accordance with her values. and she can cast LB3 meteor in cutscenes now.

and also, conveniently, this is done in a way that lets them shorthand/off-screen a lot of this arc and do the rest of it with very minimal screentime for y'shtola and it has an associated romance subplot and also conveniently she's immediately severed from this important community so she can stay footlose and fancy-free in the protagonist group and Isn't It Funny How Scion Women Settle Down Or Die While We Keep Accumulating Permanent Bachelors, I Just Think It's Funny. obviously none of this is above critique. but i think the narrative takes pretty seriously the idea that y'shtola is actually the team's most emotionally developed and mature member in a lot of ways and slitherbough is where a lot of that starts, and you can't understand all that without matoya.

[senespera-ffxiv]

also this is the only time I'm gonna post twice in a row but I finished up my thoughts about dawntrail in my media list so I'm posting them here completely unedited

//spoilers for like all of dawntrail

a more detailed rating is that this is like a 4.7/5. It’s a solid story, if a bit boring and cliche for some of the first half. I do enjoy how clear-cut the story is in terms of thematic content, though, and how through and through it is an exploration of differing cultures and the ways in which you can understand them

The second half was also an interesting continuation of said exploration as it gives you a culture that is in direct opposition to you with ways that are so alien, and yet continues to ask that you understand them while also criticizing the more inhumane effects of those cultural practices

making it about me again but it’s basically just my stance about criticizing China. A lot of the criticism becomes extremely sinophobic because it simply rejects the culture without first trying to understand it. It’s a bit easier for me since I’m deeply steeped in said culture, but I do think it’s possible for someone who isn’t Chinese to criticize China in a non-sinophobic way

Idk just a lot of the way Wuk Lamat and the others handled their reactions to Alexandria felt like a good way to do that to me

Like it’s nowhere close to being as insanely character-driven as shadowbringers and endwalker, nor is it as interestingly politically technical as heavensward, stormblood, and certain parts of endwalker, but it’s still definitely Good. Just not as good in comparison to the rest (and even then I’d rank it above Stormblood lmao I didn’t have any moments where I was actively annoyed at the characters for losing brain cells and shit jksdlfhskldjf)

My ranking for the expacs would be something like this

Shadowbringers > Endwalker > Heavensward ≥ Dawntrail > Stormblood > ARR

Gameplay-wise, though, oh my God this Fucks. This Fucks So Hard. Way better than Endwalker.

I imagine this is kind of what it felt like to play this game back in Stormblood and early Shadowbringers where things were much more complex and messy on the player side, except this time the complex and messy stuff has bled into the normal content boss design and I am enjoying it so goddamn much

(disclaimer: I started playing at the very tail end of shadowbringers so while I still remember some shit like old monk back when it had positionals on all of its buttons, I am mostly A Young'un. I did not have to experience the dreaded TP management, nor have I gone through all the stages of grief with Summoner getting reworked every fucking expansion lmao)

Part of the reason why I love doing EX trials is because at that difficulty level they aren’t afraid to do some just batshit things that would cause you to lose it in normal content

and now it’s bled into normal content hell yes

For reference my two favorite EX mechanics so far are the Biting Halberd combo from Zurvan EX (death puddle under boss → giant cone → baited aoes → tank cleave) and the add phase from Hydaelyn EX (both tanks get an add and have to pull them away from the glowing crystals while party dps’s them, rotate once the glowing crystals are dead)

Like obviously I’m biased cuz I’m a tank and those are largely tank mechanics (cuz yes if you forget to move properly in the Zurvan one as MT you just kill your entire party so I kinda count that as a tank mechanic) but more importantly I like them because of how dynamic the movement is.

And they’re dynamic in different ways, like Zurvan’s is extremely rigid. You will dance in this specific manner (back → tank right, everyone else left) or else you die. Hydaelyn on the other hand can be a bit looser and you have at least a bit of room to do different strategies (ideally it’s a “everyone focus down one crystal at a time” situation but the like three-five times I’ve done the fight the positioning has always been very loose as long as none of the glowing crystals are getting tethered).

And a bunch of fights in Dawntrail are doing stuff like this that feels like a dance

Like the first example I can think of is Ar1/R1/whatever we’re calling it when the boss flings out a sequence of like 8 aoes across tiles before hitting you with an uppercut that sends you flying into the air and in order to not die from said uppercut you need to position yourself so that you land on an uncracked tile

The second iteration of this where it’s the clone that does the uppercut and the main boss is hitting you with line stacks is my favorite because that’s where the amount of stuff you do starts to offset how slow the actual mechanic is to make it feel like you’re in a time-sensitive dance and if you step wrong you’ll fuck things up

Another good example is the final boss The Queen Eternal which just. aughhhh I love that boss. There’s so many fun ideas being thrown around in there lol. You can really tell that Zeromus from the Endwalker patches was intended to be a test run for some of the mechanics in this fight because both occasionally devolve into randomized Chaos as you try your best to just Not Get Hit by aoes can you tell I loved the mechanic when she deploys her drones lmao

LIke okay last thing to yell about but Absolute Authority is literally just a mini Relativity mechanic from E12S/Big Bang from Zeromus but more chaotic and I absolutely loved it

Plus the more chaotic nature of the mechanics in this fight serve a bit of a narrative purpose, especially when you consider how desperate Sphene is at this point in time

Like she doesn’t give a shit about keeping up appearances she will kill you as best as she can, “random bullshit go” included

And both of those mechanics also force you to do more dynamic movement, only now it's typically erratic and panicked compared to the more methodical and freeform dances of Zurvan and Hydaelyn EX respectively

We need more insane shit in the gameplay of the normal mode stuff keep doing it Yoshi-P

[iamluzgar]

I finally finished FFXIV Dawntrail and I have many many thoughts about it. So, spoilers, and bare with me.

I had a lot of troubles to get into it at first, but I always feel that way for much of the extension I've played so it didn't change much. I pushed through, and I'm glad I did. I loved the theme of discovering new people and cultures to get to know them, and to like them. Which was an ongoing thing.

I liked Wuk Lamat a lot as a character. She's a bit immature, but she has a lot of potential, as you say to Gulool Ja. Loved having Thancred and Urianger against me for a change, especially in that dungeon. I got into it more and more, wanting Wuk Lamat to succeed because there were many hints showing she would do well (like for example with the bandits, I saw another post on tumblr mentioning it, but she directly thought about a system failiure problem, rather than thinking the people were bad). She adapted herself to the best of her ability to the culture she met with an open mind, even when she was afraid, unsure or disagreed with it. The VA did a fantastic job imo for her voice.

Of course the rest of the gang was here too and it was incredible. I loved how Erenville finally got the spotlight he so deserved. I wasn't a fan of Krile, but now I do like her and that's the power of FFXIV imo.

Anyway, the first part was great, and it was an important part because the WoL can finally indulge in some "selfish" actions like battling big dudes, deities, eating stuff, traveling, meeting people, doing the good old Azem and I think they'd be proud. The game keeps pushing you Emet, from what he said to you on the last expansion, and I liked that, it keeps him alive. I obviously missed Venat, Hythlodaeus, Elidibus and Emet a lot from this expansion, so it was nice to have some mentions of them. However, especially with the second part of the game, you realize how the shadow of the Ascien still fly above us and all of the reflections. Because I am persuaded they had a hand in the creation of electrope and the key.

The second part was even greater. It started weak with the Western like stuff (I'm not a fan of that and it felt like post-MSQ quests), but then it really starts: not only it brings back stakes (because... Well, I laughed when people made Valigarmanda a "big threat", considering we killed Despair a few months ago in the game), but it also is a pay off from the first part. You grew attached to Wuk Lamat, to Tuliyollal and its people. And now they're in danger.

Which brings us to New Alexandria, with its strange culture of pushing away death. The whole part with Alexandria felt like a metaphore from our own real world. We too, tend to push death away, put people dying away from society and from our eyes, forget them. It really resonated with my experience, especially considering I've been a volunteer in palliative care for a year. The whole thing of accepting death is a main topic in this second part of the game.

We brushed a bit too fast over the identity issues Zoraal Ja felt, I feel, sadly. I wish we could have had a bit more to humanize him.

Then the last zone... It truly touched my soul. We do the exact opposite thing that we did in Endwalker. In Endwalker, we started from nothing, we added music, colors, we reanimated species from death. In Dawntrail, we "turned off" people, we removed the colors and the songs from the places we were visiting. It was powerful to observe it, doing a different kind of walk, maybe even a harder one. Idk for WoL, but it was harder for me. Because we were still "killing" people, and we can only sympathize with Sphene's desires to let her people live more, whatever the cost of it. We hope and pray there might be another way for everybody to be happy.

It brings me back to palliative care in the real world. This world Sphene created, was a metaphor for therapeutic obstinacy and the artificial prolongation of life. At some point, there is nothing you can do, and you have to "pull the plug". You have to say good bye. To your own family, to your friends, to people you knew more or less. What's left of them then? All the memories you had with them, and that's it, and as the Yok Huy's philosophy, they kinda live through you that way.

Contrary to Meteion, our action of killing the people in that zone was not born of desperation of not being able to save them, but from an acknowledgement that this artificial prolongation of life is no longer sustainable, it will give more pain and will sacrifice ressources that could be given to people who still have a chance to continue living. At some point, when there is no chance to sustain a life, we need to make peace with the fact that it's over. That death is a part of life, and might always be. The next day always happen, with a beautiful sunset, new lives, new hopes, new stories, and new adventures, with new people. It's an end, but it's not the end.

As someone who lost my mom when I was a teenager, it was comforting to see those moms having so much hope, love and pride for their children. I could hear my own mom through them. We see a lot of moms, and we have to say good bye to a lot of them, and that was difficult. I both hate and like the fact that FFXIV has a tendency to kill moms or otherwise important female caretaking figures. :( They displayed a lot of different relationships between family members regarding their future death, and that was also interesting. Family, in the large sense of it, was a very big topic of this expansion.

On a gameplay part, I loved almost everything. They upped up the difficulty a notch, and it was perfect. I love how they made new ways of seeing AoE while also still making it clear it's an AoE. Very good ideas there. Loved the last two dungeons.

I was not a fan of the music this extension, but well nothing is perfect. I'm not a fan of FFIX and obviously a lot was taken from it.

Hope that didn't bore you out!

TL;DR Incredible writing as usual.

[purple-link]

Alisaie and Purple Link

FFXIV Write 2024 Story Entry

Spoiler: Story takes place after WoL reaches Garlemald in Endwalker, but but before the Tower of Babil dungeon. Story will be largely sfw, but will adhere to FFXIV's level of mature storytelling.

Chapter 23: On Cloud Nine

“…And that’s just how it’s been,” said Purple Link, flying on one of his own Lanners, a purple-winged beauty, natch, “My life has been an endless series of bad luck cases. I was working out in the fields of Central Thanalan before Thancred found me.

"I don’t really need to tell you what happened after that.”

“Duly noted,” said Alisaie, agreeing, riding atop her own Yol, “However, Purple, you must understand, I wasn’t there for most of it.

"I re-joined the party in Ishgard, only really seriously considering joining permanently after the debacle that was the Crystal Braves.”

Purple Link grimaced. He remembered the efforts that Alphinaud took to make a unified front against the Garleans, what was to be now called the “Grand Company of Eorzea.”

…There was to be another name, he remembered, but it was shot down quickly.

In any case, the matter of Alisaie’s joining of the Scions was moot point, now that they were pretty much each other’s moral anchor.

In the figurative sense, not in the soul sense.

“I suppose that’s true,” said Purple Link, “I mean, long story short, we went after Gaius in the Praetorium, he went on about some such other, things like who I fought for, or why men like Louisoix would grovel at the feet of the gods.

“Understandably, I was very glib,” he added, as if all the memories rushed back to him over and over, in a never-ending repetition of yelling and golden gunblades.

“Who wouldn’t be?” said Alisaie, “Not that Gaius thinks that now, but he’s had his own perspective shifted about Grandfather’s actions. I think now he would be paradoxically impressed by him.”

“Yeah,” said Purple Link, sadly, “But it took him losing nearly all his family to change his mind.”

The Wolf Burglar, who had been flying very neatly alongside his huge but otherwise very normal falcon Montaro, had been listening to only about half this stuff.

“This really doesn’t concern me at all about any of it, does it?” said the Wolf Burglar, “I mean, I understand basically nothing.”

“Let’s just say,” said Purple Link, “The definition for ‘apocalypse’ didn’t have a plural until I came along.”

“That’s not strictly true, is it?” queried Alisiae, “After all, this is the Seventh Umbral Calamity.

"Unless Hydaelyn is swarming about the planet’s surface activating Warriors of Light all over the place, I don’t think we could depend on anyone but you to face the dangers we ask of you.

“However, I don’t think that excludes the number of people who have been Warriors of Light in the past, to face those previous calamities,” said Alisie, “Nor does it explain the very large wall in remembrance of the Rising, in Ul’dah’s corner of their streets.

"Obviously, there had to have been others.”

“Well, I’m just glad to help,” said Purple Link, “Whatever the case may be. Speaking of which, do you know where we should look next?”

“Well, this is Yanxia,” said the Wolf Burglar, as they swooped over the great red wall that separated the ruins of Doma from Namai, “I’m pretty sure we covered this whole coastline, sans the Glittering Basin.

"All the same, it wouldn’t hurt to do one more go-through.”

“Agreed,” said Purple Link, and they separated to cover more ground.

It was now two days before the ceremony, Alphinaud was still a prisoner of the bandits, and they were no closer to finding the location of the ceremony. All previous requests to hold the ceremony anew elsewhere were quickly shot down.

“I want this to go as perfectly as possible,” said Lord Hien, after debriefing with him swiftly, “The best show of diplomacy with our Lupin allies is to be as accurate as possible.”

“The Lupin appreciate a show of force,” said Hakuro, “But we equally appreciate a solemn gesture. Such is the way of the Alpha.”

The mention of tradition forced their hand, and with Lord Hien insistent on it, they had no choice but to look for the location on their own.

Starting over in the southeastern portion of Yanxia, which connected to the Ruby Sea, they covered all the familiar haunts, stretching from the Glittering Basin itself to the ends of Prism Lake.

From their vantage point, Purple noticed the Lupin in the Glittering Basin were fighting against the Tenaga, big hulking tree-like creatures that wrapped around a crystal host.

He only merely cast a glance, but he thought he could see an oddly shaped white-furred Lupin teaching the bandits how to do a trick.

His attention was laid elsewhere, as he flew over a rather beautiful and isolated spot he’d visited many times before. It was one of his favorite secret spots, a plum spring with large blossoming leaves, a pink so vibrant, they could even be seen in the dark.

While this helped him clear his mind, he deemed the place a bit too perfect for such a ceremony. It didn’t attract visitors the way that even, level ground could provide.

“Hey Purple?” said a voice suddenly, in his ear. Purple Link tapped the linkpearl twice to answer the call.

“I can hear you,” said Purple, “How’s it going, Alisaie?”

“So, I just covered Namai, and I know you’ve got the Glittering Basin covered,” said Alisaie, “I’ve been told stories about the Lupin, and I think they might offer us a clue. I wanted to run them by you, first.

"Could I ask you to come to Namai?”

“On my way,” said Purple Link, and he hopped back onto his purple-winged lanner and shot off into the sky.

Meanwhile, the Wolf Burglar was having a hell of a time. Having just survived yet another excursion with the automata that roamed Doma’s razed streets, he floated above Prism Lake, thinking the Lupin would have to be mad to travel so high up, and so far past the line of Rijin rule, if they wanted to have a celebration on such uneven ground.

Especially if it was the Lupin he was thinking of. They would have rather been caught dead than willingly travel through Doma’s boundaries, even if it was merely a matter of principle up to this point.

He was still thinking about Purple Link, and their time in Rhalgr’s Reach. Having left the sunny spot to the Ala Mhigans, they blipped back to Yanxia, to try another hand at searching places it might not have occurred to him to look.

He was thinking about his parents again.

He hated to do so, it brought to him some uncomfortable memories, about living under Garlean rule, about having to live off the streets.

Traveling to Kugane felt a little familiar to him, and he realized it might have been because he wasn’t the first person to do such a thing.

He’s berated the Warrior of Light long enough on his status as a superhero, he didn’t exactly have time to question who he was as a person.

He didn’t realize the Warrior of Light would have all the answers.

Not that the Wolf Burglar's pre-teen years didn’t go by as a blur, of course it did, especially before he turned ten. But he did remember his parents' faces.

Huge muzzles hovering over his, like proud parents, or perhaps that of a pet owner. It didn’t matter to him, he was their child, and he was happy.

Then came the purge of insurgents.

He didn’t remember who they fought for, he didn’t know who they were, and he specifically didn’t remember how his parents were involved.

He knew, even then, that life could be cruel and unfair. Waiting around for things to get better on their own didn’t seem to suit his lifestyle, so he dug a little deeper, cut a little closer.

With his step-father’s sword by his side, he could start taking down some big-name targets.

But how the tides could quickly turn. The horrible leaders and two-timing merchants also had families, and they weren’t exactly awful fathers when they were alone. Depriving them of even their families was beneath his stature.

He didn’t like to kill. He just liked to steal.

The people he spared would soon come after him, with bounty hunters, serial-killers, and the Sekiseigumi, the police force that worked for the Kugane government.

They would sooner become villains in their own right, and good luck to that, but it felt like a mercy that was spared too soon.

But then Purple Link arrived on the scene, and that blustering Hildebrand. He couldn’t believe his eyes that his world could flip-turn, upside-down, and show him a newer perspective.

And now he was doing it again.

What right did he have to be cynical, thought the Wolf Burglar about himself. All he could think about was a samurai sword and a few broken promises.

Promises he made to his parents.

Promises he made to his adoptive samurai father.

Promises he made to the people of Kugane, who were waiting for his salve of justice.

Then there was the possibility the world could be destroyed at any moment, he thought. The problem became too big in his mind to contemplate.

He decided he would leave that to the real Warrior of Light, to truth and justice, and whatever else he had on his plate.

Before he knew it, he was on the south side of Doma.

Doma and Doma Castle surrounded a large river, one that separated Doma from the section of the southern side of Othard. In the middle of the river, he could see, was the Doman Enclave, almost a small hutlet community from this distance.

…What was he going to do about Lord Hien, he thought. If everything went well, he could bring a whole new generation of Lupin security and peace. On the other hand…

As his thoughts drifted to the possibility of betraying Lord Hien, his eyes caught something. Something that hadn’t occurred to him before.

From the streets of Doma, a path wound it’s way down to the shores of the gulf, where stood a short pier. He hadn’t thought of it at the time, but the pier seemed too small to travel the One River without taking great pains to get to the sea, and eventually the ocean.

It didn't seem like it could berth huge trading ships easily. It must have been for local transport.

Cross the One River, on the other hand, and you had a small little island, one that shouldered a huge cliff face, and the gargantuan Dairyu Moon Gates.

These gates had recently been hijacked and refitted to include Garlean shield technology, but since the Garleans had left, there was no one there to deliver upkeep.

Anybody could pass through them.

He wondered…

The first thing that caught his eye was a tree that grew in a very odd way. It was almost tapering off and growing precisely upside-down and horizontally in tiers. It took the appearance of a flight of stairs.

It was growing on top of a huge pillar of rock, not unlike those in the Doman Enclave.

It vaguely reminded him of something.

“...Upside-down tree…” said the Wolf Burglar, “But where are Ganen’s eyes?”

He snapped his fingers, and then flew around the gate, to the visage of Ganen carved into the very rock of the Dairyu Moon Gates.

He smiled briefly at the noble figure of the Doman leader, until he realized the eyes looked clouded over. Not only was the crystal laid into the eyes of the carving icy-blue, but a bunch of crude bird droppings had caked the the lenses. The leader was effectively blinded.

No one had come by to clean it. No one lived in Doma, Namai was too far away, and the namazu, those flippy-floopy catfish that lived in Yuzuka Manor, would probably live to clean it, if it weren’t for dealing with their own problems.

“So, if Ganen is blinded?” said the Wolf Burglar, feeling like he was onto something, “Where are his eyes…?

“In the back of his head!” recalled the Wolf Burglar, tapping his fist into his palm. He flew back around the Moon Gate, only to find the cliff face didn’t have any indications.

“...What?” said the Wolf Burglar, “No eyes…”

He shook his head.

“Maybe I’m imagining things,” said the Wolf Burglar, mildly disappointed, “It was just a dream, after all…”

Feeling like he monumentally wasted his own time, he was about to turn and leave, until he saw a pair of windows in the distance, in one of the columns of lookout towers posted in cardinal directions, each side of Doma Castle.

The whole place had been wrecked, purposefully destroyed by Lord Hien and the Warrior of Light, in an effort to drive out the Garleans.

The Wolf Burglar always thought that it was a terrible waste, not that it could spoil it’s newly organic beauty.

Cascading waterfalls flowed through the recently destroyed halls of the Rijin dynasty’s castle. The lookout towers seemed hardly touched.

The Wolf Burglar twisted his head sideways, as like a dog that heard the word "treat" the first time and wanted you to repeat it a couple more times just to make absolutely sure it heard you.

And what a treat it was, too. The tower looked an awful lot like the mustache and beard Lord Ganen wore on the other side of the gate.

Suddenly, and in a flash of imagination, everything became clear. The old lady au ra was talking about level ground, an upside-down tree, and the back of Lord Ganen’s eyes.

The eyes weren’t literally behind the carving, they were behind the gate, looking ponderously at the upside-down tree that hung over what looked like a perfect spot to hold a ceremony.

He flew to the side of the gate. He could see Purple Link hovering over the Glittering Basin, heading toward Plum Spring.

The Glittering Basin had a direct connection to Doma Castle, if the Lupin wanted to travel from there to the island. In turn, the Doman civilians could come down from their "high-horse," slumming it with the commoners that lived in the outskirts.

It couldn’t be more perfect.

A location that not only brought the Domans down a peg or two, but allowed everyone to travel as equals.

What’s more, with the Doman Enclave in view, it seemed even more appropriate, now that they were on even more equal ground.

“This feels too easy,” said the Wolf Burglar, his fur standing on end, “This couldn’t be…

"But it should be.

“I need to tell somebody,” said the Wolf Burglar, flying on Cloud Nine until he could reach Namai, the assumed direction that Purple Link headed towards after reaching the Plum Spring. He had a pretty good suspicion he could meet the Warrior of Light there.

He started to hoot and holler, howling like a mad wolf, his mind sparkling at the possibilities of what could be a most excellent ceremony.

…

It was 38-hours before the so-called ceremony was to take place, and they couldn’t get a clue to find the location before the Warrior of Light’s party could.

Before he could return to Akimitsu, the shadowy Lupin who had traveled to Ala Mhigo, felt it important to tail the heroes.

As they used the aethernet to travel to Yanxia, he figured it was as good a place to start as any. However, considering the bandits hadn’t officially attuned to the crystals, he had to go the long way around.

He figured it took him at least that long to get here, but he was awarded by the Warrior of Light's party taking high wing, looking all over the place for a location they had obviously not found yet.

What luck!

He hunkered down in a bush for a spell, and waited until he watched one of them discover something unusual about the landscape, in case it was here in Yanxia.

His favorite of the party to watch was the Wolf Burglar, not only because he felt a kinship to him, but also that he cut an interesting figure.

The Lupin didn’t wear bulky outfits, nor did he wear the general Lupin uniforms everyone had been wearing. The Garlean occupation was so recent, there hadn’t been time to tailor new outfits that could accommodate their unique body shapes and their generously floofy wolf tails.

On the other hand, the Wolf Burglar wore chainmail, and was often seen wearing sleeveless attire. He was the type that could afford expensive clothing and armor from Kugane.

But he didn’t hold a grudge against him for it. This shadowy Lupin was unashamedly jealous of the Wolf Burglar’s lifestyle, and wished that he could walk in two worlds as easily as that dashing Wolf Burglar did.

Eventually, his observation paid off. The Wolf Burglar spent an inordinately large amount of time hovering over a spot by the One River. As soon as the Wolf Burglar left, he traveled on foot to that very spot.

At first, he didn’t get it, because all he could find was a deserted island full of nothing but Whitewing Hornbills and Lightning Sprites.

And then he looked up, to see an upside-down tree, one that grew over the edge of the rock pillar.

He remembered what the Wolf Burglar told him about the Xaelan Au Ra and her dream.

Could that be true?

Could she see visions?

He looked around for anything eye shaped, and almost despaired, thinking that the Wolf Burglar had finally gone mad, but the way he was hooting and hollering, you’d think he’d found a holy grail.

On the side of the dilapidated Doma Castle, there were some windows that seemed to look like eyes, and at the right angle, they appeared to stare right at the upside down tree.

The shadowy Lupin grinned, feeling like things were finally starting to go his way.

“I can’t wait to tell Boss Akimitsu,” he shouted happily, hopping into his boat and rowing all the way back to the Glittering Basin.

To be continued…

(For those curious, the spot in question is X: 9.8 Y: 17.6 Z: 1.0 in Yanxia)

[reassambled-dragoon]

15: Free day, choice: Family

Under Read More because this is exploring the Ancients. Endwalker spoilers!

   She closed the front door with a contented sigh, cool water dripping from her tousled white-and-gold hair and onto the black mask dangling from the front of her wet robes. She slowly took the cumbersome things off and neatly hung them over the drip-mat, toeing her shoes off to rest on the rack, then stretched and padded through the flat. A smile came to her lips as the soft sounds of music and laughing voices drifted in the air. It seemed at least some of her family was home.

   She meandered through the living room, extending a hand to brush the petals of cultivated lilies–cultivated, not created. She always thought that natural scents were so much sweeter than those spawned from concepts, much to her husbands’ amusement. Hythlodaeus constantly teased her, trying to coax her into making a concept of a flower containing all of her favorite scents, to which Hades invariably gave sarcastic suggestions. His latest list included musty book, fried chicken, and molten gold.

   “–not supposed to discuss these matters,” a deep, young man’s voice said, coming from the library, though it was hesitant, not self-assured. Something made her pause, just out of sight of the open doorway. “I am sorry, Cassandra.”

   “So you’re going to disregard what I’ve Seen?” Cassandra sounded tense and exasperated. She didn’t need to see what was happening; she knew her eldest would be throwing her hands skyward and was likely glaring at Themis. “I don’t need to know the details, but you and Mother need the warning.”

   “Cass.” Themis’s voice dropped too low for further easy eavesdropping. She silently moved away before those two could notice her presence, her relaxation replaced with confusion.

   Cassandra was Hades’s child. Bright, brilliant, earnest, and she had inherited her sire’s biting, sarcastic wit, the girl had a very interesting gift: She received visions of the future. Some were clear, most were vague, and all were very taxing upon the young woman who received them. Themis was one of the few who could correctly interpret those visions, but was unable to visit as often as he used to, due to his recent elevation to the Seat of Elidibus. Something about this latest vision must have been urgent enough to bring the young man here tonight, given he usually spent his days buried in books.

   She shook her head as she entered the bedroom she and her husbands shared. There was nothing for it; either the child of her blood and the child of her heart would come to an agreement and tell her about this mysterious warning, or she would have to meditate and invite the vision to enlighten her as well. Chancy, always chancy, but sometimes, she could make it work.

   “Hestia?”

   She jerked her head up and turned from the window. Hades was directly behind her, his forehead furrowed in concern for once, not habitual exasperation. Hythlodaeus waited just inside the bedroom, his lavender-dyed hair still damp. Obviously it was still raining. “...ah. I didn’t hear you two come in.”

   “Obviously.” Hades rolled his golden eyes slightly, but never took his focus away from her. “And just as obviously, you decided your private clothing was adequate for our guest.”

   “Themis has never been a guest, and never will be,” Hestia corrected quietly but firmly. She saw Hythlodaeus’s nod. “He is family. He has always been family. Or should you and I no longer be husband and wife, as we are also Emet-selch and Azem?”

   Hades flinched, as he always did when this argument came up. And, as always, Hythlodaeus moved closer so he could encircle them both in a warm, loving embrace. The traditionalist, the envisionist, and the tether keeping them both connected and grounded.

   The patter of water against the window ceased, a brilliant burst of sunshine suddenly beaming through as Hestia kissed her loves with all of her heart. “I’m not leaving this family. The gods will have to come down here and drag me away first. Now, look. The rains have ceased, and we’ve been blessed with a beautiful sunset. Shall we gather the children and have supper outside? It would be a shame to not see it ourselves.”

[gae-blog]

I (finally) finished Dawntrail and... I liked it. It was fun. It never really manages to hit the highs of Shadowbringers, but I did ultimately enjoy it despite some pretty glaring flaws. I think this article does a pretty good job of summarizing my feelings on the story, so I'll just write some scattered thoughts here. Spoilers below the break.

Dawntrail continues Endwalker's theme of having its plot be completely reliant on the characters standing by and watching as the villain completes the next step of the evil plan, which ranges from some eye-roll moments to being annoyingly frustrating (culminating in a scene in which the cast lets the main villain casually walk through their midst to go collect the macguffin)

The zones are the prettiest and most diverse of any expansion. Dawntrail absolutely nails that atmosphere of adventure, and I think the zones go a long way in supporting that.

For how much care has gone into the presentation of the expansion, the fact that they are still using the same 10 ARR tracks for MSQ cutscenes beggars belief. If only they had a library with dozens of hours of other ambient tracks to pull from.

I've seen a lot of criticism online around the fact that the scions aren't really involved in the story, but that was actually one of the things I was most hoping for going in. The scions have been the main cast for four JRPGs now, so having them stand aside to give screen time to new and yet-undeveloped characters was something I really liked (even if the execution leaves a lot to be desired).

That said, the writers also couldn't commit to that idea and ended up dragging along the twins for the adventure anyways, much to their own detriment. Their reasons for being there are extremely flimsy, they don't actually do anything of substance, and they only have a dozen lines between them across the whole expansion, and yet their inclusion still makes them feel dragged out and overused. It really does feel like they were written in at the last second for the sole purposes of filling out crowd shots and being available for duty support.

I had a lot of complaints about during Endwalker about healer design specifically, and while those fundamental issues haven't really been addressed, the noticeable difficulty boost in the second half of the expansions has gone a long way in alleviating my grievances, and gives me hope that the dev team is at least aware of those issues.

The second half of the MSQ feels strangely like retreading ground. I didn't really mind, since it does feel different enough from what's come before, but it is funny how at no point does any character mention the other time we had to stop the leader of a failed utopia from sacrificing a bunch of innocents in order to prolong the ghosts of the people they failed in their duty to protect.

While I ultimately enjoyed Dawntrail, it did reinforce my belief that the game should have ended with Endwalker. Obviously Square Enix is never going to shut down FFXIV until they have literally no other choice, but I think it would have been so much better to end it there and start on something new. The game feels like it's running up against the limits of its own design, and I don't know how much longer they can keep scaffolding off of game systems that were rushed on release over a decade ago.

[sunijhida]

Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers! for the end of Endwalker (heh). Below the cut is a lil drabble. Angst, G'raha/WoL, Canon Compliant.

I was having feelings and ideas, and finally I just had to write them down.

Omicron Base, Ultima Thule.

"Raha, wait!" you cry just as he's stepping towards the omicron. He pauses and is still turning back to you when you grab his face in your hands and kiss him. The sound that G'raha makes can only be described as a squeak as he freezes beneath your hands. A moment later he's sighing and melting into the kiss.

The twins may be saying something, possibly yelling, but if they are you can't hear them. You're too focused on him, his lips against yours, his cheeks beneath your hands, his hands finding purchase on your body as you kiss him. You kiss him and kiss him and kiss him with all the love and fear and desperation you have bursting in your chest. You kiss him for as long as you can before you eventually have to slowly pull back. You open your eyes to see him dazed and blushing furiously. Its adorable, and kind of gratifying.

You keep holding his face even as you ease away, eyes locked on his. Gorgeous red that had taken him from you, only to then bring him back. You watch him as you breathe in the small space between you for just a few more moments. You try to savour them as they slip through your fingers.

"Uh you-- and then I-- But you-- I didn't think--" He fumbles for words, obviously wanting to ask what brought that on. You lean forward to press your forehead to his, closing your eyes against the pain in your heart.

"I promise. I promise okay? I'm promising, and I keep my promises. No matter what it takes, I'll keep this one. So just--" A sob kills the words in your throat. You're crying. You shouldn't be crying. You'd wanted to send him off with a smile. A smile better suits a hero. "Just wait for me, okay?"

Hands coming up to yours, he eases you back gently. You open your eyes as your hands fall to hang interlocked between you. He's looking at you. He looks so gentle, so beautiful, so fond. Your heart squeezes in your chest as he smiles at you. "I'll wait," he says. "So don't take too long, alright?" A wet laugh escapes as you pull away, forcing yourself to let him go. His hands tighten on yours for a second before reluctantly loosening and slipping away. Sniffling, you scrub your arm over your face. You look at him, drinking in the sight of him, whole and healthy and alive, and you smile.

"I'll see you soon," you promise.

"I know you will."

This is so much like what happened at the crystal tower when he sealed it and its killing you. You remember begging him not to go, that you'll find another way, just please don't do this. But he felt he had a destiny to fulfill, and was convinced that you'd be alright without him. He'd sealed himself in that damned tower, and when you saw him again-- Well. There's so much more you want to say to him, but you can't drag this out any longer. You'll tell him once he's back. You will.

You watch as he steels himself and turns. He walks up to the omicron and what he says pierces your already bleeding heart. You want to scream as the dark fog of dynamis swirls around him, hiding him from view, but choke it back. Then it fades away and he's gone. Moments later, luminous crystal bursts forth, shimmering and beautiful and horrible. Of course he would become crystal. How could it have been anything else?

You take a moment. You breathe, bracing yourself against the heartache and the fear and every other emotion you can't afford to feel right now, locking it all away inside you. Finally you look at the twins. Alisaie looks just as upset as you are, and you can tell its as much on your behalf as her own. The sympathy in Alphinaud's eyes has you turning away before he can say anything, looking for the start of the crystal road G'raha had sacrificed himself for.

"Let's go. I don't want to keep him waiting."

[dualcastimpact]

dawntrail impressions pt. i

Back when I first started playing FFXIV, I kept up a livetweet thread of my impressions of the game all the way from A Realm Reborn to Shadowbringers, and it remains one of my favourite things online. I didn't continue the thread with Endwalker since Twitter no longer supports updating a thread with multiple tweets (and that's a serious pain in the ass, thanks Elon), so for Dawntrail I thought I'd try doing it on tumblr instead.

So here it is: my journey through Dawntrail!

Spoilers under the cut, obviously.

Fun fact: everything here so far is non-canon to Raginmar. He's already in Tuliyollal by this point, having sailed there with his father's husband's crew, so this is more me reacting to the story in general.

Ojika Tsunjika: "It seems he's managed to secure passage to Tural aboard a guildship vessel."

Erenville: "It took some persuasion, but the gleaners' guildship has granted us places aboard a vessel bound for Tural."

I've already mentioned this in another post, but this tidbit got me excited because it allowed me to explain how Raginmar got to Tural before Wuk Lamat and co. did — getting themselves on that ship probably took some time and no small amount of bureaucracy and scheduling, so it's perfectly feasible that Raginmar could have gone back home to the South Sea Isles and then sailed to Tuliyollal before they did.

———

Krile: "That's fine, Erenville. I doubt anyone expected we'd have a ship all to ourselves."

I'm being a little nitpicky here but why even feel the need to mention that in the first place? Any traveller wouldn't expect that, so why did Erenville have to apologetically mention that they'd have to be travelling with other people as if that isn't how everyone travels? I'm not dissing the writing, mind — more that I think it speaks volumes about Sharlayan society in general, probably, that they maybe subconsciously expect to travel privately because they're the elite or what have you.

———

Wuk Lamat: "I'm sure there'll be a chance to speak with Papa. You can get your answers right from the source!"

This is an interesting localisation choice because in Japanese, she doesn't say パパ. She says おやじ, which you can probably roughly localise into "old man" and showcases a very different charm than "papa". Wuk Lamat is a very genki character, she's pretty much the closest thing this game's got to a shōnen manga protagonist, so I feel her saying "papa" feels a bit off for her character. Maybe it's more in line with the Latin American-inspired setting and localisation?

———

Erenville: "The golden city is a children's bedtime story. I am part of this expedition only because the Third Promise has commanded that I serve as guide."

You tsundere, you. But also who the Third Promise is became clearer as you go through the game, but I have to admit it threw me for a loop because I don't remember Wuk Lamat ever being mentioned with that title in 6.55?

———

This is non-canon, as previously mentioned, but the incongruity of Raginmar standing there in his summer vacation clothes while everyone else is in their travelling and/or battle garbs with weapons had me laughing for a good while.

———

Alisaie: "Well, for once the fate of the world doesn't rest on our shoulders. We might even get a chance to enjoy ourselves!"

Don't jinx it, Alisaie.

———

Erenville: "Though Tural may seem but a short sail away on a map, the vast seas between brim with peril. The treacherous waters of Shades' Triangle alone have claimed countless vessels."

Wuk Lamat: "Perhaps, but my voyage here was uneventful enough. Disappointingly so!"

WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT NOT JINXING IT, WUK LAMAT?

———

Hello, person garbed in custom clothing who's suspiciously focused on in this frame. I'm sure you'll be important to the plot sooner or later.

———

Alisaie: "I can feel my edge start to dull on these long sea voyages. How about some light sparring later?"

Good thing this isn't canon — and even if it was, Raginmar wouldn't have indulged her because Raginmar? He doesn't know how to spar. He takes combat too seriously to hold back, so if he ever fights in a duel you know it's going to be at least until someone has to yield from heavy injuries, if not to the death.

Also I like how they repeatedly mention this is a long voyage, which again supports my headcanon from before! It's such a mundane thing but I really like it.

———

Retired Mercenary: "...Gah, I've had enough of playing the simpleton. There was a time when we took great pains to maintain the deception, but with more of you Eorzeans coming to Tural, it's become impractical."

Wait, what do you mean deception? What even did you need to pretend to be simpletons for?? I'm halfway through the main story quest by the time of writing this and I still don't know why they thought they needed to pretend to be simpletons while they're in Eorzea.

Retired Mercenary: "I look forward to a long soak in the hot springs of Urqopacha. And no complaints when I dance the bathing dance."

WAIT, are you the Mamool Ja from that one fate in Upper La Noscea?? Outside the Warmwine Sanitorium????

———

Swarthy Sailor: "Wait, I recognize you—you're the champion of Eorzea! If the Third Promise has you on her side, then that shifts the odds a fair bit! I might have to change my bet..."

Man's a literal gamechanger at this point, that's incredible.

———

Self-assured Trader: "I'm a merchant myself, based in Ul'dah. Specially imports and exports, Eorzean and Turali both."

More confirmation that it is indeed possible for merchants and traders to sail to and from Tural! Raginmar's father's husband is the captain of a trading vessel primarily sailing between the South Sea Isles, but they do occasionally make the voyage to other continents.

———

Erenville's narration: "What an extraordinary life he must lead to be able to operate such a device with practiced ease."

There was a storm and all manner of shenanigans including the Warrior of Light rushing to operate the elemental shielding devices on the ship to protect them from lightning strikes, and this comment just absolutely had me in stitches because yeah! Yeah, you sure do get used to it when you have to keep battling the likes of Leviathan and Bismarck! It sure is an extraordinary life, yes sirree!

———

Erenville's narration: "In retrospect, of course, that battle against the storm would prove a fitting prelude to the coming contest for the throne."

Ooooh, how predictably ominous.

———

Wuk Lamat: "You'll find much here you never knew existed! There may be a sea route now, but visitors to Tuliyollal are still few and far between."

Wuk Lamat: "And as we don't build seafaring ships, only a handful of Turali ever venture abroad."

This was interesting to me because it highlights how isolated Tural is from the rest of the world, but when you really think about it — so was the Far East from Eorzea. Most Eorzeans had never seen an Au Ri person until Yugiri, and even Ilsabardians would rarely be found in Eorzea despite the continent being relatively nearby and I think connected by land? Travelling extensively between continents like the Warrior of Light is capable of just wasn't done.

More importantly, this reinforced my headcanon that Wuk Lamat has never met an Arkasodara so as open-minded as she'd be about it, she'd still be pretty surprised when she meets them in Thavnair.

———

Erenville: "Mamool Ja sellswords, mostly. Those willing to play the fool sail with Lominsan merchants to secure employment in Eorzea."

Why do they have to be willing to play the fool in the first place? This isn't explained anywhere! I think it might be explained in a sidequest somewhere but I haven't gotten round to them yet — I really hope there's an explanation for this somewhere because it's driving me nuts.

———

Mamool Ja Landsguard: "We will not abide interference from foreign agents seeking to foment trouble. What brings you to Tuliyollal?"

This made me laugh because we're not exactly seeking to forment trouble, but we sure are foreign agents, yeah!

———

Mamool Ja Landsguard: "The Third Promise! If you vouch for them, then all is well, of course!"

Sure is nice to have someone influential on our side for once, instead of having to prove ourselves at every turn!

———

Wuk Lamat: "N-No, not at all! Couldn't be better! The Third Promise does not get sick, no sir!"

That's a suspiciously specific denial there, Wuk Lamat.

———

And that's it for this round of impressions! Next up: Tuliyollal and meeting the Dawnservant.

[haellen-o]

10 for the unwriten/unpublished fic thing

so its kind of a weird situation because i post almost all of my writings in a private friend group (which you obviously know but others may not) so i guess its kinda cheating to share what i've posted there?

so i guess i'll share this snippet of a WIP that i'm writing currently

but since i think you're the only person who follows me (that actively uses tumblr) that's from our friendgroup server. i'll share this little bit too from a fic i posted there. just for the folks are aren't in the server

Ophelia once again sat on the sidelines of another noble's ballroom party. The entire fortemps family invited, but conveniently they forgot to send an invitation to the girlfriend of the only daughter born to the fortemps name. And to boot, its invitation only, no plus ones. If you aren’t on the list or have an invitation. You aren’t getting in The bigger shame was this was one of the few times ophelia had actually dressed for the occasion. A black vest with a white shirt underneath with a pale blue tie. And a matching coat with black fur She wanted to actually show ysayle she could dance, not just simple waltz moves. But more complex intricate couples dances too… She may have received some training as payment many years ago for helping out around the ala mhigan refugee camp But alas. At the door ysayle was rejected, and once more ysayle had to stop ophelia from flying into a rage. The fortemps brothers and edmont had tried to cheer her up after and even talk to the venue holder behind her back. But the answer was simply no. Ysayle wasn’t getting in no matter how hard they pleaded… Or warned And of course. A beautiful woman well dressed and alone, led to many single noblemen trying to court her. Even a few noblewomen tried it. But the response was always the same. She had a girlfriend. And wasn’t willing to dance with anyone but her (much to emmanellains dismay too) “May I have this dance?” A voice checked ophelia back into reality She looked up and saw a well dressed elezen, the perfect mental image of a nobleman. Silky fabrics, expensive clothing, and a snake's smile. She had just about had enough of it today “The only dance i’d have with you is the one where i’m running a blade through your heart”

actual unpublished thing below this since its got endwalker spoilers

Ophelia let go of her sword and walked forward a little “You can give up. We can leave here, and you can join me in my journey to find fulfillment in this life… We’re cut from the same cloth, we live for the violence… And I've found something outside of that violence, something to live for” She extended a hand. Gesturing to him “There’s a chance you can find that too. Even if it all circles back around to us fighting… I’d relish the opportunity to have someone who can stand up to my level. Even if it was for a friendly spar” She smiled. A genuine friendly smile “Would you be willing to find that fulfillment if given the chance?” “Or” She gestured back to her sword “Would you prefer to end this now. At the edge of creation, where wills are made manifest. A clash of our very desires” A smile curled on the edges of her lips “Not the will to live. Not the will to deliver justice… A primal desire to kill, for the sake of killing. Not for survival. Not for revenge. Or anger. Or sadness… For fun” The grin was hard to contain “Seeking the pleasures only people like us can seek, the pleasures of flesh only demented souls dream of. No warm body on a lonely night could amount to what this would give us… And it’ll be gone again after, forever unattainable to us. As the victor is drenched in the blood of the only person to ever give them life. The deep knowledge that this was the last time they could feel truly alive, and fulfilled…” A silence fell over her, like she already knew the answer zenos would give

[placesyoucallhome]

FFXIVWrite #15- Portentous

(( Endwalker spoilers ))

The sky was a sickly green color, wind whipping up foam off the waves and stripping trees of leaves, and Canum was sipping coffee as he stared out the window. 

Most of the company was huddled at the kitchen bar, the smell of eggs and bacon and ishgardian toast hovering in the room, an unusual choice for dinner, but it hadn’t been a usual sort of past few days. Everyone was tense, terse, even Nemo had been picked up from his shack out in north western La Noscea, though he sat stock still on his chair as if he’d already been shell shocked. 

Well, Canum supposed he had. 

“The storm will pass before the night is through.” Ruhka hummed, still poking at sizzling bacon after the few sitting at the bar flinched. 

“Ah don’ think it’s th’ storm we’re worryin’ about, Cap’n.” The seawolf woman grumbled. 

“There’s always some world’s end happening, it feels like. Is this what the calamity was like?” The au ra man next to her leaned around to glance at Nemo, earning a smack from both Ruhka and the roe. 

“No. Cartineau was a singular fight.” Nemo still mumbled, “This is. This is star wide, isn’t it?” 

Ruhka sighed, turning back to his crew, “It’s spreading. According to the reports I’ve intercepted. All the way out to the far east at least. Reports of red skies in Garlemald and Thavnair, people being turned inta beasts with no way to revert them. Somethin’ called Akasha. And apparently Sharlayan has a solution.” 

“Oh that bodes well. Not the scions of the whatever?” Canum huffed over his mug. 

“Well. Apparently they’re there too. I don’t know. Salt called, she said the forum declared an evacuation.” The captain shrugged.

“And evacuation of… Sharlayan?” Nemo asked, but no that didn’t seem like a right response to any of them. The scholars had already done that once though, to be fair. 

“Uh, no. Of the star.” 

Blank stares across the bar, and Ruhka looked particularly grim and frankly, unsure. 

“To where?” Canum seemed to gather wits first, setting his coffee down and glaring at the suncat. 

“The… moon.” 

More blank stares, incredulous silence. 

“Before anyone asks, no I can’t get into Sharlayn right now. Yes I am working on it. Yes it has been done before, obviously as the Allagans got a fucking moon up there themselves, right?” 

“Their solution. Is to go to the fucking moon.” Nerys blinked, her fingers twitched, if it weren’t storming Canum was sure she’d already be on her way to light up a smoke. 

“Why moons? Why is it always moons? Why is it when things go to shit, a moon is involved?” Nemo hissed, head in hands, tail fur standing on end and ears flattened back, “Are moons always made for some impending apocalypse?” 

“Does that make you an ill omen, mooncat?”

Canum would later admit, he did certainly deserve the fireball thrown in his face, but he was still not going to sand out the scorch marks in the floorboards.

[karoiseka]

5) Barbarous

((Have some Endwalker MSQ spoilers in the form of Karo's Da and Pa!))

The sky was red.

It wasn’t much past noon, and the brilliant sunsets should not be starting for hours.  yet, the sky burned a deep angry shade, driving fear into all those in the city.  Noise from across the city evoked a panic not unlike when the Towers had first appeared across the land–only so much worse.  This was the sky after all, not some strange magical–but ultimately made by man structure.  

The neighborhood that Serilait and Feophaux had bunkered down in had stayed relatively quiet–people huddled inside, praying to the Sisters.  Occasionally a strange sound echoed down the street, the merchants giving each other a long look.

“That’s it, I have to do something,” Seir had already gone through their packs and found his bow, stringing it with ease and shouldering the full quiver that had been tucked next to it.  They both had strapped long knives to their belts, preparing for—what?

“I’m coming with you,” Feo had his hand on the door, looking down at his spouse.  “I know I’m not the fighter you are, but I can at least help people to safety.”  Lips pursed, Seir nodded.  He was obviously not happy about the idea, but wasn’t going to say no.

The streets nearest the house were empty–houses closed up tight, and an eerie silence permeated the air.  Seir had an arrow nocked and ready on the string as they headed towards the smoke, a rumbling murmur starting to reach their ears.  He wasn’t much of one to play hero–he left that to his daughter–but he could not stay idle.  She was not in the city, having left near a moon ago to start preparing for a trip to Garlemald of all things.  So, it fell to him and others to try and keep people protected.

The thought of her out there in the cold North made Seir shiver despite the heat.  She had fought much more barbarous foes than that of the Empire–and the Empire’s finest besides.  Karo would be okay.  She had to be.  They had just gotten her back.  They couldn’t lose her.  Not again.  So they would fight for her, and at her side if the time came, to protect the same ideals she did.  Anything to make her burden just a little less.

The noise from the markets got louder.  It didn’t matter.  They would save who they could.

[tritoch]

for those we have lost; for those we can yet save

just want to write a quick post about the most famous recurring line in FFXIV. People generally recognize it as something characters say a lot, but if you pay close attention to when and how it comes up it's actually very VERY interesting, and deployed in very specific ways. To me, It's Minfilia's line but also in many ways a reminder of Moenbryda, and is very specifically raised by characters close to the two of them. spoilers through 6.0 below.

it's Minfilia's line, first of all, in that she's literally the first one to say it. She says it in 2.55, right before you throw in with Ishgard and assist in the defense of the steps of faith. As the patch number suggests, it's one of the last things any of the Scions hear from her before the Bloody Banquet.

(Quest: Committed to the Cause, 2.55. All this dialogue from the extremely excellent resource xiv.quest, by the way.)

In context, "those we have lost" and "those we can yet save" actually have two pretty specific meanings! While "those we have lost" obviously encompasses all the fallen Scions, from Louisoix to the attack on the Waking Sands to Wilred, its particular meaning here is almost certainly in reference to Moenbryda, because 2.55 starts with you attending her memorial service, and because Moenbryda specifically dies to save Minfilia! "Those we can yet save" refers, in part, to the fact that you are about to risk your lives in defense of Ishgard against the Dravanians, in part due to Aymeric's argument that should Ishgard fall, all of Eorzea is at risk. For these two reasons—to honor the sacrifice of a fallen friend and with an eye toward preventing needless bloodshed—you willingly forsake your neutrality.

When Minfilia returns in 3.2, she says it to you again, an echo of some of her final words to you:

(Quest: The Word of the Mother)

Note how the intent subtly shades differently here. Rather than taking up arms for a cause that isn't yours, Minfilia's use of the line is to justify offering herself to Hydaelyn. Here the connection to Moenbryda becomes even stronger: like Moenbryda, Minfilia is sacrificing herself for the good of the cause and with the aim of protecting her friends. Her self-sacrifice echoes and reinforces the legacy of her friend's sacrifice for her.

She repeats it again in 3.4, and by this point it's clearly and specifically her catchphrase:

(Quest: One Life for One World)

And of course, her use of it here precedes a triple sacrifice: her journey to the First, to remain there forever, to guard against the Flood of Light; the sacrifices of Ardbert's friends, who have already died once for the First and will offer up their aether in death to empower Minfilia against the Flood; and Ardbert, who is about to undergo his own version of Hydaelyn's Endwalk in miniature.

Minfilia says the line three times, taking it on as a kind of mantra and core justification behind all of her actions, and now in 3.X and 4.X they'll let you, the Warrior of Light, do the same.

The very first time the Warrior of Light gets to say it happens in the very same patch:

(Quest: An Ending to Mark a New Beginning)

Minfilia dies (okay sacrifices herself to become a good guy Ascian which will lead to her permanent death), and the very first dialogue option you get in the quest immediately after that is an option to echo her final words.

Because just as she said them to remind herself that she was following in Moenbryda's footsteps and honoring the sacrifice Moenbryda made for her, now you will do the same in her memory.

The next use, right at the start of 4.0, pretty much reiterates the same idea:

(Quest: Crossing the Velodyna)

It's Alphinaud basically giving you a chance to choose in-character why exactly your character is willing to go from minor sellsword work, to saving Eorzea, to saving Ishgard, to taking the fight to the Empire directly. In context, it suggests a sort of fatalism: events keep happening, and all you can do is keep your head high and do your best to honor the sacrifices of those who came before.

(also, notice how even here back in 4.0, the option that boils down to "I just love fights, and also fighting" has Alphinaud specifically call you "an adventurer," a theme Zenos will later build on two expansions later to great effect.)

Its other use in Stormblood, in 4.1, has it as the only clear and concrete answer you're allowed to give Fordola after she sees your memories with the Echo and asks why you keep fighting:

(Quest: The Butcher's Blood)

Nothing against the other two answers, they're just intentionally very vague. Only #2 lets you give a clearer answer. You keep fighting because so many have died (so many of them specifically for you, to save you), and there are so many who may yet still be given a chance to live. To honor the fallen and to protect the living. For grief and for hope.

Now, just as Minfilia and the Warrior of Light say it three times to affirm it as part of their characters, Urianger and Thancred get a pair of uses each, and the ways they use it specifically honor and invoke Minfilia and Moenbryda.

Urianger is the first to use it in 5.0, when he accompanies you to hunt for Titania's relics:

(Quest: A Visit to the Nu Mou)

He textually invokes Minfilia at the start of his lines here, which are intended to explain why he so clearly feels he has some moral duty towards the First. And that's very specific phrasing he uses, ignore the plight: that's specifically invoking Louisoix's oft-quote "To ignore the plight of those one might conceivably save is not wisdom—it is indolence." So even as he says he does it because it is right, he acknowledges that he also does it because he feels its the moral duty that Louisoix, Minfilia, and Moenbryda's sacrifices have placed on him: to labor for those he has lost, for those that they too wanted to save. For Urianger, it's an expression of his deep compassion and almost utilitarian desire to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people, bound up in his grief and regret.

Next is Thancred:

(Quest: The Truth Hurts)

This one really hurts. Obviously, Thancred uses it because he's talking specifically about Minfilia, but he's not talking about her sacrifice. He's talking about the loss of her father, and about the idea that he failed to ever repay that first harm. For him, pressing on is not just about honoring her sacrifice, but about atoning for his unpardonable sins. It's about guilt.

And the irony in Thancred deploying it here is that in his own eyes, he says it as he attempts to expiate his sins by honoring Minfilia's sacrifice and giving Ryne a chance to choose her own future. Yet at the same time, he is adding to his sins because this time, in his eyes, his hands are also on the knife. Before, Minfilia's fate was an unlucky break, a black swan event. The Banquet, Hydaelyn, Urianger's machinations, the Warriors of Darkness, all of that was beyond his control.

But now, he will willingly stand by and let Minfilia die for a final time, because she has asked him to do so.

He is still learning from her, and from her choices:

(Quest: Full Steam Ahead)

To me, his use of it here, after the fight with Ran'jit when he kind of seems like he might die, is almost rueful. Like he never fully understood the import of her words until now, couldn't see past his own grief to the meaning at their core. But now he gets it. He understands why she had to do what she did, and how in turn he can honor her legacy not by clinging to her memory but living life as she would have.

"Your kindness, your compassion, your love..." he says, and this too is an echo of something she said at their parting. The last half of the line is: "These are your gifts to me, and our gifts to them, forming a bond which transcends time and space." Gifts passed from brother to sister, and now back again, and on to the future through Ryne.

Urianger gets the final use of it through 6.55, and it both honors all the uses of it prior and points the way to new lines of thinking:

(Quest: Back to Old Tricks; FFXIV's love for allusion shines through here but rather more subtly than with the Hamilton lines, as "dreadful algebra of necessity" is a direct pull from Terry Pratchett's Discworld series)

Here, the use is explicitly and textually tied to Minfilia and, for the first time since 2.55, Moenbryda. And Urianger is the first person in the text to explicitly question the line, painting it not as the principled output of noble martyrs but as a justification that the people those martyrs leave behind cling to in their grief, something they tell themselves to convince themselves that the sacrifice was justified. Or worse, the reasoning of a cold and bloodless utilitarian, who would willingly sacrifice his own friends and loved ones for the greater good.

They are dead, says Urianger, and we are not. What of those we cannot save? And, no less, what of us, who must go on in this world without them? How can anything ever justify this? How can we ever make peace with this?

It is the Warrior of Light who gets to answer Urianger, but he ultimately takes less from your answer itself than from the fact that you too struggle with the question:

Endwalker is, as ever, interested in the idea that perhaps some questions aren't quite answerable, but that the universality of the questions itself can be a great uniter and creator of purpose. None can easily make peace with the "dreadful algebra of necessity", but from Louisoix, to Moenbryda, to Minfilia, to you and the Scions, to Ryne and others, a rough, developing ethic has arisen: each of you, and the sacrifices you have made, honored the work and the will of those who came before, to pave the way for those who will come after.

Hope, arising from grief.

[voidedleylines]

FFXIVWrite 2023 Day 6: Ring

Musing on different rings in her life.

Enjoy!

Rating: G. No CWs apply! Slight Endwalker spoilers

The ring feels heavy on her finger as she puts it on. The sultana smiles up at her and claps her hands. “Oh it looks lovely,” she says, bouncing up and down. She then straightens herself up and goes back to acting like the leader she is. “Thank you again, Freyalin, for helping us keep Ul’dah safe. We will never forget it.” There's a sincerity in her voice that catches Freyalin off guard and she’s stunned for a moment before nodding down at her with a smile. The sultana leaves the room and she twists the silver band around her finger a few more times, before following suit.

---

They lie in bed together. The first night they can afford to do that in almost a week. Freyalin’s learning the life of an adventurer may not be all that conducive to having a relationship. Then again, neither is being the leader of a group trying to save the world from utter destruction, so they're making do. Minfilia smiles up at her and places a hand on her cheek. Freyalin grabs that hand and takes it into her own, running a thumb over her knuckles. She pauses at the small ring she has on and muses at how soft it feels. Minfilia chuckles, “F’lahamin got that for me for my…sixteenth nameday was it? Twelve how the time flies.” The ring was obviously well loved and Freyalin smiles as she brings up her hand and kisses it.

“It’s beautiful,” she says.

---

She’s didn't know what it felt like to have a finger skewered by a ring until it happened at the end of the universe. She remembers every blow of the fight, and she doesn't regret it, but the look on everyone's face when they saw how mangled her hands were made her feel a passing pang of guilt. It was Alphinaud who helped get them all off. Mumbling something about why Tataru would think she needed this many rings going into battle. She didn't have the heart to tell him the one causing the most issue is one she chose to wear. He nervously looks at her as he holds the finger caught in the spikes and moves it gently. In theory, it hurts, but not in any more or less than what she feels in her whole body right now. After that's done, he takes one of his lasers and carefully cuts through the band of the offending piece, it drops with a small clink to the floor. There's now a full view of how mangled her hand is and Alphinaud continues to apologize profusely like he's the one who caused it, but she's only half listening, still trying to decipher if she's alive or in a bad dream.

---

“That ring,” Thancred blurts out, “Where did you get it?”

Freyalin looks down at her hand and shrugs, “a lockbox in Sharalyan,” she explains. She watches in amusement as his face goes on a journey of confusion. It finally settles into a soft smile as he shakes his head, letting out a scoff.

“So he's still doing that then? They were always such a pain…” he trails off. For the briefest of seconds he looks about 15 years younger as he becomes lost in thought.

She smiles, “I got the impression you two were one in the same, so give it another five years, and you’ll be doing the same.”

She walks off to the others before he can protest, though she hears ‘five?!’ echo from behind her. She laughs to herself, giving the ring a small pat in her hand.

[karygurl]

Writer's Game: First Sentences

tagged by @thevikingwoman and @myreia, thank you! <3

Ahh I'm not sure who to tag, Ninja's seen all these already (my partner in FF14 headcanon crimes ❤️) but oh man if ANY one wants to do this, PLEASE pretend I tagged you!! GIMME ALL YOUR LINES I LOVE READING THEM

Rules: post the first sentence of your last ten fics. If you haven't written ten fics, share as many first-sentences as you have.

These are all (obviously) FF14, hahaha. The brainrot is REAL!

Unmasked - after the end of base game ARR

Thancred had been involved in a myriad of interesting and bizarre situations in his life, but nothing prepared him for coming back from having his body hijacked by a powerful Ascian.

Bottom of the Bottle - at the end of ARR post-patch quests

“You… yer… yeah, good.”

Cold Comfort - Heavensward, after The Vault

So cold. Everything in Ishgard was cold. 

A Feeling Called... - Shadowbringers, after Dohn Mheg

The group trudged their way back to the Bookman’s Shelves, eyeing the water’s edge warily as they walked through the deceptively bright land of Il Mheg.

Pixie Tricks - Shadowbringers, after Dancing Plague

Cassandra stepped into the quiet of the Bookman’s Shelves, allowing the door to close behind her.

Infiltration? Send the White Mage! - Shadowbringers, after returning to the Crystarium post-Il Mheg

In the aftermath of the night sky returning to Il Mheg, there was much cause for celebration among both the fae and the people of the Crystarium.

Unposted writing:

Touch Starved - Shadowbringers, after returning to the Crystarium post-Malikah's Well

Cassandra wasn’t sure what it was, perhaps her lack of memories?

Sleepyhead - takes place throughout ARR to Shadowbringers but has spoilers for Endwalker

Cassandra’s sleep patterns were eccentric, to say the least.

Prevarication - Shadowbringers at some vague point post-Il Mheg

Thancred could think of few people, in the First or the Source, that he wanted to see less of than the one approaching him.

A Stolen Moment - Shadowbringers, soon after arriving in the last zone

Every step Cassandra took as the group moved in the Ondo Cups was steady, intentionally so, exceedingly deliberate lest she fall apart.

[purple-link]

Alisaie and Purple Link

FFXIV Write 2024 Story Entry

Spoiler Alert: Story takes place after WoL reaches Garlemald in Endwalker, but but before the Tower of Babil dungeon. Story will be largely sfw, but will adhere to FFXIV's level of mature storytelling.

Chapter 4: Reticent

Purple Link gradually opened his eyes. He blinked. He breathed in and out, slowly.

It felt nice, even after realizing the fact that he was breathing water.

He laid there, in the sand, looking up from what felt the bottom of the sea floor. He could feel his fur, both the long and short of it, swaying lightly with the flow of the water.

Though the sea floor seemed bottomless, at the very edge of the top of the water, he could see the flickering surface, refracted through the breaks of the surface of the water.

It was like watching a dancing kaleidoscope, dancing within the water, and then shifting, endlessly, as it danced over him.

Apart from the fact that he had nothing to fear from drowning, the Kojin blessing helping him to breathe underwater, he had absolutely no idea where he was.

The last thing he remembered, before the storm hit and sent him flying was–

“Alisaie!” said Purple Link, quickly sitting up, although even saying it out loud there was an effort.

He could vocalize the words, but because sound traveled faster in water, it felt like it surrounded his whole head. It boomed around him like an explosion.

He calmed down. He tried to remain calm. He thought he might save speaking in water until it was necessary.

He felt a little disappointed with himself. He trusted Alsiaie to protect herself and her brother, Alphinaud, as they reemerged from Sui-No-Sato, only to…

He hoped she hadn’t got caught in the storm. She may also have been blessed by the Kojin, but her brother hadn’t, and risking both their lives in the sudden storm seemed reckless.

Reckless, he thought to himself, I wonder who that reminds me of?

He’d certainly done a lot in his life that seemed reckless, throwing himself in every adventure, into every quest, risking almost certainly his life and his friends' in every effort to try to avert the worst of both the Garlean Empire and the designs of the Ascians.

Normally, he wouldn’t even question Alisaie her decisions, would even encourage them.

So what changed? Why did he feel so upset about the possibility of losing Alisaie, when he knew, even now, she could take care of herself?

He thought about it for a minute or more. As he pondered this, he absentmindedly got up and started walking.

Walking at the bottom of the sea, or any body of water, had its difficulties. Not only did he have to contend with the weight of it, but unlike air, any movement of the legs felt forced and pushed through the water, as if it were gelatin.

The slow pace of the walk gave him time to think. He’d always been fond of Alisie, especially the moment when he realized she was truly exceptional at Red Magic, a bond through which they shared a connection.

But then it became more than that. She started to shine to him, the Hrothgar smiling as he remembered. When she first arrived, he thought her an extension of Alphinaud, an unnecessary repetition.

These thoughts he didn't readily make clear, obviously, but back then, Alphinaud was strong-headed and arrogant, not unlike his father.

Alisaie reappeared in Ishgard, around the time he was finishing his business up north.

Back then, she hadn’t the intention to join the Scions, but merely to be a sister to Alphinaud, tagging along until the day the connection to her magic seemed to waver.

That’s when Urianger, the exasperating wordsmith, gave her a Hailstorm Rapier, one of his favorite styles. Purple Link noticed, and they grew closer, bonding over their studies and their similar attitudes.

Purple Link had learned Alisaie was much hardier than Alphinaud, much more willing to throw herself into the fray, much like he often would.

It wasn’t that she wanted to be exactly like the Warrior of Light, but being much more help to him than a bookworm or an agent of espionage, it helped ease his cause.

The pressure of being the Warrior of Light was lessened with someone who knew exactly what he was going through.

So what had happened? What caused this rift between them that he suddenly felt upset at her recklessness, or worried for her life?

Was it when Fordola stabbed her in Castrum Abania?

…

No, he thought, he was worried for her life, but he knew she would be back on her feet. Having been down and out before, recuperating after a near-fatal loss was almost a daily occurrence for the Warrior of Light. He felt strongly about her wanting to get back into the fray.

No, something more permanent had happened to her that made him much more cautious, and it was something that was further outside of his control than he would like to admit.

The moment the Crystal Exarch had made himself known, and pulled his friends front the Source (their planet Hydaelyn) and into its First Reflection, which encapsulated the nation of Norvrandt, the Warrior of Light saw his friends lose their souls one-by-one, as if their bodies drained and made limp.

The memory of it curdled within.

First it was Thancred, and Urianger, and soon it came to the twins' doorstep. Pretty soon, all that was left was Alisaie and Purple Link, left alone to face the wrath of the Garlean Empire with the few remaining friends that hadn’t been called.

Their bodies kept safe, silent and unmoving, Alisaie and Purple Link feared the worst, perhaps some unknown Ascian plot to tear the Scions apart.

In the battlefield, Purple Link despaired, without any power to help, as he watched Alisaie’s soul get ripped away from her, her hand missing his by inches.

There was more to it than just helplessness, a feeling the Warrior of Light had little known up to this point.

The blessing of the mother crystal, Hydaelyn, had always protected him and his friends from the worst, often using it as a shield.

This time was different. The Warrior of Light couldn’t do anything until he could go to Norvrandt himself, and even then, it took a very long time.

Even though he was only there for a few days, it felt like a month he was there, watching as their aether nearly dissipated before he could return their souls to their bodies.

He felt stressed, and spread thin. He worked harder than he ever did before, under the worst conditions, as he felt his own soul being corrupted by Light.

He suffered as they grew closer yet, watching himself lose Alisie several times before they finally found a solution and transported their souls back to the Source.

Ever since then, he’d been more intensely focused. The Telophoroi, Fandaniel and his compatriot, the revived Zenos yae Galvus, had provided an even worse threat than that of Elidibus.

The Final Days.

He didn’t want to lose that control again, not against such a threat, and seeing Alisaie face off against that, the tempered Garleans, the threat of losing her to the numerous temples that pockmarked the surface of the planet like despicable papule…

“Purple!”

He’d heard it before he’d heard it. The sound traveled quickly. The big lion looked up to see Alisaie, hale and hearty, except for the fact that they were both at the bottom of the sea.

In lieu of rushing to meet her halfway, they both seemed to swim with their arms towards each other at pace. Eventually, he wrapped his big purple arms around Alisaie and hugged tightly.

“Oh, Purple!” said Alisaie, happily, “It’s good to see you, after such an ordeal!”

“Alisaie!” said Purple, pulling away and holding her by the arms with gladness, “You’re alive!”

“Well, of course I’m alive,” said Alisaie, wryly, “I also have the blessing of the Kojin, remember? It’s to take a lot more than a thunderstorm to get rid of me!”

“But…” said Purple Link, letting go and watching Alisaie drop to the sandy sea floor, “But what about your brother? I thought he was with you!”

“Alphinaud?” asked Alisaie, and she turned away, a look of what seemed half-guilt and half-worry, “I…don’t know…”

“What?”

“He was on the mount,” said Alisaie, “We were shaken off. There was still a great deal of water underneath us, before we could reach Sakazuki…

“I…don’t know,” said Alisaie, worriedly, “...if he survived.”

Purple Link felt his spirit drop like a stone. Alisie didn’t look despaired, but the uncertain fate of her brother seemed to weigh as heavy as the water above them.

He looked upwards.

The surface of the water didn’t look very far, but it could still have been miles. They could ride their mounts to reach it, at speed even, but it would still take them hours.

They had no idea to tell how far they had been thrown, and whether or not they could tell how far North was from Heaven-on-High.

They also couldn’t use the “moss grows on the north side of trees" trick, because there was no moss and no trees underneath the sea.

Purple Link was starting to get the idea that it was definitely not better down where it was wetter.

“Purple Link?” asked Alisaie, looking at the big purple cat appearing pensive, “What’s your plan?”

“Alisiae?” said Purple, looking down at her, and for a moment, she froze.

She had only seen that look once before, and it was during a moment when she grew up in Old Sharlayan. She had gotten in trouble with her father before, but nothing like this.

Putting her brother’s life in danger, her father gave her an expression that could only be considered “an emotion stronger,” yet it wasn’t disappointment or frustration.

She couldn’t quite place it. She felt guilty, even if it was for something she was only marginally responsible for. She felt the unheeded impression that the both of them coming down here was somehow her fault.

But she didn’t want to recognize it right away.

“Purple, we have work to do,” said Alisaie, trying to shift away from this negative emotion, “Either we need to reach the surface, or we need to find the artifact. Do you get the suspicion that we have been thrown further South?

Purple Link looked irritated, far more than she’d seen the Warrior of Light. His ears were flattened against his skull as he peered around the seafloor. It felt deeper and murkier than the Turquoise Trench did.

Enough of the sunlight this far down lit up the seafloor in a way that made it easier to navigate, but it was still darker than he was comfortable with.

This was shark territory, he thought to himself. They’d best be careful, their magic was diminished down underneath the water’s surface.

“Yes,” he said finally, “If we were thrown northward, we would have hit seafloor that would be more familiar to that of the Othard Coastline, or even Isari.”

“Then why waste an opportunity?” said Alisaie, “Our Garlean quarry under the sea must be around this general area. If we do a minor perimeter search, there’s a very good chance our quest could be done in minutes.”

Purple stared at her stoically for a second or two. She waited for a response and even tried to provoke an answer from him.

“Hello, Purple?” said Alisaie, waving her hand in front of his face, “Are you in there?”

Matters were like this for a couple of hours. Purple still refused to speak. In the time they had walked in silence, they observed most of the sea floor.

All manner of seaweed, flora and fauna passed their eyes, but nothing as yet that had given them any indication that there was Garlean wreckage, or any sea wreckage in the slightest.

After the two hours were up, Alisaie thought to try again. Purple Link was so reticent, it almost felt like he was being silent on purpose.

She had seen this before, when their parents bickered, and they would often spend hours, and one time almost a whole day, not saying a thing to each other.

Is that what we’re turning into? thought Alisaie, with a mildly sudden shock, Our parents?

She had enough of this.

“Purple, are you upset with me?” she asked, curiously.

Great, already starting to sound like them, too, she added.

“No,” said Purple, but he seemed visibly perturbed.

“That’s not a good enough answer,” said Alisaie, “You haven’t been straight with me this whole adventure.”

“Oh, gee,” said Purple, surreptitiously, his voice dripping with sarcasm, “I wonder why that is?”

“Purple,” said Alisaie, furrowing her brow, “You can’t be holding a grudge against me.”

“Oh, no, it’s no grudge,” said Purple, “I’m just…upset.”

Alisaie suddenly stopped. The motion was so instant, Purple noticed, and had also ceased.

“Purple,” said Alisaie, sounding very hurt, “You are not my father.”

“What?”

“I don’t need you to act like him,” said Alisaie, who was standing very much like a Red Mage, her hand resting on her pommel, “When you act like him, you sound him like him, it makes me very cross.”

“Why would you think I’d act like your father?”

“Because like my father,” said Alisaie, curtly, “You are content with withholding information and looking at me with eyes like I had destroyed his favorite book. And you know that is not how we are!”

“How do you know?” said Purple, frowning, “How do you know how I act? I’m starting to think that your father may have the right of it.”

“What?!” said Alisaie, sharply, “You take that back!”

“Why should I?!” shouted Purple, suddenly, “Every step of this journey, I have taken great pains to protect everyone! Between the Ilsabard Contingent and the Scions, I’ve done everything in my power to make sure no one comes to any harm! You’ve gotten in my way every single step!”

“Purple!” said Alisaie, moving slowly towards him until she was right in front of him, “We are fighting for our lives! You know that’s not something we can do alone!”

“And yet,” said Purple, “Estinien had to rescue you from almost freezing to death!”

“We had no ability to protect ourselves!” said Alisaie, “One spell cast and we would have been given a severe shock! You know that’s not something I can control!”

“I wish I could!”

“Purple, don’t do this!” said Alisiae, “Don’t sound like him!”

“Why shouldn’t I?!” said Purple Link, severely, “If it were up to me, I would make it so that you would never see battle again!”

Alisaie put her hands to her mouth, and so did Purple Link. He was surprised he’d even said it out loud.

Alisie’s eyes seemed to tear up, and even though they were underwater, he could see them collect and drift up into sea. She turned away.

Purple Link felt like he’d just crossed a line. For the moment, he didn’t know what to say. He certainly meant what he said, but to see Alisie tear up like that…

He couldn’t apologize, not right this minute. He knew it wasn’t correct. He felt his attention drift away, and in guilt, he began to drift off, his paw scratching his head.

He was so distracted, he almost missed an entire coral reef that bonked him on the head.

Because of the buoyancy of the water, he didn’t get knocked down because of it, but as he was rubbing his head, he noticed a peculiar blue glow about it. He’d only seen that glow in one other place.

He’d turned around to Alisaie, to inform her about it, but she was gone. His heart stopped beating.

He looked around to find her, but to no avail. His guilt was palpable.

A wayward paw leant against the coral, and then, turning back into the coral reef, he steeled himself.

It was a rather large coral reef, large enough to walk into. Its mysterious glow lit his every step, getting roomier as he went along, until he saw it.

It was a seafaring ship, one of the last before the navy moved to entirely airship armadas. However, it didn’t lose its potency as highly sophisticated machinery, glowing lights and gleaming metal.

The coral reef had penetrated the Garlean hull, until it reached what he assumed was the Ceruleum tank containers. The Ceruleum flowed inside the Coral Reef, almost like a bloodstream, until the whole thing glowed a severe blue.

Purple Link walked around the wreckage, almost pristine in it’s quality, then swam over it. It was almost glorious in its imperiousness.

He was distracted long enough to not notice bumping his head into Alisaie’s as he swung over to the other side. His head was spinning, and for a moment, everything went black, stars circling his eyes.

When he opened them, he saw that Alisaie was doing the same thing, clasping her head in pain.

He swam up next to her, but she pushed him away. Considering they were still underwater, it did little more than shove him lightly in the other direction, but the implication was much the same.

“Purple!” said Alisiae, “We are in an enclosed space! Give us a minute!”

Purple stood askance, looking at the wreckage.

There was a conveniently Hrothgar-sized hole, big enough for the both of them to swim into the hull and take a look-around. The ship was large enough that it could take hours for them to search, but according to the Wolf Burglar, this was almost definitely the vessel.

Alisaie swam next to him, not talking, but not necessarily angry at him. Purple Link at first didn’t know what to say.

“This…This wasn’t what I meant when I said we weren’t done talking,” admitted Purple Link, “But it was part of it.”

“No, we are not, not by a long shot,” said Alisiae, “But unfortunately, curiosity beckons me further than my indignances.”

“Is that what this is about?” asked Purple Link, more out of curiosity than anything, “Dignity?”

“Purple, we’ve been through a lot together,” said Alisaie, a frown on her face, but only a light one, “If we’re meant to repair anything, not the least of which is our dignity, it’s going to take a lot longer than a couple of arguments.”

“I’m–” began Purple Link, but she put her hand out to stop him.

“Don’t!” said Alisaie, “There will be time for apologies later, but for right now, I think we should take the time to search the hull. Time is only against us, as usual.”

“Indeed,” said Purple, nodding, and then swam into the hull with Alisaie.

To be continued…