#who had just finished stormblood

[capriccio-ffxiv]

Suddenly very upset that Lyse never got to go visit Old Sharlayan with us.

That's as much her childhood home as Ala Mhigo -- much moreso, even. Yda took her to the Sharlayan Colony and then much like Thancred, they were basically "adopted" by Louisoix and taken to the mainland to study. I figure Lyse probably *did* go to school alongside Yda, but being much younger than Yda never got her Archon Marks. Possibly she was working on it when Yda died, but then in her grief and depression couldn't finish it (extremely relatable; I know so many people who never finished university because of circumstances like that).

And I just.

Lyse is done so dirty by the narrative. The Yda reveal is poorly handled and means nothing to us (and apparently didn't mean much even to 1.0 players, which was baffling to me when I found out.) At the same time, when you actually read the short stories and her backstory, it really is a powerful story about grief, about impostor syndrome... but the game just. Fumbles the ball on that.

I just... can you imagine? Now-adult Lyse, having liberated Ala Mhigo, finally returning to Old Sharlayan. Lyse meeting Papalymo's father. Lyse, meeting Moenbryda's parents (Yda and Moen had been close, iirc, and Moen knew about Lyse's deception just like the rest of the Scions).

I know why the larger fanbase isn't super into her, Stormblood is the black sheep of the expansions (I liked it, but it's followed by freakin Shadowbringers, y'know?), but I just wish the game devs would give her another chance. Maybe during or after Dawntrail (maybe she can show up in the New World at some point initially as an ambassador from Ala Mhigo or whatever)

[wildstar25]

Then vs Now

tagged by @improvised-finish - Thank you <3

tagging: @nhaneh @eriyu @nivienne-grovant @yukupo-lalapo @astraveil and anyone else who wants to do this but has yet to been tagged :D

My first screenshot of Arsay taken from the intro cutscene in limsa.

Gpose from September 2024 in Solution 9.

It's funny comparing Arsay because she really hasn't changed that much in the almost three years since creating her. Most visual changes were done to make her match the idea I already had of her in my head. The biggest differences are things that can't be captured in a single gpose: her character. Arsay was initially based on a pirate oc I had in middle school, but when I started the game and it became clear that a lot of the goons she was fighting were also pirates I decided to drop her potential former pirate backstory. Then came the long journey of trying to figure out a character for this beautiful cat I've created. I had a few epiphanies here and there while going through the msq but it took me until stormblood to fully conceptualize her backstory: Her parents, how they left her with Emrara, how her psyche developed, etc. It was only until the greatwoods section of Shadowbringers that I felt the urge to write a character interaction between her and Y'shtola to ease some of the tension in their reunion. Arsay's "voice" just kinda came to me at that point and it hasn't gone away since. Arsay is not a static character to me, she's grown with the msq and I really love that about her. I really appreciate all the love she's gotten on this site too. Knowing something I made brings joy to others is one of the greatest feelings to get as an artist, and it motivates me to keep building her story here instead of keeping it all to myself. 💙

[gatheredfates]

✧˖°. THEN AND NOW EDITION FT. Sarrai, Azuma & Koret!

Sarrai is the only character I've done any edits with post DT update (don't look at me, I'm only just getting the bug back), but I wanted to show which OC's went through, in my opinion, the most dramatic changes!

The Sarrai on the right was a very early concept where I tried to mash her and Aryele together without much success (call it the WoW trauma, idk). She's had a lot of fantasias to get where she is and I'm ultimately happy with her look now.

Azuma was my first character to finish a MSQ! (The ARR MSQ, to be precise) I used to play her off and on when I was still mainlining WoW, but ultimately adopted her as my main her until halfway through Stormblood when I settled on Ashe and never looked back. I don't want to talk about how long it took me to settle on a name for 'lore compliance'.

Anyway, her look ended up changed because I had the idea to make a sunset themed au ra and I loved her so much I deleted that au ra and slapped a fantasia on her. I met @riftdancing not long after that, we became best friends, and I never looked back.

Kor... SDFKGJDFSHKJDGH. I can't look at her as a Midlander anymore; I'm literally like 'who tf are you girlie???' She looks WAY too dainty in comparison to her highlander self now, but I was still trying to work out the kinks of her story from where she was left in WoW, so it took me a bit to kind of settle on her having a highlander body in game but being multiracial (highlander/midlander) in lore.

Also a good reminder that gposing is a skill that gets honed with time because... look at 'em. SDFKJGHSDFJK

Tagged by: Technically I was going to just do it of my own volition but then I saw @iron-sparrow tagged YOU so I pointed at myself.

Tagging (I haven't checked who has done this, so apologies if you have already completed it!): @cindernet-exploded, @ser-corviknight, @lavampira, @riftdancing, @thefreelanceangel @this-is-ris, @sealrock, @allyennah, @nidstiniens, @ishgard @zylphiacrowley, @hares-and-hounds, @starforger, @nhaneh, @airis-ray... and you!

If you'd like a chance of being tagged, you can like my permanent interaction call here!

[rontra]

drop your ffxiv lore

asking me to drop my pants in public would be less embarrassing..... you have to understand crucially that i don't know anything about anything and dont want The Knowers to see me

LMAO well i can talk about it a little but only on One Condition. as i mentioned before im a Certified Stormblood Gamer . in fact according to the wiki i am about this deep (level 64 questing atm)

so basically the condition is this: if something wasn't explicit in ARR or HW you cannot under any circumstances talk to me about it...! if you have any sort of reaction to this post that has to do with any later material than that i ask you Don't say it to me. if you are in doubt about whether something "counts", the safe answer is yes it does, and just going "neat!" instead & moving on will do fine. i really don't want to play spoiler chicken with you and don't want to know anything i don't already know. i'm enjoying taking my time with the game, so please refrain from correcting or corroborating anything i have to say about it atm!!!!!!! i'm still baby! thank you....!!! 😭👍

anyway my xiv characters are 1 a dude who was born in a wet cardboard box all alone and might be scared of women . & 2 a scary woman who did definitely kill her wife but is also the most Wife Guy for like secret reasons. the second one's lore is being ironed out as we speak so its all subject to change but the concept is there

1. ZT

love this guy. i even made an amv about it when i finished arr

(every xiv player voice) my wol is the most special boy in the world.

i actually had a whole thing typed up here about like his fucked up mom and whatever but i got shy and deleted it. i might go over it if someone's actually interested . but basically he's a poor little meow meow who, up until the beginning of the game, was abused pretty consistently bc of [evil cat people family dynamic reasons]. his family members mostly hate his ass and were rarely all that nice to him, so he has a lot of issues with self-worth and things like that--he doesn't feel like he's particularly good at anything or really "worth" much

he's from southern ilsabard which is a place i uh do not know much about. as a stormblood gamer. but it's fine the details don't really matter (walking away quickly)

his most prized childhood possession was the ruined scraps of an old arcanist's tome, and through sheer tenacity he managed to teach himself his first rudimentary spell from the incomplete paragraphs therein. he mostly chalks that feat up to the fruit of Time + Boredom and not talent or love, but those pages were the only thing he took with him when it finally came time for him to follow his older brothers' footsteps and leave the family.

gets on the boat. goes to limsa. enlists in the arcanists guild to cultivate what he sees as the One Single Skill He Has. people in the guild ???praise him??? and encourage him?? to keep at it??? which he is not at ALL used to, but it motivates him to work even harder at his training. he's pretty far from home and deeply unsure of himself, but he absolutely does not want to go back to the limited world he knew until now. so that unwillingness to look back sort of inherently keeps him trucking in search of a new purpose to latch on to

he's very sensitive to people being niceys to him, because he's not used to it at all. he's 4x weak to it and might cry if it's coming from an older woman who is even vaguely maternal, due to his horrific mommy issues. also, he wants to be useful to people ("for once"), so he has a hard time saying no to all the million quests and sidequests in the game. perfect

his inability to say no to people who request his help puts him on the Old Nymian Scholar Investigation Mission of course. i am Scholar Guy for a reason and that reason is ZT. this dude never had anything his family valued, and lived as the expendable runt of the litter his whole life, and now is suddenly entrusted with something important for the first time in his life--something bigger and older than him, a way of life, a legacy to uphold and carry forwards into the future

and that mantle is pretty heavy. but he'll carry it! and that's how he becomes a healer boy who will defend any random tonberry with his life. he feels very strongly about the extinct art of the scholars and also about being a healer in general--boy finally found his calling! also he has the echo and is our funny warrior of light but like that's fine. i'm sure the "not being able to say no to people, no matter how tired/hurt/etc he himself is" thing is not catching up any time soon. i did play DRK up to 60 though and lmao. well. hang in there. i even made an amv ab

there's some more stuff about him like how his path through eorzea and as a healer specifically is in lockstep with death at every turn and also how he's a blue mage on the side and whatever but this is long enough. here's a pic of him with one of my favorite "no one else gives a shit about this character" npcs

he's a pretty kitty and very sweet altho he does need to learn to assert himself (and starts doing so through the course of the game). he's very attached to his friends. he doesn't have any love interest or w/e for now he's figuring his own stuff out. gaining confidence. classic stuff. easy protagonist recipe. my meow meow. i played pvp just to get him a haircut. the things i do for zt

2. KRALJICA

the new baby. kraljica is not her original name, but she's never going to use her original one again. her surname is Radinasch, which used to be Aradina, before she killed her own queen who may or may not have been also her wife (ofc by hrothgar convention she then changed her surname to represent the loss of her queen) (despite being the killer) (it's a memento :) )

she is a bozjan hrothgar so we're back to ilsabard shenanigans (which remains kind of problematic for a stormblood gamer, but It's Fine). she actually knows ZT's mother, but not in a good way. Radina's group was in local political tension with ZT's mom's group, so there's some history there (notably in that kraljica would recognize ZT as "zahsa's runt" (derogatory) and not be very nice to him about it, but they don't really share a Personal history beyond the Faction Squabbles)

back to the point though, kraljica killed her queen, and most of the other followers of said queen were not very happy about that. killing the queen is like really high up on the list of things hrothgar do not want you to do. so she is branded queenkiller and exiled. some of the other hrothgar choose to follow kraljica out (having faith in her leadership for various reasons), making her their new queen as they venture to eorzea together (and all of their surnames become akraljica to match).

kraljica takes the surge of enmity against her as a natural consequence of what she did, and doesn't correct anybody who identifies her as a queenkiller in her journeys. she basically does not care about her shattered reputation or having to leave her home, because she is on, a secret, Other Scheme.

what they don't know of course is that radina asked her to do it. for scheme reasons. #women

kraljica is acting in accordance with radina's will. not even her own loyal followers know what her plan is, but they can clearly tell she has conviction; even when being hated by her people and ousted from her home, kraljica moves with that same inexhaustible willpower

(maybe she has questions, when she's alone, and wonders how much radina kept from her in the final days. and maybe she misses and mourns her. but all of that is only for her, in private, when no one can see... in front of the others, she's unflinching, and a leader they will follow no matter what...!!!)

she doesn't seem to have the echo and isnt a warrior of light. ZT can do that stuff. she's like busy with her own thing. she's running around collecting suspicious amounts of aether and being suspiciously driven and faithful to her cause. suspiciously

ok fine it's because radina asked her to cut her loose from mortality, venerate that, and bring her back as a primal. because she wants to become a war god strong enough to take revenge on the empire. something that will keep coming back, no matter how many times it's destroyed, as long as her chosen can still call for her....<3 that's so romantic

of course, what returns will not be radina-the-person. it will be an image of her will, shaped by kraljica's mind and the bloodpool of radina's aether. radina is dead for good; what kraljica is summoning is a representation of radina's goals and dreams, fueled by pure belief and a lot of aether. That Which Resembles Wife But Is Not will cast one megaflare for every minute of suffering inflicted upon bozja. (speaking to the empire thru a megaphone) this is your final warning

their summoning is pretty unorthodox and and "partial" (the primal does not manifest a corporeal form at this time, but it is certainly present in its vessel to some extent)--the game already allows a few different quirky summonings, so we're just playing calvinball and making up Another Special Case (this time owing to the specific setup and execution of radina's plan, her and kraljica's synchronicity about the whole thing, kraljica's unique position in her life, and some sprinkles of Rule Of Cool to taste) . imo the game is flexible enough about it that putting in Just One More Weird Summon Strat is not gonna break anything (LMAO) so it's fine <3

all you have to do is write in a side character who goes "but! that's not possible..." while the thing is happening in front of them

anyway suffice to say no one is doing it like radina's weird ass, and she couldn't do it without her wife guy who is willing to do whatever she wants. suffice to also say that kraljica's own aether is noticeably Weird and over-aspected by her beloved primal, and that "radina" (that which resembles wife but is not) Could Be lowkey tempering her right now and nobody would even notice it because her goal and the primal's goal are already one and the same. but that's probably fine. radina would never do that to her <3......

unless of course there are things about her even kraljica never understood. but surely that wouldn't happen

its really hard for other people to get a grip on kraljica because she won't let anybody close to her emotionally and she definitely won't spill the beans on radina's secret scheme. her boys are with her no matter what (#hrothgang) (they also picked up a viera whose city name now includes "akraljica" hahaha). other people are just like um that is a shady lady who is casting spells we dont even know how to classify. scary. also she's got a situationship with a nasty bandit milf (my friend's hrothgal<3) so we better just leave her alone. bad vibes all around

radina was a gunbreaker. kraljica is very good at manipulating aether and a strong fighter too, but i havent rly settled on a canon class for her. because her actual "canon class" is like. "a summoner from a hypothetical Other FF game. not even a specific other FF game, just Very Much Not This One" LMAO

she would just be like ah its um secret ancient arts from my homeland . you wouldnt know her. shes from a different continent. not like how they do it in limsa. not at all. goodbye (walks away mid conversation) and the arcanists could not stop her. like

anyway i'm not used to playing a female char so i keep getting distracted by her breasting boobily around. they dont let ZT jiggle like that so how was i to know... and basically, so-called free thinkers when dalmascan draped top 👇

she almost had a different face marking way back in the benchmark character creation era, but looking at it now it looks so weird without her big X . like who is that

(metian vest so important for the shoulder bulk... not gonna lie)

anyway kraljica would hear about the final aeon from ff10 and be like that's fucking right.

[sezja]

For the record, I started playing FFXIV like, literally right before patch 3.2 dropped (early April 2016), and caught up literally the night before 3.4 dropped - I remember this distinctly because it was the patch where Nidhogg's trial was going to get the Echo, and no one was fucking running that trial so I couldn't finish MSQ

For all that, though, it wasn't really until Stormblood's patch cycle that I actually started feeling like I was playing the game the way I was meant to be, you know? That's when I started really raiding and grinding to get tomestone capped every week - I wasn't brave enough yet to do raids on drop (that didn't start until late in ShB's patch cycle, I don't think); I still wanted to wait for guides and to get a little bit of gear to shore myself up, but I was doing the raids. And getting into optional battle content like Werlyt - I avoided the Warring Triad and had to double back for them much later, and only cleared Coils unsynced with a group of friends.

I did the Mhach raids before I did the CT raids (this was, of course, long before CT became mandatory).

I'm still not really brave enough to throw myself at like, extreme/ultimate/unreal trials, and I never did get up the courage to attempt the Chaotic raid (I just bought the hair for Tajna on the marketboard). I don't do PvP. I'm still nervous as hell as a healer and I hate positionals on melee jobs.

But like, once upon a time I was the newbie who freaked out when Aiatar interrupts the second boss of the Longstop, and now I do raids when they're brand new. You know?

[aotopmha]

Oh hey, the second good scene with Zenos in Endwalker.

Exaggerations aside, I was so grateful for this scene because I'm one of those of the opinion that he should've stayed dead in Stormblood and all we've gotten out of Zenos within Endwalker up to this point is him wanting to fight you.

*Technically* that's all he is in Stormblood, too, but at this point he's been dragged along with the story for almost another 2 expansions.

I kind of at least want *something* more out of him.

And, well, at least now his one-mindedness got just a little more depth.

He basically says, well, people are all self-righteous assholes, who want to change the world in their image and call themselves heroes for it, so I'm at least not going to pretend and be honest about what I want, which is a fight with the WoL because fighting is the only thing that makes me feel something.

Loss of life is loss of life and bad regardless of the reason it happens.

The issue with this is that you can say it about every single person ever trying to do any good in the world and even more so for flawed people trying to do good in the world.

So should we just stop trying to do any good because everyone might have a personal or imperfect reason for it?

Yes, self-awareness is absolutely a very good trait to have when you aren't perfect and have made mistakes before and so is self-reflection regarding your actions, especially if it involves doing bad to do good, which can be a slippery slope.

But this is the repeat of the Elidibus scene in terms of morality: despite him giving you a lecture on the morality of your actions, he is also a perpetrator of multiple genocides.

Fact is, sometimes bad things have to be done in the name of good because there is evil in the world that does not listen to reason and needs to be stopped.

A response to this would be the idea of good and evil being relative to someone's flawed perspective, but I like to stay grounded and say, maybe killing millions isn't much of a matter of perspective, especially if they are all equally sentient.

I think therefore I am and all.

I've seen people bring this up in response to the characters forgiving villains and the like, but to me the key here is that Zenos could... y'know choose to just not kill lots of people.

Gaius backs his words with action. Fordola backs her words with action. Nero goes under this, too. Redemption is earned, not given out arbitrarily. This story is incredibly consistent with that at least, but even if it wasn't, people will always be imperfect in some way, so even Alphinaud still qualifies under this considering his mistakes and attitude during A Realm Reborn.

No, a good reason is not "better". Emet, Hermes, Elidibus, all had "good reasons", but not once was what they ended up doing framed as (or said to be) "good, actually".

You can empathize without excusing.

Alisae's response is also really good; Zenos will probably never actually find "true fulfillment" with the principles he laid out, a path of violence is generally also a path of loneliness, and the truth is he, too, seeks some sort of connection via wanting to fight the WoL.

Violence is just the only way he can express this wish to connect with someone.

I also like this scene for Jullus getting to say his piece.

A solid scene before the hell that is 80% of the lvl 88 quests.

(Finished all of the lvl 88 quests today, so more posts are probably coming about them. I'm also probably Endwalking tomorrow, depending on how everything works out.)

[nihilnovisubsole]

phew! finally a weekend where i can set aside enough time to type up The Promised Endwalker Stream-of-Consciousness Post. i finished the base story... a month ago? but work has been busy, and i think tumblr benefits from me being quiet sometimes. anyway, what a ride. when you've been building up to the end of your arc for a decade, you want to hit it like an earthquake, and that's exactly what they did.

i think people love endwalker because it fires on all cylinders. it returns - in both story and vision - to the eorzea we love, and the dev team gets to show off everything they've learned. the dungeons and boss fights are dynamic and imaginative and colorful and bring the game's epic sense of scope to bear. the story callbacks are juicy. the music is orchestral again. we're back home, and we're saving the galaxy. what's better than this?

i love that we go to garlemald. i don't - i mean, you know, i don't like garlemald. i shouldn't have to qualify that. but it's hugely narratively satisfying to see the face of the enemy we've been fighting since the first few hours of ARR. you don't think about them when you're beating them up in castrum centri or ala mhigo. they're star wars bad guys. then you meet them on their own turf. you observe firsthand how they starve and cannibalize their own people to feed their obsession with state power and military strength. the wintry environment makes it seem all the more barren and desperate. my favorite part by far. i wish we'd spent more time there.

actually, on that note:

there is an argument that endwalker should've been two expacs. i've heard similar about stormblood - ala mhigo should've been the whole thing, and doma should've been either patch content or an expac of its own. the prevailing theory is that, after ARR, the devs are afraid of letting arcs run long. i can't speak to that, but i wouldn't have minded, that's for sure!

i won't pretend not to be biased. i've noted in many xiv posts that it hurries through its political plots to get to the magic stuff. i felt more conscious of it in heavensward and especially in stormblood. i made peace with it in endwalker. with dessert this good, who am i to complain? i can do small character drama on my own time. for now, the game wants royce to be a big damn shonen hero, and that can be fun, too.

speaking of characters, urianger and estinien have grown on me. this is the arc where, for me at least, the scions have congealed. they're all good, but with any large cast and custom player character, you tend to form the meatiest bonds with a few specific ones. i think royce appreciates urianger's cooler, more mature head. they're both so formal. he realizes she's someone he can confide in. i think she sees estinien as a gifted, but hotheaded whelp, which i find very funny. patience, child. stop sulking. do your breathing drills.

i love thancred's MGS sequence and in from the cold too. they're stressful, but i love that the team tried, you know what i mean? the fact that you can fight enemies in a pinch makes those duties way more bearable than some other games that experiment with stealth.

in from the cold as a whole, honestly. If You Know, You Know

all right, i can't avoid referencing spoilers anymore, sorry. there's a sense of classical tragedy to the whole elpis sequence. it's like watching macbeth or hamlet. you know how it's going to end, and you know you're powerless to stop it, but if they'd just made that different choice! but we had to leave eden. the warrior of light had to end up where they are to finish what elpis started. i don't do fate/destiny plots, but this? i'll take it.

i also knew what would happen going into ultima thule and still came away from it moved. it's strong writing. that's all there is to it. sure, the visuals are haunting, but the dialogue has to sell a gauntlet of difficult character moments, and it pulls it off. on the design side, there's some interesting intentional friction that forces you to linger in the zone and sit with its sense of despair. that part where you have to search the empty park for signs of life? oof

with the majority of the MSQ under my belt, i started sniffing around for what else there is to do ingame. i tried ninja. did terribly. i tried sage. did terribly too, but at least that gave me access to the healer role quests, which, ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). the nier raids are gorgeous. i even did the controversial werlyt quests, and terncliff is so cute. i kind of wish we could have another story there!

what's next? i dunno! right now i'm burning through the hildibrand quests before i continue on with endwalker's patch story. the field operation stuff seems interesting to do after the MSQ, in a "hey, you saved the world, but we have more missions for you" way. i've also contracted Triple Triad Collector Disease, so that'll keep me busy for a long time.

all right. one last thing. Real Gamer Moments: i was in a mount-farming party recently, and i said that i sort of collected mounts, but only used the ishgardian chocobo. it's a roleplay thing - it's the chocobo royce took when she ran away from ishgard. one of the party members said "haurchefant would be proud of you." AUGH

[bisasterqueen]

Finished Dawn Trail a couple days ago and I've been letting my thoughts and feelings settle.

I really enjoyed the first half of the game. Exploring Tural, learning about its people and their histories, and watching Wuk lamat and the others grow. That I enjoyed. Heading out with Erenville at the beginning of the second half and going on a mini road trip was really fun. Also him going 'yes I know you can walk in there and trounce all of them but please let's keep bloodshed to a minimum'. Like our boy has been to Ishgard he's heard the stories.

Then the second half of the story kicks off and I start to feel a disconnect. There were still parts of it I really enjoyed. The connection to Krile's past, confirmation that travel between shards has happened before, and a bunch of subtext in part of the last area that I will scream about later. But the biggest issue for me was Sphene.

Zoraal ja I clocked early on and figured out most of his deal. The final fight confirmed most of it but the point I'm making is that I could connect somewhat with Zoraal Ja. He was in some ways experiencing a very toxic version of the gifted child syndrome. He was the Miracle and because he was the Miracle he never got to figure out who he was and what he wanted and that it was okay to be himself or at least that was my read. Because of this he couldn't connect with others and had little to no respect for the value of 'human' life. This I got and I could somewhat connect with it.

Now Sphene shows up in her magic fairy princess outfit and I could feel like I was supposed to connect with her in some way but it could never quite click. Oh you love your people and are just trying to help them survive a terrible calamity( thanks emet ). Is this just a class of cultures and terrible circumstances? That we can overcome by achieving understanding of each other. Then we find out about their way of life is dependent on using SOULS as a power source and I'm like 'Okay that's not cool but I see we're going with the Dark knight Stormblood quest theme/the Ascian agenda where we help the learn you can't sacrifice the living for the dead right?...RIGHT?!'.

Oh the original Queen Sphene is dead and this is a program with her memories? And she's programmed to keep the soul eating machine going no matter what Are we going Omega? No.

Sphene sticks to her guns and her programming trying to save the ghosts in the machine and ok neither one of us is compromising this is Hades.

And look I get it we can't always reach a compromise and there will be confrontation. If that was the theme I get it. But Sphene feels like a cardboard cutout to me and I can't figure out why. Maybe it's because it's not us she's supposed to mirror but Wuk lamat? The second part of Dawntrail mostly felt a stepping stone to the next part of the story and not quite in a good way. I still loved the game and can't wait to see more though. Also I saw the fucking Azem imagery square and when the key lighted up their fucking symbol. 'oh who could have made such a strange and powerful artifact?' It's us causing problems for ourselves again.

[koukouture]

I have decided that I want to be obnoxious so I will be compiling all of my favorite Gposes in this post + context as to why I like it so much.

Also I miss gposing (I'm unsubscribed bc I need to focus on school rn)

This is one of my oldest screenshots from when I first managed to get Anamnesis working on the FFXIV free trial. I've had this idea of Elysia in her dragoon armor falling above Ishgard ala Spiderverse style and I actually tried to draw it once but ofc it kinda sucked ass and this screenshot turned out wayyyyy better. Might just be one of my favorite gposes of all time tbh. Anyways after taking this I kinda came up with a little headcanon that it's a rite of passage for new dragoons to jump off the top floor of the Vault and kind of parkour their way all the way down to the lowest point of Ishgard. So uhhh yeah dragoon supremacy.

I love this one a lot just by virtue of how unexpectedly hard this pose was for me? I has also just finished Stormblood when I started getting into Gpose so I was super Zenos pilled at the time. Anyways, this pose was really hard because a) I was still learning Anamnesis and b) you have no idea how hard it is to make this height different work even when Zenos is lying down 💀

This one was a part of a little photoshoot partially inspired by the hand scene in Perfect Blue where the stalker pretends to hold Mima in the palm of his hand except with my OCs- but it turned out I like the solo shot of Elysia better because idk man LOOK AT IT. The aura is unmatched. Simple composition but it's still so perfect.

These are from the same photoshoot and I'm really only including them because of how hard it was to line this up. But yeah anyways I think I did pretty good.

Uhhhh I really love the Royal Menagerie okay??? Anyways yeah once again just finished Stormblood and I thought Zenos and Elysia deserved a fight scene with a lot of sexual tension so these are like hypothetical shots of that.

AGAIN WITH THE ZENOS- Yeah so- I actually have a lot of more romantic/intimate shots but I feel like they never turn out quite as cinematic as my uhhh normal/more action based screenshots I guess? But I really love this one because the lighting and framing seems so intimate~ Also Zenos being almost reverent with his beast? Hell yeah

Okay I cropped this one that's how you KNOW it's good. What can I say? I really love dragoons. Also I was kind of stressing about this shot because I was worried that maybe Estinien's lance wouldn't be held the right way (I was using the dragoon victory pose) but thank god it was because look at this shot!!!! I have a couple more dynamic pictures where they're both on top of the statue of Haldrath but I think this one takes the cake. Also I captioned this shot "A legacy written in blue- Ishgard's Azure Dragoons" and idk I think that eats.

Okay this one was sooooo fucking hard to get mostly because Anamnesis doesn't let you spawn in actors like Brio does so in most cases you only have your player character, carbuncle, and maybe a training dummy if you're doing a photoshoot in duty finder mode. In the overworld I actually had to use NPCs as extra actors and that is NOT fun. I trailed to nail a more horror-esque vibe but idk maybe this could have benefitted from a little tweaking in Photoshop or a better shader preset because I could NOT find one I liked for this photoshoot. Obviously I love the DRK quests because who doesn't??? Don't worry, I have more DRK themed screenies to come

Oooo okay so this one is inspired by my Hellbound AU fanfic and tldr all you need to know is that Haurchefant is in the Heaven's Ward and DEDICATED to his wife. How dedicated? How about breaking his oath of celibacy and being ready to throw away his nation for her?

Once again super simple composition but immensely impactful. A general tip for taking screenshots in video games is to keep your character either in the center or closer to one of the corners of the frame AND NEVER OFF TO ONE SIDE KIND OF HOVERING IN THE MIDDLE (unless they are framed by something closer to the camera or if there's another character to help draw the gaze/balance the picture) Another things I guess for gpose specifically is to really think about the way your character's outfit will look in the environment. Do you want them to match or really stand out? I should probably make a post of dedicated gpose tips no? Anyways- I really love this one because she just looks so ominous lmao. Btw this is L'hamara! She's not a WoL OC but I still think about my lesbian bunny girl constantly.

Oh Zenos is here again. I promise I ship Elysia with other characters Zenos just has better screenshot potential. Yeah so I think Zenos should have skewered WoL Sephiroth style.

Mmmm okay I know I have a cropped version of this laying around somewhere but little known fact about me is that I LOVE Nier Automata so after I finished Shadowbringers before ANYTHING else I did the Nier raids STAT. The white haired girl is named Saji btw- she's my friend's OC and Elysia's (sometimes) girlfriend :)

God I wish I had nicer screenshots of my other WoL Xia but I don't think I have any cool ones :(. Anyways please perceive my stylish kitty cat daughter and her loser (affectionate) boyfriend. I don't really post about her and I should change that lmao- I keep thinking about how hard it would be on her as a literal teenager being the WoL. I need to do more stuff for her man.

Another cropped one so it bangs ofc. As you can see, I got some mods for Elysia which is really just using C+ to edit her face and hair bones a little lmao. I captioned this one "Hades could not help but hope- for he saw her in the folly of man" which I think is a BANGER fucking line. Something about WoL ultimately proving to him that sundered souls ARE a people worth living... it gets me man. Sometimes it just takes a girl that looks like your dead situationship from 12000 years ago to make you realize that all life is sacred. I will say though I do wish that there was a neat water shadow while in Amarot. I think there's one in other parts of the Tempest but don't quote me on that. I just wanna sell the underwater vibes sometimes yk?

Ugh these... I told you I had more DRK screenshots. This was actually for the entry of this glamour on Eorzea collection and obviously I took versions without the mod but come on man... my girl deserves her luscious long locks. Oh also yes you can pose shadow Esteem!!!! Search "Esteem" when you go to load in NPC appearance and they'll load in- just be careful because the smoke effect doesn't follow them once you've posed them so make sure to position them before you move any bones.

I didn't actually pose Elysia much or anything I just took this before I did the Zodiark trial lmao. I just think it's neat how he peaks between the beams of light almost like they're imprisoning him. I do wish I had changed Elysia's outfit tho because the only think you can really see is her sword while her dress blends in. I had a nice DRK winter glam for the expedition into Garlemald maybe I should have kept her in that.

Oooooh okay these two- The idea behind these two was Elysia and her co-tanks- and obviously Elysia is the off tank because DRK is a DPS job at this point.

Soooo this one is obviously more on the comedic side but this is 100% one of my favourite screenshots ESPECIALLY after adding the text box. Glorious. Imagine your older brother and your pseudo older brother figure fuck I would literally become homophobic too /j

[otherworldseekers]

FFXIVwrite2024: On Cloud Nine

WoLNero (indirectly) 715 words Post-Stormblood/Between Delta and Sigmascape Thancred and Severia meet over a meal to catch up with each other. Thancred gets the wrong idea.

“So, are you going to tell me what’s up?”

Severia narrowed her eyes at Thancred as she collected the last of the stew in her bowl onto her bread and popped it in her mouth. “Have you not been paying attention for the last 20 minutes?”

Thancred leaned his elbows on the table and laced his fingers together. “Yes, your blow-by-blow account of your fights against Omega were riveting. Somehow I doubt that accounts for you suddenly being on cloud nine.”

Severia’s brow furrowed. She still didn’t get some of those idioms that were found in the common tongue. “What’s cloud nine?”

“It means overjoyed, ecstatic, elated, walking on clouds, extremely happy.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m totally normal,” Severia protested. 

Thancred had strong doubts about that. He’d been walking by the Ironworks headquarters earlier that day and seen a number of them gathered in some kind of meeting, Severia among them. Curiosity and instinct took over and he had hidden himself close enough to get a good look at the proceedings. There was nothing abnormal about the matter under discussion. They were preparing to make their second foray into the Interdimensional Rift. What had struck him in particular was the Warrior of Light’s body language. 

It was the kind of thing he had been trained to notice. And he knew his friend well enough to know that there was a definite change in the way she held herself and the way she contributed to the discussion. There was a brightness to her that wasn’t her natural state, an eagerness she rarely exhibited. If he didn’t know better, he’d say she couldn’t wait to get back to the Rift. But her account of her battles just now had not indicated any such keenness for more. It had been nothing but complaints. The first battle was boring. The second was gross. The third was tedious. The fourth had taken her by surprise and got her injured. So what exactly was she so excited about returning to the Rift for?

He had his ideas, but he was hoping she would be willing to confide in him. “Is that so?” he said, prodding her gently. 

“Should it not be?” she evaded his question with her own. When he sighed audibly she added, “I’m sorry, Thancred, I’m just not really sure what you’re getting at. Can’t you just ask a straightforward question?”

Tell me, Severia, are you in love with someone? He snorted and downed the rest of his mug of ale. There was no way he’d get an honest answer to that. But he didn’t get the sense that she was lying either. Could she actually just be oblivious? Oh yes, she could, no doubt. 

“Forget it. You just look well. I wondered if something good had happened while I was gone.”

Was that a little color rising to her cheeks? Perhaps not entirely oblivious then. But who could it be? Someone in the Ironworks. Certainly not Biggs or Wedge. Jessie? Someone he didn’t know perhaps? Or… He kicked himself for not thinking of it sooner. It had to be Cid, didn’t it? The two had certainly spent a fair amount of time together over the years. And he had rescued her more than once. And now they were spending entire days together out at the Yawn. It made perfect sense. 

Cid, huh? It could be worse. Only, he had the distinct impression that Cid Garlond thought about very little other than the Ironworks and its projects. A man more married to his work he had seldom encountered. He hoped it wouldn’t end in disappointment for Severia. Ought he have a quick word with the man? Give him a little hint about her feelings?

He vetoed the idea as soon as it occurred to him. She wouldn’t thank him for interfering. And she was a mature woman. She could handle herself. And well, if things did go badly, he would always be there to offer comfort. But he hoped it did work out. 

Later when they had finished their meal and catching up on all their news, the two Scions bid each other goodnight. 

Good luck, my friend, Thancred wished silently as he strolled to his quarters. If anyone deserves to find happiness, it‘s you.

[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

[morocosmos]

I installed brio for the sole purpose of making this line up of moro'a's official, not complete because who knows when that will be finalised but nevertheless canon uhh. body count.

* = long term/romantic relationships */ = toxic yaoi (specifically for aymeric, sorry) the rest are ONS/short term

Character names and extra info under the cut if anyone's curious/can't identify a character/bc some of them are OCs. nothing explicit but feel free to skip if you're not keen on reading about moro'a's love/sex life jshdj. assume there will be MSQ spoilers.

Pre-ARR

Roegadyn + viera - OCs, i don't have names for them yet and literally designed how they look today but i'm already attached to them. they work at the farms/orchards around la noscea when it's in season and hunt when it's not, much like moro'a did when he started out in eorzea. the roe is a trans man. they're part of the Barn Incident

Koh'sae Naharaf - OC, a keeper miqo'te who moved to limsa lominsa and joined the blacksmith's guild. moro'a's first long-term partner, until they break up after the calamity due to their lives taking drastically different turns. as a side note, he's also yezih's cousin :>

ARR

Guydelot: had a one night stand while moro'a was in gridania for the remembrance ceremony :D when they see one another again at the start of the BRD quests guydelot is just “*POINTS* YOU'RE the wol???? :D” because he only knew moro'a by the nickname he gave him

HW

Haurchefant: moro'a avoided relationships after he became more and more known as the wol/guardian of eorzea, but feelings for haurchefant came for him like the eight umbral calamity, right as the scions were granted entry into ishgard. they do get together and it's very, very sweet for a while, and then...yeah

Post-HW

Aymeric: short-lived, codependent 'we're both dealing with the loss of someone very dear to us and need something to stave off the pain' relationship. aymeric had actual feelings which moro'a couldn't return, then it all crumbled when he found out that fray/moro'a had been killing temple knights

Ansaulme: guy from the HW and STB fisher quests. nothing much to say here, they just slept together

STB

Mauci: from a blue sidequest chain in the azim steppe. stormblood is a continuation of moro'a's maladaptive coping mechanisms so he isn't getting attached to anyone at this point

M'zhet Tia: from a blue sidequest chain in the fringes. i haven't actually finished the allied society quests there so idk all there is to know about him, i just like that he's the one guy who's shorter than moro'a

Wounded Temple Knight: he's in the cutscene of the quest 'heavens weep', when the tower at specula imperatoris falls. there's no reason for me picking him other than that he recognises the wol from the final battle at the steps of faith, and that he's cute

Post-ENW

Estinien: circumstances (alcohol) in radz-at-han lead to them spending a night together, and after moro'a works out some complex feelings (about aymeric and estinien being a thing, and relationships in general) they start a qpr. it goes on for a while, but estinien decides to end it when it becomes clear that moro'a has strong feelings for leofard

Leofard: hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[wildstar25]

Now that I finished Eureka I:

love Krile even more. She's literally such a good character and I am really excited to see her take the spot light in this expansion. Her being the sole survivor of the isle of val makes me so sad. Like I knew that was the case but they way she finally accepted it and just had to stomp her foot and scream out her emotions? So valid. I wish they could have let her cry but this game is addicted to "theres time for tears later." (I mean probably for the best arc wise since Arsay would not be able to handle that kind of thing in post stormblood)

Realized that G'raha seals himself in the tower the same patch we learn the isle of val got destroyed/displaced... did he even know??? I would have to go back to re read dialogue to remember. I do know arr patch content would have moments of refering to other content happening at the time (coils talks about cid being busy with syrcus tower stuff at least), so many??? but he was out on a mission. maybe he seals himself in before he even had a chance to find out. I mean... who would even tell him??? Like imagine he's now back in the source after 5.3 and the first convo he has with Krile is along the lines of "so good to see you again, all of our friends and colleagues are lost in /to the aetherstream or dead and the island you called home for x number of years is all fucked up now"

[winterdeepelegy]

My Thoughts on Dawntrail

So having finished DT, here are some of my thoughts on the expansion as a whole. Expect spoilers below the cut, do not click if you haven't finished. Again these are entirely my opinions, I don't intend to present this from a perspective of fact.

Hmm. I don't hate DT, but it's not high on my list: 1. Shadowbringers 2. Heavensward 3. Stormblood 4. Endwalker 5. Dawntrail 6. ARR That said, I don't hate any of the installments of this game, but there are some definitely high and low points. Let's rip the bandage off and get the blanks out of the way: 1. DT has a dialogue problem. I don't hate Wuk Lamat as a character, it was kind of refreshing to see a green, earnest character take center stage while our characters stepped aside and provided a guiding hand. The big problem I have with her is her dialogue. She's basically a shounen character, complete with the 'I'm gonna be king of the pirates'/'I'm gonna be hokage!' schtick, and it really wears on me after a while. That's not the character's fault so much as it is the writing team. That being so, this game is best played in short stints, 1-2 hours at a time instead of trying to marathon the whole thing in short order. Any more than that and it really becomes repetitious. If they want to script it to sound like an episodic anime series, it will be best enjoyed in smaller bites. Sphene suffers from the same problem. I wanted to enjoy her more as a character, but the script made that a challenge. 2. Pacing and exposition. God. The first few hours of EW were enough of a slog with its slow pacing before getting to the first dungeon, this felt like an eternity by comparison. Up to about the level 95 content, it is a long span of exposition and lore stuffing (far be it from me to complain about abundant lore!), so much of which could have been covered in less time and with less repetition. They really wanted to hammer the tribes into our heads, and it felt like too much at times. They wanted us to care about the tribes and the people therein, but few things make me care less than overdoing it. Level 95-ish is when things start becoming more interesting, in my opinion. That's a long way to climb to reach the proverbial cookie jar. 3. The music. I'll be honest, soundtrack wise, this is not my favorite. I appreciate all genres of music, but swing jazz doesn't quite fit the feel of Tulliyolal. I would have liked to hear something closer to a cultural aesthetic to match the visuals and themes presented throughout the areas and civilizations therein. We didn't get that, and it's kind of a weird choice. The main themesong, also? Ehh... I didn't care for it in the trailer. This opinion hasn't shifted since my playthrough. I didn't really start finding enjoyable area music until Shaaloani. 4. 'My people are more important than your people'. This plot point has been done. We just dealt with the Ascians and pretty much got the same shpiel from Hades. They made Sphene and her subjects a little more sympathetic, though, so... good, I guess? 5. Erenville deserved better. Fussy Bunbun got done so dirty in this expack, the very least anyone could have done was give him a hug. He didn't even get that from his mother who, frankly, was the worst character out of all of it. He was also deadnamed repeatedly, which could have been a teachable moment. 6. Wuk Lamat and/or Bakool Ja Ja still owes me tacos. ------------ As for the positives? There are some. Thanks for sticking with me so far. 1. Pretty graphics updates - better over all. 2. No weirdly split zones - thank the Twelve for this. StB, ShB, and EW all had zones that you could only cover in part, and couldn't finish until later. The zones in DT flow pretty well for the most part, and the transition between upper and lower areas of Yak'Tel are nothing short of beautiful, especially in flight. 3. More Reflections - I'm glad to see more of these and I hope this trend continues. 4. For once, I'm not luke warm on the bard AF gear. It's actually a fresh look, but haven't found a dye pairing I like yet.

[eorzeanflowers]

11) What was your inspiration for your OC?

(( A fun one! Ty Rayn <3))

There is always a catalyst for when I make a new character. Some drive, or some impetus. I'll try to remember the main catalyst for each character of mine, let's start from the top!

The Lily - Lily was inspired by Kugane at large and Historical Japanese Fiction. I had already long shifted to Au Ra at the beginning of HW, but when I dipped my toes in the water of RP during the Stormblood lulls, i settled on the exiled Shinobi background, wanting to not make a WoL.

The Azalea - Archie's main inspiration is and will always be, the Tenth Doctor. Its my favorite few seasons of New Who and I wanted an old character that was reborn multiple times. Hence my looks at Dr. Who. XD

The Rose - Benoit is not actually my creation! He is my wife's first and foremost, but she let me play him as her first mate. He's mine now though. :3 General pirate things are his inspiration.

The Sunflower - A'tyla was my thoughts on if a Hyur was raised by Miqo'te. That's it. XD She's long grown past that.

The Gardenia - Yasha is inspired by none other than her namesake, Yasha Nydoorin of the Might Nein. The sapphic nature, falling for a punchy punch girl, her quieter nature with some silly jokes. Yasha was actually a run off of when I made Tatiava. I wanted a Garlean character and couldn't decide between Highlander or Midlander, so I said, Por que no los dos?

The Snapdragon - Tatiava was a direct response to people making villainous Garlean characters. I wanted a double agent who could dip in both crowds. Did I ever actually get a chance? NOPE. XD It is what it is.

The Dahlia - Lhei was made from what little we knew of Old Sharlayan at the time of her creation, late shadowbringers. I was just getting back into RP again after losing the drive in late Stormblood.

The Strelitzia - Beatrice is from my dnd game! A character I've got the chance to properly play. I think when I made her I just needed the sapphic goodness of her and her partner. T.T Speaking of...

The Tulip - Mai is also from my dnd game! Mai was an npc my players got real attached to and well, she evolved from there. She's always been mute tho.

The Triteleia - Myste just formed fully into my consciousness one day and well, there he is! He is inspired by Dynamis and its crazy applications tho.

The Gladiolus - Jana is near and dear to my heart. I wanted to revisit an old echo idea I had for Lily that had got cut late in her development. And I ran with it. Now Jana is my weird future child that doesn't care about where she is from.

The Linnaeas - Pola and Deta are the easiest to spot the inspiration. They are based off of Popola and Devola from the Nier Francise. Specifically the Automata ones. Later they've been heavily influenced by Ianthe and Coronabeth of the Locked Tomb series.

The Hyacinth - Eulanne is inspired by the Dark Urge of Baldur's Gate 3. I just wanted to remake my sorta good guy Durge (i raided the grove my darling Minthara in that run, but she's been trying to do better since!) and I thought it would be cool to tie it to Reaper/Voidsent lore.

The Amaryllis - Marisol was spawned from the Viper reveals at the first DT fanfest. Nothing more influenced her original development.

The Lewisia - Glifet is anther Dr. Who inspired character, this time based off of a Cyberman. A what if you could say, a rehabilitated Cyberman.

The Iris - Lucca is just Lucca from Chrono Trigger with a bisexual streak. Chronic inventor, not much works right the first few times. Super smart. Those glasses.

The Aconite - Tista-Moa came to me in a work haze. I just had the idea, i wrote down what i thought about her and her very strange journey, came home and made her! I don't have enough villains to scratch that itch so she was a delight to make.

The Dicentra - Cissnei came about cause I am/was interested in playing as a Zenos-like character. Cissnei has evolved past that by now, but that is her start! I got so attached to her I finished the EW story in a single weekend with her. XD

That's all my debuted flowers... now for the few undebuted ones.

The Celosia - Sarel is my main dnd PC right now, and I saw the Celosia flower at the local green house and I wanted to make a character based on it. So I ported her over (somewhat, she is more different than the other dnd based ones) and she has been patiently waiting for months to be debuted. One day I'll that up. XD

The Nerine - Hinoka is Lily's rival from waaaaay back. I just felt like putting a name and face to the standin I had been using for Lily's story. Oh, and a nerine is a Spider Lily. :3

The Jasmine - Kokolai came about because I wanted an RP character to manage my submarines for me. He's just a merchant that loves his surrogate daughter. ^_^

The Protea - Tanzanite is a direct response to Solution 9 and its inhabitants. How fun it would be to have a scientist from there. She also just spawned from me messing with hair on Lily's fromer lady. >.>;

The Snowdrop - Agate just willed themself into existance. Also inspired by the DT story, they were the product of me sitting down to make a Sol 9 character and failing, making a Yyasulani native the wished to return to the sunlit world.

The Belladonna - Jane is, with no shame, directly inspired by Jane Doe of Zenless Zone Zero. That character has me by the throat. XD Add in a mix of Agent 47 and you get my Jane!

And that's everyone! A bit long, but I was on a roll if I'm being honest.

[sylvari-xiv]

Confession

Stormblood spoilers, I guess, haha. This scene is set during Ghimlyt Dark, right after Alisaie collapses. Ari and Sylvaire are co-WoLs and rivals, and have been working together for a few years now. It's no surprise that the first scene we wrote was when the rivalry took a turn for the romantic. VN and gposes: Blue Writing: both of us

The tent was silent, heavy with the shared pain of its two conscious occupants. Aritsune. Sylvaire. 

Sylvaire held Alisaie's hand gently in his own, feeling her aether waning and stagnating, and he hardly needed Krile to confirm what he knew had happened to her. He could feel the absence of a soul as he probed her aether with his own, and his heart sank. He couldn't imagine the pain Ari was feeling at seeing her like this. She was a shell. Hollow; empty. And perhaps soon enough he would be, too. And if he was, how could he protect the others? How could he protect Ari?

Ari moved swiftly through the motions of checking his weapons, refusing to let the fear of what was happening to his friends—what might happen to those who remained—overwhelm him. 

He flicked a glance at Sylvaire and then away, ignoring the tight, terrified beating of his heart. He'd felt the summons, knew that something was trying to tear him, and Sylvaire, from this plane. Whatever this was, it was aetherological in nature, and Sylvaire was the best person equipped to discover the means to reverse it. They'd been partners in this for too long for him to have any doubt of that. 

Stepping outside, he looked to Raubahn and his guards, standing nearby. "Alisaie needs transport to the Rising Stones. And–" he stopped the guard as he moved to follow the order. “Sylvaire doesn't leave this tent, understand? Keep him here. I'm doing this alone.”

Sylvaire stirred into motion when he saw Ari duck through the tent flaps. Wherever Ari was going, he was determined to follow. It was all he could do—to offer his protection, his healing magicks and what defensive spells he had honed over the years. This was not his fight alone—it was theirs, together—and he would be damned if Ari left him behind. 

As he exited the tent, he felt several sets of eyes fall on him, a weight he could not shake, and he attempted to brush past them in pursuit of Ari. When his path was barred, however, he stiffened his back, drawing himself up to meet Raubahn's gaze as best he could. 

“Let me pass. I refuse to stand idly by while he risks his life like a fool. I am the Warrior of Light as much as he is.” 

When no one moved so much as an ilm, and Raubahn replied with a rather stiff excuse as to why Sylvaire's talents were needed here rather than on the field of battle, Sylvaire felt his face burn hot, and Raubahn's words soon fell on deaf ears. 

“I don't give a damn what he told you, it is not his decision alone to make, not now, not ever. I'm going. Let me pass.” 

The moment Rauhbahn relented, Sylvaire shoved past him and took off at a frantic pace, his lungs filling with smoke and ash. His feet dodged rubble and fire as a single thought—a single person—consumed his mind. He could not bear the thought of arriving too late. Ari was an incredibly capable fighter—more so than he was, though he would never admit it aloud—but  Zenos, or whoever had inhabited his body, was out there, waiting to strike. And although Ari had survived battles with Zenos before, it had never been what one could truly call a victory. 

Sylvaire’s lungs burned more fiercely with each ragged breath as if they themselves had been lit aflame but he pressed on. He wouldn’t lose him, couldn’t. He’d already lost everyone else and if he lost Ari…

But before he could finish the thought, he saw him. 

Smoke hung in the air like an ominous fog, and Ari squinted through it to take stock of his actions. He’d tucked himself behind a barricade, hands sliding over his weapons, checking them. He was so far oblivious to Sylvaire’s approach, his attention clearly directed at the conflict taking place just beyond: Zenos tossing Yugiri aside and bearing down on Hien.

Sylvaire slowed despite how loudly his mind screamed for him to run to Ari and fight at his side, in exactly the place he belonged. Ari had tried to leave him behind, had tried to do this alone; never in all their time fighting side by side had he endangered himself like this, and Sylvaire’s head swam with mounting fury. 

Movement at the corner of his vision distracted Ari from his concern for Hien, and he turned to see Sylvaire stalking toward him, his expression harsh with anger. “Sylvaire. No…”

Sylvaire heard his name fall from Ari’s lips as he closed the distance and placed his hands on Ari’s chest, gathering the fabric of his coat and pulling him close before shoving him away with a sharp growl. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” he hissed, shoving him again for good measure. “How could you leave me behind? You selfish, reckless fool…never do that to me again! We do this together or not at all, do you hear me?” 

Ari growled, his long tail lashing as he regained his balance. Sylvaire had never gotten physical with him before. In all their years fighting beside each other, sharing the mantle of Warrior of Light, they had maintained a carefully cultivated distance between them. At first out of annoyance and distaste, but lately... perhaps out of fear of something else. Something that lurked beneath his skin, making his blood hum as the scent of Sylvaire, heated to a heady musk by his recent exertion, washed over him. 

“Hells take you, Sylvaire,” he hissed back. “You were supposed to stay and solve this.” A sharp gesture between their bodies made his meaning clear: the condition afflicting their friends, the condition that might at any moment take one or both of them, too. “Not risk your fool life out here with me. That's why we work, right? Division of duties, play to our strengths.”

Heat that rivaled the flames that surrounded them rose in Sylvaire at the insinuation that he could simply solve the problem of what—or more specifically who—had been tearing their closest comrades from them one by one holed away inside a tent in the middle of a raging battle that threatened to take Ari from the world…from him. 

“And what, pray tell, do you believe it is I’ve been doing since this entire mess began? If I could solve it so quickly, don’t you think I would have by now? You know as well as I do that I’m no use back there, not right now. But no, you have to do this on your own, have to leave me behind to rot in a tent while you risk your life instead!”

His breath came in heavy pants as he wiped soot out of his eyes with the back of his gloved hand. He tried to step in front of Ari, to block his path to the battlefield where Hien continued to struggle against Zenos. Ari responded by shoving him out of the way. “The hells do you think you’re doing? Someone needs to help Hien. Besides, what do you care if I risk my neck out here?”

Sylvaire hesitated for only a moment. The question—or rather, how readily the answer sprang to his lips— caught him off-guard, and before he could allow himself to think it through, he responded: “I care because I’d be lost without you, Ari; because I love you—gods know how long I’ve loved you—and you’ve simply refused to see it this whole time.” 

Ari froze, staring down at Sylvaire in shock.

It had been awhile since he'd considered Sylvaire an opponent, someone to be beaten. Though they bickered much as they ever had, recent moonturns had seen them become something akin to friends. But now Sylvaire was telling him he loved him. And something in Ari was responding. 

He remembered the feelings of unease. Frustration. The twinge in his chest whenever Sylvaire got too close. Or too far. Or someone crept out of Syl’s room in the quiet stillness of the early morning. Waking up in the arms of someone and thinking about that taunting little spark in Sylvaire’s rose gold eyes. His desperation to leave him safely behind in that tent. As the people he loved collapsed around him, he’d been fighting a mounting terror that Syl would be next. And losing Syl would hurt more than all the others. The thought surprised him, even as it settled over him, his body resonating with the truth.

He didn't just tolerate Sylvaire. It was a whole lot more than that. 

Hien's pained cry wrenched Ari from the moment. It was a well kept secret that Ari and Hien had spent a string of nights together during their efforts to liberate Doma. Though both knew it would amount to nothing and had ended their relationship, Ari could not ignore the clarion call of his cry. Hien needed to live, needed to hold the fragile Eastern Alliance together. 

He tossed Sylvaire into the dirt behind the fractured barricade, the words leaping to his lips but remaining unsaid as he threw himself into the battle, blade screaming as it intercepted the killing blow meant for Hien: I love you, too.

Sylvaire hit the dirt with a thud, too surprised by the sudden change in position to do more than gasp. He and Ari locked eyes for an all too brief moment before Ari flung himself forward and into the fray. 

Godsdamnit, Sylvaire cursed under his breath, angry at himself for such a ridiculous display of vulnerability coupled with such terrible timing. What did he have to lose? Everything, clearly—his own dignity to start. He scrambled to his knees, careful to take stock of the situation before he ran headlong into the fight himself, and he saw Ari absorb and counter a blow that had clearly been meant for Lord Hien. His chest simultaneously filled with fear and swelled with pride as he watched Ari land blow after blow, but then; he faltered. His steps became less sure, and Sylvaire vaulted to his feet, throwing out a desperate but focused string of spells to both shield Ari and restore his strength before Sylvaire could reach his side. 

And, for a moment, it seemed to work. Ari righted himself on his feet, locking eyes again with Sylvaire as he did. Sylvaire breathed a sigh of relief. Just a few scant yalms to close the distance, and then…

And then, his worst fear came to pass. Ari collapsed on the ground in one swift motion, his sword falling from his hand as it went limp. There was an audible thud as his body hit the ground, and Sylvaire reached him just in time to feel a rush of aether leave his body, leaving it alive but empty, just like the others. 

No, no, not Ari, he couldn’t bear to lose him, couldn’t bear to think that was the last conversation they would ever have. He channeled his own aether into him, oblivious to those around him who kept him safe just long enough to chance a desperate, futile attempt at channeling aether back into him to reanimate him, to bring him back from whoever had stolen him from underneath Sylvaire’s nose. 

When nothing happened, and Ari lay as still as he had the moment he collapsed, Sylvaire’s cry pierced the air, and the tears fell hot and fast, threatening to sear his skin and his very soul with their relentless trails.