#{gang's all here}

[payasita]

family game night

original post

[autumnslance]

Normally I'd agree many Final Fantasy games have rather young protagonists. It's because they're usually single-player JRPGs made with the assumption of younger players, and like most Young Adult media, create characters that cater to that, even if it ends up with teens running the world and fighting in wars. And for many players, the first time playing these games is in childhood/adolescence/very young adulthood. So it's YA anime.

Final Fantasy XIV does not fall into that same mold, despite the "Teen" rating for legal and distribution purposes.

The majority of the FF14 cast, including the bulk of the main characters, are between 20 and 40 years old (the Scion Archons, Ishgard Elf Husbands). Many other characters are between 40 and 80 (Ishgard's Counts are all late middle aged to elder dads/grandpas, Gaius is mid 50s, Jehantel and Ran'jit are elderly, all still active). The younger characters (especially with any authority or special position) like the Leveilleur twins, are actually outliers. And the youth of the characters between 16 and 20 years old tends to be plot relevant, where that inexperience and naivety causes problems and drives story (Nanamo's arc at the end of ARR into HW, Alphinaud and the Crystal Braves, Ryne's determination of self in ShB, etc).

Characters have a variety of appearances; some characters in the same age ranges look very different. Varis is only 4 years older than X'rhun but Varis's model shows the stress and disagreeableness of his life a lot more than the RDM trainer's. Cid's in his mid-30s but with the beard looks older--and without it he has a baby face (hair color doesn't matter, cuz they do keep the anime trope of "everyone's got white or silver hair"). Lalafell are designed to be anime-cute halflings so it's hard to tell their adult ages even if they've got facial hair like grandfatherly Papashan. The pad'jal of course look like kids, but the youngest main pad'jal is A-Ruhn in his late teens; all the others are adults stuck in adolescent bodies. E-Sumi is a few hundred years old. Kan-E uses various methods to look older so other leaders and people from outside Gridania will take her seriously as an adult. The padjal introduced in the StB WHM quests is a child, and that's the plot; she's not in charge of anything, or has any particularly advanced-for-her-age skills. She's just a kid having a really rough time.

This inability to determine age by looking and assuming isn't just due to limits of the game engine and character creation options; it reflects real life. I met my work team for the first time in person recently; one person looked older than I know them to be, thanks to months of stress and health issues. While all of them were shocked to remember I'm in my 40s as according to them, I "look much younger". Most people are actually pretty bad at guesstimating ages based on appearance, due to the variety of folks' lives.

Speaking of kid characters, many of the children we interact with, like the Doman Adventurers, are between 12 and 14 and act much younger. Khloe has this going on too, with her age "corrected" to 13 (when previously listed as 10), but she acts way younger to me. Most of the actual child characters are treated like children, and it's not until they get to 14-16 (Honoroit, Leveva) that we start to see them treated like maturing adolescents and having some rsponsibilities, but still young and prone to the kind of choices one expects of less experienced and more emotional youth.

As a MMO, FF14's primary audience is actually adults; teens do play the game, but also age up with it if they keep playing. If a 15 year old began playing with ARR's release, they're in their mid-20s now. Having a primarily adult cast, and treating child characters like children, and adolescents like young people figuring out how young adulthood works, makes sense for this game.

FF14's time bubble is also part of the issue; a developer tool to keep it so they don't have to worry too much about character ages, new models so often, or how long things take in game. Timelines are then intentionally left malleable for the players' benefits, to create our own stories and determine how long things take for our WoLs and their tales. Some folks have their stories pass in real time, some compress it to a year per expac, some expand it out even longer. So the ages the characters have listed in the lorebooks and rarely in game (which is then reflected in online resources), is a starting baseline. Personal headcanons as always should be applied (including changing around some character ages to fit one's own story if necessary).

Also, FF16, made by the same team, has a brief prologue/tutorial section where the main trio is between 10 and 15, guided/trained by adult characters, experience the inciting incident trauma--and then we spend the majority of the game with the main cast in their 20s and 30s. The game also has a mature rating, featuring some sexual situations, lots of violence, and stronger language than other FF games. It's made for adults, and its cast reflects that.

So it is a matter of audience expectations; for a MMO, you're going to have an older and aging player base, and the varied ages of the cast reflect that, as do their varied appearances and experiences as adults. The young characters are treated closer to how their youth should be; still with respect for those in positions like Nanamo, but also prone to errors due to inexperience that drive story. In other FF titles, which were made to be more YA-focused, a teen and young 20s cast were treated much differently. But even in the single-player FF titles, if they are made with adult players in mind, their cast and stories likewise reflect that.

[mustardyellowsunshine]

[year2000electronics]

only took me forever and a half wow. last resort staff group photo in full!

[courtesanofdeath]

Psycho-Pass Providence - May 2023

[chaoticpicturesofjanedouglas]

The team's reactions to the sandworm dog of the Garfield stream.

Each expression holds a different emotion and they're all priceless.

[eliotheeangelis]

drivers speak in the pitlane ahead of the 1956 italian grand prix

featuring: wolfgang von trips, mike hawthorn, juan manual fangio, peter collins & alfonso de portago

[onlygenxhere]

The Day After Halloween

“Alex…”

“Hey hotdog?”

Alex groaned and tried to roll over but there was a weight on his chest holding him in place. He cracked open an eye to see his boyfriend propped up on his chest grinning at him.

“What time is it?” he croaked.

“Just after eight,” he grinned and reached up pushing Alex’s hair out of his face. “You gotta wake up babe. We got places to go and things to do.”

Willie slid off of him to stand beside the bed and Alex noticed he was completely dressed, except for his shoes.

Alex blinked at him trying to figure out what was going on. Last night was Halloween and they’d had a huge party in the apartment with the other guys. It had been fun but it had also been a lot for him.

The last of their guests hadn’t left till nearly two in the morning.

He’d been asleep maybe five hours which probably explained how Willie had managed to get up, get dressed and lay back on top of him all without waking him up. He had been, and still was, exhausted both mentally and physically.

“Why am I getting up?” He rubbed his eyes and yawned. “Why are you dressed?”

“Alex,” Willie laughed, “It’s the day after Halloween. We have to go hit up all the Halloween stores for the sales before they pack up for the next ten months.” He shook his head at him like he should have known although Alex didn’t remember having this conversation or ever going shopping with Willie the day after Halloween before.

Although in Willie’s defense they didn’t live together this time last year.

He had just pushed himself up to sitting in an attempt to wake up a little more and wrap his very tired brain around what his boyfriend was trying to get him to do when their bedroom door flew open and Reggie rushed in with Luke right on his heels.

“Why aren’t you up yet?” Reggie plopped on the end of his bed and smacked his leg still under the covers. “Why isn’t he up yet?!” he frowned at Willie.

“Come on man!” Luke was bouncing just inside the doorway. “The good skeletons are gonna get gone if we’re not there when the doors open and they’re half off!”

Alex looked back and forth between his best friends. “What is wrong with you two?” Neither one of them were particularly morning people and here they were acting like it was Christmas morning not November 1st.

Reggie scoffed. “Nothing,” He bounced up and down on the end of his bed.

There was a loud sigh and Alex looked up to see Julie leaning in the doorway sipping on a cup of coffee looking only slightly more awake than he felt.

“They decided hot chocolate and Halloween candy was a good idea for breakfast this morning.” She said quietly before taking another long sip of her drink. She was also dressed and ready to go despite being much more subdued than the other three.

Alex turned to Willie with raised eyebrows. “What did you have for breakfast?”

“Same as those two,” Willie shrugged as he gestured at Luke and Reggie. “I just handle my sugar better.”

“Uh huh,” Alex chuffed.

“Come on!” Reggie started to pull on his blankets and Alex grabbed it quickly before this innocent conversation turned R rated.

“Stop Reg!”

Reggie let go and threw his hands up like he’d been burned. “Oh crap, are you naked?”

He’d been trying to ignore the fact that he’d been having this conversation with all of them in his room with no shirt on but now that Reggie had pointed it out he was feeling even more self-conscious.

“Alright Willie!” Luke said as he and Willie high fived without looking at each other.

That was not helping.

“Ok, okay!” Alex kicked Reggie off the end of the bed. “If I’m going to get dressed everyone needs to get out but Willie if he wants.”

Reggie bounced back up from the floor with a smile. “Sweet! We need to leave in twenty minutes if we’re gonna be there when they open.”

“We’ll fix a travel cup of coffee for you dude.” Luke said giving him finger guns before he slid past Julie with a quick kiss to the top of her head.

Julie mouthed, ‘Thank you,’ before she left too, closing the door behind her.

Alex sighed and fell back against the headboard looking up at his boyfriend shaking his head. “It’s a good thing I already love them because they are a lot.”

Willie grinned mischievously before climbing on top of him for the second time this morning, straddling his hips and sitting back on his thighs.

“Am I too much too?” Willie ducked his head and bit his lip before looking up at Alex from under his lashes adorably.

“Never,” Alex reached up to pull Willie down into a soft kiss.

They broke apart but instead of pulling away so Alex could get up Willie moved down to kiss his neck.

He laughed and then gasped when he felt Willie’s hands sliding along his torso.

“I thought we needed to get ready to go?”

“We have twenty minutes.” Willie whispered as he pulled back to wink at him. “I only need ten.”

Alex swallowed and nodded never one to turn down Willie when he had that look in his eyes.

It actually took fifteen minutes but they still managed to get to the store in plenty of time to get some great deals.

Then they all went out and had lunch together before heading home and going to their own rooms for afternoon naps and more alone time.

Halloween may be Willie’s favorite holiday but Alex would contend the day after was even better.

[whoregaylorenzo]

Aleix's indonesia photo dump with Laura, Maverick, Jorge, Àlex and Max & Mia of course

[fullfrontalfish]

A selection!

Angelfish, Siamese algae eater, coral blue dwarf goirami & a juvenile yoyo loach.

[completepancake]

My Hanazuki wrap party art from 2018. This post is also a wrap on the re-uploading of old HZ stuff cause I ran out!

[thriftstoreangels]

[image id: a set of four angel figures, each labeled with a sticker pricing them at $2.99 a piece. the angels are white with golden hair and gold trim, including golden flowers on the bottom of their skirts. the angel farthest to the left holds an open book. the next holds a wreath. the last two have their hands together in prayer. end id]

[autumnslance]

FFXIV Write 2023 Day 28: Blunt

“The delegation from Werlyt is here,” the Resistance soldier said, voice rough. The temperature in the room seemed to cool as the Alliance representatives tried not to tense but did regardless.

Members of Werlyt’s provisional government—a kindly-looking elderly Raen woman, next to a middle-aged Midlander gentleman—stepped inside the room. At their backs were their escorts and the commander of Werlyt’s nascent military: Gaius Baelsar, and his two companions. They did not wear uniforms, still in their adventuring attire. Kan-E cleared her throat and looked at Raubahn, as their host.

He smiled tightly and bowed to the Raen and Midlander. “Counselors, thank you for coming all this way. Our civic representatives await you in their chambers to speak on the trade agreements.”

“Very good, General Aldynn,” the woman said in a reedy voice. “Commander Baelsar, we leave you to the military matters.”

“Of course, Counselor,” Gaius answered mildly. He nodded to the young woman at his side, and she followed the counselors as Raubahn escorted them on to the representative chambers.

There was a moment of awkward silence, until Nanamo finally spoke up. “You should join us at the table, Commander.”

“Thank you, Your Grace,” he said, taking the seat often filled by Hien or other representatives of the Eastern Alliance.

“This is still weird,” Lyse blurted, then bit her lip, cheeks almost as red as her dress.

Gaius actually smiled slightly. “It is, Commander Hext. I am well aware I’m still not welcome in Ala Mhigo, nor the rest of Eorzea. And that many of you do not want me at this table.” He looked at each of them, and the careful neutrality on each of their faces, the tension in their shoulders. “Yet here I am, to do my duty to Werlyt and its safety—for which we have been thankful for the Alliance’s aid.”

“Duty,” Merlwyb said harshly. “As it was duty that led to your attempts to conquer the rest of our realm.”

“Admiral,” Aymeric gently admonished.

“No,” Gaius replied. “The Admiral is partly correct. I fervently believed that my duty to the Empire meant proving Nael van Darnus wrong. That I would be vindicated in His Radiance’s eyes, and regain his favor if I brought all of Eorzea under the Imperial banner. But in the end, it was mostly due my own pride.” He frowned, folding his hands on the table top. “Then Lahabrea played me for a fool—and I learned even my Emperor was one of those masked bastards; my entire life, all that I had believed, a scheme of the servants of chaos.

“I’ve had to learn much, these last few years. There is little I can do for those I have wronged; better people are better placed to aid them. So I work to clean up the messes my arrogance created—such as the Weapons Project—and to see Werlyt and its neighbors free and safe from the Legions.”

“A lot of words,” Raubahn said as he rejoined them.

“Yet there is a candor to them to be appreciated,” Kan-E said.

“How much of it was the Warrior of Light knocking sense into you?” Lyse asked.

“Lyse,” Pipin sighed.

Gaius chuckled. “Quite a bit, actually. Not to mention our interactions since; I’ve learned more than I thought possible. Other comrades have also helped teach an old wolf new tricks,” he said, glancing at his Duskwight companion. Then he sobered, turning his attention back to them. “Now, if you are satisfied, we should discuss our actual business.”

There was silence for a long moment, before Merlwyb spoke up again. “There are many who still think ill of the pirates of Limsa Lominsa, seeing only our violent past. Count Charlemend de Durendaire, for instance, had choice words for me, on one of my first visits to Ishgard, given what happened to his son’s ship years ago.”

(This time Lyse did bite her tongue.)

The Admiral continued. “If my colleagues here were willing to work with pirates and plunderers, looking beyond our recent history and believing with me that we could change, and be more than that…Well, I’d be a fool and a hypocrite to not attempt to extend the same courtesy to Werlyt’s Commander.”

The others nodded, a little of the tension in the room fading—though still present. It wasn’t ever going to ease entirely, they all knew, but so long as they remained honest and focused on their duty to their respective nations and their allies, they would manage.

[antifragi1e]

BOB ODENKIRK ????? SARAH PAULSON ???? JOHN MULANEY?

[inkblackorchid]

Oh my god the duels from here on out are going to be so much hype again,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[merge-conflict]

Everything goes to shit in the usual way, except this time it’s Rogue that calls Johnny for help. Kerry only gets parts of the story from V, in curt, precise soundbites as she gears up. Rogue had helped Johnny piss Arasaka off again, and wherever she has managed to hole up in the city is no longer safe. It follows that all of them are no longer safe, either– news that V delivers with a sardonic smile he recognizes as a cover for fear.

Two hours later he lands his AV on some weed-choked patch of concrete in Northside, and tries not to think about all of the narrow sight lines where he can’t see someone coming. He almost shoots V, who limps out of an alleyway at a fair clip, right leg shiny with blood and hastily bandaged. She’s so focused on moving he’s not even sure she recognizes him when he pulls her up into the AV and keeps her from collapsing.

“ETA five minutes,” she tells him, listing dangerously as he lowers her down to take a look at her injured thigh. High caliber bullet wound, patched with a trauma kit to keep her from bleeding out, although the pale cast to her skin worries him. She picks her head up, brow knitted. “Kerry.”

“In the flesh,” he says. “Told you I’d get you a ride.”

“I’m fine,” she says, clumsily patting his shoulder before hooking her fingers into his jacket, pulling herself upright. She flashes him a smile, and then it’s gone. “Gotta be ready to delta.” A shiver rips through her, and her teeth chatter. “Five minutes.”

He’s already got the AV medkit half out of its bindings when a connection request pings in his vision, and he accepts it instinctively, thinking it must be comms– but instead he feels a wash of dizziness as his vision lights up with an overlay. It’s too much at once, dozens of little dim points of light and a handful of brighter pinpoints, all crowding each other out.

“–gotta fucking delta, just let it go!” Rogue’s voice cuts in, and Kerry hears the gunfire from her comms, a strange echo to the distant pops he can hear from outside the AV.

“She’s almost got it,” Johnny says, voice strained. “Go find V!”

“I got her, Johnny,” Kerry says, blinking rapidly as some of the points of light disappear from his visions, the rest resolving into more manageable tags in his interface. Two light blue dots for Rogue and Johnny, and almost ten red ones, shifting in and out of place as the soft tries to track them. “Looking a little hot in there.”

“Fucking understatement–“ Johnny’s voice cuts out momentarily. “Rogue–“

“I see them.”

“Alt,” V says quietly, as Kerry gives her an emergency infusion of synth blood and a med inhaler. She is lost in the lights of her interface, only her grip on his jacket keeping her tethered to the real world. “They’ll have a jammer here soon.”

“I’m familiar with Arasaka protocol,” Alt answers coolly over the comms, the deadness of her tone still filling him with uneasiness. “The AV is a greater concern.”

“Might be able to fly blind until we get out of range,” he says, feeling a strange sense of calm as his heart starts to race. He’s done it before– he can probably do it again. “What is the range on the jammer?”

“Full strength maybe fifty meters,” V says, slurring slightly as she finally start to relax from the painkiller. “Effective degradation three hundred, dependent on frequency. They could have–“ She bares her teeth lazily, letting her head fall back against the seat she is propped against. “They could have more than one. For you, Alt.”

“Most likely. Stand by.”

“These things supposed to have copilots?” V asks Kerry, falling just short of unconcerned. Clinging stubbornly to consciousness and just as dead calm as he is. Possibly just as worried.

“Hard to rustle up someone dependable on such short notice,” he says, and squeezes her shoulder with a reassuring smile. “Lucky for you I’m worth more than just my good looks.”

She exhales in some exhausted version of a laugh, and Johnny says, “Lucky for all of us, Ker–“

The comms cut out then, Kerry’s interface losing all the info V has been feeding him as it pops up a complaint about loss of connectivity. In the sudden silence, he wonders for the first time what will happen if backup finds them out here like sitting ducks. To keep himself occupied, he straps V into one of the seats and then returns to the controls. Tries not to think about anything other than the next five minutes ahead of him, and then the next five after that.

Finally, the pops of gunfire come closer, and the sound of something large and rhythmic getting closer. A mech, he thinks, probably mounted with the kind of gun meant to punch through AV armor. It doesn’t matter. Nothing he can do about it except be ready to move. The engine is running, the controls are ready, and he tries not to let the warning lights of the on-board soft get to him.

The footsteps– they are definitely footsteps– get closer and closer, but he sees Johnny and Rogue circling the corner. Rogue is in front, limping as she jogs, bloody but upright. Johnny is close behind, one hand clamped against his ribs while he stops to check behind him. Kerry swallows his heart when he sees the behemoth form of Adam Smasher crunching into view, bullets pinging off his armor as he goes.

“Alt,” V says, with a burst of zeal. “Look at her go.”

It takes him another few moments to process what she means. There’s something strange about the way Smasher runs, lagging behind Johnny and Rogue, unnaturally stiff and clumsy. But it’s not until a group of Arasaka soldiers materialize around the building, firing indiscriminately at the three ahead of them, that he really believes it. Then the three of them are climbing into the AV, the entire thing shifting wildly as Alt folds Smasher almost in half to fit inside.

“I didn’t know you were a getaway driver,” Rogue tells him, as she sinks into the co-pilot’s seat next to him, strapping herself in with practiced ease. Gunshots are pattering on the outside of the AV, and he can hear a hollow whoosh behind his seat before explosions flare out in the alleyway, the sound momentarily stunning him in place.

Thankfully, his instincts kick in, and they lift off smoothly. They’re above the rooftop of the nearby warehouse before Kerry belatedly replies, “It’s just a promotional sort of deal, y’know? Gotta create some buzz for my next drop.”

“Take us just out past the plant, I’ve got some people waiting,” Rogue tells him. “Y’know, I might just buy this one.”

He laughs in reflex. “Always good to have a new fan.”

Time blurs. Kerry watches himself fly, pursued by three Arasaka AVs flying blind just like he is, only they’re armed with guns. Somehow he manages to keep them from getting scrapped until Alt can position herself with a clear sight, hitting the closest flier with a facefull of rockets that sends it falling out of the sky. A second one takes a stinger to the belly, but manages to land on the roof of a building before being hit by a second. The third one peels off, out of range of the truck barreling through Northside in close pursuit.

He sets them down within a reassuring circle of Rogue’s mercs, and for just a moment when he’s stepping out of the AV he feels an old and very unhappy echo. The clap of Johnny’s hand on his shoulder shatters the feeling before it can settle in, the clumsy crash of his hip into Kerry made heavier by V hanging precariously on his other side.

“Bout time to take this show on the road, don’t you think?” Johnny asks casually, like he hasn’t just had Kerry upend his life. Like he isn’t charging blindly straight down the same path that got him killed.

Kerry yanks him down by the neck– harder than he means to with his adrenaline still pumping. He wants to hit Johnny, wants to crawl under his skin, but he settles for this: the acrid smell of sweat and explosives, chapped lips and Johnny’s hunger no longer hidden behind overlapping layers of armored shame. After, Johnny looks at him with dark eyes, and Kerry says gruffly, “Yeah, I think so.”