#figaro unbound

[princesssarisa]

Sometimes I feel nostalgic for the LA Opera's "Figaro Unbound" series back in 2015. Essentially, the whole second half the season was devoted to the Figaro operas.

Barbiere, Nozze di Figaro, and The Ghosts of Versailles were performed on the main stage, while two lesser-known operas were staged in nearby smaller theatres: Mercadante's I due Figaro, a sequel to Nozze that ignores Beaumarchais's third play, and ¡Figaro! (90210), an English-language version of Mozart's opera set in modern Beverly Hills, which portrayed Figaro and Susana (note the Spanish spelling) as undocumented Latino immigrants working for a rich couple named Paul and Roxanne Conti.

I wish one of my current local opera companies, either San Francisco or San José, would do something similar.

@tuttocenere, @leporellian

[flovverworks]

the sanrio plushies r so cute LOL the lil character by their feet...

[freyayuki]

Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia Shinryu Quests with Sephiroth Part 18

The Shinryu fights (level 300; currently the hardest kind of fight in the Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia (DFFOO) mobile game) in this post feature Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII as part of the team lineup.

Table of Contents

Sephiroth info

Shinryu Quests List

Guardian of the Crystals Shinryu Quest

Conclusion

Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII

My Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII (#ad) is Level 90 and Crystal Level 90. His 15cp, 35cp, Ex, LD, and BT are fully MLB. His Ex is at Ex+ 3/3 or Purple. His Burst weapon has been upgraded to BT+ 3/3 or Green.

Seph’s currently equipped with a Level 5 of 5 Greatsword Ultima Weapon. His High Armor’s been upgraded to Blue. His Summon Boards, Character Enhancement Boards, and Force Enhancements have been completed. He has his Bloom Stone.

Sephi has 3 Attack 108 with Max Brave 330 Artifacts and 3 Attack 108 with One-Winged Angel Boost★★ (Raises INT BRV, MAX BRV, ATK, DEF by 5% if HP is MAX at start of last wave) Artifacts.

Sephiroth is equipped with the following real A Spheres:

Edgar Roni Figaro’s (from Final Fantasy VI) Debuff Power

Increases BRV damage dealt by 10% while an enemy is debuffed

Cloud Strife’s (from Final Fantasy VII) Critical Power

Raises BRV damage dealt with critical hits by 10%

Vayne Carudas Solidor’s (from Final Fantasy XII) Broken Power

When attacking target afflicted with Break: • Increases BRV damage dealt by 10%

I talk more about this in other posts, but I’ve been using Sephiroth for Lufenia (level 200) and Lufenia+ (level 250) quests basically ever since I got his LD and BT even back when he wasn’t that good at all. I’d like to keep using him even for Shinryu quests.

Shinryu Quests List

So far, I’ve been able to use Sephiroth in the following Shinryu fights:

A Long, Long Road (Story Act 3 Chapter 8, Part 1) Shinryu Quest

Wrapped in Kindness (Intersecting Wills) Shinryu Quest

Infinite Possibilities (Story Act 3 Chapter 8, Part 2) Shinryu Quest

Six-Warrior Quests Area 1 Shinryu Quest

Comfortably Uncompromising (Intersecting Wills) Shinryu Quest

Dauntless Defender (Defender Z Raid) Shinryu Quest

World of Illusions Divine: Odin Shinryu Quest

Gentle Fist Shinryu Quest

Red Comet Shinryu Quest

Dare to Defy I Shinryu Quest

Blue Pulse Shinryu Quest

Professional’s Pride (Intersecting Wills) Shinryu Quest

Lithely Bends the Tail (Cray Claw Raid) Shinryu Quest

Act 3, Chapter 9, Part 1: Vanishing Scenery Shinryu Quest

Forcefully with Dignity (Intersecting Wills) Shinryu Quest

Act 3, Chapter 9, Part 2: Sorceresses and SeeDs Shinryu Quest

Six-Warrior Quests Area 2 Shinryu Quest

Steps Severe (Intersecting Wills) Shinryu Quest

The Man Known as the Immortal Shinryu Quest

Wings Graven with Emotion (Lost Chapter) Shinryu Quest

Vestiges of Passing Glory Shinryu Quest

A Bouquet of Thoughts and Feelings (Intersecting Wills) Shinryu Quest

Crevasse: Hallowed Depths Part 7 Shinryu Quest

Dragon Seated in Heaven Shinryu Quest

Act 3, Chapter 10, Part 1: Imposed Destiny Shinryu Quest

Unfading Days (Intersecting Wills) Shinryu Quest

Act 3, Chapter 10, Part 2: To Light’s Source Shinryu Quest

Six-Warrior Quests Area 3 Shinryu Quest

Admiration (Intersecting Wills) Shinryu Quest

I talk more about these fights in other posts.

Guardian of the Crystals Shinryu Quest

Also known as Guardian of the Crystals SHINRYU. This fight has 1 wave with 2 enemies, the Unbound. They have 85 million HP each.

As soon as the battle starts, the enemies will lower the max brave of your chars by 400%. This is really freaking bad. It’s so bad that your chars will hardly deal any damage as long as this effect is up.

The only way to disable this max brave down aura or effect is by hitting the force weakness of the enemies. This will require a char to use a Force attack that deals melee and wind elemental brave damage.

As soon as the force gauge of the enemies reaches 50%, they will gain 50% resistance to non-elemental BRV damage.

Once the force gauge of the enemies reaches 100%, they will deal ST BRV + HP damage then give themselves a 10-turn framed buff called Evocation. This buff will allow them to regen 1% of their max HP. They’ll also be able to move right after every char’s turn.

After using their force attack, the enemies will enter 4 turns of force time with the following effects: the HP damage that they deal will be increased by 300% and their BRV will reset to 20k after every field turn.

For this fight, my team was Sephiroth, Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII, and Aeris or Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII with The Brothers as my summon. My Calls were Raijin’s from Final Fantasy VIII, Fujin’s from Final Fantasy VIII, and Lunafreya Nox Fleuret’s from Final Fantasy XV.

Have Tifa’s and Aerith’s 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD fully MLB. Their Ex weapons have been Purpled or upgraded to Ex+ 3/3.

They both have their Force weapons but only Tifa’s has been fully limit broken. Tifa also has her Burst weapon, and it’s been Greened or upgraded to BT+ 3/3.

They have their High Armors and both have been upgraded to Blue. They have their Bloom Stones. They have triple perfect Artifacts and triple real Spheres.

All of their Summon Boards, Character Enhancement Boards, and Force Enhancements have been completed.

Tifa is currently equipped with a Level 5 of 5 Fist-type Ultima Weapon. She is a physical, non-elemental DPS who specializes in dealing single-target damage. She’s really powerful and super special awesome. She served as my main DPS for this fight.

Aerith is a really good support, healer, and buffer. She can also deal pretty decent damage. She can debuff enemies and she also offers 100% party-wide debuff immunity.

Aeris also has moves that have instant turn rate and high turn rate. Aside from buffing the party and healing them, these skills also help to make my force gauge charge faster.

Raijin’s LD Call afflicts enemies with a debuff that prevents all HP damage and debuffs for like 2 turns. Fujin’s Calls imperil enemies and enchant the party with the wind element.

Lunafreya’s base Call can heal the party while her LD can grant its user multiple turns in a row. Depending on the position of Lunafreya’s Caller, the allies of said Caller can also get multiple turns in a row.

As soon as the fight started, made use of Aerith’s Healing Wind skill to speed up the charging of my force gauge. Just spammed this a few times until my force gauge was at around 30%+.

Also had Aerith use Raijin’s LD Call already. IIRC, when I finally ended Aerith’s turn, had her use her LD so she can inflict her debuff on the enemies.

Let Tifa and Sephiroth move like once or twice as well although neither did much damage at all thanks to the max brave down aura of the enemies. This aura was so bad and really gimped everyone’s damage but I can’t do anything about it yet.

Had Sephi use Fujin’s regular Call for the party-wide wind enchant. Then I had him use his BT+ finisher, Heaven’s Light.

One of the effects of Sephi’s BT+ finisher is that it will set the brave of all enemies to 1 for 4 turns. This makes it easy to keep on breaking and delaying their turns.

On Aerith’s next turn, had her spam Healing Wind until my force gauge was finally at 100%.

Then I switched her out for the support Dorgann Klauser from Final Fantasy V that I borrowed. IIRC, had Dorgann use his Ex or his LD.

Couldn’t find a friend who had Dorgann set as their support so had to settle for the first Dorgann user I found on my support list. As a result, instead of the usual 5, only have 3 turns with this Dorgann.

Thankfully, this turned out to not be a problem at all because for this fight, all I really need is for Dorgann to be on the field.

Anyway, then it was Sephiroth’s turn again. IIRC, had him use his LD, Scintilla, or his Octaslash skill.

Now it was Tifa’s turn. Had her use Lunafreya’s LD Call to give herself 3 turns in a row. Then I activated Tifa’s FR.

Tifa’s FR deals melee damage but it’s non-elemental. However, thanks to the enchant from Fujin’s regular Call, Tifa’s FR (as well as the rest of her attacks) was now also able to deal wind elemental damage.

So was able to cancel the max brave down aura of the enemies by using Tifa’s FR. Glad to finally have the max brave of my chars back to normal. They were now also back to dealing great damage.

After using Tifa’s FR, had her activate her BT+ finisher. Then I spammed her Battle Cry (this has instant turn rate) skill until I had 8 turns of force time left.

After that, I used her special HP attack which also has instant turn rate. This gives her a free skill. Now I had exactly 7 turns of force time left.

That was when I went into Tifa’s Burst+ mode. By then the enemies were down to 75% and 80% HP and their force gauge was at 42.2%. My HP damage bonus was at 317%.

So I just had Tifa alternate between each enemy. One of the effects of her BT+ was that she’ll be able to do 2 follow-up attacks every time she moves.

Dorgann’s main gimmick is that he will do a follow-up and off-turn attack every time a char breaks an enemy. This gives him really good synergy with Sephiroth and even Tifa.

Sephi’s BT+ sets the brave of all enemies to 1 every turn. Tifa deals single target damage so she only breaks 1 enemy at a time. Every time Tifa breaks an enemy, Dorgann’s follow-up is triggered.

IIRC, Dorgann’s follow-up deals AoE damage so when he attacks, he's able to break the other enemy too. This causes him to trigger his own follow-up again.

So every time Tifa attacks, Dorgann gets to do his follow-up attack twice. Dorgann is boosted for this fight and the support I borrowed was carrying a Level 5 of 5 Ultima Weapon and Blue High Armor so the damage he dealt was very good.

And of course, Tifa was able to deal really good damage as usual. As such, by the time I only have 2 turns of force time and Burst+ time left, the enemies were already down to 20% and 4% HP. My HP damage bonus was at 647%.

Had Tifa use her FR ability, Glitter Strike. Had her target the Unbound with 20% HP. Her attack plus the 2 follow-ups from Dorgann caused one of the enemies to croak it already.

The remaining Unbound was left with 1% HP. Actually, I think both enemies already died from the previous attack. It’s just that you can’t end a char’s Burst+ mode until said char does their BT+ finisher.

So even if the enemies are dead already, one of them will still be around until the char’s Burst+ phase ends.

Tifa now only has 1 turn of force time and Burst+ time left. My HP damage bonus was at 710%.

Tifa’s Final Heaven, her finishing Burst+ move, ended the fight on turn 7. IIRC, Dorgann didn’t even get to do his follow-up anymore since I just got the total HP damage screen followed soon after by the victory screen.

Tifa was able to deal 151433506 total HP damage during her Burst+ phase. I think Dorgann’s follow-ups are included in this too.

Anyway, got the score and all the other mission requirements. This was a pretty easy fight. The enemies didn’t even get to do anything other than annoy me with their max brave down aura. LOL.

Glad I got to use Sephiroth, Aerith, and Tifa for this Shinryu quest. Final Fantasy VII team FTW!

Conclusion

So, what about you? Which chars did you use to complete these Shinryu quests? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging or replying to this post.

Notes:

screenshots are from my Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia game account

[azurefishnets]

"I've been waiting for this." (Day 3)

AO3: AzureFishnets

Fandom: FFVI/GT AU

Summary: Kanon, princess of thieves, struggles with keeping up appearances. Prompt is from Fictober: "I've been waiting for this."

Word Count: 534

What Can't Be Stolen

Kamila sat at her now-accustomed place in the bar, idly tinkering with a small toy one of the town’s children had asked her to fix. The bartender didn’t much care for her being there, but this was the best place in town for information from idle lips to idler ears…no one else cared much to do anything after the continent’s fall, but she would not be found wanting.

She’d been saving for weeks for the boat fare and made friends with people she’d never have met as a princess in a castle she barely remembered. Sometimes she wasn’t even sure why she was so set on finding that home of her babyhood; wouldn’t Thamasa be more practical? But in her heart, she knew she belonged in Figaro, just as her parents did, just as her uncle did… she nodded firmly at the toy. Just as Gramps did when she found him and convinced him.

She went over the plan again. Grab a boat. Get to South Figaro. Make her way to the caves, and hope they hadn’t much changed from the map, for which she’d traded one of her precious Magi relics. Get to where Lone Wolf had assured her the door to the cells still would be. Somehow convince the men that they didn’t need to loot the castle. Get to the engine room and figure out whatever was stopping it from surfacing… and so on. She heaved a little sigh. What a lot of work for someplace she didn’t even know and had no idea if any of her family or friends had made it there. But…she consoled herself, she could rescue all the castle denizens and, if they hadn’t seen her parents, they could perhaps give her a hint on what to do next.

Her crew were settling in all around her for the evening, a motley crew of fishermen, ne’er-do-wells, and rascals all waiting for their chance to make good in the new world, and they’d picked this bar as their headquarters. But—her ears perked—there were muffled voices outside, as if two men were having an argument. They sounded familiar, and then the third interjected a grumpy comment, and she knew without a shadow of a doubt who stood outside that door.

Her heart missed a beat. Her crew, all around her, would never let the King of Figaro pass without comment or attempt to waylay him. She had to bluff, to fake being a hardened criminal, and with barely a warning. If she was a good enough actress to pull this off, it was news to her, and yet, it had to be done. She steeled herself. She was Kanon, a princess of thieves, and these were interlopers in her domain.

They opened the door, and all thoughts of dissemination were forgotten as Kamila hurled herself from her seat and threw her arms around her father. She could explain to the men later, get back on task and get home somehow—but for now, she was merely a child again, all unbounded joy that she'd never lost, and she’d been waiting for this for a what might as well be an eternity, or a year.

[monetarilydizzy]

I found a bunch of old notes for what would become Coventium! Everything that follows are quotes from the sheet of paper stuck in an old folder.

Dappled Zenthella and Figaro- Dapp. Figaro? Fig to Z

Witch/Wizard-> Sorceress/Sorcerer

All have 5 point star on neck. Can be projected? Magic use.

Frequently employ familiars

Organized into Covens- Covenant Covention

Non member practitioners are ostracized/dangerous

Magic tiers: raw to electric/fire to light/wind/water to ice/earth to nature

Familiars- animals + witch souls

Witch souls = $$$

Familiars are registered!!

Unbound= aggressive energy feeders, very bad!!!

Feed on and store energy-> energy banks

Offence/Defense wands

Complex magic/prayer via singing

[hugescandal]

#Repost @1972projects ・・・ The Replacement Girl 26/90. Dormer, Richard. Hamburg, 1957. If Condé Nast has become the magazine world’s answer to the United Nations, then Constanze was (briefly) its European Union. Launched a month after Dior unveiled his New Look, it grew to become Germany’s leading fashion magazine; within the first 18 months, its print run went from 60,000 to 300,000. With text in German, French and English (as well as a host of translated versions aimed at other European markets), it adopted a similarly cosmopolitan approach to the talent it used. Simone d’Aillencourt, Nena von Schlebrugge, Gitta Schilling, Ann Gunning and Dolores Hawkins all featured at various points in the Fifties, shot by a roster of photographers which included Helmut Newton, Rico Pullmann, Regina Relang and Charlotte March. Constanze's success precipitated its downfall, though; padded with advertisements, it grew heavier, and more expensive to produce and distribute. It ultimately folded in 1969, dissolved into its sister publication Annabelle. It’s now largely forgotten — much like Richard Dormer, the Brighton-born photographer who was once one of its most frequent contributors. Having gotten his start with London society photographer Paul Tanqueray, Dormer’s career blossomed after WW2. He shot for Picture Post, Le Figaro, the Sunday Times and Bazaar (where he was also assistant editor for several years). He later fell out of fashion, and resisted attempts to celebrate his work with the refrain “Good heavens, I’m not important enough!”. But in his day, he was Britain’s most inventive fashion photographer, adored by the models he worked with — and whom he adored in return. “It isn’t enough to have a pretty face and stand like a stick.” he explained once. “What is necessary is a sort of star quality; to click in front of the camera; then something happens.” He shot Barbara Mullen regularly for Constanze’s Mode issues — including a gloriously coloured 1957 editorial on the season’s hottest shades, with Mullen in full scarlet woman mode, in a cocktail dress by Berlin couture house Staebe-Seger. #BarbaraMullen #TheReplacementGirl #Unbound #RichardDormer #Const