#for ffxiv i do not have that i have one friend who plays a couple people in my fc who are nice enough to smile and nod when i talk about

[battlecrazed-axe-mage]

While we’re on the subject, what’s the weirdest party finder experience you’ve had?

Oh boy. So this one's a couple years old now, but I will never forget this guy.

We (my fiance and I) were going through MSQ for the first time and were in early Endwalker, I think, and our raid lead wanted to take us through an unsync of E12S. Enough of a savage fight to get a taste for if we wanted to do the real thing, but not too overwhelming for a newbie. At the gear level of the time, you had to do up to Titan phase in phase 1, and all of Basic Relativity/a couple mechs after in phase 2, so she was confident we'd be able to manage it. But we didn't have a whole group together, so we put up a pf for the last couple slots.

Enter Mumbo*.

Mumbo said they had watched a video and understood the strats. It immediately became clear this was not the case. For those who don't play the game or haven't done E12S, let me introduce you to Dwayne the Rock Johnson strat**:

You get a colored shape above your head and the diagram shows you where to go with it; this happens three times, and then you're (probably, depending on your damage) done and the boss phases into a cutscene. It's super doable but it also NEEDS to be done or else the party explodes.

Mumbo could not do this. No matter how many times we reset and tried again, or re-explained the strat, or showed them graphics like that one. Also, after a handful of pulls, our lead noticed something bizarre.

Mumbo was on black mage. Except they were ONLY using ice spells.

For those who don't know, the basic gameplay loop of black mage is: you spend your MP with more powerful fire spells, then get MP back with weaker ice spells. There's lots more to it than that, black mage players are more powerful than I could ever be, but that's the basics. When used properly, it's a pretty powerful job. When used like this...it was gonna be a long fight.

We did make it through phase 1, somehow, getting it just right enough to scrape people off the floor after getting exploded by rocks. Then it was time for phase 2, which you absolutely cannot do by vibes. Especially for the dps role, which is what Mumbo had to do.

At this point we regretfully had to part ways with our new friend Mumbo the Ice Mage. But he lives on in our memories***, to this day.

*not their real character name; it's been long enough that they may have mended their ways, so I don't want to put them on blast

**I don't know why it's called that either. FFXIV savage strats often have silly names

***and is referenced when we find someone else who similarly does not fundamentally know how to play their job; i.e. the two Mumbos the White we met in DT trial 2 who were curefishing for their lives

[azems-familiar]

having an intense moment of "why am i even putting forth all the effort to write this 30k+ word fic when only one person is going to care about it and that person already knows everything that happens" tonight (not helped by the last 30k word fic i put out getting 9 kudos and one singular comment) and trying to remind myself that i write because i like writing, because there are stories i want to tell and that even if i'm only telling them to myself it's still worthwhile

but also. it's a struggle when part of why i write and post things is because i want to connect with other people through telling stories and making them feel things the way the stories i read make me feel things, and when there's no evidence that people connect with the things i write....ugh. it gets to feeling pointless

i know. i know. and i won't let depression or anxiety prevent me from doing one of the only hobbies i still can participate in, and the creative outlet i've had for years. tonight is just...being very ugh about it. maybe because the scene i'm working on is being very tricky and a struggle to get through right now and i only have the aforementioned one single person to hype it.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for abandoning my party in the middle of a notoriously tough dungeon?

i (26m) was playing ffxiv and had just unlocked a new dungeon. all my friends were asleep and i was too excited to wait, so i decided to go against my social anxiety and run it with randos.

the scant handful times i'd run dungeons with randos before went great - earlier that day after another dungeon i'd even gotten player commendations from two of the players in a party i was healing for - so i was more or less confident this time would be fine as well.

boy oh boy was i wrong...

i got matched with three players we will simply call tank, healer, and dps (age and gender unknown for all three). i went in as a bard (all my other jobs were too underlevelled), filling the remaining dps role.

things went awry almost as soon as we set foot in that dungeon. i died in the first room to some enemies that aggro'd on me and ganged up on me. the rest of the party left the room pretty much immediately after all enemies were dead.

i politely asked to be resurrected, to which healer reluctantly complied. they told me to "just rez next time", which would've sent me to the beginning of the dungeon. in hindsight that would've prolly been fine since it was only the first room.

after i caught up to the others i once again got swarmed with monsters. this is gonna be a pattern if you couldn't tell. after i'd died to this pattern a couple times tank yelled at me for "constantly pulling everything ffs".

for those who don't know, tanks (at least in this game) have a special ability that basically acts as an aggro magnet. i have a strong suspicion tank wasn't using said ability considering how often i got swarmed, but we'll never know for sure.

now the mid boss was where it truly went to shit. no matter how much of a distance i kept from that damn thing, no matter how well i evaded its aoe attacks, i just kept dying over and over again. one time the rest of the party even got sent back somehow. i'm not sure how.

and why did i keep dying you may ask? because healer never healed me. not once after they resurrected me at the beginning did i notice my hp go up aside from when i used hi-potions or my one (1) healing spell, both of which have a very long cooldown. i think they were glued to tank the entire time, completely neglecting me and dps.

and yet, i was the one taking the blame for everything. for pulling the enemies tank should've pulled. for constantly dying, which i couldn't help because healer never once touched me after that first resurrection.

it was really starting to affect me so after i let my dead body be sent back to the beginning of the dungeon i finally put my foot down and left the dungeon. this disbanded the party, not only kicking everyone from the dungeon, but likely also penalizing all 4 of us because of my actions.

i will clarify that this wasn't just any old dungeon; it was aurum vale. it's a dungeon you need to be at least level 47 for. while i don't know much about it myself, judging by the way my friends talk about it the semi-universal verdict is that it sucks major balls. it' would's not be a fun dungeon to have to redo, that's for sure.

i was on the verge of tears for well over 30 minutes afterwards, both from the emotional afterquakes of fear and anger but also from the guilt of abandoning these people like that.

so, am i the asshole? am i too sensitive? should i just have sucked it up and kept going?

tldr; i felt like my party of randos were blaming me for being the weakest link while doing their own jobs poorly, and decided to prioritize my own feelings by leaving the dungeon, dissolving the party and forcing the others to start all over again

Oh no. Oh honey. I am so sorry Aurum Vale is just like that. I'm gonna put the poll here and some extra INFO/advice under a readmore because it's a bit long, but please read on before voting.

First: don't let leaving bother you too much, it didn't kick everyone from the dungeon, that's not how it works. If one person leaves, the queue just refills the party with a new person and the dungeon continues like normal, or everyone else now has the option to leave without penalty.

Aurum Vale's first room is a motherfucker--basically it's an older design with lots of wandering monsters, so on the first room especially you need to hug the left hand wall as tight as you can to aggro as little as possible. Let the tank go first and grab aggro on mobs. Don't pull for the tank, especially at this level range. Let them do their job. I can't say for sure whether they had their aggro-generating stance on, could go either way, but I can see why they got annoyed at someone pulling stuff they weren't ready for yet. While wall-to-wall pulling is pretty standard in this game, that's the tank's call to make, not the dps's--and some of these older dungeons with funky level syncing or enemy pacing make wall-to-walling more difficult and not for everyone.

(BTW, as an aside, tank stance works as a personal buff, not a magnet--they do still need to hit things to grab their aggro, sometimes more than once if someone else has already established on them. If they already have a pack they're working on and you grab something way on the other side of the room, you'll have to bring it over to them so they can take it off you!)

If you do die to mobs between bosses, sometimes the best thing to do is just release and respawn! If you get a rez, you'll have a debuff that makes you weaker for a while. Definitely if it's the very first room, releasing is the move most of the time.

As for dying to bosses: was it definitely the mid boss, the cyclops? Because the other two (the plant and the morbol) both have mechanics that make you take slow damage over time unless you eat a fruit to get rid of it. You want to eat a fruit every 2-3 stacks of the debuff that you get because that's where the damage starts to get more severe; before then, the healer can probably handle you.

Basically, it seems like this party mistook inexperience for malice and was rude to you in response. Not healing you, for example, is absolutely inexcusable. You did some things suboptimally that made the dungeon harder for the group, but honestly we were all there once, don't let it get to you too much. Try it again with your friends bearing the stuff I mentioned in mind, and it'll go much better! But as an aside it SUCKS to heal, if you have a more experienced friend you should let them handle it haha

[snapscube]

Hey Penny. Between you and a couple other sources, I've been getting really into FFXIV. There's no chance I'm going to be able to catch up before Dawntrail. I'm still doing post game ARR getting ready for Heavensward, but I'm still having a blast and have been bugging some friends to play with me, so thanks for getting me into a new hyperfixation I guess.

YEAAA im so glad to hear it! sincerely do not worry AT ALL about catching up before dawntrail. there's still gonna be a lot of new stuff once the expansion launches for u to enjoy like the visual update and the system changes to glamour! just keep taking the progression at ur own pace! :D you'll get there eventually and youll be glad you took ur time, trust me as someone who chose to take TWO YEARS to catch up to shadowbringers haha. it was so much slower than i had any reason to take it, but it was all worth it cause pacing myself out to my own taste allowed me to savor the journey. and the game really is ABOUT the journey. it's absolutely not one of those "the game begins at max level" kind of MMOs.

hope u continue to love it and that u can find some friendlies to play with too!!

[autumnslance]

FFXIV Write 2024: 1 Steer

“Steer clear of that one,” their fellow merchants said, watching Aeryn scowl as she tried to study in a crowded room. “She’s got a temper like a penned guhasaya, and it’s set off by the strangest things.”

“People teasing her friends or younger cousins isn’t so strange,” her stepsister said dryly. “Nor is being annoyed by being pestered while she’s busy. Haven’t you anything better to do?” And she shooed them away, giving Aeryn’s shoulder a squeeze.

It was nice to have the support, but Aeryn still bit her lip to hide how it trembled. She wasn’t all that bad, was she?

-

“Steer clear of that one,” the young men sneered, watching another try to flirt with Aeryn, who had missed it entirely. “Clueless as a hamsa, even if you can get her to notice.”

“What can one expect, when she was born in Coerthas? Frigid as her mountain goddess—”

Aeryn slammed her book on the table where the boys were joking. “A war goddess,” she snapped. “An aspect of Asura and patron of my birth. And what girl wants to kiss you, Rushid, with your breath like an asvattha? Go swive each other if you care so much!”

She whirled and stormed away, ignoring the attempted jeers as they tried to regain their swagger.

That two of them were boys who had gotten her notice, that she had kissed—and more, with one—because she had tried, she had, but she still did not understand why this was such an issue.

To the hells with all of them. She had studying to do and her mother to help.

-

“I’d steer clear of that one, if I were you,” the smarmy scholar said, a wicked grin playing on his lips as he leaned on the bar near the chattering adventurers.

The miqo’te woman snorted and rolled her eyes. “Why, you tryin’ to charm her tonight, Waters?”

He scoffed and raised his mug. “She’s out of my league. Out of yours, too, when it comes to the sort of jobs you lot take on.” He swallowed the last of his ale. “Unless you’re looking to be carried through jobs given by the Sultana’s offices, but I thought you had more pride than that, P’anaela.”

She snarled, tail puffed and ears flattening, but Thancred ignored her and her comrades to watch as the adventurers he had pointed Aeryn’s way stood with her, agreeing on where to meet to handle this mine issue Papashan had.

Aeryn gave him a disgruntled side-eye as she passed, having apparently caught some of the conversation. He gave her what he hoped was a disarming smile and a small salute. There was something familiar in that glower that had him on edge and also strangely sad, but that was a concern for later.

If this job turned out half as well as they hoped, anyroad.

-

“Steer clear of that one,” the Garlean soldier said, voice a mix of fear and anger. “That’s the savior of the savages, the one they call the Warrior of Light.”

The other soldiers exchanged looks, postures stiffening. The one who had been reaching out for the supplies Aeryn offered dropped his hand.

She sighed. “We’re not enemies now. I’m here to help, like the rest.”

“We don’t need your help!” the soldier spat. Her face was pinched from lack of food, and she shivered from the cold, her uniform worn and patched, as night fell and there weren’t enough working heaters.

Aeryn counted internally, biting back the sharp retorts that sprang to mind. “Right. I’ll just leave this fuel and food here. You can decide what to do with it, or not.” She set it down carefully and backed up a couple yalms before turning and striding away, head high, steady and certain.

At least until she was well out of sight, taking a chance to sag against a wall and rub her face, aching from more than the cold.

-

“Do try to steer clear of trouble,” Ameliance teased, grinning as she handed Aeryn a farewell treat pack, the same as she had for the twins.

“That’s the problem,” Aeryn admitted, grinning in return. “It finds me anyway. But usually not right away, at least.”

Ameliance tilted her head, considering for a long moment, until Aeryn finally asked, “What?”

“If I had to guess, you enjoy going to new places not only for the thrill of new exploration and adventure, but the relief of anonymity.”

Aeryn smiled sheepishly, shrugging. “That is the nice part of going to new places; most of the time, even if they’ve heard some stories, they don’t know who I am. It never lasts, but...It’s fun, for a little while, to leave the past behind and have no expectations or impressions. And it’s a way to learn about people, how they treat a random newcomer.”

“But mostly it allows you to explore unhindered, and find that trouble that always comes your way,” Ameliance’s tone was light, but her gaze was as sharp as ever.

“Something like that,” Aeryn said. She looked over her shoulder as the sailors called out. “Looks like it’s time to go. Take care.”

“Of course, you as well,” Ameliance said as they hugged. She turned to her children, spending time fussing and kissing and otherwise embarrassing them properly with all the emotion their father stoically held back until they could return to the privacy of the manor, where he could safely have his fit of worry.

She offered her own quiet prayers to the Twelve for a safe and pleasant journey, for her children, for their companions...and for the quiet, temperamental woman who sought both adventure and anonymity.

[selnyam]

FFXIV Write 2024: Horizon

The late afternoon sun beat down over the Silver Bazaar.  The residents busied about, chatting and doing their daily chores.  A faint growing rumble caused heads to turn, as a ceruleum engine motorcycle pulled into the area.  Sitting atop the bike was a muscular pink haired Viera.  The woman waved, shaking her head and reaching up to adjust the long floppy ears on her head as she freed them from a helmet.  Kikipu, a Lalafell women with Purple hair beamed and called out.

“Well look who it is!  Flidais!  It’s been sometime!  How are you doing, gorgeous?”  The Lala set down the basket she was carrying and walked over.  The tall Viera waved, then shifted the large axe on her back.  Gently she placed it next to the parked bike, then knelt down to hug her friend tightly

“OOF!  I swear, you get stronger every time you stop by.  Keep it up and ye’ll crush me!”  Kikipu covered her mouth as she laughed aloud.  Flidais Oakclamber simply smiled and tapped her fist over her chest three times.  She stood, and reached into the pack of her motorcycle producing a wrapped bundle.  With a wink and sly tilt of her head she handed the package over.  Once freed her hands moved to speak in sign language, the primary way the Viera spoke since losing her voice to a Garlean blade.

[Dark Pretzels for everyone!  I’ll be in my spot.  Lovely to see you]  The Lalafell woman gasped and slapped Flidais on her thigh.

“It’s been far too long!  Everyone will love to have some of your special Dark Pretzels again luv.  I’ll keep everyone busy and occupied for a couple o’ bells,  go get your alone time beautiful.  Just make sure to come tell us all of your travels later!”  Opening the package and pulling one of the baked treats from within, Kikipu took a big bite and wandered off to distribute to the citizens of the Bazaar.  Grinning from ear to ear, Flidais walked past the bazaar.  Waving nodding back to any who greeted her, the Viera woman made her way to the cliff edge and with a sigh she sat down.

So much was happening, and so often.  She just needed a moment to sit and rest.  To think about everything.   Her gaze carried out over the water, to the distant islands, to the Castrum to the far right.   How had it only been a few years since she’d joined the team storming that Castrum?  To when she’d avenged her first love, the first time her Voidtouched traits had manifested?  Her wings and horns bursting forth as she’d fought, throwing spell after spell to stop sas Junius.  Her actions and rage had led to rumors and horror stories about a primal or demon the Grand Companies had summoned to stop the Garleans.  A being of Chaos with giant wings and claws.  She sighed and turned her gaze back to the bazaar.

Three Summers, Nearly 4 had occurred since she first woke up just north of here.  Where she opened her eyes in the dirt, in tattered robes.  Lost and with no memories she’d sat there until a passing merchant had called out to her.  He’d made sure she was okay then offered to take her to Ul’dah.  She’d agreed of course.  A city was the best place to find people, to learn who she was.  It was there she’d joined the Adventurer’s Guild, and trained as a Thaumaterge.  The beginning of her entire life.  

The Viera let her eyes continue to follow the horizon line.  For only being around for the time she had, she felt like she’d lived a lifetime accommodating her century and a half of age.  If only she had the memories of most of that time.  Her mind wandered from the stressful times to the joy, as it often did.  To her wife, her partners.  Thoughts of the Scions and her found family.  All her loved ones and friends and comrades she’d met.  A tear ran down her cheek, one of happiness and a satisfied life.  Her short fuzzy tail wiggled in joy, and she pulled a violin from her neary pack.  With a deep breath, she began to play.

The residents of the bazaar smiled, and some began to hum or sing along.  This was an uncommon occurrence, but one they looked forward too.  Flidais would come, bring them food and stories of her adventures, or sit by the cliff and play.  She was a quiet woman, but the kind you couldn’t help but to smile around.  Her grin and positive attitude were infectious.  Kikipu wondered what new places the Veira had seen,  What new horizons and sights she could tell them about.  It was shaping up to be a fine evening indeed.

[physicsfox7]

So uh. For anyone playing at home, I had never heard of Guilty Gear or played any of the games. Ever. But I noticed a cute blonde girl on a bunch of friends pfp. One of my really close friends has it as hers, and she explained who Bridget is. Curiosity was piqued.

Then, said friend started streaming and one night played GGS for us. I had never been all that in to fighting games. I suck at them, I panic, I button mash, I die.

Well, a couple weeks ago, she did another GGS stream when they brought in a new character: Elphelt Valentine. While I didn't seriously consider getting the game, I was kinda hooked. Pastel goths are a hardcore weakness of mine. Like...mouth agape, incapable of forming cognizant sentences.

So as she showed up more on my timeline, I started learning a bit about the game, it's story, and asking questions. I had already heard Bridget's theme, and consider it a bop. It's fun. But Elphelt's theme spoke to me personally. Quite a few lines in the song we're kind of slap in the face moments of realization.

And then, in a fit of madness, Kenna bought me GGS and Elphelt for Christmas, which was hiding on my steam wishlist. Little did we know it was on sale!

I now have more hours spent on GGS than the next 3 games. More than Celeste, a game I am incapable of describing more eloquently than "It's so good, I cannot recommend it enough!" I spent a few hours reading the in-game encyclopedia, and asked some more questions.

Then I got hit with a 7-part backstory explanation, which I have been watching all night while grinding in FFXIV. I tried playing GGS while it was on, but I only focused on one or the other. Not efficient.

Having watched through Elphelt's backstory, and learning more about everything, I have to say: god damn, why do I keep picking up these sad ass games!

So yeah, when I say I'm going to make her everyone's problem, it's because she's a total babe and her story (and song) resonate with me. And if you want to play GGS with me, I am down; but you should know I still kinda suck despite being given some excellent training from said friend.

[bhryn-art]

SHE LIIIIIIVES

Okay so there's been some time since I last used my Tumblr, and I guess we'd better chat - HI, how are ya? This will be a decent chat, I'll do us all a favour and pop it behind a careful little barrier so you can read at your leisure. Before that! WHERE AM I? Find me at these places: TWITTER/X: Bhryn BSKY: It's still Bhryn CARA: Take a wild guess - Bhryn Ao3 (it's ALL Fire Emblem not sorry!): Bhryn Astairre What's happening with Bhryn/Ferai? Well...

It's been a long time coming, but I think almost anyone who had been close to me has known this was going to turn up one day. And hey, I had a good long run. I never finished Endwalker. I got to around level 77? I think? And I just... didn't feel it anymore. I told myself I'd go back when my interest picked up. It never did. I instead became a lot more invested in other things, and took a huge break from everything to try dealing with my declining health. To that end; thank you, for all the wonderful friends I made on FFXIV, for the fun times we had. But it's time I moved on. I have no immediate or long term plans to return to FFXIV, and I wish everyone who still plays a great, fun time with the game going forward. I won't say for certain that I'm leaving, but I know for now, it's far back on the shelf for me. A large part in this is my decline in health. I'm currently bedbound - I wasn't a couple of years ago, but times change! You just have to roll with the punches. One of these is having a frankly rubbish laptop that wheezes when I play Content Warning and Lethal Company. I dread to think how on fire it would be if I tried even loading the FFXIV benchmark! I also made the choice to get a Steamdeck rather than a new laptop. This laptop still runs my art programmes and lets me write and talk to friends, so I don't need the upgrade badly (I say, side-eyeing the loud and grating noises it keeps making on waking up from sleep with nervousness). The other big punch is the worsening of my hands. Years ago I mentioned to my friends and followers that my EDS was never going to settle for just being a pain in my hip, knees, neck... any joint basically. EDS was always going to be a slow progression. I fought hard against it, and I'm still fighting! To the best of my abilities! But there came a point when finishing off a piece of work for a client, that I realised I simply didn't have the physical stamina or the dexterity in my hands/fingers to do long term brief work anymore. This loss of skillful motion has affected me playing games. I used to joke about having 'old lady reflexes' but honestly, I really do have them now! So I stripped back artwork to be 'just for me, just for fun'. The same for games. Anything that I cannot play well on a controller? Not worth it. I can play Ninja in ffxiv on a controller, but we come back to my Craptop Self Immolating if I tried. So what happens now to me? Now, I try and relax best I can (I caught the Rona four weeks ago, I'm still sore throat and itching in my chest/wheezing/terrible crackling in my chest) and work on my surroundings to give myself the best chance going forward to improve my life. This tumblr, when I made it, it was for me to play my FFXIV character. I have a couple of choices open to me, but I think I would like to change it completely over to an art and writing blog, just in general. To do that, I would have to go and take my username from my old blog and put it on this one. OR, I let this stay as an idle blog and dust off my old tumblr and move ahead with that. I'm still undecided! But, whatever I choose, I want you to remember; You're great. Be kind, do kind things, leave the world better than how you found it. You got this. You always did. With love; Me xxx

[candycryptids]

Hiya! I hope you're doing well today! I love your characters and how you've structered their bios! Since Chuusday is listed first, is she technically your official WOL or is it someone else? Do you canonically have a WOL in the first place?

Also, I find it SO sweet that you and one of your partners both play FFXIV and have characters paired together ;w; Did you meet ingame or long before either of you started playing? Either way I wish you both the best!!! <3 - gardenofballads 🌻

Awaaaah! Im doing pretty ok!!! Taking time to answer this as a wind down from Emerald Weapon Ex Brain Soupage. And I’m so glad! ;W; I think I butchered one of those “Get To Know An OC” thingies- uhh… oh [this one] actually! I chopped a lot out and I think added a couple different thingums instead because there was so much to that that it felt overwhelming to try to look at let alone fill out LOL but it was a really good jumping off point uvu;

And!!! Hilariously Chuu was my First XIV Character, so she’s dear to my heart for being the first one- but she very quickly made it known being the WOL even as an AU was something of a Joke (Her character showed great reluctance and even frustration at having to do So Much World Saving, maybe a side-effect of me rushing through MSQ to catch up with my other spouse [Who plays Talia, though they’ve got less time for XIV these days ;0;] and the rest of my friends who were all EndGame already at the time in Shadowbringers fhdjfjsjfs.) So I made…… many alts. Throwing spaghetti at the wall but I have SEVERE side-character/NPC brain and kept making “supporting cast” types =w=; it actually took me like. 3? Alts before making an ACTUAL WoL with my husband (Ishi’li and Kizuna) (as of Right Meow, they’re in post ARR, but we’ve been working on Keathan and Tuesday together because Keathan was… Keathan’s first character in xiv XD so we’ve been jaunting through the story together and experiencing every inch of it so we can pick and choose what The Boys™ get up to when we wanna focus on them x3)

🥰 I knew both speece during at least high school- but I actually knew Keathan as early as Elementary school hehe 😌 tho the speece didn’t proper marry until… i’unno, 2017? (For frustrating legal reasons, I’m not legally married, but. As it goes. Someday we’ll have money to visit the one state that has legal poly marriages. Also I struggle to remember our wedding year 🫢)

Since managing to make a Co-WoL with my husband I’ve managed to make one other Alt meant to be a Solo-WoL (Mochiie) but I have to really wrinkle my brain to sink time into playing him, since I’m trying to take screenshots throughout the story at what I find to be inspiring beats xD And even still he has an alt-universe where he’s just a side-character for the ‘Main Timeline’ (where there’s a bunch of spaghetti and like 8+ confirmed WoL’s and the Msq entourage looks HILARIOUS in canon, someday I’ll get all the data together and take pictures, but I think it’ll cook what’s left of my brain x’3) [it’s less concrete than anything I’ve posted about before or I’d try to explain it ;v;’ it’s just interesting mostly to see how the story gets stretched to fit around a larger community of heroes than a solo guy shouldering the whole burden lmfao.]

🌸🌸🌸…. I also hope you’re having a lovely week @gardenofballads !!!! I am tossing flower petals into the air around you !!! Thank you for the ask and well wishes n kind words 🥺💖 🌸🌸🌸

[koorinokujira]

The Warrior of Light's Burden (FFXIV)

He seemed to appear out of nowhere. Just another bright, wide-eyed adventurer among countless others. Perhaps he went into it for wealth or fame. Maybe out of selflesness and a kind heart that wished to help others. Whatever it may have been, he never refused to help, from the very beginning, whether it was delivering letters between lovers or slaying wild beasts.

Dependable, that's what he was. So much so that they started calling him what they used to call them.

The brave souls that were lost during the Calamity. Silhouettes lost to the blinding light that covers our memories in a haze. The Warriors of Light.

But this one... this one wasn't like them.

It started out slowly, inconspicuously. His enemies seemed to get stronger, but his victories were still believable. A few Garleans here and there, some bandits and wrong-doers, and all that coupled with some particularly dangerous creatures. An adventurer of great skill, one worthy of a mention, to be sure.

And then he slew a Primal.

The people celebrated, showered him with praise and flattering words that seemed to never cease. After all, it was a miracle that he survived, much less defeated his adversary. And all this time, he simply watched with a polite smile on his face.

"I am but a humble adventurer," he insisted to those who praised the Warrior of Light, "surely you would have done the same things if you were in my shoes. I'm just a man. I just tried to help, to survive, like you."

Most believed him, and were willing to leave it at that.

But a miraculous victory turned into something terrifyingly ordinary. Primal fell after Primal, enemy after enemy, there were even rumors of him fighting beings that could not die by usual means. Blood flowed across the trail of destruction left behind by the one who yearned for peace and tranquility.

No, he was nothing like us.

Tales and songs of his deeds became reverent whispers. No longer was he greeted as a friend, but something much greater. Excitement was replaced by elation, wariness by terror. Only the ones closest to him dared to speak to him as casually as they did, though he insisted the common man should do so as well. Those that tried to use him for their own goals could only do so by playing on his worry for the people he sacrificed so much for already.

And oh, would he sacrifice more.

Everyone loves him and fears him in equal measure. They adore seeing him yet avert their gaze. They listen to his voice but not his words. Every single day, he bleeds for them and they say it's right. Every single night, he howls in agony out of his restless sleep and they call it holy.

And the others, they call him a monster. They fear his wrath, and it makes sense- who says he won't decide to slay them too, in the name of righteousness? Who can stand against their caring, horrifying shield made of flesh and bones? Who will save them from their savior?

Who will save him?

"I'm just a man. With feelings like you. Let me rest," he says over and over, but no one hears him anymore. "I beg you."

"I beg you. Forget the Warrior of Light. Remember me."

---✧

I know I haven't posted anything about FFXIV on this blog yet, despite playing it and adoring it for a few years now. But this has been on my mind for a while, and I've also been seeing some very tasty posts about the dehumanization of the WoL lately. So I decided to write this little story thingy from the POV of an unknown observer, also focusing a bit more on how some could actually be pretty terrified of him!

Also, big thanks to @shinkimarbles who rambled on and on about this concept with me and inspired me to write this!

[mrlarkstin]

Because everyone's been asking and things have finally calmed down enough. This is what went down.

IRL drama that happened because of XIV below the cut

So because a lot of my twitter and discord friends have been asking and unfortunately twitter/discord word limit is crap- this is probably the best place to explain everything. As this is literally two years in the making.

So about 2ish years ago, like...mid 2022, I was playing a lot on my Crystal alt. Like a lot, I had a ton of friends on Crystal and this was before cross DC travel. Anyways, so I joined my friends FC and just kinda vibed, helped them decorate, run things, blah blah blah. Well, I very quickly realized something kinda sus about one member who liked to do things with her "twin".

Well this twin wasn't an irl twin, it was her characters twin, a character run on a separate service account. Well, this member liked to have her "twin" stand beside her all the time. And, it looked sus all the time because the twin didn't talk, it just followed her around. It was, very sus. And she'd openly talk about sending her twin out into Eureka to farm, and to have her twin do maps and such. And, okay, whatever- but the way it was constantly worded was setting off my red warning flags. "Send my twin into Eureka" and the twin would come back like an hour or two later with TONS of rare hard to get items from the various zones. It. was weird. Very weird. And it was the same with maps.

RIGHT IN FRONT OF US- she'd send her twin off to go do maps. Alone. Level 80 maps alone. And the dungeon maps. Send her out and then call her back randomly at any time. It was at that moment I clued in that she was a bot. A full on bot being completely open about it. But because she gave her bot an actual name, you wouldn't have clued in right away.

Originally I had just given her the benefit of the doubt. Okay sure! She had a couple service accounts! Sure! But, the characters on the other service accounts were all, from my guess, bots. Given how she would just "send them out to do Eureka" and various things. It was fucking weird.

So, over the next year I did a lot of digging into botting, various bots, how they work and talked to people who OPENLY botted. And yeah, most of the time, people with multiple service accounts tend to be botting or doing something sus (like owning fucking 10 FCs??????? Why???? To farm gil?? If you are that bad at the game you gotta spend tons of irl money to make gil- you need help). But yeah, naturally not everyone with multiple service accounts are sus but, a good chunk are.

I found the bot she uses.

This one. Its the ONLY one that makes sense, this or Miqobot. But both are very likely.

Regardless. I STILL tried to give them the benefit of the doubt. That was, until they got their hands on the fucking Crystal FC Workshop. Everyone was getting ready for EW, content and such so people were logging in less and less, and I noticed they instantly started to take an immense interest in the workshop the MOMENT people stopped logging in. Which was fucking weird...because we had all been talking about it a couple weeks ago before and she had taken ZERO interest in it. But the moment everyones like "I'm taking a break!" she suddenly has an interest.

It got weird, she started to slip into the workshop. But, she had no crafters, no gatherers above level 20. And was telling me she was spending 20million A DAY to do subs.

How? What? What is that logic? HOW ARE YOU SPENDING 20MIL A DAY???

YOU DON'T HAVE CRAFTERS? OR GATHERERS? YOU HAVE NOTHING THAT INDICATES YOU WORK FOR THAT GIL??? AND HOW?? HOW ARE YOU SPENDING FUCKING 20MIL A DAY???

WHAT

So anyways, EW hits and I take off onto my main for a few months, I come back and literally no one had logged in, in months. The FC chest was empty and the bot was literally taking everything and selling it. Then was trying to tell people that she wasn't getting anything worthwhile from the subs.

Lies.

There are a lot of mats, salvaged jewelry, spoils, housing items, deep and superior crystals and clusters- there is a lot.

Turns out. She was stealing all the good shit, taking the gil and using it for who knows what. She was stealing from two fcs and was stealing all the good shit. Wouldn't put any of the gil that she was making into the chest for the actual fc. She was taking it and pocketing it. And since my friends were kinda newbies, they didn't really realize what was happening, I brought it to their attention.

"Hey, this person isn't actually like giving anything back to your FC and is clearly taking everything"

My friend Elora got pretty fucked, 4 level 60 subs and the bot was trying to tell her "Oh, you didn't get anything good" Which. Is a lie. Whether its crafting mats to further your sub or just other mats, a lot of shit can be worth a pretty penny. Its not just about "spoils" and shit, mats, housing items, ect can be worth a lot too depending on your server.

The bottom line is, she was taking from two fcs and not putting any of the money she was making back into the FCs. She had waited until everyone disappeared and decided then and there that she was going to take them over.

Well finally, Elora had, had enough and just, got rid of her and blocked her. She only got a little of what the bot was taking and the bot kept everything that was of value. Most likely because she had sold it all already and was funneling the gil from her bots to her main.

So, everything came to ahead last night when the original owner of the FC came back and saw the mess that was made.

Now its not my place to tell the shit between the FC lead and the old FC lead, thats not what this is about. But it did not go well.

The new FC lead took personal offense that we were concerned about what was happening with the subs (because she liked the bot) and instantly invited some rando? who spent 4 HOURS berating and mocking us. Calling us incompetent, idiots, losers and every variation of the word because we were CONCERNED about the theft happening.

Now I want to remind everyone this is NOT taking place in my mains FC. I keep that shit locked up tight and vet people who join.

But this rando admitting to basically being a bot and doing the exact same fucking thing. Owning 10 FCs with various alts on various service accounts all to "fund" their RP venue? Which, if your venue is doing that badly...you probably are doing something very wrong that you have to use 10 FCs to fucking keep it alive.

So instead of having an open dialogue with us, the new leader basically got this rando to tell us all to go fuck ourselves and that she doesn't care that this bot is taking things, selling it and funneling the gil into who knows what.

So, thats that.

The new leader doesn't care, the old leader cares, the bot is just doing whatever in the fuck she wants and some rando decided to berate us for hours and hours.

And at the end, the bot left the FC. But ONLY put the shitty items into the chest and naturally kept all the good shit for themselves. Over a year of subs and you're telling me you didn't get ANY spoils? No salvaged jewelry? No Deep crystals? No balsa wood scrap or anything else along those lines? In a year you didn't get any of that? Despite using your bot to quite religiously fucking do the subs?

Okay.

The damage is done. And everyones leaving. So the FC will rot. The house will be demolished and thats that. Its game over.

[splatsvilles-fashionista]

What's your favourite game in terms of character customization?

Ooo boy. I really can't pin it down to one specific game, because all games use their character customization systems very differently. That said, I'll give a couple of my favourites, besides just Splatoon.

One of the games I've had the most fun putting together outfits in is easily Final Fantasy XIV. In terms of high fantasy fashion, it is simply unmatched in both quality and variety, and its glamour system (which lets you swap the appearance of one piece of gear for another's) is so flexible and accessible that making cool looks for your character is a breeze, and considering just how much the game works to get you invested in your Warrior of Light and their story, it works wonders.

Hell, even in terms of modern fashion it has plenty of offer. Wanna dress as a barista? You can do that too.

Aside from FFXIV, another modern game I think has an incredible customization system (though not one I am actively playing anymore) is Warframe.

Rather than giving you a single character to use as a dress-up doll, Warframe is all about collecting the titular biomechanical androids which can be recolored, accessorized, or have their whole appearance changed with skins

Different areas of your Warframe's body are split into colorization zones, each of which can be repainted to your heart's desire. Combine this with Warframe's very particular aesthetic and it results in the opportunity for some incredibly distinct character designs.

Warframe's aesthetic isn't for everyone (it's certainly very fleshy) and being a free game it hides almost all of its customization behind a paid currency (that you can trade with other players, in fairness) but it has such a cool and unique vibe that I have to mention it.

I've gone on for long enough as is, but three is a better number than two, so I'll talk about one more game featuring who I believe to be video gaming's most fashionable protagonist: Hitman III

Agent 47's signature attire is the epitome of simple but stylish, and he wears it incredibly well, and the developers clearly had a lot of fun dressing up this particular dashing bald man too, because Hitman III has over 50 different suits you can unlock as your default outfit in missions, on top of all the disguises you can wear to try and get closer to your mark.

Naturally, the apex predator of the world of assassins makes all of these outfits work (especially the goofy ones) but my personal pick for the best of the bunch is probably the Scarlet Suit because like, I gotta be honest with you:

This is sexy as fuck. I love this suit so much that I literally commissioned a friend to draw my fursona wearing it. This is the peak, right here.

[nabaath-areng]

I never cry, find it hard to do so even, but Eden Shiva's theme literally PULLS it out of my eyes with force and there's no way to stop it.

Why? Honestly it's a mix of things. But they all center around my feelings about the game in itself and my relationship to it over time.

Back in 2.4 when Shiva dropped in ARR, I had only a couple weeks prior moved halfway across the globe, which was also my first time moving out and living on my own. A huge step when you're 18, but I took the leap regardless.

When I fought Shiva that day when it had dropped, I was obsessed. The aesthetics, the music, the emotions from MSQ... needless to say it left a mark in my memories. And months later I became psychotic from unaddressed trauma and unmedicated ADHD in combination with being on my own in a place where I was still trying to learn the language properly.

I ultimately had to return home the year after, even though I had originally planned to stay for two years. As I've talked about before it took me a couple years upon returning home to be freed from the delusions that haunted me, as well as of how FFXIV was the only thing really keeping me alive throughout it all. I couldn't kill myself, I thought... not when I was looking forward to play Heavensward so badly. And then the following patches and expansions after that became my new goalposts.

And then I fight Eden Shiva.

Not on launch. I was taking a break from the game as I'd become stressed from changes in my life while keeping up at the near obsessive pace ingame I had for years. So I only did it a couple months after the fight came out.

I was absolutely floored. The music, mechanics and the cinematics and the story's impact opened my eyes to how far the game I love had truly come. It was such a mindblowing upgrade to the original fight I loved so much, and not only was it incredible to see how much the game itself had evolved... but also to realize that I wouldn't have ever gotten to experience it if I hadn't stayed alive.

This was what I stayed for. Of course I also did so for my friends and family... but FFXIV was the only light in the darkness of my mind back when I was on my own on the other side of the planet from my family and loved ones, where I had nothing or no one to keep me grounded to reality.

And yet I persisted, with help from a few friends in particular who reached out when I nearly did give up, and was as a result able to see both FFXIV and myself growing to heights I could never have expected back in ARR.

And so everytime I put on Eden Shiva's theme, even to this day, I cry. The tears literally won't stop coming, I can't even do the fight ingame without them starting to flow. I rarely ever see the final part where Gaia joins in, because my vision's too blurry to make out details. If there were any AoE's or other mechanics to worry about in that final phase, I can assure you I would have stood in every single one.

Is that corny? Probably. Absolutely. But holy hell I really do love being alive. To be able to feel such strong emotions that aren't negative even if they're overwhelming. To be able to experience such beauty, and alongside with friends, and even strangers in duty finder. I can't believe I almost missed out on this.

I'm writing this because it happened just now, I put on the song while sitting out on the porch, and like a clockwork the tears started streaming. I hope crying won't be as difficult one day, but until then I'm glad that there's at least something that can let them flow freely.

[autumnslance]

FFXIV Housing Builds

Talking to a pal feeling bummed about their housing decorating, and it's one I hear a lot, that they aren't "good at it" and compare themselves to the builders showing off their fancy and cozy and très chic builds and...

Look. We all know the trouble with Gpose, right? Where PC players with a hundred mods and ReShade and Anamnesis/Ktisis and maybe some post-processing work (and also photography/artist skills/knowledge) take some killer screenshots, and anyone with a console--or even other PC players--who don't have or know how (yet) to use all those tools, wail and gnash their teeth about how their (perfectly glamoured, nicely composed, decently lit, imaginative situations) screenshots just don't compare?

Same things with housing.

A lot of those super fancy builds? They're using half to a quarter of the available space. They're blocking off entire floors, and making camera angles for character screenshots nearly impossible by lowering the ceilings and closing in the walls. They're using a dozen slots to make a unique bed that may be functional.

It's aesthetics. It's playing puzzles. It's seeing what they can do, and it's pretty to look at, and cool to figure out, and neat for ideas...

But it's also not a requirement. It's not workable for every player or their FC. Some are! But some are also just experiments, or art installations.

I have a couple pals who are really into the fancy builds, who even do commissions for their work. We have a decorator lizard in our FC who needs the enrichment, but a requirement I have for the FC spaces are that they have to use the whole space. It has to be functional. It has to fit multiple members of the FC when they want to hang out, maybe take screenshots for storylines and RP and such. Can we fit a couple dozen people the rare times we host events?

Does that mean not a lot of random clutter, a lot of open space? Sure! But I can swing my camera around, fit multiple Roegadyn in a shot, and still have a nice looking, homey space that gets across the idea of what our FC is about. In my personal apartments and house, they're spaces that my characters would live in, and there's room for them and for friends to move around, hang out, take pics together.

Take inspiration from the housing builders! Admire their art and the work they put in, the puzzles they create when making a toaster oven out of six disparate housing items I'd never consider using that way holy cow!

But just like one shouldn't get hung up on the ultra-modded and post-processed screenshots, don't get hung up on the super fancy designer artisanal housing builds. It's a different aspect of the game, and often for different purposes.

Use the Preview Indoor/Outdoor Furnishings options in the housing menu to see what's available, use the websites that list housing items, fiddle around, mix and match, and make something fun that suits your screenshot needs and/or your character's idea of personal space. I promise you; you're doing just fine with your apartment/FC room/house if you're making it for you, even if it takes time to figure it out.

[practicingbushiho]

Doma Art Party 2023 Afterword

So, I think maybe it might be corny for me to do something like a thank you or an open letter or an afterword so to speak for an art party. And normally, I think I'd have not bothered. But considering this was my first ever attempt at hosting one, and that it was for a deeply important experience in my life...I believe it to be warranted here.

I am happy to say that the art party was to my eyes, a wonderful success. It was nice to experiment with the idea of having a more activity-oriented art party, and I have a good idea of what to do next time to improve on the formula without feeling overwhelming; after all, art parties are ultimately for vibing and hanging out; and boy were we.

And yes, many kisses were had, and the goodbyes were bittersweet; but not sad. And thus, I will give thanks. More below.

Thank you to everyone that helped me celebrate something very important to me. This last year has been a whirlwind for me, in mostly rather wonderful ways. I finally managed to finally let go of some of the things that were haunting me, I was more easily able to reconcile with, accept, and grow from my past. I picked up the pieces of a lot of parts of my life I didn't feel I had agency in, and it was all because of what I felt playing through Hien Rijin's story arc in FFXIV Stormblood. It was great fun to organize, and It was really nice to be able to celebrate that in some way with all of you-- some of which I'd never even met beforehand. I am just. So floored that people wanted to hang out and chat; thank you for handling my tech clumsiness and multi-tasking fails with such grace.

Thank you to everyone that WANTED to be there but couldn't for some reason or another. Thank you to my friend Bri (twt @tenchijins) who helped me craft prizes and coordinate during parts of the event (the shout chats were SO helpful)-- and for being a wonderful rp partner. You are so fucking smart and cool and you love birds so basically you're an angel. Thank you for everything the last couple months. You helped me better understand a part of my identity that I feared facing for so long, and because of it I am happier than I'd ever been about it all.

Thank you to @findenyan and @itsmeowlee for being so active in twitch chat and bein' cute an' funny catboys it was nice to see. Thank you also to @windup-dragoon for hanging out with us on day one (all the kisses to u my friend), Kiri is always a treasure to witness, and @dareva for being so insanely supportive of both my XIV works AND my original comic progress. I hope you are around for years to come.

Thank you to my roommate Cobalt who is the only reason I could even do this, because he was the one that helped me afford to renew my sub, which I didn't realize expired that day before the event. Oh, and also because he has literally been the sole reason i've been able to afford to survive the last couple of years. Hope to be free of it soon, brother! hahaha~

Thank you to @mythiclings for always showing me love, you were one of the biggest reasons I got the courage to start posting my Hien fanworks. And I am so glad that I did.

(Speaking of that, we did this cute little doodle together a little while back that I now have permission to post :'3 Look at these silly guys!!)

Ahem. And then thank you to my roommate aka ShandeeDay. If it weren't for you, i'd have never been able to play FFXIV from the first-- not even to consider all the times you've saved me from the street in my 20s. I love you, man. You saved my life. I would take a bullet for you.

Finally, to all of the people both old and new who have shared my work, shared their work with me, made things with me and just in general showed their support in my presence-- I thank you. Also some of you write some hilariously cute shit in tags. I adore you.

Sorry this was so long. But it was definitely worth writing. I plan to do another next year around the Lunar New Year in March 2024, provided I have no cons to attend. I HOPE TO SEE YOU AGAIN!! 0/

Love and Peace, and to tomorrow. - Shane (and the four other idiots piloting his brain)

[rainofaugustsith]

So I've received word about SWTOR up to its old tricks again - this time they are planning on charging for quick travel, charging for travel to strongholds, and removing a lot of the priority transports that mitigate travel costs. Unfortunately I think it again shows how far away the developers are from understanding their own game. They say these are supposed to be credit sinks. What do they really think, someone with billions of credits is going to be all, "aw, man, I have to pay 5000 credits now?" That's a drop in the bucket. It's just going to hurt newbies and more casual players who don't have nearly as many credits. 

People on the message board have given really good ideas about ways to cut inflation and make real credit sinks, but the developers are so far away from that it's laughable. The most obvious ways would be to let people buy things like appearance changes or high end, coveted armor and weapons for credits instead of cartel coins. But that would require them to step away from forcing people to pay real-world money for enough cartel coins for what they want, and SWTOR doesn't exactly have a robust playerbase now.

So why I am I writing about this since I don't play SWTOR anymore? In talking with a friend apparently some are comparing this to how FFXIV travels costs gil, and please take our game out of your mouth with this. 

FXIV does charge gil for traveling. But that frankly is in line with going to planets already via your ship in SWTOR. That already costs credits. And: 

There's a ton of free travel. 

1. When you're in cities the aetheryte networks around the city are free.  2. You always get two locations you can set as freebies and you can change those at will.  3. When you are a newbie you get a lot of free aetheryte passes to Vesper Bay, which you need to visit all the time.  4. The minute you start doing hunt marks in Heavensward - which is literally just going out and killing 1-3 very common enemies - you can get tickets for free aetheryte travel. You just use those and any trip is free. They are very cheap to buy with seals. 

5. You can get free aetheryte tickets to your Grand Company by turning in seals, which again is very easy to do whether you're doing dungeons with friends or just bulldozing through them solo.  6. You can also get from one part of Eorzea to any other part of Eorzea by foot and/or ferry. You can get from Eorzea to Norvrandt by foot. Once you're in Yanxia you can get to any part of Doma or the Ruby Sea by foot. So if you really don't want to teleport you can go by foot or by mount, and since you get to fly in FFXIV (after unlocking each area through finding the currents and game missions) you can fly there. There's also the chocobo porter travel which is pretty inexpensive.

And:  7. You get to choose a couple of locations that are heavily discounted for travel, and can change those when/if you want. 8. If you're in a guild there can be a further discount on all aetherytes.  9. The maximum charge for going to, say, Kugane, is like 1000 gil.  10. Yes there's a charge to go to where your house or apartment is, but it's a VERY steep discount, and the aetheryte network around the residential quarter is free. It's also free to go to the adjoining city.  11. You can also port directly to the specific area you need in each region instead of going to a central spaceport like in SWTOR. That reduces travel costs since you don't have to travel to the world and then port somewhere else ON the world.

Oh, and every travel ticket/perk is purchased with in-game currency. 

SWTOR is also planning on upping repair costs. Again, this is going to ding newer players who have to battle more than it is going to hurt the billionaires. I can absolutely envision a scenario where a newbie's gear wears down enough to break and they don't have enough credits to repair it. 

And again, don't compare this to FFXIV. FFXIV has the same deal where you have to repair gear, but you can also repair your OWN gear with dark matter instead of going to a vendor. Dark matter is easily available from many vendors and not particularly expensive. Repairing your own gear also ups its durability to 200% so it's not broken down as fast. 

Every time I think that SWTOR is out of touch with players, they just prove it a little more.