#i think mys is also a party member despite being hydaelyn

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

ok having actually beaten the msq (up til endwalker anyway) i think im qualified to make an au now. anyway mystery as venat + wol vivi + shiromori as elidibus send post

[illegiblewords]

The Drawing Continues...

Meanwhile though, very small general FFXIV post.

- I have seen small indications that there are Emet-Selch/WoL shippers who, for want of a romantic antagonist, miiiight be taking a “LAHABREA IS A SLEAZY MONSTER” route. I hope this isn’t true because 1) Clearly Lahabrea is a simple workaholic loser explosion enthusiast don’t do him dirty that way :’< 2) LBR if any of the convocation or just Ascians in general were gonna be sleazy it’s fuckin’ Nabriales lmao. I have some affection for him too after writing the guy but honestly he is a little bitch just let him follow his sleazy little bitch dreams and achieve the credit he deserves.

- I am still fic outlining a bit for my misadventure in Emet-Selch/WoL shipping and I have discovered the price of a happy ending might involve a grown man making a child cry lmao. Also, kind of want to do an AU short based on the story of Tam Lin but I have too many plates spinning right now.

- I’m so happy that people are jumping on the AU train lol, but it made me pause and ask myself wtf my AU would be. High school is so cliche/classic that it would probably be fun to think about but I would take so many notes from the lunch table cliques post that was circulating a while back. So probably what I would propose would be more like company AU.

Amaurot Inc. was a very successful business that was run by a board of fourteen and owned by Zodiark, who kept them from going under during a period of financial termoil that sent a ton of competitors out of business. It hit a point where they were worried the entire industry would collapse, and the only reason that was avoided came through a horrifying number of layoffs. The Fourteenth board member quit early on in the crisis and later shows up with Sunder Corp as Zodiark and the heads of Amaurot struggle to create a new work model. The work model would involve hiring a lot of new employees, training them to excellence so that the company could thrive again, then downsizing massively to rehire the fewer but more skilled workers who had previously been let go. Hydaelyn is head of Sunder Corp. and consider this practice highly unethical, decide to buy out Amaurot Inc. and just replace staff with a bunch of new hires so there can be a fresh start without this weird revolving door policy. Only three board members escape the purge while the rest languish in unemployment.

The Warrior of Light inherits the position at Sunder-Amaurot Corp. and was trained by the Fourteenth board member, but is basically fresh to the position. The remaining three board members from Amaurot Inc. have collaborators who were trained by their now-sacked former colleagues, but they feel that this entire situation is a huge step down from what they originally envisioned. They all feel like sellouts after pouring their hearts and souls into this company, and would rather find a way to overthrow current management and downsize after all to have what they consider higher quality work... even if it means lower production and tons of employees are fired in the process. WoL and the Scions, who are the highest ranking employees at Sunder-Amaurot Corp., are aware of this sentiment but can’t easily fire the remaining Amaurot Inc. employees/sympathizers themselves. Emet-Selch’s involvement with the Scions comes from basically him getting pissed off and challenging the Scions/WoL to prove that the new company actually cares and produces comparably high quality work to the original Amaurot Inc. Lahabrea works in PR with Elidibus but gets switched to a more backseat role and eventually fired because he lives on caffeine and fumes, which eventually results in a massive scandal. He ends up at some Ishgardian restaurant as a waiter after that, getting ripped apart by the owner Thordan on a regular basis. Nabriales toes the line of being considered guilty of sexual harassment in the workplace and gets successfully sacked by the WoL after a complaint is lodged by both Moenbryda and Minfilia. Unfortunately, Moenbryda decided to quit around the same time—much to the dismay of her colleagues, particularly Urianger.

I could probably go into more detailed headcanons for like, wtf happened with Alphinaud and the Crystal Braves, Tataru being the real power behind the throne despite her position technically being secretary, Gaius being some kind of inspector who prides himself on rooting out shady business practices and firing those responsible... Zenos is prob the son of a rival company owner who doesn’t give a shit about the service at all but loves corporate bullshit and is literally just in this business to wreak havoc. People think he’s in it to expand wealth for his family or at least because he doesn’t understand what being broke is like, but the reality is he could live in a shack and be fine with it. He literally just likes fucking with people and this is a job where he gets paid to do that. Technically Emet-Selch is responsible for this rival company and still has a lot of influence there but the owner Varis thinks that is total bullshit and just wants to fuck over everything at Sunder-Amaurot Corp. to run things his way.

Meanwhile stupid office drama. Thancred and Emet-Selch are equally likely to steal each other’s lunch out of the fridge on a given day. Emet-Selch started it and Thancred decided to mirror the behavior as revenge. Unfortunately for Thancred Emet-Selch likes dangerously spicy food so there is something hollow in his victories. Y’shtola (among other things) runs the intern program with affection and a scathing sense of humor. They all love her but after her chat with Magnai no one tries to mess around. Intern Runar has a massive crush on her. Alisaie was reluctant to join because she felt like she’d turn into a suit, but after a night of drinking and partying with the WoL coupled with probably-drunk conversations about being a company for the little guy, she decided to give it a go. After all, if she knows what to watch out for and had a position of influence she can keep things ethical from within. Urianger works IT and no one knows what he’s even saying like 80% of the time. Rumor has it he started dumping technical jargon to impress fellow-nerd Moenbryda but he never stopped after she left.

And so on lol. Just FFXIV but The Office.

[mimiraicafe]

Real Escape Game x FFXIV in Zepp Tokyo Experience

You have 60 minutes until the end of the world.

This past weekend, myself and two friends (Rue and Rubi) set out to tackle the Real Escape Game x FFXIV event. When it had been announced during one of the live letters, I was super interested. I had just found out I’d be moving to Japan at the end of the year, so I’d be in country for it for sure. I invited Rue and Rubi to go with me, and we made light plans to go.

Eventually, I finally landed in Japan, and had my work schedule. We figured out the best time for the three of us, which ended up being the 3/4 at 7:30pm slot at Zepp Tokyo. We were all pretty nervous about actually being able to understand the puzzles, let alone solve them, but we were excited none-the-less (Rue and Rubi have been studying here for at least a year, and for myself I’ve been studying Japanese for almost 10 years now). So, with our tickets in hand, we entered “IRL” Bahamut’s Coils.

The Story

While the event has general Final Fantasy nods involved (as it is also a 30th Anniversary of FF event), the story of the event is heavily FFXIV focused, involving the three city-state leaders (Kan-E Senna, Merlwyb, and Raubahn), and a scaredy-moogle known as Mog.

Bahamut is threatening to rain hell down upon Eorzea, and in her time of need, the Mother Crystal calls out to you, the Warrior of Light. You suddenly appear before the three leaders, currently in the Lotus Stand in Gridania. Kan-E asks who you are, and you reveal to them that Hydaelyn has spoken to you and asked you to save Eorzea from Bahamut’s wrath.

They, of course, accept your assistance, and also introduce you to Mog, an easily spooked moogle who’s even afraid of the wind blowing. He will accompany you through your journey, and assist you along the way. The Warriors of Light are first tasked with obtaining a Monster Guide before they can begin their journey through the coils of Bahamut to confront the beast.

Some really cool things with the story is it is presented with regular cutscenes featuring the characters, and the three leaders as well as Hydaelyn are fully voiced (by their JP VAs in this version). Throughout the event, you can hear various leaders coming over the speakers reminding you that time is of the essence and the like. If my memory serves, Bahamut even came over the speakers towards the end of the time limit as well to threaten us.

The beginning of the story was just awesome. I immediately got attached to the little baby Mog and was super happy to carry him around through the whole event. They give you one of the Kuplo Kopp official plush with a lanyard strung around his pom and before setting you free to solve the puzzles, they tell you to keep him with you as he is your 7th party member (groups were up to 6 members, though we only did 3).

I won’t, of course, spoil the ending, but the cutscenes were awesome as well and there was even a special song composed for the event that was used in the credit roll (hopefully they will be able to bring this over in some way for the English version!)

The Experience

My goodness gracious was this one hell of an experience! And I mean that in the best way possible. I won’t spoil any of the puzzles, as that would most certainly be bad form, but there were some serious surprises in the puzzles that I would have never ever guessed on my own. Thankfully, not only were there staff members walking around nudging players in the right direction, but surprisingly there were even some members of the American SCRAP team at the event that night! While we solved some early puzzles all by ourselves, and some Japanese staffers gave a few hints, after a little while, one of the American SCRAP team came by and gave us hints in English as well! To be honest, he was like a fourth member of our group in a way with how much he helped us ;w; He did just the right amount of hinting, enough to nudge us to the answer without outright giving it to us. Seriously, if you’re reading this, I can’t say thank you enough. From Team 90, 本当にありがとうございました! m(_ _)m

Despite our disadvantages of not being a full team of 6 (Like I mentioned, it was just the three of us) as well as the fact for all three of us this was dealing with puzzles in a non-mother language, we all came out really proud of how far we made it. We still had a few more puzzles to solve before we would have even been able to face Bahamut himself, but what we did solve felt amazing to have done. I had so many moments of jumping around when a puzzle finally clicked for me and tons of swearing when I realized how insane some of the puzzles were at times. It was insanely fun and I would so do it all again (especially in English too, I’d really love to see how some things are handled for the American tour! I really love localization/translation stuff okay).

For the record, our time slot had a total of 94 groups (ranging from 3~6 members), and only 14 were able to clear. The current clear rate is set around 7.5% last I saw, meaning over 90% of groups fail to defeat Bahamut. I can definitely agree that the puzzles were difficult so I’m not surprised!

Also, Mog is a precious baby and must be protected ♥

Final Words

For anyone on the fence about going to the US tour...

GO. DO IT. BUY YOUR TICKET RIGHT NOW IF YOU CAN.

Even if you suck at puzzles, even if you think you’ll fail, do it. It was so worth it and so much fun and just amazingly well put together it’d be insane not to go if you can.

I will leave those going with some words of advice.

Remember every single thing you have. Everything is a puzzle, a solution, a hint, or maybe all three together. Always remember everything.

And, most importantly...

May you forever walk in the light of the crystal.

[acrystalssoul]

Ruby wasn’t exactly sure when she fell for Y’shtola, but she did. She thinks it was before the crystal braves coup d’état. When she laid eyes on the scions’ mining garb, that’s probably when. Almost distracted her from what was going on, it just suited Y’shtola perfectly.

From there, Ruby just payed more attention to the miqo’te. The way she spoke was just elegant and clearly portrayed her intelligence, but also conveyed a kindness. The desire to protect, to save the realm. Ruby couldn’t help but be drawn to it.

Then the coup happened. The sultana was poisoned, the scions betrayed and separated. Lyse, then Yda, and Papalymo got lucky compared to the rest, they escaped after buying the rest of the scions time. The others weren’t as lucky. Thancred and Y’shtola stayed back during the escape to give Ruby and Minfillia a better chance to escape. But in doing so cause Thancred his ability to manipulate aether and Y’shtola to get absorbed into the Lifestream. Then Hydaelyn took Minfillia away, leaving Ruby to escape alone.

She thought she lost all her allies that night, Alphinaud was nowhere to be seen.  Her emotions where all over the place. She couldn’t even process Y’shtola’s supposed death over all the others. The night was just much.

Then it was revealed that all of them escaped, to varying degrees.  Y’shtola was ‘found’ first, and once revived Ruby felt relived. If one survived the rest could too.  Of course, the fact it was Y’shtola they found first lifted Ruby’s spirits.  She was elated to see Y’shtola again, even if was under those circumstances.  And the gear Tataru made for Y’shtola just made her stand out more to Ruby as well.

After her revival Ruby, subconsciously at first, tried getting closer to Y’shtola.  Spending her time with the scion where possible, letting down her guard and trying to get to know her.  To her surprised, Y’shtola also wanted to get to know her.  Not that there was much to tell; Ruby grew up as an orphan and turned to adventuring when she was old enough, taking up the lance and making her way to Gridania, where she caught the attention of Yda and Papalymo.

Not that she kept to the lance, Ruby found that she liked being the ‘shield’ of a adventuring party.  Taking to the Great Sword, Axe, Sword and Shield before settling on the Gunblade; the right balance of offence and defense.

But all in all they grew together throughout their time dealing with the troubles of the realm.  From the Asians and the Empire, though to dealing with the Dragons and the troubles in Ishgard.  Even helped one another when Alexander popped up in Dravania.

Then the Ala Mhigan revolution came to the forefront, to which the Scions of the Seventh Dawn would assist. But doing so lead to Papalymo’s sacrifice, using up his life force to briefly contain Shinryu, a dragon primal summoned by the Griffin, the leader of the revolution at the time. We managed advert disaster by using Omega, an apparent Allagan weapon, but the loss of Papalymo was still felt.

On top of that it’s turns out Yda wasn’t who she said she was: She is Yda’s younger sister Lyse. To the surprise of none of the scions apparently. Despite that, they used the opportunity to push into Ala Mhigo, with Lyse taking over the revolution, determined to get her homeland back.

After making it through the border between the Black Shroud and Gyr Abania, Ala Mhigo, the scions pushed through the fringes into the resistance base at Rhalgr’s Reach. But that success was short lived.

The Garleans raided Rhalgr’s Reach, with the Emperors son, Zenos yae Galvus, leading the raid. It was a hard fight. Ruby wasn’t strong enough at the time, she barely held her own. Not only that only she could stand against Zenos, who wounded Y’shtola in the raid and overpowered Lyse.

They only survived because Zenos grew bored and the Eorzean Alliance arrived. With the battle ended Ruby turns her focus to Y’shtola, who was badly injured and unconscious.

She was very quickly attended to however, the scion was an important member of the group after all. None the less Ruby was filled with worry til Y’shtola woke up.

When she did, Ruby stayed by her side in her free time. She was relieved that Y’shtola was fine, or as fine as one is while recovering. So relieved that she let slip how worried she truly was.

To which the scion couldn’t help but tease her for. Ruby couldn’t help but go red in the face before turning away and mumbling the reason why. That she was in love with Y’shtola, that she lost her once she doesn’t want to lose her again.

It was now Y’shtola’s turn to blush, not knowing how to respond to the declaration. She hadn't really thought about Ruby like that. That's not to say that she didn't feel something between them, but she's been focused on the mission; to defeat the Asians and bring peace to the realm.

Ruby didn't have the courage to look up the Scion while they processed her confession, she was sure she heard her. She didn't mean to, but the words flowed out of her before she could stop herself.

Her thoughts where distracted by a hand being placed on hers. She looked up to see the other miqo'te's hand on hers and a soft smile on her face. The look in Y'shtola's now silver eyes is filled with nothing but softness. Ruby was held in suspense, she had no idea how the scion would react. Would she reject her? That wouldn't surprise Ruby, they were close but no that close. Right?

However Y'shtola surprised the Warrior of Light, gently squeezing her held hand.

"It warms my heart to know you care for me so." Y'shtola states gently after a content sigh. "And... And it's good to know the feeling is mutual."

Ruby stared at Y'shtola, who still held her gaze with the soft expression. Ruby was speechless, her face growing redder by the moment. Her confession just poured right out of her and here Y'shtola was reciprocating it. Ruby stammered as she tried to respond, getting a chuckle then a wince out of other miqo'te.

"Mayhaps we should continue this at a later time." The scion states, with a pained smile. "I am still recovering after all." She adds, giving the Warrior of Light's hand another gentle squeeze.

Ruby nods with a smile on her blushed face. "Of course. I'll leave you to recover then."

"Indeed. We shall continue this later, My Crystal."

Ruby perks up, her face growing even redder than it was before smiling and leaving the room. Only looking back to catch smile of the Scion. Smiling in return she continues to walk out, going back to helping the resistance push into Ala Mhigo.

She never dreamed this day would come, that her feelings would be returned. Now that they have, Ruby was prepared to take on any challenge in her way, to be by Y'shtola's side.