#they look so cool in their ffxiv versions!

[inktho]

just ordered my stickers for trading at fanfest!!

[tritoch]

i know a lot of people (very understandably) dislike the paladin job quests in ffxiv, particularly HW, but i do think it's fun that, now that the pre-ShB MSQ revamp is complete, paladins now have a very cool and thematic in-game storyline that happens without a word being spoken: the development of passage of arms.

none of the below is directly stated in the script, but imo it's a fairly obvious gloss on what the game presents, if you assume a paladin warrior of light. spoilers for all expansions through the end of 6.X.

in the new version of steps of faith, as vishap breaks through each ward protecting ishgard from attack, lucia mounts a final desperate effort to hold him back, with a very familiar looking animation:

but even lucia can't hold back vishap's flame alone, so the temple knights surge forward to assist her. their efforts make the shield visually more powerful and larger. the temple knights here band together in defense of ishgard, and their knightly resolve to protect their home is the difference between victory and defeat.

lucia and the knights do ultimately succeed in defending the last ward, as you have to defeat vishap before their shield falls or you lose.

later in heavensward, obviously, we will get ffxiv's most famous (failed) attempt at blocking something with a shield.

this moment can be read as fairly impactful on the warrior of light's development; as i've noted elsewhere, after the trauma of watching haurchefant bleed out in their arms at level 57, at level 58 paladins learn to channel their magic into healing (and it's called "clemency," or mercy. mercy for whom? who was guilty?), and as someone pointed out on that post, at level 58 dark knights used to get "sole survivor", letting them heal in response to a marked target's death.

for a time, you literally carry haurchefant's shield with you, and 3.3 very much literalizes in genre fashion the idea that even when you are standing alone, your fallen friends stand with you. you don't need to call any allies to stand at your side and raise their shields with you because they are already there, in spirit.

stormblood marks a pretty important turning point in the warrior of light as a combatant, in my opinion, and the text makes this clear in several ways. first, in pretty much all your jobs, you've now far exceeded your trainers and are pioneering new techniques. this is no less true of paladin, which for 60-70 abandons any trainers at all for you to show off your peerless skills in a tournament.

second, stormblood is straight up a story about you getting stronger. at level 61, zenos kicks your ass. at level 70, you kick his ass. why? because you fought and got stronger and developed incredible new techniques and became a one-man army.

for a lot of classes, this story lines up nicely with the big rotation changes or flashy new finishers on the way from 60 to 70. SMN is now busting out bahamut and casting akh morn; RDM gets verflare and verholy; DRG starts harnessing nidhogg's power directly through dragon sight and nastrond.

the tanks are divided in two: warriors and gunbreakers get huge damaging upgrades at 70 in the form of inner release and continuation, each of which lets them hit the same button many times for lots of damage and satisfying animations. paladin and dark knight get more protective abilities; dark knight gets the blackest night, and there's been plenty said about that already by pretty much everyone.

paladins get passage of arms. instead of a relentless new attack (and you get requiescat at 68, which is a way bigger deal for your dps rotation), your big reveal at 70 for zenos in your fight in ala mhigo is a superior way to protect your party, a shield that lets you stand for your allies so they never have to fall for you again. it's lucia's same shield, except you need no allies' shields to reinforce you, proof of your martial prowess and your ability to transcend limits, and perhaps in truth a reminder that you never really stand alone.

in many respects passage of arms should really feel like a paladin signature move to you now if you are playing it at this point, because you should be popping it in pretty much every fight (you are using your mits, right...?). basically every FFXIV fight has at least one big AOE with downtime that warrants passage of arms usage, usually after the mid-fight add phase with slowly filling bar. since that AOE usually drops during downtime, there's no reason not to pop passage of arms (which otherwise restricts your movement and actions), and even on normal, sometimes every little bit counts on a damage check even if it means dropping DPS (thinking here of harrowing hell P10N on release, which was...less consistent for a lot of roulette parties than you might hope).

so from 70 onward, passage of arms is in a sense a paladin warrior of light's signature move, and certainly the one a player gets to most actually enjoy (since if you're using it, you're by necessity not doing anything besides moving your camera and admiring your sick animation). it doesn't have any competition in terms of spectacle until confiteor, and those you're usually throwing out in the middle of movement.

it's such a signature, in fact, that the only other person shown using your one-person version of passage of arms is your greatest admirer, who studied your legend for over a century.

and it's when he fails (should've popped arm's length, bud) that the warrior of light decides they can't let their friends fall for them, and sends them away with the transporter beacon. this is all wrong: you were meant to die for them, not the other way around. yours is the shield that stands between your allies and defeat. it is you who will win this passage of arms and break your opponents lance. and you do.

and then later, when they need to quickly establish zero's domain as a place of fallen grandeur, the home of someone who once believed in heroes but is now a cool and cynical vampire hunter d, what do they use? a decayed statue of someone in the paladin endwalker gear doing the passage of arms animation, of course.

from a visible instantiation of knighthood as a joint effort to defend what is sacred, to a tribute to the fallen friends whose memories stand by you and animate you, to a symbol of the wol's power as emulated by their allies or darkly mirrored in other shards.

not bad for a mit button you hit once per fight and otherwise never think about!

[bestgameostcrownduel]

Round 1, Side A: Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers (2019) vs Kingdom Hearts 3 (2019)

FFXIV | Kingdom Hearts

Campaigns under the cut!

Campaign for FFXIV:

oh my god where do I start. Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) is an MMORPG that's been going on 2013, or 2010 if you count the trainwreck that the current FFXIV replaced (the 2010 version's music was composed mainly by Uematsu, 2013 onwards is mostly Soken). Thus its OST is FUCKING HUGE and spans a whole lot of genres. If you like any kind of music at all you can probably find at least one track that speaks to you in this game. FFXIV has a category of incredibly difficult fights called Ultimate, comprised of multiple short phases that each have their own music. Because of the nature of how Ultimates are structured, they're the only fights in FFXIV where the music can actually be timed to the mechanics. If you're not afraid of story spoilers, look up any ultimate's BGM and you can see how cool this effect is. (I can't listen to Under the Weight without also hearing the sound of every mechanic and tankbuster.) (My personal favorite ultimate, music-wise, is The Epic of Alexander. Back when I was progging the fight I used to fall asleep listening to the BGM.) To The Edge is so so special to everyone who loves FFXIV. It's the theme of a boss in Shadowbringers; I can't give details without also giving major spoilers, but I will say that the story and this song deal with the themes of death and loss. If you look up the lyrics, which aren't too spoilery without context, you'll get what I mean. What makes this extra emotional is that FFXIV's main composer, Soken, was in the hospital fighting cancer when he composed this song. (To be clear: he kept working because it provided him with a desperately needed sense of normalcy, not because he needed to.) No one on the dev team knew aside from Yoshi P, FFXIV's producer + director as well as Soken's personal friend; the rest of the team found out the same time the fans did, months after the fact when Soken was in full remission, at the 2021 FFXIV Fan Festival (FanFest). To The Edge was already widely beloved prior to this because it's an incredible banger tied to an incredible story moment, but knowing what was going on behind the scenes during its composition, in addition to the story and song's own themes surrounding death, turns it into a piece that no one can listen to without getting wildly emotional about it. At the same FanFest, before Soken announced that he fought cancer and won, he performed this live: https://youtu.be/aBt4zT_PBmw?si=SgzTV9BvINfA0b-U Absolute king shit. With Hearts Aligned is also so so so special to me because it's the song that plays in the 'victory lap' second phase against the final boss that caps off a nine year long story arc. It features a leitmotif from The Maker's Ruin, a song from 2013, that represents the player and is often used when we overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. There are no words that can describe the sheer fucking emotion of fighting the final boss of a nine year long story arc while listening to the leitmotif that represents YOU, a leitmotif that you first heard however many weeks or months or years ago when you first started playing this game. The ultimate triumph, and the ultimate song of hope. Also if you like leitmotifs, FFXIV has /so many leitmotifs/. Have a spreadsheet of them: https://x.com/EENlX/status/1686043012353396736?s=20 Also also, Alex Moukala on youtube does more in-depth analysis of some of the best tracks in FFXIV! Great videos, I highly recommend checking them out.

I would put the entire game's soundtrack if I could but there's a LOT. The album I listed is for the "postgame" of Shadowbringers. Of particular note is the song "To The Edge" which was written while the composer, Masayoshi Soken, was battling with cancer.

Campaign for KH3:

yoko shimomura, the GODDESS, the LEGEND, her composing skills never fail to amaze! kh music is so so goodddddd

I’m not good with propagandizing but the OST for this series is so good. For KH3, I love so much of the soundtrack. The Disney worlds have some great tracks, but the endgame and dlc has almost nothing but bangers.

[theoneandonlyduskstrike]

Ramblings Reuploaded #2

My Trans story so far (2024)

Hoi there, and happy trans day of visibility. I can't possibly be more vissible then this right? I had to share my story with someone a few months back when i came out to them, and ever since then i had the idea of making it my next post in this inconsistent and confusing series.

I say series because this is part two. Here's part 1 on...sonic cd. yup.

So the format is simple. I take something i already typed and try to make it more legible for a blog type racket. No reason not to get right into it. Beware of typos, and transphobes begone!

I'm a kid in a barber shop. My grandpa is talking up a storm to some random clerk. I'm extremely bored. There are some toys though. Poly pocket. I never seen these before. These are so cool. I wish i had one of these but they don't make boy versions right?

Some time in 2022, I was at work dealing with closing cleaning type things which let my mind wander. I started thinking about a fairly innocuous interaction I had in FFXIV no earlier then 2021. The race I wanted to play was gender locked so I was playing as a female character. Two players starting joking around with me and the whole time they used fem pronouns for me. I didn't think too much about it back then but on that day in late 2022 it made me question why I was so ok with that use of language towards me

That was the day my egg cracked.

I spent the rest of 2022 trying desperately to figure out what my relationship to gender was. Just what the heck was I and did that even mean anything? Maybe I was gender fluid. It was hard to feel fem at work. Or oh! Maybe i'm just a drag queen in the making. But why did I not want that to be true and did that mean anything? Well clearly i wasn't actually trans right? Nevermind that gender fluid was trans. I thought maybe that I only felt that way because I was playing a character. So I made up my mind. In 2023, at the start of a new year I would begin to experiment.

It's around the era of the nintendo wii and something is bothering me feircly. I spent days on my gamecube on my tiny crt and realized I was picking princess peach a lot on my precious 'cube. I confide in my friend that I really must have a crush on her. When pressed I can't say why. I'm so glad he doesn't embarss me for my stupid feelings. It was a little weird I didn't like her as much in that one game though. Not my fault she just looked better in a dress.

I stopped cutting my hair and started trimming my beard and prized mustache so I was always smooth and baby faced. Anyone who asked I simply told them that it was a new year and a new me. Except for my friends who were the first to know.

My imposter syndrome was HIGH. And it remaind so for a long time. so afraid was I that I was actually, secretly, a fake trans. I had no evidence for this except piss poor self confidence. I only talked myself out of it much later with the idea that "Being trans and just really thinking you're trans is functionally the same so it doesn't mater if i'm 'fake' "

Unfortunately, my friend group wasn't doing a lot of online gaming at the time. I got a little desperate to see if my new pronouns fit. To my shame I basically asked one of them to contrive reasons to put pronouns into a sentence so they had reasons to use my new ones. They did not oblige.

Another pokemon game for my precious nintendo 3ds. I pick the girl because clearly they'll have better fashion options. I had just learned my lesson from Pokemon Y. No other reason. A few other simular things. I pick up megaman zx for the first time and choose the girl because, obviously, only female megaman.

I got a break when I was invited to a short lived DND group. I started hanging out with a separate friend group I was already beginning to know before gender stuff started. With ample chances to try my gender out I realized that something felt right.

So I went deeper. I remember wandering around a good will trying not to draw ire or eyes as I went and both tried on a dress and managed to bring it home. The few times I wore it felt great. Would feel much better if it actually fit.

It's my childhood again and i'm sat in front of the ps1 with my little brother. Namco museum only had one true co-op game. Toy Pop. I pick the girl so he won't have to.

In days to come I kept experimenting. I started to realize all the small signs. You already know many of them. I've peppered them througout my story. Unbeknownst to me I had already started to experiment with gender. Awhile ago I, once again trying not to get attention, bought some thigh highs from a party store. I really enjoyed wearing those. Everyone except for me knew I was trans before me, including me.

When I was dead certain on my path I set up an appointment with planned parenthood. I told my grandparents I was simply heading to Dave and busters which was technically not untrue. I began my medical transition but I was also urged to come out to people. I couldn't live in the closet forever. So I did so with my very obviously gay manager… And it went nothing like I expected. It went well, but not how I thought. I ended up coming out to the whole work force as well.

The right wing had tricked me into thinking any "regular" person would react with shock and confusion on a reveal of my new gender identity. All the media I consumed had colaborated this.

I'm just entering furry twitter when I see quite a few posts of male characters in dresses, usuasly of the maid variety. How cute, i think. I'm allowed to do this one because it's a shared joke. So i draw the one dress.

And then a few more.

"I wish I could look as good as my characters do right now"

Eventually I managed to come out to my grandparents. They were confused but attempting to be accepting. Things have mostly been rocky in the sense that they haven't made any effort to treat me the way I ask, but they don't deny me. The parents who raised me are forbidden to know their daughter.

I even came out to my astranged mother. (seperate from my step mother mention a second ago). When I was in highschool she moved back in town and we started to rekindled our relationship. Being the first to know I was ace, it was a shock when she became a born again christian. I thought she'd never accept me and I was almost right. Behind closed doors she tells my younger sister to not refer to me by my pronouns, or so i'm told.

After I was out for awhile something weird happened and I stopped.. Policing my own behavior. How I held myself. The words I used. I was my own women. I didn't need to fit into a box. The more I went on the more free I felt!

I started holding my hands in gay little ways. I crossed my legs. I walked however the hell I wanted. I used 'hon' whenever i felt like it. I wore this cute little collar I owned out to my weekly dnd meetings. Who cares. I'm me now. This cat can't be boxed.

The longer I've been on this journey the more I felt right. And here we are now. A two year or more journey still ongoing

It's 2023 and i'm attempting to put on eyeliner for the first time. It goes horribly. I laugh, inform my friends of my mistake, and we play games through the night. I wear my favorite of the two dresses. I ask them if it's ok to do so. They laugh. What and absurd thing to ask. Why would a woman not be allowed to wear a dress?

I would like to thank a huge number of people for their help in my journey but my brain is mush so i'll try to get as many as I can

@tuttifruttifox my ex who's been supportive of my journey and put up with my experimentation @biddyfox girl you are my sister and I couldn't have done this without you. Thank you so much for everything. @bigbadkingboomboo for casually replying to my nervous bullshit with "ma'am this is mcdonalds" which was simultaneously very funny and very affirming.

@cynical-cy for being you. Honestly just being a out trans woman who's art I happened to enjoy did wonders I think. Sorry to tag you. I know we're not really friends.

@patricia-taxxon that one fucking video you made on just being a furry and doing your own thing litterally changed me. You made me stop hidding who and what i am.

Honorable mentions to my friend xio. he doesn't do tumblr, but He's been my best friend through everything and his support is invaluable to me. I love you buddy.

if you think you should be on this list too, let me know and i'll add you cause honestly it takes a village to raise a catgirl.

[thefinalwitness]

me when i was conceptualizing l'aiha: i want her to be a shapeshifter of some kind!

me actually designing her (pre-ARR, hadn't started playing officially): i looked into precedents for shapeshifters in final fantasy and found espers; it also sounds like they can traverse worlds/dimensions so l'aiha is originally from the esper world but winds up in ffxiv's world!

me in late ARR/early HW: i really like the ascians haha. and they actually sound a lot like ffxiv's version of espers! maybe l'aiha's like... an ascian for hydaelyn instead of zodiark? idk if thats a thing lol lol

me in late HW: MINFILIA IS KINDA DOING WHAT I WANNA DO RIGHT COOL COOL WE'RE HYDAELYN ASCIANS/ESPERS

me in shadowbringers when emet-selch starts implying i Should But Don't remember the world unsundered: wow the convocation is really neat.... haha what if l'aiha was one of the ancient persons? NOT on the convocation of course that'd be WAY too on the nose haha. lol. *wants that*

me right before the hades trial: OH MY GOD WE WERE AN ANCIENT PERSON???? FOR REAL???? OH THIS IS SO COOL

me when hythlodaeus gives you the 14th seat's memory crystal in 5.3: are. are you implying what i think youre implying.

me at the end of 5.3: L'AIHA WAS ON THE CONVOCATION BABEY HASHTAG CONFIRMED!!!!!!!!!!??????!!!

[styrmwb]

Favorite Final Fantasy Music (FFXIV - Stormblood)

I don't think the copypasta has reached Stormblood yet BUT ANYWAYS 2ND EXPANSION LET'S DO ITTTTTT! This is when I started playing XIV! Lots of fond memories of TP (0 fond memories of TP). Something Stormbloood does, very similar to XIII, is the main motif. That shit is EVERYWHERE. And luckily, it's Amazing, so I literally am not complaining about hearing it all the time (spot #1 on this list goes to the stormblood quest accepted tune).

Something I will preface with is a lot of the music I love here is in the Omegascape raids but it's all (mostly) remixes! I love all of those songs but it would be doing this soundtrack a disservice to put any of them in this list (That Dancing Mad version is fucking dope though)

5. Crimson Sunrise Easily my second favorite main city theme. I feel like I can't say much about the melody, cause it is The Stormblood Motif and I'm probably gonna say some more about it later down the list, but I will say I love the instruments used here. The flute and plucking (I think it's a shamisen) is really calming, and the slow tempo of the drums (taiko?) add to this, while also giving that grand nature befitting of a huge city.

4. Dangertek Completely different vibe from the last song. This was originally introduced in PvP, but I more commonly experience it in treasure maps. It's an absolutely banger techno remix of Hard to Kill, the FATE Boss theme, and it's my favorite version of the two. The melody is sick, the guitar playing it rocks, and that heavy beat is a bop. I also really love the interlude section that I can only describe with the BADADUNBADADUNBADADUN noise going back into the Hard to Kill riff again but from a distance, it's so coollllllll I love this song

3. Triumph Part 2 of The Stormblood Motif; but I think this version is the most stand out example. This also includes the Ala Mhigo anthem for an epic combination of both sides of the expansion, a lot of eastern instruments included. I love the start of this song with the japanese flute and the more middle eastern sounding guitar (I have learned that this is called an Oud!) again, showing that combination of two ends. The Ala Mhigo anthem played by the brass builds up the intensity of the song, and then The Stormblood Motif rockets it into pure hype. It's so hard not to sing along to it every time it plays! The finale of this song sounds like a spiral wind down while still keeping the energy. It's impossible to hate any dungeons in this expansion when you know you're gonna hear this at the end. (STORM OF BLOOD, BORN FROM BLOOD, OF OUR FALLEN BROTHERRRRRSSSS! BORN UPON OUR HANDS, CRADLED IN OUR ARMS, SWELLING IN OUR HEAAAAAARTS! RAISE YOUR WEARY HEAD, HEED THE CALL TO ARMS, RINGING IN YOUR HEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!!!!)

2. Amatsu Kaze Bringing in that classic Primals rock to this list in my favorite way, Amatsu Kaze is a song I literally liked so much I learned to sing to it despite not knowing Japanese (I'm sure my pronunciation is horrible don't worry I keep it private). That fucking bass at the start is legendary, not to mention the electric strumming and the strange vibraphone like pongs creating a super unique sound. It's not a very high speed intense rush song, but that slower deliberate nature is perfect for Byakko being this massive brutal creature. To the main meat of the song, I love how it's the first lyrical song in XIV to be in Japanese! I mean, like, I don't see why they wouldn't cause it literally takes place in the Far East, but I still love it. The verse sounds like he's holding in his anger, the refrain getting more angry, and then finally screaming in the chorus (I looked up music words for this I hope I'm using them right). The very end of the song before the loop sounds like an absolutely mindless rage, looping and spiraling before calming down once more. What else is really cool about the lyrics is it's actually telling Byakko and Tenzen's story (also shoutouts to the XI reference let's goooo), which the next of the Four Lords' song also does. This song is addictive to listen to, only getting more hype as it continues. In the Primals version, it even has Yoshi-P singing it which is fucking outstanding. (KAZE TODOROKE KAZE TODOROKE KAZE TODOROKEEEEEEEEEE)

1. The Worm's Tail COME DON THE MASK OF BLIND BETRAYAL E'ER DOES THE HEAD DEVOUR ITS TAIL AS IRON BENDS TO STEEL O'ER MY RIVALS I PREVAIL! This song has a beginning so fucking epic, they use it twice in the game (granted the second time was a medley BUT UHH SHUT UP). The Worm's Tail is my favorite final boss theme out of all of the XIV expansions. As you can probably tell, I fucking love that intro. The massive choir setting the stage as you fly into the heavens on a giant fucking dragon that you're literally trying to kill, the drums slamming to raise the song further, I hate using this word so much, but it's fuckin epic! The final note brings tears to my eyes. When the song actually starts, it goes into this really really cool melody that's very bouncy and I THINK it's waltz like? please feel free to correct me on this I need to expand my words but I hope you get what I mean. It's a very unique rhythm. I love the middle part between it looping, continuing to raise the song even higher, almost like that audio illusion that keeps going up despite not actually going up? It gives that illusion of height as it should. The entire way through, the orchestra continues to sound heavy and grand even during the "calmer" parts, which for the size of this fight and Shinryu himself, I think is perfect. Finally, we reach The Stormblood Motif Part 3. The finale of this expansion HAS to fucking have it. The melody itself already sounds uplifting, it already stokes the fires in your heart. Combine it with the sound of this song and the context of the fight, and it brings it to the highest level it could possibly go. Last thoughts, cause I couldn't put them anywhere else, but while the base version is mainly gibberish vocals, the official orchestral version actually adds lyrics (same with Ultima and Heroes), and this song is essentially sung By Zenos. It talks of rising above, it talks about being the beginning and the end, and it's even partly sung in latin, befitting the Garlean Empire. The entire song is Zenos's victory chant against you, but you almost combat him equally with Storm of Blood overtaking the entire song. It's fuckin poetic, man.

Honorable mentions are: Prelude - Long March Home, Heroes of Stormblood, Gates of the Moon, Beauty's Wicked Wiles, Answer on High, Wayward Daughter, eScape, Sunset, Sunrise, and From the Dragon's Wake. (and again like every song in Omegascape and Return to Ivalice (those songs are just straight ports but tactics music fucks))

[blood-orange-juice]

So I just start playing the free trial of ffxiv because of your posts about it several times pique my interest, any tips?

I'm always happy to lure more people in this amazing game!

Hmm.

Don't rush, endgame is not as important in ffxiv as in other mmos. If you want to level a crafter, take a two month long fishing trip instead of the main quest or just do all the side quests in an area these are all intended ways to play the game.

Don't skip cutscenes for the sake of the party, an important part of this game's etiquette is to wait. It's Final Fantasy, we are there for the story and most people want other players to experience it uninterrupted.

Don't fret over which class to level first, eventually you can have all classes on one char. I would avoid picking a healer or a tank as your first though (conjurer, maradeur or gladiator). Navigating dungeons as a class with more responsibility can be stressful, while dps can just follow others and hit things.

Do the training instance before your first dungeon. It's called "Hall of the Novice", story gets you there around lvl.15 and it gives you cool gear and tips for your role.

Update your gear as you level and do the class quests. Your weapon is the most important piece, leg and body pieces come next. You can buy gear from city vendors if you didn't get dungeon drops, a lot of side quests give gear too.

Around lvl.35-40 look up your class rotation in google. The game doesn't really teach you that.

There's almost always some event going on, they are advertised on the launcher screen and usually start at the upper level of Limsa Lominsa. These give cool glam and minions and it's more fun to travel around well-dressed. You'll need to be lvl.15 to participate.

People often say the base game is boring and you need to just endure it and push through to get to the fun parts. Personally, I don't agree with it (it's doing a lot of important worldbuilding that is necessary for the later story beats to work) but it's indeed a glorified tutorial. Something resembling a story starts around lvl.35 when you beat Titan, proper story only starts right before you get to Ishgard.

I highly recommend to do Rogue quests even if you don't intend to play the class (So You Want to Be a Rogue quest on Limsa lower level), they were written at a later stage of the game by a better writer, so you'll get a taste of how later story looks.

Do the Crystal Tower raids ("Legacy of Allag" quest in Mor Dhona) once you've done with the lvl.50 base game finale. They become mandatory at some later point anyway and it's a lovely story.

An important technicality is to decide whether you want a Steam or a non-Steam version, you character isn't transferable between them (which can be a bummer if you decide to buy the game on a different platform).

And welcome. ^^ I hope you enjoy your ffxiv journey!

[joviantwelve]

Oh boy, probably should have gotten this out for the ol’ worldbuilding wednesday, but...here’s a big one!  An elemental system for Rixile!

The tl;dr is that the group of ten is split into two separate main groups, creating five dichotomies!

The dark star is “chaos,” and the light star is “order.”  Each element represents a specific categorical role in the cycle of elements, with the ones directly across each other on the opposite star acting as the "poles.”

I enjoyed integrating order/chaos this way, because I’m starting to really dislike how it’s the new version of “good vs. evil” in things.  BOTH are productive and useful to have in a world’s magical systems!!  They’re not objectively good or evil!  The gods of Rixile represent more “balance” or “harmony” this way.

I typed up a formal introduction of the system and its related concepts at Toyhouse, which you can read here.

Below the cut is further elaboration on the creation of this Double Pentagram Chart specifically, and things I would like to do in the future with this system.  It will make more sense if you read that TH post, but admittedly it’s mostly me being excited about possibilities, where before there weren’t many.

This is something I had been chasing for a LONG time...sort of a holy grail of worldbuilding for the setting.  I never mentioned such a “system” before, because, well.  I just.  Didn’t have one.  If I wanted to incorporate one, I wanted it to be interesting at the very least, so if I couldn’t manage that, I just wouldn’t bother.

In my various revisions of Rixile there’s all sorts of silly charts I attempted to make, but I often followed Pokemon-esque principles of rock-paper-scissors strengths and weaknesses, but it felt very...phoned in to do it that way, and I could never make the circle include all 10 in a way that felt right.

Here’s one from 2008, for example:

I have no idea what the fuck this means.

Also, hey, including Light and Darkness in your elemental system actually sucks, because they’re SUCH a dichotomy that it’s hard to integrate them with anything else.  This is probably why every mobile game with elemental RPG mechanics out there just has light/darkness counter each other all alone, because it’s a hassle...

BUT LATE IN 2021...THE IDEAS CAME TO ME.  Thank you FFXIV Shadowbringers.  By embracing a dichotomy structure for EVERYTHING, I don’t have to worry about rock-paper-scissors at all, which I think is a good way to start attacking this.  I don’t necessarily WANT a system of strengths and weaknesses...more just...Interactions?

Here is a gif of the “opposites” thing btw.

I realize now it was a mistake to have this transparent and the line be white, but oh well.  It will look better on my blog itself.

For Rixile proper, opposing elements interacting creates dangerous conditions such as disasters, and may explain things like demons.  I wrote another TH post about how including EVERYTHING as “elementally aligned” works in Rixile thinking, as well as an attempt to include like, fairly modern real-world science within this magical framework regardless.  I don’t want “magic” and “science” to fight in this world, either.  Like order and chaos, both work in tandem to create a further unified whole. 

If we take the elements as introducing harmony, then I guess Rixile’s big dichotomy is harmony vs disharmony, which is not the same thing as order vs chaos.  Lmao.  I guess it could be seen that way, because “disharmony” in Rixilian terms means disease, disasters, haywire magic, etc...but “chaos” in Rixilian terms means “natural fluctuations.”  Natural vs unnatural?  Hmmm.

Well, whatever the case, I feel comfortable about how this turned out.  I think I should also mention, mostly because I can’t think of where else to put this in the post, that you could consider the gods as “elementals” for the setting.  It’s just that, being purely one element is also a quality of divinity here.  Everything else is a mix.

Back to the chart, I love that it’s a shape!!  A cool shape!  I think having some sort of cool-ass graph for your magic system opens up a lot of possibilities simply by connecting lines.

But also, it’s kind of where I fall short...because I can see other places this layout can go, such as:

(Again, looks better not on a white BG, sorry!!)

But...I’m not sure what these mean.  All I’ve figured out so far are the opposites and their relationships.  Which, admittedly, is largely helped by there being rivalries in the pantheon in the first place...the only one that didn’t really exist before is Volt/Phyll.  (even now, it’s not really a “rivalry,” they just don’t really vibe with each other.)

So for this, I guess it could be complimentary forces?  The “warm” elements of fire/earth/light are up there as a trio, with “cold” metal/dark/ice below...There does seem to be a kind of progression to the perimeter, similar to what I think I was going for with my old 2008 draft, but I haven’t figured out what it exactly means in worldbuilding terms yet.  But I would like to integrate it!  You have Terra/Volt/Galvan all in a line there, SURELY it means SOMETHING.

I think leaning on the five categories I gave the elements would help me come up with something, like how they’d interact in terms of the “cycle,” or whatnot.  Much to think about.

The final geometry I can see in the double pentagram...

I guess I’d call this “triads”?  Trios within their singular side of order/chaos.  The previous two relationships involved a chaos one and an order one, so I feel like this would have to emphasize how it’s only one side.  But what, again...dunno.  I love how Nocturne/Ignus/Mist is one of the triangles, though.  It’s perfect!!

And that’s part of the magic of making this, for me...seeing interesting relationships potentially manifest through mere proximity.  I might not have ideas for the full system, but the basics have been planted, and I’m interested to see what it could produce for the setting in the future.

[nosafeharbour]

Pandæmonium: Anabaseios thoughts/reactions

Hoo, boy... I have so many thoughts and emotions that I need to untangle here. I wrote up some initial reactions as I played, but I'm glad I slept on it and went back through my screenshots to mull them over.

I liked it. I think it's one of the strongest raid tiers in story and set pieces both. Do I like it over Abyssos? I can't say, I'll have to see how I feel in the future. Last night I felt a lot more conflicted over it, than I do today! Letting it sit in my mind was a good thing.

My Abyssos thoughts are here, if curious!

The first fight was so cool! Loved the voice acting, and the memories/souls... especially the mage, who was giving me Mhachi mage vibes. I want to make them into an OC... the martialist and just, a Behemoth, were also very neat

[blows up myself up with my mind]

He did the italicised you... my favourite...

Lahabrea and Erichthonios hanging out with us so casually in the Aitiascope is very charming... especially the researchers cowering away. I can’t believe these are some of the only two people alive outside of the Scions to have ever seen an Ancient

You’re scaring the hoes

When I tell you that I started quaking and did not stop until I finished the tier. The incredibly stormy maelstrom of feelings over “I’m getting the thing I wanted, but I don’t know how it’s gonna go or make me feel yet”

Oh, the places we shall see! The sad faces we shall make! God, she’s really going through it

This area was gorgeous... I love it when they put my monochrome WoL in monochrome spaces. The hand and eye motifs here were stunning

The Pandæmonium fight itself was SO cool... the voice acting and mechanics were really fun. This is probably the fight (asides from P12S P2) that I’m the most curious to see in Savage

[nervous shrieking laughter]

ABSOLUTELY adore this. I was really hoping it was going to be what the Heart of Sabik looked like, or representative of it, in a way.

[shoving my entire fist in my mouth]

Gaius mention... while Lahacred is on screen... nodding, smiling

The slow zoom as they silently stared at each other... pretty sure Lahabrea knows that Albi could confirm his suspicions, but neither of them want to say anything.

I quite like the framing of this memory of Lahabrea - we’re picking up where we left off after knowing him in Abyssos, a “version” of him from closer to the Final Days, but with the context of nothing he learns or experiences here having any impact on the “real” Lahabrea that we meet later on. We get the character set piece, without any longlasting character growth. He gets to learn about his future self, but not in a way that impacts that future. For the WoL, it’s such an interesting mix. A man discovering his future horrors. But WoL is reluctant to say anything, so it’s a very stubborn game of chess.

It’s from here on, with the real and grounded Heart of Sabik lore, that my thoughts get much more complicated! Not in a bad way, I’m just overwhelmed.

It is interesting that it does, ultimately, all stem back to the High Seraph. I have/had a complicated view of the Ivalice raids... even as somebody who loves FF Tactics, I felt at the time that they felt too much like transplanting FFT/XII lore into FFXIV in a way that didn’t feel as smooth and natural as other homages. I didn’t enjoy Ivalice until The Orbonne Monastery, and Bozja, the latter of which did the most for soothing those feelings... The implication that the Heart of Sabik was auracite that stemmed from the High Seraph, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I’m still not sure how I feel about it! At the very least, I can really respect them holding fast to their own internal lore. Ivalice isn’t any less important or major, for being a piece of side content.

Equally interesting that the reason Azys Lla was involved, specifically the Aetherochemical Research Facility, was because Lahabrea was still carrying the Heart of Sabik with him until the day he died. The memories of Athena still within it, called out to the shard of Erichthonios... I had hoped that there was going to be some further connection to “our” Lahabrea and where he seemingly died there, but I guess he truly did die. Again, respect holding fast to their lore!

So Ultima, as a spell and a concept in all of it’s forms from Ivalice, to  Pandæmonium, and finally to the Ultima Weapon and Werlyt, does truly originate from Ultima, the High Seraph. But the Heart of Sabik itself, has the most major ties to Athena. I’ll put my more specific thoughts on Ultima at the end.

bbbbbbbbbb

Oh my god... they did it... I really love Elidibus a lot (in a “sleeper agent” way where I don’t think about him much until he’s on screen in front of me, but he is the other Ascian other than Lahabrea that really had me invested and hanging onto the Ancients plot) but I’m so, so glad for the Elidibus fans. To get to see his true form, and for it to really lean into the blind justice themes, it’s so good. I’m emotional

And the arena... this truly is the original meeting hall/chambers for the Convocation, is it not? The way it directly mirrors the meeting space the Ascians use in the Rift is amazing. The light pouring in through the windows, the views of Amaurot outside of them... amazing. The sigil on the banners surrounding the hall is Lahabrea’s, so I wonder if this is the Speaker’s hall, in some manner?

P11 itself made me tear up randomly during the fight, lmao, I don’t remember the last time that happened... maybe the Werlyt trials, or Endsinger... the music hitting crescendos, seeing attack names that so closely catered to Elidibus lovers, and the feelings of this being the truly last chapter to the Ascians/Ancients... it got to me.

Ahh... so I have complex feelings about Albi ever using/giving her aether out like this, even when the WoL does it fairly often. After her incident at The Ghimlyt Dark in 4.5, she hasn’t been able to control her aether in a manner she could offer it to others, and even since recovering enough to return to the mantle of Black Mage, it’s still something that she’d pause before doing.

But this moment felt right. It reminded me of this moment, the last time Albi did something of the sort;

And considering who that was done to defeat, it feels poetic!

Additionally, I’ve had a lot of thoughts since Abyssos about Albi’s aether... I’ve been bouncing back and forth on this idea of Lahabrea doing something with her aether, half motivated by him actually imbuing you with some in order to summon allies just before P8, but also because an Ancient who is so heavily aspected to fire, who already does comment on the WoL’s strange composition, wouldn’t be able to not notice Albi’s still inbalanced fire-aspected aether. I’ve had some scenes I wasn’t sure if I wanted to write or draw, but now I’m just certain that he did take note of it... I think the context is that he gives her some aether after she’s so worn out and woozy from P8, and while it’s not something she consents or agrees to, his feeble poke does help mend the last bits of damage to her aether. This is a story for another time, but, it all goes into this moment with Albi’s aether.

Tangent over!

These lines of dialogue just really hit.

I really adore this design, as much as I am like. Oh my god noooo the lunar moth with eyes thing was my Light Warden/Titania design for Albi! First she took Ultima from me, and now this badass design. I’m happy but like NO, WAIT lmao

Considering Athena has the same hair colour/style as me irl and I’ve always found that amusing, I’m... she’s taken everything from me...

(I really, really like Athena, so I’m allowing it)

I like that she’s simply Theos, to go with the Hemitheos title that the others got. She’s a full god.

The High Seraph’s angels... I know I already talked about my thoughts on the High Seraph, but it was only implied until post-raid. This is the moment I was like ohhhhh yeah, this is 100%

OH, THIS IS... THIS... [shoves my entire fist in my mouth, again]

Glad that we wiped 2 or 3 times, so I could get a few different angles on this. She’s doing the same gesture with the arms, and it’s the same effect, as when the Ultima Weapon casts Ultima.

And it’s called Theos’s Ultima... I only noticed this going over these screenshots again. The Weapons in Werlyt used Optimised Ultima, there’s this, and then I think only Ultima Weapon and Pandæmonium use “just” Ultima. Unsure about the High Seraph, perhaps she does too? I’ll have thoughts about this later!

It was very cool to see what a person using Ultima looks like! Again, I’ll have thoughts about this at the end. The elephant in the room on my personal WoL lore, lmao

I do like Athena, as a character... I’ve always wanted more women villains, especially one who is so unapologetic, and covers the facet of the Ancients that I didn’t initially vibe with; Hermes touched upon it, but the power to create and destroy, and act as a steward of life, is something that cannot only breed good.

And I love Erichthonios... I liked his send-off. He got the emotional farewell/”death” for the sake of the player and their journey. We know the true Erichthonios is sundered later on, but we get this moment

Ah... I am just... ahhhh

Here it is, here’s The Scene. This ended up being so close to a lot of what I wanted for their moment of closure, including the setting, but different enough in ways that were surprising and refreshing

You are him. The option and delivery here was just so perfect, I am going to think about this line forever.

Lahabrea calmly putting the pieces together, asking this, and having the calm response back from WoL... understanding the journey his future self went through, and not even faulting it, because he is so sure in his sense of self that he can see how he would go down that path. This isn’t like Emet balking at the idea of the things he did and calling it fiction, this was Lahabrea understanding, cursing his future blindness, but not even refuting what he does.

While we did not get the moment I really wanted, where we speak to the culmination of “our” Lahabrea who recognises us from ARR and HW, as well as Pandæmonium’s Lahabrea, this might fit his character more. It’s a nice moment in the writing. It’s a moment of dignity for ARR/HW Lahabrea, almost, recognising his acts but not dragging them to the spotlight.

And again, the way he simply and calmly accepts these acts. I love the moment of Claudien thanking him, and recognising him as the Speaker and not as the Ascian, because it’s another full-stop on the note of Lahabrea being someone who was so respected and adored. But Lahabrea, with his calm (”a calm heart stays the course”...) and collected mind, can simply brush that aside. I become your enemy, and your enemy deserves no sympathy.

Everyone (including Albi simply smiling at him) heckling him to accept the thanks is sweet, though. “If you insist on deceiving yourselves, then so be it. My stance remains unchanged.”... I like this writing a lot...

I also really liked Lahabrea’s “I will hear no more, you are not him” in response to Claudien wanting to bring up Erichthonios’s memory. It was a nice touchpoint back to the theme of “you are you, and nobody else” from Shadowbringers... we are neither Ardbert, nor Azem, Gaia is not Loghrif, and Claudien is not Erichthonios. Albi has a lot of complicated thoughts in regards to Azem in her interactions with Lahabrea, particularly in this scene, feeling as if she “should” be doing or saying certain things in order to honour their memory. So this was a good moment in which to hear Lahabrea say this.

I know this is not the “real” Lahabrea, but having this, in the eyes of the player and in context, essentially be his last words... ah... it’s good. It’s sad, and lacks the amount of emotional closure I really did want, but in a way that is simply so succint and fitting of Lahabrea’s character. He’s not as sentimental towards us as someone like Themis, or even Emet-Selch. This is fitting, for him, even if my heart wanted more.

There isn’t always a happy ending. You can’t always have things turn out how you want.

One last trip to wrap things up... Hegemone!! I dressed up as you for Halloween raid night last year. Good to see you

Hehe... I just wanted to say hello... :’)

This is one of the coolest shots and lines of dialogue in the whole raid series. I adore him.

Ah... he did it! It happened! While I suppose he did live without Hephaistos for a fairly long period of time before we encounter him in Abyssos, I was surprised that he’d rejoin with that piece of him so relatively quickly, afterwards. I was anticipating it to be right near the Final Days, if not afterwards? But this was a good scene. I liked the subtle change in him, after - he is still himself, but with that slightly sharper edge.

And then oh my god, we got The Scene... 2

Ah... I guess this is a nice counterpart to the more emotional, wistful farewell scene. Reading these lines again made me misty eyed though, lmao... This is underlining his stance; I am committed to my course, regardless of where it takes you. We are not alike.

I like it! It’s such a clear paralell to Emet’s final final words to us in Ultima Thule... my convictions are invincible. Considering I had issues with them softening up Emet a bit too much in his sentimentality for us, I like that they went out of their way to do the opposite with Lahabrea.

It’s curious - going by Erichthonios’s epilogue, and their mention of the event at the start, the memory versions we journeyed with were created right before the Final Days, they knew about their impending doom. The Lahabrea who gave us his softer farewells also has these memories of this more divisive parting. We got both the respected, wise man of days gone, but also this more haughty man who lines up more with the image we have of him as a villain... hm... I’m going to dwell upon this a lot and come back to it.

In both scenes, I do like his final words. At the same time, I’m glad they’re not his final words from the viewpoint of the Ascian, just in that I don’t have to redo my Final Words sticker set... LOL... but maybe a second set, with these Ancient versions of their final words

Erichthonios’s memory epilogue was good. I like how it all came back to the start.

This screenshot just feels so fake. To be holding the Heart of Sabik so casually... I wish it looked a little bit cooler. I was ready to make an enamel pin, or something.

Speaking of epilogues... damn.

I was SO shocked that this scene was voiced, as I’m sure many were. I’m so, so glad though. He deserved this; we got a bit of this in Endwalker, but getting this semi-final version of him created from pieces of him in the lifestream, meaning he is as complete enough as needed for this closure, with all his memories... it was good. It was very poignant.

This is a “where you go my dearest friend, fate shall surely follow” level of good line. God. This one is going to stick with me.

Goodbye.

Some final optional dialogue with Claudien to confirm the Heart of Sabik’s direct relation to the High Seraph... and there we have it! All done.

I’ll be honest, when I finished this last night, I knew I liked it but... felt depressed, nonetheless. I suppose it was a feeling not unlike grief, that in one day, I’d just seen the end of Gaius and Lahabrea’s stories, as well as the wider Ancients story. And while the latter has not engaged me so much in Endwalker as it did in the past, it’s still been such an ongoing thread, and Pandæmonium has felt like the only part of Endwalker I’ve really connected to... and now it’s over.

Today, especially after going through these screenshots again, and realising I was running on 3 hours of sleep yesterday, I am feeling much better.

I am still slightly sad that Lahabrea did not get as much focus in this raid series as I’d hoped! I wanted this to be his moment of closure equivalent to the Dying Gasp and the Seat of Sacrifice. Not only was the Hephaistos fight not his “true” self in the same manner as Hades, in the end... Emet and Themis just got ANOTHER set of nice moments of closure, in Ultima Thule and then in P11. Having seen Themis’s true form now, it only stands out more how we never saw Lahabrea’s. Themis got that voiced cutscene, but nothing from Lahabrea. I think I’m always going to be slightly hung up on that.

The other thing I felt weirdly conflicted about was that Ultima means so much to me - there’s this nervous energy that comes from having the Heart of Sabik now cleared up and attributed to other characters. Ultima coming in during the music in the Final Day made me cry when I first heard it, and I decided that Albi uses Ultima during that fight, with the help of some post-Werlyt research into the relics left behind from that, and dynamis. Last night, after finishing Anabaseios, I was left feeling like I couldn’t even use that any more. I never liked the High Seraph much, I was sad that none of the music in this raid tier even used the Ultima leitmotif, and now it was Athena’s “thing”...

But the whole point of Albi using Ultima was that she was reclaiming it in the name of hope, as she has done with Allagan relics before it, as she did with all of the final boss motifs in the Final Day’s theme. I’m still keeping it. :) Seeing that Athena’s was call Theos’s Ultima, I’m thinking Albi’s might just have a different name, too. Magi’s Ultima, or something. I’ll work on it.

My god, this post became so long. But I had a lot riding on Anabaseios! I’m happy with it. I’m glad that of all the tiers this expansion, the one I raided most fully was Abyssos, though, and that is possibly still one that means the most to me. But I’m looking forward to casually progging Anabaseios, and seeing what P12S might be like!

Lahalbi... real? Not really, not in the ways I’d hoped. But they mean a lot to me, as does Ultima.

[aotopmha]

Random FFXIV thoughts, almost at the end of A Realm Reborn patch content:

-I really enjoyed the "hard" versions of the first three primal fights.

-Snowcloak was pretty cool, too.

-I just really dig Dragoon, my instincts were right picking it as my starter. Still trying out Dark Knight as soon as possible come Heavensward, though. I hope I like it just as much on a gameplay level.

-The animations are just surprisingly satisfying on the class.

-It's so strange to play a free game that's actually good in 2023.

-But I really don't know if I can recommend it unless you have massive amounts of patience. I can skip the frustrating and less interesting parts because I know the story that's coming up and that I love it, but I feel like it repels as many as it attracts.

(Shadowbringers almost fixes the pacing and it rules for that.)

Those going in completely blind do not have this insight. And I think that's 14's biggest shortcoming on a narrative level (and now that I think on it, on a gameplay level).

This didn't stop it from gaining pretty massive traction, but I think it drives away just as many.

A lot of A Realm Reborn is either Saturday Morning Fantasy, Basic Dry Politics, Fantasy Jargon Wall of Text or Dudes Writing Fantasy, all wrapped up in that really awkward, flat anime voice acting. The key to enjoying it is finding Good Parts in it and pushing through the story because of them. And if you don't see any Good Parts for yourself, tough luck.

I would actually 100% recommend it as a game, but as briefly mentioned above that also depends strongly on if you like how the basic few buttons you get feel for you and if you can bear with the relatively simple base gameplay for the majority of the base game.

It's no issue to me because I've basically never played games with this type of gameplay, so I really welcome the really simple start.

But it is a slow burn any way you look.

And even the best of the story isn't free of any of the issues I listed. There is a bit of the story in Heavensward I just straight up dislike instead of feeling ambivalent about like I do most of the story's low points. Just a very specific plot decision I do not like at all even after a very long stretch of story has passed from it.

But all of it leads up to some of my favorite fantasy story stuff ever.

And even spoiling it doesn't really say anything! Because you only get the meaning in context. I can tell you what happens, but that doesn't tell you the feelings behind it because the story is about the feelings behind it. This story has somehow made the most ridiculous-sounding stuff emotionally resonant to me.

It is suffering to truly recommend it.

But it is free up to level 70, through all of the Stormblood content through the patches. You lose nothing but time trying it out. Honestly, the free trial probably is the best way to encourage people to try it, actually because if you hate it, you at least don't lose any money to it.

[taras-bulbasaur]

I still think the funniest possible scenario for a Hercules world in KH4 would be like. Donald and Goofy go to the Ancient Greece world and meet up with Hades, and once they’re done with that conversation Goofy’s like “gawrsh Donald, don’t you think Hades is kind of different?”

And Donald’s like “whaddya mean, Goofy?”

“Well he looks kinda like a pale version of young Master Xehanort and he’s got that weird mask...”

“He could’ve just decided he likes theater.”

“And then there was that pretty lookin’ purple haired guy with him, and I've never seen him before...”

“Aw, who cares, Goofy? That guy just talked nonsense. We’ve gotta look for Sora!”

“A-hyuck, I guess you’re right!”

anyway after meeting up with other Hercules characters (who also act like nothing is different) they run into Disney hades and he’s like IF YOU GUYS HELP ME GET THE UNDERWORLD BACK I’LL HELP YOU FIND SORA

and so they do and it turns out ffxiv hades was like “I took over because this incompetent loser was too focused on making bad deals with mortals and engaging in petty family drama to run his underworld properly” (and all the ff14 fans laugh about the irony)

And it’s kind of resolved enough that Disney hades is back and emet-selch gets to be a cool secret coliseum boss fight late in the game (including his EX form)

But you can never really tell if the Hercules cast were duped through some weird magic or if they were playing along because they actually liked emet-selch better...

[iamgroundzero]

munday asks!

@mightiboy​ asked: Every symbol that doesn't get sent to you in the next three hours. I want to learn more and get to know you better. I hope that's okay and if it's too much, we can limit it to these: ❓❤️💘🗒🎶🤗😀🎁🎉😗💯 (( Don't be mean to my friend Tyto. I will bite your cheek if you are. )) 

Alright, here we go...

🌈 — name(s) & pronouns 

I have a very uncommon name so I don’t give it out, just call me Tyto and my pronouns are he or they.

🎈 — gender and/or sexuality 

Somewhere in the nonbinary spectrum and asexual.

🎂 — age and/or birthday

May 6th is my birthday.

💕 — single or taken?

Taken

⭐️ — sun, moon, & rising signs, if known 

I looked this up just now haha

Sun: Taurus Moon: Aquarius Rising: Scorpio

💭 — MBTI and/or enneagram, if known

ISTP-T (I took a test for this)

❓ — three adjectives that describe you

Quiet, Friendly, Easy-going

❤️ — what are some of your best qualities?

I’m very easy to talk to (I think?)

💔 — what are some of your worst qualities?

I have sometimes crippling anxiety and inferiority complex issues.

✨ — what would you change about yourself, if anything?

I’d get rid of my depression.

💘 — what and/or who do you consider near and dear to you?

My fiancee, my friends.

🚗 — what vehicle(s) do you drive?

We have a Kia Soul right now but might be getting a second car.

✈️ — ever traveled anywhere interesting?

I’ve been to England twice (London and Cambridge) and Hobbitcon in Germany once.

⌨️ — what operating system(s) do you use? 

Windows 10

📱 — mobile or desktop version of tumblr?

Desktop. I hate the mobile version.

🖥 — favorite platform besides tumblr?

 Eeehh... I don’t really have a favorite.

🎮 — favorite video game(s)?

FFXIV, Monster Hunter

🖱 — any cool devices/tool(s) of the trade? (i.e. type of mouse, monitor, keyboard, tablet, etc)

My keyboard and mouse both light up? I think I can change the colors too but I just have them cycling through rainbow because it looks best.

💍 — any piercings? 

Not anymore.

💎 — want any (more) piercings?

Nah, I had my wild phase. xD

🖊 — any tattoos?

Two. An owl on my back and my first snake on my leg.

🔏 — want any (more) tattoos?

Yeah, someday, but I’m not sure of what. I have a few ideas of the theme, just not the execution.

🎄 — favorite holiday(s)?

I don’t really have one. Any of them that I get off work.

😍 — celebrity crush(es)?

Never had any.

😊 — any career desires?

Something where I don’t have to talk to people unless I want to (so like, no retail, customer service jobs) and preferably work at a computer.

📚 — if you’re in college, what’s your level (undergrad, grad, phd, etc) and/or degree program? 

Until I moved, I was working on an accounting degree, but after I moved I can’t afford it right now.

🎶 — favorite song at the moment?

I never have just one, so here’s a few;

Crusader (Are We There Yet) - BlackGryph0n & Baasik

Need the Power - Dankira!!!

Anti-Hero - Sekai no Owari

Lion - Hearts & Colors

I’m Good (Blue) - David Guetta & Bebe Rexha

📕 — favorite book/series?

Dragonriders of Pern, honestly. I also really loved the Guardians of Ga’hoole as a kid. Harry Potter (Controversial I know, but it played a major part in my youth and even if Rowling is a trash human being she came up with an amazing world that has evolved and grown far more than she’ll ever be capable of).

🧶 — any non-writing hobbies/interests?

Games.

📺 — favorite movie(s) and/or tv show(s)?

It’s been a long time since I’ve watched a TV show, honestly. My general go-to for movies is anything animated Disney/Pixar but I don’t have a single favorite anymore.

✏️ — how long have you been roleplaying on tumblr?

On and off since 2011.

✍️ — what other platforms have you roleplayed on?

Neopets. Gaiaonline. Proboards. Acornrack. Spleafnet. Avidgamers. Email. Skype. AIM. Yahoo!IM. Discord.

🗒 — what is/are your favorite genre(s)/theme(s) to write? 

Hhhh... Dunno. Slow-burn romance?

🤔 — what genre(s)/theme(s) do you struggle to write the most?

Fight-scenes.

😁 — what’s your favorite part about being part of the rpc?

Meeting people with similar interests.

😤 — what do you dislike the most about being part of the rpc?

Call-out culture. Feels like so many people are oversensitive.

💻 — how many friends have you made in the rpc? feel free to tag a few of them!

Quite a few, many of whom no longer RP.

🎧 — do you write while listening to music/podcasts/videos/etc, or do you need total silence?

Either works for me. Silence or music.

😀 — are there any rpc mutuals that you’ve met irl before?

Yes, but not from the MHA community.

😳

— what was your most embarrassing moment in the rpc?

I can’t recall any.

🫂 — how many friends are in your irl friend group(s)?

Like, 5.

🎉 — what are some of your favorite things to do with your irl friends?

We all live in different states but we used to go to anime conventions, before Covid happened.

😗 — what are some of your favorite things to do when you have some time to yourself?

Write. Listen to music. Play games.

💯 — share three random facts about yourself that your mutuals may not know about you.

1. I have a large collection of plushies, including a collected set that would be worth approximately $1000+ if I sold them on ebay.

2. One of my ball pythons, Marble, is a chimera and was hatched from the very first clutch of eggs bred by me (I no longer breed, they are all pets).

3. I used to be terrified of spiders and I’m still not comfortable holding them/handling them (not that they like being held/handled to begin with) but having to care for them has helped me otherwise completely get over my fear.

[tomatoart]

hi. thoughts on ffxiv? [vibrating at intense, earthquake inducing levels] asking for a . friend .

FOR A GUY WHOS PLAYED SO MANY FF GAMES IVE NEVER PLAYED IT UNFORTUNATELY mmo games are not my strong suit so i cant answer this w a cool rant but i like a lot of the character designs! my friend knew the original ff14 game and she told me a lil abt THAT version and I think the characters are well a bunch of gay people. my fave characters thst ive heard of are Carvallain de Gorgagne, because hes a pirate with weirdguy swag. Mother Miounne, bc she so pretty. Emmanellain de Fortemps, because im sorry but no one is immune to pathetic men. and of course Y'shtola, because i know the most abt her and im very in love with her design and everyone who is a big fan of her are usually such nice people ^_^ i see a lot of 14 on my dash so ive only rlly gathered designs and names, but maybe ill watch a playthrough one day of random quests.. im very flattered you care abt my opinions on it tysm it makes me compelled 2 eventually look more into the specific characters !!!

[its-raining-cats]

THE TEASER FOR THE NEW FFXIV EXPANSION IM GONNA SCREAM. READ MORE FOR SPOILERS BC PEOPLE PROBABLY HAVENT BLOCKED THE TAGS YET AND IF YOU WANT TO BLOCK THE TAGS LET THIS BE YOUR SIGN THAT IT IS PROBABLY TIME TO BLOCK THE SPOILER TAGS

ERENVILLE???? ERENVILLE IN THE TEASER TRAILER?????? ADVENTURES WITH BUN BOI??????? MY BELOVED???????

THE MUSIC. THE MUSIC.

we didn’t see alphinaud but I HEARD HIM

The fucking graphics in this good lord. I can see every pore in this man’s face.

NEW WORLD NEW WORLD NEW WORLD

I WAS EXPECTING MERACYDIA BC DRAGONS BUT I GUESS NOT??????

Mamool Ja city???? Looks cool as hell

Idk what the fuck meteor is fighting but it looks like it has two heads. At least I think that’s meteor. Idk what job he has in this shot, he has a sword but no shield so not Paladin, it’s not a katana so not Samurai…….. do I dare hope for red mage?

Or it’s a new job that wields yet another sword.

SCIONS IN THE TRAILER SCIONS IN THE TRAILER

G’raha Tia Burger 2

Thancred and Urianger…..

METEORS NEW HAIR OKAY GIRL

New hair, tits out, he is LIVING

He and all WoLs deserve it after Endwalker

I still can’t tell what job that is. The clothes aren’t giving me much. Not flashy enough for a caster, not armored enough for a tank.

WHO IS SPEAKING AT THE END. WHOS HOME IS WHAT WE CALL THE NEW WORLD. HAVE WE HEARD THIS PERSON BEFORE. I DONT RECOGNIZE THEM BUT I LOVE THAT ACCENT.

DAWNTRAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SUMMER 2024!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Further thoughts. We saw all of the ‘adventuring’ scions except for Alphinaud, but we did hear him at the start. Maybe he’ll show up in the next version of the trailer? We’ll see.

I hope we get to learn more soon!! I’ll definitely have to catch up with the livestreams.

[wanderer-of-light]

Not me thinking up of literally 3-4 more alts... sobbing. I dont even have oshidari look wise done or even a background for yaalti. Damn it. Its so true abt once you start making alts you just can't stop.

I have 1 ive been hesitating to make bc she's an oc ive had for AGES and i just think it'd be cool to see her in ffxiv. I was torn on her being a hyur or roe for a long time but hyur/elezen makes the most sense. Id have to find something out there that lets me add cute shorter ears to her to make it all really work. I alreasy have something for glowy eyes too so hehehe.

I ofc have a roe lady planned bc.... women 😳😳😳😳

I've seen vastha as an au ra and,,,, ho boyyyyyy. I would have juat made oshidari that version but no. Noooo no. Not sure if id make that vastha his own charatcer or just a possible short time fanta or something.

Horathgar women when they drop.... bro my god. Tho i s2g if theyre tiny and petite and ~sexy~ then no im just going to use the horathgar we have now and still make a lady bc fuck you you cant stop me + ive seen sooooo much good art of people doing the same so like. Major win.

[missingmywing]

@strangefellows made a direct attack against me so alas, take my wips. XIV has taken over my life and I’ve created a sprawling verse of the butterfly effects and accidental Ascian untempering and recruiting so that’s what most of these are lol, though none of them are published yet.

You once again get an essay length response because it’s me.

Rules: Share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. If you have written fewer than ten, don't be shy and share anyway.

It was time. There was an underlying buzz of energy amongst the Shadows within the Palace, and Arsène and Izanagi leaned against one of the upper walls on the outside of the fortress, looking out over the forest around them as the other ultimates of their arcana ensured everything was organized.

-First paragraph of chapter 4 of Shadows Within. It’s finally infiltration time! Which means that Arsene and Izanagi are Plotting.

2. Etheria didn’t know what compelled her. She should have known better.

Hadn’t the shard of Themis - of Elidibus - in the tower told her?

“The reality you wish to save - the reality to which you must return - exists as a result of the Final Days. You cannot reshape the past to undo the tragedies of the present. Cannot unmake the sorrow and suffering fated to come.”

She’d thought he’d meant that the events were unchangeable. That the past was set in stone, and she wouldn’t be able to affect it. But wasn’t G’raha the direct contradiction to that idea?

First section of Two Steps Back, one of my time travel fics in which my main WoL messes up in Elpis and creates a split timeline bc she panics and destroys Kairos. The Convocation quickly gets involved and oh look, now she has two timelines’ Final Days to avert. Azem is delighted at her involvement though, so there’s that.

3. As she slammed face-first into the ground, Etheria took several moments to comprehend what had just happened.

Cierread, a Sharlayan scholar studying the mechanics of time, had recruited her to help him investigate a dungeon that supposedly had tomes created by a former scholar who had been studying the subject as well. It had been a relatively routine run, they’d collected the tomes without undue issue, only to find them locked by magicks.

She’d ended up calling the other Scions for aid after the rest of the Sharlayan library had failed them - well, she’d mostly called on G‘raha and Y’shtola, as well as Themis and Heph, but the others had ended up there either by circumstance or curiosity - but when they had managed to force the first of the tomes open-

First section of Antics of Chronology, my second time travel fic that’s… well it’s supposed to be a much more humorous take on time travel shenanigans but it’s rapidly turning serious as per usual, so we’ll see. Basically I take the post-EW Scions and yeet them back to ARR, and they have to deal with the consequences and figure out what to do now. Etheria looks up from landing and sees Ifrit and goes “oh no”. (And just as a fun tidbit, Cierread is my versions Source shard of Nabriales and he did come back with the rest of them, so that’s going to be a fun interaction when he shows up with Moenbryda XD)

4. She awoke slowly, dry heat shifting uncomfortably around her in what should have been a cooling breeze, but wasn’t. It-

What was going on? She’d been… been…

… at her computer?

Yeah, she’d been at her computer, on vc with her FC, waiting for the new update for the 6.1 patch to finish downloading, and then they’d all hit play together and… and…

White.

Hear… feel… think…

The adventure continues.

What…?

First section of Fantasy’s Dawn. Aka Log Horizon, but it’s FFXIV and everyone wakes up in their avatar at the beginning of 1.0 (for legacy players) or ARR (for non-legacies) with each WoL having their own self-contained MSQ that adjusts to their own actions - except our main six heroes who somehow share an MSQ instance. Everyone is left scrambling trying to figure out how the metaphysics even works, and how much control they actually have over the world and story. (A lot, it turns out, to the horror and amusement of many.)

5. It wasn’t that Etheria didn’t trust Urianger’s judgement, or his expertise in aetherology, but she still maintained that they should have done fire directly after water, before moving on to earth and then wind, and then lighting. He’d gone into a lecture about aetheric flow and why activating directly opposing elements together could potentially do more harm than good, either canceling each other out or clashing and causing rebounds.

And she understood that - she did - but that was mere speculation and it now left them with their conundrum of lightning priming the area for life, but nothing actually growing.

Windburn, part of my exploration of how Eden goes in my main verse, this is the lead-in to the Ifrit-Garuda fight and my WoL’s terror at fighting not one, but both of them because she has very very bad memories of them both.

6. It had been quiet since the appearance of Mitron, none of them quite sure how to handle the situation. Hephaistos especially had been quiet - that stiff stoicism and clipped logic that spoke to a guilt he refused to admit to, something that she and Thancred had talked about following the events in Eden earlier.

They were all returned to Ahm Areng, for the moment, with Mitron still unconscious from her battle with him. It had been… different from her other fights with the Ascians. There was no precise calculation, no higher goal, no intent for the world at large.

He’d been frantic, focused solely upon Gaia, and his thought process had been disjointed and difficult to follow.

Paradise Forfeit, skipping to the halfway/end point of the Eden raids, which went slightly different from canon thanks to Lahabrea being untempered and Etheria more aware of the situation in general, so Gaia gets shielded and doesn’t lose her memories. Mitron his ass kicked a bit sooner too, and dragged out of Eden to be stabilized. It’s an exploration of Artemis letting Gaia go and finding his own stability, in the lead up to 5.3 (bc I place my Eden raids together in the span between 5.0 and 5.3 for streamlining reasons in this verse).

7. They knew. They all knew - had known from the moment they’d heard him speak at the gate.

But none of them could even begin to guess the details. How G’raha was here, how the Crystal Tower was here - it made no sense. The Crystal Tower was still standing tall and cold next to Silvertear Lake back home - closed, sealed, with G’raha most certainly still inside.

The theory they felt held the most weight, currently, was one Aella and Yiskah had formulated based on the Exarch’s words - that he was from a time removed from their own. Likely some years in the future, and he had been summoned to this world along with the tower and awoken upon arrival - thus making his earlier claim that he’d summoned the tower from a random point in time technically not an absolute lie - not that they would let him get away with that once they eventually confronted him about this.

Orchestrations, my SHB case study of Etheria’s relationship with the Exarch and Urianger and their plots. G’raha can’t get away with shit with my WoLs, sorry G’raha. Aella and Yiskah are archons who helped him with his own thesis and he with theirs, and S’ohlis has been pining since the CT raids. Etheria can sense aether, and Vale and Rosalia are a mercenary and pirate, they can recognize voices and tell when someone’s lying.

8. Etheria wasn’t entirely sure what to expect as she led the way up the stairs of the Crystal Tower, into the Ocular where the other three stopped. Themis in particular appeared wary of entering the Umbilicus - not that she could blame him. The version of him that was the piece of his soul she and the Exarch had sealed within the Tower was… Elidibus. While he had still retained some of his memories and mentality of his time as an Ascian, the majority of it had remained with the piece of his soul they’d pulled away; while the memories of his life before the summoning of Zodiark that he had reclaimed from his brief fall into the lifestream before Hades and Etheria had pulled him back as the him of here and now.

None of them were sure how the piece of Elidibus in the tower would react, or how their souls would react together.

Unto Elpis, as the name says it’s the lead-in to the jump back to Elpis in EW for Etheria in my main verse. Not much to say, other than poor Themis is in for a rough bit of adjusting to getting all the rest of his memories of the post-sundering back at once.

9. Azem had to admit, they weren’t… entirely sure how they were going to approach Lahabrea. Not that they were at all adverse, but they wouldn’t have gathered the boldness, the audacity, without Hyth’s prodding. The man was stern and focused on his work above all else, and certainly not the type to fool around. Especially with Azem, who was undoubtedly the greatest headache for him more often than not.

Styx knew that he didn’t hate them, or even truly dislike them, for all that he was often the first to criticize their methods and actions. But that didn’t change the fact that they were in opposition more often than not and that he would likely respond scathingly to a “distraction from their duties”.

Then again, perhaps it was simply a matter of constraints to work around.

The Lahabrea chapter of I Próklisi, a fic with the premise of Hyth going “Hey Azem, bet you can’t seduce the whole convocation” and Azem going “CHALLENGE ACCEPTED”. It’s a silly ridiculous premise that’s supposed to be generally lighthearted, but is… okay honestly it’s mostly a character study in Convocation dynamics, general lore, and character headcanons wrapped up in a thin veneer of smut. For example, I got less than a quarter into this chapter and was trying to plan ahead and just stopped to stare at Lahabrea and go “oh you have so much trauma from Athena don’t you” so. I can’t even say these are “plot what plot” because while there’s no real overarching plot, each chapter is definitely going to have a character based subplot.

10. Would that the rest of the Convocation was as easy to approach as Mitron and Loghrif, Azem thought ruefully to themself as they considered who to approach next.

There was always Nabriales, of course. They and Aion had casually tumbled into bed - well they usually didn’t make it into a bed; offices or debate rooms or far flung corners of the star were far more common - together several times. If they asked if he was up for it, chances were low he’d be uninterested.

That was kind of defeating the point of the challenge, though - it wasn’t supposed to be easy.

(The fact that Hyth had strongly implied that he’d managed it made them very curious about the stories there.)

The Fandaniel chapter of I Próklisi, though Azem doesn’t decide on him in the opening paragraphs. So far it’s just Azem worrying if he’s adjusting to Amaurot and the Convocation seat okay, inviting themself over for dinner, and then going to check with his lover (Asclepius, the ancient of my other WoL Yiskah) to make sure their overtures wouldn’t be overstepping bounds. I’m 2k words in and haven’t even gotten to the dinner, it’s just talking about boundaries and comfort levels so far. If that gives you any indication of what this fic is. XD

Uhhh who to tag.... @mirintala, @up-sideand-down, @boomchickfanfiction, and recent writing you feel like sharing?