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huntinghare · 2 years

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Very tempted to ask #6 so I can hear more hair dye headcanons buuut I figured I'd go with this one instead! 1. Why did they pick their first class/job? What about the job they main now?

(you are most certainly welcome to ask both! it's not something that usually comes up in most ask games, i'm glad for the opportunity to ramble about it.)

Is that their natural hair color?

Nope, his natural hair color is white! He used to wear it a lot longer, too. He cut it short and started dyeing it several years after he arrived in Eorzea, when it became clear to him that it was going to be his permanent home now, for better or for worse. He started putting in a lot more concentrated effort to blend in, speaking Eorzean full time and actively trying to get rid of his accent. It's also when he started going by Morcant full time, instead of his old forest name.

He's so used to himself with dark hair now that he's really really weird about people knowing it's a dye job, actually. The clothing he prefers can be kind of flashy and out-there in terms of style, but it's almost always very modest, without a lot of skin showing. If confronted about it he'll deflect by saying he doesn't like showing off his scars, but it's 100% because he doesn't like his pale leg hair. He's attempted to dye his tail on occasion so he can hang out on the beach but it's such a pain in the ass (lol) that he's more likely to just tell people he's afraid of the ocean.

Why did they pick their first job? What about the job they main now?

(The canon's a little weird here because he wasn't around when I first played ARR, my first class was summoner even though he'd never touch it. But I'm attached to Y'shtola being the one who recruits him to the Scions, so.)

At the time ARR began he was a lancer! As a young woodwarder he was trained in both the spear and the bow, but the events that led to his leaving the Wood soured him on archery, and he hasn't touched a bow since.

He dropped by the Lancer's Guild exactly once, decided he fucking hated Gridania, and dipped to pursue mercenary work in Limsa Lominsa. (This is partially because the forest makes him homesick as hell, and partially because he takes exception to white mages for religious reasons.) He did some freelance work for the Maelstrom for a while, and it was on one of these assignments that he first ran into Y'shtola and was recruited into the Scions. He first met Alberic while in Coerthas on Scion business, proceeded through the Dragoon questline that way, and remained a Dragoon through the rest of ARR, Heavensward, and the first chunk of Stormblood.

He first met X'rhun Tia during the ARR era, and spent quite a bit of time in between assignments helping the man out with assorted investigations. In his neck of the Wood (read: personal headcanon), Woodwarders are forbidden from using Mist that doesn't belong to them, so the handful of spells they pass down all have to be powered entirely on their own aether supply. Finding someone else with a similar mindset clear on the other side of the star really threw him for a loop, and he was instantly obsessed. X'rhun offered to teach him the art then, but he initially turned him down; the lance had been working well for him so far, and he'd never had much of an interest in being a proper mage, so it was mostly just curiosity and a want for companionship at that point.

The massacre of Rhalgr's Reach was a big turning point. Not only was his confidence shaken, but his left arm was badly injured in his first fight against Zenos, to the point where he nearly lost it. While they managed to save the limb, the recovery process was intense. He couldn't effectively wield a spear with only one good arm, and he hated feeling so useless and defenseless. The first thing he did once he was back on his feet was seek out X'rhun and beg him to teach him the rapier, so he could at least have some sort of weapon on his person. And once he had the basics of swordplay, well, it seemed only natural to go all the way and learn the red properly. And it's been his favorite ever since!

#hello don't mind the MASSIVE wall of text lmaooo #hits you with every headcanon at once it's Fine #wol!mor #also #mor.c #most of this is about the same across both verses excepting some timeline stuff

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rainbowrider1290 · 3 years

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Part 3 of my take on a genshin impact circus AU: Bennett, Fischl, and Razor as a beast-taming trio. Backstory under the cut.

Benny:

Bennett was adopted into a research team of zoologists (what in canon would be the adventurer’s guild). The ones that go out into the world and get their hands dirty in studying animals. He loved interacting with the animals, and though research was interesting, he always spent more time with the animal caretakers and vets than with the researchers so he’s extremely acquainted with their habits, how to feed them, when to keep them in captivity versus the wild, and how to regulate their environment properly when in captivity. He has this knack for interacting with them, even the big ones.

As for how he got into the circus: Well first off he got wind of how poorly these animals are treated in some circuses and got into the circuses for the caretaking purposes. He would hop from circus to circus to take care of the animals and show the performers how to Not Harm Them (like tigers jumping through hoops on fire??? Nuh-uh. Whips, tight collars, and muzzles? We don’t do that here). He certifies himself as a vet after a while of this.

More time passes and he realizes this is a bigger problem than can be solved by himself. He’s been kicked out of a few places and for a while had terrible luck finding work because some of his previous employers didn’t want to spend the extra resources on animal care (lacking funds and lacking planning for it) and spread word of a legal liability of a vet.

Aether and Lumine catch word of this and track him down to a little animal clinic where he works as an intern. They offer him a spot in their circus bc they’ve been wanting to introduce animals into the mix but want to plan correctly (like how many animals they can support properly). Long story short, Bennett gets into the circus and works with Yanfei to actually become a legal liability to the circuses not treating animals correctly, and he himself will take as many of those animals as he can into his corner of the circus and send the rest to his dads (since circus animals tend to be rare breeds and his dads have a branch of research on captive animals). And finally he can take care of his animals and show the world that you don’t have to harm animals for a good show. Mostly big ones like elephants, big cats, and camels.

He’ll do shows more like synchronizing movements between the animals and tricks like they do with marine animals. They do have cages for transport but they’re spacious and they take frequent breaks for physical activity. Benny will only take the animals that have been domesticated their whole lives and will send the ones fit to live in the wild to his dads to set free.

Fischl:

Fischl was born into the circus life and was that kid who would stop people from killing bugs, take them in a glass container, and set them outside. She regularly patches up the birds with broken wings she finds outside.

Def spent more time outside hanging with the birds than with the people in the circus, since birds aren’t technically a circus animal. Oz is an old old vulture (or falcon, I haven’t decided yet. If anyone can pinpoint his species please let me know) that has taken a liking to Fischl and so no matter where her circus goes, she sees Oz there to hang and bring her injured birds.

She once asked if birds could be circus animals and was told that they tried but it didn’t work out. She gets into reading the obscure materials on birds as circus animals and deduces that they just weren’t taking care of them right. She brings up this idea to the circus manager and essentially gets the door slammed in her face. The last time she asks about it, it’s to her parents and is told to find something realistic to do in the circus and forget about the birds.

From then she sees all the other kids her age in the circus training to be in the show in some way or another and hears what they say about her “head in the clouds”. So she starts training with different branches of the circus (gymnastics-based, death-defying stunts, fire, etc.) and she... genuinely considers leaving to pursue another profession.

Then as her circus is about to get on the road, she catches wind of a circus performing in the town they’re just about to leave. One that uses animals, and since her circus never used animals due to lacking funding, she goes for a night out of curiosity and on the off-chance that they use birds. She noticed that this wasn’t anything like she’d heard about or read about circus animals, so she sends them a letter addressed to the person running the animal part of the show asking about birds in the circus.

Benny’s response boils down to “well it’d be a little complicated but what’d you have in mind?” so they start exchanging letters and the next time the two circuses are near each other, she goes on over and brings all her letters after a show and sees how gentle Bennett is with the animals. They get to talking and Benny takes her to meet the animals, telling her about how he does things while she tells him about how she’d go about introducing birds to a circus.

Aether and Lumine hear about this and before she knows it, Fischl’s being told to get her birds ready, she has an audition in a month (spoiler alert: she passes). Her act is made up of all kinds of birds. Very few of them are housed on the circus for very long since she’s never liked the idea of birds in cages. The birds she uses are all the injured ones in the process of rehabilitation brought to her by Oz. She also keeps the ones that won’t fly again or never learned to find food despite her and Oz doing their best to socialize them. Those that don’t perform are excellent at taking care of the newbies and overall helping Fischl out.

At any given point she’ll be seen with about 3-5 birds of different sizes on her and she’ll always smell a bit like worms and seeds of various kinds. She expands on her first-aid abilities from watching Bennett, and in turn offers knowledge on birds and how to deal with smaller animals with different bone structures, metabolisms, and cardiovascular systems.

Razor:

Razor’s story is a lot simpler. Backstory is essentially the same as in canon, except he doesn’t meet Lisa right away, and spends a little more time with Varka learning to read and write at the most basic level and fight hand-to-hand. Instead of an abyss mage attacking them, it’s a group of hunters. During this fight, a lot of the wolves are gravely injured but he takes one of them and runs into town looking for help.

After a show, Bennett and Fischl are on their way to see Bennett’s dads to take some birds that can’t handle the circus life but also aren’t fit to be free. They happen to be in the town where Bennett trained to be a vet and they stop by the clinic to say hello. Inside they see a boy dressed in rags and covered in dirt cradling an unconscious wolf pup, trying to get the attention of one of the clerks. One of the clerks tries to help him but the communication barrier is not helping them and the boy seems distressed on top of that, pointing and growling with the word “help” thrown in here and there, so Bennett steps in bc he knows some of these people in the clinic.

Bennett comes in and he and Fischl follow him out to where the rest of the pack is. Fischl brings her birds bc they’re her babies in case anyone was wondering. They perform first aid the best they can given the conditions, and manage to save a good chunk of the wolves, but a good chunk of them still die.

The pack splits up into two. On the one hand, the older wolves take whoever’s still alive and resume their activities in the forest. On the other, Razor has this opportunity to go and find out whether he’s a human or a wolf, and the little wolf pup he brought to the clinic goes with him because she’s too injured to go with the others. Same for a few other wolves.

So they go and the only place they have to stay is the circus bc Bennett and Fischl want to monitor the wolves a little more, so they spend the night. Next morning, Razor gives Fischl and Bennett a basket of meat, berries, and seeds to feed their respective animals and they realize Razor has some valuable skills, so he ends up staying upon receiving the OK from Lumine and Aether and telling Lisa and Ningguang for administrative purposes.

Because wolves inherently do not do well with loud noises and circus settings, Razor is very off-put by the idea of performance. Not to mention that he himself probs wouldn’t feel comfortable in the performance setting, so he sticks to the background (even learning the basics of tech) and gets really good at gathering resources from food for the animals to helping Oz bring back injured birds and track other injured animals. He and Oz interact a lot, which helps his friendship with Fischl as he was initially closer to Bennett.

His relationship with Lisa after a while can be summarized as “focus up you little monsters. not you Razor. You’re an angel and we’re thrilled you’re here”

#genshin impact #genshin #genshin impact circus AU #genshin circus AU #genshin impact razor #genshin impact bennett #genshin impact fischl #I think this would be set in the late 1800s to early 1900s so there's like very few laws on animal care but they're still sending letters #and it probs wouldn't take bennett as long to become a vet #circus AU #genshin impact headcanons #genshin headcanons

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nadana-vhet · 4 years

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Prompt 25: Wish

Rating: General Audiences Summary: Alphinaud and Alisaie surprise N’adana on her birthday while they’re stationed at the House of the Fierce. Bonus: some good ol’ N’adana and Alisaie blinding pining for each other and being too dumb to see it.

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“N’adana!” The miqo’te heard a familiar voice call, glancing her head up from polishing her sword to see Alphinaud and Alisaie approaching.

They were both acting awfully suspicious in the way they ran up, all eager-eyed and excited.

It was late in the afternoon by now, probably close to dinnertime, she assumed. N’adana could only tell the time by the gaping hole in the ceiling of the House of the Fierce, letting them know that the sun was going to set soon – the sunset that would signify the end of her seventeenth nameday, spent uneventfully gathering supplies while the more intelligent ones in the resistance devised the plan to retake Doma Castle.

“Hm?” she asked them with a raised brow, watching pointedly as they tried to hide their smiles. Alisaie, notably, was disheveled and sweaty, as if she had just come from a bout of training.

“We just wanted to invite you to eat dinner with us.” Alphinaud tried to reply smoothly, but N’adana could already tell they were up to something. The way they hurriedly leaned forward to help her up was enough – they wouldn’t be this eager to simply make sure she was fed.

N’adana followed them without complaint, leaving her sword propped up against the stone wall of the cavernous hideout. They passed the aetheryte and slipped inside one of the doors carved into the stone, which led to a candle-lit room where the resistance kept all their foodstuffs and basic kitchen supplies.

Except today, the room was enchanted with a spell that caused small, aetheric bubbles to hang from the ceiling and faintly light the room. Alphinad’s carbuncle sat curled up on a mismatched chair at the single wooden table, which was set with an array of a modest dinner. There was bread and soup and a hearty chunk of meat on each plate, and in the center there was… a cake?

“Happy Nameday!” both of the twins exclaimed, stepping forward and wrapping N’adana in a hug that made her begin to well up with tears.

“You didn’t have to do this, you two! This is s-so nice, you didn’t…” Alisaie and Alphinaud chuckled as they pulled away from their friend, watching her as she wiped away her tears in embarrassment.

“Don’t be silly, of course we did.” Alphinaud assured her, walking over to the table and picking his carbuncle off the chair before sitting down and placing it directly back into his lap. He gestured for her to take a seat, to which Alisaie pushed her into before sitting in the chair across from her brother. “We shall treat you to a lovely birthday dinner, and then you can open your gifts.”

The three of them ate eagerly, the twins having labored over the food for hours and N’adana having forgotten to eat for much of the day (save for some breakfast she swiped before heading out for the day). N’adana thanked them no less than ten times in the bell it took them to finish, taking their time between bites to laugh and joke and simply enjoy each other’s company. By the time they had finished, N’adana pushed the war and the oncoming assault and her responsibilities from her mind entirely, if only just for a little bit.

Once they all seemed adequately satisfied with dinner, Alisaie leaned forward across the table to pick up the knife that was already sitting next to the cake. “Your first gift for tonight is this cake!” She smiled widely at N’adana, though there was a part of her gaze that made it seem like she didn’t feel it was good enough. It was a simply made cake, unfrosted and shaped like a bowl (likely how she cooked it over the fire), but impressively fluffy and moist looking.

Where had she found a candle like that, N’adana wondered.

Alisaie lit the candle, and thankfully the two omitted the traditional embarrassing bout of singing before telling her to make a wish.

“I wish…” N’adana hummed, closing her eyes and thinking hard for a moment. She could wish for freedom for Doma, or a successful siege of the castle, or even to see her mother or the other Scions, but there was one thing that came to her mind and fell from her lips before she even realized she had said it. It was her nameday, and she could be as selfish with her wish as she damn well pleased.

“I wish that the two of you will be my friends for many years to come. Even if we succeed in our goals and by some miracle don’t need to be around each other out of necessity, I hope that we’ll still spend just as much time together, and be just as close.”

Now it was Alphinaud’s turn to tear up, though he quickly wiped them away and reassured N’adana that they would do everything in their power to make sure that happened.

Another tender moment passed between the trio before Alisaie stood and leaned forward towards the cake. “It was hard to get together the supplies to make one, but I managed! I hope it tastes okay.” Alisaie smiled sheepishly before plucking the candle from the top.

“Shut up! The fact that you even managed to make me a cake in a barely-stocked resistance kitchen is… is-“

Alphinaud smiled between the both of them before raising a knowing brow at Alisaie, “Like I said earlier, ‘tis impressive, Alisaie.”

The elezen deflected the praise from both of them as she cut three slices, ranging from large to small (naturally, she gave N’adana the largest one, as was nameday custom). Alisaie took the smallest, nervously trying a bite of her own creation before crinkling her nose. “Damn, I think I could have added more sugar… maybe an extra egg.”

N’adana shook her head furiously, “No, stop that! This is, I’m not even kidding you, the best cake I’ve ever had.”

Alisaie snorted, “This is not better than that cake they served us the last time we were in Ishgard!”

“It absolutely is, because you made it for me!” N’adana shot back, sticking out her tongue before taking another large, satisfied bite from the cake.

Alisaie grumbled to hide the blush creeping up her cheeks, hoping the dim lighting from the aether-bubbles enough to hide it.

Alphinaud, ever the lifesaver, pulled out a rolled piece of parchment to distract N’adana while Alisaie tried to get over her embarrassment. It was tied with one of his blue ribbons, likely a stray found at the bottom of his pack to make the gift slightly more presentable.

N’adana untied the ribbon and opened the scroll to reveal what was inside, bursting into tears once more at the content she was presented.

“Is it bad? I didn’t work on it very long, it’s not my best work, but-“

“T-this is so s-sweet!” N’adana stared down at the drawing Alphinaud had made for her, trying her hardest to keep it out of the way of her tears. It was the three of them, smiling together in a way that made it feel as if she could simply look at it and hear their laughs feel their presence, even when they weren’t next to her. A drawing of her, perfectly rendered, with her arms wrapped around her two favorite twins. “I… I don’t know what to say, the two of you doing this for me and taking the time out of your day-“

Alphinaud breathed a sigh of relief, “I am full glad you like it. I know you liked to peak over my shoulder while we were traveling in Dravania, so I thought it would be a suitable gift.”

“It’s perfect – both of you, thank you.” N’adana sniffled, gingerly putting the drawing down so that she could wipe her eyes and nose of happy tears – something she hadn’t experienced in moons, at the very least.

“You have said your thanks quite enough tonight,” Alphinaud smiled affectionately at his dear friend, heart swelling at the sight of her so carefree and happy, “now I believe it is time to finish the rest of your gift, hm?” He gestured towards the rest of the cake on her plate, to which she eagerly nodded and finished wholeheartedly.

She was on her third piece of cake when she clocked out, leaning back in her chair and groaning in satisfaction.

“I have another gift for you, too,” Alisaie seemed to suddenly remember, digging into her pocket momentarily before pulling her hand back out, balled into a fist before she opened it to N’adana, revealing a necklace made of sturdy leather. There was a single red gemstone attached to it, wrapped in a gold wire, and hooked onto the leather with a matching clasp. “I found it at the market in Kugane. I knew your birthday was coming up soon, and it reminded me of you...” She shrugged as if it was no big deal.

It was certainly a big deal, at least to N’adana.

N’adana reached out and took the necklace from Alisaie’s hand, hesitating for what was probably a moment too long before grasping it and holding it closer to her face. It was entirely her style – simple, practical, and most importantly – it reminded her of Alisaie. “If you want me to stop thanking both of you, then you best stop being the most absolutely perfect, most thoughtful friends on all of Hydaelyn.” N’adana smiled at the both of them before clasping the necklace around her throat.

#ffxivwrite2020 #ffxivwrite #alphinaud leveilleur #alisaie leveilleur #wol x alisaie #n'adana vhet #teen!wol #faeluria writes #ok so #this is the first idea i had for N'adana and the twins and this is what really kickstarted my girl #the idea of alphinaud giving her a drawing of the three of them for her birthday #which she spent being the WoL and it was probably kinda lame #and just the fact that he does that #so this is what came from THAT #and i am SO happy #i love the three musketeers with all of my being

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semi-imaginary-place · 3 years

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3.0

maybe i should just cave and make an aether alt

still cant believe godbert has a seat on the syndicate. like the fact that they made the hildibrand quests canon and integrated the characters into the rest of the story.... its so jarring! just watching uldah cutscenes really and knowing thats godbert sitting there...

hildibrand has the echo??? time to make hildibrand the wol! looks like the scions just found its new meat shield. hey imagine hildibrand takes the place of the player character while izaikil and midgardsormr eat popcorn and watch the ensuing chaos. the events of ffxiv are a vacation to them. imagine alphinaud having to deal with hildibrand

I just realized it would make sense for aurele to be a healer. he has the personality of one and the only reason he isn't is because I'm a dps and when i started playing as aurele I wanted to play archer. i say "I'm a dps" even though i haven't played anything except tank in party content in months (I’m not a good tank btw)

when primals die they leave behind elemental crystals.

1. canonically is the player character soloing dungeons and trials and stuff or is it like a group of wols or what. 2. when estinien stabs nidhogg in the head, why did nidhogg go poof and not like leave a body? because the power level of the player character seems to fluctuate quite a bit...

albinnaux has an existential crisis about how this power isn't really his. izaikil is like: same bullshit different tuesday and i may or may not be making a third wol that's just a middle aged man cat.

Diamaunt is living her truths and compiling a comprehensive geologic survey of thanalan and maybe starting a mining collective

i just imagined aurele watering flowers. and my heart warmed.

now that i've thought about it. ffxiv crossovers really well with ffxv. like how there are similarities in settings of small kingdoms/city states facing invasion by technologically advanced empire, and in focus on the landscape and traveling. for example if insomnia was a city state in eorzea. or if adventurers and stuff existed in the ffxv universe.

oh so apparently the ffxv crossover and all crossovers, are canon. like vshooop! noctis got sucked through a portal and ended up in eorzea because interdimensional portals are just so common. the more i learn of canon the more i think wow this brand of chaos is so izaikil. is space time just unstable on hydaelyn??

... i just realized the reason izaikil has the same vibes as crossover events (ffxv, automata yokai watch, etc) is because they are a crossover character.

i think aurele would be a bit distressed when sanson and guydelot argue

aurele is a warm colored boy, but cool toned lighting looks really good on him!

still no elaboration of this. so they are summoning primals to awaken the hear of sabik to resurrect their god. sure jrpg logic.

the primals are also affecting the fabric of reality?

ok so i was doing the roulette and played as astrologian, but in the blade of light cutscene, my character used paladin weapons (sword+shield). I seem to vaguely remember hum only using a big light sword (no shield) the last time i played this. i don’t know why its different. could paladin be the default for magic classes?. I know nothing about endwalker but maybe this has to do with why meteore is dressed up like a paladin in the trailer. also got to hear hydaelyn’s lisp again.

maybe its because im only in hw but surprised i havent seen more giant mechs

if hydaelyn is a big crystal could i cut a chunk off and use it as a battery or grind it up to make aethersand?

izaikil eating crystals like potato chips *crunch* *crunch*

where is hydaelyn floating around in anyway? center of the planet. hallucination? deep space?

#3.0 #heavensward #izaikil #aurele #albinnaux #setsuna #ffxiv ocs #ffxiv #3.0i #heavensward procrastination #Diamaunt

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captainkurosolaire · 5 years

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Forever Isn’t Never

(Finale! Of the Black Devil Saga. This was written almost out of tv movie-size so gave cut. Also with some of the bold lines there will be hidden-links of music to fit the temporarily mood of that moment in scene. Shouts to the players who played supportive roles in building up the scene and overall creating a means of survival and credit to the artists and composers of the songs linked) - Behind the Monocle.

Falling... fading... soundless. Then in suddenness pain that once prolonged was overly diminished. Though he swore and revisited the memory of the cold-noble once again, bearing stricken with that rapier directly on contact. The silver rapier of the noble was held by his white-gloved hands and given a wipe down from the puncture that was not taken in a lethal spot. This was all calculated, for you might ask, ‘why’. The Mol’usa carried by the Lord was no some a-typical weaponry it was refined for excellence. It held the distinct unique attribute or so claimed to alter ONE of the Five Senses upon first-strike but at random. This allowed an intelligent mind to strategically dissect a battle or morph it into their design depending on the handicap, though they had no control over which, sense was stripped from a foe. The cold noble held no qualm even here, there was a gamble taken to his rival that wouldn’t be shared. It seemed the pirate managed to survive this long among luck alone out of percentage rates, what more could it hurt to spin against the fate’s wheel again?

He was certain that either way uselessness would be met from the pirate that’d this encounter would surely most likely be soloed anyway out of his abundance of egotistical pride.

By surmising the Captain wasn’t complaining in pain with cries of agony or mumbling it. All the answers were spoken of which of the senses were extracted temporarily. “Are you just going to lay there?” Palms of the pirate wiggled and clawed out at the crag soils the emptiness of the plane. Before he stood looking himself over everywhere, painless, nothing was felt. A lightness felt that caused him to spring upward in a feathery jump. The crude and icy Lord gave piercing hues towards the buffoon, “What you were hit just now was a superior esteemed weapon cased by the Elite of Ishgard. You are currently experiencing the effects to be blessed to be hit by me, while also cursed, as the fact remains you’re still inferior... Your sense of Touch has been lost, you are not invincible despite you may feel otherwise. Its an illusion. All you were faded and dampened this is no different than currently being heavily dosed and pumped with potent medicinal pills and herbs. -- Now, since I have you on your feet. Our advisories are still waging again another one another before they regain reality themselves, I advise you become useful, I require a sword. But.., seeing how you’re weaponless. It’s mighty fine that we’re connected to the Void and I brought an old familiar gift.” Pulling off his white-tuxedo jacket and wrapping it up he’d give it a toss a strapped on and hooked set of scimitars remained nestled for the ruffian to uncover with old roots. One of the many relics that caught them in this mess and warranted the attention of these same monstrosities. This one in particular was of the First collected in the Captain’s ventures long ago. Mhachi Gems remained in the hilts and allowed the absorption and siphoning of a Voidal’s own energy with each strike successful after three hits it could entirely drain a fiend in storage or be used to transfer the aether between a Voidal to another or saved in stock.

“Alrighte, matey. I think this’ll do well. Ye can be shown how its done! You just stand and look like a pretty princess, I got this!” Spinning the old dual-wielded weapons in a twirl before scurrying off and giving a jolly set of laughter to hide bravery his true emotions. A heavy eye-roll induced between the noble and a small aneurysm between the brain was mixed in as his words were thrown to dust by the over-zealous rule breaker and none-caring reckless mongrel of a pirate. The voidal duo currently were slamming each-other back and forth and countering beam struggles with one another constantly matching while one of the older was trying to hold back from using the blunt of his power but becoming irritated how one mage managed to treat them like entire nuisances in their own landscape this was intolerable...unacceptable! It could see the look of acceptance emitting from the blood-gem etched into its brethren forehead. It gave plead to allow its older to digest and devour its younger to become the avenger required. Overpowering and pinning it’d take bite while wrapping its tentacles, wings, tails all around and feasting the nutrients. Empowering in a sinister that begun chaotically creating a vibrant and trip-twisted storm. It wouldn’t stop until there was nothing left to extract and being merged with an unbridled amount of aether to spare. Tremors shocked the realm and a ominous wind crept through the air of foreboding.

By the time Kuro arrived and saw the shift surrounding... “Why do I get myself into these situations, I thought they made Warriors for these? Damn ye...” Giving a look over towards his newly imbued scimitars.Though he couldn’t feel the effects of what was transpiring feeling even more courageous than before with the lack of touch in his sensory. This was a well-placed lesson to the sins of the men. Hearing the demon form in seething hatred, “....I’ll...Give You.. Realization.” A cosmic set of speed-settling in and rushing towards the Captain. He coiled and gripped tighter. Shiro shot out in a sprint, “MOVE YOU IDIOT!” The Keeper would twirl his rapier like a cane and form a set of obstacles and branches of quickly-crafted ice walls that were being shattered through. Kuro took his sprint he needed to somehow create a means to land a few hits and dampen. Rummaging through his satchel in automation in hasten popping pins of smoke grenades and anything and chunking them everywhere. It was doubtful they’d do much but then again his aether was so weak that the Voidsent have shown they were proficient at readying such a pathetic amount. This rage seemed to be favorable. As Shiro continued to build up defense and distractions constantly creating a course only riling up the hatred already being brimmed. Landing down it’d begin attempting to shatter a close dome around Shiro that was crafted using the previous set of water from the clones of Kuro previously to hold him off and catching an extra set of ice towards the fists. His beholding eyes of piercing blue boldly looked towards the demon in disgust even as his face begun to split apart in horror to four sets of eyes and becoming unrecognizable.

The small window opened and Kuro came as an opportunist throwing one of the scimitars and slicing off the tail and then using his Ghost-Step (Shukuchi) to catch it back using a boomerang effect. A stammering escaped before turning with one hand a big bundle of blast. Shiro used the ice previously to seal up the imbecile as a temporarily ward but reopening the wound from previously to soak up while still holding. The Voidal’s aether with that one hit already felt half as potent before. Coming now out of its senseless and mindless rage to know what was acquired in those foul hand’s of the scoundrel. The stolen relics! Which redirected his attentions towards the pirate. Taking flight and starting to bombard a endless volley as the Captain had no way to get out of this one he’d throw back the relics and hook them with his feline tail and brace himself for impact. Shiro howled back in his own frustration to break his only set of defense into a scatter-gun of shards that were sent back to hit against some of the volley and also catch the Voidal in his wings. Though they were unintentionally doing it, they were working together! And... That was saying something for even in previous carnations the Fates had depicted a carved tablet in unspoken tales of a White Wolf and the Black Lion constantly to be waged historically. Though THE fight of preservation! Atonement - Survival! It was all ON THE LINE. The souls of indifference UNITED. Bound to cause... As if the Sun and the Moon intersect and created an Eclipse and within that moment nothing else mattered. As if the the elements between Light and Darkness bound to gather to form a higher form of creation bigger than itself of Life’s wonders. Here...

Even in the grim unknown, the, secondary name for ‘end’. The roots of change blossomed and HOPE were melding together into one. Broke out to impale despair, depravity, demise, devour, destruction. Terror would be KNOWN to fear against its own trade product! Plummeting down from altitude towards a spiraling crash. Grunts and battle-cries echoed throughout, Kuro ran swiftly with those light-steps while Shiro created an ice-skating surface to quicken as he’d once again get a direct strike between the back side of the Demon which spun around hissing another hefty amount of aether was extracted. Shiro’s piercing stare never-leaving towards the same disgusting creature unknowingly slowing lowly atoms around the atmosphere towards his target when looked back at. The Demon saw before them while being backed up in the corner holding and licking its wound in a step back. As if it could see the glimpses of their spirits manifest. Howling and Roaring for the meal, -- It.

A lasting dash with all his might and energy Kuro up-roared before charging, “FUCK YER TROUBLE, I DON’T WANT ANY! I GOT ENOUGH CHAOS. HAVE A TASTE!!!” A weakened catch to the pirate’s wrist was caught preventing him from being pierced another punch that was known as a nasty upper-hook came barging forward. But it was his tail that was still holding to the other special scimitar! He’d launch it up and re-grip the fiends clutch with all his virile exposed as muscles tensed and bulged, Shiro would freeze them together for unity. The throwing of the scimitar launched forward. Before Shiro would create another ice-layer wall above to ricochet forward into the direct skull of the demon it started sucking up all his aether into the weapon like an aetherfeeder.

While tormented pain was shooting throughout the tormentor the inquisitive mind of the fellow ex-Mhachi and student’s wisdom knew of the regeneration of this particular Voidsent on the hierarchy depriving it of its energy wouldn’t make it cease... No, to beat this threat. Even Captain knew who studied alongside those who crafted the only way to end them was two methods was either Banishment... Or complete obliteration! Slowly in elegant struts he’d pick up the old broken hilt of the scimitars used by Kuro that was useless to most and draw behind the Voidsent and then mold in shape and creation his purest and drawn ice throughout the cellular level of the vile organism that internally and externally started surrounding he’d manipulatively break the old weaker ice with a digit-snap allowing Kuro to stammer back until all that was left was a sculpted figurine statue encased in petrify. The worst thing was the four-eyed stare of being still responsive and alert this high-level threat knew what was happening when imprisoned. But nothing could be mustered or managed out especially with all the aether being drawn it kept funneling into the Relic Scimitar like a sponge! The Captain knew what this was this was where he shined, crackling back his knuckles, methodically. “Seems I’m out of retirement! A shattering punch just for you ordered up! This comes from humanity! We don’t have ANY time for yer shite we got enough flaws! Ye aren’t needed to be anyone’s REMINDER!” His forearm runic designs glowing drawing out in a emotional set of anger before clashing before against the ice and breaking with immensity into crumbles shattering and splintering the pieces all over, what was formed. Was sent out of existence, no return, no thought, was left deserving of the devil. Giving one last victory call-out before giving two middle fingers by the crude Captain before he’d slumming fade to injuries and pass out. The noble shook his head to the bravado showing. “Imbecile...” Once his rival was collapsed there was a notion to leave him in the space forever but an amused smirk passed him a little entertained. “Let us return, you fared well...” He namely was departing this site for his own personal agenda’s least that’s what often a noble of his stature would think. But somewhere... Beyond even his mental understanding. A hint of respect was formed. Perhaps he found someone worthy to constantly battle, maybe he could even finally be surpassed and know defeat? Only the Noble VS Pirate Grand Goldbrand Budokai! Upcoming held the lines of a future where these two combatants and rivals would WAGE to prove who was truly superior, which ways were correct. ORDER VS FREEDOM! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [BLACK DEVIL SAGA] [Prelude Reference : Forever Destined] ~ Master-List of Previous Chapters

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vexredain · 5 years

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Vex’s Brief Guide to Baldesion Arsenal :: Part 1 - Twin Spears & Raiden

“’E’s ‘ind me, ain’t ‘e?”

Now that I’ve had some time to get some clears done, I can finally write a guide! I’m not sure that I’ll be able to get to Ozma (though I hope I can and I’ll give it a good try!) but if I don’t, this will likely be my last guide. So thank you all for sticking with my until now if that’s the case! I’m sure I’ll have a lot of other bits of content to write guides for come Shadowbringers, so this definitely isn’t the end!

For those who may not have heard of Baldesion Arsenal, it is a piece of High-End content that is connected to, and accessed through, Eureka Hydatos. There are four bosses in total. Furthermore, unlike nearly every other piece of content in the game, raise is very limited in BA, with only three sources of raise possible - Sacrifice L, Spirit of the Remembered, Healer Limit Break 3.

I’ve really enjoyed BA so far, it plays like an old school MMO raid, which means that it requires a lot of people, a lot of patience, and a lot of careful planning and strategy!

This guide will cover:

Runs and Organisation

Path to Twin Spears

Twin Spears

Path to Raiden

Raiden

Chests

Roles

Logos Actions

Best of luck to all you Warriors of Light whom venture into the final part of the Forbidden Land, the Baldesion Arsenal! As always, the rest will be under the cut.

1. Runs and Organisation

So, you’ve completed Eureka, and now you’re looking to do Baldesion Arsenal for the promise of that sick Ozma mount, as well as either your augmented Eureka weapon, +2 armour, or Kirin’s Osode/Vermillion Cloak. The vast majority of BA runs are organised via discord and this is the best way to assure yourself a spot in a run, rather than entering an instance beforehand and entering a portal as a pug (which may have its own problems depending on whether or not the instance has another pre-made BA group in it). You can find the discord link for the Aether Baldesion Arsenal Discord >here< and be sure to assign yourself the correct roles so that you’re available to be pinged whenever there’s a group going.

So how exactly are these runs organised? 56 people are required for a ‘full’ run of BA, though there are only 48 portals that spawn on the killing of Ovni. This is because the last group, named the Support Group must stay outside to rally the rest of the instance to kill the ELvl 60 NM FATE “The Baldesion Arsenal: Expedition Support”. Most fragment groups aim to kill Twin Spears, then Raiden, and then clear the trash up to AV as there are three chests past Raiden and before AV. As such fragment runs will always be under 48 people, progression runs will require the full amount.

Group leaders are usually whoever wants to step up and get the group together, and will sit in the Group Leaders channel in the chosen Arsenal Group folder (the Aether BA discord has between 1 - 9). These groups will be formed within the Party Finder and given passwords, detailed in the relevant LFG channel for the run. Each group will be associated with a different element, with the tank of each group usually sticking to the element of their party barring extenuating circumstances. As such the groups are further divided depending on what side, and therefore which Twin Spear, that they are on. These are East Side (Fire, Lightning, Ice) and West Side (Earth, Wind, Water). From there, the group leaders will ready check, enter the instance (usually at the same time in order to try to spawn a fresh and continuing to do so until all groups are in the same instance), and organise their parties until BA is entered. You will be asked to choose a portal, a map of these is below, along side which portals belong to which group! Worry not if you do not have a stabiliser, you can wait 5 Earth Time Minutes and all portals will turn red and are able to be entered.

Once the groups are in BA, you will have to go to your relevant side. DO NOT JUMP DOWN OFF OF THE PLATFORM YET! Jumping off will render you unable to return to the Logos Manipulator, Magia Spinner, and if you’re on the wrong side, you’ll be stuck there. The West Side is always the same as the Logos Manipulator, and the East Side is always the same as the Magia Melder. Pay attention to which side your group is on, and follow them down.

2. Path to Twin Spears

You’re now ready to begin the real fight! This will be a Demon Wall. It doesn’t do anything in particular other than serve as a wall that you have to hit.

Further ahead, you’ll see Arsenal Magus mammets, and an Arsenal Poroggo. The Magi will do an AoE (Deadly), and should be pulled slowly. If you’re a tank, pull at range and do not attempt a big pull, this can get party members killed early. The Poroggo is your true challenge, its Toy Hammer ability must be interrupted, else it chunk your tank a hefty 80%-ish of their health pool.

Up the top of the stairs will be two Arsenal Byblos, these guys do a tail-based AoE so do not stay behind them at any time (Remember all enemies here have no directionals), and do not stay in front of them either as they will cast Magic Hammer which will kill you. This can be interrupted.

You’ve cleared the trash, bringing us to the first boss! It is hear that in discord your group will likely merge with another in a different channel, separated by what side you are on, this is to better communicate and perform call-outs.

3. Twin Spears

These boys will be your first challenge upon reaching the Arsenal. There are two different bosses here with very different, yet also similar, mechanics.

Art is the West boss, whilst Owain is the East boss. I don’t want to detail mechanics here, as the best place to find them is in the BA guide written by Kalina Skysong of Leviathan world, which can be found >here<!

After the twins are killed, they must die at the same time, you will be able to move ahead further into the Arsenal!

4. Path to Raiden

The first thing you will likely hear in Discord is people saying “Don’t go any further! Wait!!” this is because yes, the way ahead is particularly dangerous. There are traps that lay unseen and will instantly kill those who step on them. Unlike similar mechanics in HoH and PotD, these are massive.

Yes, these things are pretty damn dangerous. Luckily, they can be detected from a range of 15 yalms by the Logos Action Perception L. This will let you know a trap is nearby from a range of 30 yalms. Please note that once the trap is discovered it is not disarmed! It will still kill you. There is 1 trap on the way up to the room before Raiden, and in this antechamber there are 4 traps, in a rough square shape around the room 2 on the East side, and 2 on the West side.

There’s a few trash mobs that are quite dangerous on the way up to Raiden. These are:

Arsenal Magus. Avoid AoE.

Arsenal Sprite. This mob will patrol up and down the hallways. It will cast Banish III, this MUST be interrupted as it will immediately banish a party member from the instance.

Arsenal Calcabrina. This terrifying doll must be tanked facing away from the raid, all DPS and Healers must stand behind it as its gaze AoE will kill people who are not tanks.

Arsenal Geshunpest. This guy doesn’t do all that much but float around and patrol down the corridors.

Arsenal Centaurs. These guys are mean, they will cast Rear, which must be avoided by melee DPS in particular. Their other cast is Beserk and this must be Slept, lest the tank get 2 shot by the damage up buff it receives on successful cast.

Now you’ve fought through all that! It’s time for Raiden.

5. Raiden

Raiden is the second boss of BA, and one of the more technically difficult ones. The best thing to do is follow your raid’s callouts, and make sure that you know the markers’ locations around the room. Raiden himself has mechanics from Hashmal (Half the room is hit with an AoE depending on which side his weapon is glowing on), Ifrit (Nails will spawn and must be killed to avoid a raid wipe), and Odin.

Again, I don’t want to detail mechanics too much here. Please check out Kalina Skysong of Leviathan server’s guide >here<!

If you die on Raiden, it’s okay. It happens to the best of us. You can watch me die to Raiden twice >here< if you want! If you have died, and you’re a healer, it’s likely that someone will risk raising you through a Sacrifice L. This can also happen if you’re a DPS or Tank too, it depends on the party and how many healers still have a Spirit of the Remembered up. If YOU are a Healer, remember to take your chest first before you attempt a gamble on a raise!

6. Chests

Following Raiden, there’s still more! There are 3 chests in the following areas that must be found, these will give 1 Eureka Fragment each, along with either 5 Obscure Logograms, a token for one of the FFXI chestpieces, or a mix.

As with before, wait for the person with Perception to go first. Ahead there will be some new trash mobs that have some nasty surprises for you! These are:

Arsenal Scribes. Interrupt Condensed Libra.

Arsenal Bibliotheque. This refrigerator will either cast a donut AoE or a circle AoE centered around him. Avoid this as it can and will kill you in one hit. Try not to be on the stairs as this can affect how visible his markers are.

Aresenal Eye. This will do a cone AoE, avoid it.

Arsenal Calcabrina. The same gaze attack as before, must be pointed away from the raid.

Keep checking for traps as you go up the stairs. Now, you’ll be on a corridor with many rooms ahead, with AV staring you down from the back. The purposes of these rooms is to find a portal that will take you to the third and last chest. The second chest is also found in one of these rooms, each aligned with a specific element, so let the tank aligned with that element pull that room.

In a frag run, take these slowly, pull what you can, and kill it. Do not run into the rooms without the Perception L carrier having scoped out the room first. The portal is also invisible and must be found through the use of Perception L.

Yes, these portals can be placed VERY precariously. Once this portal is found, enter it, and you’ll be at the last chest. Take it, and prosper! Usually at this point, the raid will return back to base in Eureka Hydatos. Your run is now complete!

6. Roles

Minesweepers are what I like to call the carriers of Perception L. This is one of the most important roles in the instance and must be done carefully. You basically just spam Perception L to first find if you are close to a trap, and then spam it some more to locate it once you are near. WALK SLOWLY and be careful.

Tanks. You must be elementally aligned with one specific element. This will not change unless you are down a tank, or there are mobs ahead that are not aligned with the tanks on your side at the beginning of the instance.

7. Logos Actions

For a first time run, I would recommend Spirit of the Remembered and Wisdom of the Platebearer. This gives you enough survivability that you may survive some of the AoEs in the instance. Spirit of the Remembered will give you a 70% chance of rez on death, that’s pretty great! Refresh L is also nice for the DPS who may be often switching their magia board and losing aether. Spirit of the Remembered should always be available and you should have many of them in storage. If you can’t make them using the singular Mneme, remember they are also made through Wisdom of the Platebearer, Wisdom of the Martialist, Wisdom of the Aetherweaver being placed within the Logos Manipulator. Save your singular Mneme for when you want two Logos Actions ad it lowers the chance of failure.

If you’re a healer, Shell L, Protect L are usually wanted and cast on people who will wait on the bridge at the start, and the stairs before Raiden. Sacrifice L MUST be paired with Spirit of the Remembered, after cast you will get doom. This CANNOT be Esuna’d, so you will die. If your SoR procs, great! If not, another healer will likely juggle procs with you until you are both alive.

Tanks, Wisdom of the Indomitable is an especially good Logos Action, as is Wisdom of the Platebearer. SoR is required with both.

With that, you’ll be good to continue farming your frags, or whatever else you came into the Arsenal for, whether its progression or gear, I hope this guide served you well! Thank you once again for reading! Credit to Kalina Skysong for her amazing guide, the creator of the Portal Map, to whom I do not know the name, and the Dataminers for the BA maps I used here! It’s been a pleasure writing all these guides, I’ve enjoyed it immensely being able to share, and run Eureka with you all.

May you ever walk in the light of the Crystal,

Vex

#FFXIV #Baldesion Arsenal #Eureka Guide #Eureka Hydatos #Eureka #Vex's Guides #THANK YOU FOR READING ALL OF THESE ITS BEEN AN ABSOLUTE PLEASURE WRITING THEM ALL FOR YOU #I've really enjoyed it and I hope it's helped you all so much!!

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pokemaniacal · 7 years

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Rowlet, Dartrix and Decidueye

Bloody hell, if I don’t hurry this up they’re going to announce another damn generation before I’m done with this one; we’re already expecting whatever this bull$#!t is supposed to be and I’ve got eighty whole Pokémon to evaluate in the next couple of months, as well as talking about Team Skull and the Aether Foundation, and Hau, and maybe Lillie too, and whoever I decide counts as the Champion, not to mention answering the neverending tide of ridiculous banal questions that keep pouring out of my goddamn inbox (obviously, gentle reader, I’m not talking about any questions you might have submitted, which are of course consistently insightful and thought provoking; it’s all those other bastards that are the problem).

I’M FINE

Let’s talk about Rowlet.

If you pay any attention whatsoever to this blog for any length of time, one of the first things you discover is that I like Grass-types. The Grass-type has been my go-to starter for my first playthrough (and most subsequent playthroughs) of every generation since the first. Rowlet’s fate was bound to mine by destiny long before I ever laid eyes on him. And I’m basically okay with this. Rowlet isn’t really in contention to unseat Bulbasaur and Turtwig as my favourite starter Pokémon, but he’s fine. He’s easy and fun to use in a playthrough, we’ve never had a birdlike Grass-type before, it doesn’t hurt that he’s just objectively adorable, and in abandoning his Flying-type Decidueye becomes the very first Ghost-type starter Pokémon ever, which is neat. Rowlet and Dartrix are clearly barn owls, with the barn owl’s distinctive pale heart-shaped face, whereas Decidueye is maybe more of a hawk owl, although I wouldn’t read too much into that. Comparisons to Hoothoot and Noctowl, who seem to be horned owls, are in order, as one of my usual criteria for evaluating new Pokémon is “is this actually new?” and I think the answer there is… probably??? Part of the problem there is that Hoothoot actually has a much more clearly-defined and interesting “personality” than Noctowl, with his heavily stylised cuckoo-clock aesthetic and metronome-like rocking from side to side (actually though, as long as we’re here, why doesn’t Hoothoot get Metronome? I mean, I get that Metronome was still super-exclusive when Hoothoot was introduced, but they gave it to Snubbull and Chansey as an egg move). Noctowl is kinda just a big owl that does owl things. Rowlet, Dartrix and Decidueye are a bit deeper than that, which I generally tend to think is good. Decidueye’s arrows and archery are an odd touch, but as with Talonflame, you can link birds and arrows conceptually via feathered fletching, so that makes sense. What might not immediately makes sense to some of us is the switch from Flying to Ghost when Dartrix evolves, and this gives me an excuse to begin one of my patented Bull$#!t Lore Digressions™, so let’s learn some more about owls.

Owls are associated with the spirit world in several different and unrelated cultures, and there are some pretty good reasons for this. Owls are night hunters, but more than that, they’re silent hunters – owls’ feathers are softer and smoother-edged than those of other birds, so the flapping of their wings is much more difficult to hear, giving them a ghostly, ethereal quality. Also, like many nocturnal animals, their eyes reflect light and seem to glow in the dark in a disconcertingly eerie manner. Not for nothing are owls omens of death in sub-Saharan Africa, of sickness and bad luck in the native cultures of the American southwest, or of catastrophe in ancient Rome. In ancient Greece, of course – mainly in Athens – owls had a more ambivalent role as the sacred birds of Athena and symbols of wisdom (an association that persists today and gives us Noctowl’s famous intellect and minor psychic abilities). Even there, though, the sinister scops owl was seen as a creature of the underworld, and the owl’s reputation for knowledge subsequently made it the familiar of witches and warlocks in mediaeval Europe. In New Zealand, where I come from, the small brown hawk owl known as the morepork or ruru is believed to be an oracle of the future in Maori culture, its different cries portending either good fortune or disaster. Finally, and perhaps most relevant for us today, on several of the islands of Hawai’i a species of short-eared owl called a pueo is one of the more common shapes known to be taken by ’aumākua, the spirits of a family’s honoured ancestors, who return to serve as guardians and as a link to the spirit world (sharks, lizards and turtles are also common; families must show respect and deference to all animals of a similar form to their ’aumākua). An owl Pokémon thus becomes an intermediary between this world and the next, a sort of warrior-shaman that protects its trainer from spiritual threats using powers of its own that are more than a little dark and sinister (we see a similar theme with Hoothoot in the anime, where he has the unique power to force hidden Ghost-types to reveal themselves with Foresight).

This “mystic guardian” aesthetic is conspicuously undercut by what Rowlet and Dartrix seem to be doing, because they have more of a “dapper gentleman” style in play – consider the Pokédex line that describes Dartrix as “a bit of a dandy” obsessed with keeping his wings groomed, or their leafy bow-ties (in Decidueye, that evolves into something more like a brooch or the clasp of a cloak, which has a more mediaeval-fantasy feel to it). It feels like a very odd fit for the direction that Decidueye moves in. If you had just given me Rowlet and Dartrix, and told me to come up with ideas for a final evolution, I might, after substantial umm-and-ahh-ing, have pitched a kind of James-Bond-esque super-spy-in-a-tuxedo concept. That seems like a more natural continuation, but easily could have turned out looking rather stupid without some very clever way of unifying the design elements (and if there’s anything this blog should teach us, it’s that I’m not quite that clever). The self-important “dandy” aesthetic, after a bit of thought, is oddly reminiscent to me of the vain, professorial Owl from Winnie-the-Pooh, genuinely wise (…relatively speaking) but perhaps just as much concerned with the appearance of wisdom as with wisdom itself, and eager to look the part of the sober, intellectual scholar of the arcane. Decidueye’s own description from the Pokédex tells us that this wise Pokémon is nonetheless easily startled and flustered (try slapping him awake in PokéRefresh and you’ll see what they’re getting at). It’s still incongruous with Decidueye as mystic archer and night hunter, but it is at least giving me a common aesthetic thread to follow through all three evolutionary stages, something that’s quite important for a starter Pokémon to maintain. Which is enough for the purposes of this review, I think.

Stats-wise, Decidueye seems to be built as a mixed attacker, with strong offensive skills, but isn’t very fast. That doesn’t bode particularly well, since he can’t really afford to not max his speed in training, leaving less to split between attack and special attack. There’s a passable physical movepool here, which includes Leaf Blade, Brave Bird, Sucker Punch, U-Turn, and… I guess Steel Wing if, like, you really hate Alolan Ninetales or something? There’s also Decidueye’s signature move, Spirit Shackle, which has several advantages. It’s a reliable Ghost-type physical attack, which a) is a rare sort of attack for anyone to have access to, and b) is something Decidueye clearly needs, c) it traps its target in play with Decidueye (unless the target is a Normal-type or Ghost-type, or has some escape mechanism), limiting your opponent’s options, and d) it fires a spiritual arrow that nails the target’s soul to the ground, which is super badass. This move is easily Decidueye’s biggest edge; you want to use him to set up critical moments where you can switch and your opponent can’t, then pressure their weak points with one of Decidueye’s teammates, or try to Swords Dance while they’re off balance. Leaf Blade and Spirit Shackle are actually a pretty solid combination; neither Grass nor Ghost gets a lot of super-effective hits, but Ghost has strong neutral coverage, so basically you’re resisted by all the Normal/Flying birds and a bunch of Dark dual-types. Sucker Punch is mostly redundant with Spirit Shackle in terms of type coverage, but it’s also Decidueye’s only priority move, and he’s fairly slow and doesn’t have any speed buffs, so at least considering it is sort of obligatory (just remember that it only works on targets preparing a direct attack, so be careful using it against support Pokémon). U-Turn is just generally a good move, because the free switch-out gives you a lot of flexibility in responding to your opponent’s actions (and especially switches), and it covers your ass against Dark-types, whom Decidueye tends to have trouble with. Trapping something with Spirit Shackle and then bouncing out with U-Turn is a decent little combo, if you like that sort of thing. Brave Bird adds a bit more of a sting than Decidueye’s other options, but lacks their utility. Some combination of four of these, or three plus Swords Dance, should probably be the default go-to. Decidueye’s kit lends itself to switching in and out a lot, and he doesn’t really have the speed to try and sweep a significant chunk of an enemy team, so I’d be more inclined to slap a Choice item on him than bank on Swords Dance, but to each their own.

Decidueye’s special attack stat is pretty solid, so in theory you can use that to mix things up a bit. Unfortunately, basically his only worthwhile special attacks are Shadow Ball and Energy Ball/Grass Knot, and if you cut Spirit Shackle for Shadow Ball then you’ve sort of forsaken one of the most compelling reasons to use Decidueye in the first place. That’s not quite the end of the story; you might be gunning specifically for some big chunky physical tank with a Grass weakness like Hippowdon, who gets stung much harder by Grass Knot than by Leaf Blade even with minimal special attack training on Decidueye’s part. Also, most human opponents are going to assume Decidueye is a physical attacker, so if you can grab him a free turn to set up with Nasty Plot (which he also learns), you might just be able to catch someone with their pants down. I’m not sure this is particularly a good plan, and again I’m not encouraged by the fact that he essentially has no third special attack, but the possibility theoretically exists. Decidueye does have a support movepool of sorts, but you can probably find better Pokémon for any conceivable support role he might try to fill. Like, Baton Pass is there as an egg move (via Togetic or Oricorio), and again, Decidueye does get both Swords Dance and Nasty Plot, so he has perfectly sound options for using it, but he just looks so unlike my idea of what a Baton Passer ought to be (poor speed, average defences) that my mind sort of recoils from the notion. Alternatively you could try to ply Roost and Light Screen with some HP training into some kind of weird tanky Decidueye – give up trying to outrun things, since he’s slow anyway, and focus on your defences. Just don’t tell anyone it was my idea.

As well as a signature move, Decidueye has a unique ability; it’s his hidden ability and isn’t currently obtainable, but I think we’ll probably get it eventually, so we ought to talk about it before we finish up. This ability is Long Reach, which lets Decidueye treat his “contact” attacks as ranged instead, bypassing enemy effects like Static, Rough Skin, Beak Blast’s retributive burn, and so on. This… ehhh, I’m not really sure what this is for. I mean, I understand conceptually why Decidueye has this: he’s an archer, so he should be able to make what would normally be close-range attacks from a distance. But that aspect of the design is already expressed by his signature move, and by the fact that he can use ranged special attacks effectively. Most contact effects aren’t that big a deal, most Pokémon that get them have better abilities to choose from, and even when they’re likely to turn up, Decidueye would often prefer Spirit Shackle to Leaf Blade anyway. I think Long Reach would probably give Decidueye an extra edge against… Wigglytuff, Electrode, Parasect, Bewear, Stunfisk, and (lord help us) Delcatty. Being able to one-shot Bewear with Brave Bird after a Swords Dance is not nothing, but I suspect the more general Grass-type damage bonus from Overgrow would probably still be more useful, even once Long Reach becomes available.

So, all in all, this is a decent start to generation VII. Rowlet, Dartrix and Decidueye are nothing amazing; they have a couple of conflicting ideas in their design, and other than Spirit Shackle there’s not a whole lot to be impressed by in their skillset. They’re still interesting, though; as fighters they are at the very least passable, with an interesting niche courtesy of that neat little signature move, and I cannot stress enough that pinning a foe in place by the shadow is a very cool gimmick. I got my cool new Grass-type starter, all is right with the world, and I can now review the rest of the seventh generation joyfully and optimistically, without a hint of malice or discontent in my heart.

…well, I mean, I can try, anyway.

#pokemon #alola #alola pokedex #rowlet #dartrix #decidueye #grasstypes #ghosttypes #flyingtypes #starters

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dragons-bones · 7 years

Note

FFXIV Prompt: Synnove babying the carbuncles.

(EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! :D :D :D This got long, so I put the majority of it behind a read more.)

“Babies! Dinner!”

There was a moment of quiet, and then suddenly the cottage was filled with the sound of three carbuncles thundering up the stairs from the basement level. The door burst open and there stood Tyr, falling back to all four paws from pushing the door with a loud thunk. Galette and Ivar swarmed up behind him - and then over him, in Ivar’s case with a graceful leap, and under him, in Galette’s case, wiggling under her large brother’s belly.

Ivar made it to Synnove first, using the momentum from his jump to slide along the floor into the kitchen area and into Synnove’s legs. He chirruped up at her smugly, but that quickly turned into an unhappy, muffled yowl as Tyr arrived and flopped on top of him in retaliation. Galette ignored the both of them and instead plopped her behind on the ground, reached up, and waved her front paws while making “feed me!” noises (different from her “pick me up!” noises in pitch and pattern).

“All right, all right,” Synnove laughed. “Tyr, stop squishing your brother.”

The giant topaz carbuncle huffed, but obediently stood up and sat mostly-patiently next to Galette. Ivar stood and shook himself, from his nose to the tips of all three tails, and sat on Tyr’s other side, so that they made a rainbow of carbuncles, all staring up at Synnove with big, dark eyes. In unison, they all made pathetic trilling meows (with Tyr’s sounding more like a baritone moaw).

Their summoner cooed down at them. “Precious darlings,” she whispered, and then said, louder, “All right then, food!”

In front of each carbuncle, she set a slightly elevated tray. Ivar put his paws on the tray and watched her impatiently; Tyr’s ears began twitching, though he made no other movements; and Galette suddenly went from whining to prim and ladylike in an eye blink, sitting up straight and settling her tails around her demurely.

One by one, Synnove took a plate off the counter and set it on a tray. Each plate contained fillets of loaghtan steak, cooked medium rare (save for Ivar’s, who preferred his meat as bloody as possible), roasted nopales drizzled with a blue cheese sauce, and piles of spinach saute. Ivar’s steak and nopales were left whole, since the little terror thoroughly enjoyed tearing his food apart while consuming it. As for Tyr and Galette, who both ate far more neatly, their portions cut into bite-sized pieces; Tyr also had larger servings of nopales and spinach, as the enormous topaz carbuncle adored his vegetables. Each carbuncle also received small bowls, placed next to their plates; Tyr and Ivar’s had water, while Galette’s contained mint lassi.

All three carbuncles were particularly vibrating with excitement, but they waited for their mama’s “Dig in!” before proceeding to do so with gusto.

Synnove grabbed her own plate, utensils, and glass of lassi and settled onto the floor next to them, setting her glass on Tyr’s tray since he was the neat eater who had no interest in sweet drinks. She kept an eye on the three as she ate her own dinner: Ivar happily tore chunks of meat from his steak and gobbled it down barely chewed; Tyr buried his nose in his spinach saute; and Galette daintily alternated bites of steak, nopales, and spinach with sips of lassi, since she knew there’d be no dessert if she left any veggies behind.

The carbuncles, as creatures composed of living aether, technically didn’t need properly prepared meals from which to derive energy - no digestive system, after all. Synnove could probably just give them crystals or an aethersand mixture and be done with it. But she liked to cook, and over the years all three of her fuzzy aetherial babies had developed preferences and tastes, and so what if she wanted to indulge them? Better than just cooking for herself most nights.

The end of dinner was a familiar sight: Tyr contently licking up the last of the blue cheese sauce from his plate; Ivar on his back, front paws curled into his chest and thrumming happily; and Galette just staring at her, eyes bigger and rounder than before dinner. Synnove snickered and stood, putting her empty plate on the counter, and leaning down to gather her carbuncles’ dishes. As she stood back up and turned to set them down, she could practically hear Galette vibrating behind her.

With a flourish, Synnove turned back around: three plates of apple pie, each with a dollop of whipped cream, carefully balanced in her arms. Galette made a loud, happy trill, and gave up all pretenses at manners, instead shoving her face into her slice as soon as it was set before her. Ivar and Tyr were only slightly less enthusiastic in their desire for pie.

As the carbuncles ate dessert, Synnove carefully placed the leftover pie in a container on which she put a lock, and then put the pie container in the coldbox - also locked. (She could never be too careful with Galette’s sweet tooth in the house.) She set the dinner dishes in a wooden bin and dropped in a water crystal, fishing the crystal out and setting it in its bowl once the bin was full. That taken care of, she dampened a few soft cloths, and turned around - and snorted a laugh.

All three carbuncles were a mess, and utterly unrepentant about it, as usual, if the way they were looking up at her, eyes half-closed, and their chime-like purrs (well, brass bell-like with Tyr) filling the kitchenette was anything to go by.

“Oh, my silly babies,” Synnove said with a laugh, and knelt down. She first picked up the plates and put them in the washing bin, then knelt again and moved the trays out of the way. Ivar was her first target, hauling him into her lap to start cleaning him. He fussed and wriggled as Synnove wiped his muzzle and paws clean of cream and crumbs and sticky sugar, and even some of the juice from his steak dinner.

“Oh, shush, firebug,” she murmured to him as she worked. “Get a wipe down now and I won’t have to give you a bath later.”

The ruby carbuncle squeaked unhappily at the idea of his least favorite thing, but grudgingly stopped squirming.

Once Ivar was clean, she let him loose, and Tyr immediately stepped over, crawling into her lap without hesitation. Synnove grunted as he settled on her thighs, but ignored how heavy he was and instead cleaned his muzzle and each paw carefully with a fresh cloth. Tyr purred the whole while, then carefully got up when he was clean to make way for Galette.

The emerald carbuncle came and sat primly before Synnove, rubbing her face against a third damp cloth in tandem with Synnove’s own scrubbing to help get rid of all the stickiness. Then, she held up each paw to be thoroughly washed, flopping onto her side to make it easier to get at her hind legs and soft tummy, because in her enthusiasm for sugar, Galette could get a mess everywhere. Which was always hysterical, Synnove thought, considering that Galette hated being dirty.

(Meanwhile, Tyr and Ivar - the latter grudgingly after being smacked on the head by his bigger brother - were carefully nosing the cloths used to clean themselves on their individuals trays, sopping up crumbs and sauce and melted cream.)

Galette stood and shook herself once she was cleaned to her satisfaction. Then, with a wiggle of her rear end, she hopped onto Synnove’s shoulder and promptly draped herself around her mama’s neck, gently headbutting her jaw once was she was settled. Ready!

Synnove laughed under her breath and got to her feet. “Thank you for the assistance, boys,” she said, gently waving Tyr and Ivar away so she could pick up the trays and the cloths on their tops. “You can shoo now, I’ve got this. I’ll be down in five minutes for cuddles and story time.”

The topaz and ruby carbuncles chirruped and rubbed against her legs, Ivar at knee height and Tyr reaching up only a little to smush his face into her hip. The pair turned and bounded down the stairs to claim their favorite spots on the bed.

With Galette “supervising” (that is, wanting to be tall), Synnove scrubbed another damp cloth across a bar of soap and wiped down the trays, drying them with another cloth and stacking them before they went back on their shelf. The cooking pots for the spinach and sauces and the cast-iron skillet she’d made the steaks and nopales in had already been cleaned and stored, and the cleaning cloths were tossed into the bucket with other used cloths that would get a proper scouring on laundry dry.

Synnove looked at the dishes bin and made a face. She really didn’t want to scrub anymore tonight…

Hell with it, they could keep until the morrow.

She untied her apron and dried her hands on it, doing a last circuit of the upper floor to turn the lamps off and bank the fire. Reaching the kitchenette again, she dropped her now folded apron on the counter top, then turned to the door to downstairs.

“What story do you want to hear tonight, my lovely?” she said to Galette as she descended the stairs. “I don’t feel like crying into anyone’s fur, so I’m vetoing The Velveteen Rabbit right now.”

Galette burbled agreement.

“How about Master Abarfalk’s Apkallu?”

Galette squeaked excitedly, her tails thumping against Synnove’s chest as she did.

Synnove laughed. “All right, that’s one vote. Let’s see what the boys think.”

#anonymous #dt answers things #dt's writing #final fantasy xiv #oc: synnove greywolfe #synnove's carbuncles #i thought this would be short #ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY WORDS LATER #IT'S DONE

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littlefaerose · 7 years

Text

that eureka moment hits you

WHO: Marley Rose (ft. Olivia Wisteria)

WHEN: Saturday, July 8th, 2017; morning

WHERE: Sciron Square, Rm. 401

WHAT: Marley ropes Olivia into helping her retrieve something important left behind in her warzone of a dorm room.

WARNING(S): references to injuries, both past and present; some reference to body horror; reference to death; plant violence

‘Okay, run it by me one more time.’

Marley blew out a long breath, staring down the door in front of her. She could feel the thrum of energy that existed behind it, coming off the walls in waves. It made her hands shake nervously before she clenched them into fists.

“Alright... on my count, I’ll open the door. It’ll try go for me first so I need you to stand in the line of sight so it’ll go for you instead. Get a hold of the first roots or branches that reach you, and once you do, I’ll slip inside,” she explained. “The box is hidden under the floorboards toward the back left corner of the room. A few paces away from my desk. I just need the things distracted for enough time to rip open the loosened floorboard so I can get retrieve it and get back out of the room.”

‘Are the walls reinforced?’ Olivia asked, eyes nervously flitting to either side of the door.

Marley gestured to the seam where the floor met the walls, along which small knots of wood appeared against the baseboards. “It’s a pretty elementary system of roots between the walls but just in case it tries to break through... well, it’ll be a first line of defense at least.”

‘Marley,’ Olivia sighed. ‘Why don’t you just tell the school what’s going on?’

“Because they’ll either chuck me out for destroying school property or they’ll cut it down.”

‘Honestly, I don’t think you’re in a position to be rejecting the latter if it’s an option-’

“Actually, I am,” she interrupted her, an edge to her voice.

‘And why’s that?’

“Because if you hurt the thing, it hurts me.” She gave the older fae a grim look. “Remember?”

‘Right, right... okay, I’ll do what I can to distract it but-’

“If you have to attack back, then do it,” Marley said what Olivia couldn’t. “Just nothing that’ll cause more than acute damage, okay?”

Olivia nodded, blowing out a breath as well. ‘Okay.’

“Ready?”

‘Ready.’

Marley swallowed back the lump in her throat, trembling hand reaching to wrap itself around the doorknob as she counted down.

“Three... two... one.”

The moment she wrenched the door open, she could hear a high pitched whine, one that would only be discernable to the both of them. Long gone were the feathery whispers once associate with the writhing mass of branches and brambles, as were the days when it merely grew and shrank with her rising and falling emotions. Now it seemed to have expanded to fill the room more completely, the enclosed space unrecognizable. It made her stomach churn uncomfortably, but she had little time to acknowledge it before the branches were making their way for the opening.

‘Go!’ Olivia shouted as a thorny root tried to twist its way around her leg. Marley dropped to the floor and rolled inside, narrowly missing a brush with one of the branches that the other fae now worked at fighting off. Every which way she ducked and moved, there were tentacle-like appendages. She stifled a cry that rose in her throat as a brief wave of pain shot up her leg. She didn’t dare look back to see what Olivia was doing behind her, narrowing her focus to getting to the far side of the room.

As she skidded under a low, thick twisted root, her hands quickly swept away dust and dirt from the floor, fingers searching for the big enough gap in the seam of the floorboards to alert her to the right spot. Pain seared through her shoulder, making her gasp as a hand shot up to hold the affected area. Her free hand continued to scramble until she finally found the slightly wobbly board. She grimaced as she grabbed hold of the board fully and yanked, fingers and nails digging into the wood until it gave and she could tear it from the floor.

‘You got it??’ she could hear Olivia shouting between her grunts and shouts.

“Got it!” she shouted back, hands wrapping around the dirty beat-up box. It weighed heavily in her palms, a fact she immediately regretted as she heaved it up out of the floor, only for the weight of it to knock her down when a rogue branch smacked her across the face. It momentarily stunned her before she fumbled around to grab the box again and stumble to her feet.

‘Hurry up, Rose!’ Olivia growled, another flash of pain slicing across Marley’s arm as the other fae presumably fought back. ‘I can’t hold this thing off much longer-’

“Incoming!” Marley interrupted with her own shouted, jumping over a set of grnarled roots under her feet and stumbling through the small opening left in the doorway. She could barely register the location of the next wave of pain as both she and Olivia exited the room, both their bodies falling back against the door as it slammed shut, trapping the plant inside. Both breathed heavily, Marley sinking down to sit on the floor with Olivia joining her shortly after. The younger fae tipped her head back to rest against the door as she closed her eyes, trying to catch her breath.

‘I hope whatever was in that box was worth it,’ Olivia huffed out, grasping hold of Marley’s limbs one by one as she took in the visible damage - the cut across her cheek smeared with green; a dark blooming bruise that wrapped up and around her calf, like an ivy vine; an angry red mark that arched across her shoulder, peeking out from under the short sleeve of her shirt. ‘Because you look like hell. Again.’

“At least it’s not grave damage this time,” she reasoned, wincing as she sat up straighter as she loosened the top of the shoe box off. Memories of their first mission crossed her mind - retrieving Theia from her room had turned into a literal nightmare - and shuddered at the images it conjured up.

‘Yeah, at least it’s not a chunk taken out of your side,’ Olivia agreed, though her voice was laced with sarcasm. ‘Marley, whatever parts of you are tied up with that tree, it’s making it... I think it’s turning it-’

“Sentient?”

The two of them shared another grim look.

‘I don’t want to invite that sort of danger into the picture, but yeah. That’s what this is starting to feel like. It’s not just a tree lashing out due to your emotions anymore.’

“Yeah, I know,” she answered quieter, sifting through the contents of the box. The pictures, the camera, the codex, the jewelry, the letters and notes... everything was there, it seemed, giving her reason to finally breathe easy, though the tension wouldn’t seem to leave her body. It was starting to ache as the adrenaline wore off. “Don’t worry, I’ll figure out a way to fix it.”

‘How?? If that thing starts thinking on its own, it might start doing more than just causing bodily harm.’

“You think I haven’t guessed that already?” she asked, exasperated as she gestured to her beat up frame, then Olivia’s. “I just need more time to figure out a solution that’s not going to end up killing me in the process.”

Olivia threw her hands up in frustration and huffed.

‘Whatever. Do what you have to do, Marley, but for the love of the Aether, don’t go in there alone. Don’t go in at all if you don’t have to.’ It sounded like agitated scolding, but Marley could sense the fear laced in Olivia’s words. It matched her own, burrowed underneath her skin like an intolerable itch. ‘Promise me you won’t.’

She was too worn out to disagree, a piece of her finding relief as her fingers wrapped around the pendant hanging from one of the necklaces stuffed inside the box. “I promise,” she agreed wearily. “I promise.”

#paras #olivia wistera #that eureka moment hits you #tw: violence #tw: death mention #tw: injury #tw: body horror

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