Author Archives: Illinia

Utrecht

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[PSA: K-Pop Demon Hunters is a great movie; Tharash made me watch it last weekend and I’m a little bit obsessed. If you like comedy action drama with banger music, you should watch it too.]

Previous – Amsterdam

We took the Sunday off, during which time I read John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed, which was quite entertaining. And a bit existential, but I do have a tendency towards existentialism myself at the best of times. At dinner Tharash’s dad made a pizza that included sardines, olives, and red bell peppers. It was quite good! We had it a couple more times during my stay, too.

The first place we ended up going substantially away from home base for was Utrecht, where I had previously been in the winter, when it was a lot more grey (and yet not as rainy? lol foreshadowing). It was nice to be back again! It’s a lovely town, and the tower is no longer under restoration!

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Amsterdam

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Once again I have gone travelling, and this time returning to a place I haven’t stuck around much in for 13 years even though my best friend is from it: The Netherlands.

I was warned that there was the possibility of a heat wave, which I took very seriously and updated my wardrobe a lot. A new pair of jean shorts (designed for men, so does not quite fit my waist, but fits well enough that I don’t care, plus POCKETS), all-cotton bras instead of the synthetic ones I’ve been using until now, and two special new pieces of clothing. Continue reading →

The Echoes of Achiyo Kensaki: Part 4: Percival

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Part 3: Yanxia

 

Percival sneezed explosively and made a horrible schnorking sound as he sniffled. “Why am I sick,” he moaned, looking like he wanted to claw his nose off his face, huddling under blankets in a corner of the hut.

“Because you’ve been running all over the countryside in rain and snow, fighting beasts and monsters and gods know what else without a break for months,” Hiina retorted, stirring a thin soup on the fire. “Achiyo-chan, did you get the medicinal tea?” Continue reading →

The Echoes of Achiyo Kensaki: Part 3: Yanxia

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Part 2: Doma Castle

 

Part 3: Yanxia

Percival was waiting at the bridge as they’d arranged, and he smiled as she came walking up, though she was still walking ‘properly’ which meant short little quick steps. “Good. You were in there so long I was worried I’d have to come break you out.”

“Oh, no, not at all,” she said. “Chima-dono gave me the gift of a kimono – and then she got frightened of imagining my future life and wanted to gift me many other things besides.” She’d managed to cap it at hair serum and skin moisturizer. “And then Mitsu and Tori wanted to say goodbye too. I narrowly escaped having tea.” She held out a little paper bag. “Would you like a mochi?” Continue reading →

The Echoes of Achiyo Kensaki: Part 2: Doma

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Part 1: Hingashi

 

Part 2: Doma Castle

Percival did not head immediately into the first village they saw, leading her first to a lonely copse of trees where it looked like no one was around. “All right. We made it. You can cry now.”

But though she sat obediently under a tree, she didn’t feel like crying. She had cried yesterday, whether she wanted to or not, and now while the terror of her recent experiences still churned deep inside her, she felt pretty okay on the outside. Especially after that lady had been kind to her. Still, a quiet minute to relax would not be unwelcome, and she sat, and breathed. Continue reading →

The Echoes of Achiyo Kensaki: Part 1: Hingashi

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Oops I accidentally wrote out the entire backstory of my main Warrior of Light from my fic For Love and Life, the Hingan Au Ra samurai knight Achiyo Kensaki. It turned out even more tragic than I was expecting, tbh. 

I was halfway through the first chapter before I figured out Percival is basically Din Djarin LOL. He looks like 5.0 trailer Midlander, but wears the level 30 Steel tank armour set.

Warnings for: awkward sex education, attempted sexual assault, character death.

 

Part 1: Hingashi

The tiny Raen girl clad in a pink kimono walked a wooden doll over to a stuffed dragon plush. “I, Shirogane no Arinari, bring you greetings, Kiba-sama, and I thank you for your gracious invitation to visit you in your magnificent palace.” She looked expectantly at the older Hyuran lady sitting beside the stuffed dragon. “That’s you, Oba-chan. You’re Kiba-sama the dragon.” Continue reading →

FFXIV: Dust Settles

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64: For Ala Mhigo

 

65: Dust Settles

Nidhogg bared his teeth – and Achiyo lunged forwards. “For Ishgard,” was all she said, and then she had stabbed forward right through Nidhogg’s teeth into the roof of his mouth. Her sword snapped.

The jaws clamped shut on her head.

Aymeric snapped awake. Not with a scream, or sitting up abruptly, or even opening his eyes, but his mind had recoiled from the vision so violently it had clawed its way out of unconsciousness to get away. He opened his eyes into the darkness of his tent. Continue reading →

FFXIV: For Ala Mhigo

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Oops, extra long chapter! Well, it’s the season finale. I adjusted the gatecracker battle, because the Garleans would be rank fools not to put cannons on top of their walls, just letting the Alliance waltz up unopposed except for a paltry handful of flying machines. (I’m sure part of that is game render limitations, so I’m just breaking the limit.)

Tidbit that didn’t make it into the story: I headcanon the Temple Knights were training with the Immortal Flames in Thanalan for a few months to acclimatize to the arid environment. Also they’re on double water rations so no one sweats to death. Even if Coerthas used to be warmer, it’s not like it was hot. It’s like Scandinavians going to the Mediterranean – you can’t just throw them in there and expect them to operate as normal.

For Zenos fight I had to rely on an old standby boss-fight-inspo song: Blue Skies and a Battle from FE3H (which I haven’t played because I don’t want to play such a sad game).

I would really love for Ala Mhigo to have a hub city zone (like Ul’dah or Kugane) using the dungeon tileset, those textures are PRETTY.

Chapter 63: Reunion

 

Chapter 64: For Ala Mhigo

Tam tried to take stock of the last hour. Fordola was in Alliance custody. Krile was safely behind friendly lines, with Urianger. Urianger speculated that Fordola had been given an artificial Echo through those experiments on Krile, and his device, inspired by Alisaie’s testimony, had been to disrupt it. Rinala had arrived and Raubahn sent her to give his sword Tizona to Pipin, and Tam had gone along to hang out. Now how did Tam get from Pipin to… wolfmen, again? Continue reading →

FFXIV: Reunion

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Yesssssss the return of the king, as the memes say!

I’d kind of hoped to put in Raubahn’s flashbacks in the previous chapter, to pair up his memories of Lyse’s father with Achiyo’s last Echo involving her ‘father’, but eh the pacing ended up not really working out.

Thancred’s line about leather waistcoats… research tells me is a Monkey Island reference (to go with the ridiculous breath holding). (I’ve played several of the Monkey Island games, but it’s been quite a while. That sort of puzzle game isn’t really my cup of tea.)

Chapter 62: Legacies

 

Chapter 63: Reunion

The first thing to do was to warn the army of the experiments they’d encountered. The Empire did like building sinister laboratories everywhere they could – they’d built one beneath Doma Castle, for kami’s sake – and if they were creating machines that were part-beast, or worse, part-Spoken in one place, they could be creating them elsewhere. Or who knew which of their experiments had been approved and put into production. Their very horror would grant them an edge, let alone their combat capabilities. Everyone needed to know. Continue reading →

FFXIV: Legacies

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I forgot how long the Radiata bit was, and I couldn’t figure out how to abridge the WHM quest, so this is likely the third-last chapter of 4.0.

TIL that ‘cermet‘ is a real thing?? Man I know a little bit about a lot of things but I didn’t know that. I thought FFXIV made it up for the Garleans to use.

Estinien’s cannon-slaying is probably the best moment in all of Stormblood. He’s the Azure Dragoon, after all. (Jocat guitar sting)

Chapter 61: Bitter Dreams

 

Chapter 62: Legacies

Rinala walked through the forest of the Fringes, head down, tail low, lost in thought. Trying to figure out how her life had fallen down around her. How she had lost herself to the point that she couldn’t do her job anymore. That the Scions didn’t want her around anymore. Continue reading →