R’nyath and Chuchupa: Nice.
Chapter 69: Hinganisme
Achiyo took Chuchupa and Tam, and set out to track down Yllamse to invite her to join the Scions. “She is a flighty wanderer, is she not?” Achiyo said to Tam, who almost certainly knew her best.
“Yes, but less so than you might think,” Tam said. “The first place to ask is Ala Mhigo.”
Achiyo blinked at him even as he began a group Teleport. “Do you not have her linkpearl?”
“No,” Tam said, and the Teleport went off. Continue reading
If you haven’t seen The Echoes of Achiyo Kensaki yet, it’s been posted!
Omg I rewrote the garden scene like 5 times before I found the right soundtrack to help me though (it’s Joe Hisaishi). Very self-indulgent again but I regret nothing.
I used The Dreamers from Tsubasa Chronicle OST as music inspo for the sparring scene. : )
I’m not really sure about this chapter, but there’s only so long I can bang away on it so here it is for better or worse. It may be a while before the next one is out as I’m quite tired in general and trying to take it easy even for fiction writing. And I’m playing FF3! Look at all these names I remember from Crystal Tower raids! Noah, Xande, Unei… (and I renamed Ingram to Corey because when Drak was just starting to post NEST videos, he used Ingram-as-Warrior for Corey’s sprite and that’s all I think of now. I did not rename the others though I could have hahaha. I do like their default names – Luneth is such a nice name!)
Chapter 66: Ishgardian Intermission
Achiyo walked the small garden of Fortemps Manor, thinking intently. The sun was soft and warm, and within the walls of the manor there was no snow; in fact, there were flowers blooming. On the first few days that had been a delight to her, to see flowers in Ishgard, but now she did not take notice of them, or even the world around her. Continue reading
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
this is horribly self-indulgent (7,000 words of fluff, most of it written literal years ago) and yet it’s what we’ve been waiting for, please enjoy : D
Chapter 51: When the War is Over
The wounded were borne away in wains to Castrum Oriens, Y’shtola among them, with Lyse and Pipin to guard. Gradually, those left took stock of their situation. Rhalgr’s Reach was in shambles. The tents were charred tatters; the cannons were in pieces. Holes had been blown in the cliffs, including those that contained historic chambers now laid bare to the elements. And there were so many bodies, hundreds of casualties, many of them unarmed; people lined them up in neat rows to prepare for burial, weeping and cursing the Imperials. The ground was covered in scattered dark patches of dried blood. Continue reading
I wasn’t expecting this exposition to happen so soon but let’s roll with it! Also if the Ishgardians were actually French, the Fortemps boys would be using ‘tu’ with her now #justfrancophonethings
Did some re-reading of old chapters to check continuity, and I’m not sure I like what I saw. I may do some editing to 1) try and get Chuchupa’s accent more consistent, and 2) make sure it makes sense when people switch from consistently saying “Mistress Kensaki” to “Lady Achiyo”. …But not now. Now we’ve got celebratory fluff to write. Purely self-indulgent fluff, no MSQ. : D
Achiyo’s new sword is Baldur! Her new shield is the Fortemps shield. I figure she’d still been using the Holy Shield from the ARR Relic weapons until this point, even after getting the Fortemps shield from Artoirel a little while ago.
(Also I forgot that your patron isn’t necessarily tied to your birth month… So Achiyo is a Nymeia-patroned January baby.)
Chapter 40: Il était une fois…
Achiyo received many letters in the following days, some addressed to the Warriors of Light thanking them for their heroic deeds, and those she passed on to the Rising Stones so that her friends could read them and be gladdened by how many appreciated them. But a surprising number were addressed to her personally, and were of a… personal nature… being that they offered various levels of apologies for treatment she had endured upon first entering Ishgard. And after. Continue reading
We made it, you guys.
Nidstinien’s model is really cool, too bad it’s always covered in flashy lights from everyone trying to kill him. XD
Writing this boss fight felt nearly as intense as fighting this boss fight. XD Gods I love the music.
Chapter 39: Dragonsong
Aymeric felt his blood run cold as Ishgard came into view below him in the dark, smoky morning. In the short time that Nidhogg had been ahead of them, the Steps of Faith were become a scorched ruinous hellscape, and though he had heard the rumble of the guns from over the horizon, testifying to their mighty efforts in keeping the dragons out of the city proper, smoke was still rising from many parts of the city. Black dragons swarmed the Steps of Faith, aiming for the gates, and knights of all liveries had sortied out to meet them. They were few, now, too few – but he saw Lucia’s distinctive armour among them, and breathed a sigh of relief. Continue reading
This area of plot is where I may “deviate from the prepared remarks” a bit; there’s a lot of headcanony stuff and game adjustments for a while. But you’re not exactly reading this in order to just experience the game again, are you. : )
Song at the end is “The Rose“, which sounds like a traditional folk song but is actually from the 70’s written by one Amanda McBroom; my preferred recording is the King’s Singers’ choral arrangement. It’s also on the Only Yesterday soundtrack in Japanese!
Chapter 37: Shattered Peace
Achiyo and the other Warriors of Light saw little of Aymeric over the following few days; it seemed all of Ishgard had been plunged into a whirlwind of activity and preparation. Honoroit was out of bed with only some scarring on his brow to show of his ordeal, Emmanellain was somehow back to his old self without being back to his old ways, and Alphinaud was looking much more confident. Continue reading
Work upon Vivienne’s cosplay proceeds apace! I’m not done yet, though. There’s so much to do! I’m nearly done the main part of the chestplate, but there are so many little details! And then there are the gloves and boots, which have a bit less detail, and I’m still debating if I want to make a helmet or not. I don’t think I will have time before Halloween for a helmet, but for the cosplay in general.
This chapter is a little bit fillery, but hey my characters wanted to talk! Also there are sure a lot of people with swords in the 24-man, but obviously the PLD or GLD characters who are not Achiyo are not tanking.
Also I didn’t consciously decide to write the spooky ship during spooky month, but hey this works out!
Chapter 34: The Void Ark
“So how was your honeymoon?” R’nyath asked Kekeniro as the Warriors of Light and Y’shtola appeared around the aetheryte on Azys Lla.
“We can speak of that later,” Aentfryn said. “Should we not begin by summarizing the situation?” Continue reading
Wow, it’s been nearly a year since I uploaded a FFXIV chapter? How!? I got stuck on these BRD quests but I felt they were important. (also work, yadda yadda, lack of energy, yadda yadda, cosplay yadda)
Gordon Lightfoot passed away since I last posted. I didn’t know his music as well as I should (and I should since 1: it’s gorgeous and 2: I’m Canadian), but I did know it a little bit, and I submit for your consideration Song for a Winter’s Night as a good song for Aymeric shippers.
I’m working on a Vivienne cosplay for Halloween! I tried to do it last year, starting with Cronus, but Cronus is a huge complicated scary project and I was still pretty burned out. I seem to be doing much better this year, I already have the chestpiece cut out of craft foam.
Chapter 33: A City in Chaos
“If you ask me, it sounds like naught but a faerie tale,” Guydelot said, folding his arms and glaring off at the gate of Tailfeather. “I’d wager that ‘heavens’ is just a metaphor for a natural phenomenon. We’ve hit a dead end – I say we return to Gridania for now and look for other avenues.” Continue reading
I wanted to write in something resembling the big battle at the end of the trailer, because Heavensward’s trailer is one of my favourite trailers of all time, and that fight is exciting! My interpretation was also helped by listening to The Last Stand by Sabaton, which is about a different group of courageous-unto-death religious guys. Unlike those guys, the Ishgardians do survive though. It also gave me opportunity to insert shipping! Please let me know what you think!
I noticed when writing this chapter that my Miqo’te characters are overachievers compared to the others with the number of classes they’ve got. Oops!
Chapter 22: Guide Us to Victory
The tall grey halls of the throne room rose about Achiyo, austere and imposing. They were more austere – older, perhaps? – than the glimpse she had gotten of a vast cathedral filled with golden light higher up in the Vault. Cold light streamed down from pale arched windows, illuminating the venerable bearded man in his throne upon the dais. He was flanked by soldiers, a Heavens’ Ward knight, and Lord Commander Aymeric, but all of them stood upon the lower ground. She found the effect… lonely. Sultana Nanamo had never had so much separation between her people and her self. Continue reading
