Tag Archives: FFXIV

FFXIV: The Turning of Seasons

There’s so much side content in Stormblood. I was going to call this chapter Tataru’s Undersea Adventure, but Achiyo and Aentfryn already ran Hell’s Lid. So, an assortment of loose threads being wrapped before we open some new cans of worms.

In gameplay I am completed replaying 5.0! I’m caught up to where I was originally. I’m going zoom zoom again until I get to the end of EW. Then I can plan out the story arcs. There’s so much stuff I really want to get to in this fic and then I get stuck on some silly thing (like how to get the Hildy dance to be canon).

Chapter 75: Angel of Blood

 

Chapter 76: The Turning of Seasons

“There’s few so loath to take their rest, than ‘venturers without a quest. For shorn of work to give them worth, they soon become a source of mirth,” quoth the Wandering Dramaturge.

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” R’nyath said, R’inwa at his shoulder.

“I mean, if we’re not busy with something else,” Naomi said, Crim at hers.

“I suppose I could spare the effort, if you have something interesting,” Tharash said. Continue reading

FFXIV: Angel of Blood

For Achiyo’s theme song as a SAM I decided to steal the Theme of the Angry Lobster – a.k.a. Alight (Storm) from Fire Emblem Fates. It sounds like a party. (Her Maiden’s Rhapsody gear kind of makes her look like a little Angry Lobster?) For a more romantic song, I might also use Break the Sword of Justice from the old Tsubasa Chronicle OST.

You no longer have to cook bacon bread for the bacon bread guy?? I distinctly remember that being a thing. It was selling for exorbitant prices on the market board as culinarians fed the demand.

Chapter 74: The Prima Vista

 

Chapter 75: Angel of Blood

“Vivienne,” Achiyo said, beckoning her out to an area of the Prima Vista’s audience seating away from the other adventurers, “I want to talk to you.”

Vivienne froze for a second. This was Achiyo being unusually direct, and her face was giving nothing away. Which meant this was Achiyo being very upset. If they were to spar right now, it would probably come out even more clearly. And honestly, she’d prefer that. “All right.” Shite, she needed to apologise for raging at her yesterday. With words. Continue reading

FFXIV: The Prima Vista

Achiyo is wearing the armour set from The Maiden’s Rhapsody event, which just reran recently but I got it years ago for a SAM glam.

(man these 24-mans still wreck people, even if they don’t completely wipe anymore)

(also wow they put all the effort into the animations for these quests!)

Chapter 73: My Girl

 

Chapter 74: The Prima Vista

Chuchupa stepped into the central backstage area of the Prima Vista, premier Garlean performing arts airship, and let out a whistle. “Cor, ain’t that Leviabeetus up there? Made o’ wood an’ paper an’ string? Nice!”

“It does appear to be Leviathan,” R’nyath said, looking up at the long snakey figure hanging from the ceiling, ears pricking forward in interest. “Have they done a play about Leviathan?”

“Oh yes, the Lord of the Whorl was a very popular tragedy a few years ago,” Lina Mewrilah said, nodding. “It wasn’t necessarily historically accurate, but it made everyone cry a lot.” Continue reading

FFXIV: My Girl

R’nyath’s been listening to Cidergirl again (I bought the rest of their Soda Pop Fanclub albums; he’s singing a loose translation of Umbrella). Achiyo’s been listening to Parting Ways. (ugh I’m so bad at romcom content)

Oops I almost finished this chapter and then I fell down a Resident Evil-shaped hole. Never played or watched the series before so I started from the very beginning and I’m watching everything in order. I’m up to RE4 at the moment (I’ve watched RE1R, RE2R, RE3, RE3R, RE4R, RE0, and RECV). I love all the characters and I might write some minor, incidental fanfic for some of them. (the other reason this chapter took a while is that it’s been my busy season)

I’ve also gone back to Windows(10). I couldn’t hack it on Linux, it wouldn’t talk to my Nvidia graphics card at all so I couldn’t play games, and a lot of the other things that I want to do on a computer it wouldn’t do either. I am regretful, I really wanted Linux to work, to get away from corporate tyranny. I’m still trying to figure out where to go from here, in both hardware and software, because this is probably not a viable longterm solution, but the upshot for the fic at this exact moment is that I can play FFXIV again. (I’m playing on Achiyo, who is currently up to about Chapter 25 fic-wise. I’ve decided to take her all the way to Endwalker. I was holding off on her because I wanted to make an Achiymeric AMV, but NG+ means I won’t miss out on anything.) (Did the level 60 PLD quests and thinking I’d like to write an Achiyo-training-Constaint sidefic now.)

(also Heated Rivalry is surprisingly mid, and Akatsuki no Yona is fantastic)

Chapter 72: The Ambassador

 

Chapter 73: My Girl

The Scions looked at Achiyo, standing pale and still where Asahi had left her. “Are you quite well?” Alphinaud inquired, coming over to her. “You looked as if you were about to faint in the ambassador’s arms for a moment there.”

“Please don’t joke about that,” Achiyo whispered, still wildly unsettled. She could not think of another time she’d had so much concentrated, venomous hatred directed at her, for any reason, not even in Ishgard when they thought she was a spy… It must be for Zenos’ death, of course it was for Zenos’ death, the Echo told her he hero-worshipped Zenos if indeed he was not completely in love with him. Continue reading

FFXIV: The Ambassador

My family got me cat-shaped fidget squishies for my birthday and they’re the greatest thing ever

Chapter 71: Blackest Night

 

Chapter 72: The Ambassador

Achiyo disembarked from the ship into the Doman Enclave and looked around in amazement. It had changed greatly since she had left so abruptly on the eve of Doma’s liberation. Within the low protective walls there now rose a multitude of new buildings, and she could hear the sounds of yet more construction – sawing, hammering, foremen giving orders. A few fishers sat on the docks, though their efforts were in idle pleasure – further down the dock was an actual fishing boat unloading its silvery cargo.

The Garlean ambassadors had made pleasant remarks along the entire trip, praising the architecture, and the industriousness of the people, and lamenting the destruction of war that the industriousness sought to mend. They seemed genuine enough, especially the third-eyed Garlean with the glasses, who nearly fell out of the skiff at one point peering at a distant manor on the shore. Young Asahi frowned at him, and the Garlean – Maxima, he introduced himself – stayed put after that. Continue reading

FFXIV: Blackest Night

I love the DRK 70 quest so much. 

The concert went well! I made an annoying audible mistake in Zanarkand, but everything else went pretty good (and the audience was making noise anyway so fingers crossed they missed it). And then I wiped out from concentrating so hard. Took a very rare extra day off this week and finished this chapter with it. Was hoping to get further into 4.2, but at least we’re moving.

Chapter 70: The Sword of Tamehiro

 

Chapter 71: Blackest Night

It had been three days since Vivienne had returned Myste-less from Gyr Abania, and she was practically prowling the street below the Forgotten Knight while Sidurgu and Rielle watched her. “…Godsdammit, Myste. Does he want me to track him down, or what?”

“He needs to return the remainder of the aether he stole from you, if nothing else,” Sidurgu said. “He said that when this was finished, naught would remain of him? Bloody vague and ominous, to say the least… We’ll just have to press him for answers when we find him.” Continue reading

FFXIV: The Sword of Tamehiro

Sorry fic readers that I was gone so long! You know, holidays, vacation, and I found myself struggling to find the spark of inspiration I originally had for the first half of the chapter. But fun news, I’m going to be playing in a FF concert next weekend! A big, official, orchestral one! Boy the ticket prices are exorbitantly nerd-taxed (average of $100, which is rather ridiculous – you can see world famous superstar violinist Ray Chen for less than that). I’m really excited, though I’ve been practicing like mad – the arrangement of Aerith’s Theme, for instance, is quite tricky (many ripply arpeggios), and they only gave me 10 days to learn the music. (now I wanna play FFVII… we’ll see if it works on my PC, I’ve been struggling to game ever since I switched to Linux)

If you haven’t seen the Trash Taste podcast interview with Koji, I recommend it – Koji goes into quite a bit of detail on the localization process and it’s very interesting. The guidelines they set for language use for tone and consistency are just as strict as I thought they might be, and then some! (Though not without perhaps some missteps – nobody wants to translate Urianger, lol!)

Chapter 69: Hinganisme

 

Chapter 70: The Sword of Tamehiro

“Okay, so you said this is perfectly safe,” R’nyath said to Tam, as they collected in the aetheryte plaza of Revenant’s Toll.

“I mean, ‘e survived t’other way, so how bad can it be?” Chuchupa said.

Tam grinned. “Just group up with me and we’ll get there.” Continue reading

FFXIV: Ishgardian Intermission

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 65: Dust Settles

 

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

The Echoes of Achiyo Kensaki: Part 4: Percival

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

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