Author Archives: Illinia

Merry Christmas 2023

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Happy holidays! And spoiler alert for my FFXIV fanfic! Nero tol Scaeva (right) is a smug, arrogant, ambitious, brilliant magnificent b*stard, hells-bent on becoming the greatest engineer the world has ever seen (frustrated by being seemingly effortlessly thwarted at every turn by his rival since college). Vivienne Urselmert (left) is a cold, angry, stubborn, emotionally-constipated antihero who suffers grievous hardships in silence and slaughters monsters without mercy. Together, they are a match made in… something, considering he started out as a villain and she was very much trying to kill him at the time. After she blew up his boss’s base, he had nowhere to go and began wandering aimlessly, looking for advanced ancient technology to tinker with, occasionally ping-ponging off of the heroes and usually sort of helping them. He woos her sarcastically and she snaps back defensively, until those rare moments when one or another of them drops their walls (shockingly, often Nero first) and does or says something sincerely genuine. Apologies if it still doesn’t make sense to you, but it makes me laugh so I drew it. Continue reading →

FFXIV: Il était une fois…

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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 39: Dragonsong

 

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 →

FFXIV: Dragonsong

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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 38: Resolve

 

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 →

FFXIV: Resolve

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This chapter is quite a bit shorter but the final boss fight was ending up so long I decided it would be nicer to have a shorter chapter here rather than one colossally long one there.

Hraesvelgr is so wishy-washy. XD “My soulmate doesn’t want me to fight (*hands Nidhogg a gun*)”

Contrary to my general strategy to not use the edits the game has made to the plot since I first played it 5 years ago, I am thrilled that Sohr Khai is now a trust and I went and did it to grab extra dialogue >: D

Chapter 37: Shattered Peace

 

Chapter 38: Resolve

“Though I expected no better answer from Vidofnir, I take little pleasure from having been proven right,” Alphinaud said the next morning, as they packed their things and redressed in their armour. “‘Twould seem that our presence at Zenith will be every bit as unwelcome as I had anticipated. But what is the ire of one great wyrm to a band of self-confessed fools such as ourselves?” Continue reading →

FFXIV: Shattered Peace

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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 36: Rousing Spirits

 

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 →

FFXIV: Rousing Spirits

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Is it just me or have interpersonal relationships suddenly become easier between my characters starting last chapter? Like they actually like each other? Y’know, only an expansion and a half late. : P

I took out the cyclops because I don’t think it really adds anything except make Thancred miss the climax of the fight for no reason. : P

Chapter 35: Unraveling Hopes

 

Chapter 36: Rousing Spirits

Achiyo, Rinala, R’nyath, and Vivienne went down for breakfast in Fortemps Manor several days later and found Count Edmont reading a notice as he ate. “Ah, good morning to you all. Ser Aymeric has news for us. I shall call upon him after I have breakfasted, would you care to join me?” Continue reading →

FFXIV: Unraveling Hopes

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So you probably guessed but this year’s NaNoWriMo is FFXIV fic! My goal is to get to the start of Stormblood.

Vivienne’s cosplay looks great! Photoshoot forthcoming! I had many moments where I was forced to improvise but I think I captured the five million details well enough. With this massive project done, I can… play more videogames, I feel I’ve neglected them.

I have been replaying FFXIV a bit as I mentioned before, and I have an alt in the middle of 2.x, and I’m noticing a few things I didn’t before – I think one reason why Minfilia chose to help the Domans and not the Ala Mhigans is that there are only so many Doman refugees to take in, their numbers are limited and finite. Ala Mhigo is right next door, so there can always be more Ala Mhigan refugees. (I’m also coming up with new theories and questions about the Echo, so I hope I can keep playing until EW this time.)

You may notice some dialogue is different from how it currently appears in the game. I’m going by how it was when I played it!

Chapter 34: The Void Ark

 

Chapter 35: Unraveling Hopes

“Our unknown third party was simply there… and then not there,” Krile had said about Minfilia’s disappearance beneath Ul’dah. Rinala shivered. She knew more or less all the details – the ‘unknown third party’ was Minfilia, and the place she had disappeared to was Hydaelyn’s side in the aetherial sea, but the way Krile had worded it… was creepy.  Continue reading →

FFXIV: The Void Ark

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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 33: A City in Chaos

 

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 →

FFXIV: A City in Chaos

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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 32: Thancred

 

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 →