#owen ffxiv spoilers

[impossible-rat-babies]

still love how emet makes eye contact with the WoL and then straight up lies to hyth’s face like no i didn’t see anything

#Owen ffxiv spoilers #kfhskd glad to see he's at the core the same ya know #you know i can't wait to finish the pandamonium raids and then go back and watch shb stuff and Cry Even More #this is wildly off topic but tags are tags: i wonder if the promise elidibus made either had to do w the WoL showing back up in the past #or if it was a promise to azem #and i can't decide which Hurts More

[roguelioness]

okay! what is “the final goodbye” from your ffxiv section :eyes:

Thank you for the ask owen! ♥

Spoilers for endwalker below the cut:

It's about the last interaction Aly has with Hades and Hythlodeus - after using Azem's crystal, given the abundance of dynamis present, emotions and memories coalesce and allow Aeoliya (Azem) to briefly inhabit Aly's body (albeit not whole; there are still memories missing).

It's a chance for the three of them to be together one last time, as they were unable to before the Sundering. It's a chance for them to grieve what they lost, acknowledge the horrors they have experienced, and finally, let themselves hope for a chance to be together once more in another life.

It's also an opportunity for Aly to gain some closure, as she carries an incredibly amount of guilt over (in her mind) inadvertently being the cause of the Sundering and everything that follows. She's able to start her own healing process, slowly letting go of her guilt for killing Emet-Selch, her mixed bundle of emotions about the Ascians, her shock about Zodiark andHydaelyn (there's a lot).

A final goodbye, before the final day.

#wip roundup #wip ask meme #in order to heal one must acknowledge that there's something to heal from #to have validation for it #i have a lot of feelings about [redacted] and [redacted] - about the agony of loneliness and the aching horror of losing one's self #ffxiv

[elizkras]

Owen probably hated his research facility. and his superiors T.T

#final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #ff14 #ffxiv endwalker #ffxiv endwalker spoilers #owen #amon #fandaniel

[chrysalispen]

ultima ratio (FFXIV, ARR spoilers, pt 1/4)

this is a four part flash-fiction set i’m working on and will post to AO3 when it’s completed. glimpses at the last moments of the XIVth Legion in ARR from their point of view, because one of the best things about writing fic with characters that didn’t get much screentime or character development is that you get to do it yourself :3c

spoilers dating from cape westwind onward to the end of the main storyline.

===================================

i mean the truth untold, the pity of war, the pity war distilled. now men will go content with what we spoiled. or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled. --wilfred owen (1893-1918)

===================================

i. the judge

He had known his fate the moment the eikon-slayer darkened the threshold of the castrum but he meets her regardless. Orders are orders.

She stands before the XIVth Legion's praefectus castrorum dressed like an Eorzean: golden hair grown now well past regulation length, svelte frame clad in simple hooded robes of white trimmed in red, an intricate cedarwood circlet bracing her third eye like a jewel setting. 

The weight of that gaze settles upon his massive armored frame without malice or aggression, and he understands she is taking his measure as well.

Rhitahtyn sas Arvina has ever been the most prosaic of the Black Wolf's adjutants. There is a brutal honesty inherent in cold steel and strategy that of the three of them, only he truly understands as well as does the legatus himself. All very well to piece together an ancient machina or to ferret out and destroy a nest of rebels, but when it comes to battlefield deployment, supply lines, the brutal and final truth of war---that is Rhitahtyn's work, and he excels at it.

He looks past the rumors, past the stories of her power--- and sees only a deserter. A criminal.

Formidable strength notwithstanding, this woman broke rank and fled in the midst of battle rather than die alongside her fellows. The fact that she is hardly the only one of the VIIth's rank and file to have done such a thing is, frankly, immaterial.

Were it his decision, he would have overruled Livia's sadistic games and Nero's unbridled (and to his mind, wholly inappropriate) fascination. None of this following her about "under observation" while she felled eikons and made a general nuisance of herself; Rhitahtyn would have simply taken her head and had done with it. 

Failing that, he would have dragged the recalcitrant medicus in chains to Castrum Centri for courts-martial, then back to Garlemald to publicly swing from the hangman's noose.

But his opinion, of course, was not requested.

Perhaps it doesn’t matter, in the end. Her presence here signals the city-states' intent: they have chosen to stand against the Ultima Weapon rather than bend their knee to imperial will.

So be it, then, Rhitahtyn thinks, somewhat bleakly. Alea iacta est. 

For better or worse, the die is cast. Let the vagaries of fate and choice fall where they will.

The men and women of his cohort cluster at his back, weapons not drawn yet, not yet, but he can see hands straying to gunblades should she take another step closer. 

He thinks of the good soldiers she cut down at Centri while freeing the Scions, the numbers she has killed in the days since, the blood on her hands, and tells the cohort to fall back to the perimeter wall. They are not a match for an enemy such as this.

They ignore his orders and stand ready at his back as the pair exchange words, as any chance of accord comes to naught, as he bares steel against her.

And trusting to his judgment and to the might of empire, they fall at his side.

#ffxiv #ffxiv writing #rhitahtyn sas arvina #garleans #garleans everywhere #yes i'm quoting wilfred owen #because strange journey is VERY VERY RELEVANT to the xivth

[impossible-rat-babies]

thinking about eyrie and love and hmmmm they aren’t…afraid of love as much as they are afraid of the power of love. Afraid of how blinding it is, the all encompassing way it feels and the drive to protect that comes from it. It’s those feelings that drove them to become and imperial—blinded them to the wrongs they were doing even though they knew from the start that what they were doing was never going to protect anyone. Not their homeland, not their children—not even the ones they didn’t know had survived childbirth. (which that is a terrifying thought they bury wayyyu deep down).

they made those mistakes out of a false sense of hope and the idea of doing the right thing, because protecting the people you love is always the correct thing to do. They protect the forest, but more their people within—a duty driven into their head since they were in their early teens. Eyrie loves—they love fiercely and beyond reckoning, but at the same time they are terrified of those feelings. What they might do for love and if they’ll regret those choices later. They’ll have the time to look back and regret it half a century later. Eyrie is troubled and regretful of their past, but they stand so immovable as to not make a mistake again. which means they don’t move forward; they’re guarded, they distance themselves behind a veneer. They fool themselves into stagnation being the better of the options. I don’t think they truly know how to move forward much anymore

#oc: eyrie kisne #which….hmmm gonna say some spoiler stuff so uhh #owen ffxiv spoilers #but there’s all of this they have going on standing in stark contrast to DRK #all that it encompasses being something eyrie is terrified of and it’s the power held within love #that and fray screaming instead for someone to #see—someone to notice that there is something or rather anything is wrong #they make my brain itch I love eyrie #completely different topic though: eyrie does take leave of Mohr Dona once the crystal braves are established #they had a mild argument with Minfilia about them taking their leave once the idea was brought up #they don’t want any part in the crystal braves—the whole thing while good intentioned #is Bad. yes pls give the scions of the seventh Dawn a standing army. it will be fine! #y’all remember the policy of neutrality? talking about neutrality when the coffers of the braves are lined w ul’dah riches #they don’t like any of it and they go off to find alisasie

[impossible-rat-babies]

thinking in ShB about concepts of how it’s like….loving something so much, but you cannot save it. you cannot bring it back. it was doomed to end from the start. that is how this story goes

#the narrative cycle. the whole of what the ascians did to save that which they loved #amarot existing as it is now as a testament to love and care #why render out this ancient place with such care and detail if not out love of that place #why hold onto such a dream if not for the people one misses? #it’s so heartbreaking how both the hero and villains both come from places of love but the love cannot coexist #this excludes fandaniel <3 fandaniel exclusion squad #B rated villain. little tool. a lil shit I’m waiting for Zenos to beat the snot out of #oh Zenos bby you can do so much better #my dislike of asahi is bleeding through bc I hated that little shit so much #but even beyond that fandaniel is…………hmm bc i think he would take it personally #*personally I rate him as a shitty villain <3 #try harder baby girl <3 don’t be such a pawn <3 #owen ffxiv spoilers

[impossible-rat-babies]

was it ever implied or just outright said that asahi was just fandaniel reincarnated?

#that was kinda the implication I got from it #it makes sense. in the sad lil tragic way #god asahi is just a character that I love to not feel bad for at all #even if he was fandaniel and thus hermes #it’s kinda like the emet situation of distorted and twisted by time and memory #owen ffxiv spoilers #endwalker spoilers

[impossible-rat-babies]

tanking shinryu ex w just my summoner friend aka how many times can I tell ***** I’m gonna kick his ass as I die

#i just want the dog I just want the fuckin dog #I have twenty five runs and I have never seen the dog drop #i have had better odds w Titania ex and the gwib compared to this fucker #my friend got to 60 something totems before getting the dog #I will take shinryu over bird lady I don’t like bird lady #her phase changes mess up my dnc rotation so bad #it’s at the point where you can skip a lot and dnc’s opener is long #it’s bc the steps take time and other folks have shorter get damage out wuic #so I finish my step and she’s like haha time for Other Things #i am grumpy I say as I can go as a different job #owen plays ffxiv #owen ffxiv spoilers

[impossible-rat-babies]

i wanna talk about how meteion’s words echo zenos’s throughout the expansion--when she talks about “what pain must i inflict for you give into despair”

#it itches my brain it really does scratch something #i was thinking about it in the car on the way home how their words echo each others #just different motivations--different things they craved #actually no not really? in a way they both reach out #meteion seeing so much pain and despair in her reaching out. zenos seeing only seeing that which bore him #i have brain worms over how zenos connects into the narrative #owen ffxiv spoilers

[impossible-rat-babies]

he really just lives* his life this way huh

*he never says he loves his life sjsjsjdd

#owen ffxiv spoilers #the top of the ears just reach his shoulders it’s hilarious #should’ve goosed w him but it was 9am and I hadn’t slept and I wanted to kick his ass

[impossible-rat-babies]

oc EW thoughts:

more me being self indulgent and thinking about just specific parts:

Eyrie doesn’t tell the scions much about the confrontation with Zenos. Partially Krile blaming herself, but also in a way…it’s not really their business to know what was said to each other at the edge of the world in that place. The way fighting Zenos made Eyrie feel like they were so, so ready to fight Zenos. To fully go at him, to embrace all that he talked about—the connection the two of them had in that moment. This….to call it a dance is romantic about it, but the singular moments of that fight were something just for the two of them. Nothing to be shared—nothing to be said for the sadness of realizing Zenos didn’t get brought back too. That he was left in that place at the edge of the world. Alone like Alisaie said, but to have one’s body left in such a desolate place…it saddens Eyrie. Part of them is missing. Detached and drifting.

Maybe it’s partially the oddity that comes with saving the world in this dramatic way—the grief and complexity that comes with it. It’s probably the stuck in a bed to recover—because as much as they were hurt physically, they used their soul to keep themselves alive and have to suffer the consequences of that. The terrible nightmares, the aether instabilities that have difficult physical symptoms to manage. The horrible nausea, hand tremors, issues with sights and sounds—especially seeing. They end up with a lot of vision issues such as difficulties with brightness and their vision not adapting well; others like dry eye and bouts of their vision clouding out to near blindness. Y’shtola and Urianger take to investigating what is going on with their vision. They do take to wearing coverings such as blindfolds, sunglasses, goggles, etc to ease their eyes.

#oc: eyrie kisne #they mean so much to me but I am half asleep and do not have more coherent thoughts #owen ffxiv spoilers

[impossible-rat-babies]

every expansion it’s like having the training wheels on for a bit and then they take the training wheels off and shove you off a cliff

#in other news I am refusing every dinner party invitation I receive 🙃🙃🙃 #I didn’t do the dungeon yet bc it’s like 7am and boy howdy I knew stuff was gonna happen after #but this was just. holy shit #the throwing the sword was very choice #put me back where I came from or so help me! #theyve done a wonderful job of making you feel…..small and worried #the whole duty w the….thing that happened was very good #it’s easy to feel powerful playing the WoL but getting knocked down a few pegs like that was fantastic #it feels like the fight with Zenos at the beginning of stormblood again #im kinda like. steamroll through EW now that I have Eden stuff out of the way #which that is very good much nice 200/10 #owen ffxiv spoilers

[impossible-rat-babies]

NG+ just to play garlemald again

#owen ffxiv spoilers #no it was so good I loved every second of it #narrative wise and area wise—this build up to this place #across the expansions and to be there and it’s this haunting ruined wasteland #a cold and empty ruin with this tower of hubris. this tower of horror #garlemald has just a good horror element to it omfg #what happened to varis. the radio. the tempered #the garleans tempered by a creature built of their own faith. this horror of Eorzea and what sparked their whole invasion #created in the center of their own home and the worst is no one knew. no one understood #the way that part makes the WoL helpless by using the twins #a collaring more effective than what was done to the twins #and the body swapping hogogogogog #that helplessness there put to practice and not just in a cutscene #i love you garlemald it’s a shame you were followed up by the moon :-/ #I loved the moon but there was too much time w the loporits #which personally for me was just how long it took to get around the area #it was so so slow. painfully so

[impossible-rat-babies]

Ansjdjdjd I forgot this happened rip ur dad alisaie and alphinaud

#Owen plays ffxiv #owen ffxiv spoilers #it was incredibly confusing like bruh what the fuck #my friends and I sat and tried to puzzle this out for ages it was such a bizarre glitch #it didn’t effect anything or break anything so I didn’t log out and log back in

[impossible-rat-babies]

eyrie has a lot of…delayed? or better yet repressed grief and anguish that comes back during their recovery in Sharlayan. There’s nothing for them to do for a long while other than lay in bed while being tended to; a lot of quiet time. Not much alone time, but not a lot of movement; they get time to sit in their thoughts and it’s….a mire, really. There was no time in Ultima Thule to feel angry or frustrated—to grieve for the companions they thought lost and to gain them back. It’s the worst sort of whiplash. This on top of the physical pains—the limitations of their vision and the frustrations. Old hurts dragged to the surface.

So Eyrie struggles. A great deal of panicked waking up—screams in the middle of the night in the Leveilleur estate. Uncontrollable crying and unable to express why; the sort of crying where they would end up unable to breathe from the rattling in their lungs, their head screaming in pain. It was concerning enough to wonder if something had happened in Ultima Thule, or the confrontation with the Endsinger had maliciously or unknowingly done something to harm them. (Alisaie thought it all nonsense and they were utterly grief stricken—just in an immense amount of pain and struggling to deal with it.)

#i dunno they do get quote unquote better #they think about fordola wondering how they carry so much pain and grief and wonder how they do it too #Alisaie spends a lot of time with them #when they get well enough to leave the house she takes them places #sometimes it’s just to the fountain outside the estate #or down to the market for the week. tea at the last stand #it becomes an unspoken commitment. a repayment of sorts #for all the times they looked after her. she was going to look after them for once #feel like I’m hammering home a point here but. EW has been on my mind so much ajsjsjsk #me having watched the ending cutscenes three times now <3 #oc: eyrie kisne #owen ffxiv spoilers

[impossible-rat-babies]

really wanna see eyrie cry, but I know I’m not gonna get that but I’m gonna think about it nonetheless

#the ambiguity of the scene after 5.3 was so good baby definitely stood there for a second w the fantasy USB stick and cried #not bout redacted but because of the other one #me pointing at the other one: you were a child what the absolute FUCK y’all you really did that huh #you stuck a child in the heart of redacted and thought this is fine #I’m not saying it doesn’t Track all things considered to do that messed up thing #but it’s like. man…….. #me grabbing and shaking the table of where was Azem during all of this what were they DOING #I know the fame will tell me eventually but still! #i think it’s probably post EW #owen ffxiv spoilers #also yes eyrie crying they cry they’re gonna cry