#wyn gabs

[calico-heart]

I know unicorns in modern media are kind of relegated to cutsie, MLP, rainbow plastic toys, or shitting rainbows, 'lets go to candy mountain' but man. I WISH more fantasy media would put them in unironically. There is so much symbolic and narrative potential in a creature that is, depending on your mythology:

A guardian of wild spaces, the embodiment of nature untouched by mankind's industry and greed. Fewer and farther between.

The ideal of "Purity" made manifest, elusive and powerful and hunted for fruitlessly by many a person. To kill. To actually kill. Living symbol of the oh-so-coveted Purity, not treated as a sacred thing to protect, or even predated for food to survive off, but a trophy for knights and lords to boast about.

So absolutely fierce and deadly that no one smart dared to fight it fairly. A gentle maiden had to betray it into resting in her lap so that a man could spear it while its guard was down.

Able to heal any wound no matter how severe - it promised miracles, if you could find one.

A creature who's magic vanished if it was captured or killed. In trying to take control of it, you destroyed it. Some things can only be given by free will, and no amount of personal desire or brute force can change that.

#unicorn #wyn gabs #mythology #fantasy

[lookbluesoup]

Playing ffxiv as a traditional Keeper of the Moon who worshiped Menphina, goddess of the moons, is great actually bc you find out that the first moon. Which explodes. Was actually a space ship with an angry god trapped inside.

But the second moon? Also a space ship with an angry god trapped inside.

#ffxiv #endwalker spoilers #wyn gabs #text

[la-lunaluna]

time for fic recs! (May 30th)

Hi! This post every Sunday is becoming my new ritual and I’m loving every single part of it: reading, thinking about what to write to convince you all to read, post, everything! I confess the writer’s reactions to this are priceless, it makes my day! By the way, to all writers I tag on this post: you are all amazing and I cheer for your blogs to grow every day because you deserve it! 

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Today’s stars are Din Djarin, Javi Peña, Frankie Morales, and Prince Oberyn Martell. (MARCUS PIKE IS NOT ON THIS LIST TODAY, IT’S A MIRACLE!)

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● this post contains fics I’ve read between May 24h and May 30th and titles were organized by alphabetical order. ●

When I write “prompt” on the names it means the author got inspired by another person to write, for example, a reader idea, or an image, or a sentence, etc. 

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HAPPIER by @folklord​​ (Din Djarin)

We are always so used to read/watch stories with happy endings that sometimes we forgot how sad endings are as real as the happy ones, and sometimes even more real. I think that’s why stories like La La Land or Inside Llweyn Davis impact us so much, they simply show us that this is also a real possibility. Laura, in only 1k words, was able to show how Din thinks like us, how he bets he was getting a happy ending, but without remembering sad stories also exist. This impacted me and made me think about life itself, and how life is just like this, unpredictable. Thank you, Laurinha, and congratulations on your first fic on Writer Wednesday!

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PRINCES NEVER SAY PLEASE by @starlightmornings​ (Oberyn Martell)

I simply LOVE when @autumnleaves1991-blog posts her challenges on Writer Wednesday because my dashboard gets full of new fanfics, all based on the same prompt. It’s delicious to read how each author takes the same reference to a different place, and it was thanks to this week’s prompt I found PRINCES NEVER KEEP THEIR PROMISES, with Oberyn Martell. After I figured out that fic and Princes Never Say Please (which @danniburgh​​ has recommended me this week) were connected stories! And it was DELICIOUS! There were four chapters to read, but all I wanted was to kept reading for a long time, Oberyn was so well written even I, that was just reading, felt comfortable with all the situation. Kaylie knew perfectly how to write the way Oberyn has the gift of the gab in her story, and this became everything wonderful! 

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PROMPT REQUEST by @sugarontherims​ (Javier Peña)

This was the first time Mandy wrote something with Javier Peña and I thought it was so real! Javi can be a hard nut to crack, but if you have patience and give motives to make him trust you, soon you see he is such a sweetheart! And how Mandy did that? Putting a pregnant belly on the story, my weak point (SERIOUSLY, WANT ME TO FREAK OUT? PUT A PREGNANT READER AND WATCH ME DIE)! How could I not love? I’ve already read this cuteness three times this week and I can’t get enough!  

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PROMPT REQUEST by @wyn-dixie​ (Frankie Morales)

One more answer to a request on my list this week. Seems like people are really having good ideas to ask for stories and they’re putting it in great hands to write them! Wyn was wonderful by describing with few words how it’s a common feeling a person feels insecure with its own body, and I think in a certain way, we all identify with that. The course of the story is sweet and made me see myself with more affection, besides obviously, made me fall in love even more (if it’s possible) with Frankie. Thanks for that, O.!

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PROMPT REQUEST by @autumnleaves1991-blog​ (Javier Peña)

I’m saying, this week is becoming practically an ask responses to reader’s prompts special version, and I’m loving it! Autumn, besides being such a sweet person and very creative, puts everyone to move on Writer Wednesday and puts me to cry reading this one-shot! It’s not a secret for anyone that content with pregnancy makes me feel completely melted away and fell in love, but when it’s really cute and very consistent with the characters, it gets perfect! Each word Connie says here is something she could totally say on Narcos and this shows how Autumn is smart when she writes. I adored it! 

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Consider reading and supporting fanfics. There are many writers who write to help with their personal problems and your support can make anyone’s day!

Do YOU have something to recommend to me? I’m sure you do! Comment here (or by an anon ask if you’re shy) the fic you want to spread (it can be yours)! Pedro Pascal, Oscar Isaac, and Star Wars fics are the most welcome, but be comfortable to recommend me anything! See you next Sunday! 🥰

#fanfic rec

[lookbluesoup]

Estinien's "????" face through this scene though LMFAO

#ffxiv #estinien #zero #endwalker spoilers #yes im a little behind on msq shhhh #wyn gabs #dialogue #screenshot

[lookbluesoup]

Thinking about G'raha and Emet at the climax of Shadowbringers, mmm there’s too many words, let’s see...

Emet freaks out the way he does and reverts back into mask-up genocidal self-righteous rage-monster mode because he thinks you’re going to die. Become a sin eater consumed by Light. You were his friend in the world unsundered, even though you don’t remember him now, and your soul is just going to be obliterated, there will be no saving it. He accepts this as inevitable, he’s too hurt to hope for anything else. You’re already gone in his mind. He’s going to do what he has to do, to end this broken world and save the rest of his people, even though it means losing you. The angst of that gets me every time.

And then there’s G'raha. Who was also your friend in disguise, working alongside you to save the world. Just like Emet, G'raha's a dear companion from another life who’s true face you weren’t able to see, who’s name they would not tell you, but who loves you still and hopes you might save the world.

The moment Emet-Selch gives in to grief and decides you can’t be saved is the same moment Graha commits to sacrificing himself to save you.

Emet prevents G'raha from doing that. And takes him captive. And the days that follow where the rest of your friends are desperately trying to preserve your life, G'raha does not know if you are ok.

But he does not give up.

He knows you are doomed, just as much as Emet does. But unlike Emet, Graha does not give up.

He fights for you, for the world, for a future, against Emet in the Tempest with no certainty that you are even still alive, and no reason to believe anyone will rescue him, and no second chance for any of it if you are gone.

But you come for him. You come for him bleeding Light and barely able to stand but you also did not give up. Both of you are defiant in the face of Emet’s despair. Graha is bloody and beaten from days of abuse, far from his tower, and still finds it in himself to summon aid for you when you make your final stand against Emet for the fate of a dying world.

And ultimately you triumph over the Light, you defeat Emet, you give hope back to the entire broken world and most importantly... you are not going to die. And neither is Graha.

And I just... cannot imagine how hard that realization is going to hit G'raha. After days in basically hell, not knowing, not giving in, you showed up like the hero he always believed you to be but even more, and you brought him home again, and you’re alive.

When the adrenaline and exhaustion fades... It must hit hard enough to be its own wound. He must break down sobbing. You cannot feel so much relief and stay on your feet. All that he hoped against hope for came to pass, and he loves you and you’re still alive.

#idk man i love them both so much #they give me feels #g'raha tia #emet selch #emet-selch #graha tia #ffxiv #wyn gabs #meta #text #shadowbringers #shadowbringers spoilers #final fantasy 14 #final fantasy xiv #ff14 #long post #shower thoughts

[lookbluesoup]

I know shippy stuff and canon-adjacent stuff is popular and I'm certainly not dissing those. I like them too, they're a lot of fun! And AUs are great, I have so many!

But man, I wish there was more... idk, emphasis and exploration of the FFXIV lore, and those moments that have to have happened but aren't shown on screen - talked about and written about and illustrated here on tumblr.

That's usually been my favorite part of fandoms, discussing the lore with other fans in-depth and sharing theories, and seeing how everyone's characters would handle those big or quiet moments from the story itself. Exploring how a game mechanic/boss fight would feel from a story perspective, and what it would mean to the characters.

It's not entirely absent from here, but even when I make my own meta posts, even if they get lots of notes, I tend to see very little discussion added compared to what I'm used to from other fandoms. And when new patches come out, there's not a lot of deep talk about the story itself circulating. Maybe I've just been lucky in my previous spaces!

But... I want to know how the WoL and Graha bonded during the Crystal Tower raids. Did they sit around the campfire at night and talk? Did they drink and sing and laugh and argue?

What was it like, recovering from Ultima Thule? How did it feel to set out on the road again, leaving the title of Scion behind? Did they give their friends a tour of Ishgard? Did they visit Edmont? What was it like in the trenches of Ghimlyt Dark, for these characters who have never seen war before, versus the ones who have? Did the WoL help stabilize Lakeland, and tend wounded after the sin eater attacks?

I want late night study sessions with the twins, bittersweet work in the hot sun rebuilding Ala Mhigo, learning to fight on dragonback, Hraesvelgr's brood visiting Ishgard on diplomatic forways. I want snarking with Emet Selch while you help people with "side quests" in Norvrandt. I want gentle moments with Ryne on the road because if anyone understands the suffocating feeling of immense responsibility Hydaelyn and Minfilia have dropped on that child, it's the WoL.

What was it like for the WoL to fight the pirates in Sastasha? To see the women taken captive there? To see the Drowned mutilated by Leviathan's tempering? How did they handle the narrow tunnels and rickety elevators in Copperbell, and the giants angry after centuries of unjust imprisonment? Did they step in Aurum Vale's goldbile and have a shoe burnt off? Did they bring a pet korpokkur home from the Arboretum? Do they carry scars?

Do they take the manacutter out for joyrides? Did Grani recognize the color of their soul, and choose them over the tempered twist of Emet Selchs, or did Emet charge his familiar with looking after them? Have they ever been robbed in Limsa Lominsa? Did they ever buy loinfruit?

Does that goobbue sproutling grow up? The coerl kitten become a battle steed? The wolf pup a guardian? Do the sylphs play games with the WoL when they visit the Shroud? Do they carry a polished shell to remind them of their Clutchfather? Do they stop by the guild to check on the Deftarm whenever they're in Dravania?

What was it like trekking the spindly mountains of Othard, riding a Yol for the first time, seeing the endless plains of green, and the dead white of the Burn?

Do they still have nightmares about Haurchefant, or are they good dreams remembering his smile? Did he teach them to make hot chocolate? Did they stay up all night when the Scions lost their souls, waiting by the bedsides with a candle and feeling helpless?

Do they visit Amaurot, even after Emet Selch is gone? Are they still trying to remember? Did they look up at the night sky in Elpis and feel an indescribable sense of loss?

Was there ever a moment in Endwalker where they almost became a Blasphemy themselves? Did they ever answer Venat's question? Do they know that the love their friends had for them, saved them?

#idk its SUCH a good story and theres so much cool lore #i want to keep digging into it and i miss having a community focused around that aspect of a game #ffxiv #ff14 #wyn gabs #manifesto #apparently lol #autism brain go brrrrrrr #text #shadowbringers spoilers #endwalker spoilers #long post

[lookbluesoup]

I think something that gets missed in a lot of the "good guy characters are boring" debates online is that there doesn't actually have to be a debate. There needs to be a deliberate awareness that conflict is what drives story. And the source of the conflict doesn't have to just belong to the narrative.

Good guys can be incredibly interesting and dynamic if given the chance.

I do think it's harder to write a compelling hero than it is to write a compelling bad guy (or even antihero) because... villains are usually about conflict. They create competing interests. It's usually their specific function in a story. They often surrender to their impulses, and sometimes they say what we, the audience, are thinking - because a lot of good villains are characters who took a noble idea to an ignoble extreme.

And in a sense, "good guys" can seem flat compared to the villain, depending on how the story is written. If they're just nice, polite, moral, mild-mannered. always have self-control, always know what to do, never face any serious challenges to their morality then... there's no real innate conflict. There are no questions to answer.

But in real life? It is really. really. hard. to be good. Which I think can even make the hero characters like this feel a bit threatening or disconnected from the viewer.

There is so much potential to show the hero being human in stories, that gets missed. The good guy becomes a lot more interesting when they have serious reasons to doubt themselves or their ideals - and even if they don't doubt them, then that stubbornness becomes much more narratively significant.

Or times when doing the good thing means going against what their friends or family want, what other people who claim to share their beliefs want, or what we the audience want that puts them in danger of ostracism or injury. When they choose to do something radically, dangerously, kind in a situation when we, the audience, would expect and understand them to do otherwise. When they face backlash for it. When their kindness isn't repaid. The person they want to help spits in their face, or didn't want help to begin with.

I'm not just talking about a character who sticks to their guns and stays upbeat. Those are difficult things to go through, even if you've got healthy coping mechanisms. Letting the character struggle with it, in one way or another, makes it more believable. Even if they still make the right choice in the end each time.

All that being said, if someone is enjoying a character who's just... good. Who doesn't face any serious conflicts in their story, who always wins and gets to go home happy at the end of the day? Maybe it's that person's real life that has the conflict, the stress, the unresolved questions and tension. Maybe that good guy is the balance to the villains running rampart in their real life day to day, and they need to see that character win, over and over, to balance it out and keep hoping.

We live in a world today where there's... a LOT of conflict. Every day. Everywhere. News spits it in our faces because bad news sells better. Work can be hard to do and hard to find. Family can be difficult to deal with. Health can be stressful.

So I don't think it's wrong for some people to want to read "simple" stories where the good guys can just be good, because stories are humanity's mythology. It's our escape. It's how we give context to our lives. We need "good guys" just like we need "bad guys."

#wyn gabs #storytelling #writing #text #long post

[calico-heart]

I want to read a story where a fae tricks a human into giving away their name.

But then later the person comes out as trans and that name becomes a deadname.

And the fae tries to use the name to control them and ofc it doesn't work bc that's not their true name so instead the person is like 'hey please don't deadname me'

And all the other fae are like "😱 Nutmeg Bumblebutton how could you be so rude deadnaming that person" and turn the other fairy into a donkey for 100000 years

#wyn gabs #fae #fairy #transgender #lgbtq+ #text

[lookbluesoup]

Love having a cat that is just always down to cuddle.

If I have to go lay down bc I’m in pain or dizzy, she’ll give me a happy little chirp and beebop over to the bed or couch or floor or wherever, smush herself as close as she can possibly get against me, and purr until she falls asleep

Good for my soul. Makes chronic pain that much easier to bear, having a little creature that loves me

#shes baby #wyn gabs #goose #cat #chronic pain #chronic illness #text

[calico-heart]

Reinstalling Fallout 4 today and setting up my mods. Three years ago I was SO careful about reading instructions and checking for incompatibilities and not putting too many in at once. today I'm deploying 91239127 mods before even running a save file and we'll just see if the game survives when I try to boot it up

#wyn gabs #fallout #fallout 4 #fo4 #if i start writing and drawing for it again i'll probably revive the bluesoup blog to focus on fo stuff but we will see how things go lol

[lookbluesoup]

There were a lot of great moments in my first BG3 playthrough but arguably one of the best was when Raphael tried to cast his uber murder deathbeam fire lazer on us using all 4 soul charges while in rage form.

And Gale just. Counterspelled.

#bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 spoilers #raphael #gale of waterdeep #wyn gabs #text

[lookbluesoup]

With Goose at the vet today and super stressed about it 😩 She’s been unwell the past couple weeks and they’re trying to figure out why.

I’m hoping it’s something simple but she’s about the age now that Bonkers was when he got a very bad infection he couldn’t beat and had to be put to sleep. Even though she’s not looking nearly as bad as him, it’s nerve wracking.

Pls send prayers and good thoughts 💜

#goose #animal illness #wyn gabs #text

[lookbluesoup]

I have felt absolutely sick with nerves the past couple days. Haven't been able to distract myself very well. Pain issues. A lot of doctor's visits. Some family trouble. Just too much going on really.

Can folks recommend or share some of their favorite fluff fics or art/gposes/etc?

Romantic or platonic. Any ship/friendship. I'd like something soft to chew on

#wyn gabs #text #anxiety

[lookbluesoup]

Do people ship Azem/Venat much?

I see tons of Azem paired with Emet Selch, Hythlodaeus, Elidibus, and even know about some Hermes and a Lahabrea... but I'm not sure I've ever seen one with Venat.

It seems like lots of potential there, they were obviously very close if Azem took over her seat.

And a similar possible dramatic fallout to an Emet or Elidibus ship (or any Convocation member), since Azem wouldn't join Venat in summoning Hydaelyn either, even when asked.

There's all the potential narrative drama it adds to the MSQ. We know Emet never got over the loss of Azem, but did Venat? Would seeing Azem's shards struggle and suffer and die over and over make it harder for her if the two had been lovers, instead of friends?

Plus uncomfortably familiar almost-not-quite-memories for the WoL, any time they speak with Hydaelyn.

idk, aside from the narrative potential - she's pretty, she's spunky, she's a rebel. As popular a character as she is, it occurs to me I just personally haven't seen shippy stuff with her, yet. I'd have expected it to cross my dash at least now and then!

#tbh i dont see nearly as much shippy stuff with ANY of the xiv girls #some but not nearly the same as with the guys #fandom prefers sausage I guess? #ffxiv #ff14 #venat #azem #endwalker spoilers #text #wyn gabs

[calico-heart]

I'm making M&M scrambled eggs

#salt dared me to post this on tumblr and I am very susceptible to dares #i also think he's wrong and this will be delicious #also i am microwaving them instead of using the stove #egg #wyn gabs #cooking #photo

[lookbluesoup]

Seeking FFXIV blogs

I’m looking for more ffxiv blogs to follow, especially writers or folks who like doing things like lore discussion/meta, ask/tag games, or post fanfic!

Please reblog or signal boost if you have these interests, or have followers in the ffxiv fandom who might! I really miss having this kind of thing on my dash and mutuals with similar interests to shout with, and haven’t been able to find much of it on my own in the fandom. Which is sad :(

Any ffxiv lore, if you like eorzea or garlemald or scions or the reflections or the ascians, it’s all good

Any ships - you can be a thancred simp or a zenos fucker its fine. I especially would love to find fellow aymeric, haurchefant, emet, and x’ruhn people to follow but all ships are valid!

Any genre - slice of life, AUs, romance, whump, tragedy, variety is the spice of life!

Tag your shit - if your blog is the wild west and you reblog 15 vaguely aggressive things at once expressing your rage at government, turtles, or karaoke, and there’s no specific tag from you I can block to filter it, I will get stressed and have to unfollow you

No callouts - I wont follow blogs that target other users, attack specific ships, or generally seem to enjoy stirring up drama. I’m here to fan over the characters, not police fandom

#Haurchefant #emet selch #graha tia #aymeric de borel #azem x emet selch x hythlodaeus #zenos #ishgard #xruhn tia #aymeric x wol #ffxiv #ff14 #final fantasy xiv #final fantasy #final fantasy 14 #wyn gabs #text #shadowbringers