#and regrets

[akay19]

Sugar chapter 2 is up!

[peona-cotton]

Do you find it also kinda annoying when you pick up a hobby, you get semi good in what you are doing and there is always someone that has zero understanding how the creative world functions and says: "You should try and sell your creations, I bet people would buy it!". Or: "Are you making this to sell? You should make an account on insta for this!".

People, the idea of creating something just for fun and only fun is not that strange! I get they are well meant words, but it can create so much pressure and suck all enjoyment out of the hobby.

[hockpock]

OwO silly times

OwO

UwU

o_o;;

Vanilluwu Extwact

Voting ended onFeb 24, 2023

[snotsloth]

FFXIV Write Day 3: Tempest

Orion’s gaze drifted over the scene of the Ondo performing their devotions and up into the ruin over their heads. It was pyramidal in shape and made of the same pale substance as the other ancient ruins that dotted the sea floor. An archway took up most of each of the four sides of the structure, leaving the inside hollow. They gleamed in the low, blue-shifted light like slivers of moon, pulled into the depths by the titanic magic of the Ancients.

“I’ll go fetch the others,” Kendra said, breaking him out of his enchantment.

“Oh,” Orion tore his eyes away from the sight and turned towards Kendra’s retreating form. “Alright. Shall I come with you?”

“No need,” she waved him off without turning back to look at him.

“Enjoy your archaeological musings or whatever. I’ll be back shortly.” Orion shrugged to himself and turned back to continue watching the Ondo ceremony below.

He did not have much time to enjoy his solitude however. The amber warmth of Ardbert’s presence bloomed in the back of his skull and his shade flickered into Orion’s peripheral vision. “That crystal you showed the artisan. Was it — did it belong to Lamitt?”

Orion chuffed a quiet laugh. “Miss that, did you?” he asked. “I thought you saw everything.”

Crossing his arms, and looking away, Ardbert pouted, “I try to give you a measure of privacy. No one wans a spirit looking over their shoulder every moment of the day.”

Orion turned to smile down at him, “I genuinely don’t mind, Ardbert. I know you’ve literally nothing else to do. It’s alright for you to watch most of the time, unless I ask for privacy.”

Appeased, Ardbert returned his smile. “I will keep that in mind,” he said. “So tell me, if you would. How did you come across that crystal?”

Just the thought of Giott pushed Orion’s smile off kilter into something more wry. “So, it all started when I met this dwarf in a bar…”

It took a while for Orion to tell the entire tale of helping an alcoholic dwarf take out the sin eater Sophrosyne, his visions of Lamitt’s past, and the crystal he found after Sophrosyne’s defeat. At times the story brought Ardbert to both laughter and tears, but at the end he looked wistful. “Strange that I should learn such things now, after she’s long gone. She was my best friend, the first to travel at my side and — ” his voice cutoff. Staring off into the distance, he absentmindedly rubbed his hand over where his breastplate still shielded his unbeating heart.

Silence hung heavy in the stagnant, humid air, only broken by the susurration of the Ondo’s prayers in the distance. Orion found himself thinking of his own lost companions, Minfilia’s smile, Moenbryda’s laugh, the way Haurchefant would sweep Kendra off her feet and bring a blush to her button nose, the fire of conviction in Ysayle’s eyes, and G’raha. Bright and curious and bold G’raha who had loved him. Who had essentially died, believing that love completely unrequited. He sighed heavily through his nose.

Ardbert shuffled closer to Orion’s side, the ephemeral sensation of his spiritual presence was like a campfire, seeping warmth into Orion’s bones. “I didn’t expect death to teach me so much,” Ardbert said, breaking their mutual melancholy silence. “About Lamitt, about Seto — about you. About the hope that lies at the heart of this world. I’ve never been one for idle chitchat, but if by some miracle I could see them all again, I doubt I would never stop talking.”

“It is the curse of those left behind to dwell on all the conversations left unsaid,” Orion said. “If I could — ” he cut himself off with another sigh, struggling to put into words the mixed feelings of grief, affection, and regret that gripped his throat whenever he looked up at the Crystal Tower. “I have lost my fair share of comrades in my travels. Each one’s absence aches differently, but the sharpest pain is the memory of a boy who loved me, and who I couldn’t love back. In idle moments, I catch myself wondering; would I have returned his affections if I knew how little time we had — he had? When I’m honest with myself I answer no. Not in the way he would have wanted. Not in a way that would have changed anything.”

Orion shifted to look down at Ardbert, meeting his eyes. “You loved Lamitt with all your heart in the way that you could. She knew that. It hurt, but you didn’t hurt her, Bear. You meant the world to her, even though she knew you would never look at her the way she wanted you to. She chose to stand at your side to the end because the way that you did love her was more than worth the pain.”

Still staring up into his face, Ardbert brushed his spectral fingers through Orion’s. It felt like the pins and needles of a limb falling asleep. “I’m grateful I got to bend your ear at least,” Ardbert said. “And just for that, I reckon I’ll stick with you.”

“Just for that?” Orion teased, hunting for flattery.

“Well, that and I’ve nothing better to do,” Ardbert rolled his eyes.

“I hate how you’re stuck like this,” Orion said, “but I’m selfishly glad to know you’ll be there at my side, whatever awaits us in the depths.”

“I’m here,” Ardbert said, “to the very end.”

[nyd-needs-cuddles]

What do you mean Shanks didn’t recognize Ace when he came seeking him out to thank him for saving his little brother? What do you mean he wasn’t holding back tears as they shared drinks and stories about their favorite rubber boy? What do you mean he didn’t cry buckets when Ace left and had to be consoled by Benn and Yassop and Roux?

What do you mean Crocus didn’t take one look at this youndgster and nearly had a heart attack? Whta do you mean he didn’t remember that feisty woman’s last name and her freckles? What do you mean he didn’t call Rayleigh with a desperate, hopeful voice asking what was Rouge’s last name?

What do you mean Buggy didn’t see his captain’s eyes and grin on Ace’s face when he crashed their party in his ship? What fo you mean Buggy didn’t call Shanks to ask him who the fuck this kid was and why the fuck does he have Roger’s hair and eyes and Ms. Rouge’s freckles and smile? What do you mean he didn’t go batshit crazy internally when he heard Luffy say that Portgas D. Ace was his captain’s biological son, and that he was going to be killed for his goddamn blood?

What do you mean Rayleigh didn’t want to go and save Ace when the Visual Transponder Snails broadcasted the execution? What do you mean Shakky had to place a hand on his shoulder to stop him—from what? The Government? The Whitebeards? The world?

What do you mean Rayleigh’s heart didn’t shatter to pieces once more when Ace’s body fell to the ground, that Buggy felt despair claw into his mind when he heard Luffy’s heartwrenching cry, that Shanks didn’t curse the world and back when he came far, far too late.

What do you mean this didn’t all happen? What do you mean that they don’t care?

What do you mean they just stood there and did nothing?

[pageofheartdj]

I swear to God if finale battle wont be with Wukong possessed by LBD with Monkey Mecha being fused with Skeletal Mecha and using full size staff!

Actually...

I swear to God if this wont happen!

[cathedralofeternalradiance]

I had a question about Nyra, And I'm using the blindfold meme as an excuse to ask.

We're they're any charr in particular that helped her get over the feelings she had towards the race?

Also, how did she process Almorra (a charr) being the leader of the organization she always wanted to join?

Also, feel free to answer this as Nyra herself if you'd like :D

Why anon you made my evening! This is such a nice question, one that I'd secretly hoped someone would ask (I would have made a post regardless at some point) but I'm happy someone notices things like that because they're quite important for me, as is the whole thing about Nyra's patriotism :)

So, cue the lady herself!

Nyra: "So, charr. Okay. Had you told me I'd be saying this when I was a young and stupid, I'd laugh at you. But now? My parents told me that, the year I was born, there was a charr siege, one of many. And if you asked me how many cousins I lost to them, I wouldn't be able to count. Not that I ever really met them - it was always, "this man died for your freedom," "this woman died for your freedom," and now add a sneer of, "you're friends with them, you fucking lionheart and traitor to the cause."

And.. And it hurts, to a degree. I'm Ascalonian first, but to hear them sneer at me like that for whose company I choose to keep, for who I choose to ally myself with, for choosing to break from the limitations of my ancestors and family.. I can't lie. But the world is bigger than Ascalon, than our fight.

Discounting that slap Forgal floored me with years ago when I talked shit about them (don't let norn hit you, really, it hurts), I remember travelling to Ebonhawke I think, what, 9 years ago, when there was a separatist ambush on the road, there was a Priory team without who I would've been killed. One of them was a charr named Spesa Nightshield, an Explorer if I remember well, who bandaged my wounds afterwards and told me, with an apologetic smile, that "we aren't all renegades."

There was also Rytlock himself in Black Citadel - these two dipshits had cornered me and Rytlock roared them away and gave me blood whiskey afterwards for the trouble in his office. It was surreal, having to testify against two charr in the ruins of an Ascalonian city for an attack against me and actually win the case!

Whatever I'd been told was starting to fall apart. They weren't all monsters who ate human hearts for fun.

The world is bigger than Ascalon.

Almorra, huh. Shit, I need to get her sword to the Vigil Keep. I promised Laranthir, it's the least I can do. Grenth's mercies, Almorra. If anyone says shit about Almorra, I'll deck them where they stand.

But yeah, Almorra. I'd heard the stories, of course, but I never really made the connection before I actually saw her. She is- she was, the single most terrifying charr I've ever seen. She could eat me alive, I felt. She could eat me alive and I wouldn't be able to do anything back to her. And when she complimented my strategy at Dragonfall, shit, I don't remember being that proud of anything I'd ever done.

So, you know how there's this person you really wanna follow, no matter what? Like your legs cut off whenever they look at you wrongly? That was Almorra Soulkeeper.

I wrestled with it, sure, but eventually, it was clear. She was my General now. If she ordered me to jump, I could only ask how high. That's the only way I can describe it.

And now she's dead. Because I was- Nyra, no, you can't have known, stop it.

I really need to get her sword to the Vigil Keep."