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Teatime (TEA) Writing Challenge Participation Prize
While FFxivWrite2025 could not take place, I volunteered to be a prize artist for @tea-ffxiv 's own little challenge!
Big congratulations to @fair-fae for successfully participating in the event - and even with a perfect streak! Thus, a colored painting of X'unmei for her!
See you all again for FFxivWrite2026!
Find out more about TEA at https://teaffxiv.carrd.co/
On Stage
Minii naizuud, I write once again of my exploits on the stage. I rehearsed, and rehearsed, and rehearsed even more so that I might perform to my best. I made many mistakes in my rehearsals. I believe this effort was rewarded, for I saw many dance along with me when I sang. Though I am content with my work, I shall work ever harder in these days away from the Steppes.
Many were the performers on the stage at the Talley. I was excited to see so many different types of performers: instrumentalists, singers, dancers . . . it was a varied group, and I was honored to be among them. There were other Xaela performers as well. Aa! Their tribes should be proud of their efforts this night. (I must admit, I do not know if they be Steppe Xaela, or Eorzean born . . . yet I am sure their ancestors watch over them either way).
This was but my second time singing in Eorzean, but I hope my words were strong and clear. My first song was one I found which made me think of my own experiences in battle. My second was a song of longing to live for the moment, as who knows what the future might bring? I know not if the words and meaning meant the same to others as they do to me, but I did my best to serve the will of the songwriter.
The Talley has found a new and larger home, but the sense of friendship and welcoming is unaltered. I hope they were pleased with my work.
I met a Miqo’te woman named Miss Vylette who complimented me on my performance after the show. It was startling to hear such remarks from a stranger. Dusk Mother forgive me, but I enjoyed it perhaps more than I should. It is best to be humble. Then I saw the hearthmistress of the Shroudrose in the crowd, which was a surprise, but not so surprising as the fact that she remembered me from visiting her tea shop! I do not generally feel that I make an impression on people in my day to day life. Perhaps it is because Lambchop was with me when I visited. Lambchop makes an impression quite often.
I have been asked to sing at a Xaela festival in Reunion on the Steppes. I am concerned that some from my tribe might be there. Should word get to my parents about my singing and dancing . . . But I could not say no when asked. I must decide now what Xaela songs I will perform. And others spoke to me as well about performing. I find myself feeling confused about many things quite suddenly. I do not know how to reconcile these two worlds in which I live with one another, and I do not know where to turn for advice.
Sain yavaarai, minii naizuud. I shall retire for the day now, and contemplate the future.
(Thanks to @xivriftdancer and @mugishalffull for the screenshots! And thanks to @tenebrous-xiv for letting Orghana perform!)
📜
Years of being a delivery boy means that Balqadar can sort of guess the shortest path from one place to the next. He takes straight lines whenever possible, going off the path if it doesn’t make sense.
Unfortunately for guards, this absolutely means he’ll just scale a building instead of going two streets over.
He’s almost been arrested many times.
Happy Birthday!!
thanks faye!! happy early birthday to you, too! here’s to living it up it quarantine style B)
The lovely Unmei, @fair-fae‘s character!
fair-fae replied to your post “talk about ffxiv issues in regards to fandom, race, appropriation, etc...”
I don't disagree with the rest as they are legit issues with the game, but the Lakshmi thing /was/ discussed quite a bit within the community around the time it was new content. And it was more or less debunked on top of that. http://kasumi-ffxiv.tumblr.com/post/171779369699 I don't necessarily think it was a good move to give her light skin, but the skin color isn't far off from most actual depictions.
hi! firstly, thank you for being respectful! i will endeavor to do the same.
i’m going to preface this by saying that i’m an indian person (from india lel, just in case anyone needs the clarification), and seeing lakshmi was actually when i started to look back on other parts of the game with a more critical lens. I checked out that post you linked, and while it may seem to be “debunked”, as you put it (altho kind of rudely, but that’s on everyone’s side, i suppose), i don’t quite agree with that.
The way light skin is praised and valued in south asian countries is called colourism, specifically, and is an offset of british colonialism. that mindset is very harmful to people, especially women, and contributes to india’s long-standing class system and treatment of people with darker skin as lesser and subhuman (speaking more specifically about dalits here, but i understand most people won’t know what that means). jameela jamil, if you’ve heard about her, is someone who goes into greater and more easily-explained detail about why that all is harmful. with all due respect, i would rather not.
(edit: also, white lakshmi being the “goddess of beauty” and having the very darkskinned ananta worship her as such is downright skewy at best (especially in consideration of one of the themes of stormblood being “light saviour character saves darker-skinned people”) and extremely insensitive, colonialist, and racist at worst. )
(i could also go off on an artistic tangent about indian art and why it looks like that, but i will not; not only do i not have the knowledge and resources to, but it’s a long infodump i’m sure you’d find boring :p)
what that post describes, taking sri lakshmi’s “culture” and “aesthetics”, and making it “not actually her but based off of her” is cultural appropriation, period. that’s what it is, and there’s no two ways around that. and yes, she is whitewashed (please believe me, an indian person, when i say that not even the bollywood-est north indians are that light).
i’m sure you meant well, and i thank you again for wording your response politely, but this is kind of what i’m talking about. people of a certain culture/ethnicity are always, always going to have cultural insight that people who are not of that ethnicity do not, even with all the wikipedia links in the world. please listen to us over them.
thank you! :)
62: What makes you happy?
Lots of little things that are impossible to harness.A bunch of birds outside my window. Someone’s status going online after I’ve sent them a message. Seeing a deer in the wild. Growing something. There isn’t a lot yet, for me, that makes me happy that I can generate on my own. It’s more a sporadic happening in nature. Of course there are other more general things.. my friends, in general, make me happy. Writing makes me happy. Playing video games makes me happy. But those things? Also have the power to make me terrifically sad. Of course not intentionally but it still… is true. So. Happiness for me comes like a spark. I can’t predict it or plan it. It just happens.
fair-fae reblogged your post and added:
They’re fake characters in fake pretendytimes in a...
Honestly not shocked you are in this camp of thought.
