WIPs about a longform Octopath Traveler fanfiction, because it's honestly depressing just laying it all out in Google Docs and OneNote
I started a LiveJournal! Fucking ancient I know! But I decided I wanted to post some WIPs that I have no idea when I'd get back to and are too damn short and clumsy for AO3. I also wanted to vent a little about the writing process and be more organized about things so I'm putting some extra content about Timely Visits on there
whether or not the stuff I post is gonna end up in the final product or not is gonna be entirely up to fate because imagine being normal about the writing process. couldn't be me
currently trying to pull another all-nighter - this time completely unwillingly because I'm passing time trying to wait for a job interview over the phone
It'll almost be 2 hours since the designated time I might just be cooked. but have some updated designs of everyone's favorite lesbians (and Linde)
Holy shit Vir finally posts a Chapter that isn't so absurdly long that it needed to be broken up into multiple parts. Happy 8th Anniversary Octopath, I didn't go overboard for once
After a DROUGHT of Olberic in this fanfiction, he's finally back! I'm so fucking happy right now! This all-nighter isn't letting me feel it but I'm just glad it didn't take another half a year!
ViridiAve coming back up from the depths of the abyss to announce that they are extremely pleased to have participated in @projectpathaction 's 8th Year Anniversary Collab! I got to draw Viola for this one! Check them out here! @projectpathaction.bsky.social
Thanks for having me, guys! Everyone did such an awesome job on their parts too!
I made a few other versions for this thing, so I guess that'll have to make up for not getting my actual anniversary piece done in time lmao
can you guys tell Viola's my Chosen yet cuz she is
Scattered thoughts and questions after reaching the True Ending (SPOILERS)
Crossposted over on Reddit as well.
This is the sort of post where I dedicate some of my thoughts that don't really have anywhere to go and is me harebraining after finally finishing The Adventures of Elliot. I've got a separate post cooking for my opinions on the rest of it, but if you hit Keep Reading be warned that it's spoilers all the way through.
First off - why in the fresh hell did we never go to the Age of Myths? I was like getting to the near-end of the game just wondering when the fuck we'd get to go there cuz we've been dealing with all of the Mao stuff, and we were all barely dealing with the stuff that would eventually lead up to Demise and Creydel - and then Faie's earrings just started to work? And it's telling her that the job isn't done? In fact she hasn't even started to help out with the actual apparent reason that she was sent back?
The entire endgame just feels like an asspull that needed an entire fourth act to resolve properly in my opinion. Like yeah I know we were picking up bits and pieces of information about Demise and Creydel while we were with the Sages, but that's like literally it. We've never been given any indication that this was related to everything else that we've been doing, we just brought Mao back from the brink and the game's suddenly like 'oh whelp guess you're ready for the True Final Boss!'. It's kind of… anticlimactic also, that only Safekeeping gets to participate in this last stretch of the game. I was ready to be like 'oh hell yeah the conflict beyond time and space, everyone has to work together to protect the future' but no? You're not required to go back to the other ages after defeating Mao, unless you haven't collected the other 47 cats yet. The only thing I can SORT OF think of that could have led to us thinking that there's something else happening is an earthquake happening at some point when Heuria was still frozen in the ice? But like. At that point that could have been fucking anything. For all anyone knows in-game that was Mao's power resonating or some bullshit, but no one's first thought would have been 'Demise is about to rise'.
I don't know what the unlock conditions for the True Ending are, but apparently you can get it straight through without getting the other two endings? I tried looking it up and if it turns out it really is because it wanted me to have completed all the sidequests beforehand, I'm sorry for slacking on Nakatani I guess?? Having it be content-gated rather than have it build up naturally towards a need to defeat Demise just feels disappointing. And in the other two endings we just never figure it out I guess. Either of those endings could have led to the bad future that Future Elliot was trying to prevent.
Speaking of Future Elliot, it's a shame that we didn't get to see him OR the bad future. Like that shit would have been so fucking awesome. Give me a bit more reason to care about wanting to defeat this dragon damnit, don't cuck me out of a good time. What is his situation? He sounds so much older. Or he just hasn't had anything to drink in a while, but the earrings were specifically said to be older and more worn out than Present Elliot's. Is he ALONE? Did the dragon kill everyone else? How the fuck is he contacting us right now, is he with Heuria or something since she's the only one who can activate the telepathic bluetooth? Is Heuria DEAD and this is Elliot using her residual energy? Is this also still Creydel helping him out? How long did it even take him to get to Creydel and figure out that they needed the phoenix's help?
SPEAKING OF CREYDEL HELPING HIM OUT, now this part I'm actually fine with. It makes a lot of sense that Faie's able to revive us because she's a fragment of an actual phoenix. My friend and I were discussing Faie's character design and they said that she low-key looks like a torchflower - honestly given its symbolism and the way that she was born from a fire spirit, it checks out and it's living rent-free in my brain. I'm just sitting here wondering why she also low-key shares several features from Euygene's lineage. The vaguely auburn hair is one thing, but some traits she shares with Euygene specifically are the prevalence of green in their design and the way that they keep talking about wanting to prove their worth and are unconditionally helpful to Elliot. Of course they're seeking to prove themselves for different reasons, so I'm just spitballing, but I can't help but think that Euygene must have been in Future Elliot's thoughts on some level when he was thinking that he should send a little helper into the past to help out Present Elliot.
Moving onto less Euygene-brained thoughts, why was it that Faie never got to talk to anyone else but us? I have to imagine that Future Elliot wouldn't knowingly subject her to a life of loneliness with just Elliot for company, so maybe it just wasn’t within Creydel's power? Like it'd make sense that the design has quirks that couldn't be ironed out since Future Elliot didn't have the means to power up Creydel, and Creydel managed to resolve this in the end by reviving Faie and letting her be seen by others. Honestly that was all I wanted for her, after spending the entire game with just us, it just feels right that Faie ends the game getting to hang out with everybody and being recognized for her efforts.
But - speaking of that, why were there so many shrines dedicated to her? Faie's a unique existence, and while we've heard people talk of fairies in overworld dialogue before, we don’t have any real details on what they're supposed to look like. The Myu don't even talk about fairies, despite the sages probably knowing that Faie was accompanying Elliot on his journeys. The sages act with some level of omniscience sure but it's not like they've got future sight - when they interrogate Elliot, they make it sound like they've only just gleaned the experiences he had so far, and said nothing about what COULD happen in the future. Maybe there's just some stuff in the manuscripts that I missed, or the shrines weren't meant for JUST Faie and could assist just about anyone who can use those same abilities? Could the Myu ALSO make doubles of themselves?
Also what the heck was up with Mao in the Age of Reconstruction near the end? I can't like… honestly tell how much of her presence there was because Elliot managed to save Carter in the end and was present for the Northern Tower explosion in the Age of Magic, because Kaifried in the beginning of the story also somehow managed to break the Leytstaf that was meant to imprison her at the beginning of the game and all. But then why'd she wait so long to try and eradicate humanity? Heurich and crew barely held their own against a bigger-than-normal monster attack, they'd have ZERO chances against even a depowered Mao. Was the fever like - that bad. But in this timeline we helped her out with said fever, so why did she never go back to try and wipe out the Littlehope settlement?
I'll also point out here since I don't know where else I'd be able to talk about it, but the game can't maintain continuity at times. At some point when I was doing the Hildebrandt-centric quests in the Age of Magic, the game wasn't able to recognize that we've already met Hildebrandt in one of the other quests and he opens it saying 'who are you' like BITCH you swore you'd have my ass if we ever crossed your path again? We JUST stopped you from your dubious doings in Whitrea? You denied me payment even?? And now you're opening up to me about your estranged sister?? Okay??
At another point, and I had to double-check that it was in a Safekeeping quest, Elliot mentions a flower that 'Dad gave to Mom'. Which - okay that's just plain wrong. I can't tell if this was a translation error or not, but when I played this quest, we haven't even gotten to the point where Elliot could save Carter in the Age of Magic yet and he couldn't piece all of it together until Carter woke up in Safekeeping. And I don't remember Carter's thing to Mao being torchflowers - the dude gave Mao kiwiberries and shit, but not torchflowers - that was Gogyo to Lyudmila. So I don't know what the hell was going on there.
I know that the game isn't perfect and not everything needs to be explained, this is just me trying to make sense of it all after the fact because this is the kind of discussion I enjoy having after immersing myself.
"rooting for you" is such a funny statement. sorry youre having a rough time bestie but dont worry, im your support hog and im sniffing out truffles of success
honestly, especially in the current state of the world, you all have GOT to kill whatever puritanical voice inside your head keeps insisting that if something is erotic it has no social, artistic, or intellectual merit.
stop acting as if someone can’t enjoy both erotica and literary fiction or classics. it’s not some dichotomy.
stop acting as if erotic art can’t be poignant and meaningful. and that includes all erotic art - not just fine art.
stop insisting that sex scenes or erotic material ruin movies and shows just because you, personally, get icked out watching it.
no, not all erotic art is high art, and not all erotic art is meant to invoke deep intellectual discussion - but insisting that makes erotic art valueless, a disservice to intellectualism, or whatever else - does nothing but add fuel to a fire built on conservative ideology.
People have real issues understanding why the absence of romance and sexual desire is such a big deal. "No one bothers you over your sexual orientation! You're basically a straight person!" No wrong. The older you get the more your life is considered a failure for failing to find a life partner and get your 2.5 kids in.
Like people make fun of middle aged women for not getting married or being divorced or "always the bridesmaid never the bride" and all like "oh she's desperate! No one wants her! Old maid!' but they become straight up hostile and upset when you tell them you never want to date.
Being unpartnered after your mid twenties is just like "oh what's wrong with you" and "don't worry you'll find your guy" "aren't you afraid of being alone" "who will take care of you" "you're running out of time to have kids" and no matter what you are or aren't people straight up don't understand that you don't want them.
“oh yeah i mean im not diabetic but i dont really know how insulin works and i think its kinda freaky that you gotta poke your finger all the time so im gonna go ahead and say insulin is illegal”
Even outside of trans ppl (although this is very present in that conversation) so many people's opinions just boils down to "idk man but that makes me feel icky" and then cutting funding for it and making shit illegal.
"doctors are mutilating the kids and stealing their genitals" imagine if we talked about any other procedure like that, my doctor mutilated me and stole my wisdom teeth, leaving irreversible damage before I was even 18. "well ok but it makes me feel gross when trans kids do it so it should be illegal"
"isn't is scary how people are looking into lab grown coco for chocolate" Isn't that good because less child labor and less contamination and less pesticides? "no because growing stuff in the lab makes me feel icky and they shouldn't do that"
"you hear that the scientists are spending money to sterilize flies" You mean the invasive patristic flies who's larvae will infect your livestock and pets if they are allowed to spread? Would you rather they dump pesticides? "yeah because fly sex is gross and stupid and thinking about it makes me feel icky, we shouldn't fund that" great now we have screwworm thanks everyone.
Like i wonder who taught you to view that specific thing as gross. if only there was some rhetorical gain to be had by tapping into your disgust on this topic in particular. Hmmmm...
