Episode L! – Welcome one! Welcome all to the spoopiest place in all of the Reflections! Oh, we certainly do hope you enjoy your stay, it might just be your last!
Aethercon & Helene
Kind of an addenda thought from the other day combined with current adventures. This weekend, well starting today in fact, is an in-game event/convention called Aethercon that is supposedly a big RP-oriented event over on the Crystal Data Center. I kind of want to go along with Aikirees, but Datacenter Traveling’s new system may make that a smidgen more difficult unless I head there really early or really late. It’s doable, but unsure if I really want to.
Part of me wants to as if it is really more into the Roleplay side of things, that would be right up our alley and could be a lot of fun. However, I’m not too keen on the social side of Final Fantasy XIV right now, as the venue space/modding community has really turned me off from it. Lore purists don’t really worry me all that much, but anyone who is and berates that sort of thing to another person is just being an absolute rude piece of trash and shouldn’t ever do so nor engage in the RP community in general.
Happening as well is another Burgundy Room performance that is on my Data Center, and I’ve kind of been wanting to go to another show as it’s been almost two years since the last major drama event happened. That one in particular was pretty awful and turned me off from wanting to partake ever again. I may decide to visit Crystal for Aethercon, I may decide to just go to the show, or I may decide on neither and relax for the evening instead, especially after Helene came through.
Hurricane Helene came barreling through yesterday. We were not in the direct path, thankfully, but just skirted it enough to be a bit windier than expected. No major damage or what-not, but still need to check a couple of things around the house. The city is assessing things, but aside from being wary for the amount of water use the next day or so, should be back to normal by the end of the weekend.
It’ll be alright though, and I hope everyone who was in the direct path is safe and accounted for. Hopefully the rest of the hurricane season is a lot quieter for us now.
Until next time, y’all take care, and keep kicking lots of tails. Lots of love.
Dragon Tails: Tycoon
Lizicus decided to assist Laureine with some excursions with one leading them deep underneath the Crystal Tower resting on the First. Finally reaching the depths of the Twinning unscathed, they were greeted by the massive Tycoon. One marvelous piece of Ironworks technology that poor Laureine loathed to have to destroy for the safety of everyone.
She could only wonder what other powers it could have been able to answer…
Projects & Fallout
No, not that kind of Fallout; this is in reference to the game series.
Kind of a couple of days later than I wanted to get my thoughts out, but between RL being a bit bonkers and other projects, been unable to. The project I mentioned last week, speaking of, went almost near perfect in updating the multi-room audio with new hardware. There was one minor oversight and one technical failure, but it was part of the old set up so it wasn’t a major loss. I’m really happy with the final results though, and now have a road map as to what I want to do to enhance this whole thing even further.
Albeit this wasn’t technically a planned project, but cost-wise it’s not anywhere near a vast as the last one, and I play a lot of music regularly so having this all re-set back up before the next major project will definitely help things in the long run. There’s really only a couple of planned projects I want to do left before all of these initial ones will be completed. Then I can start to plan future ones whenever the feeling arises!
I think those two enjoy their countering outfits a lot. The usual progress in FFXIV, slow and steady until 7.1 at least. There’s more things I’d like to say in regards to little observations that are occurring and reoccurring and even though it’s a little frustrating to see especially being around since late Stormblood, it’s not necessarily going to change anything. Just… be kind and patient with folks one doesn’t know what they’re going through. If things are going a bit slower that one would like, it’s very much completely fine. We’re all here to have fun, not a race nor a comparison contest.
I’ll probably delve a bit more into all that though once I finalize and get the EOCA story out; it was supposed to come out a year or so ago, but due to revisions and the size of it, I had to shelve it. Ideally by or before the 5th anniversary of EOCA (not the FC), but we’ll have to see.
Anyway, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia is now on the last level at around level 40 as of this post. I think I beat the game originally at 45 or so, so we’re making pretty good progress. Still need to unlock the last two bonus places for goodies, and some hidden items once I get a smidgen further in said last level, but that should wrap it up. It’s been a blast going through it again, and looking forward to New Game Plus as well. Will probably migrate to Portrait of Ruin after this.
As for the Fallout call out (hehe~), I started the series that Amazon put out, and that has been a joy. Reminds me of my time in Fallout 4 from years back; haven’t gotten very far yet, only on Episode 3 as of right now, but looking forward to the rest of it.
That’s all I can ponder for this one, next Monday will hopefully start a new segment ‘Monday Morning Weekend Recap,’ with a header to match, depending on how the morning is going. Until next time~!
Morning Mages
Feels almost like yesterday when we were here in this same attire practicing healing magics. It was shortly thereafter saving all of existence from being destroyed, so with said reality having been saved, we turned from our usual dark arts to its complete opposite for a time. Lest not to replace our fiery ways, but to keep our elements mostly in balance and not to forget doing so entirely.
Aikirees arrived there, on the Airship Landing at Radz-at-Han, just before daybreak. It was mostly clear and we were getting ready to visit with the Hippo Riders and see what we could do for them this day.
Rather than like the last time she was waiting on me, where she was a Miqo’te leaning against a few boxes with a wicked smirk across her face, she was looking off into the distance towards the East. It was calm, with just the slightest hint of a breeze passing over the landing, and I suspect she was focused on all of her surroundings. She looked so calm.
About the time I approached her to let her know we could head out, the sun broke the horizon giving us a gorgeous warm glowing view of a new day over Thavnair. We looked at each other for a moment, and then back to the horizon for another to bask in the morning light, and then headed on out like we have done so many times before and will here on after as well.
The Falcon
A little bit ago, a lot of us we’re able to finish up constructing our second airship! Sirena suggested the name of the Falcon from Final Fantasy IV, and it’s since then had several successful journeys into the Sea of Clouds. However, it never had a proper color scheme to represent it; that is until now. Once it returned to HQ the other night, we managed to get it all painted up in a similar fashion to that of the one seen in Final Fantasy IV – propellers aside being substituted for the zeppelin instead.
Aikirees being in pure awe I think made the highlight for the evening once it got all spruced up with the new colors. It was once again sent out on another voyage. Meanwhile, the U.S.S. Voyager has been steadily exploring far far into the Sea of Clouds having found some interesting sites along the way. That one is nearing almost max rank and we normally don’t see it for a couple of days now!
Safe travels, little Falcon! May the winds and your adventures out into the wild blue yonder be just as safe as they are full of new wonders!
Dragon Tails: Mor Dhona Morning
Lizicus, on her way to the First, managed to get a gorgeous morning view of Mor Dhona while flying towards the Syrcus Trench. It always looks so strangely calm if the morning sun hits the region just right, kind of like a still-life in a way. Years ago, I came passing through there once and was able to see such a spectacle as well; something very much never forgotten.
Reminiscing aside, it’s another Monday morning upon us! Y’all have a wonderful day and week ahead. Y’all certainly got this and always will. Kick so much tail!
Sisters’ Fashion Report Adventure XLIX
Episode XLIX! – Can take the Miqo’te out of her and into a Hrothgar, but certainly can’t take her spirit out of enjoying even the silliest of fashionable accessory moments! Once again, much to my chagrin, Aikirees takes another very enjoyable moment in the spotlight for this week’s Fashion Report.
Dragon Tails: Angels & Demons
~Two figures approach: one that looks demonic in appearance while the other is more angelic. The Angelic one ends up giving strange and odd suggestions with various uses of ‘rad’ in the process, while the demonic one gives good solid advice. They’re suggestions tend to either end up in self debate with the person they’re trying to help left even more puzzled. Is this the self-couscous, or something far more devious…?~
These two had a heyday after finally acquiring the Diabolos wings for 800 Hunt Nuts. The ‘demonic’ looking bodysuit Laureine wore was inspired by a cover from the band Shredder 1984’s ‘Nemesis’ cover. Lizicus just wanted to be the more angelic-like counterpart because she was amused by it. Their masks are the Ghost Barque Mask of Maiming from The Sirensong Sea dyed accordingly.
Whenever they have some downtime, they might appear here and their donning that outfit as they did very late one night – finding a spot in Gridania while also being silly ‘guarding’ EOCA HQ’s entrance gate.
They really do have a natural talent to be counteracting to each other in a playful way, and in this case far surpass something that Aikirees and I would have a rather hard time pulling off just as well. What will they get up to next? That’s anyone’s guess including my own!
Fae Light
Aikirees and I have seen this interesting little spot in in Il Mheg for quite some time now, but usually when the weather has been less than favorable or it was daytime. We managed to catch it on a clear crisp night, and decided to explore it more.
At the center is this well-lit flowery ring with rocks circling around it with bushmen nearby. Could this be a gateway to another Fae Realm? Will we get pulled into it if we stare at it long enough? W-will we end up switching bodies just by peering at each other through it long enou–… you know, l-let’s not tempt fate with this and just pretend it doesn’t exist…
Projects & Technology
I had a fairly large thing written about my multi-room audio set up needing a rework since it stopped working with my turntable, the obnoxious time spent trying to fix all this, the practical use for some (but not all) smart home devices, large conglomerate companies adding a bunch of ads and unnecessary ‘features’ to said devices, and spending more time researching how to course correct all of this. In the end I decided against it as it was just too long, and there’s so much else going awful in the world right now for this to be a big deal as it really isn’t. I will say I do miss the days when things just worked out of the box, instead of having to jump through hoops and/or update all of these things.
That aside, last week involved a massive work-related project that turned out great in the end. It was a multi-piece recognition wall for a client, and it was probably my biggest solo-project since I left my industry the first time. Had a lot of parts that I had to plan out, cut out, and get to our installers all within a week’s turnaround. Tired my old rabbit self out in the process, but was great in the end.
The other project was hitting a milestone on a fun one I’ve been working at the office too, building out a Connect Four board with just scrap materials around the office. Last week the legs got made for it so now the board sits very nicely into that as opposed to being flat on the ground. Just have to put the game pieces box together and get the pieces printed for it all to be finished out.
FFXIV-wise, still moving along with the usual weekly tasks right now. Last Sunday being with almost everyone was very fun and made for a wonderful way to end the weekend. Hoping to be able to do that a lot more going forward even if it’s just chatting or running around a place like the Gold Saucer.
Castlevania-wise, Order of Ecclesia is coming along. Kind of got stuck but I remember getting stuck here on my first playthrough too, and it just takes a bit of level building to get back on track, and that should be soon!
I think that’s all I can think of for now, so y’all have a wonderful Tuesday!!
Our Journey…
We all got together last night for some more Heavensward bird hunting that went incredibly well, and then ended the night taking a relaxing moment to end the weekend. Ultimately atop the entrance archway to EOCA HQ.
It’s been an incredibly long journey to this point. Aikirees and I both started on completely different worlds at different times. Met some incredibly wonderful folks that became friends and helped kick start making maps for events and places. Grew even further from that into what would become Eorzea Cartographers, and the eventual Free Company once we both made it to the same world with the Cousins.
Even after all of the drama, darkness, leaving one social media for another, and meeting so many wonderful folks in the process, here we (almost) all are as EOCA. This being where we ended up, I honestly would not want it any other way.
~Uniting Eorzea, One Map at a Time~
Sisters’ Fashion Report Adventure XLVIII
~The last Fashion Report we ever did prior to Aikirees’ journey~ Episode XLVIII! – Y’all, I think I go that feeling again. You know, that feeling one gets where they feel eyes are upon them and at any moment if one turns one way or another, they’ll be nothing there.
I can’t quite put my finger as to why that feeling has returned, but I sense it all the way through the tufts of my ears. …It’s probably nothing, truly; w-why is everyone trying to tell me to turn around real quickly…??
That Old Swing
It feels like forever since I’ve seen this wooden swing, just on the outskirts of a small fishing town in Thavnair. Aikirees and I sat on it one evening summers ago shortly thereafter saving the Star and, well, existence itself from being unraveled. The calming sound of the waves lapping against the sands with the breeze gently flowing makes the swing a real ideal spot to collect one’s thoughts.
We shared the spot here back then, and just watched the sun plummet into the sea. It was nice. It was what we needed after everything. Can’t recall exactly what we were up to back then, but I’m certain it had something to do with training – most likely honing our skills as Paladins at the time.
That was then, and this is now. Recently returned from Tural once again honing our skills as we continue to grow for the new adventures on the horizon. Arriving first, I took a spot on that old swing. Unsure where Aikirees was, as I hadn’t heard her shadow wolf anywhere close, I just lost myself being reminded of why this old swing was such a wonderful little spot.
Moments later, I hear the thud and familiar sound of heavy paws approaching. It was Aikirees and her shadow wolf getting close, and as she did, she dismissed her wolf that I am convinced still wants to devour me and plops down with the lack of delicateness that Aikirees has become known for since her journey. Not that she was ever the most delicate with things, but it’s certainly more noticeable now. Not that I’m complaining, as it’s part of her charm and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
She sat there for a moment, letting out a growl of a purr having all of the similar senses and reminders come back to her of this old swing. I rested my head against her shoulder, not something I’m still used to being able to do now, to greet her before letting up.
“Training going well?” I asked her, not really exactly sure what to conjure up since we’re together so much.
She smiled and humored me. “Zee yup yup! Helping’sies zee Hippos’sies Riderrrrs is alway’sies zee fun too!”
“They really are, yeppers.” Letting out a chuckle with my reply and a soft smile.
“It’s certainly been a while since we’ve been here, missed this old swing. Glad it made it through everything too.” Aikirees smiled with a small nod, as I just continued.
“Glad to be here again with you, Little One. We’ll have to make sure to come by here from time to time no matter where the road decides to take us next.”
She excitedly replied with her usual ‘Yesh’sies!’ and we just went back to gazing out to the wide open clear blue sea.
“Wonder where the winds will take us next…?” I ponder out loud while enjoying the gentle sea breeze dance across the tufts of my ears. Aikirees furrows her fuzzy brows a moment to the inquiry.
“Well, no matter, when or where it happens, we’ll take it on like we always to.”
She smiles and gently nods again. “Still’sies on your zee mind’sies to, isn’t it sissy’sies.”
Her inquiry comes again from how she looks now.
“Well, it is yes, but I’m not going to bug you about it; you’re still you and always my Little One.”
I returned to resting my head against her shoulder again, and could hear her begin to purr soon after I did.
“We’sies got this, zee Sissy’sies. Whereverrrr we go’sies, we’ll kick’sies zee tail’sies as long as we got’sies all of zee us!”
I nodded while continuing to rest on her shoulder, trying to keep my ears from brushing against her face.
“Yeppers, we do. No matter what. When that journey is all said and done, we’ll come back here once again to this old swing.”
When the Youngest Visits
Aryiah, the ‘Cabbit’ and youngest Kosmikros, came to pay a visit from her journeys across the First for the Rising event this year. It’s been an incredibly long spell since her last visit back in February. She caught Aikirees at HQ which very much caused for some catching up to do between the two of them before the evening ended.
Near the main floor’s warm fire, the two of them talked about how she was doing upon another reflection, and the very obvious of how Aikirees now looks since her last time being around her. She didn’t go into great detail as to how her journey went, but very much enjoyed the tales Aryiah had to offer from her adventures.
It will probably be some time before her next visit as rare as they are, but it’s good to know she’s safe being out there on her own so much.
Castles & Elephants
So, I’ve been back on Mastodon for about a week now, and while it’s been very nice to see folks that I haven’t since my departure, it’s overall… well I suppose ‘to be determined?’ Being gone from social media for so long has been really really good for me, but on the opposing side, it’s placed me in a nebulous state of what/how to interact there now. A lot of little things I’ve forgotten about social media have resurfaced – most of which can be summed up into basically ‘general negativity.’ Some folks I’ve tried to interact with that I used to only to be brushed off tends to have me lean more towards reconsidering this return. I do understand it though, I have been gone a very long time.
That’s not to say it’s all been doom and gloom. Folks/friends have general been pretty happy to see me come back, and there’s still a lot of positive/feel good posts happening throughout. It’s just… different I suppose and I guess that’s just social media in general? It might have always been there, and I didn’t notice as much (I know I contributed as well to it). Something to continue to ponder, but I’ve got enough going on to not either dwell on it and/or force myself to utilize if the feeling isn’t right. Time will tell, but in the mean time the folks & friends that I have been able to reconnect with have been for the most part a joy.
Switching subjects, recently Konami released ‘Castlevania: Dominus Collection’ for I believe all major platforms. This collection contains the three Nintendo DS games: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and Order of Ecclesia. Order of Ecclesia being my absolute favorite Castlevania game of all time. I’ve played the latter two back on the Nintendo DS, but being able to play them on modern hardware and on a big screen has always been a dream of mine. I picked it up for Switch, and for the most part, just played it in handheld mode. That all changed last night when instead of playing Final Fantasy XIV, I took the night off from that and played Order of Ecclesia docked.
This was just sheer joy, and a dream come true. One area of note when I did this is the music was stellar!! The sound effects sounded a lot better too, but that music was so gosh darn wonderful to hear. The visuals are crisp, clear, and being able to see both of the DS’s screens together like that has been very well done. I can’t recommend this trilogy enough for anyone curious about theses – they’re so worth it. I picked Ecclesia first because it’s my favorite, but once I’ve completed it, will move on to Portrait of Ruin, and then Dawn of Sorrow. This is in reverse order of how they were originally released, but they’re not connected (Dawn of Sorrow and Portrait of Ruin are sequels to other Castlevania’s though), so there’s no loss there.
Oh, one last tidbit since I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it; posts here are usually scheduled at 10:00am Eastern Time every weekday unless I have nothing for that day or something got delayed. Occasionally a post will be retrostamped if it’s coming but a little later in the day. Every now and then something else will get posted (like this one!) but the standard 10:00 are usually the scheduled ones.
Until next time, take care y’all, and have a wonderful Tuesday evening!
Dragon Tails: Crispy Morning
Miss Laureine was able to catch a clear, crisp morning in Il Mheg the other day. The updated weather effects (or they seem to be) from Dawntrail really give a whole new view for certain!
Good Morning y’all! Y’all have a wonderful Tuesday ahead and y’all got this!
Night Walk
Most evenings when were on, we always try to get a treasure map to try and get some crafting goodies for future use. This time it lead us both to Twine. It was a gorgeous starry night so before heading out in separate directions, we took a stroll across the old trolley railway just like old times once again.
Last time we both were here on these tracks specifically feels like a lifetime ago; well in Aikirees’ case it might as well be.
Sisters’ Fashion Report Adventure XLVII
~This was prior to Aikirees’ journey~ Episode XLVII! – We are very very serious Paladins. The serious of serious, yeppers, nothing less than that.
Slice of Stuffs
Been really wanting to figure out how to post and talk about general things along with everything else, so came up with a general header for when the time arises. There will be a lot of these as we get closer to the end of the year and it gets a lot busier.
Starting off, after what I believe has been 8 months, I have finally returned to Mastodon**. Asterisks being that there is no way for me to return to the capacity of it like back before the hiatus, but it is really good to return and see everyone once again. The return was incredibly warm and heartfelt; thank y’all and I really did miss y’all dearly. This won’t affect anything here as I still prefer to post here, and have come to really enjoy it over all that time.
Star Bunny will come back, eventually – I think there’s two or three big posts in regards to that to get sort of caught up to where I am there. I hit a major burnout with it as once it gets up there in levels, it starts to feel like hitting granite with a paper pick axe. Don’t get me wrong I love that fact that I can fly around the known Star Trek universe and see/do things, but it’s gotten a lot slower to progress is all.
Meanwhile, back in Eorzea, just recently we all took out the first four Normal Raids of Dawntrail. Those are so gosh darn fun! They did a really wonderful job with balancing out the mechanics and the fights themselves making them very fair in regards to how they all work. A couple of them are a bit bonkers as a Black Mage, but we’ll get there! The story will be interesting to see how this goes down across all the patches it will be added in – 7.2 being the next set.
Fashion Reports, we’re still a bit backlogged for those, so whenever I can those will go up on Fridays until we’re caught up. Think there’s about six or so left unless we add more to the queue.
We had fun working on the new airship parts with only a couple of pieces left to do now. We’ll have double the flight power soon enough! Probably will work on a submarine soon thereafter now that we have those unlocked as well. Over on the right is our crafting outfits; we’ve had those since we hit Level 90 back in Endwalker. I kind of doubt we’ll change them even at 100 unless something comes along that we like better.
Think that’s all that comes to mind at the moment. There’s RL items too, but probably will just put any of those in a separate post if I want to share. Y’all have a wonderful day!