@meowww-ffxiv / meowww-ffxiv.tumblr.com
(3am)
Theodore: Should we one day encounter a shard of yours and they wish to destroy the world or are otherwise allied with the Ascians--
Meowdred: Kill.
Meowdred: Now go to sleep.
Theodore: I am not...sure if I have it in me.
Meowdred: To sleep??
Theodore: No. To harm any version of you.
Meowdred: I'm VERY sure you DON'T have it in you to see any harm come to THIS version of me.
Theodore: Oh... Very true. 🙂 Goodnight.
It's partly funny haha reflection of real players and partly just the fact that Meowdred and Theodore were mercenaries first and foremost, but they were both extremely aggressive/had very aggressive philosophies when it came to getting from A to B where there was combat involved.
Pull giant packs of mobs. Staying greedy. Attacking while dodging the bad. The Scions (normal people) who also DIDN'T have the Echo would secure their own safety first and then keep attacking but those 2 guys? Meowdred spamming 3 Glares while ducking into a safe spot before finally rezzing Alisaie.
Alphinaud: I do not mean to question you but must you be in such a hurry? 💀
Meowdred: It's okay to question us.
Theodore: The answer is "yes".
Meowdred was careful 90% of the time and then the other 10% he did things like yanking on the tails of Doman tigers -- yes those HUGE ones with aggro outside of Doma -- and then giggling.
Theodore: I AM SO STRESSED...
Though, notably, Meowdred had never been attacked by any of those tigers. The one time Theodore did catch him doing this (and screamed so loud he spooked the animal into running away), the tiger just turned and huffed at Meowdred before lying down. Clearly it accepted that the cat walking upright was just trying to play.
Theodore: Can you use your 100 levels in clothcraft to fix these trousers for me, please? They are too tight around the thighs.
Meowdred: Your glutes are too damn thick 'cos yer always be bouncing on that dick.
Theodore:
Theodore: No, it is because I haul a twenty-pounds spear and wear heavy armor while jumping sixty yalms into the air before diving down on my enemies.
Meowdred: The extra exercise to core strength from bouncing on it didn't help, though. Or rather you didn't need that extra help.
Theodore: 🤔 I suppose it does take core strength. But how do you know?
Meowdred: Thancred says some really interesting shite when he's drunk.
Theodore: Ah. Can you still fix the trousers?
Meowdred: 'Course. Put your leg up. I need to get the measurement again.
groovy 🐸💕
Meowdred and Thancred had the most indecipherable relationship. It was no secret to every Scion, both A list and B list, that Meowdred didn't like him. But Thancred also considered the cat to be the only person he could be honest with about his feelings/failings and receive neither judgment nor pity.
Thancred said it was because any kind of humor shriveled up and died within hearing distance of Mordred. FALSE. It was because, burned into Thancred's core memories, was the time when he sat in the Waking Sands trying to stomach the soldiers who got tempered by Ifrit on his watch, and Mordred came to sit next to him.
It would have been better had Mordred accused him or brushed him off, Thancred believed. He even tried to head it off for them both. Said, "It's fine if you hate me. It's well deserved."
"I don't hate you," Mordred had replied. "And I understand that you tried your best. It is no comfort for both of our failures in this, but I understand."
Back on the First, Mordred had also been the first and only person to speak frankly with Thancred about Ryne -- or the way that he was treating Ryne before Naabath Areng, without yelling at him. Mostly it boiled down to yeah it sucks ass but you can't hold yourself responsible for Minfilia's decision. As in literally it is not physically possible. Preserve her autonomy in this, and hold yourself to your own.
Meowdred: Sometimes things WILL just suck and there are tragedies we'll never get over. (compassionate)
Thancred: I would trust this cat with my life, my social security, and my 30 year old repressed man thoughts.
I've heard the general consensus that Hermes was a villain because he wanted to blow up the world and...
I can see where the lump-sum is coming from. Hermes made Meteion. He told her to fly, he aided her in escaping us. But I think, really, his was an open thesis. With the context of what he found disgusting and cruel about Elpis, his question was whether mankind could survive what it subjected its creations to at this point, or if they were pure hypocrites.
He spoke of the confusion, fear, and anger in the Elpis creations' eyes when they were put down for their imperfections or otherwise discarded. In a way, perhaps he saw the ruin of other civilizations that Meteion reported back to him as some proof that mankind was not as great as it made of itself. That mankind was in fact every bit the same as the creatures it created and discarded in the name of something greater.
And maybe as the fragmented Amon, he did see for himself that...he was right? Mankind was just the same as those creatures it deemed unfit or not conductive to the stewardship of the stars. They fought, they mauled, they molested each other. The Allagan Empire, with its bio-horrors and mutants and the vision where someone laughed to Amon after he turned a victim's head to a bull's. It was the same kind of alteration you might reasonably think happened in Elpis once, even if the intention was more steeped in a good morality back then and not just perverse entertainment. Was that why Amon lost hope? Was that why he craved the end? I wonder.
The entirety of Endwalker's final battle, too, echoes this theme. No matter the despair you feel, you don't have the right to decide for those around you what's best for them. That's why we faced the Endsinger. Because even if the world was shit and no one could tell us why we must suffer, our lives were ours. We decide what we do with it. No one gets to determine whether we live or die based on what they think is best for us. The Endsinger could be seen as a twisted and patronizing pantomime of the oblivious hubris that once plagued Elpis.
Which is crazy to me that we can have a view from this angle because FF14 narrative is so Care Bear about the aftermath of imperialism lmao. We had one brutal expansion in Stormblood and then it's like "let's hug imperialists and make up ♥️ we're all People".
It IS possible to do both the They're People Too dance AND talk about redress and accountability especially in the scope that the Ascians and the Garlean Empire ruined the world around them. But at this point, I don't think the plot is going there.
Eh, it doesn't drive me off the story. I'm just eating at their restaurant, after all, and the food IS good. I'm just gonna cook some of my own food on the side.
"But now I know I'm not alone, not the only one for whom the flowers weep. I won't ask what you thought as you kneeled beside the Elpis or if you only did it at Meteion's insistence. Nevertheless, I thank you. To know that you, too, have experienced suffering… is a comfort."
Perfect void cat 🐈🖤🖤
(trying energy drinks in S9 for the first time)
Meowdred: *vibrating slightly* Are you feeling alright? I feel like I took a concentrated espresso to the left ventricle.
G'raha: *also vibrating* I think I will be fine but I wish I had access to this back on the First it would have made so many of those sleepless nights more productive.
Krile: Boys. 🙄
.
Krile: Hm. Do you think Alphinaud would like this "boba" drink?
Meowdred: It might be a choking hazard for him.
Krile: He isn't a baby, you know.
Meowdred: I mean that this isn't something you should drink and talk at the same time. These "pearls" can go down your windpipe easy.
Krile:
Krile: You do say the most brutal things without saying them, Mordred.
Meowdred: ? What?
.
(they're having to get G'raha to use his anti gravity spells to help them all get something on the tallest shelf)
Meowdred: Can't wait till you hit your growth spurt, Alisaie. At least then ONE of us can get things.
Alisaie: I promise you I'll get it before Alphinaud does. Just you wait.
.
Thancred: (on the linkpearl) Shtola told me you and our friends got into quite the shenanigans in Solution 9.
Meowdred: Does Shtola know you call her that behind her back?
Thancred:
Thancred: I didn't take you for a tattler, Mordred.
Meowdred: I'm not gonna TELL her. Was just wondering where you grew a third nut to be having the balls to drop her clan letter, in a private conversation no less.
Thancred: Y'shtola didn't mention too many details about your recent ventures. Care to catch me and Urianger up?
Meowdred: Oh yeah. It's crazy out here, Thancred--
Meowdred: Since you can hear souls, do you hear the elementals as well?
Theodore: I can, indeed.
Meowdred: Why didn't you just go get a job at the Conjurers' Guild then? Why join the lancers?
Theodore: Do you remember that bloke who plies the bow? The one whose...insensitive and racially charged remarks had you fistfight him in front of the Archers' Guild?
Meowdred: Oh yeaaaaah what's his name. Silver something.
Theodore: People with his sentiment are dozen-a-gil in a city like Gridania. Even had I shown remarkable aptitude at Hearer's skills, I would never have been able to secure such standings. More likely than not, I would be relegated to a role of heavy responsibility and little recognition. And if I was going to die, I wanted to die in a bit of comfort, to be honest...
Meowdred: 🤔 That's fair. But isn't Ishgard kinda like that too?
Theodore: Ishgard is EXACTLY like that. It is why I know to avoid the trap.
Finished the arm/bsm/gsm Wachumeqimeqi quest yesterday WAHOO.
I don't think Meowdred fully understands what an honor it was that he got involved in crafting a ritual item for the rulers of a country, though. That thing would stand in the palace for generations to come. It would serve perhaps a very, very long line of rulers.
And Meowdred was just like. I crafted it because my friends asked me to. ^w^
