Parrhesia

[spoiler=Update 26b] Vaan out. She waves as she leaves. The Fens are on the eastern continent, which we're about to un-gate with the airship. Alright. Finally. wh- He's back on his feet. This time for good. And we're off! Guinness rushing off first, naturally. I'll animate this next time I see it. For now, though, we've linked up with Fluorgis... ... and it's Greenfire. Shit. Guess there's one more timeskip we need. Haha, no way, Cid, that can totally wait for the 200-ish days I plan to leave it. for 200 days And, without further ado... Boom. Cid. He's got great stats because Warriors have great stats (remember, he counts as a bangaa). Issue is that his skills are a little disappointing, but it's okay. I have Plans for him. We want to go abroad because I'm tired of not having a Gria and their natural home is Fluorgis so we haven't been able to recruit them yet but I thought the Gria/Seeq season was late, not early, winter. So we'll have to timeskip more. ????? Well Adele and Gren - really fast units, hasted - finished one tile away from the last spots. I guess we'll just have to do this higher-levelled - or, alternatively, using a thing that I'll take care of soon. (Gren's, I think, was doable, but there's spots on the wings I didn't notice at first because GOLD BLENDS INTO YELLOW.) WHY DON'T WE JUST STAY ON THE FUCKING BOAT Next time, on FFTA2:

I looked it up and there's apparently no difference in skills - I don't even think the skillset name is different! I'll doublecheck when we next see him in combat (spoilers, we'll see him in combat again). Only difference is to make him look unique and, probably, better growths. He does have OA from the trading card game that inevitably became a thing though! Broadly speaking all OA from the game itself was used for the portrait. [spoiler=Update 26a] Yeah, so this is Vaan. It's me as me again. Figured the drama episode didn't need this cameo - anyway, there's a couple nice little sidequests I'd like to sort out before the move to Fluorgis that will finally become a reality after this. As far as I understand it, all the Ivalice games are canon. As far as I can understand, the order is; Vagrant Story is like, fucking milennia before FFT, which is also a shitton before FF12. Revenant Wings and FFTA2 are immediate sequels of FF12, maybe a few years after. (Revenant Wings is, as far as I remember, the only attempt at a DS RTS. Somehow, it was okay? It's about Vaan and Penelo's sky piracy, and I think it's in the aftermath of Revenant Wings when they're established that FFTA2 happens). FFTA1 happened in a fictional Ivalice that was a construct of Mewt's power fantasies, but the real world. Roughly a generation after FFTA1, FFTA2 starts in the real world, but Guinness is sent to the actual Ivalice. If you skipped over all that, I'll sum it up by saying that I'm like 95% sure this appearance is canon. FFT, though, has Balthier, Guinness and Cloud all appear as cameos. God knows why. Anyway, the nerd summons reinforcements. Honestly, unless he gets really annoying later and I just don't remember, I quite like Vaan. I cut out a couple of lines but suffice to say that as soon as the fight starts and Vaan gets his turn (which will be first because he's overlevelled and naturally fast) the bickering over whether or not this is a treasureboat continues. nice comeback, guinness. great. Vaan has good stats all-round, especially speed. Vigilance means that flanks/backstabs don't do any extra damage. He can steal, disarm traps, bypass reactions and increase his evasion. It's a pretty effective combination for swashbuckling. Gren opens the fight by missing the fusilier with his ball, missing his counterattack on Ed and getting slowed. I swear he's become my shittiest guy. Torch has reached his final form, though he has some dragoon abilities to catch up with. Defenders like the blue guy from the Camoa Braves are really buff bangaa, pretty much immortal. They share a couple of Paladin abilities as well as the use of knightswords, shields and heavy armour. Notably, he will later be able to give himself reraise and regen. Gren is the new Rodanu, I swear to fucking God. In Tactics Ogre: Knights of Lodis (the GBA one), there were these Emblems you could get to commemorate feats of skill each unit had done. One of them was given for being fucking annihilated by a counterattack and gave you a permanent -10 Intelligence. We could have pulped the keystone enemy by now but there's more loot to be earned killing his mates. I'll be honest, I'm savescumming the Bazaar a little - while I'm typing this the white mage went to hit Guinness, missed and got crit in response - but yeah there's really not enough resources to go around if you're trying to get a shitton of equipment. Sages are basically nu mou warrior-mages, they have a bit of everything but it's hard to recall any of their skills off by hand other than Ultima. They use maces. The leader really is called Genius Ed, by the way. Yvet becomes a creepypasta again and I realise we're actually running out of lads. Killing the fusilier might be a stretch goal. Nevermind. Torch is a deserved MVP. Nobody else gets more than 7 bonus EXP - Torch gets 22. (Yes, that's Penelo.) Penelo's very calm about the four dead people. Don't worry, Penelo, Vaan did sweet fuck-all. ... I guess.

Marusu informed me cordially about his ejaculation habits in the comments of this song, thanks marusu

[spoiler=Update 25 - Nofilia, Wolfe] a constant companion by your side, hovering over the shoulder and the presence is gone, nothing was done but the dark ones approach five of them; six of us and i cling to our numbers and we will make this a triumph. searing pain through my side and i fight through it because i must fight through it and what happens if the judge is gone and we lie dying will it all turn out alright? they must die before we find out. i'm fading it's... Combat Report - Skyfrost 11 Wolfe Rainsford Fighting short but intense. Other patrols of the clan heard the clamour and came, that's likely what saved more of us from falling. Nofilia clinging to life. We killed one of them, gravely wounded another and put the rest to flight. Ursla is tracking them through the snow. I don't think she'll find them. This isn't right. Where the fuck is the Law? Who the fuck were they? Anyway, Guinness - it was his attack that ended up forcing their leader to quit the field - found something. Guinness went calling for the judge the rest of the day. Found him, eventually, through the use of some card Cid gave him. But it's just like Cid himself. The Law wasn't there for the conflict. So Nofilia... I hate this fucking system. Hate the fucking world. Skyfrost 14 Decision is made from Cid to get this gem appraised in Moorabella, maybe see Fluorgis. I'd like that. It's strange that I've never actually seen Cid, his injury came well after our - most of our recruitment. Nofilia is walking again. Reassures me Cid is still the clan leader. A good man to have in a fight. Reliable. Gods, without her, it'd be the kid in charge. Skyfrost 18 I'm consistently failing to capture it, but the dragoon is losing a snowball fight with the moogle and shouting. Turns out the appraisal was worthless. The gem might not be, but the critic sure was. I figured maybe we could go to Fluorgis, but... Well, some kind of delay. Nobody exactly knew why. We agreed to get to the bottom of this ourselves. While we do all this, of course, the reputation of our rivals only grows... There's a few other quests that catch the eye, but there's no time to waste. There's an open call to arms and, to be honest, if we can't sort this, other, less scrupulous clans will probably be rounding any outsiders they can get their hands on up, roughing 'em up and wringing out false confessions. Skyfrost 19 We got him. Caught the little creep lurking around the airport. All that's left is to corner him, kick seven shades of shit out of him and toss him into a cell. Only one problem... ... This planned ambush has picked up company.

Green stats are all that matter is the prevailing attitude on the GameFAQs FAQs (as opposed to the boards, which I don't even know if they still exist now). Speaking personally I took them at face value even if I was a little skeptical. But generally the characters I gravitated towards were big, cool prepromotes that those FAQs shat on (shoutout to Zealot, a mighty 2/10). So when I discovered tier lists here that valued instead units that were useful in practice rather than overpowered in theory, that kind of fit in better with my playstyle anyway. However, a lot of people prefer to do war crimes instead and use mostly 'cute' child characters, and in FE they tend to be terrible at the start with good growths and have many green stats at 20/20, which those FAQs adored. So they liked those characters and overlooked the favouritism they required, and the FAQs said they were great and fed into their biases. In their shoes, I'd have taken those FAQs for granted as well. In any case, it doesn't really matter. Sophia is a really bad unit but if people like her enough to use her that's their business and they're entitled to it.

Default on Googledocs is Arial 11-pt and I stick to that unless I need to use Times New.

Our dear fuccboi actually introduced me to Kid Cudi, possibly with this specific song, IIRC the conversation went 'man i need more music like kanye west in my life' 'what album in particular' 'dark twisted fantasy' 'good fucking luck but this is the best i can think of' heartwarming stuff anyway it's pretty apt only hopefully not very apt because i'm going to a friend's birthday tomorrow night lol

[spoiler=Update 24] Back to me, Parrhesia. We're going to do more plot because I want to paint the map. We'll swing by Zedlei, since it's starting to get below some of our rank... Find another stray... ... and advance the plot with a mission I literally do not remember. He did a little threatening little twirl. Remember those three seeq who ambushed and killed us that one time? Anyway yeah this is like the flintlock one, there's an encirclement of gun and they will shoot us but when we win we will learn gun. We charge and they shoot all around us for a fair ton of damage. Fusiliers are really good. Fusiliers have bad stats and pistols aren't that strong, but they all have 8-range (bows and longbows range from 5-7, pretty much all the earlygame ones 5) and they have a nice skillset - elemental attacks with the three basics and status attacks that deal damage and maybe a status on top. By the way, the enemy leader is the one holding what is presumably the special gun in the mission. The only issue is that it's the basic pistol. He also has a ribbon somehow which I don't notice until I've already committed to having Nofi chase him down and try and disable him. Turns out, though, that Slow works fine. fuck. Anyway after we deal with the head guy, witness Elm rip Adele to pieces and finally get this mountain cunt (I guess if you go all melee you can't win this fight at all? But you get to see the battlefield before deployment so it's fine.) Anyway, we get Fusilier. Oh, and something interesting happened after... after... okay, I'm not actually sure what gated it, but. Look what's new on the top screen! fuck off thank you Anyway, this is why you train a full team. Poor Chari. The albino eyeball. The numbers on this are hella in our favour but eyes are fragile and allies are unpredictable. ffff fffffffff It's okay, though, Nofilia can heal for 72 somehow? Okay, so thanks entirely to Gren, things get tense, but... we deal with it. Chari's the upgraded version of a floating eye, by the way - they can even vampire-drain people! In theory. Because both of his turns have missed. ohhh the ball isn't the debuff i thought it was. We're reliant on their generosity attacking us, rather than the vampire orb. I figure out why Nofi's so good at healing, by the way - Chari's got an elemental weakness to Holy magic, but isn't undead. Alright. Time to move onto what is assuredly a filler mission. Oh. No, now I remember this one. The sharp end of the plot is here. Luso backs away. Right. They're bringing their best. We'll bring ours.

These guys. Just bros bein' hoes.

yes

Glad to hear the experiment worked out. As for a sage... proooobably not? I've only budgeted for two mou (fully-accredited, anyway) and the non-Lawrn one will probably be a Scholar/Alchemist. I dunno, sages don't hugely appeal to me but if the thread Really Wants A Sage I'd be okay giving it a sage. But it's pointless running through them, they're basically all just kind of tricky support magi (sages have a bit more thwack to them).

[spoiler=Update 23-2] I understand now. I can still help people, but now I know why these bloody hands are needed and how I can join them and why I have to join them. Upon our return to Camoa to lick our wounds, a petition screams out to us. I volunteer to lead. It takes some emergency fund-raising and a whip-round for our spare equipment, but it works out. Wolfe and Ursla volunteer to go with me. Wolfe has a kind heart beneath his facade. Ursla seethed, arrow nocked. Our best archers stood ready to take the beast down, and I felt an immense surge of pride to be by their side. The beast struck while he was distracted, but he kept standing, bleeding head to toe. Ursla scoffed, said we should leave him to the vultures and make the best of the time with volleys, but ... As we bickered, we heard footsteps behind us. We struck. Bowen lead the charge, his house lay in support as Wolfe and Ursla bombarded Klesta with arrows. And I helped, in whatever modest way I could. But it was stronger than before. And more craven. This time would be different. We did. And it swung our way, with its wings- Dimly, through the pain, I felt it fall. We live an imperfect world. Mercenaries crawl the roads, looking for their next contract. This encourages people to solve their problems through violence. Many of the mercenaries encourage this, too. The likes of the Braves, or Yellow Wings, they're only in it for the money that can be earned. But we can do better. We can be better, like this world deserves. Root out the corrupt, overpower the darkness and bring forward a light. Treat our contractors with honour and strive to find peaceful resolution. Be fair and just. And maybe we can make the world better for our presence. Maybe I can. We have stopped a tragedy here. And it will not be the last. Next up on FFTA2: oops

[spoiler=Update 23-1] Unbelievable. We thought we'd found Bowen's tracks, heading the road north to Moorabella. Figured we'd follow. But here we stand, confronted by the beast. We left Loa gravely wounded, Twiegel the same, we can't even be certain Bowen's still alive. Torch... not fit to fight, despite his protests. I command him to the rear. I grip my staff. But we are not going to fall today. But wait, no, the same glare in his eyes, more fervent than even before, he will kill here or die himself and he's bleeding, still, and are they ready for this? Twiegel shares my doubts but Elm is ready and Guinness has blade drawn and some madness overtakes me and we fight, despite everything but it strengthens and twiegel's magic fizzles and veis shoots him in error and then it's pain and with so much to do and so little I can do I strive but they pick up their swords and keep going and I must follow and i- can't see blur all's faint but I'm alive, body refuses to go that final step into a death I know I deserve, can feel myself rising but falling bound by a Law and I do not know why it does this and for fleeting seconds it all seems to leave me I welcome death at my door and it refuses to open and it all... comes back, into focus, and Klesta rises. and I climb to my broken feet and we walk again.

Alec (and Noish, and Midir, and Beowulf) aren't great units, but it's FE4. They're quick and capable enough support cavalry who can help pick off daves in the big formation fights that are the meat and potatoes of the game. Really, Arden's just about the only unit who doesn't really find any utility in the game, and even then it's probably possible to make him work. Chapter 2 is the wall of the game, it's shithouse. Make it through Chapter 2 and you'll clear the game.

I don't honestly know. All Veis ever does is Vanish and then immediately break it, and it's a Sniper skill so it's unlikely to be used for anything more subtle. ... I mean, Elm also has Camouflage because he went on a mission as a Ranger, but he's Elm.

wow

why are you posting jeremy corbyn's victory speech

Shadowess: "it's a cover of the original song by bill withers but it was released on her album and i heard this version first, so i'll link this one"

There is a poll now! [spoiler=Update 22] I do not consider myself a fighter. I do not consider myself a leader of men. I'm just a healer. They tell me to sit back and train. Learn from watching, not doing. The doing will come later. It is a warlike group I have fallen in with, the Clan of Worms that has come to prominence for its prowess in the auction halls. The Clan brought down Dayvis and the Veluga Pirates, the Camoa Braves. I think I am joining an exalted group, but some of them make me question. They call themselves 'problem solvers'. They are willing to get their hands dirty to solve problems, and I can respect that. Still, I'd like to see some of these problems for myself. I am sure that they needn't all turn to bloodshed. Their methods are... unorthodox. They tell me they are effective. Flintlocks are the moogle cannonneers. They need to prime their guns before they can do any of their skills, maybe also to attack, though attacking doesn't unprime the gun. But that doesn't account for the shards of lead and infected magical wounds I've had to tend. (I did not ask why 'Torch' smells of burned fur, I did not want to know.) Wolfe told me it felt like the moogles were 'toying' with them, like it was some kind of game to them. Until one of their own fell. And did not get back up. At some stage during the fight, Gren did something, but Wolfe will not tell me what. He only shudders. Who hurt him? But, eventually... the joke wore off for the musketmen. Reason prevailed, thank the gods. But I wish I had been there from the start. Maybe it could have been resolved peacefully. Upon our return to Camoa, Wolfe wept with joy. Apparently a long-standing order he'd made had finally come through, and all we needed were the funds to acquire it. This was easier said than done. A small detachment progressed to Baptiste, with myself in tow. This aggrieved Ursla and Wolfe, who both desired to take the head of a beast for their own - but the law had other ideas. It would be Torch, Guinness - according to Wolfe, the organisation's notional third-in-command, behind Cid and Nofilia - and Elm, the seeq warrior, ready to engage hand-to-hand with the foe. It was... terrible, to behold. A great beast, sharp-taloned and axebeaked. I was just grateful that it would not be able to fly, its weak prehensile wings surely unable to bear its grotesque bulk. But there were eight arrayed in battle. And there was just one bird. Surely, this would be easy. Begrudgingly, we agreed to House Bowen's rash request to take the fight to Klesta. But all did not seem well. We stood back and let them take the attack, but we were ready to step in at a moment's notice. A nice touch here. Veis' quest to join House Bowen unlocks at the same time as (maybe after) this quest, Throw Down, does. And there's a House Bowen subplot, we'll meet them a few more times down the road. Veis appears in their ranks, but only if you've done the Assassin quest first, which is, well, why we did it first. Not that she's remotely useful. Here she is, vanishing and then immediately breaking it with attacks. While I'm on the subject, Tweigel is even worse. There's an ability that allows you to cast from HP instead of MP - Tweigel's an illusionist. So he opens the fight hitting a single target for weak damage, can cast it twice before he just runs out of blood. Veis was repulsed almost immediately by the creature. 'Klesta', as they called it, was too strong for them... but they charged on regardless, Bowen in particular practically burning up with his own rage. Torch had had enough. So had Klesta. Loa was down. Bowen was on his last legs. Torch waved Elm forward. Where was Veis? Tweigel, bereft of magic, dragged Loa's body to safety, where I could tend to her. This had become desperate. Bowen... stayed on his feet. Fuelled by hatred alone, perhaps. Elm and Torch fought on, heedless. I heard a screech. Scrambled for cover. Got away in time. Tweigel didn't. But... we brought the beast down. No, I am no hero. They are. They did. But it just... Rose. And flew away, somehow, through some perverse miracle of nature. Bowen looked as though he was going to say something more, but... After Bowen absconded without so much as staying for me to tend his wounds, we broke camp for the night. Friese, Twiegel told us, was a famous headhunter in Jylland, an associate of House Bowen. She was there when last they'd clashed with Klesta, a bitter, hard fight. Klesta fled, but while the others lay battered and broken, Friese still had a second wind, so Bowen sent her to chase the bird off and finish her. We were taken aback. Even Elm looked affected, but it all made sense. The selfless, self-destructive ferocity with which he fought, but his reluctance to finish the job... but then what was the point in the fight? If Klesta was just going to run, and run... The cycle needed to be ended. We parted ways. But Bowen had not returned.

Dijon 'this song's spirit animal is fizzy lifting drinks' Mustard

a l l d o n g n o w r o n g

jesus christ

Kyrie is Templar with a side of Monk. Torch is the dragoon with other plans - I'm not fussed about him having Jump all the time because Jump was given double damage/half accuracy in A2 and I hate things with half accuracy.

[spoiler=Update 21] Kyrie's Quest - the Return Ghostwritten by M. Seeq Templeton More news. It was of no import, until it turned into petitions requesting our name, the name of the Clan of Worms! If this was the thief, then I would destroy it myself. But there were concerns both abroad... ... and domestic, to deal with. Graszton was our turf now, their concerns our concerns. My dabbling with priesthood had been enlightening, but had left me rusty - I needed a challenge! As I contemplated his earnest discussion of the placebo effect, pondered if they really were doing harm and absently prevented Adele from going up and buying one with her own money... ... they attacked. I improvised a catchphrase and ordered the counteroffensive! I may have misread their intentions. Their signals were mixed between murder and petty theft. We, by contrast, had our sights set on murder. They even tried to pilfer my pockets, but heroes never carry cash. The line shatters easily, but I tired of such a trivial task and of questioning the nature of how far blind belief could sustain conspicuous consumption, of whether it could cause lasting harm, of consumer confidence, of- Anyway, before I could finish my thesis on the subject, I found myself to the outskirts of Graszton, near a tree. I remembered this tree and that people of virtue and payment had made me vow to defend it, and thus I made others follow. When I saw the foes gathered around it, I declared; And thus battle was joined. Torch lead the eastern strikeforce, now in the garb of a gladiator, a ferocious melee fighter (as he always had been). Some of that discipline had been known to use elementally-infused blades but Torch only described the occupation in cryptic terms, as a 'stepping stone'. Hopefully it will be a stepping stone to not being sneezed on by antlions. Still, Torch had his side and we had ours. We held the line. Despite their ability to vomit, spit, sneeze and throw natural disasters at us. And their overwhelming numbers. I had a spear. Lawrn softened them up, I finished them off. Guinness was our dutiful, blind anvil. I was blind as well, but I wore it better. I could see some things, of course - but not the eastern fireteam. I am certain they performed spectacularly in our absence, however! Guinness, heroically, lead and meatshielded by example. Someone to look up to. Rodanu told me he finished the last of them off, and Yvet reluctantly provided a first-hand witness account. I may have had to retain my gruff demeanour for the sake of appearances... but it was a reminder that there are some things in this world worth protecting. And I felt, just a little, as though we'd crossed some kind of landmark... Our visit to the Bangaa Brotherhood was highly enlightening. Not least for the two seeq beating a rock into submission, who Elm watched admiringly for close to an hour. Second, for the idea of perhaps having an artilleryman of our own to use someday... Neither Torch nor myself wished to take up the cannon personally... but it was certainly something we wished to see in action. Gren, after a time banished in the reserves for aiding and abetting the enemy with infernal contraptions, finally came out to see the rest of us. He asked me what would happen if he walked into the centre of Moorabella and yelled "Cut, kupo!" Would the magi drop what they were doing and wait for the next order? I worry for Gren. I do not know where he ends and the juggler begins. He would soon get his chance to be pointed in the right direction. Ursla struck first, though, with war crimes. And Gren, evidently, had figured out how to pull the right things out of the bag. Their attacks were ineffectual against me, possibly through choice. Sadly, Gren's new debut was cut prematurely. It was a gruelling fight, but we began to take the upper hand... helped by the slow decay of their leader and the inability of their sluggish juggernaut to run. And the ineffectiveness of their thief. Well... mostly ineffectiveness. But Ursla had it well in hand. As the juggernaut approached, Wolfe - crippled beyond recognition by their leader - revived Nofilia 'for expediency'. He had a point. By the time the juggernaut made his appearance, his friends were all dead. And then Nofilia ensured he would not so much as swing a sword in anger. Then things just felt cruel. Eventually, the poison did him in. We returned to Camoa to lick our wounds and continue to find weapons. But our rest was interrupted by reports of something truly unsettling near the city... Next up on KYRIE'S QUEST!;

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