still in the midst of it but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the stupid nanamo shit if you feel like expanding on it

GOD. GOD!!

Okay this is gonna go under a readmore but holy fuck that entire questline really highlights everything I fucking HATE about StB and Ul'Dah

FUCK that Godfrey guy for bragging that he's a good person for EXTORTING REFUGEES because it gave them jobs and earned him money

AND THEN THE GAME SAYS SHE LEARNED THE RIGHT LESSON AND I GET TO SIT THERE AND WATCH A WHITE #GIRLBOSS WORK WITH ANOTHER CAPITALIST TO EXTORT A NATION RECOVERING FROM AN OCCUPATION SHE BENEFITED FROM BECAUSE OF THE RRFUGEE LABOR

At least when Gridania is like "well our religion says we can't even provide medicine to outsiders" they're ACTUALLY treated like that's bad by the game!!!

And this just. AGHHHHHH. the fact that you spend all this nonsense time following her around and get to have no opinion?? Like at this fucking point in the story we could've just had Alphinaud BUY the salt harvesting gear AND establish trade routes with Ishgard who would desperately need salt for food preservation given how fucked their life is by eternal salt. But noooooo. We have to watch a child shaped national leader learn she can help Jeff Bezos get richer by putting a group of oppressed people in a position where they have to give up a portion of their work forever if they want to ever recover.

At least Alphinaud was there to make sure the contract wasn't extortionate. Something Nanamo didn't care about because her entire goal was to prove she could take care of herself. The fact that she openly extorted her alleged best friend's people and didn't even check to make sure that guy wasn't going to make the contract fucked up is so???

I wish I did poison her actually. Then I'll blender the entire council of rich fucks after. Bahamut nuke.

ALSO THE FACT THAT THIS IS ACTUALLY RAUBAHN'S STORY BUT IT FOCUSES ON A WHITE WOMAN LEARNING TO EXTORT PEOPLE TO PROVE SHE CAN BE SELF SUFFICIENT JUST SO THEY CAN PUT HIM IN THE ROLE OF CITY STATE LEADER AKA SIDE CHARACTER WHO ONLY SHOWS UP DURING SCENES TO BE REALLY BORING AND GO "You have my support" OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT

Welcome to Stormblood where the people who should matter and get character arcs don't but we'll sure as fuck make sure Fordola, Lyse, and FUCKING NANAMO are all treated as sympathetic characters you want to see succeed.

🌙 Moon, 🪤 mousetrap, 🔫 pistol for Tyr!

These are literally SO delicious, I LOVED these ones even if they made my head run like a motor trying to shake answers out of him. Shakes him up like the Scrabble dice.

OC Emoji Asks

Moon - What is your oc's greatest wish? How far are they willing to go for it?

There was a time where I would’ve been inclined to say it’d be officially working for the SIS. No more double agent, just straight up “you can leave! If it sucks, hit da bricks!” [kazoo noise] Anyway, meme for my emotional distress aside, why I was “was” is because that has been… complicated by having the Alliance to consider.

Probably now more than ever before, Tyr can’t help but weigh that his actions reflect on the entire group rather than just himself, and risking taking out the Alliance for his “vengeance” isn’t a gamble he’s willing to make. He’s willing to put himself up on those stakes, no hesitation, but… the fate of the entire Alliance? Filled with people that maybe weren’t disloyal a second of their lives, but would be branded traitor by association? He’d rather not, thanks.

I can’t even say he has an escapism dream because he… largely does not think too hard or too long about getting out, fucking off to some remote edge of space and settling down. It didn’t strike him as realistic, so he put it aside. It’s one area where he falls far short of being an idealist.

Nebulously, he hopes it’ll just be worth it. That something will come out of all of this. That whatever he manages to do will be enough, even for a second. Genuinely entertaining ideas of slipping quietly into the abyss of time is something only just perhaps slipping in - if only because he’s starting to get too bloody fucking old for this bullshit. It’s been what, twenty some years with all the expacs now? Man’s going into his late forties. All this spy shit is probably wearing on the joints, lol.

But, that said, he hates to leave a job unfinished. And I think we've established that "how far" is ah... pretty damn far, depending on just what the objective is.

Mousetrap - What will always lure them into certain danger? A loved one in danger? A promise of something they are always searching for?

I sort of got into this in Deryn’s ask, but Tyr seems almost incapable of sticking his nose anywhere but in immediate danger if it spares a comrade, collegaue, particularly someone he cares about. For as much as he plays Twister to dodge me calling him even a little bit selfless, most of his steps where he puts aside “better judgement” to speak up is to intercede on someone else’s behalf.

And he just cannot leave well enough alone when it comes to fighting back against the Empire. The biggest balk he had with Jonas asking him to turn on the heel and go back to the Empire to report double agent style was siding with the Republic on Iokath. Sure, additionally, he’d rather never see the place again, but it’s first and foremost because he hears that, hisses a breath through his teeth, and can’t help but at least mentally point out isn’t that a bridge we sorta burned? Is that really the most effective cover? But then he gets back into the thick of covert work and it’s all old hat. There’s almost a comfort to how old hat it is. It cropped up again to me on Ruhnuk that he thrives when he’s out of that spotlight, when he’s allowed work as an operative more than Commander. There’s at least a part of him that did genuinely enjoy the work. It’s what he’s good at.

But he’s not a thrill-seeker. It’s not about the adrenaline. I think it’s conviction. Tyr commits to what he believes is the most effective and right course of action. He’d still more than likely walk into something even if he knew full-well it was a setup because he doesn’t leave people he cares for behind. He doesn’t throw those people to the wolves. And it’s almost that he’s loyal to that ideal more than any specific person, which kinda takes me to part of the next question.

Pistol - Do they trust people easily? How easily will they turn their back on someone? Have they been backstabbed before? Will they betray someone given an ultimatum?

Starting with what’s related to where I left off - it’s actually an absolute yes. Perhaps no surprise for an actual saboteur, but I think what hooks me on this being such a delicious question is Tyr will do this with people he loves if he thinks it will protect them in the long run. So, would it be a full technical betrayal? Maybe not, but that’s sort of the other half of this question-

Tyr doesn’t consider for even a second to hold Nathema against Theron. They’re agents. It’s what they do. Stars, if anybody in the Alliance could understand Theron’s motivations and reasons, it’s Tyr. Was it still reckless and kind of stupid and did he want to smack him upside his head a little? Yeah. Tyr doesn’t say ‘I understand because I would be willing to do the same,’ but he knows it. I don’t think anyone else really does. It doesn’t exactly come up for him to hint towards and he wouldn’t want to if it did. Tyr does not see Theron in that scenario as a traitor, in the end. He did what he had to do. Tyr respects that. He gets it. He was more worried about getting everyone back home in the aftermath.

That all stabbing me in the feelings again, Tyr did trust easier than I might have expected - before the Castellan Restraints. That doesn’t just break whatever tinted image he may have been trying to hold onto about working to better the Empire where they could, it makes it incredibly difficult to trust for… a very long time after. He even gets hesitant about trust he already established. Nothing changes with Vector, but Tyr’s changed. In accepting Ardun Kothe’s offer to go double agent, Tyr knows he��s… really playing. He doesn’t believe the vast majority of his crew would ever agree with it. Hell, he’d half expect some of them to turn him over or save the Empire the trouble and do the deed themselves. Vector’s the strongest exception, but it’s still difficult. In that sense, Hunter really did keep the promise to take everything from him. He’s in a precarious position with the Empire and a lack of Imperial Intelligence backing his movements. His trust in himself and his own operatives is tested. It’s hell on the nerves, even though he rarely - if ever - admits it or lingers on it.

Theron Shan is the first new person that he feels any measure of relief from those burdens with. It’s a bit nerve-wracking at first on Manaan, but the time spent on Rishi… Tyr sees him as more an equal than he’ll see Lana for… ever, actually. Because while they eventually repair what missteps they have early on and become friends, their dynamic is inherently different. She’s eventually his sort of brutally honest friend, but she’s tough love and Tyr has already been masking and moving on for literal years, so… It’s not exactly the answer to actually processing anything he’s been through, lol.

Tyr still doesn’t trust all that easily - not wholly. He still keeps most people out at certain distances, different layers, only keeps a small inner circle. Theron, Lana, Vector… They’ve all been through some of his lowest damn lows with him as well as the highs. They’ve been there for the fallout and stayed. He does not give up on people he lets that close that easily - the Minister and Ardun Kothe as examples. Both people that absolutely tried his trust that, ultimately, he still respects greatly. His loyalty is certainly not a commodity. It’s hard-won and he fights tooth and nail for it in return. Even if that means making sacrifices. Even if he’d have to go behind their back to do it.