Miryn

Silence met her question and Miryn's jaw tightened. True, she wasn't a knight anymore and could no longer claim the respect that came with such a title, but when she talked, she still expected to be paid attention to. At least the miqo'te had acknowledged her presence. His comments had Miryn cast him a sharp glance, eye narrowed. Between the hinted debauchery or implied violence, she wasn't sure which was worse. "This isn't the time for jokes," she said softly. "You dishonor the dead." The duskwight man moved closer and Miryn instinctively stepped back to give his considerable stature more space. It was galling somehow, his arrival. An intrusion, almost. Having been the first one to find the body, Miryn felt a twisted sense of ownership with it, coupled with a duty to find out who'd killed him. The duskwight man clearly had his own agenda and the other three were just part of the backdrop. If he knew something, Miryn would offer her help. If he didn't, and was only looking to cause trouble... Well, she'd tackle that possibility only if it came to light. Miryn went to stand near Zabine, who had fallen quiet. Did the other woman feel as unsettled as she did? Then Miryn sighed. Perhaps a different approach would convince the elezen man to speak. "Ser," she said, managing not to sound sarcastic, "Do you require any assistance?"

He didn't answer her question. Miryn felt a spike of irritation that tilted ever closer to full-blown dislike as he continued in a flippant tone. It was doubtful he knew who their dead man was; Miryn didn't expect the miqo'te to mourn a stranger, but it wouldn't have hurt to show at least a little... respect. The other woman replied and Miryn shook her head. "No, we only just arrived." Realizing then she didn't even know their names, she added, "I'm called Miryn. I apologize for being curt, though given present circumstances, I hope you understand." She tilted her head at the body. Upon opening the letter, Zabine would find the following words written upon it: Randal, The shepherds of Highbridge tell us their flocks of karakul are being preyed upon by some manner of wild beast. As you are unoccupied at present, pray venture to East Thanalan and assist them. Again, I cannot say how much longer your suspension will last, though I estimate no more than two to three weeks. Accusations of foul play on the bloodsands carry extremely grave consequences, so we must investigate thoroughly. Perform this deed well, at least, and continue to convince First Sword Mylla of your good character. Twelve keep you, Secretary Adelaide As Miryn pondered what to do about her sudden companions, the sound of footsteps snapped her gaze to a third arrival, clad in heavy dark armor. Just by physical appearance alone, the newest comer cut the most threatening figure of all and impulse screamed that he was the likeliest candidate for murderer they had yet. He paused closer than she would've liked and Miryn shifted a step back before realizing what she'd done. Again, another spike of irritation flitted through her. So strange that this corpse could attract so many together in such a short amount of time, when they didn't even know who he was. And the heat was doing nothing for her mood. "Our dead man is attracting quite the number of vultures," Miryn said evenly, gaze firm on the armor-clad elezen. "I don't suppose you know who he is?" And what was that notebook of his?

(OoC: No worries, there is no rush. I'm pretty leisurely myself!) Mention of the Amalj'aa had Miryn straighten her back and glance in the direction indicated by the other woman. She'd journeyed through these parts often enough to know that the lizardfolk frequented these woods, all too happy to inflict violence upon unlucky travelers. A few jobs had even brought her into direct conflict against them. But there was no evidence pointing towards the beast tribe. The dead man still had his money in his pocket, and even if Miryn assumed the Amalj'aa had no use for gil, surely his arms and armor would've made fine trophies? Her train of thought was derailed by the sudden appearance of a miqo'te man some distance away. He also seemed as taken aback by the victim as the rest of them were. If she'd been thinking clearly, Miryn would've considered him just as unlikely to be the killer, but the quickly growing number of people in the area threw her on guard. Miryn's hand came to rest on her sword again and she assessed him quickly, looking for weapons or other potential threats. The other elezen's quip made her frown. Popular was not what a murder scene needed, especially if it attracted the Amalj'aa's attention. "What are you doing here?" she directed at the miqo'te. Miryn's inflection was somewhat frostier than the duskwight's.

For a trained knight, Miryn has a sad history of getting her ass kicked a whole lot. Not that great at courtly manners, either. Bad with animals. She and her war chocobo held a business-like relationship.

There wasn't much in his pockets. A small pouch of gil (lighter than even Miryn's), a whistle carved from bone, and a folded sheet of paper. Leaving the money and the whistle on the ground beside their owner, Miryn flicked open the paper and glanced over it. At the bottom was a stamp bearing the mark of the Gladiator's Guild. It was all she registered before a rustling noise pulled her attention behind her. Miryn dropped the paper and pivoted, one hand braced against the ground in case she needed to spring into action, her other hand firm on the hilt of her sword, blade drawn an inch free of the scabbard. As she took in the sight before her though, alarm faded into caution. The woman - a duskwight - looked just as surprised as Miryn had felt upon discovering the corpse. She wore no armor, and her body language did not speak of hostility. First impressions did not color the stranger as a threat. Still, better knights than Miryn had fallen victim to deceit before, and she had no intentions of following in their footsteps. The question gave Miryn pause. Her eye drifted briefly to the daggers before returning to the woman's face. After a long moment, Miryn let her sword slide fully into the sheathe again. She shook her head as she stood up. "Neither. I saw him as I was passing by. Not sure what killed him, or who he even is." The idea that the duskwight woman was responsible for the murder seemed less and less likely with every passing second. For one, those daggers didn't look at all capable of inflicting such wounds as what the man had suffered. Miryn thought back to her earlier words. "Bounty hunter or a bandit... Has something happened? This area was relatively peaceful when I last came through."

I... I have a very bad feeling about this. Oh dear. Those DRG buffs though! I'm really eager to test them out on fights that previously made me frown at my lance (looking at you, Kraken).

(OoC: Open to anyone, though I'd like to keep the thread size relatively small at 4 people max. If we get that many, I'll consider this thread closed. Any questions, please drop me a PM! Update: We have 4 people, thanks for joining! Marking this topic closed.) Miryn found him while returning to Ul'dah after a delivery job. It was midday, what little shade offered by the trees of Wellwick Wood her only respite from the fierce Thanalan sun. Thinking it wise to refill her water skin before she continued home, Miryn had taken a detour to the river, where she spotted a person-shaped lump by the bushes. Calling out returned no reply. Her first assumption was that he'd collapsed from heatstroke. It wasn't uncommon for strangers to this land (strangers like Miryn) to be caught off guard by the climate, given its tendency to jump from blistering heat to pouring rain and back again. Full of sympathy, Miryn moved closer, ready to help. But then she saw all the blood. He had not been dead for very long. A young Hyur midlander, with a head of orange hair and a splash of freckles across his cheeks. Miryn judged him to be an adventurer of some sort, for there was a sword in his lap and the light armor under his cloak had no markings. The armor had also failed to do its job - four enormous gouges ran deep and angry across his belly. They had most likely contributed to his demise. A quick glance around showed no signs of whatever might've ended this man, but Miryn was grateful all the same for the weight of her own sword and shield at her back. If his killer returned, she'd be ready to mete out justice. In the meantime, Miryn knelt and began to search the corpse's pockets. Perhaps she'd find something to identify the poor fella with.

I had a bard in DF who macro'd Swiftsong to something like "[Name]'s singing is so bad you run faster." Chaos Thrust spam during bonding ceremonies for the flurries of flower petals. With the pink explosion from Kassatsu for extra effect.

I talk to myself in my character's voice, usually while pacing back and forth. If I come up with any good lines, I jot them down in a Word doc. If I feel I'm losing her, I go back to those lines and read through them. It's not often I have trouble wiggling into my character's shoes, though. I've RPed for long enough that I know not to try playing personality types or archetypes I'm just not good at. It has never ended well.

Lore compliance, basically. Before I decided I wanted to make a RP alt, Miryn was a Hellsguard Roe named Whimsical Sparrow. I like all the Roe animations and tanking is my favorite role, so I wanted something beefy to match. Then came along my RP itch and I went for an Ishgardian background. However, I've never seen or heard of a Roe Ishgardian knight in canon, so I fantasia'd her to be a Wildwood Elezen. (I do miss my femRoe though.)

There would be a lot of shouting on Miryn's part. Probably some shield colliding with faces. Her instinctive reaction to emotionally-charged events is physical force first and diplomacy later. She could most likely forgive them if no one was grievously harmed, but causing death unnecessarily would definitely sour her relationship with that person. Depending on the circumstances and reasons that caused the death, she may be honorbound to hunt the killer down, even if they were once a friend. As for changes to her views, it would really depend on the nature of whatever sparked the fight in the first place. To be super general though - Miryn's seen stuff, it would just be another notch in the cynicism belt she wears. Interesting questions, though!

Welcome to the RPC! I definitely feel you about needing time to think about your responses, and I would be down for some forum RP as well once you have your character settled. I haven't dipped my toe into in-game RP yet either, need to do some stalking- er, observing before I jump in. I haven't been here long but everyone's nice, don't be afraid to ask questions if you have any.

A friend shared this site with me. It plays various ambient sounds (rain, wind, crickets) and lets you adjust the volume for each. Besides drowning out distractions, I thought the more nature-y sounds are pretty nice for setting the mood when working on RP things. http://asoftmurmur.com/

This. Also, if you know adds are about to pop soon, you can hold onto Spirits Within and Circle of Scorn and use those to help with snap aggro. A combo'd Savage Blade with Spirits Within on add #1 and combo'd Rage of Halone on add #2 has never given me problems.

You learned the dance! Congrats! Now go play with the kitties!

Sweet DRG buffs! I'm really eager to see how this ends up working out for our dps in Coil. NIN nerfs, though. Interesting that they're planning to make normal and hard mode versions of Heavensward raids. I wonder how difficult those will end up being and what loot they drop. I wouldn't mind something like an ilvl difference of 5 for the gear and/or maybe making the hard mode versions dyable.

I. Basic Info Characters: Miryn Lecuyer Primary character: Miryn Lecuyer Linkshells: -- Primary RP linkshell: -- II. RP Style Amount of RP (light, medium, heavy): As I'm still a beginner to roleplaying in FFXIV, I'm going to go with light-medium for now. That isn't to say I'm against engaging in serious RP, but knowing myself, I may not have the stamina for long-term plots just yet. Views on RP combat and injuries: I love fights! I got my RPing chops on boards where combat had a heavy focus. My comfort zone is freeform combat, assuming all participants are mature enough to communicate with each other who is getting injured and how badly (if questions arise). I can also do dice rolls, though it's been ages since I did fights involving math of any sort, so please bear with me. Rest assured I will not harm your character beyond what you're okay with. If I do push my boundaries, just poke me and let me know I'm being bad. I'll adjust. On the flip side, Miryn is pretty battered already, so she can take a few more scars. I will draw the line at losing limbs or death, however. Views on IC romance: I don't see a lot of room in Miryn's current circumstances for romance. She is not very much a romantic mind to begin with. I won't flat out say 'no' though, anything can happen. If feelings develop naturally IC, I'll roll with it. Views on non-romantic RP (family ties, etc): PC family is also something I view as very unlikely, but I won't flat out say 'no.' Views on lore: I try to adhere to what lore I remember or can find references to on the web, but I am pretty scatterbrained and little details escape me here and there. It is definitely not my intention to disrespect the lore; if something is especially glaring, please let me know, though I do take liberties where there isn't a lot of foundation to build off of. For others, my suspension of disbelief can stretch pretty far. I do appreciate it when someone's backstory is consistent with the lore, but as long as it doesn't involve something too world-breaking, I don't mind. Views on chat functions (/say, /linkshell, etc): As mentioned earlier, I am a total newbie to MMO roleplay and have little concept of the pros and cons for each chat function. I will take a stab and guess that /say seems the best for this? III. Other Info Country: United States Timezone: GMT-8 (Pacific) Contact info: I'm most easily reached through PM here. I've another character on a different server I use for lots of PvE stuff, and I am more involved with that at the beginning of the week, capping tomes and raiding and such. Towards the weekend you may spot me in-game proper, but I'll pretty much be lurking the RPC whenever I have Internet access.

This makes me want a Templar job when Heavensward comes out. I love the HA tank chest to death. Armor with a coat over it is pretty much all I ever wanted.

Welcome to the RPC! I'm from Goblin; if there are any RPers there, I have never seen or heard of them. Have you considered making an alt on either Balmung or Gilgamesh and RPing with it, while doing PvE/PvP content with your current character? That's what I'm doing, leveling an alt on Goblin and sending it to Balmung once I've got everything prepared.

Miryn is a name that just came to mind while thinking over RP things in the shower (best place for it, IMO). Same thing with her real name, Marnette. At least for that one I looked over the naming convention rules; I know elezen names are French-based but I have basically zero working knowledge of French. Her surname Lécuyer I took from a name website, meaning "shield-bearer", which fits Miryn's knightness to a T.

I would curl into a ball and cry. Or suck it up and level my desynth anyway. But there would definitely be curling up and crying first. The Nexus tier was a step in the right direction, methinks. Pretty much any content you run while wielding your relic gives you credit, it's just a question of how hard you want to grind it out. I would be very sad if post-Nexus locked down progress to just one little slice of content again. Oh man those wedding outfits. (They are gonna be 4-star crafts, aren't they.)

I love it when crit Adloquium and Stoneskin cause a tank-killer move to do 3 digit damage instead of ripping my face off. Also love it when I manage to dodge everything while playing DRG. Double that if I didn't kill myself using LB3.

I know that feel. I know it so hard. When I was still new to the game, I was so intimidated by the thought of running Coil that I just didn't even look at it until one of the FC groups needed a replacement tank one night and grabbed me. I'd never seen anything hit as hard as Caduceus or ADS; it was friggin' scary, but my FC was so patient with me, and looking back I'm glad they gave me the push they did. Same thing with Extreme primals, I wouldn't have ever attempted them if not for my friends. It really echoes the notion that the people you party with are a major factor in how difficult the fights are. Knowing your teammates aren't going to turn around and yell at you for every mistake goes a long way in keeping you calm and just focusing on what's happening in the fight itself. You will get T9 down! I didn't think my group ever would (13 weeks of attempts on that monster...), but it happened. Just a matter of time and stubbornness perseverance. I make some pretty amusing noises when Death Sentence/Ravensbeak come out. Especially if Bulwark fails to proc a block. Damn you, Bulwark.

An enormous factor in how enjoyable raids are is definitely the people. I would say the difficulty of it is 75% the people and 25% the actual fights. Back when we only had 1st Coil, if you'd asked me if I liked raiding, I would've said no. My RL friend was the static leader and cobbled together a group from the FC, with me as one of the tanks. We were decent - got up to Twisters before 2.2 came out - but I wouldn't say we meshed all that well. A couple of people's personalities grated on me, one of them had a bad habit of starting idle chatter in Vent when we were trying to clear a phase that was giving us trouble, and we had a couple of flakes who sometimes wouldn't show up unless we found them through Facebook or someone else knew their number, and wasted a lot of time trying to get ahold of them or find a replacement the night of. Actually learning the fights was just exhausting, and the myth gear was equal to, if not better than, what dropped in the turns. I pretty much only stayed out of a sense of loyalty to my friend and FCmates and my personal policy of "if it is within my power to tank it, then point me in its direction and I'll go greet it with my face". My friend had to take a hiatus back in May/June. A few more members left the game. Our SCH took over and we merged with another FC static that had fallen apart. If you ask me now if I like raiding, I'd tell you yes. All of my group are chill people, we never yell at each other, when we wipe we go over what went wrong and how we can do better, if our strat needs adjusting. Skill-wise, we are decent but not amazing - we raid 4-5 hours a week; it took us about 3 weeks each to beat T6-T8, and then T9 took 13 weeks... yeah, a lot of hours. A lot of wiping, a lot of food and potions, a lot of making mistakes, a lot of watching your friends make mistakes and swearing not to repeat them, then making the same mistakes anyway until it's been ingrained in the very fiber of your being "Don't do this thing! Do this other thing instead!" And when you finally down the boss and see 8 achievements hit the chat, oh man, it's euphoric. I wouldn't have been able to stand the process if I didn't love each of my static members so much. Those wipes aren't something I view with frustration, but as some of my most hilarious stories. I know I am very fortunate in this regard. Now that Coil is fun to me and the lockout has been removed from SCoB, I'd like others to be able to experience it as well. I jump into T5-T9 learning parties quite a bit, but they remind me of how I felt with my first Coil group. Players don't quite trust each other, they don't talk about what went wrong in the previous attempts, and there is always that one flake who has to leave after 30 minutes when it took an hour to bring the group together. When you are dying over and over with people you don't like, making inches of progress if even that, patience wears thin very fast. And when that atmosphere becomes the face of raiding for someone with no static, the whole idea of raiding is just more trouble than it's worth. I ran T7 last night as a bard for the first time and volunteered for Renaud duty. I was horrible. I missed hiding for a few shrieks and voiced about 6 people, clipped the healers with Circle of Flames, and at one point Shadowbind wore off and I had a brief moment of panic when I saw the Renaud barreling towards me before I remembered that it hits for 600 damage now instead of 14k. We had no right to win that fight had it been in its pre-nerf state, but it was completely doable now. More importantly, it was fun. That is what raiding is to me. Wiping with friends and having fun. The nerfs did their job, IMO. But the "finding 7 others who will support you instead of rage" part will always be hard. Player skill and knowledge of mechanics can always be taught, but a teammate's attitude is nigh impossible to change. Post-2.5 I really hope SE looks into adding smaller raids, maybe 4 or 5-mans, if only to ease the process of finding good people to play with. (Oops, that got more rambly than I meant, apologies. And people above me have pretty much said what I wanted to say, but in far fewer words...)

Erik - For spywork, I'm afraid I've no talent in the subterfuge type of ways, my brain just blanks and goes "Bwuh?" any time I glance in that direction. As for being a soldier... Miryn will be in the market for a new job when all is said and done, so perhaps that is something she could do. I'll give it some thought, thank you for the suggestions and the offer of help! Aya - Yeah, expansion on the horizon was definitely a contributing factor in my decision to make a character of Ishgardian background. I'll definitely have Miryn seek out such friends.