Dehqon

A message was left for me in the form of a map with Gridania circled. There is only one person with such heavy handwriting that I know of which made it easier to find him when the Aetherite crystal took me to the crowded plaza. It didn't look like he'd been waiting long at all, or maybe he'd wandered off and had only come back, but he was glad either way to see me and I was glad to have someone familiar in a place where I'd seen some terrible things. It must have been my ears and tail that gave away how bad off I was to be back there or maybe he already knows me so well to invite me on a walk. I would say that we talked for a time, but he listened to the tale of what happened the only other time I'd been to this part of Eorzea. He knew of the place but said I was brave to go in. Imagine that, calling me brave for following other people who were face to face with bugs as big as lalafells and being surrounded by a stench that killed any desire to eat for a couple of days. Hyur are blessed to never know the full spectrum of reek that comes with decay. The rest of the night went much better, at least. It had been so long since I'd been able to relax that a simple back rub nearly put me to sleep. I dearly hope this soreness goes away soon so I can return to the job hunt without moving like a drunkard.

I think the idea is that there may be more than one way for a Nuhn to be challenged, but straight up brawling until one submits or is killed sounds pretty standard. Seekers want what's best for the future of the tribe and, since some still live in very harsh environments, may be unwilling to waste resources or leave things to chance. Counting broken shields or weapons is a good way to test endurance, but those are things the tribe needs to fend off monsters or rival tribes. Depending on where and how the tribe lives, they may not have a ready supply of metal, wood, or bone that can be thrown away like that. Trading is always an option, but would a tribe that prefers to keep to itself really spend a whole day mingling with outsiders just to get metal and lumber when fists work just as well for ceremonial combat? First blood scenarios have so many technicalities and isn't a good way to see who's the best at fighting. One could trip and skin his knee, drawing blood, and technically count as drawing first blood. It wastes time trying to cover every little technicality like that and too many rules become hard to remember when limbs are flailing around as fast as they can. A tightrope joust would be interesting, and probably one of the more elaborate ways a duel can be carried out, but the rest strike me as too human for a race that was previously compared to animals. This, of course, coming from a person who doesn't have decade-old textbooks, works of fiction, or meals with authors as reliable credentials.

~This post is scribbled in as neatly as possible for being at the very bottom of the page~ The gift of Gil must last longer. Cleaning dishes is just like home even with the lalafell. Just like mother being strict. It's good. Waiting for the spinning wheel to be found, but how to repay it? Should see weavers about still having job.

I'm interested, and Inja may even be willing/able to go to the Gridania area depending on how roleplay goes. As far as level goes, that's something to be seen when the date comes up.

Scenes, as I've come to know it in RP, means an event whether it was meant to happen the way it did or it was completely unplanned. Personally, I try to do a mix of organic and scripted. Example: A character never learned to swim in their background and I'd like them to learn at some point. Note: I'd LIKE them to learn, meaning it could very well never happen if other players never say or do anything that would lead my character to learning.

I'm kind of interested in joining the tribe with an alt, but I can't make sense of the family tree which makes it harder to figure out a name or connection to the tribe. If somebody wants a sibling or child or whatever added to their part of the family bramble, please let me know.

The custom's stations in Limsa Lominsa and Ul'dah are giving two different stories of what happened to the cargo which included my belongings. The Ul'dahn office mentions inspections and suspicious items while the office in Limsa states that crates were mishandled and are being straightened out. Whichever is true, I have waited dutifully nearly every day whether I was expected to be there or not, all in vain. The sea air is becoming strong in my clothes, of which I only have two and a half different outfits, and I grow angry at having to sleep in them for warmth in whatever building allows people to sleep without charging. Not only this, but my funds are running low with few opportunities to work due to having nothing to prove that I belong there and can be trusted to keep working. The Weavers haven't sent much since my arrival which has me worried that I've been fired without notice. Unless I find employment soon, I will have to rely on others to be fed and have a place to sleep or at least bathe. Being homeless was terrible the first time and it's no better this time. At least I was lucky enough to be found by an investigator who seemed very interested in helping and was able to talk to people without it being part of an uncomfortable group.

The sound of metal plates banging and scraping together instantly puts Inja on edge and she hunkers more protectively over her food, but forgets to actually eat it as her ears track the noise across the room. She lowers her voice so only those closest to her to those with the keenest hearing could hear, "D-don't look... Don't make it mad..." She even pulls her tail around and pins part of it under her leg so its flailing doesn't draw attention.

It's hard to tell her mood too easily with her ears wrapped up in the beaded bandana, but her grow is creased with thought. "Drunk already? Well... Does your breath smell like alcohol? That's a way to know... But... I'm not sticking my nose in your mouth to find out. Too close, you know?" She picks up a fork and knife to quickly cut off a piece of chicken meat large enough to keep her busy chewing for a little while. The black-tipped tail curls tightly against one of her legs then whips around to curl against the other, going back and forth like a neon sign showing how awkward she felt.

Inja feels the burning of a blush filling her face and she presses her hands against her mouth and shakes her head a little. Her? Brave? There were no stories of heroics done by sitting in a tavern and talking; nothing like traveling to far off places and staring down dangerous things. The bravest thing she'd ever done was probably the stupidest: setting fire to a hornet nest, trying to get rid of it. (That plan backfired horribly) She mumbles against her knuckles, still feeling awkward at the compliment, "Drinking for courage? But... People say bad or embarrassing things happen... Isn't that worse?"

She shakes her head quickly and tips over as her sense of balance is thrown off from it. She grips the edge of the table to keep upright before putting her hands back in her lap. "No... Uhm... Feels like being crushed, you know?" She taps the center of her chest with the tips of her fingers, then pulls the hand away to look at the palm with slightly distant eyes. "But I go where people are... Try to talk and be brave." She looks back to Aegon and laughs at herself, "But that doesn't mean I don't shake a long time after I leave."

"Hm... Must have meant the world, getting there and keeping Gil..." Her ears twitch and she perks up, "You could visit! Make sure they're okay and... Bring gifts?" She's still tense, but not so tense that she could break in half with little effort. She rubs the back of her hand along the hairline to get rid of the little bit of sweat gathering up there. She smiles, acting as if she hadn't done anything even though she may have been watched the whole time.

"That... Sounds like an annoying job to have... Walking around that long because someone forgot to bring a marked map?" She shakes her head with dismay and looks a couple of inches next to his head. "But... Still brave to risk attack to help someone."

Inja stands and moves closer towards the group so Abai isn't having to split her attention as much and shout while standing near people. (Shouting indoors was rude, not to mention painful on sensitive ears.) She tries to look even smaller now that she's closer to the group and keeps her eyes on the table. She opens her mouth to say something, but sheepishly closes it again as her cheeks turn even more purple. She points at the Midlander for him to go first.

Inja giggled at Abai's apparent confusion over who she was with a change in clothing and hurried over to a seat near the kitchen, but a few chairs away from all the other people. She fidgets with her fingers twisting together in her lap as she casts quick glances at the other patrons, but avoids making eye contact for more than a split second. Her shoulders rise and fall with each breath that tries to keep up with the pace of her racing heart. Most of her attention is directed t the kitchen with the wonderful chocolate milk. "What was that... Uhm... Cluck, but... Something else. What was that something else? Aldegoat?" Her head tilts to the side as she tries desperately to remember what that meal was called.

The door opens and closes slowly as a Miqo'te Keeper woman enters without causing too much of a scene. She wears a simple brown sleeveless tunic and pants that were sized for someone bigger than she was. The big pointed hat of an apprentice mage is replaced by a bandana and her dark grey skin has a ruddy tint from being exposed to the sun more than she's used to. Were it not for the tail flicking side to side behind her, she could almost be mistaken for a Duskwight child with the beaded bandana covering her ears. She scoots to stand beside the door where it won't crash into her if somebody were to shove it open all the way and looks for where the most people are and, more importantly, how many strangers were here this time.

New people will always want to ask "Where should I go?" whether they've read existing threads with suggestions or not. Simply redirecting a newcomer to an old post could give the impression that the community is full of elitists who don't want to talk to them. Locking posts, even with a reason why, could give the impression that the community is so unstable that it could fall apart at any moment. Punishing them is even worse because then they may avoid this site because of "Those stupid rules and moderators". Either way you look at it, they won't get a good impression of this place. There's no way to predict what a Person wants, but we can still encourage them by listing good things from all sides rather than being so biased that FOX News would want to hire you. List the good things from all the servers, then encourage them to give each a try before making a decision.

Inja can't really predict when she'll have a free day or a day packed full of work, so she avoids getting too caught up in hings like parties unless she knows for sure she won't be needed. Depending on the mood, Inja may go book hunting, exploring (at least within the safety of the city), following a caravan to one of the towns along their rout, or even going to taverns to watch the people having fun until she gets uncomfortable. Sometimes people watching doesn't last very long. Once she reaches a critical stress point, she'll spend the rest of what free time she has left for solitary pursuits. That doesn't mean she's completely against one or two trusted friends being around, just not chaotic crowds with people who behave in ways completely foreign to her.

Not much is going on for now. My things in Ul'dah are waiting to be sent to Limsa Lominsa where I am still trying to find a place to live and work. Ul'dah has been my home for my entire life, but it feels like there isn't much room to grow there. At the same time it terrifies me to leave the only place I've ever known as little as I knew it. It must be done, or I'll never change. I can only pray that the change will be for good.

Well it looks like I already posted here, but I'd like to add that I REALLY hope Free Companies don't end up moving into player/company housing to do everything. Nothing marks the decline of a once-sprawling community like having to enlist in a group just to have permission to know where the private club is located.

~This entry was originally done in sloppy script, but still (barely) legible. An identical entry is made immediately afterwards with much neater script.! Everything from earlier made it hard to sleep, so I walked around much further than I used to in Ul'dah. Ferries, chocobos, and my own two feet until I found a little town built with stone as white as shaved ice. Up the road, it looked like the ground had exploded and cooled mid-flight, but still red hot in places. I didn't know anybody was listening when I asked if it was materia, but Vash was there and asked what Materia was. I honestly couldn't give an accurate answer since it sounded complicated and so rarely done where I worked. It started raining, so we went inside and he asked what I did, but I don't remember if he said what he did. We got distracted talking about the captain and fighting and a bit about his past. It turns out that he doesn't understand some words, so I offered to help with the book he'd been trying to read. It's a book that's very personal to him, so I had him point out the words he didn't understand and giving him the meaning. Things were looking very good until more and more people wandered in. I was in a corner again until Rakka'sae called me over the only way he could to help answer the question as to why he doesn't speak. I don't know what I was drinking after the wine, but I vaguely remember the men looking very unhappy with one another and someone I didn't even know before telling me there was trouble. I don't recall any blood, so I doubt anybody was maimed. Why would there be fighting? I don't know, but my head is causing more pain than I care to think about so I'll be staying in bed for as long as I can.

~The journal isn't exactly new, but entries start only recently amid cramped shopping lists~ ~The first entry is chaotic, as though the hand that wrote it was shaking, or perhaps the book was being shaken as the quill moved~ Today started off on good footing. Ithad rained, so the temperature was comfortable and the smells of overheated bodies was hidden by those of wet dirt until the sun's heat returned. Sunsilk Tapestries had a large order for shirts from the miners which I was expected to help fill, and one of the other tailors said that the shirts I made were perfect. Redolant Rose was too busy to say, but it only mattered if the seams held strong for at least a few months. I felt so good about the work done that I went for a walk to the Coffer and Coffin with a couple of other travelers. By that, I mean I followed several paces behind until they left the road to fight some bugs that were starting to swarm. Regretfully, the Coffer was not asenjoyable as I'd hoped. One pair had their hands all over one another in a way that was like one of the books mother had that only she was allowed to read. If it wasn't for the porridge, I would have left and found a less embarassing place to eat. Edrick walked in and paid for a different kind of soup, but even he was disturbed by the display behind him. We left to walk back to the city, butstopped at a bridge to look at the orobon below. He was quick to kill one with nothing but his fists, then carried it all the way to the Quicksand for it to be cooked. The meal was cheaper than usual since the meat was provided by us and would be enough to feed more people than just us, unless there was much less meat on the creatures than I guessed. It was good; better than what I'd eaten as a child. Maybe it was the sauce or something rubbed onto the meat before it was cooked. We talked a while about the future andI'm certain he was trying to convince me to take up adventuring alongside him. Two adventurers together would stand a better chance against aggressive wildlife than one, but that means double the supplies and putting both of us at risk if something goes wrong. That's especially true with magic and how much concentration it takes to affect only those things I want to be affected. Before I knew it, we were at a stalllined with weapons and Edrick was looking at a display full of swords. They all looked so similar hat I couldn't have hoped to give advice, but he knew what he wanted that he could afford. I didn't understand why there were no places for a person to make their own swords until Edrick pointed out that those who needed swords the most likely had private smiths or had them imported. Anybody who wanted weaponry would have to join the adventurer's guild or fall at the boots of the Syndicate to join the ranks of their guards, unless they had some means to travel elsewhere to learn how to smith for themselves. At some point we were joined by someonewho seemed to remember me, though his face escaped me until he started motioning with his hands. I had seen him before some time ago in Ul'dah, but didn't know what to do with somebody who couldn't talk. We managed, this time, and I learned a few things about him. He took a vow of silence since he somehow nearly killed his brother somewhere in the Twelveswood. We all had things to do, which is forthe best. By that point, I'd managed to get stuck in a corner and was feeling faint and needed some time alone to feel better. I calmed by weaving until I could fallasleep for a couple of hours, waking in time to hear a voice on a linkpearl from the captain for anybody to gather who was in the area of Ul'dah. The captain was there and two others, one possibly being an old friend of his. The captain did something and everything went dark and strange, then my eyes opened and I was somewhere clearly not in Thanalan. Even with the dizziness, we would march off to the destination somewhere in the woods, but the trip there was uneventful. Then we reached what looked like a tomb and I wanted to go right back home as soon as I saw the corpses walking around. It was worse the deeper we went. The captain led the charge with the twomen close behind, leaving me ample space to bounce fire from the ceiling or weighing feet and wings with ice. This was the greatest test of what I'd read and practiced with the thaumaturges as well as a few things from conjurers who thought they could make it big in Ul'dah. Tunnels and rooms were full of dried bodies and bugs that would normally be eating them, and none of it felt natural at all. Maybe it was that big ball of light and darkness in the middle of the biggest chamber we were heading towards. A few times they even fought off demonic looking creatures and prodded the bodies until it dissolved into shadows. More bugs, more corpses, and my skin prickled more and more the closer we got to the bottom of the main chamber. The last two orbs hovering over thealtars were disabled, bringing the large one crashing down and bursting to expose a creature I'd never heard of before. Th captain handed the two guys something and called me forward to join the charge. I followed closely in case the floating platforms fell away behind the first person to cross them, but stayed well away from the monster while the others slashed, stabbed, and pummeled the thing's thick skin.Things crawled over the rim of the platform, forcing everybody to focus on those while the fish-headed thing recovered and readied for stronger, more desperate attacks. It was a long fight, and the guys tookthe full force of the attack, but the monster collapsed, twitched, gurgled, and finally lay still. It was about time too because the stress had been too much since the moment I stepped into the tomb. Congratulations were shared and concern was shown at my well beingeven though I'd managed to avoid being hurt. My fear must have been showing, but nobody seemed very keen on staying any longer than we already had. Now that I'm back home and donewriting, I'll be staying in my room until something vital demands my attention. ~There's no dates to mark when the entries are made, so no way to tell how much time passed, but this time the writing is much neater~ With the captain's company based inLimsa Lominsa, I have decided to move to that city and offer aid to Sunsilk Tapestries as another pair of eyes on fashion demands in this city. That would happen after getting settled at the inn or some other relatively safe building. The city has two levels and it happenedmany times that I found myself in a place I'd been before, but not where I wished to be. A ferry took me to one of the Lomsan provinces, I cannot remember what it was called, and I strolled along the beach which was blessedly empty until I found a sandbar. People were there, including a familiar face who looked a moment away from stripping what was left of his clothes before another Miqo'te woman. How crude. He must be from one of the tribes, but even those have some sense of dignity when it comes to those things, right? Is this truly what it means to be a Miqo'te? It seems as though every one outside of my family lives in some imaginary past when breeding was essential for survival and those who didn't breed took their needs out on anything else. Or am I the strange one for beingrepulsed at the thought of anothers hands or lips on my body whileothers are watching? More and more, I wonder whether or not I belong.

It will take time and effort, but other MMOs have some kind of wiki page where quests are recorded in case somebody isn't sure where to go and what to do. It's entirely possible to do the same for ARR if people are willing to chip in with the quests they've done from different areas so it doesn't all fall on a couple of people.

Totally agreeing with what Asyra said. If done right, and all parties who want the same space can find a way to share, it can be great fun and benefits everybody. A tavern could be run by one group on the main floor while the basement or an upper level belongs to a black market group while some law enforcement group uses the place as an unofficial base or recruitment office. That could lead to all kinds of unplanned fun. Unfortunately there will be some groups that would rather have a place all to themselves to the point of keeping a squatter or two in there to discourage others from using the otherwise vacant building (or to call the group in if the squatter finds visitors).