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Hey y’all! Old player coming back after a six month break, and looking to start getting into the swing of things once again! Granted, I’m kind of angling to take this from a radically different direction this time. Instead of looking for friends, allies and drinking buddies, I’m going to start by looking for people to just beat the shit out of my Seeker dude! Gives a new angle of meaning to the phrase, “Making Connections.” Ahem. Anyway! Specifically, I’m looking for IC enemies and rivals, but I’m moreso looking for players who are willing to work with me on crafting long-term conflicts and struggles to fuel character development. This sort of thing interests me pretty strongly, because conflict and struggle is generally a great means to net some solid character development. It also has the side benefit of just flat-out making IC life fairly interesting and giving characters a whole lot more to talk about when they’re shooting the breeze during downtime. Of course, you’re probably thinking, “Hold up- this kind of thing is cool and all, but IC conflicts usually turn into OOC drama. What’s the catch?” So, here’s the “catch.” I’m not really interested in who wins or loses, and I certainly don’t mind having my character be a punching bag or even ending up on the losing side all of the time. In fact, I tend to think the angle of playing-to-lose is the best way to play- development doesn’t happen from winning as much as it does from losing, after all! Furthermore, I just want anyone involved in the whole shindig to have fun. If you’re not having fun, then I want to make adjustments to fix that. To that end, I’m also a huge proponent of transparency to whatever comfort degree is required. There’s a strong case to be made for immersion in not knowing what’s on the next page of the book, but you also want to be able to trust that the other author isn’t going to pop a wheelie on you suddenly. Really, that’s kind of what this is: a small-scale, multi-author project for folks to jump into where nobody has to handle the dungeon master role, and therefore doesn’t know entirely what’s on the next page of the book, but there’s enough of a conflict and story going to keep the pages turning! If I’ve still got your attention here, I’ll dive down into the storyline “hooks.” The quick dossier on J’vahlis Tia is that he’s a Seeker of the Sun that’s not native to Eorzea. He came from a tribe in Gyr Albania, was conscripted into the Garlean military at a young age, and ultimately has spent the majority of his life in the army since then. In the last decade, however, he was assigned to a dangerous project in an ancient Allagan ruin where he and others went MIA (presumed dead) after contact was lost with the research team and the site sealed off. He’s crossed the Wall now and is ‘hiding’ in Gridania while he advances his own secretive work. So, here’s a variety of ideas as lead-ins, including a few ideas which are more mundane if you want something a little more low key: As an ex-Garlean conscript that has gone AWOL, he could become the target of either Garlean loyalists or members of the Grand Companies that pick up on his trail. He’s caught in no-man’s land! He has a particular fixation on religious sites in Eorzea, and might be found sniffing around them or potentially looting or defiling them for his research. Some folks would probably take offense to this, but that's just my gut feeling. This leads into… ...his apparent research into what he calls “Ophiuchus”- the 13th Zodiac, and a recurring mention in both mythology and the Final Fantasy series. (NOTE: Although this is a major storyline point for him and involves a fair bit of lore ‘creation,’ it is also designed to be easily explained away so it will be compliant with even lore purists. It is up to the player and character how to treat it!) He wields powers of darkness and shadow at a very competent level similar to an Ishgardian Dark Knight, but professes no link to them otherwise. He could be viewed with deep suspicion or even seen as an abomination. He sort of follows the general Dark Knight mentality of being an anti-hero, but errs more on the darker side. (NOTE: Once again, this involves some lore ‘creation’ as an interpretation of how DRK mechanics work and function in RP. Because it isn’t a canon interpretation- no matter how well it fits to connect existing mechanics or how much it makes sense- I try to avoid branding him as an actual DRK.) In pursuit of material spell components and alchemy reagents, he can be found nearly anywhere in Eorzea. He might even go so far as to accost a merchant or shakedown someone for what he needs, and he may also need substances that are hard to find or outright illegal. Of course, he could be waylaid for his bounty of materials just as easily! On the low-intensity spectrum, for those that hate coffee, are allergic to caffeine, or hate gourmet dessert, he is an avid coffee enthusiast and is driven to find a blend of coffee for each individual that's perfect for them. He brews coffee like its alchemy, and takes it pretty seriously. He could easily end up in a rivalry against another brewer or a tea enthusiast. Also on the low-intensity spectrum, he is suspicious of any man without a beard and is an outspoken proponent of facial hair in men. He has several sayings of wisdom in this area. Harming his own beard in any manner is a most grievous offense. And that’s about it as far as the opening salvo of ideas goes. Of course, I’m happy to entertain your own thoughts and ideas too, and I welcome constructive criticism. All in all, I aim to keep this pretty laid back, cooperative, transparent, and fun! Although I am primarily seeking rivals and enemies here, a lot of the ideas above could easily be turned around, so I’m not going to turn away folks who are interested in being friends or allies by any stretch. I’m just trying to stack the deck against myself to start with this time! If you’re at all interested, feel free to respond here, PM me, or just tap me on Discord. We can get into personal preferences on what limits you'd like observed (a mutual limit of character death being implied, but anything else as far as no-go I totally want to know about). Typically I am available throughout the week from 5:00 PM CST until 11:00 PM CST, and all day on the weekends. RP is pretty much one of the big pillars of why I play FFXIV, so I’m pretty much always down for a spree. I try to vary where I pop up in the game world, but I’m happy to accommodate walk-ups and spontaneous encounters.