Ideas Inquiries: Aetheric Vocalizations

[Versesai]

Quick preface; I am asking this question on behalf of a somewhat shy friend, so some of my responses may come from them if questions are asked.

A close friend of mine has had a character they love for a long time now, but they've sometimes run into an issue with RPing them; The character is mute and very reserved aside, so communication is often a problem for them on a more casual basis. Her initial solution was things like pads of paper but those can be clunky in social situations and not useful for very intense situations where there's no time for that and she's been looking for alternatives.

 

One thread of thought she's come across is some way to mimic speech using aether, either by direct speech or a less direct method, but before she did anything like that she wanted to get a kind of feel for what options were generally available. This can also include alternatives to this, of course, but I'm mainly interested in getting some feedback on what methods someone could use aether to 'speak', in any form.

 

If you could also provide any information to devices or methods like this in the lore that would be great. Thanks!

[Iteza]

My character, Wendy, lost her voice for a few months. It was really tough because a. Wendy is a songstress, but b.) Wendy is a chatter box.

 

What I did was used lots of animated emotes. I do mean the in game ones. But I also added voice to my writing, so sort of describing why she is doing what she is doing for some writer transparency. I think body language is something many rpers forget can speak louder than words. Facial expressions are very handy to get messages across too.

[Nebbs]

It all sounds a but ooc contrived. But I suppose the options could include..

 

• Just get healed, and have a voice back.. all is solved
  
• Try an artificial voice (magic or magitek or something)
  
• Get an empathic speaking parrot
  
• Get a book that auto-writes using thouch or eye movement or such
  
• How about a keypad and tablet display
  
• Invent sign language
  
• Have a set of pre-written cards they can quickly hold up, how many words are needed to create meaning?
  

[Warren Castille]

Get a magical Talkboy or Yakbak. Have the character frantically fast forwarding or rewinding to find the right response. Let someone else she knows do the recording.

 

edit for fuckin' millenials:

 

 

 

 

[Momo]

Along the lines of what Warren is suggesting, I would venture a bit of magitech that is somewhat closer to an instrument? Something they could wear on their body (maybe around their neck), that is long shaped with strings, which when strummed or stroked with a light aetheric charge, giving off sounds that can be played together to create speech?

 

It would take someone with enough knowledge to create this instrument (there are lots of magitech centered characters around), and then it would take the character learning to play it with a group of people that can provide solid foundational RP to get it rolling and comfortable, but it sounds fun and interesting in my opinion.

 

Good luck!

[Virella]

I'm not sure how those devices are named, but I know someone irl who cannot talk uses a tiny device which converts their text to speech. However it might be a bit too far-fetched/exclusive/expensive for the character in question, given I'd imagine it would be magitek and not readily available technology. But hey, Garleans have damn huge airships with fancy tech. A simple text to speech device doesn't sound that far fetched.

 

Only downside in real life, next to having to carry it with you, it takes a while to type out. You will never get as quick as a reply out of him as you'd normally would in a conversation; so conversations sort of go quiet for a moment, but it's not bad or anything. On top of that group conversations he still struggles with due to that. Other people purposely need to keep him a bit in mind so he has time to reply.

 

But I think in context of roleplay? The wait is already there anyhow due to the fact we're still typing things out behind our keyboard. So I don't think it is that bad.

 

Ultimately though, depending the reason why she is a mute, seeming we don't know, a simple device might suffice. People who get cancer and need to have parts removed from their throat lose their vocal cords as well. Voice prosthesis are a thing as well, but they look far from charming in real life. But that's something to look into as well. Thankfully in FFXIV you could glamour that up, I suppose. The two people I know who have them don't have really nice voices though, so she will hardly have a heavenly beautiful voice, but she could talk.

 

Unless she lost her tongue or something like that. But I'm just going to assume damaged vocal cords. But yeah a prosthesis might be something less magical or Garlean magitek heavy. Surely the character must get used to talking with it, not to mention the operation to get in it, and she won't have a super beautiful voice. But hey, she'd be capable of talking.

 

And otherwise, who gives a damn if she uses some magical aether magitek device. If she really wants to get rid of the muteness completely, just go that route. If she wants to remaining having a trait of her character, she's other options as well. Or perhaps a middle ground of both? Perhaps the device drains her personal aether reserves so she can't use it 24/7? Having to recharged herself at times ect?

 

Best of luck!

[Ellmida]

Along the lines of what Warren is suggesting, I would venture a bit of magitech that is somewhat closer to an instrument? Something they could wear on their body (maybe around their neck), that is long shaped with strings, which when strummed or stroked with a light aetheric charge, giving off sounds that can be played together to create speech.

This sounds like an awesome concept as I keep picturing in my head her "voice" coming across as music with this device.

 

If your friend really is wanting to be completely mute without any aids then one suggestion I might make is to pair her up with someone who can be there to initiate contact and help be her voice by offering to "translate" after time once your friend develops more contacts and people learn to translate her attempts to communicate this can be slowly scaled down.

[Kilieit]

Is the character physiologically mute, psychologically mute, or a combination of the two?

 

I have selective mutism IRL. My case is pretty mild, but something I find is that when I'm in a very stressful situation, I often can't communicate at all besides pushing away things I don't want and reaching for things I do want. Even if someone hands me my phone (that I usually use to communicate when I'm having trouble), my fingers lock up the same way my throat does. It's really frustrating, because these are the kinds of situations that it's most important to be able to communicate complex ideas quickly, and the most I can do is grab at things like a baby... and of course, the frustration itself makes me feel even worse.

 

I think that's something to bear in mind if there's a psychological component to the mutism - sometimes the method of communication doesn't seem to matter so much as the fact that it's live, real-time communication with a real person who's right there. Where stressful, high-tension situations are concerned with psychological forms of mutism, complicated devices might not make communicating any easier.

 

Ofc, if the mutism is purely physical, then none of this applies - but I thought it might be worth sharing my personal experience!

 

Either way, the phrase you may wish to research is "Augmentative and alternative communcation", or AAC. Even the wikipedia page has a bunch of different options, both high-tech and low-tech, as well as examples on usage. Low-tech AAC like picture boards or phrase flipbooks (basically like a physical version of the auto-translation feature) would be super easy to make in Eorzea with little expertise or expense; possibly to fill the gap while the character is waiting for something more complex to be crafted, or saving up money to commission it.