Join us for a super special time at the Cracked Cluster!
It's Feldspar's nameday, and the tavern's anniversary! Come hang out for an evening of fun and celebration.
We've also completely remodeled! Enjoy easier access to the dart board for a game or two, hop on stage and sing and dance, try out a triple triad match at our new triple triad table, or enjoy a drink at our updated bar (that's much easier to see over now!)
We welcome RPers of all skill levels and respectful non-RPers alike!
When: Sunday, May 17th, 7 - 10 PM EST
Where: ICly located in Revenant's Toll, Mor Dhona
OOC Info: NA - Crystal DC - Mateus - Lavender Beds - Ward 19 - 57 (tavern upstairs!)
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Qualityā Free Actions
Free to watch ā¢ No registration required ā¢ HD streaming
Love is in the air at the Cracked Cluster! Whether you've found your loved one while sipping drinks, are hoping to find someone who turns your eyes into hearts, or just want to try out some of our famous bread pudding, come on by!
Bringing a date? Drinks are on us! We welcome RPers of all skill levels, and polite non-RPers. In addition, we have a big surprise waiting for you to see!
Feldspar had long grown accustomed to a specific smell when he stepped into the Cracked Cluster. Yeast from bread and ale, simmering stock, a bit of cooking oil. Sometimes raw onion. Certainly not the overwhelming smell of sugar and rolanberries.
He didn't have to look far to find the source. An absolutely massive, elaborately decorated four-tier cake stood in the middle of the dining room, looking like it had been carried straight from the festivities in Ishgard or Gridania. Miah'to crouched on the other side of it, carefully adjusting a sliced rolanberry. Because of course Miah'to was to blame for this.
"What in the seven hells-"
"Feldspar," Miah'to hastily set a piping bag aside as he stood. The dark circles under his eyes suggested he'd been at it all night, morning, and afternoon. "I, ah, before you get too upset-"
The tally of ingredients formed in Feldspar's head before he could stop it. Three days' butter, at a minimum. Half a crate of eggs. Possibly all of the sugar they had in the storeroom.
"-I paid for the ingredients myself, I just needed to use the oven and the counter space," Miah'to explained, clearly reading Feldspar's mind. "When I did that trial at the Bismarck last turn, the pastry chef suggested I needed practice with, ah, presentation. I've been doing smaller cakes for a while, but I thought the Valentione's party might be a good excuse to try something more... ambitious." Before Feldspar could respond, Miah'to added, "I _know_ we didn't _need_ it. But it's, ah, festive, don't you think? Our customers might like it..."
Feldspar took a closer look at the cake. It was massive, tall enough that Feldspar assumed assembling it had involved climbing onto furniture. The frosting was piped in alternating swirls of white and red, precise enough that he knew Miah'to must have spent bells tracing it out on parchment first. Sliced rolanberries lined each tier, glistening with a syrupy glaze, layered with large red candy hearts pressed into the frosting around them. It looked more like a piece of art than food. And... festive was certainly one way to put it. "You could have _asked_ first."
Miah'to shifted on his feet. "You would have told me not to do it at all."
He was right, Feldspar absolutely would have said no. What would they do with the leftovers? What if someone drunkenly fell into it and Fennie had to spend the whole night cleaning it up?
"If you think it's too much, I suppose I can find something else to do with it." Miah'to's ears flattened as he visibly braced for rejection.
Feldspar reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "No, of course we'll serve it at the party." A sigh. "It's... impressive." An understatement, really. Feldspar could imagine it in the window of a patisserieāit just looked wildly out of place in the middle of a tavern for adventurers. "I would have preferred not to be _surprised_ a bell before we open. How would I even price this, by the slice? I guess we can just offer it for free with the drinks..."
"My apologies." Miah'to's ears perked up anyway, giving away his excitement, and Feldspar wondered whether these small opportunities would be enough to keep Miah'to from growing tired of stew and bread pudding. "I can stay and help with the party, if you need. I know you weren't expecting this."
Feldspar shook his head. "_You_ need to get some sleep. Your punishment is figuring out what to do with the leftovers tomorrow."
Miah'to bit his lip, and Feldspar could immediately tell what he wanted to ask. They were both cooks, after all.
"And I'll be sure to tell you what everyone had to say about it. After you've slept."
Miah'to beamed. "Thank you."
Feldspar stared at the cake for another long moment after Miah'to left, trying to figure out how to explain to their customers that, yes, the massive monument in the middle of the dining room was, in fact, edible.
But he imagined the alternative, Miah'to taking another shift at the Bismarck and never coming back, and decided that there were worse problems to have.
It's the new year, and that means new fun at the Cluster! Join us for an evening of good food, conversation, and whatever suits your fancy! Dig into our popular warm and oh-so-gooey bread pudding, or fill even the hungriest of bellies with the house stew and some homemade bread.
Sip some mulled wine by the fire, enjoy a slice of special Starlight dodo, or snack on some Starlight cookies (decorated by two children eager to spready the holiday spirit) while enjoying the atmosphere! We're here to make your Starlight cozy and comfortable.
When: Sunday, Dec 21, 2025, 7 - 10 PM EST
Where: ICly located in Revenant's Toll, Mor Dhona
OOC Info: Crystal - Mateus - Lavender Beds - Ward 19 - 57 (SE subdivision aetheryte)
Menu and more info here!
We welcome RPers of all skill levels and respectful non-RPers! We hope to see you there!
Sip some mulled wine by the fire, enjoy a slice of special Starlight dodo, or snack on some Starlight cookies (decorated by two children eager to spready the holiday spirit) while enjoying the atmosphere! We're here to make your Starlight cozy and comfortable.
When: Sunday, Dec 21, 2025, 7 - 10 PM EST
Where: ICly located in Revenant's Toll, Mor Dhona
OOC Info: Crystal - Mateus - Lavender Beds - Ward 19 - 57 (SE subdivision aetheryte)
Menu and more info here!
We welcome RPers of all skill levels and respectful non-RPers! We hope to see you there!
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Qualityā Free Actions
Free to watch ā¢ No registration required ā¢ HD streaming
Rules: From most intense to less so, post GIFs of at least ten fictional characters who had and continue to have you in a chokehold. If you cannot find a GIF, an image is fine as well. Just make sure you credit the artist/source. Tag ten or so people to do the same.
Tagged by: @kskellington
And (1) token man:
Tagging: anyone who wants to do it! But tag me if you do :P
the thing is, im always interested in The Paperwork. whenever The Characters moan and groan about The Paperwork and whenever it's left unspecified what The Paperwork entails i go aw... The Paperwork... u dont deserve this attitude, The Paperwork... im sure you're very interesting and important... this is because i like my job at The Paperwork factory and because i like homework and it's also because The Characters often hold positions of power attained through superhuman abilities and enforced with violence and i know that The Paperwork is there, aspirationally, to document their actions and protect people. from institutional neglect and from The Characters. when The Characters ignore The Paperwork to fuck each other on The Desk i think less of them for it. i do.
"Donāt bother tryinā to reason with him," Yhone let out an annoyed groan, grabbing Feldspar by the forearm to pull him back towards the house. "He's just wastin' our time. He doesn't even know what he's mad about."
It was a faint tug on his consciousness from Amber that compelled him to turn around after a few steps, just in time to watch the man finish loading his gun, to hear him mumble something unintelligible as he pointed it towards Yhone. Feldspar didn't think, he moved, throwing himself between them.
He felt the force of the impact before he heard the gunshot, stumbling a few steps back. Yhone cried out his name, but her voice sounded distant, like Feldspar was standing at the bottom of a lake and she was screaming from the surface. To his surprise, it wasn't pain that he felt, but absence. Like his right shoulder and arm had vanished entirely.
Then came the heat. A sudden bloom of it spread across his chest, soaking into his shirt, the world dimming at the edges with each heartbeat weaker than the last. That wasn't good.
He might actually die.
Amber bristled, like she wanted to go after the shooter, but he forced her away before she could drain the last of his aether. He wasn't going to make that mistake again. After his knees finally hit the ground, he fumbled for his grimoire, dropping it in the dirt. He clawed it open, frantically flipping through the pages until he found the geometry for physick. He had no time. Seconds, at best.
Pressure rose in his chest, like his heart was being crushed to the side, his lung folding in on itself. He had no choice but to ignore it, throwing his hand up to the wound instead, just beneath his collarbone. It would take him a lot longer to suffocate than to bleed to death, so his lung would have to wait.
His concentration wavered as he cast. Every time he thought he was making progress sealing the artery, the force of his heartbeat threatened to tear it back open again. By the time the flow of blood finally slowed, darkness had mostly swallowed him. He couldn't even hear Yhone anymore, only the wet, bubbling hiss where his breathing should have been, frothy blood filling his mouth.Ā
He tried, desperately, to cast physick again, but it fizzled out at his fingertips. His aether was spent.Ā
As the left side of his chest rose and fell rapidly, trying desperately to compensate, even his thoughts felt distant. Fennie would never forgive him. Chrys and Chal... would they even remember him?
Someone's hands found him, checking his pulse, shouting. A surge of aether flooded into him again, but it was different in form than his arcanima. Elemental. A conjurer.
The conjurer's healing wasn't gentle. It was violent suction and pressure, air being torn from his chest as his lung re-inflated. Feldspar choked, retching blood onto the ground in front of him, and finally took a full breath. It felt like he'd inhaled a million tiny shards of glass, but gods, he'd never been more desperate for air in his life.
The rest of the pain finally hit him all at once. Broken bones ground against each other, and against torn muscle, with each breath. His right arm was still hanging like dead weight, his fingertips somehow both ice cold and burning hot at once.
He felt arms around him, lifting him up, moving him somewhere else. When they set him down, he slumped back against something hard. A wall. He must have been indoors. The healer barked more orders, though this time he could actually understand some of them. Hot water. Linen. A hand reached for his linkpearl.
"No-" Feldspar pleaded, even though talking was excruciating.
"Iām callinā Fennie." Yhone's voice again, terrified. Alive, at least.
"Not yet." It was selfish of him, but if he was going to die, he couldnāt bear to see Fennie's grief as he did.
"Stop talking." The healer admonished, channeling more aether into Feldsparās chest, forcing another cough.
Even as he was being shaken awake every few moments, Feldspar drifted in and out of consciousness. It was the sound of someone dropping to the floor that pulled him back to the world of the living. A voice that should have been on the other side of the continent, and had no business teleporting halfway across it. "How-"
"Fen?"
"Iām here," came the answer, hands clasping around his good one. The memory of waking up in that infirmary in Thanalan, years ago, when Feldspar was still adventuring, came flooding back to him. He had promised he'd never do this to Fennie again. "Itās okay. Iām here."
Feldspar blinked his eyes open, wincing as he tried to turn as much as his shattered shoulder would allow. The best he could do was another cough, and the worldās greatest understatement. "Sorry."
Anyone carrying a bladed weapon carried oil. (More on that in a sec) Oil is what you use to clean and condition steel, especially, since water will rust it.
Many people in the Middle Ages used scented oils for their skin and hair from noblemen to lowly serfs.
Oil was incredibly abundant and quite cheap. The TYPE of oil however does matter in this.
Sheep oil (rendered from their fat) was very common and used for all manner of things from making soap to treating skin conditions. Rendered sheep fat has a very light texture and is a decent carrier oil without too pungent of a scent. Unfortunately it did rancid fast so it was common to add lots of herbs to it to help preserve it, especially rosemary, borage, marjoram and citron peels. This is how it became a common āperfumeā oil used to scent hair skin or clothes. Nearly anyone would have had this handy somewhere.
Rendered pork oil was very common too and was most popular as a cooking oil.
Vegetable oil made from walnuts, almonds and flax seed was by far the most common non-animal oil. Nearly anybody had a bottle of almond or walnut oil in their pantry or on their person. These were by far the most popular oils used for conditioning steel, with walnut oil preferred because its tannins also gave armor a patina that kept it better. Only the absurdly wealthy ever wore polished armor. Everyone else blackened it to make it keep better. Walnut oil is good at doing that.
Walnut oil also works well as a lubricant. People back then DID use sexual lube by the way. No prostitute would be caught dead without it. Their favorite types were walnut and olive oil, though almond oil might be used in a pinch. They also used watered down acacia gum in southern Europe, which was sticky but slick and easy to re-wet.
Olive oil though was THE oil in Europe. It was expensive, comparatively, but obviously people considered it well worth its cost because it was found everywhere south of the Seine and frequently seen in even minor lordly houses or knights quarters much farther north. Considering quite a few people of the time thought it had aphrodisiac qualities when applied as certain way (likely because raw olive oil has a warming effect) I think you can imagine the most common reason it was sought after by men in particular.
Olive oil was also used in medicine and just about any church had some floating around somewhere because itās conveniently good at treating minor infections and is wonderful for toothaches.
So the mysterious vial of oil isnāt at all mysterious and even if he were carrying it around with the sole intention of using it for sex, that wouldnāt actually be that strange either.
Looking for something spOooooOooky to do this weekend to get into that All Saints spirit?
Join us at the Cracked Cluster!
We've a variety of delicious treats on the menu, and some (not-so) spooky decorations abound for you to enjoy! Best of all, if you come in costume, you'll get your own delicious Jack-o-lantern to take home and.. snack on? (Look, the game made it a food item, idk).
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
ā Live Streamingā Interactive Chatā Private Showsā HD Qualityā Free Actions
Free to watch ā¢ No registration required ā¢ HD streaming
Looking for something spOooooOooky to do this weekend to get into that All Saints spirit?
Join us at the Cracked Cluster!
We've a variety of delicious treats on the menu, and some (not-so) spooky decorations abound for you to enjoy! Best of all, if you come in costume, you'll get your own delicious Jack-o-lantern to take home and.. snack on? (Look, the game made it a food item, idk).
