#ffxiv asks

8: Do you listen to music or put shows on in the background when you’re working?

Also asked by @thewitchofelpis - thank you both for asking :)

Usually I need to have music playing and a youtube video with the sound off playing at the same time as a minimum, but sometimes I need one video playing on the computer, another on the phone, music playing AND the television in the background. But not silence. Silence is the enemy. Too little stimulation, too much space. Only once I bung up the other parts of my distractible brain can I coax the bit that I want to come to the fore and do what I want it to do.

Definitely the latter - I suspect it's an ADHD thing, but I can be quite reactive to emotional triggers and when I'm angry or upset the last thing I want to do (or could do) is be creative. That part of my brain simply ceases to be accessible to me whilst I am stressed. Which probably adds to my stress.

In order to be creative I need to be in a reasonably neutral or positive frame of mind and, if I'm lucky, I can get into hyperfocus and knock out several things in one go or at least one major thing.

This does mean that, during periods of stress, I tend to quickly fall behind on responding to OC asks or planned projects, but I suspect that is not something that is unique to me.

For Mimble I think that I hit on quite a distinctive look for him that is still very obviously White Mage, but less druidic priest and more gentleman healer.

For Humble I think it's that he is quite fun to write about, since he's a juxaposition (not used that word since 6th Form!) of strength and power with diffidence and shyness.

For least favourite things... they both can be tricky to write without really concentrating on getting the balance right.

Mimble has to be whimsical and irreverent, but without being so silly that he stops making sense in the setting - having seen this excellent post (reblogged by the equally excellent @zylphiacrowley), it was a good reminder about how important it is to resist the urge to be ironic and self-referential out of a fear of sincerity.

For Humble it's having a distinctive accent and voice that needs to be kept consistent - if an "h" is dropped on a word in one sentence, then it needs to be dropped in all of them, unless there's a good reason it wouldn't be. This turns out to be harder than I'd envisaged.

And, although it's nothing to do with their characterisations, it's not much fun to have OCs from races that are frequently disliked, denigrated or dismissed as less worthy by a lot of other players. But I'm buggered if I'm going to let that stop me.

Hello :)

7 was answered here and 14 was answered here.

But since you asked, I will consider another pet option!

9. Assuming that time, money, ability and resources were no object, what would be your dream creative FFXIV project?  Something for your OC?  A fandom event?  Designing a glamour for the game? Or something else entirely?

Also asked by @sayonaramidnight - thank you both :)

Something I really love, but very obviously lack the resources or skills to create myself, is FFXIV fan videos with people's characters in them.

Like this sort of thing.

Or this. Or this. Or this. Or especially this. Or this.

I do enjoy doing larger creative projects to celebrate people's OCs - Like the Twelve Days of Starlight or The Etheirycrumb OCs - but unfortunately my limited abilities only stretch to daft poems, not a full-on video extravagansa...

For example, it's fun to imagine what a comedy Moonfire Faire Video might look like. I would envisage a lot of silly and very in-character OC beach activities going on, ideally to the sound of the dance remix of the Baywatch theme by Sunblock. Now who wants to volunteer their OC to run in slow motion in orange swimwear....

Basically I'd like to create a load of silly campy nonsense that would hopefully make people smile.

I mean that's a tough one to narrow down... There are many candidates I could highlight, but today we shall go with...

@diggingforkuponuts

As well as their creativity with gposing and their fantastics OCs, I think it's super impressive that they've grown so quickly, from tentatively dipping their toe into reposting ask games, to creating, organising and coordinating an entire community ask event - the amazing 2025 First Reverse Ask event that you can find here.

I think there's a lot to admire about all that and I strongly recommend you give them a follow, if you haven't already done so.

Outside of FFXIV....

A long time ago, when I was undertaking my first practicum as part of my post-graduate degree, I was working with a little girl - aged about 6 - who had a combination of early life trauma and developmental delay.

Naturally I was keen to prove just how therapeutic and skilled at communicating with people I was... so I was chatting away, telling her all sort of terribly useful and reassuring things. And whilst I was imparting all this wisdom to her, she was busy drawing pictures with some coloured pencils.

At the end of my session with her, she presented me with a drawing she had done of me. A drawing of me with a huge open mouth and tiny tiny ears. And I paused and asked her if, perhaps, I had been talking just a bit too much and listening a bit too little... She fixed me with a meaningful look and skipped off out of the room.

I think that was possibly the most eloquent and effective feedback I've ever been given. And now, when I find myself wanting to talk at people, to correct them and tell them what they should be thinking, I remember that picture of me, with the enormous mouth and tiny ears, and resolve to shut up and listen more.

Inside of FFXIV....

I think it was probably that, when tanking (which I find very anxiety-provoking), you should use your defensive cooldowns on trash packs - especially if you're doing large pulls - or more usually for me, having impatient DPS doing them for me.

In WoW one generally saved significant cooldowns for boss fights and just powered through trash with big aoe dps fun times. Plus I am naturally inclined to cling on to resources and abilities for dear life in case I "need them later", which is not a good habit for tanking dungeons in FFXIV.

I'm still mortally afraid of tanking - which is nuisance, since Humble is canonically a tank - but at least that bit of feedback has made me less frustrating to heal when I occasionally muster up the courage to do it.