Let's Talk About the Barn Scene - Again!

Offering an alternative interpretation that may hit the right spot for some of y'all.

In most real cultures - both historic and today - people really don't care about boys and girls spending time together until they're at an age to "get into trouble", at which point parents start to get concerned. In historic cultures (and some cultures today), this is the age when a wall has to go up between girls and boys. At the time of Phoenix Gate, Clive was certainly past that threshold, and Jill was approaching it quickly. It's fairly safe to assume that some combination of Elwin, Rodney, and whatever other instructors Clive had in his life would have taught him that he needed to treat Jill "like a lady", keeping his hands to himself, no funny business. Clive, being the boy scout that he is, would have adhered to the rule like his life depended on it, and would have probably expected to adhere to that rule until/unless they became formally betrothed and married. Based on how Jill treats Joshua and Clive, she probably did not have those talks (though based on her physical maturity level, she would probably have gotten similar talks in a year or so).

When we get to The Barn Scene, it's been thirteen years, but Clive has probably never reconsidered the rules he was given because they've been completely irrelevant for the vast majority of said thirteen years, and during the few days that Jill has been back in his life and conscious, he's had a lot of other things to think about. So when Jill nudges his personal space - something she was never specifically instructed to not do - he defaults back to the rules he had been taught as a teenager: keep your distance, hands to yourself, don't do anything you wouldn't do in front of your parents, etc.

We can tell at the end of the second timeskip that he has realized that these rules don't apply any more, and he's much more tactile with her.

Chapters: 3/6 Fandom: Final Fantasy XVI Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Clive Rosfield/Jill Warrick Characters: Clive Rosfield, Jill Warrick, Shiva (Final Fantasy XVI), Isabelle (Final Fantasy XVI), the whole Hideaway crew Additional Tags: "and there was only one bed" the multichapter story, far too many words for the sole purpose of plausibly explaining why Clive has only one pillow, POV Jill Warrick, talkative Shiva, Internalized Misogyny, Non-Sexual Bed Sharing, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Sex Negativity, Vague References to Past Canon-Typical Sexual Abuse of Minors, References to Past Hypersexualization of a Minor, too-tired-to-think Clive is fully-awake Clive's best ally Summary:

Five times Clive and Jill slept together, and one time (not the time you're thinking of!) they "slept together" (not the way you're thinking of).

Rated M for references to mature subjects, including references to the canonical Ironblood abuses.

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Chapter 3 is up!  Featuring an awake Clive, for once.

Chapters: 2/6 Fandom: Final Fantasy XVI Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Clive Rosfield/Jill Warrick Characters: Clive Rosfield, Jill Warrick, Shiva (Final Fantasy XVI) Additional Tags: "and there was only one bed" the multichapter story, far too many words for the sole purpose of plausibly explaining why Clive has only one pillow, POV Jill Warrick, talkative Shiva, Internalized Misogyny, Non-Sexual Bed Sharing, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Sex Negativity, Vague References to Past Canon-Typical Sexual Abuse of Minors, References to Past Hypersexualization of a Minor, too-tired-to-think Clive is fully-awake Clive's best ally Summary:

Five times Clive and Jill slept together, and one time (not the time you're thinking of!) they "slept together" (not the way you're thinking of).

Rated M for references to mature subjects.

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New chapter posted!  I honestly was worried I’d give up after the first.

One of the things I don't like about Discord is what it's done to fandom. Most Discords are enclosed communities, for all practical purposes. It's hard to find them, and even if you know they exist it's hard to join them because you have to find non-expired public invite links. But that's where most of the talking is going on. That's where people are finding their beta readers, learning about what canon resources may be available, etc.

...all this to say, if anyone knows of any joinable Warfield Discord servers, please let me know, because I think my partner might revolt if I ask them again whether they think Clive and Jill would prefer to settle in Eastpool or Mysidia.

A Jill Warrick costume breakdown, because I can

Here's my "best guess" on how everything she wears is put together. On one hand...it's a Final Fantasy costume, and we all know it's all about aesthetic over pragmatism, but because I'm writing something that needs a layers breakdown, I might as well do it here.

(This is heavily based on staring way too long at the art book, so at least I do have some basis for my assumptions.)

Final Fantasy 16 canon-divergence fanfiction ideas up for adoption, lighting round

AKA every AU idea I can think up in twenty minutes. Most of these will be terrible.

And my favorite, which is so divergent from canon it might as well be its own thing...

Can someone explain to me this FF16 timeline problem?

From my wiki-reading it looks like Mid was born in 862 on the Outer Continents, where Cid is originally from. But also per the wiki, Cid was already in Valisthea in 860 to meet fifteen-year-old Benedickta, and in 863 he was in Waloed specifically to swear to Barnabas (since Benedickta was with the Royal Intelligencers when she was eighteen). Did Cid travel back to the Outer Continents with Benedickta between 860 and 862? Are the dates and ages wrong? We're led to believe traveling to and from the Outer Continents is an extremely dangerous and time-consuming prospect, so that sounds like an awful lot of travel.

(But for a little moment of cuteness, take the time to imagine Cid and Benedickta showing up in front of Barnabas...while Cid's holding baby Mid with the arm that isn't holding Benedickta's hand, radiating pure Girl Dad energy.)

Looking for a task tracker program

Must:

I would prefer if it:

Any and all recommendations would be great.

I have verified that the only part of Clive's chamber in the New Hideaway that isn't visible from the walkway outside it is the corner near the bookshelf (a place player-controlled Clive can't squeeze). Fanfiction writers, do with this what you will.

Time for my annual reminder:

Some people are very quiet during Pride Month for their own safety or the safety of those close to them. Some people have living situations they can't readily escape that would become extremely abusive at any indication of queerness or "queer sympathies," where even the slightest peek outside of the closet might put them in grave danger.

So please do not take silence from a particular person as confirmation of not caring.

FF16 Theory Time

I think that Cid suspected that Clive = Ifrit even before they first met.

I stumbled on this theory thinking about the fact that Cid was able to recognize Clive...from a thirteen-year-old description of Clive's impressive skills as a teenager. They'd never met before; Cid had never seen the Blessing of the Phoenix before. Cid also mentioned having heard rumors of Clive having survived the massacre that killed almost everyone else and there being a second Dominant of fire who caused a lot of the destruction during that massacre.

While I think it's unreasonable to assume that Cid knew, Clive being that second Dominant of fire (because it's a lot easier to survive a massacre caused by an invading army and a giant fire kaiju if you become said fire kaiju) is a plausible enough theory with the information Cid had to hand that he would likely consider it worth his time to investigate. I'd even go so far as to theorize that finding Clive was already on Cid's to-do list. That's why Cid was able to recognize Clive immediately from the Blessing of the Phoenix: Cid had done some research on it and had been thinking about it recently enough to be able to distinguish it from any other fire-attuned Bearer magic.

Why it's taking me so long to write Proximity Chapter 2 (Brain Transcript)

All right, time to write.

...wait, I need to write out exactly what happened to Jill with the Iron Kingdom so that I make sure I keep her traumas and trauma reactions consistent.

...wait, I also need to at least outline Clive's traumas and progress to make sure he's consistent too.

...wait, I need to write out what Cid and Jill talked about on the journey to Oriflamme, because that might have had her make at least a little progress working through her traumas.

The only big problem I have with FF16

No, it's not the ending.

Clive hates Hugo Kupka. Kupka personally destroyed the first Hideaway and killed many of its residents. He spearheaded the sack of Clive's childhood home and hometown. It's implied that he would periodically torture and kill Bearers as a trap for Cid and the Cursebreakers. He grabbed Jill by the throat and planned to execute her in front of Clive. So, naturally, Clive is in full "Hugo Kupka must die" mode, stopped only by the fact that he doesn't know where Hugo Kupka is. The rest of the Hideaway, including people who joined the Cursebreakers after the first Hideaway was destroyed, also are full Hugo Kupka Must Die mode.

Now contrast that with the lack of urgency when Clive finds out they're going to need to chase down Barnabas Tharmr, because he probably has Jill hostage. By that point, they already know that Barnabas is extremely dangerous (he completely massacred a city-state) and while they know Jill is alive for Magic Reasons, "alive" is a very low bar. Sure, they can't go after her immediately because the ship can't sail yet, but there doesn't seem to be a feeling of urgency in anyone other than mild displays from Mid and Clive. I see why they don't want to have several quests in a row where people are constantly in a state of panic, but at least Clive has every reason to be panicking.

I think this is something that could have been fixed, crudely, with the addition of a few specific lines of dialog. All that they would need to establish among themselves is that they have a reason to believe that Barnabas does not intend to harm Jill. Anything like:

The above are "smallest change to make the biggest improvement" fix suggestions. I think the best fix would have been if there had been some kind of message sent from Barnabas to Clive & Co to the effect of "we're keeping her safe; we'll be waiting for you to collect her."