Hello! Thank you so much for expressing your concerns following our previous response.

We are, indeed, aware of the fact that our Finance Moderator is new to the zine scene and also that they are undertaking two zine projects that are at similar stages at the same time. However, we will say that she is receiving guidance and assistance from both the Fulminate zine moderators and from our own moderators, and she has been doing a wonderful job so far. She knows she has other moderators from whom she can ask for advice, and she is a very communicative person who really likes to get tasks done.

We understand that the preorder and fulfilment stages will test her mettle, but, knowing her work ethic, we do believe that she will succeed in managing both her work and any funds we may receive.

In addition, you are corrrect in that knowing someone irl is not quite a preventative measure, but knowing someone personally for over six years does add, at the very least, a baseline of mutual trust. So, I (hi hi, it's me the head mod again) know that if anything were to come up for whatever reason no matter what it may be, our Finance mod will inform the rest of us. And if it does so happen that something does happen to her where she cannot continue working with our zine anymore, depending on where we are in the process, I will either attempt to recruit a different Finance Moderator completely or I will take over the responsibilities myself, in which case I will reach out to some very experienced moderators with whom I've persnally worked on other faznine projects for further advice and guidance.

Some tangiblle prevantative measures we will take in our zine project to make sure our Finance Mod is still with us and doing her work correctly include regular check-ins and progress update reports throughout the entire process as well as proofs of receipts when the time to purchase items arrives.

However, if there's any other prevantative measures you would like to suggest or if there's anything else that we can do to help alleviate your concerns, please feel free to suggest something and to let us know :)

Hello, please don't apologize for asking a question, and what you've asked is also very important for us to answer!

If it means anything, our finance mod is actually someone I that I, (the head mod currently writing this answer), know personally, and I do trust her with handling financial tasks. While she may not have much fan/fanzine-specific experience at the moment, she does have 4 years of experience handling finances through her role as the Finance Board member of a very large student-run club at the University she graduated from. In this role, she managed money for the club directly and also dealt with ordering and selling club merchandise both physically at events and also on the club's online store. Right now, she is learning the ropes of fanzine finance modding from the Fulminate zine and is applying her learnings in our zine too, also with some help from myself.

To answer your second point, I've spoken with her regarding the issues that the zine scene faces regarding finance moderators disappearing (someone had asked the same question for the Fulminate zine), and she recognizes the fact of the matter and also knows the importance of her role. I speak with our Finance mod on a daily basis, so I know that if anything does occur for whatever reason, she will reach out to me. In terms of social media, she doesn't like to have too much of an online presence, although she is always online on Discord to communicate!

We hope that this answer helps, and we would love if everyone would be willing to give our Finance Mod a chance, as everyone needs to start somewhere :)

Hi! Contributors will have the ability to depict Meteor as any gender identity they would like within their works!

In illustrations, we would love if the depiction of Meteor would be, at the very least, based on or inspired by Meteor's original depiction (eg. hyur, dark brown/black hair) from any of the trailers, but the actual way Meteor is drawn will be up to each individual artist. In writings, when characters need to refer to "you" in the third person, they can use pronouns based on the choice of the writer, so long as they are consistent in choosing (eg. he/him, she/her, they/them, etc.). Combinations (eg. she/they, he/she) of these identities are allowed as well, but we would prefer the use of only one of the aforementioned pronouns within a written work so as not to potentially confuse the reader, if that hopefully makes sense (eg. he/they but preferred pronoun use is he).

In terms of continuity within the whole zine, you could think of it as "you" are using phials of fantasia between each work, but you've changed yourself in a way that still makes you physically recognizable to the other characters! :)

Hmm, you actually bring up a very interesting and valid point! We've thought about this issue, and we think that rather than setting the restriction on fully adult, yet "underage appearing" characters ourselves, we will instead plan to host a vote/poll so that everyone may contribute their opinions for these edge-case age/appearance scenarios. That way, everyone can collaborate to the discourse by sharing their own opinions, and we will come to a conclusion on our character inclusion policy based on the results. This issue can be a huge pain-point in romance and shipping discourse, but hopefully everyone will be able to accept the outcome, at least to some degree!

And to clarify, actually underage characters will still not be eligible to be highlighted due to Meteor's planned age depiction within this zine. This poll would be for of-age characters who would fit the description of having a "childlike appearance".

We will most likely begin this poll after Fan Fest 2023 is complete, so please hang on until then! Thank you in advance!

Hi, thank you so much for your question! Oh boy, is Meteoin quite the edge-case scenario kind of character in terms of our "no highlighting underage characters" limitation. Yes, we do love Meteion as a character, and yes, she definitely deserves to be loved, and yes, she technically is quite old to say the least, BUT we feel that her inclusion as an eligible bachelorette with a young adult-aged Meteor reaches lolicon territory, which we would like to avoid at all costs.

So, our final stance is that we will not include Meteion as an eligible highlighted character, due to the fact that our protagonist will be depicted as a young adult. Meteion is absolutely welcomed to be included in works, of course, but she cannot be your featured date. We hope you all understand our reasoning for this edge-case scenario.

Also, just putting it out there: Should another potential FFXIV zine choose to depict a younger, teenage aged protagonist who can be romantically shipped with NPC characters around their age (eg. Leveilleur twins, Meteion, Ryne, etc.), we would be totally for it! It is simply because our zine focuses on a young adult protagonist that we have decided to take our "no shipping our protagonist with underage characters" stance. Thank you!