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eightlazylegs ([personal profile] eightlazylegs) wrote in [community profile] loligiary2022-08-06 03:27 pm

FFXIV Misc. Posts

For Eithyrs related threading.

[personal profile] snapandflounce 2022-08-27 04:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Nidhogg had a mate, yes, a consort-- but that was not about sex. That was about companionship and bonding. They did not couple or breed.

What happened last night? Someone got bred, alright.

They stop short of the borderlands -- just deep enough into the forest that no one should see a fire, but the pinprick glows of warm hearths through village windows down in the valley were visible from where they were.

The village was a way point. A stop-off. Warm beds, before they went a little further. From there it would be short trip to Ala Mhigo by airship, and then... Well, they'd see how they reacted to him. Few knew his face outside his fellow Garleans -- but he was certain some might know him.

Hopefully he wouldn't be walking himself to the chopping block. Hopefully they'd at least let him talk before Valdeaulin arranged his execution. He could hope for that much, at least. A last ditch effort to save his beloved Garelmald from Ascian rulers.

[personal profile] snapandflounce 2022-08-27 09:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Having never broke his stoic demeanor till he was fully seated in the dragoon the night previous, Gaius is as he always was, just a fraction less tense looking. If he cares about Valdeaulin's behavior, he says nothing -- there will only be words when Valdeanlin decides to give him at tonguelashing.

He helps set up camp, he eats, he offers to take first watch so others can rest. Also so he can strip to the waist while the rest slumber, and tend to his wounds. Ugly things, cereleum burns. A chemical fire leaves terrible scars, and Gaius is still healing, months later, and will be a long time healing still. There is pain, but he does not acknowledge it or allow it to stop his hunt. He just uses the healing tincture he managed to find when they raided a Garlean base on the fringes. It's helped. So has the rest.

[personal profile] snapandflounce 2022-09-02 04:06 am (UTC)(link)
Gaius' expression crinkles in what may be distaste, or disdain. Valdeaulin is... well. The little their history is spoken, the better: none of it was kind, and the unkindness continues, little cuts coming after the big ones.

"He's ignorant and beneath your notice, dragoon," Gaius says with clear truth. Valdeaulin may be his captor, but he is Estinien's inferior in every way. "Don't let him bother you. Bare your teeth and the coyote will crouch low and stay wary. He will only nip the heels of the weak."

[personal profile] snapandflounce 2022-09-04 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
With spit on his lips while he tongues between Hyth's fingers, Emet whines softly, letting his eyes close as he starts to feel the pressure he enjoys, detaches from his noble purpose and lets himself be if not nothing, something less than the great Emet-Selch.

There is nothing worse than being Emet Selch right now. A base, hungry concept easy to be put to use is a far more preferable existence at the moment.

[personal profile] snapandflounce 2022-09-07 02:09 am (UTC)(link)
Emet-Selch moaned abruptly, mouth working around Hyth's fingers, his eyes opening and then closing as he writhes un the bonds he could easily break if he saw fit. But his eyes roll in his head, and that inhuman hunger for more stirs in his aether-rich soul.

This one, he wants to say, is very good and deserves more. But instead muscles flex and relax, fingers curling and unfurling as he restrains himself as much as the bonds do.

[personal profile] snapandflounce 2022-09-07 02:14 am (UTC)(link)
"Then why complain? You cannot possibly care what he thinks of me," Gaius says, looking over him as he rubs creamy, red tincture into the ugly burns that track up both arms and onto his chest, appearing in patches over his torso. "He's beneath you, and he knows it. He cannot control you or even hope to influence. It's just noise."

Gaius turned his gaze away, satisfied that both arms were well rubbed, and then works on shoulders and chest. He does not look back when he says, "You should rest."
Edited 2022-09-07 02:22 (UTC)

[personal profile] snapandflounce 2022-09-07 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
"I used to be far more flexible," Gaius said dryly, something like mirth warming his eyes.

The mirth remains, teasing a half-smile to his lips, as he offers the bottle of tincture, and says, "A little bit goes a ways." Such can be said of many things -- but a little bit of affection has the couerl coming back for another scritching, it seems. "But surely you are familiar with burn care."
Edited 2022-09-07 03:09 (UTC)

[personal profile] snapandflounce 2022-09-07 03:11 am (UTC)(link)
If he wishes! Oh, Gods be good, he does. Exhaling in a rush, Emet-Selch moves to make sure he has room, to give Hyth is most sensitive, delicate parts, vulnerable and completely at peace with it. He knows Hyth would never harm him, and his trust is total and complete.

[personal profile] snapandflounce 2022-09-07 04:18 am (UTC)(link)
It's nice not to have to crane his neck and pull at his still-healing skin. It is ugly, though -- where cloth burned, metal searing hot over it. But it is no more than the survivors of dragon's breath have, if from a different source. Cereleum clings to the skin, melts it down, burns deep. It's only through magitek an a bit of conjury that Gaius lives, let alone is still capable of lifting his gunblade.

"Then I trust you'll do it right," is all he says, as he lets Estinien do as he should, and unfurling clean bandaging and preparing to wrap his arms.



[personal profile] snapandflounce 2022-09-07 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
The sigh Emet-Selch lets free is both one of relief and one of adoration; he loves his Hyth so much, so stupidly much. Even when he is cross with Azem, who roams and returns home when they will, Hyth is always there to make sure he knows he is still loved.

He lifts his head a little, trying to reach Hyth however he can-- mouth, eyes, sobs of need. Whatever he can give to Hyth, it's his. His body welcomes him in, greedy and loving, and yes, obedient and completely pliant.

[personal profile] snapandflounce 2022-09-07 05:08 am (UTC)(link)
"Yes," Gaius says, voice level, settling there on his knees, hands finding their rest on his thighs. A prim position, to say the least, but controlled and disciplined. The skin is still tender and healing - it will heal tight, stretch and burn, and need work to regain full mobility -- which will worsen as he heals, not improve. In a kinder place, he would be healed and given over to the chirugeons to regain his full fighting strength.

"My armor was irrepreably damaged," he explains, keeping his eyes dead ahead and his voice soft. "But no man of the Grand Companies of Eorzea did not know the mask of the Legatus of the XIVth. He would have killed me, had I not begged him stay his hand and hear the truth. Whatever madness took him in that moment, he listened and he believed."

[personal profile] snapandflounce 2022-09-07 01:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"Do not mistake my will to live as craven," Gaius says, muscles slowly tensing under Estinien's hands. "It is not a desire to return home or to return to comfort that drives me. I asked him only time enough to hunt Ascians to extinction to free my people. After that, my life was his. I care not what he does with it."

Will to live? No. Will to hunt the beings that have driven his country for a century, creating a war machine that he found himself a cog in all for an alien's pleasure? That is the thing.

"I will take all of their tools, one by one, and I will see Garlemald freed. My mask hangs among theirs, another tool removed from their use. I will take the rest, by my own hand, should not your Warrior friend catch the rest. Every pawn down brings us closer to -- that thing, that Emet-Selch who puppets them."

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