#just happened to be this time as i entered gpose!

[cindernet-explorer]

A relaxing evening

[starrysnowdrop]

Why Hermes?

So, some of you might have wondered why I decided to ship Hali’s Azem, Urania, with Hermes instead of your usual Emet, Hyth, or even Elidibus. As I have been asked this particular question before, I decided to write out my answer here for all that are curious to know. And what better opportunity to do so while celebrating #AppleSyrcus Week! This was supposed to be the entry for the Free Day, but I’m a bit late for that, so I apologize for the delay.

See below the cut for the full details.

I want to start by saying that it’s been difficult at times for me to talk about Hermes, for multiple reasons, but possibly the biggest reason is that so many in the fandom seem to hate him. I mean he is the one that is easy to point to and say that he caused the final days in the first place and that he’s to blame for literally everything that happened afterwards. I won’t get into a debate here about how much of it was Hermes to blame, or the Ancients’ society at large, but there’s no denying of his role in the Final Days, being the creator of the Meteia and letting Meteion escape after knowing what the Meteia planned to do. So I get it, I really do. But it also means that it makes me really anxious about even talking about him, let alone gpose or write about him. Over time it’s gotten easier, so I’m okay with writing this out now.

Here’s the thing. From the beginning, I was in the “love to hate him” camp about Fandaniel. I was intrigued with his character and wanted to know more, but I wasn’t exactly excited about his total nihilism, especially in the Pre-EW patches when we first got a taste of him. He got a bit more interesting after the Amon reveal right before Tower of Zot. As a fan of Allag stuff, I liked the reveal and all, but I still didn’t know at all what to expect next. When we got to Fandaniel’s death when he became the heart of Zodiark, I felt like he was an interesting villain, but not my favorite in FFXIV, and I thought that was that. I actually didn’t think we’d get anything more about Fandaniel, let alone his Unsundered self.

Then came Elpis, and the more I heard and saw, the more I realized that I was going to fall in love with this character, or should I say the Unsundered Fandaniel anyway. The reveal that his name was Hermes got me so damn giddy already because I have always loved Hermes from Greek Mythology. Then when Hermes first spoke in Elpis, I recognized Jeremy Ang Jones’ voice, as he was clearly Amon/Fandaniel, but he spoke so softly and it just hit me with the feels instantly. I have no idea why, but I find a great voice to be a huge turn on, and Hermes just did it for me. His beautiful green eyes also greatly help in the sexiness department for me.

Seriously though, the more I learned of Hermes, the more I felt for him. His caring nature and compassion for all of the creations that entered his care, his devotion and fatherly love for Meteion, and his kindness towards the WoL, who was just a particularly odd familiar to his knowledge, just made me love him so deeply. And he was so unique amongst the Ancients, with his love for all creatures, not just his fellow people.

Another major reason why I got attached to Hermes was that I saw a lot of myself in him with his depression, as I myself have chronic depression, anxiety, panic attacks, PTSD, and I am also neurodivergent. Hermes spoke to me in a way that not many of the other characters had before. Though he was this all powerful Ancient, an immortal being who had the power of creation, and held an important position in his world, he still was not happy, and he was disillusioned with Ancient society. Hermes feels so real to me, and I couldn't shake how much I felt for him.

Even way after I had finished 6.0, I still couldn’t shake him from my mind. Though I had no intention on shipping my Azem with him for the longest time, since it took me nearly 2 years to do so, he had stolen my heart, just as Aymeric, G’raha, Cid, etc. had done before. When I created and developed Hali, I actually got some inspiration to flesh out her Azem, as I didn't do anything with Yume's, but I soon created Urania. And when I was writing out my ideas, my heart knew what the right choice was. I knew that Urania would love Hermes, but it ultimately is a tragic love story since it doesnt work out, as they are broken up before the summonings of Zodiark and Hydaelyn and the Sundering. Unlike how I had written Yume, Hali's Unsundered self would be the kind-hearted, compassionate, and understanding person that would be perfect to see Hermes for who he is and fall in love with him, even though Hermes will ultimately sabotage the relationship and push Urania away over and over again.

Lastly, I wanted to point out that my love is very much for Hermes, and not as much for Fandaniel as the sundered ascian. I very much see Hermes, Amon, and Ascian Fandaniel as all separate characters, even though they all share the same soul whose trauma can be first attributed to the suffering that Hermes experienced. Though I still sympathize with Fandaniel to a point, I certainly do not ship Hali with Fandaniel, nor Hermes even. This is because Hali's heart belongs to Aymeric, and although she recognizes that she has some feelings for Hermes when she meets him in Elpis, Hali ultimately attributes that to Urania's feelings and not her own.

As of right now, I am still figuring out not only a canon timeline, especially with the newest short story coming in and wrecking a few things that I had planned, but I also have a few headcanons for the Modern AU with Urania x Hermes. So for now, I’ll give you a handful of headcanons for the Modern AU.

Hermes is a single father who adopted Meteion when she was a few months old, and she is obviously not a familiar in this modern setting but a little girl who wants her papa to find love. He is in graduate school working towards his master’s and eventually his PhD in Astronomy, but he still doesn’t earn enough to support himself and his daughter, so he is a barista at the local coffee shop. It is at the coffee shop where he meets Urania, who is a regular customer. They then bump into each other at the university and realize that they are in the same Astronomy graduate program. Some other hobbies that Hermes has include cooking, bird watching, and stargazing, along with spending his free time with Meteion as much as he can. I’m still figuring out how I want the romance to develop, but I’m very excited about this AU because it can just be a sweet love story and no big bad stuff happening like the Final Days.

That's about it for why I love Hermes as a character, and ultimately why I decided to ship my Azem with him. Please feel free to send me an ask or a message if you have any further questions or comments.

[otherworldseekers]

Severia x Nero Timeline: ARR edition

I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to actually finish my fic so here’s the timeline in detail as the next best thing. 

HW timeline | StB timeline

*Links lead to relevant writing or gposes for those parts of the story.*

Year 5 since the Calamity

Severia is 24

August: 

~Severia first encounters Nero in the Praetorium. She believes he has died in the ensuing destruction. 

October: 

~Severia runs into the Outlandish Man in Revenant’s Toll and as a result joins the Crystal Tower expedition with the Sons of Saint Coinach and Cid and the Ironworks. 

~About 2 weeks later the doors to Syrcus Tower are opened and Nero shows up to insinuate himself into the group. 

(Something’s Gotta Give chapter 1)

~A few days later, Cid sends Severia to escort Nero to Ul’dah to obtain machinery the expedition needs. They take the land route to Ul’dah as Nero cannot teleport and Cid doesn’t trust him near the Enterprise.

~Nero does his best to warm Severia to him over the course of their journey and though she resists, he makes a bet that by the time they return to Mor Dhona she will have changed her mind. 

(Something’s Gotta Give chapter 2)

~They reach their destination, and Severia finds it increasingly difficult to ignore her growing attraction. 

(Something’s Gotta Give chapter 3)

~With their order put in to the Goldsmiths and nothing to do but wait, Severia takes Nero to the Gold Saucer to kill time. Toward the end of the day just as they are leaving, Godbert Manderville recognizes her and coerces her into attending the charity gala he is holding at the Saucer that night for the benefit of the widows and orphans of the Garlean invasion.

(Something’s Gotta Give chapter 4)

~Severia and Nero are provided with formal attire by the Saucer to attend the gala. But Severia finds the event too overwhelming and Nero takes her in hand, encouraging her to ignore everyone but him.

~Severia is beginning to enjoy herself when Godbert Manderville announces to the attendees that he will auction off a dance with the Warrior of Light. This comes as a surprise to Severia who panics. Nero leads her out of the ball room and looks for a place they can escape to for a little while.

(Something’s Gotta Give Chapter 5)

~While they hide from Godbert, their relationship takes a rapid leap forward. But it’s not long before they are found.

~Nero comes tp Severia’s defense but Severia comes up with a plan to appease Godbert without sacrificing her own comfort. After the auction dance has been resolved, Severia refuses to leave Nero’s side. They manage to enjoy the rest of the Gala together.

Something’s Gotta Give chapter 6

~Nero escorts Severia to her guest room after the gala is over, but before they say goodnight, he suggests that they spend the night together. Severia turns him down. 

~The following morning, Severia is determined to pretend the previous evening didn’t happen. They return to Ul’dah to pick up the machinery parts and leave immediately to return to Mor Dhona.

~On their way north through Thanalan, they are surprised by an unexpectedly fierce thunderstorm. Severia has another panic attack and ends up falling unconscious, forcing Nero to find a cave they can shelter in until the storm is over. 

~In the morning Severia, embarrassed, tells Nero a sparse account of the childhood trauma that causes her fear of storms but makes him promise not to tell anyone else. 

~They arrive at Saint Coinach’s Find and Cid and Nero immediately begin work on the device they need to crack the final obstacles to the Tower. 

~Cid asks Severia if something happened between her and Nero. He convinces her that Nero has only been manipulating her the whole time. 

~The night before Severia is supposed to enter the Tower, Nero finds her stargazing on the terrace past the Sentinels. They talk and Nero tries to kiss her again, but Severia pushes him away and says that she simply can’t trust him and that it would probably be best if, after the expedition is finished, they never see each other again. 

~The following morning Severia strides into the Tower and begins clearing it. 

~That evening the expedition climbs to the top of the Tower together. Events proceed as in game. Nero is sucked into the World of Darkness. Severia blames herself. 

~While Cid and the others are working on a way to open the portal to the WoD, Severia is called away to investigate the Keeper of the Lake and is sidetracked by the attack of Nabriales. Having been unable to save Moenbryda, Severia’s fears for Nero grow stronger. 

~About a week after the portal was first opened, Cid and co. manage to gain access to the WoD again and send Severia through. Events proceed much as in game. 

~But as they are escaping back toward the portal and Nero begins to fall behind, Severia refuses to leave his side. They argue but she is determined to get him back at any cost. Finally Nero uses the last of his strength to pick her up and throw her into the portal. The rest happens as in game. 

~At first Nero seems to be fine, but as the group makes its way back to the Find he suddenly collapses and soon drifts into a coma from all the void damage he had taken. 

~Nero is watched over at the Find by Rammbroes and Severia spends as much time sitting with him as she can manage, but he shows no signs of improvement. 

~Severia is called away to Ul’dah for the infamous banquet and as a result is never able to return to Saint Coinach’s Find.

~Nero eventually awakens after Severia is in Ishgard. Rammbroes hands Nero the brief note Severia left for him. It says simply: You win.

[soulgathered]

I am still not sure how to write liokki on tumblr but for his general backstory I got the following:

liokki was born on the azim steppe, his father was a viera that traveled through the place as a gleaner. he fell in love with liokkis mother & after a while they had liokki. his father passed in a hunting accident.

in his youth, liokki traveled to old sharla.yan where his father was born to get to know his paternal side of the family. they welcomed him with open arms & soon after he followed his dad's footsteps & became a gleaner.

for a while he seemed happy with that life until he started to clash more & more with sharl.ayan politics & left ( he can technically still return, he just quit his job & traveled around, doing odd jobs here & there ).

he gets caught in the ARR shenanigans & becomes the wol - however, his timeline is a DSR timeline. - he also has never entered the CT.

anyway, because of DSR his timeline got majorly screwed, the exa.rch had to summon him at the start of stb - only to realize that liokki had no idea who he was & that something went terribly wrong in this liokkis story. when the exar.ch reveals all that he knows, liokki & him can pinpoint the differences to a ) liokki never doing CT b ) the vault ending entirely different.

the differences are so grievous that the light had started to rapidly corrupt the first even faster - when liokki appears in lakeland it is not 100 years after the flood but 50 & yet, there is no time left. the exarc.h & liokki then come up with the plan to use the abundance of light & the power set free during a rejoining to power the CT once more & send liokki back in time - leaving that timeline to its doom ( the first gets fully flooded & a rejoining happens on the source ).

liokki however does not travel fully by himself. the ex.arch entrusts him with a newborn viera named lyna that liokki has now adopted. another preparation was liokki becoming a reaper - since they used so much light for this journey, it seemed saver to have an umbral being tied to liokkis soul - good foresight, because without his avatar, liokki would have died in the rift between time & worlds.

anyway from then on forward, liokki follows the game storyline, though he is more distant in hw, knowing what he has to do for things to go the "right way."

as said this is more of his backstory for twitter / gposes / fics etcs ... i know people on tumblr are a bit iffy about an OC being so strongly tied to canon characters, though the people liokki knew would not fully be the same ... so yeah...still gonna have to come up with a backstory for him here...or link his backstory & make him a request muse only...

[stellamancer]

FFxivWrite2019 || prompt #7: forgiven

notes: for @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast​‘s challenge.

i think it still counts since no time limit on prompts 1 - 7 right? from tomorrow onward i will try to adhere to the 24 hour rule (and so prompts 5 and 6 will be posted on a make up day). anyway. uh. yeah. pros are i’m redoing crystal tower so i’m praying for a confidence boost there. also. i’m a sucker for cliches and this was going to happen in this collection eventually anyway. 

i would have had this up much sooner if i hadn’t been procrastinating gposing with g’raha. the fruits of my labor can be found here .

plz enjoy.

Luna is an especially forgiving person.

G’raha thinks it must come with the territory. It cannot be easy for one to be a hero if they’re weighed down by grudges and anger over how the world has done them wrong. It is, arguably, one of Luna’s best qualities, and one, G’raha hopes, will kick in at this very moment.

After all, it is not as if he meant to walk in on her in a state of undress.

It all started earlier that morning. Luna had been noticeably absent from breakfast so Cid had asked him to see if the adventurer was even awake. Sleep, the older man claimed, was one of the few things that could stand between Luna and a meal. G’raha agreed since she had asked if he could continue reading a particular Allagan story to her.

Looking back, G’raha realizes that he is deserving of at least some of Luna’s wrath; he should have called out to her before just entering her tent. But, either due to his eagerness to start reading the tomes housed within her tent or plainly because he just wasn’t thinking, he didn’t.

The first thing he noticed upon walking into Luna’s tent was that she was, indeed, awake.

The second was that she was clad in little more than her smallclothes.

Be it either due to fear or curiosity , G’raha finds himself unable to look away. He knows he should, and yet he can’t and the image of her barely clothed forms inadvertently ingrains itself into his mind. Without her clothes or armor to obscure her body, it is far easier to see the more feminine features of her body: the curves of her waist, the swell of her breasts…

G’raha swallows thickly and tries to focus his vision elsewhere, lest more sordid thoughts permeate his mind.

Luna stares back at G’raha, viridian eyes widened in obvious surprise. It is likely that very same shock which renders her completely immobile.

But not for long.

Of the two, Luna is the first to recover. She slowly turns toward G’raha, pulling the bundle of clothes in her hands closer to her chest. Her expression is completely unreadable as she opens her mouth to speak, “...G’raha?”

It’s almost as if her voice breaks the enchantment that the sight of her body has cast over him and he finally rips his gaze from her, his face growing warm and red. “M-my apologies! I- I didn’t… I should have…”

His frazzled mind struggles to find some sort of excuse to offer, but when none come he bolts from the tent. Once outside, he looks around wildly, thinking of where he should hide, or even if he should bother hiding at all. Hiding would only delay the inevitable, and, if Luna is particularly angry, could make matters far worse.

A light tap on the shoulder makes G’raha nearly jump, and he turns to see Luna behind him, now fully clothed. Her mahogany hair looks far more tousled than usual and he wonders if she rushed to get dressed following his exit. His uneasiness grows at the thought.

“Luna! I’m… I’m so terribly sorry!” G’raha exclaims, deciding it would be better just to beg for forgiveness than run. “It was truly remiss of me to just enter your tent without so much as checking to see if it was alright.”

He bows his head, his ears flattening in shame as he waits for Luna to rebuke him.

But she doesn’t.

“Twas just an accident, wasn’t it?”

G’raha looks up at Luna, astonished before vigorously nodding his head.

She tilts her head, and gives him a sympathetic smile. “Then there’s no need to fret. Just… be more careful next time.

“O-Of course!” G’raha stutters. Never before has he been more glad for Luna’s good-natured personality.

“Besides,” Luna continues, an edge of playfulness echoing in her tone of voice. “Tis not the first time.”

The miqo’te’s face grows bright red. She must be joking, that is something he would surely-

G’raha’s thoughts are silenced when Luna raises a hand, one of his tomes secure in her grasp. Of course. She means when he sneaks into her tent to read the tomes he has stored there, and not whatever it was his mind was concocting.

“I… am sorry,” he repeats lamely.

Luna’s smile widens more and he can’t tell if she is teasing him or not. “You’re forgiven. Now, I think you have a story to finish reading, do you not?”

G’raha nods, taking the book from Luna. It is lucky, he thinks that Luna is such a forgiving person.

Forgiving, if not a touch mischievous.

[astroellipse]

it’s tiiiiiiiiiimmmmeeeee

I started writing one of these earlier but scrapped it to close firefox while my internet was shitting itself, as if that has literally ever helped in the past. Cannot for the life of me remember what but this was hours ago so wtv.

I started leveling dancer today. Initially it was just so I could use an outfit I’d put together and I swore to myself that I wouldn’t actually level it right now. AST and SMN are nearly to 80, I’m supposed to be working on my DRG relic weapon too... but... man it is so fun to play. Also very pretty. My brain feels like much playing it it’s just pressing e then r then e then r the occasionally shift+e or shift+r and maybe throw a q or two in there after that. Or c and v for aoe. The point is it’s mind numbingly simple, barely anything to weave in but some defensive stuff, my one buff every once in a while, I get to do a little dance occasionally pressing the pretty glowing buttons.

Hm... I should take a picture. Oh! Of my new DRG glam too, though I don’t have a weapon picked out for either of them yet. DRG is going to use one of the relic weapons, which will take a bit and... I’ll probably settle on a dungeon weapon for DNC. Or perhaps the exarchic one, if I can afford it. Some of them look cool, others not so. But every time I see one of them my mind spits out the words “cum crystals” at me which I think I got from watching some streamer or other. A combination of Jabronimike and hearing, oddly enough, several streamers make jokes about JO crystals. It’s been embedded in my head since I first saw them, also the crystal wall in Amh Ahraeng. Cursed. I wonder if I can even enter gpose while in queue?

Okay I can. But I’ll do that later. I’m still weirdly self conscious.

It does make me kinda mad now when I don’t get comms... I find that with DNC I’m in a position to save people’s asses with my shield and heal, and I have the know-how of these dungeons to do it well, but do I get recognition for it? Well... occasionally. And then there are other times when all 3 party members without even giving a customary tyfp, and I assume without giving out any comms whatsoever. Complete nonsense, Unbelievably rude. Why does make me so angry when people don’t respond with the common courtesies... at least in that last one I did I did get a comm but still no wave back or anything in parting. Weird it’s happened so many times tonight.

It really is funny the amount of looks Doran gets. Especially since... those are just the people making a show of having their characters heads turn towards him. I don’t really ever go that far though I will stop in my tracks to oggle pretty people, or literally any midlanders that don’t use the Ardbert face. It’s easy enough to stand off behind or to the side and swing your camera around after all. I like the attention, alright? That I made a hyur guy that looks at least sort of interesting. Also that I am projecting onto him increasingly now. I think I decided not long after making him that Doran would be nonbinary, using he/they to go with Secret’s she/they... which I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned. Secret was gnc, but with Doran I took it a step further, as I’ve explained having figured out how to make outfits, and also unabashedly using popular casual market items now.

wtf the dancer questline is great..... EVIL DANCE SPIRITS? what is even happening. I love the instructor lady and how Doran and Ranaa shared those looks of confusion. Also they accidentally have the same hair and wear the same shirt (when Ranaa’s in casual wear) I swear I didn’t know what she looked like before making the outfit. Nashmeira might actually be the first midlander woman I like in this game????

The fantasy racism still sucks ass though why does the game treat the Duskwights so bad. They weren’t doing anything wrong but getting possessed by a dancing evil spirit orb they literally didn’t hurt anyone or do anything. Why should they turn them over to authorities???? Everyone’s all, oh those trouble making Duskwights, surely meaning to harm us and cause a ruckus and all. Always thieving and pillaging and whatever the fuck else as if I haven’t seen both the archer and lancer questlines. that one dude was driven to thievery and eventually madness and what might as well have been suicide because of gridania’s systematic racism and thus inability to find work or create a stable life. like. they were explicit about this. i fucking hate these writers sometimes they’re so dismissive, in this and other things including a more recently addressed controversy which i will not get into at the moment.

Hm yes that makes complete sense. Collective dread from war manifests in aether and results in people dancing for some reason. What the fuck game? I thought this was gonna be something cool but this is stupid. ??? Causing them to trample kids and tearing off their own limbs????? Who wrote this shit what. It. Didn’t afflict a single soul in Eorzea before now because literally not a single soul had the time to dwell on what had happened. I take back whatever positive thing I said before this is fucking terrible.

oh jesus CHRIST why didn’t i get a screenshot of that. there was a lookalike of the twins’ dad called “Disowning Father” he bolted away as soon as he teleported in however. super unfortunate. the reveal was recent enough that he was still a sprout scholar getting started.

too tired to keep writing just going to run bardam’s mettle until i pass out. i love this dungeon so much.