windup-gwen

Latest Posts by windup-gwen

febhyurary (2022) | day 6 | footfalls

febhyurary (2022) | day 5 | behind

look to those who walked before to lead those who walk after

Ok I swear I’m done with the edgy art for awhile but like. Heavensward still goes so hard

DRUMROLL PLEASE…

A new year means…a new #FebHyurary is coming up!

#FebHyurary is a month-long creative challenge starting in just a few weeks. Screenshots, art, edits, and writing are all encouraged—let’s celebrate Hyur and have fun!

Preston Blake.

…wonder why Primal Infused Thordan saw as a shadow warped monster, but Primal Infused Yotsuyu saw us as just a shining hero.

Winter's Toil

The Lord Speaker of the house of Lords is working far into the night once more. But even though he still has a good many things to do, he cannot help himself but think about those he loves.

Read on AO3.

Winter's Toil

Five pages of report written in small, almost unreadable letters. Ten pages of the days minutes. Construction plans for the extension of Falcons Nest. A request for ishgardian craftsmen to support the renaturation of the coast of Werlyt.

His right wrist ached. Nothing new.

Signed. Corrected. Approved.

So far so good. Except for the strain in his shoulders. Nothing he had not experienced before. Sword practice could do this to a man, if practiced excessively. When had he last held a sword again?

The work he couldn’t finish at his office was finally done. A glance towards the clock told him it was about ten minutes before midnight. A second glance towards the left of his desk told him that there were at least two hours more of intensive reading, pondering, approving and rejecting.

Why was there sweat on his face?

He leaned back in his chair. There was a deep sigh somewhere in his chest, but he wouldn’t. Instead he reached for the next stack of papers. The muscles in his neck protested.

It would be another long night.

The next document was the appointment of the guards to Empyreon. Yes. He had asked Estinien to apply. A joke of course. And regrettably, the dragoon and newfound hero of the world had ignored the offer entirely. Unsurprising. But yet again, regrettably. Though, this was probably Estiniens polite way to say no.

It would have been nice to have him back in Ishgard. With Lucia in charge of the camp broken glass he felt perhaps the tiniest bit lonely. If it hadn’t been for his old burly cat and the steward, he would actually be lonely.

And with that his thoughts drifted back to her.It had been a while since they had talked to each other. Having her support in that last crisis had been a blessing. Her presence was always all too welcome. And before that..? When had she last visited… The construction of Empyreon perhaps. Oh… if he only could have watched her. From what he had heard, she had been working through even the most daunting of tasks with perseverance and a smile on her lips.

Her smile.

The simple thought of it brought one to his exhausted features, too. When she returned, he would need to ask her about her latest travels. But mostly about her journey to the stars and far beyond.

But for this moment it was high time he chose a few lucky souls to serve the people of Ishgard. The candle closest to him light the paper. The letters though were almost unrecognizable. Had the other documents been written with the lines so close to one another?

His feather dropped to the ground the moment he let go of the paper. And everything went black.

A pair of cold hands on his face. Dampened voices, as if someone was talking into a pillow. Another pair of hands.

And darkness again.

When Aymeric opened his eyes, he no longer sat at his desk. Someone had gotten him upstairs and partially undressed. Some embers still light the otherwise dark room. It took him a moment to realise he was in his bed.

He groaned and tried to shift to his side, but couldn’t. There was someone else. A rather warm someone. A someone with those hands-

“Go back to sleep,” her voice was nothing but a whisper, “it’s not morning yet.”

“You are back … since when-“

“Only a few hours ago. I found you sleeping at your desk again.”

“Right…” he rolled onto his back. There was still work to be done. He could sleep some more but if he were to wake up in a couple hours, he could finish everything and still be in time for the session.

The last thought sent a throbbing pain through the back of his head.

“Stay.” She was calm, but firm. “You have a slight fever and I already had your steward sent word to the house that you will not be available for a few days.” The woman playing his conscience rolled over to hug him around the waist.

“And if not for yourself, please stay here for me, yes? We could sleep some more and then catch up at breakfast.” She gently kissed his chin. “There are so many things I would tell you.”

The battle was over before Aymeric knew it. He had her wrapped in his arms only a second later to bestow a kiss of his own onto her hair.

“Thank you, love.”

“Always.”

Angst fics can help people come to terms with their own grief, begin healing, or give people that good cry that they need.

Smut fics can help people affirm and accept their sexuality. It can help them explore their sexuality in a safe way. They can also just be fun, and having fun is a drastically undervalued way to improve your mental health.

Dark fics can help people face their fears or process their trauma. It can make them feel safer and more secure. It can help them find their courage.

Fluff fics can give people rest and respite and comfort. It can give them hope that soft places exist and that maybe there is one out there for them. It can bring up their mood, which, if they have depression, can be a life saver.

And every fic people write makes someone feel less alone.

Point being, just because a particular thing doesn’t serve you, doesn’t mean it lacks value.

This is not to say that we have to consume all fic uncritically. Of course not. It is just to say that entire “genres” aren’t trash or lacking value just because they don’t serve you.

bartender: i wanted to tell you that-

me, crying into my drink: people say zenos is boring and flat when he's a perfect prime example of the culmination of the efforts of a horrific empire built on the suffering of thousands upon thousands of people, a literal weapon in human form, a political pawn that was constantly treated as such by the people around him and never experienced love or affection or even a proper childhood, who is considered "spoiled" even though material things and a king's education could ever be a replacement for simply being treated as a human being, whose skills were many but was made to kill even though he had no genuine love or joy for it at all, and only found some semblance of value in his own life by treating it as something to be put on the line in a game of death in the throes of a grand epic battle like the stories and legends he idolized in his childhood. people say zenos is one-note when that's what he was meant to be before he experienced the pure joy of something close to being a human for the first time which was so profound to him that he threw away the empire that raised him into a tool without any hesitation whatsoever, because he never had any love for that empire or its people or its ideals and was only ever a figurehead to begin with. zenos is a horrible man who has killed so many others and even started the end of the world for his own desperate desire and acknowledges that completely and utterly without any pretenses or attempt for sympathy, because he is a weapon, he is a being that is able to look upon evil and say that there IS no good reason for it, evil is evil, violence is violence, death is death, and not a single excuse in the world can ever justify it. zenos is a character that is not just defined by the wol, but is defined by the entire context of his existence, and that makes him a much more complicated character than people realize.

bartender:

bartender: i wanted to tell you that you have been here for five hours now

transparent groovin'

Pocket sized daughter

I’ve played through the Journey and I quite liked that game

after that I discovered you get a white/orange outfit if you replay it and I just had to draw my WoL like this (with a guest:D)

Christmas gift for my friend (as usual I’m late with it haha)

My raffle prize by @miichiyochin on Twitter has arrived and I love it so much! Thank you, this is amazing!

(reposted with permission, original post here)

Favorite quotes: Demonic/Evil/Grey Morale Edition

The inherent homoeroticism of killing your enemy and immediately regretting it

One of my fav things about Zenos is that despite his overwhelming apathy for anything that isn’t The Hunt, his appearance is clearly so, SO important to him. Even when he had to wear that stupid-huge Legatus armor, he gussied it up with some lovely fabric and jewelry. 

Gotta respect a dude who won’t light the world ablaze in the name of his transcendent moment looking anything less than immaculate.

A Knight’s Calling

I dont know if you're still taking them but what about cuddle headcannons With the Scions?

Thancred is, surprisingly enough, the clingiest cuddled of the Scions. Once the two of you might lay down together for a nap he’s already got his limbs entwined with your own—good luck getting loose, since he can be quite a heavy sleeper when not in the field, and very rarely does he feel quite as comfortable and safe as when he’s lying next to you.

Urianger cuddles solely with your comfort forefront in his mind, to the point that he would rather fall asleep in an uncomfortable position than disturb you if you are comfortable in his arms. You’ll have to verbally battle the man to get any semblance of honesty, and even then he’ll downplay most of his discomfort. This man would rather have his arms fall asleep than to wake you.

Y’shtola is often the one to trace her fingertips over your body when the two of you are cuddling, though after a while you start to realize that the shapes she’s drawing are not nonsensical shapes, but rather various symbols used in magic. After even longer than that, and especially if you’re a magic user yourself, you can start to decipher the slow meaning behind the symbols as a careful blessing of warmth and comfort—more in notion than actual magicks.

Estinien is a surprisingly good cuddler, but you have to ease him into getting comfortable first. Once his guard is down he can and will latch onto you with a ferocity you’d only see in the former Azure Dragoon—and a fierce passion to boot. If you’re patient enough, you might even get to see what his face looks like as he eventually feels comfortable enough to fall into a gentle slumber.

Tataru is an absolute blanket hog. She will steal the blanket, the pillows, your arms—and you will not escape from her cuddle-clutches until she decides to get up. But she is very comfortable nonetheless, especially if you’re of a race other than a Lalafell, since she fits almost perfectly upon your chest when she curls up and falls asleep, mumbling all sorts of little things all the while.

G’raha runs quite hot and can be quite cozy to lay with in the cooler months of the year, though it can be a little oppressive to have him all but wrapped around your body like a Miqo’te-shaped blanket when the summer heat is billowing through the air. He’s quite shy about how he tends to twitch in his sleep sometimes, and in a long cuddle session you’ll even catch how, in the midst of a dream, his ears flick back and forth constantly.

Alisae is an aggressive cuddler, which is to say that she will sleep *on* you rather than anything else. She’s very much like Tataru in his regard, but unlike a comfortable Lalafel who curls up into a comfortable ball, Alisae is all limbs thrown out over and around your body—it’s as if she’s trying to make sure that you can’t get away, even when she’s not in a position to stop you otherwise from getting up.

Alphinaud is so considerate when he’s cuddling with you that he’s practically passive, laying next to you but never quite doing more than that—though he’s extremely receptive if you might wrap your arms around him to tug him close like a plushie (though without the comical squeak).

Krile likes to tuck herself up against you, though she’ll try desperately to hold on long enough so that she can see what you look like when you’re in a peaceful slumber. Sometimes she likes to hum softly when she cuddles with you, old songs that her grandfather once taught her when she was a little girl who dreamed of adventure.

what’s going on in the critically acclaimed mmorpg final fantasy xiv

another set of dangos

sexual tension prompts.

i deleted my old blog by mistake, so i’m revamping these!! if you want to reverse them, add a +, like so: [ PIN ] + and the roles will switch! these prompts are inspired by THIS MEME! they’re designed for all muses, regardless of whether they’ve interacted before or not!

[ PIN ] : sender pins receiver against a wall.

[ HANDS ] : our muses’ hands touch. (anything from grazing past or the hand holding content we all deserve.)

[ GAZE ] : sender watches receiver from across a crowded room.

[ GUIDE ] : in order to guide the receiver, sender presses a hand against the small of their back.

[ INVITE ] : sender asks receiver into a private room with nobody else present.

[ TOUCH ] : our muses touching one another discreetly but intimately in a public setting.

[ LICK ] : sender licks something from their thumb or lips in front of receiver.

[ SLEEVES ] : sender rolls up their sleeves to reveal their forearms.

[ SMIRK ] : while interacting with receiver, sender can’t resist a smirk.

[ NECKLACE ] : sender fastens a necklace around receiver’s neck, leaning in close to do so.

[ CLOSE ] : our muses are in a position which leads to the sender stepping intimately closer to the receiver.

[ UNBUTTON ] : due to heat or stress or other reasons, sender unbuttons the top of their shirt to reveal their neckline.

[ DANCE ] : our muses dance together in close quarters.

[ DEFEND ] : sender physically intervenes between receiver and a source of unwanted attention.

[ TEXT ] : sender texts intimate content to receiver.

[ PHONE ] : while on the phone with receiver, sender flirts teasingly during the call.

[ BEHIND ] : unexpectedly, sender arrives close to receiver from behind, taking them by surprise.

[ WET ] : our muses find one another in a torrential downpour of rain, both soaking wet.

[ LEAN ] : sender leans tantalisingly close to receiver to retrieve something or catch their attention.

[ LOOK ] : sender initiates intense eye contact with receiver.

[ ALONE ] : our muses find one another alone in an isolated setting.

[ ASK ] : sender asks receiver if they’re single.

[ WHISPER ] : sender leans close to receiver’s ear in order to whisper something to them.

[ BRUSH ] : sender reaches forward to brush a strand of receiver’s hair from their eyes.

[ STEADY ] : sender steadies receiver by placing their hands on their waist when the receiver almost falls against them.

[ SMILE ] : sender begins to grin at something the receiver is saying, like a big unstoppable grin.

[ PULL ] : sender pulls receiver into their side as they’re walking together.

[ STRADDLE ] : while sparring, sender gains the upper hand and pins the receiver in place, straddling their waist in the process.

[ BLADE ] : sender, having been enemies with the receiver, places a knife to their throat, but does nothing else.

[ STARE ] : while the receiver is speaking, the sender’s gaze drifts to their lips.

[ UNDERCOVER ] : while pretending to be a couple for the sake of a mission or other purpose, sender and receiver find themselves giving a Remarkably Convincing performance that leaves them questioning how platonic they really are.

[ AFTER ] : sender has just impulsively and passionately kissed the receiver without any warning nor apparent reason. how does the receiver respond?

[ REMARK ] : after someone passes a remark on what a cute couple the seemingly platonic sender and receiver are, the sender casts a meaningful glance at the receiver, expecting them to say something about it first.

[ PHOTOGRAPH ] : as someone volunteers to take a picture of them on a day out, sender instinctively wraps an arm around the receiver to steady them, holding them close for a photo that turns out to be more romantic than they were expecting.

[ CHALLENGE ] : after the receiver teasingly suggests that the sender is a terrible kisser, sender immediately and fervently proves them wrong with a long, passionate kiss that leaves the receiver taking back what they said.

[ LANGUAGE ] : sender begins to speak seductively and fluently with the receiver in another language.

[ CONSTANT ] : after days/weeks/months/years of endless flirting back and forth, sender finally dares the receiver to go beyond flirting and break the tensions between them properly.

having ocs is like she’s my daughter. she’s my power fantasy. i’m giving her everything i hate about my personality. she’s a war criminal. she’s never done anything wrong in her life ever. i love her. i hate her. i’m making her life miserable. who did this to her. she’s unlikeable but everyone should like her. she’s baby. she does cocaine in the bathroom

I have a request if you would for Amnesia Zenos (best boi, 10/10) What if his lover was a xaela (she/her) from the Oronir tribe, and he somehow managed to find out about how the tribe members have their own Nhaama/Azim?

....

...

..

Today had been a day. A day and half, or several, all stuffed into the hours of one. She felt as if she had worked several suns and moons without stopping, and surely she had. Perhaps longer than merely that for how tired her body felt. The energy she possessed almost entirely burnt out.

Here, in the safety of her home, she could finally relax. The soft sound of the flickering flames and crackling logs in the hearth. The warming air of the fire creeping over her stretched out legs, from her flexing toes to the top of her head.

The warm weight of his body laid over her thighs, his heavy head nestled in her lap as she drew a brush through his hair. The even softer sound of his hair pulled through the bristles of the moving brush soothing her.

"Am I your Azim?" Zenos asks her apropos of nothing.

She pauses, blinking down at him and meeting his lazy, blue eyed stare. His gaze was so much softer like this. There was still hunger, aye, but there was also contentment. Aught that she had given him, for it had not been there when she had first stumbled upon him wandering, confused and without his memory of who he truly was.

She hums, lowering her brush for a moment and sinking her hands into the mass of his hair. Allowing it to spill over her fingers and catch the light of the flickering fire like spun gold. "Your hair reminds me of the rays of the sun," she tells him. "Bright and gleaming."

Zenos blinks languidly, watching her as she ran her hands through his hair. Mussing the work she has just done to smooth and de-tangle it. It was no matter, as they both enjoyed the time she spent brushing out his hair. They could do so again once she had her full of playing with it.

"That is not an answer," Zenos huffs, his lips pouting a little as he gazed at her under the fan of his eyelashes. She glances at him, her lips quirking in a grin. He may have forgotten who he was, but there were still parts of him that came across as knowing he was garlean royalty. Though she highly doubted he had been spoiled for how he had turned out. It was far more likely that Zenos had been neglected, and for the most part left to his own devices. Taught how to be a prince and a weapon, but not how to be a human being.

She smooths his hair back away from his face, leaning forward to kiss at his third eye. Zenos breathing in deep and exhaling long and lazily as she did so. "Where did you learn of such a thing?" She asks him, stroking her hands along his jaw. Zenos humming and pressing his face into her hands with slitted eyes like a pleased, oversized jungle cat that had been waiting so very impatiently to be petted.

Zenos pauses at her question, his eyebrows furrowing. "...I do not know," he murmurs.

Ah. Another thing he remembered, then, but not from where he had learned it. She sighed, rubbing her thumb over the wrinkle in his brow and kissing his nose. Laughing as he crinkles it at her. "Well, it does not matter. This is not the Steppe."

Zenos sighs at her. "So, I am not your Azim?" Hmph. He was simply not letting this go, or the subject drop, was he? Bratty, spoiled prince. Well, she had made him that way, hadn't she?

She smiles at him, poking the hardened pearl of his third eye. The amnesiac prince grumbling and grasping at her wrist, only to draw her hand to his mouth to kiss over her palm. Hmm. A sweet, bratty prince, then.

"Have you not considered that perhaps you are my Nhaama?" She says, only partially teasing. The idea of being someone's Nhaama had never sat well with her. The title ill-fitting. Azim, however... Something about it... felt right. Better, at least.

Zenos blinks at her, head titling as he truly considered it without balking at the mere suggestion.

"Well, what am I to you?" She asks him after a stretch of quiet with him only gazing at her and mulling over her words.

Zenos gave a rumbling hum, sighing soft as she resumed her petting of his hair. Her fingers tucking the golden strands behind his ear, tracing the rounded shell, rubbing his soft earlobe between her pointer finger and thumb.

"You are not my sun, nor are you my moon," he says, and...

Well, that was a little disappointing.

But before she can do more than frown at him, Zenos settles a large hand on the back of her neck and tugs her closer. Stroking at her nape and squeezing as he murmurs throatily, "You are far more than merely that. You are my world, and everything outside of it. You are more than every star that glimmers in the black of night. More than the moon and the sun and the land under our feet."

Well, that was a bit much. Far more than she had been expecting. Too much, maybe. Yet it was true to his character. Who he truly was.

And she, fool that she was, had made the decision to accept him. To embrace him as he was now and who he might become. To only hope that he would still want her when he remembered all that he was.

She allows herself a moment to be a bit taken aback, a little worried, before she smiles at him. Tugging his earlobe and sinking her hands again into his hair to scratch at his scalp. "Hah. You're so obsessed with me," she says, meaning to tease but coming off sort of satisfied and smug as her lips brush over his with the words she spoke.

Zenos meets her eyes intensely, and for a moment it steals her breath with the thought that he remembered everything. And yes, he was still here, still wanting her. But no, no, surely not.

"Yes," he says with a rumbly, growling sigh. Minding her horns as he pulled her down to soundly kiss him. His hold on her possessive, greedy.

She smiles against his lips and allows herself to sink into his kiss.

....

❤️

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hannibal (2013-2015) “naka-choko” // julien baker - little oblivions (2021)

カエアンビロード装備かわE！

To think that I am leveling black mage, a job that I am terrible at, like a madwoman just because I spoiled myself the caster role quests and I NEED TO FIND OUT WHAT IS GOING ON—