A medium-length excerpt from The Seduction of Gaius Baelsar. It reads: “Wasn’t enough?” Gaius hissed through his teeth. “Lena, you should not have kicked this wasp’s nest at all. Do you have any idea what could have happened? To say nothing of what did happen! A woman is dead!” Perhaps there ought to have been tears brimming in my eyes, but I was numb. I let my hands drop and looked up to see that his back was to me. His fists were clenched at his sides. “I should not have let your declaration this morning pass unchallenged. Your violent optimism is a fallacy,” he ranted. “The only reason you are able to ‘pummel both sides’ is because your Scion accomplices are ever present to sweep up the mess you leave with their gifts of diplomacy. But you are without them here, and so the task falls to me, a man as mired in the filth of the circumstances as anyone can be!” I winced at his words and the degree to which he had raised his voice. He turned to me and the rage on his face was burning. I raised my chin slightly and hardened my gaze. “Don’t yell at me,” I said firmly. “No one gets to yell at me, not even you.” I saw the muscles in his jaw work. His eyes narrowed, then closed. He breathed out - not a sigh, but a cleansing of the lungs, of his anger.

the one time in The Seduction that I've written Gaius raising his voice at Lena, she shut it down real quick.
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A 253 word excerpt that reads as follows: It was like a blue sky. If I stared out into it long enough—past the towering buildings and the hovering highways, past the little specks of air-cars zooming by and the dull, dreamlike mist that seemed only to exist a few hundred yalms away, over the pink and purple lights and glowing windows that caressed the color above—I could almost see it as a sky. But I would always remember that we were inside a structure I couldn’t even grasp the size of, mentally. Emotionally. Then the blue sky would falter just a little beneath the weight of that understanding, but my vision always corrected itself, and then it was back to imagining again. I drank in the near-pastel landscape. The whipping breeze pressed my baggy pants against my legs, back and forth, while I let them dangle over the edge of the apartment tower’s roof. I had a pair of ear buds—little things a lot like linkpearls, but a bit different—in my ears, cuffed to the outside. The sensation was new and a little uncomfortable, given how sensitive my ears were. But the music was worth it. It moved like a heartbeat, with soft and rhythmic thumps while other instruments I couldn’t name meandered over top of it, and over that, a layer of gentle static, like the fuzz on a magitek monitor or the prickling noise of any cheap orchestrion. They’d called it “low-fidelity” music and I didn’t know what that meant and wasn’t going to ask.

behold the first thing I wrote in like a year lol. wip of course. this is the skip to 7.2 and I'm planning to put some reflection on what all happened in this part, but I need to review what happens in 7.0 so I can gloss over it in hazy rememberings while Lena listens to lo-fi.
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#LenaWrites #1W3L
As my boots met with the grass of the Omphalos and I smelled the stale air and heard the stillness, I realized I didn't know why, exactly, I had come. I sank down to the ground and looked around, as if any of the gods would greet me instead of their warm yet unfeeling orrery.

#LenaWrites #1W3L
I patted her shoulder and turned to leave Sharlayan's market. Some, like her, had chosen to leave their homeland as Fourchenault had offered, finding purpose elsewhere, and most everyone who did that was doing well. But I couldn't help but think of everyone who had not with dread.

#LenaWrites #1W3L
The urgent crimson of the cloth in my hands somehow reminded me of the red-lined diamond in the middle of Garlemald's emblem. For the blood of brotherhood, someone had told me. And then I remembered Quintus, and a feeling as cold as death crawled down my body, driving thought away.

#LenaWrites #1W3L
While pinned to the bed and trying to work off my coat somehow, I could not help smiling so wildly my face hurt; he almost never asked me whether I wanted to lie with him directly. There was always some roundabout path toward the notion, or even just a certain kind of kiss.

#LenaWrites #1W3L
"Hold still." I sloped the measuring strip over Gaius' far from formidable arse and then pretended to jot down a few notes.
"Is this really necessary?"
I leaned past his thigh and grinned up at him. "No. I already have what I need. I just wanted to fondle you."

#LenaWrites #1W3L
The problem with snowy days was that the stuff got all over Gaius' head during a stroll. The good thing was that it also got all over Lena's - and her ears, which she flicked endlessly every few seconds to dislodge the cold flakes. A sight at which he had no choice but to smile.

#LenaWrites #1W3L
I sprinted into an alleyway, a four-way intersection between buildings, and called the child's name again. The terror was as if he were my own, somehow. In the moment, I had never been so frightened. But a small voice answered me around the corner, and I sagged with relief.

YOU DISABLED QUOTE POSTS
#LenaWrites #1W3L
"You realize you didn't smile during that entire meeting, right?"
Gaius cast Lena a perturbed glance. "Need I have?"
"It's generally nice to smile at people."

#LenaWrites #1W3L
There was always a hand curled around Gaius' heart. Not a caress - a threat, a potential squeezing grip. And grief came like a ghost, like the cold of a snowy wind, ever present, bitter as tears. The phantoms of his children could not leave him, and he would not let them go away.

#LenaWrites #1W3L
I couldn't argue with him. Everything he had said had sounded pretty correct, or at least sincere. I had nothing to say.
Gaius stared at me, waiting for some kind of response.
My hand lifted in a vague gesture. "That's... neat! Ishgardian philosophers sure do have a lot to say."

#LenaWrites #1W3L
I could hear Gaius' minimal movements in the bath in the washroom, little splashes of water, barely present. From my vantage point on the bed, it was like smelling meat that had just started to cook on a grill. I grit my teeth and waited.

#LenaWrites #1W3L
If I closed my eyes I could feel the aether curled up in the little roots as thin as my thumbnail. I'd have to do that to know anything was happening; it hadn't breached the surface of the flowerpot's dirt. It had been days. "Herbs should grow faster than this," I huffed to myself.

watch out it's another temp pinned post whoa look out!!!!

TAGS
- #LenaLore for lore about Lena (and sometimes myself re: Lena)
- #LenaGposes for my gposes
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A long excerpt that reads: The haze at which he eventually arrived made him feel as though he were two ilms behind himself, looking through borrowed eyes. She reached up and caressed his face when he was done. “There’s a good boy,” she purred, her face fatigued and beautiful, and he shuddered with satisfaction. The silence of scattered breaths descended like gossamer silk thrown over them. Gaius leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers. Lena clutched his head in her hands and held him there, laughing softly, desperately. He brushed the ghost of a kiss against her lips. Her tail lashed lazily against his thigh. He dug his arms underneath her and gently moved his head past hers, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, completing the tight embrace. She moaned tiredly, a great exhalation of breath, and turned her face against his, nuzzling his hair with her nose. They stayed this way for a while, still except for tiny caresses, holding one another, heartbeat to heartbeat. Gaius’ face was buried in the blankets but he felt every ilm of her against his body. The remnants of his loneliness, once buried deep and now sated for this instant in time as he held another person so closely, keened pitifully inside him because this moment could not last forever. The bliss flooding him drowned it out in spectacular fashion. Separating from her at last felt like he was being peeled apart; the cold air rushed across his chest like a barrier being shoved between them, interrupted only by Lena’s hand running down his chest as he moved. Sitting back on his heels, he slipped out of her, and beheld her reverent gaze as she grasped a fist over her heart and let her other hand drift over his fading arousal.

I'm still really proud of this passage from Call Me, my modernized Etheirys AU. for context, this is the first time Gaius and Lena have slept together, and they just finished. Gaius has been alone for a long time, so it's very significant for him.
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Lena chooses to fight Zenos because, as a creature with a sole obsession with singular moments and an existence completely opposite to hers with which he dogs her heels, he will never leave her or the people she loves alone and cannot be allowed to live. I love Zenos.. ace king
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An 223 word excerpt that reads: “We will require a small amount of packing material,” he said, gesturing to the ostensibly delicate miniatures, his voice heavy but gentle with his sarcasm. Lena inhaled a long breath and shoved it out. “Right, we’ll probably need to order that. Oh, gods, this is going to take time. The last time I moved…” Gaius watched her close up like a startled clam. “How long have you lived here?” “About nine years.” “And you are truly ready to leave this place behind to live with me?” “I never liked it here anyway.” Her face was dark, her smile a sorry excuse for its like. “All my friends are online nowadays - there’s no one I have here. I never wanted to stay, but I never had any place to go.” Her gaze rose to him with a worried frown. “Not that I’m using you to get away, or something, I just…” “I was not under that impression.” “Good.” Her lips closed, then parted again, and it seemed as though a word rose up to her throat and stopped there. It was expelled silently in a breath instead. Again Gaius felt a painful yearning in his breast to know of her past and her problems. Again the flame of it flared and then hissed to silence as he snuffed it between a hardened heart’s fingers.

it's wip wesunday. here's a bit from the latest unfinished chapter of Call Me. they're at Lena's apartment getting ready to move her out.
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a 250 word excerpt that reads: I felt Gaius tense next to me. Alphinaud grimaced and stepped forward. “‘Tis true that war’s misery brings a longing for peace,” he conceded. “But I have seen with my own eyes what becomes of an empire forged through the violence you propose—the rebellions it spawned, and the ruins it left behind.” Zoraal Ja countered in a flat voice, “The Garlean Empire was a congregation of simpletons.” Gaius’ hands balled into fists. His face twisted with the opening sparks of rage subdued by decorum. I touched his wrist softly. “The oppressed fought back against their oppressors. As well they should.” Zoraal Ja looked directly at Gaius. “Men are not beasts. Only a fool would seek to rule over all with the threat of force alone.” Sareel Ja added, “This is why Gulool Ja Ja did not elevate the Mamool Ja; why he treated all clans with equal respect. However!” He raised a finger. “The First Promise has his gaze fixed upon more distant horizons! He would unite not only Tuliyollal, but the star in its entirety!” “And how, exactly, would you wage your war so unoppressively?” Gaius said, his voice low with challenge, eyes dangerous. “Tell me, how is it that you will subjugate entire nations while treating them as purported equals? How will you spill rivers of blood with no resistance brought to bear against you while teaching this so-called lesson of peace with misery as your tool? How does your war differ from mine?”

I've been thinking of this scene literally since day 1 of Dawntrail, when I watched the cutscene near the beginning where Zoraal Ja said that the Garleans were a congregation of simpletons. that's when I was 100% certain I was bringing Gaius to Tural.
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A 282 word excerpt reading: “Shall we test that idea here and now?” He leaned down closer to her. “See if your strength is ‘equal’ to ours?” I’d had enough. I strolled out from behind Wuk Lamat and toward the giant. “Lena—” Krile protested uselessly. I pretended to examine the nail on my middle finger as I drew closer, and I pulled aether through my focus like I was slurping a drink through a straw and pumped it into the limb, building wind and strength and potential into my flesh. Bakool Ja Ja watched me with confidence and curiosity. I meandered up to the two-headed Mamool Ja’s knee, which was thicker than my head, and I reached out, priming my middle finger with my thumb. I cleared my throat, and flicked his knee. His leg went flying backwards under a burst of air and power, bending as far as it could go, and before he could pull it back with a startled cry, he was forced down into a kneel, thumping the ground. “That’s better,” I said, patting his chest. I turned away and returned to my party. As I reached Wuk Lamat, who stared at me dumbfounded, I turned around to lean affably against her side and face Bakool Ja Ja and the rage blossoming on his features. He surged to his feet so quickly it was almost a jump. “You will regret this, little kitten,” the left head snarled. “You promise?” I asked flirtily, smiling.

I'm gonna start leaning into Lena being powerful as all get out in the fic. it's fucking Dawntrail, she's saved the world several times and the universe once, let her rule the world figuratively as a treat. an example, meeting Bakool Ja Ja for the first time. (WIP)
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I forgot to post about it because I'm bad at advertising myself sometimes, but I posted the latest chapter of my Stardew Valley Wizard Romance fic last night! 🥰

An excerpt reading: The cold of my dark new home pressed against my white mage robes like a lover seeking solace against my frame. My eyes lifted, crawling the gray stone neck of the unlit fireplace on the wall just beyond a low table embraced by a set of two couches, and I peered at the ceiling. High above, but not extremely. The light from the dreary sky outside barely touched it. The empty shelves at the back of the room gaped at me. “You’ll find your quarters above, on the second floor, and a second set of quarters in the basement below.” My steward’s voice was kind like his aged face. Among Edmont’s staff, he had been the first to volunteer for managing my household. “Great,” I said faintly, gazing around at this place that was mine now. To live in. “Is it not to your liking from your first impressions?” “No!” I whipped around, blinking. “It’s just a little surreal. I—Lena, the Warrior of Light—have been living out of inns and in a little cubby with the Scions for years. I’ve never had a…home before.” Confusion and concern bubbled up through his features but no questions emerged. I could already sense what he wanted to ask. What about before the Scions? And I would say, Well, I don’t remember and I don’t like to talk about it. “Very well.” “I think,” I started, and stopped with my lips parted, my eyes still roaming around. There was a tapestry of the Ishgardian flag on the wall. “I think I wanna explore on my own.”

The second part of the excerpt reading: “Shall I await your summons in the morn?” “Yeah.” I smiled up at him. “Thanks.” He bowed deeply and left through the front door behind me with all the noise of a ghost. The silence he left in his wake was like a giant hand squeezing my body. My ears rang with its hollow cacophony, my tail twitching slightly with the pulse of my blood beating against my insides. I wandered a few steps into the room, toward the table and couches, whose fabric looked as soft as it was probably expensive. The fireplace was stocked with hardy logs. With a deep breath, I raised my hand and pulled through a little bit of my own aether to light a spark. The light of the flames came like sunrise. The room was bathed in a soft warmth. I sat on the cold stone floor and not the couch and I couldn’t even think of why. My thin pants provided little barrier against the chill. Cross-legged, I stared into the maturing fire and listened to the silence retreat before its crackling. My fire, in my home. To be made when I wanted and quenched when I was done. Every moment licked by that warmth was another letter added to the words of acceptance my heart was writing. The awe receded slightly. The rest of the house began to beckon instead of yawning like the mouth of a monstrous cave. I began to believe. I was home.

a question earlier reminding me of Lena receiving a home in Ishgard to live in got me thinky thonking about the moment she first walked into it. so I wrote this out of nowhere. and it felt really good!
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