NOVEM.

LATHER THE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS.

[heirbane]

(WHY DON'T YOU STAY HERE, UNDER MY TAIL?)

private, selective, and adult only writing and character exploration blog for Gaius Baelsar from Final Fantasy XIV. the content on this blog is not intended for minors or those with triggers that include guns, war, ptsd, mental illnesses, suicide ideation, power play, complicated relationships, age gap ships, or violence. read my FULL rules, updated May 2026.

Personals are welcome to follow and like posts but please do not reblog headcanons or roleplays. You will be blocked.

CARRD.

[heirbane]

Slow work day ft. Gaius. Mentions of wounds, scarring, body image/fluctuations, etc under the cut.

Gaius, even by the Garlean standards, is pretty damn tall. His mother's statue and figure would have been to die for in Eorzean tabloids - waifish and as lanky as a Gridanian willow.

Her son inherited her height and more. By the time he was twenty summers, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her. By the time he was twenty five, he had finished growing - standing close to six fulms, seven ilms barefoot.

Even before he earned his Legatus status and the suit of armor that he became known for, Gaius was not a man easily overlooked. By the time he was a quarter century old, he had lost the roundness of youth and the gangly limbs that oft follow Garleans into their early twenties. He had broad shoulders and large, calloused hands, his musculature defined by the sheer amount of hours he poured into training others and honing himself. The marks of growth lined the back of his knees and under his arms - far faded and nigh lost to time by he retires.

His suit of armor gave him a sort of heft that the man truly didn't possess. He was built more for endurance than sheer powerhouse strength. As is his moniker, Gaius was better suited to stalking his prey and wearing it down than going immediately for their throats. However, he still has hours and hours of strength training behind him. He isn't the brick house that some other in his field are, but he is not wanting - especially after becoming Legatus.

His suit of armor proves to be the man's biggest hurdle after gaining his title. Mostly engineered metal and full of electronics for easy access to communicators, maps, and other important documents, it weighs an easy fifty pounds in it's first incarnation. With Nero under him, the suit comes under multiple iterations; by the time A Realm Reborn occurs, it is closer to seventy five pounds.

(To say he slept hard the first few weeks of wearing it is an understatement. He did everything he could to get used to the weight of his new title, from running laps with weighed vests and sparring new recruits in the armor for hours at a time.)

Where he may have been thinner in the lower ranked uniform, he blooms into a new person now - gaining muscle so swiftly that the stretched skin of youth returns, angry and red.

The armor does much and more to protect him, but he went two decades in the military before he earned it. As a green recruit and a lower ranked official, his uniform left much more exposed to attack. No one comes out of the Garlean military unscathed, and Gaius is no exception.

He has been shot. He has been stabbed and cut by the enemy and had small bones broken by his fellow recruits in spars. Shrapnel pockmarks his calves and knees; scars envelop his hands and between his fingers from young, sloppy knifework. He had his skull fractured and broken his orbital bone during the confrontation at Silvertear, leaving him to wallow in his failure in a medbay back in Garlemald for several weeks. The recovery of that event was the worst he had been through before Praetorium, as it also forced him to have multiple fake teeth put in on one side of his mouth.

I've covered his Praetorium injuries fairly thoroughly. He suffers such burns to his arm that many would have amputated it to avoid gruesome infection, at the cost of phantom limb pain after. He broke a bone in his leg, dislocated his shoulder, and fractured several ribs. It was not one wound but the culmination of all of them that made his recovery period rough and tumultuous.

After the Legatus died, the man began to lose some of his strength: no longer does he have to endure wearing his metal facade. Compounded with bed rest and an inability to walk afterwards, Gaius does experience some muscle wasting and weakness - but given the extraordinary health and fitness he had been in prior, his "wasting" is not on par with the average soldier. It takes him months to fully return to a sense of normality, but with a new need to pay for food and lodging, he can't rest forever. He takes up odd jobs and quests, fighting much as any usual adventurer would, and spars with Severa and Valdeaulin in between.

Some habits of military work are hard to break. He still jogs several malms a week, despite his pace being much slower than before and off-kilter due to his leg injury. He still does the minimum push-ups and sit-ups that are required of a recruit, even if he had to adjust to his numb arm not holding weight. Gaius is no longer at the peak of health or fitness, and what muscle mass he has lost seems to have been filled in with a few extra pounds in his torso and thighs.

His tenacity and his unbroken habits do aid him come Endwalker, when facing a Blasphemy is needed - and he learns that some things simply never break. He leans back into his leader voice and way of being without realizing it, and while his "legion" includes farmers and odd villagers and he is slower than he used to be, they are able to overtake the beast with relatively little repercussions.

(Gaius doesn't speak of the fact that he aches afterward. He knows he is past his prime, and he knows he is wanting for practice. It was done, and that is enough.)

[heirbane]

do you think gaius ever occasionally saw the weird shadowed figures in the imperial palace when he was up pacing way past dark and only put two and two together when he finally saw lahabrea later

[mcflymemes]

PROMPTS FOR SILENT ACTIONS THAT SAY A LOT *  i wrote these with the implication that the sender doesn't say a word before they perform the action. adjust as necessary, send 'reverse' for the reversal of the prompt

[ tug ] sender tugs receiver behind them during a tense moment

[ pull ] sender pulls receiver out of harm's way at the last second

[ tuck ] sender stares at receiver and quietly reaches up, tucking a fallen strand of hair behind receiver's ear

[ yank ] sender yanks receiver closer to them, ending up in semi-suggestive close proximity

[ steady ] sender grabs receiver's arm to steady them before they fall over

[ walk ] sender moves around receiver and walks closest to the street as they travel down the sidewalk, keeping receiver away from any potential danger in the roadway

[ untied ] sender drops to their knee and starts tying receiver's shoe for them

[ spoon ] sender lifts a spoon towards receiver's mouth, encouraging them to eat

[ trace ] sender traces receiver's lips with their thumb

[ pin ] sender pins receiver to a tucked-away spot in the shadows to avoid being caught

[ neck ] without a word, sender dips down to receiver's throat and kisses them soundly

[ handheld ] sender slips a hand behind their back and grabs receiver's fingers as they stand behind them

[ carry ] without asking, sender takes receiver's heavy bags from them and carries them

[ lock ] sender and receiver lock eyes across the room

[ drink ] sender brings receiver a drink and holds it to their lips, insisting they take a drink

[ reload ] sender reloads receiver's gun for them in the middle of a fight

[ shelter ] sender uses their body to shelter receiver from an explosion or attack

[ carry ] sender picks up receiver and carries them off the battlefield and into a safe spot before running back to the fight

[ toss ] from a secret hiding spot only receiver and sender can see as they avoid an enemy, sender silently gestures to receiver to toss them (their gun, something valuable, etc.)

[ stairs ] sender offers out a hand to help receiver ascend or descend a staircase

[ cover ] sender covers receiver's eyes so they don't witness something gruesome

[ fix ] sender comes up to receiver and fixes their collar and/or tie

[ shake ] to convince receiver not to do something, sender hastily shakes their head from a distance

[ watch ] from a distance, sender taps on their watch to show receiver they're running out of time

[ i'll go ] sender gently pushes receiver back, taking charge and insisting they will handle the dangerous task

[ reach ] through a locked gate, sender reaches for receiver's hand

[ ship ] as receiver's ship takes off from the planet, sender waves to them from the ground and watches them leave

[ protect ] after someone threatens receiver, sender rushes over and gets right in their face to protect them

[ punch ] after someone attacks receiver, sender rushes over and punches them in retaliation

[ nip ] sender playfully nips at receiver's neck

[ knuckles ] sender kisses receiver's knuckles in a polite gesture

[ squeeze ] sender gives receiver's butt a playful squeeze from behind

[ danger ] as an all-powerful receiver is about to lose control of their powers and cause massive damage, sender finds their eyes and tries to talk them down

[ goodbye ] without saying a word, sender approaches receiver and kisses them goodbye

[ wipe ] sender wipes a tear from receiver's face

[ location ] without saying anything and giving away the surprise, sender takes receiver to a secret spot

[ hold back ] sender has to hold back receiver from attacking someone

[ game ] sender lets receiver win a game they're playing

[ shower ] sender joins receiver in the shower they're taking

[heirbane]

my spouse has been showing me some prime-o h3ntai lately and i'm torn between using them as gpose inspiration, or as drawing inspiration

[handheldrope]

men at some time are masters of their fates

[videonoir]

it must be nice to be a man and make boring music just because you can now don't get me wrong, i'm a fan you're my second favorite frontman.

　　---and you could have me, if you weren't so afraid of me.

videonoir. an indie multimuse written by shamu. emphasis on original and female characters. ft. muses from dungeons and dragons, fallout, dragon age, star wars, horror, etc. dark themes will be present. 21+

[heirbane]

i can't control myself i'm making gaius in paralives i'll add his extra scars later when that works properly

[heirbane]

how did i do, old man enjoyers

[heirbane]

dottir

[heirbane]

making alta in paralives last night made me realize alta would really enjoy being a quiet nightowl. gives her some time to herself. on the flipside, after being in the military for like 40 years, gaius cannot *not* get up at 5 am. he can try and go back to sleep but he will awaken every single day before the sun comes up.

[narutwitter]

[heirbane]

Sometimes a hypocrite is nothing more than a man in the process of changing.

Dalinar Kholin, Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

[heirbane]

adjunct professor of garlean history and military.

[heirbane]

something something gaius has a wolf fang necklace, not because he's self-centered but because allie made it for him over a decade ago. it's had to be reinforced and re-wrapped with age, as she was maybe seven summers old when she first made it, and the leather cord has had to be replaced a time or two. he's scarcely taken it off at any time since he was gifted it, a child's attempt at a charm of safety, and - to allie's benefit - he hasn't died yet, so.

( he requests a similar offering for his partner, a little bit of his daughter and a little bit of himself in a gift that is incredibly unlike him. gaius is forever a practical gift giver at heart: but he has been proven, time and time again, that hope is practical, and it gives allie something to work on as she recovers from her trauma. the leather-corded necklace is of far better make than the one gaius has on his person, the thin, copper wire bent smoothly and with purpose, and is presented to his partner as an offering from both of them.

for their safety. for his peace of mind. for an old wolf to travel when he cannot.)

[heirbane]

I make you a box of darkness with a bird in its heart. Voltas of acoustics, instinct & metaphor. It is not enough To love you. It is not enough to want you destroyed.

Terrance Hayes, "American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassination"

[sandcvstles]

five-word sentences.

“ please just let me forget. ”

“ c'mon try to guess what. ”

“ just leave me alone already. ”

“ no, i’m not going to. ”

“ you can’t change my mind. ”

“ my mind is made up. ”

“ i’m not gonna let you. ”

“ don’t do that to me. ”

“ think about what you’re doing. ”

“ why aren’t you listening now? ”

“ i want to sleep forever. ”

“ you need to leave now. ”

“ i’ll always have your back. ”

“ now there’s no going back. ”

“ the view really is spectacular. ”

“ i didn’t think you’d care. ”

“ why can’t you trust me? ”

“ don’t even bother with clothes. ”

“ i don’t love you anymore. ”

“ i am a great person. ”

“ you are a tolerable drunk. ”

“ exactly, why are you awake? ”

“ i’m gonna ignore you now. ”

“ how is that not hilarious? ”

“ please just calm down now. ” 

“ i was already calm, asshole. ”

“ i can see your underwear. ”

“ i’m afraid you’ll replace me. ”

“ please stop losing your temper. ”

“ you can cry if needed. ”

“ you have to run away. ”

“ i just wanna be yours. ”

“ ashes, we all fall down. ”

“ i’m hoping you’ll understand me. ”

[heirbane]

Allie thinking she's just broken and maybe not really meant to fall in love and then she meets Severa, who flirts with the seaside cafe's bartending lady, and just realizes that Yes, she can Do That too.

(Allie really, really likes girls.)

[heirbane]

Wall of shame for these two losers