#Hestia (Azem) He/They

[sntoot]

maybe someday ill make more idk i just wanted to mess around

[lily-ohfally]

[eorzeashan]

It's nice that there's subtle changes when you pick different dialogue options now, faint as they are. Compared to telling Themis that "we need you," as opposed to "you must pass judgment on Athena", the former elicits a warm smile from him. The latter however, does not, as it ignores their bond to go straight to business (a bit like Lahabrea's reactions).

I was surprised at the minor difference especially doing so on Nya given that he's usually quite warm and affectionate, but I like the thought that he's developed into a bit of devout dutifulness after experiencing so much grief emotionally and chosen to accept that above falling into despair. The framing here felt very holy as well- what a sight for Elidibus.

Something also tells me this change of his was brought about because something in him remembered Lahabrea.

[arty-ffxiv]

Count(Down) to Dawntrail: Day V - Endwalker

“She’s late,” Hades gumbled to himself.

“Be patient- you know she’s not the type to forget.” Hades let out a long, heavy sigh. Hythlodaeus was nothing if not an optimist. Irritatingly so.

A warm breeze picked up, sending the sweet scent of flowers dancing across Elpis. Another beautiful, peaceful day.

And yet.

She was late.

“I can’t wait all day,” Hades began again, “Unlike some, I have important work to do.”

If Hythlodaeus heard his comment, he didn’t give any indication. He continued to lounge on the strewn carpets of the Mourning Dew, watching as a minuscule petalouma fluttered upon his outstretched finger. Hades didn’t know where he’d found it, nor who had decided to make the beast so absurdly small.

Hades scowled and scoffed again, louder this time.

“If she’s not here in the next-”

“-Hades, I’m hurt! You didn’t think I’d leave you waiting too long, now?” The feminine voice chastised playfully and Hades’ gaze snapped up to meet hers.

“About time, Azem.”

“Bah, formalities!” She grimaced, making Hythlodaeus laugh.

“It’s good to see you again,” Hythlodaeus sat up and petted the ground at his side. She grinned, taking Hades’ arm in hers despite his protests and dragging him over to sit with them.

“It's good to be back! Thank you both for meeting me- it’s been too long since we had the chance to share the same space.”

Hades rolled his eyes, but then she grinned at him with such disarming, radiant joy that he couldn’t help but let his earlier irritation abate. His greeting came at a whisper.

“...Welcome home, Hestia.”

[reassambled-dragoon]

15: Free day, choice: Family

Under Read More because this is exploring the Ancients. Endwalker spoilers!

   She closed the front door with a contented sigh, cool water dripping from her tousled white-and-gold hair and onto the black mask dangling from the front of her wet robes. She slowly took the cumbersome things off and neatly hung them over the drip-mat, toeing her shoes off to rest on the rack, then stretched and padded through the flat. A smile came to her lips as the soft sounds of music and laughing voices drifted in the air. It seemed at least some of her family was home.

   She meandered through the living room, extending a hand to brush the petals of cultivated lilies–cultivated, not created. She always thought that natural scents were so much sweeter than those spawned from concepts, much to her husbands’ amusement. Hythlodaeus constantly teased her, trying to coax her into making a concept of a flower containing all of her favorite scents, to which Hades invariably gave sarcastic suggestions. His latest list included musty book, fried chicken, and molten gold.

   “–not supposed to discuss these matters,” a deep, young man’s voice said, coming from the library, though it was hesitant, not self-assured. Something made her pause, just out of sight of the open doorway. “I am sorry, Cassandra.”

   “So you’re going to disregard what I’ve Seen?” Cassandra sounded tense and exasperated. She didn’t need to see what was happening; she knew her eldest would be throwing her hands skyward and was likely glaring at Themis. “I don’t need to know the details, but you and Mother need the warning.”

   “Cass.” Themis’s voice dropped too low for further easy eavesdropping. She silently moved away before those two could notice her presence, her relaxation replaced with confusion.

   Cassandra was Hades’s child. Bright, brilliant, earnest, and she had inherited her sire’s biting, sarcastic wit, the girl had a very interesting gift: She received visions of the future. Some were clear, most were vague, and all were very taxing upon the young woman who received them. Themis was one of the few who could correctly interpret those visions, but was unable to visit as often as he used to, due to his recent elevation to the Seat of Elidibus. Something about this latest vision must have been urgent enough to bring the young man here tonight, given he usually spent his days buried in books.

   She shook her head as she entered the bedroom she and her husbands shared. There was nothing for it; either the child of her blood and the child of her heart would come to an agreement and tell her about this mysterious warning, or she would have to meditate and invite the vision to enlighten her as well. Chancy, always chancy, but sometimes, she could make it work.

   “Hestia?”

   She jerked her head up and turned from the window. Hades was directly behind her, his forehead furrowed in concern for once, not habitual exasperation. Hythlodaeus waited just inside the bedroom, his lavender-dyed hair still damp. Obviously it was still raining. “...ah. I didn’t hear you two come in.”

   “Obviously.” Hades rolled his golden eyes slightly, but never took his focus away from her. “And just as obviously, you decided your private clothing was adequate for our guest.”

   “Themis has never been a guest, and never will be,” Hestia corrected quietly but firmly. She saw Hythlodaeus’s nod. “He is family. He has always been family. Or should you and I no longer be husband and wife, as we are also Emet-selch and Azem?”

   Hades flinched, as he always did when this argument came up. And, as always, Hythlodaeus moved closer so he could encircle them both in a warm, loving embrace. The traditionalist, the envisionist, and the tether keeping them both connected and grounded.

   The patter of water against the window ceased, a brilliant burst of sunshine suddenly beaming through as Hestia kissed her loves with all of her heart. “I’m not leaving this family. The gods will have to come down here and drag me away first. Now, look. The rains have ceased, and we’ve been blessed with a beautiful sunset. Shall we gather the children and have supper outside? It would be a shame to not see it ourselves.”

[valebatcattus]

He’s only watching her with a raised brow. Yes, he is judging Hestia. For what, on the other hand – only Azem knew. Perhaps it had to do with their missing Emissary.

She gave him a prim look right back. "As I said, I'm afraid I can't tell you what happened to our beloved Emissary. Perhaps he's simply having a lie-in, or taking a vacation?"

More like she'd sneakily disabled the alarm before leaving for the morning so he'd finally get some rest but damned if she'd admit as much.

[sntootsntoot]

new pinned post to make finding things easier!

main blog here -- i post first there and tend to ramble in tags. here i just rb with bare minimum tags, so if you want more rambling about the art, go to the original post!

ffxiv stuff:

Hoso Suzuki  (he/they)  [toyhouse page] Batu Dataq  (they/them)  [toyhouse page] Uuriintuya Geneq  (she/they)  [toyhouse page]

Hestia/Azem tag  (they/them)

dnd stuff: [dnd tag]  /  [art of npcs tag]

Atalanta Ramos & Bluebell & Gladiolus Briosa (insert extremely long original name here) Ramos Lark (L46-0513) and Alix  [toyhouse page] Firebird & Crow the Raven

ocs: 

[oc tag] [old ocs tag that i dont feel like going back and changing]

[valebatcattusmoved]

👫 for ardbert & venat

Venat: (for fun we have two points in the canon timeline and one au)

Hestia met Venat when she was a teenager; this is when Venat decided to take her on a pupil in preparation for nominating her as her successor to the seat of Azem. Hestia flailed at her for a week about it.

in the twitch gamer modern day au where lumi and hestia are twins, venat is one of hestia's classmates at culinary school and sometimes joins hestia's cooking videos. these videos usually include at least one segment where venat offers zodiark something progressively more spicy each video just to see what he does. lumi thinks she is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

lumi got super fond of venat during the days she was in elpis, and was super upset venat sent her back and didn't allow her to stay and help or anything. she's held a slight grudge about that forever since even though she knows venat was right.

hestia was very upset with venat when she told her what the plan with hydaelyn was going to be; mostly because by that point she considered her a good friend and she realized she was going to lose her

Ardbert:

mock fighting's their thing; they flirt via insults. the more they insult each other, the more likely it is they're gonna need a room soon

ardbert's suffering Eternally when it comes to adventuring with lumi, because she can and will just eat an aoe to finish a spellcast so more than once he'd had to sprint across an entire fucking field to shield her from an aoe she probably shouldn't be eating

lumi likes to rub her cheek against his dumb scruff little beard and he just has to put up with it honestly. he'd rather die than admit he thinks it's cute tho

sometimes he just smothers her under blankets bc she's being annoying. it's fine.

[dravania]

HESTIA; beloved wife of Venat. She once traveled alongside her in her capacity as Azem and is especially gifted in restorative magicks, and food preparation. (While most of her food is extremely good, she sometimes experiments to less... satisfactory ends.) She and Venat love to dance and go on picnics together.

Retired as they are, she remains home more often now, though is always happy to join her dear Venat in her travels. She often spends idle time with Hythlodaeus sharing gossip; should Emet-Selch walk into a room where these two are present, he will promptly walk right back out.

[sntoot]

forcing myself to post the page of doodles before i can say just one more and end up with two full pages

i am willing to blame all of these on this fic again but the middle 3 r technically actually from specific pieces. the other stuff is just what had already been stewing in my brain that the fic reminded me of. (the wol is kindly being modeled by asleepinawell’s wol today. i forgot to put that on the last one when i drew him 😭)  im obsessed with the idea of there always being a space if one of the three is missing. been messing around with it for a while but this gave me an excuse to try and illustrate it. also to play around with how different things look when you copy paste most of the lines and only change a select few. always fascinates me how a single line can completely change an expression

[sntoot]

more of azem lore sketches, they did not listen to their father at all

[sntoot]

first 3 doodles r pretty much directly from this fic, because i’m loving all the interactions in it so much (tho i subbed batu in as the wol because i know how to draw them easily and they would totally ask hythlodaeus can’t use aetherytes??)

i have no explanation for anything else really. hestia always sneaks into my page of sketches bc i like to color their hair

[sntoot]

ironically i didnt truly learn how to play sge until well after i did this, but i think it holds up for hestias style of healing (yoinks aether from the enemies to use to protect their friends)

cant decide if aether chain would be like fairy tether or kardia tho bc im biased towards sch gameplay

[lily-ohfally]

[ENDWALKER SPOILERS]

I was having violent HaurcheLily thoughts when I thought about unsundered Haurche and what if him and (Lily's) Azem were lovers? I love Hades/Hyth/Azem poly but my HaurcheLily brain is too strong.. An unnamed Ancient who loved to travel and loved the thrill of adventure. He meets Hestia (Azem) on one of their travels and the two end up traveling together, Hestia being a healer and [ ] being a tank, making the two very compatible. They explore together, helping those in need and aid each other in battle. They both love the world so much and eventually that love falls on the other. They start seeing each other as more than just a travel companion. Eventually their feelings blossom into a relationship where both can call each other "my love" and "my dear".

[sntoot]

black lipstick (sharable)

[sntoot]

i was just messing around and suddenly hades has a rock collection... hestia also has no idea whats going on ever but they think hades is funny when he explains rocks in detail

(hestia looks weird bc they spent the very early years of their life as a guinea pig for creation magic reactions on babies/children. yeah its super messed up to do that, thats why im assuming it would be illegal...)