#Azem: Icarus

[humblemooncat]

Remember us... remember that we once lived.

Was having some feelings about Icarus and Hades before the fight, and now that we've finished it up, I feel I can post these.

He wasn't quite the angel Hades thought would come to guide him to the lifestream, but he was a welcome one.

The last they spoke, Icarus unmade himself in a fit of rage and defiance, leaving his embers to scatter across the shards. Needless to say Hades seeing him again in this, his final hour, was somewhat ironic.

[yloiseconeillants]

MAYNCIENT :: Day 3 - Friends

She's got a lot of them!

Iris and Ariadne are my terrible ancients

Icarus - @hermits-hovel

Timoria - @lilbittymonster; Minthe @tallbluelady

Panthea - @whatsthisascianbullshit; Erasmos - @azure-dragonsinger

Ares Nemo - @abyssalmermaiden

Mnemosyne - @hermits-hovel; Outis - @mythandral

Kytheon - @mythandral

[tearlunars]

you are nothing like her... she was a menace but everytime she departed in one of her travels my soul would ache just like it sang when she came back. but... she never truly gave her heart to anyone. it was hers and hers alone to bear. that is the only thing you both have in common.

[nightmareopera]

The world has gone mad today and good's bad today And black's white today and day's night today

(antonio and icarus belong to @hermits-hovel)

[fourfoldfires]

oh, and these colours fade for you only hold me, carry me slowly, my sunlight

[autumnslance]

FFXIV Write 2023 Day 9: Fair

(Endwalker Spoilers; Ancients and Incarnations over time)

“I still don’t know what this is meant to do, little brother,” Pandora said, indulging him anyway by sitting as directed in the center of the array he had painstakingly etched into the floor of her abode.

“An idea only, dear sibling; I’ll let you know how the hypothesis turns out,” Icarus answered. “If it does, that is. Either way, I’ll get a complete reading of your aetheric signature, for comparison with my own for a few other experiments I have in mind.”

“Always so mysterious,” she said. “Can I nap while you’re doing your work?”

He laughed. “If you wish.” He stepped into his own part of the array. 

Hours later she awoke when the SNAP of the spell’s completion took hold. “Wha—? Oh, I did not mean to sleep so long, you should have—Icarus?”

He panted on a pile on the floor. Her only hesitation came from making sure the work was complete, or at least moving across the array wouldn’t harm either of them, or whatever work he was doing.

The array was warm from the aftereffects only, whatever workings he was up to complete for now. Pandora rushed over, picking him up. “Did it work?” Whatever this newest whimsy of her strange younger brother was.

He looked at her for a long moment, then frowned and shook his head. “I…am not sure. I may need to do some further research. Thank you for indulging me, at least, though I can’t imagine others will be pleased I have wasted Azem’s time.”

“Oh, they can think whatever; I’m allowed to spend time with my brother. Though really, Icarus, don’t let me nap so long,” she teased.

He smiled wanly, allowing her to drag him out of his lab to fuss over him as when they were children, making sure he ate well before sending him to bed.

=

“Enter!” Icarus called at the knock on his door.

Hythlodaeus entered, cheerful as ever. “Icarus, my friend, it’s been—” He stopped. Stared, blinked. “...What have you done?” he whispered.

“It did work then,” Icarus said, slumping back in his chair as the soulseer stalked around him, examining from all angles.

“Not as bad as I feared at first glance,” Hythlodaeus muttered. “And I will have to look at our dear Azem, once she’s returned from her latest traipse around the world. But from what I can tell, your soul is now tied to hers, elements of Pandora’s very essence entwined with your own.”

“I was running an experiment, and…it did not all go to plan, and I thought this might be a result. Hence my invitation to you.”

“And before Emet-Selch sees you, or her.”

“I’ve never had your nor Pandora’s patience for dealing with Hades’ irascibility.”

“Oh, he’s not so bad,” Hythlodaeus said, as expected. “Still, what prompted such a measure?”

Icarus looked into those trusting violet eyes, and wished he could tell him about the forgotten events of that fateful trip to Elpis. Even standing on the sidelines, not having gone into Ktisis Hyperboreia—and good thing he hadn’t—Icarus knew far too much. Things he couldn’t tell to anyone, and especially not to the trio of men involved, though two of them counted among his oldest friends.

But Venat had been adamant about their duty to the future that Aeryn, that strange young woman so much like his own sister, sought to save.

“One of those Possibilities I’m always Dreaming,” Icarus settled on saying. “I do worry about Pandora on her travels, even though I know she’s far more capable than most.”

“You’ve ever watched out for her, despite being the younger,” Hythloodaeus said fondly. “I’ll see about smoothing things over with Emet-Selch, so he’s not surprised and only mildly crabby about it when next you meet.”

They shared a laugh, and then Icarus offered a drink and meal, and time to catch up as friends ought to.

While there was still time to do so.

=

That night, Icarus had one of his Dreams in truth. He woke in fourteen different worlds, again and again and again through time.

Then thirteen. Then twelve. Eleven. Ten. Nine. Eight…

His reborn selves struggled, and fought, against unfortunately familiar faces, and not so familiar. Dark against Light. Failing to save those worlds over and over and over, the shining Source remade again and again, the devastated people barely picking up the pieces before they were crushed once more.

But through it all, his sibling was there. Brilliant, brave, unyielding, fighting to the last, even when all was hopeless, bursting with light and hope to guide mankind day after day after day.

And every time—every single time through multiple millennia and worlds—Icarus fell first.

He could not attain the same heights as his shining sibling, no matter how he tried.

“I want to help!” He cried out as he reached for a young man—brown hair, blue eyes, carrying an axe. But Icarus—in a woman’s body, feverish—could not reach him, darkness taking his future self before she could aid her brother in his quest to save their world.

Then Icarus saw her. The woman from Elpis; Aeryn Striker.

He held her in his arms for the first time, her baby face scrunched up, but he could see her, knew her, would do anything for her. She was his sibling, now and always through space and time.

Icarus’s actual self, watching his future self’s life, remembered belatedly that Aeryn had spoken of her brother in the past tense.

“No!” he cried as he watched another disaster, another loss.

He knew what was coming for this incarnation of Pandora. He knew what struggles Aeryn would face. “She needs help! She needs me, please!”

“Icarus.”

He turned at the almost-familiar voice. A gleaming figure stood before him, hard to make out.

“It isn’t fair!” he shouted to the future divinity. “I meant to help her!”

“And thou does,” She said. “Every time.”

“But I fail—”

“Never, old friend.”

“She can’t do this alone,” he sobbed. “She shouldn’t have to; it’s too much for any one person!”

“She won’t be alone.”

Images filled his mind, memories of Aeryn’s stories of her friends, but now they had faces, voices. People who stood beside her, to the very end.

Icarus simply wasn’t one of them. Forever on the sidelines, the little brother left behind once again.

“One of thy future selves gave himself unto me, to strengthen me so that I might complete my duty to her and her companions,” the gleaming divinity said. “Thus may we speak, in this Between space of thy Dreams. But thou must wake now, dear friend, and live the life given to thee, in the time in which it was given. Leave the future in our friend’s capable hands.”

He felt hands on his shoulders, a motherly kiss on his forehead.

Icarus awoke, truly this time, in his own bed in Amaurot, face and pillow soaked, sheets thrown aside.

He stared at his darkened ceiling for a long time.

=

“I never did ask about that experiment you ran last year,” Pandora said, the next time they were together, when Azem returned to Amaurot and regaled her brother with her latest adventures, after reporting to the rest of the Convocation. “Emet-Selch grumbled something about it leaving each other’s aetheric residue on our souls, or somesuch.”

“Oh, that,” Icarus said, looking into his teacup. The siblings were in the privacy of her home, and so their masks hung from their necks, leaving eyes visible and honest. “It…didn’t turn out as I expected, unfortunately, and I’ve no real way of salvaging it. Pay it no mind.”

“If you say so; you sound terribly disappointed.”

“I am, but,” he shrugged, and then smiled at her. “We try, and fail, and try again. Meanwhile—I’m just happy to have this time with you, here and now.”

She beamed, and it was like seeing the sun come out after a long winter night. He would do anything to stay in the orbit of that warmth. Pandora squeezed his hand. “I’m happy to spend time with you too, little brother.”

“...Might I make a request of Azem, then?” he asked.

“If you must; I won’t be able to play favorites though, if it’s an official matter."

“No, not really, I just…Might I come with you? On your next journey?”

She blinked her own kaleidoscope eyes and then beamed even brighter. “I’d love nothing more than to adventure next to my brother,” she said. “It won’t always be easy—”

“But we’ll be together, for a time,” he said. “And that’s all that matters, and all I want.”

‘And I pray it will be enough to keep you moving ahead, even should I fall.’

[greater-amaurot-polycule]

we're lost :) // we are not lost =n=

what's better than one azem? three azems! (scumbag caucus adventures w/ erasmos @azure-dragonsinger and icarus @hermits-hovel)

[autumnslance]

Pandora came to me randomly when I had no intention of writing or naming an Azem at all, not long after 5.0 when we still didn't know they were Azem or anything much about the 14th. Over time she's revealed a few things to me.

A comment on one of my first stories was about that last gift of hope, and Elpiphoros seems to be another title/name for her, from some real general reading up. Which, given the WoL's role and Endwalker, seems rather fitting.

Also her sibling is Icarus, the guy who flew so close to the sun he burned and fell, and I do feel like there's some symbolism there, given how my Icarus chases after Pandora, and tries to remain in her soul's orbit through the millennia he's foresees, but his reincarnations, while aiding the Warriors of Light, always fall first.

1/1/24

What is your wol(oc)'s ancient's name? Why did you pick that name? does it have any symbolic reasons?

[koukouture]

No because some of ya’lls Azems make me INSANE bc so many people choose names of Greek Mythology figures and just thinking of the way Azem’s story played out vs the symbolism of those names can tell me a lot about your Azem and it’s so spicy-

Obviously Persephone is a pretty popular one because of Emet Selch being Hades. The goddess of spring and the king of the underworld- the traveler that helps the living and the man who oversees the dead. It’s soooo yummy too because of Persephone not being around 100% of the time which is so perfect for the way Azem left and how WoL in their reincarnation to whom Hades/Emet Selch is a complete stranger yet again. “It’s time for spring” but spring and rebirth only come for Azem. Anyways I think Emet Selch should watch Hadestown

Another one I saw was Apollo which is more straightforward bc Azem is the sun. Nothing much I just love that a lot. Bonus points if as WoL they’re a bard.

I also saw Icarus which makes me INSANE. Oh my god. Icarus who flew to close to the sun but therein lies the paradox that Azem IS the sun. Maybe they’re self destructive, prideful, or they were ultimately their own undoing. Yeah I just have thoughts.

On TikTok I saw Hercules as well which is also very cool because Hercules is obviously a “hero” and you know, WoL is the hero of the main story so it’s just really nice. Like depending on who you are your WoL and Azem can be completely different or exactly the same or somewhere in between- but the fact still remains that Azem’s adventurous and helpful disposition are things that WoL inherited.

Now, personally, I didn’t choose a Greek mythology name for my Azem. I know most of the Ancients are Greek names but not me because I need to be quirky✨ Kinda jk but her name is Lucifer just bc I cannot think of a myth that suits her or her personality/theme. I mean, even then Lucifer doesn’t 100% suit her thematically but I’ve grown too attached to the name and already built a lot of her character around the title of Morningstar. Bc to me the Morningstar is a brilliant star- so brilliant that it’s a false sun and uh yeah you can probably guess what she’s about just by that word “false”

Okie I done rambling I go eep now

[starlit-heir]

hhhh not me constantly accidentally referring to icarus with 'they' since that was first concept for nakei's azem...

icarus is she, not they, i'm just a forgetful dummy that has forgotten the actual concept i stuck with :'D

[humblemooncat]

Playing around with Lohi again today, and had some Thoughts on his Azem. :3c

Headcanon and extra refs under the cut. <3

I've changed his name from Helios to Icarus, because this man was always prone to metaphorical immolation, as well as a couple actual cases of self-immolation.

His sundering especially was extremely dramatic, even for him, and came at the very moment he took his phoenix form as a meteor was about to make impact. A very poetic declaration that "I will be back" (Did he know this at the time? No. Absolutely not. But gods know he was fed up and didn't feel like dealing with the Convocation anymore. So since they're "returned to the lifestream" upon completion of duty-)

Once Lohi touches the stone, a VERY vivid echo plays in his mind from Hades' PoV of this, as the stone sears his palm. At first, "Hades" being the person he's viewing from doesn't make sense, then when he reveals his name upon the final battle, Lohi can't help but feel a pang in his heart.

Thus, this headcanon⁠ is seen by him as a mercy. He'd suffered enough.

Extra shots of Icarus

[yloiseconeillants]

We'll meet again Don't know where Don't know when But I know we'll meet again Some sunny day

Finally posed that rooftop party I have been threatening to pose since I moved to pc, with 15 minutes to spare before maintenance, even. The GAP and friends are (first photo, left to right):

Outis @mythandral

Mnemosyne @hermits-hovel

Hades, our Collective OC

Minthe @tallbluelady

Daedalus @azure-dragonsinger

Erasmos @azure-dragonsinger

Icarus @hermits-hovel

Kytheon @mythandral

Timoria @lilbittymonster

Panthea @whatsthisascianbullshit

Ares Nemo @abyssalmermaiden

Iris and Ariadne are my awful clowns

[tearlunars]

thinks about how when i pose azem she's like the wife that dies in the beginning of a movie

[aetherstorms]

My Azem was named Icarus for the sun imagery and also for 'flying too close'. He was very independent and died alone trying to find the solution to the Final Days, his last moments a flash of white light.

WoLQotd! If you have Azem/Ancient OCs, what are their names and how did you come up with them?

[fourfoldfires]

long time no lahazem

[autumnslance]

A thought occurs, given the recent WoLverse post(s)... Has Aeryn bumped into a Shard on the First or Thirteenth that could be her brother's? And if so... how well/badly did that go? :3

On the First, I headcanoned a sister for Ardbert, who would have been Zaine's shard. They also initially planned to go adventuring together, but she had a lover on their little island, ended up pregnant, and so Ardbert went off into the world on his own.

(This was also part of my initial "silly meta" given I was just using the base Meteor and Lady Midlander CGI models, with color tweaks, for Aeryn and Zaine, and we had Ardbert in the HW patches and knew vaguely, when I wrote "Bonded", only that we were going to see the Champions of the First again in the newly-announced Shadowbringers, and little else of the expac at the time. It was supposed to just be a ha-ha-funny coincidence. I should have known better.)

After defeating Mitron and Lohgrif and realizing "oh no!" Ardbert returned home...to find his sister and her child both dead to an accident, and his brother-in-law lost in a bottle over it. Ardbert, having already sacrificed his best friends, said one last goodbye at his sister's grave as Elidibus walked up, waiting on Ardbert to finish himself to ferry the fallen champions to the Source.

That was part of a story about the cycles of rebirth between Zaine, Ardbert's unnamed sister OC, and my Ancient OC Icarus. Ao3 link, as that version was heavily revised from the original prompt.

So Aeryn never got to meet Zaine's First shard, though she and Ardbert talked a lot about their late siblings during those long evenings in the Pendants.

As for the Thirteenth...either Durante or Rubicante would fit the bill, and I lean on Durante.

With the sibling soulmates the way things normally happen is Icarus's soul falls first, leaving Pandora's to carry onward. Icarus was with Venat in Elpis and met Aeryn. The tiniest sliver of Icarus's soul/aether/whatever is extant in her--and if our favorite pair of soulseers would have seen Zaine, they'd see the teeniest sliver of Pandora in him. Icarus did not join the party in Ktisis Hyperboreia, so retained his memories. As ever, he was desperate to help his sibling--even a reincarnation of her, who was herself Icarus's friend. Bolstered by the idea of that tiny sliver, he performed a risky magic to tie his and Azem's souls together (I really need to get last year's FF14 Write up on Ao3). But his own prophetic ability also showed him his reincarnations would always die before hers. That when Aeryn spoke of her brother in the past tense, it was because that was Icarus's modern reincarnation--who didn't make it out of Louisoix's spell (because he offered his strength to Hydaelyn).

Part of the problem with the Thirteenth is that the cycle is disrupted and then broken. Golbez (who I personally think was the WoL/Azem shard) was corrupted and Durante forced to Memoria him. Which then led to Durante breaking down and taking up Golbez's identity so the world would know their "true hero." It's all choices made of despair that I can see Zaine making, especially given the lengths his precursor was willing to go to, to stay with his heroic sibling and help her across millennia.

However, neither modern Golbez nor Aeryn have realized that connection, and no one they travel with currently has the necessary gifts to see it. So it doesn't come up during the story, nor matter at all before, during, or after. He's his own person, and has made his own choices--including, now, to hope again.

--

(I tend to think Zero is actually Zenos's shard, given the resonance of their aether to make her his avatar, and it makes for some interesting parallels about their potentials and how their natures and lives led them. And canon-Durante is another extraordinary hero the same way our Scion pals are. But overall I also don't worry about that all too much; those characters are themselves in the end. And all is subject to revision based on future canon revelations/changes.)