#azems familiar

[feralkwe]

how dare you make me sad

i mean, i hurt myself writing all of it. why shouldn't i take a few of you with me? ;D

[thelittlestancient]

WIP Wednesday!

Tagged by @azems-familiar Tagging: whomever would like to do it! but I would love to hear what's on the docket from @ectojyunk and @feralkwe...

Since you all liked the Sky Pirates AU so much, have a piece of it:

The morning after their arrival, Hephaistos awakens to find King Azem standing outside of his cell, watching him.

"I spoke with Themis," the king says, voice soft, and Hephaistos can't help but brace himself. "He says you saved his life--risking your ship, your crew, and your own life in the process. Hardly the sort of behavior I'd expect from a ruthless pirate intent on my destruction. And yes, he told me about your letter."

"The woman who captured him, she was…" A dozen words cycle through Hephaistos' brain. "Mad," he settles for. "She lusted for power, with which she sought to control others. I do not know if such a thing is possible, but she wanted to steal his. Had I not intervened, she certainly would have tried."

"And the fact that your son was aboard her ship played no part in your decision?"

Hephaistos winces. "I--"

King Azem smiles at him, shaking his head a bit. "I would expect no less. You play a coward's role but you're willing to stand and fight when the stakes are personal enough--and you want them to be. The mask suits you less well than you think, Hephaistos, but you've sunk too much into the act and so I'll play along. I'll let you out of here on one condition."

"I was not expecting to find myself an open book, laid bare before a mortal enemy. What do you want?"

"Not what I want--Themis wants his diplomatic mission to your king, and I intend to see that he has it. I'll be sending along a letter offering once again to discuss reparations for my misspent youth to King Lahabrea and the possibility of a permanent ambassador, a hostage if you will, to his court."

"You intend to see Themis stationed there as a regular post?"

King Azem sighs. "I have…clipped his wings a bit, I fear. His judgement of me was harsh but neither unfair nor unearned. When he was first brought to me, I'd just lost my mother. She was assassinated by what seemed to be agents of King Lahabrea's at the time, but now I am no longer so certain--I fear some other power is sowing dissent between us for reasons of its own. Such is one of the things I wish to discuss with him. Perhaps he will have information that I do not; perhaps we will have an easier time solving this mystery as allies than as enemies. Regardless, I was a young king and a lonely one, and then Themis was there, speaking to me with a wisdom far beyond his young years and sharing her coloring. It was like I had a bit of her back, in a way, and I feared to ever lose it.

"But he deserves to seek his own happiness, rather than having his fate bound up so tightly in mine. An adventure to a foreign land--with a proper escort this time--will serve him well. Besides, he implied to me that he had already begun the process of, ah, establishing diplomatic relations, shall we say? And so my condition, my charge to you, is this: keep him safe. Protect him without stifling him, as I could not."

Hephaistos turns the king's words over in his head a long moment. "This is…"

"A mission. Whatever else you read into my words is on you." He winks. "The guards will free you when I'm upstairs--alas, security must be observed, even now. You'll be escorted back to your ship. Themis is packing now and will meet you there this afternoon. Let the dockmaster know what supplies you need for the journey. I will not have my ambassador traveling in discomfort."

[tt-vision]

little Elpis background ruminating 🔹 (giving myself a reason to try to draw these two)

[hermeswol]

ancients friendship chart for all your ancient friendship (or non-friendship) purposes!

[akirakirxaa]

𝐼'𝑙𝑙 𝑘𝑖𝑠𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑤𝑎𝑦

𝑌𝑜𝑢'𝑙𝑙 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑚𝑒

A pinup commission for @azems-familiar for their lovely Lelesu. :3 I love her so much, thank you for trusting me with her. <3

[Disclaimer, Lelesu is an ADULT CHARACTER and people being weird about her wanting to dress in an adult manner will not be tolerated.]

[If you're interested in a commission, click here!]

[semper-draca]

me talking about my 12k year-spanning time travel fic: okay so like mei has to embed her soul stones into her back to avoid losing them and to maintain a low profile because she has to keep assimilating into other civilizations tha tdon't have soul stones yet and and

[blucifer08]

Commission for the lovely @azems-familiar !

[sailor-artemis]

FFXIV Write 2024 - Prompt #29 - Free Day - "The Gang Invents Kayfabe"

Content Warnings: None

Spoiler Warnings: Spoilers through the end of Dawntrail and the Arcadion raid quests

Summary: Stolar Astur is sure of one thing: the fights in the Arcadion must cease, at any cost. He just didn't expect what that cost would actually be.

This one is a bit different than my other prompts; this story is a gift for a few friends of mine, including @reversalsun! We'd all had a talk a while ago about the whole Arcadion storyline, and we'd kinda riffed our way into thinking about a scenario where their group of three WoLs basically invents the concept of WWE, but in the XIV-verse. I was kinda struggling for ideas for the bonus day, and then I'd thought about wanting to both write something about someone else's characters and flesh out this concept a bit more, so! Here it is!

I do apologize that this will be a bit harder to visualize since it's written without much extensive character description, kind of assuming the reader knows who these people are; normally I would share images but I don't want to link to people's tumblrs/twitters that aren't mine without their permission first. Here are some extremely basic descriptions:

Stolar - An extremely tall male Xaela Au Ra with white hair, purplish skin, dark scales, and an extra set of horns (it's complicated)

Felix - A tan male Miqo'te on the shorter side, has short & scruffy black hair and is rarely seen without a headband

Azem - A pale female Miqo'te who's a little shorter than Felix, she has short white hair, usually with a crown braid

Check it out below or on Ao3:

“There's only one thing to do: we make the truth public and stop the fights. I don't want anyone else to suffer,” Yaana said, trying to sound determined in spite of the worry for her sister.

Stolar nodded his approval. “There can be no other way. Even as things were before knowing of Eutrope’s illness, this was an operation I could not support.”

Metem interjected, clearly nervous at the thought. “Oh no, that is the worst possible thing we could do! The president shows no mercy to those who get in his way! None of us would be safe!”

Stolar gave Metem a look of disbelief, wordlessly expressing doubt that invoking this “President’s” wrath would be worth perpetuating such a ghoulish form of entertainment. The two Miqo'te that flanked him had their focus elsewhere: Azem looked lost in thought, like she often did when trying to solve a particularly complex problem, and Felix's eyes had wandered back to the equipment scattered around the gym. 

“I do believe we still have one recourse, however.” Metem pointed right at Stolar, though his words were meant for the group. “You three must rise to the very summit of the Arcadion and become the grand champions!”

Azem looked up, confused. “That sounds like the exact opposite of stopping the fights.”

“That may be, but you see, the champion of the Acradion gets the rights to the entire collection of souls in our repository! While it's certainly not the intended use for them, you would have the power and the right to release them, if you so wish.”

“Wouldn't that mean you guys would go outta business?” Felix chimed in. “If the crowds are used to fights with feral souls in the mix, they'd need something else to keep them coming back.”

“If that is how it must be, then so be it,” Stolar countered. “If there is no way to hold entertaining matches without exploiting the fighters and desecrating souls, then they should not be held at all.”

“That's it!” Azem exclaimed.

“What's it?” Felix’s tone of voice echoed the confusion that was plain on everyone's faces.

“We hold entertaining matches without using souls at all!”

“That would solve our problems, yes, but as your tall friend here said, that hardly sounds like it would have the spectacle required to get the people to fill the stands,” Metem said.

“No, no, listen. Instead of treating the fights as shows of power or strength, where the feral souls seem necessary to escalate the tension each match, treat them like a theatrical performance! You have a general script, you cast some fighters as likable, plucky underdogs and some as villains who torment the heroes and rile up the audience. And then you can have a story unfold over a series of matches that ends with a grand finale confrontation between both sides. It's almost more like a play than a fight, with each fighter occupying a role in the performance.”

Felix’s eyes lit up at the thought. “Oh, that does sound cool! Count me in, if that's what we're doing.”

“You know, I think I can see the vision here. This might be the best way to make everyone happy and keep the President’s pockets full enough so he doesn't order us all hunted down,” Metem replied, clearly taking the idea seriously. “I don't know if it's something we could do until after you've claimed an initial victory and released the souls, but it would definitely make that transition afterwards much smoother. Especially since I imagine the general public would not be thrilled to learn of the Arcadion's shutdown so soon after its reopening!” 

“Once we show them how it's done, you won't have to worry about the crowds going anywhere!” Felix flashed a confident grin to match his brash declaration.

“We?” Stolar asked, sounding concerned that this was already snowballing out of his control. “You would have me play a part in this scheme?”

“It does sound like it might be the best way to ensure we can release the souls without inciting a riot or endangering anyone else,” Azem replied. “Though that does beg the question, who plays which role?”

“If you'll permit me, I have some ideas in that regard,” Metem interjected. “I know I don't know you all particularly well, though considering it from the perspective of our hypothetical audience, perhaps that's for the best.” He pointed to each of the two Miqo'te in turn. “You two clearly have the spark of scrappy up-and-comers in how you fight, and I can see your enthusiasm for the idea translating well into your performance. In short, I think you would be well suited for the hero role.” He then turned to Stolar. “As for you… Your heart is definitely in the right place and you have noble intentions, but… how do I put this…”

“He's not fun enough to be a good guy?” Felix offered with a laugh, which met with a pointed look from Stolar.

“Not exactly, it's more to do with a hypothetical first impression. On first glance, you appear tall and imposing, and though you've got the skills that would make a fine fighter, it doesn't seem like you've got that same excitement about the prospect of performing.”

Though it didn't exactly paint him in the best light, Stolar couldn't find any points with which to disagree.

“However, that can work to your advantage. A villain character wouldn't have to have a friendly rapport with the crowd, I'd wager, so you could use that strong, silent persona to your benefit,” Metem continued.

“Perhaps we could even play up the parental dynamics,” Azem offered. “I have to imagine after living under the tyranny of Zoraal Ja, the people here would welcome a storyline involving a likable son fighting against his stoic, uncaring father figure.”

“Oooh, I like that! I could see the usual crowd really going for it, plus it might help endear people to the new king, since, well, you know… he is that guy’s son.” Yaana cut in.

“But I do care, especially for Felix. I could never treat him as Zoraal Ja treated his son,” Stolar insisted, clearly hesitant to go along. “I might not be able to pledge my support to this plan after all.”

“I would never insinuate that you don't care, not in reality, anyway,” Metem began, “But none of this would be real, just a character you play, as you would on a stage.” He sensed that the Xaela still had second thoughts. “Listen. How about in the meantime we focus on getting you three up the ranks, and you and I can talk it over more as we go along?” he asked, gesturing to Stolar. “I can teach you what I know about playing things up for the crowd.”

Stolar looked to his companions, and seeing the sparkle in their eyes at the idea told him that even if he wasn't in favor of the plan, he'd likely be roped into it regardless. He let out an exasperated sigh. 

“All right. Let us keep our focus on our next fight first and foremost, but… any help you can offer with this ‘role’ during downtime would be most welcome.”

It seemingly took all the restraint Azem and Felix had not to jump up and down and exchange high fives.

As the group started to head towards the exit and back to the Arcadion, Felix offered him a conciliatory pat on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, old man, I’m sure you’ll make a great villain!”

Perhaps the desire to put him in his place will come more easily than I had thought, Stolar mused to himself as he followed his companions out the door.

[hadesdirge]

A breath of respite

[bnuuywol]

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ FALLEN STAR ☽༓･*˚⁺

[feralkwe]

wip wednesday

i was tagged by both @azems-familiar and @thelittlestancient to see what i have in the hopper, but i don't have any words on actual page, just ideas of what i'm doing next/prompts in my inbox, so what you get is a summary of options.

prompt in my askholebox: 1 bed/four dumbasses - could be a little silly and probably not anything remotely canon but hey, i know what's definitely not gonna fix the polycule as of dawntrail and they are probably gonna do it anyway.

commenter on ao3 suggested: kit goes to elpis the first time in endwalker remembering elidibus' pre-sos "don't you remember being in love?" confession. no answers are found, only questions. angst fest. confusion ahoy! i am unwell.

tagging anyone who wants to participate because i cheated and am also lazy but wanted to honor the tags.

[thelittlestancient]

give me your thoughts on wol!elidibus. like, say he's not Zodiark's heart; maybe Emet is instead? he can be still one of the unsundered or a sundered reincarnation who gets his memories back or whatever, i'm intrigued by what you might come up with....and i don't think this is one we've talked about already

Oh wow, I have so many thoughts about Elidibus as WoL-adjacent or WoL/Azem companion, but I haven't really thought about this one in depth, and the reason why will be my first point! I usually let Loghrif be the Heart of Zodiark, here.

In spite of his earnestness, he's not actually that good at being Azem, and Elidibus' Seat gifts lend themselves to a very different style of WoL than canon affords us. He yearns for it, but he's no adventurer really: he'd be better suited to be a travelling magistrate.

That doesn't stop him from taking up the blade, the axe, the staff, the cane, the bow. He leaves the imprint of his knowledge on every job stone, and imbues his fighting styles with the memories of his Convocation brethren. Lahabrea, the Summoner. Emet-Selch, the Dark Knight. Nabriales, the Viper. Loghrif, the White Mage. Hythlodaeus, the Bard. Azem, the seeker of the new, the Machinist.

(The Heart forgets, but Elidibus remembers. There is none of Hades' mournful, yearning sentiment here: the memories of Elidibus are reflections in colorless pure crystal. What was and what will be are indistinct from each other. Elidibus lies between at what is, in his own mind less a hero than an arbiter of fate.)

The Black Shroud is a strange place for the Warrior of Light to make his home, but he swears the woods sing to him, and it's far enough out from the bustle of the city that the emotions of others encroach little on his mind, leaving him free to contemplate the state of the star when he is not otherwise required, a pale, white-robed figure standing alone in the misty forest, where even the sylphs do not go.

Above all, the Warrior of Light is hope, and hope is not merely what Elidibus knows how to be.

It is what he is.

Thanks for the ask! I prefer to think of him here as Zodiark's Chosen, rather than Hydaelyn's. Maybe a role-swap of Ascians and Scions? I read a wonderfully delicious AU of that once...

[balladingbard]

You ever wonder if Elidibus told Venat about finally meeting “Azem’s familiar”? Pandæmonium is post-Elpis, after all, based on the side dialogue. I always felt bummed Venat never really got to see whether we succeeded against Meteion or not, but I wonder if our trip to Pandæmonium gave her the answer that we saved the star after all.

[sezja]

The way Darcy's fucking clothes glow like they're under a blacklight in the Pandaemonium lighting has been cracking me up this whole time

[akirakirxaa]

Haven't taken a picture of Pommy in a while

[scrollsfromarebornrealm]

ancestor, descendant and...Lahabrea.

"...I'm being lectured by a familiar half my size and for some unknown reason it's making me think of her."