#or heavily implying he's talking about azem

[ot3showdown]

azem/emet-selch/hythlodaeus infodump (ffxiv spoilers up to and including endwalker abound)

these three are regularly described as emet-selch's closest relationship. emet's got terminal old man tsundere disease in the body of a 20 something and he has two partners(not canonically romantic but definitely implied enough that most read it as such) who lovingly bully him abt it relentlessly. while we do not see azem on screen, the way they are talked about by other characters regularly confirms this, and we see it directly with hythlodaeus. despite emet bitching about it, hyth literally tells the player "just say please emet selch and he'll do what you want" when he's reluctant to do a task

when the world ended and azem was split into multiple guys and hyth was sealed away in the ancients' god, everything emet-selch did was to bring back his people from his memories, which heavily involves his love for these two. honestly after seeing what a beautiful man hyth was who can fucking blame him lmao. dude was literally causing world ending catastrophes for those he loved

additionally depending on ur wol u can get reincarnated lovers trope with azem as azem is reincarnated again and again, including as ur wol when u meet him

when emet recreates the ancients' city for u, he also made shades of everyone who lived there. however, hythlodaeus was made with the fact that emet knew hyth so well that he knew hyth would see through the fakeness of it, and so the shade of hyth is fully aware he's a simulation of the original

in ancient society, someone chooses when they die, and it is typically when they've fulfilled their purpose in this world, after which they release their aether back to the world. it's seen as a beautiful thing by most in that society, even if its a little fucked up to some of them+outsiders. hythlodaeus however only has the goal of helping the other two achieve their dreams, at which point he wants all three of them go together

in short, your honor they're poly and i love them

(im gonna do the same joke again bc my brains broken today)

wow all this happens in critically acclaimed mmorpg final fantasy xiv which has a free trial and includes the entirety of a realm reborn and the award winning heavensward expansion up to level 60 with no restrictions on playtime? Cool.

[warlordfelwinter]

I'm still thinking about this but I love that for a brief second before realizing it was their "familiar", themis, after azem told him they couldn't come help after all, thought azem fell out of the sky and landed on him. imagine.

[sparrowwritings]

The Ever "Delightful" Consequences of Friendship part 1.5

Spoilers for the end of the Eden raids!

"Why didn't you tell me?" Artemis-as-Azem demanded while smacking both of her hands onto Emet-Selch’s desk. 

He didn’t even bother looking up from his work to drawl out, "Hello Azem; good to see you, Azem; nice weather we're having, don't you agree?"

"Yes, hello and other pleasantries." She rolled her entire head along with her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me that Mitron's name was also Artemis?"

He finally deigned to look up. The single lifted eyebrow on his face was heavily implied more than actually seen. "Why should I know the true names of all the rest of the Convocation?"

"You've been in it longer! Surely you've overheard the others speaking to each other familiarly?"

"No." His tone was entirely flat. "There are only two members of the Convocation of Fourteen that I care enough to interact with willingly outside of official business. One of them is technically standing right in front of me."

Artemis huffed, temporarily waylaid by the truthfulness of her friend's statement. 

"That is beside the point, however. I don't see the problem you’re unnecessarily worried about."

"Well! You see! What if Gaia mentions the name?"

"Who?"

"Loghrif."

Emet-Selch leveled a heavy stare at her. "Why do you know two names of members of the Convocation that you aren't even friends with?"

"They were being lovey-dovey and I overheard them using their true names."

He placed a hand at the top of his mask and ran it slowly down onto his face. "How many times must I reiterate how much eavesdropping will just get you in trouble…?"

She didn't even bother to look ashamed. "They were out in the open where anyone could have walked past them, that's not eavesdropping."

"It is when you don't walk away the minute you notice it's a private moment."

"They were talking and holding hands! Just down the path from the entrance! That's hardly private!"

"Would you like to repeat that so I can record it in crystal? It will be wonderful blackmail to use on you later."

She pouted (not that Artemis would describe her expression with that word) before ignoring his rhetorical request to whine, “You haven’t answered my question.” 

Entirely regretting his choices in friends, Emet-Selch responded, “On the slightest chance that Loghrif calls your name when she clearly would be referring to Mitron, that wouldn’t change anything.” He reached across his desk to not-so-gently flick the surface of the red mask she was wearing. There was a brief sense of satisfaction as she flinched away a second too late to dodge it. “You’re still ‘Azem’ when you wear this, and ‘Apollo’ besides. So long as you train yourself not to react when you hear your name, you should be fine.”

Artemis rubbed at where the impact had been. "And should you react to the name…?"

He rolled his eyes. "You needn't insult me merely because you didn't like a discovery."

"Yeah, okay that was a dumb hypothetical."

"Quite." Emet-Selch returned his attention back to the work in front of him, satisfied that the conversation was over.

The silence lasted for a blissful seven seconds. 

"Hey wait, if Azem is one member of the two members of the Convocation that you enjoy being around unofficially, who's the other one?"

He let out a prolonged groan and just barely suppressed the urge to bang his face onto the surface in front of him.