#so I'm just playing as any Azem would intend it

[futuresuntocrystal]

    In related news to my return... Once I get their pictures done, alt has been made for Rhela’s Azem: Circe! [Any pronouns]

    Proficient in magic to an awe-inspiring degree, he was somehow still better known for his chipper demeanor and wandering habits. Scheduling anything to his whims was practically a death knell; whether or not he’d show up on time... You’d have a better chance at predicting next moon’s new fad for creations.

    And yet, it was that down-to-earth, endless need to wander which led her to meet Venat at all; the two quick friends and kindred spirits. Hades and Hythlodaeus took to her in a similar fashion; Hades insisting how tired he was, to be chasing after her all the time... Yet smiling in secret. Hythlodaeus, of course, was more than happy to encourage it all.

    In that light, being nominated to the Seat of Azem only made sense, truly. The friendly spirit who brought a little life to all whom they interacted with... Who sought little adventures that would never end, cherished all life, lived with a passion unmatched...

    Well. All stories end eventually. (But those that follow tend to spin just as wonderful as the original, no?)

[digeethegenie]

Everyone Loves Squapes

Day 06 - Halcyon Endwalker (6.0) - Endwalker

Hades sighed as he walked around the island of Noetophoreon. He really wasn't in the mood for games and could do well without the encentricities of his friend right now.

"Eurydice." He called out with his signature leack of energy. "Honeslty, I don't have time for this right now."

He shook his head and wandered near one of the island's infamous purple-topped trees.

"Really, this is no time for playing around, I'm here to talk to you as a member of the convercation. As he of the seat of Em-"

Just as he started pulling rank, a figgure appeared from the tree flopping down drematically like a corpse. Hades- inspite of this happening almost every time the two met- jumped three feet clear off the ground, yellped in shock, and invoked the names of several gods yet to be worshiped as he landed back on the ground. Grasping his chest to gain his breath he watched as the figgure's long blonde hair, covered in purple leafs, flopped down wards.

The figgure, who was very much not a corpse, smiled like a carefree child at Hades as they hung upside down off the tree.

"Hi there, Hades!" they said, their smile like the sun.

Hades splutterd, his hands waving over his head as his mind tried to catch up with his friends unflapable pace, then shook his head.

"Oh, don't you "Hi there, Hades" me. Eurydice." he said, giving them a look a teacher would give their most troubling student. "The council is in fits after the stunt you've just pulled!"

"I couldn't-" Eurydice started before asking Hades to hold on and then, before he could protest, leaping out from their vantage point, somehow pulling a summeralt even whilst dressed in the robes and landing with their arms streched out. "- I couldn't possibly know what you're talking about."

The fact that They could so casually dismiss what was a very serious breach of protocol was very much in keeping in them as a Person. It was also, honestly, part of why Hades liked them as a friend, even if it was giving him the mother of all headaches at this very minute.

"Let me remind you, then. Does the words 'Fought a vulcano into submission' ring any bells to you?"

Eurydice's freckled face drew a blank, dot-eyed, expresion as they realised what this was about.

"Ah."

" 'Ah', Indeed. What were you thinking?" Hades asked, his voice showing genuine concern. "The convercation was split down the middle about having you censured for it. If it wasn't for me, we'd be having a very, very diffrent conversion right now, Eurydice."

Still not quite taking the weight of the situation to heart, Eurydice waved Hades off. "Oh come on. Its not like Themis wouldn't have my back if it came down to it."

Hades closed his eyes. "Elidibus was the one to suggest making the censure formal."

That bombshell got Eurydice to quack out a "gack!" and nearly fall over. They quickly recovered, threw their hand behind their head, laughed, gave Hades a look that genuinly got across how sorry they were and said as much.

A small gasp of exasperation escaped Hades' mouth. Part of it was convercation related wearyness and the other was for the fact that Eurydice was incredibly cute in these sorts of moments.

"Well, sure. But that still doesn't answer my question. What was They of The Seat of Azem thikning?"

Eurydice took a second to think before they looked at Hades. "You promise you won't be angry?"

"… Yes." Hades said, his monosolabic tone making it clear that he wasn't quite sure if he was ready for whatever nonsense was going to ensue.

From Their robe, Eurydice produced a curiously shapped bunch of grapes.

Hades wasn't even angry.

He just let out a 'buh' escape his mouth in pure confusion.

"Grapes?!" he said, a little more incredulously than he had intended to sound.

"Oh come on, Hades!" Eurydice pouted. "They're squapes! Everyone loves squapes!"

The squape, or to give it its proper name, the galbadian grape, was a grape that grew on the island of Galbadia that was famous- or infamous, depending on who you asked- for the prequiler way in which they grew. No matter what anyone tried when growing them, they would always bunch up into a crystal like formations.

The picture of everything started to form in Hades' mind and he let out another sigh.

"So to quickly summise, you turned the aether of an active vulcano into a createion and then challenged it into a fist fight because you wanted to save some grapes that grew oddly."

Eurydice nodded, all too quickly. "That is exactly right yes."

Hades sighed. He knew when Eurydice was hiding something but knew better than to ask outright.

"So, off-record, you did all that to save a curiosity."

"Yes."

"And not, and I am being entirely hypothetical here, to save the island of Galbadia from being destroyed by the volcano you fist fought into submission?"

Eurydice tried their best to maintain eye contact with Hades.

They were not doing a very good job at it.

"…that is correct."

A smile crossed Hades' face before he shook his head. "Well, come on. I need to talk to Hephaistos and Venat, given you clearly colluded with them."

The two started to walk away, Eurydice trying to get Lahabreha and the previous Azem off the hook by denying their role in the scheme and Hades making it clear that he knew about Ifrita and Ifreeta, Venat's own take on the creation's design.

[thewrongexecution]

this post is about ffxiv oc lore, not any well-known mythological figures. thank you for your understanding.

Been thinkin' about Theseus lately.

(Theseus is my Azem. If you don't know what that means: don't worry about it! these sorts of posts are as much to vacate my own brainspace as communicate ideas to others. you know how it is.)

((See, twitter didn't allow me the space to post these sorts of disclaimers, which really was a blessing. kept me on point. Hardly a paragraph in and I'm already digressing. not that that's a problem per se, just. different.

anyway.))

I love the way ffxiv plays with the theme of... mirrors, reflections- foils, that's the word- the three-body problem of being You And No-One Else, The Masks You Wear, and A Bit Of Everyone Who's Ever Touched Your Life all at once. (Millennia and Tataru, I realized just some few days ago, is itself a mirror of Ardbert and Lamitt, which is a fun joke for my brain to play on itself imo.) So how do I take my WoL (Millennia) and refract her through a funhouse mirror to reach my Azem (Theseus)?

Theseus has remained in the semi-fluid state a narrative device tends to take when the internally-understood path from A to B is nonlinear or otherwise opaque, but I've made recent progress by working backwards.

Personality-wise, I've always enjoyed taking canon depictions and extrapolating them far beyond what anyone involved might've reasonably intended (ask me about Luigi's Persona sometime), so how do I rationalize Millennia as the type of Silent Protagonist depicted in a way that makes sense was a fun puzzle to chip away at. (She's severely traumatized and dissociating due to post-calamity events for most of ARR, and only starts to recover after successfully killing a god or two makes her go, hang on a minute, shouldn't I actually be dead by now? Y'know, as ya do.)

I describe his style of speech as eloquent minimalism, the idea being to pack as much meaning as densely as possible for maximum impact; deliberate, measured, and a little bit like poetry:

"How have you been?"

You are a friend who I trust with knowledge that could otherwise shake public confidence in The Warrior of Light (TM) if shared freely. This last adventure nearly killed me, but even more so than usual, in a way that even I was worried I might not survive. There is a tale here, and I want you to stop and listen fully and without distraction. How do I convey all that as minimally as possible?

"Mortal."

So, how to rebuild that in a way that is-and-is-not the same, reflecting the attitudes and society of the Ancients?

Efficient brutalism.

"How have you been?"

You are a confidant who I trust with knowledge that could otherwise shake public confidence in The Seat of Azem (TM) if shared freely. This last adventure nearly killed me, but even more so than usual, in a way that even I was worried I might not survive. There is a tale here, but it has ended, and there's no need to recount it. How do I convey all that as efficiently as possible?

"Dead."

Millennia is the silent protagonist that thinks carefully about the meaning behind everything she says- and doesn't say; posture, gesture, expression, and a variety of hums and grunts can all convey in moments what would take a wordsmith minutes. Theseus, in contrast, is the silent protagonist who sees no need for small talk or pleasantry; they rarely even blink, let alone smile or frown or wave.

But the double-edge of being quiet is it leaves a lot of room for others to speak for you. Because they're both public figures, the public decides for them that they're stoic or cool or haughty or wise or what-have-you. So it goes.

For combat, I previously posited Theseus could wield a Gun or Keyblade or Keygunblade, and while those're great as jokes, they don't necessarily make for a great parallel. Millennia herself started out as a Warrior, but possessed only middling physical prowess; to compensate, he relied on clever tactics and psychological warfare to cow his enemies and strike unexpectedly. These days, she has a full suite of esoteric combat styles at her disposal, and relishes the opportunity to accumulate more.

So, a collection of varied combat styles, emphasis on unconventional tactics over raw power, and maybe a connection to Warrior.

It's Blue Mage. No wait come back hear me out on this one

It's not literally Blue Mage; rather than cast the same powers as their foes, Theseus studies how beasts and creatures fight, and adapts those combat techniques for personal use. A martial rather than magical art, similar to Monk or Ninja, coupled with the visceral terror of an unblinking robed cryptid scuttling menacingly towards you at coeurl speeds. "so what's the connection to Warrior" Inner beast, outer beast. Funhouse mirrors, innit.

And because it's Ancient and because I'm me: someone who studies the ways of war of living things is, of course, a Biologist.

The ultimate and final measure of any Azem, then, is "How bad can they clown on Emet-Selch?"

Imagine they are sparring. Emet has taken one look at this upstart wiry gangler and decided there's no possible way they could be an appropriate heir to the Seat of Azem. The job is difficult and dangerous and this Elezen-before-Elezen simply does not have what it takes. Theseus just knows they've been assigned a task to their quest log, and doesn't give it any more thought than that. So they are sparring.

Emet asks how they fight and they say only "Biologist." Emet clarifies, not your vocation, not your profession, your combat style. They drop to all fours and, as if the phone they aren't communicating over had a bad connection, repeats "Biologist," before going zero to sixty on the old man.

Later in the fight, Emet starts spouting some grand monologue about true power and transforms. Theseus... doesn't. Emet questions this decision, but without hesitation or consideration, Theseus simply says "I like being me," and resumes adding injury to insult.

[akirakirxaa]

Oh boy, I get to info dump about whatever the fuck That is. *points at Akira's love life*

So the actual decision to ship with Haurchefant actually stemmed from my husband and I fighting over which of our WoLs got to date Aymeric. (It was all in good fun of course haha.) I relented because suddenly I decided to inflict horrible pain and suffering onto Akira. I also decided the moment I decided she would be into Haurch that she also would wait to tell him until it was too late. Because I have a bad habit of being mean to my main characters a lot. So up until my very recent Haurch Lives AU I've been playing with they've always just been a tragedy. This is not to say I never liked Haurch, btw, but Aymeric does ask us over for drinks and he has That Voice. >.>

Hien happened in Stormblood because I was determined to ship Akira with someone and Stormblood was somewhat lacking in options. He's also pretty and we all love a well intentioned himbo. I figured he would be a good place for Akira to start trying to open back up after Haurch. Originally when I had her break up with him right before Shadowbringers I intended for her to get back with him when she returned. That...obviously didn't happen. ^^; Sorry Hien, Shadowbringers just brought in a couple of juggernauts of ship material. That's why he's not on my current ship list.

I did not originally have her get with Emet. He's grown on me over time. Not in the 'I didn't like him and now I do' way, in the 'I liked him and now I love him' way. Originally I was going to have his and her soul's past connection being why her romantic life always seems to never work out, kinda like a darker twist on the soulmates thing where as long as he was around no other relationships would work. I ditched that idea some time ago but it was fun while it lasted. I decided to have them be a thing for a brief time in ShB just because Akira was under a lot of pressure and between being a shard of Azem (we'll get to my Azem), and her past life being the Empress (we'll get to her too), she was just drawn to him in a way she wasn't anyone else. She didn't get it but she had too much to worry about to also worry about that too.

G'raha seemed like a natural fit. It was such an echo of what happened in the Vault, that being able to save him at the end of ShB felt like a redemption. Between that, their former friendship during the CT questline, and everything he'd done for her to save her life and the life of everyone she cared about, it honestly would have been kinda weird if they hadn't gotten together, at least in my personal universe.

Onto my non-Akira characters with ships.

It should be obvious from the fact that I named my Azem Persephone that I always intended to ship her with Hades from the minute we saw the ancient in the light during the Big Cutscene in ShB. And then it was just solidified in the cutscene where we're given the Azem Crystal. And when Endwalker gave us some actual Hyth info, I could not imagine any pair of them without the third. It was the first time I was 100% sold on an OT3 that wasn't intended on being a poly ship in the first place. This is definitely a case of I felt the narrative demanded it even though I also love Hades and Hyth.

Valeria I literally created to be the first Empress of Garlemald and so I made to her to be shipped with Solus rather than the other way around. And in this case I can 100% say it was because I'm slightly obsessed with Emet-Selch. But it also gave another solid reason for Akira to feel inexplicably pulled towards him if one of her past lives (which I headcanon the Empress was) was actually married to him and they had a good relationship (which of course I'm going to make them have because that's a lot more fun for me lol). So Valeria happened as a plot device and self indulgence and I'm totally okay with that lol.

for people who ship their oc with an npc: did you decide to ship them with your OC because they were a favorite character of yours OR because you felt that npc genuinely went well with your OC? I'm really curious!