Title: FFXIV Write 2022 - 4. Free Day 1 Characters: Venat, Karasawa, Atraxae Rating: Teen Summary: What if a failed would-be Azem made it all the way to the modern era? These are the Misadventures of Karasawa Atraxae. Notes: So a theme I am leaning into for FFXIV Write 2022 is that of focusing on the Scions of the Seventh Dawn; I decided, however, to use my Free Days to focus on other possibilities. Warrior of Light concepts I have thought of, but will never use, since the game is so alt-unfriendly. These are not any kind of canon, and in fact, I am feeling free to be kind of nonsense with them.
Atraxae paced on the stage as she ranted about her thesis to those Ancient fellows who had seen fit to make an appearance at her little one-woman conference.
"Our world is being improved all the time," she said, "by the hard work of our compatriots, who are striving ever forward to improve our star. And when their hard work is done, of course, it is the done thing to retire, job done, go back to the lifestream, give the energy back and pay it forward to the next iteration of who we might be, and hopefully maybe learning something ineffable in the process. Well, swive that, I say! Look, we think we're going for perfection, but hey, maybe we don't know what perfection really is, right? Maybe someone somewhere will come up with some paradigm-shifting Etheirys-shattering paradigm shift, and then what? You're asleep in the lifestream, unable to appreciate the changes that have been made. Maybe you could've found something new to improve! Maybe you could've learned more! But no, you checked out early, and so you don't have squat to do with the brave new world that may have been made.
"That's why I'm proposing something completely different! Instead of just checking out of existence, why not simply take a little sidestep? Sure, go to the lifestream, but instead of getting all your life experience flushed gone and away, just hang out there for a bit, and come back in, oh, I don't know, maybe a century or something? Maybe something will have changed while you were gone, and when you come back and learn about it, you'll go hey, look at that! There's more work for me to do now! You can find new purpose without having to do the whole retirement gig, and you'll be smarter for having done it.
"That's why I'm presenting today the culmination of my personal life's work. A way for any one of us to immerse ourselves fully into the lifestream, and then, at a predetermined time, come back up, just as we are! I mean, there's probably a few more things to work out, and it hasn't been tested, but just think of it! Instead of returning to the lifestream fully and pretty much getting erased, you can take a bit of a break, come back, uh, hopefully refreshed, and then, boom! Learn about how much more awesome our world has gotten in your absence, and then use that to springboard yourself into a new life with new discoveries! Wouldn't it be grand!"
Atraxae stopped at this point, throwing her arms wide and grinning at her assembled audience. Most of them looked back, their expressions unreadable behind their masks, but their body language was... well, if she was to be honest, it was less than interested. Only Karasawa, her good friend standing in the back, seemed enthusiastic at all as he threw a fist up in the air and pumped it a few times in support.
Well, one was better than none, even if she knew that the one would always be there for her. She grinned back at him, and gave a bow as she moved on to the next part of her presentation.
"So that's why today I'm revealing to you, dear friends, the IDEA engine and the SWORD device, as well as the FOCUS chamber!"
The assembled Ancients looked back and forth at each other. One of them shook his head - no, wait, that was a her- and raised her hand. Atraxae pointed at her.
"...I am certain I am going to regret asking this, but what could those acronyms for these concepts you are proposing possibly stand for?"
Oops, it was a him. Oh well, not like she was planning on any formal relationships with anyone present. She hated how well the robes hid the forms of those under them, and how the masks hide their faces from one another. Better to go bare faced and naked, she thought.
Where was she?
Oh right.
"Well, here is the IDEA engine," she said, holding up what appeared to be a gem. "And uh, the acronym, let's call it a work in progress. But! It's the bit that keeps you, you. At least in spirit. See, we all are capable of pretty impressive shape changing, and what form is in vogue now may not be in vogue when you come out, so it's designed to help shift and adapt your spirit to a new vessel so that you'll fit in whenever you come out! The SWORD," she said, and here she hefted what appeared to be a sword in the air, "Stands for the Soul Wave Omega Reinforcement Device. Spending so much time in the lifestream may make you a little bit thin, and the SWORD draws on ambient aether to reinforce your form, no matter how long you've been gone. It also makes a pretty good focus for magic and, uhm, well, it's... it's an actual weapon. You can stab people with it if you like. Its form is mutable, though, so it can appear to be practically any weapon you need it to be! And that over there, that bed like chamber with a lid that you can close, well, that's what'll help reconstitute - uh, reinvigorate - uh, it's... it's what helps to bring you back. It stands for the Final Oculus for Constraining the Universe of Spirit. You store your pattern in it, and set a time. When the time comes, it looks for your pattern in the lifestream, and activates your IDEA engine, as well as attuning your SWORD to your new, old, reborn self!"
She grinned wildly at the assembled few, and waited patiently.
Finally, one of them with a sigh, raised their hand. Atraxae pointed at them. She decided to stop guessing at the kind of person that might be in those robes. If pressed, however, she was certain this one was male.
"Did you pick those names just to make the acronyms work? Also, have any of these concepts been passed by review?"
Drat. Wrong again.
"One, yes, of course I did. Two, no, shut up, I don't need to, as I still haven't even tested them. Which I just need a bit of help with, and then, sure, we can punt them up for concept review." Atraxae saw another hand go up. "Oh! What's your question?" she asked cheerfully.
The owner of this question stood up, and she was positive this one was a man. "Atraxae. Is this just a pathetic attempt to see if you can outwait the current Azem, and when they are done with their job, make another bid for their seat? Are you that upset about losing the bid for that convocation seat?
Okay, ouch, that was rude, she thought. But at least she got his gender right.
"What? No," she said breezily, "and I'm insulted that you would think that. I mean, yeah, I do plan on outlasting the current Azem. But if my work is good and I've done the math right, I won't just outlive this Azem. I'll outlast a dozen Azems! And then when I come back, hopefully we'll have changed as a civilization enough that maybe I'll find some new purpose! I won't even want to be an Azem, you know. I'll have something even better to aspire to, I'm sure!"
She clapped her hands. "That's enough questions for now though! Please come back tomorrow if you're willing to help, we can use all the hands we can muster!"
"Who's we?" said the same man, dryly, clearly not expecting an answer as he headed for the door. As did the other six people present. Which was everyone in the room except for Karasawa.
The room had been reserved and able to seat a hundred. Atraxae had to admit, she might have set her expectations a bit high. Still, she was more than a little disappointed at the small turnout.
"Well, it's me and Karasawa, that's technically two people, that's enough for a we," muttered Atraxae under her breath as Karasawa walked up front to her.
"Enthusiastic as always," said Karasawa. "You continue to be a light upon this star, as bright as any."
"Yeah, well," said Atraxae. "Wish others saw it the same way." She sighed, and gathered up her equipment and gear, shoving them into her robes where they vanished into an ethereal other space that she used for storage, like many ancients did. At least, those who didn't just use their creation magics to collapse and rebuild their belongings as they needed. "Oh well," she said. "Could've gone worse." She looked to the door, and sighed, her shoulders slumping.
"Wish Venat would've shown up," she said.
Karasawa crossed his arms, and nodded. "I'm just glad that she has continued her work, despite relinquishing the seat of Azem. We could use more people like her."
"Yeah," said Atraxae, despondent. "Well, that's that, I guess. There's a place that makes a killer food concept not too far from here, they call 'em chupaquesos. Let's go snag a bite."
Karasawa nodded as Atraxae finished gathering up her equipment, and they headed out.
-*-
The next day found Atraxae and Karasawa working. Once it had become clearly obvious that nobody was coming to help them, they had shed their masks. Atraxae hated having to wear one, and while it Karasawa pretended to be reluctant about the matter, secretly, it gave him a quiet thrill to push into such a taboo.
"Was what that one man said yesterday correct? About the seat of Azem?" asked Karasawa. It was a topic they had not talked about at all since Atraxae had lost her bid for the seat, as he did not want to unduly distress his friend.
"Oh, hells no," said Atraxae. "I mean, yeah, I wanted the seat, but I see now I had it all backwards. I wanted to become Azem so I could go out and see the world and do all that cool shite and explore and whatnot. If I was really suited to the seat, though, I would've done what Venat's protege did, which is to say, already have been doing all that. No, I swived it up, and the better Azem got the seat. The Convocation made the right call."
Atraxae held up a lattice of crystal work, and let it go, allowing it to hover in the air as she held a hand up to it, and pushed aether into it. "Besides, look at us! This is a way better use of my talents. Just you wait, Karasawa. I'll show them. I'll show them all!"
"You know, you talking like that is why people are wary of you," said Karasawa, who nevertheless moved to the side to peer closely at Atraxae's work, and help make small adjustments of it.
"Pft. Whatever. Maybe I'll just zipper a few hundred years into the future and they'll appreciate me more then."
"I think you misestimate how slowly our society moves."
"Is this the workshop for the Future Technologies Symposium?" said a voice, and Atraxae and Karasawa both scrambled to put their masks back on.
"Yes! Hello! Welcome to our workshop! We're currently calibrating the IDEA engine, but we're happy to - VENAT!" said Atraxae animatedly, and Karasawa looked up from adjusting his mask to see her standing in the doorway.
"I didn't expect you to drop by! I thought you were busy out exploring the star or whatever!" Atraxae continued, babbling now.
Venat's robe was white, as befit her role as an advisor, and her mask unmistakeable, with its fine filigree. One of the few methods of personal expression allowable in their society. Karasawa gave her a bow, which she returned in kind.
"Well, I cannot stay for long," said Venat. "But I have heard very interesting things about what you are working, and I wished to see for myself. But wherever are my manners? It sounds like I was interrupting a conversation about our fair society."
Karasawa looked to Atraxae, and shook his head slightly, worried. Atraxae frowned at him, and he thought for just a moment that she would be able to contain herself.
"Aw, we're just griping about how slowly anything ever changes around here," said Atraxae, and Karasawa groaned. He -had- meant to spin her up into a good rant, as she was entertaining to listen to, but he had meant it to happen in private, and not in front of a former member of the convocation.
"Do go on," said Venat, and Karasawa moved to pretend to work on the crystal lattice.
"Well, look, all the work we do, everything we are, we're supposed to be stewards of the star, right? Aiming for perfection? But what the bloody hell is perfection? I'll tell you, what we're making, we ain't making perfect. We're making stagnation is what we're doing. I was at the Concept House the other day -"
"That's not what it's called," said Karasawa, exasperated. At least she could not slag off on beloved public works institutions if she was going to rant in front of others.
"-whatever, and you know what I saw?"
"What, pray tell?" asked Venat.
"SHARKS."
Venat's expression was unreadable behind her mask, but Karasawa certainly felt bewildered. This was a part of the rant he had not heard yet.
"And the time before that, and the time before that. I don't go there nearly often enough for it to have been just a fad or something. Sharks! Nothing but sharks. Nobody coming up with anything new, just a dozen variations on bloody sharks. And you know what? That's a symptom, that's what it is. That's just part of the whole thing. Nobody has any new bloody ideas anymore. No, you go down to the Concept Store-"
"Also not what it's called."
"-and you pick up someone else's ideas, and you drop off your ideas, but they ain't new. Ain't -nothing- new. Karasawa here was just reminding me of how slow our society moves, and you know what? He's right. It's just about moved itself to a dead stop! Perfection, my perfectly pert round -arse-."
"Atraxae!" gasped Karasawa.
"Well it is, I made it myself."
Karasawa looked in horror at Venat, and was relieved when she reached up a hand to hide a laugh.
"And so I'm working on this," said Atraxae, grumpily. "Between the FOCUS and the IDEA and the SWORD, I'm gonna send people into the future. Maybe someone, somewhere, will come up some Etheirys-shattering idea that'll change everything, and when we come back out, the whole bloody star won't be so backwards anymore. It'll be something new." she turned to Venat, and grinned at her. "...I bet you can imagine, can't you? Look at you, all white-robed and still working after you were done with the convocation. Just itching at the bit. Imagine never returning to the star, but instead just jumping forward a bit whenever you think it's time. Just infinitely into the future. Never leaving."
Atraxae had grown quiet towards the end, and Karasawa looked at her quizzically. Venat shook her head.
"It is the duty of all of us to return to the star once we feel our work is done, Atraxae. I'm just not done yet, that's all, but I do intend to return one day."
"Right. Right. Of course, of course," said Atraxae, rubbing her arm. Karasawa tilted his head at her. To say she was a chaotic personality would be an understatement, and this was a side of her he wasn't sure he'd ever seen before.
"Wait. Infinite. Oh, that's a good word! Hang on, hang on, let me think about it. Okay. Okay. Infinite Diversity Etheric Attuner! Yeah, that's a great name for it! Oh, oh, Karasawa, write that down."
Karasawa dutifully fetched his notebook out from his robes, and wrote down the device's name next to its entry that he already had mostly filled out.
"What is that, I wonder?" asked Venat.
"Oh right you weren't at the presentation yesterday. Right! The three fold devices. It's how I'm going to help people skip into the future. The IDEA engine takes your pattern and keeps it for you while you're in the lifestream, and then when it's time for you to come back, it'll put you in a new vessel appropriate to whenever you are, neat as you please. The SWORD is actually kind of an aetheric converter engine. Like if the IDEA makes sure you're you, the SWORD makes sure you stay, reinforcing you and shoring you up and stuff, and, uh, well, it's also legitimately a weapon. And the FOCUS, well, that's what calls you back when the time is right. Boom! Just relax into the FOCUS, let yourself drift down to the lifestream, and you'll wake up just like coming up from a nap when the time is right, ready to get back to work.
"It's genius, if I do say so myself. Say, while you're here... would you mind helping calibrate the IDEA engine? I've tested it with me and Karasawa, but as you know, one time's just an event, doing it twice is just coincidence, we really need three patterns to make sure we've got a pattern. A pattern of patterns. Of working! Yeah."
Venat tilted her head at Atraxae, and Atraxae grinned back.
"It's okay. It'll just record parts of your pattern, nothing more, and once we check that it looks okay, we'll wipe it right here, don't you worry. Karasawa will monitor from there, and I'll be right here to help calibrate it as you go. All you need to do is hold your hand out to this crystal lattice we've got floating right here, and we'll do the rest."
"...intriguing," said Venat, and after a moment's hesitation, she held her hand out to the crystal lattice, and began to pour aether into it. Karasawa quickly moved to watch while Atraxae fiddled with the crystals.
Venat's aether work was beautiful, he had to admit, and as he saw the 'signature' of who she was started to form, he thought that beautiful as well. Venat's was a pretty shade of light blue. Atraxae had been a purple, while his own had been orangish.
"And you say the intent is to preserve a soul into the future, that it may come back to our star, as itself, intact and hale and whole?" asked Venat as they worked.
"Yeah! You get it! Genius, right?" said Atraxae.
"...perhaps." said Venat.
"I think we have enough, Atraxae," said Karasawa. Atraxae fiddled with the crystals one last time, and then after a moment, she nodded to Venat, and Venat withdrew her hand. The gentle aether flow stopped, and Atraxae took the crystal lattice down, and she worked with it for a bit.
"...I think that's it. Yeah, that's - look at this pattern, Karasawa," she said, handing the crystals over.
Karasawa took it, and looked it over, and nodded. "...your pattern is quite lovely, if I do say so, Venat."
Venat smiled and shrugged. "I shall have to take your word for it. I trust, however, that you are not going to be plucking me from the lifestream at a moment's notice?"
"Oh, no no no, not with this alone," said Atraxae. "You've confirmed our work, though, but no. Here, I'll release your pattern from the crystals in a moment, but for this to work - we need a bigger crystal, and you'd have to commit your whole self to it. Basically this serves as a prism for your soul, and you push yourself through it on your way to the lifestream, and it remembers enough of it as you do so to call you back later. This is part of the IDEA engine. The other part's the resonator, over there - I think I'll make it into a necklace, I can get it small enough - and the crystal as its main stone. When it's time, you get called back, and the resonator's what's responsible for finding you a new form to inhabit, while the crystal busies itself making you, well, you once more."
Venat crossed her arms, and looked thoughtful, and when she spoke, Karasawa got the feeling she wasn't really talking to anyone in the room. "A spark thrown into the future." she said. "...but who?"
Atraxae and Karasawa looked at one another.
"What?" asked Atraxae.
Venat smiled, and shook her head. "Nothing. Just idle musings. I think... you should continue you work, Atraxae. You have my support, should you ask for it. I think... perhaps it will make for a good alternative, perhaps to - ah. To, ah... other plans one might make for the rest of their life. In service to the star, of course."
It would've been hard for someone else to tell, because of the mask, but Karasawa had long been friends with Atraxae, and could tell she was lighting up.
"Oh yes! Of course! I'm so glad you approve! Maybe with your word, we can get more help here. I mean, if you want to give it, but really, your support alone is enough, and I think we're pretty close to testing anyway!"
Venat smiled, and bowed. "Thank you for sharing your work with me, Atraxae, Karasawa. I am afraid, however, that my visit, by necessity, must be a short one. I have other matters to look after. Kindly keep me appraised of your progress, however."
"Oh yes. Absolutely. Have a good day. Hey! Tell the new Azem I said hello! No, tell them I said congratulations!"
Venat nodded as she glided out of the workshop, and Atraxae grinned giddily at the door as she left. Karasawa slowly turned to her.
"...it's not for the seat of Azem," he said. "It's for her."
"What? Huh? Sorry. What?" said Atraxae, shaking her head clear.
"All of this that you're working on. All that you're doing. You were thinking about her. You were thinking of a way to keep her around on the star, and instead of talking to her like a well-adjusted being, you decided to throw yourself into this project," he said. "You care deeply for her."
"Everyone who's ever met her cares deeply for her, are you kidding? She's one of like five people who are interesting at all on this planet. It's like, you, me, her, the new Azem, and iunno I'm sure there's a fifth somewhere."
Karasawa smiled gently, and Atraxae grinned back at him. "I am certain there are more than five," he said. "Sheer statistics alone-"
"Yeah yeah by the numbers, sure, I know, I know," said Atraxae, rolling her eyes. She held the crystal lattice between her hands, and shrunk it down to be the size of a gem. "And I'm not going to tell HER any of this though, what kind of idiot do you think I am?"
Karasawa looked around the room. "The kind of idiot to forward some of the most heterodox research our star has seen in an age in the pursuit of violating one of our society's most dearly held taboos. This sort of thing might be why you have so few friends, now."
"I will have you know I was quite popular in my youth," she huffed.
"You were so popular because you were such an iconoclast, running around with your mask off and almost as frequently without your robes. They saw you as a punk, if not a bit daft. They thought you were interesting. But most of us grew out of that phase, Atraxae."
"Yeah. They had better things to do. Saw to their duties, fulfilled their goals, settled down into an existence of mediocrity complacency and fitting in or flitting off once the job was done and dissolving into stardust," she grumbled. "Venat's the only real one around here. She knows what she's about."
She focused her creation magics, and began to form a necklace in her hands. Across the room, the resonator she had mentioned earlier floated up, and came to rest in the middle of the band, and in front of it, she placed the gem. She frowned as the energies came together, and looked up at Karasawa over them.
"...you're not gonna leave me too, are you, Karasawa?" she asked, her voice quiet. "Wouldn't blame you if you did. I'm a disaster. You know it. I know it. It's a fair miracle I haven't been censured yet."
Karasawa grinned at her. "I am your entire conscience and half of your impulse control. No, Atraxae, you will not be rid of me that easily."
Atraxae smiled as the IDEA engine formed, finished at last, in her hand, and she looped it around her neck.
"...chupaquesos before we test this thing?" she said.
"Absolutely," he said.
-*-
The world had gone mad.
The world, for Karasawa, had long been mad. Not due to any special circumstance, other than the close orbit he had insisted upon living his life around Atraxae's gravitational pull.
But now she was gone, and he was here, and the sky was literally falling, and monsters roamed the world.
Overhead, meteors and fireballs fell lazily towards the ground, a rain of fire that had left devastation in its wake. Around him, monsters from nightmares and worse rose up out of the firmament, razing entire cities and robbing the star of thousands of lives.
The convocation was supposedly convening with a plan, but Karasawa had no interest in waiting around to see what it might be. He held in his mind a singular purpose, and with that purpose he strode through rubble strewn city street and past burning plants and trees.
He had met the monsters, of course. There were so many of them, and they seemed unavoidable. He noticed they seemed to go after those who were most panicked first. He supposed, whatever they were or wherever they came from, that they were inclined to go after easier prey first, but he had no intention of making himself be easy prey, much less appear to be any.
So when they met, he held tight in his mind's eye that he would be the victor. Determination poured through his veins and sheer stubborn will powered his every step.
He could not save this world. He could not fix it. That would be a problem for the convocation to solve.
But there was one thing he could do, and he would do it.
He made his way to a small nondescript building tucked away in an unremarkable corner of an unnotable city. One of the most boring places on Etheirys, someone had once complained to him. The perfect place to set up shop and shake the star, he had been told.
Well. The star was shaking now, but it certainly was not from his own work or that of his friend.
He looked behind him just once as he crossed the threshold, and saw a mighty monstrous entity tear down an entire building, towering over its rubble, and he ducked inside.
This was a long shot, he knew, but it had a chance of working, which was more than the star had at the moment.
He found what he was looking for.
The FOCUS, its panel blinking plaintively in the dark.
He knelt next to it. It was a largish rectangular box, fit to hold a body. And though it did not appear to be holding a body at the moment, he knew the truth of it, as he wiped away its display, and checked its settings.
Ten years.
A short test.
A short test, and then they would celebrate, and toast one another's accomplishments, and at last submit their concept to -
He laughed to himself, despite everything.
"To the concept house store," he said, and he laughed, shaking his head.
His friend had always been just shy of insane, and he was certain they would have been both censured had any of these concepts gotten as far as being submitted, but oh would in not have been worth it? To be the first minds in an age to be censured?
She would've celebrated the occasion, and probably would have wanted to see if getting double censured was a possibility.
A possibility she would not get to enjoy.
Well, not yet, anyway.
He checked the other settings and was mollified to find that the IDEA engine and the SWORD device were both tucked into the FOCUS, and apparently working correctly.
He bowed his head, and thought for a moment of the sky burning high above him.
The convocation might rescue the star, but how long would that take, he wondered.
He looked at the display once more.
Ten years seemed very optimistic.
He sighed, and reached into his robes, and pulled out his notebook. He scribbled a quick note down, and wished desperately that he had more time, to leave more notes behind, not just for his own benefit, but for those who would come after.
But he did not have enough time, and what time he had was just about up.
He opened a panel on the FOCUS, and slipped his single note down into its side, then closed it again. And then he lifted another panel, the aetheric siphon that was used to power the FOCUS. The more power it had, the longer it could keep track of a person's pattern for recall.
He wondered how long he would need, and shook his head with a sigh.
Well, gambling was more her thing than his. In this, he would not gamble.
He held his hand to the siphon, and he pushed. He pushed, and he saw the display indicating how long it would wait for the future start to tick up. It went up slowly at first. Eleven years, twelve years, thirteen, fourteen.
He pushed harder, and it began to tick upwards faster and faster, and as he got a feel for it, he felt something shift, and he smiled.
"Goodbye, Atraxae, you mad woman," he said. "May the future to be everything you hoped it would be."
Karasawa closed his eyes, and he pushed the remainder of all that he was into the device, even as the building crashed down around him, burying the FOCUS and all that it contained underneath a pile of rubble.