#FFxivWrite2017

[dressuparley]

Backlog - FFxivWrite 2017 Day #3 - The Twelve

29/11/2024 - I wrote this piece when my WoL's name was still 'Garry', same as mine, but now that I've changed it to 'Arley', I'm gonna edit this piece and post it here again since I actually like it quite a bit!

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30/08/2024 // 639 words // Arley POV // ARR 2.0 // T'aki belongs to my friend in real life, the very one who got me into FFXIV in the first place

Summary: Arley is sent to the markets on some errands, where she hears of Fantasia, and wastes time fantasizing about it.

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Skin fair as porcelain, soft, furry ears, and a fluffy pink tail… Just as beautiful as T’aki’s, and maybe just one shade lighter…

Arley’s reverie broke abruptly as a small woman bumped into her on her way to the markets.

“Apologies,” Arley mumbled, but the lady had already passed out of earshot, and become part of the busy throng of shoppers that was the Sapphire Avenue Exchange.

It couldn’t possibly be true, could it?

“Just one sip before bed, and you’ll wake up in the corporeal form of your choice,” the hawker had promised. “For the very small, very reasonable price of fifteen million gil, this wondrous miracle could be your very own!”

For just a moment, Arley let herself believe it could be true. Fantasia, it was called. A concoction that would cause the imbiber to experience a dream wherein they could choose exactly how they wanted to look—right up to their race and sex—and wake up in precisely that body the following morning. The possibilities seemed endless, and the purchase was most certainly very tempting.

Ever since she was little, Arley had always secretly wished she were Miqo’te like her adoptive brother. She tried not to be biased, but they were just so pretty, combining the best features of both humans and beastkin. Not only had J’ahden always been the most popular boy at their tiny village school, he also had several abilities—superhuman hearing being one of them—that made him an outstanding hunter and warrior, thanks to his heritage. Then they’d met J’ludaba, and Arley had thought her large Seeker eyes the prettiest eyes she’d ever see. That is, until she’d met T’aki at the pugilists' guild…

T’aki was, in Arley’s opinion, the absolute epitome of feminine beauty. Her slight frame, her naturally-pink hair and eyes, her bright, lively way of expressing herself with those adorable ears and that tail with the pompom… All of it meant that no matter where they were, all eyes always went to T’aki. Including Arley’s. It was little wonder that J’ahden had turned himself into a mopey, moony idiot over her. She was also so limber and quick on her feet, at least part of it had to be genetic…

Arley wondered whether she too would get second glances from men after downing a phial of Fantasia. Maybe more of them would ask her to dances or dinners. Maybe Thancred would start flirting with her once again, the way he had when they’d first met and he’d had his ulterior motives…

Arley shook her head and sighed. This was all very silly. She tried to imagine what Kajiji would have said about this newfangled invention. Like as not, it’d have been something like, “The Twelve have made you who you are for a reason. Your goal should be to have faith in their discretion and do your best with what they’ve given you, instead of being so vain as to try changing every little thing about yourself.” Something along those lines, anyroad. And how did one even begin to explain such a drastic, bizarre change in appearance to the family and friends who saw them daily?

And even had her conscience allowed it, there still was the small matter of the fifteen million gil price tag. She could borrow it from Tataru if she really wanted, and no doubt the Scions’ bookkeeper would be glad enough to lend it to her… if she somehow managed to explain what she needed it for. No, it was just not feasible. It was a nice daydream, but that’s all it was destined to be.

Sighing again, Arley pulled out the piece of parchment with Minfilia’s shopping list on it from her pocket, took a moment to get her bearings, and headed towards the weaponry and armor stalls to fulfill her duty as a Scion.

[dantinmikannes]

A side profile grey scale for FFxivWrite2017 winner @taracelica of her sweet girl! Thank you so much for participating and sharing your stories with us!

[sea-wolf-coast-to-coast]

FFxiv Writers – 30 Day Writing Challenge 2017!

The FFxiv tumblr community is filled with so many talented writers! I know that November is high writing time for many of us with NaNoWriMo on the horizon, but for those of us who want to keep it a bit more simple – I propose a 30 day writing challenge!

What’s a 30 day writing challenge? :o

Why, it’s challenge in which you write in response to a daily prompt that I post here, of course!

Here’s how it works:

Beginning Wednesday November 1st, I, @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast​, will post one new writing prompt daily at 12:00pm (noon) PST. Check back daily for the latest prompt!

You will write a short story, or scene, inspired by the daily prompt. You’re welcome to interpret the prompt in any way that you choose! Writing for different characters per prompt is just fine – but I do request that you stick to original characters that you own in the FFxiv universe.

All entries posted and tagged with #FFxivWrite2017 by noon (PST) the following day will be counted towards a participation prize drawing.

Entries posted after the daily cutoff is A OK! Catching up on prompts and writing at your own pace is encouraged. Just know that it won’t be counted towards the participation prize in the case of a later submissions. <3

On Friday, December 1st, I’ll count up all the participation tallies, each day counting as one entry per writer, and draw a winner!

The winner of the participation prize will receive a stylized black & white illustration of a scene depicted from one of their entries (winner’s choice!), drawn by yours truly! (Here’s #my art tag if you’re curious!).

Rules:

You cannot submit things that you’ve already written – Even if the topic is the same. All entries must be new and freshly written for this challenge!

No rough drafts and no redos – Relax! Use this as a low pressure opportunity to loosen up and de-rust your writing chops. No one will be judging your work for quality or length. The purpose is to get into the habit of writing daily. Don’t overthink it, and don’t put too much pressure on yourself! It’s all for fun!

Tag all of your entries with #FFxivWrite2017 – Even if you’re late to the writing party. I’ll be using this tag to track daily participants, so if you don’t use it, I won’t find your entry! Please note that entries that include an external link (to a song, piece of art etc.) will not show up in the tag results. Tumblr hides all posts with external links from their tag feeds. :[

Include the entry number in the title of your post – Example: “Entry #10: Your Title.” This helps me keep track of participating entries.

You have until prompt #7 to back write for the participation prize – That means that if you discover the writing challenge a few days, or even a week after it’s started, you can still jump in and back write as many of the first 7 prompts as you want, and they’ll count as entries to the participation prize! After day 8, however, no back writing will be counted towards the prize. That being said, it is totally possible for someone with only 1 participation entry for the duration of the contest to be drawn as the participation prize winner so don’t give up due to lack of participation overall!

Absolutely no griefing, harassing, or trolling other writers – This will earn you an automatic disqualification from the event.

No writing for original characters that you do not own – Please do not write on behalf of other people’s characters. Stick to characters that you’ve created.

Tag NSFW content with #NSFW – Similarly, if your entry contains graphic or violent content that may be triggering to others, please include a brief trigger warning at the top of your post. Be considerate of your readers!

What’s the purpose of this writing challenge?

To connect FFxiv writers, of all skill and experience levels, and to have fun sharing our work!

Whether you’re participating or not, consider checking out the #FFxivWrite2017 tag periodically after November 1st and like/reblog your favorite pieces. Show the FFxiv writing community some love!

NOTE: I reserve the right to opt out of drawing NSFW or potentially triggering content. If you’re drawn as the participation prize winner, please be willing to work with me a bit on choosing which scene to draw. Thank you!

[svashing]

FFxivWrite2017 Participation Prize!

Participation Prize for @jancisstuff‘s entries in FFxivWrite2017! Thanks to @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast for organization! I had a lot of fun drawing the prize.

[nightmaze]

~ FFxivWrite2017 Participation Prize ~

Reward for @adeya-evenar for participating to the writing challenge hosted by @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast. I wish you happy holidays and hope you like it ♥ !

Unedited Version ♥

[diskwrite-ffxiv]

FFxivWrite2017 Participation Prize

Participation prize for @aeveriedreams with their lovely Elezen, Evie! I hope you like it. <3

[winterdeepelegy]

OOC - XIV 30 day writing prompts

Well I did it.  I met every prompt, and only had to make up one on Thanskgiving due to missing it for an event a couple of nights prior. This really has been a great experience, and I’m glad I got on board for it.  Some prompts were easier than others.  We were fed ideas and challenged.  There were days I looked at the prompts and went... “Oh god, what?  Wait... what do I do with this?” And some days, the lightbulb came on and I felt like I was able to turn out something worthwhile.  Other times... not so much, it was just filler, or it felt like I was repeating something in a later prompt that was already covered in an earlier one.  As a personal critique, I only liked maybe 1/3 of the pieces delivered out of the entire month because a lot of them weren’t up to personal standard.  The ones I enjoyed writing the most were background details which have never been fully explored up until that moment, for one reason or another.  They just needed the right hook, or were missing framework, and the prompts forced me to push the pieces into place until they clicked.  It was tiring, but never tedious. Your mileage may have varied.  But reading so many of the pieces others turned out in response has been nothing short of delightful, and I’m looking forward to next year. A round of applause and thanks are in order for @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast for arranging all of this and being such a wonderful host.  Thank you for making November so much fun and helping some of us grow as writers. For everyone else, pat yourselves on the back for having done it, no matter how much or how little you were able to get to.  Maybe you didn’t like some of your own work, but the fact is, you still did it.  That’s no small thing.

[dragons-bones]

DT’s FFXIV Write 2017 Master Post

For easier perusal, the collected master post of my completed prompts for FFXIV Write 2017.

Prompt fills will also be uploaded to AO3 under the title Aethertrails, one posted each day, throughout the month of December. Prompts will receive editing and polishing for AO3.

Prompt #01: Specter - Avoidance (On AO3)

Prompt #02: Synthetic - From Stem to Stern (On AO3)

Prompt #03: The Twelve - Vuelve a la Vida (On AO3)

Prompt #04: Self-editing - Equations (On AO3)

Prompt #05: Prank - How Galette Got Her Name (On AO3)

Prompt #06: Identification - Aetherial Abomination (Maybe) (On AO3)

Prompt #07: Broken Leaf - Sunrise (On AO3)

Prompt #08: Shadows - Glow (On AO3)

Prompt #09: Linkpearl - Multitasking (On AO3)

Prompt #10: Slap - Re-Calibration (On AO3)

Prompt #11: Mercy vs. Justice - Echoes (On AO3)

Prompt #12: Caste - Reactions (On AO3)

Prompt #13: Wounded Animal - Succor (On AO3)

Prompt #14: Wit - Kiss and Tell (On AO3)

Prompt #15: Doppelganger - Glamour (On AO3)

Prompt #16: Ceruleum - Ragging (On AO3)

Prompt #17: Fate - Letters (On AO3)

Prompt #18: Self-control - Academic Debate (On AO3)

Prompt #19: Battle of Wills - Ishgardian Tea (On AO3)

Prompt #20: Blending in - Anonymity (On AO3)

Prompt #21: Wind - Reckoning (On AO3)

Prompt #22: Monster - Waking Nightmare (On AO3)

Prompt #23: No prompt; catch up day!

Prompt #24: Standing in line - Breakfast Run (On AO3)

Prompt #25: Obsolete - Assessments (On AO3)

Prompt #26: Sacred - Sunset (On AO3)

Prompt #27: Foot in mouth - Bar Brawling (On AO3)

Prompt #28: Rivalry - Academic Integrity (On AO3)

Prompt #29: Prophecy - Cartomancy (On AO3)

Prompt #30: Frost - Snow Day (On AO3)

[dressuparley]

i ought to start posting stuff on here now that my wol has her own identity and name. only i'm not suuuper happy with everything i've written for her up until now. i think i'll post one piece from ffxivwrite2024 and one from ffxivwrite2017 (that i also did in 2024), bc they're my favorites so far

[sea-wolf-coast-to-coast]

FFxivWrite2017 Participation Prize Winners!

Sorry for the delay, friends! Here are the participation prize winners for 2017′s FFxiv 30 Day Writing Challenge! All winners were selected randomly via a random number generator.

Grand Participation Prize winners:

These winners will receive a black & white illustrated piece (or a full color screenshot edit) from one of the 7 artists who volunteered their talents for the final prizes!

@the-hitless-swordsman​

@taracelica​

@aeveriedreams​

@housealderscorn​

@adeya-evenar​

@jancisstuff​

@yokasaris​

Weekly Participation Prize winners:

These four were announced in each of the weekly recap posts. They will each receive a stylized black & white portrait of their character illustrated by yours truly!

@rprambles

@emilyplaysgames

@ffxiv-swarm

@smokespun

CONGRATULATIONS to our winners! The artists will be in contact with you soon if they haven’t reached out to you already. Some of you will begin to see your art pieces posted as early as this week!

Thank you so much to everyone who participated! I’ll follow up with a post about upcoming challenges for 2018 soon!

Happy holidays! <3

[autumnslance]

Prompt #19 (Battle of Wills): Stand Off in the Lobby

“I told you, I’m fine. I received healing.”

There was a tiny foot stomp.

“Look, I’m not going to go running off into danger anytime—“

Arms were crossed. Oh, gods.

“…I brought you more cheesecake?”

There was a growl, and a small hand pointed emphatically toward Dark’s apartment door.

The roegadyn stared down at the lalafell staring back up at her. Teii Tei was blocking the front door of the company office. While, honestly, Dark could simply step past or even over the diminutive woman, there was a lot of good reason not to make the attempt.

After a long moment, Dark finally covered her face and sighed. “Fine. You win.”

Teii let out a happy little cheer and smiled brightly. She also didn’t move from her spot in front of the door until Dark was well and truly inside her room, gear put away again, and a book in hand to spend the rest of the day.

If Erick asked about the simple job she was meant to be on, she had a very good reason for not leaving—and he wasn’t about to take it up with Teii himself, Dark was sure.

(( With permission from our awesome lil’ @popotatertots ))

[nightmaze]

Waking Up

Prompt #1: Specter

Arms across his face, he tried to find some sleep despite the words she spoke resonating in his head. She reminded him that his current situation was partly his fault and if he didn’t correct his own behavior, he would end up alone. Sleep was long to come and agitated by incoherent dreams.

Darkness. Opening his eyes and looking around, he found nothing but the conscience of his own body. There was emptiness under his feet and despite the lack of indication, he had the feeling that he was falling. Oddly enough he wasn’t scared, somehow conscious that this wasn’t the reality. Nirë was well known to appear to her people using such stratagem so he waited, more curious than anything else, wondering what she had to tell him.

Time passed, feeling both like hours and seconds, when a shimmering light appeared under him, quickly growing as he was getting closer. Having spent much time within the darkness, the light blinded him as he tried to look at it, only allowing him to distinguish a silhouette as it passed by him. He only had enough time to tell himself that his sense were right and he was falling quite quickly as he approached another light. He tried to focus on it, to understand what it was about but could only see what looked like a giant crystal. As he was falling in between the lights, his body still floating in the air, the emptiness above him slowly filled itself with constellations. He quickly lost the count of them as he tried to understand their content. Pot, hand, wall, crystal, eyes, drake, bow.. Random visions jumbled together and making no sense. Soon he found himself distracted, missing a part of those small orbs floating close to him, this dream seemed to be too long to be only a dream and he was far too conscious as well. What was happening ? The scenery never seemed to change and if Nirë had a message for him she could at least try to make sense. “What do you want to tell me ?” he whispered as another image of an unknown blue haired woman appeared to him, “None of this make sense..” he added, hoping for an answer. The sound of his voice breaking the now oppressing silence reassured him a little, yet only when his pace seemed to slow down and he landed on a soft and wet surface soothed partly his uneasiness.

He stood up and needed a moment to find his balance as the liquid surface was wobbling. He almost regretted the monotony of the starry sky when he noticed that there was nothing to be seen around him. He shivered, what was that supposed to mean ? Having nothing else to do, he turned to a random direction and began to walk, soon getting used to the uneven floor and lack of sensation.

Another eternity passed before he noticed something glowing in the distance. He accelerated his pace, running in its direction, starving to see something else than the orbs up and the liquid down. Yet as he grew close, he slowed down again until reaching another orb of some sort, looking like a giant bubble made of the same liquid he was himself walking on. He frowned as he came close enough to touch it, its smell familiars to the point of being uncomfortable. Curious nonetheless he looked what was inside and gasped at the sight.

That body, those markings, these scars.. There was no doubt possible. Him. It was himself, curled up in fetal position, like waiting to be born. He stayed without moving a moment, confused, even pondering to run away, to escape this awkward truth. But there was nothing else around, only the infinite darkness lightened up by the orbs. With a sigh he whispered, “What is it supposed to mean ? Is that.. A message ?” As expected silence answered to him, leaving him no other choice but to decide what to do next without a single hint.

None could have guessed how long he stood in front of the bubble, staring intensely at its content before he realized the differences between the one seeming yet to be born, and himself. While he was indeed facing his own reflection, this one was older. A goatee had replaced his actual beardless and a scar was crossing his right eyes. Fascinated by the vision, he reached up to touch the globe. As his fingers reached the water, a violent shake almost got him to lose his balance

Looking up, he saw the sky falling, the orbs detached from the formerly darkness which was now showing a crack of blinking light. A crack which only grew like someone was tearing up the sky leading the orbs to fall in the water, piercing it at great speed. It’s as he saw a giant face, frantically pursuing its work that Ilwe’ran lost his balance, his body falling into the dark waters.

He kept his eyes closed, only having enough time to catch his breath before his body broke through the slimy liquid. He tried to keep calm even though the noise of the orbs following their course down was scarring him. What sort of message could that be ? What was happening ? Until then he thought it was Nirë attempting to communicate with him, but now he only had the persistant sensation that everything was real and that he might not wake up from this dreamed reality.

A great tumult lead him to turn his head as the globe protecting his other self shattered, the body it kept safe until then slowly getting disintegrated by the liquid.

He screamed. 

“Nirë, Nirë, what do you want ? What to you mean !?” he tried to say. What just made this shadow of himself disappear quickly filled his throat which could have lead him to a painful death if smarmy liquid didn’t suddenly slide, taking him with it.

He felt the coldness of the floor before anything else, the gross sensation of the liquid his dream was made off persisting. He tried to take a breath of air but what seemed to have been an illusion filled his throat, preventing him from breathing. He tried to move, to spit out, but his attempt was abruptly interrupted as he was dragged up. His face violently met a shoulder while a knee weighed against his stomach. He heaved and vomited, allowing him to free his throat and to quickly breath in.

A long mournful cry broke the silence and it’s helplessly that he was rocked back and forth, the one holding him so closely unknown by him and whose back was only lighten by the lightning storm which was howling outside.

[the-wardens-torch]

FFXIVwrite 2017 Reactions

I hope you guys (all 4 of you) enjoyed my FFXIVwrite2017 entries, or at least that you weren't too annoyed seeing them on your dashboard.  My extremely modest goal was to do 10 of the prompts, and I'm happy to say that I did (hey, 10 is a big deal for me.)

Putting the rest of this behind a cut so as not to be too annoying.

I love to write, and I always liked the concept of doing writing challenges to keep my skills sharp, but never found any that really "worked" for me. I can't come up with plots to save my life, I work full-time, I'm really bad at interacting with/sharing with groups, I procrastinate, and I'm strangely allergic to modern day settings, yet also too lazy to worldbuild for fantasy settings. Add mental illness to that and yeah, I get very little done.

But this, this...

Prompts coming too rapid-fire for plot to be important if you don't want it to be? Check.

Some wiggle room for those days when you just don't have the time or energy?  Check.

No group to be disappointed in you? Check.

Hard and fast deadlines to prevent procrastination? Check.

Pre-made world everyone reading will already be familiar with? Check.

I just loved doing these.  I had to check what the prompt was every day at noon despite the clinic’s no-phones-at-work rule, and even the ones I didn't do at least got me excited and got the wheels turning in my head. Bottom line, prize or no prize, everyone involved in this project, especially @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast has made this run-down old nerd very happy.

[dragons-bones]

Entry #30: Snow Day

FFXIV Write 2017 prompt #30: Frost

A/N: Capping off the month with schoompy fluff and OTP adorableness. :D Also the Arcanist Guild messaging system is originally @aethericgeometry‘s brain child and I was delighted to have an excuse to shove it in somewhere.

What ended up finally drawing her to full wakefulness, after at least an hour of muzzy, warm snuggling with her still asleep lover, was the fact that her nose was swiving freezing.

Synnove huffed quietly and squinted her eyes open against the morning light. At some point during the night, she had transformed from the little spoon into a long-limbed octopus, and Aymeric had slid further down the mattress so he was completely under the blankets. Her left leg was pinned under his hip, ankle hooked around his knee, while her right leg was thrown around his waist. Her left arm was stuck beneath her, though she hadn’t quite lost all feeling in it yet, and her right was snug around Aymeric’s neck, her fingers buried in his silken hair. Aymeric’s own arms were wrapped firmly around her waist, pressing her close against him, and he’d nuzzled the collar of her night shirt out of the way so he could press his face into her neck; his soft, deep breaths rhythmically blew across her collarbone and throat.

It was almost enough to lull her back to sleep, except for how damned cold her nose was.

She finished blinking the crust from her eyes and turned her head to peer at the window. What she saw made her breathe in sharply in surprise: the sunlight was refracting through hard rime crusting the glass, casting small, dancing rainbows at the foot of the bed.

It was a sight she was used to on mornings in Ishgard. This, however, was La Noscea.

Since the Calamity, weather patterns across Eorzea had stayed eerily consistent, with very little seasonal shift. Winters storms would roll in off the Indigo Deep, of course, and mild winters were a fact of life along the coast, but she could count the number of steep temperature drops in Limsa Lominsa on one hand since Dalamud fell and have fingers left over. Never mind proper snow or frost; this was the first she’d seen this far south in years.

Perhaps the weather was finally returning to normal? Or possibly it was a sudden aetheric shift from wind to ice? What would cause-

“I can hear you thinking.”

Synnove startled, reflexively tightening her limbs as she full-bodied twitched. Aymeric grumbled and squeezed her waist in retaliation, nuzzling closer and huffing against her neck at the same time.

“Sorry, love,” she murmured, resting her cheek on top of his head.

“No, you’re not,” he said, voice still rough with sleep. “You wouldn’t be you if you weren’t-” he yawned heavily “-forever contemplating the mysteries of the natural world.”

She made a disgusted noise. “Stop being articulate at this hour, it’s rude.”

He snickered into her collarbone.

A chiming warble sounded, and Galette leapt onto the bed, crawling up the covers so she could drape herself over Synnove’s shoulder. She meowed around the linkpearl cuff held carefully in her mouth and blinked at her mama. The ‘pearl attuned to the Mealvaan’s Gate operating center was chiming softly.

Synnove grumbled and wiggled her left arm out from beneath her, twisting it so she could hold her hand beneath Galette’s chin. The carbuncle obediently dropped the cuff, but stayed where she was. Galette sniffed at the tufts of black hair sticking out from under the blankets, and reach out to gently pap Aymeric’s head with her paw. “Myaaa?” she said.

Aymeric giggled.

“Hush a moment, both of you,” Synnove said, although internally she was a puddle of mush over how adorable her carbuncle and her beloved were. She held the cuff up to her ear and thumbed the ‘pearl’s connection open.

“-Gate: La Noscea Arcanists: Directive. Immediate Action Order. Special order: CRIMSON DAWN declaring SAPPHIRE TIDE in effect. Stop, stop, stop. Message will repeat. Mealvann’s Gate: La Noscea Arcanists-”

Synnove thumbed the linkpearl off and tossed the cuff to the other side of the bed. “Admiral’s declared a special holiday,” she said. “Unessential personnel have the day off, and the city is shut down.”

Aymeric hummed into her skin. “I vote we spend the day in bed.”

“That sounds marvelous. Seconded.“

"Motion carries.” He nipped playfully at her collarbone.

Galette whined piteously. Tyr suddenly poked his head over the side of the bed, nose twitching as he stared directly at his mama with large, dark, sad eyes. “Maaaaaaow,” he said plaintively.

Outside the door to the bedroom, Ivar chittered impatiently.

Aymeric groaned. Synnove sighed into his hair. “My children are demanding breakfast,” she grumbled.

Two loud groooooowls suddenly filled the air. There was a beat of silence, and then both she and Aymeric were shaking with helpless laughter into one another. Galette slid off Synnove’s shoulder with a yip, and nudged hard at her mama’s elbow, unhappy to be dislodged from her spot.

“Apparently it’s not just the carbuncles desiring food, my love,” Aymeric said. He reluctantly released his grip on her waist and shimmied up the bed so he was no longer buried by blankets. He blinked owlishly in the light, eyes adjusting to the change.

Synnove took the opportunity to bury her nose in his neck now. She sighed happily, even as Aymeric yelped in shock at the burst of ice against his skin. “Yay,” she said.

“I see how it is,” he said in faux mournful tones around a smile. “I’m just a convenient living brazier for your use in the heart of winter.”

“Thermodynamic equilibrium,” Synnove said, sing-song. The two dissolved into giggles again, and stopped only when three loud, angry “MAOW!”s rang out.

“All right, all right, you bottomless pits, we’re getting up. Budge over, Galette.”

[aethernoise]

#22: Monster

The water was so cold that Alyx wasn’t sure what would kill her first: freezing or drowning. Panic had set in just enough to make her thinking and awareness razor sharp, but unfortunately, the mind was no match for the layers of heavy wool and furs dragging her down below the ice. Her lungs cried out in pain as she struggled to hold her breath and she scrambled with her hands above her; the surface was close, she could tell, but not close enough to banish the grim and shameful thought of drowning alone in Coerthas being the thing that finally killed her.

She felt a sharp tug at her wrist, and then the cloak around her neck, and suddenly and with a great and frigid splash she was gasping and sputtering on the surface again. Somebody’s arms pulled her away from the crevice, somebody’s hand yanked apart the fastenings of her jacket and then another hand was on her chest pressing almost uncomfortable heat into the soaked fabric that lay beneath. In an instant she wondered if a stray cultist had found her and was now going to finish the job by killing her there on the ice, but the heat she felt was not fire–rather the familiar discomfort of somebody else’s aether, the bizarre touch of healing magic. She coughed out a mouthful of water, finally blinking up into the shrewd face of her rescuer.

“It would appear as though you handled this with the same level care and restraint as I’ve come to expect,” she heard Zhai’a Nelhah say, and though his voice was characteristically smug, she could see what may have just been genuine relief in his eyes.

“Wonderful to see you too, Zhai’a,” she growled through chattering teeth, “Punctual as ever.”

She struggled to sit up but his hand at her chest held her down.

“Considering you left without me–”

“I didn’t have time stand around waiting,”  Alyx interrupted, shaking so violently that she could barely speak. “I literally chased them here on foot.”

“–you’re lucky I arrived when I did! Lest you were finally to fall victim to your own wanton destruction.” 

He punctuated his assessment with a disapproving look at their surroundings.  She shook her dripping bangs out of her eyes and found the strength to shove his hand away; when the connection broke she gasped, for suddenly her entire body felt as cold as it had below the ice.

“Speaking of victims,” Zhai’a continued with a scowl as she struggled to rid herself of the freezing wetness of her outer layers. “Once again you have left us no survivors to question. I cannot believe I underestimated the power of your belligerence.”

Whatever strength remained in her would seem to have converted entirely into rage: she cast about briefly for her staff but failed to find it, relying instead on a trembling, crackling darkness growing in the palm of her hand. With force that surprised herself she dove and knocked the miqo’te down onto his back where he landed with a thud and a hiss. She grabbed a shaking fistful of the front of his robes with one hand as she held the dark and unwieldy storm of aether in the other, seething, dripping icy water onto his face.

She hated to admit she enjoyed the flash of fear that shadowed the eyes behind his spectacles. Her fingers ached with the strain of trying to hold the darkness steady, the shadows bit at her frozen skin, but she didn’t move beyond breathing heavily and shuddering from the cold. Zhai’a seemed to regain enough courage to speak, but when he did so his eyes remained fearful, but questioning.

“You would make me your victim too, then?” 

She could hear a great many things in his voice: fear, anger, disgust.

“They told me you were the Warrior of Light, not a monster.”

Emotions flared in her and caused her control to waver; she bit back a cry of frustration and let him fall back onto the ice beneath her, casting the haphazard and partially formed spell away where it sputtered and hissed in the cold air. She shoved Zhai’a away and attempted rising to her feet, failing when the numbness in her feet and legs refused to allow it. Alyx coughed and doubled over, still saying nothing, harnessing all of her will and control to stop herself from weeping.

She failed that, too, and soon found herself sobbing brokenly into her hand. After what felt to be impossibly long minutes she felt the Keeper’s hands on her shoulders again, attempting to lift her to her feet. She recoiled from his touch but in her weakness was unable to resist him.

“Just leave me,” she begged him in a voice trembling and hoarse between her ragged breaths, “Get your hands off me! Just fucking leave me!”

“No,” he said simply, and her knees buckled, forcing her weight onto his, “I must get you back to Falcon’s Nest where I can see to your healing properly.”

The knowledge that in any other state she could have easily overpowered him, physically and perhaps even magically, infuriated her, for here she was being practically carried out of the ravine to where Zhai’a’s chocobo waited to bear them back to civilization. She was not even certain how she managed to mount the damn bird when they got to it, or how such a bird was able to carry them both, but she remained silent for the ride.

At Falcon’s Nest she shed her drenched traveling gear and hid, despondent, wrapped in blankets by a meager fire amongst the cots of some sleeping Temple Knights. Satisfied she would be well taken care of, Zhai’a told her curtly he would return to Ishgard and eventually Gridania–she remained quiet, staring into the fire, unwilling to look him in the eyes.

He said her name softly and she looked up, but did not turn around to face him.

“I may not know you well. I may not even wish to know you well,” he paused, the silence heavy save for the crackling fire. “But I know that you are not a monster.”

Then left her, closing the door behind him.

(unofficially continued from the entries for prompts 20 and 8, in that order)

[chocoblep]

Thank you!

To friends who know me very well: Thank you for reading my entries for this writing challenge and putting up with my crap on your dash! I hope I made them enjoyable for you. Thank you for putting up with me while this challenge was going on; I know it meant less time for a couple other things. And thank you for just being awesome people. I love you all bunches.

To new followers and others who simply happened upon this blog: Thank you for reading my entries, and for following, and for being neato people! A lot of people that I followed ended up following me on my main blog and not here, but that’s okay! I’ll try to casually remind people now and then that this is the blog that was creeping on their entries. :)

To @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast : A huge thank you for putting on this challenge. I am very new (read: was a month or so into FFXIV maybe when I decided to do this) and because of this I feel like I struggled with some of the prompts and had to look a bunch of stuff up or ask friends, but ultimately I did every single prompt (even if they weren’t all in on time) and I learned a lot about FFXIV’s lore. So thank you. It meant a lot to me!