#ffviii-rare-pairs

[angelosearch]

THINGS THAT I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT MY FELLOW WRITERS

I've been tagged by @chainsawmascara! Thanks! ^_^

Tagging a couple of writers... @cynic-view-ahead @gardengalwrites @aleheartilly @suleikashideaway @mathiwrites @sevlinop @lenorelovesmax + Anyone else who wants to give this a go!

Last book I read: Oh shit I can't remember the last book I finished. It's been a while - I am in this space where I want to create more than I want to consume so I'm not reaching for books. I think I finished "An Immense World" by Ed Yong around this time last year? It was a good nonfiction piece about how humans and animals have different sensory experiences of the world. It sounds nerdy but this is the stuff I gravitate toward.

Greatest literary inspirations: Perhaps not "greatest" but the ones I think of most automatically right now - Susan Sontag, Joan Didion, Terry Prachett and Shel Silverstien. What a bunch.

Things in my current fandom I want to read but I don't want to write: Seifer-focused stuff.

Things in my current fandoms I want to write but I think nobody would be interested in them but me: Psychology-heavy stuff with realistic, gritty experiences of mental illness. Also, characters playing D&D together – have two different ideas centered around that!

You can recognize my writing by: So. Much. Dialogue. I am beginning to wonder if I should try writing screenplays because I utilize dialogue so heavily.

My most controversial take (current fandom): I don’t know how controversial this is, but I am not a big fan of the Ultimecia=Rinoa theory. Now, if it’s a good fic, I don’t mind reading about it, but I don’t think I will ever be convinced it is or should be canon.

Top three favorite tropes: Can I be honest for a second? I really don’t look for specific tropes. I barely look for specific pairings. When I choose to read a fic, I look to see if the concept intrigues me and then give it a shot. If I like the author’s style by the end of the first chapter, I trust they are going to be able to keep entertaining me. I have noticed that I do tend to gravitate toward magical realism, time travel, and fated lovers but I don’t look for those tags specifically. Maybe it’s because I have only been back in the fanfiction game – both writing and reading – for a few months, but a good synopsis and the right vibe is all I am looking for in a fic, just like if I was browsing a bookshelf.

What’s your current writing mood (10 – super motivated and churning out words like crazy, 0 – in a complete rut): Gosh it’s a 10. I rarely want to do anything else. Writing is the only thing that can 100% keep me from ruminating and it is addicting how effective it is at doing that. And when a chapter or one-shot has a hold on me, I can’t do anything else. It’s somewhat of a problem but my therapist hasn’t said that yet so I guess I am okay.

Share a fandom frustration: The FFVIII fandom is amazing. I don’t have any frustrations with it other than I wish it was bigger. Although, our small community is so wonderful and enthusiastic maybe it is better if it’s just the few of us gathered in a corner laughing and screaming.

[redfoxline]

ao3 wrapped [reader edition]

Do you know how many works your read this year? Around 2021 according to my AO3 history

Longest work you read this year? Didn't check but Once Upon An Eclipse by LeeRyder is likely the longest (a Genshin Ragros fic I highly recomment)

Shortest work you read this year (not including art published on ao3)? Not a clue I'm too lazy to check the 101 pages of my history to find out.

Do you have any works you read that are between you and your web browser? Nope, I'm shameless.

Did anything you read make you cry? I can DEFINITELY name a few. Angst is so tasty.

What's your absolute favorite works you read this year? Once Upon An Eclipse (quoted above) and Interlude: tightrope ballet, a wonderful Genshin fic focusing on Collei's and Cyno's relationship by Lilith-writes (the 3rd installment of a series I HIGHLY recommend), Into Esthar (a running FFVIII SxS story) and naturally Et au matin se fâne, a fantastic KavehxAlhiatham story written in French that has stolen my heart.

Did you read through any authors entire works? I certainly did: Shakekp (French) and their beautiful Genshin stories and Hazel-Athena with their incredible (and massive) collection of ZoroxSanji stories in the One Piece fandom.

Pairing you read the most for? AlhaithamxKaveh

Favorite rare pair you read works for this year? Surprisingly I don't think I've read rarepairs this year?

Largest fandom you read for? Genshin Impact

Smallest fandom you read for? Sasaki To Miyano

Did you as a reader receive any works as gifts? Nope.

What trope do you think you read the most of? The Getting Together tope. I even filter my search with this tag! xD

Favorite AU you read this year? Modern AU

Favorite canon concept you read this year? I honestly don't have an answer to that question.

Were your comments coherent or mostly screaming? Both (both is good)

Did you leave any comments that had to be in more than one part? Dude, even with my best effort the AO3 comment section limit is HUGE so obvioulsy no.

How many works did you bookmark this year? Around 80.

Did you read any works published before this year? Of course! Commented on it too. <3

Did you download any works? Yes! I like downloading stuff to listen to them as I do m chores.

WIP's or completed works? Both (Both is still good!)

Category you read the most of? Hurt/Comfort

What time of day do you read the most during? Evenings.

Where do you read the most? At home

Do you read on your phone or on your computer? Both although I think I use my phone more.

Did you do any beta reading for anyone? Nope.

Do you listen to anything while reading? Yes, I like some music or ASMR sometimes.

Did any line/passage stick with you after you read it? I can't remember which fic it was, but I think it was a KavehxAlhaitham's fic where the author quoted an Arabic poem with the following: 'You ask me if I love her to death. Speak her name above my grave and watch me be brought back to life'. A shame I can't recall the poet's name.

Do you have any works you think are required reading for (fandom)? No. Reading is a hobby and being part of a fandom is not a job. You don't need to have read/watch any specific works to be part of the fun.

Biggest surprise for you as a reader this year? Une fleur en ce monde qui n'existe pas by Shakeskp. I've stopped reading in my maternal language ages ago, whether it is in fanfiction or published book, and finding this little gem reminded me how beautiful my own language could be, up to the point where I wrote a little thing in French myself (and enjoyed myself immensely).

[theoreticalconstruct]

Six-Sentence “Sunday”

Meant to post this yesterday but it was really busy.

Yes, I still have WIPs. I don’t know when they’ll be finished.

(Fandoms: Darkest Dungeon, Disco Elysium, FFVII, FFVIII)

(Darkest Dungeon) Return

Dismas recognized the lanky, dirt-covered man who had just walked in. He remembered the livery distinctly - purple trimmed with yellow, and little bells on the cap. They had buried him in it. 

The jester walked into the room rather unsteadily, his fist clenched around something. He shuffled, as if he had nearly forgotten how to use his feet. The room was dead silent, as silent as the grave must have been before his emergence, as he made his way to the caretaker’s table. 

“All right, then,” he said in a raspy voice, a far cry from the singing voice he’d once had. Parthenai opened his fist, and a pair of dirt-encrusted dice fell out. “Time to see if my luck holds, aye?”

(Disco Elysium) Debriefing of a sort

Attention to detail had always been one of his strengths.

"I know you're here," he says wearily, sitting down by the window. "And I know you could have killed me already, if that was what you wanted."

The silence was long enough that Kim was beginning to doubt himself. Then Klaasje finally spoke. "Yes, I could have." She sounded amused. "Or I could kill you now."

(Final Fantasy VIII) Why Do I Try To Write Longer Fic?

Garden was doing very well, and NORG was generous enough with payment to allow him to have the procedures he needed, so that he could look at himself in the mirror and not feel like he was inhabiting someone else's body. A being's exterior appearance should match their interior, he'd said when Martine had explained the situation to him, and he'd even helped him find the doctors skilled enough to carry out the surgeries. The scar on his arm was easy enough to pass off as a burn from an old live-fire exercise; the surgery was done infrequently enough that he'd rarely met anyone who would know the difference. He'd made every effort to leave that past behind.

And now, one damned piece of paper was about to ruin the whole thing.

(Final Fantasy VIII) Heading For First SeeD Mission

"Oh, by the way, Selphie, I like the dress," Zell said as they walked through the gates.

"Thanks!" Selphie beamed at him, and Squall looked away. He'd been thinking the same thing, why hadn't he said it? "You wanna know the best part about it?"

"Best part?" Zell echoed, forehead furrowing. "What best part?"

"It has pockets!"

(Final Fantasy VII) The One I’m Very Sorry For Writing: 

He took a deep breath, let it out slowly. No reason to be anxious, he tried to tell himself; he was on the board now, one of the directors. He wasn't this man's inferior, except by age and experience and everything else that really mattered - all right, that train of thought definitely wasn't working. "Yes, Professor," he answered. "I studied AI and robotics before I moved into industrial engineering. I've been interested in the fields since I was a kid, so... so I've done my best to keep my knowledge current."

[snowflake-of-destruction]

This isn’t something I normally participate in, but, since I didn’t write much in June and shared hardly anything(something I plan to change in July if I can), I thought I should give some proof of (creative) life if anyone wants it.

Under the cut, a series of tiny excerpts, most more than six sentences, of different Kingdom Hearts pieces to be rescued from the limbo of “half finished chunk of something in a google doc.” Some of them belong to WIPs and some are from various other things started and then interrupted or....we’ll say set to a back burner.

All excerpts headed by a bolded header in the style of 

Title of Piece This Belongs To (Brief description of what kind of fic that is in between parenthesis)

Advantage Rule (Isalea Modern AU. First Chapter Up On AO3. More Info There.)

"You lost or are you the new caulk?" The speaker didn't fit the typical profile of a tech professional, especially one that worked behind the scenes with the coders. Mid-fifties judging by the lines on his face with thinning blond hair so light you could hardly tell where some parts had gone silver combed to stick up as a compensation for where it threatened to recede and leather skin that said he'd worked outside in some decade past, paired with a southern accent that seemed stronger than it was with the effect added by the toothpick precariously balanced in the corner of his mouth. He'd rejected business attire in favor of cargo pants and a dark blue flight jacket that looked like they'd been bought in the last century, and the look in his eye was so fierce without prompting that Axel had to wonder if he was a failsafe for the air conditioning breaking down.

"Am I the what?"

"Caulk." The toothpick switched sides of the man's mouth with a roll of his bottom lip. "Fixing the leaks? The cybersecurity specialist? Axel Lea?" His impatience mounted by the moment. Working on the fourth floor would certainly be interesting.

"Yes, sir. That would be me." Axel tried to smooth the way with deference and the easy smile that rarely steered him wrong. "Does that make you...?"

"Cid Highwind. I'll be showing you the ropes. Now that you've seen fit to grace us with your presence." Cid continued to stare him down and Axel wasn't sure if he was supposed to apologize or bare his teeth and smack his chest like a gorilla to challenge the alpha.

Without False Hope ( First Chapter Up On AO3. More Info There. Akuroku KH/FFX crossover)

Axel was waiting for them, or  it seemed that way at least and Roxas didn’t think himself vain for thinking so, when Roxas spotted the lanky redhead not jogging himself but leaning against a pole until he saw the Crusaders approaching and then falling in next to Roxas just behind Xion as she bellowed, "Young Crusaders gather 'round,"  the beginning of a call and response chant that the rest of them would answer with a promise to knock enemies back and stand their ground or an alternate about beating Sin beneath the ground if they were feeling

Axel finished the line a beat before the Crusaders would have, substituting his own words. "...Eager for Sin to put you in the ground." Roxas's heart, which had soared for a moment when Axel had come up beside him and dared to hope that Axel's first words would be a version of sorry or an invitation out somewhere without other people, took a sharp plummet to his toes then returned to his chest angry at being mocked.

Assorted grumbles and shouts showed many others felt the same way, but Xion seemed to take it in stride, sing-songing her own improvised lines that continued the cadence of the original chant without missing a beat, "Young civilian come to heckle and stare. What would you do if a fiend attacked and we weren't there?"

Axel near stumbled but recovered and let out a short bark that might have been a laugh he wasn't sure he was allowed without inviting training Crusaders to make him pay for it, afterward rumbling in an impressed tone, "You, I like,."

"You should. " Xion shot back and her casual tone alone was enough that everyone else in the formation knew Axel was an acceptable stranger even if he was rude, and that they should ignore the intrusion. "I'm not sure I like you back. Roxas has been mooning and it makes him impossible."

Guardian Force (Akuroku. Axel and Roxas in the next life, living as NPCs in the world of/during the story of FFVIII. Part of my eventual plan to show Axel and Roxas living out every Final Fantasy game. Unpublished/First chapter never completed because I decided on Without False Hope/a FFX crossover instead)

"You often talk to yourself?" an insolent lazy drawl came from somewhere to Axel's left and he turned, eyes narrowing to see a boy in a rumpled Balamb cadet uniform lying across the second highest step, book in hand, vibrant blue eyes, ice eyes like he'd junctioned Shiva right to his vision, trained on him over the spine.

"To my Guardian Force," Axel explained, though that seemed worse. Over six foot of height and lean muscle and the SeeD uniform Axel wore at least enough parts of for it to be vaguely recognizable that he belonged to the elite unit, all usually worked together enough that there was usually no reason to be embarrassed by anything he let slip out.  Nobody would laugh even if Axel welcomed it.

"Thought you didn't like using Guardian Forces," the lounging student's voice was just as nonchalant as it was before, but his gaze was sharp, interested, and he spoke as if he knew Axel.

"Have we met?" Axel knocked the sole of his left boot against the side of his right as if scraping mud off the bottom. It wasn't odd for him to shift constantly even when mostly still, unless he was specifically called to stand at attention. There was an air of discomfort about the present action though, when taken with how jade eyes known for constant analysis on and off the battlefield, seemed attracted to the handrail of the steps rather than searching the face of the boy that had just spoken to him with familiarity.  Axel's normally iron stomach soured immediately at the idea they had met and he'd forgotten, to the point he couldn't even bring himself to try and jog his recollection. All he could do was force out his least favorite question next to 'when did that happen?'

Lollipop (Soriku and Akuroku. College AU/Modern AU. Unpublished. Sora and Roxas in an acapella group because that was the only way I could work out how to get them to sing and do choreo for songs that get stuck in Shaky’s head, which was the Goal of the Day one day before I got distracted)

When Sora said he had a new idea for a piece for the CrescenDudes' next performance, Roxas had been more than happy to volunteer to work on the arrangement with him. Sora was great for ideas, large picture and little flourishes that made a song a show, and he was, hands down, who you wanted doing choreography, even if he tended to get carried away and not realize there weren't many others with the dance and movement background he had in their group, but he wasn't suited for the musical side of sculpting a piece. He'd sing what he was given and he'd stay on pitch doing it, but he had no idea to weave songs together to form a mashup that sounded natural and created the right feeling in a crowd,  and he'd forget to accommodate  for everyone's voices or go the opposite direction and try to highlight everyone and have twenty solos. So it was up to Roxas to take his vision from neat idea to reality, and he jumped at the chance. He'd do anything at this point to distract Sora from dragging him into wedding planning for a few days when that should be Riku’s job as the other groom.  

Hourglass (Unpublished. Self-indulgent BBS Era--at least for this excerpt-- story about KH Squall/Leon and Seifer growing up in Radiant Garden and explaining how they got to be on separate planets and separate ages by the time KH1 rolls around. May be competed and posted to AO3 or just used as a base/record of headcanon for sprinkling backstory references in other pieces.)

Seifer challenged Lea and Isa to break back into the castle and come back with proof this time. He would have just called Lea a liar, but that would lead to Lea trying to fight him, which would lead to Isa trying to fight him, which would lead to Squall getting in the way, thinking Seifer couldn't handle a two on one fight with some chicken wusses. Then Squall would still try to sneak into the castle himself to see Ellone anyway--and she wasn’t in the castle in the first place...probably. Seifer would have to drag Squall’s ass out of there, and, if they got caught by the Royal Guard, then they’d be the next rumored prisoners in the basement.  It was safer to make it be Lea and Isa's challenge.

Lea took the bait. Isa, surprisingly, added they were planning a return trip anyway. Squall shot Seifer a questioning look, which he ignored in favor of taunting Lea and sealing the deal, "I can't wait to see you two hobble in tomorrow after getting your asses beat by the Guard. Try not to hit your thick skulls on the flagstones when you get thrown out."

Drowning (Unfinished/unpublished. Placeholder name. Sorikai. Supposed to be for the Sorikai Summer Event. Prompt: Drowning. Long one shot about eight times one of the Destiny Trio has nearly drowned and then been saved by the others)

Their first prototype of a raft had fallen apart underneath them in open water, the ties that lashed the planks together having not been as securely tied as they could have been--the book on sailor's knots Sora had provided was a lot more obtuse than it had seemed at first, descriptions dense and picture demonstrations too sparse. Kairi and Sora each fared well, each grabbing onto a floating plank to drift a minute and orient themselves after being plunged into the water. Riku was less successful, being fixated on saving as many of the supplies Kairi and Sora had gathered (coconuts, mushrooms, and bottles of water mostly, though there had been a tackle box that Riku's father would kill him for losing if he had to go back and face him, and that was what Riku was primarily focused on) and exhausting his breath on too many dives in a row without recovery in between until he was lightheaded from not taking in enough air in his hasty gulps when he broke the surface and increasingly imprecise in where he chose to come out of the water until he hit his head on the bottom of the plank he was loading the recovered supplies onto and went down without resurfacing.

No Set Recipe (Unfinished/unpublished.  Sorikai. Supposed to be for the Sorikai Summer Event. Prompt: Ice Cream. Kidfic. Sora’s mom is left with the job of explaining polyamory while making homemade ice cream with a group of five and six year olds.)

It was all Selphie's fault to start with, though if she was going to be ascribed the blame for the hurt feelings, she would have to be given credit for all that happened after, which Riku and Sora both agreed she did not deserve, even if Kairi was more magnanimous, so it became habit just to talk of the ice cream and the impact it had on their future. Still, the most accurate account begins with: one day when they were all young-- too young to even be allowed to swim in the water surrounding play island without an adult in the surf with them, if that gives perspective--Selphie, to everyone's surprise, scored the winning goal in the game of land-blitzball the group of them were playing in order to decide what game they would really spend the day playing, and chose, to absolutely nobody's surprise, house.

Everyone accepted their fate and divided into family units with minimal grumbling, phrasing which means that Wakka threw the blitzball into the sea and lost it forever when Jecht--the parent chaperone on play island that day who was five minutes away from falling asleep on the sand and typically didn't care what they did, unlike most parents who at least had restrictions about not hitting each other in the head with wooden swords or throwing sand, and was the favorite of the children for that attitude of freedom to make mistakes being a better teacher than rules--refused to go into the water after it.

Selphie, however, found a problem with Sora, Riku, and Kairi's family. Specifically, she didn't like that the family was Riku, Kairi, and Sora all together parenting a yellow coconut Kairi was trying to rock to sleep while Riku built him a bed out of sand and palm fronds and Sora cooked dinner for the household--a savoury stew of sticks, sand, and mushroom. She stood with pursed lips and hands on hips, and declared that their proud coconut son, Rekka, couldn't have all three of them for parents because that wasn't how things worked.

"Why not?" Sora asked with all the curiosity and innocence of a child.

Riku tried a more practical, solution based approach with, "Can we change the rules?"

Kairi was more direct and firm, her, "It does if I say so," leaving very little room to argue.

[baajisms]

ffviii verse info

please bear in mind that if you’re uncomfortable with Anna being the ‘unnamed sorceress’ that appears in VIII’s lore, I can quite easily take it out. It makes nearly no difference to the overall verse, Seymour still tries to sacrifice his mother to get a taste of the sorceresses powers and she still ends up in hiding. She gets taken to Balamb anyway and ends up staying there, still opening up her orphanage with a garden out back.

an unnamed sorceress, lost to the ages, the only good sorceress that ever existed. that’s what the history ended up remembering her as. they couldn’t even remember her name, not even the one that the people gave her.

Anna (later known as Anima once her powers as a sorceress were revealed & word spread) was born into a moderately wealthy family. It wasn’t until Anna started showing signs of magical ability at the age of 17 that her parents realised she was a sorceress. None of them had any idea as to where it came from or who had passed it down to Anna, but because of their status, they were able to hide it well enough. Though there were some rumours of that Anna girl and their families garden’s doing better than others. Because Anna rarely had to go out and fight, it hadn’t been until the age of 17 that they’d started manifesting. She favours Earth type magics, though she does have a penchant for healing too.

At the age of 22, she met and was courted by a man named Jyscal Guado, the leader of a small country largely untouched by any other civilisation. They largely had no part in the Sorceress war because they had next to nothing to offer. After Anna begun to trust the man, she let him in on the fact that she was a sorceress and later, Jyscal swore to become to her knight. 2 years later, Anna moved across the sea and settled in with the man. Unfortunately for the pair, word got out that Anna was a sorceress, partly due to how well their crops started doing & the fact that their wounds were healed quicker than normal and because of the war that was currently raging, Jyscal’s people grew distrustful of her. 

Despite this Anna never gave up trying to defend the small country from danger. The daughter of a moderately wealthy family marrying a man from a relatively unknown country would draw some attention anyway. But, her earth magic meant the country thrived in terms of agriculture & they were able to get quite a good defence system in place with it too and would end up attracting more attention than anyone initially wanted. When Galbadia tried to infiltrate them, it was Anna that stood up for the people and moved them on.

A year after her arrival & marriage to Jyscal, Anna fell pregnant and later gave birth to a son named Seymour. She breathed a sign of relief that she hadn’t given birth to a daughter, having heard the stories of sorceresses passing their powers down to women. As time went on, the people’s distrust for Anna slowly faded away, though many were still apprehensive over the fact that she was a sorceress. They’d heard the stories too and despite all the good Anna was doing for them, the fact that they had nearly been invaded hadn’t sat well with them. 

During his formative years, Anna & Jyscal were doting parents. She tried to keep Seymour away from the whispering’s of her being a sorceress, the talk of the Sorceress War and what that meant for Seymour. However, with the increasing pressure from his country & the new attention they were receiving, Jyscal became more and more focused on his work. Seymour eventually caught onto his mother’s powers and what that could inevitably mean. If she were caught, she could be killed because all sorceresses turned out to be evil. He eventually started thinking about whether he could get the powers in her place, so that she wouldn’t be killed in people came knocking.

Seymour started thinking more and more about the sorceresses power & it started turning into an obsession toward the/post the Sorceress War. He was partly in awe at how kind & thoughtful his mother was, especially with her magic, but there was a counter that all the other sorceresses he heard about turned evil. He started obsessing over a way to get the power for himself, partially as a way to ‘save’ his mother, partly as a way to gain power to protect his country. It got to the point when he was older, where he actively sought out other sorceresses, despite Anna telling him otherwise. It ultimately failed, as Seymour continued to seek out a way to get this power for himself. 

Over the years, he started seeking out the sorceresses he heard about. His journey only led him to 3 sorceresses and it was only Ultimecia that ever really gave him more than a passing glance and even then, she was very harsh with the man. Though one thing got him remembered with Ultimecia and that was the fact that he let slip that his mother was a sorceress. The sorceress requested Seymour bring her to her and maybe she could do something about transferring his mother’s powers over to him. 

Seymour did what she asked and brought Anna along, not knowing that Jyscal had followed along, leaving his retainer to keep an eye on the country in his absence. Ultimecia dealt a rather fatal blow to Anna in front of Seymour, and yet, nothing happened. No power was transferred and Seymour was left with the knowledge that he’d brought the death of his mother and left his country to the hands of whoever decided to try and invade next. Ultimecia left, Seymour mourned, not knowing that his mother wasn’t dead and soon left, leaving only Jyscal hidden away, horrified at what had happened. Why Ultimecia never outright killed Anna there and there, nobody knew. Jyscal took her body, barely clinging to life, took her to the nearest place where nobody knew who she was, to as far away from the fighting as possible and left her there before returning to his country. Because she never died, her powers were never transferred. 

Seymour arrived a few days later, furious at his father over the fact that his mother was gone & that as her knight, he’d done nothing to save her. Jyscal tried to explain that they had tried to talk him out of it and hadn’t listened but that only sought to enrage Seymour more. Seymour murdered his own father and managed to hide it away. His obsession with the sorceresses was well hidden amongst a charming personality and he quickly took leadership over the country in place of his father. 

Several years passed and Anna had made a full recovery, but stayed away from Jyscal and his country. Word had reached even her ears that Jyscal had died and Seymour had taken over. She felt it was in her best interests as a mother, sorceress and a human to hide herself away. Her son had clearly lost his mind & if Jyscal truly was dead, she’d find no help back there. Her position as a sorceress, if it had gotten out as much as it had, meant she’d find no help in civilisation.

So, she waited it out. Once she was sure she was alive and well, she made her way to the coast and set up a little house near the beach, with a little garden out back. Unbeknown to her, her little cottage was near Balamb and as Balamb was never too caught up in the political war, it made sense she never got too many visitors. She minded her business, only popping into the closest town (Balamb) when absolutely necessary for things she couldn’t grow or find. She sometimes left a bouquet of flowers to the people that helped her out or healed the injured if she heard that someone sick had stumbled in. Her powers rarely got used and no-one would ever have known she was there. People never put 2 & 2 together about who Anna was, despite the gifts & odd things she did when she was there. It wasn’t until she heard on a day into town that the sorceress war had ended that she started making more frequent visits there.

After she was sure that everything was calm and peaceful, Anna slowly made her way to moving to the town. She set up shop as a matron of an Orphanage, much like Edea did, with a luscious (or as luscious as one could make it Balamb with sorceress powers you’re not supposed to let anyone know you have) garden behind it. She sometimes helped heal the sick if people needed it and she tried to not use her sorceress powers then too. She never found out what happened to Seymour or the little country that she once called home, but she misses it dearly.

[lunamanar]

Yeah I’ve been VERY TIRED and I posted that thing here when it was supposed to be posted over at ffviii-rare-pairs and I feel dumb about it. I mean, it’s true, I do absolutely love hearing about widely varying HCs, but it’s also not the focus of this blog, so...if you’re interested, head over there, since that’s where the conversation’s supposed to be at (you might be disappointed if you look here for it, haha, this isn’t a shipping blog in any way and my primary HCs are pretty vanilla in that regard). Anyway, sorry about that!

[chiclet-go-boom]

Tagged by @ripplesofaqua​!

First ship you ever read fic for:  Read fic for? I’m going to have to say Sailor Moon. That’s when I got interested in wanting more stories about the characters than you could get from watching the show, and the internet was all new and shiny and stuff and you Could Find Things About Other Things and my gosh, people WERE writing stories about Usagi and Mamoru and everybody else.  And most of it was schlock, admittedly. It was the early days!

First ship you ever wrote fic for: Well, that’s easy. Captain Harlock/My Youth In Arcadia. The fun part about this is, when I watched it as as child, I watched it on the french channel (which was the only one that was airing it) under the name Albator. So I had (and continue to have) absolutely no idea what the show was about. Since I don’t speak french.  I would glue myself to the television set after school and make up my own stories about what was going on between all the people since it was all, well, french to me. I wrote my very first Mary Sue story on lined paper in an orange duotang about how my character (me) was a fierce, beautiful and dangerous space pirate too and Harlock was so very much in love with my character (me) that he ardently he pursued my character (me) over several worlds and through many space battles in order to get my character (me) to love him back.

I still have that story and that duotang somewhere in a box in storage. I am never giving that up. 

Ship you write the most now:  I’m not currently writing any ships because inspiration got eaten by a black hole and I’ve slumped big time but I have the most WIPs for Dragon Age Inquisition featuring either Cassandra and Varric, or standalone Cullen pieces.

Ship you read the most now:  McHanzo! I got sucked in and I don’t even play Overwatch. I’m nearly done ploughing through the entirety of Ao3′s offerings, have about twenty more pages to sift through. 

Newest ship:  As above, McHanzo. Also Lucifer / Chloe Decker from the show Lucifer.

Rare ship you wanna read more of:  You want rare? I got rare. Namor, The Submariner with pretty much anybody since nobody writes about him. I’ve found a couple of amazing fics with him x Captain America and him x Bucky Barnes that I’d love to see more fics of but I’ll be whistling in the wind a long time for that.

Your taboo ship: Severus Snape x Harry Potter. Like, c’mon. C’MON. Harry’s a kid and THAT’S HIS TEACHER. Could you be any more squicky.

They never met in canon ship: I can’t think of a one. I guess I just prefer to work within canon. I like having structure. I prefer more grounded ‘what if’ stories about existing situations than ‘how about we transplant some sections from here and some people from there into a different timeline altogether and hit BLEND’.

Your unexpected ship: I’m boring. It’s all super expected.

The ship you always forget to give love to: Squall Leonheart / Seifer Almasy from FFVIII. I started a story and got pretty far with it, then got stuck with logistics around chapter 7 or 8 or something. Every six years I remember it languishing in it dusty, unfinished glory and feel guilty about the thing. It was going to have this amazing fight scene! And a super clinch moment at the end with kissing and stuff! 

/le sigh

Ship your OC with a canon character: Um. My OC belongs with somebody else’s OC and they make sweet OC music together. Canon characters belong in their world, doing their own thing, without my OC getting all up in their bizness. Although, thinking super hard, I did ship one OC character pretty hard with Joe Asakura from Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets and there’s a 32 chapter collab story on my hard drive to prove it. Okay, I take it back. That thing I just said about Joe. 

A ship you’re embarrassed to ship: I love all my ships. I am embarrassed about none of them. 

Your most romantic ship: a pair of OCs I wrote a harlequin for that nobody knows anything about because, you know, OCs. But suuuuper romantic. All the tropes. Much angst. So misunderstanding. Many pining gazes.  For a canon couple, I’d have to say Varric / Cassandra from DA:I.  Not everything I wrote was romantic but there’s some nice nuggets in there. 

Your sexiest ship:  All of them. I write great smut :D  No, really!

Your most tragic ship:  Hmm. None? I don’t like doomed things, it makes me too sad. Real life is too full of stuff that falls apart already, I don’t ship the impossible in fantasyland as well because I don’t need any more sad-makings.

A ship you want more content for: Anything with Namor, damn it! 

[tissaia-turned-me-into-an-eel]

i just accidentally spent NINE HOURS playing Witcher 3 today

(i meant to get some other things done, but i didn’t really get up for anything other than to use the bathroom and chase the kitten up and down the stairs ((he likes being chased when he’s in Energetic Mode and we only have the one cat at our house so a human has to do it)), leave me alone)

anyway i spent a lot of time walking around in circles because i have no sense of direction and no amount of checking the map kept me going the right way, picking herbs, stumbling into areas i shouldn’t have been in yet and running away from enemies that were too high leveled for me to fight, playing Gwent (i’m already addicted to playing Gwent, I was like this with Triple Triad in FFVIII too)

really wasn’t expecting a Pulp Fiction reference in this game, but a pair of random guards was over here going “bring out the gimp” / “but the gimp’s asleep” / “then i guess you’ll have to wake him up”

there was an old dude who asked me to go pick a rare herb and one of the dialogue options was “I’m not going to go pick a rare herb.” Which I thought was hilarious considering that [Geralt, as played by me] is the herb-pickingest motherfucker you ever did meet

found out that you CAN steal shit right under the guards noses, you just have to fucking outrun them and get outside of town and across a river or something for the [thing that makes guards kill you] to reset......... although it’s really not worth it if all you’re gonna get is a piece of junk that’s barely worth anything

the singing rock troll dude is my new favorite character, i lov him, gonna bring that dude some paint (i noticed there was a contract out to kill him, but i did not take that contract)

found a barber shop and paid 5 crowns for the dude to take Geralt’s scrunchie out and let his hair be free XD

the main storyline is really a lot less interesting to me than everything else you can do in this game

last thing i did before finally turning the game off was win Yennefer’s gwent card

[theravenofwynter]

Ship meme for multi-shippers

not nearly as multishipper as the lovely @commander-hot-pants​ but I’ll make do :P

Its perfectly okay to use the same ship for multiple questions~ Just fill it out as best as you can. Link your own content wherever you can!!

First Ship you ever read fic for: I think it was Remus x OC???? it’s been so long ago now. that or Sakura/Yue from CCS (I was maybe 14??????????? Probably younger!)

First Ship you ever wrote fic for: Saint Seiya with Shu x Athena, thus started my rare pair hell.

Ship you write the most now: Shakarian, with a healthy side of my OT3 <3

Ship you read the most now: Shakarian, most things involving Nihlus (no, I don’t add Saren in the middle thank you) and Sparatus...

Newest Ship: I’ve got an inkling for Kaidan/Tali???? Idk where that one came from.

Rare Ship you wanna read more of: Jack/Miranda, damn it I love relationships that start disfunctional as hell, also Tony Stark/Happiness <3 Eddie & Susannah Dean (Dark Tower series (not a rare ship because it doesn’t exist, more that I never find fics with them!))

Your taboo Ship: Taboo as in... need more of, or no-no ships? the first, Jackanda, jesus... the second................... anything with Reyes, he just rubs me the wrong way.

They never met in canon Ship: does a 5-minute meeting count? Because that’s all they had: Tony Stark/Loki.

Your unexpected ship: Squall/Seipher (FFVIII) I’ve *no* idea where that came from. also Ash/Joker

The ship you always forget to give love to: Squall/Seipher, to my eternal amusement, because I like those dorks together!

Ship your OC with a canon character (if applicable): does my Shepard count? Because both Sophia and Antares are amazing in their own right.

A ship you’re embarrassed to ship: Kaidan/Tali, there’s only me and one other person on this ship.

Your most romantic Ship: Shakarian, you’ll rip them out of my cold, dead hands, maybe not even then.

Your sexiest ship: OT3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shepard/Garrus/Nihlus, sexy in ways I wasn’t expecting!

Your most tragic ship: I can turn anything into angst, don’t test me on this.

A ship you want more content for: Ashley Williams/Jeff Monroe ;)

Tagging: @perseus-huntress @garrus-vakarus @elynight @kay-mika @excessiveturianflexing @horns-of-mischief @arvensis5 

[definitelyyessnakedemons]

5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50

Fanfiction Questions:

5. Which fandoms have your written fanfiction for?

Oh, hell. It’s a long list.

Angel Sanctuary, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney, Attack on Titan, Harry Potter, Pet Shop of Horrors, Skip Beat, Weather Warden, Wicked Lovely, One Piece, RWBY, FFIV, FFVI, FFVII, FFVIII, Death Note, Fruits Basket, Bleach, Saw, Boondock Saints, xxxHolic, Eldarya, slither.io, Diablo II, Rurouni Kenshin, Fight Club, Sweeney Todd, Bones, House MD, Kyo Kara Maoh, Vampire Knight, Maximum Ride, Immortals After Dark, Cirque Du Freak (AKA Darren Shan Saga), Loveless, Rayearth, Pokemon, MonMusu, Nana, Paradise Kiss, Claymore, The Walking Dead, Fairy Cube, Alice in Wonderland, My Candy Love, Princess Debut, Sleepy Hollow, Yuri on Ice, Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Secret of Mana, Katawa Shoujo, Gundam Wing, Evangelion, Excel Saga, Madoka Magica, X-men, Silence of the Lambs, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, Sailor Moon, Excel Saga, The Wallflower (Yamatonadeshiko Shichihenge), Gravitation, Kill Bill, Inuyasha, Yu-Gi-Oh, Fullmetal Alchemist, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Fringe, and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

And there might be others which I’ve forgotten to mention, or wrote for but never posted on the internet.

10.  Is there a fandom you read fic from but don’t write in?

Technically yes, but that’s because I read fandomblind for review tags on FFN forums.

I’m not really reading much fanfic these days, and most of what I’m reading is either RWBY or One Piece.

15. Is there an obscure ship which you love?

I tend to ship odd things in a lot of my fandoms. It’s more rare for me to ship the big popular pairings in any fandom. (Skip Beat and Yuri on Ice are the only fandoms I can name off the top of my head where I ship THE popular pairing. I guess I could include Pet Shop of Horrors on the list but there are so few recurring characters in that series that if you don’t ship D/Leon you probably don’t ship anything in that fandom.)

20. Any ships which you surprised yourself by liking?

I tend to ship weird things in a lot of my fandoms, so I’m not really surprised by much anymore.

But yeah, when my brain randomly decided that I ship Hazel with Salem when dude had only had literally 10 seconds of screen time, I was kind of going “brain, why? We don’t even know him yet.” (When RWBY v4e1 had just come out)

25. What’s your most popular fanfic? 

The one with the highest stats across the board (views/faves/alerts/reviews) on FFN is “Do You Know What Fanfiction Is?” 

My most-kudo’d fic on AO3 is “Speak Your Dark Pleasures to Me”. It has a 40-point lead on “Do You Know What Fanfiction Is?”

30. What inspires you to write?

Literally everything. Fandoms, music, internet posts, real life events, a random thing I saw lying on the ground, and so on and so forth.

35. Do you write drabbles? If so, what do you normally write them about?

Drabbles are my jam. Crack humor, horror, angst, fluff, I drabble literally all the things.

40. What do you struggle the most with in your writing?

WORDCOUNT. omgggg, I have such trouble writing anything long! Also consistently updating multi-chaptered things is difficult because I have attention-span issues.

45. What is your all time favourite fanfic?

I honestly couldn’t tell ya. I love a lot of fanfics and I’m in a lot of different fandoms. I have a ton of stuff faved/bookmarked.

50. How did you get into reading and/or writing fanfiction?

I’ve been writing fanfic since I was a tiny little child, I just didn’t know that writing something about someone else’s pre-established universe/characters was called that back then.