Once on a donkey in Tunbridge Wells

When I was writing A Step to the Left, I found it really difficult to actually stop, and I wrote a whole different end to it that I scrapped because by that point the fic was eleven pages long and it was just getting silly. I wanted to write even more after that.

But then the people who replied to the fic on the areyougame comm asked if I could write more, so I figured I could resurrect this as an "alternate" ending.

Please note: given that this was the original ending to the fic, some bits of it don't match up with the fic and other bits are repeated.

( A Step to the Left: Alternate Ending )

AND I WILL STOP SPAMMING YOU ALL NOW.

Title: A Step to the Left
Pairing: blink-and-you'll-miss-it Zack/Cloud, background Seifer/Zell
Warnings: AU, gratuitous mangling of FFVII & FFVIII canon
Summary: The more Cloud's life changes, the more fate cracks a whip to bring it back on track.
Notes: For an areyougame claim. The prompt was as follows: Crossover, Final Fantasy VII/Final Fantasy VIII, Cloud Strife: testing - He couldn't qualify to be a SOLDIER, but maybe he could make it as a SeeD. Link goes to the fic on the areyougame comm.

[ A STEP TO THE LEFT ]

Title: Firebrand
Pairing: Angeal/Genesis
Warnings: Set mid-Crisis Core, so some very mild game spoilers.
Summary: Angeal did once try to steal from the tree near Genesis’ house.
Notes: For an areyougame claim. The prompt was as follows: Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, Angeal/Genesis, First meeting - He was shy.. Link goes to the fic on the areyougame comm.

[ FIREBRAND ]

I've decided to participate in areyougame, because when I was going through the sneak peek of the prompts, I actually got pinged with fic ideas! Also, areyougame is awesome and you should definitely take a look and maybe claim a prompt to write.

Claims for August run as follows:

( Lookie look! )

Typically, my strongest ping is for the last prompt. I will update this post when I post stuff, which should be on the dates listed.

I just posted a comment on an entry completely without realising that it was on lj, and apparently I am still logged into lj. After two years. I do not comprehend.

Anyway. One of my daily checks now is the marukyurevue comm on lj, which links to requests and fills on the huge and hugely awesome badbadbathhouse Persona 4 kink meme. (As a side note, the number of requests for rape/torture fics scare me. I know, I know, kink meme, but seriously, a kink for someone being horribly abused? Each to their own, but I really do not comprehend.)

Getting back on track, the point of this is that I came across this prompt. Which hits on a major IRL kink of mine. So I was thinking about it off and on since seeing the prompt, and when I came home yesterday I was hit with inspiration and wrote out all of the following in one go. Partway through I realised that someone else had posted a fill to the prompt, but this fic just would not stop. So. Have a fic.

NOT EVEN REMOTELY WORKSAFE.

Title: The Line of Your Body
Pairing: Chie/Yukiko
Warnings: Fluffy smut, first time, hipbones kink.
Summary: It’s the first time since they both faced their shadows in the TV world that Chie has seen her in a swimsuit. And maybe that’s why she notices.

( Fic: Persona 4: The Line of Your Body )

AND THUS IT CONTINUES. In this part: Larsa is topped by everyone, Penelo is manipulative, and OCs appear. Basch is present in spirit, although he wishes he wasn't.

[ PART 1 ] [ PART 2 ] [ PART 3 ] [ ? ]

( A Tale of Archadian Passion, or, Penelo's Navel: Part Two )

Sooooooo. It appears that my car is approximately four inches taller than normal.

And when I say "approximately", I mean "at least".

I think, for the first time in my life, I am actually snowed in. I see no way of getting into work this morning.

In honour of this, have a fic snippet. Anyone remember the Penelo's Navel fic beginning thingy I posted ages ago? Well, this is the first bit of the next part. Or something like that.

Edit: forgot, standard warnings apply: is neither finished nor edited, therefore may be subject to spelling errors, grammatical errors, gibberish, bad plotlines, stupid metaphors and/or discontinuation.

( FIC: A Tale of Archadian Passion, or, Penelo's Navel: Part 2.1 )

Oh man, I love Crisis Core. The DMW drives me crazy but it's still so much fun. Have a DMW-inspired drabble - spoilers for Modeoheim. (Just finished Nibelheim in Crisis Core, too. Mwehe. T.T)

( Eruption )

So I've realised that I have this thing about my writing.

I don't like it.

Or at least, I don't like it for longer than a day or so, by which time I'll be going back over something I've written to make sure I know where I'm picking it up, and by the time I get to the next bit of white space that needs filling I'll be doing that half-frown pout-thing which I'm told makes me look like a constipated kitten, and I'll have so many critiques in my head that I won't write anything.

That's part of why I decided to just finish the DDS fic and post it, regardless of the fact that I didn't end up making it Heat/Serph like I wanted to. I can see how I could do a sequel/similar fic in which I could add the Heat/Serph, buuuut ... meh.

---

On a ligher note, I now have a PSP and have been playing Crisis Core. Whee! 'Tis fun! Just met Cloud! Unfortunately, it gets very repetitive very quickly - most of the levelling is done via the sidequest missions, which are all "navigate this route and kill something". So far, however, the story is looking like it could slot into the original FF7 background without too much ret-conning, which I wasn't expecting. Shall wait and see.

I posted the start of this fic here, and finally got around to finishing it. It didn't turn out the way I thought it would, largely because it felt like I was trying to force a situation to happen and in the end decided to stop trying. I'm not entirely satisfied with it.

Title: Mantra
Fandom: DDS 1 (and some foreshadowing reference to 2)
Spoilers: Takes place near the end of DDS1, and has some heavy references to in-game bosses, gameplay, and the end-game face of the Junkyard. Do not read if you haven't finished at least the first game and don't want to be spoiled.
Summary: Heat is a study in contradictions, but this is only the beginning.

( DDS fic: Mantra )

So I've been sitting on this. For ages. (Okay, since August. That's ages. Hush.) It's a currently-short thing set in DDS1, near the end of the game but before heading up the Karma Temple tower. Heat's perspective, will be Heat/Serph when I finally get off my butt and finish it.

( Fic: Digital Devil Saga: Mantra )

I am alive! Really! I've just been very, very busy. Started my new job today. That will leave me even more stupidly busy. But a happy sort of "I have work! Yay!" busy. Anyway.

Have a fic! Or part one of a fic. Incomplete and will be edited, so some bits may change here and there.

( A Tale of Archadian Passion, or, Penelo's Navel. )

More to be written . . . when I feel like it.

Soooo apparently emotional turmoil means I don't write. And thus finding a comfortable emotional plateau means I do write. Which apparently means I start going through the files in my "working on it" fanfic folder, and continuing fics I've ignored for years.

Like this one.

Which was an attempt to get inside Alexiel's head pre-rebellion against God.

Aha. Ha. Ha.

I have no idea whether I succeeded, but I've poked it enough. (It was also really hard not to name this fic "AND THEN LUCIFER HAPPENED". Because. If he hadn't, so much of Angel Sanctuary would've been different.)

Title: Tropophobia
Pairings: None, insofar as anything with Rociel and Alexiel can ever be a "none".
Warnings: Spoilers for the whole manga series. Also takes place before Alexiel meets Lucifer, and I've only read the scanlations, soooo if you've got the official trans, I may be way off the mark here and not realise it. Fair warning.
Notes: Tropophobia is the fear of making changes or moving.
Disclaimer: It's Kaori Yuki's fault, not mine.

( Tropophobia )

BTW, since GJ has apparently blown up and is denying me my shiny icons, I think I may just move here permanently. Maybe. Even with adblock on, IJ's ads still bug me.

MORE FFXII FIC. I need an FFXII icon, really. Preferably of Balthier. (Is my Balthier love showing again?) I found the beginning of this drabble while clearing out some folders on the laptop, and decided to finish it.

Title: Concerning Rocks
Pairings: some Balthier+Vaan
Spoilers: Takes place in Nalbina Dungeon, spoilers for most of the events prior to that.

( Concerning Rocks )

Edit: Have now also stuck this on the website.

I'm relearning how to write. That might sound stupid, but I realised that before my graduation ceremony, I'd spent a good six months plus without writing a single word of fiction, which has not happened since I was ten and got my first computer and when I was writing that FFXII fic I realised that holy crap I've actually forgotten how I write. The FFXII fic only happened because the language of the game took over my brain and it pretty much wrote itself. In general, I've found that phrases don't come quite so easily any more, I've forgotten where I was going with half of my fics, and I just started work on Storms again and oh god, making Gaara talk is hard. I remember why I stopped writing it now.

I'm also attempting to write DDS and failing. One thing that bugged me as a I went through the first DDS game was this: when did Serph's eyes change? It wasn't until I noticed the emphasis that's always placed on the eyes changing that I realised Serph never had one of those, and yet although his eyes are silvery, they've also always had pupils (which is the other way you can tell when their self has "woken", as it were, since the non-woken characters have no pupils), so did I just miss it? I didn't restart until I'd finished the game (which is quite frankly WEIRD for me) so it took me a while to get around to it. But. When I restarted the game. ( WHOOPS edit of 'oh yeah, these are spoilers, aren't they' ) I may be making that last bit up. But. It made me write some fic.

( DDS drabble, Serph, Knowledge )

Fic is not finished. Fic is, however, kicking my butt and I wanna get on with writing Storms. Therefore fic gets put here and thus can be ignored. :D

So.

I'm doing the NaNo again.

However, this time I'm not about to be ambushed by work for my degree. I have oodles of free time, because I quit my job. I've also decided that hey, you know that long-term goal of "write a novel and get it published"? Why don't we try doing that now rather than in some far-off distant future?

Thus, the NaNo. Pre-built support system and goal is go - never mind that this novel is going to end up much longer than 50,000 words. I can feel it already. No idea precisely how long it will be at the end, but hey. Let's see if I can do the ridiculous and end up with a novel by Christmas!

. . . oh good god I'm going to die.

In the interests of focussing as much attention as possible on the novel, I've decided to post that FFXII fic I mentioned ages ago and have been poking ever since. I wasn't poking it because I was necessarily unhappy with it; rather because it was intended to be more of a homage to the word "fornication" than it's actually turned out to be. Fornication is a fantastic word. I hereby resolve to use it more often.

Title: The Devil Makes Three
Pairings: Balthier/Vaan, Balthier/Basch/Vaan, some Basch+Ashe.
Notes: Set after Tomb of Raithwall and before heading off to the Ozmone Plains. I half-intended to call this the "Ashe gets a reality check" fic, but that might be misleading considering the pairings involved. Also, I love the language of FFXII. Sogood. I also love Balthier more than is probably healthy. Title has absolutely no relevance to the fic; it sprang to mind and thenceforth I couldn't separate the two.

( The Devil Makes Three )

Crossposted to greatestjournal.

Lalala Storms. Again. Last chunk of the fic before it starts matching up with Not Heaven again. This bit really, really needs a beta so don't be surprised if it changes in the final edition.

Also, I hate London. So bad. Am now in Durham again as well. My head hurts. Rawr.

( Storms bit 3 )

Eleven thousand, three hundred words in, and I'm still only barely halfway. Argh.

My exams are over! Wheeeeeeeeee! Actually, they were over as of 12:40 yesterday (it was supposed to be 12:30, but the exam started late). Spent . . . pretty much all day after the exam being drunk. Yeah. Hehehe. It's Aidan's beer festival tomorrow, so I shall probably spend all of tomorrow being drunk as well. XD

Anyway, have a short snippet of the next scene from Storms. Because I am not with the writing much of anything at the moment, so I figured I should share something. ^^; Previous stuff on the Not Heaven tag.

( Storms snippet 2 )

Edit: work, stupid lj-cut.

This is, as stated, the first sequel to Not Heaven. It's driving me mad. Gaara is an uncooperative little bugger, but there was a lot of stuff running through his head during Not Heaven that didn't come out during that fic. Therefore, I put it in another fic, along with backstory explanation of why he was thinking that, and how the Not Heaven universe is different from the current Naruto canon.

This is the first bit of what's meant to be a oneshot. I'm working on the rest. :)

( Storms pt. 1, sequel to Not Heaven )

I WROTE SAKURA/LEE! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ahem. Yes.

Quick note on the setting of this fic - as most of you know, I've got plans for an extremely long and involved sequel to "Not Heaven" coming up, and since this fic takes place in that universe there's a couple of background assumptions used here. The only one you need to know for this fic is that everyone but Sakura thinks Sasuke is dead - they're all certain that Orochimaru has taken over his body. I won't tell you why Sakura thinks differently, but just know that she does, because otherwise some things will go right over your head. Oh yeah - at this point, they're all late teens/early twenties.

No warnings, I don't own them, yadda yadda yadda. You don't need to have read "Not Heaven" for this to make sense.

( Dressing the Wounds )

Also? I love Lee. He's so weird, and so great. XD