sincere | Drabble Challenge cuz why not

Entry tags:

writing

Drabble Challenge cuz why not

Need to get cracking on my writing, Crysi made it look tempting, and, heck, I have way too much free time, what with the "can't find a job" thing. Challenge me!

Each person can ask for up to 3 drabbles, and you can ask for 1-3 people in each drabble. All genders and orientations welcome. Pairings are indicated by / and regular interaction with , -- but I'm Le Subtle and your pairing may or may not be nearly invisible.

I'm still on a KH kick, but you may also request: Tales of Symphonia/the Abyss, Suikoden I-III, Warcraft, Lost, Kyou Kara Maou, most of CLAMP, and Final Fantasy VI-XII (minus XI and VIII, although VIII characters may be requested in KH-verse, and plus Tactics). If you're really jonesing on something else, ask and I'll tell you. (In advance, I know nothing of Avatar.)

The format is Character/Character: prompt, as follows:

Luxord, Namine: fortune-telling
Marluxia/Zexion: politics are sexy
Balthier/Fran: the AU where he never took off the Judge costume

You can also request specific storylines, as follows:

Namine, Cid: the tea (AS)
Sora, Roxas, Xemnas: you know nothing (IXIII)

(No requests for NNK canon yet; there isn't enough of it to go around.)

Bonus points if you request at least one pairing that nobody I know writes.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Mmm, bonus points you say? Time for the Random Pairing Generator Box of DOOM! >D

Zexion/Sora: paradox
Xaldin/Saix: mirror

Only two for now....in case I decide I want an OTP-ish one later ^^
[Also, I suck at coming up with good prompts, so feel free to just not use the ones I gave at all]

I offer as sacrifice to the great Kay:

A pretty Namine picture (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/42101042/?qo=29&q=by%3Ablacklillian&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps)
Sora = angry drunk?? (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/36493812/?qo=62&q=by%3Ablacklillian&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps)
Org XIII goes grocery shopping (part 1) (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/37191405/?qo=54&q=by%3Ablacklillian&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps)
Org XIII goes grocery shopping (part 2) (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/37605173/?qo=51&q=by%3Ablacklillian&qh=sort%3Atime+-in%3Ascraps)

And reciprocated drabble offerings, if there's anything you want in particular. <3

If a random lurker can request... >> Hrm.

Aerith/Yuffie: comforts
Drace: duty

Hmmmmm... Since I love you and you're the only person who writes tactics fic that's anywhere near good, I come to you with these requests:

Rosalie, Kantarou: cohabitation
Yuuko, Sugino, Haruka: Kantarou
Raikou/Kantarou/Haruka: hyena

:)

Someone else who likes Tactics! :O A rare breed indeed. ^_^

It was night when he arrived. It was too hot to travel during the daytime, they all said, but he traveled at night because in the daytime he liked to soak in the sun. No one would see him, hidden amidst the dunes, fey and nude and redhaired, because no one sane traveled during the daytime.

He stopped in front of a pottery merchant, and, "I am looking to open a storefront," he said in his most humble tones.

She brightened at his words, studying his face beneath the headwrap. "Ah, a newcomer! Mmm... Oren has lost his liquor license, might be seeking to pass on his bench." She seemed eager to talk. He liked his neighbors talkative. "Take a right on the terrace lane..."

Davinde evaluated her pottery with an expert eye. The structure was sound and fine patterns were combed beneath the glaze; not bad, and if the dyed pots were any indication, her wares were popular enough to afford a little luxury. It would be hard to convert households set in their buying habits.

"What do you sell, new friend?"

He turned his face up to her, smiled. "I'm an apothecary," he said spontaneously. He'd been a glass-blower last time, and he so hated repeating himself. It made it easy on the Watchers.

The young woman looked impressed. "Well now, isn't that a fine career. What manner of potions would you propose for me?"

Teasing him. Interested. "Mmm, for you? Your peers might be interested in my diamond elixir or fever-root... But Madam has no need of such petty enhancements." He touched two fingers to his lips, a gentleman's salute, and she laughed, confident.

"Do you take a potion for that golden tongue?"

"It comes naturally," he demurred, and looked around the dark street. "Though I do have a potion for resisting it."

"Oh, you do, do you?" Her eyes were teasing him still.

Davinde smiled for her, showing perfectly even white teeth. "Oh yes." In his very softest voice, softer than the silk shrouding him. "On a night of deep midnight, one must strip to the bone and bathe in the reflection of the full moon on the surface of the water. One will chant thrice, 'Cleanse me of impurities, spirits of fire; cleanse my heart.' And then as one emerges from the water, still wet, finally one downs the potion, and never again knows the sway of an enchanted tongue."

Now her eyes were silent, round and unguarded, and her unsettled surprise made her fumble to find a reaction. After a moment, glancing right and then left, she forced a laugh. "That all sounds like witchcraft to me. Fire spirits indeed!" She reached into the cup of water at her elbow and flicked her fingers to scatter the liquid against her neck, warding herself.

And that was how he knew she was no good. His secrets were too important to risk on souls without a spark. A kinder smile. "Now there's a silly thing to say. The potion must be taken by one with no toxins or stress in the body, mistress."

There, the set of her shoulders eased, and her dull heart quieted. "And the spirits?"

"No, demons," he said, beatific. "Only angels in my shop."

He shouldered his pack good-naturedly, and raised his tiny candle to the level of his eyes, and moved down the well-lit road, humming a children's song. He had to see if an old man was interested in giving away his livelihood.

"How could you say that?" Demyx said, wounded. "My hair is very fashionable!"

Roxas told him evenly, "It looks like something a crow would make."

As if the kid even had reason to talk, he looked like he'd just walked away from a motorcycle accident. Demyx huffed sullenly before he remembered what he was there for and turned Roxas around to face the mirror. "Anyway, black is not your color. I can totally pick out better clothes for you!"

"I don't want other clothes," Roxas repeated, for perhaps the tenth time. Demyx ignored him.

If he left the kid alone, he'd probably corridor right out of there, so he squeezed into the dressing room with him and put the pile of clothes to the side. "Now strip!" he commanded in his sternest voice.

Roxas stared at him, flat, for a long, silent moment, and Demyx wondered nervously if he was about to get a keyblade to the stomach (it wouldn't be the first time).

"If you don't strip, I'll have to help you," he tried, as a threat. He wasn't really sure he could make Roxas do anything he didn't want to do, but the other blond seemed allergic to physical contact, so maybe the suggestion would be enough.

Finally the boy shrugged and started to disrobe. Demyx basked in his victory for a moment before handing Roxas the first pair of jeans that came to hand. Roxas stared at them, then at him, and then suddenly with blinding speed the palm of his hand shot out and slammed Demyx's head back against the door of the dressing room.

"Ow! Fuck! Ow." He grabbed the back of his head, rubbing it sullenly. By the time he could bring himself to crack his eyes open and watch warily for the next blow, Roxas had already changed into the jeans.

Momentarily, Demyx was impressed. The kid had some sort of talent. He'd be a great stage performer. "If you were body-shy you just had to say so," he pointed out all the same.

"Lexaeus said it isn't appropriate to be naked in front of other people," Roxas said, scowling at the denim.

That brought to mind all sorts of important questions, like How did Lexaeus wind up telling you something like that? and Did Lexaeus walk in on him strutting around naked as a jaybird? and Eugh?!

"Does Zexion know about that?" he started to ask instead of any of those, but his attention was caught as Roxas slipped into the shirt. Avidly, he said, "See, now look at you! You're a regular rock star. No, don't button up the shirt."

Roxas gave the taller blond another of his long, flat stares, and then turned to stare at himself in the mirror, with the emerald shirt hanging loose around his bare chest, over the tight pale denim.

Then he slammed Demyx's head into the dressing room wall again, and Demyx cursed tight spaces, violent teenagers, and being fashion-conscious.

*waves* Um, hi! I'm just another lurker passingby. =)

Goofy/Aerith: rain
Donald, Kairi: magic
Sora, Donald, Goofy: chocobos (inspired by playing FFXII :D)

*delurks :D*

Ansem, Riku: Memories(IXIII)

You have made my Sunday. ♥ Gah! Thank you! It is made of win and happy! ♥ ♥

I-I really need a Demyx icon, but the fangirl!Meer will have to do for now ♥ ♥ ♥

"You gotta teach me how to be a sky pirate," Vaan said, practically pleading.

Balthier hated pleading. It was embarrassing and demeaning to both parties. He gestured impatiently and drawled, "You don't teach someone to be a sky pirate. Just as you don't teach them to be free-spirited. Or intelligent."

Subtle jab. Right over his head. "I can totally do it! I just, need a little instruction." Vaan rubbed the back of his neck.

It wasn't the first time he'd asked. In the middle of the damn sewers fleeing the guard, there was Vaan, wanting to know what it was like to be a sky pirate. Trying to worm out stories of his exploits. All the whys and hows that more worldly folk would already have known.

Balthier hated needless exposition; it made for bad story-telling. Children so rarely understood complex concepts like that. It wasn't easy to be a truly compelling leading man, and you couldn't do it just by rattling facts off a slate.

"Look, Vaan. Some things can't be taught. I can teach you how to fly an airship." He patted the hull of the Strahl, and the boy's eyes lit up. "I can't teach you to be a sky pirate. It's something that either comes to you, or it doesn't. Like a way with women," he added, modest. That was another of his gifts. He silently invited Vaan to admire his partner, his admirers, the easy way he'd charmed Vaan's girlfriend...

Right. Over his head. "It can't be that hard," Vaan scoffed.

The way with women or the sky pirating business? Balthier entertained himself imagining that it was both. But he pointed out, "There's such a thing as a natural skill. Did anyone have to teach you how to kiss, the first time you swept the lovely Penelo off her feet?"

Vaan stared at him with such wide, blank eyes that it was a moment before Balthier could catch up.

"No," he said, "don't tell me."

He hasn't even kissed that poor girl? Balthier put his head in his hands for a moment. The boy really was utterly hopeless. Couldn't do anything on his own. And here he was, the boy's role model.

Fran would laugh at him if he knew. Balthier looked around both ways to make sure she was nowhere nearby before he leaned back in his chair and sighed. "Come on, then," he said, beckoning Vaan closer with two fingers. "You've got a lot to learn."

*sparkles*

There just isn't enough kick-ass Balthier/Vaan to go around in this silly fandom. Or... Any at all, really. >.>

You rock my proverbial socks.

Yeah, I tend to gravitate toward obscure series, which really sucks because if I want art and/or fic, I generally have to do it myself. XD;

Lurkers welcomed. ♥ *aerith/yuffie yay*

"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Sora asked the tree, and Riku rolled his eyes.

"I'm seventeen," he pointed out, and Sora immediately said, "So you're done growing up? Go on then, run for president."

It was just such a childish question, and kind of absurd at their age. Riku wondered if Sora would be asking questions like that into his thirties.

He wasn't going to answer, but then an acorn hit his head hard enough to sting. "Ow!" Riku rubbed the top of his head and got up to look at the tree. "Some fucking squirrel--"

"Ignore him and he'll ignore you," Sora said, tugging Riku back around, which meant it probably hadn't been a squirrel. "Come on! What do you want to be?"

Riku rubbed his chest awkwardly. But Sora was hovering on his elbow, watching him and close enough to sense, and it was distracting enough that he found himself saying, "Well, I'll probably be a doctor. When I'm done growing up."

"Don't make fun of me," Sora said, scowling, but added, "So you want to go into the family business? Or a different kind of doctor?"

It was a sign of the kind of life he'd lived that the first thing he thought of when he heard 'doctor' was 'psychiatrist'. But it applied to Riku too. "The family business kind." Riku let his hand fall to his side. "Who knows, maybe I'll actually get my dad then."

Sora's fingers slipped over his hand and played against his skin. Riku snuck a hopeful glance at him, but the younger boy was lost in thought, evidently unaware. Does he do this to me on purpose, or is it just an extremely frequent accident?

"You don't sound very enthusiastic about it," the brunet said dubiously. "Are you sure that's your dream?"

If the distracting touches were an accident, the perceptiveness had to be an accident. "It's what's expected of me. My dad's a psychiatrist, my grandfather was a psychiatrist, even my mom's dad is a psychiatrist." Riku shrugged.

"But that's not a dream!" Sora protested. "Don't you have something you really want to be? Let's make believe you don't have anyone to follow-- now what do you want to do when you grow up?"

Riku didn't answer for a moment, and so Sora got to his feet quickly and said intently, "He's right. You don't want to tell me in case I let it slip to Ansem."

Panic! Riku scrambled to get his arms under him. "No, that's not wh--"

"It's okay." Sora smiled, almost mischievous. "It's fair. I'll go play over there, and you can tell Roxas, and Roxas will tell me. Then even if I do tell my dad, Roxas told me, so he'd never believe it. Right?"

Sora rested a hand on his shoulder, reassuring him even though Sora was the one who wasn't being trusted.

Then it was just silence, nothingness, the breeze stirring his clothes against his skin. Riku let the tension slip away from him, little by little, and then he breathed, "I want to..."

D'awww...that's really sappy and adorably cute XD I love Roxas throwing acorns at Riku, heh. And the subtle not-hand holding and just the general squishiness and aww.

It's cute ♥ I love it :D

*loves* <3

(I fail at keeping up, so no. Doumeki it is!)

"What do you know about Alice in Wonderland?" Watanuki forced out in a rush, hovering over that ungrateful bastard and glaring at him. It was a glare that warned him not to get the impression that they were friendly or to mistake this for some sort of request for aid. He was only saying it because it was driving him crazy!

Doumeki blinked at him, slowly. It's like talking to a wall! After perhaps fifteen seconds he said, "Why would you ask that?"

And he never answered questions! "Would you just tell me, what do you know about it?!"

"I read the books," Doumeki said, "so a lot. It would take a while to tell you. You're turning purple."

Watanuki reluctantly took a deep breath and sat down across from Doumeki. Glared at him some more. "I don't know anything about it." Except what was common cultural knowledge, which gave him the vague impression that Alice's life was somewhat like his own. "Yuuko-san said something about the White Rabbit today. What's the White Rabbit?"

Doumeki plucked the bento box from his hands -- damnit, what if that hadn't been for him?! Jerk! -- and said before Watanuki could snap at him, "Alice wound up in Wonderland because she followed the White Rabbit down the rabbit-hole. She continued to follow and search for him, although in the end he turned out to be the herald for the Queen of Hearts, who tried to have Alice killed."

"So." Uncomfortable, Watanuki shifted on his knees. "He was her enemy?"

Shrugging, the archer ate a slice of carrot. "You could put it that way." He shook off his chopsticks and glanced at Watanuki. "So?"

He hadn't even said anything, but he'd been humming too loud, and Yuuko had been hungover and nothing made her feel better so much as knocking him down a peg or two when he was in a good mood.

"There's Watanuki, preparing to chase after his white rabbit again," she'd said direly to Mokona. "No idea where he's going, just skipping blindly along."

"Do you have something you want to say?" he'd snapped. "Don't just sit there and comment on how doomed I am!"

"Oh? You want directions in Wonderland?" Yuuko had straightened to smirk at him. "Are you sure you're willing to pay the price for them?"

Of course he had stalked off, but hearing it from Doumeki was no better.

Himawari-san, he thought, crestfallen. She'd been so special to him for so long, and it seemed like everything was working against them, no matter how fervently he tried to deny it.

After a silent moment, Doumeki said indifferently, "Don't get like that. It makes you look like a starving dog."

"What?" Watanuki snapped.

"We all have our White Rabbits." Doumeki studied the bento box with that infuriatingly blank expression of his. "Even if we never catch up, the journey is worth something."

For a moment Watanuki was... "Do you really believe that?"

Doumeki looked up, shrugged. "We have to." Then, "Where's the umeboshi?"

"You have takuan! Eat it and love it and praise Kimihiro-sama's name!"

"I don't like daikon."

Un. grateful. bastard.

"It's strange," she mused aloud, "I wonder what they see in you. Maybe you're Xemnas's type, but what about you could Axel possibly find interesting?"

She curved her fingers over Roxas's jaw. The blond boy stared at her with flat dead eyes, the kind of look that she'd like to wipe away. It was almost angering. Perhaps Axel was thinking the way she thought; perhaps he wanted to find something that would strike that blank look away.

Larxene had thought Roxas would be protective of his personal space, but evidently he was not so easily fazed.

"It seems to me," she breathed into his ear, "that you would be lifeless in bed. Lying there, tolerating it, never doing anything interesting."

Still no reaction, and when she drew back to look at him his expression hadn't so much as twitched, neither more nor less involvement in what she was doing to him. "Like now," she added, shoving off annoyance.

If she hadn't seen the boy hold his own in discussion with Saix (who was, as far as she was concerned, equally semi-mute) she would've thought him voiceless. Clearly she would have to fill all the conversational gaps. Fortunately, she had plenty of provocative things to say.

"Dead fish just never seemed like Axel's type," she said, slinging the arm around Roxas's shoulders idly, almost companionably. "Maybe I overestimated him? I suppose he could want a pretty little doll to fuck. The Superior I really don't think any better of." Larxene rolled her eyes.

Still, Roxas said nothing, didn't move beneath her. What would break that paralysis? What did Axel know that she didn't?

Larxene purred thoughtfully, "Of course... I suppose it might be nice to see what would force a little expression out of you..."

She dipped in to brush her lips against his, but all at once his fingers closed around her neck in an almost vice-grip. Outrage and animal panic shot through her veins, and she met his eyes with a furious glare that promised pain if he didn't remove his uninvited hands at once.

"If we do this," he said flatly, "we do it my way."

No one touched her without her detailed permission and utter confidence in their intentions; and so no one touched her except Marluxia, and so they didn't do this, as Roxas had so charmingly put it. But she thought she'd discovered what Axel's interest in the boy was.

...h-hot ♥

I love the way you paint them here. They're both so utterly dominant but yeah, if push came to shove, Roxas would be the one in control. Lovely.

I liked this, it's like a missing piece of the canon. Thank you!

(You haven't met him yet, but trust me, you'll love Haruka when you see him)

*appears from the shadows >.> <.<*

Larxene/Roxas: Motherly
Xigbar, Roxas: Hazing
Roxas, King Mickey: Prejudice

Lurker rush!!!

Lexaeus/Xigbar: manliness
Luxord, Vexen: prissy
OXIII neophytes: sibling rivalry

One thing was as constant as the archaic concept of seasons; that a certain number of cycles in rotation, GIS would dock at GOA to make preparations and restock on supplies and whatever else it was that GIS did, mysterious workings that Zero only longed to someday be privileged to.

He had been on GIS, once, since the incident. Erts had 'summoned' him -- a thoroughly impersonal message, except for the postscript, a wry, Don't let Garr see you. He could almost hear Erts's voice saying it.

"Sorry to call you up here," Erts murmured. "I would've gone down to meet you, but-- well." He laid back in his bed, one hand over the bandages on his stomach.

"How did you get hurt?" Zero demanded, hopping to the younger boy's bedside. "One of the Victim-- How did it--"

Erts laughed, a soft sound. It didn't sound like he really meant it, but maybe like he thought it was appropriate to laugh. "Not Victim. I was my enemy this time. I bruised a rib while training."

Zero was torn between appreciation of Erts's newfound dedication and scolding him for being too dedicated. He settled for an in-between, "Take better care of yourself! Next time it could be an automic." (He still wasn't sure what was the deal with those except that they were frequently used as threats on reckless Candidates such as himself.)

The blond boy smiled at him. "Thank you for your concern."

Zero dropped to his knees and folded his arms over the edge of the bed. "So what did you want to talk about?" he asked, tucking his chin over his arms.

Erts hesitated a moment, then shook his head wordlessly. "I... Just wanted to see you."

Maybe it was just the way Erts was, that unabashed sentimentalism, but Zero thought, I've never had a friend before who would have gone to trouble just to be with me. He smirked a bit and said, "Well, soon you won't have to send a message to spend time with me. I'll be right down the hall."

That prompted a laugh -- a real one. "Will you? What rank are you now?"

Zero grinned. "First of Second Troop," he said, smug.

Erts's eyes widened. "You beat out Hiead?"

It hadn't been easy. It hadn't been easy at all. "Yeah, well, he couldn't keep up with me. Torturing small animals instead of practicing."

"You're horrible."

"No, he's horrible," Zero corrected. He fidgeted a little at the edge of the bed, playing with a wrinkle in the sheet. "It doesn't hurt, does it?"

Quiet breathing, the slow rise and fall of Erts's chest, and then he shook his head. "No. It doesn't. You know... Zero..."

"Mm?"

"...to be honest, I wanted you to come because... being with you makes me feel better."

Hesitantly, Zero shifted, groping blindly on the sheets for Erts's hand. The telepathist stiffened at the contact, giving a panicked little jerk that Zero knew was reflexive, and then slowly, slowly eased.

When Zero thought about how soon he would have to leave GIS, and Erts, he felt colder than he had in years.

When he was bored, Peony enjoyed going to see Jade; especially when his most faithful and trusted subject was not interested in entertaining him.

"I'm doing paperwork, Your Majesty," Jade said pointedly. "It isn't the sort of enthralling activity you're used to. It shall only bore you further."

"That's all right," Peony returned with all the imperial benevolence he could muster on command. "I know you're not good at the being social thing, Jade, and I don't hold it against you."

The colonel set down his glasses to clean them. Innocently, he reminded, "I suspect that your aides would hold it against you, Your Majesty, if you were to engage in such an unproductive pasttime. They might prefer it if you dedicated your time to something with appreciable merit, such as-- finding a worthy empress?"

Peony grimaced a little. His one weakness! And a cruel blow, coming from Jade. But that was Jade for you -- he pulled no punches, even in friendly jesting. "I could do that," he allowed, "or I could just father a bastard and legitimize him, giving my aides apoplexy. Two birds with one stone, wouldn't you agree, Jade?"

Jade put his glasses back on and stared at him flatly. "This isn't helping my paperwork get done... Your Majesty."

"True enough." Peony put one sandaled foot up, bracing it against the edge of the small throne that had been brought into Jade's office for his use. (It was treason for another guest to touch it.) "Come here, Jade."

The Necromancer was still, long enough to appear to be considering the merits and disadvantages of such a move, but in the end he stood and moved around his desk to approach Peony, closer until he was kneeling before the monarch. He knew what Peony liked, after all.

It was a moment before he could gather himself to do it -- it always was, fighting off nostalgia and appreciation -- but the emperor reached out and put a hand on Jade's gold hair, stroking it lightly.

Millions of people around the world hate and fear this man. But he was quite tame when in the service of his emperor. It was a pleasant thought, that he was the only one to whom the famed Necromancer would display a hint of obedience.

Sometimes Peony told himself that he should be getting off on the power of it, but really, he suspected he just enjoyed Jade's company.

"I love your hair," he murmured.

Jade's blue eyes flickered up to him, and he said noncommittally, "I should be honored you don't make me put it up."

Another cruel blow. Jade was so petty when he'd been inconvenienced. "You are," Peony said neutrally. "Why, I could even have you put in a dress. One of those pretty tight things your sister wears..."

That quieted him, although not without a roll of his eyes. Peony grinned widely.

What he liked about Jade was that he didn't hold back, and the reason he liked to be with him was that he could give back as good as he got.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 2 of 5

Drabble Challenge cuz why not

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Davinde, "In the Land of Twilight"

Demyx, Roxas: "Technicolor"

no subject

no subject

Re: Demyx, Roxas: "Technicolor"

Balthier/Vaan: "Not on the License Board"

Re: Balthier/Vaan: "Not on the License Board"

no subject

no subject

Riku/Sora: "Solitaire"

Re: Riku/Sora: "Solitaire"

Re: Davinde, "In the Land of Twilight"

Doumeki, Watanuki: "On Becoming Lost"

Roxas/Larxene: "We Both Prefer to Hold the Chains"

Re: Roxas/Larxene: "We Both Prefer to Hold the Chains"

Re: Doumeki, Watanuki: "On Becoming Lost"

no subject

no subject

Zero/Erts: "Respite"

Jade/Peony: "Cure for Boredom"