'Kay, I should post these...

[arivess.livejournal.com]

(Hi Mysti. Have fun tagging. Games, in order, if you need any help, are XIII, IX, IV, Crystal Bearers, Dissidia 012/XI, and Dissidia 012 again.)

Username: arivess
Class: Thiefie!

Title: Untitled (Hunger)
Summary: Gran Pulsians are hungry. Who woulda thought? (*sobs* I felt bad for writing that for the summary. I'M SORRY FANG DON'T KILL ME.)
Characters/Pairings: Fang, Vanille (vaguely implied), some-Coccoon-fal'Cie-or-other
Word count: 100
Rating/warnings: G?
Notes: For the drabble contest. I AM VERY PROUD OF IT. :DDDD

Hunger is the way of life on Gran Pulse, gnawing, dull and ever-present. When the winter snows fall, they huddle together, for warmth, for company, for stories; they pray that their harvests will last until spring, until sunshine and blossoms and the hunts.

This year is – was – promising. But as the leaves turned red, a hand from the sky took their farms, their lives, their prayers.

She holds out the early fruit, unripe, sour, but food. “There, there,” she says, “don't cry.”

Her eyes burn with hatred.

Hunger is the way of life on Gran Pulse.

---

Title: Untitled (Silver)
Summary: Vivi has trauma. (I am still very mean about these summaries.)
Characters/Pairings: Vivi, Black Waltz(es), Black Mages
Word count: 100
Rating/warnings: G?
Notes: For the drabble contest.

There were silver bells ringing that day, too. In the cavern, in the cold, he heard them – almost – just before he fell asleep. They made a pretty sound, delicate. He thought they could give him sweet dreams, if he heard them every night.

There were silver bells ringing now. He heard them, saw them dangling from a slender wrist, shadowed by a voluminous sleeve. They made a lovely sound, dainty. They would give him nightmares, every time he heard them.

And as the bells rang, he could see the black mages protect him.

He could see them falling.

---

Title: Untitled (Wind)
Summary: Kain angsts? Or something. Kain goes and bes Kain.
Characters/Pairings: Kain, Rosa, Cecil
Word count: 100
Rating/warnings: G?
Notes: For the drabble contest.

1.

A long time ago, Kain promised her he would go where she willed.

A long time ago, Kain promised him he would always watch his back.

In the whirlwind, he remade his promises.

2.

“I became a white mage,” she said.

From that day on, she was their pillar.

She was the light of the sun.

3.

“I am no longer the dark knight I was,” he said.

From that day on, he was their shield.

He was the light of the moon.

4.

Kain was the great dragon, wings spread to catch the wind, reaching.

The stars scattered their light.

---

Title: Untitled (Curse)
Summary: Crystal Bearers yaoi. Or something.
Characters/Pairings: Layle, Keiss, Cid (mentioned)
Word count: 100
Rating/warnings: G?
Notes: For the drabble contest.

It was all fun and games to him, because what else could it be? He was cursed, after all.

“Hey, Crystal Bearer.”

He bit into an apple, didn't bother looking up. Something happened again, probably, so it was clearly his fault, being cursed and all.

“I'm talking to you, you know. Cid said you were looking for a partner.”

He looked up. Arched an eyebrow. He could see himself reflected in a pair of startled eyes, the sunlight glinting on his cheek. “I'm cursed, you know.”

But this voice saved him. “I don't believe in curses."

---

Title: Untitled (Bard)
Summary: Vague rambling about FFXI pretending to be Dissidia
Characters/Pairings: Prishe, Cosmos (vaguely), Ulmia (mentioned)
Word count: 100
Rating/warnings: G?
Notes: For the drabble contest. I think no one except Breyzy and Yin knew who/what I was talking about here. >.>

“What have you forgotten?” they kept asking each other, under Cosmos's sorrowful gaze, but Prishe thought it was a stupid question. If she could remember, she wouldn't have forgotten. But sometimes, she dreamed that she remembered, maybe just a voice, singing.

It began with a song, she thought. A song and a stone, a multifaceted crystal.

It began with a song, she knew, a holy song.

It began with a song, and a girl, and from that moment, eternity started to end.

What had she forgotten? A song, a name, a girl who could sing the gods to sleep.

----

Title: Chasing Tails
Summary: Laguna is a "brilliant" man. Chaos ensues.
Characters/Pairings: Laguna, Zidane, Bartz, Squall (sorta)
Word count: 1739
Rating/warnings: G? PG?
Notes: For the fightscene contest. Yeah, this piece of ridiculous was me. XD;

It was a bad idea, Laguna knew. A bad, bad idea. But he was bored, and he was curious, and it couldn't possibly be real, could it? There was no way. Magic, he was willing to give a go. Summoning, fine; he couldn't exactly not believe it after having seen it. But there were stranger things yet.

He happened upon them in the Magitek Factory. Two warriors of Cosmos, he remembered, a tiny guy with blond hair in a ponytail, the other with short brown hair; he'd seen their faces at Order's Sanctuary, back when she gave them her power. These two looked friendly, he had thought. Cheerful and fun. He'd like to get to know them better, maybe. And now was a perfect opportunity! They were just sitting there, on an old pipe, talking and laughing, after all. He was sure they wouldn't mind if he joined them.

And then he noticed the tail. Laguna had seen many strange things, and learned to believe more than he ever imagined. But a tail? Humans didn't have tails. They just... didn't. So it stood to reason that it was some kind of accessory, and if it wasn't... Well. That was what he wanted to find out.

With a decided nod at his impeccable logic, Laguna grabbed the fuzzy yellow tail dangling down near his face, and gave it a firm tug.

The response was instantaneous: a yowl of, “Ouch, what'd you do that for?” Directed, of course, at his companion, sitting beside him.

“Huh?” was the brunet's confused reply. “Something wrong?”

“Why'd you pull my tail?” mini-blondie asked, maybe just a bit miffed.

The brunet blinked. “I didn't. C'mon, Zidane, you've seen my hands the whole time. How could I have pulled your tail?”

Blon—Zidane shrugged. “Well, someone did.”

“Oooh, spooky. Maybe it was a ghost.”

Laguna watched – well, more listened – as the two descended into an animated discussion about ghosts, full of excited chatter and flailing limbs. He cleared his throat. No response.

Well then. There was only one thing left to do.

Later, Laguna would recall this moment as one of those “it seemed like a good idea” at the time things, except he knew all along it was a bad idea. But, hey, he'd already done it once, and nothing happened, right? So it was probably okay if he did it again--

All on its own, his hand reached forward, grabbed the tail, and gave a hard yank.

This time, Zidane didn't yell. In fact, he didn't give much of a reaction at all. He just turned to his companion, and said, “Bartz, mind going on ahead? I'll catch up in a bit.” At the brunet's questioning look, he added, “I've got something to settle with a ghost here.”

Bartz raised an eyebrow. “Ghost?”

“You know, the tail pulling one?”

“The tail—aah.” Bartz stood, jumped to a higher level, and waved. “Good luck with that. Don't be late.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Zidane gave a dismissive wave of his hand, stretched, and jumped down--

--Daggers out.

“So.” A few experimental dagger swipes. “Our mysterious tail puller.”

“Ahahaha...” Laguna raised both hands, backing up. “Sorry, sorry, I was curious.” When Zidane didn't pull back, he laughed nervously. “Don't you have somewhere to be? That friend of yours is waiting for you, right?”

Zidane took a step forward. “You're not getting away with it that easily. It won't take long.” He gestured to Laguna's empty hands. “Draw your weapon.”

Before Laguna could move, Zidane dashed forward, both daggers reaching into a slash.

“Woah!” Laguna brought his machine gun up to block, sending the smaller man careening back.

Instead of stopping, however, Zidane slammed his daggers down, shooting a twirl of fiery balls towards Laguna. “Let's see you block this one!”

Laguna eyed his gun, and eyed the fire, barely having time to imagine a small explosion before remembering to leap to the side and behind a corner.

“Aw, come on,” he said in between bursts of gunfire, “I just wanted to know if it was real!”

Not deterred by the shots, Zidane leapt forward in a graceful arc, bullets following his trail, and Laguna winced as a pipe above their head – the one the blond and his friend had been sitting on, in fact – burst into an explosive blaze.

After Laguna's eyes cleared from the bright flash, Zidane was nowhere to be seen.

“Huh?” Nowhere, nowhere... After checking behind him and to all sides, Laguna relaxed a touch, and lowered his gun. Did he leave already?

A sound--

“ABOVE!” Through pure muscle memory, Laguna brought his gun up, meeting a spinning dagger. Above, and behind, he could tell now, right in his blind spot.

“Damn!”

This time, he wasn't sure which of them said it. Maybe both, as Zidane rushed in closer, following up his attack with a quick swipe that cut a thin line across Laguna's chest.

Not one to give up, Laguna shot back, and Zidane scrambled back as he deflected them off of his blades.

As Zidane rushed in close again, Laguna jumped up, grabbing onto a ledge with one hand as he tossed down a grenade.

One giant explosion later, Laguna landed from his flying trip, though, he suspected, he didn't suffer the worst of the damage. A bit of smoke, a bit of ashes, and of course a disappearing act, once again, from his opponent.

A pipe again. Laguna poked his landing spot, and plopped down to get his bearings. They were both nowhere near where they were earlier, he was pretty sure. But where? It was always a question of where, where, where, and this time, he wouldn't forget to look up.

Looking up was no help, however, as lightning surrounded him, closing in quickly. Laguna dove off his pipe as a flood of water destroys it as neatly as his gunfire had earlier.

“We'll play it your way,” Laguna murmured, as he shot a multitude of bullets into the air. Jumping up to reach a better vantage point, he quickly fired off two homing bullets in succession.

“Yes!” he cheered, as all the bullets converged at a single point, crashing through a giant glass tube. In the rubble of glass and some odd liquid, however, was no tiny blond.

He had to be up there, though, Laguna knew. Guns out, he took a running start and charged up the wall, popping out right where his bullets had landed.

No Zidane either.

Suddenly, he saw a flash out of the corner of his eyes, and brought his gun up to block. Another spinning dagger, followed by a young man.

“Won't work again!”

As Laguna shoved back, Zidane staggered, barely managing to grab onto the railing.

“Let's finish this!” Changing the gears on his gun, Laguna fired off a sustained beam, and brought the whole thing down like a sword. Not giving him the satisfaction of an easy victory, however, Zidane leapt up and over the beam, pushing off into a series of flips to dodge the subsequent bullets.

On the last bullet, Zidane's foot slipped. With a look of surprise, he fell.

Laguna walked over, his steps slow and cautious. There didn't seem to be anything that he could see. Not on the walls, not at the bottom, just a fuzzy yellow--

“Still think this is a fake?” Zidane swung up by his tail, daggers a hair's breadth from Laguna's face.

“Not anymore!” Distance, he needed distance...

Laguna dodged backwards, throwing a grenade to deter his opponent at every hop, launching long-ranged missiles whenever he had a moment.

Just as Laguna thought he could take a breather, however, Zidane slid along the railing towards him, at the last moment, jumping up and tossing his dagger down again.

As Laguna blocked, Zidane moved into another attack, ramming straight into him in a blaze of pink energy, knocking the breath out of him.

By instinct, Laguna pulled out his gun, changing it into its cutting beam again, sending the blond flying through a glass tube, nearly to the opposite wall.

Zidane, however, charged right back, faster than Laguna would have thought possible, daggers and shimmering energy, and--

Laguna, thoroughly tired, brought his gun up again, firing up its beam. They were both exhausted, he could tell, both fighting in desperation. One last attack, then...

The resulting clash sent waves of power through their surroundings, shattering glass and metal alike. The thin bridge beneath them threatened to cave, and both leapt to safety, barely pulling themselves onto steadier land.

“You still wanna go?” Zidane asked, staggering up, and Laguna pushed himself onto one knee, gun cocked.

“Let's finish this!”

Neither, however, made a move.

“Uh... Zidane?”

The two fighters nearly jumped at the new voice. A confused Bartz stared at them both. “What happened here?”

“Bartz?” All energy now, Zidane jumped to his feet and ran over. “What are you doing here?”

“Ignoring my question, I see.” Bartz raised an eyebrow, but shrugged. “You were taking so long, I thought you got lost.”

“I caught the ghost.” Zidane nodded towards Laguna, before walking over and reaching out his hand. “You're a warrior of Cosmos too, right? Don't think we've met yet. I'm Zidane, and this is Bartz.”

Laguna stared, and then laughed and laughed. Mission accomplished, he supposed. “I'm Laguna. Hahaha, sorry about the tail thing.”

Zidane grinned good-naturally. “Just don't do it again.”

“Anyway!” Bartz waved his arms, gesturing at the door. “I'm going to stop asking what happened. Can we go now? We don't wanna keep Squall waiting.”

“Ooh, scary.” Zidane laughed. “Who knows what he might do if we're late.”

“And that,” Laguna related days later, punctuated with a satisfied nod, “is how it happened.”

Squall sighed.

“I know, I know, you're going to say something about how stupid it was. But, hey, if you don't explore your curiosities...”

Still no answer.

“Aw, c'mon, I won't do it again! Really! ...Don't make that scary face. You make it seem like it's my fault or something! ...Hey, it's not like I've done it before! Right? ...Right?”