the trick is to keep breathing

Heyyyooo, so let's talk about fic stuff. Today's post is a small-fandom extravaganza. We'll start with DOINK! 2013!

I got a really awesome gift this year:

Seeing The Bright (1875 words) by Estirose
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy III
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Princess Hilda, Gordon (Final Fantasy II), Leila (Final Fantasy II), Arc (Final Fantasy III)
Summary:

At camp, Hilda gets ready to retake Fynn. But there's a little time before that to rest, talk to her friends, and decide what to make of Leila.

Not only is this a crossover fic (!!!!!!!) that not only includes some of my favorite FFII characters but managed to work in Arc (and Arc/Alus!!!) – points for that alone, ladies and gentlemen; ways to make your Sev happy: surprise crossover references – but it's a beautiful look at Hilda's mindset in the game before they retake Fynn, the way she thinks of her people (not just the people of Fynn she needs to care for, but the people around her she chooses to trust) and her situation. It's gorgeous.

I also received an awesome piece of Chocobo Down:

Don't Talk to Mountains (They Talk Back) (2755 words) by flonnebonne
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Edge Geraldine/Rydia
Characters: Edge Geraldine, Kain Highwind, Rydia, Cecil Harvey, Rosa Joanna Farrell, Ceodore Harvey
Additional Tags: how can anyone spend seventeen years on a mountain, meta disguised as fic, ffiv: the after years makes no sense, edge is silly
Summary:

Edge tries to talk Kain off the mountain and gets an earful of nonsense. After which the story stops even trying to make sense.

I started giggling at the summary, then the first paragraph made me lose it, and I was hooting by the end. This is legitimately one of the funniest fics I've ever read.

I wrote two things for DOINK! this year. My gift was:

Sight (3461 words) by seventhe
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Final Fantasy II
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Minwu, Hilda (Final Fantasy II)
Additional Tags: Hilda/Minwu (implied), gratuitous use of imagery, Backstory
Summary:

Minwu sees things; when he looks at one thing, he sees another, and he has his whole life. But when he looks at Fynn Castle, he sees only its stones; when he looks at Princess Hilda, he doesn't know what he sees.

The story of how Minwu came to serve Hilda, and how they came to trust one another.

I ended up really enjoying this prompt, and really enjoyed writing this fic. There's a lot to be said about the bond between Hilda and Minwu, and I really only approached Minwu's side here, but after moogle_university I apparently had a lot to say, up to and including a lot of crossover meta fun to throw in there and play with. It is full of references to other FFs! It is a fun game: gotta catch 'em all! I am awful. However, I think I now ship Hilda/Minwu. I'm not sure I'm sorry.

I also wrote a piece of Chocobo Down:

a dancing game (1840 words) by seventhe
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Final Fantasy XII
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Vaan (Ivalice Alliance), Penelo
Additional Tags: Sky Pirates, Treasure Hunting, effective (if quirky) friendships
Summary:

Penelo and Vaan find yet another trap in search of treasure. Lucky for them, they still dance a mean game.

…which reminded me how much I enjoyed FFXII's battle system, and I am looking forward to getting there in our replay.

And finally, unrelated to DOINK! at all, I also finished and posted another giant thing, for which I will somehow manage to blame lassarina (for moogle_university), auronlu (for encouraging me), my friend Phil (for beating FFIII while visiting), and myself (for being a horrible, incorrigible person who likes terrible ships):

Architecture (12208 words) by seventhe
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Final Fantasy III
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Alus/Arc
Characters: Arc (Final Fantasy III), Alus Restor
Additional Tags: Period-Typical Underage, Aged-Up Character(s), aged up from canon, precocious boy-kings, shy trusted advisors, clumsy boy makeouts, Kissing
Series: Part 2 of precocious boy-kings and their shy trusted advisors
Summary:

(+5 years from the game; sequel to Calligraphy.) Arc finds new direction in Saronia, new understanding of himself, and new everything with Alus. (In which Arc builds a bridge, Alus hires an advisor, and Luneth, Refia, and Ingus write letters.)

…because I cannot stop writing Arc/Alus and I never will and I am not sorry, so here are 12000 words of it, that and FFIII worldbuilding and continued Refia/airships and Luneth/pranks and Ingus/Sara (who actually have the best sense of humor of all of them) and Arc and Alus and trust and friendship and horrible budget committee meetings and clandestine meetings in the library (except not) and falling asleep on couches, and I will never stop having things to say about shy, awkward, kids; about clever, brilliant precocious young boys who are strong in ways that aren't traditional; and the ways they can find confidence and belonging and also make out a lot. It is like my thing for Larsa only much much worse. /DEFRIENDED

It's a direct sequel to Calligraphy, but it seemed to need to stand on its own; I'm so happy with a lot of what I wrote this month, but I'm so so very happy about this one.

I ALSO have finally found the actual Rosa fic that I have been meaning to finish and edit and post - the third part of my polyamorous trifecta, Momentum / Content With This Winter / [All The Ghosts] - and so even though I haven't really had time yet to make educated comments on sathari's Rosa entry I am jazzed beyond belief that I didn't lose the fic entirely like I thought.

I GUESS I HAVE BROKEN THROUGH WRITER'S BLOCK, GUYS?

I'm at Otakon this weekend.

Photostream is here.

I'm reachable by text or email, but I may or may not answer.

SEE YA

I saw Distant Worlds last Friday, and it was amazing. I'd heard from a lot of people that it was going to be really good, but I had kind of been trying to keep reasonable expectations and all. It was just unbelievable, though, like on a lot of levels: this is the music from a series of games I have been playing for over 20 years now, well over half my life, and I listened to them in a gorgeous ballroom-type setting thing surrounded by people from the internet that I met through these games who are now some of my closest and best friends in the world. It's a little mind-blowing when I put it that way. No wonder I got a bit emotional.

The show opened with the Opening: Bombing Mission from FFVII, and that was definitely a "get chills" type thing: novel_machinist and crankyoldman were the first people I met in person through fandom, [mumble] years ago, and we all met through FFVII and cosplayed really shitty Turks at our first convention and there they were sitting right in front of me: LULZ, to put it in the vernacular. Can I use any more colons: WE'LL FIND OUT.

Other highlights of the show for me:

• The fucking battle music from FFVIII. What the everloving fuck: why did this make me cry? But it did. I think it was the moment I realized they were using the footage from the scene in Dollet where they're running from that giant monster and Quistis fucks it up with the machine gun so that Squall can escape. I have unhealthy feelings about this game.


• On that note: EYES ON ME. HOLY JESUS. Sobfest over basically a Squall/Rinoa songvid. I absolutely loved that singer.


• and on that note: MAN WITH THE MACHINE GUN. Will I ever not love this song in its entirely? JFMC.


• There were two pieces from FFIX, and even though that wasn't my favorite game, I'd forgotten (a) how poignant and pretty the music is and (b) that the game can still pack an emotional punch with some of those visuals.


• FFIV's Theme Of Love. It's a beautiful song from my favorite game. I probably would have liked a little more music from FFIV - they did a medley from I-III that was amazing and made me tear up a little, and it would have been nice to see the same for FFIV; it has the kind of very repetitive music I think would be suited for a medley. Then again I'm a little prejudiced about this game.


• Zanarkand. Fucking Zanarkand. I cried so hard at this one. The visuals were just really well done - people cry, and Yuna dances - and personally I think it's top five one of the most beautifully emotional songs in the entire FF series.


• THE OPERA FROM FFVI. I wasn't sure how this was going to play out, but I was hopeful, and it was absolutely amazing. The singers were phenomenal, and they put little clips of the Opera House from the game up in-between the singing parts, and I got pretty emotional seeing Locke running around in the rafters and Edgar and Sabin sitting in the chairs ("Why is everyone singing?") and all of that. Again, nostalgia time: my brother Jim and I pooled all our money to buy FFVI (FFIII!) when it came out and we played the hell out of it and we still joke about it. My brother: came to the Distant Worlds concert. I'd already been crying, but I sobbed at the fricking opera.
  (Side note: am I the only old person one who still wants to say, "Oh my hero / so far away now / will I ever see your smile"? I know they re-wrote/re-translated the opera in other releases of the game and in FFVI Advance and all, but the original translation will always be the one in my head.


• Terra's Theme is still like top three pieces of music forever, although they ruined it a little by playing credits through it. Maybe I'm just bitter because MY FAVORITE.


• The entire crowd singing SEPH-I-ROTH was a really good note to end on: I've never really been able to adore Sephiroth like most of the fandom, but One Winged Angel is still awesome music, and having the crowd sing was an awesome way to end on a good note with a badass game and a badass villain without taking itself too seriously. It was pretty awesome.

The rest of the weekend was an exhausting blur of internet friends and alcohol. Just take a look at this: safety_caesars and ser_pounce_alot and I drove out on Thursday to pick up deadcellredux and notraffic, then met justira and novel_machinist on Friday and crankyoldman late Fri / early Sat. That's a lot of Final Fantasy. And a lot of booze.

It was a great weekend and an amazing show. Coming back to a day of meetings starting at 5AM (the day; 6:20 for the workday) was kind of like a punch in the face.