ff_exchange | September Results + October Prompt-a-Thon!

September Race Round Up
Congratulations to the September contributors!

Personal Agenda (6249 words) by

Madisuzy

Waving from Such Great Heights (2631 words) by

crankyoldman

Foresworn (505 words) by

FireEye

Strength (2278 words) by

notraffic

Carrying (1834 words) by

Stealth_Noodle

White (2395 words) by

seventhe

Imperceptible (1122 words) by

deadcellredux

Of Hearts (0 words) by

Vrazdova

Or browse all of Chocobo Down 2011!

The score for September:

Team Tonberry: 20 | Team Cactuar: 60

Team Cactuar takes the lead! But now we get to introduce October's challenge!

October Prompt-a-thon: How to Play

1. Teams from the September Chocobo Races still apply! You are still signed up if you signed up last month, but as with the last round, you're not obligated to participate.

However, if you're not on a team, you must choose one in order to take part in October's festivities, but don't worry, it's easy! You can sign up at the Choose a Team post, but you do not have to wait to be added to your team roster before prompting or filling. In order for your contributions to count for your team, your sign up comment needs to be dated before any prompts or fills you might make and that's it. You can sign up any time throughout the month up until the 26th. :)

2. Unlike September's round, we will be making all new prompts for people to create from (fic! art! sculptures from wax!) in the comments of this entry. Each prompt that's at least one sentence and descriptive (think scenarios, or see some our DOINK! guidelines on prompts) earns your team one point. You can get up to five points for leaving up to five prompts.

They have to be your words: one word prompts, single phrases/quotes, lyrics, etc. do not count. We encourage descriptive, open prompts that can be filled with fic or art, because you never know who’s going to like your ideas!

If you’d like a starting point for some of your prompts, October’s unofficial theme is Curse or Cure — just like Trick or Treat, but with a little magical twist! Whether it’s playful, sweet, or downright scary, we’d love to see some cursing, curing, and casting in your prompts for October.

3. You cannot fill your own prompts.

4. However, you can fill prompts left by either team. Start your strategic alliances!

5. Every fill for a prompt is worth five points. You may post your fills as replies to the comment with the prompt, or you can post the fills on AO3 (in our Chocobo Down 2011 collection), or both — it’s up to you.

6. Because we assume there will be a lot of prompts, to make it easier for mods to count up points (and for those looking for a specific team/fandom), please do use the subject line when prompting. Here are some examples:

Examples:

Subject: FFVIII / Seifer/Zell / team tonberry!
Comment body: Skypirate!AU! Rival skypirates coming together for illegal shenanigans which include tons of action sequences and makeouts!

Subject: FFX-2/FFXII / Yuna, Rikku, Paine, Penelo / team cactuar!
Comment body: The Gullwings come to Ivalice and convince Penelo to join them. Hijinks ensue.

Subject: FFVII / Hojo, Reeve / team tonberry
Comment body: Hojo and Reeve get into a territorial spat at Shin-Ra HQ.

All prompt examples adapted from prompts from previous rounds!

7. Please also use the subject line when posting your fills! Leaving the fandom/characters/rating and your team name will help the mods keep track of your points.

Current Teams
We're keeping a master post to cut down on the confusion. You can view complete team rosters here and also sign up if you'd like to participate! All are welcome. :D

Tell Your Friends!
With

ff_press on its hiatus, we currently don’t have a great way to advertise, so... we’d love it if you could help to pass the word along! Feel free to use the following banner:

image of a cactuar and a tonberry from Final Fantasy with the word Versus in bold between them

Ready, Set, Prompt!
Let the October Chocobo Races begin!

EDIT -- Please remember to also check the Livejournal mirror post! You may find other prompts there, and prompts and fills in either place will count for points!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

They say that the land where Kefka's Tower once rested is cursed - full of strange lights and phantom laughter. They say that the ones who spend too many days there sometimes go mad.

They might be right.

I came here looking for FFIV prompts, but when I saw this, I just couldn't resist. Bravo for excellent prompting skills - I hope this lives up to the tall order you placed.

The Legend of Kefka’s Tower

The first time it happens, Locke thinks it’s a joke; some twisted prank that everyone is in on. It doesn’t stop him from having screaming nightmares of the pale kid, screaming and sweating and spouting nonsense as the hospital attendants hold him down to keep him from hurting himself.

The second time it happens, Locke is pretty sure it’s not a joke, because he knows the normally serious man, and that makes it all the worse when the healers tell him the only thing they can do is make him comfortable.

When they find the third, Locke thinks his heart might fall out of his chest. Celes, his beautiful, strong Celes, is screaming and crying, the color drained from her face as she pounds her fists against his chest and thrashes so hard, it’s all he can do to keep her from falling. He tries to look into her eyes, but it’s as if she cannot see him; as if all she sees are horrors he can’t even begin to comprehend.

Locke does not wait for there to be a fourth. He knows the legend – the place where Kefka’s tower once stood will make anyone who dares to spend too much time there mad. He’d been to Kefka’s tower when it still stood, so Locke isn’t having any of this nonsense. But something is there; something that is attacking people, and he has no choice but to find out what, for Celes’ sake.

So he goes.

Three days go by as he wanders the desolate land without incident. The place is seemingly empty; devoid of all life, human or otherwise. It’s creepy, but decidedly not haunted. He sets up camp for the night with plans to look elsewhere in the morning.

If only he had left.

It’s midnight when the sound wakes him. He’s not sure what he’s hearing at first, struggling out of his bedroll to look around for the source. It’s a familiar sound…

He has his dagger out of his boot in a flash, ready to face whatever the sound belongs from when he recognizes it and almost impales himself on his own knife whipping around to find the source; to find him.

It’s Kefka’s laugh.

There’s no ambiguousness about it. He could pick that laugh out in a crowded city from a mile away. He’d heard it so many times before, and here it is again, coming across the years to find him. He looks around desperately for any signs that he is right; that the source of the world’s torment was here, in the flesh, but there is nothing.

He is alone.

He wonders if he is dreaming, or perhaps hallucinating from too many days in the sun. Either is possible, he decides, and lies back down, but sleep is impossible now, and he tosses and turns, trying to keep watch of everything all at once. An hour goes by without incident.

He rolls to the left, and he sees them. Two lantern-sized lights appear in the distance.

There will be no sleep for him, so he quickly packs his things and moves on silent feet towards the lights. Could this be the assailant who attacks Celes and the others? He walks and walks for what seems like hours, but it is still dark, so it couldn’t have been long. Still, the lights burn on, seemingly just as far away as when he started.

He comes across a faint glow and he creeps slowly, careful not to make a sound… and sees his extinguished fire from his camp, still lightly smoldering. His camp, he knows, because of his boot prints still in the dirt next to it.

He had been walking in a straight line. This is impossible – an illusion of some sort. He just has to figure it out.

He decides to wait for the sun, because with light, he’ll be better able to see. He sits down next to the smoldering logs and waits.

When he’s sure the sun should have come up already, he looks up to the stars. They haven’t moved one inch since he’d seen the lights. The stars that led seamen to shore are frozen in the sky.

Locke has a bad feeling, but it’s a little late for that now.

There are noises now, off in the distance, coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. It makes his hair stand on end. Those lights were still there, beckoning to him, so he gets up and tries again, throwing caution to the wind and moving swiftly towards them.

He’s in luck this time. He is closing the gap between him and the lights. The closer they get, the less he can see until he is so enshrouded in darkness he can see only the lights and the ground under his feet. He feels like he might fall off the edge with each step he takes. The stars are no longer there at all.

He doesn’t see the tower until he is right on top of it, but there it is, staring him in the face. The lights are twin lanterns set into the stone on either side of the doorway to Kefka’s tower.

The door slides open, and Locke tries to run, but quite suddenly his entire body seizes up like he’s been paralyzed.

There, in all his horrific glory, stands Kefka himself. “I’m so glad you’ve come! You’ll have so much fun in my eternal tower. It’s different than you remember it, but I won’t spoil anything for you.”

Locke can’t believe his eyes. He doesn’t believe. It can’t be. “You’re dead. I killed you with my own two hands. This isn’t real.”

“Oh, it’s real enough, Locke. Celes is already inside enjoying herself. Wouldn’t you like to join her?” Kefka’s grin is twisted, like a full-faced grimace.

“No! Let Celes go! Let her go and… I will take her place.”

Kefka sneers. “How disgustingly noble of you. Too bad you aren’t in any position to bargain with me.” He snaps his fingers and Locke is being pulled in, a puppet whose strings are being manipulated to make him walk.

This can’t be happening. He’s dreaming, hallucinating, dying from a deadly poison. Anything, anything but being sucked into Kefka’s tower.

Locke screams, and Kefka begins to laugh.

---

There is a legend that can be traced back to the end of Kefka’s reign. They say that the land where Kefka's Tower once rested is cursed - full of strange lights and phantom laughter. They say that the ones who spend too many days there sometimes go mad.

Don’t believe it? Just head up the road to Narshe and ask for Locke. I hear when they found him, he was screaming. The only words they could make out were ‘Kefka’ and ‘laughing’. He’s still screaming it, twenty years later right alongside that pretty girl of his, Celes. Of course, they don’t realize they’re together, since she’s screaming, too - something about a tower and the dead coming back to life.

But don’t take my word for it. Go see for yourself. Then tell me you don’t believe.

September Results + October Prompt-a-Thon!

FFVI / Any / Team Tonberry

FFVI, Locke/Celes, Team Tonberry - The Legend of Kefka's Tower