ffexchange_mod (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ffexchange_mod) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ff_exchange2013-02-05 08:58 pm
ffexchange_mod) wrote in ff_exchange2013-02-05 08:58 pm
Entry tags:
2013 KISS BATTLE!
RULES
- This year, we're creating Master Links for each fandom. When leaving prompts, please put it under the right canon! If in a compilation canon, please leave the important details!
- To leave a prompt: leave one prompt per comment, with FANDOM: CHARACTERS/RELATIONSHIP in the subject line and your prompt in the body.
- To leave a fill: reply to the comment in question. Please use the subject line of your comment to label your work: TITLE (if relevant), FANDOM, CHARACTERS/RELATIONSHIP, RATING (ANY KINKS, WARNINGS, FLAGS).
- There should be kissing! All kinds of kisses are welcome: gen, shippy, smutty, chaste, familial, friendly, angry, happy! We’re pretty open to anything you want to call kissing. We are fans of all of it.
- Fanart, fanfiction, drabbles, doodles, live action movies -- whatever you want to supply, we’d like to have it.
- Be kind to others regarding character or ship choices and prompts. This should be fun for everyone!
- Prompt early, prompt often, and leave as many as you want.
- Prompts can be filled multiple times!
- To leave a blitzkrieg kiss: If you have something but no one has prompted it yet, blitzkiss away! Just reply to the comment for your fandom, and make sure you use the subject line to label your work.
- Be sure to check back often -- new kissing action could be showing up everywhere!
- Spread the word! Tell your friends!
FINAL FANTASY KISS BATTLE 2013
We will be running the Kissing Battle on Dreamwidth only. There are two main reasons for this: 1) Dreamwidth’s comment limit is huge, allowing for longer kissing masterpieces; and 2) Dreamwidth still supports subject lines for comments, which are vital to a meme like the Kiss Battle. However, the Battle is open to everyone. Feel free to participate with your Dreamwidth (account creation is invite-free right now~!), your Livejournal or other OpenID account (see here if you want to set up an OpenID), or anonymously.
Have fun! Get smoochin'!
FINAL FANTASY I
FINAL FANTASY II
FINAL FANTASY III
FINAL FANTASY IV COMPILATION
FINAL FANTASY V
FINAL FANTASY VI
FINAL FANTASY VII COMPILATION
FINAL FANTASY VIII
FINAL FANTASY IX
FINAL FANTASY X AND X-2
FINAL FANTASY XI
FINAL FANTASY XII COMPILATION
FINAL FANTASY TACTICS COMPILATION
FINAL FANTASY XIII COMPILATION
DISSIDIA: FINAL FANTASY COMPILATION
FINAL FANTASY: CRYSTAL CHRONICLES COMPILATION
ASSORTED FINAL FANTASY
CROSSOVERS (WITHIN FF)
CROSSOVERS (FF/OTHER)
OTHER / ASSORTED
Re: At First Sight (2/3): FFVI, Madeline/Maduin, PG
When he spoke to Madeline, Maduin was reminded of the years that he'd tried to live among humans. They might not take the forms of birds and beasts, but they held so much variety in other ways, so much potential. Their range of cultures, of languages and goods and food, were like nothing in the Esper world. When he described the life the Espers had chosen to Madeline, he emphasized the virtues of such simplicity, but he found himself thinking, regretfully, of the sacrifices. Espers could live in harmony because they were all, in many ways, the same, united by their commonalities. Humans had never been able to, and by the history Madeline had recounted, that had not changed in the centuries since he walked among them. He might long for the taste of curry, on occasion, but it was a small sacrifice to make for a land without war.
"Probably so," Madeline agreed, when he admitted as much. "People in the village liked to talk about the king — he's styling himself emperor now — and how he's defending our ancient claims. Ours, hah. More like his. It's all greed and war. How do they think people feel when they suddenly stop being from the kingdom of Albrook and now they're from the kingdom of Vector?"
"Espers aren't entirely peaceful," Maduin said, feeling the need to balance her vehemence. "People here argue and squabble as well."
"That'd happen no matter what," she said. "People are people, right?"
"You think of us as people?" he asked, genuinely curious. Few humans he'd encountered had.
"Of course! How else would I think of you?"
She hadn't met everyone, he thought. It was easier for a human to think so of Shiva and Ifrit. He needed to introduce her to those who no longer wore any trace of human form, to Ixion, or Bismarck.
He needed to return her to her own people, he corrected himself. No one here was easy with her presence, and while he enjoyed speaking to her, and in some way seeing his own world through an outsider's eyes, he knew it was better for everyone if she returned home. Her life in her own world would be calling her back soon, if it wasn't already. She had been in their world for a week, as they reckoned time, though the days were a few hours longer here. That was more than long enough for her friends and family to grow worried, or if they'd known the danger of the place she'd gone, frantic. And she would eventually tire of the simplicity of life here, the boundaries within which they operated. She was so alive, so adventurous; a quiet world like this held little for her once the novelty had palled.
"It's true, though," he said. "We've managed to maintain peace here for centuries. There are disagreements, yes, but no permanent rifts."
"In a small town..." She smiled slightly. "That's more than humans can say."
"Is it?"
"Oh, definitely. Where I'm from — I told you I worked at the blacksmith's, right? Well, there are actually two, because the man I work for doesn't speak to his brother-in-law, who used to be a fellow apprentice and then married Mr. Bonheur's sister. They haven't spoken for twenty years. And people took sides, so some of them go to the smith I work for and some go to his brother-in-law. There's just barely enough business for two."
"Twenty years is not so long, for us, but to you..."
"I mean, I'm only twenty-four." She sat down on a rock. "How old are you?"
He thought about it. "Time moves differently here," he said. "I remember the War of the Magi." Her eyes widened, and with a haste he didn't care to examine, he added, "I was just a child then. The magic spread to my brother and I from our father — the warriors called him the Titan. He perished during the war. We believe that's the reason we look so similar even as Espers, because it followed the same lines as any family resemblance."
"So you're a thousand years old?"
"Is that how long it's been?"
"Nearly."
"But that's precisely the point. We came here as children. I was fifteen when I left this world to try to live among humans... and at that point humans said the war had been four hundred years before."
"Wait... fifteen years? Counting time the way we've been here, day by day, not just 'about the same as a fifteen-year-old human'?" She sounded frightened. "How many years have passed outside while I've been here?"
It was hard not to let her fear infect him. "Likely only a week or two."
"But how?"
"Time is different here. Not slower or faster. It's shaped by our wills, to an extent. This week has been longer than many I can remember, because—" Because each day felt so full, spending time with her, yet at the same time, the days flew past. "Your presence here changes the flow of time as well, I believe. It feels so to me. There are others I could ask better attuned to it."
"You think so?" He nodded. "But if that's true, what does that do to everyone else here? Will I grow old over the course of a few months here? Will human time catch up with all of you?"
"I don't know." He should ask. Golem might know, or Quetzalli. They were both closely attuned to time. "Don't worry too much. Once we return to the house, I'll go seek out some of the others who can tell me more. A few hours won't do any more harm."
Madeline nodded, looking subdued. "I hope I haven't caused any harm," she said. "Or spent so much time here everyone back home will think I'm dead."
"Even if something's gone wrong, don't blame yourself," he said. "You were certainly in no shape to leave at first. And no other human has ever come here before. None of us know how that will affect life here."
"I suppose." She took his hand and let him help her up, however. "What was it like, when you went to live among the humans?"
"Among might be a poor choice of words," he admitted. "I built myself a shelter in the forest near a human settlement..." He'd meant only to observe, at first, but there'd been a lost child in the woods — far easier for Maduin to find than for any human search party, once it grew dark — and so he'd become known to them. Predictably enough, some had considered him an angel and some a demon; also predictably, the former had held sway not long after he'd delivered a little boy, frightened but unhurt, into his mother's arms, and the latter had grown louder the next year when a pox sickened first the cows and then the villagers. The tale carried them all the way back home, though. To Maduin, the stories of his life with the humans were fresher than his memories of the week before last, the week before Madeline had arrived, and he had little cause to relive them. None of his own kind cared to hear more about humans. "When I came back, the elders all said that was the way of things," he concluded, as they neared his own front gate. "That was the reason we came here in the first place. Humans couldn't see us as anything other than supernatural."
"Even though you'd been humans once?"
"But we'd been touched by the gods. We weren't normal any longer. We were either prophets or weapons. Gods don't just leave people alone, do they?"
"I suppose that's true. Or if they do, it doesn't make for much of a story, so no one remembers."
"Also possible," he admitted, with a smile. "Would you like more tea?"
"You're going to drown me in tea," she teased. "I think you just like showing off how quickly you can heat the kettle."
He stayed silent on that topic. It was childish, but he did enjoy being able to impress someone with his magic. In the human world, he never dared to use it, and here, of course, it was routine. As he prepared the things for tea, though, she seemed to grow thoughtful. "So you don't think humans and Espers can really coexist?"
"Long-term... I don't know." He kept his focus on the tea leaves, tracking a few scraps of dried tea that had escaped the strainer. "It's always been a matter of Espers in the world of humans." But now that she was conscious, no one would even come near his house, which didn't speak well of the prospects for a human in the world of Espers. He'd been thinking, idly, of a tactful way to leave her alone while he sought out Quetzalli.
"I should leave soon," she said. "You told me people here are frightened of me. Why should they have to get over that just because I waltzed in and decided I liked it here? It's their home, not mine."
You like it here? he wanted to ask. But it was best that she return home. "Someone can guide you through the gate whenever you like," he said. "It might be your only chance to meet another Esper."
"Don't you think they'd rather keep away from me? Or is it worth risking my terrifying presence just to get me out of town?"
Perhaps he should have offered to guide her himself, he thought. But he didn't want to see her leave, even if he knew she should. "I should go ask one of my friends about the flow of time," he said. "For everyone's peace of mind." She looked not just thoughtful, but sad, and he hesitated, but all she said was, "But your tea?"
"It shouldn't take me long."
Re: At First Sight (3/3): FFVI, Madeline/Maduin, PG
"Most likely," he said. She imagined herself walking back out into her own world, marrying Alan, and growing into an old lady, while a month passed here. Or staying here, gradually working her anchor free of the human world, and walking back into it a few years later to see how things had gone over the centuries.
"Who should I ask to guide me?" she asked him, as he prepared a meal for both of them. "Just... whoever's around?"
"Ifrit is usually an early riser, and he can help you with the obstacles of the cave," Maduin said. Somewhat unexpectedly, he left the cutting board and wiped off his hands, then came over to her, lifting the pendant that had hung around his neck. She'd seen it many times, and wondered what it was, but he'd never explained. Seeing what he meant to do, she lowered her head.
"You never told me what this is," she said, as she felt the weight of the chain, still warmed by his body, settle around her neck. The pendant itself was a simple stone, a smooth, milky, mostly-opaque green that reminded her of jade more than anything.
"It's a memento of our world for you," he said. "A talisman to keep you safe on your journey home."
"Is that what it was before?" she asked, but he just smiled and returned to chopping vegetables. A week ago, this had looked incongrous — a supernatural creature, a tall, shirtless, horned man who looked like he was carved of brown marble and fuzzed with violet moss, chopping up onions in a kitchen — but now it just felt familiar and domestic. She knew perfectly well it wasn't just the onions making her eyes sting, but that was the very reason she should go. If humans and Espers had such difficulties coexisting, there was no point to hanging around, getting more attached, waiting to be confronted by the inevitable; waiting to slip her anchor only to find she couldn't live with these people after all. She should go back now, and be satisfied that she'd had an experience that no one else in her world could boast.
So she went to bed early, and spent a sleepless night looking around a room lit by the strange twilight they had here; it wasn't moonlight, though they'd tried to approximate it. Finally, as the sky began lightening for their pseudo-dawn, she rose and dressed in her own clothes again, washed her face in the pure and icy-cold water that filled the basin automatically whenever she needed it, and slipped as silently as she could out of Maduin's front door.
The village felt like any village did this early in the morning; anyone who was awake was about their own business. Bakers would be baking, farmers tending their livestock — well, no livestock here — early risers in their own homes would be tending to food or fires or chores left unfinished the night before. Things would be starting soon, but they hadn't yet. There was no one around to ask as a guide, and the truth was, she didn't really want one. She didn't want to seek help from someone who didn't want her here in the first place, and she didn't want her last memory of this place to be anyone other than Maduin.
Madeline started up the path on her own her own. Maduin had never led her this way, but it was impossible to miss the mountain; that had to be the way out. The incline was gentle at first, but gradually grew more pronounced, and she was grateful for it. Having to throw all of herself into the climb meant she wasn't caught up in her thoughts. She wasn't entertaining second thoughts or regrets, and if she wished, occasionally, that she'd at least said goodbye to him, the distance she'd already traveled was a strong argument against turning back to remedy that. Don't look back, she told herself, the mantra that pushed her up the steepest parts, but when she reached the plateau it was only reasonable to stop and catch her breath.
The Esper world spread out before her like a tapestry, or maybe more like a patchwork quilt; vegetable gardens, herb gardens, pasture — sheep, of course, they had to have cloth, though she wondered how that worked for their wolves and the like — and houses. Trees, like punctuation marks, or bits of embroidery on squares of the quilt. A stream. She wondered if it flowed in from her own world, or if it came from magic somehow. She wanted to know so much more, about magic itself and how it worked, how they'd made this world of theirs, how the others lived. How and when others had tried to live with humans, what it had been like; what the others were like, because she'd only seen a few of them, and only in glimpses. She didn't want to go back to the blacksmith shop and her grandma's house and listening to people at the shop and the pub and the market talk about the king-emperor and his war and who'd been arguing with who in the village, who'd had an affair, who'd lost money and who'd cheated who. The buzz of anger and emotion in crowds, the tensions, the awkwardness, the way people looked at each other; maybe it was just that she'd met so few Espers, but all she felt from Maduin, all she felt here in general, was peace.
She got up to investigate the next step along the trail. A cave — a very dark cave, which might mean it was magical, because the opening was quite large — with a suspension bridge leading through the void. She went back to the rock she'd found. There'd be plenty of time for that soon enough. She wanted to be sure she was steady before she tried that. It was one thing to try all manner of risks while exploring, but doing the same just to return to boring old routine was something else again.
She wasn't sure how long she sat, or when the sound had started, but when she realized she was hearing it — breathing, and the scraping of rocks — she realized she'd been hearing it for a while. Someone else climbing up here? She wasn't in such a hurry to return to her own world that she couldn't wait to see who was coming this way.
And she wasn't so dim as to be very surprised when Maduin's was the head that emerged at the top of the trail. Though she couldn't fault him for looking surprised at the sight of her, resting calmly on a large rock while he labored up the trail. He pulled himself up the rest of the way, and stood before her, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath even as he said, "If you don't want to go back, you can stay here."
Madeline stood up. "But you said Espers and humans can't coexist," she said, teasing a little, as she walked towards him. He straightened up, which altered her plans just a little. She had to get up on tiptoes to kiss him.
"How do we know for sure?" he asked, reaching out to touch her face, very lightly, with one clawed hand. "Unless we try for ourselves?"
"There's only one way to find out," she agreed. About many things. For instance, how to kiss a man deeply when he had fangs.
Re: At First Sight (3/3): FFVI, Madeline/Maduin, PG