#FFxivWrite Results

[sea-wolf-coast-to-coast]

10,261 total entries were submitted in 2024!

This includes all entries that were submitted via the Google Form, including late entries (and excluding duplicate entries).

Which brings us to 60,917 total recorded entries since we began this challenge in 2017! And, we have 131 volunteer artists in 2024!! Which means that there are 131 prize-winners!

Please check you email to see if you've won a prize!

Winners have until October 30th to respond to their artists via email and claim their prize.

If the artist hasn't heard from their winner by October 30th then sadly that winner will forfeit their prize and I'll choose a different winner for that artist.

A breakdown of the stats are below the cut ~

Want to see all public entries? Here’s a link to the Master Spreadsheet. This omits entries that people requested to keep private between them and I.

Total Participation Year to Year:

Prompt Breakdown by Week:

Submissions by Platform:

About Prizes!

Winners were selected via a random raffle dice roll and span all online writing platforms, including Tumblr, Ao3, Google Docs, and others (like Twitter). This writing challenge is not a contest - no one’s work was being judged for length, skill, etc. The prizes are based on participation only! The more entries that you wrote and submitted within its 24-hour deadline, the higher your chance of winning a prize.

Again, please check your email (and backup email if you have one) to see if you've won!

Congrats to everyone who took the time to write even one entry during this challenge!

It's not easy, but you did it! You pushed yourself and began to break the ties of perfectionism in your creative writing process. Well done! 👏👏👏

See you next September for FFxivWrite2025!

[storms-path]

FFXIV Write 2024: Day 9 - Lend an Ear

This deep in the Noumenon, footsteps carried far. Even the gentle pattering of the mammet which had guided Stalwart down the winding corridors rang out through the hallways. Still, Stalwart found herself so engrossed in the musty tome she’d cracked open that she only noticed the familiar footsteps of one Y’shtola Rhul moments before she rounded the corner. No mammet guided her, Stalwart noted with a frown. Had she traced her way here through the residual aether? Either way, Stalwart was not particularly in the mood for company. Perhaps she could take this tome elsewhere and-

“Stalwart!” Y’shtola’s face split into a rare smile as she waved.

Stalwart forced a smile of her own. “Y’shtola. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Y’shtola hesitated, apparently lost for words. She glanced at the mammet, judging it safely out of earshot. “I won’t mince words.” A dark shadow passed over Y’shtola’s face. Her ears were flat against her head, her tail swishing slowly. She looked… afraid. Unusual indeed for one so composed. Just what was she about to say?

“I fear I have fallen in love with you.”

Ah. There it was. The conversation Stalwart had intended to avoid. She had realised, of course. It had been harder and harder to play off Y’shtola’s advances as anything but romantic overtures. But still, she’d hoped for a little more time. A little more preparation. A little more… “I see.” A cowardly response, but the best she could manage. She couldn’t find the words to describe the roiling, churning feeling in her gut.

Y’shtola was clearly not impressed, but she let the silence cut deeper and deeper until Stalwart finally broke it again. “I don’t know what to say. I’m sorry, I didn’t want to have this conversation at all, but…”

“Do you feel the same?” Y’shtola’s voice was calm, almost matter-of-fact. If it weren’t for the quiver. If it weren’t for the hammering of her heart. If it weren’t for a thousand other tremors and nerves and fears. She couldn’t see Stalwart’s face, only the impression of it, but her posture was that of a cornered beast. Without realising it, Y’shtola had backed Stalwart against one of the shelves. They were close now, so close.

“I…” Stalwart couldn’t look at Y’shtola, couldn’t bear the look on her face. Don’t make me do this. “Yes. But.” Say it. “We can’t. I can’t.”

Y’shtola knew it was coming, but she couldn’t do a thing about the floor falling out from under her heart. “I thought as much.” An effort of will kept her tone even and calm. A strong one, at that. “I understand. Thank you for being honest with me.” She stepped back, turned to leave. A hand on her wrist stopped her.

“Wait.” Stalwart didn’t know why she’d reached out. She didn’t know why she spoke. But she had. And the words spilled out. “I want to, truly I do! You’re kind, you’re intelligent beyond measure, you’re absolutely terrifying when you want to be. Who wouldn’t fall in love with such a woman? But I…”

Y’shtola smiled, pretending not to notice the quivering of Stalwart’s hand. “I understand, Stalwart. It’s alright. Thancred told me about your devotion to Haurchefant. He was a lucky man, to win your heart so.” Not that it didn’t rankle, to lose to a dead man, but-

“What? No. That’s not it.” Thancred? What did he know about any of this? “Yes, Haurchefant’s death hurts, more than I can put into words. But that’s not why I can’t do this!” Stalwart’s voice was rising higher with every word. Thankfully none could hear them, this far down. Except for a mammet bound to silence. “It’s you!”

Y’shtola wasn’t prepared for that. Confusion draped over her already whirling emotions. A heady and unpleasant mixture. “Me? What do you mean?”

Did she truly not understand? “How many times have you leapt into the jaws of death, ‘Shtola? How many times have I had to mourn you, only for you to re-appear as if nothing’s wrong? How many years have you burned off your life already, simply because you’re too proud to admit that you’ve been robbed of your sight? Have you given any, any consideration to how I feel? How much it hurts to have to keep losing you? How I’ve had to harden my heart against the very idea of loving you, just to spare myself the inevitable hurt when you don’t come back?” She was crying now. The dam of emotions had finally burst, drowning her in them. Forcing the words she’d held back for so long out of her. The anger. The fear. The sheer, absolute exhaustion of it all. Y’shtola was silent, clearly stunned. Good. Let her chew on that for a time, instead of coming up with another cutting remark.

“Hypocrite.”

A single word, cutting more than any snide comment. Fury rose in Stalwart, fists balling and shoulders tensing in a single moment.

Y’shtola wouldn’t be cowed by the larger woman. “Do you truly think I do not fear for you, whenever you and your companions ride off to face some existential threat?” Were she able to truly see, she’d find herself blinded by tears. But Stalwart’s form being taken aback by her words was as clear as it always was. “Every time, every time, I find myself praying to the Twelve that you return to us safely! And my heart prepares itself for the fact that you may not! Being able to finally face a Primal with you was more of a relief than I dare give words to! And less we forget, you rushed in to face oblivion with Urianger and I without a second thought in Ultima Thule!”

“Because I couldn’t bear to live without you!” The words were out before Stalwart could stop them. This time it was Y’shtola’s turn to be taken aback. “I knew that Arashi would need me, I knew that she would struggle to face Meteion alone, and I didn’t care! Because a world where I had to watch another person I loved with all my heart die wasn’t one I could stand to live in!”

Silence reigned for a spell, broken only by tears splashing against cold marble floor. Stalwart’s tome lay abandoned on the floor. The mammet was torn between its duty and breaking the icy quiet. Then, at last, Y’shtola took a step forward.

“We truly are a pair of fools, aren’t we?”

“Yes. We are.” Stalwart likewise stepped closer. “I… I don’t know if I can do this, ‘Shtola. I don’t want to hurt again.”

“But you will.” Y’sthola’s voice was as matter-of-fact as if she was discussing the weather. “I’m older than you, and burning my life away, as you say. One day, sooner or later, you will lose me.” She took another step forward. “Or I’ll lose you. I’m prepared to accept that, if it means we can try making something worthwhile out of our feelings.” Are you? She wasn’t brave enough to give voice to the words. Not yet.

Stalwart hesitated at the crossroads of her life. She had rushed into love with Haurchefant, let it envelop her, embrace her, blind her with its brilliant passion, and then rip out her heart without warning. She couldn’t do it again. But gods, she wanted to. So badly that it hurt. And then there were Haurchefant’s last sentiments, in the Lifestream. He had known. He had given her his blessing.

“Three rules.” Stalwart couldn’t stop the shake in her voice. “Firstly, you promise me that you don’t throw yourself into the Lifestream the moment things look dire. Second,” she jabbed a finger at Y’shtola to stress the point, “You let yourself be vulnerable and drop your aethersight every once in a while.”

“Agreed,” said Y’shtola without even waiting to hear the third rule. It was the most certain she’d felt in years.

“And thirdly,” Stalwart continued as if she hadn’t heard Y’shtola’s all-too-ready agreement. “Thirdly… Don’t call me Stalwart. That name… isn’t really mine, not any more.” It was time to let go of the childhood hero that had guided a young Steely Hart towards self-discovery. “Only one other person has heard this name before you. I told him as he lay dying. My name, the name I’ve so badly wanted to say…” She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t say it. The moment she tried, she leapt back to the Vault, to the walkway, to Haurchefant’s cold, cold body. It was a mistake, all of it, she should never have-

A warm hand took hers. Y’shtola looked at her with a warm, soft smile. “I’ll wait, if you need me to. Take your time.”

A gentle hand rested on her shoulder, just for a moment. A breath of hot chocolate, perfectly heated, tickled her nose. A ghost of a smile danced in front of her.

“Tender Star.” She breathed it, more than said it, finally letting the name out. “That’s my name. Call me by that.” Y’shtola was closer than before now, but Tender didn’t want to run any more. Without really thinking about it, she looped an arm around Y’shtola’s waist, suddenly hungry for her warmth. Y’shtola stretched up to reach Tender’s lips. Their first kiss was witnessed only by a mammet, currently awakening to a great deal of things it would later be able to describe as “emotions.”

After an eternity, Y’shtola pulled away. Her smile was starlight, her eyes shining with unshed tears. “Tender Star,” she whispered, and all was right with the world.

[neoma-eltanin]

Prompt #11: Once Bitten, Twice Shy

For FFXIVWrite2023 Character: Erjon Sjadarwesfv Warnings: None

Love.

He knew what that word meant. An intense feeling or deep affection, for something or someone. He had experienced it himself. That binding, gripping, tearing and overwhelming sensation of your heart swelling and aching and oh it was a most wonderful and terrible thing. A pleasure, a pain that shifted between being the only thing he wished to ever feel and the thing that tortured him more than any other.

For a moment he felt like he was in heaven, even as his feet stood firmly in the ashes of a hellscape. The smell of death so distant it might as well be the scent of a meadow. Sapphires so brilliant, so perfect he might cry for how blessed he was that they even offered to meet his pallid gaze. Warm locks of red, soft like the feathers of a swan for his weary hands to feel. So soft that he forgot the cold, hard metal that ever grazed his fingertips.

In this nightmare he would endure. He had hope. He had love. He wanted to protect it, hold it close and never let go.

And suddenly, everything was gone.

He screamed. He wailed. He begged. The meadow, the sapphires, the feathers. Come back. Come back.

His hands reached for nothing. His voice received no answer.

Never again. Never again would he dare hold on to what so easily was ripped away from his heart, what so easily crumbled into dust in the wind. He would seal it inside a shell, hard and unyielding and out of reach.

Love.

He knew what that word meant, once. He knew what it meant to lose it. The feeling of it withering in your arms and the warmth leaving your soul in the bitter, cold dark.

He lost it. And it never returned.

He would make sure of it.

[feelingkoii]

I had the honour of drawing a FFXIVWrite Prize piece, and I'm super proud of how it came out! I don't often do black or white and I experimented a bit but I'm happy with the result!!

@sea-wolf-coast-to-coast

[alicesadventuresinffxiv]

What are the most popular F/F Final Fantasy XIV ships?

(*on AO3, as of October 13, 2024)

I like writing femslash, so while I was doing the FFxivWrite challenge, I had the thought: wouldn’t it be fun to try writing each of the top 10 most popular FFXIV F/F ships? 

I figured it would be a good way for me to learn to write characters I wasn’t used to, plus hopefully it would mean some of the well-liked but rarely-written pairings would get more fic for them!

But then I ran head-first into the question: what are those F/F ships? I hit some interesting challenges attempting to figure that out, so here’s a post about how I reached my answer!

.

First things first: I’m using AO3 stats for this analysis, entirely because AO3 has the most robust searching and filtering tools. Trying to wrangle this kind of analysis on tumblr or twitter would be a nightmare, as much as I’d love to know the answer on those sites!

Second, let’s quickly double check my assumption that F/F ships are indeed rarepairs in this fandom.

Yep, if you’re at all familiar with @centrumlumina's work on AO3 stats (which this analysis is somewhat inspired by ^^;), this is exactly in line with general fandom trends! For reasons that I understand intellectually but not in my heart, F/F fics tend to hover at around 6% of AO3 output overall.

Interestingly, this small slice of femslash makes FFXIV more similar to large, broad fandoms like the MCU or MHA (pictured above), and less similar to other online multiplayer videogame fandoms (pictured below). You might think that given its friendly reputation, FFXIV would attract more women and/or LGBTQ+ players and therefore have a higher proportion of femslash. But nope!

(Admittedly, pitting FFXIV against the fandom that contains Arcane feels a little unfair... :P)

.

So alright, with that out of the way, let’s start by doing the obvious thing. Hey AO3, what are the top 10 relationship tags when searching FFXIV on the F/F category?

[Note: Since the Warrior of Light is typically written as the author’s original character - especially in cases with multiple WoLs - I am combining the WoL/WoL and WoL/OC tags together.]

If you’ve been in FFXIV spaces for a while, you probably already guessed the #1 result! But as someone relatively new to the fandom, I was actually quite surprised. None of my previous fandoms had nearly this much focus on original characters!

Indeed, WoL/NPC ships and OC/ OC ships absolutely dwarf the numbers for any NPC/NPC ships, with the exception of the three largest M/M pairings (Aymeric/Estinien, Emet-Selch/Hythlodaeus, and Thancred/Urianger). Also, given that not everyone tags their OCs using either of the WoL or OC tags (ack! please use tags, your works get lost otherwise!)… you can always expect results for OCs to be an undercount. Woah!

Anyway, since WoL ships are so huge, I decided it made the most sense to give them their own list:

Another thing that surprised me is that male characters in FFXIV are so many times more popular than female characters that genderbent M/M pairings will show up in these F/F lists.

And… I wasn’t quite sure how to count those ships in my tallies.

On the one hand, genderbending (not to mention trans headcanoning-ing!) characters is a fun and often subversive way to approach popular ships. More power to everyone doing it!

On the other hand, part of the underlying motivation for my own writing goal was that I wanted to write pairings that fandom somewhat overlooks. 

As such, I went with a compromise: I’m including pairings with canonically male characters in my graphs (those are the pink bars), but I kept the lists going until I reached 10 pairings involving characters who are portrayed as women in the source material.

(There were no nonbinary FFXIV characters which placed on any of my lists, sadly. Apologies to Feo Ul, who is still the loveliest of branches in my heart.)

Other than that caveat, the results here aren’t too far off from my own guesses. Anecdotally, I’d seen that a lot of WoLs are self-inserts for their players, so it makes sense that typical WoL ships are with NPCs that are generally considered to be attractive by the fanbase. Correspondingly, the Reader/Character fics that are somewhat common in other fandoms don’t even rank on these lists, which might suggest WoL/NPC ships are largely fulfilling that niche.

(Something something, FFXIV is a dating sim with combat, in this essay I will…. :P)

.

Anyway, WoL ships are nice, but what I actually wanted to write were NPC/NPC ships. So let’s add a bunch more excludes to the filtering… and…

Hm. That's interesting. There's a bunch of F/F ships that I know I’ve seen fic and art for that are missing from this list!

Out of curiosity, I did a few searches specifically on these missing pairings, in case they were so rarely tagged as purely F/F (or so commonly shipped alongside a WoL ship) that trying to find them via excludes didn’t work. These were:

Alisaie/Tesleen (20 total, 13 tagged F/F)

Krile/Tataru (14 total, 7 tagged F/F)

Ysayle/Heustienne (5 total, 5 tagged F/F)

Wuk Lamat/Sphene (4 total, 4 tagged as F/F)

[Note: The first number is what I used during the writing challenge last month… which is how I ended up putting Krile/Tataru over Lucia/Hilda. Oops! But the second number is more in line with the rest of the analysis here, so I will use that going forward.]

Seems my expectations were flat-out incorrect! Of these four, only Alisaie/Tesleen makes the top ten. Meanwhile Wuk Lamat/Sphene is a pairing consisting of very new characters... so perhaps it will grow over time!

Right then, let's add Alisaie/Tesleen in, and while we're at it, let's run direct searches on all the potential candidates rather than using excludes to ensure no fics are getting needlessly thrown out.

With those adjustments in place... I reached my final top ten!

Not bad! Predictably, pairings that get more focus in canon (Gaia/Ryne and Sadu/Cirina) tend to place high, as do pairings involving Y’shtola (since she’s a very popular character overall). 

As a Lyse-enjoyer, I found Lyse getting 3/10 spots on the list to be pretty funny, as was the heavy presence of Stormblood characters! Apparently I’m not the only one who thought StB was a good expansion for lesbians. :D

There are also a few pairings here that I hadn’t ever considered before doing this analysis. But hey, that was the point of making the list! And trying to figure out the dynamics for pairings I didn’t usually ship did indeed turn out to be a fun writing exercise last month.

So what do you all think, tumblr? Did the results surprise you like they did me? Or did I overlook a pairing that really deserved to be included?

In any case, I hope you enjoyed reading this analysis!

[agent-yolk-writes]

FFXIVWrite (Day 25) - Perpetuity

this was done as a result of it coming out that Close the Distance was in Ardbert's perspective and I was a mess

Chapter Text

Ardbert watches. 

He watches the good, the bad, and the mundane. 

He knows his beloved Warrior cannot hear him anymore, but he carries on like normal. 

His soul is bound to her forevermore, only parting once she returns to the stream proper. She did give him quite a scare at Ultima Thule. He was afraid that their journey together would be cut off so soon right as it began. 

But true to her nature, she is just too stubborn to die. 

As she explored Eorzea once more, he could make out similarities to what he vaguely remembers on the First. It’s a fascinating experience to witness firsthand, even more so when Riida had to travel to yet another shard devoid of light. Faces new and old greeting her with every step of the way. Experiences new to him that’s probably commonplace for someone like her. 

He even found himself trying to figure out the mystery happening in Thavnair when they had to grab the soul of that…rather odd fellow who thought he was a Lightwarden on the First. Its a miracle he didn't actually get attacked by one in the first place (but it made him wonder how long he's been like this)

If this is what eternity will be, Ardbert wouldn’t mind it one bit. 

[steak-n-popotoes]

FFxivWrite '24 - 5

"You really drew all these yourself, kupo?"

Beef nodded. The top of his head barely peeked above the sketchbook he held up for Kupopo's perusal.

"Well, your landscapes are pretty good, and the flowers are even better - they should make for some powerful pictomancy!" the moogle exclaimed, wings fluttering and pom bouncing. "We could go over elemental pigments... but the basics are boring, kupo. Why don't we see how you fare with some other subjects, instead?"

The two relocated to their local striking dummy in order to practice a few tricks of the pictomancer's trade.

"You know kupo, I only had the one job crystal to give away anyway, so if you think about it, it's actually a bit of a blessing that you were the only adventurer interested in being my student."

Beef's only response was to stare at the moogle in silence.

"I can see you're eager to learn, so let's get started, kupo. How about we try weapons?"

After a few minutes of watching Beef stare at his beginner's palette, Kupopo thought it best to offer some more guidance. "It doesn't have to be perfect, kupo, just come up with something you can pound a few poms with."

The suggestion seemed to help somehow, as Beef snapped his fingers and began to paint, stroke by stroke. Once it had taken shape, he raised the finished piece aloft - a feat that would never have been possible were it truly a weapon forged in iron.

"A hammer, kupo? Kind of silly at that size, don't you think?"

"Dwarven decking."

"I have no idea what that means, kupo." Kupopo shrugged. "But I guess it's true what they say: when you have a kupo nut, all of your tools start to look like hammers, kupo!"

Beef didn't think he had heard that one before.

"How about we switch tactics, kupo? You could really fill any role on the battlefield, if you think about it. A pictomancer is only limited by their imagination, after all! You could draft up a shield, or even cure pain with... paint, kupo!"

Beef's face scrunched up in response. "Messy."

"Look, that's up to you and how you imagine it, kupo."

For a while Beef tried to conceptualize a depiction of healing, but the line that distinguished between these two uses of magic lay somewhere outside of his grasp. To his untrained eye, it was all just magic.

"Well, you passed the job interview, so I'm sure you've got imagination to spare, kupo." said the moogle. "If you can't visualize how casting a healing spell would look, why don't you try sketching a healer that will do it for you?"

Beef looked to Kupopo, then his brush, and then back again. After another dose of erratic encouragement from his moogle mentor, he gave his best attempt at painting L'kozu.

The resulting evocation defied all description.

"THE HAMMER, KUPO! GET THE HAMMER!"

In a panic, Beef hurriedly sketched up another hammer and scrambled to grip its handle.

"STAMP IT OUT QUICK, KUPO!!"

In a whirlwind of color and magic, he rapidly and repeatedly pounded the dissatisfactory piece until it was rendered across the V&C garden as little more than a painterly pulp.

After a few moments for the two to catch their breath, Kupopo fluttered past Gale to speak a little too close into Beef's face. "I changed my mind, kupo. Maybe we should work through the basics after all... then we'll consider building toward a living muse."

[tsupertsundere]

FFXIVWRITES 2024 - Day 1 - STEER Incomplete ---- 742 words ----- Notes: DID NOT EXPECT TO POST THESE NOW but the submission works differently than I thought it would.

editor's notes: the first day is just proving that I can make something like this exist.

Angeline Carax's focus had a weight of its own sometimes. That was according to the family mythology - so heavy that it would slip out of her head and roll onto whatever had caught it, drawn up and absorbed like honey on the tongue. "I'd like to savor it just as much," Angeline said when she was finally able to, which was far too late for it to have mattered, "but the connection seems made to be broken."

Many things are, her mother Wisteria commented drolly. The resulting argument was as tedious as it had been familiar, a long time ago. Distant now, very nearly sweetly so.

It made her lip twitch into a light smile, even as that weighty focus now had caught and spread across the expanse that unrolled before her - Shaaloani, Tural. She had just traced a path through it to reach this vantage point, one she could fancy she could still trace, and her steed's sides huffed in regular rhythm beneath her as Cinnamon caught his breath after the invigorating climb.

Taking in the fabric of each plain, mesa, prarie, meadow, scrubland, wash - if she could go into it deeply enough, she'd be satisfied. As it stood, just staring would have to suffice, though even that at the wrong moment could prove to be costly.

Cinnamon's ears flicked up first before a deep rumbling made the clasps on the saddle and its attached bags clink. With a little gasp Angeline came to, her fluffy curls bouncing beneath her hat as she shook herself back to herself. The rumbling had grown so intense stones around them leapt like tossed coins and Cinnamon shifted nervously, whinnying.

At once, Angeline tightened her thighs around him and clicked her tongue, that heavy focus falling together in a single point with the weight of a black hole. It swept in a ray at the rocky outcropping, and at her whistle she rocked forward as the same time Cinnamon surged. For an instant an impossibility of horse and rider on uneven land flipped the stomach, but with the flexing and twisting of his supple muscles beneath his skin Cinnamon spilled down the scrub ridge As sure-footed as if he had magnetized horseshoes.

The ridges mellowed out quickly, and the slow build up of gravity gathered exponentially like a bowling ball dropped into a halfpipe - Angeline stood in her stirrups to crane her head as finally she could get a glimpse of a huge dust cloud sweeping in off to her right. /Rrhoneeks?/ she thought furrow-browed - deeper still in the distance small figures were running and waving their arms, only one other similarly mounted and, as was easy to presume by the wail unfurling from them like a banner across the plains, out of their depth.

A broad grin spread across Angeline's face beneath the flopping brim of her hat, eyes devilishly shadowed, and she dropped flat across Cinnamon's back as she kicked him up into a full gallop and set them both on a comet-like arc toward the herd.

The miqo'te on the [horse] slowed its gallop as she caught and lost her breath - she lifted her hat and wiped her brow with her forearm, leaving it resting there as she squinted in surprised relief as the rhoneek herd funneled and then stretched out along the comet's trail. With a sharp HUT she replaced her hat and kicked off to hold up the other side.

The thundering of the rhoneek's hooves rattled toward their home pasture - replaced by the young cowpoke's fervent thanks, and to please not mention this overmuch, especially when her uncle was in earshot. "Mention how well you ride? Now why wouldn't I share that?" was all Angeline said in reply with a conspiratorial grin. "These things happen. Nothing days."

"Nothing happening," the girl replied, returning a fanged one of her own.

Angeline's final assessment: "Yes. You'll be just fine."

The sun was setting as Angeline trotted Cinnamon back to town, passing another miqo'te perched - or rather poured - across a fence, cheeks resting on both fists.

When she approached, the weight of her focus made his tail flick. "Need any help there, sir? You're looking mighty flushed," Angeline affected in a long drawl, her giggles disrupting her good ol' college try at the local accent. His look of astonished delight made the attempt more than successful.

"Wh- why - I - well - " he was laughing too hard and quickly abandoned his own attempt at a high coquettish reply

[theimperialnuisance]

FFXIVWrite Day 11: Surrogate

Characters: N’Noah Wiloh and Kien Eilath Word count: 729 Timeline: Set far in the future, no particular expansion in mind Warnings: None Notes: Is there any indication that something like surrogacy is a thing in this world like we have in irl with modern technology? No idea. But this was the first thing that popped into my mind and I ran with it. Plus I’ve been toying with this idea in Kien’s story eventually so glad I finally have a chance to get it out on paper. Enjoy~

The idea of being a mother to her own children was never something N’noah considered. Sure, she enjoyed being around children or taking care of Tokki or Blaise’s kids when they needed someone to watch them but, she always did so with the happiness of knowing she would return home to Sicard and not have to deal with a child yelling for no reason or pulling on her tail for fun. She wasn’t even sure if she was built to be a mother, mainly because she never had a good example to go off of–her mother being too ill to show her what it took to be a mother–if that was something that could even be taught. 

She would sometimes wonder, however, what it would be like to be a mother, or at least, go through the motions of it all without having the permanent result of parenthood–she knew she wasn’t ready for that–but maybe if she could somehow go through the process first it could help her make up her mind. But…that was something that was merely a dream and besides, she was happy enough to continue traveling the seas with just her lover by her side. 

But then–strangely enough–that dream would become a reality. 

She hadn’t known what to expect when Kien wrote to her, asking if he and G’raha could meet with her for lunch. He didn’t specify what he wanted to talk about–only that he had an important question and it was best to be asked in person. Never being one to turn down food and good company, Noah met with Kien and G’raha at the Last Stand one sunny afternoon. 

After lunch was finished, the three of them sat and chatted the afternoon away until finally, as the sun began its descent into the horizon, Kien’s expression turned nervous and he began to fidget until G’raha calmly placed his hand atop his and nodded encouragingly. Kien sucked in a breath and asked the question that brought them together.

The initial request catches Noah by surprise, her breath catching in her throat. She took a moment to gather her thoughts, the tension palpable at the table as an array of emotions flickered across her face. She must’ve made her initial shock plain because suddenly Kien’s cheeks turn a shade of pink and he’s frantically waving his hands in front of his chest, a look of embarrassment written all over his face. “You don’t have to say yes if you don’t want to do it,” he said hastily. “I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable.” 

Noah blinked at him, her eyebrows raising in confusion before a small played across her face and her eyes softened. “Kien, I’d be honored.” She replied sincerely. 

Kien, mid-babble in his apology, froze and blinked at her. “You-You would?” 

G’raha’s ears twitched forward in his surprise. “Are you certain? You’re not saying that because you feel pressured, are you?” 

Noah’s smile widened with a giggle as she reached her hands across the table to gently take Kien and G’raha’s hands in her own. “I’m not sure if I ever want children of my own at the moment but what I do know for certain is that I want to be Eorzea’s coolest aunt to a baby Eilath and if that means being your surrogate to make that happen, then I’d be honored.” 

Kien and G’raha took a moment to process Noah’s words before they looked at each other with wide smiles and laughs of relief and joy. Kien turned back to Noah with tears in his eyes, his grin infectious. “Noah–this means so much to me–to both of us,” He looked back at G’raha who was still at a loss for words but was smiling and nodding all the same. 

“And it means the world to me that you asked me, thank you,” Noah smiled back, feeling her heart flutter in excitement and anticipation. She hadn’t expected this to ever happen–the fact that her strange dream of going through the motion of motherhood without the actual child at the end–was coming true. The journey ahead was sure to be full of surprises but she was honestly happy to help her best friend start a family of his own. 

And maybe, after all was said and done, she’d learn if she wanted to be a mother to her own children someday. 

[nalukahvi]

FFxivWrite2023 Participation Prize - Esredes

Another year of folks giving writing their all, and another year I have the joy of drawing something for one of the winning entries! This year my winner is @crimsonfluidessence with their character, Esredes! Their writing really got to me and 100% inspired the finished result for the art.

Huge thank you as always to @sea-wolf-coast-to-coast for organizing FFXIVWrite! And a big thank you to @crimsonfluidessence for the great food (the writing)!

[lucinata]

FFXIVWrite, Prompt #18: Hackneyed

If at first you don't succeed, try try again.

Even if you die, it was all just a premonition, so you can go at it again.

If you encounter a problem, use gun. And if that don't work, use more gun.

Find your one solution and throw it at every problem you see.

When your favorite shirt gets worn out, patch it up and use it again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.

It's more patch now than shirt.

People don't wear out like clothes do.

(The tears stay hidden, and are rarely mended.)

Primals are mundane now that we have a solution to them. Everyone feels so much safer now.

(Except the guy who has to fight the primals, but they haven't said anything yet.)

Got a problem? Ask the Scions!

Always put all the eggs in the one, sturdiest basket you've found.

People don't notice things are breaking until they suffer the consequences themselves.

To do the same thing over and over while expecting different results is madness.

[sea-wolf-coast-to-coast]

7,935 total entries were submitted in 2023!

This includes all entries that were submitted via the Google Form, including late entries (and excluding duplicate entries).

Which brings us to 50,656 total recorded entries since we began this challenge in 2017! 

And, we had 109 volunteer artists in 2023!! Which means that there are 109 prize-winners!

A breakdown of the stats + announcement of the Participation Prize winners are below the cut ~

Want to see all public entries? Here’s a link to the Master Spreadsheet. This omits entries that people requested to keep private between them and I.

There's a lot to be gleaned from the data this year. Firstly, this is the first year where we see a real dip in participation, numbers dropping to the pre-2020 range. There are a couple of probable causes for this dip: this year, I chose, a) not to promote the challenge in any discords, b) not to repost any prompts to twitter, and c) not to post reminders throughout the challenge for folks to submit their links.

I was curious to know how much my own direct participation effects the challenge these days, and the numbers seem to point to "quite a bit!" So, that's good to know.

Secondly, we have finally approached the "data visualization salad" limit in which there are enough data points to confuse the visualization of the data overall, rendering them a little tough to understand at first glance. So, next year will probably see some fine-tuning of the data so that it's easier to digest.

Now, onto the good stuff!

Total Participation Year to Year:

Prompt Participation by Year:

NOTE: The big dips are Make-up / Extra Credit Days. Lots of folks choose to take a break over writing Extra Credit. Legit!

Prompt Breakdown by Week:

Submissions by Day:

NOTE: Day 7 was the day before the 24-hour deadline went into effect. Hence, the big ol’ spike.

Submissions by Platform:

Participation Prize Winners

Winners were selected via a random raffle dice roll made by Moen and span all online writing platforms, including Tumblr, Ao3, Google Docs, and others (like Twitter). This writing challenge is not a contest - no one’s work was being judged for length, skill, etc. The prizes are based on participation only! The more entries that you wrote and submitted within its 24-hour deadline, the higher your chance of winning a prize.

Prizes are a simple black & white portrait of the winner’s character. Most are shoulder up but the artists are free to take liberties if they’d like. Prizes are not commissioned work, so ultimately it’s the artist’s choice for what they’d like to do for the piece. Some artists (not all) accept commissions and might be open to colorizing a prize piece, after it’s been posted, at their normal rates.

Due to recent changes in Discord's username format, this year (and this year only) all winners will be notified by yours truly (MoenMoen) via a friend request and message in Discord. Next year I'll be teaming up with some folks to find a better, more streamlined process for informing and connecting winners with their volunteer artist.

So, keep an eye out for me in your Discord friend requests/inbox over the next week or so (it will take me a minute to get to everyone):

As always, there are a few winners whose artists may need to drop out for personal reasons, and that’s ok! In those cases, the winners will be carried over into 2024′s pool of winners where another artist will pick up their prize and complete it.

Congrats to all 109 winners, and I'll see you in September 2024 when we do it all again!

[crossroadsdimension]

FFXIV Write Day 5

Prompt - Stamp

(FFXIVWrite 2024 Masterpost)

Thancred stared at the short stack of open envelopes sitting on the table next to Cross. “Are you writing all those letters, or…?”

“Hm?” Cross looked up from the letter in front of her. “Oh — no. This is all my mother.” She motioned to the stack. “We were keeping up correspondence previous to the, ah…the incident at the Waking Sands.”

Thancred blinked. He looked at the stack again. “Goodness. She must have been worried.”

Cross didn’t comment on his skipping over the circumstances that cut off their communication. “She was, yes. And likely still is. I am currently writing a reply to help sake her fears, but I doubt that I will do as well as I would like.”

“Well, that is how mothers are — or so I’ve been told.” Thancred took a seat at the table, far enough away from Cross that she had plenty of space for her letter writing. “They are ever fond of worrying.”

Cross sighed heavily. “I believe my mother worries more than most. When the Calamity struck and we lost all memory of Dad, she became overly concerned that she would lose me if I were to leave and travel the realm on my own. I would have snuck out myself had she not agreed to let me leave with the stipulation that I write to her.” The miqo’te frowned at the stack. “Alas, the events of that day cut me off for a time, and she panicked as a result. When we returned to the Waking Sands, I was greeted by a moogle carrying these.”

“Clearly.” Thancred frowned. The stamps on the letters — one of the few stipulations made for the moogles and their postal delivery system — had designs reminiscent of Thanalan. “How at ease do you hope to make her?”

“To be honest?” Cross sighed. “I doubt I will ease her heart much at all. We lost Dad to the Calamity, as a Warrior of Light. The instant she learns I have been given that same title, she will panic more than she likely has already.”

Thancred winced. “I see…is there anything the rest of us can do to help?”

“It’s…hard to say. She may blame you for pushing me to do these things, to…to use the Echo as I have.” Cross let her head droop. “She sees it as a curse. Something that will rob her of me if I continue to make use of it.”

“She is not the first, unfortunately.” Thancred sighed slightly. “Many hear of loved ones losing mind and memory when they walk in the lives of others. The Echo, where it is known, is not always treated well.”

“I had wondered.” Cross tapped her un-inked quill against her parchment. She’d only managed to get as far as writing who she was addressing the letter to, and no further. “I worry that my mother will try to bring me home and attempt to keep me from leaving. But, at the same time, she will want to know I am doing well. Just how she is, I suppose.”

Thancred shrugged. “Unfortunately, I cannot offer more advice than to speak to her with words chosen carefully that would put her at ease.”

“Is that what you would have done for your mother?” Cross looked at him curiously.

The sad smile she got in return made her frown. “Alas, I do not remember my mother well. If she still lives, I doubt she is aware of me.”

Cross winced. “I did not mean to—”

“Tis nothing to be concerned over. I am not hurt by her absence — I had other guardians who raised me well.” Thancred smiled, but Cross thought she could see a hint of sadness there. It was gone in a moment. “But that is neither here nor there — how do you intend to attempt to comfort your mother through a letter? Perhaps my expertise as a bard will help aid you.”

Cross considered turning him down, but then she paused. After a moment, she smiled a little and nodded. “I give no guarantee that I will take your suggestions and use them, but even a few words might help.”

“Excellent.” Thancred’s smile widened. “Then let us begin.”

[faelune-home]

FFXIVWrite 2024 #14: Telling

(A/n: Pushing some progress for the role quest rewrites with a step forward in the magic quest! One thing that's nice about this is that it lets the Scions take over some of the work from the quests that were otherwise just your job as the player. All the hard foot work stomping around to question folk and search for clues.

I'll confess that one of the scenes here is maybe not one I'm keen on, it feels a bit weak narratively, but I liked the writing in it enough to keep it for now.

Word count: 1761)

She wanted to say she had results, so she could report back to Fhara with news that would bring the woman to Ishgard and prepare them for the next step, some progress in their ventures. Unfortunately, she had no such thing. Just a cold flight through blustery winds throwing snow into her face on the back of a chocobo. She was sure chocobo were capable of resisting the weather, it was a natural deterrent in their feathers, and yet somehow the creature beneath her felt chilled to the bone and shopping wet to the touch. Truly no-one was immune to the frigid storms left in the calamity’s wake.

Alisaie dismounted from the chocobo and paid the porter her fee, then tightened up her coat around her to continue her march onward to the Congregation. The wind had picked on her return trip from Falcon’s Nest, trying for yet another day to find their dragon - Fafnir or somesuch as they’d named it - and coming up empty. It didn’t help that by what little description she’d managed to get from the few that had witnessed it, its appearance almost seemed perfect to blend into the snowy landscapes of Coerthas.

She was grateful at least for the borrowed coat to handle the worst of the weather, though it seemed she was so unlucky to have the weather constantly in uproar and never seemed to calm even for a moment. She had to hope then that her luck had to be balanced out with some information from Artoirel’s own inquiries with Deacon Clem.

And judging by the fact that both men were waiting outside for her, maybe they did have some good news for once.

“Lady Alisaie, welcome back,” Aymeric bowed, “I take it there’s no news from the Western Highlands?”

“None at all. No further reports of sightings or attacks, though I’ve unfortunately seen with my own eyes the wide berth the people there give to the stationed clergy. Knowing the nature of how people turn, and with most of our afflicted being members of the Church, mayhap it would be best to recall them to the city,” she suggested, “After all, smaller local communities can be very close knit, and the ostracisation might even be more potent than if they were back here. There’s something to be said about the distance the people feel between them and the Church, but it may afford some protection for a brief while.”

“That sounds like an idea, though it may be difficult,” he responded, frowning, “I can send a message, though I wouldn’t doubt some individuals to refuse and continue to attempt their work in reaching out to the masses. Even with the disconnect and, as you said, the risk a local community singling out an individual can do, there are some civilians that would still turn to the Fury for guidance in these turbulent times, and the clergy would still offer their services and comfort to them. They may risk remaining out there even with an order to return for safety.”

She frowned at the suggestion, understanding his reasoning but already cursing the potential stubbornness of the people. But she nodded nonetheless.

“And I take it you have something as well? After all, you would be waiting inside for me otherwise,” she said.

“That we do, my lady,” Artoirel responded, and Alisaie almost dared to think his stern mien almost showed a hint of satisfaction, “We may have an idea of the identity of the man that became Profane Fafnir. Deacon Clem’s witness report matches up with that of a missing patient from the newest infirmary in the residential districts.”

“Then we go,” America stated, turning to Alisaie and telling her, “The districts are still heavily under construction, and much of the land has still to be built and cleaned. The way to the infirmary is clear but mind your step should you catch yourself on rubble or end up near the path edges.”

Alisaie tried to bite back a sharper response, or even a frown, though it only made her jaw tighten. She knew he was only being considerate, but she hardly needed to be babied. It was hardly an active battlefield. But in the end she nodded.

“Thank you ser. Lead the way.”

~~

Alisaie did wonder in passing if this was the restoration project Fhara had said she’d been taking part in. Ever since the souls of the Scions were still trapped on the First, she’d had stories of picking up some skills and offering to help clean up and repair some work in Ishgard. But then if that was the case, surely Aymeric would’ve mentioned it.

After all, he always seemed eager to make mention of Fhara and her achievements, especially in regards to how they aid Ishgard’s future.

She pushed the thought aside as she had to clamber around a rock taking up their pathway, overhearing Artoirel chiding a foreman for letting the way get blocked given the vital connection it offered to the infirmary.

“They should have it cleared by the time we’re finished, though it shouldn't have ended up as such to begin with. Far be it for me to overstep Lord Francel given this is his project to oversee, but there needs to be quicker action for the sake of the residents as well.”

“Are they staffed enough to stay on top of it?” Alisaie asked, looking behind her as they continued on the path to see the cluster of workers moving to work on the rock, some even scaling the unsteady rockface next to them with ropes in hand and already being wrapped underneath the thing.

“I should hope so. I’m aware that Master Francel has petitioned the aid of adventurers and artisans to offer their assistance. Much of the major clearances and construction is happening in stages I believe, it allows our volunteers to go off for their own duties then return at set times. It leaves a number of our own here to mind the premises and upkeep maintenance on the recently finished work, as well as providing assistance to the residents that have moved into the finished plots,” Aymeric responded.

Maybe Fhara was helping then. She could very much set up arrangements with this Francel and show up whenever Aymeric just happened to miss her.

They crossed the threshold into the infirmary and were met by a worried aide.

~~

They had an identity! An idea of the man that may have become their blasphemy, and it was certainly feeding into the idea that the blasphemy itself could be influencing the clergy in some way.

An elezen man named Vaindreau, shared with a retired member of the Heavens Ward, but evidently not the same person, given the reports that he was a younger man.

…Okay perhaps it wasn’t as much to go by, but it was still something! And the implications that he had a connection with a clergyman, Bishop Vartinoix, whom they’d also been in contact with, was something to be investigated. Alisaie certainly wasn’t entirely sure of the man during their past encounters.

But she’d been ordered to retire for the night, so that they could prepare for more searching and inquiries on the morrow, especially if they could contact Fhara with the good news.

She couldn’t quite help being a touch amused at Aymeric’s face when she’d offered to get in touch with the other woman. Like he was biting back a protest and having to force himself to be professional about it as he acquiesced the duty to her.

Alisaie settled back into the inn room they’d provided for her, always close at hand in the Forgotten Knight - and one of their ‘finest’ rooms by Gibrillont’s statement, though finery seemed to mostly be found in the slightly more well kept bed sheets. “Stuffed with the finest karakul fur!” apparently.

She was set up by the small desk, ready to write a report of the day’s events and the revelation they’d reached when her linkshell pinged in her ear.

“Alisaie?”

She blinked, a touch surprised. “I wasn’t expecting a call from you brother. Is all well?”

“Yes, yes, of course. Or- well, as well as they can be given the circumstances,” he responded with a sign, “But I just wanted to check in. It’s been some time since we’ve all been in contact, I just wanted to make sure everyone is okay, even if we’re all busy with our duties.”

“I’m fine. Have you had any luck? Any progress?” she asked innocently, sitting on her reveal for a moment longer.

“Nothing, I'm afraid. Most of our troubles here have less to do with our blasphemy and more to do with the human side, the people struggling to reintegrate after being part of the Empire’s forces. And Fordola is…well, I haven’t been able to speak with her yet, she only seems to talk with Arenvald much whenever she’s around. Fhara called in earlier, and even over linkshell she sounds exhausted. I should hope she has a chance to rest with how much she’s taken on with this work.”

Alisaie frowned deeply, remembering how every delegate had swarmed Fhara specifically, everyone needing her help, right then and there, just her alone. It was a boon then that Fhara recognised her own limitations and had the Scions to help take on the extra weight of these duties. It came at the cost of their main investigation into the source of the Final Days being halted, but any progress to help limit peoples suffering had to mean something…

“And what of you, sister? I know things must be difficult in Ishgard with the weather, and I hope the people aren’t giving you too much trouble.”

She snapped back at his question, shaking her head despite the fact he couldn’t see her.

“Oh it’s fine. The weather is awful but I’m managing. And Lord Aymeric is very attentive, he keeps an eye on me and informs of the goings on with certain groups. It’s almost a little too much. But I’m aware he’s trying to help.” Alisaie could hear him chuckling over her grumbling.

“Indeed. But how is your investigation going? I would like to hope someone’s made progress.”

A smile curled over Alisaie’s lip, an overwhelming desire to brag already brewing in her chest. Yes she should be thankful that they even have a way to move forward compared to the progress some of the others might be at now.

But she had to revel in the chance for some friendly sibling boasting when she could.

[xiakha]

FFXIVWrite 2024 Prompt #27 - Memory

Now, to be perfectly clear, returning to the Star and all that, that was for those in the heart of Amaurotine society. People died all the time. Hells, the capital even still recognized the results of duels, though they were considered uncouth and were rarely to the death. But now and then it would regrettably happen.

So by his own standards, he was put in his place rightfully.

And he hated that! Hated it!

What was worse, his aether was so incredibly dense for the shard, he would have to sit and wait for an incredibly long time to finally dissolve into the oblivion that was the Aetherial Sea.

Well.

Might as well see what the buffoons he got bested by were getting up to—

Like some sort of intense sleep paralysis demon nightmare version of l'esprit de l'escalier, it was at that moment that the hold Kairos had on his memories was finally released.

There was the initial sense of violation and revulsion from the fact that this horrific sort of manipulation was done to him, entirely against his will. There was the secondary sense of utter horror and mortification when he started to recount what exactly happened, what was exactly erased, who was present at the time, and how dramatically the erasure would shape the rest of his actions for the rest of his godsdamned existence. And there was a lingering, tertiary sense of dread when he started to consider what Azem, Halcyone, must have planned out. There was no way this was all to chance, right? His beloved and be-loathed betrothed with such utterly potent fate magicks surely would have...

But then... how far did she plan ahead? How far did she know? How far had he been simply living out the story she had written for him? How far back did it extend?

And... by their Twelve, the Rejoining, the Ardor, their lives' work, and for the sundered among them, their unending duty... all of it would end up a waste, an eon-long exercise in futility. They would bring all of their loved ones back to be annihilated by a force they both barely understood and barely could interact with. They hadn't fixed the root of the cause. Oh yes, Lord Zodiark could, after a fashion, forestall the disaster perhaps in perpetuity, but would ultimately, at the end of everything, still succumb to whatever horror of dynamis that Meteion became to inflict the Final Days in the first place. The bitter irony of having done so much for such futility and having almost no way to communicate any of this to anyone from his current position utterly vexed him in the worst ways.

But he was left with the burning question, did she know?

There was no feasible way that Halcyone would have known all of that, to have planned for all of that, surely? Surely she would not have written herself out so utterly as to become sundered. And even if she did, surely she would have done so with a careful plan moving forward. But to write this sort of cruelly ironic and fruitless end for her beloveds...

Every extent to which Halcyone could have known, too little, too much, all of it was abhorrent. All of it was wrong in the worst sort of way. Hades set his mind to it. He would happily prefer that Halcyone had no idea, and that all of her fate weaving had been lost, than to imagine her capable of inflicting these fates upon those around her. Even Hydaelyn, Venat, having opposed he and his for so long, fighting the good fight in a manner that now sickened him to have fought against (she had known all along, hadn't she?), was not a fate that he could imagine Halcyone writing in for her.

Then how? When did this Xiao Longbao go back, and more importantly, how did she go back? And then how did Halcyone weave her in? Did she weave Xiao in? Did Halcyone know?

All of his once faith in Halcyone was returning to the fore, pushing past his grief, and crumbling into despair.

But Halcyone was gone. He had only one person left that he could count on to do something with the knowledge that she had.

That she will have?

Emet turned his gaze back up. For the first time in his existence, at least as far back as he could remember, he truly felt the trepidation of not knowing what would happen next and the powerlessness of having no ability to directly influence the next steps.

[alicesadventuresinffxiv]

In another time, another place

There’s just something about characters speculating how their lives could have gone differently that is pure catnip to me! Especially characters where, but for a few key choices, they might have wound up as a hero rather than a villain, or vice versa.

Now combine that with having an NPC cosplay alt, meaning that I spend a not-insignificant portion of my FFXIV playtime wondering what that character would think about lots of random stuff.

End result: an entire menagerie of Fordola-centric plot bunnies! This post will be an attempt to corral said bunnies into a form that’s at least somewhat organized. It will also grow over time as I add writeups for new AUs if and when they become relevant to what I’m posting on this sideblog!

.

To Catch a Falling Star: Instead of leaving for Doma, Lyse spends Stormblood infiltrating the Skulls, with the ultimate goal of convincing Fordola to defect to the Resistance. When your army gets decimated, just steal the other guy’s one, you know?

Eventual Fordola/Lyse, with a complicated enemies-to-lovers arc.

Note that I'm writing scenes from this as they fit the FFxivWrite prompts, not in chronological order. So here's a second list, with the entries listed in the order they occur in the timeline (though there are still large gaps and lots of missing scenes I haven't done yet!)

Take our quarry alive!

Plans Hatched Behind Bars

Narrow Horizons

For a Morsel of Acceptance

Who wants to steer the Reaper?

Those Fleeting Halcyon Moments

A Telling Emotion

Deleterious Relations

Sally forth, to endings unwritten

Aftermath of a Duel

.

WoL!Fordola AU: Not WoLFordola like the ship, WoL!Fordola as in the original Warrior of Light, the Meteor Survivor who fought at Carteneau, who destroyed the Ultima Weapon, who ended the Dragonsong War… he died to Zenos at the end of Stormblood. Oops!

Now Fordola is the only one left who has the fighting skill needed to even have a chance of filling his shoes.

This is the timeline I’m basically writing as I take my alt through the MSQ. It starts out as a continuation of TCaFS (so technically TCaFS is one of my WoL’s backstories in a roundabout way haha). But it gets even weirder. Fordola might be the new WoL, for example, but it’s Krile who is the shard of Azem!

Fics in this AU:

A Nostalgic Adventure (end of Eureka)

Falling through memory, hand in hand (during 5.2)

Third-Rate Azem (after 5.3)

.

WoL was out fishing, Fordola did the sidequests instead: Not an AU so much as a common premise I use. Fics in this series assume that everything is the same as in canon, including there being some non-specific WoL (maybe even your WoL!) who exists and follows the normal MSQ. However, while they’re busy offscreen somewhere, Fordola is forced to pick up the slack for them and do sidequests where she doesn't usually appear.

My first FFXIV fic (Sympathetic Resonance aka "why is Fordola in Eureka?") would be part of this series, as would my WIP Sorrows of Werlyt fic.

.

8th Umbral Calamity: Shadowbringers never specifies whether Lyse and Fordola are killed by Black Rose in the bad timeline. What if they weren’t? Lots of fun (and by fun I mean tragic) ways that could play out!

Originally, this was going to be a kind of Apocalypse/Road Trip AU, with Lyse and Fordola traveling through a Black Rose-devastated Ala Mhigo and trying not to to kill each other before they reached Cid and the Ironworks.

Then I was writing an FFxivWrite entry and realized it would be interesting to combine it with another AU I had, where Fordola gets executed by the Resistance and winds up accidentally bodysharing with Lyse…