#because the fic is actually ignoct

[marmolita]

Okay I'm cheating and asking three but -

Ignis/Noctis or Prompto/Noctis or Gladio/Noctis

Ultimately, it's gonna be Prompto/Noctis for me. I enjoy the other two ships and I've been in gladnoct mode lately but when it comes to actual canon, I'm entirely on board the promptis train. Everything from brotherhood with Prompto's obsession with Noct and their second "first" meeting where Noctis immediately does the full body scan of Prompto to episode Prompto and the Zegnautus reunion just!! They love each other. They chose each other.

I can easily imagine a polyship where it's Noct/everyone but I have a harder time imagining a happily ever after for ignoct or gladnoct alone, because Prompto is just so into Noct that it would be a sad ending for him. (This is why most of my gladnoct fic is casual fwb and most of my ignoct fic has some implication of being in addition to promptis.)

[zanarkandfayth]

I'm just answering these because I want to, and skipping the ones that wouldn't be relevant or I don't feel like answering lmao

01. How many fics have you worked on since January? Hmm, five? I finished the Noct & Gladio one, I've been working on the rewrite of the aftermath one, I started the one inspired by @quartzguts fic Lost Signal (go fucking read this if you haven't), I did some more backstory for the college au, and I edited the secret one.

02. What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? I've been trying to do a sliiiightly closer POV than before. I think it came out nicely enough in the Noct & Gladio fic. Definitely a challenge for me though.

05. What ships captured your heart? Ignoct still has my heart forever and always, but I've definitely had a growing fondness for Gladnoct. More platonic than romantic but I don't mind the romantic.

07. Did you write for any new fandoms or ships this year? I mean I guess the Noct & Gladio fic is the first time I've written a fic centered on the two of them. I thought about writing a fic for Sword AF, and for Breath of the Wild, but I didn't. I'm unlikely to for either fandom, tbh. Too many for ffxv to focus on.

08. What fic meant the most to you to write? Aftermath fic, even though I'm not finished with it. I've been basically writing it since 2019 and it's the most in-depth fic I've ever written and I've put so much fucking work into it and it's over 600K I'm super proud of it even if it's slowly killing me and the fandom will be 100% dead by the time I'm done.

09. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on? college au, my self-indulgent beloved. I have no idea if I'll ever successfully write you, but I love you nonetheless.

10. What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing? lmao I only finished the Noct & Gladio one so I guess that by default.

11. What fic was the most difficult to write? the one inspired by Lost Signal. I have it all plotted out and I'm excited to write it but fuuuuck when I tried back in the summer it was not cooperating. and then writer's block just came knocking in general. I've got one finished chapter and I low-key hate it so I'm trying to ease back into things with working on my rewrite of aftermath fic before I attempt this fic again.

12. What fic was the easiest to write? I mean the Noct & Gladio one was pretty easy to write once I kicked my own ass and stopped procrastinating on the battle scene lol.

14. What were your go-to writing songs? I like to listen to a lot of EDM stuff. Especially Industrial but other stuff too. KMFDM, Assemblage 23, Lost Signal, Neuroticfish, Rotersand, Seabound, Lionhearts, Covenant, Wolfsheim, Acretongue, Michael FK... I also listened to Linkin Park and the Ori and the Blind Forest soundtrack.

15. What was the hardest fic to title? only two fics got titled this year... the secret one I ain't sharing lmao and the Noct & Gladio one, which was actually hard to title. Ameliorate. It fits but I kinda hate it ngl. I couldn't think of anything better. I still can't. It's whatever.

16. What's your favorite title of the year? the secret one. I'm so mean for it but as soon as I was done editing I knew I HAD to make that the title. I'm sorry my beloved blorbo. it was just too perfect lmao. one of my mutuals knows what I'm talking about XD it's all good.

21. What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story? my ass in 2019: I already wrote a lot of Noct dissociating in Under Grey Skies, I don't need to do it in aftermath fic. my ass in 2024: huh, Noct doesn't dissociate enough in this fic. soooo I guess now that's gonna be a thing. it has very much changed the story, several scenes have been changed/added for it and I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with it yet but that's why I'm writing without posting for now. wasn't expecting to do it but we'll see what happens.

22. What writing programs did you use? Did you write by hand? no to by hand, I only sometimes do that for notes/plotting. I use scrivener <3333 I bit the bullet at the start of this year and used the money I had left from selling my car/after buying a freezer to upgrade to scrivener 3 and though I miss some things from scrivener 1, I mostly like it. I've gotten a lot more into the organisational features and it's been a godsend for making the rewrite of aftermath manageable.

25. How did you recharge between fics? Killed myself 100%ing breath of the wild. including all 900 fucking korok seeds. and then started playing tears of the kingdom with the intention of 100%ing that too but fuck me upgrading the armour was such a fucking slog even with duping diamonds for rupees and I still don't even have all of the sets collected and the koroks are more annoying this time and hhhhhhh I went back to fic to recharge from that fucking game.

28. If this were an awards show, who would you thank? @ivorydice for letting me endlessly ramble about my fics and helping me with plotting some of them. @quartzguts for writing an amazing fic that has inspired me with one of my own that I will write and finish eventually hrgh. @smallest-turtle for also letting me ramble that one time and for stabbing me in the heart with painful headcanons that made me think more about my own. literally anyone who's read my fics regardless of whether they've left kudos or comments or bookmarked them. anyone who talks to me. anyone who likes my venting as support. all my mutuals for being my mutuals even if we've never had a single interaction.

29. What's left on your to-do list for 2024? to just keep pecking away at the rewrite of aftermath fic. by the end of today I should have 38 of 62 chapters rewritten... send help T^T

30. What would you like to write next year? I just wanna finish aftermath fic for the love of god. pls. also the fic inspired by Lost Signal, and I'd like to maaaaaaaybe (big maybe) write a companion fic to the Noct & Gladio fic, showing Ignis & Prompto's hunt, but I don't actually have any ideas for it rn. so we'll see.

A slightly revised version of last year's questions! Two ways to play: Reblog and have your followers send you numbers, or answer the whole list!

How many fics have you worked on since January?

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year?

What piece of media inspired you the most? (This can be the fandom you wrote the most for, the one that spawned the most ideas, the one you thought about the most, etc.)

How many fandoms did you write for this year?

What ships captured your heart?

What characters captured your heart?

Did you write for any new fandoms or ships this year?

What fic meant the most to you to write?

What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?

What fic was the most difficult to write?

What fic was the easiest to write?

What were your shortest and longest fics posted this year?

What were your go-to writing songs?

What was the hardest fic to title?

What's your favorite title of the year?

Share your favorite opening line

Share your favorite ending line

Share your favorite piece of dialogue

Share your funniest line

What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story?

What writing programs did you use? Did you write by hand?

If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?

How did you recharge between fics?

Did you create fanworks other than fic?

How many events did you take part in? (bangs, exchanges, ship weeks, zines, prompt memes, they all count!)

If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

What's left on your to-do list for 2024?

What would you like to write next year?

[ataraxetta]

For the fic writer meme: what's your favorite thing you've written for FFXV? :)

For FFXV I think it would have to be this Gladio and Noctis grieving together moment from my fic Settling In. I like making them cry, apparently. I was just gonna paste the excerpt below but it turns out that it’s 2000 words, so under a cut!

——————-

Prompto stayed for another half hour, conversation much lighter, and by the time he left Noctis was still too run down to feel better, exactly, but he felt a lot less worse. He changed into sleep pants and a t-shirt, brushed his teeth, and crawled into bed, but despite how tired he was, sleep wouldn’t come. He couldn’t shut his mind off, the knee-jerk reaction to shove everything he didn’t want to think about down deep and forget about them warred with the better part of him that knew what he needed to do no matter how hard it was, dread heavy in his stomach.

There were a lot of things that had been gnawing at his conscience since they set out on this journey, but of all the things he had to feel guilty for, one stood out bigger and more powerful than the rest, and now that he’d been confronted with what a dick move his tendency to avoid painful things was, he knew he wasn’t going to be able to sleep until he made things right. Or at least a little less wrong. It was time to face this worst of the monsters of his own making.

He got out of bed and crossed over to the door that adjoined his room to the one next to it, opened it as quietly as he could and slipped through. In hotels and inns Gladio always slept curled loosely on his side facing the open room, and when in a double bed like these ones, instead of sprawling out in the middle like the rest of them did he always chose the side closest to the main entrance, which was exactly how Noctis found him. He was too well-trained to have slept through someone coming into his room, but he pretended to be asleep anyway, staying still and breathing evenly as Noctis crawled over him to the empty side of the bed against the wall and slid under the covers.

Noctis settled comfortably on his back, not quite ready to break the silence. He closed his eyes and drifted into a light doze, until a thought struck him that he couldn’t ignore and he carefully nudged one of Gladio’s legs, frowning when his foot touched bare skin.

“You gonna tell me why the hell you’re waking me up at four in the morning, Noct?” Gladio said, finally giving up the game. He must have been asleep when Noctis came in though, because his voice was thick and a little slurred.

“You don’t sleep naked, do you?” Noctis asked suspiciously.

“Why, would that be awkward for you?”

“Yes,” Noctis said firmly.

Gladio snorted a sleepy laugh. “Don’t worry, I’ve still got boxers on,” he said. After a few seconds, he added, “Bet you wouldn’t mind it so much if you crawled into Iggy’s bed and found out he sleeps naked, though, huh?”

With a resigned sigh, Noctis took his foot back and turned onto his side facing Gladio’s broad back, and pulled his knees up toward his chest. He’d been hoping that Prompto was right about Gladio not having figured it out, but he’d known it was a longshot. Prompto was good at reading people, but Gladio was better. Prompto just hadn’t known him long enough yet to get how observant and intuitive Gladio really was, or how good he was at making people underestimate him.

Still, Noctis hadn’t expected it to come up now. When he didn’t reply, Gladio stretched and rolled onto his back, turning his head to see him. He had eyes just like his mom’s, a rare sort of golden brown that were vivid even in the dark, almost like a cat’s. Noctis had always liked them, because even though Gladio could be a hardass and liked to pretend he was stone cold, his eyes were always so warm that they gave him away.

“No foreplay at all with you, is there? Just straight up the ass without lube,” said Noctis.

“I didn’t know how else to bring the topic up. I took the open window.”

“Really?” Noctis said. “You couldn’t think of anything else?”

Gladio grinned, but it was nice, and tinged with apology. So was his voice. “Sorry I didn’t tell you about Eliana and Niko, and for kind of rubbing your face in it at the pub. I got it in my head that forcing it on you might, I don’t know, rip the bandaid off and cauterize the wound at the same time or something, but it was really just kind of crappy of me.”

In all their years as friends, Gladio had outright apologized to him maybe twice. Noctis figured he must have looked worse than he’d thought after they got back from dinner. “It’s okay. Really, don’t worry about it. It was a nice thought.”

“Yeah, road to hell and all that.” Gladio huffed a laugh, blinking slowly, still sleepy. After a bit he let his eyes stay closed. Noctis wanted to move closer to him but stopped himself. He regularly fell asleep on whoever was sitting in the back seat with him when they were in the car, which was most often Gladio, but it felt weird to try it in a bed, and when he was awake to know what he was doing. Gladio had turned the ceiling fan on high, which made sense considering he was like a human furnace, and the pull for the light was clanking against the glass cover. Noctis counted a hundred and fifty-six times before he got up the courage to speak.

“You asked why I woke you up,” he said, keeping his eyes firmly on the bit of comforter he was fiddling with nervously. “I was thinking about the day of the signing ceremony, and home, and my dad, and… and yours.”

Once it was out it felt like he was dangling over a ledge, the comfy atmosphere from only seconds ago gone. His heart pounded in his chest. Unable to bear not knowing, he glanced up to gauge Gladio’s reaction and couldn’t look away again once their eyes met. Every part of him hurt. He felt like everything he’d been trying to hold inside him was going to spill out even if it had to cut him open to do it, and he couldn’t stop the words from tumbling out of his mouth almost faster than he could think them. “I never told you - I never told you how sorry I am about Clarus, not like it was my fault but just - just that it happened. I wasn’t the only one who lost my dad that day.” His breath hitched, throat tightening painfully. “I’ve been moping around for months while you’ve been hauling my ass around and taking care of me and protecting me and trying to cheer me up, and I never even tried to like, offer condolences or ask if you needed anything or just tell you that he meant a lot to me too and he was a great man and that I wish you could’ve had more time with him. You didn’t even get to say goodbye. I should have told you as soon as it happened that I’m so…I’m so sorry he’s gone.”

His voice broke on the last word and he had to look away and take a shuddering breath, which was the only thing that stopped him from rambling on until the world ended. His stupid sniffle sounded so loud in the room. He wished the clanking on the fan was louder. Gladio was quiet, but it was more of a stunned silence than a cold or angry one, and when he did eventually speak his voice was soft with surprise.

“Noct,” he said. Noctis closed his eyes when he felt Gladio’s big hand rest on his head, thumb smoothing back the hair at his temple. “Have you been feeling guilty about that all this time? Hey, look at me.”

It was the least Noctis could do, and possibly the hardest thing he ever had. Gladio’s eyes were sad and wet, but his voice was even. “Do you really think I didn’t know all that? My old man helped raise you, you’ve grown up with him as much as I have. Of course I knew you were sorry. You didn’t have to tell me anything.” He cupped Noctis’s face in one hand and pushed his hair back to see his eyes. “God, look at you, this has been eating you alive, hasn’t it? You little idiot. C'mere.”

Before Noctis could even finish uncurling to obey Gladio was tugging him into his arms. He was a tactile guy, Noctis was used to being hugged by him, but he didn’t think he’d ever appreciated it as much as he did just then, and he clung to him hard, his fingers digging into Gladio’s back.

He wasn’t deluded enough to think that Clarus’s death had been somehow his fault, but as Clarus was to Regis, Gladio was to Noctis, and losing him in the name of the King of Lucis was a very real possibility, one that could take Noctis to his knees if he let himself think about. “I wanted to say something but I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t wanna think about you dying too.”

But that had been so selfish. Gladio was his friend, his brother. He’d deserved more while grieving his father than what Noctis had given him. Noctis pressed his face into Gladio’s neck, hiding, feeling too raw and exposed as a few tears slipped past his tightly-closed eyes and rolled down his cheeks. Gladio folded an arm around his shoulders and rubbed his back with the other hand, giving Noctis a couple minutes before shifting back and gripping his chin to make Noctis meet his eyes again. He had a few wet trails on his face too.

“My dad died protecting his king, and best friend, and his daughter and sons - biological or not, and Lucis, just like yours did,” Gladio said, pride in his voice. “You and I both know they wouldn’t have had it any other way.” He touched their foreheads together. “And you know I wouldn’t either. I’ll do everything in my power to make it all the way through this nightmare at your side, but if I don’t - Listen to me. If I die protecting you, know that it’s the only way I ever would have wanted to, and not because you’re the fucking king of Lucis.”

“Gladio,” Noctis said, breath hitching on a sob.

Gladio smiled and lifted his head to press a kiss to Noctis’s forehead, and then ruffled his hair and hugged him again, sniffing loudly, tears wetting Noctis’s hair. “Shit, It’s too fucking early for this, Noctis. Only you could have me blubbering like a baby in the middle of the goddamn night.”

Noctis laughed through more tears, which turned to quiet and embarrassing sobs that he muffled against Gladio’s shoulder as Gladio rubbed his back. The storm lasted a lot longer than he expected it to, and way longer than he wanted it to, expelling the toxins from the gaping hole that guilt had been tearing into him for months and flooding it with relief and at last the healthy, cathartic grief that he was only just now allowing himself to feel.

By the time he’d lapsed into quiet sniffling he was completely wrung out, halfway to asleep, and his limbs felt like they were made of lead. He was completely wiped, and Gladio was so warm and familiar and comfortable that there was no way in hell Noctis was moving. He fell asleep to the soothing sound of Gladio’s put-upon grumbling.

[ivorydice]

That feeling when you’re pleasantly surprised at your own writing and it actually seems pretty good.

[spacs]

darkness

IgNoct Week 2017 - @ignoctweek Timed Quest: Darkness Rated: General Audiences

Prince Noctis was missing.

The guards were scouring the grounds for a sign of the boy but he was nowhere to be found. Ignis had been roused from his sleep earlier than usual by his uncle. He gently told the eleven year old the situation and asked if he had any idea where Noctis could be.

He lied.

Softly, Ignis slipped from his room and followed the short path to Noctis’. He passed the door with intent and went further down still, pulling open a rarely used closet door full of coats left behind from parties or other gatherings within the Citadel. He slid inside after checking to make sure he hadn’t been followed, and pushed through the coats.

Noctis was curled up against the wall, snoozing in the corner. Ignis smiled and knelt beside him, brushing the coats out of his way. He touched the boy’s arm, shaking gently. The prince stirred and blinked up at him sleepily, eyes dark and frightened. “Are you alright, highness?” he asked quietly.

“I had a bad dream,” Noctis whispered back.

“You could have come to get me.”

The prince shrugged and took Ignis’ arm, pulling him down beside him. He curled against the older boy’s side. “You found me,” he replied.

Ignis nodded and smiled, putting an arm around slim shoulders and said, “This is always where you hide when we play.”

Noctis laughed, snuggling against him. This place wasn’t suited for a prince, it was dark and dusty and some of the coats had been here so long they’d started to smell. But it had become their place. The darkness brought a comfort and privacy that their rooms did not.

“Everyone is looking for you.”

The prince nodded. “Can we stay for a little longer?”

Ignis pulled him closer by his shoulder. “Of course.”

[the-glacian]

Fic Writer Interview

That sounds like fun!!! Thanks so much for tagging me @iamthe-wo-manwhocan, love! 💗

Name: Shiva aka The_Glacian

Fandoms: mostly Stucky (on this blog), MCU, former SPN (Destiel), FFXV (Ignoct)

Two shot: Since I've deleted my previous account from AO3 along with all of the fics I had in there, I only have one two-shot left to choose from: Cygnus (FFXV, Ignoct)

Most popular multi chaptered fic: The aforementioned one! Lol

Actual worst part of writing: If I say writing, it's going to be a dull answer, right? Haha. But honestly the worst part is editing. Because I just never know when to stop. Every time I revise the fic I re-write and add scenes and then delete and then re-write again, until I actually physically drag myself away from it, close the doc and just never read it again.

How you choose your titles: So I once decided to name my fics after constellations. But before long I started regretting this idea soo hard because there are only 88 constellations to choose from and sometimes none of them work. For the SW one shots I went with song titles but combined them all under the name 'Achernar' which is the brightest star in the constellation Eridanus, and means 'To the end of the river' - I thought it was clever lol.

Do you outline: Never. I usually get a rough idea in my head of how it starts, progresses and ends. Sometimes I make notes if a light bulb goes on in my head for a scene, but I've never done an outline. Maybe I should.

Ideas you probably won’t get around to, but wouldn’t it be nice: Where do I fucking start? (amen, Bri)

I have so many ideas, some of them I started writing out, some of them are floating desultorily in my head. I couldn't decide on the spot, but I always lean towards mutual pining, angst, oblivious idiots in love and hurt/comfort. But it's not the question, isn't it?

Call outs @me: Bitch, stop obsessing with words while you write. You can obsess with them later when editing.

Best writing traits: That's a hard one because I second-guess everything I do and I always think I'm not good enough no matter what. But if I absolutely have to choose my best trait, I'll say my prose in general. I like beautiful sentences and I always strive for perfection in every single one of them.

Spicy tangential opinion: I agree whole-heartedly with the statement that a writer should aim for pleasing one person, and this person should be the writer themselves.

Tagging my fellow writers if you guys want to: @thedamageofherdays, @its-tortle, @oh-i-swear-writes, @mywingsareonwheels, @deletexforever, @misspluckyplum 💗

[hiddenreligion]

Next up in the Promptography FF15 photodump: Ignoct. Okay, so my game was biased, not me. That is my story and I’m sticking to it. ...But seriously, bless Prompto for all the Ignoct in my game. <3

[tickleraptorss]

🌈 (for 'asking for it' fic *w*) and 🖊 :D?

🌈 What inspired you to write "Asking For It"?

the main idea sprouted from boredom at work, actually. and a little bit of self-projection sprinkled in there as well. i had an idea that noctis and prompto would ask each other for tickles, because they're too embarrassed to ask their other boyfriends, but they know that they both like it! (dw bcuz ignis and gladio do find out eventually hehe) plus i just really wanted to write smth soft with promptis

🖊 Post a snippet from a current WIP.

i've got a pretty big list of fics i wanna write/have in the works, buuuut i did get inspired by another fic i read and wanted to write smth similar with ignoct, so here's a sneak peek 👀

“Iggy?” He whispered, lightly shaking Ignis’ shoulder. “It’s almost noon, you gotta get up.” He didn’t expect a response, but sighed when he didn’t receive one anyway.

Pouting, Noctis crawled closer to his advisor.

“Specs, c’mon...” He poked his advisor’s cheek. Nothing. “Prompto and Gladio are gonna be back soon, and we can’t stay in Lestallum all day. You said it yourself!”

He leaned closer to Ignis, poking his nose this time. Again, nothing. Leaning even closer, he whispered in Iggy’s ear.

“Ignisssssss...” That seemed to get something, because the advisor let out a sound akin to a groan and turned over on his side, covering his ear. Noctis leaned over to his other ear.

“What, don’t like it when I do this?” He whispered, only to have Ignis cover his ear with his hand. That was odd... he’d been louder and more disruptive trying to wake Ignis up with his other methods. How come...

Wait...

Noctis’ confusion quickly morphed into mischief.

ty for the ask!! rly wanted to write sleepy lee iggy hehe

[absolutelynoct]

Yay! I love it when you open up the prompts! You're really good at these! I'd like an IgNoct with a side of awkward first date turned cute with Regis and Clarus secretly driving around to see if all goes well! Thanks a billion! Btw, are you planning on any IgNocts? I love your fics but curiosity!

[ahh! thank you! I’m not sure this is quite what you’re looking for but it’s a small drabble so I don’t get too long winded with it. But I would love to write more of this prompt so I imagine I’ll do a full one shot for it soon so thanks for the inspiration! And I am planning on doing an IgNoct fic! My next fic will be Promptio/Ignoct! Thank you and I hope you enjoy this bit of a onshot]

Noctis was nervous. He had never been nervous around Ignis before, but this was different. This was a date, and dates were inherently enough to induce enough anxiety in anyone, including the prince of Lucis. And it was with Ignis, the most beautiful man in the history of Eos in Noctis’s eyes. It had come as a shock to him when he had nervously asked Ignis on a date and he actually agreed. It was even more of a shock when Ignis had planned the date. Now he was dressed in a black suit, trying not to look as awkward as he felt, waiting on the steps of the Citadel, too early for the date. It was why Ignis’s sudden appearance as he approached him, walking up the steps looking far better in his suit than he had any right to, surprised him so much.

“You’re early,” Noctis pointed out as Ignis approached him, much taller than he was. Six, why was he so gorgeous? It wasn’t fair. No one had a right to have lips that pouty or eyes made of emeralds. Was Ignis just toying with him? Maybe he was just indulging him because he was the prince.

“So are you,” Ignis pointed out in his usual dulcet Tenebraean accent that made Noctis feel weak in the knees. How was he supposed to have Ignis be his chamberlain when he was crumbling just at the sound of his voice? He needed to get a grip before he lost himself completely. The date hadn’t even started yet. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah,” Noctis said, trying not to blush as he ran his hand along the back of his head. There was a car in the distance that he didn’t really notice, a black vehicle with tinted windows. If he paid attention as they got in the Regalia, Ignis in the driver’s seat, then he would have noticed it following them. 

Ignis took them to a cafe in a relatively private part of Insomnia, a place that had both coffee for him and sweets for Noctis. They sat in awkward silence at first, the black car idle outside as they sat by the cafe window. Noctis’s leg shook nervously as he and Ignis shared a chocolate raspberry torte, the smell of coffee wafting over them both. Neither of them really knew what to say, and it was obvious that Noctis was out of his depth. Maybe he was just kidding himself when he thought he was good enough to ask Ignis on a date.

“Oh for the love of Six,” Ignis said, breaking the silence and making Noctis look at him in startled surprise. “We’ve practically spent our entire lives together. It’s ridiculous that we’re nervous now.”

“We’re?” Noctis asked, echoing Ignis’s use of words. Was Ignis just as nervous as he was?

“Yes,” Ignis replied with a smile that made Noctis’s heart flutter excitedly. “I was so nervous that I arrived twenty minutes early to our date and found you waiting for me already.”

Ignis reached across the table and took Noctis’s hand in his. Noctis blushed as he felt Ignis’s lithe fingers intertwined with his, somehow cool and warm to the touch all at once. He felt a flutter in his stomach, and he had the sudden urge to forego the date altogether and take Ignis somewhere far more private. At the same time they both leaned forward a bit more, as if to kiss each other, there was the sound of a car horn sounding outside. Ignis pulled away and Noctis sat back, angry at whoever had disturbed them.

“That car has been following us,” Ignis said. “I wonder if it’s the paparazzi.”

“Let’s find out,” Noctis said as he stood up. The last thing he wanted, or needed, was the tabloids making headlines about his relationship with his advisor. Ignis followed him, both of them ready to confront whoever was waiting for them in the car. As they approached it, Noctis forgot his nervousness for once. He knocked on the driver’s side window and waited. “Dad?!”

King Regis and his sworn shield, Clarus, were sitting in the car, both of them looking guilty as sin. “Hey son,” Regis said with a smile. “I just wanted to see how the date was going and-”

“And now you’re about to go back to, you know, ruling Lucis?” Noctis finished for him, groaning internally. Regis grinned at him, and Noctis sighed. “Dad! Come on!”

“Fine, fine,” Regis said with a laugh. “I’m sorry. You will tell me all about it later? Okay, okay. I won’t ask. I just hope it goes well for you both! See you at home, son!”

The engine roared to life. Regis drove away quickly, leaving Noctis embarrassed and angry on the sidewalk. The date was ruined. There was no way Ignis was going to want to continue dating him now that-

Ignis suddenly pressed his lips against Noctis’s as he turned to face him and apologize, the force of it catching him by surprise. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, and Noctis deepened the kiss as he caved to Ignis’s touch.

“What was that for?” Noctis asked, breathless and excited as Ignis smiled at him.

“I had a feeling that if I didn’t do something then I wouldn’t ever get the chance again,” Ignis commented. “Ready to continue our date now, Noct?”

“Yeah,” Noctis said. He took Ignis’s outstretched hand in his and walked away with him. Maybe his dad’s presence actually helped him. He would never tell him though. He didn’t need anymore embarrassment than he already had.

[ebonyphotographs]

Hello All!! Semi Long Post Ahead ( o v o)/

I realize I’m literally never on Tumblr anymore? Heard there’s been some wars or something over here, hah~ That’s why I’m a Twitter nerd now (O - O ) Anywho. Figured as it’s coming up on the end of the year/decade, I’d like to leave a grand post of all the writing I’ve created as a fanfiction writer. I’ve literally only made FFXV/mostlyIgnoct content? *sweats* But it’s still brought me great inspiration and lots of love from an ongoing community that supports each other. These thousands of words have gotten me through some dark, terrible times, especially in this past year alone. So here below you can click to just browse or skim through anything you like. Maybe you’ll find something that interests you or helps you to get inspired about writing or weird self-reflective creativity scenarios? *Don’t listen I’m nuts* Just give a gander please I worked very hard I mean, had lots of fun. Careless A drunk one shot, my first posted fic A Little Louder Hotel jealousy smut To Comfort His Highness Angsty stuff about the Crown A Kiss As A Suggestion Noct uses tongue on purpose A Kiss Because They’re Running Out Of Time Their last dance together A King’s Gift ft. @his-pair-of-spare-glasses​ A happy little mistake (I’m kidding) A private moment between King and Advisor Meet Me There Birthday gift for Ignis + friend, unconditional love despite the weight-load of life The Stagesinger: Series Reincarnation vocalist AU designed with alternate endings! Signs of Winter: Series A continuation piece based on Shining Ambitions veiled in Dust: Series, perfume designer meets barista, this is my literal baby A Late Night Call Ignoct Spice-A-Thon phone kink (wiggles eyebrows) Love In Silence Mute AU leaving Noctis unvocal with Iggy as caretaker Back To Titanic A real undertaking... Yeah, I’m going there Portraits: Series Supernatural nightmare centering Noctis as Prompto’s prime artistic prey while Ignis searches to save him

I’m actually a bit impressed to see what I’ve accomplished between divorce, moving and houseflooding, yet I still wish to see myself create more! I have trouble pushing myself. Somehow, these characters managed to kick me into gear. Thanks just for reading this if you did and boo on you if you didn’t. Much love, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year 💙

[ignis-scientia-estrogen-brigade]

According to my AO3 account, the last time I uploaded any works of fiction was on August 25th, 2017. I wrote one more fic that I didn’t post anywhere but included in my smutty Iggy novella, which was released in November 2017. After that, I stopped writing altogether.

Writing is actually the reason ISEB exists; I started it as a place to share my headcanons, and I didn’t post a single piece of art on here until almost two months after I started this blog. I’m happy that FFXV inspired me to plug my tablet in after a long hiatus and start drawing again, but I can’t help feeling a little sad that I gave up on writing.

There were a lot of reasons why I stopped. Quitting smoking was probably the biggest one—whereas before I could sit down with a pack of cigarettes and six cups of coffee and not stop writing until I had churned out 10K words, the sudden lack of nicotine in my system made it very difficult for me to concentrate and sit still for any length of time. Which, obviously, I’m super glad I did quit—my dad died of smoking-related cancer—but the association with cigarettes was inextricably tied to my writing, and it has taken me almost two years to overcome that association.

I think the other big reason I lost the inspiration to write was because of Episode Ignis and its heavy Ignoct overtones. I’ve never been an anti and have always supported peoples’ rights to ship their favorite pairings, but I’ve also never hidden the fact that I don’t personally ship any of the bros together. Before Episode Ignis, I felt like there was a comfortable amount of space for everyone to move around and carve out their own little creator niches, a space where OCs and reader-inserts could gain a little bit of traction alongside more traditional pairings. After Episode Ignis, though, I felt like the balance had shifted, the space had changed, and that altered dynamic was reflected in the large amount of Ignoct content that appeared on my dash for a long time after.

This is not a complaint or anything (I enjoy all kinds of content regardless of whether I ship it or not), merely an observation. And of course, there’s nothing stopping me from creating content even if it only caters to a small audience (shout-out to all ten of you who still read my OC fics haha). But it does arguably make it a bit harder to find the motivation to work on something knowing it may fly under most peoples’ radars.

That aside, this is basically a long and pretentious way of saying that I’m back on my bullshit again and have started writing a new Ignis/OC story set in the Brotherhood-era timeline of FFXV. Without the benefits of nicotine, sitting still long enough to write it was like pulling teeth, but I managed to eke out enough words to post the first couple chapters (with more to come—hopefully in a timely manner). As with all my fics, I’ve made it as canon-compliant as possible, and now with 50% fewer semicolon usage! Happy reading, friends and newcomers. ♡

[marmolita]

writer ask meme

I was tagged by @audreyskdramablog!  Thanks!

Author’s Name: marmolita for fanfic, though I have a ~new pseudonym~ for the original project which shall remain secret for the time being

Fandoms you write for: at the moment, it’s kind of a mishmash of whatever happens to come up.  Generally, FFXV and FF8 are the two I’m most interested in writing for at the moment, but looking at my AO3 right now you wouldn’t know it.

Where you post: AO3!

Most popular one-shot: Of all time?  It’s After Hours, a Daredevil/MCU crossover pwp in which Matt Murdock and Steve Rogers get it on in a boxing gym.  It just continues to rack up kudos and bookmarks and I don’t get it but I’m not complaining haha.

Most popular multi-chapter story: Based on kudos and bookmarks, it’s Practical Education, my ignoct sex ed masterpiece. ;D  By subscriptions, it’s belonging.

Favorite story you wrote: You know, every time I get this question I have to think way too hard about it.  But today I think I’m gonna just go with Practical Education because I really am happy with that one.

Story you were nervous to post: Okay so there are two and they’re polar opposites here.  One, which will not surprise people, is It’s not how you hit the mat, which involves incredibly badwrong underage noncon to the point where even I, the most shameless person in fandom, was hesitant to post it.  The other is Pain au Chocolat which is 300 words of fluffy domestic nonsense, and I was so nervous to post FLUFF when my reputation was for badwrong.  I suppose I was also pretty nervous to post my first FFXV fic, Obligation, because I hadn’t actually seen any of the canon of FFXV when I wrote it.

How do you choose your titles? I complain a lot to all my friends and then either pick a word or sentence from the fic or a song lyric or whatever a friend suggested.

Do you outline? I don’t generally write anything long enough to need an outline, but I do have an outline of a fic that I haven’t written sitting in my WIP folder.  And the original project was definitely outlined.

How many of your stories are… *complete? I have 184 works posted on AO3, all of which are complete.

*in-progress? None on AO3, but I have a handful of mostly abandoned WIPs sitting in google docs.

Coming soon: My remix fic will reveal in about a week!  It’s my second fic in the fandom that it’s for (which is a secret until author reveals).

Do you accept prompts? Sometimes!  When I do I post it on tumblr.  I’m playing with the idea of doing kinktober again but I don’t think I can handle quite as much as I did last year.

Upcoming story you are most excited to write: The original thing I’m working on!  Which reminds me that I need to finish my chapter of it today.

Tag five authors to answer these questions as well: @wildehacked, @ivorydice, @dustofwarfare-blog, @freosan, @nicasiosilang?  No pressure, do if you want, don’t if you don’t!

[aethernoise]

top 5 smutty fics ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Okay this was actually really difficult because up until very recently I have had abhorrent fic reading habits and have bookmarked practically nothing. I’m sure I’ve read plenty I’ve just straight-up forgotten about, too (plus, god knows how many good fics I lost to the ff.net days... alas) And double sorry if you were looking for FFXIV specifically, this is multi-fandom, in no particular order:

1. I Have Known a Bird to Sing While in the Egg FFXIV, Urianger/Y’shtola. Wonderful character exploration. Original poetry. Beautifully executed slow burn.

2. Chants and Mirrors. DA:I, Cullen/Trevelyan. There’s (really nice) art in this one so watch out if you’re on public transit or something.

3. Can’t Believe You Don’t Know DA:O, Zevran/Warden. I actually just read this one but it’s going on the list for the adorable banter alone. A++++ dialogue

4.  This one Ignoct fic that’s from the POV of Ignis after he’s blinded.. it’s killin’ me I can’t remember the name or the author. A beautiful read and frankly really impressive... it must be a crazy challenge to write smut without one of the main senses to work with.

5. ??????? I’m so sorry I can’t think of any more, like I said I never bookmarked a damn thing in my life before about a year ago RIP

[ao3feed-ignoct]

meaningless

read it on the AO3 at http://bit.ly/2x4Mt1d

by saretus

Fill for: 'I feel like this possibility gets talked about a lot, but I don't think I've ever actually seen a fic about it, and now I kind of want an AU where Ignis dies in Altissia and Noct has to mourn him. It can be in addition to Luna (or she can survive because handwave reasons).

+ unresolved Ignoct'

Words: 2435, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Final Fantasy XV

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Major Character Death

Categories: M/M

Characters: Gladiolus Amicitia, Prompto Argentum, Ardyn Izunia

Relationships: Noctis Lucis Caelum/Ignis Scientia

Additional Tags: The Ring Strikes Again, RIP, grieving and loss, Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Except a good bear hug by Gladio

read it on the AO3 at http://bit.ly/2x4Mt1d

[hati-skoll]

Let Me Fill You(r Prompt)

Written for the @ignoctsecretsanta for @battle-goats I’m so sorry this is so late! The ending might be a little abrupt, I’ll probably update it in a bit, but I wanted you to have something first!

[AO3]

Noctis rips open a bag of enoki mushrooms. He gallantly pounds a clove of garlic into submission. Then he manfully wrestles an onion apart and accordingly cries himself a river, because what the fuck am I even writing I don’t even know someone save me.

Unfortunately, the astrals aren’t capable of sending down bolts of inspiration the way they’re wont to do with lightning. Noctis gets only so far before he admits to himself that he’s in over his head with this hilariously pitiful attempt at writing food porn. It’s… very… uninspired. He squints at the three sentences he’s typed, they’re… uh, well… alright, they suck. It sucks. How does one prepare food… sexily?

He tries to picture in his mind how Ignis works the kitchen, how his painfully suave advisor deftly slices up slabs of meat, a comfortable grip on the knife's handle; how he expertly kneads dough, muscles taut along his forearm; how he handles that intimidatingly large iron wok he keeps on the top shelf of Noctis’ kitchen, flicking his wrist with an enviable grace that Noctis will probably never muster in this lifetime.

“Hey, buddy, what'cha doing?”

Noctis very nearly tosses his phone out the window, but catches himself at the last minute so it instead clatters noisily where it lands on his desk. He hears someone cooing over his disastrous, ‘adorkable’ lack of hand-eye coordination from outside the classroom.

Prompto blinks, before plopping into the seat in front of his. “Uh, okay. Was gonna ask if you wanna head by the arcade later, but you look busy.”

“It's just this Thing.”

Promp glances down at the phone, then back up at Noctis. “Thing.”

“You know,” Noctis sighs, half-aggrieved as he makes a vague hand gesture that's supposed to mean sad-attempt-at-writing-food-porn-featuring-himself-and-his-ridiculously-handsome-charming-chivalrous-competent-all-round-amazeballs-advisor, “The Thing.”

“Oh!” Prompto exclaims, “The Secret-”

“Thing. Yes, the Secret Thing that no one should ever find out I was involved in.”

“Right. Gotcha,” Prompto nods, deadly serious, “Secret Thing.”

Noctis looks back down at his phone, re-reads his pathetic three lines and resists the urge to face-plant into his desk. Why did he ever think it was a good idea to sign up for this year’s Ignoct secret santa? Okay, so maybe he’s been furtively lurking in the fandom for ages — ever since he overheard a couple of girls whispering about it in phys ed class.

He still remembers their incredibly unlikely hypothesis about Iggy bending him over the gym bleachers, which is... hot as hell, but unlikely. Public sex is just not going to be on the table with his advisor. Because ‘that would be a recipe for disaster, Noct, can you imagine what the press would cook up?’ He’s not even sure if sex is ever going to be on the table — both figuratively and literally.

His dining table is definitely large enough to accommodate some spontaneous fucking, but… he’s obviously been looking at too much PWP lately. And it’s not like he’s going through these incredibly detailed imaginings of him and his advisor just to get off. Not really. Well, he gets off to them sometimes. Rarely. Once a week. Seriously, these artists and authors come up with extremely creative scenarios— That’s not the point.

The point is, It’s kind of heartening to know that somewhere, out there, there are a lot of other someones, random someones who aren’t Promp, rooting for him and Iggy and his stupid, hopeless crush. And it sort of… gives him hope, you know. Makes him feel like it might actually be possible, like they might actually work, if he could just work up the courage to ask Iggy out. One day.

“Just kill me,” Noctis says, unfortunately aloud.

“Woah, woah. Aren’t you, like, not supposed to joke about suicide in public?”

That’s right, he’s not. “It’s a euphemism.”

“Uh,” Promp does the awkward half-laugh that generally functions as an indicator for Noctis to shut up before he shoves that foot further into his mouth, “I don’t think that’s how euphemisms work.”

“It is if whatever I’m thinking of is worse than dying.” Yeap, he’s swallowing that foot. Whole. There’s probably an Ignoct fic about foot fetish somewhere.

“Are you allowed to say that?” Promp whispers, loudly — loud enough for the guy three tables down to not-so-inconspicuously don headphones in an attempt to give them an illusion of privacy.

Which is how they end up relocating to the roof, like every other highschool cliche out there. And Noctis half-feels like the school bully, because unlike every other highschool cliche, there’s actually a decent number of people on the roof, who... promptly make themselves scarce when Noctis and Prompto show up — and look, they’re obviously not leaving because of Promp. He’d have to be more delusional than maybe-my-too-perfect-advisor-slash-childhood-playmate-might-actually-like-me-back to think that anyone’s escaping because of Promp .

“So… nice and quiet here,” Promp says, after the last of them has filed out.

“Mmghf.”

“Very… zen,” Promp continues, “Zen’s good for inspiration, right?”

It’s not working for his. “Maybe?”

“Yeah, I didn’t think so either,” Promp sighs deeply in commiseration, “Hey, you could always write a smutty one-shot about Iggy and you getting hot and heavy up here. Can’t go wrong with hot roof sex.”

“We’ve fucked on the roof dozens of times,” well, in fics, “Also why would Iggy be in our school?”

“Because… Oh! Because he’s your alpha and you’ve gone into heat, so the school clinic rung him to pick you up. And then because you’re oozing omega pheromones, Iggy loses control and drags you up here to have his sordid way with you.”

“I’m not writing an ABO,” a beat, “Why am I an omega?”

“I can’t see Iggy being an omega, have you seen the thing he does with his knives?”

“He cooks .”

“I’m gonna have to stop you there, buddy, that sorta alpha-omega-stereotyping is uncalled for.”

“What?”

“You can’t just say Iggy’s an omega because he cooks.”

“That’s not what I— They’re not even real!”

“Yeah, and so isn’t Santa,” Promp proclaims, “But look where we are, in the middle of a Secret Santa. I rest my case.”

Noctis lasts for all of three seconds before the incredulity of it all gets to him and he shoves his awful best friend. “I’m not bearing any babies for Iggy.”

“Pups,” Promp corrects, very seriously, before he cracks up too.

They’re both giggling like desperate F2Ps after a godly gacha roll and Noctis is feeling slightly better about his trainwreck of food-kink fic, which is why he makes the incredibly questionable decision of showing Promp his Work-In-Progress. Prompto blinks at it owlishly for several seconds. And Noctis regrets everything.

“It’s not bad,” Promp declares determinedly, after several more seconds of owlish blinking.

“It’s bad.”

“It’s not! It’s… evocative. That’s good.”

“Noctis rips open a bag of enoki mushrooms,” Noctis reads aloud, “He gallantly pounds a clove of garlic into submission. You winced. Right there.”

“I was empathising with the clove of garlic!”

“Then he manfully wrestles—”

“Okay, okay, stop,” Promp says with a shaky breath, “Maybe… Maybe it could be better. Why are you… manfully wrestling an avocado?”

“An onion. I’m manfully wrestling an onion, because that’s what it says in this really detailed recipe forkingandspooning114 included in the prompt. In which I’m supposed to prepare a meal for Iggy — sexily — and amaze him with my — sexy — cooking prowess, after which we have a hot dinner — and hotter sex.”

“A cereal food fetishist, huh.”

“Yeah, the wurst case I’ve come across,” Noctis makes a face, “There are fifty pages worth of recipes. It’s practically a cookbook.”

“Yikes,” Promp scrolls down to look at recipes. “That’s… hold up. Wait. I have an idea.”

Noctis isn’t sure if he likes that glint in Promp’s eyes but he nods anyway for his best friend to continue.

“Why don’t you ask Iggy for advice?”

“Ask Iggy for advice on seducing him with my non-existent sexy cooking skills?”

“Hypothetically,” Promp says, “And he doesn’t need to know about the seducing. Not when he sexy-cooks naturally, you know, according to you. You can just ask for a demonstration or something, for the recipes. And... maybe bring an extra serving for me tomorrow?”

Well... Noctis mulls, it isn’t a half-bad idea, even if it’s as obvious as Uncle Ardyn’s purposefully obtuse — and painfully cringey — misuse of teenage slang, that Promp’s suggestion is more or less motivated by his stomach. Noctis shrugs at his best friend, plays it cool because it’s kinda ridiculous that his future with Iggy is now at the mercy of Promp’s stomach. “Huh. I’ll think about it.”

He pretends not to see Promp’s little victory jiggle as they make their way down the roof.

*

He’s still trying to figure out how to ask Specs for a cooking demonstration without sounding really suspicious — and also without hurting Iggy’s feelings, because asking Iggy to work with another person’s recipe is just… kinda in bad taste when he takes so much pride in his own.  Of course, the man of the hour is already in the kitchen, whipping up a batch of something-or-other that’ll taste like heaven and sin all wrapped into one, as Noctis steps into his apartment.

“Welcome home, Noct,” Iggy calls, and Noctis’ heart gives a traitorous little flutter because that was just so domestic — come to think of it, that domestic AU he's been following just updated earlier today, he’ll have to read it later, “Productive day at school, I hope?”

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, we did. Math.”

“That sounds truly invigorating.”

Noctis suddenly feels the need to defend his math class — which he totally did not spend brooding about his secret santa prompt. “Yeah? It’s supposed to lend us magnitude and direction.”

Iggy’s brows rise. “Ah, perhaps I should have said it was in-vector-ating instead?”

Noctis deigns that awful pun with a groan and plops himself down at the table, where Iggy’s delivering an entire tray of freshly baked pastries. He knows better than to snag a piece without Iggy’s go-ahead, though — after all, he’ll only end up with a scalded tongue and a disappointed talking-to from his advisor.

Iggy sets one aside on a plate, adding a generous helping of whipped cream. He looks strangely put together for someone who’s been working away at the kitchen, like does he even sweat? Noctis squints at his advisor’s dry, smooth, slightly flushed skin, so he nearly misses it when Iggy says, “You’re awfully tensed today. I don't suppose there's anyway I can be of service?”

Okay, wow, loaded question. “Uh. No. I mean. Yes. Sorta.”

“Well, you know I’m always happy to help, Noct. What do you need?”

No sex thoughts. Don't think sex thoughts. “I have this… recipe I need you to try.”

“Recipe,” Iggy repeats.

“From the internet,” technically, not a lie, “A-” friend of mine? He only has one friend, literally, one, “Promp. Yeah. Promp wanted to ask for your advice on a couple of recipes. Because... they've not been turning out too well for him, but he was too intimidated to ask in person.”

“Oh. Certainly,” Iggy seems to have bought into his fibbing, “I can take a look at them in my spare time.”

“No.”

Iggy blinks. “No?”

“He um wants a demonstration. Physical demonstration.”

“I can’t see how that’s achievable if he’s too intimidated to show up.”

“Yeah, so you can,” Noctis tries to recall how fic!him goes about asking Iggy favours, cooking demonstrations or otherwise, he seriously doesn’t remember ever being this tongue-tied in fics, “Demonstrate to me, how it’s done. And I’ll demonstrate to Promp.”

“You’ll demonstrate to Prompto,” Iggy’s spoon clatters onto the table, there’s a pause and then, “I’m not sure if that’s wise.”

You char a wok one time. “I just have to do whatever you do, right? Piece of cake,” Noctis says with a confidence he can only muster because he’s not actually going to do any cooking.

“I do hope his house is insured.”

Oh, come on. “His house will survive my cooking perfectly fine, Specs. Just show me. Please.”

Iggy pushes the whip-creamed pastry at him, and Noctis digs into the dessert, enjoying the perfect marrying of flaky, sugared crust and rich, chocolate ganache. Everything Iggy makes is perfect — well, not the vegetables, but... everything else. He watches for Iggy’s reaction, sees the exact moment his advisor capitulates in the set of his shoulders and that look of fond exasperation on his face… tempered by something… harder this time, something Noctis doesn’t quite recognise. But the emotion is gone in a flash, as Iggy says, “Well, I suppose I have my work cut out for me if I’m to make a decent cook out of you. You’d like to try one of these recipes out for dinner today, I presume?”

“Yeah,” Noctis quickly gets the document open, scrolls to the entry that’s titled, Creamy Fowl Saute, “This one.”

Iggy glances at it briefly. “Ah, a classic. And it looks remarkably similar to a recipe of mine. I think your pantry and refrigerator are well-stocked with what we need.”

“Cool,” Noctis says.

He finishes the pastry while Iggy preps his kitchen, magically conjures up ingredients and utensils from spaces he hadn't known existed in his cupboards. Then the stage is set, and the tart consumed, and Iggy’s considering him with a serious sort of look that Noctis will probably be flustered by if it didn’t exactly say how-do-I-get-you-to-not-burn-down-the-kitchen in subtext.

So instead he’s slightly miffed. “Can we get on with it, Specs?”

“Perhaps an apron before we commence?”

He’s not wearing an apron. “But I’m just observing.”

“Nonsense, you’re not going to learn anything by just observing,” Iggy somehow produces a second apron with a flourish, “I’d be loathe to see ‘Crown Prince Commits Arson’ on tomorrow’s seven-o-clock. And roll up your sleeves.”

“Why do I have to—” He nearly bites his tongue because Iggy’s thrown the apron over his head, and now Iggy’s arms are going around his waist in a pseudo-hug to secure the ties at the back. And hopefully, his expression is more coolly composed than astrals-save-me-my-crush-is-sorta-hugging-me-what-do-I-do mortified.

Iggy finally — unfortunately — steps away. “There we are,” a pause, and Iggy’s lips are twitching when he says, “I think this is a good look for you, Noct.”

“Shut up.”

They get started on the recipe, and Iggy puts him in charge of measuring the chicken broth and heavy cream. Noctis is proud to say he aced that, solid 5 out of 7. He’s great at pouring things into measuring cups. He’s kind of warming up to the idea of cooking, maybe, uh well, he’s not cringing away from the counter at least, but then Iggy puts a knife and an onion in his hands and suddenly it feels like they’ve jumped from tutorial mode to boss battle.

“Maybe you should do this,” he tells Iggy.

“You just have to chop the onion, Noct.”

“I’m allergic to onions. They make my eyes water.”

“That happens to everyone,” Iggy says, “And just think of it like it’s weapons training with Gladio. You’ve handled bigger blades than this.”

Noctis’ retort dies in his throat when he notices the unintended euphemism, his next words are out of his mouth before he thinks them through. “Well, maybe you should help me with this blade then. You know, correct my form, the way Gladio does at practice.”

Okay. Someone kill him. Now.

Thankfully, the disastrously cheesy line seems to fly over Iggy’s head, because he just nods at Noctis and says, “If you think it’ll help you.”

What? “Uh. Yeah?”

Which is how Iggy ends up getting into position behind Noctis, one hand over Noctis’ where he’s grasping the knife, the other carefully positioning the onion on the board. And Noctis is both congratulating and cursing at himself for his horrendous foot-in-mouth syndrome. “I’ve already peeled and washed it, so you can start by cutting it into two. Right through the root, but we don’t want to cut that off, lest the onion bleeds.”

Okay, he can feel Iggy’s body heat all the way down the line of his back and— “The onion bleeds?”

“Sulphuric acid, sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide. The latter irritates our eyes.”

“Oh, okay.” Iggy is guiding his hand through the motion, creating an incision, then cleanly slicing through. “Wow. Okay, we’re done?”

He feels Iggy’s chest rumble in a gentle chuckle. “Not quite. Hold the onion like this. Use your knuckle to guide the knife, point it towards the root, and cut. That’s right. Nice, long strokes.”

Nice, long strokes, seriously?

“Not too deep,” Iggy tuts, “If I’d known you’d be so enthusiastic about cutting onions, I would have enlisted your help years ago.”

“I’m not,” Noctis objects, “I just want to—” finish this before I pop an awkward boner, “Get it right for Promp.”

Iggy abruptly releases his hand and of course Noctis stabs himself in the pinky in the next second. “Ouch, damn. Iggy, wha—”

“My apologies,” okay, now Iggy looks like he’s going to flagellate himself or something, “You’re bleeding, we’ll have to run that under the tap.”

“Specs, it’s not a big deal,” he tries to protest, but they’re evidently still running his pinky under the tap, “I’ve had worse cuts from chopstick splinters than this.”

“Your chopstick splinters were not of my doing,” Iggy pauses, “Were they?”

“No.”

Iggy heaves out a sigh that sounds like part relief and part dismay, like is he seriously going to blame himself for not inspecting every pair of disposable chopsticks that passes into Noctis’ hands? Noctis is about to say something, something reassuring hopefully, but then Iggy stops glaring at the tiny barely-a-quarter-inch cut like it’s a personal affront and looks up at him with a frazzled sort of smile — which is… wow, be still, heart, don’t fucking give me away with your loud thumping. Iggy clears his throat. “Perhaps you should sit the rest of the session out. And we ought to put a bandaid on that.”

“On this?”

They put a bandaid on it. Well, they kind of just swathe his pinky in a bandaid. Gladio is going to be absolutely merciless with his teasing if he sees it at training the day after. Thus, Noctis resolves to quietly ditch it in a couple of hours. And he tries to tell Iggy he’s perfectly fit to continue cooking, but Iggy’s starting to look sorta stressed out, so Noctis goes back to observing — the original plan, which kinda seems less fun now, but he gets to unabashedly eyeball Iggy so that’s a plus.

His advisor’s a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen, his actions quick, sure and precise. He’s efficient, the way he is with everything else in his — well, Noct’s — life. It’s kind of amazing to watch. And somewhere in the back of his mind, Noctis knows he’s supposed to be taking notes for his secret santa. It’s just, Iggy’s like a storm when he’s on a mission, brutal, arresting, awe-inspiring. It’s all part of what Noctis finds sexy, and Noctis can’t exactly imagine being that for Iggy, which is a little depressing but... maybe Iggy has a thing for clumsy and socially inept. He’s not sure how that’s going to fly with forkingandspooning114, though.

Does clumsy qualify as sexy?

He’s still trying to figure that out, when Iggy slides a plate in front of him. “Dinner is served.”

Noctis blinks at the dish. It looks good, kinda familiar, but then Iggy made it, so ditto. “Thanks, Specs.”

“Have you gotten everything you needed for Prompto?” Iggy asks solicitously, as he seats himself opposite Noctis.

“Uh, yeah. We’re good.”

Iggy considers him. “Would it be helpful if I made a couple of notes on the recipe?”

Noctis shrugs as he digs into the chicken. The meat's tender, and the sauce creamy but not too creamy. “Yeah, sure.”

“Then you shan’t be attempting this on your own in Prompto’s kitchen?”

“Specs.”

Iggy delicately cuts a portion of his own fillet, spears it with his fork, then tears a chunk off with his teeth. Okay, that’s weirdly hot. Noctis stares at Iggy’s bobbing adam's apple as he swallows. “I’m serious, Noct.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Noctis agrees, distracted by Iggy’s adam’s apple, but it’s not like he’s been planning to go burn down Promp’s kitchen in the first place. Iggy seems somewhat mollified by his answer and drops the subject, so Noctis is left to enjoy the meal in silence for the next couple of minutes. He scarfs it down with relish, but there’s just something about it that feels... Hm. “Hey, Specs? This tastes sorta familiar.”

Iggy pauses, fork in mid-air as he replies, “Well, of course. The recipe’s an exact copy of mine. If you hadn’t told me otherwise, I’d have thought Prompto took it straight out of my notebook.”

Wait. “Really?” Noctis stops chewing. Because that’s just—

“It’s a common enough dish,” Iggy shrugs, “And it’s something I’ve adapted off existing recipes. I’d say it’s certainly possible for someone to have made the same adjustments as I. No cause for alarm.”

“Do you wanna check the rest of the recipes? See if they’re yours? What if someone stole—”

“In your own words, Noct, it’s not a big deal.”

How is that not a big deal? Iggy’s worked his ass off on those recipes. “Just check them.”

Iggy accepts Noctis’ phone and scrolls through the recipes, expression politely neutral as he does so, which annoys Noctis because that usually means he thinks Noct’s being stupid or unreasonable or whatever. He stops scrolling after a while. “Well, they’re all rather similar.”

“So someone stole your recipes?”

“They’re just recipes,” yeah, recipes Iggy created for Noct.

And Noctis is about to demand they call up the citadel’s security and have them pull up footage from the Private Secretary’s Office, but then his wrath is promptly derailed by the sudden realisation that someone in the citadel stole Iggy’s recipes for the Ignoct secret santa, and that’s… That’s… Well, he’s a little conflicted, because one, stealing is bad, but two, someone close to home ships them hard enough to go to such lengths, and that’s kind of, sort of heartwarming in a… weirdly, intrusive sort of way. Well, at least, he’s got someone’s support if he and Iggy work out and Noctis declares his plans to beget heirs via surrogacy or something.

“Do you know who it might be?” Noctis asks after a while.

Iggy stares at him for a moment. “Perhaps a Glaive or a Crownsguard.”

Great, he’ll have to ask Nyx or Gladio. Noctis finishes the rest of his dinner in a hurry.

“Is there anything else I can help you with tonight?” Iggy asks, while clearing the table.

Noctis blinks. Another loaded question. He tries to think of puppies and chocobos and anything but Iggy in a leather collar. “Uh. Nah, I’m good. Thanks for dinner, Specs. We should do the cooking together thing again sometime.”

“Certainly,” Iggy says.

Then Noctis is retreating to his bedroom to mull over the identity of forkingandspooning114, mind racing at warp-speed, already making plans to waylay the Glaives and Crownsguards, because he's gotta figure out who's his ally in this, you know. And if it's a little strange that Iggy left his Very Important Notebook unattended long enough for anyone to copy fifty pages off it, well... he's only human, isn't he?

[moralhymn]

honestly im curious after seeing it on your blog what is sort of the foundation of ignis/ardyn or the dynamic? I've never seen the ship before!

hi there hello you’ve opened up a WHOLE CAN OF WORMS HERE BECAUSE I LOVE THIS SHIP SO DAMN MUCH–

honestly i– i don’t remember how i started shipping it. for.. context, i will say that when i first dipped my toe into the 15 fandom, i actually started as a gladio rper. he was my favorite, with the combination of the anger issues and obvious intelligence that he had ( and lbr gladio does have some serious anger issues; he’s not a bad guy for it though! it just makes him more interesting to me as a character because how many times is something like that shown having consequences? you see it with gladio and how he grows and matures. i love it! ) and my twin from another mother was like “why aren’t you writing ardyn?” 

me and my unsuspecting ass: “i don’t know i guess i’m trying to veer away from villains here.”

she just laughed at me. a lot. because she knew. she knew what was coming. so i, in my dumb naivety, forge ahead in the game and then i met ardyn and it was all downhill from there. especially after altissia. so i kinda… acquired ardyn as a muse and boy i didn’t know what i was getting in for. i really, truly didn’t. he’s come to mean so much to me as a character because he’s so beautifully complex. i have a serious love for seeing dark side characters, especially if they started on the good side of things, and between his flamboyant mannerisms, his speech patterns ( WHICH I ABSOLUTELY LOATHE TRYING TO IMITATE IN RP BECAUSE I NEVER FEEL LIKE I GET CLOSE ENOUGH TO THEM ), and his choice of archaic wording, he was practically gift-wrapped for me.

and his parallels to both jesus and lucifer are both seriously big draws for me too.

so, anyways, about the ship! 

honestly, i couldn’t begin to tell you where it came from for me or where i started looking into it. it just sorta… happened! i think it also happened in large part because i am honestly dissatisfied with ignis’s popular ships of gladnis and ignoct, seeing him together with ardyn just drew me in. i mean, i can appreciate those two ships and more power to anyone who ships them! if it makes you happy, then go for it! but a lot of gladnis is written in ways that set my teeth on edge ( and i must reference one fic where gladio was calling ignis baby. i am fairly certain that ignis would stab you with a fork if you tried that. ) and as for ignoct… it’s probably the fact that it’s a gross misinterpretation of the warrior-retainer archetype relationship that they share, not to mention how maternal ignis is towards noctis. i can see and understand the basis for both ships but they lack a certain luster for me.

but boy, for some reason, ignis and ardyn just have this fascinating interaction with one another. i could go into over analysis here on every scene they share together but i won’t, lmfao. but there’s something interesting about the fact that ignis gets especially bitchy when talking to or about ardyn, to me. i mean, ignis can be pretty bitchy in general ( and before anyone tries to say he’s not, he really is. his dialogue in the japanese is legit him trying to sound like a tough guy and he just gets so bristly when talking about ardyn. ) but there’s like an uptick in it where ardyn’s concerned. now, some people might go “but wait doesn’t that mean he doesn’t like him?” and, yeah, i can see that. but when you ship a rarepair, you reach for what you can get and are satisfied with things. also, everyone interprets things differently! ignis seems… acutely interested in some way in ardyn but there’s also other subtle hints of their interactions, at least to me.

two of the biggest factors are sagefire and ignis being able to tell noctis who ardyn really is once he’s free of the crystal, including his history.

now, exactly where could ignis have learned this stuff? the answer is, of course, ardyn. ardyn, whose new dlc literally calls him the sage. ardyn, who would probably answer ignis’s demands because heaven knows gladio and prompto don’t go near him.

also the fact that prompto asks ignis if ardyn’s not his type and ignis doesn’t bother saying that, no, ardyn is not my type, kinda… raised my eyebrows more than a little. ( also, ignis not really contributing to talks about that kind of stuff? hm. interesting. )

so i honestly believe that ignis has met with ardyn, more than once, to learn both sagefire and ardyn’s history. i mean, the only person who could have reliably told ignis about it was him. sagefire is another thing that i’m working out in my head but, you know, ignis is definitely a man who’ll pursue knowledge in all its forms and ardyn, being ardyn, being this two thousand year old being who can show him so many different things, would probably lure him in like a moth to a flame. and given how i view ardyn, i know that he’d respect ignis for his own person. not as noctis’s caretaker. not as a man who was being groomed to be a general. not as part of the flock. but his own individual with his own wants and desires. and i think that’d suck ignis right on in, to be honest. now, i’m not saying that the bros don’t recognize ignis as his own person, far from it - but the way that they handle things just kinda shows that, as tight as they are, there’s misunderstandings between them. 

i just see ignis and ardyn having this super dazzling chemistry and interesting influence on one another as well. like, ardyn might sleep around, but if he finds someone who can stand as his equal, the way i see ignis being able to, then you’ve got his interest securely on you and that can be a powerful, frightening thing, to be honest. after all, it’d make one wonder what it is about them that would bring in the attention of a man who’s seen so much and done so many things in his life, right? but ardyn would see ignis for his intelligence, his skill, probably even finding his sharp tongue and wit charming too. and there’s the fact that he never seems to take any action against ignis either. i mean, even in altissia, he doesn’t really fight ignis; he just kinda makes a few cursory gestures but overall? ignis beat the snot out of him and ardyn just seemed to take it. i mean, yeah, there was probably the whole “oh you can’t really do anything to hurt me” deal, but this is ardyn we’re talking about here. ardyn, who messes with the other three something awful, after all.

but ignis? he literally stops him with a raised hand at the stronghold. he’s impressed by him putting on the ring ( and rather surprised ). he probably taught him the sagefire technique. and i will never shake the idea that it was ignis who got ardyn to talk about himself, his past, his relation to the lucis caelum bloodline, and so much more. 

i just honestly find their dynamic so fascinating to look at and to explore. i think that out of all four of the bros, ignis would be the one ardyn would go for anyways. prompto, he already knows how to handle. gladio? well, ardyn’s just going to irritate him. noctis? he hates the poor kid. but ignis? ignis would definitely make ardyn’s head turn so fast that it’s a wonder it doesn’t fly off his neck. so, yeah, i just think that out of all the people ignis could hook up with, ardyn would probably just lure him in so fast and so hard that it’s amazing to me. 

so i guess the foundation is, in the end, this whole… ( vague hand gestures. ) this whole deal of thinking that they’d just have this super magnetic interest in one another. i mean, yeah, even after altissia? yeah, even after altissia. it just? i don’t know. i think that in some ways ignis would lure ardyn in as well for how he’s both selfish and selfless at the same damn time. ardyn would crave that level of devotion for himself, since it was something he lost before he was cast out of history. to see it in ignis? oh, it’s just like icing on the cake. how can he resist that? he wouldn’t be able to.

i just have a lot of reasons and viewpoints for this ship and oh my god i rambled i will shut up now.