#those works might be floating around under another deleted username still but

[akakumoeteru]

just a small notice but with the slow motion trash wreck that is the bird app i've been seriously debating how i should move house and i know i said before i'd be slowly moving all my mxtx stuff here (a process i have STILL yet to complete because what in the heck i drew so much) but i have also decided to move my pre-MXTX fandom stuff as well >< it's gonna be a lot and my plan is to just post and then backdate the posts to their original relevant post date a few weeks later but it's.... it's a lot. i drew at least the same amount for my previous fandom as i did for mdzs so U_U; anyway, my main concern is spam because of the volume and maybe it won't be so bad because i tend to forget i was posting something partway through the process (hence why my move from bird app to here for mxtx has been going on for like 3 years at this point) but just in case if you're only interested in my danmei stuff, you can feel free to mute the #suzalulu tag ahead of time. there's some other miscellaneous stuff but only a tiny bit in comparison so hopefully people will have patience with me that's it thank you for your patience i'll have more mdzs stuff i forgot to post soon too

[calligraphist-artemisia]

The Sun Prince (Chapter 5)

Summary:  It was an accident. A simple misstep that sent him plunging into the darkness and waking an ancient magic. Now Prompto has to deal with the consequences of making a deal with an Astral and learn how to control the magic blooming inside of him.

Also posted on AO3 and fanfiction.net under the username “kishirokitsune”

-----

Chapter 5: Into the Fire

After all of the running around they'd done, it felt odd to be left with nothing to do except wait. There was little reason to set out and take up a few hunts when Cid promised that he was less than a day away from completing repairs, and so Ignis insisted that they remain on Cape Caem.

There was a sort of logic to it that Prompto couldn't deny, but it didn't stop the boredom from creeping in.

Ignis and Gladio quickly found ways to keep themselves occupied by helping out around the house, while Noctis snuck away to nap in various places until he was inevitably discovered. Prompto entertained himself by walking around and taking pictures of whatever struck his fancy, and eventually his feet led him to the elevator of the lighthouse.

His heart lurched at the thought of rising up to the top in an old lift, but the chance to catch a photograph from the top was too appealing to pass up. He could stomach it for a minute or two, and then he could get back down to solid ground.

That was until he got to the top and found Noctis's most recent hiding spot. The stray cat who kept turning up was there as well, curled up on the prince's chest.

Prompto quietly sat down with his back against the wall, giving himself a moment to breathe and ignore the fact that he was eighty feet up off the ground. His camera offered him a distraction as he scrolled through the pictures he'd taken and deleted the ones that turned out too blurry or were near-identical duplicates. Being near his best friend also helped calm the anxiety he felt.

They would leave for Altissia soon.

Prompto should feel excited about that. He had always dreamed of getting to explore beyond the Wall and see the beauty of the world beyond through the lens of his own camera, and Altissia was supposed to be the most beautiful of all! He would get to take so many photographs – well, hopefully. They weren't going for a vacation, after all.

But...

The more he thought about sailing across the Cygillian Ocean, the more dread he welt, welling up in his chest and threatening to choke the air from his lungs.

He couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was coming.

Maybe it was just his anxiety talking. Or it could be a side-effect of his powers. Either one would explain the awful nightmares that plagued his sleep, preventing him from getting more than a few hours of rest at a time.

Prompto looked over at Noctis, who was still sleeping soundly.

Their time at the chocobo post was short, and Prompto didn't have nearly as much time as he wanted to cuddle the baby chocobo's before Noctis whisked him out of sight for some extra training, while Ignis and Gladio were busy watching some of the races going on.

His magic came to him more easily each time he used it. Noctis expressed his own surprise at how quickly he was advancing, but Prompto brushed it off, remembering what Rhyos said about his body already being used to magic. With a little extra work, he learned how to craft his magic into a sphere shape, rather than the formless light he produced in the beginning.

Prompto wondered what Rhyos was doing and when he would decide to show up again. He hoped it was before they left for Altissia. There were even more questions he wanted to ask and hopefully the Astral would stick around long enough to answer some of them.

Maybe he was waiting until Prompto improved some more? Either that or he got some sort of glee out of making him wait.

Yeah. That second one sounded about right.

Prompto set his camera to the side and held his hands out, palms up. He guided his magic to swirl around, gathering until two golden orbs floated in front of him. He grinned, pleased by how easy it was becoming. With just a little focus, he could direct them to slowly fly around and move independently of one another.

The stray cat made a “mrrp” sound as she woke and watched the orbs with great interest.

“No, kitty,” Prompto said quietly. He pulled the orbs back to his hands and was about to absorb the remaining energy back into his body, when a voice cut through the air and startled him badly enough that they fizzled away.

“What are those?”

Prompto squeaked and twisted around to find Iris standing at the entrance, hands on her hips, and staring down at him with a determined expression.

“I, uh, what are what?” Prompto winced at his poor attempt at a cover-up.

Iris raised an eyebrow.

“Please don't tell anyone,” Prompto tried again.

“Hard to tell anyone when I don't know what's going on,” Iris responded lightly. She shut the door behind her and joined Prompto against the wall, casting a curious look over at Noctis. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Iris was truly a marvel. At only fifteen, she carried herself with such poise and maturity, even when faced with something unexpected, that it was easy to forget how young she was. Prompto supposed it was because she was from a long line of Kingshields and had also grown up in the citadel. Hard to relax and be a child with that amount of pressure.

“It's kind of complicated,” Prompto said, not sure whether or not he wanted to tell her everything. He still hadn't worked up the strength to tell Gladio or Ignis about it! Gladio would never forgive him if he told his little sister first.

Although, it would be good practice.

“Prompto has magic now.”

Or Noctis would take the choice away from him.

Prompto whined and tilted his head back, letting it thunk against the wall. “Dude, not cool.”

“I promised not to tell Gladio or Ignis, but you never said anything about Iris,” Noctis said as he sat up. He ran a hand through his hair, smoothing it out so it didn't look as disheveled after his nap.

“It was implied,” Prompto said crossly.

Iris looked between them apprehensively. “I can just, y'know, go and pretend I didn't see or hear anything?”

“No,” Prompto bit out. He sighed and sat up straight, forcing a smile on his face as he looked over at her. “I mean, I've got to tell everyone eventually, right? And you already saw it, so I'm not going to make you pretend you didn't.”

Iris relaxed. “Okay, well take your time. Or you can let Noctis explain...?”

“Noct isn't allowed to explain anything anymore, but it's like he said. I have magic now,” Prompto told her, taking charge before Noctis could say anything else. (Not that he looked like he wanted to. He was definitely avoiding looking anywhere near his friend after blurting out his secret.) “I fell into these ruins while we were helping out one of the hunters and found this, um, artifact and it gave me magic. Noctis has been helping me control it.”

Simplicity was best, right?

Iris didn't need to know every last detail, like the deal he made with an unknown Astral, or even that Rhyos liked to pop in unexpectedly to talk. Nor did she need to know about the nightmares that plagued his sleep ever since his illness. Even Noctis didn't know about that last one.

“Can you do anything cool with it, like warping? Do you have your own armiger? Not that the magical balls aren't cool, but...” Iris shrugged, apparently unsure of where she was going with her questions.

“No warping, no armiger, and excuse you but the orbs are super cool,” Prompto responded, hoping he came across as joking in the end. He grinned at her for good measure. “I dunno. I can almost make a shield, but I haven't gotten it to hold up against anything. It might have just been a fluke.”

“It's still impressive when you've only been practicing for a few days,” Noctis pointed out.

Iris looked awestruck by everything she was learning. “Seriously? It took Gladio three days just to figure out how to access the armiger and pull out the correct weapon.” She turned immediately to Noctis. “Do not ever tell him that I told you that. Anyway, I think I'm starting to understand why Gladio won't let me travel with you guys. You're both beacons for trouble. He couldn't handle the three of us running around, even with Ignis's help.”

Noctis chuckled.

“You won't tell anyone about this, will you, Iris?” Prompto asked, seized by sudden worry. “I'll tell them eventually. I just haven't figured out how. I will. Soon. In Altissia?” He winced and shut his mouth.

“I think you're making a bigger deal of this than you need to, but I'll keep it a secret for you,” Iris promised. “And because I'm so awesome, I'll let you practice how you're going to tell them on me! It'll be fun!”

Prompto wasn't sure that it would be fun at all, but it was nice of her to volunteer.

Iris grinned at him, taking his silence as agreement. “I'll even do my best impression of Gladio! I'm pretty good at it, right, Noctis?”

“I dunno. I don't think you've got that patented grumpy stare down yet,” Noctis said thoughtfully.

Iris proceeded to prove that she was very good at impersonating her brother, though the glare looked wildly out of place on her sweet face.

-----

A woman with fiery red hair woven into intricate braids led the way down a well-lit passageway. Water flowed down the tall, white stone walls and pooled along the sides, but never moved closer to where she walked. She was draped in blue silks decorated with golden symbols, and the fabrics flowed as she moved towards a massive door.

Behind her, a crowd of people slowly followed, leaving proper space for those carrying two white caskets, one behind the other. All were silent.

The towering white walls were bathed in the golden light of the sun, though as it began to set, shadows rose from the floor and began to cover the walls. Neither the woman nor the procession behind her faltered in step.

The door, with bands of gold representing the rays of the sun, over which a bird with rainbow feathers was placed, began to shimmer with a red light. It spread across the walls, lighting up hidden symbols, and the door soundlessly opened.

A melodious hymn filled the halls as they began their descent into the depths.

At the end of the procession was a familiar man with long dark hair and red eyes.

“Rhyos?” Prompto gasped in bodiless form.

As though he heard him, Rhyos turned to look around. When his eyes met Prompto's, everything went black.

Lady Lunafreya appeared in the darkness and Prompto opened his mouth to scream a warning, but no sound came out. He was forced to watch, helpless, as a featureless figure stabbed her in the side and red spread across the fabric of her white gown. She fell back and her trident slid form her grasp.

-----

Prompto gasped for air as he woke, tears streaming down his face. He sat up and pulled his legs to his chest, trembling as he tried to silence his sobs.

Nearby, Noctis mumbled in his sleep.

It took him a few minutes to calm down, but even as his heartbeat slowed to a normal pace, he knew he wouldn't get back to sleep that night. He lifted his head from his knees and that was when he saw the figure sitting near the window, moonlight illuminating his form.

“Rhyos,” Prompto whispered, too drained from his most recent nightmare to feel surprise.

“I apologize for visiting at such a late hour, however it came to my attention that things are progressing more quickly than anticipated.” Rhyos gave Prompto no chance to respond. “There has not been a wearer of the crown who experienced visions like yours since the height of Solheim power. Why did you not tell me?”

Prompto glanced worriedly at Noctis, but his friend showed no signs of stirring. “They're just nightmares. It didn't seem important,” he whispered.

Rhyos narrowed his eyes. “You speak of more than the funeral you glimpsed. Tell me about this nightmare of yours, and do not worry about your prince. He is a heavy sleeper.”

That didn't mean Prompto wanted to risk waking him up, but he also couldn't let his chance to talk to Rhyos go to waste. “I keep seeing... someone getting hurt. Someone important,” he said, being purposefully vague.

“You will need to be more detailed than that.”

Prompto closed his eyes. “I keep seeing Lady Lunafreya being stabbed. I can't see who's doing it or where she is. It's like I'm floating in this dark void.”

“It is not unusual for visions of a probable future to look that way. Nothing is set in stone and there is always the chance that the future can change. If you are seeing something, it is either to prepare you for what is coming or it is a hint of something that needs to be changed,” Rhyos explained. “Visions of the past are more clear.”

Visions.

Nausea roiled in Prompto's stomach and he took a moment to try and calm it down. His thoughts wailed profanities.

Lady Lunafreya was in danger and he didn't have the first idea of where or who the threat was. Was he not meant to know? Was it like Rhyos said and the vision was meant to prepare him for what was coming?

No.

Prompto refused to let that be her fate.

There had to be something he could do. His powers had to be good for more than just killing daemons!

“How can I stop it from happening?” he asked.

“The visions themselves will ease up now that you understand their warning, but it is likely you will occasionally glimpse moments of the past. Some are to help you in your life. Others, such as the one you had tonight, are because of me,” Rhyos said.

Prompto frowned. “You sent me that vision?”

Rhyos shook his head. “Not intentionally. It was a moment I was dwelling heavily upon. The crown and I have a connection and it likely picked up on that.” He paused for a moment. “Perhaps the next vision you have will be the creation of the crown. I think you would enjoy that one.”

As long as it let him get a proper night of sleep, Prompto wouldn't complain. He took a deep breath, trying to remember the questions that he forgot to write down. “Um, so... are those all of them? The visions and the magic, I mean. Or should I prepare for anything else because of the crown?”

“Your magic will continue to grow stronger, as will your control over it, but I cannot say for certain what other abilities the crown will grant you. It decides for itself who is worthy and of what,” Rhyos said as he stood up. “Long ago, I granted it to the Kings of Solheim, blessing it with the power so that they may protect their people. Now it is in your hands. The power you now possess will enable you to protect your people; those you care about most. That is its foremost function.

“It is not a tool of war, nor of greed. A lesser mortal could not command the abilities to come forth. What you have been granted is a mark of the purity of your soul. Of your desire to do good.”

Prompto could feel the burn of Rhyos's eyes on him. “But I'm not anyone special.”

Rhyos smiled. “And that, perhaps, is why you are the perfect candidate.”

“And what of the cost?” cut in a new voice.

Even Rhyos looked surprised as Noctis sat up and ran a hand through his hair. Dark eyes met red, and the Astral gave a respectful bow.

“What ever do you mean, Prince Noctis?” Rhyos asked.

“There's always a cost,” Noctis said, wholly serious. “I've spent my whole life watching my father's life be drained away. I know what it feels like to ask an Astral to come to our aid. What is the cost that Prompto pays for all of this?”

For a moment, Rhyos did not speak.

Prompto looked between them, wondering if he should be the one to break the silence, but he was curious too.

Rhyos smiled, his expression more gentle than Prompto had ever seen. “Worry not, young prince, there is no price to pay. That crown will not drain his life away nor make him grow weak. I always preferred lifting my chosen people to new heights rather than limiting what they can do.”

Relief washed over Prompto. It hadn't been one of his worries until Noctis brought it up, but the relief came nevertheless.

“I fear my time with you is coming to an end. I would hate to be the reason you lose anymore sleep than you already have,” Rhyos said. “There is one last thing I need to speak with you about, and that is your voyage across the Cygillian.” He waited until both of them were paying attention before continuing. “Altissia is the domain of Leviathan and her favored Messengers. It is not a place where I am welcomed, and as such, I will be unable to help you as long as you are there. Both of you, be cautious. The Tidemother's memory is long and her mood changes with the ebb and flow of the tide itself. Prove to her your strength and she will aid you. Fail and she will devour you.”

“Bleak,” Prompto commented.

Rhyos grinned. “I look forward to your return.”

The last thing Prompto remembered was Rhyos walking across the room and the feeling of warm fingertips against his forehead. Comfortable darkness rushed to greet him and he sank into the depths of slumber, where only pleasant dreams awaited him.

[sage-nebula]

Fic Writer Meme

I was indirectly tagged by @blondepomeranian, and I’ve never done this one before, so . . .

Let’s do it!

What is your total word count on AO3?

368,083. But, two things:

105,386 of those words belong to Whispers in the Dark, which to date is the longest thing I’ve written in modern times, and what I consider to be my magnum opus. And

As high as that word count may seem, it nowhere near encapsulates the sheer amount I’ve actually written. Most of my works are not on AO3. I have a decent amount on my FFN (same username), and as you can see on my fic page, I have a ton of fics for fandoms such as YGO which are here on tumblr, but not on AO3. And that’s not even getting into the drabbles and little snippets that are going to rest forever in my fic fix tag without even making it to my fic page because they’re incomplete, or the fics that used to be posted here but have since been deleted . . . and so on and so forth. You get the idea. I’ve written a lot in my time. More than can be counted.

How often do you write?

Not as often as I should in recent times. I try to write at least something every day, because my brain feels itchy if I don’t, but at the risk of sounding melodramatic, my standards are such that if I feel that the sentences I’m writing aren’t up to scratch, it worsens my depression and I turn away from it to go play a video game instead (since video games are what I cling to when my depression is acting up). Again, I understand that sounds super melodramatic and pathetic, but it’s literally what has been happening to me since November. I feel like the things I write are just not good enough, and as such my productivity drops despite the fact that I have a multitude of ideas (my WIPs list is ridiculously long) and a desire to get them done (and deadlines to get them done by). I’m a mess.

Do you have a routine for writing?

Yes. It goes like this:

Sit down somewhere (e.g. my chair at work, my desk chair at home, my couch at home, my bed, et cetera).

Open my laptop and turn it on.

Open MS Word.

Write.

If I’m at home, I sometimes break one of the most important rules and “leave the room” to get up and act out scenes like an embarrassing dork in the midst of writing (usually when it comes to fight scenes and the like; I like to mime the action so I can make sure that arms are supposed to bend that way . . . but also, more embarrasingly, sometimes I just get excited about my ideas and jump around to fitting music). I don’t do that at work because I’m not in the business of humiliating myself in front of my coworkers like that.

But yeah, seriously, I just sit down and do the thing. At least, when I can make myself sit down and do the thing and my depression isn’t making everything I produce read like garbage to me (and making me feel like worthless trash as a result). As I mentioned above, that’s been a struggle the past few months.

What are your favorite kinks/tropes/pairing?

I’m not interested in smut, so I don’t have any favorite kinks. Like, no judgment on people who are into that, you do you, et cetera. It’s just not my thing.

As for tropes:

Found families. This one is so, so, so important to me, on an actually, really emotional level. I’m not going to go into my whole history here and explain why this concept is so important to me, but my own lived experiences are why it’s so important to me, and why I love, love, love loving familial relationships (especially ones where it’s an older sibling & younger sibling, or a parent & child) in fiction, particularly when they’re found family instead of blood related. (Like, blood related ones can be great, too---look at the Elric brothers!---but the found families really get me in my heart, considering my own experiences.) Often times I’ll prefer these platonic family ships to romantic ships, honestly. They just very often feel more meaningful to me. Not always, but often.

That one trope where one person is under mind control / hypnosis / amnesia / whatever and they’re forced to fight a loved one; often paired with the loved one pulling a “I know you’re in there somewhere---fight!” on them: I don’t know if this has a specific trope name, but you know what I’m talking about. I’m all about that drama where someone is under mind control, or they’re possessed, or they’re under hypnosis, or they have amnesia and have been brainwashed, or whatever, and they’re forced to fight someone they love. Give me all of that tragic angst, I am here for it, there is a reason why my favorite duel in all of YGO is the pier duel. Even as a young child the 4Kids advertisements for that four part special in the anime made me so excited because it was exactly my brand of delicious angst. Even better is when the loved one is constantly trying to talk to the mind controlled / possessed one, desperately trying to get them to remember . . . and then the strength of their bond makes it work. Oh man does that really stab me right through the heart. Like, fam, I straight up bawled in the theater when Hiccup was talking to Toothless to get through the mind control and succeeded in How to Train Your Dragon 2. Straight up cried. It was such a moment, and exactly my tastes. Speaking of . . .

Soulmates, both platonic and romantic: This is another one that, tbh, I can trace back to my various issues, and I’m not going to get into the explanation here and now, but suffice it to say that I really, really do love the idea of characters having someone who understands them perfectly, whose soul matches theirs perfectly. And I don’t just mean this in a romantic way, as specified, because I believe that platonic soulmates exist, and I love those, too. I especially love them when the platonic soulmates are between a human and their animal companion (e.g. Hiccup & Toothless who are canonically platonic soulmates, Alan & Lizardon, Ash & Pikachu, et cetera). Those relationships mean an exorbitant amount to me as well. I’m 100% here for it, always, all the time.

Best friends to lovers: On a romantic side, I’m a firm believer that your romantic significant other should be your best friend, so of course I’m here for best friends to lovers. On that note, I love slow burns; I’m all here for allowing the friendship to grow first and then making the relationship romantic, should things go that way. (As an example of how slow it can be sometimes: In my Paradigm Shift AU series, Keith and Lotor are together platonically / as teammates for six years before they kiss for the first time, and altogether ten before they get engaged. Yeah. It takes that long. Might not seem like it took that long given the fics I’ve written so far, but trust me, when the prequels go up, you’ll see that it really did take them that long, and they didn’t even start out as enemies in that ‘verse (at least, not really). They were just that slow about it.)

There are more tropes that I love, but that’s a long enough list for now. As far as favorite ships go, I’m assuming you mean favorite ships to write, so in recent times:

Romantic Ships: Keith/Lotor (VLD), Jounouchi/Yuugi (YGO)

Platonic Ships: Keith & Acxa (VLD), Keith & Kolivan (VLD), Alan & Sycamore (PokéAni), Alan & Lizardon (PokéAni)

I have other ships, both romantic and platonic, that I really, really love---but as far as ones I really, really love that I’ve actually written, those are the most recent.

Do you have a favorite fic of yours?

The aforementioned Whispers in the Dark, but I’m also still very fond of Genesis, and right now I’m also pretty attached to my Paradigm Shift series in VLD, of which three works in it have been posted, with the most notable one being Revolutionary (but I have far more planned, because I’ve done a lot of worldbuilding for this series so far; I just have to actually write it). 

Your fic with the most kudos?

The aforementioned Revolutionary, with 390. I’m both extremely grateful and very humbled that people like that fic so much, especially considering how hard I worked on it.

Anything you don’t like about your writing?

My melodramatic ass wants to sit here like

considering the rut I feel like I’ve been in, but without being super Extra™ about it:

My greatest struggle has always been with description. I’m very character-focused; I focus both on internal monologue and motivation, as well as external dialogue, conversation, and relationship building. For me, action comes through feelings, thoughts, and words. Unfortunately, that’s only one part of writing; if you don’t properly set the scene, your characters will be floating in a void. And that’s fine, if they’re actually meant to be floating in a void, but usually they’re not. All the same, while I can often visualize a scene very clearly in my head in terms of who is saying what and what’s going on, I often feel as if I’m writing with all the eloquence of a children’s book a la See Spot Run. My sentences feel clunky or awkward because I’m so focused on getting to the part where the characters can talk again, and though I try to insert the blocking around the dialogue, it just feels . . . awkward and clunky, like the sentences are just not cooperating with me. It’s what I’ve been suffering with since November, and I’m not sure I’ve really moved past this. I’m not sure that my recent works have been up to scratch, even by other people’s standards (which isn’t to say that I’m better than anyone, before anyone gets it twisted, it’s just that I’m aware that I’m more critical of myself than other people are of me).

So I would say that description / blocking is my biggest weakness. I try to struggle past it, but god, is it a struggle for real. Any time someone says they like my descriptions my heart lifts, because it means that a metric ton of really hard work paid off.

Now something you do like?

Well, I touched on it already, but I feel that character development, dialogue, and relationship development are my strong suits. Dialogue comes very naturally to me, and I find it very easy to slip into character voices. I like to think that I have a real knack for it, that I can write engaging, interesting characters that sound different from each other and that feel realistic, and that the relationships between the characters in my fics are the strongest selling point of my stories. I don’t know if any of that is true, but I really do enjoy writing dialogue and often run through it in my head, even when I’m not actively writing. I really feel it’s a strong point of mine.

(And I really hope that doesn’t sound braggy, but in my defense, it was one of the questions asked, haha ;; )