#FFXIVWrite2022 30 Day Challenge

[wordsworn]

Master post for all my entries into the FFXIVWrite challenge over on twitter/tumblr!

(Anything explicit or requiring cw: will be marked as such; everything else should be SFW.)



Prompt #1: Cross | ✧ Sizhu Jakkya (WoL) + G'raha Tia ✧ | ShB spoilers
[Just a snapshot of my wholesome catship LOL]

Prompt #2: Bolt | ✧ Sizhu Jakkya (WoL) + Emet-Selch + Hermes (+ mention of Hythlodaeus) ✧ | EW spoilers
[Total crack, written in an hour-long flurry of feverish writing, as usual if I don't feel super inspired by the prompt things get dumb, fight me, but it's still fun/funny to ME, CATTE IS CATTE, KNOCKING THINGS OFF TABLES, SIZHU GETS THE ZOOMIES LMAO, I might want to expand this one later idk LOL]

Prompt #3: Temper | ✧ Warrior of Light + Minfilia + Thancred ✧ | EARLY ARR spoilers and maybe hints at some other spoilers but nothing obvious unless you Know Things already
[What if Thancred hadn't been late to the fight when you faced down Ifrit for the first time? AU, written to make Phase scream. CW: Tempering, brief violence, implied impending major character death]

Prompt #4: Free Prompt - θάρρος (Thárros); Courage | ✧ Sizhu Jakkya (WoL) x G'raha Tia ✧ | Spoilers up through 6.1
[More wholesome catship; on her return from another trip to Aglaia, G'raha is taken by surprise at Sizhu's attire.]

Prompt #5: Cutting Corners | ✧ Hades + Hythlodaeus (implied Hades -> Azem) ✧ | EW spoilers
[After assisting Azem with saving that island and its grapes, Hades confronts Hythlodaeus about the indisputable part he'd played in the whole fiasco--but their conversation does not go at all the way Hades had planned.]

Prompt #6: Onerous | ✧ Mikh'a Jakkya (non-WoL adventurer, WoL's twin brother) ✧ | SB spoilers
[What happened to Sizhu's twin brother when she was snatched away to the First? Mikh'a tells of it in his own words.]

Prompt #7: Pawn | ✧ Emet-Selch (Hades) -> WoL (& Azem) ✧ | ShB spoilers
[Emet-Selch always plays the long game. Musings on chess pieces and the Warrior of Light.]

Prompt #8: Tepid | ✧ Cres Shatterheart (non-WoL adventurer) ✧ | ...no spoilers really? stuff from a minor sidequest is mentioned
[The reasons vary from person to person, but most adventurers are somewhat the same, deep down. No matter how arduous or tedious, sometimes the task itself is its own reward.]

Prompt #9: Yawn | ✧ Talys Shatterheart (WoL) ✧ | EW Spoilers
[In this timeline, the WoL is a f!Viera Sharlayan scholar with zero battle experience, who is doing a Forum-funded field study about adventurers for her thesis...and who is pulled into being Very Personally Involved in everything when she realizes two facts: 1) she's actually pretty badass at this fighting stuff, and 2) somehow, the whole world needs her.]

Prompt #10: Channel | ✧ Hermes -> f(Miqo'te)!WoL ✧ | EW SPOILERS ALL THE WAY DOWN
[He wants her, even though he knows that he should not. But she’s the only one he’s ever met who truly understands how he feels...and his emotions have always proven difficult for him to tame. Why should these sorts of feelings be any different? EW spoilers, takes place during the Elpis questline. CW: depression (it's Hermes), slight dom contemplations/mild sexuality (no actual sex tho)]

Prompt #11: Free Prompt - Embrace | ✧ Hermes -> f(Miqo'te)!WoL ✧ | EW SPOILERS FOR DAYS, YO
[I enjoyed that last drabble so much, I picked up right where that one left off and did another. c:]

Prompt #12: Miss the Boat | ✧ Sarhnai Dotharl + Koharu Sumeragi (WoLs) + Scions ✧ | EW spoilers OF COURSE
[FINALLY wrote some Dargon Girls AU! In which there are TWO WoLs who are both shards of Azem, who both ended up on the Source--soul-sisters, if you will. c: Koharu is mine and Sarhnai belongs to my friend, the wonderful incontrast. <3]

Prompt #13: Confluence | ✧ Sizhu Jakkya (WoL) + Ardbert ✧ | ShB Spoilers
[Phase gave me this idea, so these feels are her fault.]

Prompt #14: Attrition | ✧ Crystal Exarch (-> WoL) ✧ | Shadowbringers Spoilers LIKE WHOA man

Prompt #15: Row | ✧ Emet-Selch (Hades) + Azem (Persephone) ✧ | All The Endwalker Spoilers

Prompt #16: Deiform | ✧ Koharu (WoL) x Hien ✧ | EW role quest spoilers
[My soft dargon-girl has dokis for Hien pretty bad, and finds a way to show him a very small bit of just how badly. I still think it's kinda "eh" but Phase likes it, so it can't be terrible.]

Prompt #17: Novel | ✧ Koharu (WoL) x Hien (continued from previous prompt) ✧ | Spoilers for a Stormblood Dungeon, I Guess?
[Continued from the previous drabble, very short but my head is killing me, so. This will do. :c]

Prompt #18: Free Prompt - Fruit | ✧ Hermes -> f(Miqo'te)!WoL ✧ | Endwalker Spoilers OBVIOUSLY
[I wanted to keep writing more for that same Hermes idea...and it's a free prompt, so I did.]

Prompt #19: Turn a Blind Eye | ✧ Elidibus (Themis) + Azem ✧ | All The Spoilers, Especially for Pandæmonium
[Themis is concerned about Azem's censure, only to find that he needn't be. Pandæmonium spoilers, plus a hint of my own predictions about where that questline might go...]

Prompt #20: Anon | ✧ Aymeric x/+ unnamed F!WoL ✧ | ARR Spoilers, oh noes
[...Yeah, I hate this one. But, sucky prompt, sucky drabble. Only makes sense.]

Prompt #21: Solution | ✧ Talys Shatterheart (WoL) ✧ | No Spoilers, Lots of Anti-Garlean Feels

Prompt #22: Veracity | ✧ Sizhu Jakkya (WoL) + Emet-Selch (Hades) ✧ | ShB & EW Spoilers
[I don't much like this one either, but it's there.]

Prompt #23: Pitch | ✧ Fandaniel (+ hints of current one-sided and possible future-life Fandaniel/WoL) ✧ | Endwalker Spoilers FOREVER
[Get ready for a feels-punch, that is all]

Prompt #24: Vicissitudes | ✧ Thancred + Urianger + CATBABIES ✧ | No Spoilers, Just Headcanons
[This is really bad and really dumb, but these two catbabies are headcanon for me now...]

Prompt #25: Free Prompt - Halcyon | ✧ Hermes -> f(Miqo'te)!WoL ✧ | Endwalker Spoilers
[Con't from the previous free prompt~]

Prompt #26: Break A Leg | ✧ Koharu Sumeragi (WoL) + Sarhnai Dotharl (WoL) vs Zenos yae Galvus ✧ | SB spoilers
[COLLAB WITH PHASE \o/]

Prompt #27: Hail | ✧ Koharu Sumeragi (WoL) + Sarhnai Dotharl (WoL) ✧ | SB spoilers
[Con't from yesterday's. Koharu has a mad, and Zenos is 100% it.]

Prompt #28: Vainglory | ✧ Emet-Selch (Hades) i.e. "Solus zos Galvus" ✧ | All Spoilers, All The Time
[PHASE AND I PLAY CATCH WITH THE GARLEAN HATE BALL AGAIN. Uhhhh, I mean...Emet musings RE: building the stupid bull$h!t that is the Garlean Empire.]

Prompt #29: Fuse | ✧ Hythlodaeus (-> Azem) ✧ | Endwalker Spoilers
[Mehhhh this one is so unfocused...but oh well, it's done. Might revisit and turn it into something else later.]

Prompt #30: Sojourn | ✧ Sizhu Jakkya (WoL) + Venat ✧ | Endwalker Spoilers ;_;
[A good place to end. :c]

Comments

Prompt #5: Cutting Corners | ✧ Hades + Hythlodaeus (implied Hades -> Azem) ✧ | EW spoilers

[wordsworn]

“I must confess that I see no cause for finding you in such ill temper over this, most eminent Emet-Selch. Is there truly any harm in cutting a few corners, when it’s done for the betterment of the star?”

“Yes,” was Hades’s immediate, peevish answer as he angled a fierce sideways glare at the violet-haired man pacing along the streets at his side. “There is oft a reason for doing things a certain way. And while the fulfillment of our duty is of the utmost importance, how we go about doing so remains relevant, regardless of the circumstances.”

They walked in silence for a time before Hythlodaeus mildly pointed out, “She saved a village with that ‘outrageous stunt’, you know.”

“I know.” I was there, if you’ll recall.

“A village that the Convocation had already given up as lost, if I remember rightly?”

“You do not,” Hades retorted, snappishly biting out each word, turning his masked face forward once again and striding on with purpose, though truly he had no chosen destination in mind at this moment. “The Convocation intended to discuss the matter, and had yet to reach a verdict, when one of our number took matters into her own hands. Indeed, she made use of a very particular concept from the Bureau of the Architect...one that cannot be readily procured for personal use.”

“Most curious,” Hythlodaeus commented, his tone light as ever, and utterly devoid of any trace of guilt--though not quite devoid of any trace of laughter.

Irrepressible personality aside, Hades settled the blame for this squarely on Azem’s shoulders. It was entirely her influence that had their mutual friend behaving every bit as incorrigibly as she was wont to do.

“The only thing that’s curious about it is that you seem to think that I don’t know precisely how she got hold of that concept,” he growled, his irritation only increased by the unmistakable sound of a poorly-muffled chuckle from the man at his side. “Perhaps there truly is need to discuss your suitability for your office at the Hall of Rhetoric--particularly if you’ve become so short-sighted as to believe your involvement wouldn’t be recognized.” He felt his brow furrowing deeply, his lips going thin as he leveled that familiar threat at his old friend--still idle, as they both knew, but this time he at least halfway meant it.

Hythlodaeus’s silence indicated that he’d noted that hint of seriousness as well, and he was taking a moment to ruminate on that. Yet, as ever, in the end his irrepressible nature caused him to simply laugh once again, his grin wide enough for Hades to see it from the corner of his vision.

“Ah, I see, your reason for taking such deep offense must be a personal one. After all, you were pulled into the matter as well. Your help was likely what prevented things from getting out of hand, thus also preventing Azem from being censured again.”

Hades felt his shoulders tensing at that gentle accusation, for Hythlodaeus was very close to the truth, as well they both knew. All that remained was for the other man to speak the words aloud, to give one final verbal nudge.

Hythlodaeus will know, the errant thought wandered through Hades’s mind as he cursed himself for a fool. Such keen sight was not a thing to be trifled with, or so easily dismissed, after all.

“You care about her a great deal, don’t you?” mused the Chief of the Bureau of the Architect, a sly note in his tone that Hades immediately misliked, and indeed took offense to. Beneath his mask, his scowl deepened, and he resolutely refused to either pause or turn his head to meet Hythlodaeus’s eye.

“It is my duty-” he began stiffly, only to have his words cut off with a laugh that was, for all its soft placidity, implacable and unrelenting as the steady shifting of the sun through the sky.

“It has nothing to do with your duty, my friend. Indeed, you were wont to fly to her side at a word well before you accepted your current seat amongst the Convocation of Fourteen...”

That brought Hades up short, turning sharply to face his companion head-on, the intensity of his glare obvious even through his mask.

“If you have a point to make in all of this, which I highly doubt, I should take it as a kindness if you would make it already, and leave me to enjoy what remains of my night in peace.”

Hythlodaeus had drifted to a stop as well, and seemed not the least bit daunted by his friend’s overt hostility, not that he ever was. He lingered a telling moment before answering, unruffled and unhurried by his friend’s simmering vexation, which his knowing, slow-growing smile only served to inflame further--perhaps intentionally so, perhaps not.

“I believe my point has already been made,” he observed with that mellow smugness that Hades found so insufferable, if only because he was so often right--as he was in this case, of which the pleased sideways pull of his smirk indicated that he was well aware. “Don’t you, Hades?”