Nourah and Catherine live almost three thousand years apart—but they have a shared history and questions about all the missing pieces in it.

2022 note SF, parallel historical/modern narratives. A really intriguing premise and I’m particularly gripped by the modern character’s experiences as she tries to cope with her unusual powers.

On an otherwise all-too-ordinary day in 1814, Mr Mozart receives both an unusual letter from Vienna and a commission of sorts from Whitehall that thrusts him into a world of intrigue, espionage, murder, and delicate international negotiations. Somewhat relatedly, there’s a rather important diplomatic congress unfurling…

2022 note casefic starring alternate-universe Mozart. Really enjoyable tone, full of brilliant references and I always love it when an author has done huge amounts of research (and even includes a list of works cited! 😍). I’ll have to go back and reread this one when I haven’t just been trying to get through an entire fest collection in one morning, because there are so many little features I want to be able to fully appreciate.

Ashe has become accustomed to sharing sleeping quarters with the rest of the Resistance. She is not accustomed to those roommates including her father's murderer.

Left to rebuild in Burmecia, Gaia's last remaining knight-errant struggles to pick up the pieces. Freya Crescent has one quest left and it might just be the end of her.

Or it would, if she were alone.

2022 note I was honoured with [this] fantastic piece … an absolute delight.

“Is something the matter?”

“W-what? Oh... no, I’m okay.”

“Please, if something troubles you, you may confide in me. I’ll do whatever is necessary to put your mind at ease.”

Vivi wins the Festival of the Hunt and asks Steiner for a favor before returning to the castle.

The world sees a monster, dragged from the depths chained and screaming, a warning to all who would stand in her master's way. Once, a man found her and saw instead hope for a united future, and a son looked upon her as the font of all goodness in his cloistered world. Yet none of this is the truth of her, not in entirety. If you listen in a long-forgotten temple, she will tell it herself, as much as she can remember.

2022 note #jyscal

His touch is tender, as if he fears Dion would break if he held him as he normally did. Terence is leaning on his elbow, that same hand pressed to the top of his head, leaving his other hand to grip his waist. The kiss Dion receives is gentle and over too quickly, with Terence pressing their foreheads together.

"Dion," he says. "I was so scared I'd never see you again."

After the final battle, Dion wakes up.

2023 note “It truly is him, his lovely Terence.” #in my dion/terence phase

After everything is said and done, Dion is left to pick up the pieces.

2023 note #dion gets whumped

Moments of contemplation on the endless march towards death.

2023 note #DION IS BRASKA

“Terence, perhaps this is selfish of me,” Dion says. His cheeks flush deeper now, his smile replaced with an anxious uncertainty.

“You are a great many things, Dion,” Terence says carefully, “but I have never known you to be selfish.” Terence feels his own face burning with the depth of Dion’s attention, but he sees that the prince is working up to something important, and would not rush him.

Terence and Dion are drinking wine pilfered from Whitewyrm Palace's cellars. Perhaps it's easier to talk about their feelings this way, and to act on them. But perhaps it's easier to make mistakes, as well.

2023 note #they have sex

Terence knows himself. He knows his love to be fierce but quiet. He knows his devotion to be tireless and absolute. But most of all, he knows he wants to give Dion the world.

But amidst duties and war, sometimes giving Dion the world simply means playing his games. Games which prey on Terence’s own desires as much as they satiate Dion’s.

Or. Terence eagerly continues their game from last time (at Dion's request)

2023 note #they have sex

There are gifts she has been given in life and when she looks at her oldest warden and his most loyal vassal there are gifts still flowing freely; no one had to love her. They made a choice to offer a young girl a place in the circle of their lives, just like they had chosen each other again and again.

--And so no matter the agony, the story unfolds and Kihel cannot bring herself to regret a minute of it despite the flood of tears when the chapter closes.

2023 note #they grow old together and die

2023 note I’m not usually a fan of the “Dion and Terence adopt Kihel” take, although [this fic] kind of changed my mind on that? It’s gorgeous, anyway.

Alternative link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49504939

The days following Terence’s encounter with Dion pass slowly. Painfully. In some ways, nothing changes. His days follow the same routines as they have for several years. In other ways, everything is different now.

Terence can only interpret Dion’s avoidance of the subject of what transpired between them as regret. They continue to spend time together outside of duty, but there is a new distance between them. Neither of them know how to talk about this thing hanging between them, nor do they know how to talk about anything else.

Terence learns to live with his heartbreak as days turn into weeks, and weeks into months. When the Dragoons are deployed to deal with a Royalist incursion, Dion is called upon to field Bahamut in battle for the first time. In the aftermath, the Knight and his Prince find solace in each other once more.

2023 note #they have sex, #The Curse, #mutual whumping

Dion is a quiet and thoughtful companion. It’s what makes this conversation pour from Clive's mouth uninvited.

2023 note he’s just a sad little guy

“If you want comfort, come to me first,” he says, words spilling softly against her temples. “That’s what family is for.”
(Tigris and Coriolanus in the aftermath)

Set pre-OG. Jessie's excited to start her new coding job at Shinra Inc. But it's not what she expects...

Somewhat AU given it's pretty unlikely Gaia would develop all the same tools with the same names independently.

Note: This is somewhat technical, though not suuuper in-depth. Think 'I know what a version control system is' level. Feel free to read otherwise, just warning you that it might be a wall of jargon. I can't really tell.

2024 note Command line bants

Zidane has all kinds of helpful ideas. Garnet is finding it a little much.

Written for a prompt that I liked on the ffxvi_kink_meme. It really played with what I like about their dynamic.

Written for the "ghost" prompt over at spook_me. As I was writing this I realized this was more inline with my big Dion character study project and decided to cut this story down to a sweeter size. This could be a companion fic to Visiting Statues. Post-game.

Four heroes, each bearing a crystal, come to Coneria, and it goes about as well as you'd expect.