Back to Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core! It's like I never left. 8D This one - and the ones that'll hopefully come after it - is meant to be part of some lazy set of lighter-hearted drabbles about Shinra. 8D WE'LL SEE HOW IT WORKS OUT. This one floats alone in the old sea of the odd Zack and Tseng drabble-era.

Prompts are perfectly welcome in the comments. The more hilarious the better!

A July Day (Some People Know Too Much)

Fandom: Final Fantasy VII (Crisis Core timeline)
Characters: Zack, Tseng; random guest appearance by Kunsel
Rating: PG
Warnings: Gen, and humour, alas!
Summary: Zack whiles away a July day, and figures that some people just know too much.

2185 words and an inability to keep things short!

( Zack whistled under his breath. 'This is one crazy city.' )

Many thanks to voksen for the repeated cheerleading and withstanding my Unending Whine. 8D *buffs this fic* I'm really kind of happy with this one. \o/

Passover

Fandom: Gundam Wing
Characters: Zechs, allusions to Treize and 13/6 if you squint. Random guest appearances, including Wufei.
Rating: PG13
Warnings: Set just after the series, but pre-Endless Waltz. Standalone part of a future series (Treize Lives!^TM).
Summary: Friendship is unnecessary; it has no survival value. Zechs lives, but that, too, is an oversimplification.

5651 words and a whole bunch of... words! Plus a summary that cannibalises a C.S Lewis quote.

( An asylum's an asylum by any name. )

The great and wonderful charlie_d_blue is responsible for all the awesome in this fic, and that is true.

Mind Bullets

Fandom: Star Trek XI
Rating: PG
Characters: Kirk, Bones, Pike
Warnings: Set directly before the Romulan attack, in the glory days of peace.
Summary: Kirk versus a machine versus his mind:

'One more,' Bones growls. 'One more, Jim, and then you stop doing this to yourself because it's ridiculous and it's out of hand and you can't win this, this isn't a game.'

'I don't believe,' Jim says sweetly, 'in no-win situations.'

6017 words and Kirk's turn at introspection! In a manner of speaking!

( One day, Bones brings a dongly machine thing into Jim's room and sets it up on Jim's table and then looks Jim in the eye and says, 'Jim, quid pro quo.' )

I never thought I'd put the words "Spock" and "internal monologue" together in the same phrase, but HERE WE GO ANYWAY. 8D

New, And Stumbling Forward

Fandom: Star Trek XI
Rating: PG
Characters: Spock; Pike, Scotty, Chekov, Uhura, Kirk
Summary: After Vulcan, Spock recovers his footing. Genfic.

2508 words and lots of Spock?

( It is a portrait of the galaxy reacting, the children of his home planet's system flung free. )

For bessemerprocess's prompt: Star Trek Reboot, The Crew, what tradition does Star Fleet have for crew members crossing the warp speed barrier for the first time? How does this get celebrated on the Enterprise?

To The Enterprise: of Warp Barriers, Captains, and Other Scary Things

Fandom: Star Trek 2009
Rating: PG
Characters: Chekov, Scotty, Kirk, Spock
Summary: Mr. Spock's eyes flick towards the blatantly huge and complicated (and exciting) and blatantly huge mathematical and engineering schematics on the console screen. Chekov can practically see the cogs in Mr. Spock's mind whirr - he is very, very fast at telemetry, which means there is probably no getting around the fact that what they have here is a plan to break the current warp speed record into many small pieces. Pavel wonders if that is the only thing that will be broken.

2734 words and lots of fail!invented!maths. 8D

( Mr. Spock clears his throat. 'Mr. Sulu, Mr. Chekov,' he intones, and Chekov feels his spine try to straighten itself in a fit of biological self-preservation. 'How long more before we clear the Farmonion Corridor and re-enter established Federation space?' )

The Business of Fear

Fandom: Final Fantasy VII (OGC)/Highlander (/Baccano!)
Characters: Rufus, Methos; cameos by Tseng and Luck
Rating: Soft R
Summary: Rufus needs men who are know something of the business of fear.

Notes: Runs in the same line as New Men (Baccano!/Final Fantasy VII), but you don't need to read it to read this! Written for the no_true_pair prompt: Rufus is bound and blinded -- does Methos try to help, or take advantage of the situation?

4952 words and Rufus doing some recruiting!

( Hide and seek is something Methos has come to be good at over the years, but he has absolutely no illusions about playing against the Shinra Company. )

This fic officially took my brain, injected a thousand CCs of politics into it, beat it up and left me staggering about wildly. I haven't written something like this, I think, since Empery.

The last (and crowning) jewel of the Honourable Men triple bill (they're all standalones, though, so no need to read through).

I humbly request that you give this one a try. ♥ Okay going to go expire from exhaustion now.

Year One

Fandom: Final Fantasy VII (BC through CC)
Characters: Lazard-Tseng-Rufus, Veld, Reeve, does the City of Midgar count?
Rating: PG13
Warnings: Spans through Crisis Core and Before Crisis backstory. You don't need to know BC, but it helps, and there's a tiny appendix at the bottom of the fic to help you if you'd like.
Summary: From the journals of Urban Development, filling in the lives and empty spaces in Midgar.

7575 words and Midgar being alive.

( One gets the impression that we shall soon be bringing them brighter futures as well. )

♥ to voksen for being my enabler and beta! First Gundam Wing fic! I'm only, y'know, about a decade late to this fandom, that's all! :D :D :D Second in the Honourable Men triple bill.

The Old Lie

Fandom: Gundam Wing
Characters: Treize, Zechs (13, 6)
Rating: PG
Summary: All men graduate from one history to another.

1984 (ha!) words and past-fic everywhere!

( 'And to your unreasonable expectations, Lord Khushrenada,' Zechs replies with a private smile, as they drink to oxymorons great and small. )

Fandom check: Final Fantasy XII?! Yeah, I don't know either. \o\ Apparently screaming at your laptop for 30 hours makes you go a bit funny in the head.

First in the second triple bill: and they are all, all honourable men.

Make as much of me as gentry

Fandom: Final Fantasy XII (OGC)
Characters: Ffamran, Dr. Cid
Rating: PG
Warnings: Backstory here we come, Ffamran-who?
Summary: The good doctor once spoke to his good son.

1013 words and lots of Cid posturing! \o

( 'You know, when your mother died, I had a thought,' said the good Doctor. )

IT'S GROWING INTO SOME BIZARRE KIND OF MONSTER.

Some Things You Can't Buy, For Everything Else There's The Theoretical Joint Bunansa-Shinra Empire

Fandom: Final Fantasy VII/Final Fantasy XII/The Stockmarket
Characters: Balthier/Tseng, Rufus/Tseng
Rating: Soft R
Summary: Tseng's in New York, Balthier's in London, and Rufus is in the sky as the world burns around them. Hedging on futures can be such tricky things.
Functional explanation: The stock markets exploded. Balthier, Rufus and Tseng are hot. This comment thread happened.
Inflicted upon the world by: logistika_nyx and karanguni

Previous episodes:

Part the first
Part the second

You don't really have to read them in any order. I don't even know if we have an order.

2363 words and ho'shit, five thousand backstories! \o\

( 'Good boy,' Tseng says with a smile. )

Strange Untitled Stockmarket!AU

Fandom: Final Fantasy VII/Final Fantasy XII/The Stock Exchange
Rating: PG-99
Characters: Balthier/Tseng, Tseng/Rufus
Summary: Tseng's in New York, Balthier's in London, and Rufus is in the sky as the world burns around them. Hedging on futures can be such tricky things.
Functional explanation: It's all logistika_nyx's fault (on LJ). A good chunk of this belongs to her, adapted to fit the situation and tense. You can read the original crack-ery here to see precisely which bits. Nyx: I apologise. Profusely. But probably not profusely enough.

Mostly, this is just a trader!AU: in which Tseng and Balthier make money on the gone-to-shit stock markets of our world. And Rufus waggles his eyebrows a bit. Hooray!

2425 words and oh, such a hell I am going to for this. Beware un-beta'd tense shifts!

( 'Are you an optimist?' Balthier would say into the receiver, when Tseng picked up. )

Don't know how many people on the flist are actually Batman/Batman Beyond fans, but my KF picks seem to be perking some interest, and I have this gigantic multi-parter being fed into my LJ - thought it might be worthwhile porting and compiling what I've got right now over. Have at it! I'd totally love anyone saying anything about this - watch me be terrified on my first really huge major fic! IN A COMPLETELY OFF THE BALL UNFAMILIAR FANDOM! \o/



Better Dead Than Lead arc

compiling Gold is just a trick of the light, And lead is light as a feather and So leave me where the kids are all right.

Characters: Bruce, Dick, Terry
Warnings: Pre-slash sort of edging into the Batfamily's idea of slash. Assumes Return of the Joker has happened; adopts comic backstory for the most part of everything.
Summary: After a 50 year displacement into the future, Dick deals with what has and hasn't changed in the era of Terry McGinnis - of Batmen, and boy wonders.

Wordcount? Over 10,000. I'm not counting this one, oh no...

( You're using your command voice, Dick wants to tell Bruce. Do you realise that? )

I, I am drunk on studying and Pratchett and Seven Nation Army/Sweet Dreams, and it is 415 in the morning, and if I wake up tomorrow and regret this terribly, I will pretend it didn't happen. 8D

Colours

Fandom: Discworld (post-Making Money)
Characters: Vetinari, Moist, Adora Belle cameo
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers for Making Money? Vetinari being creepy?
Summary: Black isn't exactly Moist's colour, but Vetinari prefers to make his own decisions about this (and every) kind of thing.

2111 words, Vetinari showing affection the only way he knows how, and, um, clothes!

( 'Black isn't quite your colour,' said Vetinari, and Moist wasn't sure how to take that. )

Dark City Lights

Fandom: Final Fantasy VII (OGC)
Characters: Tseng/Reno, hinted Tseng/Rufus
Rating: R
Summary: Sometimes you just want the world to burn as much as you burn inside; sometimes you want all hell to break loose so that you don't feel too alone, or too frenetic.

1111 words and one of those pairings I'd never thought I'd write.

( And he's too close to home to feel jaded. )

This one sort of came for me in part because of inspiration from laylah's most amazing fic (I hope you don't mind!); this psychotic little offshoot now rests as the second of my weird pan-fandom immortality Triple Bill. \o\

Title: To Come, And Go
Fandom: Baccano!
Characters: Luck/Claire, Claire/Chane, appearances by the rest of the Gandors
Rating: Soft, soft R
Summary: Luck tries something - some things - he shouldn't, in search of something - some things - that he's not sure he should have.

1877 words and weird little family issues.

( It makes Luck smile, at least, before the doors close and separate them both. )

First in the Triple Bill: three fics from three fandoms dealing with the topic-of-the-day. \o\ Today's exposition courtesy of Friedrich Nietzsche:

"One has to pay dearly for immortality; one has to die several times while one is still alive."

Not my usual fare, I'll be the first to admit, but there's distinct fun in poking pain and torture at Tseng in a way that involves so few guns. 8D

Title: To Pay Dearly
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII (post-CC, pre-AC)
Characters: Tseng, Hojo
Rating: PG
Warnings: Creepy scientist man? Spoilers for BC.
Summary: Good specimens are always the most difficult to acquire.

1062 words and mmmm, Shinra politics all over again.

( Tseng kept his eyes on the electronic count of his heart rate. )

Rufus' interlude for Restorations, go! \o/ Suit!sortofkink, also... sort of go!

Title: Restorations, Interlude I
Rating: PG
Characters: Rufus/Tseng, Reeve
Summary: Even in the aftermath of everything, few men would tell Rufus Shinra what to do with his life.
Warnings: I worldbuild too much. Machiavelli is probably rolling in his grave. Rufus Shinra is an asshole, also.

Restorations I

2657 words and finally managing to manhandle Rufus into a suit. Sorta. Kinda. Almost.

( Dying, to Rufus, was a concept seen in relative terms. )

ONE MORE FIC I NEVER IMAGINED I WOULD WRITE.

Title: Different Country For Different Men
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Vincent/Veld
Summary: Vincent and Veld take a moment in the middle of Midgar rising.
Warnings: Hello, blast from the past. This fic is the total fault of (deep breath) logistika_nyx, knightlineninja, white_jenna, aikonamika and every other person who mentioned the name "Vincent" to me anytime in the last 24 hours. :D

1384 words and holy shit more worldbuilding, what the hell, and Shakespeare.

( Different country for different men, back then. )

Um. This is a "drabble", because Veld says it's so. *BEAMS* There may be "fic" later tonight. God damn Turks.

Title: Honorifics
Rating: PG
Characters: Tseng, Veld. You can turn that comma into a slash, if you want.
Summary: Tseng tries to disinherit himself; Veld thinks he should be doing otherwise. He teaches Tseng to fence with words - in this language and that - because it will be a better blade than any Tseng will ever learn to wield.
Warnings: I don't think I will ever be comfortable counting this in any canon, because it rapes the Japanese language in an attempt to Make Stuff Up About Wutai. Sort of follows after Growing Pains. More wooby Tseng!

1115 words is a drabble; Tseng still has a lot of growing to do. \o\

( 'There are too many ways of getting around the deferential in this language,' Veld points out. 'How many ways would you tier the company if you spoke the right one instead?' )

*PAINED VICTORY CRY* OH GOD YES. If you are looking for polished Tseng - this is not the place. I present to you baby!Tseng and papa!Veld and all the muck of the Past (TM). \o\ /o/

Title: Growing Pains
Rating: Soft R
Characters: Veld/Tseng
Warnings: A bit of manhandling. All in a day's work for a Turk, really. Pairings if you squint.
Summary: Growing into his responsibility as a Turk was not automatic for Tseng; some things you have to be trained how to do.

5507 words and a whole lot of invented Tseng!backstory, oh god.

( Oh?' Veld said, looking up. 'You'll say many things about me when I'm gone, Tseng, but be sure of one thing. You will not say that I brought you up to be a good man.' )