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.' )

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. )

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. )

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. )

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. )

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.' )

This is the first part of a longer fic that I don't have the time to write as a one shot. It's - just read it, okay? I'll buy you cookies if you do. Or something. 8D Based on a canon-AU; I am wondering if roads_diverged will let me post this there? HI? HI?

Title: Restorations I
Rating: PG
Characters: Tseng, Rufus, Reeve, Wutai, Midgar, everyone.
Summary: And Shinra said, we are going to save the world, and then said, but let us start with restorations.
Warnings: First part of a multiparter - one or two more chapters planned. Canon AU. "What happens after Midgar". Gen, with slash when you squint. You may have to squint less in other chapters. Rufus Shinra is in the god damned house.

2410 words, and Rufus would like you to know that he is perfectly harmless, thank you.

( They sent him into Wutai because it was the predictable thing to do, and these days it paid to do things predictably. )

[and random ad again:] Go forth, ye kind hearted people, I know you want to.

So, instead of working on Springkink or 0TP, what do I do? Collect Turk!prompts and write 'em, naturally. 8D Going to hell now.

Title: Autumn Has Departed
Rating: PG
Characters: Tseng, Rufus cameo, mentions of Zack
Summary: After the stigma comes the cleansing. Everyone in Shinra has their own forms of absolution; Tseng's is pilgrimage.
Warnings: Set after AC, with a whole lot of arbitrary worldbuilding thrown in for kicks.

1527 words and this waka:

If I knew the way
I'd seek it out and set forth too;
With scarlet leaves
Woven into offerings,
Autumn has departed

( 'There's something I need to do,' Tseng replied. )

Irrelevant to fic below, but: I want to write Turkfic so hard right now, but I've got this block the size of Jupiter in my brain, or something. Leave prompts, flist? Cookies if they include Tseng? Extra chocolate chips if they include, say, a way a Turk'd... deal with a target?

For aikonamika (Turks on a no-kill job):

Title: 5 Times Tseng Did Interesting Negotiations
Rating: PG
Characters: Tseng, implied Tseng/Rufus and a whole bunch of cameos
Warnings: I jump canons like I jump rope.
Summary: Tseng doesn't have to get blood on his hands to make a point.

1252 words and more timeline jumps than you can shake a stick at.

( Looking back, Veld had found it as important to teach Tseng how to speak as it was to teach him how to kill. )

Here I point to my fic, and I point to New Men at no_true_pair.

Baccano!/Final Fantasy VII, Luck/Tseng/Rufus.

It's a new age when men are unafraid of being exactly what they are; Luck envies them enough to put on the suit and call himself Shinra. (2822 words.)

Springkink crosspost over from LJ; oh god this was such a rushed piece, I am amazed that people think it's even legible. *____*

Title: Tradition
Rating: Hard R
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Warnings: Springkink prompt was: Final Fantasy VII, Tseng/Elena: Victory celebration/Turk tradition - We like strong, happy people/Who don't think there's something wrong with pride
Summary: Not everything has to break you to help make you.

1408 words of sorta rushed writing, negotiable timelines and het!

( And then she breathes in, and pushes his chin up. )

*sings* This is me going to hell, this is me going to hell~

Title: Outward From Midgar
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII/Lucifer (comic)
Characters: Tseng, Lucifer
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Crossover. Midgar AU. Smashee-crashee of various real cultures. The Devil. Oh, and sex.
Summary: Sometimes you just got to get bored with life before you remember to start living it. Written for roads_diverged, theme: small town.

5141 words and you really, really don't need to know Lucifer. At all.

The first impression it left on him was this: roads leading everywhere and nowhere, too much sky, too much land, too few people.

Mmmm, fake-cut. Here, have a drabble-thing to make a non-fake of this post. With e.e cummings style grammar. mmmm.

( lucifer in a garden (270 words) )

Title: Empery
Characters: Tseng; Veld cameo
Rating: Hard R (non-explicit sex, swearing)
Warnings: Written for roads_diverged. Massive AU. Massive culture abuse. Massive abuse in general.
Summary: He was taught that Wutai was the centre of the universe; he could not understand the empire stirring in the East until it was upon him, until it destroyed him, until it changed him, until it gave him empery.

6756 words and and and and my baby. This is my justification for Wutai versus Midgar in the original game, transplanted so that it makes sense.

( They said: Empire is coming. By the time he understood what they meant, it was already too late. )

I wish I had an excuse for this, but I really, really don't. *beams* Well, it was written for roads_diverged (prompt: reality show), but some things you can't even blame on prompts and AUs.

Title: Survivor: Icicle Inn
Characters: Tseng/Rufus; Reno cameo
Rating: PG (swearing)
Summary: Tseng is going to have to outwit, outplay and outlast whether he likes it or not.
Warnings: More AU than you can shake a stick at. Humour. Probably more of that than you can shake a stick at, too. I think using the tv show Survivor also counts as pretty brain breaking. The application form is real, too.

3139 words and a cunning, cunning plan.

( They signed him up for it as prank; well, sort of. )

Today's been nice: school goes by easily, then I buy myself a Permanent Account (Squeaky deserves all the credit in the world; pun intended), then I refresh the flist to find gorgeous Luck fanart. S'the good life.

Now for a drabble before researching crazy linguistics. Life is good. ♥

Back at del Sol; Tseng/Zack (sort of), PG (sort of), Crisis Core spoilers (sort of). Runs in the Strange Not Quite Zack/Tseng series. The worst part of it all is that Tseng knows they have to be out here.

882 words.

( This isn't so much surveillance duty as it is exile. )

God, I hate writing young Rufus; he's a pain in the ass. A bit experimental and crazy; this fic really didn't want to get written properly. D:

Title: Elevator Action
Characters: Tseng, Rufus, Lazard and ambiguous relationships in between
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Intra-departmental (and intra-personal) relationships are more than just complicated. In between War and conspiracy, family and duty, Shinra gets by.
Warnings: Mangles the timeline a little; Rufus is 17, but considering his mental age, I don't think I'll get struckthrough. Lazard's taken as Rufus big, bad brother. Set just before the beginning of Crisis Core.

2749 words. It's like one big Shinra orgy, just without the sex. 8D

( The man was a friend, but sometimes all that 'friend' meant in this place was 'accomplice'. )