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First entry in about two weeks, and it's because I've finally written something short enough to be completed and posted on AO3. So, here it is, my first ever attempt at the notorious "Coffee Shop" AU.

Coffee Habit

What can I say? Uni has been kicking my backside something 'orrible.

I've been putting up some drabble collections from FFVII100 over the last couple of days. So the new stuff is:

Through Other People's Eyes - A series of 12 drabbles about Barret Wallace.

Journey Perspectives - A set of 5 drabbles set at the point where the party has just climbed down the cable and are outside the gates of Midgar.

New Beginnings / Promised Lands - Not all new beginnings are Promised Lands, but they're a step on the journey. A set of 11 drabbles.

I'm having a spate of posting up fic which has been sitting around on my hard drive for the better part of forever on AO3 at present, mostly because it beats sitting around waiting for my brain to cough up inspiration for the current works in progress.

So, on that note, the latest piece is in the Kingdom Hearts fandom:

Why Him?

I'm going through a stage of polishing up bits and pieces and putting them out for public view. It beats having them cluttering up my "works in progress" folder.

So, here's the latest:

Glass Houses

All feedback welcomed with open arms.

Grunt

Cloud looked dubiously at the outfit he was handed. It was skin-tight blue lycra, the helmet was more face-obscuring than the infantry mask, and the weird gun fitted around the end of his right hand. He was told it was "point and shoot - even a space-case like you couldn't fuck that up, Strife."

Okay, so it apparently contained shielding so they didn't wind up getting their balls zapped by whatever nasties came out of the mako reactors, but really...

He suspected the reason every unit got rotated to Reactor duty was to stop the grumbles about the infantry uniform.

ICBW

"It could be worse," Dawlish told him.

Cloud looked down at his scrawny form in the reactor Grunt uniform. He looked back up and raised his eyebrows.

Dawlish grinned. "Some of the other options? The stuff you have to wear if you're on tower security? Skin-suit like this, rollerskates for mobility. Then layer on big bulky armour. Or there's Aero Combatant gear - helipack in one hand, sword in the other. Nine times outta ten, you wind up hitting the target with the wrong one."

"So how do I avoid that?" Cloud asked.

"Practice your throwing arm, kid," Dawlish said.

Author's notes:

* Inspired by a day of playing FFVII, and thinking about the absolutely awful excuses for uniforms Shinra force a lot of the troops you wind up facing in the early stages of the game into (Grunts, Special Combatants, Aero Combatants and Mighty Grunts). I suspect someone in either Weapons Development or Public Safety was having a bit of a laugh at their expense.
* The last line of the second one is a pointer to the outfits worn by the Grenade Combatants - they wear the standard uniform, much like the MPs. Why yes, I do suspect there are a lot of decisions about military specialisation made in the Shinra military on grounds of "at least I won't look a complete dork in the uniform".
* Needless to say, I don't own FFVII - if I did, the uniforms would be far more practical, and there'd be at least one shrink on the SOLDIER payroll from the start.

(I'll post these over at AO3 tomorrow).

So I got carried away, and decided put some work up on AO3.

First up, http://archiveofourown.org/works/1336939 - "Little Battles" (Kingdom Hearts universe, Cloud/Leon, rated Mature for language).

Cloud and Leon have a discussion regarding invoicing and stevedoring.

Next up: http://archiveofourown.org/works/1336969 - "Once In A Lifetime" (Final Fantasy VIII, part 4 of the "Singing the Travels" series).

In which Squall reflects on matters past and present, and on his habit of drifting in the current.

And finally: http://archiveofourown.org/works/1336999 - "Sorceress' Theme" (Final Fantasy VIII).

A reflection on one of the unexplored ramifications of the closed time loop of the FFVIII plotline.

I got carried away last Wednesday and posted up a couple of new bits and pieces at AO3. So here's links and info about them for anyone who's curious.

Fandom: Kingdom Hearts

Why: I was fifteen. Riku looks back, and tries to explain his reasons.

This one has been sitting about on my IJ for a couple of years now, having never really been noticed when I first posted it, and not having received much feedback at all. It's another one of those "character introspection" pieces I write occasionally, in this case trying to explain from the perspective of the antihero of the Kingdom Hearts game series what his motivations were for some events very early on in the game. I've spent too long on the culture studies side of things to ever believe actions happen entirely free from context, so I started thinking about what the context might be for the characters in this case.

Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII

What A Good Boy: Part two of the "Singing the Travels" series which started with "Hooked on a Feeling". I suppose we all have our moments where we look back at some kind of past innocence and long to head back there. Squall reflects on events and history, and finding the perfect tune to sum things up.

I am still working on the series - part three is in progress even now. It's just the progress is rather glacial (and in this day and age, yes, this does mean it comes with the threat of the driving interest melting away long before the expected output!). However, Part Two has been written for a while now, and had been edited and fiddled with to the point where I was now down to minor word and punctuation tweaks, which meant it was ready for public consumption.

Okay, so these last few days, I've been busy posting up bits and pieces which have been sitting around my hard drive for ages up to AO3. This is because over the last few weeks, I've been doing a lot of fanfic reading (I'm on inter-semester break; that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it) and I've finally got fed up with not having posted anything there since about April. For the last four days, I've stuck with posting up one item from the pile of unposted completed fic on my hard drive. Here's the list:

Blakes 7 fandom: Roja Blake series

This was a writing exercise that I started late in my time in the B7 fandom; the aim was to see what changed with having a female protagonist rather than a male one. I got the first two episodes written before I got distracted by other fandoms and other ideas. Here they are for everyone's viewing pleasure:

The Way Back

Spacefall

Final Fantasy 8 fandom: Singing the Travels series

This is hopefully going to turn into a series which basically consists of various stories in a Seifer/Squall slash plot based around various songs which I think suit the characters. It's an offshoot of my creating a playlist for this game and the characters from it. First episode is the only one complete to date, and I'm busy trying to get the second kicked into shape.

Hooked on a Feeling

Kingdom Hearts Fandom - Rainy Day in Radiant Garden

This one was actually meant to come out a lot more slashy than it did, and it comes out of a long-standing plotbunny I have sitting around waiting to be dealt with. Basically, the original idea was that if Leon and Cloud got into a relationship, they'd probably have various mock-arguments they pulled out when they were too tired to spar, but not tired enough to sleep. Where did it go instead? Well, read the story and find out.

What can I say - it's something to do in the quiet moments.

Title: Asexual
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII (AC era - sometime between end of AC and start of DOC).
Prompt: any - asexuality - his lack of interest isn't anything personal, it just... is.
Rating: Australian PG
Warnings: language, frustration, descriptions of sexual behaviours
Summary: "You haven't exactly had a normal life up to this point. Why should you be normal now?"

( I'll listen. Just talk. )


( Author's Notes )