#i keep saying 'and its bunted too???' and giggling to myself

[spearxwind]

i can't fucking stop thinking about the post that says "a skalamarang???? and it's BUNTED TOO??? goodbye mom"

#i keep saying 'and its bunted too???' and giggling to myself #windwords

[silvormoon]

Soulmates

For Soulshipping week, here’s one for the prompt “Soulmates”. Past Life Juudai and Yubel go on a little adventure, and Juudai gets his fortune told.

The two children pressed themselves against the wall and tried to stifle their giggles as they waited. The sound of laughter and cheerful talk drew closer, and then five of the castle maids strolled past in a cluster, all of them chatting happily. One of them, at the fringes of the group, happened to glance to her side and noticed two people hiding in the shadows. She gave them a smile and a knowing wink before hurrying to catch up with her friends. Juudai grinned.

“Come on, let’s go,” he told his companion in a whisper, and the two of them scuttled down the hall in the opposite direction.

“We’re going to get in so much trouble for this,” Yubel whispered, but they were still smiling as they said it.

“I know,” Juudai whispered back, “but we’re doing it anyway, right?”

Yubel nodded.

Actually, what would probably happen would be that they would be scolded and obliged to do extra chores and lessons tomorrow, but Juudai didn’t mind. He had done so before and would doubtless do so again. Privately, he thought his parents approved, although custom dictated that they never actually say so. They probably would have worried more if Juudai had been the sort of boy who took orders meekly and did everything he was told. Someday he would be ruler of his kingdom, and would have to think for himself and know which advice was worth taking and which should be disregarded. Right now, he knew which rules were fairly arbitrary and therefore breakable, like, “You must be in bed by nine” or “you must not play stickball with the serving boys,” and which rules would have serious repercussions if he disobeyed. He would break the former on occasion, but never the latter.

Today, the rule was, “You should not skip classes to sneak into town” and Juudai and Yubel were intent on breaking it. They had arranged for Juudai’s history professor, who was also the castle librarian, to be called away by a small problem among the stacks. While he’d been away, Juudai had slipped out of the room and went on the run. Now he and his partner in crime were on their way to the kitchen, where they knew they could sneak out through the back door through the herb garden.

When they arrived, the castle cook gave them an amused, indulgent look, much the same way the maid had.

“You two scamps again?” she said. “You should be at your lessons, your highness, and you, Yubel, should be at your training.”

“I know,” said Juudai, “but the maids said there’s a caravan in town today selling stuff from the Saffron Empire, and I really want to see. There’s supposed to be dancers and jugglers and stuff and... and everything!”

“Well, I’d like to see them too, but I have my work to get on with the same as you,” she said sternly. Then her face relaxed into a smile. “Oh, well. You’ll be a grown man soon enough, and there won’t be so many chances for you to go out and enjoy yourself.” She turned back to whatever she’d been stirring and said, “Not my job to keep tabs on you two. If your teachers can’t keep tabs on you, that’s their problem.”

Juudai grinned. He caught Yubel’s hand and the two of them darted through the busy kitchen together. Along the way, they each acquired an almond bun, courtesy of one of the junior cooks. Munching happily, they made their way through the fragrant herb garden.

“I guess she’s right that we’re going to have to stop doing this someday,” said Yubel. “I mean, you’re fifteen already. In three more years you’ll be a man. You won’t be taking any more classed then so we won’t be able to skip them.” Juudai shrugged. Three years sounded like a long time to him.

“It’ll be okay,” he said. “Once I’m grown up they won’t be watching me so closely all the time. I’ll still be able to get out and do stuff, at least until they decide to make me king. That’s when I’ll really have to start behaving myself.” He made a face. He hoped his father would stay hale and hearty for a long time. Being a prince was fine by Juudai, but being a king seemed like a lot more work. The idea still seemed to be troubling Yubel.

“I’ll be grown up soon, too, though,” they said. “I’ll have to start doing a lot more work around the castle, then.”

“You’ll work for me, though,” said Juudai encouragingly. “Where I go, you go.”

“Are you sure?” Yubel asked. “You’ll be able to choose anyone you want - all the best people in the kingdom are going to want to work for you.”

“I’ll always choose you,” Juudai promised. “Don’t worry - you and I are always going to be together!”

Yubel smiled. “I sure hope so.”

“No doubt about it,” Juudai promised. “Now, come on. We don’t have all day, and I want to see those jugglers!”

They darted out the delivery gate. A guard there made a half-hearted effort to call them back, but Juudai just stuck out his tongue and kept running. They continued their wild dash for a few blocks, less because they were worried about being chased and more because the buildings closest to the palace were mostly stately homes of nobles and rich merchants, and did not offer a lot to interest a couple of active teenagers. They didn’t slow down until they passed the next gate, which led into the business district. Juudai raised the hood of his cloak. Most of his subjects were friendly, good-hearted people, but his parents had drilled into him how important it was not to flaunt his status as prince in public. All it would take was one bad apple attacking him and the fate of the entire kingdom would change. Yubel would defend him to the death, of course, but...

I don’t want that to happen. I want Yubel and me both to stay safe!

The regular marketplace activities were going on. Juudai had intended to walk straight through to the main attraction, but he couldn’t exist stopping to look at a few of his favorite shops along the way. They charted a zigzag course, stopping here to look in at the gadgets on display in an artificer’s shop, pausing there to admire the rainbow of colored cloth at the drapers, lingering outside a bakery to breathe in the smell of fresh bread. They paused outside the flower shop, not because Juudai had any interest in flowers, but because Yubel loved them. They were so taken by a white bloom with purple flecks on its petals that Juudai bought it for them. Yubel tucked it proudly behind their ear and preened while Juudai made a show of admiring the effect.

But in the end, the two of them couldn’t resist hurrying to the main market square where the real action was. The Saffron Empire was a long way from Juudai’s kingdom, and traders from that realm only arrived here once or twice a year. It was always a big event when they arrived, with their exotic spices, their distinctly patterned cloth, and their tales of faraway places. There was always a lot of competition to get hold of whatever they brought with them, and Juudai hoped that he and Yubel weren’t too late to get any of the good stuff. Juudai had saved some of his allowance for just such an occasion, and he was hoping to find something that would make it worth giving up all the all the other fun things he could have bought with it.

“Wow, look at all this,” he said, as he took in the caravan wagons with their bright bunting. He knew that while on the road they purposely made themselves look drab to avoid attracting bandits, but they made up for it when they reached town by covering themselves with flags, banners, ribbons, and shining brass bells that set up a constant tinkling in the breeze. Juudai turned this way and that, trying to take in every flash of color. “Where should we go first?”

“I think they’re selling knives over there,” said Yubel.”And that one has jewelry, look! The colors on those enameled bracelets are so bright! I wonder how they do it?”

Yubel ended up buying a small wrist cuff worked with a design of red flowers and gold bees against a backdrop of twining vines. Juudai admired a selection of knives and other hardware, finally settling on a belt buckle in the shape of a dragon. Then they wandered around a bit, looking at this and that, occasionally chatting with a merchant but mostly just moving on. They bought some sort of grilled cakes filled with unfamiliar flavors and nibbled them while they watched a pair of tumblers put on a show. They picked up a few more little trinkets - a bowl painted with leaping hares that Juudai took a shine to, a flute made of wood and animal horn that enticed Yubel, a silk shawl Juudai thought would make a good gift for his mother - and then wondered what else they might find to do. The day was getting on, and soon they would be expected back in the palace for dinner.

“Just one more stall,” Juudai decided. “Where should we go?”

“Um...” Yubel looked uncertain. They turned around, trying to find somewhere they hadn’t been yet.

“You haven’t been to my booth yet,” said a pleasant voice.

Juudai turned to see that a woman dressed from head to toe in blue was watching him with a bright and knowing gaze. Her face was partially hidden by a veil that made her eyes stand out even more in comparison.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“I am this caravan’s... your language hasn’t got a word for it. ‘Seer’ might do. I am the Lady Who Looks in the Water, and I can tell you your future if you like.”

Juudai frowned, puzzled. “What do you look in the water for?”

“Because water goes everywhere. It is part of all of us. It is full of life. If you know how to look at it the right way, you can see many things in it,” she said. “Come. Two copper coins, and I will tell you things worth knowing.”

Juudai and Yubel gave each other a look that said, “Here’s something worth doing!” There were a lot of magicians in Juudai’s kingdom, but none quite like this. It was an adventure, and Juudai was always up for an adventure.

“Sure,” he said.

“Right this way, then.”

The lady led him inside one of the wagons, and he and Yubel followed eagerly. It was a tight fit, so Yubel volunteered to wait outside until Juudai had finished having his fortune told. That was probably the right choice. A table had been set up near the door, with just enough space for a little stool where Juudai could sit down, and a second, more comfortable seat for the lady herself. Behind her hung a blue curtain, but through the gaps Juudai thought he could see a little bunk and a hint of some shelving, which must have been part of her living space. The table itself contained only a pale blue bowl filled nearly to the brim with water.

“Now, your payment,” she said.

Juudai handed over his coins, and she made them vanish with professional speed.

“So. We shall see what we can see,” she said. “Is there anything you would like to know? Your future career? How to obtain a fortune? Or perhaps the name of your soulmate?” She gave him a wink.

“Can you really find all that?” Juudai asked.

“Sometimes, yes,” she said. “Often the water does what it likes. But I guarantee you will see something, and whatever you see, it will be the truth.”

“Okay,” said Juudai. “Show me.”

“Give me your hand, then.”

He did as he was told. The lady took his hand and guided him to touch the surface of the water with a fingertip. It rippled... and went on rippling, much longer than normal physics dictated that it should. Curious, Juudai leaned forward, trying to get a better view of this phenomenon.

He nearly jerked back again in surprise. Somehow, though, he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off what he was seeing. There were images in the bowl, vague, as though they were only reflections, but still comprehensible. He saw an island, bright and sunny, with a volcano smoking at the center of it. People in strange clothes were there, busily taking notes while a man who looked a great deal like Juudai’s own history professor lectured to them all. Then the image shifted, and Juudai saw a figure in dark armor standing before a legion of monsters. Another shift, and now Juudai could see something that was both like and unlike his own face: older, the lines of it sharpened by time and experience, and his eyes weren’t the friendly brown of Juudai’s old, but rather, shining a mismatched orange and teal...

...and then there was Yubel’s face.

“Juudai? What are you looking at in there?”

Juudai looked up to see his friend leaning over his shoulder, trying to peer into the water.

“My future, I think,” he said. “Not that it made a lot of sense.”

“The future often doesn’t, until you see it,” said the lady. She turned to Yubel. “And would you like to try as well?”

Yubel shook their head. “I’d rather go home. I don’t mind getting a scolding from Doctor Chronos, but I don’t want a lecture from the king if I’m not there to wait at table.”

“Oh, darn, you’re right,” said Juudai. “They’ll skin me alive if I’m late to dinner tonight. Thanks, Water Lady, but I have to go!”

He waved goodbye before darting out of the wagon and back into the street. He and Yubel began jogging towards the castle.

“So,” said Yubel slyly, “did you see your soulmate?”

“Don’t think so,” said Juudai. “That’s okay, though. I don’t need a fortune teller to tell me what I already know.”

“What’s that?” Yubel asked.

“That you and I are going to be together forever,” said Juudai.

“As long as we live,” Yubel agreed.

Juudai nodded. That was about all anyone could hope for. Still, he thought, remembering what he’d seen in the bowl, maybe there was life after this one. Some of the court wizards said there was, and Juudai didn’t know enough to disagree with them.

If I have another life, I’m sure Yubel will be there too. They’ll follow me anywhere.

And with that reassuring thought in mind, he hurried home to dinner.

#yugioh gx #soulshipping week #soulshipping #yuuki juudai #yubel #fanfic

[0bsidian5ire]

Resurrect the Art of Allag (Reverse the Curse of Amon): Chapter 1

Summary: All legends start somewhere. Kharagal's starts with a letter from her guild-mistress, a meeting with one of the Sons of Saint Coinach and a five thousand-year-old soul stone. And a curiosity that's likely on par with the Allagan's.

That might come back to bite her sooner rather then later. At least life is never boring...

Or... How the Lvl. 30 Summoner quest went for my WoL. And the unorthodox application of it afterwards.

Originally posted here.

Chapter 1: The Soul Stone

After everything that happened due to helping kill Ifrit, Kharagal was more then happy to get interrupted by a Post-Moogle with a letter from Thubyrgeim asking her to come back to the Arcanists' Guild to discus something. For better or for worse, taking part in killing a primal meant people knew who Kharagal was now and that came with complications. The complications ran from people wondering if she was half-Amalj'aa to wondering if it was possible to catch the diseases that Bio mimicked. Kharagal supposed none of them had put together that the Arcanists' Guild was in a major port city and that if Bio did spread like a normal disease, it wouldn't be a spell the Guild would teach novice mages, if at all. And if Bane was something she forgot to mention, well, no one really had to know.

It didn't help that the people with the Echo had to stay in Ul'dah to fill in the Immortal Flames on what happened with Ifrit. It had been over a week since Ifrit had been banished and Kharagal was starting to go a bit stir-crazy. For the first twenty-odd years of her life, Kharagal had wandered a desert where walls were temporary tents that could easily be torn down when needed. Ul'dah's walls were thick stone and from what Kharagal could gather, had been designed to keep people both in and out of the city. Any excuse to leave Ul'dah for Limsa Lominsa was welcome.

The Arcanists' Guild was it's usual busy self when Kharagal got there; the main level was over-viewing cargo manifests, while the bottom floor echoed with Ruin blasts. On both floors, carbuncles of various colors were lying anywhere they could find a free spot.

Thubyrgeim was on the bottom floor overseeing novice arcanists casting Ruin spells. Kharagal walked over to her and watched beside her for a few minutes. Thubyrgeim smiled at her. "I remember when you first came here, Kharagal; you were fresh off a ship from the Far East and while you had one of the finest heads for geometry I have seen, your spell-book optimization needed some work."

Kharagal laughed. "In my defense, I didn't find out books existed until I was already considered a good mage. It was a lot to get used too."

Thubyrgeim nodded. "Even so, I'm happy I could be the one to teach you how to flip pages and use a quill correctly."

"And I will always be grateful for it; quills handle very differently then brushes do." Both women laughed at that.

"Reminiscing aside," Thubyrgeim said, "an intriguing matter has come up. The Sons of Saint Coinach have asked our guild to pass along a message to you or Kukunji specifically. It appears that their research is in need of an arcanist, specifically one that has defeated the primal Ifrit and not been tempered."

"The Sons of Saint Coinach? Who are they?" Kharagal frowned. Those requirements were very specific. "And why was it me you asked for and not Kukunji?"

"They are some of the finest minds in Eorzea and if the rumors are to be believed are of Sharlayan origin. From what I understand, they are specifically interested in the study of ancient Allag." Thubyrgeim shrugged. "As for why I asked for you... Kukunji is busy with a project with the Muraders' Guild. Something about the Nymian ruins."

Allag. The empire that created Dalamud... Whoever these scholars were, they would probably have more information on what Dalamud was. Or what was in it. "Who do they want me to get in contact with?"

"Y'mhitra, one of their researchers, is stationed in Grindania. She is the one who asked for you."

"I see," Kharagal smiled at Thubyrgeim. "Thanks for passing on the word. I'll have to tell you how it goes."

"I am sure you will. I am highly interested in what research the Sharlayans want to conduct with you. They--" She was interrupted by the sound of a Ruin blast that had imploded instead of exploded. Thubyrgeim turned to correct the caster's technique and waved good-bye to Kharagal. Kharagal waved back and walked up the stairs.

According to Mother Miounne, Y'mhitra liked to spend time around Apkallu Falls. Kharagal found the miqo'te lying on a bench in front of the falls with a book spread out before her and a wand lying next to her. "Y'mhitra?" she asked, "I was told-."

"Ah yes," Y'mhitra said and looked up from her book. "Kharagal Mierqid, I assume? Thank you for coming and yes, I am she. Please, sit down. I think we will be here a while."

Kharagal sat on a bench across from Y'mhitra and got a good look at her. She blinked. Many of Y'mhitra's mannerisms were very familiar. "You wouldn't happen to be related to Y'shtola would you?" she blurted.

Y'mhitra giggled. "Half-sister," she confirmed. "Shtola focused on magic and I focused on archeology. Which is what actually brought my order, the Sons of Saint Coinach, to ask your help."

"I heard they studied the Allagan Empire. What would they need me for? I never even heard of the Allagans until I came to Eorzea."

"Let me back up a bit before I get to that," Y'mhitra said and frowned. "It is true that you weren't here before the Calamity?" At Kharagal's nod, she continued. "Well, north of Thanalan is a region with a huge lake. That region is called Mor Dhona and it is very close to Carteanaeu. When the Calamity happened, Mor Dohna was hit hard and a lot of weird things happened there."

"And by weird are we talking the Burning Wall weird or Bronze Lake being drained weird?" Kharagal asked. Aether flash-crystallizing was weird on a very different level then the aftereffects of an earthquake.

"Ummm... a bit of both really." Y'mhitra shrugged. "On the one hand, the lake in Mor Dhona was partially drained which revealed a lot of Allagan ruins that had never been seen before. On the other... aether erupted out of the Lifestream from an aetherite crystal and a giant tower made out of crystal seemingly grew out of nowhere on the lakeshore. And we are pretty sure the tower is really an energy collector that is mentioned in a lot of Allagan texts."

Kharagal stared at her. "You're kidding."

"Nope!" Y'mhitra grinned. "The Sons managed to get to the ruins on the lakebed first and we have found a lot of things there even we have never read of in the Allagan texts we currently have."

"Like what?" Kharagal grinned too, Y'mhitra's glee was infections.

"Well, one thing we found was some very old texts which described a specific sect of Allagan mages known as "summoners"." Y'mhitral looked slyly at Kharagal. "Apparently these mages could siphon the essences of primals and manifest this stolen energy as a biddable ally known as an "egi"."

"But..." Kharagal started playing with her horn-ring out of habit. "How would someone get the essence of a primal and not be tempered? That's..."

"Yes," Y'mhitra nodded. "That is the sticking point. It seems that when a primal is defeated, its aetheric essence is released into whatever is in the immediate vicinity. And the Allagans learned how to take advantage of that."

"So, that's why you wanted me," Kharagal snickered. "You want to see if these techniques work the way they're supposed to."

Y'mhitra smiled at that. "Guilty. Given what the biggest threat to Eorzea currently is, research into the summoning arts is time well spent, no matter how dangerous some of my colleges think it could be. However, there is a reason I wanted to meet you or Kukunji in particular." Y'mhitra bit her lip. "Everyone knows the Allagans were more advanced then we can imagine. That is true for not just their technologies but also their magical arts. While the beginning techniques of summoning are rather simple, the advanced ones are not." Y'mhitra sighed. "To be honest, looking at those techniques reminded me of the time I got a look at the geometry some of the students back at the Studium were inventing. Only these are even more complicated and are spell geometries. Me and my colleges can read of the effects the spells produce, but none of us have the aether-control needed to even attempt casting them." She glanced at Kharagal. "To be bunt, what we really need is an arcanist who is willing to spend a lot of time learning an untested family of spell geometries in addition to someone who has defeated a primal."

Kharagal laughed. "You should have started with that, I'm always looking for more geometries to study."

"In that case, you can start with this!" Y'mhitra handed Kharagal a faceted green stone that looked like a shard of thick clear glass. "According to the texts we found, that is a Summoner's soul stone and it is needed for the most foundational of the Summoning arts."

Kharagal held up the soul stone to her eye. An isosceles triangle with a curved base was etched on one side. This close, she could see that throughout the stone was an almost invisible regular structure of what looked like hairline fractures. Only when Kharagal poked the stone with her aether, the fractures turned out to be as solid as the rest of the stone and tried to direct the aether that passed though them into some very odd shapes. Kharagal jerked her aether out of the stone with a start and found Y'mhitra looking at her. "Sorry, I just got--"

Y'mhitra giggled. "It's fine. All of us have poked it at least once, including myself. It would be weirder if you did not."

Kharagal smiled. "What were you saying before that?"

"The soul stone is needed for the most foundational summoning ritual, the ritual that creates an egi, called an Austerity. It seems the most important part of the Austerity is not the actual ritual itself, which is so simple it might not be considered a ritual at all, but rather the location the ritual is performed at." At Kharagal's raised eyebrow, Y'mhitra continued, "The texts say that the Austerity must be conducted in a land where the land's naturally dominant element matches that of the egi they wish to call forth. Fortunately for us, Ifrit's element is obviously that of fire and the Sagolii Desert has been known to be dominated by fire aspected aether since time immemorial. I figured the area west of Byregot's Strike would be the perfect place to do it."

Kharagal nodded. It made sense, except for a few major things. "Why does the land have to be the same element as the egi? and what does the summoner actually do?"

Y'mhitra sighed in frustration, though obviously not at Kharagal. "The answer to both those questions is one and the same. The summoner has to shift their aetheric balance as far as they can toward the element of the egi to manifest. Supposedly, the dominant element of the land helps them get a feel for what their aura should feel like when it is shifted far enough." Y'mhira looked at Kharagal. "Unfortunately, the particulars of how this is supposed to bring forth an egi is something we are missing information on. Most of us suspect that this is what the soul stone is needed for as the rest of the ritual does not depend on it."

"In other words, this is where the experiments start," said Kharagal with a grin and she got up from the bench and stretched. "I can't wait!"

"Neither can I," said Y'mhitra. "See you at Byregot's Strike in two weeks?"

Kharagal nodded. She could find some way to get out there. "That sound like it'll work, see you then!" The two woman said their farewells and Kharagal teleported back to Ul'dah.

Author's Notes: It's probably a good thing the Summoner soul stone was discovered before anyone realized exactly how crazy the Allagans were...

The great part about writing FFXIV fan-fiction is that I can personalize my WoL's conversations. The not-so-great part is that my WoL is a total nerd and thinks good conversations mean swapping info dumps with people. Given that most of the people she talks with are also nerds, they're pretty okay with that.

Ch 2: The Ritual →

#final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #ffxiv fanfiction #fanfiction #warrior of light #y'mhitra rhul #soul stone #summoner #theorycrafting #worldbuilding