shamera | Story Archive for FFXIII series

final fantasy xiii || final fantasy xiii-2 || lightning returns: final fantasy xiii

➥ Final Fantasy XIII:

Affection (Or, On Chocobos) - Lightning's just a little reluctant to let Hope ride alone at first.
Candlelight - You light a candle for lost souls to find their way home.
Feline Takedown - Where Fang is the crazy cat lady, and the rest of them are cats.
In the Bleak Midwinter - Winter-time on Gran Pulse, and the Farron sisters are prepared for everything bad... but not anything good.
Resemblance - Some days, Bartholomew Estheim couldn't stand to look at his son.
Scintilla - Fang and Hope on building a good fire.

Kinematics: Exordium - (2/5 finished) Prelude to Kinematics. Maqui's account of the move to Gran Pulse and after.
Kinematics - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 ; Post-game. Maqui may be older, but Hope was somehow the more mature one. Still, teenage boys will be teenage boys.
Derivation - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 ; Sequel to Kinematics - Maqui has to learn politics now that Bartholomew Estheim has entered the government.
On Video Games - Kinematics-verse, stand alone. Lightning's still got a few more lessons to teach Hope, even regarding video games.
Apokalupsis Eschaton - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 ; Kinematics-verse. Ten million people decided to remain on Cocoon, until one day they all disappeared without a trace, leaving residents on Gran Pulse bewildered and terrified.

➥Final Fantasy XIII-2:
Anonymous - Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4a | Part 4b | Part 4c ; Hope's got a secret admirer who only leaves presents on Valentine's Day.
Fall Another Moment - Lightning and Hope's brief reunion between thirteen and four hundred years after the Fall.
In Medias Res - Hope's first time meeting Noel is not the first time Noel met him.
Slow Path - While everyone else zooms around the timeline, Hope takes the slow path. (PE: The Future is Hope)
Sunrise, Sunrise - According to Hope, Noel's natural bed hair is enough to send monsters running.
Test Subjects - Augusta Tower was their home now. (PE: Test Subjects)
The Wedding Dress - Vanille explains how everyone helped out a little with Serah's wedding dress.
Try and Try Again - Prompt: Noehopu, first kiss. (aka all their kisses, really, because they're dorks.)
When Skies are Grey - You are my sunshine, my only sunshine... The assassination succeeded. (PE: The Future is Hope)
White Noise - Scenes from after the ending. Noel and Hope attempt to adjust their lives to fit the chaos, and each other.

➥Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
A Different Choice - Lumina leaves Noel with a very different prophecy in the Oracle Drive.
Ever After - Noel and Yeul as adopted siblings growing up in the new world.
Family - where family is more than just a six letter word, and Sazh gets some help in the search for soul fragments.
Five Minutes - New World AU. "Do you mind if I just sit here and pretend to be your boyfriend for five minutes?"
Inverse Theory - According to video game mechanics, female armor tended to have an inverse graph where less mass signifies more defense.
Night Out - Serah gets a call from Noel during Girls' Night out.
Sickdays - Hope is insufferable when sick, Noel is worried, and Snow is surprisingly insightful.
The Other - where Lumina is not the only look-alike because God needs the perfect host.
♥ Art for The Other by ghostofcrux
zero probability - Noel, Hope, and the relationship that never was.
Zombie Tag - flashfic, New World. The group decides to play games on a picnic.

First Impressions - New World where Noel is a mouthy brat, Hope is the replacement babysitter, and Serah thinks it's hilarious.
Second Impressions - sequel! Ten years later, Hope is called to babysit again.
Food for Thought - Impressions-verse; Noel ends up a better cook than Hope thought.
Art of Coquetry - Impressions-verse; Noel learns the art of pick-up lines.
Something about December - Impressions-verse; Serah's Christmas party ends with Noel stealing all her good luck.
Autumn Rain - Impressions-verse; photography on a rainy day with Noel.
♥ Art for Food for Thought (1 | 2) by ghostofcrux
♥ Art for Art of Coquetry by i narex

➥Crossovers/AUs/Etc
Anamnesis - Caius and Noel use Yeul's memories to find the moment in history everything went wrong.
Awakening - ffxiii/fea crossover. Noel as Chrom, Hope as Robin, and Yeul as Lucina.
♥ Art for Awakening by Crispy
Before Closing - Noel gets a customer on Valentine's Day five minutes before closing.
Black and White - Brooklyn99 AU. Noel meets their new substitute Deputy Chief.
echo - Joining the war against the Gods, Noel will find out just how outmatched humanity really is.
echo, second - Noel starts on his training, and Fang isn't playing around.
Metagame - TEASER. MMO inspired, XIII-verse being a video game. ...Or is it?
Nexus - In a happier time, Yeul and Noel stumble upon the town of New Bodhum.
Second Coming - ffxiii/merlin crossover. Morgana calls upon a valkyrie for help to become the legendary Morgan le Fey.
Upon A Shining Star - crossover with Resident Evil Revelations 2. Natalia wakes up too early, and finds a garden of crystal statues.
♥ Art that inspired Upon A Shining Star (1 | 2 | 3 | 4) by i narex

NaNoWriMo 2014:

Dare Disturb the Universe - Days 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10 || 11 || 12 || 13 || 14 || 15 || interlude

19 || 20 || 21 || 22 || 23 || 24 || 25 || 26 || 27 || 28
(Camp NaNo) Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5 || Part 6 || Part 7

Wishes are powerful things, especially from the minds of those who are powerful enough to take down gods and change the future. When multiple wishes converge, Hope Estheim wakes up after the fall of Cocoon with memories he couldn't possibly have.
side fic 1
♥ Art for Dare Disturb the Universe (1 | 2) by angerliz
♥ Art for Dare Disturb the Universe by Crispy

Drabbles in comments.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Snow raised an arm as greeting when he walked into the compound and saw as Gadot nodded his way in acknowledgement before going back to guarding the entrance. Lebreau also looked up from the stove where she was cooking as he passed to put down a bag of slightly withered ingredients.

“How’s Maqui?” He asked cheerily, pulling out a slightly bruised apple from the bag for himself before Lebreau could whap him for the action. He was out of her reach by the time she noticed, and saluted her as she frowned.

“...He’s better.” She relented, moving to gather the rest of in the ingredients— not a lot, but enough to make a hearty stew that would last everyone for the night. Soups and stews were always the easiest to stretch out for the amount of mouths they had to feed. “Hope’s been staying with him. That kid has a good head for medicine.”

“Oh?” That was a curious, but lucky, thing. While Gadot was good at soothing and had the patience of a saint with sick people, none of Team NORA knew more than the basics of anything beyond first aid. It was usually Serah who snuck them what little supplies she could manage to spare, and it was usually her they went to when they needed help because Serah at least had access the to knowledge that they didn’t.

“Yeah.” Lebreau nodded to herself, returning to her cooking. “...Should send him for schooling.”

“Yeah, I’d send them all for schooling if I could.” Snow told her. “You know that.”

She pursed her lips, but only nodded in agreement to that statement. They were all already doing well for themselves, but it was easy to believe that they could have achieved more if they just tried a little harder. That wasn’t always the case, though, and she understood that. At least they had their home, and full bellies before they went to bed. That was a lot better than it had been only a handful of years ago.

“You should take some of that fruit over to the boys.” She told him instead, purposely ignoring the rest the of the contents in the bag. “They both deserve something good to eat.”

“I’m sure you’ll make sure they have a good dinner.” Snow told her brightly. It was always a good idea to suck up to Lebreau, especially since she controlled the meals around the home. Either way, he stepped back to pull out two of the less bruised apples before giving her a sloppy salute and grin before making his way down the shabby hallways to the room designated as Maqui and Yuj’s.

Yuj was currently out, likely trying to find work already in one of the shops at the marketplace. Snow thought that there was a good chance the boy would get one too; he always had a better fashion sense than the rest of them.

He knocked pointedly at the wall before peering into the darkened room.

“Hey, kids!” He greeted them, voice muted just in case Maqui was still asleep. Hope was sitting on a stool next to the older boy’s bedside, and it was a good thing he softened his tone because it looked like the teenage boy had completely crashed with a wet towel on his head and his precious goggles on the wooden crate that functioned as the bedside table. Snow tried to tiptoe his way in, knowing that he wasn’t the quietest of people but caring enough to ensure not to wake the sick boy. “How’s he been doing?”

Hope looked up for a moment, then looked away quickly, still unable to face Snow after— well, what happened those weeks ago. It takes time, Snow had to remind himself. Maybe if the boy had been allowed to vent all his pent up emotions, it might have taken less time, but then again, Snow might have been in serious danger if Hope had chosen to do that.

“...The fever’s going down.” Hope finally said after a moment of uncomfortable silence, and the boy shifted in his chair, the last rays of sunlight from the window making his pale hair look almost a brilliant orange. “He should be feeling better enough to start complaining by tomorrow.”

Which was a near miracle, seeing as when one of the crew usually got sick, they would be bedridden for well over a week before they go up again even with the help of Serah’s snuck medication. If what Hope said was true, then Maqui would probably be almost completely over his illness by the third day. Maybe Lebreau really had a point there.

“Thanks for the hard work,” Snow said instead, keeping his tone light as if this wasn’t that big a deal at all. He had learned the first week Hope came to stay with them that the young boy didn’t like being thought of as unusual in any way, and was usually uncomfortable in situations which involved anyone else thinking him special, or even different at all. Instead, Snow arced his arm to catch Hope’s attention and tossed the apple when he was sure that the boy would be able to catch it. “Here. A reward.”

He wondered how often Hope had gotten to eat fresh fruit before he came to them, remembering the meager rations he had barely been able to provide the past few weeks, not having anticipating taking in an extra mouth to feed. He’d have to do better somehow, if the startled look on Hope’s face when he caught the fruit was any indication.

The pale boy stared at the apple, and then slowly lowered it into his lap, murmuring a faint, “Thanks.”

Well. Getting him to accept food that easily at all was a huge step in the right direction to Snow.

Despite the reassurances, Snow made his way to the bed and pulled up another rickety chair to sit down on the other side, lifting up the wet cloth slightly to press a hand against Maqui’s forehead just to make sure that what Hope said was true. The skin of Maqui’s forehead was slightly cooled thanks to the cloth, but for the most part didn’t seem to be immediately radiating the fever heat from the day before.

“Man,” Snow commented lightly, “Lebreau was right. You’re a miracle worker, Hope.”

The teenager looked away, clearly embarrassed. “...It was just a fever. He wasn’t dying or anything.”

Snow chuckled, and then noticed that Hope hadn’t eaten his apple yet. Did he get something wrong, and the boy had an allergy to them or something…?

After a brief moment of panic, Snow remembered a moment he had seen in the richer neighbourhoods, and he reached out a hand with a careful smile. “C’mon, I’ll cut that up for you.”

Hope startled, looking somewhat distrustful before handing the fruit back over to Snow, who pulled out a pocket knife to slice up the bruised fruit into several pieces, careful to cut as close to the core as possible to avoid wasting any food but at the same time keeping the seeds out of the pieces. The kid had some an amazing job at adapting to the situation the past several weeks if Snow really thought about it. Despite the tantrums and the sullen disregard, Hope had been… well, he had come from a very well to do family. To have faced such a change must have been extremely disrupting, and while Snow had been irritated the first few days because at least Hope had a roof over his head and food on his plate!, he was slowly coming to see just how hard the kid was struggling.

A little bit of fanciness never hurt anyone, he thought. That tiny bit of luxury might be just what the teenager needed.

He looked up at the last moment and nearly froze at the strange expression on the boy’s face before grinning widely, unable to help himself. “Whoa there. Am I dreaming? Does Hope Estheim actually know how to smile?”

At that, the boy tensed up and immediately frowned hard. “—You’re delusional, Snow.”

Snow laughed, careful not to be too loud, and after putting away his knife, he handed the de-cored apple back to Hope, only to pull the boy over the bed slightly before the teen could pull back, ruffling his hair thoroughly while Hope squawked in protest.

...It would just take some time, Snow reminded himself, although this time the thought was lighter than before. Hope would be just fine.

Story Archive for FFXIII series

Street Rat AU, continued.