auronlu: (Lady)

Welcome! My journal is a miscellany of Final Fantasy fandom, started on LJ in the mid-2000s, ported to DW in 2010. My labor of love is a novel-length fanfic, Love Her and Despair, an AU sequel to Final Fantasy X exploring the question: "What would have happened if Yuna had chosen the Final Summoning?"

Table of Contents

Act I: Menace at Sea - Ch. 1 2 3 4 5 6
Act II: Operation Mi'ihen - Ch. 7 8 9 10 11 12
Act III: Al Bhed Homecoming - Ch. 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Act IV: Assault on Bevelle - 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
Act V: Breaking the Cycle - 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41
Act V: The Houses of Healing - 42 43 44 45 46 47
Act VI: The Last Battle -

Map of Spira [full-sized]

Map of Spira

Thanks Where Due

To many reviewers and critiquers who have given me the encouragement to keep going (I would thank you individually, but I'm afraid of missing somebody) and to FANARTISTS including [profile] cirruscastle, [personal profile] mintywolf, Ayrania-chan on DA and Schmutzige_Banane on DA. THANK YOU.

ExpandCheesy Trailer )

The old ToC post is here.

auronlu: (Lady)

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 47: "Thorns"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Auron/Lulu, Zuke, Rikku/Wakka
Rating: G
Word Count: 3500
Navigation: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC

With Yu Yevon finally defeated, Lulu, Auron, and Wakka and Rikku's family enjoy a much-needed respite in the strained hospitality of Yevon's capitol.

Lulu was knitting herself back together as methodically as she used to repair lace-embroidered sleeves before the campfire. Auron saw it each morning when they awoke. The shreds of dream that fled her eyes at first kiss were human now, most of the time. Her nightmares were fewer. The red marks at her wrists had faded to ghostly white. On good mornings, he would wake to find her in his arms, instead of curled up coverless facing the wall.

She had dismissed the disquieting tug of the pyreflies, almost convincing him that she could not sense their pull. When he pressed his doubts, she parried with a lecture. "Sin, the aeon that bridged the Farplane and Spira, has been eliminated. Pyreflies seek to close that breach, calling home souls who stray beyond their time. Of course, I need not fear you will answer the summons."

Outside, her eyes were acclimatizing to daylight. She readily joined Rikku and Wakka's family in their games of catch and toss around the fountain, honoring the memory of the High Summoner who had so treasured laughter. Not that Lulu laughed often. She moved with mute grace among the children, allowing herself to be teased and targeted. Soon she was evading their throws, pivoting out of a missile's path with belled white skirts and braids swinging.

Vidina kept trying to teach her the rules. "You're supposed to catch the ball, not dodge it!"

Two handfuls of fluffy snow materialized above his head in answer. Then all the children had wanted snow, and the lawn around the fountain had nearly become a bog before the abbot stormed out to forbid black magic’s use in the garden. Auron caught Zuke's smile as he returned to chambers, head shaking in wonderment.

Auron guarded. Lurking in the colonnade, he saw the glances cast by passing clergy at the Al Bhed in their midst. Not all glances were friendly.

ExpandRead more... )

auronlu: (Lady)

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 46: "The Houses of Healing"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Auron/Lulu, Zuke, Rikku/Wakka
Rating: G
Word Count: 3200
Navigation: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC

The Story So Far: Sin is defeated, its occupant freed, but being Sin for thirteen years is not something one can throw off in a day.

A day in St. Bevelle began with the ringing of many bells— yet too few, with gaps of silence where the Tower of Light should have boomed forth. A chilly sea-fog seeped between panes and under doors. Auron and Lulu rose and dressed in silence, exchanging ironic glances as the mage bundled into the shapeless gown of a novice nun. As the last peals died away, they slipped out, threading corridors where tardy acolytes scampered towards chapel. Those few who made eye contact were too tongue-tied to offer more than a reverent bow. None noticed that Yevon's prayer was not returned.

The cloister garden was cold, foggy and uninviting. A glimmer to the east showed where the sun would burn through. Dew lay heavy on leaf and stone. Above, invisible gulls wheeled and keened. Lulu halted at the edge of the grass and breathed in. Earth, flowers, herbs, and the homely scents of cooking from the refectory blended with the smell of the sea. Abruptly she kicked off her slippers, pressing her toes into wet earth. Loose hair flying behind her, she strode out onto the close-cropped lawn, wetting the hem of her gown. Concentric pathways between flowerbeds and rows of vegetables drew her on, taking her on a meandering tour of the garden. She stroked leaves and stems as she passed.

Auron took the straight path to the fountain and waited. A mental image came to him: Lulu in her dream-bower, an infinite cage, more verdant yet utterly barren for all its fruits and flowers, a cloister of trials for a failed guardian to pace for years without end.

At last she reached him, turning away from the fountain and gazing back at their footprints marching in parallel across the dew-silvered grass.

"Well, that hasn't changed, at least," Lulu said.

"No." He was watching her feet, not the ground. She had stumbled twice during her explorations. Unimportant, perhaps, but she had always been so sure-footed on their travels, inexplicably elsewhere whenever a foe's claw, fist or wing-tip swept towards her.

"What?" she said.ExpandRead more... )

auronlu: (Lady)

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 45: "War in Abeyance"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Auron/Lulu, Rikku/Wakka, Isaaru
Rating: R (Fade-to-black)
Word Count: 3100
Navigation: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC

The Story So Far: Sin is defeated, Yu Yevon destroyed, and Yuna's old guardians assemble in the city of St. Bevelle for the Calm Festival.

Silhouettes of Auron and Lulu watching Fireworks

There's your fireworks, Jecht.

The display was excessive. It appeared that Bevelle's stadium was intent on expending a season's worth of fireworks in a single night. Gaudy team colors erupted brazenly amidst Yevon's greens, whites and golds. Fountains and streamers leapt from every level of the city. They were far more colorful than those that had inaugurated Braska's Calm. Auron remembered them flaring above him as he lay in the roadway, rage seeping away with his blood. Perhaps Yevon had been trying to reconsecrate its heretic summoner with white's purity.

A caress on his forearm recalled him to the present. Success was so alien to him that it was hard to focus on its celebration. But he needed focus now more than ever. More, he needed... this.

Surrounded by old friends, Auron stood on a parapet along the ramparts behind Yuna's Cloister. The area was off-limits for safety, but that had not deterred the Al Bhed. Kitted with goggles and scarves across their faces, Rikku's family had found their own private box to observe the festival. Yuna's remaining guardians were and yet were not a part of it, since the summoner who had brought them together was not there.

ExpandRead more... )

auronlu: (Bobblehead Night)

Hey! I think this is gonnna work!

There's two reasons why I'm terrible about keeping up with Dreamwidth. The first is that I'm spread too thin across too many different platforms and interests. The second is that I've moved almost entirely to mobile, and DW sucks on mobile.

I can't do much about the first, but I've developed some hacks to help with the second. I'd already tweaked DW so it was easier to read. Now I've found a tool to make writing easier, either using iPad splitscreen mode or iPhone app switcher. (Sorry, I am only an iOS person, but so are a lot of you.)

screencap of my iPad splitscreen with Safari on left, Drafts app on right

(View full-sized screenshot)

ExpandDW readability hacks )

ExpandDW writability hacks )

I think, with these hacks, I'm going to stop wishing for a Dreamwidth app.

I hope this helps somebody. It helps me, because I figure things out by explaining them. And I need to figure out how to do this before December, because I always visit my parents for two weeks over the holidays, and I want to be able to post/edit chapters while I am gone.


Markdown Cheat Sheet

auronlu: (Lady)

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 44: "Points of Departure"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Auron/Lulu, Isaaru, Pacce, Wakka, Rikku, Cid, Lucil, Baralai
Rating: G
Word Count: 3500
Navigation: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC

The Story So Far: Yu Yevon has been defeated, and Sin's fayth is free at last. Lulu, Auron, friends and allies return in battered triumph to Bevelle aboard an Al Bhed airship.

Screencap of Celsius airship from FFX-2

Emerging into a whirligig of tumbling children, Auron was glad that Lulu remained in her cabin's sanctuary. The seating area in the mezzanine was crammed with people. In the horseshoe of padded seats closest to the door, Cid, Baralai and Lucil had their heads together in a flurry of last-minute negotiations shouted over the whine of engines. Rikku had claimed the opposite sofa, bent over some project laid across her knees— his sword, Auron realized, and felt a prickle of irritation and nostalgia. The children were everywhere, squealing with delight when a pocket of turbulence parted them from the floor.

One pillar of quiet kept watch over the chaos from the corner. "So who's guarding Sin?" Juno said as Auron stepped out.

"Sin's dead." He turned his back on her, but the staircase was blocked by a barrier of sofa cushions and stuffed animals.

"—Five years," Baralai was saying, earnest and intent. "We'll wave docking fees for five years. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Lucil said. Her crisp battlefield cadences had an odd squeak: apparently she was not enjoying the speed at which they were skimming over the harbor.

"Whoa!" Vidina said, mashing his face against the glass. "Look at that bridge! The steel's totally melted. Way to go, Pop-pops!"

"Get down, boy," Cid growled. "Now see here, Baralai—"

"Consider, Elder Cid," Baralai said. "The lake is composed of frozen pyrefly slurry. You could refuel your ships right there."

"Provided that," Lucil said, "Macalania Temple is left undisturbed, and Lady Shelinda concurs."

"It was an accident," the younger children recited in a sing-song, apparently practicing a new word. "Acci, acci, accident!"

"Kids," Rikku said, "Settle down, okay? Pop-pops is working."

"Deal," Cid said. "I'm down by one airship, mind, so don't expect a weekly ferry service. And Gippal may want compensation."

"Hey, Auron!" Rikku pushed up her goggles. "You dropped something. What's rule number three, kids?"

"Don't leave toys out where Dad can trip over 'em!" Vidina crowed, jamming one of the mini-blitzballs from last night's romp behind the sofa. "Where's Yunie?"

ExpandRead more... )

auronlu: (bleeds)
I gotta apologize, everyone. I've had 14 bad migraine days in the past 3 weeks, and on the days I haven't had them I've been wiped out and/or trying to catch up on chores/errands. I don't know if it's the California dry winds & smoke or my age (probably both; Migraine Hell is the traditional rite of passage for women in my family during menopause.) I'm gonna post the current chapter this evening and just give up on illustrations for a while, as it's hard to do art with the screen dimmed down to the brightness my eyes can tolerate.
auronlu: (Lady)

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 43: "Sunrise"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Auron/Lulu, Yuna, Wakka
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2400
Navigation: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC

The Story So Far: Freed from Sin's bonds, Lulu rests on Brother's airship after the final battle with Yu Yevon.

Lulu hugging a girl about six or seven
Illustration by author

Sin was dead, but for those who had passed through the eye of the spiral, old echoes kept returning. 

Here, now: a quiet space. An airship cabin. Thrumming walls and floor. Not quite room enough for two on a narrow bunk. Blue-black light spilling through a glass window curving from floor to ceiling, emanating cold. Warm blankets, the warmer flesh beneath. The mage's flickering presence dreaming nearby like a sword in its sheath, her powers slumbering, all polished curves and steel. These things Auron remembered and savored, although he felt the irrevocable gulf between then and now like the knotted flesh under his right eyelid. Still once again he sat meditating on the cold deck beside her bunk, contemplating journey's end and the gleam of one pale shoulder in the first light of dawn. 

It seemed to him that Lulu's hair held a faint translucence like the boughs of Macalania trees. Or maybe he was dreaming. He was very tired.

A crash roused him. He must have dropped off after all. The sky and cabin were dusted in a pinkish-gray light. Beside him, Lulu sat bolt upright with a feral hiss and a flash that smelled of burnt feathers. Auron flicked the top blanket out from under her hands and clapped it against the floor, snuffing out sparks. 

"My sword fell," he said. "Propped outside." 

"Ah." She exhaled. Nonetheless, the rigid line of her shoulders flinched in counterpoint to the clanking beats of the weapon tumbling down the staircase.

Auron remembered how he had found her, chained to ice by his own swords. Swallowing a surge of anger, he rose to stand between her and the door. "Bad dreams?"

"Of course." Defiance drew her voice taut. "But they're my dreams." 

ExpandRead more... )

auronlu: (Lady)

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 42: "Chrysalis"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Auron/Lulu, Lucil, Nooj, Paine, Baralai, Wakka, Rikku
Rating: PG
Word Count: 3700
Navigation: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC

The Story So Far: Against all odds, Auron, Isaaru and their allies have defeated Sin and delivered its fayth from Yu Yevon's bonds. Now comrades regroup on Brother's airship.

Auron standing on mezzanine of Brother's airship looking out at sunset, drawn in style of Japanese ink painting in black with a few red accents
Illustration by author

The lounge of the Celsius was ruddy and warm with laughter, with drink, and with song. Old friends and new had gathered there for the flight back. There was mud on the deck and chocobo down spiraling overhead, souvenirs of the airship's stopover in Moonflow Village. No one begrudged a few feathers in Hypello ale.

"It's not a gun. he says it's a sphere
and the teachings of Yevon are perfectly clear,
so that's what he carries beneath his robes,
and the maester's got nothing beneath his robes,
but a pair of very small spheres."

Nooj leaned back. "At least, that's a rough translation. I'm still not quite fluent in Al Bhed."

"I've heard something like it in the barracks," Lucil said, matching his deadpan.

Baralai and Juno stared as if he had sprouted fluffy yellow wings and pranced along the bar singing the latest show tunes from Luca.

"I'm still not sure I've heard it," said Baralai.

"Sin's toxin," Juno said. "Sometimes it takes a while to wear off."

ExpandRead More... )

auronlu: (Lady)

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 41: "No Matter How Dark the Night"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Auron/Lulu, Rikku, Elma, Isaaru, Pacce.
Rating: PG-13 for violence
Word Count: 3600
Navigation: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC

The Story So Far: Thirteen years after Yuna falls in the Final Summoning, Auron and friends have brought down the Final Aeon. Yu Yevon pounces Auron as a last-ditch substitute.

dark stormy drawing of Anima rising out of the ruins of Baaj temple
Illustration by author

The Farplane promised longed-for release. Auron was so tired, a husk of secondhand pyreflies glued together by phoenix down and scars. Rest, sang the sky beyond all skies. Your journey is at an end. Yu Yevon promised nothing, but its dissonant, teeth-cracking whine turned every thought to despair, to the frenzied attack of the maddened hive. Defend, defend, defend, destroy, came the mantra, and he wanted to lash out at something, at anything, as if the violence he had just committed on Lulu's body had unleashed the ravening fiend within. All that held him back was pain, the pangs of childbirth magnified a hundredfold. Why was Erinyes screaming into his mind?

A pressure on his hand, light as the swish of a braid on bare skin, was proof against chaos. Choose, Auron. Choose. This is your story.

A fiend was still a man, as long as he remembered his name.

Auron jammed himself back into his body like an ill-fitting shoe. Rikku, shaking him frantically, gave an indignant, "Hey!" as he elbowed her aside and stood, feeling the weight of sword against callouses.

Lulu's garden was lost. In its place, brackish waters lapped from horizon to horizon, flooding the ruins of a ghost city under a bruise-purple sky. Jumbled stone blocks were scattered, patternless, a puzzle that could never have formed a coherent whole. Bolted to them were rusted pylons and transformers, a maze of drooping cables and catwalks leading nowhere. Bleached, coralline huts teetered on rotting piers, side by side with soulless skyscraper façades. A few dying Macalania trees glowed pale and dim in the shallows. Over the dome of Baaj Temple, carrion birds wheeled in an endless gyre.

No, not Baaj. Erinyes.

Seymour's aeon had sprouted from the temple foundations like an unholy mushroom, its flesh stained and gangrenous, its reflection mirrored on stagnant water. Around it orbited a pair of misshapen monoliths, last remnants, perhaps, of Lightning Mushroom Rock. At the aeon's foot stood a small figure in an old red coat.

Auron began to run. ExpandRead more... )

auronlu: (Yuna's Final Aeon)

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 40: "The Lady"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Auron, Rikku, Elma, Isaaru, Pacce.
Rating: PG-13 for violence
Word Count: 2200
Navigation: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC

The Story So Far: Overcoming the deadly trials of the dream-world inside Sin, Auron and his companions seek an audience with the Fayth of Yuna's Final Summoning.

Translucent fan-shaped ornament floating over eerie amber sea with green and salmon-colored sunset reflecting on the crest's edges
Illustration by @mintywolf

In dreams, one might trip over a Luca balcony and die on the pavement below, or leap from the peak of Mt. Gagazet and alight on the ruins below with barely a jolt. This was no featherless glide, but at least it was not fatal. Icy boughs tore and broke, skinning flesh and slowing their descent. Tangled vines caught and gave way. Roots and gravestones made a hard landing. Winded and blinded, the party lay waiting for their eyes to adjust to the darkness while Isaaru healed them.

When he was finished, Auron pressed a vial of ether into his hand.

Accepting it meekly, Isaaru crushed it against his throat and looked around. "I could swear I've seen this place before."

"It's Djose," Elma said, voice tight. "Almost. What's with these rocks?"

The darkness of Lulu's garden had assumed a more specific color, blue-black to match the trunks of the Macalania trees. Golden light filtered down from the great crystalline moons of seedpods snagged in their branches. Dark vines and creepers curtained everything. There were fewer flowers than Auron remembered: a solitary orchid, a spray of jasmine with just a few waning stars left, a dusting of withered rose petals clinging to spiderwebs.

"It's beautiful," Pacce said.

"Yeah." Rikku reached out, brushing her knuckles against a hibiscus. "Guess this is the garden Yunie dreams about."

"It's pretty and all," Elma said, "but I smell an ambush. Let's move to open ground."

ExpandRead more... )

auronlu: (Lady)

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 39: "Cloister of Guardians"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Auron, Rikku, Elma, Isaaru, Pacce.
Rating: PG-13 for violence
Word Count: 1600
Navigation: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC

The Story So Far: Auron and companions venture into Sin's eerie depths, where its host memorializes the fallen.

Translucent fan-shaped ornament floating over eerie amber sea with green and salmon-colored sunset reflecting on the crest's edges
"Venus Crest" by author

Yu Yevon seemed to have called a truce. The fiends had disappeared back into the mists. Auron wondered where they had been diverted. Sin had gulped down half the pyreflies of Guadosalam, and he doubted Yu Yevon had applied them only to Sin's outer hull. But that was a matter for later. Now...

Now he had to resist the gnawing regrets that threatened to add him to the local fiend population.

Rearing out of the fog, an enormous dome rested on four piers of stone. Yevon's banners, tattered and begrimed, hung from it like cobwebs. Below it lay a wide circular mosaic, scuffed as if from centuries of ordinary foot traffic. Lulu's memory was as meticulous as ever. She had copied the floor of Besaid's shattered temple to the last tile. Around the perimeter stood four monumental sculptures, twice the height of ordinary summoner statues. Reversing the usual arrangement, they faced outwards like sentinels, each one framed by a vaulted archway.

Only one was a summoner.

ExpandRead more... )

auronlu: (Lady)

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 38: "Sea of Sorrow"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Auron, Elma, Isaaru, Pacce, Rikku, Gippal, Baralai.
Rating: PG-13 for violence
Word Count: 3600
Navigation: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC

The Story So Far: The Crimson Squad brings down Sin using Vegnagun in an epic battle over the Thunder Plains. Now Summoner Isaaru's party must deal with what lies within.

against a vague foggy background with ghostly symbols of Yevon, Auron faces off with a snarling behemoth. Elma, wielding a sword, is climbing on its back.
"Purple!" by author

Sin lay like a split anvil, a mountainous ruin. Lightning painted it in stark relief against the clouds. Below, the flicker of energy weapons answered with feeble red fire. Cold rain pinged against acres of cooling shrapnel hurled from the Thunder Plain's newest crater.

A thunderclap and a muffled shriek pierced the air.

"You should go back," Auron said gently.

"I'm not scared!" Rikku said, words muffled behind clenched fists. "I'm just worried about you guys. All of you, you know?"

"I know." His hand tightened around the brand across his palm that was, finally, beginning to cool. Lulu's time was running out.

ExpandRead More... )

auronlu: (Lady)
Next Chapter | Map/ToC

The Story So Far: Sin is down but not out. Friction between Auron's allies may prove almost as great a threat as Sin.

Stylized drawing of Vegnagun fighting Sin with energy bolts crackling between them
"Titanomamachy" by author

"You're kidding, right?" Gippal said. "You know damn well what Nooj is trying to do."

"Yes." She glanced at Auron, who was setting Baralai on the floor. "Hold him." Taking Gippal's seat, she threw the flyer into reverse. There was an instant of freefall before the craft stabilized. Vegnagun wheeled up and away from them, heading back towards Sin.

Gippal grabbed onto the guardrail. "Paine, have you lost your freakin' mind?"

"If Nooj intended suicide, Vegnagun wouldn't obey him." She tried an experimental turn. "How's Baralai?"

"Burns, erratic heartbeat," Auron said. "He needs a healer."

"Okay, great." Gippal hung on as the flyer tipped and straightened. "So now you're suicidal. Look, you've flown this thing exactly twice—"

"Plus two years piloting Vegnagun in simulation, two more working unloaders at Moonflow Port," she said. "Now shut up and let me concentrate."

ExpandRead more... )
auronlu: (Lady)

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 36: "Dust in the Sky"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Auron, Nooj, Baralai, Gippal, Paine, Rikku, Isaaru, Shinra, Elma, Lucil...ok, yeah, everybody.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1900
Navigation: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC

The Story So Far: Auron and his allies lure Sin to the uninhabited ruins of Old Guadosalam, hoping that the firepower of an ancient weapon will be sufficient to disable the foe.

Auron standing on broken treestump with fire, smoke and fiends around him, pyreflies bleeding from his limbs
"Beleaguered" by author

The Thunder Plains were becalmed while Guadosalam rocked with thunder.

No living person in Spira had ever seen Sin like this: sinking, impotent, flailing in sluggish rage, lashing out with lightning and shockwaves that buffeted but could not shake pursuit. Vegnagun proved surprisingly agile, harrying Sin as it fell. Fiends rained down on the deadlands.

Baralai was locked in a lover's embrace with Vegnagun's controls, miming every attack. He drew a rolling scale up the keys, and a white-hot barrage peppered Sin's upper hull. A cluster of base notes sent Vegnagun's tail swiping across its eyes, following the blow with a red beam that pierced shell and bone. Even Thundaga was turned against its mistress. Lightning leapt from Sin to Vegnagun and back again.

Nooj was piloting. Diving past Sin's flank, he dug into a steep turn that pressed them against their seats. Vegnagun roared back up through the haze in a corkscrew spin, bursting out behind their prey. Baralai whooped and emptied the missile bank into the breach left by the main cannon.

"Don't forget it can kill us," Nooj said, but he was smiling.

"First it has to catch us," said Baralai.

ExpandRead more... )

auronlu: (Lady)

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 35: "Eight of Swords"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Nooj, Baralai, Gippal, Paine, Lulu/Auron
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2200
Navigation: Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC

The Story So Far: Auron and his allies lure Sin to the Thunder Plains, where he seeks entry into Sin's dream-world hoping to distract it long enough to spring the trap they've prepared.

Drawing in the style of an Eight of Swords Tarot Card depicting Lulu bound in leather straps and and chained to eight swords that look like Auron's
"Eight of Swords" by @mintywolf

Ice needles pricked Auron back to consciousness. His trousers, his gauntlet, even his hair were frozen and stiff. His face was numb. He was lying on his back in a snowdrift, deeply buried. Even so, his spirits lifted. He half expected Ronso pups to start dragging him out by the boots for another round of lessons, one more bout with their all-too-breakable guardian. His lungs ached when he inhaled frigid air, but it was an ache as familiar as the scar on his face. He trusted it more than Besaid's perfect blue skies.

Thrashing onto his side to free himself, he fetched up against a sword thrust into the snow. Heavy chains linked it to another sword standing nearby, and another, and another, all linked in a circle like the posts of a child's carousel. More chains formed spokes radiating from a central hub, which was...

Lulu. She stood like one more blade, straight and defiant, buried to the knees. A tangled mesh of black straps, barbed metal and rusted buckles encased her from the neck down. A leather band covered her eyes. Another twisted her arms behind her back. Her wild mass of hair was hopelessly snarled in the eight chains stretched from sword-hilts to iron hoops cutting into her upper arms, wrists, thighs, ribcage and throat. The snow around her legs was stained red. To add insult to injury, the weapons staking her to the mountainside were swords that he had once wielded: Chaos Blade. Beastmaster. Blurry Moon. Shiranui. Kotetsu. Murasame. Masamune.

Auron knew the cruel vision might be another trap, but if so, this lure was more effective than the last.

ExpandRead more... )

auronlu: (Lady)

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 34: "Venus/Mars"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Nooj, Baralai, Isaaru, Lulu/Auron
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2100
Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC


The Story So Far: Sin has destroyed the fayth, and now only one thing can oppose it: Vegnagun, doomsday weapon from an ancient war. Auron and allies lure Sin to the Thunder Plains for a final showdown, where Auron hopes to distract Sin long enough to give Vegnagun one clear shot.


Illustration by @mintywolf


No one on the flight deck had spoken since Cid's low whistle. All eyes were fixed on the forward windows, where Shinra's scanners projected a grainy image of Auron and the fayth's statue through a film of rain and static. Past the display, they could see rank upon rank of thunderheads massing to the north. Sin was hidden by the clouds, but barbs of lightning were leaping towards it from the spire of every tower, forming a vast sizzling canopy.

Lucil had risen from her seat, one hand braced against the console, the other digging into Elma's arm.

Elma surreptitiously cupped her hands in Yevon's prayer, drawing a thin smile from Lucil.

Rikku was leaning forward, nervously drumming her fingers on the gun controls.

Inexorably, all the strands of lightning contracted together like the spokes of Thundaga magnified a thousandfold. The scanner's display went white. A blinding flash lit the Thunder Plains from end to end. Even at this distance, the gash of lightning splitting the sky from Sin's nose to the ground looked enormous.

ExpandRead more... )

auronlu: (Lady)

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 33: "The Summons"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Auron, Isaaru, Gippal, Paine, Nooj, Baralai, Bahamut
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2500
Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC

The Story So Far: Spira's defenders gather for an epic showdown. Sin has received her invitation as Guest of Honor. Old lovers will meet as adversaries on the field of battle.

image: Auron and Bahamut's Fayth waiting in the rain on the Thunder Plains

"There. That should do it." Nooj hesitated, his hand poised over a blue hemisphere bolted to Vegnagun's console. "Baralai. I still think you should go back. If this fails, I'd rather not be responsible for the death of Bevelle's chief administrator."

"And leave you alone with this thing? Not a chance." Baralai leaned forward, playing a somber series of notes to weave a protective bubble around them. "Punch it."

"All right." A low bleeping started when Nooj pressed the switch. He hunkered down, bracing himself. "You still don't trust me, do you?"

"I've gotten out of the habit, Nooj. Even those I trust go behind my back."

"She'll watch your back even when you don't want it. Especially then."

"I suppose you would know better than I."

The bleeping was rising in pitch. The cockpit began to vibrate. The lake boomed and cracked as the massive machina pitched forward, tearing its feet free of the ice.

"Hang on," Nooj said. "Phase in ten seconds... five... four... three... two—"

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auronlu: (Lady)

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 32: "Thaw Before the Storm"
Final Fantasy X/X-2 AU
Characters: Paine/Nooj, Auron, Isaaru
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 3600
Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC

The Story So Far: Sin has destroyed most of Isaaru's aeons, leaving him with no choice but to use a fearsome weapon from a thousand-year-old war. Now allies and estranged friends prepare for the final showdown.

Juno pulled the old Crusader's blanket tighter around her shoulders. Night had fallen. Snow was beginning to collect in the nooks and seams of Vegnagun's pitted skin. A low tremulous hum hinted that the machina was not quite dormant. Far below, the lake creaked under the weight of its feet slowly settling into the ice. Pyreflies drifted up from the frozen surface, mingling with the fog.

A drone of engines rumbled across the lake and faded. Juno raised her rifle and peered out. Minutes later, Nooj emerged from the darkness, passed her parked snowsled, and limped across the broken ground. He halted under Vegnagun's head. "May I come up? I'm unarmed."

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auronlu: (Lady)

Title: Love Her and Despair
Chapter 31: "The Council of Yevon"
Final Fantasy X/X-2
Characters: Lucil, Elma, Shelinda, Rikku, Cid, Pacce, Isaaru, Auron, Nooj, Paine, Baralai
Rating: PG-13 (Language)
Word Count: 3300
Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Map/ToC

The Story So Far: Sin has destroyed most of the temples and their fayth, putting Isaaru's pilgrimage in jeopardy. The leaders of Yevon and Al Bhed convene a meeting to discuss options.

Weary as he was of piecing himself back together, Auron still resented unsolicited aid.

Gravity had been hijacked. A subtle realignment of currents had swapped Spira's core with his own heart, drawing bone and sinew and spirit towards it like so many nested shells. The prayer was a variant of the Hymn of the Fayth, the one recited in temples to renew the bonds of fayth to statue. Two voices rose and fell in a plodding chant, weaving the binding prayer around him: once for Yevon, once for Spira, once for the end of Sin.

Auron wondered whether Yojimbo had gone mad before or after the priests stopped coming around to burnish his chains.

His body was no statue, but the pull of the Farplane lessened, as if he had fetched up on a sandbar in the midst of a torrent.

The binding ceased, as did the stronger voice. The ritual shifted to healing magic, a deeper, more potent strain than Zuke's. Damaged organs and fractures missed by Cura were patted back into wholeness like clay wetted, shaped, and baked anew. All pain vanished except for the brand in his palm, and that was now bearable. Finally, a simple cleansing spell— petty magic, but useful on pilgrimages— sloughed off the stench from the gutter where Lulu had dropped him.

Auron sat up and gave a grudging nod of respect. "Thanks."

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December 2019

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