The Corpse Brigadier

Finally, after spending almost all of 2021 having way to many things happen at and around me, my life finally calmed down enough that I could at long last partake of an exchange again. I had a ball with this year's Press Start, both in terms of getting a ton of cool stuff (The amount of quality Ultima fic on ao3 just increased by... a lot) and in terms of getting finally my groove back a bit as a creator.

My Gifts

"Blood, Ash, Fire" by FireEye (Ultima | The Avatar & Arcadion, Teen, Art): A neat piece of art featuring the Avatar "feeding" the magnificent jerk of a daemon that lives in her overpowered sword.

"Not to be Bound by Thy Fate" by FireEye (Ultima | The Avatar & Arcadion, Teen, 1.5K): More Avatar and Arcadion content, set in my favorite completely batshit Ultima dungeon. This piece just took the whole dynamic between these two in some directions I absolutely loved, and I'm probably going to be envisioning the characters differently as a result.

"PARANOiA ~Devil-Zukin mix~" by pirotess (Dance Dance Revolution | Devil-Zukin, General, Art): DDR ART! Combining one of my favorite songs and one of my favorite characters! This is spot on to the aesthetics of the series--thinking of using it as a cover for one of my DDR heavy workout playlists.

"A Test of Logic, Skill, and Luck" by FireEye (Ultima | The Avatar & Iolo & Shamino & Dupre, General, 100 words): A drabble about Ultima's core party members eating pizza and playing Minesweeper. XD

"Tiny Claws and Tailspines" by FireEye (Ultima | The Avatar & Iolo & Shamino & Dupre (& Arcadion), Teen, 100 words): Some delightful low stakes adventures with the Ultima crew encountering a very small manticore.

"The Trials of Heaven and Hell" by FireEye (Final Fantasy Tactics | Rafa & Malak, Teen, 1K): An understated but still completely heartbreaking series of snapshots in the Galthena siblings' travels after the destruction of their village.

"Strifeborn Shadows" by FireEye (Ultima | Astaroth & Faulinei & Nosfentor, Teen, Art): A dark, creepy take on the Shadowlords.

My Works

"Giants and Wyrms " (Final Fantasy Tactics | Beowulf/Reis, Gen, 3.5K) and "Beasts and Vagabonds" (Final Fantasy Tactics | Beowulf/Reis, Gen, Art), both for Lassarina: A post-canon story about Reis and Beowulf (and Mustadio and Worker 8) all returning to Lionel, as well as two art pieces I concocted while writing it. Contains unintentional reassurances from a robot.

"The Impossible Riddle" for atramento (Final Fantasy Tactics | Mustadio & Worker 8, Gen, Art): A goofy comic about Mustadio and Worker 8 trying to solve a captcha.

"The Planet, Pining for the Sun" for FireEye (Ultima | Chsheket, Gen, 1.1K): A drabble sequence about Chsheket and the other Martians from Martian Dreams attempting to adapt to life on Earth over the course of a century.

"Roses to Rule Me" for Suzume (Final Fantasy Tactics | Alma/Ovelia, Gen, 500 words): A short piece about Alma and Ovelia spending time together as girls at Orbonne and having a brush with some foreshadowing.

Other Cool Stuff

I'm still browsing the collection (last weekend was amazingly busy), but here are a few pieces that have caught my eye thus far!

"<3" by lilpocketninja (Final Fantasy VII: Remake | Cloud/Wedge, General, Art): A sweet comic about Cloud and Wedge sharing a moment under some streetlights.

"Fifty-Fifty" by weakinteraction (Minesweeper | General, 1.3K): A glorious exploration of one of the most frustrating events in any game of Minesweeper... told as a story about psychic dolphins!

"Gunmetal" by pirotess (Final Fantasy VII | Tseng, General, Art): Just a really sleek drawing of Tseng, looking like he crawled straight out of a 1997 doujinshi.

"At a time like this" by ovely (Final Fantasy VI | Celes/Sabin, General, 2.9K) : A very sweet fic full of banter and bonding; explores Celes and Sabin finding comfort in one another in that sliver of time where they're the entirety of your party.

I finally tried out this whole flash exchange business. Despite being a relative exchange n00b, I've gotten rather into all the ritual of elaborate letters and lots of deliberating my way through nominations/requests during sign ups, and I wanted to break from that a little. When I found out there was a video game themed flash going down, I thought I'd bite, as most of my fandoms are--in fact--video games these days (which is honestly... really odd given my pre-corpsebrigading fannish life).

In any event, it was really refreshing to have something brisk and low stakes in which I could flex my creative muscles without the ability to make things into too massive a production. I'm not sure if I'll try another, but on the balance, it was a really cool experience and I got a super neat gift.

My Gift

"Growing Cold" by Laylah (Vagrant Story | Grisson & Neesa & Tieger, Teen, 0.8K): I recently got into Vagrant Story, as people noticing my continuing obsession with FFT and its sad religious zombie man suggested that maybe--just maybe--I might want to give some other Matsuno games a try. Those people were right, and I've been jonesing for fan content for Vagrant Story's sad zombie for a while now. This exchange delivered. I was the recipient of a lovely, evocative examination of somebody grappling with both the horror of their own death and their subsequent descent into madness, which is just A+ relevant to my interests content.

My Works

"Come to Dust" for HP_Lovecats (Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem | Anthony/Ellia, Teen, 0.9K): I ended up encountering two really interesting rarepairs for this exchange that I had never really considered before and had yet to be wrangled. As somebody who seems to be forever obsessing over niche characters and ships, it was really fun to give writing them a go. This was my take on two zombies/ghosts who never actually meet one another in the obscure video game canon from which they hail: which is pretty much the exact sort of rarepair I live for. This piece features a lot of meditations on fate and time and being a tormented revenant doomed to wait for your purpose in history to be at an end.

"El Ganso Diablo" for thedevilchicken (Monkey Island/Untitled Goose Game | Guybrush Threepwood & Murray & Terrible Goose, General, Art): A horrifying image of a man beset by evil.

"Local Fauna" for chacusha (Final Fantasy VI | Gau & Ultros, General, Art): FF6 characters as Animal Crossing characters, being cute and wearing appropriate T-shirts where applicable.

"Mask" for neosaiyanangel (Final Fantasy VI | Shadow/Locke/Terra, Explicit, 2.2K): Another rarepair I hadn't considered before; this time a Shadow POV piece about a threesome with Locke and Terra, rife with all sorts of contemplations about the characters' respective relationships to the past.

"Northern Lights" for youjik33 (Earthbound | Jeff Andonuts/Tony, General, 1K): A brief, sort of goofy first kiss story for my favorite ship for my favorite feel good game.

Other Neat Stuff

"First Contact" by fayharley (Neko Atsume | OCs & Pepper, General, 1.9K): A tentacle alien is assigned to observe and study the Neko Atmuse cats; really adorable

"Vertabrae" by Piinutbutter (Antaomy | The House, General, 0.4K): A chilling, second person piece that functions really well as a standalone horror story (I'm unfamiliar with the canon, but I'm probably buying the game now.)

Challenge #8: Rec at least three fanworks that you didn’t create.

Aw yeah... if you are into one specific JRPG (or two specific JRPGs), do I have some good stuff for you! If not, well... I'll try. I honestly just love making lists of things, which is why this particular challenge got a little longer than strictly necessary

I should note that I've also put together a recs tag for this blog.

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Final Fantasy Tactics

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Final Fantasy VI

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Other Canons

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