#mintywolf's art

[auronlu]

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. 

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."

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[auronlu]

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 | Chapter One | Map/ToC 

The Story So Far: [AU in which Yuna chooses the Final Summoning] — Auron and his allies lure Sin to the Thunder Plains, where he seeks entry into Sin's dream-world hoping to distract its chief inhabitant long enough to spring the trap they've prepared.

________

Special thanks to @mintywolf for this awesome illustration/birthday present a few months ago :D 

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.

( Read more... )

[auronlu]

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 Navigation: Previous Chapter | Chapter One | Map/ToC Our 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

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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 ofThundaga 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.

Rikku gave a cry. "Auron!"

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[auronlu]

Title: Love Her and Despair  Chapter 12: "How Does Her Garden Grow?" Final Fantasy X Characters: Auron/Lulu, Wakka Rating: T Word Count: 2300 Summary: A meeting of old friends (and enemies). Navigation: Previous Chapter | Chapter 1 | Map/ToC

The Story So Far: The Crusaders mount a new Operation Mi'ihen in an attempt to save Djose Temple's aeon. Auron, guarding Summoner Isaaru, is felled by lightning during Sin's attack.

Illustration by @mintywolf​

The sky was singing. No, not the Hymn of the Fayth. It was a simpler lullaby, rocking with the ocean's rhythm, a tune suited to a child's cradle on some lush tropical island where the afternoons were drowsy and sweet. Auron wondered what had put that image into his mind, monastery-raised as he was. A nun had sung over him once, laving his fevered brow while he lay on a hard pallet fighting sickness after spending the night on Lake Macalania for the sake of a dare.

The hand stroking his brow paused. "I don't think I'd like being a nun, Auron."

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[auronlu]

Title: Love Her and Despair Chapter 5: "Pearl" Final Fantasy X Characters: Isaaru, Maroda, Pacce, Auron, Lulu, Dona, Barthello Rating: T Word Count: 2800 Summary: "Well, I am a goddess, you know." Navigation: Previous Chapter | Map of Pilgrimage/ToC

The Story So Far: Sir Auron, Maester Isaaru and his brothers take up the pilgrimage 13 years after Yuna dies defeating Sin. Attacking the new Sin at Kilika, Auron is lost when it disappears beneath the waves.

[Amazing fanart by @mintywolf]

Auron slogged through darkness. He felt the lash of rain against his skin like tiny sullen barbs, warning him to keep his distance. Now and again lightning flickered, but never long enough to show him what kind of landscape this dream-world might be. He felt parched despite the rain, and his feet were numb with cold. At last, after he had forgotten what time and distance meant, he found a wall of leaping flame barring his path. He braced himself for searing heat and pushed through.

On the far side, darkness took on clarity and shape. It was the black and silver of moonlight, wisps of cloud and patches of night sky overhead where stars glittered. At his back was a whispering jungle, shimmering with crickets and the distant cries of fiends. Its lush, fiercely alive scents nearly smothered him. Before him lay a placid harbor, gentle flecks of crested waves rising and falling like a woman's breast in sleep.

He trudged through sand towards the breakers where kelp flexed over hidden shoals just offshore. When the sand gave out, he clambered over submerged rocks encrusted with shells. Mussels crackled underfoot. Water had never been his element, but it was Sin's, and it suited her now as much as fire's wrath, lightning's flash and icy disdain had suited her before.

There. A glimmer of white. He pulled up short, arrested by the same vision that had spawned a cult. Familiarity was no defense.

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[auronlu]

@mintywolf has been penning @guardian-comic almost every week for years, and then on top of that she’s worked on some amazing custom art for my Patreon support. Here’s just a sampler.

 I am so, so grateful for all these beautiful, fun images (especially since the Patreon tier just said a sketch, not full-color masterpieces!) I think Guardian’s worth supporting as is, so this is all a wonderful bonus. And I know she’s put a lot of extra work into these. I’ve gone back through my Tumblr and tagged them all — I hope — so please go browse!

(Also a few miscellaneous gifts to make them easier to find.) 

[auronlu]

Six. And. A Half. Years.

That's how long @mintywolf has been posting her FFX graphic novel, @guardian-comic, a page a week. Now she's about to finish FINISHED this epic work.

222 pages of glorious Final Fantasy fanart.

Backstory. Sidestory. AU story. Lulu's first pilgrimages; Yuna's summoner training. Growing up in Spira. Lots more between Lulu, Yuna and Rikku. Everything that the game's POV character, Tidus, didn't experience.

Battles, arguments, politics and drama. Friendships and love between women front and center, instead of backgrounded. An ace wlw romance. Context for those who have forgotten the game or never played it.

Go. Get sucked in. Jump to Page One on Tumblr, or the TOC on DeviantArt.

I just skimmed it again to throw together this highlights/screencaps collage (for which I apologize; the artist is better at layout than I am). It's a fast read and a heck of a journey. I wish everyone in FFX fandom 10-15 years ago could see this.

@guardian-comic - Lulu. Yuna. This is their story.

GUARDIAN - A Final Fantasy Graphic Novel