Title: The Last Blessing
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Characters/Pairing: Müllenkamp, Sydney, Ashley (briefly), implied Sydney/Hardin
Rating: G
Length: 900ish words
Summary: The priest, as is customary, offers a prayer before his final offering. His dark patron offers something in return: reassurance.
Notes: ...I would say there are spoilers/unhappy content here, but only if you know the context for this conversation taking place just before the last scene of the ending of the game.

( 'Though the path was not of my own choosing, I cannot say I did not willingly choose to walk it.' )

Title: a bit of fun
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Rating: R
Content notes: Suggestive, contains mild (consensual) violence
Artist notes: Look, Sydney has metal claws, I (and others) have been headcanoning Hardin as a masochist for 20 years. I could not pass up this particular challenge - but also could not immediately think of something to write about it that I hadn't already written, so decided to try fan art instead.
Left as rough pencil on paper because honestly I like the sketchiness (in more ways than one!).
Summary: The fun starts when Sydney drags a single claw down the front of his shirt, rending it in two - but it doesn't stop there.

( They're both enjoying themselves, I promise. )

Title: Home, Home Again
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Characters/Pairing: Sydney Losstarot/John Hardin
Rating: T
Length: 900ish words
Summary: Hardin has become very familiar with Sydney's private room - familiar enough that he notices at once when something is different.

( 'Home' was a yearning that had been very much on Hardin's mind of late... )

Title: Affinity
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Characters/Pairing: Sydney Losstarot/John Hardin
Rating: G
Length: 1100ish words
Summary: The composition of Hardin's soul, the balance of its energy, means that healing magic will never come easily to him. Sydney explains, and ponders why.
Notes: The battle/magic system in this game plays a LOT with elemental affinities and their counterparts, and I do so love integrating game mechanics into worldbuilding via fanfic. ;)

( 'You are a creature of earth and fire and darkness, dear Hardin.' )

Title: An Ill Omen
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Characters/Pairing: Sydney Losstarot/John Hardin
Rating: M
Length: 1200ish words
Summary: Sydney had never shown interest in Hardin's boot knife before. Neither had Hardin, at least in this context.
Notes: Mentions and suggestions of bloodplay, knifeplay, and other associated kinks. For context, Sydney has prosthetic arms with metal claws for fingers, and the two of them (in my timeline) have made use of them consensually for years by this time.

( Sydney did seem to have more interesting things to do than chastise Hardin for his supposed inattention, but he was capable of doing both at once. )

Title: Ordinary Men
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Rating: G
Length: 950 words
Summary: The high priest of the Müllenkamp sect tends to embrace pleasure rather than deny it, but there are other temptations that may whisper in his ear.

( Temptation for one such as Sydney did not come in the darkest nights, as it oft did for those who followed a stricter doctrine. )

Trying to get this in under the buzzer, forgive any typos -_-

Title: Breaking Away From the Pack
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Rating: G
Length: 1200ish words
Summary: Hardin's first summoning lesson starts with a battle of metaphors.

( '...So this is little more than a housepet - is that it?' )

Title: Rehearsal
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Rating: PG-13/T
Length: 1800ish words
Author notes: This was one of those challenges where as soon as I saw the prompt I just started laughing. "Okay boys, fine, now I have an excuse to write something like that for you."
Summary: When you observe a religion founded by a belly dancer, preparing for holiday rituals can be... a mite strange.

( He had seen dances of this sort before, in taverns and inns of ill repute. )

Title: Chivalry Misplaced
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Rating: PG
Length: 544 words
Summary: Hardin's training and instincts served him well in the past. ...Not so much in the present.

( 'That was foolish.' )

Title: Requiem at Dawn
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Rating: G
Length: 340 words
Author's notes: The setting of this game is practically a character in the story... Which ends at daybreak after a very difficult night.
Summary: She whom they seek to conquer will not allow herself to be taken.

( Her mother had perished in the flames, but this was not to be her end. )

Title: Next Time
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Rating: PG
Length: 200 words
Content notes: Non-explicit violence, also non-explicit spoilers
Author's notes: Paired drabbles about what may be the saddest moments in a game full of them - at least if you ship Sydney and Hardin like burning, as I do. :P
Summary: Sydney intended to apologize when next they met.

( Their next meeting should not have been this way. )

Title: And I Am the Dead Man's Son
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Rating: PG
Length: 735 words
Content notes: Dark themes, SERIOUS end-game spoilers if you read into it a little bit. Works on its own as a vignette - but I may wind up including this scene in another longer story I'd already been meaning to write.
Summary: The day Sydney's prophecies broke over the horizon.

( The visions he had seen for so many years had been gathering at the duke's words, appearing upon the horizon of time like a storm blowing inland from the sea. )

Title: And With These Words I Can See
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Rating: G
Length: 1500 words
Content notes: Canon-typical impending doom...? Sydney may be a priest, but he's known as a prophet of the apocalypse.
Summary: Sydney's speech while overshadowed by the gods' presence often inspires wonder in the eyes of those who listen. Far too often, Sydney sees something else along with it.

( When the gods were guiding him, his speech was an enchantment all its own. )

Title: A Draught of Bittersweet Memory
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Rating: PG13ish?
Length: 8300ish words
Content notes: Physical and magical battle, and the aftermath thereof.
Author's notes: I had two ideas immediately upon seeing this prompt. And then I had an idea that would let me combine them, though it would take... some set-up. Thus we have a lengthy sword-and-sorcery action sequence too - but it should be abundantly obvious where the prompt comes in. ;)
Presumably this is another one that takes place early in the timeline of the stories I've written for these two, since otherwise Hardin would be used to this by now, if still disapproving.
Summary: After a battle more intense than expected, amidst a haze of potions and delirium, Sydney dreams a dream that is not his own.

( 'Even I have my limits, Hardin, when it comes to the Dark. Yet it is of no concern. The powers I serve are able to sustain me well past the ability of mortal man.' )

Title: Hidden in the Shadows
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Rating: G
Length: 1400ish words
Content notes: Discussion of religious and political persecution, homophobia, and safe spaces in a medieval-esque setting that does not have the same (or sometimes any) terms for such things.
Summary: Even after coming to accept his desires, Hardin had assumed them to be unusual.

( 'As their Light grows brighter, the shadows grow more stark, and man is divided - forcibly separated from our own kin.' )

Title: A Pillow of Winds
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Rating: PG
Length: 3100ish words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Veered off into different themes than the prompt, and got much longer than expected, but there is still a lot of holding going on. Hope that's still okay...?
References back to scenes in the first story in the series I've been writing about Sydney and Hardin pre-canon... for twenty years... since this is still set in their early days. Probably will become the new #4 story when I can upload.
And while we're at it, whytf does Pink Floyd go so well with these two? Title shamelessly borrowed yet again.
Summary: Revelations come in the night, and also in the morning.

( Some of Sydney's revelations, he recalled, came whether Sydney sought them or not. )

Title: No Assistance Required
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Rating: PGish
Length: 850ish words
Author notes: We used to ask questions like this in the fandom all the time back in the day. XD
Summary: Buttoning a shirt is one of the many things Sydney does not do in the manner of ordinary men.

( Hardin almost asked, upon seeing the shirt Sydney shrugged over his shoulders this time. )

Title: Every Man Has a Price
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Rating: PG-13ish maybe?
Length: 1500ish words
Content notes: Violence, not terribly graphic
Author notes: Assuming this must take place not long after Sydney and Hardin met, since Hardin does not yet have a sizable bounty on his own head for being Sydney's second. ;)
(Quick notes for those not familiar with the canon: Sydney Losstarot is an immortal prophet who leads a doomsday cult, John Hardin is his "partner"; the king and the heads of the dominant religion find this cult very ...interesting... to put it mildly.)
Summary: Set upon by bounty hunters seeking Sydney, Hardin is given an unexpected offer.

( 'You're like us... You've seen battle, you deal in harsh realities.' )

Title: no alarms and no surprises
Fandom: Vagrant Story
Rating: PG (thematically dark)
Length: 540 words
Author notes: 20 year old fandom drags me back to writing fic and the first two challenges I see in this comm upon returning to DW are "iron" and "nightmares"? Well then!
Summary: Hardin is not a man who should be willingly allied with an anarchist uprising, much less leading their charge. Sydney is not the only reason he stays.

( He was not meant for this kind of a life. )