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wretcheddthing · 5 months

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If ur looking for excuses to talk about Venali! What were her first impressions of her party members, and how has her opinion of each of them changed? (Gale especially!)

for u. from me. btw. besides the fact it's super thoughtful that you're asking about Ven unprompted, this is a FANTASTIC question

it's all going under the cut :) (also if you have any OCs from literally anything i'd love to hear about them !!! don't matter from what i'm curious about the things you like too <3)

In Order Of Meeting

Lae'zel She appreciated how direct Lae'zel is as soon as they met. No questions asked, they're in a situation and they need to get out of it. She appreciated the brevity and resourcefulness Lae'zel showed on the nautaloid. As she learned more about Lae'zel and eventually Vlaakith, she started to become kind of protective of her but in a subtle way. Sorta like, "Hey not to give you my two cents unprompted but I think probably this whole 'chosen by Vlaakith' thing may not be that good for you based on the whole. Everything about her." Was also SUPER flattered when Lae'zel came on to her because who doesn't love being hit on by a hot githyanki warrior, even if she did ultimately turn her down for the wizard. By end game, I think they're fairly close. Ven would kill and die for any of her friends, Lae'zel is no exception. She was so, so proud of Lae'zel when her quest was resolved and how much she'd learned and grown.

Shadowheart Ven fought demons trying not to pry into Shadowheart's past before she was ready to share. I mean, Ven has her own secrets. She didn't begrudge Shadowheart for having hers. She is very snoopy, though. She was touched when Shadowheart started to open up to her more, and learning her deal with Shar was pretty similar to learning about Lae'zel and Vlaakith. Like, "heyyyy worship who you like I'm not gonna judge but I think probably this is not beneficial to you in any way." and she was right. It honestly broke her heart seeing how all her friends displayed resolve because it never really helped any of them. She also completely ignores how her own resolve is detrimental to her, but she's very much a "do as I say, not as I do" person. Ending Shadowheart's quest hit hard for Ven if only because seeing the change in her as someone with a mission and little else to someone with some sense of self but no direction really started resonating as she started coming to terms with appreciating the magic she was given.

Gale

She likes Gale :)

She has a lot of experience with wizards and was ready to have the exact same annoying, ego-battle interaction with this one before she learned who he was. She was pretending to be a prodigy herself, so she certainly knew of Gale of Waterdeep, former chosen of Mystra. Ven isn't particularly religious herself, but of course has heard just about all she can about Mystra, good and bad. She already wasn't huge on the goddess because it seemed to her that she was just kind of a dick (based on stories told to her from people who weren't active worshipers - thank you Minsc for talking shit about her also. Ven agreed.) Learning of her relationship with Gale, the power imbalance of it all, and the lengths Gale felt he had to go to please her left a very bad taste in her mouth. Try as she might, she couldn't help but be charmed by the guy, though. His hobbies are so domestic, it lines up with her interests Perfectly. He just also has a whole complex because he was groomed by an Actual Goddess since he was a young man. She was pretty quickly entranced by the passion he has for talking about his interests and honestly didn't have any problems helping him out with his little hunger problem because magical items are So easy to come by (also i know my playstyle well enough to pick and choose items i know will never be used. easy gale snacks). Plus, they're both huge history buffs - there is no shortage of topics for discussion between them. He also surprised her a bit with what he approves and disapproves of - his neutrality on some things aligned with hers in a way I personally didn't expect. She was already half in love with him by the time gandalf showed up to eat their cheese and tell gale to kill himself, but it Really solidified her beef with Mystra and want to stabilize Gale, both literally bc of the bomb in his chest, but also mentally. Like noooo don't kill yourself you're so hot (and also important to me) aha. When he chose her over the world at the end of Act 2, she really thought she'd marry him like right then. And Then he was like "oh hey, i can become god! wouldn't that be cool? to be god? i can probably do it better than the other gods." Man, if she weren't head over heels in love with him she would have been Way less tactful about calling him an idiot. She indulged him as far as she could without netting negative approval, but she really had to put her foot down when he started talking like it was a done deal. As far as Gale had helped her come to terms with her magic and its utility, even to some extension the beauty of it, she needed him to find the same appreciation in the mundane. And so they balanced each other out. I haven't actually finished Ven's game yet (i'm going to later tonight ;-;) but I DO know Gale will propose and she's going to accept. Without question. Just in time to see the new epilogue. I'm going to lose it. I'm going to lose it.

Astarion: She did NOT like that guy at first. Not because he's kind of an asshole just as a personality trait, but specifically because his first act toward her was an immediate betrayal (tricking her into thinking he needed help before pulling a dagger on her). Not! Cool! Sure, it was handled pretty quickly after that, but he was on thin ice for a while after. Granted, he didn't like her that much either because she kept offering to help people. She was very, Very distrustful when he tried hitting on her because as far as she knew, he couldn't stand her. It made no sense. I don't think there's a fleshed out convo for it, but Ven as a character would immediately see he's not being genuine and she also would Not appreciate the angle he was taking in trying to get her on his side. Learning his backstory changed things pretty quickly, though. She finally understood the motivation behind his previous actions and defended his autonomy at Every point she could. When he started being like "Hey so this ascension thing.... sounds pretty good for me! No downsides to that, I think" she was like. Hey what's the deal with all of my friends desperately wanting things that are actively bad for them? Sure I don't have a great sense of what's good for me either, but that's different. These guys are trying to kill themselves. In Gale's case literally. I think after dealing with Cazador, they had their first genuine heart-to-heart where they realize that there's no way they're getting rid of the other. They never become Super close, but by the end of the game there's an unspoken understanding that if one needs help, the other would come. They'll never be rid of the other. Silent ride or dies.

Wyll It's hard not to be immediately charmed by Wyll, and she didn't try to fight it. That guy is Dashing. Proficient duelist, superhero backstory, good with kids - what's not to like? He does unfortunately have the same problem as everyone else where he's resolute to a fault, but something she finds refreshing about him is that he is fully aware of this fact. He made his choice with Mizora, stands by it, and would do it again if he had to. Hell, he was punished severely for not killing Karlach and takes it in stride. He is the embodiment of a hero to the people, and she loves that about him. She just also wishes he would prioritize himself even once. Even One Time of his own volition. But since he wouldn't, she helped him shoulder some of that responsibility. She also really felt for him since her situation with magic-granting entities is very similar to that of a warlock. Since she has no easy way to control her issue, she vowed to help him with his. She talked him out of his pact with Mizora, Begging Wyll to trust that she wouldn't let his dad die as a result. And she didn't! She saved them both like she promised she would. She really loves the guy and just wishes the best for him going forward.

Karlach I will never make a character that hates Karlach becuase it is impossible for Me to hate her. Even in a pretend way. Besides, Karlach is another one of those characters it's So hard not to be charmed by. You get this whole impression that she's some murderous devil hellbent on destruction and then you actually meet her and she's just super funny and has such an upbeat physicality about her it's infectious. Ven isn't in love with the fact that Karlach would rather ignore the pressing issue of her heart exploding than think through her next steps, but she also can't fault her for wanting to live as much life with as little worry as possible given the whole Absolute thing. If only there were time to handle both with the appropriate care. Karlach's quest also hasn't been resolved yet bc. I haven't finished Ven's first playthrough, but I don't think she's gonna let her just die. Karlach doesn't deserve that. She actually stands out to Ven in that she needs to fortify her resolve to keep going. I think Ven will admire her greatly for that, despite feeling guilty that it's the only way to keep her alive. She'd wonder if she has the strength to accept her own issues the same way Karlach has.

Gonna go fast for the non-origins characters bc I just realized I wanna see the epilogue so so so so bad which means I’m about to do the final quest with Ven for the first time which is going to drive me up a wall.

She likes Halsin well enough but he had no lasting impression on her other than “man that dude is Huge”. Also she wasn’t as flattered by his interest in her as she was with Lae’zel, but it wasn’t outright insulting like with Astarion.

She really likes Jaheira and they keep up the playful ribbing dynamic throughout. I like to think Jaheira becomes Venali’s confidante. Someone she can go to for anything. Advice, to vent, someone to speak some sense into her. I also really like Jaheira. I really like Jaheira.

Ven also likes Minsc and talking to him leaves her in a better mood. If only bc he says something that no one else in the entire world would ever come up with organically and it makes her laugh.

And that’s what I got! For now! I’ll probably be posting more later tonight once I finish the game and see the epilogue. It might change me as a person.

Edit; I forgot about Minthara I didn’t get her in Ven’s first game but . I’m out of my mind about her so I’m also playing her in another playthrough and bc of patch 5 I’ll have a chance to recruit her for the first time! So thoughts on that Down The Line

#ask #technofinch #oc: venali kelvyre #💖💖💖💖💖

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themadauthorshatter · 3 years

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So... I've been watching KH rewrites.

And while I'm not rewriting ALL of Kingdom Hearts, but I have a few ideas to change 358/2 days:

The organization has an agenda: find and kill Sora, Riku, and Kairi so they can stay out of the way, but with Sora sleeping, Kairi safe on Destiny Islands, and Riku running all over the place, their jobs just got harder.

The change the title to 358/3 days, because Axel's in on this too. This is the sea salt TRIO we're dealing with, not sea salt duo.

We see a majority of Roxas's beginner days, like before, but in between them, we see Xion with Axel, mainly because Xemnas trusts him enough to be able to incapacitate Xion, if she gets too fired up.

Oh yeah, Xion doesn't really look up and smile at Roxas when she first sees him. In game, her mouth just opens in a gasp and she clenches a fist. In her first days, she's strictly in 'attack anything that comes near me' mode because she's scared and confused. We see it happen when Demyx waves a hand in front of her face and she literally jiu jitsu throws him to the ground.

Xion stares at Roxas and Axel and follows them individually. Axel finds it creepy and warns her not to get any ideas while Roxas pretends not to notice.

Xemnas is more proactive, checking on and somewhat favoring Roxas and Xion, Roxas more than Xion at first before fully switching over to team Xion. Everyone notices, especially Larxene, and it's not a good thing. Except for Axel, who's okay to stay out of Xemnas's attention.

Larxene is a bitch. As in she not only tells Roxas to not use his keyblade, but also to hold still so she can kick him.

Lexeaus is a little kinder. He does still hit Roxas within an inch of his life, but he lets Roxas hit back, as hard as he can. Roxas does so, hitting him in the side, like by the abs, but not completely, and it only hurts Roxas more than Lexeaus, the big guy fights a pitied smile and tells him to try again. Roxas does so, hitting harder, and Lexeaus grunts and fakes it to look like Roxas really did hit him hard. Roxie boy apologizes, but Lexeaus brushes it off, complimenting that Roxas is a more than qorthy choice for the keyblade.

Zexion is not a fan of Roxas, because he looks too much like Ventus. He eventually has a silent kinshio with him and acts A LITTLE friendly towards him, but nothing serious.

Vexen has to be kept on a leesh so he doesn't lock Roxas in his lab and scientifically check him out. AT LEAST BEFORE HE GOES ON A MISSION WITH HIM. After that, he wants nothing to do with the kid.

Axel is a little weirded out by Roxas, at first, but warms up to him.

Marluxia is a little creepy in that while he trains with Roxas, like practice missions, he gets face caress-y and Roxas later asks Axel if he can not go on missions with Marluxia.

Xemans does not get like that with either of Roxas or Xion; all he does is ruffle/play with their hair and pat their back and shoulder.

AND XEMNAS ISN'T PORTRAYED AS A VILLAIN UP-FRONT. IN A PERFECT WORLD, THIS IS RELEASED BEFORE KH2!!!!!!

Saïx sees Axel's growing connections with Roxas and Xion, and he gets meaner because of it.

Roxas has his own version of anti-form or rage form, in the form of non-form, where he takes on a look very much like a mix of the samurai and dusk nobodies; he's bendy, fast, and hard as shot to lock onto, target-wise, but get hit and there's next to nothing that's going to save you. Roxas can only use non-form when he has no other optiin, and that's because he hates using it with a burning passion. Whenever he uses it, he has a hard time seeing things, so he relies on his hearing and any bright lights that catch his attention. Game wise, this is his limit break. When his health is low, non-form is activated with a cool looking transformation.

Non-form is the reason why Roxas is Xemnas's favorite, at first.

Xion doesn't talk to Roxas at all when they go on missions together, at least not until Roxas goes into non-form to save her, even though she doesn't really need saving.

Demyx was initially chosen to watch Roxas, but he saw the kid, newborn, scared, and confused, go into non-form and damn near attack him until Xemnas kicked him away. Saïx was the runner uo, but he gave the role to Axel, who successfully calmed Roxas down enough for the newbie to return to normal.

Xion warms up to Roxas, but is cold towards Axel, who returns the feeling, but also makes a deal with her; in front of Roxas, they have to play nice together or else Saïx is going to snitch to Xemans, who will have Xion ripped apart piece by piece until there's no putting her back together. Behind Roxas's back, however, they can fight all they want, as much as they want. Hell, they can even try to kill each other. BUT ONLY BEHIND ROXAS'S BACK SO HE DOESN'T SEE IT HAPPEN.

Roxas is given pretty lenient missions and it's not just because of his connection to Sora and Ven. It's also because of how unstable Non-form is.

Oh, yeah. Roxas hallucinates and hears both Sora AND Ventus, but it's only when things get too quiet. Xemnas has Axel keep an eye on him because he made friends with Ventus as Lea and had contact with Sora. If anything, the redhead can keep Roxas stable enough for them to bring him to Castle Oblivion and find Ven, when he's ready.

And he'll be ready when he dual wields keyblades, which Xemnas KNOWS wil happen because he's Xehanort and Xehanort apparently knows all.

He doesn't know enough because there's another person who can dual wield: Xion.

Xion is still a replica, but this time is made with fractures of Kairi's and Sora's hearts, Kairi being able to wield a keyblade because it got passed down from Aqua to her by accident and Sora because he's Sora.

When Axel is sent to Castle Oblivion and is reported as gone, Roxas's reaction is much more severe. First mission with Xigbar goes fine until the end, where Roxas not only gets hallucinations of Sora and all that, but also because he's experiencing a new emotion: GRIEF. He goes into Non-form and goes insane. Xigbar directs him to a dark corridor, where he's released right into the castle in The World That Never Was and starts destroying anything amd everything that moves before going all aroung the castle.

It soon becomes a really darkly comedic game of Catch The Kid Without Killing Him Or Letting Him Leave To Another World.

No one's fully successful, except for Saïx, who also goes berserk to stop and hold him so Xemnas can collect him. Roxas struggles in Saïx's arms and lets out scream after scream until Xemnas comes to get him and snap him out of it.

Roxas leaves Non-form and is led to his room by Xemnas, who compliments his ability to imitate emotions, despite not remembering how to.

Roxas, already trying to keep it together, breaks down again, and Xemnas holds him close, letting him get it all out, and explains that this is why they fight and need to fight warriors of the light, including Sora, Riku, and Kairi.

After that, Roxas is only allowed on recon missions until he's stable again.

It's fine though, because Axel makes it back a week later, saying he got knocked unconscious by Sora. He escaped and made it out a-okay, leavung out the part where he may have merced Vexen and Zexion.

Roxas is still glad.

Axel reports to Xemnas and Saïx and euns into Xion.

The threat still remains, but he's still playing nice for Roxas's sake.

Over time, Axel and Xion learn to get along and even become friendly enough to be sarcastic and jokey with each other.

It also helps that Xion also deals with hallucinations and her way of dealing with them is by running. Axel and Roxas followed her and came face to face with a GIANT heartless, maybe a more threatening version of the Dark Side.

All three fight it, but it knocks Xion and Axel away, the redhead gets up and is almost smashed into the ground before Xion lunges, going into her armored form. Roxas follows as well, in his Non-form.

The two make quick work of the heartless amd Roxas struggles to turn himself back, where Xion does it perfectly.

Axel compliments the work, but hugs onto Roxas before he can lash out at a frightened Xion, telling him to play nice or they're not having any more playdates and he'll be locked in his room 24/7.

Roxas turns back and he and a surprised Xion pass out, leaving Axel to groan at having all the icky jobs; he got the crap beaten out of him amd wants to pass out with the two children, but instead has to carry them back to the castle so neither die on his watch.

They all recuperate and pat themselves on the back for their victory.

Xemnas congratulates them as well, having let himself in the infirmary because he heard what happened.

Axel reports that they're all fine and the heartless is gone, and Xemnas is more than glad to hear it, at least before her turns to Roxas and asks if he was hurt, putting a hand on his shoulder.

He's fine, just a little dizzy, but fine.

Xemnas is more than glad to hear it, pushing back Roxas's bangs and playing with his hair a little before leaving them all to heal, ignoring Xion entirely.

She doesn't take it personally and instead remarks about how nice it was of Xemans to join them, for once.

Axel agrees with the sentiment and makes Roxas and Xion promise that they're won't be anymore surprise runaways like that again.

They agree, though Xion asks if surprise ice cream can be exempt.

Axel smiles and exempts surprise icecream.

They all become real friends after this point, and it includes them poking fun at each other("Er, I don't know my past so I'm gonna go Saïx berserk on anyone who asks, der, der, der"), sarcasm(Xion: "There really is no hiding from Saïx, is there?" Axel: "Well, there's always under Xigbar's bed, but no one's ever returned, so tell me how it goes."), and light name calling, like hot head, burning britches, and smoke and more smoke for Axel, hoodie and emo band for Roxas, and little miss pissed off for Xion, because she's funny to make annoyed and angry.

And they try more than sea salt icecream, like doughnuts, cakes, and eventually healthier foods that are still sweet.

Roxajs and Xion gonon missions together and eventually start more than a friendship.

Axel keeps an eye on them whenever he can and begins lying to Xemnas, saying neither are really progressing with their powers, but are maintaining, so there's that at least. Xemans is not convinced and asks an old question, considering how Axel has possibly the best memory out of everyone here: What happened to Sora? Axel feigns ignorance, because he TOTALLY helped Sora take out Marluxia.

Okay, but what about Naminé? More ignorance because she up and vanished. Maybe Sora stole her away or something, who knows? Teenagers do weird things.

Xemnas, more than a little fed up, notes that Axel's getting close to Rozas and Xion and admits that as much of a shame as it would be to waste resources, it'd be even more tragic to lose their own numbers, maybe even Saïx as well, despite how cold he's turned toward Axel. If it makes him feel better, he doesn't need to do the 'icky job,' Saïx can do it for him and he can simply watch.

Axel steps down and Xemnas twlls hom to tell the truth next time, if he doesn't want to lose anymore friends.

There will be a part 2 of this

#kingdom hearts #kh 358/2 days #kh roxas #kh xemnas #kh axel #kh xion #sea salt trio #kind of a rewrite #there will be an eventual part 2 #kh saix

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ravenclaw-questions-gone-writing · 3 years

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Ven’s Idea Outline #1 (Maribat)

Remember that MariDamiJon fic that I mentioned I was going to do for the gift exchange? It’s still bouncing around in my head and Luka decided to join in so I’ve decided to at least make an outline in (assuredly vain) hopes that it will leave me alone for a bit.

Ao3

Part 1

Typical Daminette but Hanahaki style bc I can’t find any Maribat hanahaki fics and I need one and I can’t find any.

Dick and Damian sent to scope out Paris for Hawkmoth related reasons

Jon goes with bc he’s Damian’s emotional support kryptonian but he might arrive later This idea has been removed but I like it so I will share it.

Damian is getting familiar with the new battlegrounds taking a walk in the park when a girl falls from a tree and lands on top of him

The girl apologizes profusely before explaining that she’s really clumsy and she was just trying to help a kitten stuck in the tree

It’s not love at first sight but Damian appreciates an animal lover and is slightly less of an ass than he would usually be

Might mix this with my Blossom Soulmate AU that I never got around to finishing and posting, now that I think about it

Anyway, Damian helps her get the cat down from the tree

He latches onto this potential information source who is not as annoying as most other people and sticks with her

They become friends friendly acquaintances and he drops by her school to pick up her up after she agreed to show him around Paris.

Debating Lila salt...

Debating Class salt...

If yes: Damian walks into a scene where Marinette and sweeps Marinette away without a word to the rest of her class

If no: Damian arrives and proceeds to wait for her outside by his motorcycle

Either way, his appearance makes waves in Dupont’s rumor mills

They do not know he’s Damian Wayne, just that there’s a dude who attractive enough to be model with a motorcycle waiting for the schools (tragic, if salt) sunshine fashion princess.

Robin and Nightwing meet up with Ladybug and Chat Noir to offer their help in figuring out who Hawkmoth is, as well as fighting and training.

Full Miraculous court meeting with Ryuko, Viperion, Queen Bee, Carapace, Rena Rouge, Pegasus, Bunnyx, and Monkey king. (Rena Rouge is removed if Class salt. Replaced with Fox!Nath or Fox!Julieka)

Ladybug and Robin get along

About two weeks in Adrien starts officially dating Kagami.

Another week passes and Damian finds out Marinette has been coughing flower petals and her unrequited love is her classmate Adrien Agreste.

She refuses to remove the hanahaki - this version is the standard they can’t fall in love ever again if they remove it.

This revelation makes him oddly uneasy, it isn’t until his own Hanahaki shows up later that night that realizes he understands why.

Damian does a pretty good job of hiding it.

Dick knows something is up but he’s trying to give Damian more space so he doesn’t look into it and trusts Damian would ask him if it’s life threatening

Ladybug notices his discomfort on patrol and they talk

He is surprised to learn Ladybug also has it and Robin comes up with the brilliant idea that they should fall in love with each other.

There is precedent that if you fall out of love with the person, the Hanahaki will go away. But falling out of love is difficult and not easily done. There must be no lingering romantic feelings at all.

Ladybug encourages Robin to chase his crush first, because he at least has a chance if the girl he likes also has it.

Cue the debates

If Ladybug wins: Enter Damian going all out in flirty assassin seduction techniques from his mother - Good Talia that kills rapists, none of that she raped Bruce bs, she actually had a good relationship with Bruce and a mutual breakup because of differing views on killing people - that he’s barely used since his lessons on it in the league and romantic advice from Dick.

He goes full on Bitch-sensei from assassination classroom.

He’s commissioned a shirt from Marinette. She gets to design it however she wants.

It is a long sleeved button up, specifically made to accentuate his muscles without being too revealing.

That’s the shirt he wears when he asks her out with flowers and a stuffed kitten holding a stuffed wood board that says “please date me” He has his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, top button undone. Collar and hair ruffled up for maximum sensuality. He’s got a lot of references between all the people he knows (Bruce, Talia, Selina, Dick, and really his whole family is full of objectively attractive, seductive people he can reference. Just as long as he avoids mimicking their failing romantic habits, he should be fine.)

He tries to be suave about it but is a little too nervous to completely pull it off. It doesn’t matter because Marinette finds it endearing.

On the date, he’s more confident and is able to pull off suave bastard much better but only at the end. He’s a gentleman until the very end, when he leaves her in the bakery

He goes in, and twirls her admittedly short hair around his finger, maintaining eye contact as he presses his lips against her hair - it’s admittedly harder than he expected given how short it is but being so close made it more intimate and the blush on her face was definitely worth it

He leaves in the bakery slightly dazed and counts the date as a success.

Marinette’s mind shut down bc damn that boy is fine and smooth af is flustered and confused as heck but she’s willing to give him a shot

Alternatively: Marinette’s not sure about dating Damian because she feels like she’s just using him to get rid of her hanahaki bc of the idea that Robin had proposed.

Dick is ecstatic that Damian was acting weird because he had a crush and loved helping his brother out with this date planning in the city of love

He doesn’t report it back to the batfam yet because they had a small argument about it and Damian pulled away with the small victory of Dick has to wait until after the first date to tell them.

Damian is glad he Marinette’s willing to give him a chance but he’s worried about Ladybug

he wonders if he should set her up with Tim or Duke, it’d be a shame to lose a friend and hero like her.

Robin brings up his success to Ladybug and asks if there’s anything he can do to help her.

She notes that a friend had actually confessed to her and she’s giving them a chance.

They accidentally compare notes on their dates and that’s their reveal.

If Robin wins: An awkward start that smooths into moonlit dates on the Eiffel tower, dancing on rooftops, an increase in flirting but only after battles, never before it bc they have a professional reputation to keep, increasingly physical training routines, stolen kisses but not on lips until they’re more comfortable with each other.

Fast tracked mutual slow burn which kinda defeats the purpose of a slow burn but whatever

I have realized these ideas are not mutually exclusive.

Maybe Ladybug wins first but Damian fails to seduce Marinette because she has the doubts so they go with plan B and date each other. Ladybug is more comfortable with the idea of dating Robin because they both have Hanahaki and are knowingly using each other to get rid of it?

There is no identity reveal in this version

Complaint Break time: I was writing this to get it out but it keeps growing, wtf. This is so long and I haven’t even gotten to the main part.

It was supposed to be an established Daminette but I wanted to show how they got together, this was supposed to be like 5 bullet points, 10 tops.

At some point, I’m going to have to mention the rumor that people with Hanahaki are being kidnapped because the flowers that bloom after their death make great medicine but that cures most illnesses and are good potions ingredient whatever, something along those lines. It’s not the ones they cough up but the flowers that grow on the vines constricting their lungs after until they die and only blossom after death. Those flowers that spread the pollen into the air that makes the Hanahaki disease possible.

That’s why people keep it a secret unless they’re going to get the surgery as there’s not other way to treat it.

But that’s a plot point for part 2.

I feel like this is already longer than anything I’ve put out at this point in time.

Back to the story:

Even though they’re dating, the Hanahaki doesn’t go away immediately. It slows and becomes less frequent but there are times when they think of how their love doesn’t return their feelings and the flowers come back with a vengeance and they’re down for the day, possibly the entire week, hacking up flower petals and buds.

(Ladybug Wins version until otherwise stated) It’s during one of these fits that Dick finds out and is angry at this girl playing with his brother’s feelings.

Damian is too busy hacking up bloody flower petals to correct him

The entire batfam and subsequently Superfam now know the batfam’s youngest has hanahaki

Jon is called in and flies in to help keep an eye on his best friend

Bruce, Jason, Tim, and Duke are shocked but they pack up and are ready to go in guns blazing to have a talk with this girl bc the boys might not be on the best terms but that’s their baby brother. The girls stay behind to hold down the fort (because I need more time to get familiar with them before I can confidently write their characters. I’m not too confident about Duke either but I already mentioned him and it’s too late to back out now.)

So, Damian’s brothers and his father track her down to a different park in Paris where Marinette’s hanging out with her friends

They’re incised to find their brother’s girlfriend with another guy’s arm around her, leading her away from the main group of friends

It’s Luka, he’s helping her hide her hanahaki because she assures him that she has it under control and will go with him to the hospital if it becomes too much

They confront the couple

There’s a lot of intimidating posturing and accusations

Batfam is absolutely not prepared for the bloody flowers that spill from her lips - her hanahaki is even worse than Damian’s

Detective bats (correctly or incorrectly, depending on which version happens) put the pieces together and figure they’re dating to get rid of the hanahaki, that is something Damian would absolutely propose

and oh shit, this time it’s not just Bruce that’s adopting someone. They have a little sister now.

Luka explains what he knows about the situation and basically confirms what they’d deduced.

Welp, since they’re here, Hawkmoth has become top priority.

Hawkmoth takes one look at the Miraculous circle and the new set of bats and just- nopes out plus super boy and just nopes out.

Like, he tries but he has no expectation of winning and tries to run instead. It doesn’t work, they have all grounds covered.

I should probably make use of Mayura if I ever do write everything out but she didn’t really leave much of an impression on me tbh and I don’t have a lot of ideas. Maybe if I ever go back and watch it.

Celebratory, on-the-spot kiss between Robin and Ladybug where they do “oh“ and realize the pressure in their chest is finally gone and the Hanahaki is no more.

(Robin Wins) Dick is obliviously happy about little Robin leaving the nest and finding a mate until he finds out both the little heroes coughing up flower petals on their date

then he goes in and mother hens them both, before demanding answers

He’s also less happy about this whole dating thing

Dick can’t do much about Ladybug without revealing her identity but Damian isn’t getting out of it so easily

Dick figures out who Damian’s crushing on and goes to do a little investigating. He is very surprised to see it’s a bubbly, energetic designer girl and not someone... calmer. But then he thinks of Jon and it makes a little more sense

He talks to her, asks about what she thinks of Damian and is pleasantly surprised by her positive view of his brother. He asks if she would go out with him and she coughs up some petals

Now, Dick’s freaking out and why are there so many children with Hanahaki? This is the third one in two days!

fast forward because I’m finally out of ideas for this part

Ladybug knows she’s fallen for Robin, which was the entire point of them dating but she not sure he actually reciprocates or is still trying to forget that other girl.

Or if you went the other way, Robin’s still chasing Marinette but Ladybug now likes Robin and is aware that he’s trying to woo her. So, out of the frying pan and into another for her.

Robin is absolutely having regrets bc he is an emotional wreck and crushing on two girls and this was not supposed to happen, damnit.

A meta gets akumatized and takes out half the miraculous court but turns out the meta’s psychic ability can help track Hawkmoth so its all cool, now that they know what Hawkmoth feels like

Ladybug, Chat Noir, Ryuko, and Robin vs Hawkmoth and Mayura

Nightwing stayed behind to watch the other heroes are no longer brain dead from the battle but boy are they out of it and he has to make sure they get home safe

that does not mean he’s not extremely put out and worried about it since he knows half the team has hanahaki and it may interfere with the fight

Even if the Ladybug suit lessens the hanahaki attacks, they still happen from time to time

For two people who don’t show up to fight often Hawkmoth and Mayura put up a good fight

Ladybug has an hanahaki attack and Hawkmoth tried to take advantage of it, only to get knocked out by Chat Noir who’s still pissed at his dad for causing this whole thing

Chat Noir and Ryuko are pretty shocked Ladybug has hanahaki, even more her timer runs out and she choses to present it to Robin

Robin is shook

He gets it together and pulls her into a kiss that cures their hanahaki and makes their brains melt

Now Marinette’s kinda confused bc what the other girl

Damian, slightly shifting his mask so she can see who he is: That other girl was YOU

Now Marinette’s the one who’s shook

Note: Chat Noir and Ryuko have both de-transformed at this point and are watching with wide eyes but they do not see who is under that mask. Also, no cameras in this section of the manor bc that would be proof.

They have a lot to talk about but it works out in the end.

the outline above was written out of order bc I had to go back everytime a new idea hit and I cannot be bothered to go back and dodeca-check this thing again just to make sure everything makes sense.

Part 2 (that was supposed to be the main story- finally made it, the starting point. I cry.)

Ok, so, now that Daminette is established and the evil is defeated

Damian returns to Gotham with his girlfriend in tow to introduce her to the rest of his family, despite his better judgement

Jon is happy that Damian is in happy, loving relationship but he’s a bit sad that it’s not him and oop, sunshine kryptonian boy got hanahaki’d.

Same for Luka. (Yes, Jagged will be his dad and a Gothamite.)

Jagged and his kids join them in Gotham bc he has to be there to show his favorite designer niece around to all the best places of his hometown.

Luka finds out Jon has Hanahaki and they bond over the experience

They make a pact to cover each other and get the other to the hospital when it gets to that point

Pining/Simping meetings over their best friends that for some unknown reason seem to lessen the flower coughing over time even though these meetings probably make things worse but they also need vent before it increases again.

Luka and Jon beginning to fall for each other but they think the other is still in love with Marinette/Damian and it’s true that they still hold feelings for their best friends that aren’t diminishing in the sleightest and it’s all very confusing.

It’s even more confusing when we add the new hero in Gotham, Viperion who’s there to continue training with the bats since he’s visiting the area, rescues and lightly flirts with Jon who ended up developing a small crush and Jon realizes he has a type.

So, poor Jon’s now crushing on Damian, Luka, and Viperion

Viperion meets Superboy and the kryptonian doesn’t seem to like him?

Luka’s crushing on Marinette, Jon - still doesn’t know that Damian is Robin. And is kinda curious and a little hurt that the Robin’s oddly familiar kryptonian is actively and obviously avoiding him and that heart song is kind of familiar but different.

Viperion also gains a crush on Robin after watching him take down a thug in a very graceful way - the bird was showing off for his bug and decided to make it a little showier, he accidentally also caught a snake

Ladybug and Robin still flirt but the court - aside from Ryuko and Chat, depending on which version - think that’s just their dynamic, though they do pull Robin aside for a bit to tell him she has a boyfriend now. He assured them it’s fine and he knows, oddly amused at their attempt.

man, I am not original with this identity porn thing

It isn’t until Luka sees Jon again that he puts it together.

Marinette suspiciously notes Luka and Jon been hanging out an awful lot she’s making connections to the time she had hanahaki and Luka covered for her

The pains of befriending deductive genii.

Cue the panic and they accidentally claim they’re dating but it throws Marinette off for now, so it kinda worked?

Hanahaki fic with a fake dating AU. Oops.

Mari decides since she and Damian don’t know this, they must have been neglecting their best friends and double dates are the way to go.

Cue more panic

Unlike Marinette who is willing to trust their word, Damian’s a suspicious bastard who’s kind of dubious and a little salty that Jon didn’t tell him earlier if they’re telling the truth but Mari’s all gung ho about it so he lets it go for now

They go on the date and it is an emotional mess for everyone involved

It starts out fine

Jon and Luka act a bit weird because they have to cover for each other randomly coughing up petals, not to mention they’re on a date with their original crushes without actually dating their original crushes not even mentioning their new crushes and the secret identity reveal that Luka still hasn’t confronted Jon on and Jon’s guiltily thinking about Viperion half the time he thinks about Luka and shouldn’t it be the other way around?

Yeah, so they’re a mess

Damian’s watching them like he’s trying to figure them out and it is not helping but thank god Mari’s distracting him totally on accident

Marinette? She found a random lost kid in Gotham looking for their parents

So now the double date’s been temporarily derailed to help the lost kid

While Damian’s watching Marinette try pass the crying kid off to Jon for a moment so she can make a phone call to report a lost child but the kid’s clinging onto Marinette, and they exchange looks so Jon calls in the lost kid instead and he’s just struck with the idea of a family with the three of them and some kids

Cue panic time (again)

Ignoring the thought of children, why was Jon in his fantasy?

Luka’s just watching a smitten boy go into panic mode over the trio and while doesn’t quite know what’s going on in Damian’s head, but that was really cute and oh not again

They find the kid’s parents, and the date moves on

Jon’s more comfortable, Marinette wasn’t really bothered in the first place. Luka and Damian are now having crises

Luka makes a joke under his breath in an attempt to calm down before his Hanahaki acts up

It did not help bc Damian overhears and gives a small amused snort that made his heart stutter but hey positive interaction!

Both Marinette and Jon but end up having feelings very similar to the one Damian had earlier when they look over at Damian and Luka’s little interaction - Damian’s giving Luka a small smirk and Luka is entirely embarassed at being heard when he wasn’t hadn’t meant to be.

But then Luka gives Jon a small sign before he excuses himself to the restroom so Luka can run off and cough up his flower petals

You remember that whole thing about the kidnapping people with hanahaki so they die and medicine and things can be collected from the flowers springing up from their corpse thing? Yeah, the kids are in Gotham and there is definitely a group there that has dealings with the trade and someone saw Luka hacking up flowers

but they mark him and pull back to plan instead of kidnapping him then and there bc drama and Jon followed him to the restroom to check on him

Date ends ok and everyone’s kind of an emotional wreck

Damian has surprisingly learned his lesson on miscommunication and guiltily confides his fantasy to her like a parishioner to his priest

Marinette basically goes same and confesses about the moment she and Jon saw his interaction with Luka.

“So, We’re together, and they’re together...and I might be in love with Jon, you think you might be in love with Luka... What now?“ Damian asked, trying to make sense of it all

“We could...” Marinette swallows, “um, all four of us? together?“ she offered meekly. Seeing that Damian seemed to like the idea, she continued. “Y’know, feel out how receptive they are to the idea and then just seduce them?”

Ok, so the temporary communication skills were nice.

Because instead of talking it out with their best friends, they decide to seduce them but to be fair, there’s at least one version of this where Damian got where he did because of seduction.

Between both Damian and Marinette’s phsyical attractiveness, their combined determination and stubbornness, Damian’s assassin seduction knowledge, and Marinette’s fashion ability and tactical knowledge of where to accentuate what, Jon and Luka have no chance of leaving pining hell for the foreseeable future.

Marinette doubles down on the “double dates” aka, seduction plans in action and group hang outs, aka much more softer, subtle seduction plans

Marinette and Damian do not do much seeing how receptive they are and really just jump right into the seduction, except they adjust the plans so Luka and Jon don’t catch on so Daminette couple thinks it’s ok to go all out.

Cue seduction and pining hijinks, and a whole lot of bloodly flowers and plenty of internal screaming

Damian learns that Luka might not be too bad in the group and Jon is panicking because oh shit he’s got another crush and it’s his best friend’s girlfriend.

the quartet’s love issues are really full circle... or whatever this shape is supposed to be. Because there’s still the whole Viperion/superboy thing and - i just... I’m not going to keep analyzing this.

Somewhere during this, Jon confesses his feelings this particular friend group to Con, leaving out the whole Hanahaki thing. Con tells Tim for advice on being a big brother and things happen but I’m not sure what. I just want TimCon and the Superboys bonding

So a couple weeks pass by the Hanahaki’s getting pretty bad and Luka suddenly goes missing

Ladybug and the bats are on it as soon as they realize he’s gone

Except they are missing one, very important piece of information

Luka’s hanahaki

So, for the next few days, they don’t get anywhere until Jon slips up and ends up coughing up a shitton of bloody flowers which leads to panic, confusion and explanation, bc wtf Jon, you’re supposed to be dating Luka and that’s definitely not unrequited

So everyone gets the full explanation, the final piece of the puzzle snaps into place and the bats are on it.

Marinette and Damian have to put aside that whole revelation in order to track and save Luka before he dies of Hanahaki

They both make sure to kiss Jon first so he doesn’t get handicapped by his hanahaki like Ladybug did but he and Luka will be on thin ice once they get Luka back

So it’s pretty much a race against time bc they don’t know how bad Luka’s hanahaki is

Tracking, beat up bad guys, possible magic related villain(s) searching for potion ingredients that may take harm Superboy more than than if they weren’t there

They rescue Luka or Luka and Ssass break out as Viperion and meet them halfway.

Hey, the identity reveals!

Either way, at the end of it, Luka ends up with Ladybug and the unconscious and they have to wait until he wakes up to administer the kiss/cure bc it doesn’t work if one party is unconscious

which sparks an interesting idea of a sleeping beauty-cinderella style hanahaki fic where it would work if they’re unconscious, and the patient has to find go out to find who cured them and I’ll have to adjust some other rules of the hanahaki disease such as who can cure it but goddamn it

So while Luka’s out, Marinette and Damian confront the possibly injured but very much awake Jon

Once Luka wakes up and is brought up to speed, they take care of his hanahaki and work out the new boundaries of their new relationship

Part one is longer and I’m a bit put out by that. This made much more sense in my head but if you got this far, my rambling must have made some sort of sense.

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writings-of-dumpy · 3 years

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George Weasley and the Girl in Ravenclaw: Part 9

A/N: VIOLENCE, MENTIONS OF GUNS, child endangerment (like literally all of Harry Potter), language, mentions of sex, and cliffhanger..

After Dumbledore’s death, Severus Snape had taken over being Headmaster of Hogwarts and judging by the sparse letters from Ginny over the past few months since Christmas holiday, it was an absolute nightmare. Students were treated like slaves and anyone who stepped even a toe out of line would be punished harshly. The order gathered midday during Fred and George’s lunch hour to discuss what to do about the situation since no news of Harry had been brought to their attention.

“Okay, hear me out. This may sound crazy, but Muggles have these things called guns, and if we shoot Snape—or Voldemort, for that matter—in the head, he will probably die. At a minimum, it’s a bit hard to do magic with an obliterated prefrontal cortex,” Raven suggested. George smiled at her and patted her leg. Since Bill’s wedding, she and George hadn’t had much time together alone. He and Fred ran the shop as best they could, and Raven often took assignments from the order to go to Hogwarts and smuggle supplies to the students.

“If you want to carry a gun, fine, but I’m not sure the rest of us know how to use one,” Lupin said.

“It’s very simple,” Raven said. “Anyway, things are only getting worse, even muggles are starting to notice. I managed to swipe this newspaper that says people have been seeing odd clouds of smoke through the air…”

“Fucking Death Eaters,” Fred, George and Raven said in unison and exhaustion.

“We’ve got to start getting students out of Hogwarts. It’s not safe anymore, especially the muggle-borns,” Tonks said. Raven nodded.

George would constantly worry when Raven made trips to Hogwarts. She traveled through the Forbidden Forest and through the tunnels under the Shrieking Shack to get supplies to students in need there. He knew it was dangerous and if she was ever caught, who knew what would become of her.

“It would have to be all in one night. If students started going missing—especially the ones Yaxley likes to pick on—I’d be found out and killed for sure,” Raven said.

George’s jaw clenched at how casually she took her life. The thought of her not coming back scared the hell out of him, and he wouldn’t let her go alone.

“Fine, then it’ll be more than just you going, I’ll go too,” George offered.

“No, the Ministry has a log in Diagon Alley of strange happenings. A Weasley missing from his own shop would raise red flags,” Lupin reasoned. “Raven, go tonight and talk with Ginny and Neville about possible times that we could sneak muggle-borns out.”

“Done,” Raven agreed.

After the meeting, Raven went up to her space in the attic to supply herself with protectives and supplies the students will need. George rarely went after her because he knew she wanted to be alone as she prepared, but he couldn’t help himself. He knew with every moment she spent inside Hogwarts, the higher her chances of being caught were.

“Ven?” he asked from the doorway. She turned around and smiled at him.

“Hey,” she said and turned back to shrinking bandages and water bottles.

“I’m worried,” George said plainly. “And I’m scared for you.”

Raven looked at him, then zipped up the pack and slung it over her shoulder. “Well, that’s not doing you any favors, is it?”

She went to walk past him and he caught her arm with his hand and gently stopped her. He looked into her eyes and said, “I don’t want you to keep doing this.”

“I’ll come back, I promise. Always, remember?” Raven said and gave his arm a squeeze.

“If you aren’t back by midnight, I’m coming after you,” George said seriously.

“I’ll be back by then, I usually am,” she said. She leaned up and kissed the corner of his mouth tenderly and headed out the door. George’s heart skipped a beat and he felt the familiar lust he had for her creep into his mind and his heart swelled. He was sure she was trying to kill him now.

George waited anxiously for closing time to finally arrive so he could head back home and check for Raven. When the cuckoo clock finally struck 10pm, he was already packed and ready. “Come on , Fred, or I’m locking you in.”

“Eager to get home, eh?” Fred said as he tucked his bag under his arm and the pair headed out to close the shop.

“I need to make sure Raven’s okay,” George muttered as he fumbled with his keys. When he finally locked the door, Fred was eyeing him strangely. “What?”

“Are you two finally… you know…” Fred asked and mimed a rude gesture.

“Shagging?! No, are you serious? We’ve only kissed once, and who’s had time with all this, anyway,” George said and gestured to the air.

Fred scoffed, “I’ve had plenty of time.”

“Oh really now, with who?” George challenged.

“Angelina, of course! Where do you think I go every Friday night?” Fred asked. George’s eyes widened. Come to think of it, he had noticed Fred’s sudden disappearance on most Friday evenings, but I guess he assumed Fred was off being alone.

“Unbelievable,” George said.

“No, what’s unbelievable is that you and Ven have only kissed. She’s a good fit for you, just go for it!” Fred encouraged.

George shook his head. “Maybe I LIKE taking my time. Besides, she’s your friend, shouldn’t you be discouraging men from trying to shag her unless she likes them?”

Fred scoffed and shook his head. “You’ve gone mad.”

The subject was dropped once they apparated into the burrow. George walked into the kitchen to find Tonks with Molly sat in a chair.

“What happened?” Fred asked, following George in.

“Harry’s gone to Hogwarts tonight. Raven saw him in the tunnels and told us straight away. He’s going to confront Snape and try to destroy the last horcruxes. All of the Death Eaters will be there at any moment,” Tonks said. “We wanted to tell you. The rest of the Order is ready to go, will you join us?”

“No question,” Fred and George said. George panicked at the thought of every dark wizard, witch and creature swarming on Hogwarts with Raven and his sister in it. He quickly changed into more suitable clothes, then the four of them apparated into the tunnels below the Shrieking Shack. When they arrived, they were greeted by every member of the order, and they made their way through the tunnels. George wondered where Raven was and if she was alright. He expected to see her with the rest of the order, but he couldn’t find her.

“This way,” Kingsley commanded and pointed to the left at a fork in the tunnel. When they approached a dead end, Kingsley leaned against the wall to listen, then knocked four times.

“Wands ready,” he said to the group in a low voice. Slowly, the wall opened and George recognized the Gryffindor common room. Out popped Raven from the side with a grin on her face.

“Hi guys! Come on, Harry’s already headed towards the great hall,” she said and George felt an overwhelming sense of relief and he stepped forward with he rest of the order. They made their way silently through the corridors, petrifying death eaters all along the way. George was reminded of his time in school with Fred and Raven sneaking past Filch and various teachers. He looked over at her while they walked and grinned at her. She smiled back at him. As they reached the Great Hall, they heard Harry’s voice.

“It seems that despite your exhaustive defensive strategies, you still have a bit of a security problem, headmaster,” Harry declared in the silent room. As he spoke, Kingsley opened the large doors and the order walked in, fanning out to block the door. “And I’m afraid it’s quite extensive.”

George snuck his hand down to hold Raven’s behind Bill’s tall figure, and Harry continued, “How dare you stand where he stood? Tell them how it happened that night! Tell them how you looked him in the eye—the man who trusted you—and killed him! Tell them.”

Without another word, Snape raised his wand and pointed it at Harry. The students who were formed in neat lines suddenly jumped out of the way and scattered out of the way. Before any of the arrived order could step forward, Minerva McGonagall placed herself between Snape and Harry. After a small moment, fire flew from her wand right at Snape’s dumbfounded face. He blocked it, and McGonagall advanced forward, sending flame after flame until Snape rebounded the spells off of him and back to the death eaters behind him, then flew out of the window.

“And stay out!” Raven shouted. McGonagall lit the candles back to their familiar glow and the room erupted in applause and cheer. George grinned from ear to missing ear and looked down at Raven. The two embraced tightly and George said to her, “I was so worried…”

“I was too. But we’re here now, and we’ve got a fight ahead of us,” Raven said in a slightly ominous tone.

The room suddenly went dark and an eerie voice was heard by all by the looks of it. “I know that many of you will want to fight, some of you may even think that to fight is wise, but this is folly. Give me Harry Potter. Do this and none shall be harmed. Give me Harry Potter and I shall leave Hogwarts untouched. Give me Harry Potter and you will be rewarded. You have one hour,” Voldemort’s voice rang out. George held onto Raven, who looked sick to her stomach.

After a moment, a Slytherin girl spoke up, “What are you waiting for? Someone grab him!”

“Looks like I’m gonna kill a child today,” Raven said and stood next to Harry with her wand raised. The rest of the Order followed her with George and Fred on either side of Raven.

“Students out of bed! Students in the corridors!” Filtch screamed as he came running into the Great Hall.

“They are supposed to be out of bed, you blithering idiot,” McGonagall said impatiently. “However, your appearance is most opportune. Would you be so kind as to escort Miss Parkinson and the rest of Slytherin house to the dungeons.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Filtch said, completely intimidated.

After that, the Order’s job became clear: protect Harry until all of the horcruxes were destroyed. Kingsley turned to the remaining order members after Molly and Tonks went with McGonagall to the front of the castle. “Fred, George, Raven, you take the east tower, Arthur, Bill, Fleur, you take the west, the rest of you split up in between. They’ll be attacking from all over we expect, so if you need backup, move to the middle.”

George started to run to the east side of the castle with Fred and Raven. He noticed that the barrier was already up and he could see several wires and explosives being set up on all of the bridges. When they reached a good spot to see over the courtyard, he managed to make out dark shadows on the hill across the lake, and assumed it must be Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Not even an hour had gone by before they began their attack on Hogwarts.

“Bloody git, that Voldemort!” Fred said.

“Well, with a title like ‘Dark Lord,’ I think bloody git is putting it lightly,” George observed.

All of a sudden George couldn’t tell what was happening there was so much chaos.The castle was exploding and creatures of all kinds of dark lands flooded the grounds. He could barely tell who he was fighting, and he could barely get a word in, all he could do was block the curses and hope that none of them landed on him and better yet rebounded back onto his attacker. During a brief pause, George managed to stun his attacker backwards and off of the tower.

“Oops,” he said to himself, and the three of them ran to the courtyard through the chaos of students. George and Raven’s hands clasped together for George feared he’d lose her in the chaos of the fight. Explosions and curses erupted around them and George was feeling slightly overwhelmed. The three of them stood back to back and guarded each other that way while defending an entrance to the castle. Death Eaters, giants, trolls, vampires, and werewolves all were involved in attacking students, staff, and Aurors.

“Are you actually kidding me right now?! What the fuck is this noseless freak playing at, anyway?!” Raven shouted and started throwing hex after hex at the new oncoming enemy: giant spiders.

“This reminds me of something, George!” Fred said. “Hang on!” Fred leapt away from them and George assumed he didn’t know he stopped right in the path of a falling beam. He was far away from where the chaos was concentrated, so he had a moment to stop moving, but George prayed that he wouldn’t... but he did.

“FRED, NO!” Raven cried out, but before they could reach him, the beam had fallen and smacked him in the head, his face still stuck in a smile.

#george weasley #george weasley x oc

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organizationhimself · 3 years

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some melody of magic thoughts/criticisms under the cut, if you overall liked the game then i agree with you and there’s no need to read this if it will only harsh your vibe.

but like. we could have had a sora-riku-kairi team. we really, really could have!! it would be EASY. they literally made kh2 renders of kairi and sora, so just make a riku one and let us unlock the team after the game!! just use xion’s moveset for kairi since we all know that’s what’s going to happen anyway!! riku and sora literally already have movesets, so the only timesink would be making a kh2 version of the kh3 render!! or just use mickey, or axel, or donald, who cares!!

kairi could have been playable, and the fact that we only get to play her is with no animation in a sequence you literally can’t fail when she’s the character on the cover is messed up. tiny, TINY steps could have been taken here to give us the trio we started the games with, and the fact that you can have a team with each of the other important trios just makes it all the more stark an absence. and that’s overlooking the fact that, again, you never get to play kairi in this game in a situation with stakes.

kairi vs xehanort was awesome, no problems.

but kairi being told that she has to stay behind to train is straight up bullshit of the highest caliber. NO OTHER keybearer is held to the standards that kairi is held to; sora and riku have never been formally trained and just go up against world-ending threats all the time and nobody bats an eye. roxas and xion had no training either, but nobody questions it when they get into a fight. even ven, who is babied left and right by terra and aqua, basically says “no i won’t go home” one time and then aqua doesn’t even question him being involved as one of the guardians of light (in a situation where Everyone Might Die).

so what is the issue? where is the disconnect? is it because kairi hasn’t had the opportunity to go on a real world tour like sora and riku and ven all have? if so, why didn’t she do that instead of training with merlin inside a TEMPORALLY FLEXIBLE world? doesn’t that imply that she could theoretically gain the same skillset in half or none of the time? and if doing all that training apparently wasn’t enough to make her ready for anything, then why is she bothering with merlin instead of adventuring throughout the worlds to gain the same experience? don’t tell me it’s “more dangerous” because that’s a bunch of poopy dogshit, sora dies and comes back to life during naps. and yeah he’s a combat-ready adult, but lea also dipped on his keybearer training to come save sora in a scene that would have been way more compelling if it at least FEATURED kairi (considering the narrative reversal, which would have been way better than “kairi sleeps for a year just like sora did that one time,” but i digress), so basically i question the cruciality of merlin’s training on a core level.

AND ANOTHER THING, what was the point of bringing her along with riku to the final world to find whatsername? “we need three keys”--why? riku pointed his one key at the thing and then the thing happened. kairi just stood there and then got told to go home. if she had to be there at least show us why? have her call the keyblade too, or make her glow or something? it’s kingdom hearts, we expect shit to glow for no reason, but no. it’s letdown after letdown.

the fact that she’s going to be training with aqua now does give me hope. but i’m just really tired of being given these excuses because she’s The Girl. it just seems to me like someone with a lot of clout on the writing team never in fact wanted kairi to become a fighting character in the first place, so she’s been in a tug of war since kh2. but whoever it is is also either so bad at character-driven narratives or so unconcerned with her as anything but an object that they are completely unable to figure out a way to involve her in the plot besides making this eternally broken promise that kairi will become a regular ass keybearer like almost the entire rest of the cast.

and finally, kairi sleeping for a YEAR gave her one “clue,” or rather the kingdom hearts version of a clue, which is an incomprehensible mess. that would be fine if it were the only clue! but riku also had a clue, and the fairy godmother already had it all figured out before even talking to kairi. so kairi spending, again, A YEAR, asleep, and not doing the training she apparently needs to do so bad, was 100% a net loss and contributed nothing to the story that could not have been contributed by riku’s dream and the godmother’s omniscience.

tl;dr: kh does kairi gratuitous wrong again, news at 11

#kh spoilers #melody of memory #melody of memory spoilers #like all of the spoilers

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floriswrite · 4 years

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Tonight’s sad thought is Lauriam being shown Eraqus’s grave because that would be part of the Terra/Aqua/Ven tour because History

And just Lauriam going to pick up Master’s Defender because that is /Brain’s/ Keyblade and Terra and Aqua going to block it while Ven is just Staring because this kids memory is a hot mess and even with his Chirithy back there’s still a lot of amnesia happening in there.

Lauriam just staring them down and crossing his arms over his chest “I’ll put it back. I want to see if it’ll let me touch it after this long.”

Aqua and Terra sharing a look and stepping to the side, but also waiting for Ven to say something. Because Ven’s basically their Lauriam translator because Lauriam is mild mannered and quiet but also just constantly Doing Things.

“Hello,” Lauriam’s voice was soft as he stood before Master’s Defender. It was odd to see it here, but it had also been odd to see with Brain. Brain was not a fighter.

/”I’m just curious,” Brain had laughed when he asked to try and hold Divine Rose.

“Fine, but you have to swap with me then.” Lauriam had agreed only on his terms. He let Brain hold his heart a little too much as matters were, this was even more personal./

Ven stepped up to his side then. “Tell me?”

“Only a bittersweet memory.” Lauriam responded and curled his fingers around the handle. “I understand the point of this, but he would be happier with it being used.” He did not try to move it but looked to Aqua. “This was not a Keyblade meant to /die/.”

“It’s staying here.” Terra stated. The end with Eraqus had not been pleasant but he had still been a good master for them. He deserved this.

“Lauriam, /we/ need this.” Aqua responded and patted Terra’s arm. “But if that Keyblade chooses you that is its choice.”

“No. It, like its original master, was never meant for my heart.” Lauriam let it go and turned away. “When the time is right it will be used again.”

Ven frowned up at him before taking one of his hands. Lauriam had always been mature, and he was still getting used to his age, but he had figured out a few things about the adult Lauriam. Namely that he had fully accepted that Brain was not coming back.

“I’m okay.” Lauriam smiled down at him. “What’s next on your tour?”

/Brain had pouted at him for a moment before summing forth Master’s Defender. “Your Keyblade is way cooler.”

“I think basic is nice.” Lauriam responded with a small smile.

“Mmm, give me.”

Lauriam laughed and offered over Divine Rose.

They a touch clumsily traded Keyblades.

And for a few seconds Master’s Defender was in his hold before it vanished.

Brain said nothing as his hold stayed firm on Divine Rose./

Ven did not believe him but he was not about to push in front of Aqua and Terra. “I think, home.”

“Home sounds good.”

#*canon #*Aqua #*Terra #*Lauriam #*Ventus

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nadziejastar · 4 years

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I’m glad the creators want to emphasize thatCloud’s “badass, silent dude” personality was just a fake persona he created. I think a lot of fans had the misconception that was his true personality all along.

Warning: FVII Spoilers

Nomura: “While Cloud may look this way, he was a dork. I believe those of you who played the the original would understand what I mean by saying he’s a dorky character.”

I totally agree. I think a lot of people aren’t good at picking up subtle characterization, especially since the original game didn’t have advanced cutscenes or voice acting. Cloud always seemed like a dork to me after I learned he really had dissociative identity disorder and his whole SOLDIER thing was just a persona--an alter. Barret knew it, and made fun of him. So many people complained that Cloud was OOC in Advent Children and I remember feeling confused because I really didn’t think he was? He was depressed, but it seemed realistic after everything he’d been through.

“In severe cases of mental splitting when the extreme pain drives that person into disassociation, at the moment the person disassociates from their body, the soul-psyche manifest coping mechanisms to survive. To disassociate from the painful trauma felt in the body, the soul and mind will split into sub personalities, or create alternate identities. These are called alters.”

While we’re on the topic of Cloud’s fake badass silent persona, the way Tifa repairs Cloud’s fractured mind in FFVII always reminded me of the power of waking in KH. I’m sure FFVII was the precursor to this idea. Cloud developed his badass persona when he watched Zack get murdered right in front of him. He dissociated and took on a tough guy alter in order to cope.

Sora turned around. Empty husks? Is he saying they’re going to break them with sorrow and put another heart into them…? Or did they already do it?

“Translation—they were gonna turn all the members into Xehanort.”

“Make more Xehanorts?” You’re hollowing out people’s hearts to put Xehanort’s inside them?!

In order to turn people into Xehanorts, they had to break the person’s psyche with pain. That way, the Xehanort “alter” can take over the body. I’m sure that’s what the mind control experiments were about.

You could say Cloud’s heart was in the Realm of Sleep, like Ventus’s was when he first met Terra and Aqua. He was unable to talk and he was not really aware of his surroundings. Cloud’s mind was in pieces and Tifa had to “dive” inside his psyche to repair him and restore him to completeness.

KH3′s tagline was “face your fears”. When I write my KH3 rewrite fic, I wanna give each of the Seven Guardians one of these segments to fully explore their fractured psyche. A time for them to face their insecurities and fears, and actually show them being healed. That’s THE biggest thing I think KH3 was missing. Before waking up, each character needed a Tifa to help them piece themselves together. Riku got swallowed by the Demon Tower in the beginning. I think the Demon Tower was supposed to be something that causes you to be trapped in your worst nightmare. Then he’d have to face his fears with the help of Mickey. His “other self”. He’d have to confront all his insecurities and his guilt over feeling like it was his fault Destiny Island got destroyed.

Mickey got swallowed by the Demon Tower later on. Then he had to deal with his guilt over feeling like he failed Aqua and left her to rot in the Dark Realm. I think the Dark Aqua boss fight was probably originally supposed to be part of Mickey’s nightmare that Riku was trying to wake him from. All the things she said sounded like a reflection of Mickey’s worst fears. And that darkness bubble thing looked like the same thing Sora was trapped in at the end of KH3D, when he was in the nightmare.

I think ALL the main characters, including Sora, were supposed to get a segment like that to give their arcs closure. Sora would have to dive into the abyss at the beach (the KH equivalent of the Lifestream that Cloud fell into). That beach is basically the collective unconscious. All of Sora’s sleeping memories (of Castle Oblivion/Namine, Roxas, and Xion) would have to be confronted. And after that, he’d have to help Aqua face her worst feelings, which was that she failed to save Ven and Terra.

The whole opening of 0.2 foreshadowed the part where Sora would wake Aqua up. Sora didn’t really connect with her heart in KH3 or help her face her fears, though. The whole saving Aqua thing felt so rushed. I think higher ups at either Square or Disney thought that a AAA game like KH3 shouldn’t “waste” so much time with exploring the characters’ psyches and the story needed to move at a faster pace. But we missed out on so much.

I’m sure Ven was supposed to face his fears of feeling like he failed Terra. Lea would have to face his fear that he abandoned Isa for his new best friends and forgot all about him. He’d have a lot of guilt over that and he’d have to face a Nightmare Saix which would be the manifestation of all his worst fears. Honestly, I’m sure the FFVII Remake will do a better job demonstrating the power of waking than KH3. Which is sad.

Back to Cloud. In Crisis Core, you see a shy insecure kid who can’t even face Tifa. That’s the real Cloud. The part of himself he can’t accept.

Cloud never even really wanted to be a SOLDIER for its own sake.

He just wanted to accomplish something. He was lonely and depressed and thought a man was “supposed to be” a soldier. He just wanted to be noticed by Tifa. And Tifa didn’t know this. She genuinely thought Cloud was just a typical boy who wanted to leave home so he could fight in the war.

She took care of him during his time of weakness. And the whole point of FFVII was that Cloud was “weak”. I liked that he wasn’t the generic badass hero who simply “won” the girl by being strong and cool. And it made me like Tifa, too. At first, she wanted her and Cloud to fulfill the stereotypical heterosexual relationship roles. She told Cloud that when she was in trouble, her hero would come rescue her. Then Tifa got to know the real Cloud.

He loved her. But he wasn’t really that heroic. Even his mom thought he needed a girlfriend that would take care of him. But Tifa accepted him anyways, even when he didn’t live up to her knight in shining armor fantasy. She got her relationship with him, with all its flaws. She was HIS hero, actually. I liked that because FFVII was really the first game I ever played where the main couple had what I thought was genuine intimacy instead of simply the girl being the “prize”. And I LOVE FFVII. After he is pieced back together, Cloud acts completely differently. He isn’t cocky or cool. He seemed humble, quiet, and not so much a natural “leader” type.

Zack was the badass everyone thought Cloud was. He took care of Cloud after they were experimented on and Cloud was broken. I cannot help but think that Lea and Isa’s past was originally similar to theirs after being experimented on. Crisis Core was an inspiration for me in imagining their past. Lea is similar to Zack. Cheerful, confident, resilient, and heroic. Very compassionate, too. The way he talked to Cloud even when he was “broken” was very sweet. And I think Isa was similar to Cloud who is more sensitive, vulnerable, and needy. Cloud mentally fractured after watching Zack die in front of him. I wanted to write something similar with Lea and Isa. Isa mentally shatters because he witnessed Lea lose his heart. :)

#ffvii #ff cloud #cloud x tifa #kh3

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fortressclan · 4 years

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Bloodspeckle had lived many moons at this point in his life. Seen cats live and die, battles lost and won. He had seen many, many things. Not much surprised him anymore, or so he thought. However, it seemed the mercenaries Redstar had gained had made it their life goal to prove him wrong.

When Redstar announced the arrival of outside cats, that was when the remaining cats of Redclan had decided that the fight had gone on too long, and had left. Bloodspeckle couldnt blame them, but it did make his job a bit lonelier with only three other cats in the camp, one of which couldnt even communicate properly. Bloodspeckle found himself talking to his birds more during the period where the newcomers had joined the clan, finding more comfort in them than he did the others. He started dedicating more time to his work, spending less time with the clan. He could tell some of the cats who had known him before the others arrived were concerned, but he brushed them off, saying he was working harder to accommodate the sudden growing numbers. It was a lie. Why should he have to heal these buffoons who looked like they could barely fight a mouse, let alone a full cat? The day of the first battle was Bloodspeckle's first surprise.

Baystep and Firecrackle had volunteered to stay behind to guard the camp, while the rest had gone to the border of the two clans in a patrol. Apparently they had discussed earlier the plans of the battle, but Bloodspeckle had been paw deep in a loner's chest at the time, having been attacked by the loner and making them meet a quick end. The small group quietly split up to surround the small patch of land they sought to take, leaving Bloodspeckle with little clue on where to go. He took a look around, debating who to concern himself with first. It didnt take long, spotting the large mass of fur and what he prayed was muscle and not just more fur, and he slunked over beside the large tom. The tom, who Bloodspeckle remembered having been renamed Heavyclaw, looked down at him with a distrusting glare, and Bloodspeckle took a step to the side. He wasnt scared, he had lost the ability to fear a while back, but had enough manners to treat Heavyclaw with respect. The tom made a sound that Bloodspeckle took for one of thanks, before the quiet wait began. It took only a few heartbeats for the enemy patrol to come around, and immediately all hell broke loose. Bloodspeckle wasnt sure what to expect from the ragtag team of strays, but 'Slaughter' was definitely one way to describe it. It was Scorchleap who attacked first, picking a long lanky black tom who reminded Bloodspeckle of one of their own cats, Raccoonheart. Looking at the battlefield, he noticed various cats who looked strikingly similar, but Bloodspeckle brushed it off, having more important things to concern himself with. The battle didnt last long as he set down the herbs he had brought, and he watched as the large tom wrecked havoc on the Rushwing look alike. He swore he heard something snap as Heavyclaw slammed a paw down on the other- a rib, maybe?- before the retreat was called. The enemy patrol ran away, leaving their side victorious. Bloodspeckle quickly got to work and ran over with cobwebs and poultices, respect for the newcomers growing.

The second surprise came a moon later, while he was looking at a corpse he had 'found'. Bloodspeckle had tried to keep his work hidden from most, very aware of what reactions he would get. He had found nothing too interesting inside, much of the same stuff he had found many times, but when he looked up from his activities, he was surprised to find Baystep there, staring at the mess. At first Bloodspeckle didnt know how to react, and even began trying to find an excuse to why he was mucking around in some poor cat's body, but was rather stunned when Baystep walked over and began asking questions, unfazed by the body. "What does this little thing here do?" He had asked, leaving Bloodspeckle speechless before explaining with genuine excitement what he believed it to be. Excitement wasnt a feeling he felt very often at the time, but Baystep's interest and lack of morals had seemingly revived his passion. Not soon after did Bloodspeckle decide to give the others a chance, opening up a bit more and making time to talk to them. Bloodspeckle realized that clan life had dulled his senses as he learned more of these cats, and that there was much more outside of the clans than just patrolling and constant fighting.

The final surprise came three moons after the second. The presence of the others wasnt a foreign feeling anymore, and a welcome one at times. He had helped many with their injuries and sicknesses, and found himself enjoying his normal work once again. He was ecstatic when many had agreed to test some herbs for him, and looked forward to every visit he got. He had grown to become good friends with Baystep, and surpringly Heavyclaw. The latter often visited for any wounds he had recieved, and opened up when Bloodspeckle had begun to join in the fighting. More and more it seemed the large tom was coming in for smaller and smaller wounds, even coming in once for what Bloodspeckle suspected was a faked headache. Bloodspeckle didnt mind at all though, soon finding out Heavyclaw was much more than just a large and destructive cat. The two talked often while Bloodspeckle worked, giving Bloodspeckle some often much needed mental challenges with some topics they discussed. That morning Heavyclaw visited to check up on the medicine cat, having brought a rabbit to share. Bloodspeckle took a few bites inbetween sorting through his herbs, before Heavyclaw spoke. “You are sweet, when you want to be." That made Bloodspeckle pause for a second, processing what Heavyclaw had said. Sweet? Him? Bloodspeckle didnt vocalize his confusion and surprise, instead making inquisitive sound to push Heavyclaw to continue that train of thought so he could hop on and figure out exactly where the last stop was. "I have seen you with the others. You treat them kindly. In your own way. You play with the little Firefly, listen to tiny apprentice to amuse him. Heal Heavyclaw's and other's wounds, care for small prey." Bloodspeckle paused as he continued to list small things that had apparently added up. The garden he, Baystep, and Houndsnap had made. Giving poppy seeds to Hawkslash when he needed them, even if that happened to be when the sun was rising. Letting Scorchleap sleep in his den when the tom felt homesick after the camp changed, despite the fact the tom snored like a monster. Bloodspeckle was about to say something, about to brush Heavyclaw's examples as small signs of respect and nothing more, but paused as Heavyclaw began talking about those outside of their current clan. The mothers he had helped through birth, the endless battles and wounds that had never seemed to end. The secrets he had promised to keep a secret, even if it meant to break the code. Bloodspeckle had tried to get a word in throughout Heavyclaw's monologue, but shut his mouth with a click once Willowshine's name was mentioned.

"Loner told Heavyclaw." Heavyclaw explained, watching Bloodspeckle with a firm stare, before his voice dipped low and quiet. "Apprentice is not from clan. Heavyclaw is not dumb, I can tell. He-" Heavyclaw abruptly cut himself off, before shaking his head slightly to himself. Bloodspeckle could fill the blank in, though. "I've seen the vay Raccoonheart looks at him. Villowshine came to me ven she suspected she was expecting." Bloodspeckle said with a cold tone, warning Heavyclaw to be careful about the subject. The memory of Willowshine hurt a bit- she had been a good cat, and perhaps even a good friend at one point, and now she was just... gone. Of course, Bloodspeckle wasnt sure if Raccoonheart was entirely the father, but a part of him still wanted something, someone to blame. Heavyclaw simply nodded, and brought him out of his thoughts. "And you have not told a word to anyone, not even little apprentice. You have kept secret safe." Heavyclaw reasoned, wrapping his tail around his hind paws. "You can be sweet." He said with a tone that suggested anything Bloodspeckle could say would have no effect on his belief. Instead of fighting it though, Bloodspeckle sighed and shook his head. "Vatever you vish to believe, mein Kumpel." Bloodspeckle replied, as he let the memories go. Heavyclaw let out a sound that almost sounded like a chuckle, before the subject got changed. The two chatted a while more, before Heavyclaw had to excuse himself and leave. Bloodspeckle said goodbye as Heavyclaw ducked his way out of the entrance, and the medicine cat noted the barely touched rabbit still in middle of the den. Maybe Heavyclaw had been right, that he was growing soft and kinder to the new cats in the camp. While Bloodspeckle mightve hated and feared the idea in the past, Bloodspeckle wasnt entirely the same cat anymore. With hesitant curiousity, he welcomed the idea that these cats would remain a part of his life, even if it was for a short time. With all the surprises in his life, a few more couldnt hurt, could it?

#tf2 #tf2 au #warrior cats #warrior cats au #sil writes #sil answers #tf2 medic #tf2 engie #tf2 engineer #tf2 heavy #heavymedic #im sorry this took so long!#hope u like it ajndksd

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kusunogatari · 4 years

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[ Frozen Flames and Shadowed Lights || Chapter Twelve ] [ @yukaikokoro @abyssaldespair ] [ Uchiha Obito, Suigin Ryū, Uchiha Madara, Hatake Kakashi, Kottakawa Kumiko, Raziya ] [ Verse: Divine Light ] [ Previous || Next ]

“All right...remember, we need to try and catch them by surprise. Our top priority is finding Ryū and getting the hells out of here,” Kakashi murmurs as Kumiko finishes opening the crack into the cavern. Blade drawn, he pushes his meager senses to their limit.

“Easier said than done, I’d imagine,” she replies softly. “They’ve surely sealed her ven with a rite. Sensing her through that will be nigh on impossible, as it’s extremely suppressed. We could trip over her before we’d sense her.”

“She’s under a what, now?”

Kumiko shoots him a disbelieving glance. “...a blood rite. It’s the only way to disable an el’ven’s powers. Each element has their own sigil, but the process is the same. In short, you combine the sealed and the sealer’s blood, and draw the sealer’s patron Elemental’s sigil somewhere on the sealed’s body...and you’ve got yourself a sealed el’ven. They can’t manually manipulate their ven, inside or out. You can’t stop the flow of ven altogether or the sealed person would die. It’s an essential system, like...the flow of your blood. So you just take away their ability to connect it to their will. It was a big factor in the civil war between the el’ven and the el’tahl.”

The pair of them lingering in their makeshift entryway, Kakashi pauses. This...seems important to know before they try to get Ryū out. “Really…? How so? El’tahl can’t use ven.”

“No...but you technically don’t need to in order to create a sigil. Technically everyone has at least some ven in their body. But el’tahl can’t connect with it, and their amount is always very low compared to someone el’ven. But there’s enough in their blood to create the sigils. Once they discovered the practice, they used it against us in the war.”

“But...you said something about a patron Elemental. Do el’tahl have those…?”

“Technically no...but a workaround turned out to be using the sealed’s opposing Elemental. For example, I’m of ice: child of water and air. If an el’tahl wanted to seal me, they only needed to use Orenium’s sigil, the child of earth and fire. My ‘opposite’.”

Kakashi sighs. “...sounds like a major pain.”

“It’s highly frowned upon now, of course. But I’m certain they’ll have her sealed, or she’d have escaped through a portal of her own long ago.” Glancing around, Kumiko adds, “And I’m sure this place is a maze of tunnels and dead-ends. And we still don’t know how many others are here.”

“I saw at least one through the barrier.”

“Really?”

“Yeah...and I don’t think it was the one who took her. This one felt…” Kakashi shifts, clearly discomforted. “...dangerous, for lack of a better word.”

“So, at least two...I’d have guessed as much. I’d like to hope they’ve kept to small numbers to avoid a need for supplies and risk of exposure. But...we can’t afford to assume anything.”

“Then what’s the plan? I’m not sure splitting up is a good idea.”

“No...we need to stick together. No offense, but against a well-practiced el’ven, let alone one of a Tenebreon’s level, you’d be in trouble on your own. It will make us slower, but...better slow than dead.”

“Agreed,” he replies gravely. “...so once we find her, what do we do about this...seal?”

“There are only two ways to undo a blood rite. Have the one who placed it revert it...or kill them. Their blood in the seal then becomes inert, and it fails.”

“...so not only do we need to find out who sealed her...but also either kill them, or somehow ask them nicely to take it off?”

Drawing her sword with a whisper from its sheath, Kumiko replies, “I’m afraid so. It’s either that...or she remains unable to use her ven until they die some other way. And I’m sure you know el’ven are long-lived.”

“...yeah, I do. Would have been nice to know this beforehand.”

“Sorry...I thought you’d know about rites. They’re a pretty big deal.”

“Most of this trip has been ‘learning as I go’, so...can’t really blame you.”

“...I’ll focus on trying to sense ven. You focus on what you can hear, see...smell, if you have to. That should leave us as prepared as we can be. Hopefully they think we’re dead after that avalanche and won’t bother trying to hide. Are you good at repressing your ven?”

“Fairly. It’s not very strong to begin with,” Kakashi replies dryly, doing his best to dim his aura.

Kumiko just nods as she does the same, cautiously stepping out of the crack she’s carved. The cavern is surprisingly warm, lit with a plethora of slow-burning candles. Wordlessly, she signs that there’s nothing she can sense to their left, toward the barrier. But she does indeed feel two signatures of ven to their right, one further in than the other.

Acknowledging her info, Kakashi follows, keeping his ears perked and eyes scanning the environment. By now, he’s honestly lost track of how many weeks they’ve been gone. The thought of Ryū being stuck in this place for that long, let alone with the company she’s keeping and whatever plot they have in store for her...well, it upsets him at the very least.

But there will be time for temper later. For now, he needs to stay calm. While he hardly expects it to go so smoothly...he can’t help but hope they can find her, slip back out...and then deal with whoever dared leave their mark on her.

At least if there are only two...it shouldn’t take much guesswork to figure out which is which.

...it’s then just a matter of managing to kill them.

Kakashi is hardly adverse to slaying another human. He’s done it countless times before, be it on a contract during his years as a hunter, or to protect himself while on the road. But this is the first time he’s had any need to face someone of a Tenebreon mage’s level. True, he’s not alone...but he knows he’s the weak link here. Skilled in the sword as he may be, a duel of ven is one he’s sorely outmatched in with most opponents...let alone one as destructive and deadly as a Tenebreon.

So for now, he tries not to think about that part. Their first priority is Ryū. The rest...well, he’ll cross that bridge when they come to it.

The pair of them creep along silently on the soles of their boots, cautiously inspecting any branching path they encounter. Any left dark Kakashi illuminates with a small ball of flame above a palm. Most lead nowhere. And to mark their way, Kumiko leaves tiny, hopefully-unnoticeable icicles above any route they’ve taken that proved fruitless.

This place is maze-like enough without worrying about getting turned around.

At one point they freeze, Kumiko holding out an arm as an echoing voice reaches them. Unfortunately, with so many places for it to bounce and travel, it’s nearly impossible to tell where precisely it’s coming from. But Kumiko pantomimes a fair distance yet as the other mage replies.

That one, however, sounds much closer.

Grip tight on the hilt of his blade, Kakashi stares down the tunnel, heart hammering seemingly just below the flap of his throat. He hasn’t been this nervous in...well, a very long time.

“Why is it that you meddling types always forget to check behind you…?”

Wheeling around, the pair of them find an open portal to their rear. And standing just within it, arms crossed and expression almost bored, is one of the Tenebreon mages: one of a barrel chest and lion’s mane.

Unable to do much more than stare, Kakashi immediately notices the mismatched eyes not unlike his own. One of red, and one of violet.

...what?

He in turn eyes them openly. “Is this really all that’s come looking for the supposed last light mage? An untested glacial representative, and...a weakling half-breed.” The gaze turns scornful. “...and with what looks to be stolen el’ven flesh. Disgusting.”

“Is that judgment coming from someone with as much conflict in their appearance as me?” Kakashi counters. “I may not know much about the el’ven...but one thing I do know is that everyone gets one element. So where’d your second come from?”

“I’ve no reason or want to bother explaining it to you,” their foe rebukes, tone aloof. “It matters little, anyway. You won’t be leaving this cavern alive. Tobi!”

Behind them, a masked man - the one from the Summit ball - blocks the way forward, cutting off their only other route.

Trapped.

“Where is the Luxerian disciple?” Kumiko demands, posture unwavering.

“Ask whatever questions you like: you’ll receive no answers. She will remain here until her purpose is served.”

“Is it true…? You seek the thirteenth?”

At that, the man’s brows lift. “...oh? And where did you hear that…? Did that Nori fool let you loosen his tongue? I should have killed him when I had the chance...but it matters little. If all your precious Summit sees fit to send is the pair of you...then it’s clear I won’t have any further interruptions once I reduce the pair of you to dust.”

“You’d risk the undoing of everything just for a chance at a forced peace?!” Kumiko bares her teeth in a snarl. “You’re just another faithless coward who’d rather take the easy way out.”

“Is this really the time to be taunting me, glacial mage? You’ve still got your spots: I’m not about to take a threat from you seriously.”

“Appearances can be deceiving. I’m stronger than I look.”

Glancing to his companion, Kakashi catches her eye, and in a brief look, conveys a plan. They’ll likely only have one shot. But at least with Ryū missing, they can’t flee so easily. They’ll have to fetch her first.

Until then...it’s time to try fighting.

With a shift of his weight, Kakashi spins to face the man behind them as Kumiko makes to strike the one at their fore. Ice rises up from beneath the stone, cracking and forming deadly spikes that race toward the portal. It closes, her element passing harmlessly before she turns and blocks an attempted grab, her foe tearing open another hole in space.

Kakashi, on the other hand, relies fully on his blade. Twisting and slashing with all the speed and complexity he can muster, he funnels his drive into every strike. And all the while, his opponent dodges with seemingly incorporeal ease. At times he swears the steel passes right through him!

“Where is she?” he growls, wondering if this one might be a bit more vocal. But all he receives is tense silence. Something tells him that - in his own way - this one is just as driven as he is...yet it feels different than the obvious want of power his companion boasts. This feels...personal.

Which only serves to confuse Kakashi further.

Trying to keep one ear tuned in case Kumiko needs his help, Kakashi fights on, his blows becoming more desperate. “No matter where you take her...no matter where you run...I’ll follow. I won’t stop until she’s back where she belongs…! She’s not some tool for your end! I’ll kill you for treating her like a gods-damned broodmare for whatever the hells you think you’re going to achieve!”

As his temper reaches a tipping point, Kakashi feels a desperate burning in his left eye, wide and manic. Unable to fight fire’s fueling by his anger, he unleashes a torrent of flame from a palm as he lets his sword fall to the wayside. Hungry and eager, the tongues lick and reach for his foe.

But with a wave of his own hands, the enemy mage easily diverts them...something a Tenebreon disciple shouldn’t be so adept with. Remembering the other’s dual-colored eyes, Kakashi can’t help but wonder if this one, too, boasts two elements.

“Cursed words...cursed! To think a mor selfish enough to take a second blessing...what greed, what insolence! A vile mor...I’ll tear his head from his shoulders myself for such a blatant disregard for the balance!”

Suigin’s words, recalled in his mind, fit together more pieces. This must be what she and that Nori bastard spoke of: someone with two elements in one body. But how?!

“Impressive you can even use ven, given the small token of flesh you bear.” Speaking at last, the second mage stares him down, visage hidden by his mask. “Stolen from the still-warm corpse of your friend, was it…?”

At that, Kakashi feels his chest echo with a flash of cold. “...how do you know about that?”

“I know more than that, Kakashi. Enough to realize that you are nowhere near strong enough to take her back. You will fail...and she will remain here.”

That grits the hunter’s teeth. “You have no right -!”

“It is not a matter of rights. Think you can return her? Prove it. Prove to me that you’re strong enough. I took her from you once...I can do so again.”

He knows it’s a taunt. It’s plain as day. But Kakashi lets himself fall for it, hook line and sinker. A cry tears his throat as he makes to strike, easily dodged. Alternating between fire and steel, he flails in desperation for just one blow -!

“Kakashi!”

At the frantic tone, Kakashi feels his heart leap.

Ryū!

Just as drawn to the voice, the one called Tobi turns too.

And that’s when he finds his opening.

Barely managing to twist his last attempt, Kakashi - rather than a slash - slaps the flat side of his blade against the mask of his enemy. With a clatter, it shatters into countless pieces as he’s stunned and stumbles aside.

“Tobi -?!”

Heaving for breath, Kakashi nonetheless stills as Ryū calls again...this time for the man he was fighting. But -? He -?

A hand at his face as a cut from stray porcelain bleeds sluggishly, Tobi leans heavily against a wall. Further down the tunnel, Ryū stares with obvious shock...tinged with concern. Her gaze then flickers to Kakashi, just as desperate.

But Kakashi doesn’t see it. He’s staring at his foe.

“...Obito…?”

Turning and panting, another pair of ruby and amethyst eyes meet Kakashi’s. He looks startled, almost...dazed. A gloved hand falls away, revealing the mottled skin: scarred over from obvious burns.

But there’s no mistaking it. That...that is Obito. But he’s...he’s dead. He watched the light leave his remaining eye after that sword buried through his back. Kakashi could see the cremating fires as he and Rin fled with Ryū from the city that night. The Uchiha always burn their dead. And Obito, without a doubt, was -

Too shocked to react further, Kakashi jumps as the other mage teleports beside his companion, teeth bared in a hiss. “Enough. We retreat. Now.”

A hand drags Ryū to his side, ignoring her cry of surprise and pain at his hold. Obito, still stunned, staggers forward as another portal opens. Beyond, Kakashi can see marshy swampland and the edge of a city.

“No!”

Behind him, limping, Kumiko tries to dash forward and give chase. But as the trio pass through and the door closes, she collapses to the floor of the cavern.

Silence.

With a slow dissolving of his joints, Kakashi falls to his knees, sword clattering against the stone. Too many things swirl within his mind, making his skull feel full to the point of bursting. Obito...Obito is -?

“Where did they go? Kakashi, did you see?!”

He doesn’t answer, staring at nothing.

“Kakashi!”

“...he’s alive, but...she’s gone. I…?”

Crossing the gap between them with furrowed brows, Kumiko searches his face. “What?”

“...it’s not possible…”

“Kakashi, snap out of -!”

“It had to be a trick. Something to unsettle me. I -?”

With a harsh report in the dead air of the cave, Kumiko’s hand slaps against the skin of Kakashi’s cheek. His head reels back, eyes widening and springing with tears at the sudden sting. “What -?!”

“Whatever the hells took over your mind, banish it!” she barks, her hand then moving to hold his shoulder as she stares at him unwaveringly. “You’re speaking nonsense, Kakashi! What in the twelve hells happened? One moment I was fighting the twice-blessed, and then -?”

“It was Obito.”

“...what?”

“The other mage. He had the same eyes. One red, one purple. But it...it was Obito.”

“...that’s not possible. The boy who died…? Gave you his eye?”

A slow nod. “...I’d know that face. Aged or not, it was him. I’ve no doubt.”

“...but...he died as a boy. Even a Tenebreon mage can’t bring back the dead on their own, Kakashi.”

A hand lifts to cradle his brow, trying to think. “...he had a Tenebreon eye. As did his partner. And he...he knew things. From before.”

“...could Ryū have told him?”

“It’s possible, but...Kumiko, I know what I saw. It’s why I...why I froze. The disbelief stole my mind. I...I’m sorry. I let this happen…”

“But why did they leave? The mage I was fighting, he had the upper hand - he’d wounded me! Why flee? Did you overpower the -? Er...Obito?”

“...I broke his mask. At first I thought that’s what stunned him, but...I spoke his name. And he looked at me strangely. Like it...woke something in him.”

Kumiko’s eyes widen. “...maybe he remembered you…?”

“...I don’t know.”

Sighing, Kumiko shifts to sit beside him. “...let’s put together what we know. Obito, your friend, is alive...and is one of two twice-blessed we now know of. Both of them have an eye of fire, and an eye of darkness. His companion is clearly far older. What if they...exchanged eyes?”

“...even if the other mage gave him the Tenebreon eye, Obito only had one left.” Kakashi points to his face. “...I have the other. The other igni eye would have to have come from someone else.”

“...then we can assume he either got the eye elsewhere...or already had it. But how can they both have two elements…? That’s impossible, I’ve never heard of that happening. Let alone with two elements that far apart. Fire is a child of light, darkness’ mirror!”

“...how does one get their element?”

“You’re born with it. Depending on your family tree, you can either have a parent’s element, or - if they’re the right tiers - a combination of the two. Wind and water could birth the same, or ice.”

“...but what about at the beginning?”

“...you mean the first blessed? It was a gift directly from the Elementals themselves. But Kakashi...the Elementals fled over a century ago, when war broke out after the coup. That’s not possible.”

“...is it?” he replies, tone dark. “...think about it. You were Embraced. No one has been since the coup, right? Or so we’re told? What if...Tenebreos blessed them? Could it be done remotely? Like your Embrace?”

At the suggestion, Kumiko’s jaw drops almost comically, if not for the circumstances. “...I...I don’t know. But...why would Tenebreos bless someone already blessed…? Maybe...maybe they stole the eyes from a Tenebreon mage.”

“You told me yourself: my ven is weak because I’m a vom berech: a halfling created rather than born. Surely if they took eyes from someone else, their Tenebreon ven would be weak. But they were both clearly using it with no limit or inhibition. Something’s fishy here, Kumiko...and it would explain why Suigin was so upset. Stealing or receiving ven from someone else wouldn’t make you twice-blessed. What if…” Kakashi’s posture shifts, more forward. “...what if Tenebreos blessed the other mage...and helped him revive Obito?”

“...why would they do that?”

“...I was hoping you’d have an idea. I’m a stranger to most of this, remember?”

Kumiko goes quiet, thinking. “...Tenebreos is the Elemental of darkness. Death, disease, matter...and some say, chaos to Luxeria’s order. Maybe this entire plot was their doing. Remember the coup...? It was born mostly out of spite by the Tenebreon mages. For ages they were targeted as “evil”, hunted for being harbingers of death despite their necessity. Maybe...Tenebreos wants revenge for their slaughtered mages. Maybe they’re looking for a rebirth of chaos, just as the world was righting itself.”

“By bringing about the thirteenth?”

“...I don’t know. I feel like there’s still something we’re missing. This is all just conjecture and guesswork at this point. But something tells me we’re on the right path.”

After a pause, Kakashi gives a humorless scoff. “...right. The path I just brought to a dead end. I let them escape...and Twelve know where they’ve gone.”

“...did you see anything through the portal? Anything that might help us find them?”

“...it looked like...marshland. Water, muck, bowing trees. And maybe a city of some kind. It was gone so quickly…”

“No, no - that’s a start.” Mulling that over, Kumiko then offers, “...we should return to Boralis. Regroup. Maybe someone there will have an inkling where that could be. Wherever they fell back to...it has to be somewhere they’d feel secure. They seemed confident they’d be able to take us, and keep their hideaway here. I doubt they have many backup plans, given how solidly they regarded this one.”

“...all right. Can you walk…?”

“Well enough. Besides, with the mages gone, that barrier will be too. They can’t hold it over much distance. Raziya can come in and take us straight from here back to the capital.” Struggling to her feet, Kumiko lets Kakashi bear her weight, the pair of them hobbling to the entrance as she calls her drach.

The beast wastes no time in fluttering into the cavern’s mouth, a moaning sound of concern echoing off the walls. “What happened?! Where is the lux mage?”

“We’ll recount it when we get back to Boralis. I need someone to patch me up, and...well, we need to plan our next move.”

Nodding curtly, Raziya gently helps her rider to her saddle, Kakashi climbing up behind as they streak out of the cave and back into the squall.

Yet another setback...and when they were so close…! As guilty as he feels, Kakashi does his best to shove the disappointment aside. It won’t do anything for him, now. Instead, he mulls over their conjecture, and the possible ways forward.

He wasn’t lying. This quest is one he will follow until the end. He made a promise to watch over her when he accepted Obito’s eye, and the burden Ryū’s mother gave him and Rin, both. Until he succeeds, or draws his last breath...he will follow.

...hold on, Ryū. I’m not out of this fight, yet. Don’t you dare give up…!

Another day, another chapter! Technically finished last night buuut it was 2am, I was buggered, and I...waited until today to proofread! Then life got in the way, so here it is midafternoon :’D BUT ENOUGH ABOUT THAT. We have PLOT DEVELOPMENT! The (very obvious) secret is out: Tobi is Obito! And he seems...off somehow. We also have some guesswork on Kumiko and Kakashi’s part about what EXACTLY is going on, and why. But there’s only one way to know for sure...they’re gonna have to do...MORE TRAVELING! Because there isn’t enough of that in this fic, right? :’D There’s...probably more to say but I’m hella scatterbrained today so that’s all the commentary for now. Hoping to start C13 sometime today, we’ll see how more Life goes. Cuz right now it’s kinda kicking my butt, but what else is new :’D Anywhoozle, thankies for reading, and I’ll get the next part out soon!

#yukaikokoro #abyssaldespair #uchiha obito #suigin ryū #uchiha madara #hatake kakashi #kottakawa kumiko #raziya #divine light [ au ]

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jokahlu · 5 years

Text

Kingdom Hearts 3 Ted Talk, Kairi’s Edition (More like rant) (Will contain spoilers)

*Warnings*

While reading the following post you should expect:

*Spoilers are ahead.

*Duality of emotions clashing between love and frustration.

*A certain mouse’s head will be expected in a platter, and he will be the source of the darkness coming out of me.

*Love for a character that deserved way more than what she got.

*Deep disappointment for a forgotten friendship that was non-existent.

*A sailing ship warmed my heart.

*And an ending that shattered it.

…So it’s basically me ranting at how SE treats Kairi.

Also, it’s a pretty long read. I tried to make it short. Oh well.

Enjoy.

*Read at your own discretion*

I’m so wrecked after this game. But don’t get me wrong, I loved it!

The graphics were superb, their expressions on point, the writing and humor, the landscapes and worlds. It was all so precious. Being able to play as the spiked hair little bundle of joy again after so long was truly like coming home.

But as much as I loved it, there are so many things that rubbed me the wrong way. So many things I hoped for, that seemed reasonable and not out of the realm of possibilities, but never happened.

I will not mention all of them here because I could write an entire essay about it. Reason why I’ll try not to get overly excited. Underline try.

This time I will mostly talk about Kairi.

Let’s do this quick, shall we?

First of all, I need that mouse’s head on a platter.

I wish Aqua would’ve given Mickey a good beating in this game. Don’t get me wrong, I usually like Mickey and his character in the KH franchise is pretty cool. But I hated his disregard to Kairi in this game. It just made me want to scream. Yes, he’s not the only one who doesn’t give a damn about the redhead (more on that lovely subject later), but I felt like he valued other’s life above hers in a blatantly obvious way. There are two scenes where I noticed this and it made me want to crawl up the walls.

The first scene was when Kairi is about to be struck down by Terranort, after him discarding two experienced fighters with a little more than a flick of his wrist, mind you. So, of course she’s scared and paralyzed, like any normal keyblade wielder (with only basic training and no real experience) would be. As Sora is desperately running to shield her with nothing but his body, Mickey uselessly screams “Sora no!”, as Donald and Goofy use their brains (and weapons) and come to the rescue.

What gives Mickey? Is she that unimportant in your mind, that Sora shouldn’t even try to help her? Did you honestly expect Sora to just let her die? Because if Terranort struck her, she was toast.

But I guess the answer is yes, because the other scene that made me want to strangle him was when Sora wants to go and save her and Mickey is trying to convince him not to go. I bet if it was Minnie on the line he would be jumping into lava if it meant to save her. But Kairi? Nah.

I swear I would’ve wanted Minnie to be next to Kairi and both be destroyed by Master Xehanort, just to see if Mickey’s reaction would be any different and if he would also risk it all at the end to save her instead of being like “oh don’t go Sora, you may never come back. Just leave Kairi to die, we can lose her but not you” attitude. Geez.

Love for a character that deserved better.

Oh, I could go one and on, on this one. It’s divided in many categories because the whole rant can be resumed in: she deserved better.

I’ll point out the obvious: I’ve always loved Kairi.

Yeah, she’s underdeveloped, not well written and can’t seem to shake the damsel in distress coat off, but I’ve always liked her. I’ve always felt Sora and Riku’s love for her real and heartwarming, and that’s made me like her so much. She’s also super brave, witty and has a great personality (don’t fight me on this)

I do get why some people might not like her, but I do.

Kingdom Hearts games have always treated her like a plot device and nothing more, and kh3 was the worst of the bunch in my opinion.

No one seems to care about her except for Sora.

When everyone reunites after Kairi dies, the only one who says something to him to reassure and confort Sora, apart from Donald and Goofy, is Xion. The rest are like oh ok she died, what’s next? I was expecting for Axel to be pissed, sad, anything, or anyone commenting something about it, but they just disregarded it like nothing happened.

Even if I understand that Terra, Aqua, Ven, Roxas, even Xion, didn’t know her that well and I didn’t expect it to affect them, at least they should acknowledge their fallen comrade. But ok, they didn’t know her that well. But Axel and Riku virtually not giving a damn? It really made things worse for my already wrecked heart. Those two are her closest friends, aside from Sora..

Even when the final battle is over everyone is like “wohoo we won! it’s all over!” (I’m glaring at you mouse) and even Riku agrees, Sora is the only one who is sad and heartbroken for her dying. Speaking of Riku basically disregarding her death..

Deep disappointment for a forgotten friendship that was basically non-existent.

Saying that I was disappointed in Kairi and Rikus interactions is a mayor understatement. This broke my heart because my highest hope for kh3 was to see Riku and Kairi being friends. Like, real friends.

In kh1 he was all over protecting her, in kh2 he silently looked after her and kept her safe as much as he could, but kh3? Man, in this game they felt like borderline strangers to me. Even faced by her being murdered in front of his face, he just stood there kind of surprised and pissed. Nothing more.

Seriously?

I mean Master Xehanort had just cold-bloodedly killed her right then and there, and he didn’t react as if his childhood friend had just turned into dust.

And even worse, when the final battle ended he didn’t even offer to go with Sora to save her. What the hell?

If it was Sora who had died, there is no doubt in my mind that he would’ve been fighting his way to save him, consequences be dammed. (And it’s what probably happens when Kairi comes home alone, smh) And that reaction would be right because they’re best friends and that how any of the other characters would react if one of their trio was killed and they had the chance to save them.

So why did it seem like he didn’t care at all? It hurts a lot.

Where is the Riku who’s last worlds for Sora were asking him to keep Kairi safe? The one who helped her escape Axel or shielded her from Saix?

Riku felt off to me in Kingdom Hearts 3, not only because of this, but I’ll leave that for my Riku rant.

Kairi’s performance in the final battle

Not everyone has to kick ass to be valid, and she tried her best to train and help, even when it was not something she was used to.

I mean, come on! Her first real experiences in battle were in the final battle. Who the hell thought it was a good idea? She had only trained with Axel. So, of course she would freeze when she sees trained/experienced keyblade wielders being thrown all over the place. Even Sora didn’t take out his weapon, trying to save her in the rush of the moment. And even if she did take out her keyblade when Terranort attacked her, she would’ve been smashed against the wall like Axel.

I’ll admit that before kh3 was released, I wished she did become OP and beat some organization XIII butt, but as I advanced in the game I realized how ridiculous that is. If you put kh1 Riku and Sora in that scenario, even at the end of the game with all the experience they had gathered, I bet they wouldn’t have fared very differently.

What I truly want is for her to go on her own adventure and grow powerful at her own pace, so in the next big battle she’ll be fairly prepared. It would be better if that adventure was with Sora and Riku, exploring new worlds together just the three of them, like they dreamed about in kh1.

But I’ll say it again: Not everyone in the game must kick ass to be valid.

A sailing ship warmed my heart. Even if it was poorly written (Unsurprisingly. It involves Kairi so I expected as much)

The Sokai in the game honestly lifted my battered heart.

Sora grows to learn so much more of love in this game: how powerful true love can be, how if you truly believe, love can make miracles happen and that one day is enough if there is true love.. He even admits that he still doesn't know much about it, but as the story goes on we can see that he knows more than he believes.

I loved the paopu scene. I could totally imagine Kairi and Riku planning it beforehand, so that Kairi and Sora would be alone to do so. Key word being “imagine” because at this point, their friendship is only in my imagination.. but that will be saved for Riku’s rant..

I believe that it’s so in character that Kairi initiates the paopu scene, because Sora would never do so. But I loved it, and the way they looked at each other was so.. oh man this game.

The paopu moment did seem to make Sora bolder, touching her more than before and being blunter about how she makes him feel. And it’s so heartwarming and wholesome that the moment when Sora realizes Kairi’s light had been guiding him in the darkness, he remembers the two acts of true love he had witnessed before in the game: Rapunzel’s tear bringing Flynn back to life and Elsa and Ana’s scene as well. I believe that’s the moment when he realizes that she’s his True Love..

That moment when he finds her in the darkness, and he makes her shy when he tells her that he felt strong with her, smiling knowingly when she turns away embarrassed. Or holding her hand for longer than necessary when they go back with the others.

It’s amazing that after meeting so many new people, many gorgeous girls and guys, Sora’s heart hasn’t let go of the friend he fell for as kids. He loved her for her personality and heart, which is why their bond is so strong, even if they see each other less than before.. which is a massive understatement if I must say so myself.

That heart wrenching scream when she was taken into the heartless tornado or his grief-stricken face as he screamed at Master Xehanort “Why”, are proof of just how deep his feelings for her are. How important and invaluable she is in his life.

Adding to this, his utter sacrifice to go save her as soon as possible, not enjoying his victory against Master Xehanort, and not making her wait one more second (his words, not mine) is a statement of his feelings for her, simple and clear (thought I would say clean did ya?)

I mean, come on! His first thought after killing that murderous bald sack of darkness was about her.

And at the end I love how they were holding hands and sitting so close to each other on the paopu tree (They’re definitely a couple now) before he vanished and shattered my heart in a million different pieces.

Speaking of which..

An ending that shattered my heart.

I feel like her dying was very unnecessary. I think that it was only for Sora to embark on a mission alone. Master Xehanort says that he lacks motivation, so he kills her (she’s being used as a plot device again dammit) but Sora clearly was going to fight him either way, motivation or not.

So, killing Kairi was only for Sora to go alone at the end, leave the story inconclusive and the game, and players, in dire need of a sequel.

Before the secret ending had been added, I was super sad that the only person who truly cared for her had seemingly died, or vanished, but now we know he’s someplace else, looking for a way back to her. I would love for her to save him, but given how SE treats her, I think I’ll temper my expectations for her in the next installments of the games.

This game left me with a super bittersweet feeling, but it was definitely worth it! I won’t let SE and the character’s indifference towards Kairi affect my overall enjoyment of the game.

But let’s hope she gets to shake that damsel in distress title Nomura loves to give her.. I guess I can’t keep my expectations low for her, can I?

Oh well, Sora still need to give her her lucky charm back, which she gave back in Blank Points, so he needs to come back to her to return it.

Please SE let Kairi help save Sora this time, without being a burden. Thank you.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

#sokai #sora #kairi #kingdom hearts #kingom hearts 3 #kh3 spoilers #riku #rikai #A post appreciating Kairi #She deserved better #super long post #ted talks #kingdom hearts 3 review #opinion

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chessdaze · 5 years

Photo

Day 3 of my @khoc-week catch up!

Friends or Lovers? Show and tell who your OC is familiar with! Any friends? A Significant Other? Or maybe an enemy? Draw a picture of them with their best friend(s), enemy, or special someone! Or write a one shot about them interacting or going on a mission together.

OH BOY I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THIS. But I wanted to focus on two relationships in particular with Atlas - that with his mentor/father figure Wynter and that with his two best friends Kei and Quest (who were briefly shown in yesterday’s prompt!). family figures weren’t really in the prompt but I went with it anyways because I HAVE to talk about Wynter.

Wynter is the reason that heartsmiths exist, he’s an incredibly powerful magic user. He’s also the reason Atlas is even alive, so of course he’s an important figure in Atlas’s life. Including Atlas’s wonderland background which he doesn’t recall, Wynter is the only father figure he’s ever had. Atlas loves Wynter. However, there was a big strain on their relationship during the time leading up to the keyblade war.

Readmore time

Wynter is a keyblade user. I’ve done a piece of him with his keyblade here, besides probably MoM, he’s probably the eldest keyblade wielder in Daybreak Town. However he doesn’t use his keyblade for fighting heartless on a normal basis as it has a very specific trait. It can freeze someone’s heart in time. Thus the name ‘hand of time’. A theme of Wynter’s character is that he’s stuck in time and not able to move forward and his keyblade and it’s power are a reflection of that and how his heart is stagnant - which is like a punch to the gut when MoM is explaining all of this to him (MoM and Wynter are like old buds).

As the keyblade war draws closer it becomes clear why Wynter was given this particular keyblade with this particular power. He aims to have Atlas survive the keyblade war through freezing his heart and body in time. He knows of the dandelions via Quest (who was chosen to be apart of the dandelions - but more on that when i get to him and kei), and wants to freeze Atlas in time and then let the dandelions/Ava know of his location so after the danger has passed they can retrieve him. But things never go as planned.

Atlas refused, almost violently so, when the idea was brought up. In the end. Quest and Kei had to hold Atlas down while Wynter stabbed him with his keyblade. Hence the below picture (which was like one of the first i drew with atlas ever - and of wynter’s keyblade it’s changed a bit since this look):

As one can imagine, this wasn’t great on their relationship. In Atlas’s main story, he ends up drifting with the heartsmith’s shop/forge in the space between (being a ‘mini world’ in its own right), Wynter’s notes being scattered to the worlds (like ansem’s reports - and his notes on heartsmithing is a precursor to keyblade armor being made, but that’s an entirely different ramble), and doesn’t awake until the guardians of light find him 1000+ years later.

After awaking he has so many mixed emotions about his mentor. He’s angry that Wynter took the opportunity for him to help wielders away, he’s angry that he was pretty much forced to have a keyblade he never wanted (in stabbing atlas with the keyblade, atlas pretty much became the successor to it), and being left all alone without his friends or his family was just...sad. He blamed Wynter and his two best friends for the longest time.

REWIND A SEC AND I’LL TALK ABOUT ATLAS, KEI, AND QUEST.

I have dubbed them the ‘ribbon trio’ as their design all involve ribbons. my sister has also affectionally called them the ‘rose buds’ because of this picture below and thinking on it, it fits because of Atlas’s past with wonderland, Quest being from Beast’s Castle, and Kei’s family being florists.

here’s another one because they’re cute

As mentioned above, Quest is from Beast’s Castle. His parents died during the plague and he had been having a rough childhood when he was given the power of the keyblade and was able to go to daybreak town and join a union. Considering the state he was in (practically skin and bones), Gula was surprised when he appeared and wanted to join Leopardos. He had to be nursed back to a fighting health but when he was able he became a party leader and lead the party the Chevaliers (I did a photoset of them here).

Kei is from daybreak town and her family are the local florists (see a picture of her and her sibs here). She was the only one gifted with the power of the keyblade and felt the need to become stronger and stronger so she could protect her family - and so she joined Ursus. She’s known as a ‘party hopper’ because as soon as she thought she learned all she could from a party - or if she became the most powerful one in a party - she left in search of new challenges.

They both met Atlas via the heartsmith shop, and while kei and quest didn’t quite see eye to eye at first - Atlas was the glue that kept them together and eventually they became closer and could consider eachother friends aswell.

Leading up to the keyblade war, the one chosen to become a dandelion was Quest. He was extremely torn over it, not sure what to say or what to do. Some dandelions mentioned that it might be useful to have a heartsmith with them because ‘who knows what could happen’ so Quest asked Ava about Atlas joining. However only keyblade wielders could join - so Quest left to ask Wynter if he planned to pass his keyblade onto Atlas, if he became a wielder then he could become a dandelion.

He was explaining this to Atlas when Kei suddenly appeared and started an argument about Quest picking Atlas over her- and why she wasn’t chosen to be in this special group of wielders. This caused a huge rift between the three. Atlas became too busy with wielders flooding into the heartsmiths shop for repairs and upgrades before the war to really tackle the issue - but Kei and Quest were at odds for quite some time. Eventually they came to terms with eachother and the problem at hand -- and they both quit their unions to become heartsmiths instead.

pictured in the main photo at the bottom is sort of what directly came after that - Wynter stating his plan to freeze Atlas in time and Atlas retaliating. Quest and Kei both agreed it was for the best, and that they would do their best to become even half the heartsmith that Atlas was. But of course Atlas still wasn’t having it - and to save their friend from the war they held him down in a chair while Wynter stabbed him with the keyblade.

The two of them then had a crash course of how to be a heartsmith and not long after the war happened.

I feel like I should say it doesn’t end well for any of them.

Wynter dies before the war even begins. He uses the last of his strength from non stop weeks of working to send the heartsmith shop into the space between after Kei and Quest leave - has enough time to reach his twin sister Crystal (who is the local baker), then dies in her arms.

Kei and Quest both die on the battle field - Kei dies protecting Quest dies protecting a wielder (I’ve plotted it out with friends that he protects the player character pretty much and it’s the reason that the dandelions are able to reach them in time). Kei and Quest’s hearts however find themselves at the heartsmith shop in the space between - and for those 1000 + years, they protect Atlas.

However they get corrupted over time and become phantoms which is where the darkling like designs i made come into play. When the guardians of light reach the shop - they have to fight passed Kei and Quest to get to atlas because they’re still trying to protect Atlas even if they’ve been lost to the darkness.

Kei and Quest are freed from the darkness after they are defeated, and they stay long enough to see atlas being awoken before vanishing from sight.

So as you can tell ATLAS HAS A LOT OF FEELINGS AFTER WAKING UP/HIS TIME BEGINNING AGAIN. And I just....love his dynamic with his friends/mentor so much okay.

And as a fun fact - since trios sometimes have an object that’s related to them. Besides ribbons TM Atlas, Quest, and Kei all have actual keys and armbands that are personalized to them. Kei has a flower design on her key, Quest has a star design, and Atlas has a heart design. Wynter made these all from them - and they’re literally all keys to the heartsmtih shop. Atlas was given one at first but when it was clear how close he was to Quest and Kei, Wynter made the other two keys by hand and gave them to the two. Kei suggested the armbands and Quest found them and atlas fashioned the chains they all hang off of.

Now I’ve rambled enough about that ONTO CANON CHARACTERS.

Sadly the above picture took me forever and I don’t have the energy to draw much else but here’s a small comic I made for a friend when we were plotting things together - because of course Atlas knows Ventus and they probably have a deep connection even if Ven doesn’t remember him. Sadly I never finished this comic but maybe one day....

and honestly I could ramble for hours about how Atlas would mesh well with a lot of the canon KH characters. He’s literally a therapist, it’s his job to talk to people and help them through problems AND BOY DO WE KNOW THE CANON KH PEEPS GOT SOME TRAUMA. and he’d want to help all of them the best he could. I can see him and Riku getting close especially. And he would definitely want to talk with Aqua after all of her time in the realm of darkness.

as a small bonus have the first picture I ever drew of the ribbon trio+ wynter together! Their designs haven’t changed much since this - aside from a few small things. I think the major things that changed is that atlas doesn’t wear his glasses on a normal basis and both Quest’s and Wynter’s hair is longer.

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khdiscussions · 5 years

Text

Sleeping Realms Theory Rebuttal

Somebody was kind enough to leave some SparkNotes, so let’s get started on discussing the Sleeping Realms theory since I still don’t really have the time to read it. Might as well.

Since this is based on SparkNotes, I might be missing several key pieces of evidence, feel free to discuss my agreements and disagreements, maybe prove me wrong, now that I have some idea I’m at least more open to discussion.

Edit: Read the Liveblog here now that I have read it.

The guardians died in the real timeline, which we all saw

No comment. Definitely happened in KH3. Nothing to say.

Xehanort succeeded using princesses (and thus Kairi) so Kairi survived and used her power to keep Sora together in the afterlife (which we saw)

So far you got me on this. Didn’t know this needed clarifying but the Final World stuff was a bit ??? confusing.

Sora, from the afterlife, got everyone together and brought them not to life, but to The Sleeping Worlds, cause death and sleep touch.

Okay so now you’ve lost me for a few reasons. While yes it is the case that sleep and death touch (Re: Chirithy) I don’t necessarily think that’s what happened. In order to be in the Realm of Sleep, a world must have fallen to Darkness, not just one, but every single world that Sora and co. visited after being revived. Since Xehanort would’ve needed to find and gather the seven new princesses and then challenged them (a task I’m sure Yen Sid would’ve made as difficult as possible by summoning and moving around the princesses) this could not be an immediate process, meaning that he would not have been able to send the worlds into the Realm of Sleep in the brief amount of time Sora spent in the Final World gathering himself up and rescuing the others from the Lich (Which would have had to have been brief because otherwise their souls would have fully passed on).

Furthermore, the Keyblade Graveyard isn’t in the Realm of Darkness yet, I know it looks pretty dark but like...it can be accessed by the Gummi Ship. As Goofy said, the Gummi Ship is only required for access to the Realm of Darkness.

The final point of question is Aqua herself. Rescuing Aqua is a huge deal in the game itself and you do it in the Realm of Darkness. The Realm of Darkness cannot be accessed in the Realm of Sleep because the location cannot fall into the Realm of Sleep It doesn’t make sense for them to be able to go there to rescue Aqua if she’s in the Realm of Sleep. Which I guess wouldn’t be necessary if they only come back in the Keyblade Graveyard, but we’ll address that point later when the timing of the drop comes up.

Because Kairi is still in the real world, the Kairi we see is a dream version - it's why her hoodie has Chirithy ears.

First of all, I do not like this idea. It means we haven’t had a game that actually had Kairi in it in four games. And that’s offensive on so many levels because it means she literally doesn’t matter and no.

But even from a non shitty standpoint like that, there’s still evidence against this, in KH3, we see Kairi in her KH2 attire.

When she’s talking to Lea. Furthermore, we know her outfit was designed and given to her by the Fairies and Yen Sid. Yen Sid even tells Riku to bring the outfits they designed to Lea and Kairi in the cutscenes prior to this.

And we’ll talk about why the drop doesn’t happen in the Keyblade Graveyard later. Because yes, in technicality, the drop could have occurred in there, hell it’s hard to notice her cat ears in the outfit in the scene where her outfit is first revealed (at least in the trailer), but that’s not quite what claims the theory is making.

Riku "drops" early on, which is why his hair changes to his Dream Eater hairstyle.

And here’s the first conflict of interest. I’ll compare the renders in a minute, but if we assume Riku drops before the scene he interacts with Sora (which he does, he has the haircut very early on) then that means he should already be in the Realm of Sleep when Kairi has not yet received her new outfit. In fact, we should never see KH2 Kairi design in the same timeframe as KH3 Riku if this were the case, but we do. Furthermore, the drop occurs in the Realm of Darkness, is again physically impossible based on how the Realm of Darkness and Realm of Sleep respectively work. Worlds in the Realm of Sleep are not in the Realm of Darkness, therefore those in the Realm of Sleep cannot visit the Realm of Darkness and can certainly not visit the Realm of Darkness. As for the renders:

The hairstyles are similar, but not identical. There are minor differences but they’re close enough I’d call it the point. However:

Riku’s hair in KH3D looks almost identical to his nonsleeping self’s version, showing it’s more likely it’s just the transference of the short hair onto the KH1 era RIku model.

Anyways model references aside, there’s one other huge flaw with Riku dropping at this moment and that’s how? We watch Riku die in what would likely be “Alpha Timeline” or an exact replica of Alpha Timeline, so if that’s the case, how do we have Riku dropping in the Realm of Sleep for the Beta timeline. It shouldn’t at all be possible, given that Riku is one of the people Sora rescued, or alternatively, the Alpha Timeline Riku never showed up in the Keyblade Graveyard, so who’s the seven lights. Given that they must be Keyblade Wielders, they’d only have six of seven (Sora, Kairi, Lea, Mickey, Aqua, and Ven) and so they wouldn’t have approached the Keyblade Graveyard in the first place.

We also see Riku in his KH3 hairstyle in the ending, which implies we’re still in the Realm of Sleep. So if that’s the case, does it even matter if we aren’t in the Alpha Timeline if the happy ending’s only in the Beta Timeline. Which for the record this would also imply that Xehanort is still out there in the Alpha Timeline (aka the real timeline) and make the claim that this is the end of the Xehanort Saga directly false. Which also means we’d never see the real Kairi ever again which again, is incredibly shitty way to treat the female member of the Destiny Trio. A lot of really bad implications for how the series would continue, even if it doesn’t bring up the problems in general with a “It took place in a dream” theory. Don’t like.

Everything after Kingdom Hearts II.9 is when the drop occurs, and when real selves land in the dream world.

This is my biggest (well one of my biggest) issue in the theory. The timing of the drop. If the theory were presenting the drop happened in the Keyblade Graveyard, I would one hundred percent agree with it. Because there’s a lot of weird elements, but we have several things to run against this in earlier evidence. Which on that note.

This scene here is when the game shows the KH3 logo, meaning KH2.9 is over and KH3 has officially begun. (Please ignore commentary finding resources is not easy for this.) This scene happens before we see Kairi in her KH2 outfit, meaning that scene takes place in Kingdom Hearts III, not Kingdom Hearts II.9. If it’s in Kingdom Hearts III, then that means the scene takes place after the drop, meaning we should only be seeing Kairi with Chirithy ears on her hoodie after the scene. But we see the KH2 design.

Furthermore, Sora and co. visit the Realm of Darkness several times, which should 200% be impossible if they’re travelling sleeping worlds, as it’s a world that cannot enter into the Realm of Sleep and be a sleeping world.

Finally, why is Xehanort sending his Org Members? It’s one thing in KH3D, that’s a part of the plan in 3D, but by this point in the theory, there’s no reason for it. Xehanort can just use his backup plan and win, what Sora and co. are doing in the sleeping worlds literally does not matter, but in the sleeping worlds, characters who are there as echoes of the world and not actually residents of them don’t talk, as seen with the odd Riku who never talks or does anything. Just silently fills the roll and leaves.

(In hindsight, it’s also possible this could be a time travelling Rikunort. This Riku’s purpose is still unclear)

Regardless of the above note, the Organization XIII members are actually there, and there would be absolutely no reasoning for it if Xehanort had already won.

It's not so much "everything is a dream" as it is "KH3 is just KHUX." Because everyone forgot the destruction of the real world and is living in a copy

This is my other big area of issue because it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of KHUx. KHUx does not take place in the Realm of Sleep, while there can be an argument for it, we have seen through the creation of the first Chirithy in KH Backcover (Which is not a dream) that Dreameaters do not only spawn in the Realm of Sleep.

Meanwhile, there is much more evidence that KHUx takes place within the Datascape or something similar. “Darkness”, in his conversation with Maleficent, mentions that the worlds are made of data. Brain, in his traitor reveal, calls himself the “Virus that will rewrite destiny” which is an allegory more fitting towards data. Finally, in the most recent KHUx update, we see glitches in the system, manifesting in phantom Strelitzia (In the Brain traitor video), a staticy conversation between Ava and the MoM, and the appearance of Bug Blox, which are synonymous with errors and darkness in data.

But in order to be in a Datascape, somebody has to open up a path first. And even then, it destroys huge elements of this theory.

Young Xehanort knows, and that's why he's all, "You're doing it again" with Sora during the Lich fight

No, that’s not it. Young Xehanort is specifically referencing KH3D, when Sora’s willingness and desire to help his friends led him to drive his heart deeper and deeper into the darkness to the point of him nearly being norted.

With different final results, that’s exactly what Sora is doing now.

It wouldn't invalidate the events as much as recontextualize them - there's more behind the scenes, but just because we're seeing dream versions of events doesn't mean they didn't happen

This shows a fundamental lack of understanding in how the Realm of Sleep works, but the long and the short is yes, it still does.

The Realm of Sleep holds records of events as they happened, yes that is true, but that only holds true to the worlds leading up to the Keyblade Graveyard.

In order for this theory to be true, while the events of the Alpha Timeline may have played out similarly to the events of the Beta Timeline, they would need to still be in the Realm of Sleep after Sora saved them from the Lich, otherwise the Beta Timeline literally does not matter since the events of the Keyblade Graveyard occurred in the Alpha Timeline too. So while some scenes are largely unaffected, any scene after the Lich rescue did not actually happen in reality because again, Xehanort would be an idiot to enter into the Realm of Sleep after Sora when he won since Sora does not matter to the grand scheme of his plan since the new seven Princesses work just as well. This means the Sea Salt Trio and Wayfinder Trio never reunited and makes not only the scenes we did get absolutely useless, it takes away the emotional weight of these scenes in the future because we’ve already seen them and feels like a waste of time. It would remove all investment in their future arcs (or leave them dead and that’s even worse tbqh) and if I’m not invested in these characters, why should I keep going when they make up a majority of the important cast? It would drive away fans (myself included) by the boatload and is a terrible idea.

It explains a lot of things like Kairi's murder not releasing a heart, why Kingdom Hearts is the wrong color, why Roxas can still wield two keyblades with only one hearts, etc.

Kairi’s murder not releasing a heart is not the first in the series to do that. Sora’s in KH1′s does not when he stabs himself to save Kairi, and neither does Eraqus’s death. If we are to believe she wasn’t actually killed, it would be a much more simple explanation to assume she was a replica than to assume she’s a Chirithy.

As for Kingdom Hearts, it’s not the wrong color. Of the games we see it in, KH1 (box art), KH2, Days, and KH3 all show Kingdom Hearts as orange/yellow. Only BBS shows it as blue as far as I am aware (I can’t remember if it shows up in KHX. I don’t think it does but?) so therefore you can’t really make that argument.

Roxas being in the Realm of Sleep would have absolutely no effect on Roxas’s ability to dual wield without two hearts in him.

So at the end of the day, the theory as a whole explains very little and what it does can be explained more simply, unless these portions are explained separately from the “It’s all a dream” concept it wants to sell.

So the conclusion in all this? The Sleeping Realms theory is a theory that seems to cherry pick evidence to reach a conclusion and while it proposes some ideas that others might find interesting, it throws out an idea without fully taking into account how some of the ideas thrown out might outright disprove later parts. It’s fairly contradictory to itself while ignoring the idea of Occam’s Razor and character motivations as well as how the two timelines interact properly. That being said, it could very well have had some truth if, instead of trying to apply to the whole game, it focused only on the last portion of the game (Keyblade Graveyard and beyond), though if it were to become canon I still think it would drive me from the series.

Why are people declaring this as what actually happened again?

#Kingdom Hearts #KH3 #Kingdom Hearts III #kh3 spoilers #So yeah I really don't think this theory was made for me sorry for all of you who like it

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365daysofsasuhina · 5 years

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[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day Two Hundred Thirty-Two: Slumlord ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: Divine Light ] [ AO3 Link ]

Not all of their journey is so glamorous. Though a great deal of it is spent on the road, camping off on bedrolls on whatever dry, even ground they can find, the group occasionally makes their way through towns. Inns are a welcome respite, but cost a pretty penny in turn. The better the conditions, the more expensive their stays. And eventually, their coin purses start to feel a bit...light. Work while on the move is difficult to find, let alone that which pays well enough to make it worth their while to stop.

So when the group decides even the cheapest of the inns of their latest towns is too much to pay for, they weigh their options.

“We could just keep going through town and camp off the roadside,” Sasuke offers, looking unbothered. “What’s the difference?”

The light mage, however, protests. A night in a proper bed is a relief for Itachi, and helps make it all the easier for her to keep him healthy as they make their way to the capital.

“Is there a...cheaper part of town…?” Hinata asks.

“None that’s likely both in our price range, and safe,” Sasuke mutters. “Heading into the slums is just asking for trouble. Sure, we could probably handle it given our ven, but I’d rather not take the chance.”

“Well...maybe we could just ride through? Scope things out?”

He sighs. In truth, he knows it won’t be worth it. Sleeping somewhere rat and flea-infested won’t be the restful night of sleep the light mage is thinking of. “...all right, fine. We’ll ride through. But do not get off your horse. Be ready to bolt if anyone gives the word. It’s not safe.”

The rest of the group nods gravely, keeping astride their mounts as they head to the western edge of the city. As they leave the brightly-lit main thoroughfare behind...it becomes clear Sasuke knew exactly what he spoke of.

The streets begin to narrow, cobblestone quickly abandoned for dirt with deep ruts from carts. Buildings almost seem to loom forward over the roadways, dirty and dark with many a broken, boarded window. Sallow-faced people look to them with a mix of fear, suspicion, and yet a glimmer of greed.

Hinata can’t help but keep a bit of ven at her fingertips.

They do eventually come upon an inn, but just one look tells them it’s hardly a place they should consent to. Like the other structures, it clearly lacks in upkeep and repair. A few beggars sit along the front, dressed in rags and rattling their tin cups for alms.

“So, believe me now?” Sasuke mutters, glancing to his companions.

But before they can agree to move on, a man steps out from the inn, tailed by a few others. Looking a bit out of place, he’s dressed in far better shape than his compatriots, giving a grin that flashes a tooth of gold.

“Well well, what ‘ave we ‘ere? A few customers for me ‘umble inn?”

“Just passing through,” Sasuke bites back, clearly not in the mood for whatever this one’s scheming. “Now, if you’ll excuse us -”

“Ah, but what’s the rush? Forgive me, milord...but it’s rather clear the lot a’ you’s been on the road for quite some time! Why not take a night to freshen up ‘fore you’s back on the ol’ path, eh?”

“Forgive me, but it looks like if you want to run an inn of any repute, you’d best invest in it rather than your threads, slumlord.”

Rather than take offense, the man just lifts arms in a gesture of airy disregard. “I’ve many a’ property this side a’ town, milord. S’not an easy thing to keep up so much property! But I always do right by me patrons, yes I do.”

“I had a feeling you were the reason so much of this part of town looks rat-gnawed. You charge these folks into the gutter, and don’t invest a penny back into the places you rent them. It’s a wonder they’ve not all caught the plague living like this,” Sasuke snaps.

...at that, the man’s grin fades. “...s’no concern a’ yours how I run my business,” he growls. “If you’ve no intent on stayin’, get t’hell out.”

“I’d love to, if you’d move from the fore of my horse.”

The slumlord sneers, and for a moment everyone tenses, awaiting the breakout of conflict. But then the group steps aside, letting the traveling party pass. Nonetheless, Sasuke keeps a sharp eye on them, Hinata doing the same.

“...what a horrible man,” she murmurs once out of earshot. “How can bhe treat those people so…?”

“After the fall of the Summit, the governments of the lands fell into disarray. Much of the hard work put into structuring and regulating places like this were left to fall apart...and people like that rose to claim the pieces. It’s why it’s so important the Elemental Summit is put back into place,” the lux mage replies softly. “Without the overarching order, the scattered remnants have struggled to keep things from falling into chaos. The gap between the rich and the poor grows...and you end up with slums like this one.”

“And you’ll just magically save the world from itself, will you?” Sasuke bites back.

“It won’t be easy...but it is necessary.”

“Any change takes time,” Hinata offers, taking the healer’s side. “But that’s why the sooner we start, the sooner we can hopefully start getting things back into a more peaceful, balanced state.”

“Good luck undoing over a century’s worth of corruption.”

“Well...we have to start somewhere.”

With that, the four of them move to the markets, stocking up a bit before heading back out of town through the opposite gate. They get in a few more miles before pulling off into a copse of trees, setting up camp as is reflexive by now. As usual, Sasuke heads the effort with Hinata’s help as the healer tends to his brother.

“...did you mean what you said back there?”

“Hm?” Looking up from the fire he’s tending, Sasuke gives Hinata a glance. “...what did I say?”

“You sounded so...defeatist when we spoke about reassembling the Summit. Are you...really so jaded?”

That earns a scoff and a scowl. “...my entire life has been lived in the chaos after the Rift. My family was forced to flee when I was barely a babe when civil war broke out. We lived in seclusion from then on, separated from our kinsmen and barely allowed to show our faces in any town. Even now, crowds make me nervous. I don’t see how this many years of prejudice against our people can be overcome.”

Hinata considers that quietly for a time. “...I was displaced when a little older. I was maybe...eight? Nine? Our home was raided after my father’s work was discovered. We fled...and my mother died protecting us, holding the men after us at bay. For a while...I too was hopeless. I lived my life in secret, on my father’s estate. But then...I met you. And we started this journey. And while we’ve seen some terrible things, l-like today...we’ve also seen things that give me hope. And...now that I have it, I can’t let go of it. We have to try. Otherwise...n-nothing will ever change. After so long living the same way...I can’t go back to it. So I’ll give this my best effort...or I’ll die trying. Going back to how things were...would be a fate worse than death, to me.”

It’s Sasuke’s turn to go quiet and think. In his life, things just always seem to go wrong. The scattering of his people, the slowly-growing illness in his brother, the desperation in his family. It all feels so unfair...and so hopeless…!

...and yet...he’s here, isn’t he? Putting his faith in this healer, a near-extinct breed, to save his most precious person. If he really was hopeless...would he have come this far?

But healing one person...and healing a world...it’s not the same. This woman may be the very last of her kind. Can they really turn a tide this long-standing, this deep? It just seems...impossible.

“...well...I’ll believe it when I see it,” he concedes, wanting to let the subject rest. The whole evening has him a bit on edge, and he really just wants to sleep it off. “We’ll hardly see it done in one night.”

“No, we won’t.” Pausing, Hinata murmurs, “I’ll take first watch. Get some rest.”

“But -?”

“It’s clear you need it,” she counters gently with a smile. “I’ve some energy in me yet. Sleep.”

Sighing in acceptance, Sasuke settles atop his bedroll. Rest might not come easy, but...well, nothing really does, does it?

.oOo.

Back into the fantasy verse we go! This “series” hasn’t really had an order to it like a few others - it’s been a bit more sporadic, so apologies if it’s ever unclear. But then again, I never had much intention of making series within the series when I started, lol Sasuke is a bit of a sourpuss in this verse, but for good reason. Elves have gotten the short end of the stick for quite some time. But, with any luck (and a lot of hard work), things will change! He just needs to have a little faith! Aaanywho, that’s all for tonight! Thanks for reading n_n

#sasuhina #uchiha sasuke #hyūga hinata #divine light [ au ]#365daysofsasuhina

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sleepyfan-blog · 5 years

Note

*cackles* Okay so- some time has passed and Venus is still trying to hide from Nightmare and find where Saturn is but ends up being caught and brought to Nightmare. He could try to persuade them to join him?? But idk.

Fandom: Dreamtale AU

Characters and pairing: Venus, Saturn, Nightmare, implied dreammare

venus is made by @izzy-the-bizzy and Saturn is @capisnotonfire

Warnings: none?

Word count: 1,456

Summary: Venus and Saturn reunite and visit their dad’s statue.

When Venus had just needed to try to evade their father, it had been easier. They had been searching for weeks, trying to find Saturn, worried that their beloved younger sibling has been caught by the corrupted version of they’re loving parent. They hadn’t dared to go back to the dead remains of the tree, which had once been their wonderful home for as long as they could remember… Where currently stood their dad, Dream, turned to stone, a horrified expression on his face.

They did not dare attempt to enter any of the cities or settlements that they hid in the forest that surrounded them. Dennis did not know how many other survivors is of their world there were it, but as Nightmare hadn’t been drawn to their pain and fear, they could only assume that there were more than just themself, Saturn, and Nightmare left. They didn’t trust that any survivors wouldn’t turn them in to Nightmare - as they knew that he was trying to hunt them down.

They didn’t know why their father was chasing them, but they didn’t want to find out. They didn’t want to die - or worse yet, end up like papa, a terrified statue for all eternity. Venus was determined to find their younger sibling, Saturn. Both of their dads had said that other universes existed - so perhaps together the two of them might be able to figure out how to leave this desolate place, to find a cure for the stone-curse that had been laid on their dad…

Venus frowns as they thought that they sensed a familiar presence. They teleport behind the nearest tree, hiding a little as they see… Saturn, looking a bit worse for wear and definitely afraid. “Saturn!” They call out, rushing towards their younger sibling and hugging them tightly.

“I-Ack! V-Venus! Oh thank the stars you’re okay! I… I thought… I thought that you might have gotten captured or… Or worse.” Saturn mumbled, shaking a little bit as they hugged their older sibling back, doing their best to suppress the darker emotions that they’d been trying to deny for… Since the sky had turned red, and the grass and plants had died.

“I was worried about you as well, Sat. As soon as I got my head together, I started to look for you.” A small smile appeared on their face as they leaned into their face as they continued to hug Saturn tightly, having no intention of letting go any time soon.

“.. I was trying to find you, too, Ven…” Saturn admitted quietly, hiding their face in their older sibling’s shirt, shaking a little bit as they tried to put their feelings into words. “I… I miss papa and dad.”

“I do too.” Venus admitted quietly, hugging the other closer “I… Do you want to go visit dad? I… I mean we probably shouldn’t - father’ll have those weird shadow-guards in the village and we’d probably have to teleport in, see him for a bit and then teleport back out again… But…”

“… I really miss dad. D-Do you know why papa… Became what he is now?” Saturn asked quietly, shaking a little. He’d only seen Nightmare eat the apples and turn into the corrupted monstrosity that he was now.

“I… I was with dad, bringing groceries back to the tree… As soon as he saw the mob of villagers he made me teleport deeper into the forest. It was only when I felt the shift and heard the screaming I tried to run closer but dad teleported over to me and told me to run before going back and I…” Venus hugged their younger sibling closer, shaking a little.

“Oh… I-I saw him eat the apples and dad told me to run as far as I could so I… I did… Do you think we might have been able to calm papa down, if we’d have been there with dad?” Saturn asked - a guilty thought that had weighed heavily on their soul.

“I… I don’t know. But dad wanted us far away from what was probably going to be a really ugly fight for a reason, Saturn…” Venus pointed out quietly.

“… You’re right… And I… I want to see dad’s statue too.” the younger spirit decided with a nod.

Venus nodded silently and with a shaky breath, the two of them teleported over to the barren and desolate remains of what was once their beautiful home. Dad’s statue was a grey figure amongst a flat, black and red landscape, standing out prominently.

With a shaky breath, Venus and Saturn carefully went over to their dad, tears gathering in their eye sockets as both of the young emotive spirits tried not to break down completely. Saturn hesitated for a moment before rushing to where Dream stood, hugging him around the middle and breaking down into tears “Dad! Dad please come back! W-we miss you so much! We love you and… And it’s so a-awful without you and papa.”

Venus glanced around - they didn’t see or sense anyone around them and rushed over to their younger sibling and hugged them and the statue of their dead, tears running down their face as they murmured “Dad… We love you. We love you so much… Please come back to us… I… I have to hope that you’re still alive, just… Stuck inside there somewhere.”

The two of them cried against their dad’s statue until they had no energy left. Saturn stirred a little, wiping their eye sockets with the back of their hands and sniffled “We… We should probably get going…”

“Yes, you should. Come to your new home with me, both of you.” The warped and twisted voice of their father spoke from directly behind the two of them, causing both of the teens to yelp and scramble backwards, Saturn flailing a little as they nearly fell over. One of Nightmare’s tentacles grabbed Saturn and put them back on their feet, the appendage moving too quickly for either of them to follow.

“Aaah! P-Papa!” Venus yelped, taking a couple of steps forwards, shifting a little bit so that they were standing in front of Saturn and the statue of their dad, shifting into a defensive stance. They knew that they didn’t stand a chance against him - but maybe they could buy Saturn enough time to run away. They were afraid, but they were stubbornly determined to protect their younger sibling.

“Easy, Venus… It’s alright… Papa’s here… I can only imagine the hardships that the two of you have gone through… I’ve been frantically searching for the two of you for months. I… I’m glad to see that you’re both in one piece and whole, if not happy yet.” Nightmare murmured. His emotional aura was filled with… With concern and parental love.

No! That… That wasn’t fair… Venus was trying to figure out what to do, when Saturn peered at Nightmare from around their older sibling, shaking a little “… Papa?” Their voice was small and hopeful “… I’ve missed you…”

“I’ve missed you too, Saturn. I’ve missed both of you I love you very much.” Nightmare murmured, and both of them could feel the truth of the other’s statement.

The two of them were wary but… Hopeful. Saturn hesitated for a moment before darting around their older sibling and rushing to Nightmare, hugging the taller being around the middle, burying their face into his chest, sobbing quietly. “P-Papa!”

“Shhh… It’s okay… It’s okay… I love you very much.” Nightmare soothed, gently petting the top of the other’s skull with one of his tentacles, hugging the other back tightly, rocking them back and forth “Shhh… It’s going to be okay, Saturn. Papa’s here… I’ve had built a fancy new home, where you and Venus could live with me, if you… If you want to? I’ve missed you both so terribly…”

Saturn cried a little bit harder as he clung more tightly to their papa, nodding a little and answered softly “I… I… O-Okay, papa. I want to live with you again…”

Nightmare hummed and nodded in response, smiling a little as happiness started to fill his aura “I’m so happy to hear that, Saturn… Venus…? Do you want to stay with us?”

They didn’t know what was the better option… But Nightmare’s people had nearly caught them the last three times and… Their papa didn’t seem as lost in the darkness as he had been before… And the two of them together might be enough to help their papa turn away from the darkness and back to the light. “I… I do, papa.” They agreed quietly, smiling softly as they ran forwards and hugged their papa tightly, feeling his magic swirl around them as he teleported them off elsewhere.

#my writing #venus #saturn #nightmare #implied dreammare #dreammare

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lynxgriffin · 5 years

Text

Led Zeppelin was right all along

It’s my FINAL PIECE of KH3 commentary! That’s right, I’ve finished the game! Commentary for me finishing it is under the cut!

Okay guys, this is it

It’s time to finish this sucker

It’s time for all of my feelings to get curbstomped and then cracked in half over a knee

Turns out I’ve caught a cold so this might be tougher to do

But I’m still going to do it

AWAY. WE. GOOOOO

And after beating this gummi boss again…

Ahhh there he is at last

The old fart

…So weird that it’s not Leonard Nimoy though

Xehanort: Let’s just try out this whole apocalypse thing and see how it goes

It’s rainin’ Heartless, hallelujah

LMAO there isn’t even an enemy counter, it’s just:

ENEMIES. YES, ALL OF THEM. ALL THE TIME. FOREVER

And I just blew up ten million Heartless with a train, THIS IS THE SHINIEST APOCALYPSE EVER

Ohh, once again, hate that tunnel

IT’S A TRAP

At least Aqua didn’t fall for that

Oh dang he’s got No Name there

NOOOO SUNSHINE BOY

Oh well now that’s cheating

FUKYEAH GOOFY

Donald’s fukkin pissed

Did Donald just Megaflare this bitch

ArE yoU kiDDinG mE

Oh great, one of you again

Aqua: Never mind, that is way damn too many Heartless

HE SCREAM, AGAIN

SORA PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER WE’RE STILL EARLY IN FINAL BATTLE MODE

Well that was five different layers of OH SHIT

Oh hey back at that chess metaphor HI AGAIN YOUNG ERAQUS

Wait the hell kind of chess move was that

MEANWHILE, BACK ON THE SALT FLATS

ThE FINAL WORLD, HUH

Chirithy!!!!

Chirithy: So yeah you’ve kinda died a couple times previously just by being unconscious a lot

Sora: YEAH WELL time to get back to life

Sora: THERE’S PUZZLES IN HEAVEN, TOO??

THERE’S PUZZLES IN HEAVEN YUP, BETTER GET TO THAT

Ohhhh no the sparkly stars are KHUX Keykids, aren’t they :(((

Ugh it’s the little star soul stories that are getting to me :(

Sora bein’ a pal even to all the souls in heaven, gosh darn

OH SURE JUST KEEP THAT FROM THE AUDIENCE

OMG this soul is longing for his kismesis, what a nerd

“What a weird place” YEAH NO SHIT

Well it’s nice to see THESE Soras are having a great time

Perhaps this game was taking the idea of Sorabits a tad too literally

Also actually two quick questions here:

1) Why is Chirithy in heaven?

2) Sora were you instagramming from heaven??

Sora: So heaven’s been a trip and all but I’ve still got endgame to do, STAY COOL FUZZY FRIEND

Wait a bloop it sent him back in time too??

Insert 2001 Space Odyssey reference here

Oh now we’re in DIFFERENT heaven??

Okay yeah now I have no clue where we’re going from here

Man here I was expecting to fight all the Norts and instead it’s…Heartless…Grim Reaper

I’m starting to suspect this is not the real Jiminy

This is kind of a weird callback to KH1, innit

Yeah I was just wondering that myself

Oh hey Youngnort

See? Grim Reaper Heartless, I knew it

I gotta say that after Sora dying and going to KH heaven this is…kinda weirder coming afterwards

I’m kind of worried about where this is going

This is like Three Days of the Condor, I TRUST NO ONE

WE FINALLY GOT A TITLE CRAWL???

WHELP. ROUND TWO, I GUESS

Guys, let’s…let’s not do this again

You ever get a sense of deja vu

OHOHOHOOOOO THIS IS DIFFERENT

“WHO ARE YOU??” “I’M YOU BUT STRONGER”

Terra: I’ll kick every ass! I’ll kick your ass! I’LL KICK MY OWN ASS

Gad damn the bullshit never stops around here, does it

We’ve done this before but I DUN CARE since this is my favorite boss battle music

Meanwhile the Unreal Engine’s just huffing and puffing trying to keep up

:O!!! EPHEMER!!

WHATRE U DOIN IN A HEARTLESS TORNADO

And all the dead Keykids came to help!

Ohhhhhh myyyyyyyyy goooooooooooosh

HAHA SO THAT’S HOW THEY INTEGRATED THOSE PEOPLE THAT WON THE THING

Congrats Keykids, U ARE ATTACKS

That’s…that’s really sweet actually

That’s a whole lot of Unicornis and Vulpes in there

OMG I was so busy watching those names I didn’t even realize I was supposed to avoid dying

FINALLY CURAGA???

I dunno Lea that was already a pretty big bad

Aw darn they Norted Repliku

Or wait no Pastku?

Pastku you’re such a little shit

Lea: That wasn’t blundering! That was failing, WITH STYLE

HE LOOM

Unreal Engine: Please…help…I’m dying Squirtle

Oh hey FINALLY super powerful magic users like Yen Sid get involved!

And Moses parted the Heartless Sea

And hey finally got Starlight!

Well ain’t this a familiar setup

I miss Leonard Nimoy :(

Well I’m glad we get to save and shop before we all die horribly!

….Wait haven’t we all already died horribly??

FINALLY We get to fight some Norts!!

Took out Xigbar first

Yeah Xigbar I’m really not sure all that hoohah was worth it

Are we gonna do this for each one or do we have to pick and choose?

Oh well that takes care of Pastku so maybe not

SKIRT RIKU VS SKIRT RIKU

Oh that’s creepy actually

OH NO! Repliku :(((

Sora…you just gonna leave that…okay

So now we got some Neophytes to deal with

Well I was gonna go after Mar first but I guess Luxord is our opponent now

AW DAMN I hated this part from before!

Oh wait that wasn’t hard at all you just look behind those stupid cards

Luxord: Well it’s been fun, time to die

Why does everyone’s teeth look blue??

Really liking all these remixes of the old boss themes tho

Aaaaand down goes Mar

And what’s nice is partners have mostly worn down the last Nort present!

Larx is an asshole to the very end

Door puzzles ohhhh nooooooo

Well thank goodness we worked out that nonsense

Who to help first? REDHEAD SQUAD

If that’s Xion I’m going to be SO UPSET

At least we get to fight WITH Kairi even if not as her

Lea is SO ANGER

Ohhhhh BUUUUUURN

Oh well that ain’t good

XION NOOOOOOOOOO

Absolutely not, Xemnas!!

*throws hands in the air* OHHHHHHHH

HE KNOWS

Oh fuck you Xemnas HDU

Ohhhhh sheeeeeeet

THE BOY IS BACK

JUST STAB ME IN THE HEART WITH THE OTHER PROMISE, OKAY

Called out by Roxas daaaayum

Gah dammit not again! STOP DOING KAIRI DIRTY

GET READY FOR: TRIPLE KEYKIDS ASSKICKIN

Hot damn but it’s satisfying to beat the crap out of Saix with Sora, Roxas and Xion all at once while The Other Promise just blasts in the background

Lea: I’m not mad I’m just disappointed

Awww maaaaaan

OH GOSH SEASALT TRIO HUG

THEY’RE ALL TOGETHER AGAIN SOB SOB

Now to the Wayfinder family! Took out Vanyeetas first!

Sora: Hey WTF that’s my face you got

Yeah I gotta agree I don’t know which part of that was okay honestly

WHELP no time to think on it gotta take out Terranort

Since we got back Roxas and Xion can we finally get Terra back??

Sora: TERRA PLEASE STOP, IT’S TOO WEIRD

OHHHHHHH!! OH OH OH

That was metal as all hell

YAAAAAAY

WAYFINDER FAMILY IS HERE

Ohhhh gooooosh

Everyone’s together and I’m full of rainbows

MAN so we got…three Norts left, don’t we

Guess the only way out of this is up

What we’ve just been cloning No Name the whole time??

Okay, FOUR left, we gotta deal with Ansem, Xemnas and Youngnort first

Oh sheesh that was Youngnort dying, thought it was me for a second

Youngnort: Just one last piece of cryptic bullshit to leave you with! BYYYYEEEE

Aaaand that’s Ansem down

Ansem: Must…pontificate more…before…I die

Haha took out Xemnas with flying rocket punch nanobots

Xemnas: Regrets…I’ve had a few…

But then again, too few to mention?

Sora: Life is pain, Xemnas! Anyone who says otherwise is Norting you

Oh boy oh boy, all we have left now is…the old fart…

Oh this is gonna piss me off good, ain’t it

YUP, I’M PISSED

YOU DONE HER DIRTY AGAIN

Nomura do we need to sit you down as a group and learn you some things about NOT DOING THAT

That was…kind of a cool moment I guess?? BUT I’M STILL MAD

Oh shitcakes

The world to come is death from above I guess

Donald and Goofy just coming in like “Hey…what’d we miss?”

I’m honestly really glad they’re here tho, TRINITY ALLLLL THE WAY

The whole gang here together again IRONING OUT THE PLOT POINTS

Trophy here???

OH HEY WE’RE BACK HERE

A town of nothing but Norts

OH I forgot THESE WEIRDOS were in trailers somehow

The hell is happening anymore

An Organization so nice we fought ‘em twice!

The scary music is playing but I have no clue where to goooo

Well it took me five minutes just to find the dang guys before Thundaga finished them off

Oh really now!

ONE MORE TITLE CRAWL FOR Y’ALL

HE WAS AN ANGRY GOAT WHO SAW THE MOVIE INCEPTION ALL ALONG

SHEESH that was a nutty battle that took awhile

Well I think I won THAT battle anyway

Is this gonna be a THAT WASN’T EVEN MY FINAL FORM or what

More callbacks!

This is the fight that never eeeeends, yes it goes on and on my frieeeends

OH that was fuckin weird but COOL

I LOVE THE TRINITY

EVERYONE ELSE AGAIN TOO

HAHA OH DAMN

EVEN ERAQUS GETS TO REAPPEAR

Yaaay my favorite terrible dad

That look from Eraqus OMG

Babbeh Eraqus so cute

Now YOU get the goofy apocalypse weapon, Sora!

More dad reconciliations sob

Oh gosh I’m so glad we get this before we end

ohhhh noooo

Oh no you know shit’s serious when you enter a blocked scene

DOES EVERYONE FINALLY GET TO GO HOME NOW

Man everything’s just so shiny now

A CHIRITHY FOUND A VEN

NEW OUTFITS FOR SEASALT GANG FINALLY

THE EXPANDED SEASALT GANG

YAAAY NAMINE BACK

LET HER LIVE HER LIFE NOW

MOTHAFOCKIN BEACH PARTY FOR EVERYONE YES

FOR REALLY EVERYONE FOR REAL??

Also dang sing us out Utada

*points and points* THAT? FINAL SHOT???

WHERE’S THE BOY

What did you do to my son Nomura

LOOK IF YOU’RE GONNA POP HIM OUT LIKE THAT I AT LEAST WANT TO BE VALIDATED FOR MY THEORIES

THE CREDITS ARE ROLLING AND THERE’S STILL THINGS I FEEL LIKE I’M MISSING

Also just interjecting here but damn that endgame was so long IT FELT LIKE A WHOLE ‘NOTHER GAME

And now the pretty march music with the Super Longer Credits—I CAN’T BELIEVE DRAKE BELL WAS YOUNG ERAQUS

*points* WHY IS FURRY SQUAD VOICED HERE??

Well if nothing else gonna get me a kickass OST out of this

HERE we go, post credits stuff

Here’s the Furry Squad!

LUXU WAS XIGBAR WELL OKAY

What fresh bullshit is thiiiiiiis

OH HEY WE’D ALMOST FORGOTTEN ABOUT THEM

Hey where is Ava

Oh fuuuuuck yoooou Luxugbar

Whaaaaaaaat

THE BOY

SHIBUYA????????????

*throws hands in the air* I GOT NOTHIN FOLKS

I GOT ABSOLUTELY NOTHIN

THE END PAGE!!!! SURE AS HELL IS WHAT THAT IS

OKAY SO LIKE

PLEASE, HELP ME OUT HERE, SECRET ENDING

IS THE NEXT GAME JUST GONNA STRAIGHT UP BE VERUM REX?

NOPE THERE IS NOTHING MORE THAT’S JUST IT

WELL THAT WAS

A WHOLE DAMN LOT WASN’T IT

Nomura I am in fact going to die and go to your house and haunt it and push all of your things off shelves like a cat

ALL OF THE THINGS

OFF OF. YOUR SHELVES.

Okay so overall I did really enjoy the game but also I’m just ????

?????????

??????

Like my reaction is pretty much just

LATER NERDS THIS HAS BEEN LYNX SUFFERS THROUGH KINGDOM HEARTS 3

I HOPE YOU HAD FUN CAUSE I DID

I think I’m gonna go lie down now

#kingdom hearts spoilers #kh3 spoilers #lynx plays kh3 #lynx suffers for your entertainment #??????????????

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