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dutchforstrangers · 6 months

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Taishirokoura x possibilities - "What if" pt. 3

For @taikouvember 2023 - Day 2: Past, Present & Future + Day 6: Brave Knowledge, Unexpected Impulsive Love & Curious Courage

[0. Author's note] [1. Koushiro] [2. Sora] [3. Taichi] [4. Taikoura]

Taikoura | Genre: Young oblivious romance, mild fear | Characters: Taichi Yagami (POV), Mimi Tachikawa | Wordcount: 696

Yeah, when I get to the end of my life I wanna know that I Used my time So what if I fall Straight out of the sky Would I rather look back and wonder Or know that I actually tried?

Pt 3. Taichi

“I don’t know Mimi…” He said.

“Just do it, Taichi-san, live a little!” She returned.

Mimi stood behind him like a coach cheering him on to dive in the water and swim his fastest lap yet, while he was afraid, on the verge of another panic attack. His starting-block was the door he stood in front of, his right hand nervously on top of the doorknob. Taichi felt like chickening out, his mood rather gloomy opposed from Mimi’s never ending lively energy.

He had been trying to get to her level of positivity. It was what he needed, otherwise he would have never asked her to come over and hype him up. Asking someone over –especially Mimi— was something he usually wouldn’t do, but in this case, for this goal, when desperate times called for desperate measures, it felt like the only right thing to do to keep him on track.

“It feels more like dying.”

He had kind of lost the track though.

“Ugh, always the negativity, doubt and drama with you,” Mimi said, annoyance seeping through. He heard her coming closer, so Taichi let go of the doorknob and turned around to look at her, knowing he would get another motivational speech from her.

“Look, what else do you wanna do? Wait for them to come first? Because if you do that, I bet you’ll be waiting for eternity to pass. Try to see the future, be curious, jump right into it! I’m convinced you’ll have all the beauty of this romance, but only when you simply get off that scared ass of yours and tell them how you feel!”

“But I don’t know what I feel!” Taichi belted out sounding like singing a bad love song.

Mimi crossed her arms, raising one eyebrow and giving him a grin to provoke him once more. “Is that so?”

“I… God damnit Mimi.”

Taichi sighed, eyes falling to the ground, his own confusion making him feel sick. He hated it when she was right, it drove him insane. Through his confusion, he knew exactly how he felt. For once in his live he knew what he wanted to chase. And it was now or never, with never not being one of the options. However, the idea of going face down, jumping into an empty swimming pool, people laughing in his face about his failure…

“You’re afraid.”

Thank God Mimi was here to word his feelings. She made it sound so easy.

“Yes.” He said as he straightened himself a little. He inhaled and looked straight back at her. “Yes I am.”

Mimi nodded silently, thinking hard on what motivation she was going to give him next. What kind of analogy would work best. “So what if you fall? Just like that. Poof. Straight out of the sky.”

“I actually die.”

“Taichi-san! Focus!” Mimi snapped back, playfully slapping his arm but meaning it with all its force all the same.

“Okay okay!” Taichi cried. He thought about what she said, because what would happen if he fell…

“I will never get what I want.” Taichi concluded out loud.

“Ten points!” Mimi exclaimed in response. “Now, what would happen if you make that jump, but instead of falling, you fly?”

His eyes grew big, heart pounding in his chest as he let that idea run through his mind for a moment. What he saw were all the possibilities, all the wonderful and loving outcomes it could bring him. Bring them. Sure, it wouldn’t be easy. Who the actual f would consider such a romance like that in traditional Japan? But all he saw was the beauty and he remembered why he had asked Mimi to hype him up and go after what he had been curious about for years now.

“That would actually be amazing,” he fondly spoke, a bright smile appearing again.

“Mmhm!” Mimi’s excitement for him, for them, was beyond everything and Taichi felt incredibly thankful. “And i—”

“ –if I don’t jump at all, I will wonder forever.” He finished for her, his courage flooding back to him thanks to her. “I see what you’re trying to do here.”

“Heh. Now go get them!”

#taikouvember2023 #taikouvember #taikoura #digimon fanfiction #digimon #taishiro #koura #taiora #taichi yagami #mimi tachikawa

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chibi-tsukiko · 2 years

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Since I was thinking about my darling babes as parents (Everard best dad) I was wondering how do you see the W&D gang as parents.

Do they want kids? Would they raise them well? Would they be good at it?

How would they handle children?

I’m curious 🙊

Ok ok ok ok but I LOVE THIS QUESTION SO FREAKING MUCH!!! Akdkdksks

Also, “Everard Best Dad” �� facts.

Now let’s unpack this cuz I have THOUGHTS!

Uma is not a fan of children. She does not enjoy being around them and is not afraid to say it. But that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t protect a child if she saw them in trouble. But don’t look to Uma if you want someone “nurturing” 😂

🌟 kid- 😃 Uma- 😒

Astraea likes children and I think she would be a very kind and gentle mother. I think her children would have very strong morals and learn a lot of things about the world.

Kai- Aris is very child-like himself so I think he would be good with kids in that aspect, but I also think they would perplex him and a lot of chaos would ensue if he was like babysitting 😂. As a Dad though, I see Kai-Aris as being a loving, but somewhat aloof father.

Myya, having grown up in an orphanage has a good handle on kids. She’d definitely be a great go-to for hands-on activities and be an amazing caretaker. She doesn’t necessarily have any intentions of having one of her own, but she acts as like the aunt/big sis to children in her own village.

🌟 I think her and Kai-Aris would make for chaotic parents with a fierce love for their children.

Takashi is fairly good with kids, despite not ever being around them. I think he would make an incredible father. He has a lot of reservations about having his own kids because of the generational trauma and he fears (as he often does) that he will fail or not be good enough. But I believe this is where Takashi gets his strength from, this doubt, and therefore would truly be the best Dad.

Hein grew up surrounded by kids on the island and helped care for them. His quiet temperament helps children feel calm and safe around him. He’s never thought of having his own kids, not just because of his orientation, but because as an Essence, that kind of future doesn’t exist. But I think Hein would be the cutest Dad. Just so freaking precious.

🌟 Hein & Takashi would be the best Dads omg. Like Hein all sweet and gentle with Takashi, fun and adventurous aksjskksn ah

Ishida, I don’t think it comes to anyones surprise that Ishida is naturally amazing with kids. He raised his baby sister and took Myya in. He’s got it down. He’s also like a natural kid magnet. Children are drawn to him for his compassionate and nurturing nature. Ishida himself also loves kids, even if they remind him of Sora which can be painful, he loves them. But he doesn’t really see himself being a parent because he doesn’t think anyone would want to be a parent with him. Like that anyone would want that kind of life with him.

Ryuji may surprise you. Despite is grumpy exterior and how he acts like he doesn’t like children, he’s actually great with them. They help bring out his gentle side and that’s always a huge plus. Ryuji is also a fierce and loyal protector and that comes out even more when kids are involved. He’s also always dreamed of having a family of his own (tho he’d never admit to it). I think Ryuji would be an incredible father.

🌟 Ishida and Ryuji are the “how many kids are too many?” Parents. Like they don’t set out to really have their own, but any orphan/stray they come across is like BOOM this is our child now. And I love that for them. They both have such big hearts and I think they would make incredible parents.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS ASK!! I’m tagging some W&D peeps cuz this is the perfect subject to get us ready for today’s W&D post 🥰

Tag list : @phoenix-and-dragon @khaleesiofalicante @my-archerboy @clumsyowl-in-a-fandom @radisv @raziyekroos @magnus-the-maqnificent @spotsandclawsthings @sassybookworm2020 @shadowhuntingdemigod-blog @elettralightwood @high-warlock-of-brooklyn

#🐢 mf #wretched and divine q&a #wretched and divine #myya #uma #kai aris #astraea #ishida tetsui #ryuji zenko #takashi han #hein #emmysoc #emsaskbox

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hinagamoizaf · 2 years

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Hikari Week Day 4 : Friends and Family

Fanfic Title : She moves the same way stars dance in the night Rating : Teen & Up Tags & Themes : Royalty & Princess AU, Nobility AU, Star-crossed Lovers, Reincarnation AU, Arranged Marriage, Childhood Friends to Lovers Characters : Princess Hikari Yagami, Lord Yamato Ishida, Lady Miyako Inoue, Crown Prince Taichi Yagami, Sir Koushiro Izumi Relationship(s) : Yakari/Yamakari Status : On-going, Chapter 9/? Chapter 9: Two ends of the same thread On opposite ends of the same dining table, but I can’t stomach the meal laid out before me, and he shows no signs of eating either. “I’m sure you’ve worked up an appetite,” Count Ishida comments, “ Princess .” From him, it sounds insincere. “It’s safe to eat,” he insists. “I don’t doubt that,” I remark, “Because if you had poisoned me, that would foil your plans.”When I stare long enough at the table, I can make out harsh carvings and indents made. It doesn't take long for me to realise dried blood has been spilled here, but it's been so long that it blends in with the wood and dark hues. I rise from my seat, the painfully awkward sound of my chair moving fills the empty yet elaborate room. Count Ishida’s ocean-blue eyes follow me as I approach the floor-to-ceiling window, focusing on the cloudy night. “You’re not afraid of me?” he asks. “What reason do I need to be afraid of you?” I question back. “You know the kind of monster I am. If the fables continue in your generation, you know what I can do.” All this time, I’ve been watching my reflection in the window. As the fables say, his reflection doesn’t appear next to mine. “But that’s the key word, Count, ‘can’,” I face him once more, and I meet the vampire who shares the face and name of my Lord Ishida. “And I know in any lifetime we’re in, the only way Yamato can strike fear into me is by staying true to his position as a nobleman of the Ishida family .” Count Ishida gets up from his own seat, making his way toward me. The bats that have been hanging above us flutter wildly about, the wolf and cat nestled near the fireplace open their glowing eyes. Count Ishida stretches out his arm, his hand cupping my face. Just as his fingers curl and I sigh into his grip, I shut my eyes. When I open them, I find Lord Ishida watching over me with worried eyes. I look around us, we’re back in the forest with our blades laid down and our horses tied to tree trunks. “Lord Ishida,” I say first, smiling tenderly at him. My hand reaches for his, locking our fingers and bringing them away from my face. “Your Highness,what can I do for you?” he asks with utmost remorse, as if he had a hand in what just happened. My arm drops with our joint hands still connected, composing myself as the wind carries with it dead leaves and the whispers of the coming night. “Tell my brother the three of us are having dinner tonight. The jousting tournament for Prince Sora’s ‘entertainment’ will have another participant.” (Late Evening) “Hikari’s right,” my brother swings his butter knife around, “Quit your job as the sword-training mentor and polish up on your culinary skills.” “Then who are you going to show off during the jousting tournament?” Lord Ishida retorts, reaching over to lower Taichi’s swinging hand, “You’ll poke someone’s eye out.” “All the more reason for me to join the tournament,” I jest while closing my eyes, tired from today’s events. When I open them once more, I find another fork slowly reaching for my plate. I swab my brother’s hand away. “You’ve had your share of potatoes,” I scold. “What kind of princess and nobleman bullies their future king?” Taichi grumbles. “If you can’t behave at the dinner table, I fear for our country’s future,” Lord Ishida gives in and shares the remainder of his potatoes with my brother. “Your Highness,” Lady Miyako calls from the other end of the room, completely ignoring the daggers Lord Ishida is throwing at her, “A man is asking for an audience with you.” “Can it wait?” I ask with gentle eyes, signaling with them. She simply gestures with her palm up, and waves at the corridor. “Her Highness will finish her meal first,” Lord Ishida insists, I lower my hand beneath the table and find his shaking fist. “I’ll be done quickly,” I promise, and our dinner plans are cut short. As I excuse myself and am being escorted out of the room, I faintly hear my brother whisper to Lord Ishida. “It’s going to be worse when she’s actually married,” he says with regret. Even if he’s the Crown Prince, I know it wasn’t Taichi’s first choice to marry me off. We find ourselves back in my brother’s study, with Prince Sora’s visiting attendee standing upright and with a smile. Continue reading the full fic on AO3!

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ololyzo · 2 years

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All the Kingdom Hearts Openings (In English) Are From Riku's Perspective

Ok so listen, I'm sure a ton of people have done analysis on how all the songs are about Soriku but I don't want to go looking for it and I want to add to the mess. So here are my thoughts and sorry if you've read it all before.

I'm only going to be talking about the English versions of each song because they're the ones I grew up with and Utada Hikaru is fluent in English. There's no way they didn't know what they were doing when they were writing the English lyrics, especially knowing that this was for a project as big as a Square/Disney collab.

Simple and Clean is a song about young love. Baby's first love. And the "I" in this song has always read as Riku to me because they're clearly the more mature/older one in the relationship. There's the "you" (Sora) that the "I" is in love with who is really concerned about proving themself (like being the strongest) and making grand gestures (paopu fruit) and ultimately isn't really listening when the "I" tells them that they just want someone to love them.

There's also the repeated phrase "Hold me. Whatever lies beyond this morning is a little later on." In KH1, Riku hadn't done his whole character arc and walked towards Dawn yet. KH1 is all about him being in the darkness/walking through the night without knowing the future ahead of him and wanting Sora to be with him through it.

And lastly the repeated phrase "Regardless of warnings the future doesn't scare me at all. Nothing's like before." Riku's entire introduction to us on Destiny Islands was about him wanting radical change to his life and not being afraid to make the jump to the point of arrogance and recklessness. He even says exactly this before he gets taken by the darkness on the beach: "Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!"

So yes, Simple and Clean is about Riku's perspective on his relationship with Sora during KH1.

Next there's Sanctuary which is a song about finding solace in someone. A person that you feel safe and fulfilled around. The energy of this song always felt to me like an older teen vibe. When you're in those last years of high school and you've had a sweetheart for a while now and they're the entire world to you and everything else just falls away when you're with them.

This song is, again, a reflection of a relationship (with Sora) from Riku's perspective and it shows in the lyrics.

"My sanctuary, my sanctuary, where fears and lies melt away." Riku's entire narrative pre-KH2 revolves around power and fear seducing him to the dark and then ultimately it's acceptance of his own flaws and his ability to accept love and support from others that allows him to fight back. Riku is also a character (much like Terra) that, unlike most other characters in Kingdom Hearts, is directly impacted by lying and is seen lying himself. You see this when Maleficent lies to Riku about basically everything, when Ansem promises power to Riku at the cost of his bodily autonomy, when Riku lies to Sora about Kairi, and lies to himself about his own fears and wants. Oh, and there's that whole nonsense that Riku does with the blindfold in KH2 where "His eyes don't lie" so he has to cover them up. All this to say that Riku has a complicated relationship with honesty and Sora has been shown to be someone that Riku consistently cannot lie to for sustained periods of time. The boy buckles fast when it comes to Sora and when he does, it always seems like Riku feels relief when he can be honest, especially to Sora.

"Music will tie what's left of me. What's left of me?" Dream Drop Distance. Enough said.

"(I need more affection than you know)" Yeah, Riku acts real tough and hides all his emotions under a lot of subterfuge and repression but let's be real.

"I watch you fast asleep. All I fear means nothing." Riku dutifully protects Sora while he sleeps for a year. Let's just acknowledge that for a second. He voluntarily protected Sora and basically put himself in isolation for a year. He took on the power of darkness, the thing that consumed him in the past, and learned how to use it all so that he can protect Sora while he sleeps (and when he's awake too).

“My heart's a battleground” Riku 1v1ing Ansem in his heart.

"You show me how to see that nothing is whole and nothing is broken" This line is more of a stretch and not quite as directly evidenced, but my interpretation of it comes from the fact that Riku is a really serious dude. He takes everything seriously and in the first few games, he exhibits a lot of rigid, all-or-nothing thinking (ie: "We have to completely leave home on a raft even though we're only teenagers in order to have any sense of adventure in our lives." Or "If I see Sora with new friends, then he's completely replaced me." Or even "Sora wants to save Kairi so I have to sacrifice myself in order to help him do so.").

On the complete opposite hand, Sora doesn't think that way, he's very chill and believes that rules are just guidelines rather than set in stone. He has this incredibly stubborn, optimistic belief that reality will bend to his will (and fuck it, it totally does) so that everything will work out if he tries his best. He makes statements like how even if he completely forgets someone, they're still friends, he wants to save everyone rather than just one person, he goes running into a fight with a wooden sword and shouts "My friends are my power!". He has shounen protagonist syndrome. But in being this way, he's able to do things that not everyone can, such as radically accepting Riku for who he is and forgiving him for doing the bad things he did in KH1. He goes with the flow, takes the hits as they come, and then adjusts. He's flexible in a weird way! He doesn't see the world in absolutes, but instead in its potential for connection and change (I know this changes in KH3, but for the purposes of this song, I'm just using his character traits up until KH2). It's only after Sora shows Riku that he doesn't have to follow the rules, that Riku is able to start learning to compromise or break rules for himself like using both Darkness and Light and taking the path towards Dawn.

As a side, there’s also an interview where Nomura confirms that Passion (the Japanese version of Sanctuary) is actually about Sora and Riku’s reunion. So I don’t feel like this song in particular being about Riku isn’t that much of a stretch.

Finally there's Don't Think Twice. We all know that this song is about wanting to marry someone, about the "I" (Riku) encouraging/pleading with the "you" (Sora) to believe in themself and the relationship.

"How did I live in a kingdom of thieves, And people who say things they don't really mean" is a reference to Riku and his time pretending to be Ansem/wearing the Organization coat and again: Riku’s complicated relationship with honesty.

"You're only everything I ever dreamed, Ever dreamed of" Throughout the series, we see a lot of Sora in states of sleep and dreams. We get to see what Sora's dreams are, and they're generally about his friends and parallel what's happened in the story up until that point. However, we don't get to see Riku in states of sleep or dreaming, except for in DDD where Riku literally falls asleep and then Sora wakes up into his dream and vice versa. Also Riku being Sora's Dream Eater to protect him from nightmares… Dreams are thematically the thing that links Riku and Sora.

"You must be kidding me, did you really think I could say no" Riku is a simp and he's wrapped around Sora's finger.

"I want you for a lifetime, So if you're gonna think twice, baby I don't wanna know" Riku identifies Sora as his "most important person" during his childhood and then follows through by loyally protecting him from that point on. And like I mentioned before, Riku actually had a lot of trouble with the idea of Sora making other friends in KH1 and had to deal with a lot of jealousy and insecurity around the relationship not being as important to Sora! Sora's heart is literally shared by multiple people, so this is me interpreting the "I don't wanna knows" as Riku still needing to accept that, while he's always going to be 100% devoted to Sora, Sora is never going to be able to do that for him.

"If you want to take it to an even higher level, All you gotta do is say the word, you know I'll follow" If there's one thing that Kingdom Hearts is consistent about, it’s that Sora and Riku cannot stop chasing after each other. These boys can't be in the same room for longer than a minute before some kind of cataclysmic nonsense tears them apart and they’re off to the races again.

"Don't think twice" (Repeating) The climactic build up as well as the outro to this song is this phrase repeated over and over again. I think that it's indicative of Riku's faith in Sora. Throughout the games, but especially in DDD and KH3, Riku encourages Sora a lot. In moments where Sora feels doubt of his own strength or ability, Riku's there to tell him he believes in him.

There's just something so desperate in the energy of this song. The energy of: 'I've loved you my whole life. I'm still here, I'm not going anywhere, I'm ready. For the Love of God. For once, choose me. Choose us.' And you know what, the song doesn't resolve! You don't actually ever find out from the song whether or not the "you" decides to marry the "I". It's all in this weird limbo... This purgatory... And given the previous lyrics, you know that the "I" is going to continue to wait for/follow the "you" until they can make up their mind. Hm. Like maybe the transition into KH4.

IDK MAN. RIKU WANTS TO MARRY THAT BOY AND THE BOY WON'T SETTLE THE FUCK DOWN.

Final Thoughts: If Utada Hikaru ends up writing the opening song for KH4 and it's not about actually getting married and being with the one you love forever, I bet it's gonna be about how romantic love is dead and what you really need to value is self-love and independence is all I'm saying.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

#Kingdom hearts #kh #utada hikaru #simple and clean #sanctuary #don't think twice #riku #sora #soriku #kh2 #kh3 #this fucking series won't leave me in peace #20 years of madness

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lady-griffin · 4 years

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The extra comic in volume 6 is max adorbs. Any thoughts about it?

I just saw the comic. Super cute and rather insightful.

I love that those small details expanded on the characters and fleshed them out some more.

I’m sure if you asked me what the harem’s most precious items were, I would’ve given items solely tied to Katarina - so I’m really glad that wasn’t the case, actually.

For some of them yes, but it made sense for said characters.

Geordo - First Snake Toy

I don’t know if ever wrote it down in one of my theories or in a response to question, but I had the head-canon that either Geordo or Alan kept the first snake toy. I thought it would be very endearing if it was Geordo, but I was leaning towards Alan being the one, as it was overall such a happy memory for him and the day when things truly changed.

I’m really happy that Geordo kept the snake. It’s sweet. I am curious to how he thinks it will help to get Katarina to do what he wants, because I’m not exactly following his logic - perhaps it’s explained more in the actual novel? (Haven’t read yet, no spoilers)

I think it encapsulates their relationship rather perfectly.

It’s a “weapon” that Katarina developed to save herself from Geordo.

Similar, to Alan, I think Katarina learning Geordo is afraid him of snakes made her realize (to some degree) that he’s real and not the perfect two-dimensional prince from her game who had no weaknesses or flaws.

It’s also a literal representation of how weird and different Katarina is from literally everyone else. And just how truly unpredictable she is.

I mean think about it from Geordo’s perspective.

Not only did Katarina learn about his fear of snakes, but what did she do with that information? She literally weaponized his fear against him No one else would have ever done that. Even some of his rivals at the time (Keith or Mary) wouldn’t have done that, but his fiancé did.

And there is no logical explanation for why Katarina would do such a thing. A prank? To try to scare him? Why?

It’s such a great example of the complex, unpredictable puzzle that is one Katarina Claes. A puzzle that Geordo, despite how well he knows her, still hasn’t figure out.

Also, this was probably the first time, Geordo ever showed her his Dark-Hearted self. His scary look, terrifying both Katarina and Alan, and when he smiled sweetly and asked what’s she doing and where her mother is. As well as him threatening to tell on her and despite her begging him not to, he goes through with it.

And from Alan’s POV we know that Geordo’s smile was also a happy one, he truly was having a good time with Katarina – teasing her and making her suffer just a little bit.

It’s just extra sweet and really endearing.

Alan - Musical Sheet

I love that his most precious item was something that Geordo gave him and that he was embarrassed by it. So cute.

Keith - Pocket Watch

Really, if someone asked me what his most precious item was, I would assume it would be a gift from Katarina. But it being a gift from his parents (and Katarina as a way of them showing him he is a Claes and their son, and is one of them, is just so much better.

I loved that!!!

Mary - Mother’s Necklace

I liked that it was her mother’s necklace. It’s very normal and simple, but I think that’s what makes it effective. I also like that while it has nothing to do with Katarina, but she brings up that Katarina thought it was pretty.

Which makes me think that Mary showed it to Katarina when they were younger and she was probably very nervous of what Katarina thought about it as she knew it wasn’t very fashionable for the current time and her sisters probably made fun it.

So, when Katarina said it was pretty, Mary must have been so happy, not just for the compliment, but just because someone was being kind to her.

While I think Mary and her love is very similar whether it’s for Alan or Katarina, there is a slight difference, I can’t help thinking of.

When Mary improved herself to be the perfect wife and a worthy partner for Alan, I think it was also out of a need to prevent any future bullying. Looking how talented, skilled, smart and perfect she is – what is there to even criticize. But I wonder, if she had the fear that if others learn (including Alan) of how much work she had to put in to become that way, would they think less of her or make fun of her?

When Mary improved herself to be a worthy companion of Katarina, it started out the same as it was from Alan. But Katarina learned about the work Mary was doing and how hard it was and instead of making fun of her for trying so hard, Katarina was impressed and in awe.

And in general, I think Katarina’s kindness and always being supportive of Mary, made Mary realize she deserves better treatment from others.

Maria - Scarf (Mother’s gift)

I have the headcanon that this was the first gift that Maria’s mother has given her in sometime do to their strained and repressed relationship. So, it’s just very sweet that it’s Maria’s most precious item.

It’s also just a nice symbol of their relationship improving and overall the fact that it is in a far better place than it was earlier on.

Nicol - Fountain Pen

I really loved that it was something he inherited from his father and it’s a very practical gift (but has meaning for the two of them). That just seemed very Nicol and something I wouldn’t have thought of.

I also like the connection of his father using it when he was aiming for Prime Minister (to be with the one he loved) and he hopes that Nicol will do the same for Katarina -- not become Prime Minister, necessarily, but actively fight for her.

Sophia - Sophia and the Emerald Princess

This would’ve been my choice and it just works.

Katarina is Sophia’s first friend and this is the book they bonded over. Also the way Katarina complimented her appearance was similar to the book. And just, Katarina was the Emerald Princess for Sophia and her hero and in a way, Katarina was like a fictional character out of a book to Sophia (which is a nice little twist, unintentional or not).

This unbelievable person, who is a highborn lady, beautiful, and impossibly kind and she thinks Sophia is also beautiful and has no fear or disgust in her eyes when she looks at Sophia. The person who showed Sophia the beauties of the outside world and introduced her to new people and new friends and who saved Sophia.

I just…of course that book is Sophia’s most precious item

Raphael –

Poor baby, just let him rest.

Sora – Katarina’s Jewel/Brooch

I loved that it’s the Jewel that Katarina gave, because of course it is. I personally have two head canons about it -

1. Sora wears it as an accessory (a brooch) and is very open about how it’s a gift from Katarina and it represents their bond and relationship. And everyone, particularly Geordo and Keith, just hate him for it. Geordo definitely wants a present like that from Katarina, but has no idea how to ask for it and Sora is just so goddamn smug when he rubs it in everyone’s faces.

2. Sora tells no one how he came by the jewel but the others have seen him playing with it in his hand or staring at it and smiling softly to himself. Raphael asked and to his surprised Sora actually blushed and quickly pocketed it, while rambling on with a very obvious lie from where it came from. Raphael quickly realizes it was something to do with Katarina and while he feels jealousy, he is honestly just too tired to deal with the prospect of another rival.

Anne – Everything Katarina has given her

Super sweet and lovely. I also love the running gag of Anne ending the questionnaire and everyone (especially Geordo and Mary) are super jealous of her answers.

But everyone is jealous and desperately wants a passionate letter from Katarina telling them not to got through with a marriage to another person. Because of course!

It was simple and cute, but I thought really expanded on some of the characters and each item fit each of them nicely.

I do wish we got a specific item form Katarina, that would’ve been interesting. (Doesn’t have to be from a member of the Harem)

#Hamefura #Katarina Claes #Bakarina #Otome Game No Hametsu Flag #Destruction Flag Otome #My Next Life as a Villainess #browntiger15

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oveliagirlhaditright · 3 years

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Just... Nomura can’t write female characters. He never has been able to, and he probably never will. And I see no point in denying that anymore, and I find it weird when people do.

Kairi he’s dropped the ball with numerous times (though I do think there’s been a lot of great there, and I don’t think she’s as bad as people say. Like, the fandom consent seems to be that the other girls have at least had some moments of greatness, but Kairi has mostly always been bad. And I don’t agree. I think they’re more on par than people think. Like, everyone always says that Naminé’s better than Kairi, because she had an arc in CoM: an arc where she was being used by the Organization--and partly wanted to be used, because she did want to make herself a part of someone’s heart--but then realized what she was doing was wrong, and stood up to them despite the odds and made things right. They then say she’s better than KH1 Kairi for this reason. But KH1 Kairi had an arc too, that most people didn’t see: about her being afraid of change because of her traumatic past, and having to let of of that in the end, in letting Sora and Riku leave her. And I think that’s just as valid).

Naminé used to be pretty great... but she’s pretty much disappeared from the series at this point (like Kairi used to be disappeared from it, and has pretty much been Exposition Girl every time she shows up again).

Xion... Xion is wonderful (though you still have people arguing this). And I feel she hasn’t really failed yet? But I sadly think this is somehow a happy accident, and it’ll probably happen eventually. Also, there are days I wonder if Nomura treats Xion well, because deep down he mostly sees her as another Sora: a boy. Since she was supposed to be a clone of him, after all. I sincerely hope not, but I still have this fear. Edit: Okay. So here’s the thing with Xion. There are people who think this girl is a complete Mary-Sue and has no development and nothing to her story... and those people are just wrong. They are. You also have people who think she’s useless, because at the beginning of Days she can only fire spells to help you (but not very well). And eventually she loses her Keyblade, and that kind of thing, and has to rely on Roxas and Axel to get her out of this situation. Some people seriously hate on her for this, because they think she was a burden to her friends. And I don’t think these people get what the point of friendship is, then. But Xion’s a pretty good character. Days is half her story (which actually angers some people, as they think she stole what was supposed to be Roxas’ and/or Organization XIII’s). And she does things and drives the plot. We learn a lot about her as a person, see her grow (from someone who’s pretty much an infant--with that little knowledge of the world--to a selfless young woman, willing to sacrifice herself for the greater good). But she’s only playable in mission mode (the only time she’s been playable to this date, so Aqua certainly beats her there. Which isn’t good). I also am sort of irked that she comes back working for Xemans in KHIII (though I get why she did. It wasn’t her choice or fault), when Days had such a huge plot of her abandoning them over and over again. But eventually she defects again, and does as much in KHIII as pretty much anyone who isn’t Sora gets to do at that point. It’s also worth noting that Xion’s the only girl in the series who’s been allowed to breakdown. Aqua almost did in 0.2, but then Nomura changed his mind about it. Like I said, Xion’s pretty great (in my, and others’ opinions). But she’s only been here for, like, two games. Doesn’t seem to be doing much now... And since this is a series where people have to do things--dangit (at least for other fans. Not so much for me)!--I feel Xion still hasn’t done that much. At least not for the world. More than some of the girls and other characters’ maybe, but not at the top of the list.

Aqua is exceptional, the fandom knows it. But many of us don’t think she really had any character development until 0.2 (that she was kind of static in BbS before that). And people have even criticized her BbS arc: where she doesn’t really have her own plot or her own unique boss (even though she did end up the main character), and was just baby-sitting Terra and Ventus, essentially. A lot of people also had issues with her saying that Sora and the gang had seen her weak (in falling to the darkness) to long and now needed to see her be strong... only for her to lose to Vanitas, and her giving up and letting herself get killed in the Keyblade Graveyard (some people are okay with this, as it was in response to her PTSD. Others are not).

Tifa and Aerith in then FFVII Remake. Tbh, I think they’re only as great as they are, because Nomura had other people helping him with them: Toriyama, Nojima, and maybe even Kitase. And since he’s going off of the great characters form Sakaguchi, Nojima, and Kitase’s previous work with them.

And Stella... I am a Stella Stan. I always have been, and I always will be. And for the longest time, I resented Lunafreya for taking Stella’s place and thought Stella would have been a better character. Now I kind of find that laughable. Because now I believe Tabata was telling the truth when he said that Stella was a complete damsel in distress (that mostly seems to be a trend of Nomura with female characters. Even when he tries to get out of it), and we’ve certainly seen that with Nameless Star in KH though far (though I do love her personality. And she has given us the key to save Sora now--which I appreciate--and hopefully she’ll do more in the future). The thing with Luna and Stella, is that Luna actually did things... but I feel she had little personality. (Though this can be defended by the plot: she was essentially brainwashed at a young age and then grew up under house arrest, where the only thing she was allowed to do was associated with the thing she was brainwashed for. That was literally all she had, so of course it’s going to be the only thing she cares about. And Dawn of the Future fixes this about her, when she realizes the thing she’d believed her entire life was a lie and now she has to figure out how Lunafreya the person is, not Lunafreya the Oracle), whereas I feel Stella probably would have and will have a lot of personality (maybe. Hopefully), but probably not do much. We’ll see.

And I could get into the other girls, too: Like how Invi in KH is a nothing character thus far... how Strelitzia was created just to die... how Skuld was kind of cool in KHUX, but is now just kind of there... how there have been some consistency issues in Ava’s characterization, maybe (even when she might be shaping up to be one of the greatest KH girls now, if not already there. But I’m not gonna).

Also: This is NOT me bashing ANY of these girls. I love them all--as one should, I feel--and want them to have all the love and content they deserve, that canon doesn’t always give them. I’m just pointing out how Nomura’s not the greatest at them (maybe so we don’t get our hopes up?), and why I think it’s silly to pit them against each other, when they’re all pretty equal in my eyes. And also.. hopefully Nomura could change his ways sometime. -fingers crossed-

Edit: Nomura also has a bad habit of wanting to fridge female characters. It was his idea that they kill off Aerith in FFVII. And now Strelitzia and Kairi. And I think Lunafreya in FFXV was his fault, too (her getting fridged there was probably leftover from when she was still Stella), since Stella herself is pretty much fridged in KH right now.

#mom spoilers #melody of memory spoilers #kh spoilers #kingdom hearts spoilers #spoilers

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a-student-out-of-time · 3 years

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ASOOT Timeline: September 2012 (In the Eye of the Hurricane)

Oh, boy. Here we go. The Puppetmaster Arc. One of the best arcs of the series so far, in my humble opinion. How many storm-related puns will I be able to make before it’s over?–Timeline Anon

September 27:

There are now 104 people missing. The Quantum Crew still doesn’t know where Sunny Days Vacation Island is, but Mahiru is using her photography prowess to analyze Maverick’s video for clues. So far, she’s deduced that he’s not using a green screen or a movie set, and she’s observing weather patterns in the video to narrow down a potential location.

The Naegis got a Sunny Days brochure, but it was accidentally thrown away thanks to Makoto’s luck, and Iroha warned them about it.

Chiaki calls her parents for the first time since August in order to make sure that they’re safe. Tenmei and Harumi Nanami are okay, albeit busy and worried about their daughter, and Chiaki assures them that she’s okay as well. She warns them about the brochure.

Taira goes to check on Ayame. She finds her barricaded in her house, and after they hug, Ayame explains that she’s afraid and doesn’t want to be alone right now because she saw one of her neighbors get taken. They were standing outside at night, a car appeared out of thin air, they got into the car, and then the car vanished. Taira stays with Ayame to help her feel safer.

The fact that a brochure was delivered to the Cuddle Puddle at Chiaki’s house gives Chiaki an idea. She wants to click the button on the Sunny Days VPN that will send someone to pick her up and take her to the island. Her friends are nervous about this idea, but they concede that it’s their best bet at finding the missing people. Hajime will go with her. Kyoji advises Chiaki and Hajime not to answer any personal questions from Maverick and not to let him get into their heads.

Unfortunately, Sora cannot be involved in the mission to the island, as she has a crippling fear of water due to her PTSD.

Hajime and Emma go to Umeko and Setsuka’s house. Emma plays with Masaru and the other Warriors of Hope, Setsuka is busy talking to Kakeru about the legal requirements for a more permanent solution to the problem of what to do with Maverick when he’s been captured, and Hajime chats with Umeko about the logistics of sending messages to and from the island. Since no one can deliver any messages to the people on the island, the Quantum Crew concludes that Maverick must have radio jammers up to prevent signals from getting through. Umeko’s solution is to find a way to compress the messages to a small enough level that they can get through said radio jammers.

Taira calls Hajime from Ayame’s house and tells him what Ayame saw. They hypothesize that Maverick might be in possession of cloaking devices, which also would explain the man at the police station who disappeared after talking to Juu the day before the prison break. This implies that whoever’s backing Maverick is the same person who backed Kanade.

At the Hope’s Peak Medical Building, Kokoro performs an MRI on Mikako and finds no signs of damage. Thus assured, Mikako wants to try seeing the future again. First, she shows Hiyoko another glimpse of the nice future from before; in this vision, a grown-up Hiyoko and Hibiki are with three little girls, one of which is Sayuri. The other two are Itsuki Hinata (the future daughter of Hajime and Hiyoko) and Kana Hinata (the future daughter of Hajime and Chiaki). Hiyoko is happy to see such a wonderful future. Next, Mikako shows Nekomaru a vision that’s set a few days from now. In it, Nekomaru is with Kyoji, Fuyuhiko, Monaca, Mikan, and Gundham on a boat at night, and they’re making plans to invade the island with the help of gas drones made by Monaca. A deadline is also mentioned. Mikako gets seizures again. Yamato and Kokoro encourage her to rest when she needs to.

The Quantum Crew convenes via video chat to share their findings and create a plan. They decide that Chiaki and Hajime will go to the island, while Umeko will compress the messages. Once Chiaki and Hajime are there, they will map the place out, see what’s going on, figure out how to take down the radio jammers, and then coordinate a rescue/capture mission. Hajime asks his teammates to pretend to be Kasugano if necessary. It turns out that Mahiru, with Honami’s help, has pinpointed the island’s location to somewhere around the Izu Islands. Kazuichi has also made some contact lenses for Chiaki to wear that will give the rest of the crew a video feed of what happens at the island.

There are now 107 people missing. One of them is Kizuna. Yoruko hears about it via a phone call from Minako, who is very upset about her daughter’s disappearance. Chiaki subsequently decides that she and Hajime will leave tonight. Umeko assures her that she can have the message compressor ready by 2 AM. Yoruko wishes them luck and gives Hajime a hug.

Iroha shows the Cuddle Puddle her drawings (commissioned by Hiyoko) of Sayuri, Itsuki, and Kana. Hope and happiness ensues.

Taira and Ayame watch movies together. Ayame is still frightened, but she thanks Taira for staying with her. They share a blanket. Ayame tells Taira about her dream to win a gold medal in the Olympics someday, as well as her fears that she might not be good enough, and Taira shares her own insecurities about whether or not people would like the real her. They encourage each other and agree to be better together. Ayame kisses Taira, leading to makeouts and confessions of feelings, and they become a couple.

As Hajime and Chiaki wait for 2 AM, Kotoko and Mikan pop by, as Kotoko wanted to see Hajime and Chiaki before they left. She hugs them, wishes them good luck, and tells them that she loves them.

//Time for an extended vacation, in hell : P

#submission #mod talks #a student out of time

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i-believe-in-soriku · 4 years

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Essay Part 1: Riku’s Journey

Riku is undeniably the character who has experienced the greatest evolution throughout the series.

His journey begins in Destiny Islands, when he was just a little kid who wanted to live adventures with his best friend, Sora.

Riku: When we grow up, let's get off this island. We'll go on real adventures, not this kid stuff!

That's that will of discovering the world, and the fact that he was really close to his friend Sora, that lead him to make a promise:

Terra: Is there some reason you're interested in the outside world?

Riku: Yeah. I wanna be strong one day. Like that kid who left. He went to the outside world - I bet he's really strong now. I know it's out there somewhere - the strength that I need.

Terra: Strength for what?

Riku: To protect the things that matter. You know, like my friends.

Riku had a very strong friendship with Sora. The two of them used to fight with wooden swords, explore the islands, and watch the stars together. But then, Kairi came to the Islands and became part of their life. Years passed and their friendship became stronger - but somehow something was missing.

That's when Kingdom Hearts happens. At this time, Riku wanted to explore the other worlds, feeling trapped on Destiny Islands - will he had already expressed ten years before. Riku was jealous of Sora, and probably of Kairi and Sora's growing proximity. Riku felt lonely, as we can see during the game. These dark feelings caused him to be manipulated by Maleficent, and to turn to darkness.

There are also other reasons: he wanted to see the world - which he already wanted as a five years old kid-, he wanted to become stronger in order to protect his friends - even if he did it the wrong way, he didn't forget that goal, as proved by this scene:

Riku: So, Kairi's like a lifeless puppet now?

Maleficent: Precisely.

Riku: And her heart was...

Maleficent: Taken by the Heartless, no doubt.

Riku: Tell me! What can I do?

Maleficent, as the evil witch she is, manipulated him strengthening his feelings of loneliness, jealousy and betrayal.

Maleficent: You see? It's just as I told you. While you toiled away trying to find your dear friend, he quite simply replaced you with some new companions. Evidently, he values them far more than he does you. You're better off without that wretched boy. Now, think no more of him, and come with me. I'll help you find what you're searching for.

Ansem, on his side, pretended he knew the way to make him stronger, as Riku was jealous of Sora's strength...

Ansem: The heart that is strong and true shall win the Keyblade.

Riku: What? You're saying my heart's weaker than his?

Ansem: For that instant, it was. However, you can become stronger. You should not fear in stepping through the door to darkness. It held no terror for you. Plunger deeper into the darkness and your heart will grow even stronger.

Riku: What should I do?

Ansem: It's really quite simple. Open yourself to the darkness. That is all. Let your heart, your being, become darkness itself.

... but he used him as a puppet to achieve his goals. The way he asked advices to bad people shows how lost that boy was. However, Riku finished by regain control of himself, and at the end of the game, decided to help Mickey close the Door to Darkness, even if it meant being somehow left behind - a beautiful act of redemption.

But that's only the begining of his story. In Chain of Memories, we follow Riku who has to fight his own darkness, embodied by Ansem (and also Repliku who mocks his fear of darkness). At first, Riku totaly rejects the darkness inside of him, afraid that it might overpower him once again.

Riku: All you have been talking about is the darkness. I can only assume you wanna pull me back in... so you can play Puppet Master.

And he doesn't want to hurt people like he did.

But we can see that he's becoming more and more mature, because this game is also about how Riku began to accept the part of darkness inside him as a strength (and I think Mickey helped him to do that). That's what makes him choose the way to Dawn.

Riku: What are you making me choose now?

DiZ: Between the road to light - and the road to darkness.

Riku: Neither suits me. I'm taking the middle road.

DiZ: Do you mean the twilight road to nightfall?

Riku: No. It's the road to dawn.

During 358/2 Days, Riku's will is to make sure that his best friend sleeps in peace - actually, he wants him to recover his memories and wake up. He teams up with Mickey and DiZ/Ansem the Wise to do so. In this game, Riku embraces the darkness in his heart while fighting Roxas...

Riku: I have to release the power in my heart- the dark power that I've been holding back. Even... if it changes me forever.

...a sacrifice made even though he's aware he may not find his own body anymore - which illustrates how Riku has finally accepted that darkness isn't 100% evil. We can also see that he's no longer bitter towards others: he's not even angry against Sora's Nobodies for keeping him away from his friend - just sad.

Xion: So, do you hate me for taking your friend away?

Riku: Nah. I guess... I'm just sad.

Still, in KH2, Riku is ashamed by his appearence and hides himself from Sora, even though he keeps on protecting him at distance. When they finally meet again, he tells this shame calling himself "a castaway from the darkness":

Riku: I'm no one---just a castaway from the darkness.

But he recovers his true self.

KH2 insists on the fact that despite a clear maturation, Riku still has doubts and still feel a little bit lonely. Sora points at:

Sora: Riku... C'mon, man! Why did you try to do so much on your own?You got friends...like us!

He still needs his friends to reassure him and accept him, and still thinks he can't get rid of his own darkness - his shame is still here:

Sora: You're coming back with us, right?

Riku: I had given in to the darkness.

Sora: Riku!

Riku: How'm I gonna face everyone?

Dream Drop Distance is a turning point to Riku's character. During the game, it is underlined that Riku is holding back some stuff inside of him, by four characters including himself.

Riku (to Quasi): Are you sure that's what's stopping you? Because I think something else is holding you back. Ask your heart, Quasimodo. [...] Wish I could take my own advice.

And:

Quasimodo: Master Frollo--he made me live inside the bell tower, but the real walls were the ones I built around my heart. You helped me see that, Riku.

Riku: I was...speaking from...personal experience.

Phoebus: I'd say you still keep a lot locked inside.

He also admits that he feels like his darkness will always follow him:

Riku: I gave in to the darkness once. And ever since, it's chased me around in one form or another.

But the end of the game proves that Riku has achieved a balance (a confidence that we can see in KH3).

Indeed, during the last parts of 3D, Riku is shown as a being of exception, whom heart has light and darkness in balance...

YMX: I don't know how you did it, but you really have found a way to trap darkness inside your heart

...balance which enables him to protect Sora, becoming his Dream Eater - he is able to change his very NATURE and didn't even noticed it.

Riku finally obtains the title of Keyblade Master showing that he is worthy of wielding a Keyblade - which he seemed to doubt at the beginning of the game:

Riku: My Keyblade--it just sort of...popped into my hand when I needed it most.

He has learned how to open his heart throughout his adventures, which can be seen in KH3.

In KH3 his new goals are to save Aqua and, with the others, fight the Seekers of Darkness. During the road, Mickey helps him to realize that he finally has the strenght he was aiming at since the very beginning: to protect the one person that matters.

Riku: I'm in control now. Maybe it's because you're with me this time.

Mickey: It's not me. I think it's because you've finally found inside you that special strength to protect what matters.

And the game lets no doubt: this person is Sora. He sacrifices himself to protect his friend against the Demon Tide in the Keyblade Graveyard.

This is a very brief summary of everything Riku did, but that's enought to come to a conclusion. If you have read carefully, you should have noticed that I didn't spoke about Sora that much. Because, even if Sora is actually what matters the most to Riku, the main reason why he did all those things, Sora is not what defines Riku.

Riku has a developpement that shows that he has to fight his own demons, overcomes his doubts and searches the strenght to protect who he cares about. He has other relationships than his (wonderful) relationship with Sora: for example, his friendship with Mickey.

He faced many things with the King and they share a special bond, just as Sora's with Donald and Goofy. He also shares a link with Terra and somehow Aqua, even though it's not developped that much.

Regarding of those elements, it is completely unfair to say that Riku isn't well written or too much written around Sora. Riku is interesting, relatable and touching, and I hope that he's going to have a good treatment in the future of the series. Watching the end of KH3 and Re:Mind, there's no doubt about the fact that he has an important role to play.

I want to close this part saying that Riku also has a personality. He's determined, selfless, mature, of good advice, a little bit sassy. Riku, even if he has doubts, can be now considered as confident. He is empathetic, cares about others, knows how to confort his friends, especially Sora. There are other important points - like the fact he's smart ~ but I think those are the main elements.

Intro • Part 2

#kh #kingdom hearts #riku #riku kh #kh riku #riku kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts riku #character analysis #essay #analysis #kh analysis #kingdom hearts analysis #my essay #first essay #character growth #writing #my thoughts #thoughts

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uniarycode · 4 years

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Takari Week, Day 4 - Grown Up

Hikari feels a bit nervous when confronting her future Mother in law, written as part of @takariweek

This wasn’t supposed to be so hard.

They’d known each other for sixteen years. Or maybe thirteen, while Hikari knew who she was sixteen years ago, she couldn’t remember if she’d as much as introduced herself at the time.

Either way, it was a long time to know a person, and their fates had been intertwined ever since.

“There’s coffee in the kitchen, if you’d like something to drink.”

Short, formal, concise. It wasn’t cold per se, but somehow distant, as if a piece of her was always on guard.

“We’ll pass mom.” Takeru cut in.

He had assured her that this was not meant as disrespect. Takeru’s mother was a busy person, needing to make a living in the media while also raising her son. She prioritized formality and sensibility out of necessity.

Hikari’s entire family was relatively intimate, showing their bonds with many hugs, laughs and emotional displays. Takeru fit right in, but Hikari felt such gestures inappropriate around Natsuko.

If that weren’t bad enough, Ms. Takashi was a reporter, and it was impossible for Hikari to spend prolonged amounts of time with her without feeling like she was being investigated, studied somehow.

Takeru told her it was all in her head.

Maybe it was.

She and Takeru had been living together ever since they started college. Obviously they should have had time by now to get used to each other’s families. Takeru had been a little wary of Tachi after they first started dating, but otherwise he’d fit into the Yagami’s seamlessly.

But perhaps that was another difference. When her mother had learned that Takeru was going home to a TV dinner or reheated leftovers roughly three times a week, she had generously offered for the blond to stay and have dinner with them instead. This predated Hikari’s official relationship with the blond. He was practically one of the family already.

On the other hand, because Natsuko was so busy, Hikari rarely saw her before she’d started dating Takeru. Which meant they’d been potential family first, as opposed to Takeru, who was practically family first.

Perhaps that had always tinted the lens with which they viewed each other.

A nudge from her boyfriend snapped her out of her rambling thoughts.

With one hand Hiakri brushed a strand of hair out of her face. She had asked to do this, requested to be the one to tell the woman, perhaps in the vain hope it might bring them closer together. Takeru had no problem telling her family, in the charming and grandiose style he’d become accustomed too.

“So to what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” Nastuko asked. “Anything important I should know about?”

Hikari took a deep breath, folding her hands together, it was a perfect opportunity. “It’s uh....WE’RE ENGAGED.” She blurted.

Natusko leant in a and game her a quick hug, shoulders only. “Congratulations” she said simply, before moving to Takeru and repeating. “Have you picked a date yet?” the older woman asked as she pulled apart from her son.

“August third.” Takeru responded. “The day we met.”

“You don’t seem all that surprised.” Hiakri observed.

“You’ve been dating for years; it was either this or a baby.” Natusko said simply “And that diamond isn’t exactly invisible my dear.”

Comments like that one were precisely whey Hikari felt so uneasy around her future mother in law. It was hard to dismiss her nerves as paranoia when Natsuko was studying her as closely as to identify an engagement ring.

Natsuko interrogated them further, did they have a venue, were their any showers, was ther anything she could do to help? Once her round of questioning was done, she asked Hiakri to help her in the kitchen.

Takeru did the lion’s share of the cooking, his job was more flexible. He’d learned how to out of necessity in high school anyway, despite her own mother’s generous invitations. With how practical Natusko was, it was odd that she was asking the worst chef of the group to help her in the kitchen.

It was clearly an excuse to get her alone.

As expected, Natsuko didn’t actually request Hikari’s help with anything. The second the two of them were out of Takeru’s earshot she spoke. “You really are special, you know that? And not in some ‘prophesy’ or ‘chosen one’ sense. I mean like right here.”

“Thanks?” Hikari said. Unsure where this was going.

“Part of me feels like I should apologize. I don’t think Hiroki and I realized just how long it would sit with them.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh come now. Sora and Yamato have been dating for almost twice as long, and he hasn’t popped the question yet. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why. Maybe things would have been better if we’d never divorced.”

“Don’t say that.” Hikari said quickly. “It’s no use worrying about the past. Would they really have been happier raised in such an unhappy household.”

“They would have at least been together.” Natsuko dismissed. “But that’s neither here nor there. The important thing is you managed to get my son to commit in less than half the time Sora did. That shows how special you are.”

Hikari felt her cheeks turn red. “It was nothing.”

“It’s everything.” Natusko insisted. “I know this is a big step for the two of you. You always got quiet or changed the topic whenever marriage was brought up before. It scares you, both of you.”

That stunned her into silence; her friends, her mother all of them had identified Takeru’s hesitancy, in connection with his parent’s divorce. But this was the first time someone had noticed her fear.

“I’m just…” she wasn’t sure what to say. “I don’t want to mess it up.”

“No one does. But Hiroki and I, we were together only a few months before we got married. No more than a fling stretchered too far, then stretched further with a pair of babies. But you and Takeru, you’ve already known each other far longer than when he and I split up. You’ll be able to make it, I’m sure. I’ve been sure of that for sixteen years.”

Hikari protested. “You couldn’t have known.”

“I didn’t say I knew. I said I was sure. He could have been gay, or you could have been. It can be hard to tell at that age. But when he first got home, you were the person he talked about most. More than Yamato even.”

Natsuko took a short pause, sizing her up. “And I’ve watched him grow since, watched you as well. You two are not Hiroaki and myself, you are already far closer than we ever were. You don’t need to be so afraid, you two are going to live together happily.”

It was like a magic spell had been cast, and a weight was lifted.

Perhaps having someone like Natsuko as a mother in law, so observant and analytical, would be a good thing after all.

#takari week #takari #takeru takaishi #hikari yagami #digimon #it's still 11:25 I'm not late yet #based vaguely on my now sister-in-law's first impression of my mother

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phoenix-downer · 4 years

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For the SoKai kiss prompts: could you write one for 40: A kiss because the world is ending please? :x (ouf... I'm such a sucker for tragic stuff I guess...)

Thank you for the ask @seaberry-siren! Hope you enjoy it!

Till Death Do Us Part. ~1000 words. Takes place sometime in the future.

The World had ended once in darkness before. Perhaps it wasn’t so surprising it was happening again. Despite all their efforts, they couldn’t change the cyclical nature of history.

The others were already gone, engulfed by the swirling darkness that had overtaken most of Scala ad Caelum. It was just Kairi and Sora left now. He slammed the double doors closed behind him to cut off the onslaught of Heartless for now, then joined her. She was doing her best to keep her light going, the last pure light in the universe. One glance at his face told her that he wouldn’t be able to protect her for much longer. His face betrayed his exhaustion and his hair was damp with sweat.

“Sora,” she said quietly. So much could be said in just one word, especially one as precious as his name.

“What is it?” He sat next to her and brushed a strand of hair out of her face. They were by the window of the old study where Xehanort and Eraqus had once spent many a lazy hour playing chess. But instead of a beautiful blue sky outside, darkness covered the land. Everything had all begun here, and now everything would end here.

“I’m afraid we’re out of time,” she said sadly.

This was not what he wanted to hear. He grabbed her hand and held it tight. “You’re wrong. I can still hold them off. I can still fight. I promised to protect you, and I will. No matter what.”

“And you have protected me. You’ve gone above and beyond to keep me safe. But it’s time. The longer we wait, the longer our friends’ hearts and souls will hang in limbo.”

He shook his head, and his drooping spikes went this way and that. “No. They wouldn’t want us to die like this. Giving up on the World just because we’re the only ones left.”

“We’re not giving up. We’re just… cutting our losses for now.”

They’d been in many battles before, but something about this one just… felt different. It was unwinnable in a way not even their battle against Xehanort at the Keyblade Graveyard had been unwinnable. Fate itself was against them, and they’d defied it for so long that it had finally come to extract its toll.

“Kairi, please,” he said, his voice anguished. “I can keep fighting—”

“What, so I can lose you too? So I can watch you die before I die?”

“You’ve always been stronger than me,” he choked out. “We both know you could survive me dying. You’ve had to do it before. But I’m… I’m weak. Watching you die again would destroy me.”

“Then we’ll die together,” she promised, resting her hand on his cheek. “Till death do us part.”

Sora was many things to her now—her guardian, her protector, her dearest friend, her fiancé—but her biggest regret was that he would never be her husband. Not in this life or this reality, anyway. But that didn’t mean they wouldn’t have better luck in the next life, and they could at least exchange vows in this one.

He smiled sadly as he placed his hand over hers. “Till death do us part.”

She took a deep breath. She didn’t want to get his hopes up for nothing, but she wasn’t without hope.

“Darling, listen. My grandmother’s story makes me think this isn’t goodbye for good. Remember, the World was reborn once before, from the light in the hearts of children.”

“That’s true. You think… we might be reborn too?”

She nodded. “Maybe the light in my heart, in all our hearts, will help rebuild the World. I know we’re not kids anymore, but it’s still a story worth believing in.”

“Yeah. And if we don’t rebuild it, the kids will.”

He stroked her cheek, a peaceful look on his face for the first time since all of this began. Looking into his eyes and seeing the endless depths of love they held for her, even she could rest at long last. The World around them faded away as he brought her into his warm embrace and said her name softly, tenderly. This was how things should be. This was how things should always be. Dying didn’t seem so scary anymore, not when he was with her and she was in his arms.

Still, there was one remaining fear in her heart, and he sensed it before she even said anything.

“Something’s troubling you,” he murmured into her hair. “What is it?”

“When we’re reborn, how will we find each other again?”

He leaned back a little so he could meet her eyes. “We’ll know each other.”

“Even if we lose all our memories?”

He nodded. “It’s happened before, and yet we’ve always made it back to each other.” She didn’t say anything, so he removed his crown necklace and handed it to her, very solemnly. “I don’t know that we’ll be reborn with anything, but I’d like to give this to you all the same as a sign of my vow.”

“And I’d like to give this to you,” she said as she handed him her necklace. They helped each other put the other person’s necklace on, and something about seeing him wear her necklace as she wore his necklace put her heart at ease.

“There,” he said softly. “I swear I’ll come home to you, no matter how long it takes.”

She nodded and smiled sadly. “It’s a promise.”

The double doors to the study burst open. The darkness was here. They were out of time.

In their last moment together, Sora brought her into his arms again and kissed her. No wedding vow was complete without a kiss, after all, and how fitting it was for this to be their final act. Love in the face of loss, togetherness in the face of separation, life in the face of death. They held each other tightly, and the last thing she remembered before the darkness took them was his warmth and his smile.

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A/N: This is one of the angstier things I’ve written lately, but it’s not without hope! I have ideas for Sora and Kairi meeting again in their next lives thanks to some conversations I had with a friend. I wanted to write those as well and include it all together with this, but I’ve just been so... creatively dry lately, I guess, and this is the best I could do for now. If I do wind up continuing this story, you all will be the first to know, haha. I don’t want to leave you hanging, but I also don’t know when I’ll have the energy and drive to write at the pace I usually do.

I still have one last kiss prompt left, but in the meantime, if you’re wanting to read more SoKai kiss prompts, I’ve written “A kiss to pretend,” “A good morning kiss,” “A kiss on a falling tear,” “A kiss in secrecy,” “A kiss in public,” “A kiss out of necessity/A kiss to wake up,” and “A kiss for luck.” Thanks for reading!

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hyotenhyakkaso · 3 years

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LETS TALK ABOUT VERSES

Verses: (Alphabetical order)

A Place In This World Verse: Jou’s babu years to just before he joined a gang

Number One Verse: Bleach verse lmao

Did It To Myself Verse: UNKNOWN FASJLDFKADS J

Everybody’s Lonely Verse: Jou’s alone in the world and questioning himself and every relationship he’s had. He figures he’s better off alone and everyone’s fine without him so after a vacation he decides to disappear for good. Leaving no trace or evidence that he’d been there at all, like he’s been erased from existence altogether.

Every Heart Verse: InuYasha Au

Fly away Verse: Breath of the wild Au

Hiding In Your Hands Verse: (Main Verse): Jounouchi Katsuya is a part snow leopard due to unfortunate circumstances in his childhood. The rest is history however. ..... Yet, while the Duel monsters world is safe, the real world is not. Jou takes it upon himself to make sure that gang activity doesn’t skyrocket and take down those he sees as a threat to the population. He also adopts four children, Pit, Dark Pit, Jaden and Nimue. Finds a brother in Sora and a sister in Elsa and Anna. His life is weird but its his.

Icarus Verse: Jou works for Kaibacorp for shits and giggles and messes with Seto. He thinks they’re friends while Seto is trying to get used to this. (Exclusive Kaibacorpbros verse)

Killing Time Verse: Literally just crossover verses lmao

Leave Out All The Rest Verse: Oops, Jou fell too deep into his gang life again, he becomes a gang leader and eventually dies from it. He’s shown that he does have loved ones that love him back. The spirit that helps him lets him turn back the clock and fix whatever mistake he made. Endless loop until he figures out what he did wrong and how to fix it.

Loser Baby Verse: Everything from the original deleted blog falls into this verse unless stated otherwise.

Mr Sandman Man Me A Sand Verse: Absolute crack/chaos

Never Get Used To People Verse: Insane Jou au????? Maybe??????

Ready Steady Go! Verse: Fullmetal Alchemist Au (Will eventually be fleshed out when I figure out wtf is going on)

See Me Through Verse: Kingdom Hearts Au taking place in canon. Between the regular villain of the month episodes, Jou’s fighting his own monsters. Literally! Set with his keyblade Starset, he tries

Thank You, Next Verse: He fully comes into himself in this au and quits the gang life for good. He goes to college and goes into car manufacturing business.

Who is In Control? Verse: Jou never leaves his gang leader position, never makes friends with Yugi or Tristan and eventually becomes a bigger problem than Hirotani. No one’s sure who is worse, their previous leader or their current one. The blonds tendency to get himself into danger more often than not nearly get him killed on a regular basis. And he’s starting to realize he doesn’t care if he does.

Verses I’m not sure fall into the above categories or into their own categories: (To be discussed with muns)

Right Here Verse: Exclusive verse with Mutogamingco

Be Somebody Verse: Exclusive Verse with Game-weaver

I’d Lie Verse: Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I dunno yet but its like- Exclusive verse with Dungeondicediva

Lullaby for a stormy night Verse: He pretty much unofficially adopts Pit and Dark Pit as his sons and raises them alongside a goddess- (Yeah he’s questioning himself too but he wouldn’t change it)

Shipping Verses:

Monster Verse: Exclusive shipping verse for atlantis-prince. However this also contains Atem’s, Mai’s, Joey’s and other’s fights with Jou about getting together with the evil boi. I need to start containing this to this verse, its starting to bleed into other verses- Namely Hiding In Your Hands.

Must Have Been The Wind Verse: Exclusive shipping verse with Darkheartedprince (?)

Once In A Dream Verse: Exclusive shipping verse with Soraofdestinyislands

The Drug In Me Is You Verse: Exclusive shipping verse with Thiefakefia

Watermelon Sugar Verse: Exclusive shipping verse with Lightheartedwarrior

You Can’t Fight the Moonlight Verse: Exclusive shipping verse with World-duelists: ~I’m in love with the goddess who lives down the street the girl may work at wafflehouse but she dunnt miss a beat (Jaden)~ ~ I want you to remember this when you put yourself down I cannot fear my future now that I have you around (Joey)~

Character Tags:

Atem (millennium-puzzle-spirit): ~I’ll carry you home no you’re not alone keep marching on this is worth fighting for you know we all have battle scars (Atem)~

Atem (Sennenpharaoh): ~See that line well I never should have crossed it stop right there that’s the very moment that I wish that I could take back (Atem)~

Akefia (theifakefia): ~Your secrets keep you sick your lies keep you alive Snake eyes every single time you roll with crooked dice (Akefia)~

Aizen (Bleachintothemultiverse): ~The world you once created inside your dreams is brought to life as it now leads you and I across the distant sky! (Aizen)~

Bakura (tenacioustheif): ~We could set the world alight there is so much you could be if only you'd join me we’d make one hell of a team (Bakura)~

Byakuya (Bleachintothemultiverse): ~Thousands of cherry blossoms dwindling in the light though I can’t hear your voice keep what I say in mind (Byakuya)~

Dark Pit (WinglessArcher): ~You’ll be in my heart no matter what they say you’ll be here in my heart always (Dark Pit)~

Dartz (Atlantis-prince): ~So I will talk to you the only way I know how to I’ve said my speech through sharpened teeth (Dartz)~

Elsa (Iskrone): ~You can lift your head up to the sky Take a deeper breath and give it time You can walk the path among the lines (Elsa)~

Hanataro (Bleachintothemultiverse): ~Though a thousand words have never been spoken they’ll fly to you crossing over the time and distance (Hanataro)~

Jaden (World-Duelists): ~Live in the now and break your confines take ahold of this precious time glory days cause your life is not to trade (Jaden)~

Jaden (Tenebrosity-bulwark): ~Cause now again I found myself so far down away from the sun that shines into the darkest place Im so far down away from the sun (Jaden)~

Joey (Luckyredeyes): ~I’m alive oh yeah between the good and bad’s where you’ll find me reaching for heaven I will fight and I’ll sleep when I die (Joey)~

Joey (World-Duelists): ~When darkness turns to daybreak go out and see for your sake the people of this world may share your pain (Joey)~

Joey (brooklynxsweetheart): ~ I see your monsters I see your pain tell me your problems I'll chase them away I'll be your lighthouse (Joey)~

Mai (ohmaiwhathavewedone): ~Hey sister do you still believe in love I wonder? Oh if the sky comes falling down for you theres nothing in this world I wouldnt do (Mai)~

Mana (mahoushoumonster): ~Cause you cant jump the track we’re like cars on a cable and lifes like an hourglass glued to the table (Mana)~

Mokuba (Kaibacorpbros) ~Daydreamer kidnap me take me back all the way back to them days runnin around in a gown and a crown barefoot (Mokuba)~

Nimue (Tenebrosity-bulwark): ~The most powerful thing you own is your voice scream above the noise that you’re perfect as you are even when times are hard (Nimue)~

Otogi (Dungeondicediva): ~Here’s to us here’s to love all the times that we fucked up here’s to you fill the glass (Otogi)~

Pit (WinglessArcher): ~Come my child stay with me I’ll protect you and your dreams. Rest my child ‘neath the tree like it’s branches reach for me (Pit)~

Seto (Kaibacorpbros): ~Icarus Icarus why you so serious serious? You know you gotta let it go cause you're flying too close (Seto)~

Sora (Asorableisms): ~Though we don't share the same blood. You're my brother and I love you thats the truth. (Sora)~

Sora (Soraofdestinyislands): ~When I’m awake I hide all the chains so you aren’t afraid I can’t stop I cant break I carry the weight for you (Sora)~

Yugi (Game-weaver): ~I'm just the boy inside the man not exactly who you think I am trying to trace my steps back here again so many times (Yugi)~

Yugi (Mutogamingco): ~I wanted to be like you I wanted everything So I tried to be like you and i got swept away I didnt know that it was so cold (Yugi)~

Updated when new verses form!

#Verses #~THIS IS WHAT YOU ASKED FOR~#~IVE DONE IT.~#~AT LEAst the ones I remember~#~Should probably have a parallel Jou verse but my mind is blanking out on songs. I'm gonna count this as done~

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smartzelda · 4 years

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(Wow, I wish I could kill tumblr for messing up and making me rewrite this whole thing from scratch)

Hi, bros! I've gotten so much of crit done this week, so there's a LOT to talk about

Let's start out where we left off in Toy Box.

So like, the Riku and Buzz parallels are so good, like, the Buzz being afraid of being taken over and hurting his friends. Buzz being more skeptical of people, but trusting of his friends and just trusting Woody a whole lot. I love how he just trusts Sora, Donald, and Goofy by the end and they're friends and stuff

The Sora and Woody parallels are so good too, like, Woody trusting Sora and friends right away because they seem to be good guys, fighting the enemies (it's such a Sora thing to trust people just cause they seem good) and really trusting Buzz. Woody doing the angry sassy while talking to YMX/the organization

And bro, like...the Soriku parallels...the softness...

This has so many kh2 Soriku vibes

SAME PICTURE DIFFERENT ANGLE. YOU CAN'T TELL ME OTHERWISE.

*clears throat* Ahem, um...anyways... I was thinking about when YMX tosses Sora into the Verum Rex Gigas minigame. 1st off, I beat it a lot faster than I did my first play through the game on proud mode, so that's helpful. I'm glad that having done this before is helping me learn to be at least a little less stupid and do some things easier because of experience. 2nd, YMX's role in kh3 is very interesting. The hole time I get that he knows more than he's letting on. I feel like he, like Sora, can remember everything between the demon tornado, Riku's sacrifice, mass death, and Sora saving everyone's hearts before the timeline being rewritten and turned back to before everyone dies, and assuming the SRT holds up, he even seems to know the events of the first go around of timeline set before the kh3 we play. It's in the SRT too, but like, him saying "Not this time" and being able to dodge Sora's attacks like he already knows. Then there's YMX's line before the boss battle where he's like, "Find the hearts connected to yours." We could take it as him guiding Sora, getting him to find the seven guardians of light. I'm feeling like it might be foreshadowing or like YMX leading Sora to his end because it could be foreshadowing of remind (I mean, I won't know till I can play) or it's referring to the future of Sora saving all the hearts from the lich. Back to him knowing what's going on in the timelines somehow with that whole leading aspect, then there's during the lich segment where YMX is there somehow and tells Sora about how he'll pay the price, then YMX's "death" where he says that Sora's time in the world is over, indicating he knows what Sora's done and has to pay the price for

So, unlike the gigas thing that went surprisingly well, the possessed marionette and the flying saucer did not, and the flying saucer was the worst. I learned that, unlike in my proud run through, I couldn't just try to beat a gigas as just Sora that easily, considering a gigas could oneshot me (I kinda suck, so I honestly couldn't beat em at all without commanding a gigas myself on crit). So, it was very time consuming, considering I couldn't use a gigas to finish it off and shoot it from afar, and I had to evade all like four gigas and the scattered heartless (it was especially bad if I was about to die and needed to heal) while trying to attack it (needless to say, Donald and Goofy did most of the work in the final stretch while I was trying not to die and also attack the enemy that would warp away if you got too close). I did it though

Okay, final boss battle! Ngl, just...I enjoy the angry sassy of Woody when YMX is like, "See, look buzz fell to darkness blah blah" and Woody is like, "I don't care. Put buzz back the way he was." (Y'know, totally not a Sora attitude and totally not a parallel to CoM when Sora's telling Vexen "I don't care! Just put Riku back!") And YMX like talking about hearts and Woody like, "I don't think you've ever been loved before, because you know nothing about hearts and love." The final boss battle was easy compared to the other boss battles in Toy Box.

Also, I just...enjoy Buzz finally being friends with Sora, Donald, and Goofy and caring about and trusting them now

Now ownards to Corona!

So, starting in the forest just before getting to the tower, I opened a treasure chest with an item that gives sneeze protection (I got a shield for Goofy that does the same thing after I finished this world) which...I... Bro, I'm stupid I like didn't get this item my first run through nor did I know it existed, but playing through this world definitely was easier without sneezing Sora, especially the final boss (but we'll get to that later)

Gotta love that Flynn Rider charm.

"So, I've made the decision to trust you."

"A horrible decision, really."

Hi, I'm Flynn I hope you expect me to run away from battles and have Sora, Donald, and Goofy, who are totally my bodyguards, do all the work and make me look good Rider

Rapunzel after getting out of the tower and her enthusiasm is so Sora like, but ngl, I'd say she's a Riku parallel in this segment. Later in this world, they remark that the tower is a prison for Rapunzel. In this moment she has a lot of conflicting feelings.

"I'M SO FREE!"

"I'm such a terrible person..."

"This is so fun!"

"Oh, what would Mother think...? I should go back..."

"I'M NEVER GOING BACK!"

She's being pulled two ways. Part of her is excited to see the whole outside world and ready to live her dream, defying Mother Gothel, while the other part of her urges her to go back to her prison with Gothel where she'll be safe. This is much like in DDD with the Quasimodo and Riku parallel where Riku tells Quasi that it's not because of Frollo's rules or because Frollo said the outside world would harm him, it's because something in his heart holding him back. Most likely, it was from fear. In Riku's case, he said it from experience because he too is struggling with something where it's his heart holding him back, nothing else (probably his feelings for Sora are the thing he won't set free)

I like how kh3 is like, self aware or like, aware of the kh lore like when Donald and Goofy mention Data Sora, or in this case where Sora, Donald, and Goofy don't remember Marluxia because castle oblivion and he's like, "Such a pain. Whatever. It's not like you need to know." Kh3 shows that Nomura remembers the things he set up before.

Also, Goofy: "I think the 'has-been' prefers Marluxia" 😂😂😂

The heartless chariot was just as terrible and time consuming as always because of how much I died.

I did surprisingly well at the dancing section compared to past attempts, so that was cool. Rapunzel and Sora are just so adorable though and Rapunzel with the flowers in her hair is just😔👌

Okay, I like, I love the lantern scene because it's just so beautiful. Like, I just love those shots of all the lanterns and of Flynn and Rapunzel and of Sora, Donald, and Goofy watching them. Also...Flynn lowkey being given the choice between Rapunzel and the crown and basically choosing her

"I should've given it to you before, but I was just scared."

"I'm starting to." And Flynn pushes the satchel away, focusing on Rapunzel, choosing her.

Also, thinking that this part is a parallel to Riku in the RoD because Riku got the strength to protect the one he cherishes most (Sora) and now he's not afraid anymore, even in the RoD. He feels stronger and more confident. For Rapunzel, after spending time with Flynn and traveling, she's not afraid of the world anymore and she becomes more confident. She trusts Flynn and gives him the satchel (which in the movie I believe she originally withheld and hid out of fear of him going back on their promise)

So, then, Flynn and Rapunzel release their lanterns into the sky, and they twirl around each other as they fly up

Seem familiar? It's almost like...

HEARTS IN TUNE BAY BEE

SORIKU PARALLELS

Also, rip Sora, Donald, and Goofy. They just wanted to watch the scenery, but got interrupted by nobodies

Bro, it's really sad, like, I feel so sad for Rapunzel because she really trusted Flynn and Mother Gothel framed Flynn, breaking Rapunzel's heart because she thought it was all genuine, that Flynn really wasn't going to hurt her and meant the things he said. Then, Gothel takes her to the tower

Sora still being able to be awoken from a lick to the face from an animal like in kh1😂

In my first run through of the game, I got to this part with all the heartless and nobodies on the way to the tower and the section between everyone starting off towards the castle and reaching the castle I tried to go through as fast as possible and skipped fighting the heartless and nobodies I could. This time, I managed to clear the whole area after making it my goal for leveling up purposes, so that was cool👍

And now we reach the tower cutscenes and a very niiiiiiice Soriku parallel, which I'll have to put in the next post due to the photo limit

#critical mode #kingdom hearts 3 #soriku #sora x riku #parallels #kingdom of corona #toy box

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excusemewhileiplaykh · 5 years

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It’s Possible Kairi Opened the Door at Destiny Islands in KH1

Ok, so... hear me out.

We are told out right or it is implied several times throughout the series that Riku was the one who opened the door, making it possible for him, Sora, and Kairi to leave the islands.

Yet, we never outright see Riku open the door. We can guess that it happens before Sora finds him on the play island, but the CoM novel puts this into doubt.

In Riku’s side of the novel (pages 286-288 if you have the english version), he describes what happened on the island on the night of the storm.

As you can see from this recollection, Riku never actually opens the door. He may have inadvertently opened it, but whenever a door is opened in the series, a keyblade is always present. Moreover, Riku had not summoned Kingdom Key, or any keyblade for that matter, at that point. (Remember: Sora was the one who “delivered” the keyblade to him in Hollow Bastion. He hadn’t summoned a keyblade before then it appears.)

I also find it interesting that Ansem tells Riku “the door will open soon” (second page inserted, underlined), as if when they are talking in the cave, it has yet to open.

This would further suggest that the door opens between Riku leaving the cave and meeting Sora.

So... who opened the door?

Let’s keep in mind that both Kairi and Riku had the keyblade inherited to them by Aqua and Terra, respectively.

So, theoretically speaking, both Kairi and Riku could have both opened the door, as they both had the ability to summon keyblades.

Moreover, since the door was inside the cave, the person who must have opened it must obviously be someone inside the cave. The only two left inside the cave after Riku left were Kairi and Ansem. Ansem did not have the ability to summon a keyblade because of the circumstances of his existence (being a heartless, not having a body, etc.).

All of this evidence put together makes Kairi the most likely person to have opened the door. But, there are complications with this interpretation.

For one, at no point during KH 1 does Kairi ever summon her keyblade (that we see anyway). You would think she would have summoned it after Sora got turned into a heartless in order to protect him, but she does not. (Then again in KH3, Sora could have easily used his keyblade to protect Kairi from Terranort, but he instead shields her with his body much like Kairi does in KH1). It seems she first gets her keyblade in KH2 when Riku gives it to her. But how does Riku summon her keyblade anyway?

I would suggest that Riku actually changes his Way to Dawn into Destiny’s Embrace and then hands Destiny’s Embrace over to Kairi. I think Riku is able to do this because of the way that keychains and different keyblades work in Kingdom Hearts.

In terms of Kairi and her keyblade, it occured to me that most keyblades aren't based on physical objects but are more connected to memories or connections. We usually don't have physical objects as keychains (i.e. like in the case of Oathkeeper), but we get new theoretical keychains after we finish a world and establish a deep connection with the patrons of that world.

Thus, it seems keychains are based on these fonds memories rather than actual physical keychains. I went more into detail about how keychains work in this post if you want more context.

So if keychains are based on memory, theoretically it is possible then that someone may have seen someone else’s keyblade and could then summon that very keyblade based on that memory. You could even say something similar occurs with Roxas who probably has memories of Sora wielding Oathkeeper and Oblivion and this may have helped him manifest those keyblades, along with the fact that he had Sora’s memories of his bond to both Kairi and Riku.

So what does the fact that keyblades being connected to memory relate to Kairi and her keyblade?

Well as I explained earlier, its been told to us that Riku opened the door and this makes sense because Riku had the potential to wield the keyblade from Terra, saw the keyhole before when he was young (scene from before Monstro in KH1 and after Neverland in KH1), etc. But again, it seems as if the first time Riku wields the keyblade is at Hollow Bastion. So how could he open the door without a key? Furthermore, we only see the door actually open when Sora goes to the cave to find Kairi. That's when it flies open.

Also, Kairi could have seen the keyhole just as much as Riku because she got the potential to wield the keyblade from Aqua, much like how Riku gets it from Terra. It is possible then that on that night in the presence of the keyhole and under duress, her keyblade came to her. If she did open it with her keyblade, Ansem would have saw this. Thus, because Ansem was inside Riku, he would have remembered seeing her keyblade. Riku would have been able to conjure it up for her because his heart was connected to Ansem and thus connected to Ansem’s memories. This is similar to how Sora had access to Kairi’s memories in KH1 (for instance, when he recognizes Radiant Garden in the slideshow in the Deep Jungle) and how Sora has access to Roxas’ memories in KH2 and KH3. Moreover, remember that YMX confirms in DDD that Ansem had access to Riku’s memories, so it would not be surprising for this relationship to work both ways.

Also keep in mind that in Chain of Memories, you gain the ability to wield different keyblades by gaining cards of those keyblades. The cards in Chain of Memories, of course, represent memories. Thus, I believe it is entirely probable that a keyblade, even if it is not originally your own, could be summoned if you have the potentiality to wield and access to the memory of that keyblade (again, think about Roxas with Oathkeeper and Oblivion).

So let’s say Kairi was the one who opened the door, let’s say Riku can summon her keyblade because he has access to a memory in which she used it. Why, then, would Kairi open the door?

Remember, that much like Riku, Kairi also wanted to leave the islands with Sora. She even tells Sora in KH1 that she wants to leave with him. Of course, Kairi plays this off as a joke, but it wouldn’t be farfetched for Kairi to have been partially serious. Sora is obviously important to her and she had sensed that Riku had “changed” and perhaps thought this change could threaten her relationship with Sora. She probably wanted to her friendship and much like how Riku was afraid of being left behind by Sora and Kairi, perhaps Kairi had the same fear.

I propose then that she may have been egged on by Ansem, and in desperation after she was left alone by her best friend (reference the COM novel pages), she opens the door, figuring much like Riku in this moment, that she would be able to leave the islands with her best friends, but most importantly Sora. After she opened the door and did what Ansem wanted of her, it is possible he then he extracted her heart and even moved her body. When Sora enters the cave and “sees” Kairi, this may just be an illusion, much like in Traverse Town when he sees Yuffie as Kairi.

This is, of course, is all very speculative, but I think nonetheless, this theory could be true. Kairi being the one who opens the Destiny Island door could help resolve how Riku summons her keyblade and help explain how the door opens without Sora or Riku opening it at the moment. It is possible this could all be disproven in the future, but I don’t think we should ignore where all this evidence leads.

#kingdom hearts #kh #kh meta #kh theories #kh analysis

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aliceslantern · 4 years

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Retribution, a Kingdom Hearts fanfic, chapter 11

Newly a person again, Ienzo is weighed down by guilt and his humanity. He's prepared to do whatever it takes to atone... only to find unexpected solace in a familiar face. With more insight into the bonds between people than ever before, Ienzo reaches for a dangerous element from the past to help Kairi and Riku in their search for Sora. What is his life if it means saving another, brighter light?

Zemyx, Sokai

Chapter summary: Ienzo's humanity continues to influence his magic, and gives him an idea to further help Sora.

Read it on FF.net/on AO3

It took a little time, and a little deftness, to find another warmer space, one away from prying eyes but also close enough to running water (which, he realized, was likely necessary should things go further). After a few awkward weeks of messy and muffled rubbing in hidden corners, they found it, as well as a mattress which wasn't in awful condition. Getting it there without being noticed was also a task. Everyone might know of their relationship, but they didn't need to hear things. Hard enough to be vulnerable in total privacy. Demyx brought all of his things in, the houseplants, the books and trinkets. Once it was finished, the bed made, it did look quite homey despite the lack of furniture.

Demyx flopped down. "Maybe I'll just start living here," he said. "This bed is so much better. Mine's tiny and like sleeping on a brick."

"Why didn't you say something?"

A shrug. "It wasn't that bad. But with work… the weather changes… my back hurts, like, a lot." He rubbed at it, wrinkling his nose.

Ienzo frowned. "Why don't you have someone look at it?"

"Guess I should, right? Imagine explaining that, though."

"Even and Aerith are both understanding of our situation." He sat down; the mattress was much nicer than those lumpy cushions. "To think. Months ago this was all the farthest thing from my mind--and now we must be clever, that it may go on."

Demyx smirked and tapped Ienzo's nose. "Most people our age do it like rabbits."

"...I suppose. Trials of being young." He smiled.

He brushed a strand of hair from Ienzo's face. His gaze had softened. "I…" Demyx swallowed. "You know… I love you."

Ienzo's breath caught; he felt himself tearing up. "I'd hoped to say it first… you beat me to the punch. I do love you. I… have for some time."

He smiled. "Really?"

"Believe it or not."

Demyx pulled him close. When he let go, Ienzo could see he was crying as well. "Well. That's good."

Ienzo laughed. "Yes." He kissed him.

So that was it, then. This was no mere fling; it was becoming permanent. He kissed Demyx's throat, then reached to slip off his shirt.

"We're here," he said softly. "Might as well take advantage."

They undressed slowly. "Thank fuck, it's so much warmer," Demyx said. He slipped his hand below Ienzo's waistband, fumbling for his dick. "I'm not sure I could ever get used to you."

The blood rushed to his face; he pressed a little harder against Demyx's hand before finally caving and removing his pants. "Well I'm not going anywhere any time soon," he said, and realized he wanted a future.

Demyx eased him down onto the mattress. It was much more comfortable. "I, uh. Got stuff."

"...Saves me the embarrassment of doing it." He'd been trying to gather the nerve. "Do you want to do that? Again?"

He nodded. "I did like it." Demyx kissed him. He eased off his own pants and underwear and took Ienzo's dick into his hands.

"I did too."

"Take what you want from me."

"It feels good to be taken first," Ienzo admitted. "Where's the--"

"Oh! Right." He got up and padded over to one of the milk crates. Seeing him fully made Ienzo shudder. He came back with a small bottle. Ienzo opened his legs a little so Demyx could kneel between them. Demyx took some of the lube against his palm. "It's cold," he said. "Let it warm."

"So considerate," he said in a low voice.

"I really try to be," he said softly. "After how careless I was."

Ienzo kissed him and felt him respond. He felt Demyx spread the lube along his dick, curious and slippery (though that was the point). He could feel his own heartbeat all the way down to the tip of it. It was a little easier to do this lying down. Easing between his thighs, Ienzo immediately noticed the difference; it was much easier to move, a slick warmth that must simulate the inside of him. “It’s much better,” he said breathlessly.

“It’s good for me too,” Demyx said. He kissed him and slid a palm under Ienzo’s back, lifting him up a little so he could thrust more easily.

Knowing they loved one another only heightened the feeling. Ienzo felt as though he were simply allowed to relax and enjoy him, to let his guard down fully and feel . And there was a lot to feel; Demyx was kissing him so softly, running his free hand down along Ienzo’s sides, making him shiver. Much like before, things were a bit too intense, a bit too uncontrollable, but for once it wasn’t so awful to just unravel and lose himself within Demyx.

Looking back on it, thinking they could only sleep together was a pretty stupid idea.

Ienzo pressed a little harder against him. Demyx tightened his thighs; he couldn’t help the noise he made. His hands were trembling. He tried to take Demyx’s dick into his hand, but he was not fully in control.

Demyx kissed his cheek. “Relax. It’s okay. Seeing you like this is enough.”

The tension heightened substantially, and for a moment he crested along it before finally giving in, pulling Demyx against him, the shock of it making him spasm. “Where is it?” he asked.

“What? The--?” Demyx handed him the bottle. Ienzo took some of it onto his hands, trying to quell the shaking. He was already dizzy, and hoped he could keep it together long enough to please him.

He lubed Demyx gently, pressing his own legs tightly together. Ienzo helped him slide it against him and felt the shudder of overstimulation, though thankfully Demyx didn’t seem to notice.

“Oh fuck,” he muttered, squeezing his eyes shut.

It was simultaneously a pleasurable experience and something to be endured. Feeling Demyx thrust against his already hypersensitive skin made him feel something bordering pain, never quite getting unbearable. Ienzo was still making small noises but couldn’t help it if his life depended on it. He tried to kiss, to touch, in an effort to keep himself grounded.

After too long and not long enough, he heard Demyx moan, an almost new sound. Demyx pulled away gently, struggling for breath. It took him a moment to come to his senses. “...You’re shaking,” he said. “If it was too much for you--I could’ve just--”

“That’s ridiculous,” Ienzo said. “I wanted to do this.”

“Just relax. Breathe. What would help?”

“A blanket--the weight--”

Demyx complied. “If I held you?”

“Maybe over the blanket.”

He did so. All of the warmth and weight helped. “You didn’t have to push yourself.”

“I wanted to,” he stuttered. “It felt very nice for me too.”

“Lesson learned--you don’t go first.” He smiled a little. “It is kind of the best foreplay.”

“Quite.” The shaking seemed to be stopping, and he was more in control of himself. Ienzo curled his hand in Demyx’s hair.

“What is this… called?”

“...Called?” Ienzo echoed.

He blushed and shrugged a little. “I’ve been calling it thigh fucking in my head.”

“Well--essentially that’s what it is. Even so. None of these words are very euphonious, are they?” He sighed. ““Intercrural.””

Demyx repeated it. “Not very sexy.”

“No. But it’s what you make it, I guess.”

“Feeling better?”

“Yes. I’m sorry. I… need a little more time.”

Demyx sat up a little. “For what?”

“Were we to… take the next step.”

He looked perturbed. “I’m not worried about that.”

“...I know.”

Demyx touched his face with his clean hand. “We’ve got time, Zo,” he said. “We can take it slow. Enjoy the journey, you know?”

“Yes… you are… right.” He sighed. “You’ve been right about a lot of things. Too many, lately.”

Demyx laughed.

---

Where to go from here?

What a comfort, to have someone. If Ienzo were having a bad day, or struggling, it was such a relief to have someone he could talk to. Likewise, being able to provide comfort made him feel just the slightest bit less guilty.

He did still nightmare. When he was not being distracted by work, or training, or Demyx, it invaded. The thought of those people…

Ienzo had a future. They did not. He was going to use that future to do good, to help. Firstly to help Sora.

He decided to debrief with Kairi.

She didn’t look as healthy or as well as she did during the summer; Ienzo suspected he didn’t, either. He walked with her around the castle, both of them keeping their voices low.

“I feel like we’re closer to him than ever,” she said. “Feeling you seeing my memories… I feel like you can help link us. My light can’t do much more than foster that connection, than put out a… sort of beacon.” She shook her head.

“I’m helping you aim it, so to speak,” Ienzo said. “My power is much stronger than it was those months ago--but still needs work. It still causes us too much pain to get so involved. I can barely see your memories of him without it causing us agony.”

“Is there a medicine we can take?” Kairi asked. “Or is it too risky?”

“At the moment I fear there’s too much risk. But should time pass… we might have to try it.” He thought about it. “If I were to go to sleep with you… link our consciousness… that might magnify the power.”

“And the risk,” she said.

“...Quite,” he said. “I would need someone to put me to sleep, as well… which would mean involving another party.”

“What about Demyx?” she asked.

Ienzo shook his head. “He doesn’t have the scientific or magical background. And I wouldn’t want him to know--I’m afraid I left it vague, how much this could impact me.” He thought of the bruises which still popped up now and again.

“You love him,” she said.

“I… yes.”

“I felt your humanity grow so much stronger,” she admitted. “You love him… I love Sora.”

“I’ve made that connection as well.”

“It’s a shame you weren’t closer friends with Sora. That would’ve probably made this easier.”

She had a point. It came to him. “What about Naminé?”

Kairi cocked her head. “She’s human now too,” she said. “I don’t know if her power was like yours, tied to being a Nobody. But…” She bit her lip. “I’ll text her. Maybe she can help us. She knows his memories--his heart.” Her eyes flashed. “Why didn’t we think of this sooner?”

“Because the simplest solution is the easiest to overlook,” Ienzo said. “Isn’t she in Twilight Town with Roxas and his friends?”

Kairi nodded. “I’m sure Riku could grab her.”

Ienzo considered. Naminé’s powers were so ill-documented--even the files Ansem had about her did not go into detail. He hoped--prayed--that perhaps she retained her power, considering how unique of a Nobody she’d been. But at the same time… her body was a replica, essentially human. This could be dangerous too.

They’d just have to know what she had to say.

---

The response was almost instantaneous. “I’m in,” she said, when Kairi called her. “Just tell me what I have to do and I’ll do it.”

But this left Ienzo in an interesting position. Did he come clean completely? Else did he just say Naminé might be able to help? If she were going to attempt to use her power to, perhaps he could so gently mention his own, that it had just so happened to come back naturally.

This was still a lie.

What good were lies? Ienzo was going to need all the help he could get. Perhaps he should continue to eat crow and get it over with. Let all the facades fall. See what was left behind.

He decided to test the waters. “I think Kairi may have had something of a brainwave,” Ienzo began cautiously.

“And what would that be?” Even asked flatly, his eyes on the screen in front of him.

“Naminé had power over memory--specifically Sora’s memory. Much as Kairi is connected--so is Naminé. And they’re connected to each other. If we were to use her power, we might stand a better chance of finding Sora.” A quick breath. “I’m not entirely certain if her power was that of a Nobody’s--or purely her own. She always did refer to herself as a witch.”

Ansem put a hand to his beard. “That may be genius,” he said.

“Or it may kill her,” Even added. “Her body will behave like a human’s if it is a Nobody power--i.e., poorly.”

“But we’re getting nowhere here,” Ienzo said. “Besides, I already spoke with her, and she’s willing to give it a try.”

Even’s eyes bulged. “Without discussing it with us first? Without discussing the risk ?”

“Well what else are we to do?” Ienzo spat, with equal venom. “It’s been months, and we’re getting precisely nowhere. We’re just wasting time, making Kairi lose her youth for nothing. We have options. It would be foolish not to use them--even if they are risky.” He tasted copper. “Isn’t research about risk?”

Ansem nodded slowly. “The boy has a point,” he said. “We can examine her. Take this as cautiously as we can.”

Ienzo felt as though he were standing over a chasm. “Moreover… there’s the obvious.” He took a breath. “My power worked with memory as well.”

Even’s eyebrows shot up. “Boy--”

“I’m aware of the consequences. Of the price. But if Naminé and I worked together--we may get somewhere. We might be able to save him. If I have these tools and refuse to use them, aren’t I complicit in his disappearance?”

There was nothing but silence, but Kairi’s deep breathing.

Even laughed. It was the last thing Ienzo expected to hear. “Oh, yes. Yes, it all makes sense now. Your radical weight loss--it had nothing to do with lack of self-care, did it?”

Ienzo swallowed. No backing out now. “...Only partially.”

Ansem’s complexion was ashen. “Isn’t that hurting you?”

“I have been taking as many precautions as possible,” Ienzo admitted, dropping his eyes against the floor. “Drinking ethers, sleeping and eating as much as I can, taking it… in small steps.”

“Entropy doesn’t care about small steps,” Even spat. He approached Ienzo and began feeling at his glands. “Let me look at you. This has been going on for months. I will not have you risking your heart again.”

Ansem sighed and shook his head, a lot. “Is this what your heart tells you to do? Deep, into the pit of your being?”

There was a lump in Ienzo’s throat. “Yes.”

Ansem took a step towards him. “It is not a result of wanting to salve your guilt? It is truly what you want?”

“I want to help people. I need to help people. Restoring Sora will give the world its protector back.” He was shaking.

Ansem’s expression was hard to read. “Even.”

“No,” Even said quickly.

“Even, we have to let the boy follow what his heart is telling him.”

“He’s going to end up dead,” Even said, a raw furrow in his voice. “He will not die again on my watch.”

Ansem put a hand on Even’s shoulder. “Then think of it this way. We must instead devise a way to let Ienzo do this safely. He’s a grown man, an educated one. He must be trusted as such.”

Ienzo swore he saw tears in Even’s eyes, but he blinked them away. “Alright.”

“To be a researcher is to make impossible choices,” Ansem said softly. “For everyone’s sake--I hope this is the right one.”

#retribution #ienzo #demyx #zemyx #kairi #even (kingdom hearts)#ansem the wise

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personalitynexus · 4 years

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In the case of Aqua and Anti-Aqua

As this will be relating to imagery, story details, and content associated with the recently released Re:Mind DLC, the following items under the cut are now going to hold true from this point on for both Aqua and Anti-Aqua until such a time that Nomura himself dictates otherwise in a future game or story update.

In the matters involving Aqua, it is clear that her 10 years of isolation have left their mark physically and psychologically. While it wasn’t quite ten years for her from her perspective, time still passed in the Realm of Darkness, leaving her with a leaner and more agile figure that is capable of deceptive feats of strength from constantly fighting Heartless and other creature of the dark.

She also suffers from PTSD, having flashbacks to her perceived weakest moments in that 10 year stretch of time, including but not limited to, being ambushed by the Shadow Stalker Heartless, facing her own surface-level demons in the form of the Zodiac (Magic) Mirror version of herself (complete with self-depreciating commentary, often times calling herself a demon), and losing herself over to the Darkness and becoming Anti-Aqua. The episodes are rarely triggered, but often leave her on the verge of a mental shut down, such as when the Guardians of Light first attempted their assault on the 13 vessels. Everyone else saw the swarm of Shadows that make up the Demon Tide and Demon Swarm, but to Aqua it was nothing but a swarm of her own, corrupted self. Her fear, regret, despair, and other negative emotions given physical form countless times over to cut down her and her friends.

At times, when those negative emotions overwhelm Aqua, when she is on the verge of death, or ventures too far into the Darkness without protection, her Anti form takes control, much like the Rage or Anti form does for Sora. As it is with Sora, survival is the only true goal behind Anti-Aqua’s motivations, however, unlike Sora’s Rage or Anti forms, there appears to be actual intelligence behind those motivations. Enough intelligence to adapt tactics on the fly and use spells and magic to create multiple copies of herself to further confuse and overwhelm an opponent.

It remains unclear at this time just how aware Aqua is of her actions during these moments, but what is clear is that she does remember some of what happens. Enough for her to be afraid of her own Anti from and do everything in her power to keep from having it take control. And while she has survived 10 years in the Realm of Darkness without protection, save from the light in her own heart, she’s not about to risk giving Anti an ounce of control in a realm designed to prey on and feed off of weaknesses in the heart.

In an attempt to find Sora, she sets out with Ventus and Terra to explore the the vast territory that is known only as the Realm of Darkness. She has taken every precaution possible, from the obvious safety in numbers approach to even finding and donning her armor once more. This doesn’t mean Anti will not rear her head from time to time, or that Aqua doesn’t hear her voice with-in herself, but that Aqua is doing what she can to stay in and maintain control of herself. Whether this is all out of fear, to protect her status as a Keyblade Master, or some other reason, no-one but Aqua can say for sure, save for perhaps Terra, Riku, or Mickey, the only people aside from Sora that she has told about her situation in full.

#remind spoilers #KH3 remind #Isolated Moments {Musing}#Fallen Master {Aqua}#Corrupted Master {Anti}#A mixture of Re:Mind Content and Headcanons beneath the cut

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