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currantlee · 3 years

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Language: English Rating: General Audiences (G) / P12 Warnings: - Fandom: Kingdom Hearts Series: Another 358 Days (Ao3, Tumblr) Genre: Songfic, Romance Characters: Roxas, Xion, Naminé (mentioned), Riku (mentioned), Isa (mentioned) Relationships: RokuShi (Roxas/Xion), Namiku (Riku/Naminé, if you squint) Words: 5,416 Chapter: 1/1 Beta: @theeeveetamer Notes: This is one of my favorite fanfics I’ve written so far, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do. The midsummer part, most importantly the custom Xion mentions, is heavily inspired by actual Swedish midsummer customs. Written for RokuShi Week / RokuShi Day 2021 Other Platforms: -

Midsummer was the biggest holiday in Twilight Town, rivalled only by Christmas. However, the way the citizens celebrated was completely different. Christmas was something celebrated in private with one’s family, but Midsummer was celebrated in public with the entire town, akin to a big festival. There was music and dancing, there were lots of food stalls with some of the best this world had to offer, there were competitions in sack racing and tug-of-war… The blur of laughter, chatter and music was audible even on top of the clocktower.

Roxas smiled as he took another bit off his seasalt ice cream. It was wonderful, but he had needed a break. Celebrating for almost three days in a row was incredibly exhausting.

It was a great end for his first year as a normal person though. Well, not quite, it was still a full week until then. They had agreed to not celebrate, since the anniversary of them finally getting their own bodies was also the anniversary of the Second Keyblade War. So much pain had happened on that day and in the immediate aftermath.

It really was a shame they had missed Twilight Town’s Midsummer celebration last year though. Sora had been too busy preparing for the Keyblade War to stop by, and neither Roxas nor Xion knew about the holiday anyway. He couldn’t believe they had been oblivious to it for so long, considering how much time they had spent there as Nobodies. Even Axel apparently hadn’t been aware it was a thing until recently.

Summer in Twilight Town by itself was wonderful. The sunsets looked even brighter than they usually did because there were less clouds in the sky, and it was warm enough to not wear a jacket and exchange the long pants in favor of shorts. But Midsummer? That was an entire league of its own, and even though it was exhausting, Roxas absolutely loved it, just as much as he loved his home.

He’d always hoped for a normal life, but now that he had one it wasn’t perfect, or even as normal as the one he had dreamed of. There was always something that reminded him on his origins, whether it was his therapy sessions, Terra, Aqua and Ven or Riku asking for their help regarding some Keybearer duties or the simple fact that he had a cable port on his left wrist.

But… That was okay. He was incredibly grateful for this second chance one way or another. Besides, it was not like he could change where he came from anyways. Why waste time and energy on it? He liked his life as it was – actually, he liked it even better than the one he’d dreamed of.

There was only one thing that bothered him recently.

It had started when he had been sick with an upset stomach. Xion had blamed herself because she thought she was absorbing his strength again, going as far as trying to leave Twilight Town in the assumption that he would only become better when she did that. It hurt to see her that way, loathing herself with guilt for something that wasn’t her fault at all.

Luckily, he had been able to stop her from doing that, and she had settled on taking care of him instead. She had even managed to brew tea for him, a thought that made Roxas smile to this day, because if there was anything Xion was truly awful at, it was cooking. Something always went wrong even when she attempted something really simple, not that anyone would fault her for it. She still tried her best.

It had taken her several tries, but the tea she had given him had definitely been one of the best Roxas had ever had in his short life. Maybe because it was from her.

He had probably said and done quite a few stupid things over the course of the afternoon they had spent together, since had been so incredibly tired. Roxas’ cheeks heated up slightly. Xion really meant a lot to him. This feeling was one of the most real things he had ever experienced. He wanted someone to feel about him that way – more specifically, he wanted her to feel that way about him.

He had known her for almost as long as he existed, and he couldn’t really remember a time without her. She had been what caused him to think of himself as an individual for the first time, and they had been through a lot together in general. Axel said things like that deepened the bonds between people, and whether he was right about that or not, one thing was for sure: Xion was Roxas’ best friend in a way that Axel could never be.

Roxas didn’t want to lose what he currently had, and especially not the people he cared for. Naminé, Axel and by some extension Ven were the closest thing to a family he had, even though Ven wasn’t around as much. Roxas couldn’t imagine living without them anymore, just as much as he couldn’t imagine living without the friends he had made over the past year.

Losing Sora had already been tough enough. Roxas had gotten a lot better at handling his emotions, but he was sure that handling another loss would be tough, even if it was Isa. But losing Xion again… The thought of it alone was unbearable and his eyes even got a bit watery when he thought about what he would do without her.

She was special to him, Roxas had known that for a long time. He had never thought much more about it though, not until recently, when he had upset his stomach. What was that feeling he held for her, and her alone?

Could it possibly be… Love?

He had asked Axel about it when that question first crossed his mind, but for once his friend didn’t have an answer. ‘That’s something you’ll have to find out yourself, Roxas,’ was what he had said.

Roxas sighed. Maybe he should talk to Xion about it…

“Hello Roxas!”

Wow. That really was perfect timing… He smiled.

“Hey Xion.” He motioned to the space beside him. “Do you want to take a seat?”

She nodded and sat down next to him.

Maybe this was a good time to address what he had just been thinking about. On one hand, the clocktower felt like a personal place, and they were alone today. On the other hand – even though people rarely came up here, which was one of the reasons why this had been their preferred meeting place back in their Organization days, it was still a public space.

Even though Xion had gotten a lot better at dealing with emotions as well and her color changes provided a good aid at determining her feelings, she was still a lot worse at it than Roxas himself was. She still couldn’t even name what she was feeling most of the time. He didn’t want to make her uncomfortable by any means, especially because knowing Xion, she wouldn’t be able to tell him that he was making her feel that way. Sure, she’d get green freckles at some point, but by that point, she would already have to feel really uncomfortable – and even then, she could still try and suppress the freckles because she didn’t want to upset him. Roxas didn’t want to take it that far under any circumstances.

Besides… How did one even start something like this? Surely saying something like ‘Hey Xion, can we talk about my feelings for you? I’m kind of confused’ wasn’t the best way to go…

“Say, have you heard about that custom that if you place seven different kinds of flowers under your pillow tonight you’ll dream of the person you’ll marry?”

Roxas nodded. Olette had been going on about it for days. “It sounds just like another midsummer superstition to me though.”

Xion shrugged. “Well, Naminé seems to be absolutely convinced it works.”

“Let’s hope she doesn’t dream of Riku then,” Roxas said with a light chuckle and finished the last bit of his ice cream.

“You still don’t like him him, do you?”

Well, his relationship with Riku was admittedly a difficult one.

On one hand, Riku was Sora’s best friend. They had grown up together, almost like brothers since Sora’s mother had often looked after Riku when they were younger. Roxas did feel somewhat sorry for Riku due to his rather complicated family issues, or what he knew about them, but on the other hand… He still couldn’t forget what Riku had done to him.

Roxas understood how Riku felt about Sora. After all, he felt similar about Naminé. If she were to fall asleep for a year, Roxas knew he would do just about anything in order to help her wake up again too, even if that meant asking Riku to kiss her.

But taking someone else’s existence away? Ruining a life? It had been so unfair, and Roxas couldn’t help but hate Riku for it, despite how kind he was to Naminé (and really all of them) and everything he had learned about him over the past year. Again, Roxas wasn’t very good at forgiving.

He sighed. “Let’s just say it’s complicated.”

Xion nodded, but didn’t say anything. Roxas was grateful for that, he wasn’t really in the mood for talking about his complicated relationship with Riku, or Isa for that matter. Maybe someday, he could find it in his heart to forgive them both – but not today. Especially since there was something else he wanted to discuss with her…

“I still can’t believe that we’ve been living like this for a year now.” There went his chance at doing so. She had already settled on a new subject. If he could just think of something “No one threatening to turn us into Dusks, no daily missions… Just Axel, Isa, Naminé, you and me…”

“Is something bothering you, Xixi?” He couldn’t hold it back anymore. This tone was so off for her.

Xion shrugged. “It’s not a big deal, really,” she said. “But recently, I've been confused by my feelings for you.”

He didn’t see why it should… Wait! “You too?”

“What do you mean by…” She stopped, and her eyes widened a bit. “Roxas… Don’t tell me you’re feeling weird about me too.”

He sighed and nodded. “I do, as a matter of fact.”

Xion bit her lip. “How… How do you feel?”

Roxas shrugged. “It’s… Well. It’s something different than I feel for the others, I think…”

“Does this mean we can’t be friends anymore?”

Oh no. He hadn’t meant to upset her. Hastily, Roxas shook his head. “No, of course it doesn’t!”, he assured her. “I’m just saying that you’re special to me, Xion, that’s all.”

“Special…”, she whispered, lifting her head, but still not looking at him. Instead, her gaze wandered to the sun on the horizon. She obviously needed some time, so he decided to say nothing and turned to watch the eternal sunset as well, in order to give her some privacy.

Twilight Town’s sun wandered across the horizon, it just never really rose, at least not during the day. It did change with the seasons however, in winter it was a bit lower than in summer.

During daytime, the sun would wander across all four points of the compass. When it was in the North, it marked a new date for the citizens of Twilight Town. When it was in the east, the colors of the sky changed to softer pastels, and it was usually when Roxas, Xion and Naminé would get up to go to school. When it was in the South, they would usually have lunch, and on Wednesdays it was when lessons were over. And getting closer to the west, the sky would gradually fade into the bright reds, and eventually purples when it neared the North.

Currently, it was somewhere between South and West, and the sky was colored in warm, glowing pinks and oranges. On this day, they were even brighter than usual. Maybe because midsummer was the day when Twilight Town got closest to an actual sunrise, the day with the greatest amount of light. Starting tomorrow, it would only ever get darker until around Christmas, hence why the day was so special to the citizens.

“You’re special to me too, Roxas.”

Huh? He turned to Xion, surprised by her speaking up all of a sudden. She was smiling at him, and his heart jumped. He was special to her too. He was special to her too!

… But at the same time, he couldn’t help but feel that she was… Something still wasn’t quite right. “Xion?”

“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s just… I just wish I could tell you how.”

“Hey.” Xion’s hand was resting on the floor between them, and Roxas placed his on hers. When she didn’t pull away, he squeezed it lightly, in an attempt to reassure her somewhat. “Knowing that is enough for me Xixi.” Sure, he would like to know what this feeling of his was, but simply knowing that he was special to her too made him incredibly happy.

“But it isn’t enough for me.”

That was something else.

Xion sighed. “I want you to know how I feel about you,” she continued while purple freckles appeared on her skin. “But I just… I lack the words to describe it, as usual.”

She sounded so incredibly frustrated that it hurt, especially because he had no idea how to help her with this, or at the very least, cheer her up a little bit. “Maybe there is another way than words,” he tried anyways, even though that probably wasn’t any help either.

Xion drew her hand away and reached into her pocket, but clearly hesitated. Did he say something wrong?

“There might be another way,” she said quietly. It was almost a whisper. “But… You won’t like it.”

This admittedly made him a bit nervous – but he didn’t care. Showing him how she felt about him somehow was clearly important to her. It didn’t matter whether he would like the alternative for words or not, as long as it helped to make her wish come true. Besides, it couldn’t be that bad. “What is it?”

Xion took a breath, then she pulled her hand out of her pocket. She was holding a red cable with two equally shaped plugs on both ends. They were flat and fairly narrow, and the metal part was just a bit shorter than the plug of Roxas’ headphones. He swallowed at the sight of it – he knew this particular cable and what it meant, even without Xion saying it.

“We could try to sync.”

The issue with that was not that he didn’t know whether it was safe or not – Even had actually tried this out together with Xion and Naminé not too long ago. The issue wasn’t even that Roxas had never attempted a sync himself before.

It was just that he was incredibly scared of getting a cable plugged into his wrist. Even thinking about it gave him chills.

Sure, doing it enabled him to do some cool stuff, like not having to pick up his gummiphone every time he wanted to switch songs when listening to music, but being connected to some sort of computer always made him feel like a Nobody again.

Even had once explained that human bodies, which Replica bodies emulated, worked in cycles, or rhythms, out of which the heart was only the most obvious one. They changed frequently in relation to physical activity and environmental factors, but also in response to emotions – and reverse. If the rhythms were influenced by an external factor, like music (probably the reason why music had been a taboo in the Organization), emotions could be influenced as well. Even called it the physio-psychological correlation.

Machines had rhythms too, but contrary to the many harmonious rhythms of a human body, which created a flow, theirs were a completely synchronized pulse.

Whenever some kind of data was transferred between a computer and a Replica body, some kind of synchronization was needed to establish a connection. While his body emulated human rhythms most of the time, it could also sustain itself on a machine rhythm, at least temporarily. But doing so had an effect on his emotions – it made him apathetic, like the machine was actively suppressing his emotions. Like he was back to zombie stage again.

That was why he preferred to avoid using his port as much as possible.

He knew Xion wasn’t a computer, even though she, like him, was technically a human-machine-hybrid. She probably had a flow as well, as opposed to a machine’s pulse, so it wouldn’t feel the same, but still… And what if their bodies jumped into “machine mode” in order to sync?

Roxas sighed. He was about to say “no” – but he couldn’t, because it was Xion who asked this of him. Xion, who wanted him to know how she felt about him so badly. How could he say “no”?

He swallowed. “Okay.”

“Roxas, you know you don’t have to do this for me…”

“I know,” he said. “But I’m going to do it anyways.”

“Roxas…” The look on her face made his heart beat faster. “Thank you.”

Xion was beaming, and for a moment, it was like she was the sun. He even felt a lot warmer than before. Whatever was coming – this alone made it worth it.

“Do you want to go first?”, Xion asked kindly as she handed him one end of the dual cable.

Roxas sighed. He knew she was trying to make it a little easier for him, but nothing would ever change the fact that he hated sticking a cable into his wrist. Nonetheless, he reached for the end of the cable she offered him – but he hesitated taking it. The thought of pushing a cable into his wrist gave Roxas chills, but actually doing it made him feel sick to his stomach. He knew it wasn’t the same but…

His hand trembled. He couldn’t do this.

“I’m sorry, Xion.”

She shook her head. “It’s alright, Roxas. I know you hate this.” She lowered her head. “I think I’m the one who has to apologize to be honest. I shouldn’t have asked this of you…”

She shouldn’t apologize, Roxas thought. It wasn’t her fault after all. He had held out hope that he could do this for her, only to disappoint. If anything, it was his fault. Why couldn’t she just be mad at him for this?

“Don’t apologize, Xion.”

He couldn’t leave it like this. He just couldn’t. This was important to her. But to do it, they had to get that cable into his wrist somehow. And if he couldn’t do it himself…

Roxas stretched out his left arm towards her. His hand was shaking, but he didn’t care. Anything to make this possible – for her. “Can…” He swallowed. The words felt like they got stuck in this throat.

“Can you do it for me, Xixi?”

It came out as a whisper, so quiet that he almost wasn’t able to understand what he was saying himself.

But Xion heard him anyways. She looked at him in surprise. “Roxas… Are you sure?”

He nodded. “Please.”

Roxas was used to other people doing it for him, ever since the first time shortly after the hospital situation. Even had been the one to do it and while he had been rather careful, it had taken Roxas completely by surprise, since no one had bothered to tell him what the weird thing on his wrist was for in the first place.

After that, he had never really been able to shove the cable into his own wrist, unlike the other two. Even Naminé didn’t bat an eye when she did it, although he knew she didn’t like the feeling of being connected to a computer either. So at least he wasn’t alone with that. Sheesh, he would never understand how Xion didn’t mind that aspect of their existence, and even enjoyed it at times!

Roxas flinched when she finally took his hand.

He realized Xion had never done this for him before, which was kind of funny since he usually needed help with it, either because his arm was shaking too much or he outright couldn’t do it by himself like now…

He gasped when he felt her gently rubbing her thumb across his hand.

Roxas had expected a firm grip on his wrist and her just getting over with it, simply and plainly like everyone else did. But Xion…

“You’re tense,” she murmured as she ran her other hand up his arm, brushing his skin with her fingertips.

To his surprise, Roxas found himself relaxing a bit, even as she slipped his wristband up his arm. It hid his port underneath, and Roxas never took it off unless he had to wash it (he had a few spares), and he wore a different, water-resistant one for showering. They all did.

The port itself was pretty unspectacular. If one didn’t look closely, they might even have overlooked it. It was really just a slight bump on his skin, with a hole that faced into the direction of his palm. Still, Roxas didn’t like seeing it – and yet, he couldn’t look away whenever it was not covered…

“Look at me, Roxas.”

… except for when he looked at Xion. He could always look at her, even when she wasn’t looking at him like now.

“What color are my freckles?”

“Uh…” He swallowed. “They’re blue.”

Out of all her colors, blue was the most mysterious one. By now, he had been able to figure out the meaning of each one he had seen on her, except this one. Blue seemed to appear completely by chance.

“Can you tell me which kind of blue?”

That would be more difficult. He was pretty sure Naminé could have instantly named the exact hue, but Roxas wasn’t good or even interested in that stuff too much. So he just tried describing it instead.

“It’s a vibrant one, but not too…” What was the word again?

“Saturated?”, he guessed. “I don’t know, Xion, it’s hard to describe…”

“Can you try it anyways?”, she asked.

Roxas nodded. “It isn’t a bright blue,” he continued. “I think it has a certain… Depth to it?” That sounded incredibly stupid… “It’s actually a really nice color, pleasant to look at…”

“Okay, that’s enough for me.” She looked at him and smiled. “Thank you.”

“No problem, Xi-…” He felt her pulling his wristband down again, gently and carefully, and when he looked at his wrist once more, he could see the cable poking out from underneath. Now he understood what she had been doing – and it had worked. Roxas hadn’t felt a thing.

A grateful smile washed over his face. “Thank you, Xion. For distracting me.”

She shook her head. “Thank you, Roxas. For agreeing to this.”

How could he not? This seemed so important to her…

“Ready?”

Xion had taken the other end of the cable, and looked ready to put it into her port. For a short moment, Roxas was about to panic once more, but he tried to keep it down. For her.

He swallowed and nodded. “Ready.”

“Alright.”

Roxas took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he braced himself for the unknown.

His eyelids twitched.

Being connected to each other felt a lot different than being connected to a machine. Sure, there was this sudden awareness of the many different rhythms his bodies usually worked in and the flow created by this, but he couldn’t feel a steady, rhythmic pulse on the other end. Instead, Xion had her own unique flow, one that felt much calmer than his own, despite how unpredictable it seemed at the very same time.

Roxas would have liked it, if he wasn’t so terribly aware of how his own flow was heavily affected by his nervousness, and how it could theoretically affect her as well. They were connected after all. Even if it didn’t happen by accident, Roxas was well aware that they needed to establish some harmony between their flows for Xion’s idea to work, which meant…

Xion lightly touched his fingertips. “It’s okay if you don’t want to continue,” she whispered. “We can stop.”

Roxas shook his head. “I just don’t want to affect you, Xion.”

“Let me worry about that part,” she said, and Roxas could have sworn she smiled, despite not seeing it because his eyes were still closed. “Just try to relax, okay?”

He trusted her. “Okay.”

With that worry out of the way, he tried to focus on the connection, on her flow over his own. It felt pleasant – and warm, which surprised him a bit, because he hadn’t thought it could feel that way. Even though he knew that this could change at any given time, especially with him on the other end of the connection, it made him feel a bit calmer. He distantly wondered how his own flow felt like to her for a second.

Until both flows just… Dissolved.

One by one, his individual rhythms seemed to dissect themselves from his flow, dissolving it entirely in the process. There was no longer a messy flow, there was a multitude of rhythms now, more or less harmonious with each other, and every single one rather fast compared to Xion’s calmer ones.

This was overwhelming. It was too much.

Roxas pressed his eyelids together more tightly. He wanted to scream… No, he just wanted it to stop. But who knew what would happen if he just cut off the connection now…

In an attempt to distract himself, Roxas started to hum a little tune.

It was nothing he had ever heard before, completely improvised. That way, he had to focus on matching the individual notes rather than simply repeating something he already knew. He did this often when he tried to calm himself down.

To his surprise, Xion joined in after a few notes. Roxas almost stopped humming himself. Xion almost never hummed, let alone even sang. While she did have a wonderful voice in his opinion, she just didn’t like using it very much, and Roxas respected that. She didn’t have to if she didn’t want to.

But now she did, and Roxas loved every single second of it, especially since he got to hum and create a tune alongside her. They stringed it together, note after note, and while Roxas provided the melody and Xion the accompaniment in the beginning, he soon found that he couldn’t quite tell which was which anymore. What had started as an improvised tune soon evolved into a harmonious overture, by no means perfect, but pleasant to listen to.

Suddenly, there was a new flow between them.

Their rhythms weren’t completely synchronized, but harmonious in a way that allowed them to melt into each other, while still being individuals – a bit like the music they created.

By now, he could not just feel her flow on the other end of the connection. He could feel her entire being, like they were becoming one for as long as this connection lasted. Despite that, Roxas still felt like himself, and he knew Xion did as well. He… He even liked being connected to her like this. Even if it meant shoving a cable into his wrist… Actually, he could get used to that, if it meant they could do this more often.

Xion was amazed how that little bit of humming had helped Roxas to calm down and form this connection. She definitely wasn’t going to become an enthusiastic singer, but she didn’t regret using her voice this time, just like Roxas didn’t regret letting himself in for this experiment. They both enjoyed the connection.

He reached for her hand by moving his own forward a bit, so their palms were touching. The touch was like a question, asking whether she was feeling the same.

Xion gently laced their fingers together. His hand was so warm, and the touch prickled a bit on her skin due to excitement.

Xion’s feelings were different from Roxas’, but they felt just as strong. She didn’t have the urge to protect as much as he did, and the metaphorical butterflies in her stomach were something Roxas had never experienced at all. He knew the warmth that came alongside them however, as well as the feeling of being about to overflow.

It was something Xion felt for no one else, a deep-running connection that went far beyond the current harmony of their bodily rhythms. Far deeper than it was reasonable. She didn’t care about that however, all she wanted… Actually, she didn’t want anything right now. Just having Roxas here with her, alive and well, was more than enough for her. He was more than enough for her.

He had his flaws, by all means, just like she did. Neither of them were perfect, and maybe they weren’t even perfect for each other, but neither of them cared. Who they were and what they saw in each other – they didn’t want to change any of that.

Their only wish was to stay with each other like this.

Xion opened her eyes and smiled. “So…” She sounded quiet, almost reverent. “This is… Love?”

Roxas still didn’t know for sure. But was there really a way to know for sure at the end of the day?

He shrugged. “Does it really matter?”, he asked. “All I know is that…” How was he supposed to say this? There wasn’t really a description… It was something just between the two, and nobody else. It was real – a reminder that they were real too. Nothing could ever change that. Roxas gave up. There was no reason to not say it like that.

“I think I love you, Xion.”

In that moment, the butterflies of light in Xion’s stomach were finally released for good. They had waited too long for the right time to fly, and now it was finally there. It was like an explosion of emotion, strong enough to even invoke physical feelings – the complete opposite to the empty void that had been their existence as Nobodies. They went everywhere, brightening up their surroundings as they filled it with all the colors they were made of. Roxas felt like a few of them brushed his skin.

Xion brought her free hand to his cheek. She only touched him lightly with her fingertips, as if she were asking a question, and Roxas answered it by leaning into it. Not too much, but enough to feel her palm too.

“Roxas…” He knew what she was going to say, but nothing could replace the feeling of hearing it from her with his own ears.

“I love you too.”

And with that, the music evolved into a symphony.

A tear dripped on Xion’s fingertip, and Roxas realized that he was crying. And Xion – a few tears ran down her cheeks as well. They were both overflowing now.

Roxas sighed in bliss and leaned his forehead against hers. He didn’t want this moment to end, but since everything eventually did, he wanted to relish in it as much as he could. “Can I kiss you?”

He knew her answer already, thanks to the ongoing connection between them, but hearing it from her just felt so much better.

Xion smiled, and he could swear her blue freckles had gotten more intense. Now he finally knew what they meant. “I was just about to ask the same.”

Love is free, free is love Love is living, living love Love is needing to be loved – John Lennon, Love

#RXWeek2021 #RokuShi Day #Kingdom Hearts #KH Fanfiction #RokuShi #Roxas #Xion #Fandom #Fanwork #Fanfiction #RokuShi Week #RokuShi Week 2021 #RokuShi Day 2021 #Currantlee writing #Currantlee completed #Currantlee completed Story #Currantlee completed KH Fanfic

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sorakingdomhearts · 4 years

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I just finished watching all of the Kingdom Hearts game cutscenes in 16 days! Under the cut, my super-long analysis post.

This was such a bad idea and also the best I’ve ever had. I can no longer tell the events of separate games apart, other than the stuff I added to this post’s draft while watching, but it’s given me so much to do in the quaran-times.

I would say my favorite games at this point are KH3, BBS, and 358/2 Days. I actually played through KH3 to like 90 something percent so I’m most attached to it, but storywise Aqua, Ventus, Roxas, and Axel/Lea have the best plots. If I had to pick a top favorite, other than Sora(because. Well. Sora’s my chosen middle name for a reason) I would say it’s Axel/Lea, and Aqua is the world’s closest second.

My favorite Disney worlds are probably Traverse Town for the music, Nightmare Before Christmas for the costumes(both the wintery ones and the spooky ones), Disney Town for the character appearances and aesthetic/colors, and BH6 for the plot/dialogue. Honorable mention to Hunchback of Notre Dame for being the only one I hadn’t heard about before starting this journey AND being a friend’s current hyperfixation so I got to share hyperfix joy with them for a bit.

I think Aqua has the best voice in the series. Especially with BBS 0.2/KH2.8 there’s quite a few scenes where the only dialogue is her talking to herself and she’s got such an emotional, pretty voice to pair with her heartbreaking journey home.

Axel/Lea’s relationship with his name is the same as a trans person with their deadname and I love that for him. For example, in the end of Dream Drop Distance, he gets frustrated with Riku not knowing it’s changed to Lea again but gives up on correcting him because the rest of what’s going on is more important. I’ve definitely done that with people deadnaming me.

On the other side of that coin, in ReMIND Demyx struggles to remember it’s Ienzo, not Zexion, but he corrects himself over and over. He doesn’t seem to want to deadname Ienzo, he just hasn’t gotten used to it yet. I think that more than anything else is what proved to me personally that Demyx really was trying to do something good.

Also, with Axel/Lea, can he not make bad jokes IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS OWN DEATH? Hello?! I said this on Twitter but hey, buddy, I love you dearly but now isn’t the time.

Xion’s name is pronounced she-on, not zee-on like I thought when I read it. Idk why I thought it was that way when I read it printed but it’s not.

Donald is always cute, all the time, and he’s cutest when he and Sora are squabbling like little kids. I love him. Or maybe that’s the Ducktales fan bias creeping in...

Speaking of HEY, WAS ANYONE GONNA TELL ME HDL AND SCROOGE ARE IN MORE THAN JUST THE KH TRILOGY?!?! What a pleasant surprise to see Scrooge in BBS and to visit Disney Town.

Nobodies make the wobble sound of laminated paper being shaken. I keep thinking about that for no reason.

Does anyone else think Riku saying he can “smell the darkness” on people in ReCOM is weird? Am I just really late to the party, or are we just going to ignore that? Yeah? Okay.

Aqua’s end of Birth by Sleep has some of the sweetest, most poetic dialogue in the series imo. When Aqua and Mickey are talking about Ven, and Sora and Riku talking about hurt within the heart? Yeah. I’ll cry.

Also, another sad scene: Isa and Lea as kids when Lea explains his whole “get it memorized” thing is so he can be remembered and live on, if need be. I cried real tears at that one.

Conversely, some of my favorite sweet scenes are: in the beginning of BBS when Aqua tells Ven and Terra they’d “make the weirdest brothers,” Sora meeting Santa in KH2(I think?) which reminds you hey, these are children, the scene right after they find out Goofy’s not dead and Donald flips out, Lea summoning his Keyblade for the first time(powermove,) and of course the series of reunions in KH3. There’s at least a solid scene or two in each game that really warms my cold sad heart.

Speaking of the KH3 reunions, the best one I think was Xion, Roxas, and Lea’s. At least with Aqua/Terra/Ven they started out with hope, and Aqua and Ven at least had the ability to hold onto that hope to get them through. The ex-Nobody crowd really didn’t have anything. Just the promise that they’d meet again, and maybe not even in this life. I will cry.

Some of the voice casting is surprisingly great. Like, Nala’s voiced by Vanessa Marshall, who did Gamora in the GOTG tv series. Love her. And Hynden Walch who does Starfire is the Alice voice at one point which was such a pleasant surprise.

Also hey, Zachary Levi went so fucking HARD on his voice work. Even Rapunzel has some lines that fall a little flat compared to the tone of the original, like the KH version of the “first time outdoors” sequence. But Flynn Rider has this consistent energy to him that I really love.

In ReCoded I really liked the second-person Mickey narration. Idk why. It just made me super happy.

Hercules is a movie that frequently becomes a level in these games and like every time they continue that trend of Phil’s “I got two words for you” joke like guys, wasn’t the thing in the original that it translated to two words in Greek? Not that he couldn’t count? Anyway that’s the best reoccurring joke. I hate it and love it in equal measure.

One of the frequent things in KH that I love is there’s this sense of ridiculousness to it. Like, it’s a lovely story with excellent worldbuilding and character designs, with a brilliantly complex plot, but like. You get into scenarios like the end of ReMIND, and Sora’s time-travelled to save his dying and sorta already dead friend(Kairi). He’s cradling his other dying friend in his arms and talking about how he found his way to them by tracing the connections between their hearts. Beautiful, poetic, showstopping, right? Except it’s Mickey motherfucking Mouse. You can’t find this anywhere else.

Speaking of ReMIND, the part where Sora connects all the keyhole things? It looks like a starry sky full of constellations? Yeah. Holy fucking SHIT is that pretty. I literally had to pause it twice to absorb the visuals in that scene.

To end off, here’s some of my pride headcanons: Terra and Xion are trans, Ventus and Riku are nonbinary, Saïx/Isa is agender, and Sora is genderfluid. Axel/Lea is pan, Kairi, Riku, and Sora are poly, and Aqua is bi. ((I definitely have more of these but these ones I think are most important.))

#kingdom hearts #kh #mine!

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paybackraid · 5 years

Text

What You Need To Hear

Summary: Namine cannot, and will not, let her best friends go without knowing they are loved.

Words: 9569

Characters: Namine, Vanitas, Riku Replica

Just a cute not-little Lost Trio fluff fic I wrote because I imagined Namine telling the boys that she loves them! :’) and then it went to town. Complete, possibly part of a series!

Also available under my FFN or AO3 profiles, under YAJJ.

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“Thanks for doing this for me, Sora,” Naminé said, leaning forward to show her friend her brightest smile. Sora was piloting her around the worlds, had kindly offered to do so when she said that she had some otherworldly errands she wanted to run. They weren’t really important, but she missed her new best friends so much. They didn’t live on the same world, like the rest of their friends seemed to gather. One was off “finding himself”, and the other was making a home for himself and the creatures who followed him. Neither of them were exactly people-people, so their seclusion did make sense. As long as they were happy, Naminé was happy. “You’re the best. I love you.”

Sora laughed his wonderful Sora laugh, all big and warm. He swerved out of the way of an asteroid, and flashed her his huge Sora smile. “Don’t even mention it! I’m happy to spend time with you. I don’t see you nearly enough.”

“I’ve been meaning to make it out to Destiny Islands, but between school, and the restoration, there hasn’t been time.”

She felt a little guilty, but only a little, that she was making time for the two strange boys attached to her heart and not the one that saved her. Sora always understood. And she would make it out to Destiny Islands! Just, not yet.

Sora gave her another grin, glancing over his shoulder. “I know! My mom’s making me do tutoring to catch back up which, ugh. And now that Riku and I are both Masters, we have to stay in tip-top shape. I’ve hardly had the time to call Ven, Roxas, or Xion, nevermind everyone else.”

“Well, let me know when tutoring is done, and I promise I’ll find the time to come out, okay?” And Naminé always kept her promises.

“We’ll make a day out of it!” Sora agreed happily. “Maybe even a whole weekend!”

“Sounds great!”

Naminé loved Sora so much, she really did. She made attempts at calling her best friends everyday, but they weren’t always available, and they didn’t always have the right social energy to talk, and she understood that. Even when they did, the two of them were sourpusses at heart. So sometimes, talking to Sora and his cheerfulness and readiness was a nice change of pace.

“So, where to? I know you said you were looking for Vanitas and Riku’s… uh, his replica, but you didn’t say where.”

“It’s Van and Ri,” Naminé corrected softly, smile never leaving her face. Van and Ri—two of the only people she knew of who were as lost as she. And in that loss, they’d found one another.

“Er, right. Van and Ri.” Sora was still a little weird around her two boys. One had tried to kill him and certainly had made attempts at the one locked away in his heart for so long, another looked exactly like his best friend when he was young, and shared memories with Sora of a thing that he couldn’t for the life of him remember. He was trying, but they were all still weird with each other.

“Van lives in Halloweentown, now, remember? So he can let his Unversed run free without being called freaks. He works at maintaining the graveyard there, I guess. Last I heard, Jack Skellington was very impressed.”

“That’s cool, I guess.”

“It’s honest work,” Naminé chirped. “And he’s actually really enjoying it there. He walks me through the Hinterlands when I call him. They’re spooky.”

“That, they definitely are. Okay, we’ll go to Halloweentown, then. Maybe I’ll go visit Jack and Sally, too! What about Ri? Is he still… exploring?”

“Yeah. He was in San Fransokyo yesterday, but he sounded like he was on the move, soon. All this is doing him good, too. He’s finding ways to be a separate person from Riku, even as simple as going to worlds Riku’s never been.”

“Aw, Riku’s a cool person to be,” Sora said with a fake pout. He knew of Ri’s circumstances, but would also say many things to come to the defense of his best friend.

“He is! I always liked Riku, he was so nice. But, Ri just… wants to be different. He’s trying to find a different name that he likes, too, but he hasn’t settled on one.”

“Maybe he should just stick an ‘x’ in Riku’s name and jumble up the letters.”

Naminé snickered, noting the mirth in his eye. “He’s not a Nobody.”

Sora laughed as he steered them toward Halloweentown, the dark and gloomy world already putting a light in her heart. Van may have been the dark half of Ven, once upon a time, but now there was no denying how happy he made her. He was going to be so surprised.

They landed just outside of the square, and Sora quickly cloaked the ship. Before they could step out, he cast the same cloaking magic that Donald used to cast to protect the world order. Out of the ship stepped a vampire, and a girl with webbed hands and feet, gills on her neck and frills around her head, the hem of her white dress dripping around her like water.

“Wow, Nam,” Sora said, looking her up and down while Naminé got as good of an eyeful as she could. This was her first time in Halloweentown, after all. “You make drowning look good.”

Naminé giggled and rolled her eyes. “Whatever, Sora. Come on! I don’t know where the graveyard is so you hafta show me, I bet that’s where Van is.”

“O-okay,” Sora said when Naminé squeezed his hand. “How are you even wet?”

“Let’s go!”

Sora led her around, tossing greetings at the townsfolk. All of them were surprisingly friendly, all waving to Sora and Naminé as if they’d known them their whole lives. That, Van had told her once, was the one thing he didn’t like about living here. For such a spooky town, these townsfolk were far too friendly.

Behind one of the decorative guillotines, Naminé got her first clue without even having to acknowledge Sora. Sitting atop a wall, there was a Flood, watching the sky. They, of course, had no order to protect, and Van didn’t often care one way or the other.

“Flood, Flood!” Naminé cheered. She didn’t bother looking around for its master yet; since coming to live here, the Unversed had become staples of the community, and so were allowed to roam wherever they wanted.

The Flood looked down to her and stared for a second, working out if it knew her or not. It slowly crept down the wall, clinging to the shadows, sticking its little nose out to get a good sniff.

“Aww, don’t be afraid, little Flood,” Naminé cooed, putting out her hand. Normally, she got along splendidly with the Unversed, but she looked so different, and it probably didn’t help that the water on her washed away easy traces of her scent. “You know me, I promise.”

The Flood crooned noiselessly; even now, Van was the only one who could hear them. It touched its snoot to her fingertips and took a deep sniff.

And quickly leapt from the wall to her shoulders, knowing her now. It pressed its head to her wet chin and happily rubbed its head all over, just like a cat. Naminé pretended she could hear the crooning, and happily pulled it forward into her arms, to hug it and kiss its head. These were both Van’s pets, and extensions of Van himself. Showing them as much affection as possible was the easiest way to make sure Van felt loved.

“...Nam? You good?” Sora asked after a moment of fierce affection. He struggled with the Unversed, too. Didn’t get the affection. But he definitely saw Naminé loving on the Unversed, and the Unversed loving on her right back.

“Yeah!” Naminé pulled her face from the Unversed’s skin, smiling so wide it showed off her fangs. “I’m good. Sora, if you want to go see Jack and Sally, I bet this little guy can take me to Van. Isn’t that right?!?”

The Flood happily crooned at her and turned over in her arms to show her its belly and claws. Naminé took that as agreement.

Sora didn’t bother to hide the relief on his face when she said as much. He turned away for a second, then glanced back to ask, “you sure you’ll be okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine! I’d trust him with my life. I’ll just text you if there’s any problems, okay?”

Sora sighed, shaking his head affectionately. “Okay, yeah let me know. Say hi to Van for me, okay?”

“Okay! Thanks Sora!!” Naminé chirped. When Sora turned away, Naminé was quick to say “good bye! Have fun!! I love you!!!”

Sora chuckled to himself and waved goodbye. “Okay, bye Naminé. Love you too!”

Naminé waved until Sora was out of sight, and then turned down to her little companion. “Okay, Flood, show me where Van is.”

Somehow, the little emotion understood her perfectly. It righted itself in her arms and took off out of the square, looking over its shoulder occasionally to make sure she followed. It darted up unnecessarily huge steps that she had to jump up, and then through the gates. Even just through the bars of the gate, she could see her target hard at work tending to some of the Jack o’ lanterns that just grew that way.

The Flood scootched over to its master, but didn’t disturb him, instead watching Naminé as if to see if she saw. Naminé followed it silently. Van didn’t scare easy, but she almost hoped she could startle him.

“Vani!!”

Van yelped when Naminé threw her arms around his neck and dragged him down. She had no balance to begin with and so fell to the side, and whatever balance Van had in his shaky crouch was lost with her weight. He fell on top of her, narrowly avoiding ramming his shoulder into her clavicle.

“What the hell?!?” Van snapped, getting an arm beneath him to get a good look at his attacker. His eyes darted all around her, and he seemed to know her, but wasn’t certain enough.

The Flood who had narrowly avoided death crooned up at him happily and hopped up onto his shoulder, nuzzling its face against Van’s. It must have explained what it knew, because he turned down to look at her, a tiny smile on his face.

“Nam?”

“Hi, Vani. Can I hug you?”

“If I say no, will you let me go?”

Naminé pouted but retracted her arms. He was in one of those moods, huh? “Of course I will.”

“Hnnnn,” Van said, baring sharp incisors. “...Yeah, you can.”

Naminé quickly replaced her arms around his neck and squeezed him tighter, so tight he was probably struggling to breathe. She buried her face into the hair on the back of his neck and laughed to herself. Van wasn’t always a great hugger, but he sure was great at receiving them. Or, sitting there and doing nothing while he got them.

At least sometimes he reacted to them very positively, hugging back when he was in a very good mood or at least pressing in close. At least when he did that, Naminé knew he didn’t entirely hate them.

“What are you doing here?” Van asked when Naminé climbed off of him, sticking one leg between his so he had no choice but to stay seated with her.

“I missed you,” Naminé said very simply, shrugging her shoulders.

“...We are several worlds apart,” Van said very quietly. “That’s insane.”

“I know! But I missed you a lot and I just… wanted to be with you for a bit. Not just talking to you. Touching you.” She grabbed his arm and pushed her claws gently into his skin. She was one of four people he let touch him—the others being Ri, Aqua, and Ventus. She used it to her advantage, but made sure not to overwhelm him too much that he stopped letting her get close. “You’re my favorite.”

Van’s cheeks went a shade of gray, barely detectable in the moonlight, and he looked away from her. She didn’t miss the tiny smile pushing at his mouth. Van had spent far too long not being cared for by anyone, so he was always embarrassed when Naminé, and occasionally Ri, casually said something along those lines. He didn’t respond, but Naminé didn’t expect him to. It was enough when he squeezed his legs together around hers.

“How long will you be here?” Van asked, leaning back and looking up at the moon. “I could show you the Hinterlands, if you wanted. We could go down to the lake.” He poked at her arm and smeared the water on her a little. “Bet this form would like that.”

“That’d be cool!! Sora never mentioned a lake. But I don’t know how long we’ll be here. I want to catch up with Ri, but he mentioned heading out in a few days so I want to get some time.”

“You’re gonna see Ri, too?” Van said. He turned suddenly excited red eyes on her, perking up like a dog. As much as he wouldn’t say so, he did miss Ri terribly.

“Yeah!! It’s quiet in Radiant Garden and I missed you both, and Sora I guess had some time and wanted to roam.”

“...He’s here?” Van peered back towards the gates, scowling. He didn’t exactly dislike Sora, but he didn’t really like him, either. After being sealed in Sora’s heart longer than anyone else, Naminé understood his hesitation. They’d gotten along for as long as it took to drop Van off and make sure he could get himself settled nicely, but after that the two lookalikes had to back off.

“Yeah, he wanted me to tell you ‘hi’ for him. He's visiting with Jack and Sally now, though. You're in the clear.”

Van didn’t bother to hide silent relief. He lifted a hand to scratch at the Flood on his shoulder, who crooned again and affectionately nuzzled his cheek. He leaned back and laid in the dirt crossing his arms beneath his head. Apparently, he was done talking.

Naminé smiled at him anyway. Neither of them were conversationalists, and she didn’t mind at all.

So she scooted in close, pulled her leg back, and laid down right in his personal space, watching him the whole time to make sure that she wasn’t invading too much. He was a little twitchy, but then he often was.

“Hey Van?”

“Hmm?” Van hummed softly, moving his arm a little. When Naminé snuggled in a fraction closer, he adjusted enough to allow it.

Naminé lifted her chin to watch his face, then lifted her head to press her lips against his jaw, kissing the place that used to be permanently covered. “I love you. You know that, right? I love you?”

For just the briefest of moments, Van looked startled. He definitely wasn’t expecting the question. Then he smiled, eyes beyond soft. “Well, you tell me every time we talk, so yeah I figured it out.”

The kiss was new, but Naminé didn’t regret it. He deserved to know and he deserved to feel it. “Good. I love you.”

He laughed a little, just a tiny bit, and squeezed her tight. He didn’t say it back; he never had, but Naminé wasn’t discouraged. She felt it, too, in how differently he treated her and Ri from everyone else, even the ones he got along with. He cared for her in ways he did no one else.

After another moment of peace, Naminé wiggled around and sat back up. Her frills were pressed wonkily around her head, but she didn’t have nerve endings in them so she couldn’t feel it. “C’mon! We might not have the time to explore the Hinterlands, but you can show me around town and we’ll pretend we’re looking for Sora. And your home!! I want to see it!!!”

“Okay, okay. Let me finish what I was working on,” Van requested. He sat up beside her and ran a hand through his hair. Beside him, most of the leaves on the Jack o’ lantern stems had been trimmed away and neatened up, except a small section where Naminé had interrupted him. He took the shears he had and went back to work, working efficiently and diligently. He threw his scraps in a metal bin Naminé hadn’t seen before, then closed the lid and set the shears on top.

Naminé took his hand but let him lead the way. The lone Flood hopped up onto her shoulder and happily nuzzled her wet cheek.

They artfully dodged Sora, who was being shown things around town by Jack. The first time had been entirely Van’s doing, but Naminé decided to make a game out of it, if only so she could spend just a little more time here. The closer to Sora they got before they had to dodge out of his presence or line of vision, the harder Naminé giggled.

She was also fairly certain that Sora actually knew they were there, or had an idea, but was letting her spend more time with Van rather than rushing her along.

Van showed her all sorts of things. Jack’s house was huge, to account for both his height, and his status as the Pumpkin King. Dr Finkelstein’s lab gave her the creeps, and Van very pointedly instructed his Unversed to stay far away. The fountain was beautiful, even though the water in it was green and goopy. Naminé was pretty sure there was someone in there; she wondered if it was part of her species.

Lastly, he dragged her to the end of the town, bordering the Hinterlands, just to look at it. Apparently, deep in these woods, there were doors to a different holiday world. Easter, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Independence Day. Van claimed he’d been in a few, but he wouldn’t say which.

They sat amongst huge gravestones, just looking out into the woods. The Flood played in pools of water Naminé left behind, very deliberately getting itself dripping only to climb into Van’s hair and shake off right there.

Van only laughed and shoved the little creature away. Naminé was glad he’d found himself a home and a place he was comfortable; it was clearly doing wonders for his annoyance and anger. It made her glad she had yet to ask him to move to Radiant Garden, with her. He was happier here.

“When we leave, you should come,” Naminé said softly, covering one of his calloused hands with one of her own.

“...Leave where?”

“To see Ri!” Naminé reached a hand up to her shoulder, where the Flood was perched again. “He’s in San Fransokyo, now. He misses you, you know. You don’t call him, do you?”

Van’s cheeks went a shade of gray, and he sharply looked away. “...he doesn’t call me, either. I work a lot.”

“I know,” Naminé sighed. “I know you do, you keep yourself busy and it’s real, honest work and I’m really proud of you for it. But even if he doesn’t pick up, you should still call him. It reminds him that he’s loved. He needs to hear it, too.”

“Yeah, well… whatever,” Van said, cheeks grayer. Though Van didn’t deny that he loved Ri, too, he was embarrassed that it was spoken aloud.

Naminé smiled but rolled her eyes, curling her fingertips around his. “It’s okay, you can tell him yourself when you come with us to see him.”

“Nam…”

“What?” Naminé asked, leaning back a little. The Unversed wrapped around her neck to stare at its master. “You miss him, you love him. You don’t talk enough. It’s an easy fix! And Sora won’t be too jumpy, I promise.”

Van frowned hard, taking his hand back and crossing his legs to lean forward a little, more than a little nervous. Since coming to live here, he had gotten accustomed to letting his Unversed run rampant. Going to other worlds meant he couldn’t do that. Which meant bottling. Ever since he no longer had to, since Master Xehanort’s passing, he hated bottling.

The Flood quickly crossed over from Naminé’s shoulder onto his, as if offering him comfort. It nosed his cheek, speaking to him, pressing closer and closer. Scrapper Unversed started materializing—he was getting very nervous.

If she pushed him too hard, he’d flat out tell her ‘no’. He was nervous, and it was time to back off.

“...But I won't think any differently of you if you decide not to come,” she said instead. He didn’t like having choices stolen from him; at least this way, whether he agreed to come or not, it was his choice, not hers.

“...I won’t make any promises about Mr Sunshine,” Van finally said after a long minute, shoving the Flood off of his shoulder and vanishing the hovering Scrappers. His shoulders were a little stiff, but he seemed a little more at ease.

A huge grin grew over Naminé’s face. She leaned her head down onto his shoulder and squeezed his hand. “Yay! I’m really happy you’re gonna come, Vani! Then I get to spend more time with you. And don’t worry about Sora, not much gets him down so if you don’t talk to him, he’ll get it. I’ll talk to him. I love you.”

Van’s cheeks once again went shades grayer. He mumbled something unintelligible under his breath, but he flashed her a surprisingly shy smile, lips sealed. As much as he could be a cocky asshole most of the time, something about having real friends now always made him clam up and get nervous. “Do what you want.”

“What are we doing?” Sora suddenly asked behind them, nearing from the town square. His sudden appearance made Van stiffen again, and slowly work Naminé off of him. Something about showing affection in front of people.

“Sora!” Naminé didn’t mind that she had been forcefully detached, at least. She squeezed Van’s hand once, then let go and hopped to her feet, leaving Van looking very deliberately away from Sora. “Sora.”

“Hi, Nam. Having fun?”

“Loads! Van and me have just been poking around. Listen, I know I asked him before asking you, but I hoped it was okay to bring Van with us to see Ri. They don’t talk as much as they should even though they’re like best friends.”

“I, uh… I mean, sure, if he wants to! I don’t mind. Wanna come with, um, Van?”

Van was still looking away from him, and did not respond. He still seemed embarrassed about being clung to and found out.

“He’s not feeling very social right now,” Naminé said very quietly, reaching out and touching Sora’s arm. “Nervous.”

“Ahh. Well, that’s okay! You’re definitely invited, Van!”

The Flood crooned up at her silently, touching her webbed feet as if asking a question of its own. She leaned down to scoop it up. “This little guy is probably gonna stay out, because it helps him, is that okay?” She grabbed one of its little claws in her fingers and waved it at him. The Unversed had no care whatsoever.

“Um, I guess, but make sure it doesn’t run around too much.”

“Will do! It’ll probably just stay in Van’s lap anyway; it helps.”

“Nam…” Van said warningly, shooting her a look.

Naminé winced, hugging it tighter in apology and hoping he felt it. “Er, or mine.”

“Okay. Well, if we want to get over to San Fransokyo before it gets too late, we should go! Timing’s a little different there, and you don’t want to miss their sunsets. C’mon!”

Van took a second to catch up, but Naminé waited for him anyway. She looped her arm around his loosely, and flashed apologetic eyes his way. He shrugged, but said nothing more on the subject.

Once they reached the Gummiship, Sora vanished the cloaking spell and let them in. Sure enough, when Van took a seat and was buckled in, the Flood leapt from Naminé’s arms into his lap, curling up like a pet. Naminé halfway expected it to start purring. She took the seat next to Sora again so he didn’t feel forced to be social, and once they were buckled in (Sora happily chirping “safety first!!”), they took off.

Naminé called Ri halfway to San Fransokyo, but hid who she was with and what she was doing to keep it a surprise. She screenshot her call so Sora had an idea of where they were going, then asked what he was up to. She happily shared conversation with Ri for a few minutes, until San Fransokyo showed up on Sora’s Navi-Screen, and she knew they were getting close. She happily turned her head back to look at Van, but he just watched the stars and asteroids fly by, and didn’t seem to notice. The Flood had yet to move.

“Okay, okay, I gotta go Ri! I love you!! See you soon!”

“...What?”

“Uh—nothing! Bye!”

“Smooth,” Van finally spoke up when Naminé hung up, which made Sora start to laugh, trying to at least cover it up with a wrist to his mouth for her sake. He reached over to take her phone when she offered it, saying “that’s where he was last.”

“Well,” Sora said cheerfully. “It’ll either be a huge surprise, or it’ll be small enough that he won’t get too surprised! If he’s anything like Riku, he won’t take surprises all that well.”

“He’s nothing like Riku,” Van snapped from the back, a hand resting on the Flood’s back and digging into its skin. “...But he doesn’t like surprises much.”

“He can be like Riku sometimes,” Naminé said. “He likes Riku. You’re the one who doesn’t.”

“He likes Riku because he thinks he has to,” Van corrected bluntly. “He’s still somewhere between ‘I Am Riku’, and ‘I Am Definitely Not Riku’, and all that self love crap is confusing him.”

“...Well, I hope it’s not crap,” Naminé said under her breath, frowning. Self love was not crap, and it wasn’t conceited either. It was a hard lesson that every person she knew of seemed to need working on, not just her boys.

“...I’m just saying,” Van said, conceding just a fraction.

Sora laughed goodnaturedly then coughed into his elbow when he felt Vanitas’ glare on him, silencing quickly. San Fransokyo was nearly just beneath the ship, so Sora turned the nose down sharply to descend into orbit. Naminé, and Vanitas behind them, both gripped their seats as the landing got shaky—no more than usual, but getting through the atmosphere was always a little disruptive. The Flood even darted into Vanitas’ jacket and poked its little head out to watch.

The massive blue and green expanse they flew above soon gave way to a huge red bridge. Sora excitedly started talking about the first time he got here, flying toward the forest on the other side of the bridge, away from the city. Sora happily chattered about how apparently this bridge, the Torii Gate Bridge, was one of the largest in this world. Naminé supposed that was cool—probably would be cooler, if she lived on this world or visited it regularly.

Still, the bridge was massive. That was cool. There was a semi-secluded clearing not far from the bridge that Sora dropped the ship into. Cloaking themselves apparently wasn’t necessary, so they exited the ship, and Sora cloaked it from view. Van took the Flood from his shoulder and stared at it, nervous. At least with one Unversed out, he could feel through it without being totally trapped. The Flood nosed his face and clawed at his hands happily.

“I bet,” Naminé said, feeling his nerves deep in her soul, “that if you put it in your jacket and don't make a big deal out of it, it’s fine to stay with you.” She couldn’t even imagine what it must be like, to not be able to feel emotions at all, without giving birth to a creature of darkness. That was one particular power of his that he’d never been able to put to words for them. The Unversed at least seemed to take on his emotions, varieties of them, once they were free, so he could feel in small spurts.

“...Yeah.”

“There’s lots of huge buildings too, with like 500 foot roofs at least, that are away from people and easy to get to, so they can, like, go free there,” Sora chirped. “C’mon! The sunset is to die for.”

Naminé gave him affectionate eyes, which she then tossed back to Van to see him lift his jacket and tuck the little critter inside. The Unversed seemed perfectly content to bury its face into its master’s side.

The walk felt long to start, but then Sora flashed a wink at them and took Naminé’s hand, reminding her to have “light feet”, whatever that was supposed to mean. He crouched his knees just a little and waited for a decent sized passing car, and he and she jumped, much to Van’s surprise and hidden delight, on top of it. He followed suit quickly after, and the trip into the big city took much less time.

Naminé was giggling like mad when they finally dismounted from behind, likely startling the driver. Sora waved them off with a sheepish grin, while Van actively fought back the appearance of another Unversed of some kind, hand protectively over his mouth.

“Why didn’t you just glide?” Naminé asked once Van successively fought back the rush of emotion, eyeing Sora. “It’d be easier. Scare less people.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

“Did you really just ask,” Van asked, voice strained like he was still fighting back tarry vomit, like it was still balled in his throat, “where the fun is in flying?”

“Besides,” Sora said, ignoring him. “I didn’t think either of you could glide.”

Van frowned and looked away. Naminé mumbled sheepishly about not being that far in her magic. That was all the answer he needed.

“Come on! Can I see your phone again? I’ll take you right to where he was, then I wanna see if I can track down Hiro and the others!”

Naminé passed off her phone. Sora got a good idea of the area, where Ri had been surrounded by round pink bushes, and then took off, Naminé followed closely with Van trailing a little behind.

It was outside of a huge building, but Naminé decided that wasn’t saying much since all the buildings here were huge. The bushes were pretty much perfectly round and absolutely, in Naminé’s opinion, delightful.

Ri, though, was not lost amongst them. This city was much bigger than Halloweentown was and, unlike with Van, there would be no delightful little darkness critters to lead her right to her best friend. They’d either have to hunt him down, or…

“Would the Flood know his scent?” Naminé asked Van, looking at the little blue critter tucked into his coat. “If he was just here?”

“You would be amazed,” Van started, but he obediently removed the little creature, “just how stupid these things are. I doubt it’ll know Ri.”

“Aren’t they extensions of you?” Sora asked, half-innocent. Van shot a positively evil glare on him, and Sora paled and took two steps back. “Um, I’m gonna dash, track down Hiro and them, okay? Just, um, remember the World Order, and call me if you get lost, this world is easy to get lost in. And!! Call me just before sunset, I wanna watch with you guys and catch up with, um, with Ri for a bit. We’ll get ice cream!! Okay?! Have fun!!” Like that, Sora was off. He freeran up the damn building and leapt onto the railing of the highway above them, grinding off quickly.

Naminé waved him off, bouncing on her toes. “Bye Sora!! I love you!!!”

Van shook his head, but now that they were alone again, the affection on his face was much freer to show when he looked at her. “You say that a lot.”

Naminè looked back at him, flashing her best grin. “Yeah, well, it’s true, and everyone should know. Don’t worry, you and Ri are still my favorite.” She surged forward and took his hand, and when he didn’t stiffen which normally meant he was okay with contact, she moved the rest of the way in and wrapped her arms around him, burying her cheek against his shoulder. “I love you.”

“Yeah, well, whatever. C’mon, before we miss him.” Excitement shown on his face, and in the suddenly jittery Unversed. It had been a long time since he had last seen Ri. “Find Ri.”

The Unversed, apparently stupid as Van claimed, just stared at him, shaking a little as Van’s excitement leaked off of it.

“Go.”

If the Flood had been human, its eyes would have been dead.

But Naminé knew what to do. These things were extensions of Van himself, after all. She crouched in front of it and scratched its head, noting the way Van turned his head just slightly as if he could sort of feel it. “Go, find your best friend.”

The Flood stared at her, but this time with less stupidity and more confusion, like it was asking “why are you asking me to find you?” Then its nose twitched, and it whirled around and hopped over one of the bushes, now knowing what it was looking for.

Naminé glanced back to see Van completely gray in the face, blackened blood making his skin turn ashen. If she didn’t know any better, she’d have thought him ill, but she did know, and so knew he was needlessly embarrassed.

“Shut up,” he said, then took off after his Flood. Naminé laughed and followed.

The Flood was sniffing at a spot by one of the bushes that looked recently matted down, as if Ri had been laying there before vacating. Once it got a decent enough scent, it looked back at them as if to make sure that they were catching up. Then, it took off toward the side of the building, melted into the surface, and ascended like it was no problem.

Naminé stared up at the little critter, seeing its shadow in the building but only slightly. She looked to her companion. “You know how to freerun?”

“I think so. You?”

“I hope so.” Naminé gulped, then took Van’s hand and laced their fingers together. “Come on!”

She jumped and he jumped with her, activated their high jump, and angled themselves so their feet touched the building, and she prayed to something. Sure enough, their feet clung to the side of the building, as if gravity was merely a suggestion. After a second, she lost her footing, but as soon as they started moving, gravity forgot to care about them, and they followed the Flood up to the roof. It was a testament to how much time Sora spent here climbing walls, when so few people even noticed.

They soon had to jump to another building, following the Flood’s suggestion, and headed towards the center of town. It lead them up another tall building, where it rocketed right to the top of the building and stopped.

Once Naminé and Van were safely obeying gravity once again, the Flood took off to its final destination, the shoulder of the person standing there and staring at the flying fish things.

Ri started hard, not knowing they were there at all, when the Flood happily launched onto his shoulder and forcefully nuzzled his face. He grabbed it and lifted it away, then realized exactly what it was. “Flood…?” It would make no sense for an Unversed to be here, unless…

He turned in the direction it had come from, eyes absolutely lighting up when he saw its master, his best friends. “Naminé? Van?”

“Ri!” Naminé gasped. She luckily avoided tripping over her feet in her rush to grab him. She launched forward and hugged him so viciously that he lost his footing and hit the roof on his rear. She understood why Van didn’t like being touched, what most of his life had been like before turning to the Light, but she was still really really happy that Ri didn’t have the same qualms. She loved hugging him. He had been, out of everyone she knew and loved, of Sora and Roxas and Xion and Axel and Kairi and now Van, he had been her first friend. She huddled into his suddenly exposed lap and pressed in all the closer, possibly squashing the Flood. “I missed you. I love you.”

Ri was still somewhere between amazed and startled, staring up at Van and eyes darting toward the blond hair not for from his face. After a moment though, he wiggled the Unversed somewhere safe, and hugged Naminé back just as tightly, kissing her cheek for good measure. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Aw, didn’t you miss us?” Van asked, half mocking. There was black tar dripping out the corner of his mouth, which meant Van was attempting to squash emotions and, ultimately, was failing.

“I kidnapped Van.”

“Of course you did,” Ri said with an affectionate sigh. The affection flashed between both his friends, and Naminé knew there was no judgment toward Van for not being the one to decide on his own to visit. Where Ri wanted freedom to be who and where he wanted to be, rather than trapped in a castle or Riku’s heart, Van wanted control over his life and choices, and a place to call home.

Ri shoved Naminé off of him playfully, then got back to his feet, offering the Flood to its master, although the extra outlet for emotion didn't seem like it would do him any good. An Unversed was well on its way.

Regardless, Van stepped forward and opened up his arms, a gesture he had never given to anyone but them. “I’m hugging you,” he said, a semblance of the question they always posed for him. Naminé wasn’t sure if he was telling them that yeah, it was okay and he wasn’t forcing it, or maybe it was him warning himself, but he had always done it and they didn’t question it.

“I won’t stop you,” Ri assured with a laugh. Like Naminé had, he invaded Van’s personal space and buried his face in Van’s shoulder. Despite not being terribly tall, Van was still the tallest of them, and Ri and Naminé always took full advantage of it when he let them.

The hug lasted for five seconds tops, before Van suddenly lurched in Ri’s arms and shoved him to the side, not violently but enough to get him out of the way. A hand flew to his mouth, and he quickly doubled over, gagging. Naminé and Ri’s hands quickly went to his back.

He lurched again, a terrible, bubbled noise coming out of his throat. Thick, black tar flew out and splattered on the metal, more dripping from his mouth to fill out the pool. He coughed and more came up, bubbling out of his mouth. He spat the acrid taste out and shuddered there, hands on his knees, Naminé and Ri rubbing his back helpfully. After a minute, the tar bubbled up again and took life, forming into a Hareraiser who stared up at its master and stepped forward as if to help soothe.

“...Did you have to do that now?” Ri asked, shit-eating grin spreading across his face.

Van shot him a heated glare and pulled a kerchief out of his pocket, a gift from Jack Skellington apparently, judging by the skeleton face in the corner. “You know damn well I don’t have a choice. I should kick you off this building.”

“No!!”

After a moment, the three sat at the edge of the building, staring at the mechanical flying fish. Naminé linked her fingertips with Ri’s and leaned on his shoulder, giving Van the space he needed after so violently birthing another Unversed. The Hareraiser perched on Ri’s shoulders and occasionally nuzzled him happily, very much embarrassing Van again without meaning to.

“Why did you guys come here?” Ri asked after a short amount of time, silver hair swaying in the breeze. He kept his hair back in a low pony now, because he didn’t like his hair getting in his eyes but wasn’t prepared to cut it yet. Kairi had once braided it not long after he was reborn, lamenting how much she missed Riku’s long hair. “I mean, why here. Why now?”

“We missed you, dumbass,” Van snapped.

“We love you,” Naminé said very simply, making Van sigh while Ri tossed her the fondest expression known to man. He squeezed her tight, and stuck his tongue out at Van, who snottily stuck his out back at him.

“She’s become fond of the phrase,” Van explained, although it was hardly necessary.

“Well, I do. And we did miss you, and I had time, and I had Sora. We do miss you. Plus Van doesn’t call you because he’s mean.”

“Oh yeah, he’s the worst.”

“Hey,” Van snapped. “I just spit up some awful bunny for you.”

The Hareraiser raised its ears as if aware it was being spoken of. Van winced when supposedly its voice shrieked in his head.

“Happy birthday to me.”

“Screw this, I’m going home,” Van snapped, although the tone in his voice suggested less. He shoved himself up off the side of the building, turning around to walk away. Ri laughed and released Naminé to lean back and grab at Van’s ankle. The Hareraiser lifted its ears to wrap around his knee, too, forcing Van to a stop. Well, more or less; he was certainly powerful enough to kick them both off without struggle, if he really wanted to.

“Get back here, asshole, we’re only messing with you. Of course I like your awful bunny. It’s wonderful.”

The aforementioned Unversed cheered to itself, waving its ears in delight. Van kicked its ear, and Ri’s hand, out of his way, then obediently melted into the rooftop, crossing his arms over his crossed legs. Naminé leaned her head back and flashed him her best smile.

The trio fell back into silence. Ri was stretched back, one hand knotted in Naminé’s shirt, the other just barely grazing Van’s knee. The wind was cool and gentle, the sun bright but they were protected by the shade of the building. They were so high up that the chatter from down below was pretty much non existent. It was like the three of them were the only people in the whole world.

“...You know,” Ri suddenly said, stretching his hand up to reach for nothing but air. “I think this is the best random hangout session we’ve ever had.”

“I don’t think we’ve had one before,” Naminé said. Since the three of them regularly lived on different worlds, nothing they did could be random. Everything was planned. It was nice, and it worked for them. She’d take what she could get.

“You have sad hangout sessions,” Van commented, flicking his head. “All we’ve done today is find you, hug, I threw up an Unversed, you made me hate you, and this.”

“Thrilling,” Naminé agreed, in such a sardonic Roxas voice that it made her start giggling to herself.

“Shut up Van. Naminé has a point. We haven’t had one before, and that means that legally I’m allowed to call this one our best yet.”

“Legally?” Van asked with a laugh. His laugh had mellowed out since his release from the dark, and Naminé and Ri both found it quite pleasing. “You must not have gotten the memo. You aren’t allowed to do that anymore. CDA’s gonna come and break down your door.”

“CDA? What the fuck is CDA?”

“Oh—wrong world?” Van pulled a face, and Naminé and Ri started laughing with him. Naminé pushed herself back a little and laid back to use one of his knees as a pillow. It was bony, and he was still skinny, but she liked the warmth.

“I agree with Ri,” Naminé said softly. The Flood was in her arms, arguably sleeping if Unversed ever slept. “This is the best, even if all we’ve done is find Ri and watch you throw up. I really needed this.”

“Needed?” Ri asked, turning his head to look at her. And there it was, that protective thing he was always so good at.

“You didn’t say anything was wrong earlier,” Van said, voice suddenly tight. Naminé worried she was forcing on him some sort of emotion that was going to come bursting out in the form of black tar.

“No no it’s… I mean, everything’s fine. Nothing’s wrong, don’t either of you go worrying about me.”

“Legally we have to,” Van protested.

“Shut up.”

“Everything’s fine! I just, I’ve been missing my favorite people a lot, and we don’t always talk as much as I like, and obviously we can’t spend a lot of time together and, I don’t know, I guess I’ve been lonely.”

“Lonely?” Ri sat all the way up, removing himself from Van’s personal space, to look down at her. He shared a suddenly nervous look with Van, who shifted a little to allow the adjustment. “You can’t be lonely. You said you’ve been doing better.”

“I was. And I am! Leon and his team, they’re all awesome. Sora’s awesome. Xion’s awesome. Terra’s—awesome. But they’re not… they’re not… I don’t know. I know I shouldn’t be lonely because I have friends now, loads of them, and it’s great! Kairi calls me every day, all the time, and she keeps saying ‘oh, you should have seen what Sora did this morning!’ or ‘Riku spent the night last night and we were up for hours’. Stuff like that. I just. I don’t know.” Naminé looked away from Ri and Van, going red in the face. She hugged the Unversed closer. She didn’t want to look at either of them, because she knew why they did what they did, and she knew why she did what she did. She didn’t even always feel like this, in fact most often she didn’t, but some days the miss happened, and she called up Sora to drag her all across galaxies. “I don’t know.”

“Nam—Nam, do you… are you jealous?” Ri asked, poking her bare arm. “Of Kairi? ‘Cause I mean that’s cool, Kairi’s cool, but if you ask me she’s got nothing on you.”

“Are you, like…” Van leaned over her a little, struggling with his words because emotions were hard to feel, let alone talk about. “...sad? That we don’t live on the same world as you?”

“It’s dumb! I know it’s dumb! Because you guys are awesome. You really really are! You’re out there living your best life, Van you have a steady job that keeps you busy and distracts your anxiety that you’re really good at, and you have a home where your emotions can do whatever they need or want to the way that they should, and that’s awesome!! Ri, you’re out here exploring worlds upon worlds upon worlds, you’re finding yourself in this spectacular way and you’re finding out every way that you are and aren’t Riku and that’s awesome. I hate feeling like this. Because it isn’t fair of me to want to uproot you from where you guys are finally happy.” Naminé squeezed the Unversed even tighter, so tight the squeak was nearly audible, but the wince from Van was definitely visible.

Van and Ri shared another look before looking down on her. Van lifted her head and scootched out his knee from beneath. He moved a little and slid down alongside her, laying back so they were side by side. Ri scooted down and laid on her opposite side. The three huddled together like sardines, and for once none of them minded the touch in the slightest.

“It’s okay, Nam. If you miss us. Or if you want to call us up in the middle of the night because world times are fucked up and you want to tell us all about your latest art project. We might not talk but we’ll listen. Well— I’ll listen, Van’ll fall asleep.”

“You—knew damn well how much work I did the day before, you called me then on purpose!”

“Shut up Van this isn’t about you.”

“Pot shot,” Naminé said quietly, reaching over to pinch Ri like Van asked her to every time he made a low blow.

“The point is, we’re still your friends, no matter what. You were my first friend.”

“You were my first friend,” Van agreed softly.

“So we’ll be here, even when you’re lonely and you don’t think you should be.”

Naminé sighed, wiggling her shoulders a little so she came out on top. “I know. In my head, I know. I just… it’s not the same as being with you. Touching you.” She released the shaky Unversed, reaching out both her hands to track down Van and Ri’s hands. “Even when you don’t always like it.”

“...Sorry we can’t be there, then,” Van mumbled. Their pinky and ring fingers locked.

The trio lapsed once again into silence. The Hareraiser once again found Ri’s free hand and was demanding head skritches, so Van occasionally turned his head in a fruitless attempt to get away from the bizarre muted feeling.

“You know what I think?” Van suddenly asked, which was odd considering he didn’t often voice his opinions unless he was being snide.

“What do you think,” Ri asked.

“I think somewhere out there, there’s a world for us. Like how stupid Ventus and his friends have a world practically made for them, and OG Riku and his friends have a world made for them, and even the two carbon copies and their friends have worlds made for them. I think somewhere there’s a world like that for us. Some kind of weird mix of light and dark.”

“Mostly dark,” Ri interjected halfway playfully, watching him. Van was suddenly talking with his free hand, fingers up towards the clouds.

“Oh obviously, light is gross.”

“Obviously,” Naminé giggled.

“What do you think of this world made for us?” Ri asked. “What will we do with it?”

“I dunno. I’m not saying we, like, we move there but. Who knows. Maybe one day, you’ll go there Ri, and you’ll find out its like hella artsy and shit. So you call up Naminé, and because it’s hella dark and there are weird monsters everywhere you call me, and now we have to go check it out, and maybe we just don’t leave.”

“Hmmm…” Naminé said seriously, setting her chin. “We’ll be on the same world.”

“Pretty much all the time.”

Naminé’s smile grew back over her face, in a soft and gentle way that really, Van and Ri both loved. “I think that sounds amazing, Van.”

“Yeah, it sounds pretty cool. I’ll keep my eye out for really super fucking dark but also really super fucking artsy worlds, and I’ll let you know the next one I see.”

“Cool.”

“Until then,” Ri said, squeezing Naminé’s hand, “maybe Van and me can get out to Radiant Garden more. So you’re not so lonely. Would that be okay? Van?”

“...Yeah. I can make it work. But Naminé, you have to show us something cool every time.”

“Legally, or CDA will kill you.”

Naminé looked between her two half-bickering boys, her best friends in the whole multiverse, attempting to make plans that she wasn’t even sure they’d be able to keep, just because she sometimes got lonely. The Flood was nuzzling her chin as its own affection as well as Van’s took over.

“...Okay, I think I can do that. I really love you guys.”

Ri pressed closer to her and leaned his head against hers. Van squeezed her hand tight, and she knew they felt the same.

Sora was right. The sunset was fucking spectacular, especially from the vantage point atop the Torii Gate Bridge. As promised, Naminé called up Sora and they met him on the bridge. Van glared at him, but then he presented bars of chocolate ice cream, and he mellowed out. Sora took a slightly higher vantage point than them, leaving the three to their companionship while still able to interject himself.

Ri had spent the rest of the day showing them cool things around the city and talking about his time there. He only dropped Naminé’s hand when he had to.

He also carried the Hareraiser around all day, and it curled in his lap now, not prepared to leave, apparently. Van mumbled under his breath when he noticed, but didn’t seem all in all too upset that it stayed where it was.

“I feel like we should come back here more,” Naminé said softly. “Just for this part. Or for all of it. Today was great.”

“I’m leaving here the day after tomorrow,” Ri reminded her, poking her head.

“...Elsewhere then. Somewhere else pretty. Oh!! The Caribbean would be cool.”

“We should live there,” Van agreed. “They have ships and you don’t have to talk to people because you can be on the ocean one hundred percent of the time.”

Ri rolled his eyes and smacked a fist on Van’s thigh, making him laugh.

“That won’t work because I need electricity to do digital art and also phones won’t charge.”

“Yeah, Van, you’d die without your phone.”

Van willed an Archraven into existence, then pulled out his phone to consider it. He shrugged, said “eh”, and tossed it over the edge.

“Van!”

The Archraven instantly trailed after the little device, depositing it back in his lap and perching on his shoulder.

“That’s the only way we can contact you when you’re on a different world, asshole!”

Naminé, giggling, dropped her head toward her lap and the Flood, who lifted its snoot to her, ready to be kissed. “Why are you the way that you are,” she said, as Van had asked them a number of times when he was simply too tired to put up with their shenanigans. She took the Flood’s head in her hands and angled it back a little bit so she could easier kiss it.

“Hey, you guys like me this way, that’s not my fault.”

Ri let out a startled laugh and shoved Naminé into him, making them both start laughing as well. The Archraven waved its wings in protest of the movement and clicked its beak at Ri. They settled and left the poor Unversed be.

“...I don’t think I want to go home,” Naminé said. “I love Radiant Garden, but I don’t wanna say goodbye yet. I love you guys so much.”

“We love you too,” Ri said softly, flashing her a warm smile.

“Love you too,” Van agreed, halfway startling Ri and Naminé. They looked at him with huge eyes; he’d never said so before. He showed it, but he’d never said the words.

“...You do?”

“Yes? God, fuck off. Nevermind then.”

“Nono!!” Naminé gasped, flinging her arms around him and squeezing him tight. “I love you too, Vani. I’m just surprised you didn’t throw up an Unversed again.”

“...That really only happens when it’s sudden.”

Naminé squeezed him tighter, enjoying that implication. “I hope it’s okay that I’m hugging you. I forgot to ask.”

“Yeah yeah…” Van said, putting his arm around her. “Just don’t make a habit of it.”

Ri stood from where he was now left alone and slunk over to Van’s other side, putting his arms around him and squeezing him tight too. “I’m hugging you now, since they’re free.”

“Whatever. Last one.”

Naminé leaned her head on Van’s shoulder, looking up to Sora who was smiling very warmly at them. He leaned back and watched the sky, as if they had all the time in the world. Maybe they did. She didn’t know how times worked on different worlds. “Do you love him too, Van? Or just me.”

“Definitely just you.”

“Ouch,” Ri said with a laugh.

“Van!”

“You asked!”

“It’s okay Nam,” Ri said, patting her head. He released Van and let him take some space back. “I know he loves me because a few weeks ago I called him three times on the same day and he only yelled at me for like ten minutes the last time.”

“Three times in one day is unnecessary.”

“It must be love,” Naminé agreed.

“It is,” Van snapped, then he realized he’s spoken alone and his skin went several shades ashier. “Anyone else but you two and I wouldn’t even have answered once.”

That was true.

“Yeah, well, anyone else but you two and I wouldn’t even have called, so it must be love or something.” Ri gently kicked Van’s boot so he knew, and Van kicked back.

Naminé smiled at her friends and leaned back, the sunset now almost totally blocked out by the Flood. “You know, I think today might be the best day ever.”

Ri leaned back. Van sat up between them, but put his hand on her belly to pat.

“I think you’re probably right.”

#my writing #creative aces #kh #khfanfic #lost trio #namine #vanitas #repliku #riku replica #i just really love the lost trio you guys I really really do #vanitas is definitely ooc #and it's only partly because he's healing #not re:mind or kh3 compliant #sorry guys no links i want this to show up somewhere #also reblog or die by my blade

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thedeliverygod · 5 years

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Reasons Why I Really Enjoyed Kingdom Hearts III

The music. Every time I listen to the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra -World of Tres- soundtrack, it makes me want to play the game. The music is so much attached to the imagery and gameplay that I can’t seem to separate the two. Granted, I’ve always loved the music of the Kingdom Hearts series. But there is something about hearing music from KH3 that makes me go “wow, I really want to go play in the Kingdom Of Corona right now” etc. That’s something I never really experienced before this game; I of course relate the music to the worlds and moments that they played during, but they’ve never gotten me in the mood to immediately go turn on my console and play. Also, full Kingdom Hearts III soundtrack when??? (I suppose the answer is when all the DLC is released and the soundtrack is considered COMPLETE but... I just really want it okay.)

The visuals. Continuing off the last point... Kingdom Hearts III is G O R G E O U S. I had my doubts about the unreal engine and honestly, I had my doubts about KH getting a more detailed look in general. I enjoyed watching the FMV videos at the beginning and ends of the games but the more cartoony in-game graphics always felt like home to me. It took some time and a lot of trailers to gain my approval, but the final product was gorgeous. Granted... I honestly still have some complaints. Mostly about my old boss, our own King Mickey; I feel the new style doesn’t show his emotions very well but hopefully that’ll improve in time? Moving on from the characters... The worlds. Omg, the worlds. The detail that went into them is astounding; not to mention the effects that magic has on your surroundings when using it! And then of course, there’s the battle animations. Flashy, amusing, and destructive? A win, in my opinion, and definitely true to the Disney name.

World Building. The worlds are finally not lifeless dioramas from the movies! It always bugged me when they’d talk about climbing up a mountain or something like that, and in reality we’d pass through 2 or maybe 3 areas with very gradual elevation changes and the characters would be like “phew what a rough journey” and you’d be like “that literally took one minute but okay”. The North Mountain from Arendelle is a REAL MOUNTAIN. Like the Heartless knocked me off after I had been climbing for like 20 minutes and I felt like I had suffered an actual loss. How dare they make my perilous journey even longer by knocking me off the side of the mountain?! Luckily, I found a shortcut so it was fine, but it actually felt like accomplishing something while climbing that mountain which was... amazing. My other favorite experience was gathering together the green blocks to make the cactaur in Toy Box. Being in that play area made me feel like a kid again, I haven’t been in one of those spaces in so long and it was nostalgic and just so fun to crawl through all of those ball pits and tunnels to find those blocks. Lastly, there were finally citizens in the worlds! Mind you, there were kind of like maybe 5 designs at most that got repeated over and over... but still! It was a vast improvement from what we’ve seen in recent years.

Dialogue & Interaction. Let me tell you how excited I was that there was FINALLY DIALOGUE WHILE EXPLORING! It was so fun listening to the trios conversations and funny quips. Of course, “Look, it’s a lucky emblem!” and “This looks like a good spot to find some ingredients!” did get annoying, especially when I couldn’t find where the heck said things were, but I think an update calmed those exclamations down because I heard them a lot less during my 2nd playthrough. Adding the selfie function the gummi phone? BEST. DECISION. EVER. I had so much fun taking selfies with the various Disney characters and seeing what their reactions to the camera were. Of course, characters like Hiro & Honey Lemon knew what a camera and a selfie were, but Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff? They were just like ummm do I smile for this thing? Okay!!! And then there’s Mike and Sulley who make especially funny faces for the camera. It’s just all around a blast. Moving on to cutscenes, I know there’s been some debate about the voice direction but my personal opinion is this game is the best it’s ever been. The conversations and especially jokes (thank god) finally sound natural. In the past, things have been either just really forced or really cheesy and I’ve just sort of been like “Oh, well it’s Kingdom Hearts/it’s Disney, it’s gonna be cheesy.” But like there’s a right way to be cheesy, and the moments I’m thinking of... aren’t it. KH3 did it right. There’s still a few things that were rough around the edges, like Sora’s “unforgettable... like your face~” to Donald lol it was still really funny but it was also just like “oh my god you nerd”. Also all the jokes about Sora not being a Keyblade Master yet came off as just mean spirited to me, but that’s another subject entirely.

Character Moments. KH3 gave us a lot of what we had been waiting for. Aqua’s reunion with Sora and Riku, the boys she met on Destiny Islands so long ago. Her long awaited return to the realm of light. Aqua and Sora waking Ventus up from his long, deep slumber. Terra’s redemption and reunion with his friends. Aqua, Terra, and Ven getting to see Eraqus again and saying goodbye. Kairi and Lea becoming keyblade wielders (officially). Kairi and Xion facing off in battle. Xion and Roxas brought back to life as replicas and their reunion with Axel/Lea. Sora and Kairi sharing a paopu fruit. Sora and Namine finally getting to talk (at least, somewhat). Namine getting a body through a replica. The return of org members who had vanished after CoM & KH2 (Marluxia, Demyx, Larxene, etc). The return of Replica Riku. Others I’m probably forgetting lol.

Reveals & New Info. With the end of a saga, we have some mysteries finally answered. Of course, this game is also setting us up for a new saga, so we’ve also got a lot of lose ends. Luxu is revealed as Braig/Xigbar. The Master of Masters is shown in the secret ending after vanishing for thousands of years, but who are they? Not to mention the foretellers managed to show up after also being absent for a long period of time as well, minus Ava. What’s she up to? Who’s Yozora and why did he show up as a video game character in Toy Box but also in the same world as Riku in the secret ending? Nomura-san says that the Shibuya shown in the secret ending isn’t the same universe as TWEWY, but why bother introducing the characters and Shibuya itself if it’s not going to tie in later? What exactly is happening at the end of KH3? Is the group looking out over the ocean or looking at the tree where Sora and Kairi are? Are both scenes happening at the same time or at separate times? Why exactly does Sora vanish? What are the exact stipulations and reasonings behind all the warnings Young Xehanort gave Sora? There’s so many things I am so eager to learn about and I can’t wait for DLC and/or the next full game.

The Story Is Not Over. We’ve got DLC coming to us, and from the sound of it, a decent amount of it. At least, enough to keep us satisfied until the next game. And please, no “they should have sold us a complete game” comments. They said multiple times they had to cut content in order to release a game that fit on the disc. Also remember, KH2.8′s Birth by Sleep 0.2 -A Fragmentary Passage- was originally supposed to be the INTRO of KH3. If they fit all the content they wanted to fit into KH3... we would probably be looking at a 2, maybe 3 disc game. Anyway, good things come to those who wait, so that’s all I’ve got to say on that.

#Kingdom Hearts #KH3 #Kingdom Hearts III #I am probably making a mistake by tagging this but here

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nadziejastar · 4 years

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How exactly did you reacted when you figured out that the 'Mystery girl' Subject X has been shoehorned into Lea and Isa's backstory?

Honestly, I was just baffled. I couldn’t believe that Nomura was just gonna throw away ALL that foreshadowing only to tell me that Lea and Isa were not the real test subjects....they were just FRIENDS with a girl who was a test subject. That just made no sense to me. I was speechless. It would have been a million times more interesting for Lea and Isa to be test subjects. Axel is super popular and complex. And Saix needed a tragic backstory to redeem him. Why would you NOT make them test subjects? It fit them SO well and ALL the hints were already there. It felt like such a waste to retcon it to a new girl. Especially a flat, boring, cardboard cutout Union X character that nobody really cares about. It was just SO unbelievably stupid to me, I couldn’t believe it. From what it looked like to me, KH3D was meant to set up Lea’s role in KH3. He needed to be a Keyblade Master because he was supposed to use the power of waking on Isa, just like Riku used it on Sora at the end of DDD. THAT was the story I was expecting to get based on ALL the foreshadowing in the side games. I never even entertained the idea that Lea would NOT rescue Isa. It was just something I took for granted, like saving Terra, Aqua, and Ven. It’s one of the reasons I bought the game in the first place. When the scene from the KH orchestra was shown, Kairi wrote in her letter that Lea wanted to save his best friend, and I naturally assumed he was talking about Isa. Because that’s what ALL the build up in KH3D was hinting at. I was excited to see Lea save Isa ever since BBS. So, 2009. Literally waited an ENTIRE decade to see that.

So, once I realized that Lea wasn’t even going to even rescue Isa, that was the exact moment I gave up on the story and realized that whatever they were building up to in the previous games was no longer gonna happen. I stopped expecting the story to get better in the Keyblade Graveyard and just accepted that KH3 was not really the game that I paid for. It was basically another Versus XIII. After Versus became FFXV, the story was totally rewritten and the new story was, IMO...meh. And I realized the same was true for KH3. It wasn’t following the same story that KH3D was, that’s for sure. It was following Union X, a game I couldn’t care less about.

Once that sank in, I was SO mad. I did not pay 60 dollars to play a sequel to Union X. I was mad I wasted 60 dollars buying it day 1. It was definitely not worth 60 dollars. I was honestly tempted to sell the game right then and there because I was so disgusted with it. That’s how angry and disappointed I was. I felt betrayed by the series. And I felt stupid. Like I should have learned my lesson with how much of a disaster the recent Final Fantasy games had been. But I thought KH3 would turn out better because I trusted Nomura. I liked all the side games. I truly thought KH3 would be good. Well, it wasn’t.

Yeah, what truly angered me was not even necessarily the fact that she was shoehorned in. It was the fact that Lea and Isa weren’t even test subjects anymore. SHE was. SHE was the real victim. Lea and Isa’s flawed characters, their pain, their tragedy—they weren’t gonna be explored in any depth. SHE’S the one Lea was trying to save the whole time he was in the organization. There was no longer any emphasis on saving Isa anymore. THAT’S what truly pissed me off. That scene destroyed all the anticipation for their fight because their fight was now pointless. Saix was not even possessed. Lea wasn’t gonna save him. The story I had been anticipating for the last decade was never coming out. I waited all that time for nothing. It really was depressing. I lost pretty much all my emotional investment in the rest of the story after that scene. The Keyblade Graveyard sucked, just as I expected it to.

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revengerevisited · 4 years

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I’ve been debating on whether or not I wanted to post this rant that I wrote a couple weeks ago, mostly out of fear of looking overly hysterical if the whole ‘Vanitas = Darkness’ theory turns out to be just one big misunderstanding. But since the next update for KHUX is coming out tomorrow, and I’ve had this whole issue weighing on my chest for months, I suppose I should get a word in before that happens. So here’s the rant in full under the cut. Please keep in mind that this has a lot of negative language and as of writing, certain plot and character elements still haven’t been confirmed.

It disgusts me how much damage the ‘Vanitas = Darkness’ retcon, if it is true, does to his character. The biggest issue is how much it dilutes Vanitas’s character. Vanitas being the dark half of Ventus? Simple and to the point. Vanitas being some ancient demonic parasite that latched itself to Ventus only to be ripped out later and either forgot or is lying about being half of Ventus? Fucking stupid and a perfect example of the Complexity Addiction that is ruining the KH series as a whole.

It used to be easy. Ventus was one person, then two, and Sora connected his heart to Ventus and therefore Vanitas. Three boys bound together by Sora’s act of kindness in saving Ventus’s life. Equals, and as Vanitas says, brothers who make a greater whole. But suddenly now Vanitas is some ancient Darkness entity from the past? Suddenly him claiming that Sora and Ventus define him sounds ridiculous when he’s not even a part of them, but some random other being. Did he always know this the entire time? Then why does he act like he’s a part of Ventus and Sora right before and after declaring that he isn’t? It makes no sense.

It dilutes his relationship to Ventus most of all, most clearly shown by Ven’s reaction to him in Re:Mind. At first Ventus wanted to bring Vanitas home with him-- the guy who has done nothing but hurt him and his friends. The only reason Ventus would want Vanitas back is because he knows Vanitas is a part of him; but as soon as Vanitas tells him that he’s not, Ventus wants nothing to do with him. In other words, if Vanitas isn’t half of Ventus, then their connection is broken and their relationship is diluted. Vanitas’s desperation to regain his light and join with his other half is now nothing more than a parasite trying to crawl back inside its host. Except that he doesn’t want to join Ventus anymore, either, according to Re:Mind. If Vanitas isn’t half of Ventus, then why does he call him his other half? Why does he say he and Ven were split into two? Why does BBS show a large chunk of Ventus’s heart missing after Vanitas is pulled out? Why can Vanitas sense Ventus’s emotions? It. Makes. No. Sense.

Sora’s connection is also now diluted. Sora had saved Ven and Vanitas’s lives when he connected with Ven’s heart as a baby. Ven, and as the BBS Novel shows, Vanitas, were dying from having their heart ripped in half. Sora giving a bit of his heart to Ven saved their lives and gave Vanitas his appearance. But now, was what Sora did really necessary? Ven and Darkness are both walking around KHUX just fine as separate people. Why would they be dying if they were separated if they weren’t one person to begin with? It makes the whole thing pointless and nonsensical.

What about Vanitas wanting to merge with Aqua, despite her not being his other half? It’s fascinating that he was willing to merge with someone who was more or less a stranger to him, just because he admired her light and strength of heart. But if Vanitas is Darkness, then does that mean Darkness would just latch itself onto anyone? Could it have hidden inside Laurium or Skuld or any other person? Suddenly Vanitas’s desire to merge with Aqua seems a lot less special.

What about his connection to Xehanort, his creator and father in a sense? Turns out not only is Vanitas actually way older than Xehanort, he wasn’t created by him either. Xehanort is suddenly not an abusive parent to Vanitas, rather he’s just some random stranger, and the horrors of what Xehanort did to his own son seems less because Vanitas wasn’t made by him. It makes Xehanort right about everything... Vanitas isn’t human. He’s an empty creature, a demon, and an abomination just like Xehanort said. Maybe Xehanort’s horrendous act of ripping Ventus’s heart in half might even be retconned into a good thing by removing all that ‘evil’ Darkness from him.

Obviously Darkness’s morality and agenda isn’t known yet, but this series keeps flip-flopping on whether or not darkness in general is always evil. The point of pre-split Ven was that he was still a good person, ‘benign’ as Xehanort said, despite having so much darkness in his heart. It was supposed to be that Vanitas is the way he is because of Xehanort’s abuse, not because he’s inherently evil. But if Ven’s darkness is actually some ancient evil entity, and if Darkness turns out to be Strelitzia’s murderer, then that pretty much proves Xehanort’s point that Vanitas is ‘beyond salvation’, and that darkness in general needs to be purged. Maybe it will even be retconned that Vanitas ‘deserved’ to be tortured by Xehanort for killing Strelitzia!

What even is the point of all this? To bring Vanitas back as Darkness? Why? So he can come back just to be the next main villain? Is Vanitas’s personality going to be completely consumed and replaced by Darkness, now that he’s apparently remembering his past? Sure, let’s just turn the abused, depressed, anxious, lonely, relatable character into a child-murdering monster. Let’s make the mass-murdering, child-abusing villain right about everything. That’s what the fans want, right? That’s what makes a good story, right? This whole thing is just so fucking gross.

How am I supposed to feel invested in a character when his personality, goals, motivations, backstory, and indeed the entire core of his character can be radically altered on a whim? Just how foolish have I been for believing in Vanitas, believing that he can change for the better, and hope for his wellbeing and happiness if it turns out everything about him was just one big lie? When he didn’t get a redemption arc in KH3 I was devastated, but at least his character was still consistent. But now it seems that’s not the case, either. I’m so worried that if/when he does come back, he’s not going to be the same Vanitas that I knew. I’ve already gotten a taste of that particular Vanitas in Re:Mind, and it was thoroughly unpleasant.

I could go through the Re:Mind scene line by line and pick apart how wildly out of character and backwards it is for both Vanitas and Ventus (Vanitas claiming he and Ventus aren’t the same despite always calling Ven his other half, not wanting to merge with Ventus despite that being his entire goal, Ventus wanting to bring Vanitas home with him despite Vanitas having done nothing but be rude, manipulative, and violent towards him, Ven denying Vanitas’s choice to be his brother when in the very next scene he’s telling Vanitas he can choose who he is, not to mention Aqua just standing there like a bump on a log and not reacting while vital information such as her arch nemesis and her best friend are the same person is being relayed to her), but I honestly don’t know if it’s worth my time.

Maybe I’m wrong. I hope I’m wrong. Maybe Darkness isn’t actually evil or Strelitzia’s murderer. Maybe being Darkness won’t completely change Vanitas’s character. Maybe Vanitas isn’t even Darkness in the first place and this has all been just one big misunderstanding. I just don’t know.

#negative #vent #rant #kh3 salt

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kitsoa · 5 years

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The Duality of Ven

Speculation of a Potential Split-Personality Plot Twist

I’m a big Ventus fan, and Ven’s involvement with Khux has been a maddening scenario for me because a lot of the time, it feels like his role is laying the groundwork for whatever tie-in khux has with the next chapter in the kh saga. He’s an observing force meant to bring the questions to the forefront of the main characters. After all, we’d know what his deal is by now right?

Well dissatisfaction with that line of thought can probably be traced in the Ven is the Murderer theories that have risen in alarm and it is from there that I found myself captivated with the idea that something major is happening with Ventus in the khux story. And I think it’s gonna hit us upside the head honestly.

This is not a “Ven is the Murderer theory”. I’m actually not in that camp, but if this helps the believers so be it. No, I’m gonna compile my walk through of the idea that Ven’s got a split-personality. And I’m probably gonna walk through my speculation on how that ties in with the logic of the greater plot of khux and the circumstantial evidence left in our understanding of Ven’s future in the series.

We’ll start from the beginning, analyze Ven’s character, connect that to the process that drives the theory, speculate some details, take a stab as to why and finally glance at some circumstantial hints. You know, a long post.

A Heart Half Dark

The birth of most all of Ventus’ suspicion theories lies in the fact that we have had a glimpse of the exact ratio of dark and light in his heart. The BBS scene shows at least a third of his heart was gouged out but Xehanort’s experiment to create Vanitas. As this is a lot of darkness, the train of thought is to conclude that Ven must be hiding something. It’s the reason Ven’s got a following as a suspect in Strel’s murder.

I don’t necessarily see this capacity for darkness as indicative of Ven’s guilt of course. But alongside other hints in the narrative, we are forced to consider that this darkness in him is not something to dismiss, both based on Vanitas post-split and the mysteries presented in the age of Fairy tales.

We are in search of this potent darkness. We begin with the evidence of Ven’s personality and we watch the conclusions unfold alongside what I believe are hints at this possibility.

What is “In-Character”

Ventus does not have a lot of scenes as a complete person which makes this aspect of the analysis something worth returning to, but if I had to make a blanket statement on Ventus’s pre-split personality... it’s that it really didn’t change much at all.

We’ve known this for a hot minute. In the flashback of Xehanort’s experiment, Ventus is pleading in frightened surrender. He doesn’t believe he is strong enough and he collapses at the impressive threat. This is the image of a frail, sensitive personality that persists post-split. So frail that it makes him weaker than a minority portion of his heart. But say it’s the amnesia. Let’s look at Ventus before the time-jump.

He is introduced as a lonely, down-on-his-luck key wielder. He is soft spoken. A follower with low self-esteem. This much is true in his very first scene. He doesn’t understand why he was chosen as he does not have excellent rankings. He expresses his wonderment and surprise at the prospect of having friends.

This pretty much matches up with the short glimpse of pre-split, post-amnesia Ven (uh... the khux amnesia not the trauma amnesia gdi nomura).

Ventus is timid. So much that when he stands up for a strong belief, it surprises and amuses everyone in the room. Overall, this is not the personality of a selfish, cruel, albeit very troubled dark personality that would eventually create Vanitas. I’ll get into why he may potentially have these strong values and the impressions this entire plot could lead toward in the narrative but let’s parse it down to this.

Ven’s personality doesn’t match up to create Vanitas. It’s too night and day.

Opposing Argument: “It’s an act”

The potential of Ven’s khux personality being an act for the sake of some kind of ruse is troubling for a multitude of reasons. First of all, it’s too good of an act. He’s got the self deprecation and he’s made no suspicious moves or actions for it to be logically foreshadowed. But let’s say he’s as good as he seems-- the only suspicious error he’s made thus far is...

“Failing to read the rulebook”. Which, is a very grave error. Like one that wouldn’t happen with an honest, strategic infiltration. I’ll get back to this exact error later. But if he’s a lying liar, he’d be too good to make this mistake.

Finally, if it’s an act we have a conundrum as to where exactly post-split Ventus’ personality derives from. It’s far too similar to his khux behavior and we know for a fact that post-split Ventus is an honest good boy. That’s his personality, albeit with some childhood amnesia.

Manifestation of Darkness

Khux Ven has darkness, that much is undeniable, but how does it manifest?

Well it’s worth considering how darkness manifests naturally in a person in kh. Riku is the best example, harboring jealousy, rage, and a lust for power to manifest his darker powers. We also know that loneliness, sadness, and isolation are a form of darkness as seen with Aqua. These are natural and only when those emotions take over do we have the heartless phenomenon and corruption jazz happening.

So where is Ven’s darkness?

Well, it’s very likely suppressed. Like we are talking more suppressed than Sora’s darkness. Missing Ache is probably the greatest indication of a very real, very crippling habit of shoving one’s bad feelings in box and this is because of the keyblade’s symbolism and history. See, it’s not just there to give him another connection to Roxas.

Missing Ache is a keyblade from Day’s that Roxas wields and it fits right along with the depressing themes of everything Nobody we’ve become used to. But the name is important. For a Nobody, who doesn’t feel anything-- being unable to feel the heartache of pain is just another reminder of what isn’t there. The keyblade is touting the power of the pain that is missing. A bit of a conundrum for a Nobody but ultimately indicative of their real and growing hearts or even their desire to have hearts (even the pain they come with).

So for Ventus to wield Missing Ache kind of suggests that he’s missing some kind of pain. He’s not feeling something. And knowing that pain often buds darkness we can assume that this missing ache is the very darkness in his heart that we know he harbors. Ven has gone through some things, even before Khux introduced him and that pain has been suppressed in his heart so much that his keyblade reflects that absence.

Gameplay wise, Missing Ache is a rather dark leaning keyblade in khux from my understanding (this part is not my forte) so that supports it’s name more so than anything. Because when you start pushing down darkness and refusing to feel it or let it pass, it logically finds outlets to escape (think of anti-form and rage form for Sora).

A Darkling Conundrum

As Khux has established, Darklings are Keyblade wielders who have succumbed to darkness. They are basically a heartless variation that is unique in that they have more sentience than a typical heartless with the ability to speak and less mindlessness. They are visually distinct and there have been nods to their appearance in modern examples of keyblade wielders bathed in darkness suggesting a universal darkling transformation process.

So say, Ventus has been suppressing his darkness big time. It grows and festers, becoming stronger. We don’t know what exacerbates his darkness (though I do think there are hints as to what his shtick is) but it’s probably persisting and we know this isn’t healthy. But it creates a very interesting conundrum.

If Ven’s refusing to feel the pain of his darkness, if he’s rejecting it so much that he’s ignoring it to this point, he’d theoretically be unable to actually succumb to it. It wouldn’t go away, it would just... get stronger. And now his heart has this paradox. Ven should be a Darkling. But he isn’t.

So this is my speculation. Instead, a second personality develops. Ven doesn’t fall to darkness, but the overwhelming strength of the darkness in his heart hijacks his heart and that other self is born. This is basically Ven’s Darkling self. And in a narrative this dark personality will most likely have goals. But Ven basically lives alongside this other personality with a questionable level of awareness of said personality.

An Enemy Within

A second personality, a heart that is basically a Darkling in human skin, logically wants to act upon the heartless-like instinct we see from the former keykids in the previous entries. And while that is vague at best, it does not see the light favorably and seeks conflict. But the best way to devise the ambitions of Ven’s secret personality we have to wonder what kind of darkness actually created it.

(the above hilariously compiled by @twilightsthorn on twitter)

And Ven paints that picture very clear.

Loneliness.

I speculate that Ven is the product of the Daybreak Town system. We see this with Skuld’s story with Ephemer, and Strelitzia. The keykids of Daybreak Town have this superficial concept of friendship. Making allies to complete missions and moving on without any real friendship or connections. It’s a culture like this that completely ignores someone like Ventus who clearly has not been able to keep a party and feel the connections of friendship. He’s lonely. And that pain’s probably stirred resentment against his fellows and the system. Maybe even Daybreak Town in general.

An Inner Battle.

So one of the aspects about Ven’s personality is his very strong pacifism. Something that also doesn’t mesh well with the Daybreak Town system or the system that the New Leaders are tasked to put into place.

He reacts dramatically to the concept of PvP. The idea of pointing keyblades at each other is unthinkable. And as I’ve noticed before, his atypical keyblade stance enforces this unwillingness to fight.

By wielding his keyblade in the reverse-grip he is incapable of pointing his keyblade at another. It’s a part of his belief system. A very dedicated. Very honest belief system. Which brings me back to the most suspicious things Ven’s ever done.

The rulebook thing. He specifically ‘fails’ to read the passage about the PvP. And while his flimsy defense paints him as a lazy reader, you could also read it as Ven having disliked the idea so much that he simply... suppressed it. Now it’s up in the air how much Ven is aware of this personality. The other possibility is that the pacifism comes in response to his knowing that the darkness in him desires that kind of combat.

Enemy Without

And this brings us to the ultimate conclusion of this second personality. It becomes Vanitas, through and through. Meaning that at the time of his split, Vanitas was essentially already a separate entity born from Ventus’ heart. Even Xehanort’s verbiage supports this.

‘Riven’ means ‘to be split from.’ Which makes sense as he is a broken off piece of Ven’s heart but it can also suggest that it was already there and attached to the whole to begin with. But now that he’s split from the body and light half of his heart, Vanitas begins to prove his strong association with Darklings.

His darkness suit, in much the same way as Riku and Anti-Aqua, hearkens to the visual design of the Darklings-- (the black and red, textured hands, and tattered clothes, though anti-aqua fits this link the best).

And if the speculation about Missing Ache is logical, this darkness comes from a stark sense of loneliness and a rejection that Ven buries and refuses to feel, meaning Vanitas bears all of that pain and it consumes the entire personality as darkness would consume the heart of a whole person.

A pain that is Ventus’s through and through.

While this aspect of the theory is almost pure speculation, I draw this connection to place Vanitas and this dark personality of Ven’s on a side in the khux conflict. At this moment the darkness has served no purpose in machinations of MoM, Ava, Brain, or the mysterious murderer, but the darklings move about nevertheless. Despite being pulled by more basic instincts, the Darklings and any associated force can’t be underestimated as either having a goal or being manipulated toward someone else’s goal.

Sleeper Agent

‘Peace is but a dream’ and the Darklings are still an at large, unaffiliated force in khux. The connection with Ven’s dark side would add a substantive face and power player to the entire narrative. It either gives them an edge, provides a leader, or simply infiltrates the system needed to consume the most lux. And from my perspective, the most advantageous thing the forces of dark could do is start the keyblade war (again). Where best to do that than from inside the Union’s sworn to prevent that from happening?

It’s an inside job. An infiltration. This is where you start to wonder if Ven is the outsider in the group-- The Virus in the Master’s system. Honestly, I don’t think any of this turning true would conclude that necessarily. See, for all we know MoM could be invoking the war even with the intent on ‘stopping the wars for good’. I wouldn’t put it past him to set the Dandelion’s up for a sham scenario so planting a Darkling Agent into the Union Leaders is on the table for him to have authored. But from the ‘dark perspective’ (for the record, I don’t think the darkness is a conniving force) Ven partially falling to darkness would work in the interest of all things dark and make him an ‘agent’. But I consider it more happenstance than actual scheming.

Thematic Associations

aka: less concrete forms of support or hints

Box Art Proximity

So we know there’s a ton of secrets hidden in the kh3 cover, one of which most amusingly being the Nomura’s cat, standing guard next to Ven as a reference to Chirithy. But I’m more interested in Ven’s proximity to the Darkling as well. We never get a complete idea of the Darkling’s symbolic purpose and I still think it’s up in the air, but it it’s drawing a connection to the Dandelion under it’s gaze, that would be indicative of it’s purpose.

Void Gear Symbolism

I am not alone in seeing Void Gear as a potential reference to the clock tower of Daybreak Town. From here things become speculation central but knowing the Darkling’s desire to consume the light and the value of instigating the Keyblade War in that ambition, Vanitas’ essential homage to the clock tower is potential a nod to his goal, or perhaps success in using that clock for it’s fated purpose: which is to toll the start of the war.

Ven’s Character Design

Since we understand that Nomura is clearly working backwards, we can’t take his character design as hard evidence that he’s got a split personality but I do think it’s worthy to serve as corroboration. Ven has a unique black and white theme with his jacket that perfectly represents 2 equal halves-- 2 selves. Yes, he’s fashioned to be the light half to an equal dark half, but you might think he’d be styled more toward the white/light colors to contrast with Vanitas’s dark color scheme. They would then appropriately compliment each other as a pair then. But Ven holds the body of the complete being. The original being that was styled symbolically to represent two equal halves and his former incarnation in khux is consistent.

Ven’s Actions Going Forward

Now again, Ven’s awareness of this second personality and the exact nature of it’s ability to interact is still in question but there’s a lot of a angles it could take. For example, it could be a body hijacker, acting and moving things toward a specific goal at opportune times, potentially acting as the Ven we know in temporary situations. This means that we can start being suspicious of who is in control of Ven’s body at a given time.

Then there’s the more passive method which simply has the personality observing and gaining strength through Ven’s suffering until it finally breaks free at some crucial time. This means we can expect a surprising twist when things get heated.

Whether he’s aware of it or not, Ven’s behavior should be considered separate from this force. It has the double benefit of keeping Ven’s hands clean.

Finally we have to consider the reasons for Ven’s selection in the Union Leaders. At first I thought maybe a second personality could create this double life for Ven that would qualify him with the arbitrary powerful keykid excuse for the position. But with a more passive role being just as viable, there’s a very good chance that MoM selected Ven with the intention of creating tension or tempting the rise of darkness with the Daybreak Town experiment. Whether MoM is earnestly trying to prevent the endless cycle of darkness destroying and light reviving the world or simply trying to invoke it for his own gain, we can at least be assured that there’s no sacrifice he wont make. This is assuming Ven is one of the selected and not the impostor (But I’m pretty sure Brain’s the impostor).

This is ultimately why I kind of dub Ven as a ‘sleeper agent.’ While harboring this second personality, he could very well be the infiltration of the forces of darkness which until this point have behaved as a mindless force of nature. Be it circumstance or not, he is for all intents and purposes a ‘sleeper agent’ in that regard. And while I don’t personally believe this makes Ven the murder of Strelitzia, I do think this makes him capable of anything.

Conclusion:

There’s a lot of speculation but the mystery is very much there and I think there’s enough to assume that the question of Ven’s darkness is very much something we need to be asking. Now we have additional strands this idea could branch into consider what this means for Ven’s role in creating the X-blade and may explain why he was so specifically poised to be the vessel for that project. And then we have to wonder what this means for Ven’s future. Was it a good thing that Xehanort separated Vanitas? Is Vanitas redeemable? What does it mean for Ven to get his memory about this back?

Overall, I have my eye on Ven. He’s still a good boy in my eyes. But he could be the very thing that brings the khux world into chaos.

(A big thanks to @kaweebo for some of those screencaps)

#kingdom hearts #kh meta #kh theory #ven split-personality #kh speculation

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arcxnumvitae · 5 years

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Kingdom Hearts

Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

You know the deal, KH spoilers beware

Favorite character:

For the longest time I wasn’t too partial for one character over the other (though I was taken by Riku’s pretty eye color and Roxas’ tragic tale, which I still am) but I’ve always favored the Sea Salt trio over the others. And then I found myself feeling for Xion more and more. I feel like this isn’t a surprise since I end up talking about her a lot but she’s gone through a lot! First she joins the Organization as a Nobody, someone who isn’t supposed to exist or have emotions and she’s an odd one out because she doesn’t have any memories from when she was a full person like most of the others do. Some of the members are okay but then there’s Saix who treats her like shit, calls her “it” and a “puppet” for no good reason! She makes friends with two other members and they grow close and that’s great! Friendship! Eating ice cream together!

But then things don’t seem right and she comes to realize that, even among this group of people who aren’t supposed to exists, she’s even lower than that, just a replica meant to absorb some memories of the Keyblade hero Sora to keep him in his sleep meant to fix his memories forever. So not only is her existence hurting this person she doesn’t know, but it turns out that one of her good friends Roxas, the nobody of said hero, is also having his literal life sapped away by her mere presence. And there’s nothing she can do about it at all, the top brass of the Organization knows this and is fine with her offing him if it means they still get to use her power and keep Sora out of their hair.

So what does she do? Make the decision to essentially die rather than be the cause for pain for her friend. And the kicker? She’s informed that since she was never an actual person and is just made up of stolen memories, when she dies, everyone’s memories of her will fade away as there’d be nothing left of her. And the madlad still goes through with it with some of the saddest boss music in this entire doggone series! Makes Roxas kill her so that he can survive and there’s a reason why I cried at 358/2 Days ending! There’s other sad stuff of course with her pain of realizing she’s just a fake and her butting heads with Axel too but for me to describe the entirety of how sad Xion’s initial existence was would take so much time. There’s also a reason I see parallels with her and Lucia too.

Least Favorite character:

Fucking Yen Sid. Kirei and I have waxed poetic multiple times about why he sucks so I won’t repeat that here, it’s all in the Discord chat. He was a shit teacher, shit at giving exams, and Sora deserved to be given the title of master dammit

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon):

You know, I don’t really ship anything here. Friends are my power and all that. I’m basic and think that Sora and Kairi are cute and see the potential in Sora and Riku but really that’s it. Oh wait, Aqua and Terra are cute dual parenting Ven and I’ll admit, that moment in KH3 where he looked at her and said “you lit my way home” or something with tears in his eyes…you almost got me there, Nomura. But yeah, I just think the friendships are sweet.

Character I find most attractive:

Listen, 12 year old me saw the vivid shade of Riku’s eyes and never went back. I do like his KH2 design because the stupid long hair appealed to me. As of now though, I’m more of a Xemnas type of gal. You hear that voice? Silky smooth. Saix also is most certainly easy on the eyes. Marluxia. Aqua’s very pretty. Terra. Lots of pretty people in this series. You know what, Eraqus is a looker too. Yes, I’m talking about him when he was older don’t judge me.

Character I would marry:

Hmmm, Aqua’s a pretty dependable and responsible lass, I’ll go with her.

Character I would be best friends with:

Namine! She’s so sweet and we could just chill in comfortable silence doing our own things with no problems. Sora would be a fun cheery guy to hang with.

a random thought:

We like to joke like ‘haha, this plot is convoluted and makes no sense’ but honestly if you just like….play the games or look up their stories it’s not that hard. It’s a lot of information as a whole since there’s like 13 games of plot going on but just. knowing the narrative. makes it easier to understand. It’s why you see those three hour videos explaining the entirety of the plot, it’s doable it’s just a lot. And you have to be willing to understand and accept that this series makes it own rules in its universe and that’s just how things are. Escape for Dream Drop Distance and the sudden time travel rules, fuck 3D and the sudden time travel rules! That shit had me literally sitting down to try and puzzle what happened in that game out once I’d finished it.

An unpopular opinion:

I already gave my yearly allowed hot take to Kirei about how I feel the fandom handles shipping and I don’t feel like repeating myself here, so. mmm. Long as I’ve been in this hellhole I’m sure for this one I’ve actually developed unpopular opinions. Oh,

Terra Did Nothing Wrong.

Or at least his worst action was trusting the wrong guy, which you could argue a lot for the reasoning of. Not only was Xehanort someone his master and father figure Daddy Eraqus clearly trusted and introduced as a good friend, but when Xehanort began his body-snatching machinations and started to get close to Terra the young lad was coming from just being failed in his big Mark of Mastery exam (which his fellow pupil Aqua passed) by said master/father figure explicitly calling out his accidental unintentional summoning of inner darkness (which he quickly stifled and didn’t use so like what the heck Eraqus he tamped down his darkness just like you said he should) and being disappointed in him. Terra was down and feeling like he needed to prove himself to– well, himself. And the rest is history. He gets a lot of flak for being manipulated by a chess mastermind at a vulnerable point and I think he already paid the fattest price for it anyways.

My Canon OTP:

Living my best sweet no OTP life yeahhhh!

My Non-canon OTP:

Same deal here yeahhhhh!

Most Badass Character:

Sora’s been canonically knocked back to level one multiple times but each adventure he took out some form of the big bad. In KH3 he was taking on three members of the Real Organization Thirteen at once. The boy’s strong. Almost like he *coughs* deserves the title of Keyblade Master or something, wild…. And he does it all with a smile on his face, look at him go.

Most Epic Villain:

I mean, Xehanort’s been the main major villain of the Dark Seeker saga and I think he’s earned this designation. He’s essentially set in motion just about everything that’s gone on in this entire saga through his plan to summon Kingdom Hearts. Not to mention his motivation for essentially bringing about the end of all worlds is like a scientific ‘just wanna see what happens after’. Knowledge driven, methodical, that’s good. No, we’re not acknowledging KH3 changing his motivations to well-intentioned extremist I’m keeping my morally corrupt researcher grandpa thank you very much. Will the Master of Masters take that pace in the new saga? Dunno, he’s a good planner too and I like his goofy mannerisms, it’s enough to make you wonder if he’s really a villain. Then you remember he kinda let, and even instigated, the end of the world once so…. You know what, Xigbar/Luxu’s up there now too for being the man behind the man. Long con with a keyblade that was originally his anyways, I can appreciate that scam.

Pairing I am not a fan of:

I don’t like Axel and Roxas as a romantic pairing, I know KH mostly handwaves ages but he looks disconcertingly older and considering he looked about Ven’s age in BBS and it’s been 10+ years since then…yeah, I’ve just never been comfortable with them as a romantic duo. Not to mention the role he takes on in 358/2 that predominantly teaches a naive Roxas about the world and relationships. He does sure as hell act like a spurned ex in 2 though, ha. I guess the same could be said for Terra and Ven for the same reasons but I don’t see as much for them. Funnily, once upon a time when I was younger I side-eyed Roxas and Namine and Roxas and Xion a bit cause ‘aren’t they both technically from the same Sora?’ But then you realize it’s Kingdom Hearts and everyone’s from Sora so….

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another):

hahahahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhkairi. This is a long dead horse that’s been beaten at so I’ll be brief. Yes she saved Sora’s life in 3 and Re:Mind, thank goodness, did a lot to give her more of an active role (baby girl took on Xemnas head on and even managed to break his guard).Continue with that, Nomura. More of that please! I’m tired of people dunking on Kairi, the potential’s there I know you can do it! I like her! I want to like her more! Also the aforementioned last-second swerve to be like “hey, maybe Xehanort was trying to be a good guy!” Why? How come he got to go into the light peacefully with his boyfriend, Aqua was in the Realm of Darkness for ten years and Terra was stuck inside that heartless! Ven was asleep! They had to sit there and watch their dead master frolic into the sunset with their own personal mortal enemy!

Favourite Friendship:

Oh gosh. Riku and Sora. Riku’s done so much to make up for his screwups in the first game to the point of even potentially forever losing his physical form “to make sure his best friends sleeps peacefully.” Like, there’s no brief and succinct way to describe the absolute rock that Riku has been for Sora and even vice versa! Their talk on the beach in KH2 where they finally get to air out some of the relationship kinks from KH1 was so sweet. Was the “well there’s one thing I have that you can’t beat. A friend like you” cheesy as hell? Yes. Did it make me ‘awwww’ like crazy? Also yes, the quintessential KH experience. But I just think this is a great story and it’s great how it resolves them creating their own friend groups outside of the other that’s personal to them (Donald and Goofy for Sora and Mickey for Riku) while still allowing their own friendship to still be as important as it is.

Character I most identify with:

Maybe Roxas. I, too, always act like I need a nap (this was a joke). But yeah, honestly, no one really.

Character I wish I could be:

I don’t know, they’ve all (mostly.) got their happy endings now at the end of 3 but everyone went through hell and back to get them. I’m good, I think.

#shctteredillusions #{Answers #me: Kingdom Hearts isn't difficult to understand #Nomura: *does that shit he did with Verum Rex*#Me:....You're trying to make this difficult for me aren't you

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akimojo · 5 years

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tumblr is so trashy for me rn i gotta screenshot the ask oml but here we go-

Best boy? Sora. Best girl? Aqua. AKA my two favorite Disney princes fdhsaj

Oh man theres so many reasons why I love them;; prepare for cringe when you read this tho cuz shit gets sentimental

Sora is honestly so dear to me like I know its sooo cheesy to say this about a game and fictional character but holy fuck I find such comfort in kingdom hearts and Sora is such a huge part of that??? He’s optimistic, kind, funny and probably the most heroic protag I’ve ever seen in a game (I mean cmon, homeboy was literally 14 when he straight up stabbed himself to bring back one of his best friends) and well, his positivity is sorta contagious and id be lying if I said it hasn’t rubbed off on me during all these years and made me who I am today, which im super grateful for- I also sometimes rewatch clips of him or draw him when im down in the dumps because seeing him genuinely brightens my day which, yet again, is probably a super cheesy and lowkey cringy thing to say about a fictional character fghfgjh but its true- Sora is my ultimate comfort character and probably will be for as long as I continue to adore him and this series as a whole

As for Aqua, it’s a pretty similar reason- just like Sora, Aqua is a comfort for me and has been with me for pretty much the same amount of years (I got into KH as a 12 year old, just shortly before 2.5 came out so I played BBS pretty soon after finishing KH2) except I love her because shes a very mature and harmonic character who still has the ability to kick ass when needed. I also really love her writing simply because she can be both affectionate and emotionally strong, and yet after spending 10 years or so in solitude in the ROD, she became noticeably more somber and gloomy, which gave her character a surprisingly dark twist that was forced on her by her surroundings and tho it hurts like a buttcheek on a stick, I really like that aspect of her story arc and it made her reunion with Ven and Terra so much more emotional for me plus aqua is just really gorgeous wow my heart

In short:

#ask #anonymous

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jokahlu · 6 years

Text

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

*Warnings*

While reading the following post you should expect:

*Spoilers are ahead.

*Duality of emotions clashing between love and frustration.

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

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

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

*A sailing ship warmed my heart.

*And an ending that shattered it.

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

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

Enjoy.

*Read at your own discretion*

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

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

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

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

This time I will mostly talk about Kairi.

Let’s do this quick, shall we?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love for a character that deserved better.

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

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

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

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

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

No one seems to care about her except for Sora.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Seriously?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kairi’s performance in the final battle

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Sokai in the game honestly lifted my battered heart.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Speaking of which..

An ending that shattered my heart.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

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

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