#also I think terra should beat his ass but it’s not in her heart to do that

[emperorsfortune]

Two of Them

[shyficwriter]

They’re Just Creepy, Ok!?

Guardians of the Galaxy fanfic | Yondu, Reader, Peter, Kraglin

Summary: Reader goes on a mission with Yondu and Peter and must confront one of her fears.

Author’s Note: Setting takes place in 2006 while Peter is still with Yondu and the Ravagers. Also how did this get so long??? I swear I meant this to be a drabble! lol 

Word Count: 6,127

“Alright, listen up!” Yondu called out as he entered the mess hall, Kraglin close behind as always. They stopped near the table where you were having a drink with Peter. Yondu spoke again. “Three new jobs just came in. If ya don’t already got a job get yer ass over here.” 

Five ravagers got up from their seats and walked over to be assigned their missions. You and Peter didn’t have jobs yet either, but seeing as you were already there, you didn’t bother moving. Yondu began giving orders.

“Scrote an’ Oblo, ya two are gonna head to Astra. There’s a guy willin’ to pay three thousand units for ya to steal some paintings from his ex wife.”

The pair chuckled and accepted the paper with the details from their captain.

“Alright, Gef, Horuz, Brahl, ya’ll are goin’ over to Krylor and help intercept a shipment of beer being exported to Xandar. If everything goes well the guy who hired us will be giving us 30% of the shipment.”

The three laughed and high-fived as they too accepted their instructions from Yondu. and followed the first pair out of the mess hall.

Yondu then turned to you and Peter. “You two will be comin’ with me an’ Kraglin for the last job. It’s over on Corydon. There’s a guy that didn’t appreciate being fired and wants us to help him steal some fuel from his old boss. We’ll get three quarters of the bounty.”

“Damn, this guy feeling extra generous or something?” Peter laughed. You looked up at your captain with a smirk of confusion as well, wondering if he must be mistaken. Splitting in half was about as generous as clients usually got. It was highly unusual for the client to just offer up nearly all of what they hired the Ravagers to steal for them.

“Ya, I know boy. I thought he was bonkers too, but apparently this guy just wants to screw over his old boss for firing him. He don’t really care too much about the fuel, he just don’t want his old boss to have it.”

“So we got hired just to help some guy get some petty revenge on his old boss?” you laughed, standing up along with Peter to follow Yondu and Kraglin out of the mess hall to get ready for the mission.

“Yup. Guy worked at some kinda shipment yard. Wants us to steal their fuel so they can’t make their runs.”

“Wow, all that work just to set the company back a day?” Peter laughed.

“Not our problem.” Kraglin replied. “We’re still getting paid.”

Peter and you both share a look and shrug in agreement before setting off to prepare for the mission.

***

A couple hours later you had all boarded an M-ship headed toward Corydon. You took you place in the seat behind Kraglin while Peter took his behind Yondu. You were buckling in your seatbelt when it hit you.

You had never heard of this planet before. You had been so busy processing the pettiness of the client’s request that you didn’t even think about the destination. You looked over at Peter and decided to ask him.

“Hey, I’ve never heard of Corydon before. You ever been there?”

“Nope. I know Halfnut had a job over there once, but nothing more than that. You ever been there, Yondu?”

“’Course I have, boy! I’ve been ‘round this galaxy a million times over!”

“What’s it like?” you ask.

“Just about the same as everywhere else.” he snorted. “Only maybe more borin’. Planet’s ‘bout half the size of Xandar an’ there’s nothin’ to do there. It ain’t no wonder they don’t get more tourists.”

Kraglin spoke up next, “Yeah, and you’re unlikely to find a Corydonian outside of Corydon either.”

“Why’s that?”

“Like we said, kid. Place is boring.” 

You rolled your eyes at being called a kid. Sure you were younger than Peter, but not by much and he was in his mid-twenties. 

Kraglin continued, “The people are boring too, so they just don’t leave. They like the boringness or something. Kinda like you Terrans.”

“Hey!” you and Peter scoffed in unison.

Yondu laughed. “Is he wrong? How many of you Terrans ever leave Terra?”

“That’s not fair. Most of them don’t know there’s life outside Earth!” Peter retorted.

“Ah. You’re right. I forgot Terrans are dumber, so that actually puts ya behind Corydonians because they actually know how to leave, they just don’t wanna.”

“Hey! We’re not dumb!” Peter retorted again. 

You would have backed him up but you knew the argument was a lost cause. Yondu and Kraglin didn’t actually think Terrans were that dumb, but you knew they just loved to rile Peter up. Instead you just put in your earbuds and listened to some music while the other three bickered.

Soon enough you all had arrived on Corydon. It was nightfall. 

The client had told Yondu that there was a wooded area behind the shipping yard where he could land his ship if he came during the night after the shipping yard was empty. The shipping yard would closed for the next couple days for a holiday weekend so that meant they had the luxury of waiting and performing the deed in daylight. 

Yondu parked his ship and you camped out overnight. The client would be in touch the next day sometime after noon so that also meant that there would be time for a little site-seeing in the morning as well. Peter and you could see for yourselves if the locals and sites were really as boring as Yondu and Kraglin claimed.

***

You and Peter woke up early the next morning ready to set out and see Corydon. To your chagrin Yondu and Kraglin stated they were coming along. When you stated that you didn’t need a babysitter Yondu merely retorted that he didn’t feel like having to hold up the job coming to find you two when you got lost.

You could have argued but you decided it wasn’t worth it. You just wanted to finally be on your way into the nearby town to see the Corydonians. Your Terran curiosity was getting the better of you and you wondered if they might look like you and Kraglin, or possibly you’d finally meet a race of aliens that actually looked like the little green men in the movies back home.

Your wish would be granted soon enough. You all reached the town to see lots of people bustling around a marketplace. From a distance you could make out that the people had very pale skin and loud hair colors such as oranges and greens, with a few blues and reds dotted here and there. They all seemed to be wearing clothing as loud as their hair as well.

You turned to Peter as you walked. “They don’t look boring to me. They’re all dressed up so colorful!”

“Don’t let that fool ya, darlin,’“ Yondu said. ��They’re still dull as hell. They don’t drink or fight or do anything fun. An’ they got terrible taste in music.” 

“And you won’t be finding a brothel anywhere.” Kraglin added bitterly.

You laughed to yourself. Of course. You should have known they were judging this place on their definitions of fun. This place probably wasn’t boring at all, it just didn’t appeal to the raucousness that Yondu and Kraglin were used to.

You were now about to enter the marketplace when you finally turned your attention back toward the people and could better see what they looked like.

Oh no.

Oh hell no.

They all had very bright lips that matched the colors of their hair. Almost all of them also had giant markings framing their eyes that varied in shape between diamond-shapes and triangles. Their cheeks were incredibly rosy as well as their noses, which stood out fairly round in the center of their faces. 

You couldn’t deny that they bore a striking resemblance to the thing you hated most back on Earth.

Clowns.

Your breath caught in your throat as you stared in disbelief. A planet of freaking clowns!

Peter had clearly noticed as well as he laughed and nudged you in the arm with his elbow, “Ha ha, they all look like clowns! Can you believe it?” he whispered.

“N-nope. Wasn’t expecting that one.” you force out an un-hearty nervous chuckle as you feel the blood drain from your face and your heart begin to beat faster. Instinctively you move closer to Peter and begin to fidget with your watch. He doesn’t notice.

Yondu and Kraglin lead you both through the crowd toward some kind of food stand and you fought the urge to run away the entire distance. 

When you reach the stand and it’s your turn to order you try to tell Yondu that you’ve lost your appetite, but he won’t hear any of it. You have a long day ahead of you with the mission and he wanted you to keep your strength up, so he made you face the vendor and order.

The vendor was a tall young-looking man with blue curly hair and eyes that were probably kind, but you couldn’t help but feel fear when looking into them. Out of instinct you attempted to back away but Yondu clasped a hand on your shoulder and pushed you back up. You lowered your eyes and stuttered out which fruit you wanted. It was a purple roundish fruit that resembled a large apple. 

When the vendor handed you your food you handed him the money without looking and accepted the fruit with shaking hands and nearly dropped the fruit.

You could feel Peter looking at you strangely but he said nothing. He noticed the vendor give Yondu a questioning look as if to ask if you were ok and Yondu met this look with a puzzled look of his own as you all turned to leave the stand. 

“What was all that about, girl?” Yondu asked, taking a bite of his own food. “Since when are you shy?”

You could feel your face growing hot and you avoided his gaze. “Nothing.”

“Look, Cap, she’s blushin! I think she fancied that guy back at the stand!” Kraglin laughed. 

You shot a look of contempt back at him. “No! Absolutely not!”

“We can go back there so you can get his number if ya want.” Kraglin teased.

“Or if you’re too shy I can go run and ask for you.” Peter added, laughing at your expense and pretending to turn back toward the way you came.

“No!” you cried, grabbing the sleeve of his jacket. “Don’t!” 

Yondu was laughing now. “Now, boy, if she wants his number she‘s gonna get it herself.” He then spun you back around toward the stand and gave you a little push. “Go on, now. Go get it.”

You turn back around with flushed cheeks. “No! I don’t want his number!” 

“Come now, ya don’t need to be all embarrassed about it, darlin’.” Yondu laughed once more, but luckily this time he didn’t try to push you back towards the stand again.

“Oh shut it.” you say bitterly, angrily taking a bite of your fruit and finding it tasted a bit like a kiwi. You continue walking with the others and momentarily forgot the horror surrounding you. 

Of course this didn’t last long. Eventually you and Peter needed to throw away the scraps from your fruit and therefore needed to seek out a trashcan. You were grateful that you didn’t need to walk through the crowd of clown-looking people alone, but that didn’t help what happened next.

Peter found a trash can and you two broke away from Yondu and Kraglin to throw away your scraps. However, once you had thrown yours away and turned around to walk back with Peter you turned right to face a clown-woman who had just walked up to throw her trash away as well. The sudden site of her made you jump out of your skin with a yelp and your reaction startled the poor woman as well. You muttered an apology and quickly made you way back to the others with your gaze down, because of course Peter hadn’t waited on you and started walking back before you.

Yondu saw everything and gave you a queer look when you got back to them. “Now what was that about?”

“What?” you ask innocently.

“Don’t give me that. Ya jumped clear outta yer skin, missy.”

“I did not!” you lie. “She just... startled me. That’s all.”

“Right.” Yondu replied, unconvinced. He didn’t press it further.

“Satisfied yet?” Kraglin groaned in boredom. “Can we go back now?”

“That’s a good idea.” you said quickly, more than ready to get out of there.

“Really? Ya were the one that wanted to come?” questioned Yondu.

“Yeah, well... you guys were right. This place is totally boring.” you tried your best at looking convincing but couldn’t quite look them in the eye.

“Are you kidding? We just got here! We’ve only been here maybe 20 minutes and it took us the better part of an hour to walk here.” Peter laughed. “You gotta at least give it a fair shake.” He caught sight of a stand behind you that he just knew would brighten your spirits. “Look over there! There’s a stand selling knives!”

Before you knew it Peter had grabbed your wrist and started to pull you in the direction on the stand. Your protests fell on deaf ears to Peter and within moments you were standing in front of a stand run by a short woman with red spiked hair and bright red lips curled in a smile as she began to hype up her wares. Your heart began to beat faster as you watched her pick up a particularly large knife and begin showing it off. You began fidgeting with your watch and you shrank away, attempting to back up so you could leave. 

However, when you moved to do so you only wound up backing up into Kraglin, who had followed you and Peter along with Yondu as they didn’t have anything better to do. The moment your back made contact with Kraglin you jumped a mile.

“Damn, girly! Why are you so jumpy for?” Kraglin chided. 

You didn’t answer, opting instead to fake sassing back by asking why he had to sneak up on you before returning to fidgeting again. You didn’t want to attempt to explain. For one, you didn’t want to offend the vendor, as it wasn’t her fault she looked like the object of your nightmares. You also doubted that Yondu and Kraglin even knew what a clown was, and you weren’t looking forward to the teasing that would inevitably come from Peter if he knew of your fear of clowns.

The vendor attempted to get your attention so that you might also buy a knife but you merely brushed her off, trying to remain as polite as you could in your refusal. The others took notice as normally you like collecting cool knives just as much as Peter, but they didn’t say anything, opting to just give you more queer looks as you fidgeted.

After what felt like hours but was probably minutes Peter finally purchased a knife and you all turned away from the stand. When you were a good ways away Yondu finally spoke up.

“What’s the matter with ya today? Yer fidgety as hell. Do ya need to go to the toilet or somethin’?”

You blushed for about the hundredth time that morning. “No! I- I’m just bored,” you tried. It was true. You didn’t need the toilet. The only place you needed to go right now was off this planet as soon as possible. 

Yondu didn’t really believe you but he just shrugged it off and continued walking. 

“Can we just leave now?” you spoke up. “You were right. This place is boring.”

That stopped Yondu in his tracks. He turned to face you, as did the other two. “What did ya say?” 

“Th-that this place was boring?”

“No, before that. Ya said I was right.”

“Yeah, now I know something’s up.” laughed Peter. “You never admit if Yondu’s right.” Neither did he, for that matter, but that was a fact he was willing to let slide at the moment. 

“Nothing’s up. I told you, I’m just bored.” you tried to give them a look of contempt, crossing your arms to stop yourself from fidgeting. “Can we go now? Please?”

Yondu gave you a look. Something was definitely up. You were practically begging to leave, and he doubted it was just because of boredom. “Alright, let’s go then.”

You let a secret sigh of relief and follow your captain and your team back to the ship.

Maybe ten minutes into the trip back Yondu lightly pinched your side causing you to jerk almost violently away and bump into Peter.

“Hey! What was that for?” you scolded Yondu before Peter had a chance to ask why you had bumped into him.

“For lyin’ to yer captain.”

“Excuse me?”

“Ya heard me.”

“I did not- HEY!” This time your yelp was caused by Peter, assaulting you with a poke to each side. He wore a shit-eating grin and shrugged his shoulders as if to say ‘Why not?’

“Don’t you sta-HAHart! Dammit!” You turned to face Yondu who had just poked you again.

“An’ that was for lyin’ again.” 

You knew what he was likely talking about, but you played dumb. “What are you talking about?”

Yondu rolled his eyes and poked you in the stomach, forcing a giggle from your throat, and in turn a snicker from Peter who recognized a similarity between you and the Pillsbury Dough Boy from the commercials back on Earth. 

You glared at them both. “Quit that!”

Kraglin spoke up with a grin, “You know they won’t. You might as well just spill it.” He always found your “Terran weakness,” as Yondu called it, completely hilarious. 

“I have absolutely no idea what you mean.” You feigned an indignant scowl and turn away from them, intent on walking further up the road. However, you didn’t make it further than a few steps before Yondu clapped you on the shoulder and pulled you back.

“Ya. Know. Exactly. What. I. Mean.” Yondu scolded you, punctuating each word with a poke or squeeze to your abdomen.

You tried to squirm away with each poke, unable to stop your giggles. The other two could be heard chuckling at your expense as you tried to push his hands away with a giggly, “Please! Please! Wait!” You cursed yourself for being so ticklish.

He released you. “Ya were jumpy as hell back there an’ ya were dyin’ to leave almost as soon as we got there. Now, why.”

You stepped back and brushed yourself off. “You imagined it, or overthought it, I don’t know what to tell you. Let’s just get back to the ship. Or do you want do be late for the client?” You again turned and started walking, quicker this time so that he couldn’t grab you. Big mistake.

Yondu let a quick sharp whistle and before you knew it you were face to face with his arrow, halting in your tracks. You sigh in frustration.

“Why d’ya always gotta be so stubborn?” Yondu chided as he approached you. He called his arrow back and you expected to be scolded again. However you were surprised when Yondu grabbed your arms, spun you to face the other two, and kept hold of your arms behind your back.

“Yondu-! What the hell!?” you scowled, attempting and failing to jerk away from his grip.

He ignored you. “Peter,”

“Yeah?” Peter raised an eyebrow and wore a bemused expression. He had a slight inkling of what Yondu was about to ask. Kraglin just stood with his arms crossed grinning and waiting for the show that was inevitably about to take place.

“I think she needs some persuadin’, An’ well, ya do know how best to exploit that little weakness ya Terrans got.” He grinned evilly.

“Don’t you even dare, Peter!” you growled, trying to tug your arms out of your captain’s strong grip.

“You don’t want me to disobey my captain, now do you?” Peter laughed, cracking his knuckles as he stepped towards you. 

“Peter, I swear you’ll regret it!”

“Hey, don’t blame me. All you had to do was spill, but you wouldn’t. Really you brought this on yourself,” he laughed. Peter usually jumped at any chance to tickle you to pieces. After all, as your surrogate older brother this was basically his job, right?

“I told you that it was nothing! Now let me go!” There wasn’t a chance in hell that you were going to tell them. You attempted to think of a way out of this but you just weren’t fast enough because Peter immediately started spidering your sides and you burst into squeaky laughter. “PETER!”

“Hey, you had a chance to do this the easy way.” He laughed as you squealed under his fingertips. He was certain you’d try to get your revenge later, but he’d worry about that another time.

“Ya ready to fess up now, brat?” Kraglin chuckled as he watched you squirm so hard Yondu almost lost his grip. It was intriguing how something seemingly so small could get such a reaction out of you.

“Why do you care so much!?” you cried out amidst your laughter. 

“Oh! So ya admit there was something wrong then!” Yondu confronted. “Tell me now and I’ll call him off.”

‘Crap.’ was what you thought, but what came out was, “No fair! Stopitstopitstopit!” Your laughter rose a pitch when Peter moved to tickle you under your arms and you attempted to kick him away, but of course it didn’t work.

“We already told ya how to make it stop, missy. Ya know better than to keep secrets from yer captain.” Yondu grinned mischievously as you doubled over with laughter. You were both lucky and unlucky that you were like a daughter to him. Lucky, in the sense that he’d use tickling against you over his arrow any day, and unlucky in the sense that if you had been anyone else he wouldn’t have cared what your weird behavior was about and would have ignored it. But, because he saw you as a daughter, he actually gave a crap about your wellbeing and if you were having a problem then dammit he was going to know about it! Even if he had to force it out of you.

“Come on,” Peter said in a sing-songy voice, “You know you want to.” he moved down to your ribs and you let out an honest-to-god shriek and bucked in Yondu’s hold. Peter laughed at your reactions. He loved seeing you laugh and looking so happy, even if you were going to totally murder him later for this. 

You stomped your foot and writhed in Yondu’s grip. Any chance of regaining composure was gone. You couldn’t stand it anymore. Peter always knew which spots to zero in on to make you give in and right now he was attacking one of your worst ones. Almost against your will you felt the words “OK! OK!” rip from your throat with your high pitched laughter. “CLOWNS!”

Peter stopped and gave you a puzzled look. “Clowns?” 

Yondu released you and shared an equally puzzled look with Kraglin. “What’s a clown?” he asked. Kraglin shrugged his shoulders. He had no idea either.

You stood up, trying to pout but finding it difficult as you were still recovering from the residual giggles.

Peter decided to answer them. “It’s a thing on Earth. Clowns are people who dress up in funny costumes and makeup and they put on a funny act. Like, they do tricks and stuff. They look a lot like the people back there actually- Oh!” Peter exclaimed when the realization finally hit him. “You’re scared of clowns! That makes so much sense now!”

“So ya were scared of the people back there just ‘cause they look like some clown fellers back on Terra?” Yondu questioned with a look of confusion on his face.

You crossed your arms and avoided their gaze. You could feel your face growing hot. “Maybe...” you muttered. You felt silly, letting a childish fear get the better of you.

“I don’t get it.” Kraglin said, still puzzled. “None of that stuff Pete said sounds scary?”

“I don’t get it either to be honest,” Peter admitted, “But it’s actually a pretty common thing on Earth. For whatever reason a lot of people are scared of clowns. I blame the book ‘It.’”

Yondu and Kraglin both gave Peter a look that begged for an explanation.

“It’s a book about an evil clown that kills people with their worst fears.”

“Ah...” they responded in unison.

“Your mom let you read the book?!” you asked incredulously, knowing Peter had only been 8 when Yondu took him from Earth.

“Well, no. But I had a cousin tell me about it after they read it. Sounded lame. Like, clowns aren’t scary. Crap idea for a monster.”

“If you had seen the movie you would get it.” you retort.

“Wait, there was a movie?"

“Yeah. Came out in ‘90. My friend convinced me to watch it on TV with her at a sleepover when we were 10 and I didn’t sleep for a week after.”

Peter laughed. “Come on. It couldn’t have been that bad.”

“Well, I hate to break it to ya, missy, but you’re gonna have to get over that real quick,” Kraglin started, half-laughing, “’Cause if you ain’t figured it out by now our client is gonna look just like all the rest of those people back there.”

“Yeah, I know. Don’t remind me.” you muttered, trying for the third time to walk away. This time no one stopped you, but instead began to walk with you.

“So are you gonna be able to keep it together and help us with this job, or are you gonna hide in the ship the whole time?” Peter teased.

You glared at him and punched him in the arm.

“Hey! I’m just asking!” Peter laughed. 

“So a movie really made you scared of clowns?” Kraglin asked, he almost seemed genuinely curious. And he was, for the most part. After all, if clowns really looked that much like Corydonians then it didn’t really make much sense to him to be afraid of them. They looked a little bright and goofy, sure, but they weren’t scary.

“Yeah,” Peter interjected. “Was it the goofy clothes and big red shoes? Or the balloon animals?” He laughed while you glared.

“I didn’t like them even before the movie. They’re just creepy ok! Shut it!”

“Maybe she should stay in the ship.” Yondu thought aloud. “If she’s gonna go runnin’ scared when the client comes then maybe she’s better off out of the way.”

“I will not!” you gritted your teeth in indignation. You weren’t some scaredy-baby, dammit!

“From what I saw back there the odds don’t exactly favor towards ya not cowerin’ away, kid.” 

“I’m not a child! I can handle it!” you growl.

“Alright. Guess we’ll see tonight then.” Yondu smirked. He covertly threw a wink in Kraglin’s direction, who grinned.

“Yeah! I guess we will!” You rolled your eyes. You’d show him. You weren’t a baby.

***

It was about another hour after you got back to the ship before the client arrived to set the job in motion. You were outside cleaning your knife when you felt a tap on your shoulder and turned around to see the very clown-like client standing behind you. You, of course jumped back on site of the red haired man.

“Oh! I’m so sorry, my dear! I didn’t mean to startle you! Are you with the people I called about a, um... job?” He whispered the last bit, as if unsure if he should state his business just in case you weren’t here to help him steal a crap-load of fuel from his old boss. 

“Yeah, that’s us.” Yondu called from a few yards away. 

Your cheeks began to burn when you saw Peter and Kraglin trying not to laugh beside Yondu. They had clearly seen the whole thing. You motioned the man towards the guys and followed behind him. The whole way he spoke of how he got fired and the details surrounding the event, not that you paid much attention to any of it.

“Hello! I believe we spoke the other day. My name’s Sulu! And you are?” His voice was high as he spoke and extended his hand for a shake as soon as you two closed the distance and reached the guys.

Yondu brushed off the introduction. “Let’s just skip the pleasantries and get down to business. Faster this goes, less chance we have of getting caught, understood?”

“Oh! Yes sir! Forgive me, I haven’t done anything like this before!”

“Ya don’t say?” Peter chuckled, sharing a look of amusement with Kraglin. 

“Oh I do say!” Sulu said happily. “Well, I suppose there was this one time when I was but a wee boy-”

Yondu cleared his throat and the man stopped what he was saying.

“Oh yes, dearie me! Er- where shall we start?”

“Well, ya can start by letting us in.” Yondu said flatly. Yondu wasn’t fond of overly-chatty clients, as this man was proving quickly to be. To be honest you were starting to feel more annoyed as well, rather than creeped out. The man just wouldn’t shut up. You wondered in the back of your mind if this might have played a roll in his getting fired.

“Oh yes! Of course! We can’t start from out here, after all!” The clown man laughed heartily and ushered towards the gate. 

While he talked Yondu’s ear off about how he had made a copy of his key the day before he got fired you shared a look with Peter. You both thought the same thing. How can anyone be that peppy? 

“So, about how scary is he?” Peter teased, “Scale of 1 to 10?”

You rolled your eyes. “Actually, I think he’s more of an 8 on the annoying scale.”

“Oh really? You mean to tell me you’re not scared even a teeny bit?” Peter crossed his arms and grinned teasingly. “Because Krags and I totally saw you jump out of your skin earlier.”

“Hey, listen. I don’t think I’m magically cured, but the only thing scary about that one is his uncanny peppiness and his ability to never stop talking.”

“Alright. If you say so.” Peter laughed.

After a few minutes it seemed like the man had stopped talking just long enough to actually open the gate and Yondu waved you all over.

The job went relatively smoothly. There were no bumps in the fuel heist, save for the fact that you could swear that Sulu never stopped talking for more than 30 seconds. You knew this because Yondu assigned you to stay with him, both to keep him out of his hair and, you assumed, to make you face your fear head on. Lucky for you, you were no longer creeped out by this particular clown. However, you were eager for the job to be over if for no other reason than to escape his jabbering. He talked about his pet, his garden, his reasoning on switching from boxers to briefs. He. Never. Shut. Up.

When the job was finally done and Yondu convinced the client not to stick around and talk lest he compromise the whole job and get caught the four of you boarded the ship with your part of the bounty, glad to be done.

“So,” Yondu said to you with a smirk as you boarded behind the others, “how was your mission buddy?”

“First off, not cool. Secondly, I told you I could do it. And thirdly, I think he might have just annoyed my fear of clowns right out of me.”

“Well then that went better than I thought.” he laughed.

“What?”

“Girl, I know ya. I knew the moment I said you’d be too scared to do yer job that you’d do it just to prove me wrong.” he laughed. “I didn’t expect the client to be that annoyin’, but if it works, it works.”

“Wait, you pulled some reverse psychology shit on me?” You stared at him, dumfounded.

“If that’s what ya wanna call it, then sure, sweetheart.” He laughed and leaned against the wall of the ship. “Point is, it worked.”

You rolled your eyes and said, “You’re impossible,” before turning to walk towards your seat to grab your music since you knew you wouldn’t be taking off until nightfall to avoid being seen.

You located your music and turned back around to face the most horrifying clown you had ever seen. It had impossibly large eyes, black as the darkest night. Its bright green hair seemed matted over its head and appeared caked with dirt. More horrifying, its blood red lips pulled back, sneering over sharp, jagged, yellow teeth.

You screamed and jumped back as it lunged for you, nearly falling backwards over your seat in the process.

That’s when you heard the laughter. 

Only, not the terrifying laughter of an evil clown. This laughter belonged to Peter and Kraglin. 

The clown was nearly doubled over from laughing so hard and it pulled away it’s face to reveal Peter’s broad grin.

It was a freaking mask, one that Peter and clearly put together quickly by the looks of it. It was a scrap piece of white-painted cardboard with an evil-looking clown face scribbled onto it and some tall grass stuck on the top with mud for hair.

You glared and punched Peter hard in the arm, but he only kept laughing. “You dick!”

“You should have seen your face! Oh man, I got you good!” 

Kraglin was laughing hard along with Peter. Yondu half-heartedly attempted to scold the boys, stating that ‘she’ll never get over it if ya keep that up, boy!’ but his reprimand fell short as he too succumbed to laughter over Peter’s prank. 

You narrowed your eyes at Peter and pounced on him. “You think that was funny?! I’ll give you something to laugh about, jerk!” and with that you drilled your fingers into his stomach, making him throw his head back in a new wave of laughter.

Peter was stronger, so of course it didn’t take him long to obtain the upper hand, but he didn’t keep it for long and soon you were both in the thralls of a tickle fight that quickly ended in Peter squealing for mercy and apologizing. Not because he meant it, of course, but because he knew you wouldn’t stop until he said it.

Satisfied with your small victory you decide to relax by listening to some music before it was time to take off, but not before taking Peter’s clown mask away and destroying it.

***

Back on the Eclector Peter stated that he was going to find that movie ‘It’ you mentioned to see what the whole clown deal was about, but mostly because he wanted to be able to tease you when the movie turned out to be lame. 

When he does manage to find a copy the guys jokingly invite to to watch, but as they expected you noped right out of there. Peter just laughed and turned on the movie for Yondu, Kraglin and himself.

Peter nearly falls asleep, and Yondu actually laughs at some of the scenes you Terrans find to be scary. He has definitely seen worse before. Kraglin doesn’t say anything until the end.

They finish the movie and Kraglin looks wide eyed at Peter, “Ok. I get it now.” 

“Wait, really?” Peter looked at him incredulously, “But that wasn’t scary at all?”

“Yer kiddin, right boy?” Yondu scoffs.

The first mate doesn’t respond. He looks a bit pale and the other two realize he’s not kidding.

Yondu just shakes his head and gets up to take the disk out of the player. “Well that’s three hours I’ll never get back.” He throws the disk in the trash.

***

In the end Peter did keep teasing you about your fear of clowns now and then, but he did conceded that the movie could have been considered scary for a ten year old you back on Earth... and apparently a 32 year old Kraglin now, a fact which Peter wasn’t going to let him love down.

Peter chuckled to himself as he ordered a case of clown masks from the net. This was going to be fun.

[lordofmydestiny]

Some things I was disappointed with in KH 3 writing wise

Spoilers up ahead, so if you have’t seen the game, or haven’t finished it, don’t read this.

Don’t get me wrong, in the end, I really loved this, but there were some things that were very disappointing that I wanna talk about.

This is mostly concerning the final battle in the keyblade graveyard but I’m gonna start with the one before it.

1. Aqua.

I really loved that idea.

When I saw the trailer I was STOCKED, i was scared for this game pulling emotional strings on me when I saw her.

She honestly turned out to be a disappointment;;;;;

And no, I’m not gonna talk about how I don’t like her VA, or rather how she voice acts.

The execution was actually really really great, don’t get me wrong.

But afterwards;;;;; when you beat her?

That was very disappointing, we get no development for Aqua whatsoever.

We don’t get to see Aqua doubting herself, we don’t get to see Aqua ashamed of herself falling into darkness. (I get that it wasn’t her fault, but still, people blame themselves for a lot of things that weren’t their fault, this should be one of them)

2. Vanitas

Now, I know what your probably thinking.

“What about Vanitas?” 

What about him is a lot of things, he’s HALF of Ventus, his dark half.

Remember how broken Ventus looked when he was split into two?

Remember that face he made when the x-blade was drifting away from him?

That was potential, and I’m not even going into the novels!

His theme was played in “Heroes and Heroines” section in the KH Orchestra, his name is Latin for “Emptiness, worthlessness.” because that’s he is to Xehanort, 

And while I had no expectations for this game cause I knew it would be great, they put that scene with Vanitas where he called Ventus his brother. They put that scene in before he disappears where he says he’s always been on their side, and honestly, no??

And why does he disappear? Why doesn’t he become one with Ventus?

A better character arc for Vanitas is for him to continue wanting to be whole with Ventus, and him realizing that listening to Xehanort and forging the key-blade would not stop his endless cycle of pain. (Whooshes, I tapped into the novel)

3. Xion

What.

What was that with her?

Do you mean to tell me she’s been her the whole time since the moment they made her again???

I have many issues with Xion’s return and here they are.

1. It wasn’t emotional, at all. I was expecting my heart to be torn out into pieces fighting Xion, like we were when we fought her in 358/2 days. But..... it wasn’t, and you can’t call that boss fight with her an actual one because half way through one bar of HP we get her AND Roxas back (which is another problem I have and will say in a bit)

2. They pulled it out the bag. Why did they make her again? How did her heart find her way back here? Why didn’t she have yellow eyes? Why wasn’t she a nort? Isa was a nort and he turned out to be fine in the end. I expected this game to break my heart in a very bad way, but I didn’t even shed a tear. There are so many plot holes with her and another thing that I’ll say later because my number one issue with the writing is this

4. Roxas

1. Just like Xion, it was pulled out the bag.

I don’t mind Roxas coming back, I really don’t, however here’s the problem I have with both Xion and Roxas coming back.

There were no consequences whatsoever.

We are told by Xemnas and Ansem that Sora would have to give into the darkness for Roxas to come back, that were was a price to pay. (Of course, Goofy points out that they both are existing separately, but the difference is they use darkness, Sora doesn’t willingly and Rage Mode doesn’t count)

2. Because they pulled it out the bag, there was no build up to it.

If your going to say a character is going to be a huge secret, your going to have to at least build up to it.

And no, Sora saying he’s going to find Roxas doesn’t count as buildup because in the end, he really didn’t;;;;;;;;;;;

Roxas just came back out of nowhere, and that was a MAJOR problem.

There’s no consequences, and there’s no build up.

I’m glad Roxas is back, he’s my favorite, however, I don’t like how he came back. Especially since the way he came back;;;;;; it ruins the scene in KH 2 and 358/2 days now. Because now we know they got their happy ending.

5. Kairi

She’s something I can forgive, actually, because she got what she deserved.

She kicked ass, she had screen time, and plot importance.

However, there were some major flaws.

She was taken out too soon.

When Sora and Kairi shared that paopu and swore they would protect each other, I was hoping it would be something like Bumblebee (yang x blake) where they’re both actually protecting each other. 

But, in the end, it was mostly Sora protecting her, (granted there was that one scene after Sora saved everyone form the lich, she was there to guide him, and I’m not saying Sora protecting her is a bad thing, I loved the scene where he hugs her instead of pulling out his keyblade to protect her from Terra)

She had a keyblade, she was training, she can protect herself.

Show that off.

And another thing.

They didn’t quite build up enough for Xehanort killing Kairi.

That’s something I can forgive, but here’s something I can’t quite forgive.

Sora was crying and pissed off when he did that, yes, but not for long. 

Why tho? HE LITERALLY JUST KILLED THE PERSON YOU WANT TO SPEND YOU LIFE WITH.

YOU SHOULD BE MAD, NOTHING SHOULD BE ABLE TO CALM SORA DOWN, XEHANORT LITERALLY KILLED SOMEONE YOU SPENT YOUR WHOLE LIFE WITH.

Also why wasn’t Riku pissed at the slightest?! I thought Kairi was his best friend too.

6. Namine

She was on the box art and she only had one scene, I think you all know my problem.

Anyways, thanks for reading my long ass post.

[squiishiichaos]

How I Would Revise KH3

I’ve seen quite a few of these going around since the game was released, and I thought of waiting to release it, but  since it’s already written--these are just some ideas from one writer to the fandom of changes I, personally, would’ve made in order to make KH3 more epic than it turned out to be. 

Please Note: SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

1.  I’m sure a lot of people took issue with the teasing Sora took early on from his friends, not to mention the scolding he got from Yen Sid, but it actually sets up nice for scenes later on, explains the Odd Behavior of the Organization toward Sora in this game, and really could’ve been used for some great character and relationship development. 

Because after being almost Norted in 3Ds, I believe our Golden Boy would likely have some issues he needs to work through.  Beyond getting back all of his main character super powers and becoming the next New True Keyblade Master, he almost became one of the Organization.   That has to be a hit for someone who has spent the last 9 games practically the poster boy for Guardian of Light. 

Having him feel self-doubt and evolving that for the fights later on in the game would have made him feel less flat as a protagonist. 

Especially when we have Marluxia and Larxene showing up everywhere, basically ignoring him like a flea, and telling him, “we’re not here for you.”  After all the threat he’s posed to them--after knowing he’s part of the many lights gathering for their clash at the final battle--you’d imagine that they’d be more inclined to engage him and give him a better reason to fight than, “oh, these princesses here may be made of Light, we’re not really sure and we’re kinda just seeing how it goes down.”

Have Sora feel the impact of those interactions.  Like, “I’m not even worth their time,” level impact. Hell, have a scene in the gummi ship post world, calling up Kairi on his new phone, saying, “Hey!” And have her immediately dropping the smile she got, putting on a face and asking, “Sora, what’s wrong?”  When he tries to say, “I’m fine!” and dismiss it, have her tell him he’s not.  Say, “you wouldn’t be calling me if you were.”   

Have Sora try to call Riku and not be able to get ahold of him.  Just dialing and dialing and dialing, and him feeling neglected and abandoned.  Have Kairi speak to Riku on the phone, because it just so happens to be during one of their breaks in the Dark Realm, and her discussing Sora’s odd behavior.  Make them care, damn you!

*AHEM* Moving on...

2. Riku & Mickey save Aqua early on.  Like, I’m talking Prologue level, KHII.9 early on. 

In the realm of darkness, when they run into the Demon tide, after Riku escapes because of his Replica and Mickey gets trounced, have Aqua appear as the master of those Heartless. 

Since Mickey is hurt, Riku fights in his place and gets walloped after a short playable fight where you get her to half-lifebar and it ends.

As Aqua goes to finish him off--because new keyblades are hard--Mickey shouts out, “Aqua, don’t!  Think of your friends!”

As Aqua gives her monologue about being abandoned and forgotten and alone, have him go, “No one’s forgotten you!  Ven and Terra still need you!” 

“Need me?  Where were they when I needed them?!  Where were you?!  You don’t know what this pain I feel is like--to be forgotten and dismissed--none of you do!” 

Then have Riku chime in, “I do.”  As he stands up and readies his keyblade for another battle, have him stare her down and say, “I once gave up everyone I cared about for Darkness, and I struggle every day to keep it at bay.  But in every darkness, there’s an even stronger light. If you won’t fight the darkness yourself, then I’ll fight it for you!” 

After you finish the initial battle, instead of immediately getting back her light, the duo subdues her and they bring her back to the realm of light. 

Have a Futaba (obligatory Persona 5 reference, sorry) moment for Aqua.  Let her ascent back to Light mean something!

At first, she feels like she failed Ventus and Terra.   Nothing anyone says can help that.  And they all are trying to get ahold of Sora, but he’s busy and he needs to be there!   When he finally answers his phone in the gummiship, Riku tells him the good news and he hops back to the Tower. 

When he arrives, Ven’s heart reacts to Aqua and she immediately reacts.  But Mickey, Axel and Kairi don’t know.  They’re still riding on the moment Aqua smiled for the first time because she found out that Kairi was okay!  That she’d done something right!  Maybe she wasn’t a failure?

But then Sora walks in, and she does not trust him.  He looks like Vanitas and that face haunts her.  After all that darkness, she can’t see him--she only sees those glowing yellow eyes and that sardonic smirk, and it takes all of them holding her back to keep her from casting anything more than a measly couple of low level spells at him before they all tell her it’s okay!  That it’s Sora, the key to Ventus’s awakening.

And Aqua goes up to him, and they’re both apprehensive, but eventually she takes a nice long look, sees through the mirage and smiles, tearfully, at him. 

They agree to go help Ventus while Mickey and Riku stay behind to help train Kairi and Axel.

****Before we continue, I need to make a minor addendum here.  

No Hyperbolic Time Island bullshit for Kairi and Axel.  

They are on the fucking ropes to get ready for this shit.  Thrown into the literal fucking fire, training day in and day out every second of every day to get ready for the throw down they’re now part of.  

Every previous cutscene of them is more emotional because they’re exhausted, slouching against a rock, a wall, a chair, a fucking bed!  They don’t even know what time it is, but they’re sitting there, chatting away and crying because this is the hardest they have worked in ages, and they don’t know if they can do it anymore.  Merlin is merciless.  Yen Sid is biting.  They are on a crunch and there is no time for playing around!  

****Make those scenes so much better for everyone.  They were wonderful, their interactions, but make them real, fuckers!  This is a warzone, and this isn’t DBZ!

*AHEM*

3.  Aqua awakens Ventus. 

After her and Sora find Ven, they begin a ritual of waking, but Vanitas feels Ventus’s heart pulsating inside Sora and he attacks.  Sora tells Aqua to keep reaching for the connection while he holds him off. 

Obviously, Sora gets his ass kicked.  Absolutely destroyed. 

Aqua steps in to protect Sora/Ven, and kicks the ever loving shit of Vanitas, but then he fakes his defeat and sneaks up on them as they rush to finish the waking. 

As Vanitas goes to strike Aqua, the last vestige of Ven inside Sora commands the teen around and gives him one deciding blow before his heart exits Sora and leaves for its home.  Vanitas--knowing he’s finished here--leaves, promising them the fight of their lives come their next meeting. 

Ventus awakens and him and Aqua share a cute scene where Aqua tells him she’s sorry for being late and failing to protect him.  Ventus is just like, “Aqua...it’s alright.  You saved me, and now, we can find Terra together!”

Sora breaks the mood when he swoops in, and Ventus goes apeshit (because it was his heart reacting, not his actual conscious >.>)!  Fucking pulls out his keyblade, ready to put down Vanitas for the last time, but Aqua is like, whoa, it’s just Sora!  He’s been keeping you safe in his heart this whole time!

And Sora, confused, is like...the fuck?

So, Aqua suggests he go back alone and they’ll follow along soon enough.

4.  Back at the tower, Riku asks Sora how it went, and Sora recounts his near death experience at the hands of Ventus while Riku is like, Darkness plays tricks on people, as does sleep.  Give them time, they’ll pull through. 

5. Now, with 2 out of 3 found, Roxas and Namine (and Xion) still missing, it is crunch time, people!   So, I had a few playable options I thought up.

First off: Yen Sid’s tower becomes a hub world.  If you leave the hub, you can fly off as Sora to do the Disney worlds and restore balance and peace while he continues to level up his Main Character Plot Armor Powers.

Second Choice:  You can choose to bring Riku or Mickey with you on these missions, but they’re just kinda there as links.  Like, the Sora, Donald and Goofy screen time should not be revoked, so they’re kind of just finisher commands that show up randomly while the 2 of them are doing recon on the Organization. 

Third Choice: You can play as Kairi and Axel and spend ludicrous hours trying to beat Aqua and Ventus while running for your goddamn life at Yen Sid’s tower.   Legitimately, I’m talking, Beginning of Birth By Sleep and KH1 style battles.  You get a potion or something if you win, and you can kick ass as everyone’s 2 favorite Redheads.  *BONUS* Kairi finally gets to be a badass.

6. Once all the remaining Disney worlds are complete, we get to the FINAL PART: 

7. PREPARATION TIME, BABY!

For starters, Nomura, show them, ya know, actually preparing!

Ven and Aqua, sweating, clearly having just finished sparring or practicing magic and shit, talk about Terra and have their Wayfinder Moment.  I liked their dialogue choices here, so, keep those the same, just make it feel more excited and build the anticipation!

Axel sits on his tower, his new clothes beside him as he contemplates the fact he’s almost earned them.  Saix shows up and that all happens, with Axel calling his keyblade on him, and Saix being like, “Yeah, okay, save it for the morning, when you’re at your best.”  With a sidelong look at the suitcase he’s clearly ignoring. 

Donald and Goofy practice together, and the King arrives to commend them on all their hard work.  To be honest, I don’t even remember if there’s a scene between the three of them here, and if there is, cool!  If not, then, shit, put one in.  

Now.  The big shit. 

The Destiny Trio.

We cut to them all sparring on the shores of Destiny Islands.  Kairi has learned a thing or two from Aqua, but she also packs a real punch.  Riku utilizes his dark flare and other like abilities to enhance their light and build resistance to such attacks--teach them how to prepare.   Sora is his normal badass self, dodging, attacking, and being a good sport.   Mind you, this probably all devolves at some point into a fucking hysterical mess when Kairi drenches the boys with Waterza (which she just learned, the badass), and Sora tackles her into the Ocean as payback while Riku tries really, really hard not to die of laughter. 

After they’ve recovered, Riku excuses himself to sit on the beach so he can have his little chat with Repliku while Kairi and Sora go over to the tree and talk.   

When Kairi grabs the Paopu fruit, it’s just one--because it says share a paopu fruit, not two, you dipshits--and Sora was about to reach for it, too.  The two share a smile as they’re like, “This way, no matter what happens tomorrow, we’ll always have each other.”  

They share it, and then Riku--who is a fucking ninja, apparently--shows up and places a hand on both of their shoulders like, “It’s about fucking time.”   Sora and Kairi share a impish little smile and together, they hold up the shared Paopu to him.  He’s at first taken aback, but he softly smiles and the SCENE ENDS!

8. In the Keyblade Graveyard (I swear I’m almost done), here are the changes I’d make.

First off, when everyone is attacked and whisked off and Sora finally gets that moment where the self-doubt reaches its final form, have him, I dunno, react to losing his friends before Kairi!  Like, calling out names and reaching for them and growing increasingly terrified!   Especially after he just watched all his friends get wrecked by Terranort. 

I would completely erase the Final World Bullshit, because it felt like they just put it in there as a way to explain the fact Sora’s story was coming to an end and Kairi heart stuff when they didn’t know how else to do it, and that just felt sad.  BUT IF I MUST KEEP IT TO MAKE YOU HAPPY, then I propose that you don’t talk to Namine in the land of the Dead.  You instead talk to Chirithy and Strelitzia or whoever the fuck the other chick was, and then you gather yourself together and Sora tells Chirithy, “my friends are calling me back!  I have to go help them!”  While Digimon’s Kairi is like, “yeah, cool, but if you die again, ain’t no one coming up here to save you, dude, so don’t be fucking stupid.”

Since Riku has natural resistance to Darkness (thanks to his backstory) and Kairi is apparently God in this game, Sora only saves Donald and Goofy while they save Ventus, Aqua, Axel and Mickey separately.   Then, together, the whole group goes back to the graveyard, and instead of going through fucking time travel paradoxes that make no goddamn sense, Nomura, the characters regroup and are like, “okay, now, it’s time for the final showdown!”

9. The Gauntlet of Endless Cutscenes

Riku beats up fake Riku himself without Sora, but Sora shows up in the end to help hold off Xigbar while Repliku tears fake Riku apart for the whole Namine scene.  Sora is like, “you good, bro?” and Riku’s like, “Sure, gonna go kill Ansem,” and they part ways. 

Aqua and Ventus beat up Terranort themselves.  They are the ones who release his soul back to his body as Sora arrives to provide backup against Vanitas.   Terra, Ven and Aqua fight Vanitas while they tell Sora to go assist the others. 

Axel and Kairi fight together--for real, though.

Give these 2 badass Redheads the chance to kick some serious ass against Xion and Saix.

Sora arrives and they’re both worn out because they’re new to this and keyblades are hard, so he wards off Xion until Saix does his thing, then the rest is PRETTY MUCH THE SAME, except Kairi doesn’t get kidnapped. 

Because Roxas, Xion, and Sora stop that shit in their tracks (because I want Kairi to be the Touched by Fire badass she always deserved to be, dammit), but when they fail, Kairi swings at him and Xemnas does his teleportation bullshit and knocks her out because, goddammit, she did her best!

Xion and Roxas tell Sora to go while they beat down Saix, and then there’s the Sea Salt trio’s reunion. 

Sora goes to Riku and Mickey (I skipped him because Mickey needs no one’s help, and I would assume Sora went there first to help him and he was like, “the fuck?  I don’t need you!  Go assist everyone else, ya dunce!”), and when he tells them that Xemnas took Kairi, Riku chastises him for his sloppiness. 

Together, they defeat Ansem, Xemnas and Young Xehanort, after which, when Xehanort pulls out Kairi, we get a blast to the past of BBS while the 3 of them try to get her back without delay.  But, Xehanort uses his newly forged no name keys to hold them off while he imbues Kairi with a piece of himself for the final showdown (Because I think DarkKairi is the only way you can kill her and it be okay.  Also, they did hint at the whole princesses of light choose the light bullshit in the Disney worlds, so fuck it, if Nomura can’t keep his canon right, fuck you, I don’t have to keep it right, either, so there.)

This leads to Sora refusing to fight another of his friends, because he has done enough of that in this revised version, and dammit, he can’t do it again!  So, Riku does it for him, because he won’t let anyone else he cares about fall to the darkness. 

But he gets his ass handed to him.  Sora, seeing this, has to fight.  Like the Brother My Brother scene from Pokemon the First Movie (may it rest in peace).  

After the ensuing melee forges the final key--because who the fuck needs Xehanort, am I right?--Xehanort (hah) goes to put an end to Riku and Sora, but Kairi steps in and protects them, sacrificing herself in the process.   

Devastated, Sora goes after Xehanort while Riku stays behind with the other warriors to stop Kingdom Hearts. 

Shit pans out as seen, and after the final battle, Sora mourns Kairi and says he’s gonna go find her.  Shit pans out as seen and Riku still tells them to let him go, but he also leaves him with a snarky, “and if you get lost again, I’ll just pull you out like I always do,” roll of the eyes and everything. 

BRO HUGS FOR EVERYONE!

10.  Okay, so the Ending. 

Everything is the same, except that Kairi and Sora both disappear as Riku leaves the others behind on the beach to go see them.  Leaning against the branch they sat on, he picks up a fallen paopu, looks off into the distance and there’s a glimmer in his eye before the screen

Cuts

To 

Black

ROLL CREDITS!

[yasuda-yoshiya]

So, KH3 is over.

Wow. That sure was a thing.

Closing reflections on both the game and the series as a whole below.

I guess I’m not even really surprised that Xion pretty much got a whole five minutes of screentime in the end after all that build-up. Don’t know what else I expected, Nomura...

You know, KH has always been terrible at pacing, but I still can’t quite believe just how much nothing happened in the first ~20 hours! The Disney filler is fine and all (I mean, the game wouldn’t sell without it), but I have to admit that the initial rush of childish excitement at getting new KH content started to wear pretty thin after four or five worlds of it. Games like KH2 and BBS at least tended to break things up with some big plot events halfway through, right?! I feel like this game really would have benefited a lot from having some kind of breather somewhere in the middle, even if it was just a matter of moving things like the Aqua/Ventus rescue up a bit earlier. They really had to cram a lot into those last few hours, and a lot of things ended up feeling more rushed than they really needed to be as a result. But for all the game’s flaws, in the end I still felt like I was able to leave the characters I cared about most on a satisfying note, and I think I’m content with that.

I really loved the way Axel was portrayed in this game! I feel like they hit a pretty good balance with him in the sense that, yes, he’s obviously realised that he messed up horribly and wants to do better, but he still totally feels like Axel. He’s still very much an obviously flawed and self-centered person who still habitually puts his own emotional needs above others, still wants to frame himself as the hero of the story who will obviously be the one to save Roxas in the end - and I love that the game itself never really buys into that framing. There is honestly not a single scene in this game where I felt like the emphasis was on what a cool and good person Axel is. His constant apologies to Kairi feel incredibly uncomfortable, like he’s very clumsily trying to finally hold himself accountable for what he’s done but still has absolutely no idea to actually handle it. His boasts about being a Keyblade wielder feel like empty arrogant bluster that never really gets backed up. When he pointedly interrupts the big cast reunion to scream “Um, hello, what about ME?!”, it seems more petty and ridiculous than anything. And when we get to the final battle, he repeatedly and consistently fails, on every count. He tries to have a big badass moment rebelling against Xemnas, but Xemnas totally beats his ass, and in the end it’s Roxas and Xion who have to jump in to save him, not the other way around. He has absolutely nothing to do with saving Roxas, or bringing him and Xion back, or even dealing with Saix, despite how much he heatedly promised that he was going to totally do all those things.

In the end, the real crux of his arc feels like that moment where Xion tells him to step back and leave it to them, and Axel just smiles and admits that, yeah, when it came down to it, the two of them were always stronger than him. They don’t need him, and they never did. I love that so, so much. I love the way that when the three of them are left alone together after the battle, he’s just so obviously awkward and uncomfortable and has no idea what to say, until the three of them all just finally break down crying and hugging each other. It felt so totally genuine and powerful and heartfelt, and I couldn’t have asked for more. I really appreciated Axel’s acknowledgement at the end that they had a lot to sort out, and I expect they probably still do, and a lot of it’s probably going to be messy and painful and difficult - but I’m also fine with us not getting to see that onscreen or with the game dwelling on it too much, because in the end, what’s really important as far as the series’ themes go is that they’re all finally here and alive and free to be themselves, and the ending rightly puts the final emphasis on that - on the sheer joy and wonder of them finally being able to live in the world, as people, to be happy and confident in themselves and who they are. Xion showing up at the tower in those beautiful clothes was the point where I pretty much just started crying my eyes out and couldn’t stop for the entire credits sequence. I love that the framing of their final scenes doesn’t really put any real special emphasis on Axel at all; it makes it feel like their happy ending isn’t really about them reuniting with him as a trio (in the way that, say, the BBS trio’s ending is very much framed), it’s about a much broader sense of them being able to live, and to experience the joy of living, with all that entails - that he’s just one of many friends for them now, and that the days of their messed up co-dependent relationship where they all had to desperately cling on to each other to feel human are hopefully over. The only thing I don’t really like about it in the end is Saix being there, but hey, nothing’s perfect. I do wish that things like Xion’s return had been a bit less rushed, and that her and Roxas had more screentime than they did, but all in all, I feel like I definitely got the closure I wanted, and I’m overjoyed with it.

As for the rest of the game... well, I’d be lying if I said the overall plot wasn’t pretty much a giant incoherent mess overall - the finale had way too much crammed into it, a ton of the antagonists seemed to do sudden 180s at the end for no reason, and it was an absolutely terrible choice to spend such a huge amount of time on obvious sequel hooks and cliffhangers (the black box, Subject X, Marluxia and co secretly being ancient keyblade warriors or whatever the hell Chi is doing) in a game that should really have been firmly focused on giving closure to the existing arcs after all these years - but... well, it’s Nomura, and it’s Kingdom Hearts. I don’t think I really expected anything else. But I did feel like the game was generally charming and enjoyable on a moment-to-moment level, the quality of the dialogue and cutscene direction felt like a big step up for the series, and I did actually enjoy the sheer scope and ambition of the final boss rush for what it was. It was absolutely a mess, but it felt like a sort of final celebration of the series and its characters that made me feel really excited and nostalgic in a sort of “bringing out my inner twelve-year-old” way, and there were a lot of great individual moments in there - the RXA reunion, Repliku’s sacrifice, Sora apologising to Namine - that genuinely did manage to hit hard and leave an impact. I guess at this point, KH has been ongoing for so long that it’s just inevitably exciting to see all these stories finally coming to a conclusion instead of just stalling at the same point forever, however weird the execution.

The one big thing I’d say they totally dropped the ball on was the BBS trio; their resolutions just felt completely empty to me, way too easy and simplistic and without any real consequences or acknowledgement of things like Aqua’s fall to darkness and how it impacted on her, or Terra’s rock-bottom self-esteem and the ways Aqua and Eraqus contributed to that. (Hell, when Ansem and Xemnas’s last words gave me much stronger Terra feelings than Terra’s actual resolution did, something must have gone terribly wrong!) They weren’t really ever my favourite characters, so I’m not too upset about it, but I still think they deserved better than they got. And I pretty much just tuned out all the nonsense at the end with Kairi’s unbelievably transparent and cynical fridging (”You require motivation” oh my god get lost!!) and the drama over Sora being separated from her again becuse I just...really didn’t care any more. I’m sorry, I just didn’t. Those two can keep cycling through their same old boring plot forever if they want to, I just don’t care!! I actually barely even noticed Sora disappearing at the end because I was too busy crying over Xion, lmao. Thank god my favourite characters don’t have to live inside those two losers any more. They are free from their nonsense now, and so am I.

So, how do I feel about the series as a whole, coming out of KH3? I’ve spent quite a bit of time revisiting and reflecting back on the older games in the run-up to KH3′s release, and honestly, I think my opinion coming out is more or less the same as it was coming in. I can’t really honestly say that the series as a whole is good, and it’s probably not at all worth the investment for anyone new to the series trying to get into it now - but I do feel that there is genuinely a lot of good stuff in there among all the nonsense, and I’d have to say that my personal experience growing up with the series and following it all these years has been an overwhelmingly positive one, overall.

KH1 was a very conventional shounen story, but a charming and beautifully told one. CoM was a genuinely unique and unsettling game that pulled apart KH1 in a ton of interesting ways, and even if the series didn’t have the guts to really keep going with the ideas it set up, I still feel that it was really interesting and cool as a standalone. KH2 was a mess, but it was an epic mess that I totally loved and obsessed over as a twelve-year-old, and it set up some genuinely fascinating concepts with Roxas, the Nobodies and the Organization which 358/2 Days went on to capitalise on incredibly well. I genuinely find 358/2 Days to be a game that still has a lot of power and resonance for me even now; it’s probably the only KH game I’d say I wholeheartedly respect and admire from a writing perspective, and I still love how comprehensively it tears apart everything KH2 was trying to say (in a way that the series totally was willing to run with and expand on, unlike CoM, which even 10 years later is still kind of unbelievable to me). BBS’s writing was a big step down from Days, but there were still a lot of really cool and interesting characters and concepts in there, and even if KH3 ultimately failed to stick the landing on them, I’d still say that a lot of what the game tried to communicate with Terra’s character in particular has continued to stick with me. Re:coded and DDD were both pretty silly, but they were still totally fun and addictive games (debugging system sectors was great fun, and I can’t hate anything as transparently Pokemon-derivative as the Dream Eaters), and I loved how they both so unapologetically continued down the path Days set up in kicking KH2′s original conclusions about Nobodies to the curb. And KH3, for all its missteps, still managed to cap off the character arcs and themes that I most cared about in a way that was ultimately satisfying to me. The overarching plot might have been absolute nonsense, and the series more often than not a ridiculous and filler-bloated mess, but in the end I really can’t feel anything but happy and positive memories when I look back on any of these games. I can’t really hold the series’ flaws against it too much when it’s brought me so much joy over all these years.

I think the one thing I love and appreciate most about the series, looking back now, really is just how willing they were to scream from the rooftops that the sacrifices Roxas and Xion were pushed into making were categorically wrong, that they deserved to be their own people, right through to the very end. In the end, the series was already pretty much irreversibly going down the path of bringing them back and giving them their own happy endings by the end of DDD - which was amazing - so in the end all KH3 really had to do for me to love it was to just complete that obvious final step, and I was more or less guaranteed to be okay with whatever other nonsense it might do. But even so, there was a part of me that still couldn’t quite believe it seeing their happy ending at the end of KH3; I still almost couldn’t process that this was actually real, that they actually seriously did it. KH2 so obviously wanted its players to uncritically take Roxas’s choice to go back to being part of Sora as a good thing, and even Days left a heck of a lot of wiggle room for people to read Xion’s willingness to sacrifice herself as a positive choice, rather than something she very clearly did not want but was forced to convince herself was okay because she simply wasn’t given any other viable options.

And this kind of goofy shounen-adjacent series having a lot of disturbing and uncomfortable subtext beneath the surface of its seemingly conventional plotlines isn’t exactly a rare thing in itself, but I feel like it’s pretty uncommon to see a series like this go so far in explicitly bringing out that subtext and making it into text - unambiguously shouting from the rooftops and making it outright unavoidable canon that, no, Days was in fact not just a tragic story about people with no hearts who were always just tragically doomed from the start to sacrifice themselves and return to the “real people” they came from, but was in fact a story about perfectly real and complete and valuable people being subtly and systematically brainwashed into believing that they had no hearts and were less real and valid and important than others, about the horrible things those kinds of beliefs can do to people and about force them to willingly dehumanise both themselves and others to cope. Xion’s story was not a beautiful tale about accepting her true nature as a part of Sora’s memories and willingly returning to him, it was a story about a person who absolutely deserved and wanted to live for herself having her entire identity and self-confidence crushed and destroyed, about her being pushed into becoming actively suicidal even by perfectly “well-meaning” people. Roxas’s tragedy was in fact not just that he “didn’t get to meet Sora himself” before getting assimilated back into him - him being assimilated into someone else in the first place was the tragedy, because giving his own independently developed self up should never have to be something anyone has to do. Namine merging with Kairi was not a beautiful happy ending, it was an incredibly depressed and guilt-ridden person taking the first excuse she had to fade away because she no longer saw any value in herself and her existence, and Sora and Kairi uncritically validated that perception of herself by accepting her merge with Kairi as right in a way that they absolutely shouldn’t have.

None of this is reduced to subtext or interpretation, KH makes it all outright canon by implication - and not only makes it canon but actively sets up the entire main thrust of its epic multi-game arc to be about setting these mistakes right and bringing these people back and validating them as full human beings in their own right. And honestly, I just think that’s incredible. I love it, and I’ll always be grateful for it, and a huge part of what lets me keep coming back to games like 358/2 Days and still being able to fully appreciate them even now is having that knowledge that these interpretations are not just me reading too much into the text, but that they have been outright objectively confirmed as the correct readings within the series itself, over and over again, and only more and more and more explicitly and unavoidably as time has gone on. I honestly can’t express how much it means to me that KH is so loud and unambiguous about how much it loves and values and holds up these people as real and important, whatever their origins, whatever the fanbase might have to say about how bringing them back is “fanservice” and “ruining their original conclusions”. It’s so important to me, and I’m so thankful for it.

So yes, overall, I think I’m content with this game, and with the series in general! As long-awaited series finales go, I’ll definitely take it over things like Homestuck and Zero Escape’s efforts any day. I feel pretty much happy ending my time with the series on this note, and while I probably will still end up checking out whatever Nomura does next, I think it will probably be more out of vague curiosity than any strong investment by now, which is fine - the plotlines I cared about most within the series have now been pretty definitively closed, to my satisfaction, and I doubt anything else it does will manage to interest me nearly as much, but I’m sure I’ll still be willing to pop in again in a few years anyway for old times’ sake. For now, I am free, and I’d have to say that feels pretty good! I’m willing to forgive Kingdom Hearts a lot just because it’s brought me so much joy over the years, and I can’t think of any other series that has managed to stay emotionally significant to me for as much of my life as this one has. So in the end, all I can say is: thank you, Tetsuya Nomura! Keep on co-opting those beloved Disney movies to indulge your absurdly convoluted shounen anime nonsense, you wonderful, ridiculous man.

[silverwhisp]

I’ve Completed KH3 And I Have Thoughts.

I have finished KH3 short of the side stuff like the ultima weapon, classic kingdom, gummi ship stuff, battle portals and the cooking. I have some thoughts. First off, I loved this game allot. I only have a couple of complaints gameplay wise and three story wise but all in all, I loved every minute of this game. For those who don’t want to read everything I’d give the game a solid 8.5/10. It was amazing but a few small flaws and the three story issues I had made me bring the score down. First I will discuss the issues cause I feel that’s what one should do when critiquing art. I will offer solutions where I can. 

I will discuss my gameplay complaints first.

The manual lock on is ass while the auto lock on is decent. I almost never used the manual lock on due to the fact it can just drag the camera where ever it wanted. Especially if enemies start flying. This is largely due to how often you spend in the air while in combat. The auto lock is good though and doesn’t seem to change targets unless you make it or bump into another enemy. The manual lock is good for human sized bosses though. Short of making the camera tighter this may not be able to be fixed.

The game is to damn easy. I had this issue in BBS and DDD after I got to level 30 and beyond. The game becomes easy even on proud. This is largely due to bad enemy health scaling. They still can hit damn hard and enemies like the Ice Dragon still are dangerous. But since the enemy’s health and defense don’t scale up better the game becomes real easy after level 40. I don’t doubt they will patch in a critical mode which may be a better way to play this game. Just better enemy scaling would fix this problem.

That’s all my gameplay complaints now for story ones. SPOILERS will be discussed so leave while you can.

The game has bad pacing in the Disney worlds. Some like Olympus, Toy Box, San Fransokyo and Kingdom Of Corona have great pacing while Monstropolis is meh and ones like Pirates and Arendelle were just awful. Why are you cheering for Anna and Elsa Sora? You didn’t do anything you turd. This could have been fixed if they added intervals in between all the worlds to reset the pacing and if they just followed the movies from start to finish in their entirety instead of jumping around.

Twilight Town is more of a bus stop then a world. They should have made it bigger and included old areas to explore. Even an expanded sewer system would have been fun. No story reason needed it just exists. Oh well.

These next issues ARE MAJOR SPOILERS so leave now if you don’t want to be spoiled.

What the fuck is Nomura’s issue with writing a good arc for Kairi? I mean they set her up to be training to become a bad ass and we don’t get to see either the training or a decent fight scene. We fight with her once, she gets kidnapped, and then fucking dies!? I’m starting to think Nomura doesn’t know how to write female characters. That may be one of the reasons they dropped him from FF Versus XIII since females had big roles in the story. He fucked Kairi over and made her the least likable and cared about character in the fucking finale of this Saga to me. What the hell? This alone may actually get me to start my own series on something I’ve been thinking about for awhile. Jesus. The death isn’t the issue its that there was no build up for her.

The last story complaint is a small one. I saw Sora’s “death” coming since death seemed to be a theme in allot of the world’s we went to. Flynn, Anna, Jack, and Tadashi were or are dead at some point. Even Young Xehanort hinted at it when he said, “There is a high price to pay for wielding such power recklessly (...) There is no saving you.” The issues I have with the “death” of Sora is that it means nothing. Nomura said he will be the protagonist for the foreseeable future. If he didn’t say that then the death would be okay. The main complaint about this is the final scene on Destiny Islands where everyone sees Kairi and Sora but Sora just gets Thanos’d. That shouldn’t have been in there. There are two scenarios that would work way better than that one in my eyes.

One: Everyone is just looking out to the sea and the music goes quiet. All you can hear is the sounds of the waves and it zooms to Riku and he just smiles.

Two: Same thing but Kairi comes from the ocean in tears and Riku helps her up. They all look at her and she shakes her head. Everyone gets solemn until Riku chuckles. He smiles and says, “That knuckle head always getting into trouble. He’ll be back. Even if I have to drag him home.”

Maybe its stupid but if you removed the scene where Sora turns into smoke or whatever, the ending would have allot more impact.

Those are all my complaints for the game. Like I said solid overall but with a few issues that could easily be fixed.

Now for the stuff I loved about the game. Gameplay Is First

All the worlds were so much damn fun to explore. I easily spent and extra couple hours in each just looking around for chests, emblems, Easter eggs, and ingredients. Even Pirates was fun and I was worried it’d be gimmicky due to the ship mechanic but nope it was so much fun. The only one that was less fun was Monstropolis but since it takes place in a factory its okay. It seemed more into hidden paths than open places which is fine.

I haven’t had that much fun with a combat system since playing as Vergil In Devil May Cry 4 Special edition and that’s saying something. His combat was so smooth and easy to experiment with I didn’t think it could be beat but KH3′s comes close with transformations and grand magic. The attractions are a bonus though I didn’t use them allot. There wasn’t a need at later levels.

Thank god for combo cancelling with dodges and slides. Against the Gigas, which are the only enemies that pose a threat now, its a god send.

Flowmotion is fun to use and not over powered like in DDD. No more spamming air slam at early levels.

The party members all feel useful. Not many died in combat and seemed smart enough to back off when they’re in danger. Donald also heals based on need versus what he did before. Like if I was out of magic and potions he would heal me over goofy even if we had similar amounts of health.

There wasn’t a single boss I didn’t like short of Dark Baymax since it felt so slow. Skoll is now my favorite heartless design finally surpassing the Wyvern from Kingdom Hearts 1.

That’s all for gameplay since I could go on and on.

Now for story stuff. SPOILERS INCOMING! All the original story stuff for the KH characters was amazing. Anti-Aqua’s theme was so heartbreaking and beautiful and what she said as we fought made me feel like shit even though it was Mickey’s fault for leaving her there. Vanitas’ voice is god like and his scenes are so good. Him calling Ventus and Sora a brother to him makes sense yet unsettled me with the tone he used. ALL OF THE TRIO’S BEING REUNITED!!! I cried when Xion, Roxas and Axel hugged and cried. I was so happy they got to be together. Aqua’s reunion with Terra and Ven was also beautiful. Xehanort’s story beats were great and the man they got to replace the late Leonard Nimoy is amazing. Sounds more sickly and dying like he should at this point. The twist where Terranort wrecks everyone before we go back into time was a fucking shock and amazing. THEN LINGERING WILL SHOWING UP! The voice for Lingering will was amazing. DONALD’S ZETAFLARE HOLY SHIT! All the foreshadowing of Sora’s “Death” or “Disappearance.” Death was talked about allot and Young Xehanort even said Sora couldn’t be saved since Sora uses the power of waking so recklessly. All the Disney characters who met organization members being sick of their shit before they even talk. Woody especially. “I bet you’ve never been loved.” and “That makes you more hollow than any toy.” My son I am so proud. All the instagram style posts were so cute. The epilogue was mind blowing. I knew that sarcastic sniper knew way more than he let on but him being Luxu was a fucking shock. Amazing. And the secret ending seems to be hinting that Sora’s been given a second chance in the form of The Reaper game from TWEWY. Either its going to be DLC which Nomura said if he did decide to do he’d do free stuff and/or one big dlc that adds to the experience in a big way or the next game opens with The Reaper Game. Riku being in Verum Rex is interesting to me. Maybe he realizes Sora isn’t in the realm of light and after talking with Goofy and Donald he learns of Verum Rex and how Sora was tossed in so he goes looking for him there. And finally the Master of Masters looking at the moon and forming a heart with his hands. Is he looking for a new plain of existence for everyone to live on but before he can move people there it needs a new Kingdom Hearts? And is that what’s in the box? I’m excited to see. All in all I love the game and would recommend it to people who want a good JRPG.

8.5/10

[their-destinys-writer]

Connecting the Light - A Kingdom Hearts Fanzine Work

Did I tell anyone I participated in a Kingdom Hearts zine?

Last month, @destiny-islanders and @novallion organized what was probably one of the biggest Kingdom Hearts events in all Tumblr: a special zine called The Ties That Bind Us, celebrating the much anticipated release of Kingdom Hearts III. I’m happy to say that I submitted a piece, and I am finally sharing it with my followers.

For the zine, you can get the download link here.

Connecting the Light

The power to connect. Hearts that rest and take refuge in mine. That’s what they said I can do: that I have the power of connection to other people’s hearts. But will it protect my friends when they need it the most?

Sora was ready to leave Destiny Islands once again, but this time, instead of looking for his friends, he would be saving people connected to the one residing in his heart. And the owner of it, too.

Call them ‘future friends,’ as Sora liked to think of them.

After all, if they were Ven’s friends, then by extension, they were his friends too. He just hadn’t met them yet. Or, at least, that he knew of.

He stared off into the setting sun on the beach, the one that left trails of orange on the surface of the ocean. The boy listened to the waves intently, wondering when would be the next time he would hear them again. Hoping it would be these same waves he would hear again, and not the ones in the Realm of Darkness.

“Sora?” a soft voice spoke behind him.

He turned to find Kairi standing there, giving one of her bright smiles. Very appropriate for a Princess of Heart.

“I thought you guys had left already,” she said as she walked to stand beside him.

“Riku needed some extra time before we left,” Sora shrugged. “I think he’s not very sure about our next adventure.”

“Oh,” Kairi uttered, her brows furrowing. She turned to look at the sunset. “He still thinks he’s not worthy, doesn’t he?”

“I guess,” Sora sighed. But he quickly grinned. “But don’t worry. I think this test is just the thing he needs to prove how strong his heart really is.”

Kairi giggled. “Yeah. At least he will have you there to remind him…” She paused. “Sora?”

“Hm?”

“Don’t ever let him forget it: that he is also part of the light, no matter the darkness he has fought inside him.”

Sora blinked at her. Slowly, a smile curled his lips, as he looked back at the sunset, placing his hands at the back of his head.

“Don’t worry. I won’t let him forget.”

“I thought you’d be on the gummi ship by now.”

Both Sora and Kairi turned to the new voice, only for both of them to let out sounds of surprise.

“You cut your hair,” Sora commented.

“It was getting a little long for my taste.” Riku shrugged, walking closer to his friends.

“It suits you,” Kairi giggled. “I’ve been thinking about doing the same thing.”

“It bodes well, when you’re trying to start anew,” the young man said, now standing next to the other two, lightly stroking his hair.

“Great! You’re going to pass that exam with style now.” Sora playfully punched Riku’s bicep.

The young man chuckled, right before turning his gaze to the sunset. “You really think I’ll pass, with all the darkness I let in my heart?”

Sora and Kairi exchanged looks, instantly nodding in understanding.

“What are you talking about? Of course you’ll pass!”

“You’re gonna do great!”

They spoke at the same time, both with a sense of purpose, including Sora making a fist of confidence. The reaction was so strong that Riku was startled by their enthusiastic support.

“You have us,” Kairi added.

“And King Mickey, Donald and Goofy,” Sora continued. “You’ve got plenty of friends rooting for you.”

“Right,” Riku chuckled. “My friends are my power. That’s what you said before, right?”

Sora nodded. “Right.”

The trio turned back to the light, seeing the last bit of the sun sink down the horizon. Knowing it would be a while before they got to see it together like this again. So, they cherished the moment, savoring every second of it.

“We should get going,” Riku said quietly.

“Yeah,” Sora whispered.

As the two boys turned to walk away, Kairi spoke up.

“Make sure you two come back here,” she teased, placing her hands on her hips and leaning forward.

Sora grinned. “We will.”

He then practically jumped as he placed his arms around Riku and Kairi’s shoulders. Riku got dragged down by Sora’s short stature.

“I promise that no matter what, we’ll always come back here, to this island, and hang out. Like old times. No darkness involved.”

Kairi giggled, while Riku let out a short laugh and shook his head at his always optimistic friend.

Someday.

Someday, it’ll be me, Terra and Aqua. We promised we would find our way back to each other, that our wayfinders would guide us, and keep us together in our hearts.

And someday, I’ll see Xion again. And we’ll go back to that clocktower to eat that sea-salt we loved so much. And maybe this time, Axel won’t have to keep any secrets from us.

Someday, we will reconnect.

Personal A/N: I cannot even begin to describe how much this series means to me. I have been playing Kingdom Hearts since I was about 12 years old (I am about to turn 27 next month). I remember watching Disney Channel and seeing an ad for the first game, and I immediately fell in love with the idea of Disney characters mixed with anime characters.

When my sister and I got the game, we still didn’t have memory cards for our PS2. So you can imagine my frustration when I had to turn off the PS after I heard Tarzan say “Not Clayton. Hee, hoo, hoo ha ha” about 10 times.

But after getting memory cards, this was the first time I ever took the time to complete a game at it’s fullest. And for once, uncover secrets my sister never did (she was usually better at videogames than me).

It was the first time I had ever felt I had some unique achievement that no one else I knew had. That I was good at something I normally wasn’t. I remember gaping the moment I beat Sephiroth and saying “never again”, without knowing I would beat his ass again in Kingdom Hearts 2 later on. It was the one series I played over and over again, trying to get better and better with each playthrough. Even as I turned into adulthood.

Sadly, that PS2 stopped working properly over time, and I was too broke to buy any consoles, like a PSP or a NintendoDSi. So, for the longest time, I missed out on the games. From then on, everything I knew about the games came from Wikipedia.

That was, until my boyfriend (now husband) gifted me a Nintendo3DS for our 9 month anniversary, with Pokémon Y. Finally an adult with a part-time job, one of the very first games I bought for that 3DS was, of course, Kingdom Hearts 3D. I took my time playing it, but unfortunately, I was unable to finish it because one of the buttons stopped working properly. The one button one smashes the most to beat Xehanort in the end.

So when I finally saved enough money to buy a console, you bet your butt that I bought a PS4. While there were other games my husband and I were interested in (like Monster Hunter World, the remakes of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro, among other games), there was one main reason I bought it for: Kingdom Hearts.

Because I grew up with this series. Because they gave me a sense of supporting friendships. Because it was beautiful. Because it made me feel whole. Because they made me feel capable.

And when I saw PSN was selling the All-in-One Package, I didn’t need to think twice to buy it. And the second those games downloaded, I opened the very first Kingdom Hearts game, I started crying like an idiot. Because finally. I finally had them with me again. And I could finally experience some of the stories that I had only read about.

These 14 years have been an emotional roller coaster. But this last month really takes the cake. I cried so hard with the new game, from beginning to end, and I am so happy I got to see and experience it. I, personally, feel Kingdom Hearts III was so much of what I wanted it to be. I experienced so much old and new, at the same time. The added pieces of Disney were fantastic, and once again, it proved that Kingdom Hearts is so much more than just a crossover. It’s more than its gameplay and companies. It is a piece of us, that helped forge who many of us are now.

Kingdom Hearts is, and forever will be, the greatest game in my heart.

[happymeishappylife]

So I finally beat KH3

As many of you know, I’ve spent my time delaying beating the game mainly because I didn’t have tons of time with work and studying for an exam to play, but also after waiting for 17 years to play the game, I didn’t want to rush through it. Especially because I had a fun time doing all the extra/silly quests in the game and exploring the worlds. But once it got very grindy and I learned the secret reports could only be done after beating the story (hate that mechanic), I decided to finally finish the story. And now I want to provide my critique on the game based on my initial experience.

And in case any of you have extended out your playthrough, I’ll leave spoilers below and warn you here. So SPOILERS!

Story:

Everyone whether they have played Kingdom Hearts or not, knew before this game started that the storyline has become complicated and ridiculous, but its part of the charm. I think there was some hesitation to see the storyline finish out, but I’m glad that this game did what it promised and at least closed the Xehanort chapter. However, it was not satisfying to see him “die.”

I mean this dude has been fucking EVERYONE over for decades. And has always been one step ahead, so of course finishing him off was the best thing the game could give you. But then they wanted to go through the whole game picturing him as a little kid, lost in fantasies and theories of light and dark and so at the end as a magical ghost version of Master Eraqus appears and forgives him for literally destroying everything, we’re (the player) supposed to be okay with him turning back into an innocent little kid and just disappearing? I hated it. I don’t have any sympathy for this dude and the fact that they tried to make him sympathetic, made me mad. And that also had to do for the very unsatisfactory battles and “deaths” of the new organization 13 crew because other than Vanitas and Terra-Xehanort, I didn’t care about any of them, though we’ll dive in deeper to the more problematic ones in a second. So to conclude, I’m glad that this chapter is closed.

Okay, so when I say problematic Organization members, let’s talk about the ones who have more history than the game. Not the ones who apparently just love to die over and over again (and yes I’m aware that those battles weren’t deaths, that these people are going to be real again, but that’s even more of a let down to be honest, but that could just be me.) So let’s start with a focus on Young Xehanort. Now that he’s gone back to his time knowing that his ultimate plan is failing, does history just play out? Does he forget everything? That’s the only loose end, I’m cautious about and don’t trust that the game designers will leave alone. Then again when I think of great moments of potentially great storyline the game designers just blink an eye at, so hopefully I’m wrong. Next, Xion. How exactly did she get to be there again? I’m assuming a replica, but all of a sudden she was there again with no pomp and circumstance. Which seems odd because I thought she was part of Sora… Especially since she is connected to Kairi still… But okay, cool she’s back and that magically made Roxas appear? Yay! But how? Replica? Not? I don’t know. He just magically appeared. Let’s move on, like the game designers did.

Now for the main two members I’m interested in. Thanks to completing the secret reports, I’m very intrigued about this storyline of this missing girl, Isa, and Lea. Mainly because this girl means something to them, but supposedly she means nothing to no one, so what’s the story there? I hope that gets explored somewhere. The second is Xigbar/Luxu because why did he have to be the important one. He’s super annoying! But apparently that means there might be more of him in the future… Boo! But of course we need more plot for more games, so lets see what happens. Especially since he ties in to the teased storyline of the black box. I mean I totally forgot about it, Maleficent, or Pete until that ending scene so it will be interesting to see where it goes from there.

Now let’s focus on the main group of characters. Beginning with the trio who to me has had so much potential, so many unanswered questions, and a completely heartfelt, but at the same time lackluster ending. Aqua, Ventus, and Terra are finally reunited and then practically forgotten at the end of the game. It’s so disappointing. I mean Aqua and Terra are some of the strongest and most kickass characters and they get reduced to just orphan children which sucks. I mean I hope they get peace now, but I also hope they come back super strong, if they come back at all.

Alright, unpopular opinion ahead, you’ve been warned…

I’m surprised the game designers decided to “murder” Kairi. I mean technically they did send Sora to the afterworld, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, but beyond my surprise that’s the only emotion I felt. I used to love her, but really… Kairi’s a useless character. She barely fights, she has no other conviction other than she is a princess of light and a constant light to Sora, and her dialogue is so vapid and unimportant when its meant to be sincere. To be honest, I was glad when Xemnas took her. I mean, she made Sora look weak, when he’s not at all, and I was glad she was gone. But then that brings me to the biggest let down of the game and that’s the end.

I don’t get Kairi and Sora’s link anymore. They’ve spent way more time a part then together at this point, how are they still in love? They don’t really act like it either. So I was devastated when Sora goes on this journey to find her and the end scene shows her alive and well and him just disappearing? Fuck that noise! At least the secret ending eluded to the fact he’s not dead and also that he’s reunited with his boyfriend, because I’m sorry, he and Riku are the ones who should be in a relationship. It’s made sense for so long and their relationship has depth. But for some reason the game designers are scared to commit to it, so instead they want you to believe the whole, well if Kairi is with Sora, then Namine must be with Riku even though that’s semi creepy since Namine and Kairi are somewhat the same. It’s like saying both boys are into the same girl, when really they are into each other, duh…

This also is because I adore Sora to death. I’ve always called him my monkey boy, and he’s an idiot most of the time and naïve, but he grew a lot in this game so I’m sad to see him be forced to go pining after Kairi just because this game gave him so much more maturity.

So we’ll see where things go. I hope the secret ending is an illusion to the next game, but if that means Sora’s in the real world, that’s a bizarre thought. At least he learned selfie tricks to help him get by in today’s day and age.

As I mentioned I didn’t like some of the storyline directions. I mean they did a great job of working with the worlds, but then there were weird moments like when we come across Vanitas the first time and Donald, Goofy, and Sora are just like, that’s weird, but he must be crazy. Not the psycho dark side of Ven they’ve been told about. Instead, let’s just forget they ran into him for a bit. Okay… Then when you have Sora on his knees, crying about the death of his friends, how do you make him so cheerful to learn he’s essentially dead as he reached the Final World and wants to come back to visit Chirithy? Okay… It all really comes to a head when you have to have Woody pretty much say what we’re all thinking to Young Xehanort which is essentially “I don’t know where you are going with this, but I don’t care” to sum up the problems with the storyline.

Now beyond this, I love the moments in the worlds and how the true essence of the game was captured as Sora, Donald, and Goofy just stumble into worlds, don’t understand a thing, and yet somehow make friends. Pirates was the best example of this because all the main characters pretended they didn’t exist. It was hilarious. I was just sad there weren’t more worlds. I mean what they did was great, but they could have had more and added more depth.

Also one of the best moments gets a shoutout, because having Yen Sid be awesome at the end was such a thrill!

Gameplay:

Overall, really, really fun! I loved that they brought together all the elements of the games, like forms, focus drive, links, and magic into the game and then added the ridiculous elements of the attraction based attacks, wall running, and parkour moves into this addition. It made for fast paced, action packed, awesome flow during fight scenes with silly consequences thanks to all the keyblade forms. I also loved the uniqueness to all the blades and the overall attention to detail they gave each and everyone of them. Especially how they interacted in other worlds. It was fantastic!

I loved that instead of journal, we got a phone. I loved that you could take pictures and get new selfie poses (though why that’s when most of the game is over, I don’t understand). Heck half the fun was taking pictures of random people just because you could. It was fun! I also loved the Classic Kingdom Games because they were well thought out to play off the old school arcade games. The keyblade you get for collecting all of them is silly but powerful which is great! The only thing I didn’t like, like I mentioned above, was that the secret reports you can’t even collect until after beating the game. I would have rather gotten everything and then beaten it, but it forced my hand. Sigh…

I loved cooking with Remy! That may have been my favorite part! It’s just a sweet way to include Ratatouille and not diminish the whole point of that story and you get to see Sora be a terrible cook, because he is. The keyblade you get for helping Remy is also my favorite one in the game. I want to make it so badly and cosplay with it. Plus there was something satisfying at the end by trying to defeat Xehanort with a frying pan and screaming, “Flambe his Ass!” that added to the mood.

I loved travelling through the worlds, I loved the openness of the maps, even though they still guided you places. I loved the aesthetic and the Unreal Engine made everything gorgeous. It got annoying after a while to hear Goofy and Donald talk about finding nearby ingredients, but helpful when looking for all the damn emblems! I loved their costumes and the way they treated the design for Toy Story and Monsters Inc. I’m in love with Sora’s Pirate’s costume, I want to also make that and cosplay in that! Maybe a mix between the that costume and keyblade? Could be fun!

The gummiship was a nice mix between 1 and 2’s style, though the fights were ridiculous and hurt my hands from trying to beat the missions. I loved the idea of constellations, but why were the designs so random? I also love the ‘Treasure Planets’ though can we have an actual Treasure Planet World? That would be amazing!!

There’s two main things about the gameplay I didn’t like though. First, the boss battles were too easy. I mean except for not protecting my pirate ship, which was bullshit, I never once died. All the cutscenes where Sora’s heavy breathing or on the ground defeated, I was like, this is crap because this was so easy. I want a challenge! So I’ll play again on Proud mode and see if it’s better. I mean not even the secret battles were hard, but admittedly I was battling them around level 70 by that point so that could be why…

And I wish they had done the fights with the Organization members better. I mean it was so jaunting to fight three enemies and kill one just to have a pause in the fight where everyone let so-and-so have their last words. Thoughtful, I guess, but dumb and if you want each death to be meaningful you could have done it so much better. Because I could have felt more for Larxene, if Marluxia wasn’t about to Axe me, ten seconds later. What I thought would have been cool is one-on-one battles and playing as all the different keyblade wielders. I mean, don’t tease me by letting me play as Riku a couple times, and Aqua once, if you won’t let me play with them at the end! That’s so not fair! I mean I love Sora, and he’s powerful, but there would have been so much more sweet justice getting to fight certain members as the other characters. Like Roxas for example. How badass would that have been to come back and beat down on Saix and Xemnas? But they didn’t let me!!!! Sad day…

Overall Rating: 8/10 Because ultimately, I did have fun. I will play it again despite the issues I had, and it still is one of my all time series.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far!

[dewprisms]

ok so, it’s been a day, i think i’m ready to collect my thoughts on KH3

where to begin....the plot I guess?

So what....even happened. like, Xehanort seems to have done a change on why he’s doing all this, but i’ve seen examples that it’s not far-fetched but idk it just seems like poor writing if “i love darkness” xehanort was really trying to bring back the light...there’s stuff that never got explained with so many characters too so i’ll just

sora: him hiding his pain was always implied but a lot of people really are too dumb to realize that and called him OoC in this game, like Coded and DDD were leading up to all this. I joked that he died but then it turns out he really did fucking die. and then he died again to bring back kairi. and now he’s in shibuya??? do i gotta play twewy now cause i dont care about that game

riku: why did they not let him interact with kairi. why. their relationship got shafted hard. its like, are they even really friends anyway? or just with sora? the soriku in this game was strong af despite being the one where sokai was made canon

kairi: GOD WHERE DO I BEGIN Kairi I’m so fucking sorry Nomura did all this shit to you. Hype you up with keyblade training. helping with the final battle. then what happened? needing rescue, everyone getting hurt because you need saving. getting your ass beat by xion (at least in my game, jfc she died faster than donald ever did), getting kidnapped immediately after, again. then GETTING KILLED BY XEHANORT SO SORA CAN HAVE HIS MAN PAIN then having Sora die so he could bring Kairi back so she can cry about being lonely. why the FUCK isn’t she the one looking for him, why are they having Riku do it? why does nomura fucking hate her. she deserves better than this. i’ll never be over this even if Kairi gets redeemed in every subsequent game. they fucked up real bad with her and I’m so fucking pissed off.

roxas: my boy. where is the convo about him and ven. we just saw them notice each other but no words exchanged. this is the guy who’s been having an identity crisis since he was born. and nothing at all? come on.

xion: my girl her new outfit is so gosh darn  f r e s h like damn son. but, why is she back? why was she with the orgxiii? how did they even get her when she was inside sora’s heart???

lea: i still dont like him. he kidnapped kairi and hurt her friends and he makes kairi call him axel, the name he had when he did all that, so he could project his faded memories of xion onto her. he was abusive to xion and roxas, i knew they were gonna reunite because they’re friends but he NEEDS to apologize for what he did to them, the constant lying, attacking xion because she ran away from her abusive situation because he didn’t want to be lonely, and the writers turned his threat into a heartwarming scene? no fuck that. everyone forgave him for everything far too easily.

isa: APOLOGIZE TO ROXAS AND XION TOO YOU FUCK. especially xion. now he’s suddenly friends with them? fuck that. he needs to make up for how he treated them.

x: it would’ve been great if they had brought her up in days, it just comes so out of left field that isa and lea were trying to find and save some girl who’s name they dont even know. why the fuck is Skuld even in the present, cause that’s likely who she is. more forced ties to the money hungry gacha game i can’t bear myself to leave.

ven: my son, i have nothing bad to say about him

terra: my son, i’m surprised the guardian = terra’s heartless theory was true, and like damn, he got messed up so bad his heart, body AND soul/mind got split? but, where was his interactions with riku. he did bequeath his keyblade to him. but nothing is said between them, they don’t even interact outside of a small race in the ending.

aqua: why do people say they wrote her bad? i mean yeah she just immediately gave up against the heartless swarm instead of fighting it but she was trapped in the realm of darkness and taken over by the darkness for 10 years like just a few hours before hand.....she still got off pretty good in the end.

namine: i swear i was worried they forgot about her, she helped LW find terranort which brought terra back, and she came back. that ending? she and xion are def dating.

replica riku: replinami is fucking canon i dont care what you say. im still sad, he could’ve had the replica body anyway, it was implied there were many more, and even could’ve just made more. roxas and ven, and kairi/namine/xion can exist despite being identical, why can’t he and riku?

demyx: what the hell even happened to him? he dropped off the replica body and ansem the wise then disappeared from the rest of the game. we legit have no clue what happened to him. all we know is that he got benched from the nort 13, then xemnas confirmed he was also a keykid in the age of fairytales, but even khux hasn’t revealed that yet, larxene just got revealed like 2 months ago. i feel like him being revealed as a keykid should have jossed the theory of him being the master of masters but people still going at it. then again....(far below)

luxord: also a keykid even though he looks too old (prob the beard), his characterization seems to be in line with days, how he resigned to his fate that he was just gonna serve the org til the end because he had nothing left. also what the hell was that “wild card” he gave to sora, it never got brought up again.

marluxia: he also forgot his past like them all too, only remembering when sora beat him. i’m guessing he’ll never find strelitzia, she was in the final world too so she’s def dead. although namine was there too.....

larxene: god i love this absolute bitch. saying “ugh xemnas” to his face is such bad bitch energy. all of her scenes were so good. she only went along because of marluxia though....and yet neither of them remembered their past as keykids but stuck together anyway. they’re canon hush.

ienzo: what a good boy. he’s really trying hard to atone.

vexen: i’ll admit i didn’t trust him, but he was sincere in wanting to repent.

aeleus/dilan: lmao the former got like 1 line and the latter got like 1 grunt and nothing else. they were just kinda there. weird considering what Xaldin was like in 2/days.

ansem sod: uh.....what was with the attempted redemption in his defeat, literally nothing ever implied he was wanting to quit because he suddenly always knew they would fail

xemnas: same as ansem, literally nothing implied he was sad over being lonely because nobody actually liked him or his authority

young xehanort: imagined getting burned by freakin woody of all people. also what was his deal. he’s like the only one who didn’t get some kind of sad or redeeming cutscene. and he was the one who implied sora would die if he abused the power of waking outta nowhere. idk, something about him seemed off compared to like. every other nort.

donald and goofy: donald straight up decimated Terranort in the first/failure timeline, like dude literally died from zettaflare

Mickey: I wish he had died instead of Kairi :/ just because she was already being treated like shit

Eraqus: He apologized to Aqua and Ven but not Terra :/ at least he’s with his boyfriend in the afterlife

Xehanort: All the fights were easy as shit and the finale was anticlimatic. I actually like him less because of the fucking Kairi bullshit. Also his new VA just doesn’t work. He suddenly has an accent, his voice is nowhere near as deep and he lacks emotion in most of his lines. And people thought Terra and Aqua’s voices were emotionless? At least Xehaqus is canon ig

braig/xigbar/luxu’s getting his own post

[bubble-tea-bunny]

life is a game

[rocket raccoon x reader]

author’s note: been wanting to write something for rocket for a while and i’ve been wanting to write something involving video games for a while too. why not combine them?

word count: 3,069

You and Peter are the only Terrans on the team. When the two of you left your native planet (which hadn’t been at the same time—you joined the team later), you both took a piece of it with you, to try to make the ship feel a little bit more like home. Peter brought his Walkman and his collection of mixtapes. You brought a handheld game console older than you are, whose screen isn’t even backlit.

“It was my dad’s,” you’d explained the first time any of the team had asked about it. You don’t bother trying to hide the nervous expression on your face when you see Drax turn the Gameboy over in his hands, the sheer size of them dwarfing your console and causing you to worry that he might accidentally crush it. You smiled gratefully when Rocket took it, as if to study it himself in curiosity. He’d seen your distress, and perhaps out of everyone, you trust him with it the most. He works on all the weapons, which requires a steady hand and a certain finesse.

When it came to bringing pieces of home with you as you traversed the galaxy, it went beyond just memories of a planet. They represented more than that. They represented those who had meant the most to you on Terra. For Peter it was his mother, and for you, it was your father. You take the utmost care of your electronics, because even if you did manage to come across an identical replacement in some other region of space, as unlikely as that is to begin with, it wouldn’t be the same—wouldn’t feel the same, and that’s practically equivalent to being worthless.

The mission this time brings you to the far reaches of a planet where the sun never sets. You’d been hired to steal back an artifact and are waiting for the thief’s ship to touchdown at this specific point, which your employer had been tipped off about. None of you knows what the artifact actually is, only that it’s some foreign piece of technology worth a pretty penny.

You’re all waiting for quite some time. When you’d landed, you were expecting the action to happen soon. Perhaps you’d been too early. Perhaps that thief got lost. It’s long enough that you’ve all relaxed and started to sit around, practically dying of boredom. There was an unspoken suggestion floating amongst all of you that maybe you’re in the wrong place, that maybe you should call it in and ask whether you should leave, but no one has the guts to say it first. The longer it goes unsaid, the longer you’re all out here. And all of you can be rather stubborn.

You find a spot a little ways off the ground in a tree. You settle down on a thick branch, and you lean back against the colossal trunk. The bark digs painfully into your back, but it’s easy to ignore the moment you switch on your Gameboy. You have the volume turned up, and the quiet noise of blasters and make-believe explosions travel through the air. The buttons clack with your hasty movements, and your face is etched in concentration as you try to clear the level. This game is one of your favorites out of the few you had. You’ve been trying for years to beat the high score, which your father had put there when he was your age. You’re not sure if you really are incapable of beating it or if you just don’t want to, for seeing his initials in the number one spot of the scores list is too special to even try to get rid of.

You have his score memorized, the insanely high number burned into your brain, and with years of practice, you’d definitely acquired the skills to match it and potentially beat it, but every time you play and you watch your score climb, there are two possibilities. You might be keeping such a close eye on it because you eagerly await for the day it passes the number in the top score slot, or you might be watching to make sure you never pass the number in the top score slot, making sure to always throw the game and lose before you can reach it.

Honestly, you do know which of the two it is. And Rocket knows which one it is too, without you needing to say anything. He and Groot have watched you play before, just as invested as you in the levels you seemed to be flying through like they were nothing. But then your play style changed at a certain level, and Rocket thought no, that can’t be right, the current level is harder but the curve wasn’t much higher compared to the previous one, which you’d cleared in no time.

You lost within the next minute and when he sees your dad’s initials at the top, with your newest score right below, it clicks. When you’d held the console out to him and offered to let him have a go (something you typically never do, protective of the device as you are), he could see in your eyes that you knew he’d figured it out, but you don’t say anything, so he doesn’t either. That console is special to you—the one link to home which is so many light years away. He declines your offer to play.

When you clear the level, you sigh heavily, one of your legs dropping down and dangling off the side of the branch. You pause the game to stretch your back, and you can’t control the yawn that escapes your mouth. You think you might actually be the first to crack, to suggest maybe you did get the wrong coordinates, but then there’s a whoosh as another ship flies overhead, in your direction. You switch off your console and tuck it into the pack on your belt before hopping down onto the ground and joining your companions.

“I know we’re here to retrieve the artifact and all, but we could just take it for ourselves and sell it,” Rocket comments. “The thing’s probably worth more than what we’re getting paid for this mission—which, by the way, hardly seems worth it now for how long we’ve been waiting.”

Gamora shakes her head at his suggestion and it makes you laugh. “We could, but we won’t,” you tell him. “Our job is to help, remember? Not create anymore trouble.”

“Not to mention what happened last time you thought you could sneak away with some tech that didn’t belong to you,” Peter pipes up. “We had a whole army on our ass.”

Rocket waves a hand dismissively as he scoffs. “Details.”

The following scuffle is rougher than what any of you was anticipating. The thief hadn’t come alone—that you were all expecting. What you weren’t expecting was just how not alone he’d come. The flood of people from the ship bay when it finally lowers is almost comical, but you don’t even get the chance to consider laughing before you’re pulled into the fight. Despite the chaos, you and your fellow guardians are well-practiced with this sort of situation. You’re trained to look for each other, to spot each other at a moment’s notice, so that when you fire a blaster or aim a kick, you don’t hit a teammate. Even if Groot is tiny next to the rest of you, all of you can find him in no time. Usually it’s his war cries that help gauge his location.

You don’t know how long it is until you’re the only ones left standing and the artifact is in Peter’s hand. You do know that your back hurts like a bitch and you’re gonna be sore from getting thrown around so much. The six of you, battered and bruised and tired, start the trek back to the Milano, and your hand goes for the pack on your belt. It’s sort of a comfort thing to feel your console in there.

So imagine the panic that sets in when you find the pack empty.

You immediately stop walking, eyes widening as you turn back around to observe the mess of a battlefield. It had to be there somewhere. Without saying anything you run over, eyes desperately searching for any sign of the precious device. Your hasty steps shifting the grass grabs the others’ attention and they pause, checking to see what you were doing.

“What’s the matter?” Gamora asks.

“My Gameboy,” you state. You can’t tell if you’d said it loud enough, absorbed as you are with your search, turning and moving around bodies with the toe of your boot, but they seem to have heard you just fine.

With all of you searching, you can cover ground faster, but it’s still slow because of how small the device is. Your heart is beating a mile a minute and you feel for a moment that you can’t breathe because surely this isn’t happening. You’d fought with the thing in your pack many times before and it had been fine. Why now? Why at all for that matter?

“I found it!” Drax exclaims, bending down to pick up your Gameboy. He holds it up for you all to see, and you can feel your heart sinking because even at this distance you can tell something about it isn’t quite right.

As you get closer your suspicions are confirmed. The back panel has broken off and the console’s guts have been all but destroyed, the circuit boards practically fried. You want to force a smile on your face to thank Drax for having found your prized possession, because he looks so accomplished, but the heaviness that seems to overtake your face, which forces your lips into a frown as they begin to quiver, makes it impossible to do that. The smile drops from his face when he sees this, sees the way you’re fighting back tears because you never cry in front of them, and his hand is limp as you take the device from him.

You stand in silence, studying the broken console. The others catch up with the two of you and when they see the state of the Gameboy, they also stay quiet. There’s not really much anyone can say. And you think if someone does, you might actually cry. You bite your lip hard and take a deep breath to push back tears that pool in the corners of your eyes, and your drop your hand back down at your side and resume your walk to the ship. Your companions stay where they are for a moment, watching you traipse off, your shoulders sagging, and not just from the intense fighting.

“I am Groot?” Groot speaks up quietly, looking uneasy.

Rocket sighs glumly and glances at the Flora colossus which sits upon his shoulder. “No, she’s not doing okay.”

When they all finally make it back to the Milano, you’re nowhere in sight. You must’ve retreated to your room. Rocket spots your Gameboy on the table next to the cassette player. The others see it too, but he’s the only one to actually walk over and pick it up. He’s careful when he does, for he doesn’t want to make it any worse, and he studies what he can see of the insides without actually taking it out. He stands there for a moment thinking. Peter won’t need any assistance getting off the ground and setting the trajectory for the next destination, so Rocket has no need to assume his seat. He could, but there’s something else that needs attending to.

He returns to his room with your console. There’s a workbench there upon which he sets it, and he sits on the stool, pulling closer all the tools he thinks he’ll need. He’s the electronics expert, but this is a piece of Terran tech he’s never tinkered with before. But he’s not called an expert for nothing, so with a determined huff he pulls out the damaged circuitboards and gets to work.

Usually you would be relaxing by playing your Gameboy, for it helps pass the time between planets. But now you’ve settled for falling asleep, giving in to the fatigue because there’s nothing else to take your attention. You feel many things at this turn of events. You feel sad most certainly, because that thing had meant so much and you already feel so lost without it. It’s what kept you grounded, what kept you just a little bit closer to home in spite of traveling across so many galaxies. You feel mad next, because how could you be so careless? You know you couldn’t have controlled it happening this time because you’d always fought with it in your pack, but you’re mad that you thought that would be okay at all. You think if you really cared about it, you would leave it on the ship and suffer through a short bout of boredom for the sake of its safety. This thought doesn’t make you feel any better. In fact, you feel like you’ve sunk even lower.

You’re not sure how many hours it is when the door to your room slides open. The rest of the ship is quiet—not even the cassette player is on. You’ve just been laying here, on your side and staring at the wall, too frustrated to sleep anymore and dry-eyed because you ran out of tears a while ago. But at this interruption, you sit up and find Rocket standing nervously in the doorframe.

“Hey,” you begin quietly, voice hoarse. You clear your throat as you scoot over to sit on the edge of the bed. “Something wrong?”

“Ah, no…” Rocket smiles slightly as he walks over, and Groot follows close behind, the door sliding shut behind them. For all your distress and earlier upset, Groot’s excitement at seeing you never fails to make you smile, and you welcome him when he climbs up, clinging to the blankets, and plops down in your lap. Rocket takes a seat next to you. “I, uh… I fixed this for you.” He reveals the Gameboy he’d been hiding behind his back.

Your eyes widen as you take it from him with shaky hands, and you switch it on. When you hear that familiar ding, you want to cry again, but for a completely different reason.

“The back panel is a little loose, so you’ll have to be careful, but when i get the right tools I can fix that up too—oof!” Rocket gets cut off because you lean forward to hug him, taking him off guard. Groot clutches at your thighs at the sudden movement to keep from sliding off, and when you feel this, you sit back up and cradle him with your free hand to help keep him steady. A few tears have spilled and trail down your cheek, and they’re salty upon your lips, but you’re smiling as you stare at the start-up screen of your game.

“Thank you, Rocket. Really.” You sniffle as you glance at your fellow guardian. He can’t help the smile on his face because his hard work had paid off. In the midst of working on it, he genuinely almost didn’t think he’d be able to get it functioning again, but he’s not one to say no in the face of a challenge. He hadn’t gotten any shut-eye since he sat down to work on it, and he wasn’t sure if you were going to be awake by the time he was done, because everyone else in the ship was already asleep.

“It’s nothing.” He brushes it off with a wave, but then scratches at the back of his neck sheepishly.

“It’s everything,” you correct him. “Loose back panel and all.”

He chuckles. “I just didn’t wanna see you beat yourself up over it. You couldn’t control that.”

“I’ll be more careful from now on. Maybe just leave it on the ship more often.” You sigh deeply. “That I can control.”

“Well I’ll leave you alone now. It’s late.” He freezes when you lean in again but this time to set a kiss on his cheek. You smile a little wider at his reaction, and glance down when Groot tugs at your shirt.

“I am Groot?”

You laugh, understanding his request without even having to know his language. “Yes, you can have a kiss too.” You pick him up carefully and kiss his cheek as well.

Rocket stands back up as you set Groot back down on the ground. “Get some sleep,” Rocket tells you. It’s practically a command, a gentle one, but a command nonetheless, because with that console back in your hands, there’s a big chance you might stay up until the Milano lands, and then the group will have a half-asleep guardian to deal with.

“I will. ” You smile lopsidedly, and without saying anything else, the two of you know you won’t. Not for a while anyway. Well it’s not like he hadn’t said anything. He can’t be faulted for your potential state later on if you do stay glued to your Gameboy, since he’d told you otherwise. But secretly he’s happy you’re so eager to get back to it. You’re not truly you unless you’re losing sleep because of your games. “Thanks again.”

When Rocket walks back to his room, the smile is still on his face and he rubs at the spot you’d kissed. Would it be cliché to say that spot still felt warm, that he still feels a little tingle? Who is he kidding? It is cliché, but he knows why now, for there’s no other way to describe the sensation. He’s cracking, the kiss you’d given him just the beginning, and the sappiness is creeping in. He wants to fight it off, maintain his hardened exterior, but maybe a little sappiness won’t be such a bad thing?

You’d played the current cartridge multiple times tonight, and when you can barely keep your eyes open any longer, you decide to call it there. You sigh as you stare at the score list, at your father’s initials right there at the top, and smile to yourself as you switch off your Gameboy. The moment your eyes slide shut, you’re out like a light.

[justawriterofthings]

It’s Because I Care

Requested: Could you write a Drax x Reader Story where the Reader is also a guardian and they're together and the reader gets hurts during a mission and Drax is worried?

Word Count: 3,867

Warnings: Reader gets injured (but nothing big)

Author’s Note:  Oh my gosh I am so sorry this took so long.  I’ve been so occupied with work, my writing slipped through my fingers and got put on hold.  But, now I’ve got more free time and hopefully I can get all of these requests done.  I will do my best to get them up in a timely fashion my loves.  Thank you so much for the patience and for liking my stuff <3  Again sorry it took so long and sorry for the mistakes....

You were sitting quietly on the lower deck of the ship taking a nap with Rocket when you were startled awake by Drax’s loud bumbling footsteps.  Rocket jumped to his feet, ready for anything.  You jolted up hitting your head on bunk above you. “Son of a bitch.”  You mumbled, rubbing where you hit it, feeling the bump start to form already.  Rocket yawned, jumped down and waited for you to get up.  “Come on, come on.  You gotta go tell that oaf of a brick wall to walk like a normal person.”  Rocket complained as his tapped his foot impatiently. “Yeah, like he’ll listen to me when it comes to anything besides- well anything really.”  You slowly got up off the bed and headed to the ladder that led to the main deck.  

“You don’t give him enough credit.  He listens sometimes.”  Rocket was acting out of character.  “Are you sure you didn’t bump your head too?”  You joked, climbing upstairs.  Rocket just let out a short ‘Ha’ before following you up.  You looked around to see Drax frantically searching the main floor for something.  “Hey big guy, maybe keep the steps light.  Like you’re sneaking up on someone right before you take ‘em out.” You suggested as he continued to rummage through every box he could find.  Drax stopped what he was doing and looked at you first with wide eyes and then confusion.  “Where would I take them?”  He was genuinely confused by your wording.  “It’s another expression for killing someone, sweetheart.”  You clarified, but your pet name earned you another confused look.  “You don’t literally have a sweet heart, it’s like another name to show affection to someone you like.”  You explained.  You found yourself doing that a lot with Drax, though you didn’t mind it.  

Rocket wandered off after your small conversation with Drax, you assumed he was going to check up on baby Groot.  “So yeah, just maybe keep the footsteps a little quieter.  Rocket and I were napping and ya know, neither of us are happy right now for being woken up.”  You tried to stay as kind as possible since he was a large man and couldn’t really help how loud he was when he walked.  “Okay, sweetheart.”  He repeated your phrase back to you and you couldn’t help but smile.  Peter and Gamora walked over then.  Peter was looking rather pleased with himself and you knew that only meant one of two things.  Either he just got laid or you all had a mission.  

“Lay it on us.”  You commented, seeing how giddy he was getting it was a mission and apparently a good one at that.  “Pirate treasure.”  Peter finally spit out with such enthusiasm you almost couldn’t make the words out.   “No. Way.  Really?”  You started to match his grin, but the rest of your group was confused.  Rocket walked in with baby Groot who was finally out of his pot and walking around.  “What did he just say?”  Rocket asked, unsure of why Peter and yourself had been so happy.  “Yes!  Space Pirate treasure!”  Peter started to jump up and down like a child and you couldn’t help but match his movements.    “Real pirates!”  You squealed.  The rest of the team was even more confused now.  But you were too excited to explain to them that all of you could be richer than you ever imagined by the time the mission was over.  

Peter raced over to the ship’s control consol and you followed suit, though you beat him there when you used your gift to teleport yourself there.  “Y/N, we need you to explain.”  Drax called through the main level as he walked to the front of the ship with the rest of your friends behind him.  “Pirates!  Like Ravagers, but on Earth they have more of a reputation for being rich and ruthless. If this mission is what I think it is, we could all be bathing in loot by the time this is over.”  You bounced on your toes while Peter pulled up the coordinates he was given.  “Why would be bathe in loot?”  Drax asked. “I am Groot.”  Groot answered him, but still confused since he couldn’t understand the little tree yet.  “Of course he still takes things as literal.”  You replied to Groot, then directed your attention back to Drax.  “It’s another expression.  Meaning we’ll be richer than ever before.”  You clarified.  

“These, Pirates.  They are like Ravagers, so they are as dangerous?” Drax asked you, unsure of the new concept of Pirates.  “Well, yeah I guess if they have a lot of valuables, then they want to protect them so probably just as dangerous.”  You thought about the question a moment before answering him and when you had you regretted it.  “Then you will not go.  It will be too dangerous.”  Drax countered.  

“Look, you and I and everyone else on this ship know I can take care of myself.  Just because you have- what a few hundred pounds on me- doesn’t mean I can’t kick any less ass than you.”  You said before teleporting behind him, tapping him on the shoulder and then ending up in the place you started.  “I’m a Guardian, same as you.  We saved the universe together, remember?”  You brought up when you all took out Ronan since you had been there by his side helping him in case he forgot.  

“You are my sweetheart, so I worry.”  He explained which caused your face to heat up.  The rest of the team watched the exchange and the tension was growing slightly in the cabin.  “Okay, time to head out before this gets anymore uncomfortable.  Baby Groot you didn’t hear any of that.”  Peter was blowing the slight affection shown by Drax out of proportion before setting some coordinates and taking off.

You took your seat next to Peter, coming up with all sort of crazy ideas as to what the treasure could be. “Maybe it’s a ship full of gold?” You pondered.  

“Or a billion units!” Peter exclaimed, practically salivating at the thought of that much currency.

“Do you think they’re Terran?  I mean, no one else seems to grasp the concept of pirates.  And who would call themselves that if they didn’t know what they were?”  You asked, mostly to yourself since you were sure Peter was still ogling at the prospect of a billion units.  

“I am Goot?”  The small tree interjected.  

“No, it’s not really common now.  More so two hundred years ago.  So they’d have to know of Terra history or be Terran themselves.”  You answered.  You could feel Drax watching you and listening to the conversation, but he was holding back his questions.  

Little Groot looked over to Drax and then back at you.  “I am Groot.” His little voice was full of concern.

“No you idiot.  They don’t need a room to go talk.”  Rocket yelled from his seat as he messed with one of the many guns he had stockpiled.  

“I might do just that, Groot.”  You smiled at the small plant, then appeared next to Drax and grabbed his hand.  In a split second the two of you were below the main deck where Rocket and yourself had been taking a nap earlier.  “You looked like you wanted to talk.”  You let go of his hand and sat on the bed.  

“Give me a warning next time you do that.”  He yelled and you could hear Rocket laughing from upstairs.  You ignored it and so did Drax.  Then he sat next to you, his face lighter.  

“So what questions did you have?”  You finally asked after the both of you sat in silence for a moment.

“You said these Pirates would be as dangerous as the Ravagers.”  Drax stated.  

“Yes, I did say that. But it should be something different if memory serves correctly.  They’ll be less space-like and more Terran.”  You tried to explain but his confused look only stayed.  “Back home they would sail the oceans with huge ships and they would attack other ships, sometimes naval ships run by the countries they would call home.  They had cannons and muskets and swords.”  You went on and noticed the smile on Drax’s face even though you knew he understood about half of what you were saying.  “But more importantly, they were notorious for having vast treasures.”  You continued.  “They would supposedly burry treasures, and sometimes their loot would be lost with their ships when they sunk to the bottom of the ocean.  But out here, they would have to keep their treasure with them unless they found a planet far away enough.”  You pondered how they would hide their loot out here.

You thought he would ask you questions but instead he looked you dead in the eyes, nodded his head for a moment.  “We will find the Pirates and take their loot.”  He smiled, repeating the words you had used.  

“Damn straight.”  You giggled, then teleported the two of you back upstairs. When you got to the front of the ship and looked out the window you saw that Peter had taken you all to a part of the galaxy that had yet to be settled.  “Wow.”  You were caught off guard at how beautiful the scene was.  Drax stood beside you and tilted his head slightly.  

“I am Groot.”  Groot responded to you.  

“It really is a sight.” You added to the small tree being. You then looked around the cabin to see the rest of your companions were in less awe than you or Groot.  But it made sense since they all spent time out here.

“From the information I got, we’re pretty close to the coordinates.”  Peter spoke up.  You looked around in slight disbelief.  “But it doesn’t look like much.”  He added, mimicking your thoughts.  You kept an eye out for any other ship, but you didn’t see anything.  Then the ship started to shake.  

“Guys?”  You held on to Peter’s chair.  

“It’s coming from above us.” Gamora hurried to the back of the ship and you could hear her rummaging around for who knows what.  Then there was a flash, the ship shook once more, then you were no longer on Peter’s ship.  

Your vision went black for a moment, and when you finally opened your eyes you were alone in what looked like barracks.  “Drax?” You called.  “Rocket?  Groot?” You didn’t know your surroundings so you couldn’t risk teleporting and ending up in a wall.  Taking a look around, you noticed you were most likely below deck since there were no windows and rows of hammocks.  “YES!”  You tried to whisper but it came out as almost a yell.  You were on the Pirate’s ship, which meant you and your friends were in danger but you couldn’t help but feel giddy.  You wandered around to see what they were like, since you could always tell how a person was by their living conditions.  

“Y/N?”  Drax was in panic mode.  He looked around the deck of the ship for you but he noticed you and Peter were gone.  “We must go get them.”  Drax was the first to jump into action.  Rocket looked back to Gamora, with some hesitation but nodded in agreement.  

“I am Groot.”  Groot agreed.  “We’ll have to get onto the ship first.”  Rocket added.  

You saw a stairwell that you assumed brought you up to the deck of the ship, hesitantly you took it, knowing you could get yourself back down here in an instant if you needed to. “Peter.”  You whispered, heading up the set of stairs but you quickly made yourself quiet when you heard more voices.  Creeping up the steps you started to see more and more shadows of who you assumed were the pirates.  Peeking around the corner you saw a handful of terrans.  And you thought to yourself that you were right.  Which also meant that you might be able to talk yourself out of this situation you’ve found yourself in.  “Anyone bother to check up on the two people we just took aboard?” One man asked from behind the control consol.  “Sure thing, Captain,”  Another replied.

You heard a pair of footsteps come closer to you and you teleported back down stairs.  A few seconds later a man dressed in fancy slacks, a black vest, and black dress shirt with a red tie was standing in front of you.  “Uh. Hi.”  You waved awkwardly at him.  “Care to tell me why you brought me and my colleague aboard?”  You asked, hoping to get an answer out of him.  

“The names Ash.”  He greeted, ignoring your question.  

“Where’s my colleague?” You asked, hoping he would answer this time.  

“The deck below us.” He answered as he strode towards you. “Are you also from earth?”  He asked, caressing your cheek with the back of his hand.  You quickly teleported back as far away from him as you could.  

“What’s it to you?” You asked, watching him more closely now.  

“Your friend there was and asked a hell of a lot of questions about pirates.”  Ash responded after he took in your power for a second.

“Yeah, I’m from Earth. I take it you are too, by the way you’re dressed and the way this room is.”  You said, motioning towards the very obvious earth items.  “Now, why are we here?”  You asked again, hoping this time he would answer.  He started to move closer to you but stopped when there was a thump on the side of the ship.  “Why are we here?”  You asked again, louder this time.  Then you heard Peter yell your name from below you, but he voice was strained.  

“You’re here to help us get the biggest treasure any of us have ever dreamed of.”  Ash answered then walked back up, leaving you there.  But he left you free and conscious.  

“Big mistake, buddy.” You snickered and tried to find a way down stairs.  Wandering around the barracks again you found a door that you hoped led you to Peter. You tried to open it, but it was locked so you pictured yourself behind it, hoping that there was nothing directly behind it.  Letting out a sigh of relief to see the stairs and that you managed to not be impaled by anything.  You quickly headed downstairs to find Peter tied to a post.  “Oh man.”  You took in the sight of him and ran over to undo his restraints.  

“Did they hurt you?” Peter asked when you finally got him free and he could look you over.  

“No.  Are you okay?”  You asked, looking for any sign they hurt him too.  

“Yeah, now let’s get the money and get out of here.”  He smiled, but it fell when he saw you didn’t return his grin.  

“We have to leave, get back to the others.  I have a bad feeling about these guys.”  You told him, grabbing his hand and getting ready to teleport the both of you back to the deck of his ship.  He ripped his hand away just as he felt you gather your energy.  “At least let me go get them then?”  You asked, knowing you and Peter wouldn’t be able to take all of them on your own.  He gave you a skeptical look but nodded his head in agreement anyway.  You were then gone in an instant but back with Rocket just as quick.  Peter informed him of the plan as you grabbed everyone else.  And once everyone was there Peter and yourself went back over the whole plan.  

“We’re taking their loot guys, as of now we’re also pirates.”  You should have seen you were going down the rabbit hole, since you yourself had said you had a bad feeling about those guys.  

“This is not smart.” Drax said, mostly to you.  He always worried about you.  You gave him a look before teleporting upstairs, now that you knew the layout you didn’t have to worry about being impaled .  You were back in the barracks, then snuck up the stairs to the upper deck.  You got a good look so you could use your gift later if you needed to, then went back down with the group.  

“There are six of them on the upper deck.  Which should be easy peasy, since Groot alone, could take on six guys with his eyes closed.” You shrugged, sitting cross-legged on the floor, ready to go over the plan again now that you knew how many you were dealing with and the layout of the deck.  “Drax and I will go up and take out the two who are patrolling, one of them is the guy who was with me downstairs.  Rocket, you take Groot and take out the two closest to the control panel. Peter, you’ll get the scary looking guy with the arm tattoos and Gamora will take on the last one with the weird Mohawk.”  You got up, went to the door that was locked and tried to open it from this side with no luck.  “I’ll get everyone on the other side, then it’s a clear shot to the upper deck.”  You said before grabbing Drax’s hand and bringing him to the other side of the door.  

Once everyone was in the barracks room, you all made your way up the stairs and continued with the plan.

It didn’t take long to take out all six guys.  You chose to knock out Ash, but before you could get behind him he managed to slice you with a hidden blade he concealed in his sleeve.  Drax saw this and you could tell his vision went red.  “Go back to the ship.”  He ground out, holding the guy in a choke hold.  

“I’m fine, he just grazed me.”  You argued back, while punching Ash square in the face.  The rest of the gang watched on after already doing their part.

“You will go back to the ship, the mission is over.”  He didn’t bother keeping his voice down in case there were more.  He dropped the pirate he was holding and moved towards you. You quickly backed up towards the door the two pirates were guarding and opened it.  But you stopped dead in your tracks when you saw what was inside.  

“Guys.”  Your voice was just above a whisper.  Groot and Rocket were quick by your side.  “I am Groot.”  Groot’s tone was somber.  “Yeah, this is big.”  You replied to the small being.  You looked around the rather large room and saw cages, both full and empty. Creatures from every part of the galaxy of all sizes resided in this room and you assumed that they were endangered. “We found our loot, I guess.”  You entered the room and took in the site of all the creatures.  Drax was quickly by your side, hovering.  “Drax I’m fine.  We have to get these little guys home though.”  You saw the sad eyes peering at you and your friends.  When you got to the back of the room, Drax still hovering, you saw the crates stacked up to the ceiling.  Peering indie you couldn’t help but smile.  “This whole room has to go back to the ship.”  You sounded so triumphant.

“What’d you find?” Peter strode over and peered inside a different crate.  “We’ll never have to work again.”  He laughed, after taking in all of the precious items the crates had to offer. You and the rest of the group managed to get everything from the room onto the ship before the pirates woke up.

You made it safely away and that was when Drax blew up.  “You can’t put yourself in danger like that!”  He yelled. “What if he had cut you worse?  I don’t know what I would do if I lost you too.” His tone lowered at the thought of losing yet another person in his life he cared for.  

“I can take care of myself, Drax.  And you’ve gotten hurt worse than I have.  You don’t see me babying you, or hovering.  When either of us do that, we’re in more risk.  You can’t put all your focus on me you have to be present when we’re on a mission.”  You tried to reason with him.  But you could just see that your words weren’t getting through to him.  

“You are terran.   You are fragile and small.  Look at how you bleed just from what you called a graze. What if it was worse?”  Drax pointed to your side where the knife got you. You finally looked down at it and saw it was a little deeper than you first thought.  Your adrenaline had been going and you couldn’t even feel it when it happened.  Only now was it just starting to sting slightly.  But you didn’t show any outward sign that it was bothering you, you were too stubborn to do that.  

Drax lifted your shirt to take a good look at your wound, you didn’t bother stopping him.  But you were glad you brought the two of you down stairs instead of doing this in front of everyone.  “See.  It is bad. And you lied about it.  How can I trust to fight alongside you again?  You knew that it was hard for me to fight with you to begin with.  You are my sweetheart.  I can’t lose you.”  He repeated when he was crouching down to your level and trying to clean your side with his large hands and a damp cloth.  You took the cloth from him and moved his hand away, cleaning it yourself.

“I know you’re worried, and I know you care.  Drax I know you only act like this because you lost your wife and daughter.  You don’t want it to happen again and it won’t. Not any time soon, anyway.  You’re stuck with me for a while.”  You tried to smile at him but it never met your eyes. Then you gave in.  “I’ll be more careful.  I’ll listen to you more, okay?  If you think something is off or wrong and you want me out of there I’ll leave in a blink.  I promise.” You compromised, which earned you a reluctant head nod from the large man.  

The two of you stayed down in the second level for a while. Drax cleaned your wound and the two of you talked about his wife and daughter.  You talked about earth and what life was like back home.  But you knew the closer you two got, the more reluctant he would be about letting you go on missions even though you have proved yourself before.  Drax asked if you would stay on the ship when the rest of the group gave the creatures to the Nova Corps.  You agreed to stay put, to appease him and gain his trust that you would keep your word, even though every part of your being wanted to go with since you were as much a part of the Guardians as him.  But you knew where his feelings were coming from.  And deep down you wanted the same for him.

[itstheendofthegoddamnworld]

Infinity of Stars (Reader x Rocket Raccoon) CHAPTER 13

When taken from her home planet, Terra from a young age, Y/N L/N, also known as Iris, is taught to survive and becomes one of the galaxies' well-known bounty hunters.

But what happens when rumor spreads that she knows the locations of the rare and dangerous infinity gauntlet; a highly powerful weapon that could destroy all?

She is the only human to know of its whereabouts, something which the Guardians of the Galaxy  need to find, before its too late.

But... Who will get to the weapon of mass destruction first?

Chapter 13

"I can't believe she straight up betrayed us!"

"The human girl was not to be trusted, but you let her into this group with welcomed arms! The person who should be paying for this is Quill!"

"I trusted her because she was someone that could get us to the Gauntlet in time!"

"Well, that's too late now, Zerron and his band of idiots have probably gotten it now!" Gamora shouted, "Look at us Quill," she gestured to the five, "We can't defeat them. We have a ship that barely works, Zerron will have this entire galaxy and all of us included killed!"

Rocket had spoken at all, but all the shouting above each other was beginning to get on his nerves, his ears twitching, teeth snarling more and more as he sat quietly, but it wouldn't take long before his anger would boil above.

"WILL YOU LOT SHUT YA TRAPS!" Rocket screeched above all of them suddenly, making everyone cease their arguments to a complete stop. The room had now quietened and felt like the temperature had gone from magma hot to ice cold.

"Rocket, you have a point you'd like to say?" Quill interjected. "As a matter of fact, I do." He breathed in before speaking, "YOU'RE ALL A BUNCH OF PHONIES IF YA THINK THAT WE'VE GONNA SIT HERE AND DO NOTHIN'!" Everyone was taken back by his abrupt change and shouting.

"SHE DIDN'T BETRAY US! THE FACT THAT SHE WAS TRYIN' TO PROTECT US WAS SOMETHING THAT YA ALL SWEEPED OVER YA DUMB KNUCKLEHEADS!" "You were always callin' her names!" He pointed towards Drax, " and you weren't given her a chance from the beginning!" he then pointed towards Gamora.

“I was the only one out of ya bunch to get to know her!” “I am Groot.” Groot mumbled, making Rocket roll his eyes, “She saved our asses twice before, she did it again, so that we could get out and find her.”

“Rocket... I didn’t think we were going to find her...” Gamora spoke up, “That bastard has her and he probably won’t keep her alive for it.” He hated seeming weak, his voice had croaked too many times during his shouting. “They have her... and I can’t do anything about it, he glared up at them, “BECAUSE YOU’RE ALL SITTING HERE ON YA ASSES AND CALLING HER A TRAITOR!”

Everyone was dead silent, taking in Rocket’s words carefully, deciding on what to do or say next, “As much as I don’t like saying this... but he’s right.” Peter begun, “Are you siding with him?” Gamora exclaimed, “She saved our lives too many times before, and we didn’t think much of it... it’s time that we save hers.”

Rocket stared up at the Terran in disbelief, “I don’t care if you’re not with me, if you don’t wanna come, say now.” Peter continued. Everyone was silent, as Rocket stood to his feet, “Count me in, you’ve already sided with me before and I can’t just leave her... we never got to finish somethin’ that had never started.” Peter smiled towards him.

It was next for Drax to stand, “You’re a strange man Quill.” he begun, “But if it’s to see the rodent happy, I’m in.” Rocket was about to interject that he was always happy, until Groot stood up happily onto the table in the middle, “I am Groot!” He beamed, as Rocket smiled at him.

Everyone’s eyes were now towards Gamora, “I didn’t trust her, due to her hurting us all... but I’ve been so blind from the beginning. I was only... trying to protect my friends....” she smiled, “my family.” she now stood up to join the others in her team.

They all smiled at each other, “Now, what are we waitin’ for.” Rocket smirked, “Time to get this old bucket workin’, we’re gettin’ my girl back!”

“You betrayed me.”

Punch.

“You betrayed your own family.”

Punch.

“You’re own flesh and blood.”

Punch.

“You’re lucky I ain’t killin’ ya here girl.” Zerron sent another flying punch to her stomach, as Y/N groaned, her arms being held up by two men as she couldn’t anything to defend herself. “You ignorant.” Punch. “Naive.” Punch. “Stupid little girl. I saved you from the hell from your stupid planet. I gave you food and shelter. I protected you from what was out there, and this,” Punch. “this is how you pay me back!”

“You didn’t protect me! You took me away from my home, MY planet, beat me up and made me feel weak, worthless! You threatened me countless times, day after day, that you’d eat me!” Y/N barked back, “Well, answer me this Zerron, I’m willing to know! Why?”

The punching had stopped briefly, everyone who was surrounding them had stopped their cheers and listened in, “So,” Zerron smiled a toothy grin, “The girl does bite back.” He sent a flying punch to the side of her cheek.

“I threatened you because I was makin’ you stronger, stronger to survive from what was out there.” He went back to jeering and sending punches to her stomach, “You were small, and we needed ya, you could fit in small spaces. I was only tryin’ protect ya like the father I was.”

“Father?” She sneered loudly, laughing abruptly, “You never loved me like a father should! Hell, have you ever had a daughter to protect? No father threatens to eat their suppose daughter!” She snapped.

“You treated me like shit, took away my toys and forced me to grow up! Tortured me to fight when no girl at the age of six should! When was the last time you saw me cry, play with my teddy bear, or even act like a little girl should? Never!” She could feel the tears threaten to fall down her cheeks but she bit down on the inside of her cheek before continuing, “You were never a father to me, and you never will.” She spat.

He was silent for a moment, “I never had a family of my own...” He spoke. “My father did the same to me, beat me and make me fight, I didn’t know any better, I always thought that was how fathers were suppose to show their love to their children.” Y/N was taken back, surprised by his words.

“Let her go.” The men holding her arms up released her, as she fell to the ground, “and come with me.” He moved away from the large formation of men around them, as she groaned, helping herself up as she stumbled to follow him.

She stumbled yet followed him, walking far behind as he stopped in front of one of the many shut doors inside the ship, “The Storage Room? Why did you force me to follow you here?” She was confused, “You never allowed me to come around here, or open the door to this room.” She continued.

“Remember when I said that I threw your toy outside the window that day?” She remembered that day: she was searching for her teddy bear for hours, and when she finally asked where it was to Zerron, he said that he had thrown it away in space, telling her that ‘little girls don’t play with dolls’.

“Yeah, how could I not.” She huffed, clearly showing exasperation towards him, “You cried for days, like you were mourning for that damn thing.” Zerron sighed, as he placed his hand on the scanner, before dialling a four-digit code into the panel, the words, SCAN DETECTED: SCAN RECOGNISED, and the door was opened, the hinges groaning as if it hadn’t been opened in years.

“I never told you everythin’, until now.” He pushed the door to open wider, Y/N being greeted by immense darkness. She couldn’t see everything, since it looked like there was no light, but what she saw surprised her the most.

All her toys, old clothes, tokens and things she had loved when she was little, all stored away and hidden from her. “I never knew why you liked these things.” Zerron huffed out a small chuckle, as Y/N glanced back to see him pick something up.

“But you always did love them.” He handed over the item to her, taking in the old material, old and worn out, but still recognizable, one of its beady eyes was missing, and the pink ribbon she remembered putting around its neck was still there, but ripped and torn from years of neglect.

“You kept all of this? Why didn’t you want me to use it?” She asked quietly, her voice felt hoarse and croaked, “There’s some things that I didn’t think were useful, but,” he picked a small yellow dress up, its material dusty and ripped, “I couldn’t bear to toss it away.”

She finally smiled towards him, a small tear slipping down her cheek as she walked over to him, opening her arms and hugging him,. She felt the man tense, as she realised that she was never allowed to hug him when she was young, he always said it made him weak. She didn’t expect him to wrap his arms awkwardly around her and initiate a hug back.

“Why? Why did you keep me here? After all these years?” Y/N asked after a moment of silence, “You were precious cargo, important to them.” the R'zahnian man spoke, “Them?” She was confused, highly, but before she could ask another question, a man came running to the door, “They’ve followed us!” Y/N was confused more by who had followed them, until she heard Zerron growl, “Them damn Guardians.” He had now walked off, walking towards the cockpit, “Zerron wait!” She called after him, running to catch up with him, but due to her small height and his tall 6’2ft one, he was only just walking in large strides.

Once they got to the cockpit, the other men were waiting as Zerron looked out, “What the hell is that?” one of them asked, as Y/N was near enough to hear, catching her breathe as she too looked out.

The Milano was just metres in front of them, and she recognised Peter and Rocket sitting in the front, with little baby Groot on Rocket’s shoulder.

“I believe you have something of ours, a fellow member of the Guardians,” Y/N felt her heart stammer in relief when she heard Rocket’s voice, “Hand her over or else you will receive a personal bomb, courtesy of me,” Y/N spotted Drax holding a large bazooka outside on the roof of the Milano.

“You have five seconds,” at that everyone on the ship was shouting and grabbing weapons, threatening to fire at the much smaller ship. “Zerron wait,” she butted in, pressing a red button as she spoke, “ROCKET DON’T FIRE, IT’S ME!”

There was brief silence from the opposite side as everyone was frozen in their places, waiting for the next moves made, “IT’S HER!” She heard Rocket’s voice bellow from the other side, as she knew he was suppose to say it to his fellow team-mates quietly, without having the speaker still on.

“Toots, I’ve missed you, are you hurt?” She smiled, her cheeks reddening as she pressed the button again, “I’m fine Rocket, I’m not hurt, how did you find us?”

“Through the courtesy of moi.” Peter joined in, as Y/N smiled brightly, “Can this wait for a moment, what the hell do y’all want?” Zerron had joined in as he spoke into the speaker.

“A truce.” Peter spoke, “We join teams and go to find the Gauntlet together.” There was once again madness on Zerron’s ship, men shouting over other men, “I’LL BLAST YOUR BUCKET OF SHIT INTO SMITHEREENS!” “Zerron, we can trust them.” Y/N interrupted, as Zerron was very difficult to negotiate with sometimes.

“We think it would be best to find it so enemies like Thanos won’t be able to destroy the galaxy and all of us included.” She continued. “That would mean you wouldn’t keep it afterwards.” She breathed, as she heard the other men shout and join in, arguing that it was their way of life, she felt exactly like that once she realised, it would be difficult to get them to agree on something like this.

“Are you seriously going to agree with them?” One man butted in, gaining many agreements in the crowd, “They’re all cowards!” “Silence!” Zerron barked, “If you’re lying to me about this Y/N, you know what’ll I do...”

“Eat me?” Y/N smirked, as she knew that he could never do that, he had 19 years that he could’ve done so. “No, throw you out and let you die in space.” He seemed awfully serious, but she knew there was some regret in how he spoke to her, as if he didn’t mean it at all.

“We’ll agree on your terms, but if you’re lyin’, that rodent will be skinned and made into a coat for me to wear.” Y/N would know that there was some cursing from Rocket’s side as Peter spoke up once again on the speaker, “It’s a deal!”

“Quill, I’LL SKIN YOU MYSELF!”