#roxas unholy

[crow-ig]

Unholy Alliance is out :D

Yandere Nari, my beloved

@roxas-k

[roxa-sos]

watch - rafe cameron, topper thornton (smut)

rafe cameron x reader x topper thornton

tw; this is pure smut. exhibitionism smut with rafe and topper (and kelce for a hot sec) THIS IS FILTHY SNDKSMKF fair WARNING there is nothing but smut xoxo also druGs drugs drugs

request; i got a million, but I'm combining a request to have rafe fuck the reader in front of topper and kelce and have rafe and topper have a threesome with the reader. it's just gonna be rafe at first but don't worry top whores i got you later on ✨ ahh. unholy reqs are the entirety of my inbox 😌

tags; @outerbxrafe @jjmaebank @bellaguarneri @kitluvs1

a/n -- this is really bad lmao, im trash at writing full smut fics so parts are just snippits. also. tumblr doesn't want me to bold/italicize things rn so pls cope w me.

•

right there. in his dad's study, where kelce, topper, rafe, and a few of their friends were doling out white powder on the desk, rafe was pushing you right up against the wall, his lips on yours.

he always kissed you like he meant it, but it was even more exciting when he was high, and it usually ended with you two alone in a room. though, he seemed a little impatient, biting at your bottom lip, pulling at the hem of your shirt. you didn't protest, with enough alcohol in you to keep you drunk for days, you let him slip his hands under your shirt, his lips finding your neck, your own hands tangled in his hair. 

nobody paid attention to you two - this shit happened all the time. he'd make out with you or start removing your clothes until people left the room, never stopping. that, or he'd excuse himself, taking you to an empty bedroom.

this time he was getting a little more vicious, hungry, pulling your shirt right over your head without warning. you could hear topper and kelce still in the room, the crunch of whatever they were snorting being crushed, them giving a shout every time they snorted it.

it was hard to focus on them when you had rafe cameron shoving his hand down your shorts, though. you couldn't protest, you wanted him, then and there. he picked you up, turning to lean you on the couch, a few feet away from topper and kelce.

he slid two fingers into you, causing you to take a shaky breath, muffling a groan against his hair. the power he held over you when his hand was in your panties was unimaginable, but that was always expected with rafe. he liked power and sex while he was high, and you liked him when you were drunk, so it all fit together quite nicely.

he kept his fingers moving in and out of you at a steady rhythm, leaving bruises on your neck as his lips skimmed over your skin.

"rafe, another line?" you heard topper ask, turning to face the boy who was completely focused on you. "jesus, nevermind." he chuckled, turning back to kelce. you were a joke to those two, and honestly? you didn't mind. topper and kelce weren't the people you were trying to impress.

rafe removed his lips from your neck, sliding his hand out of your shorts before sticking his fingers in your mouth, your jaw slack. he used his other hand to pull your shorts down, pressing his hips back up against yours once his hand was back on your hip.

"dude, you're gonna fuck her here?" kelce laughed in disbelief, glancing over at rafe for a mere second.

"yeah, and you're free to watch." rafe answered in a low tone, quickly turning his attention back to you. he slid his fingers out of your mouth, moving them to unbutton his shorts.

"wait, really here?" you asked, expecting him to wait for them to leave or take you somewhere else.

"you want this or not?" his reply was enough of an answer, apparently, because he pulled his shorts and boxers down a bit and hooked his fingers in your panties, pulling them off for you. 

you nodded, and seconds after that he pushed into you, causing a gasp to fall from your mouth. it felt like there were eyes on you, and there probably were. your boyfriend's best friends were feet away from you, and you were the practically completely naked girl moaning on the couch.

he kept rolling his hips against yours, his heavy breathing the only thing you could hear besides your own embarrassingly loud moans. you hung your head back as he connected his lips back to your neck, moving down to your collarbone, quickening his pace.

"rafe, i'm almost there," you panted in his ear, listening to his soft grunts.

"go ahead, baby," rafe was getting more forceful with every movement, his hands steadying you, holding your hips.

you listened to him, as always, and let go of yourself, letting him hold you up as he kept moving against you, letting you ride out your high, finishing himself slowly after. in all honesty, he was pretty vanilla in front of his friends, you didn't mind. you knew he liked having you all to himself, though, and you knew he never let you go after one round.

he pulled his shorts up, kicking your clothes to the corner before telling you to wrap your legs around his waist.

"heading upstairs," he muttered to you as you kissed his shoulder, shoving past topper and kelce, who'd been staring at your ass.

it was a little gratifying, knowing that they were interested in something that rafe wouldn't let them have. 

————

rafe was far more to you in his bedroom. his hand was around your neck, making it harder to squeeze any sort of noise out of your throat as he rocked his hips against yours, telling you you had to wait until he said so until you came.

his voice was dry and raspy, his forehead was glistening with sweat. you were thankful for the view a little further down, seeing as he'd finally taken off his shirt and shorts.

"look at you, all pretty," he mumbled before removing his hand from your throat, pulling out of you quickly. he moved that hand to your clit and kept playing with it for a few moments, before nodding at you, letting you come apart once more in his hands. he slid down next to you, tossing the sheet you were under over his waist, steadying his breaths.

"oh, come on, you made her wait?" you heard a voice at the door. standing there was topper, his hand on the doorknob.

"what, you could do better?" rafe scoffed, a smug smile on his face. you'd told him yourself that rafe was as good as it got.

"watch me," topper answered, closing and locking the door behind him, taking off his polo as he approached the bed, kicking off his shorts before crawling on top of you.

your knees were still weak from rafe, your back hurt from being arched for so long, the knot in your stomach was only getting worse, so when topper pulled the sheets off of you and adjusted you so that he was breathing on your core, it sent shivers up your spine. he ran his tongue over you, and all you could do was ball up the sheets on the bed in your hands. he stayed there, teasing you for a moment before pressing his lips right above where you needed him.

he slipped his own fingers inside of you, the pad of his thumb resting against your clit. it was like he was massaging you, it was slow and torturous. you couldn't help but writhe under his hands, and he seemed to enjoy that, removing his hands to grab your wrists and hold them above your head, positioning himself over you.

"fuck, top-" you groaned, interrupted by him moving his boxers down and sliding into you.

"yeah, just like that." he chuckled, happy with the response you were giving him rather than rafe. "fuck, no wonder why he can't keep his dick off of you." he moaned, referencing rafe.

you were so close already that you couldn't help it, coming down like a whimpering mess under the boy.

"see?" he groaned with one final stroke, "way better," he let out a breath and sat up, seeing as you and rafe were taking up the whole bed. 

fuck, maybe fucking in front of rafe's friends wasn't all that bad at all.

a/n -- that was so FILTHY snskmdkskc i love it.

[gay-jesus-probably]

Hey I just realized. Kairi and Lea spent pretty much all of KH3 on an offscreen training montage that was apparently completely fucking useless, because they were both very inexperienced with a keyblade. And Sora spent most of the game being sidelined from any real action because he was recovering from almost being norted and trying to figure out the power of waking. All of which results in Sora, Kairi and Lea all doing literally nothing the entire game until suddenly everything happens at the end. Which is poor writing.

I just realized the obvious solution.

Lea and Kairi should have been in the fucking party.

Because what was the point of training? With Merlin??? Casting spells at moving furniture??? How does that help???? You can clearly tell it didn’t help, because Lea and Kairi can barely contribute to the team at the end! And nobody else needed training; Sora and Riku learned on the job and they’ve saved the world multiple times! Fuck, Lea shouldn’t need training, he’s got a decade of combat experience! Just send the three of them out together! Let Kairi actually get some combat experience, so then maybe you won’t be in the final battle when you discover her reflexive response to being attacked is to FREEZE UP AND DO NOTHING. And then maybe the paopu scene won’t come right the fuck out of nowhere, because Sora and Kairi would have actually SPENT TIME TOGETHER WITHIN THE LAST FEW YEARS.

Fuck, they’d even be able to replace Donald and Goofy pretty well. I mean it’s obvious that Kairi’s supposed to be the mage of the destiny trio because that is the Mandatory Woman Job, so let her take over for Donald! And Lea’s obviously more magical than Goofy, but his fighting style is to spam unholy amounts of fire and other than that stick to the physical! And of course Lea could be the protector of the team, if Sora and Kairi get killed then Roxas, Xion and Namine are gone too! Lea can protect his kids! Also, we wouldn’t have to listen to Donald. It’s the perfect solution!

I demand this AU.

[killscreencinema]

Kingdom Hearts 2 (PS2)

The year was 2005.  I had just graduated college and was going through a major dilemma on what I should do next (still struggling with that in fact!).  The new Doctor Who series had just finished its first season, forever reigniting my interest in the series, both new and old.  It was a tumultuous year to say the least, so the release of Kingdom Hearts 2 was a welcome diversion.

Skip to 2020, wherein I lost my job back in March, the United States has been nearly led to ruin by an outrageously mishandled pandemic, and Doctor Who kinda sucks nowadays (not because of Jodie Whittaker, whom I adore, but the writing is meh).  So what better time to revisit Kingdom Hearts 2 than now???

Well, specifically Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Remix Final Version 7 Medley HD Culmination... for the PS4.  But for all intents and purposes, I’m talking about Kingdom Hearts 2 for PlayStation 2.

The game begins with some jabroni we’ve never seen before named Roxas, hanging out with his friends in Twilight Town, when a mysterious man in dark robes keeps appearing and saying enigmatic things like, “It’s nearly time” and “Don’t you remember me, Sora?”  I have to admit, this really threw me during my original play through.  I had not played Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, which more thoroughly explains all of this shit, wouldn’t be released for me to completely ignore on DS until 2009. 

All is... relatively... cleared up shortly when Sora wakes up in a pod that he has been sleeping in after his adventure in Castle Oblivion in Chain of Memories.  Again, not having played that, I was thoroughly confused - why was he asleep?  Who is this girl Namine that seems responsible for Sora’s slumber?  WHAT IS HAPPENING???  As the game goes on, you find out that there’s a new threat to Disney world(s) besides the Heartless - a group called the Nobodies, led by black cloaked villains named Organization XIII.  Their goal is to make the plot unnecessarily convoluted... but also to claim “Kingdom Hearts” so they can regain their hearts and become fully human again.  

Who cares about all that, though, because Sora’s main objective is to find Riku and Kairi.  Again.  Are they really worth all the trouble?  Kairi is barely a character at all, while Riku was a traitorous shithead.  Sora, you can do better.

Anyway, the game plays very similarly to the first one, but the battle system his been completely overhauled with additional features like “Drive”, which allows you to switch into powerful “Forms” during a fight; and “Limits”, which are special moves you can perform with party members.  The biggest new feature, which the developers obviously based most of combat around, are the “React” commands that occur during battle.  At certain points during a fight, you can press triangle to perform a special counter attack or trigger a quick time event.  This is obviously the new hotness, as some boss fights are unwinnable if you don’t hit the react command in time, but thankfully the timing is incredibly merciful (just mash triangle until it triggers the event).  So it’s not as annoying as it could have been.

What is annoying is how bullshit a lot of the boss fights can be, especially the bonus ones at the end of the game.  Fighting any given member of Organization XIII can be hell, especially assholes like Luxord or Zexion, both of which take more luck than skill to defeat due to the nature of their gimmicky ass fights.  Those two aside, while defeating some of these bosses can be an unholy pain, they aren’t insurmountable as long as you “get gud” at the game’s somewhat janky blocking mechanic, which you’ll find to be the key to turning the tide of every major fight (especially against Sephiroth).  It’s all about finding the opportunity to get in some combos, but not getting too greedy or you’ll otherwise get caught up in the boss’s counter. 

The worlds you visit this time around are somewhat blander than the first game, if I’m being perfectly honest.  Mulan world is just feudal China with a Disney aesthetic and The Pirates of the Caribbean feel like a retread of the Neverland stage in the first game... but with far more irritating enemies.  The world I was most looking forward to, Pride Rock aka Lion King world, is a gray wasteland like at the end of the movie by the time you get there.  The only new world I truly enjoyed was Space Paranoids, aka Tron World, if only because I love the look of that movie, so it was a refreshing visual change of pace for the game.  You also revisit some worlds from the previous game, but with new story from their respective movies sprinkled in.  Whatever my complaints, I am eternally grateful that the game designers made the Atlantica episodes (Little Mermaid world) into a series of rhythm mini-games instead of having to fight as a mermaid again, which was a pain in the ass in the first game. 

One thing that got revamped and vastly improved, that caught me by surprise, was the Gummi Ship missions.  In the first game, they were mostly a nuisance - a dull mini-game you were forced to endure between worlds.  In Kingdom Hearts 2, they take on a much more epic scale, and are a lot more fun.  It almost felt like I was playing Starfox a couple times, which ain’t a bad thing! 

Overall, Kingdom Hearts 2 is a worthy enough sequel, but just doesn’t feel as grand or epic as the first.  Maybe because the novelty of the game’s concept isn’t as endearing this time around or maybe because this is the point in the series that the story begins to go off the rails.  I don’t rightly know, except that it felt like a mostly hollow gameplay experience the second time around, even with the difficulty cranked up to Critical Mode.  Can’t wait to play Kingdom Hearts 3! 

[imagine-organization-xiii]

The members as Amy Winehouse songs

I only know two Amy Winehouse songs so I hope this is at least somewhat accurate. Enjoy!

-

Xemnas - You Know I’m No Good

“My stomach drops and my guts churn, you shrug and it’s the worst to truly stuck the knife in first.“

Xigbar - Fuck Me Pumps

“He could be your whole life if you got past one night, but that part never goes right.“

Xaldin - Back to Black

“So far removed from all that we went through, and I tread a troubled track. My odds are stacked, I’ll go back to black.“

Vexen - Help Yourself

“Darling they empathize, looking through your bloodshot eyes, and I know you’re frustrated above we all become what we once hated.“

Lexaeus - Body and Soul ft. Tony Bennett

“My heart is sad and lonely, for you I sigh, for you dear only. Why haven’t you seen it? I’m all for you, body and soul.“

Zexion - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow

“Is this a lasting treasure or just a moment’s pleasure. Can I believe the magic of your sighs, will you still love me tomorrow?“

Saix - Like Smoke ft. Nas

“Don’t want to get dependent on your time or who you spend it on, but i lose it when you love me, like smoke, I hung around in the unbalanced.“

Axel - Some Unholy War

“If my man was fighting some unholy war, I would be behind him, straight shook up beside him.“

Demyx - A Song for You

“I’ve been so many places in my life and time, I’ve sung a lot of songs, I’ve made some bad rhyme.“

Luxord - Rehab

“I didn’t get a lot in class, but I know it don’t come in a shot glass.“

Marluxia - Addicted

“I’m my own man, so when will you learn? That you got a man but I gots to burn. Don’t make no difference if I end up alone, I’d rather have myself and smoke my homegrown.“

Larxene - Valerie

“’Cos since I’ve come on home, well my body’s been a mess. And I’ve missed your ginger hair and the way you like to dress.“

Roxas - October Song

“Today my bird flew away, gone to find her a big blue jay. Starlight before she took flight, I sung a lullaby of bird land every night.“

Xion - Cherry Wine ft. Nas

“Where is he? The man who was just like me - I heard he was hiding somewhere I can’t see.“

[atrashsith]

baby i'm addicted

here we go with the self indulgent drabbles written at unholy hours with little to no sleep in my system! on that note, i think this is the first time i've written for Riku

masterlist

read it on ao3

“I don’t think I’ve ever been to laser tag,” I admitted to the tall silverette standing beside me as Sora and Ventus stood at the counter.

“Really?” He tilted his head to the side. “Sora used to love coming every year for his birthday for eight straight years, but he grew out of it when we reached high school.”

I glanced at the girls, who were playing in the arcade next door.

“Thank Kingdom Hearts that he did!” Roxas exclaimed. “I’d have ripped my hair off if mom forced us to come because her little angel wants to play laser tag for his birthday for the umptenth time.”

“You sound bitter,” I laughed. “Fitting for the middle sibling.”

Roxas simply rolled his eyes. “You would be just as bitter if you had to be dragged to play laser tag every year without fail. There was a time even Ventus would want to come on our birthday and I asked myself why didn't I absorb him in the womb.”

“It was exciting the first three years. Our little feet running across the maze, Sora’s loud giggles always giving away his position.” Riku explained, “But coming year after year pretty much made us hate it.”

Roxas scoffed. “Except Kairi, she actually had the nerve to get mad at Sora when he said his fifteenth birthday wouldn't be at laser tag. If there’s someone who loves coming to laser tag more than Sora, it’s her.”

Sora was bouncing on his spot as he nodded eagerly at the woman behind the counter, who was typing something in the computer. He turned around and exclaimed loudly that we could go in. Ventus smiled at his brother’s excitement before turning toward the woman to thank her. We piled into the next room to put on the vests.

“You gonna teach me how to play?” I asked Riku, who opened his mouth to reply until Roxas spoke loudly.

“Girls versus boys?” Everyone nodded, making Riku shrug at me. I pouted at the older boy and let him pat my head as we headed into the maze.

Soon I was alone in the darkness and a loud voice through the speakers signaled the beginning of the game. I ran around, squealing when I encountered someone and quickly shooting at them. So far, I had managed to hit Sora and Roxas, I still had to find Ventus and Riku wasn't anywhere to be seen no matter how many times I ran across the maze.

I somehow ran into a wall twice and even bumped into Xion, both of us running so fast that our foreheads collided. We laughed and shrugged off the injury as we ran to catch the boys. I didn't understand how Roxas and Riku couldn’t enjoy this, I felt such a thrill running around and my heart beat so hard against my ribcage when I would shoot someone and their vest’s lights went out.

Just as I narrowly avoided running into a wall again, a hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me into a corner, pushing me against the wall. I stopped thrashing around once I realized it had been Riku who grabbed me. I looked up at him, head tilting to the side and holding onto his arms as he stared at me.

I went to ask him what was he doing, when he suddenly leaned down and pressed his lips against mine. I stilled for a moment, hands tensing around his biceps. I felt them flexing under my fingertips when he placed his hands on my hips. He pulled back, but grabbed the back of his neck and our lips crashed together.

His head tilted, deepening the kiss as he licked my bottom lip. I couldn't help the moan that escaped me when our tongues touched and he pressed me further against the wall. One of his hands left my hip, but I paid it no mind as I lifted a leg to pull him closer to me.

A loud sound coming from my vest made us pull away, and I looked down to see Riku pointing his gun at me. He smirked mischievously, leaving a chaste kiss on my lips before peeling himself away from me and disappearing into the darkness. I bit my bottom lip, my competitive nature had me mad that he would shoot me and betray me like that, but I couldn't deny that now that I knew what his lips tasted like I needed more of him.

The voice from the speakers reminded us that there were only two minutes left in the game, and I headed into the maze to get my revenge from the teal eyed boy.

[poguesofthebau]

yo um so i saw your ships and uh 👉👈 i may have been hella unholy today but i'd like one if they're still open 🥺😔 anyways i'm roxa, i'm bisexual, 5'1, i have fairly tanned skin, freckles, and curly brown hair. i surf, bake, and paint in my free time. im a history major and im pretty loud, got a nice chaotic energy following me around 😔 im a hopeless romantic but also way too committed to every relationship im a part of and im really bad at cutting people off 😔 anyways tyty :')

i can not express how gassed i was when i saw you send me a request. i fuckn LOVE YOUR BLOG (including all of the unholiness)

i ship you with kie!! (honorary mention that i touch upon more below: jj’s bestest friend probably ever, even more than john b. you two would definitely give off sibling vibes, like those two kids in middle school who somehow convinced the entire class that one of you was adopted into the other’s family? did y’all have those kids at your school or was that just me? idk but that’s you and jj regardless)

you were definitely running with the pogues before she made her way into the group. that chaotic energy of yours would definitely have attracted jj to you years ago, even before he and john b became friends, and you two would quickly become inseparable. like i said before, the kind of best friends that just radiate sibling energy. you two were always shoving each other around, slapping and punching and pinching, but the second anyone else looked at one of you wrong, it was war. when john b finally came into the picture a couple years later, you would sneak into the chateau during their sleepovers, raging against the power of all of your parents frowning upon co-ed slumber parties. after you doing it a few times, big john probably caught you hiding under the bed the boys were pretending to sleep in, but he just gave in, figuring that if you really wanted in that badly, that you at least deserved a chance to hang out with your friends. and then pope would come along a bit after those days, expanding those sleepovers a little more. (also, i would like to say that coming out as bisexual to the three of them would be the absolute most wholesome thing ever. not gonna go into that on this bc i’m already getting carried away, but just know it would be such a Pogue Hall of Fame night, and none of the four of you would ever forget that convo, ever)

now, i wish we knew when exactly the boys met kie, bc that would make this a lot more stable of a blurb, but let’s just pretend for now. let’s say you and the boys were in 7th grade at this point, and you were all starting to realize how much free reign over the island you really had. none of your parents cared much about where you spent your days as long as they got word every once in a while that none of you were dead, and that’s when you’d stumble across kie. jj and john b would have somehow convinced you and pope to go surfing, so you’d end up at the beach with your boards, but by the time you actually got there after a long walk, you were so unbelievably pissed off at jj that you wanted nothing to do with surfing anymore. he’d just been getting on your nerves the whole walk there, doing whatever annoying shit jj does, especially to a little sister figure, so you’d slam your board into the sand as soon as you reached it, sitting on it and flipping up your hood to let them know you wouldn’t be going into the water with them. “are you seriously not gonna come in now? don’t be a baby, you know i’m just fucking with you!” you didn’t notice her, but as jj began to argue with you, kie was a few yards away listening in. “fuck you, jj. just go get in the water. you wanna surf so bad, then go fuckin’ surfing. i don’t want anything to do with you right now.” kind of harsh, but the two of you always were when you fought. pope and john b, knowing this, had barely flinched when you’d stopped in the sand, and were now paddling out to start catching waves. “fine, dude. be dramatic. suit yourself, but don’t complain later that you didn’t get to surf!” with that, jj was running off to catch up with the others, leaving you to draw lines in the sand until they came back. “you really let him talk to you like that?” kie’s voice scared the shit out of you, making you jump a little before you settled again after seeing the girl tower over you. “he kind of seems like a douche. and he definitely shouldn’t be talking to a girl, or anyone, for that matter, like he just did to you.” you’d look at her with interest before chuckling. “that’s just jj,” you’d explain, causing her unimpressed expression to morph into a confused one. “he’s like my brother. we’ve been best friends forever, and he can be an asshole but he doesn’t really mean it. he just pisses me off sometimes. are you-- is that garbage?” finally, you noticed the half-filled trash bag in her glove-clad hands. she nodded, dropping the bag down next to her feet before she sat in the sand in front of you. “yeah, i’m trying to pick up some of the shit the high school kids leave behind after their parties. and, just so you know, even someone who’s like a brother to you shouldn’t treat you like that.” sliding over so that half your board was exposed, you patted the spot for her to sit on. “an earth girl. interesting, for this island-- i didn’t think anyone really cared about the environment around here. and if it really bothers you that much, you should hang around and meet jj and the others when they come back. maybe you can give him a taste of his own medicine, since i apparently don’t know how.” kie would smile at that, a glint in her eye that told you she would be sticking around for more than just the day. “i would love to. you really seem like you could use a protector, and i think i’m just the girl for the job. so, you surf?”

[freezing-scholar]

marcsalis replied to your post “marcsalis replied to your post ““You’re all getting ice cream bans.” ...”

there's an unholy amount of screeching now; mouth wide open, uvula vibrating as he just belts out an ungodly high pitch.

“ROXAS!.. Be quiet!!!” He huffed, even having to put his hands over his already muffled ears. 

“This won’t get you anything!”

[zdbztumble]

So About That Roxas…

Well, it’s that time - time to invite unholy disdain upon myself for my blasphemous views on fan favorite Roxas!

OK, that’s an exaggeration. I don’t know how unpopular what I’m about to say really is. And to make this perfectly clear up-front - I don’t dislike Roxas. I think he’s a fine character, and his (very) long prologue is one of the strongest parts of KH II. But I do find Roxas more valuable and compelling in how he relates to other characters, and in the fact that he is an aspect of Sora, than in his own right. All on his own, I don’t find Roxas to be particularly active or interesting.

And that isn’t a flaw. Given what Nobodies are (prior to DDD, at least), I would expect that from Roxas. Almost every member of Organization XIII isn’t terribly dynamic or dimensional on their own merits - their personalities are one-note (if that), which can be by turns tragic, obnoxious, or an effective foil for the protagonists. When Roxas draws jealousy from Hayner, general confusion from his friend group, some amount of pathos from Axel, mixed emotions from Riku and disdain from DiZ, and attraction from Namine, he’s a great example of the latter. I never find him obnoxious, and when he is on his own, there is a sense of tragedy with him. Because while Roxas may have agency, and does display a curiosity - almost an obsession, after a while - with gaining answers for the strange things happening to him, he’s ultimately empty. None of his joys, none of his curiosity - and not even his rages and despairs - last. He ends up defaulting, always, into a quiet, resigned, and hollow state, and he doesn’t seem happy about that. 

This is true of the Twilight Town prologue, at least. In the brief flashbacks we’re given in KH II, and at the beginning of the Sora/Roxas fight, a different Roxas appears. He’s still empty at the core, but his front to the world is crueler, dismissive even of the words of his supposed best friend Axel, and predatory. We learn later in the game that DiZ altered Roxas’s personality when he dropped him into the digital Twilight Town, and it’s not hard to see why. Even with the altered personality, the strongest display of feeling Roxas can manage is anger. It’s only when Roxas confronts Sora, accepts him as “a good other,” and fully rejoins with him, that Roxas appears genuinely happy and alive in KH II.

But I do have problems with how Roxas is used, in KH II and especially in 358/2 Days. To start with II - there are some pretty big missed opportunities. Roxas was a member of Organization XIII, presumably working toward their goals (to go just on what we see in KH II), and every member of the Organization who sees Sora recognizes Roxas within him. Wouldn’t it have been nice to have someone else do the same? If, when visiting one of the Disney worlds that Sora hasn’t been to before, there was a character who had a negative encounter with Roxas, and therefore fears Sora and the Keyblade?

The lack of any such scene speaks to a larger problem with Roxas in KH II: his limited relevance once the prologue ends. He does come up here and there throughout the play time, which I do appreciate, but he doesn’t really have an impact on Sora before their clash other than as a source of mild confusion. Sora’s reactions to being called by Roxas’s name never progress much past “huh? Cut that out!” and he has no real reaction to learning that his own Nobody was a member of Organization XIII. Had Roxas’s activities over the past year created a negative consequence that Sora had to deal with, that might have invited some internal conflict within Sora’s heart, culminating in a much more emotionally charged clash with Organizers like Xibar and Saix. Hell, even without such a scene, the knowledge that a part of him was a member of the bad guys could have, and should have, made Sora feel at least a little upset. That’s not to say that the absence of such a mini-arc is a dealbreaker for KH II; what we did get works well enough. But, much like Roxas himself, something seems to be missing.

A future game might have been able to address this issue...had it not been for 358/2 Days.

This isn’t a revisit of Days; I can’t very well revisit a game I only ever played the first few minutes of, years ago, before losing touch with the friend who had the DS card for it. You’ll get no views of the gameplay here. But I am familiar with Days; I’ve read the breakdowns, researched its writing, and watched the movie multiple times. And I gotta tell ya - I know the game has its fans, and it may have some strengths and concepts missing from other titles, but I really don’t care for its story. And that has a lot to do with how it mishandles Roxas.

I’ll start with a caveat - I am not the audience for Days. At no point while playing KH II did I ever want to know any more about Roxas or the Organization than that game saw fit to reveal. What we got was enough for them to work as the villains in that story, and that’s all I ever needed them to be. This was always going to be an easy title for me to skip, or at least not take any real interest in. But that’s a matter of taste. Plenty of people take more interest in the backstories of Roxas and the Organization than I do, and this was perfectly acceptable as a subject for a midquel game. But the execution, IMO, is a complete mess. It ignores or retcons several of the snippets we get about the Organization in KH II, to poor effect, and fails to expand on any of the villainous Organizers in a way that might turn them from one-note video game bosses and elements of a hive mind into fleshed-out characters. Axel is given several coats of whitewash, and his history with Saix lacks any resonance when Saix is left as such a hollow villain. There’s no playing alongside Disney characters in a game so given over to original KH lore, and that lore is rewritten in ways I don’t like. The trends of mystery for its own sake and teasing histories and future events at the expense of the story at hand continue, the same few points of lore and logistics are over-stressed, and the dialogue and voice acting just isn’t good (and can anyone tell me why they re-dubbed Christopher Lee in the HD movie version? I mean...it’s Christopher Lee!)

But as I said, the real problem is with Roxas. For a character meant to be the protagonist, Roxas cedes a lot of narrative real estate to new character Xion. Like Days itself, I know Xion has fans - ardent fans. I can’t argue with that, nor would I want to; you can like what you like, and I won’t assess and critique her as a character here. But all I can say about Xion is that, as a writer, she strikes me as redundant. A member of Organization XIII, unusually lacking in knowledge about their life beforehand, wielding the Keyblade, inducted into the Organization within this game, derived from Sora through unusual means, with a connection to Kairi and whose existence arrests Sora’s full restoration from the events of CoM; setting her character aside, Xion’s narrative function is exactly what Roxas’s was established to be by KH II.

One could say that the game makes a point of this, turning it into an orchestrated conflict between the two by Xemnas, but practically speaking, this means that Roxas spends a key chunk of the story displaced. He becomes a friend on the sidelines as the real meat of the story concerns a character who, from the very beginning, anyone who played KH II would know isn’t going to matter past this game. This ends up making Xion more important, and more interesting, than Roxas within Days itself. But almost everything that Xion goes through could have easily been given to him by dint of what we see in KH II. That Sora’s restoration is upset because his memories of Kairi are being absorbed into another being would have been especially appropriate for Roxas, since Kairi’s very name is always fractured in the restoration process during II’s prologue at first, and the process itself is at such a low number despite a year having passed until Roxas is in DiZ’s hands. Those character elements unique to Xion herself, and the conflict between her and Roxas engineered by Xemnas, aren’t enough to justify her presence in the larger KH story IMO, and end up confusing elements of the lore (replicas, memories, etc.) If she had been cut, and those aspects of her story relating to Sora’s restoration given to Roxas, the story and lore integrity would’ve been better for it.

But that wouldn’t have solved everything wrong with Roxas in Days. Let’s look back at what KH II shows us of a pre-DiZ Roxas again. A cold and predatory figure; the Dusks who first come for him in Twilight Town address him as their “liege,” implying that they served him the way other Nobodies serve the Organizers; the Organizers themselves seem to have been quite close to Roxas, taking his betrayal hard and referring to him as “brother.” And Organization XIII, as we see it in KH II vanilla, is a collective, with no real secret about its motives within the ranks - that motive being, in so many words, to let the remaining Heartless continue their genocide across the worlds just so that they can swoop in with the Keyblade, harvest the captive hearts, and offer them up to their Kingdom Hearts in a mad bid to gain hearts of their own.

So why is Roxas so innocent in Days?

That cold exterior, the flashes of temper - that’s not what we get from Roxas here. What we get is a blank slate who becomes a puppy as he strikes up a buddy-buddy relationship with Axel, and who later performs the same function for Xion. He talks about fighting the darkness and asks hopefully if he’s performing “good” deeds. His interactions with his friends show him to be cheerful and open. The Samurai are supposedly under his command, but that’s a detail relegated to the reports. His relationships with anyone in the Organization other than Axel and Xion don’t even warrant scenes in the movie, and nothing suggests that they would deem him “brother;” Saix and Xemnas regard him as no more than a tool . And even though he’s destroying Heartless with the Keyblade, and those hearts are becoming part of the Organization’s Kingdom Hearts...somehow this is a point he needs explained several times? And he and Xion openly doubt why they need hearts at all - a point presented as one to be sympathetic toward, despite everything from KH II and a good chunk of this very game stressing that it is in fact a problem that Nobodies lack hearts?

This is not what was indicated in KH II. What’s worse, it’s boring. A far more effective choice IMO would have been to let Roxas be villainous. Go the dark protagonist route; give us a cold hunter of a character, with the impulsive anger and fractured psyche Sora showed in CoM, fully aware of what the Organization is up to and the price that others will pay for it and still committed to the cause. Then, when the events of CoM play out in the background, and fragments of Sora’s memories find their way to Roxas (assuming we still cut Xion in this scenario), that’s the turning point. That’s when Roxas can doubt the Organization’s cause, when he can begin to question his lack of memories and his true identity, and betray the Organization by setting out to find Sora. Give him two separate fights with Riku, to justify the dialogue claiming such in KH II. Let him develop some awareness of Namine after he gets Sora’s memories; Namine’s dialogue in KH II indicates that they’ve never met before, but a connection at a distance could serve to give more substance to their relationship, and supply Namine with opportunities to develop as a character. Depict the scenes where she first comes into contact with DiZ and Riku, agrees to take on their help in restoring Sora’s memories, and feels conflicted about the moral gray area their harsh but necessary actions occupy. Let her be ultimately responsible for setting Riku on the right trail that ends up bringing Roxas into their hands.

Of course, one reason why they may have opted not to do this is because having a dark protagonist complicit in an evil scheme involving the deaths of countless people may have been difficult to pull off while still earning an E10 rating at most. And honestly, the story told by Days doesn’t strike me as  necessarily the best fit for a video game even as-is. They might have been better off with planning it as a proper movie from the get-go, instead of a string of cutscenes divorced from the gameplay as they ultimately presented it in the HD collections.

And another objection to this approach might have been that a villainous Roxas and morally ambiguous Namine might have been less “likable,” and therefore less usable in future titles. To that I say - so what? I didn’t want Roxas and Namine as characters in any titles past KH II anyway - not because they were bad characters, or because I didn’t like them, but because their stories concluded. Concluded on terms they chose, and were at peace with. It was tinged with a bittersweet quality, but they did get a “happy” ending. If a midquel story complicated their morality, that wouldn’t negate the events of KH II or the resolution they received; it would have created a journey to get them to that point, starting from a much darker place, and given more weight to the idea that it was necessary for them to rejoin with Sora and Kairi. I’d argue that would enrich what we see in KH II, whereas the actual route they took in titles like DDD and KH III disregards or undermines everything that made the ending of KH II work.

[antibioware]

the unholy trinity of KH character themes that fuck you up after hearing just two notes of them:

Roxas’ theme

Xion’s theme

Riku’s theme

[solivar]

Exalted XIII Part II

Roxas and Axel.

Brooding Youth Bereft of Hope is not his true name, or even his true title. His "mentor" calls him that, almost mockingly, for want of anything more fitting. His "friends" call him something else, and that name has some purchase on him, because it resonates in the bright place of his soul that has become divine, but that isn't his true name, either. He doesn't remember the name he was born with, any longer, the knowledge obliterated in a single blinding instant, and though he feels the pieces of who he truly is still scattered inside him, he cannot touch them any more than he can the face of the Unconquered Sun. In his clearest and most centered moments, he remembers an island -- a tiny island, with nothing special about it but its name: Destiny. (He remembers children's stories about how that name came to be, during a terrible war long ago, when the molten star-blood of a dying Maiden fell on the breast of the ocean and cooled there to let life grow upon it, and it frustrates him beyond words that he knows myth better than he knows himself.) He remembers tiny, simple people, fishing boats and small, trim houses. (A mother. He remembers having a mother. But no memories of his father.) He remembers a vast storm of darkness and a desperate flight in fear and anguish. (He remembers screams, and wishes that he didn't.) He remembers a city of impossible crystalline beauty mingled with equally beautiful ruin, vermillion glass streets and shaded pleasure gardens, wells that never run dry and desperate grasping poverty, all blended together. These memories are glittering fragments, disjointed like the links of a broken chain, familiar faces, familiar voices, or that should be familiar. He cannot give them names, any more than he can name himself. He knows, to the depths of his being, that something wonderful, and something terrible, both happened there. He cannot remember what: whenever he tries, the brightness within him pulses and other memories overwhelm him, memories that are his but not his. His "friends" tell him that this is normal, and will get better with time, and he'll remember himself eventually, he just needs to discipline himself more, and meditate longer, and... He doesn't know if he believes them, the old, old man with the hard eyes that shine like distant stars and the ones who call themselves his friends, the silver-haired boy and the gentle-eyed girl. He wants to -- he wants to believe that they're telling him the truth, and helping him find the pieces of who he really is within the cacophony of memories filling up his head, but he's not sure. He fears that what they want from him, and he wants, may well be two very different things. And what will he do then? (Dawn Caste Solar Exalt, with the worst case of Throwback in the history of EVER and an N/A class Artifact forged by the hand of the Great Maker and gifted to the only Exalt worthy of wielding it, possessing the power to open, or close, anything -- including, but not limited to, the hearts of mortals, Exalts, and gods; the gates of Yu Shan; the boundaries of Malfeas; the doors of the Imperial Manse; the Seal of Eight Divinities...)

The one called Burning Tears Marring Perfection was, if his father is to be believed, trouble from the moment he drew his first breath, much less his second. The son of a Delzahn nobleman and a northern slave-concubine, the eighth of many, he was "spoiled" early by his witch of a mother, whose willfullness rubbed off on him to an entirely unacceptable degree. He absolutely could not make himself into a proper Delzahn youth. He refused to learn how to use a decent weapon, discarding the sword early in favor of the slinking stealthy weapons of the Realm that could not be used in a decent, face-to-face duel. He refused to take the gray, despite his undisguised preference for male bedmates, pretending to masculinity despite his treacherous womanly nature. He manipulated his brothers against each other for his own benefit, learning their foibles and weaknesses and using them rather than pursuing his desires in honorable competition. Only his ability to follow commands, precisely and to the letter (while occasionally violating the spirit beyond recognition), saved him from an expedient marriage to some deep-desert clan that rarely came to the city or a cup of sorbet with some unexpected flavoring agents. He could get things done, ruthlessly even, and that was the sole characteristic to his credit in his father's eyes. It certainly wasn't the blinding intelligence that allowed him to show up his more properly obedient, perfectly conservative brothers at every turn. It certainly wasn't the unusual skill with weapons that mortals were rarely competent handling, much less proficient. It certainly wasn't the compassion that led him to pick up strays and cultivate connections in unusual quarters for a high-born Delzahn princeling. It was the last that undid him, in the end. He let his doom in by the front door: the heaven-eyed, sunlight-haired son of the Western Isles, a street-rat caught scaling the garden wall in search of food for his starving nest of thieves, beautiful and fierce and willing to do anything for his friends. The boy offered his body in payment for clemency, an offer which was declined, but the princeling and the thief soon found their lives entwined nonetheless. They became friends. Then they became lovers. And in this boy, the princeling found something he had lacked his whole life: love without conditions. Of course, it can't end there. If it did, there would be no story. The boy came from the West, from a small island he'd fled, he claimed, from sheer boredom, desiring more than a hard life hauling nets and a cold place on the seafloor when he died. That was half-true. He'd fled, but he'd run ahead of an unholy darkness that had devoured his people and came seeking him, as well. When they did, the princeling regretted for the first time not being quite the warrior his brothers were. The story doesn't end here, either. Of course it doesn't. As the princeling lay dying, the taste of his own blood of his lips, a voice spoke to him, forming itself out of the echoes of his lover's screams still ringing in his head, chiming like cracked temple bells. It offered him his life back. It offered him power, the power to avenge himself on the slayers of his beloved. It asked him, politely, to take its hand. He did, and cold and death and darkness tore open his heart and carved open his soul and poured into him the power to keep living, to keep living forever, even unto the end of days. The price was his name, his destiny, his fealty, his service, for just as long. It seemed a good bargain. Demons and their kin are hard to kill, after all. In his heart, he knows that what he has become is an abomination, but he cannot make himself care. The Princess Magnificent permits him to wash his hands and his blades in the blood of those that took everything he had from him and, for now, he is content. It may not be so always... Particularly should he learn that his lover still lives. (Day Caste Abyssal Exalt, in service to the Princess Magnificent With Lips of Coral and Robes of Black Feathers. Exaltation is incomplete -- the Princess' state of disgrace in the eyes of the Dead Gods means that he cannot approach the Well of the Void to complete his attunement process. As a result, the Solar nature of his shard keeps trying to burn through the surface patina of Oblivion clinging to it, triggering as it does so uncontrollable Resonance effects at a variety of entertaining ranges.)

[tumblunni]

okay guys i caved i was stupid i looked up kh3 spoilers for THE MOST IMPORTANT THING I REALLY WANTED TO KNOW and ok i’ll discuss it under the cut but just to sum it up in a non spoilery way

i googled WHAT HAPPENS TO VEXEN YO, LEAKY MAN and i didnt find all the details but i found ONE VERY KEY PART that makes me super happy that The Thing I Am Not Gonna Tell You turned out to be Yes

basically SOMETHING happens with this man that makes a vexen fan happy and thats all you need to know

but if you’re interested in hearing about the leak then look under the cut

me initially while watching this: ugh man it sucks so much that ansem the wise gets to be a good guy when he did all that bad shit and didnt really aknowledge it or apologise he just died before we even knew the full extent of the bad stuff he did

me five seconds later: UGH dude how dare you even joke about what you did to roxas seriously why do you get to be redeemed when poor vexen gets nortified offscreen after they cockteased us with him getting to come back to life and be redeemed-

me at The Moment: *UNHOLY SCREECHING*

me still now: *STILL SCREECHING*

fuck i thought the “vexen is just pretending to be norted to infiltrate xehanort’s crew and thus is actually super extra double redemptiony nice now and will have a really important plot role” theory was SUCH an unlikely hope oh god im sobbingggggggg

and also theyre aknowledging that ansem’s atoningness wasnt just over in that one scene of him dying and he’s actually gonna have a further plotline here giving him a better redemption???

THEY NOT ONLY CONFIRMED BUNNI’S FAVE GRANDPA FOR GOOD GUY BUT TOOK STEPS TO FIX MR FAILED GRANDPA TOO?!

AND HAYNER PENCE AND OLETTE GET A BIGGER PLOT ROLE???

oh god im crying

okay this is the only spoiler i ever needed, i just needed to know the answer to ‘is vexen good redeemsman or was i just being nuts with all these sympathetic headcanons all these years’

tho i do kinda hope that this isnt a sign that he’s gonna be 100% stoic forever now? it was a good acting choice to have him acting more of his hammy nasally re:COM self when he’s pretending to be norted and then pull the BBS flashback Even voice to prove that he’s sincere about being good. but i mean seriously his hammyness is one of his most endearing traits so i always liked interpretations of Even that had him still being kinda comical when he gets flustered, its just that this got a bit amplified when he was spending all his days being disrespected as vexen. its less fun if more cliche stoic serious scienceman is like his real self i guess? more fun if both are different sides to the same man. goofyness is always funnier when its a guy trying his best to keep a non goofy reputation!

also i like how his crazy neon green mad science eyes have now become a symbol of his goodness. Ansem: aww phew thats that radioactive sludge of true heroism! Vexen: *hypnotoad noise*

[atrashsith]

I want you for a lifetime

“Sea salt’s your favorite, right?”

Fuck, no. “Yeah.”

Read on AO3

Isa didn’t know how to approach the younger man, or if he should approach him at all. Lea had tried to talk him into asking Terra to join them on the clock tower, but he was a coward. He knew Lea would take Roxas and Xion back home, leaving the two men eating ice cream alone. He didn’t know if he was ready for that. 

His sweaty palms played with the munny in his pocket, his tinted cheeks hiding behind the high collar of his jacket as he watched the brunet’s biceps bulging out of his shirt when he crossed his arms over his chest. 

Sapphire eyes met his own emerald ones for a split of a second and a gentle smile was sent his way. His legs nearly buckled, and if he wasn’t already leaning against a wall, he was sure he would’ve fallen to his knees.

“Just ask him out already.” The red haired man clapped a hand on his shoulder one day, shortly after recompleting, when he still felt uncomfortable around anyone else who wasn’t his oldest friend. “It’s sad seeing you pin over him, especially when it’s so clear he likes you.”

He bit back a sarcastic laugh. “How can you tell?” He had silently asked despite his mind screaming at him that someone like Terra couldn’t possibly be interested in someone like Isa. Lea had only responded with a wink before walking off. 

He didn’t realize he had zoned out of both taking a swig of his drink and his conversation with the kids in front of him until he heard a voice talking directly to him.

“Hey, Isa.” 

He nearly spat his water at Roxas and Ventus. The blondes eyed him curiously, then shared a look between themselves as the tall man wiped his chin with the sleeve of his jacket.

“Terra,” He cleared his throat. “Hello.”

He grinned, making Isa’s heart do a somersault behind his ribcage. “I didn’t know you were in Radiant Garden.”

Roxas interjected excitedly. “Naminé’s replica is ready! We’re waiting for her to wake up.” He smiled brightly at the brunet.

“I heard Ienzo mentioning something to Sora.” He nodded. “I’m glad you’re finally getting your friend back.”

“We should go check up on her, don’t we Roxas?” Ventus threw an arm over the other’s shoulders and pulled him in the direction of the castle without waiting for anyone’s response. 

Isa shifted uncomfortably as he closed his water bottle, and Terra seemed to notice. “I’m guessing you’re the designated gummiship driver?”

“Not all of us have nice, body tight armor to travel the lanes between.” Isa found himself shooting back before he could stop himself. He bowed his head to hide his face behind his hair. 

Terra’s laugh filled Isa’s ears. He found himself marvelling at the sweet sound, and he wanted to hear it more often, he decided. 

“Lea’s not around, then?”

He felt his lips falling into a slight pout. Of course he wanted to see Lea. He actually could hold a conversation, an interesting one at that. He didn’t get tongue tied in front of… well, anyone.

“He is.” Isa muttered angrily. “Took Xion out for ice cream.”

The younger man clicked his tongue. “And they didn’t invite you?”

He rubbed his forearm. “They did. I decided to accompany Roxas to check up on his friend instead.”

“I’d say Roxas is in good hands. Let’s go get some- you and me.”

He froze in place. Was– was Terra actually…?

He lifted his eyes enough to take a peek at Terra’s face. A wide smile was etched upon his lips as he awaited for Isa’s answer. 

“Sea salt’s your favorite, right?”

Fuck, no. “Yeah.” He breathed out and slipped his hand into his pocket to feel the coins he had almost forgotten kept in case he ever managed to muster the courage to invite Terra out. 

Terra waved him off, sensing his intentions as they approached the shop. “I invited, my treat.”

“I couldn’t-”

But he was already dropping the munny in the counter and asking for two sea salt popsicles. He turned to Isa, his head tilted to the side. “I’ve never been able to get one. Is it good?”

He shrugged to keep himself from blurting out no, it’s fucking awful. 

“Why don’t you taste for yourself?” He took the popsicles after thanking the kind man from the shop and handed one to Terra. 

He licked it experimentally. Isa found himself focused on the way his tongue moved across the icy treat, completely forgetting his own that would soon begin to melt if he lost himself in his less unholy thoughts. Terra’s moan of appreciation certainly didn’t help bring him back to reality.

Content with the reaction, Isa bit down on his ice cream to finish it quicker, earning a disgusted grunt from Terra.

“How can you just bite into it? Doesn’t the cold hurt your teeth?”

He looked down at Terra’s pouty lips, noticing the small drop falling from his bottom lip. He leaned forward and brushed his thumb over his chin. He froze when he realized what he was doing and immediately tried to pull his hand back, but Terra caught his wrist. He cursed at the keyblade wielder’s quick reflexes.

He swallowed the ice cream in his mouth, but remained quiet as he looked into the ocean colored eyes that were looking down at his lips. He didn’t realize they had been leaning in until their lips touched and their eyes closed.

The popsicle slipped from Isa’s hand as he found himself suddenly loving the sweet, yet salty taste of the ice cream in Terra’s lips. His hands fisted the stretchy fabric of Terra’s black shirt at his sides, right over the waistline of his baggy pants. He knew he should pull away- they were still in the middle of the town, for Kingdom Hearts’ sake. He reluctantly did, a slight blush coming onto his cheeks. 

Terra leaned forward, searching for his lips. He grinned when he felt another popsicle falling and the brunet’s cold hands holding each side of his face.

[antibioware]

succubused ha risposto al tuo post “the unholy trinity of KH character themes that fuck you up after...”

have u heard the fucking. orchestral version of roxas's theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWF0pFVJL9k this haunts me

OH I’M GONNA DIE THANKS