#roxas writes

[kettsuper]

terrifying trio

[storm-driver]

from here

[yoroshiu]

You wake up with holes in your memory.

Holes you don't know exist until later.

You're given a mission, you take it in stride. You've saved the world once so a second time isn't too bad. Though sometimes you feel things towards places and people you don't know. Crooked smiles, the gentle and eternal sunset, sky-blue ice cream that tastes salty then sweet—the traces of Summer constrict your lungs. Huh? What's this? They question why you're shedding tears. You don't know the answer.

You're met with faces you don't—you do—know, and yet they know you. They call you another name and it doesn't ring a bell. Over time, it gets annoying as they look past you with smirks and no care about who you are. Secrets and missing friends drive you to anger. Why does no one say anything?

Who is, what is, why is—why, why?

The answers are weird. There was a you, not you, but you. They had a different name but a similar face, but different hair and the way they smiled was a bit different. Everyone says they were you but when you see their visage for the first time, they seemed like someone else. They lived a life you didn't. You don't know what exactly they lived through, you just feel the weight of a deepened loss.

You, everyone says. It's you.

But that feels wrong. Memories blend and blur like a watercolor painting, but it feels distant. Them. Not you.

And when you understand, feel, the gravity of their existence, you wonder why they were made to be you. You feel like you can't comprehend fully, what it means to be you or them. What is you, what was never you. There was more too. One, two, three, maybe four. Preceding, succeeding—what were the bits that belonged to you?

You, you, you.

Who are you really?

[accursedthing]

Stole this format from an MLP meme I saw and I have no idea if it was the original or not.

Happy autism month from the whole gang at the autism factory (Sora's heart)!

[nebuvoid]

kingdom hearts is so funny though. for all the obvious reasons but also you have KH2 try to convince you the entire time that actually Roxas and Naminé will be fine back in Sora and Kairi, yeah they struggled and suffered but they'll be content, and the ending shows you this

like see they're fine they'll be ok :)

and then all the games after it's like no actually they're still miserable and heartbroken and their Somebody's hearts are prisons oopsie everyone lied our bad

[ghostbunnie]

I found this polaroid of us

[tonberry-yoda]

[Kingdom Hearts Request] How about S/O sharing a Paopu fruit with Roxas, Axel, Ventus, Terra, and Riku if you don't mind? I know Riku knows the whole legend with the fruit, but it'd be so cute with the others not really knowing and then finding out

Sharing a Paopu Fruit with Roxas, Axel, Ventus, Terra, and Riku

notes - I LOVE KINGDOM HEARTS! I don't often get KH requests, so to get this was a delight! Like this whole idea is super sweet and I am more than happy to do it for you, especially as a Terra and Axel simp :) thanks so much anon and I hope you enjoy!!! <3

Roxas

when I tell you that this lil guy's jaw was hanging open when you told him

and like, he started getting all stuttery and saying that he isn't worth being all connected to you and stuff

what a doll

and you were just giggling while he was panicking

though he is more than happy to have life shared with you like that

he didn't even think he would find anyone that wants to share a destiny with him especially since he's just a confused lump of a boy, so he is more than happy

Axel

he was SUPER hungry

so you convinced him to share this fruit with you

you were giggling and holding back laughter the whole time, but he really didn't care considering the dude was hungry as hell

once he put that thing away, you finally told him

and let me tell you, he was BAFFLED

at first, he laughed at you, thinking that you were joking

and once you told him that you weren't, he went silent

and then got a little teary

he quickly wiped said tears though and just looked at you, tilting his head and asking, "you really want our hearts to be connected, y/n? even if I don't have one?"

you just told him, "everyone has a heart, Axel. Even you."

and omg he fell in love

Ventus

you wanted to share the fruit with him so bad, but you wanted to tell him the conditions first

when you did, he agreed SO FAST

he wants to be there to protect you and be there for you your whole life, so to have a destiny that goes hand in hand is a dream come true

he wants to go through everything with you and eating that fruit in the sunset was amazing for you two

Terra

you and him have talked about the fruit before, you've explained it to him and the two of you have even joked about sharing one

but once you actually got one and showed Terra, the man was BLUSHING

"you really wanna do this y/n?"

"of course I do, dummy! what? you don't wanna do it or something?"

"n-no! it's not like that I just... are you sure?"

of course you were sure, so you cut that thing in half and handed it to him

he was hesitant, as he didn't want you getting involved in anything dangerous in the future, but you were so sure that you wanted to share this life with him and he was more than grateful <3

Riku

when i tell you that you got this man BLUSHING

he wanted to share the fruit with Kairi YEARS AGO, but it never worked out because it was meant for her and Sora, so when you offered to share it with him after everything that had happened in the events of KH2, he couldn't believe you

of course he agreed though, you two had been through so much and you fought so hard that he knew that it was perfect that you two were to share this fruit

it was also perfect because you were back on Destiny Islands smiling and having the time of your life <3

~~~~~

kingdom hearts masterlist | pinned post

2023 @tonberry-yoda – do not repost or claim ANY of my work as your own! likes, reblogs, and comments are not only welcome, but appreciated

~~~~~

[holleighgram]

I'm depressed af so here, have a head canon:

When Roxas, Xion, Axel, and Isa tale up residency in the Twilight Town Mansion, Roxas finds Riku's diary full of poetic letters to Sora from the year he was asleep and he would stay in the mansion with Namine and DiZ.

Now, Roxas will pull it out sometimes, and dramatically read from it to make fun of him. Axel finds it funny, but is somewhat impressed by his writing.. Xion thinks it's sweet, and Isa is suspiciously quiet about it.

[dreamsy990]

some wof au designs i made a while ago i forgot to post

[yume127]

It’s heartbreaking to think that, by the end of Days, Roxas felt so betrayed by everyone around him to fully believe that no one—not even his best friends—would have cared if he was gone.

For months, he questioned what was happening around him. Everyone around him acted strange, and it seemed like there were some things they were not telling him, but he still chose to trust them. That was until he found out that his best friends were keeping things from him, and the Organization, whom he’d always been loyal to until that point, was planning to get rid of him.

He ended up fighting with his best friend and running away, only to witness the death of his other best friend.

At that point, everything he ever cared about was lost, and he was so desperate that he embarked on a suicidal mission to destroy the Organization and free Kingdom Hearts, under the delusion that it would give him his old life back.

Except someone stopped him before he could. He got kidnapped and put into a simulation, where he had everything he had ever wished for—a normal life he gets to spend with his best friends.

For a brief time, everything seemed okay. He was happy.

That was until strange things started happening around him. He saw things no one else could, and started questioning his reality, only to find out it was fake. It was just an illusion to keep him at bay until he’d have to give up his life for another guy he barely knew, because apparently his life was much more worthy and important than Roxas’.

It didn’t matter how much he screamed and fought. No one was going to save him as he disappeared inside Sora.

He fought one last time, against the guy he had to give up his life for, and then he just gave up. He fully surrendered to the idea that he was just a part of Sora, and that “it really has to be [Sora]”.

No one cared about Roxas, anyway. Both the bad guys and the good guys wanted to get rid of him, and not even the people who cared the most about him truly believed he deserved his own life. He was just a Nobody, after all.

Except, it was not true.

Without realizing, during the time he was alive as his own person, he touched many people’s hearts.

Axel and Xion, his best friends, truly cared about him and just wanted to protect him from his fate. Xion would have wanted to be with him and Axel forever if fate hadn’t been so cruel to them. Axel’s deepest wish, after Roxas’ disappearance, was to bring him back.

Naminé, whom he only met briefly during his last seven days and shared his same fate, found a silver lining in believing they could be together (even if through Sora and Kairi) and held onto that promise of meeting him again and talking with him about everything.

Hayner, Pence and Olette immediately offered to help Sora save Roxas upon finding out their data selves were friends with him, and looked forward to the day they’d get to meet their new friend.

Sora himself, the guy Roxas had to give up his life for, was the first person to fully believe Roxas was his own person and deserved his own life, and he made it a priority to find a way to bring Roxas back.

Even some of the people who had been antagonistic with him during his life, like Saix and Ansem the Wise, helped to make sure Roxas could come back.

It was so satisfying seeing him coming back in KH3 and recognizing that many people helped him return. Because Roxas was important, and many people did, in fact, miss him and worked hard to allow for his return.

[citadelofswords]

davesprite and roxas. thats my writing prompt

there is a giant blanket fort taking up a good quarter of the room. roxas pauses, staring at it, and then walks around it to check— yep, that is almost entirely a quarter of the room. it’s brushing right up against the cardboard castle where the turtle puppet lives. 

someone has a lot of time on their hands.

it is also covered in orange feathers.

some sort of strange doohickey is connected up at what roxas… thinks might be the entrance to the fort. a sign is propped up on it that reads no entry (unless you are a super cool dubiously real alternate version of a guy)(in which case the entry fee is apple juice)

roxas thinks about this for a second. he’s… not sure how cool he is, but he is the alternate version of a guy. well— he’s a nobody, after all, and he’s pretty sure that the fact that all his memories of twilight town are fake qualifies him as dubiously real. he goes to the kitchen, collects two apple juices from the fridge, and then pokes the doohickey to see what it does.

a head pops out from the front of the fort. it is a boy who is entirely bright orange, with a ruff of similarly orange feathers around his neck. the boy looks at his apple juice, looks at the doohickey, and then looks at roxas.

“why would i lie about it?” roxas asks.

“fair enough,” the boy says. “guess i didn’t consider there’d be another guy like me on this train. stupid of me. welcome to casa strider, davesprite edition, make yourself comfortable, yada yada. davesprite is me, by the way.”

he holds the entrance open. roxas slips inside and settles on a pillow. davesprite follows after a moment and flops his entire body— what of it seems corporeal, anyway; his lower half vanishes into spirit aether after a point— across multiple pillows.

“far be it from me to have a feelings jam,” davesprite says, holding out a hand for the apple juice (roxas dutifully passes one over to him), “though that seems to be the general point of a blanket fort— not that i would know, all my blanket forts were population: one, and that one was me— how long you been on the train for?”

“like a day or two?” roxas says. he’s genuinely not sure. after twilight town, his sense of time is completely shot. he glances down at the number on his hand, starting to trail off his palm onto his wrist. “what about you?”

“long enough.” roxas narrows his eyes, but before he can push davesprite lets out a caw like a strange bird and his feathers all ruffle up and around. 

“sorry,” he says. “that happens. i’m part crow, in case the wings didn’t give it away.”

“were you born like that?” roxas asks, tipping his head to the side. the head and the hands look human enough, but roxas has seen enough pictures of magical creatures to not make assumptions. although— “no, wait. are you dead?”

davesprite laughs. “no,” he says. “i know i look like a ghost or whatever, but no. i’m— actually, i’m not really alive either.” he frowns. “just kind of here.”

roxas understands. he walks and talks and if he stops breathing things get really bad, but he doesn’t actually have a heartbeat— he’s checked. he’s definitely not dead, but he’s not sure that counts as alive either.

davesprite must see something on his face, because he says, “whoops. sorry for the existential crisis, dude.”

“no, it’s fine,” roxas says. davesprite has a number on his hand— something four digits, and normal. “just like, thinking that i understand that. the not being dead but not being alive thing.”

davesprite looks at him then, and then says, “i dunno. you look pretty alive to me. just because you’re like, an alternate version of some other guy— and i really don’t need to know deets on if you’re a clone or a guy from a different timeline or what, that’s your business and not mine— doesn’t mean you’re not alive.” his facial expression doesn’t change, nor does his tone, as he says, “meanwhile i’m just a game construct so i stopped counting as alive or dead like two and a half years ago.”

roxas considers explaining nobodies to him and decides he doesn’t feel like yelling at a guy he’s just met about how he’s wrong, no really, just because he’s saying it doesn’t mean it isn’t true. instead he objects,  “i don’t think that makes you not alive either. or like, i dunno. it still makes you real. maybe you should change the sign on the door, because from where i’m sitting you’re definitely real. even if you are an alternate version of some other guy.”

“oh.” davesprite says, and then they don’t talk for a while, sipping apple juice in quiet solidarity.

(neither of them notice davesprite’s number drop by over 400.)

[transpanda-1]

TIMELINE FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T KNOW KH BECAUSE THEYRE SMART (for @ashenberry)

In the beginning, a mobile game happened. This is universally seen as a “bad move” and everyone hated it

Anyway, Ventus jettisoned from said mobile game with some extra darkness(tm) in his heart because he didn’t settle his debt on his pay to win gacha dues

Cut to baldy mcbaldman Xehanort. He’s a weirdo obsessed with darkness, so he goes: “Eh. Guess I’ll rip the excess darkness out of this kid’s heart and make a new person or smthn”

Cut to him doing that. Vanitas born. Vanitas has no face, just kinda a blurry black blob with red eyes

Ventus goes “ow my everything existentially” and passes out into a death coma. Luckily though an actual baby Sora’s heart is passing by and goes “oh lemme fill that pothole for u. Googoo Gaga.” And Ven’s heart no longer resembles the Grand Canyon

Vanitas has face now, like Sora.

Xehanort’s like “boooo why don’t you die harder” and shoved Vanitas and Ventus together again when they were stronger cause he needed to form his super extra special car keys

Ventus goes “wtf die” and Vanitas goes “Okay. Your heart tho.” And Ven goes “wait shit.” And then his heart explodes

The remnants of Ven’s heart return to Sora, “heart pothole filler extraordinaire”, and asks if there’s no vacancy, then he’s let in.

CUT TO YEARS LATER AND A BETTER STORY

Teen Sora’s chilling on his island with his pals, [Girl] and bestest pal Riku who definitely doesn’t have repressed gay feelings for Sora that will result in an angsty apocalypse

Oops the apocalypse

Anyway [Girl] is a super bright heart and escaped apocalypse by chilling in the room next door to Ventus’s but still just a bit too far from the ice machine for convenience.

Sora figures this out and goes “ooh I hope this doesn’t wake anything tramsgenderly in me” and releases [Girl]’s heart from his, at the cost of needing to release his own heart

Cut to waking up things tramsgenderly OUT of Sora’s heart

Turns out this universe makes two things when u release a heart. Ur heartless, who has ur heart, and your Nobody, who has ur body. Very straightforward I know.

Because Sora had Ven and [Girl] inside his heart, his mom lets him have two Nobodies: Roxas and Naminè.

[Girl] restores Sora quickly so those two actual nobodies start out as blank slates n figure out their identities

And absolutely nothing else happened no siree

Some nobodies tried making a clone of Sora but it turns out his tramsgender vibes were off the charts and made a girl named Xion. She’s trans. She explodes. Queen.

[roxas-and-ventus-week]

Hey Kingdom Hearts fans! Welcome to 2023′s Roxas and Ventus Appreciation week! Let’s celebrate the potential friendship these two can have. Since April didn't work out completely, we're trying again in October! From Sunday, October 8th, to Saturday, October 14th, we'll be releasing daily prompts for Roxas and Ventus fans!

With three prompts to choose from per day, and an optional color pallet for artists and editors, you have a lot of places to draw inspiration from! Feel free to choose just one prompt, or maybe even work all into your piece of writing, art, photo edit, or just about any other form of creative expression. Of course, the final day, October 14th, is meant to be a ‘free-day’, but if you’re having trouble coming up with an idea, you have two quotes and two color pallets to chose from!

This week will be friendship focused, but feel free to create romantic pieces! This tumblr will reblog all pieces submitted under the hashtag #roxandvenweek, whether it be platonic or romantic!

If you create romantic, ship centered writing/artwork/etc, please tag it as both #roxandvenweek as well as #rokuven, so people who do not like the ship can blacklist it.

To keep things fun for everybody, here are some rules:

Please do not create NSFW content for this event

Please do not reference Adult/Minor Ships in your works for this event, even in the background

Please do not create AU situations where Roxas and Ventus are both romantically involved as well as related (ex. brothers, cousins, etc.) in your pieces for this event

Please be respectful to others who mind these rules. For example, if someone follows our rules for this event, but has NSFW content unrelated to the event on their blog, that’s a-okay, and there’s no excuse to bother them about it.

We hope fans of Roxas and Ventus will participate! These two boys need all the love this fandom can give them~!

Since this is just for fun, there’s no minimum or limit to how much you write, draw, etc. Just choose your prompts and have fun!

[theblueprincess590]

Roxas’s Prologue at the Beginning of KH2 is the perfect introduction for KH2 Because it firmly establishes the 3 core themes of the Game through Roxas’s character. The First theme Roxas’s Story talks about is the idea of duality. Roxas is Sora’s Nobody, his Other, an integral part of Sora’s being that he needs back in order to become a complete person again and wake up. To put it in another way Roxas is the Prince Charming to Sora’s Snow White. But Roxas of course rejects his role in the fairy tale, he has become his own person after all why would he ever want to go back to Sora. Roxas fights his fate all the way until the very end when he finally meets Sora and understands everything. Roxas knows that things could be the other way around, that he could if he wanted to leave Sora to his eternal sleep and take his place in the universe but he won't because in this moment he truly gazes upon the sanctuary that is Sora’s heart and realizes that it is beautiful. Roxas knows that it has to be Sora, that only his heart has the power and kindness to understand the hearts of others and connect to all. So Roxas does what he was meant to do and returns to the sky he was born from. He restores Sora and brings about duality, right? The tragic ending of Roxas’s story hints that perhaps true duality has not actually been achieved, after all can it even be called duality when one has to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the other? Maybe just maybe true duality could be achieved if Sora and Roxas existed together side by side rather than as one being, but answering that question is no longer Roxas’s responsibility, it’s Sora’s now.

The Second theme relates back to KH1. In Kingdom Hearts 1 the game asks what is the true nature of the heart and answers with light so in KH2 the biggest question is “What does it mean to have a heart?” This Question is raised right from the beginning with the reveal that Roxas is a nobody. As stated in the 13th Ansem Report from KH1 the Nobody is the shell that is left behind after a heart becomes heartless, A body that still goes on despite its lack of a heart. And by the logic of KH Roxas should be an emotionless husk devoid of any real purpose but he isn’t any of that. Roxas by all accounts behaves like a normal teenager with emotions as real and passionate as Sora’s. Heck one could even argue he’s more like a real teenager tha his somebody. Sora is at his core a cartoon fairy tale character, his behavior and action exaggerated for dramatic and comedic effect, he yearns to see what lies beyond him in the great wide somewhere, and most importantly of all his beliefs are rooted in a sense of pure whimsical idealism. And Roxas isn’t really like that at all, he is far more grounded than Sora with his emotions being much more reserved often times giving in to melancholy rather than fairy tale wonder and only entering emotion as extreme as Sora’s when he’s forced into situations of intense stress by forces beyond his control, his desires are nothing more than a simple wish to spend his summer days on the beach playing with his friends, And he’s not at all concerned with grand ideals or beliefs just focusing on his small personal life. Perhaps the biggest piece of symbolism for Roxas being a normal teenager at his core would be his home, Twilight Town. Twilight Town is unique in the series for being the only normal world. It’s not a Gothic fairy tale castle like Hollow bastion nor a Child’s paradise like destiny Islands, rather it is just a simply quiet suburban town where the most exciting things to do are go to the beach or play Struggle. It’s the type of video game level that makes you feel at home with its music theme being the pure embodiment of summer melancholy. There is the Old Mansion of course which radiates haunted house energy but it’s important to note that the mansion is very much cut off from the rest of the town with the only people living there being outsiders rather than the actual citizens of Twilight Town. Now one could claim that Roxas only acts like a real person because of the false memories forced on him once he was trapped in the digital Twilight Town but it’s important to note that Roxas doesn’t lose any of his emotions or personality after he regains his real memories, in fact his emotions become even more passionate, like a star going supernova. So when Roxas definitely declares he has a Heart of his own to DiZ we can’t help but believe him despite everything else in the series telling us otherwise. With the entire nature of the series put into question it must be asked, What does it mean to have a heart if a being who is defined by his lack of a heart and emotions not only claims to have heart but shows the most humanity out of everyone else in the cast? Is a Nobody like Roxas truly capable of having a heart separate from Sora’s? All these Questions and more now Sora’s responsibility to answer as Roxas’s Other.

And Now we have the final theme of KH2 which is without a doubt the most important theme in the entire series, “Separation is inevitable.” In Kh1 the game explored the idea of People’s hearts staying connected even when they’re world’s apart through The Destiny Islands Trio and Sora’s faith that he will find them again even after the ending. KH2 further expands on this idea by confronting the truth that separation is inevitable, everything must someday end whether we want it to or not at that includes the time we spend with our loved ones. This is ultimately why Roxas' time in the digital world takes place during the end of Summer Vacation, to teach Roxas and the audience this fact. Every kid knows that summer vacation is going to end, that their time in the sun isn’t eternal so the days they dread the most are those final days of summer. By placing the story in this time frame it allows the kids playing the game to understand how Roxas feels, to let them experience and empathize with his growing sense of dread as every day counts down so that when Roxas’s finally says “Looks Like My Summer Vacation is Over” they all feel it. The digital Twilight Town existes to teach Roxas that separation is inevitable and that is because Roxas was rejecting this truth. When Roxas left Organization XIII he refused to say Goodbye to Axel, rejecting their friendship outright simply because it was easier to pretend they were never friends than to accept the pain of losing him. So the narrative punishes Roxas by giving him a normal happy life full of friends and then ripping it all away from him. And we see Roxas beginning to understand this Truth as he attempts to give Axel a real goodbye even if it was more for his own sake rather than Axel’s. However the take away from this theme and Roxas’s Story is much more than “we just have to accept the pain of separation”, rather it is something far far more beautiful.

“We can’t be together forever so we better make the time we do have together something to remember.”

That is everything Kingdom Hearts is about summed up in one sentence. Everything ends including the time we spend with our loved one but instead of wallowing in that heartbreaking truth we must embrace it and enjoy every second we have with our friends so that we will always be connected to them even when they’re gone. Or to simplify it, “Don’t be sad that Summer is almost over instead savor those last few days with your friends so you never forget them”

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

So like, mini disclaimer before the post. I was not and am not a believer in the "Sonic is going to be forced to choose between his original friends and the shatterspace variants" theory, nor the companion to it "all the variants are just gonna essentially live with their memories inside the og friends' hearts"

However, I do have brainrot over the idea of Nine meeting Tails in his dreams, and some of these ideas require a prerequisite of "in which Nine exists within Tails' heart but does not currently have a body.

ㅤ

Imagine, if you will, a setting post canon in which the variants exist within the hearts of the original and (kingdom hearts style) they would just need a body/vessel of their own to exist again. Tails is sleeping, and after dreams upon dreams of meeting the variants, experiencing their fleeting memories and their hurt (their feelings about everything), he comes across Nine.

Nine... Tails has had a hard time remembering much of his dreams while awake, but when he's dreaming, he remembers that Nine has been perhaps the angriest and most conflicted of all the variants. All of them want to be alive, of course. Tails wouldn't be surprised if *all* of them have been parsing through his own memories in exchange for sharing theirs.

But none have been so volatile as Nine, harder to reason with. The others at least face him more often than not, but Nine has directly done so few times.

But...Tails can't blame him for that, especially not after what he knows. He understands how Nine likely feels (abandoned, lonely, forgotten). Perhaps he wouldn't be so agreeable either if he fought tooth and nail for a better future, and the universe denied him that (nay, punished him to watch but to never have).

But tonight...

Nine is standing under a palm tree, facing the vast ocean past the beaches of Green Hill. Tails takes a few steps down the hill he's on, and soon enough he's standing off to the side (dream logic, he understands)—where he can see Nine from the front, but isn't standing directly in front of him or obstructing his view.

It's at this moment that Tails realizes he's never seen Nine so clearly before. The tips of his ears, to his permafrown, to his 7 mechanical tails, and down to his shoes. He's fought the fox before in his dreams, seen glimpses of him, but this is the first time he's had a chance to really see him.

Nine turns his head away from the sea, and suddenly Tails is beside him, mere feet away.

Tails opens his mouth, a dozen questions and sentence starters flying through his head. What eventually comes out is just a simple, "Nine?"

Nine smiles at that, and yet...Tails can tell almost instantly that it's not because he's happy or excited to see him. No, the smile is almost...accepting, if not a little bit sad.

Then, Nine sighs. "This could have been the other way around, but...it has to be you."

Tails hesitates for a moment before pointing at himself. "...Me? Why?"

"There are so many people connected to you—all of you, if my hypothesis is correct. It often is. You're me, so...you can feel what I felt. You could...feel how I feel."

And maybe it's true that Tails can feel what Mangey, Sails, and Nine are feeling, but all that proves is that one is affected by the presence of others residing within their own consciousness.

Tails shakes his head. "No. You're you, not me."

There's a moment of silence before Nine chuckles, and Tails continues, "I want you to know that you deserve to live as your own person, just as much as I do."

"Every time we've fought—here—I've asked you the same question. Do you remember it?"

Well, of course, Tails finds multiple questions as he tries to think back, but by keeping the terms of Nine's question in mind and employing process of elimination–

Nine turns back to the sea, squeezing both gloved hands into fists at his sides. "I was angry—among other things. I just couldn't understand why I was here. After everything I'd fought for, everything we'd been through together, I couldn't understand why he chose you. And every time I asked, you never gave me an answer."

Nine's right. Tails has never given him an answer to that question.

But to Tails...that question was never his to answer, at least in his opinion. Unless Sonic told him, Tails would never know why he put in for him, Amy, Knuckles, and Rouge over worlds of new friends. All he does know (straight from Sonic's own testimony) is that Sonic would have never made the choice he did had he known it would lead to all this. Sonic had wanted home, Tails, and all his friends back, but he never meant to erase the other worlds. Even as he tries to pretend otherwise, Tails knows Sonic has been beating himself up for the choice he made ever since.

Shouldn't Nine know that—that Sonic didn't mean to hurt him, that Sonic feels regret, that Sonic wasn't intending to choose between one or the other?

"Nine–"

"Save it," Nine says, cutting him off. "It doesn't matter anymore. Sonic made his choice, but you still have that chance."

Nine turns back to Tails and holds out a hand.

Tails looks down, then back up at Nine. He hesitates for a second, but ultimately takes Nine's hand.

Tails is an observer, a spectator without form, as memories begin to play out before him in quick succession. Despite the lack of form, somehow his head begins to ache in pain that only grows over the moments.

And then, he begins to notice a pattern in the memories shown to him. Despite the pain, he recognizes the clear shift since a certain blue hedgehog—Sonic, of course—saves Nine from being hit by a train.

Each and every memory, if Sonic wasn't centered or mentioned in it, then his palpable absense was the focal point. Nine fought him, he worked with him, he almost lost him, he thought he lost him, and then he fought him again.

Nine had spent most of his life lonely, though he hadn't realized that until his life was almost over.

A waterfall of emotions hit him then, just before the highlight reel crackles into black.

And then, Tails is standing beside Nine again, head pulsing and heart pounding. He can hardly remember what he's just seen, and that waterfall of emotions seeps through his fingers as he tries to catch them, to study them.

All he knows is that he understands. Somehow, he understands why Nine feels the way he does. Now, more than before, he understands why Nine is hung up on Sonic the way he is.

Perhaps, Tails thinks, he understands how it feels for Nine to be with Sonic (and without him) far more than anyone else.

Tails musters up a look of determination as he stares into Nine's eyes, and he squeezes his hand. "I'll figure it out. No matter how long it takes, I'll make sure you—you, and Sails, and Mangey, and the rest—can walk along the beach. You don't deserve to sit here and watch like this. None of you deserved to have your lives taken."

And Nine... Nine smiles, like he just can't help it. "Don't you see? That's why it has to be you."

There's a feeling, an almost indescribable feeling, that strikes Tails' heart at that.

"I promise," Tails says.

And then, he’s sitting up in his bed, breathing deeply.

As he makes himself get up, get ready, and rush into his lab, there's little he remembers from his dream as always.

But he knows what he has to do.

I'll make sure of it, Nine.

[nicolefirekitty]

putting my thoughts under a cut since my friend who knows nothing about kh will probably see this post:

Thinking lots about Roxas and Xion post Kingdom Hearts 3, though this is more focused on Roxas.

They're both just children who came into the world at (supposedly) fourteen with no memories, and therefore no knowledge or experiences, and now they're thrust into as normal a life a Keyblade Wielder can get after being trapped for so much of their short lives. Xion became almost nonexistent until suddenly becoming two people against her will, only becoming whole when Sora rejoined her minds. Roxas had his ENTIRE LIFE replaced, only to suddenly remember his previous life in a fit of rage.

He clearly remembers both lives at the same time, shown with Sora being sad when leaving Twilight Town and saying goodbye to the real Hayner, Pence, and Olette. As well as appearing in a black coat in the fight in The World That Never Was and the snippets of memories we get to see afterwards. So his mental state must be a disaster, remembering two very conflicting lives and a one of them wasn't even real. But it was real to HIM.

Four kids living in Twilight Town enjoying their summer vacation, but now Hayner, Pence, and Olette don't even personally know who he is. They're willing to befriend him, clearly, but these aren't the people Roxas knew, and so much of his normal, fake life is overlapping his life as an Organization Member, and vice versa.

It's probably also practically impossible for this fifteen year old with one year of TRUE life experience and no real memories to process this to explain the horrors he went through to others. Even his friends. Only Xion would really understand what it feels like to be two people at the same time, surrounded with nothing but reminders of everything he is and isn't. But would she truly?

I headcanon the Days Trio +Saïx/Isa made the abandoned mansion their home, so it must be even more torture to Roxas. Probably to Xion as well, but I doubt as much since she made her choice willingly; though she did kinda force Roxas to kill her but that's neither here nor there. Oh but he definitely remembers her body crystallizing in his arms as she shatters into truly nothing, not even memories remaining, it all being his fault.

Man, can't wait for that Psychology of Roxas video :)

My thoughts on Xion aren't all that organized and I feel I put down the gist of what I have for her so far in my ramblings above. I just really feel bad for her and hope she gets to have a role in Kingdom Hearts 4. I do headcanon she's extremely touch starved and will hold Roxas' or Axel/Lea's hand as much as she can though. Also that she avoids Isa as much as she can, out of fear, anger, and pure spite.