#so wait it's actually pronounced 'aqua'?

[cartoonnonsensegirl]

Idea for an Americanized adaptation of an anime series (guess the anime!)

The answer is in the tags, but read and guess before looking.

Synopsis:

Chelsea Tate is a normal, suburban high school girl whose family runs a local bed and breakfast in a sunny seaside town in Florida. One day, she sees a pop star group on a city jumbotron in Miami and decides she wants to be a pop star too. Follow Chelsea and her friends as they aim for fame and stardom as pop stars!

Starring:

Chelsea Tate, our high-school age protagonist who wants more than anything to be a star. Owns a dog named "Chanterelle".

Yvonne Wadsworth, Chelsea's childhood friend whose family owns a sailboat business. Is a bit of a tomboy and likes to go swimming.

Rita Saunderson, a city girl who recently moved to the suburbs and is gifted in playing piano. She is Chelsea's new neighbor.

Ruby von Kirschbaum, a high school freshmen student who is super shy but loveable. She's also incredibly ticklish.

Hannah-Grace Kaufmann, Ruby's quiet yet sunny friend from middle school who loves reading, but is inexperienced with the latest tech. Her family lives close to a church, and she speaks with a Midwestern accent.

Yolanda Torres, the resident goth girl who has a fascination with all things dark and paranormal. Likes blasting Evanescence on her iPod. Childhood friends with Hannah-Grace.

Maribella "Marie" O'Hare, the rich, fashionable girl who just returned from studying abroad at an Italian boarding school.

Katie Marchand, a surfer girl whose parents run a surfboard shop. Is best friends with Marie.

Diamond von Kirschbaum, Ruby's sister and the class president who apparently seems to hate anything to do with pop stars and fame, or so the rumors say...

[yurisorcerer]

Two immediate thoughts here. 1. A good chunk of this episode is the gayest thing I've seen in an anime that's not technically about wlw romance in years. 2. It's so, so funny that the obvious solution to the Aqua/Akane/Kana "love triangle" is polyamory but all 3 of them have way too many issues to make that ever work. (Also mainstream fiction just Doesn't Ever Do That because life is pain. Also they're all in showbiz so that's another obstacle there.)

ANYWAY.

I love that this episode, in a fundamentally similar way to the last one, is less about the play itself and more about the psychology of the characters of Akane and Kana. To an extent, "it's about the psychology of these characters, not their performances themselves" is the whole show and at least most good examples of anime about the arts in general, but it's *really* pronounced here. Almost the entire episode is from Akane's perspective from the point that she shows up, and this is especially obvious with her flashbacks to her childhood meeting with Kana.

In a lesser series, something like this would come off as really contrived. You mean to tell me that Akane was taken with the quality of Kana's acting at such a young age? That she just happened to meet her while doing auditions? That when the real Kana inevitably doesn't live up to Akane's idealized image of her (boy that whole relationship is a WHOLE thing on its own), there just happens to be a honkin huge billboard of Kana outside staring her down?

The unreliable narrator card is obvious, but this is so clearly a depiction of how Akane remembers all of this rather than what actually happened per se. I love it, I love how it leads Akane to delve deeper into the psychological side of acting, and I love her speech about how the Kana she loved was an overpowering, selfish actress.

Let's dive into that little monologue actually, because I think it's really telling not just about Akane but about Oshi no Ko in general. The specific phrasing she uses to convey what she wants out of Kana---or at least how it's translated---is "acting that devours everyone around you."

This is something Oshi no Ko is kind of obsessed with. Charisma, talent, star power, as this almost supernatural force that bends the world around it. This is something it shares in common with like, a very small handful of other anime I've ever seen, most prominently Revue Starlight which I think is more similar to Oshi no Ko than fans of either would ever care to admit, but it's such a perfect conveyance of the feeling of being swept up by someone who is just that talented. That's what Akane wants out of Kana, and she is so frustrated that she's not getting it, and she kind of has a breakdown near the end of the episode because she fears she might be in the wrong for wanting it. She worries that she's just coming off as a showboat.

But the funny thing is, she isn't! Kana's general reticence to really stand out is hurting her! This is a fact that Kana herself doesn't even seem entirely cognizant of despite how obvious it is to everyone else. (Including Aqua, who only joins the proceedings at the very end here. There's a grim irony in how good he is at spotting everyone else's issues but how bad he is at understanding his own.) Akane frames it as Kana having been "squashed down by the adults around her" which is a real thing that happens to kids who excel in ways that aren't necessarily expedient to the adults around them. It has a resonance beyond the world of show business that Oshi no Ko takes place in, and I think that's part of what makes this whole ongoing arc so effective. We will presumably get more into Kana's head next episode (and Aqua's, since he's part of this too and there's still the whole "deliberately triggering himself as acting trick" thing to deal with), i can't wait.

Also! I must say I love how dreamlike the back half of this episode feels. There are huge swathes of it where it's not really clear if what we're seeing is the actual play, something backstage, or some kind of idealized thought-space that combines the two. I hope they keep leaning into that, it's fantastic.

[densi-mber]

The Pleasure Chest

A/N: I’ve done a similar scenario for a previous year, but I figured you guys wouldn’t mind revisiting these characters. Some adult content.

***

“Wait, maybe this is a bad idea,” Kensi said, holding back a little as Deeks stopped in front a glass door marked with embossed black and gold lettering. It read “The Pleasure Chest” and made Kensi want to hide.

“I thought you said it would be fun and a chance to explore new facets of our relationship,” Deeks reminded her, quoting almost word-for-word what’d she’d said when suggesting they visit an adult entertainment store. Sometimes his memory was damn annoying.

“What if someone sees us?” She glanced around, like Sam or Callen, or even worse, Hetty, might suddenly appear behind them. Shuddering, Kensi shook her head a few times to dispel that particular thought.

“Kensi, no one we know is going to go to a place like this. Well, maybe aside from my mom, but she’s more the hippy sex store type.”

“Ew.” Kensi knocked his shoulder and grimaced. “Fine, let’s go in.”

Grinning, Deeks slipped his arm around her back and swung the door open. They were met by a quiet jingling bell and a young woman in jeans and a relatively modest bustier.

“Welcome to The Pleasure Chest,” she greeted them pleasantly. “Can I help you find anything?”

“Uh, I think we’re good,” Deeks responded, nodding vaguely in the direction of a large lingerie display.

“Ok. Let me know if you change your mind. My name’s Becca.” She flashed Deeks a smile, turning to straighten some novelty ball gags.

“Is it just me, or was she flirting with you?” Kensi whispered to Deeks as they wandered deeper into the store.

“I think it’s probably a requirement when you work in a place like this.”

“Speaking from your stripper days, Detective Goodbody?” Letting out a cackle, she stepped between two shelves, and nearly ran into a truly impressive collection of vibrators and other toys, including some she had never seen before.

Deeks tilted his head, one eyebrow raising as he frowned at a bright blue toy with several appendages attached to the base.

“That doesn’t seem physically possible,” he said, picking up a box and peering at the description. “Ooh, it has nine different settings and interchangeable heads.” Turning to Kensi with a massive grin, he gave the box a shake. “We should get it.”

“Yeah, that is not happening,” Kensi said firmly, tugging the box from his hands and returning it to the shelf.

“What, don’t you want to experience pleasure beyond imagination?” he asked, speaking directly in Kensi’s ear. It sent a shiver up her spine.

“I thought that’s what you promised me last night.” Letting her gaze run over him, Kensi eyed him speculatively. “Actually, I’d like to see you in one of those.” She pointed to a pair of silk and lace boxers, which were helpfully displayed in all their glory on a male mannequin, complete with a pronounced bulge.

Deeks considered it, apparently unbothered by her suggestion. He had worn a sexy Santa outfit before, so she figured it wasn’t all that surprising.

“Mm, I could pull it off,” he decided. “And maybe you could get that one.” He nodded to a aqua set that was almost entirely made of lace and a plunging neckline.

Kensi glanced back at Deeks, who was casually spinning a pair of leopard print handcuffs on one finger.

“Where did you get those?” she asked, completely distracted from the lingerie.

“Over there, next to the underwear for two,” he explained.

“The underwear for-?” Before Kensi could finish her question, a loud female voice called out.

“Brett, they went this way. Hurry!”

“Oh my god, that’s not who I think it is, right?” Kensi demanded, looking at Deeks in horror.

“It can’t be,” he assured her, as two people barreled into the short aisle. Deeks turned away, like he could hide their presence by pretending they weren’t there.

“Justin, Melissa!” Paulina Turner exclaimed, tugging her husband Brett after her. She was dressed in a short leather skirt and corset top while Brett wore a more subtle outfit. Kensi groaned, not fully believing that their covers’ ex-neighbors were actually there.

Paulina’s blonde hair and slightly wild eyes were unmistakable through, as was her voice. Without waiting for them to reply, Paulina latched onto Deeks’ arm.

“It is so good to see you after so long!” she continued enthusiastically. “Isn’t it, Honey?” she glanced back at Brett, who grinned and nodded.

“Definitely. We think about you two a lot,” he shared.

“Oh, that’s, uh, that’s great to hear,” Deeks managed, shooting Kensi a desperate look. He shifted into her suddenly, chuckling uncomfortably as Paulina pressed against him, running her hand up his arm.

She looked delighted by what she found.

“Ooh, Justin, you’ve been working out. Feel his arm, Brett!”

Before they could move, Brett reached over and gave Deeks’ arm a good squeeze.

“Nice, work. You both look fantastic.” He gave Kensi a knowing smile and slipped his arm around Paulina’s waist. “You have to stay in shape if you want to stay in this game, if you know what I mean. It’s not so easy to get in those swings anymore, is it?”

Deeks chuckled awkwardly and ran a hand though his hair. Both Brett and Paulina watched him with great interest.

“Yeah, definitely feeling my age,” Deeks agreed, unconsciously twisting the furry handcuffs between his fingers.

“Those are nice,” Brett commented, pointing at the cuffs. “But I’d recommend getting some nice custom leather ones. They last longer and give it an extra special feel.”

“Definitely,” Paulina agreed, shaking her head emphatically. “We have five pairs. My favorite are black and red. You should come try them sometime.” She winked suggestively at Deeks, who backed as far as he could into the lingerie rack.

“That’s a really nice offer, but we’re incredibly busy right now,” Kensi interceded.

“Oh.” She looked briefly disappointed, but quickly got over it, excitedly patting Deeks’ shoulder. “Well, maybe we can show you around the shop if you’re new to the store. Brett, let’s show them our favorite vibrator.”

“No, that’s really not…” Deeks started to say, trailing off when Brett walked off anyway. “Ok then.”

He was back in a minute, carrying the box that Deeks had jokingly suggested earlier.

“This thing is like magic.” He offered to Deeks, who took it reluctantly.

“The second setting is really nice,” Paulina added excitedly. “We could give you a demonstration. Our apartment is just a few blocks away-”

“And we really need to go,” Kensi interrupted, tugging on Deeks’ arm. “Sorry, we have to go pick up our dog from the spa.”

“Yeah, the spa. Monty loves the spa.” Deeks shook his head at her hastily invented excuse. Gabbing hold of his arm, Kensi tugged him with her, and away from Paulina, who held on until the last possible second.

“It was really good seeing you again!” she called after them. “We come here every Saturday if you change your mind.”

“Oh my god,” Kensi gasped once they were outside. “I forgot how weird they were.” She shuddered.

“Yeah, Paulina is definitely a hands-on person. It’s too bad we couldn’t get those boxers before we left,” he said.

“Deeks, you can’t seriously be thinking about those after what just happened.”

“What, I would have looked really sexy,” Deeks insisted with a smirk.

“I love you, Baby.” Kensi kissed his nose. “But we are never going back to this place again or one like it.”

“Fair enough. What if I find them on Amazon?”

“Oh my god, you’re ridiculous,” Kensi sighed.

“That’s not a no,” he pointed out cheerfully, grabbing his phone.

***

A/N: As you might guess, I’ve never been to such an establishment, so I’m working off of the combined information provided by google, various shows, and a sister. The name is borrowed from a store in Illinois.

Also, apparently underwear for two are a thing. My sister and BIL felt the need to show me after they got some as a gag gift.

[adultswim2021]

Aqua Teen Hunger Force #59: “Dickesode” | October 22, 2006 – 10:30PM | S05E04

The TRUE RETURN of Aqua Teen Hunger Force fills the void left behind by The Venture Bros. And thank god, too. There was a bit of a false start with this season way back in December of 2005 with Dirtfoot, Boost Mobile, and the Deleted Scenes special. And now we get 10 weeks in a row of new Aqua Teen Hunger Force to sooth our weary souls while the movie was still being worked on. Is it classic shit or is it gay and retarded? We shall find out.

Carl “wins” a prize at Wong Burger (an Asian-style fast food burger joint) which is that he gets his dick ripped off. This contest was concocted by Dr. Wongburger, who is trying to steal all the dicks he can from the general public so he can build a dick-shaped rocket out of dicks so he can return to his home planet Dick Planet. Two of his little henchmen, who are grains of rice drawn like WW2-era propaganda stereotypes with big buck teeth and necklaces made of dicks (that's not a stereotype I just mean additionally that's what these guys are about) try to “deliver” on this “prize” while Carl hides. When they tear his house apart and leave, Frylock attempts to solve the problem by giving Carl a sex-change operation, in which Carl gets his dick removed anyway. Eventually the Aqua Teens go to confront Dr. Wongburger who attempts to take off in his rocket before it's completed and crashes it into Wong Burger corporate headquarters which is a big tall building made of dicks.

This seemed sorta important at the time. Like the boundaries of what Adult Swim could and couldn't get away with were pushed back significantly. They didn't show you any dicks, really; everything was censored out using a rainbow/color bars/test pattern overlay. The pile of dicks on Dr. Wongburger's floor were one big 2D lump with the rainbow pattern covering them up, but then a few dicks strewn around not in the pile were more pronounced and unmistakable. Also, I recall them saying dick A LOT in this episode and it not getting bleeped. Impressive, especially because a lot of times when it comes to cursing on shows like this the ruling comes down to weather or not the offending word actually refers to anatomy or if it's a euphemism for jerk or whatnot. Here they are definitely saying dick, which refer to dicks that we see on screen in some fashion. Pretty cool in 2006 for a standard cable network that shares it's broadcast day with a children's cartoon channel.

This episode is PRETTY FUCKING GOOD. There's big-picture stuff like what I just described, but there's also really funny bits and character stuff throughout that keep things lively. Shake's bit at the beginning where he's ordered a huge soda, one that's about as big as he is, which he's selfishly forced his friends to carry out for him while he chows down on the edible handtruck designed to carry it instead (the wheels are made of chocolate). Shake explains that he needs that much soda to live, which, actually, him  being a big cup sorta makes sense? But he's such a cunt you believe that he's just being a jerk. This is a testament to Master Shake being one of the greatest comedy characters of all time. I mean this!

There's a scene where Meatwad re-enacts the commercial they just watched at home which explains the promotion (they don't have TiVo so they can't rewind) and while they wait for Meatwad to go get his puppets we can see Space Ghost doing the robot on screen.

Also, Brendon Small (as Donald Cock) plays Wongburger and the little henchmen. He's so funny in this role. Speaking of the credits, there's something VERY FUNNY about them that I won't spoil!!! Just kidding, yes I will, you're just going to go look it up anyway: everyone changed part of their name to DICK.

This episode is available on DVD in it's UNCENSORED FORM, so you can see all the actual meaty dicks in their nasty glory. Another reason to collect physical media, baby!

MAIL BAG

MC Chris announced on his tiktok that Adam Reed and Matt Thompson molested him during his time on Sealab. Still a fan?

Of MC Chris? Not really.

Did Tom Shales ever say anything nice about you?

The only Tom Shales anecdote I have is he interviews Garry Shandling on the long-out-of-print season one DVD of Larry Sanders (the first version that came out way before they released the best-of Box or the complete series) and he takes a moment to tell Garry that he was sorta snide to Tom when he did a guest starring role on the show and they left it in, I guess because Garry is obsessed with atoning for slights. I remember the thing he said, supposedly snottily, “this is LARRY’S Suit”

[goldenwitherphoenix13]

Its time for a probrably wrong union X theory!

Welcome to my first ever attempt at a theory.yall are here to watch ne be wrong. Lmoa.

Union X is coming to an end and its time share with you my big end game theories connecting the dots of kingdom hearts 3 and Re:Mind to Union X. And that is by using some solid evidence from the games and from the light novels. Yes. I'm going there.

This first bit is to do with the idea that Vanitas is the Darkness that possessed Ven in Union X. Now, this could easily be disproven right? Well I think I can actually bring validity to it.

Fist there's the obvious evidence that Vanitas claims that "what I am is Darkness" in Kingdom Hearts 3 and hes been a part of Ven longer than he thinks, he was only extracted is something he mentioned in Re:Mind. This can be written off by him being all the pure darkness in Vens heart, but could be taken as him being the entity darkness.

Ok. So, remember how I said I would talk about the light novels? Well, in said light novels, Vanitas is said to originally have no face/true corporeal form, having the form more like dark Rikus outfit thing, but thanks to Sora touching Vens heart, he gained a more humanish form.

Well.... darkness in Union X...

uhhhh....They have... no form. Just a cloud of purple and black with a figure resemblent of a human form in the center, if you look closely.

And if it were extracted from Vens heart by Xehanort to make Vanitas, that means darkness returns to lay within Ven dormant after the Union leaders defeat it, even when he travels to the time of Birth by Sleep! That or it has left remnents of itself within him to ensure darkness will follow into the future. Either way, it or part of it was in Ven until Xehanort took it away along with the natural darkness of his heart.

But if that's the case, then that would mean Vanitas wasn't technically a part of Ventus, but had resided there so long that that's what he believed. Because memories are stripped when they time travel. Does that effect darkness? Making it thinks its always been Vens darkness and Vens Darkness alone all this time.

Now for things to get a bit wonkey

There's still a big question lurking. What the hell is up with Dark inferno X? (chi pronounced key) its picture is below.

The bio from Re:Mind states "The darkness that erupted out of Ventus's heart and turned into an aggressive heartless. But the voice that was heard at the time intimated that it was "darkness" itself. What did that mean..."

INDEED WHAT! 

Well, let's not forget the basic rule of the Kingdom hearts universe. If your heart is lost or Overcome by darkness it becomes a heartless. 

Xehanorts heartless, Ansem, possessed Riku in Kingdom hearts 1 when it became a weak heart like spirit... who's to say other heartless who are strong enough can't do the same thing? And the design... who is one person with similar attributes like... a scarf, that Ventus at least encountered or knew?

Ephemer.

Quick point I'll refer to later, but remember, we see Ephemer help Sora with the light of the past later on in kingdom hearts 3. The keyblades all come to life with the hearts of the fallen weilders and stuff and Sora surfs them because video game. Now, this bit is a little confusing. What was Ephemer doing in the white void? Was that a ghostly form of his nobody or something? An appiration? Just his ghost? The moment he arrived in the future?

Well, the moment of him arriving can be crossed of I think. Where did he go if that were the case? Ephemer appearing in that moment does throw a spaner in the world, but I might be able to pull it out and fix the theory prediction.

My theory for this part is that the Ephemer we see in KH3... is Ephemers nobody in a ghost like form waiting for his heartless, Dark Inferno X.

His heartless must of found a way to hide or travel through time and went to hide within Ven's heart like Ansem did to Riku, but it has to be after Vanitas was removed. Otherwise, Dark inferno X would of been extracted by Xehanort too. The entity of darkness or its remnents, however, was with Ven when he travelled through time.

I think the best answer is Ephemers nobody died in the travel or after, is now a spirit, and helped the heroes of light. He's just waiting for his heartless to be destroyed so he can return as his somebody. And now that Sora has defeated it... who's to say we won't see him soon.

Oh and I think the secret Dark Inferno X boss in 3 was just a test for the remind one and went through a minor design change. Image comparison below, pictures from Google.

Kh3 Re:Mind

The unversed floods did the same thing between birth by sleep, bbs final mix and 3 after all going blue to purple and back to blue (I like them purple).

I really don't want to believe that it was Strelitzias heartless and that she might be able to return. I'd rather her remain a permanent death like the keyblade wilders of Union X, Master Eraqus and Master Xehanort. Its nice having a concept of death in Kingdom Hearts.

Where was I? Oh yes. I think Dark inferno X is Ephemers Heartless.

Now for one more problem. How Dark inferno X got to Ventus.

From what I see, it has 2 routes.

1: use the Ark and escape into the future. This leaves only a broken pod in the Union X time so Blain can not join the other leaders. Ephemer just has to wait. The only problem here is how Dark inferno X located Ven and got into castle oblivion without a hitch. Though I guess it did have 10 years to look.

2: hide in someone's keyblade. We've seen hearts contained by keyblades so I don't see why it can't happen again. A curse to the masters defender. I think it atratches its heart to the keyblade and thats how it escaped into Ven. When Aqua left him in Castle oblivion, the heartless snook away and hid within him, waiting for Vens heart to arrive so it could hide better and we could get the scene in Remind.

Either way, thats where Ephemers heartless would reside until it was reawakened.

So, to summarise what we've discussed into a timeline.

The Union leaders battle and defeat Darkness. Maybe temporarily, maybe for good. We don't know until its too late. It probably starts talking about some cryptic stuff, quoting things yet to be heard, who knows. This is where I believe Darkness overtakes Ephemer and turns his heart into dark inferno X (hence why it introduced itself to Sora as Darkness in Re:Mind. In a panic, Skuld and Blaine probably carry their unconscious friends out and flee to the ark, the time travel pods, darknesses remnants inside Ventus's heart and stays dormant until they are brought out. After waking the other 2 up and healing them Skuld, Lauriam and Ven go though the Ark pods, possibly joined by Elrena, and Blaine then stays behind and searches for Ephemers nobody. Hoping to reunite and reconnect the dark inferno X to Ephemer. 

Dark inferno X then hides away or travels to the future. I mean, I don't expect it to fit in the ark pods, but it might hide away in there or something. If it does then heres the first scenario.

There is one broken pod left. Blaine does his best to fix it, but its not safe enough so Ephemers nobody dies going through and it ends up as a spirit thing, waiting and searching for its heartless. Oh! And Blaine doesn't figure out how to properly build the things so he decides to remain in this time.

Dark inferno X then searches attaches to Ven to hide away.

The other scenario is it hides away in masters defender and slips by then. Blain sends Ephemer through, but since he's a nobody, things don't go smoothly and Ephemers Nobody probably dies in travel.

The generations pass and everything happens.

Dark inferno X is defeated by Sora.

The end game is coning.

And that's it. That's the whole theory. Here's to hope the Union leaders come out on top in the Union X finale, Sora is saved in the next game and Ven finally gets therapy once he recovers these memories. Actually let's order therapy for everyone! 

Also speaking of Ven, Nomura, if you hurt my boy again, I'm gonna punch you.

Theres a reason I made this cringy meme! (art of Ventus by me its one of my older arts of him)

Phoenix out!

(Ps: reply or reblog with inaccuracies)

[overheardbyjiminycricket]

My 2020 Tumblr Top 10

1). 1,581 notes - Jan 19 2020

2). 1,078 notes - Aug 7 2020

3). 984 notes - Mar 11 2020

Ven: I’m... grounded? Aqua: Yes, you’re grounded! You disobeyed an order! Terra, holding a shovel: And now we’re gonna bury you until you’ve learned your lesson! Aqua: Terra, that’s not how grounding works.

4). 646 notes - Mar 24 2020

[Xion is eating a cinnamon roll] Roxas, Lea, and Isa: Cannibalism.

5). 409 notes - Jun 11 2020

Namine: Xion, how do I get revenge on my enemies? Xion: The best revenge is letting go and living your life to the fullest. Namine: Namine: Kairi, how do I- Kairi: Brick.

6). 402 notes - Feb 21 2020

Xigbar: One bonus of being an adult is grossly misusing modern slang on purpose and watching everyone else die inside. A fine example: the other day I pointed at Kingdom Hearts and, while looking Saix right in the eye, went "Man, is that fam or what, huh?" and the look on his face was something I will treasure for years.

7). 391 notes - May 27 2020

Roxas: So, when Xemnas isn't here, who's in charge? Axel: Usually it's whoever yells the loudest. Xigbar, with a megaphone: LISTEN UP YOU DUMB FUCKS,

8). 387 notes - Feb 12 2020

Sora: So, what’s your type? Riku: Cheerful, spiky hair, dumb, blue eyes. Sora: That kinda sounds like me. Too bad I’m not a girl. Riku: Did I mention dumb? Sora: Yeah? Riku: Okay, just making sure.

9). 371 notes - Jan 20 2020

Xigbar: Every single odd number has an “e” in it. Demyx: LISTEN- Roxas: Not all of them. 30 and 50 aren’t spelled with the letter 'e' in it… Lexaeus: Father god. Marluxia: …If you can split a number in half evenly, it’s even. 30 and 50 are odd. Larxene: 15+15=30. 25+25=30. Zexion: 25+25=30? You sure about that? Xemnas: Lord have mercy... Vexen: One. Three. Five. Nine. And since everything else after that is a variant of these numbers, then all odds have the letter ‘E’. Xion: YOU FORGOT SEVEN!! Luxord: It keeps getting worse. Axel: You whole ass forgot about eight - a number with an 'e' that is pretty fucking even. Xaldin: Why would 8 be brought up if it’s EVEN in a post about ODDS? The post said "every single odd number has an 'e' in it" not "every single number with an 'e' is odd" what the fuck. Demyx: Er, guys, two is odd and doesn’t have an 'e'. Just saying… Saix: Did you just try to tell me two is odd? I’m fucking crying. Larxene: TWO IS ODD?! PFFFTT I’M SCREAMING!! Luxord: Wait, what about zero? That’s an odd number, no? Roxas: Ok, but hear me out: fifty and thirty make up for the fact they have no 'e' by the way they are pronounced: third-E & fifth-E. Xaldin: Why do 30 and 50 matter THEY’RE FUCKING EVEN. Axel: What the actual fuck is happening? Xigbar: 1 is an even number. Saix: I’m gonna smack you. Xion: Wait why are we so quick to throw away the 0 idea? Marluxia: Zero isn’t a number. Lexaeus: It can’t be divided by two, though, can it? Xemnas: It can??? 0/2=0??? Demyx: Anything that ends with a 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 is even and he rest is odd (1, 3, 7, 9) stop freaking out. Axel: YOU FORGOT 5! Roxas: DUDE WHAT ABOUT FOUR?!?! Luxord: What about it?? Roxas: THAT DOESN’T HAVE 'E' IN IT! Luxord: THAT’S BECAUSE IT’S EVEN?? Larxene: I'M FUCKIN SOBBING HAVAGAFDHFDHHBJJ!! Marluxia: I’m honestly so confused right now. Xaldin: This is the height of our stupidity. It has to be or future generations cannot exist. Vexen: ZERO IS BOTH ODD AND EVEN! Xemnas: Technically, zero isn’t even a number. Roxas: What even is zero, then? Zexion: It’s similar to black and white. They aren’t official colors and neither is 0. Black is a "shade" and white is a "tint". Xion: Numbers aren’t real. Xigbar: Is anything, really?

10). 350 notes - Jan 23 2020

Master of Masters: I’ve learned some very important lessons from this. Luxu: I’m guessing they’re horrible versions of the lessons you should have learned. Master of Masters: Death isn’t real and I’m basically God.

Created by TumblrTop10

[wisteriafield]

Rogue Legacy 2 Review so far

Abridged Verdict: Wait for Arcane Hallows Update (Feb. 18 2021) before purchasing for total content volume that matches RL1 along with additional QoL changes The latest update as of writing this review (Far Shores) added 2 whole new areas, I bought EA awhile back but didn't really play much until this update, as the amount of content in the game effectively tripled between the areas, new classes, and QoL additions. Game is more accessible than RL1 for sure, but seems harder to get into than Hades, especially for people not used to roguelites. Namely, its far more punishing and harder to recover from mistakes. Things I love: The whimsical charm, the much more varied aesthetics of biomes as well as each biome having unique structures (Axis Mundi being a long hallway that makes it more akin to a Classicvania stage is genius). Classes having much more unique and pronounced playstyles adds much replayability. Boss mechanics and designs are much more complex this time around and the way they test your mastery of heirlooms is excellent. The new Armor System as a separate way to reinforce HP and the Mastery system to get steady stat increases go a long way to helping player progression. I'm seriously hooked on the gameplay loop in a way that I wasn't with RL1, every class is so much fun, and I'm so looking forward to the next update! My Gripes: Runes are a total gamechanger that can make your life so much easier. Unfortunately the Fairy Chests that contain them are randomly spawned, and as a new player whether you can actually find and survive to one is a steep uphill road, and sometimes they just aren't possible without a specific class. The execution required for some challenges will be extremely difficult for more casual players and thus their ability to progress overall will be greatly hampered without the likes of things such as a soulsteal rune to recover HP. If there's an algorithm that sorts relative difficulty of Fairy Chest rooms, I would like if there were a way to increase the likelihood of creating Fairy Chest rooms if the player hasn't found any, and gradually make them more accessible until the player finds one. Additionally I would like if every Fairy Chest contained runes until you find them all in a biome, as I've gotten hordes of Gemstones from Fairy Chests before getting another rune or rune upgrade Relics. I'm looking forward to the Resolve system update because as of now, the hits to max HP are incredibly devastating, especially if you don't find a room that can give you the nectar to increase your max HP again (and even then its a huge gamble since you take a lot of damage from it). Most of them don't really feel worth the tradeoff as of right now, unless you find the War Drum to continually increase damage. If we can get a vendor to "rent" one (1) relic among a selection of ones we found for a certain amount of gold or something, similar to heirs that start with a relic without losing max HP would add a certain level of accessibility without removing the randomness aspect of roguelikes While all enemy attacks are technically possible to evade, this isn't always the case when you have certain combinations of enemies (Frostens and Aqua Braces in a room with a floor thats all spikes is so mean ; A;). Sometimes you'll spawn into a room next to a Warg that will immediately headbutt you before you can react and suddenly you take 70 damage. I would appreciate if certain enemies were stationary upon entering a room so you have time to process and react accordingly. Enemy damage scales extremely fast as you move through the map, along with their attacks becoming more frantic or complex, without means to restore HP and Armor through the specific runes, most classes' having lower max HP get real squishy. One of the Duelist class's main attraction is that their talent gives them invulnerability windows with a roll, but it can't always be used of you're in a tight position without much room to move. I hope that they add a small invul window to the Dash heirloom, with runes to increase that window, but make it much smaller than the Duelist's (say 1/5th the time of whatever the window is of Duelist's talent) Anyways, despite my misgivings with the game I listed here, the game is really fun and a lot more accessible and varied than the original game, wait for it to go on sale and pick it up!

[the-dumb-smart-friend]

I spent way too long on this so please give it attention

So my one friend and I have been working on the same rp for ~2 1/2 years, and right now we’ve been on a big break because of the whole quarantine thing, and inconsistent scheduling.

LET ME TELL YOU,

So many characters have changed so much in my mind over the break that I’m going to need to look through my logs of the characters before the break. I have plans for the story that can have it continue for multiple years into the future.

I have so much planned character development and minor conflict planned, not to mention the scandalous temptation of corruption arcs. My friend’s main character has literally murdered/hurt/threatened one of my characters on many occasions, and now they’re going to have to work together in order to save both their friends, family, lovers, and the entire concept of a continuous timeline before the winter solstice.

Meanwhile, the main villain has gone from pretty much an unstoppable god mary sue character to a touch starved twink with bad intentions and an attack dog evil scientist.

Every single character believes that what they’re doing is good, even if they know deep down that what they’re doing will have awful consequences.

And I’m not even done. I finally made a concrete reason to the timelines constantly looping, and the whole revival problem, as before I just had a loose idea. The two main gods that have been hinted at to be evil and really powerful and awful and stuff (despite one helping out the protagonists and the other being neutral/evil leaning) actually worked together thousands of years ago to do this really powerful spell thing so that every time this select group of really powerful people died (along with everyone that knew them, it was often one big catastrophic event), they would all be revived in the most recent year, over and over again until they found out how to break the “curse”.

The timelines will loop over and over again until the characters all find out how to stop it, which is to somehow keep magic (one of the key building blocks that’s holding life and the world as we know it together) from completely disappearing and dying out.

So the god of magic power was like “Dudes I’m gonna die if we don’t do something to keep magic from dying out.” and all the other high ranking gods were like “Bro no, last time we intervened with something on the mortal plane, we killed all the dinosaurs.” so then the magic god was all like “Fine, but you guys are all pricks.”.

So the he asked his sister (the goddess of time, memory, and significant events/holidays) to help out, and so they created the time loop idea. They cast a really old, really forbidden, semi-DIY’d spell with all their power, but because of the great crime they committed, the more powerful gods cast them out, and took all of their memories, condemning them to the surface for the rest of time.

oooh, looks like you’re interested, nice.

Also I’m on new meds, so sorry if this is confusing.

(TW for death, mentions of gore w/o graphic descriptions, mentions of kidnapping, hints at abuse, dissociation, cursing/verbal aggression, grief)

So the two ex-gods gave themselves new names, and decided to wander around, trying to find out who they were. The two had some moral conflicts and decided to part ways. Time Goddess, who now gave herself the name Raestress (pronounced Rye-stress) eventually stumbled upon one of the mortals that she and her brother cursed for the rest of time, and decided to stick with said mortal for a while, and by that, I mean kinda stalking said mortal.

Because Raestress wasn’t the one to come up with the time loop idea, and was the one that told the other gods, she was allowed to keep some of her powers, however she had absolutely no clue how to use them.

This next pert gets a little fuzzy, and I still need to iron out the details of it, but it ends with Raestress sacrificing both her life and all her power to the mortal, but because of her punishment from the other gods, was cursed to stay as a sort of ghost or spirit that follows the mortal (Remi) she just helped, only able to talk though/to her.

The sacrifice of Raestress’ powers to Remi led to Remi being able to remember all the past timelines she’s lived through, and all the other people that were chosen to live and die over and over again, and decides that she needs to be the one to bring them all together.

Back to modern day, Remi has amnesia for unknown reasons, and makes a bunch of new friends in this little north island town she lives in. One day, a random new math teacher shows up at her highschool, then one of her friends goes missing, then her friend’s sister goes missing and is later found dead, completely torn to pieces. Then she and some friends are about to take a little walk through the forest, when one of her friends is shot with a crossbow, and dies. Sure, they’ve gotten plenty of threats before, but they all just thought it was just some kids trying to pull a prank, but now Alice is dead.

The group try to compose themselves as they wait for the police to arrive, looking up through the trees as to where the crossbow could’ve been fired from, but everything is completely obscured by a swishing sea of branches and leaves. Remi looks up through the leaves, watching them spin and swirl, growing darker as her body seems to float back and fourth in an invisible ocean.

Her vision goes completely black for a moment, but she then sees herself, standing still and looking down at her friends, who have gone from hysterics to almost silent. The world seemed to have washed itself in a shade of periwinkle, swaying like the ocean, any sounds coming out as muffled and distant. Remi watched as her body began to shudder, shoulders bouncing up and down. She watched as her body laughed completely out of her control, quickly pushed against a tree and drowned out by muffled yelling and screaming from one of her friends, Aqua.

The others tried to hold Aqua back, but despite her small frame, she could fight like a 6′ brickhouse. Remi couldn’t do anything. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t explain, or shout “That isn’t me! I’m right here!”. All she could do is watch as her body’s eyes shifted from bottle green to a sharp, brassy yellow, somehow untouched by the blueish haze that blanketed the rest of the world.

Still, her body laughed, going on and on about something that Remi couldn’t hear, no matter how much she strained to.

The rest of the day seemed to continue in a blur. the police arrived, taking all the standard procedures, but it was hard to pay attention to anything but Alice’s body being carried away in a bag. Nobody really knew what happened.

Remi was still trapped outside of her body by the time they got home that night. Whatever or whoever was controlling her was managing to get under everyone’s skin without completely shattering the illusion of Remi still being in complete control. Guess those are the consequences of being known as the one who laughs at horror movies.

As soon as they both stepped inside, Aqua had thrown Remi against a wall, holding her by the collar of her shirt.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” she screamed, voice breaking before she could finish her sentence.

Remi’s body chuckled with squinted eyes, playfully glaring down at Aqua, boring into her skull.

“I should be asking you the same thing, sweetheart.”

Finally at that moment did the rest of the group realize that whoever was piloting Remi’s body definitely wasn’t her, because whatever spoke was using a voice that didn’t match in the slightest.

It’s voice sounded like it could’ve been either a young man or an older woman, familiar and welcoming yet cold and sharp as ice, sharp enough to cut through whatever was muffling the voices from wherever Remi was stuck.

Aqua dropped whoever this person was, taking shaky steps backward, clearly trying to say something, but no sound came out.

This strange person took a step forward, bowing and swishing their arm with a flourish.

“Though I can’t explain everything now, I’m sure that your dear friend Remi will.” They purred, staring through the veil and directly into Remi’s eyes.

“Who are you?” Aqua shuddered, invisible hands trailing cold fingers up her spine.

“A nobody, a somebody. A friend, an enemy. Nobody really knows when or where I’ll come or go, but if you were to call me anything, feel free to call me Crow.”

Something about that name just didn’t sit right, it seemed to send an imaginary bullet through Remi’s head, swimming through her thoughts and flipping every switch in her brain. Something, somewhere, was screaming at her, remember, remember. The already strange world started to get stranger, dark figures appearing all around Remi, reaching out and covering her eyes, ears, mouth, nose, everything until all she could sense was a dark void.

Crow smiled, kneeling down to meet Aqua’s new level on the floor.

“Right now, I’m serving as nothing more than a distraction, and maybe just a little something to get this story going” they said,

Aqua again tried to respond, but her voice had seemed to just disappear at the most crucial moments.

“I do hope we meet again.” Crow ruffled Aqua’s hair just as all the lights flickered out, leaving complete silence and confusion, after all, what was there to say?

Minutes passed, though nobody was keeping count. Nobody moved, and instead just stood wherever they were, trying desperately to process all of today.

When the lights finally flickered back on, Remi was passed out on the floor, but after everything that just happened, it took everyone a while to notice. Nobody said anything.

Will had carried Remi upstairs to her room, hoping that maybe staying by her side could make a nice distraction. Aqua had stayed sitting on the floor, back to back with the couch, head in her hands. Everyone decided to keep to themselves for the rest of the night.

By the next morning, Remi still hadn’t woken up. Sure, not quite unusual, but right now what everyone needed was an explanation, or one of her sarcastic jokes at the very least. It was at noon when everyone had started to worry. 

It had reached 5PM when she finally jolted awake, catching her breath and running her hands through her hair.

“I remember...” She whispered,

“I remember everything.” She said again, quickly standing up and rummaging through her desk, despite Will telling her to take it easy.

“My notebooks, they’re all gone!”

“Remi, please,” Will tried to step forward and calm her down, but she pressed on.

“Don’t call me that.” She demanded, mumbling something afterward, “Just call me Rei.”

Alrighty so I might finish this at some point, idk, but the explanation/TL;DR is pretty much that BBEG had tried to kill Aqua, the main thing holding him back from achieving his goal, but Alice had jumped in the way and sacrificed herself.

Rei was then pushed out of her own body by a mysterious deity known only as Crow, who by the way is not Raestress, I just didn’t know how to quickly explain everything. Both Crow and Raestress had somehow managed to together give Rei back all her memories of the past timelines, but because of Crow’s distraction, the BBEG was able to steal all of Rei’s logs of strange dreams and little songs, all of which can be pieced together into an encrypted spell that has the ability to bring back the dead, a spell that has long since been completely banned and erased from the world.

When Rei was trapped outside of her body, she was actually pushed out into limbo/the spirit world, and all the dark figures were different versions of her from her past, though that was never really specified in the original story either, I just left it up to debate.

There is still very little known about Crow, but we know that they’re a sort of grim reaper character, have a past with Rei, and that they’re working for the BBEG for some unspecified reason.

The reason Rei doesn’t like being called Remi is because the letter M is considered evil and bad luck to her and others that are enemies of/know the atrocities or the BBEG and his family. Also because she prefers to distance herself from her past with Crow as much as possible.

Will, who was mentioned at the end, is actually Rei’s girlfriend.

Aqua is my friend’s main character, who is kinda really hotheaded, and is later tricked into killing one of my characters.

BBEG and his siblings are all children of the god of magic that was mentioned earlier.

If anything is confusing, or if you want more of the story, let me know, and I’ll try to add more.

[drkineildwicks]

Temtem - 7/11/2021--Bar One

And in the ongoing saga of what was apparently a much longer session than it felt like...

Apparently I have uncles in-game too

WAIT HIS NAME LOOKS LIKE IT’S PRONOUNCED “EULOGY”

I AM A GIRL, DANGIT

This dude spent too much time in the sun *squint*

So Finley’s up to level 20 now…maybe swap out with Kamikaze

“You should hide better” oh boy I’m a bad influence XD

Oh dear XD

I am…concerned

In case you were wondering, no this game is not affiliated with Nintendo

OH YES

Why can I not play this

By the way it took me going back to the images to realize this but THIS IS A BAR

One of two I was in this session, actually

The fact that I always have the option to be a smart-aleck XD

They actually acknowledge NPCs blurting random knowledge XD

So there’s this whole argument over whether or not this Temtem should be on the counter XD

Apparently this is a regular occurrence

This is a good question—what is a “Real job”?

I write articles for CBR and yet there’s some people who wouldn’t consider that a “real job” because I don’t have to drive to work and spend from 9 to 5 at the gulag

I should write something for work about this game, come to think of it

You get to trick him and ask him what he does and he goes real quiet XD

I saw no sign

Now do I rat the boys out or no?

I say yes

Really?  Do I get something for being responsible or grown up?

Oh I do get something!

Kinda like a Poké-doll

Mom just came in and asked why the grass was aqua

Come to think of it the grass IS kinda blue

Also the greens here are kinda similar

WOAH DUDE T-REX

Watamelown nice name and nice rex

Legit that’s an awesome design I saw someone critiquing the Temtem designs in a review earlier dude how can you say that when this thing exists

This thing is cooler than Charizard YES I WENT THERE

*ahem* Anywho, moving on....

Hmm, let’s try catching a Nessla again

Okay so sometimes the guys will stay with the attack graphic over their heads?

Oh wow it just got crowded

Superior duck love the name

Nope got Kamikaze up two levels and all I encountered were Umishi

I’m going to say this applies to those towns on the edge of the islands too

Considering that’s one of my life goals….

This comic releases in Cipanku first and it’ll be weeks before it releases in Deniz (the island I’m on currently) which by the way is a total mood

SOMEONE who works on this game has GOT to have a Tumblr account I swear

Or at least understands fandom spaces

For when one TV just isn’t enough

I’m also noticing that some houses have those curved TVs that are supposed to have like almost a 3D effect?

IDK it’s been a while since I’ve seen commercials for those

“Always clean your hands after playing with Temtem”  Sound advice dude

I…have questions…

THE WHOLE HOUSE IS FULL OF THEM

Seems like a goal for when I get my own house in this game

Wait didn’t the Temtem used to follow you into the houses what happened

Referring to the air terminal as “barely working”—MA’AM, that is NOT something I want to hear about a thing I am expected to use to get to the next island

Saga will continue....

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI

[lovelygalaxykitten27]

Aki: Every single odd number has an “e” in it.

Aura: LISTEN-

Rosanica: Not all of them. 30 and 50 aren’t spelled with the letter 'e' in it…

Aura: Father god.

Lucha: …If you can split a number in half evenly, it’s even. 30 and 50 are odd.

Rosanica: 15+15=30. 25+25=30.

Yiffin: 25+25=30? You sure about that?

Aura: Lord have mercy...

Lucha: One. Three. Five. Nine. And since everything else after that is a variant of these numbers, then all odds have the letter ‘E’.

Rosanica: YOU FORGOT SEVEN!!

Yiffin: You whole ass forgot about eight - a number with an 'e' that is pretty fucking even.

Aura: Why would 8 be brought up if it’s EVEN in a post about ODDS? The post said "every single odd number has an 'e' in it" not "every single number with an 'e' is odd" what the fuck.

Brooke: It keeps getting worse.

Rosanica: Er, guys, two is odd and doesn’t have an 'e'. Just saying…

Yiffin: Did you just try to tell me two is odd? I’m fucking crying.

Aki: TWO IS ODD?! PFFFTT I’M SCREAMING!!

Yiffin: Wait, what about zero? That’s an odd number, no?

Rosanica: Ok, but hear me out: fifty and thirty make up for the fact they have no 'e' by the way they are pronounced: third-E & fifth-E.

Aura: Why do 30 and 50 matter THEY’RE FUCKING EVEN.

Aqua: What the actual fuck is happening?

Lucha: 1 is an even number.

Rosanica: I'm gonna smack you.

Aspyn: Wait why are we so quick to throw away the 0 idea?

Aki: Zero isn’t a number.

Alaska: It can’t be divided by two, though, can it?

Rosanica: It can??? 0/2=0???

Nevaeh: Anything that ends with a 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 is even and he rest is odd (1, 3, 7, 9) stop freaking out.

Aura: YOU FORGOT 5!

Lucha: DUDE WHAT ABOUT FOUR?!?!

Aspyn: What about it??

Lucha: THAT DOESN’T HAVE 'E' IN IT!

Aspyn: THAT’S BECAUSE IT’S EVEN??

Rosanica: I’m honestly so confused right now.

Yiffin: I'M FUCKIN SOBBING HAVAGAFDHFDHHBJJ!!

Aura: This is the height of our stupidity. It has to be or future generations cannot exist.

Aki: ZERO IS BOTH ODD AND EVEN!

Lucha: Technically, zero isn’t even a number.

Aki: What even is zero, then?

Lucha: It’s similar to black and white. They aren’t official colors and neither is 0. Black is a "shade" and white is a "tint".

Aqua: Numbers aren’t real.

Rosanica: Is anything, really?

[5amfries]

It’s so busy today! There’s only three people here with a cafe full of steadily frustrated people and you have to double as a barista and cashier.

You wonder how your going to through the rest of your shift as you complete the transaction for the woman in front of you and usher in the next customer.

When you look up to greet them, your smile falters momentarily, your eyes coming into contact with a broad chest, way wider than anything you’ve ever seen on another human.

You follow that strong line between this man’s pecs, very pronounced beneath his seemingly too tight, black turtleneck, up to his face. It felt like an eternity to get there, tilting your neck back farther back than expected, but when you do, you’re met with the scariest face imaginable.

Anger and impatience oozes from this man, sticks to the surface of your counter and leaks out of him like an overfilled bathtub. It almost appears as though the atmosphere around him is darkened in color.

Not only is his size encompassing, but his attitude as well.

He wears a deep set frown, lips twitching to hold back a snarl. Beneath his hat, he glares poison into you with his, otherwise very beautiful, aqua colored eyes. They promise nothing but violence.

The man is extremely frightening and yet you can’t look away. He has you trapped in place, until his lips parted to release a deep rumble of a voice.

“Excuse me.”

His thunder shakes you from your trance. It makes you jump a little. You blink and refocus, remembering that you have a job to do. You smile and hold your hand up to your register, ready to take the man’s order.

“Hi! Welcome to-” You begin, but are swiftly interrupted by another thunder strike.

“What’s taking so long?” The man asks, eyebrows furrowing even deeper.

“I’ve been waiting in line for ten minutes and there’s only been four other people in line.”

He pauses and takes a look around the cafe, before gesturing towards the crowd of people who fill it.

“And how long have these people been here? It’s absolutely ridiculous that I have to wait this long to get my order taken, then have to wait an hour on coffee.”

You’re taken aback by this man’s force, but quick to bounce back. This isn’t the first time you’ve dealt with a pissed off customer and it surely won’t be the last.

“Hey! Are you listening to me? Good grief…” The man commands once more. You try to shake the chill that runs down your spine as the man scoffs and rolls his eyes.

“Stupid bitch…” He mutters under your breath, but you catch it.

It’s a shot through the heart, brings a sting to your eyes. You didn’t deserve this grilling. This isn’t your fault and you and your coworkers are trying your collective best.

“… S-Sir, I’m sorry, but-” You start, but the man stops you again.

“No you’re not.” He snarls. “If you were, I wouldn’t be standing here wasting my life waiting to pay for overpriced coffee.”

Your fear and sadness flips at his words. Now, you are angry. The man’s bad mood has now taken you over, creeping up your arms and seeping through your skin.

You grind your teeth, clench your jaw and switch your weight to your left side.

It takes a great deal of power, but you return the man’s glare with a steady gaze of your own. You still had to keep a level of professionalism, even for the worst of assholes.

“I’m sorry that you had to wait for so long.” You reply, voice calm and neutral, but you can’t help the underlying annoyance that runs through it. You hope he doesn’t notice.

“As you can see, we are very backed up at the moment, and we’re trying our hardest to serve everyone properly.”

His scowl darkens more, if possible. “That’s not an excuse.”

You continue. “But it is the truth. We can only work so fast, our machines can work only so fast. If you still decide to stay with us, I cannot give you a definite time limit on when it will be done, but I can promise that it will be a high quality product.”

The man becomes silent, but doesn’t let up his glare. This time you challenge him and do the same. If this jerk had a problem, he could ask for your manager or leave. You prefer the latter.

The quicker he was out of not only your store, but your life, the happier you’d be. You never understood why people would take the time to complain and put workers down instead of simply leaving. You weren’t keeping him here.

After a long pause, the man pushes back his long, white coat and reaches into his pants pocket, roughly pulling out his black leather wallet. He takes six dollars out and slams it on the counter.

“Large vanilla latte. Extra shot. Make sure it’s soy. ’M lactose intolerant.”

The tension that had stiffened your body over the past few minutes resides slightly. You type in his order, then ask for his name.

“Jotaro.” He answers, turning away from you to head toward the lobby.

“Okay, your change-?”

“Don’t want it.”

With that, he leaves and sits in the far corner of the cafe, away from the swarming crowd.

Luckily, that man, Mr. Jotaro, was your last customer at the register, now it was time to return to the bar. You smirk as you pull a ticket. After this drink would be that man’s and you’d make sure that you made his drink and make it special.

♡

It’s been about an hour since the man ordered his latte.

He seemed to have been pacified well enough, having had no complaints the entire time he sat. Just sipping on his coffee as he flipped through whatever was on his tablet.

From time to time, you look up and check on him. You had mixed whole milk with the soy and added whipped cream and let it melt into it so he couldn’t tell. For someone so concerned about their intolerance, he didn’t seem to be too affected.

You sigh. It’s a solemn victory, but at least he’s quiet and you’ve survived the rush and that’s all that really matters.

♡

Jotaro’s sweating. It’s a mix of nerves, rage and his body counting down to it’s explosion.

His stomach’s been contracting and writhing beneath his skin. The combination of agonizing cramps and squirming worm-like acid that fills him has him throwing an internal fit.

Everything hurts! And the sickly belches he keeps rumbling in his throat bring nothing but a disgusting, burning aftertaste.

At this point, he’s desperate to touch. His abdomen is in dire need of a rub and a heating pad. He knows the real relief he’s searching for is in releasing the gas that’s been gradually building in him for the past hour.

He should have left the second he got his coffee. He looks over to the counter where he finds the barista he had chewed out earlier. Their eyes catch each other and the barista is quick to look back at whatever they’re doing.

He then looks back at his empty cup, stares at it with sudden interest. Did they… do something to his coffee. This wouldn’t be the first time he’s pissed someone off and they’ve retaliated.

Jotaro’s heart drops at the realization. He might have been a little too harsh. Maybe he deserved a spiked coffee.

A sudden dip in his stomach has him lurching forward. His jaw clenches, trying to hold back the pain from showing. There’s a loud ringing groan that follows the cramp.

It’s noticeable over the light music that twinkles throughout the building. The crowd that once filled the cafe has dispersed and now only he and two other customers reside there.

He’s lucky that they have earphones in to not hear. Discreetly, he brings his hand to his lap and rubs at his bloating belly.

It turns into a mistake as he pushes a pocket of air that rushes to his bowels and out of him in a airy fart. It ends on a bubbly note and it rolls off the wooden chair he sits in. The volume of it has him blushing.

That wasn’t supposed to happen. And yet, another escapes him immediately after, but louder this time. Jotaro stiffens, eyes wide as he takes another look around. The customers are still in their own world. The baristas are busy at work, their machines overpowering his noise level.

Okay, maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. If he could just wait for a calm period and not shit himself when he stands, he’s home free.

His stomach roars and stabs him. He huffs a grunt and forces out another short but noisy burst.

And then another.

Jotaro frowns and looks down at his stomach, inwardly commanding it to stop. As if in defiance, it grumbles fiercely and brings up a belch that resembles a dragon. It rumbles on for way too long and is loud enough that the barista who put him in the situation looks up.

Their cheeks flush and they return to work in faux ignorance.

Jotaro sighs, leans into himself a little from subconscious embarrassment. If he could just-

A large bubble inside fills him and slips downwards. His hand flies to the bottom of his stomach. The pain’s intense to where he wants nothing but to get it out, society be damned.

He leans in farther, pressing and massaging his middle to coax out the monster inside. It doesn’t disappoint when it is released. Deep and wet sounding, it stretches on and on and actually burns him coming out.

Jotaro doesn’t need to smell it to know that this one’s going to be the one to alert the cafe of his dilemma, with the way it had decided to stew within him.

To add insult to injury, he burps, three times in succession, an alarm to those in his toxic zone. These bring attention from all of the baristas. They stop momentarily to look over at him, while the smell of his last blast has the customers around him looking up from their computers.

They have the familiar expression of disgust and confusion as they search for the cause.

It doesn’t take them long when Jotaro releases another rippling, sick sounding fart, that’s quickly followed by a neverending string of short blowouts.

“Sir, are you okay?” One of the baristas calls out, her face of concern and repulsion.

“Holy shit!” The youngest customer exclaims, his hands clasping over his face at record speed.

Jotaro rolls his eyes, holding back an annoyed huff. It was over now, no use in trying to hide. He sits back in his chair, his coat falling to his sides over his extended belly.

He claps a hand over its peak and lets a belch rattle inside his closed mouth.

His eyes cross over to the barista who served him. They still stare in shock. He can see the regret in their eyes. It almost makes him laugh.

“I’m fine.” He answers, blowing out another burp after.

His stomach rolls, bubbles fill him at a alarming rate. Yeah, he’s not going to make it.

Jotaro takes out his wallet and drops a hundred on the table, before picking up his things and putting it in his bag. He hopes the barista who did this knows it’s for them.

He stands, a continuous, bubbly moist expulsion leaving his backside.

“Your bathroom won’t be though.” He mutters as he storms towards the restroom, leaving the lobby with one last voluminous belch.

[firstpuffin]

The ladies of the Kingdom Hearts series (but not Kairi):

Sometimes I wonder why I write things like this. What does it matter? But if we are gonna dig that deep then what does anything matter, so screw it, I’m writing about more fictional ladies. Still though, I do believe that looking into fiction, the characters and the events that they persevere through has its benefits.

  There are studies on how fiction helps in areas such as building empathy, reducing prejudice and such. That actually sounds like a great area to write about, so you can expect sources to be incoming. Anyhoo, let’s get on topic.

 For a series where you travel alongside Donald Duck and Goofy- the- dog? Is it just Goofy? Anyway, given that, the Kingdom Hearts series has a lot of surprisingly grim events. Before we even meet our Disney friends we see the main character’s entire world vanish into darkness and our hero Sora ends up alone in another world being picked up by a prostitu- wait, that’s the manga.

  Anyway, with the cute graphics and fun characters it’s easy to miss how dark the opening to this series is. Sora’s love interest Kairi (who may as well be a lamp for all she does) loses her metaphorical heart and their mutual friend Riku loses himself to darkness trying to save her, eventually getting possessed by a disembodied grown man. Oh, and these kids are 14 and 15, so a bit immature to be going through all this.

 Over the series we see a number of tragic events happening to a number of different characters, but I think the worst things happen to the girls. See, I’m not just a pervert focusing too much on the ladies (although that too), but there’s a reason for focusing on them (but not too closely).

-from pinterest- also, i don’t know how to shrink the picture, sorry-

  Let’s do this in the order we see them: there’s Kairi, but who cares (seriously, she’s boring and does nothing) and then there’s Namine who appears in Kingdom Hearts 2, not to be mistaken with the second game (Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories) which she also appears in. But I haven’t played that yet so…

-Namine from the latest game- i was able to shrink this picture though...-

  Anyway, without going into too many details, Namine is basically a clone of Kairi’s heart who has the power to fiddle with Sora’s memories and of those around him. Yeah, it’s that kind of story. She was born during the first game when Sora has to give up his own heart to save Kairi, yadda yadda. But as someone with power over the hero, naturally the villains want her, so almost immediately after being born Namine is imprisoned and forced to play around with his memories, eventually putting him into a coma. She’s scared and forced to hurt people she doesn’t want to; she’s alone.

-favourite character right here- shrunk this one too-

Next up is Xion (pronounced [she-own] apparently), who appears in the next game, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (apparently said “358 Days Over Two”), but chronologically before Kingdom Hearts 2.

  Xion is technically a clone of Sora born from his memories (yeah, that type of story) who is put to work by the villains alongside- Sora’s other clone… jeez. Anyway, these two work together (his name’s Roxas by the way), forming their own personalities and becoming two parts of a trio who help shape future events. But Xion is forced to come to terms with the fact that she is nobody, but not one of the Nobodies that the games have established at this point, but less even than them.

  She’s a tool without even a real appearance, eventually having to hide her face because she looks like Sora as his memories begin to take dominance over her. Xion tries to run away and find herself but there isn’t a “herself” so she eventually returns and forces Roxas to fight her. I’m not the type to cry, the music here pushes my limits.

  Then she loses (because you play as Roxas and kinda have to win) she begins to disintegrate in his arms (think “I don’t feel so good, Roxas”) as he forgets her. She is literally watching him forget her as she dies in his arms. And it’s not just Roxas, everybody forgets her. Xion doesn’t exist and she pushes the story forward more than Kairi, the series’ female lead and love interest!

  I can’t talk enough about Xion who has become my favourite character despite only really appearing in what may be the weakest game, so I’m going to stop here. Self-restraint and all that.

 I never expected to get this tragedy of three women into 500 words, but I have 200 left out of this 1000-word piece to focus on Aqua from Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. She appears after Xion, but chronologically roughly ten years before the first game and spends most of that time lost in darkness.

  Let me expand: at the beginning of the game, her trio of friends (handsome-man Terra who has his own tragic story, and Ven who looks identical to Roxas and sleeps most of the series) undergo a trial (minus Ven) and while Terra fails it due to the darkness within him, Aqua is all light and passes.

  I want to restate that she passed the test because she has a heart of light. She has to chase Terra who may or may not have been performing some terrible acts and Ven who is chasing Terra, and she fails to save either of them. In order to save Terra, Aqua has to delve into the realm of darkness. For ten-ish years.

  But time doesn’t seem to work the same way there and so she has to survive an unstated amount of time in this evil realm until it corrupts her. The darkness takes over and she becomes angry, and bitter; but I want to point out that Aqua is still Aqua, but the darkness makes her this way.

  Basically, after spending all that time alone in a hostile environment, dealing with the guilt of being unable to save her loved ones, her heart of light becomes completely overcast. It’s heartbreaking.

-note the eyes and slightly silvery hair that marks her fall-

There aren’t that many ladies in Kingdom Hearts, but those who are present have to go through an awful lot. Sure, the gents do as well but maybe because there are so many more blokes, the ladies stand out more.

[mimiplaysgames]

A Good Defense

Pairing: Aqua/Xemnas Rating: T Word Count: 4,996

Summary: She hasn’t been the only person in twelve years to be wasted by darkness and left to pick up the remains alone. It only takes meeting a familiar face on a dangerous stranger for her to realize this.

Read on AO3

Notes: Made for the @khrarepairszine​!! Surprise, surprise, I’m sure some of you have never expected me to venture here. This was actually a cancelled fic but this zine gave me an opportunity to bring life back to it again (which is good, what I cancel always threatens me in my sleep). It was tricky writing through a slow burn in such a short amount of words but I hope it’s enjoyable! Special thanks to @lyssala for beta-reading this and holding my hand every time I was insecure about this piece. Also to my boyfriend - without him, I would have made a fool of myself.

***

Day One ~*~

“You can keep it.”

Her answer starts slow and ends with a hiss, and the enigma sitting on a tall, white throne narrows his eyes - it lasts for a mere moment, a smirk drawing on the edge of his lips and she swears he’s thinking to himself that he has something valuable.

Two can play that game. 

This is their first meeting, two days after she is discovered on the banks of a beach at night, after someone gives her a black robe to wear and leather gloves to cover the red tips of her fingers, after another introduces her to a familiar face stolen by a stranger. 

And he had the audacity to try and give her a new name.

“I am Master Aqua to you,” she says like there’s an expectation to introduce herself as such, and it comes out like an audio recording because after so many years it sounds weird to say. She’s seen herself in the mirror since coming here. She knows how much she’s changed. 

“Master Aqua,” he repeats, slowly, as though he likes to hear himself pronounce the syllables. His smile is foreign. “What is in a name, but a powerful congruence of will and faith?”

It’s enough of an introduction and she decides she can’t stand this guy. It’s wrong, he smiles wrong and for someone who thinks so little of such things, he calls himself Xemnas; not a name that should be worn with a face like his.

Day Thirteen ~*~

He catches her wandering the castle by herself, doing nothing but avoiding everyone else - particularly him. It’s hard enough to look at his face without having ugly reminders. 

“So neglectful of your commands,” he says simply.

True. She’s been traveling on her own, keeping her hood up and dropping clues to other doe-eyed Keyblade wielders on how they can free Ventus from his deep sleep.

Not because she wants them to know who she is and not because she wants to join anyone who has abandoned her. Ventus will have to suffer enough disappointment with how long she’s taken already, there’s no need to prolong it.   

Either way, anything to do with Ventus trumps whatever dumb shit and other shenanigans this Organization tries to throw at her - looking for missing boxes, babysitting princesses, it goes on. Xemnas has even commanded her on a mission to retrieve Ventus from his hiding spot. Her answer: never. 

“You can’t make me care about them,” she says with a click of her tongue, too lazy to shrug with both shoulders. 

“The cost of such defiance is steep.” His voice is deep and it rumbles even when it sneaks, startling and unnerving like a candle being snuffed out. 

It doesn’t take a day to understand what Xemnas is capable of, and immediately she stiffens to prepare an attack, battle tactics and back-up plans coursing through her mind in case he pulls out his sabers against her. She’s still a force to be reckoned with, and he’s an idiot if he’s feeling testy.

Still… It’s not something a face like his would ever say to her. Should ever say. She wants to lunge forward and slap him, lose control and pull the real him out of his body, give him one thousand long lectures about what it was like to wait for him in the darkness, to chase him around worlds, to spend years worrying about him.

“Don’t speak to me that way,” she keeps, her voice as low as it can get before it turns to a whisper.

Xemnas smiles and she almost spits that he should entertain himself rather than bother her. 

Entertaining himself indeed, every smile he gives has a double meaning and she’s only lucky to be able to guess what correctly. Otherwise, his eyes act like nothing but glass, doing their best at mimicking. 

… It’s a wonder how he does it.

His lackeys give her a lot of comments of what it’s supposed to be like. How a Nobody feels, what her responsibilities are, how to connect to her powers, what to believe, what to expect out of Kingdom Hearts and when. Yes, she has yellow eyes just like the rest of them but that means nothing. It’s only because she’s angry.

Angry enough that she stews in between the grinding of her teeth when he lets her words slide off of him like it doesn’t matter. A perfect Nobody in every sense of the word, non-feeling, non-caring, un-attached… he therefore feels no pain and so he is free. Where does he hide the secrets to achieving such a high?

Xemnas draws a hand in the air, conjuring a dark corridor. “Come, Master Aqua.” 

There’s a lot to fear in obeying him, one of which is enduring whatever punishment he’s decided for her. Not that there is a trace of threat in his voice, he’s just mostly amused. Perhaps the worst that would happen is finding out he’s just as bad company as the rest of them. Perhaps not.

She pushes the thought to the back of her mind that she shouldn’t follow a man with no hobbies.

Day Fifteen ~*~

He likes to hear himself talk.

The field trips are a nice distraction but she often finds herself tuning him out when he gets too involved in overblown monologues. She doesn’t spare this kind of time with the other Organization members - she instead follows other Keybearers to make sure they get her messages about Ventus. When he drones on about subjects too big for anyone, she’s afraid to name what she’s looking for in him. 

Maybe if she pays enough attention, she’ll find that she’s walking by herself in Twilight Town, leaving him behind at a booth selling souvenirs.

It’s a strange thing to witness Xemnas show interest in something other than the moon. He usually keeps the other members at a far distance, where talks of what he’s like as a person are no more than rumors, and there is a certain… intimacy in being allowed to see him like this. 

“A camera?” she asks when he picks one up, equipped with a neck strap and zoom lens, listening to the man behind the counter sell the idea that film photography is superior and can truly capture things as they are. 

“As a matter of fact…” Even when he’s teasing, he’s monotone. 

At least it’s a healthier pastime for him than sulking.

With his new toy, Xemnas requests a trip on the city trolley, over the sea and up a hill, until they reach a park and watch the sun bathe the entire city in a warm glow. Despite the sun’s reach, she’s cold, pulling on her sleeves to cover more of her wrists, hugging herself because even in thick leather, she shivers. Still, it’s quite a romantic little town, peaceful and vibrant. Nothing like this has ever existed in the Realm of Darkness.

“Does the view please you?” he asks, aiming the lens toward the horizon.

“I don’t care for the ocean.”

It reminds her of sinking, the water frigid and lonely where it’s too hard to swim up.

Learning how to use the camera is slow for him at first. The man has incredible focus though, and she can see the gears in his mind turning as he fumbles with the settings, twisting the lens, turning the flash on and off. 

That’s the thing with him, that mind never stays quiet even when he is.

“What are you doing all that for? Art?” she snickers - obviously that could never be the reason.

“This world exists in-between… a ghost warped by the conflict of polarity, both standing in the light yet hidden in shadow. It will not continue to endure after the War. But now I have proof of its existence.”

“So you’re keeping a record for science,” she scoffs. “Such a civil servant.”

Her own words eat her up. A servant to the public would be locked in battle with him, doing all that it takes to put a stop to his very existence, and here she is, by his side, watching him study his camera the same way she used to study her books growing up.

It makes her wonder why a man so enraptured by the clicks of his machine would be so willing to walk into the fire once the end of the world comes. 

“Why don’t you care about being swallowed by Kingdom Hearts?” she asks, half-expecting a lie as a response. 

The question pulls his attention away. “Only a suffered soul abandons purpose.”

Of course, she should have known than to hope for a straightforward answer. 

Finding a bench to sit on, she listens to him click away, each one blanketed by a pause as he adjusts ever so slightly, moving his frame from the town far below to the clock tower far away. This is familiar, like watching a close friend try his best to understand the secrets of a Keyblade, eyes lost in thought, focus spearheaded onto one thing and one thing only.

“A picture is a moment trapped in ink,” he says. “Here, a piece to take with me.”

“Where to?” 

“Kingdom Hearts,” he says and it makes his breath swell. “To wherever we shall go when the time comes. When all memory erases and we reset, in a space somewhere my existence will linger so long as I have a memory to hold onto.”

It’s not something she really thought about - him wanting to have something to possess. These people, these Nobodies, give their free will up to Xehanort’s influence, to reduce themselves to puppets. It never occurred to her that the others might have something they cherish and want to keep as well, no matter the reason why they chose to walk this path and give themselves up like this.

“It is beautiful, is it not?” he asks.

If he means the ocean, it used to be. 

She cocks an eyebrow. “That’s something that moves you?” 

He takes a seat on the bench in front of her, the camera treasured in his hands. “I am only missing a heart, not a mind. Opinions are privileged to me... What we will leave behind here is graceful, as damning as that is.”

“Hmph.” Listening to him speak about absent hearts, that he’s a hollow body, chokes her each time, like she’s facing punishment for her transgressions. 

Either way, she can’t let him see her get so affected. She flicks dirt off her cloak, leaning back and crossing her legs. 

“Xemnas,” she starts, her tone teasing like a dark thought hasn’t crossed her mind. “Superior of the In-Between, Appreciator of Beauty.”

Titles have a weight to them, some befitting and others suppressing. Xemnas is a man who gives them value, who finds agreement to what she’s saying, testing his new designation in his mind to see how well it suits. 

He studies her first. Brings the camera to his face, aims the lens at her. She sees herself in its reflection, gold eyes bright, before the flash captures her.

Day Thirty-Two ~*~

She flips through several developed photos and it comes as no surprise that she’s not smiling in any of them. She can read the timeline as she looks through portraits of herself standing by riverbanks and strolling through souks, her hair whitening by the week. 

The two of them meet in secret to look over the photographs when they’re certain no one else is in the castle, and a part of her today hopes that one of them is beautiful enough to bring her some comfort.

Ventus is no longer in Castle Oblivion. Her hints and paper trails have worked and he’s now in the custody of the other Keybearers. 

But it leaves her with a sensational loneliness, having no reason to go back and watch him sleep, and she doesn’t have anyone to talk about these feelings with. 

It’s hard to tell if she’s doing a banging job at pretending it doesn’t affect her, since she’s grumpy all the time anyway. 

Xemnas stands close, looking over her shoulder as she goes through a stack where he recorded a trip they took to a world of mountains.

Some of these photos she was aware of. Others not so much, and one in particular shows her staring at her Wayfinder, blue and powerful, while she ignores the backdrop of clouds cowering under the girth of the peaks behind her. He’s captured her standing so close to the edge yet she doesn’t even remember walking so dangerously near.

He scoffs gently. “Continue to be bound by the chains that drag you, and you will plunge into oblivion.”

She doesn’t know what game he’s playing anymore. Is he just fooling himself at this point? What other reason does he have to always follow her around unless there’s something pulling him?

Maybe it’s time to see exactly what he remembers. She’s had so many wonderful years living in the mountains with her boys, exploring the forests and camping overnight...

“We used to fish together,” she says, and the words sting more than she expected.

“Hmmm,” he sighs. “It was a leisure that came easily to me.”

Her heart skips a beat. Xemnas rambles, Xemnas tricks himself, Xemnas keeps others in the dark, the blind leading the blind. 

But this is the truest statement that he’s ever said; she’s never been the best at hunting.

“It was, you were the best at it,” she says, prodding his eyes for more. “There was a river by the closest trail and-” 

He smiles, and she almost hates it. It’s not warm, not comforting, just condescending.

“At an ocean that stretched by my childhood home, on an island, stranded in the middle of nowhere, where I fished with schoolmates,” he says.

That’s incorrect… 

The lump in her throat sinks, and it’s an emotion called devastation. She’s spent years exploring her memories privately because admitting to them would acknowledge their existence, and there’s something about the dark that makes her question whether she’s making them up. Just like he is now.

She wants to throw his photos at his face, demand that he remembers her, shake him until he gives her an expression in his eyes that actually means he feels. 

He pulls the photos from her hand, creased from her holding them too tightly. Whatever stupefied look she had on her face prompts him to say this next: “There is a place I want to show you.”

A single white room void of windows, like a capsule. But what’s inside nearly makes her wonder if she’s been transported elsewhere. There’s a white throne marked by chains and it’s uncanny how much it looks like the one Ventus slept in all this time. 

“What’s the meaning of this?” she starts to ask, suddenly terrified that she’s been found out when she spots a mess of color. 

Cracked and abandoned, just like her. Her armor in a scrap heap.

And right by it, Stormfall, dusty like it’s been waiting for as long as she has. 

“It has not been a very…” He hides his hands behind his back. “Loquacious partner.”

She’s speechless at the idea that all this time the other members think he’s been talking to himself… 

And what did he talk about? Why bother to pretend the armor is alive?

It’s enough temptation to try her hand. “Terra?”

If his smile is patronizing, his laugh is worse: breathy, amused, pitiful. 

“What is in a name,” he says, “but a hopeful delusion?”

“Don’t mess with me,” she steps forward, ready to jab a finger at his chest. “I’m not in denial. There’s so much riding with me-”

“No.” He shakes his head, so tall that he has to look down. “You have nothing.”

“I’m not like you,” she hisses. “Any of you, I don’t tell myself lies that I am nothing.”

“You cannot claim that.” The confidence in his speech is astounding. “What you have is a star-shaped trinket. A fossil. That former life of yours is dead.”

She wants to spit back. Really, she does. And yet her mouth feels sewn together, too afraid to let toxic words slip out of her mouth, too tired to have to prove herself otherwise. It’s like she’s been paranoid that punishment has been waiting for its chance to pounce, and it’s finally here. 

He’s so much larger than Terra that he has to bend over to meet her face, and he’s close enough she can smell his cologne, see the details of his irises and finally witness a spark - 

Anger lives behind them, tested, refined, and tamed. Powerful, unlike hers which throws her at whims.

“This room,” he starts, and he pierces her with his eyes, beautiful and messy, “is what I have left. A troublesome reminder that there is something I have forgotten. The chains that keep us bound are attached to an empty void. That is why we are nothing, friend.” 

The title feels like a leash and a collar around her neck, like he’s about to grab her. She braces herself for the possibility, and it churns her stomach.

“What I have earned since are the hollow words of a woman who’s told me there was nothing to darkness but hate and rage,” he continues, barely giving her the space to breathe for herself. “So I came here, to ask her time and time again if she still believes I will continue to go astray.” 

If there is a memory she ever wished for Terra’s heart to hold onto, it wouldn’t have been those words. 

“The fates that have been chiseled for us,” he continues, “were deviant… unnatural… manipulated. We should not have existed, maimed and exploited. Darkness has ravaged us, as much as it has left you destitute.”

What echoes in the silence is the shuddering of her breath, driving her to near-tears when she thought that she wasn’t capable of crying anymore. “I didn’t deserve what happened to me.” She doesn’t know why she needs to say that or what kind of comfort she will get out of it.

His eyes search her face and there’s that feeling in the back of her mind that he’s going to touch her. “I did not think so, either.”

With that, he straightens up, turning over his shoulder to leave her shivering in this cold room. 

She lunges forward to grab his wrist - a knee-jerk reaction really. Who can blame her when she’s looking for… someone to tell her it’s not her fault. When he turns to look back at her and she realizes the smile she wants is just a fantasy, she’s reminded:

Xemnas. She has to remember that he is Xemnas and not who she wants him to be. 

So she lets him go, to be left in an air-tight container with no Terra to hold her, no Ventus to wake up, and a Keyblade.

It belongs to a Master, to Aqua. And she is Aqua but she is not. 

She has been tethered and conditioned since, a dull glory with memories that don’t serve her anymore except to leave her feeling… well, destitute. An Anti-Aqua, a new her with the same name she was born with.

Certainly it feels strange to hold Stormfall again after all these years, and she takes it with her. After all, stealing a Keyblade isn’t that terrible of a crime.

Day Seventy-Nine ~*~

There isn’t so much of a point to being part of an Organization when she’s lonely even around other people. It’s daunting, and if she isn’t around Nobodies that can speak, she’s around monstrosities that can’t. 

The World That Never Was is hollow, and the sea of empty hotels and apartments is all just for show, like it’s good enough to pretend to have friends. 

But maybe that is definitely the point: keep attachments at bay to make it easier to move on to the other side when the time comes.

Footsteps softly rise as she hears him climb the steps that lead to the lounge where she waits, and it makes her smirk. He walks with the lightness of air; that’s impressive for his size.

“I come bearing gifts,” he announces when he arrives to take the couch across from her, crossing his legs as he makes himself comfortable. In his hand is a white envelope, full enough to have photos she hasn’t seen yet. 

Her face goes cold when she looks through them - it’s like he’s throwing more games at her that she’s too tired to play, like he keeps testing her to see when she finally breaks. If he hasn’t figured her out yet, he certainly has now. 

Ventus, in all of them. Wandering streets by himself with the curiosity of a toddler. Laughing with Sora. Sparring with Riku. 

She inhales sharply. “What do you want with him?”

“Nothing,” he says like it’s his favorite word. “I do not wish to harm him.”

“Stalking and endangering him makes you look bad.”

All Xemnas does is flash her a smug grin, his fingers on his chest like he’s proud of himself. “It appears I am not the heartless one between the two of us, throwing such a blatant accusation against me.”

Being playful doesn’t suit him well but at least she’s fond of it. He lets go of a long breath, the smirk melting away into a faraway longing as he stares at his own hand, those gears of his turning. 

It gives her the impression that her reaction stung him, and she wonders if anyone has ever asked him if his feelings have been hurt. If he’s even capable of being offended that way. 

Rubbing his gloved fingers against his palm, Xemnas shakes his head. “There was a… an oath made to me long ago, and still I cannot recall the exact words.”

Aqua doesn’t know what to say - Terra and Ventus were like brothers, and sometimes would share secrets and promises without her knowing, so she really can’t help him remember. 

She wishes, though, that he’s easier to read. It’s hard to tell if he’s being entirely sincere or if he’s pulling fanciful words to suit her - if he has other reasons not to attack Ventus. Come to think of it, he only asked her to find Ventus for him once… though it’s unsafe to assume too much. Believing that he feels a bond is still a risk, but so long as she can take care of herself, it’s probably a good idea to humor him.

It’s for the best since Ven isn’t something Xemnas should think he can keep.

“How long I have searched for the chamber that kept him locked away for more than a decade,” he continues. “I admit all I yearned for were answers to questions no book can satiate. Now... he simply waltzes out of the castle with nary a helping hand.”

It’s the way he says it that tells her he knows. 

She shrugs. “Magically.”

“Magically.” At least he’s amused. “The portraits are yours to keep.”

She takes another glance, petting her thumb on the smooth surface where his cheek was captured. “How is he?”

“He is healthy.” He leans back, one elbow on the armrest. “Rambunctious and eager to fight.” 

“Did he see you?”

“No.” He takes one hard look at her. “Will you not meet with him?”

“No.”

He attempts to ask why but she cuts him off. “He’d be very upset if-” Takes a moment. Regain composure. There’s nothing left to cry over, he’s happy and he deserves it. “If he saw either of us this way.”

She adds, “my body is changing.”

The confession is like pulling a stopper, letting the water gush down the drain like a hurricane, where tears do not come out of her eyes but out of the growling in her throat and the fists she makes as she slips off her gloves to show him the red fingertips, the purple wrists, the smoke that poofs out like she’s sweating it.

Nothing could have prepared her for how much his smile falls, completely enraptured with what he sees, like she’s a foreign specimen in need of study.

“To feel so intensely,” he says mostly to himself, leaning over the table in between them to look at it more closely. “That it alters the host.” He frees a hand from his glove, and his skin looks smooth like a human’s - for someone who considers himself a monster, she’s the only one who looks like one.

He reaches over, as if asking for her hand. It has to be the most human thing to be curious. 

Meeting him halfway, they press their palms against each other, the rolls that make up the hand and fingers shifting as they fill the gaps. His are so familiarly big, so amazingly warm, and she’s been certain this entire time that she’d never feel hands like these again. It’s pleasant to find some solace from the frigidity of her scales.

Splaying his fingers to meet hers, he plays: first leaning into hers to see how far they can bend, then threading them together one by one, like he understands what it is to hold a hand but has never learned what it’s supposed to feel like.

Intertwined like this, he’s now leashed to her, bound by a chain he can’t break either.

Day Eighty ~*~

It’s hard to count the hours when there’s no sun. It could be late or early, whatever, but either way sleep has decided not to say good night no matter how many times she’ll toss and turn. 

Suppose the only question keeping her awake is whether any of this matters. When that heart-shaped moon finally opens and she disintegrates, suppose she’ll become the inky sky that allows the stars to shine in the new world, a ghost so far away and expansive that she’ll stretch forever and witness everything. 

Or instead, she’ll turn into a star, a memory of the way things were and she’ll shine brightly to give others hope. Maybe even become the sun and be the source of all life. 

She takes her hand, lets her cold, scaly fingers brush her chest first before finding her heartbeat, quiet and calm with the hours in rest. 

Still, what is the point if she’s at it alone? Will she blend into other people? Will she reconnect with Terra and Ven? Will she forget about them, about her current life, about pain and loss?

After all, the only way to remove the loss is to wipe away the reminiscence. 

With this in mind, she leaves her bed and this empty room. 

Whatever she becomes, the least she can have is something to hold onto. She should be allowed to keep the things she’s loved. Maybe nothing will happen - maybe they can run away, abandon crazy prospects and make a life out of what’s left. 

Finding herself standing in front of Xemnas’ door, she knocks, somewhere between soft and demanding. When he opens the door, he’s finishing the zipper up his cloak, having just stood from his desk where his camera splays open. 

“Don’t say anything,” Aqua says. There’s been enough thinking, enough existential crises tainted by the question of why’s and when’s and what’s. 

They’re wasting time and she doesn’t want to be alone when her bones turn to dust. 

Xemnas still has his glove-less fingers on his zipper when he steps aside and lets her walk through the threshold into his room, respecting her request to keep silent, a small smirk pulling on his face.

Aqua closes the gap between them, her head leaning against his chest, nuzzling on the leather he wears. He likes to talk big about being nothing, but there it is, his heartbeat, quiet and calm like it doesn’t want to be discovered.

What’s in a name indeed, a man once said to her when his own very name, Xemnas, is a body and a mind. He is someone, and Kingdom Hearts will take him away too. 

Hearing its beat lulls her and finally, finally, she thinks she’ll be able to find sleep for this long night. Gripping his leather into her fists, her breath slows and she rests against him, taking his warmth as a reminder that she’s alive for now. There’s nothing else relevant except the lack of rhythm in their hearts and that camera, a small trinket they can take with them so at least they can share a life that isn’t dead. 

He helps himself to a lock of her hair as he intertwines it into his fingers, his free hand claiming the small of her back, his warm breath on her scalp as he searches for his own meaning of life. 

“It’s magnificent,” he says about whatever it is he’s finding. 

She hums, half in contempt that he’s speaking and half asleep, intoxicated by his cologne as she pulls on his cloak, squeezing her fist tighter like tonight will be the last.

“Xemnas,” she calls but does not follow-up. 

She was about to say that he can continue to take photos of her, to let her take some of him with her, to liven the mood, to keep her warm because this entire castle is cold… to do something or tell her a story of a world where the sun rises from the west. Maybe they can find it together and gather proof of it. 

He’s been wrong all along - there is power to a name and if he wants to deny that, then she’ll have to slap him out of such a problem.

He moves slightly and now his hair covers her face but he grips her tighter. The door to his room closes. He carries her to bed, and she lets herself drown in his mouth as his weight pressures her to sink, down to the depths where they gasp for air together. 

[p-artsypants]

Rage Awakened (10)

Ten years ago, Terra, Aqua, and Ventus lost their fellow apprentice, Sora, in Deep Jungle. Now, they are to return with two new students, Riku and Kairi, to lock the heart of the world. All the while, something watches from the trees. Feral!Sora AU

FF.net | Ao3

@violetstar-writes @chachacharlieco

Riku finally took the seat that had been offered, as Yen Sid and Ansem the Wise tried to figure out where to start. The clock in the corner ticked to fill the silence, as Riku shuffled in his seat.

Finally, Yed Sid admitted, “Radiant Garden has fallen.”

Riku leapt out of his chair, “you’re kidding!”

“If only I were.”

“But—how? I thought…I thought the keyhole there was sealed a long time ago.”

“On the contrary,” said Ansem. “The keyhole to Radiant Garden was never actually complete, and therefore, no one would be able to get to it.”

“Then how did the Heartless?”

He sighed, Riku noticing the bags under his eyes more clearly than at first. The man looked awful. “Well, that would be the good news. They did not. The world still lives in the Realm of Light, but it was been taken over by Maleficent herself. Though I suppose, her next goal is to complete the keyhole herself. Or else she wouldn’t have bothered.”

Riku fell back in his chair, his head in his hands in despair. “This can’t be happening. Does Kairi know?”

“I will tell Kairi myself once we are done here, you needn’t worry about that.”

Riku couldn’t help but feel sick for her. He knew exactly what it was like to lose a home, but knew she wouldn’t be prepared for it in the slightest.

“So what does that have to do with the traitor?” He asked, helpless.

“Perhaps I should start at the beginning,” supplied Ansem. “A few months back, as we were still learning about the keyholes, it occurred to me that Maleficent had to come to the knowledge of other worlds and the heartless somehow. I consulted Aurora and the three fairies, and none of them had heard of any other world before Enchanted Dominion was swallowed by the darkness. So how did Maleficent know? I theorized that someone told her. And that someone had to be a keyblade wielder.”

Riku nodded, following so far. “I see...but, Kairi and I let it slip a few times that we were from other worlds. It’s not like we meant to do it. So, maybe it was an accident?”

“That’s what I chalked it up to initially as well. I knew everyone knew about the world order, so I didn’t mention it to Eraqus. Now, moving onward. A few weeks ago, I came to find another dead world.”

“Dead world?” Asked Riku, concerned at the notion.  

Ansem gestured for Yen Sid to take over.

“There are two dead worlds, that we know of. Worlds that exist without hearts. The keyblade graveyard, the sacred ground of a thousand year old war. It has been banned to return to, out of respect of the fallen. And The End of the World, where remnants of worlds that have been swallowed by darkness gather. We have all been there, at least once. Trying to assure the survivors of a fallen world. This is the heartless home-world, and where they are the strongest in the realm of light.

“Both of these worlds are halfway points between our realm of light and the realm of darkness. Therefore, the easiest places to summon Kingdom Hearts.”

“Kingdom Hearts?” Riku asked. “I’m sorry I’m asking so many questions, but I’ve never heard of this stuff before.”

“We are happy to answer any questions. After all, knowledge is power.” Yen Sid assured. “The reason you have not heard most of this information, is because it’s dangerous. But, we trust that you’ll keep it quiet unless absolutely necessary.”

Riku nodded in confirmation.

“Now, Kingdom Hearts is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a state, a collection of hearts. One could argue that this castle is a Kingdom Hearts, but for our purposes, I’m talking about the Kingdom Hearts from the age of fairytales.”

That was already a lot of information to swallow, but Riku gestured for him to continue, mostly understanding the gist of it.

“Long ago, when all the world’s were one, a great entity hung in the sky, a collection of all hearts. A pure and perfect Kingdom Hearts. No one man ruled over it, but there was a man who discovered a way to do so, The Master of Masters. Kingdom Hearts gave him the χ-blade. ‘χ’ being the ancient letter pronounced ‘chi’ or ‘kye’. The χ-blade is the ancestor from where all keyblades come from. This Kingdom Hearts is legend to hold ultimate power and wisdom, but without summoning it, we will never truly know. The χ-blade was shattered into thirteen shards of darkness and seven of light. The light was reborn into the hearts of the Princesses, such as Aurora and Cinderella. Consequently, those seven hearts are required to complete the keyhole to Radiant Garden.”

“And…this is what Maleficent wants?”

“Perhaps. Though it is not completely known if she even knows about it yet.”

“But wait, you said you found another dead world, Ansem?”

“That is correct. It was a few weeks ago, myself and Merlin the Wizard travelled to Twilight Town, in order to collect some old research notes I had left in the abandoned mansion there. Upon arrival, I saw a boy in a crowd that I was immediately suspicious of. Against Merlin’s better judgement, I followed him. To my surprise, the boy led me to the mansion anyways. In the basement, he opened a corridor of darkness, and leapt inside.”

“A dark corridor? But...that would mean he’s in league with Maleficent!” Said Mickey.

“That’s what I surmised as well, and so I jumped in after him. On the other side, I made a horrific discovery...another dead world. This one a city filled with Nobodies. The World That Never Was.”

“Nobodies?” Mickey asked. “What do you mean? What’s a Nobody?”

“What’s a Heartless?” Ansem posed back.

“Well...it’s a Heart that’s been consumed by darkness. It’s turned into a monster.”

“And what becomes of the body that heart belonged to?”

Riku and Mickey didn’t answer, but their silence was telling.

“The husk left behind begins to act with a will of its own. No heart, no feelings, only instinct. And they all congregated to this world, a city that stretched for miles, with not a living soul within its walls. Or so I thought.” He took a sip of his tea.

“Shortly after arriving in this world, I was confronted by the boy. He held a black keyblade in one hand, and a white one in the other. He asked my business in his world, and I simply introduced myself.

“When he saw I meant no ill will, he lowered his weapon, and gave me his name: Roxas. I asked him what he was doing in that world, and he told me he lived there. He had woken up in Twilight Town, and a man in a black coat found him and brought him to the dead world to live. He was allowed to come and go as he pleased, but his job was to kill as many heartless with the keyblade as he could. I asked who the man was, and he said he couldn’t tell me. The man was his master, and the only friend he had. I told him I would be his friend without being his master, and then I told him he could visit me in Radiant Garden if he ever needed someone to talk to.”

“And did he?” Asked Riku.

“He did. I even introduced him to some other youngsters in the town, Lea and Isa. He came mostly daily, though he always returned to his world once the sun set.”

“Wait,” Riku asked. “You said he was highly suspicious. What makes you say that?”

“Why don’t you see for yourself?” He turned to the corner of the room, which was enveloped in shadows. “Why don’t you come out and meet Riku?”

There was some hesitation, but eventually, a young man came out, wearing a black coat and an anxious expression.

Riku stood suddenly, “wha—?” He took a few steps closer. “Ventus? No...”

Indeed, Roxas looked like Ventus, though a bit younger, about Sora’s age.

“So you can see why I was concerned.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Roxas, will you tell him what your name used to be before your master renamed you?”

Roxas leveled his gaze on Riku, and said with clear diction. “Sora.”

Riku’s reaction of doubt and confusion was expected.

“You see,”  Ansem continued, resting a hand on Roxas’ arm. “Roxas is a nobody. Sora’s nobody.”

“So…Sora turned into a heartless? Then why is he a person now? And why does he look like Ventus then?”

“I have only theories, unfortunately. One of them being that this ‘master’ of his is acquainted with Sora at some rate. As for Roxas’ likeness to Ventus, I believe that also has to do with the traitor. I think this individual is the same that divided Ventus’ heart several years ago. I remember in those days, Ventus’ healed quicker when in the presence of Sora, which leaves me to believe that part of Ventus’ heart was within Sora.”

“You’re not saying that Sora’s the traitor, are you?”

“No. I believe our suspect was active long before Sora was even a keyblade wielder. Whether those pieces of Ventus ended up in Sora on purpose, or as a consequence of Sora’s strong heart, I don’t know. As for Sora, I don’t believe he actually ever became a heartless, but I do think that a very powerful darkness resides within him, and someone stirred it up, creating a nobody, and who knows what other chaos.”

As Ansem explained this, Roxas sat on the edge of the desk, and continued to watch the others with a critical gaze.

“How do you know it was another person? When we were there in Deep Jungle, we saw a beast that…sort of looked like a heartless, but had red sharp eyes, instead of round yellow.”

Ansem asked Roxas. “Have you heard of anything like that?”

The boy shook his head. “Doesn’t sound familiar. Nobodies are usually metallic looking, and have slits for eyes. I’ll keep an eye out though.”

“What happened to the creature? Is it still there?”

“No…we were going to tell you as soon as possible…Sora’s keyblade…well, I really have no other way to say this. It ate it.”

“His keyblade ate it? What do you mean?”

“His keyblade is supposed to look like Mickey’s. Right?”

“It looks like the Kingdom Key D.” Mickey clarified, summoning that blade. “This isn’t actually mine. I found it in the realm of darkness. But, yes, Sora’s looks almost identical to it. Just different in color.”

“Well, it doesn’t look like that anymore. It’s all gnarly and broken and it has these long, sharp pieces that look like claws on it. Sora saved us from the beast by sending the claws out and ripping it to pieces, but the keyblade absorbed the bits and Sora blacked out.”

Yen Sid hummed in thought, “I don’t like the sound of that. I fear that it’s not the keyblade we have to worry about.”

“Tarzan said that wasn’t the only creature like that. There’s been a bunch of them, and they always go after Sora. No one else.”

“This is even more evidence to support my theory.” Said Ansem, thoughtfully. “Mickey and I shared thoughts on Sora’s disappearance, and that it wasn’t an accident, or a wild animal.”

Riku gasped slightly. “You’re not insinuating that Master Eraqus purposefully left him there, are you?”

“No. Not Eraqus. Rather, I think our traitor is Master Xehanort.”

“Master Xehanort? But…but he couldn’t be. He has always been on the side of light. He even helped me banish the darkness within myself!”

“Xehanort chooses to tread the line between light and dark.” Yen Sid corrected. “He understands that the world must exist in balance. There can be no light without darkness. And yet, he is very emphatic about this belief. There was always a hint of doubt within me in regards to his trustworthiness. Even as a keyblade Master. Even still, we have no solid proof. Only tiny doubts.”

“Like what? So far, all you’ve said could really be anyone. Even someone we’ve never met before.”  

“True.” Agreed Ansem. “Which is what brings us back to the fall of Radiant Garden.”

Riku had almost forgotten about that in the wake of all this news.

“Roxas’ came and got me when the invasion started. It was early in the morning, when most people were asleep. His Master said that Maleficent had amassed an army of Heartless to storm the castle, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop her. Instead, he came to find me to find a way to help. We looked for the Princesses, but it seemed like they had hidden somewhere. We could not find them, and the castle was quickly being overrun with heartless looking for me. We took a hidden passage, which allowed me to spy on what was happening throughout the castle, and…I found my beloved apprentices…Braig, Dilan, Aeleus, Even, Lea, Isa…and even little Ienzo. They were all gathered, captured and brought to the Great Hall where Maleficent had made herself at home. Only she wasn’t alone in her conquest. There was the man in a black cloak, and another younger man, wearing a helmet. Roxas didn’t say, but I knew the man had to be his so-called master.” He clenched his eyes shut, recalling the memory. “The boy with the helmet wielded a keyblade, and before my very eyes, struck down my apprentices, each one of them succumbing to the darkness. I was completely helpless to stop them. All we could do was flee.”  

“I would have stopped it if I could,” Roxas defended. “But my Master has forbidden me from speaking his name, or from interfering with Maleficent. No matter how much I try, I can’t seem to fight him.”

“Such is the power of manipulation.” Yen Sid assured. “It’s not a loyalty to him that prevents you from helping us. It’s his magic. By him giving you a new name with a sigil, he has control over you, at least to some extent.”  

“Sigil?” Asked Roxas.

“Your name is an anagram of Sora, with an X added. The X is a sigil, or a mark. Knowing someone’s name can allow for a certain control over them, but giving them a new name with a sigil…I can’t begin to imagine what he could do.”

“Then, should Roxas even be here?” Asked Riku. “What if Xehanort forces him to tell him about us?”

“A keen observation, Riku.” Yen Sid praised. “Now you see why we decided to tell you, and only you.”

That was not entirely clear, and he communicated this with a frown.

“If we play our cards right, Xehanort will never know we suspect him. The temptation to tell Eraqus would be too strong for Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. And Eraqus, though his heart is in the right place, has known Xehanort all his life. Without any definitive proof, he surely would confront Xehanort for answers. You, on the other hand, are much more likely to come to Mickey or myself if you’re unsure of something.”

Riku had to admit it, they had pegged him true. He had nothing against Eraqus, but Yen Sid had taken up the role of trusted mentor first. He definitely saw that the others thought of Eraqus as a father figure, and would feel guilty hiding this from him.

“I understand now.” Riku said, with a nod.

“Of course, as a master, you will be expected to share this information with the others when you deem it appropriate. And we expect you to come to us if you see anything that can be considered as proof. For now, I think it would be best if you pretended like you know nothing. I wouldn’t even mention Roxas.”

“Yes, Master.”

“And Roxas,” Yen Sid addressed him.

“Yes?”

“We would appreciate your help anyway you’re willing to give it. But it would be unfair to ask you to do anything that could cause…harm.”

“It’s alright. Ansem has shown me what real friendship is, and I want to help my real friends. But…”

“Just do what feels right.” Riku smiled.

Roxas returned it. “Lea and Isa…no, Axel and Saïx now…they live with the others in The World That Never Was. But…they’re different. Colder.”

“Such is the nature of a nobody,” Ansem observed. “Though you seem to be an exception. Perhaps it is your connection with Sora which gives you the ability to feel.”

“How did you…you know, happen?” Riku asked.

Roxas gave a half smile, and shook his head.

“A forbidden question then. Too bad.”

“I’m sorry, I gotta go. If I stay too long, the others will be suspicious.”

“Roxas, before you go, one more question.” Ansem spoke up.

“Hmm?”

“The others…are they worried about me? Or…?”

“I’m afraid they think you abandoned them. I didn’t correct them though.”

Ansem nodded. “Such as I thought. Thank you, Roxas.”

“Later then.” A black portal appeared, and in the next moment, Roxas was gone.    

“What a nightmare.” Ansem lamented.

“I should probably get back to the others too,” Riku suggested.

“Yes, and could you send Kairi when you do? You may tell the others what happened, but I think it’s best if she hears it from me.”

“Sure thing.” He stood. “I’ll keep my ears out for anything regarding Xehanort.” With that, he headed back to the library.

Ventus, Kairi, and Sora all sat on the floor, as Terra and Aqua almost poetically regaled them of stories of their travels. Of course, everyone had had equally fantastic stories of the worlds they visited, but every world was just a little bit more amazing than the last.

“And then the pirates started shooting canon balls at us! While we were flying up in the sky! There was no protection, only clouds to hide in. A canon ball hit my shoulder and left a nice bruise!” Terra said.

“I, on the other hand, just practiced my shield summoning,” Aqua boasted.

“Well, I could fly and dodge, or I could summon a shield, I can’t do both Aqua.”

“Because you haven’t been practicing!”

“I didn’t need to!”

“Or so you think!”

Riku knelt down next to Kairi and spoke quietly to her. “Hey, your uncle is here. He’s in the next room, and he wants a word with you.”

“Oh!” She stood. “I wonder what about? I hope everything is alright. I’ll be back in a minute then.”

In their argument, Terra and Aqua didn’t even notice that she left the room, but Sora had. He crawled his way over to Riku, resting his hands on his shoulder, and leaned meaningfully towards the door.

“She just went to talk to her uncle. You remember Ansem the Wise, right?”

Sora didn’t respond, just kept looking at the door.

“Huh? Did you say Ansem the Wise is here?”

“Yeah…um. It’s not good.”

But before he could elaborate, Sora winced out in pain, holding his chest.

“Sora? You okay?”

He didn’t acknowledge them, and hurried out of the room on all fours.

“Sora!”

The group ran after, hearing the door slam open down the hall.

Sora burst into the study, only to see Kairi in tears, being held by a man vaguely familiar. He didn’t care what happened, he just knew that she was in pain. He was in pain, because she was in pain, and he just wanted it to stop. He pushed passed those in his way and gathered her up in his arms.

“S-Sora?” She whimpered between sobs.

He nuzzled her face with his nose, trying to stop her tears, but not knowing how.

She drank up the affection, clinging to him and crying harder.

By then, everyone was at the door, watching the scene unfold.

“What happened?” Aqua asked, looking to Ansem, who was also teary-eyed.

“Radiant Garden has fallen.”

In a clamor of footsteps, Kairi was embraced from all sides. Her hair was pet, her shoulder rubbed, her hand squeezed in assurance.

Ansem watched the scene with hope in his heart. She had a second home, and the last princess was undoubtably safe.

[nadziejastar]

Isa-- A quiet and cool-headed youth. Though he does come out of his shell when talking to his best friend Lea, toward others he is distant and untalkative.

Oh, I absolutely think he was. A quiet boy who is always alone, has no friends, and doesn’t smile much? Of course Lea would be drawn to him. Given their personalities, I can definitely picture Lea viewing Isa as a stray puppy at first and being the one to approach him. And after that, Isa started following him around like a lost puppy. Then they became best friends.

“You have your own mission, Roxas,” Saïx told him before Xion could answer.

“I can’t trade with Xigbar or something?”

“What an extraordinarily childish notion. Do you need Axel to walk you everywhere now?”

And I think Saïx had quite the inferiority complex over his past. It’s definitely hinted that the icing on the cake started with Lea and Isa long before it involved Roxas and Xion. Roxas was acting like a zombie following Axel mindlessly, then he surprised Axel by acting more alert. And Xion was mindlessly following Roxas around, then she spoke normally and saved him by using the Keyblade. This surprised him so he took her out as a reward.

Xigbar, standing and watching their exchange with his arms folded, opened his mouth. “You’ve been working really well lately haven’t you, Poppet.”

“…Thank you,” Xion replied in a small voice.

“Thank you? Why do you have to say thanks?

“Well, you were praising me, weren’t you? Was I wrong?”

“Haha… Yeah, I guess you could see it like that.” He pressed his hand to his mouth and snickered.

“Did I say something funny?”

“No, no. You’re fine.”

Xion looked up at Xigbar, anxiously. Beside them, Saïx didn’t show any notable reaction. He just watched.

Xion insisted on tagging along on the day she collapsed again. She was more interested in spending time with her friends and getting ice cream later. She passed out and Axel blamed himself because he was supposed to look out for her.

Long ago—I remember, I didn’t hate fighting. Saïx flung his claymore at Roxas.

And so, Saïx remembered things from a long long time ago.

It might have been the same for Isa. He might have liked fighting, but only with Lea. 

“So, Saïx, what am I doing to—? Oh, boy. Awfully early for such a bad mood, don’t you think?” Saïx had whirled to face him with a rather pronounced scowl.

“…Nobodies do not have ‘moods’ to be ruined,” he said at length.

“Well, sure, technically…”

“It’s just that the failure was functioning better than expected until recently.”

I think Isa was probably careless one day and Lea got hurt while protecting him. Axel was angry remembering that. And Saïx has a complex about being a useless failure.

If I’m trying to get away from Saïx—from the organization itself—what am I doing here? The truth struck home—Nobodies had no place where they belonged.

“Now what do I do…?” he muttered, his face still upturned to the distant moon. A heart. Maybe the answer was closer than he thought. Suddenly he felt something brush his leg.

“Wh—whoa!” Axel jumped. It was a big yellow dog.

This scene from the manga takes place on Day 117 ~Secrets~. This is the day Axel was asked to work with Xion and observe her, then she talked about her memories. In the novel, it was hinted that Axel remembered praising Isa while he was praising Xion. Presumably that’s where the icing on the cake tradition started. In the manga, they referenced Axel’s memories of the past in a different way. Pluto showed up. 

“Hey, what’re you doing here?”

The dog looked up at him, tail wagging wildly.

“Are you all alone?” As if in reply, the dog made a single tiny bark.

“Look, I don’t have time to play.” Axel gave it a pat on the head and began walking away between the buildings.

Xion really liked him and wanted to bring him home. Axel was annoyed that she was getting too attached to him, because Saïx would never allow her to keep him. Although Isa might have seemed like the “cold” one and Lea the “nice” one during the scene with Ventus, I doubt that was the whole truth.

“Hey, don’t follow me, okay?” He turned and shook a warning finger in front of the dog’s nose. It barked again. The animal almost seemed to understand him.

“Get off me already!” Axel shouted as he tried to stand, but this left him open to a slobbery attack from the front. 

“Ugh! Quit it…!” Eventually Axel noticed Kairi watching this exchange with mild astonishment and finally shoved Pluto away. Sand covered his black cloak, red hair, and face.

It was probably framed that way on purpose so that when we saw Isa’s real personality, it would have been more of a twist. The manga characterization is often more humorous and not meant to be canon per se. But that doesn’t mean it’s arbitrary or that it isn’t meant to be true to the characters in some way. 

“Look, I gotta go.” Axel opened up a dark rift in space and plunged into the blackness. The dog tilted its head again and plopped down in front of the closing portal as if to wait for him. 

And Saïx actually DOES let Xion keep Pluto because Isa was fond of dogs. Sure, Saïx letting Xion have a pet is out of character. But the purpose of the scene with Pluto was to tell you something important about Isa and what type of person he was compared to Saïx.

All of it disgusted him. Saïx looked up at the skyscrapers, tracking Axel’s presence. 

He remembered what the witch Naminé had said. Axel seemed lonely. The man himself had denied it, but she was absolutely right. Axel was lonely. He’d lost Roxas. Lonely. Didn’t that mean he had a heart? How had he gained one? Why only him?

Axel was amazed and happy that Saïx still had some memories from the good old days. The manga probably didn’t mention that Isa liked dogs for no reason. Anyways, Axel’s happiness didn’t last. Saïx brushed him off and told him that he had to go back to Castle Oblivion soon, then went back to being his usual cold self.

Saïx’s searching gaze fell on a yellow dog, and he paused. The dog turned to him with a full-throated bark. He scowled, crinkling the scarred skin between his eyebrows, and lifted his hand to open a Corridor of Darkness behind the dog. If something was in his way, he would just get rid of it. 

The next day is the vacation and Saïx told Axel that he was getting too attached to Roxas and Xion. It’s very similar to the way Axel told Xion that she was getting too attached to the stray doggy. When Axel reacted sarcastically, Saïx told Axel that he changed. Axel looked sad, and almost like he was smirking at the irony.

“She doesn’t need you anymore.” Saïx smiled, but the expression didn’t reach his eyes. That was the world’s most obvious lie, Sora thought.

Axel said Saïx had changed and looked up at the heart-shaped moon. The scene is also made to look just like the scene where Sora confronted Saïx after Kairi escaped with Pluto. Saïx said she didn’t need him anymore. This made me think: they created the situation with Pluto to emphasize that when Saïx and Axel said the other had changed, it was specifically referring to getting attached. What Saïx said about Axel was probably very true, especially after he became a Nobody. But it was probably not limited to him as Nobody, either.

The two of them seemed to be enjoying themselves. Ven was just a tad jealous. “Already?” Ven asked, a little lonely.

He turned around. “I’ll see ya when I see ya. After all, we’re friends now. Get it memorized.”

“Okay, Lea.” Ven nodded with a smile. He hadn’t thought he would make friends here of all places.

If you think about it, who is more likely to become easily attached to others? A sociable extrovert who interacts with every person they meet? Or a quiet introvert who only opens up with one person? Definitely the introvert. Lea was very warm and quick to help other people, but he probably didn’t get attached to the stray puppies he picked up very often. He was probably just happy creating memories with new people (or animals). He seemed satisfied to play with Ventus for a few minutes, then move on. He’d see him whenever. Ven was the one who didn’t want him to leave, because he was lonely without Terra and Aqua. Then their situations became reversed.

“Sora and Riku are best friends.” Axel’s eyes crinkled as he remembered his own best friend—the only friend he’d ever had, in fact.

“If your best friend goes away, you’re sad, and if you get to be with them, you’re happy,” Naminé added. “Isn’t that how it is, Axel?”

“…That’s about the size of it.” Axel nodded and sat down on the remaining empty sofa, staring at the sea-salt ice cream he held.

Axel was very friendly, but he was also cool and detached. Roxas laughed at him when he they’d never be apart as long as they remembered each other. And in the manga, he was embarrassed when Roxas called him his “best friend” out loud. But over time, he became desperately lonely and needy. It was a core aspect of his character. No one was called “lonely” more times than Axel. And he became VERY attached and clingy with Roxas and Xion, which was unusual behavior for him. 

“What?” The irritated furrow between his brows deepened.

“You seemed lonely,” Naminé repeated, raising her eyes.

“Lonely? Me, a Nobody, lonely? That doesn’t even make sense!”

And I just loved how in the KH2 novel, Axel was simultaneously trying to avoid both Pluto AND Saïx, who always showed up at exact the same time. It was like escaping the two of them was...the same thing, in a way. Not only Saïx’s stalking, either. Axel’s stalking of Kairi was parallel to Pluto’s stalking of Kairi, too. When Axel was trying to see Roxas again, he was acting like an abandoned stray puppy. Ironically, Axel was so clingy with Roxas because he felt abandoned by Isa. He missed how emotionally attached Isa was to him and was very desperate for his affections once more. Then he transferred that neediness onto Roxas. But as a human, it probably wasn’t Lea who got overly attached.

As he watched Ven go on his way, Isa commented to Lea in a frosty tone, “What is it with you and picking up stray puppies?”

Lea just shrugged. “I want everybody I meet to remember me. Inside people’s memories, I can live forever.”

“I know I won’t forget you. Believe me, I try all the time,” Isa replied with a bit of humor in his tone.

It was probably Isa. That’s probably why he kept his distance from most people. I bet this was a pretty important aspect of their characters. Saïx was always utterly cold and detached towards everyone. But deep down, Isa was nothing but an abandoned puppy. He was being sarcastic in BBS. But in KH2, that was exactly what was going on. He wanted nothing more than to forget Axel and tried ALL the time. But he couldn’t. And that was probably the main reason they included so many more Pluto scenes. The real stray puppies were Isa AND Lea.

Axel had seen Pluto jump fearlessly into a portal to the Corridors of Darkness. And Kairi had done the same. This was no time to hesitate, then.

He gave Pluto a good hug and pressed his cheek against his fur. “Okay, let’s go.” Pluto woofed in reply. Axel got to his feet and headed deeper into the bowels of the castle.

After reading the novels and the manga, I think Isa might have been talking literally about an incident with stray puppies. It would have been funny if the dogs were actually Disney characters like Lady and the Tramp. Isa was the one who wanted to keep them, but then they got adopted. Ironically Lea was the one who was chiding him for becoming too attached. And that’s why he sounded annoyed with Lea picking up another stray puppy.

[notajinn]

Top 10 Games I Played in 2019

IMPORTANT NOTE: I am finishing this at nearly 2 AM in the morning, so I did not proofread. Excuse any typos.

With 2019 closing out the decade, I want to make a "Top 10 Games of the Decade" list, but first I have to point out my favourites of the year. I actually played over 10 games this year (which is very unusual), so I chose my top 10. As usual, these are not all games that came out in 2019, but I played them for the first time this year. I'm not ranking carried over mobile games this time, although at this point the only mobile I play is Dragalia Lost.

Let's go.

10. Untitled Goose Game (Switch)

There's a lot to love about this game concept alone even though I ignored it for the longest time pre-release.

Pros

The entire goal of the game is just that you are a goose and also an asshole. I've talked many times about how I think being unique is overblown in place of being high-quality, but this is a unique take that really works.

With a vaguely open-world that you're thrown into with no real purpose, you really capture the feeling of just setting out that day to be a jerk. I appreciate that there is a progression system with a list of mischievous tasks you have to do to reach the next area, but it's still presented in a very free way. You'll do some of them accidentally just trying to be a jerk, and others you'll really have to think about. Eventually there will come a clear end goal, which I was pleasantly surprised by.

Controlling the goose is also perfect in how unwieldy and overconfident you feel. You don't exactly move quickly, and there's no attacking, but you still feel better than the humans around you.

The minimalist art design helps sell the really low-stakes nature of the goose's quest. Sound effects are also pronounced thanks to this, and sound is very important for the goose. I also like the slight stealth gameplay that's not at all punishing, as someone who enjoys but is bad at stealth.

Cons

Even for a budget game, it's quite short to reach the "end goal". It's very much a game you can continue to mess around in, and there's a "New Game+" set of tasks you receive, but as far my "have to reach the end" mindset...I was expecting it to take a little longer. I'd say it was maybe 3 hours max, including lots of goofing around.

I also found that I VERY much don't enjoy being a jerk to children (see screenshot), and very begrudgingly did the minimum mean things to get past the kid. Luckily there is only one kid.

Final Thoughts

Honestly the lower ranking is not so much because of negatives, but because I played so many good things this year combined with this being mostly a fun little novelty. I feel like people who are interested would have already played it (if they have the console). Really you can go with your gut instinct of whether or not being an asshole goose sounds fun for you.

 9. Kingdom Hearts III (PS4)

If you told me Kingdom Hearts III wouldn't even make my top 5 in the year it was released, I'd think you were crazy. But here we are with the long-awaited game.

Pros

So much of this game is fanservice for the series, and I had fortunately caught up on the spinoffs enough to enjoy it. Seeing the 358 crew and the BBS crew, all the Organization members...there's a lot of love here.

KH3 also has some of my favourite worlds in the series in Toy Story and Pirates of the Caribbean. Pirates in particular managed to scratch that Wind Waker sailing itch just enough. Meanwhile Toy Story going for a unique plot really helped pull me in, and there's that now infamous Woody scene that I love. Even other worlds like Monsters Inc get some great scenes (like Vanitas and the doors). Tangled is also one of my favourite Disney movies, so while the world itself was pretty average, I was happy to be in it.

Combat-wise, I appreciate getting so many options like dodge roll and blocking right off the bat regardless of your initial choices; previously I always forced myself to take the Shield so I could start with the super-useful dodge roll.

The music is as stellar as ever, although they loop far too quickly given how much time you'll spend in a single area sometimes (looking at you, Toy Story).  I especially love Don't Think Twice, which had the bonus of being a complete surprise.

 Cons

KH1 was the first Aladdin. KH2 was Return of Jafar. So logically KH3 should have been King of Thieves. Instead we get no Aladdin at all!  Just the Genie as a summon I think?

For all the character fanservice, it still feels like only the main trio, Riku, and Mickey are really useful. I can't believe how poorly Aqua does as a Keyblade Master. I can't believe Kairi and Axel's training basically amounts to nothing. I know it's Sora's game, but it's still so frustrating.

And the final fight with everyone is very much so "good idea, bad execution". It just feels so messy. The entire climax is just not paced very well.

The Frozen world is one of my least favourites in the series. Nearly nothing interesting happens (outside of one good Larxene scene), you don't get Elsa as a boss or a party member, and the progression is just "got to get to Elsa's castle, oh no we fell" repeated three times. Also did they really need to put the full Let It Go song in there? I say this as someone who likes the song. This whole world is just a mess, and I think we'd be better off it was cut. And replaced with ALADDIN 3!

Where is the Wreck-It Ralph world? You know, the Disney movie about video games?

The combat somehow feels less smooth than KH2, possibly because of so many things constantly going off. The Park Attraction skills are fun at first, but later they take so long and often aren't worth bothering with. But I think HP of the enemies assumes you'll use it, because some enemies get really spongy later on.

There was also literally no reason not to end Sora's plot with this game; they had a very easy chance. But they also had an easy chance to end at KH2 and they didn't. I don't know why they're so afraid to use a different protagonist. Even if they don't want to make one, there's so many other potential-protagonists in the game already. Some of whom are also technically Sora!

Also the stupid Toy Story music loop is like 10 seconds long. Stop it.

I was actually originally going to put this at 8, but after typing out these Cons I moved the ranking back.

Final Thoughts

For as many pros and cons as I wrote out, the biggest thing about this game is that it's somehow incredibly forgettable. Kingdom Hearts 3, the game we waited over a decade for, is forgettable. And that really hurts.

The ReMind DLC has some real potential to help with this, but it also costs $40 CAD. If you're on the fence for KH3 as a whole, maybe wait and see what people say about the DLC fixing stuff.

  8. Cadence of Hyrule (Switch)

 It really hurts to put Cadence of Hyrule this low, because there's so much I love about it. And I want to see more third-parties work on Nintendo IPs.

Pros

You can finally play as Zelda in a proper Legend of Zelda game! Yes there's the rhythm mechanic and roguelike nature, but you're ultimately still going around a 2D LoZ overhead map in the same way you would a mainline game. But now you can have Zelda go around and play a little differently. For example, you have no regular shield but you have the Nayru's Love barrier which can work defensively in a different way. I appreciate that the characters all play differently when the developers could easily have easily given you three different sprites with one moveset.

The rhythm mechanic of moving on the beat works very well with the LoZ map style. Being able to see the bar speed at the bottom also helps a lot to learn in the first place. Most importantly, you have the option to completely turn it off to play this like a classic LoZ. Obviously the soundtrack itself is full of great LoZ remixes.

The difficulty is just right without being too rough or too easy with only occasional exceptions, and the game is fairly forgiving about respawing when you do die; it usually doesn't feel like a BIG deal. There's tons of LoZ equipment to use, which I really appreciate after how barebones Breath of the Wild was in that regard.

As with any roguelike, you also have a lot of replayability with the map changes and different characters and equipment to try out.

Incorporating classic bosses with musical instruments is also really fun.

Cons

It's as short as you would expect a budget game to be, but it's more expensive than your average budget game. I'm going to chalk that up to using a first-party Nintendo IP, but the price fools you into thinking the game will be longer.

I also personally don't really care for roguelikes, so the selling point of replayability isn't for me. It's a bit unfair to judge the game for something the genre is supposed to do, but I don't think it's a bad game for being like this. I just think it's a game I like less because of that emphasis.

There's also one boss in particular that was super frustrating, and I think it's because I didn't understand the "trick" to beating it.

Final Thoughts

I do honestly recommend this if you like classic LoZ, but just know what you're getting into; something that emphasizes multiple playthroughs and won't take too long on a single run, but which executes the LoZ formula itself really well.

 7. XCOM: Enemy Unknown (PC)

 I can't believe how long it took me to play XCOM: Enemy Unknown given that Fire Emblem is my favourite series. I also owned it for years on Steam, but it was just this year I finally booted up this strategy RPG.

Pros

You want a challenging SRPG? Here you goddam go. This game is punishing as hell, but as long as you don't play Iron Man mode it's still reasonable to deal with. I don't usually care for games that sell on difficulty, but I've played enough SRPGs that I don't mind more difficulty in the genre that's not cheap. XCOM very closely skirts the line of difficult and cheap, again if you are not playing Iron Man (which prevents you from restarting missions).

There's so much dumb RPG numbers to gloss over and spec, and I love it. Things to research, order to research, facilities to build, equipment to craft, skills per each character to learn. If you like pouring over resources like me but don't like the real time nature of an RTS, this is perfect.

I also like the idea that you start off so overwhelmed against an absurdly powerful alien force, and everything you're doing is basically just trying to survive while looking for a way to hold your ground. There's a real desperation in the gameplay that captures the feeling of war in a way that Fire Emblem struggles with.

 Cons

I haven't seen RNG that hates me this much since Fire Emblem: Sealed Sword. And it seems to be a universal experience that the RNG is more stacked against you than it leads you to believe.

I've also seen many people online suggest Iron Man for a person's first run, but that is AWFUL advice. It's why I almost quit the game twice, but ultimately just made a new file without Iron Man. It sounds fun for a second or later playthrough, but there's so many unknowns happening constantly in your first run that it just feels unfair to go Iron Man.

The aesthetic is sci-fi apocalypse; two designs I generally hate. Everything is so gloomy and blue and tech. It's all very forgettable to look at.

Healing options are so limited, at least in the relatively early sections I'm in (I did not beat this). Actually this is one of the very few games I started but did NOT beat before playing something else, which in itself means there's something that I really disliked. At this point I can't remember what that is.

Final Thoughts

If you like Fire Emblem gameplay but want it to be even more resource management based, and can deal with a drab aesthetic, absolutely grab this. Especially since it gets really cheap on Steam. Just do NOT start on Iron Man mode.

 6. Telltale's Batman: The Enemy Within (PC)

There was a Joker live-action movie this year; an entire movie dedicated to him. And yet Telltale managed a better Joker.

Pros

I am one of those weirdo people who considers Joker one of his favourite comic characters. I'm a sucker for a good villain, and it was probably Joker in Batman: The Animated Series that is responsible for that. So I love seeing a good fresh take on the character, and Telltale delivers. This is season two of Telltale Batman, and we briefly got to see "John Doe" in the first season as a proto-Joker who's definitely a violent jerk, but not necessarily a villain just yet. While there are many plot threads in Enemy Within, the main one is about how John grows among the mess that is Gotham. Depending on how you play, you can actually push him to become a vigilante and ally of Batman instead of the villain. This is itself not only a fun take on the character, but also the most uniquely any Telltale game has branched.

I remember explaining once that Telltale is not so much "choose how the story ends", but more "choose how your character's relationships with others changes". But there, you get a wildly different final chapter depending on whether John is a vigilante or villain. I really appreciate the effort it took, but it's also bittersweet since this was one of the last games the studio worked on before being closed.

Telltale gives us other character portrayals that range from standard to occasionally good. They have Harley play the big mob boss who has John wrapped around her finger this time, and they do a good job selling it.

You'll get some great dialogue options, and it seems almost impossible to please everyone. Being forced to make hard choices that will inevitably make someone mad at you is what this genre is about, and it's often not exactly clear cut what the consequences will be.

 Cons

Like other Telltale games, action sequences are done with QTEs. These are relics in this day and age, so I really didn't care for them. It's a good way to get around a probably costly combat engine, but it's ultimately filler to me to get back to the plot. Since this is a Batman game, it has more action sequences than the average Telltatle game.

Other sequences like searching for clues are less annoying, but still not really fun. I did not grow up on point-and-clicks, but it seems the developers did.

You also can't easily restart sequences if you selected an option by mistake; you have to restart that entire chapter. And a chapter is multiple hours. I get the implication of "you have to live with your choices", but when it's an actual mistake because I'm using a PS3 controller on my PC mapped to Xbox buttons...I get a little annoyed.

Final Thoughts

It's a little weird to start at Enemy Within if you didn't play the first season, and it will retroactively spoil things, but you honestly could. It is more fun than the original (which is also good). Easily the big selling point is being able to shape John the proto-Joker; if that doesn't appeal to you, this may not be for you.

 5. Super Metroid (SNES Classic)

Not only is 2019 the first time I played (and completed) Super Metroid; it's also the first time I completed a Metroid game at all! I had played a decent amount of Fusion and the first Prime before, but fell off both of them. This time, I absolutely saw Samus reach her goal.

Pros

How do you talk about such a beloved game? First of all, the SNES era is still visually my favourite in video games. This has a lot to do with nostalgia since I grew with the SNES, but also because it was the height of sprites before the industry turned to 3D models. And as amazing as N64 and PS1 graphics looked back then, they did not age well. The SNES, however, still holds up so well visually.

For a game with a sci-fi aesthetic that heavily takes place underground, I loved the variety and colours Super Metroid offered outside my expectations. This is definitely up there as one of the most beautiful games of the console.

Where I think the game excels the most is Samus' controls. The level of precision they built into her abilities is nuts. Obviously there are games where characters have larger movesets (such as fighters), but for a platformer I love how well you can maneuver Samus. For example, when you do a moving jump. If you hit the D-Pad and then jump, you do the Spin Jump. If you jump and then hit the D-Pad, you do a more standard jump. It may not seem like much now, but I feel like for the time it's very impressive.

There's so many fun abilities you get, and the majority of them can be used simultaneously for some really fun platforming.

You also learn very quickly even without text based on the way power-ups and obstacles are laid out. Even storytelling is done well simply through gameplay; no cinema scenes or text explanations needed.

The bosses feel stressful but almost never too cheap; you always feel like they're possible to deal with. Occasionally you may need more missiles or energy, but it's usually learning and countering patterns.

Music can effectively be atmospheric or lively depending on where you are, and I retroactively wish we had a few more Metroid tracks in Super Smash Brothers.

Also even though I'm not a 100% completion-ist type of person, I appreciate when I do find some secret missile tank by really examining the area.  

Cons

When you're not used to the controls early on, it can be tricky to handle Samus. Mostly those spin jumps. The wall jump also never really got easier.

Weapon switching is a weird situation. I appreciate you can do it on the fly with the Select button, but the fact it always goes in a certain order means it can often take a while to get to what you want.

Personally I also thought Ridley was a hell of a difficulty spike, and the game actually calmed back down in difficulty afterwards? Maybe I'm just bad at fighting such an aggressive and fast boss.

Phantoon was also a tough boss made tougher by the fact the closest working Save Point was a good 5+ minutes of platforming away for me. I like that the nearest Save Point doesn't work because the electricity is off, and it builds on the haunted ship atmosphere, but boy was that frustrating to jump all the way back nearly four times to fight that boss.

Final Thoughts

If like me you've somehow not played Super Metroid, you really should. It still holds up, and it's relatively short (my time was about 6 hours). It may be a little weird at the start with the limited abilities and getting used to the precise controls, but if you stick with it you're in for a good time.

The reason it's number 5 and not higher is not due to any particular negatives, but simply because the next few games left me with more positives.

 4. Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight (PS4)

The fact that this game exists is incredibly stupid, and I love it.

Pros

Persona 3 is not a happy game in a traditional sense. There are happy moments, but most are bittersweet. It's a game about dealing with and overcoming tragedy, and has a dark visual atmosphere to match.

So the fact we get to see that cast dancing around with bright colours is nuts. But not at all in a bad way. These characters go through so many difficulties; they absolutely deserve to have a fun dance party where they don't have to think about anything else. This isn't the happy kids deciding to dance; this is a bunch of stressed out people who need a break. And as someone who loves Persona 3, it makes me so happy to...well, see them happy.

The majority of the original voice actors were brought back (the main exception being Elizabeth), and they do just as good a job as in the old days.

We get mostly great remixes of the P3 songs, and the original versions of others. Each song has a particular character assigned to it so they can more effectively match their dancing style. The models look amazing.

There's also minor Social Link elements which are used in place of a story, and their personalities are mostly intact. There's certainly some Flanderization, but it's not as bad as Persona Q.

You also get a decent progression system of unlocking songs in batches, and needing to beat them to get the next songs. The Social Link requirements help make repeating the songs fun while giving you something to work towards.

The rhythm game itself is hard to judge since I play very few rhythm games. I found it fun once I got the hang of it on normal difficulty. There's tons of modification options to make it easier or harder depending on your preferences.

 Cons

As with every modern Persona game, the DLC is awful. Tons of Day One DLC, and they even locked Shinji to DLC! Does he not also deserve to have fun without paying extra? There's also a few songs I would have liked, but not at those prices. Otherwise DLC is mostly costumes and accessories which I both don't care about, and which are overpriced.

I also hate that we had an EASY chance to get the FeMC Minako in this fun low-stakes plot game, but didn't. It's not like Atlus forgot about her either; she was in Persona Q2 which came out a little later. If anything, SHE should have been DLC and Shinji should have been in the base game.

The jump in difficulty between Hard and All-Night is absurd. I can beat most songs on Hard with good ratings, but I can't beat the first song on All-Night at all.

Koromaru is not in the game, which inherently prevents it from being perfect. He could have jumped in during Fever Time at least!

Final Thoughts

This game is only for Persona 3 fans, but boy is it some great fanservice for us. If you're a Persona 3 fan that at least slightly enjoys rhythm games, this is for you.

 3. Indivisible (PS4)

 As of writing this, I have not actually beaten Indivisible. If I had to guess, I'm at the 2/3 mark? A big plot thing just happened, but it's clearly not the final plot thing.

Since this game is less known, it's a platformer/fighter/RPG hybrid with a heavy South Asian influence.

Pros

It's a platformer/fighter/RPG hybrid with a heavy South Asian influence.

Look at that sentence! These are all things I love!

I grew up on platformers and RPGs, and I have a lot of fun when I get into a fighter. And as someone who always desperately tries to find even one brown character in most video games, I'm all about a cast that is mostly South Asian!

The combat system is really fun. It utilizes something similar the classic Final Fantasy ATB style system, but at a very quick refresh rate and tons of fighting game elements thrown in. For example, a key is doing combos with your various party members. Each character has 3 standard moves, and knowing when to use what depending on the enemy's position is where the strategy comes in. There's also one party-wide meter that everyone dips into to use Supers. It's a very aggressive and offense-oriented battle system, but they manager to incorporate healers and support units comfortably. But yes, everyone is basically a fighting game character in an RPG battle system.

The platforming starts off very basic, but you get access to so many moves and can use them all fluidly together. There's some really fun platforming segments that really force you to use everything Ajna can do.

The character designs are top-notch, even removed from how ecstatic I am about the diversity. Again, they are designed as fighting game characters who have to be distinct and high-quality. Everyone also feels extremely unique in combat.

I wouldn't say the overall story and writing is amazing, but there's some good moments here and there.  It also follows a somewhat less traditional path for Ajna so far, even though I'm expecting a fairly traditional climax.

 Cons

Okay, so this is in some ways a fighting game. Which means you should have a move list you can look up. While you get a brief explanation of each character's gimmick when you recruit them, there's NO MOVE LIST!

That sucks, but you can go into Training and figure out the moves for yourself, right? Yes, except you don't unlock Training until almost 10 hours into the game! Which means for the early part of the game when you're still learning the mechanics of the system as a whole, you also have more trouble learning what each character can do. Combined with a very high rate of recruiting new characters early on, this can be overwhelming. If they didn't want to make a move list, they should at least have made Training available from the beginning.

Backtracking can be a bit of a pain; there's minimal fast travel points. Ajna doesn't cover as much space as Samus relatively to the game world, so it really takes some time to go around. Enough that it sometimes discourages exploration, which is not good in a platformer.

The sense of progression is also pretty slow once you get past the 1/3 mark. You don't get new characters quite as quickly, and it's not as though your characters learn new moves (they shouldn't, based on how the battle system works). You also only have levels for Ajna, which in my experience don't make a huge difference. And there's no equipment or items give you that sense of growth. What you have are the Ringels; collect enough of them and you can get a major defense upgrade, or add an additional attack slot per turn to every character. They're great upgrades, and fun to explore and find, but it's a long time between upgrades.

I also feel like healers and support are tough to use well in such an aggressive battle system, which is unfortunate because I traditionally love support-type characters.

Final Thoughts

Despite liking it more than most of the games on this list, it's a tough recommend. It's very specific to what it is, and there's nothing to really compare it to. However I really like it, and I especially love the South Asian influence.

 2. Celeste (Switch)

If you showed me a 10-second clip of Celeste gameplay, I'd dismiss it as some easier Super Meat Boy clone.

I'm so glad I didn't.

Pros:

In many ways, Celeste can be called a long series of platforming challenge rooms. Basically once you clear a distinct "screen" and die, you move forward. You die, you restart on the same screen in seconds. There's infinite lives and no timer. You take as long as you need, and you keep pushing forward. It's a compromise of making a classically difficult platformer that removes all elements that make the classics feel cheap. And it's also a great representation of the story Madeline is going through.

Having a young-life crisis, non-mountain-climber Madeline sets out to climb the famously difficult mountain Celeste. There's a few other characters to deal with, but the majority of the game is spent with Madeline and the reflection that represents another side of her. A side of her that's always bringing her down and trying to force her to turn backIt's a short and well-written story, and absolutely worth experiencing. I love the weaving of the "keep trying" gameplay and story, and the fact an Assist Mode to make the gameplay easier is available from the start is important.

The music also nails that Super Metroid feeling of atmospheric or lively depending on what's happening.

Controls are similarly precise but reasonable, and the incredibly low stakes of failure make even the cheaper platforming segments doable. Some of the platforming is legitimately annoying, but being able to try again in literal seconds makes it less frustrating than easier platformers.

Cons

I don't care for the character sprites. They are small and faceless. You understand what they're going for, and I know they have to be small in relation to the area of the game. But it's just not visually appealing.

...I can't really think of any other cons.

Final Thoughts

I feel like Celeste is an important game that will stay with me, far beyond just a good game I played in 2019. It's short, it doesn't cost much, and it's absolutely worth your time if you have any sort of anxiety or self-esteem issues.

 1. Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch)

 My favourite series finally returns to a home console after nearly a decade. And boy does it deliver.

Pros

There's two critical things I look for when judging a Fire Emblem game; the cast, and the core gameplay.

The cast in Three Houses is nearly fully presented to you from the start of the game. You have your three separate houses with their individual students, and you choose one to lead. Fortunately you can recruit most students from other houses with some work, so you don't have to worry too much about mutually exclusive units. You will see a few new faces over the course of the game join your team as well, so there's still some surprises. At first glance, many of the characters can be relegated to anime tropes. Claude is the charismatic schemer, Marianne is the quiet girl who likes animals, Hilda is the lazy high-confidence girl, etc. But as you progress through the story and the Support conversations, you'll find that nearly every character has a lot of writing effort put into them. I do not want to give any examples because it's better to get to them yourself throughout the game, but don't take the characters at face-value. Don't expect a full 180 personality shift, but do expect lots of depth to explain both currently personalities, and being able to see the growth of these characters. There's some very relatable issues some of the characters face.

Honestly, it's not a stretch to say Three Houses has some of my favourite characters in the series. It's a big plus that one of the main Lords is dark-skinned for the first time in series history.

Then we have the gameplay. Off the bat we're into some very non-traditional Fire Emblem stuff with the academy system; you use things like lectures to build the weapon levels of your students. Also Cavalry, Heavy Armor, and Flying have their own weapon levels now? Also you don't buy spells, you learn them with weapon levels? There is a LOT that's different.

But what remains the same is the core formula of the strategy-RPG battles. Your process to build your units may be different in many ways, but you're still using the tactics you would expect in an FE game. There's just a few other things to consider now.

Basically I feel that Three Houses' new systems are a good compliment to the classic system as opposed to being a full replacement. Which is why even as an old FE elitist, I absolutely loves playing out the fights. Also they brought back Fog of War!

I really love the incorporation of visible agro lines. Basically when you move your character within enemy range, you actually see direct lines from the enemies so you see who will attack you. Combined with ability to go back to a previous turn, this helps make bad RNG feel less frustrating.

The story is also hands-down the best of the modern Fire Emblem era (everything from Awakening and beyond). It may start off as anime high-school, but having a cast of characters from entirely different countries attend school together as teenagers and then skipping forward to when they are leading their respective countries to war against each other...it's a lot to take in. And you have four different ways to experience the game, all of which are fairly distinct.

New gameplay elements like the lectures and academy activities are actually pretty fun, and dip into a bit of that Persona itch. You also get a better feel for the cast as you see them going about more normal activities. And it's all done in voice acting. Even every generic NPC dialogue in all four routes. Honestly the level of voice acting is incredible for a first-party Nintendo game. Voices also help the game feel so much more alive.

As always, the music is wonderful. The main theme Edge of Dawn is up there with Kingdom Hearts songs among my favourite video game vocal tracks.

Seriously, listen to it:

The option to freely change class so long as you can pass certification is weird, but feels far less busted than Awakening and Fates due to skills taking longer to learn, and mostly being less overpowered. It's also great aesthetically. Being able to use any weapon with any class was also an interesting change.

Also we have gauntlets as a weapon in Fire Emblem now. Which means you can run up to a goddam Wyvern Rider and punch them in the face. This is amazing.

Another plus is that despite incorporating a time skip, there is no child system. Which means Support is not longer a means to getting a perfect gene child unit, but instead to see how characters grow together while also getting a slight stat boost.

 Cons

I kind of miss the Weapon Triangle. I know it's not even the most important thing in the old game, but I have nostalgia for it? You can sort of get the Weapon Triangle abilities once you raise your respective weapon levels enough.

As for more of a real problem...gender locked classes. It's very frustrating that there is only one class that focuses on Gauntlets, and it's locked to males. Like, have you seen Leonie? She's made to be a puncher! And I made her one, but I had to make her a Warrior.

Similarly, the only Master class that focuses on magic is locked to females. It didn't present a problem for me in the Golden Deer route, but I'm sure at one point during the other 3 routes I'll want to make a male magic user. Oh, the Dark Mage line is also locked to males, but doesn't have a Master class.

Master classes in general are a problem. Nearly all of them are Cavalry or Flying, and it's visually annoying. Also because most of my Advanced classes were infantry, so my characters didn't really learn Cavalry or Flying with certain exceptions.

I wish there were no gender-locked classes, and more infantry Master classes.

Also I know it doesn't make sense story-wise, but I wish I could recruit Claude to Blue Lions or Black Eagles because I really don't want to hurt him when I play those routes.

Final Thoughts

I mean, it's number one on my list. Obviously I love it. But it's important to note this is my favourite Fire Emblem game in a long time. I feel like I need more distance from it (and to play the other routes) to really compare it to my favourites, but for now it's at least my favourite game of 2019, and my favourite Switch game.