#I also think being friends with Ventus might help her? I don’t know give her friends man. I want her to form connections.

[blue-eli]

Thinking about Kairi & Sora but mainly Kairi and going insane. Girl you have so many issues

[fisherrprince]

@renatogpadilla : What about baby Ven headcanons from the Age of Fairy Tales? Or current day Ven with Chirithy back and training with Kairi? I imagine having been a part of Sora for so long makes him want to protect Kairi like crazy, but it's VEN, so maybe it doesn't go that well... (Wether it's because the Daybreak Town issues hit them like a ton of Bricks or because Kairi legit wants her own adventure and accomplishments is anyone's guess... Regardless, Chirithy sus)

(vibrates) small ventus this got long my sincerest apolocheese

this goes hand in hand with my daybreak hcs so i think small ven has no concept of private gardens. Daybreak town had communal gardens/agriculture, and the LoD had their gardens and the market near town, and he barely went to the second one so if that boy sees a fruit tree. He's going to take one.

also my FAVOURITE HC thats now supported by khux is that ven Did not Learn how to Read Modern Script until about a year into staying with Eraqus. Ancient text he can read, but Xehanort didn't give him books, and hundreds of years have passed and language has evolved he has no idea what this sign says. Aqua gives him her YA fantasy novels like magic treehouse. vanitas can't read either

he was also just, Extremely nervous a lot... if we had anxiety medication in the age of fairytales he'd be on some. Not only as like, an insecurity thing (because this kid is the most insecure little man--) but also he startles easily and his brain often goes to the worst outcome. He's not necessarily a pessimist, he's very excited when things go right and when there's New Stuff to see!!!!! He often thinks the best of people he hasn't gotten to know!! but that also makes him think he's the one with issues, not someone that might be rude to him. the kid has inattentive adhd leave him be there are also no medications for that -- but he's doing better now that there are older kids who taught him coping methods that work.

He also Definitely played down how darn powerful he was because he didn't want to like, brag, or was afraid the other kids were obviously stronger than he was. The other dandies are STRONG, but Ven didn't have much going on socially, so training/missions was his go-to. khux ven wasn't allowed to be awake during th finale bc he would have gone ham

also wasn't allowed bc the Darkness he ate still had a sentience if not a heart and it hadn't gone thru time and gotten muddled yet so it would not have gone well

Ven Loves weather as a Thing that exists, he loves when it snows and rains and thunderstorms and he would and still does dash outside in that thunderstorm just to be in it. Ventus you will catch a cold. its worth it!!!

when he wakes up he sometimes has a hard time remembering when and where he is, or what he's doing. Sometimes his brain just says hey! We're back home ten years ago, go look for the master :] or hey we're supposed to be asleep go to sleep. it really messes with him he doesn't like it, he'd never experienced something like a sleep paralysis hallucination before and dislikes it Immensely

UM I THINK, I think actually that he and Kairi are buds and they totally see eye to eye! Both fulla light, kind of treated like glass by their best friends, both very interested in being part of something though while Ven is very into traveling and safeguarding the worlds Kairi is taking the Riku route and is into protection mostly for her close confidants. She doesn't care much about The Big Picture, she cares about her friends. They would hang out and like, shake hands and agree not to hold back on each other (well, mostly, Kairi is still learning and Ven is nearly at Mastery level) when sparring or just talking. I feel like if they had to be careful talking to other people, they wouldn't have to with each other. I just think they're fwends and they play extreme uno together... Ven has Huge protective instincts for Sora, like, fully big brother instincts him, but Kairi visited for a little bit a while ago and he kind of "watched over" her little sleeping heart during that time, knowing that Sora was keeping her safe just like he did for him. ventus loves sora to absolute death and sora doesnt even know the full extent of it

anyways yeah chirithy sus but i give it a kiss on the head just don't do anything drastic and i will still love u you sweet sweet kitty cat . how are u affecting your keybearer is he like, good, mentally, with you around,

i cannot Wait until this kid starts remembering things. I think Namine should help. I think that maybe he should realize half his memories are with Vanitas and hysterically try to find him to get them back

i also think ven has taller energy than the rest of the heart hotel. sora/vanitas/roxas/xion are 5'2" (CANONICALLY? YOURE SHORT?) (vanitas is 5'4" with the heels), ven is 5'5", Namine is 5'7". they r all still growing a little but their heights will remain in this order

[dahniwitchoflight]

KHUX - Where’d they all go?

Alright so, first!

Who and what and where did everyone end up?

Maleficient: Took a pod to a specific point in the future, achieved this by also using her pet crow to force memories of her present self by having it fly her cloak to the great fairies and make them remember her

Ephemer: Brain from outside manages to send two pods back into the data Daybreak Town to rescue Ephemer and Skuld, (with the last Pod still in the Data meant for the Player, so all three could escape) Pops out of the pod to see the destroyed real Daybreak Town, goes back in with Skuld to escape the dying worldline along with the others, Gets flung forward in time just a tad from his own perspective to become the Founder of Scala Ad Caelum from the ruins of the destroyed Daybreak Town (Still doesn’t answer how or why he popped out in KH3 to help, but eh, guess that’s a question for Dark Road?)

Lauriam: Hops into one of three Pods in the real Daybreak Town to escape, Gets flung to present KH Times in a flower field from Snow White’s world, most likely proceeds to become a nobody some time later

Elrena: Hops into one of three Pods in the real Daybreak Town to escape, Gets flung to roughly the same time and place as Lauriam, but on the stormy mountain from the Witch’s area of Snow White’s world,  most likely proceeds to become a nobody some time later

Ventus: Hops into one of three Pods in the real Daybreak Town to escape, Ends up in the keyblade graveyard, roughly a few years before BBS and is found by Old Xehanort starting that story

Player: Tricks Ephemer into sealing them and the 4 darknesses into a piece of the Data Daybreak Town by pretending to have fallen to darkness, ends up dying from the 4 Darknesses, sacrificing themselves to save Ephemer and Skuld. In the realm between Death and Sleep, their dying heart then reincarnates eventually into a new young Heart (as they sometimes do), into that of newborn Young Xehanort, who is from Scala Ad Caelum in the time of Dark Road-ish, gets sent to Destiny Island’s by a mysterious old man who then dies, and then Young Xehanort begins his journey in Dark Road

Strelitzia: Her apparent Nobody gets sent to the future into the real world by Luxu, but it’s unknown where or when she ends up, last seen walking off in a white version of the Nobody Coat  (I suppose this is another question Dark Road will likely answer?)

Skuld: Brain from outside manages to send two pods back into the data daybreak town to rescue Emphemer and Skuld, Pops out of the pod to see the destroyed real Daybreak Town, goes back in with Ephemer to escape the dying worldline along with the others, We don’t find out her whereabouts, but the remaining theory is that she is Subject X from BBS, Lea and Isa’s friend with amnesia (I suppose this is another question Dark Road will likely answer?)

Rest of the Sleeping Dandelions/Fallen Keyblade Wielders: As their hearts fall asleep, the Chirithy that is bound to their hearts also takes on a sleeping form and become Dream Eaters, Spirit shaped by their wielders Dreams in order to protect them

Luxu: Last seen dragging along the box, holding the keyblade, and lifting up his hood to reveal that he looks exactly like Brain just without the hat

Brain: Gets flung forward roughly to the time of Dark Road-ish, last seen in Scala Ad Caelum that has been rebuilt for a while now by Ephemer the founder from a long time ago, just without his signature hat, and due to his conversation with a figure named Sigurd (who gives him his hat back), has likely fallen roughly into the times of KH Dark Road, and is perhaps a closer ancestor to Eraqus than first thought! maybe even a grandpa or great-grandpa

now the fun thing about Luxu and Brain and why they might look the same, cuz there’s a few options:

Is that before their final scenes, the 2nd last scene Luxu and Brain had was with eachother, right after Brain sent everyone on their merry way, Luxu pops up and says hey watcha doing, and Brain says he wants to stay behind to help free all the sleeping keyblade wielders, even if it takes him the rest of his life, and Luxu comments at him that it’d be a shame for him to waste his life like that or something to the effect before a fade to black

and the thing is, we don’t get to see their individual arrangements for how Both Luxu and Brain escape to the worldline along with the others. We just know that for sure he doesn’t stay and wake up the wielders, because all of their chirithy’s turn into the dream eaters. (And also that apparently he left his hat behind before he left as he picks it up in Scala when Sigurd gives it back to him)

And since there’s only one seemingly possible pod left to take, the one from the data world left for the Player (who never took it and instead dies), theres seem to be only one spot left on the ride out, and with Luxu’s body snatching tendencies, it seems to suggest that Luxu overtook Brain’s Heart and Body, grabbed the last pod from the data and adios’d

BUT the key here is in their apparent attitudes that we know this is likely not the case, and also the Hat, not only does it make it obviously clear who is who, the logistics of the Hat make it clear as well

In both cases, the boy who ends up in the graveyard with the box and the key, and the boy who appears in Scala, neither of them have Brain’s hat

But Brain IS last seen with his hat

If Luxu had overtaken Brain, there would be no reason for him to discard the hat, since the entire point of the body snatching is to be that person

Then, when Brain wakes up in Scala, Sigurd comes along and presents the hat saying “We’ve been waiting for you.” and Brain takes it back

Brain would neither remove his hat, nor would Luxu remove it if he had overtaken Brain

Instead, the likelier option is that Luxu forcibly put Brain into a pod and sent him to the future, saying it would be a shame if Brain were to die while Daybreak Town fell to darkness, because that’s what would’ve happened if Brain tried to stay behind

Where does that Leave Luxu though? How does he get back?

Well back in the data daybreak town, there are actually two Pods left, one meant for the Player who never used it, which Brain likely ended up taking, and a Destroyed Pod that got written off since who would know how to fix it?

Oh, Luxu would! And we know he does, because he specifically taunts Brain with that knowledge, asking him if he even knows how their supposed to work, And wouldn’t ya know, it’s in the Data Daybreak Town, meaning Luxu wouldn’t have even need to physically fix it, he could have easily reprogrammed it to be fixed from the computer side

So, two people, two pods, Luxu sends Brain on his merry way, in the scuffle because Brain would have resisted, the hat might’ve been removed, and Luxu could have easily set it up so that the hat could be preserved and in the future they would know to look and wait for Brain to appear

The only mystery remains then is why does Luxu looks like Brain?

appearances are tricky things in the KH series as well all know, and Luxu’s face has been hidden all this time, likely because his face would have been a spoiler or potentially confusing had it been shown from the beginning of KHX, not KHUX even

The one hint we have, is that in the Back Cover cinematic, which takes places during KHX, If you look closely, apparently you can see a shaggy lock of hair under his hood that matches Brain’s

which means Luxu has probably looked liked Brain all along from the start!

And before getting into the crazier reasons of why someone would look like someone else in the KH series (look at you Ventus/Roxas, Sora/Vanitas, Kairi/Namine/Xion) 

the one that makes the most sense to me personally, consideriong this fact, is that Luxu is a Replica of some sort, of Brain, made by the Master of Masters to fulfill a specific purpose for him, and considering Luxu’s purpose was easily the most important of MoM’s plans, and with how in his early appearances Luxu appears very withdrawn, shy, or dependant on MoM but also separate in some way from the rest of the 5 and with how we know that MoM has no qualms creating living things to do his bidding like the Chirithy’s, we know he’s aware of the replica technology at the very least since the pod system appears to be a workaround for this very issue of needing a medium for the flesh at the appropriate time and place

I think him being a replica with Brain’s appearance makes the most sense, Brain was certainly already on MoM’s radar as a special keyblade wielder, since he was one of the ones MoM chose to be a new union leader, and the way that Luxu’s appearance has always been hidden, how he always wore the black coat which in KH3 seems to be confirmed as what a “default” Replica body appears in when not in use, as we see when Riku Replica shunts out evil Repliku to have the body for Namine, it appears as a doll covered in the black coat

To me, I think it’s fitting, and I think that Luxu being comfortable with shunting from body to body and switching between forms is also part of that, his original form is a replica made to mimic another person, so why wouldn’t he continue that trend? Moving his heart from vessel to vessel, never getting attached to the flesh or identity itself? 

So yeah, I believe that Luxu taking over Brain is a red herring that KHUX ending presents, but I believe it will ultimately not be the case, and the rest of Dark Road/Verum Rex will go further into the reason why that is, with Luxu being a Replica of Brain from the very start coming out on top as the most likely series of events

[mimiplaysgames]

Terraqua Week Day 6 (Free Day)

Summary: Terra and Aqua are getting married—and Ven is the Bridezilla. || Word Count: 9,058

Read on AO3

A/N: @terraquaweek​ I could have never written this without my dear friend @localcryptideli​. We talked about this wedding years ago, and I promised to write it. It’s here, three years later, blending their headcanons with mine and I couldn’t be more proud of it. <3

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

the threads that tie hearts together

Terra never once considered in his entire life that his wedding preparations would include the perk of mice squeaking in his ear—but he here is, in the tailor’s studio, getting re-fitted for his tuxedo, with Princess Cinderella’s team of seamstress mice on his shoulders, measuring the length of his arms. His muscles were too big for the previous suit. 

Ven refuses to hire a proper tailor, and instead rents out the parlor so the mice could do their work in private.

Lea sits on a nearby bench by the shoe shelves, the top button of his shirt open, jabbing at his Gummiphone. He’s quite popular today, pinged every two minutes. Isa and Roxas share a mirror, trying to get the mechanics of their bow ties right. 

Terra is getting married. 

The thought. Married. Soon. Yes. Damn. He can’t cry right now.

Terra stands in front of a mirror and bends his elbows to see how the fabric moves. The mice are tiny, three of them in skirts. They’ve developed an efficient obstacle course of threads all down his entire body, a network so the mice on the floor can deliver them supplies—spools, sewing needles, thumbtacks, measuring tape—in a jiffy. 

Lea groans, squeezing his Gummiphone. “This twerp is going to turn me into a serial killer.” He yawns, possibly for the fortieth time.

“Not an ill-fitting job, all things considered,” Isa says from across the room.

“I do appreciate your sarcasm.”

“Who’s bothering you?” Terra asks, lifting his collar so the mouse on his left could thread through it with a sewing needle.

Lea snorts, slaps his knee and leans forward. “Did you not know your buddy is a monster?”

“Ven?”

“Oh, he’s a joy.” Lea holds his Gummiphone up as if he’s about to make a speech. “Come help me pick out Aqua’s flowers. Now. If you could.” He glances at Terra, then back at the phone. “He writes that in all-caps.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t mean to be so pushy.”

“The other day, he called me to model the bride’s dress because Miss Aqua couldn’t be bothered to come to the fitting herself.”

“Master Aqua was away on a mission,” Isa explains.

“Isa took photos of me in it—” Lea scrolls through his phone, but stops. “Oh, I can’t show you before...” He clicks his tongue. “It’s very nice. Very bridal.”

Terra is sure that’s true, but the image of Ven hanging his head so much on someone else’s wedding is worrisome. Last night, he fell asleep at dinner. “I think Ven is taking on too much stress.”

“Lea,” Roxas says, snorting a chuckle and giving up on his bow tie, “you should show him the texts.” 

“Gladly.” Lea stands to shove the Gummiphone into Terra’s face. Out of the history, a couple of messages stand out.

Ventus

I got 500 cake flavors come taste them with me

Ventus

Which cologne do you think terra should wear

COME SMELL 

i need a second opinion

Ventus

Do you have aqua’s flowers yet?

remember 

we want orange roses and bluestars

Ventus

Aqua isnt here im freaking out

Youre closest to her body type

HELP

After all that, Terra feels as though he’s being watched by several microscopic eyes. One of the mice squeaks with urgency, and he straightens one of his arms. “I don’t know what to say... Why doesn’t he talk to me directly?”

Lea purses his lips as though this is a secret not worth sharing. Roxas is the one to step forward, a knowing grimace plastered on his face.

“He told me that he doesn’t want to bother you with anything.”

That doesn’t sound entirely false but not true either.

“That’s ridiculous.” Terra tests the bend of the elbow to fiddle with his bow tie. It’s already done but something about it doesn’t sit right. “He could come to me for anything,” he says with a low voice, wondering if there’s something he’s missing. Terra has also been a mess. He’s getting married. Holy stars. 

Isa huffs out of frustration, turning away from the mirror, his bow tie undone. He studies Terra’s suit. “I don’t like it.”

His straightforwardness is well appreciated. Aqua would probably smirk at the sight of it and stare at his neck the entire ceremony. “I don’t either,” Terra says.

“Smart man.” Isa smirks, and tugs Terra’s bow tie to undo it. “Let’s change it.”

Lea snorts. “You might want to ask permission from he-who-shall-be-slapped.”

“It’s my wedding,” Terra says.

“So you think.”

He-who-may-be-slapped enters the tailor’s parlor through the front entrance, announced by the bell of the ring. He’s perfectly dressed in his ringbearer’s/best man’s/maid of honor’s suit, vest fitted, bow tie sublime, sleeves coiffed. He sees what Isa is doing. He gapes.

“Hey guys,” Ven asks with a frustratingly shaky voice. “What are we doing?”

“They are unbecoming,” Isa answers, wrapping a traditional tie around Terra’s neck.

“Oh.” 

Sometimes, speaking to Isa is like getting clocked in the stomach. By the looks of Lea’s expression, chewing on the edge of his Gummiphone, it’s well deserved.

“Okay,” Ven says, with a tight smile. He takes the tie from Isa’s hands. “Do they match?”

“A hello would be less rude,” Terra says. “Hi, Ven. Can we talk?”

Ven glances up. “Later. There’s lots to do.”

Lea inhales sharply. “Hey, Ven. Here’s an idea. Did you know you could tame cicadas to sing in harmony on command?”

Ven whips his head around. “You can?”

Isa brings a hand up to hide a smirk and Lea passes him a subtle wink.

“Picture it.” Lea opens his arms. “From nine until eleven at night, they gather in the bushes. They mutter, a light dusting of atmosphere on a peaceful summer night.”

Ven’s eyes grow wide with obsession. 

Roxas comes near. “You can also make them glow.”

“Like stars in the bushes,” Ven whispers to himself.

“Come on, guys,” Terra says, unimpressed. “Leave him alone. We’ve got better things to do.”

Ven snaps himself out of it, but not before pulling out a notepad and writing notes. He eyes Terra over, nudging him to open his arms and pinching the sides of the suit. Ven draws them in by the measure of a finger and pulls pins out of his pocket, like he’s been expecting to use them, and marks their places. “Jaq Jaq,” he calls, “where’s Suzy? We need to make sure these ties look right. Oh, and we need two extras—we have to ship some to Riku and Sora.”

Some mouse squeaks in reply.

“I can help her carry things.” Ven gives a flash of a smile and then hurries off.

Out of earshot, Lea gives Terra a look. “Anyone able to talk to mice is a crazy person in my book.”

Terra glares back and quotes, “‘You could tame cicadas to sing on command?’”

“He needs something to obsess over. How else am I going to get peace?”

“This is going to bite you in the ass,” Roxas says, wrapping his new tie over the neck and having a much easier time.

“Ventus may very well task you with hunting and gathering the cicadas,” Isa says, a tie already in place, immaculate. 

Lea groans and Terra feels it’s well deserved. 

Well deserved… the suit may be. The future wife, maybe not. The suit is a glove for every finger with no excess. It makes him a good-looking groom, a nice addition to the closet for any special occasion. The bride is beautiful, no matter what she wears. She is loyal, patient, strong, intelligent, loving, funny when she’s stern, too good for him, a divine gift he didn’t earn and he still can’t understand how she said yes.

“I hope you’re laughing at the face of my misery,” Lea says.

Terra knows that’s sarcasm. Weddings are headaches, emotions are terrifying and Terra needs Aqua like a sip of medicinal tea to calm down.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The others squeal when they walk into Le Grand Bistro. It’s sunset, the city lights already ignited and giving it the glow of evening fairies welcoming the moon. They’ve just discussed dresses—Xion requests a pantsuit instead, which looks stellar—and they can choose their own styles so long as they all wear the color of night. Simple, elegant. That’s the kind of effect Aqua prefers. Thank goodness they’re almost done. Aqua couldn’t handle more hands in her hair and she rejected the flower crown that would have come down on one side to compensate for the lack of length. 

She fiddles with the ring—a thin, intricate design weaved around a small, blue stone—as a waiter escorts them to the kitchen. On days when she doesn’t have missions, she wears it.

Aqua is getting married. Some part of her wonders about the surreality of it, like it’s a dream or a picture she created in her mind when she was a child, at the altar with a faceless person next to her. Sometimes, it feels like she is already married. Terra has always been with her. Every day in class. Every day strolling through the woods. Every day sparring, sharing meals, bickering and laughing. Her best friend, her confidant, her rock.

There is something about nearly dying that challenges perspective. When they both thought they’d never see each other again, it made them realize there’s more to it and there’s been more to it for years. The emotional intimacy that strengthened after the fact. The physicality of it, when he takes her to bed. They argue differently, they laugh the same. Terra has always been with her, so what is the difference between being with him and being married to him? A part of her is eager to find out. The other is already at peace, a kind of joy Aqua has always wanted.

Ven is in the kitchen, talking with Remy (responding to Remy, who is naturally unintelligible). Plates of cake pieces sprawl out on the table, eliciting oohs and aahs from the others, all patient like they’re waiting for Aqua’s permission to take a small bite.

Aqua reads through the description of flavors—strawberry, fudge, angel food cake with blueberries, red velvet, even coffee. “The one we requested isn’t here.”

“You mean…” Ven pulls out his notepad and looks through his notes. Remy climbs onto Ven’s head, squeaking and pointing to a bowl of flour and eggs, unmixed. “Dark chocolate and rum?”

“That would be correct.”

“A spicy cake? Are you insane?” At his shock and at Aqua’s denial, Kairi helps herself to a spoonful of vanilla. “This is a wedding, not a club!”

“My wedding, Ven.” Aqua isn’t annoyed, but amused. Ven has such strong opinions about for some reason. 

“Try this one.” He holds up a plate of a decorated piece that honestly looks delicious. “Triple chocolate, with the rarest berries found in the woods, matured at thirty-five degrees Celsius for a week.” 

“Burnt cake?” Kairi asks with a smirk.

“Not the cake, the berries.” 

“Oh,” Xion gasps, with need in her eyes. It takes a nod from Aqua to grab a fork and have at it. She approaches each piece with so much excitement— Aqua wonders if there are flavors here she’s never tried before in her short life. 

“What will the final cake look like?” Naminé asks, the only one not to dive forward. She’s so gentle, so serene. When they were trying out dresses, everyone was saying what a beautiful bride she’ll be one day if she chooses. 

“Perfect,” Ven says, like it’s the most obvious thing. “It has to be perfect so it will look beautiful. Painted like a night sky, with stars everywhere. You got that, Remy?”

Remy glares at Ven.

“I want,” Aqua starts, and when Ven frowns, she smirks. Sometimes, for the sake of maintaining control, she has to play dirty. “Rosewater and cardamom.” 

Ven sticks his tongue out in disgust.

“Terra needs something to enjoy,” Aqua insists. “These are all too sweet for him.”

“Terra is the bane of my existence.”

“By the way, I don’t know if I want King Mickey and Queen Minnie to officiate.”

“You are way more difficult to deal with.”

Aqua and Ven have a staring contest as the others talk about their favorite flavors. Ven, a glare, a challenge to outwit her. Aqua, a calm knowing that she’s going to win. Ven relents.

“Fine,” he stresses. “Remy, change of plans. We’ll need some damage control. Let’s add some”—he writes into his notepad—“fruit pastries, sweet cheese with chocolate—”

“Triple chocolate,” Kairi adds.

“Custard and kiwi,” Xion says.

“All good choices.” Ven writes them down.

“Sea salt ice cream?” Naminé says, lifting a shoulder. “Everyone else eats them, I hope to try some.”

“Ven.” Kairi slams a hand on the table. “You need to add marshmallows covered in hazelnut and chocolate.”

“We need all the chocolate,” Ven agrees. “Call it revenge on this nasty cake.”

Kairi cackles, but it’s nothing malicious. They’re young and excited about the wedding, their suggestions a way of helping. Aqua takes it all in stride. The small details don’t matter, only the intent, and letting friends have fun deciding makes the entire process easier. What’s bothering her is Ven. He’s exhausted from taking it all too seriously. Aqua assumes the best intentions, but she doesn’t get it.

“You know what would be really cute?” Xion says. “Little petit fours shaped in your symbols.”

Ven blinks. “What symbols?”

“Oh, the Keyblade Master symbols.” Naminé claps her hands. “That would be so lovely.”

“In different colors,” Xion says.

“Each a different flavor,” Naminé adds. “Maybe the same colors as your Wayfinders?”

“You two are geniuses.” Ven taps his notepad. “Remy, we gotta get to work.”

Remy stomps a paw and squeaks vigorously.

“No worries. You’ll get paid.” Though it seems that’s the last thing on Remy’s mind.

“Ven,” Aqua says softly, pulling him aside as the others brainstorm ideas. “I don’t think we can afford all this.”

“Sure you can,” he says too confidently, though she and Terra were the ones to save up their munny. “Don’t worry,” he stresses when she’s not convinced, giving her a squeeze on the arm. “You asked me to bookkeep your finances” 

“Reminder that I did not ask you to take full responsibility. Remy can’t do all of this alone, he’s going to need you.”

“I’ve got plenty of time, and we’ve got plenty of budget.”

Aqua does not know how that is possible. After the dresses, the refitting of Terra’s tux, the decorations… sure, since they’re using the ballroom in the Land of Departure, they saved on not having to rent out a venue, but the original plan was to have a small, intimate wedding in the woods, something private with just the three of them, minimal decorations necessary, all plucked from nature. 

All of this is out of their price range.

Ven goes back to the table, back to the stovetop and oven where he follows Remy’s instructions and mixes the flour in the bowl with some milk. He doesn’t assuage her at all, like he knows something she doesn’t.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Home should be a solace but not when it’s the wedding rehearsal. 

Ven has ushered in movers from different worlds to carry in artifacts, all decorations, all star-themed. Terra has yet to see the ballroom, but the amount of people rushing through the hallways makes him nervous. 

Ever since Terra called Riku in the dead of night (in a panic, needing someone to talk to, alone in the kitchen with a cracked mug of tea), blabbing about tripping on the way to the altar, or cutting the cake clean through the table, or stepping on linen and ripping the curtains, or dropping his plate of food, or looking like an idiot on the dance floor, or worse—forgetting his vows—he hasn’t lived a moment of peace. Sora won’t let him. 

Terra finds it hard to breathe. What if he chokes on his vows and accidentally offends everyone?

He stays far away from the workers—it’s for the best. No one needs a huge bull stampeding in a china shop, destroying everything.

Lea crosses the hallway on his sixth trip and enters one of two entrances to the ballroom, vases of flowers in his hands. Terra peeks. From the looks of it, Ven did a fantastic job. 

The ballroom, once gold, now looks like the set of night. The ceiling is covered in blue with twinkling lights. The table linens are also dark, with napkins and silverware sets a solid gold. Glass windows that take up one entire side to the ballroom are bare of curtains—the wedding is planned for after sunset so they’d be declaring their vows under the stars. Two navy blue carpets come in through both entrances of the ballroom, meeting in the middle and then straight to the altar at the far end. The point is for him and Aqua to enter together, like equals. With her in a bridal dress, she’ll look like a light in the darkness.

Through the doorway, Terra can see Riku and Sora, the latter making motions with his arms as if he’s flapping like a bird. Terra lets the door close so they don’t notice him. 

There are fears he’s never voiced.

What if she realizes she doesn’t want to get married to him after all? At the altar no less?

Oh stars, what if he makes a terrible husband? 

What if he neglects her?

What if, years down the road, she realizes after a slowly oncoming epiphany that she isn’t happy and regrets it?

Tonight is the party, tomorrow is the wedding, and Terra still has no vows. He pinches his nose hard enough to distract him from crying. He’s already cried five times in the arc of three hours.

Footsteps—light, brisque, confident, hers—approach him, and Terra embraces her in his arms, taking her in with a needy kiss. She smells like home, she lets him breathe again. 

“You look like you’re about to fall apart,” she says, stroking a thumb on his cheek.

“Not if you’re my glue.”

She snorts, smacking him on the bicep. “What did I say about the puns?”

“Shower you with them.”

He kisses her before she can roll her eyes—

—and gets interrupted the moment Ven peeks out of one door. 

“What’s with the hold-up?” he says.

Terra breaks from the kiss, casually noticing how Aqua is patting his shoulder, as if to warn him. “What’s with your attitude?”

Ven pouts like he’s about to choke and slaps the notepad to his forehead. “No one listens to me. I said baby blue and champagne on the napkins, all shaped to form the constellation of Juno… and they gave me yellow. I am gonna complain so much.”

“There are worse things?” Terra says and Aqua shakes his shoulder as another warning. 

Ven snaps his eyes open. “Get into position, we’re starting.”

Aqua stands behind one door and Terra goes to the other, waiting for the cue to enter. On the other side, Ven is speaking out loud, organizing people and where they should stand. Grooms and bridesmaids will enter the altar from behind and gather together, leaving the carpet only for the star couple (no pun intended). He interrupts himself, raising his voice about vases that match too much and Terra can imagine him pointing across the room.

“I have to tell you something,” Aqua loudly whispers from the other side of the hall. 

Terra runs to her and wraps an arm around her waist. Touching her is a panacea. Despite knowing there is still a possibility she’ll rethink this entire relationship, it seems unreal, like a nightmare.

“It’s about Ven,” she continues, keeping her voice low even though they’re the only ones in the hall.

“Lea threatened to slap him.”

She frowns.

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

“Don’t you think it’s too expensive?”

“I don’t know. Ven doesn’t tell me how much anything costs.”

“It’s way more than we have saved up.”

Terra gapes. “Then how—?”

Aqua stammers, fiddling with her fingers. “I looked into his books.”

Terra melts into a breath-heavy laugh, careful to keep his voice out of it. “Reading people’s diaries? Aqua, I thought I knew you better.”

She blushes. “I didn’t mean to, but I was worried.” Now Terra is worried. Her expression is too serious. “Ven has been doing side-missions and hustles for months just to earn enough to hire the best chefs and tailors, to buy linens and all these flowers and carpets—” 

“He wouldn’t.”

“He did.”

“Why?” 

“I think it’s because he wants us to be happy.”

“We are.” Terra doesn’t appreciate how he doesn’t sound confident, scared he’s assuming too much on her behalf. “How could he just…”

“We were stuck in darkness for so long and he couldn’t help us.”

“But that’s not his fault.”

“He feels he is the weakest and wants to compensate.” Aqua grimaces and she blinks back tears. 

“I feel so guilty.”

“I feel worse.”

“Why?”

Aqua bites her lip. “I’m still attached to the idea of a small, intimate ceremony in the woods. Just the three of us. Does that make me a horrible person?”

“No. Our wedding has become a spectacle. Maybe pointing that out makes me terrible, too.”

She groans. “I found a book. I left it in your room. It’s very last minute, but there are some ancient rituals in there that I found so beautiful… the exchanging of rings is beautiful, too, but modern and there are some lost traditions from our Keyblade history that I’d love to do instead... if you could take a look?” 

The way she smiles, stars. Ancient, modern, he’d do anything for her. “Sure. I’ll read it tonight.”

Aqua winces. “He’ll be so angry with us.”

Terra squeezes her hand. “He wants us to be happy. Think about that.”

One of the doors burst open, and Lea sticks his head out. “Kindly stop being an ass and don’t keep your guests waiting anymore?”

They start: Terra at one entrance, Aqua on the other, entering the ballroom at the same time, where guests will watch them approach one another, like the shadow of the moon to a star. They meet at the point where their lanes merge into one. 

Terra offers his arm—

“Nonono,” Ven warns, running up to them. “You can’t meet her like this. You must bow at a forty-degree angle.” Ven scans the room frantically. “Here, I have a ruler.”

After that hiccup, Aqua finally takes Terra’s arm, walking down the single aisle, where guests can ogle at them. Their groomsmen and bridesmaids take pictures with their Gummiphones for their arrival at a wall of flowers. 

Sora has his hands behind his head and snickers when they reach the end. “I made sure the carpet is ironed out so she doesn’t fall with you.”

“I’m going to kick you in the shins,” Terra says.

He snorts and wipes his nose. “I’ll kick you back.”

At the altar, Ven is too excited to stop rambling. “We have to make sure that you arrive here, at this spot, at exactly nine-thirty so we can finish the vows at ten because...” He frames the windows with his hands. “We’ve got a perfect spot for star sighting so we need to be on time.”

“Do you mean, right after the wedding ceremony?” Aqua asks. 

“Before the reception, yup. We’re walking out to the balcony, we’ll watch the meteor shower where a new world will be born, then we’ll come back in for supper and dancing.” When he notices their stupefied faces, he continues, “I spent three weeks finding the right angulations so you can witness a unique astronomical event, and we’ve got a miracle of a spot right here so we can’t be late.”

“It’s a wonderful thought, Ven,” Aqua says, her voice shaky.

“Okay, now you get into position and face each other.” He points and they follow. “Next, Mickey and Minnie will talk some stuff, you know, all official, and then you say your vows.”

Terra freezes up. “Our vows.”

“Yeah. That’s what I said. You ready?”

Terra hesitates and Aqua speaks for him. “We’re keeping those a secret until tomorrow.”

Ven pauses, then shrugs. “Fair enough.”

Aqua doesn’t let Terra have another thought, leaning forward to kiss him in front of everyone (aahs and awws elicited), and ending the rehearsal.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“How do you get your skin so clear?” Kairi asks, though the warm glow of the fire makes for spectacular lighting. 

They’re camping in the woods near the waterfall, equipped with warm blankets and pillows, a bowl of cookies, and toasted marshmallows on sticks; Aqua’s vision of a bachelorette party. No gifts necessary.

“Mountain spring water does wonders for you,” Aqua says.

“I’ve read in a magazine,” Xion says, crawling out of her sleeping bag, “that some people like to put mud on their faces to get clean skin.”

“Why?” Naminé asks, chewing on a marshmallow.

“Something about the properties. Lots of good minerals.” She walks over to the creek, digging her hands into the dirt and smashing it into her face against the shocks and cries of the other girls. “If mountain water is good for you, then that must mean this mud is magical.” 

“Is that true?” Kairi says, though she’s asking no one. She hurries over and joins in on the mud-mashing, running fingers over Xion’s face in places she’s missed.

With globs of mud in their hands, they bring over the excess to the camp. 

Xion offers it to Aqua. “For beautiful skin on your special day?”

“It’s our job to pamper,” Kairi says with her hands out so that Naminé can scoop up the mud on her own. 

Aqua tries not to chuckle too loudly. It’s adorable. “Okay,” she says, and Xion gets to work, massaging it into her skin. It smells unpleasant, earthy and mukky. She closes her eyes and tries to relax regardless.

“I think we’re supposed to keep it on our faces for at least a half hour,” Xion says, rubbing more on Aqua’s nose. 

“This will make us prettier?” Naminé asks.

“Cleaner,” Kairi says. 

Naminé blinks, already covered in the mud and hesitating to put on more. “But we look dirty,” she says quietly.

“Can I request something, Miss Aqua?” Xion says, patting her fingers onto Aqua’s forehead.

“Certainly.”

“Can you tell us the story of how Terra proposed?”

Kairi jumps and squeals, and Naminé claps her hands, both of them chattering please, please, we’re dying to know.

“We’re around a fire,” Kairi says, as if that’s a convincing argument. “We’re supposed to tell stories.” 

“I feel bad for asking,” Naminé says. “You’re very private, and I don’t want to intrude…”

Aqua reads her face. “But you’re curious.”

Naminé pouts. Xion’s eyes go wide, and Kairi nods excitedly. Everyone is guilty as charged.

“It’s a simple story, I guess,” Aqua says, crossing her legs and watching the fire. It’s not often that she talks so openly about the details of her relationship. The two of them together is something people know, but never knowing where they come from and why, except for Ven—even then, there’s so much he never pries to. Watching their reactions is a little overwhelming. She rubs the stone on her ring. “Terra made the engagement ring with his own hands, but he took months to propose.”

“I remember that,” Xion says, sitting on her chair and smiling. “It annoyed Lea so much that he offered to set you both up just to get it over with.”

Aqua laughs. “I’m grateful we had it to ourselves.”

“Was it romantic?” Kairi asks.

“Not at all. I… knew he was up to something. I know him.” She lifts a shoulder. “He was burning breakfast too often, he couldn’t look me directly in the eye, and he left on his own to do more missions than usual. I took that as though he had done something wrong. The last time he was that clumsy and avoidant, it was because he accidentally cast Firaga in the library and was trying to hide it. Or when he broke the oven. Or when he offered to do my laundry but didn’t know how to treat my fabric and ruined my clothes.”

“He sounds like a clumsy oaf,” Kairi says.

That makes Aqua smile. She loves that oaf. “He is. The general rule of thumb is that a clumsy, avoidant Terra is usually hiding something.”

“So how did the proposal happen?” Naminé asks.

“I cornered him—”

Kairi snorts.

“—and he blurted it out.”

They giggle, Kairi acting out how that may have looked and Naminé holding her hands over her heart in a show of genuine affection. 

Aqua smiles to herself, a finger to her lips. It might be her favorite memory, her standing her ground and demanding to know what was going on. 

Terra, looking all around the terrace except for her face, guilty, guilty, guilty, pulling a box out of his pocket and stammering for a cohesive sentence. Well, I don’t know what to say, he had said, like a child getting grounded. I-I’m sorry. I’m dumb, I’m a big lump of a human being. He paused, his cheeks rounding up like he was about to vomit. Will…will you marry me, anyway?

It felt like racing in a train and pulling all the stops, crashing. He got red in the face, tears welling in his eyes and she realized he took her silence as rejection. Aqua had to hold his forearms, and all she could utter was a soft, I genuinely thought you burned down a building.

Terra’s eyes went wide. Do you mean you’re not mad?

Of course not. Why would I be?

So… He licked his lips, reaching for her but not touching her, forgetting that he had the box with the ring inside. What do you say? I mean, you don’t have to give me an answer straight away. I mean, I just thought you would… you know… because… He sighed. Yeah.

Aqua finally laughed, and kissed him on the cheek. Of course I will marry you, you beautiful dork.

The laughter quiets around the fire. They’re waiting for Aqua to continue her story.

“Then he drops the ring.”

They howl, melting into a blissful exchange of cheers and gossip, a vibrant hearth brighter than the one keeping them warm. 

“I had hoped to propose first, actually,” Aqua continues. She shrugs. “The end.”

“That was beautiful,” Naminé says, wiping her eyes.

“If Sora hears about this, he’ll never leave Terra alone,” Kairi says, grinning something mischievous. 

“I don’t know what love is supposed to look like,” Xion says thoughtfully, gazing at the sky. “But it sounds sweet.”

In Aqua’s opinion, the proposal was perfect, him scattered on the ground frantically searching for the ring, her on her knees helping him. How he slipped it on her finger, how they kissed for an hour in the dirt, unaware that they were dusty, unaware that anyone else existed in the world. 

Aqua nods, mostly to herself. It aches to be away from Terra tonight but it burns her insides to see him tomorrow and finally do this. Aqua wants to sleep and get this night over with but she doesn’t want to sleep so she could see the sunrise, knowing he’d be up early watching the same thing.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Bachelor parties aren’t fun.

Sora is whooping about a cannonball, the water splashing when he makes contact. Ven and Roxas race to the lake, testing who will be the first to dive, the first to swim across and come back. Considering the expanse of the surface area, they’ll be gone for a while and the barbecue will get cold, but maybe it’s for the best. It’s not the right time to talk to Ven right now, not when all of them have a moment of fun (except for Terra, the only one here thinking about tomorrow). Lea and Isa prefer to relax, sipping drinks on their chairs by the lanterns erected onto the sand, speaking quietly about memories, about chores, about home and what ifs. 

Terra sits by himself, the thin booklet Aqua gave him on his lap, tucked under layers of parchment. It’s titled The Way, no author. She was right: old Keyblade rituals are interesting, almost possessive, their focus on the literal binding of hearts. They’re from the Age of Fairytales, and Terra realizes as he reads through it that ancient Keyblade wielders were for some reason obsessed with the loss of memory and the prevention of it. The rituals sound painful, too—maybe Aqua has developed a mild taste of macabre from her time in the Realm of Darkness. 

All Terra has left to do are his vows. His stupid, dorky-sounding vows. He should have accepted the simple, “I do.” He shouldn’t have waited until the last minute.

He’s tried dramatic.

You are my other half, my heart, my breath of life, my sky, my angel, can we keep our souls together? 

He’s tried poetic.

The mountain will thirst if not for the water— 

He’s tried being honest.

I don’t know why you love me, but I’ll do my best to make it up to you.

All dumb.

Terra groans into his hands, eyes wide in existential blunder. 

“Keep doing that,” Riku says, setting a chair next to him and sitting down, “and you won’t be able to blink again.”

“I’m not finished.”

“But if you don’t sleep, then you’re more likely to have accidents.”

Terra gapes and almost whacks Riku on the side of the head from the sight of his constricted smirk. “You’re so mean. I called you one time.”

“In a huge panic talking about causing mass destruction of a wedding the worlds have never seen.” Riku shrugs nonchalantly. That’s his state of being—too cool for anything, too sensitive for everything. It’s refreshing. “It was the funniest phone conversation I’ve ever had.”

“I’ll never call you again.”

“Not in the middle of the night, please no.” Riku bites a forkful of steak. “Is it cliché to tell you to speak from the heart?”

“This entire conversation is cliché, but here I am, living it out.” Terra stares at his messy pages, where he pressed the pen so hard that it left ink blots.

“You could do the very committal thing and tell her you love her fifty times.”

“All the guests would leave by the time I reach twenty-five.”

“More like fifteen.”

“Ten.”

“Disaster.”

Terra grimaces, not entirely comforted, but not entirely anxious anymore, either. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

“It is a big deal, I’ll give you that,” Riku says, more serious. “I don’t have any advice.”

“None of it makes sense. Be honest, but not too honest. Be loving, but don’t make it cheesy. Express yourself, but hold back on certain things. Do make it personal. Don’t expose personal details. How am I supposed to know how to do it right?” 

It would be easier if there are no witnesses. If it’s just Ven, if Aqua is the only person he’s talking to, if he could simply say, You’ve been my best friend for as long as I can remember. I know I’ve fucked up. For as long as I live, I’ll never do that again. I will never take your forgiveness for granted.

And if she doesn’t want to be with him anymore, there’d be nothing he could say to make her stay.

“I think if Aqua was the kind of person who expected you to do it right,” Riku says, looking out to the lake where Ven and Roxas are swimming back to their shore, “you wouldn’t be marrying her.”

Terra bends the pages, exposing the cover of the thin, leather bound booklet. There are no vows he could use in there, except for the officiator declaring their hearts intertwined. “Thank you,” he mumbles.

“Sorry I can’t be of more help.” 

Riku pats him on the shoulder and leaves him alone to take a walk, Sora begging him to enter the water. Terra flips to a page where he’s repeated I love you, I love you all over, each in different calligraphy, like doodling, like losing his mind and procrastinating the night away, hoping that any moment, inspiration would drop bricks on him.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It’s time.

The strangest part of the day is waiting it out in her bedroom until it’s her turn to show herself. Over the years, her bedroom has been a reflection of her personality. The cleanliness, the artifacts from her home world long ago, the size of the bed, the furniture—they all stayed the same. What’s come and gone were the paint colors, the bedsheets, the art on the wall, the smaller vanity mirror. Her bedroom is her old life, and she sits in front of the mirror in her bride’s dress, about to start a new one. For now, they both collide, as though her childhood doesn’t know her.

The cape dress is simple, plain white with the neck scooped across the collarbone. The sleeves slit at the shoulders, draping over to the floor with the rest of the train. Aqua couldn’t have asked for something better. She completes the look with the ring, a jeweled hair pin on one side, and an armored choker. Makeup is minimal. 

Aqua is surprisingly calm and the sun is going down. 

Her Gummiphone buzzes with a text message.

Terra

Let’s do it

Aqua sighs, not texting back immediately.

Aqua

I don’t want to break Ven’s heart

Terra

I’ll talk to him

We can both get what we want

I already stole some flowers from the wall

Don’t think he notices

She chuckles, moving a hair strand behind her ear. She hasn’t noticed that her stomach has been a knot, from excitement, from nerves, from anticipation. The sun takes so long to set. Terra is the warmth of a tight blanket.

Aqua

Will this label me as a runaway bride?

Terra takes a long time to answer, giving her the impression that he must have been distracted and forgot to reply. 

It buzzes.

Terra

The shame

Aqua

What will they think when they find out the groom seduced her to it

Terra

The scandal 

when they hear how she met him secretly at the creek 

an hour before the ceremony

It sounds like an action plan. Aqua picks up her bouquet of orange roses and bluestars from her vanity table, heading out the door.

Aqua

I want Ven there

Terra

Definitely

I love you

Aqua

I love you too

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Terra finds Ven in the dining room, taking inventory of an indulgement of sweets and a feast of meats, fritters, and rice. The wedding cake is as tall as his body, a dark blue with smacks of gold glitter in the shapes of galaxies, large stars framing each layer, and topped with two halos. Ven is mostly dressed in his vest and tie, the suit missing. By comparison, Terra is overdressed, a groom ready for his encore.

Ven sighs when he sneaks a cookie the shape of the Keyblade Master symbol into his mouth, as though Terra’s presence reminds him of disappointment. 

“I couldn’t tame the cicadas,” he says morosely, like he’s apologizing, and for a moment Terra second-guesses what he’s about to do. Ven eyes the white rope curled around Terra’s shoulder. “What’s that for?”

“This may either cheer you up or piss you off,” Terra says, dropping The Way on the counter.

“I don’t like how you said that.” As Ven flips through pages, he frowns, chewing on the side of his lip. “Are you... not happy with the wedding preparations?”

Terra inhales, caught off guard. “Of course I am. Happy, I mean. It’s… huge. It’s a giant ordeal.”

“And you don’t like that,” Ven says quietly, stroking one of the pages with his thumb.

“I think there are things we’ve always wanted to have privately.” Terra sits on a stool, but Ven won’t look him in the eye. “And we want you to be there. We can do it now. We’ll be back in time for our guests.”

The booklet shakes in his hands. “I messed up.”

“From my point of view, I’ll be eating very well tonight. There’s nothing to compensate for.”

Ven closes the book. “I just wanted to do a good job.”

“If you allow Lea to slap you, he’ll forgive you.” Terra smiles, but Ven doesn’t join him. “We’re still doing your grand ceremony—that, we could never pull off on our own. But we also want something tiny and ours, and we won’t do this without you.” Terra takes Ven’s hand and squeezes it, before glancing at the cake. “I hope it’s delicious.”

“It’s disgusting so you’ll definitely like it.”

“See, I can always count on you.” Terra stands up. “Now come on. You wouldn’t want us to be late for the bride.”

Terra takes him to the creek, not far from where Aqua hosted her bachelorette camp, where the sound of rushing water is gentle and the creek splits into two directions, one that would drip off the side of a cliff and one that would join a massive river downstream. The trees huddle close in the clearing, a soft shadow from the fierceness of the setting sun, like a pocket of protective magic in the middle of the forest. 

Ven gasps. “You stole my flowers.”

“Please, you didn’t even notice.” Terra had built an easy wooden arbor before the crack of dawn that morning, an arch weaved with orange and blue flowers, spotted every so often with green lilies. He showered right after so no one would suspect.

“Let’s take it over there.” Ven points to a short boulder against a tree nearby, a good photo op. They pluck the arbor up from both sides and plant it in front of the boulder. Ven takes stock of the sight. “Not bad.”

“Thanks!”

“I take credit for the choice of flowers.” Ven rolls the rope into a tight circle, layering it on the boulder with each loop in equal circumference. He splays the book open and studies. “It’s kinda creepy,” he says though he gets no response and he doesn’t ask for one.

Terra shoves his hands into the pockets of his tuxedo and waits. Aqua isn’t here yet. The vest constricts his breathing, the thicket suddenly feels humid, and Terra wipes his cheek, realizing that his heart is beating fast. Time sped up to this moment and dropped him here without warning. Now it’s slowing down out of pure, unjustifiable spite to torture him in the final hour. 

“You okay, dude?” Ven asks.

Terra lifts his face to the sky to keep the tears in his eyes. “If I cry now, I think I’ll cry for the rest of the night.”

Ven snorts. “No one would be surprised, trust me.”

But it’s not working. He’s two seconds from sobbing. “I don’t know. I…” He scoffs. “I can’t believe it’s happening. I’m expecting her to never show up or brush me off last minute when she realizes what we’re doing—”

“No.” Ven approaches Terra like he’s about to punch him in the stomach to make a point. “Don’t think like that, she’d never do that.” 

Ven has good faith and better timing. Aqua approaches the other side of the clearing, the fabric of her dress gracefully making waves with every step, the foliage fluttering light and shadow on her figure. She holds her bouquet in one hand and a framed photograph tucked under the other.

It shocks Terra.

He can’t stop the flow of tears. He covers his shivering lips and the drip of his nose, his face twisting from the sight of her—brilliant, like she’s made of stars, a gift walking the earth.

“Terra, are you okay?” Aqua asks, rushing to him now, the train of her dress bouncing behind her. 

In the flash of an instinct, Terra runs to meet her, tripping over a branch and landing right into her arms. 

“You’re—” Terra sucks air in, his heart shoving itself up his esophagus. “Y-you’re s-so beautiful.”

Aqua uses her pinky to wipe his tears. “So are you.”

“Let me help you.” He takes the frame—a portrait of the Master, bordered with a white ribbon—and walks her to the arbor. Ven takes the portrait and places it on the boulder, their little family tied together, fractured in glued pieces, now and always. Before they start, Terra asks Aqua to pose under the arbor so he can take a picture of the trees and the flowers surrounding her. Beautiful.

“How do we do this?” Terra asks when he finds his voice again, still trembling. Aqua stands to the side to take her place. She’s beautiful.

Ven takes the book in his hands. The description of this ritual covers at most two pages. “Well, it’s archaic. It’s from the Age of Fairytales but it sounds like we will intertwine your hearts—but in an intense way, like we’re sewing them together.”

Aqua holds her bouquet to her chest. “Shall we start?”

Terra chuckles too hard, gasping for breath. “Simple as that.”

They wait for Ven’s cue, who also has no idea how to do anything. Ven clears his throat, shrugs his shoulders, and reads:

“We witness today the soldering of two hearts. To intertwine like the roots of a tree, the severance painful, the nourishment plentiful. A physical bond, a magical one, the merging of two sprites under the guidance of one truth. Two hearts, but one.” Terra watches the way Aqua watches him. There’s no one else in the world, Ven’s voice disconnected, like it floats on air. “Now it says to summon your Keyblades. Dig the tips into the ground, and offer your hilts to each other.”

Ends of the Earth is massive, taller than Ven. Stormfall looks delicate but it’s menacing, sharp, direct. They offer their hilts, the shafts crossed over each other, Stormfall light and airy in his hand, Ends of the Earth weighty and thick in hers. 

Terra finds it interesting that they’re using the hilt to connect each other’s hearts—the Keyblade should never be used against a person’s heart in traditional Mastery, because it’s such a dangerous weapon and it’s so violating. The blunt hilt, on the other hand, the physical manifestation of their hearts, is like exposure, an offer of vulnerability. 

Aqua’s feels like it’s thrumming, singing. She’s happy.

Ven steps forward with the rope and ties it over the hilts in loops. “This is just an image, the ties that bind, two Keyblades, but one. To intertwine a heart is to forge a chain, a friend, a companion, a memory. If missing then a void, a dream, a wish until reunion.” He steps back into position. “Before we go on, I think this would be a nice place to say your vows. Terra, you first.”

Terra stammers, looking into her eyes. “I-I couldn’t write one. I’m sorry.” 

“It’s okay,” Ven whispers, pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket. “I wrote some just in case.”

Terra doesn’t take it. He licks his lips. “It wouldn’t have been graceful. None of it—all of my thoughts—pale in comparison to you, Aqua.” He steadies himself with labored breathing, the squeeze on her Keyblade like a hold on her waist. “You’re so, so beautiful, and I’ve spent my days believing I don’t deserve you, because… because I couldn’t make things right like I should have.” 

Aqua quivers, gently touching his arm with her free hand and motioning for him to breathe. 

He continues, “I’m sorry. I wish the Master was here. I wish I was smart enough to prevent it from happening.” He inhales, choking up from the mention of Eraqus. “I never thought you would marry me of all people, so… I promise... I will be there every step of the way. I promise you, if you’re scared at night, I’ll be there to protect you. If you’re hurting in another world, I’ll come find you. If you’re confused, I’ll hold you close and help you make sense of it. I’ll brew you tea to help you sleep, I’ll step in the line of fire even if you wish to do the same for me, I’ll walk to the ends of the earth to make sure you are safe and healthy. I promise I’ll be with you.

“And I’ll mess up. I know me. I’ll fix it. If you want to clobber me, I’ll be patient. I’ll learn. I’ll do better. Every day you save me from myself. This is the least I can do. I’ve loved you since I was a kid. I’ll love you every day.”

Silence falls on all of them, Terra sniffing just to get some fresh air, Ven wiping his eyes, Aqua blinking too much. 

“Now you, Aqua,” Ven says. 

Despite being teared up, Aqua holds it together. She’s so good at that.

“Terra, I stand with you because I do want to be here. I do want to be by your side. I do want to laugh at your bad jokes.” She relieves a giggle. “I love you. I have for as long as I can remember, even if I didn’t know the words for it.” She studies his face. “I’m sure the Master is here with us, and he couldn’t be prouder of you. I’m proud of you.” Suddenly, she switches her tone, as if to lecture. “And if you even fathom taking a hit for me, remember that I’m faster than you. I’ll protect you first.” Then she softens. “I promise to be your shelter when the storm falls on us. I promise to sit on your bedside when you’re sick, to lift you up when you’re down about yourself, because you are sometimes. 

“You are my home, no matter how far your heart is from me. If you need a star to light your way back, I’ll give it to you.” She smiles widely, like she’s about to laugh. “If something between us breaks, I’ll mend it with you. I can’t imagine my life any other way.”

Their words are now spoken. Aqua suppresses a laugh and grins like a child. Terra holds his breath, just in case he screams from every emotion that he can’t name.  

“Well,” Ven says, rolling his sleeve up so he could wipe his nose on his forearm. “I guess it’s time. This bond is an oath you will remember each other until you close your eyes for the last time, for the tragedy to forget is to be alone forever. Do you accept this?”

“I do,” Terra says.

Aqua hums. “Yes, I do.”

Ven smiles. “You know what to do.”

With his free hand, Terra presses two fingers to his chest, over his heart, where he builds a golden glow. Twenty years living with her, ten years in darkness thinking about her, this vow is impossible to break—even if they can’t do this any longer, Terra could never forget her. Never. In his hand is now a piece of himself, a nugget of his heart, a memory of her in his bed that he never wants to lose.

He takes those fingers to her chest, two thick golden threads drawn out from his heart. She winces at the touch, quick to dissolve. Stormfall shifts in his hand, growing longer, its hilt thicker and darker, wrapping around like a weaved shield. A subtle change, a little piece of him.

Aqua does the same, fingers to her chest first to create the threads, bringing them to his chest. It does hurt, like a needle digging into his skin, sharp for the entire length until it’s suddenly gone. 

He feels full, as though his insides are creating space for something extra. Warm, frightening, whole, exciting. Her piece is a memory he can’t read but he doesn’t need to. Ends of the Earth opens way for an icy blade to cut through the middle as the hilt fans out like wings. A piece of her to take with him where he goes.

“Alright,” Ven chirps, snapping the booklet closed. “The book ends with the quote, Two hearts, only one, but I think this means I can call you husband and wife in secret. So kiss.”

Their Keyblades dissipate when they hold each other, tender but with appetite, unaware of their surroundings for several selfish moments. With sewn threads, it’s as though he breathes through her. Terra presses her onto him, feeling how her heart now beats in sync with his.

“I love you,” she whispers. They are married. 

He’ll never tire of hearing it. Stars, they are married. “I love you, too.”

Terra hears Ven sniff before a handkerchief is shoved into his face. “You need your face dry and clean before everyone sees you,” Ven says. 

The sunset now is deep, a fiery orange. Terra doesn’t want to let go.

“I’ll hold you again tonight,” Aqua says, patting his chest. “I want to see the meteor shower Ven promised.”

“It’ll be a good one,” Ven assures.

Terra kisses her. “Then we have to make a run for it.” He picks Ven up like a log, jogging through the thicket of the forest with Aqua close behind him, the Master in her arms. When they approach the castle, in the twilight, they hear chatter coming from the halls, as though ghosts are partying outside. 

Terra feels at peace despite that he now has to perform, balancing on a tightrope where he doesn’t care if he falls. He turns around and holds her neck to kiss her again, feeling her laughter in his mouth. “One more?” he asks when they break. 

Ven, still tucked in Terra’s arm, groans. “I never asked for a front seat to the kissing show. Is this my punishment?”

Aqua kisses him one more time, whispering to him I love you for what will be a string of I love you’s in the night to come. Friends will cheer, Terra will trip on the way to the altar, Sora will cry because Terra will cry, Xion will eat too much cake and get sick, Isa will laugh because he is drunk, Kairi will be the star of the dance, Aqua will be the star in his eyes. 

[a-crack-in-the-universe]

KHUX Finale Part 2 Theories and Predictions

*Spoilers below*

About Ephemer

I get the impression from the last words between Brain and Ephemer that this will be the last time they see each other. There’s something about their farewell that is very final.

I don’t think Ephemer will give back both the Book of Prophecies and Master’s Defender. I have no clue about the keyblade, but I think Ephemer will keep the Book of Prophecies with him post-khux. We know Ephemer helps Sora during KH3, and it’s possible he used the Book of Prophecies to do that. Also Brain tells Ephemer ‘if you’re ever lost, don’t hesitate to have a look’ and ‘it’ll help you when you need it most’. These feel like advice for the long-term, and not just for whatever’s about to happen. Also, it seems kind of pointless to make a big deal out of Ephemer getting the BoP and Master’s Defender and then have him give them both back almost straight away.

For now Master’s Defender is staying with Ephemer in the data world. But Master’s Defender needs to be in the real world so that it can be passed down to Eraqus. So, either Ephemer actually manages to escape the data world, or he stays behind and Master’s Defender somehow gets brought back to the real world. I’m not sure which possibility is more likely. I think Ephemer returning to the real world is very slim possibility, but it feels weird that he would get handed a keyblade that was meant to be his only to give it back a short time later. 

It’s also possible that Ephemer will die. However, Brain’s final words to him make me think Ephemer will survive though separated from the other leaders.  

About Skuld

I honestly did not expect Skuld to stay behind, but I am delighted the writers chose to go in this direction because it 100% fits with what we know about her character. It’s also really fitting and heartwarming that Skuld, Ephemer and Player will face the end of the data world together.  

I don’t have much to say about Skuld, since we already know her eventual fate and it’s obvious that she will leave the data world at some point either via the lifeboat or some other method of travel. She has to make it out in order to become Subject X.

Her leaving the data world will probably be against her will. She will want to stay with Ephemer and Player, but something will force her to go without them. I’m not sure what. If other people are right about Ephemer deciding to give Master’s Defender back to Brain, then maybe Skuld will use the remaining pod to deliver it to him. Or it could be something else entirely.

The KH3 secret reports state that Skuld departed her homeworld with others. Which suggests that she was able to escape to the real Daybreak Town where she and four others used the pods there to flee to a new worldline.          

Another thing is what Skuld remembers post-khux. When I read the KH3 secret report written by Subject X, I got the impression that the ‘four friends and a key’ memory happened right before she and four others left for the new worldline, since it’s the last and only thing she remembers. I do like the idea of the scene in the latest khux update being the ‘four friends and a key’ memory, but I’m not sure it fits well enough. I think there could be another moment that fits better during the next update.      

About Player

Player will either go to sleep in the data world or escape to Game Central Station. I can’t see them returning to the real world.

Player might sacrifice themselves by holding off Darkness to let Skuld and everyone else escape the data world.  

About Brain, Lauriam, Ventus, Elrena and Luxu

Brain, Lauriam, Ventus and Elrena will probably arrive in the real Daybreak Town safely, likely in the aftermath of Luxu’s fight with Darkness. Should be interesting.

People have been speculating that Luxu and Darkness’ fight might destroy a pod in the real world. I don’t think this is very likely, because one of the KH3 secret reports states that Luxu observed the Five departing to a new worldline, most likely in the pods.  

Luxu will bequeath No Name to Brain. It makes sense seeing how Brain doesn’t have a keyblade now.

Brain promised Ephemer, Skuld and Player that he will come back for them. I get this really bad feeling that it will go awry somehow, and something will prevent him from rescuing all of them.

We know Lauriam, Elrena and Ventus will each use one of the lifeboats in the real Daybreak Town. I’m going to guess that Luxu will tell the gang that Strelitzia was sent to the future using one of the lifeboats. This could motivate Lauriam and Elrena into using a lifeboat to find her.

Seriously, Brain’s final words to Ephemer are really final. Like he knows that he’s probably not going to see Ephemer again. It’s also really interesting that he gives Ephemer the Book and Master’s Defender now, since it suggests that Brain thinks he might not get another chance. I think that Brain knows that this might be the last time he sees Ephemer and that’s why he acts the way he does during that moment.      

Other

I believe that the Book of Prophecies and Master’s Defender will end up being important during the next update. How, I don’t know. Maybe they’ll play a role in Skuld, Ephemer and the Player defeating the four Darknesses that remain in the data world, or they could help the Dandelions escape the data world.

‘It’ll help you when you need it most’: It’s possible the Book of Prophecies will help Ephemer and the Dandelions in their hour of need to escape the data town before it is consumed by Darkness. 

I think there’s a strong possibility that Ephemer or the Player could sacrifice themselves to save everyone else. Think about it:

One of the KH3 secret reports states that the Five were able to escape to a new worldline but with great cost, which suggests there was some sort of sacrifice. We also know that there are four Darknesses left in the data world which Skuld, Ephemer and Player may have to confront.   

In Wreck-It-Ralph, Sugar Rush was ending because it was being eaten up by the Cybugs. All its inhabitants except Vanellope were able to escape, because Vanellope was a glitch and technically not part of the game, so she couldn’t leave it. Ralph managed to find a way to save Sugar Rush, but he had to make a heroic sacrifice in the process (he would’ve died if Vanellope hadn’t teleported to his rescue). Like Sugar Rush, Data Daybreak Town is being destroyed by Darkness. It’s possible that Ephemer will find a way to escape the data town and/or defeat Darkness, but it will involve either Ephemer or Player sacrificing themselves.

[bluerosesburnblue]

I’ve been thinking about the Xehanort’s Apprentice AU recently and the really bizarre, but intricate relationships between Sanya, Ventus, and Sora. Particularly the way that subconscious familiarity effects all three of them throughout the events of the story

It starts off with Ven and Sanya, who knew each other from the events of KHUx but not before that. Since I’ve decided to expand the role of Player in the Union Leaders’ friend group for the purposes of this AU, that means that Sanya and Ven are actually a lot closer to each other before the end of KHUx than Player and Ven were in canon. I like to think that they already had a burgeoning “big sister/little brother” dynamic going on, even back then. The fact that Sanya wasn’t a Union Leader would make her seem more approachable and give her more time to spend with Ven than the other Union Leaders. It also puts her in a good position for Ven to go to her for extra training, since her status of being technically outside of the group would mean that Ven wouldn’t feel embarrassed to go to her for help because he wouldn’t feel like he was outing himself as the weakest Union Leader to the others. And then there’s the fact that Ven ended up with the prototype Missing Ache keychain, giving the two of them a connection through their weapons, as well

But then, of course, they both lose their memories of each other when they end up in the future. And I find it fascinating to think about the idea that their hearts subconsciously recognize each other, but they can’t consciously parse it. The bond between them is still there, and at least as strong as it always was. All of the time that they spend together feels so familiar and so right that both of them are certain that they must have known each other in the past, because what else could explain why they fell into such an easy friendship/surrogate siblinghood?

There’s a darker level to this, though, and quite literally, too. Because Ven and Sanya are both hosts of Darknesses. Darknesses that were once all part of the same entity, and could by all rights be considered “siblings.” So not only are Sanya and Ven tied together by the preexisting bond between their hearts, but they’re also tied together by the connection between the dark beings that their hearts have become hosts for, heightening that sense of kinship in a way that neither of them have any hope of being able to recognize. Ven’s Darkness could also easily see the four Darknesses in Sanya as “older” siblings, since Ven’s heart traveled forward in time (shorter relative time), while Sanya’s took the long way so the Darknesses in her heart would have experienced more time

So even when Sanya recovers her memories of Ven, she still has some sense of the Darknesses recognizing Ven’s Darkness to contend with, which are emotions that would come across the same as the subconscious familiarity she had with Ven before recovering her memories. Except, she should have all of her memories back so what is that? Where does she end and the Darknesses begin in terms of what she feels?

Then Sora comes into the mix in DDD and things get even more wild, because Sora has Ven’s heart. Sora can’t consciously know who Sanya is because he’s never met her, but when he sees one of her dreamed-up projections in the Sleeping Worlds, Ven’s heart has this immediate leap of “That’s her! That’s my big sister!” You could say that Sora, being the host of Ven’s heart, has inherited Ven’s feelings for Sanya (though probably to a lesser extent). Since he’s not consciously aware of Ven’s heart in him as of DDD, I think he would probably just interpret this as some subconscious “she’d probably make a good friend” sensor going off

Sanya, too, is in an interesting position. Her dreaming selves are all from a time before she ever met Ven, so consciously (if they can be said to truly have a consciousness) they have no clue who Ven is. And yet, they’re made up of fragments of Sanya’s heart which would still be connected to Ven’s because the Sanya of the present is connected to Ven. In much the same way that Sora is experiencing Ven’s feelings and drawing conclusions based on his lack of knowledge about Ven’s heart, the dream Sanyas are doing the same to Sora and assuming that it’s just a “little brother vibes” feeling they’re getting from him because they have no knowledge of the present Sanya’s consciousness. This gives Sora and the dreaming Sanyas this sense of natural chemistry with each other, making their friendship over the course of DDD feel easier than it should have been otherwise because neither of them are aware of the preexisting connections at play between them

And that’s not even getting into the fact that the Darknesses might still be affecting things at this time, deepening that illusion of an almost fated bond. I never see anyone talking about the fact that because Sora was a host to Ven’s heart for most of his life, that he was also probably a host to one of the Darknesses for all that time, too

Now, do I think that Sora and Sanya would have been friends with each other if Ven’s heart and the Darknesses weren’t involved at all? Yeah, probably. I don’t think there’s many people in the universe that Sora isn’t capable of befriending in some way. Which is probably why Sora will still think of Sanya as his friend even after he returns Ven’s heart to him in KH3; he forged a genuine bond between his heart and her broken heart shards anyway. That still doesn’t change the fact that throughout most of his interactions with Sanya, he would have some inflated sense of how much they meant to each other through their shared connection to Ven’s heart and the fact that Sora, as his host, is occasionally shown to respond to Ven’s strong feelings

Would Sora returning Ven’s heart have an effect on how Sanya feels about Sora? Possibly, but Sanya at some point does consciously become aware of Ven’s presence which allows her to start picking apart what about Sora draws her to him and what parts of that pull are Ven’s influence. And, like I said, they already had plenty of time to forge a genuine bond with each other in the Sleeping Worlds. Which is its own can of worms in regards to Sanya, since she can’t remember what her dream selves did at all, yet the connection between the shards and Sora would likely remain as yet another subconscious bond that she can’t make sense of. Between that and the Darknesses still pulling her towards Ven, it’s probably a wonder that she can make sense of anything going on in her own heart. The fact that her actual bond with Sora on his own is almost entirely subconscious is probably what makes it so easy to ignore in comparison to other characters that she’s consciously close to, yet there’s still this affection that she has for Sora with no actual way to get rid of it because she can’t identify the source

Is this just a bunch of rambling? Probably. Does this actually add anything to the AU? That’s probably up to the reader. These are just things that I’ve thought of that inform their interactions with each other in the AU, I’ve just never written them down before and figured that I should

[curator-on-ao3]

C7 happening in endgame out of nowhere :/

Okay, yikes. I knew this day might come, and I’m going to do my best.

For anyone reading this without context, please know the point of this ask series is to try to help people feel better about things in Voyager that bother them. Ideas expressed as part of that effort may not reflect my actual views. This is an attempt to help everyone love the show even more, per my blanket offer to try to improve the Voyager experience for anyone who asks. If you don’t want to read this, please go ahead and scroll onward….

Still here?

All right.

C/7.

We’re going to focus on Scorpion II, Day of Honor, Shattered, Human Error, One Small Step, Natural Law, and, of course, Endgame. Every inch of this is canon-compliant, though it also takes into account J/C fanon that Chakotay was waiting for and hoping for a relationship with Janeway.

Here we go….

You’re Chakotay.

You remember the cold metal of a neurotranceiver embedded in your spine.

You’re terrified, skin clammy and heart pounding, but no one else can do this, no one else can save the ship and crew. So you allow the transceiver on your neck, allow your mind to be joined with a Borg drone, a member of the species that scares the hell out of you, the species you warned Kathryn about and your predictions came true.

You’re in the drone’s mind.

It’s not algorithms or cold efficiency.

It’s the joy of running as a little girl. It’s a mother and father and the father swings you up off the ground into his arms. It’s innocence and childlike wonder and love.

You try to help the drone remember.

She refuses. What good would it have done her to embrace her human side in the Collective? If she’s not Borg, she’s nothing.

But she’s not nothing. She’s someone under all that technology and you sense the name no one has spoken to her for so long and you call out to her — Annika! — and shared pain is like a knife in your neck just before everything goes black.

When you regain consciousness, her biobed is next to yours in sickbay. The Doctor says her human cells are starting to regenerate.

Embarrassment warms your cheeks. You were in her mind, you know who she is at her core — a person she may not even want to remember.

But she begins to stutter-step toward individuality.

She asks you for a duty assignment.

You immediately grant her request.

Your best friend, your ride or die, tells you you’re naive and she won’t allow Seven to work in Engineering. You trust B’Elanna with your life, but you know what you saw in Seven’s mind and you pull rank, give your best friend an order, because you trust Seven, too — and you know you’re not being naive.

You see Seven volunteer to sacrifice herself, offer her expertise to save the crew, begin to form working relationships and friendships.

She’s beautiful, intelligent, strong-willed — definitely your type.

But you enjoy sitting next to Kathryn on the bridge, weekly dinners in Kathryn’s quarters, chats in the ready room. Your life is good.

Then you’re in the past and a version of Kathryn looks at you in a way you’ve not allowed yourself to think about in years.

She wants you.

When did that stop? Why did that stop? Was it time that set the lines that you two never crossed? Was it Noah Lessing? Was it the space beast that showed you some part of Kathryn still hopes for a possibility with her former fiancé if the ship ever gets home?

What if you don’t ever get home?

The adult version of Naomi said you died.

My God.

What the hell are you doing with your life?

You don’t ask, but discretion isn’t the Doctor’s strong suit and you learn about Seven’s holo-program. You won’t violate her privacy by running it, but you check the character profiles and put two and two together.

She’s lonely.

You’re lonely.

Your mind wanders.

She downloaded the Ares Four database for you.

She offered you the blanket from the Ventu.

She listens to you, and you’ve certainly had to be careful over the years to keep your eyes from roaming her body.

What was it you said to her when you two discussed childhood dreams in the Delta Flyer?

Maybe it's not too late.

Well, maybe it’s not. Maybe she wants more than a holographic life, maybe she wants to build a real life — with you.

Chest tight with nerves and hope, you ask her out.

She says yes.

There are dates. Conversation and silly jokes and you know your goofy grin is reflected in her own because this giddy feeling of beginnings puts the very best kind of butterflies in your stomach. Except it’s not really the beginning, it’s the middle — the time between friendship and something more — and you can’t stop looking at her, can’t stop thinking of when you’ll see her again, can’t stop your excitement over living, really living, out here. She kisses you, her fingers clutching the nape of your neck, your hand grasping her rear end, and then you kiss each other and there’s an echo of the mental link from all those years ago and this, this is love.

And it was worth waiting for.

.

.

.

I hope this helps you feel better, @unknownwhalesworld. 💕

If anyone has something about Voyager they would like to feel better about (in-universe, not behind the scenes stuff), please send me an ask and I’ll try to help you.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Written for Valentine's Day: Terra keeps being shirtless around Aqua, hoping that it might make her realize her feelings for him and want to start dating. A bit more serious than it sounds. Aqua's point-of-view. Canon compliant. Oneshot. Post-Melody of Memory. Fluff. Humor. Rated T. 

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29595876

Aqua’s PoV

"Naminé, I need your advice on something..." Aqua told the younger girl, as the two of them sat looking up at the stars in the Land of Departure. "And I hope you can make what’s going on seem more innocent than I’m currently seeing it as," Aqua said, blushing now.

"Of course, Aqua. What is it?" Naminé asked kindly, as she would do to anything

"...I swear Terra's always shirtless around me these days, and I don't know what to make of it! He's like a brother to me, so I want to believe it's nothing, y’know? And I was hoping that talking to you would help me see it that way, since you see the innocence in everything."

But Naminé instantly let Aqua down by giggling. And the dainty way she put a hand over her mouth, and laughed so pearly, reminded Aqua of bubbles on the sea. "Aqua, I think Terra likes you. And I guess it's up to you to decide if you feel the same way or not."

That couldn't be, could it? Sure, they'd kissed that one time... but after that, for certain reasons, Aqua had just assumed that was Terra being a hormonal guy. And Aqua had gotten rid of any feelings she could have had for him, post-haste.

And, of course, it would be when Aqua was trying to prove to Naminé that there was nothing between her and Terra, that the man would show up. And—it really figured, Aqua thought—he was shirtless, dripping in sweat after having sparred with Kairi. And that's what one should have expected from someone in the the Land of Departure, but Aqua still felt flustered... for some reason.

"Hey, Aqua? Do you have any Gatorade? That last sparring session with Kairi really wore me out. I think she's trying to prove something. And you know what? I'm proud of her for it, but exhausted."

"Oh sure, Terra. Let me go look for some." And was Aqua not magicking some right then and there an excuse to leave this awkward situation? Yes.

Aqua made it back into the kitchen as slowly as her feet would carry her, and poured the found drink into a glass, even, to waste even moretime.

To take up another second, Aqua thought about the little two-year-old they had recently adopted, who already seemed to have a connection to the Keyblade. And Aqua beamed for the fact that she was taking well to the cardboard Keyblade they’d made for her. And was already learning how to “fight” with it some.

But with nothing else to do, Aqua finally let herself think back on the time that she and Terra had kissed, as she walked back to him.

"Here you go, Terra," Aqua said, handing her friend the beverage whilst looking anywhere but at him.

Ven, who was now showing Kairi how to run even faster than she already could, wolf-whistled for some reason.

And at that rude hint from Ven, Aqua decided she should face her fear and look into her older brother's face... but was that really how she saw him?

"Aqua, you seem to be acting weird around m-"

Apparently, Aqua wasn't as ready to deal with this as she had thought she was. Because she ended up mumbling, "I'm going to go bake something. Bye!" before just leaving Terra there like he meant absolutely nothing to her.

...

The night before their Mark of Mastery exam... before Ven had come down, Terra and Aqua had already been outside. And somehow and some way, they had ended up kissing. And yes, Terra had been shirtless then too, because he'd come to the summit after going to bed. And Terra slept without a shirt on, apparently.

But Aqua may or may not have given him a sneak peek at the wayfinder charms she had been making for them all... And when Terra had joked that of course they looked like cookies, because she loved baking so much, Aqua had playfully hit Terra... and that had somehow led to her being in his arms and the two of them lip-locking. And, yes: it was every bit as magical as the princesses Aqua would later meet and their princes’ bonds.

But it had ended in disaster... right after Aqua, Terra (and Ventus, too) had had their falling out in Radiant Garden, Aqua had tracked Terra down at the Mirage Arena. He had then decided to hurt her even more than he already had, by saying that he'd never loved her romantically, but had only wanted her for her body.

Later, they had of course made up: in the Keyblade Graveyard twice (once more than a decade ago, and now a year ago), but Aqua had never faulted him for not having feelings for her—as one couldn't control that.

But could it be that Terra did feel for her and had lied about what he’d said in the Mirage of Arena... so when he had been apologizing, he'd also meant to do so for that?

And while Aqua was trying to suss all of this out, she was interrupted by none other than Terra. And, yes: he was shirtless once more. But this time, there seemed to be an excuse for it: he had a massive scar on his chest that needed stitches, which was clearly why he'd come into the infirmary (Aqua was in their right now, because she was trying to use her magic to make some of their medicines even stronger).

"Sorry, Aqua," Terra told the azure-haired girl upon brushing by her to pick up a needle, thread, and some antiseptic. "Sol almost fell off the castle—and I ran and caught her—but in doing so had one of the chains near the mountain go right through my chest."

"Terra!" Aqua exclaimed in pure horror, while she reached for her friend. "I know your Cure spells leave something to be desired, but you don't have to stitch yourself up! Here! Let me heal you. And nice job, saving Sol!"

"Thanks," Terra beamed at Aqua. And at first, she thought he was going to go into a proud fatherly rant about Sol, but instead he seemed to have another train of thought. "Aqua... I think you have feelings for me. Will you admit to that even remotely?"

Thankfully, Aqua wasn't as naive as she was back when Zack asked her out. And not coy or young enough to pretend like she didn't know what Terra was talking about when he said “like”, so she simply told the truth. "Maybe I do... but what of it?"

"'What of it?!' Aqua, we could be happy and together right now. Don't you want that? I don't get why you're shutting me out, after I apologized-"

“Did you really apologize, Terra?! God, give me some time! You really hurt me back then. And you left it open-ended so that I might not even realize you’d tried to say sorry for what happened at the Mirage Arena?! Forgive me if I don’t exactly want to kiss you yet, let alone anything else!” Aqua snapped.

And Terra pulled away from Aqua then, looking like he no longer trusted her to use Curaga on him. And he opened his mouth like he was going to say something… but then he quickly closed it and smiled. “…You’re right, Aqua. And I’m sorry again. I really should have been more clear that I meant to apologize for the things I said in the Mirage Arena… and I wish I could take them all back. I’d say that I subconsciously had realized that Master Xehanort wanted to hurt you and Ven, and was trying to push you away to protect you back then… but I don’t even know if I believe that. Take all the time you need. Or even leave me hanging. The choice is up to you.”

And Terra turned to leave, but not before Aqua let her magic find him to help him.

Terra, whether he realized it or not, had given Aqua a great gift in giving her time to think here. And she planned to do exactly that.

…

It was a little while before Terra broached the subject of “them” again, and Aqua was certainly grateful about it.

Though she continued to see him in normal situations: like as they ran the Land of Departure together and continued to train Ventus, Kairi, and Sol… while Aqua and Terra investigated just how the Land of Departure existed between light and darkness, and as Naminé came over again so Aqua could see if she could use her powers to strengthen the witch’s memory magic, so she might be able to connect to the missing Sora…

But eventually, Terra was curious once more… and yes, he had his shirt off again (and this time, it even made Aqua laugh). But this time, there was a good excuse for it: they were putting a pool into the castle. (And Terra had been good before this, and worn his shirt in all the normal situations they’d been having lately.)

“So, have you made up your mind, Aqua?” Terra asked her now, earnestly. And he took Aqua’s hand into his own when he asked this—as if doing so was the simplest thing in the world; maybe it was—and Aqua found her breath hitching in her throat as he did it. So perhaps this would be easy, after all…

“I have,” Aqua smiled, as she resisted the urge to push Terra back into the pool that he’d just gotten out of. She imagined Kairi might have done that to Sora and/or Riku… but Aqua wasn’t that feisty. Yet. Mayhap she would be soon, for having spent so much time with the younger girl these days.

“And to be honest, Terra… This has been hard for me to wrap my head around. For a while, I was starting to think I saw you as a brother—as a defense mechanism?—but you responding to my anger so gracefully the other day? It showed me just how much you’ve grown. And I like who you were back in the day,.. but I think a love who you are now. But while I do have romantic feelings for you, I wasn’t sure if I had sexual feelings for you… but now I think that I might. And I’d probably be willing to try and have a relationship with you.”

And though Aqua was now looking at Terra with the expression of a love-struck teenager, she was sure, she hated how unfeminine she had just sounded. Or like her feelings for Terra were just a business transaction. Perhaps Terra had been right all those years ago, when he’d said that she was “such a girl” only sometimes…

But then Terra pulled Aqua into a kiss out of the blue. And oh, his hand on her back that was ever slightly going down was good—as was them being pressed flushed against each other, while Terra was shirtless—and the way Terra’s tongue probed Aqua’s mouth in a way she was sure another part of him wanted to was also wonderful; and Aqua felt heat growing in her stomach as they held onto each other and made out even longer. Oh, how Aqua loved that Terra was also sweet—his arms wrapping around her shoulders now, as hers were on his waist—and tasted like sugar.

And when Terra eventually pulled away for air, Aqua knew she was grinning at him like an idiot. But surely it was her turn to act like a silly-goose around him, and not the other way around.

“I think you were right before, Terra,” Aqua told her… boyfriend now, holding both his hands like a young school couple would do—surely taking a page out of Sora and Kairi’s book, as she did so. “Let’s be happy and together. I mean, we pretty much have an adopted daughter in Sol now, so why not go the full nine-yards and get married or something?”

And Sol appeared that very moment, as if to prove Aqua’s words as valid. And she grabbed both of Aqua and Terra’s hands and began pulling them away somewhere.

But Terra kissed Aqua on the head—and oh, how she flushed here—before the two of them could trip over their own two feet after Sol, and made her heart still, like he had been doing since they were teenagers. “Proposal accepted, Aqua.”

Author’s Note: The scene of Terra and Aqua in the Mirage Arena is something I wrote in an old Terqua fic of mine (as is Terra and Aqua kissing the night before their Mark of Mastery, now that I think about it), that I’ve since deleted. And I decided to bring that back here:

)In fact, this entire fic was sort of inspired by that story. Because there was one Terra shirtless scene in that fic. And one reviewer of it loved the story, but thought that was a little fan servicey (LOL)… and I decided to take that up to eleven here, almost as a joke: even though this ended up as a serious story in the end.

The Sol stuff is because I figure Terra and Aqua (and maybe Ven eventually?) will probably start taking up Keyblade apprentices, but I don’t know how young or not young a person is when they’re first taken to the Land of Departure. For this fic, I decided to go with really young for the hell of it (even though I doubt someone would be a potential wielder this young in canon), maybe based on some other KH fanfics I’ve read where that happened. And the little girl being named “Sol” is a reference to Terra and Aqua’s daughter in The Genius Mage’s fic “Birth of the Sun”. “Sol” means “sun” in Latin. And of course, the Wayfinder Trio’s names are Latin.

[razorblade180]

Venqua Week:Music

“When you-gah! No, that’s not right. When- ugh! Come on Ventus, you can do this!” The boy said, frustratingly tuning a guitar. He had been at this for months now. It all started when Namine moved into the Land of Departure with him, Terra, and Aqua. The boy had stumbled upon her drawings and by extension, the arts itself. He was completely hooked. Outside of fighting, Ventus didn’t have much time to explore possible talents. He was determined to find a hobby he was good at! It took all of ten minutes of Namine teaching him about color theory for him to realize that maybe literal art wasn’t his calling.

That’s when Namine recommended music. Seemed like a good idea. He didn’t want to brag, but Ventus always thought he was a bit musically inclined. Between dancing and the ice cream beat machine, he thought learning an actual instrument would come easy. Wrong! It was critically difficult! Three months into learning guitar and his confidence was was fading like the golden sunset that washed over him as he sat at the edge of the trio’s stargazing spot. Ventus played a few more strings and sighed. It didn’t sound off. Honestly it never was. The problem was his nerves. Ventus was trying to be a perfectionist with the only song he’s been able to learn so far. All for a special someone, Aqua.

He had always had certain feelings for his friend, but expressing them was beyond impossible. Any time he tried to show her a cooler, more mature side of himself it never worked out. He’d either screw up really hard, or Aqua would do her pretty little giggle while patting his head like he was some sort of puppy. He was not a puppy darn it! Ventus wanted to at least be a cooler, older anime. Something like a fox or a leopard. Just once, he wanted to leave Aqua speechless. He thought a singing to her would be his best bet. His face face grew redder at the thought of her listening to the song in awe, her deep blue eyes captivated by his feelings.

“Geez, I’m so hopeless.” He said, covering his face. Ventus turned his head towards his master’s keyblade that rested peacefully just several feet away. He wondered if Master Eraqus had any hidden talents? No way keyblade wielding was his only gift. If Aqua’s fighting style was any indication, the old man was probably a bunch of fun on the dance floor. The thought of him doing even half the moves Aqua did was enough to make Ventus laugh lightly. Once again he strummed his guitar. “Oh master, you think I stand a chance?”

“Stand a chance at what?” A voice asked from behind. Ven’s face went bright red, then pale in a less than a second when he realized it was Aqua. She smiled her beautiful smile like she always did and held a crown of flowers in her hand.

“A-Aqua!?” He stammered, “W-What brings you up here....!?” He wanted to hit himself right now. The answer to that was quite literally in front of him.

“Changing out Master Eraqus’s flowers” she answered anyways. Aqua walked over to the memorial and did just that. The old ones weren’t dead yet, but their color was obviously starting to fade. Still, they looked rather pretty. So pretty in fact, Aqua took it upon herself to sat right next to ventus and hang it around neck. “Wow, I’m a little surprised it passed your hair so easily. I thought it would sit on top.” She teased, ruffling the wild dew.

“Hey! It’s not that spiky! Also my head would have to massive for it to sit on top!” He pouted. Why is always a head rub!? This time he was minding his own business and still wound up like this. “Do you have a thing with my hair or something? You’re always doing stuff like this.”

“Of course. You always pout and turn red. It’s cute.” She answered, watching him get redder. Aqua couldn’t help herself. Teasing Ven like this was just irresistible. “So, what is it that you were trying to stand a chance in? Maybe I can help?”

“What? Oh! Umm it was nothing! Just talking aloud is all.” Lying was not a strength Ventus had.

“Really?” Aqua said sarcastically. She reached over to the guitar in his arms and ran her fingers across the strings, making a subtle but pleasant sound from it. “Nothing to do with the acoustic currently in your hands?” She looked at the blue eyes that were inches away and avoiding contact. Aqua tilted her head, a bit confused by Ven’s shyness. “Ven, I’m not a mind reader. Tell me what’s up?”

“If you read minds then you know mine only has you in it.” He thought to himself. “I’m just having a little trouble with a song I wanna sing. I learned all the notes and everything, but I get anxious anytime it comes to playing the whole thing.”

“How come?”

“I’m...self conscious is all.” It wasn’t a lie but it was certainly vague. “Any time I think about singing it the way I intend to, I get worried if it sounds bad or if I look like an idiot.” Ven could feel his heart beating so loudly that he was afraid Aqua might here it. Here being this close was nothing new, yet it too much to deal with.m right now moved back a little by pretending to readjust how he was sitting.

Aqua could the boys hand fidget a little. He wasn’t kidding at all about feeling anxious. She had never seen him so flustered when it came to things like this. Aqua had caught him a few times over the past few months really putting an effort into learning when nobody was around. She had even secretly caught him sneaking off early in the morning to find a place to practice. Learning this song must’ve been really important. For Aqua, that only left one response to this.

“Can I hear it?”

Ven was going to have a heart attack. “What!?”

“I wanna hear it.” She repeated, “We’re often our own worst critics. If you only play with no one around then you might always think it needs improvement, so let me hear it. I’ll give my honest opinion!” She said, excited to listen.

“That’s the one thing that scares me!!!” Ventus could not believe this was happening. How was he supposed to explain to her that she couldn’t listen because he was doing it all for her!? She even gave a valid reason for helping! “Oh, no I uh- you don’t have to do all that! Hehe, I just-” he stopped when he saw Aqua move to sit on her knees. His crush sat patiently with her hands resting her hands on her lap, a heart stealing smile still on her face. Here she was. Here they were. Two people bathed in the golden light of a sunset. Warm air and breath stealing views anywhere you looked. A gentle breeze made Aqua run a finger across her face. All attention was on him. Well, no time like the present right? Ven stood no chance of resisting with a face like that.

He sat facing her, legs crossed. He new his face was still red and the sound of his beating heart hadn’t gotten any calmer. However, a comfort came from that with a mix of excitement. An honest truth about his feelings. He really had fallen for her and wanting nothing more to express his feelings with all of his heart.

“Aqua...can I ask a favor?” He somehow managed to say. “Can you...close you eyes while I sing to you?”

The request was surprising but understandable. This was more about sound then sight anyways. “Okay.” She closed her eyes in earnest. “Ready...” For some reason Aqua felt herself get a little embarrassed as well. She hoped it didn’t show on her face.

Ventus took the deepest breath he could. Mustering his resolve and composing himself, Ventus began to strum.

🎶When you walk away, you don't hear me say

"Please, oh baby, don't go."

Simple and clean

Is the way that you're making me feel tonight

It's hard to let it go....🎶

Yeah, Aqua could totally feel herself starting to blush. Ven was only a few lyrics in, but she couldn’t think of a time she heard a more stunning voice.

🎶You're giving me, too many things, lately

You're all I need, oh~

You smiled at me and said...

"Don't get me wrong, I love you

But does that mean I have to meet your father?"

When we are older, you'll understand what I meant when I said

"No, I don't think life is quite that simple"

When you walk away, you don't hear me say

"Please, oh baby, don't go."

Simple and clean

Is the way that you're making me feel tonight

It's hard to let it go🎶

Ventus felt his nerves melt away as he kept playing. His mind was too focused on the notes to worry. Too focused on the girl in front of him. He was starting to find his stride.

The daily things, Like this and that and what is what

That keep us all... busy are confusing me~

That's when you came to me and said

"Wish I could prove I love you but does that mean I have to walk on water?"

When we are older, you'll understand it's enough when I say so

And maybe some things are that simple.

When-🎶

His serenade was unexpectedly cut short. Aqua had reached for his hand and stopped him from playing. Ven’s heart skipped a beat. For a moment, nothing but dread filled his thoughts. Did she hate it? Why else would he stop him midway. He would’ve asked, but Ventus couldn’t find the words. Not out of fear, but because of the look on Aqua’s face. Her calm demeanor was entirely gone. A the warmest smile Ven has ever laid eyes on was on her face with rose red cheeks. “A-Aqua...?” He finally spoke.

“S...sorry.” She spoke, “it’s just...well....” finding the words was a little difficult. Aqua couldn’t help but laugh at her own skittishness. “You confessing to me like this might be a little more than my heart can handle.” There, she said it. She watched a Ven’s eyes start getting bigger and bigger while his face tried rivaling hers in terms of red.

“Y...You knew I-”

“Of course.” Aqua giggled, “I watch you just as much as you watch me you know? Because...I like you...too. A lot.”

Ventus must’ve been dreaming. Chirithy has to have put him in a special dream. It’s the only way this made sense. “Why didn’t you say anything?” Like he was one to talk.

Aqua rubbed the back of her neck, “I’m not very good with this kind of stuff. Even though I had a feeling you liked me, I just couldn’t find the nerve. Then I started thinking about how I could be wrong and I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. I kept finding reasons to keep quiet. But next thing I know is I started thinking more and more about these feelings sense we got back home and I-” Aqua jumped at the touch of Ven’s hand grab hers. She’s glad he did it, or else she might’ve rambled for hours.

A pressure weighed on their chest. One that was slowly pulling them together. The two of them couldn’t speak, only lean closer. They wanted the same thing. They knew it buy all the blushing moments and not so secret glances. Aqua moved the guitar away from Ven to get even closer. Ven invited the approach by tugging her hand closer to him. Her face had to be only inches away. Way to far for his liking. Aqua finally spoke.

“I think we should both close our eyes this time.” She said, flustered by her own suggestion. She was glad she managed to say it though. The moment his eyes closed, Aqua understood why he asked before. Filled with ease and courage, Aqua pressed her lips against the ones that had just serenaded her moments ago. Neither kept track how long they remained like this and neither cared. The only thing that mattered was it had finally happened; and it was only going to keep happening for many days to come.

[many thanks to @venquaweek because fun fact, I’ve had this music idea for three years and never wrote it 😂]

[snowflake-of-destruction]

Naminè and Dorian Pavus!!

Naminè

Why I like them:

1)The mysteries about her. Why does she have a different voice than Xion or Kairi? Why does she look different from Kairi? Where does she get her powers? Does it mean something that her star charm in Re: CoM now, in retrospect, looks like it is the keychain off the Starlight keyblade? Why does she talk about being alone for so long in Chain of Memories and invoke  the feeling of long standing loneliness and solitude (for real, take a shot every time she says she waited/was alone “so long”), and have a fine tuned grasp of not only self but of powers that the Org probably couldn’t have taught her (though maybe Zexion could have helped a bit since he commands illusions), and,aside from power knowledge, personal knowledge on how exactly how to deconstruct Sora’s past when she had, supposedly, only been created at the same time as Roxas who was still figuring things out in general and barely had any Sora dreams at that time? Even Xion took longer to tap into Sora. Can we trust what we are told about her origins that answers some of these questions or has Kairi also been sheltering more people in her heart? 2) That she’s the embodiment of don’t confuse kindness or softness with weakness 3) That she retains a kind, trusting nature and wants to help despite what her life has been like

Why I don’t: Both not enough and too much done with her at the same time, if that makes sense. She shows up a lot of places, has a deus ex machina feel in some of them, and yet she doesn’t truly add anything in a lot of them or what she does do (like the Coded messages) then needs to be redone/re-explained from other sources, and I say that as someone who loves the character.

Favorite scene: I can’t think of a specific right now, though, a lot of her wistful drawing lives she thinks she can’t have scenes stick with me. Nerdy answer, but some of her explanations of how memories and her powers related to them work and what exactly she is doing to Sora. Lore and characterization implications

Favorite game: Chain of Memories

Favorite line: When she’s telling Sora that one day his light will be what brings everyone together and makes things right.

Favorite outfit: A few of the fandom blue dresses, but alas, there is only one canon outfit. 

OTP: The one part throws me off with a lot of characters because sometimes it just depends on the day. Is this a Namishi day or a Ventus/Naminè day? 

Brotp: Naminè and Sora 

Head Canon: Naminè would be able to fight the same way Relm does in FFVI. There’s a reason that Arrowny is my go-to last name for her 9/10 when I need one. To explain: Relm is an artist and magic user and her signature technique is to do a quick sketch of the monsters which then comes to life and attacks them (Doodle Bob before Spongebob existed). This would be obviously difficult to implement in a game unless it was turn based (though they could make it a special triangle action command ability), but this isn’t strictly for a future game, just something I think could/should be possible in universe and I might implement in a fic sometime. Honestly, every time someone says they want Nam to fight, but not be a keyblade wielder and start debating what she would do, I want to say this, even if I think the fact that she could be/already is a spellcaster is pretty much a given too.

Unpopular opinion: I don’t think evil!Naminè or, at the very least pushed-too-far-and-having-an-outburst Naminè is that much of a leap. IDK, the few people I have talked to about Naminè snapping and going off the rails, even if they were all for it, seemed to treat it as an alien concept, but nobody is arguing she doesn’t have power enough to be immediately dangerous and screw things up to the point where people are not easily fixed. We know, at least in the beginning that she can go morally questionable to be self-serving even if she regrets it/wants to reverse it/has lines she won’t cross later (at least in canon). We know she has potential to have an angry moment and lash out (see: her telling Repliku to stop and immediately taking him out with magic). Even though we see her subservient and pliant with the Org and then DiZ most of the time, that doesn’t mean that’s all there is, and if we want to talk Nobodies and Somebodies… Well, let’s compare  Roxas who demonstrates Sora’s repressed anger more easily but still has all his other traits, such as positivity and caring for friends to the point of...well, there’s no limit to it, nothing he wouldn’t do. Naminè is Kairi’s hidden insecurities and fear sometimes but she would also have Kairi’s desire to just fuck things up/fight/not get left behind just fighting to get out. Just my take. Cute and terrifying could be a thing. Almost anyone who has gotten me to talk about Naminè at length has seen the topic wander to Naminè murder spree or something like it. Aren’t you tired of being nice? Don’t you just want to go ape shit? 

A wish: Well, now it’s the previous answer, but, on a more serious note, I want to see Naminè getting to travel to see all the beauty in the worlds firsthand, to know people like her and she is not just a shadow, to help Ventus regain his memories of KHUX, and to make her own decisions.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: Making her into a sacrifice, her personhood only affirmed so she can make the decision to give life up for the greater good (again)

5 words to best describe them: dreamer, longing, witch, artist, enigma, 

My nickname for them: Nams or Nami, mostly so I don’t need to worry about the accented e.

I absolutely love Dorian Pavus, but I got long here, so you’ll see Dorian in a separate post and probably tomorrow.

[pof203]

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT Quotes Kingdom Hearts Edition (Xion)

I’m at the limits of my creativity here. I just don’t know what to have the characters say anymore. Partly because some of these Dissidia characters I don’t know anything about and don’t know what to say about them. If any of you have any ideas, I would love to hear them. Thank you.

To Other Characters:

Warrior of Light: “I was never really into the knight in shining armor thing.”

Garland: “If you wish to fight, I’ll let you have it.”

Firion: “You think I could see your dream, too?”

The Emperor: “You don’t deserve that throne!”

Onion Knight: “I should try changing Classes, too.”

Cloud of Darkness: “Do you actually fight like that?”

Cecil Harvey: “Which of us know more about balance?”

Kain Highwind: “I don’t want you to upset about anything.”

Golbez: “I know what it’s like to lose hope.”

Bartz Klauser: “You collect feathers? I collect seashells.”

Exdeath: “I was in the Void once. I won’t go back.”

Gilgamesh: “Will I win this challenge?”

Terra Branford: “I have experience in this, too.”

Kefka Palazzo: “Are you suppose to be funny or scary?”

Locke Cole: “Don’t let her down.”

Cloud Strife: “Are all SOLIDERs like you?”

Tifa Lockhart: “Don’t give up on him.”

Sephiroth: “Is that long blade even legal?”

Squall Leonhart: “Being alone is no good. I should know.”

Rinoa Heartilly: “I wonder if I should get a pair of wings, too.”

Ultimecia: “I think time has no effect on the likes of me.”

Laguna Loire: “You should visit the beach. You might find something for your article.”

Zindane Tribal: “I feel that tail’s not for show.”

Kuja: “I won’t let your song of sorrow make me more unhappy.”

Tidus: “What is it about dreams and me?”

Yuna: “Just don’t Send me while you’re at it.”

Jetch: “Can you give me some Blitz Ball lessons if I win?”

Shantotto: “I need a refresher on my magic.”

Prishe: “How do I become as strong as you?”

Vaan: “I want fly freely with my friends.”

Garbranth: “I’ll win this trail no matter what!”

Vayne Carudas Solidor: “Your high and mighty attitude won’t help you.”

Lightning: “Your rose petals will dance with my blade.”

Snow Villiers: “I wonder if me and Roxas can also…”

Y’shtola Rhul: “We can practice our magic together.”

Zenos yae Galvus: “How regal.”

Noctis Lucis Caelum: “It must be nice to travel around.”

Noctis Lucis Caelum: (alternate line) “Your notebook gives me an idea. I wonder if Roxas…”

Arydn Izunia: “I won’t let you continue to hurt others!”

Ramza Beoulve: “Worthiness isn’t everything.”

Ace: “If you could go back, would you?”

Sora: “I hope Kairi’s feelings won’t be too much of a problem.”

Kairi: “So this is how it turns out, huh?”

Riku: “This time, it’s not a sham.”

Roxas: “Roxas, don’t hold back!”

Lea: “I hope I can beat you this time.”

Xion: “Was Vexen experimenting again?”

Terra: “The Darkness has nothing on either of us!”

Aqua: “Won’t we be evenly matched?”

Ventus: “Let’s get some ice- Sorry, I forgot.”

Young Xehanort: “Don’t even start. Really, don’t.”

Shinryu: “You won’t hurt anyone again!”

To Xion:

Warrior of Light: “No matter what, I sense your heart is true.”

Garland: “Can a puppet like you really defeat me?”

Firion: “I see a real spark in your eyes.”

The Emperor: “Puppets should remain stringed up.”

Onion Knight: “Real or fake, this battle is starting.”

Cloud of Darkness: “The curtain falls.”

Cecil Harvey: “You have a strong resolve. We should fight more often.”

Kain Highwind: “Will your Keyblade best my lance?”

Golbez: “We shall see who is for real!”

Bartz Klauser: “You don’t seem tough. But I’ve been wrong before.”

Exdeath: “What does a puppet know about me?”

Gilgamesh: “I want to see the strength of your heart!”

Terra Brandford: “We’re like sisters, you and I.”

Kefka Palazzo: “Time for me to play puppeteer!”

Locke Cole: “Don’t shoulder it all yourself.”

Cloud Strife: “Just don’t drop on me, okay?”

Tifa Lockhart: “You have someone like that, too? I can relate.”

Sephiroth: “What would happen if I cut your strings?”

Squall Leonhart: “You better not break on me.”

Rinoa Heartilly: “Ready for what may happen?”

Ultimecia: “Your Light maybe true, but you are still a doll.”

Laguna Loire: “You like ice-cream? You and Ellone should talk.”

Zindane Tribal: “I bet you and I can perform something great.”

Kuja: “Shall we dance the song of your heart?”

Tidus: “Did the Fayth dream you, too?”

Yuna: “You have such a strong heart. You should try being a Summoner as well.”

Jetch: “Don’t go crazy on me now.”

Shantotto: “You are no mere doll. Give me your all.”

Prishe: “Some beach time would do some good.”

Vaan: “A land where you fly with pixie dust? I’d like to see that.”

Gabranth: “All puppets are destined to be chopped up!”

Vayne Carudas Solidor: “Is there any truth to this?”

Lightning: “You should fight with your own moves.”

Snow Villiers: “Alright, we should get this done.”

Y’shtola Rhul: “I can’t wait to see how this will go.”

Zenos yae Galvus: “I will not be so gentle with you.”

Noctis Lucis Caelum: “I think you made it clear you’re real.”

Ardyn Izunia: “A mere puppet should remember her place.”

Ramza Beoulve: “Shall we see who is stronger here?”

Ace: “You’re lucky. You have your friends here to help.”

Sora: “Xion… Just who are you, really?”

Kairi: “The clash between our hearts begins!”

Riku: “Here we go again.”

Roxas: “Please don’t disappear again.”

Lea: “Don’t forget: I’ll always be there to bring you back.”

Terra: “Show me just how real this can be.”

Aqua: “I’ll train you as best as I can.”

Ventus: “Why do you always confuse me for that guy?”

Young Xehanort: “Say what you will. You will always be just a doll.”

About Summons:

Ifrit: “Time to put out this fire!”

Shiva: “How elegant.”

Ramuh: “Hope my Keyblade doesn’t act like a lightning rod.”

Odin: “Will I get to keep the horse after this?”

Leviathan: “A little water never hurt anybody or nobody.”

Alexander: “You’re just a judge! Not jury and executioner!”

Bahamut: “You don’t scare me! I’ve seen worse!”

Summoning:

Ifrit: “Flames of Destruction!”

Shiva: “Blanket them in your power!”

Ramuh: “Feel the surge!”

Odin: “Slice them and dice them!”

Leviathan: “The tide shall strike!”

Alexander: “Shine your radiant power!”

Bahamut: “This force is on my side!”

BTW, I just realized that Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia should have a Kingdom Hearts event. I don’t know what may happen. Will Sora be able to see his friends again? Or will it happen if during the events of Kingdom Hearts III? Also, do you think I should do Dissidia quotes for Isa, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy?

[kingdomhearts-and-soriku-trash]

OkAaay. This is my idea of Riku finding Sora after all this time, only to find that Sora has been taken over by the darkness (like Aqua) and he’s in his anti-Sora form. But the ones that crazy and uncontrolled like KH 2, not the one in KH 3. Since they are very different in KH 2 and KH 3. KH 2’s anti-Sora form is when he’s like CRAZY and fighting with his bare hands and darkness is all around him. KH 3 one is a little more controlled and still uses the keyblade (I think he does). So yeah. This is my little idea and I hope y’all like it! Also, I couldn’t remember what everyone was doing at the end of KH 3 my bad.

He had been searching for over a year. He and all of Soras friends have been looking for him. As soon as Kairi came back without Sora, Rikus heart dropped. He remembered the moment clearly.

They were all on the beach at Destiny Islands, all trying to have a bit of a good time. Everyone was doing their own thing. Riku and Ventus were racing for the frisbee, accidentally knocking over Donald’s little sand castle of himself, causing Donald to make a lot of noise. Xion and Namine were picking out seashells, like the precious girls they were. King Mickey was watching everyone, a sparkle in his eye showed that he was having a good time. Terra and Roxas were racing each other, Aqua at the very end waiting for them.

Everyone heard a really big splash, causing them to look out into the ocean to see a figure far away walking to the shore. Once they got closer, Riku noticed it was Kairi. He got excited and started running towards her, so he could greet her. However, he noticed that Sora was missing, he wasn’t next to her where he should be. He continued to run, just assuming that he was under the water and was about to pop up, but when he kept getting closer, that spiky hair was nowhere to be seen.

Once he got to her, she had her head down, but looked up at him and had tears running down her cheeks. His heart dropped at the sight.

Sora wasn’t here.

Ever since that day, everyone had the same mission. To find Sora. Everyone was watching themselves too, everyone but Riku. Sora was always on his mind. It’s like he just couldn’t escape from thinking about Sora. It’s as if Sora just overtook his thoughts, but it didn’t matter to Riku. He promised that he’d find Sora, no matter what he had to do.

And then one day, he was training like normal, but suddenly got a feeling. He stopped fighting and stood there for quite awhile. It disappeared for a few minutes, and Rikus heart dropped. He knew that feeling, it was the feeling he had with Sora. It was their connection coming back to life again. He stood there and tried to chase that feeling with his heart or find it again, but he couldn’t. Because of that little spark, he headed back out into the worlds Sora had been too. He went to every world Sora had been too and looked around everywhere, but never got that spark back again. He talked to multiple people and asked if they’d seen him, but no one did.

He felt a little lost and scared that he’d never be able to feel that connection again, but pushed it aside as he went back to Yen Sids tower, feeling defeated.

And now, after a year, he was walking in the Realm of Darkness once more. He was by himself because he, and everyone else, believed that he was the only one that could find Sora. He thought that he just had to follow their connection. He was there because it was his last hope. He had gone to every other world, and the connection couldn’t spark again, so he came here hoping to feel it again and make it lead back to Sora. He stood in the darkness and looked around. He heard the quiet sound of scurrying from the heartless everywhere. He ignored it and closed his eyes, slowed his breathing, and listened to just maybe feel that connection again.

He listened and listened and waited. After around 10 minutes, that spark came back. He opened his eyes with excitement. “Sora could be here,” Riku thought. This lightened his heart up a bit, and he felt like his heart was pulling him to keep going deeper, so he did. He listened to his heart and he was eventually lead to a place that was familiar.

It was the little ocean that he and Sora were lost at before. He remembers that Sora and him agreed on staying here. He couldn’t help the way his heart raced a bit when he remembered how Sora was happy to just be by his side. However, it all stopped when he walked closer and saw a figure.

A figure with spiky hair, but they were all dark. The figure was crouched down at the water line, but suddenly stood up, faster than a normal person, and looked towards Riku. This figure had bright, yellow eyes like the heartless, but once it got closer, he realized who it was.

It was Sora. His Sora, the one he loved more than anything, but he was lost in the darkness now. It even took over his body, just like it did to Riku. He couldn’t lie, he felt a little fear run through him, but not for his sake. It was for Sora. Who knows what he’s going through right now? Who knows what he’s BEEN through?

Anti-Sora kept looking at him, some noises escaping from him but he couldn’t make a sense of what they were. However, after a few seconds, he turned into a shadow and started rushing towards him, a darkened keyblade in his hand, surrounded by darkness flowing.

He summoned his keyblade and blocked Anti-Soras attack. Anti-Sora got up and close to him, his noises turning out to be words.

“Gone...”

Rikus eyebrows furrowed in worry. He hope he doesn’t mean that everyone abandoned him. He hopes that Sora knows that, but he doesn’t know. Anti-Sora pulled back and his form was so...wrong. It wasnt Soras natural form. He was on all fours, keyblade suddenly gone, and was basically bouncing, as if he was trying to strike but something wouldn’t let him. Was it the real Sora? He didn’t know, so he stood there, keyblade still out and ready to defend just in case, but not to attack. He couldn’t bare hurting Sora on accident. Especially when he’s not in control. Anti-Sora was just there, bouncing around trying to attack, but couldn’t.

However, Riku didn’t move either. He decided to talk to him, to get the real Sora to come out, to help him find his way back home.

“Hey, Sora. It’s me, Riku,” he started off, quietly. His held his hands out in front of him, summoning his keyblade away (just in case it made Anti-Sora afraid). Anti-Sora just sat there, mumbling words still coming from him.

“Lost....”

“Yes, I know you’re lost, but I’m here. Let me take you home.”

At the word “home” he noticed that Anti-Sora perked up a bit. As if he was excited to go home, which Riku bet he was. However, Riku still saw Anti-Sora shake his head and let out a growl. He rushed towards Riku, only his bare hands out, and Riku dodged away. He was a little afraid to use his keyblade, he thought he might hurt him, which was the last thing he wanted to do. However, Anti-Sora didn’t care. He kept leaping after him and Riku only had limited time to avoid him. And on one attack, he didn’t dodge in time and got 3 little scratch marks on his arm. It didn’t hurt too bad, but there was some pain there.

What surprised him was that when he got hurt and let out a little shout of pain, Anti-Sora leaped away from and stared at him. Riku swears he saw some form of pain and regret in his big, yellow eyes. Anti-Sora looked down at his hands and saw some blood on them, and he looked...disgusted. Riku then remembered, that it is Sora underneath everything. He knows Sora wouldn’t hurt him on purpose. This caused his heart to panic a little. He thought that Anti-Sora might be angry at himself and run away. He couldn’t let that happen, so he stood up slowly and raised his hands out once again.

“Hey, I’m okay. I know you don’t mean it, Sora. I’m right here for you. We can go home and everything will be okay.” He tried to use that voice he used towards Sora. The one filled with affection, love, and that calmness he always managed to do whenever Sora was hurt. His voice was a little shaky out of emotion, but he remained mostly calm. After all, it was Sora underneath the darkness. It’s what Riku kept reminding himself. Anti-Sora slowly crawled towards him, his head tilted as if he was curious. Riku nodded and smiled. “Yeah, it’s me, Sora. Just come with me and it’ll be okay. Best friends promise.”

“...best friend...?”

His voice sounded a bit clearer, as if Sora was breaking through, but darkness still had a little hold on him. Riku nodded and decided to get on his knees on the hard ground. He held his arms open like he was going to give a hug, but only if Sora would come to him. Anti-Sora let out a little purr and leaped into Rikus arms. His legs wrapped around his waist, arms wrapped around his neck, and his cheek rested against Rikus cheek. Riku noticed that Anti-Sora still looked tense, so he hugged him back the best that he could.

“...real...?”

That little word broke Rikus heart. What had Sora seen down here? What had he gone through? Did he truly believed Riku wasn’t here? In response, he hugged him tighter and ran his hand through his hair.

“Yes. I’m really here, Sora. I promise.” Before he knew it, tears were rolling down his face. He knew it wasn’t the true Sora just yet, but just...holding him and seeing him at all, released all the emotions he’d been holding back. All the emotions he repressed just so he could find Sora, and now he had. His wish finally came true and he finally found Sora.

After who knows how long, Riku stood up with Sora in his arms. He looked at his face, but he seemed like he was asleep. Riku then worried even more. Did Sora even ever sleep down here? Riku knows how tiring it is here and how it’s hard to ever have a moments rest. He’s surprised how he and Anti-Sora even got a chance to find each other with no heartless appearing. However, he doesn’t question it, he’ll take any blessings he can get, and this was the best one of all. Other than just being Soras best friend.

Once they escaped the Realm of Darkness, Soras form seemed a little less tainted, his hair was back to its original brown, his face back to the face Riku loves with his whole heart, but his body was still covered in darkness. Sora would occasionally let out a little whimper and Riku would hug him tighter and whisper, “it’s okay. I’m right here,” to comfort him in whatever was going on behind his closed eyelids. He hopes it helps him and it seemed like it kinda did by the way Sora would lighten his grip on Riku.

Once they got to Master Yen Sids tower, he went straight to Master Yen Sid, and he looked shocked but happy. “I see you’ve found the little one,” he said with a smile. Riku smiled back and nodded. “I did...but he was covered in darkness. As you can see, he still is a little bit. What should I do?” Master Yen Sid looked at the sleeping Sora, noticing him tightening his grip whenever someone spoke, as if he was afraid. Master Yen Sid stroked his beard in though.

“Do you think I should dive into his heart?” Riku asked him with worry clear in his voice.

“It might work. However, be careful. He still has darkness inside him and I can see you didn’t make it out unscathed.”

Riku looked down at his arm where the 3 scratches were. The bleeding dried up, so it just needed a bandage or a healing spell to make it go away. However, that was the last thing on his mind. He just wanted to save Sora from whatever was trapping him. Riku nodded at Master Yen Sid and rested Sora on the ground like he had done once so long ago. He summoned his keyblade and pointed it at Sora, ready to dive into his beloveds heart.

Once he did, he was on Soras awakening station, but it was covered in darkness. He expected Anti-Sora to be somewhere here, but instead he saw Sora standing in the middle, completely still.

“Sora!” Riku ran towards Sora and got in front of him to look at him. Once he touched him, Sora’s eyes opened wide and he looked at Riku. He reached out for him, but before he touched him, he pulled his hand back as if he was burned from the air and turned around and walked away from Riku.

“You’re not really here. You’re not here,” he whispered, his voice shaking with sadness. Rikus heart broke at that denial.

“I’m right here, Sora. I promise,” he said as he walked closer to Sora. Soras arms were crossed and his back was turned to Riku. Riku walked to him and put his hand on his shoulder. “Please...look at me.”

Sora let out a small gasp and turned around. Riku was so happy to see a smile on Soras face and the way he was excited to see Riku.

“You’re real!” Sora shouted as he threw himself at Riku.

Riku caught him, obviously, and hugged him as tight as he could.

He found him. He finally found his beloved after so long.

OkaYYYY. I hope this was good! I like it but I didn’t know how to end it so it’s kinda bad at the ending my bad! But I hope y’all liked it and my requests are open for whatever y’all want me to write.

Btw if ya wanna know why Sora didn’t think Riku was real, check out my other fic where Sora keeps seeing fake Rikus in the realm of darkness >:)

[minijenn]

Random Keys/UF Crossover Ideas

Because I’m torn between both of my projects right now and I hate myself, here’s something that’ll only really appeal to the very niche audience of people who read both Universe Falls and Keys to the Kingdom. Basically its a list of somewhat spoilery (for Keys more than UF) headcanons of what it might be like if the Gravity Falls world scheduled to be in Keys was a Universe Falls world instead (in the sense that it still takes place in Gravity Falls physically but like... its set in the universe of Universe Falls (oy I’m explaining too much lemme just start rambling off the random ideas that have been popping into my head over the last several days of this hypothetical crossover of my two stupid fanfics):

For reference’s sake, on the UF end of things, this would take place somewhere around the middle of arc10ish, pretty close to Weirdmageddon as the GF world in Keys is gonna take place pretty close to Weirdmageddon too. 

For Keys, the trip to this world would still take place in the same spot the GF world does, so semi close to the end of the story, as one of the last Disney worlds of the fic (guess it wouldn’t really be a “Disney” world here but ehhhhhh) 

Guess I better give some context about what’s going on in each fic around that time; UF’s is easier to do so we’ll start with that; basically without spoiling a certain upcoming arc ender too much, during arc 10, everyone’s sorta frazzled what between all of the interdimensional travel, worries about Bill coming back and causing chaos, worries about the Diamonds possibly getting involved in stuff, shaken by the recent revelation that Rose allegedly shattered Pink Diamond and so on (basically there’s a lot going on in the leadup to UF’s ending hahaha) 

Context for Keys (again without getting too spoilery (gotta tread even more careful here) is that by this point in the story Sora is basically in nonstop Panic Mode about the whole norting thing thanks to a certain encounter with one Bald Old Fuckhead during the Aladdin world immediately before this; so Sora’s on the run from basically his entire support system cause he’s all worried about unintentionally hurting his friends (and he also just doesn’t want Riku or Kairi in particular to see what’s happening to him cause Disaster Bi). 

Cont. Context for Keys cause that last bullet point was Long: Despite all this fuckin Angst, Sora’s still out searching for the Keys on his own in the hopes of securing the final few for the guardians of light before he can be fully norted and forced into handing them over to the Organization instead 

Not to mention those freak relatively dark/light powers of his are alll outta whack cause he A. Doesn’t know how to control them At All and B. Is Emotionally Distraught so that’s only making things worse

And the entire gang is more or less out searching the worlds tryin’ to find Sora (he yeeted his Gummi Phone off a fuckin cliff or something just so nobody could get in touch with him smh what a waste of a perfectly good cell phone); among the teams that are out doing so include the one we’re gonna focus on here, Ven and Roxas  

Back to the UF end of things, I wanna talk about where each of the Mystery Kids are at this point; Steven is sorta all over the place with, again, the revelation that his mom could have been a murderer; Dipper is hella nervous about the idea of Bill getting his hands on the Rift (even moreso after RMD cause PTSD is Somethin Else kids), Mabel is in that mindset of not wanting the summer to end so they can all stay together, and Connie is basically (as usual) the only one with any brain cells as she’s trying to hold the gang together

(lowkey spoilers for the Keys GF chapters start here) So Sora arrives in Gravity Falls, suffering from all the angsts and anxieties and whatnot and just Not Having a Very Good Time Emotionally/Mentally as he starts lookin around for the Key in the woods or whatever

But lo and behold everyone’s favorite Evil Corn Chip just so happens to be spyin’ on him, and before too long Bill makes his appearance and acts all friendly to Sora, claiming that he can basically undo the whole norting thing (which he knows all about because of course he would, this is Bill Fucking Cipher we’re talking about here)

Sora’s skeptical but at the same time he’s sort of willing to do whatever he can at this point to keep his heart from being taken over by Mr. Bald Old Fuckhead and all Bill is asking for in return is for him to nab some sparkly snow globe that he claims already belongs to him but was stolen by some local family who Bill makes out to be pretty bad so hey, why not at least give it a shot? (dumb, the kid is dumb this is something we’ve established many times over by this point)

So Sora sets out to look for both the rift and the Key (while also being harangued by Xemnas who’s the Org. baddie of the GF world but errrrr i don’t have a ton of ideas about what he’s gonna do yet so we’ll just skip over that for now and focus on somethin else)

Something else being the fact that Sora happens upon a bunch of kids being attacked by a group of Nobodies, so he swoops in to save them even though the kids already look like they’re holding their own pretty well against them (two of them are out here swinging swords around, one’s really handy with that grappling hook while another one has some sort of magical shield? Its weird??? But cool imo) 

So they all team up to take the Nobodies out and following that, Sora meets and mostly hits it off with the Mystery Kids

Mabel is super hype (she kinda instantly crushes on Sora as soon as she sees him even though he’s too fuckin old for her); Steven and Sora radiate the same sort of Sweet But Sad energy so of course they’re best friends immediately 

Connie’s a lil bewildered by Sora (who the hell goes around swinging a giant key like its a sword, that’s just not practical???) but Dipper’s distrustful radar is instantly raised for a a number of reasons, but the biggest red flag he notices about Sora by far is that his eyes are yellow (btw by this point his eyes will more or less be completely yellow and his hair almost entirely white; he usually wears his hood up to try and hide that, but it got blown off during the forementioned fight) 

So the kids were out and about in the woods for mystery hunting reasons, mostly cause they were trying to cool their heads from all of the stress they’re under mentioned earlier (and cause hey, the summer’s ending soon and they gotta spend all the time they can together at this point) 

However, they quickly change gears when they learn about Sora’s quest to find some magical Key and they all eagerly decide they wanna help with that cause it sounds hella rad; Dipper would likely be the only dissenter to this plan, but he’d be lowkey about it, kinda deciding to keep a suspicious eye on Sora all the while (he doesn’t really act like he’s being possessed by Bill, but ya can never be too sure nowadays...) 

So they all set out in search of the Key (Sora decides not to tell them about Bill or the rift just yet, but even so right off the bat he’s basically decided “yes I’m adopting all four of these kids as my new little brothers and sisters and no one can stop me”)

So cut to the other end of things and we have Ven and Roxas who have basically only just met each other face to face for the first time (they’re both basically constantly doin that spiderman look alike meme); they’ve been more or less teamed up to look for Sora together tho, and they both got a massive guilt complex about the whole thing cause they used to be able to directly protect him inside his heart but now they can’t since they’re out of it so they’re determined to find him and make sure he’s OK

They also show up in Gravity Falls, arriving much closer to the Mystery Shack and the Gem Temple than Sora did; since its the closest thing nearby, the boys decide to venture over to the Mystery Shack to look first 

After some brief, confused yet fun conversation with Soos and Wendy, they bump into Stan and that initial meeting goes something like: 

Stan: Who the hell are you two supposed to be? You twins or something?

Roxas: No??? What the fuck is a twin??

Ventus, realizing that Roxas has like 0 real world experience or regard for world order at that moment right fucking there: (oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck) Ummmm YES WE ARE WE’RE TOTALLY TWINS AHAHA AREN’T WE BROTHER?

Roxas, immensely confused: What the hell is a brother??

And then Ford shows up and Roxas looks between him and Stan is just like “ooooh ok now I get what a twin is” and Ven is just like “oh my god I think Roxas managed to catch some of Sora’s stupidity after all asdkjalsdkalsd” 

Anyway after all this awkward confusion is over, Roxas and Ven bring up that they’re there looking for someone, and while neither Stan nor Ford are that invested, they do offhandedly mention maybe the Crystal Gems can help

Ironically enough, the Gems happen to burst into the shack right then and there, taking refuge from the surge of strange creatures swarming outside (Nobodies & Heartless); the Gems are rather overwhelmed by them since their weapons don’t work that great on them so they’ve come to seek Ford’s help (since he’s got all those weapons and lasers and shit he keeps stockpiled) 

In this Ven and Roxas end up meeting the Gems and both of them are just like :O (Ven’s lowkey like, “Aqua would get along great with these ladies, they’re total badasses just like her!”) and the Gems just kinda pass the boyos off like “yeah whatever there’s a fuckton of monsters outside meanwhile where are our kids?”

Stan and Ford are like *shrug* cause neither of them are very good at being Responsible when it comes to keeping an eye on these danger-prone kids and the Gems are just like *facepalm* “Morons” so they set out to find the kids and Ven and Roxas are like “well they know their way around here so why not go with them to see if we can find Sora too!” and so they all head out on a lil adventure

Then a whole bunch of stuff happens on both sides of the plot that I haven’t bothered to figure out; bunch of cute character interactions and whatever; insert possible second encounter with Xemnas in here somewhere where he basically shows up just to intimidate Sora but Sora’s like “no way jose, you touch any of these precious kiddos and you’ll Die” 

Somewhere in here, under... some circumstances, Sora and the MK make it back to the shack but like... everyone’s gone? (cause they all went out to look for them, didn’t even leave a note, fuckin rude) 

They search the house for anybody and then, on complete fuckin accident, Sora finds his way down into the basement (the portal room to be exact) and what else does he find down there but that thing Bill asked him to get (the rift)! 

Though he’s a little confused about why its there (Bill did say some awful family “stole” the rift from him, but none of the MK are awful, they a bunch of Good Kids); Sora still pockets it like a desperate dummy dumb anyway and doesn’t say a word about it to the kids because he thinks they might be too innocent and young to know anything about it anyway (he’s wrong of course because much like him these kids are Traumatized with a capital T but we’ll just ignore that for now)

Still on the search for that Key, Sora and the kids head out only to run right into Stan, Ford, and the Gems on the way out; course, Ven and Roxas are still with them and they see Sora and they’re like :D while Sora’s just like “aw fuck” and runs away from his problems like always

So he rushes off into the woods and who else would show up but that Motherfuckin Evil Corn Chip again who’s like “yo kid ya got the stuff” and Sora’s just like “brb having a panic attack rn” but then he ends up obliviously handing the rift over anyway cause again he’s incredibly desperate for any way out of his current horrible situation

Of course because I’m a sap for Drama, he happens to do so just as all four of the MK show up, having followed him into the woods and ohohohoh boy oh boy let’s just say them seeing Sora just up and giving the rift over to Bill would be a Moment (well, at least for Steven and Dipper cause they actually know what the fuckin rift is unlike Mabel and Connie who still wouldn’t at that point) 

So basically Bill is a little shit and takes the rift, but he can’t actually fuckin do anything with it cause he’s a physical object and he’s still intangible (or somethin like that idk I just don’t want Weirdmageddon to happen cause it would make things too complicated) so he’s like “fuck gotta find some stupid sap to possess so I can smash this dumb thing” and he nearly targets Sora (cause the kid was already stupid enough to help him in the first place so why not?) until Steven ends up being the one to fend him off using his shield 

Bill shrugs it off and makes off with the rift anyway (its like... hovering or something? idk I’m running out of steam) and everyone panics of course, especially Sora cause he’s just like “well shit I certainly Fucked Up didn’t i?” and the MK are both a mix of “YOU THINK?” (from Dipper and Connie mostly) and “imo not your fault Bill’s tricked just about all of us he’s an asshole” (from Steven and Mabel)

Amidst this a bunch of lil things also happen; the Stans and the Gems show up (along with Ven and Roxas), basically everyone is immensely confused (aka those who have no idea what the fucking rift is) and alarmed (those who do know what the rift is) that Bill has what he needs to more or less fuck the entire world over 

So everyone just decides to put everything aside and team up all together to track Bill down and get the rift back before he can break it (there’s a lot of heartwarming trust moments in here, mostly cause trust is like... the cornerstone theme of the GF chapters in Keys for obvious reasons) 

They eventually do find him and *insert big epic battle scene here* where everyone teams up to basically beat Bill to death or whatever (don’t ask me how they be doin that if he’s intangible, again I.... I’m tired and this post is long enough as it is) 

Yadda yadda yadda they beat him, get the rift back and effectively prevent Weirdmageddon from happening to begin with (which just does SO much wonderful fuckery for UF’s timeline moving forward but whatever, this ain’t about that) 

Oh and during that Climactic Battle Scene somewhere there’s some bit about Sora learning to better trust others/himself that leads to him getting the world’s Key? I-I I dunno its a work in progress...

Anyway after this there’s a lot of good character interactions all around, reconciliations between the UF characters and the Keys characters, particularly between Sora and the MK (again he’s adopted these kiddos and don’t you forget it)

So with the Key in hand, Sora starts to leave and Roxas and Ven almost convince him to go back with them until *insert Big Keys Spoiler here that results in the Organization getting their hands on that Key Sora just got and also results in Sora running away again cause... reasons*

And that’s the end of the chapters or whatever idk 

There’s probably more ideas I had in mind for this but I literally can’t do anymore my brain is dying 

I might possibly write this for reals someday i dunno I’m stuck in two personal hells here so I might as well combine ‘em

Yes I’m aware this post leans more heavily on Keys than UF but its set in the world of UF so fuck off 

Feel free to add on with any thoughts you might have about the idea

I’m tired

Amen 

[player-1]

Union X update 9/3 (Spoilers)

Oh boy, time to let some steam out... And major spoilers and speculations are below, so tread carefully.

STOP SAYING VEN IS THE MURDERER! HE IS NOT GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION! HE IS THE VICTIM! THE BLOOD IS NOT ON HIS HANDS BY DEFAULT, DARKNESS WAS THE ONE WHO TOOK STRELITZIA’S LIFE! HE JUST HAD THE UNFORTUNATE CHANCE OF BEING IN THE WRONG PLACE AND AT THE WRONG TIME!!

Alright, rant’s somewhat over, let me explain a few things...

Given Darkness’ information with the Book of Prophecies, and with the famous phrase “And the Darkness will triumph and Light will expire”, it used Ven as the Trojan Horse in order to ensure their survival in the Worlds beyond (more so like a double standard, but I’ll explain that later). But of course, there’s a few key factors to consider...

1. Why would Darkness kill a Union Leader? Wouldn’t Ven being a Dandelion have the same effect as ensuring its survival? Because being a Union Leader assures the person the privilege of keeping their original memories of the past. If Ven was a Dandelion on its own, he would have his memories erased regarding the War, and under the Leader’s watch, they may destroy Darkness in its path before it made it out of the data world. And on that note, Ven might even reject Darkness as a regular Dandelion regardless. 

2. If Ven had Darkness with him, wouldn’t Ava be suspicious?  Of course, since Darkness works as a completely separate entity and uses Ven as an unassuming vessel of sorts. And with a Keyblade like Missing Ache, a powerful three-tier in fact, it would be odd for an eleven-year-old like him to possess at the cusp of the War. But on that note, we now know that Darkness took the form of Ava to trick Ven into going to the abandoned warehouse, where both the Player and Strelitzia went into. And given their striking similarities (more so the default Player), it would be easy to assume some kind of mix up...

3. So what does that have to do with anything? If Ven wasn’t supposed to be a Union Leader, or even a Dandelion himself, why did Darkness pick him?  Because he was alone. Because he didn’t have anyone to call a true friend. Because he doubts his strength as a Keyblade wielder and a Union Leader. He was shut off from the world, possibly by force, and raised oblivious of the Keyblade War itself and the burden he inadvertently carries.  All of that was possible because Darkness saw a lonely little kid and twisted his mind to believe that he may never get the love and support he wanted, that he can only trust his own shadow and his own heart.

-“The one who answered was a boy with short, wavy golden hair and a tendency to look at the ground. He was so quiet that it was hard to imagine him fighting with a Keyblade.“ -“You two know each other, huh? Must be nice; I’ve always been on my own.” -Ephemer had never seen this boy Ven. Many Keyblade wielders he would at least recognize by face, and would usually hear stories of the truly exceptional ones, but Ven fit in neither category. (Unchained X light novel, pg. 125) Ventus: "Wait. Keyblade wielders fighting each other!?" Ephemer: "Didn't you read the book, Ven?" Ventus: "I did, but...I guess I didn't realize what it meant." ~~ Ventus: "I disagree." Brain: "Whoa, Ven. When did you grow a spine?" Ventus: "This is serious. I don't like the thought of wielders turning their weapons against each other." (Union X Mission 846: Pride Shift) The Union Leaders and Dandelions knew about the rising tension leading up to the War, or in this case, everyone in Daybreak Town knew about the War coming.  All except for Ven. He never considered it a possibility that wielders would turn their weapons against each other, fighting for Lux and not against the Heartless itself. For all he knew, everyone was just going about their missions like nothing even happened...After all, that’s what the Keyblade was for, right? Fighting against the Darkness?

But without Darkness (the entity), he never would’ve gained the Keyblade in the first place.  

Notice how Missing Ache is mostly connected to Dark Medals? If the Keyblade is a physical manifestation of the heart, than that defines their relationship: Darkness coming into contact with a pure Light like Ven’s, and taking care of the rest of his potential. It’s that kind of control that will eventually make Ven doubt himself, doubting his strength and his potential to make any kind of friendship apart from the Union Leaders. 

And even if he lost his memories in the Birth by Sleep timeline, it still had a lasting effect on Ven. -Xehanort tearing his heart apart because of Ven’s incapability of using the forces of Darkness...Because Darkness is an entirely separate entity. The same reason applies on why Darkness/Vanitas was able to survive on his own while Ven was forced to heal with the help of another heart (Sora). There was never “two halves” of Light and Darkness, there was only 1/4 of Light and 3/4 of Darkness. -He reacts negatively to any sort of criticism, and even goes into shock at the motion of a Keyblade raised at him (see BBS novel ch. 11 for more info (it also mentions his love of sweets, btw)), but he also hates the idea of Terra and Aqua holding back their strength, automatically assuming that he’s weaker than both of them.   -And even with the four years living in the Land of Departure with Terra, Aqua, and Master Eraqus, he never closed the gap between friend/student to brother/son-figure. Even with his amnesia, he remained distant of their compassion, never opening up to them in an honest, loving manner...

Darkness thrives on the idea of controlling someone weaker than itself. Daybreak Town, no matter its grandeur and charm, is a dog-eat-dog world, and it made sure Ven know that truth from the beginning.  Friends and partners will abandon you when you fulfill your purpose. The weak will die alone and the strong will crush the weak like bugs. Opening up your emotions and true feelings will make you weak, and people will take advantage of you because of it. The only thing you can trust is your own shadow and the weapon you carry in your heart.  Darkness and Light are one and the same, one cannot live without the other. They are brothers until the end of time, experiencing and feeling the same things and the same emotions. Where you go, I follow, so even if you think that you are alone, I will always be by your side forevermore. And because of me, you would’ve never made new friends (that will eventually leave you), you never would’ve been in the seat of power (that will eventually crumble around you), and you never would’ve seen the Worlds come into fruition (Light will eventually fade, and the Darkness will consume). You are my Light, I am your Darkness, and without me, you would’ve been dead long ago. Darkness as Vanitas wanted to keep that control, even after they were separated by Xehanort. He also didn’t fight back against Xehanort because, as the abuser became the victim, he had no idea to react. Xehanort made Vanitas weak because of his own power and his own skills of manipulation.  Even if he didn’t remember entirely, his dark heart grew colder at the thought that, even without his darker half, Ven can still live a proper happy life. He’s furious of the idea that Ven can live without him, that they can’t share that same happiness, but also avoiding the cycle of doubt and eventual betrayal caused by his hand. But Darkness isn’t inherently evil, it’s just stuck on the logic of “There is no true happiness, where there is love is betrayal, where there is friendship is abandonment, nothing is truly happily ever after...“. And because of that fact, he let Ven watch Darkness take Strelitzia’s life, hoping to find the Player and save them from the War, because life doesn’t give you second chances that easily.

In a way, that would make Ventus believe that her death was entirely his fault (since he accepted Darkness as a part of himself, ie. guilty by association), that all he will do is hurt people, and possibly his new friends. And he may believe that, as long as he’s all alone with his shadow, no one will get hurt, no one will betray him, and the cycle will just repeat on and on and on.

On a sidenote, KH3 Vanitas pretty much describes their relationship to the core: -I’m the piece of Ventus that was taken away, and you’re the piece Ventus needed to be whole again [Sora]. So why shouldn’t you and I look exactly the same? (Taking the appearance of someone Ven can trust, ie. Master Ava and Sora) -You define me, Sora, the same way that Ventus does. We are brothers who, together, make a greater whole. (Light/Darkness duality) -But I am darkness. And I do stand by your side, I’m the shadow that you cast. How much closer could I be? -Ventus: But I didn’t ask for this. To be sifted apart, nice and neat. We should be free to choose. Not just light, not just darkness. We decide what we are. Vanitas:  But...Ventus, I did decide who I am. You see? Ventus: And what you are is darkness? Vanitas: What I am is darkness. Ventus: ...Okay.

All in all, Darkness/Vanitas decided that he should exist by his own nature, meant to be the opposing force against Light. But at the same time, Ven decided that he should be defined as a person, not a puppet stuck with the strings of fate. And in the light of the new Worlds, he could abandon the weak and innocent child he was in the past. But as Vanitas’ final words tell him, what I am is Darkness, you can’t change Darkness in its truest form.

(Also don’t ask me on where Ven’s Chirithy fits into this, I honestly have no idea. For all I know, they may or may not be aware of Darkness’ control on Ven, so we’ll just have to wait and see in the next KH arc.)

TL;DR: 

[cyberramblings]

Kingdom Hearts BBS, DDD Blind Thoughts

Spoilers for Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and earlier titles in the series. Also warning that I have insomnia and these are utter ramblings on the last 24 hours of blindly binging the Kingdom Hearts series as a total newcomer to the series. Haven’t played three yet and just started Dream Drop Distance. With that warning.....

Birth by Sleep was a ton of fun. We ended up needing to grind a little to make Aqua playable, but that ended up forcing me to learn the game mechanics much deeper, and even my friends leveled up their playing of the game! It was really cool to unlock some of the high tier spells like Triple Firaga and Thundaga Shot, although I do wish we had gotten to chance to unlock even more. I should remember how much more fun the game was after some internet research.

It was very satisfying to unlock the true ending so easily. We had only missed 2 of the 12 required Xehanort Reports. The 2 we needed involved grinding the arena for maybe an hour total and then 5 minutes of finding a treasure chest. We were then able to roll smoothly from Aqua’s finish into the final episode.

Aqua’s fight against Braig was laughable easy, but the final fight against Vanitas/Ventus was slightly tougher. The real challenge was fighting Terra/Xehanort but then the REAL challenge was phase 2 of that fight. I got them all on the first try! It was a really enjoyable flex of my gaming skills in front of the friends.

From a story standpoint, Birth By Sleep had my favorite story of any KH game so far, by a huge margin. I liked certain elements of the KH2 ending (Riku and Sora teaming up, Kairi’s keyblade) but BBS has been the only game where I had any sense of purpose or desire to see how it ends. They did a great job of having each of the 3 routes reveal new information even if played out of order (Xehanort taking over Terra, Vanitas having Sora’s face, Aqua taking care of comatose Ventus).

Obviously it helps to have Leonard Nimoy and Mark Hamill join the cast, plus Aqua’s VA absolutely dominates every scene she’s in. Terra’s VA reminds me a lot of Leon’s monotone edgy boy voice acting (David Boreanaz or otherwise). Of course Ventus shares a VA with Roxas, but the twist of Vanitas being Haley Joel Osmont is really great because he sounds so much older. I think it would have been easier to predict that twist if I had recently heard more of HJO’s Sora voice in Dream Drop Distance or KH3.

Aqua is, of course, the great standout character from BBS. From the start, we got attached to her because of her known prevalence in KH3 on top of her cool design, Arrow voice actress, and the fact that we could finally play a girl (plus one with more human proportions than Kairi). It worked out really well how we saved her for last and had to kind of unlock the secrets of her play style by finally mastering the various gameplay systems.

I much prefer the command deck system compared to the gameplay of KH2. To be fair, these are the only two KH games I’ve beaten. I’ve only barely touched KH1 and Chain of Memories. I felt like BBS did a good job of fusing the action gameplay of KH2 with the (potentially) satisfying deck building of CoM.

Re: Coded is a fucking mess. I might actually go back and play it on a DS emulator just to see the gameplay, but god damn the story is a flimsy excuse for a retread. I almost wish we had skipped it entirely, but just watching the opening and ending worked out pretty well. In the end, it’s literally just “Mickey is gonna give Sora the memories of all the other protagonists” which is badass but probably going to be mentioned again before being relevant. I will say that the ending with Riku and Sora being summoned by Yen Sid for the mark of mastery test is fucking badass and elicited quite the reaction from all three of us. The series is finally starting to have that feeling of “the stakes are high and I want to see what happens with these characters”.

This was expressed most fully in the intro to Dream Drop Distance. Step 1: invoke Disney Magic with a silhouette of magician Mickey. Step 2: Orchestral Simple and Clean. Step 3: use entirely new cinematic footage instead of splicing together an AMB. Step 4: show every keyblade wielder standing side by side. Apparently that’s enough to make me actually cry. We all got very excited by this intro, so it was a bit of a let down to start the game and be seemingly replaying KH1 again.

Of course that’s not the whole game, but I’m still not sure what the whole game is. Riku and Sora have to...wake the seven sleeping worlds to earn their mark of mastery? Are they dreaming all of this, or what? Seeing The World Ends With You was cute for like a second before realizing that I know almost nothing about it. Flowmotion is similarly kinda neat at first but quickly becomes annoying, but maybe it will grow on me with time.

Speaking of fun at first but quickly annoying: Dream Eaters. The Pokémon-esque system seems like a time waster that’s perfect for 3DS but maybe not so much for our tourist play through. The Dream Eater designs are cute when they’re on your team, but strike me as a bit annoying when fighting the same ones over and over. Heartless and Nobodies felt more generic, but that made them feel a little less repetitive to fight over and over. I see the same god damn rainbow colored Panda every god damn fight. To be fair, I think each world randomly contains certain types of Dream Eaters every time you visit it.

Speaking of Worlds, I’m not really looking forward to Hunchback of Notre Dame or Pinocchio world, but at least they’re new worlds instead of retreading Halloween Town, Agrabah, Olympus, Neverland for the millionth time. What I am looking forward to is The Grid from Tron Legacy! I don’t think we’ve seen any Disney world that specifically spotlight a sequel to a Disney world we’ve already seen. We revisit Halloween Town, Agrabah, Beast’s Castle, Olympus, Atlantica but only for some minor follow-up fluff. The Tron world in KH2 meant a lot to me having just seen the film. The Lightcycle combat could’ve been a little more true to the original, but the visuals were so faithful plus having Tron’s actual actor was so fucking cool. Sora and gang getting Tron outfits was so cool too. Also would’ve liked to have a disc fight, but the Sark/MCP fight was spot on. Hopefully we can get both of more in DDD!

It’s a perfect excuse to revisit The Grid since Legacy looks so different from the original. Now, The Grid is not a true world in KH2 but instead part of Hollow Bastion’s computer system. I’m curious if The Grid in DDD is a sleeping world or something that exists within another world, or if it is somehow connected to the KH2 Tron world (which would get real weird real quick if that version of the Grid is a copy of the original, but Legacy is supposed to be set in The Grid 30 years later).

Oh, I like that DDD has the command deck system but I don’t like the pets, I don’t like the link system, I don’t like reality shift, and I don’t like flowmotion. It just seems like BBS with all the RPG features crammed into the pet system with a bunch of gimmick infused into the combat system. Admittedly, gimmick is one of the biggest strengths of the KH franchise, but flowmotion just seems silly. Perhaps I’ll like it more when I get used to it and potentially get to customize the moves.

I’m not sure yet how I feel about the drop system, but I do like getting to play as Riku. I think multiple protagonists is a smart way to stretch the assets and tell 2 stories per world. I rather enjoyed the way Aqua, Terra, and Ventus interacted with some of the Disney worlds. Hopefully we get something similar in some of these worlds.

The dive mini game is definitely gimmicky nonsense clearly designed for the 3DS. In general though, all the games in these collections look great and feel great. I suppose that is why Days, Coded, and Back Cover are cutscenes: to keep the average quality of gameplay roughly somewhere in between KH1 and 2 between all the titles. In fact, I think KH1 is easily the worst feeling out of all the ones thus far. I’ve always complained about KH hopping between systems, but now I can’t really complain about that anymore. My complaint still stands about the games being overly complicated. Plus, the games are clearly taking themselves way too seriously, but that’s very clearly part of the charm.

Really, I suppose the games aren’t that complicated if you heavily condense Chain of Memories, cut out Coded, and try not to think too hard about the phone games. Then it just becomes: Sora defeats the heartless, Sora defeats the nobodies, Roxas backstory, Aqua/Terra/Ventus, training/prep montage, then KH3. Oh, and try to forget that somehow the upcoming rhythm game is canon.

[daybreak-academy-fanfic]

Daybreak Academy: Chapter 49

Romantics For Life

Summary: In which Ventus wins a teddy bear, Lauriam and Strelitzia discuss her crush, and Ephemer gains an intense hatred for Skuld. Word Count: 1,706 First | Previous | Next ☆ ⚬ ☆ ⚬ ☆ ⚬ ☆ ⚬ ☆ ⚬ ☆ ⚬ ☆ ⚬ ☆ ⚬ ☆

Ventus was starting to think that absolutely no one like resting around here. Not the Dandelions, not the headmasters, not even Lauriam's sister and Anora. Sure, the Star Festival was a given occasion that they had to participate in, but seriously- they had only arrived at the beach four days ago. When were they going to stop running around and actually relax for once?

At least the activity kept his mind off of Vanitas. That must have accounted for something.

Ven walked alone, trying to not get too overwhelmed by all the carnival games and the smell of deep fried food as he walked down the boardwalk. He didn't know where everyone else had gone. The last time he had seen everyone, Skuld, Anora, and Strelitzia had put on rather nice looking yukata, and Ephemer and Lauriam were simply wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Brain had gone to the festival far before anyone else, so Ven definitely had no idea where the older kid was now.

That is, until Ven happened to stumble across the balloon dart game. Brain was actively trying to predict his current throw- Ventus almost laughed when he noted that the older kid had one eye closed and his tongue sticking out in concentration. Brain finally made his throw, and then immediately let out a disappointed “Drat!” when it missed. Ven couldn't help but laugh, which earned him Brain's attention.

“Hey Ven!” Brain called over to him. “Wanna try this dart game with me?”

Knowing he had been spotted, Ven let out a nervous chuckle as he scratched the back of his head. “S-sure.” he agreed as he walked over to Brain.

Suddenly nervous as he picked up the balloon dart, Ventus gave Brain a quick side glance before turning his attention to the balloons. There were five rows of balloons- each row corresponding with a different color of the rainbow, which indicated what kind of prize could be won if they were popped. The higher the balloon, the higher the prize, obviously. Ventus tried to carefully line up his shot with one of the middle tier balloons and made a silent prayer to himself before tossing it.

His heart nearly leaped into his throat when the dart popped the exact balloon he had been aiming for. Barely. Just barely.

“Congrats Ven!” Brain cheered for him, giving the kid a hearty pat on the back.

“It was just a lucky shot...” Ventus sheepishly said, reached a hand behind his head.

“Lucky or not,” the older kid mused, “You get to pick out a prize now. So Ven, which one is it?”

Ventus jumped a little before looking at the prizes he could get. His heart was pounding far harder than it should have been as he looked the prizes over. “That one!” he finally declared as he pointed to a medium sized teddy bear.

Brain tried to hold back his laughter as the game's operator got down the teddy bear for Ven. The younger kid happily hugged the stuff toy in joy.

“Don't ever change Ven.” Brain then mused, placing a hand at the back brim of his fedora.

“Huh?” the younger questioned. “What's that about?”

But his only answer was a laugh, right before Brain messed up Ven's hair a bit. Ventus recoiled out of the way with a grimace. But, despite himself, he also started to laugh.

. . .

“Oh, look at that one.” Lauriam said to Strelitzia as he pointed out a line of fukinagashi streamers. “It looks like they hand painted those symbols on. The detail is so intricate.”

“But what about those paper cranes?” Strelitzia offered, motioning to a booth that sold origami creations. “Imagine how long it took for them to create all those little cranes!”

“True enough.” her brother laughed. Strelitzia gave him a bright smile of her own before joining in. It was a small relief seeing his sister's relaxed demeanor after several months of watching her slowly agonize over an unrequited crush.

“Would you like some mochi?” he asked her some time later. “I think I saw a food stand offering some earlier.”

“Sure!” she grinned. For a fleeting moment, he could see so much of their mother in her. He wondered how their mother would have handled Strelitzia's crush; surely their mother was the type that would have loved to have grandchildren. Unfortunately, it seemed both he and Strelitzia seemed to be slightly more deviant in that regard- but they were still young, there was still time.

The siblings found a stand offering mochi, and Lauriam paid for two. They then sat down on a nearby park bench to feast on their sweet treats. Truth be told, Lauriam didn't have much of an appetite at the moment.

“How are you doing?”

“Hmm?” Strelitzia turned to him with her spoon still in her mouth. She took it out -making a little 'pop' sound in the process- before inquiring, “What do you mean?”

“Well, if your cabin is anything like ours, it means that you girls are all sharing the same bedroom.” he said to her- sounding as if he were speaking more of a thought “I wanted to make sure you were getting enough sleep since she would also be sleeping there.”

“She…?” Strelitzia started to question before it hit her. Her face quickly flushed as she looked away from her brother. “It… it was hard, at first. But she goes to bed pretty early, so it's not that bad, I guess. I don't think I slept well the first few nights though. Just thinking that she was right there...”

Strelitzia looked down at her mochi. The ice cream inside was starting to melt and threatened to dribble over the outer coating.

“Have you ever just…” she started to say, faltered, then started again, “Have you ever just wanted to kiss someone so badly that you'd be willing to forget that other people will notice? And… And you're afraid that everything will change between you two, even if you never truly knew each other before then?”

Lauriam was silent for awhile. He lulled his head from side to side as he thought the idea over. “Can't say I have.” he finally decided. “But I've never felt an actual attraction to someone either.”

“Oh...”

“Strelitzia,” Lauriam sighed. “I really want to help you, but I don't know how. I've been wondering a lot lately on how Mother would deal with this.”

At the mention of their mother, Strelizia's head popped back up. She looked at Lauriam with wide eyes and her jaw slightly agape.

“Mother?”

Lauriam nodded. He reclined a bit on the park bench, looking up at the sky. “The thing is, the more I dwell on it, the more I come to realize that I'm not the one that can help you. It's time to make a choice Strelitzia; you need to talk to Anora.”

Well, if her jaw hadn't hit the ground yet, it certainly did now. “H-how?” Strelitzia questioned, her voice sounding more like a strangled cat. “I… I can't…!”

But Lauriam shrugged. He had nothing else to offer. However, in some attempt to assure her, he mumbled, “May your heart be your guiding key.”

. . .

There were very few things that Ephemer truly hated. Skuld insisting that they make Tanabata wishes was starting to become one of those things.

“It'll be fun.” she assured him and Anora. 'Fun.' Right. Sure. As if she wasn't the one to make the girls wear yakuta, or purposely grant them all the best application of smokey eye this world has ever seen. And then there was Anora. Anora who, despite saying nothing so far this whole festival, made Ephemer's heart rush with a single side glance. The wonder in her eyes almost made her shine under the festival lights, drinking in every colorful lantern and origami crane like it was her first time out in the world. How could anyone be so… adorable? At this point, Ephemer was going to keep biting his lip until it bled.

The three of them had moved away from the main festival to a quiet picnic area on the beach. Anora had chose to write her wish at a different table than Ephemer and Skuld. Not that it mattered, they were all going to see the wishes when they hung them up anyway.

“Are you done yet?” Skuld asked him, her voice hushed so Anora couldn't hear. “Or are you going to keep gawking all night?”

Ephemer looked up from his wish strip and gave Skuld a funny glare.

“What are you talking about?” he asked her.

An impish smile crossed his friend's face when she said, “I know you have a crush.”

“I do not-!” Ephemer immediately tried to shout back, but caught himself before hissing, “I do not have a crush on Anora.”

“Never said it was Anora.” Skuld smirked. “But now that you mention it...”

“Skuld, you're ridiculous.”

To this, she let out a rather unflattering snort. “Me?” she mused. “I'm the one being ridiculous? You were the one who drooled over themselves at the formal!”

“That was different.”

“No it wasn't.”

A small growl escaped Ephemer's lips. “Yes, it was.”

“Urg, fine.” Skuld decided, throwing her hands in the air. “I've known you for six years, I know when to cut my losses.”

But the words stung. They lingered in Ephemer's mind as the three of them hung their wishes up on a palm tree. And you know what? Forget Skuld. She knew how to get under his skin, and (unfortunately) it worked. He hated her. He hated her more than these stupid wish strips, this stupid festival, and the mere fact that she might have even been right.

But then Anora's wish strip flickered at him from the corner of his eye. There was a word he was able to catch- a word he really wished he hadn't had seen. Making sure that Anora and Skuld had left, Ephemer moved a bit closer to the wish strip to read it in full. A part of his heart sank. He knew so little about her. This wasn't fair. There was no way that he could…

“Skuld, I freaking hate you.”