#Re:Formed AU

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Vanitas for @ok4ru!

[moonknightproductions]

Ref sheet for Re:Formed Vanitas (feat. a tiny Ven). Came about from the idea of "what if Van lost his memories and, to help get them back and maybe show him that life isn't so bad and that even if he's darkness (or Darkness with a capital D) he doesn't have to be antagonistic or evil, the Wayfinder Trio befriend him and train him?" Alternate under the cut with no jacket or weird half-cape thing (idk what to call it)

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Re:Form: Künstlertrio auf Spurensuche

Den 100-jährigen Geburtstag des Bauhauses feiert stilwerk mit einer Wanderausstellung in seinen Standorten Hamburg, Berlin und Düsseldorf. Vom 8. Mai bis zum 8. Juni können sich Bauhausfans, Designfreunde und Kunstinteressierte zunächst in der Hansestadt inspirieren lassen. Die Ausstellung Re:Form – Eine Hommage an 100 Jahre Bauhaus zeigt Arbeiten des Künstlertrios Olff Appold, Kai Brüninghaus und Jürgen Sandfort aus den Disziplinen Fotografie, freie Kunst, Kommunikationsdesign und Illustration. Sie erzählen die Bauhausgeschichte mit zeitgenössischen Bildern und Techniken.

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New chapter! Vanitas considers his role in all this.

Summary:

Starting now, the action picks up! The real meat of it! And by "it" I mean Vanitas being contemplative and annoyed about everything.

Notes:

The following chapters are in a similar format to Roxas's diary, where Vanitas puts down his thoughts. More of a character exploration than a narrative, though some entries are connected.

I can’t sleep. It’s not that I’m uncomfortable. The room I picked out was perfectly furnished, courtesy of the three others who live here. I barely remember their names half the time, so might as well write them down. They say writing helps to strengthen one’s memory. Their names are Terra, Aqua, and Ventus, but he prefers to be called Ven. Guess I should only use his full name for teasing him if I want them to trust me. Aqua certainly didn’t when she first saw me walk out of the portal.

She’d asked why I was here and Ven explained that he found me sitting alone in the Realm of Darkness. I stared at the ground through my helmet, glad that she couldn’t see my unfocused eyes.

I was in a daze those first few days. The abundance of light kinda shocked my system. I had to sit in a dark closet for a couple hours during the brightest part of that. The helmet helped a little, and I refused to take it off for anything. Eventually, I decided to try taking it off for little bits at a time on my own. When I was alone, I’d remove it and let the light wash over me. It helped me build up a tolerance, but I still feel like I can’t take it off for more than a few hours at a time.

Despite this supposedly being a neutral ground of sorts, it’s more biased toward light. Makes sense. For years Keyblade wielders of light protected this land from darkness, and from those like me who were born of it. Now I’m living here, balancing it out a little.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to fully take my helmet off. The light will always bother me, like an itchy bug bite. But I’ll adapt. Always have and always will.

That’s the thing about darkness. It’ll never be fully extinguished. No matter how much some want to believe it can be erased, it’ll always be here. I’ll always be here, in the shadows.

Hopefully writing all this will help get some weight off my chest.

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Rating: PG

Word count: 869

Tags: Vanitas is Darkness, prologue is a different writing style, Re:Formed AU, Vanitas contemplates his life, Post-Melody of Memory, wayfinder family, Angsting about emotions TM, So Vanitas how's that existential crisis treating you

Summary:

An amnesiac Vanitas finds himself living with Terra, Aqua, and Ven, who help him remember who he used to be. Will he be able to figure out how to cope as (D)darkness in a world aligned with light?

Notes:

This prologue is a different style from the rest of the fic. I recommend listening to Night of the Dark Dream from KH3 until Ven appears, then switch over to his theme for optimum reading experience.

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Never have I felt so at home than amongst these shadows. This comfort is like that of an old friend not seen for many years: we are strangers now, but somewhere in the back of my mind is familiarity. So why don’t I remember?

I can’t help but follow the flow as the darkness moves, enveloping me as I do it. I’m indistinct from the rest, formless and fluid. Whispers around me tear at my nonbeing, begging me to join them. Why don’t I want to?

No, I tell them. Let me go. I don’t know why I’m so insistent on giving up the comfort of this collective, but the darkness recedes, leaving me standing, standing on solid ground.

Examining my newly-gained form, I can tell I’m bipedal. Testing out my limbs is natural, as if I’ve been something similar before. I move my hands to my face to find metal and glass. My helmet must be tinted, seeing as I still can’t make out my surroundings. Or it’s just really dark here. Hard to tell.

There’s a pull in my body. I follow it until I can hear the crash of waves. A brilliant light shines on the horizon, obscured by my helm. So my first guess about the tinted glass was right.

Finding a rock, I sit down and watch the light reflect off the peaks and crests of the water.

I wait there for what seems like ages. How long has it been since I regained this form? I breathe in sync with the waves every now and then, just to feel my chest rise and fall. Sometimes my breath fogs up the glass and casts everything in a hazy glow.

“Hey, is that…” I hear a voice call and the crunch of footsteps on the soft sand. Someone’s running up to me.

“It is! I knew I’d find you here.”

I turn to look at the boy standing on my left. He’s staring at me with big, kind eyes, a warm and oddly relieved smile on his face.

“I had this feeling you’d returned, so I left a note for Terra and Aqua to tell them I’d left to find you. And here you are!”

He seems so happy to find me. Why? There’s a dim memory from long ago trying to surface when I look at him, but it can’t quite make it. What relation did I have with him to make me feel this way? I decide to take off my helmet to get a clearer look.

Big mistake. The light on the horizon hurts my eyes, as does… his light? Why is his light so powerful as to cause me to flinch? Still, I let myself adjust and when I can finally open my eyes properly, I jump to my feet on impulse. Something flashes into my outstretched hands and I point it at him. I speak aloud for the first time.

“Who are you? Why are you looking for me?” My tone is angry, but the aggression poorly masks my surprise and fear.

“Hey, whoa, it’s okay,” the boy says, holding his hands up defensively. Or perhaps as a show of peace? “Please, put your Keyblade away.”

“So this is called a Keyblade?” I say, lowering but not dismissing it.

Upon further inspection, what I’m holding is an aptly-named weapon, for it does resemble a key, if only in shape. The long part is wrapped in chains, and there are blue catlike eyes decorating it at the tip and hilt. The design is intricate with a gear motif. From the bottom dangles a keychain with various interlocking gears.

The weight of it feels comfortable in my hands, but I don’t remember if I know how to use it or what its purpose is or why I even have it in the first place.

“You don’t know what a Keyblade is? Hm…” The boy seems lost in thought. “Do you know my name?” I shake my head slowly. How do I tell him that he feels familiar yet I don’t remember him at all?

“Do you… know your own name?”

Again I shake my head. I remember nothing from before, if there was a before.

He asks an unexpected question. “Do you want me to tell you?” My eyes widen at that. He’d give me this vital piece of myself back even though he doesn’t know if I’m telling the truth? I think he thinks I’m the kind of person to be honest. I might be. And why would I lie about something as important as this?

“Your name is Vanitas.”

Vanitas. That feels right.

“Okay, so I’m Vanitas. Who are you?”

“I’m Ventus. Call me Ven.” He holds out a hand and waits for me to shake it. I hesitate for a long while before my Keyblade fades from my hand and I take his. I shiver with the contact. Such strength of heart.

Such light.

Before I can ask him anything else, Ven summons his own Keyblade and opens a portal. How do I know what he’s doing? Can I do it too?

“Come with me,” Ven says. I put my helmet on before following him through the glowing gate.

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WIP list for the two people who asked (lol)

Sorta multi-chap Vanitas fic for the Re:Formed AU I talked about a while back on here, arranged like Roxas’s diary entries (abandoned for now but if I’ve got an idea for it I’ll pick it back up)

YMX just… talking with people before the restarted Keyblade War (if anyone has suggestions for who he should talk to next lmk)! I’ve got Xigbar, Vanitas, and Marluxia already

Pretty abandoned wip of Sora and MX talking on Destiny Islands after Re:Mind where Sora chews him out and they find common ground, not enough to absolve MX of what he’s done but enough for Sora to understand why he did what he did

Xehanort Hair Loss fic. The idea came to me at 1 am before a school night and I wrote the first part of it in a fervor before I went to sleep

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hi sliding in i saw that ask post u reblogged @/the beginning of the year! if you're still doing it: 🦈Tell us the name of your/ one of your WIP(s), mayhaps? :)

I don’t really name wips lol BUT I do have one about Vanitas that I’ve made art for called the Re:Formed!AU about him losing his memories and living with the Wayfinders! And I’ve got a couple non-kh wips as well; I recently started on a yugioh Pokémon AU fic, and I’m planning on continuing my work on my Mario & Luigi/NiGHTS crossover fic

And then of course there’s always my Dark Road askblog, @scala-ask-caelum, which isn’t really a fic but it’s somewhat plotted (and I just really wanted to plug it because it’s awesome go check it out if you like dr ooooo you wanna ask stuff)

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Trick or treat!!

Sneak peek for the next chapter of Re:Formed!

Right now I’m sitting in his room. Ven left on a mission with Aqua, so it’s just me and Terra. He’s strong, not just in body but in heart and will.

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Might buck up the courage to actually post the prologue of Re:Formed sometime today

[moonknightproductions]

Thought of a KH AU last night and I'm making a design for it might post it later if y'all are interested