#Terra's writing

[luanna801]

I feel like a thing I wish was more generally acknowledged across fandoms is that "I don't find this character sympathetic" and "This character was not intended to be sympathetic" are obviously connected but are, ultimately, two completely different statements that may not overlap at all.

Ultimately what you think about any given character is a completely subjective issue that has no right or wrong answer. The narrative may be trying to evoke sympathy for them, and you may just feel that it flat-out was not successful in doing that. You may look the author straight in the eye and say "Nope, I see what you're trying to do, but f*ck this guy actually, he's The Worst and that's all there is to it". And no one can tell you that you're wrong for doing so.

But when it comes to picking up on what the story is trying to do, whether you ultimately think it did a good job or not, I would argue there's at least some measure of objective reality. And I feel like people sometimes end up conflating them, so you end up with these posts like "I can't believe people sympathize with this character when the story clearly just wants you to hate them!" and it's like... yeah, I think people sympathize with this character because the story is very clearly and intentionally painting them as sympathetic. I could point you at a dozen different scenes that are clearly meant to evoke sympathy for This Character. You don't have to have found any of it compelling, but at a certain point recognizing it's there is a simple matter of reading comprehension.

[terranometry]

art for my fic Love By Omission, a Cherik Black Bag AU <3

Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr are intelligence agents within the same government agency, with a seemingly perfect marriage that baffles their coworkers. But their bond is put to the test when Charles is assigned with finding a mole in the organization who carries dangerous knowledge about a top-secret technology — and Erik is at the top of the list.

Finally publishing this...yipee!

[yourstrulynobody]

2ET's chapter two is out! Kinda a longish chapter with the maxium of 1,286 words + 7,056 characters :3 (im actually not sure if thats considered a long chapter?)

Other than that, please click →here← for further information of the name usage for both Terra and Cosmos!

Again, I did not describe the gods all too much due to my lack of official design for them—in general, I am horrible at explaining things, so I do apologize in advance!

(Writing under cut)

{ Chapter 1 } ←

Eclipse is tossed into the trial room, left alone on his personal pillar and hes forced to endure the thousand of hateful glares being thrown at him from all directions.

He shakes his head and blinks his eyes rapidly, trying to adjust to the bright light shining down on him as he takes in the sight of the trial room—could it even be called a trial room when it was just an old arena being reused?

Its pillars and seats towered so high that it felt like it reached the sky, though the sky itself was what made up the floor below him. The flooring was a bright blue and white clearing, the clouds causing a fog that made everything blur, and Eclipse sighed as he did quite adore the uniqueness of the structure but hated that it was the work of the very god he despises.

A low disdainful growl came from one of the three higher pillars in front of him to the far left, the very voice of Lunar, the god of Punishment and Karma himself. They were on a mutual hatred with each other. That wasnt any surprise.

Eclipse would love to make some cocky comment of sorts towards Lunar, but the blinding light to the far right kept his mouth shut.

He sucks his teeth as he forces his left pair to adjust to the glow, slowly recognizing that it was not the sun but a halo of one of the other gods; Solar, the god of Rage and Judgement, whose face was covered in shadows though his harsh red eyes remained visible.

The halo's gleam subsided as the god of Justice and Balance, Earth, raises her hand and closes it into a fist, making the glow bearable.

She stood from her seat and walks to the edge of her pillar, her arms spread widely as though to welcome him, but her expression remained serious and cold.

"Total Eclipse 'Totality' Celestial." Her voice echoes from where she stands, the subtle white rings that were her eyes visible under the soft shadow over them. "Your arrival has been expected eons ago. We are glad to have you finally where you belong."

"How welcoming." Eclipse rolls his eyes, rubbing his chained wrists together to try ease the pain though it did nothing but enchance it.

Lunar slams his fist down on his seat's arm, cracking the delicate gold as it slowly patches itself up. "Have some respect, would you?"

Earth eyes Lunar as she clasps her hands together. "Lunar, ease."

"Why should I?" Lunar snarls at his fellow god, his nails digging into the golden chair once more. "If he wishes for a gentle trial, he shall be respectful to us."

Earth's eyebrows furrow but she sighs as she raises her head high, her gaze turning back to Eclipse. "Are you ready for your trial to begin, immortal one?"

Eclipse opens his mouth but clenches his jaw tightly immediately as he swallows down a sarcastic comment. Lunar was right—partially, though. Eclipse is willing to show some respect, just not to Lunar because of many reasons that he can arrange in alphabetical order.

His eyes lock with Earth's, going narrow as he glances at Solar before looking away.

He sighs and nods. "Yeah, Im ready."

"Splendid." Earth claps her hand and a closed scroll appears in front of her.

The scroll unfolds when Lunar causes a rough wind, sending the other end of the scroll near Eclipse and resting a few inches behind him. The crowd gasps before murmuring amongst themselves upon seeing how long the scroll was—the distance between the judges and the judged is about a few feet with the addition of the huge height difference of their pillars, so knowing Eclipse had that much of a long scroll was horrifying just as it was intriguing.

Earth hums. "Quite the asexual, arent you?" She smiles, halfly genuine at the fact. She clears her throat. "Now, immortal one, what must you say for yourself before we criticize of you?"

Eclipse scoffs. "Apologies..." he tries to act serious but he snorts before he has a full-blown laughter, his sharp rays spinning in amusment. "..I did not prepare a speech of pleading beforehand—not that I planned to plead anyway. Though, uh, what I plan to say?"

He clicks his tongue as he hums in thought. "I dont regret shit." He grins, showing off his canine teeth as he looks through his eyebrows and at the gods—to Lunar specifically who snarled at him.

The audiences burst into 'boo's and cursing—if they had anything with them, they definitely would've thrown it towards Eclipse, aiming to maim him. Eclipse may have hated the screaming as it begun to overwhelm, but he gritted his teeth as he kept smiling, not daring to look weak.

The crowd suddenly silences in a flash as a red hue is taken from their heads and they plop down onto their seats in a calmer state. Eclipse's eyes follow the direction of the hues, and he sees them magnet towards Solar; the god's hand was raised high, and he held what seemed to be an orb forming out of the anger he took out of the people's head. Solar didnt seem bothered as, despite his domain of rage, he is the calmest one out of the three judges before Eclipse.

Solar lowers his fist and molds the gathered anger into a spear that is bright red in color all over with a faint glow. He tosses it towards Eclipse and it clangs in front of him, and the god gestures for the immortal to take it. Though Eclipse is hesitant to do so, he nods his head in slight courtesy before he slides his foot under the spear and made it fly up, his knee bracing to keep it bouncing until he caught it in one swift motion.

This spear was far unique from any other weapon Eclipse has ever gotten his hands on. May it be the otherworldly glow or the godly aura the spear gave out, but it was just different—so light in his grasp but it held such strength Eclipse was willing to test out, but he had to wait until this trial was over... if he was ever even spared, that was, and Lunar's disgusted gaze made it clear that his chances of getting away with his crimes were lower than the pits of the River of Quietus itself.

"Solar—!" Lunar hisses at his fellow god, but he, too, had the same treatment as the audience as he leans into his seat in a quieter state of mind.

Solar makes Lunar's rage swirl around the spear before connecting it within the sharp tip, a blueish color infecting it before disappearing in the bloody shade. "We must not let our personal feelings interfere with the trial." Solar states as he looks over at Earth and gestures for her to continue.

"Why thank you, our Solar." Earth smiles at him before looking back at Eclipse. "Let us speak now that everything is settled, immortal one."

Eclipse rose an eyebrow. "Wait, 'speak'? Isnt this just a 'read, judge and sentence'?"

Earth laughs, her tone so sweet yet taunting as Eclipse is reminded of someone he once knew—someone he swore he felt hugging him at this very moment, but he brushed it off as nothing but the cold air.

"It should have been, yes." Earth nods. "But I am afraid we hadn't read through every offense in detail. I will merely summarize for my brothers, and then we will decide."

Oh, great. Eclipse now has to wait if they decided if they wanted him dead or not.

[suguruslut]

Still not over how well characterized and balanced every character is portrayed in the Teen Titans 2003 series: every single Titan can be funny, dejected, serious, determined, silly, angry, optimistic, vulnerable and tough without major inconsistencies in their overall portrayals.

Huge props to the writers of that show who knew exactly how to give each Titan a realistic range of emotions without deviating away from their basic personalities--it's an extremely difficult feat to accomplish, depicting characters through many different phases and arcs while keeping them consistent, and they did it flawlessly.

[nellasbookplanet]

The three tiers of queer sff:

Broke: what is worldbuilding? Made in a lab to be as blandly inoffensive as possible. Time to randomly namedrope terms like 'nonbinary' and 'ace' while doing zero work actually incorporating them into the world or characters and have someone give a speech about how valid they are. Lines like 'I'm too ace for this' while never exploring the concept of asexuality or aromanticism and still having very central romance plotlines is common. I hate it here learn how to write realistic dialogue and fully realized characters I'm begging.

Woke: more ore less typical sci-fi and fantasy but It’s Queer Now. Might include in-universe queerphobia to be struggled against or may have queer identities be fully normalized. Can be done bad or well depending on the skill of the writer. A good way to explore our contemporary ideas of gender and sexuality or to have a bit of a power fantasy with lesbian princesses and trans knights. There will probably be a bisexual love triangle.

Bespoke: what is a gender. What is monogamy. What is polyamory. What is romance. What is platonic. Time to show you the most fucked up uncategorizable relationship you’ve ever seen. There may be weird ass metaphorical sex

[terracyte]

punk reiner 💥 , emo bert 🖤 , and the girlie pops ⛓️🥀 from

sugar we're goin down :3

[lockandkeyblade]

do you ever think about the fact that Terra and Ventus had no idea what became of the other?

do you ever think about how Aqua probably had to explain to her tiniest best friend why Terra wasn’t there when he woke up?

Like…god. These poor kids had no idea reality was gonna come for them like this. Imagine being 18/19 years old and you have to explain possession to a 16 year old.

imagine being a 16 year old who just came out of a 12 year long coma, and thinking that your Darkness was right. By the time you caught up… he did become a different person. Just not in a way you could have ever dreamed, not even in your worst nightmares.

[thousandyearphantombunker]

"we want more mentally ill/disabled characters with ugly symptoms!"

You guys can't handle lapis lazuli tony stark or hank pym! You guys can barely contain your ableism toward the hulk! You guys hate the good doctor for all the wrong reasons! You made fun of his speech patterns and his meltdowns wtf like I'm sorry the only autistic person you've supported have been the perfect non annoying type- but too many of especially as children are like shawn- they talk weird and don't understand what's so offensive about what they said

You guys keep saying Lapis should just be rewritten into a villain! I don't like how the show handled her but like your really gonna make the girl who shows ugly bad symptoms of ptsd into villain? You guys keep trying to make hank into a villain or rewrite his past- god forbid a character have really sevre ugly symptoms that causes them to make decisions that permanently effect the story but have them still be heroes! God forbid Ironman have npd and be a hero! Let's shame MCU Bruce for his mental illness for being unable to do things because of it! God as soon as a character with a mental illness or developmental disorder or low IQ shows actual symptoms and behaviors (ei: acts like how someone with the disorder in question acts- you know the main part of having a fucking disorder) you get pissy and pile on the shame- yeah jen you do control your anger better than bruce- you can also stand better than Charles fucking Xavier! Yeah your smarter than a guy with a low IQ want a cookie?

I'm never gonna be one of those people who tell others to stop writing disabled villains or that writing a character that deals with internalized ableism (disabled people like any group of people can be total prices of shit, and I'm sorry not everyone is content and accepting of their disabilities and some of us take comfort in characters that struggle with being angry because of their problems) but Jesus Christ when a heroic character with ugly symptoms who makes cruel decisions or has 'bratty' or 'immature' moments can we let them stay heroes? Can we let them have a disorder without piling on the shame that we are inferior because we can't do something everyone else can- because that's literally what a disability is! Can they still be heroes?

Do we have to use intellectual/developmental disability as a shorthand for anti intellectualism and being a gross annoying psycho

Do we have to make every heroic character with aspd or npd into a villain or change their disability to autism because it's 'more sympathetic' as if lack of empathy isn't a goddamned symptom of many disabilities like PTSD and autism- You can headcanon tony as having autism- that's cool by me but it's clear some of y'all do it to make him a 'woobie'- which is infantalizing btw but also it's because some of y'all are ableist toward people with npd

I hate that the only acceptable 'ugly symptoms' are things like forgetting to shower or brush your teeth every once in a while or being a bit irritable and not stuff like burning bridges or having explosive outburts

Also it's not a mental illness unless it effects your behavior?

Im not saying that we should just accept and allow mentally ill/intellectually disabled people/characters to get away with bad behaviors unpunished but can they stay heroes? Can they still be respectable?

"we want more characters with ugly symptoms"

Yet

You people get offended by low functioning autistic people existing! You get mad at them for being incontinent or nonverbal/making strange noises or having scary anger issues or IQs low enough that they will never be independent you get mad at them for not showing the 'appropriate' reactions to things they may or may not fully understand- you hate people with sensory issues -

You don't want mentally ill/disabled characters- you want characters with the labels of mental disabilities without any of the ugly strange or off putting behaviors mental/intellectual deficiencies/issues cause- you want a romantic tragedy!

You shame people with Alzheimer's for FORGETTING stuff and LOSING SKILLS 'yeah yeah you are superior to your uncle because you can remember stuff but can you remember it's a fucking disease! you people are cruel

Yes you are technically superior to disabled people because you are capable of things we aren't and you have better character and you can control yourself but guess what? Those people you hate for being incapable of that shit have disabilities it's not our faults! It's the fucking definition of a disability! Like yeah it is a skill issue and we're just 'worse' than nondisabled with us lacking self control and having lower IQs and bad mental processing- yeah it is because we're lacking in some capacity that's like the definition disability you can't say you support disabled people and then turn around and say shit about how your better than these people because you can talk or take care of yourself

Hank Pym and Lapis Lazuli should get called out for acting like assholes and pieces of shit but I am firmly against turning one of few heroic characters who actively struggle with psychosis and delusions into another 'psycho' villain and I'm firmly against saying Lapis is just as bad as Jasper and using symptoms of her PTSD as signs she should be rewritten into a villain- I want them to be held accountable not turned into straight up evil guys or dear god washing out their problematic qualities until they're palatable/relatable to a neurotypical audience to make them good guys when they are already good guys!

Can people who do bad things because of their disabilities still be heroes? Can they be allowed to get better or do they have to accept that having ugly symptoms means being the bad guy? Fucking hell this is why I side eye anyone who acts like mental illness/developmental/cognitive or mental etc disabilities are more destigmatized than physical disabilities (trust me they aren't)

Tldr let characters with ugly symptoms be heroes let your characters with mental disorders act like they have a disorder and let said characters be heroes inspite of it!

[ghostbsuter]

I'm on the writing grind, you can see that I just finished rewatching the Teen Titans (2003).

Edit: Here is some art I did for Titan!Phantom

.・゜-: ✧ :-

(The end is near.)

Gripping the communicator, the bright yellow case with a cartoonish 'T' on top glared back at him.

(The portal was growing.)

He presses the button, the communicator switches on and he calls out.

"Phantom to Titans, do you hear me? Phantom to Titans."

The crackling sound came as a sign of connection, It didn't take any heavy weight off, however.

"Robin here, Phantom? Everything alright?" The soothing voice of Teen Titans leader answers him, and he suppresses a sigh.

"Robin," he bites his lip, the portal only growing.

The ghost zone is eating Amity and all just because fucking Vlad couldn't, for one ancient time, sit still.

"I—" a deep breath. "I'm sorry," he apologises with a wince. "You're gonna be really angry at me when you... find out."

Concern leaks through the voice as Robin speaks. "Phantom? What's going on?"

Thr screen on the communicator switches on and Robins brow knitted expression stares back at him.

It quickly changes, alarmed. "Phantom." The vigilante says. "Is Amity Park okay? Do you need backup?"

Always on the right track, dear leader. Danny shakes his head fondly.

"It's too late for backup," he admits quietly.

"Phan—"

"Just tell new members of me, okay?"

Danny doesn't let the other finish, giving a bitter smile before throwing the communicator on the ground, breaking it.

The familiar yet threatening green of the ghost zone welcomes him.

—

"Titans! Emergency call, Phantom got a situation!"

The bright red lights is enough for the rest of the team to flood to the common room.

"Rob?" Cyborg asks. "What's the situation?"

"We don't know!" The bird answers, stressed. He's pulling the audio and video recording of the call up to the monitor, replaying it for the team.

They don't figure it out until they are at Amity, landing with the jet and jumping from their seats.

Raven and Starfire fly ahead, and they all reach the border of Amity.

Or what of Amity remains.

Because–

The entire city is gone—!!

Complete annihilation.

(When robin finds out who did this, he will have words with them.)

"Robin," Raven waves them all over to her side. She's crouching, hand in a sphere of black, her magic. "Amity wasn't destroyed. It was relocated."

Her expression is grim. "Someone abducted a whole city."

All he does is nod, looking at the team before him.

"Someone call Herald, Titans, we got work to do. Our mission is to find Amity Park, Phantom, and save both." With sombre nods, they prepared for take off.

"Titans! Go!"

And they separate.

[strayheartless]

I feel like Terra accidentally older brothers Ven and Riku a lot. Well, I say “accidentally”. He knows what he’s doing. So here have some examples:

He ruffles Both boys hair in passing. Never does it with the others, just Riku and Ventus. Ven loves it, Riku pretends it annoys him, but if Terra ever stopped doing it he’d be very sad.

He lets Ventus fall asleep on him all the time. Riku is chronically mistrusting of falling asleep near anyone but Sora, but he will close his eyes and doze near Terra.

Terra is more likely to fly off the handle if someone is rude to Riku.

Ven is a fan of piggybacks. Terra is okay with this.

He absolutely favours them during training and yes it has been brought up by the others as an issue.

He can always tell the difference between Ventus and Roxas, but still catches himself calling Sora Van or Van Sora. Roxas is just glad he’s not being mistaken for Mr golly gosh over there (Ventus resents that nickname but still refuses to swear properly.)

Terra genuinely forgot Sora was present the day he met Riku. Sora would be offended but he forgot he’d even met Terra and Aqua or that Ven was in his heart so….

Riku generally doesn’t like to be touched but he’ll go to Terra for a bear hug when he feels like he needs the deep pressure and Sora isn’t there to lie on him.

Ventus likes to put his chin on Terras shoulder and bother him while he writes training reports or is reading. It usually gets him a flick to the nose or forehead but he doesn’t mind.

Both Riku and Ven have secretly stalked Terra and Aqua’s missions to see if they’re dating. They have also tried to push them together like they are scuttle and Sebastian and this is the little mermaid… or maybe like their Timone and Pumba… the trip wire did work but the effectiveness was limited. Back to the drawing board for plan H. Damn.

Terra teases them over their own crushes and relationships. This is a mistake because Ven has years or TerAqua receipts and he’s not afraid to use them. Riku finds this hilarious.

Terra and Riku have both had a good heart to heart and a cry about what happened to them. There a lot of “im sorry” from both parties and they end up coming to the conclusion that it’s just how things went and nobody but Xehanort was to blame.

During the time Sora is missing Terra goes to Squall to ask him how he supported Sora when the roles were reversed. There was a mutual recognition from both parties that these were their kids/ little brothers, and seeing them hurting was awful.

Ven likes to play “think fast” without telling Terra. Terra has been hit in the chest/head/groin too many times by various high speed projectiles.

Terra claims he doesn’t have favourites. Everyone else thinks Terra is a lying lier who lies as Kairi dangles by her foot from a bahemoths mouth; Roxas is trying to extinguish the fire Lea caused; Xion returns from training hagard and with leaves in her hair; and Sora and Van lay starfishes on the training ground looking like they went 100 rounds with Sephiroth. Meanwhile Ven and Riku have had multiple water breaks and are now sat cross legged on the grass eating out of homemade bento boxes chatting with Aqua about their favorite flavours of cake.

I’m not saying Terra has a dreams and honour speech but… there’s a reason Zack looked up to him like a mentor.

[terranometry]

I am. So late. This was originally my submission for Pregnant Charles Week but I got so busy right before it that I lost all motivation to continue writing. I didn't use any specific prompt but decided to write something for an au @mister-peregrine and I cooked up...

Charles Francis Xavier is great at multitasking. He's a pioneer for mutant led research, a professor, and expecting his first baby with his husband Erik. When he reconnects with his old friend Hank McCoy, now a doctor specialising in care for mutant omegas, he realises Hank still has a crush from his teenage years on Charles' sister Raven. Charles realises he can probably get a doctor and a brother-in-law out of this, if he plays his cards right, and if Erik could stop being suspicious for just a minute. Or, Charles sets his sister up with his obstetrician.

The fic -> Charles Xavier, You Are Not a Matchmaker

(there is more art for this fic but it's for later chapters so this is my motivation to continue writing ☝️🤓)

[yuesya]

“You need to eat me.”

The white-haired girl in front of him blinks, “That’s an odd way to start a conversation.”

Eligius briefly chokes at that uncaring, blasé response. “… I’m being serious here.”

“So you are.” Even so, the girl’s voice remains unperturbed, and her expression does not change. “Would your strange request have anything to do with the visitors who passed through recently?”

… That is a remarkably understated way of referring to the most recent Sarkaz travelers who’d visited Arkos. Travelers who’d come specifically in search of Miss Salome, too. From the heavy robes and tight wrappings that consisted their attire, from the necrosis-type Arts that they commanded, it had been obvious that they were Nachzehrers.

Nachzehrers –beings who were the very personification of war; gruesome, relentless warriors known to be devoted to the battlefield, who reveled in the slaughter.

But the standing policy of Arkos is that all visitors are welcome. Save for those who threaten the stability and wellbeing of the settlement itself, or commit crimes within its borders.

And so the Nachzehrers had been allowed to enter Arkos, just as so many others had been allowed before them, and no doubt far more would be allowed after in the future.

Eligius had regarded their Nachzehrer visitors with wariness and curiosity in the beginning. Which swiftly morphed into shock and outright alarm, when they had accosted Salome on one of her routine patrols around the mountains.

“You’re Herleva’s daughter, aren’t you?”

“My name is Naftali, a soldier who once served under Commander Herleva of the Withering Court. I apologize that it took so long for us to find you –I’ve come to bring you home.”

…

Salome had refused to leave with them.

… Much to the relief of many, Eligius included. Though their numbers were steadily increasing, it was undeniable that Salome was the heart of Arkos, and if she left, then in all likelihood they would end up scattering across the land once more. Misfits and travelers and wanderers with no place to belong, and no place to rest.

(No place to call home.)

…

Eligius had known that Salome was Sarkaz for a long time now, but he hadn’t realized that she was Nachzehrer Sarkaz. She certainly didn’t look the part; Nachzehrers were said to possess bodies that easily withered and rotted away like the necrosis Arts that they commanded, and Salome did not display any of those traits. She had a pair of distinctive Sarkaz horns sitting on her head, and that was it. Were it not for those curved horns, she probably could’ve passed as a Pythian girl with her pointed ears and long, snake-like tail covered in glittering white scales–

Or so Eligius had thought.

Because he’d seen it, the other day. Salome usually wore clothing that covered most of her skin, including a veil across her face, but he’d glimpsed her taking off her gloves –only to reveal blackened fingertips, eerily reminiscent of necrotic rot, which caused Eligius’ blood to run cold.

Was it because of her Nachzehrer blood? Was she –was she somehow rotting away? Was her Pythian blood not enough to offset the horrifying effects of her inheritance?

Wracking his brains and ruminating over what he’d overheard from the Nachzehrer visitors, there was only one potential solution that Eligius could think of. Through devouring the dead, Nachzehrers were able to add the strength of the fallen to their own, so–

“You need to eat me,” he repeats. Because if she doesn’t, if her situation worsens, then…

Salome arches an eyebrow. “Do you want to be eaten?”

…

… No. Of course not.

The day that Eligius had left Kazimierz, a broken husk of a knight who had failed his family and could no longer even properly swing a blade anymore… Eligius had thought that there no longer remained anything left for him to protect. Not that he even possessed the strength to protect anything, not as a disgraced, crippled knight driven out of his homeland.

Fate had led him to Arkos, eventually. He’d aimlessly followed a merchant caravan as a cheap hired hand, and somehow ended up staying in Arkos when a Sarkaz girl killed the head of the caravan. The man had a sexual proclivity aimed towards children, and had acted on those urges in Arkos –Salome had sliced the despicable merchant into bloody pieces for it.

Eligius had thought of his days as a knight in Kazimierz, of all the harsh training he’d undergone… only to be helpless in face of injustice and wrongdoing all the same. A knight must be honorable above all else. But what worth was there in honor when it was something that could be traded and bought by the monolithic corporations that ruled Kazimierz?

Arkos… is not perfect. The buildings are shabby and run-down, and the rooftops have a tendency to leak when it rains. There is no particular schedule for when merchants are passing through, and resources are always running tight. Sometimes, brash mercenaries end up causing trouble, even with the threat of Salome hanging over their heads.

But at some point, Arkos had grown to be precious to Eligius. The tenacity of the people that lived here, with all their storied pasts, and the young leader who never allowed the opinions of others to prevent her from doing what must be done.

Eligius is no longer a knight. With a body had been ravaged by vicious poisoning and missing his dominant sword arm, his days as a knight of glorious Kazimierz are long over.

But even so, there must be a way that he could still protect what was important to him. Even if he wasn’t the one holding the sword himself.

Eligius squares his shoulders and looks towards Salome determinedly. He knows that he is not the only one who is willing to become her strength through being devoured by her, but it’s better that a useless cripple like him becomes the first to die, so that the others–

“You don’t look like you want to die,” Salome says. Then, turns around to pick up a… shovel? From behind her? “Here.”

Eligius falters, automatically accepting the dull shovel with his sole remaining hand, “What is this?”

“A shovel,” Salome responds. Fair, but that’s not what Eligius meant– “Seeing as you have enough time on your hands to be thinking about useless things, you can go work with the others on developing the terraced gardens first.”

Eligius gives a small start, “But you–”

“I’m not interested in cannibalism. Let me know once you’ve figured out how to grow potatoes properly here.”

With that said, Salome turns and walks away.

Leaving Eligius standing in the street by himself, holding a shovel.

…

… It’s nothing but a rusty shovel, given to him haphazardly by a girl who doesn’t even bother to toss a second glance back towards him as she departs. But for some reason, the shovel rests in his hand with a greater weight than the sword he’d once held during his knighthood ceremony, and there is a strange emotion welling up within his chest–

Eligius tightens his grip on the shovel, exhaling slowly.

[auriidae]

the amount of em dashes i use when writing ethubs is frankly embarrassing

[yoroshiu]

Most days the void was just that.

Terra would feel nothing. Be nothing. Have nothing.

No stars to dot his surroundings, no air brushing against his skin, not even the sound of his breathing. He was starting to question if he existed. He had thoughts so he had to but it was getting hard to believe when he couldn't even feel his limbs, his body even.

Sometimes, just sometimes, he'll get jerked around. It was rare and it made him feel disoriented and nauseous but that made him feel something and that was better than nothing. Because something would give him flashes of colors and maybe even faces, feelings that felt like the earth was splitting open. He didn't know what to make of those moments, and many of them slipped away from him faster than he could think to try and recall them, but it was something.

What he always remembered though was Ven and Aqua. Terra would occasionally try to lurch forward (could he do that in this state for real? But how else could he explain it?) when he felt their light in the distance. Feel in his heart that they were somewhere (though how long has it been since his heart had been solely his own?).

He grasps at straws and finds Aqua and Ven in the darkness, and for the first time in however long it's been, he feels like he has some kind of form. Aqua's voice sounds tired and pained, and he wants to comfort her but he knows he doesn't have time. Xehanort's intent to forcefully pull him back in thrall encroaches on him faster and Terra struggles because that's what he knows best.

Before long, he's back in the void.

There is no white noise in the void, and it would hurt if it gave him the luxury of pain. He couldn't even have the thought of giving up because it couldn't even make him feel that. Most days, it truly was nothing.

Most days, Terra wonders if, even with all these pieces of himself scattered among the stars, he truly exists at all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Making Kingdom Hearts Stuff Until KH4 Comes Out (Day 175)

[terracyte]

happy rba for the soul

related fic for ur consideration: please, find me

[anarchyduck]

“Nobody’s seen you in days."

Ventus feels the tension coiling as Terra sits down beside him. It’s wrapped with guilt, with shame, with a need to run away. He keeps his eyes forward on the mountains and cliffs of Departure. His heart sits heavy in his chest. His skin itches.

Terra waits for him to speak. He sits beside him patiently, so much more patient than Ventus remembers him being. Or maybe he was always like that. Wouldn’t be the first time he’s forgotten something.

“I needed to get away for a while.” Ventus says finally. There’s flowers blooming on the side of the closest mountain. It’s all rock and stone except for the speck of green and purple that moves in the breeze. “Everything is just like we left it. Like… no time has passed at all.”

Pristine halls with polished floors that still shine. Too clean thrones in a too clean hall in a too clean castle. Ventus looks at his hands and wonders if the dirt beneath his nails is from the garden or the graveyard.

“It's all the same but we're not.”