#also I'm really looking forward to go through all the world quest again once I'm done with AQ

[dee--eer]

Found a clip of JP streamer playing the poetry event and I'm. Giggling kicking my feet up frothing at the mouth this part is so goddamn adorable wtf 😭😭😭

((Don't get me wrong the EN translation is also really cute but sometimes a more direct dialogue can shake my heart more and it can be very effective))

[legendofmorons]

This isn't skyloft (Sky)

Pairing: Sky x reader

Rating: G

Summary: You end up finding the chain, but you also find your partner Sky, you have a nice catch up.

Genre: Fluff, reunion, romance

Warnings: None

-------

You aren't sure how you ended up here, just that you fell through a portal that reeked of evil. The world around you is not skyloft- or the surface Link had shown you...

Instead it's a field, covered in rolling hills and grass.

Well, you suppose you need to start looking for someone. At least you had been on patrol for the knight academy, dressed with chain armor under your uniform. And you have your sword and shield.

It isn't as if you're defensless.

You start walking towards what looks like the outline of a city.

You hear chatter, which makes sense it's roughly noon, people would be up.

"I dunno, Twi," Someone says, nearby, "Something feels up."

You see a group of men, and they all look armed to the teeth.

Well... That's not the most reassuring thing- but you can still ask a few questions.

"Excuse me? I'm a little lost where am I?"

The men turn, five in total.

One is has a scar across his eyes and face markings to boot, in heavy armor.

One has a pelt and face markings on his forehead.

One has scars all over the left side of hisbface and neck, long hair pulled back.

One is wearing a blue scaf.

And the fifth- has a streak of pink and wears what looks like the most countrified boots you've ever seen.

"Just outside Hateno Village." Says the one with all the scars.

"Okay... And that would be where?"

"South Eastern Hyrule."

"Hyrule?" You ask, confused and definitely a far way from home.

"Yes. The kingdom of hurule."

"I see... I really am lost- okay. Thank you all-"

Another man approaches from behind the others, sandy hair all too familiar. hHs clothes are from Skyloft- and signs point to one thing.

"Link!" Ypu call to the newcomer, "Hylia above - is that you?!"

All five others share a look.

The new comer- Link rushes forwards, "(Y/n)?!"

"I missed you. Oh my goddess!" You smile.

Link picks you up and spins you when he reaches you, pressing your foreheads together when he sees you down.

"What are you doing here?" He asks.

"I fell through a portal- it felt all evi. But you're here! I missed you!"

He moves one hand from around you to your face, cradling it gently. He smiles as you lean into the touch, foreheads still touching.

"You should be at home. Finishing knight school."

"I didn't mean to fall through the ground, Link."

"Sky- who is this?" Asks the tallest of the men around you.

"Oh- right." Link- Sky?- pulls away, hand still on your waist, "This is (Y/n), my partner. (Y/n) These are other chosen heroes. "

"Oh." You say, suprisdd and sad that they're all here. "Well... Nice to meet you all."

They all give you their name- or nickname as you suspect.

And then you're being whisked away by Sky, told that you're going out for dinner, that the inn here has a good dinner.

So you follow him happily, listening to him tell you about whatever be likes. Mostly his adventures and the other heroes.

He takes you inside the inn, stopping to order dinner before Sitting you at a table.

"I've missed you so much, song bird." Sky says to you, his face soft.

You smile back at him, "I missed you too. I can't believe you ended up on another quest."

"Yeah... But I have friends this time."

"That's good."

"I can't believe ypu ended up here- this is very much not our time."

"Yeah... I know. But at least I found you!"

He just laughs, warm and wonderful as he sets his hand atop your's. "I'm glad you found me."

"I guess I'll be traveling with you guys for a while." You say, "At least til I end up at home."

"I'd love that. You're always welcome at my side."

"You're a sap."

"I'm your sap, maybe." He smiles again, a lot more carefree with you beside him.

"Did I tell you Groose has been writing letters?" You ask, almost laughing.

"You did!"

"Once I finish school, I still plan on joining you and Zelda on the surface, if you'll let me."

"Of course I will." Sky says quickly, "I'd love that a lot!"

You grin at him, "Pipit graduated last month, it was pretty awesome to see."

"It's not a suprise."

"No. It isn't. But still. And headmaster Geapora is always asking about you."

"What do you tell him?"

"That you were needed for some new quest."

"Well... That's honest."

"I didn't know what had happened to you actually, it's just what made the most sense."

"I wish I'd been able to warn you."

"It's okay, the whole saving the world business is difficult. "

"It can be."

"Seriously, Link, as long as you come back alive I am not going to complain."

"You're perfect."

"Maybe. More like I'm perfect for you."

"I love you, (Y/n)."

"I love you too hero boy."

You both laugh again, something mending in both of you at actually talking after several months.

The sudden separation was hard on you both- except Sky knew what was happening and you didn't.

"Did you know the fortune teller warned me this would happen?"

"He did?" Sky asks, half baffled half unsurprised. After all the man had always been right if if a little cryptic.

"Yeah! He said I'd 'find my love far in the future below the clouds'."

"When did he say that?"

"A week before you left! I just thought he was telling me I'd get married on the surface or something."

"You thought you'd get married?"

"Well. Yeah? I know it's sappy and neither of us have talked about it... But yeah I can see myself getting married to you."

"You would wanna marry me?"

"Yeah. I would."

"Oh- I'll keep that in mind for when we get back. "

"Good. Just actually come back in one piece."

"I always do!"

"I know."

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: "The Call"

In which we gain whale friends. :)

RIGHT, SO, FIRST OF ALL, ANYONE WHO CALLED THIS EPISODE USELESS FILLER OWES ME TWENTY BUCKS.

Even when I didn't know the purrgil specifically would be returning I knew this was an important episode for Ezra's character development and for growing his unique Force affinity for animal connection.

Technically falls under the Friendship Fetch Quest episode type, albeit on a bit more of an abstract level.

I love the touch of the fog on the inside window of the Ghost that Hera has to rub off. Everyone's breath fogs, and they even look a bit paler and more harried, eyes more lined, really emphasizing how cold it is.

Ezra's face when he first hears the purrgil song, aww.

It's really interesting that only Ezra can hear the purrgil, even though Kanan also has the Force. Could of course just be his stronger affinity for animals--he's more naturally attuned to them--but he's also more sympathetic to the purrgil throughout the episode, the only one actually listening to them, so maybe that's why he's the only one that can hear. Nice little foreshadowing either way.

Love that even though Kanan can't hear the purrgil, he trusts Ezra enough to believe him.

Right, I'm suspecting I'm going to be using up a lot of my limited photos with caps of Ezra's face this episode.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: Sabine's double-take as she glances forward out the viewport and sees the purrgil.

Purrgil are presented as really interesting creatures, they're not actively malicious at all (unless you really piss them off lol) but they're big and tough-hided and can severely damage a spaceship just by brushing past them. They have natural migration routes that sometimes unfortunately run afoul of hyperspace lanes and ships traveling through them. They're connected to the Force. They live in space. They can achieve hyperspace, naturally.

They're like any herding group of big animals really, whales, elephants, moose, they need to be given a wide, respectful distance.

Which is why flying with them works. They recognize, "Oh, this is part of the herd now. Hello friend!"

Possibly the calls Ezra was hearing earlier was the purrgils' method of saying, "Hey, coming through, get out of the way!" because he says they calm when the Ghost starts flying with them.

Kanan praising Ezra for his good instincts. <3

Oh you know I'm gonna talk about the leitmotifs in this one, I gotta.

So! There are two main themes associated with the purrgil. One of them I'm going to call the "Hyperspace" theme, which is pretty self-explanatory, it's the track that plays when we learn that the purrgil can jump to hyperspace. This cue here that's playing I think might be part of the larger "Triumph of Nature" theme, it definitely sounds like it's in the same key and tempo. I'm calling it that because of the overall underlying archtheme of nature's wrath against the oppressive industrial world that features in this episode specifically and in Rebels and Star Wars overall. It's a very classic motif in extrapersonal conflict fantasy stories, the need to respect and live in harmony with nature, appearing in dozens of classic influential stories from Lord of the Rings to Princess Mononoke. (Both of which were inspirations for Rebels, funnily enough.)

Both cues are later going to come back in the finale.

All right, done with that tangent for now, back to Ezra making whale friends.

Lol he rolls his eyes at Kanan and Hera's argument.

Love how he immediately tries to connect with the purrgil.

The modified TIEs represent the Mining Guild's intimate ties with the Empire. The Empire supplies them TIE fighters to secure and protect their facilities and in exchange gets full exclusive access to the fuel they produce. Once again, Rebels says state corporatization of private industry = bad.

They're so low on fuel the front cannons stop working, Ezra's panic here is adorable.

LOL Hera's face when Kanan gets all smug about not shooting the purrgil. AND I LOVE THAT WHEN SHE CUTS HIM OFF ON THE COMMS HE COMES DOWN FROM THE TURRET TO PERSONALLY FINISH HIS GLOATING.

They're so married.

Love this little music box chime in the music here.

Kanan so completely on Ezra's side this episode it's so sweet.

Therapist!Ezra strikes again, getting Hera to explain why she's not fond of purrgil. Characters around Ezra just seem to have a habit of telling him their darkest secrets lol.

I remember a lot of people kvetched about the physics in this episode, apparently not realizing that this planetoid we're approaching is the source of the gravity. (It's certainly large enough.) And there is atmosphere it's just not breathable for humans, hence the helmets.

The lack of fuel is mostly a plot device for this episode but it works, limiting the movement the Ghost is capable of, necessitating personal infiltration, which puts Ezra more in contact with the purrgil in order to realize why they need the Clouzon. Also another plot element done way better in Rebels than in Last Jed--*shot*

Okay okay, less sequel salt.

Shut up, let me have this.

Ezra completely not actually paying attention to the plan lol.

"You said you just wanted to look at it!" "I did look at it... and it looked bad." <3 Sabine cannot resist painting a blank surface lol.

Gosh this sequence is just so... there's so much lightness and wonder and it just evokes a feeling of flight.

Ezra reaching out to touch the purrgil like the embodiment of every tropeiffic "A Boy/Girl and their [X]".

This is not Ezra's day is it? Lol.

Underrated Papa Wolf Kanan moment: The sheer quickdraw frantic speed at which he put his saber together and shoves Ezra aside to block the blaster shot.

Seriously, I timed it it's less than a second from initial alarmed shout to full saber ignition and blaster deflection.

Kanan's absolute trust in Ezra awwwwwwww.

Hanging a giant lampshade on the tendency for their plans to go sideways lol.

This is a unique cue, feels vaguely like a 90s animal rescue movie score. Which fits.

The running gag of Ezra just completely losing his head to be all, "Whale friends! :D" is hilarious.

Purrgil get colorful after they "refuel", interesting note.

Aaand down he go.

Love this handheld (computer held?) shot tracking Hera to the displays on the wall.

Kanan's spinny flip. <3

And the worry in his voice when Ezra doesn't answer. <3

:(((((

Ezra fortuitously landed on the back of a purrgil so he's not going to be falling to his death.

He is, though, in serious danger of suffocation.

Bbbbyyyyyy. :((((((

Once again embodying the spirit of every heartwarming animal friend movie ever.

And this is so cool. Love it when things get Force Weird.

This scene is also really well acted, Taylor does a great job of conveying the relief when he can breathe again.

"I can't believe we're gonna lose to this guy!" Lol.

REMEMBER THE OTHER LEITMOTIF I SAID THE PURRGIL HAD? THAT REAPPEARS IN THE FINALE LIKE A HEROIC HERALD OF EUCATASTROPHE? YEAH IT'S THIS ONE RIGHT HERE.

"TRIUMPH OF NATURE" BABY.

And the nasty foreman gets his karmic comeuppance.

Oh he got ate. He definitely 100% got ate.

Ezra gets his own cool spinny flip.

And there's the "Hyperspace" theme, closing us out triumphantly.

Even beyond all the implications and connections this episode has for the finale (and hoo boy are there many), this episode is just such a fun classic kind of adventure. It continues the spacefaring as sea voyages metaphor, has a little bit of a environmental message without being obnoxious, has gorgeous animation, is so SO important for Ezra's character and his unique personal Force abilities and it's just... delightful.

Imma just sit here, smug in the knowledge that I loved this episode before it became Plot Important.

Jokes on you it was always Plot Important.

[magicalbats]

Wuwa got me down bad rn. Played through all the story, it's...okay? Acts 5 & 6 were definitely better but felt rushed as hell. My man Jiyan is the MVP though, his companion quest was REALLY good and I lucked out and got him R3 + sig in 140 pulls. I love the way the world looks and combat feels good. Aalto is also 10/10, I love Calchero's design but haven't played much with him yet, and I'm still miffed that I haven't managed to pull Taoqi yet. The bug fixes have been rolling in steadily so I'm hopeful that the experience will be a lot smoother in the near future. As long as they can continue an upwards trend in the writing I think I'll be hooked.

All that in only 140 pulls? ✋😭 I’m green with envy tbh lmao I’ve had some so-so luck in the past when it comes to gacha’s but never quite like this, it’s actually insane. I just keep pulling the same two characters — Yangyang and Danjin who are both now R4 at this point ndkdkckdd NO Aalto. NO Mortefi. NO Baizhi. NO Yuanwu and I don’t even really want him but at this point I’d be happy just to see a different face pop up 🤣 I only got Taoqi once early on and never again so even pulling her would be fine in my book, haha. Shes kinda’ thicc tho isn’t she 👀

And I’m largely in agreement with you about the story. I’ve heard whispers over on Twitter that some pretty big changes were made between the last closed beta and launch because people complained about the characters not being very nice to us at first? And that’s why the early bits feel kind of off … but tbh I’m of the opinion that it probably still would’ve felt a bit rushed regardless. Whereas Genshin kind of eased us into the complex lore and expansive world building at a reasonable enough pace, I feel like WuWa threw an awful lot at us all at once. : /

That being said, the noticeable improvement in acts 5 & 6 left me very hopeful for the future of the storyline. I see a lot of potential here and I SO hope they manage to find their groove and keep the momentum going.

I’m also very, very much looking forward to seeing Scar again … if you know what I mean.

And I played Jiyan’s SQ last night, it was definitely solid. He’s a good man. 😭 Not to mention crazy gorgeous, haha. I also love that we got a memento picture with him out of it. Idk if anyone agrees with me on this or not but right now the vibe kind of feels like they’re not shying away from the characters openly showing interest in us and that definitely makes me hopeful for where they might take this as well. I don’t remember the name of their organization but both Scar and that Camelyn(?) girl clearly had the hots for us so. 🤣 Hopefully no one complains about that because I’ll be mad as hell if they switch up on us after already taking away Scar’s onigiri pussy lol

Anyway yeah I’m tentatively locked in for the moment. I’ll at least stick around to see how the next patch looks. Here’s my UID if anyone wants to add me btw 501269494 ❤️

[gigakoops]

Immediate Thoughts On Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (as someone who's never played the original FFVII)

I've never played the original Final Fantasy VII, and only have a vague idea of certain story beats (in fact most of what I knew prior to Remake was about a certain pivotal scene I'm sure everyone knows about by now). When I played through Remake, though I was surprised how goofy a lot of the side stuff was, and honestly I was all for it. And the actual story and characters were highly engrossing, and I ended up truly invested by the time the end credits came around. So obviously, I had to play Part 2 when it came out!

And wowie, was it worth it! Honestly it's been a long time since I've enjoyed a game this much (in fact, I think this is up there with Silent Hills 1-3 and Undertale in terms of favorite games, at least at the moment of writing). I've been doing my best to avoid spoilers of the original game, so a lot of the story beats probably hit a lot harder for me as someone witnessing them for the first time, in the format of a middle entry in a trilogy that takes its time to truly establish its central characters, and probably adds a bit to their backstories.

What really did it for me, though, was the side content. When I first started the game I honestly didn't feel it at first, but then I tried some Queens Blood, and was like "Alright, I at least like this minigame!" I was a little less enthralled with the towers you need to climb, but the fact that they then lead to more interesting points of interest around the world makes them worth it. (Also honestly even the towers grew on me once they started adding more to getting to them, despite some frustrations in certain parts of the game surrounding them).

But the protorelic side-quests, side-missions and minigames are where it truly shines. I've seen some mixed reception of certain minigames (especially Fort Condor and the psuedo-Rocket League one), but I ended up enjoying those as well. And to be honest, the cutscenes that go along with these minigames are totally worth it. I got really invested in the aforementioned Queens Blood, as well as Chocobo Racing, ending up 100% both of these.

In fact, the overall very silly tone for a lot of this game was a breath of fresh air, and exactly what I needed during times of high anxiety in my personal life. And to be honest, after the grimdark tone of FFXVI I'm glad to see this entry was willing to just be as zany as possible. And it also helped me care more about the characters and world more. I want to protect this goofy little world, and I want this loveable cast to succeed.

It also made the more serious moments hit harder. I won't go into specifics here, but there are definitely heavier parts, as well as parts that moved me to tears. When this game hits hard, it hits hard. Especially most of the endgame had me highly emotional. And while I won't go into detail, I personally think the way they went about things works really well. Again, never played the original.

Overall, I'm very glad I've played through this, and I look forward to Part 3, in a few years from now likely after Kingdom Hearts 4.

P.S.: The moogles are good actually, and Cait Sith is the best character.

[anneapocalypse]

Elaborating on my feelings about this post a little, particularly in the context of video of games with high replay value like Dragon Age (which may not have been what the op was talking about at all, but that's what was on my mind when I saw it)!

I definitely think a good game of this type should give you a complete and narratively satisfying experience if you play it through one way and never return to it. (I mean there are also games like Zero Escape where discovering every ending is part of the "complete" experience but that's not the kind of game we're talking about here.) You should be able to play a Dragon Age game once and enjoy it without feeling like you got an incomplete story, just like (in my opinion) you should be able to pick up the game and enjoy it without having seen other canon material that is by definition supplemental. (Whether these particular games succeed at the latter is another discussion for another post).

I love a book that rewards a re-read--Tamsyn Muir's Locked Tomb series really does this for me and I'm looking forward to re-reading them again before Alecto comes out, and I went back and checked and the OP even tagged Locked Tomb on that post which doesn't surprise me one bit. Because it's true! Going back and reading Gideon after you've read Harrow and understand more about both characters and know more about the world and have starting to pick up on the hints about the true nature of certain characters... it's a thrill! Not because the story was incomplete the first time or incomprehensible, but because now you have the additional context to see all the breadcrumbs the author was dropping in a new light and it's just so, so rewarding and so much fun.

And I also love games that give me high replay value not just because they're fun to play (and let's be real I am not starting my ninth run of DAO because I'm obsessed with the combat mechanics) but because every time I get to experience a slightly different story and see the world and the characters from different angles. There is so much more to experience that way than you can possibly get on one playthrough. (And that's good in this type of game! We want our choices to change the story.) In DA2 there are sides of characters you won't see if you've only taken the friendship route and never rivaled them. I've written before about the templar ending of DA2 and how it reveals things that the mage ending doesn't and yeah, it's a "bad" ending and not everyone wants to play it but it's still another story that has things to tell us about the world. (And I'd venture to say that sometimes, we don't necessarily realize we are talking from the basis of experiencing slightly different stories.)

I don't think a story should set out to confuse its audience (in general--there are instances where intentional misdirection serves a narrative purpose but that's a digression here) but I also enjoy the experience of playing a new game unspoiled and without walkthroughs the first time and letting the chips fall where they may, and maybe getting a "bad" outcome because I didn't fully get what a quest was about, because you only really get one shot at the Chaotic First Playthrough. Being confused because you're in a funhouse labyrinth but it's definitely leading you somewhere is different than being confused because the story doesn't make sense, you know? And that first playthrough isn't an incomplete story, it's just one of many different ways you can experience the game. There will be plenty of time after that to replay with more knowledge and build the perfect world state, or make it Worse, or just choose something different.

So yeah, a story should work on that first level, that single read or playthrough, in order to be successful, but my favorite ones are the ones that do give me a reason to come back, and either offer me a new experience or deepen the one I had before.

[genesisreach]

It has been a month since I saved the world from Alduin. Every so often I still hear a "Hail, Dragonborn!" from a random guard or two, but largely, the whole of Skyrim seems to have forgotten that Alduin existed in the first place, save for the ones directly involved.

It doesn't matter. I never cared for the fame, honor, or glory that came with being a "prophesied hero." What really brings me down is that I am still here. I believed that if I fulfilled my purpose, I would be returned to my home. I was looking forward to only reading books, watching movies, or playing games about dragons rather than having to fight them myself (even though they're actually wyverns, but who cares). The power and wealth are nice, but they are merely tools of survival or to get a task done.

So, I spend my time tying up loose ends. Favors that have gone unfulfilled for too long, ruins that I saw that I never explored/looted, etc. Still not touching this damn civil war though. I'll kill Thalmor wherever I see them, but I'd rather die than pick a side when I lose no matter who I chose.

I also just enjoy seeing the beautiful land of Skyrim and its many features, natural or otherwise. Especially Nordic tombs. Never know what I'll find in them. Bonus points if there's a dragon priest at the end because I get special a special mask and robes from them, along with their ashes for special scrolls or alchemy.

Other than questing or exploring, I also spend a lot of time crafting. Forging, Alchemy, and enchanting are the main trades I wish to excel in. If I'm going to be stuck here, I might as well start making a life for myself, and what better way than to learn a few trades and start a business or two? I already train under Eorlund and Arcadia every time I'm in Whiterun, and apparently I'm adept enough in spell craft, particularly conjuration, to be fairly proficient in enchanting during lessons at the College of Winterhold. And I've heard of bandits settling in at a very rich mine in the area around Ustengrav that I might clear out and claim for myself. And a farm for sale just North of the Whiterun/Pale border could prove useful for growing alchemy ingredients.

Anyway, as of this moment, I am digging up some corundum ore at Darkwater Crossing. I stumbled across a place called Darkwater Pass and saved an argonian named Derkeethus from the damned Falmer (dread them... double dread them). Once I arrived with Derkeethus at Darkwater Crossing, the people there expressed their thanks and, after a bit of haggling, allowed me to keep any ore I could dig up from the mine.

I wipe the sweat from my brow as I throw another chunk of corundum ore into my satchel (or my "bag of holding" as I call it. I swear, it's enchanted somehow to let me carry all that I do). I stow my pickaxe away and leave the mine, bidding everyone a farewell. My "dwarven luggage" (chest on top of a dwarven spider's legs) following me close behind.

However, I hear a faint groaning as I cross the bridge back to the main road. I look around and see a badly injured Khajiit woman sitting against a rock near the creek. I worriedly rush to her.

"Holy shit, are you alright?" A silly question with a fairly obvious answer 'no' due to the blood-stained and torn attire she wears.

The pained grunt she lets out before speaking does not instill confidence in me. "They... they took it."

"Are you alright?" I ask again, hoping for a more direct answer this time. I am already rummaging through my bag for one of my more powerful healing potions along with some bandages and a salve.

"Everything... hurts."

Progress, but still not good.

I pull out a potion of grand healing along with one of my better salves and clean bandages. "Here. Drink this while I dress your wounds."

The woman takes the bottle, uncorks it, and begins practically chugging the potion, stopping only for breaths and to recoil at the bitter taste of the tonic.

Meanwhile, I set to work on applying the bandages. I cover the bandages in the sticky salve and start wrapping them around the wounded areas. I do the best I can while trying to protect the khajiit's modesty. Once I finish, I gently aid the woman in getting to her feet.

She grunts again. "This potion is not helping. If you have any restoration spells, they may be more useful."

I frown. "Unfortunately, I am not so skilled in the restoration arts as I am alchemy. Speaking of which, take these." I give the woman a few rolls of clean bandages, a bottle of salve, and another, slightly weaker, healing potion. "Change your bandages every day, so as to avoid infections. The salve should stick to your body, but I'm not sure how it will behave on fur. The bottle has the salve. Reapply it if you need to. The potion should dampen the pain if you need it. Now, do you feel any better?"

"Ma'kara will survive. Thank you for your assistance."

'So her name is Ma'kara, huh?,' I think. 'Nice name.'

"What happened to you?," I ask.

Her muzzle contorts into a scowl. "This one was jumped by bandits. Tried to kidnap her, hold her for ransom."

My heart sinks. "And yet here you are. Seems like their plan didn't work out then?"

"This one did not go along willingly, no. She fought, but there were just too many of them. They overpowered her, beat her into submission, and then... things went a bit downhill from there. Right about the time Ma'kara told them there was no one who would pay the ransom they wanted for her. They took most of Ma'kara's belongings, beat her within an inch of her life, and left her for dead. You could say their plan didn't go well for either party, yes?"

While Ma'kara was telling her story, I was absolutely seething. I never liked bandits, but KIDNAPPING?! Oh no, I have a few black soul gems with me just waiting for these fuckers to fill them, including the Black Star! I take a deep breath and slowly release it to help calm down somewhat.

I speak, my anger barely restrained. "Did you see which way the bandits went?"

The sarcasm in Ma'kara's response is not lost on me. "You will have to forgive Ma'kara, but she was a bit... indisposed, yes?"

She continues more seriously. "They mentioned... a fort they were going to take this one to, back to the East. Ma'kara did not hear its name, but... they could not have gotten far. But why do you want to know?"

I place my right hand on my soul trap enchanted nordic mace on my hip. "Might pay them a little visit, have a 'chat' about the perils of kidnapping."

Ma'kara crosses her arms in thought. "A chat, hmm? You would do that for Ma'kara? Hmm. Would be nice if Ma'kara could come with you to chat with them, but she is in no condition for it. As is, this one has a long path ahead of her, and it is all she can do to stand here and talk to you right now. Ma'kara cannot rightly ask you to have a 'chat' with these bandits, but should you choose to go, please be careful, yes? There were many of them, and... well... this one has made peace with what may happen to her on this journey but... she does not want to see you getting hurt on her account. Also... uh... nevermind."

One does not abruptly end a monologue like that unless what follows is important.

"What is it?," I inquire.

"The bandits... they stole something from Ma'kara," she says, almost sounding ashamed of letting it happen in the first place. "A... a gem, called the 'Cat's Eye Amethyst.' If you could see your way to convince them to return it to you, it would mean a lot to Ma'kara."

"I'll see what I can do. If it's there, I'll get it, even if I have to turn the whole fort to rubble."

"Thank you for your kindness, stranger. May you walk on warm sands."

"No problem. And please, call me Avery."

"'Avery,' hmm? Strange name, but ok. Ma'kara is going to head back to Darkwater Crossing to recover. If you need to find her, she will be there."

With that, Ma'kara starts walking across the bridge, back towards the mine. Every so often, she seems to stop as though to catch her breath and clutch her bandaged wounds. I'm tempted to escort her, but decide against it. It's only a short trek. She'll make it.

I take a moment to process what just happened. Despite having barely survived a kidnapping, I get the sense that bandits are going to be the least of Ma'kara's troubles in her journey. Further supported by the fact that gems are rarely named, but when they are, there is always something big attached to them...

I resolve to aid Ma'kara however I can in her upcoming quest. While she can most likely handle herself in most situations, I'm sure she won't refuse an extra weapon at her side. And a summoned undying ghost to help.

That's for later, though. The dwarven luggage spider clicks beside me, almost awaiting orders. For now, I start heading East, to the first step towards, possibly, a new purpose... and to raze a fort.

Note: Sorry for the long one. I know this is literally Skyrim, but come on! Admit it, Tamriel would be one of the better worlds to be isekai'd into. And yes, the majority of the dialogue and the character of Ma'kara is ripped straight from the "Khajiit Will Follow" mod, but it's a good mod and Ma'kara is a good character and follower. I 100% recommend it.

Fuck it. Here's the other mods I referenced in this:

Konahrik's Accoutrements

Windstad Mine

Heljarchen Farm

Dwarven Luggage

Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul (CACO)

CC: Necromantic Grimoire

I should note that this is not my entire load order. Just some recommendations.

The isekai’d Hero has completed their task. The Demon Lord is dead/Dragons vanquished/ Unspeakable Evil banished or sealed forever. The rewards were bestowed, the feasts feasted, and the celebrations celebrated. And they still can’t be sent home. So, whaddafuk are they supposed to do NOW????

[ultimablades]

Okay, finally going to jot down my FFXVI thoughts, things I liked and things I wish had been different. No story spoilers so this is more about gameplay/game design choices, but I'm going to put under a readmore to be safe.

Pros:

Loved the main cast of characters. For me, the characters are the most important part of a Final Fantasy game, if i don't like the main party I'm going to have a hard time staying interested in the story. I ended up loving Clive so much more than I was expecting and he's quickly become one of my favorite FF protagonists. He is full of love and his journey was important to me!! Outside of Clive, I fell in love with a lot of the other characters. The Dominants were all so different and had their own unique stories and it was fun getting to learn all about each one of them. And there were so many secondary characters I grew fond of, I was excited to see them again. Also, last note, the main villain design was good. That's all i'm going to say about that.

Along with the characters, I thought the main story was really good. I don't want to say too much about it because I don't want to talk about story spoilers in this post but there were so many epic highs that had me going "Now this is a final fantasy game," nothing hits quiet like SE money does when it comes to jaw-dropping story moments and cutscenes.

I liked the side quests, yes most of them were fetch quests/go kill this monster quest, but that's just how side quests in most games are tbqh. They gave really good lore about both the characters and the lore so I didn't mind doing them. Some of them i think should've been part of msq.

I enjoyed the gameplay, Eikonic abilities are so varied and different, it's fun to mix and match and play around with them. The stagger bar was a good edition, I know FFXIII had something similiar but this reminded me of FFXIV's burst windows in a way, cause I found myself holding my LB4's and eikonic abilites for when I knew a stagger was about to happen. Dodging and parrying were fun once I got the timing for them figured out. I also like that you can't just eat potions and face tank your way through fights.

In that same vein, I liked the look of our ascension grid. Like, just aesthetically, I enjoy the design of it.

The size of the zones was really good I thought. This was another thing that reminded me a lot of FF14, but you basically have a set number of zones that are more "open world," that you can run around in, do side quests, find hunts, kill mobs, etc. None of those zones were too big or too small and I think they struck a good balance between FFXV's massive overworld that could take a long time to traverse and the more linear, straight hallways of previous FF games. Between your chocobo and the obelisks (which are just FF14 aetherytes lol), it doesn't take long to get where you need to go.

Boss design in general was really good. It's hard not to keep making comparisons between FF14 because some bosses literally look like HD versions of their FF14 counterpart and do the same attacks, I'm not mad about it but as an FF14 player I kept going "Hey it's blah blah blah." But boss fights were fun! Especially some of the endgame ones really made me think about my eikon setup and what abilities I needed to use.

Eikonic battles in general I think were a lot of fun and the biggest spectacles in the game. They don't happen frequently enough that I got tired of it, the controls for the eikon are simplified so I think it would have been annoying to do them too much. But they always happened at a story high point, so you're like "OOOOHHHHHHH" when you're doing them. The high point of the game for me was an eikon battle.

Active Time Lore in general. I love it. I'm kissing it. I want it in every game moving forward.

I didn't personally use these but I love the accessibility features they added that do things like making dodging easier, auto-linking your combos together, etc etc. More accessibility features is never a bad thing! This story is good and I want everyone who wants to experience it be able to. And now they've made it so you can turn off the motion blur, which didn't bother me but I know it bothers a lot of people, so I'm glad they included it. Should've been there on launch but hey, better late than never.

Cons:

The pacing in this game can be.....rough at times, in a way that is very FF14. The highs of this game are soooooo high, they are so good, but then the lows are like trying to walk through mud. You will do the coolest boss fight of all time and then the next quest will be "go do this boring task." I don't mind downtime in a story – it's good to have an ebb and flow, you need the slower bits to enhance the epic moments. I just wish they had used their downtime better. Again, it feels very FF14 msq in that regard, if you have played FF14 than you will know what I mean. I mentioned liking the side quests and I wish they would've used some of that downtime to integrate those stories into the main one instead of having them be optional. There is some good bits about our main cast members that you can miss if you don't do the side quests, and I think that could've improved the pacing a bit – slows things down without making it feel slow cause we're still learning about our party members.

The crafting system in this game is a joke. It doesn't matter, it feels like a tacked on afterthought. You don't have to think about it at all. You will never want for crafting material and sometimes you will upgrade your gear only for a stronger item to become available at the shop after the next cutscene.

RPG elements in this game in general are pretty weak. There are no elemental weaknesses or anything of that nature, there aren't a lot of stats, so you don't really ever focus on that, you're just going to use whatever gear is strongest. The ascension tree for your eikonic abilities is cool but beyond that, you don't really have much control over Clive's numbers, you feel me.

In that same RPG element vein, you have no control over your party member's gears or stats as well. This makes sense because who is in your party changes depending on where you're at in the story. I wish I would've had more input in my party's actions though, outside of Torgal who is very easy to forget about, you can't give commands or plan attacks or anything like that. The party is just always AI controlled and will go off and do their own thing. Mainly, I wish there had been more party synergy. This is something that FFXV does incredibly well, and since I just replayed that game before this one, I think it makes it even more stark to me. in FFXV, you can issue commands to your party members called "techniques" and you can do thinks like link strikes that are unique to each party member that really makes it feel like you're fighting together as a team, even if the other characters are AI controlled. I would've loved something like that in this game, party members doing specific team attack when they're near Clive or piggy backing off specific eikon abilities as his. It's very easy to forget they're even there sometimes. I literally just realized as I was typing this, you party members don't even have their own health bars!!! They literally can't die!!! I also wish there was more banter between party members, though that may just be a personal want, cause I loved that in FFXV. Idk I love a good party dynamic in an RPG and there just. Isn't one at all in this game really lol.

This story is really dark at times and I wish there had been more moments of levity and lightheartedness to balance it out. Maybe they just felt like it wouldn't fit tonally but I find having those lighter bits in a dark story can make us care about our characters even more! The story isn't all doom and gloom but there are no classic FF moments of silliness, you know.

Purely a personal gripe – there is no fishing mini game, gotta ding it for that.

Overall though, the game is legit like an 8.5/10 for me personally, I love it. I had a good time playing it. I'm still playing it when I'm not raiding. I'm going to beat it on Final Fantasy mode. I recommend it to anyone who loves Final Fantasy because this is without a doubt a final fantasy story.

I think the things that I listed as cons will be forgotten by most people in six months to a year and what will stick with people is the spectacle that was the boss fights and a story about the deep bonds of love that make us who we are.

TLDR: Game good

[babygirlkiki1016]

Masterlist

Prologue

Chapter 1: The Company

"Do you have to leave?" Lani asked as she handed me my bag, she was always the nervous one.

"Yes, it's important. Take care of things while I'm gone, I have faith in you Lani. I'll be back before you know it." Lani was like a younger sister to me, the one always hiding behind the older one. While I was going to be missing, I put her in charge of the kingdom. She knew how everything worked, she was always there next to me when I was taking care of business anyhow. Of course, after a few days of traveling to the shire I wanted to turn back to see if she was alright, but I knew I had to keep going. And eventually, I stood in front of the green door with a dwarven letter carved into it. Taking a deep breath I knocked, and the voices I had heard went quiet. It's just a bunch of dwarves, nothing to be worried about. The door opened to reveal a hobbit, not as tall as me but he was up to my shoulders.

"Uh, c-come in." He steps to the side, and I walked forward, they must've been expecting me. Setting my bag down by the front door, I took in everything. It was small and cozy, I wish my home looked like this. Continuing on I came across the thirteen dwarves Gandalf had mentioned.

"This is Y/n Y/l/n, I believed she could be a wonderful asset to our quest." The raven-haired man couldn't keep his eyes off me, it was like he was dazed, now that I think about it every dwarf's gaze was still on me. Including a young man about my height, maybe even taller. I smirked, hello handsome, my cheeks burned a shade of crimson as I realized my thought process. Gandalf nudged the man to get his attention, and he snaps out of his trance.

"My name is Thorin Oakenshield, it is a pleasure to meet you, my lady." He bowed his head slightly, giving me a small smile.

"You won't be saying that in a few seconds," I muttered, Gandalf swallowed nervously as he said his next words carefully.

"I should mention, that Y/n is also...The Queen of The Digonisks. The Soul Of The Black Dragon." Everyone's eyes widened, but no one said a word except the blond man in the back.

"What's a Digonisk?"

"There dragons, and murderers." Thorin glared at me with a fire in those blue orbs. I just rolled my eyes, of course, that's what he thought of me. Yet how could we be the murderers when their kind slaughtered mine? "I want her out, that filth cannot come on this quest with us."

"'That filth' has a name you know, and for your information, it's not really up to you now is it?" I exclaimed, he went to protest but Gandalf held out his hand to silence him.

"She can help us Thorin, she has the ability to take down Smaug. She might be the only one who can."

"I don't care." He abruptly stood, not even a foot away from me. "Leave, or I'll strike you down where you stand." Silently, I conjured a dagger and placed right against his side making him gasp.

"You'll be dead before you can even draw your sword, you should be thankful I came to help. I could've easily said no and let karma continue it's pace. Especially after what your kin did to us, you took my home, killed my people! Your no better than Smaug himself. Now sit." I forced him back into his chair, his hand gripped tightly on his blade. He wants to play does he? Bring it on.

"Enough!" Gandalf stood, making the room fill with darkness. "I brought her along, and so she shall stay, if you try to lay a hand on her I won't hesitate to lay one on you." He was furious, but as he sat back down the room turned back to normal. Each dwarf was scowling at me, except the two in the back. Right, they don't know the history between us.

"It was nice meeting you, your majesty." I bowed, and turned back towards the door. "I'll be outside, tell me when we're leaving."

"Wait! You haven't even heard about-" Gandalf stands but I raise my hand, silencing him. "At least stay and listen." I stopped, I already new of their quest, there was no reason for me to be in this room. And none of them probably didn't want me to stay anyhow.

"You can sit by us." The man in the back offered, patting the seat next to him with a smile. The other's hissed at him but he ignored their comments, making my way to the end of the table, I sit between him and the blond. Both were slightly blushing, and staring at me with those beautiful eyes though trying to make it less obvious. Thorin continues to eat his stew, making very little eye-contact with me.

"Perhaps we could do introductions? I still only know two of the people in this room."

"Right, that would be best." Gandalf agreed, and he pointed to each individual as he named them off. "Here you have Thorin, the leader of our company. Bofur, with his brothers Bomber and Bifur, then Dwalin, Balin, Gloin, Oin, Dori, Nori and Ori. Then last but not least the two next to you, Kili and Fili." None of them seemed happy, if looks could kill I would've been dead the moment Gandalf mentioned what I was. When Gandalf named off Kili, he winked at me while slightly smirking. I winked back making him look away embarrassed, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself.

"What news from the meeting in Ered Luin? Did they all come?" Balin asked, looking over at his king, who nods.

"Aye, envoys from all seven kingdoms."

"And what did the dwarves of the Iron Hill say? Is Dain with us?" Dwalin asked, Thorin hesitated as he stated his answer.

"They will not come." The other dwarves become visibly upset, I decided that this might take awhile. So I played with the little flame that came from my finger, it didn't burn me for I was immune to fire. I was in my own mind, my own little world while humming a melody.

"Can she please leave?" I heard Thorin whisper, leaning closer to the wizard. "She does not belong here." Gandalf knew nothing would get done if I stayed, so he gives me a pleading look. Happily I left the table, and headed back outside, it felt nice out here. Sitting on the pavement I watched the stars, they were a lot farther away now. My kingdom was high up in the sky, higher than the mountain of Erebor. It's far above the clouds where no eye can see, Gandalf made it that way with the help of my mother's grimoire. He made what's called a floating island, only digonisks and wizards can enter. I heard the hobbit door open, and out came Kili with a bowl of food.

"Here." Kili smiled handing me a bowl of stew. "I thought you would be hungry, so I brought you some stew."

"I'm not eating that, especially not from a dwarf." He slowly brought it back to himself, he seemed upset for some reason.

"It's not poisoned if that's what your worried about." He muttered, sitting down next to me. "Here I can test taste it." He quickly took a bite, showing that it wasn't fatal. He handed it back to me with a look of hope.

"Thank you." I took it from him, and hesitantly took my first bite. It tasted delicious, even my people didn't have soup made like this. "Did you make this yourself?"

"Ah no, Bombur made it, mostly for us but I figured you were hungry." Well at least he had some manners, he's certainly more nicer than Thorin. "Don't worry about my uncle, he just, he told me why he hates your kind. Even though that happened, you weren't the one doing the killing."

"Of course he's already spreading rumours." Kili glanced over at me with curiosity. "How about you hear my side of the story. Believe which ever one you want, it won't matter." Cause soon my people will be set free, and each and everyone of you will be filled with guilt. "My kin aren't killers, the village of Hargen had been over run by orcs. We were the first ones to respond to the crisis, and we had driven out the enemy. Yet when the dwarves showed up, Thror believed it to be us who slaughtered them. That wasn't the case, blinded by rage he started rumours about us, saying we weren't peaceful and that we were murders. There already had been rumours, but that was mostly because Digonisks are extremely powerful. The people of Middle Earth knew that if we tried, we could over power them. When they started making rumours, they thought that we would go hide in the shadows. Yet we stilled stayed strong, and when that wasn't enough..." A single tear slipped down my cheek, the horror that occurred in that building was enough to make someone insane. I quickly wiped it away, I can't let him see me weak. "...The dwarves became the true monsters, them and mankind had invited us to the grand ball. I was only a child then, but I remember I was so excited to see the tiny men that roamed our world. Most of us had showed up, and when the doors closed the explosions started."

"...I'm sorry you went through that, but if you hate dwarves so much. Why come and help us?"

"There is something in that mountain that proves my kin is innocent. Reports from Thror himself about what really happened that day. And I intend to find it, so my people can be free once again. That's the main reason why Gandalf brought me here, he showed me a letter from Thrain. Explaining where to find the reports." He looked back to sky, wondering what to say next. I continued to eat my stew, and once I was finished he offered to take the bowl from me.

"Come back inside, surely if you explain to my uncle what's in that mountain he won't hate you as much." I hadn't thought of that, but what if he decides to go burn the papers before I get there? Though he seemed like a respectful man, and if we are going to be working together on this journey then he has to see me as an ally.

"Alright, might as well give it a try." He smiled and grabbed my hand dragging me along with him. "K-Kili wait!" He seemed more excited than I, as we passed each dwarf grimaced at the sight of me.

"Uncle!" Kili exclaimed catching Thorin's attention, he immediately separated our hands. Stepping infront of his nephew he pulled out his sword, pointing it at my neck.

"I suggest you put that thing away, wouldn't want a wizard and a Digonisk fighting you now do you? I have come to show you something, it might make this trip a whole lot easier." He didn't budge, reaching into my cloak I pulled out the same scroll Gandalf had brought me. Thorin slowly took it from my hands and undid the ribbon, his eyes widened in shock at his father's handwriting.

"How did you get this?" He looked back to me, he had hope that his father was alive.

"Gandalf gave it to me, it's the main reason I'm here." Thorin seemed to be more at ease with me in the room now. Did he actually believe his father's words?

"What does is say Thorin?" Balin asked coming closer, Thorin couldn't believe his eyes. Gradually he handed the scroll back to me, and all I saw was remorse in those blue orbs.

"It was written by my father, he says that in my grandfathers room the truth about her kind remain. The real reports about what happened that day in Hargen, if this is true then..." He couldn't finish his sentence, a thousand emotions appeared at once.

"This doesn't mean anything, it could be a lie. Those reports could show something different, but we still don't know if the evidence lies in the mountain." Dwalin interrupted, making the furious look on Thorin's face return. Well so much for that, Gandalf sighs in disappointment. Even he had hope that Thorin would be reasonable, I went to head back outside but Thorin grabs my arm.

"If your coming with us, then you have to sign the contract. I won't be responsible for your death, nor do I feel like dealing with a bunch of angry dragon slayers." Balin, kindly handed me a piece of paper, inside read the rules and what not. They would not be responsible for anything that happens to me, which was fine but if I were to die who would set my people free?

"I want to add something to this, if I am to go on this journey and I die. You must set my people free, get the reports from your grandfather's room and show everyone that my people are innocent. That is all I ask." He seemed shocked at my request, although I didn't want to trust him with this kind of task it was the only way my people would be safe after I'm gone.

"Get me a pen." He grumbled, using my magic I summoned an ethereal white feather. He watched as I wrote down my terms and signed it, then when I handed him the pen he couldn't help but stare at it. It glowed brightly in his hand, never had he seen something like this. After examining it he signed his name on the line, then handed the pen to Balin who signed it as a witness.

"Welcome, Queen Y/n to the company of Thorin Oakenshield." He smiled, that made me feel somewhat welcome. At least he has manners like Thorin's nephew, maybe all dwarves aren't so bad.

"Your welcome to stay inside, get as much sleep as you can. You'll need it for the journey ahead, I have a feeling we're going to be needing those wings of yours." Gandalf suggested but Kili and Fili perked up at his comment.

"Wings? She has wings?" Kili asked coming closer, taking off my cloak I spread them. "I didn't even realize the you could fly!"

"They look a lot smaller when folded, but yes I have wings. There easy to hide under a robe, and not very noticeable." He reached over to touch them, I flinched slightly as his fingers ran over the scales.

"May I?" Thorin asked with a light blush on his face, how could the king under the mountain have rosy cheeks? I nodded, watching him cautiously as he ran his hand over my skin. He let out a small smile as he stretched them farther to get a better look. "They're huge, how could they be so small when tucked away?" He muttered, but when he realized he was getting a little into this he stepped back. That stern look returning to his features. "Get some sleep." That was the last thing he said before walking away, at least he's somewhat warming up to me. I settled in the corner of the hobbit's house away from everyone else, surrounding myself with my wings to keep me warm. After a few minutes of silence, I heard voices again except this time it was the dwarves singing a song. "Far over the Misty Mountains cold. To dungeons deep and caverns old. We must away ere break of day. To find our long-forgotten gold." Thorin's voice was most audible, and for some reason, it soothed me.

"The pines were roaring on the height, the winds were moaning in the night. The fire was red, it flaming spread. The trees like torches blazed with light." I sang along, which made the dwarves silent. The song wasn't unknown to me, everyone outside of the shire knew the story of Erebor. After a moment they sang along after I joined, but softer than before. Maybe because they loved my voice? Or maybe my voice soothed Thorin and he wanted to hear more, as he reassured me.

@fili-is-my-lover @lunariasilver @kirenia15

[swampgallows]

I used to browse your blog almost daily, but since I realized I was falling out of love with WoW it's been considerably less frequent. I do still occasionally think to myself, "I hope that green haired, orc loving person is doing ok."

On the note of falling out of love with WoW in it's current incarnation, I've been feeling like recommending FFXIV to you. I used to be a very ugly kind of addicted to WoW, and with the way the storyline was driven and the way characters i loved were continuously mishandled it felt a bit like an abusive relationship. I really cared, and it felt like I kept getting punished for caring. It was crazy frustrating. It's been 7 months since I quit and I'm a lot happier with the atmosphere xiv has. I'm still a degenerate mmo junkie, but it is a massive difference in the way people treat one another, the love the devs have for the game, the respect they have for the players, the impressive execution of the main storyline quests(past ARR), and the level of attachment you eventually form with the characters.

I'm not an mmo rehabilitation story by any stretch, but ffxiv has been a mental health boost. Just wanted to forward that good will, regardless of what you end up doing. I wish you the best in everything.

-an anon who was once very confused as to why you like garrosh so much

im glad you're off to greener pastures, but i am not interested in playing final fantasy. there is nothing about the game that appeals to me, and i am most certainly not looking for a replacement mmo.

i play world of warcraft because i enjoy being in the world and among the characters i love; getting as close as i can to being physically present in azeroth is the only reason i play the mmo. i don't care about raiding or dungeons or mount collections or pet battles or any of the other numerous reasons mmos exist. wow is an interactive storybook to me, which is why i chiefly play it for quests and sometimes roleplay. this is also why i detest any kind of spoilers and why the prolific datamining is so frustrating: it undermines the primary reason i play the game. i like seeing the story unfold in its natural progression and pacing, the reveals once i have made progress, and the method of storytelling unique to an interactive medium.

i want to walk into a new zone and feel the impact of its construction, size, color scheme, denizens. to be surprised by new character models as their roles change. to hear the music and sound design and voice acting that is so passionately and meticulously created. there is no point or pleasure in being exposed to it ahead of time without context, and that's nothing to say of the amount of quest and cinematic content that gets leaked and impulsively passed around. to me, blasting oneself with everything beforehand is like reading the sparknotes of a story. and then people wonder why they're disappointed! you're only eating the candy wrapper.

i will say again that i am not interested in a replacement mmo. when the time comes that i must depart wow, it will be for the same reason i first quit--that all of my friends have left and that the world will be emptied of my place within it. i started a new chapter of my life back then and turned my attention to college, and eventually the stars aligned that i could be more physically present in and contribute to the rave scene.

i am 31 years old, and i have been suicidal and languishing in my mental illness for a long time. wow has been my tether through it, but i won't deny it's also been a distraction. when i leave wow, it's hopefully not going to be in the arms of another spiritually-consumptive force like a mmo.

sadly abusive relationships are par for the course for me, and though i did have abusive friendships in my first leg of wow, the worst of my abusive relationships were after i quit. i am hoping by the next time i quit it will be because ive finally found a place and a way to exist on planet earth.

also, final fantasy is ugly as fuck, and not in the way i get from wow. what drew me to warcraft in the first place was that i had the freedom to be an ugly monster living among other monsters, and that we were all a powerful, loving, self-made family of outcasts, much like the rave scene. i am horde for life, regardless of whether or not i play wow or if it even continues to exist. i am not interested in pretending to be something im, essentially, not. ffxiv is too pretty and luminescent and smooth, and that makes it hideous to me. you all look like sparkly-eyed sentient globs of sour cream.

plus... how are you going to recommend me a game with no orcs?

[idjitlili]

Your eyes can be so cruel.

Kili x reader

Summary:  Being apart of the company, and growing close to Kili. After stopping at an inn, some drunk men, decide to pick at Kili's appearance. Words from Bowie come into favour.

A/n: Requested by Thatfoolishhuman  I have seen this idea a lot for Kili, but I'lol make it my own :) Also I'm British, so don't be mad at my spelling. FIRST IMAGINE OF 2021

Word count:3375

Warnings: Listened to David Bowie while writing this, sorry Bowie you just too handsome. Swearing.

Songs in order: rebel rebel, as the world falls down.

There was perks from travelling with your parents; due to business. The most frequent place you'd go was Tortuga, it was a quite a large village. Every time that you'd go, you and your parents stayed in an inn, which had a pub connected to it.

You'd eat with your parents in there, before all the drunks arrived, it was also a Saturday that you'd go. Saturdays meant that a song writer, and singer in one , was always there. His name being Jareth, he was a very beautiful man, in honesty one of the best musicians, in history.

Jareth was a skinny man, had a huge blond mullet, beautiful eyes one pupil larger than the other, beautiful accent, beautiful everything. Who couldn't have a crush on Jareth, his songs were like none other. 

These trips started when you were 5, when your parents business finally picked up, all the way up until you came to age. Which is when you joined the company, due to Gandalf.

You didn't think you'd ever see Jareth again, but you do.  You had undoubtedly had a crush on the singer growing up, you had almost forgotten about him when you joined the company.

Personally you didn't know Gandalf very well, not like your parents did, but he recruited you for an adventure, how could you deny it. A chance to see elves, dwarves, dragons? No way you was going to pass up that chance, no way.

You were surprised when the company had picked up, after getting Bilbo, since you lived on the way. Scary yes, not knowing any of these people, a chance at getting friends, you could only hope.

Strange was to say the least, you had seen a couple of dwarves growing up , that was just in pubs mostly. The were always not so pleasant, but these dwarves, plump and strikingly handsome. That hobbit? Bilbo that didn't take long for you to become friends, being shy didn't help, but some how you managed.

Dwarves were were quite scary; to say the least they intimidated you. 

That was until a particularly rainy day, when the mud was like cake batter. Thorin had decided it was time to stop for the night, the rain hammering down, lightning even, every now and then. 

Everyone was getting off their pony's, as were you, you was about to step down, when a huge crack of thunder was sounded above you. Damn you Thor. You had jumped, slipping on the mud, but you never hit the floor, instead you into strong arms.

Looking up , drips of water from dark hair had dripped on you, as Kili looked down at you. Your feet upwards, like a trust fall, you had smiled in embarrassment back to Kili, who had pulled you up to your feet. "T-thank you." Now standing up on your own, pulling your tunic down, trying to avoid eye contact.

"You're welcome, wouldn't want you to ruin your clothes a day into our journey." Kili had smiled at you, as you looked back to him from your feet, smiling slightly back.

Dwarves weren't as bad as they were made out to be, you learned that very quickly. When it was time for baths, turns out they were protective over females, always when you bathed two dwarves stood guard, just in case.

On cold nights, you'd wake up with an extra blanket.

Even though Thorin didn't like you were on this quest, he was never horrible, maybe because you just stayed quiet. You did not want to anger that beast, Bilbo talked quite a lot and look at him..

On one night, you were told to hide, Bilbo had been kidnapped by trolls, you hadn't listened. You followed everyone else, staying the bushes, getting as close as you possibly could, before quietly climbing up a tree with your knife.

It wasn't long before they were all caught, you just staring down at them, specifically Kili, you had hoped at he look up, and see you drop the knife. You could not make nose that would have alerted the trolls immediately. Sat on a branch , trying to blend in as much as possible.

That was Kili had looked up wide eyed, as you dropping the knife , and quickly climbed further up the tree to get out of eye view. You had thought it had worked, oh you was wrong.

"That one has gotten out!" Kili had started running around the trolls , as if he was sonic. A few minutes that lasted before you had noticed a shadow. But it didn't matter because Bert had grabbed Kili tightly,like he was slime that wouldn't stay put. No way would not have bruises after that. Of course he got out of Berts grip as Gandalf had appeared, cracking the large Boulder, turning the trolls into stone.

Feeling terrible the next day still, when the company had stopped again for the night and everyone had went to sleep. You could not, Kili being on watch, you had gotten up quietly, making your way over to him, sitting on log next to him.

Thinking about what you would say, Kili had beaten you to it. "Can't sleep?" His voice sounded tired, but still as lively. "Yeah.. um I'm sorry." Very convincing, indeed.

" for what?" The fire glowing orange, causing Kili to be barely visible as he turned to his to look at you. "It's my fault, that you got hurt yesterday, I should've listened to Thorin."

"What on earth are you going on about? I wasn't hurt? I'm fine, no one is dead , you did great, you didn't throw the knife at my head, maybe then I'd be distrusting in you." You felt like sighing, thankfully, but that would be cringy.

"I haven't got good aim, so it could've happened."

"You need someone to teach you."  You had scoffed slightly at Kili, gaining his full attention.

"I do not think anyone would have the patience." The warm orange glow from the fire, lit up the outline of Kili's face, a small grin could be seen.

"Are you challenging me? I have to sit through multiple speeches from Thorin a day."

"That's because you and Fili mess with him, I saw you the other day tangle a bunch of branches into his hair ,while he was sleeping. Why are you always surprised that he gets mad?"

"That was funny though, did you not see that bird fly at him? It shat on his face." Kili's grin only widened, as did yours, you had seen, Thorins face was bright red with the whipped cream.

"I'm surprised Thorin doesn't just leave you somewhere." 

"My mum would kill him. Right that settles it, you will learn from the best , to throw knives."

"You will really get Fili to help me?" Kili had gasped at you , sarcastically. "Oh I see, you want that Lion, over me, I'm hurt y/n."

"No,no, thank you Kili."

Thus, a bond was formed every night the company stopped, Kili would take you from camp, taught you basic defensive techniques and knife throwing.

To say the least, it did not take you long to develop a crush. Fili and Bilbo had became suspicious and decided to sneak up on you two. Why you'd do , not sure, Bilbo supposed to be smart, for all they knew you could've been going at it.

Instead they found you both sparring, undoubtedly they were confused, as you knocked the sword from Kili's hand ,before tackling him. Straddling him, as you looked up to see Bilbo and Fili. Quickly letting go of Kili's wrists, Kili looking up confused too, as you stood up, pulling him up with you.

"Oh, hi, we were just sparring." Too embarrassed to speak, Kili did soon as he noticed his brother and hobbit.  "So, this is what you two have been doing for weeks? 'Sparring'?" Fili didn't believe it, if Thorin knew he would not have, an heir to the throne, left unsupervised with a woman? No way.

"Yes Fili, I've been teaching Y/n how to defend herself." Sweat dripping down both of your faces,  "Right okay, Thorin said it's time for you to have a bath in the quarry, before the dwarves filthy it. Come on y/n." Bilbo had pulled you away, turning your head back to Kili you had sent a smile back to him.

You were back on the road soon enough, Thorin had decided to let the company stop for a night at an inn, an inn with a pub on the side.

Tortuga, the inn you had grew up at.

What day was it? Saturday, you could only hope, you had a huge grin on your face. You had grabbed your stuff,  once everyone was off their pony's, heading in to the inn,

Getting to the desk, to check into the inn, which consequently next to the bar, you in front.  "Aye, it's y/n/n! It's been a while, luv. And you've brought friends, do you all need rooms?"  Sparrow, the owner of the inn had greeted you,with a grin. That man was also very handsome, but too old for you though.

"I know, mum and dad been here a lot though, I assume? Oh I'm, when they next come here, would you be able to give this. And yes please we need for 16." Handing Sparrow the letter from your pocket.

"Of course, okay right it's 2 coins each for the night." The dwarves soon pulled out there coins passing them forward, as did you.

As Sparrow got the keys after counting the coins, he had turned back to you. "Oh, and lucky for you, y/n/n Jareth is here tonight." Sparrow had grinned, as your face flushed.

"Oh,really?" Kili unknowingly to you had also developed a crush on you, the mention of Jareth, made him bubble with jealousy. The company wondered, why such a young woman would be on nickname terms with the pub owner, and who Jareth was. They hadn't seen you as that type of girl, they were right not you, you weren't an alcoholic.

You had all went to your rooms, you had bathed deeply ,  dressed and headed down to the pub for dinner. The company already there, sat at tables, with jugs of ale. There was a space next to Kili, who had waved you over to sit.

Squeezing next to Kili, Sparrow had catcalled you again. "Oi, y/n/n , usual?"  Nodded to his question, Loki the cook had brought out your favourite dinner, as Sparrow brought you an ale.

"You had it ready? Thank you." Sparrow had just winked leaving you to eat your dinner, the others were too busy drinking , but when they had noticed your food, they quickly ordered food.  

"So, you come here regularly?" Kili had questioned as you finished your food, "oh, I'm yes, I travelled with my parents growing up , we had to drop stuff off here in Tortuga often , so we would stay here for the night." You had spoken quickly , wanting to change the subject.

" Transporting goods then?" Kili was intrigued, watching you intensely as you sipped your ale. Really he wanted to know who Jareth was. "Yeah, pretty boring, got to see a lot of places though." After that, a lot of people began to pile in, and the dwarves got drunker.

You knew it was going to be soon, that Jareth would be here. Not long at all, customers getting drunk, it was lively indeed.

Though nothing ever happened between you and Jareth, he still held a place in your heart, as well as being your best friend.

That's when you heard it.

"Doo doo doo-doo doo doo doo doo

Doo doo doo-doo doo doo doo doo

Doo doo doo-doo doo doo doo doo"  you head had shot up,in search of him, but you couldn't see him.

"You've got your mother in a whirl

She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl

Hey babe, your hair's alright

Hey babe, let's go out tonight

You like me, and I like it all

We like dancing and we look divine

You love bands when they're playing hard

You want more and you want it fast

They put you down, they say I'm wrong

You tacky thing, you put them on."  Then you saw him, on the stage , well sort of a stage. 

Catching sight of his mullet, down to his eyes, he had not noticed you, you wondered if Sparrow had told him you were here.  You hoped he would see you.

"Rebel rebel, you've torn your dress

Rebel rebel, your face is a mess

Rebel rebel, how could they know?

Hot tramp, I love you so!" Thats when Jareth finally caught your eyes, holding eye contact as he sang, Blush upon your face. You had gotten up and went to the bar, ordering something strong, before retiring to your seat.

As Jareth had already started another song, you smacked down your drink.

"There's such a sad love

Deep in your eyes a kind of pale jewel

Open and closed

Within your eyes

I'll place the sky

Within your eyes."  Jareth , catching your eye, gesturing you to come closer , with his hand.

"There's such a fooled heart

Beatin' so fast

In search of new dreams

A love that will last

Within your heart

I'll place the moon

Within your heart"

Standing up , Kili watched you as you walked towards the stranger man, as did the other dwarves. 

"As the pain sweeps through

Makes no sense for you

Every thrill is gone

Wasn't too much fun at all

But I'll be there for you-ou-ou

As the world falls down."

  Jareth had held knelt down, holding his gloved hand for you to take, which you did. Pulling you up onto the stage.  Still holding onto your hand, still singing, as he continued singing, you placed your hand on his shoulder as he placed his other hand on your waist.Kili's heart ached.

"Falling

As the world falls down

Falling

Falling in love."  As you two danced , in sync, you truly loved Jareth, Kili stood up , went to the bar to get another drink.

"I'll paint you mornings of gold

I'll spin you Valentine evenings though we're strangers 'til now

We're choosing the path

Between the stars

I'll leave my love

Between the stars."  Jareth had taught you how to dance, and every time you visited , he'd give you another song he had written for your book.  A book which held all his songs.

"As the pain sweeps through

Makes no sense for you

Every thrill is gone

Wasn't too much fun at all

But I'll be there for you-ou-ou

As the world falls down

Falling

As the world falls down

Falling

Falling

As the world falls down

Falling

Falling

Falling

Falling in love

As the world falls down

Falling

Falling

Falling

Falling in love

As the world falls down

Makes no sense at all

Makes no sense to fall

Falling

As the world falls down

Falling

Falling

Falling in love

As the world falls down

Falling

Falling

Falling in love

Falling in love

Falling in love

Falling in love

Falling in love."  As soon as the song was over, you both had gotten of stage and you had jumped into Jareths arms. 

"Missed you."

"Ditto,"

Jareth had looked over to your table, "so you are travelling with dwarves now?" You had smiled , looking back your table, Kili wasn't there.  "Yes, Jareth, I'm going on an adventure, we have already seen trolls."

Grinning down at you, realisation hit Jareth, and went rushed to his bag quickly before returning back to you with a sheet of paper.

'Magic dance.'

"Just in case you meet a Goblin king. So who is your beloved?" Taking the piece of paper,  looking at into Jareths blue eyes in confusion. "W-what?"

"The dwarf that stormed out, he does not like me."  Jareth had chuckled, as you folded the piece of paper up placing it away.  "We aren't together."

"Maybe you should go check on him, y/n/n, come see me later, I'm staying here tonight." You had briefly hugged Jareth before leaving the pub. 

That's when you heard it, "stupid fucking hairless, fuck."   Local drunks harassing Kili. "Oi, what are you doing?"  The men had turned briefly to look at you, before scoffing. "Fuck of tramp."

You had marched up to the greasy man, pulling by the shoulder, to face you , and kneeing him in the crotch, making the man double over. Kili had punched one of them.  The men soon ran, when you had tackled one of them, beating them into mash, when Kili had pulled you off,the ground, trying to get out of his grip. All the men ran.

"It's me, y/n, stop, if you continued you would have been arrested." Placing , you back onto the floor, Kili had soon walked off, heading to his room, you following. But he had closed the door before you could get in.

This, you climbed up the roof hanging over the roof, to look into Kili's room. Looking like Spiderman. Kili sat on his bed staring at the wall, not moving, jumping when you knocked the window.

He had rushed to the window when he had seen you , hanging of the roof, you definitely couldn't hold on longer. Though Kili wasn't tear stained , it was clear that he was upset.  He had opened the window, helping you in.

"What are you doing? On the roof, what if you fell." He as definitely annoyed, "I would not have, plus I wouldn't have to if you let me in before." You definitely would have fell.

He hadn't answered this time, just sat on the bed, away from you, you sat next to him on the bed. 

"Kili, talk to me, tell me what has made you not yourself. Please, Kili." You didn't dare touch him, but you did placing your hand on his foreman. "Why don't you go to your beloved? You won't be seeming him for a while , instead of bothering me." You had scoffed pulling your hand off of him, you already knew he ran off because of Jareth.

"You are very stupid dwarf, in all honesty, Jareth is my bestfriend, only friend I had growing up, and don't you think he is a bit old for me?" 

"I don't believe it, you like a man that has long soft hair, nothing like me, I can't even grow a beard."

"frankly beards are really gross, tell me that the dwarves don't smell? You know why? Because they drop food all their beards and don't know it."  You had laughed, imagine Bombur going through his beard and finding cheese.

"They do smell,"

"Exactly, and what's wrong with your hair, Kili?" You had turned on the bed, bringing your hand up  to his hair,touching it gently, moving it out for his face. "I think you've got lovely hair, those guys were just idiots, Jareth had to beat them with a soup spoon once, you are not stupid nor hairless. How could they call you hairless? They are bald?"

Cupping Kili's face, to bringing him to face you, looking into his chestnut eyes.  "Y/n, I must confess, that this would not have happened if I did not like you."   And with that you had pressed your lips to his.

"Your eyes can be so cruel

Just as I can be so cruel

Oh I do believe in you

Yes I do" Jareth singing faintly could be heard.

[houseisekai]

House Miisekai Prologue: The Adventure Begins!

House Miisekai Masterlist Here

====

Our story begins in the land of Miisekaitopia! (No, I couldn't think of a better name.)

It is a world where everyone from both storylines and unholy amounts of AU's can live in peace without worrying about wars breaking out every 4 seconds.

At least it was.

The darkness came without warning, a great and terrible shadow threatening all of Miisekaitopia! An unspeakably huge dick came and stole everyone's faces! Then, to add insult to injury, put those faces onto monsters across the land!

But, we shall follow the perspective of Sara Valestein, Instructor of Class VII and the original House Isekai...

Sara casually strolled through the hills, enjoying the sunlight and wind blowing gently across her.

(Sara) "...Goddess I am so bored."

She had been kicked out of yet another bar recently for drinking too much.

Again.

Left with nothing to do, she decided to take a trip to nowhere in particular, going wherever fate took her.

Sara continued muttering to herself, mocking the established "rules" for drinking in a tavern until she noticed something flying in the air.

(Sara) "Is...that a face?"

She rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things, and saw the eyes slowly float over to a nearby butterfly.

(Sara) "Uh...?"

(Sara) "GAH!"

The horrific creature began floating faster towards Sara, which prompted her to run full speed ahead towards the closest town.

As she ran out of breath, she ran towards anyone would even take a minute to listen.

(Sara) "H-Hey, there's some freaky bug thing out there with a human face!"

BE-LOP!

Tiny lines of text ran down the guide's face.

It showed too many messages at once for her to properly read it, and the person remained completely still.

(Sara) "...Hello?"

(Everyone) "..."

(Sara) "...Right."

Sara moved to the next person she saw.

...

Sara saw a platypus with a name tag 'Perry' calmly sitting on the market stall.

(Sara) "Hello, anyone here?"

The platypus stared at her, not saying a word.

(Sara) "...What in the hell is with this town?"

Next try. That would probably work.

...

(Anakin) "What did we get ourselves into this time?"

(Obi-Wan) "I'm not sure but...I do not like this a single bit."

(Anakin) "At least you're in a taller body, my head barely reaches your stomach!"

(Obi-Wan) "It's not the first time."

(Sara) "Hey, excuse me ma'aaaaaaaaaa...What in the?"

(Anakin) "Listen lady, we got our own problems right now. We're not in the mood-"

(Obi-Wan) "What my young padawan means is that we unfortunately cannot spare any help if you need it ma'am."

(Sara) "...Evidently."

Sara nervously walked away from the two grown men in a child and woman's body.

(Sonia) "Did we get transported again?"

(Gundham) "By the works of dark magic, no doubt..."

(Sonia) "Oh, looks like there's someone over there. Hello ma'am, do you know where we are?"

(Sara) "Eh?...Huh. That's a good question. Where is this?"

(Sonia) "Oh well, I'm a bit more comfortable knowing that someone I like is with me here!"

(Gundham) "I...uh...er..."

(Sara) "That's cute. Ah, to be young again..."

Sara left the two to talk amongst themselves before finding the next...person?

It was an extremely fat rabbit that was grey and white.

(Sara) "What in the hell-"

BIG BIG CHUNGUS, BIG CHUNGUS, BIG-

(Sara) "Okay, screw that."

Sara finally saw the mayor and approached him, and when he turned she almost jumped.

It was a Piranha plant. She thought so anyway, it was covered in white polka dots and bright red.

(Plant) "Ah, welcome to the town miss?"

(Sara) "Uh, Sara. Sara Valestein. Listen, there's this weird face that attached itself to a butterfly outside your place! You're gonna do something right?"

(Plant) "Did...did you say a face float down? OH NO."

(Familiar Man's voice) "OH YES."

(Sara) ?

(Anakin) "Uh, master?"

(Obi-Wan) "I've got a bad feeling about this..."

The platypus, fat rabbit, and the discord notification looked up into the skies, getting increasingly alarmed.

(Gundham) "THIS DARKNESS...IT'S...IT'S OVERWHELMING!"

(Sonia) "His voice sounds grating like Souda's..."

(Plant) "COINS PRESERVE US! IT'S..."

[Imperial Will - Final Fantasy XIV OST]

(Dark Lord Chris) "KNEEL BEFORE YOUR GOD, AND OFFER YOUR FACES UNTO ME!"

(Sara) "...Faces? You mean like services or...?"

(Anakin) "Maybe that's metaphorical?"

(Obi-Wan) "I'm not sure I want to find out-"

(Chris) "NO, YOU REALLY DON'T. ALSO NO. I MEAN IT LITERALLY!"

Several faces began to fly off the townspeople.

First was the platypus's face, quickly followed by the discord notification and Anakin's.

(Obi-Wan) "ANAKIN!"

Then it was Sonia and the fat rabbit's faces that floated next to Chris.

(Gundham) "AAAAAAAGH!"

(Plant) "OH MY GOD, THIS IS HORRIBLE!"

(Sara) "Can someone tell me what the hell is happening?!-"

(Chris) "THESE NOW BELONG TO ME! NOW, GO TELL THE OTHERS WHAT YOU'VE SEEN HERE, FOR I WILL BE COMING FOR THEM NEXT!"

Chris flew off into the skies, the faces following closely behind.

(Sara) "What an asshole!"

(Plant) "ADVENTURER, PLEASE YOU HAVE TO HELP US!"

(Sara) "Right uh..."

Sara reached for her sword and pistol, which was nowhere to be found.

(Sara) "Well, that's just great..."

Obi-Wan struggled to walk over to here, still not accustomed to his body and looked at Sara.

(Obi-Wan) "Ma'am, I'm afraid I cannot go into battle myself to assist with this matter. And we don't appear to have our weapons either..."

(Sara) "So, what do you reckon I do? Ask nicely?"

...

(Sara) "Damn it."

OUTSIDE OF TOWN...

Chris was floating away from the town when Sara finally caught up to him.

(Sara) "HEY, JACKASS!"

(Chris) "...Oh, you mean me. I-I mean, OH, IS SOMEONE TRYING TO BE THE HERO NOW?"

(Sara) "Don't play smart with me you glasses wearing freak! Give back their faces!"

(Chris) "Or what? You're going to fight me?"

Sara cracked her knuckles.

(Chris) "...Oh shit. Uh, here have it."

The face slowly floated over to a slime, which reattached itself and began hopping towards Sara.

(Anakin's voice) "OH MAN, I THOUGHT THE KID BODY WAS BAD!"

(Chris) "Uh anyways, LATER!"

Chris quickly flew away from Sara, leaving her and Anakin's face on a slime.

(Sara) "Alright, LET'S GO!"

Sara drove her fist into the slime, which quickly bounced off.

(Sara) "...Oh right. It's a slime."

The slime retaliated by knocking Sara onto her back.

(Anakin's voice) "Sorry!"

(Sara) "Damn, my weapons aren't anywhere to be found either!

"I AM THOU...THOU ART I..."

(Sara) "Oh, what is it now-HURK?!"

Sara reached for her head as the voice boomed thunderously.

"THOU ART...Okay, no we're not rhyming. I'm your guardian spirit, Sara!"

(Sara) "Really now? And where were you during Erebonia?!"

"ANYWAYS, it seems you're in a bit of trouble! Do you need some help?"

(Sara) "It's either getting help or getting killed by a damn slime of all things, so...Yeah, sure."

"Good choice! Now, I bestow upon you the awesome power of the guardian!"

(Sara) "You're gonna explain later where I got this from, right?"

"That depends, do you want the plot to get moving? Our other posts are slowed down as it is, and this has gotten too meta in just the first few lines of this."

(Sara) "Ugh, fine."

Sara's outfit shined forth and became donned in armor, wielding a new sword.

(Sara) "Hey, you cheap bastard, where's my gun?!"

"This is a fantasy RPG, why would you get a gun? Just kill the damn slime already!"

(Anakin's voice) "WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?!"

(Sara) "Hold on, I'll getcha outta there, HIYA!"

[COOL QUIRK: WEAK POINT]

Sara took one swing of her sword and smacked the slime into the floor, it quickly disappearing.

Anakin's face floated off the slime and back to the town.

"That was..."

(Sara) "Really anti-climatic."

"You should uh...probably go back to the town and check up on Anakin."

INSIDE OF TOWN...

Anakin's face slowly floated back onto the child's body, making him trip over.

(Anakin) "AGH!"

(Obi-Wan) "So, how was it?"

(Anakin) "I was just put into a slime's body, how do you think I feel?!"

(Obi-Wan) "Same as usual, got it."

Obi-Wan turned to Sara, who now looked like a proper knight.

(Obi-Wan) "You have our thanks for helping us, Miss?"

(Sara) "Name's Sara."

(Anakin) "Thanks for helping me out there. What are you gonna do? We'd join you but our bodies would just get in the way."

(Sara) "I'm going to uh...Hey, what is the plan?"

"What do you think? You're the only hero in a fantasy land."

(Obi-Wan) "Is she alright?"

(Anakin) "Yeah, she started doing this earlier, no idea what's up with it."

(Sara) "Might as well go after the others, see what happens I guess. Anyways, I'll be back once I restored this town, until then!"

Sara held onto her sheathe and ran out of the town, those still faceless watching her leave.

(Gundham) "Please hurry. Sonia is...unsettling me."

(Plant) "Miss Valestein, you're our only hope...!"

(Anakin) "Think she'll be okay? That talking thing is really concerning me."

(Obi-Wan) "Probably...?"

[Chase Me - Faky]

(Sara) "Right so...do I just go forward?"

"Where did you see him fly off to?"

(Sara) "Was a lot more focused on trying NOT to get murdered by the slimes."

"It was just a slime, you've killed enemy mechs and demonic beasts like it was nothing!"

(Sara) "That's when I had my weapons and ARCUS unit!"

"..Still. Should've had no problem. I probably didn't even have to interfere."

(Sara) "Good goddess, am I going to be stuck with you? Actually WHO even are you?"

"The narrator! In a sense anyway."

(Sara) "What-"

And so begins the tale of Sara Valestein and her quest to defeat the Dark Lord Chris!

What friends will she encounter on the way?

How much of the meta can we break more than we have?

How many more jokes will the writer run into the ground as this series goes on?

FIND OUT NEXT TIME, ON HOUSE MIISEKAI!

(Sara) "...What?!"

STARRING:

And yours truly as the antagonist for this story!

Here's to some more god-awful written meme stories like this one, everyone!

[ladykatibeth]

“Missing”

Fandom: Sander Sides

Rating: Teen for swearing

Summary:The crown prince of the kingdoms goes on a quest to find his brother, meanwhile a famers kid meets up with a friend.

A/N: Will be continued,if you want to feel free to ask questions about the characters! I have my inbox open. Feel free to reblog.

Remus was Missing.

Remus was missing and Roman didn’t know where he was. Remus was missing, and he was gone for good this time, and Roman didn’t know what to do.

Remus was missing--his twin was missing. His twin was missing, Remus was--

Roman should have done something, noticed sooner. Or even noticed at all. Remus had always been loud, obnoxiously loud, Roman had remarked a couple of times. Remus had been a bit quieter than usual, the past week. But Remus had always had his ups and downs, despite what it might have seemed Remus couldn’t keep up his high energy forever. Every once in a while he ended up crashing.

Roman should have known though. Should have picked it out. Should have noticed. But he had been so busy last week. Well, busier than usual. There's always lessons, boring parties where adults talked about stupid things, and other such duties. But that week he had been preparing to do a speech, anxiously prepping and preparing. He had been so stressed, being crown prince was no easy task, honestly sometimes he just wanted to get away.

Maybe that's why Remus left.

Maybe that's why Remus left.

Maybe--

Roman could feel his breath hitch in his throat, his eyes were wet, why was he crying? Why couldn’t he breathe?

Roman felt a hand on his shoulder. He tensed as he suddenly remembered where he was. His hands were gripping the bed. The breath slowly returned to his lungs, maybe he had been cursed. Cursed by some breath stealing fairy. That would actually be a good idea for a story, he’d have to return to that later.

“Roman?” Right. Later. He looked up to see Logan looking down at him with a concerned expression on his face. Roman could almost find it in himself to smile. Logan would know what to do. Logan always knew what to do.

“Are you okay?”

“Do I look like I'm okay?” Roman threw his arms around, nearly hitting Logan, who had started to sit down next to Roman.

Logan frowned. “I don't understand, you and I both know disappearing is not out of the realm of your brother's usual behavior. He runs off somewhere, every third week.” His frown deepened. “You both do, actually, no matter how hard I try to stop you.”

Logan had become Roman and Remus’s court companion, by nature of being literally the only other child that lived in the castle. The title wasn't exactly official, but that's what everyone had taken to calling him, almost affectionately. And Logan did the job as best as he could. Making sure neither one of them got themselves killed.

Logan also happened to be the son of Roman and Remus’s tutor. He excelled in almost everything, math, science, geography even English, though he struggled with the metaphors. Out of the three of them, Logan had always gotten the best scores. Roman might have called it favoritism if he didn’t know Logan so well.

Roman passed Logan the note he held crumpled up in his hand. In his despair he had almost forgotten it had been there. Logan carefully read over the material, his face changing only slightly, so slightly Roman wouldn't have caught it if he hadn't known what to look for. He squinted adjusting his glasses.

Of course, knowing what was in the letter himself helped. Roman had reread it over and over again, after finding it on his nightstand that morning.

Ro,

I'm leaving. For good this time. Don’t blame yourself, don't try to come after me, because I don’t want to come back. I don't know what I'll do next, maybe become a pirate? Or live in the woods in a cave,like a bear, and run around naked and eat wild plants! Who knows. I’ll decide later. Anyway, I’ll write to you if I find a way to from wherever I’m going. Say goodbye to Lo for me.

Ps. Don't show this to Mom.You know she’ll come after me.

Pps. If you show this to Mom I'll come back to the castle and bludgeon you. I am not above fratricide.

Roman had quickly hid that note under his pillow. And then he pulled it out to read it again, before sticking it back. He had been doing that all morning. He had at first felt angry, how dare he leave him to do this by himself, that hadn’t been the plan! That's what twins were for! So you didn't have to do things like stealing cookies from cooks, or running kingdoms, alone!

So that was that then. His brother was gone, he left, purposefully disappeared. Roman was going to tackle him if he found him. When he found him. Determination flooded into him.

Logan looked up at him. Probably seeing something in his eyes, he said “You’re going to go try to find him.” He looked at him disapprovingly.

Shit.

“I have to--!” Roman said. Roman drew short, and quickly looked around. He lowered his voice, “I'm going, and you can’t stop me!” Logan glared at him.

Roman glared back, harder. Logan maintained his gaze for a second then looked away, sighing. “Fine, then, I will accompany you.”

“You don't have to-” Roman said. Logan raised an eyebrow.

“I know I don't have to.” He walked over to Roman’s closet and grabbed a bag. “Pack some clothes, I’ll make a list of things we need, and draft a plan.” He placed the bag down next to Roman.

For the first time today Roman smiled. He could almost taste the adventure coming up on the horizon.

-----

Patton couldn’t wait to see his friend! He had said they could meet up today. Patton was so excited he sped through his chores. And boy, there were a lot!

Not that Patton ever really minded that much. He loved the animals on the farm. And he liked getting up early, and getting to watch the sun rise. The only problem was that he had finished too early. By the time he had gotten back it was already twelve O’clock and he still had two more hours to wait.

It was currently 1:30. He still had thirty minutes to wait, but his friend was rarely on time. Sometimes he came early, but mostly he came “fashionably” late as he had called it once. Patton had laughed.

Patton was sitting by the edge of the forest, near his house. The grass underneath Patton's hands was soft, and the sun shone brightly through the trees. The wind felt breezy, tousling through his hair. Patton giggled.

Patton's thoughts wandered to when he met his friend. It was almost a year ago, Patton had been playing around near the woods. His mama had told him to never to go in them. So Patton stayed around them, sure to never get too close to the trees. But Patton had thought he heard crying.

At first he was able to convince himself it was nothing, just the wind rustling through the trees, but the sound grew louder until it could not be classified as anything but sobbing. All thoughts of getting in trouble fled him. Someone was hurting, he needed to help them.

He had wandered slowly into the woods, holding his breath. Barely making a sound. He walked on the path, trying to listen from where he thought he had heard the sound. If somebody was hurt he had to help. Nevermind the fear slowly creeping up his spine.

As he journeyed farther and farther into the woods, the volume of the crying would cycle. Just as he thought he was about to reach the person, it would decrease again. Patton was just starting to think that he’d been tricked when he heard movement in the trees.

He turned around.

Nobody was there.

He slowly turned forward.

A snake was hanging down from the tree, right by him. Patton screamed. He fell backwards and froze. The black and yellow snake drew up close to him. So close he could see the wrinkly outline of its scales. Its eyes were cat-like. The snake's head nodded to the side, an expression that, on a human, would certainly be read as amused curiosity.

Patton got up and ran.

He could feel air rushing past him. He was running on autopilot, passing through trees and ducking under vines. Low hanging branches and thorny bushes nicked at his skin. He nearly avoided tripping over a couple of twigs and branches. He slowed down to a light jog, before stopping and sitting on a log to catch his breath. Patton looked around.

Nothing looked familiar. Patton thought he had come out from his left side. He walked back that way. Trying to go the way he remembered coming from, turning left and right. Just as he thought he would never make it out of these woods, he saw light. Light! Patton ran toward it.

Only to find himself back in the same place he started.

He tried again, and again, changing directions, taking lefts where last time he took rights. But every time he found himself in the same place. It didn't help that the tree markers seemed to flip and change randomly. And Patton couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. “Why cant you just leaf me alone?” He tried to joke, but his punning fell flat.

He sat back down on his log, and started to cry.

He heard something move in the trees. His breath hitched, and he looked up. A boy about his age was sitting on a branch and looking down at him, lazily dangling a leg off the side of the tree.

His clothes were dark. Pretty fancy for the woods, Patton thought. The boy had a button down shirt, and a cloak wrapped around him. He had yellow gloves, and a hat Patton had never seen before. Patton thought he looked like a storybook villain.

“Crying is, absolutely, one of the best, most productive, responses one could have to getting lost in the woods.” Patton whipped his face with his sleeve. That was kind of a mean thing for him to say.

“Hello!” Patton said, trying to make himself seem happier than he felt. “My name is Patton!”

The boy looked sharply down at him and hissed a half-whisper, “Could you be any louder? I’d love for you to make it known to the whole world that I’m up here!”

Patton frowned. This convo wasn’t going well at all. He pushed forward, and half-whispered “Sorry, it's nice to meet you, what's your name?”

The boy tipped his hat. “You can call me Deceit.” They sat in silence for a minute.

“Well…” Patton began.

“Well?” Deceit said.

“Well, It's just, I'm kinda lost….”Patton trailed off.

“Clearly.”

“And you seem to know these woods a bit…..” Deceit’s expression didn’t change.

“So maybe,” Patton paused, “Maybe you could help me out?” The end of his statement went high.

Deceit must have seen the desperation on his face. Because he said, “Look, I'm not in the habit of doing favors for people, but I am willing to make an exchange.”

Patton gasped. A snake had appeared where Deceit once was. It slithered up the branch and down the tree. As soon as the snake hit the ground, Deceit reappeared.

So he was the one that scared him earlier!

“Here's the deal, I will help you home, if you agree to do me a favor.” Deceit held out his hand to shake it. Patton reached for it, automatically. Stopping just short of shaking it.

“Wait.” Patton had said tilting his head curiously “What favor?”

“You’ll know it when the time comes.” Patton hesitated for a moment, and then stood up and shook Deceits hand.

And in the end that had turned out to be a great decision! Patton had gotten a new friend! A friend that was running towards him right now. Now that’s a bit weird. Deceit doesn't runs, he just slithers all over the place. Patton giggled a bit at the joke.

His smile became tented with concern when he noticed Deceit had a look of panic on his face. Patton grabbed him by the arms. “Hey, hey, what's the matter, kiddo?”

“Patton, you have to hide me!” Deceit said.

[secret-engima]

Ever since you mentioned Ace and Nox meeting I literally cannot stop thinking about it because Ace would just. Be so confused about Nox existing. (Also I'm just seeing Tredd or Luche introducing Nox to Ace's cooking)

OHHHH OH YES THAT. I’ve been meaning to do something with that *rolls up sleeves* HERE WE GO THEN:

IN CANON, Noctis has something of a …. Talent for either stumbling into other dimensions of meeting them (the hiso hiso and the miqo’te lady side quests, as well as Dissidia NT if you wanna count that which I DO) and Ace has something of a penchant for running to trouble because honestly the Astrals need entertainment from somewhere and apparently they don’t get cable or streaming in that blue Void of theirs. So the way I see it- either Nox accidentally goes to Ace’s universe for a few days, or Ace accidentally goes to Nox’s for a few days.

Because I love both ideas, I shall do both. This is gonna get Very Long™ (edit: It’s almost 3k words WHAT IN THE WORLD ME-).

Option One: In Which Nox Really Needs To Watch His Step More and Axis and Fem!Nyx Get Dragged Into Things.

-It starts when Nox trips. Seriously. That’s how it starts. Nox trips and Something Happens in the split second his best friend and his girlfriend/wife grab his arms to steady him and then- they’re falling. Like- seriously falling. Falling from 10+ stories up kinda falling and Axis is cursing the entire time Nyx grabs Axis and warps to the relative safety of one rooftop, expecting Nox to do the same. He does, but he misjudges the threshold of Impact Resistance that the roof he lands on holds (that or the Astrals are laughing at him again). It breaks under him and he topples down in a crash of magic and debris onto a slightly cushy landing of broken crates (hey better than concrete or solid ice) and … glass?

-Why are his clothes soaked with what looks but does not smell or feel like blood?

-He is just pondering this quandary (is this whiskey? It smells like whiskey did he just crash through the roof of a bar?) when the door to the storeroom in which he’s landed slams open and in rushes a very unhappy looking Galahdian with a very large knife and braids in a style he doesn’t recognize. The Galahdian stares at him with wide, vaguely disbelieving eyes, Nox barely refrains from summoning a knife of his own (he’s not a threat, he’s a Galahdian twice-over now and Axis insists that means no Galahdian in their right mind will try to hurt him without due provocation).

-(He really hopes accidentally falling through the ceiling and ruining who knows how much whiskey/wine/whatever doesn’t count as due provocation.)

-Thankfully, all the stranger does is slowly sheath his knife and look both exasperated and amused, “Care to explain what just happened?” He says and something inside Nox … jolts.

-Nox swears he hears the low whispers of thunder and magic in the man’s voice, buried as it is under a veil of humanity and normalcy. But surely that’s his imagination.

-Nox pries himself free of the rubble and ruined alcohol, inwardly mourning his no-doubt ruined clothes (they’d been so comfy too) and the stranger looks sympathetic as Nox futilely tries to wring a bit of the alcohol out of his sleeves as he answers, “I have … honestly no idea.” Because weird as his life is, even he usually doesn’t take a step forward, trip and somehow go from inside the Citadel to somewhere in the … he’s going to assume he’s in the Galahdian district because this is a bar with a Galahdian worker (owner?). The last time he blinked and went from one place to somewhere drastically different had been-.

-Dissidia. The Hiso Hiso.

-Astrals please no.

-Nox looks up and can hear the slight beg in his voice as he says, “Please tell me I’m still in Insomnia during the reign of King Regis Lucis Caelum.”

-The stranger’s eyebrows go up almost to his hairline (which is a fair reaction to his question) but answers, “….Yes?”

-Oh good. Now to figure out if he was in his Insomnia or some kind of parallel dimension because at this point he’s not very optimistic on his odds.

-He opens his mouth to make his excuses and get out of there when the stranger cuts him off with a bemused, “Need a new shirt? You can borrow one of mine.”

-He blinks, narrows his eyes in instinctive suspicion, “Why would you help me?”

-“You’re a kid,” points out the amused man, “and a Galahdian.”

-Nox refrains from pointing out that he’s nineteen and technically married, because a new shirt sounds nice and this is the one day he didn’t pack a spare outfit in his armiger. The man takes him to a different room of the definitely-a-bar and produces a spare shirt (short-sleeved unfortunately but Nox will take what he can get) from somewhere, which Nox takes gratefully. His pants are still a mess, but at least he doesn’t smell so strongly of whiskey. He’s thanks the man (who introduces himself simply as Ace) profusely and offers to try to pay for the damages (not like he can’t afford it with a prince’s allowance). Ace turns him down with a shake of his head, reaches out to lightly touch Nox’s elbow (the man hasn’t commented on the scars the t-shirt reveals, Nox is grateful for that too).

-The moment they make contact, the world turns blue and violet. Nox can feel the other man’s magic, pulsing under his skin like the tooth-shaking rumble of thunder and the flicker of lightning in the far distance, taste the ozone on his tongue and feel the jungle rains Nyx speaks of so fondly. Ace’s magic feels like the jungle and the wilds and yet also like the soft snows that settle over a battlefield after the bodies have cooled and Nox’s gaze snaps around in astonishment. He can’t stop himself from reaching out with his own magic in greeting-curiosity-shock toward this- this other Lucis Caelum (sibling? Is he in his home dimension or another’s? Is this man his brother or someone who was never born in Nox’s world?).

-(To Ace, the teen he’s just touched suddenly seems to burn like a star barely captured in flesh, his eyes glow red and Ace can taste blood on his tongue, feel it drip down his chest from the gaping sword wound he knows isn’t there. He can feel the teen’s magic, like crushing ocean depths and the broken, too-deep hush of old ruins. He can feel ash caking his skin like being back in the rubble of his home village. In the back of his mind he recoils, because soul is magic and magic is soul and this teenager’s is a blood-stained, centuries old battlefield).

-They both stare at each other for what feels like too long and not enough before Ace jerks his hand away like he’s been burned (maybe he has, Nox’s magic is still too much for his skin sometimes, still lashes out when he’s too startled to stop it). Ace cradles his hand and curls his magic so tight into his soul Nox can barely feel it (wouldn’t feel it if he didn’t already know it was there). “Well,” Ace manages after several more seconds of mutual staring, “I wasn’t … expecting that.”

-Nox blinks twice, feels realization settle in his bones, “You don’t want anyone else to know.” He can feel it in the way Ace is hiding himself, see it in the wary glint of silver eyes. He understands perfectly. He hid from Regis too for as long as he could.

-Ace laughs a little breathlessly, “You don’t?”

-Nox isn’t given a chance to answer, because that’s right when Nyx and Axis finally figure out where he is and how to get there without jumping through the hole he left in the bar roof.

-He can hear Axis flinging open the door to the bar and Nox is instantly grateful that it’s empty of everyone but him and Ace because his Shield almost bellows through the empty building, “Nox. Izunia. Lucis. Caelum. Arra. Ulric.” Nox hunches his shoulders, hears Ace sputter beside him in confusion at the ridiculous number of last names Axis used.

-“In here, Axis.”

-Axis and Nyx poke their heads in the back and Ace’s sputtering gets louder, then quiets as Axis storms over and slaps Nox across the back of his head and snarls, “What did you just do?”

-“Fell through the roof of a bar and made a new friend,” Nox snarks back past the sting in the back of his head, “Axis, Nyx, this is Ace, Ace, this is my friend and my wife, Axis Arra and Nyx Ulric.”

-Ace definitely makes a strangled, confused noise, silver eyes wide before he takes a deep breath, exhales slowly, and announces, “I’m getting everyone a drink. Go sit at the bar.”

-Ten minutes later, the bar’s sign reads “closed”, Ace has gotten everyone drinks and served up some kind of Galahdian dish too spicy to be healthy (but one Nox loves anyway, this guy is a great cook), and they’ve all concluded that Nox straight up tripped into a parallel dimension and dragged Axis and Nyx along with him. Because Ace is certain that he knows Axis Arra and Nyx Ulric and they should know him (he also gives Nyx several looks that are a mix of horrified, confused, and extremely amused, which Nox doesn’t get at all).

-Apparently, Ace is the result of Regis and a Galahdian woman having a night, no, he has not told anyone else, and yes, he really would like that to stay a secret. Nox has no qualms with that, Axis just smacks Nox over the head again because parallel dimension and Nyx stares maybe too intently at Ace’s braids.

-Because apparently braid meanings and symbols are a bit different in this dimension. Or something. And it’s confusing Nyx to no end.

-“So,” Axis sighs finally once his temper has been settled, “what do we do now?”

-Nox shrugs, “Don’t get killed, don’t make trouble, and wait for either one of our Astrals to come fix it or for it to wear off on its own. These things never usually last long.”

-Axis, Nyx, and Ace all stare at him before Nyx sighs into her hands, “Nox. Babe. Love of my life. Tell me you did not just imply that this is a normal thing for you.”

-“Well- I wouldn’t say normal but….” Axis turns to look Ace straight in the eye, without a word, Ace passes over something much stronger than before. Nox feels vaguely insulted. He’s not that bad is he?

-It takes three days and one very annoyed Shiva (apparently the Astrals of this universe barring Ramuh are jerks?) for the “Trip” to wear off, during which Nox, Axis, and Nyx all lie low at Ace’s place. And by “laying low” what Nox really means is stay well away from the Citadel and any potential Dad Confusion and get gawked at by the various glaives that visit Ace’s bar. There’s no hiding that Axis is from another dimension, though Nox takes care not to go by Lucis Caelum or Izunia around them, just Ulric (which, of course, gets him stared at even more than being an LC, though not as much as his Nyx gets stared at, because Nyx is a guy here and apparently seeing a female Nyx is breaking everyone’s brain. The Libertus of this world just about has a heart attack when he comes in and sees two Nyx’s of opposite sexes staring each other down with trouble-making grins).

-(Nox was the only one who didn’t choke on his drink when his Nyx cheerfully announced to all and sundry that her counterpart was hot and clearly anyone would be lucky to land a date with him. Axis dryly pointed out that it still counted as narcissism if you complemented your counterpart, Nyx just laughed and flopped onto Nox’s legs like she was queen and he was her throne, which made the male Nyx stare and Ace crack up laughing).

-Eventually though, the Trip wears off and they find themselves back in the Citadel with an adventure to tell and a bunch of Very Panicked Adults who want to know how they disappeared for a week and why (and a list of names to check because Nyx might never have met an Ace in her childhood, but that didn’t mean one might not exist and Nox is nothing but thorough about his family).

Option Two: In Which Ace Has A Very Strange Week

-Ace has gotten used to the fact that life (the Astrals) like to mess with him. It’s just- it’s a thing. It’s a thing he hates but there it is.

-But he’s still not used to the entire world glitching out around him like a video game, tripping on air and then landing not in his apartment where he was standing five seconds ago but on the marble floors of-

-The Citadel.

-Great.

-Ace scrambles to his feet, hoping against hope he can sneak out before whatever trouble is coming next can find him, only to hear someone order him to hold still and explain his arrival, look up and see-

-Nyx?

-No wait. This was a woman. A woman who could have been Nyx’s twin, but a woman.

-W h a t ?

-The woman appears to be of similar opinion, eyeing him in confusion before glancing at the other person in the room, “Friend of yours, Nox?”

-Magic swells over him as Ace turns to look at the “Nox” person and he has maybe five seconds to register the inhumanly old gaze and the angry claws of magic sinking into his skin before his own magic reacts against his will, shoves outward in a flicker of violet and ghostly royal arms. It’s not, creepily enough, enough to shake off the foreign magic, but it is enough to startle the Lucis Caelum he doesn’t recognize into backing down. Red eyes turn blue and blink at him while Ace struggles not to swear a blue streak at revealing himself in the Citadel, then the strange Lucis Caelum says, “Oh. You’re not from around here. Let me guess, the world glitched out, or you tripped on thin air, or something happened and now you’re not where you were a few seconds ago?”

-Ace decides he both does and doesn’t want to know how this guy knows that and stiffly nods. The teen (Nox? He was pretty sure this guy’s name was Nox) nodded back, looking far to calm for the situation, and turns to the Nyx look-alike, “Come on then. He can slum at your place until we sort this out.”

-The woman raises her eyebrows in a miffed expression that Ace … knows (oh no. Oh no-no-no this better not be what he thinks this is, his life is not a sci-fi show and this better not be that one episode those kinds of stupid dramas always throw in-), “I’m sorry, when did we agree on that?”

-“The alternative is to stand here and get caught and then explain to my father that no, he doesn’t actually have yet another illegitimate son running around. What’s your preference?”

-They go to the woman’s apartment.

-It’s Nyx’s apartment.

-Same address and nicknacks and everything. Just … missing all traces of Selena or Ace himself. There’s only a few traces of Lib and some scattered objects that clearly represent someone, but Ace doesn’t know who (he has a nasty suspicion its the teen in charge of this escape, the one with long black hair and strong magic and several braids that look a lot like Arra and Ulric braids but … off somehow).

-In the safety of the apartment that is Nyx’s but not, Nox introduces himself, then introduces the woman as … Nyx Ulric.

-Ace maybe gets weird looks from them when he gives into the urge to swear. Because really? REALLY? This is his life now.

-Nox gives him a sympathetic look and a pat on the shoulder and promises to have Shiva sort things out (then shrugs off the stares Nyx and Ace give him at the casual implication that he can boss around an Astral or three). Nyx shrugs and says Ace is free to take the couch, but only if he tells her stories about his world, once Nox and Ace convince her that yes Ace is from another world.

-Naturally, because fate hates Ace, the Libertus of this world walks in on them in the middle of their plotting. Libertus is even more skeptical about a “Lucis Caelum from another world” but Ace has pictures of him and Nyx and Lib and those plus his braids (which are similar but also not to the Galahdian braids they are used to) is enough to sway him.

-It takes a week for Nox and apparently the rest of this dimension’s Astrals to sort everything out (Nox comes back to the apartment at one point snarling about wanting to kick dragon tail and roast fish innards, Ace can relate), during which Libertus and Fem!Nyx alternate between tiptoeing around him and pestering for information (Nyx goes … very, very quiet when Ace asks about her Selena. Ace doesn’t ask again, and is grateful when Nyx lets herself be distracted with pictures of her counterpart)

-(“I’m hot,” she announces smugly, “Lib you owe me twenty gil.” To which Lib sputters, because apparently that bet had been made five years ago when drunk and could not be expected to be valid because really what are the chances of running into an alternate dimension Lucis Caelum that knows a male Nyx? Fem!Nyx gets her money anyway with a mischievous grin that makes Ace ache a little inside).

-Nox, who is far more entertaining to be around than Ace expected another Lucis Caelum to be, finally gets things sorted out and arranged for his return. Ace shows up at his proper apartment a week after tripping into another world and is instantly mobbed by a frantic Lib, Nyx, and Selena who do not believe him about parallel worlds until Ace whips out the photos and phone recordings he got.

-(“Huh,” Nyx breaches the silence after they’ve all seen the video other!Libertus took for him of Fem!Nyx and Nox kicking each other around a training ground, “I’m hot.” Ace laughs, Lib just groans and slaps Nyx on the back of the head because that’s not the issue here, Nyx.)

[bubblelliot]

Here's my second character! I will also present their teammates a bit since the crew is much more like a family this time! (Might also add pics of the others in following posts and MAYBE of his animals too)

Særos Sandiel and The zookeepers

(This art is a picrew which I do not have the rights on, here is the link to it: https://picrew.me/image_maker/62745)

The name of the team mostly comes from a joke saying that "Mama Lyræ is our zookeeper and that we are the Zookeepers to a ton of pets. Also, Yarina can shapeshift into beasts sooooooo yeah.

Technicalities:

Særos is my very first character played in D&D. We actually started playing on the other game I talked about last time, but we switched to D&D. His character sheet is actually available on DND beyond, but I'm still gonna give details here.

Those are his attributes. (He actually got an additional point of charisma after I wrote this and was too lazy to take another screenshot sorry x) )

He is recorded as a high Elf, but is actually of two different bloodlines. He is VERY young for an elf, but his exact age is unknown (well yes but know, you'll see). He has 5 wizard and 2 cleric levels, making him currently level 7.

Equipment:

I am NOT gonna go through everything Særos has, cause that would be VERY long. He has a heavy armor, he has a staff of healing and a shortsword, but he mostly uses his magic. He also has, in his spellbook, a collection of dried flowers.

Familiars:

Særos has a TON of pets he acquired through the different quests the party went on. The first one is a frog named Lepiota he found wounded and saved. He then bought an old black cat he named Persephone (even if the cat is a male 😂). Finally, he also bought two ferrets (fluffy noodles ❤️❤️) which he named Elton and Freddy (this one was as a reference to one of our former player who really loves Elton John and Freddy Mercury). He loves them with all his heart and will absolutely kill anyone who tries to hurt his babies.

Allies:

Særos' main ally is, obviously, his twin, Edran. They are very similar, but Særos is usually pretty well kept with his short hair always brushed and his braids made every morning, whereas Edran is a bit shorter, more immature, usually pretty dirty with blood all over their clothes (which are poofy dressed he hides poison in 😂) and messy hair. There is also Lyræ. She is a paladin coming from far away lands. She is a human with elf ancestors and dragon blood. She has a wife and children and thus, she is pretty much the mom of the group. (The DM literally gave her two custom attacks she can use in RP: the flick of anger that gives 1pt of bludgeoning + 1pt of psychic damage and the disapproving look that gives 2pts of psychic damage everytime she does it + makes the target intimidated). Then, there is Finian, a human assassin. Finian and Særos are pretty neutral about each other, but Edran is in absolute admiration of him, so Særos is grateful that Finian doesn't just shatter his sibling's trust. The last member, who was actually someone that was rescued by the party, is Yarina. She is a very shy aasimar and is pretty much the definition of being pure EXCEPT she is obsessed with daggers (no joke, she has 23 of them). They were recently joined by a rogue elf called Adressin who actually attacked them at first.

Appearance:

This picrew is already pretty accurate. Særos (as well as Edran actually) has blond almost white hair, but it's actually fluffier than on the picture. He has two braids, one in front of each ear, a few freckles and red-pink eyes. He is very pale, quite small and very frail. He looks pretty androgynous and rather young, though he usually passes as a bit older since he is an elf.

Backstory and campaign:

So the campaign isn't really a big story like in Rhodrag's case, so I'll tell the party's story, but not the quests.

The twins' first memory is waking up in a bed, only knowing their name. They meet with the lovely wood elf lady who save them, and learn they were found in the sand by a nearby river. For that reason, they are given the last name "Sandiel".

They live a relatively normal life with her, for around 10 years, until they are attacked by drows. Their adopted mother successfully hides them by using magic and they learn they are wanted because they are part drow and part high-elf, meaning pretty much every every elven races will want to kill them. The woman successfully protects the twins. She is taken out of the house and, to this day, the twins don't know what happened of her, whether she was killed or taken.

They left and reached a nearby city. There, they survived by stealing and being street entertainers (for example, even if he has no rogue level, Særos is proefficient in stealth, sleight of hands, deception, etc. He also is proefficient in performance. He learned to sing, the art of divination and a bit of magic.)

One night though, Særos came back to their hiding place to find his sibling dead. All he could understand was that they died of both malnutrition and hypothermia.

Out of desperation, he tried every spell he knew, but nothing happened. He tried reanimation, but it had been to long. Out of despair, he prayed any god possible to help him, saying he couldn't live in this unfair world without Edran.

A god did answer. He is actually a god from the other game we started the campaign in before switching to DND.

He is called Nuodai the Trickster.

He offered a deal to Særos: he would bring back Edran and even guarantee him power and success, and in exchange, when Særos would be powerful enough, the Trickster would take his elven traits which hold part of his powers, as well as 200 years of his life. Out of desperation, Særos accepted.

He woke up the next morning. His sibling was by his side, clearly not dead, but not entirely alive. They were now a revived.

Things went on, Edran not knowing, and Særos eventually stopped thinking about the deal, only happy to have his twin back. They moved from the city, trying to reach a bigger one, and were, once again, attacked by drows. He used a spell to put his twin in safety and attacked the drows, but was, if course, neutralized.

He was taken and they made him a slave while they tried to capture Edran to kill them together.

Fast forward, Edran is taken into an underdark prison. He meets again with his brother and both if them are beaten up. They successfully defend though and they are thrown in a cell as it is decided they're are to be executed the next day. This is where they meet Lyræ and Finian.

They plan to escape as well as a few other NPCs. They are able to leave the cell and steal a bit of stuff while a vrock attacks the guards. They escape and reach a teleporter. There, Særos successfully brings everyone back to the surface. Newly free, they all start to look for a village. After properly introducing each others, they finally reach a tiny elf village. The twins stay as stealthy as possible but end up being noticed and attacked by guards. They then have a choice: they could be changed into simple would elves or they have to leave. Særos knows it's not gonna work on Edran, and bargains to be able to stay. At first, the headmaster threatens to kill him for that, but he ends up agreeing to let them in the city, guarded, until the night falls.

They then shop and leave the city.

They end up in a forrest Særos realizes is corrupted. There, they were attacked by a HUGE snake touched by the corruption. At first, everyone tries to kill it except Edran and quickly, Særos and Finian join them. Særos finally cuts the tip of it's tail where the corruption was and Edran and Finian calm it.

Lyræ is terrified of it and finally lets them all know that her best friend was killed by a giant snake who ate her alive. (This is freaking terrifying yo.)

In the end, a fight starts and Særos, enraged, leaves everyone and runs towards the center of the corruption. There he is attacked by corrupted elves and tree creatures we happily called Groots. Edran joins him and Særos basically rages (he used they most powerful spell he had and literally exploded them.

Edran, while attacking, starts gaining weird memories.

Fast forward to the end of the quest, Særos is happily searching for animals and flowers when he and Edran hear strange noises coming from a tree. Edran climbs it and a wood elf girl falls from the tree, before Edran jumps on her from the too of the tree.

The team introduced themselves to her and she happily talks to them. So yeah, that's how we met Nayhru.

The team reaches a weird village and after the whole snake incident, leaves the party for a while, promising to find them again soon and assuring she would always be closer than they think.

They reach the village which reveals to be a village of gnomes and there they meet with a gnome (who's player inspired the names of my furrets x) ) and a Goliath travelling together. They all find the village empty before being attacked by a troll and... Metal gnomes?

They kill them, uneager to die, and search the village. They find flowers in the middle of the village and Særos takes one for his collection. Særos and Edran are attacked by an ooze and at some point, the ooze attacks Edran just before being killed by Nayrhu. At that moment, Edran starts turning into a robot as well, with the corruption growing from their arm. Særos tries to cut off the arm, but us unable and the corruption takes Edran's whole body.

They leave the village and are able to find a Druid eager to help them make a cure for Edran and the gnomes, but he needs Elder sage. He describes it and Særos shows his flower to the Druid, who confirms it is Elder sage. They go back to the village to get flowers, cane back and turned Edran back into a flesh being.

And that's when they remembered dying and being brought back to life. Edran and Særos cried in each other's arms and then continued on.

They got in a cavern near the village from where the trolls always came. There, the found a girl, chained, with glowing wings. They freed her and she introduced herself as Yarina. (Fun fact: Yarina's player is my SO, and both Yarina and Særos have the spell suggestion, so when the crew found a the boss hiding something, we just made it run away. Nice. )

The team found a clockwork dragon and helped it. They then left again. Finian had to leave a couple times, and at some point, the team realized that, even if they are young, the twins were actually a lot older than they thought: They assumed Edran's death happened when they were around 13 and that it had been around 6 years, meaning Særos was actually around 19.

They were reunited with Lyræ and began other quests. In one of them, the team encountered a wishing fountain that filled any wish you had under certain conditions. Særos asked to know his whole story, from the lives of his parents up to now. The fountain gave him a magic book that tells his story and updates. It has no name so Særos just calls it The story book.

Some time passed and the team continued on. They were traveling to the capital until one night, Nayrhu and Edran caught a thief about to steal their stuff. They quickly stopped him and realized he was very young. Instead of kicking his butt, they woke up the whole team and decided together to bring him to the capital and help him make money to survive there. And that's how they met Adressin.

The zookeepers reached the capital where they are supposed to find Finian who joined outlaws he met in another quest.

Before finding Finian, they decided to do a few quests to earn money with Adressin.

Everyone through the day kept noticing Særos bring super bold, a lot bolder than he usually is, for example, telling Yarina who was wearing a magic dress that she looked "Incredibly beautiful" as if she was "made if pure light". No one really thought anything of it though and just shoved it away.

One night, they decided a drinking contest was a good idea and everyone joined except Adressin. The next morning, everyone was doing good, maybe a tad nauseous, except for Lyræ and Særos who were absolutely fucked up. They both used spells to heal their hangover, but Særos remained mildly unwell, choosing to go on their quest anyways.

Symptoms were the following:

-A headache that was mostly located to the top front of his head

-His low back itching and hurting a LOT

-His eyes feeling dry

No one really knew what was going on, some didn't even really notice.

As they went on with their first quest, they started noticing weird stuff about Særos' appearance: His hair looked more golden than white, as they used to, there were two bumps appearing on his forehead around the location of his headache, his eyes looked.... Weird...? But no one really saw anything peculiar, his skin, usually also white, now looked kinda pink.

He doesn't really notice the changes and doesn't understand what is happening which utterly FRIGHTENS him, but he hides it. Yarina started understanding what was happening and Edran out all the pieces together and now they know everything.

To be continued...

[jcmorrigan]

I agree with your Sora rant. It's like they were so busy shoving SoKai down our throats (not that I'm against Kairi but it seriously effected her character too) that the Sora we know got lost.

           You’re right, but there’s actually more to it than that. You know what? I’m gonna spell out my Sora rant here and give it the proper tags so I can get this opinion out there.

           The forced romance is perhaps the most offensive of the missteps, and I love both Sora and Kairi so much that it hurts to see how they got wrecked by it. I’ll touch upon how that affected Sora here, but trust me, its effect on Kairi was horrible in a completely different way. I think we all know how well that went. The thing is, I’m basically a SoRiku or bust type of person, but I’m also a ship-and-let-ship sort. Up until now, the KH series did a good job at building great friendships that had subtext all over, and people were allowed to choose without much argument. Did you want to ship SoKai? SoRiku? RokuShi? RokuNami? NamiShi? TerrAqua? Nothing’s stopping you! I just…don’t believe canon shipping belongs in Kingdom Hearts when it comes to characters who aren’t on the Disney side of the spectrum (obviously I wouldn’t want to remove the Aladdin/Jasmine or Ariel/Eric plots, which are not only important to the films’ integrity but also time-tested successes that mean things to those who grew up with those films).

           But let’s talk about Sora first and foremost, and I’m actually going to save the SoKai for last. Because there’s more to talk about here. I went back over cutscene comps from both III and DDD for a little experiment. I’m just going to describe things in text here, but trust me, the images speak for themselves if you want to look them up. I used DDD as my “control” for Sora as it was, before III, the latest Sora in time – the one who had developed most as a character. I have yet to test 1, CoM, or II against III, but they shouldn’t matter as much as DDD, as DDD features a Sora who’s grown through the characterization in all of those games. III should have built on DDD.

           Let’s go.

THE THEME OF FRIENDSHIP AND KINDNESS

           Sora in DDD is a firm believer in the power of friendship. No, seriously, he mentions it every five minutes to the point where it’s easily parodied. And, in fact, canon does so in an important way. The scene that stands out to me is his arrival in Traverse Town, where he meets Neku Sakuraba and immediately decides they’re friends. Neku scoffs, saying it’s impossible for them to be friends after a short time and telling Sora that he can’t trust every stranger he meets.

           Why this stands out to me is because it actually turns out to be a mistake on Neku’s part rather than a pointing out of a legitimate criticism of Sora. And given exactly what this criticism was about – namely, forming positive bonds and devoting yourself to caring about another person, with your best foot forward – I think this was actually a great little arc for Sora and Neku to go through. Neku turns out to be after his own agenda, willing to trick Sora in order to get it, though he regrets he has to do so. Sora forgives him once he knows that Neku just wanted to reunite with Shiki. After all, people do crazy things for their friends, and that’s okay. When Sora collides with Neku, he brings with him a concept Neku is unfamiliar with. Knowing Neku from original TWEWY canon, Neku’s core is about learning to come out of his shell of negativity and see the value in others and the world around him. Sora is hitting him with the extreme of this result – an ideal where every stranger is a friend you haven’t met yet, and kindness always pays off. This seems impossible for Neku, but by the end of that first Traverse Town visit, he learns that Sora was right to bring him this message. Neku is better off now for knowing someone who was willing to put that much trust in him and help him out with a seemingly impossible task, and now he can pass a little piece of that on to someone else.

           I think that’s a cool message for us to take into real life. It’s obviously not applicable in the literal sense. Not everyone’s gonna get along, and there are people out there who will have ethical divides we can’t bridge. But for that reason, it’s wonderful to have an escapist fantasy where every new person you meet brings new value to your life, and it’s nice to take just a little bit of that attitude into your life – why not think the best of new people?

           This theme continues throughout DDD. Sora declares himself friends with most of the people he meets, and Mickey is even the first to bring this up in Symphony of Sorcery, already feeling that they have a connection that will go places. Beyond that, Sora is always volunteering to assist. When Neku mentions he’s having trouble with the Reaper’s Game, Sora admits he doesn’t have any idea what Neku’s talking about, but he sees a problem and asks if he can help. This is how he approaches pretty much everyone in DDD. He sees people in trouble or people struggling emotionally and he offers a hand or a listening ear.

           Contrast his actions in Corona and you’ll find a stark difference. He barely invests in introducing himself to Rapunzel or Eugene, regarding them pleasantly enough but not really inviting them into his circle. It’s in fact Eugene that breaks the ice here, deciding the SDG trio is now his “sidekicks.”

           Where this feels offensive is when Sora contests this label on multiple occasions. I might be all right with this if it were a playful competition for who is labeled the brains of the operation, the way that II Sora would declare himself good enough to be king or decide he’s cut out for pirate life. However, it seems more like Sora is legitimately angry that Eugene decided not only to rope Sora into an unknown mission but also set him as the second banana. This couldn’t be more different from the Neku interaction in such a bizarre way. DDD Sora would protest a little at being sidekick, but say he’s happy to help anyway and that he’s glad to have met “Flynn.” (Sidenote: Eugene himself is wonderful during this scene, and Zachary Levi kills the delivery in such a way that you really do know he was hyped to be involved with this franchise. I think that kind of distracted me from seeing these problems at first.)

           Eugene goes on to explain that he’s bringing Rapunzel to see the floating lights because she really, really wants it to the point of it being her “dream.” He then says that he can be the guide through the forest if Sora, Donald, and Goofy take care of the Heartless. To this, Donald says that they are heroes, and Goofy backs them up that they’re Heartless experts. Sora offers nothing but a “Leave it to us.”

           There’s no mention of helping Rapunzel achieve her dream, or knowing what it’s like to have one. They’re not doing this out of kindness. They’re doing this because “We’re heroes.” Because it’s an obligation. Because it’s the “right thing” to do, and that’s what they always do. There’s no passion behind this commitment at all. Now, for Donald, I buy it. Donald has always been a Jerk With a Heart of Gold. It’s his charm. Goofy? A little more suspect. Goofy is all heart and sympathy with a clumsy exterior, but then again, there’s a lot of room for interpretation with him. Sora, though? Think back to Neku or later Rhyme. Sora should be jumping at the opportunity to help Rapunzel achieve her dream.

           Which brings us to the next and larger flaw…

INTERNAL VS. EXTERNAL FOCUS

           Sora’s character in DDD is almost fully focused on what’s going on around him. He arrives in Traverse Town to find the TWEWY cast there and suffering their own problems. So he jumps right into the fray to help out. Every move he makes is directed by what he needs to do in order to help them: find Rhyme, chase the black-coated man, trust Neku. He came here in the first place to unlock a Sleeping World, but that seems to Sora to be a secondary agenda to what’s going on with that world’s denizens.

           This keeps true with the other worlds he visits. Every time, he has a job: unlock the Keyhole. But he doesn’t gun right for that Keyhole. He instead immerses into what’s going on around him. Quasimodo was frightened away from the Feast of Fools, so let’s deal with that. Mickey is hypnotized in a dream, so let’s get a Sound Idea to defeat the Spellican and wake him up. Why are we after a Spellican, anyway? Because the people in a world we already visited need to beat it in order to complete the Reaper’s Game, which has ZERO to do with our quest. Sora almost never focuses on himself, but instead on the others around him.

           This is seen from the very beginning. When he and Riku meet with Yen Sid, Yen Sid points out that they need to earn Mastery. Two important things happen here. First of all, Sora does stick up for himself and claim he’s good enough – very confidently and sincerely. He knows he’s good enough for Mastery and has no question about it. Save this for later. Second, when it becomes clear that Riku has doubts, Sora’s focus shifts immediately. It’s no longer about “Why test me?” but about “My friend thinks he can’t pass, but I know he can, so I need to help both him and our teacher realize that.” And even though he immerses himself in the problems of so many others throughout DDD, not a single world passes without him bringing up how much he couldn’t do this without Riku and he believes in Riku. Sora’s heart encompasses everyone, but if you’re his friend, you get a SPECIAL place and you don’t get lost in the shuffle (and this game is actually what really put me on the SoRiku ship so hard).

           Now, let’s look at III. Sora’s quest begins because he has been stripped of his abilities, which is a must-have for any new game starring him so the player can level up in the process. It’s game design. But this has happened to Sora in three other games: CoM, II, and DDD. In all of those, not much focus is given to this device, and he just goes about learning his abilities as they come. However, this time, where it’s never happened before, Sora is suddenly fixated on how “weak” he is without his powers. His quest begins because he seeks to get stronger and achieve the Power of Waking. The story structure is awkward overall regarding the Power of Waking, as every interlude features Yen Sid reminding Sora of its importance and Sora acknowledging it without any real progress being made toward his learning it.

           When Sora arrives on Olympus with this in mind, the difference is horribly stark from the way he approaches Traverse Town in DDD. When he reunites with Hercules (which has considerably less sentiment than the similar scene in II), he doesn’t really talk about being gung-ho about saving Thebes from destruction. He kinda just points out that this is Hades’ doing and gets to work. With Neku, he talked sincerely about how he wanted to help. Here, again, it seems out of obligation: I’m a hero. It’s what I do.

           Moreover, there’s now so much focus on his lost power. He fixates on it. Asking Hercules about it in the middle of Thebes’ collapse is…not the worst of sins, but a little odd. The rest of this world, however, is scene after scene of Sora reacting to his loss of power rather than the destruction around him and the connections he can forge. A particularly telling scene is when Pete teases him about his lost power, and Sora is hurt. Another is where an original NPC is saved by Sora and taunts him about not being as good as Hercules, and Sora is offended. While this is relatable to the player audience, it doesn’t quite jive with the Sora who proclaimed he didn’t need Mastery because he knew he was good enough and who started three other games at square one without being bothered. This is also the first time since DDD we’ve had a plot where Sora’s conflict revolves around what’s going on inside himself rather than integrating into the environment around him.

           It’s not a bad thing to put characters through the paces with self-examination. However, Sora was fully self-actualized as of DDD. The writers actively and consciously set him a step back for III and undid his own development. This is potentially to make him seem more “dynamic” and “three-dimensional” when it really just doesn’t feel like Sora.

           This gets incredibly insulting when over the course of that one world alone, Sora learns pretty much every new ability needed for this game except the Power of Waking. So Pete’s insult really only stung for about an hour and then became moot.

           Corona also stands out to me because there, Sora doesn’t interact much with Rapunzel upon meeting her. What he does do is hang back with Donald and Goofy and talk about how he knows how she feels, being scared of the world…which he transitions into talking about how Donald and Goofy really helped him during his scary time. Notice what’s missing here? Any engagement of Rapunzel in this conversation and an attempt to bridge their gap by connecting over this shared experience. Sora has taken Rapunzel’s problem and used it to talk about his own instead. Why is this especially odd? Because the factor here being sympathized over is “fear of the outside world” and being confined until you get thrust into a bigger adventure. In DDD, Quasimodo embodied the same concept. Instead of making Quasimodo’s problem about himself, Sora took it upon himself to use his experience to inspire Quasimodo, encouraging him to step outside the cathedral walls and not give up on his dreams.

           As for his close friends, you will every now and then get a scene that compares something he sees to a memory of a friend – Elsa and Anna remind him of both Riku and Kairi. But he doesn’t talk about how they affect him at all. And in a game that both follows up on the Riku worship of DDD and is determined to shoehorn a Kairi romance into the ending sequence, both of these characters should be coming to Sora’s lips a lot more. He should be talking about how “You remind me of someone I know – I should introduce you!” or “You know you can count on your canon friend because Riku and Kairi helped me through these hard times.” Even using Donald and Goofy in that role would make more sense, but they seem more tacked on than anything.

SORA’S ENTHUSIASM

           Sora in DDD is awed by every new experience. Look no further than the first Traverse Town visit, yet again, where he first sees the new districts and cries out “Never been this way before! Ooh, what’s that?”. This is a town he spent a long time in over the course of KH1, and the prospect of finding a new street in a familiar place is magical to him.

           Compare Corona again. When he comes upon Rapunzel’s tower, he does remark, “Wow, a tower!”, but in a very deflated tone compared to his excitement over Traverse Town. And if Quinton Flynn’s delivery is anything to go by, this was the one game in years where the voice actors could finally have free reign without having to struggle to match lip movements. (Seriously, track Quinton’s voice acting performance over the course of the series. It’s a hilarious fluctuation between flawlessness in II and III and utter crashing and burning in every interquel.)

           More condemning, however, is his reaction to the kingdom of Corona itself. This comes from a personal place. Corona is one of my favorite Disney environments. I’ve always wished I could visit it because it’s designed so beautifully. When Sora beholds the island from afar, he says…nothing. It’s Rapunzel who remarks how she’s finally close to her dream, and she thanks Sora for getting her here. He still says nothing. This experience suddenly isn’t interesting to him at all.

           Sora’s silence is an interesting phenomenon. During DDD, he’s constantly self-narrating. He chats with other characters a lot. He even says some lines that are a little superfluous, indicating where he wants to go next and basically spelling out where the player should turn their attention by talking about what in the area is interesting. But that fits with his enthusiastic character.

           In III, he’s quieter. Obviously, giving him party members Donald and Goofy back means he has to divide his dialogue, but there’s a lot of space where they get more to say than he does. (Possibly a disagreement between Disney and Square over whose characters should have more screen time? Please take this theory with a grain of salt.) And then you have scenes like approaching Corona, where he just doesn’t say a word to Rapunzel. Not a “You’re welcome” or an “I’m glad we got you to your dream” or ANYTHING. It’s like he not only doesn’t care about seeing a new place, but doesn’t care about how much it means to his new friend. Which is heartbreaking compared to his previous behavior.

           Also, his smiles are less often and less sincere. A nervous smile he gives Frollo when trying not to get in trouble is happier and brighter than a legitimate smile he gives Eugene when promising to guide Rapunzel to Corona, and when Eugene says he “couldn’t have done it without my sidekicks,” Sora doesn’t even smile at him.

           One other thing to note – I actually did catch this as a little odd on my first III playthrough, but compounded with this, it now seems very suspect. The Monstropolis transformation is the first time Sora has found one of his own transformations ugly/frightening. In the past, he’s barely minded becoming a merman, a lion, a digital program…and, in the case of Halloween Town, which he visited twice, a literal monster. There’s no reason he should be more frightened of himself in Monstropolis than Halloween Town. Moreover, it implies he finds the monsters of Monstropolis creepier than anyone else he’s met – including the talking lions, the living skeleton, the Beast, the Disney anthros, the animate puppet, the merpeople, and the card soldiers. (You seriously think we’re not keeping track?)

THE FORCED ROMANCE PLOT

           Now, however, it’s time to talk about the largest nail in the Sora coffin: the last-minute SoKai plot.

           Like I said earlier, I wouldn’t have wanted any shipping plot here whatsoever. But let’s say it absolutely had to get done. Think back to KH1 or even II. In the first game, Kairi manifests as hallucinations for Sora, indicating that he thinks of her often. In II, he has flashbacks to her that are a little more involved and creative than just “Eugene hugging Rapunzel makes me think of Kairi’s face.” His reunion scenes with her in both feature actual conversations. And there’s also plenty of focus on Riku. Sora has two hands and two friends. Even if Kairi must be the love interest, Riku never gets the short end because of it. Sora will still cross the abyss to find him, sending Kairi home safe to the Destiny Islands so he can keep looking for a way to free Riku of his dark prison.

           In III, we’re strangely devoid of any reference to either of them besides short flashbacks. And since we’re focusing on Kairi, we’ll talk about her. Sora doesn’t even meet up with her between training sessions. She writes him letters she doesn’t send. They don’t even communicate until endgame triggers. Then, all of a sudden, she initiates the paopu. This is after having no communication for a LONG time, and we have no indication Sora had thought about her on his journey despite a few flashbacks. The paopu is supposed to unite your fates for life, and Sora just rushes right into it.

           This is where it should’ve really started to sink in that the SoKai romance was just a series of rushed death flags to get you sad when Kairi finally got slashed. Why they went with the Kairi “death” still escapes me, but if I had to guess, I’d say that ever since Aerith Gainsborough’s death made everyone flabbergasted, Square Enix has been trying to pull the same gambit in order to capture that lightning in a bottle. Take a look at Lunafreya Nox Fleuret for evidence that supports this theory.

           Every interaction Sora has with her from that point onward is far too hamfisted. When he tries to shield her from an incoming attack, it’s by hugging her. When in any and all other instances in the past, Sora would at least be savvy enough to leap in front of a person with Keyblade braced. (You can’t count on Goofy to do that for you all the time, bro.) When he flies with her through a void of little importance to get back to the Keyblade Graveyard, he tells her “I feel strong with you” even though they’ve fought together a total of once, and they both literally died in the attempt. Not even together. There is no reason for him to say he feels strong with her; we’ve never seen her make him strong. We’ve seen her appeal to his heart, listen to him, vow to protect him and be strong when he can’t, work to reunite him with Riku, sympathize with his goals, chat and laugh with him. There are so many other themes you could pick here and they went right for the one that makes the least sense but the most automatic association with romance in a “tell-don’t-show” space. Kairi “holding him together” in the Final World is a completely skippable fact for some reason, and also is not anything any mortal should be able to do by KH logic as of yet.

           Then, finally, he watches Kairi die, and it breaks him. And it sure broke the audience and got them talking, all right, but not about how great Aerith 3.0 was. (Note: still unconfirmed on that theory.) Sora’s a big old mess of angry tears, all right. And this directly leads to him exiting stage left at the end of the story because he has to find Kairi alone.

           So the romance was forced rather than fleshed in order to build up to a shocking scene, relying upon keywords to initiate clichés rather than showing any actual buildup of communication, teamwork, or trust. We can all see how this negatively affected Kairi; essays have already been composed. But how does this turn SORA for the worse?

           Well, for one, his sudden laser focus on Kairi makes him unable to really care for anyone else. Riku gets the worst of it. I absolutely hated how, after the first mass murder via Demon Tornado, Sora cried to Riku that “all” of his friends had died and he had no one left. We all know that scene was playing up Kairi. He was crying over Kairi. And in doing so, he happened to imply to Riku that Riku wasn’t valuable enough to be as missed as those lost. Sora lost them “all.” The fact that Riku is there doesn’t mean anything. He has no one left. He has Riku. Riku is no one. Later, when Kairi is lost out there, Sora eschews Riku’s help completely, which is probably to set the stage for whatever installment comes next. However, like the rest of the SoKai scenes, this is rushed, so much so that it sounds like Sora is just disregarding Riku’s counsel entirely and has decided to abandon him in favor of seeking Kairi. Not to mention everyone else in that scene.

           Then the fact that Sora gives in to proclaiming it’s love so fast gives me some bad vibes. Kairi hasn’t done much to engage with him on an emotional level as of recently. It almost seems shallow for him to accept the paopu under those circumstances – like he’s a teenage boy chasing a pretty girl rather than a friend acknowledging a friend as more than a friend. And that’s how it looks to me through the rest of the ending sequence. (If you know who my favorite DanganRonpa character is, you can see how I might be used to looking for the signs of this phenomenon.) Think of this in conjunction for how Sora has failed to be other-focused and instead looking to increase his own strength and confidence. Is he ready to give everything up to Kairi? Is he the kind of person who she could count on? He would’ve been in DDD. He also would’ve been the sort of person to balance this out with his friendship with Riku.

           The Sora I knew had some growing up to do, but by DDD, he’s self-actualized. He’s confident in his own abilities, even if he has to start from square one. Now his primary motivation is to help others with their problems, especially if those people are his close friends, for whom he is ride or die. Every new experience is magic to him. As of III, Sora now seems insecure, focused on himself, and distant from his friends, including the one he actually does “die” for. The worlds he visits and the friends he makes are means to an end, and hold less magic to him than before, even standing out as negatively bizarre in some cases. III’s Sora does not feel like the same person at all, and this groundwork was laid ingame long before he accepted Kairi’s paopu.