#aqua fam Parallels

[theirmadness]

blue's lore drop. 💙

do you make your bed? only if i'm leaving the house. i don't have a living room and i got rid of my desk and chair for more room so i unfortunately gotta hang out on my bed all the time. favourite number? twenty-four! job? unemployed for way too long lol. if you could go back to school, would you? given the fact i just graduated like, a year ago? nah. not for a while. can you parallel park? fam, i can't drive lmao. do you think aliens are real? for sure. can you drive a manual car? I CAN'T DRIVE. CRY. what's your guilty pleasure? comentary drama youtube videos, coke zero and cake pies. tiktok shop has fucking ruined me. tattoos? yes, a few, but i'm in the process of removing them all. favourite colour? it varies but my top 3 are yellow, pink and black. do you like puzzles? nah. i'm not a big brain girlie. just vibes and small thots. any phobias? not an actual phobia but if you show me videos of big spiders i will punch you, the screen and myself. it's just an involutnary reaction, idk fam lmao. i'm also Big Scared of the ocean or deep water. i ain't no aqua hoe. i'm a LAND mammal. if i can't see the bottom and prehistoric jurassic creatures are known to live there? it ain't for me. hallelujah. favourite childhood sport? volleyball. but i SUCKED at it. do you talk to yourself? out loud? not that often. but in my head? i be having podcasts up in this bitch. i have REBUTTALS ready, too.

TAGGED BY: stolen from the dash. ♡ TAGGING: @downs1de, @storyuntrue, @murderdeals, @worthyheir, @isles-of-man, @bloodymyhands, @bloodsalted, @qapsiel , @rejectory, @protectxthem, @hororicide, @backwaterscum, @cahroline and you. ♡

[aqua-bam]

Aqua Fam Parallels

The Good Ol' Orange and Green (or just orange in some cases)

(The family that clashes together stays together)

[invertedfate]

What are your thoughts on a Frisk/Lilac pairing? Are you opposed to the idea?

Frisk and Lilac iiiis an interesting case of being murky in terms of how I feel about it. I personally see them as a bit more sibling-like, but also there was an undeniable toxicity/codependency that was never quite resolved- honestly, they kinda wound up being a parallel to the way Chara and Asriel's dynamic pre-death, right down to Frisk pushing Lilac into a plan she was uncomfortable with and her getting hurt in the process.

So in my mind, them being romantic is shaky because when it's come to hashing out backstory details with them, it was always a case of like, "Are they basically found family type sibling dynamic, or is it a childhood besties/possible first crush scenario?" At this point, I lean the former, but since the comic only has so much in terms of content for them right now (that being Frisk's flashback, the two secret pages with Lilac, and recent stuff), I'm definitely not gonna scold or yell at anyone who thought the idea of them is cute. Y’all aren’t mind readers, and I don’t like the aggression that stuff can bring anyway.

I'd say it's iffy for me in the same way Charisk is uncomfortable for a lot of people in the fandom due to how many people prefer Frisk as part of the Dreemurr fam, whereas I personally feel like that should be taken on a work-by-work basis due to the existence of places to go and other in-game choices. Ftr, I totally get why folks feel this way, though in IF's case, Frisk and Chara did not form a sibling bond, and Frisk is going to end up staying with Papyrus, which certainly helps avoid some awkward shit (tho may not please everyone in that area). And despite me not going in with ships in mind, they ended up having a really cute dynamic that appealed to tons of my readers and got my neurodivergent brain goin' "this is now a cute, G-rated comfort thing. >:|" Only in the context of this AU- please, please don't ship Charisk in AUs that do have 'em as siblings. That's a big nope. D:

But also, I'm the kinda person who doesn't expect people to like all the things I do, and hell. My favorite Kingdom Hearts ship is Riku and Kairi. Antipode ships Ringabel from Bravely Default with Aqua completely on accident despite BD characters never being in the actual KH games, and Ven and Sora ended up with accidental chemistry there too. :P I'd be a huge hypocrite if I said people can only like the canon or accidentally shipteased stuff in Inverted Fate.

Frisk and Lilac just sits in a place where I just dunno, y'know? And I dunno how I should feel when for over two years, the specificity of their dynamic has been left kinda vague. Though I will say, if there is one IF Frisk ship outside of the usual suspects (e.g. Fr*ns and shit) that I'm really not comfortable with, iiit's Frisk and Asriel. Not keen on the idea of Frisk falling for someone who manipulated and traumatized them, plus the murkiness of Flowey's mental age. Like w/ Charisk, this applies specifically to IF- I'm not trying to attack it in other non-sibling contexts, even if it's not my thing.

But yeah. I just dunno when it comes to Frisk and Lilac. It probably doesn't help that the chapters where she interacts with Frisk aren't out yet, so there's a lot you guys have yet to see. Plus with Lilac being adopted into a whole different family, it's also just "what do we classify them as???" Does it count as inc*st vibes at that point? Genuine question here. :( Especially as a csa/inc*st survivor I don't wanna seem insensitive, y'know? I don’t like shipping adoptive siblings, and Ch*sriel is a big nope for me, and since Frisk and Lilac feel parallel to that in some respects, it’s just ???.

Also, apparently some people crackship IF Berdly and Frisk. And also Berdly and Lilac. This amuses me immensely.

[avionvadion]

I remember when the biggest plot twist was that close up of Xigbar’s eye in DDD with him being all,

And everyone in the fandom going, WHAAAAAT!???

(Adding cut for kh ux spoilers but like it’s been years since KH1/2/3, Days, CoM, BBS, DDD, Re:Coded, etc)

And then Xemnas was all, “yeah fam like we Nobodies grow our hearts back after a while, so I took those Nobodies in the original Org and sent them off to Castle Oblivion to be killed off since they weren’t worthy of being a vessel. Because they got them unnecessary emotions. Well, except Vexen. Vexen wasn’t supposed to die. But we’ll just kill his human self again anyway so he can go back to being a Nobody so we can have him science up some bodies for those of us who time travel” and we were all like HUUUUHHHHHH??? DEMYX WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!??? THEY DO HAVE HEARTS!??

Also just the gradual realization of any scene involving Xigbar.

Xigbar: “You aren’t half the hero/keyblade wielder the others were.”

Us: Nani??? Da fuq??? Who you talking about??? Ohhhh, 358/2 Days! He must be talking about Roxas and Xion? But wait- he shouldn’t remember Xion. I am more confusion.

HOLD UP SECRET ENDING IN KH 2- WHY IS ROXAS THERE??? Is that brunette Sora’s dad or Sora grown up!? He kinda looks like Xemnas and Ansem Seeker of Darkness with that hairstyle. Ooohh blueberry lady so pretty!!! They all have keyblades... and so does that evil old man!!! And the guy with a mask!

Okay BBS is finally out!!! Wait, “Ventus” not “Roxas”??? Confusion. “Terra” not “Sora”??? Well he might still be Sora’s dad. Maybe Ven is actually Sora’s dad??? Or maybe even a brother!! Aqua might be the mom if Terra is the dad. Oh hey look it’s the masked guy and the evil old man from the secret cutscene! Spock vs Luke Skywalker let’s go! Wait. Not Sora’s dad...???

Sora and Riku are both four and five years old in this... but then why does Ven look like Roxas?? No, wait- why does Roxas look like Ven? Xigbar is here!??? His human name is Braig!??? He works for evil old man!??? ZEXION IS A BABY NAMED IENZO AND IS A CONFIRMED DISNEY PRINCE!??? LEXAEUS AND XALDIN USED TO BE CASTLE GUARDS!??

Head... hurting... oh gods masked man is evil black haired Sora!!!! How did we not realize his voice actor was Haley Joel Osment!??? Gasp! TERRA GETS BODYSNATCHED!??? NO WONDER HE LOOKED LIKE XEMNAS AND NOT-ANSEM!!! Aqua nuuuuuu!!!!!! Baby girl!!! Wife!!!! Blueberry mom!!!

WAIT SO BABY SORA SAVED VEN IN THE START OF GAME AND VEN’S HEART HAS BEEN SLEEPING IN SORA EVER SINCE HE AND VANITAS DESTROYED EACH OTHER!??? TERRA PERFORMED THE KEYBLADE CEREMONY WITH RIKU WHICH LED TO THE. BEGINNING OF KH1??? WHEN XIGBAR SAID “OTHERS” HE MEANT TERRA, VEN, AND AQUA!???

Aw frick UX and KH3 here we go. Hold on. What. Wait. No. Stop. Nomura. NOMURA. What do you mean “Luxu”!???? How is he Luxu!???? LAURIAM AND ELRENA??? Marluxia used to have a baby sister!??? WHAT. So wait. When Xigbar said “others” he meant all the DANDELIONS AND FORTELLERS FROM CENTURIES PAST!????

(This is mostly a joke post I really love Kingdom Hearts actually, I’m just amused by how crazy this series has become and how the insanity is still going. We got freaking worldlines now, like hello parallel universes. Wait, you mean WE’RE the bad guy, Nomura???)

[minijenn]

Actually, while I’m looking at this old list of Keys plot ideas, I gotta say some of this early stuff i had planned out is waaaaaay different than what’s actually in Keys. Soooo allow me to indulge you all with some commentary on Beta Keys to the Kingdom, if you will (under the cut bc of potential Keys spoilers): 

Ok, so far so good, generally the same as what I’m sticking with in Keys, fun fact, the title “Keys to the Kingdom” didn’t originate until I came up with the idea of the 13 Keys. It’s original title was “Reconnect”

LOLOLOL Aquanort showing up in the very next chapter I’m boutta write would like to have a word with 2018 MiniJen

Ok, generally on the level (though the focus did sort of shift from the Heart Squad when I eventually came up with the whole Keys idea, but tbh Sora spends a lot more time in Keys trying to get those three out than he does in KH3, that’s for fucking sure) 

Love to see that each of these plot points were pretty early ones I came up with; We may not see a lot of Vanitas’ redemption arc until way later on in Keys but its something I had in mind since almost the very beginning

Ohohoho that last one is interesting, huh? Almost like I’m a sucker for parallels or something ;) 

Yeah this is pretty on the mark with what Keys’ second half is gonna look like imo 

Oof that second one tho, i mean its not like Kairi doesn’t wanna help Namine but this girl’s got a lot on her plate already with her runaway boyfriend XD 

Lol you can clearly tell that first one was concieved way before I fucking started planning the Beauty and the Beast chapters XD 

Ooo and then i wrote a few preliminary notes for some of the Disney worlds so let’s take a look at those, starting with Beauty and the Beast: 

RIP in pieces the idea of Gaston and Maleficent working together, i don’t even know what I was thinking with that XD 

Kinda went soft on that  theme of “what makes a monster” in the actual chapters, but its there if you squint I suppose. Also “should fall relatively early into story” lol ok fam (proceeds to put it almost halfway through the story)

Then we go onto the notes for the Moana chapters and yeah this is all pretty on the mark tbh not much to say here: 

Then we get to my Tangled notes and WOW what a huge difference we have here: 

First of all, set during the series, how fucking interesting. Second of all, I guess I just forgot to include Cassandra in that list??? Third of all, Xehanort why you keep recruiting fucking twinks to your evil bidding????

Not gonna lie tho, Sora bonding with Varian would have been sweet and pure 

And ah boy some pretty somewhat spoilery Gravity Falls world notes: 

First of all, I’m still very keen on the idea of Sora basically just adopting the Mystery Twins bc they’re pure and innocent ahaha; second of all, lol Bill working with Xehanort? Fuck no to that, what was I thinking XD  Bill is an agent of his own chaos, that fucking triangle flies solo (but will still 100% manipulate my poor son, he just gotta do it, whether its in UF or in Keys) 

Then I also made a list of things to keep from KH3 and things I wanted to change so for funsies lets look at stuff I wanted to keep:

Yep yep these are pretty much on the mark, yep (especially that Sora sass XD) 

LOLOL RIP IN PIECES THE DEMYX AND VEXEN REDEMPTION ARCS WHOOPS NOT IN MY KEYS XD

Speaking of stuff not making it in, here are things i planned on changing: 

Several things here: 1. I guess i didn’t focus on Riku and Mickey’s search for Aqua that much after all (didn’t want the story to be bloated, it already has so much going on in it); 2. Following the plots of Tangled and Frozen, yes, but what I failed to put in there, is allowing the KH characters to be more involved in those plots which is what KH3 should have done

loloolollololo its almost like you can tell I’m salty about how KH3 ended or something???? idk hahaah salty about plenty of other things in KH3 too, I fucking went off here

Again its almost like I’m salty about certain things in KH3 like no Destiny Trio interactions or Kairi’s arc being fucking botched and wanted to fix shit in Keys whoops XD 

And finally we have stuff I wanted to take out of Keys from KH3 entirely: 

Lol I’m lying about that last one aohohohohohohohohohohohhohohohoho

Several things here but most importantly, was there really ever a point that I considered killing Kairi off in Keys? Because if so I’m a fucking moron. Same with considering giving Xehanort any kind of redemption, that old fuckhead is gonna fucking die the death he deserves in Keys. Also not really including any replica stuff at all; But RIP in pieces Re:Coded and Verum Rex, ya won’t be missed, at least not by me 

[wildbootsappeared]

Continental Divides Chapter Discussion #0: Humble Origins/Editing and Rewriting

I recently enjoyed hearing Negrek talk about the behind-the-scenes of the most recent chapter of Salvage and was inspired: I figure some of you might be interested in hearing some of that type of thing for Divides, too. CD touches on some pretty complicated subjects (historical events and politics and glazed-over-science) that are worth teasing apart a little more. So I’m going to start slowly adding in some chapter reflection posts! Keep in mind that these will probably be full of spoilers, and you’ll want to get caught up before you read em. 

If you want to hear me talk about something specific, feel free to shoot me a question.

(By the way, if you’re not reading Salvage yet—fam, get on my level. I’d describe it as a black humor odd-couple tale of … friendship??? Hm, that’s definitely not the right word, is it? Anyway! Featuring: an absolute goblin of a pokemorph, dismemberment, corruption, and Very Good Decisions. And lovely prose, by the way.)

With that, let’s get into it!

(CD spoilers below!)

Art by Giulia Bernardelli 

From Humble Origins

I’ve mentioned before that Mark and Natalie were my first original characters. They were side characters in my first ever fic from … god, 2003 or 2004-ish? So in many ways, they’ve grown up with me.

I learned about fanfic shortly after Ruby and Sapphire came out in the US, so of course baby OSJ had to try her hand at a Hoenn journey fic. I’m really sad that I don’t have a copy of the original text anymore because it was hilariously bad. You see, Brendan and May had to run away from home (instead of just … journeying like every other trainer?) because they were IN LOVE (after, like, a day and a half at most) but their parents WOULDN’T LET THEM BE TOGETHER. The story featured dazzling moments of creative genius like … Brendan and May “sneaking” into Rustboro at the wee hour of 10 am, whereupon May ran into a lamp post somehow. 

Later, Mark and Natalie appear to yell at our poor heroes and then at each other. Lots of yelling. In their first inception, Mark and Nat were basically discount Jesse and James but with less dress-up and queer subtext. Mark had a glorious moment of running while dragging his feet (?). Also, during a double battle against Brendan and May, I forgot about his zubat, so it fainted because “it was tired from flying,” despite having no feet and despite taking zero hits during the fight. Then Mark took shelter from the rain under a tree, where Natalie yelled at him some more and decided for both of them that they had to team up “temporarily” to get the red and blue orbs back from those meddling kids or something. I had grand plans for this whole plot where Natalie would kidnap May to get the orbs, but then May would end up in Magma’s hands (like a human hot potato), and Brendan would have to rescue her??? Something, something, Mark and Natalie see the error of their ways and team up to help Brendan and May … do stuff?

Anyway, I never finished it, and that’s definitely for the best.

I did revisit Mark and Natalie a few years later, though, this time for a story of their own called Out of Hand. I didn’t finish that one either, but I do have the original text this time (plus snarky comments and a “review” from me ten years after the fact). I can’t honestly tell you it was … good. Maybe good-for-a-highschooler. But! When I stumbled upon it again in 2018, there was enough in it that almost worked that I started to think about how I’d handle those themes and characters as an adult.

A lot has changed since then, but that 2010 draft of Out of Hand established some of the skeleton of Continental Divides. For example, that was when Archie became Natalie’s brother to help explain how she got involved in Aqua. I decided to keep that structure because it was a good way to let Natalie start as a neutral party/reader proxy and then quickly become embroiled in the conflict. It was also the first time Mark’s sister appeared, though I don’t think I’d decided what to do with her at the time except to use her as decorations in his angsty dreams, haha. His smoking habit also started in 2010. I, too, thought he’d quit “years ago,” in literal real time. Jokes on me—it turned out to be a useful way to signal the start of him losing control, the negative influence of Cora/Magma in his life, his hypocrisy, and his guilty feelings about things he’s burned. Scarlet appeared for the first time in this draft, too. I think I was equal parts trying to humanize Archie and to write my way through feelings about growing apart from/pining for someone. Her backstory took up a disproportionate number of pages in the old draft, but I liked the idea of keeping her around as a figure who could complicate Natalie’s relationship with Aqua and with Archie. The 2010 has  a couple fights between Mark and Natalie that I respect for bringing real danger to the protagonists ... but also can’t help laughing at. They literally fight until they tumble over a waterfall, like a cartoon. Silly as those scenes are, you can also see how they laid a foundation for scenes like the fight in Chapter 9.

CD is basically me responding to Out of Hand with, “I see you and I raise you.” 

2010-OSJ had some vague feelings about inequality and environmentalism, but none of it was very well thought-out. She mostly wanted to tell an enemies-to-lovers story, in part because she thought she was living in one IRL. Nowadays, I’ve got a lot of feelings about climate change, political divisions, activism and responsibility, corporations, policing, and whether or not violence is a good answer to certain kinds of questions. Hoenn is a safe space to explore those feelings. (It’s got pokemon, so it’s inherently more fun, right???) 

Kyogre and Groudon are such obvious parallels to sea level rise/more intense storms and rising temperatures/wildfires respectively that I couldn’t resist. And in Magma/Aqua I see a lot of parallels to political conflicts happening in the US right now. The far left and the far right don’t share a vision of what a “better world” would look like, but they do share a mutual mistrust of “the swamp” and all the ways the government tag-teams with corporations to dunk on ordinary people. I’d love to believe that someday we could team up across the aisle to fight corruption together. It’s certainly hard to imagine how we could get to a better world with one half of the country pitted against each other … Something has got to give eventually, probably not peacefully. 

My versions of Magma and Aqua aren’t exact parallels to the US political left and right—both are pretty left-leaning, for one—but I still find a lot of hope in the idea of two enemies from rival factions learning to (eventually) care for one another and work together towards common goals. At the very least, it’s something I can manifest and control on the page, and that makes me feel better about all the things I can’t control.

Editing and Rewriting

My first attempt at Continental Divides was inarguably an improvement on earlier versions of Mark and Natalie … but it still took quite a bit of rewriting to get to the draft that’s available to read now. The first draft in 2018 opened with what’s now Chapter 3, the protest in Rustboro. I had the right idea with “starting at the beginning,” but starting with an action scene was the wrong move: we didn’t know enough about Natalie to care when she was in trouble or to understand why she was making any of those choices. Moreover, even though the political content is important, this is ultimately still an enemies-to-lovers story: the beginning needed to center Mark and Natalie’s relationship. You know, to establish some interest before it all implodes. The next attempt ran a little long, though, and the current version condenses their initial meeting and Nat’s backstory much better. Maybe the next time I start a new project I’ll have an easier time knowing what makes a good starting point, but this time there was a lot of swinging back and forth to find a balance.

If you’re interested in seeing how my first chapter changed over time, you can see that here.

I’m really happy to have a first chapter I know is a solid representation of the subject matter, tone, and writing level of the later chapters. Getting stuck in an editing loop is a real danger … but if you’re ever going to edit part of your fic, let it be the first chapter. A good first chapter is critical to keeping potential readers onboard. I can tell from feedback that I’ve stuck the landing now.

Hope you enjoyed this not-so-little reflection on the origins of this story!

Some music (Spotify links):

Night of the Long Knives - Everything Everything

MMMMHMMMMM - Four Fists

[ice-cream-beat]

parallels: KH2 BBS secret ending vs 0.2BBS opening     ↳ Aqua casting barrier to protect her precious fam

[aqua-bam]

Aqua Fam Parallels

Arthur and his daughters