#he meets the full twilight town trio for the first time

[yzafre]

Okay, wait. I have. A LOT to say about this particular day.

Because this wasn't immediate! He didn't immediately jump to ice cream. He went and talked to Axel and Xion first and that progression of events is Very Interesting, for what it says about each of the characters.

First he goes to Axel, because he doesn't understand what a vacation is. Roxas has never had a day that wasn't planned for him. The idea of... coming up with your own wishes, your own wants, it's not something he's really been... allowed.

(Except ice cream. Except time with his friends. We'll get back to that.)

Axel, when Roxas asks, says he's going to sleep. Which is. Very fitting, on a number of levels.

Firstly, though I'm not sure exactly how old Axel is (they treat them all like semi-peers with a mentoring relationship, but also he might be 25? Kingdom Hearts does not play well with linear time). Regardless, anyone in the span of ages he might be would absolutely respond like that. A day off? Hell yeah, I'm going to sleep in! He's the only one who remembers what it's like to be human, and he responds in a manner fitting of that.

On a deeper level, though... like, I've seen jokes about Axel disassociating (that one RegularPat clip), but he does kind of like to... avoid things! In Roxas's words, he "doesn't like things to be complicated". And, well. A lot of people will use sleep as a sort of... "off" button for life.

Roxas gets left behind so Axel can continue to avoid his problems, so he goes to Xion.

Xion, while also a bit baffled by the concept of a vacation, has already decided what she wants. She's going to spend her day practicing with the Keyblade, and invites Roxas to join her.

When given free time, Xion keeps fighting. And there are... so many levels to that!

See, she's already lost and re-gained her Keyblade, at this point. She's had to stare straight into the face of the fact that, to the Organization, she's disposable. She was literally one day off from getting discovered.

Xion struggles with her identity and value in a way Roxas doesn't - not yet, and even then, I think for him it comes from a different direction. So, practicing with the Keyblade, being good at it, means she has Value, and by having value she is Safe. To an extent.

Also, uh. She's naturally just a bit more... aggressive? Violent? Cut-throat? None of those are quite the right words, but she has sharper edges then Roxas. She's quicker to use threats and fighting as a solution to her problem or outlet for her feelings (see: pulling her Keyblade on Roxas later in the game when he tries to bring her home. Baiting Roxas into a fight so he'll destroy her. When she doesn't want to hurt Axel in kh3, and Sora gets in the way and she goes "oh! Someone I won't feel bad swinging wildly at!" and goes ham).

So yes, she has some extra time, and she's going to get better at fighting, and at using the one tool that makes her Usefull. Valuable.

Roxas, notably... turns her down.

He turns down an invitation from his friend! Because, even though he doesn't know what he wants yet, he is able to realize what he doesn't want.

He doesn't want to fight. He doesn't want to practice with the Keyblade.

That's interesting. He obviously doesn't mind all combat, because he's seen to enjoy struggle tournaments in kh2, but in this context - he doesn't want it. So he walks away.

And THIS is the point we see the scene above. He's had time to sort of sit in his feelings, and now he's thinking about it again. What does he want?

And thus, we get all the conclusions storm-driver made above. All those deeper meanings, in someone who can't communicate them yet.

"He is barely 4 months old, and he knows EXACTLY what he wants," indeed.

we deserved a days remake 

[ask-healthy-light]

A Summary of Events

The trio in the Forest returned to town, where, after they parted ways with Zecora, the Bearded and Boom had a drink with Pinkie, Rockhoof, and Big Mac, not realising how strong the drink really was.

So, while Mac and Rockhoof returned the drunken Unicorns, who needed a long time to recover, in the Empire, Light visited Sunburst; a Wizard whom they hoped could help them contain the cursed letter.

The young Wizard reminded them of an old friend they lost ages ago: Spring Blossom. After they told others about her, Luna and Nox, despite knowing only a part of the story they told, wanted to help.

But when they entered the Spirit Realm to ask Grim for aid, he asked them instead; a dark force was present in the Realm, but what it was, or wherefore it tried to take over the Realm, they knew not.

The Reaper sent the two Princesses back, who called upon the Bearded and the Pillars for aid, while the three present Pillars, back in Ponyville, waited until the three other Pillars arrived in town.

After a hearty meal, the Pillars visited Sweet Apple Acres, where Boom reunited with Granny, before going to the train station to meet the three other Pillars, whereafter they returned to the Palace.

For many folks, fear and worry started to grow, so, when Light had brought Sunburst to bed, fainted after he saved them and Eclipse, they spent some time with Luna and Nox to reassure the Princesses.

Eventually, Starswirl sent word to the Empire, letting them know they were ready. All the Royals in the Castle gathered along with both Light and Sunburst, to discuss Starswirl's plan via the Mirror.

But as Boom was present in Ponyville Palace, for the first time in a long time, he saw Celestia and Luna, yet none could face the other, and he wept in Pinkie's embrace after returning to the bakery.

The plan was finalised, and everyone gathered again in the morning, and prepared; the Bearded asked Grim for help, who spoke through him, and brought everybody present into the Spirit Realm for help.

Swiftly, they realised some friends had unwillingly followed them thither…

Featuring: Boomlord from @thedumbguywithaheart43 Nox Lunarwing from @nox-lunarwing Solar Eclipse and Twilight Sparkle as Twilight Eclipse from @asktwilighteclipse

(Three-hundred-and-fifty! So close to a full year of writing and of this blog's existence! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you! Your interactions, messages, asks and requests, everything truly means a great deal to me! Here's to much more to come!)

(As always, if you would like a story about your character, the ask box is open, so feel free to send a request!)

Send an ask or request! | Start at the beginning!

[winter-spark]

So my Sora and Sakuya piece actually did what I consider really well, which got me all giddy and I had to share more KH a3! thoughts so here is a "little" post on how I think an A3! world would work in Kingdom Hearts.

If A3! appeared in Kingdom Hearts, the World would be called Actor's Paradise, I don't make the rules.

(It's not called Veludo Way because that's one of the locations they'd get to visit, and also Zafra wouldn't fit under that title)

Thinking about this with the thought that in another game they'd appear again the storylines used (sorry Summer and Autumn troupes) would either be Spring Year 1 first visit, Winter Year 1 second visit, or Winter Year 1 first visit, Winter Year 2 second visit.

Why these points in time?

Spring Year 1 is the introduction, I feel like Sora helping them handing out flyers and stuff and preparing for the first life-altering show would be nice, it could sorta have KH2 Twilight Town (minigames) vibes. It would give Sora a good chance to bond with a small amount of people and give Mankai a special place in Sora's heart. Plus then Sora would be invested in the act-off vs. God Troupe because he helped Mankai with their first high-stakes play.

I feel like the act-off vs. God Troupe is a good event to use because there's a lot of negativity in this arc like first off *vividly gestures to WInter Troupe* second off *vividly gestures to Reni and Haruto*. I think Heartless would love to be here. And I think after the act off Haruto almost gets eaten by a Boss Heartless, but don't worry he is saved.

As for Winter Year 2, my original first thought on if KH had an a3! world was it'd be called Actor's Paradise and Zafra would be visitable mainly for a specific event/scene like the Clock Tower in Neverland in KH(1). I figured that the best time for that would be Year 2 Winter because otherwise, it'd have to be an event story storyline. And I just really wanted to include Zafra.

But now I'm full-on imagining it, imagine it with me, the only two locations (that Sora could access in the trip to Zafra) would be the Zafra theater and like the off-limits hallway. And/or the front area, the front area makes a lot of sense. So I guess three areas unless the hallway is just used for cutscene purposes, which could be the case if we're going for clock tower vibes. The front area would have the save point.

The reason Sora doesn't go with Chikage and Itaru is because Heartless are already starting to attack and so he, (Donald, and Goofy) are asked to help protect the younger Spring Troupe members especially because they'll have a looming worry over all their heads making them prime bait, also Chikage has already proven to somehow hold his own against the Heartless. (And then ya know Itaru wasn't included in the Chikage count originally). I also think that Chikage wouldn't want Sora, Donald, and Goofy to accompany him because they don't exactly scream stealth mission, plus, I think if I recall KH lore correctly, having the Keyblade sorta makes you a target and I think that would be a problem for Chikage's mission.

Then, then, when the Chandiler falls and while/after the people are evacuated, Orange's subordinate who actively ignored orders to not kill Citron, turns into a Chandiler/Flame Heartless, aka the Boss Heartless here and Sora fights 'em adding to the destruction of the theater lol.

{Alt, alt. of the visit schedule Spring Year 1 first visit, Winter Year 2 second visit but then there would be no proper introduction to Winter Troupe lol. None of those leave a proper introduction to Chikage? That's fine, that's one person who will have some strange skills Sora Donald and Goofy, are both impressed by and a little scared of(Donald is either like "he's not that impressive" or "gee Sora why aren't you that impressive ( ͡º ͜ʖ ͡º )" there's no in-between I don't make the rules.) Like maybe him handling the Heartless is how he meets our trio? Maybe a temporary team-up and they're all heading to Mankai and it's like "surprise! we know the same people". & Chikage is just like "（＾∀＾）I haven't met a single normal person since joining Mankai so yea this checks" How does his discomfort(?) with animals play in? I dunno, who's Chikage?}

As I conclude this I want to also say that these events are picked out with Sora in mind. If this was Sea Salt, Summer or Autumn troupe probably would be a good group for them to meet(I'm really feeling Banri & Roxas meeting tbh but also I think they could very easily join the "we love Tenma and making fun of him is how we show it" train). For Keyblade Knights it's sorta debatable, I would love for Aqua to meet Citron and Winter Troupe, but a part of me feels like Terra should meet Autumn Troupe, and then I start to go that route because not only does Terra meeting like each of them but especially Juza and Omi just make sense, but Taichi should probably meet Ven(why? I dunno) but I think really Ven would like to hang out with Summer Troupe, like come on he'd have so much fun with them. Maybe if it were in BBS Aqua would get the Spring or Winter plotline, Ven the Summer one, and Terra the Autumn one lol. Oh, I think Riku and Autumn troupe too tbh. Or maybe Riku and Winter Troupe. I think Riku meeting Banri and Juza is, like, almost something, but I also think that his vibes are kinda Winter Troupe, ya know?

Anyway, Sora and Sakuya would get along so well, they'd be besties really and truly and Citron would adore Sora because Sora, like Sakuya, is a big sweetheart. Tsuzuru agrees with Donald on something at some point and is just like 'Wow, I just agreed with a talking magical duck. What's next?' but also wonders if he could write something lowkey inspired by this. Itaru is like a combination of 'lol' 'this is kinda weird' and 'so is Sora like the chosen one? Having a Keyblade seems cool but also that looks like a lot of physical hard work, good luck with that *draws a picture of if he had Keyblade* *actively making sure Tsuzuru's taking notes for when he hires him*'. And Masumi just wants them to stop being so loud because they are lowkey always yelling.

I'm not gonna do any other meetings because this is highkey lowkey about Sora Donald and Goofy meeting Spring Troupe. But in the back of our minds, we should all think about Aqua and Citron meeting and Aqua teaching him how to make wayfinders anyway.

Thank you for reading all the way through this long post and it's bad jokes. ^^

[violethowler]

False Start: Analyzing Kairi’s Arc After Melody of Memory

In October 2019, I did an analysis of Kairi’s character arc as of the end of Kingdom Hearts 3 and what I felt was being set up for her going forward.

My major point was that Kairi's fear of change was holding her back from reaching her full potential and catching up to Sora and Riku, but that by the end of Kingdom Hearts III she had overcome that fear and was ready to move forward. 

In hindsight, I jumped the gun in assuming that the end of KH3 marked the definitive point where she got over her change and could truly move forward. While she had some good moments in Re:Mind, Limit Cut promptly put her to sleep for an entire year, trying to search the memories in her heart for a clue to Sora's whereabouts. 

But then Melody of Memory happened. 

When Kairi faces the memory of Xehanort, she says in the original Japanese version that Sora and the others being hurt was the result of her strength not being enough. I'll save the rant about how the English localization consistently removes Kairi's moments of self-reflection throughout the series for another day, but my main point is that this sets the groundwork for her decision to remain behind while Riku goes to Quadratum. When she chose to increase her training under Aqua, I was thrilled because finally this was the sign I was looking for that Kairi was really, truly, ready to move forward. 

A lot of people were disappointed by this decision because they felt like Kairi needing more training was the whole point of her being brought to the Mysterious Tower at the end of Dream Drop Distance. But there are a few things that set this moment apart and explain why her training in Kingdom Hearts 3 did not amount to as much as fans were hoping. 

First, it's that this time Kairi is exerting her own agency and making the choice herself. Her training in Kingdom Hearts 3 was never something we saw her actively choose. So Kairi making that choice on-screen has more weight than Riku bringing her to the Mysterious Tower for training on Yen Sid's orders. 

Second, while the memory of Xehanort notes that she did improve in the brief time she was training, the way she was being trained wasn't suited to her style. The description we get of her training in Kingdom Hearts 3 mostly seems to amount to her and Lea sparring each other repeatedly - which is exactly how Sora and Riku developed their sword fighting skills growing up. And when you look at her battle stance and the way she holds her Keyblade in Kingdom Hearts 3 compared to how she held it in previous games, her stance is an exact copy of Sora's. It's no wonder then why she changed into Sora during the final boss fight in Melody of Memory then when she was clearly trying to imitate him. 

In the 2006 Characters Report Vol. 1 book, Tetsuya Nomura's comments about Kairi in the early games identify the fear of growing apart from Sora and Riku as a major source of anxiety for her. The fact that her training and combat stance in Kingdom Hearts 3 imitate Sora so heavily indicates that Kairi is trying to catch up to Sora and Riku by trying to be exactly like them in that area as much as possible. With how much the series has focused on personal identity with regards to Roxas and Xion being their own people, it makes sense why Kairi doing that failed her in Kingdom Hearts 3. Because Sora and Riku's style isn't suited for her. 

Because she isn't them. 

For Kairi to achieve her goal of catching up to Sora and Riku's level, she needs to step out of their shadow and figure out how to be herself instead of trying to be Sora. And the best way for her to understand herself will be to understand her past. 

The Xehanort that Kairi faces in Melody of Memory is explicitly identified as a construct of her heart. He tells her that the answers she seeks "lie in memories that are long gone," and tells her that there is nothing for her to find in her heart. However, that isn't really true with what previous games have established about how memories work in this universe. Chain of Memories establishes that memories are stored in the heart, and that while the connections between them can be rearranged, they are never gone for good. 

So while Kairi may not consciously remember her childhood before arriving on Destiny Islands, the memories are still there deep in her heart. All she needs is something or someone to help her restore the connections between them. To rebuild the links in her Chain of Memories, so to speak. Kingdom Hearts 3 and Melody of Memory both specifically call attention to Kairi's first meeting with Aqua in Birth by Sleep, as well as the fact that Kairi doesn't remember it. From a narrative standpoint, the series has set up that remembering that first meeting will help Kairi regain the rest of her memories from Radiant Garden. 

But remembering her past is not the only arc the story has set up to help Kairi understand herself better. Training with Aqua also puts her in a position to interact with another teen who has a heart of pure light.

Who was also in a coma for a time while his heart rested in Sora's body. 

It's not a coincidence that Union X first revealed the existence of the entity known as Darkness just a few months after KH3 revealed that being a Princess of Heart was a mantle that could be passed on rather than a permanent state of being. Then Re:Mind revealed that Darkness is still hiding within Ventus' heart in the present day. And following the release of Melody of Memory, the next Union X update revealed that Darkness had killed Streliztia because it saw her death as the best way to grant Ven's desire for strength. The ability for Princesses of Heart to pass on their powers serves as set up for Kairi to do the same, opening herself up to struggling with darkness in her heart for the very first time. 

Kairi wants to become stronger in order to stand alongside Sora and Riku. But she has not struggled with her negative emotions the way that Riku has or that the narrative framework sets up Sora will be in the near future. But her decision to train alongside Aqua puts her in a position that has the potential to force her to go through that struggle herself should Darkness try to grant her desire for strength in ways that she doesn't want. 

I know that I was wrong before about Kairi getting over her fear of change. But this time, I'm confident that Kairi's character arc is finally picking up momentum. What Melody of Memory has that previous games didn't is a clear sense of narrative direction. All Dream Drop Distance did was vaguely establish that she was going to start training. Kingdom Hearts 3 didn't give enough information to form concrete theories about the trajectory of her arc. 

But all the Kingdom Hearts content released in 2020 has set up foreshadowing for a very specific plotline in regards to Kairi's character growth. And not only that, Xehanort's monologue in the flashback to her childhood where he says "if you arrive in a world that is neither light nor darkness, but somewhere on the other side, your task will be far from easy" adds a significant connection between Kairi rediscovering her past and the mysteries of "unreality." Especially because Xehanort acting like it was actually possible for her to end up there instead of Destiny Islands raises the question of whether she truly went straight to Destiny Islands after Xehanort sent her off. 

Kairi's connection to "unreality" makes her the lynchpin of all the major story arcs being set up for the other characters while Sora and Riku are in Quadratum. The parallels between them foreshadow Ventus regaining his memories of the Age of Fairy Tales just as Kairi is set up to regain her memories of Radiant Garden. Ventus regaining his memories of the past logically connects the Birth by Sleep trio to Lauriam and Elrena through his role in Strelitzia's death, as well as to the Twilight Town crew considering that Subject X is heavily implied to be Skuld. Then of course there's Luxu, who is directly responsible for Subject X's disappearance, and the Foretellers, who are still with Luxu last we saw them.  

With Sora and Riku off in Quadratum with Yozora and the Master of Masters, Kairi is narratively set to step up and take charge in dealing with the major unresolved plotlines from Union X and KH3 that need dealing with. By the time Sora and Riku finally make it back, she'll be a whole lot closer to their level.

TL;DR: I was too hasty in 2019 when I declared that Kairi had gotten over hear fear of change. I only had nebulous ideas of what would come next. But now I can pick out all the subtle foreshadowing that illuminates a concrete path forward, and I'm confident that now she's finally on the right track.

[chibi-mushroom]

Hey everyone! Here is day three! The story is based on a show on youtube called Monstrum, I highly suggest it. There will be a picture to go along with it when I get home from work. I figured with her wearing all white and him wearing all black, it would be cute.

*************

Today was the day.  Riku had promised that he would take her to other worlds outside their own, and he intended to do it. Sora was safe and at home now, spending his days on the sands of the Destiny Islands with Kairi. However, life had other plans for Riku. He had decided to follow in Aqua’s footsteps and become a full-time keyblade master; protecting the worlds from any remaining darkness. He himself had learned that the darkness wasn’t the enemy they had always been told it was.

Not that he was never home anymore. His mother insisted that he be home as often as he could to visit. After they had lost him for so long, they weren’t intent on losing him again. His family had been so happy that he came home that they had forgiven him for plunging the world into darkness. Now they could ask Sora or Kairi for stories anytime they wanted to hear what kind of adventures their son was getting into.  They also begged him to bring Namine home. She lived with the Wayfinder trio in the Land of Departure and kept it while they were away on patrols.

There she was in the courtyard of her new home when he arrived to pick her up. She wore clothes much different now than that she could wear something other than that white slip she had been created in. Now she had a blue plaid skirt and black v neck top that resembled the one he wore. Overtop was a long white jacket with blue plaid on the bottom and a mickey insignia in yellow on her arm. Her hair was tied up as well, which made it easier to keep out of her face while she was casting spells.

With a heavy blush, Riku accepted the soft peck on his cheek before he lead her into the gummi ship. It was such a new sensation to have her holding onto him and presenting him with varied kisses. He enjoyed and treasured each one, but was also glad that they were kept in private, when it was just the two of them and they didn’t need to worry what else anyone thought or said.

“So, where are we going?” Namine questioned as she buckled her seatbelt. Takeoff had been hard on her every other time she had gone through it, despite how much she wanted to sit with him.

“I was hoping you might have a world in mind. I’ll take you anywhere you’d like to go.”

Namine thought to herself for a moment. There were so many worlds in Sora’s memories and even more in the hearts of those tied to him. But one in particular had stuck out to her. She somehow knew the lore that went with the holiday; the spooks and the scares and the way the dead shambled back to life. It wasn’t her first choice of worlds, but the idea of going there with Riku by her side seemed  a little easier to bear than dealing with the brunt of it by herself.

“Can we check out Halloween Town?” 

“You want to go there?” Riku looked back at her.

“Yes. it might be a little scary, but Jack seemed really nice, and I want to experience the thrill of terror when I know I'm not in any danger. Terra always seemed to like it, so…”

Riku smiled. “Then Halloween town it is. I wonder what your form change will be?”

While neither said it, they were both thinking it.  She was likely going to be a witch of some sort. That was what most of the organization had called her as well as DiZ and even herself on occasions, though she was usually repeating the words of others. As for Riku, he could be anything. Sora had seemed to be a vampire of some kind, so maybe the keyblade master would be, too.

When the ship touched down, Namine giggled at the bubbly feeling that always accompanied their form changes to other worlds. As they walked out of the ship together, they took a long look to evaluate the other's change. 

Riku was wearing a dark suit and his usually tanned skin had paled to being much lighter than she had ever seen it. She noticed very small fangs in his mouth as well as the fact that his hair had been mussed up. The biggest change though was the addition of bat wings that had grown out of him. It was fitting all things considered.

Her change though was quite a bit different. She reached up to where the brim of a witch's hat should have been only to find none. Her skin had turned a deathly white and her hair had even lost its color as well. She was wearing a long white dress that may have had a couple of rips, but for the most part was quite lovely.

"Are you supposed to be some kind of ghost?" Riku asked simply.

"No, I think I would be a little more...floaty? I don't feel like a ghost." Namine responded.

"That's the thing about form changes. You yourself haven't changed, just your outward appearance."

"Like you did in Twilight town." She spoke and gave a gasp, clapping her hands over her mouth. "Sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

"You never saw me like that. To you I was always Riku." He spoke softly.

Namine nodded and gently took one of his large hands in her two smaller ones. She squeezed them lovingly and caught his gaze. The past was the past and she told him so in those very words. He had moved so far forward from that time; there was no need to drag himself back, even if it had been partially her fault that he even thought about it.

He nodded back and turned to lead them into town. He faintly remembered parts of it when he had wandered through the memories in Castle Oblivion, but he had never gotten a chance to go there properly before now. For a moment he was worried they wouldn't have anything to light their way, as it was fairly dark around here in the forest. Thankfully the overly large full moon gave them plenty of light to see by.

Town was easy enough to find, and as they walked through the gates, they were greeted by a small ghostly dog with a little lit pumpkin on its nose. It gave a happy bark and flew close around them, causing a small breeze to ruffle their clothes and hair. Namine had wanted to pet it, but since it was a ghost, she settled for watching the way it observed them.

Coming behind the dog was an unusually tall skeleton in a dark suit and spider bow tie. He looked at them, sizing them up with a smirk on his face. Both recognized him as Jack, the pumpkin king, even though he had never actually met either of them.

"Welcome to Halloween town. And who might you two be?" He bent over to get a better look at them.

"I'm Riku and this is Namine. We're friends of Sora's." 

At the mention of the boy's name, Jack's face lit up. "So you found him after all. Good for you. Tell him to stop by sometime if he wants a good scream. I'm Jack, by the way. I help make each Halloween more scary than the last."

"Will do. And nice to meet you, jack." Riku replied. "So, is there anything to do around here?"

"Sure! Lots. Why don't you and your banshee friend head over to Curly hill? It's just down the way, you can't miss it."

A banshee. So that was what Namine had transformed into. As they waved goodbye, something was tugging at the back of Riku's mind. He had heard about banshees from his time on the island. They were monsters with a horrible voice and came to attack from out of nowhere. Maybe the form changes really were random, because that wasn't anything like her. She was usually soft spoken and thoughtful of others.

She must have been thinking about it too, because the look on her face was deep in thought, and perhaps a little troubled. As they walked, he took her hand in his and squeezed it gently. That was enough to bring her out of her thoughts, as she forced a smile at Riku.

"Are you bothered by the form change?" He asked.

"I don't know. I know about the stories you, Sora and Kairi would tell whenever you went camping, but it's like what we said earlier, appearance doesn't equal the heart, right?"

"Yeah, but you should also be comfortable in your own skin. Maybe we could try another world?'

"No, I want to see Curly hill for myself. I've seen it in memory, but this will be different."

They continued to walk, leaves crunching under their feet and a faraway howl rising in the air. Despite what she had said, her brows were still knit close together and she made a face similar to what Kairi did when she was frustrated.

There was a thin gate to their right and it led into a pathway in line with their final destination. Far ahead of them was the iconic hill that they were looking for, the swirl high in the moonlight. As they got closer, they noticed someone walking among the tombstones and pumpkins. She was moving at a leisurely pace, humming softly to herself.

"Oh, that's Sally." Namine smiled. She had always liked the woman from what she had seen.

"Hello there, and who might you be?" Sally asked.

"I'm Namine and this is Riku. It's nice to meet you."

"Yes, I suppose it is. Have I met you before? There's something about you that seems familiar."

Namine shook her head. She must have sensed the small amount of Sora that had been imbued in her upon her creation. Sally really must have been able to sense things others couldn't necessarily see. 

"Oh, where are my manners? My name is Sally. It's not often we get a banshee around here. Not to say your vampire friend isn't welcome, but banshees are just a sign of good luck."

Riku and Namine looked at each other in slight confusion. They had never heard that version of the story. It had always been death and destruction. Where did the good luck come from?

"Banshees are good luck because they usually arrive to let members of their family know that death is coming so they have a chance to prepare. Which family are you connected to?"

"I'm not sure." Namine admitted. 

"That's alright." Sally smiled warmly in the cool moonlight.

From the gate came the same ghostly dog who had greeted them when they entered the town. He zoomed around Riku and Namine before licking Sally and barking at her. The woman bent down and patted the ghost dog on the head before watching him fly off towards the town.

"It looks like doctor Finkelstein needs me for something. I hope you two enjoy your stay!"

With Sally gone, Riku suggyest they head up the hill to get a better view of the area nearby. They sat together for a while, listening to the wind sighing and a small band of vampires playing in the distance. He could tell she was  deep in thought again, but this time, she wasn't nearly as frustrated. A contemplative look filled her face. 

"Munny for your thoughts?" Riku asked.

"Just thinking about what Sally said. I guess I just got so used to being referred to as a witch that I didn't think there could be any good in monsters outside of this world. To me, a witch was just as much as a monster as any of them."

He listened as she continued.

"But I think….I think that hearing what Sally had to say about the banshees really made me wonder about who I'm going to be and what I'm going to do. They may have called me a witch, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily bad, right?"

"No, it isn't. After all, witch, banshee, nobody; those don't make up who you are. Only you can decide what you're going to be."

"Yeah. Maybe that's the real reason why my heart led us here today. That way I could figure this out." She caught his gaze. "Riku, thank you."

[nadziejastar]

The Meaning of the 358/2 Days Opening

Axel: Man, I miss the old times. Still got it memorized? The day we met, when you got your new name, you and I sat right here, just like this and watched the sunset.

This line of dialogue was from KH2FM+ and it was included in the opening of 358/2 Days. And ya know, it’s a little strange if you think about it. Why would Axel have chosen THAT specific day to reminisce about with Roxas? Sure, it was nostalgic for Axel because it’s the day they met. But…Roxas didn’t remember his first week at all. He didn’t speak or act consciously. Axel spoke as if that day was an important memory for both of them, but…it really wasn’t. It was only important to Axel. What is so special about the day they met?

This day was also included in the 358/2 Days opening.

Roxas received a purpose along with his new name.

This day was covered in a little more detail in the novel when Axel had a flashback on Day 8, while Roxas was opening the chest. And we saw a little bit of it during the credits of Re:CoM, too. Xemnas came to Twilight Town, found Axel, and asked him to get Roxas ready and take him back to the castle.

Axel had seen the trio out and about countless times, always talking and laughing. Roxas looked about the same age as them, actually. Each one held an ice cream bar—sea-salt flavor, pale blue, and distinctly salty-sweet. Axel was rather fond of it himself. Or rather, he remembered that he liked it.

Roxas noticed Hayner’s group while they were walking. They were all eating sea-salt ice cream.

“…Why don’t we get some ice cream first?” Axel started toward the shop in the town square. “Come on, Roxas! I’ll even give you an exclusive tour to a good hangout spot.”

But Roxas was still as a statue. “Ugh, seriously…?” Axel went back and clapped him on the shoulder.

After Roxas noticed Hayner’s group, Axel decided to take him out for ice cream. He remembered that he used to like it as a kid. Roxas was still acting like a zombie, though.

Axel ate sea-salt ice cream for what appeared to be the first time in a long while. Probably since he was a kid.

The scene with Saïx in KH3 was made to look extremely similar to that scene. It’s probably an indication that this day was significant to Axel due to his memories of eating ice cream with Isa.

He was reluctant to eat it and then recoiled at how salty it was. Roxas always thought Axel just loved sea-salt ice cream.

But apparently that wasn’t really the case, at least not anymore. I think the idea was that Axel ate sea-salt ice cream so often, not for the taste, but to relive his childhood.

“What’s that?” Lea ran up to check it out.

“Hullo, there, laddie. How about a cone?”

“I’m…guessing they aren’t free?” Lea asked, jamming a hand into his pocket.

Scrooge hopped up and yelled, “Of course not! Are ye daft?!”

“Okay, I’ll take one…no, two!”

“Thank ye kindly!”

Lea handed over some munny and took the two ice creams from Scrooge, one of which he gave to Isa.

When Axel first met Roxas, he probably recognized him as Ventus. The day Lea met Ventus was the very first time Lea and Isa ate sea-salt ice cream together, which might have made it a particularly memorable day. Axel might have been thinking about this day when he met Roxas.

“It’s cold…,” Isa muttered as he took a bite.

“What’re you talking about? It’s ice cream; of course it’s cold. Got it memorized?”

“Salty, too.”

“But sweet!” Lea added, and Isa smiled a bit. That was rare for him. Well, eating ice cream together, talking about silly stuff, laughing together—it was just what friends did.

Wonder what he’s doing now—Ven, was it?

“We’ll get another shot at it.”

“Yeah,” Isa replied, gazing at the castle they had failed to infiltrate. Lea grinned and looked up at it, too.

Lea was thinking that friendship was about eating ice cream, talking about stupid stuff, and laughing. That might be why he said those things to Roxas on Day 14. Meeting Ventus as a kid is probably why all sorts of childhood memories came flooding back to Axel after he went to Castle Oblivion. He began to change, and his relationship with Saïx started to fall apart. Roxas was the catalyst, because he looked like Ventus, someone Lea met as a kid. If Lea hadn’t met Ventus as a kid, that might not have happened. It was important that Roxas was not just any kid, but a kid who brought back memories for Axel.

“You’ve been memorizing the number of days?”

“I didn’t have any memories up until joining the Organization, and I was zoned out for the first few days, so I wanted to properly remember everything after that.”

Axel stared at him as if trying to figure something out and then grinned. “For about the first week, even your words were clumsy. Well, you still zone out all the time even now!”

“You’re terrible!”  Roxas said, and then the two of them laughed. Then, they looked out at the sunset.

After the opening song, the first scene from the game is Day 255.

The novel and manga make the connections between Day 8 and Day 255 more clear. Roxas specifically knew how many days it had been because he didn’t remember his first week. He wanted to remember everything after that to make up for it.

Axel’s face was dyed by the setting sun. His red hair looked even redder.

“Do you know why the sunset is red?” Axel looked at Roxas. “There are many colors that make up light, and out of all of them, red is the one that travels the furthest.”

Roxas laughed. “Why do you look so smug about it?” He shoved him, and Axel gave another little laugh.

There’s something weird about Axel today. I don’t really know what it is, though. But, that was fun too, and Roxas began to laugh out loud. It would be nice if Xion got here soon, though.

“Anyway, she’s late…,” murmured Roxas, unconsciously.

“I don’t think… Xion will come today,” said Axel.

After Roxas mentioned how he was a zombie for the first week, Axel stared at him like he was trying to figure something out. And in the cutscene, you can see Axel looked away like he was remembering something before he told Roxas about the red sunset.

“I could’ve done that blindfolded,” Roxas said with a shy grin.

That reaction was completely different from anything else until now.

A smile spread across Axel’s face, too, and it brought with it a strange sensation he couldn’t remember feeling before.

“Don’t get too full of yourself there. But you did good. Okay, since you worked really hard today, you get a reward,” said Axel, and he started walking.

On Day 8, Axel felt a strange sensation when Roxas surprised him by randomly boasting, but he couldn’t remember feeling that way before.

I think he finally remembered why that sensation felt so strange on Day 255.

The setting sun was sinking. Axel gazed vacantly out at it.

If you stare at the sunset, the image sticks on the back of your eyelids, and it feels like you can see the sunset, even with your eyes shut.

A phantom sunset.

The reason the sunset is red… who was it that told me that?

On Day 96, he was wondering who told him why sunsets were red while they were eating their ice cream. Then Roxas mentioned how he wanted things to last forever.

“Heh… You’ll just have to give some more thought to who it is that’s…most important to you. Our most precious memories lie so deep within our hearts that they’re out of reach. But I’m sure that you can find yours, Sora.”

“Why me?” Sora shifted from his fighting stance into a more thoughtful posture

While saying things to stir Sora up, Axel thought.

Nobodies are controlled by memories. And because they control us, we stop being able to remember. Maybe that has happened to me.

I think Axel had genuinely forgotten who told him about red sunsets. It was one of the sleeping memories buried so deep in his heart, it was out of reach. The cutscene in the opening may have been so significant because in that exact moment, Axel remembered that Isa was the one who told him. And he remembered the day it happened.

Axel: Man, I miss the old times. Still got it memorized? The day we met, when you got your new name, you and I sat right here, just like this and watched the sunset.

In the novel, Roxas nodded when Axel mentioned the day they met. But he only started remembering things on Day 7, when Xion first arrived. That’s the day the game starts. We play the game from Roxas’s perspective and there was no scene of them meeting for the first time. Roxas already was acquainted with Axel, though he was still hazy.

Xion: Wow. The sun's beautiful. I know we've seen a lot of sunsets, but today's puts them all to shame. If only things could stay like this forever...

In the manga, Roxas acted as if that day were something he could never forget, even though he wouldn’t have had any memory of it. Maybe he was just remembering what Axel told him. But Axel immediately started crying, leaving Roxas looking confused.

Day 352: What I Must Do

Author: Xion

I love Roxas and Axel. I'm sure Saïx would scoff at that. Call it a trick of my artificial memories. But the time I spent on that clock tower was real. I wish the three of us could stay together, just like this, forever. But I have to end this. I'll never forget today's sunset. Even if Roxas and Axel do, I won't forget.

I think all of this was a hint that the day Axel met Roxas was far more important to Axel than it was to Roxas, for very different reasons than Roxas would have thought they were. 

“I just…want these days to last forever,” Roxas murmured, slow and pensive. “Hanging out after the job’s done, eating ice cream, watching the sunset…”

Axel peered at his profile as he did just that. The sunset’s glow touched Roxas’s face and Xion’s with warm red.

“Well, nothing lasts forever,” Axel mumbled, looking off to the side again.

Axel was remembering the day Isa told him about the red sunset. He was so happy that day because Isa regained his sense of self after being experimented on. 

They sat side by side, eating their ice cream. The sunset was the same beautiful crimson as always.

“Axel, can I ask you something?” said Roxas, when he was about halfway through his bar.

“What’s up? Something happen?”

“It’s…just something I heard about on the mission today. Um…” Roxas screwed up his face in concentration. “Do you know what love is?”

Lea wanted that day to last forever. Axel hadn’t thought of any of these things in a very long time. It all began when he met Roxas, who reminded him of Ventus. That is why that day was so special to Axel.

“If I had a heart, you think I could love somebody?”

“Once Kingdom Hearts is complete, I bet you’ll be able to figure it out.” The magic words again, Axel thought. It’ll all make sense when Kingdom Hearts is complete. But was that true?

No one had ever seen it happen before. So who knew? Still, all they could do was believe in it. Pitiful Heartless, mindlessly collecting hearts…

“Kingdom Hearts, huh…?” Roxas said under his breath, gazing out at the sunset.

Axel watched his wistful profile and sighed silently.

The sunset looked especially beautiful that day because he was looking at it with someone he loved. In the manga, the chapter where Axel meets Roxas after disappearing is called “Reunion and Farewell”. Axel was also probably thinking about the last day Lea and Isa spent together, watching the sunset, before they promised to disappear together and meeting again in the next life. That’s why Axel was crying. When Saïx met Lea on the clock tower in KH3 and mentioned his upside-down tears, I’m pretty sure that specific day is what he was referring to.

[khtrashplatinumstars]

Ch. 9* ☆*~~~*☆

Location: Mysterious Tower, Twilight Town

“Still not any good at that.” She laughed, attempting to shake the pins and needles from her legs at the rough landing in the courtyard.

“Hey! What are you doing here!?”

She looked over her shoulder, standing full height, only one of the figures stood taller than herself. So many different Keyblades greeted her, connected to those before her. Her eyes connecting with two blue ones staring in shock before two Keyblades disappeared and the sound of racing feet against the lawn echoed her own.

Racing forward she held out her arms a laugh escaping her as she caught the two that ran to greet her, almost knocking her off her feet if she didn’t brace herself hard, instead, lifting them up with tears in her eyes.

“Aqua! Ven!”

“Lio!” They called back.

Lio held them tight, unable to get words out as she tried to figure it she wanted to cry or laugh at the fact she was able to actually hold them again.

“Oh, my stars you’re both okay!” Lio finally managed as she released her hug only to cup their faces. Unable to realize that she was indeed holding them. “Right? I’m so sorry! I should have been waiting for you.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Ventus replied as she wiped tears from his eyes, only to pull them in for another quick squeeze.

Aqua stepped back, glancing the taller woman up and down, “You look amazing.”

Lio let out a bark of a laugh, looking to her new attire of a white halter, black tights with splashes of gold throughout. Her hair no longer curled tight to her head, instead hung down to her mid-back, yet that familiar pink papou leaf held its post proudly.

“It’s so good to see you all are doing fine.” She smiled before her eyes turned to those still staring in confusion. “To see everyone.”

Still holding tight to Aqua and Ventus Lio made her way to the others surprising them all by knowing everyone’s name. standing just underneath Axel.

“And how do you know this Ms. Luminary?” Axel inquired, almost stating the woman in the eye considering the height they both had over the others.

“I had someone watching you all when I couldn’t, Lea.” She replied before adding with a huge smile, “Although I’m used to you being called Axel.”

This seemed to satisfy the other man, only to find the Luminary’s gaze on something away from the group. Following it to find that Olix was still standing back towards the stairs to Yen Sid’s office.

“Olix,” Lio called, watching the other woman jump in surprise at her name being called. “Are you just gonna stand over there?”

Sheepishly Olix moved over to the group, her head low looking up to the Luminary for the first time beyond her lashes.

“So you did all of this?” Lio inquired an eyebrow arched, appearing to look down in the other woman, “You left the castle, got involved in this entire thing, and found all of these wielders, all on your own?”

Sora jumped forward, “Wha...wait Olix…” The other was silenced at Riku‘s arm before him.

Before anyone realized Lio had wrapped both of her arms around Olix, hugging the smaller woman to her chest, letting out a loud laugh as she pulled Olix off her feet.

“Thank you! You did so much more than I asked of you.” Lio cheered, setting Olix down as she looked the other over, cupping the others face trying to find any signs of harm, only to smile when she didn’t. “And you’re hair it’s so cute! I love it!”

Olix blushed deeply looking down to her feet, “Thank you.” Her eyes turning to Lio finally able to meet the other's gaze. “But I wasn’t able to find the last one.”

Lio placed a hand on the woman’s shoulder, “You’ve already done so much for me, more than enough. That one will be a little harder to find.  It’s time for me to finally do my job as Luminary. I never meant to put so much on you.”

Lio glanced down as she felt a hand within her own, turning to find Aqua there.

“Is it…”

Lio placed a comforting hand on Aqua’s, “He was fractured the most. There so many pieces of him scattered and for so long. But we’ll find him.”

Aqua nodded in agreement, she, of course, trusted her Luminary, but the tremble in the other hand made her worry.

*

“There you are.” Aqua called stepping outside, “I should have known that you’d be out here.”

“Is that so?”

Aqua sat down beside Lio on the stairs, both gazing up, “You’d always go star gazing back at the castle.”

Lio let out a giggle, giving a slight shrug, “Really never thought of it. It’s just so nice to see them again.”

Aqua nodded as they both stared at the sky, only now finding that Ventus was beside them. The trio looking to the sky in silence, trying to find words to explain what each of them went through and to apologize for not relying on one another. Of apologies to faults not their own and how they’d make this right.

“...I guess now would be better late than never.”

Lio turned to the other, only to find a multi-colored star before her on a chain, “What’s this?” She inquired as she held out her hand allowing Aqua to place it in her hand, finding that there were five pieces that made up this star, one of blue, one of green, an orange, a pink and the top point white.

“It was supposed to be a welcome home gift, but with everything that happened I wasn’t able to give it to you.” Aqua explained.

“Aqua made one for all of us.” Ventus smiled holding up his own green one, while Aqua showed her own blue one.

Lio stared at theirs before looking back to the one in her hand, finding they the blue and green were the same as theirs, almost as if the pieces were taken from the others, “They’re amazing!, they match your tethers so well.”

Aqua leaned over, pointing towards the pink piece, “I tried matching it as close to your leaf as possible.”

Lio smiled down to the star within her hand, her thumb brushing over the orange piece above the pink piece. Only to find Aqua’s hand on her own, looking up to find tear-filled eyes greet her own tear-filled ones.

“We’ll get him back.”

Lio didn’t even attempt to stop her sobs as she felt Aqua reach out, pulling the Luminary close, resting Lio’s forehead against her shoulder. Feeling Ventus take her free hand holding it tight as she shuffled close to the two women leaning against the Luminary, only to fill her arm wrap around him.

The trio unaware that someone was watching them.

“Olix,”

The woman turned to find that Mickey, Donald and Goofy were approaching her. “Yes?”

“Have you seeing Aqua, Ventus and Lio?” Mickey asked.

“Master Yen Sid wants to go over plans.”

Olix glanced outside at the trio, before turning back to the three, finding they had followed her gaze, “Let’s give them a little more time. It’s been so long since they were last together.”

Olix had taken the time to pull Aqua and Ventus aside earlier, explaining that  Lio had watched all of them be stripped away from herself. The sleep that the Luminary was placed in did not stop her from remembering the others, but Lio never did get a proper chance to grieve. Not for her teacher that had betrayed her, not for the loss of Eraqus, and not for her Wielders.

“Please allow her this.”

*

The Luminary stood before Yen Sid taller and more alert, everyone ignoring the red eyes that were finally able to shed tears.

Lio called to the room, “It’s also welcoming to return to so many new wielders, as well as three new Keyblade Masters.”

“Yes, of course, I believe that you are up to speed thanks to Olix.” Yen Sid replied looking to the woman standing further back.

“Yes, and I would like to speak to you about Sora.” Olix stated looking to the young Keyblade Wielder. “Sora please come here.”

The brunette stepped from between Kairi and Riku moving to stand beside the Luminary, “Yeah…”

He expected to be scolded but instead found a hand on his shoulder.

“You have burdened so much, time and time again. I’m so sorry that I was not here to stop this unfair treatment.” Lio sighed softly, those pink eyes seeming to find a common ground, sincerely apologizing for the treatment of the other.

Her gaze suddenly turned to Yen Sid her shoulders back and head high, “I wished that Ansem the Wise was here as well, but for the time being, I will have to address you, I want to first thank you for watching after everyone in my absence, Master Yen Sid. However I will not excuse your treatment of Sora, nor anyone else that has been affected by this.”

This seemed to take the entire room back, only for the Luminary to continue before anyone could interpret her.

“I understand that you have trained His Majesty, and it has been some time since you’ve trained, but all students are different. And a student that is constantly overlooked and given unclear instructions will begin only to cause doubt within their ability and themselves. Sora has been through so much.” Lio replied, facing the man, “More than most here after all this is done I would ask that you reconsider how you train him, and allow for him to take the mark of mastery again. For I will also want to witness him.”

“Can she do that?” Goofy gasped.

“As Luminary Lio can call for a student to take the Mastery as many times as she wants. She may not be able to give Sora the status but her vote for those to take the test often outweighs the Master.” Aqua explained.

“Really Lio?” Sora gasped looking up to the woman.

“I see no reason as to why not.” She smiled, a hand to his head, “You’ve got quite a bright light in you star shine.”

“Well that’s all good, but what about this whole Xehonart situation?” Axel inquired.

“We’ll be taking the fight to him.” Lio stated, turning as she reached out to Olix, who had stepped forward. “Olix wasn’t just watching you all.”

Olix held up her orb, the light in the room draining as a figure of an elaborate chessboard appeared. “There will be thirteen vessels for Xehonart and twelve of us.”

“Thirteen? Not sure if you remember Olix the organization is gone.” Axel stated.

“Those were trials in a sense. There are still a few that have not returned to themselves. Only a few have return to themselves, there are still seven uncounted for. Xehonart will be joining in this fight as well.” Olix explained before turning to Lio, “I also wanted to speak with you of Vexen, um Even.”

“I can’t make any promises but I’ll see to it.” Lio smiled.

“Why bring that guy back?” Axel huffed.

Olix smiled weakly,  “We’ll need his help with helping the others return too.”

“Wait you can’t mean…”

Lio turned to Axel, “Those three are also my charges, all of them Namine, Roxas and Xi…” She stopped at a shake of Olix’s head. “They will not just be casualties for Xehonart’s greed. I promise.”

*

“Everyone ready?” Lio called, looking upon her group of Wielders. “Remember the plan, he will try to separate us, the Graveyard is large. We will all return home together!”

The group nodded in understanding as Lio held out her hands alongside Olix as they both cast a teleportation spell to the Keyblade Graveyard.

Location: Bad Lands

“Guard up! Everyone! He will make the first attack.” Lio called, leading the group through the Graveyard, Aqua, Riku and Mickey beside her.

“Do you hear that?” Olix asked.

“Hear what?” Goofy asked, as everyone’s guard tightened on their weapons.

“They’re very loud today.” Olix muttered as Lio glanced over her shoulder immediately understanding, that only the two of them could hear the silent voices.

“They’re crying,” Lio explained waving a hand as she lifts a few Keyblades just outside the Graveyard to stand upright again. “They feel the battle just like us, and judging by how loud they are, Xehonart and the others are close.”

Almost as if summoned them, the man appeared, with his own army.

“Luminary, so wonderful for you to join us again.” Xehonart chuckled.

Lio’s grip on her staff tightens, only to find Aqua standing beside her. 

“I’ll only ask you this once, stop what you’re doing!” Lio barked, her eyes wavering towards the two men she had last seen before she was placed asleep.

Xehonart chuckled as he rose his hand from behind his back, “We’re well beyond that.” He called snapping his fingers.

Riku gasped as he noticed the puddles of black around them, “Everyone!”

“They’re getting away!” Axel called parrying an attack from one of the base heartless.

“Worry about those in front of you!” Aqua called striking away a few from Ventus back.

“Lio,” Olix called.

“Yeah two of them.” Lio replied smashing two away from Sora, taking the boy's hand. “Care to brighten this place up?” She smiled tossing the other up, only for him to brighten the battlefield, with what could only be described as an amusement park ride.

The others quickly following through with the attacks. Managing to clear out the enemies before them for the moment.

“Everyone okay?” Mickey asked, getting affirmations from the rest of the party, as they entered the actual Graveyard.

“Ven?” Lio called noticing the blond staring at something. Only to turn following his gaze along with Aqua as they both gasped.

“Terra.” Ventus called.

Lio and Aqua found themselves chasing after the young one. Only to both notice something off as both raced before Ventus, stopping Ventus and glaring at the man before them.

“You’re not Terra. We won’t fall for this.” Lio sneered, her staff pointed toward the imposter.

“Let our friend go!” Aqua growled, Keyblade at the ready.

The imposter chuckled as he summoned his own Keyblade, his hair turning white. “Not going to fall for that twice?”

Lio twirled her staff as it shone pink, transforming into gauntlets. The woman rushing forward, pulling back as she hit hard, only to connect with the keyblade of the man before her.

“Guess you do learn.” He chuckled in that deep voice that didn’t belong to Terra.

“Where is Terra!” Lio growled.

“So worried about the one that you lost, you can’t even protect the ones you have with you.”

Lio gasped as she saw the wave of heartless coming towards them. Whatever warning she wanted to call out to them was cut off as the noise of the creatures became too loud for her to scream over.

Pushing the imposter in Terra’s body away, she ran towards Aqua and Ventus, only to stare as they were stripped away from them. Her heart sank! Not again!

The woman quickly ran towards the others, she would not lose anyone else! Each step seemed to find her foot sinking in quicksand, when she felt a snag on her arm. Turning to find the imposter before her, his white hair returned to the brown it was supposed to be.

“Lio please…”

Lio’s panic-filled mind faltered for just a moment at that familiar voice, only for her to find a hand to her throat, stopping her long enough for tendrils of heartless to hold her in place. Forcing her to watch as the barrier that Olix had put up to protect Kairi and Axel shattered, the three gone in a flash of black. 

Lio could only watch as it all happened again. She wasn’t strong enough! Eris was right, she wasn’t fit to be anyone’s Luminary.

“I’m not strong enough.”

Lio’s head snapped, that wasn't her voice that uttered the words. The woman saw a bright flash, watching as Donald cast a Zetta flare an attack that took the other's life to get rid of the creature in Terra’s body.

Her eyes turning to a collapsed Sora, Riku attempting to protect both of them just a little longer. They kept fight! She was being so selfish! She was scared, but she had to be strong for them! For her Keyblade wielders that went too long without her.

“Sora!” She barked, pulling an arm from the tendrils holding her. “Sora! Don’t give up on us now! You have made it through so much!” She growled a hand wrapped around another few tendrils ripping it away, as she pulled herself out, of the darkness, only to watch as Riku was struck down.

The woman rushing over as she felt her body colloid with Sora’s, holding him close.

“You’re not gonna give up on me now. I won’t let you back down. You have such a bright future.”

[mellz117]

Hello all and welcome to part 4 of my playthrough of KH2 on the PS2. If you haven't seen the previous entries please go do that.

[ _1_ ] [ _2_ ] [ _3_ ]

To recap: The Wonders of Twilight Town are boring as hell. We spoke to Namine again, Roxas finally realizes his life this week is a lie and starts to remember his life in the Organization. DiZ is racist against Nobodies but we already knew that. Roxas and Axel fight, I wanted to cry. Roxas meets Sora in his sleeping pod before disappearing, I wanted to cry.

And the adventure continues

I wanna know how Sora wakes up in the real world when Roxas merges with him in the virtual one. How in CoM does Sora go to sleep in Castle Oblivion, the whole-ass chamber and then some get transferred to Twilight Town, Roxas meets him in a virtual version of the mansion, and Sora wakes up in the real mansion in KH2? Nomura please explain this series. Is Final Fantasy ever this convoluted?

Donald and Goofy call out to Sora and we're once again reminded this is a Disney game. I don’t know why but the fact that Disney owns the original Kingdom Hearts characters bothers me. It means, unless DISNEY gives the OK, Sora will never be in Smash Bros. and that makes me sad.

I don't know much about comas but after a year of total inactivity, wouldn't your muscles atrophy like, A BUNCH? At least is wasn’t 7... OR VENTUS WITH A WHOLE DECADE WTF?

Again WHY COULDN'T JIMINY JUST KEEP EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN CHAIN OF MEMORIES WRITTEN DOWN IN HIS JOURNAL INSTEAD OF A CRYPTIC MEMO TO THANK NAMINE?

The trinity trio wanders out of the mansion, loot some chests, and find their way to the back alleys of town.

Hayner is rude RIGHT outta the gate, wow. Ok I remember that Pence actually met Roxas in Days, and so to me he seems to recognize Sora through his memories of Roxas despite the two sharing like, one visual similarly: blue eyes. But KH3 to my understanding reveals that the virtual versions of characters affect the real version so I dunno!! WHAT IS THIS SERIES?

"Have you finished the summer homework yet?" Olette asks Sora and his two ANIMAL COMPANIONS as if seeing two anthropomorphic animals is fucking normal in a town comprised entirely of humans and exactly one moogle.

Sora doesn't have any homework. For over a year he's been away from home and his mom couldn't make him go to school. I wonder how she's doing? Does she miss her son? Kingdom Hearts and parents don't gel.

I like how.. When Pence describes this cloaked figure who was looking for the trinity trio, as having big, round ears, they have to think about who it could possibly be. They’re not too bright.

Why is “sofa” capitalized? Also they weren't even sitting on it, neither of them were!

HAYNER IS A RUDE BOY! He tells us so ask Seifer about the town, as we are new. Bruh, if you’re this rude to us I’m sure how much worse Seifer and his posse are.

Seifer is immediately confrontational. “You here to pick a fight with us?” and Sora’s all like “No, we’re new here.” and DONALD FUCKING DUCK! INSULTS SEIFER AND NOW EVERYONE’S READY TO THROW DOWN! THANKS TO THIS DUMB FUCK DUCK!

But thank Christ big chungus appears out of nowhere and stops the children and two adult furries from causing a scene.

This dude is WAY too into the Struggle tournament. Seifer has an unwanted faaaaan! Bro, go away, you’re creeping on a teenager.

I wanna fight Seifer.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

I'm not working on this like I should be. I'm going on vacation soon and since we're all in quarantine I can't really do anything fun so this is the opportune time to catch up.

Moving on! We make our way to the train station and oh no, we're ambushed by Dusks! Because of COURSE we are. Who could've seen THAT coming? /s

I- I like how, even after hearing his voice, and seeing his fucking mousey silhouette, the gang STILL might not be sure this is their stupid rat king. One brain cell between the three of them, I swear, and Goofy is the primary carrier, and it only sometimes works.

Why do we need to purchase tickets to travel on a magical train embarking to an ethereal plane of existence? I guess it's the principal of it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I HAVE A MIGHTY NEED TO HUG THIS BOY. LOOK, HE'S CRYING!

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Pence is so cute. I didn't care much for him when I was younger but he's such a cutie. 

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I HAVE A MIGHTY NEED TO HUG THIS BOY. LOOK, HE'S SAD!

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It's fat cat Pete. For like ever, I had no idea he was a cat. Wonder what Maleficent saw in him to ally with him.

The trinity trio laughing about killing (or at least taking part in killing) Maleficent. "She's toast!" this sure is early 2000's dialogue...

Heartless everywhere! "You mean the worlds aren't at peace after all" well, no sweetie. It takes time for things to recover from horrible events. *looks at current state of the real world*

So like, I had no idea Yen Sid was a Keyblade warrior??? I had read about that in his Wiki page when I googled if any Keyblade warriors were left handed. (Ven might be, but more likely ambidextrous) But I guess being Mickey's teacher would imply his Keyblade wielder roots but whatever, I didn't pay attention when I was a teenager.

Yen Sid's decor is baffling. What are these bookshelves? What are these BOOKS? They're huge!

Good on Yen Sid for using singular “they” pronouns in 2005.

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On to our change of wardrobe. Without a doubt Sora's best look in the whole series, in my humble opinion. Lookit my handsome boy. 

And Sora learns about drive forms, blah, blah, blah, powerful forms, gotta sacrifice something like in Duel Monsters, in this case an ally.

Yen Sid is so boring.

All seriousness and tension is just broken as soon as Goofy’s name is uttered, at least Sora and Donald have normal names wtf.

It’s interesting how like, 15 years later, Union X explains how Maleficent was able to return after her defeat. Something about, as long as someone from your original time remembers you and you have a physical object to represent you you’re able to basically some back from the dead. Right? Am I right on that? I haven’t played it but I’m hanging by a thread on this loop.

Sora’s hard work down the drain...

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Hollow Bastion! And of course there’s trouble. Heartless, Nobodies, and Yuffie, oh my!

A problem sequels have to work around is when the protagonist needs to relearn their abilities. KH does a well and good job with this one. In CoM, it’s a different battle style, in KH2 Sora’s been asleep for a hear prior.

Also, Merlin “leant” Sora some magic spells? How does that work? Like, once you learn it you can’t just... give that knowledge back...?

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How old is Leon? He has no right being this pretty.

Another ambush by Nobodies. Give it a rest, would ya? Battle ensues, Leon deals the final blow against an enemy, and as the camera usually does, zooms in on the victor and we get a nice slow-mo crotch shot of Leon. Thanks, game... Then, Xemnas’s very sexy, very manly voice echoes across town and the organization appears before our protagonists. I’m weak.

Demyx’s laugh, dude. I love it. Sora is ready to throw hands with anyone in his way. Honey, you’re barely out of a magic coma and this dude is like, two whole feet taller than you. Not to mention very fit.

I’m done thirsting over Xemnas...

After a few taunting words, the new villains depart, Donald attempts to give chase somehow? Where you gonna go? They disappeared behind dark corridors. It seems Goofy is still holding onto that shared brain cell.

The Bastard

I like the majority of the Organization. Xigbar is definitely one of my favorites based on this next scene alone. He’s so snarky and full of shit. I love it. He’s great. He was definitely a stoner at some point.

I’m confused though. “He used to give me that same exact look!” the Wiki says Xigbar’s talking about Ven but I always thought he was referring to Roxas? Did Braig and Ven have a history? That’s implied in Days (which released before BbS) IDK dude. I’m surprised I’ve gone this long without spoiling myself too much on BbS. Like, a few story beats here and there but a lot of it isn’t gonna be known until I play it.

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The dialogue for KH2 was so different from the first game. It dates itself so much in comparison.

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Xiggy stands like this for 7 whole seconds parting with a condescending “Be a good boy now!” before disappearing. I love this fucker.

Leon, who’s been sitting on the sidelines this whole time, joins Sora and the others after the real threat is gone. We chitchat for a little bit and say our goodbyes. It’s time to leave this place and move on to one of two available worlds.

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At the Beast's Castle. After fighting a hoard of Shadows, the least intimidating enemy in the series (although the demon tower in kh3 is quite frightening nlg), the Beast himself makes his appearance, takes out the Heartless that suddenly stop multiplying upon his arrival, disgracefully shoves his supposed friends aside, and takes his precious rose to the west wing, which is where it SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE FIRST PLACE. ADAM WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

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No joke one of the funniest actual gags in the whole series is:

*Donald Duck manhandling Cogsworth*

Cut to Sora saying "I'm glad you're OK." to Lumiere

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OK the minigame where you gotta light the magic torches, why do we have to make sure Cogsworth  has enough strength to keep the lever down when we have two perfectly capable companions that can hold it down instead? I remember this sequence being a lot more annoying when I was a teen.

Xaldin's voice makes me feel things. Ahhh he sounds so tired lol. He peaces out and we fight the Beast. I remember getting him to calm down being harder.

"Xaldin used my anger to control me!" Says Beast. He angers very easily so this must have been a cinch. Xaldin's been obsessed with him since Days so I would imagine this intel would come in handy.

More fodder to fight and on to the boss. Phase one is just an angrier version of the Darkball Heartless. Phase two is just skinny Ganon. I like its design though.

“Belle, I’m sorry. I wasn’t myself, being all rude and overall kind of a jackass to you and my servants” Except that’s kinda how you’ve always been lmao. Just because you couldn’t choose not to be an ass here doesn’t change that this IS in character. Still gotta work on that a bit.

“You don’t have to apologize” No, no he still does.

They all reconcile and the Trinity Trio departs until Xaldin shows up again to wreak more havoc.

Time to move on to the next world.

[minijenn]

Keys to the Kingdom Chapter 9

AN - Hey a pretty short turnaround time for a pretty short chapter. Neat! Anyway I don’t got a ton to say about this one since its more or less a stepping stone chapter, but it still has some fun stuff in it all the same so enjoy!

Previous: https://minijenn.tumblr.com/post/185003790469/keys-to-the-kingdom-chapter-8

Chapter 9: At Dusk

You must be kidding me, Did you really think I could say no?

“I wanted to meet you… at least once.”

The myriad of bizarre happenings of the past several days had set out a path that had ultimately led him here. The old mansion was a place that Roxas was only vaguely familiar with from the countless rumors and myths spread around town about it that made it practically infamous. But those things couldn’t have been further from his mind as he stood before it now, awash in growing confusion, dread, perhaps even frustration as he desperately tried to reach out for answers he could never seem to grasp. It was like everything he thought he ever knew was steadily, rapidly crumbling apart at the seams all around him, the foundation he thought he should have been standing on shattering apart piece by piece.

And yet… the turbulent tide he was lost amidst slowly started to calm the moment he caught sight of her. Her simple white dress and slight frame practically blended into the spotless curtains she was standing in front of, a hand pressed against the glass window as she starred down at him silently, sadly from above. In many ways, she was almost like one of the ghosts rumored to be inhabiting the dusty halls of the otherwise abandoned mansion, but he knew better. He knew she was real, at least as real as he was anyway, he had seen her face, heard her voice, felt the connection between them that he couldn’t explain. A connection that couldn’t be broken, no matter what chains of memory came undone.

“Roxas…” she mouthed his name from beyond the glass, or at least she thought it was his. For all he knew, it could have been someone else’s name altogether. And by all accounts, it probably was.

“Naminé…?”

Naminé…

“Thank Naminé…” Sora whispered to himself as he found himself slowly slipping out of yet another one of Roxas’ memories. In a sense, it was like waking up from a distant, yet nostalgic dream, blurring the fine line between memory and reality just as much as his own image tended to blur between himself and his Nobody. Despite the fact that he had largely grown accustomed to this nearly constant flux in and out of a past that wasn’t even his, Sora couldn’t deny that it still felt rather disorienting, perhaps even a bit deceptive. For as he stole another glance up at the window of the stately, yet silent mansion before them, he found that, unlike what Roxas’ memories had shown him, Naminé was—unsurprisingly but still disappointingly—nowhere to be found.

“Did ya say somethin’, Sora?” Goofy asked, glancing back at the Keybearer.

“Hm?” Sora shook his head, finally fully grounding himself back into the present. “Uh… no. I was just… um…” He trailed off, finding himself at an odd loss for words. Something that had been happening more often than usual, he realized.

“Did you see another one of Roxas’ memories?” Donald inferred curiously.

“Y-yeah!” Sora nodded. “Well… at least that’s what it was this time…” he muttered to himself, briefly recalling the ominous voice that had pulled against his heart mere moments ago.

“What do you mean this time?” the magician asked, aptly suspicious as he happened to overhear the Keybearer.

“Oh, uh, nothing!” Sora said, forcing a calm laugh to allay his confused companions before quickly changing the subject back to the mansion before them. “So… what do you think, guys? This place is even creepier than I remember.”

“Well, they do say this mansion is haunted…” Goofy noted as Donald cringed with clear fear at the very thought.

“Haunted, huh…?” Sora repeated, largely to himself as he looked up to the large window once more. He was hardly superstitious in light of everything he’d seen and experienced, but as he thought back to that sinister voice and the frightening affect it had on him, he couldn’t help but wonder if those ghostly rumors maybe held some merit after all.

The already on-edge trio was even more set off the moment something happened to lightly skim the Keybearer’s shoulder from behind. Sora nearly summoned his Keyblade, Donald and Goofy likewise loudly panicking alongside him as they all quickly spun around, only to find an equally startled Hayner, Pence, and Olette standing behind them.

“Yeesh…” Sora huffed, suppressing a sigh of relief at seeing the trio of familiar faces as opposed to the alternative. “Thanks for the heart attack!”

“Oh what?” Hayner smirked. “Did we scare you guys?”

“Not a chance!” Donald retorted back, shaking his first admantly.

“Our bad,” Olette chuckled, aptly amused.

“So, how’d it go?” Sora asked the trio collectively. “Did you get any leads?”

Their otherwise playful manner fell into disappointment at this as they shook their heads truthfully. “Nope, ‘fraid not,” Pence admitted fretfully. “The asking around town thing was a total bust.”

“Yep, looks like this old mansion is our only hope,” Hayner added, looking to the mansion. The others all turned to do the same, each of them carrying the same resolve that the answers they were looking for could be held somewhere inside.

“You guys ready?” Olette asked, eager to continue their search.

“Another Twilight Town awaits!” Pence chimed in boldly.

“Yeah,” Sora readily agreed, already taking the first step towards the mansion. A small burst of warmth filled his heart as he did, one that unmistakably came from Roxas himself. Almost as if he somehow knew just how far they were all willing to go to find a way to bring him back to them. And it was that warmth, that feeling of bright, expanding hope that they both seemed to share, that prompted Sora onward further still, determined to do exactly that.

Since the collective group knew exactly where they needed to go, they didn’t waste too much time checking most of the mansion’s otherwise empty, dust-settled rooms. Instead, they all made a beeline for the basement, its clean metallic walls a far cry from the rest of the old mansion’s dilapidated state. Now bereft of its original purpose, the computer room was also just as quiet as the rest of the abandoned building, save for the occasional idle beep and blip from the several-screened machine tucked securely inside it. A machine that, at least as far as any of them knew, was just about their last resort to finding their first and possibly only clues to helping Roxas.

“Here we go!” Pence exclaimed excitedly, rushing to the computer the moment he saw it. Since the others knew full well this was his area of expertise, they all congregated around him as he took charge in operating the rather complex machine. “The password was… uh… ‘sea-salt ice cream’, right?” He tapped the phrase in, which, just as it had before, granted them access to whatever data the computer had stored. “Ok, I’m in. Now let’s get that transporter working…”

Since Pence was already largely familiar with the process, opening up the transporter that would lead the way to the alternate Twilight Town should have been easy. However, what none of them were expecting was for the computer to flash red, emitting a blaring warning alarm almost as soon as the attempt was made. “Oh man…” Pence frowned as the computer’s main screen was overtaken by an error message. “The transporter’s been protected….”

“Protected from what?” Sora asked, aptly confused.

“I guess from us?” Pence ventured a guess. “We can’t use it to get to the other Twilight Town.”

“Why not?” Hayner cut in, clearly annoyed by this sudden roadblocked. “It worked before! We sent Sora there!”

“Well, that was then and this is now,” Pence shrugged.

“And… there’s no other way?” Olette asked, frowning.

“…None that I know of…” Pence admitted, tapping a few more keys on the computer, though to no avail. A general sigh of clear disappointment rose up from several members of the group upon hearing this, all of them quite dejected to know that they had come all this way only to be met with nothing. In fact, they were all just about ready to turn around and head back to town, or at least they would have had the Gummiphone not happened to ring at that exact moment.

Still not entirely familiar with the device, Sora fumbled somewhat as he pulled it out of his pocket and answered it, only for Ienzo to pop up on the other end of the line. “Hello, Sora,” the researcher greeted amicably. “You wouldn’t happen to be standing in front of a computer, would you?”

“Huh?” Sora raised a surprised eyebrow. “Well… yeah. But how’d you know that?”

“I was tinkering with Ansem’s computer,” Ienzo explained. “You know, to decrypt the code that was left in it? And I noticed that someone had logged in from another terminal. I figured it might be you.”

“Oh, yeah! The log terminal!” Sora exclaimed, putting on a front of understanding, which of course, Donald was quick to call him out on.

“You don’t know what he said,” the magician correctly inferred, cross his arms.

“Oh, and what, you do?” the Keybearer retorted in a dry whisper.

All the same, Ienzo happened to overhear this bout of bickering from the other end of the line and let out a small, amused chuckle before posing the group another question. “So if it wasn’t you, then… who did log in?”

“Oh, hi there!” Pence chimed in as Sore handed the phone over to him. “This is Pence. I’m the one who logged into the computer.”

“Good,” Ienzo nodded, allayed. “As long as we know it’s a user that we know we can trust.”

“Yep. But… we’re kind of stuck here,” Pence said, glancing back over at the secured computer. “One of the programs is protected so… I can’t run it.”

“Which program?”

“Ugh! The transporter to the other Twilight Town!” Hayner snapped, frustrated at how slowly the conversation seemed to be going. “It’s the only way to find Roxas. You gotta help us!”

Ienzo seemed quite surprised to hear this news, the implications sending his scientific mind practically reeling as he mulled over it. “Another Twilight Town…? And a ‘transporter’? Okay… a virtual town inside the computer, made of data… Fascinating! Maybe I can do something to help… Pence, let’s get a network set up; that way we can try to look into this on both ends of the spectrum.”

Pence agreed and the two got to work on doing just that, exchanging information in order to connect the two computers together despite the span of worlds standing between them. Despite how well versed both Pence and Ienzo were when it came to the tech they were working with, it still took quite a bit of time to get everything completely set up on both ends. At least an hour had passed with very few updates given, which was why it wasn’t too surprising that in that amount of idle time, Sora had nodded off more than a few times, much to Goofy’s amusement and Donald’s annoyance. Still, it was something of a relief when, after what felt like ages to just about everyone else, Ienzo finally announced that the lengthy process was at last complete.

“Ok, sharing is enabled,” the researcher confirmed, effectively snapping Sora out of his most recent bout of standing slumber.

“Oh! Were you able to fix it?” the Keybearer asked, eager to hear any new developments.

Ienzo didn’t provide a clear cut answer at first as he instead opted to explain exactly what him and Pence had just accomplished. “Now that our two computers have been successfully networked together, I can take control of the terminal there and change the privileges. So in a sense… yes, we did fix it. Or at least allowed some form of progress to continue.”

“And Roxas?” Sora pressed, largely not caring about the specifics so long as it all could help his Nobody in some way.

“Yes. For the virtual world to be completely realized, Ansem the Wise would have included Roxas’ full data in the construction. Meaning, somewhere on your machine, there’s a log of that data that-” Ienzo stopped short, noticing that Sora looked more or less completely lost in all the technicalities on the other end of the line. Which was why he decided to finish explaining in a much more simpler route to grasp. “Uh… basically, we can decipher Ansem’s code more quickly and we can analyze the virtual Twilight Town while we’re at it.”

“Ohhh, ok! Great!” Sora smiled, more or less understanding, though he was still admittedly confused by how it all worked. Still, the researcher’s upbeat tone alone was more than enough to convince him that there was a chance that this could work after all. “I can’t computer so… do that.”

“Glad to know you’re following along,” Ienzo smirked knowingly. “Don’t worry. We’ll handle it. Chip and Dale will be helping me out here on this end. I’ll call you back as soon as we know anything more.”

“Thanks,” Sora nodded, genuinely grateful for the help all around. In a way, he did feel somewhat inadequate when it came to looking for answers in this way, given his relative lack of experience with computers and data and research and the like. But it was still a relief to know that there were so many others who had decided to join him in his cause to help Roxas, from Donald and Goofy, to the Twilight Town trio, to even Ienzo and his crew afar off in Radiant Garden. Certainly, Sora hoped, with so many people working together towards the same goal, there was no doubt that they’d find a way to bring Roxas back in no time at all.

“Oh, before I forget—a bit of troubling news,” Ienzo continued, his tone turning grave. “It’s about one of the Organization’s former members. You knew him as Vexen—but to us, he was Ansem’s apprentice, Even. He was recompleted like the rest of us, but hadn’t regained consciousness yet. Then, sometime after Lea left, Even vanished. Aeleus and Dilan—the two you knew as Lexaeus and Xaldin—went out to look for him, but… he’s just gone. And I’m starting to worry.”

“You think he’s on their side?” Sora asked, remembering Yen Sid’s warning that the Organization would likely be seeking to fill out the rest of their ranks in any way possible.

“I think it’s a real possibility,” Ienzo said earnestly. “He’s a devious researcher. You should be careful.”

“Got it. Thanks again!” Sora bid the researcher farewell as the call came to an end, making sure to keep his warning in mind for future reference.

“Oh no!” Hayner suddenly gasped in apparent alarm as he turned to Pence and Olette frantically. “We got work! I totally forgot!”

“Really?” Pence asked as Hayner already got a head start in hurrying out of the room. “But what about all this?”

“Hey, both are important! We’re gonna need some cash to go to the beach. Also, don’t forget the pretzels. Gotta buy four now,” Hayner grinned, especially as Pence began counting out, confused.

“Ooh, I get it!” he exclaimed in realization, knowing that Hayner had the idea of bringing Roxas along with them. An idea that both Pence and Olette readily agreed with for whenever their long-awaited day at the beach finally did arrive.

“He’s thinking ahead,” Olette chimed in with a wry smile of her own.

“Later, Sora!” Hayner said as he took his leave, Olette going to join him.

“Bye, Donald! Goofy!” she waved to the trio fondly as they all returned the farewell.

“See you guys!” Sora called out after the pair as Donald and Goofy also offered their own goodbyes.

“Oh, and since I’m manning the computer here,” Pence began, remaining in his seat as he glanced back at the duo. “You guys are in charge of earning my share!”

“No pretzel for Pence!” Hayner teased, sticking his tongue out as him and Olette ran out of the room.

“Hey!” Pence shouted after them, ignoring Sora, Donald, and Goofy’s shared amused laughter. All the same, he made sure to assure the trio that he’d continue working on digging up what he could glean from the computer, collaborating in tandem with Ienzo all the while. And with that, the trio was quick to realize there wasn’t really anything else they could do at this stage but wait for any new information to be uncovered that could help further their cause. It was somewhat disappointing, for Sora in particular, to know that there wasn’t much help any of them could provide right now, but at the very least, the effort to help Roxas had been kickstarted. The mission to bring him back into the existence he deserved to have was well on its way. And for now, simply keeping the comforting idea that this could soon be more than just a distance hope in mind would certainly suffice.

By the time they left the mansion, Sora had noticed that the usually steady tide of Roxas’ memories flowing in and out of his heart had gradually started to slow to a crawl. Even as they emerged from the derelict building, he found that he was met with essentially none of his Nobody’s memories whatsoever, to the point that even the light pull that had been more or less guiding his heart since they arrived seemed to have completely faded out. And yet, alarmingly enough, what wasn’t gone was the same dull, persistent pain that had sparked in his heart when he had been trapped under the influence of that still-unknown voice. A pain that only seemed to amplify tenfold when the trio was stopped in their tracks by the arrival of a figure they were all too familiar with.

“So, you think you can bring Roxas back?”

Sora practically choked on a gasp, his heart suddenly seizing up with so much sudden agony that it nearly knocked him to his knees. Donald and Goofy noticed his wavering swaying as he clutched at his chest in a weak, yet desperate attempt to stop the swelling pain. Neither of them had the faintest idea as to what could have possibly been afflicting their young companion, but all the same, they were quick to support him on both sides as they all turned to see exactly who was standing right outside the mansion gates behind them.

“Ansem!” the captain and magician exclaimed, largely since Sora was still far too breathless from the pain to do so himself. Yet that pain only seemed to spark once more as a dark corridor opened up right beside the seeker of darkness, making way for yet another one of the Organization’s leading members to arrive.

“Xemnas!” the trio shouted in unison this time, collectively startled and set off upon being met with two of their most dangerous adversaries at the same exact time.

“Roxas should have never existed in the first place,” Xemnas began coldly, cutting right to the chase. “What you seek is impossible.”

Sora jolted at this, filled with a sense of righteous anger at such a dismissive claim overtaking the pain still pounding through his heart. “Y-you’re wrong!” he retorted boldly, forcing himself to stand upright without Donald and Goofy’s help, as much of a struggle as it was for him. “Roxas does exist! His heart’s inside my heart!”

“His is far from the only one,” Ansem said vaguely, ominously even.

“And in the unlikely event that you do manage to separate the two,” Xemnas continued just as evenly. “Where is it you think you can put his heart?”

“W-well… Roxas used to live in the other Twilight Town , right? So, m-maybe… we can…” Sora trailed off, instantly regretting his knee-jerk idea before he could even say it out loud.

“So, you understand the shortcomings of your ‘brilliant’ plan,” Ansem assumed, arms crossed. “The other Twilight Town is just data. Any existence Roxas might have there would ultimately be an empty one.”

As much as Sora didn’t want to say it, he couldn’t deny that this claim was absolutely correct. Ienzo had said that Roxas’ data was likely contained within the digital Twilight Town, which meant that it would have very well been possible to find a way to set Roxas himself up within that world. And yet, as stable of an idea as it was, it was far from satisfying. Sora didn’t want to see Roxas stuck in a disconnected version of the world that was only barely real to begin with; he wanted to see Roxas brought back into the real world, to reunite with the real people who likewise wanted to see him return. He wanted to truly meet his Nobody, not just in dreams or data or distant memories, but face-to-face for the first time. And, simply put, just throwing Roxas into the alternate version of Twilight Town would accomplish anything but that.

“Hm… Ansem and Xemnas used to be part of the same person, right?” Goofy spoke up, seemingly going off on an entirely different tangent altogether. “But look, now they exist separately just fine. If they can do it, then I don’t see any reason why you and Roxas can’t find a way.”

“Oh, yeah!” Sora exclaimed, instantly allayed by this vote of confidence. Sure enough, it had to be true; if their foes could accomplish such a seemingly impossible feat, then certainly him and Roxas could too, right?

“Yeah! You tell ‘em Captain Goofy!” Donald chimed in his support as well. Ansem and Xemnas, however, were unphased by the trio’s newfound excitement.

“In that case, by all means,” Ansem nodded, surprisingly calm.

“Nothing would please us more than Roxas’ return,” Xemnas said, keeping his sights trained on Sora in particular. “After all, freeing him from the depths of your heart would at last allow us to fully lay claim to our thirteenth member.”

“You wish,” Sora scoffed harshly, still trying his best to ignore the persistent sting ringing through his heart. “Roxas will never answer to you again!”

“Still so blind,” Xemnas shook his head with almost something of a knowing smile. “We are no longer interested in having Roxas as a member. In fact, he is one of the only obstacles standing between and our true final vessel: you, Sora.”

The ripple of shock that struck the trio upon hearing this was sharp and swift. In fact, it might as well have pierced Sora clean through the heart for the amount of intense anguish that rushed through it, so immense and powerful that he could hardly bear it. And yet, instead of crumbling under the crippling strain, he remained standing, as if frozen in place by all of the frightening thoughts and feelings running through his heart and mind all at once. However, he wasn’t really pressed to provide much of a reaction to this disturbing claim, as Donald and Goofy did more than a suitable job doing so in his stead.

“No way!” Donald shouted fiercely as both him and Goofy stepped in front of Sora protectively. “Sora would never be a part of the Organization!”

“That’s right!” the captain admantly agreed. “And we would know! We were there to help save Sora from becomin’ one of Xehanort’s vessels!”

“A valiant effort, that was ultimately for nothing,” Ansem countered before addressing Sora directly. “You can feel it, can’t you? Already the darkness is starting to take a hold upon your heart. And through that darkness, soon you find yourself helpless to resist the master’s call to join our ranks as the vessel you are destined to be.”

“Call…” Sora repeated softly, his eyes widening with the dawning, horrific realization. “That voice… I-it was…”

“It very well could have been,” Xemnas interjected knowingly. “Or… perhaps it was the shadows of your own heart, urging you towards the proper path. Either way, you would do well to heed it; resisting its command will only delay the inevitable.”

At that very moment, the pain coursing through Sora’s heart spiked yet again, and this time, it was fully enough to send him collapsing to his knees, even despite Donald and Goofy rushing to fret over him worriedly. “N-no…” he began weakly, glaring up at Xemnas and Ansem with as much defiance as he could muster. “I don’t care what you try to do to me, I’m not about to lose myself to the darkness!” At this, the Keybearer began to stand, struggling somewhat, until Donald and Goofy helped him rise to boldly, brazenly face their foes once again. “So you can just go and tell Xehanort to find himself another vessel because it’s never going to be me!”

The captain and the magician smiled proudly to their young companion upon hearing his resilient proclamation, both of them glad to know that he hadn’t lost his verve against enemies as dangerous as these. And yet, even despite Sora’s courageous show of determination, Ansem and Xemnas hardly seemed to care.

“If that is what you believe, then you are free to struggle and suffer until your heart can no longer bear the weight of the freedom you’re so desperately trying to cling onto,” Ansem concluded, his tone disapproving and icy.

“But keep in mind that if you truly do want to bring Roxas back, the only way is for you to give your heart up for his,” Xemnas added, presenting a disparaging truth that Sora knew all too well. “Which means that try as you might to resist the darkness, calling upon its power is your only hope for releasing his heart from your own.”

By this point, Sora’s hands were clenched so tightly into fists that they were practically shaking, his anger towards this pair and their callous claims, especially when they came to Roxas, rising by the second. “You really think I buy any of that?” he asked challengingly. “I don’t need the darkness to help Roxas or anyone else. I’ll find another way instead, you’ll see.”

“Go on then,” Ansem remarked with the slightest of mocking grins. “But remember: the shadows are never out of reach if you need them.” At this, the seeker of darkness nodded to the space behind the trio, where, as if on cue, a sizable group of Heartless was arising from the grass, ready to attack. Xemnas swiftly added onto the monstrous horde, calling upon a swath of Nobodies and creating an aptly dangerous force that was already deadest on besetting the trio before them.

Sora stole a brief glance away from the creatures to the duo that had summoned them, noticing that they were getting ready to take their leave instead of confronting the trio in battle themselves. “Enjoy whatever fleeting time you have left to bask in the warmth of the light,” Xemnas began, already calling upon a dark corridor for their retreat.

“For soon enough, you will stand in the depths of darkness alongside the rest of us,” Ansem finished with a dark, goading grin.

“Now… set your heart free,” both of them proclaimed just as they disappeared into the darkness from whence they came.

“Wait!” Sora shouted after them, summoning his Keyblade in the hopes of catching them before they could get away. They still managed to, however, as the Keybearer’s attention was quickly diverted back to the horde of Heartless and Nobodies his companions had already started to engage in combat.

“Sora!” Donald called warningly, narrowly dodging a wide swing from one of the several rampaging Dusks.

Seeing that his companions could clearly use the help, Sora hurried over to join them, though even as the battle properly began, he couldn’t really shake his own immense desire to prove the malicious duo wrong. “It’s not darkness,” he muttered to himself as he entered the fray, feeling the pain in his heart finally, thankfully dissipate altogether. “Not if it helps him!”

And with that, the Keybearer threw himself into the fight alongside his companions, taking the force of Heartless and Nobodies head on. Despite their numbers, the creatures were a small obstacle at best, and hardly any of their main focus with their thoughts still unanimously on their alarming encounter with Xemnas and Ansem mere moments ago. The implications of their cryptic statements were discouraging, downright frightening in some instances, but of course, the trio only found time to properly discuss them once the monsters they had left behind were fully cleared out. And, once they did manage to successfully oust the Nobodies and the Heartless alike, that’s exactly what they did.

Donald and Goofy were the first to reconvene after the fight was through, though they were quick to turn their already fretful attention over to Sora instead. He stood apace away from them, his back turned and his expression unknown as he stared off into the twilit forest ahead, lost in thought over everything they’d just heard. As worrying as what Ansem and Xemnas had said concerning him had been, the Keybearer was far more focused on what they had said about Roxas. He refused to believe that the only way to help his Nobody would be to play right into the Organization’s hands. There had to be some other way, and even if he had no idea what that way might be, he was willing to do whatever he could to find it.

“Herc said…  ‘with all our hearts’…” the Keybearer muttered to himself, finding more meaning in the hero’s inspiring words now than ever before. “Okay. Then all my heart it is. I’m getting Roxas out.”

“B-but aren’t ya worried about what they said?” Goofy asked, aptly apprehensive. “About… y-ya know?”

“A-about you being a-a… a vessel?” Donald finished, just as worried.

Sora paused at this, glancing back at his companions to find their expressions awash in dread and concern solely for him. Concern that he couldn’t help but appreciate, especially given the circumstances. “N-no,” he shook his head, his hand lightly skimming over his now-calm heart. “No, I’m not. They probably only said all that stuff to try to psych me out or scare me, but its not gonna work. And besides, its like you guys said; you and Axel and Riku and the king all saved me, so there’s no way that whole ‘vessel’ thing could be true, right?”

Donald and Goofy exchanged an initially uncertain glance at this, neither of them entirely sure when they considered all of the odd happenings that had been going on since this new journey began, to Sora in particular. And yet, when they met their young companion’s bright, reassuring smile, their worries were quickly put to rest. After all, if Sora had begun to fall victim to the sway of darkness as Ansem and Xemnas had claimed, certainly he wouldn’t be able to maintain his usual upbeat resolve. His confident, carefree smile was proof enough for them that he was still himself, and that was something that both the captain and the magician hoped would never change.

“Well… ok…” Donald relented somewhat halfheartedly. “But still, you need to be careful, Sora. Especially if the Organization really does wanna force you onto their side.”

“Which is why, if ya start noticing that anything’s wrong or off, ya gotta promise to tell us about it,” Goofy asserted with a rare stern sincerity in his tone. “That way, we can help keep ya safe from anything the Organization might try to do to ya!”

“Oh, come on, you guys, nothing’s gonna happen,” Sora assured lightly, though he was quick to recant his casual manner upon seeing the gravely serious expressions his companions shared. “B-but… ok. I… I promise.” The Keybearer looked away as he said this, knowing that he had already largely broken this promise by not telling either of them about the voice or the pain that had both pressed so viciously upon his heart.

If their brief encounter with Xemnas and Ansem had confirmed anything for Sora, it was that the voice somehow taking complete control over him had been no random happenstance. The pair had hinted that it could have very well been Xehanort himself, but even then, the Keybearer wasn’t entirely convinced that was the case. As for what the voice had truly been, he still wasn’t sure, but he was resolved against the idea that the dark duo’s claims of him being the supposed thirteenth vessel were anywhere close to correct. True, he had nearly fallen victim to such an alarming fate during his and Riku’s exam, but in the end, Xehanort’s plans for him had ended in failure, or at least that’s what he’d heard since he had been largely lost to relentless slumber at the time. Still, Sora firmly believed that his friends’ courageous, selfless efforts to save him had been successful in the end. Any evidence or claims to the contrary were likely nothing worth worrying about whatsoever.

Or at least, he hoped they were nothing, because the alternative was absolutely unthinkable.

With Heartless and Nobodies and the like still out and about as they were, Sora, Donald, and Goofy had decided the best course of action would be to return to town to warn Hayner and Olette of the lurking danger. They did so, meeting up with the pair amidst their job of hanging posters up around town and urging them to stay on their toes against any lingering threats that may lie in wait around the area. And with that message relayed, the trio realized that their time in Twilight Town had just about come to an end. After all, they still had yet to begin their search for the Keys in earnest, and as far as any of them could tell, they weren’t going to find any of them here. Still, they all made sure to solidify their shared resolve one more time to continue working towards helping Roxas, even if all they could really do for now was wish and hope for his eventual return. And while it perhaps wasn’t the quickest or most direct way of bringing that return about, at the very least, it was something.

Still, as the group began exchanging their fond farewells and parting words, they were completely unaware of the fact that they were being closely watched from above. Ansem and Xemnas stood atop a nearby building, more or less unseen by any of the oblivious townsfolk below as they observed the Keybearer in particular with careful, confident scrutiny.

“He still believes that his heart is safe from the influence of darkness,” Ansem sneered, crossing his arms as he looked down at Sora condescendingly. “Pathetic.”

“His heart is strong, to be sure,” Xemnas mused more evenly. “But in the end, his naiveté is bound to be his downfall, if not his obvious weakness for those he cares for most.”

“Well, that should be an easy weakness to exploit, huh? Especially when you think about just how many ‘friends’ that kid seems to have.”

The pair turned at this, unsurprised to see a dark corridor open up on the same rooftop they were are as Xigbar stepped through it to join them. Neither Xemnas nor Ansem offered him much of a greeting as they instead turned their focus back to Sora, not noticing the freeshooter’s almost cocky smirk as he did the same. “Still, aren’t you making it a little too obvious?” he asked the pair, having witnessed their earlier encounter with the trio from afar.

“We were instructed to guide him,” Xemnas said simply. “To point him towards his proper place among our ranks, no matter how long his… ‘recruitment’ might take.”

“Oh, so it really is him, huh?” Xigbar asked, still smirking. “And I thought Xehanort was just pulling everyone’s leg by dropping all those hints. But I gotta say…” The freeshooter took on a faux thoughtful look as he kept his sights trained on the unwitting Keybearer. “He doesn’t really look the part…”

“He will,” Ansem assured. “In time.”

“Hmph, well, you two seem confident that he’ll just fall perfectly into place,” Xigbar mused dryly. “But let’s not forget how many times Sora still managed to rain on our parade. So what’s the plan for when he ends up slipping through the cracks and figures out some way to keep his heart out of Xehanort’s reach?”

“He won’t,” the seeker of darkness concluded. “And if he does find a way to waver from the path we lay, we destroy him.”

“But in that case… we’ll have to find ourselves another vessel,” Xigbar pointed out. “Oof, the old man would not like that. He seems pretty deadest on Sora in particular for some reason. Wonder why that is…?”

“The reason is not important,” Xemnas rebuffed succinctly. “What is important is that the process has begun. Try as he might to refuse or resist, there is nothing Sora can do to protect his heart from the tide of darkness already overtaking him.”

“And once that tide inevitably tears his heart apart,” Ansem added, as they all looked back down to Sora once more, their dark intentions for him clear. “Then we’ll be there, to pick up what’s left of the broken pieces…”

At this, the rooftop trio finally took their leave, allowing the still unaware group below to continue on their journey, wherever it might take them next. However, there was still yet another pair of eyes focused on them, this time from an even higher vantage point: the clock tower itself.

From this lofty height, one of the telltale black cloaks of Organization XIII had just been thrown, discarded by its most recent ex-member who was more than ready to cast off any sort of association to the group and to its leader in particular. Still, his newfound independence didn’t mean he didn’t have his own agenda in mind. For as he caught sight caught sight of the Keybearer leaving town far below him, he felt a spark of all too familiar warmth burn in his heart, a warmth that he hated and craved all at once. A warmth that would help him claim what was rightfully his, once and for all. “There you are…” he said darkly, not even having to question if he had picked out the right face in the crowd. After all, his was nearly exactly the same. “Looks like I’ve finally found you… Ventus…”

Next: 

[lillaxtrigger]

Young Hope: Chapter 23(Pt1)

Shining out from the horizon of a calm suburban neighborhood, the twilight sun casts through the cracks of a set of semi closed curtains; the light shining upon the purple haired teenage boys face. Awakening from his slumber, Roy rises out from the comfort of his bed and stretches his arm; loud yawn escaping from the depths of his lungs. Swiping his phone off the top of his night stand, he looks at the lock screen; the time showing to be along 6:24. “Ohh...Gotta get shit ready. Almost time for me to be on the clock.” “Aw, already?” Rising out from the sheets next to him, a teenage boy hugs the purple mercs arm; rubbing his face against Roy’s as he softly pleads if: “Can’t we stay just a bit longer and cuddle?...” “No can do, twix dick.” Leaping out from the comforting memory foam of his mattress, the purple haired angel lands in front of his bed; finishing claiming that: “I got me a big night ahead. Going out on an important assignment tonight. Gotta get ready to head out ASAP.” “Really?” another voice wonders. Rising out from the other side of his bed, a teenager with a much more toned body stands out from the sheets; asking the merc: “What so important that’s got ya up and ready?” “That, my big sexy plowing machine is private info. Nothing personal, just business.”

Nabbing a pair of purple briefs off his carpeted floor, Roy starts sliding them along his legs as he reminds his two love bugs that: “Speaking of business, think you two should get going before the sun sets.” Prying a pair of black pants off the end of the bed, the purple merc continues by warning them that: “Imagine that your parents would flip the fuck out to the Bahamas and back if they figure out you’ve been slipping dick with the purple angel, would we?” The bulk teen lets out a small growl as he rises from the bed; the twink leaping out towards Roy and locking lips with him. “Hope to see ya soon, baby cakes.” the teen wishes before departing. Lightly dressing themselves, both of the teenagers climb out of the purple boys window; streaking through his backyard and leaping over the fence. Gazing away from the retreating duo, Roy looks to his signature purple hoodie hanging upon his closets door knob; a determined smile stretching between his cheeks.

The door to the darkened room opens; the light from the hall revealing the fully dressed purple merc. Strolling out from the hall, Roy soon comes to the kitchen; a paper bag with his name awaiting on the counter. Through the kitchen, he passes by a blue haired woman washing the dishes; claiming that: “I’m heading out, Mauricia.” “Best of luck, Roy. Be careful out there.” “Thanks, I will.” he assures as he departs, grabbing the bag on his way out.

Coming before the front door, the purple merc came face to face with an orange haired girl standing in the doorway; a wide smile planted on her face. “Alright...What’dya want this time?” “Since I know ya got stuff to do and little time to waste, I’m just gonna cut to the chase here.” To Mally’s declaration, the merc can’t help but pinch the top of his nose; an exhausted sigh passing between his lips. “Tore and I couldn’t help but find out that you got yourself one hell of a job tonight and thinking that maybe ya might need a couple of partners by your side, huh?” Roy jumps back upon hearing the girls request, waving his hand in front of her and exclaiming: “Oh hell no! Ain’t no way in the hellish dunescapes of Libya, Africa are either of you are coming with.” “Aw come on Roy!” their blue brother shouts. From the couch behind them, Tore leaps off and approaches the two; further questioning his purple brother with: “You get to go on cool ass adventures to countless countries all the time. Why can’t we come along and kick some scrotum beside you.” “Because I take my profession very seriously, and I don’t want to babysit the two of you while tryin to earn by pay.” Roy enforces.

“You’ve been doing freelance work for about 4 years now, and all we seen you do is just fly out the door; you don’t even tell us what you did after you get back home.” the blue boy explains. “I doubt he does anything worth braggin about. Probably just some boring shit like delivering packages or escorting people.” Mally denies. Roy turns back towards his doubting sister, going on to rant with: “You fuckin serious bitch? I’ve pulled off some of the most dangerous assignment neither of you’re sugar high brains can even hope to imagine. We talkin about crazy shit like stopping whole high class organizations single handedly, delivering insanely destructive weapon payloads, assassinating heavily guarded politicians, even rivaling against equally deadly mercenaries like myself. All of which risking life and limb for the most highest profit imagina-” Roy puts the hard breaks his angry babbling for moment, soon returning to reality with: “Hey! Hold the fuckin phone.” He glares at Mally straight in the eye and points out: “You ain’t gonna play that reverse psychology bullshit on me, especially since I told you how to play it in the first place.”

“Maybe not, but I know what might. Holding an incriminating blunder over your head.” the girl declares. To his sisters vague threat, the merc can’t help but let loose a loud snicker before mocking: “Like you have any shit you can use on me that everyone doesn’t already know. I’m like an open book baby.” “You seemed pretty open about taking Renee back to her abusive dad.” Tore counters with. Saying this makes the purple merc jump up; his back completely straight as he turns his head towards the blue boy. “How….How the hell did you two find out about that?” he quietly question. The obvious answer then hits him softly cursing with: “Cayenne...That spicy loudmouth cunt.”

“What’s the matter with you, Roy!? Tryin to screw up our plan to rescue Kingsley’s girlfriend from her batshit cray cay papa! And after all the trouble I went through to fish you outta your depression. Pretty ungrateful if ya ask me.” Mally berates. “Look, it was the only thing I could think of to stop the riots in their tracks. If he got his daughter back, he call of the hunt. A hunt that Tore inadvertently caused.” Roy points out, his hand trailing to the blue boy himself. “Roy, if you wanted that, why didn’t you just join us for the gala that night instead of jumping in right at the end.” Tore questions. “Because I was trying to get use fighting with my newfound disability. And by the time I did get back, shit had already hit the fan.”

“The point we’re trying to make is that you owe us for your questionably moral backstabbing stunt and we plan to take full advantage of it.” the orange haired girl states. “Yeah, either you bring us along on this job or we’ll hold that over yer head until the sun violently explodes and burns us all to a deliciously crispy space treats.” his blue brother threatens. After a slew of frustrated noises come out of his mouth, the duo’s purple brother lets loose a defeated sigh and admits: “Fine...You two can come with.” Both of his siblings cheer on his submission, their yelping echoing through out the house.

Roy soon shuts their celebration with a sharp: “But!” From Roy’s sharp interruption, Tore and Mally listen as Roy warns them that: “The job that I’m on tonight has a massive reward on the line, and I can’t have either of you pissing around and fuck the whole thing over in every single orifice. You two are gonna do what I say, when I say it. No if’s, and’s, or but’s. Am I clear?” Such strict rules make his blue brother blow out raspberries, wondering: “Pfft. Come on, Roy. Quit being so paranoid. Since when have I ever screwed thing over things over for everyone.” To that question, Tore is met with the scornful glares of both his siblings; the blue boy letting out a nervous laughter and admitting: “Right, um….I’ll-I’ll behave myself...He he...heeuh...”

Under the pitch black air lay a vast city, littered with classically structured buildings; very few of them reaching out towards the sky. Breaking up this trend be the occasional castle or palace; their sharp tipped tops pointing out towards the night sky. Gliding through this very sky be the angelic trio, Tore and Roy flying across the city skyline with Mally riding atop her blue brothers back. “So...mind telling me what ya gotta do out this far in Austria.” she questions. “Guess now’s a good time as any to tell ya two. See, there’s been a growing domestic terrorist group out here in the middle of Vienna just going around wreckin shit, taking names and blowing up buildings like some shitty 3rd graders throwing tantrums just to try and get attention. We’ll they got it alright, but not the kind they’d be hoping for.” “What’s got these guys so mad off anyway?” Tore wonders. “Can’t say for sure. Something about their economy being screwed over but the report didn’t say. Come to think it, the report didn’t say much of anything. Just about the terrorists and to meet some asshole on the edge of town.” “Man, I can’t wait to glide across the flooded streets, waving hello to passing people in canals. Wonder if they’ll be a motorboat just speeding by.” the blue boy hopes. “Tore...that’s Venice Italy.” Mally corrects. “Yeah, sorry bro. We ain’t going swimmin tonight.” Roy adds. “Aw dammit.”

The trios flight soon comes to a soft descent, the pair of angels landing upon the roof of an abandoned building; broken and beaten into beyond any hope of repair. “So why out of anywhere else is this gorgeous city are we meeting this somebody out in a wreck like this.” the blue boy asks. “Don’t know. Me thinks that an Austrian official wouldn’t want people to find out that they’re dealin with a less than morally encompassing mercenary.” The purple merc answers. “Hang on. You’re taking this job from somebody in the government.” Mally questions, leaping off of her blue brothers back. “Yep, taking an order from the very top. Every hardcore merc’s dream. Just doing one job for those political swine holes can land ya hearty trillions in reward money, stuff that can set you and dozens other for life. I’ve reached the top motherfuckers!”

“It seems like we’re a far ways out. You know when this informant of yours is supposed to get here?” the blue angel wonders. “Should be coming around here soon. Guess we’ll know who they be when they show up.” the merc mentions. “So you don’t even know what this asshole’s supposed to look like? Why would even go along with something this ludicrously shady?” Mally disputes. “Welcome to the vast underbelly of the mercenary world, sis. A dangerous field of work filled to the brim with limitless shady dealings and boundless distrusting anonymity. Ain’t no pretty line of labor, but it’s one I excel at.” “I’m not to sure about this, Roy.” Tore worries. “Will you two cool it. I’ve done this whole dance with darkness plenty of times now. Just let me do all the talkin and we’ll smoothly sail through the shadows.” Reassuring such, the merc heads for the door leading downstairs; both of his sibling looking at one another with unsure glares.

Descending down from the rooftop of the broken building, the three find themselves standing within a dimly lit room; the sides littered with debris, garbage, and moldy wooden crates. “Wow. I wonder why people just put their garbage in random broken down buildings like this. Might as well just tear the whole place down and replace it with a giant dumpster.” Tore jests. “Ugh, tell me about it. This place smells worse then the sewage treatment place I pass on the way to school. How much longer will it be before this informant of yours shows up?” Mally asks her purple brother. Turning away from a set of crates in the corner, the merc admits that: “Think we might have gotten here a little early. It could take awhile; half an hour or two I bet. Ah well, guess that’s time zone’s for ya.” “So you’re expecting us to just wait in this house fly paradise until your informant shows their rear?” Tore frets. “That be the game plan.” To their purple brothers words, both Tore and Mally groan aloud; their wailing echoing throughout the dim building. “Hey! Hey! Cut that shit out!” the merc demands. Though still disappointed, the two cease their howling upon their brothers orders; their faces looking like the ones an upset toddler would show their moms. “I ain’t havin any of this whining bullshit while I’m here, kids. Merc work ain’t just all beatings and speedings. Sometimes ya need to apply some patience.”

And with this, the trio can do little but await for the purple merc’s informant to show themselves; passing the time by distracting themselves in various ways. Through the dim room, the trio start to lightly spar; throwing and blocking punches and kicks to one another. Tore soon feels his sister hit the side of his chest, stopping Mally in her tracks. From their, he grasps his sisters fist; guiding her knuckles down towards his kidneys. Mally staring up to her blue brother, finds him nodding in confirmation. Standing proudly before her, his sister swings hard into the side he showed her; causing the blue boy to double over in pain. While Mally seems on the verge of panicking, Roy tries his damnedest not to bust out laughing.

Pulling out the paper bag he had grabbed back home, Roy shares the food held within. Mally catches the apple tossed at her, nibbling on its bright red skin with small crunching bites. Tore witnessing a PB&J thrown his way, chomps it whole midair in one bite; smiling from the mixing flavors of the classic snack. The merc himself pulls out a can of Faygo from the depths of his bags paper, smiling as he pops open the top and swigs down the wicked elixir. The blue boy swallowing the sandwich, both his sibling toast the apple and soda; a wide smile stretching across his face.

On the floor, the three attempt to pass the time with a game of paper football; Tore aiming the triangular piece of paper between his sisters fingers while Roy watches on the side. The blue boy finally takes the shot, flicking the piece hard enough to smack into Mally’s eye; the girl falling over as she covers her head. Both her brothers swiftly approach to her aid; worried gazes across their faces.

Eventually, their distractions die down; the three left reduced to simply lying on the cold hard concrete floor. In the seemingly never ending march of boredom, the blue boy breaks the silence with a frustrated scream; drawing the attention of his sibling. “I can’t take this torturous waiting train anymore! Standing around in this oversized garbage dumpster is so boring! It’s been more than 3 hours and this government lackey hasn’t showed head or tail!” “It’s only been 20 minutes.” Mally calmly reminds him. Turning towards his purple brother, the blue boy can’t help but question: “Roy, it’s been way too long now. Don’t you think that whoever posted the job is just screwing with us?” “Hmm...I’m beginning to wonder the same thing.” Rising from the cracked concrete, the merc continues by informing that: “I’ll be up on the roof to see if anyone’s coming, also to get outta this shithole. Place smellin worse then an open graveyard. You two wanna come?” “Nah. It’s way too cold out there.” Tore decline. “Yeah, as rancid as this place is, it’s kinda warm.” Mally adds. “Meh, suit ya selves” With this, the merc heads right up the steps; exiting out the roof doorway.

The sound of the door closing echoing through the room, Mally’s gaze turns towards her blue brother and asks: “Hey Tore, mind if I ask ya something?” “Uh, sure Mal. What’s on your mind?” “Have you’ve been noticing that Roy’s been acting kinda...strange lately.” “Well duh. That’s kinda our default Mally.” “No, I mean like more...unstable…losing his mind and stuff.” “Aw come on.” “I know, but...I-I’m worried. I think all this merc work might be getting to him. Since we moved to Townsville, Roy hasn’t had a lot of sleep. With his job going on during the night, the only time he’s got to sleep is during school.” “Yeah, and the some of the teacher won’t stop hounding him to stay. I keep tellin them that Roy does his schoolwork best when he’s sleeping like a hung over dad fresh from a night out at the strip joint, but they don’t believe me.” “What’s worst is that I catch him talking to himself sometimes, almost as if he’s arguing with somebody.” “Alright look, Mal...Roy’s just kinda goin to a rough patch right now. I mean, he’s adjusting to a new school, new schedule, new place, new people. Hell, he’s even lost an arm. But he’s still pulling through all of it just fine. And ya know why?” Mally looks up from the cracked concrete as her brother continues with: “Because he got us to fall back on. We’ve been through a lot together. Far worse stuff then even most adults have gone through. And we got through it because we got each other by our side. So as long as we’re hand in hand, we can beat life tough ass inside out.” To his brothers speech, Mally can’t help but let out a small chuckle. “Guess I needed to here something cheesy like that.” After letting a relieved sigh, she looks back to the blue boy and thanks him with: “You’re right. I’m sure now he’ll be just fine.”

Sitting atop the edge of the roof, the purple merc gazes up into the pitch black void above; not a single star visible thanks to the city lights shining below. A deep breath leaves his lips as he pulls out his phone; looking away from the night sky and onto its bright screen. Beyond the lock screen, Roy taps into the text; sliding his thumb across the screen until stopping at a single name: Roxanne. Tapping the name reveals a text conversation shared between the two.

Roxanne: “Had a fun night last night.” Roy: “Thanks. Think we meet up again sometime?” Roxanne: “How’s next Saturday sound?” Roy: “Cool! Can’t wait.”

Staring deeply at the conversation, a familiar supporting voice chimes in his head; wondering if: “Are you’re ready for this?” An unsure moan leaves his lungs, the purple angel admitting that: “Gotta be honest Hera...I haven’t felt like this in so long...I’m not too sure.”

Back within the dim confines downstairs, both Tore and Mally simply relax and wait for the informant to get here. Lying against the wall, she lets a small yawn pass through her mouth; smacking her lips as she shakes off her dull inducing drowsiness. Tempting to distract herself from the seemingly endless boredom, her gaze drifts over towards the stack of crates in the corner; her site beholding a stray shadow beside the boxes. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she takes another glance to the crates; soon witnessing the same shadow retreat from behind the boxes. Having witnessed the shadow slip inside, Mally dons her helmet as she approaches her blue brother. “Hey Tore. There was something else I forgot to mention about Roy.” she feigns to Tore. “Alright...what now?” the blue boy ignorantly wonders.

Once next to her brother, she pulls him in face to face; whispering to him: “I think they’re might be somebody watchin use behind those crates.” Hearing his sister mutter such a warning, Tore eye’s gaze out towards the only set of boxes in the room. “Think it might be the informant Roy told us about?” the blue boy whispers. “Don’t know. Roy didn’t bother telling us about him. They could just some homeless guy. Let’s just act casual and see with happens.”

With this suggestion, Tore picks up where he thinks the false conversation by blurting: “Whoa, really. Can’t believe he even stoops to something like that. When he gets back down here, were gonna have a long talk with him...And kick him in the testies.” Saying this, the blue both badly feign walking off towards the side; Mally sliding her palm against her face as she starts putting on her skates.

Quickly tying her pink skates, the skater soon sees the shadow of an arm peek out from behind the boxes, the shadow of a knife held above. Realizing her brothers back turned away, she rushes over to him as fast as possible; the man behind the boxes throwing his sharp dagger right towards the back of Tore’s head. Just before the flying knife could plunge itself into the blue angels head, Mally tackles her brother aside; the dagger instead piercing through a lone garbage bag.

Falling onto the cracked concrete floor, Tore fires a white ray right at the cluster of crates; someone in an overcoat dashing out from the resulting explosion. Rising from the cold floor, both Tore and Mally stand back to back and scan through their surroundings for any sign of their overcoat assassin; watching the countless bags of garbage and scraps of broken appliances lying around the edges of the room. “So sis, ya got any plans in that helmeted head of yours.” the blue angel asks. “This guy seems to be waiting for an opening to strike. Me thinks we should counter with strat 26.” his sister suggests. “Ooh, that’s always a good one.”

In the midst of their standoff, Mally witnesses a faint shadow trailing into a junk pile left at the wayside; the skater digging through her pocket to pull out her trusty grapple-yo. Casting the gadget out towards the pile, she wraps its string around a destroyed fridge; uprooting it from the cluster junk. Swinging the broken icebox throughout the room, Mally slams the heavy appliance into the countless piles of scrap and garbage; her blue brother ducking under the passing string. Soon, she swings the broken freezer high in the air; sending the fridge back down onto the pile it came from like a crashing hammer. From the impact, their overcoat assassin leaps up in the air, pulling out two dual pistols and aiming right at the skater in his descent. Firing down a storm of bullets, Tore blocks his sister from the led assault; gliding towards the assailant as his foe lands. The angel grabs hold of the assassins pistols by their front, crushing their barrels with his bare hands.

Releasing his destroyed firearms; the mysterious assassin jumps back from his blue adversary, pulling out a sharp machete in his retreat. The edge of his blade coated in green, the figure in the overcoat thrusts his poisoned blade towards Tore; the lethal lunge stopped by the neck of a hockey stick. Blocking their poisonous sting be the orange haired skater, pushing the overcoat foe back and away from her brother. Swiftly striking back, the coated assassin slashes rapidly swings at the skater; Mally blocking and dodging the blades barrage. In a single swing; the skater knocks the assassins poisoned machete out from their hand; the blade breaking through the glass of a window. Having disarmed her assailant, Mally readies to deal the finishing blow; the coated assassin jumping out from her swing. High above the skaters head, her foe pulls out a slew of butterfly knives from their sleeves; tempting to rain their sharp steel down upon the orange haired girl.

Just before the assassin could unleash their steel rain, they’re snatched in the air by the blue angel; Tore holding his assailants in the air and spinning them about. “Get ready Mal!” the blue boy exclaims. Upon her brothers word; Mally rushes out towards the edge of the room; skating up through the molding wall. His sister near the roof, Tore flings the their foe across the room; the assailant careening over the horizontal support beam. Leaping off the top of the wall, the skater tangles her grapple yo around the assassins throat; soon trailing herself and the string over the support beam. Both descending from each side of the metal beam, only one of them lands back upon the concrete floor; Mally suspending the assassin in the air via her yoyo. Feeling its hold tighten around their neck, the figure in the overcoat attempts to free themselves from the yoyo’s tense hold; the string too thin to pry off. Eventually, the last of the assailants breath leaves their lungs; the coated assassins body going completely limp.

Having finished the overcoated assassin, Mally drops their lifeless body; their facade shedding to reveal a blonde haired man. The skater reels her grapple yo back in the palm of her hand; her brother descending from behind and congratulating her with: “Way to go, Mal. Really stuck to the strangling perfectly.” “Thanks. Didn’t think we could pull it off, to be honest. Barely had anytime to practice it.” “What the hell is happening down here!?” they hear a familiar voice shout. Gazing back towards the flight of steel steps, the duo find their purple brother climbing down; a less than pleased expression painted across his face. “Roy!” Tore excitedly exclaims.

Rocketing towards the merc, the blue boy goes on to explain how: “You’ll never guess what we just did! We pulled off strat 26! Ain’t that amazing!?” “Roy, what the hell?” they hear their sister call out. The two angels turning towards the skater, they hear her question: “Why didn’t you warn us there was someone in here. Could’ve save us a ton of trouble.” “I thought he was just some homeless crackhead.” “The guy was waiting all night for us to let our guard to go down, attacked from the shadows like a hobo ninja.” the blue boy elaborates. “Will you guys gimme a break!? Maybe the guy wants to overdose in peace, ever think of that?”

Skating over towards the guys remains, Mally digs into the contents of his overcoat; pulling out what seemed to be a wallet of sorts. Opening it revealed displayed along the face an ID of sorts; the golden symbol of an eagle sown on the other side. “Hey Roy, think ya know what this eagle might be for.” she asks, showing her siblings the emblem. While Tore looks upon the symbol with curious wonder, Roy’s eyes widen, mentioning how: “That- that’s the same crest that was on the report.” Hearing this, the blue boy hisses between his teeth, guiltily admitting that: “Nnn...I think that might’ve been the informant.” “Really!? Ya don’t say dumbass!”

Leaping off the stairs, Roy glides over towards the dead man his siblings had dispatched; hearing Mally question: “If we was who he was waiting on, then why did he attack us?” “Dude probably thought it was a set up seeing the two of you. If I had some shady dealing going on and didn’t see who took the job, I’d think the same thing.”

Landing next to the freshly dead corpse, the purple merc begins to strip him down; Mally soon covering her eyes and asking: “Egh! What are you doing!?” “Tryin to see if this asshole had anything on him. These kind of government lackey usually keep files of their assignments on hand.” Roy’s search soon has him dig through the corpse overcoat, pulling out a folder from one of pockets. “Ah, jackpot! We’re in the clear, kiddies!” the merc exclaims, holding the folder up high. “Eh, cool. But...did ya hafta strip the guy nude to get’em.” Tore wonders. “Not really, just wanna take a peak of the package he had down their. Third time in my life have I ever been so disappointed.” “Just read the damn thing already!” his sister demands.

With a disgruntled groan, he cracks the folder wide open; a relieved breath leaving his lungs. “Looks like this job ain’t a bust just yet. Got our assignment right here.” “Alright! What all does it say?” his blue brother asks. Checking the dossier once agains, he explains aloud that: “Says here that the terrorist group plans on attacking the Austrian Parliament building tonight.” “Cool, so...what’s that?”. “Basically like a building politicians gather to discuss stuff like rules, trade, bunch of boring stuff like that.” “So, from what all we got in here; I’m guessin that were supposed to stop these assholes and uproot them from their base of operation. Could’ve gotten a lot more out of it if the guy this thing came from wasn’t choked to death.” Roy elaborates, staring at his siblings right at the end. “Hey, the guy shot first! It was self defense!” Tore exclaims. With an irritated groan, the merc takes one more look at the file; his demeanor quickly winding up as he adds: “Oh shit! Attack’s supposed to go on in 20 minutes!” “Well what’re we waiting for!? Let’s move!” Their sister proclaiming such, the three rush up through the steel steps; soon taking off into the Austrian night sky.

Streaking through the cold Vienna skyline, the trio glide east above the city streets; the lights below shining upon the angelic duo’s chest. In their flight across the Austrian city, the orange haired skater can’t help but turn towards his purple sibling and question: “Oy, Roy. If these government guys know about these terrorists attack, then why are all of them still going along with the get together.” “Most of them probably don’t even know that its goin down tonight. Too worried about laws and trade to even check.” “Can’t we just warn them all?” Tore suggest. “Not a bright idea. Since our report came from the government themselves, a couple of the guys in there might see the bullet coming and don’t wanna tell anyone. Don’t wanna risk making the uninvited guests suspicious, do we?”

“Roy, I feel like you’re leaving something out.” Mally accuses. “Oh, pfft. Gimme a fuckin break Mal. You honestly think I’m the kind of deceitful piece of jack ass shit that’d lie to ya like that?” To his defense, both of the purple brother’s sibling gaze upon him with contemptuous glares; their wordless gazes being all Roy can take before caving him. “Ahhghn...Fine. The other reason why I don’t wanna go in there is cause...I kinda wound up on the country’s wanted list.” “What!? What’d kind of kooky 90’s action cop flick style shenanigans did you do to get the entire country after your purple hide?” the blue angel question. “I miiiight have done something to piss of one of the Austrian government boys. It’s nothing that bad, I swear.” Roy reassures. “You fucked their daughter, didn’t you?” Mally guesses. “That, and their son.” Reveal such scandalous escapades makes the merc’s sister let loose an upset groan, Roy adding with devious smile that: “They were twins.” “Roy!” the skater harshly exclaims. “Relax. They were the same age as me...I think.” “Not the point here.”

Guiding her blue brother closer to the merc, Mally continues her scolding by mentioning how: “You can’t keep going on these amorous shenanigans anytime you see a nice ripe ass or a big fat dick. You keep getting in trouble with this kinda shit.” “Yeah, like the time in middle school where you were screwing around the principal’s son. The guy went so catty batty banana’s, he tried to burn the whole school down.” their blue brother brings up. “It ain’t my fault he went freaky for fruit loops! Maybe the district shouldn’t have hired a bipolar asshole to run the place.” Their sister than brings the conversation back on track, baiting Roy’s attention with: “The point were making here, Roy, is that his kind of scandalously frisky habits of yours need to screech to a stop. Else, you’re not only gonna land only yourself, but your entire family and beyond in some serious shit.” “Oh come on! Neither of you think I can handle all of it? I’m been fishing in the vast, dangerous waters of the amorous sea’s for 2 years straight now and it hasn’t gotten the overly swollen testicles to bite back.” “Hey, think I see our ahead up ahead.” Tore points out.

With the Austrian parliament building locked in their sites, the trio float down upon its flat rooftop; Mally jumping off of her blue brothers backside. Landing on the rooftop, Tore himself throws his purple another question; asking: “So, if your banned from the country, then why would a government official hire you. Wouldn’t that get them blacklisted or something?” “Well considering that the job came from an anonymous source, they might already know that and are wanting to keep things on the down low. Plus, with my kind of resume; how the hell could they refuse.”

“So, how we gonna snoop out these uber Austrian bastards anyway?” Mally question. “We got all we need to track those home grown terrorist right here.” Roy answers, pointing to himself. “Oh please. You couldn’t even snoop out your informant before we wound up doing him in.” “Gimme a break alright! I thought he was just one cracked out bum. A terrorist attack on the other hand’ll need a whole orgy’s worth of motherfuckers to pull off. Bet they’ll all try and bust in while all the politicians in there are busy yapping their asses away. But before they can, we’ll all dive down onto them and beat their uber assholes through the seven layers of hell and back on the other side of the earth.” “So were just supposed to wait here until they show up?” Tore questions. “Again?” Mally adds. “That’s the game plan.” To their brothers strategy, both the merc’s brother and sister groan aloud; Roy himself demanding that they: “Hey, hey; shut it, you two. You want the whole damn block down there to know we’re up here.” His siblings reluctantly comply with their purple brothers demands; upset glare drawn upon their faces. “I ain’t gonna have my chances go off the rails just cause you two are feeling bored. We’re gonna wait here and watch for those domestic terror fuckers until I say otherwise. We clear?” “Yes, your majesty.” both sarcastically comply.

And so, the trio await patiently atop the roof of the parliament building; passing the time in their own way until the action arrives. Curious of what the people inside could be discussing, the blue boy approaches the sunroof and peeks inside; finding a whole room full of well dressed people inside. Pressing his ear against the glass, Tore could hear their political disputes; a curious expression forming upon his face. Mally meanwhile passes the time by practicing with her grapple-yo; casting out her gadget and twirling it in the air performing trick. These practices eventually causes the skater to get caught in a bind of her own trappings; her Yoyo entangling around her hands. Roy meanwhile can’t help but sit along the edge of the building, staring down onto the screen of his phone with the text conversation still on; a visible breath escaping from the purple angel’s lunges.

The blue angel soon withdraws from the clear ceiling window, approaching her struggling as she tempts to untangle herself from her own yoyo’s string. “I can’t understand a single word those guys are saying in there. It all just sounds like random gibberish.” he goes on to explain, starting to help his sister sort out the string of her grapple-yo. “Why? Cause it’s all political stuff.” she wonders. “No, cause I can’t understand a lick of German. All I’m getting outta it is nothing but a bunch of “Gutens” and “Wirtschaft’s”. Sound pretty funny though.” “Well maybe Roy can give ya some lessons. He won’t shut up how he’s been all over the world.” “Whadya say, Roy? Think you can gimme some pointers on the complex and foreign workings of the cultural German tongue?” The blue boys question however is left unanswered; Roy continuing to sit upon the buildings edge, staring down upon his phone. “Uh, Roy...you there?” he asks to bait is attention. “Roy?...Roooy?” Alas, Tore’s calls fall on deaf ears; the merc himself remained gazing upon the text conversation between him and Roxanne. Finally, the merc finally hears their cry when Mally mildly shouts at him: “Yo, Roy! You listening!?”

The suddenly loud call catches Roy off guard; his surprise causing him to loose grip of his phone. “No!” the merc utters. With his single hand, he attempts to catch the midair mobile device before it starts to plummet; his grip failing to grasp the phone in time. “Dammit!” Watching as his device descends towards the hard concrete, Roy soon witnesses his sister’s yoyo grab hold of the phone just before it hit the pavement; the gadget retracting up through the parliaments edge and flying high in the air. Soon, the yoyo and phone plummet back down towards the roof; the mobile device landing right in Mally’s untangled hands. “Gotcha!”

Standing off the buildings edge, Roy approaches his sister with a thankful smile; congratulating the skater with: “Nice save, Mal. I owe ya.” The purple merc soon finds his orange haired sibling staring at the screen; his hairs standing on end as he hears Mally asks: “Roy...who’s Roxanne?” Swiftly swiping his phone back from her hands, Roy responds to her curious question with: “It’s somebody you don’t have to stick your nose in. Hear me?” “Oh oh! It’s it one of your merc buddys!” Tore pops in guessing. “Sounds more like a fuck buddy to me?” Mally adds. “Could be a drug buddy.” “Roy’s not on drugs though.” “Oh, right.” “Think it might be an old school buddy.” the skater questions. “Eh, I don’t remember anyone back then called Roxanne. Maybe a current school buddy.” Tore guesses. “He isn’t that well liked in school though. He won’t stop pickin fights and asking people to fuck. Foreign buddy?” “Could be. Hey Roy, is Roxanne some new foreign buddy. Huh?” the blue angel asks his purple brother. “Yeah Roy, are they?” Mally hounds. “Come on, Roy. Tell us.” “Ya gotta. We need to know.” “Were just gonna keep asking til ya tell us.” “Spill your brains out, you devilish purple bastard!” Their constant hounding eventually gets Roy to cave in; harshly demanding the two to: “Alright! Just both of ya shut the fuck up.” Both of his siblings listen closely; awaiting in anticipation for their purple brother to answer them.

A heavy breath passes through Roy’s lips; soon admitting to the two of them that: “Roxanne is...My...my new girlfriend.” To the mercs response, both of their faces swiftly go sour; Mally asking: “I’m sorry...What?...” “She’s my girlfriend. We’ve been dating.” “Is...are you serious?” Tore wonders. “Oh my god, yes. I’m going out with her. How many times to I have to say it?” “Oh...Oh that is just unfortunate...” Mally dreads.

“Pffth, okay. Why is me getting a girlfriend such a big bombshell for you two?” the merc question. “I don’t know, Roy. You tell me why a sexual deviant like you being in a committed relationship is so baffling?” the skater sarcastically asks back. “Especially since you haven’t really been like that with anybody. Not since...well...umm-” the blue angel adds. “I can handle being in a loving relationship just fine, thank you very much.” “We’re being serious here, Roy. If you’re not screwing around about all this, then you can’t have you’re less than abstinent habits screw you over. Pun intended.” Mally states. “How long have you even been going out with his girl for?” Tore wonders. “Hnnn...thinks its been about a week. Somewhere close to that.” “You’ve been going out with this poor girl for that long and you’ve already cheated on her with two other dudes?” the skater reminds him. “You saw those two?” “Of course we did, Roy. Who wouldn’t notice a couple of nearly nude teenage boys streaking across the neighborhood?” the blue boy questions. “Tsk, so I gotta couple asses on the side. What’s the big whoop?” the merc questions. “The big whoop here is that if you don’t want your girlfriend walkin out on your ass, then you gotta stop chasing ass. No more booty chasin, no more cock gobblin, and especially no last second bangs with people you barely know.” Mally chastises. “And how do you she ain’t into that stuff?” Roy counters with, making his siblings loudly growl.

“I don’t havta drop a damn thing sista. I can keep up being with my girl with staying dick deep in the wonderful world of fornication.” the merc declares. “That isn’t how a stable relationship is supposed to work!” Mally claims. “Oh, and like you two know out one does? Mr. “I don’t give a rats ass about being with anyone.” and Ms. “I’m too much of a nervous lesbian to ask anyone out.” “I’m working out my own problems. But that don’t mean neither of us can’t work on yours.” “Roy...We love you. And we just want you to be happy.”

Struck with the statement from his siblings, the purple angel is left upset and speechless. Roy then turns away from the two; his gaze aimed towards the buildings set to the side. “At least look at us while were chewing you out!” the skater demands. “Shut it. I’m sensing something over there...A crowd of people clustered around that building over there.” the merc informs, pointing over towards a run down building set along the street ahead. “Think it might be the terrorists?” Tore asks. “Don’t know. Could be.” In that moment, Roy turns back towards both of his siblings; ordering the two with: “Both of you stay up on this roof. Not sure what they’re planning yet, so I need two of you here if they try anything up close.” Having relayed those orders, the purple merc fly out towards the broken building in question. “We’re not done talking about this, Roy.” Mally warns his leaving brother. Watching the black winged angel soar above the streets, the skater can’t help but let out a worrying sigh; hoping aloud that: “Just wish we could get through to him.” She soon feels her blue brothers palm on her shoulder; her gaze turning to Tore as he assures that: “We will, Mally. He just need some time to process all this. That’s all.”

In his flight above the Austrian streets, the black winged angels tempts to calm himself from the heated discussion; assuring to himself that: “What the fuck is their deal? I’ve been in a relationship once before, I sure as hell can do it again.” “Can you, though? Your less than wholesome habits may work to hinder your honest efforts.” the merc hears echo in his head. “Oh come on. You’re on my ass too? Why the hell is everybody trying to shove their dicks in my personal life?” “I’d much rather call it...divine intervention.” “And I’d rather call it bullshit. The hell is your point?” “My point is that from as much as I’ve seen, you honestly seem to want to make things work with this girl. So if you would be so kind as to help shed some light on a few simple questions that I have. Is that okay?” With a small breath passing through his nose, the merc tells the voice in his head to: “Fire away.”

“Roy...Do you honestly like this Roxanne girl?” “Yeah...” “How does she make you feel?” “...Better.” “How long do you hope to be with her?” “...” “Roy?” “For as long as I can.” “Well then...If your wanting to have a long, meaningful relationship with this woman, then you must be willing to make and maintain some commitments. Part of loving somebody is to make compromises with one another; to make sacrifices for your other to stay together.” “So what’re you saying I have to give up? My wealth, my body...my mind?” “I’m referring to more along the line of what you enjoy in life. The pleasures that somebody of your...deviancy constantly partakes in.” Roy fails to give the goddess a response to her statement, simply gazing below; taking in the view of the Austrian streets. Walking through the Vienna streets be couples walking together hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder; huddling together through the cold passing winds. Set along those concrete streets be various restaurants, packed with all kinds of couples of all ages and all sex’s; mingling and eating together. Staring out to these loving couples, the merc hears the goddess finish with: “Believe me, Roy. If Roxanne really loves you, then there’s no doubt that she’ll do the same for you.” Hera’s last statement leaves the purple angel with food for thought; platters of statements and meals of questions that he knows he’ll have to swallow soon. But alas, those morsels be put on hold as he begins to descends upon the abandoned building; sensing the group of people below the rooftop.

Quietly cracking open the rooftop doorway, the purple merc’s ears catch the sound of German echoing through the stair way; careful to not make a single peep as he slowly comes inside. Hovering over the old wooden steps, Roy descend through the molding stairway; the voices below growing louder the further he flies down. Roy’s descent soon takes him down to a run down hallway; the stretching darkness ahead upset by a dim light shining out from an open doorway. Peeking through this doorway has the merc discover what his senses have warned him about: a whole crowd of people donned in masks; their design resembling an upside down white falcon. Littered around the sides of the decrepit room be large wooden crates, with some of the renegades sitting atop their lids; some of the boxes toppled on their side to reveal nothing within. Kinda makes one wonder what the hell these guys are up to. Aside from some weapons and grenades, they don’t really look that prepped to take on the big house. What even came in those crates anyway?

As he wonders what their plans could involve, a booming voice grabs the entire rooms attention; everyone’s eyes glued to a tall, hulking figure with snow white hair standing in front of the window. “(Listen up everyone.)” Through her muscular body, patches of ice layer parts of her skin; small icicles forming out from the coats of frost. She soon points her icy finger out towards the parliament building in the distance; starting her speech with: “(Our city’s capital there has been infested with greedy swine. Heartless pigs that have more than eagerly left the people of this country’s starving out in the cold to line their pockets. Hyper inflating our economy was the last mistake those swine will make. Tonight, this economic nightmare shall come to an end!)” After her announcement, the entire room is swept in an uproar; cheering upon their icy leaders declaration.

Once the crowds hype dies down, the cold hard woman points out towards the side of the room as she calls for: “(Lukas, approach.)” Out from the crowd, a masked man with blonde hair steps forward; a remote grasp firmly in the palms of his hands. “(Yes, my cold commander?)” “(Have the explosives been set in place?)” the icy woman wonders. “(Indeed they have. With all of them packed tightly together nice and neat, the resulting explosion should wipe out the entire building and all who reside inside.)” Hearing these plans unfold, the merc thinks to how both of his siblings are still awaiting at the rooftop; his eyes swiftly squinting out to the blonde man. “(Excellent! Now the only thing left to do is set of the detonator. Care to do the honors, Lukas?)” the woman offers. “(I would be honored to, Ilana.)” “(Right. On my count. 10...9...8...7...)” In the midst of their countdown, Roy swiftly slides right inside; his eyes locked right on the cold commanders second hand man.

“(3...2...1…Now!)” Upon the end of her countdown, the icy leader watches the parliament building out in the distance closely, awaiting for the entire place to erupt in a fiery explosion. Alas, her vision of the capitals destruction fails to come; seeing not a single hint of red among the black sky. “(Lukas...You...You can press the button-)” Turning over to her comrade, he find the detonator having vanished from his hand; a gaping red hole laying across his chest. “(Button?)” Her right hand man falls right upon the wooden floor in a splatter of his own blood; the entire room taken back by Lukas sudden demise. “(You know...)” they all hear. Turning out towards the side of the broken room; the entire group finds the purple merc sitting atop one of the crates; the detonator in his hand. “(I can’t really imagine what your next move might’ve been. Did you really think that just blowing up a pig pen would just solve everything? If that’s your last step, then you guys are a long way off from your cause.)” With this declaration does Roy crush the detonator in his hand; its pieces falling upon the cracked wooden floor.

One of the henchmen breaks from their shock and lets out a vengeful growl, pulling out a pistol as he curses out: “(You bastard!)” Aiming his pistol right at the purple merc, the goon fires right at his forehead; the led bullet proving completely ineffective as it simply ricochets right off Roy’s noggin. “(Yeah, bullets won’t work.)” he warns as he points out towards the gunman. Shooting out a small black beam from the tip of his finger, the merc blows the cronies hand off with a single blast; his painful screams echoing throughout the broken room. Though a lot of the crowd proves distracted by their comrades, one of them sneaks around towards their purple guests back; swinging out a heavy iron crowbar to his head. Before she could slam her weapon down upon the merc’s skull, her crowbar is swiftly caught just before she could touch even a hair. Tempting to snatch her weapon away from the purple mercs hands, she finds his grips far too strong; Roy himself turning towards the unlucky henchwoman and warning that: “(Sneak attacks won’t cut it either.)” After saying such, the merc snatches the crowbar out from the goons hand and pierces its sharp end right through her chest; the crony sent slamming into the wall upon impact. In hopes of overpowering their unwelcomed guest, the rest of the crowd comes charging at the merc all at once; Roy jump off the crate and facing the crowd with a devious grin.

The first one out from the approaching mob be a man with a massive hammer; swinging the hard iron end out towards the purple merc. With but his only arm, Roy blocks the henchman’s iron hard swing; grasping the hammers hard flat end. He soon sense somebody else lunging after, the merc glancing towards his right to discover a woman with a cattle prod closing in. Dodging around the goons electrical stab, Roy pulls the man with the hammer in her path; the henchwomen inadvertently delivering an intense shock to one of her own comrades, The shock causes the hammer wielding terrorist to lose grip of his weapon; the purple merc taking the opportunity to snatch the heavyweight hammer away. In his grasp, Roy smacks the two goons away; swinging the heavy iron hammer almost as lightly as a wooden stick.

While the two goon can’t help but knock over some of their approaching comrades, others leap out from their tumbling teammates; diving down towards the purple merc with their own firearms. The airborne renegades rain down a shower of led bullets down upon the purple merc; none of their fire even coming close to hurting Roy. “(The hell did I just get done saying?)” he chastises, as he readies to throw the hammer in his hand. Tossing the heavy iron hammer at one of the terrorist, he fires down a couple of his own barrage up towards the descending cronies; the hammer and his rays striking them back. His beams don’t intercept all of the falling goons; a lone henchwomen diving down towards the merc with a sharp blade in her hands. Right when the tip was on the verge of stabbing Roy’s eye, the purple merc catches the goons blade before it could plunge itself into his pupil. Roy kicks the woman aside and snatches her blade out from her leaving grip, tossing the sword out towards the groups cold commander; watching as Ilana effortlessly steps out from the blades careening flight.

From the other side of the room, one of the icy woman’s goons pulls the pin out from a lone grenade; tossing the ticking explosive out towards their purple foe. Roy quickly glances over and finds the small bomb closing in; a smile stretching across the merc’s face as he lifts his leg back. Like an oncoming kick ball, he boots the bomb right back towards the mob of cronies; the crowd attempting to dive for cover as they witness the grenades return. Alas, they fail to find any cover in time; a good chunk of the terrorist consumed by their own bombs blazing blast.

“(You bombing motherfuckers should’ve came better prepared. You guys really think these shitty toys are supposed to stop me?)” the merc mocks. Though he attempts to chase after the rest of the renegade herd, Roy soon finds his feet glued to the floor; glancing down to see a coat of ice quickly crawling up from his legs. Just before he could even attempt to escape, the encroaching frost quickly consume his body; hearing in his icy prison: “(They might not.)” The merc gazes out towards the window; the frost freezing him revealing to have come from the cold commanders own hands. “(But I might.)” she finishes. After entrapping the merc in a cold cage of her own making, the icy leader starts to approach; a disgusted look forming upon her face as she gazes upon Roy’s own features. “(Unbelievable. To think that those government swine would have the gall to send someone so young as a teenager after us.)” Ilana complains. “(Hey!...You ain’t dealing with some random...punk ass teenager.)” he struggles to object from his shivering voice. “(Truly not. The way you’ve torn through a good chunk of my forces being more than enough proof of that.)” “(What are we supposed to do now? We can’t risk someone like him following us back to base.)” one of the henchman questions. Gazing upon the merc’s face, she lets out a small sigh, agreeing on how: “(I’m afraid you’re right.)” The cold commander then erects a sharp ice spear from the palm of her hand; claiming to the merc how: “(Our cause cannot allow someone of your lethal caliber to stop us, even if it means snuffing out a life as short as yours.)” The city woman then aims her icicles frosted tip onto the young merc’s head; apologizing with: “(And for that...I am truly sorry.)” “(Don’t be.)” Roy denies. From his statement, the ice coating him begins to quickly crack apart at the seems; parts Roy’s body beginning to break free. Hoping to end the purple boy before he can free himself, the ice cold commander thrusts her sharp icy needle at the mercs head. Roy right then and their bursts out from the cold commanders icy prison as his black wings sprout forth; the shock wave breaking apart her thrusting icicle.

Free from the icy leaders cold cage, the purple angel kicks out towards the one who entrapped him in the first place; swinging his leg out towards Ilana’s side. Though the cold commander manages to block the merc’s kick with her icy solid arm, her frosty armor proves no match for angels raw strength; Ilana sent careening across the room. After tumbling back towards the opposite side, the icy leader places her palms upon the wooden floor; a trail of frost snaking through her remaining forces feet and climbing across the wall behind the merc. From behind the purple angel, razor sharp frost blades pop out from the frost; some of which slicing the side of his leg. Roy flies away from the icy wall before the rest of the ice needles could spring out; throwing out a pitch black ball of dark power in his advance towards the terrorists cold commander. Stopping his approach be some of her masked cronies, coming at the purple angel with brass knuckles, chainsaws, and sickles.

As the merc fights off her clustering goons, Ilana herself watches the angels ball of dark power as she creates an icy bat in the palm of her hands; taking a batting stance against the approaching black sphere. With one powerful swing, the cold commander smacks the merc’s own ball of black energy bacl towards the purple angel. Witnessing his own sphere on the brink of returning, Roy grabs hold of one of the commanders cronies and uses him as a human shield; the terrorist exploding in a shroud of black smoke. Soon lunging out from this cloud of darkness be the purple merc, charging right towards the icy leader once more. On the black winged angel’s approach, Ilana plunges her frosted bat right into the wooden floor; the frost spreading out soon erecting a rising block of ice right underneath the merc. The ice halting his lunging flight, Roy attempts to push the rising ice back towards the floor; his back soon meeting with the ceiling in his struggles. Her black winged foe trapped between the roof and her climbing ice, Ilana creates a cavalcade of icy spears to rise out towards the merc. Finally, Roy delivers a powerful headbutt right to the top of the frosty pillar; the cold commanders column of ice shattering into tiny pieces. Discovering the icy spears growing beneath him, the merc blasts away the ascending cavalcade of frosty spikes just before they could reach; Roy snatching one of them right out from the resulting explosion. Twirling in his descent, the purple angel decides to imitate the cold commander and fling one of her spears pointed tips right back at her; Ilana herself erecting a thick icy shield in hopes of stopping her own spears approach. Though her icy javelin manages to halfway pierce through her frosty barrier, Roy on the other hand breaks right through her defense as he tackles through her icy shield.

The purple angels tackling assault sends the terrorists icy leader tumbling right into the wall; Roy landing right before her as she gazes up. The merc looks upon the cold commander with a sinister smirk; a powerful pitch black power charging in his palm as he proclaims: “(Game, set, match.)” Before he could finish off the frosty leader, Roy feels something smack against the back of his head; glancing back to witness the rest of the remaining terrorists scuttling behind the wooden crates. His gaze drifting down, the merc lets out a little chuckle; finding nothing but a grenade aside his feet. “(It’s like you people never learn.)” he scolds as he readies to kick the bomb back. Unfortunatly for him, the grenade goes off earlier than he expects; Roy covering his face from the expecting explosion. Though instead of a violently fiery explosion, the bomb expels a thick pink cloud into the open air; Ilana encasing herself in an icy shell to block out the gas. Turning back towards the cold commander, Roy readies to break through her frosty defenses; claiming how: “(You still think that your shitty ice can still stop me?)” Right before he could end it, his offense soon starts to slowly dwindle; growing ever more tired among the surrounding smoke. “(Sleeping gas?...dammit...)” Driven to the brink of drowsiness, Roy finally descends into a deep slumber; dropping down onto the wooden floor below.

After the gas soon dissipates, Ilana sheds her icy shell and stands back up; gazing upon the merc’s unconscious body. Walking up towards the window, the cold commander looks out towards the Austrian parliament building; witnessing the cars within in its parking lot pulling out. A heavy sigh passing through her lips, she mentions how: “(It’s honestly a joke on how some teenager could spoil our plans so quickly.)” Her comrades start to come out from behind the cover of the crates, some of them approaching the slumbering merc. “(What do we do now?)” one of the questions. It takes the icy leader a second before answering with: “(Clean up here and return to base.)” “(And...the boy?)” “(...That is no boy. That is a demon.)” With that, the terrorist icy cold commander leaps out through the window; her troops staring down on the unconscious Roy.

Gazing down from atop the parliament buildings rooftop, Mally watches as the last of the cars depart from the parking lot; soon merging with the traffic outside. “Whelp, there goes the last of them. Guess Roy managed to stop those terrorists after all.” “Hey Mally, check this out!” her brother tells her. Having grabbed her attention, both Mally and Tore look out towards the building that Roy had flown to; discovering a figure jumping out through the window. Both brother and sister watch as the figure create a slide made of ice that slides her across the neighboring buildings rooftop; the ramp at the end launching her across the city skyline. “I think that might be one of the terrorists tryin to get away. Come on!” the blue boy mentions. “But what about Roy, shouldn’t we go check on him?” the skater questions. “There ain’t no time. He’ll be fine on his own. Let’s move!” From reassuring this, the blue angel takes off towards the escaping terrorist, Mally jumping off the parliament rooftop and skating through the Vienna streets after.

Back within the broken down building, the icy leaders cronies look upon the purple merc’s slumbering body: one of them suggesting that: “(Let’s just get this over with.)” Mentioning this does another from the crowd grab hold of a machete buried deep within the chest of her comrade; pulling the blade out from the depths of their lung. With her blood covered weapon in hand, the henchwoman slowly approaches the sleeping merc; affirming how: “(You’re death shall avenge those that have fallen tonight. May your sins send you to the depths of hell!)” Declaring this does the goon attempt to end the mercs life right there; aiming her swing right at his neck. Her strike however is stopped at the last moment by a single hand; the merc’s arm grasping her machet. Swiftly snatching the blade away, the purple merc plunges the machete straight through the goons stomach; soon falling over to the shock of her comrades.

Their site swiftly turns back towards their purple foe, all of them watching in horror as he arises from the cracked wooden floor; his head slumped forward and covering his face in darkness. All of them await for whatever the purple merc’s first move may be; some slowly retreating towards the exit. Its then that he instantly lunges out towards the crowd, the entire room scattering away from the approaching angel. Out from the fleeing terrorist group, all of them watch in terror as the merc punches his entire arm straight through one of their teammates through the back; their panic skyrocketing from the horrendous site. “(How!? How is that bastard still awake!?)” Dislodging his arms out from the cronies back, the renegades soon witness the purple merc leap out towards the other side of the room. His foot soon meets with the side of another terrorist, kicking their head straight into the wall beside him; the goons head bursting like a tomato on impact. Backing away from the display of carnage, one of them near the scene frantically questions: “(Did the gas even work!?)” Before his question could be answered, the purple merc dashes over to the goon and rips his arms off like printing paper; soon bashing his head in with his own torn limbs. One of them glances back towards the merc and makes a harrowing discovery; answering that: “(The gas...It did work!)” To her claim all of them look towards the murderous merc, Roy’s head tilting back to reveal his eyes still shut; a soft snore passing through his nose. “(He’s still asleep!)” From their, the sleeping angel dashes out towards the terrorist, the last thing she witnesses be his fingers plunging themselves into her eye sockets.

Creating ice slide after slide, the cold commander of the terrorist slides across the lit Vienna streets like a professional ice skater; the civilians scattering away as she travels through the frozen roads. Ahead, she erects another ramp to launch herself high in the air; performing the greatest 360 pirouette through the midnight sky. Ending her twirl, she casts out a wave of frost to the road below; soon creating a slide out of its ice. Her landing ramp is however swiftly destroyed; a bright pale ball blasting the frosty slide to ice shards. Finding her ramp shattered, Ilana coats her feet in a block of ice; the block taking most of the landing and leaving the icy leader unharmed.

After her chilling landing, the cold commander witnesses the blue angel descend before her; floating inches over the frost ridden roads. “I assume you to be with that purple demon?” she asks him in English. “Ya know it! And together, we’re gonna send your icy ass melting straight of hell!” Tore proclaims, taking his stance against the chilling terrorist. “Hmph, good luck trying. Hopefully you do better than you’re black winged comrade did.” Ilana wishes, standing against the blue boy.

Tempting to sneak in a strike from the cold commander, Mally leaps out from behind her back; ready to swing her hockey stick at the back of her chilling foes neck. Unfortunately, her swing is caught by the last second; the icy terrorist grasping the skaters weapon mere inches from her neck. The very moment that the chilling leader turns back towards her assaulter, Mally’s eyes alight; her face flushing bright red from gazing at her icy smooth features. Bewitched by her cold stare, Mally proves far too distracted to stop her icy adversary from throwing her aside. Careening through the air, the skater find herself tumbling out towards a window; soon casting her grapple you out towards a street lamp and pulling herself to safety. After recovering from her tumbling spiel, Mally skates to her brothers side; Tore wondering if: “You alright, Mal?” “That face...” she utters. “What?” “Never did I think that somebody so ice cold could be so unbelievably hot. I wonder if her mouth taste like ice cream?” “Mally!” Upon her brothers exclamation, the skater snaps out of infatuated daze; hearing her brother continue with: “Put it back in you pants, and focus! We got a fight on our hands!” “You’re blue comrade is right young lady.” they hear their foe advise. Glancing back towards the cold commander, both of them witness frost swirling around Ilana’s hands as she informs that: “If not careful, your infatuation could spell your downfall.”

From where she stands, Ilana casts out a waves of icy needles out from the palms of her hands; the small spears flying out towards the duo before her. While Mally rolls away from the oncoming icy storm, Tore stands his ground and blocks against the cold barrage; the tiny sharp spears breaking upon impact. From her icy salvo, the cold commander watches her roller blading foe jump out towards the row of buildings beside them; the skater gliding over their smooth brickwork walls. Nearing the icy renegades side, Mally leaps off of these walls in attempts to take another swing at her. Ilana erects a massive block of ice to halt her rollerblading foes strike, taken aback how much cracks the skater put onto the thick, icy pillar. This amazement gives the skaters blue brother the moment to approach; swiftly punching the cold commander across the frosted streets. Tumbling through the cold hard roads, Ilana acts fast and cast out frost to the road ahead; erecting a curving ramp that flings her back towards the night sky. Careening above the Vienna streets, the icy renegade aims her legs down towards the blue angel below; coating her feet in a spike covered shell of ice as she descend. Tore swiftly jumps back away from the leaders lethal descent; her spiky ice block shattering upon impact. Some of the scattering pieces wind up getting into the blue angel’s eye in his retreat; Tore covering his face from the flung shard. With the blue angel blinded, Ilana dashes forth and readies to finish him; unaware of the skater trailing right at her side. With third time being the charm, Mally strikes her chilling foe away from her blinded brother; Ilana sent flying towards a nearby lamp post. Quickly constructing an icy sickle in her hands, she hooks herself onto the lamp post; the momentum from her careen rising her right to its top.

Landing gracefully upon the lamps metal cap, the cold commander looks towards the blue angel; Tore whipping away the last of her ice as his site turns towards her. His gaze locked onto their icy adversary, the blue boy fires out a beam of light out towards Ilana; the chilling leader rocketing out from the rays reach with a rising pillar of ice. In her ascending rise in the sky, the cold commander rains down countless icy swallows upon the duo; the birds heavy enough to smash through the cars left on the wayside. While the blue angel rises through the aviary hailstorm, Mally twirls her hockey stick to block against the icy barrage; the birds breaking against her spinning weapons surface.

Ascending through the chilling onslaught, the blue angel powers through the flock until reaching the cold commander herself. From the midst of the barrage, Tore grabs hold of the icy terrorists neck; heaving her overhead and throwing her right towards the streets below. Plummeting towards the concrete roads below, Ilana begins to coat herself in a protective layer of ice; bracing herself for the crash down. Witnessing their icy enemy drop towards the roads below, Mally races after before she can drop; moving through the streets at the speed of sound. With one momentum carrying swing, the rollerblader breaks through the cold commanders icy defenses; sending her chilling enemy careening through the Vienna streets. Ilana soon manages to regain her balance, landing on all fours and sliding back through the concrete roads; a trail of frost left behind in her drag. From the frost do a whole pack of icy leopards jump out into the streets; racing out towards the skater.

Back within the darkness of the abandoned building, the purple merc slowly begins to open his eyes; rubbing the top of his head as he growls out. Dammit! Of course it was a fucking sleep grenade. Why else would those assholes throw an explosive near their own leader. Bitch knew it was one too. Why she shield herself a second time. When those asshole show themselves...again? His thoughts are swiftly silenced upon the site set before him: dozens of torn open, militated bodies littering the room. Oh no. Standing himself up, Roy moves through puddles of blood spilling out through the wooden floor; the spilled organs squishing underneath his feet as he walks through the room. Not again. Roy’s eyes lock upon one of the henchman’s corpse, his mask fallen off to reveal the lifeless pupils staring out into nothingness. God dammit! They were supposed to squeal where their base was at. Slowly beating the info out of them like punching the stuffing out of a screaming heavy bag Now how the hell are we supposed to find there hideout? Questioning such does the merc hear an explosion coming from outside; flying out from window and gazing out behind the abandoned building. Along the streets, the purple angel could find the site of white rays and ice shooting above the buildings; sensing three familiar presences among the chaos. Guessin Tore and Mally wound up chasin after that icy mocha brain freeze of a bitch while she was getting away. Its then that an idea sprouts within Roy’s head, devious smile painting itself across his face as he pulls out his phone. Might just be able to save this whole thing yet.

Back out in the frost covered roads, Ilana stands before the duo; finding the angel and skater nowhere near exhausted as she beginning to feel. Soon, the sound of sirens start to echo through the Vienna streets; the cold commander turning back to discover flashes of red and blue approaching in the distance. A growl seeps out from her teeth before she barks out: “(I don’t have time for this!)” After declaring this, the icy renegade takes in a vast deep breath; bellowing out a thick chilling blizzard towards the two. Both the angel and skater ground themselves midst the freezing gale; Tore blocking against its winds, while Mally pierces the end of her hockey stick in the asphalt road and holds on. The icy storm swiftly passes before either of them realize it; the brother and sister gazing ahead to find their chilling adversary having vanished. “Dammit! Where she go?” Mally question. “She couldn’t have gone far.” Tore declares, soon rising out towards the Austrian night sky. Mally prepares to follow after, but the sound of her ringing phone urges her to stop; pulling her device out from her pocket to find Roy on the other end.

Ascending up through the pitch black sky; the blue angel encircle around him for any sign of the escaping terrorist; eventually finding bits of ice floating out from between a pair of buildings. Diving down towards the alleyway, Tore soon finds their icy target and swoops in after her; Ilana launching out a massive icy pillar up towards the approaching angel. The freezing column fails to even slow down her pursuers advance, Tore landing right on top of the icicle and sliding down its slick surface. Descending down into the alley itself, Tore leaps out towards the chilling renegade; ready to finish her off. Acting fast, Ilana ducks under the approaching angels charge; tossing out bits of frost right into his eyes as he passes through. “Ah! Not again!” he exclaims while tumbling through the alley; careening head first into a brick wall. As the blue boy pulls himself out from the alleyway wall, the cold commander sprints right past him. Dislodging himself from the brickwork, Tore whips the frost out from his eyes; healing them with a bright glow from the palms of his hands. His site returning, the angel catches a glimpse of the freezing terrorist running out into the lit Vienna streets; dashing out in turn to continue his pursuit.

As Ilana skates through the concrete roads, she looks back to see her angelic pursuer swiftly closing in; the chilling woman casting out a cavalcade of icy piranhas back at the approaching angel. Witnessing the school of ice piranha nearing, Tore begins to spin about in his charge; his twirl shattering the barrage of frosty carnivorous fish. Finding her school having been destroyed, the cold commander then throws out a salvo of freezing heavy hammers towards the pursing blue boy. The blue angel punches through the onslaught of mallet; grabbing hold of one of the hammers and flinging them right back towards their sender. The freezing terrorist jumping over her own returning mallet, Ilana quickly creates a huge frost beast in her escape; the monster landing before the blue boy and letting out a chilling roar. With nothing but two punches and a kick, Tore breaks the fierce icy beast to pieces; flying over the monsters remains and closes in.

The blue boys pursuit starts to come to a close; Tore reaching out towards the icy terrorist as he slowly approaches. His finger be mere inches from the cold woman shoulder; the blue angel ready to finally snatch the freezing renegade once and for all. Just when Tore was on the verge of catching her, he feels something wrap around his shoulder; soon jerked away from his escaping target. Sent careening back, the blue boy can do little but watch as Ilana escapes from his site; soon tumbling through the open Vienna roads.

His tumble soon stopping, Tore traces the string hugging his waist; trailing the wire back towards his sisters yoyo. The skater approaching the tangled angel, she hears her brother wonder: “What’s your deal, Mally!? I was just on the verge of pinning her down!” Asking such, he finds his skating sibling handing him her phone; mentioning that: “Roy wants a word.” Taking the mobile device from Mally’s grasp, the blue boy puts it up to his ear and asks: “What’s up my purple bro?” “Listen here. Gonna have to ask the both of ya to stop chasin down that sweet piece of frosty sundae ass.” the purple merc orders. “What? Why?” “Changing the game plan a bit here. We’ll let that icy bitch slide for now. Let her get just comfortable enough to lead us back to her lair. Don’t matter where she tries to hide, her energy’ll give her spot away all the same.” “Oooh, nice one. Mind if I call this little operation of ours “Caught in the cold”? “God dammit.” Roy curses. “No, Tore!” Mally barks. “What the hell, man.” “Seriously bro, don’t.”

[moondriftingold]

some kh3 Hot Takes, saïx/isa edition!

i will admit that i don’t hate the subject x thing as much as i did yesterday, but i still like... hate it. it’s just, like. unnecessary to isa and lea’s journey and their story, in my opinion? i won’t be completely casting it out of my canon, because the idea that isa and lea came across something so disturbing and horrid (in this case, a live, human prisoner) that it would motivate them to continue their search into the castle beyond just curiosity is something i’ve had in mind for a very long time and has been part of my portrayal for years, and this can fit that category. but, this mysterious girl being the motivation for isa and lea to become apprentices? for it to be the sole/largest factor in isa becoming saïx? for saïx/isa to have apparently been so obsessed and concerned for this “friend” that he only mention her now, at the end of this journey, and in his dying speech of all things? absolutely fucking not. as per my canon, that isn’t a thing. he absolutely still cares for this girl and wished to help her, and i can buy them becoming guards to give them time at the castle without suspicion to try and free her, but at the end of the day, x was not saïx’s sole fucking motivation for everything he did.

i am really, really fond of isa’s ending. i was spoiled for it basically the second week of the game’s release (thnx guys), but i didn’t know the entire circumstances over how he was saved. and i am. just. God. Fuck Me Up Fam i am So Happy. roxas and xion finally seeing saïx be vulnerable kicked my entire ass dude!!! all they’ve seen of him so far is this horrible beast of a man that doesn’t reflect isa at all, so it was really nice for them to get to see him in a weaker, quiet moment where he was more... who he was meant to be. i was also spoiled for the end clocktower scene a week or so ago, which really fucking sucked, but watching it play out was such an experience. i think i screamed? i think i screamed. i really truly adore that isa has been accepted into the sea salt trio because that’s some shit i’ve been dreaming about for ages, but it did feel rushed. as much as i want isa to be an important and positive figure in their lives from here on out, it’s also highly unrealistic for them to just accept him back into their lives the way he is, after all that saïx had done to them. it’s true that saïx ≠ isa, but isa also isn’t exempt from the consequences that saïx’s actions leave him with. i do think that for them to get to the level that was shown, deep connections need to be made. they really need to talk about what happened between them and move past it in a healthy manner, or unsettled, toxic feelings will still remain buried underneath. my isa will likely still be wary around roxas and xion, feeling a guilt and frustration around them that he hates and feels terrible for, and also hates that he even feels terrible for. from his perspective, whatever he did, he did to survive, and he shouldn’t have to apologize for taking actions that he had virtually no choice in taking if he wanted to simply live --- but the fact of the matter is that he did have a choice in many of the things he did to roxas and xion. and that, he knows he must atone for.

i really love the big implication that saïx was the one who formulated a plan with vexen to use the replica bodies against the organization??!??! I LOVE IT DUDE IVE BEEN LIVING FOR AN ANTI-ORG SAÏX REVOLT FOR FOREVER?? it isn’t the most ic thing he could’ve done, and also isn’t confirmed canonly (ive seen some people predicting ansem sod as well? which is equally as dope imo), but i do adore the idea of saïx silently sticking it to the org. me vc are ya winning son

isa playing frisbee with lea and ven in the epilogue made me cry. like. he looked so happy. he was so carefree. he was finally having fun and around people that aren’t fucking terrible, and he’s the closest thing to being at peace for the first time in over a decade. i love him so much. i lov ehim. os mcu h. oh mh.y . god. tTATTOO THAT SCENE ON MY FACE

i h8 the fanon implication that isa now lives in twilight town with the sea salt trio bc ive always wanted him to go home to radiant garden and make peace with his time there, but him also choosing to make a sacrifice in his life to show his loyalty and love for lea is something that i absolutely do not hate, so. his whereabouts post-kh3 r up in the air ig? i want him to have a sweet little cottage in radiant garden but moving to twilight town and living in a lofty studio apartment to be closer to lea/xion/roxas is also sweet even though he probably wouldn’t enjoy it much there. i. sigh

on another note like... i really think isa wants to see more of the worlds? he didn’t really travel around much as saïx, as he was most often needed at the castle to attend to briefings and missions and meetings, and whenever he left the castle on his own, he knew he was being watched (important vessel! recusant’s sigil! yikes!), so he couldn’t really enjoy it. as much as he needs to settle somewhere and anchor himself to a place he can finally call home, he wants to have adventures of his own, too.

i am... disappointed in the lack of overall backstory to him, though. ya i understand he’s not main cast and that there was a LOT going on in this game, but we still don’t know what the early years of the org were like? how baby akusai formed their plan? no further details on how active saïx was in the org and how determined he was to get moving on things (lea saying “i couldn’t keep up with you!” in their first clocktower scene)? nothing on when saïx was chosen as a vessel, when his eyes first turned gold? when he got that giant X-SCAR ON HIS FACE? NOTHING?? THANKS NOMURA AT LEAST I CAN WRITE MY OWN CANON

if yall want me to talk about isalea im gonna have to make a whole ass separate post for them bc this post is already so long and i am already full of tears please have mercy i will cry specifically about them later at an unknown date. but i can, for now, absolutely, say they are boyfriends. bye

[aliasaqua]

My thoughts on Kingdom Hearts 3 that nobody probably cares about.

Because I wanted to. And I was kinda tired of seeing reviews online that were giving it crap just for the sake of giving it crap. (Of course not every review.) And I wanted to look at it with a more positive note. I did mean to do this a while back but I kinda... forgot? I did beat the game during the first three days of it’s release.

Tldr version: Is it a perfect game? No, it does have it’s flaws. Did I still enjoy myself playing it? Heck yes.

The rest is under the cut for spoilers. I’ll try to be brief on every subject so this wouldn’t be super long.

So I am a big kh fan, as you might guess. I grew up with it and because of the game series I’ve had the chance to meet people who have become very important to me. So this game, it does mean a lot to me.

First of all: Game mechanics.

I really liked the combat system. It felt really natural and had a good flow in general. I loved the keyblade transformations. The attractions were really pretty,  although I didn’t use them often. But I admit there were some that I really hated. The water one and the blaster one. But as soon as I realised that I could skip them out of the way of a keyblade transformation they were all good with me. I mainly just used them on enemies that were really annoying to me. *cough Gigas cough.* I did enjoy most of the minigames as well, even if the some of the flans were the bane of my existance.

The difficulty of the game was a bit odd. It was.. rather easy. Granted, I did play it on standard mode because a: I wanted to have a more relaxing experience for the first go and b: to get through the game as quick as possible to avoid spoilers. But now that critical mode is here, oh boy. On standard I never saw the death screen. But on critical, I saw it three times during the first 5 minutes.

2. The worlds

The worlds were absolutely beautiful. If I would have to say what my favourite one was and which was my least favourite, favourite would be Corona. It was just so beautiful and while it did follow the movie, it was still very sweet to see them interact with one another. Least favourite was probably Monsters INC. It’s just my personal preference, but I wasn’t that fond of the whole world just being one big factory. (That I may have gotten lost in multiple times.) But, what saved that world was Vanitas getting owned by Sulley and Mike. And the fact that it was set after the movie.

For the plots of the other worlds, BH6 sorta happened really fast for me. Though I did love how Sora interacted with the group and how the got inspiration from him to become stronger. Caribbean plot just sorta... happened while I wasn’t there? But it made up for it by the setting and Jack defeating Luxord with a breath. And seeing Sora starting to beat up Davy Jones when Will was dying broke my heart. Olympos was really sweet for me to see the interactions between Hercules and the gang. I just loved their friendship. Even if the glorious Phil never got to say a word. Toy Box was good, even if I hated Gigas. But the pain from them was mended by Woody basically saying what sounded like “Well I guess you were never loved as a child!” to Xehanort. Arendelle was plotwise a bit... meh. I didn’t dislike it but... I just climbed up the same mountain like three times.  There’s not much to say about Twilight Town other than the fact that it was really pretty and I loved that it was so full of life. I Although I do hope that it would have been bigger. I was a bit sad that Radiant Garden wasn’t a world that we could visit.

Keyblade Graveyard doesn’t really count as a world as much, it’s just more of a battlegorund. Bonus favourite world: Scala Ad Caelum. I loved the look of that place so much, and the music was breathtaking. I just wish that they will do more with it in the future. Like a multiplayer dlc where you get to do missions in the whole city. Please Nomura. Please. Another bonus favourite world: The Final World. I loved the whole aesthetic of it, being absolutely beautiful. Plotwise I was at first a bit confused about the whole thing that happened there but I think I do now understand what was going on. (And the whole scenario that happened aroud it. And the whole going back in time.) I loved the individual stories they had given to each star. Plus the Lich was an interesting concept.

3. The Plot

So. The plot. I would be lying if I said I had no problems with it. It did make me cry out of happiness a lot of times and I generally loved it. But there were some problems. I suppose it would be the best to say perhaps the biggest annoyance I had with it.

Kairi. Not Kairi the character herself, but more of what happened to her. It did annoy me a lot more before, but as time has passed I have accepted it more. I was dissapointed at how she basically became a plot conveniance for Sora to do certain things. Now that I think about it I am more okay with it. Kairi was never really a fighter. Her strenght comes more about guiding people into the light as she did in kh1 with heartless Sora, in kh2 her meeting with Roxas (although debatable in that one) and now in kh3 she was the one who kept Sora from fully fading away. Even with all that, I don’t think it’s wrong of me to say that I wished for more. I hope that in the future they would be able to use her more than just as a plot device.

The other thing that annoyed me in the plot was the points which were clearly there just to set up the next game. But I think I can forgive those as long as kh4 doesn’t take as long to make as kh3 did. There were some points that just opened up more questions than answers but I’d still say I do have a pretty good understanding of the whole KH plot.

The thing that I didn’t expect to happen was for me to like the villains as much as I did. For example, I never really thought much about Luxord before, but he really grew on me on this game. The same goes for the rest of the organisation as well. Those who I didn’t care for before or didn’t like that much, their final moments or their atonement really made me see them differently. And knowing about Marluxia’s past through khux and his connection to Strelitzia, I really did feel bad for him. Talking about Strelitzia, I do believe that star was her. Although her voice was a lot older sounding than I thought it would be.

I was so happy saving all the trios and I was teary eyed a lot. And the ending just made me so happy. Until the point that Sora disappeared. I was annoyed at why did that happen a bit, but the (I think) relatively recent statement from Nomura which referenced Sora’s abuse of the power of waking and it’s consequenses has helped me understand it more. As long as I don’t have to wait like ten years to save my cinnamon child I’m good. And I do admit, the Xigbar reveal did catch me off guard and does make me exited for the continuation of khux and the following games. Although I do wonder how confused the people who have never played khux were about it

A quick note about the music: The soundtrack was beautiful. As expected of Shimomura Yoko. I did hope for a few more new original tracks for the final bosses, but to be fair it was also very satisfying to hear new renditions of the characters themes from the previous games to fully give closure to those characters and their arcs.

Overall, kh3 wasn’t a perfect game and I did have my problems with it, but I really did have a good time playing it.

[whimsicalbumblebee]

Comparing the BBS Trio and Destiny Island Trio

Okay! Time for bee to stop procrastinating and time to write what i meant to post as soon as the final battle trailer came out.

Note: I've been thinking on this for a while but decided at 1am to write it out and post it, so there may be a few *cough* (read: alot) *cough* errors. Lemme know if there's a major mistake and I'll prolly catch it when i re-read this when im more awake!

NOTE: THIS IS SPOILER FREE OF KH3 GAME CONTENT/LEAKS.

All information here is from the trailers only!

People compare the BBS Trio and Destiny Island Trio all the time. After all, the Destiny Island Trio is what the Bbs trio could have gotten but failed to get, so far at least.

Now I see alot of the comparisons being with:

Terra with Riku

Aqua with Kairi

Ven with Sora.

And the names sorta hint at their connection with the Bbs trio names being the Latin equivalent element of the Destiny Island Trio names

Terra=Earth Riku=Land

Aqua= Water Kairi=Sea

Ventus= wind Sora= Sky.

I do believe this is meant to throw us off. The similarities are there, just with the wrong people.

I see the comparisons to be this way:

Sora with Terra

Ventus with Kairi

Aqua with Riku.

And here's why, starting with Sora and Terra:

Terra and Sora would have had similar if not the same sort of experiences in the different world, had Terra run into the good guys first. Terra had the luck of meeting Xehanort, and thus his naive self fell into darkness unknowingly, not realizing that the people he was dealing with are the villains. Both terra and sora see the good in people first and trust them unless they prove to be an enemy. Xehanort, by playing as a mentor, was able to trick terra long enough to get him to follow his plan. DDD was an example of Sora almost ending up wirh the same fate as terra, a vessel. He is the only one of the trio who has no full control over the darkness.

Riku and Aqua:

Both Riku and Aqua, as of DDD, are seen as the most intellegent, calculating, and advisor type characters of the trio. Both are generally suspicious of things and people, not quite trusting easily. As of the information recieved from the trailers so far, both also have succumbed to the darkness, altho while it took riku a while to have control and balance over dark and light , and it took aqua over 10 years to fall into darkness, they both have strong resistances to the darkness. Riku initially fell into darkness, due to a lack of knowledge beyond the island. However,  under the same circumstances, both aqua and Riku would perhaps be the same if not extremely similar.

Kairi and Ven!

Team hearts of pure light. The people who can immediately befriend anyone they encounter  (not saying sora cant, just that these two canonically gotten along with most people effortlessly) (with Kairi, the twilight town squad)

They are both meant to not be involved, to be left behind by the other two, for inexperience.

And both made attempts to defy those rules. They both wish to be included, to prove they are capable and independent and don't need to be protected.

They both also have taken shelter in soras heart.

I do think this is going to play a major role in kh3, esp with how the Destiny Island Trio is going to help out the Bbs trio! Thought I'd throw out one last idea just before the games release!

Thanks for reading! Have fun with kh3 yall!

 TLDR: the similarities with the Bbs trio and Destiny Island Trio is different from how we are intended to see it when comparing character to character!

[peskyowl-writing]

Making Up With the RFA

Prompt: Making Up After A Fight; RFA

Author’s note: I’m gonna start taking suggestions/requests now! If you leave them in the ask box I’ll start posting my takes on em next week (hopefully). For now I ask that you keep the requests to exclusively the RFA until I feel more comfortable with the trio’s stories. Feel free to leave suggestions for me in my ask box! Happy trails!

Jaehee

You just couldn’t stand having Jaehee upset with you. The fight happened during your mutual lunch break from the café that is located under your apartment. So there was a little tension for the two of you during the rest of the shift, and you were plotting ways to make it up to her. “Jaehee, we’re out of sugar. I’m gonna go get some and do some grocery shopping. I’ll be back just after we close to help clean up, our new guy should be here any minute, okay?” You came up with the most logical excuse to leave, and with a simple thumbs up from Jaehee, who was busy making a few drinks, you grabbed your jacket and bag, heading out into the busy town surrounding your café.

First you stopped by the local flower shop, and deciding on a bouquet of sunflowers and roses, a unique combination that looks stunning. It reminded you of your relationship, both of you were so different, but you melded together well to create something beautiful. You had the floral manager wrap the flowers with a red satin bow. Carefully carrying the flowers, you made your way to your next destination, the café where you had taken Jaehee on what you considered our first date.

Upon arriving the employee at the counter recognized you. When you two had first started dating, you frequented this particular café often, because Jaehee loved the little cupcakes here. You order a dozen of the said cupcakes. You opted for the chocolate minis, with white frosting and pink heart decorations on them, the same ones you had ordered the first time you came. Once you had them, you carefully set the flowers on top of the treat box and picked it up, making your way to your final destination.

You carefully balanced the box on one hand and pulled out your phone to make a call for the last thing you needed, to find some concerned texts from Jaehee. Mc, we aren’t out of sugar and we don’t need groceries. If you needed to take a walk you could have just said so, I’ll wait for you to get back in the café lounging area. See you soon. Xox. You smiled at ther slightly concerned and sweet message. You two had made a habit of ending notes and texts with “xox” from the moment you had admitted feelings for each other. The only time you didn’t end messages with it was when you were going back and forth in text. Other than that, it was a sweet tradition you shared even in the worst times. You quickly closed the messages without giving a reply, and scrolled through your contacts. Amelia Harker, Tamara Hale, Jumin Han. You stopped there and clicked call, making your way back towards your home. It was answered quickly.

“Mc. This is unexpected, why the sudden call?” He sounded surprised, the three of you had smoothed things over since when you all first met. You and Jaehee actually helped him find a new assistant, and Jaehee offered her a few tips for tending to her duties. You all agreed that Jumin owed the two of you one for helping him despite his childish actions.

“Hey Jumin. Remember how you totally owe me one for finding you your amazing new assistant?” You spoke as sweetly as possible, hoping he’d comply.

With a short lasted chuckle he responded, “What do you need Mc?” You quickly explained that you wanted to do something special for Jaehee, and asked him to have two bottles of red wine to your home immediately. You also requested he pick what he believed would be best since he was the expert out of the two of them. “Of course. I’d do it even if I didn’t ‘owe you one’. Enjoy your night Mc, I’ll see you at the next RFA meeting.” With that you hung up the phone with a smile plastered to your face, and shoved it back in your pocket.

When you finally got back to your home, the sun was almost all the way set, casting a twilight on the busy street. You entered the café, and smiled to see Jaehee sitting at the lounging area, with two bottles of red wine sitting on the table in front of her.

”What’s all this?” She asked, standing to help you by taking the flowers from the top of the box.

”An apology. I’m so sorry Jaehee. I should have just been honest with you from the beginning, and with my family. My family isn’t supportive of us, our relationship. Because we’re two women who love each other unconditionally. They would never understand our love, and I didn’t want to expose you to that kind of environment. And I don’t want to add any more stress to our already busy lives. If you truly want to meet them, I’ll arrange a visit as soon as possible, and I’ll tell them. I’ll scream it from the top of the world if that’s what it takes.” You offered a warm and regretful smile to her, and she returned it with one full of love.

“We’ll tell them, together. I love you Mc.” With that you set down the box, and she pulled you to her by the front of your jacket into a kiss, and you returned it, wrapping your arms around her. You took this as ‘apology accepted’ and knew that from now on, you didn’t have to be afraid.

Zen

You were still mad at Zen. It wasn’t even that Joo-won, his costar in a new musical, kissed him. You knew for the most part that you had his heart, and he yours. It’s that he lied to you about it, even though you saw it. You had gone back to the hotel mad, and after a little deliberation with yourself decided to sleep on the couch, leaving the bed for Zen.

You woke up to the sound of knocking at the door. You sat up and rubbed your eyes, they were still a little puffy from crying last night. You suddenly realized you were not on the couch. You were tucked into the bed, a glass of water and a note sitting next to you on the nightstand. You looked to the couch, and a blanket from your home that you had brought with was folded neatly at one end of it, a pillow resting on top of it. You guessed Zen had moved you when he got back from notes and cleanup, and slept on the couch himself.

You picked up the note and read it silently to yourself.

Mc, I’m so sorry about last night. I shouldn’t have lied to you. I had an early rehearsal today, otherwise I would have stayed to talk with you. I have some special stuff planned for today, and I know doing this doesn’t fix what I did. You deserve all of it anyway. Jaehee helped me plan some stuff for you to do while I’m gone since she was in town for the musical opening. You remember Jamie right, my temporary assistant for the show? He’ll be at our hotel room at 9:30 with your favorite breakfast. If you don’t answer the door he’ll leave it in front of it. Love you always, Hyun.

You smiled at the note, though you were still angry and knew that you’d still have to have a stern talking to with him later, you appreciated the gesture. You looked at the clock and it read 9:45 am, which means your breakfast would be waiting for you in front of the door. You slipped on the complimentary robe and shuffled to the door, and opened it, picking up the basket that had been on the other side. You peaked under the cloth as you walked to the counter, finding a bowl, spoon, a cup of strawberries, a little package of granola, and a single serving container of vanilla yogurt. You couldn’t help but smile as you prepared your own breakfast, eating it happily.

Another note had been inside the basket, along with your favorite movie at the bottom. You opened it and read it as you ate. Mc, I hope you enjoyed your breakfast. This movie is for you and I tonight, so don’t watch it without me ;) Anyway, at 10:15 or so, Jamie is gonna swing by again with a few new bath bombs from that store you like. He’s also going to give you a note from the director, he wanted to meet with you today at the coffee shop down the street around noon. He said it should only take about an hour to discuss the issue. Good luck babe~ Love you always, Hyun.

You had always been on the more independent side, and enjoyed doing things for yourself, but you had to admit, it was nice to have everything taken care of for you for once. You folded the note back up and put it on the counter next to you, and finished up your breakfast, and put your bowl in the sink. This time, you were awake to answer the door. You opened it and smiled at Jamie. “Hi! Nice to see you Jamie.” He smiled back to you, and handed you the small baby blue bag and waved to you before walking back towards the elevator. The bath bombs smelt great, and you couldn’t wait to use them. You read the note inside first since Zen said it was from the director. He wanted to meet up with you at eleven to discuss having Zen in another musical as the main supporting actor. You quickly got dressed and ready, and went to meet with him.

The meeting went successfully, and if Zen wanted it, he had a spot in another musical that would be coming out in nine months, and rehearsals would start in three, which would give him two months off from performing. It was enough time for him to recover bu also enough time so he wouldn’t get antsy. Once you got back you put the bath bombs in instantly, even if it was midday, you wanted to relax before Zen got back.

You woke up to the sound of a knock t the bathroom door. “Jagi?” You heard him call to you from the other side of the door and you smiled. You slowly stood, wrapping the robe from earlier around yourself. You opened the door and smiled at Zen. “I called you to see where you were, I didn’t even think that you might’ve been in the bath.” He explained, keeping a comfortable distance between the two of you. You closed the distance, wrapping him in a hug, you missed him. He wrapped his arms around your waist, and you looked over his shoulder. You gasped a little as you saw that he had set up a nice lunch in the little living room, well as nice as it could be. There was a white sheet on the coffee table, and a pizza sitting on it with what you assumed was a cheap bottle of champagne. He stepped back from you and held your hands in his. “Mc, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have lied to you. I swear I will never lie to you again, unless it’s a surprise.” He smiled to you, and you laughed a bit at the quickly added last part.

You stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “Ya know that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook.” You stepped back into the bathroom briefly, changing into your pajamas from last night.

“I know but I was just-” You stepped out again, and cut him off with a kiss.

“I’m kidding, you’re forgiven for the most part. I just need one more thing from you.” You were smiling from ear to ear now, and you had your hands resting on his chest.

“Anything for you princess.” He smiled at you and rested his hands on your hips, gazing down at you.

“Tell me I’m a better kisser than her.” You were smiling, and this was a joke… mostly. You wanted the reassurance but you also wanted to tease him a little.

“Oh Mc, you are much better than her. In every way imaginable. Not just with kissing. You’re perfect in every way imaginable. No one else even comes close to your level of perfection. I love you.” And with that you pulled him to you by his collar and kissed him, and he pulled you closer to him, deepening the kiss. You knew that his words were true, and you loved him for that, and for so much more. You could feel the jealousy and anger melt away with each kiss you shared there in that hotel room.

Yoosung

You felt awful for the way you had ignored his feelings. You really messed up this time, and he was paying for it. You were too, but in a different way. You had to make it up to him, you just had to.

You pulled yourself together quickly, getting up off the couch and finishing cleaning the apartment. You assumed Yoosung had started earlier in the evening. After quickly finishing, you rushed to a box that you hid under the bed. You had been saving this stuff for closer to the next holiday, but decided now was an appropriate time to get it all out. In the box was full of decorations for the apartment. Cut out hearts, candles, honey buddah chips, red ribbon, and the number to a florist Jumin recommended to you. You immediately went to work.

You hung the ribbon along the edges of the counter, and put the hearts on the walls. You lit candles on the nightstand, dresser, coffee table, and end tables. You put the chips in a basket for him, and pulled out your phone, quickly dialing the number.

“Hi, this is Mc, yeah the rose girl. I need you to send me a basket of rose petals and two dozen regular dethorned roses… Yeah I can pay the delivery guy extra. Alright thanks! Bye.” You hung up the phone, and scrolled through your contacts, stopping over your friends contact name. You clicked it, and it started ringing.

“Hey Mc, what’s up?” He sounded calm, and you immediately felt guilty for spending so much time with him.

“Hey… I just wanted to let you know that I don’t think we can spend as much time together, and if we do, Yoosung has to be there. It’s just that it seems like you’re looking for more than friends and... “

“Oh… well you’re not completely wrong. But I understand Mc… Do you think I could talk to him? I kinda wanna apologize for overstepping boundaries… I was actually just thinking that we’ve been spending a lot of time together… Alone. And I can see how that paints a bad picture.” He sounded just as guilty as you felt, and you were thankful he was being so mature.

“Sure, you can talk to him tomorrow? We can meet up at the park that’s just off campus?... Okay… Yeah see you then. Bye.” You hung up the phone and breathed a heavy sigh of relief, and rushed to the door once you heard a loud knock. You hastily took the flowers you ordered and paid the shrimpy delivery boy, and went back to work.

After thirty minutes, you took a step back and smiled at your work. You had rose petals sprinkled on the floor leading to the bed, and in a heart on the bed. Along with that you had two vases with the romantic flowers on either end of the counter in the kitchen. You hoped that this gesture would make it up to him, along with the apology you’ve been rehearsing since Yoosung left for his walk. You sat tentatively on the couch, staring at your phone, waiting for the call that would indicate Yoosung was coming home.

You jumped to the sound of the door opening, immediately jumping to your feet and turning to the entrance. It was Yoosung. He stopped with the door ajar, his eyes were a little red and his cheeks were tear stained. “Mc…” He started to talk but you rushed towards him, wrapping your arms around his waist, holding him tight. He hadn’t been gone long, but he took a walk because you upset him, which made it that much worse for you.

You took a step back, grabbing his hands and holding them tightly. “Yoosung, I’m so sorry. I should’ve respected your wishes and thought more about how you felt. I swear on everything I have, on my heart, on us, that I will always think about how you feel from now on, and make sure nothing like this ever happens again. I even called him and talked about it, he wants to meet with us tomorrow to apologize for overstepping and, and-” Your rambling was cut off by his lips pressing against yours, and one of his arms pulling you towards him by the waist. When you finally pulled apart he was smiling at you.

“Thank you Mc. I really appreciate it… And your apology…” He looked around the apartment, his smiled unwavering in the open doorway. He closed the door with his foot, and with the click he looked back down at you, and kissed you again. “Very accepted. Just one thing, you have to promise never to forget that you are mine. All mine.” Yoosung had his more bold moments, and you always thoroughly enjoyed them.

“Of course. I promise. Anything else?” You were playing along, partially to humor him, partially because you really liked where this conversation was going.

“Don’t forget, I don’t like to share what’s mine. No scratch that- I don’t share.” You nodded with a slight giggle escaping you, and he lifted your chin to kiss him again. Let’s just say, the romantic setting was not wasted that night. ;)

Jumin

You were quite upset with Jumin, and were telling Seven and Yoosung all about it. The three of you had become close friends due to your common interest in the same movies and video games. You didn’t express your interest in these things as often as they did, but you spent a lot of time at him, so you developed a lot of hobbies.

“Well to me, it sounds like he’s going through another ‘I want to keep you as safe and well taken care of as possible and I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that happens’ thing. Granted, he needs to take your feelings into account, but I don’t think he had or has any ill minded intentions.” Seven explained what he gathered from it. Despite his usual playful demeanor, he is able to be serious when he wants to be, or needs to.

“Yeah I agree with Seven. I don’t think he realizes that he’s being so… Controlling, I guess is the word. He probably has the your best interest at heart.” Yoosung was munching on the left over popcorn from the movie, and the three of you were sitting in one of Seven’s cars.

“I also think it’s probably eating him up that he upset you. Jumin has become… softer, since you’ve been around. And anytime I talk to him it’s always, ‘Mc feels this way and I don’t want to upset her. Mc is doing this, is she mad at me?’ He cares about how you feel, I just think he doesn’t know how to go about it sometimes.” Seven continued to elaborate on what he could draw from the situation, trying his best to comfort you.

Meanwhile...

“Zen please. I know you hate me but I seriously need your advice.” Jumin called the only person he could think of. Usually when it came to things concerning you, he called Luciel or Yoosung, since the three of you are close friends. But… You were with them right now, meaning they wouldn’t be able to help him in this moment. He thought about calling Jaehee, but she doesn’t have a lot of experience with relationships leaving… Zen as his only option.

“Woah woah woah. So Mr. Trust Fund Kid is coming to me for help?” It was moments like these Jumin wanted to strangle him. But for Mc, he’d deal with anything. Even Zen.

“Yes. I’ve upset Mc. Pretty badly…” He was sitting on the balcony now, staring into the city below him. He really was lost with this situation.

“What did you do to her? I swear Jumin Han if you-”

“I didn’t physically harm her Zen pull yourself together. I would never. Not outside the bedroom at least ;) I haven’t been spending much time with her recently, and she’s quite upset about it. She said that we’re communicating but I’m not listening. And that a relationship needs compromise, and I’m just making choices for us that we should make together. Looking back at it now, I can see how she’s right because I am a man of logic for the most part. I just don’t know how to make it up to her. We haven’t had a fight where one of us walks out of the apartment and leaves the building since… I actually think this is a first. Please just help me.” He lifted his head from where is rested in his hand, and loosened his tie. He just wanted to make you happy again. this boi is soft

“Well, she’s upset that you aren’t spending time with her right? So- Wait. You let her leave the building on her own in a big city?”

“She’s not alone, she’s with Yoosung and Luciel. They went to see a movie. She also has her cellphone on her. I have faith in Luciel, she will be fine until she returns home. I may be an idiot in this moment but I’m not completely stupid.” He was growing frustrated with Zen already.

“Alright, so from what I gather, she just misses you. You’re gonna have to come up with an apology, and start making up for the time she feels she’s lost with you. How you do that, that’s up to you. You know what she’d like better than me. And you’ll have to start spending more time with her after this too. You can’t just apologize and hang out with her for a night and expect things to be better.”

Back to Mc

You thanked Seven for the ride back to your building, and bid him and Yoosung goodbye. “Thanks guys, see you!” They waited for you to get inside before they actually drove off. You went inside and waved and greeted guards as you made your way upstairs. You pulled out your phone to see one last reassuring message from Yoosung, as Seven was driving, telling you that everything would turn out okay between you and Jumin.

“Jumin? Jumin I’m… What…” You gazed around the apartment, and were a little off put by it. The couch had been moved a bit so it sat back further from the television. A spread of blankets and pillows covered the floor between the fireplace under the mounted TV. Elizabeth was sleeping in one, and on the side table next to the couch there was popcorn, your favorite sweets, and of course wine, accompanied by the glasses Jaehee had gifted you at your wedding. They had “Mrs. Han” engraved on one and “Mr. Han” on the other. The two of you used them frequently, you even for drinks that weren’t wine.

You walked further in, curious as to where Jumin could be. He did something similar to this on your two year anniversary, but the surprise had been an elegant dinner, similar to the one you had when you first met. He didn’t do things like this, his gestures were usually small and more frequent, he wasn’t one to make a scene. So for him this was… strange. But nice nonetheless.

You turned your head to the sound of the bedroom door closing. You smiled at Jumin, but before you could speak he held up a hand, indicating he wished for you to let him speak.

“Mc, I’m sorry. I should’ve talked to you before taking extra hours at work, and I should have listened to you better. I know this doesn’t fix everything, but I hope it can be a start? I remembered that you mentioned you always loved having movie marathons with friends when you were younger, so I tried to replicate it but in a bit more… personal setting.” As he spoke he walked towards you, he was wearing his pajamas already. You weren’t surprised he remembered the little details, just that he actually tried to replicate it for you.

“Are you sure that I married the stone cold business executive Jumin Han?” You teased him a bit as he continued towards you, the smile on his face grew at your joke.

“I’m afraid that Jumin Han, business executive has taken a vacation. I’m Jumin, first and foremost you husband and partner.” He kissed the top of your head and wrapped you in a tight hug, and rubbed your back a bit as you stood there. “Could you bring yourself to forgive me my love?” He whispered to you in the quiet apartment, and you could hear his steady heartbeat in his chest.

“Of course Ju-Ju~ As long as you know that you can’t make all of our decisions okay?” You spoke in a soft whisper, not wanting to ruin the moment.

“I’m aware of that now. It was an awful lapse of judgment, and it will not happen again love. I’ll be sure to talk to you first.” You gave him a brief squeeze and pecked him on his lips briefly before rushing off to the bedroom to change into your most cozy pjs to enjoy your night in with your husband.

Saeyoung

You were so frustrated with Saeyoung. You felt like you two had been making progress together. You understood that being… well a dick, was how he pushed you away, thus protecting you. The clients before this he actually wasn’t like this, well not this bad. The two of you had been working on it, and to see him revert back to his old ways is frustrating. It also crushed you to see him be so afraid. You sat on the couch, Saeran was sitting in the chair next to it reading a book. You released a heavy sigh and leaned forward, putting your head in your hands.

Saeran put down his book and looked over to you. “What’s wrong?” You huffed again, and explained your frustrations to him. After a few moments of silence he spoke again, trying to give his take on it. “Well, I think that this job is just a bit more risky than he thought it was going to be. Considering the way he’s acting, probably a lot more. And considering he won’t even let me look at the code to see if I can help with some basic stuff, it must be serious. He just wants to make sure you’re safe. He does need to work on that, and I’m sure he knows that. Just give him a little time. Considering he was so… aggressive, I think that means he’ll be done soon.” He shrugged and opened his book again, Saeyoung has always been strange to him, and his relationship with Mc was even stranger to him. But, he didn’t mind helping when he saw a way to.

... …

Saeyoung hung up the phone and sighed. Hopefully Yoosung pulled through for him. His only problem now was trying to figure out how to approach Mc now, and how to apologize.

“What have I done?” Saeyoung finished his work over an hour ago, but he’s been in his working room for over three hours since he yelled at Mc. He had his head in his hands, and he heard a small knock at the door. He assumed it was Saeran. “Yeah, come in.” He didn’t turn to see who it was, and rested his glasses on the desk. “What’s up Saer-” He stopped when he felt two delicate hands rest on his shoulders, they slowly moved so they were wrapped around him, and he felt a head rest on his. “Mc?”

“Shh. I know you’re stressed. We’re working on it right?” You kissed the top of his head, and he turned to face you.

“Mc, why are you being so nice to me? I yelled at you. And I was…” He looked down at his lap, and you kneeled a bit to be at eye level with him.

“We’re working on it, aren’t we? This is just a setback. We’ll work through it, together.” You put your hands on top of his, and squeezed his briefly with a small smile.

“I’m so sorry Mc, I shouldn’t have said those things… you aren’t annoying, and I love having you around me and-” You held up a finger to him and chuckled a little.

“You’re rambling sweetie.” You smiled at him, trying to reassure him.

“You’re right…” He turned and grabbed his glasses from the desk and checked his phone, which had just gone off with a message. He turned and smiled brightly at you, standing up and pulling you up with him. “Come on, I’m gonna make it up to you! Let’s go!” He held your hand and lead you out of his home, grabbing his hoodie on the way out the door.

“Where are we going?” You asked, speed walking to keep up with him and his long legs. You looked ahead and tried to think of places he could be taking you. He ended up leading you to the far side of the neighborhood, close to Yoosung’s campus. He stopped next to a tall building with a ladder and started climbing, motioning for you to follow him. “Where are you taking me?” You followed him, but you were seriously confused.

“I’m giving you the best view in the city. Come on.” Once he got to the top, he reached out a hand to you, and gently pulled you the rest of the way up. When you got to the top, you looked around. There was two bean bag chairs that you recognized from Yoosung’s place. There was a small lantern there too.

“It’s not as great as it should be, but it’s what I could manage. Jumin and Jaehee are in another country, Zen is sleeping because he has an early rehearsal, so the only one I could get a hold of it Yoosung. I think he did a good job though, huh?” He smiled to you, and lead you over to the beanbags and he flopped into on. You went to sit in the other, but Saeyoung grabbed your wrist, pulling you so you landed in his lap. “I don’t know where you think you’re going.” He kissed your shoulder, and then rested his head on it, wrapping his arms around you. “Look at the sky. You can see so many stars.” You looked up at his request, and watched the stars. You then turned to Saeyoung, who had sat up and was staring at you. You giggled a bit, and pulled him towards him for a kiss, and he was more than willing to comply. The two of you shared a sweet night under the stars, and ended it well, even if the night hadn’t started all that well.

[islelight]

“What am I to you?” hi maddy : )

lets  get  emo  //  @existends  //  closed  

      IT’S  FUNNY  HOW  FULL  such  a  tiny  apartment  can  be  once  you’ve  filled  it  various  things ;  furniture ,  decorations ,  pictures  of  friends  &  loved  ones  hanging  from  the  walls  &  placed  on  coffee  tables .  it  doesn’t  feel  cramped  though ,  no  it’s  just  the  right  amount  of  fullness  —  just  enough  to  make  it  feel  like  home .

      IT’S  BEEN  A  FEW  WEEKS  since  she’s  she  finished  moving  in  &  it  still  feels  a  little  surreal .  being  on  her  own ,  putting  roots  down  in  a  far  off  world  —  it’s  all  very  adult - like  &  she  never  really  thought  she  would  make  it  this  far .  though  to  be  fair  in  her  younger  years  she  never  really  saw  herself  permanently  moving  away  from  destiny  islands .  she  never  really  had  a  reason  to  —  until  now .

      HER  FRIENDS  FROM  TWILIGHT  TOWN  had  decided  to  throw  her  a  welcome  to  the  neighborhood  party .  kairi  had  told  them  not  to  but  they  did  it  anyway .  she  doesn’t  particularly  mind  the  party .  she  just  doesn’t  see  the  point  in  it .  she’s  been  hanging  around  the  city  for  months  now  having  a  place  here  doesn’t  really  change  anything .  but  perhaps  her  friends  are  sentimental  like  she  is  &  wants  to  make  her  official  settlement  her  special .

      IT’S  JUST  A  SMALL  PARTY  really  more  of  a  get  together  if  you  want  to  be  specific .  it’s  really  only  twilight  gang  &  riku  though  the  trio  from  the  land  of  departure  stopped  by  for  a  little  while  before  returning  back  to  their  world  (  kairi  wished  she  could’ve  seen  more  of  them  but  they  seemed  busy  so  perhaps  she’ll  wait  for  another  time  ) .  having  them  all  together  does  make  the  space  slightly  crowded  but  she  doesn’t  mind .  if  anything  it  makes  the  place  feel  more  homey .

     THOUGH  DESPITE  THE  COZINESS  there  is  a  slight  unease  in  the  atmosphere  that  can  only  be  caused  by  the  ever  growing  tension  she  feels  whenever  she  &  roxas  are  within  the  same  vicinity .  they’re  like  two  predators ,  not  sure  when  or  how  to  make  the  first  move ,  afraid  to  do  anything  other  than  steal  glances  at  each  other  from  across  each  side  of  the  room .  occasionally  they  meet  each  others  gaze  but  one  of  them  will  quickly  turn  away  without  a  moment’s  hesitation .  

      THEY  HAVEN’T  SPOKEN  about  what  happened  between  them  in  the  recent  weeks .  kairi  can’t  really  think  of  what  to  say  personally .  her  mind  is  always  such  a  mess  of  thoughts  she  wouldn’t  even  know  where  to  begin  in  even  processing  their  situation .  she  can  tell  on  both  of  their  minds  though  —  she  can  see  it  in  the  way  he  looks  at  her  from  across  the  room .

      THE  TENSION  BETWEEN  THEM  won’t  stop  her  from  at  least  trying  to  talk  to  him .  after  all  whatever  they’ve  got  going  on  right  now  he’s  still  her  friend  (  &  a  good  one  at  that  )  &  he  still  came  to  see  her  despite  how  poorly  she’s  treated  him  in  recent  weeks .  so  she  musters  up  all  the  courage  she  can  &  strides  to  the  other  side  of  the  room  where  the  boy  is  standing  alone ,  sipping  some  punch  out  of  a  plastic  cup .

      SHE  OFFERS  HIM  A  WARM  SMILE  &  to  her  surprise  he  gives  her  one  in  return  &  all  in  the  world  seems  right  again  for  a  moment .  she  feels  her  inhibitions  melt  away  as  she  looks  at  his  smiling  face .  they  begin  talking  &  while  it’s  a  little  slow  going  at  first ,  they  eventually  are  able  to  pick  up  their  usual  rhythm  &  comfortability .  this  feels  right  —  he  feels  right .  &  kairi  finds  herself  wondering  if  this  could  really  all  be  this  simple .  if  she  could  just  be  a  girl  who  likes  a  boy  &  have  that  boy  maybe  like  her  back .

      THE  HOURS  PASS  BY  &  eventually  the  apartment  starts  to  clear  out  as  more  &  more  people  decide  to  head  home .  not  roxas  though ,  no  just  like  all  the  other  times  he’s  here  lingering  &  kairi  finds  herself  remembering  the  other  times  they  were  alone  —  together  out  in  front  of  olette’s  doorstep  —  together  sitting  on  her  bare  wooden  floor  laughing .  she’s  hurt  him  both  times  now  …  can  she  be  trusted  to  make  sure  she  won’t  hurt  him  a  third ?  

      THEY’RE  PUTTING  AWAY  food  &  other  party  supplies  that’s  been  left  in  her  apartment .  roxas  is  very  helpful  in  the  process  —  well  roxas  has  always  been  helpful  in  situations  like  these  &  for  that  kairi  will  always  be  grateful .  they’re  beside  each  other  at  the  snack  table  gathering  up  things  to  put  away .  at  the  same  time  they  reach  for  the  tub  of  sea  salt  ice  cream  laying  in  the  center  of  the  table  &  their  hands  brush  against  each  other .  they  make  eye  contact  &  there’s  a  moment  —  a  single  moment  in  which  time  itself  seems  to  stop ,  just  like  it  always  does  every  time  she’s  alone  with  him .  she  feels  her  heart  pound  in  her  chest  &  her  cheeks  flush  as  she  stares  at  him  wide  eyed .  the  scene  is  all  too  familiar ,  this  constant  game  of  will  they  won’t  they  seems  to  be  the  only  thing  they  know  how  to  do .  it  needs  to  stop .  she  doesn’t  know  how  to  stop  it  but  she  knows  it  needs  to  end .  

      ROXAS  SEEMS  TO  HAVE  the  same  idea  as  he  jolts  his  hand  away  from  her  as  if  her  touch  burned  him .  he  furrows  his  brows  at  her ,  his  lips  curling  into  a  frown  as  he  looks  over  at  her  with  what  she  can  only  describe  as  intense  frustration .  she’s  done  it  again  —  she  never  means  to  but  she  always  manages  to  hurt  the  ones  she  cares  about  most .  

      ROXAS  SIGHS  &  STUFFS  HIS  hands  into  his  pants  pockets .  he  looks  like  he’s  struggling  with  what  he  wants  to  say  to  her  &  kairi’s  just  going  to  give  him  the  time  he  needs  to  let  it  out .  she’s  found  over  the  years  she’s  grown  to  become  a  very  patient  person .  though  when  he  finally  speaks  she  almost  wishes  he’d  never  spoken  at  all ,  that  he’d  just  pretended  like  everything  was  fine  &  dandy  &  they  weren’t  this  complicated  mess .

                               “    WHAT  AM  I  TO  YOU ?    ”  

      THE  WORDS  POUND  inside  her  mind  with  the  heaviness  of  a  drum .  it’s  such  a  simple  question  yet  it  carries  so  much  weight  in  it .  she  feels  tethered  to  it  &  that  she’ll  drown  in  the  sea  of  her  own  mistakes  any  moment .  it’s  judgement  day  &  kairi’s  up  at  the  altar .  the  only  question  now  is  what  the  final  result  will  be .  

      KAIRI’S  RELATIONSHIP  WITH  ROXAS  has  been  complicated  from  the  moment  they  first  met  in  that  strange  heart  connection  while  sora  was  sleeping .  it  never  stopped  being  complicated .  she  wonders  if  it  will  ever  stop  being  complicated  but  that’s  something  for  the  future  to  worry  about .  

      SHE  CARES  FOR  HIM  —  that  much  is  true .  but  in  what  way ?  obviously  there’s  some  kind  of  romantic  intent  but  is  he  a  rebound ?  a  path  to  get  over  her  broken  heart  &  grief  by  throwing  herself  in  new  love  because  it’s  easy ?  is  he  what  he  accused  himself  of  being  —  a  placeholder  for  the  boy  she  really  loves  until  she  can  find  a  way  to  bring  him  back .  or  is  it  something  more  than  that ?  does  she  truly ,  genuinely  have  feelings  for  him ,  all  of  him  &  is  simply  afraid  to  open  her  heart  again  after  it’s  been  so  brutally  damaged .

      IN  HER  HEART  SHE  KNOWS  the  answer  but  knowing  what  your  heart  is  feeling  &  admitting  it  to  someone  else  are  two  entirely  different  things .  she  feels  like  a  frightened  schoolgirl  trying  to  muster  up  the  courage  to  ask  the  boy  she  likes  on  a  date .  it’s  so  stupid  how  he  always  gives  her  butterflies .  

      SHE  CLASPS  HER  HANDS  TOGETHER ,  entwining  her  fingers  as  she  looks  at  the  ground  &  at  the  table  &  pretty  much  anywhere  that’s  not  him .  she’s  grown  suddenly  shy  which  is  unusual  for  her .  she’s  typically  very  forthright  with  her  feelings  &  what  she  wants  to  say  —  guess  roxas  has  this  effect  on  her  now .  she  takes  a  moment  to  speak ,  trying  to  formulate  her  words  properly .  when  she  speaks ,  her  voice  is  quiet  &  perhaps  a  little  bit  on  the  nervous  side . 

      ❛    I  LIKE  YOU ,  ROXAS  —   i  think  i  have  for  a  long  time  but  it’s  just  …  it’s  hard  to  open  up  to  people  again  with  …  with  him  being  gone ,  y’know .  i  didn’t  think  it  would  happen  this  soon  &  with  it  being  you  i  know  it  makes  things  more  complicated  &  i  —    ❜  she  attempts  to  exhale  but  from  all  the  emotion  building  up  in  her  it  comes  out  as  a  sob .  she  finally  raises  her  head  to  look  at  him ,  tears  running  down  her  cheeks .  ❛    i  know  i’ve  hurt  you  &   i  cannot  begin  to  tell  you  how  sorry  i  am .  just  please  …  understand  that  i’ve  never  meant  to  make  you  feel  like  you  were  a  placeholder  or  in  his  shadow .  i’m  so ,  so  sorry  for  ever  making  you  feel  less  than  your  own  worth  because  you  don’t  deserve  that .      ❜

      WITH  EACH  WORD  her  speech  becomes  a  little  more  broken  by  her  own  choked  sobs .  it’s  utterly  humiliating  that  she’s  admitting  these  things  to  him  in  this  fashion  but  perhaps  it’s  better  than  to  let  all  her  emotions  stay  bottled  up .  she  unclasps  her  hands ,  reaching  for  him  with  both  of  them  &  gently  taking  his  hands  in  hers  &  squeezing .  she  gives  him  a  watery  smile  before  speaking  once  more ,  ❛    i  can’t  promise  anything .  i  can’t  promise  i  won’t  hurt  you  again  because  the  way  the  feelings  are  in  my  heart  are  still  —  complicated .   but  i  know  my  heart  wants  this  …  wants  you .  &  if  you’re  willing  to  have  me  —  i  promise  i’ll  try  my  hardest  to  make  it  work .   ❜

[parsippanylibrarykids]

By: Miss Jen, Miss Katy, & Miss Melissa

Picture Books 

Barnett, Mac. The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse. ​(Grades K-2)  This clever picture book begins with a mouse that is quickly gobbled up by a wolf. Fortunately his new accomodations AKA the wolf’s stomach include a duck with kitchenware and jam. The duck states “I may have been swallowed but I have no intention of being eaten.” Award winning illustrator Jon Klassen’s artwork add to the charm of this folkloric tale. 

Colleen, Marcie. Love, Triangle.​ ​ (Grades K-2) Square and Circle have been best friends since they were first created. Triangle arrives on the scene and brings new ideas. Both Square and Circle want to be friends with Triangle which causes a split between the two buddies. This common friendship problem is resolved at the end of this geometric story.

 Daywalt, Drew. The Legend of Rock, Paper, Scissors. ​(Grades K-3) The origins of the classic schoolyard game are explained in hilarious detail. Will Rock, Paper, or Scissors be victorious? Rock is searching for a worthy opponent. Paper leaves the Empire of Mom’s Home Office after conquering the Computer Printer while Scissors defeats Dinosaur-Shaped Chicken Nuggets. Wacky inanimate objects come to life under the expertise of illustrator Adam Rex. Fans of Daywalt’s The Day the Crayons Quit will be equally as charmed by this book. 

Denos, Julia. Windows. ​(PreS-1) In this story, a boy of color dons a read hoodie, leashes his dog and ventures out into the twilight, where the windows are “blinking awake as the lights turn on a neighborhood of paper lanterns”. The reader gets to peer in at the small figures dancing, making dinner or throwing a party and watch as the color of the sky changes. The compositions are rendered in ink, watercolor, letterpress and digital collage. The narrative ends with a story shared and a snuggle. Readers will want to revisit this story over and over. Everyday routine turned to wonder on an evening walk filled with discovery. 

Dykman, Ame. Read the Book, Lemmings!​ (PreS-2) Another delightful collaboration by the team behind Wolfie the Bunny and Horrible Bear! Lemmings don’t jump off cliffs. It says so in the book that Foxy is reading. However, the three lemmings on the boat have not read the book and keep jumping into the water. After trying unsuccessfully to get the lemmings to read the book, Foxy realizes he is going to have to actually teach the lemmings to read before he can stop them. A funny read aloud! Children will love this book at storytime and at home. 

Jory, John and Benji Davies. Come Home Already!​ (PreS-3) The third hysterical picture book about Duck and Bear, unlikely pals. In this book, an excited Duck wants to hang out with Bear but Bear has left to go fishing for a whole week on his own. Bear is relieved to have some time alone. What will Duck do while Bear is gone? How will he survive without his best friend? 

Lamothe, Matt. ​This is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids from Around the World. ​(Grades K-3) Seven children from Italy, Japan, Uganda, Russia, India, Iran, and Peru describe one day in their lives as they eat, play, and learn. An author’s note, a glossary, a map, and photographs of the families are included at the end of the book. This is an informational picture book that could be used in a social studies unit. 

Shannon, David. Bizzy Mizz Lizzie​. (Grades 1-3)  Lizzie is the busiest, buzziest bee in Hivetown. She longs to impress the Queen by winning a spelling bee contest, but she studies to the point of exhaustion on top of trying to juggle all of her other activities. When she dozes off in the middle of the competition, the only solution is rest. Lizzie finally learns to stop and smell the flowers. A book with a good message and wonderful illustrations will appeal to young readers. 

Tsurumi, Andrea. Accident! ​(PreS-2) When a little armadillo named Lola knocks a jug of red juice all over her family’s white sofa, she flees to the library to hide. But as Lola run through town, she is joined by many others who have also made a mess and want to hide at the library too, avoiding conflict. Fun and colorful illustrations are found throughout the book and children will be drawn to the intricate details. This book teaches that a mistake can happen due to thoughtlessness, carelessness or bad luck and that it is ok to call it an accident but also necessary to “make it better” and “own up to it.” 

Easy Readers 

LaReau, Kara. The Infamous Ratsos are Not Afraid. ​(Grades 1-2) Brothers Louie and Ralphie Ratso plan to clear out an abandoned lot in their neighborhood and create an arcade. The problem is that the house next to the vacant lot might be haunted. ​This is the second book in the series that began with the Geisel Honor Book, The Infamous Ratsos. 

Shea, Bob. Ballet Cat: What’s Your Favorite Favorite? ​(Grades 1-3) Ballet Cat and her cousin Goat are preparing a show for grandma and both want to prove that they are the best. Ballet Cat will come up with a fancy dance routine and Goat will perform tricks at his magic show. Which one will be her FAVORITE favorite? Terrifically fun third entry in this series. 

Snyder, Laurel. Charlie & Mouse & Grumpy. ​ (Grades K-1) This picture book/easy reader hybrid is the sequel to Charlie and Mouse. Charlie and Mouse are brothers who are spending time with their grandfather AKA Grumpy. In four short chapters, the trio discuss what it means to be “medium”, enjoy a special night while the boys’ parents go out, and choose the proper goodnight song. 

Yoon, Salina. That’s My Book! and Other Stories. ​(Grades K-1) Big Duck, Little Duck, and Porcupine are a sweet trio of friends that find the best use for books, plan a talent show, and dress like a pirate. The latest addition to the Duck, Duck, Porcupine series contains three short chapters with bold text in large speech bubbles. 

Juvenile Fiction 

Bartok, Mira. The Wonderling. ​(Grades 4-6) Number 13 is a groundling (half human/half animal) who lives in an orphanage run by Ms. Carbunkle. He is named Arthur by a fellow groundling when he saves her. The pair of new friends escape the “Home” and set off on an adventure full of danger, magic, and mystery. Fans of Erin Hunter’s Warriors series will enjoy this lengthy fantasy novel. 

Bradley, Kimberly Brubaker. The War I Finally Won. ​(Grades 4-6)  Picking up right after 2015’s Newbery Honor book The War That Saved My Life, this very worthy sequel continues the story of Ada, her brother Jamie, and their guardian Susan. Set against the backdrop of World War II (which is felt much more immediately in this novel), Ada struggles to deal with the aftermath of years of abuse by her mother. An emotional, yet rewarding book for fans of the first book or for readers who love excellent historical fiction. 

Broach, Elise. Trouble at School for Marvin & James. ​(Grades 1-2) This is the third book in the Masterpiece Adventures series featuring best friends, James and Marvin. James is a human and Marvin is a small black beetle. James decides to bring Marvin to school so he can experience James’ art class taught by beloved teacher, Mr. Chang. Mr. Change has blue hair and often quotes, “There are no mistakes, only happy accidents.” Marvin enjoys school until a sneeze separates him from James. This book is an excellent choice for new chapter-book readers. 

Clements, Andrew. The Losers Club.​ (Grades 3-6) Alec loves to read -- so much so that it gets him in trouble at school and at home. Even the head of the afterschool program at his school says he can’t just sit around by himself and read; he has to join a club. So Alec comes up with a plan to create his own reading club, which he names The Losers Club to deter other kids from joining. His bright idea backfires when it turns out to be the most popular club at school. There are tons of great books referenced throughout, and there’s a helpful list at the back of the book for bookworms who want to read them all! 

DeStefano, Lauren. The Girl with the Ghost Machine.​ (Grades 4-6) Emmaline Beaumont was 10 years old when her mother died; two years later, her father remains so consumed with grief that it’s almost as if Emmaline has lost both parents. In a desperate attempt to bring his wife back, Monsieur Beaumont tinkers with his “ghost machine” night and day. When Emmaline’s attempt to destroy the machine doesn’t go as planned, she and readers are left wondering if precious memories of loved ones are worth trading for the chance to interact with them one more time. Emmaline’s twin best friends, Oliver and Gully, represent the push and pull between hope and logic that plagues Emmaline and offers her new ways of understanding grief. Readers should be prepared for heaviness and sadness throughout. A story of loss, friendship, and resilience. 

Farrer, Maria. Me and Mister P.​ (Grades 2-5) Arthur is tired of his younger brother Liam’s behavior. He can’t even watch television with volume since it upsets his brother. Arthur decides to run away from home but he meets a friendly polar bear named Mister P. who alters his plans. Mister P. helps Arthur accept his brother’s differences. This quirky story is bibliotherapy for siblings of children with autism as well as a good read for children who like fantastical animal stories. 

Krishnaswami, Uma. Step Up to the Plate, Maria Singh. ​(Grades 3-5) Maria Singh lives with her family in Yuba City, California during WWII. Most of the community members are adha-adha (half and half) with fathers from India and mothers from Mexico. Maria’s teacher forms a softball team which Maria wants to join but she is not sure if her father will let her. Maria and her family struggle against discrimination from kids and adults. 

Middleton, Dana. Open If You Dare. ​(Grades 4-6) For Birdie and her best friends, Ally and Rose, the joy of finishing elementary school is overshadowed by their dread of summer’s end. With Rose unwillingly moving back to England, and Ally and Birdie attending different middle schools, their long, close friendship is coming to an end. In the meantime, Ally deals with problems on and off the pitcher’s mound, while Birdie follows the trail of mystery, and Rose rebels against her parents in a creative, yet destructive way. The story is set in Atlanta with well-drawn individuals from different generations. Tween issues are addressed from first crush to first steps toward independence. A rewarding chapter book. 

Morris, Chad. Mustaches for Maddie.​ (Grades 4-6) Maddie is a 12 year old girl who has a big imagination. When she is diagnosed with a brain tumor, she faces surgery and possible negative outcomes from the operation. She also faces middle school friendships and even jealous classmates with humor and bravery. Maddies loves fake mustaches so her supporters wear them. This book is based on the authors’ daughter and will appeal to readers who liked Wonder by R.J. Palacio. 

Pennypacker, Sara. Waylon! Even More Awesome​. (Grades 2-4) A Clementine series spin off which features another likeable kid. Waylon and Baxter are classmates who have to share a dog who lives in a shelter. The two boys can not be more different. While Waylon loves everything about science and following rules, Baxter is always in trouble and close to being a juvenile delinquent. When their dog, Dumpster Eddy, is going to be thrown out of the shelter he is living in, the boys come up with a plan to save him. A book about friendship, family, perseverance and hard work make this a wonderful book for reluctant readers. 

Schlitz, Laura. Princess Cora and the Crocodile. ​(Grades 1-3) Princess Cora never has a moment to play or relax as her parents, the King and Queen, are constantly training her to be perfect. She writes a desperate letter to her fairy godmother asking for help. A pet crocodile arrives the next day and he impersonates Cora so she can have a day off. Caldecott Medalist Brian Floca’s illustrations add to the humor of this story. 

Swanson, Matthew. ​The Real McCoys. ​(Grades 3-5) Moxie McCoy is a fourth grade detective who faces her biggest challenge yet in this fun chapter book. When someone kidnaps beloved school mascot Eddie the Owl, Moxie is on the case-but she is forced to solve this new mystery on her own since her best friend, and fellow detective, has moved away. Moxie finds clues and points fingers but she needs help to find the owl mascot. Enter Milton, Moxie’s smart little brother. Can the real McCoys solve the crime of the century? 

Wilson, Amy. ​The Lost Frost Girl​. (Grades 4-6) A modern day fairy tale about a girl who discovers that she is Jack Frost’s daughter. Owl is a twelve year old girl with a quirky mom, a dad she has never met, a cool best friend named Mallory and a boy who gives her weird looks at school. When she finds out that Jack Frost is her father, she is determined to meet him and delves into Jack’s wonderful and wild world of winter. She realizes she is part human/part fay and has special powers of her own. A tale of family, friendship and magic and embracing who you are meant to be. 

Zemke, Deborah. The Curse of Einstein’s Pencil. ​(Grades 2-3) This second story about Bea Garcia will appeal to fans of Judy Moody. Bea is initially excited when the smartest girl in school, Judith Einstein asks her to be a partner in the geography contest. Then Bea wonders if the secret to Judith’s intelligence is her pencil. Bea takes Judith’s pencil when it rolls on the floor but the effect on her life and friendship is not what she expected. 

Graphic Novels 

Hale, Shannon and Pham, LeUyen. Real Friends​.​ (Grades 3-6) Shannon Hale, author of the bestselling Princess in Black series, debuts her first graphic novel: a memoir of her childhood friendships from kindergarten through sixth grade. Friends, rivals, and frenemies drift in and out of Shannon’s life, but her mean older sister remains a constant menacing presence. Readers will find much to relate to: neighborhood friends who move away; the dread of finding out that all of your friends have been assigned to another teacher. Hale as an adult narrates the story with a welcome perspective, acknowledging when she herself was a bad friend or seeing the dynamics of a situation more clearly in hindsight. Fans of Raina Telgemeier will love this. 

Jamieson, Victoria. All’s Faire in Middle School​.​ (Grades 4-8) From Victoria Jamieson, who won a Newbery Honor for Roller Girl, comes another middle grade graphic novel. Imogen has been homeschooled her whole life; her world revolves around the local Renaissance Faire where her parents work. But now she’s ready for her biggest challenge: middle school. Imogen’s unconventional background makes it difficult for her to fit in, but is she willing to do what it takes to conform? Recommend to fans of Raina Telgemeier. 

Siegel, Mark. The Sand Warrior. ​ (Grades 3-5) The Five Worlds is a galaxy of five planets filled with different species. Oona Lee teams up with An Tzu, a boy from the poorest slums, and Jax Amboy, a lonely star athlete. They discover that they may be able to light five ancient beacons and save the Five Worlds. Hand this fantasy story to fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender and the Amulet series. 

Biography 

Guglielmo, Amy and Tourville, Jacqueline. Pocket Full of Colors.​ ​(Grades K-4). Mary Blair is remembered today as one of the greatest and most influential Disney animators, but at the time, her use of color was considered “too vivid, too wild.” When her all-male colleagues at Disney reject her ideas, she strikes out on her own, where she finds huge success as an illustrator and set designer following her own vision. Finally, Walt Disney himself asks her to come back; she’s the only one he will trust to design the now-classic ride It’s a Small World. Gorgeous brightly-colored illustrations evoke Blair’s distinctive style. An author’s note is included at the end of the book. 

Meltzer, Brad. I am Sacagawea. ​(Grades 1-3) Sacagawea’s story is the latest addition to the Ordinary People Change the World​ best-selling biography series. Sacagawea was the only Native American to join Lewis and Clark’s expedition. Children will learn about the traits that made Sacagawea a trailblazer and the significant contributions she made to the world. A timeline and photos are included at the back of the book. Christopher Eliopoulos’ illustrations reflect his origins in the comic industry. He recreates lively scenes from Sacagawea’s life. 

Rosenstock, Barb. Vincent Can’t Sleep. ​(Grades K-2) This picture book biography of Vincent Van Gogh explores his life especially his troubles with insomnia. He had trouble sleeping as a child, an adolescent, and as an adult in the hospital. The text is short but lyrical while the illustrations in acrylic, pen, and watercolor reflect the night sky and his iconic work, The Starry Night. An author’s note and sources are included at the end of the book. 

Nonfiction 

Burcaw, Shane. Not So Different. ​(Grades 1-3). Shane was born with a degenerative muscle disease, and he’s never been able to walk. People always seem to ask him the same ten questions, like “How do you eat?” or “Why is your head so big?” Answers to these and more are accompanied by funny photographs. Through Shane’s funny and frank stories--he once broke his expensive motorized wheelchair by using it to lift his brother to dunk a basketball--readers will learn that they’re not so different from him after all. A nice introduction to disability for younger kids. 

Burns, Loree Griffin. Life on Surtsey: Iceland’s Upstart Island​. ​(Grades 4-7) In 1963, an underwater volcano off the coast of Iceland erupted, creating a new island formed from rock and ash. Scientists realized they could use this new island to study how life takes hold in a new environment. What are the first plants to grow on the bare rock? When and how do birds, insects, and other animals arrive? The book follows a team of scientists who return to the island every year to study the changes; full-color photographs document their journey and the changing island landscape. It’s a great introduction to how scientists really work, full of details that kids will love. (On a deserted island, how do you go to the bathroom?) A glossary and bibliography are included at the end of the book. 

Chin, Jason. Grand Canyon.​ (Grades 3-5) Some may think of the Grand Canyon as just a “big hole in the ground,” but through gorgeous and detailed illustrations, Chin reveals the complex ecosystem it hosts and what it tells us about our geological past. As a father and daughter hike through the canyon, the reader learns more about what makes each level of the canyon unique. Die-cuts reveal fossils in the modern-day, and when readers turn the page, they are transported back millions of years, to what the landscape looked like when each fossil was formed. Further scientific information, an author’s note, and sources are included at the end of the book. 

Eggers, Dave. ​Her Right Foot. ​(Grades 3 and up) A beautifully illustrated book about the history of the iconic statue along with humor and interesting trivia during the first part of the book. The second part of the book talks about the statue’s feet and how the back of her right foot is actually lifted as if she is going somewhere. No one ever seems to talk about the fact that the statue of liberty is walking; she is on the move. If the statue of liberty is a symbol of freedom, if the statue of liberty has welcomed millions of immigrants to the United States, then how can she stand still? 

Harris, Chris. I’m Just No Good At Rhyming.​ (Grades 3-8) Fans of Shel Silverstein, Ogden Nash, or Jack Prelutsky will enjoy this volume of humorous poetry for kids. Lane Smith’s hilarious illustrations add to the fun.

Rose, Deborah Lee. Beauty and the Beak. ​(Grades 3-5) An Alaskan bald eagle lost most of her beak after a poacher shot her. She was unable to eat, drink, or preen without her beak. The eagle later named Beauty was sent to the care of biologist Veltkamp at a raptor center in Idaho. Since Beauty’s beak did not regenerate, Veltkamp enlisted the help of a dentist and an engineer. Together they fashioned a beak for Beauty using a 3-D printer. This nonfiction animal rescue story has similaries to stories by the Hatkoffs including Winter’s Tail. 

Roy, Katherine. How To Be An Elephant. ​(Grades 3-6) A stunning look at how a newborn elephant matures into a capable member of the herd. This book emphasizes how an infant elephant learns through her family herd an array of skills that are necessary to keep up; from learning to walk and swim right away, projecting her voice, using her nose to eat and smell and keeping cool with her large ears. Large illustrations of calves with their herd are interspersed with captivating diagrams and smaller images work well together. A carefully researched book and a must have for all elementary school collections.