#riku and kairi are just going through some tension

[cloudofash]

Riku and Kairi are Still [Somewhat] Friends Even If They Had Instances Where They Treated One Another Poorly

Since I wrote my Article exploring Riku's Jealousy and Possessiveness and I covered the topic of how Riku and Kairi barely felt like real friends, I have received some feedback stating that my take was wrong to even one person saying it was a flat out "stupid idea". So I'd like to take the time to address that take and why I still stand by it.

First and foremost, I said in my initial article that Riku and Kairi still show that they care for one another and stated that they're still friends. I put the disclaimer there because I didn't want anyone to think that I didn't view them as friends. Re-reading that article I can see how I worded some things poorly since I kind of let my thoughts explode and barely proofread it (bad habit of mine) and the truth is that I ran out of characters for that article so I couldn't explain my thoughts further. My thoughts were convoluted and sloppy but so much time has passed I've decided to keep the article as is and add correction here.

----

I do think Riku and Kairi are still friends and have always been friends even if there is some tension between them.

I do think Riku still cares for Kairi and cares about her wellbeing.

When I wrote the article I was expressing my intial thoughts of how I perceived the two when I first played the game. To me, they hardly looked like friends. To me, it seemed Riku didn't care about Kairi at all. When I first played Kingdom Hearts I was fully grown, I went into this game viewing the characters through the eyes of an adult who had experience with problematic and toxic situations in friendships. That's what I was attempting to convey, my initial reaction as an adult who recognizes problematic behaviors.

I acknowledge I should have been clearer about separating my initial thoughts from my actual analysis after playing the game, because the two are not the same. My initial thoughts of Riku and Kairi were based on KH1 when the two were probably at their lowest, and I thought that they were either the worst kind of friends to one another or barely friends at all, but of course after playing the entire series I saw that no, these two characters do have instances where they care for one another.

Kairi opted to help reunite Sora and Riku in KH2 which is an incredibly selfless act on her part, considering she could have let Riku go and kept Sora's attention on herself but she knew Sora was being eaten alive by not knowing where Riku was. And she knew Riku was casting himself away because he was ashamed of himself. This moment from Kairi is to me, one of her best in the series because it shows that she genuinely does care about both boys and not just Sora.

However, we can not ignore that Kairi in KH1 wanted to leave Riku behind and take the raft HE built and run away with just Sora. She has developed as a character for sure, but my article was about Riku's Jealousy and Posessiveness was about Riku's initial darkness and downfall. We weren't really exploring the rest of the series even though I brought up some points from later games, I was focusing on the behavior of the characters initially in KH1. And in KH1, Kairi wasn't the good friend to Riku we saw her as in KH2. She tried to leave him behind because she sensed he was changing and falling into darkness. In KH1 it is established that Kairi didn't like and accept change, she was stuck in the past and wanted things to remain the same forever. And this in itself isn't bad behavior, but suggesting she and Sora run away and leave Riku behind IS problematic for someone who is supposedly Riku's friend.

However, being problematic or toxic doesn't mean you're not friends. It SEEMED that way to me because Kingdom Hearts 1 is our very first look at the Destiny Trio and it leads one to believe that they've always been that way, it was the first game and we had nothing else to go by. If you're constantly toxic and problematic then it's fair to assume you're either horrible friends or not friends at all. But if you and your friends are just going through a bad time, or if you fight and argue that doesn't mean you're toxic and awful friends. Your behaviors may be toxic and problematic, as Riku's and Kairi's were in regards to one another, but they were and are still friends just trying to deal with each others' changes or lack of change and their feelings for Sora.

However, I still stand 10 toes down in that Riku and Kairi's friendship is barely explored and that also plays into why they don't feel like true friends, rather they feel like two people who are friends because they share the same friend. We're told they're friends and we see some instances where they do care for one another which makes their friendship almost believable, but to me we're just not given enough between the two. This isn't, again, to say they're not friends, the story just doesn't explore their friendship enough because it spends so much time focusing on Sora and Riku's relationship. The series is about Sora and Riku after all, so that's most likely just how it'll be. KH4 seems to be re-enforcing Kairi on the sidelines with Riku running off to save Sora in Quadratum but we'll have to see what becomes of our Destiny Trio.

Hope that clears my initial article up a bit more!

[kingdomhearts-and-soriku-trash]

Something that without fail always makes me cry about Soriku is when I think about Riku’s feelings post KH 3, and other times when he’s separated from Sora, and the time when Sora is missing. Like, I think about Sora’s emotions and turmoil when he has his memory problems, he’s separated from Riku and he’s desperately trying to get back to him, and think about everything he goes through in all the KH games.

But then Riku comes into my mind, and specifically the post KH 3. Like…I just imagine Riku is so worried and desperate just like Sora was in KH 2, possibly even more. I always imagine that Riku and Sora knew, before the whole KH story began, where each other were at almost all times. They were best friends since they were little, and they were together very often even when Kairi joined them. If they weren’t together, they at least knew where they would be or had a good guess.

And they weren’t apart for long either. Maybe a day AT MOST.

But then the whole KH series happens, and they’re apart for so long and filled with tension, BUT I feel like Riku knew where Sora was, especially since they kept running into each other. And then I just think about Riku’s headspace in 358/2 Days since, like, once again Riku knows where Sora is. He’s sleeping and is in a safe place that Riku can reach if he feels like something is wrong. Going back a little, even in CoM he knew Sora was in the castle when he was there as well. He just had to find him. He knew where he was. That was good enough.

KH 2? He knew where he was and helped him and they FINALLY reunited. I feel like Riku didn’t show it much, but he felt such relief, excitement, love and SO many other emotions. It’s overwhelming, but he hides it because he has to. At least he feels that way then.

But anyways then DDD happens and Riku kinda knows where Sora is. He’s in dreams and it’s all confusing, but eventually he learns where he is and knows what’s wrong (from what I remember but I may be wrong). They were separated at first, but they KNEW they were together at the same time, so there wasn’t much worry or fear. They literally talk about each other 24/7 and certain problems get fixed BECAUSE OF THE OTHER ONE COMMUNICATING AND HELPING THE OTHER. And then the ending of KH 3 happens. And it hurts (massively) to think about how this is one of the few times in Riku’s life, that he doesn’t know where Sora is.

He doesn’t know where he is, and it eats at him.

I think about their connection with their hearts and Riku’s dream eater symbol. A constant reminder that Sora is dreaming whether it be good or bad. If he’s dreaming, then he’s alive. He’s somewhere and he will find him. He won’t stop until he finds him, and though the mark hurts at times, because of nightmares, it brings a sort of comfort. If he’s dreaming, then he’s alive. He must be. And then their connection in his heart is still there. It’s not as strong as it once was, since I believe with everything going on it’s definitely stressed, but its. Still. There.

So he must be somewhere.

And once again thinking about the dream eater symbol, I’ve always seen it as burning when Sora is having a nightmare. And so I feel even more sad for Riku because he KNOWS he’s hurting, it keeps him up on certain nights from the pain, and he can’t help. This is the time when he wants to help (unlike KH 1), when it is literally a craving and NEED for him, but he can’t. He puts in the effort to help without being there physically, but the burning feeling doesn’t go away, so he’s still suffering.

The only moments I feel like Riku would feel some peace is when the DE (dream eater) symbol feels…cool. Like it gives him a cold feeling but not freezing. It just feels cool and nice, so he knows he’s having a good dream and not a nightmare. For that time, he knows he’s okay. Or maybe not okay, but having peace for a moment. But still, he doesn’t know where he specifically is. He cannot simply call him on the phone and talk and see his face line he did in KH 3 when he and Mickey were in Radiant Gardens.

I imagine this genuinely hurting Riku bc ofc they get back together finally and are facing some of their problems, only to be pulled apart AGAIN, and both suffering in their own ways and adding to the trauma they both already have. I imagine this separation making him push himself to his limit, and possibly over it, using his abilities and any keyblade powers in the desperate hope of finding him. But it doesn’t work. It feels hopeless. I haven’t played Re:mind or the Symphony game (I can’t remember the name rn it’s literally 2 AM), so I’m missing some lore ik, but still these plague my mind.

And then another sad headcannon/idea I toss in my head late at night or at work is the possibility of their connection being broken suddenly, since I’ve seen theories for that. Their connection is strained and then it suddenly snaps. He no longer feels a burning pain or cool feeling from the DE symbol reacting to Sora’s dreams, and he doesn’t feel that pull in his heart anymore. He thought he would feel relief when the mark didn’t burn anymore at times, but now he wished IT DID. With that pain, like I’ve said, he knew he was alive.

But now a haunting and cruel thought is in his mind. A possibility that he doesn’t want to accept. If he’s not dreaming, then he might be dead. No dreams or nightmares? At all? Not like Sora. Not like any person. At least a LIVING person. So that thought haunts him on his late nights or when he’s pushed himself past his limit, once again out of the MANY times I feel like he would, and he’s not thinking straight and it hurts. His chest is tight, he’s slowly starting to hyperventilate when he sits in bed at night, his head hurts from working too hard, and then his pillow is covered in tears because he can’t stop them anymore, and then his head hurts WORSE because of the tears and the sadness he literally can’t hold back anymore.

He’s faced hurt before, he’s faced things he feared…but this one thing he refuses to face. He won’t accept it, not until he sees Sora’s body for himself, not until he feels the warmth from Sora gone completely. His light snuffed out like a mere candle.

He won’t accept it. He won’t face it. I feel like the thought of Sora being dead or severely hurt to the point where their connection is broken, is a fear and hurt that Riku won’t face for awhile. He’s strong, we know that duh (and Sora is too), but still. He’s faced the darkness, he’s faced Ansem, he’s fought everything that’s scared him head on…but this is something he can’t fight. He just has to let it sit in the deep part of his heart and eat at him until he finds Sora and tells himself that he’s there. He found him AGAIN.

He knows where he is, and Sora knows where Riku is. Finally. Their connection can heal, they both can help each other and open up more, finally go home, or at least someplace safe. Because honestly where is home for them anymore? Thats a problem to face in the future.

Because he’ll find him. Because he’s not dead or completely lost. He’s out there, and Riku knows it. That has to be it, right? He has to be alive. Sora wouldn’t give up or give in so easily, he’s literally bested death before. He can’t be truly gone…right?

[curryfury13]

Hello!

Welcome to my first retrospective post. This one should be fun, huh? We're going to go through the first chapter of my very first fan-fiction. Not word for word, mind you, but as commentary. I'll provide the link if you're interested in reading the chapter itself, but otherwise I'll be talking about where I was at as a creator when I wrote it.

Think of this as the special features! Ever wonder what the heck that creator was thinking when they made that dumb decision? Well now's your chance to find out! Or something like that.

Storytelling in general was a new concept for me.

Something I've only recently opened up about publicly is that growing up, I struggled with reading books. I'd reread the same paragraph over and over again, never really absorbing anything I actually read. I could do some audio-books occasionally—which helped immensely when it came to schooling—but proper grammar, pacing, actual writing, I hadn't a clue. Turns out it was due to a fun load of disassociation. Well, I mean as much fun as swallowing a tortilla chip the wrong way at a party, which really isn't much fun at all.

This is all to say, I went into writing this story not knowing how to write a story. And you might be asking yourself, then why, oh why, did I write this story? The answer to that is because I wanted to. Go swallow a tortilla chip!

All I really knew was that I loved Kingdom Hearts and it brought me a lot of comfort when I wasn't feeling great. Those were roughly my words when my husband asked me what I wanted to write about and it's still true to this day. He also asked me what I would want to add to the story, because while I could simply novelize the games, that's already been done. What did I want to add?

That's when Hinata was born.

And I mean born. She was genuinely, just barely made up when I started True Friends. I believe I decided her name as I was in the process of writing. No pre-planning, no outline, just opened the laptop and typed away. For better or worse.

Seeing the person she is now compared to how she started is mind boggling to me. She isn't the same girl Riku pulled out of the water.

I kid, I kid. This was the humble beginning. I can still feel my giddy excitement when I reread this chapter.

I also like to refer to this chapter as, Not Interesting At All Really

There was so much I wanted to get to, so many rampant ideas that I needed to thread together without the slightest idea of how I'd do it. My first goal was, let's make sure everyone knows the characters. Mention Riku's yearning for the outside world, Kairi being from another world, and Sora's general, Sora-ness. It was quick, vague, and all a bit awkward, especially since a majority of my readers would be Kingdom Hearts fans in the first place. They didn't need those needless explanations!

Reading it now, you can still feel that awkward tension. The feeling of, I just need to get this out of the way and get to the good stuff.

One detail I tried to get into on Destiny Islands was diving into Kairi's emotions about her fall and loss of memories. It's never really explored in the games, spare for Memory of Melodies, I suppose, and it was something I wanted to try and explore more.

While I do think it's an interesting concept, if I ever try and rewrite this story, I don't think this thread will carry over. It doesn't really go anywhere in the end, and I feel like it drives Kairi to act out of character in True Friends. It may be something that does eat at her, but it's not something she would act out about. She's content with her life on Destiny Islands.

Overall, it's not a horrible start! It's something that still makes me smile when I read it. A lot of heart and love went into it. And I still have to give myself a small pat on the back that Hinata did show up rather quickly. Something happened right off the bat and the story didn't drag its feet.

In the first chapter anyway... Later on. That's a different story.

[yzafre]

we're flying above the valley below | Ch 22

AO3

First | Previous

He hit the water, tumbling end over end.  He blinked away the disorientation, staring through the murky depths.  Specks of light called to him in different directions, but as he tried to move towards them, the water began to churn, waves chasing against his face, dragging him down.

There was a current tickling his toes, cool and clear and calm.  An escape from the undertow, he thought, and dove down, swimming until he reached it, where it began to pull.  As he broke through, the darkness began to clear.  He could see blue skies above – big, white clouds drifting through.  Kicking his feet to go faster, he swam upwards.  He reached, closer, closer, closer, his fingers brushed against the surface tension – broke through.

Gasping for breath, Sora climbed onto the surface.  Water stretched to the horizon, a perfect mirror to the endless sky above, distorted only by the ripples his sluggish movements made.  Beneath the glassy surface, the reflection of the clouds, he thought he saw specks of light floating below.

It was so quiet.  The rippling of the water as he stood was terrifyingly loud.

“Hello?”

No answer.  His voice was strangely dampened, fading quickly.

“Hello?” He tried again, louder, but still there was no response.

He shivered, the little hairs on his arm standing tall.  What was this place?  How did he get here?  The last thing he remembered was the Darkness, and then....

Riku?  Kairi?  He reached out for their lights, but -

There-not there-there-not there-always with you-never part of you-reaching for the light but touching nothing over and over and over -

Gasping, he brought a hand up to his chest, only to falter as it fell through.  Dread sinking in his stomach, he slowly looked down.

He screamed.

 “Wh-wh-what's wrong with me?  Where’s - what happened to my - ?”

His chest was hollow, a hole carved straight through him, front to back, stretching from the bottom tip of his sternum up to his collar bone.  His crystalline heart – clear and empty - spun freely in the center.  The edges were wispy, slowly flaking away – like dandelion puff, he thought hysterically.

“What - where - “

“Calm down!” A high, nasally voice snapped, “You're going to disturb the drifters!  It’s - oh.  It’s you.”

The appearance of a small fuzzy creature brought Sora up short.  It barely came up to his knees, with short gray fur, a round white muzzle, and little button eyes. 

“Although, it looks like you came the normal way, this time,” it sighed, those eyes somehow squinting as it peered up at him, “Well, sort of.”

“The... normal way?” Sora asked, “Actually, where are we?”

“You’re telling me you don’t recognize it?  You've almost made it through several times before, while in the Dream,” it said, “Last time you actually set foot here, too.  It's not entirely unusual – the edges of sleep and death touch, so there can’t help but be some crossover – but you have made a particular habit of it.”

It stared up at him, eyes squinting disapprovingly, and Sora laughed nervously, “Hey - it’s not like I did it on purpose!  But, um... what is this place?”

“You’ve reached the Final World.  The place hearts reach when they reach a natural end.”

“Wuh-wait,” he sputtered, “Then I’m in – the afterlife?”

The little creature bobbled its head side-to-side, ears flopping with the motion, “Not quite; this is more of a way-stop.  Most people arrive, and go straight through to the After.  But some....”

It turned, pointing.  For a minute, Sora thought it was just gesturing to empty space, but slowly he noticed glinting strands of light twisting and turning – a faint outline hovering over the water.

“Some hearts have something they hold onto so tightly, they can’t move on, and they end up lingering,” the creature said quietly.

“I see,” Sora said, mesmerized by the undulating lights for a long moment before, abruptly, shaking his head, “...Hey, that’s behind the point!  What’s up with this hole in my chest?”

The creature hummed thoughtfully.

“Looks like you lost a bit of yourself.  See, the waters around here are made to help people move on: the things they can’t let go of, it takes them away a little at a time, till they’re wiped clean.  Then, they can move on to the next place.”  The creature shrugged.  “My guess?  The water took a big chunk of you when you came up through it like you did.”

“What?  The water took a piece of me… how do I get it back?”

“You don’t,” the creature said simply.

“But,” Sora gestured wildly – to the water, to the giant hole through him, “There has to be a way!”

“Well, technically you could go diving to try and get it back, but - “

“Then I’ll do that!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” The creature waved its little hands sharply, “Didn’t you hear what I just said?  The waters around here are meant to take from you – you go diving, and it’ll eat away at what you have left!”

“But, you just said I could dive for it.”

“I said technically - but no one’s ever actually managed it.  The last guy that tried never came back up,” the creature said, before trailing off into low muttering, “Come to think of it, he was a bit like you – coming into this place sideways.”

That last guy... never came back up?

No.  Sora shook his head – he couldn’t think like that.  He couldn’t just leave things like that.  He wasn’t sure what happened to everyone else – even if he couldn’t imagine how they would have survived that wave of darkness – and Kairi was – Kairi was -

But Riku – he didn’t see it, what happened with Riku – and even then, he couldn’t just stop.  He couldn’t stop trying.  What kind of hero would he be if he just laid down and gave up?

He couldn’t stop moving – he couldn’t!  If he stopped, he’d...

“I’m going to try it,” Sora said, “I can’t just leave things like this – it can’t end here!  I have to reclaim myself.  Is there anything you can tell me to help?”

The creature sighed, but begrudgingly gave in, “You need a strong sense of self, to make it to the bottom – an unshakeable sense of identity to hang onto.  Otherwise, you’ll lose too much and get lost, and never make it back up.  So, do you know who you are?”

“Of course, I’m....”

Oddly, the words stuck in his throat.  The Keyblade wielder?  But, there’s so many others, now.

“I have the Kingdom Key, and...”

So does Riku, now – and, really, I think it was always meant for him.

“I’m... I’m a hero – got my face in the stars and everything!”

But who have I saved, really?  Lately, it seems like everyone’s able to take care of themselves, so why I am I even....

“I’m just a guy that wants to help – a kid from the islands - ”

Do I even know them anymore?  It’s been so long -

“I'm Kairi and Riku’s Flightmate, I’m...”

But they’re gone gone gone -

“I’m the one who carries the hopes and dreams of everyone I’ve met - every friend I’ve made, they make up a little piece of me.  I’m a part of them – and as long as I have them, I can do anything!“

“Oh, that’s nice,” the creature said, “But… they’re not here right now.  So, without them… who are you?”

Sora stumbled, heart swooping down into his stomach, a tickle of nausea biting at the back of his throat.  But – didn't he just answer that?  Without them, he... what did he have?

The creature stared up at him as the silence stretched on, before sighing and shaking its head, “If you can't answer that, there’s no way you’ll make it out intact."

"Even so, I still have to try,” Sora said.

That being said, he wasn’t... quite sure how to start.

“So, I just... dive?”

“Yep.”

Sora shifted his weight from foot to foot, squinting down into the water.

“What’s it like down there?”

“I don’t know; I’ve never been.”

“What?  Then how do you know it's so dangerous?”

“I just do.  I know lots of things.”

“Right.  Okay.”

He bounced a bit on his toes.  Okay, just dive in – easy.  He’d been doing it since nearly as long as he’d been walking.

Taking several steps forward, he tensed, prepared to jump – only to stumble to a stop, spinning on his heel.

“Oh, wait!”

“Now what?” the creature sighed.

“Uh - just.  Before I go – what's your name?

“My name?” It repeated, “I’m Chirithy.”

“Nice to meet you, Chirithy!  I’m Sora.  I’ll see you when I get back.”

And he dove in.

He was falling, or floating, or rising.  The infinite was all around him, above and below and to the side, impossible sun filtering through endless clouds.  He breathed, taking in the water that was the air that was the horizon that was not water, not really.

And he drifted.

And as he washed up on the shore there was a boy, staring out at it all.  Blonde hair, blue eyes – the boy had the same dissolving hole in his chest, and more besides.  Light glittered behind him, like the fading star-forms up above, forming a wing – no, two – no, one – no –

The boy was him, but never him, and he was thrilled to see him though it hurt to look at him.

“It’s you,” he breathed, “You’re alive!  Oh – but...”

If Sora had a hole through his chest, the other boy was made from holes.  Not even his face was fully in-tack, little specs of nothingness dotting across his cheeks like freckles.

“What happened to you?”

The other boy hunched into himself, gaze skittering away.

“I’ve... lost too much of myself,” he said, then huffed a soft, bitter laugh, “Guess it was only a matter of time, though.”

“What do you mean?”

“I... don’t exist,” he said, then paused, gaze going distant as he stared down in the water, “Oh… I remember someone telling me that.”

Sora frowned, “That doesn’t sound right.”

“No?”

“Well, you’re here, aren’t you?”

“...huh.  Maybe,” the other boy murmured, “But - what about you?  What are you doing here?”

“I’m... trying to get myself back,” Sora said, hovering a hand over the hole in his chest.

“Oh,”

The other boy turned to look down into the water.  Lights sparkled down below, like little stars in the reflection of the sky, as opposed to the faint morning light bouncing off clouds above their heads.

“Wish me luck?”

“....sure.”

Sora dove in.

The other boy stared as Sora pulled himself back out of the water.

“What’d you lose?” he asked.

“Huh?”

“Every time you go in the water, you lose a piece of yourself.  You have a chance of finding whatever you lost, but you’re guaranteed to lose something else in the attempt.”

“I,” Sora trailed off, heart tumbling over in his chest – where was he, what did he find down there?  There was this feeling that he was forgetting something, but the details eluded him.

“Well – what about you?” he asked, shying away from the feeling, “You’re down here, too.”

“I was looking for myself too, but…” the boy hesitated, looking away.

“But?”

Another hesitation, and then – wings bloomed from his back, filling in the star-dotted outlines.  One was messy and patchwork, nothing but scattered feathers over spectral bone, and the other nearly non-existent, pale and gauze-like, the shape of an unmanifested wing yet even fainter than that.

Sora scrambled closer.

“How do you only have one wing?” he gasped, hands fluttering around the manifestations.

The boy swallowed, shoulders curling inward.  Then, slowly, he removed his hands from his lap, uncurling the fist that had been kept there all this time.  Inside was a single feather, barbs all in disarray from being crushed but otherwise intact.

“…I think I had another wing,” the boy said, then shook his head, “No, I had another wing.  I did.  I don’t remember it, but… this feather came from it.  It existed.  I – “

He cut off, expression collapsing in on himself as he curled back around the feather, holding it close.

“I can’t remember who it was.”

“Another person… oh!  You mean that girl from the dreams?”

“Who?”

“You don’t remember?” Sora wondered, “We were just there – she fell, and then you lead me up to that other guy that looked like you and – and – “

And then… what happened?  He’d fought, and then the darkness, and the water, and... Well, he was in water now.  Maybe they’d both drowned in the end, gotten lost – but, no, he remembered talking with Chirithy, that he’d ended up there from….

His head hurt.

“How did… I get down here?” Sora asked.

“You don’t remember?” the other boy echoed with a bitter smile, “I told you – every time you dive, you lose a little bit more.”

He shuddered, but – there was an urgency in his chest, the nagging sensation something was wrong, that there was somewhere he needed to be.

“Maybe, but... I still have to try.”

The other boy flinched back, but Sora didn’t have time for that, quickly bouncing back to his feet and taking a running start.

Sora dove in.

“Hey,” he asked the other boy, arm over his eyes.  Climbing out this time had been… hard, sluggish, his lungs straining till they almost felt like they’d pop.  Even now, his body felt heavy.  “How come... you’re always here?  If I’m supposed to be going deeper, shouldn’t I have left you behind?  Or am I just going in circles?”

“This place is just like that – no matter how hard you try, you always end up right back where you started.”

“Oh.”

“But... you might be getting closer.”

Sora lifted his arm from his eyes, turning to blink at him, “How can you be sure?”

The boy pointed upwards, “The light, it’s changing.  It didn’t do that before you got here.  Everything was always exactly the same.”

Sure enough, the light that had once been glowing softly over the horizon was now blazing above them, approaching its peak.

“Oh,” he said, then – “Oh!  Then, I’ve got to get back to it!”

Re-energized, he pushed to his feet once more.

Sora dove in.

He had to get out of here.  He had to rescue Kairi, figure out where Riku was – he was never supposed to be gone from home this long – after locking the door, it was supposed to be over –

And there was this ache in his chest – this horrible, terrible chasm, like he’d lost something important –

Forgotten something important.

He knew he had – if he could only remember what it was –

Ah, but that was the point, wasn’t it?

He didn’t know what he’d already forgotten.  If he’d already found them – how he did it, who he’d met – so many pieces were missing, and he still felt no closer to finding that crucial part of him.  No idea if he was even going in the right direction.

Pressing a hand over the hole in his chest, he breathed through the burning ache squeezing through his lungs.

“You can stop,” the other boy said, “You... don’t have to keep doing this.”

“No.  I... I don’t remember clearly, but... there’s someone waiting.  I have to... I have to keep going.  I can’t give up.”

Sora dove in.

Sora held out a hand, the Kingdom Key falling into his hand.

"Hey.  Are there... more of these?”

“...yeah.”

“Did - do you have one?”

“...not right now.”

“What do you mean?”

“I gave it away.  It’s not like it was doing me any good here, and...”

Sora’s stomach turned, remembering the sickening ripping feeling when Riku pulled the Key away from his heart, asserting his own claim.

He swallowed the nausea down.

“And?”

“Maybe, that way, he won’t forget me.”

“Huh.”

Sora let the Key fade from his hand, laying back against the water.

“Hey... how do we know each other again?”

Sora dove in.

“I met some people, recently,” Sora said, tilting his head back.  Even if he couldn’t find the source, the light hit him just like the afternoon sun.

“There was this girl, in a weird world with all these playing-card people.  And a hero, Hercules – his teacher named me a junior hero, though I think I deserve a bit more than that, don’t you?  And then – there was this guy, Tarzan.  He lived in the jungle and mostly spoke Gorilla.  And – Donald, and Goofy.  They’re - okay, I guess.  They’re really focused on finding their King, but they’re also letting me tag along to look for Riku and Kairi.”

“How nice,” the other boy said snidely, “You just met them – and now you’ll forget them.  Just like everything else you’ve forgotten.”

Right.  He didn’t just meet these people.  It’s just that it’s all he remembers.  Sora knew that.  The growing emptiness in his chest wouldn’t let him forget.

“You’re going to lose everything.  Every person you’ve ever met – even your Flight, in the end,” the other boy growled, “How can you just give those memories away?  Don’t you care about them?”

“Of course I do!” Sora protested, “But if I just stay here, nothing will get better.”

The other boy scoffed and turned away.

Sora dove in.

The light settled down against the horizon, painting the world in pinks and yellows and reds.

He was 16 – or thereabouts; he was 14 years old.  He was a warrior of light; he was a kid ready for his first adventure.

He’d seen so many worlds.  All he could remember was his island.

He was... he was....

He was Sora, and not much else.

The empty places in his chest ached.  To fill them, he talked.

“When I was ten, Kairi decided we needed to find a new place to play,” he said.  The other boy wouldn’t look at him, but that was okay.  Sora knew he heard; he couldn’t not.

“I’m not sure why – Riku said she and Selphie were fighting, but it didn’t look like fighting.  Anyways, she decided we needed a new place to play, and thought the Dip on the side of town was a good place.  Except, we weren’t supposed to go there – and we told her – but then she asked why and we didn’t know. 

“And then she asked who told us that, ‘cause she hadn’t heard that rule.  But no one had told us not to go there, it’s just something we knew.  But then she said that there was no reason we couldn’t go, and Riku said that was stupid, and those two started actually arguing.”

He shifted, running his hands across the water, feeling the soft tug of the surface tension.

“Anyways, we went in the Dip.  It felt big and scary, then, but thinking back on it was just... kinda gross.  There were all these ditches, everywhere, and none of the trees looked right, and all the holes and ditches and bumps were filled with this really nasty water, or at least they were damp and slick and gross.

“I was getting kinda bored, and trying to figure out what was up with Kairi – cause we did what she wanted, and this was her idea, but she was still being really quiet.  And I guess I wasn’t paying attention, cause suddenly Riku was yelling and pushed me over.

“At first I was mad, but then I realized I had been about to walk right into one of the ditches.  I was fine, but Riku ended up falling in instead and twisted his ankle, and I really thought he was gonna cry, but he didn’t.  I totally would’ve cried, it must’ve hurt, like, a lot, because by the next day his ankle swelled up like three times its normal size.  But he didn’t.  He’s always been the stronger one, you know.”

Riku, Kairi... there was still a warmth in his chest, a feeling he wasn’t alone, but he couldn’t reach them.  Were they okay?

“Well.  It was really, really hard to get him out – like I said, everything was all slick and muddy – and Riku’s ankle really was hurt bad.  We had to help him the whole way home – if one of us was hurt Riku would’ve given us a piggy-back ride, but he’d just gotten his growth spurt and was way too tall for us to pick up, and I felt bad for that, but -

“Uh, anyways.  It took ages to get back out, and we nearly missed curfew.  Our parents were really worried about us when they saw Riku – I thought for sure we’d have to tell them we were where we weren’t supposed to be, and we’d get grounded and wouldn’t be able to go out for ages, but Riku just started telling this story about a crab and a coconut, and they believed him.  And once Riku’s ankle got better we just went back to the usual island to play, and never talked about it again, and I guess Kairi and Selphie made up if they were fighting?  And that was that.”

Sora sighed, stretching out his limbs.

“I don’t understand the point of the story,” the other boy said.

“There’s not one.  I was just... remembering.”

The other boy growled low, frustrated, “Why do you keep talking about them?  You’re just going to dive back down - you know you’re just going to forget, right?”

“Yeah, but... shouldn’t I enjoy it, for what little time I have left?  And... maybe, if I share my memories, they’ll live on with you.  Even if I forget, it can still mean something.”

Sora dove in.

Beneath a starlit sky, a child climbed out of the water, shaking and empty and alone.

The other boy watched him, eyes dark.

“Do you remember their names?”

“What?”

“The people that mean the most to you – do you remember who they are?”

Remember?  He remembered -

A wisp of a laugh, burning eyes -

He remembered -

A warm smile, a hand in his -

He remembered -

Nothing.

The other boy laughed bitterly.

“I told you this would happen.  What, did you think you were above this?  That you would be different?!”

“It’s not that – I just couldn’t stop,” the child protested, “I couldn’t give up.”

“No,” the other boy sneered, “Instead you destroyed yourself.  Every person who gave you meaning, everyone who could call your name – they’re gone now.  You threw them all away.  Now look at you – what do you have?  Nothing.  All you are is nothing!”

Nothing but the hole, the ache, the pain in his chest…

but then, the pain was not nothing.

“I know it hurts, but - this hurting inside me… it means I lived, and loved, and lost.  And if that’s the case… then I can do all that again.  Maybe even find them again.”

The other boy snarled, jumping to his feet, his mangled, fading wings flaring behind him as he swung blindly with his fists.  The child yelped, ducking under the punch, dancing back.

“How?” The other boy hissed, words punctuated by more swings, “How do you think you’re making it out of this?  Every choice you make is just making you lose more.  You’re alone.”

With his final word, the other boy threw all his power behind a single punch, and the child had to throw himself backwards, wings snapping out to catch his balance, keeping him upright.  As he regained his footing, the other boy froze, eyes wide and face pale as he stared.

In the sudden silence, the child panted, recovering.

“Even if,” the child started, pausing to take another breath before starting again, “Even I forget, even if I can’t remember why... this ache will remind me.  Every moment, every experience... it shaped me into who I am today.  And I’ll carry it – carry them – with me, no matter what.”

The other boy began to shake, eyes flickering, back and forth, over the child’s shoulders.  His face slowly darkened, eyes burning, fury painting itself across his face.

“Shut up.  Shut up!  You think it’s that easy?”

The other boy lunged, forceful, hands tangling in the hood around the child’s throat.  It caught the child unprepared, and they both tipped over, the breath punching from his lungs as they crashed to the ground.  The child struggled against the other boy’s weight, water already seeping into his jacket, cold against his back, but the other boy just pressed him downwards, pulling the fabric of the hood tighter around his neck.

“You think you understand loss?  What it means to lose everything?  Why should you get to keep your wings?  What makes you so special?”

The other boy glared down at him, hands fisted in collar, tears streaming down his face and oh, oh, oh. 

“I’m not,” the child said softly, “Not really.  The truth is… I’m scared.  I’m really, really scared.  Maybe I will lose everything – my world, my memories, my friends, maybe even my heart.  But I have to believe… even if I have nothing else, they’re still a part of me.”

He reached up, gently cupping his hands over the other boys’, stroking a thumb over his knuckles until they shook, released, went limp.

“Knowing that, I can always find the strength to carry on.”

The sun dawned beneath the water.

And the water was the sky, and the sun poured into his chest, filling him and filling him until he was solid and whole once more.  Sora wrapped his arms tight around the other boy, holding him close as gravity twisted on itself, spinning on its axis.  His wings spread wide, holding them aloft, floating them down gently as the floor settled before them.

When they landed, kneeling together in the shallow water, the other boy slumped onto his shoulder.

“You… it’s always like this, with you,” the other boy sighed, “Funny, how even after losing everything else, I still remember that.”

He gave another sigh – big, heavy – that faded into a little rolling, chuckling laugh.

“You did it.  You regained yourself; you can get out of here, now.  Return to your friends.”

“Mm-mm,” Sora denied, shaking his head, “First, we gotta get the rest of you back.”

“Me?” the other boy said, “But… I’m not like you.  I don’t know if I can…”

“You can.  And, even if it takes a while – no matter what you lose, I’ll be here to give it back to you.  I may not know everything, but… I remember enough, I think.”

“What if... I lose them forever?” the other boy asked.

“You won’t,” Sora said, “I won’t let you.  Come on, Roxas – they're waiting for you.  Axel, and Xion.”

“Xion,” he breathed, eyes lighting up, before he scoffed, “Oh.  I think…. I always do this, don’t I?  Hesitating until the very last moment.”

“Well, you can always make a start now.  But you gotta go.”

“Right.  See you on the other side.”

When all the pieces were in place, they dove in –

Then they flew up.

“Oh,” Chirithy said, “You actually made it – and you brought the other guy, too.”

“What, you thought I couldn’t?”

“I thought you were gone forever,” Chirithy said dryly.

“Well you were wrong!  Now, I’ve gotta get back to my friends.”

“Woah, slow down – how do you think you’re going to do that?”

“There has to be a way,” Sora said, “This can’t be the end – Xehanort can’t win, he can’t.”

Chirithy threw up their hands, “I told you - once you’re here, that’s it!”

“For those who have met a natural end, yes,” a dual-toned voice said.

The watery floor rippled and swelled, a large creature breaking through the surface.  Some kind of big cat, Sora thought at first, eyeing its paws – but then halfway up the arm fur gave way to scales, and he thought: dragon.  His gaze continued upwards, past the horns and the thick main of fur, to the twin pairs of eyes, squinted against its water.

As it climbed firmly onto the surface of the water, it shook its massy heady, the water flying from its mane, before both sets of eyes opened to smile down on Sora.

“Hello, little dreamer,” it greeted.

Roxas leaned in beside him, stiff, “Sora, you know this thing?”

He did.

“It’s you!” Sora gasped, “You helped me out in the sleeping realms.”

Chirithy was much less enthused, gesturing wildly with its paws.

“You- how are you like that?” they gasped, “How are you here?”

The Dream-Eater hummed a harmonic, two-toned note, “The world is ending – and everything is becoming one – and everything – and nothing – once more.”

“Not here,” Chirithy insisted.

“No, not here,” the Dream Eater allowed, “But the Dream has always been closest to Death.  And so, as the realms bend, paths that would otherwise be impassible become clear.”

“You’ll help us?” Sora asked.

“Yes,” the Dream-Eater answered in harmony, before the chime-like voice continued, “After all, in many ways, this is my fight, too.”

Their fight... Right, they reminded Sora:

“Hey – I wanted to ask.  When you protected me from Xehanort – you know, before, in the dream? – it sounded like... you knew him.”

The Dream Eater sighed, lowering itself down on its belly and drawing close.

“We found him, once upon a time, in the realm of Dreams.  He was so bright, so much potential, and,” they sighed, before the chiming voice continued, “He reminded me of an old friend.  I couldn’t resist reaching out.”

“You interfered in his dreams,” Chirithy groused disdainfully.

“We dreamed together,” the Dream Eater agreed, “Maybe we showed him too much.  Told him too much.  We never dreamed he’d become this.  We cannot let this continue.  The Keyblade War must end.”

“Okay, fine – but even if you could break the rules, what would you even do?” Chirithy sighed, “Kingdom Hearts has already been summoned, and is answering the χ-blade's Master.”

The Dream Eater grinned, fangs on full display.

“It is not just space that is bending – and this one has a Key to the Kingdom.  There is still room for change.”

“Change?” Sora caught on the word, “You mean... I could change it?  What happened to my friends?”

Chirithy numbed thoughtfully, “I mean – maybe, but... it goes against all the rules of the world!”

“Space and time and reality are all bending – and so are the rules,” the Dream Eater said in amusement.

Chirithy huffed, button-eyes scrunching, “I guess – but this is only possible because of Kingdom Hearts! At most, you can get back as far as the first moment it appeared.  If I’m right, that only gives you - what?  Fifteen minutes – twenty at most?  You’ll be on a timer from the moment you get back.”

“That’s not much time,” Sora said, “But...”

Maybe it’s enough.

“You have a plan?” Roxas asked, and Sora nodded.

“Here’s what we’re going to do.”

Next

[tomyo]

Kingdom hearts 3, finally finishing it 4 years later

A game I honestly didn't think would be off this list for a while. I bought the game when it came out and then never finished it because I was using my roommate's PS4.

Recently a friend lent me his PS4 now that the PS5 exists and after months of con season I finally sat down with it. I had intended to start from scratch until I learnt the several hours I played on the guest account where erased and my sanity would not allow several hours of tutorial again.

In the end, I bought a psn membership and reached out to that old roommate which was a nice experience. I missed them but have always just been to much in my bullshit to reach out until apparently *this*.

Maybe the funniest thing to say about all of this is this is my first and only time I've played a kingdom hearts game meaning my gameplay expectations were average. I had a goofy fun time after not having to play Olympus a third time and I relate to smooth brained Sora a lot, vaguely I get what's going on but I don't give too many shits. Yeah the start of the key blade war was a mess but my little gay ass cried at every XIII trio and co moment. That ending CG cutscenes was too short but I could easily wax on about how these characters have constantly sacrificed and gone through tragedy often in the name of each other and the hope that those in front of them could move forward. The prequel trio went through tragedy, the main trio constantly just out of reach from each other, the XIII trio stuck in an amnesiatic limbo and so forth. The fact most of them got to literally do fun kind shit together was a nice miracle.

Also bawled at the union cross cameos even though I barely played it. I love tragedy and I did earlier this weekend stop to let my avatar cry scared at their own death in the middle of war so the idea that maybe some actual users got to see their names on screen attacking the enemies but hard. Even though I haven't played the series, it's a permanent part of my life just from the cultural zeitgeist it caused in my adolescence. I wish they gave it more impact if anything but I get it, it wasn't something everyone was for.

Obviously though the biggest issue is Kairi per usual. Utada's song are sort of like a thematic tone to each chapter in the series with a theory that Kairi's designs being inspired from Utada's image at each point. Chikai is not just a love song but a wedding song, the progression from an immature and insecure relationship in the first one to one stubbornly proclaiming it's now or never with your devotion to me. It's a song meant to stand at the end of everything, it's someone waiting for you to meet them in the distance. I remember desperately trying to avoid spoilers for these past four years but being suggested from what I couldn't avoid that Kairi had proposed marriage to Sora at the end. It's also usually Kairi who gets a lot of attention in the CG openings and endings. The natural idea of this all is that it's sealing the idea of Sora and Kairi recognizing each other as a couple and potentially a maturing relationship from when they were children even though like, I don't even think two years have passed in world??? Either way she gets worse than nerfed at the end. You don't get to play as her, she doesn't get to do A N Y T H I N G aside from being said to still believe in Sora and be his emotional angst. And then she is kidnapped and killed. The worst is it failed to make it matter to me. The are a lot of reasons why everything with Kairi just did not hit any emotional level whatsoever as a Kairi stan. Riku had more romantic tension with himself on the beach honestly. And yes, I acknowledge there was literally a gay rainbow bonded key blade. I didn't really ever ship anything with kingdom hearts but I now believe in Sora and Riku I guess. Also the old dudes probably making out. Yeah, wasn't even pissed at that anticlimactic heel turn with the big baddie. Side note, buying the game was 100% worth it to have the immersive experience of Goofy and Donald call out for my from the controller. A+. Just, man, Kairi was more blank than wood this game despite them trying to say she was important. I think for a series so central on the bond of it's trios, keeping her out of the main fights was such a bummer.

Also I am not paying $30 for the dlc when I have already given the game $70+ of my money. I will absolutely watch a video of that instead.

Either way I'm happy I can finally watch videos that sat in my YouTube watch later since 2019 and I happily look forward to KH4. Bitches who know me know I'm a sucker for Shibuya and honestly I should have bought the world ends with us in the ds when i had the chance. Might come on my lists because street style is so big in that game.

With that one of the two most intensive games on this list can be crossed off. The other being GTA 5 but I also don't really plan to jump on that anytime soon. More concerned with playing the Kinect games on my 360 lmao.

[tundrainafrica]

Hi!! Do you think Levihan as a ship is kinda underrated? Like even though its the third most popular ship(just behind Ereri and Eruri) but I don't really think many people give it the credit it actually deserves. Someone on reddit pointed out how if the interactions LH had, especially the ones in and after ch 115, were between some ship involving two cis man, literally everyone would've called it canon. Do you agree?

Do you think Levihan as a ship is kinda underrated?

You know, I actually used to think Levihan is underrated. But i was surprised to find out that Levihan actually still has a fair amount of fics. In fact it has more fics in ao3 than Aruani or Eremika and maybe even Connie/Sasha. It’s actually surprisingly one of the top non M/M ships in the AOT fandom in ao3. But I don’t know how much the number of AO3 fics have to do with popularity though.

But why is it lower than Eruri and Ereri? 

I think you partially answered your own question by pointing this out.  “Someone on reddit pointed out how if the interactions LH had, especially the ones in and after ch 115, were between some ship involving two cis man, literally everyone would've called it canon. “

But there is something else I want to point out actually. I think that even if Levihan was a relationship between two CIS men, I still think it would remain less popular than Eruri and Ereri. 

First things first though, let’s answer the question: Why are Ereri and Eruri popular? Because Levi is popular and the general consensus of the majority of fangirls is to put Levi aka the most popular character in ao3 with the two sexiest men in the whole fandom who have at least a reachable and justifiable bond with Levi. 

If we consider what actually gets people into a ship, (personally I still don’t understand Ereri but lemme try), 

1. They look cute together

2. They have a very obviously deep bond with each other. 

3. The enemies to friends trope gets incredibly enticing.

So Ereri I think fell with number 1 and number 3 (I’m honestly thinking of the courtroom scene now).

 And I read a fair amount of Ereri fics (no, I never liked Ereri I just wanted my hurt Levi fic and I was desperate), and one thing which a lot of Ereri fans like to explore is the fact that Levi becomes his bodyguard for a while and Eren has to stick close to Levi right? There are a lot of themes relationship wise (enemies to lovers, slowburns, bodyguard and ward) which can be explored with this set up. Eren is obviously one of the most popular characters in AOT too and the main protagonist so it is only natural that this would fall on top. 

On top of that Eren is pretty cute. 

What about Eruri? Eruri takes the cake for reasons 1 and 2 first of all.

On top of that, Eruri rose through the ranks of one of the top ships in AOT because of Season 3 in particular but I think even before that, Erwin and Levi had enough crumbs already to justify shipping them. 

Sure, Levihan won with the fact that Levi was first introduced next to Hange. But, in the more iconic Levi scenes in Season 1-3, for example when Eren got to talk to Levi for the first time in the dungeon, who was Levi with? Erwin. 

When it came to the more serious, more plot relevant scenes, Erwin and Levi were almost always together. Actually, the only time Levi and Hange spent a lot of time together in very plot relevant scenes was during the uprising arc when Erwin was out of commission. 

But then after that, we get the Take back Shiganshina arc where Erwin and Levi had their most iconic moments. 

So with Levi and Erwin constantly together during the more plot heavy scenes, most of the audience, even the most casual people would remember their relationship over Hange.

That’s why Eruri is still more popular than Levihan. 

What about Levihan? Only number 2 applies to Levihan actually.

Also, it’s not very memorable? Like if you’re not looking for a relationship in AOT you won’t find it. And really, who looks for a relationship in AOT.

Most of the scenes where Hange and Levi are shown together are incredibly light scenes and they’re usually shown for the lolz and are not as blatantly plot heavy as the scenes where Erwin and Levi are seen together,. Most of the plot heavy Hange and Levi scenes happen when Erwin was out of commission which makes it easy for the audience to think that Hange and Levi were together out of necessity.

And when we consider reason number 1. Hange is not conventionally attractive or cool to the average viewer. I have lots of friends who actually don’t like Hange and they’re casual watchers. They find her weird, crazy, and not as clear cut or cool as Erwin or Levi so even if Hange were a guy, I don’t think her relationship with Levi would have topped the AOT charts

Where does Levihan actually shine though? 

It shines in Season 4. We notice in Season 4 that Levi and Hange are constantly together. But the thing is, with Season 4, we kinda ended up with a new setting, we have new characters and we have new perspectives on how to approach the story. So even if Levihan is more obvious there, even if Levi and Hange are shown to have a closer bond in Season 4, it gets overshadowed by other things like the Marleyans, the actual war and the actual chaos. 

Let alone the fact that Levi and Hange spent a huge chunk of the chapters before chapter 115 away from each other. And when they are together, the plot and the overall war ends up outshining whatever relationship development they have. 

Yet regardless, even if a lot of their interactions weren’t very plot relevant thus, very forgettable for the casual reader who is not in the mood to analyze relationships, I think that 115, 126 and 132 are still very important for the relationship of Levihan and are decisive evidence that there is definitely something there. Like actually I showed 115, 126 and 132 to multiple people who have never watched AOT in their life and a lot commented that the scene in 126 in particular screams ‘COUPLE.’ but the thing is, the forest scene in 126 was overshadowed by more pressing things. In fact a lot of people criticized it for being a slow chapter. 115 was overshadowed by Zeke’s backstory and the actual war. 132 was overshadowed by her death.

And when I did notice the relationship enough to appreciate it, I did look back at the previous AOT episodes and the previous Levihan scenes and I really did see that most of the interactions of Levi and Hange in the earlier seasons are not as obviously relevant to the overall plot. So if people don’t actually look for it, they won’t see it. 

It’s an incredibly subtle ship and as a fan, I actually only appreciated it in retrospect so I kinda understand why it’s not so popular. 

So to answer your next question.

Someone on reddit pointed out how if the interactions LH had, especially the ones in and after ch 115, were between some ship involving two cis man, literally everyone would've called it canon. Do you agree?

Actually, I don’t agree with this. 

Sure, if Levihan was a ship between two CIS men then Levihan would probably be more popular. But I think a lot of people still wouldn’t consider it canon. 

I used to read a lot of works and participate a lot in Shonen manga fandoms, sports anime fandoms (I’m literally a simp for sports animes man I think I’ve watched most of the iconic ones) in particular so I am aware of how ships with two cismen go. And even if they do have a lot of sexual tension like let’s say Daichi and Sugawara, Kageyama and Hinata  from Haikyuu, Kuroko and Aomine from Kuroko no Basuke, Oishi x Tezuka from Prince of Tennis, people in the fandom at least have the head to say “It’s not canon.” 

But at the same time, people still ship them. 

On the contrary, I think people are actually more likely to deem something canon if they are a heterosexual ship because we live in a heteronormative society. On top of that, writers (especially Japanese writers) are more likely to make something canon if it’s a heterosexual pairing because societal expectations and marketing and corporate synergy and bullshit like that. 

I need to point out something about male writers though. Male writers are incredibly good at writing male to male dynamics but for some reason tend to fuck writing women up a lot. So we end up with incredibly blah ‘die for our ship’ women and two guys with so much sexual tension if they were a man and a woman, people are more likely to deem them canon. 

Naruto and Sasuke for example or Riku and Sora from Kingdom Hearts. I can swear that Riku and Sora had way more development over the course of five games than Sora and Kairi but Sora and Kairi became canon. Naruto and Sasuke had more than enough development and literally Naruto did the equivalent of Hange jumping into the river at 115 by literally begging all the fucking kages to spare Sasuke during the great ninja war but Naruto married Hinata and Sasuke married Sakura.

And even in Western media, we have Johnlock, we have Destiel. And even among female writers I have half the mind to add Will and Jem from Clockwork Princess to the mix for men with the most sexual tension but are never made canon. 

So I don’t think it’s the male/male dynamic which makes people think, oh they’re canon. I think it is the premise of the show overall which makes people hesitant to deem Levihan canon. 

The scenes which are very important to the Levihan shippers are scenes which the casual watchers who are allergic to romance will skim over. We saw a taste of that when people got angry that ch. 126 was winning the Besatsu polls for example. 

People just wanna focus on the titans, the action and the exposition. And the moment anyone decides to add romance to the mix, suddenly people are like, NO DON’T RUIN THEIR CHARACTER. OR NO STOP TURNING AOT INTO A ROMANCE.

Because people have this idea that the moment we decide to explore the relationships of the show, when people start falling in love in the show, the show becomes bad. Really, I believe a lot of the reason for this though is because a lot of male writers don’t know how to handle romance or it becomes difficult to pair people off in the end because a lot of their Male x male relationships actually have more sexual tension than a lot of the male x female relationships they write so a lot of the endgame heterosexual pairings end up falling flat.

Going back to AOT though....

One other thing to note:  Looking from the eye of those who don’t look for romance or are just a casual watcher,  the scenes which had more titans and action and overall exposition (which most people watch AOT for) tended to show Levi and Eren together or Levi and Erwin together more which explains why these relationships ended up shining more since these scenes are more memorable. 

I like to think of Levihan as this awesome product with lots of potential but has the shittiest marketing team ever. Because the marketing team just did a horrible job on where to put the ‘billboards’ and how to design their flyers if you know what I mean. So even if Levihan is a great product, it won’t sell because they just didn’t have the right ‘billboards’ ‘flyers’ or other marketing material in canon. Like people have to make the effort to look for it to actually find it and to actually appreciate the canon but when they do, they got some high quality product. 

So I like to compare Levihan to those  hole in the wall restaurants in the small towns or those street shops which sell the most authentic cuisines or those treasures we find in the antique shops. 

Thanks for reading and sorry for this long ass meta. Anyway...

I’d like to end this long ass rant with just two tweets which summarize my overall thoughts on this.

Link to the tweets: 1 2

Again, Thanks for reading!

[paintedwithapalette]

SoKai Week Day 1 - Paopu Fruit 

Word Count: 4, 054

--------------------------

To Sora and Kairi, it was like being on an emotional high. 

Through time, their bond had hardened like concrete—impenetrable. It was beyond latent feelings at this point, it was a harmonious compound of encouragement, support, admiration, and most of all, trust. 

With their hands intertwined and legs dangling as they were bundled together close on the paopu fruit tree, these emotions ran rapid with just a single touch. The salty air and the seagulls squawking overhead was nothing short of the pleasantries the two had become familiar with. Though, it would’ve meant little if they didn’t have each other. 

“I don’t think I could ever get tired of this place,” Kairi said, closing her eyes and allowing the wind to gently caress her face. “I know in my heart that this isn’t where I come from, but to me, this is home.”

“It always has been,” Sora validated. 

“You think so?” 

“Of course! This place wouldn’t be the same without you, you know?” Sora sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. “And hey, I’d be a total wreck without you. Do you know how many times I probably would’ve fell to darkness if it weren’t for you being by my side?” 

“True. You’re pretty much hopeless without me,” she teased. 

“Hey!” Fabricating a look of hurt, he pulled her in closer with one swift motion and sent Kairi into a fit of giggles all the while. “What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“I think even you can figure that out, dork.” 

Another five minutes passed as they wrestled, mostly consisting of Sora trying to pull Kairi in close while she pretended to reject his advances, no matter how much she loved every second of it. As their laughter died down, they settled into a comfortable embrace; the warmth of Sora’s arms encompassed around her petite frame. They sat in a comfortable stillness, no words traded between them as neither broke eye contact until Kairi tucked some hair behind her ear with a soft giggle. 

“What’s that goofy look for?” she asked. 

“Sorry,” Sora apologized insincerely, putting on a grin. “Guess I just don’t want to forget that I’m the luckiest guy in the world.” 

Kairi’s blush intensified along with the ends of her lips. “You’re such a cornball.” 

Sora chuckled nervously as he scratched his cheek as he imagined how much Donald would tease him if he heard that one. “Yeah, well…” 

“It’s okay,” Kairi said. “I like how cheesy you are.” 

“Well, there’s plenty more where that came from!” Sora pulled her in with an even tighter embrace, once again making Kairi burst into laughter. 

When it died down, she rested her palm against his face and used her thumb to travel across the texture of his soft skin. “Looks like you really never did change,” she said.  

Sora smiled, tenderly taking hold of her hand. “Of course I didn’t.” 

Their smiles were radiant, weaved with affection as a sheen of desire shimmered over Kairi’s eyes when she noticed Sora looking at her lips. Their anticipation surged as their proximity decreased, their faces inching closer, closer, and closer... 

“Sora!” 

A yelp escaped them both as whatever tension there may have been dissipated and they held each other even tighter. Their nerves settled as Donald and Goofy entered their light of vision, the voice clearly belonging to the former of the two. 

“Donald? Goofy?” Sora asked. “What’s up?” 

“Riku and the King wanted us to tell you about the bonfire tonight,” Donald explained. “Since we’ll be celebrating the return of a half-pint like you, Sora.” 

Goofy took note of the fact that neither of the two had let go of the other since Donald spooked them. “Gawrsh, I shore hope we aren’t interruptin’ you all.” 

“Uh, no, of course not!” Sora gave a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his head. 

“Gee, then how come your face is red, Sora?” Goofy asked.

“Awwww, isn’t that sweet?” Donald teased, clasping his hands together and bringing them up to the side of his face. 

“Could you cut that out?” Sora clenched a fist as Donald burst into laughter. “No offense, but can you two buzz off? Kind of in the middle of something here.” 

“Guess we oughta stop meddlin’ then, a-hyuk,” Goofy said with a chuckle as he made his leave with his usual gangly walk. Donald didn’t stray too far behind. 

“And remember to behave, Sora. Mind your manners,” Donald joked. 

“Knock it off!” Sora shouted as his friends entered the seaside shack. “That’s it. He’s gonna regret this the next time I see him alone with Daisy.” 

Kairi found Sora’s frustration amusing as she placed her hand on his cheek, directing his focus back to her. “Well, don’t worry. We still have plenty of time to ourselves, right?” 

It wasn’t long before whatever Donald had said before became irrelevant as Sora fell into a goofy smile. “Yeah, you’re right.” 

At least, so he thought until a frisbee smacked the back of his head. “Ouch!” Sora cried as he massaged the tender spot and turned around to spot Lea catching the frisbee just in time. Sora should’ve expected as much since it wasn’t uncommon for Lea, Isa, and Ven to have their fairly regular frisbee games around this time. Still, wasn’t it odd that it somehow hit his head? 

“Yo! Sorry ‘bout that,” Lea called, waving. 

“Aww, no biggie,” Sora called back. He returned his focus to Kairi once again but it didn’t take more than a few minutes before the frisbee hit him in the back of the head again. This time, Lea received a frown. 

“Sorry, butterfingers!” Lea said, though this time Sora noticed Ven covering his mouth with both hands while Isa rolled his eyes. 

Sora slowly turned back around to face Kairi, giving him an understanding smile. “Think maybe we should find a different spot?” 

Sora shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I’m sure it’s just an honest mistake.” Despite his words, his eyes narrowed as if he were waiting. Ten minutes passed and nothing occurred. The three seemed to continue about their own business. Sora let out a sigh of relief. 

“Now, where were we?” Sora said, his usual smile returning before it was derailed less than a second later when the frisbee came hurtling right into the back of his head. 

“Sorry again!” Lea apologized through the laughter he was failing horribly to stifle. “M-My fingers slipped!” 

Sora growled, having had more than enough as he pushed himself off the tree, helping Kairi down all the while, as he took her hand and marched towards the seaside shack. Kairi had no objections but was left wondering where their next destination lied. “Where are we going?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. 

“Away from those jerks,” Sora said vaguely. 

When Sora and Kairi exited the seaside shack, Lea and Ven were quick to catch up to them. 

“Aww, where you goin’, buddy?” Lea asked, draping an arm around his shoulder as he pinched Sora’s cheek. “We didn’t mean to interrupt you guys. Was I disrupting the mood? It’s just that you two are just so darn cute.” 

Sora grumbled under his breath but ignored Lea as he led (pulled, more accurately) Kairi inside the Secret Place, ignoring the howls of laughter from Lea and Ventus echoing in the short distance. 

When Sora and Kairi made it inside, the former scoped the place out in search of any unwanted souls in the area. Thankfully, it looked empty as Sora let out a relieved sigh and smiled. He loved all of his friends dearly, but even he wanted some space every now and then to be with the girl of his dreams. He looked back at Kairi, their hands still attached. 

“Think the coast is clear?” Kairi asked with a cheeky grin. 

“Yeah, I think so.” Sora rubbed the back of his head. “Sorry about that. Hope I can at least make it up to you.” 

Kairi shook her head softly as she wrapped her arms around the base of his neck, momentarily catching Sora by surprise before he carefully held her waist, bringing their foreheads together. “You already did.” 

“I did?” 

“Yes,” Kairi answered without hesitation. Her eyes traveled over to the drawings they made as kids handing each other a paopu fruit. “By just being you. I told you before all of this that I wanted you to never change and you haven’t. That’s more than enough for me.” 

“Kairi...” 

Before their lips could seal the deal, they heard a sharp squeal in the short distance. They immediately detached themselves from each other and scoped out the area. 

“Who’s there?” Sora asked, returning to his previous look of defense. 

Kairi narrowed her eyes, taking mindful steps as her eyes wandered over the cave until she heard hushed voices. 

“I told you not to freak out over this, you dip,” said a hushed male voice. 

“Shut up! They’re super cute! What do you want me to do?” asked an equally hushed female voice in return. 

Kairi was able to pinpoint the voices from behind the large rock with a less than flattering face drawn on it. Making sure not to alert whoever happened to be back there, she tiptoed over until she looked behind the rock to find nothing. She raised her eyebrow. 

Meanwhile, Sora turned around and saw two individuals making a poor attempt at being stealthy as they tried to crawl out of the Secret Place unseen. “Hey!” he shouted. 

The two culprits, a.k.a Tidus and Selphie, looked up like deer caught in the headlights. The former of the two bumped into the rear of the latter, sending them both to the ground. 

“Tidus? Selph?” Kairi voiced as she emerged from the other side of the rock. 

Selphie scrambled back up to her feet, knocking Tidus back down in the process as she approached her best girl friend. “I-It’s not what it looks like!” 

Tidus rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head. “Except it’s totally what it looks like.” The comment earned him a scowl from Selphie. 

“Were you two spying on us?” Kairi asked. 

Selphie bit her lip and averted her eyes. “W-Well, that’s uh...”

“It was her idea,” Tidus accused with a sharp finger pointed at Selphie, though the brunette didn’t deny it as she fiddled with her fingers. 

“Selphie...” Kairi admonished. 

“I’m sorry! I just heard you two like to come here a lot Lea and, uh... I dunno, I was a teeny bit curious to see how far you guys were gonna go. And you’re just soooo cute!” 

Sora sighed as he shrugged defeatedly. 

“That’s... sweet, Selphie, but boundaries would be nice sometimes, you know?” Kairi chastised kindly. 

Selphie bowed her head in shame. “Yeah, I know...” 

Sora crossed his arms. He was beginning to think this island was too crowded for his liking. “Well, uh, we’ll leave you two to it then,” he said somewhat hastily. 

Kairi was caught off-guard when Sora moved past Selphie and took her hand in one swift motion as he hurried out of the Secret Place. 

“W-Wait!” Selphie said, reaching out for them. “I just need to know if you guys have gotten to third-ba—” 

Tidus covered Selphie’s mouth and pulled her back before she made the situation any more awkward than she already had. 

“Just don’t, Selph.” 

After having to feel the brunt of Lea’s teasing once again, Sora led Kairi to the wooden door leading to the cove. Sora and Kairi briefly examined the area before hopping across the broken bridge that led to the other side. 

“Watch your step,” Sora warned. 

Kairi puffed out her chest. “Hey, don’t you worry about me, I think by now I’ve learned a thing or twoowhoa!” she sputtered as she nearly tripped over herself when she landed on the other side before Sora caught her in the nick of time. He carefully brought her back up to her feet.

“You okay?” Sora asked with genuine concern. 

Kairi found the will to stop ogling and cast him a smile. “Yes.” 

They stood in a comfortable silence before they heard feet pattering against the sandy surface in the short distance. 

“Woof, woof! Woof, woof!” 

Before he even had a chance to react, Sora was tackled to the floor by Pluto and it only took a second longer for his face to be submerged in the dog’s drool. 

“Aww, Pluto,” Sora whined, though Kairi couldn’t bite back the laughter that escaped her even if she wanted to. Once Sora’s face was appropriately drenched, he moved over to Kairi and would’ve nearly pounced on her as well if Kairi didn’t catch him in time. She still gave him plenty of chin scratches and pets to assure him his appearance wasn’t entirely unwelcome. 

“It’s very nice to see you, too,” Kairi greeted. “How’ve you been, boy?” 

“Gosh,” said a familiar high-pitched voice. “Sorry about that, you two. You know how Pluto can get sometimes.” 

King Mickey approached them along with Riku. The latter chuckled as Kairi took a handkerchief out of one of the pockets of her pink shorts, dabbing Sora’s face once she was free from Pluto. 

“Sorry, were we interrupting something?” Riku asked, a sly grin on his face. 

Sora cleared his throat. “Uh, well...” 

“Yes, you are,” Kairi answered boldly, though her words betrayed the smile on her face. 

Riku raised his hands in defense. “Don’t mind us, we were just trying to get a little training in. But if you needed a little bit of privacy, then by all means...” 

Riku stepped out of the way, presenting the rest of the cove to them, empty and barren for their disposal. Kairi sent an appreciative smile while Sora bashfully scratched his cheek. 

“Thanks, Riku,” Sora said as he and Kairi moved past them. Riku playfully saluted while he and Mickey shared a chuckle. They were about to leave along with Pluto before they saw Lea charging in hot. 

“Hey, Sora! I got somethin’ for ya,” he cried. 

Riku calmly grabbed the back of Lea’s shirt before he could get any closer and yanked him back. “I don’t think so.” 

“No, but it’s really important! I swear,” Lea said.

“What is it?” Mickey asked. 

“I’m locked out of my house and I need his Keyblade to unlock it.” 

Riku and Mickey shared a look. “You do realize more than half of us have Keyblades, right? Matter of fact, don’t you have a Keyblade?” 

“And don’tcha live in Twilight Town?” Mickey added. 

“I… I just moved here?” Lea gave a sheepish grin. “Today, actually. Crazy coincidence, am I right?” 

Riku and Mickey shared a look of disbelief before nodding to affirm they were on the same page. Despite his protests, they grabbed Lea by his shoulders as they dragged him away from the scene. 

Sora and Kairi were left to themselves as their eyes wandered the cove, a wave of nostalgia flooding over them both as memories lurked in every nook and cranny of this area of the island. 

“Hey, remember when the raft used to be here?” Kairi asked as she wrapped her arms behind her back. “It’s almost like... this is where everything started.” 

“How could I forget?” Sora asked with a chuckle. “We worked so hard on that thing. It’s a shame we never got to give it a try.” 

“It’s a nice thought, wondering what would’ve happened had we been together the whole time setting sail on the sea. But honestly...” Kairi walked towards the shore, her arms tied behind her back as she looked to the sky wistfully. “If I could go back and change how everything went down, I don’t think I would.” 

“Really?” Sora tilted his head. 

Mm hm.” Kairi nodded, pursing her lips into a tight smile. “It may not have been ideal, but being able to go inside your heart, being able to see things through your eyes and feel the things that you felt... how much you cared about me and wanted nothing more than to make sure I was safe... maybe we’re this close because of that. And ever since then, no matter what, we always find our way back to each other again.” She turned around and faced him. “I wouldn’t trade that for anything. Not for one second.” 

Sora was left speechless for a moment until a certain warmth washed him over. “Kairi...” he said quietly, his eyes trained on the sand. “I guess sometimes I just wish I could’ve done better for you. You spent all that time having to watch from the sidelines, waiting for me to come home because I kept leaving you all alone. I guess sometimes I wish I could’ve done better for you.”

Kairi sighed, but she settled into a gentle smile as she carefully approached him in good spirits. “Sora, go into your back pocket for me please.” 

Sora raised an eyebrow. “Uh, sure.” 

He did as told and dug into his back pocket and retrieved the good luck charm she had given him all those years ago. Since then, she wanted him to keep it permanently as a reminder of the bond they shared. Sora had come to treasure it deeply. 

“Even if we’re apart, we’re not alone anymore,” Kairi said. “Remember that?” 

Sora looked over the charm and the face, his own face, she drew grinning back at him. His eyes shimmered as the memories came back. “Yeah,” he said. “We made a promise.” 

Kairi nodded. “We did. No matter what happens, no matter how far apart we are...” 

She took Sora’s hand and gently closed them around the good luck charm. 

“We’ll always find each other,” she said with a soft smile. “No matter what.”  

After a moment of silence, Sora nodded. “You’re right.” He gripped his lucky charm harder. “I don’t think I would trade anything in the world for that either.” 

“So, don’t worry about that stuff. In the end, I think it made me stronger. Not just me, but you too. And besides, I love you just the way you are, no matter how much of a hopeless goofball you are.” 

“Thanks, Kai—hey, wait a minute! You take that back.” 

Kairi giggled as she ran away. “But it’s the truth! You said it yourself.” 

Sora grinned. “Okay, you asked for it!” 

Sora chased Kairi all over the cove, leaving no stone unturned as they playfully teased each other all the while. Sora could have easily caught up to her before, but after all the training Kairi had received, she was a lot trickier to catch these days. Their misadventures ranged from running behind the coconut trees to splashing each other in the sea. 

At one point, Kairi was running away after she casted Waterga magic on Sora (which Sora thought was cheating but at least he had an Aeroga spell to dry himself fast). 

“Now, you’re really gonna get it!” Sora declared as he chased after her. 

“I’d like to see you try!” 

Sora looked ahead and put on a look of surprise. “Oh, hey Riku!” 

Kairi stopped in her tracks. “Riku?” Before she had a second longer to react, Sora grabbed her by the waist from behind. 

“Gotcha!” he said, a toothy smile as Kairi kicked her legs out. 

“No!” she said in-between her giggles. “Lemme go, you lazy bum!” 

“Nuh uh, I need my revenge.” Sora put on a malicious smile as he began tickling her sides. Kairi howled with uncontrollable laughter. 

“Sora…! I-I can’t!” Kairi sputtered. 

“Ha! Not so tough are ya now, huuuuhaaaaah!” Sora couldn’t finish his comment before he tripped over himself while backing up. He fell to his back, taking the brunt of the fall while he caught Kairi in the nick of time as she fell on top of his chest. They landed in the middle of shrubbery and gorgeous flowers that bloomed brilliantly near the ladder that led to the zipline. 

After a brief stint of silence, they ultimately laughed at the situation at hand. This felt right. This was how it should’ve been. The stars had aligned and the universe was finally working in their favor. So it seemed, at least. Kairi wanted to last forever. 

But she knew deep down all good things must come to an end. 

“Hey,” she said suddenly. “I have a surprise for you.” 

Before Sora could question her, she went into her back pocket and pulled out a paopu fruit. How she was able to carry that back there, she wasn’t sure but neither of them questioned it. 

“I know we’ve already shared one before, but... I kind of want to relive that moment again,” Kairi admitted.

Sora didn’t say anything. He only offered a smile. A smile that communicated everything it needed to. He told her that she was safe, secure, and free of judgment. He told her that she was the apple of his eyes, the girl of his dreams, and his destiny. He told her how happy he was the first time she asked him to share one with him and he wanted nothing more than to do it again. All with one smile. 

“You know I’ll come back to you, right?” he asked. “I won’t give up. I’ll never give up.” 

Kairi’s smile turned solemn. “Promise?” 

“Promise.” 

Sora took the paopu fruit from her possession and gently grazed his teeth on top of one of the spikes. Kairi took the initiative to nibble the other end, but before either could bite down, she cupped his cheek with her hand. Sora responded by using his index finger and thumb to carefully hold her chin. 

The way he looked into her eyes with such a focus and confidence, it was enough to make a tear stream down her face. No matter what the situation, he always assured her that he would come back. 

They both simultaneously bit down on the paopu fruit, solidifying their destiny to find each other once again, and in a turn of events, the fruit dissipated into sparkles that twinkled against the setting sun. They were still and locked firmly in the moment as they looked into each other’s eyes, her hand and his fingers still attached to each other’s faces, quietly admiring each other until Sora ended up being the first to break it. 

“Don’t ever forget,” he said. “Wherever you go...” 

Then Kairi woke up. 

Reality settled as the memories slowly drifted back as she studied her room, the morning sun peeking through the slits of her blinds and its warmth faded from the translucent curtains. Eventually, she remembered it had been a year and a few months since Sora disappeared. She and the others were still hard at work looking for a way to bring him back home. But for a moment, she was relieved of the pain of her own uncertainty of his whereabouts and her lack of ability to see his kind smile beyond distant memories. It reminded her of the time when she first returned to the islands without Sora or Riku, except it was even more painful because her memory was fully intact. 

He was there. He was so close. She could feel his touch. Everything felt so natural and real. Perhaps, in its own roundabout way, it was? 

Maybe, just maybe... Sora was trying to communicate with her. Perhaps he wanted to assure her that he was okay and that he would return to her, but they could only meet in a dream. As the dream was nearing its end, she did recall her memories slowly rematerializing in the back corners of her mind and she had to assume the same could’ve been said for Sora as well as their fun-filled day on Destiny Islands without a care in the world came to an end. They both remembered that Sora still had to come back and he made sure to promise that he would. 

Yes, it had to be him. Even the impossible couldn’t keep him away from her for long. No matter what the circumstances, Sora found a way. 

Tears welled up in her eyes and they gradually slid down her cheeks as she looked out the window at the bright, morning sky. 

“I’m always with you,” Kairi finished. 

Credit for both of these amazing art pieces goes to my super talented friend, @amyhayanora​!

[cutegirlmayra]

Kairi’s Training Prompt

-After Melody of Memory-

                                              *  SPOILER WARNING *

I couldn’t stop thinking about it... I must have gotten over-confident... no, that’s not it. I feel it in my heart. I know why I said that to Riku... Even knowing I wasn’t nearly as ready to face the dangers of a... unreality world... I was just expecting Riku to say what you did.

When I first came back, you had asked if I was ready. It took me by surprise for a minute... but then, you always did.

Riku... I won’t say I’m sorry for asking to go with him, but I will say I knew and respected his honest hesitation.

With how I currently am... and with all the amazing adventures you and him have been on... I’ll keep you safe, Sora. Riku will find you, and I’ll be ready.

When the time is right, Master Aqua will tell me. I will either return to the Final World... or I’ll greet you and Riku when you get back.

But I’m not waiting any longer.

Aqua flung her keyblade up as the two were locked in a duel mid-air. Kairi, clenching her teeth, opened her mouth a moment at the realization of her next attack. Attempting to face it head on instead of her usual dodging route, she spun her keyblade around and fired off a new ranged attack she had been trying to work on.

Aqua was taking her seriously, and unleashed her powerful attack that sent a violent, rippling wave right through her spheres of light, and cut Kairi back to the ground.

As her head hit the dirt, she relived the moment in her heart, where Xehanort had revealed himself before...

As Aqua approached, Kairi’s head was still ringing, and looking up... the dark illusion of him coming towards her glitched into her reality.

“Eh.. ah..!” she shook her head, scooting back a moment as she recounted how easily he would grab her keyblade, how weak she was to try and rival a master. “No...” she gripped her hand into a tight fist by her heart, looking away from the glitching images of Aqua being replaced by Master Xehanort.

“I won’t... fall again!” She pushed off the ground, gripping her keyblade in a new way and shoving it into Aqua’s.

Aqua saw something different in Kairi... a glimmer of raw power she didn’t see before.

“This is...” Her eyes widened... seeing Sora within them. “I see now.” She smiled, and broke the tension of their two keyblades colliding, pushing Kairi back. “Looks like I’m not the only one teaching you strength.” She was glad to see that there was some influence, but couldn’t pin-point exactly why Kairi’s eyes reflected his own spirit in them...

‘They were close friends...’ she told herself, but as she quickly analyzed the battled previously, she noticed that every time she was about to mention--let’s say, Kairi’s footing--that she’d already adjust as though something was nudging her in the right direction.

“...Will lingers.” she spoke aloud, though secretly to herself, but through Kairi’s panting and waiting to see what her opponent would do... she heard it.

“What?” She broke her stance, standing upright again and out of her battle-ready position.

Aqua was looking down, remembering Terra and shook her head as Kairi snapped her out of her thoughts. “Sorry.” She gestured her with her hand towards her, “I should... make it a habit not to think too much while we’re training.” She swiped her keyblade out in front of her again, letting it rest elegantly by her side. “Where were we?”

Kairi’s eyes narrowed again, “You said... will lingers. What do you mean?”

Silence... as Aqua stared at her, wondering...

She sighed, at last, “That’s enough training for today.” Relaxing, she approached Kairi again, placing a hand on her shoulder, “We’ll get your tolerance to attacks up, lots of strength training should do it. As for stamina to keep you up during combat...” She removed the hand to then put it up to her chin, “How about a few laps around the place?”

She was cheery, and her positive but fierce training style was exactly what Kairi wanted.

“Right. A few laps.” Kairi took off, letting her keyblade fade into sparkling dusts of light.

“And no flying!” Aqua cupped her hand to the side of her mouth to make sure her voice and advice carried through the wind. With a slight inward chuckle to herself, she looked fondly after Kairi’s racing image.

“Huh?” She then blinked and scanned the image again... seeing Sora running right alongside Kairi before she looked away, shook her head, and squinted through the light of the sun.

It was just Kairi.

“...I... Hmm... Guess I still need to adjust to the light.” She amused out loud, a bad habit. Though... it didn’t concern her, her odd mirage.

She was glad to recognize some of Sora in her.

That was what she was recognizing,.. right?

After circling about a few times, Kairi looked behind her shoulder, seeing that Aqua had gone and looked off to her favorite meditative spot.

She was focused keenly in on it, a cliff that overlooked the vastness of time to her... a beautiful scenery to be alone.

Though, she wasn’t quite comfortable being alone... she was used to it.

Master Aqua has been training me for days now. Though, I know it’s only been a short time since Riku’s departure in the Final World, I feel as though I’ve gotten stronger.

Maybe I’m a fast learner. It makes me happy to think that.

...How are you, Sora? Still having amazing adventures? I just know you are. I can’t picture you being so disheartened, it’s not like you.

I have a feeling... you’re waiting this time. And don’t worry, I won’t keep you waiting nearly as long as you did me!

Sorry... that was a joke, and this time, I will admit my wrong.

I know you and Riku miss our time on Destiny Island. When we returned the first time from the Final World... do you remember what you told me?

You promised you would return.

I...

Kairi held the pen up to her cheek, as though wondering if she should say this. Pen was permeant. She sort of... wished she had brought a pencil then.

But nonetheless, she told herself, “Well, no going back now.” And happily continued in her quiet letter to Sora. A pastime she felt she needed to do now, not just for herself.

Somehow... she felt his heart could read it. And secretly... she hoped it’d give him strength.

I felt your hand tighten around mine. Though we had seen fireworks, ate sea-salt ice cream together,... even got your friend back with his. I never felt such longing before...

Maybe because you were never physically there, because our hearts were always so connected before.

But in that moment, I had never felt more away from you.

Kairi felt a tear on her cheek and quickly scraped it away, getting ink on her face, but not noticing it.

She kept writing.

Is that strange? To feel close to you when you’re away, and be so happy when we’re together at last... but then, in a moment you wanted me to feel even more so that you would always be there... I felt like your hand was saying goodbye.

I know that’s silly. You hate goodbyes. And honestly? I hate them too.

I know you wanted to comfort me, and you really did. Honest, you did.

The ink smeared across her face as her warm tears kept sliding gently but in a hurried stream down her cheek. Her wrist kept wiping them, but to no avail.

Her vision was blurry, and it made her smile even more.

I miss you. Sora, when I was reliving your past, that time I was in your heart... I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Our fates are one, now... but my fate has never been my own to choose.

I didn’t know that. Did you?

Is that why you were always chasing after me? Is that why I always got you hurt?

I know you wouldn’t say that. Not to my face, anyway. Oh, by the way, Donald and Goofy are really worried about you... But I told them you’re pint is still enough to get back to them!

Suddenly, Kairi felt that presence again... she saw herself glowing and looked at her hand, amazed as her body flashed into light.

Sora then opened his eyes, looking lovingly to the pen, and scribbled words down as quickly as he could. He had a big grin on his face, enjoying every moment of it, before nodding that he was done.

He then took his hand and wiped the remaining tears and ink on her face, carefully trying to indirectly help clean her up, and then closed his eyes again.

Kairi’s body flashed in light and she was herself again; still in a bit of shock, she looked back down at her hand with the pen in it.

“Wha...” she looked at her letter...

and covered her mouth as her eyes widened in more tears.

You know good and well I wouldn’t ever even think that, Kairi!

Even the first line blew her away. “Sora...” She laughed to herself, but noticed there was more and quickly looked over it.

“I never had a reply before...”

Your fate and mine are intertwined now, remember? I know you once forgot my name, but that’s okay. My memory was replaced by Naminé once! So I guess we’re even on that one.

She had to stop reading only to close her eyes and cry, breathing through her hand tightly clasped over her sobbing mouth.

She blinked her eyes open to see what else was written then.

My voice... and maybe even most of me might be consciously lost in another world... one of fiction and fantasy. But Kairi? No matter where I am, I know our hearts will find each other.

You’ve always been my guiding key.

She dropped the paper, covering her face and trying to compose herself. “Sora... Sora..!” She wished she could say the same thing back to him.

As the paper fell to the ground, it was suddenly swooped up by the wind, threatening to fall off the cliff.

“Ah! No!” She darted after it, reaching down at the edge as it floated in twisting turns off the cliff edge.

Determined to read the last of his message, not knowing if they could ever communicate like that again, she rushed back and took a leaping dive off the cliff.

Her hand grasped for the letter’s paper... and finally, grabbed it. “Ah-ha!” she grinned with an open mouth before gliding over the sea and turning over the trees to land safely back to the ground.

She looked to see the last of his message flapping in the newly strong wind that had picked up, seeing it say...

Look to the sky, Kairi. I promised, didn’t I? I’m coming back, and when I do, we’re gonna see all those worlds together again! This time, my hand won’t squeeze so tight... but my arms will.

“Kairi?”

Looking up from the crinkled and flapping paper in her hands, Aqua’s voice had startled her momentarily.

“O-oh, Master Aqua...” She didn’t realize...

Aqua’s hand flung up to her face in surprise, “W-...What happened to you?”

Kairi tried to look down at her cheeks, not realizing that Sora had made the mess even worse, spreading the ink all over her face...

“Ah..!” Embarrassed, she laughed and tried to get it off again. “It.. It won’t come off!” She panicked only slightly, “The wind from when I was flying must have dried it!”

“Flying? Didn’t I tell you-... ah, nevermind.” Aqua shook her head, thinking it best to put her ‘Training’ aside for a moment. “Let’s get you cleaned up.” she kindly spoke out and walked over to her, helping her to the sea so she could wash her face off.

Kairi then looked up to the sky... and swore she saw a cloud spell out... smile.

[ultyso]

Okay I’m gonna talk about my thoughts with MoM now that it’s pretty much end of the month. I’ll be tagging this post for those who don’t want to see spoilers.

•I loved that the song levels were worlds. I thought it was a cute way to introduce the songs and progress through the “story” of KH.

•There was a bit of delay in where I should hit the button with the songs that it was jarring at the beginning.

•I tried to get 3 stars on everything before progressing but I wanted to see story after playing through all of KH1’s that I just ended up just playing them all once rather than multiple times if I missed a star. Still replayable tho :)

•Due to that, took about 10hrs for me to complete.

•I really liked Kairi improved in fighting against Xeha. That she made her keyblade disappear and reappear so she didn’t lose again to him just gripping her hand/keyblade.

•The whole Kairi changing to Sora was neat. But would have been cooler if Kairi got to fight Xeha for rhythm part.

•It was nice to play as her for final chapter. Bummer she doesn’t become an unlocked character or anything after beating it. Would have been nice to add her to the roster.

•She didn’t even get to be a part of the credits :c

•People already being pro with multiplayer made me pretty bummed :c I always lost so didn’t feel anything worthwhile. Thanks to 2 people who still played even tho I sucked in comparison :c

•Really wish they had an invite system for friends.

•I mainly played team BBS for my entire gameplay. I played DDD least cause BBS popped up not too much later than him. His is is only one I haven’t leveled up much lol

•I liked that the memory dives were it’s own little thing. Though it’s taking me forever to get Twilight shards to unlock the final song. Roxassssss.

•Apparently I stanned Kairi and Xion more cause they were my first music dive A+++. Took quite a few tries with Ven :,,,,)

•My most played songs ended up being: Ventus Theme, Sora (Piano Version), Simple and Clean, Tension Rising, and L’lmpeto Obscuro.

•As much as I truly dislike Frozen, Let it Go was prob easiest song to jam through 😂

•There seemed to be an issue with the boxes/barrels they often didn’t recognize my input :,,,)

•Played Co-Op mode by myself and happy they fixed the issue with inputs not working while one glides and other attacks.

•Ven’s theme was so distracting cause I kept just watching his videos and missing dgdjdgsys

•Don’t Think Twice having the “Kiss me(...)” parts on VenSo, VanVen, SR, and SK in the video👌👌👌👌

•Okay they totally could have added more scenes for Ven’s theme after the handshake scene, since he’s had more scenes past that point, but they chose not to. Which makes me hdhdgdg So every time getting to part where they hold hands and the last note being able to input “excellent” on the note, was like yes excellent, they held hands. Huehuehue

-Going into story now.-

•Okay, what I thought was going to have stronger Riku and Kairi friendship, just seemed so abysmal. Riku felt put off and awkward around her to me. Like Kairi was more of an acquaintance to him than anything 😬

•Kairi learning about her past and that Kairi was hope helped tie in what Xeha was going on about in DDD.

•I thought it was gonna be something concerning but really it was just him trying to get Kairi to Riku and Sora.

•Kairi’s job being harder with Sora in this other world. Is kinda confusing. Does she have some other role? Is it to keep Sora going? Idk.

•The whole this is a fictional world Sora is probably in like 💀 I was just like for real? The whole time. Guess fits XV’s whole “fiction based on reality.”

•So Sora got coded out of KH and programmed into a FF game on the game shelf? This what happened? 😂

•I do wonder if with where Sora is now, he’ll be hopping between other Square-esque titles or if it’ll just stay to Quadratum.

•Finding out the star being the 3rd key. Expected but bummed.

•The part that had me most annoyed is that Riku really felt to me like he didn’t care if Kairi was going or not. He only was focused on Sora 💀 Like an “okay whatever Kairi”.

•The fact she is staying behind AGAIN. Ugh.

•”Mickey go tell everyone else their efforts were pointless.”💀

•We don’t even get to see a little of what the other trios did. It really felt like “you trios aren’t important any more so we’re going to write you did something but you never did anything to begin with”.

•I seriously worry about the state of trios onwards.

•After credits having Kairi at least want to train with Aqua seems at least a little hopeful. So we’ll get at least a little Wayfinder Trio content. Hopefully Aqua trains her better than the half assed show of her in Merlin’s forest :/

•Possible VenKai now. That’s all that matters. 🙏

•They can talk to each other about how BS they keep getting treated 🥲 Ones pushed to the side. I hope they can grow together and motivate each other for their similar hardships.

•The fact they need to look into the lost masters has hope for a possible Ven game since he has strongest connection for that. Or maybe Ven and Kairi together game.

•But so far seems they’re just gonna make another SoRiku DDD fest again. So not gonna get my hopes up for a Ven game rn.

•Final thoughts,

•Gameplay: 9/10.

•Story: Idk what to rate it. I’m half and half. Interested in where they’re going. But not really vibing with Kairi being pushed aside again.

•UI: I love it 10/10

[ornamentelle]

KH OC Week Day 2: Bonds of the Heart

(The Stonewall siblings, from left to right: Tatsuya, Akihiko, Hikaru, and Yui)

Day 2 for @khoc-week​ for the Stonewall girls; better late than never!

For Hikaru...

Family

For most of her life Hikaru’s strongest bonds were with her family. She didn’t really have many chances to make close friends due to moving frequently, and in her birthworld of Polaris, her family had a reputation that set her and her siblings as outcasts of sorts.

Akihiko: By far, her best and closest friend was her older brother Akihiko, who was something of a rival in certain regards, but more so a partner in crime for whatever mischief they found themselves in. Wherever Akihiko went, Hikaru was almost sure to follow.

Yui: Her relationship with her older sister Yui was much more strained in comparison; she always thought of Yui as needlessly grumpy and a source of a lot of their mother’s frustrations with the kids. Despite that, Hikaru does know that Yui is always watching out for them—no matter how prickly she can sometimes be.

Tatsuya: Their youngest brother and newest addition to the family, Tatsuya was taken in by them only a couple years before the story’s start after they found him alone in one of the cities they were living in. Hikaru finds him a bit strange, but likes having someone younger she can be a bad influence big sibling to.

Friends

Hikaru does branch out and make some friends once her world is destroyed, however. Some notable ones...

Sora: Like two peas in a pod. Over the course of her journey, Hikaru finds a tight friendship in Sora, who she comes to see like a brother. His cheerful demeanor and competitive nature remind her quite a bit of her brother Akihiko, though Hikaru relishes in being the older one in this duo. They spend much of their adventure together and come to trust each other a lot.

Kairi: In the short time Hikaru spends on the Destiny Islands prior to the world’s destruction, she and Kairi become fast friends. Hikaru really appreciates having another girl friend, after spending so much time around her brother and his friends. Kairi offers a certain level-headedness and understanding that Hikaru appreciates greatly.

Donald: One of her “surrogate parents.” Despite the duck’s short fuse and impatience with Hikaru’s shenanigans, he surprisingly offers something that Hikaru was always lacking in her home life: the confidence to persevere, and the encouragement to try her hardest.

Goofy: Goofy’s kindness and patience make him a much-needed father figure in Hikaru’s life, especially so soon after her father’s own passing. Goofy is understanding of Hikaru’s troubles and offers her unconditional support.

Significant other

Hovering somewhere between close friend and something more, Hikaru and Riku form a relationship based on a patient understanding of each other’s mistakes, flaws, and pains. A tentative friendship at the start of KH1 takes a turn for the rocky once the adventure kicks off, quickly devolving into hostility and a growing spiteful contention. It isn’t until some time later that Hikaru takes a step back and tries to reconcile—and in doing so, finds one of her most trusted confidantes and closest bonds. 

And now for Yui! (Unfortunately I don’t have many pictures for her relationships.)

Yui has always been something of a loner. She spends much of her time by herself, seeking a haven from the stresses from her family life and making only peripheral acquaintances wherever she goes. Sometimes she almost dares to open up, but every time previous she’s run away the moment she feels herself growing too close to someone. There’s a conflict inside her, a fear of getting close to people clashing with a deep longing for trust and connection.

Family

Akihiko: Akihiko is the family’s golden child, while Yui is the family black sheep; but they have an unspoken understanding and watch each other’s backs, even if they don’t spend a lot of time actually hanging out together. Yui takes it upon herself to keep her brother in line and make sure his ego doesn’t get the best of him, while Akihiko tries to mediate any tensions and disagreements between the family before they can reach a boiling point.

Hikaru: Yui sees Hikaru as a naive child, which isn’t completely wrong. It’s a source of frustration, but it’s also something Yui in some ways wants to protect. Yui shields Hikaru from the worst parts of life, and gods help anyone who decides to lay a hand on either of her siblings; because Yui has proven it before that any threat to her family will be met with rage and vengeance.

Luna: The darkest shadow in Yui’s life is the one cast by her mother Luna. The two of them have always had a vicious and hostile relationship with each other— a relationship that Yui calls cruel because to Luna, Yui is no better than a monster. They may not like each other, but there is at least one thing they can agree on: that Yui will always protect her younger siblings.

Friends

It takes a long time until Yui begins to make actual friendships. Of them, there are a few notable ones from the post-KH3 era.

Lea: Yui never asked to be Lea’s friend; it just sort of happened. Mainly it’s just going out for drinks, but hey, better than nothing. Yui finds Lea’s attitude and behavior a little grating at times, but her exasperation is one of mild amusement. Maybe. It depends on her mood.

Isa: Being friends with Lea means being hanging out with Isa, and Yui finds herself getting along with him more easily than Lea. Though they aren’t particularly close, she’s more willing to talk about serious issues with him.

Terra: Yui knew of Terra long before she met him, but she soon realized they were sort of like kindred spirits in several ways. Her blameless understanding of the things he’s gone through leads to some heartfelt conversations, and Terra has become one of the first people she’ll go to when she needs to talk to someone.

Significant Other

A relationship that never should have been—or at least, that’s how Yui sees it. Because really, there was no reason she and Aqua should have ever become as close as they had, other than the circumstances that had forced them together. When they first met, it had been caution and suspicion. Aqua had no reason to trust Yui, especially as she began to discover the deep darkness lurking in Yui’s heart. But loneliness and the need to survive won out, and they agreed to work together. From there, they discovered more about each other and developed a mutual respect. An act of self-sacrifice and one rescue mission later, and that mutual respect began to turn into something more.

Thanks for reading!

[snowflake-of-destruction]

Shipping ask game:

SoRiKai

AkuRokuXi

TerAquaVen

Wow, how could I have forgotten about this one?

SoRiKai

Ship it so much

What made you ship it?

The depth of emotion between these three is one of the cores of the story, the degree to which they are entwined is shown multiple times though arguably best/most memorably captured in the small scene of Kairi recognizing Riku in KH2 and then joining Riku and Sora's hands. I would never, could never devalue their friendship but the fact that their feelings are (or at least were confused as) romantic is some of the tension right at the forefront of our very first installment with the many different ways to take the simmering jealousy seen on multiple sides. That the three of them together as a unit is their collective hearts' desire, their goal, and, sometimes, as in the end of KH3 where Riku and Kairi both were needed to bring Sora to a place where he could give them and everyone else a second chance, a necessity is, to me, apparent. I have a storm of emotion and opinion on Sorikai and sometimes forget that not every Soriku or Sokai shipper is going to share these emotions or ship Soriku, Sokai, and Rikai all about the same amount, but all you need to do is gently bring me back to earth if that happens. 

Read more placed for length

What are your favorite things about the ship?

That time and separation makes no difference. Also, the way they look at each other and say one another's names.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

That Riku and Kairi are just as close as Sora and Kairi or Sora and Riku.

AkuRokuXi

1. Why don’t you ship it?

Okay, honesty time

Probably the way that I was introduced to Xion as not even a character but as a function--to "prove" Sora and Roxas don't have feelings for Riku and Axel respectively and that Sokai is the only valid tie, and to give Roxas a female love interest. Now, obviously that is an extremely reductive and downright nonsense take on 358/2 and Xion as a character, and the type of thing I would normally not only argue against but then develop a strong spite reaction where I attach to the character/ship/story harder even with a character less developed than Xion (who actually gets more time spent building her as a character than most KH females) and a story less compelling and with a lot less going on in it than 358/2, but, as I wasn't connected with wider fandom then and thus subject to a much smaller pool of people I knew in real life that played the games, it was sometimes easy to internalize some "bad takes" that you don’t examine for awhile.

With that said, I grew to appreciate Xion a long time ago, and I adore the friendship between the three of them--and every subset, because, even though you see more of Axel and Roxas's bond or Roxas and Xion's connection, you can't tell me Axel doesn't care deeply for Xion, and that the scene of him crying without knowing why in KH3 got me.

I just still get odd feelings and have personal hang-ups about Xion and either or both of these boys romantically, though I have read some cute ones and it's something I can get past.

2.What would have made you like it?

Probably if I had encountered more diverse opinions/interpretations on Xion and her importance other than her being a narrative "no homo." Yes, yes, we think for ourselves too, most definitely, but you do, especially when you are younger, absorb something of popular opinion. It also would have helped if 358/2 already existed when I got into KH so Xion wasn't someone who "appeared out of nowhere after the fact" but an already accepted part of the series, the other great hang-up. 

3. Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

They love each other, they would have the most fun and tease each other the worst all through their negotiation of the rules and boundaries of their relationship (you know I love banter), and they arguably have the closest to a canon vow to be polycule with their resolve to all share an apartment together.

TerAquaVen

1. Why don’t you ship it?

It is such a narrow edge, and sometimes I think I could easily ship this one a lot/do ship it, but, ultimately, I feel like Aqua looks at Ventus as a little brother, emphasis on little, in BBS. She's always the responsible friend/mom friend, but you get more of the sense that Terra is an equal still but Ventus she sees as her charge as much as Eraqus's.

2.What would have made you like it?

Just a slight tweak of a line or two in canon and I probably would have a lot more ot3 feelings alongside the found family feelings.

3. Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

They have the most heart tugging and epic scale love story of all the trios if you see them as a ship.

[unlockthelore]

Recharge

After a long day at school and fulfilling his duties as a Keyblade Master, Riku just needed to relax and Kairi was the perfect person to help him do that. Part of the Beyond the Horizon series on Ao3. For more updates, follow the beyond the horizon tag on this blog.

Riku was exhausted.

The day had been jam-packed from morning to afternoon — too much talking, school assignments needing to be excused, and disputes between inhabitants of other worlds confused on where he’d come from and how he could help them in their time of need.

Due tomorrow, bared down his throat with a snide glance from his homeroom teacher as a thin packet of papers were shoved into his hands.  Exhaustion and agitation mingled into an unpleasant taste on his tongue. If not for a timely save by Kairi, assuring it would be on their teacher’s desk by the first bel, Riku felt he might’ve said something that would even make the Heartless cower. To his relief, her arm slipped into the crook of his own as she pulled him through the halls of their school.

Needless to say, Riku was dead on his feet when they stepped outside. The sky tinted a pinkish-red, almost reminded him of her hair, and the light dancing at the back of his eyelids when he closed them. After he nearly tripped over a sand dune and a plank in a bridge, Kairi slowed to walk by his side, her arm tucked around his waist and their school bags held in her hand as he slung an arm around her shoulders. He wasn’t sure what he said, distracted by the sweet scent in her hair, and bitter warmth of a biting summer afternoon.

But Kairi giggled and squeezed his hip, muttering a soft, “You’re welcome, Riku.”

Home wasn’t a bad place to be. His mom, emerging from her workshop to answer the door, welcomed him with a little ruffle to the hair as she chatted with Kairi. Riku stumbling on lead feet to the kitchen and cracking open the freezer, thankful for the cool air blasting in his face, until he noticed something was missing.

“Mom!” He called, shoving over a few chocobo ice-cream cups and a box of moogle beef patties. “Did we have any more sea salt ice cream?”

After a brief pause, his mother shouted back, “Did you check the freezer?”

“Yeah!” Riku sighed mentally, wondering where else would he have looked.

“Remind me to put it on the list!”

Riku sighed and snapped the freezer shut with a rubbery slam. He could’ve sworn that he had one left over.

Can’t blame Sora for taking it.

A pang of hurt shuttered his eyes at the thought and he pressed his forehead to the door, attempting to will it away. He must have lingered longer than he thought because a comforting hand wrapped around his wrist and pulled him from the kitchen. Even with his eyes closed, darkness surrounding him, Kairi’s light was a small beacon unable to be ignored with its radiance. He opened his eyes to see her climbing the steps with his own feet clunking behind as he tried to match her pace.

“I’ll bring you both some snacks later,” his mom called from downstairs but the heavy thud of her workshop’s door told him later would be a ways away.

Nevertheless, he was grateful to hear the whirring of machines and loud knock of her hammer against wood. The islands couldn’t have asked for a better shipwright though he wasn’t looking forward to what she made with the help of Chip and Dale.

“Riku, are you okay?” Kairi asked, looking back to him as she pushed open the door to his room.  He resisted the urge to shield his eyes from the light slanting through the wide semi-circle windows along the north and west wall of his room.

After his return, he’d taken down the deep blue curtains rendering his room dark and cool. He had done his best to ignore his mother’s audible sigh and look of relief when he folded them and set them inside a box at the bottom of the linen closet.

Kairi squeezed his hand. “You’ve been zoning out all day…”

Fighting back a grimace, Riku tried for his best smile. “Just tired is all.”

Her brows pulled together and from the quick once-over, he knew she wasn’t convinced but seemed to let it go, releasing his arm to flop on his futon. The deep blue sheets rippled around her like water, a paopu plush he’d gotten years ago hugged to her chest. “Well, we’ll finish our homework quick, and then you can take a nap, yeah?”

Nudging the door shut with a kick of his heel, Riku grumbled an affirmative, shuffling across the ombre sea-green carpet to his desk where he collapsed into his spinning chair. It rocked a little from side to side, burdened with his weight but Kairi’s giggle when he spun about was worth knocking his knee against his desk drawers. She tossed him his school bag and he shuffled about for the homework sheets, grimacing at the sheer number but setting to work.

If anyone asked him, he’d take an army of Heartless over schoolwork.

A thought that grew more appealing by the second as he blanked on the same problem six times over, deciding to abandon his books in a huff. His laptop pushed to one side of his desk and papers strewn about, pencil lying haphazardly amidst a cluster of eraser shavings. Tossing his head back, Riku glanced aside to find Kairi hard at work, absorbed with scribbling across the paper. She still held the plush in her lap, squished between her textbook serving as a makeshift writing desk. The tip of her tongue poked out the side of her lips, brows furrowed in concentration. Although Riku wasn’t sure how comfortable it was to be hunched over as she worked, he had to admit she pulled it off.

Idly spinning from one side to the other, his mind kept wandering from one thought to the other. Too awake to be tired but too tired to function. Pushing up from his chair, he let it roll away from him as he climbed up to sit on his bed, slipping his legs on either side of Kairi’s waist and his arms around her middle. The sun warmed the back of her hair, giving it a musty flowery scent he inhaled with abandon, nosing against her shoulder for emphasis.  Even though he had to hunch over with their difference in height, he didn’t mind.

Embarrassing as it was, Kairi smelled nice.

Like home.

“Riku…?”

He hummed into her hair, feeling the gentle pat to the side of his head, her fingers working into his hair and lightly scratching at his scalp. That shouldn’t have felt as nice as it did. Practically melting into the touch, Riku gently rubbed his hand up and down her side.

“Are you okay?”

“Needed you…”

Kairi’s hand slipped from his hair and it was sorely missed but she squeezed his wrist, gently patting with slow circles drawn against the back of his hand. “I’m here…”

Riku almost grimaced. He could hear the forlorn emptiness in her words, despite the comfort. Tension lingering in the air with unspoken words as he was sure they were both thinking of who wasn’t. Time had taught him not to dwell though, and he squeezed her lightly in his embrace.

“Thanks…”

“You’re welcome, Riku,” she murmured, a smile in her voice.

After what felt like forever with her toiling away and him clinging to her back, Riku lifted his chin and set it upon her shoulder, peering down at the pages which resembled nothing but squiggles and lines on white paper to him. “… What’re you doing?”

Kairi paused for a second then laughed, and his heart fluttered when she turned enough for him to catch the blue of her eyes crinkled in amusement. “The homework we were assigned, silly. You really need that nap.”

On a second glance, Riku had to admit the papers did resemble what he’d shoved aside on his desk. His nose wrinkled and he shrugged, brushing his lips against her cheek beneath the length of her eyelashes before settling against her shoulder again. “You’re doing great, Kai…”

“Hehe, thanks…” She giggled, and Riku tried to tether himself to the sound, even if his hold was slurred and shaky with sleep. “Try to rest a little, Riku.”

He wanted to tell her that was impossible. Rest for him would mean dreams, and in his dreams, he saw him. It wasn’t always those eyes — bright, round, and blue as the sky — haunting his dreams. Sometimes, he saw faces of those who were pushed to the darkness while they yearned for the light. Divested of purpose and existence simply for the sake of the one who connected them all. The same one who gave up everything so they could be free. He had to admit, he was rather tired of this dance of guilt. But he memorized the steps and moved through it alone because he didn’t want her to know that her eyes haunted him too.

His hold on her tightened, hand splaying against her stomach, brushing between the paopu fruit plush and the thin fabric of her uniform shirt. “I’m not ever moving again…” He declared after awhile, and Kairi’s answering giggle pulled him from his hazy thoughts.

“You have to eat sometime.”

He smiled a little and brushed his forehead against her shoulder, smelling the sunshine and light rolling off her in waves. “Nope, gonna just live off light…” He trailed off into silence for a moment, hiding a smile against the back of her neck. “Like a plant.”

Kairi scoffed, swatting at his wrist, her pencil thumping against his arm with barely a glimmer of pain. “You’re not a plant, Riku.”

The corners of his lips twitched up. Light streaming through the windows warmed the back of his neck but hers kept away his troubles, reminded him of his successes, and what he still yet had to fight for.

Just like his.

Opening his eyes enough to view the sea of red obscuring his vision, he smiled. “Then why does your light keep me happy and healthy?”

Her shoulders tensed. The smile curling at his lips only widening when he pulled away and saw the pink tips of her ears. If he looked around to her face, he was certain it would be just as red.

“You’re silly…”

A smile in her voice and her light shining bright enough that he almost wanted to look away. Almost but not quite. Her eyes were on her homework but the scratch of her pencil slowed since they’d been talking. Riku watched with fondness curling in his chest, threatening to strangle any sense of reason. Tiredness was temporarily forgotten as he tucked his lips at her ear, cradling her against his chest in a loose hold.

“Kiss me?”

It was an uphill battle asking for one. Kairi — and Sora — insisted he could have as much affection as he wanted from either of them. Happy to give it even at the most inopportune of moments, and no matter how fleeting. Riku was embarrassed at times. How needy did they think him? And above that, didn’t they know if he lingered too long in their light, he might have grown to crave it?

Sora didn’t seem to mind. So often as it seemed like Sora followed him around, it might have been the other way around. Kairi led them as much as they followed, and the three of them were simply together. Pulled into one another’s orbit, bound by some unspoken love and adoration.

Kairi tapped her pencil against the page, the light sticking and click of lead drawing Riku out of his thoughts as she tossed a small wry smile over her shoulder. “You’d have to move for that,” she teased, and his worries were entirely forgotten.

He tipped his head back with a groan. “Kairi…”

“You can’t have a kiss if I can’t see your face,” she replied in a lilting tone, too amused for his liking.

Riku wrinkled his nose and mulled over the consequence of not. On one hand, he could kiss Kairi and drift off to sleep peacefully. While on the other, he could mess around and not have it at all. Weighing the costs and the gains, Riku sighed. “I want three.”

Kairi hummed thoughtfully, tapping her pencil to her chin. Her silence stretching on for so long that Riku huffed and squeezed her hip, earning a giggle. “Alright, deal.”

Burying a smile against her shoulder, he laid a kiss at the crook of her neck before lifting his head, shifting backward. “Three,” he reminded while she set aside her work, turning toward him.

“Three.” It was a repeat but also an agreement. His heart skipping a beat at the determined look in her eyes as she settled on her knees facing him. Her hands slipping in his hair sending him into a buzz of sensory delight, working lightly against his scalp, his eyes fluttering shut. Even in the dark, he could see her approaching but the softness of her lips was something he was unprepared for.

Along with the faint taste of sea salt.

Her hands threaded in his hair, elbows resting against his shoulders and he tipped his head up to meet her at the new angle, finding purchase with his hands against her hips. The taste of sea salt and dried fruit, something sweet but not so overpowering that it was bitter, lingered on her lips. Anchoring himself with the hold, Riku hummed deep in his chest and pulled away enough to speak against her lips.

“You ate my last ice cream, didn’t you?”

Although he couldn’t see her face when she gasped, Kairi’s voice always pitched when she was fit with giggles. “That’s not the point of why we’re here right now, is it?”

Riku couldn’t help but smile. She definitely ate it but he couldn’t find it in himself to be upset with her. Pulling her to him with another kiss pressed to her smiling mouth, he brought his teeth down on her lower lip, pulling lightly when she gasped. A brief flick of her tongue against his own before he pulled away again.

“… You definitely ate it.”

Kairi’s light was a bit brighter and when he cracked his eyes, the flush to her cheeks had returned just as the bite of her fingernails against his scalp reminded. She was beautiful. Freckles beginning to show along her nose and cheeks, faint but hardly able to be missed.

“I’ll buy more,” she assures, and Riku shrugs.

“Forget about it.”

He could hardly care about it now. Looping his arms around her waist to pull her against him as he rocked backwards, spilling over onto his bed in a tangle of limbs. Kairi’s surprised squeak and shout of his name drowned out in startled laughter. Her knee almost catching him in the hip as she squirmed but he smiled nonetheless, tucking his nose against her cheek,.

With the angle of light slanting through his windows, her freckles were prominent and so was the blue of her eyes. If Sora was the sky, then Kairi was the ocean, and Riku was sure he could linger in the sea for awhile longer if she was the one holding him.

“That was unfair,” She huffed, poking his stomach, breaking the small trance he’d been in. Her lower lip poking out in a tiny pout and he was hard pressed not to laugh. That would’ve only spurred on the challenge and he didn’t have the energy to wrestle with her today.

“Call it even for eating my ice cream.”

She rolled her eyes and threw her arm across his side, resting her head against his shoulder. “I guess,” she murmured, face lax with contentment and half-buried shirt.

Riku’s eyes softened and he rested his forehead against hers as she hugged closer to him, shielding her cheek from the sun as he cradled it with his palm, combing her hair behind her ear. “Nap?” He asked when the silence carried on for awhile longer.

Kairi shifted slightly, her eyes barely opening but it felt as if the tide had washed over him. “Nap.” She closed her eyes again and Riku smiled, remiss to move too far from her. With a light flick of his finger and a whisper of Aero, his blanket lifted up and a murmur of Gravity brought it closer to them, lying it over them.

It wasn’t often he goofed off but he could make an exception. And it might have been a misuse of his powers, but looking down at Kairi resting peacefully.

So what?

[revengerevisited]

I wanna do something a little fun and just share some of the KH fanfic ideas I’ve had for a while, which are mostly about Vanitas because of course they are. XD But yeah, here are my ideas:

1. A Shadow of Two - a sequel to A Heart and a Half, kinda a fix-it for KH3 but not really since it’s an AU to begin with. Vanitas Aqua and Ventus would be the main trio, but Sora Riku and Kairi are also POV characters, with each of them having their own trio and goals: Sora (with Donald and Goofy) looking for a way to revive Roxas while struggling with his own inner darkness, Kairi training with Axel and getting help from Ienzo in discovering her past, Riku Mickey and an unrevealed character on a secret Realm of Darkness mission and also finding a way to revive Naminé, and Vanitas Aqua and Ventus searching for the new Princesses of Heart while dealing with their own problems: Vanitas still dealing with his trauma while adjusting to normal society, Aqua dealing with something I can’t reveal yet, and Ventus... honestly I don’t know what to do with Ventus. The most obvious answer would be recovering his lost memories, but... well, introducing an egregiously convoluted backstory wherein Ventus and/or Vanitas might be a murderer isn’t exactly appealing to me, to say the least. I really wish Ven’s backstory could’ve been something I was allowed to make up myself. Other than that, the story would generally follow KH3 but with way more Disney worlds and hopefully fewer plot holes. ;P

2. Broken Hearts (Take Time to Mend) - a post-KH3 fic that ignores Re:Mind and the time-traveling Vanitas retcon. This fic is about the REAL Vanitas who was in KH3 and resurrected via scream energy who has returned once again, this time in the Land of Departure but is too weak to leave and is quickly discovered by the Wayfinder Trio. Tensions are high but he’s ultimately allowed to stay, with the focus of the story being on the four of them helping each other recover from their respective traumas: Vanitas’s years of abuse by Xehanort, Terra’s decade of possession by Xehanort (which according to the post-Re:Mind character files was a lot more traumatic than I’d realized), Aqua’s decade spent in the Realm of Darkness and subsequent corruption by darkness, and Ven’s... almost being killed by Eraqus, I guess. While pretty bad, that’s probably not as traumatizing as years of torture and torment, and the more obvious trauma to use would be Ventus committing/witnessing Strelitzia’s murder, but as I’ve established I just really don’t want to deal with KHUX at all. Anyway, this could work as a gen fic but since I love Vanqua so much I might as well make it one, maybe throw a little Terrella in there too 'cause why not.

3. This fic idea focuses on the aftermath of KH3, NOT Re:Mind, where Riku Kairi and Naminé are trying to adjust back to a normal life at Destiny Islands while also dealing with their grief over Sora’s disappearance. Kairi deals with blaming herself for Sora’s ‘death’, Naminé deals with being adopted as Kairi’s sister and learning how to be a normal person, and Riku deals with his growing feelings for Naminé, but the real star of the show is... Sora’s mom! Oh and Vanitas too, of course. Sora’s mom (who really needs a name) has finally been told about everything that’s happened these past two-ish years, and a month after Sora’s disappearance she finds a comatose Vanitas washed up on the beach. She assumes it’s Sora, although Riku and Kairi are quick to correct her. Despite their warnings, Sora’s mom nurses Vanitas back to health and basically adopts him, although he isn’t exactly happy with the situation. Still weak and recovering, Vanitas is unable to leave, and Sora’s mom won’t stop in her efforts to help him adjust to a normal life. This one could be merged into Broken Hearts, since I could imagine Riku informing the Wayfinder Trio about Vanitas’s return and an angry and distrustful post-KH3 Aqua wouldn’t want to let him out of her sight, but it might be better to keep them as separate fics seeing as they’re set in two different locations.

4. My next idea hinges on my theory of what the next KH game could’ve been like... or at least before Re:Mind pretty much shot it down. My theory was that Vanitas, the real Vanitas not the time-traveler, was still inside Sora’s heart and therefore went along with him to TWEWY. I haven’t played TWEWY but I know that Sora would need a partner to defeat the Noise, and what better partner than a former enemy? This would be similar to A Heart and a Half but instead of romance it’s a sibling team-up with them trying to escape Shibuya. This fic could also be combined with the previous idea as well... Maybe Sora allows Vanitas to win the Reaper’s Game and he ends up on Destiny Islands unable to remember what happened in TWEWY. Vanitas would be the key to getting Sora back but only if Naminé can unlock his lost memories. My only problem is that I would have to erase all that character development Vanitas gained with Sora to reset him back to have character development with the Destiny Islands characters instead, at least until he regains all his memories.

5. A different Vanitas and Sora team-up fic. Once again this is the real Vanitas who used scream energy to revive himself, but that made his heart rather unstable. He tries to fight Sora Donald and Goofy in Monstropolis but is too weak and sick and loses. Upon discovering that Vanitas looks just like him, Sora decides to take him back to Yen Sid for healing and answers. But Vanitas’s negativity is too much for the Gummiship to handle and it ends up stalling. Sora Donald and Goofy slowly nurse a very reluctant Vanitas back to health with the power of friendship, which would reduce the amount of negativity so the Gummiship can fly again. Vanitas and the trio travel to a few different Disney worlds and eventually rescue Aqua and Ven. I don’t know what would happen after that though, since I don’t want to just rehash exactly what happened in the Keyblade Graveyard.

6. A pre-BBS Vanqua AU. Only a few months after being created, Vanitas runs away from Xehanort to the Land of Departure, hoping to merge with Ven early. Unfortunately for him Ven is still in a coma, so Vanitas tries to merge with Aqua instead. This doesn’t quite work, but does end up linking their hearts in such a way that neither can go too far away from each other without feeling sick or even dying. Now stuck at the Land of departure, Vanitas is found by Xehanort who is enraged that Vanitas has basically ruined all his plans. Fearing for his life, Vanitas convinces Xehanort that the plan can still be salvaged: Vanitas will become Eraqus’s apprentice under the guise of Ven’s ‘brother’ and is tasked with encouraging Terra’s darkness while making sure Ventus and/or Aqua are trained to their fullest, depending on which one would be better to merge with. Xehanort, not wanting to start this entire endeavor over, agrees to the plan and introduces Vanitas to Eraqus and the others. Since Vanitas is now wearing normal clothing, Aqua has no idea that he is the masked boy who attacked her earlier, but feels strangely drawn to him due to their connected hearts. The rest of the fic would basically be about the four apprentices’ life at the Land of Departure, with Vanitas struggling with his loyalty to Xehanort vs his slowly burgeoning friendship with Terra Ven and Aqua, all while trying not to blow his cover with the Unversed.

I also have a few smaller ideas that I haven’t really thought through yet or might work better as oneshots or fanart: 1. A Lion King Vanqua AU with lion Aqua and black leopard Vanitas, Terra Eraqus and Xehanort also as lions, Ven as a regular leopard, and Braig as a hyena. 2. A KH1 retelling/reimagining with Vanitas reincarnated as Sora’s younger brother. 3. A Nier Automata AU with resistance android Terra, scanner Ventus, attacker Aqua, and Vanitas as a scanner with executioner chips installed by Xehanort sent to infiltrate Yorha. 4. A post-KH3 fic dealing with Sora’s restlessness after attempting to return to a normal life on Destiny Islands, feeling like he doesn’t belong after everything he’s been through. 5. Something about Aqua taking care of Ven when he first arrives at the Land of Departure, possibly Venqua. 6. A Vanqua-ish KH3 fic with Vanitas kidnapping Aqua to be used as a Guardian or Seeker back-up for Org13, but he eventually befriends her and lets her go. 7. And finally, a Namiku fic set between CoM and KH2. I kinda feel like this should be part of the A Heart and a Half ‘canon’, but I’m not actually sure whether it should be its own fic or just flashback scenes in A Shadow of Two.

You’ll notice that I really love stories about villain redemption, abuse/mental illness recovery, and former enemies becoming friends/lovers, which is why I’ve grown so disappointed with mainstream works nowadays rarely exploring those topics (at least not that I’ve seen). I guess that’s where that old saying comes in, “if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself”. But yeah, that’s just a quick list of my KH fic ideas so far!

[blackasteriia]

🔥 story structure bih

Feed the Fires of my Salt

I jumped into Kingdom Hearts right after KH3 came out. I had the privilege of watching the series’ cutscenes from beginning-to-end, starting with the KHUX back cover and ending in KH3. This is a very confusing way to enter Kingdom Hearts. The start of the story is in KHUX and the beginning is in KH1. It’s KH1 that introduces the core mechanics, themes, and principles of the story. Yet, the story starts in KHuX, which is a mobile game. The KHuX itself is a baffling mess with too many twists for me to even bother tracking it. For the purpose of this essay I’ll focus on Sora’s story, he’s the protagonist after all. 

Kingdom Hearts 1 begins medias res, ‘into the middle of things.’ It doesn’t know that. It thinks it’s a straightforward story and probably the best told one in all of Kingdom Hearts. Sora and his friends live a normal life. He has a call to action when his island falls into darkness and he losses his friends. To find his friends he must travel through several worlds. On the course of this journey he learns of Kingdom Hearts. He then meets Ansem, the antagonist who believes that all people and things belong to the darkness. Sora takes all that he has learned to confront Ansem. Ansem is defeated and Sora’s journey comes to a close. It’s a simple story but it is effective, charming, and fun. 

Then, Sora loses all his memories in a random castle through an event that he does not remember, he wakes-up after sleeping a full year, and we go into Kingdom Hearts 2. 

Kingdom Hearts 2, is another hero’s journey. Sora seeks guidance from the wise Yen Sid, a mentor archetype we most often find in stories of this type. Yen Sid informs Sora that he must defeat Organization 13, an insidious group seeking to obtain Kingdom Hearts. This bunch isn’t as straightforward as Ansem was. They’re manipulative, and also, very human, with their own quirks and personalities, some even befriending Sora. The series delves into a more mature grey than the pure black and white of KH1. Sora learns that light and dark aren’t clear-cut concepts, but to accept the complexity of himself, and others. Sora defeats Xemnas and returns to Destiny Island with his friends, concluding his journey. 

In Dream Drop Distance, Sora and Riku undergo training by Yen Sid to become keyblade masters, which is very important. Sora must unlock the power of waking by *shuffles notes* freeing seven sleeping keyholes, in the realm of sleep. Okay, yeah, anyway he does that. Then this Xehanort guy --who the hell is this guy? He was in Birth by Sleep. Wait, what?-- kidnaps him and tries to possess him so he can fill out the ranks of Organization 13-- Didn’t we kill all of them in the last game? No, they came back. Then why bother killing them off?-- But he’s saved by Axel --who died in the last game-- and Riku. Anyway, this is apparently grounds for failure and Sora does not become a keyblade master. 

In Kingdom Hearts 3, Sora embarks on an adventure to unlock the power of waking by traveling through the worlds and training to become stronger. Didn’t he already beat like, three series antagonists by now why does he need to grow stronger??? Sora is confronted by the members of the Real Organization 13, who taunt him as he travels. Sora gathers the Seven Guardians of Lights and defeats Xehanort and the Real Organization 13. He returns to Destiny Island with his friends and concludes his story by vanishing into a burst of light.

And that, from beginning to end, is Sora’s journey through the Kingdom Hearts series. I skipped a lot of details. I didn’t include side games. I told it as Sora experienced it. Here’s a few things I noticed:

1). There’s a lot of start and stops. The series has three endings. The end of Kingdom Hearts 1, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Kingdom Hearts 3, are all satisfying stop-points for the series. This makes sense, as Nomura, for the most part, intended them to be endings. Of course, he leaves some running threads to intrigue and hint at another game. It means that Sora has his powers reset twice and he begins another hero journey three times. The goals never change: train, grow stronger, beat-up bad guy, go home. Sora never grows past the dumb kid that picked-up a giant key in KH1 and started swinging, or any growth he does develop is reset. 

2). The side games are useless. I can tell Sora’s story without Birth by Sleep. I can do it without 358/2 Days, Chain of Memories, Re:Coded, and I bet I could kick-out Dream Drop Distance too. Xehanort is the sole character that you need. He is by far the worst antagonist. He shows-up without fanfare and is defeated with little trouble. Ansem and Xemnas both had something to contrast to Sora, some sort’ve dynamic, a personal stake. Xehanort is just a jerk and he needs to be beaten-up.

3). Xehanort is a terrible antagonist. An antagonist is the character that opposes the protagonist. It is the antagonist who the protagonist must overcome in order to complete their journey. Ansem and Sora jostle over the very nature of humans, idealism vs cynicism. Xemnas forced Sora to recognize the complexity of the human condition. Xehanort-- bullies Sora until Sora kicks his ass. Never mind untangling how unbelievably complicated the relationship between Xehanort, Ansem, and Xemnas are. You’d believe that Xehanort would be some culmination of Sora’s journey-- but I’d argue that it’d complete the Sea Salt Trio’s story more to defeat Xehanort, than it does for Sora to do it. 

4). Final Fantasy and Disney are window dressing. This game series is supposed to be a crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy. If you read my synopsis, you would not know this. Maleficent in KH1 is the sole character I feel I could’ve added. None of the Final Fantasy characters are on the list or come close to deserving mention. Why do we have the fiftieth Xehanort clone, and not Sephiroth, or anyone else, as a main antagonist? When I watched this series for the first time I did not watch a single Disney World, and I lost nothing for it. About 60-70% of this entire game series is useless, poorly written filler. This becomes worse as it drags on too. There’s some neat character study in KH1 but by KH3, it’s all crap. Instead of using the Disney World’s for character exploration and building plot, they’re usually charmless retellings of the original movie. 

5). There are so many useless characters. We don’t need Roxas. Get rid of Xion. Namine, who? Xehanort just needs to go. You can remove Kairi after KH1. Maybe we keep the BBS-trio because we have to have someone fill-out the Guardians of Light in KH3, but I think Terra is expendable. All of the Union Cross cast, gone. After KH2, all of the Organization members are wasted screen time. These characters do not contribute to the main plot and they have no satisfactory, useful, or good character arcs. They’re just here, repeating what we already heard. Axel finished his story in KH2, why is he still here? The entirety of Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days and Re:coded can be removed, and you would lose absolutely nothing. If I was Nomura’s editor, I’d be making judicious use of a red pen on his scripts. Characters that die don’t stay dead, characters that finish their arcs just hang around taking-up space, and characters that shouldn’t be added, are added. Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, trim this down to like, 2-3 games, tops, and you’d have a powerful story. Not a long overwritten piece of absurdity that’s wheezing like a pneumonic horse on its last legs. 

6). Dream Drop Distance and Kingdom Hearts 3 are the worst. Sora sets out to complete one task: become a keyblade master, and, he fails. He doesn’t even finish his secondary task, master the power of waking. Kingdom Hearts 3 has no tension, it’s so cut-and-dry, you need about... an hour of the game to know what happened in it. Sora defeated Xehanort, the all important villain, introduced in DDD. It then ends on a stupid cliff hanger. Also, goes to show that Re:Mind was stupid and didn’t help anything or anyone. KH3 had one job, complete all the character arcs introduced in the series in a satisfying way, and it failed on every single account. 

How this series tells story is terrible. It’s done through long-winded exposition that is boring and confusing. Somehow, after watching hours of cutscenes and reading all of the additional side material, I still do not know what Kingdom Hearts is supposed to be. Sometimes, it’s the ‘heart of worlds,’ other times it’s a ‘source of wisdom,’ or it’s a ‘source of power,’ or it can just grant Xemnas’ wish like a star, and it looks like Scala Ad Caelum inside, or its the door to the Realm of Darkness. How can it be the name sake of the series and be so poorly defined? The Metal Gear series is just as convoluted as Kingdom Hearts is, but at least I know what a metal gear is. 

Nomura can structure a plot. He understands the basics of hero’s journey. Every single game is based on that structure, individually. When tied together, however, they make this weird mass  of starts and stops, retcons, wasted time, and poor story telling. I like Sora and I like his story. I would not be here if that was not the case. It’s the same way with Xion. I really like Xion and her story, but she shouldn’t be here. That, or it needs to be written in a way that it matters. This plot stuff isn’t just about the events. It’s about the characters.  What happens to them. What do they do. How do they behave. How do they change? Plot happens when characters act. What a bad plot indicates is bad character motivation and action. These characters don’t matter because Nomura didn’t give them backstories, nuanced motivations, real flaws, or meaningful action. So he crams as most information into the dialogue and pretends that counts as a plot. 

 And it’s not like plot is  complicated, shit happens, that’s it. To add in some RP salt? It bothers me when muns says they’re ‘bad at plotting.’ What do you mean you’re bad at plot? Plot happens when our two muses meet and shit happens. Your muse has encountered a wild Xion, what do you do? > Run > Attack > Talk to > Feed. I’m not writing a passive brick here, ya’ll. I want shit to happen. And when I’m slogging through 13 hours of Kingdom Hearts 2 I want shit to happen, and not watch Sora faff about in a Disney world for forty minutes. Why is that so much to ask for?

[somefunsmut]

Finally Peace and Time to be Together Pt 1

Kingdom Hearts Sora/Kairi

Rating: Explicit (NSFW) (Well, this part isn’t, but the rest will be)

Summary: My first smut. Going to be smaller chunks. New parts added frequently. Somewhat fits post KH3 canon, but not exactly. After the keyblade war and the battle with Xehanort, Kairi and Sora get some quiet time to finally be a couple. Having missed a lot of their teen years, neither has much experience or have experimented much. They explore themselves and their sexual desires together.

-------------------------------

A kiss. 

That’s how it started.

After years of pining, years of dangers keeping them separated, years of preparing for and fighting in the New Keyblade War... 

They can finally be two young adults.

Together.

A kiss. 

It seems ridiculous since they had essentially been a couple of some sort since they were 14. Yet they had never gone further than hugs and sharing a fruit before this moment. 

There was never time. 

Never the chance.

Technically speaking, they had been inside each other. Their hearts inside each other at least. But that doesn’t really count.

That was... intimate. But not in a real physical way. Not in a romantic way. Not the type of intimacy they were craving. The type they were longing for. Their type their bodies were practically begging each other for. 

Not like this.

A kiss. 

Their first kiss. 

Well, their first kiss together. 

Sora had an ill-fated date with an overexcited Selphie back when they had just turned 13. If you can even call two awkward 13 year olds going for a walk on the beach trying and failing to make flirty small talk a date. Sora didn’t actually like Selphie, but Riku convinced him it would make Kairi jealous (it did). Selphie was the one to initiate the kiss. She didn’t really like Sora that way, but she thought he was cute. Selphie was very... let’s say “open”... to physical affection. At that age, it was just kisses and tight hugs. Now that their group of friends were older, she’s earned a bit of a reputation. 

So, that was Sora’s first kiss.

Kairi’s first kiss was, ironically, also Selphie around the same time. Girl’s night sleep over, truth or dare went a little too far. Of course, these were kids not characters in some smutty story. “A little too far” meant kissing for five seconds and mooning a passing car out the bedroom window. As adults now, Selphie has brought up this memory more than once. If Kairi didn’t know better, she’d suspect Selphie was flirting with her? Though who could say. It could just be Selphie reminiscing about a simpler time.

So, that was Kairi’s first kiss.

Of course, the five and a half years since those first kisses were spent with the two of them either fighting the masters of darkness or being kidnapped by them. Unless you count a kiss on the cheek from dear friends, neither had a second kiss.

Until now.

When something neither of them had experienced before happened.

A kiss. 

The two of them on the beach alone. Light quickly fading as the two of them are bathed in the pinkish rays of the rapidly setting sun. The sound of waves are all that can be heard other than their breath. A blanket protecting them from the coarse sand. A cluster of palm trees blocking them from views of anyone who might wander unexpectedly around the common areas of the island. The remains of a packed picnic beside them.

This was their first real date together. A date that doesn’t involve killing heartless or training with an old wizard. Just them. For the first time in four years. Finally, just them.

They stared into each other’s eyes. Both of them so lost and in love that words failed them. Kairi scooted closer, Sora brushed the hair out of her face and gently cupped her cheek, Kairi grabbed Sora’s hand and held it tight, Sora leaned in...

A kiss.

Finally, a kiss.

A lifetime of tension and longing all released as their lips were pressed together. Gentle, but unrelenting. Electricity flowing through them as their passion for each other finally found an outlet. An itch finally scratched after years of waiting. Desires finally fulfilled. Satisfaction unlike any either had known up to that point, and yet somehow nowhere near enough. They could have spent the rest of their lives in that kiss and yet their bodies both screamed for more. This was an oxymoron. Somehow everything they’ve ever need and yet also nowhere near enough.

A kiss.

That’s how it started.

That is not how it ended.

Part 2

[queen-ofsunflowers]

The Day Has Come - Chapter XI Preview

“Hey, you!” said one reporter, a microphone practically shoved into Sora’s face. “Can you tell us what it’s like working so closely with a famous hero such as Rainspell?” Rainspell? Wait, Ms. Caelum?

“I, uh…” How exactly was Sora supposed to answer that? They weren’t working together at all. Caelum was their teacher. Why were they asking them that? With a huff, the reporter turned to Kairi.

“Can you tell us what she’s like?” she asked the girl.

“What she’s like?” Kairi repeated, getting a swift nod from the reporter. “Well… uh… she’s really strong! Yeah…” Well, that seemed like one of the answers that they wanted because the reporter went on after that.

“How is she faring as a teacher?” the reporter asked, getting a bit too close in Kairi’s face.

“Well…” Riku stepped in, pushing Kairi and Sora behind him and towards the gate, “she reminds us daily that we’re lucky to be attending this school. A hero like her… it’s truly a unique opportunity to be taught by such a—” Sora let out a short sigh as Riku went on, doing his best to draw out the reporter’s attention so that their focus drifted. While that was going on, Sora’s own attention drifted to something else entirely.

Why are they so interested in Ms. Caelum…? Sure, the public loved heroes. But this was going a bit overboard, wasn’t it? And sure, Rainspell was an amazingly powerful hero, but so were the rest of the U.A. teachers. Why were they asking only about Caelum and not them?

“Hey, isn’t that one of the Leonhart twins?” said one of the reporters, breaking Sora out of his thoughts. He felt tension take over his body. It had been a year since they lost Roxas. He thought that the press had let it go by now. The only thing that served as evidence of the event now was the small group of heroes still searching for the boy, even though the team itself had been disbanded. 

Before Sora could stammer out some sort of a reply, he was miraculously saved when Cloud caught up to the trio. His guardian reached out, grabbing the reporter’s mic. There was a zap. When Cloud withdrew his hand, the item was left smoking. 

“Hey!” said the reporter. Cloud ignored her, turning to the three students instead.

“You three,” he said, “Head inside, alright? Let me handle this circus.” The trio exchanged a look.

“But, Mr. Strife—” Kairi began, only to be cut off when Cloud held up his hand.

“This happens at the start of every school year, don’t worry about it.” Sora exchanged looks with the other two once more. Riku and Kairi seemed as confused as him. But still, they nodded and made their way towards U.A’s main building.

“Why do you think they’re so interested in Ms. Caelum?” Sora asked his friends. “I mean… she’s just a normal person. It took me awhile to realize who she was. Even with the blue hair.”

“You want to ask her?” said Riku. Sora immediately shook his head.

“No, not really.” Sora was pretty sure that if he did, Ms. Caelum would literally bring the rain down on him. As nice as she seemed to be most of the time, that first day proved that she was more intimidating than she was a good person.

“If you won’t bring her out, then I’ll just get her myself—!” Sora heard a reporter shout before she was cut off with the loud blaring of an alarm. The kids stopped dead in their tracks. They whirled around just in time to find Cloud jumping back away from the entrance as a thick, metal wall dropped down from the gate’s archway. Similar defenses erected themselves around the border of the school. Cloud only let out a sigh, running his hand through pale blonde hair as he walked up to the trio still trying to figure out what just happened.