#rip kairi you will be missed

[misrepresentedmorallygrey]

PROPAGANDA

Rose Propaganda

"We saw her character arc in reverse!! We first saw all the good she did and then learned of her terrible actions in the past. If her story was told the other way around, it would have been a great redemption arc. Yes, she did some terrible things, but she had no choice. She did everything she could to stop the colonization of earth peacefully buy nothing worked. Blue and yellow diamond just didn't listen to her and when they did, THEY were the ones who made the zoo and shit. Rose wanted to free them but couldn't get to them after the war! And with the corruption, there's no way she could have known that'd happen. There's so many things she wanted to do but just couldn't. And with spinel, yes it was shitty to leave her alone for so long, but again, between running her court, running the rebellion, dealing with earth, she likely wasn't a very high priority and like with the zoo, there was no way to get to her after the war since the galaxy warp was destroyed. And don't forget, she was practically a child around this time. You're saying you didn't do any stupid, selfish, or harmful things as a kid? She learned from her experiences and grew, we just saw that growth in reverse, leaving us as viewers with a poor perception of her."

"Rose Quartz is Steven Universe’s dead mom. Initially, she’s set up as sort of an ethereal perfect figure who everyone misses and compares him to. Later we get to see more of her backstory and discover that she’s actually like, a person, with flaws, who has done some bad things, but she did those bad things largely in the course of trying to escape an abusive home life and save the people and planet that she fell in love with. It’s very clear that despite her flaws she was trying to do the right thing and that she deeply cared about others. Unfortunately, a woman who was not a Perfect Martyr was way too much for the Steven Universe fandom to handle. She pretty much set off the wave of SU crit blogs because these people were furious either that she had taken violent measures to solve her problems, that she hadn’t taken violent enough measures to solve her problems, or both somehow. Lots of “Why didn’t she just murder her abusive parental figures?” Lots of “She was evil for having a baby even though she knew she’d die in childbirth!” Lots of “She should’ve been able to protect everyone from a magic nuclear weapon with the power of love somehow.” Lots of “She shouldn’t have rebelled (even though not rebelling would’ve meant the destruction of Earth) because her abusers retaliated and that’s her fault.” LOTS of people drawing her as stick thin even though she was fat in the show. People treated her like she was on the same level or even worse than her abusive parental figures who were also the main villains of the show. It was unbearable to witness."

Kairi Propaganda

"The Kingdom Hearts game series is about Mickey Mouse battling the forces of Darkness with an alliance of fashionable anime boys. Kairi is a major character, and one of the few female characters. She is part of a trio of childhood best friends, with the protagonist Sora and their other friend Riku (who had a villain arc and then a redemption arc). Though Kairi is constantly and clumsily sidelined by the canon narrative, she arguably has more backstory going on than any other major characters. She is a refugee from another planet. She implicitly lost her beloved grandma at five years old in the traumatic destruction of their hometown. She was kidnapped and experimented on by an evil wizard-scientist—she escaped thanks to having a magic charm that basically teleported her to her soulmate(s). Then she had to adjust to living on a new planet and being adopted by a new family. In the very first game, when she's 14, she turns out her pure heart is one of 7 in the entire universe to be free of Darkness—she shows a full emotional spectrum of fear, sadness, frustration, defeat, but she isn't vulnerable to corruption. In KH2, she becomes one of the Chosen Ones who wield a magical weapon called a Keyblade. She loves her friends very much, and she has the unique talent to instantly recognize them even when they've been transformed into monsters. She has saved them several times with nothing but the Power Of Love in her heart randomly manifesting in, like, telepathy and teleportation and resurrection—she doesn't even consciously know that she has powers, her love is just so great that it's accepted as a tangible force of nature. She is frustrated and ashamed by her role as a damsel in distress, and she wishes to be stronger and combat-capable so that she join her male friends on their adventures instead of waiting around where it's safe. Also she was kidnapped by an evil assassin clown who's ten years older than her, and then they became friends. NOT ONLY does the fandom plug its ears and claim there is nothing interesting about this character and no potential in her story—Kairi has been demonized by the fandom for about 20 years. Somehow Kairi is useless and boring while also being a Mary Sue at the same time. She was called a bitch and a slut and a whore. She was hated for wearing too much pink and wielding a girly weapon with a floral design. She was criticized as a slut for wearing a short skirt, and for THE PLAYER being able to manipulate the camera into a contrived angle to look up her skirt to see her panties in the first edition of KH2. You can find nearly 20-year-old fanfiction and fanart of her being twisted into an evil schemer driving her friends apart, and of her being gleefully brutalized and insulted. Haters STILL comb for every crumb to make elaborate anti-canon theories about why she's an agent of evil, even though canon has FIRMLY ESTABLISHED for TWENTY YEARS since the very beginning that she's THE ONE CHARACTER incapable of growing Darkness in her heart. The theory is that she exists only as a puppet sent by the main villain to sabotage her friends (the plot for two out of the four main female characters) for all ten years of their friendship. The theory is that she's been using her powers to force her friends to love her—and their Power Of Friendship that is the EMOTIONAL BACKBONE OF THE STORY, and THE MAJOR FORCE OF GOOD IN THEIR UNIVERSE, and THE MOST CONSISTENT MOTIVATION FOR THE HEROES is all Just Misdirection LOL building up to a shitty Plot Twist. The theory is that she's secretly a custom-manufactured Chirithy (a cute talking animal companion that serves and guides humans)—and not a human girl with her own natural feelings and aspirations. AND THEN after stripping her of every important trait and role, these fans claim they're making Kairi more important and interesting than she is in canon. I don't know what causes the fandom to so desperately hate a sweet 14-year-old girl who literally canonically never did anything wrong."

Round 3 Propaganda:

"'m sorry that so many KH fans have missed the theme of "trio" always being the heart of the series for over twenty years since the very beginning. Yes, the girl character is friends with the two boy characters, and they all cherish each other deeply. I know, this is completely outrageous and shocking. People are like: "Sora cares about Kairi, but he never said it was romantic. Kairi is the one forcing her romantic intentions on Sora." Yet Kairi never explicitly said that her feelings for Sora are romantic! So by this logic, Sora and Kairi express the same amount of romantic feelings: none! They could both have friendly feelings for each other, without any romance! But some anti-Kairi people just go out of their way to believe that Sora is a pure angelic being without yucky mushy love-dovey feelings for Kairi, whereas Kairi is the pushy incel harlot forcing her squishy womanly marriage scheme on poor innocent Sora. Even though neither of them shows more or less romantic interest than the other! Don't even get me started on how many Sora/not-Kairi shippers will claim that Sora's canonically reality-warping love for Kairi could be friendly love without romantic love! BUT THEN they'll turn around and claim that Sora doesn't have romantic feelings for Kairi therefore Sora must have stronger and more important love for His One True Romantic Partner. So which is it?? Friendly love is lesser than romantic love? You want to break stereotypes about love, while also following the stereotype that glorifies one true romantic partner above all other love? No force of love exceeds Sora and Kairi's love in the entire series—friends or romance, it's just facts that their connection is equally strong or stronger compared to all bonds between other characters. You can say that Sora and Kairi don't have confirmed romantic feelings—but any claim that someone else is above Kairi in Sora's heart is a lie. (Riku could be on the same tier, but not above.) The girl character is important, and her feelings are powerful and beautiful—DEAL WITH IT, FANDOM!"

[z3rinn]

# #. KINGDOM CALLING !!

Being a Keyblade Wielder you thought you'd have seen everything by now. But you never expected to end up in a world where the villains you defeated were worshipped.

more twst x kh content because i’ve been hyper fixated on it for the past few months T_T speaking of, the reason I've been gone for so long is because I’ve now got a fic in the makings- using this exact concept! it’s posted on my wattpad and quotev, but I’m also debating if I should put it on this site… it’s quite long though! lmk if you guys think I should :]

Twisted Wonderland was weird.

You thought you’d have seen everything by now. Being a Keyblade Wielder, your job was to travel across worlds, defeating the darkness and hate spread by those willing to conquer.

You’d experienced stories and magic you could barely comprehend, standing on the sidelines as you watched fairytales play right before your eyes.

Creatures and supernaturals were considered friends, being far different from the monsters you imagined them to be. Even talking animals were a common thing now, having traveled with Donald Duck and Goofy for a better part of three years now.

You never thought you'd miss them.

Your life back on Destiny Islands was simple. Back there, you had a home; with small rowing boats and hammocks on the tiny island a quick swim away. You had proper food, with star shaped fruits said to bind your soul with your loved ones. Most importantly- you had your best friends; Sora, Riku, and Kairi— all eccentric yet lovable characters that held your heart. You would do anything for them.

The island was a sanctuary, a place for comfort and familiarity. If you had known what you did now, you would've trapped yourself there, basking in the warm sand and cool water brushing across your body. But then, being young and immature, you just wanted to leave.

Three years have passed since then. Years full of mystery and surprise.

You had undergone many things on your journey; battling against Heartless and monsters. Falling down rabbit holes and encountering princesses every which way you turned. Meeting leaders of all kinds of worlds, binding your hearts to create everlasting friendships. You had even sided with villians, willing to set aside your differences to accomplish your goals.

It was odd… working with Maleficent.

At one point you even had your heart stolen. Ripped away from you to create a husk. And that was just the surface.

You thought you had seen everything by now....

But Twisted Wonderland was weird.

Everything happened so suddenly; kicking open an overly fancy coffin ( far different from the ones Jack Skellington used ) only to be met by a creature that looked oddly like Stitch. But before you could ask anything, he gave chase, demanding you give him your robes— how did you even get these on?

Panic stricken, you ran. Running across classrooms, hallways, and courtyards- all while trying to get away from the cat.

Questions and concerns began to gush through your mind. How could you have gotten here? Where was everyone?

And where were you?

The next thing you knew, you were in a regal library, cornered by the monster. Floating books and dancing lanterns surrounded you, all approaching with intrigue. They all seemed to be observing you, like they were anticiping something.

Blue fire brushed across your skin, the flames flickering against your robes. You realized they were waiting for a spell, like they knew you would cast it before the thought could even pop into your mind.

Just as you raised your hand, getting ready to summon your Keyblade, a whip wrapped around the cat.

Both of you jumped, eyes darting to the double doors, finding a crow-looking man standing there. He looked oddly disappointed. Your eyes immediately narrowed, hands tensing.

Just looking at him made you feel on edge.

He was radiating darkness.

His golden eyes seemed to be staring right into your soul, gazing deep and pulling you apart from the seams. They pierced through your own. Entrancing. Like they were studying and discerning your moves. You didn't like them.

They looked like a villians.

You were wary of the man, raising a brow when he introduced himself. Crowley was his name; Descendant of a Hero. An odd name for someone whose heart seemed so full of darkness. He led you to a chamber room, surrounded by floating coffins and magic. Dark energy overfilled the room, whispers and cackles echoing from robed figures as they eyed your form.

You thought back to Organization XIII.

You didn't like robes all that much anymore.

They were traumatizing.

Crowley huffed, pushing you in front of— the magic mirror? Was that the one The Evil Queen used?

The mask in the mirror spoke, blank eyes narrowing at you as if you'd attack it at any second. Of course, it had every right to be afraid. Your friend literally threw a giant key at it once. Hopefully it could get passed that though, and you could ask it how you got here?

It bullshitted something about you not having a soul, ( you had a strange inkling it was being petty but whatever ) but before it could finish, the cat broke free.

He yelled, claiming he was strong enough to be at this school, and that he deserved your spot. You tilted your head at his outburst. Was that all he wanted? You gladly would've given your spot to him. You weren’t meant to be in this world in the first place. Hopefully you’d be out of here soon.

You had Heartless to go fight.

You had to go find Sora.

A quick mishap occurred, with Grim ( you remembered his name ) setting the room on fire. Apparently he was trying to show off his magic; an odd way to do so but you digress. A red haired boy chased after him, along with a boy with glasses.

Their magic was strange, coming out of a jeweled pen of all things.

Wind magic was casted, similar to your own Aero spells. Water attacks were aimed at it, easily dousing the blue flames. It was honestly amazing, watching so much magic come out of a tiny pen.

The redhead stopped in front of the cat, pointing his pen at him with narrowed eyes. Your own widened as he shouted a curse.

Off with your head.

That sounded awfully familiar.

…

Crowley was going to kick you out.

The magic mirror- or rather the dark mirror- explained that you didn't have a home to go to. You guessed it was because Destiny Islands was a whole other world, and simple mirror travel wouldn't be able to reach that far.

No matter, you could simply contact Donald or Riku on your Gummi phone and go home.

But of course, the first time a phone specifically made to communicate between worlds doesn't work is when you need it most.

So you did the only thing you could.

And showed him your Keyblade.

He muttered something to himself, widened eyes never leaving the blade in your hand. His feathers ruffled in surprise and intrigue, the slight curl of them being… strange. 

It was as if they were smiling.

Your eyes flickered to his own- noticing his scary… intense gaze.

You didn’t dare break contact, being far too focused on those piercings eyes. 

Those haunting, golden eyes. 

Eyes that looked just like Xehanorts.

The Headmage led you to a rundown cabin, home to a variety of ghosts and cobwebs. The building reminded you of the ones in Halloween Town; rundown with mischievous creatures inhabiting the spaces. These ghosts just looked like marshmallows.

You let out a low sigh, allowing yourself to fall on the dusted couch in the lounge. Debris flew up under your weight, flying into the air before dissapting. Your gaze was focused on the ceiling above, dazed as rain droplets fell to your cheeks and the wooden floors below.

The building was silent, aside from the rain. Wind blew against cobwebs, flying past your face and sticking to the rotting wood. Splinters and jagged pieces spiked up, parts of the walls ripped apart from age and student endeavors.

It was lonely here.

You didn't have anyone in this world.

Not even Jiminy fucking Cricket.

You hadn’t been alone in a long time.

The door creaked open, "Myah- it's really pouring out there!"

...

Twisted Wonderland.

That's what this place was called.

A world very befitting for its name.

Everything about this world was off— or at least— Night Raven College was.

Students seemed to love and adore the beings you had tried so desperately to keep away. They had dorms dedicated to them, embracing their darkness and allowing themselves to fall under its curse. Darkness that you had to get rid of.

Of course, they didn't actually know about the dangers you faced, finding these villians to be great and kind. They didn't know of the death and tragedy caused- the mistakes you had to fix.

It was strange though. Worlds weren't supposed to know of one another, otherwise chaos could ensue.

So why was Twisted Wonderland a combination of them all?

You suppose that's how this place got its name.

Everything in this world was twisted. Villians were considered heroic; great and all mighty beings that you and Sora definitely didn't beat.

While in the botanical gardens you sometimes laugh, imagining Leona's face if you told him you helped kill Scar. He gives you weird looks, telling you to shut up and go back to sleep. You try. It doesn’t work.

It wasn't until the Riddle incident did you realize why you were sent to this world. Darkness and hatred had been accumulating in the corners of this realm, seeping into the depths of people's hearts.

It was at times like this that made you miss Sora.

You turned over on your bed, eyes focused on the ceiling above. Moonlight seeped in through the wooden cracks, bits of the glowing celestial body peeking in. It was almost speaking to you, luring you towards it with the promise of comfort.

Kingdom Hearts.

Your eyes shut, turning away from the beckoning moon.

Well whatever. You had another long day ahead of you.

…

Thoughts? This was just a quick wip that I made in like an hour lolll. I’m thinking of doing another part tho, where we dive into character interactions and such. Rlly wanna write for Silver and a KH! MC!

[evenmorebeetles]

KH is my newest interest, so I wrote a short thing about Riku being sleepy and sappy over his partners xoxo

Fandom: Kingdom Hearts (no spoilers for any specific game)

Relationship: Sora/Riku/Kairi

Additional Tags: Domestic fluff, Riku POV

Rating: General Audiences

Wordcount: 585

Sora was probably the deepest sleeper Riku had ever met.  Once his head hit the pillow, everything around him ceased to matter, and he was out like a light.  From there, it was near impossible to wake him without liberal use of pots and pans or, on one occasion, a trumpet.  On days where they had somewhere to be, this was exasperating at best and at worst made Riku want to rip his and/or Sora's hair out.

But that morning, there was nowhere for them to be.  Of course, that didn't stop Kairi from abandoning them in favor of finding something to eat, but it left Riku and Sora in bed for the time being.  Riku had been awake for a decent while, not quite one to rise with the sun but leagues ahead of Sora, who was still drooling on Riku's arm.  Riku wouldn't miss the chance to mock him for it later, but in the moment, it just made his heart clench with an impossible fondness.

How could it not, when the sunlight filtering in through the curtains turned Sora's already tanned skin golden?  When his face was slack and peaceful in rest?  When, despite how utterly conked out he was, he still occasionally nuzzled into Riku's embrace?  Riku really never had a chance.

He lifted his arm from around Sora's waist to swipe the pad of his thumb across Sora's cheek, the movement steeped in reverence.  From there, he cupped his palm around the side of Sora's neck, feeling Sora's hair between his fingers and his steady pulse under his skin.  Riku dipped into the pool of his collar bone, caressed the ridge of it, trailed over the freckles on Sora's bare shoulder and arm.  When his hand caught the edge of the blanket, fallen to Sora's elbow, he pulled it up to protect Sora from the slight morning chill.

"You're still in bed?" Kairi asked from the doorway.  She clicked her tongue teasingly as she entered their bedroom and took a seat behind Riku on the bed.  "And you call us lazy."

Riku elbowed her gently, causing her to fold in on herself with giggles.  "Shut up," he muttered and scooted closer to Sora in an attempt to hide his smile.

Kairi took the opportunity to fill in his voided space, stretching herself along the line of his back and surrounding him in blissful warmth and the fruity scent of her soap.  She propped herself up on one arm so that she could lean over Riku's shoulder and rest her cheek on his.  "He's so pretty, isn't he?" she asked dreamily as she reached out with her free hand to brush back a lock of hair that had fallen over Sora's nose.

Maybe a little, if I squint, Riku would have said if Sora could hear him, just to be able to laugh at whatever insult got thrown back at him.  It was just him and Kairi, however, and maybe Riku could be a bit of a sap when he himself was still decently sleepy, so all he said was "Yeah," in the same tone that she'd asked the question in before grabbing Kairi's wrist and drawing it to his chest to hoard more of her touch to himself.  He felt the edge of her smile press into his face, but she made no comment as she indulged him and they both pretended, just for the moment, that she wouldn't snitch the entire gooey-sweet interaction to Sora when he woke up.

[multiversal-pig-outing]

One stormy night at Gotham City, Gotham’s Pizzeria, an 5’6” woman named, Harleen Quinnzel Aka Harley Quinn, Harley sitting on her booth, Harley had changed since been doing crime stuff, let herself go at BatBurgers and MCBats Restaurants and her Ivy invited her to Dinner and Dessert from last 89 weeks ago, Harley had skinny Gymnastic body before but now Harley’s body type had changed, Harley had fairly large doughy sloshing double belly with the standard indent towards the bottom that makes it look like a butt, her bottom belly pass half of her knees and sitting her lap. She weighs 687lbs, Her breasts was medium before but now it’s now DD's like sacks of flour and were struggling to stay. Her VERY thick legs with frolls like one you saw an fattest woman on old tabloid magazines, a pair of ass cheeks bigger than bowling balls and it sags low, very hammy lower arms but upperarms fattening like fatten hams, and a decent shelf of backfat and Her back was QUITE fat, littered with 30 rolls to potentially hide snacks and others in. Harley had heavy double chins with fatter cheeks on her still adorable face, Harley had few rip holes on her butt side, her chest and large one at her stomach where you can see her bellybutton. Harley heard door open and close as Harley looks at someone who’s visiting Gotham (Sora)

*Sora Enter the Restaurant hoping to eat something after traveling. Doesn't help that she rush off to this world before getting breakfast. Of course the first thing she notice is how big is everyone. Of course she wasn't exactly skinny herself thanks to Kairi asking her to taste test her cooking when training with Remy. But some of these ladies were BIG like that clown girl who probably weigh more than double her own weight. Which was only 290lbs. But it was still big enough to cause her once loose fitting clothes to be form tight with her shirt riding up a bit. Her behind now looks like she stuff decently size hams in them with thighs that look oversize chicken legs. Her arms now have enough fat on them to jiggle like Jelllo. Her face that all ready was chubby is now decently fat with cheeks that made her look like a squirrel that bend stuffing them self with nuts. Her breast now is at decent medium size which she like but the biggest thing on her had to be her stomach which jiggles at a slight movement. She went to cashier and order her food, 7 large burgers with fries and a large chocolate milkshake. Has she gotten her food and paid for(thank goodness for the munny exchange) she look for a seat and spot a empty one next to that clown girl. So she went to her to see if she wants a seat mate.* "Excuse me miss is it ok to sit next you being there aren't really any empty seats beside this one."

[mejomonster]

Also I played the ff16 demo and vaguely worded SPOILERS

I liked Joshua a lot. I got hype I could play him. Yoko Taro games make me quite fond of cute boy main characters (Emil, Nier, 9S) and I know like generally in the genre people like Tough Cool Men as leads in games not cute short anime boys.

So I figured playing Joshua was a fun rare thing. I figured I'd play the older brother big tough soldier cause 1. Obviously (he's the main character) 2. He's the obvious game lead choice. 3. Very few games anyway are going to give me a cute short guy protagonist (outside of Link, or a Nier game, or Kingdom Hearts I guess since Sora is technically the tiny cute weaker guy compared to Buff Riku best friend... and kingdom hearts is probably why I expect and desire to play the cute more relatable shorter dude... and cloud another Nomura design definitely contributes to expecting that lol).

I also figured. Cute younger brother? I've played jrpgs before. Giant chance this kid would die or go missing or be kidnapped and become the emotional motivation for Clive. Just like Riku (the bigger older stronger best friend in Kingdom Hearts) is motivated greatly to protect Sora (who's Joshua's equivlaent), and how Kairi (smaller and weaker than Sora) is used as part of Soras motivation. Or in Nier Replicant, how niers smaller younger sister being ill and needing protecting is used as his motivation (And Nier Replicant comments on a lot of typical fantasy gamr tropes). So I figured: aww man. I love Joshua, he's probably getting ripped away from me :c i know how this goes. (I am however VERY happy ff16 gives you time to care about Joshua. Ff15 has lunafreya be the weaker etc motivation for Noctis, and you don't see lunafreya much at start of game... which makes the motivation less meaningful or important to the player. Seeing Joshua and playing him at the start help a lot to make a player CARE the way Clive cares. Same how in Kingdom Hearts, playing the destiny island bits gives you a reason to care about Sora losing his friends as he cares).

I also perhaps dreaded. I've played The World Ends With You. Joshua is um. Quite the character in that game. Without spoiling, its safe to say if I see the name Joshua in a square enix game now I get very suspicious and notice that character will probably be significant.

SPOILERS

Anyway I. I am torn between hoping the rest of ff16 has more Joshua, or it doesn't. Either way, strong initial choice and good set up for me to care about Clive. I selfishly want more Joshua cause I like playing Emil like characters, 9S like characters, and always want more

The whole guy in tan hood who mouths something? I got flashes to ff10 and I'm dreading in a good way lol. I was like?? Time traveling Joshua? Clive seeing himself in 3rd person cause he snapped? Joshua's soul inside Clive so we are STILL somehow playing both of them moving forward (if Clive ever turns into a phoenix I'll lean toward this theory)? A literal weird talking phantom situation a la ff10 which could bode FANTASTIC if the ff16 plot can commit to whatever wild plot it decides on and fully execute it.

[loregoddess]

actually now that uve finshed kh (i think) whos ur fave

All of them?

Okay, it's Aqua, I really love Aqua, her story just gets me and she's so sweet and strong.

But no I really do love most of the characters, and I haven't really had enough time to rank how much I love them all, but I know like, Riku's up there for me too bc Riku, buddy, what an arc. I was also surprised by how much I loved Sora bc it's usually hit or miss for me with protagonists, but Sora's just so...different from the typical protagonist.

I was not immune to Axel/Lea either, he gets the exact character arc that I love basically every time. I love Kairi out of spite for how little writing she gets, but I also love Namine and Xion a lot. Roxas too. And Terra and Ven, even though the more I learn about Ven the more I'm like buddy what the fresh heck is going on in your life.

I know you haven't seen a lot of the Union Cross stuff, but if you do I'm very partial to all the Union leaders (but esp. Ava, Invi, Gula from the first gen, and literally all the second gen of Ephemer, Skuld, Brain (though rip for that name), L...Lauriam or however the fuck his name is spelled, and I did like Strelitzia despite getting the Kairi treatment of 20 lines of dialogue and then getting murdered, rip girl you could have had everything).

Hell, I don't even particularly hate any of the antagonists, bc even though I'd drop several of them off a cliff I think their writing is really interesting. I joke about wanting to fight every old man who isn't Merlin, and I stand by that a bit, but I'm also really enjoying Young Eraqus in Dark Road so far, even though I still think he makes some Life Decisions at dad-age.

So yeah, I love....lots and lots and lots of characters. I dunno if it's just that I enjoyed the writing that much or if I just see a character and I'm like holy shit I love you, but KH has so many good characters.

But if I'm only allowed to choose one then Aqua bc Aqua, my girl, love of my life and light of my heart, she's wonderful.

[lunarsilkscreen]

Kairi's Absence (KH)

Despite being one of three protagonists, Kairi is often completely overlooked in the series. Sora and Riku leave her behind when they leave island, and don't see her again until near the end of KH1, Where she and Sora turn into heartless.

In two, she's forgotten more or less anything about her friends because a piece of her heart was stored inside Sora during the transformation.

She was able to turn him back from being a heartless by repairing his heart with her own. And forgot him because [the organization] ripped him apart in order to salvage Ventus.

This created the Nobody; Roxas. Who maintained Ventus' consciousness, while a 14th member was created from the remainder of Sora.

This created the Nobody/Heartless hybrid known as Xion. Xion, likely an anagrammed "Oni" (possibly Nio,) was created from the that "Repair" of Sora's heart, along with the piece of Kairi that remembered him.

Wait, who is Roxas/Ventus?

Ventus was an old Keyblade student who was split into two by Araquas and Xehanort.

Most of the blame goes on Xehanort, but it's not like Araquas did anything to help his pupil remain in one piece.

This created the Heartless knowns as Venitas.

Venitas occupied the darkness of Ventus' heart, while Ventus was his light.

At the beginning, of Kingdom Hearts, the Sora we see in the prologue is Ventus. The one who fell into the ocean, merged his light-heart with Sora.

While not explicitly stated, it seems possible that Venitas merged with Riku. As Riku/Ansem uses similar movesets and is garbed similarly.

So when Sora became a heartless in KH1--despite the repair done by Kairi; Xehanort/Ansem was able to disassemble him trying to recover the brainwashed Ventus who took residence in Sora's heart.

Now, Venitas had long since been defeated by Sora in KH1, but ended up joining forces with Xehanort again. (Theory; that was Riku/Ansem/Venitas)

And yet, the only thing we hear from Kairi is how she feels uneasy, like something is missing from her life but she can't put her finger on what...

After Sora pieces himself back together with the help of Roxas/Ventus and Axel. We find ourselves in Kingdom Hearts 2. Where Sora again ends up facing off against Ansem/Xemnas/Xehanort.

Xehanort is kind of an asshole and takes apart his former students in order to control them. Ansem is a former pupil as well, a researcher known as Diz. And Xehanort created Xehanort/Ansem and Xemnas by taking him over.

So after defeating Xehanort three times by the end of Kingdom Hearts 2, Sora has seen the contents Kingdom Hearts firsthand, like no other keyblade wielder in history.

But he still houses a part of Ventus in his own heart, and doesn't quite yet stand alone.

And so we get to Kingdom Hearts 3. Kairi is *finally* a Keyblade wielder and finally a part of the actual overarching story, but still kind of a foot note.

I get that she's supposed to represent Sora and Riku's innocence. But Jesus Christ. She's barely a character in this franchise.

Now, technically these 3 are the pseudo-successors of the original three students of Xehanort and Araquas: Terra, Aqua, and Ventus.

(earth, water, air, who fire? I DUNNO)

And Kairi's absence is explained *because* Aqua had gone missing in the world of darkness. Since Aqua was missing, so too was Kairi. Because Kairi didn't have anyone to guide her like Sora and Riku did.

You know, despite them being guided in non-standard ways in the first place.

As much as I love Kingdom Hearts, it's story is a big-time mess. Lol.

[demigodforfend]

Twilight of the Demigods: Forfend Edition - Session 22

A second massive arrow whirled down the hallway and slammed into Kairi's leg.

Kairi fell with a yelp, clutching her thigh.

She gripped the arrow and ripped it free.

Blood spilled, but she staggered upright anyway and cut into the large alcove to their left. That was smart. She couldn't be seen or shot again.

Kagoshi followed after her, but he was lacking his usual speed. He was still drained from their last fight with the bowman.

Melzaryn ducked into the alcove to the right.

Forfend followed Kairi and Kagoshi into the right-hand alcove. It pulled a potion off its belt and dumped the contents directly into its chest wound.

Steam rushed through Forfend's chest in a rapid, startled gasp as the cold liquid contacted its core.

Golden steam rose from the spilling ichor.

Stone cracked and groaned as it reformed from the center outward. Forfend's body didn't regenerate fully. The chunk of missing marble in its chest was still very deep, but at least its core was covered again.

Another arrow whizzed through the darkness and crashed into the wall just to Kagoshi's right.

"You fucking missed, stupid!" Kagoshi shouted.

"That was a warning shot," the bowman replied evenly. "The next one goes between your eyes."

"I doubt it," Kagoshi scoffed.

Forfend didn't think now was the time for talking tough. They were at a severe disadvantage and in a great deal of danger.

That said, it also thought the bowman was lying. He didn't seem the type to do warning shots. He shot to kill every single time. He'd just missed due to distance and moving targets, whether he was willing to admit that or not.

Forfend hoped he'd miss a few more shots. Or all of them. All of them would be nice.

The group pressed themselves to the wall. There was another smaller alcove about sixty feet up. If they could get there, they'd be safe again for a moment. After that though, the stretch to reach the bowman was so lengthy Forfend couldn't see the end of it through the inky black shadows.

From what little it remembered about Mortal Bulwarks, it didn't think the hallway would have another alcove until they'd nearly reached the end. They were in for a long and dangerous dash.

"Don't you lose your temper with me," Kagoshi growled at himself.

Forfend glanced him over. He still seemed to be in control of himself.

He dashed out into the open before it could ask what was happening to him.

Kairi whipped around the corner and quickly surpassed Kagoshi.

An arrow crashed into the ground just a little way past the second alcoves.

Forfend hummed nervously. If the bowman wasn't aiming for them, what was he doing?

"Missed again!" Kagoshi heckled.

Melzaryn dashed out into the open and slid into the second right-hand alcove before the bowman got a chance to take aim.

Not to be left behind, Forfend made its way into the exposed hallway. It passed Kagoshi and ducked into the second alcove with Kairi.

Kagoshi growled as it moved past him. He was already flagging. He shouldn't be fighting. He was still well past exhausted.

Forfend touched the medallion on its chest. "Protect him," it requested.

Magic burst into being around Kagoshi and swarmed into a glowing symbol of Fornax over his chest.

An oversize arrow surged out of the darkness and slammed into the symbol on Kagoshi's chest.

The Shield of Faith held, but the raw force pushed Kagoshi back and knocked him to the floor.

The arrow clattered off across the stone floor.

"Fuck you," Kagoshi growled anyway.

"Are you okay?" Kairi called.

"Yeah, it's barely a scratch."

Kairi nodded and sprinted forward. She pressed her back to the far wall of the alcove and surreptitiously peeked from around it.

The javelin-sized arrow the bowman had placed above this alcove suddenly hummed. It burst from the ground, whipped itself in Kairi's direction, and fired.

Kairi pinned herself to the wall causing the arrow to narrowly miss her. It careened into the stone and disappeared in a breath of green magic.

"With the size of these things, I have to wonder what you're compensating for," Kairi yelled up the endless hallway.

Melzaryn darted from his own alcove into the expanse of unprotected space. Silvery blue magic rippled from his staff down around his feet, but didn't seem to have any effect on his speed or provide him any protection. The arcana just looked pent up, hanging on the verge of use.

Kagoshi hauled himself off the floor and ran full tilt forward. He chugged along much slower than normal, but he was bound and determined to keep moving.

He didn't duck into the alcove as Forfend and Kairi had done. He just kept running out in the exposed open.

Between the mystery of whatever Melzaryn was doing and Kagoshi's haggard form, the bowman's next target was a clear choice.

Forfend slid out in front of Kagoshi and planted its shield into the stone floor.

"Godsdammit!" Kagoshi screamed, plowing straight into Forfend's back. "Why?!"

"To protect you from your own mouth and the rest of your bad decisions," it answered.

"I'm going to shit talk this man forever!" Kagoshi argued.

"Then do it from behind a shield!" Forfend insisted.

"That's just as cowardly as his bitch ass!" he snapped, gesturing into the darkness of the path ahead.

"I do not think it is!"

A heavy thwip reverberated through the hall.

A massive arrow burst out of the shadows, gleaming murderously as it arced toward Melzaryn.

The magic around Melzaryn flared. He disappeared into a storm of silver wind just before the arrow hit and reappeared thirty feet up from where he'd started.

"Shit!" came the bowman's frustrated echo.

"Yeah, you missed because you're a bitch!" Kagoshi hollered.

"I've seen drunks with better accuracy than that, shithead!" Kairi followed suit.

"Fuck you!" the bowman roared.

Kairi snickered.

"Learn to hit the broad side of a barn!" Kagoshi yelled.

Kairi followed Melzaryn's lead and rushed into the open.

Kagoshi weaved out from behind Forfend to follow.

Melzaryn sparked his staff with a new round of magic and kept surging forward.

Forfend ripped its shield from the ground and trailed behind them. The other two would outpace it quickly, but Kagoshi was slow enough right now for it to keep up.

Four arrows whizzed from the darkness and scattered themselves across the middle of the hallway a hundred feet or more ahead of the group. Each one glowed an ominous incendiary orange.

Still, there was little choice but to keep moving forward anyway.

"I'm coming to beat your whole ass, motherfucker!" Kagoshi threatened. "And there's nothing you can do about it when I get close either because you're a ranged bitch!"

Melzaryn approached the field of glowing arrows. He tossed his hand out.

A tiny spectral snake of polished silver appeared curled up on the ground on the opposite side of the strange arrows. Its eyes lit up blue.

Melzaryn disappeared with a swirling pop and reappeared so far up the hallway Forfend lost track of him.

The little silver snake promptly followed suit.

The bowman roared, "Godsdammit!"

A hail of orange glowing arrows arced from the darkness and struck the ground ahead of them, seemingly at random.

"You got no bitches!" Kagoshi called out.

"No bitches, no boytoys, not even any friends!" Kairi joined in.

Forfend didn't waste time being confused by their statements. It just kept running.

Even more massive arrows littered the ground, all of them glimmering orange.

Melzaryn had made it past the growing field of arrows, but Forfend, Kairi, and Kagoshi were now in the thick of it.

"I think your aim is getting worse!" Kagoshi heckled, despite being nearly breathless with exertion. "Think you can hit anything before our scrawny little snake man kicks your whole ass?!"

"This is why your mother never loved you!" Kairi shouted.

"Where did he go?" the bowman's voice echoed much more quietly.

Melzaryn gave a sinister chuckle.

"I'll deal with the others first," the bowman said even more quietly, almost sounding unnerved.

A new arc of glowing arrows unveiled from the darkness in a perfect row and blocked the path ahead almost entirely.

Still, they had to keep moving forward. There was nowhere else to go.

They'd soon have no choice but to find out what the arrows would do if they got too close or bumped one.

"Shit!" the bowman suddenly yelled, followed by a bright flash at the end of the hall and an explosion that shook the entire structure.

Dust rained from the ceiling.

Melzaryn giggled, the sound reverberating hauntingly off the walls.

"Fuck him up!" Kairi screamed.

"Get him, kill him!" Kagoshi encouraged.

Forfend was certain Melzaryn could hold his own for a while, but it didn't want to leave him without allies for long. The bowman was not a common archer.

It noticed the far edge of the row of glowing arrows didn't quite meet the wall. There was enough space to skirt through without touching them.

Forfend pivoted to take that route.

"You scared to fire another shot?!" Kagoshi called as he continued straight toward the line of oversize arrows.

A new glowing arrow spun out of the darkness and struck one of the scattered arrows beyond the line.

Orange light flared and ricocheted to the next arrow at lightning speed, and the next after that, and the next, and all the way along the line of them, and then past it into the field of arrows on Forfend's side.

Light zipped until it had touched every single one.

All of the arrows lifted themselves from the ground, selected a target, and launched themselves.

Forfend pulled up its shield, but projectiles struck it from every direction.

Golden ichor trickled from beneath the embedded arrows.

Kagoshi roared.

Forfend lowered its shield to catch a glimpse of him and Kairi.

Kairi had a few arrows that had knicked or pierced her flesh.

Kagoshi, on the other hand, was a pincushion.

The majority of the arrows had aimed at him. Blood poured from head to toe, coating him in grisly red.

He shouldn't be standing. He shouldn't even be alive.

Kagoshi's hair burst into flames and so did every single arrow.

His muscles bulged until they threatened to burst through his suddenly ashen skin. The arrows were forced out of his flesh by the unbelievable growth.

Not-Kagoshi roared a second time, this one causing the very earth to tremble, and sprinted forward with murderous intent.

His heels scorched red, propelling him forward in a ball of crimson fire.

At the end of the hall, a small silvery flash shot cracks through the ceiling and briefly revealed the bowman beneath.

Thunderous rumbling sounded as the ceiling collapsed on top of him.

"Fuck!" the bowman yelled, diving off his pedestal.

Melzaryn's strange new snake assistant launched two consecutive balls of fire at the fallen man.

The bowman hollered out.

Forfend took in the absolute chaos happening around it and did the only thing it could do. It kept moving forward.

It was finally close enough to see the fight, though not quite close enough to get involved.

"There you are," the bowman's now haggard voice called. He drew back his bow and unleashed an arrow at Melzaryn.

Melzaryn ducked out of the way.

The bowman growled, "Fine!"

He tossed his bow onto his back and pulled two shortswords from scabbards somewhere beneath his voluminous brown robes.

He stalked toward Melzaryn and slashed wildly.

The blades tinged off Melzaryn's faint magical Shield.

Kairi's glimmering wings carried her into the air. Her eyes trailed pink as she soared onward despite her bleeding wounds.

Not-Kagoshi's bulky, thundering form dashed right into an obvious trap laid out just before the Bulwark's final opening.

Massive arrows had been lined up in a perfect pattern probably hours before they'd arrived.

Every single one lifted from the ground and spiraled toward Not-Kagoshi.

Not-Kagoshi tensed his body, lightning arcing across his taut muscles.

The static barrier somehow seemed to repel the arrows. They hovered, struggling in the air just shy of touching Not-Kagoshi's flesh. When they'd finally lost all their spinning momentum, they clattered to the floor.

Not-Kagoshi just kept running.

"Oh, shit," the bowman swore, backing away from Not-Kagoshi's rapid approach.

"Oh, hey, are you here to help me bury this guy and whatever that is?" Melzaryn casually asked, pointing at something Forfend couldn't see.

The bowman grabbed for his cloak.

Melzaryn gripped his arm, lightning coursing from his hand into the bowman's body.

Melzaryn's strange little snake launched two more fireballs.

The bowman jerked his twitching, electrified arm away from Melzaryn and tried to dodge away. He wasn't quite fast enough.

Fire whooshed as it struck him.

He cried out.

Not-Kagoshi barreled into the bowman and lifted him up by wrapping one massive hand around his head. He roared in the struggling man's face and launched him into the nearest pillar.

Blood dripped from beneath the billowing robes as he fell. The bowman's chest lit up so brightly orange it glowed beneath the fabric.

Forfend turned away before he could explode.

The blast didn't come.

The bowman's single visible eye was contorted in pain and concentration, apparently willing the runic light to dim until it finally petered out.

He forced himself upright and ran on faltering legs. He snagged his cloak again and started to call upon its magics.

A new figure swept from behind a pillar at the back of the room and gouged a scimitar straight through the bowman's chest.

Blood poured from the bowman's wound, staining his cloak deep red. He choked and groaned before collapsing to the ground.

Forfend's body went rigid. What had happened? Who was this new assailant? Could it get to the bowman in time to revive him?

Not-Kagoshi's cackling laughter reverberated through the Mortal Bulwark.

"You?!" he yelled.

"Yes, me," the murderer answered, stepping over the corpse. "Hello again."

He strode into the central circle of pillars and inspected a rune carved into the floor.

"After the last we met, some things have changed."

Forfend finally got a good look at the intruding stranger.

He bore dark, burnt robes and malovent eyes. He looked remarkably similar to the cultist beneath Brightcrossing.

No, Forfend realized, he was the cultist from beneath Brightcrossing.

His face was burnt nearly beyond recognition, but his rusty weapon and the murderous twist of his mouth were unmistakable.

The cultist flipped his bloody scimitar in his hand. "Do you know what you stand upon?"

He didn't wait for an answer before driving his blade into the ground.

The stone began to glow an ominous red.

Not-Kagoshi stalked slowly into the middle of the room as though he was guarding the glowing rune. He turned to watch Melzaryn.

Melzaryn warily eyed Not-Kagoshi, but the hulking monster didn't move.

Slowly, Melzaryn brought his staff up and pointed it toward something off in the far corner.

The distinct vwoop of Melzaryn's Vortex Warp sounded.

Duncan, tied and gagged and panicked, popped into existence right in front of Forfend.

"Duncan!" Forfend exclaimed, immediately kneeling to tend to him.

It untied him, pulled the gag from his mouth, and checked him over for injuries or newly bestowed spells.

Everything looked to be in order.

"W-what's going on?!" Duncan sputtered.

"I have you. You will be alright," Forfend promised. "What happened?"

"I was kidnapped! I don't know! I don't know what's happening! I just want to go home!" Duncan clung to Forfend.

"We will get you home. I promise." Forfend placed a gentle hand on Duncan's head. "Stay. Right. Here."

Duncan nodded. "I can do that."

Forfend nodded once and stood, carefully approaching the tense situation ahead.

"So, what's the deal here?" Melzaryn asked. "Who are you attacking? Him? Me?"

Not-Kagoshi didn't respond. He locked gazes with Forfend the second it got close.

"What is happening here?" Forfend haltingly questioned.

Something wasn't right.

Not-Kagoshi was wildly violent. He was cocky and loud. If he wasn't swinging fists, he was gloating or laughing or roaring.

But right now, he was dead silent. He stood like a sentinel.

"Give it a bit," the cultist droned. "It'll be quite the spectacle."

Forfend hummed uncomfortably. "I feel we have had enough spectacles for today."

"Oh, but trust me, this one will be quite fantastic."

Forfend's core spun in dizzying, anxious circles.

The cultist paced around the glowing rune, dragging his scimitar through the stone floor as easily as if it were sand.

Red smoke billowed out of the destroyed statue to the left.

"This, after all, is a Mortal Bulwark," he explained as he continued to trace out the engraved rune. "A gateway between realms, and yet, a barrier."

Red smoke burst from the statue to the right.

"It's meant to protect this realm, but what is it protecting us from?"

Kairi fluttered in and hovered close by, as uncertain as anyone else what to do.

Not-Kagoshi folded his arms and waited.

Melzaryn scooped stones up from the floor and imbued them with magic until they glowed a faint silvery blue.

Forfend stepped up in front of Not-Kagoshi.

It wasn't planning on dealing with him though.

It raised its hand and felt the angry, twisting magic surging from the rune.

Forfend closed its fist.

The magic stuttered.

The cultist snarled. A new blast of magic revitalized the spell as Forfend tried desperately to Dispel it.

They struggled against each other, the arcana stuttering as it was caught between.

The cultist's eyes flashed red.

Forfend's hand was forced open and pushed backwards. It lost its grip on the magic.

The spell continued.

Not-Kagoshi glared down at Forfend and uncrossed his arms. He cracked his knuckles.

"What do you think this Bulwark in particular was defending against?" the cultist asked as he continued tracing out the rune, his sickle gliding impossibly smoothly through stone. "There are many like it all across Rozdarta. All of them blessed by the gods."

He finished his rounds and pulled his sickle from the ground, swirling it in his hands. "After I entered into the Abyss, I saw things."

Red smoke hissed from the statue behind Forfend. The crimson mist was beginning to spread its seeking tendrils out across the ground.

"I saw the truth of the matter," the cultist continued. "Honestly, I'm surprised you don't recognize this place, Forfend, the first demigod of Fornax."

Forfend straightened as much as it was able.

It knew what this place was, but how much more was it supposed to recognize? Had it been here? It didn't know. It couldn't remember.

More blood-colored smoke began to spill from the destroyed statue the bowman had been using as a perch.

"This was made to imprison a particularly potent demon. One I'm surprised you don't recognize, nor sense." The cultist watched Forfend's blank face. "Tell me, Forfend, does this all look familiar?"

Forfend couldn't say that it did. It wasn't sure what the cultist could know that it didn't though. It simply didn't respond.

Kairi flew up into the air and pulled back her bow, unleashing a glittering Guiding Bolt.

The cultist roared as the radiant light struck him, but he still held tight to his ongoing spell.

"You," he spat. "I recognize you. You may try all you wish, Kairi Camilla, but you cannot stop what is coming. Let me ask you: are we all even supposed to be here?"

"You're just a bitch ass whore taking orders from a crazy bastard," Kairi swore. "Fuck off!"

"Vulgar words for a vulgar woman," the cultist sneered.

His eyes suddenly widened. He jerked his head to Kagoshi.

Kagoshi's form shuddered. The flames on his head crystallized and cracked as green strips of grass-like hair replaced them. Tangled branches replaced the crumbling flames wreathing Kagoshi's collar. His skin tone morphed from ashy black to clay brown. His eyes stopped glowing burgandy and dulled to a gentle green.

A familiar snarl replaced his previous impassive hostility. He turned to face the cultist.

"Excellent timing," Forfend praised him. "We are in a great deal of trouble."

The cultist growled. "Persistent and unwilling to see the truth, I see."

"I was always told I'm a stubborn bastard." Kagoshi flexed his hands.

"It is no matter. The question remains: are we all even supposed to be here? Are any of us supposed to be here?"

Forfend had no clue what the man could mean by that. Here as is this Mortal Bulwark? Here as in this plane of existence? Here as in alive?

"Who cares? I'm gonna rip your spine out," Kagoshi astutely answered.

The cultist growled. He tossed his hood back. His robes caught alight and dark magic coursed through his scimitar.

Forfend nudged its way past Kagoshi to get a better vantage point and touched the medallion on its chest.

The scimitar in the cultist's hand began to heat up until the metal was molten red.

The cultist hissed through his teeth at his blistering hands, but he refused to let go.

He brought the scimitar up and slammed it down into the earth.

A deep reverberating tone like the gong of a great bell cascaded through the Bulwark.

Forfend could feel magic, a sickening combination of malignant and misused divine, sweeping over it in waves.

Every wisp of red smoke rushed inward to the center of the circle.

Forfend nearly stumbled at the force of the wind.

The blood-colored smoke rushed headlong into the crack in the center of the runic circle until it was gone.

As the last tendril disappeared, a memory sharp as a knife embedded into Forfend's mind. Its vision flickered red.

It found itself back in the distant past, its body again metal and strong.

It stood on the edge of the village, splitting its attention between its mortal family hard at work and the distant battle clashing across the stormy red sky like lightning where Fornax undoubtedly fought for his life.

Red and black smoke obscured the Sunderer's form, but the horrid monster wasn't dark enough to hide the brilliant holy light of Cassis's spear or the pale moonlight of Decessus's crescent blade.

Light flashed with every desperate strike. It remembered hoping this would be the final battle, but it couldn't have been. Forfend hadn't survived to see the Sunderer's defeat.

Forfend lost track of time as it stood guard. It didn't know how long it watched the battle with rapt attention.

"Oh, aren't you curious? You're new," a voice startled Forfend from its concentration.

It turned to look down at the speaker.

What it found startled it a second time.

The young human standing before it was so severely emaciated Forfend couldn't understand how he was still standing.

Every single rib shown clearly through his skin. His hips jutted out from an impossibly narrow midsection. His limbs were barely more than skin stretched taut over bone. His face was so sunken the outline of his teeth pressed visibly against his cheeks.

All he wore was a loincloth that dangled from his hips.

He was by far the single most unwell mortal Forfend had ever seen.

It knelt but its words momentarily escaped it in its shock.

The man stepped forward, touching its smooth metal chest. "You're warm. And alive," he marveled.

Forfend found its voice and opened its arms. "You are starving. We have food in the village here. Food and shelter and healers. We will help you."

"You're too kind, Forfend," the stranger grinned. "Too, too kind."

Forfend cocked its head. It didn't know this stranger. How did he know its name?

"Honestly, I had a thought," the man said. "The only thing that satiated me was the flesh of a god. I wonder if yours would be similar."

Forfend hummed its concern, but it didn't want to leave this man. Delusions were common with illness and starvation. He needed help.

Pain suddenly wrenched through Forfend's chest.

It looked down to see the stranger's hand deep in its chest. It hadn't even seen him move.

His fingers tipped at Forfend's core, sending jolts of twisting lightning through its body.

He hadn't plunged quite deep enough or quite centered enough to wrap his hand around the core. Frustrated, he clenched his fist and ripped all the molten stone and metal free.

His jaw split open like a snake's. A rattling inhale pulled the debris of Forfend's body to his mouth, compacting it down with violent metallic grinding until it easily fit within his jaw. He crunched once and swallowed.

Forfend wavered and nearly toppled over. Its other knee hit the dirt and it caught itself on one hand. Golden ichor poured thickly from the gaping wound cut out of the side of its chest.

Fear seized it as the senseless reality of what had just happened tried and failed to sink in.

"Wow, that does taste good," the stranger mused.

He knelt down and cupped Forfend's runic face. "Oh, I know this will hurt," he pouted, false sympathy dripping from his voice.

Forfend wanted to stand, wanted to fight or run or anything.

It couldn't move.

"You're an odd one. Unique, bearing a soul," the stranger considered. "But you are still a Fornaxian and I hear they have fantastic crispy skin."

He dug his thin, bony figures into Forfend's face.

Metal screeched.

Blinding pain wracked through Forfend.

This man, this monster, peeled away its metal covering in one long strip. He devoured as he rended, his impossible jaw puncturing iron with ease.

Forfend felt as though it had been thrown in acid. Its entire body burned and screamed in abject agony.

It could see nothing but burning darkness.

"Delicious," the monster praised, announcing he'd finished. He smacked his lips together.

Forfend's vision came spinning back to it.

Its trembling hands were nothing but molten rock and dripping ichor. Its chest, its legs, its entire body were all just the same. Molten rock and dripping ichor. All its metal was gone.

Ichor pooled beneath its feet faster than it could evaporate away. Its magma musculature drooped, struggling to hold its form. The magic in its core surged in a desperate effort to keep it together.

Forfend stood so much as it was able and staggered backwards. It needed to get away from the village. If this monster could shred it with such ease, he could devour the town in minutes.

Acras.

The monster's name struck Forfend. It couldn't tell if it had known that then, or if it only knew in hindsight.

This was Accipo's brother. This was the god of hunger and rot and decay.

This was something far more powerful than Forfend could hope to handle. The best it could do was try to make certain the village survived.

It backed away, trying to bait Acras towards it.

"Oh, are you running?" Acras tutted and shook his head. He didn't move from where he crouched. "I don't want you to die tired. Look at you, you're bleeding everywhere."

Drool cascaded from his teeth and muddled with the pool of ichor at his feet. He swiped a hand through the golden substance and tasted it.

"Well, fine," Acras decided. If you want to leave, go ahead."

He pointed at his emaciated ribs.

The flesh knotted up and the ribs twisted out of the skin. They took the shape of a snarling hound. It gnashed its teeth.

"If I can't eat you now, I'll settle for them," Acras threatened. "Go!"

The beast developed clawing paws and hauled itself free of Acras's body with the sounds of splitting flesh and cracking bone.

"Satiate my hunger, however temporarily!" he ordered the demon.

The hound grew, its emaciated body bulging and popping until it was nearly twice Forfend's height.

Shaggy white fur sparsely coated its taut flesh. Spines jutted like rocks from its back. Its tail curved up high, the fur giving way to dry skin covered in sores that culminated jarringly into a scorpion's stinger.

Its eyes glowed murderous red.

Sickly yellow-green light emanated from its salivating jowls and through the thin, sunken skin clinging between its stark ribs.

"Come, Forfend, you know you can't run forever," Acras taunted. "You're bleeding."

Forfend lifted a shaky molten arm and channeled its magic.

Its core protested. Nearly every ounce of power it could access was already in use just to keep its body from turning to little more than slag.

Forfend drew on the magic anyway.

Its head dizzied as the world seemed to tilt.

A Wall of Fire burst from its palm and arced out to cut the hound off from the village.

Acras's jaw split. The flames twisted in the air and surged toward him instead. He devoured them effortlessly.

"Delicious!" Acras exclaimed. "Do more, please."

The massive beast bounded toward its family.

Forfend touched its melting hand to its melting chest just beside the gaping hole exposing its core.

Was there anything it could do?

It tugged at the magic dwelling within it.

Pain answered.

The battle at Forfend's back faltered.

A great flash split the horizon.

A silver gleam soared across the sky and crashed into the ground with earthquaking force.

Forfend nearly lost its footing as a shockwave blasted from the crater now at its side.

Acras perked up.

Fornax lifted himself from the earth. A massive dent caved in his chest piece. He looked much worse for wear.

"Now why'd you have to go and ruin the fun?" Acras growled.

Acras's mouth ripped open. He bit into his own flesh, his jaw inverting until it had consumed every piece of his human form.

Nothing but the gaping maw remained. Its fanged teeth crashed together.

A skeletal body sprouted forth, taking towering shape. Acras, now in his massive godly form, hissed.

He was more jaw than anything. His starving body looked and smelled like a rotting corpse. Mold and sores marred every peeling inch of flayed skin hanging off his bones.

"I wasn't done with my appetizer," Acras complained, his voice taking on a new sharp, wheezing undertone.

Fornax turned. He took in Acras's visage and the horrid hound demon dashing for the town. His eyes caught on Forfend.

He froze.

"No, Forfend!" His attention snapped to Acras, rage shaking his body. "What did you do?!"

Fornax slammed his hammer into the ground. Adamantine spikes rivaling the size of mountains lashed out of the earth and impaled Acras, lifting him high into the air.

Fornax roared.

He raised his hand. An adamantine spear formed in the air and dropped into Fornax's hand. He launched it.

The spear slashed through Acras's gaping maw.

Acras grunted. "Good!" he yelled despite his wounded mouth.

He chomped down on the spear and swallowed it.

"Forfend, go! I'll deal with this!" Fornax ordered.

Forfend ran without a second though. It had to catch the hound.

Puddles of lava were left in its wake from each strike of its exposed molten feet.

Its core spun, sparking painfully in its chest.

It wasn't sure if it could call on enough magic to cast a single spell, but it would have to try. It had to help the village.

The memory suddenly stuttered.

Forfend dropped so gracelessly back into its body that it staggered.

"One of many things that should be considered is why the gods perform such actions," the cultist was saying.

The crack in the earth where the smoke had disappeared split, creating an expanding rift.

"An example would be why they would betray creation. After all, the gods are embodiments of all things in reality. Which means that the truth of the matter is that we were never supposed to exist," the cultist asserted.

The rift grew to a fissure.

Two massive white paws snagged the crumbling edges and dragged up the emaciated form of the very same hound demon Forfend had just seen in its addled memory.

It took a short step back as it looked up at the snarling beast.

Its core dropped low in its center.

Fear took hold.

[goldensunset]

simple and clean feels like a very sokai song especially from kairi’s perspective

[star-sworn]

1) Which kh trio do you think works out the most? I mean it’s gotta be the wayfinder trio right?

2) which trio is your favorite?

1. What an intriguing question anon…I agree, it’s gotta be Wayfinder as a group, simply because they’re the only ones that actually attend a school with consistent training. You could argue that killing Heartless literally seven days a week in violation of child labor laws as Roxas, Axel, and Xion did during their time in Organzation 13 kind of counts as a workout routine too? But yeah I would go Wayfinder WITH THE ONE CAVEAT that damn, have you seen Riku’s biceps? That boy works out enough for the entire trio. While Sora was taking a ride on the Mountain Coaster, Riku has been all aboard the Gain Train, if you know what I mean. Though as I think about it, I was a state level swimmer growing up, and so I can personally say that Sora’s abs have to be insanely strong to swim like a merman for hours on end, so… maybe this isn’t as clear cut as I once thought, anon. But Terra for sure is a gym bro. He needs those big strong arms to hug his friends real tight. Also look at his Break Time. Literally just flexing on all of us.

2. This one is tough, and if this turns into an actual novel, I cannot be blamed. So my answer is super basic, but it has to be the destiny trio. I absolutely adore Sora: he’s my darling boy, I miss him every day, and he alone would make this trio my favorite. He’s so positive, so kind, so protective of those he cares about, and I think what I love most is that, through and through, he really is just an ordinary kid, with ordinary dreams. I really feel that, while Sora likes going to all these worlds, likes meeting new friends and helping them with their problems, and he understands his role in saving the world and accepts that responsibility, he doesn’t care about being some big hero. He just wants to find his best friend, and go home to the girl he loves, his other best friend. His desires are so small, so simple, so human, I just can’t describe how much I love him for that. Second, because I am a ride or die Sokai shipper, and I could go on about them for literally 358/2 days, but I’ll try to keep it brief. Just look at the cave drawing they made when they were like four years old: even if it wasn’t romantically back then, they’ve literally loved each other almost their entire lives. Sora considers Kairi his home. He’s sacrificed himself twice for her. He spends kh1 and 2 yearning for her, dreaming about her. How he finally puts her first at the end of 3, and says "she's out there, alone... not for one more second." Going against Riku, against Mickey, and saying: i've done everything anyone has ever asked me to do. I've saved the world, I've saved all these people. Now I want to do what I want to do. I want to be with her. I can't stand that she keeps getting ripped away from me. She needs me, and I can't be without her for one more second. Swoon. Also, did you see remind? the gratuitous hand holding? the three dates they went on? One Heart? Just end me now. And the way he reaches across the divide of reality itself to save her in Melody of Memory? That their vow gave him the power to keep her safe like that? I don't care that shit's romantic as hell.

And this isn’t just because of Sora. Little kh1 Kairi, with no weapon, no magic, she’s surrounded by Shadow Heartless, so what does she do? She throws her arms around Sora. Literally shielding his little Shadow form with her own body. What about when Sora is tackled by a mob of Heartless toward the end of kh2? She jumps off a freaking balcony–once again, without a weapon of any kind. In kh2, when she reunites with riku, she's so happy. and when he tries to leave before Sora can recognize him, she pleads "Riku! Don't go!" and grabs onto his sleeve. She would do anything to stay with her boys, both of them. People always talk about how protective sora is of kairi (and I live for it), but Kairi is exactly the same when it comes to Sora. They both make that vow. And then how she holds on to him in kh3, keeping him on the edge of life itself? How he tells her, “I feel strong with you, Kairi!” with this big grin, and she blushes? I will never be over that. They’re both so devoted to one another, it’s just that Sora’s devotion is more prominent. Kairi is also brave and loyal, and she does her best for her friends no matter what, too. She literally gave up a year of her life sleeping to try and find Sora.

And going back to kh2, I also adore Riku. His whole arc, from childhood (and love) rival in kh1, the fall from grace, to his redemption in kh2? Absolutely beautiful. What struck me during my first playthrough of kh2 was Riku in the background. He wants so badly to atone for what he's done, yet he’s so ashamed he doesn’t want anyone to see his face, to know it’s him. It’s such a complete 180, to become so humble after being such a jerk. He creates that portal so Kairi can escape Axel. He teams up with Namine and does just enough to save Kairi, then tries to run away before she can find out it’s him. In his mind, he just wants to get her to Sora. That’s such a shift from “I have to be the one to save her” in kh1. And when Kairi jumps off the balcony, he saves her from the Shadows, then puts a keyblade in her hand(!!!) and literally fights with her, back to back. And do I even have to explain the end of 2, how Sora and Riku reconcile and Riku admits he was jealous of Sora? And then its Kairi’s letter connecting her heart with Sora’s yet again to open a door to the light for then to get home? While they’re playing Sanctuary??? Literally high art. I know Kairi is still kind of a lesser character in kh2, but kh2 still did a great job making it feel like they all love each other to death.

Which brings me to my one and only gripe with kh3: the destiny trio, or lack thereof. Before the paopu scene, Sora and Kairi literally don’t even make eye contact with one another. And before we rescue Aqua and Ven, the whole game is just everyone idolizing Riku and weirdly and not even tacitly bullying and disparaging Sora (which I was not here for). Even Riku is like “lol yeah you’re not good enough to save Aqua and you’re dumb for even trying” and then what does Sora do? He saves BOTH their asses. I digress. Now I know, in an interview Nomura talked about how kh3 was meant to show change. And since the other trios are all in peril, they’re all sort of frozen, static. So this kind of has to be referring to the destiny trio, and I do think we see that in 3 with the paopu scene. There’s a shift, and Sora and Kairi definitely have something they just can’t share with Riku. But as much as I love Sokai, I feel kh3 really needed at least one scene where they were all together, actually being friends like they used to be. Just going from 2 to 3, they seem like barely friends at times. But I do think they tried to show Riku being distressed when Kairi was killed, and sad when she went to sleep during Limitcut, but the execution was a bit poor.

And I have to say, seeing Riku, the guy who put the keyblade in Kairi’s hand’s and fought by her side in kh2 telling her to stay behind for literally no reason while he goes to Quadratum, that stung. It felt like such a betrayal of the love these three have for one another. And honestly, I’m getting a little tired of Riku, only because he’s already had one incredible and complete arc, arguably an arc and a half including DDD, and I just feel like he should take a backseat for a little while. Now, it’s my hope they’re playing the long game with this, that it will be up to Kairi–Master Kairi–to team up with/save her boys down the road, but I’m also way too hesitant to truly believe that’s what they’re planning. So in sum, I absolutely adore all three members of the destiny trio as characters in their own right. But especially in the sequence from 1-2, I love their friendship, how they’re doing everything for each other, that all they really want is to make sure the others are okay, that they grow and change in order to treat each other better, it’s just so beautiful. I think kh3 had so many balls in the air, it was trying to balance so much and tie up so many ends and set up so many new things that the destiny trio just kind of got lost in all of it. So I'm really hoping in the next phase maybe they'll get to team up together. Here's hoping, right anon?

Thank you for letting me gush about kh, anon! I’d love to hear your thoughts, or anyone elses! Happy 20th anniversary, I hope you're having a good day today. :)

[themadauthorshatter]

So... I've been watching KH rewrites.

And while I'm not rewriting ALL of Kingdom Hearts, but I have a few ideas to change 358/2 days:

The organization has an agenda: find and kill Sora, Riku, and Kairi so they can stay out of the way, but with Sora sleeping, Kairi safe on Destiny Islands, and Riku running all over the place, their jobs just got harder.

The change the title to 358/3 days, because Axel's in on this too. This is the sea salt TRIO we're dealing with, not sea salt duo.

We see a majority of Roxas's beginner days, like before, but in between them, we see Xion with Axel, mainly because Xemnas trusts him enough to be able to incapacitate Xion, if she gets too fired up.

Oh yeah, Xion doesn't really look up and smile at Roxas when she first sees him. In game, her mouth just opens in a gasp and she clenches a fist. In her first days, she's strictly in 'attack anything that comes near me' mode because she's scared and confused. We see it happen when Demyx waves a hand in front of her face and she literally jiu jitsu throws him to the ground.

Xion stares at Roxas and Axel and follows them individually. Axel finds it creepy and warns her not to get any ideas while Roxas pretends not to notice.

Xemnas is more proactive, checking on and somewhat favoring Roxas and Xion, Roxas more than Xion at first before fully switching over to team Xion. Everyone notices, especially Larxene, and it's not a good thing. Except for Axel, who's okay to stay out of Xemnas's attention.

Larxene is a bitch. As in she not only tells Roxas to not use his keyblade, but also to hold still so she can kick him.

Lexeaus is a little kinder. He does still hit Roxas within an inch of his life, but he lets Roxas hit back, as hard as he can. Roxas does so, hitting him in the side, like by the abs, but not completely, and it only hurts Roxas more than Lexeaus, the big guy fights a pitied smile and tells him to try again. Roxas does so, hitting harder, and Lexeaus grunts and fakes it to look like Roxas really did hit him hard. Roxie boy apologizes, but Lexeaus brushes it off, complimenting that Roxas is a more than qorthy choice for the keyblade.

Zexion is not a fan of Roxas, because he looks too much like Ventus. He eventually has a silent kinshio with him and acts A LITTLE friendly towards him, but nothing serious.

Vexen has to be kept on a leesh so he doesn't lock Roxas in his lab and scientifically check him out. AT LEAST BEFORE HE GOES ON A MISSION WITH HIM. After that, he wants nothing to do with the kid.

Axel is a little weirded out by Roxas, at first, but warms up to him.

Marluxia is a little creepy in that while he trains with Roxas, like practice missions, he gets face caress-y and Roxas later asks Axel if he can not go on missions with Marluxia.

Xemans does not get like that with either of Roxas or Xion; all he does is ruffle/play with their hair and pat their back and shoulder.

AND XEMNAS ISN'T PORTRAYED AS A VILLAIN UP-FRONT. IN A PERFECT WORLD, THIS IS RELEASED BEFORE KH2!!!!!!

Saïx sees Axel's growing connections with Roxas and Xion, and he gets meaner because of it.

Roxas has his own version of anti-form or rage form, in the form of non-form, where he takes on a look very much like a mix of the samurai and dusk nobodies; he's bendy, fast, and hard as shot to lock onto, target-wise, but get hit and there's next to nothing that's going to save you. Roxas can only use non-form when he has no other optiin, and that's because he hates using it with a burning passion. Whenever he uses it, he has a hard time seeing things, so he relies on his hearing and any bright lights that catch his attention. Game wise, this is his limit break. When his health is low, non-form is activated with a cool looking transformation.

Non-form is the reason why Roxas is Xemnas's favorite, at first.

Xion doesn't talk to Roxas at all when they go on missions together, at least not until Roxas goes into non-form to save her, even though she doesn't really need saving.

Demyx was initially chosen to watch Roxas, but he saw the kid, newborn, scared, and confused, go into non-form and damn near attack him until Xemnas kicked him away. Saïx was the runner uo, but he gave the role to Axel, who successfully calmed Roxas down enough for the newbie to return to normal.

Xion warms up to Roxas, but is cold towards Axel, who returns the feeling, but also makes a deal with her; in front of Roxas, they have to play nice together or else Saïx is going to snitch to Xemans, who will have Xion ripped apart piece by piece until there's no putting her back together. Behind Roxas's back, however, they can fight all they want, as much as they want. Hell, they can even try to kill each other. BUT ONLY BEHIND ROXAS'S BACK SO HE DOESN'T SEE IT HAPPEN.

Roxas is given pretty lenient missions and it's not just because of his connection to Sora and Ven. It's also because of how unstable Non-form is.

Oh, yeah. Roxas hallucinates and hears both Sora AND Ventus, but it's only when things get too quiet. Xemnas has Axel keep an eye on him because he made friends with Ventus as Lea and had contact with Sora. If anything, the redhead can keep Roxas stable enough for them to bring him to Castle Oblivion and find Ven, when he's ready.

And he'll be ready when he dual wields keyblades, which Xemnas KNOWS wil happen because he's Xehanort and Xehanort apparently knows all.

He doesn't know enough because there's another person who can dual wield: Xion.

Xion is still a replica, but this time is made with fractures of Kairi's and Sora's hearts, Kairi being able to wield a keyblade because it got passed down from Aqua to her by accident and Sora because he's Sora.

When Axel is sent to Castle Oblivion and is reported as gone, Roxas's reaction is much more severe. First mission with Xigbar goes fine until the end, where Roxas not only gets hallucinations of Sora and all that, but also because he's experiencing a new emotion: GRIEF. He goes into Non-form and goes insane. Xigbar directs him to a dark corridor, where he's released right into the castle in The World That Never Was and starts destroying anything amd everything that moves before going all aroung the castle.

It soon becomes a really darkly comedic game of Catch The Kid Without Killing Him Or Letting Him Leave To Another World.

No one's fully successful, except for Saïx, who also goes berserk to stop and hold him so Xemnas can collect him. Roxas struggles in Saïx's arms and lets out scream after scream until Xemnas comes to get him and snap him out of it.

Roxas leaves Non-form and is led to his room by Xemnas, who compliments his ability to imitate emotions, despite not remembering how to.

Roxas, already trying to keep it together, breaks down again, and Xemnas holds him close, letting him get it all out, and explains that this is why they fight and need to fight warriors of the light, including Sora, Riku, and Kairi.

After that, Roxas is only allowed on recon missions until he's stable again.

It's fine though, because Axel makes it back a week later, saying he got knocked unconscious by Sora. He escaped and made it out a-okay, leavung out the part where he may have merced Vexen and Zexion.

Roxas is still glad.

Axel reports to Xemnas and Saïx and euns into Xion.

The threat still remains, but he's still playing nice for Roxas's sake.

Over time, Axel and Xion learn to get along and even become friendly enough to be sarcastic and jokey with each other.

It also helps that Xion also deals with hallucinations and her way of dealing with them is by running. Axel and Roxas followed her and came face to face with a GIANT heartless, maybe a more threatening version of the Dark Side.

All three fight it, but it knocks Xion and Axel away, the redhead gets up and is almost smashed into the ground before Xion lunges, going into her armored form. Roxas follows as well, in his Non-form.

The two make quick work of the heartless amd Roxas struggles to turn himself back, where Xion does it perfectly.

Axel compliments the work, but hugs onto Roxas before he can lash out at a frightened Xion, telling him to play nice or they're not having any more playdates and he'll be locked in his room 24/7.

Roxas turns back and he and a surprised Xion pass out, leaving Axel to groan at having all the icky jobs; he got the crap beaten out of him amd wants to pass out with the two children, but instead has to carry them back to the castle so neither die on his watch.

They all recuperate and pat themselves on the back for their victory.

Xemnas congratulates them as well, having let himself in the infirmary because he heard what happened.

Axel reports that they're all fine and the heartless is gone, and Xemnas is more than glad to hear it, at least before her turns to Roxas and asks if he was hurt, putting a hand on his shoulder.

He's fine, just a little dizzy, but fine.

Xemnas is more than glad to hear it, pushing back Roxas's bangs and playing with his hair a little before leaving them all to heal, ignoring Xion entirely.

She doesn't take it personally and instead remarks about how nice it was of Xemans to join them, for once.

Axel agrees with the sentiment and makes Roxas and Xion promise that they're won't be anymore surprise runaways like that again.

They agree, though Xion asks if surprise ice cream can be exempt.

Axel smiles and exempts surprise icecream.

They all become real friends after this point, and it includes them poking fun at each other("Er, I don't know my past so I'm gonna go Saïx berserk on anyone who asks, der, der, der"), sarcasm(Xion: "There really is no hiding from Saïx, is there?" Axel: "Well, there's always under Xigbar's bed, but no one's ever returned, so tell me how it goes."), and light name calling, like hot head, burning britches, and smoke and more smoke for Axel, hoodie and emo band for Roxas, and little miss pissed off for Xion, because she's funny to make annoyed and angry.

And they try more than sea salt icecream, like doughnuts, cakes, and eventually healthier foods that are still sweet.

Roxajs and Xion gonon missions together and eventually start more than a friendship.

Axel keeps an eye on them whenever he can and begins lying to Xemnas, saying neither are really progressing with their powers, but are maintaining, so there's that at least. Xemans is not convinced and asks an old question, considering how Axel has possibly the best memory out of everyone here: What happened to Sora? Axel feigns ignorance, because he TOTALLY helped Sora take out Marluxia.

Okay, but what about Naminé? More ignorance because she up and vanished. Maybe Sora stole her away or something, who knows? Teenagers do weird things.

Xemnas, more than a little fed up, notes that Axel's getting close to Rozas and Xion and admits that as much of a shame as it would be to waste resources, it'd be even more tragic to lose their own numbers, maybe even Saïx as well, despite how cold he's turned toward Axel. If it makes him feel better, he doesn't need to do the 'icky job,' Saïx can do it for him and he can simply watch.

Axel steps down and Xemnas twlls hom to tell the truth next time, if he doesn't want to lose anymore friends.

There will be a part 2 of this

[atomic-taco-muffin]

The Legend of Hana Part 54

Warnings: More angst

Rating: SFW

At the World That Never Was, Axel was walking down the streets toward the castle and Pluto the dog was following him. Pluto walked down an alley, expecting to find Axel but he wasn’t there. Suddenly a dark corridor opened up and Pluto rushed into it, knowing that it was Riku. 

                                                         ☽✧☽✧

Axel had arrived at the castle and walked up the many stairs to the laundry room. 

“No one is here yet...” he said. He looked in the laundry room and found a brand new jacket to replace his ripped one. “Even though I don’t know who it belongs to, I’ll just take it.” 

He put it on and it fit perfectly. 

“Okay. The size after applying heat to it just fits,” he said. He spotted something in the corner of the room and found a camera pointing in his direction. 

“Don’t tell me this is a closed-circuit camera? This place has become an uncomfortable one to live in,” he said. “Oh, is it because of me?” 

The washing machine blew up and the alarms sounded. He panicked and rushed out of the room. 

The camera at 15-7L has received damage. Unfortunately there is an unknown trespasser. Please reinforce the security nearby. 

“Even this old home has these things, and the response is so fast,” Axel said as he ran away. He stopped in his tracks when he saw a group of Nobodies surrounding him. He summoned his chakrams and fought his way through them and made his escape. 

                                                         ☽✧☽✧

In Where Nothing Gathers, Organization XIII and Anti-Roxy were discussing what had happened. 

“My spare clothes went missing!” Demyx said, making Anti-Roxy laugh.

“I say, Axel’s lucky that he didn’t take Xaldin’s clothes instead,” she said. 

“The situation with Axel...shall I take care of it?” Saïx asked. “I know what his next move is.” 

“Okay,” Xemnas said. “I’ll leave this to you, Saïx.” 

                                                         ☽✧☽✧

On the beach of Destiny Islands, Kairi looked at the water, thinking about Sora and of he was okay. 

“Sora. I’m waiting for your reply...still waiting...” she said as the soft waves crashed against the beach. “I...cannot just always wait like this.” 

“You’re right,” someone said. Kairi looked over to see Axel walk out of a dark corridor. “If you’ve got a dream, don’t wait. It’s one of life’s little rules. Got it memorized?” 

“...Who are you?” Kairi asked. 

“I’m Axel. Someone who Sora trusts, Kairi.” Axel held out his hand for her to take and a group of Dusks surrounded Kairi to make sure she didn’t escape. “Return to Sora’s side. We’re quite alike in a way or another. Both of us want to meet an important friend.” 

Kairi fought her way through the Dusks and made her escape, not making Axel happy. 

“Okay? Aren’t they just like friends?” he asked. 

“Friends...?! Friends won’t do this kind of thing!” Kairi said. 

“This kind of thing? Have you mistaken something? Don’t be afraid, they aren’t bad guys. Just that sometimes they might forget things.” Suddenly, Pluto pinned Axel to the ground and nother dark corridor opened behind Kairi. 

“Yikes! What is this?” she asked. Pluto barked and ran inside the corridor. “Eh, do I go in there too? Wait for me.” 

Before she left, she made a funny face at Axel and entered the corridor. She and Pluto walked through the corridor and before Kairi exited it, she spotted a person in a black cloak.

Riku...?

Kairi arrived at the mansion in Twilight Town where Hayner, Pence, and Olette huddled around her. Chia and Nightmare woke Kairi up by giving her multiple kisses. She woke up to see the triplets and was confused. 

“Are you okay?” Hayner asked. Pluto ran over to Kairi and gave her a few kisses. 

“...Huh...where am I?” 

“You’re in our house. I’m Olette.” 

“I’m Pence and this is...” 

“Hayner. Uwah! Stop, that tickles!” Hayner giggled as Pluto was giving him kisses. Chia climbed into Kairi’s lap and she smiled. 

“And who are you?” she asked. 

“This is Chia. She belongs to our sister,” Olette said. 

“And this big guy here is Nightmare. Our guard dog,” Pence said as he gave Nightmare some well deserved belly rubs. 

“My name is Kairi. And I’m looking for my friends.” 

                                                         ☽✧☽✧

Yui stood on her balcony, looking at Kingdom Hearts and thought about the times she ran into Riku. She wanted to deny her feelings for him but found that she couldn’t. Even from that kiss to set her free from Junko, she couldn’t deny her feelings. She sensed someone behind her and found Anti-Roxy walk up to her.

“What do you want?” Yui asked. 

“A little bird told me that you got saved by a kiss. Honestly, it’s so pathetic,” Anti-Roxy said.

“So? Naminé would’ve done the same for you.” 

“Oh please. We’re half Nobodies. We shouldn’t be feeling anything.” 

“I know you don’t mean that. C’mon Roxy. Please fight against the despair that’s controlling you and help me save dad before it’s too late. Think about Naminé.” Roxy summoned her pistoleer and aimed it at Yui. 

“Like I said, we shouldn’t be feeling anything,” Roxy said. Yui snapped and summoned her own pistoleer.

“WE MAY BE TWINS BUT YOU’RE NOT ME! YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT I’VE BEEN FEELING!” she shouted and charged at Roxy. The twins fought with such vigor. Bullets flying everywhere, tears falling down Yui’s face, and Roxy trying to bring Yui back into despair. Yui realized that if she continued fighting Roxy, then she’ll end up back in despair. She backed away and ran for the door but Roxy said something that stung. Stung bad. 

“Are you seriously leaving your sister like this? After all we’ve been through?” she asked. 

“If you’re gonna be like this, then I’m not sure I want you as my sister,” Yui said. Hearing those words leave her mouth, made Roxy question if she’s truly herself or not. Yui rushed out of the room and out of the castle, sobbing. She ran and she ran until she bumped into someone. Someone that she never thought she’d see.

“Riku...” 

[iki-teru]

Title: even closer at heart

Fandom: Kingdom Hearts

Pairing: Riku/Kairi

Word Count: 2151

Synopsis: Riku is a new guard at the palace when he has a fateful run-in with the youngest princess. Something says he knows her better than he should, but it hurts too much to think about. Still, she's off to do something foolish and he can't let her go alone. It's going to be a long night as memories threaten to consume him.

Snippet: He watches, confused, as her whole body deflates slightly. She takes a long moment of stillness before determination settles across her face and she leans into his space; small hands reach up, covering his eyes. He’s shocked by the calloused palms, not what he was expecting from someone so delicate. For a moment he thinks he smells ocean spray, something that makes no sense in this landlocked kingdom. “Ah,” says the princess. “It is you, Riku.” Something clicks inside his heart, a piece he didn’t know was missing. That’s his name, the surprise is that the princess knows it. The surprise is the way it rips a gasp out of him.

He hears the rush of the ocean, the echoes of promises made. The princess wipes at his cheek. He’s crying.

Author's Notes: surprise, I ain't dead! this was originally written for @rikaifanzine Shorelines and Sandcastles and is the unabridged version of the one that got published. I wanted to have this up while the store was still open, like everyone else but in classic me fashion it arrives much later. Please enjoy the shameless schmoop!

[mariposalass]

Sora’s Time to Shine

Summary: Mari is already not putting too much expectations going into watching the Final Smash Presentation when someone close to her besides Kirby and Edelgard’s beloved Professor pops out of nowhere in said Presentation. All hell breaks loose (but in a good way).

Setting: Mari and co.’s house in Daly City, California; October 5, 2021

Notes: I was pretty behind in seeing the reveal since I was pretty tired when it came out and I had to check a friend’s post on Plurk to make sure that it was not all for the jokes before watching it on Gamespot and writing this story down. And yes, the Byleth in my S/I verse is the female version in case anyone is curious. And yes, it took me until around 8 AM to write this up. Featuring Luther Vandross. Here is an ask I made on Sora’ behest during a F/O takeover long before he got confirmed recently. #SakuraiHasReachedtheImpossibleDream #Sora4Smash

Tags: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Super Smash Bros., Swift Keyblader, Smash Reveal, Sakurai has reached the impossible dream!, Sora for Smash, #Sora4Smash

“Hurry Mari, you’re about to miss it!” Kairi is dragging me out onto the sofa to see the final Smash Ultimate Presentation on the living room pretty early before plopping ourselves onto the sofa.

“Look, Kairi, guys. I hate to be a party pooper, but I have no clue about who could it be,” I try to be realistic in my views.

“Well, at this point, my beloved, it could be anybody from the video game world,” my dear Philip chimes in while trying to reassure me, “Besides, as soon as it is done, we shall try to reply back to this non Smash invitation that El had found in the mail today.”

“Huh, is that correct, El dear?” I asked my regal adopted daughter for confirmation.

“Why yes of course, Mother,” she replies as she passes me the invitation, “I believe that a friend of yours has sent us one, but I didn’t want to open it immediately since this is addressed to you.”

“Okay then, I will get to read it and reply back once the Presentation is over and see who gets to fight with Kirby and Professor Byleth,” I smiled back at her.

“I couldn’t believe that there was a leak that just came out before this Presentation video and it is about music. Who was that dense enough to do it at a time like this?” Riku mumbles as he gets the video streaming on the Nintendo Direct page in his laptop.

“You know, Riku, sometimes people can act very idiotic at times, so there isn’t much we can do besides ignoring and avoiding that as much as possible,” Harry sighs as he is bottle feeding and gently rocking Serena as she had cried a while ago to be bottle fed.

“Guys, have you guys seen Sora lately?” Issa asks us while carrying Chris in her arms, “I haven’t seen him in the last few days. He didn’t even reply back to either my or Kairi’s texts and calls. Do you think he’s off to visit Jack and Sally in Halloween Town? It’s nearing Halloween soon.”

“That’s really a good question, Issa,” Ahk agrees, “I had given up trying to find him by calling over on the phone since last Thursday. All I have gotten from it were many ‘The subscriber could not be reached’ messages.”

Even Riku and Kairi are in a loss for words as they turn to each other and wonder what is up with our friend lately. Did he just went poof without us knowing? Kirby always informs us through his many Poyos that he would have to head off to Smash whenever a new tourney starts or a newcomer arrives and Edelgard’s class often gets shorter class schedules or early dismissals whenever Professor Blyeth gets to fight in Smash: she is the professor handling the Black Eagles class. Sometimes even El, Petra and Dorothea along with a few others (and yes, that includes the Gatekeeper) would come over to Smash to spectate from the sidelines and support their beloved Professor.

There is a long silence when the Nintendo Switch title card plays in the laptop and Karina directs us all to watch the screen to see many clips featuring many Smashers in the current tournament before it transitions to Sakurai-san in the studio explaining about the video as well as showcasing the Mii Fighter costumes.

“Hey look, Isabelle the Dog’s demon slaying friend from Bethesda is now coming to Smash to rip and tear up the competition!” Moana screams when the Doomguy Mii Gunner costume appears.

“Good for him; I know that many fans really did want him to be in Smash, though the costume is a nice addition,” Issa agrees. “That now makes three Bethesda franchises represented in the costumes.”

“Even the Octolings and Judd the Cat got hats based on them too,” I chime in as well.

“Oh hey, guys! Sakarui’s about to reveal the last fighter for the Second Fighter’s Pass, so keep down it and don’t expect too much,” Karina informs as Sakurai transitions to the main event and we all stay silent and stay glued to our seats.

The screen turns black before the usual Smash logo opening shows up, but instead of the usual zoom in, it then turns into a flaming Smash logo with all the Smashers up until Kazuya Mishima (yeah, the guy who tried to drop Kirby off a cliff) looking at it and covered in the shadows. Did MH decided to get them to show up in there and meet the last fighter in the dark? Probably, I bet that he might be keeping it as a surprise and possibly even conserving electricity at the same time. Then cut to Inkling Girl looking in awe with the Smash logo reflecting onto her pupils as a nice ode to the first reveal trailer for the game/tourney, I honestly love this shot.

Wait a minute, the logo turns into stars and the next scene shows everyone frozen in place as toy-like ambiios?!? How is it even possible? Well, it does certainly confirmed once again that the video game version of the tourney is set in a world of make believe after all. I could swear that a lot of people crying their eyes out as they are watching this. It looks like this is the end of one great video game series about mascots fighting among each other. Or is it? Because the camera is aiming at Mario as if he looks like he’s trying to take a nap while standing up.

Riku then proceeds to mumble some words to me incoherently that something big is coming the moment Mario wakes up to see a glowing light to see the last remaining flame glowing on the floor, which I do agree with him. Suspicious right? Oh God, Mario no! Please don’t touch the fire for everyone’s sanity. Wait, hold on a second: that isn’t not just fire that he just grabbed on and then tossed it into the sky like a boomerang: the mystery object looks like a Keyblade and there’s that Mickey keychain! Yep, that’s a Keyblade alright. Could it be...

I could recognize that beam of light that Keyblades often produce whenever they lock and unlock Keyholes to other worlds, so does everyone in the room. Riku and Kairi hugged onto each other as if we’re about to brace for an emergency (Karina and Moana also did the same), Ahk stares at the screen to see if he’s not imagining things all the sudden, Issa has her mouth drop in shock, Chris and Serena didn’t cry throughout this entire presentation, Harry gasps and nearly drops Serena’s bottle, Philip turns to me for answers while Edelgard begins to sweatdrop in concern.

No words are exchanged as the light grows and shines brighter before it proceeds to shoot itself away from the Keyblade to reveal a Keyhole on another part of the room. It then glows bright within as the camera switches back to the rest of frozen Smashers as the light begins to fill the room and revives Link, Cloud, Incineroar and Mewtwo as they all gawk at it as it reveals something from the World of Light with the orchestral rendition of Simple and Clean playing in the background. And that’s when it hits us right at the gut: the familiar spiky brown hair poking out from that Keyhole.

“What!?!” Kairi shouts as the Keyhole ‘spits’ out Sora from the World of Light.

“H-h-he actually got in, for real?” Riku squeaks up.

“Oh my…” I gasp in pure shock as we watch the whole thing played out.

“Sakarui finally did it?” Issa adds in to the discussion.

“Well, it’s about time that they managed to get his darn behind into the tourney,” Karina seconds in.

Soon enough, Sora finally wakes up from his nappy time and takes notes from Peter Pan and Tinkerbell as he flies around, sprinkling fairy dust all over the other Smashers, before landing on the floor and the Keyblade flying back to his hand.

“Damn it, Sora!” I scream as the splash screen pops in.

“Kai, your boy has finally made it big time!” Moana shakes Kairi in congratulation rather rapidly that it nearly gives my lil sis a dizzying spell.

“Moana, please don’t make Kairi that dizzy,” Harry had to tell her that.

“Whoops! Sorry Kairi,” she apologizes to her which she accepts.

So with that, we switch back to Sakurai going in depth with Sora’s moveset after he discussed about the Kingdom Hearts games and world. And he has gotten 4 costume changes, man Sora, that’s a big wardrobe you’re bringing in, oh wait, he even got the Timeless River costume too. That makes it 5 then.

“Oh gods, Sakurai is making us suffer by watching Sakurai using Sora to beat up everyone,” Ahk tells us as the Sora moveset showcase begins.

“No kidding,” Harry muses as we see Sora beating everyone in Battlefield.

“Whoa, they went for Sealing the Keyhole instead of having Trinity Force with Donald and Goofy? What a bummer,” Karina bemoans in dismay.

“Well, you know modern Disney: too overprotective of their IPs,” Philip reminds her.

“Oh new stage, what could it be?” Riku gleefully chimes in before they reveal Hollow Bastion as the stage, “Whoa, Hollow Bastion. I never thought that you will return again.”

Then the stage changes into Dive to the Heart and it had Riku and Kairi in the stained glass in one, Riku being the main focus of the second one, Roxas in the middle of the third, Xion in the fourth, Terra for the fifth, a sleepy Ven in the sixth, and Aqua’s in the seventh.

“Pretty!” I complimented the look of each stained glass.

“Quite impressive I will admit,” El agrees with me too.

Then Sakurai begins a playthrough with Sora facing Cloud and Sephiroth in Hollow Bastion, for a while, we all thought that he’s going to be a goner with Cloud and Sephiroth beating him up in the Stamina match but then the tides begin to turn in his favor after Sephy lost his full stock and with Sora having to take down Cloud next. When he did, the scene begins to go into a slow white fade out with a Game!

“Alright! Sora did it! He defeated both Cloud and mean old Sephy,” Riku cheers on.

“Woo! Go Sora!” me, Kairi, Moana, and Karina screams aloud.

“That was brilliant!” Harry agrees before he turns to Serena, “Did you hear? Uncle Sora managed to defeat two opponents in a Smash Ultimate playthrough.”

“9 songs is better than nothing at all,” Issa observes, “It would be a licensing nightmare to talk to Disney if they can borrow a couple of songs from them and they straight up refuse to assist, oh well. Oooh, a Dearly Beloved Swing arrangement, nice! I better get that save file on the Switch prompto!”

“And check out that Spirit Board: Aunt Kairi has a Spirit of herself,” Edelgard informs us as the Spirit Board for KH is revealed.

“Oh gee, never thought that it could ever happen, but thanks,” she blushes.

“Hey, I got one as well, same with Axel, Xion, Roxas, Aqua, Terra and Ven,” Riku joins in, “Marina is so going to be happy to see her boyfriend as a Spirit. She will probably try to get him real soon.”

“You bet it right, Riku, you bet it right,” I nod and agree with that last statement.

“Oh hey, he’s going to be ready within a few weeks’ time,” Karina speaks up, “Neat! The roster is now complete.”

“Even Steve and Alex have amiibos of themselves being made, that’s even more wonderful,” Ahk takes note of it, “I’m pretty sure that Sora will have one of his own along with Pyra, Mythra, that jerk who tried to threw Kirby off a cliff, and even Sephiroth soon.”

“WHAT?!? Kingdom Hearts are coming to the Switch too!?!” I am surprised to hear the news as Sakurai reveals this new information, that is so mind-blowing.

When it fades to black then to the Ultimate mural, the camera then goes for the space between Ganondorf and Dark Samus to fill in Sora’s spot before panning back. Man, this Presentation is long and is finally ending, thank God; it must be tiring to sit down and watch a nearly hour long video as Sakurai showcases the screenshots he has made and showed off in Twitter. Man, so many memories and montages. And the achievements, wow, that is a lot of them, it will be a game feat that I don’t think it will be broken for a long time.

Man, I will miss the presentations and Sakurai’s corny jokes for sure. I wish him a nice deserving break from all the game development for sure as he gives thanks to everyone from the devs to the players to the people prompting the game and ends it off with a heartfelt goodbye as it fades to back into the full reveal trailer.

“Oh gee, I’m going to miss the Smash Presentations,” Kairi sighs, “I can’t believe that we’re coming to an end.”

“Man, it’s finally over,” Riku gasps in remark as the full trailer plays out, “I don’t think that there will be a game like Ultimate for a very long time. That’s for certain.”

“I agree, Riku. It’s to going to be a tough act to follow up on,” I add in before I look up at the ceiling and murmur some words, “It’s been a long time coming, Sora. You truly deserve that last spot, you really do. Have fun in the tourney and Smash Mansion, buddy.”

Sora is Finally Here!

The End

[oveliagirlhaditright]

I sort of missed writing KH fics that took place in the KHII era, so I wrote this story where Sora and Kairi confessed their feelings for each other between KHII and DDD, but that then makes it AU. Fluff. Oneshot.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29577108

You Raise Me Up

Kairi’s PoV

Kairi was writing her feelings for Sora in her drawing pad… It was silly, she knew, because she should have been using this gift she’d been given for art. And while she'd meant to, Kairi found that it was the written word that was really where she was at these days. But it would of course be while she was doing this, that Sora would approach her and steal the book from her.

It was an absolutely beautiful day: birds seemed to be having a contest to see which of their wings could turn the most yellow when they flew close to the sun… dogs were barking gleefully, as they played frisbee with their masters nearby… and there was even a street vendor who seemed to be purposefully leaving out their spoiled food, so that even the ants could have something to eat.

All-in-all, everyone was trying to do their best today—Kairi knew that she was—and she had hoped that Sora would be, too. But nope. He had to tease her about something that was so personal, he didn't even know.

"Sora!" Kairi squealed, as she jumped into the air from where she'd been sitting and tried again and again to fetch her book from him, while he danced about her... dangerously close to running into a bicyclist at this point. "Give it back! You can't just steal a lady's art without her permission! Did you learn nothing from when you learned manners and had to bow down to that Princess Jasmine, or whatever it was you said?!"

Sora must not have, because he completely ignored the point that Kairi was trying to make—that he had learned some propriety on his journeys, and thus should have been using it now—but began reading Kairi's carefully crafted words, as she then desperately wanted to take a shovel to her own head... just anything, so she wouldn't have to be privy to this.

"'How he attempts to give everyone lovin', without them realizing his own heart is broken.'"

At first, Sora didn't seem to realize that her words were about him. She saw his mouth starting to form the word "who". And whether he would have thought that “who” was a real person or a fictional character if he’d gotten to finish his first thought, Kairi didn’t know.

But then Sora seemed to finally get that this was art that she was making with blood, sweat, and tears, and settled down and handed her her book back. And a small smile played at his lips as he seemed to speak from the heart: "Kairi, you should really think about becoming a poet... or an author, as one can also sound poetic in novel speak."

And if he was going to play it civil to save their friendship, Kairi could do the same. And she grinned at her friend now, as she put a strand of hair behind her ear and somewhat wanted to hide from the world. “You know what? I’ll really think about that.” And be glad that that is the lead you decided to take, and that you haven’t realized the poem was about you… because I love you.

Then, Kairi and Sora had a wonderful afternoon of being good people and helping the professional fishermen nearby with their jobs. And when they were given some of the best fish as a reward for this, they took it over to the sick Riku’s house to try and cheer him up some.

…

Sora’s PoV

 A Few Days Later

Sora looked out the window—bored in school, as he always was—when he noticed that Kairi was outside.

Kairi was a girl he'd had a crush on, ever since she'd washed up on the islands when she was five. But he figured it was a hopeless case, since Kairi was kind of popular and surely liked his friend Riku... And he wasn’t trying to dwell on it, anyway, since he was generally a happy person…

But he wondered what she was doing outside! It wasn't like Kairi to skip class, or anything like that. Though Sora didn't see her class with her right now, so where could they be? Had they just gone into the greenhouse before she had? And why did she look sad?

Kairi, what's wrong with you? Sora found himself thinking, as he nearly got out of his seat to go to her.

Unfortunately, Sora's teacher noticed his lack of attention and ordered him to stand up and answer a question, whilst his thoughts were all for Kairi. "Homura Sora!” his sensei demanded, “What are the first digits of pi?"

"Oh. Erm... S-sorry!" Sora stammered. "Uhh... I believe they are 3.14159?" And Sora sat down--slightly embarrassed now--but glad that he knew the answer when he was called on, and wasn’t humiliated for once: even if people were still whispering about him for having been a space cadet. Yikes.

But still only feeling for Kairi, Sora looked out the window again and saw that she was for sure crying! He wondered if she'd sensed her grandma die or something…

Raising his hand, Sora decided he was going to ask for a personal day and go check on Kairi.

…

“Kairi, what’s wrong?!” Sora demanded the moment he saw his best friend. And then he took her in his arms to comfort her, the moment he saw that something must have happened since she was crying.

“My mom had a heart-attack, Sora. Thankfully, she’s okay. But I didn’t know she would be when I came into school today—God, now I don’t even know why I came in today—but now that I know she’s alright, I should probably go into class again and not be hiding out here. But I don’t know if I can. My emotions are all spent. Is that crazy?”

“No, Kairi,” Sora promised the girl of her dreams after she’d babbled. He then put his chin atop her head, held her ever tighter to him, and drank in this moment. Sora couldn’t get over how well her scent of strawberries smelled with his of chocolate... “It’s not crazy at all. Emotions aren’t logical. Just take it easy, okay? And if there’s anything you need… know that I’ll be there for you.”

And Sora had thought that Kairi would say “thank you” and just leave it at that, but she surprised him—as it continued to rain around them, wrapping the two of them in a warm blanket on this hot island. “Actually, Sora… I wrote some of my feelings about what happened to Mom down. And I- I wouldn’t mind if you read them. I think it might be therapeutic for me, even, if you’d do that,” Kairi said shyly, stepping away from Sora so she could hand him her sketchbook.

And it was so rare for Kairi to be shy, how could Sora anything but “yes”? He even responded more gently to her here than he normally would, and that was really saying something.

“Of course, Kairi. I’ll read anything that comes from your beautiful heart!” Sora beamed with his eyes closed. He then decided to lay it on a bit thick and be a bit of the flirt that Donald always accused him of being. But he meant every word he was saying here. Because how could he not, when he loved Kairi so much?

And he flipped open the redhead’s sketchbook to find words about the mayor… but instead he found himself seeing ones about himself.

Kairi had written that she liked him, but was afraid that he wouldn’t feel the same since she saw herself as useless?

And Kairi must have realized he’d flipped to the wrong page by accident, because she was already trying to rip the book away from Sora and stammer out explanations. “I swear it’s not what it seems lik-”

But Sora was already cutting off his precious girl, who had jumped off a balcony and fought for the first time to save him. “Kairi, you are notuseless. Don’t ever think that. But as for the rest of it… umm, I have to go. But I’ll see you later, okay?”

“Sora, wait!”

But Sora wasn’t listening. He was already Quick Running away, as he really needed to think here.

Later, he’d realize that he’d left Kairi at the worst time imaginable—and he would berate himself for it—since she had just been through so much already, and he was probably making her think he didn’t like her back.

But at the time, all Sora could think was that Kairi liked him… but probably didn’t love him.

…

A Day Later

Even after thinking on what Kairi had written over and over—as Sora laid in his bed, summoning and dismissing his Keyblade and rinsing and repeating—he couldn’t make out what she meant, exactly, and where they went from here.

It was clear to see that she liked him (she’d written that much, after all). They were at that age where one would start having crushes, after all… but did she love him in the way that he did her?

And if Kairi did have feelings for him... what if she only felt that way because he was a hero, and because of all the things that he'd done for her?

Sora was miserable when he thought that last part. And suddenly, he needed to get out of his house that just felt suffocating at the moment. So, he began peddling away on his bike, cursing the fact that he had his “driver’s license” in other worlds, but not here yet.

And really... maybe he deserved to be miserable, for having accidentally read that part of her journal. But he still had to wonder to the gods of Mount Olympus just why everything had to be so hard…

...It was only when Sora just happened to see Kairi after this—with her hair dyed black?! What? Had she thought she was “dark” for having “hurt his feelings” to make him run off like that, and had thus dyed her hair to match how she thought her heart was?—that he realized he had made a huge mistake in thinking so little of her.

“Kairi!" Sora exclaimed the moment she was over the threshold of the store she’d just been at. And her concerned expression turned into a smile as soon as she saw that he was giving her a thousand-watt smile, Sora thought.

And running up to the love of his life… and taking her hands in his, and just deciding to play it brave here, Sora asked Kairi what he knew he should have yesterday. "Kairi... do you have feelings for me?"

Kairi shrank back at this—something Sora instantly hated himself for, because he knew it was his fault because of how he’d reacted last time—but he couldn't tell why. Was it that she was embarrassed to admit it if she did... or did she still think he couldn’t feel that way for her? If so, Sora promised himself he’d help her to build her confidence up, if it was the last thing he did.

Shockingly, Kairi threw herself into Sora's arms—letting the coconut milk she’d been holding fall to the ground as she did so—and didn't stand there clenching her fists uncertainly, like he had feared she would.

But Sora could tell by how lightly Kairi held him, that this embrace was still of friendship and not romance. But why-

"I- I do, silly… I love you," Kairi replied now, as she chose that moment to look over his shoulder and focus hard on the little dipper that was just beginning to appear in the sky. What as a way of distraction? That would be Sora’s guess. "I'm sure you know that, from the tiny bit you spied from my diary. How- how could I not like you when we've been best friends for so long? But if you don't feel the same way-"

And here, Sora could only begin humming a song he was writing in his head to go with this perfect moment going on. It was very Eric of him, Sora thought, but he wouldn’t complain in the slightest. Because Kairi loving him was monumental in and of itself... but it felt good to know that she loved him for him, and not because she thought she owed him for sacrificing himself for her!

So, Sora stroked Kairi's hair once and even kissed a strand of it, as he leaned his cheek against her own.

“I love you too, Kairi. I always have. …And that’s why I stabbed myself with the Keyblade of People’s Hearts, and will never regret it or anything I do for you. …And I’m sorry I’ve made you think differently by how I’ve reacted lately. I guess we both had our own insecurities to get over, huh? Hehe. But I swear I’m going to show you how special you are to me, Kairi. Starting with telling you that you should bring your red hair back? But, hey. If you’ve decided you want black in it too, that’s also cool.”

Kairi giggled at Sora’s rambling—a sound that was like music to his ears—and his knees buckled at for how he was probably failing here… but Kairi was swift to rise him up again, both figuratively and literally.

“Then let’s be a couple together, Sora. I guess that’s all there is to it. And I also think us helping each other believe in ourselves more is a good idea… Like me believing I don’t have to be Supergirl to keep your attention. In fact… do you think you could carry all the coconut milk I bought home for me? It’s kind of heavy for me, to be honest.”

Now it was Sora’s turn to laugh. And he kissed Kairi’s head before adhering to her request. “Of course, princess!” And he moved to pick up the bags… but soon after, the two of them decided to compromise and each hold one half of the bag as they walked back to Kairi’s home.

Then, Sora and Kairi made cookies (with the coconut milk) for the first time together as boyfriend and girlfriend as a get well present for Kairi’s mother. But they snacked on a few themselves, of course.

All-in-all, it was the perfect everything.

[miss-tc-nova]

Hey - Riku x Reader

Aha, Xeha-non! I tricked you! I wasn’t writing Roxas, I was writing Riku! It’s about time I gave this boy some love. 

~~~~~

               “Hey handsome.” I slide the book from the desk and take its place, grinning down at the boy. A snowy brow arches in response, before those teal orbs peer up at me. “Slackin’ on your homework?”

               “Maybe,” he grumbles. I display the text and he continues scribbling down his answers.

               “Ooo, even I got the homework done. You’re not tellin’ me I’m about to slip ahead on our grades are you?” I tease.

               He doesn’t even bother to look up. “Not even close.”

               I laugh. Of course it’s not. This kid could miss an entire month of school and still manage to beat me in almost every class. Not that I’m dumb or anything, he’s just that smart—now if only I could get him to realize that I’ve been hardcore flirting with him for over a year now.

               Riku and I have been neighbors since we were little. We were never really friends and that was fine by me; we only occasionally passed by each other on our way to school or in the halls. It wasn’t until we turned fourteen and actually had a class together that I lost my mind. He probably just views me as a mild nuisance at this point, but I can’t help myself around him anymore. He doesn’t acknowledge any of it though.

               The end-of-day bell rings and I stand up with a stretch. “Wha’chu think, Riku? Shall we do the project together?”

               “Hm?” Like a needle pricking at my heart, he wasn’t paying attention. “Oh, I mean we can. But it just sounds like you’re trying to keep that gap between us from getting bigger.” Gods, if I could turn that smirk into something sincere, I’d probably die happy.

               “Please. You may have me in maths and science, but you suck at English.”

               “I’m one grade below you. Also, what does telling a story have do with any career?”

               I count on my fingers. “Journalism, news, authors, basic communication skills.”

               “We’re communicating aren’t we?”

               “Barely.” Oh honey, there’s so much more than what we say…

               His eyes roll but we agree to meet tonight at six to work on this story we’re supposed to write. I waste the day away mulling over this nonsense between us. Clearly this boy isn’t going to get the hint; I could probably kiss him and he would just blow it off as an accident. Yet I still can’t tell if it’s because he’s not interested or just strangely oblivious to flirting. Eventually, I admit defeat—I’m going to have to just flat out tell him. I decide it’d be best to do it tonight, when there’s time for us to talk it out; though that does put me at risk for making this project insanely awkward. I suck it up and plan my words out for the end of the night until six rolls around.

               I pull open the door to find my classmate there, staring out at the horizon. “Hey handsome.” There’s still time to drop plenty of hints before the night ends, but he doesn’t respond. “You okay?” There are some gloomy looking clouds in the distance.

               “Uh, yeah,” he replies, shaking it off. “Let’s get this dumb project done.”

               “And here I thought you just enjoyed my company,” I say, letting him in.

               We start to flesh out a basic a plot for this adventure short, all the while he keeps glancing out the window at the approaching storm. I, on the other hand, am starting to feel the nerves gnaw at my gut.

               “Are you sure you’re alright?” I ask, pulling his attention from the window for the umpteenth time since we started.

               Looking away from his distraction, Riku scribbles on his paper. “Yeah.”

               He’s not going to tell me what’s bothering him. Perhaps it’s time to tell him what’s bothering me instead.

               “Hey Riku?” He hums that that he’s listening before meeting my gaze. This could be it: the end of my endeavors, the end of my shenanigans, possibly the end of a friendship. Here goes nothing.

               Taking a deep breath, I open my mouth to start again, but the storm lets us know that it’s here.

               When the lightning flashes, Riku abruptly stands. “I gotta go.”

               “What?” I stand with him but he heads for the door.

               “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” All those worries he’s been holding back all night have finally broken through. He hurriedly shoves his feet into his shoes.

               “But-” The boy rips the door open and takes off down the street, not even in the direction of his home. I stand in the doorway, stunned, confused, and a little heart-broken. “…Be safe.”

               The storm that night was terrible.

~~~~~

A year later…

               This last year or so has been kind of dreary. Since that storm hit, three kids disappeared from our islands. Days were spent searching, but only the ocean could’ve kept them hidden from us for so long. Then we came across a miracle; some weeks after their disappearance, Kairi had been found on the beach of the smaller island. From what I heard, she had been groggy and confused for a while, but remembered nothing of what happened. As for Sora and Riku, we never found them.

               I was upset for a long time but time heals all wounds supposedly. In reality, I’d just learned to think about it less and went about life. There wasn’t anything else I could’ve done. Even if my heart is still hung up on him, it’s not like I can bring him back. So, on the surface, I take my dreary days the same as my normal ones: one step at a time, no matter how hard the next step is.

               Nope. Don’t think about it.

               Clearing my head of memories I don’t have time to dwell on, I brush the hair from my eyes and readjust the bag of groceries in my arms. It’s Friday, school’s out, I’ve just done my shopping for the week, and now it’s time to go home and relax.

               “Hey.”

               My body freezes before I turn to person I just passed. He’s a tall, young man, his muscular arms bare. The first instinct is to put some space between us, but that mop of white hair is unmistakable; sure it’s longer than it was but it’s his.

               “Riku?” I breathe, afraid to believe it is. Have I finally lost it?

               His aqua eyes are just visible beneath that mess. “It’s been a while,” he tells me.

               That voice; it’s the same and it still makes my heart flutter. The bag in my arm is hastily set aside before I barrel into the boy, arms around his waist as tightly as I can hold. I could melt when he returns the gesture but I’m too busy trying to keep from crying.

               I step back, wiping at my eyes. “Sorry. I just…Everyone thinks you’re dead.”

               He’s taking the fact pretty lightly. “I can imagine so.”

               “What happened?” I murmur.

               “Uh, I can’t exactly explain it,” he answers, dodging my question. Something about him seems softer than before. “The storm took me someplace far away and a lot of stuff happened. But I’m here now.”

               Taking in his words, I want to question him. There was a whole year where I thought he was at the bottom of the ocean; of course I want to know everything. However, above all of that, I’m relieved he’s back.

               I smile. “Well hey, welcome back handsome.”

               Riku’s responding chuckle dies out to something hesitant. “Are you busy tonight?”

               Reaching down, I scoop my groceries back up. “No. Just making dinner and being lazy tonight.”

               “Do you want to hang out?”

               It takes everything I have to not scream ‘Yes!’ at him. “Didn’t you just get back?”

               “Yeah,” he says with a sheepish grin. “But Kairi spent a few long hours nagging me about being so oblivious.”

               “What?”

               His shoulders bounce but I don’t miss that old spark of mischief. “That whole year before I left, you were flirting with me.”

               It’s suddenly a bit too hot for me and my brain threatens to malfunction. Instead, I take my turn to answer sheepishly, “I mean, yeah. But I think you settling in again is probably more important.”

               “It can wait. I’ve got a lot of stupidity to make up for.”

               I may never stop smiling again. “Only two years worth.”

               “Then I’d better get started.” I could just squeal. “I’ll pick you up tonight.”

               “I’ll see you then.”

               I bid the boy goodbye and it takes everything I have not to explode before I’m sure he’s well out of sight. And that’s it; my brain is shot for the rest of the day. I’m not doing homework, none of my chores get done, and dinner is nothing that I had planned. I just lie around, giddy as a teenager should be.

               I force myself not to bolt for the door when I hear a knock; I cannot, however, help the swelling happiness in my chest when I see him waiting for me.

               “Hey handsome,” I greet. That’s an adorable blush trying to spread across his face.

               “Hey. Are you ready?”

               I tilt my head. “We’re going out? Isn’t it kinda late?”

               “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you from the monsters.” There’s a bit of the old self-confidence I remember him having.

               “Oh my knight in shining armor.” I follow Riku to the docks and I should’ve known he’d be taking me to the smaller island; it was his favorite place to hang out. But I’ve never been there at night so this will be a new experience for me.

               After he’s tied up the little boat, he offers a hand to me. “Careful.”

               “You’ve become quite the gentleman,” I tease, taking his hand.

               My joking goes right out the window when he pulls me up with absolutely no effort. “I think not wanting my date to hurt themself is just common courtesy.”

               “Fair enough.” I pray he doesn’t catch the mild quaver in the two words. “So what exactly are we doing out here?”

               “Whatever you want; just hanging out,” he says, walking out onto the moonlit beach. With a grunt, he plops down into the soft, white sand. With a bit more grace, I sit beside him.

               The ocean before us is dazzling. The water is calm, gently lapping at the land and reflecting the light from above. An endless sky is filled with millions of twinkling stars painting shades of blue and purple around the shining moon. There are no birds or strangers to interrupt the white-noise of the water; just us. And we’re not exactly quiet. We talk and laugh and joke about all sorts of things. I get vague hints that Riku’s time away had been quite an ordeal but we skirt around those topics. Still, I feel like I’m finally connecting to him; I’m not hiding anything or hinting at hidden feelings. I’m able to fully express myself. And though he may not be as snarky as he had been, I’m still enamored all the same.

               “It’s funny.” Riku says, looking up to the stars. “I wanted nothing more than to get off this island, but when I found out about you, I couldn’t wait to get back.

               Thank goodness it’s dark. “That’s kind of a silly reason to suddenly change your dreams.”

               “Not after the adventure I’ve had.” I don’t get a chance to dwell on the darkness in his words. Instead, my heart jumps into my throat when his hand sits on top of mind with a gentle squeeze. “Besides, I think you’re discounting yourself way too much. You’re worth changing dreams for.”

               What the hell do I say to that?! I sigh. “I know I was flirting with you but that doesn’t mean you have to do this. You don’t owe me anything. If you want, we can just-”

               My words are effectively silenced. It’s not smooth or gentle but Riku jams our lips together. I never would use the word awkward to describe him but this is terribly so. I still don’t hate it.

               I don’t know if it’s my own blush or the heat rolling off him, but the air between us is hot. When he breaks away, there’s that smile—I can die happy now.

               “If you end that sentence with ‘be friends,’ I’m going to throw you in the ocean,” he warns, a note of longing there.

               The astonishment in me takes a dive, succeeded by desire. Pulling myself up by his jacket, I swing a leg over Riku’s. My hands weave into his hair, pushing the locks from his face, revealing those beautiful teal eyes. Without another moment’s hesitation, I take a second kiss.

               First kisses are overrated. They’re awkward and never certain of both people’s feelings. But second kisses; with the confidence, understanding, and trust; those are the moments of passion that melt hearts. I am no exception. My insides are filled with thousands of butterflies but I can’t get enough—I will never get enough. I could live in this moment forever: just the two of us in this beautiful scene with our new-found love. I would’ve been gone only a moment too soon had I died earlier.

               Lips part, gasping for air. My eyes rapidly scan his face, trying to commit this moment to memory. Then the wave of euphoria washes over me and I let out a breathy laugh.

               “Fine. We’re not friends.”

~~~~~

Months Later…

               I trail through the sand, water lapping at my feet, birds cawing overhead, sun raining warmth on this quiet, little, lonely island.

               It’s been several months and it sucks. I got warning this time that he was going, but that doesn’t make me feel any better about his absence. The way he talked about it was like I may never see him again and he wouldn’t even give me any details. It was just ‘I gotta go’ and ‘I don’t know if I’ll come back,’ then he kissed me and disappeared; left me crying on the beach by myself. Even Sora and eventually Kairi disappeared too, but no, I get left behind. I’ve been flipping between anger and depression so much sometimes I just cry while I break things. Maybe it was ridiculous for me to think we’d always be together, maybe it would’ve been easier if he just said he was sick of me, but the fact that we were still so infatuated when he left makes this all the more miserable. I had less than a year to fall head-over-heels in love with him and, boy, did he leave his mark.

               Today’s one of those low days, where I miss him so much it almost hurts. So I’m on the little island, hoping for distractions; I’d even take memories of our little moments here—anything to dull the pain.

               Another round of sorrow creeps up on me and I take a moment to attempt clearing my vision.

               “Hey gorgeous.”

               My heart shudders so forcefully everything goes black and my ears ring. It clears quickly enough that I whirl around. He’s there, gasping like he ran a marathon to get here. I can’t believe it; also, I can’t take it. I take a running leap at Riku who falls on his ass to catch me.

               Sobbing into his shoulder, I manage to get out, “You’re not allowed to leave me again. I swear to the gods that I will tie you down if I have to.”

               Hugging me with his entire body, Riku answers, “I have so much to tell you.”