The long-awaited Larxene Sequence post. Ah yes. The sequence that starts in Corona and ends in Deep Space. And while I could have talked about it a little bit at a a time in the last two posts I did, I elected not to.
Gosh, I don't even know how long ago it was now. A year, two? But rar was talking about a crack sequence where her Riku (the Riku Replica from KH canon) comes back to the original universe (mine circa pre-3D) to take revenge on Larxene. I saw her talking about it on Tumblr and I was like... "so what were you planning on doing with that?" And she told me and I said "well, how about we just make that canon"
And I'm so glad I did.
I integrated it into the rough outline for Remnants when I made the outline over a year ago. About six months ago (maybe it was eight though, time gets screwy in my head because of how many states I've lived in this year) she and I sat down and really fleshed out what happens when. This is terribly important because we're dealing with cross-universe travel where my universe runs on average three times faster. Which is why we've got Larxene stuff going on in my universe so back-to-back but in hers there were a couple of chapters in between parts.
We elected to each write different POVs of the same things so that way they could be integrated into Remnants and All that Remains. That way we weren't messing with Some Things You Can't Escape and still had coherent story arcs without making you guys jump between fics.
So it starts in Corona. The Namine Replica and the other Kairi show up in my universe. It's decided that Namine, Kairi, and Riku are going to go. Ironically, that makes for two Kairis, two Namines, and two Rikus in the same scene. But hey, it's amusing. My Namine went because I wanted the two of them to interact and her going after him as he's trying to take revenge is much more poignant than her going to rescue him from Larxene. (Heck, that might just be insult to injury.) Riku went because of all the darkness floating around and he's the best one for the job. And who doesn't love two powerousing Kairi's going around?
The counting scene between Namine and the Riku Replica came from another fanfic I read about their time in Castle Oblivion. Though it's not touched on much in either rar's or my universe... their time sucked. It sucked a lot. He got rewritten, a lot. They hid from Larxene... a lot. They came up with tricks to fight through the pain--that's one of them.
The action went into Riku's POV because I wanted a variance of POVs and I knew I wanted Namine for the aftermath. And Kairi was responsible for the Corona POV. So Riku got this bit. But it worked well because then he could see what was going on between Namine and the Riku Replica and he's pretty invested because he's been through CO too. Anyone who remembers CO is changed. Heck, Sora's changed and he doesn't remember it.
I don't know why I write for Larxene so well. But I do. And I hate myself a little. But at the same time I bounce up and down with excitement because yay writing!
She's so messed up from the darkness, too. It's disgusting.
Then we get Namine arguing with the Namine Replica over who should be responsible for taking blows made for Riku. And they can really only agree on "he shouldn't" . Namine and the Riku Replica get to reconcile a bit. Because, she's happy he's alive. She's happy she didn't screw him up. She's happy he's moved on, because she didn't return his affection. (She knew it wasn't real and she didn't really have affection for anyone at that point.) At the same time, she tells the Riku Replica that she's moved on from being afraid of Larxene--because if there's one thing that Namine's done, even since All the Pieces, it's get stronger and less afraid. I'm so happy with her character development. And this scene really encapsulates it.
Then comes the next chapter, which was stuff I knew had to be discussed, but rar and I decided that it didn't need to happen in front of the Riku Replica. And this is the stuff about Namine and shattering. And how she doesn't want to touch Larxene's memories. At all. She's messed with Xehanort's a bit, but she doesn't want to touch Larxene. She doesn't want to relive any of that. She doesn't want to see what happened to her and the Riku Replica through Larxene's eyes. She doesn't want to put herself through that--and I. Don't. Blame. Her.
That whole thing started when rar and I were talking about who was actually going to kill Larxene. Naturally, the idea of Namine shattering Larxene came up. And neither Namine nor I liked the idea. That is why.
The next chapter of this sequence is the Larxene POV chapter. I don't really know why I decided to do that, but Larxene was presenting me with information, so I took it. I took her anger, her crazy, her messed up mind, and I wrote a chapter out of it. She's scared of a couple of things (her emotions included) and angry at everything else. And she's going to take it out on the Riku Replica. Because he started it.
Vexen's bit was great, too. Because Vexen at first is just like "oh, I wasn't aware that we had any Larxene Replicas left" and Riku's like "that's the actual Larxene because I may have tried to murder her in cold blood." But then Vexen gets a golden moment and gets to protect Riku and it's great. Not that it was terribly effective--but he tried!
Then Vexen, Aerith, and Namine show up in my universe and take Axel, Roxas, and Xion with them to go save Riku from Larxene. Axel literally just went because he wanted to mess with Vexen. Because Axel's on his own side. Yup.
Axel and Larxene opposing each other is a beautiful thing. Because they have a history. That whole CO thing. Axel goes into his pattern of lazy defense. And then he goes and forms his specialty of vertical dark corridors to allow Riku to fall through and right into his arms. Because Axel's good at that sort of thing. Oh man, and the whole "got it memorized" thing that he does to Aerith. Golden. Same with him saying that he should have killed Larxene back in CO. Any of the times. Because the last time, he just sent her to Atlantica. And he's probably regretting that right about now. But hey, it's time to finish her once and for all.
I have to admit, Roxas and Xion aren't necessarily out of their league, but they really don't know what to do with Larxene. Neither of them know her all that well. Not like Axel or Vexen who have histories with her. Gosh. The history between the three of them is rich.
"Stop throwing your ice where I'm throwing my fire and we won't have this problem."
Because they would.
Then comes the big reveal of Vexen. I don't entirely remember why I wanted him to keep that secret. Maybe so there could be a big reveal. Maybe because Larxene might throw less hatred in his direction. But he kept it from her and then she got to realize through his caring about Riku who he was. Fun times.
Larxene being distressed about potentially being an experiment of his is a glorious thing.
And then Vexen's the one to kill her. Because rar and I decided that was appropriate. But she talked about that on her blog, so I'll just leave it at that.
And for once, Axel doesn't take all the credit. But he demands that Vexen thank him. And Vexen thanks him without a second thought because Vexen is indeed helpful but "Don't make me say it again, Axel." Because yeah.
Kay, I think I'm out of juice for this, but I did talk a lot. I hope you enjoyed what is probably one of my top three sequences in this whole fic.
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Friday, January 23, 2015
Deep Space (various chapters between 70 and 78)
Let's talk about Deep Space and not about Larxene, kay? Because I want to give the Larxene post a ton of justice and Ima put it off for one more post, kay?
Deep Space kind of got overshadowed by the Larxene sequence, but it's still just as vitally important. It's not like Corona, which was kind of just there because the whole plot of that was Marlynort causing trouble while action was elsewhere. There's a major plot point in Deep Space which is Xehanort attempting to Nort Terra. Which is a Big Deal.
But unrelated to even that at the moment, is how in Hollow Bastion, Aerith's house is FINALLY done expanding. For once, I actually know how many bedrooms she's got there because I redid the entire top floor and just added more bedrooms because I knew they were going to need them. (Simultaneously, Zack's changed the plans so that one of the bedrooms can become his and Aerith's room when they eventually get married. Yup. That happened.) Also, Cid and Shera are adorable and it's great. They'll be together working on crazy projects forever and I love them.
ALSO ALSO is Leon asking Cid for relationship advice because he doesn't have anyone else to ask and he just wants to know what to do with Rinoa. And it makes me think back to in the Prequel where Cid's watching Zack and Aerith be all lovey-dovey and he has a passing thought that Leon'll never get a girlfriend and then Rinoa shows up and BAM, Leon doesn't know it yet, but she's gonna be his girlfriend.
And Cid as everyone's father figure even though he didn't want to be is just another level of great.
Anyway, so Deep Space. More like, LILO AS A SPACE PILOT. I read a headcanon on Tumblr a while ago that included that and I was just like... I NEED TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. So, uh, I did. Her age is really something that I never ironed out, but whatever, she's still the youngest pilot ever amongst a whole ton of aliens and it's Super Cool.
And then Namine, Vexen, and Aerith show up and Axel's like: "Heheh, you're the real Vexen, I'm coming along to mess with you!" And then he volunteers Roxas and Xion while he's at it for maximized amazingness.
And THEN we have Ven, Aqua, and Terra showing up, which is just all sorts of beautiful because of their previous relationship with Deep Space and all that went on there. And the glorious reunion that gets to happen (as a couple of you have mentioned.)
Stitch's language was fun, because I actually went to Disney's website for Tantalog: http://stitchdatabase.wikia.com/wiki/Tantalog_language and got all of my information from there. It was a bit interesting working on sentences with structure that had all the appropriate words in them. But it was a fun experiment.
And mixed in with all of this is Tifa trying to figure out what's up with Zack and Aerith but also a great fight with Hades. I love integrating Tifa's future plans, because now that Aerith's house is done, everyone gets to think of the next projects and I'm setting things up for the end here. Also, small commitment apples are something that my Hapkido instructor called small apples (or pears) and I just had to use the phrase.
I really loved the image of Cloud and Tifa barreling through the Betwixt and Between trying to get rid of Hades' hounds. I think I got the idea from rar... But anyway... I realized that I couldn't really do it justice because I couldn't think of a way to write it that wouldn't be boring. So instead I just had Cloud blame it on being old and then impulsively go and fight Hades. Granted, he ended up with the Hero's Medallion on his own. I remember writing that sequence and Cloud's like, yup, got it from Zack and I'm like "WHEN?!? I didn't write that!!!"
But anyway, back to the Remnant trying to destroy Terra's life. I wanted a Remnant to try and Nort Terra from the very beginning, just not AT the beginning. Because I wanted it to be one of the stronger ones... I wanted Terra to be stronger and I wanted the Remnant to be stronger. The Remnant was probably banking on Terra's being successful, so he didn't try initially. Terra, meanwhile, had more time for his heart to grow and recuperate. And so then we get the really epic conversation in Terra's heart where he's trying to banish Xehanort.
But the line "How many times have you reincarnated yourself?" is just so amazing, because it's followed by "Only the one boy. If it had been more, rest assured you wouldn't be here right now." "You'd better not be lying!" "I assure you, if I had more practice, you would have remained a vessel."
Xehanort is just so dang cocky! But he's also matter-of-fact and that whole scene just gave me shivers.
And then we've got Kuin actually running into Xigbar. Xigbar who, before this, has literally just been beach-hopping and staying under everyone's radar. He managed because most people forgot that he didn't survive the battle of Castle Oblivion. I loved putting Kuin up against him because we've got two gunners who are full of themselves in different ways clashing and it leads to beautiful things.
Then we've also got Mickey going up against Marlynort. Because Mickey's been up to a lot of things, which is what this chapter was supposed to address from the beginning, but then I figured that Marlynort should also be up to something, so hey, why not make a few things line up. So Mickey fights Marlynort and gets an idea of what everyone's up against.
And then Xion, Axel, and Roxas return just in time for Terra to finish off his inner Xehanort. And he's rid of Xehanort for good. And all is well for Terra.
I feel like I should have more to say and I know I've done more in the past, but that's all I've got for right now. Prepare for a Larxene Sequence post in the next few days.
Deep Space kind of got overshadowed by the Larxene sequence, but it's still just as vitally important. It's not like Corona, which was kind of just there because the whole plot of that was Marlynort causing trouble while action was elsewhere. There's a major plot point in Deep Space which is Xehanort attempting to Nort Terra. Which is a Big Deal.
But unrelated to even that at the moment, is how in Hollow Bastion, Aerith's house is FINALLY done expanding. For once, I actually know how many bedrooms she's got there because I redid the entire top floor and just added more bedrooms because I knew they were going to need them. (Simultaneously, Zack's changed the plans so that one of the bedrooms can become his and Aerith's room when they eventually get married. Yup. That happened.) Also, Cid and Shera are adorable and it's great. They'll be together working on crazy projects forever and I love them.
ALSO ALSO is Leon asking Cid for relationship advice because he doesn't have anyone else to ask and he just wants to know what to do with Rinoa. And it makes me think back to in the Prequel where Cid's watching Zack and Aerith be all lovey-dovey and he has a passing thought that Leon'll never get a girlfriend and then Rinoa shows up and BAM, Leon doesn't know it yet, but she's gonna be his girlfriend.
And Cid as everyone's father figure even though he didn't want to be is just another level of great.
Anyway, so Deep Space. More like, LILO AS A SPACE PILOT. I read a headcanon on Tumblr a while ago that included that and I was just like... I NEED TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. So, uh, I did. Her age is really something that I never ironed out, but whatever, she's still the youngest pilot ever amongst a whole ton of aliens and it's Super Cool.
And then Namine, Vexen, and Aerith show up and Axel's like: "Heheh, you're the real Vexen, I'm coming along to mess with you!" And then he volunteers Roxas and Xion while he's at it for maximized amazingness.
And THEN we have Ven, Aqua, and Terra showing up, which is just all sorts of beautiful because of their previous relationship with Deep Space and all that went on there. And the glorious reunion that gets to happen (as a couple of you have mentioned.)
Stitch's language was fun, because I actually went to Disney's website for Tantalog: http://stitchdatabase.wikia.com/wiki/Tantalog_language and got all of my information from there. It was a bit interesting working on sentences with structure that had all the appropriate words in them. But it was a fun experiment.
And mixed in with all of this is Tifa trying to figure out what's up with Zack and Aerith but also a great fight with Hades. I love integrating Tifa's future plans, because now that Aerith's house is done, everyone gets to think of the next projects and I'm setting things up for the end here. Also, small commitment apples are something that my Hapkido instructor called small apples (or pears) and I just had to use the phrase.
I really loved the image of Cloud and Tifa barreling through the Betwixt and Between trying to get rid of Hades' hounds. I think I got the idea from rar... But anyway... I realized that I couldn't really do it justice because I couldn't think of a way to write it that wouldn't be boring. So instead I just had Cloud blame it on being old and then impulsively go and fight Hades. Granted, he ended up with the Hero's Medallion on his own. I remember writing that sequence and Cloud's like, yup, got it from Zack and I'm like "WHEN?!? I didn't write that!!!"
But anyway, back to the Remnant trying to destroy Terra's life. I wanted a Remnant to try and Nort Terra from the very beginning, just not AT the beginning. Because I wanted it to be one of the stronger ones... I wanted Terra to be stronger and I wanted the Remnant to be stronger. The Remnant was probably banking on Terra's being successful, so he didn't try initially. Terra, meanwhile, had more time for his heart to grow and recuperate. And so then we get the really epic conversation in Terra's heart where he's trying to banish Xehanort.
But the line "How many times have you reincarnated yourself?" is just so amazing, because it's followed by "Only the one boy. If it had been more, rest assured you wouldn't be here right now." "You'd better not be lying!" "I assure you, if I had more practice, you would have remained a vessel."
Xehanort is just so dang cocky! But he's also matter-of-fact and that whole scene just gave me shivers.
And then we've got Kuin actually running into Xigbar. Xigbar who, before this, has literally just been beach-hopping and staying under everyone's radar. He managed because most people forgot that he didn't survive the battle of Castle Oblivion. I loved putting Kuin up against him because we've got two gunners who are full of themselves in different ways clashing and it leads to beautiful things.
Then we've also got Mickey going up against Marlynort. Because Mickey's been up to a lot of things, which is what this chapter was supposed to address from the beginning, but then I figured that Marlynort should also be up to something, so hey, why not make a few things line up. So Mickey fights Marlynort and gets an idea of what everyone's up against.
And then Xion, Axel, and Roxas return just in time for Terra to finish off his inner Xehanort. And he's rid of Xehanort for good. And all is well for Terra.
I feel like I should have more to say and I know I've done more in the past, but that's all I've got for right now. Prepare for a Larxene Sequence post in the next few days.
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Corona etc (58-68)
I know that the Larxene Sequence happens in here as well, but I'm saving that for another post because it deserves its own post, not to be lumped in with this one.
Granted, the Corona arc isn't a major arc. The main event is certainly what's going on with Larxene at the same time. However, Corona is important.
But, before I talk about that, let's talk about Zack and Aerith getting engaged!
It seems like so long ago that Zack ran off to get a symbol for their relationship. (Who all guess it was going to be an engagement ring?) I left it open originally partially because I wasn't sure what the trinket was going to be. I thought of other things he could get her that would effectively be the same thing. But I decided that the small ring was perfect anyway.
I wrote chapters 56 (the end of the last arc) and 57 back-to-back within the same day. The aftermath of Marluxia--excuse me, Marlynort--was exhilarating (regardless of how depressing it was) to write. And then there was chapter 57 which was all the happy Zerith feels. I didn't even have to work to hard at it. The words just flew onto the page. And now they're happily engaged and all is right with the Worlds. Or something cheesy like that.
Chapter 58 was a pain to write because after chapter 57, nothing was interesting. But I managed. Granted, nothing terribly exciting happens in that chapter, much of it is just Sora's thoughts, but hey, they get to Corona.
I don't remember, but I think chapter 59 was a quickish one to write. The ones where I split up the POVs tend to happen that way. Granted, it was all mostly filler: Kuin looking for Xigbar but not actually finding him, Marlene and Barret arriving in Hollow Bastion, Yuffie blowing up something in Cid's workshop and having to deal with it. Nothing terribly plot important, but did allow for character development. Mostly for Yuffie though, honestly. She's been growing up a lot this fic. And her actually taking responsibility for something without being coerced is good.
Then there's the events of Corona, or at least the first part anyway. Corona's not a place that's been having a lot of problems. Things are quiet. Rapunzel and Flynn are away at the coronation ceremony preceding Elsa's outburst that froze the place. The King and Queen of Corona are just going about their business when Marlynort shows up and starts to cause trouble. Naturally, Sora and his friends sign themselves up to take care of the problem. They take time finding Marlynort because he's a true Chaotic Evil and is enjoying causing a ruckus. This is where the Namine Replica shows up and those shenanigans begin.
The Cloud chapter makes me really happy. Because the first bit of it is him trying to figure out what's going on with Zack and Aerith--because they haven't told anybody yet. (Too much thought of elopement to say anything yet.) And then Sephiroth shows up and Leon and Cloud fight him and win. It's great.
And just when you thought I wasn't going to throw a Remnant at you because of Marlynort and Larxene and everything, a wild Remnant appears in Disney Town and tries to go after none other than Demyx. Poor Demyx. Not that that's going to happen if Terra, Ven, and Aqua have a say. And when the going got tough, Mickey and Minnie both showed up and were BAMF. I love writing for the two of them. They are amazing and wonderful and my forevership. I don't remember rar's exact reaction upon reading it, but it was definitely like "YOUREGIVING ME MICKEYXMINNIE FEELS AND I JUST>>> AAAAAAHHHHH...."
Cue battle with Marlynort that's really hard when your forces are cut in half. (Like seriously, imagine game mechanics where you're FORCED to do that battle halved because the other half of your party is off fighting Larxene.) (I'd like to think that you could choose the party that went, but for that battle with Larxene (and what follows it) it's kind of necessary that the people that went went.) And after the battle, cue everyone being uneasy because Marlynort talks a good show.
Then, HAVE SOME MORE FLUFF (which I'm sure is what I said to rar when I sent her the chapter) with Zack and Aerith announcing their engagement and upcoming wedding.
And Corona is quietly wrapped up and the others return and they head off to Deep Space for the next adventure.
Larxene stuff to come.
Granted, the Corona arc isn't a major arc. The main event is certainly what's going on with Larxene at the same time. However, Corona is important.
But, before I talk about that, let's talk about Zack and Aerith getting engaged!
It seems like so long ago that Zack ran off to get a symbol for their relationship. (Who all guess it was going to be an engagement ring?) I left it open originally partially because I wasn't sure what the trinket was going to be. I thought of other things he could get her that would effectively be the same thing. But I decided that the small ring was perfect anyway.
I wrote chapters 56 (the end of the last arc) and 57 back-to-back within the same day. The aftermath of Marluxia--excuse me, Marlynort--was exhilarating (regardless of how depressing it was) to write. And then there was chapter 57 which was all the happy Zerith feels. I didn't even have to work to hard at it. The words just flew onto the page. And now they're happily engaged and all is right with the Worlds. Or something cheesy like that.
Chapter 58 was a pain to write because after chapter 57, nothing was interesting. But I managed. Granted, nothing terribly exciting happens in that chapter, much of it is just Sora's thoughts, but hey, they get to Corona.
I don't remember, but I think chapter 59 was a quickish one to write. The ones where I split up the POVs tend to happen that way. Granted, it was all mostly filler: Kuin looking for Xigbar but not actually finding him, Marlene and Barret arriving in Hollow Bastion, Yuffie blowing up something in Cid's workshop and having to deal with it. Nothing terribly plot important, but did allow for character development. Mostly for Yuffie though, honestly. She's been growing up a lot this fic. And her actually taking responsibility for something without being coerced is good.
Then there's the events of Corona, or at least the first part anyway. Corona's not a place that's been having a lot of problems. Things are quiet. Rapunzel and Flynn are away at the coronation ceremony preceding Elsa's outburst that froze the place. The King and Queen of Corona are just going about their business when Marlynort shows up and starts to cause trouble. Naturally, Sora and his friends sign themselves up to take care of the problem. They take time finding Marlynort because he's a true Chaotic Evil and is enjoying causing a ruckus. This is where the Namine Replica shows up and those shenanigans begin.
The Cloud chapter makes me really happy. Because the first bit of it is him trying to figure out what's going on with Zack and Aerith--because they haven't told anybody yet. (Too much thought of elopement to say anything yet.) And then Sephiroth shows up and Leon and Cloud fight him and win. It's great.
And just when you thought I wasn't going to throw a Remnant at you because of Marlynort and Larxene and everything, a wild Remnant appears in Disney Town and tries to go after none other than Demyx. Poor Demyx. Not that that's going to happen if Terra, Ven, and Aqua have a say. And when the going got tough, Mickey and Minnie both showed up and were BAMF. I love writing for the two of them. They are amazing and wonderful and my forevership. I don't remember rar's exact reaction upon reading it, but it was definitely like "YOUREGIVING ME MICKEYXMINNIE FEELS AND I JUST>>> AAAAAAHHHHH...."
Cue battle with Marlynort that's really hard when your forces are cut in half. (Like seriously, imagine game mechanics where you're FORCED to do that battle halved because the other half of your party is off fighting Larxene.) (I'd like to think that you could choose the party that went, but for that battle with Larxene (and what follows it) it's kind of necessary that the people that went went.) And after the battle, cue everyone being uneasy because Marlynort talks a good show.
Then, HAVE SOME MORE FLUFF (which I'm sure is what I said to rar when I sent her the chapter) with Zack and Aerith announcing their engagement and upcoming wedding.
And Corona is quietly wrapped up and the others return and they head off to Deep Space for the next adventure.
Larxene stuff to come.
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Twilight Town Feels (Chapters 53-57)
I'm breaking off this arc at 56 and not 58 because of what 57 is. Jsyk.
I think originally, the Twilight Town arc wasn't going to be anything big. Like, it was initially just going to be amusing because Cloud and Tifa are there on business with Barret and Marlene and Sora and the gang end up interrupting. And it would all be fun and games.
And then I was putting in the Remnant's side of the story and placing important bits of the Larxene Sequence that I'm sure you're all dying to hear my thoughts about but I won't say anything about yet (I have things to catch up on!)... When I started placing the villains' sides of the story I realized that Twilight Town was going to be so much more.
Because that is where the Remnant successfully norts Marluxia.
And I don't care if you saw it coming or didn't see it coming. I like the way it all played out.
Because first we've got the funsies of Cid building them a new ship. (not initially planned, but then that blizzard in Arendelle happened and it just sort of went from there.) This is then followed by the mundane act of clothes shopping and then food and chatting with Hayner, Pence, and Olette.
Then we have Cloud and Tifa going to talk to Barret and Marlene. I almost forgot to include Denzel in this scene, and had to go back and rewrite the first half of the chapter to include him! I felt so bad! But he needed to be there and the scene certainly benefited from it. Denzel and Marlene's interactions!
And then we've got Axel's POV with a really blase attitude towards the Remnant battle. That is, until the Remnant goes for his heart. And this isn't the first time that Axel's had his heart played with by Xehanort. Xehanort played with Axel's darkness levels back in AtP. Axel knows what's going on, but he doesn't even have room to be scared.
But Axel is saved because Larxene and Marluxia show up and the Remnant picks a new target. Axel's a stubborn target for a plethora of reasons. And Marluxia proves to be an easy target. And the success of the norting gives everyone else a feeling of hopelessness.
Then, we interrupt that programming to see Aqua, Terra, and Ven in the Pride Lands. This chapter was literally designed to give Aqua some time to think about what Xehanort had done. That, and suggest that Xehanort is the reason why Scar turned into the person (lion) he did well before the fic's events. 'Cause it was fun.
Then I switch to Xion and the aftermath of Marlynort's existence. I don't know where the name Marlynort came from, but I probably coined it in a conversation with rar and then it stuck. Then Xion got to be the one to name him.
And then we get into the seriousness that is basically them all saying if they're nort, they need to die. Like in a zombie film or something. There's not much to say about that. I think it speaks for itself.
A+ tooting my own horn:
-Riku saying they have enough munny to buy a house
-Kairi keeping everyone on track
-Roxas worrying about weird things because he's trying to be all normal when he knows he's not
-Roxas knowing more about Twilight Town than anyone else because he has data memories of growing up there that while aren't real, give him a pretty nice layout of the place in his head
-Tifa and Cloud being intentionally vague about their relationship
-Barret yelling at Sora and friends because they're "annoying teenagers"
-Barret saying that Leon's got a bad business model
-The line "The reason for Hollow Bastion's problems and at least thirteen other ones"
-Roxas being protective over the residential district and Cloud being protective over his bike
-Marlynort
-Larxene calling Marlynort a bastard
-Marlynort monologuing
I think originally, the Twilight Town arc wasn't going to be anything big. Like, it was initially just going to be amusing because Cloud and Tifa are there on business with Barret and Marlene and Sora and the gang end up interrupting. And it would all be fun and games.
And then I was putting in the Remnant's side of the story and placing important bits of the Larxene Sequence that I'm sure you're all dying to hear my thoughts about but I won't say anything about yet (I have things to catch up on!)... When I started placing the villains' sides of the story I realized that Twilight Town was going to be so much more.
Because that is where the Remnant successfully norts Marluxia.
And I don't care if you saw it coming or didn't see it coming. I like the way it all played out.
Because first we've got the funsies of Cid building them a new ship. (not initially planned, but then that blizzard in Arendelle happened and it just sort of went from there.) This is then followed by the mundane act of clothes shopping and then food and chatting with Hayner, Pence, and Olette.
Then we have Cloud and Tifa going to talk to Barret and Marlene. I almost forgot to include Denzel in this scene, and had to go back and rewrite the first half of the chapter to include him! I felt so bad! But he needed to be there and the scene certainly benefited from it. Denzel and Marlene's interactions!
And then we've got Axel's POV with a really blase attitude towards the Remnant battle. That is, until the Remnant goes for his heart. And this isn't the first time that Axel's had his heart played with by Xehanort. Xehanort played with Axel's darkness levels back in AtP. Axel knows what's going on, but he doesn't even have room to be scared.
But Axel is saved because Larxene and Marluxia show up and the Remnant picks a new target. Axel's a stubborn target for a plethora of reasons. And Marluxia proves to be an easy target. And the success of the norting gives everyone else a feeling of hopelessness.
Then, we interrupt that programming to see Aqua, Terra, and Ven in the Pride Lands. This chapter was literally designed to give Aqua some time to think about what Xehanort had done. That, and suggest that Xehanort is the reason why Scar turned into the person (lion) he did well before the fic's events. 'Cause it was fun.
Then I switch to Xion and the aftermath of Marlynort's existence. I don't know where the name Marlynort came from, but I probably coined it in a conversation with rar and then it stuck. Then Xion got to be the one to name him.
And then we get into the seriousness that is basically them all saying if they're nort, they need to die. Like in a zombie film or something. There's not much to say about that. I think it speaks for itself.
A+ tooting my own horn:
-Riku saying they have enough munny to buy a house
-Kairi keeping everyone on track
-Roxas worrying about weird things because he's trying to be all normal when he knows he's not
-Roxas knowing more about Twilight Town than anyone else because he has data memories of growing up there that while aren't real, give him a pretty nice layout of the place in his head
-Tifa and Cloud being intentionally vague about their relationship
-Barret yelling at Sora and friends because they're "annoying teenagers"
-Barret saying that Leon's got a bad business model
-The line "The reason for Hollow Bastion's problems and at least thirteen other ones"
-Roxas being protective over the residential district and Cloud being protective over his bike
-Marlynort
-Larxene calling Marlynort a bastard
-Marlynort monologuing
Friday, January 2, 2015
Arendelle (aka Frozen) (Chapter 41-52)
My longest sequence yet, pretty much entirely because I split the group in two and did alternating POVs within the main group to get more story. I had story with Elsa and also one with Anna. I split the group firstly in the most logical way I could think: Kairi, Namine, and Roxas with Anna; Sora, Riku, Xion, Axel with Elsa.
First I wanted to split up the couples because there always is someone who freaks that their counterpart is not there. I wanted to send Axel to Elsa because of the contrast in ice and fire. I also wanted Riku to have the opportunity to talk to Elsa about dark pasts. Sora's great at bringing even the most stubborn person to a place where they'll talk. And I couldn't just have all the boys go one place and the girls another, so Xion went with them. Plus, that enabled me to have fun with the Xion-Axel dynamic. I love their friendship. It's fantastic. This split allowed Namine and Kairi to become suspicious of Anna's "I just met him but I want to marry him" antics, and also allowed them to be terribly suspicious of Hans, but Roxas, who misses those social cues, would be rather oblivious to it. It also allowed for Roxas and Kristoff to kind of bond in a weird way over how women behave weirdly.
Of course, after they all meet up in Elsa's ice castle, everyone gets to talk to everyone. Namine and Elsa talking is particularly a necessity. (That and Namine fixes Anna's memory issue--something that I didn't think solved in the movie.) Then, when the guards come in and everyone gets split up again, it doesn't stick with the original splits, because I thought that would be weird. Granted, Namine and Xion were the only two that swapped, but that's how the battle ended up lining up.
Me doing a Frozen story was in part because I knew Frozen was popular and it fit well into the Kingdom Hearts universe. The other reason I did it was because I thought that the original story of Frozen had a lot of plot holes in it that putting it into the bounds of Kingdom Hearts could fix (granted, the movie itself could just have parts rewritten to be better, but this was my golden opportunity so I took it.) And I stuck pretty close to a story that Kingdom Hearts got a hold of. The most major difference I think was Hans' ability to use Fire. Something that I added because I saw a tumblr most months ago postulating that Hans might have fire powers, due to him always wearing gloves and how that would make for an interesting plot twist.
The biggest things that I chose to "fix" were Anna and Elsa's relationship to each other, the events in the ice castle, and Anna's trip to the trolls. I wanted some real stuff to be solved in the trip to the ice castle, not a whole bunch of people not listening to each other. Namine fixing Anna's memory and informing Elsa about it was also part of it and obviously something that can only happen in my canon. Even without that, some sort of explanation about why Anna can be told now would have been nice as far as the actual movie went. I took out everything unnecessary regarding the trolls (which was most of it as far as the middle of the movie was concerned.) All that needed to happen was the bit about true love--no obnoxious shipping songs, no bunny trails, just straight-to-the-point moving the plot forward. Fluff is nice, obnoxious shipping songs are not.
And I'm sure ya'll hate me now because I've critiqued Frozen. But I don't care. I rewrote this to make myself feel better about some SERIOUS issues with the writing. Come on, Disney, you're better than that.
And during all that I also have Cloud being more of a reasonable human being instead of his broody self. I'm not sure why he started acting happier, but he did. He started taking blows as they came instead of worrying about the next sixteen of them. Even Hades' hellhounds didn't put a damper on his mood.
Then I also have Terra, Aqua, and Ven poking around on Kuin's homeworld. I was thinking of a place that they could go to learn something about Xehanort and I remembered that he'd taken particular offense to Kuin's people so there was as good a place as any. They also had the overlaid negative feelings because negativity was a motif for this part of the fic. And Terra being able to recognize them was great. And then they run into Kuin--they run into Kuin more than anyone else this fic, go figure--and they talk some sense into her. Kuin's not been doing so hot because the events of the past 20 years are catching up to her. And the three of them are so great, they convince her that working together is better than not working together.
Ima take a moment and talk about Axel's relationship with Xion. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I'll mention it again anyway. I love their friendship. It reminds me of me and a friend of mine actually. The age difference (his and mine and the apparent age difference between Xion and Axel) is definitely something fun to play with. It's almost brother-sisterly, but at the same time it's very much friendship based. And they just poke so much fun at each other it's great.
I also love Xion's reactions to the World around her. Because her time in the Organization didn't really give her a good idea of what any of that was. And then she went to Riku's place and spent all the time that anyone else would be sleeping reading books and so she has a bit of a skewed sense of reality and it shows up in funny moments. Like when the trolls started mentioning true love.
And just when you thought we weren't going to deal with a Remnant for a while, I throw one at you and he tries to Nort Aqua. Obviously it's not effective because Aqua's heart is strong and she puts up a great struggle (and Kuin very nearly becomes a huge coward) but Aqua now has a bit of Xehanort's memories to paw through and a lot to think about.
Then I've got quiet expansions in Hollow Bastion. Not taking too much time out of the story to go over minutia, but the school foundation has been found, Space Paranoids is being expanded (I half wanted it to include something like int he world of Wreck it Ralph, but I didn't have the time to do that in the fic as a whole.) Additionally, the magic is returning to the place, and everyone's quietly taking bets as to what Zack is up to. Oh, and Cloud's perkier.
Things I'm down with:
-The idea that there are some Worlds not touched by Heartless
-Sora channeling Goofy
-Riku insisting to Elsa that he's seen worse
-Xion being blunt
-Sora, Riku, Xion, and Axel helping Elsa get control of her powers
-Cloud getting better
-Cloud trying to get rid of the hellhounds by stopping random places inside and outside the Betwixt and Between
-Kristoff being shocked that Roxas, Namine, and Kairi have seen worse and weirder than his current situation
-Terra's ability to recognize that negative feelings were probably a result of external forces
-The line "butt singed through the ice yet?"
-Axel flipping Xion off
-Namine downing an ether before she gets down to business
-Axel setting fire to a staircase
-Aerith just casually saying Denzel can stay (but meaning it very seriously)
-Yuffie telling Denzel that "they'll tell you when you're older"
-Sora somehow managing never to wake up in prison until Arendelle and Riku's bafflement about that
-Xion wondering why Kairi uses "perhapsy" words
-Xion expecting Anna and Kristoff to kiss because that's what happens in the books
-Kuin deciding to go after Xigbar with utmost determination
-Xion correctly assuming that the others are in prison though having no way of proving it until later
-The line "Hey Sora, how about you come find me and save me the trouble of finding you."
-Axel telling Elsa that not feeling is not cool, because he would know
-Them all poking fun at Hades
First I wanted to split up the couples because there always is someone who freaks that their counterpart is not there. I wanted to send Axel to Elsa because of the contrast in ice and fire. I also wanted Riku to have the opportunity to talk to Elsa about dark pasts. Sora's great at bringing even the most stubborn person to a place where they'll talk. And I couldn't just have all the boys go one place and the girls another, so Xion went with them. Plus, that enabled me to have fun with the Xion-Axel dynamic. I love their friendship. It's fantastic. This split allowed Namine and Kairi to become suspicious of Anna's "I just met him but I want to marry him" antics, and also allowed them to be terribly suspicious of Hans, but Roxas, who misses those social cues, would be rather oblivious to it. It also allowed for Roxas and Kristoff to kind of bond in a weird way over how women behave weirdly.
Of course, after they all meet up in Elsa's ice castle, everyone gets to talk to everyone. Namine and Elsa talking is particularly a necessity. (That and Namine fixes Anna's memory issue--something that I didn't think solved in the movie.) Then, when the guards come in and everyone gets split up again, it doesn't stick with the original splits, because I thought that would be weird. Granted, Namine and Xion were the only two that swapped, but that's how the battle ended up lining up.
Me doing a Frozen story was in part because I knew Frozen was popular and it fit well into the Kingdom Hearts universe. The other reason I did it was because I thought that the original story of Frozen had a lot of plot holes in it that putting it into the bounds of Kingdom Hearts could fix (granted, the movie itself could just have parts rewritten to be better, but this was my golden opportunity so I took it.) And I stuck pretty close to a story that Kingdom Hearts got a hold of. The most major difference I think was Hans' ability to use Fire. Something that I added because I saw a tumblr most months ago postulating that Hans might have fire powers, due to him always wearing gloves and how that would make for an interesting plot twist.
The biggest things that I chose to "fix" were Anna and Elsa's relationship to each other, the events in the ice castle, and Anna's trip to the trolls. I wanted some real stuff to be solved in the trip to the ice castle, not a whole bunch of people not listening to each other. Namine fixing Anna's memory and informing Elsa about it was also part of it and obviously something that can only happen in my canon. Even without that, some sort of explanation about why Anna can be told now would have been nice as far as the actual movie went. I took out everything unnecessary regarding the trolls (which was most of it as far as the middle of the movie was concerned.) All that needed to happen was the bit about true love--no obnoxious shipping songs, no bunny trails, just straight-to-the-point moving the plot forward. Fluff is nice, obnoxious shipping songs are not.
And I'm sure ya'll hate me now because I've critiqued Frozen. But I don't care. I rewrote this to make myself feel better about some SERIOUS issues with the writing. Come on, Disney, you're better than that.
And during all that I also have Cloud being more of a reasonable human being instead of his broody self. I'm not sure why he started acting happier, but he did. He started taking blows as they came instead of worrying about the next sixteen of them. Even Hades' hellhounds didn't put a damper on his mood.
Then I also have Terra, Aqua, and Ven poking around on Kuin's homeworld. I was thinking of a place that they could go to learn something about Xehanort and I remembered that he'd taken particular offense to Kuin's people so there was as good a place as any. They also had the overlaid negative feelings because negativity was a motif for this part of the fic. And Terra being able to recognize them was great. And then they run into Kuin--they run into Kuin more than anyone else this fic, go figure--and they talk some sense into her. Kuin's not been doing so hot because the events of the past 20 years are catching up to her. And the three of them are so great, they convince her that working together is better than not working together.
Ima take a moment and talk about Axel's relationship with Xion. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I'll mention it again anyway. I love their friendship. It reminds me of me and a friend of mine actually. The age difference (his and mine and the apparent age difference between Xion and Axel) is definitely something fun to play with. It's almost brother-sisterly, but at the same time it's very much friendship based. And they just poke so much fun at each other it's great.
I also love Xion's reactions to the World around her. Because her time in the Organization didn't really give her a good idea of what any of that was. And then she went to Riku's place and spent all the time that anyone else would be sleeping reading books and so she has a bit of a skewed sense of reality and it shows up in funny moments. Like when the trolls started mentioning true love.
And just when you thought we weren't going to deal with a Remnant for a while, I throw one at you and he tries to Nort Aqua. Obviously it's not effective because Aqua's heart is strong and she puts up a great struggle (and Kuin very nearly becomes a huge coward) but Aqua now has a bit of Xehanort's memories to paw through and a lot to think about.
Then I've got quiet expansions in Hollow Bastion. Not taking too much time out of the story to go over minutia, but the school foundation has been found, Space Paranoids is being expanded (I half wanted it to include something like int he world of Wreck it Ralph, but I didn't have the time to do that in the fic as a whole.) Additionally, the magic is returning to the place, and everyone's quietly taking bets as to what Zack is up to. Oh, and Cloud's perkier.
Things I'm down with:
-The idea that there are some Worlds not touched by Heartless
-Sora channeling Goofy
-Riku insisting to Elsa that he's seen worse
-Xion being blunt
-Sora, Riku, Xion, and Axel helping Elsa get control of her powers
-Cloud getting better
-Cloud trying to get rid of the hellhounds by stopping random places inside and outside the Betwixt and Between
-Kristoff being shocked that Roxas, Namine, and Kairi have seen worse and weirder than his current situation
-Terra's ability to recognize that negative feelings were probably a result of external forces
-The line "butt singed through the ice yet?"
-Axel flipping Xion off
-Namine downing an ether before she gets down to business
-Axel setting fire to a staircase
-Aerith just casually saying Denzel can stay (but meaning it very seriously)
-Yuffie telling Denzel that "they'll tell you when you're older"
-Sora somehow managing never to wake up in prison until Arendelle and Riku's bafflement about that
-Xion wondering why Kairi uses "perhapsy" words
-Xion expecting Anna and Kristoff to kiss because that's what happens in the books
-Kuin deciding to go after Xigbar with utmost determination
-Xion correctly assuming that the others are in prison though having no way of proving it until later
-The line "Hey Sora, how about you come find me and save me the trouble of finding you."
-Axel telling Elsa that not feeling is not cool, because he would know
-Them all poking fun at Hades
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Space Paranoids Arc (Chapters 34-40)
This arc was me fixing a lack of continuity between everything else I'd written. Because I hadn't been terribly clear about what had actually happened to Tron post-AtP. Especially since I'd done the whole "Tron's been kidnapped by CLU" thing and then I thought I said Cid fixed it, but I was overall really unclear and... yeah. So here, lemme straighten some things up.
Also, I wanted to play with the idea of Xion in Space Paranoids because of programming stuff and whatnot. I mean, I didn't do much besides a few glitches here and there due to less-than-100%-compatible programming, but hey, I had a Remnant in need of showing up. Also, biggest difference between Xion and another program: Xion bleeds.
Meanwhile, I've got some Mickey and Minnie fluff (because any scene with the two of them is some sort of fluff... even if they're beating the crap out of enemies.) And Mickey gets to do some behind-the-scenes work. Fun times!
Meanwhile meanwhile, Terra, Aqua, and Ven are in the Badlands. This is when Ven gets to have some temper problems. Because, face it, everyone at some point or another is super pissed about Xehanort's existence. And, it's gotta be annoying since he keeps coming back. And then he freaking does, right before their eyes. Like, Sephiroth kills him and he respawns. And Ven gets to get out some feels, which is good.
And I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the Remnant trying to nort Xion sequence. Because he really thinks he has it here, what with Xion being his puppet in the past. And he goes for it, and she just stares at him (meanwhile, Roxas is panicking because he thinks that Xion's lack of movement is a bad thing). But Xion's just like... "dude, what are you even doing? are you trying to take my heart because it's not working." (Granted, her body did go into stasis as a failsafe, but still) Because Namine freaking put in a failsafe! Muahahaha.
Oh yes, and then I have Leon taking Zack aside and being like "look man, if you love Aerith, then you need to let her know, okay? Because she doesn't want to believe it for fear of getting hurt, and I can't have you hurting my sister-like-person, kay?" And then Zack's like... I need to get Aerith something that is a symbol of our love. And so that arc begins.
Things I am 100% okay with:
-Denzel learning about the HB family
-Ven, Aqua, Terra working together to fight Xehanort and their command styles blending and recognizing when someone is going to go into a particular style
-Anything Mickey and Minnie
-Motorcycles/light cycles
-Vincent trying to figure out Cloud and Tifa's lives for no other reason than his own curiosity
-Cloud visiting his mother
-Xion casually talking about how Kairi thinks she's going crazy because Xion keeps flickering
-Xion and Roxas fighting with the discs like Axel fights with chakrams
-Roxas using Xion's blade (that whole concept of them being able to summon each other's blades is amazing to me)
-Namine smirking
-The line "Oh please, it doesn't take Riku's sense of smell to recognize your stench."
-The Leon-Zack-Aerith dynamic
-Zerith
Also, I wanted to play with the idea of Xion in Space Paranoids because of programming stuff and whatnot. I mean, I didn't do much besides a few glitches here and there due to less-than-100%-compatible programming, but hey, I had a Remnant in need of showing up. Also, biggest difference between Xion and another program: Xion bleeds.
Meanwhile, I've got some Mickey and Minnie fluff (because any scene with the two of them is some sort of fluff... even if they're beating the crap out of enemies.) And Mickey gets to do some behind-the-scenes work. Fun times!
Meanwhile meanwhile, Terra, Aqua, and Ven are in the Badlands. This is when Ven gets to have some temper problems. Because, face it, everyone at some point or another is super pissed about Xehanort's existence. And, it's gotta be annoying since he keeps coming back. And then he freaking does, right before their eyes. Like, Sephiroth kills him and he respawns. And Ven gets to get out some feels, which is good.
And I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the Remnant trying to nort Xion sequence. Because he really thinks he has it here, what with Xion being his puppet in the past. And he goes for it, and she just stares at him (meanwhile, Roxas is panicking because he thinks that Xion's lack of movement is a bad thing). But Xion's just like... "dude, what are you even doing? are you trying to take my heart because it's not working." (Granted, her body did go into stasis as a failsafe, but still) Because Namine freaking put in a failsafe! Muahahaha.
Oh yes, and then I have Leon taking Zack aside and being like "look man, if you love Aerith, then you need to let her know, okay? Because she doesn't want to believe it for fear of getting hurt, and I can't have you hurting my sister-like-person, kay?" And then Zack's like... I need to get Aerith something that is a symbol of our love. And so that arc begins.
Things I am 100% okay with:
-Denzel learning about the HB family
-Ven, Aqua, Terra working together to fight Xehanort and their command styles blending and recognizing when someone is going to go into a particular style
-Anything Mickey and Minnie
-Motorcycles/light cycles
-Vincent trying to figure out Cloud and Tifa's lives for no other reason than his own curiosity
-Cloud visiting his mother
-Xion casually talking about how Kairi thinks she's going crazy because Xion keeps flickering
-Xion and Roxas fighting with the discs like Axel fights with chakrams
-Roxas using Xion's blade (that whole concept of them being able to summon each other's blades is amazing to me)
-Namine smirking
-The line "Oh please, it doesn't take Riku's sense of smell to recognize your stench."
-The Leon-Zack-Aerith dynamic
-Zerith
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