Larxene Sequence (various chapters between 61 and 78)

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.

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.

Vexen Feels (Can't Escape chapter 65)

Chapter

Rar's Tumblr Event Thing

I think we all kind of feel bad for Vexen.  I, at least, do.  The poor guy doesn't really have any friends anymore (they're all mostly dead), he doesn't see eye-to-eye with Ienzo anymore, he's staying in another universe because he's afraid of his past (namely Xehanort-who isn't even around anymore) coming to haunt him.  But in that other universe, he's hardly allowed permissions for anything, he's not particularly good for anything, but he cares about Riku, and by extent Namine, and he just wants the best for them though he's terribad at showing it.

by halfdemondog on dA

However, Vexen with goggles is a thing I like.  (See the picture).  Idk, I saw it and I liked it.  Plus, in my
head, Vexen wears glasses now.  It's a thing.

But we did get a lot of character development out of Vexen and Riku.  Mostly with Vexen being reminded that Riku is not an experiment and he should be notified if Vexen is going to use him for an experiment.  It's clicked in Vexen's head now, especially after that whole stint with Xemnas.

Meanwhile, Namine's just having a meltdown and Riku's got a massive headache for it.  It totally has everything to do with their connection.

And, Vexen had a dumb and took them to the wrong Castle Oblivion, probably sending my Vexen Replicas panicking about their security (only to stop panicking when they figured out who it was.)  They probably figured if it was anything important, Master Vexen would let them know.  And since he left again, they'll leave him to his business.  (Heh, I actually didn't account for the three of them being in CO, it just like, did not occur to me until just now... but that's totally how that would have gone down.  Had they tried to interrupt Vexen and Riku, Riku would have just left...)

And, I have absolutely no notes on this chapter, so I think I'm just gonna wrap this blog up here.

Have a video!

Namine... you didn't want to do that (Can't Escape ch64)

Chapter Link

Rar made fun of me for revealing all of Vexen's passwords.  To which Xion says:

His passwords all have the word 'replica' in them.  Except the once that was 'scienceiscoolxiii.'  Vexen can just hush about that one, okay?


Sometimes, I think I have too much fun with talk sprites.

Anyway, first of all, my Namine was totally thrown for a loop when Riku showed up.  Like, we all know Riku practically had a panic attack, but it basically fried her brain, too, note how she's being super slow? I don't even remember intentionally planning that.  But this is Namine.  And Namine does things like that.

Additioanlly, she can nearly vicariously have a meltdown if she pries into Riku's memories too hard.  Like, Namine, you know that's going to hurt... she could have pried farther, but I made her stop because that's a headache (for both her and me) that I don't want to deal with.

So this conversation happened:
magik: no swearing, sheesh
rar: sorry? who's doing it?
namine: unstable memories...
repliku: no shit, sherlock
rar: ...
rar: OMG NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING

by forbidden siren

And, apparently, that conversation where Namine offers to fix Namine's meltdowns did actually happen
(how did I forget?!?!?) it just happened here instead of two chapters ago.  But instead of Riku having a panic attack when she mentions it, he actually goes and considers the possibility.  Like, wut? Charries, you ok?

And, I know that the picture there is totally NaminexRepliku, but I just... the picture is so good... and... I have to share... yeah.

Also, another random conversation that I feel like sharing:
rar: QUICK NAME ME A WORLD THAT ISN'T HALLOWEENTOWN BUT THAT ROXAS WOULD GO TO
magik: AGRABAH
rar: OKAY THEN I GUESS THAT WORKS
magik: CHINA
rar: ... we literally just had the same thought process here
magik: lol
magik: hawaii?
rar: like I was like "not halloween town ... agrabah!"
rar: "I don't like agrabah... CHINA!"
rar: yeah
rar: idk
magik: lol
magik: Xion is having none of your crap, Vexen.

Kay.  Yeah.  Have a video now.

WHAT IS THIS IS IT THE CROSSOVER? (Can't Escape ch62)

Chapter

Why yes.  Yes it is.

This is the epic crossover you've all been waiting for? (Well, one of them at least.  I think ya'll were pretty excited to see Sora and Sora, too.  But Riku and Riku was always going to happen first.)

Rar and I have had this planned since... oh... Probably since AtP, about when rar was finishing up FtP and moving into Dead Inside.  We even had it written.

Except, reading through it, we realized that we had to rewrite it.  Basically entirely.

Things that stayed the same:

by Maulsypaulsy

Vexen dragging Riku to the other universe
Riku landing face-first in the sand
Namine being the first one to see him
The cast of characters
General chit-chat about recent happenings

Things that changed:
Everything else.

See, originally, before Dead Inside turned into the huge thing that it turned into, Sora and Kairi's plotlines were significantly less... erm... expansive.  (This is the short version.)  From my understanding, Sora had some trouble with the darkness, but nothing on the level of Shad, because Shad didn't exist yet, and Dead Inside actually took place in a lot shorter of a timespan, which meant that Kairi never actually left the Islands.  This made the Riku Replica super confused when he saw Sora and Kairi BOTH on the Islands.  (I may post the original scene when we're clear of spoilers.)

Repliku was also cockier and the meltdowns were still a relatively new thing.  As in, Vexen didn't even know they existed.  And Repliku was having a conniption about them because no progress had been made (which of course had to change because of the recent experiments.) I think we were also having trouble with Namine continuing to offer to help and he kept saying no.  There was also a whole thing where they got on a tangent about Replicas being their own people (we were on a Days kick) and we were having feels about Repliku being worried that his Namine would be worried that she was a Replica and not a "real" person.  That got cut because people's focuses changed.

Plus, we had to change some of the conversation, because things we projected would happen and things that actually happen do end up being two different things.  And, some things had to get cut because at the time we first wrote the crossover, we hadn't planned on Joseph and Axel being frequenters of the other universes.  And, since Can't Escape became a huge thing, we didn't have to cover a lot of the mechanics.  The people in my universe know about where Sora and Kairi in rar's universe are, because they keep running into each other.  Plus, Axel ran into Repliku recently.

Yeah, it was a whole big thing.

And, about the time when we were going to rewrite it, Namine was dumping loads of feels on me of things that she wanted to say to Repliku.  Which is where the first half of the chapter as it currently stands comes from.  The second half being a brief sum-up of the parts of the story that my characters don't know.

And, I think that's all I'm going to say.  There are more chapters on this to be posted, and I don't want to discuss everything to death just yet!

I think I'll do review responses for this whole sequence once I'm done posting :P

And... I think this is an appropriate video; Also, it's amusing:

Cloud versus Everyone at Home (16)

Link to the chapter: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9446325/16/What-s-all-Gone-on-Before

I didn't livetumbl for this one, sorry guys.

Anyway, so Cloud versus everyone at home.  It's one of the main reasons why he wants to leave in the first place.  He feels conflicted regarding Tifa's mother's death versus his father's death; he doesn't fit in, partially because he doesn't want to, but the rest because everyone finds him odd; there's a part of him that thinks about getting involved in SOLDIER, but Tifa's talked him out of that one by now; and the rest of him is just craving for adventure.

by *bloodlinev on dA

So he leaves.  He tells his work, his mom, and Tifa.  He and Tifa make promises to help each other in a bind.  The caveat behind that, however, is that one has to KNOW that the other is in a bind.  And, sorry you two, but your hearts just don't have the connection for that.  SoKai can pull it off... Rokushi might be able to pull it off.  Zerith can pull it off because Aerith is special.  But CloTi? just... *sigh*.

Anyway, but this picture is adorable! It's those moments on the water tower (wow, almost typed Clocktower... Days, much?) that I find so endearing.  They're so cute and young.

And, slight spoilers, they're not going to be that way when they next see each other.  I say only slight because something similar happens in FFVII.  Granted, in my canon, Cloud's not going to try and become SOLDIER and then accidentally become involved in one of Hojo's experiments to the point where he thinks he's Zack.  But Cloud's gonna have some stuff happen to him.  Sorry, ya'll.

I used a bit of a different writing style for this chapter, as you can tell by the dialogue.  I didn't use dialogue markers, hoping that it would be obvious who was talking.  It's easier to read through if you assume that Tifa always talks first (unless otherwise noted).  Because, admit it, Tifa does that.

Review Responses:

Archsage! you're back! *hugs* Thank you so much for your kind words and compliments! I'm glad you're enjoying it! It's a blast to write.  I hope I continue to inspire you!

KKBeckett, Yes, Cloud has left.  *sigh*  As for Tifa following him, you'll see :P  (Spoilers.)

This one's shameless self-promotion.  I made this video a couple of years ago for rar's fanfic otp, Namiku.  Yup.  Check her out if you haven't :P

http://www.fanfiction.net/u/2278897/rarmaster

She would tell you to start with Falling to Pieces, probably.

Namine Squared

I think it's time I do a post on the Namine's.

Everything here is just a conglomeration of everything that you guys already know or can know.  It's to help even out the confusion and answer some questions--maybe even for me and rar.

For starters, there's different levels of things that everyone knows.

There's the things that you guys all know.  It's been posted in a chapter, made canon, written out in a blog, whatever.  You know it.

Then there's stuff that our beta's know that the rest of the readers don't.  Cookie may fall into this category a little because he asks questions via PM and I know *I* answer ones that aren't too horribly spoilery, or I confirm theories. 

Then there are things that rar and I have written into a scene somewhere in the future (or, I suppose in the past), the scenes just haven't been posted yet.  Things inside these scenes may change, depending on what happens in the stuff we're posting currently.  The farther out it is, the more that's likely to change within it.  

Then there is stuff that rar and I just know.  It's not been written anywhere, we've just discussed it in a plot-throwing-around session.  Or it's come up and we've sat on down and figured it out.  (Blue’s Clues reference, btw).  These facts that we know may or may not actually make it into the story itself, but we know them to be true.

Then there are the things that rar and I honestly, actually don't know.  Things like Namine's meltdowns.  Rar and I legitimately don't have an answer as to what is causing them.  (I use this as an example because it's current, relevant, and this post is about Namines...) Anyway, we have our theories and speculations as to what is causing the meltdowns, but nothing is official.  And then there are things about my Namine that I find out as she tells me.  It goes something like this:

I'm writing something, and all of a sudden, Namine's doing something that she's never done before.

I ask her: "Namine, since when can you do that?"

And she replies: "Oh yeah, by the way, I can do that."

It's a ton of fun.

So, some basic facts and whatnot about our Namines.

Both Namines can see the future.  Or, certain future events.  However, this happens for different reasons for each girl.  Rar's Namine can see the future because of the paradox in her memories: she has memories of things that haven't happened yet.  Therefore, when she sees stuff that hasn't happened yet, it's because of those memories.  Will she continue to see/draw the future when all of those memories come to pass? Maybe, maybe not.  She might, considering my Namine can see future events without memories of them and rar's Namine has data from my Namine.  

My Namine can see future events because she can see past memories.  Or, it's related to that at least.  That's her current theory as to why she can see what she sees.  She takes the memories that she has access to (it used to be people just related to Sora's heart, now it's anyone if she tries hard enough.  Except Shad, he's a bit harder... but he's special.) She takes those memories and she uses them to project potential futures.  The closer the futures are, the more accurate her projected potential futures are.  She can also draw things simultaneously with them happening.  She just... does that.  

If she draws a picture of the future, it is about 93% accurate.  Some things may change here and there.  If there is blood in the picture, that is definitely going to happen.

Each Namine processes the images from the future different.  Rar's Namine generally has a meltdown because she doesn't actually know how or simply cannot process the future images.  So, rather, she doesn't process them at all.  This might have something to do with the locks that Edd put on her brain.  She may probably get to a point where she learns to control them and process them properly.  (Or she'll just get to a point where she doesn't get the future memories anymore, that's up to rar.)  (Sorry, this is still a tad confusing.  especially since rar's Namine's seeing of future memories and her meltdowns are somewhat intertwined....) However, this is assuming that the memories are what is causing the meltdowns.  But if that's what's causing them or not, rar's Namine doesn't do well in processing the future memories.  Thanks Edd.

My Namine processes the future images merely by just drawing them.  She doesn't think too much about them because any potential time difference is going to give her a headache.  She just files them away as puzzle pieces that she can't quite place yet and then she puts them in whenever she sees that an event has happened.  She's rather calm and compartmentalized about all of this, mostly because it's just been something that she has always been able to do.  She was the Nobody who could see memories, like Roxas was the Nobody who could wield a Keyblade.

My Namine can also sort of "create" a future via the images that she draws.  But that's only if she's messing with memories inside of hearts as she does so.  It's not something that she likes to do.

Fun fact, my Namine can experience a meltdown if she happens to be paying attention to rar's Namine's memories at the time of a meltdown.  If her telepathic link to Kairi happens to be strong at that moment, Kairi will experience a shadow of the meltdown as well.

Could my Namine fix rar's Namine's meltdowns? Potentially yes.  Backing up a bit, one of the main reasons why they (as in everyone in rar's universe who cares about stopping Namine's meltdowns) haven't *tried* all that hard to fix them is because they lack complete access to the Program.  They can theorize all they want as to what is causing the meltdowns, but they can't do anything to fix them until they KNOW what's causing them, and they can't do wither thing until they have complete access to the Program.

Yes, my Namine being around could potentially circumvent this, but she can't do everything single-handedly.  She'd need a fully functional Program.  Which, at the current moment, would require rar's Namine to go to my universe, which even with them meeting in that AU scene in ASAS, that wouldn't happen simply because Riku wouldn't allow it.  (Because, to be honest, he's f***ing paranoid about what would become of Namine.  He's too afraid that she'd change, she wouldn't be his Namine anymore.  He's afraid of this because every time he went into a Memory Pod, he just got rewritten.  So give him a break.  Especially because he doesn't actually admit this to anyone.)

Plus, in the canon story, the two Namine's haven't met yet.  

Things are going to happen with rar's Namine before she meets my Namine.  My Namine is not the solution to the meltdown problem.  It does make an interesting theory, however.  You're welcome to write all the fanfiction of our fanfiction you want to on it.

That's all I have to say on this subject at the moment.  And, knowing Namine, don't trust any of it to be true always.  She has a habit of retconning things herself.