How did I end up here?
HOW DID I END UP HERE?!?!?
It's the end. The END.
I mean, I knew this was coming. I knew I was going to end it with a wedding. I've known that for five years. Okay, maybe four.
BUT I PLANNED THIS OUT FOUR YEARS AGO.
I knew, that the end of everything, I would end it with a wedding. And that Xigbar would crash it. But that was all I knew. Rar and I joked about it. Because after AtP, when Xigbar was still alive, I joked that he'd come back and crash the wedding at the end of the next one.
Because I'd only ever planned on writing two.
Look at me now, I've written four. Five if you include Can't Escape. (I don't count Plan Beta as anything but drabbles and fun experiments in plot.)
When I sat down and outlined Remnants, when I had a pretty solid idea of who my main enemies were (how Xehanort was back, what was going on with Larxene and Marluxia, what Xigbar was up to), I planned it out through the end. Yeah, I changed out a couple of worlds here and there, electing to include Corona and Arendelle instead of recycling Atlantica and Beast's Castle. But I knew there'd be a wedding.
Initially, and I might have said this before, but I might not have, it was supposed to be Donald and Daisy's wedding. Because they were the only couple who I figured would be getting married. (I hadn't really considered much about the FF characters. I had always entertained the thought of continuing on and writing FF7 as if the KH characters might be a part. But that got scrapped sometime when I was writing the prequel and struggled to rewrite FF8 and KH1-2 and make them interesting.)
For the record, I changed the wedding-to-be-crashed to Aerith and Zack's wedding about when I realized Zack was going to propose to Aerith. I liked the way it was going to flow. Let's see, do I still have the original conversation with rar...
Oh look, I do! And it involves Cloud/Hades stuff as well. Bonus!
rar: i feel like us discussing potential Cloud and Hades ideas requires something more in depth than tumblr, so I'm messaging you
magik: probably
rar: I mean i still replied to you on tumblr but idk if we need to go more in depth
rar: anyway i'm cool with you using the idea {for Hades to send hellhounds after Cloud}
magik: woo! i just think... hades is the type to hold a grudge and Cloud did blow him off
rar: yeah exactly
magik: and now that Hades doesn't have Maleficent in his hair and pretty soon, he won't have Disney Castle, either
rar: yup
magik: and especially if Cloud shows back up in Olympus, Hades will be reminded of his grudge
rar: yuuuuuuuuup especially since he's LOOKING for like something to do or someone to use now that his plans have failed, right?
magik: yeah. i am loving this Cloud arc that i'm putting together. Cloud'll have to deal with Heartless and hell-hounds
rar: oh yeah
magik: because while Hades may be bound to Olympus, his hell-hounds won't be
rar: nooope they won't
So that's that... and here's some stuff as to other characters that were getting included
magik: and of course, i'm going to incorporate Denzel here pretty soon
rar: OOH!
magik: which may have nothing to do with the hell-hounds
rar: of course
magik: and i may have to drag vincent in because i love this line i just got: "These ones aren't too bad, some of them have three heads." "A three headed dog needs a three barrelled gun"
rar: that's perf, you may have to drag vincent in... just for that
magik: yeah
And now for the wedding part:
magik: i'm contemplating Zerith disappearing for a bit
rar: ye?
magik: and then coming back and they've actually eloped... and everyone's all like...
rar: AHA
magik: "And I wasn't invited?"
rar: man I feel like Aerith would've wanted a ceremony tho... tho maybe not? mabye she is the kind of person who'd wanna not make a big deal out of it?
magik: i think that's exactly it. though at the same time... UGGGG everyone's just geting married at the same time!!! aslgdkasdgh;
rar: IDK??? WHAT TO DO
magik: what if... i could replace donald and daisy's wedding for Zack and Aerith's....
rar: you could maybe do that
magik: their wedding was technically a place-holder... i just needed a huge ceremony...
rar: mmm
magik: the thing with donald/daisy was that i wasn't going to write the ceremony... just the reception... i could do that still with zerith
rar: you could
magik: aerith would alternate between wanting everyone in the ceremony and thus she'd have no one in the audience
rar: she would
magik: or only having one person in the ceremony so that there could be an audience... and zack's just like "I don't care, I could marry you on the moon with one witness and the justice and i'd be happy"
rar: he would
magik: hmm... if i did that... and xiggy crashed it i... heh... if he actually showed up during the ceremony... i think Aerith herself would murder him
rar: uhoh... that's not a good thing?
magik: it's amusing
rar: but probably not good for your plot
magik: honestly... it's like having your riku murder larxene... just so long as there's a remnant left to vessel or not to vessel sora, i'm good
Ima pause there for a second... This was EARLY in the planning stages. I was still writing the Disney Castle sequence. Pretty sure Rar was still working on Dead Inside. We hadn't begun to write the Larxene Sequence. Rar also didn't know all of my plot yet, as you'll soon see....
magik: honestly tho, i think xiggy would just sit in the back because "why would i want to interrupt a show like that?" {which got changed to: "Snuck in quietly and didn't want to ruin the show. Good show, by the way! Wouldn't interrupt that for the Worlds!"}
rar: that's good. and he probably would. (everyone would notice tho) also you're norting Sora???
magik: he could cloak himself. idk about norting him yet
rar: oh you did say "to not or not vessel"
magik: maybe there's a way xigbar could mask the smell of darkness that lingers
rar: (I missed it) yeah maybe?? he'd probably have to... tho i think canon says the org cloaks help hide your "scent" in general but whether or not that's true
magik: darn Riku and his sense of smell
rar: yeah unfortunately i can't remember if--oh yeah it wouldn't work... he definitely says "you reek of darkness" to one of the Org members (i think Vexen ha) and they were wearing the cloak so... the cloak wouldn't do it
magik: he'd have to have a special cloak
rar: yeah
magik: or something like it... some sort of spell he bought off the blackmarket labelled with "protection" so it would end up blending with the ones that Aerith and Rinoa throw up
I realize now that Xigbar totally still managed to sneak in and see the wedding and no one noticed him. Probably because everyone was too distracted. But I was still in the planning stages at the time of this conversation. I also will mention that at this point, I was still anticipating that the wedding would happen and then I'd nort Sora (assuming I norted Sora, which I did end up doing obviously). Because the plan was: wedding, Xigbar fight, Xehanort fight where Sora gets Norted. I changed it to Sora getting Norted beforehand, then six months later wedding, Xigbar warning, and Xehanort fight.
magik: Rinoa: "you're the bride, stahp!" Aerith: I'm not letting anything happen to my wedding!"
rar: yeah this could work
magik: but anyway... i think i like this idea
I'm actually gonna stop talking/ranting/reposting convos at the moment. This post is getting long and I have more to say about the wedding that's gonna take more than one post apparently. I'll come back tomorrow and post more, yeah?
Showing posts with label Larxene. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Larxene. Show all posts
Monday, April 13, 2015
Saturday, January 24, 2015
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.
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.
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.
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, November 8, 2013
Crossover Continued (Can't Escape ch63)
So, originally, the whole crossover was supposed to take place during Betwixt and Between. It was during the whole "restoration and rebirth" kind of thing that I had going on, and the crossover was a part of that. But then I wrapped Betwixt and Between up sooner than originally intended, so it got put after Betwixt and Between but before my Book 3. (Like, literally, a couple of days before.)
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| by veritas-project |
Man, I'm not quite sure where the "comparing injuries" conversation came from, it was probably Sora's idea. Regardless, it totally happened and it flowed, so we kept it.
Eheheheh... the Larxene stuff, gets me every time! Oh, just you wait. It's awful spoilers.
Man, does this group go off on all the tangents. But, what can you do? It's a combination of them all talking about Xehanort/Xemnas/Ansem. Which rar and I knew was going to happen, because there's the whole thing where Riku's like "man, I gotta deal with these guys again?!?!"
This is also the conversation that spawns Namine desiring to literally summon her sketchbook like a Keyblade. Yup. It's a thing. Well, it'll be a thing.
Oh, this conversation happened:
rar: IS RIKU'S WRIST STILL BROKEN
magik: DEPENDS
magik: WHEN ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
magik: ARE WE TALKING CROSSOVER
rar: YES
magik: UGH, LOAD THE SPREADSHEET COMPUTER
Riku's wrist is still braced, actually, sometimes. (He never actually got it set the cocky-butt, and then Xaldin did drive a lance through that same hand, so...) Heheh. But I had to load the darn spreadsheet just to check. By now, at least, Sora's hands are both functioning... remember Xehanort breaking his wrist during the battle of Castle Oblivion? Anywho.
I think that's all I've got for now. Except this.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Fight Against Larxene (ch31)
Because yup, that definitely happened.
Link to the chapter: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9446325/31/What-s-all-Gone-on-Before
Link to the livetumbl: http://magiksbrain.tumblr.com/tagged/ch31/chrono
So, somewhere along the lines, I decided I wanted to include a chapter that had pre-Organization Larxene (I guess Arlene?). Mostly because I happen to like the canon where the Organization is just WAITING for her to turn into a Nobody because she has so much potential. But she's doing pretty good as a Somebody. So good, that she landed herself the second-to-last spot in one of the Olympus cups.
I thought about Xigbar being the last person in the cup, because he's keeping an eye on her, but then I figured that would be too much, so I cut Xigbar and threw in a Guard Armor, because it didn't really matter anyway, because that's the battle Angeal comes and helps with. (Which is why Larxene wasn't last.)
So anyway, I started writing backstories and stuff for her and it was not okay. I'm not even sure how she wormed her way into the story at all (as the livetumbl will attest to.)
All I had originally planned was Zack looking for Angeal and he winds up in Olympus Coliseum because that's where Angeal's gonna be and Phil ends up forcing Zack through a cup because that's what Phil does. That's all I knew. But then all the Heartless battles would get boring and monotonous, and then Larxene happened.
Fun fact, Zack saying "bitter taste" upon finding Angeal missing and his mother recently having passed away is a direct reference to Axel saying the exact same thing after the final battle in All the Pieces and Saix dying. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but I definitely realized it after the fact and figured I'd make mention of it here.
Another fun fact, what Zack's got equipped is the exact same thing that I had equipped when I was going through Crisis Core as I was simultaneously writing this chapter/playing the game.
Also, rar went through some cups in Olympus in KH1 to help me determine just how easy certain Heartless would be for Zack. It was pretty amusing and fun.
The Crisis Core soundtrack was super helpful for me when I was writing this chapter. It's super handy for just about the next several chapters I write with Zack (having all of them written, I can say this with utmost confidence.) You'll hear more about it, I'm sure. Or you won't, 'cause I'll have forgotten.
Also, Zack was giving me feels prematurely and it was not okay.
Review Responses:
So Zack has exactly what he needs... for now. At the moment, at least. And yes, yes, that is Larxene. Most definitely. I don't know how, it just happened.
Have a very Zack-related video! (for some reason, it won't let me embed it, but Tto12 is awesome (so is ARS), so you should click on it.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbai1xKfLSg
Link to the chapter: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9446325/31/What-s-all-Gone-on-Before
Link to the livetumbl: http://magiksbrain.tumblr.com/tagged/ch31/chrono
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| by ~StrawberryKestral on dA |
I thought about Xigbar being the last person in the cup, because he's keeping an eye on her, but then I figured that would be too much, so I cut Xigbar and threw in a Guard Armor, because it didn't really matter anyway, because that's the battle Angeal comes and helps with. (Which is why Larxene wasn't last.)
So anyway, I started writing backstories and stuff for her and it was not okay. I'm not even sure how she wormed her way into the story at all (as the livetumbl will attest to.)
All I had originally planned was Zack looking for Angeal and he winds up in Olympus Coliseum because that's where Angeal's gonna be and Phil ends up forcing Zack through a cup because that's what Phil does. That's all I knew. But then all the Heartless battles would get boring and monotonous, and then Larxene happened.
Fun fact, Zack saying "bitter taste" upon finding Angeal missing and his mother recently having passed away is a direct reference to Axel saying the exact same thing after the final battle in All the Pieces and Saix dying. I'm not sure if it was intentional, but I definitely realized it after the fact and figured I'd make mention of it here.
Another fun fact, what Zack's got equipped is the exact same thing that I had equipped when I was going through Crisis Core as I was simultaneously writing this chapter/playing the game.
Also, rar went through some cups in Olympus in KH1 to help me determine just how easy certain Heartless would be for Zack. It was pretty amusing and fun.
The Crisis Core soundtrack was super helpful for me when I was writing this chapter. It's super handy for just about the next several chapters I write with Zack (having all of them written, I can say this with utmost confidence.) You'll hear more about it, I'm sure. Or you won't, 'cause I'll have forgotten.
Also, Zack was giving me feels prematurely and it was not okay.
Review Responses:
So Zack has exactly what he needs... for now. At the moment, at least. And yes, yes, that is Larxene. Most definitely. I don't know how, it just happened.
Have a very Zack-related video! (for some reason, it won't let me embed it, but Tto12 is awesome (so is ARS), so you should click on it.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbai1xKfLSg
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Light Aura (64)
I must confess I am slightly saddened by the lack of reviews. However, I am sure that the lack is probably do to all of you being busy (something with which I am very well acquianted with.) Anyway, so I'm going to give my notes on the chapter and then reply to the two reviews and then all future reviews can be replied to in a future blog post! (I will still reply if you review after I post, I promise!!!)
All right, so I really only have one note on thic chapter, actually. It's about how Namine levelled. Based on my last post, I believe that brings her up to Level 9, giving her the ability to Scan. (Based on KH1 standards, which is the ability list that I have.)
Namine levelling is also why her energy was restored. Like how you come up to full health and magic when you level up in Kingdom Hearts. You do that, right? I'm not imagining things? Correct me if I'm wrong. I could be crazy.
Is it kind of convenient that she levelled a chapter after her and Riku were talking about it? Yes. Does it really matter? I don't think so.
Anywho, that's my only note. I'm going to update the Combos page with the Light Aura information. Go figure, Light Aura is more like a Limit than a Combo. Riku and Namine seem to have the propensity for Limits when they are at the brink of exhaustion than for Combos that are a flaunt of their power. Go figure.
I'm just making up comments as I go along on this. So, rar and I came up with this backstory about Namine. (Kind of independently of each other, now that I think about it.) Basically, Larxene used to shoot lightning at Namine as well as the Repliku, to bother Repliku. Or to prove something to Namine. Did Larxene really need a reason? No. Namine then basically built up a hatred of lightning so strong that she refuses to learn Thunder magic.
KKBeckett, in those notes, I think I've actually answered all of your questions and comments. Other than the fact that you can sure as heck TRY and shoot Larxene, but you can't kill her yet, I need her. (Sadly.)
My dear Guest, I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and I made you laugh! I like putting little conventions in there like Heartless dropping money for laughter's sake.
Anywho, that's all the responses. Just a little update on stuff. I HAVE actually finished all of Betwixt and Between. Four more chapters and an epilogue. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be posting chapters. I finished writing last night. Rar's read through everything and content-wise, stuff is great. I am going to read things through again and whatnot before posting, and I don't want to put a whole bunch of chapters up at once, so I will be spacing them out. I'll still blog and stuff. I'm going to (hopefully) be managing another blog for the novel that I am literally picking up in two days for a rewrite. I'll give a link to that blog in a future blog post on here if you wish to follow that blog for the next couple of months. (I would appreciate it! I have come to accept a lot of you as more than just readers, but as friends, almost! :) )
Okay, so... enough of me rambling, have a nice day!!
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