It all comes Down to This (Chapters 107-end)

To any new readers who have come to the blog because you've started reading the fanfic now that it's labelled "Complete" or you've just stumbled across it... lemme direct you to the right-hand pane over there (desktop version) and scroll down to the appropriate sequence of chapters you're on.  I've got chapter numbers up too, so that should help.  Each post deals with a sequence of chapters, and there will be spoilers if you haven't read all in that set.  If you're on mobile, I think you should just be able to scroll down and click on the post you want.

Spoilers below if you haven't read this far.

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I'm clever and put 13 dots.  Anyway.

Well, time to talk about the final things about Zerith's wedding.  Like I'd planned to do two days ago before getting sidetracked.  Yup.

So I decided not to kill Xigbar.  I just... didn't want to do that to the sharpshooter.  It seemed weird, doing that, honestly.  I'd grown attached to Xigbar.  He's amusing.  And, honestly, he's got reasons to want to live.  Is he completely innocent, nope.  But he's just as glad as everyone else to be rid of Xehanort, so that's saying something.  He makes his weird amends by warning everyone at the wedding that Xehanort is coming, then after Xehanort's gone, he leaves as well.

Man though.. okay... I got like SUPER FIRED UP about wedding traditions on different Worlds and I was thinking about it for DAYS.  Way before I'd even written the sequence.  I was thinking about it nonstop and everyone I talked to about it was basically just like "magik, shut up."

The traditions of people being thrown in the ocean, who makes their own dresses, seeing the bride beforehand versus not seeing the bride beforehand, going out and doing stupid things the day beforehand, celebrating the last day as a single person traditions... all that stuff.

I really love the paopu fruit tradition though, and it seems so natural for Destiny Islands to have one like that.  And Kairi's just thinking the entire time Zack and Aerith are planning their wedding that... "They have to do this, well, they don't have to, but they should have the option... I'll just bring a fruit and it'll fit into the ceremony... WAIT THEY DON"T HAVE A SPOT FOR IT!"

That was fun to write.

I imagine that Destiny Islands has very informal weddings.  Like, weddings are just a big party to them.  Where as a place where Rinoa's from, they're more formal and traditional.  And then there's the fairytale weddings of Disney and the simple ones of Traverse Town and the varieties go on and on.  Yeah...

I can't remember why exactly I insisted on having a time skip... maybe just to show the passage of time.  Because I'd had this scene with Xion written forever showing the passage of time and I'd never been able to use it.  So, when I decided that Zerith was going to have a spring wedding, I just had everything else wrap up in the fall.  Then I could do a time skip and some recap and whatnot.

And then we've got the hints to Squinoa's wedding.  Which will happen.  I just probably won't write it, I'll be completely honest.  I haven't really come out and said this yet... but I'm going to be taking a break from fanfic for a while.  I have two or three other writing projects to work on and they all have the prospect of money.  I'll probably write drabbles and one-shots and post them of course, but I don't think I'll be taking on an epic again.  Squinoa's wedding totally happens in my canon, I just may not write it.  (Does that still make it canon?)

For anyone who's confused, Cid and Shera had a private marriage ceremony and left it at that.  Kind of like how you play Dirge of Cerberus and they're married and you're just like "okay" because Vincent doesn't ask too much about it because... well... Vincent.

I remember freaking out about who I was going to have be the justice/officiate of the wedding.  And then it was obvious.  None other than Mickey himself.  Because what says Kingdom Hearts more than Mickey officiating Zack Fair and Aerith Gainsborough's wedding? (While Sora and the gang are in the audience.)

Ah yes, then the real questions.  What about everyone else? Will they eventually get married?

Well, Cloud and Tifa aren't even dating.  They're still both trying to get used to living a life that doesn't involve Sephiroth.  They'll eventually get together I suppose.

Everyone else.. (with the exception of Terra, Aqua, Ven, and Axel) is all still in their late teens.  Marriage is several years off, despite what Destiny Islands thinks for Riku.  (They lead simple lives on the islands and are wholly unprepared to understand the EVERYTHING that the Keyblade Wielders do.)

So Riku and Sora can just joke about it.

HGHSGNGSGHSGDLKJSD:GLKH

The chairs for Angeal and Aerith's parents.

I remember reading something somewhere, a text post or something, about how at Aerith's wedding (if she were to have one) she'd put chairs up for the people who wouldn't be able to make it.  So that's how Angeal and her parents got chairs.

The dream that Aerith had, with Angeal and her mother wishing Aerith and Zack well... that was something I literally cooked up the day before I posted it.  It wasn't in the original draft or anything.  But then I thought of that idea and had to include it.  And I think it wraps everything up very nicely.  The whole last few chapters do.

So, this is Magik, signing off for now.  It's not goodbye forever.  But it's goodbye for now.

Thank you to everyone who supported this endeavor of mine! I'll post updates and probably give you a link to a blog for my (not fanfic) stuff.

More Plotting

So I left off yesterday after some reposting of an old conversation between me and rar.  I thought I might continue what I have of that for your guys' benefit.  Because, honestly, there's a lot of good stuff about how the whole idea for Zerith's wedding came up.  

Though, tbh, I almost wished I'd remembered this whole conversation when I wrote the chapter of Aerith's wedding day, because that first line there is beautiful! Then again, I do like it better where there's some week-before set-up, and the line wouldn't have flowed with all that leading into it.

magik: "it was in a church--Aerith's doing... Zack didn't care (would have married her on the moon for all he cared)" nice, simple... She'd probably settle for Yuffie, Tifa, and Rinoa for the bridesmaids.  Zack would have Cloud, Leon, and I'd think of a third person

rar: shoot since when were there THREE flies?? sorry i just, we had two and killed one but now there's two

magik: they do this thing called breeding. I'm channeling hades, apparently. 

rar: yeah but they're all big and have only been around for this afternoon??

magik: I"M NOT WRITING FOR HIM TOMORROW DARNIT< I"M WRITING CLOUD AND TIFA

rar: I'M SORRY

magik: and sephiroth

rar: THAT'S FRUSTRATING

magik: i need to get in a sephiroth mood

rar: write Hades anyway??? ??? just write it now. go back and do cloud later

magik: no, because then i either A) have to get into Mickey's head or B) have Aqua hover over his shoulder. the time for hades will come. he just needs to hush.

rar: okay, just trying to help

magik: but i need to deal heavily with mickey for that chapter

rar: riiight

FYI: This was the Hades' attack on Disney Castle sequence.  Just for anyone wondering.  I changed Donald/Daisy's wedding into Zerith's wedding very early on into Remnants.  But I am SO SO SO happy with that change.  

This here is some more plotting for the Cloud arc:

magik: hmm... do i want to throw Cloud into Agrabah?

rar: idk? you could

magik: thank you, Tifa, for that line

rar: what line? 

magik: "Cloud, we are wandering around in the desert, and for what?"

rar: stick 'em in Agrabah then

magik: because like, he'd park his bike, and then just start wandering aimlessly, though Tifa knows it's not aimless

rar: how'd they get back to the bike?? he should not lose track of it. just saying, that'd be bad

magik: Tifa can get herself right to it.

rar: goooood point

magik: Cloud just doesn't ask. Tifa's "job" is to go get the bike and save Cloud's butt.

rar: ha yeah 

Because that was before Tifa'd really revealed to anyone that she could form light corridors.  Not that it's a huge deal, but as a point of reference. 

And this upcoming bit was some plot arc that I'd intended on using for Sora.  It kind of made its way in, but not entirely.  

magik: spam you some feels about charrie development: because Sora... Sora's got a darkness problem. not huge, but it's there. because he no longer has so much light in his heart. yup, it's a thing. and while it's not a "problem"

rar: oh yeah, now that Ven's gone

magik: it's a problem in the fact that he has NO IDEA how he's supposed to take care of it, so he has to learn

rar: thaaaaaaaaaaaat's true

magik: and Riku and Kairi have to help him through it, once he admits he needs help. I think it's the only topic he and Kairi fight on, actually. And Kairi... Kairi's learning how to wield a Keyblade, and that's all find and dandy. but then there's Xion, and Xion's just amazing because she's a perf replica

rar: of course

magik: and kairi knows that xion and roxas technically wielded before her and it shouldn't matter, but it does. And Roxas, who just spent a year training and that's all he did. and Kairi's just like... "why can't I be that good?" and then there's Riku... 

rar: (they do have like a year on her tho. both of them. I GET KAIRI'S FEELS I'M JUST SAYING)

magik: shh... it shouldn't matter but it does to her, anyway... but then there's Riku who's kinda just quietly bettering himself

rar: that's Riku for you

magik: he's over most of his demons/skeletons. he's coping. except for when he's not. he and Namine get locked in this "you need to stop being so hard on yourself" thing, because they're both struggling with it. and idk about Roxas and Xion's development at the moment, outside of them wanting to become masters. it'll come to me

but then there's Axel, who gets a double-whammy of character development. first of all, because he's finally coping with everything that involved Isa/Saix, which is huge and major. then he thinks that it's weird that he's included in Sora's friends because, sometimes, he sees himself as the enemy, still. anyway, i'm sorry, did I saw two, i think I meant three... the third one involves Kuin but not in a romantic way, in a "i need to respect you" way, because that whole thing with Xehanort and she has to come to terms with that, and apologize, and realize that she can't do it alone. And Axel can respect her for that

Wow, that was a lot of character talk.  As you can see, a lot of that made it into the 115 chapter monstrosity that is Remnants.  Some of that didn't.  

I never really did deal with Sora's darkness problem.  It came up a bit.  Here and there.  But not overly so.  I think I'd wanted to include it because I knew that Ven was no longer in Sora's heart anymore, and Sora had less light to combat the darkness--plus, Nomura had hinted at stuff like that for KH3.  Well, it didn't make it in to the extent that I'd originally thought it would.  Sure, in my headcanon, he and Kairi probably do argue about it a bit.  I just never wrote it because it never really seemed to flow.  Sora's optimistic and happy, and he wants the best for everyone.  When he worries, it's not because he has darkness problems, it's because he's trying to figure out how he's going to kill four people--all of whom he's killed before and now he has to kill them again.  He's afraid of Xehanort getting one of them and it never once occurs to him that Xehanort'll come for him, too.  At least, not until Xehanort does do that.  

Meanwhile, Kairi's apprehensions about Roxas and Xion being amazing do show up, when it comes time for them to take their Mark exam.  But even that worry was lessened because Kairi is reminded that different people are good at different things.  

Riku and Namine do have this "you need to stop being so hard on yourself" for literally everything.  But, honestly, the best interactions between them are when they're dealing with the aftermath of her shattering Marluxia and her throwing Xehanort from her head.  Good, solid, conversations.

Roxas and Xion are quietly adorable on their way to becoming masters.

Ah yes, and Axel and Kuin.  I'll talk about that now.  Sometime during Betwixt/Between, I realized that trying to pair Axel with Kuin just wasn't going to work.  It might have worked in someone's vague crack-fic after AtP had BB never been written.  But Axel being who he is and Kuin being who she is meant that that two of them would never be a healthy relationship.  And I wasn't in the mood to write an unhealthy one.  So I turned them into rivals and acquaintances, who'd never pursue anything romantically.  It felt better that way.  

Also, it let me subtly ship Akurokushi.  One of my biggest OT3s as of late. My final chapter does contain a reference to that.  

I'll continue in another (and probably final) blog about wedding traditions. 

Castle Oblivion (Chapters 94-101)

The Castle Oblivion arc was a rough one in a couple of ways.  Namine's head is always a fun place to be is one of them.  The fact that Castle Oblivion is just an awful place is another.  Granted, my CO has changed a lot since its original in-game incarnation, things are still rough there.  Also, during the stuff at CO, I've also got the Sephiroth battle going on alongside of that.  So, fun times.

Of course, I didn't even start us in CO during this sequence.  I have us in Port Royal with the Wayfinder Trio.  I liked discussing that perhaps Port Royal had forgotten about its magic.  Because Pirates of the Caribbean is a much more realistic movie than the other included Disney movies.  While yes, there are curses and some magic, it's not anywhere near the level that we see in say Cinderella, Aladdin, or Frozen.  So, the "dried up magic/people forgetting about it" was an interesting thing to kind of allude to.  And Aqua would think about those sorts of things, being so much of a heavy magic user.

But, of course, the tranquil ponderings can't last forever.  Let me just dump a Remnant on them.  And then they can fight for a bit, and then Kuin, whose glider is taking her all over the place, can show up and she can help them for a bit.  Perhaps I made you think for a second that he was going to get Ven.  Probably not.  I've made it pretty clear that Ven's about as untouchable as Kairi.  But that doesn't mean the Remnant still can't hurt Ven.

Then we've got Sephiroth showing up.  Well, not quite at the beginning of the chapter, but it's alluded to.  Cid can tell.  Barret's POV is fun to be in though.  Because he's never run into Sephiroth before, so he has no idea what's coming.  Because, when Cid announces it, he really has no idea what to expect.  And whatever he does expect, is not what he gets.

Oh, for the record, that teleportation block? That was Cloud doing things when I wasn't looking again.  That's why Leon had no idea what it was but Rinoa did.

Let the battle with Sephiroth begin.  Of course Cloud and Zack would be in the middle of it all.  Tifa won't stay back forever.  And neither will Leon.  He just gets too itchy about not fighting.  Man though, that battle was hard writing, trying to keep track of everyone.  Because literally, everyone was there.  Except Denzel, Marlene, and Merlin.

And then I've got Namine's feelings about something bad going to happen.  The reason why she's not seeing any images, for the record, is because she couldn't see an image of Xehanort getting into her head.  That's why her mind's drawing a blank.  Fun times.  I think it's completely legit, it also meant that none of you knew that he was going to go for her.  Or maybe you did.  I really just loved Namine's thoughts about talking to Leon about what he experienced inside of his head.  Because, honestly, the two of them would have had the most similar experiences.  (Them and Marluxia.)  Riku and Terra had different experiences because it wasn't a Remnant who originally went after them.  Terra had full-on Master Xehanort and Riku dealt with Ansem.  Also, Namine banishing Xehanort from her heart with a combination of memory prowess and light=beautiful.  I love Namine.

Ah, yes, Cloud regaining light attacks.  Okay, more just like his limits again.  I think that first one he used was Braver.  And he's all like "Aerith, was that you?" and she's just like *shakes head* Because she knows that Cloud is regaining his power again and growing strong.  Because, as far as my canon goes, Cloud had the ability to do light attacks and stuff.  He just slowly lost them as Sephiroth drained on him.  Of course, then the battle gets hairier as Sephiroth literally starts causing despair and Aerith is out of Megalixirs so she has a harder time combating darkness.  (Which causes her to swear.  Yup.)  And then Zackgets skewered.  And Aerith is having none of that.  Absolutely none.  I love the image of her jabbing her staff at Sephiroth.  It's beautiful.  So is Cloud beating Sephiroth into nothingness.

Then back to Castle Oblivion.  Where everyone else realizes that Namine's in trouble and they end up relying on Riku's sense of smell to find him.  I love poking at Riku's sense of smell and Xehanort's stench.  Riku making up swears that Axel doesn't recognize is also a beautiful thing.  Because while I hardly ever use actual swear words in my KH fics to keep ratings down, I can leave that up to your imagination.  Riku and Axel are my biggest swearers.  Namine fighting the Remnant in that form is also gorgeous.

Side note... while I initially wrote that chapter before Monty Oum's passing, it is certainly my tribute to him.  I loved the concept of Namine with all those Keyblades and I loved Dead Fantasy and I'm sad to see that the story will not continue.  RIP Monty Oum.

Now for some timey-whimey stuff.  The Remnant in Port Royal could very well be the same Remnant that showed up in Castle Oblivion.  Could be.  It could also not be, depending on how many Remnants you believe are walking around at the same time.  Kuin, of course, went straight from Port Royal to Castle Oblivion, where she gets momentarily stopped by Axel (really got attached to that lol) and then can't fight the Remnant until Namine gives the go-ahead.

Then we get to do clean-up in Hollow Bastion.  Aerith and her massive need to heal everyone.  Cloud of course, has got it the worst, having just killed his own shadow.  Though, Zack is also not in too great of shape.  Aerith expelling darkness with Rinoa, Tifa, and Yuffie's help was definitely a thing that was fun to write.  Just, the concept of what rar and I figured darkness can and cannot do and it's reactions to different healing magic.  Yup.  And then it's raining, because it's always raining.  But then Cloud wakes up and he's feeling lighter and happier, which is good.  Very, very good.

Then we've got a transitioning chapter out of Castle Oblivion.  This was my chapter 100.  My fluff chapter.  My chapter of: everything's fine at Castle Oblivion, we're all gonna go back to the islands now.  Namine has a chance to recoup from what she just went through, everyone else gets a chance to splash around at the beach, which was just fun and cute to write.  Writing SoRiKai derping around in the water because they're all such Island brats was also great.  *nods*

Then closing off with more of the Wayfinder Trio.  This time, instead of running into a Remnant though, they're on a beach and they run into Xigbar.  Well, not before they have some fun playing with the beach ball.  I had a lot of fun writing Xigbar's dialogue though, because he really just wants to live, but he's slowly coming to the realization that a world with him in it also means a world with Xehanort.  And he's got too much pride to ask the Keyblade Wielders if they can destroy just a part of his heart.  (There's also a good portion of him that thinks his heart is too far gone to Xehanort for that to even be an option.)  Sure, he'll taunt them about it, but he'll do it while he's shooting at them, not during a pleasant conversation.

I remember having a hard time deciding how to wrap this scene up, so I wrote in the two boys with the beach ball (and then also the boomerang) interrupting and Xigbar being like "Nope, not gonna fight a couple of actual kids" and then he leaves.   The kids, btw, are like unofficially my universe's Joseph and Toby.  

That's all for now.

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.

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

The World that Never Was (Chapters 18-24)

Darn, broke the 8 chapter an arc thing.  (It wasn't going to last anyway.)

The World That Never Was arc was to wrap up a few more things started in Betwixt and Between (and referenced in Can't Escape) that (again) didn't get finished.  Mostly it was the large amount of darkness that was running rampant around, and the fact that TWTNW also had a DCP running.  That Larxene managed to stop.  Go her.  Except, don't root for her.

pretty sure this is from the novelizations

Plus, I had to have somewhere that Larxene and Marluxia had been camping out that no one's noticed.  And they're still around and need to be dealt with.  Unlike Luxord and Demyx, who have basically turned good and can just continue doing what they're doing.

Organization XIII roll-call!
-Xemnas (Xehanort): Oh look, blasted little Remnants running around.
-Xigbar: Location unknown
-Xaldin: Deceased as of the Badlands in AtP by Sora's hand
-Vexen: MIA--currently running around rar's universe
-Lexaeus: Killed by Xehanort in Hollow Bastion when the Org had control of the castle
-Zexion (Ienzo): Running a shop in Hollow Bastion town
-Saix: Ruined by his own darkness (not helped by Xehanort's) at the end of AtP in Castle Oblivion
-Axel: With Roxas and Xion.  Get it memorized.
-Demyx (The Great Demetrius): Running around doing concerts on his sitar
-Luxord: He's Demyx's manager
-Marluxia: Causing trouble
-Larxene: Causing trouble
-Roxas: Does this even count?
-Xion: See above.

Meanwhile, Aqua, Terra, and Ven are trying to track down pieces of Xehanort's past.  Starting in Castle Oblivion clearly wasn't a bad idea.  Especially because Aqua at this point knows that it was once the Land of Departure and it's a pretty safe bet that even if I didn't write it in (I can't find it, but I'm also not looking terribly hard) that she told Terra and Ven that they're walking around their home.  Oh wait, she did.  Because Ven wouldn't be asking about their rooms otherwise.  This particular mission is them getting the remainder of the journals.  And then determining that they need to go to TWTNW because Terra thinks he can get into Xemnas' bedroom.

And them of course they run into a Remnant.  But the Remnant didn't bother them.  (This won't be the first time that the Remnant's like... eh, I'll bother you later.)  He wants to be ready to make a vessel.  And when he ran into the three of them, he really was just messing with them.  And trying to plant seeds of hopelessness.  Because those are important.

Besides, then he went to go and try and make a vessel out of Roxas.  Not that that worked.  Roxas was a little winded, but no major damage was done.  

from Advent Children Compete

Meanwhile, Cloud and Tifa are in Midgar, getting maintenance done on Cloud's bike.  I love the whole scene of Cloud and Tifa in the diner.  With Zack calling them and everything. And then they find Denzel.  Because I wanted so bad to include Denzel (I hinted to it in the Prequel.)  And I just love how Cloud and Tifa just pick Denzel up and are like "nope, keeping you."  I kind of modeled it after how Cloud finds Denzel in Advent Children, but obviously this isn't Aerith's church (Aerith doesn't really have a church in KH canon, the one in Traverse Town is probably the closest, but hey.)
Then we've got the journals.  In which Xigbar's journal is actually the most useful.  Because he's the one that remembers everything.  I believe that Xehanort's brain is a bit holey.  But Xehanort was really good at starting to make clones.  He was super successful with Xigbar and Saix--especially after Saix was marked as a recursant.

And then we get Cloud and Tifa returning to Hollow Bastion with Denzel and everyone being like "no one wants to call Aerith, so let's deal with this without her here because she needs a vacation gosh darnit"  But it's cool, they managed.  Plus, because it's mako-poisoning, Aerith actually has less experience with that because she didn't grow up anywhere near Shinra.  Cloud, Tifa, and Zack did.  Fun fact.

Things I'm super okay with:
-Xion flipping the lights on and off in the gummi ship to wake people up
-How everyone wakes everyone up in general
-Riku's fierce protectiveness of Namine regarding Larxene
-Xion knowing how to break into nearly everyone's rooms
-Demyx's door
-Finding Larxene's journal in a book about torture
-Roxas showing off against Neoshadows
-Xion and Roxas using each other's Keyblades periodically
-Axel saying that Xehanort was rude for going after Roxas' heart
-The FF7 Character's interactions with each other.
-Xigbar realizing that he's part Xehanort
-Saix's behavior after being marked as a recursant

Disney Castle Arc (Chapters 10-17)

Interesting, the first arc took 8 chapters, so did the second arc.  Anyway.

The Disney Castle arc was a combination of several things that I had set up for myself in Betwixt and Between and due to horrible planning, wasn't able to complete until Remnants.

from the Disney Wiki

First of all, I had this desire for Hades to attack Disney Castle.  It stemmed from a game called "Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom" in the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World.  It's basically where Hades decides that he wants a new summer home and the castle in Magic Kingdom is going to be it.  So he contacts his favorite villain friends (Maleficent, Doctor Facillier, Ursula, Jafar, etc) to rampage around until he can claim the castle for his own.

I fell in love with the idea and wanted to included it, replacing Cinderella's Castle with Disney Castle itself.  Plus, it gives me more of a chance to play with Mickey, who's always a fun character to write for.  I set it up in Betwixt and Between with Namine, Kairi, and Aerith learning of Hades' plot, but I never enacted it because I stopped Betwixt and Between before I wrapped up all of my plotlines (with the full intention of I'd wrapping it up in Remnants.)

The next thing included (at least in chapters 8 and 9) is the idea that Sora and the gang would all be chilling on Destiny Islands, and then be summoned promptly elsewhere.  Granted, given my canon, I'm sure that sort of thing happened all the time, with Cid or Mickey calling one of them up and being like "Hey, can you take care of such-and-such Heartless problem for me" and them being like "Yeah, sure, totally on it!" But I wanted to write it out, so here it was.

Though, as a side-note, originally it was that Aerith was in trouble that pulled them all away, back when I was still trying to incorporate FF7 into my fic like I incorporated FF8 back in the prequel.  I scrapped that idea because it's a fic in and of itself practically (or at least a huge chunk of one) and I didn't want to do it.  (Mostly because I didn't want to kill Zack or Aerith.)

Oh yes, and then comes Axel starting to read through Saix's journal.  Which will have important information in it.

Of course, as all of that's going on, I have Cloud and Tifa off on their little adventures (which happen periodically through half the fic).  Because they're in Agrabah at the moment because Cloud thinks Sephiroth's going to show up there.  Spoiler alert, he does.  I think I stuck them in Agrabah because I liked Cloud's dynamics in Agrabah from rar's fic.  But ignore me.

Tifa using corridors of light is just something so neat.  Since I gave her that ability in the prequel, of course she'd still be able to use it now.  And Cloud's just now learning about it, because she's kept it secret for so long.  But Cloud should know.  And meanwhile, Rinoa's just like, if Sephiroth comes after me, I will fight him.  Okay, kay?

by rongs1234 on dA

I love Mickey fighting.  He only does it when he feels he has to, but Hades attacking Disney Castle kind of gives Mickey reason to fight.  And Hades going after Minnie was just dumb, because the whole "let go of my wife" thing is just beautiful.  MickeyxMinnie is my forever ship.

Oh look, ZackxAerith in chapter 14.  Shameless and I don't care.  But gotta include life in Hollow Bastion even when the action is elsewhere.

And of course, even after they've dealt with Hades, I'm going to also make them deal with a Xehanort Remnant.  (Hint, they'll do that a lot.)  And I loved being in Xion's POV for this because Xion thinks faster than everyone else because she's got a computer for a brain and so she strategizes and then spends the remaining time figuring out how she's going to enact said strategies--in the same time everyone else is still figuring part  a out.

Riku is officially the first person that the Xehanort Remnant tries to go after.  And of course that fails miserably because Riku has actually built up a tolerance to that sort of thing.  And then he's just an ass and he makes everyone believe for three seconds that Xehanort might have done something, before just being like JK NOPE SUCKERS!

Cid and Shera love.  This is me, reintroducing her to the story, because she wasn't around in AtP or in BB.  And now she's back.  And I'm totes cool with that.  I don't know if I ever mentioned it, but I did actually intend on killing Shera in that massive cannon blast in Traverse Town, all that time ago.  She was supposed to die and it was going to freak Aerith and Cid both out.  It would also solve the "where has she been" problem.  But then I decided I didn't want to kill her (especially since she survives in the FF7 timeline--she and Cid quietly get married, even!) So I decided that she went back to work for the King.  But anyway.

Things I'm really okay with:
-Everyone on Destiny Islands being ready to help
-Xion reading upside-down
-Xion giving absolutely zero cares regarding walking in on Axel
-Aerith's hunches and sending the appropriate people to help
-Ven using shotlocks
-Tifa being able to use corridors of light
-Rinoa being like "ima punch Sephiroth if he comes after me"
-Rinoa's dynamic with Cloud and Sephiroth in general, I guess
-Mickey fighting Hades
-Hades out-hotting Axel
-Xion's computer-like battle planning because she's a Replica
-Everyone protecting Ven from Neoshadows
-Namine shattering things and then conveniently not talking about it

Overall Post about the Prequel

Yeah, I know, no one's seen me in nearly a year.  Because my life got really crazy this time last year only beginning with my last semester college and deciding to move across the country after graduation.  So, what ended up happening, is I didn't do posts for the last third of the Prequel.

But these are my thoughts (six months after officially completing it.)

The Prequel was actually really fun to write.  I wish I had as much time as rar has to make character pages and all that stuff for all of her characters.  But I don't have the time.  (So enough of your lamenting magik, get on with it!)  So yeah, the Prequel was really fun to write.  It was fun getting to play with the cast as they grew up and became the characters they are in AtP etc.  The Prequel made me really get a handle on the Squinoa and Zerith relationships for sure.  It also made me fall in love with Shera and really have an idea of how Sephiroth was related to Cloud.

cosplay by CanisPanthera on dA

The last chapter (or epilogue) of the Prequel that I posted back in June is (as you've probably already noticed) nearly the same as the first chapter (or prologue) of Remnants.  That was intentional and not because I was being lazy.  I wanted there to be a very specific tie between the two.  It brings together the FF and KH casts beautifully.  Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, Kairi, and Axel are all looking over a place that all of them had called home at one point or another (intentional.)  Not that the latter two refer to it as home anymore.  But Kairi and Axel still want to help restore Hollow Bastion just as much as the others.

The chapter was short and a preview of what was to come, the giant battle of Hollow Bastion that I'd been hinting at since Betwixt and Between but had yet to follow through with.  And I also got in a cute line of Leon telling Aerith that she needs to sleep.  Like the brother he is to her.  *snickers*

I think those are all my thoughts at the moment.  I hope everyone is having a great time of year! I know this time of year can be stressful to students.  So, hang in there!

I'll have a few more posts over the next few weeks and as I finish up Remnants.  I won't do a post every chapter, but every major World I suppose.

Have a good day everyone!

Beginning of the Hollow Bastion Arc (ch67)

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So, things I knew: It is into the new year before Cloud, Zack, and Aerith head to Hollow Bastion.  Leon and Cid tell them that even if Hollow Bastion (Radiant Garden) is still there, it would be greatly changed and Aerith may not like what she sees.  Aerith wants to see new sights, craving adventure.  Leon decides not to mention that Hollow Bastion really isn’t all that new.  They get there and the world is greatly changed.  Aerith is devastated by this.  She is angry at herself because she knows that Leon and Cid had been right.  Yuffie wants to go as well, but she isn’t allowed.

Things that got added: Aerith being apprehensive about the whole thing.  She’s also drastically in denial because she’s convinced that it will be okay.  Ish. Even though she knows it’s not.  Yup, it’s a psychological thing that happens. 

Meanwhile, Zack’s using this as a way to see what happened to his own world.  And Cloud’s just going along for the ride. 

Feels regarding Leon and Rinoa’s presents! I wanted to include a bit about the rings, because it’s like a major plot point in the game and also incredibly adorable. So I decided the two of them exchanged rings as tokens or foci for knowing when the other one was in danger.  And they’d always know if it were true, and then they could always come to the other’s aid.  I’m not kidding when I say they’ve literally pledged their lives to each other and not even marriage is going to change it all that much.  Well, they think so anyway, marriage is to some another great adventure, but that’s not what I’m talking about here.  But yeah, that’s what went down when he visited her. 

by neoangelwink on dA

Everything following Aerith getting to her house is just a bucket load of feels.  I got to explore what a world falling into darkness could look like.  I knew that Hollow Bastion did survive, because, well, KH1.  But, like, what happened to Aerith’s house? So I explored it.  Aerith got lucky that her house was mostly undamaged.  Good thing, too, because it’ll get remodeled later and be used as base for the HB Restoration Committee HQ.  *nods vigorously*

But the books, the quilt, the clothes, the pictures…

And then I throw Heartless at them.

Just wait until you see what’s coming next!

Muahahaha!

Teaser Quotes:

“Wanna help with a science experiment?”

“So what are we doing?”

“Interested in making some exploding green goop?”

“Oh, absolutely!”

“How about I drop you off at Disney Castle and then head out?”

“I wouldn’t want to keep you from…”
“I just need to go do some mercenary work.  The last few places we’ve been have been pretty quiet.  But I can take you to Disney Castle! Besides, Disney Town’s got a better stock than this place.”

“If you’re sure…”

“’Course I’m sure!”

“Kay, I’m really leaving this time.”

“I’m gonna see if I can catch up with him.”

“Tifa said she hasn’t been able to talk any sense into him.”

Anywho, I"m having a thing with holiday music still.  Feel free to ignore me.  But the Piano Guys are still awesome.

Darkness Falls (64)

Yay for a lack of original titles.

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by gyokuto

Look at these adorable boys!

And I'm so awful to them :(

Granted, I knew I was going to drop their homeworld into darkness.  Because I'm an evil author like that.  Plus, it makes it easier for me to do things like that because I know that the minute Sora comes around (though, it'll be a few years) He'll restore all the Worlds.  (Remember that I don't follow 3D where there are sleeping worlds.)

So the outline looked like this: Zack (20) and Cloud (18) had been in Zack's hometown, just visiting.  Zack had been bragging about his achievements.  Heartless in large amounts begin appearing.  The world is being swallowed by darkness.  Cloud recognizes this and tells Zack what is about to happen.  Zack wants to save everyone he can but Cloud tells him that there isn't time.  Cloud is becoming frantic at the influx of darkness.  Zack hastily takes the two of them to Traverse Town--to safety.

Though, I did add in that Zack wanted to save his parents, because Zack would want to save his parents.  But then I made him choose between them or Cloud.  And Cloud passed out.  And Zack is just like "Grarg! you're making my life difficult!"

Also, this was supposed to be the event that actually got Cloud and Zack to Traverse Town the first time.  The materia sub-plot got added in later.  Zack and Cloud would have been avoiding Traverse Town before that point because Cloud was being touchy.  (Though, how Zack would have managed to get Cloud to Gongaga before Traverse Town is beyond me, good thing I didn't go with that plotline.)  Anyway, clearly things changed.

Review Responses:
KKBeckett: No, Cloud's darkness is not happy.  Just you wait a few chapters.  I'll have another one posted in a couple of days.  And shhh! Everyone's mostly fine, you know that! :P

Teaser Quotes:

"I'm so sorry."

"The cannon's overheating!"
"@#%)(&@#%^(()!@"

"Stop talking! You'll only hurt yourself."

"Curaga, Curaga. Curaga! Curaga!"

"Stay awake. Stay with me.  I need you awake."

Muahahaha!

I'd give you a Christmas Video... but I love this TSFH song too much...

Yup, more letters (ch54)

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It occurs to me that my author's note on this chapter doesn't make a whole ton of sense, or it makes sense, it's just highly unamusing.  This is entirely because I was putting the chapter up late last night and I was sleep deprived and working through the medication over the migraine.  (I should have been sleeping, but there was homework....)

So, ignoring the odd author's note, let's talk about the chapter.

I don't really ever plan out the letters chapters.  I never have, I probably never will.  I basically just look at my outline and decide "That looks like a good place for a round of letters" so I put it in.  There have been a couple of times where I elected not to do the letters because I couldn't think of anything to write and I don't want to force the letters.  This was one of the instances, however, where I could better bridge what was going on through letters than anything else.

So, starting with Aerith's letter to Zack, what we're dealing with here is Aerith first trying to help Cid, because Aerith likes helping people in general, and she's been asking around to see what might work best for Cid's cannon prototype.  She asks this of Zack some undetermined time before this chapter and he responds sometime later (though still before the chapter, the last chapter also) about materia.  This is the letter Aerith had written before the start of chapter 53, she finishes the letter to Zack and starts one to Rinoa before going and making dinner, there was her afternoon.  Aerith does the usual thing and tells about how Traverse Town is.  Then she asks about Cloud because she cares.  Then she tells Zack not to be jealous because she still cares for and thinks about him as well.  She tells him her dream (which stemmed from a dream of mine, actually... because I legit dream about this stuff).  Aerith asks about Zack and also what Cloud's favorite foods are.  She makes a comment about wanting to go to festivals, but then ends the letter.  She curiously does not talk too much about herself, not really.  A point I will discuss later.

Aerith's letter to Rinoa is the letter she's writing at the start of chapter 53 when Leon joins her at the table.  Aerith's super awkward in this letter, I realize, looking back at it.  There's an awkward introduction and it just continues being awkward from there.  She talks a bit about herself, but only in the mage-sense to give Rinoa a background.  Then she goes into that whole "nice" thing which just cracks me up.  She's so blunt about it.  Also, she completely rats Leon out and it's amusing.  She asks Rinoa about what sort of food she likes and then what it's like to fly.  Which, is both a reference to Aerith being scared of the sky and the wings Angeal has in Crisis Core.  The being afraid of the sky part comes in where Aerith says how she thinks it would be scared to fly.  Not that Aerith's actually afraid of the sky in my universe, because she's not, she sees the sky as a way to connect with Zack when they're worlds apart.  And then the whole freedom of wings is a reference to Angeal.  Yup.  Then Aerith asks if Rinoa has any suggestions for the cannons in her typical helpful manner and then closes the letter wishing Rinoa luck.  Again, Aerith talks little about herself.  (I feel like I'm writing an essay here, but I'm actually just reflecting on Aerith's character.)

Then there's Leon's letter to Rinoa which he spends most of chapter 53 writing.  Side note, I keep changing what Leon's handwriting is, annoyingly.  I just can't settle on something in my head.  I know it's a bit of a scrawl, but that's all.  Anyway.  Leon's awkward too, but he's always awkward and Rinoa's totally okay with it.  The letter is a whole ton of feels: he is angry at Rinoa's father for not caring about her, I discussed in the last blog post Leon's feels regarding Cid and his current cannon building escapades, then there's the whole Father!Cid bit that I just adore... He misses her, he tells her that he's skeptical of Yuffie, he feels weird being back in Traverse Town, but he loves Aerith's cooking.  A completely normal letter from him.  Completely.  Especially the "Also, I love you" part.  Goodness, Leon.

Then there's Zack's letter to Aerith, which was probably written shortly before this chapter and the one before, but Aerith has not gotten it yet.  Zack's letter actually makes me sad.  He's so happy-go-lucky at the beginning.  He puts the ! after Aerith's name just because.  He tries to describe Halloweentown and fails (funnily enough, the world he's on is super festive and Aerith was talking about festivals, I can't remember if I planned that or not.)  Then Zack starts asking about what to do regarding Cloud's nightmares.  And that question isn't even completely relating to Cloud's nightmares, because Zack's getting nightmares too.  Except, where Cloud's getting suffocating nightmares about the darkness and something following him, Zack is getting nightmares about Angeal.  But then Zack changes the subject by saying that he considers Cloud a friend and he's really glad he met him, but he also misses Aerith and he's torn between the two.  Then he starts asking all the questions that he knows Aerith's going to answer anyway whether he asked them or not, but he ends with an emphasized "PLEASE TALK ABOUT YOURSELF I MISS YOU AND I JUST WANT TO KNOW HOW YOU ARE FEELING".  Sorry about the caps there, it was totally Zack.  And then he admits in the PS that he's getting the nightmares too and my heart simply breaks for him.  *sniffle*

Wow, that was a ton of feels.  I feel a bit bad about that.  Except, I don't.  :P

Teaser quote time!

"Well, then go.  Do whatever it is you need to.  But be careful!"

"I feel like there's more darkness floating around and I don't want you to get caught up in it."

"That, my dear, is a wild ride."

"Everything okay? Or is that a dumb question?"

"What are the odds that we'd end up finding each other? Two country boys who were just off to find adventure."
"You know, I think we found adventure."
"You can say that again."

I LOVE this video.  Just... yes.

ALL MY FEELS (ch34)

I can't come up with a better chapter title.  But this is feelsy.  Like, I cried through this whole sequence in the game, and then I knew Zack would have nightmares, and Aerith would be healing him and...

I should slow down.

Link to the chapter: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9446325/34/What-s-all-Gone-on-Before

Link to the tumbl: http://magiksbrain.tumblr.com/tagged/ch34/chrono

So, slowing down a little, I do a lot of POV switches in this chapter, unlike how I usually do it, mostly because these aren't separate scenes, they're all one scene that require different POVs.  I think originally I wanted it all in Aerith's, but I realized the impracticality of that, so I ended up having a bit with Cid and a bit with Zack as well.

cosplay by Narga-Lifestream

So first there's the repeat, with Aerith finding Zack and realizing that he's injured.  She's also piecing together possible situations of what happened, which I alluded to in the last blog, but here it is, actually happening.  And she just feels so awful and wants to ask all the questions, but she doesn't because Zack's crying and that's never a good thing.  Plus, she should heal Zack because he's not in great shape.  Everything else, at that point, can wait.

And she's mentally calculating just how much healing she's going to have to do and where Zack should sleep and well, shoot, she might as well just put him in her own bed and then worry about everything else later.  And Yuffie should just go sleep in Leon's bed because Yuffie should NOT be watching a healing.  And Aerith also wants to give Zack privacy.

And that poor hotel owner I think has learned not to ask questions by now.

Also, I'm listening to the Crisis Core soundtrack as I write this... because, apparently, I need more feels.

Moving on, though, we've got Cid's portion of the chapter, which does have some humor in it, grim humor, but humor all the same.  Cid is the one to draw the connection between Zack and Aerith to Laguna and Raine, because Raine was the healer before Aerith's mom, who was the healer before Aerith in Cid's eyes.  Cid's also the one landed with keeping Yuffie out of the room.  And while he doesn't want to argue with Yuffie, he knows Aerith can't right then, so he's going to have to.  And though it doesn't happen in-scene, he does somehow manage to get Yuffie out of the room.

And then we're back to Aerith with the healing.  She uses nearly her entire stock.  She'll be making a shopping trip in the morning after that one.  This is also where Zack tells her exactly what happened.  And while she's totally cool with him waiting and telling her when he's ready, Zack needs to tell her what happened now or his brain is going to explode with the information.  So he tells her and she feels awful on so many accounts.  And there's absolutely nothing she can do but be there for Zack.

This is a HUGE development for their characters.  Yes, Zerith is probably one of my most happy-go-lucky couples in the grand scheme of things.  However, Zack's loss of Angeal makes the two of them realize just who they are to each other.  Because, this is also where Zack's nightmares begin and Aerith is bound and determined to keep them away.

(Which of course, made me go all A:LGHSDG:KLHDSG over it because Riku tells the same thing to Sora in canon.  Ugh.)

And then there's Angeal's letter to Zack, which he delivered to Aerith some number of chapters ago (I wanna say it was about five).  Aerith never read the note herself, but she knew that this is what Angeal meant by she'd know when to give it to Zack.  And that's what she did.  And all Angeal wants is for Zack to live on, and be good to Aerith and let Aerith protect him as much as he wants to protect her.  Because Angeal is the biggest Zerith shipper ever, I swear.

Aerith's the biggest Squinoa shipper, it's cool.  (And I don't think they're official yet, heheh....)

So let's do some review responses:
archsage: Thank you very much! I'm glad I have Angeal's character down.  I know you were hoping that he would live... but I wanted to stay true to the story in this instance.  And a part of who Zack is is living through the death of Angeal.

KKBeckett:
No, it's not bad at all that you're laughing.  I'd say I put in the humor there on purpose, but I really didn't.  That's really just what Cid does.  He's bitter but slightly humorous.  But yes, that was muscle and I agree with your cringing.  But... *hands you cookie* hopefully it'll help with the feels.

And, to finish off today's feels-fest:

(I'd recommend going to YouTube and clicking on the higher quality video, honestly.)

Stay tuned for more feels tomorrow! (Heheh.)

Fight Against Angeal (ch33)

AKA FEELSY CHAPTER NUMBER TWO IN A ROW

Link to chapter: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9446325/33/What-s-all-Gone-on-Before

Link to tumbl: http://magiksbrain.tumblr.com/tagged/ch33/chrono

I wrote this chapter while simultaneously watching the scenes of Zack's fight(s) with Angeal repeatedly.  I'd already passed that point in the game about a week prior and basically just called on those feels, plus the feels of me WATCHING THE PLAYTHROUGH OVER AND OVER AGAIN.  Rar probably thought I was crazy.  When I wasn't watching the videos, I was blaring the Crisis Core soundtrack.  It was one of the scenes that literally requires I use headphones lest I drive everyone else bonkers with the constant sound-switching.

Clearly, this chapter is feels inducing.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.  I find the scene in Crisis Core to be so full of feels (granted, a lot of Crisis Core is more like Crisis Cries, as rar puts it).  All the same, this was definitely one of the more emotional scenes.  We've broken through Zack's core and it just makes you tear up a little.

by blazing-eyes on dA

Yes, I modified it a little bit.  I'd already sped up Angeal's degradation with the serum, which basically meant that Angeal's degrading cells tried to meld with the Heartless, which meant that Angeal lost hope, thinking he truly was a monster. The only foreseeable way out of it as far as he was concerned was death and death by Zack was more honorable.

Meanwhile, poor Zack is still convinced that Angeal is not a monster, even when Angeal's half-Heartless.  Yes, Zack does lose faith in Angeal's honor, but that becomes a moot point by the end of the battle.  The Angeal that Zack will remember will be quite an honorable man indeed, despite everything that happened.

Naturally, the battle leaves Zack more emotionally damaged than physically damaged, though Aerith will have quite the healing job to do.  But before I get too much into that, since that's next chapter, I'll just move on.  Spoilers and such.

So, KKBeckett, to respond more to your review a couple of chapters ago, Zack had everything he needed in his stock up until this battle.  He ran out of magic and had no ethers.  He had a crapton of remedies equipped (mostly because that's all I was using at the time and I based his stock sort of off of my stock, and I was using remedies because I kept getting poisoned) and thus no ethers.  Granted, he still won the battle, but is it really winning when you lose a friend in the process? We'll get to Zack's injuries more next chapter.

But yeah, Aerith at the end is mostly just like "I'll heal you now and we'll get to the talking later", because that's what Aerith does.  Heal now, questions later.  Though, I think there's a part of her who knows what happened.  Zack showing up with Angeal's sword, Angeal not around? All that stuff. Yeah, she knows Angeal's dead.  What she doesn't know is how.  And that's a good portion of the gut-wrenching feels.

And then there's the fact that Zack realizes his sword is still in Olympus and more feels!

So, yes, very feels-inducing chapter.  I'm surprised I'm not a puddle of feels at the moment.

Review Responses:
KKBeckett:  I'm... uh... sorry? About the feels? I suppose? Maybe... I can't help that rar's giving you feels, either.  Based on the fact that you've got Zerith feels, I have an idea of what chapter she just sent you.  I'm sorry, heh...

archsage: Yeah, when Phil's at a loss, there's a problem.  In my head, Phil is very much doing the thing when Meg died in the movie.  Except, unlike Hercules, who's a god and can go get her soul from the Underworld, Zack has no such ability.  Nor, do I think, would he want to go get Angeal, because Angeal wanted to go out.  Bringing Angeal back would devalue his death.  Meg's death was not supposed to happen and Hercules righted it.  Anyway! Enough of that philosophy.
Huh, Terra and Riku, though? I don't particularly imagine that happening in my story.  I want Terra to live! But it is an interesting image, I will give you that.
And no, nope.  Nothing's going to quiet down for a few chapters yet.  We're on quite the ride right now!

Um, so yeah, this video is appropriate:

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

by ~StrawberryKestral on dA

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

Rinoa's Inner Fight (26)

Well, I'm not behind on homework anymore.  But I'm certainly not ahead either.  Oi.

Anyway, link to the chapter: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9446325/26/What-s-all-Gone-on-Before

Link to the tumbl: http://magiksbrain.tumblr.com/tagged/ch26/chrono/

So, once again, I've got a chapter that's split up into four sections.  The FFVIII arc takes up half of it, then I have Denzel's birth slid in as well as the ending sequence involving Lea and Isa (now Axel and Saix.)

I do feel bad for Zell, because he's kind of just standing there awkwardly while everyone else figures out their next move.  Laguna's super apologetic after what happened and he wants to make it up to Leon and Leon's just like "go away, I never liked you anyway."

So, this is where I start being super mean to Rinoa though.  Originally, Ultimecia was supposed to come and absorb Adel's powers before Rinoa could get to them.  This would then of course spurn a ton of "oh crap, we have to kill her before she kills us all now!" But as I was writing, I got to thinking that I liked the idea of Adel trying to make Rinoa a vessel again.  I thought "oh crap, that's mean", but I just couldn't resist! Once I had it worked out, I was super in love with the idea, so it stuck.  It spawned this in my outline:

"Before they even leave Esthar, Rinoa suddenly loses control of the second set of Sorceress' powers.  Adel's consciousness overpowers her and Rinoa is essentially possessed by Adel.  She starts destroying Esthar.  Esthar police come and lock Rinoa up in the containment facility."

So, yup, that happened.

Outside of that, I decided to give the chapter with Denzel's birth as a marker for where we are in the timeline, more than anything else.

by ~G-a-t-i-n-h-a on dA

Same thing goes for Lea and Isa.  Though, they have a little bit more plot involved.  This marks when they're found by the organization, specifically Xigbar.  I also tried to show Lea's apprehension about the whole thing.  Lea and Isa's friendship is still intact though, at this point.  For now, at least.

Anyway, let's do review responses.

archsage from chapter 25: Yes.  Oh dear is right.

From chapter 26: I'm glad you're finding things to be getting more and more interesting.  To answer your question about locations of other people: Marlene isn't born yet, Vincent and the others are around.  (I know, so specific, huh?) Other than that, no, I haven't read that particular fic, maybe I will when I get a chance.

KKBeckett: Yes, Leon would really like it if Laguna stopped helping.  Not that that's going to happen anytime soon.  And, yeah, Axel's a little over it all.

Anyway, this video is just for fun and giggles.  There was a post on tumblr that highlighted the piece of music (one that my cello teacher had hanging on her wall for laughs).  My friend (who doesn't play music) was talking about how that should be possible.  But... it's not.  It's just... not.  Not for one person playing everything.