I knew where this was going right from the beginning really, (well, beginning meaning the fleshed-out FFVIII arc.) I knew that Rinoa was going to discuss what she should do about the fact that she has the power of multiple Sorceresses and how they would set a goal to maybe transfer some of her Sorceress power back to Edea so that Rinoa was not at risk of being consumed/corrupted by that power. Quistis, too, would volunteer to take some of that power in order to alleviate Rinoa's strain. Assuming they knew how to do that, which they don't at the moment.
Meanwhile, Squall was going to set up to go back home. Zell was to stay in Balamb, Laguna was to go to Esthar. Ellone would follow him, but after she helped out Rinoa.
by hinokami-san
I mean, I made some minor changes. In my outline, it was Squall's idea to go back to Traverse Town because he was homesick, but by the time I'd written it, Squall was mostly just conflicted and Rinoa had to convince him that going home was a good idea. Naturally, they'll keep in touch and visit each other.
The whole thing with Aerith's letters was added later. I mean, I knew Aerith was writing him, and I figured that Aerith's letters would probably get a little more worried as time went on. I mean, the last time we saw Aerith in-story was the chapter where she can't really focus on anything because she's worried both about Zack and about Leon and then she goes and fights Heartless and Zack drops in. It's been at least three weeks since that point. So yeah.
The artwork off to the side isn't really related to anything, except that I found it adorable. :-)
To respond to KKBeckett's review, yes, it is sort of like we're coming to a close. The FFVIII arc is almost done. But fear not, I have plenty more plot to come. I'd say what, but that'd be spoilers, so ya'll just have to keep reading.
I'll give you some teaser quotes because I like you all, though!
"You're wearing a lot of pink."
"I feel the same way about Zack most of the time."
"Most of the time?"
"Sometimes he's obnoxious and I want to smack him over the head with my staff."
"Do you need glasses? Of course it's me!"
"You ever traveled by star shard before?"
"Huh?"
"I'll take that as a no. Piece of advice: brace yourself."
"I don't think you'll believe me."
"Try me."
Anywho, I like this video. Also, I just like Sara Bareilles.
At last, the Ultimecia/end of time arc is resolved! There's still some more resolution as far as the FFVIII arc is concerned, but that's coming up soon as well.
Meanwhile, there's still Cloud to worry about. Oh, and the fact that Aerith's convinced something bad has happened to Leon. I'm evil.
Again, no tumbl. This time because I wrote this chapter with a very strong base of my other fanfic, To Save Him. There are subtle differences, but not enough that I was blogging about it.
by ~MCAshe on dA
Mostly I knew that Rinoa was going to go save him, using her vast amounts of Sorceress powers, and I becomes a power surge and takes them back to their own time, two or three days after she left originally.
didn't see a point of changing too much of FFVIII canon, since it is Rinoa that saves Squall at the end anyway. She transports herself practically to him, only having to walk a little bit at the end of time. She finds him unconscious at ... well, I suppose it's time limbo by that point. He doesn't wake up and his heartbeat's super faint and so she thinks he might actually be dead for a moment there. She starts weeping and then she
I mentioned in my notes "For once, she rescued him."
I am very fond of this chapter, mostly because it really solidifies the Squinoa dynamic. They are totes adorable.
Also, Leon has finally come to terms with his father's existence and it's he that initiates the hug. I love character development!
That, and Quistis totally ships Squinoa and completely understands why they don't feel like being the center of attention. Yup. That's a thing.
Boy, do I have so much in store for them later!
Coming up, we've got some Yuffie, which I know has been a request of some of the readers. Then, there's going to be some "What is Rinoa going to do with all of her powers" as well as "Someone should let Aerith know that people are okay." Heh!
Hmm, I think I'll give you some teaser quotes, because I'm in the mood:
"And you're wet! Yuffie! What did you do? Did you fall into the fountain?"
"You cannot change the past."
"Or I could just have a near-death experience."
"Don't be ridiculous. None of us are going to fight you just for something like that."
"The powers themselves would kick in anyway. Self-preservation tactic. It wouldn't be an easy fight."
"Besides, Leon wouldn't let us touch you."
"I just got this awful feeling this morning and I can't shake it."
"You have a family back home, that you haven't seen in over a year--nearly two! Go visit them!"
That's that for now.
I know I've posted this video before, but I just love it too much... Also, it's really hard to find good Squinoa videos....
Excuse me while I set my feels aside from what I was writing to deal with the chapter that I posted yesterday. The only thing similar is the darkness, and that's an overarching theme. Heheh.
No tumbl for this one guys. It just didn't happen. Everything moved so fast and I kept switching POVs to get the full story surrounding it. Plus, I repeated a few things to get all the viewpoints and... yeah...
The only thing that would have gotten tumbld would have been my feels on Rinoa's hysteric breakdown.
But let me back up for a second.
Anyone notice how where they are keeps changing in relationship to time? (End of Time, Time Compression, Sliver in the End of Time, Present Time) This motif will continue in the next chapter of this arc. Yup yup. I thought I was being clever.
cosplay by leonhart cosplay
Also, Rinoa basically stabs you in a knife with her feels. But that's not before Leon wrings your feels out because he's started to forget Rinoa. Which is totally something that happens in the ending video in the game. I just abbreviated it. Honestly, reading it over again, I think it makes it scarier, because it seems so sudden. He's forgotten someone very important to him. And he is stuck on a sliver of time, and he's got nowhere to go.
And then Rinoa (understandably) starts raving. It doesn't matter what Quistis or Edea tells her, she's not going to accept the fact that Leon could be gone. And when Quistis reminds her that the journey they took was bound to claim at least someone, Rinoa goes on about how she was the one it was supposed to have claimed, not anybody else, especially not Squall. KKBeckett puts it accurately when she says "oh my feels." Because "ugh feels!"
It kind of just blows my mind when I think about how someone could come to terms with their own death before they can come to terms with others. I mean, I am aware that it happens. But, all the same... yeah... special things, really.
As it is, I shan't say anything about where this is going. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Those of you who have read All the Pieces are lucky. Not because you know how it ends, but because you know that it ends. (If that makes sense muahahaha!).
So, other than that, I don't have anything to say. Most everything I have to say comes with the next chapter of this arc. So... I shall leave you with a video and bid you a nice day!
I love the animation done on this one by mike-inel.
Dude... writing a blog when you're distracted is actually super hard. Meh. Anyway. So, in short, yay! Rinoa's possessed again and Leon has to save her, again. (I'm awful, I know.)
Originally, before I determined that Ultimecia's consciousness would fight back, it was actually just going to be a darkness-consumed Rinoa, because Ultimecia's magic was so infused with darkness that it ended up in Rinoa. But then, when I determined that Adel was going to possess Rinoa, it occurred to me that if Adel could do that, Ultimecia could/would as well.
And so here we are.
Poor Leon. And the Cures don't do any good because darkness. (It's a well-known fact in mine and rar's universes that Cures just don't work when there's too much darkness... see... haha... *sobs* ... Zack's death...)
Potions, however, work! Rar and I had a whole conversation on this, how potions just help the body heal, and the body doesn't want the darkness there, so it pushes the darkness out. As opposed to Cures, which are magic and just fix things... but the darkness can cancel them out. I mean, if there's only a little darkness, say, one dark bullet from Xigbar, it won't be a problem. But completely darkness-infused wounds, or a darkness-raging person... yeah, no, a Cure's not gonna work at all. Even if it's a Curasa.
by Kimika
Anyway, but Leon's gonna battle until someone dies (and hopefully it's Ultimecia.) Because Leon loves Rinoa and he admits this now. And Quistis isn't going to go down without a fight, either. So that was pretty fun to write.
I think, if I were to pick two favorite parts battle-wise, is when Quistis has Reflect on herself and it goes to Rinoa and Quistis just swears because she WARNED Leon about it, but then forgot it herself. And then the second is when Leon pulls the mega-potion out of his pocket and thanks Aerith and it works on Rinoa because Leon considers her an ally.
I'm also super a fan of the imagery of Leon holding Rinoa down, forcing her to get healed even though the battle is far from over. It's the tragedy-lover in me. I did the same thing in RE5 when you have to fight Jill when she's possessed. Yup. I'm a weirdo.
But, yeah, I think that's all I have to say on that note.
So, HUGE update! 2.5 was released! Anyone super excited? I probably watched the trailer four times this morning on tumblr alone (as in, every single time it showed up on my dash) and then I think I watched it again on FB. Anyway... *dances excitedly*
So this chapter actually got written after I'd loaded up FFVIII and played that last battle again. Because, why not. T'was fun. That, and I watched two different playthroughs to get more ideas than just what I do. Because, seriously, I'm not writing Irvine or Selphie, and only some of their stuff gets transferred over to what I was doing with Edea and Laguna. And my solution with Rinoa is to stick her in her limit break and then just keep her healed. Then she just chain-casts. There's no strategy. And Rinoa in my fic would have strategy. So... yeah...
Ultimecia's a pretty fun boss battle, honestly. I found it incredibly easy the first time I played it (though, I'd had so much else go wrong with my game that I guess it just didn't quite match up to the suspense I'd gotten waiting for a functional third disk.) All the same, it's a pretty decent battle, though the storyline of 8 is all over the place, don't get me wrong. I think my stuff makes more sense lol.
Sorry for those of you reading the first posting of that chapter, I had missing words and stuff. Clearly I need to proofread better. I think it's all fixed now. If not, lemme know, I'll probably fix them
Again, I kinda feel bad for all the crap I put Rinoa through. This is the second time she's possessed. And Ultimecia's a stronger consciousness. And... yeah... I just... but... *shrug*. Rinoa is the one who just gets all the Sorceress powers in my story. Heheh...
And, yes, I did reference Shad. Don't even ask me why. I found it amusing and thus kept it.
Huh... is that really all I have to say about this chapter? I think it is. I mean, it's just a boss battle. The more interesting stuff will come in later chapters. O...kay... then.
Well, then in that case... anyone wondering what happens next will have to wait a couple of chapters. (I say two because the next chapter involves someone who is not these characters. You'll see!
As usual, have a video:
Oh! before I do that! I found other things to say... I think I've already attached Rolling Girl to Rinoa. Well, here, have another version of Rolling Girl (a really excellent cover if I do say so myself). A lot of my feels relate to rar's feels on this one (not the first time I've said this) but... yeah... enjoy!
I wanted to include a battle against the Omega Weapon for two reasons, one because I made reference to it here. And there is just so funny, because everyone's talking to Aqua, Terra, and Ven, about how Rinoa and Squall are just so epic fighting together. And Rinoa makes mention of the "Ultima Weapon", though that is an error, it should have been "Omega Weapon" because that's the one in the game that has the attacks that I'm talking about.
official render from ff.wiki
Because this ugly dude is... well... ugly.
The second reason is that I had such an interesting experience fighting the Omega Weapon myself, that I thought to include it in my writing.
So, sidetrack for a second, while I mention a random factoid... It was established in AtP and BtE that everyone called Leon "Leon" except Rinoa, Quistis, and Zell. My original reasoning being that they all originate from FFVIII, so that name would stick. However, as I wrote the prequel, it became established that the only person who called Leon "Squall" was Rinoa, because she liked the name better and was too stubborn to listen to him telling her to call him Leon. Quistis and Zell would respect his decision to be called Leon. So, my options now are to either retcon that, or just say that after years of Rinoa referring to him as "Squall" they picked it up and he didn't feel like correcting them.
Anyway, moving on from that. So while I was fighting Omega Weapon in FFVIII, I didn't happen to kill him before he started his epic-beam-of-light-that-deals-9999-damage-so-you-die attack. I'm plugging along, using a ton of Life's and Full-Life's and trying to keep Squall in a state where he can use his Limit because Renzokuken! At some point during the battle, epic-attack-of-doom kills Rinoa. Literally, as soon as it works its way back to Squall, I get a limit and for the first (and sadly only) time in the game, I get the finisher of Lion Heart (as opposed to any of the other finishers). Naturally, the Omega Weapon didn't survive that. So, yeah, the experience was so amusing in my head, that I ended up including it here for you guys. Sorry about that lol.
I think mostly everything else was explained in the tumbl. So perhaps I'll leave it at that.
Have a Vocaloid video. Technically, it's an Akiakane and Yuyoyuppe cover. Because well, they're amazing.
Anyway, have a slightly related picture of Rinoa and Squall, yes, they're on the Ragnarok, but this picture, okay? Where he's holding her and all... yeah...
So, yeah, I had a ton of feels in this chapter and some of them were not okay.
Rinoa was just a bucket of feels and so was Squall, but he's trying to hide them because he's Squall and that's what he does and just... ugh!
But Rinoa's having the... "I know Adel's dead but I just can't quite believe it yet and everyone must think I'm dangerous and I would have been better off frozen, do you seriously care about me enough to rescue me and oh my gosh I was possessed I just feel gross and icky and no one likes me now and I should just go get frozen because that's what's best for everyone and..."
And Squall's like... "I have to know Adel's gone but there's a part of me that doesn't care because I think I love you but if love isn't the right word than I'm not quite sure what is, but I've realized I don't want to live without you so I think you're stuck with me and oh dear, why are you crying?"
BUT HE FLIPPING SLAMS ON THE BRAKES AND THEN HE HOLDS HER AND OH MY FEELS.
Sorry, for subjecting you to that. I have feels, I'm sorry.
Is there anything I want to say that isn't deep fried and covered in feels? Nope, not really. My outline basically says that Squall goes and gets Rinoa and then they come back and talk about how they're going to go after Ultimecia. The feels came later.
Though I have a completely different set of feels for the second half. The second half is "Gosh, Headmaster Cid, why are you such a presumptuous jerk?" I like, did not mean to write him that way, and I know he must have some redeeming qualities because he IS Edea's Knight, but... like... he's so presuming. *rolls eyes* But then Quistis and Edea make up for it because they're both willing to take on Ultimecia's powers if it makes it easier for Rinoa and Rinoa is kind of shocked because she didn't expect that from them. Mostly because she's having self-confidence issues. Those will get solved later.
Um, so Review Responses:
KKBeckett: Um, maybe it was a reference to Aladdin? I guess it was. There's no itty bitty living space involved though. But Rinoa practically has phenomenal cosmic powers, so... And basically, the rest of that is my feels in general. Quistis is awesome and Rinoa needs a confidence boost. Yep.
Have an oddly appropriate VOCALOID Video:
I have feels about this song, too. They are similar to rar's feels. Anywho, have a nice day!
So, this is the chapter where Leon finally decides that he's going to go after Rinoa. Goodness, that took some persuading. (Actually, it really didn't. Edea basically just had to tell him what he needed to do.) Anyway.
Literally, this is what I had written in my outline:
Leon, Zell, and Quistis were forced to go back to Balamb without Rinoa, but with Laguna. Despite everything Laguna said, there was no retrieving Rinoa. After agonizing about this for a while, Leon takes it upon himself to go rescue Rinoa. He realizes that he cares about her a lot, maybe even to the point of love. Edea coaches him a bit about Sorceress Knights and he goes off to rescue her. On the way, he realizes that he loves her. He brings Rinoa back to herself and she gets the two sets of Sorceress powers under control.
Yeah, so that happened.
by *Mar-ka on dA
Well, it kind of happened like that. That particular portion of the outline hadn't been updated since I decided
that Adel's consciousness wasn't going to die yet. Originally, Rinoa just lost control of the second set of powers, rather than Adel having anything to do with it. But, aside from that modification.
What I do wish I had done, was maybe make the fight against Adel take a little longer. Reading through it again, I feel like I shortened it by too much to keep it in a chapter length. I don't know. Anyone else have any thoughts on that?
Despite that, I'm glad I included the Adel conscious in favor of Rinoa just losing control. It make Rinoa the only girl who gets possessed, sure, but that's one girl out of a load of boys who have trouble with "shadows" (e.g. Rar's Sora, Riku and Cloud (and kind of Zack).) *not spoilers because of AtP and BB*
Though, it does make this sequence a little bit darker than originally planned. Whoopsies.
Then, to piggy-back off of what the livetumbl has going on... I *love* the sarcasm that Leon's got going on. "I'm going to go visit it as a tourist attraction--no, I'm going to try and rescue her, you dumbwit!" The second half of that post refers to Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Because sarcasm, that's original.
Then, in those last moments, he's just so mushy. And he's never been more grateful that Rinoa's always called him 'Squall' in his life. I made sure that Adel always referred to him as 'boy', and it's not until Rinoa's truly herself again that she calls him 'Squall.' Heheh.
I rather like the letter chapters. I've written quite a few more, actually. They're pretty fun. I think this is the only one I'll do with multiple short letters. A lot because formatting is a pain. However, I did make this happen:
I imagine that these would all just be sitting on her bedside table as she gets to them and responds to them. It was fun picking out fonts for the three of them. The handwriting for Zack is actually my own, modified for my character Tristan from my book. So, yeah. That's exciting.
Anyway, there's a lot going on in the chapter, though some is summary.
First we've got Zack's letter to his parents, which is modified from an actual letter he sent to his parents in the games. Right down to the girlfriend part. Heh.
Then there's Tifa, who's just sending a letter to every single town on the Planet, trying to get a hold of Cloud. Unfortunately, he's not going to be getting any of these letters anytime soon. And it's kinda depressing when you think about it.
Anyway, then there's Leon telling Quistis that he's off to find Rinoa. Rescue Rinoa. Whatever. And it's oddly like Riku telling Alpha he's heading to Hollow Bastion from rar's universe. That happened fairly recently, didn't it? Or has he been in Hollow Bastion for a while, now? Anyway, Leon at least left a note, as opposed to Riku, who just sent a Joseph.
Then there's Zack being adorable. He's so proud that he came across that book for Aerith, because he knows she's been looking for one for a while and he's just so happy that he can help. And he misses her, and he loves her and OH MY GOSH STOP BEING ADORABLE YOU TWO. SHEESH.
And then there's Angeal. And he's doing a thing. And it's not okay. Rar and I are in agreement on this.
Take your guesses now.
Oh, and yes, Yuffie apparently misses Leon. I threw it in there as a bit of a random tidbit, but yes, Yuffie misses him. Sort of. He'll get back and she won't be too happy that he doesn't let her get away with things, but yeah, she misses him.
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.
I'm actually doing a thing where I'm not livetumbling what I'm writing right now because I'm so far ahead and spoilers, and it takes more effort to livetumbl what I'm writing. However, I'll still make posts under tags for each chapter later with my thoughts. Because little snippets of thoughts are funny.
Erm, if you didn't know, a Can't Escape chapter went up! Link in the previous post.
Um, yeah, so, this chapter!
Leon is mostly just like "oh my gosh guys, must you be all dumb-sounding!" Because, Rinoa and Zell both drive him up a wall. Quistis is quiet, he likes Quistis. (Shh, Squinoa shippers, that'll happen later.) Of course, then he's super impressed with Rinoa lying her face off to get them in there. And then when Zell starts flirting, he's all jealous. Yup. That happened. He just squashed it. (That didn't make it on the tumbl, huh...)
Anyway, I contemplated several different ways for them getting to Adel without help from the president of Esthar, because that scene happens later! (I mean, I could have moved them around... but I had already planned it out this way...) (That, and the tourist idea was super funny and amusing.)
by ~retamal1990 on dA
But yeah, Quistis and Scanning is a thing. (I never really used the Scan spell in the game *shrug*). Anyway, Quistis is actually super quietly badass during this whole scene because she's orchestrating what will go on, keeping track of everyone, and all that jazz. She doesn't have to worry about Curing anyone, because that's Rinoa's job, but she does think to add things to Rinoa's barrier when Adel keeps using the Quake spell. Anyway, yeah, minor Quistis appreciation paragraph.
So, anyway, a while ago, back in Betwixt and Between, I talked about Flexors, and how they can cast magic from all ends of the spectrum. All Sorceresses are Flexors. Sure, Adel is basically an evil Sorceress, but that doesn't prohibit her from casting spells like Holy and Ultima. Just like how Rinoa's a good Sorceress and that doesn't stop her from casting spells like Meteor and Flare. Aerith, however, is not a Flexor, so while she can have a basic understanding of black magic, she is a white magic caster. (Shh, I'm aware that elemental magic technically counts as black magic, but I say it's elemental magic. Also, I'm not sure where Gravity fits in. I suppose it's technically dark, but it's use in KH in general throws me off.)
Yeah, okay, so I realize now (as KKBeckett points it out) that Leon basically got knocked out during the ends of the last TWO Sorceress battles. Granted, Edea was trying to specifically kill him. Adel was just trying to kill them all. Zell passed out, too. Anyway, yeah, Rinoa saves his life the first time, and Quistis gets him with a good Curaga during the second one. Meanwhile, Rinoa's angrily throwing magic at Adel until she dies.
And then Rinoa passes out. Which is a thing that happens when you absorb another Sorceress' powers. In my canon, that is.
Review Responses:
archsage from ch21, I PMed you about that one, because that answer is highly spoilerish.
archsage from ch22, go ahead and beat FFVII first since you have it on steam. But FFVIII is pretty fun (in my opinion). Though, I will grant the story can be a tad confusing.
KKBeckett: I'm glad you think Rinoa's sassy!
archsage from Can't Escape ch61: congrats on being review 200! And I can't really tell you who's going to meet up first. (i mean, i know, just spoilers.) I mean, just on rar's end, we have an emotionally unstable Riku and a darkness-ridden Sora. Should be fun either way!
I am aware that that blog post title only applies to one quarter of the chapter that I just posted, but it's really the only fight that's going on in this chapter (as opposed to gearing up to the fight against Adel and Cid's fights against libraries and bookstores. Neither of which make good blog titles.
And the truth behind why Rinoa had magic in chapter two comes out. Adel tried to possess her. See, when I wrote the chapter, I hadn't quite decided whether or not Rinoa was a Sorceress or not. I think in my head, I assumed she was, because she needed to be for the chapter for the plot I already had in place to function. It was only later that I decided that Rinoa wasn't a Sorceress yet because, I liked the transfer of powers idea and there really was no other way (that wasn't ridiculously complicated) that I could work it out.
But, in the game, Rinoa doesn't become a Sorceress until Sorceress Edea almost dies and transfers her powers. In my canon, here's Rinoa exhibiting Sorceress powers before she'd even MET Edea, so I decided to go with the possession (or attempt of possession) route. Because, it's so Kingdom Hearts. It really is. Okay, well, it's so Xehanort, but still.
The raw magic, as explained by the chapter, came from an attempt of possession by the Sorceress Adel, who was trying to possess another girl in order to free herself from prison. Rinoa seemed like a good enough candidate because of her connection to one of Galbadia's generals. However, the full possession attempt fails because of the safeguards around Adel's prison.
Rinoa was then able to use magic for about six months while the residual Sorceress power slowly drained from her system.
Cue everything between chapter 2 and chapter 21.
Rinoa decides that now is as good of a time than ever to mention that she had magic before, answering just about all of Quistis' questions as well as getting some of her own answered by Edea. Meanwhile, Leon and Zell are just like "okay, whatever".
Moving onto Cid! (I wonder if this is going to be a long blog... probably not... because I really only am going to ramble on and on about the Sorceress part of this chapter)
See, I knew that Cid researched, I just was never quite sure when, so I decided that I would explore in a chapter snippet when he's researching. So look, there he is researching gummi ships (because, face it, they're more stable than star shards). This also marks when he decides to start collecting gummi blocks.
So back to the Sorceress plot... Everyone makes plans to fight Adel and while everyone's like "oh, it's a super good idea for Rinoa to do this", Leon's the only one who's like... "Who decided this is a good idea? This is not a good idea! Rinoa, you could die!" (Leon loves her, it's a thing, but he doesn't admit it yet and he won't for a while.) And then Edea's like, "Well, you're going to need a Knight..." And because Leon's in love with Rinoa, he agrees to it without really thinking about what he's getting into. And he justifies it by saying he's just trying to keep her from doing something stupid, when really, he loves her.
That's not spoilers, it happens in the game. The him loving her part. Not the Rinoa absorbing Adel's powers. Though... I'm forgetting who absorbed those in the game, I think it might have been Ultimecia... the game was very much like "We have to kill Adel so Time Compression can start" and there wasn't a lot of "who's absorbing that power?"
It was while I was writing this part of the chapter that the lone post on the livetumbl came up. See, I was plotting things that happen upon Adel's death and I was wondering if I was being a bit mean to Rinoa, but then I figured that a ton of crap happens to the game. Of course, then I wondered if I was making her character useless, which led to a huge brainstorming session in which I could both be mean, and still have a good character. Yep. That happened.
And then, stuck at the end of the chapter, is Cloud's fall into darkness. I knew from the beginning that it wasn't going to be like other's falls into the darkness. His descent (because, it's kind of a descent, since he does eventually end up with a shadow (not spoilers, it comes up in Betwixt and Between)) isn't really his fault. He just wanted to adventure, and then he was unfortunate enough to be on a World as it fell into darkness. He will then be IN the Realm of Darkness for a while, and he won't be the same when he comes out. I won't say too much, because I haven't even written all of that yet...
So, yeah, wow, long blog post...
Review Replies!
KKBeckett, I answered most of your review above in my rant lol. But yes, that's what happened with Rinoa, and yes, he totally LIKES her.
And Cid's feels are so adorable! He's secretly a Zerith shipper.
As for Cloud, and that World being plunged into darkness, I suppose it's technically Xehanort's fault. Though, I'm pretty sure this one was Ansem or Maleficent.
Have a video! (From Geek Week on YouTube not too long ago)
And the truth comes out. Leon didn't ACTUALLY do anything against Maleficent. Quistis is a bit ticked (rather understandably), but Leon does his job. Well, sort of.
It's not really his fault that Edea aimed an icicle right at his chest (ala the end of FFVIII disk 1). (Excuse my snark, I was reading a snarky walkthrough to ensure that the battle I'm referring to really ended disk 1. You fight Edea at the end of disk 1 AND disk 2. Yay.)
But enough about FFVIII the game, back to the story...
I tried not to make the battle sequence too long, but rereading it, I'm wondering if I made it long enough. Oh well. There will be more battles. Trust me, there will be more battles. It also occurred to me that Leon didn't do much this battle. Of course, the original plan was to not physically attack her, so he was left with pretty much nothing because Leon actually doesn't know too much magic at this point. He'll get better.
Well, sort of. At some point, why do you need magic when Quistis and Rinoa know all the magic? I'm referring to story mechanics, actually... in-game mechanics, I gave Squall loads of spells. Because, he needs them!
Oh, for anyone new, I tend to use Leon/Squall interchangeably when I'm just talking. When I'm writing, I try to remain consistent. As in, everyone calls him Leon except for Rinoa.
Anyway, backtracking, to get back on track...
Leon's all like: "This is your Sorceress? I thought for a moment it might be Maleficent. Oh well, she needs to die anyway."
And then Quistis is like: "What do you mean you didn't properly deal with your last Sorceress? I thought you knew what you were doing?"
Quistis isn't happy with Leon.
Anyway, they battle Edea and after the whole icicle-through-the-chest thing, instead of being captured and
jailed like in the game, Rinoa basically has a Limit (though she uses Squall's gunblade for it) and nearly kills Edea. This causes the transfer of powers between the two, instead of the later fight like in the game. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure why I'm describing what I did versus what the game did. I know that what I'm doing is different (partially because FFVIII is long and partially because I haven't played it in years and when I wrote the timeline, I was basically going off on memory and wrote a condensed version. Yup.) Then there's the fact that I want to add the KH spin to it, hence the possessing and the plunging into darkness motifs.
Actually, I think originally, I wasn't going to use the icicle-in-the chest, so Leon would have been awake to make the executive decision to move everyone off the float, but then I used the icicle thing and Quistis decided that everyone should be awake before they moved.
by ~tomuyu on dA
So, the two pass out because...well... transfer of powers. It'll happen every time. Quistis and Zell are surrounded by two passed-out women and a bleeding-to-death Leon. Yup. Quistis heals Rinoa because she knows Rinoa's not crazy (spoilers: at the moment). And then she still has to have Edea healed to answer questions. But Edea's fine now because Ultimecia's not possessing her! Woo!
It's about here that I decided that Ultimecia and Xehanort should form a fanclub for possessing and Genesis should join. What is it with KH and needed vessels? Well, it's mostly Xehanort, but still.
But anyway, Ultimecia's now back where she belongs at the end of time (for now) and she's stewing because her plan failed. But she's not even a main objective right now, they've got other things to figure out.
Hmm, I'm not sure if I have anything else to say...
Okay, well... video!
Yup. Another one from me. I had a thing with this particular Linkin Park album and how it relates to Axel.
Currently, I'm of the opinion that the new FOB album is AkuRokuShi.
Trying to keep up with the theme for the last several blogs. Gonna need to change it though, I've got a new set of chapters that could use a different theme. I know I said somewhere that Cloud's chapter was the last one in that sequence, but it's actually this one. Technically.
This chapter basically officially sets up the Final Fantasy VIII arc. Originally, I hadn't intended to even touch the FFVIII story except vaguely. But then, I was talking to a few of my regular readers and they all suggested that I actually try and tackle the story, so long as I don't entirely rehash the game.
Well, my goal is to not rehash the game in its entirety. There are going to be a lot of aspects that are shared from the game, however, there are going to be major differences due to the fact that I've added the KH element of darkness and Heartless. So, it's like AU FFVIII.
Anyway, because I chose to tackle on the FFVIII story, my original timeline for this story greatly changed (and thus expanded). It's making me question if I'll get done writing this in time for NaNoWriMo. (Keep in mind I have many chapters written ahead of where I'm posting, but I can't post every day to catch up AND still do worthwhile Review Responses.) That also means that you guys get to enjoy this story a little bit longer because chances are, I'll still be POSTING in November, even if I am (hopefully) done writing this story. As you can see, I'm still worried about getting done in time.
AKA, my summer's over and I have significantly less time.
Anyway, but to talk about the chapter. This chapter is a little bit more than filler, I suppose. It does do the main job of setting up the next major plot arc to happen (after Hollow Bastion's fall, as well as the Zack/Aerith arc). (But the Zack/Aerith arc is an overarching thing that will continue throughout the WHOLE story, not just a (albeit large) chuck of it.)
by ~lyxia on dA
Plus, it also gives me a chance to discuss who Edea really is, bring up some miscommunications that will
definitely come into play later, make a jab at the Squall vs. Leon name, as well as other things.
Check out that awesome Edea artwork to the right, btw.
I'm kind of enjoying the miscommunication that's going on though between what Quistis and Headmaster Cid assume Leon can do, and what Leon's actually done. (Which, as far as Maleficent's concerned, is actually jack-diddly-squat.)
Fun fact: I actually considered using Maleficent AS the "Sorceress" that was causing problems on that world. However, then I feel that Maleficent would have to either A) Escape or B) Die, and I wasn't quite sure how to plot that out. Plus, I decided that things work better if Leon DOESN'T kill Maleficent now, because that kind of changes the tone of how KH1 works, and I'm trying to make this fit into KH Canon as much as possible. (Except where deviations already exist between my pre-3D canon and 3D-established canon.)
Okay, well, let me answer the last couple questions that were brought up in reviews...
I know, Leon paragraphed. It's one of the few times he (ever) does that. I think it's because he has all of these pent-up feels regarding Radiant Garden's fall that he just expressed them all in one go.
As for Rinoa calling Leon 'Squall', it's something that was established back in Betwixt and Between where Rinoa's the only one that calls him Squall, despite everyone else calling him Leon. I decided that it's something she's done from the very beginning. He may try and correct her (if he does, it's off-screen) but eventually he gives up because he decides that it's a battle not worth fighting. It's also something that's going to come in handy later. You'll see.
erm... more shamelessness. This one's also mine. But it's epic... so...
Anyway, so this is that Leon chapter I'd mentioned in the last blog. Or last chapter. Or... something. I remember saying it, but now I can't find record of it. *headdesk* Of course. Anyway! Leon chapter!
I continued off the epic entry introduced last chapter and then just continued it into 'Leon getting roped into things he doesn't want to do.' Because, in all honesty, he really doesn't want to have to go somewhere else and deal with anyone else's problems, he's got enough of his own as far as he's concerned. But then something twinges in his heart and he wonders that if he helps these people, maybe he'll feel better about letting Radiant Garden fall. (He still feels mildly responsible for that, yep.) And so off he goes, despite hardly knowing these people. And we call Zack impulsive.
Though, I do find it amusing (but completely rational of him) that he tries to pawn Zack off on the newcomers, it goes back to him thinking that he's got enough on his plate and it's completely logical for Zack to go, because Zack was going to leave anyway. Plus, Zack calls himself a hero! And that's what they're looking for. Leon does not consider himself a hero, and probably won't for a while.
Anyway, you'll note that Yuffie still calls Leon 'Squall', mostly because she knows it bothers him. Which is why she's super quick to tell everyone else what his true name is, much to his chagrin. Yuffie just thinks this is all great fun. Leon's going to hate her in a bit when Rinoa picks up on it and insists on calling him 'Squall.' It's cool though, Yuffie's super annoyed that not only does she NOT get to go and help these people, Leon's going instead. So, congratulations you two, you've annoyed each other.
To expand on the livetumbl...
I basically explained why Leon is the epitome of 'can't be bothered.'
The continuity errors have to do with what is being blamed for Radiant Garden's fall. Because in my KH Canon (actually, it could be canon.... i'm not entirely sure...) Xehanort plunges Radiant Garden into darkness about the same time he splits his heart and becomes a Heartless and a Nobody. To compound the problem, Maleficent added a crapton of Heartless and darkness into the area, which just didn't help matters. So yes, Maleficent is somewhat responsible and it's completely legitimate to blame her for it. But, ultimately, like everything else in KH, it's Xehanort's fault.
And yes, Aerith has a look that makes everyone get defensive. She gives Leon that look when she thinks that Leon might have agreed to let Yuffie go along to help. Aerith tries really hard to keep Yuffie out of the Worlds' problems and only partially succeeds. It's cute.
And then Aerith went and gave me feels regarding the fact that she felt every death that was a result of Radiant Garden's dirge. Yup. Thanks Aerith, for that. Really wanted it.
And then there was the Xehanort and Ultimecia post. It came about because rar and I were discussing how Xehanort and Ultimecia both have a thing with possessing people and I casually mentioned that they should make a club. Yep.
Review Responses:
SpiritDreamWarriors from Chapter 14: I might be able to add Vincent in there somewhere. It won't be for a while, because I've got the next long bit pretty much ironed out for what's going to happen. But I can guarantee you a cameo or three before the fic's end.
KKBeckett: Yeah, if you hadn't read the chapters before this one and only heard about a Sorceress causing darkness problems, you're definitely given the jump to assume it's Maleficent. I kind of did that on purpose. Mostly so LEON thinks it's Maleficent. And then he finds out that it's not. Heh. I considered actually doing that, but that would be A) too convenient, and B) Leon couldn't actually KILL Maleficent (because that messes with KH canon--don't get me started on her coming back... she needs to not die...) and I needed to give Leon someone (or two, or three) to kill. Yup.
Anywho, that's all I have for you right now.
I love this video. All the fandoms. Advent Children even appears in it somewhere. :P
So, yeah, this chapter begun because I'm orchestrating multiple plotlines at once and they're all going to intersect for a moment and I needed a chapter like this to enable that. Yuffie somehow ends up in the middle of it all.
Writing for Yuffie is fun, but I think she's one of the people I probably can't do a full chapter from just yet. Child voices are a lot harder than adult voices, but I can get a chapter snippet from Yuffie just fine. Yuffie can be summed up this entire chapter as just wanting to be with Aerith and Zack. And... yeah.
And Cid's not really paying attention to any of it all, because he's learning about star shards and stuff and he wants to know more about travel and Zack's helping him in more ways than one, and so he's got his nose in a book.
And Leon's just like... "Was I this bad?" "How could you let her get out?" "Cid, why are you making me do this? You're the adult here?" "Ugh." Typical Leon stuff.
And then I did a chapter snippet from Zell, because I don't use his voice very often. He's kind of hard to write for though, in my opinion. So, I'll probably stick to chapter snippets for him, if I'm being completely honest. But, yeah, Zell was very impulsive with that star shard a couple of chapters ago. And now they've all arrived in Traverse Town and who do they run into? Yuffie.
by ~KitKatChan on dA
Yuffie, in typical Yuffie fashion, gives them trouble up until the Heartless show up, then everyone's just focused on fighting the Heartless. And Zell and co. are all rather surprised by the fact Yuffie's good at killing Heartless.
And then Leon makes an epic entry. Heheh. It's super epic in my head, because Leon's super angry at Yuffie for running off, and then frustrated that Heartless are involved, because he doesn't want Yuffie getting hurt, even though most of him knows she can take care of herself, but then he's still frustrated that she even got herself into a situation like this. And then there are other people involved and... so he's angry and fierce and the perfect image of the hero that Rinoa, Qusitis, and Zell are looking for. Heheh.
And then I had a chapter snippet with Kairi. I like doing stuff with Kairi periodically so as to keep track of where she is in her life compared to everyone else. I probably won't do a full chapter with her, either. Not only because she's young (though, that's a main reason, same with Yuffie) but because she's not really the focus of this story. The focus is the Final Fantasy characters. So, yeah.
Review Responses
Yes, KKBeckett, Yuffie has a boomerang. It's actually one of her weapons from FFVII. I needed something for a younger Yuffie that wasn't a full-blown Shuriken yet, but still serious enough for Heartless killing. But hey, Lea used frisbees on Unversed. And no, Zack and Aerith aren't going to have typical teenage relationship drama and thus there would be no instance for him to pour tea down Zack's shirt. Though, their facial expressions in my head are amusing.
Anywho, expect another chapter tomorrow everyone! It'll be fun!
Totally a Squinoa vid and I'm not even shipping them yet in my story. But it's a Squinoa vid :P
Hello again! So as I said in the chapter, this happens roughly the same time as chapter 10. Just on a completely different world. The thing that is similar about them is the fact that both worlds have growing Heartless problems, yay!
As you can tell from the livetumbl, there's another chapter that happens at the same time as these past two, which will get posted in the next day or so. It's very exciting, the plot is picking up tremendously. I'm excited for the next things to happen. So I hope that translates well and you guys can all pick up on that excitement.
Anyway, so things I have to say on this chapter!
I knew from when I first outlined this all, that the world Rinoa, Quistis, and Zell were on was in trouble. Heartless, they do this nasty thing where they go searching for a world's heart and end up throwing into darkness, yeah? And it's a problem. Quistis and Rinoa have both seen it. Quistis has been researching it since a couple of chapters ago. Though she's really only been looking in the Balamb area because that's all she's had jurisdiction for. But she knows from the other Gardens that there are issues worldwide. But Rinoa's appearance merely proves that the problems are worldwide and so they end up at Cid's desk.
by ~Jessami on dA
As for Rinoa, she's been waffling on whether or not she wants SeeD help. But the increase of Heartless and the continued foiled plans as far as the Forest Owls go prove to her that she should go get SeeD help. And so she begins her quest.
Meanwhile, Cid's got other issues. Cid's wife (not spoilers) has gone crazy and is using the Heartless to her advantage. Much like Maleficent. It's super great, not. And he has no idea how to deal with it. He knows how to deal with Sorceresses, but Sorceresses surrounded by darkness? Not so much. Hence the star shard, and telling Quistis, Rinoa, and Zell to find someone who CAN deal with the darkness. Naturally, Quistis is skeptical, and Rinoa's not too far behind her, but Zell thinks it's a great idea and ends up taking them all... somewhere. You'll see in a few chapters.
A lot of this ended up falling into place as I was writing it. The entire FFVIII story line is more or less falling into place as I'm writing it. I knew from the beginning that a modified version would happen, I just had no idea I would end up going so in depth on it. You'll see. It's exciting, in my opinion.
And that's actually all I've got for you. There's other stuff I want to say, but I need a few more chapters to get posted before I can go in-depth on it.
The above video is awesome. I want to be able to sign it sometime. That gets filed under the "eventually" category.
Well, a new part of the story, anyway... This chapter marks the end of one part and the beginning of another. It also marks an extreme passage of time.
So, Kairi's portion of the chapter happens directly after the previous chapter, the dirge of Radiant Garden. The protection charm she had took her from that world and plopped her right into the seas of Destiny Islands. From there, she was carried to the main island of Destiny Islands and was found by Sora and Riku, both of whom she instantly becomes friends with. Though not mentioned in the chapter, nor will I do a chapter on this, Kairi is then adopted by the mayor and his wife and proceeds to begin a life as if she were their daughter. She still retains memories of her old home, but five-year-old's only have so much memory recall, so things begin to blur and fade.
In between the last time we saw Quistis and now, she's been studying hard to become an instructor, and she finally makes it. She's not even an instructor for an entire hour when she's called to do a mission to research the appearance of Heartless onto her world. Proud and logical, Quistis takes up the job, knowing that since she has no classes or students at the moment, she won't have to put her life on hold to do it. After this chapter, she will proceed to take Zell and maybe another Cadet or two and do as much research as she possibly can on the Heartless. I will explore Heartless and that world later.
Tifa's in a conundrum. She wants to take martial arts lessons, for many reasons, (protecting her town, trying to see if Cloud will take her on as an adventuring buddy, not wanting to be helpless) but she can't afford them and knows her dad won't pay for them. I'm not sure when I decided that Tifa's dad would be such a pain, but it happened somewhere in this chapter. So she tries to get a job as a tour guide for Mt. Nibel (a job that she has in Crisis Core) but unfortunately, she can't get the job at this point. However, despite not having a job or the money to pay for the lessons, Zangan is willing to train Tifa anyway because he sees her potential. I will explore this later as well.
Rinoa's magical powers finally dwindle and she decides that she must not be a Sorceress after all. (Spoiler alert, she wasn't.) She's initially upset, mostly because she's finally been able to master some good spells, but then she becomes relieved because she's not a pariah to society. She starts thinking about other ways to fight and how she's going to help Timber without magic. She reconsiders going back to SeeD and becoming a cadet, thinking about how she could help the Timber Owls that way, but the thought gets postponed because maybe, maybe she can handle things at the Timber Owls without magic and without being a SeeD. Her plans to become SeeD will continue to get delayed partially because of things with the Timber Owls and partially because of the influx of Heartless. (Trust me, this isn't spoilers.)
Things that did NOT appear in this chapter, but I can guarantee you are happening: the Organization takes form with the first six members, and Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, starts to bring darkness to more worlds. Yup, yup!
So, there was no liveblogging for this chapter... however, I did go back and add the liveblogging link for chapter 8 below.
Well, I've sent out two queries since last week. No responses yet, but this stuff can take up to two months anyway. Probably going to send out another one this weekend. But you guys probably aren't here for that. (Or, well, maybe you are, I know I've got three readers of my fanfics who also read my book, so.) But anyway, this is about the latest chapter.
Quistis isn't my favorite character in the world (heh, almost said Worlds), but I really do like her. I must, considering she made a cameo at the end of AtP and continued on through BB and now I'm writing about her in the prequel. I think my love of Quistis has grown since that very first time playing FFVIII. I love her even more after this chapter. She kept giving me feels, as I mentioned to rar.
When starting this, all I knew was that Quistis was a SeeD at Balamb Garden with Zell. I then had to do a ton of reading on the ffwiki to remember everything about her because it's been a while since I've played the game and I'm not particularly in a position to pick it up and play it. (My copy isn't with me. Though, random fact, my roommate has one. However, I basically re-read the entire plot of FFVIII anyway, and I don't have the time devotion to play again, honestly. Before I even wrote this chapter I plotted out how FFVIII happened in my canon, you'll get to see how some of that plays out.)
cosplay by TLM123
I had already established that Quistis was the one sent to recruit Rinoa. It wasn't much of a stretch to figure out that she wasn't going to put up with Rinoa's dad's bull crap. Sure, this is vastly different from the original game, but I've already breached into my own canon by accepting that Squall is in Hollow Bastion and not in Balamb Garden.
Also, apparently Quistis and Zell are fairly okay friends. I think the biggest thing in between their friendship is rank. Quistis is unsure of how to treat Zell because she's SeeD and he's still only a cadet, but. Yeah. (Also, if my SeeD terminology is confusing or wrong, I apologize, I'm confused by it, to be completely honest, so I'm trying to be specific and consistent.)
Anyway, not much else to say about it that isn't just rehashing the entire chapter. Everything else I want to say is spoilers. Next round of chapters.
Excellent cosplay up there, by the way. Moving on.
Review Responses:
KKBeckett: To your first question, spoilers. However, Cid is acting nervous because Edea is a Sorceress. Last time Cid checked, the only way new Sorceresses started popping up is if a previous Sorceress died. He has to hope that it's not Edea that died and he hadn't gotten news yet. Honestly, that's why he's nervous. It has nothing to do with scary Sorceresses.
So, yeah, that's all for now.
Video!
I am in love with this song right now. Particularly this cover. Anyway.
