How did I end up here?

How did I end up here?

HOW DID I END UP HERE?!?!?

It's the end.  The END.

I mean, I knew this was coming.  I knew I was going to end it with a wedding.  I've known that for five years.  Okay, maybe four.

BUT I PLANNED THIS OUT FOUR YEARS AGO.

I knew, that the end of everything, I would end it with a wedding.  And that Xigbar would crash it.  But that was all I knew.  Rar and I joked about it.  Because after AtP, when Xigbar was still alive, I joked that he'd come back and crash the wedding at the end of the next one.

Because I'd only ever planned on writing two.

Look at me now, I've written four.  Five if you include Can't Escape.  (I don't count Plan Beta as anything but drabbles and fun experiments in plot.)

When I sat down and outlined Remnants, when I had a pretty solid idea of who my main enemies were (how Xehanort was back, what was going on with Larxene and Marluxia, what Xigbar was up to), I planned it out through the end.  Yeah, I changed out a couple of worlds here and there, electing to include Corona and Arendelle instead of recycling Atlantica and Beast's Castle.  But I knew there'd be a wedding.

Initially, and I might have said this before, but I might not have, it was supposed to be Donald and Daisy's wedding.  Because they were the only couple who I figured would be getting married.  (I hadn't really considered much about the FF characters.  I had always entertained the thought of continuing on and writing FF7 as if the KH characters might be a part.  But that got scrapped sometime when I was writing the prequel and struggled to rewrite FF8 and KH1-2 and make them interesting.)

For the record, I changed the wedding-to-be-crashed to Aerith and Zack's wedding about when I realized Zack was going to propose to Aerith.  I liked the way it was going to flow.  Let's see, do I still have the original conversation with rar...

Oh look, I do! And it involves Cloud/Hades stuff as well.  Bonus!

rar: i feel like us discussing potential Cloud and Hades ideas requires something more in depth than tumblr, so I'm messaging you
magik: probably
rar: I mean i still replied to you on tumblr but idk if we need to go more in depth
rar: anyway i'm cool with you using the idea {for Hades to send hellhounds after Cloud}
magik: woo! i just think... hades is the type to hold a grudge and Cloud did blow him off
rar: yeah exactly
magik: and now that Hades doesn't have Maleficent in his hair and pretty soon, he won't have Disney Castle, either
rar: yup
magik: and especially if Cloud shows back up in Olympus, Hades will be reminded of his grudge
rar: yuuuuuuuuup especially since he's LOOKING for like something to do or someone to use now that his plans have failed, right?
magik: yeah.  i am loving this Cloud arc that i'm putting together.  Cloud'll have to deal with Heartless and hell-hounds
rar: oh yeah
magik: because while Hades may be bound to Olympus, his hell-hounds won't be
rar: nooope they won't

So that's that... and here's some stuff as to other characters that were getting included

magik: and of course, i'm going to incorporate Denzel here pretty soon
rar: OOH!
magik: which may have nothing to do with the hell-hounds
rar: of course
magik: and i may have to drag vincent in because i love this line i just got: "These ones aren't too bad, some of them have three heads."  "A three headed dog needs a three barrelled gun"
rar: that's perf, you may have to drag vincent in... just for that
magik: yeah

And now for the wedding part:

magik: i'm contemplating Zerith disappearing for a bit
rar: ye?
magik: and then coming back and they've actually eloped... and everyone's all like...
rar: AHA
magik: "And I wasn't invited?"
rar: man I feel like Aerith would've wanted a ceremony tho... tho maybe not? mabye she is the kind of person who'd wanna not make a big deal out of it?
magik: i think that's exactly it.  though at the same time... UGGGG everyone's just geting married at the same time!!! aslgdkasdgh;
rar: IDK??? WHAT TO DO
magik: what if... i could replace donald and daisy's wedding for Zack and Aerith's....
rar: you could maybe do that
magik: their wedding was technically a place-holder... i just needed a huge ceremony...
rar: mmm
magik: the thing with donald/daisy was that i wasn't going to write the ceremony... just the reception... i could do that still with zerith
rar: you could
magik: aerith would alternate between wanting everyone in the ceremony and thus she'd have no one in the audience
rar: she would
magik: or only having one person in the ceremony so that there could be an audience... and zack's just like "I don't care, I could marry you on the moon with one witness and the justice and i'd be happy"
rar: he would
magik: hmm... if i did that... and xiggy crashed it i... heh... if he actually showed up during the ceremony... i think Aerith herself would murder him
rar: uhoh... that's not a good thing?
magik: it's amusing
rar: but probably not good for your plot
magik: honestly... it's like having your riku murder larxene... just so long as there's a remnant left to vessel or not to vessel sora, i'm good

Ima pause there for a second... This was EARLY in the planning stages.  I was still writing the Disney Castle sequence.  Pretty sure Rar was still working on Dead Inside.  We hadn't begun to write the Larxene Sequence.  Rar also didn't know all of my plot yet, as you'll soon see....

magik: honestly tho, i think xiggy would just sit in the back because "why would i want to interrupt a show like that?" {which got changed to:  "Snuck in quietly and didn't want to ruin the show.  Good show, by the way! Wouldn't interrupt that for the Worlds!"}
rar: that's good. and he probably would. (everyone would notice tho) also you're norting Sora???
magik: he could cloak himself.  idk about norting him yet
rar: oh you did say "to not or not vessel"
magik: maybe there's a way xigbar could mask the smell of darkness that lingers
rar: (I missed it) yeah maybe?? he'd probably have to... tho i think canon says the org cloaks help hide your "scent" in general but whether or not that's true
magik: darn Riku and his sense of smell
rar: yeah unfortunately i can't remember if--oh yeah it wouldn't work... he definitely says "you reek of darkness" to one of the Org members (i think Vexen ha) and they were wearing the cloak so... the cloak wouldn't do it
magik: he'd have to have a special cloak
rar: yeah
magik: or something like it... some sort of spell he bought off the blackmarket labelled with "protection" so it would end up blending with the ones that Aerith and Rinoa throw up

I realize now that Xigbar totally still managed to sneak in and see the wedding and no one noticed him.  Probably because everyone was too distracted.  But I was still in the planning stages at the time of this conversation.  I also will mention that at this point, I was still anticipating that the wedding would happen and then I'd nort Sora (assuming I norted Sora, which I did end up doing obviously).  Because the plan was: wedding, Xigbar fight, Xehanort fight where Sora gets Norted.  I changed it to Sora getting Norted beforehand, then six months later wedding, Xigbar warning, and Xehanort fight.

magik: Rinoa: "you're the bride, stahp!" Aerith: I'm not letting anything happen to my wedding!"
rar: yeah this could work
magik: but anyway... i think i like this idea

I'm actually gonna stop talking/ranting/reposting convos at the moment.  This post is getting long and I have more to say about the wedding that's gonna take more than one post apparently.  I'll come back tomorrow and post more, yeah?

Space Paranoids Arc (Chapters 34-40)

This arc was me fixing a lack of continuity between everything else I'd written.  Because I hadn't been terribly clear about what had actually happened to Tron post-AtP.  Especially since I'd done the whole "Tron's been kidnapped by CLU" thing and then I thought I said Cid fixed it, but I was overall really unclear and... yeah.  So here, lemme straighten some things up.

Also, I wanted to play with the idea of Xion in Space Paranoids because of programming stuff and whatnot.  I mean, I didn't do much besides a few glitches here and there due to less-than-100%-compatible programming, but hey, I had a Remnant in need of showing up.  Also, biggest difference between Xion and another program: Xion bleeds.

Meanwhile, I've got some Mickey and Minnie fluff (because any scene with the two of them is some sort of fluff... even if they're beating the crap out of enemies.)  And Mickey gets to do some behind-the-scenes work.  Fun times!

Meanwhile meanwhile, Terra, Aqua, and Ven are in the Badlands.  This is when Ven gets to have some temper problems.  Because, face it, everyone at some point or another is super pissed about Xehanort's existence.  And, it's gotta be annoying since he keeps coming back.  And then he freaking does, right before their eyes.  Like, Sephiroth kills him and he respawns.  And Ven gets to get out some feels, which is good.

And I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the Remnant trying to nort Xion sequence.  Because he really thinks he has it here, what with Xion being his puppet in the past.  And he goes for it, and she just stares at him (meanwhile, Roxas is panicking because he thinks that Xion's lack of movement is a bad thing).  But Xion's just like... "dude, what are you even doing? are you trying to take my heart because it's not working." (Granted, her body did go into stasis as a failsafe, but still) Because Namine freaking put in a failsafe! Muahahaha.

 Oh yes, and then I have Leon taking Zack aside and being like "look man, if you love Aerith, then you need to let her know, okay? Because she doesn't want to believe it for fear of getting hurt, and I can't have you hurting my sister-like-person, kay?" And then Zack's like... I need to get Aerith something that is a symbol of our love.  And so that arc begins.

Things I am 100% okay with:
-Denzel learning about the HB family
-Ven, Aqua, Terra working together to fight Xehanort and their command styles blending and recognizing when someone is going to go into a particular style
-Anything Mickey and Minnie
-Motorcycles/light cycles
-Vincent trying to figure out Cloud and Tifa's lives for no other reason than his own curiosity
-Cloud visiting his mother
-Xion casually talking about how Kairi thinks she's going crazy because Xion keeps flickering
-Xion and Roxas fighting with the discs like Axel fights with chakrams
-Roxas using Xion's blade (that whole concept of them being able to summon each other's blades is amazing to me)
-Namine smirking
-The line "Oh please, it doesn't take Riku's sense of smell to recognize your stench."
-The Leon-Zack-Aerith dynamic
-Zerith

Olympus Coliseum (Chapter 25-33)

And now 9 chapters for the arc, making up for the 7 last time *looks strangely at chapters*

Because what's a KH fic without going to Olympus Coliseum (and getting really sick of the music... or is that just me with the games?)

Hmm, upon a deeper look it occurs to me that Chapter 24 could have fallen in the TWTNW arc because while they're just sitting outside Olympus Coliseum, they don't actually leave, they just all realize that it's Xigbar they're looking for.  Which means I'm still on the 8-chapters-an-arc thing.  (Why do I care about this?!?!)

Oh man.  Zack and Olympus Coliseum.  Did I drag Zack and Aerith to Olympus Coliseum on purpose, just so Zack would have to deal with that? Yes.  Yes I did.

Olympus, the only world where they've turned Heartless killing literally into a sport that anyone can do.  And then Phil's just all super happy when actual warriors (not Herc) show up and steal the show for a bit.  But like... no one ever seems to be in the audience.  Not even when I envision it.  What's up with that? I mean, I'm sure there's an audience.

Meanwhile, Aqua, Terra, and Ven are getting into Xemnas' room for the journal.  And they run into a Remnant, who's mostly just there to mess with them than anything else, because he feels he has better people to vessel.  (That's totally a verb now.)  (From the tumblr post "that's my vessel you're vessling").  Wait... no... that was earlier.  I thought I'd already written about that, but I thought that maybe the post didn't save.  But I'm leaving it for the vessling comment.  Nope, instead they ran into the darkness in TWTNW collapsing in on itself.  Fun times.  That place is condemned.  And Larxene and Marluxia are still there.

And then Hades just goes and whips everyone out of the fighting arena... except Aerith, Kairi, and Namine... who he has sort of a personal vendetta against at the moment.  Considering they were the ones who tipped Mickey off that Hades was even going to attack Disney Castle in the first place.  Though, why he would bother going up against Namine when the last time she started messing with his brain is beyond me.  Axel's basically right when he says that that combination of women is scary.

I love Denzel and Yuffie bonding.  Party because Yuffie's been the youngest one there up until now, and then here comes Denzel and he's someone that Yuffie (not necessarily has to but) feels she needs to keep an eye out for.  And he's not feeling too well, but he's sort of interested in her tennis ball, so she'll play nice because that's what Aerith would want her to do.  (Yuffie's head-Aerith voice is very strong).  And then Denzel snaps out of it and starts talking about rescuing the other kids from the slums and Yuffie gets to have an adult moment when she calls Cloud out on his crap.  "Go deal with Sephiroth, Cloud.  Quit being a worry-wort.  Don't pretend I can't see that. Gosh."

I love the battle-scene with Hades.  I love how Aerith thinks during it.  I love Namine and Kairi's fighting-styles.  I love Tifa's reaction when she and Cloud show up to the party.  Tifa and Cloud's quiet little conversation.  Aerith screaming at Hades that picking on Cloud was not what she meant by telling him to find a new hobby.   Zack screaming at Phil to take the barriers down.  Trivia: After the one battle with Angeal, Phil fixed it so that there was an override on the barriers to prevent things like this from happening.  Except Hades is overriding it.  And then Namine impresses upon him that he needs to go the heck away.

Then a Remnant shows up.  And this is the closest that Zack is going to get to one for a while.  Though then Sephiroth shows up and starts dealing with the Remnant because how dare the Remnant try and hurt Cloud.  This was like, the day where everyone tried to go after Cloud and failed day.

Things I'm really okay with:
-Xion singing a song for Demyx's not-so-useful journal
-HB being some sort of base that everyone keeps coming back to and it being this constant in and out of people
-Kairi and Namine using their telepathy for simple things like, "eh, I'll let you know if anything exciting happens where I'm at, kay?"
-Xion not having all of the appropriate social cues and being horribly rude on accident
-Rinoa insisting to Denzel that she won't let the Shadows hurt him
-Shera and Yuffie's relationship to each other
-Denzel playing with Yuffie's tennis ball and Yuffie telling herself that Aerith would tell her it's a good thing
-Denzel playing with Yuffie's tennis ball
-Aerith taking the battle with Hades in stride
-Aerith creating a Barrier with a very Avatar-Aang-type move.
-Cloud telling Hades good luck on getting his soul because Sephiroth's laid a pretty big claim on it
-Cloud trying to figure out how Tifa and Vincent know each other
-Cloud saying he should help Sephiroth defeat the Remnant because he's less of a threat
-Riku teaching Namine to drive

Vincent's Magical Cloak (Prequel ch40)

Vincent probably hates me right now.  His tag for me on tumblr is Vincent the Vampire.  Heheh.

Link to the chapter

Link to the tumbl

Anyway, this chapter marks the beginning of Zack's healing, slash the end of the current giant feels fest that we were on.  I say current, because I can almost promise you that there will be more fests of feels.

Anyway, I'm not quite sure when I decided that Tifa's father was just going to be this absent, uncaring, backwards-ish figure, that just sort of happened.  According to everything I remember from the game/what I've read on the wiki, mostly he just didn't want Tifa hanging out with Cloud because he blamed Cloud for Tifa getting hurt on Mt. Nibel.  I don't think he had any other fault than that.  However, once I started writing him, he ended up being someone who didn't want Tifa to fight, partially because he doesn't want her to get hurt and partially because he doesn't think girls should fight.  He also doesn't feel like it's proper for girls to go out on adventures so.... But Tifa had to drag him home for dinner to tell him she was leaving.  Yeah...

It does go into my vast-array of parent portrayals, however.  Like, Kairi's biological parents are just legit gone and her grandmother died, but she doesn't remember her real parents so her adopted ones on Destiny Islands are just her real parents.  And they're kind and accepting, supportive people.  Sora's parents are a bit spacey, I feel, but they love their son.  Riku's dad's a dead-beat goner, but his mother sure stepped up to the plate and filled the role of amazing single parent.

Not sure where Aerith's dad ended up... did I declare him dead? I don't think he would have left... he probably passed away.  Aerith's mom didn't survive Radiant Garden's plunge-- but she was a lovely woman before then! Leon's mom died in childbirth and his dad's a bit of an absentminded dude with a big sense of wanderlust.  (He's at least redeemed himself.)  Cloud's dad is dead but his mom is supportive (uh-oh, I seem to have a lot of supportive mom's... actually, Sora's mom's a worry-wort and his dad's the carefree one, still though...) I think it's 'cause Riku's mom is just going to support Riku to the ends of the earth anyway, Aerith's mom was just knowledgeable and nice and Cloud's mom was like, "go do your thing, have some food!" (Very much like Aerith, actually...) And then there's Tifa's dad, who wants to constrain her, but can't because Tifa's too darn stubborn.  Oh, and then there's Zack's parents: his mother is a huge Zerith shipper and just wants Zack and Aerith to settle down somewhere and then there's Zack's dad who's totes supportive of his son going out and killing things.  And then Rinoa's dad is (oh eff... maybe I'm not so diverse as I thought...) because Rinoa's dad is somewhat like Tifa's dad in the manner of controlling and her mother's dead so nothing can be done about that.  However, Squeenix set me up for some of this stuff... So... yeah...

Anyway, rar and I spent like, half a morning discussing how long it would take to legit walk from one place to another, trying to extrapolate miles and terrain and whatnot.  It involved quite the map search of FFVII.  This was about when I was beating Crisis Core, too, so I was actually calculating things as it was ('cause Zack and Cloud on a motorcycle and all.)

by darcywilliam on dA

But anyway, let's talk about Vincent for a bit, shall we? I have a lovely picture of him! (Excellent cosplay, actually).

I didn't actually include Vincent in the original outline.  It was only when one of my readers asked if I was going to include him that I even thought about a cameo.  And I figured this would be a great opportunity.  Because, why the heck not? Tifa can totes meet him on the road.  (I'm sorry, my roommate says 'totes' a lot and I appear to have picked it up.)  But yeah, Vincent and his magical cloak are totally on the job for helping.  I've also determined that Vincent's cloak can take him from World-to-World if he so chooses.  Tifa's off-World transportation will come later.

And yeah, Vincent met Zack shortly after Zack left Gongaga, I feel.  Before Genesis interfered, that's for sure.  But Vincent never actually spoke with Zack, because Zack (like usual) was on his way somewhere and wasn't really stopping.  And it is just amusing that Tifa runs into him later.  (Though, her running into Zack and Aerith in Gongaga was certainly more planned than her running into Vincent.)

Excuse me while I be weirded out for a minute that Zack and Cloud haven't met yet.  Okay.  The minute is over.

I think that's all... so... yeah!