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.
Showing posts with label ZackxAerith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ZackxAerith. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Monday, April 13, 2015
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?
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?
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Halloweentown (Chapters 89-93)
So this whole section starts with Axel sitting in the Gummi ship as they're all on their way to Halloween Town. Yes, they're totally on their way to Halloween Town to go to Christmas Town so that Sora can prove to Riku that Santa exists. That whole thing started as something that I honestly think was suggested in a review in AtP and I literally did not get around to it until now. (Yet again a thing that was supposed to go in Betwixt and Between but didn't.)
The arc obviously expanded out after that. It got placed this far into the fic because it wasn't a huge major plot point that needed to happen any specific time, and especially after I decided that this was where Marlynort was going down, that influenced my decision to put it here.
So, Axel on the gummi ship. I think one of the most interesting things that came out of this chapter was Axel contemplating what time had done to him versus Leon. Leon's still on everyone's minds after almost getting Norted in Traverse Town. This gets the wheels in Axel's brain turning a lot because he's had several close calls with Xehanort as it is already. Plus, he knew Leon from when they were kids on Radiant Garden. So that's gotta be trippy.
Giving everyone new outfits for Halloween Town was interesting. I wish I could draw better to do those... but it literally takes too much effort for me to do that right now. Sad day. If only I had more time. If you want to do that though, feel free.
Anyway, then the HB gang talking about going and getting kids for the school. Denzel is adorable. Just saying. Also, sticking Yuffie on a team with Leon is just amusing. Because Rinoa's obviously not going to go because her arm hasn't quite healed yet. Plus, Yuffie deserves to go places, I've been writing this whole thing so long where she always gets told no. Denzel knows she gets told no a lot. But here we go, Yuffie getting told yes. Yay!
And then, Aerith and Zack discussing wedding plans. And Yuffie just quietly listening in, kind of grossed out by the whole thing but at the same time rooting so hard for them it's not even funny. And Denzel's just so surprised at how many Worlds there are. And I actually think Yuffie does go and travel the Worlds a bit after Hollow Bastion is restored. Not that I'm going to write that far.... (I say that now... and then we'll see where I am in two years.)
And then MINNIE AND MICKEY FLUFF which is honestly what I live for sometimes oh my gosh.
And then we've got Terra, Aqua, and Ven getting a nice break and a vacation. With Ven all like "This isn't quite the life that I dreamed of... but this is basically the life I dreamed of." Beautiful. I love giving them a break because they've had such a hard time. My babby's oh goodness.
And then we're in Christmas Town. With new outfits again (though these one's you've probably seen examples of all over the interwebs.) And then, they don't see Santa for long when Marlynort shows up. And then things get real. The line "Well, Santa, either we destroy your entire office, or we break a window" is probably one of my favorite lines. And Santa's just like "Oh break the window."
Cue fight sequence. It surprisingly wasn't a long one. I could have probably made it longer, but I always struggle with whether or not it's good to write long battles with loads of detail, or shorter ones with a comparable amount of detail. I don't want you guys to be reading battle forever. So, I settled on a shorter one with a few Combo name drops and the whole focus being on whether or not Namine was going to be able to Shatter Marlynort.
But she was.
A++++++++ to Namine. Overcome girl!
Then, switch gears to Cid and Shera talking about rebuilding his workshop. Bringing back loads of things. Woot. Tifa and Aerith talking some more about the wedding because that's what happens when there's a wedding on the horizon.
Ah yes, then Kuin running into a Remnant. That obviously wasn't going to be a big huge deal because the Remnant knows he can't get Kuin because of who she is--flexor, perfect balance of light and darkness--so he doesn't try. He honestly just wants to stay clear of her because he knows she wants him dead. But they have a little battle and then he disappears. I wasn't super clear on whether or not she killed him--but you can assume she didn't. Because the Remnant's a jerk. Not that it'd matter, because he'd just respawn.
And then Marlene's first day of school and running into the Moogle Girl! I couldn't resist!
Then we have aftermath of Namine shattering Marlynort. And I tried to do a good job showing what it would have been like for her... but honestly... *I* don't know what that would have been like. It's not like I have those powers or anything. So I (like every other writer) made my best guess. Based on what I've described Namine's powers as... it did require her to be picking and prying through the memories enough to have a good grasp to shatter.
I decided that Namine shattering him was an appropriate way for him to go. After their history in Castle Oblivion and what Marluxia has become and who Namine has grown into. It was fitting. So hey, Marlynort is gone.
And I know I'm halfway through a chapter here... but the next bit goes straight into Castle Oblivion. Which is the next arc and thus next blog post. So I'll see you for the next blog.
The arc obviously expanded out after that. It got placed this far into the fic because it wasn't a huge major plot point that needed to happen any specific time, and especially after I decided that this was where Marlynort was going down, that influenced my decision to put it here.
So, Axel on the gummi ship. I think one of the most interesting things that came out of this chapter was Axel contemplating what time had done to him versus Leon. Leon's still on everyone's minds after almost getting Norted in Traverse Town. This gets the wheels in Axel's brain turning a lot because he's had several close calls with Xehanort as it is already. Plus, he knew Leon from when they were kids on Radiant Garden. So that's gotta be trippy.
Giving everyone new outfits for Halloween Town was interesting. I wish I could draw better to do those... but it literally takes too much effort for me to do that right now. Sad day. If only I had more time. If you want to do that though, feel free.
Anyway, then the HB gang talking about going and getting kids for the school. Denzel is adorable. Just saying. Also, sticking Yuffie on a team with Leon is just amusing. Because Rinoa's obviously not going to go because her arm hasn't quite healed yet. Plus, Yuffie deserves to go places, I've been writing this whole thing so long where she always gets told no. Denzel knows she gets told no a lot. But here we go, Yuffie getting told yes. Yay!
And then, Aerith and Zack discussing wedding plans. And Yuffie just quietly listening in, kind of grossed out by the whole thing but at the same time rooting so hard for them it's not even funny. And Denzel's just so surprised at how many Worlds there are. And I actually think Yuffie does go and travel the Worlds a bit after Hollow Bastion is restored. Not that I'm going to write that far.... (I say that now... and then we'll see where I am in two years.)
And then MINNIE AND MICKEY FLUFF which is honestly what I live for sometimes oh my gosh.
And then we've got Terra, Aqua, and Ven getting a nice break and a vacation. With Ven all like "This isn't quite the life that I dreamed of... but this is basically the life I dreamed of." Beautiful. I love giving them a break because they've had such a hard time. My babby's oh goodness.
And then we're in Christmas Town. With new outfits again (though these one's you've probably seen examples of all over the interwebs.) And then, they don't see Santa for long when Marlynort shows up. And then things get real. The line "Well, Santa, either we destroy your entire office, or we break a window" is probably one of my favorite lines. And Santa's just like "Oh break the window."
Cue fight sequence. It surprisingly wasn't a long one. I could have probably made it longer, but I always struggle with whether or not it's good to write long battles with loads of detail, or shorter ones with a comparable amount of detail. I don't want you guys to be reading battle forever. So, I settled on a shorter one with a few Combo name drops and the whole focus being on whether or not Namine was going to be able to Shatter Marlynort.
But she was.
A++++++++ to Namine. Overcome girl!
Then, switch gears to Cid and Shera talking about rebuilding his workshop. Bringing back loads of things. Woot. Tifa and Aerith talking some more about the wedding because that's what happens when there's a wedding on the horizon.
Ah yes, then Kuin running into a Remnant. That obviously wasn't going to be a big huge deal because the Remnant knows he can't get Kuin because of who she is--flexor, perfect balance of light and darkness--so he doesn't try. He honestly just wants to stay clear of her because he knows she wants him dead. But they have a little battle and then he disappears. I wasn't super clear on whether or not she killed him--but you can assume she didn't. Because the Remnant's a jerk. Not that it'd matter, because he'd just respawn.
And then Marlene's first day of school and running into the Moogle Girl! I couldn't resist!
Then we have aftermath of Namine shattering Marlynort. And I tried to do a good job showing what it would have been like for her... but honestly... *I* don't know what that would have been like. It's not like I have those powers or anything. So I (like every other writer) made my best guess. Based on what I've described Namine's powers as... it did require her to be picking and prying through the memories enough to have a good grasp to shatter.
I decided that Namine shattering him was an appropriate way for him to go. After their history in Castle Oblivion and what Marluxia has become and who Namine has grown into. It was fitting. So hey, Marlynort is gone.
And I know I'm halfway through a chapter here... but the next bit goes straight into Castle Oblivion. Which is the next arc and thus next blog post. So I'll see you for the next blog.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Deep Space (various chapters between 70 and 78)
Let's talk about Deep Space and not about Larxene, kay? Because I want to give the Larxene post a ton of justice and Ima put it off for one more post, kay?
Deep Space kind of got overshadowed by the Larxene sequence, but it's still just as vitally important. It's not like Corona, which was kind of just there because the whole plot of that was Marlynort causing trouble while action was elsewhere. There's a major plot point in Deep Space which is Xehanort attempting to Nort Terra. Which is a Big Deal.
But unrelated to even that at the moment, is how in Hollow Bastion, Aerith's house is FINALLY done expanding. For once, I actually know how many bedrooms she's got there because I redid the entire top floor and just added more bedrooms because I knew they were going to need them. (Simultaneously, Zack's changed the plans so that one of the bedrooms can become his and Aerith's room when they eventually get married. Yup. That happened.) Also, Cid and Shera are adorable and it's great. They'll be together working on crazy projects forever and I love them.
ALSO ALSO is Leon asking Cid for relationship advice because he doesn't have anyone else to ask and he just wants to know what to do with Rinoa. And it makes me think back to in the Prequel where Cid's watching Zack and Aerith be all lovey-dovey and he has a passing thought that Leon'll never get a girlfriend and then Rinoa shows up and BAM, Leon doesn't know it yet, but she's gonna be his girlfriend.
And Cid as everyone's father figure even though he didn't want to be is just another level of great.
Anyway, so Deep Space. More like, LILO AS A SPACE PILOT. I read a headcanon on Tumblr a while ago that included that and I was just like... I NEED TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. So, uh, I did. Her age is really something that I never ironed out, but whatever, she's still the youngest pilot ever amongst a whole ton of aliens and it's Super Cool.
And then Namine, Vexen, and Aerith show up and Axel's like: "Heheh, you're the real Vexen, I'm coming along to mess with you!" And then he volunteers Roxas and Xion while he's at it for maximized amazingness.
And THEN we have Ven, Aqua, and Terra showing up, which is just all sorts of beautiful because of their previous relationship with Deep Space and all that went on there. And the glorious reunion that gets to happen (as a couple of you have mentioned.)
Stitch's language was fun, because I actually went to Disney's website for Tantalog: http://stitchdatabase.wikia.com/wiki/Tantalog_language and got all of my information from there. It was a bit interesting working on sentences with structure that had all the appropriate words in them. But it was a fun experiment.
And mixed in with all of this is Tifa trying to figure out what's up with Zack and Aerith but also a great fight with Hades. I love integrating Tifa's future plans, because now that Aerith's house is done, everyone gets to think of the next projects and I'm setting things up for the end here. Also, small commitment apples are something that my Hapkido instructor called small apples (or pears) and I just had to use the phrase.
I really loved the image of Cloud and Tifa barreling through the Betwixt and Between trying to get rid of Hades' hounds. I think I got the idea from rar... But anyway... I realized that I couldn't really do it justice because I couldn't think of a way to write it that wouldn't be boring. So instead I just had Cloud blame it on being old and then impulsively go and fight Hades. Granted, he ended up with the Hero's Medallion on his own. I remember writing that sequence and Cloud's like, yup, got it from Zack and I'm like "WHEN?!? I didn't write that!!!"
But anyway, back to the Remnant trying to destroy Terra's life. I wanted a Remnant to try and Nort Terra from the very beginning, just not AT the beginning. Because I wanted it to be one of the stronger ones... I wanted Terra to be stronger and I wanted the Remnant to be stronger. The Remnant was probably banking on Terra's being successful, so he didn't try initially. Terra, meanwhile, had more time for his heart to grow and recuperate. And so then we get the really epic conversation in Terra's heart where he's trying to banish Xehanort.
But the line "How many times have you reincarnated yourself?" is just so amazing, because it's followed by "Only the one boy. If it had been more, rest assured you wouldn't be here right now." "You'd better not be lying!" "I assure you, if I had more practice, you would have remained a vessel."
Xehanort is just so dang cocky! But he's also matter-of-fact and that whole scene just gave me shivers.
And then we've got Kuin actually running into Xigbar. Xigbar who, before this, has literally just been beach-hopping and staying under everyone's radar. He managed because most people forgot that he didn't survive the battle of Castle Oblivion. I loved putting Kuin up against him because we've got two gunners who are full of themselves in different ways clashing and it leads to beautiful things.
Then we've also got Mickey going up against Marlynort. Because Mickey's been up to a lot of things, which is what this chapter was supposed to address from the beginning, but then I figured that Marlynort should also be up to something, so hey, why not make a few things line up. So Mickey fights Marlynort and gets an idea of what everyone's up against.
And then Xion, Axel, and Roxas return just in time for Terra to finish off his inner Xehanort. And he's rid of Xehanort for good. And all is well for Terra.
I feel like I should have more to say and I know I've done more in the past, but that's all I've got for right now. Prepare for a Larxene Sequence post in the next few days.
Deep Space kind of got overshadowed by the Larxene sequence, but it's still just as vitally important. It's not like Corona, which was kind of just there because the whole plot of that was Marlynort causing trouble while action was elsewhere. There's a major plot point in Deep Space which is Xehanort attempting to Nort Terra. Which is a Big Deal.
But unrelated to even that at the moment, is how in Hollow Bastion, Aerith's house is FINALLY done expanding. For once, I actually know how many bedrooms she's got there because I redid the entire top floor and just added more bedrooms because I knew they were going to need them. (Simultaneously, Zack's changed the plans so that one of the bedrooms can become his and Aerith's room when they eventually get married. Yup. That happened.) Also, Cid and Shera are adorable and it's great. They'll be together working on crazy projects forever and I love them.
ALSO ALSO is Leon asking Cid for relationship advice because he doesn't have anyone else to ask and he just wants to know what to do with Rinoa. And it makes me think back to in the Prequel where Cid's watching Zack and Aerith be all lovey-dovey and he has a passing thought that Leon'll never get a girlfriend and then Rinoa shows up and BAM, Leon doesn't know it yet, but she's gonna be his girlfriend.
And Cid as everyone's father figure even though he didn't want to be is just another level of great.
Anyway, so Deep Space. More like, LILO AS A SPACE PILOT. I read a headcanon on Tumblr a while ago that included that and I was just like... I NEED TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. So, uh, I did. Her age is really something that I never ironed out, but whatever, she's still the youngest pilot ever amongst a whole ton of aliens and it's Super Cool.
And then Namine, Vexen, and Aerith show up and Axel's like: "Heheh, you're the real Vexen, I'm coming along to mess with you!" And then he volunteers Roxas and Xion while he's at it for maximized amazingness.
And THEN we have Ven, Aqua, and Terra showing up, which is just all sorts of beautiful because of their previous relationship with Deep Space and all that went on there. And the glorious reunion that gets to happen (as a couple of you have mentioned.)
Stitch's language was fun, because I actually went to Disney's website for Tantalog: http://stitchdatabase.wikia.com/wiki/Tantalog_language and got all of my information from there. It was a bit interesting working on sentences with structure that had all the appropriate words in them. But it was a fun experiment.
And mixed in with all of this is Tifa trying to figure out what's up with Zack and Aerith but also a great fight with Hades. I love integrating Tifa's future plans, because now that Aerith's house is done, everyone gets to think of the next projects and I'm setting things up for the end here. Also, small commitment apples are something that my Hapkido instructor called small apples (or pears) and I just had to use the phrase.
I really loved the image of Cloud and Tifa barreling through the Betwixt and Between trying to get rid of Hades' hounds. I think I got the idea from rar... But anyway... I realized that I couldn't really do it justice because I couldn't think of a way to write it that wouldn't be boring. So instead I just had Cloud blame it on being old and then impulsively go and fight Hades. Granted, he ended up with the Hero's Medallion on his own. I remember writing that sequence and Cloud's like, yup, got it from Zack and I'm like "WHEN?!? I didn't write that!!!"
But anyway, back to the Remnant trying to destroy Terra's life. I wanted a Remnant to try and Nort Terra from the very beginning, just not AT the beginning. Because I wanted it to be one of the stronger ones... I wanted Terra to be stronger and I wanted the Remnant to be stronger. The Remnant was probably banking on Terra's being successful, so he didn't try initially. Terra, meanwhile, had more time for his heart to grow and recuperate. And so then we get the really epic conversation in Terra's heart where he's trying to banish Xehanort.
But the line "How many times have you reincarnated yourself?" is just so amazing, because it's followed by "Only the one boy. If it had been more, rest assured you wouldn't be here right now." "You'd better not be lying!" "I assure you, if I had more practice, you would have remained a vessel."
Xehanort is just so dang cocky! But he's also matter-of-fact and that whole scene just gave me shivers.
And then we've got Kuin actually running into Xigbar. Xigbar who, before this, has literally just been beach-hopping and staying under everyone's radar. He managed because most people forgot that he didn't survive the battle of Castle Oblivion. I loved putting Kuin up against him because we've got two gunners who are full of themselves in different ways clashing and it leads to beautiful things.
Then we've also got Mickey going up against Marlynort. Because Mickey's been up to a lot of things, which is what this chapter was supposed to address from the beginning, but then I figured that Marlynort should also be up to something, so hey, why not make a few things line up. So Mickey fights Marlynort and gets an idea of what everyone's up against.
And then Xion, Axel, and Roxas return just in time for Terra to finish off his inner Xehanort. And he's rid of Xehanort for good. And all is well for Terra.
I feel like I should have more to say and I know I've done more in the past, but that's all I've got for right now. Prepare for a Larxene Sequence post in the next few days.
Sunday, January 4, 2015
Corona etc (58-68)
I know that the Larxene Sequence happens in here as well, but I'm saving that for another post because it deserves its own post, not to be lumped in with this one.
Granted, the Corona arc isn't a major arc. The main event is certainly what's going on with Larxene at the same time. However, Corona is important.
But, before I talk about that, let's talk about Zack and Aerith getting engaged!
It seems like so long ago that Zack ran off to get a symbol for their relationship. (Who all guess it was going to be an engagement ring?) I left it open originally partially because I wasn't sure what the trinket was going to be. I thought of other things he could get her that would effectively be the same thing. But I decided that the small ring was perfect anyway.
I wrote chapters 56 (the end of the last arc) and 57 back-to-back within the same day. The aftermath of Marluxia--excuse me, Marlynort--was exhilarating (regardless of how depressing it was) to write. And then there was chapter 57 which was all the happy Zerith feels. I didn't even have to work to hard at it. The words just flew onto the page. And now they're happily engaged and all is right with the Worlds. Or something cheesy like that.
Chapter 58 was a pain to write because after chapter 57, nothing was interesting. But I managed. Granted, nothing terribly exciting happens in that chapter, much of it is just Sora's thoughts, but hey, they get to Corona.
I don't remember, but I think chapter 59 was a quickish one to write. The ones where I split up the POVs tend to happen that way. Granted, it was all mostly filler: Kuin looking for Xigbar but not actually finding him, Marlene and Barret arriving in Hollow Bastion, Yuffie blowing up something in Cid's workshop and having to deal with it. Nothing terribly plot important, but did allow for character development. Mostly for Yuffie though, honestly. She's been growing up a lot this fic. And her actually taking responsibility for something without being coerced is good.
Then there's the events of Corona, or at least the first part anyway. Corona's not a place that's been having a lot of problems. Things are quiet. Rapunzel and Flynn are away at the coronation ceremony preceding Elsa's outburst that froze the place. The King and Queen of Corona are just going about their business when Marlynort shows up and starts to cause trouble. Naturally, Sora and his friends sign themselves up to take care of the problem. They take time finding Marlynort because he's a true Chaotic Evil and is enjoying causing a ruckus. This is where the Namine Replica shows up and those shenanigans begin.
The Cloud chapter makes me really happy. Because the first bit of it is him trying to figure out what's going on with Zack and Aerith--because they haven't told anybody yet. (Too much thought of elopement to say anything yet.) And then Sephiroth shows up and Leon and Cloud fight him and win. It's great.
And just when you thought I wasn't going to throw a Remnant at you because of Marlynort and Larxene and everything, a wild Remnant appears in Disney Town and tries to go after none other than Demyx. Poor Demyx. Not that that's going to happen if Terra, Ven, and Aqua have a say. And when the going got tough, Mickey and Minnie both showed up and were BAMF. I love writing for the two of them. They are amazing and wonderful and my forevership. I don't remember rar's exact reaction upon reading it, but it was definitely like "YOUREGIVING ME MICKEYXMINNIE FEELS AND I JUST>>> AAAAAAHHHHH...."
Cue battle with Marlynort that's really hard when your forces are cut in half. (Like seriously, imagine game mechanics where you're FORCED to do that battle halved because the other half of your party is off fighting Larxene.) (I'd like to think that you could choose the party that went, but for that battle with Larxene (and what follows it) it's kind of necessary that the people that went went.) And after the battle, cue everyone being uneasy because Marlynort talks a good show.
Then, HAVE SOME MORE FLUFF (which I'm sure is what I said to rar when I sent her the chapter) with Zack and Aerith announcing their engagement and upcoming wedding.
And Corona is quietly wrapped up and the others return and they head off to Deep Space for the next adventure.
Larxene stuff to come.
Granted, the Corona arc isn't a major arc. The main event is certainly what's going on with Larxene at the same time. However, Corona is important.
But, before I talk about that, let's talk about Zack and Aerith getting engaged!
It seems like so long ago that Zack ran off to get a symbol for their relationship. (Who all guess it was going to be an engagement ring?) I left it open originally partially because I wasn't sure what the trinket was going to be. I thought of other things he could get her that would effectively be the same thing. But I decided that the small ring was perfect anyway.
I wrote chapters 56 (the end of the last arc) and 57 back-to-back within the same day. The aftermath of Marluxia--excuse me, Marlynort--was exhilarating (regardless of how depressing it was) to write. And then there was chapter 57 which was all the happy Zerith feels. I didn't even have to work to hard at it. The words just flew onto the page. And now they're happily engaged and all is right with the Worlds. Or something cheesy like that.
Chapter 58 was a pain to write because after chapter 57, nothing was interesting. But I managed. Granted, nothing terribly exciting happens in that chapter, much of it is just Sora's thoughts, but hey, they get to Corona.
I don't remember, but I think chapter 59 was a quickish one to write. The ones where I split up the POVs tend to happen that way. Granted, it was all mostly filler: Kuin looking for Xigbar but not actually finding him, Marlene and Barret arriving in Hollow Bastion, Yuffie blowing up something in Cid's workshop and having to deal with it. Nothing terribly plot important, but did allow for character development. Mostly for Yuffie though, honestly. She's been growing up a lot this fic. And her actually taking responsibility for something without being coerced is good.
Then there's the events of Corona, or at least the first part anyway. Corona's not a place that's been having a lot of problems. Things are quiet. Rapunzel and Flynn are away at the coronation ceremony preceding Elsa's outburst that froze the place. The King and Queen of Corona are just going about their business when Marlynort shows up and starts to cause trouble. Naturally, Sora and his friends sign themselves up to take care of the problem. They take time finding Marlynort because he's a true Chaotic Evil and is enjoying causing a ruckus. This is where the Namine Replica shows up and those shenanigans begin.
The Cloud chapter makes me really happy. Because the first bit of it is him trying to figure out what's going on with Zack and Aerith--because they haven't told anybody yet. (Too much thought of elopement to say anything yet.) And then Sephiroth shows up and Leon and Cloud fight him and win. It's great.
And just when you thought I wasn't going to throw a Remnant at you because of Marlynort and Larxene and everything, a wild Remnant appears in Disney Town and tries to go after none other than Demyx. Poor Demyx. Not that that's going to happen if Terra, Ven, and Aqua have a say. And when the going got tough, Mickey and Minnie both showed up and were BAMF. I love writing for the two of them. They are amazing and wonderful and my forevership. I don't remember rar's exact reaction upon reading it, but it was definitely like "YOUREGIVING ME MICKEYXMINNIE FEELS AND I JUST>>> AAAAAAHHHHH...."
Cue battle with Marlynort that's really hard when your forces are cut in half. (Like seriously, imagine game mechanics where you're FORCED to do that battle halved because the other half of your party is off fighting Larxene.) (I'd like to think that you could choose the party that went, but for that battle with Larxene (and what follows it) it's kind of necessary that the people that went went.) And after the battle, cue everyone being uneasy because Marlynort talks a good show.
Then, HAVE SOME MORE FLUFF (which I'm sure is what I said to rar when I sent her the chapter) with Zack and Aerith announcing their engagement and upcoming wedding.
And Corona is quietly wrapped up and the others return and they head off to Deep Space for the next adventure.
Larxene stuff to come.
Friday, January 2, 2015
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
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
Thursday, January 1, 2015
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
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
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
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
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 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
Sunday, December 14, 2014
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.
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.
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
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 |
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 |
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
Saturday, December 13, 2014
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.
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?
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
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 |
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 |
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
Sunday, December 7, 2014
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.
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!
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.
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| cosplay by CanisPanthera on dA |
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!
Thursday, December 26, 2013
ANOTHER SHAMELESS CHRISTMAS POST!
 |
| by LynxGriffin |
I know no one's reviewed this one yet, but I don't really expect you to have because holidays and all that stuff, but I hope this is some more holiday cheer for you as the holidays come to an end.
I also know that the picture over there has hardly anything to do with the chapter, but OT3 forever feels!
I got really excited about the holidays, okay? I did a holiday chapter in the Prequel, but I wanted to do another one in line with AtP and BB. The only person who didn’t get included this time around was Shera, and that’s because Sora and his friends don’t meet her until later, like it’s set for B3 and everything, and there’s a part of me that while I know that this is AU, I want the ability for it to be canon if I get around to declaring it canon. Because, I’m the author and I can do that.
I got really excited about the holidays, okay? I did a holiday chapter in the Prequel, but I wanted to do another one in line with AtP and BB. The only person who didn’t get included this time around was Shera, and that’s because Sora and his friends don’t meet her until later, like it’s set for B3 and everything, and there’s a part of me that while I know that this is AU, I want the ability for it to be canon if I get around to declaring it canon. Because, I’m the author and I can do that.
I
wrote the chapter the other day because I really didn’t have plot for it until
then. Mostly I was busy with school
work, those of you who have been following any of my progress (or, simply
reading this blog) know that I’ve been superbusy and it’s kinda
disgusting. Regardless, I finally got
onto break and I wrote this little one-shot up.
Things
I love about this chapter: Tifa telling Aerith to go to bed because otherwise
Santa won’t come. Because Santa’s real
in the KH universe and that makes me really happy.
I
also made it a thing about how everyone’s trying to give Aerith a day off and
all Aerith wants to do is help.
Yup. Aerith wants to cook and
help clean. Because she just does.
Aerith’s
favorite song? Probably “Na Hu O Ho” by Fiona Kennedy. Rar I think said something about that. But, yeah.
Aerith likes Irish music. *nods
vigorously*
There
was a part of me that wanted to do this whole tangential thing where Sora takes
Riku to see Santa. But then I didn’t,
because I was already set on the Aerith plot and the Riku meeting Santa thing
just didn’t flow. Also, Namine’s got a
point, he’s probably on vacation. I can
do a little snippet in B3!
And,
good news! Sephiroth didn’t crash the
party! Yup yup! I did reference the
Spring Dance (or whatever it was called) that was put into Plan Beta. Because Sephiroth did crash that and no one’s forgotten about it.
Then
there’s the whole thing where Zack gives Aerith a ring. Rar threw a fit about it. It was cute.
No, he’s not proposing. Zack honestly just saw a beautiful piece of
jewelry and bought it for Aerith because it matched her eyes.
Though,
off-scene, Leon’s thinking about needing to talk to Zack. I should probably do a post about that. Oh wait, I did. {link}
Anywho,
that post basically was all the rest of the feels, so I guess I’m done.
Teaser
Quotes!
“Then
what?”
“I
hadn’t thought that far. Whatever it is,
I want to do it with you.”
“I
miss you already.”
“Don’t. Wait ‘till you’re gone to miss me.”
“Were
you expecting a letter?”
“Um,
I suppose so…”
“I
see you’ve met my Knight already.”
“Who’s
powers did you inherit?”
“It’s
a bit of a complicated story.”
Also, I'm going to a Lindsey Stirling concert in May and I'm so excited because I've basically gotten all my friends to go, too :P
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Letters from the Girls (63)
Chapter
Tumbl
I'm trying to remember if it was a conscious decision to have the letters be written only by the girls on the cast, or if that is just what happened. And I can't remember in the slightest.
I knew I needed another letter from Tifa, because it had been a while since I'd done one of those and Tifa basically sends a letter to Cloud from every world she stops on that has post (which is pretty much all of them). Plus, it was just fun to have her write one from Traverse Town where he totally was recently. And then make references to everything.
The letter from Aerith was just about necessary. It's furthering the plot where Aerith wants to go see Radiant Garden and has asked Zack for help. I think originally, she was just going to ask him when he swung by next, but that was before I started doing the letters, and it didn't make sense for her to wait, so that got changed. Meanwhile, as I'm writing that, I can make casual references to the holidays. Which I'm doing again, now. Teehee!
Then there's Rinoa's letter, which was also somewhat necessary because I knew Rinoa wasn't going to be able to swing by Traverse Town for a bit because of training. She's got lots to do and she feels she only has so much time to do it, (we've gotten past the point where she's going to burn up from the inside with power, but anyway). Yeah, so there's that letter.
And then, I decided to do a letter from Kairi. Apparently, I have a thing assigning letters to students. I guess it's cause I had pen-pals when I was a kid? Probably something like that. Only because Yuffie had to do one too, but she wrote to Cloud. Kairi wrote to Sora, and was adorable. And I did a picture of her letter, because look at that adorable handwriting! Kairi, in general, is just so darn adorable, sometimes I don't know what to do with myself.
Anyway, so a deeper explanation about how come there hasn't been one big holiday bash together. Lemme take down some current ages in here so I don't have to keep flopping around... Rinoa and Leon are 21, making Aerith 19. Kay. The two major couples at this point, Zerith and Squinoa basically met 4 years ago. For those first two years, Squall and Rinoa were away saving Rinoa's world. Zack was dealing with Genesis during that time. He dropped by to see his parents one year, and ended up spending the other with Angeal. The following holiday is after Angeal's death, and Zack probably forgot about the whole thing entirely. Aerith didn't want to drag him back for the holidays because he was clearing his mind, so the gang in Traverse Town had a quiet one with the addition of Leon now that he was back. Rinoa was busy dealing with excess Sorceress power. And, the next holiday is actually the one that's coming up. Ha! I knew I could figure this all out.
So, if you haven't noticed, I'm going to have a holiday sequence in the Prequel. We're a few chapters away from it right now. I'll post it closer (wow, I almost said close it poster) to Christmas. If I have time (read: when I'm done with the next 6 essays, 1 short story, and 2 finals), I'll do a somewhat AU holiday sequence with Sora and the gang set sometime during Betwixt and Between, probably.
I'm kinda in a super holiday mood, if you haven't noticed from my Axel icon with a Santa hat on Tumblr.
Oh my gosh, my holiday sequence could involve Sora dragging Riku to Christmas Town. I've been meaning to do that. Oooh! That's exciting.
But back to my holiday mood, even my D&D group is doing a Christmas special this coming Friday. (Of course, given how the group is south of the equator, it's totally going to be Christmas in July in Pleasantville (Pleasantville has nothing to do with being south of the equator, just the town we're in...) Anyway, but yeah. This is exciting. It keeps me sane during the last push of school.
I'll be posting a little slower, like every 4 days instead of every 2, only because I just can't keep up with everything I want to do for any given chapter. But, I'll probably pick back up again once the break starts. Though, I'll be wanting to catch up on writing, too, so I'm not entirely sure.
Well, enough of me jabbering.
No spoilers on what's gonna happen for the holiday sequence. :P
Teaser Quotes:
"Fire in the hole!"
"You have got to be kidding me."
"You can say that again."
"Stick close. We can watch each other's backs."
"How did it go?"
"It went."
"Can people have darkness?"
"What do you mean?"
"Can someone's darkness manifest into its own separate person?"
AND A CHRISTMAS VIDEO!
Tumbl
I'm trying to remember if it was a conscious decision to have the letters be written only by the girls on the cast, or if that is just what happened. And I can't remember in the slightest.
I knew I needed another letter from Tifa, because it had been a while since I'd done one of those and Tifa basically sends a letter to Cloud from every world she stops on that has post (which is pretty much all of them). Plus, it was just fun to have her write one from Traverse Town where he totally was recently. And then make references to everything.
The letter from Aerith was just about necessary. It's furthering the plot where Aerith wants to go see Radiant Garden and has asked Zack for help. I think originally, she was just going to ask him when he swung by next, but that was before I started doing the letters, and it didn't make sense for her to wait, so that got changed. Meanwhile, as I'm writing that, I can make casual references to the holidays. Which I'm doing again, now. Teehee!
Then there's Rinoa's letter, which was also somewhat necessary because I knew Rinoa wasn't going to be able to swing by Traverse Town for a bit because of training. She's got lots to do and she feels she only has so much time to do it, (we've gotten past the point where she's going to burn up from the inside with power, but anyway). Yeah, so there's that letter.
And then, I decided to do a letter from Kairi. Apparently, I have a thing assigning letters to students. I guess it's cause I had pen-pals when I was a kid? Probably something like that. Only because Yuffie had to do one too, but she wrote to Cloud. Kairi wrote to Sora, and was adorable. And I did a picture of her letter, because look at that adorable handwriting! Kairi, in general, is just so darn adorable, sometimes I don't know what to do with myself. Anyway, so a deeper explanation about how come there hasn't been one big holiday bash together. Lemme take down some current ages in here so I don't have to keep flopping around... Rinoa and Leon are 21, making Aerith 19. Kay. The two major couples at this point, Zerith and Squinoa basically met 4 years ago. For those first two years, Squall and Rinoa were away saving Rinoa's world. Zack was dealing with Genesis during that time. He dropped by to see his parents one year, and ended up spending the other with Angeal. The following holiday is after Angeal's death, and Zack probably forgot about the whole thing entirely. Aerith didn't want to drag him back for the holidays because he was clearing his mind, so the gang in Traverse Town had a quiet one with the addition of Leon now that he was back. Rinoa was busy dealing with excess Sorceress power. And, the next holiday is actually the one that's coming up. Ha! I knew I could figure this all out.
So, if you haven't noticed, I'm going to have a holiday sequence in the Prequel. We're a few chapters away from it right now. I'll post it closer (wow, I almost said close it poster) to Christmas. If I have time (read: when I'm done with the next 6 essays, 1 short story, and 2 finals), I'll do a somewhat AU holiday sequence with Sora and the gang set sometime during Betwixt and Between, probably.
I'm kinda in a super holiday mood, if you haven't noticed from my Axel icon with a Santa hat on Tumblr.
Oh my gosh, my holiday sequence could involve Sora dragging Riku to Christmas Town. I've been meaning to do that. Oooh! That's exciting.
But back to my holiday mood, even my D&D group is doing a Christmas special this coming Friday. (Of course, given how the group is south of the equator, it's totally going to be Christmas in July in Pleasantville (Pleasantville has nothing to do with being south of the equator, just the town we're in...) Anyway, but yeah. This is exciting. It keeps me sane during the last push of school.
I'll be posting a little slower, like every 4 days instead of every 2, only because I just can't keep up with everything I want to do for any given chapter. But, I'll probably pick back up again once the break starts. Though, I'll be wanting to catch up on writing, too, so I'm not entirely sure.
Well, enough of me jabbering.
No spoilers on what's gonna happen for the holiday sequence. :P
Teaser Quotes:
"Fire in the hole!"
"You have got to be kidding me."
"You can say that again."
"Stick close. We can watch each other's backs."
"How did it go?"
"It went."
"Can people have darkness?"
"What do you mean?"
"Can someone's darkness manifest into its own separate person?"
AND A CHRISTMAS VIDEO!
Thursday, December 5, 2013
When did this ship get added to my armada? (60)
Chapter
Tumbl (it has more than one page)
No, seriously, when did I start shipping Cid/Shera so hard? Like, I KNEW that the minute I was going to include Shera, I'd end up shipping them... but then... I just... started shipping them... SUPER DUPER hard.
What gives?
And they're just so awkwardly adorable. They're not like the teenage awkward that we get with all the other couples because Cid and Shera are adults with their lives a little bit more figured out and...
THEY'RE JUST SO PICKING CUTE.
Literally, this was what was in my outline:
Cid and Shera begin a serious relationship, joking that coworkers should never date, but neither of them care. They also begin to work on ships to travel off-world, because Cid has gained a fair amount of gummi blocks. Their cannon-work is put on hold.
I just don't understand where all the FEELS came from. (Or am I just exaggerating their adorableness in my head? Because that is also completely possible.)
Anyway, I'm gonna stop having feels about this.
Teaser Quotes:
"It would seem that I am not yet on a plane of existence where such a simple thing as magic can harm me."
"I am but darkness. And I can touch that what is darkness."
"I can't let you do that."
"How do you intend to stop me?"
"I haven't figured that part out yet."
"I'd like to wipe that smirk right off of his face."
"Is he going to be okay?"
"If I have anything to say about it, he will be."
{Eheehee, I'm so excited for upcoming chapters!}
Have a Christmas video to get you into the holiday spirit!
Tumbl (it has more than one page)
No, seriously, when did I start shipping Cid/Shera so hard? Like, I KNEW that the minute I was going to include Shera, I'd end up shipping them... but then... I just... started shipping them... SUPER DUPER hard.
What gives?
And they're just so awkwardly adorable. They're not like the teenage awkward that we get with all the other couples because Cid and Shera are adults with their lives a little bit more figured out and...
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| by MrsKaktus |
Literally, this was what was in my outline:
Cid and Shera begin a serious relationship, joking that coworkers should never date, but neither of them care. They also begin to work on ships to travel off-world, because Cid has gained a fair amount of gummi blocks. Their cannon-work is put on hold.
I just don't understand where all the FEELS came from. (Or am I just exaggerating their adorableness in my head? Because that is also completely possible.)
Anyway, I'm gonna stop having feels about this.
Teaser Quotes:
"It would seem that I am not yet on a plane of existence where such a simple thing as magic can harm me."
"I am but darkness. And I can touch that what is darkness."
"I can't let you do that."
"How do you intend to stop me?"
"I haven't figured that part out yet."
"I'd like to wipe that smirk right off of his face."
"Is he going to be okay?"
"If I have anything to say about it, he will be."
{Eheehee, I'm so excited for upcoming chapters!}
Have a Christmas video to get you into the holiday spirit!
Sunday, December 1, 2013
A Growing Family (ch58)
And not because anyone's getting pregnant! They just keep adopting people! *MINE*
Chapter
(no tumblr, I apparently didn't have any tumblr-length thoughts this time around)
Well, this whole sequence ended up being a lot longer than originally planned. And by sequence I definitely mean the "family feels fest in Traverse Town" sequence. Also known as Cloud's first visit slash the visit where Zack and Rinoa are both there at the same time.
I just kept adding things to it, though! And so long as I figured the things I was adding were productive, I just kept adding chapters. Though, this is actually the last of the chapters of this sequence/arc/thingy. Not quite like the "end of a volume" sort of thing, like with what happened by the end of the FFVIII arc, but certainly the end of a longer sequence-arc than just a chapter. I'll stop talking now because I can feel myself make less and less sense as I continue.
Anyway, have a picture of Yuffie because this girl is an awesome cosplayer of her.
Also, I just love how everyone ended up getting divided into chapters. Aerith and Rinoa ended up together, where they kept trying to "out-polite" each other as KKBeckett put it. Aerith does this frequently, she did it at the end of AtP when Tifa and Cloud showed up and it all ended with Yuffie giving up her bed for a bit. (They've since added another room up there.)
Meanwhile, Zack and Leon go inspecting because the two of them get along pretty great. And Cloud's just helping Cid because he can, but he's also betting Yuffie because he wants munny for a new sword. Yup. I just. Yup.
But then Zack and Cloud have to leave because Cloud has to leave because he doesn't want to hurt anyone. Zack has absolutely no idea why Cloud thinks this, but he wants to do what's best for Cloud. Aerith, as usual, is super supportive of the whole thing, but it's sad because they have to say goodbye and *sniffle* my feels.
Review Responses:
archsage: I don't think it's so much as Yuffie has a crush on Cloud, as she admires him for whatever reason. She just decided one day (the day he first showed up) that she was going to like him. She respects him because he's not Leon, he's not cranky-pants (Cid). He's not even Zack, who she has to like because he's an extension of Aerith. And he's certainly not Rinoa, who really just doesn't know how to deal with Yuffie. (And that's probably because Rinoa had her own mischievous days and she's still that way and she really doesn't spend too much time for Yuffie, and her case was already sunk because of Leon.) Cloud actually sort of cares for Yuffie in a way.
Anyway, that was a rant. I appear to have come off as unclear. I haven't actually watched any of RWBY, but it's certainly on my to-do list. I keep seeing it show up on my tumblr dash and I know I just need to start watching it. But, no, right? Kairi! And Rinoa! Ugh! His portrayal or Rinoa is wonderful!
And I kind of feel bad about Kiros and Ward, but I have such a huge cast already that I just... *sigh* I really can't!
KKBeckett: I think I ship Zerith harder than I ship Namiku. And that's saying something.
Teaser Quotes:
"Why can't I go?"
"Because it's too dangerous."
"But they're going!"
"I don't think they should go either. But I can't stop them. They're all adults."
"Well, it looks like it's settled then. You can't go anywhere until you're at least fourteen."
"Don't you even think about using Fire to light the stove. It lights on its own."
"Well, let's head outside. I hate leaving from indoors..."
"There's a difference between knowing and seeing."
And... well... I have feels about this video because it's just so darn beautiful.
Chapter
(no tumblr, I apparently didn't have any tumblr-length thoughts this time around)
Well, this whole sequence ended up being a lot longer than originally planned. And by sequence I definitely mean the "family feels fest in Traverse Town" sequence. Also known as Cloud's first visit slash the visit where Zack and Rinoa are both there at the same time.
I just kept adding things to it, though! And so long as I figured the things I was adding were productive, I just kept adding chapters. Though, this is actually the last of the chapters of this sequence/arc/thingy. Not quite like the "end of a volume" sort of thing, like with what happened by the end of the FFVIII arc, but certainly the end of a longer sequence-arc than just a chapter. I'll stop talking now because I can feel myself make less and less sense as I continue.
 |
| by twin-cosplay on dA |
Also, I just love how everyone ended up getting divided into chapters. Aerith and Rinoa ended up together, where they kept trying to "out-polite" each other as KKBeckett put it. Aerith does this frequently, she did it at the end of AtP when Tifa and Cloud showed up and it all ended with Yuffie giving up her bed for a bit. (They've since added another room up there.)
Meanwhile, Zack and Leon go inspecting because the two of them get along pretty great. And Cloud's just helping Cid because he can, but he's also betting Yuffie because he wants munny for a new sword. Yup. I just. Yup.
But then Zack and Cloud have to leave because Cloud has to leave because he doesn't want to hurt anyone. Zack has absolutely no idea why Cloud thinks this, but he wants to do what's best for Cloud. Aerith, as usual, is super supportive of the whole thing, but it's sad because they have to say goodbye and *sniffle* my feels.
Review Responses:
archsage: I don't think it's so much as Yuffie has a crush on Cloud, as she admires him for whatever reason. She just decided one day (the day he first showed up) that she was going to like him. She respects him because he's not Leon, he's not cranky-pants (Cid). He's not even Zack, who she has to like because he's an extension of Aerith. And he's certainly not Rinoa, who really just doesn't know how to deal with Yuffie. (And that's probably because Rinoa had her own mischievous days and she's still that way and she really doesn't spend too much time for Yuffie, and her case was already sunk because of Leon.) Cloud actually sort of cares for Yuffie in a way.
Anyway, that was a rant. I appear to have come off as unclear. I haven't actually watched any of RWBY, but it's certainly on my to-do list. I keep seeing it show up on my tumblr dash and I know I just need to start watching it. But, no, right? Kairi! And Rinoa! Ugh! His portrayal or Rinoa is wonderful!
And I kind of feel bad about Kiros and Ward, but I have such a huge cast already that I just... *sigh* I really can't!
KKBeckett: I think I ship Zerith harder than I ship Namiku. And that's saying something.
Teaser Quotes:
"Why can't I go?"
"Because it's too dangerous."
"But they're going!"
"I don't think they should go either. But I can't stop them. They're all adults."
"Well, it looks like it's settled then. You can't go anywhere until you're at least fourteen."
"Don't you even think about using Fire to light the stove. It lights on its own."
"Well, let's head outside. I hate leaving from indoors..."
"There's a difference between knowing and seeing."
And... well... I have feels about this video because it's just so darn beautiful.
Friday, November 29, 2013
Not technically the mafia... (ch57)
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| by griffinkhan |
Chapter
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I'm pretty sure this chapter was basically intended to be fluff with some minor plot points put in. As in, Yuffie telling/showing Cloud the secret hideout was the only plot point I had to hit.
However, I also had to include Zack doing squats because it was bothering me that I hadn't been able to include that before. (No, seriously, it was bothering me a crapton.) Anyway...
The kissing bit (or them talking about kissing) was totally Yuffie just popping into my head and saying that. So, naturally, I had to work in the dialogue. Mostly because it's just all of the #accurate.
Originally, Yuffie was just going to tell Cloud about the hideout, and then someone like Aerith or Leon was going to hear about it, but then it just worked so pleasantly into her showing him it because she trusts him. And then Leon's watching because he can't stand the silence of the hotel (well, he can't really stand silence, but I'll have feels about that later.) And then he's all like... what should I do? And he wanders back to the hotel and Rinoa's there waiting for him because he's been writing to her off and on asking her to come visit and she basically just decided one day that she was going to, despite the fact that she probably should be training and stuff.
But no, again, I get to have feelings about Leon... because... well... Idk... that bit about not liking silence because of it reminding him about the end of time and I just... don't even... know where that came from. And then him seeing Rinoa and having a very typical reaction to seeing the person that you WANT to spend all your time with.... yeah. And then throwing them in a room with Zerith. So much win.
Review Responses:
KKBeckett: yes, EVERYONE ships Zerith. Really, everyone. Cloud's certainly one of them, because he'd seen how Zack talks about Aerith and then he saw them together and just. Yup. Also, yes, that was a reference to people getting new weapons. Blatantly. Because I'm cool like that.
Teaser Quotes: (Because I enjoy them!)
"Wha' in'a name'uh all tha's Holy in'a Worlds're yeh doin'?"
"I'll have to get the cot out of the closet."
"I can sleep on the floor, really."
"No, you're sleeping in my bed! I'm sleeping on the cot."
"You don't have to."
"Yeah, right. It's cool. I've slept on the ground before."
"I've slept on the ground before."
"Anything you want to talk about?"
"Nibelheim."
"Yeah?"
"We need to go."
"Okay. Wanna go now?"
"No."
"Okay. We'll go tomorrow."
"This World is falling into darkness."
"No, there's no... We have to go back! We have to save..."
"There isn't time! If we don't leave now, we'll get sucked in, too."
"Can I have some eggs now?"
"Of course! I'll get you some right now."
"I made them myself."
"Oh, really?"
And then, well, I'm just impressed by these cellists:
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Yup, more letters (ch54)
Chapter
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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.
Tumbl
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.
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.
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