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 rarmaster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rarmaster. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
More Plotting
So I left off yesterday after some reposting of an old conversation between me and rar. I thought I might continue what I have of that for your guys' benefit. Because, honestly, there's a lot of good stuff about how the whole idea for Zerith's wedding came up.
Though, tbh, I almost wished I'd remembered this whole conversation when I wrote the chapter of Aerith's wedding day, because that first line there is beautiful! Then again, I do like it better where there's some week-before set-up, and the line wouldn't have flowed with all that leading into it.
magik: "it was in a church--Aerith's doing... Zack didn't care (would have married her on the moon for all he cared)" nice, simple... She'd probably settle for Yuffie, Tifa, and Rinoa for the bridesmaids. Zack would have Cloud, Leon, and I'd think of a third person
rar: shoot since when were there THREE flies?? sorry i just, we had two and killed one but now there's two
magik: they do this thing called breeding. I'm channeling hades, apparently.
rar: yeah but they're all big and have only been around for this afternoon??
magik: I"M NOT WRITING FOR HIM TOMORROW DARNIT< I"M WRITING CLOUD AND TIFA
rar: I'M SORRY
magik: and sephiroth
rar: THAT'S FRUSTRATING
magik: i need to get in a sephiroth mood
rar: write Hades anyway??? ??? just write it now. go back and do cloud later
magik: no, because then i either A) have to get into Mickey's head or B) have Aqua hover over his shoulder. the time for hades will come. he just needs to hush.
rar: okay, just trying to help
magik: but i need to deal heavily with mickey for that chapter
rar: riiight
FYI: This was the Hades' attack on Disney Castle sequence. Just for anyone wondering. I changed Donald/Daisy's wedding into Zerith's wedding very early on into Remnants. But I am SO SO SO happy with that change.
This here is some more plotting for the Cloud arc:
magik: hmm... do i want to throw Cloud into Agrabah?
rar: idk? you could
magik: thank you, Tifa, for that line
rar: what line?
magik: "Cloud, we are wandering around in the desert, and for what?"
rar: stick 'em in Agrabah then
magik: because like, he'd park his bike, and then just start wandering aimlessly, though Tifa knows it's not aimless
rar: how'd they get back to the bike?? he should not lose track of it. just saying, that'd be bad
magik: Tifa can get herself right to it.
rar: goooood point
magik: Cloud just doesn't ask. Tifa's "job" is to go get the bike and save Cloud's butt.
rar: ha yeah
Because that was before Tifa'd really revealed to anyone that she could form light corridors. Not that it's a huge deal, but as a point of reference.
And this upcoming bit was some plot arc that I'd intended on using for Sora. It kind of made its way in, but not entirely.
magik: spam you some feels about charrie development: because Sora... Sora's got a darkness problem. not huge, but it's there. because he no longer has so much light in his heart. yup, it's a thing. and while it's not a "problem"
rar: oh yeah, now that Ven's gone
magik: it's a problem in the fact that he has NO IDEA how he's supposed to take care of it, so he has to learn
rar: thaaaaaaaaaaaat's true
magik: and Riku and Kairi have to help him through it, once he admits he needs help. I think it's the only topic he and Kairi fight on, actually. And Kairi... Kairi's learning how to wield a Keyblade, and that's all find and dandy. but then there's Xion, and Xion's just amazing because she's a perf replica
rar: of course
magik: and kairi knows that xion and roxas technically wielded before her and it shouldn't matter, but it does. And Roxas, who just spent a year training and that's all he did. and Kairi's just like... "why can't I be that good?" and then there's Riku...
rar: (they do have like a year on her tho. both of them. I GET KAIRI'S FEELS I'M JUST SAYING)
magik: shh... it shouldn't matter but it does to her, anyway... but then there's Riku who's kinda just quietly bettering himself
rar: that's Riku for you
magik: he's over most of his demons/skeletons. he's coping. except for when he's not. he and Namine get locked in this "you need to stop being so hard on yourself" thing, because they're both struggling with it. and idk about Roxas and Xion's development at the moment, outside of them wanting to become masters. it'll come to me
but then there's Axel, who gets a double-whammy of character development. first of all, because he's finally coping with everything that involved Isa/Saix, which is huge and major. then he thinks that it's weird that he's included in Sora's friends because, sometimes, he sees himself as the enemy, still. anyway, i'm sorry, did I saw two, i think I meant three... the third one involves Kuin but not in a romantic way, in a "i need to respect you" way, because that whole thing with Xehanort and she has to come to terms with that, and apologize, and realize that she can't do it alone. And Axel can respect her for that
Wow, that was a lot of character talk. As you can see, a lot of that made it into the 115 chapter monstrosity that is Remnants. Some of that didn't.
I never really did deal with Sora's darkness problem. It came up a bit. Here and there. But not overly so. I think I'd wanted to include it because I knew that Ven was no longer in Sora's heart anymore, and Sora had less light to combat the darkness--plus, Nomura had hinted at stuff like that for KH3. Well, it didn't make it in to the extent that I'd originally thought it would. Sure, in my headcanon, he and Kairi probably do argue about it a bit. I just never wrote it because it never really seemed to flow. Sora's optimistic and happy, and he wants the best for everyone. When he worries, it's not because he has darkness problems, it's because he's trying to figure out how he's going to kill four people--all of whom he's killed before and now he has to kill them again. He's afraid of Xehanort getting one of them and it never once occurs to him that Xehanort'll come for him, too. At least, not until Xehanort does do that.
Meanwhile, Kairi's apprehensions about Roxas and Xion being amazing do show up, when it comes time for them to take their Mark exam. But even that worry was lessened because Kairi is reminded that different people are good at different things.
Riku and Namine do have this "you need to stop being so hard on yourself" for literally everything. But, honestly, the best interactions between them are when they're dealing with the aftermath of her shattering Marluxia and her throwing Xehanort from her head. Good, solid, conversations.
Roxas and Xion are quietly adorable on their way to becoming masters.
Ah yes, and Axel and Kuin. I'll talk about that now. Sometime during Betwixt/Between, I realized that trying to pair Axel with Kuin just wasn't going to work. It might have worked in someone's vague crack-fic after AtP had BB never been written. But Axel being who he is and Kuin being who she is meant that that two of them would never be a healthy relationship. And I wasn't in the mood to write an unhealthy one. So I turned them into rivals and acquaintances, who'd never pursue anything romantically. It felt better that way.
Also, it let me subtly ship Akurokushi. One of my biggest OT3s as of late. My final chapter does contain a reference to that.
I'll continue in another (and probably final) blog about wedding traditions.
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?
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Castle Oblivion (Chapters 94-101)
The Castle Oblivion arc was a rough one in a couple of ways. Namine's head is always a fun place to be is one of them. The fact that Castle Oblivion is just an awful place is another. Granted, my CO has changed a lot since its original in-game incarnation, things are still rough there. Also, during the stuff at CO, I've also got the Sephiroth battle going on alongside of that. So, fun times.
Of course, I didn't even start us in CO during this sequence. I have us in Port Royal with the Wayfinder Trio. I liked discussing that perhaps Port Royal had forgotten about its magic. Because Pirates of the Caribbean is a much more realistic movie than the other included Disney movies. While yes, there are curses and some magic, it's not anywhere near the level that we see in say Cinderella, Aladdin, or Frozen. So, the "dried up magic/people forgetting about it" was an interesting thing to kind of allude to. And Aqua would think about those sorts of things, being so much of a heavy magic user.
But, of course, the tranquil ponderings can't last forever. Let me just dump a Remnant on them. And then they can fight for a bit, and then Kuin, whose glider is taking her all over the place, can show up and she can help them for a bit. Perhaps I made you think for a second that he was going to get Ven. Probably not. I've made it pretty clear that Ven's about as untouchable as Kairi. But that doesn't mean the Remnant still can't hurt Ven.
Then we've got Sephiroth showing up. Well, not quite at the beginning of the chapter, but it's alluded to. Cid can tell. Barret's POV is fun to be in though. Because he's never run into Sephiroth before, so he has no idea what's coming. Because, when Cid announces it, he really has no idea what to expect. And whatever he does expect, is not what he gets.
Oh, for the record, that teleportation block? That was Cloud doing things when I wasn't looking again. That's why Leon had no idea what it was but Rinoa did.
Let the battle with Sephiroth begin. Of course Cloud and Zack would be in the middle of it all. Tifa won't stay back forever. And neither will Leon. He just gets too itchy about not fighting. Man though, that battle was hard writing, trying to keep track of everyone. Because literally, everyone was there. Except Denzel, Marlene, and Merlin.
And then I've got Namine's feelings about something bad going to happen. The reason why she's not seeing any images, for the record, is because she couldn't see an image of Xehanort getting into her head. That's why her mind's drawing a blank. Fun times. I think it's completely legit, it also meant that none of you knew that he was going to go for her. Or maybe you did. I really just loved Namine's thoughts about talking to Leon about what he experienced inside of his head. Because, honestly, the two of them would have had the most similar experiences. (Them and Marluxia.) Riku and Terra had different experiences because it wasn't a Remnant who originally went after them. Terra had full-on Master Xehanort and Riku dealt with Ansem. Also, Namine banishing Xehanort from her heart with a combination of memory prowess and light=beautiful. I love Namine.
Ah, yes, Cloud regaining light attacks. Okay, more just like his limits again. I think that first one he used was Braver. And he's all like "Aerith, was that you?" and she's just like *shakes head* Because she knows that Cloud is regaining his power again and growing strong. Because, as far as my canon goes, Cloud had the ability to do light attacks and stuff. He just slowly lost them as Sephiroth drained on him. Of course, then the battle gets hairier as Sephiroth literally starts causing despair and Aerith is out of Megalixirs so she has a harder time combating darkness. (Which causes her to swear. Yup.) And then Zackgets skewered. And Aerith is having none of that. Absolutely none. I love the image of her jabbing her staff at Sephiroth. It's beautiful. So is Cloud beating Sephiroth into nothingness.
Then back to Castle Oblivion. Where everyone else realizes that Namine's in trouble and they end up relying on Riku's sense of smell to find him. I love poking at Riku's sense of smell and Xehanort's stench. Riku making up swears that Axel doesn't recognize is also a beautiful thing. Because while I hardly ever use actual swear words in my KH fics to keep ratings down, I can leave that up to your imagination. Riku and Axel are my biggest swearers. Namine fighting the Remnant in that form is also gorgeous.
Side note... while I initially wrote that chapter before Monty Oum's passing, it is certainly my tribute to him. I loved the concept of Namine with all those Keyblades and I loved Dead Fantasy and I'm sad to see that the story will not continue. RIP Monty Oum.
Now for some timey-whimey stuff. The Remnant in Port Royal could very well be the same Remnant that showed up in Castle Oblivion. Could be. It could also not be, depending on how many Remnants you believe are walking around at the same time. Kuin, of course, went straight from Port Royal to Castle Oblivion, where she gets momentarily stopped by Axel (really got attached to that lol) and then can't fight the Remnant until Namine gives the go-ahead.
Then we get to do clean-up in Hollow Bastion. Aerith and her massive need to heal everyone. Cloud of course, has got it the worst, having just killed his own shadow. Though, Zack is also not in too great of shape. Aerith expelling darkness with Rinoa, Tifa, and Yuffie's help was definitely a thing that was fun to write. Just, the concept of what rar and I figured darkness can and cannot do and it's reactions to different healing magic. Yup. And then it's raining, because it's always raining. But then Cloud wakes up and he's feeling lighter and happier, which is good. Very, very good.
Then we've got a transitioning chapter out of Castle Oblivion. This was my chapter 100. My fluff chapter. My chapter of: everything's fine at Castle Oblivion, we're all gonna go back to the islands now. Namine has a chance to recoup from what she just went through, everyone else gets a chance to splash around at the beach, which was just fun and cute to write. Writing SoRiKai derping around in the water because they're all such Island brats was also great. *nods*
Then closing off with more of the Wayfinder Trio. This time, instead of running into a Remnant though, they're on a beach and they run into Xigbar. Well, not before they have some fun playing with the beach ball. I had a lot of fun writing Xigbar's dialogue though, because he really just wants to live, but he's slowly coming to the realization that a world with him in it also means a world with Xehanort. And he's got too much pride to ask the Keyblade Wielders if they can destroy just a part of his heart. (There's also a good portion of him that thinks his heart is too far gone to Xehanort for that to even be an option.) Sure, he'll taunt them about it, but he'll do it while he's shooting at them, not during a pleasant conversation.
I remember having a hard time deciding how to wrap this scene up, so I wrote in the two boys with the beach ball (and then also the boomerang) interrupting and Xigbar being like "Nope, not gonna fight a couple of actual kids" and then he leaves. The kids, btw, are like unofficially my universe's Joseph and Toby.
That's all for now.
Of course, I didn't even start us in CO during this sequence. I have us in Port Royal with the Wayfinder Trio. I liked discussing that perhaps Port Royal had forgotten about its magic. Because Pirates of the Caribbean is a much more realistic movie than the other included Disney movies. While yes, there are curses and some magic, it's not anywhere near the level that we see in say Cinderella, Aladdin, or Frozen. So, the "dried up magic/people forgetting about it" was an interesting thing to kind of allude to. And Aqua would think about those sorts of things, being so much of a heavy magic user.
But, of course, the tranquil ponderings can't last forever. Let me just dump a Remnant on them. And then they can fight for a bit, and then Kuin, whose glider is taking her all over the place, can show up and she can help them for a bit. Perhaps I made you think for a second that he was going to get Ven. Probably not. I've made it pretty clear that Ven's about as untouchable as Kairi. But that doesn't mean the Remnant still can't hurt Ven.
Then we've got Sephiroth showing up. Well, not quite at the beginning of the chapter, but it's alluded to. Cid can tell. Barret's POV is fun to be in though. Because he's never run into Sephiroth before, so he has no idea what's coming. Because, when Cid announces it, he really has no idea what to expect. And whatever he does expect, is not what he gets.
Oh, for the record, that teleportation block? That was Cloud doing things when I wasn't looking again. That's why Leon had no idea what it was but Rinoa did.
Let the battle with Sephiroth begin. Of course Cloud and Zack would be in the middle of it all. Tifa won't stay back forever. And neither will Leon. He just gets too itchy about not fighting. Man though, that battle was hard writing, trying to keep track of everyone. Because literally, everyone was there. Except Denzel, Marlene, and Merlin.
And then I've got Namine's feelings about something bad going to happen. The reason why she's not seeing any images, for the record, is because she couldn't see an image of Xehanort getting into her head. That's why her mind's drawing a blank. Fun times. I think it's completely legit, it also meant that none of you knew that he was going to go for her. Or maybe you did. I really just loved Namine's thoughts about talking to Leon about what he experienced inside of his head. Because, honestly, the two of them would have had the most similar experiences. (Them and Marluxia.) Riku and Terra had different experiences because it wasn't a Remnant who originally went after them. Terra had full-on Master Xehanort and Riku dealt with Ansem. Also, Namine banishing Xehanort from her heart with a combination of memory prowess and light=beautiful. I love Namine.
Ah, yes, Cloud regaining light attacks. Okay, more just like his limits again. I think that first one he used was Braver. And he's all like "Aerith, was that you?" and she's just like *shakes head* Because she knows that Cloud is regaining his power again and growing strong. Because, as far as my canon goes, Cloud had the ability to do light attacks and stuff. He just slowly lost them as Sephiroth drained on him. Of course, then the battle gets hairier as Sephiroth literally starts causing despair and Aerith is out of Megalixirs so she has a harder time combating darkness. (Which causes her to swear. Yup.) And then Zackgets skewered. And Aerith is having none of that. Absolutely none. I love the image of her jabbing her staff at Sephiroth. It's beautiful. So is Cloud beating Sephiroth into nothingness.
Then back to Castle Oblivion. Where everyone else realizes that Namine's in trouble and they end up relying on Riku's sense of smell to find him. I love poking at Riku's sense of smell and Xehanort's stench. Riku making up swears that Axel doesn't recognize is also a beautiful thing. Because while I hardly ever use actual swear words in my KH fics to keep ratings down, I can leave that up to your imagination. Riku and Axel are my biggest swearers. Namine fighting the Remnant in that form is also gorgeous.
Side note... while I initially wrote that chapter before Monty Oum's passing, it is certainly my tribute to him. I loved the concept of Namine with all those Keyblades and I loved Dead Fantasy and I'm sad to see that the story will not continue. RIP Monty Oum.
Now for some timey-whimey stuff. The Remnant in Port Royal could very well be the same Remnant that showed up in Castle Oblivion. Could be. It could also not be, depending on how many Remnants you believe are walking around at the same time. Kuin, of course, went straight from Port Royal to Castle Oblivion, where she gets momentarily stopped by Axel (really got attached to that lol) and then can't fight the Remnant until Namine gives the go-ahead.
Then we get to do clean-up in Hollow Bastion. Aerith and her massive need to heal everyone. Cloud of course, has got it the worst, having just killed his own shadow. Though, Zack is also not in too great of shape. Aerith expelling darkness with Rinoa, Tifa, and Yuffie's help was definitely a thing that was fun to write. Just, the concept of what rar and I figured darkness can and cannot do and it's reactions to different healing magic. Yup. And then it's raining, because it's always raining. But then Cloud wakes up and he's feeling lighter and happier, which is good. Very, very good.
Then we've got a transitioning chapter out of Castle Oblivion. This was my chapter 100. My fluff chapter. My chapter of: everything's fine at Castle Oblivion, we're all gonna go back to the islands now. Namine has a chance to recoup from what she just went through, everyone else gets a chance to splash around at the beach, which was just fun and cute to write. Writing SoRiKai derping around in the water because they're all such Island brats was also great. *nods*
Then closing off with more of the Wayfinder Trio. This time, instead of running into a Remnant though, they're on a beach and they run into Xigbar. Well, not before they have some fun playing with the beach ball. I had a lot of fun writing Xigbar's dialogue though, because he really just wants to live, but he's slowly coming to the realization that a world with him in it also means a world with Xehanort. And he's got too much pride to ask the Keyblade Wielders if they can destroy just a part of his heart. (There's also a good portion of him that thinks his heart is too far gone to Xehanort for that to even be an option.) Sure, he'll taunt them about it, but he'll do it while he's shooting at them, not during a pleasant conversation.
I remember having a hard time deciding how to wrap this scene up, so I wrote in the two boys with the beach ball (and then also the boomerang) interrupting and Xigbar being like "Nope, not gonna fight a couple of actual kids" and then he leaves. The kids, btw, are like unofficially my universe's Joseph and Toby.
That's all for now.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Traverse Town AKA Mark of Mastery (Chapters 79-88)
This sequence started out more as a concept than anything else. I wanted there to be another Mark of Mastery (ever since Betwixt and Between). But I never got around to writing it because of how epically Betwixt and Between failed in so many ways.
But I still wanted to do the Mark of Mastery exam. Traverse Town seemed to be as good of a setting as any, so I went with it. The biggest question for me I suppose then was when I was going to put it. The sequence as a whole got moved around several times for various reasons. I didn't want to have it too early, to give the characters more reasonable time to be prepping for the exam (even if they didn't know it.) But I also didn't want it to be the last thing because, for me, it didn't really seem like an end-game sort of plot arc. So I wanted it in the middle. I do know it got pushed back a little because when rar and I cemented the Larxene sequence of events, it was happening right in the middle, and I couldn't have half my cast go gallivanting off while they were supposed to be taking their Marks of Mastery. So it got pushed back in that regard.
But overall, I'm fairly happy where it takes place.
I struggled a bit with pacing and POV. I wanted to keep things interesting and do a mixture of POVs from the scenes, but I also didn't want anything to come off as repetitive. There were a couple of near-entire chapter rewrites I think. But you all seem to like it, which is good!
The first stage of the exam was very much like Aqua and Terra's first stage. Yay element balls. And since that was overall self-explanitory and not much more interesting than comments on particular fighting styles, I was able to have Riku, Sora, and Namine catch everyone else up with what else had been going on.
Then, to break up the narrative, I stuck in the scenes with Mickey and Xigbar, and Marlene in Hollow Bastion. I wanted Mickey to run into Xigbar ever since the whole Xigbar arc got put in place. And I'm really happy with how that turned out.
The bit with Marlene was more because I wanted to include something from Marlene's POV than anything else. Because her and Denzel are such cuties.
But back to the exam... The second part was Master against student. Kind of like how Aqua and Terra fought each other, but at the same time, not really. I paired who I paired very intentionally, trying (obviously) not to pair couples or close friends.
Aqua versus Kairi was very much me experimenting with different fighting styles. I know I somewhat fell into the "Kairi as magic user" trope, and I should have had her do more power-house moves. And I kind of regret that. I don't regret Kairi just unleashing light when she feels like it though. It really was an exercise in fighting styles.
Riku versus Ven was also fun. Even more so because I told the whole thing from Aqua's POV. Riku's tank versus Ven's lightweight almost Airbender attitude.
Then came Marlynort bothering Hollow Bastion. That scene pretty much speaks for itself. Things I'm super in love with is Denzel and Marlene's attitudes toward everything, Pi standing up to Marlynort, and Barret calling Zack impulsive.
So Terra versus Sora. I wanted these two to spar because Sora brings out the best of everyone. And Terra could use that. (Sure, he's already gotten rid of some pretty nasty parts of his heart, but a little extra boost can't hurt.) Sora's thought process through that entire thing was great to write as well. Sometimes, Sora's hard to write for because he's so dang nice. Sometimes, he's super easy to write for--because he's so dang nice.
Then we got Ven and Kairi's thoughts thinking back on the exams, because I wanted to get more rounded scenarios. (I think these were some of the parts I had to rewrite, but maybe not. I honestly can't remember.) Through Kairi's POV we also get to see Aqua sparring with Xion and Kairi feeling a little like she's not all that great. But then Sora reminds her that she is fantastic and he's such a cutie.
Then Riku versus Roxas. And I couldn't resist a "Roxas-breaking-Riku's-hand" reference. Because I just love that whole exchange at the end of Days.
Ah yes, then the Leon chapter. This was one that I definitely rewrote a lot of to prevent being repetitive. The first part not so much because it was stuff before the exam even took place. Because the HB gang was at one point a Traverse Town gang and them wandering around seemed necessary. But then I refined and condensed things from the exam that Leon could gloss over because you all had already read it.
And then comes the final portion of the exam. I took inspiration from KH3D and had a little bit of a "dream-drop" sort of thing where they all fight something inside of their hearts. Sora and Riku pretty much take it in stride but then Aerith gets super antsy. So Namine starts delving to check. And then... well... Xehanort.
Because when else would he show up.
Ah yes. Then it was the chapter of Cloud doing things that I didn't plan on. Which is fine... I just... didn't plan them. Like the whole thing with the Hero's Medallion taken from Zack. I didn't plan that. Cloud went and did that on his own. Like I wasn't watching or something. But yeah, Cloud's done dealing with Hades. Did Herc help him? Yeah. But half of Cloud's character development right now is Cloud accepting that he can't do everything on his own.
Then comes Rinoa during the Xehanort fight. One of my favorite lines is "Was that a pattern they were in? How many times had they done this?" Because, Sora and Riku have done this. A lot.
Mmmmm. Ah. Yes. Leon almost getting Norted. That one surprised everyone. Including I think rar. Because it's just so unexpected. I wanted there to be one that came out of nowhere. Because Nort going after Cloud almost makes sense. In my notes, the Remnant tried to go after Rinoa first, but she's got so much power and even levels of light and darkness that he decided it wasn't worth it. So then he goes after Leon instead. And he gets close.
Then Rinoa is forced to fight Leon possessed by Xehanort much like Squall had to fight Rinoa possessed by Adel... and Ultimecia...
Then I switched gears and went backwards a bit into Namine's POV. Namine drawing stuff going on in everyone's hearts. And then Namine and Aerith coming to the same conclusion at the same time. Aerith needed to be in Traverse Town. And Aerith standing up to Yen Sid is a beautiful thing. Because Yen Sid's such this aloof character that nearly everyone in all of Disney reveres and Aerith's just like "not taking your BS, send me where I need to go"
But then Namine is just like "take my star shard, it'll be fine."
Okay, granted, I was jumping around all over the place as far as time is concerned... but Leon and Rinoa proposing to each other. Because Leon's been thinking about doing it for some time now, but he doesn't even get the chance to get all of the words out and Rinoa actually proposes first. It's great. And Aerith knows what's going on, but she just quietly gives them space.
Then we've got some wrap-up on Hollow Bastion's end. But that's pretty much it.
But I still wanted to do the Mark of Mastery exam. Traverse Town seemed to be as good of a setting as any, so I went with it. The biggest question for me I suppose then was when I was going to put it. The sequence as a whole got moved around several times for various reasons. I didn't want to have it too early, to give the characters more reasonable time to be prepping for the exam (even if they didn't know it.) But I also didn't want it to be the last thing because, for me, it didn't really seem like an end-game sort of plot arc. So I wanted it in the middle. I do know it got pushed back a little because when rar and I cemented the Larxene sequence of events, it was happening right in the middle, and I couldn't have half my cast go gallivanting off while they were supposed to be taking their Marks of Mastery. So it got pushed back in that regard.
But overall, I'm fairly happy where it takes place.
I struggled a bit with pacing and POV. I wanted to keep things interesting and do a mixture of POVs from the scenes, but I also didn't want anything to come off as repetitive. There were a couple of near-entire chapter rewrites I think. But you all seem to like it, which is good!
The first stage of the exam was very much like Aqua and Terra's first stage. Yay element balls. And since that was overall self-explanitory and not much more interesting than comments on particular fighting styles, I was able to have Riku, Sora, and Namine catch everyone else up with what else had been going on.
Then, to break up the narrative, I stuck in the scenes with Mickey and Xigbar, and Marlene in Hollow Bastion. I wanted Mickey to run into Xigbar ever since the whole Xigbar arc got put in place. And I'm really happy with how that turned out.
The bit with Marlene was more because I wanted to include something from Marlene's POV than anything else. Because her and Denzel are such cuties.
But back to the exam... The second part was Master against student. Kind of like how Aqua and Terra fought each other, but at the same time, not really. I paired who I paired very intentionally, trying (obviously) not to pair couples or close friends.
Aqua versus Kairi was very much me experimenting with different fighting styles. I know I somewhat fell into the "Kairi as magic user" trope, and I should have had her do more power-house moves. And I kind of regret that. I don't regret Kairi just unleashing light when she feels like it though. It really was an exercise in fighting styles.
Riku versus Ven was also fun. Even more so because I told the whole thing from Aqua's POV. Riku's tank versus Ven's lightweight almost Airbender attitude.
Then came Marlynort bothering Hollow Bastion. That scene pretty much speaks for itself. Things I'm super in love with is Denzel and Marlene's attitudes toward everything, Pi standing up to Marlynort, and Barret calling Zack impulsive.
So Terra versus Sora. I wanted these two to spar because Sora brings out the best of everyone. And Terra could use that. (Sure, he's already gotten rid of some pretty nasty parts of his heart, but a little extra boost can't hurt.) Sora's thought process through that entire thing was great to write as well. Sometimes, Sora's hard to write for because he's so dang nice. Sometimes, he's super easy to write for--because he's so dang nice.
Then we got Ven and Kairi's thoughts thinking back on the exams, because I wanted to get more rounded scenarios. (I think these were some of the parts I had to rewrite, but maybe not. I honestly can't remember.) Through Kairi's POV we also get to see Aqua sparring with Xion and Kairi feeling a little like she's not all that great. But then Sora reminds her that she is fantastic and he's such a cutie.
Then Riku versus Roxas. And I couldn't resist a "Roxas-breaking-Riku's-hand" reference. Because I just love that whole exchange at the end of Days.
Ah yes, then the Leon chapter. This was one that I definitely rewrote a lot of to prevent being repetitive. The first part not so much because it was stuff before the exam even took place. Because the HB gang was at one point a Traverse Town gang and them wandering around seemed necessary. But then I refined and condensed things from the exam that Leon could gloss over because you all had already read it.
And then comes the final portion of the exam. I took inspiration from KH3D and had a little bit of a "dream-drop" sort of thing where they all fight something inside of their hearts. Sora and Riku pretty much take it in stride but then Aerith gets super antsy. So Namine starts delving to check. And then... well... Xehanort.
Because when else would he show up.
Ah yes. Then it was the chapter of Cloud doing things that I didn't plan on. Which is fine... I just... didn't plan them. Like the whole thing with the Hero's Medallion taken from Zack. I didn't plan that. Cloud went and did that on his own. Like I wasn't watching or something. But yeah, Cloud's done dealing with Hades. Did Herc help him? Yeah. But half of Cloud's character development right now is Cloud accepting that he can't do everything on his own.
Then comes Rinoa during the Xehanort fight. One of my favorite lines is "Was that a pattern they were in? How many times had they done this?" Because, Sora and Riku have done this. A lot.
Mmmmm. Ah. Yes. Leon almost getting Norted. That one surprised everyone. Including I think rar. Because it's just so unexpected. I wanted there to be one that came out of nowhere. Because Nort going after Cloud almost makes sense. In my notes, the Remnant tried to go after Rinoa first, but she's got so much power and even levels of light and darkness that he decided it wasn't worth it. So then he goes after Leon instead. And he gets close.
Then Rinoa is forced to fight Leon possessed by Xehanort much like Squall had to fight Rinoa possessed by Adel... and Ultimecia...
Then I switched gears and went backwards a bit into Namine's POV. Namine drawing stuff going on in everyone's hearts. And then Namine and Aerith coming to the same conclusion at the same time. Aerith needed to be in Traverse Town. And Aerith standing up to Yen Sid is a beautiful thing. Because Yen Sid's such this aloof character that nearly everyone in all of Disney reveres and Aerith's just like "not taking your BS, send me where I need to go"
But then Namine is just like "take my star shard, it'll be fine."
Okay, granted, I was jumping around all over the place as far as time is concerned... but Leon and Rinoa proposing to each other. Because Leon's been thinking about doing it for some time now, but he doesn't even get the chance to get all of the words out and Rinoa actually proposes first. It's great. And Aerith knows what's going on, but she just quietly gives them space.
Then we've got some wrap-up on Hollow Bastion's end. But that's pretty much it.
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Larxene Sequence (various chapters between 61 and 78)
The long-awaited Larxene Sequence post. Ah yes. The sequence that starts in Corona and ends in Deep Space. And while I could have talked about it a little bit at a a time in the last two posts I did, I elected not to.
Gosh, I don't even know how long ago it was now. A year, two? But rar was talking about a crack sequence where her Riku (the Riku Replica from KH canon) comes back to the original universe (mine circa pre-3D) to take revenge on Larxene. I saw her talking about it on Tumblr and I was like... "so what were you planning on doing with that?" And she told me and I said "well, how about we just make that canon"
And I'm so glad I did.
I integrated it into the rough outline for Remnants when I made the outline over a year ago. About six months ago (maybe it was eight though, time gets screwy in my head because of how many states I've lived in this year) she and I sat down and really fleshed out what happens when. This is terribly important because we're dealing with cross-universe travel where my universe runs on average three times faster. Which is why we've got Larxene stuff going on in my universe so back-to-back but in hers there were a couple of chapters in between parts.
We elected to each write different POVs of the same things so that way they could be integrated into Remnants and All that Remains. That way we weren't messing with Some Things You Can't Escape and still had coherent story arcs without making you guys jump between fics.
So it starts in Corona. The Namine Replica and the other Kairi show up in my universe. It's decided that Namine, Kairi, and Riku are going to go. Ironically, that makes for two Kairis, two Namines, and two Rikus in the same scene. But hey, it's amusing. My Namine went because I wanted the two of them to interact and her going after him as he's trying to take revenge is much more poignant than her going to rescue him from Larxene. (Heck, that might just be insult to injury.) Riku went because of all the darkness floating around and he's the best one for the job. And who doesn't love two powerousing Kairi's going around?
The counting scene between Namine and the Riku Replica came from another fanfic I read about their time in Castle Oblivion. Though it's not touched on much in either rar's or my universe... their time sucked. It sucked a lot. He got rewritten, a lot. They hid from Larxene... a lot. They came up with tricks to fight through the pain--that's one of them.
The action went into Riku's POV because I wanted a variance of POVs and I knew I wanted Namine for the aftermath. And Kairi was responsible for the Corona POV. So Riku got this bit. But it worked well because then he could see what was going on between Namine and the Riku Replica and he's pretty invested because he's been through CO too. Anyone who remembers CO is changed. Heck, Sora's changed and he doesn't remember it.
I don't know why I write for Larxene so well. But I do. And I hate myself a little. But at the same time I bounce up and down with excitement because yay writing!
She's so messed up from the darkness, too. It's disgusting.
Then we get Namine arguing with the Namine Replica over who should be responsible for taking blows made for Riku. And they can really only agree on "he shouldn't" . Namine and the Riku Replica get to reconcile a bit. Because, she's happy he's alive. She's happy she didn't screw him up. She's happy he's moved on, because she didn't return his affection. (She knew it wasn't real and she didn't really have affection for anyone at that point.) At the same time, she tells the Riku Replica that she's moved on from being afraid of Larxene--because if there's one thing that Namine's done, even since All the Pieces, it's get stronger and less afraid. I'm so happy with her character development. And this scene really encapsulates it.
Then comes the next chapter, which was stuff I knew had to be discussed, but rar and I decided that it didn't need to happen in front of the Riku Replica. And this is the stuff about Namine and shattering. And how she doesn't want to touch Larxene's memories. At all. She's messed with Xehanort's a bit, but she doesn't want to touch Larxene. She doesn't want to relive any of that. She doesn't want to see what happened to her and the Riku Replica through Larxene's eyes. She doesn't want to put herself through that--and I. Don't. Blame. Her.
That whole thing started when rar and I were talking about who was actually going to kill Larxene. Naturally, the idea of Namine shattering Larxene came up. And neither Namine nor I liked the idea. That is why.
The next chapter of this sequence is the Larxene POV chapter. I don't really know why I decided to do that, but Larxene was presenting me with information, so I took it. I took her anger, her crazy, her messed up mind, and I wrote a chapter out of it. She's scared of a couple of things (her emotions included) and angry at everything else. And she's going to take it out on the Riku Replica. Because he started it.
Vexen's bit was great, too. Because Vexen at first is just like "oh, I wasn't aware that we had any Larxene Replicas left" and Riku's like "that's the actual Larxene because I may have tried to murder her in cold blood." But then Vexen gets a golden moment and gets to protect Riku and it's great. Not that it was terribly effective--but he tried!
Then Vexen, Aerith, and Namine show up in my universe and take Axel, Roxas, and Xion with them to go save Riku from Larxene. Axel literally just went because he wanted to mess with Vexen. Because Axel's on his own side. Yup.
Axel and Larxene opposing each other is a beautiful thing. Because they have a history. That whole CO thing. Axel goes into his pattern of lazy defense. And then he goes and forms his specialty of vertical dark corridors to allow Riku to fall through and right into his arms. Because Axel's good at that sort of thing. Oh man, and the whole "got it memorized" thing that he does to Aerith. Golden. Same with him saying that he should have killed Larxene back in CO. Any of the times. Because the last time, he just sent her to Atlantica. And he's probably regretting that right about now. But hey, it's time to finish her once and for all.
I have to admit, Roxas and Xion aren't necessarily out of their league, but they really don't know what to do with Larxene. Neither of them know her all that well. Not like Axel or Vexen who have histories with her. Gosh. The history between the three of them is rich.
"Stop throwing your ice where I'm throwing my fire and we won't have this problem."
Because they would.
Then comes the big reveal of Vexen. I don't entirely remember why I wanted him to keep that secret. Maybe so there could be a big reveal. Maybe because Larxene might throw less hatred in his direction. But he kept it from her and then she got to realize through his caring about Riku who he was. Fun times.
Larxene being distressed about potentially being an experiment of his is a glorious thing.
And then Vexen's the one to kill her. Because rar and I decided that was appropriate. But she talked about that on her blog, so I'll just leave it at that.
And for once, Axel doesn't take all the credit. But he demands that Vexen thank him. And Vexen thanks him without a second thought because Vexen is indeed helpful but "Don't make me say it again, Axel." Because yeah.
Kay, I think I'm out of juice for this, but I did talk a lot. I hope you enjoyed what is probably one of my top three sequences in this whole fic.
Gosh, I don't even know how long ago it was now. A year, two? But rar was talking about a crack sequence where her Riku (the Riku Replica from KH canon) comes back to the original universe (mine circa pre-3D) to take revenge on Larxene. I saw her talking about it on Tumblr and I was like... "so what were you planning on doing with that?" And she told me and I said "well, how about we just make that canon"
And I'm so glad I did.
I integrated it into the rough outline for Remnants when I made the outline over a year ago. About six months ago (maybe it was eight though, time gets screwy in my head because of how many states I've lived in this year) she and I sat down and really fleshed out what happens when. This is terribly important because we're dealing with cross-universe travel where my universe runs on average three times faster. Which is why we've got Larxene stuff going on in my universe so back-to-back but in hers there were a couple of chapters in between parts.
We elected to each write different POVs of the same things so that way they could be integrated into Remnants and All that Remains. That way we weren't messing with Some Things You Can't Escape and still had coherent story arcs without making you guys jump between fics.
So it starts in Corona. The Namine Replica and the other Kairi show up in my universe. It's decided that Namine, Kairi, and Riku are going to go. Ironically, that makes for two Kairis, two Namines, and two Rikus in the same scene. But hey, it's amusing. My Namine went because I wanted the two of them to interact and her going after him as he's trying to take revenge is much more poignant than her going to rescue him from Larxene. (Heck, that might just be insult to injury.) Riku went because of all the darkness floating around and he's the best one for the job. And who doesn't love two powerousing Kairi's going around?
The counting scene between Namine and the Riku Replica came from another fanfic I read about their time in Castle Oblivion. Though it's not touched on much in either rar's or my universe... their time sucked. It sucked a lot. He got rewritten, a lot. They hid from Larxene... a lot. They came up with tricks to fight through the pain--that's one of them.
The action went into Riku's POV because I wanted a variance of POVs and I knew I wanted Namine for the aftermath. And Kairi was responsible for the Corona POV. So Riku got this bit. But it worked well because then he could see what was going on between Namine and the Riku Replica and he's pretty invested because he's been through CO too. Anyone who remembers CO is changed. Heck, Sora's changed and he doesn't remember it.
I don't know why I write for Larxene so well. But I do. And I hate myself a little. But at the same time I bounce up and down with excitement because yay writing!
She's so messed up from the darkness, too. It's disgusting.
Then we get Namine arguing with the Namine Replica over who should be responsible for taking blows made for Riku. And they can really only agree on "he shouldn't" . Namine and the Riku Replica get to reconcile a bit. Because, she's happy he's alive. She's happy she didn't screw him up. She's happy he's moved on, because she didn't return his affection. (She knew it wasn't real and she didn't really have affection for anyone at that point.) At the same time, she tells the Riku Replica that she's moved on from being afraid of Larxene--because if there's one thing that Namine's done, even since All the Pieces, it's get stronger and less afraid. I'm so happy with her character development. And this scene really encapsulates it.
Then comes the next chapter, which was stuff I knew had to be discussed, but rar and I decided that it didn't need to happen in front of the Riku Replica. And this is the stuff about Namine and shattering. And how she doesn't want to touch Larxene's memories. At all. She's messed with Xehanort's a bit, but she doesn't want to touch Larxene. She doesn't want to relive any of that. She doesn't want to see what happened to her and the Riku Replica through Larxene's eyes. She doesn't want to put herself through that--and I. Don't. Blame. Her.
That whole thing started when rar and I were talking about who was actually going to kill Larxene. Naturally, the idea of Namine shattering Larxene came up. And neither Namine nor I liked the idea. That is why.
The next chapter of this sequence is the Larxene POV chapter. I don't really know why I decided to do that, but Larxene was presenting me with information, so I took it. I took her anger, her crazy, her messed up mind, and I wrote a chapter out of it. She's scared of a couple of things (her emotions included) and angry at everything else. And she's going to take it out on the Riku Replica. Because he started it.
Vexen's bit was great, too. Because Vexen at first is just like "oh, I wasn't aware that we had any Larxene Replicas left" and Riku's like "that's the actual Larxene because I may have tried to murder her in cold blood." But then Vexen gets a golden moment and gets to protect Riku and it's great. Not that it was terribly effective--but he tried!
Then Vexen, Aerith, and Namine show up in my universe and take Axel, Roxas, and Xion with them to go save Riku from Larxene. Axel literally just went because he wanted to mess with Vexen. Because Axel's on his own side. Yup.
Axel and Larxene opposing each other is a beautiful thing. Because they have a history. That whole CO thing. Axel goes into his pattern of lazy defense. And then he goes and forms his specialty of vertical dark corridors to allow Riku to fall through and right into his arms. Because Axel's good at that sort of thing. Oh man, and the whole "got it memorized" thing that he does to Aerith. Golden. Same with him saying that he should have killed Larxene back in CO. Any of the times. Because the last time, he just sent her to Atlantica. And he's probably regretting that right about now. But hey, it's time to finish her once and for all.
I have to admit, Roxas and Xion aren't necessarily out of their league, but they really don't know what to do with Larxene. Neither of them know her all that well. Not like Axel or Vexen who have histories with her. Gosh. The history between the three of them is rich.
"Stop throwing your ice where I'm throwing my fire and we won't have this problem."
Because they would.
Then comes the big reveal of Vexen. I don't entirely remember why I wanted him to keep that secret. Maybe so there could be a big reveal. Maybe because Larxene might throw less hatred in his direction. But he kept it from her and then she got to realize through his caring about Riku who he was. Fun times.
Larxene being distressed about potentially being an experiment of his is a glorious thing.
And then Vexen's the one to kill her. Because rar and I decided that was appropriate. But she talked about that on her blog, so I'll just leave it at that.
And for once, Axel doesn't take all the credit. But he demands that Vexen thank him. And Vexen thanks him without a second thought because Vexen is indeed helpful but "Don't make me say it again, Axel." Because yeah.
Kay, I think I'm out of juice for this, but I did talk a lot. I hope you enjoyed what is probably one of my top three sequences in this whole fic.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Deep Space (various chapters between 70 and 78)
Let's talk about Deep Space and not about Larxene, kay? Because I want to give the Larxene post a ton of justice and Ima put it off for one more post, kay?
Deep Space kind of got overshadowed by the Larxene sequence, but it's still just as vitally important. It's not like Corona, which was kind of just there because the whole plot of that was Marlynort causing trouble while action was elsewhere. There's a major plot point in Deep Space which is Xehanort attempting to Nort Terra. Which is a Big Deal.
But unrelated to even that at the moment, is how in Hollow Bastion, Aerith's house is FINALLY done expanding. For once, I actually know how many bedrooms she's got there because I redid the entire top floor and just added more bedrooms because I knew they were going to need them. (Simultaneously, Zack's changed the plans so that one of the bedrooms can become his and Aerith's room when they eventually get married. Yup. That happened.) Also, Cid and Shera are adorable and it's great. They'll be together working on crazy projects forever and I love them.
ALSO ALSO is Leon asking Cid for relationship advice because he doesn't have anyone else to ask and he just wants to know what to do with Rinoa. And it makes me think back to in the Prequel where Cid's watching Zack and Aerith be all lovey-dovey and he has a passing thought that Leon'll never get a girlfriend and then Rinoa shows up and BAM, Leon doesn't know it yet, but she's gonna be his girlfriend.
And Cid as everyone's father figure even though he didn't want to be is just another level of great.
Anyway, so Deep Space. More like, LILO AS A SPACE PILOT. I read a headcanon on Tumblr a while ago that included that and I was just like... I NEED TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. So, uh, I did. Her age is really something that I never ironed out, but whatever, she's still the youngest pilot ever amongst a whole ton of aliens and it's Super Cool.
And then Namine, Vexen, and Aerith show up and Axel's like: "Heheh, you're the real Vexen, I'm coming along to mess with you!" And then he volunteers Roxas and Xion while he's at it for maximized amazingness.
And THEN we have Ven, Aqua, and Terra showing up, which is just all sorts of beautiful because of their previous relationship with Deep Space and all that went on there. And the glorious reunion that gets to happen (as a couple of you have mentioned.)
Stitch's language was fun, because I actually went to Disney's website for Tantalog: http://stitchdatabase.wikia.com/wiki/Tantalog_language and got all of my information from there. It was a bit interesting working on sentences with structure that had all the appropriate words in them. But it was a fun experiment.
And mixed in with all of this is Tifa trying to figure out what's up with Zack and Aerith but also a great fight with Hades. I love integrating Tifa's future plans, because now that Aerith's house is done, everyone gets to think of the next projects and I'm setting things up for the end here. Also, small commitment apples are something that my Hapkido instructor called small apples (or pears) and I just had to use the phrase.
I really loved the image of Cloud and Tifa barreling through the Betwixt and Between trying to get rid of Hades' hounds. I think I got the idea from rar... But anyway... I realized that I couldn't really do it justice because I couldn't think of a way to write it that wouldn't be boring. So instead I just had Cloud blame it on being old and then impulsively go and fight Hades. Granted, he ended up with the Hero's Medallion on his own. I remember writing that sequence and Cloud's like, yup, got it from Zack and I'm like "WHEN?!? I didn't write that!!!"
But anyway, back to the Remnant trying to destroy Terra's life. I wanted a Remnant to try and Nort Terra from the very beginning, just not AT the beginning. Because I wanted it to be one of the stronger ones... I wanted Terra to be stronger and I wanted the Remnant to be stronger. The Remnant was probably banking on Terra's being successful, so he didn't try initially. Terra, meanwhile, had more time for his heart to grow and recuperate. And so then we get the really epic conversation in Terra's heart where he's trying to banish Xehanort.
But the line "How many times have you reincarnated yourself?" is just so amazing, because it's followed by "Only the one boy. If it had been more, rest assured you wouldn't be here right now." "You'd better not be lying!" "I assure you, if I had more practice, you would have remained a vessel."
Xehanort is just so dang cocky! But he's also matter-of-fact and that whole scene just gave me shivers.
And then we've got Kuin actually running into Xigbar. Xigbar who, before this, has literally just been beach-hopping and staying under everyone's radar. He managed because most people forgot that he didn't survive the battle of Castle Oblivion. I loved putting Kuin up against him because we've got two gunners who are full of themselves in different ways clashing and it leads to beautiful things.
Then we've also got Mickey going up against Marlynort. Because Mickey's been up to a lot of things, which is what this chapter was supposed to address from the beginning, but then I figured that Marlynort should also be up to something, so hey, why not make a few things line up. So Mickey fights Marlynort and gets an idea of what everyone's up against.
And then Xion, Axel, and Roxas return just in time for Terra to finish off his inner Xehanort. And he's rid of Xehanort for good. And all is well for Terra.
I feel like I should have more to say and I know I've done more in the past, but that's all I've got for right now. Prepare for a Larxene Sequence post in the next few days.
Deep Space kind of got overshadowed by the Larxene sequence, but it's still just as vitally important. It's not like Corona, which was kind of just there because the whole plot of that was Marlynort causing trouble while action was elsewhere. There's a major plot point in Deep Space which is Xehanort attempting to Nort Terra. Which is a Big Deal.
But unrelated to even that at the moment, is how in Hollow Bastion, Aerith's house is FINALLY done expanding. For once, I actually know how many bedrooms she's got there because I redid the entire top floor and just added more bedrooms because I knew they were going to need them. (Simultaneously, Zack's changed the plans so that one of the bedrooms can become his and Aerith's room when they eventually get married. Yup. That happened.) Also, Cid and Shera are adorable and it's great. They'll be together working on crazy projects forever and I love them.
ALSO ALSO is Leon asking Cid for relationship advice because he doesn't have anyone else to ask and he just wants to know what to do with Rinoa. And it makes me think back to in the Prequel where Cid's watching Zack and Aerith be all lovey-dovey and he has a passing thought that Leon'll never get a girlfriend and then Rinoa shows up and BAM, Leon doesn't know it yet, but she's gonna be his girlfriend.
And Cid as everyone's father figure even though he didn't want to be is just another level of great.
Anyway, so Deep Space. More like, LILO AS A SPACE PILOT. I read a headcanon on Tumblr a while ago that included that and I was just like... I NEED TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. So, uh, I did. Her age is really something that I never ironed out, but whatever, she's still the youngest pilot ever amongst a whole ton of aliens and it's Super Cool.
And then Namine, Vexen, and Aerith show up and Axel's like: "Heheh, you're the real Vexen, I'm coming along to mess with you!" And then he volunteers Roxas and Xion while he's at it for maximized amazingness.
And THEN we have Ven, Aqua, and Terra showing up, which is just all sorts of beautiful because of their previous relationship with Deep Space and all that went on there. And the glorious reunion that gets to happen (as a couple of you have mentioned.)
Stitch's language was fun, because I actually went to Disney's website for Tantalog: http://stitchdatabase.wikia.com/wiki/Tantalog_language and got all of my information from there. It was a bit interesting working on sentences with structure that had all the appropriate words in them. But it was a fun experiment.
And mixed in with all of this is Tifa trying to figure out what's up with Zack and Aerith but also a great fight with Hades. I love integrating Tifa's future plans, because now that Aerith's house is done, everyone gets to think of the next projects and I'm setting things up for the end here. Also, small commitment apples are something that my Hapkido instructor called small apples (or pears) and I just had to use the phrase.
I really loved the image of Cloud and Tifa barreling through the Betwixt and Between trying to get rid of Hades' hounds. I think I got the idea from rar... But anyway... I realized that I couldn't really do it justice because I couldn't think of a way to write it that wouldn't be boring. So instead I just had Cloud blame it on being old and then impulsively go and fight Hades. Granted, he ended up with the Hero's Medallion on his own. I remember writing that sequence and Cloud's like, yup, got it from Zack and I'm like "WHEN?!? I didn't write that!!!"
But anyway, back to the Remnant trying to destroy Terra's life. I wanted a Remnant to try and Nort Terra from the very beginning, just not AT the beginning. Because I wanted it to be one of the stronger ones... I wanted Terra to be stronger and I wanted the Remnant to be stronger. The Remnant was probably banking on Terra's being successful, so he didn't try initially. Terra, meanwhile, had more time for his heart to grow and recuperate. And so then we get the really epic conversation in Terra's heart where he's trying to banish Xehanort.
But the line "How many times have you reincarnated yourself?" is just so amazing, because it's followed by "Only the one boy. If it had been more, rest assured you wouldn't be here right now." "You'd better not be lying!" "I assure you, if I had more practice, you would have remained a vessel."
Xehanort is just so dang cocky! But he's also matter-of-fact and that whole scene just gave me shivers.
And then we've got Kuin actually running into Xigbar. Xigbar who, before this, has literally just been beach-hopping and staying under everyone's radar. He managed because most people forgot that he didn't survive the battle of Castle Oblivion. I loved putting Kuin up against him because we've got two gunners who are full of themselves in different ways clashing and it leads to beautiful things.
Then we've also got Mickey going up against Marlynort. Because Mickey's been up to a lot of things, which is what this chapter was supposed to address from the beginning, but then I figured that Marlynort should also be up to something, so hey, why not make a few things line up. So Mickey fights Marlynort and gets an idea of what everyone's up against.
And then Xion, Axel, and Roxas return just in time for Terra to finish off his inner Xehanort. And he's rid of Xehanort for good. And all is well for Terra.
I feel like I should have more to say and I know I've done more in the past, but that's all I've got for right now. Prepare for a Larxene Sequence post in the next few days.
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.
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Twilight Town Feels (Chapters 53-57)
I'm breaking off this arc at 56 and not 58 because of what 57 is. Jsyk.
I think originally, the Twilight Town arc wasn't going to be anything big. Like, it was initially just going to be amusing because Cloud and Tifa are there on business with Barret and Marlene and Sora and the gang end up interrupting. And it would all be fun and games.
And then I was putting in the Remnant's side of the story and placing important bits of the Larxene Sequence that I'm sure you're all dying to hear my thoughts about but I won't say anything about yet (I have things to catch up on!)... When I started placing the villains' sides of the story I realized that Twilight Town was going to be so much more.
Because that is where the Remnant successfully norts Marluxia.
And I don't care if you saw it coming or didn't see it coming. I like the way it all played out.
Because first we've got the funsies of Cid building them a new ship. (not initially planned, but then that blizzard in Arendelle happened and it just sort of went from there.) This is then followed by the mundane act of clothes shopping and then food and chatting with Hayner, Pence, and Olette.
Then we have Cloud and Tifa going to talk to Barret and Marlene. I almost forgot to include Denzel in this scene, and had to go back and rewrite the first half of the chapter to include him! I felt so bad! But he needed to be there and the scene certainly benefited from it. Denzel and Marlene's interactions!
And then we've got Axel's POV with a really blase attitude towards the Remnant battle. That is, until the Remnant goes for his heart. And this isn't the first time that Axel's had his heart played with by Xehanort. Xehanort played with Axel's darkness levels back in AtP. Axel knows what's going on, but he doesn't even have room to be scared.
But Axel is saved because Larxene and Marluxia show up and the Remnant picks a new target. Axel's a stubborn target for a plethora of reasons. And Marluxia proves to be an easy target. And the success of the norting gives everyone else a feeling of hopelessness.
Then, we interrupt that programming to see Aqua, Terra, and Ven in the Pride Lands. This chapter was literally designed to give Aqua some time to think about what Xehanort had done. That, and suggest that Xehanort is the reason why Scar turned into the person (lion) he did well before the fic's events. 'Cause it was fun.
Then I switch to Xion and the aftermath of Marlynort's existence. I don't know where the name Marlynort came from, but I probably coined it in a conversation with rar and then it stuck. Then Xion got to be the one to name him.
And then we get into the seriousness that is basically them all saying if they're nort, they need to die. Like in a zombie film or something. There's not much to say about that. I think it speaks for itself.
A+ tooting my own horn:
-Riku saying they have enough munny to buy a house
-Kairi keeping everyone on track
-Roxas worrying about weird things because he's trying to be all normal when he knows he's not
-Roxas knowing more about Twilight Town than anyone else because he has data memories of growing up there that while aren't real, give him a pretty nice layout of the place in his head
-Tifa and Cloud being intentionally vague about their relationship
-Barret yelling at Sora and friends because they're "annoying teenagers"
-Barret saying that Leon's got a bad business model
-The line "The reason for Hollow Bastion's problems and at least thirteen other ones"
-Roxas being protective over the residential district and Cloud being protective over his bike
-Marlynort
-Larxene calling Marlynort a bastard
-Marlynort monologuing
I think originally, the Twilight Town arc wasn't going to be anything big. Like, it was initially just going to be amusing because Cloud and Tifa are there on business with Barret and Marlene and Sora and the gang end up interrupting. And it would all be fun and games.
And then I was putting in the Remnant's side of the story and placing important bits of the Larxene Sequence that I'm sure you're all dying to hear my thoughts about but I won't say anything about yet (I have things to catch up on!)... When I started placing the villains' sides of the story I realized that Twilight Town was going to be so much more.
Because that is where the Remnant successfully norts Marluxia.
And I don't care if you saw it coming or didn't see it coming. I like the way it all played out.
Because first we've got the funsies of Cid building them a new ship. (not initially planned, but then that blizzard in Arendelle happened and it just sort of went from there.) This is then followed by the mundane act of clothes shopping and then food and chatting with Hayner, Pence, and Olette.
Then we have Cloud and Tifa going to talk to Barret and Marlene. I almost forgot to include Denzel in this scene, and had to go back and rewrite the first half of the chapter to include him! I felt so bad! But he needed to be there and the scene certainly benefited from it. Denzel and Marlene's interactions!
And then we've got Axel's POV with a really blase attitude towards the Remnant battle. That is, until the Remnant goes for his heart. And this isn't the first time that Axel's had his heart played with by Xehanort. Xehanort played with Axel's darkness levels back in AtP. Axel knows what's going on, but he doesn't even have room to be scared.
But Axel is saved because Larxene and Marluxia show up and the Remnant picks a new target. Axel's a stubborn target for a plethora of reasons. And Marluxia proves to be an easy target. And the success of the norting gives everyone else a feeling of hopelessness.
Then, we interrupt that programming to see Aqua, Terra, and Ven in the Pride Lands. This chapter was literally designed to give Aqua some time to think about what Xehanort had done. That, and suggest that Xehanort is the reason why Scar turned into the person (lion) he did well before the fic's events. 'Cause it was fun.
Then I switch to Xion and the aftermath of Marlynort's existence. I don't know where the name Marlynort came from, but I probably coined it in a conversation with rar and then it stuck. Then Xion got to be the one to name him.
And then we get into the seriousness that is basically them all saying if they're nort, they need to die. Like in a zombie film or something. There's not much to say about that. I think it speaks for itself.
A+ tooting my own horn:
-Riku saying they have enough munny to buy a house
-Kairi keeping everyone on track
-Roxas worrying about weird things because he's trying to be all normal when he knows he's not
-Roxas knowing more about Twilight Town than anyone else because he has data memories of growing up there that while aren't real, give him a pretty nice layout of the place in his head
-Tifa and Cloud being intentionally vague about their relationship
-Barret yelling at Sora and friends because they're "annoying teenagers"
-Barret saying that Leon's got a bad business model
-The line "The reason for Hollow Bastion's problems and at least thirteen other ones"
-Roxas being protective over the residential district and Cloud being protective over his bike
-Marlynort
-Larxene calling Marlynort a bastard
-Marlynort monologuing
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.
 |
| 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, January 2, 2014
The Hollow Bastion Arc becomes the Sephiroth Arc (ch69)
MAN
I AM SO EXCITED THAT I’VE POSTED THIS CHAPTER YOU HAVE NO IDEA.
BECAUSE
IT IS RIDDLED WITH THE WORST SPOILERS EVER.
I
mean, granted, you all KNEW I was gonna drag Sephiroth in at some point, but I
loved holding off on the WHEN.
Well,
now he’s here and clearly causing problems.
This
chapter did give me some difficulty when it comes to getting it down on paper,
because what I had in the outline ended up being just enough different from
what got written down on the page. I
can’t even remember why at the moment, but something to changed and it made
things ever so slightly more difficult.
Anywho…
See,
we’re all now well-aware of Cloud being bothered by the darkness in his heart
and him not saying anything.
 |
| by FujimiyaRan on dA |
Oh,
I think I remember what happened, I definitely added Sephiroth using Cloud to
try and kill Aerith and Zack stopping him, because I’d established in AtP or
BB, one of the two, that Cloud had nearly killed Aerith and it was Sephiroth’s
fault and I decided that now was just a good a time as any to put that in. But hey, I’m still really okay with how the
chapter turned out.
Anywho,
then Tifa shows up and screams for Cloud.
Sephiroth accepts Tifa to be Cloud’s light and states that he is Cloud’s
darkness. Cloud wakes up and slashes at
Sephiroth, demanding him to leave his friends alone. Cloud and Sephiroth fight.
The
usual.
Now
that I’ve got Cloud’s shadow around, rar and I keep having feels about shadows
and their people. Because that’s just a
fun relationship to play with. I’ll be
playing with it throughout the Prequel, and also in B3. Because I’m cool like that.
Also,
I realized that when I was writing the Christmas one-shot, I had to be careful
about what I said regarding the last staff that Cloud got Aerith… because I
hadn’t posted this chapter yet!!! But now it’s posted and I can have some feels
regarding Cloud getting Aerith a staff that LITERALLY saves her life a week
later because Sephiroth decides to show up.
And here he is again, giving her the pieces to make another new staff
and Aerith (and Zack) have to wonder if Sephiroth’s gonna show up again, but he
never did. Like I said before, Sephiroth
didn’t ruin Christmas.
Anyway,
I’m over the feels, I think the chapter basically speaks for itself on them.
Teaser
Quotes!
“Sheesh,
what put you in a mood?”
“Tired.”
“All
you do is sleep, it seems!”
“The
newer recruits get harder jobs than those of us who have been around longer.”
“You
sent Demyx on that mission?”
“I do not have high hopes for the new recruit. Besides, I have a different mission for you.”
“Oh boy, sounds like fun.”
“I do not have high hopes for the new recruit. Besides, I have a different mission for you.”
“Oh boy, sounds like fun.”
“Oh
gracious no! I wouldn’t want to be a bother!”
“He’s
rather unassuming for a King.”
“His
wife’s the same way.”
“Honestly,
I’d rather he find Cloud.”
“I
agree.”
I'm kind of attached to this video. It makes me really happy for some reason. So does the song. :)
Monday, November 11, 2013
Namine... you didn't want to do that (Can't Escape ch64)
Chapter Link
Rar made fun of me for revealing all of Vexen's passwords. To which Xion says:
His passwords all have the word 'replica' in them. Except the once that was 'scienceiscoolxiii.' Vexen can just hush about that one, okay?
Sometimes, I think I have too much fun with talk sprites.
Anyway, first of all, my Namine was totally thrown for a loop when Riku showed up. Like, we all know Riku practically had a panic attack, but it basically fried her brain, too, note how she's being super slow? I don't even remember intentionally planning that. But this is Namine. And Namine does things like that.
Additioanlly, she can nearly vicariously have a meltdown if she pries into Riku's memories too hard. Like, Namine, you know that's going to hurt... she could have pried farther, but I made her stop because that's a headache (for both her and me) that I don't want to deal with.
So this conversation happened:
magik: no swearing, sheesh
rar: sorry? who's doing it?
namine: unstable memories...
repliku: no shit, sherlock
rar: ...
rar: OMG NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING
And, apparently, that conversation where Namine offers to fix Namine's meltdowns did actually happen
(how did I forget?!?!?) it just happened here instead of two chapters ago. But instead of Riku having a panic attack when she mentions it, he actually goes and considers the possibility. Like, wut? Charries, you ok?
And, I know that the picture there is totally NaminexRepliku, but I just... the picture is so good... and... I have to share... yeah.
Also, another random conversation that I feel like sharing:
rar: QUICK NAME ME A WORLD THAT ISN'T HALLOWEENTOWN BUT THAT ROXAS WOULD GO TO
magik: AGRABAH
rar: OKAY THEN I GUESS THAT WORKS
magik: CHINA
rar: ... we literally just had the same thought process here
magik: lol
magik: hawaii?
rar: like I was like "not halloween town ... agrabah!"
rar: "I don't like agrabah... CHINA!"
rar: yeah
rar: idk
magik: lol
magik: Xion is having none of your crap, Vexen.
Kay. Yeah. Have a video now.
Rar made fun of me for revealing all of Vexen's passwords. To which Xion says:
His passwords all have the word 'replica' in them. Except the once that was 'scienceiscoolxiii.' Vexen can just hush about that one, okay?
Sometimes, I think I have too much fun with talk sprites.
Anyway, first of all, my Namine was totally thrown for a loop when Riku showed up. Like, we all know Riku practically had a panic attack, but it basically fried her brain, too, note how she's being super slow? I don't even remember intentionally planning that. But this is Namine. And Namine does things like that.
Additioanlly, she can nearly vicariously have a meltdown if she pries into Riku's memories too hard. Like, Namine, you know that's going to hurt... she could have pried farther, but I made her stop because that's a headache (for both her and me) that I don't want to deal with.
So this conversation happened:
magik: no swearing, sheesh
rar: sorry? who's doing it?
namine: unstable memories...
repliku: no shit, sherlock
rar: ...
rar: OMG NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING
 |
| by forbidden siren |
(how did I forget?!?!?) it just happened here instead of two chapters ago. But instead of Riku having a panic attack when she mentions it, he actually goes and considers the possibility. Like, wut? Charries, you ok?
And, I know that the picture there is totally NaminexRepliku, but I just... the picture is so good... and... I have to share... yeah.
Also, another random conversation that I feel like sharing:
rar: QUICK NAME ME A WORLD THAT ISN'T HALLOWEENTOWN BUT THAT ROXAS WOULD GO TO
magik: AGRABAH
rar: OKAY THEN I GUESS THAT WORKS
magik: CHINA
rar: ... we literally just had the same thought process here
magik: lol
magik: hawaii?
rar: like I was like "not halloween town ... agrabah!"
rar: "I don't like agrabah... CHINA!"
rar: yeah
rar: idk
magik: lol
magik: Xion is having none of your crap, Vexen.
Kay. Yeah. Have a video now.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Crossover Continued (Can't Escape ch63)
So, originally, the whole crossover was supposed to take place during Betwixt and Between. It was during the whole "restoration and rebirth" kind of thing that I had going on, and the crossover was a part of that. But then I wrapped Betwixt and Between up sooner than originally intended, so it got put after Betwixt and Between but before my Book 3. (Like, literally, a couple of days before.)
 |
| by veritas-project |
Man, I'm not quite sure where the "comparing injuries" conversation came from, it was probably Sora's idea. Regardless, it totally happened and it flowed, so we kept it.
Eheheheh... the Larxene stuff, gets me every time! Oh, just you wait. It's awful spoilers.
Man, does this group go off on all the tangents. But, what can you do? It's a combination of them all talking about Xehanort/Xemnas/Ansem. Which rar and I knew was going to happen, because there's the whole thing where Riku's like "man, I gotta deal with these guys again?!?!"
This is also the conversation that spawns Namine desiring to literally summon her sketchbook like a Keyblade. Yup. It's a thing. Well, it'll be a thing.
Oh, this conversation happened:
rar: IS RIKU'S WRIST STILL BROKEN
magik: DEPENDS
magik: WHEN ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
magik: ARE WE TALKING CROSSOVER
rar: YES
magik: UGH, LOAD THE SPREADSHEET COMPUTER
Riku's wrist is still braced, actually, sometimes. (He never actually got it set the cocky-butt, and then Xaldin did drive a lance through that same hand, so...) Heheh. But I had to load the darn spreadsheet just to check. By now, at least, Sora's hands are both functioning... remember Xehanort breaking his wrist during the battle of Castle Oblivion? Anywho.
I think that's all I've got for now. Except this.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
WHAT IS THIS IS IT THE CROSSOVER? (Can't Escape ch62)
Chapter
Why yes. Yes it is.
This is the epic crossover you've all been waiting for? (Well, one of them at least. I think ya'll were pretty excited to see Sora and Sora, too. But Riku and Riku was always going to happen first.)
Rar and I have had this planned since... oh... Probably since AtP, about when rar was finishing up FtP and moving into Dead Inside. We even had it written.
Except, reading through it, we realized that we had to rewrite it. Basically entirely.
Things that stayed the same:
Vexen dragging Riku to the other universe
Riku landing face-first in the sand
Namine being the first one to see him
The cast of characters
General chit-chat about recent happenings
Things that changed:
Everything else.
See, originally, before Dead Inside turned into the huge thing that it turned into, Sora and Kairi's plotlines were significantly less... erm... expansive. (This is the short version.) From my understanding, Sora had some trouble with the darkness, but nothing on the level of Shad, because Shad didn't exist yet, and Dead Inside actually took place in a lot shorter of a timespan, which meant that Kairi never actually left the Islands. This made the Riku Replica super confused when he saw Sora and Kairi BOTH on the Islands. (I may post the original scene when we're clear of spoilers.)
Repliku was also cockier and the meltdowns were still a relatively new thing. As in, Vexen didn't even know they existed. And Repliku was having a conniption about them because no progress had been made (which of course had to change because of the recent experiments.) I think we were also having trouble with Namine continuing to offer to help and he kept saying no. There was also a whole thing where they got on a tangent about Replicas being their own people (we were on a Days kick) and we were having feels about Repliku being worried that his Namine would be worried that she was a Replica and not a "real" person. That got cut because people's focuses changed.
Plus, we had to change some of the conversation, because things we projected would happen and things that actually happen do end up being two different things. And, some things had to get cut because at the time we first wrote the crossover, we hadn't planned on Joseph and Axel being frequenters of the other universes. And, since Can't Escape became a huge thing, we didn't have to cover a lot of the mechanics. The people in my universe know about where Sora and Kairi in rar's universe are, because they keep running into each other. Plus, Axel ran into Repliku recently.
Yeah, it was a whole big thing.
And, about the time when we were going to rewrite it, Namine was dumping loads of feels on me of things that she wanted to say to Repliku. Which is where the first half of the chapter as it currently stands comes from. The second half being a brief sum-up of the parts of the story that my characters don't know.
And, I think that's all I'm going to say. There are more chapters on this to be posted, and I don't want to discuss everything to death just yet!
I think I'll do review responses for this whole sequence once I'm done posting :P
And... I think this is an appropriate video; Also, it's amusing:
Why yes. Yes it is.
This is the epic crossover you've all been waiting for? (Well, one of them at least. I think ya'll were pretty excited to see Sora and Sora, too. But Riku and Riku was always going to happen first.)
Rar and I have had this planned since... oh... Probably since AtP, about when rar was finishing up FtP and moving into Dead Inside. We even had it written.
Except, reading through it, we realized that we had to rewrite it. Basically entirely.
Things that stayed the same:
 |
| by Maulsypaulsy |
Riku landing face-first in the sand
Namine being the first one to see him
The cast of characters
General chit-chat about recent happenings
Things that changed:
Everything else.
See, originally, before Dead Inside turned into the huge thing that it turned into, Sora and Kairi's plotlines were significantly less... erm... expansive. (This is the short version.) From my understanding, Sora had some trouble with the darkness, but nothing on the level of Shad, because Shad didn't exist yet, and Dead Inside actually took place in a lot shorter of a timespan, which meant that Kairi never actually left the Islands. This made the Riku Replica super confused when he saw Sora and Kairi BOTH on the Islands. (I may post the original scene when we're clear of spoilers.)
Repliku was also cockier and the meltdowns were still a relatively new thing. As in, Vexen didn't even know they existed. And Repliku was having a conniption about them because no progress had been made (which of course had to change because of the recent experiments.) I think we were also having trouble with Namine continuing to offer to help and he kept saying no. There was also a whole thing where they got on a tangent about Replicas being their own people (we were on a Days kick) and we were having feels about Repliku being worried that his Namine would be worried that she was a Replica and not a "real" person. That got cut because people's focuses changed.
Plus, we had to change some of the conversation, because things we projected would happen and things that actually happen do end up being two different things. And, some things had to get cut because at the time we first wrote the crossover, we hadn't planned on Joseph and Axel being frequenters of the other universes. And, since Can't Escape became a huge thing, we didn't have to cover a lot of the mechanics. The people in my universe know about where Sora and Kairi in rar's universe are, because they keep running into each other. Plus, Axel ran into Repliku recently.
Yeah, it was a whole big thing.
And, about the time when we were going to rewrite it, Namine was dumping loads of feels on me of things that she wanted to say to Repliku. Which is where the first half of the chapter as it currently stands comes from. The second half being a brief sum-up of the parts of the story that my characters don't know.
And, I think that's all I'm going to say. There are more chapters on this to be posted, and I don't want to discuss everything to death just yet!
I think I'll do review responses for this whole sequence once I'm done posting :P
And... I think this is an appropriate video; Also, it's amusing:
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