MY FRIENDS ARE MY SHOWER [Kingdom Hearts]

Okay so my brain was completely slamdunked by horror with the Aqua thing and I couldn't say anything (except think, small and hysterical welp at least she's technically with terra like that)

But I've come back now and I don't know how to feel about Larxene

Like on the one hand yes its fantastic to see her again and hopefully Marluxia too

But I noticed her yellow eyes

Her and Marl's entire thing was that they were unhappy with Xemnas/Xehanorts authority and they wanted to make their own orgXIII with Hookers and blackjack

I really really hope they'll get a chance to break free again and not just be used as zombie pawn side characters :////

 

Were they yellow? Shiiiiit. And that was more of a shitty standard evil Nort speech than a mean girl Larxene speech. Noooo :(

I maintain that Aqua yes though. 99% chance of fakeout but still a shockingly realistic turn for a character that has been in HellHades for a good decade now.

Hopefully the Wreck-it Ralph world will cater to my need to drive a sugar rush car. What will Sora’s Sugar Rush car look like?? Riku’s?? KAIRI’S?? Best princess Vanelliope meets Kairi yes?? (Has Nijunii drawn these cars yet or just thought about them?)

 

Oh nooooooo I didn’t think of that

...I wonder if that’s how they got her in the end, telling her how she could be with Terra until she couldn’t resist anymore ;_;

 

Yeah I mean I'm not gonna complain about Org characters getting nort-ed if it means they come back tbh. I'm still waiting for it to turn out that like, every org xiii character comes back in one way or another EXCEPT demyx, and then I shall weep eternally.

I just. I need more canon Demyx in my life. He has so little screentime. I love him so. I need canon Zemyx dammit.

 

I prefer lexzex to zemyx but demyx is my favorite organization member and I, too, will cry if he stays dead

I’m also fuckin thrilled that larxene is back because marlar is my third kingdom hearts otp after seasalt trio and destiny trio. And also just because larxene is the Best

 

I... god, besides Zemyx and AkuRoku being my two First Ever OTPs i really can't order my otps past that. It just devolves from my 13 year old sorted ship loves to a devolved poly mess of xemsaiakurokudemy to name a start.
larx i never got a good ship for tho cause i don't rly do het in kh (I can understand seasalt trio and appreciate its growing popularity, but I just can't get my heart into kairi)
namine and xion are meant for each other

hey guys i just thought what if all the xehanortcest. so many weird clone ship things
i guess xemsai is sorta nortcest. checkmate antis you were shipping selfcest all along

 

God what the fuck kind of drug is kingdom hearts though like every time it's quiet enough that I go 'ok it was a fun fandom but it's faded to the distant happy feeling instead of imminent obsession' a new bit of info drops and im like ZEXION IS MY BOYFRIEND 813 FOREVEH

help the 2008 fandom fever, it consumes me

i'm gonna go read those lacking spines

edit: jesus christ those lacking spines was started 12 years ago and completed nearly 10 years ago holy shit i think i first read this like 9 years ago where has the time gone

 

I'll be real, two of my most popular OCs started life because I've always carried a goddamn Olympic torch for lexzex and I never got enough. But I'm a polyshipper at heart, ill ship anything that looks like it'd be fun, you know?

Lexzex for canon settings, zemyx for AUs.

 

I’m going to pretend I only have vague memories of the time period, but I’ll admit they are vague memories of a lot of akuroku that eventually turn into crystal clear memories of a babby sapphic shipping her first f/f fics in the form of kairi/yuffie and kairi/namine. Was it written? I read it. Namine? My Disney Princess. Xion being made fucking for me? Blew my mind.

Close to my heart for many reasons but that in particular. It was just the very beginning of my gay coming out >u<

Naturally this flourished into a fully grown sapphic shipping Tifa and Aeris.

 

kingdom hearts was great for baby me because there was such a wide variety of ships
my intro to "but why don't we just have EVERYONE kiss"

 

I wish I’d gotten into this series back in the fandom’s heyday instead of binge watching all the games a couple years ago, I feel like I missed out on an absolute wonderland of middle school shipping.

Also hey cinderaqua best ship or best ship

 

Oh, yes, good opinion, sanctioned. For me BBS came out when I was really busy with school so I didn’t get too involved with it sadly. But that was a good ship. Unlocked the potential of shipping Disney Princesses for a lot of people.

I couldn’t tell you whether it was really a golden age because I got into KH when I was really young, I was the first game I was allowed to play at home, one of my first fandoms, so it’s special to me. But if you want recs for the REALLY good post-khII ten yr old fic, I’ll narrow it down to a few real fucking heart-punchers. The ones that come to mind tend to be f/f or soriku so maybe specify anything ships you’d rather not read.

There were some heartstrings pulling assholes in this fandom...

 

Also if you're looking for safe good fluffy fic DO NOT go near akuroku for pity's sake. Christ, I went back and tried to find any of the good fics I liked as a tiny teenage trauma queen and they were ALL sketchy as fuck.

I wish I could say otherwise because I still ship it (and threeways with Xion for that matter) but I was put off looking further by past-me managing to trigger present-me and ugh

I've seen some shit.

 

Also I'm currently watching bbs 2.0 a fragmentary passage and fucking christ

Aqua is not having a good time.

 

Yeah oldfic was often sketch without realizing it. I think Advanced Theory, a SoRiku fic by Dualism, was my first exposure to serious musing on dubcon and like.. was very good at making young me realize that lack of verbal protest did not make a thing not rape, so good job dualism at teaching me good consent stuff accidentally?
that fic is very tw, be cautious if you go for it
Also the upload dates on dualism's stuff on ff.net is not accurate, she took them down and then reuploaded when hoards of people were very alarmed about this

also leitstern do lay your fic recs out there are ones I know you and I read that I definitely don't know how to find anymore

 

Yes fic recs would be amazing! I’ve done a lot of reading on ao3 but not as much on ffnet where I’m guessing a lot of good older stuff is.

 

Did you ever want to read a 2006 parody of seme/uke yaoi shipping culture of the day, featuring xaldin, vexen, and lexaeus retrieving the rest of the organizations' personified balls? Look no farther than Those Lacking Spines, which probably doesn't hold up as well as I think it does, but boy. 13 chapters of making fun of fanfic and shipping as it was in 2006 with a good air of loving the thing it is riffing on. It's good.

It has +20 self nostalgia for me because it's one of the first fics I really got into and was waiting for the last chapters to release, and also I first read it before I knew what balls are, making the plot significantly more confusing!

my sister there probably has better fic recs than me as i have heavy, heavy nostalgia goggles on for old kh fic and i learned a few years ago that some stuff i remember as excellent has some significant ooc of the time. so i shall let her continue before i dredge up more of my old fic love

(anyone else remember the time when every other fic had sora hyperactive and incompetent? hoo boy)

edit: i intended to put a link in here and never did. here. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2903858/1/Those-Lacking-Spines

 

I'm super basic ass bitch with my ships and I only have two. Just. Two.

 

ouo
ouo
ouo
*u*

For real I have so many good memories of this dumb fandom and a lot of fics I loved... I'm going to keep it to a concise list of things with actually good writing that I recall being impressed by instead of just liking for shipping. And the only reason I'm going to post so many is I don't know what you like in particular so I'm hoping to post like... one or two that each individual might like, definitely not trying to get anyone to read every single one of these, lol. Read what compells you/draws you in!!

That said, I'll go in descending length order. Longest goes first. So no surprises about longfic. Didn't link anything unfinished either.

- The Unfamiliar by The Israel Project. Length: Not quite 300K. Ship: Mostly Akuroku. Rating I would give it: Most of it reads like T with occasional M moments. Premise: It starts like the prologue of KHII, with Roxas stuck in a computer, but the world outside sucks a whole lot more than it does in KH and getting him out is a lot harder. Not a darkfic, because it's not cynical and weird and sloggy, but a fic taking a more dark and surreal take on the concepts of the game. There's good things in equal measure. Why I liked it: Because of the creepy vibe, the slow burn reveal of story elements, the real doubt about who's right and who's wrong, the meshing of several disparate environments done way better than the game did it; in summary, good fucking story telling. I also liked a few really fucked up moments toward the end; one in particular shows up in my own writing over and over and I just have to pretend it didn't come from KH fic.

DOES IT STAND THE TEST OF TIME?: I think so. Too biased. Maybe not AS great as some other things on this list.

The author also wrote Hearts that Pump Dust, another popular longform Akuroku fic, but straight up, I don't remember it as well, so I can't write the review.

- Boys by Casey V. Length: ~180K. Ship: Mostly Soriku. Some Akuroku and I recall really liking how chill that one was in here. Rating I would give it: Ehhhh T? Maybe higher but I don't recall. Premise: The very fucking best real world school AU written for this fandom, mostly because there is VERY LITTLE SCHOOL. Most of the time is spent on the rouge gangs of hockey teams vying for dominance of the streets. Except full realism. Dumb kids with dumb gangs and they play street hockey. I wish I could make that sound as fun as it is in fic, trust me, trust me. Why I liked it: Uh, well, rogue gangs of hockey teams vying for dominance of the streets. Also, it's technically a period fic in that it takes place in the 1990s, so much so that the death of Kurt Cobain is an important plot point. It also features very clear, enjoyable writing, which I know because this is like, the only thing on this list I first read as an adult and it still impressed me. Could be a published novel, isn't.

DOES IT STAND THE TEST OF TIME?: FUCKING YES. Full disclosure, this is now, with the clarity of hindsight, my favorite thing on this list.

- A Sorrow of Magpies by Rabbitprint. Length: 125K. Reaching readable. Ship: Nah. Not that I recall anyway. Rating I would give it: T. There are more mature themes I guess but nothing explicit or in your face. Premise: Post-KHII musing on how the Organization came to be and where its various members came from. Completely sensible and true to canon at the time, unbelievably Jossed now. Why I liked it: Well, good worldbuilding and delicious fantheories aside, I mostly liked that it was told from the point of view of Vexen, and that he was characterized well. Did any other bitch even do that? This is the story of a reasonable, dedicated, methodical scientist trapped in a horror story, watching data blend into insanity around him. Things get worse and he does his best to make it make sense, with his stubborn arrogance alone keeping him away from cracking. it's commendable mostly for being DIFFERENT, not at all usual fanfic fare. There's this quote I recite all the time that sounds like something a wise ancient scholar says but it's from this fanfiction. "Belief is the beginning of delusion." From here, but it's Vexen screaming at Xehanort's mad ass.

DOES IT STAND THE TEST OF TIME?: This is the one that's been the longest since I've read it. I remember it as a good read with a lot of good turn of phrase, but I also remember being credulous about a few things. I won't be able to say for sure it's what I remember it being, sadly.

- The works of FALAPHESIAN, recc'd as one because I want to recc like five things by one author. Length: each about 80K-100K. Ships: Listed below. Rating I would give them: They're all T, Fala wrote about serious and mature subjects but didn't porn or violence. Wasn't her cup of narratively unique and beautiful tea. Why I like this author so much to recc like five of her works: Personally, this is the first person whose f/f fic I ever read and that was the beginning of my coming out journey, tbh. She's gentle, kind, evocative, unbelievably empathetic with the way she writes struggling queer characters, but even with their realistic struggles and suffering, the hope and happiness and joie de vivre she writes with make them so fucking worth it. She has an unusual, personal narrative style I've not seen repeated exactly elsewhere. It's hard to tell you how it's different, she made me say 'holy shit, you can do that?' several times. This is the writing style of someone who could be published, but they want to write about video games. Premises as follows:

Suburbia: One of the best ones, also the most depressing. Genfic, for the most part; technically Soriku but the character interactions are between Sora, Riku, and Kairi and how everyone relates to each other is important. Sweet, fun, SAD. About kids trying to get by.

My Oh My: A weird little thing. Various parings, mostly f/f, I mostly remember the Yuffie/Kairi. This one is particularly weird and goes on a lot of tangents, which is why I like it so much; I have a weakness for strange fanfiction, the sort of stuff that one gets published on the free internet. Freeform fiction, everything happens at once.

Raspberry Heaven: This one is that babby's first f/f fic of mine. Yuffie/Kairi. This is actually published in 2004, post KHI, fucking wild. Damn. Seriously?? How long have I been doing this for?? Sweet as sugar, well beloved for being the kind and funny sapphic romcom we all want so much more of.

DO THEY STAND THE TEST OF TIME?: For the most part yeah. None of them are Boys and sometimes Fala goes a bit too far with the artistic tangents, just a hair, but the artistry is still damn impressive for fucking video game fic.

Deceitful Above All Things by Quillslinger. Length: 18K. Ship: Akuroku. Rating: Hard M! Hardest M on this list, most mature thing I would possibly recommend for Kingdom fucking Hearts. Uncomfortably realistic take on the Axel/Roxas age difference. There's a liiiittle toxicity here. Just a wee bit. Upsetting too. Bad ending. Darkfic. Sadstuck. Premise: This was a pre-Days realistic take on how an Axel/Roxas relationship would look like in the established canon. Pre-every game but KHI, COM, and II, actually. For what we knew at the time this was completely plausible lol. Two people in the worst position to do so try to make a relationship work and it.... doesn't. The regular violence, backstabbing, and catiness of their lives tears them down bloody. Why I liked it: THAT SHIT'S FUCKED UP. IT'S FUCKED UP! More importantly, the writing is beautiful. This is probably the best prose on this list, and probably the fic I've read the most times. Punchy, concise, emotional, sensory, upsetting.

DOES IT STAND THE TEST OF TIME?: It has aged ten times better than I have. Except for being really, really jossed. Really Jossed.

House on Fire by Sunsmasher. Length: 10K. Ship: Sora/Riku/Kairi. Rating: T? Nothing explicit, but adult in the sense of adult problems. A recent fav and the only AO3 link on this list. Premise: Post-BBS, The original trio has to get along with Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. There is too much trauma for it to work. Why did I like it: A Good example of OT3 work. The vulnerability, emotionality, and realistic take on the issues these kids have make it into a fic written like I wish the game was. Better than canon.

DOES IT STAND THE TEST OF TIME?: It's only 3 years old, so, not really in the spirit of the rest of this list. But. Yes

Pastoral Symphony in Blue Minor by Rabbitprint. Length: 8K. Ship: Nah. Rating: IDK it's pretty gen. Premise: Not that we need a Demyx origin story, but this is the one I subscribe to. Why I liked it: AT THE TIME, Fantasia wasn't in KH canon and wouldn't be for ten damn years, but I wanted it to be. It's also a solid fantheory.

DOES IT STAND THE TEST OF TIME?: I mean yeah. I mean, no, it's Jossed like every fucking other thing on the list, but IT'S FINE.

I'm... done for now? I guess I'm done. I read WAY more fic that I actually saved and these are my favorites out of the ones I got to save. A LOT was lost to time or ended up being generic boring shipfic. This is the stuff that was better, unique, or sentimental that I can remember. I'm sure a lot of good stuff is lost to time. Also if you want to read the most insanely GOFFIC fanfiction you've ever read it's right over here. I remember that dumb thing so clearly. Every chapter. Roast me.

These fics are relics. Some of them are in their teens now. They may not be quite as good as I remember, but you will notice that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEIR AUTHORS CHOSE TO KEEP THEM ONLINE AFTER ALL THIS TIME AND THE SCORES OF FANDOM WARS.

Aspire to that level of confidence and dedication.

 

Ah yes. There are my ships. Thank you. For fics to read.