*love will leave a mark plays softly in the distance* aka ATRch3 commentary

So

Update wise

• I rewrote some of chapter 15 of The Truth Hurts aka the Riku vs Larxene battle for Continuity Things (Riku reacting negatively to lightning etc)
• I went through Dead Inside to change "Disable" to "Deactivate" because "Deactivate" is actually the term I was looking for whoops. This post has more details
• if you're interested I did a cool break down of battle/party mechanics should ATR be a video game (plus Dead Inside endgame battles.) I also covered it on this blog! The post on this blog goes a little more in depth.
• Oh yeah plus a post on ftpverse Terra/Aqua???

now

Have this song instead of a playlist because,,,,, This is actually,,, so relevant to Sora's feelings about Shad in 10000000 ways so uh

Yeah

Also good listening music for this chapter is Falling by Bastille which is like a demo version of Laura Palmer that's slower and,,,, darker? But not in like a creepy dark a MOURNFUL it's more mournful so it reminds me of Shad like tenfold
Laura Palmer's always made me think of Shad but this is a good version of the song that fits him more in tone because the original is really upbeat


Chapter time

Read ATRch3

ATRch3 tag



So

This chapter

Mmmmm

this chapter

I had like… just finished Dead Inside and I think had written a chapter or so of the Revenge Sequence when I sat down and just pounded this chapter out. I, of course, made a few changes before uploading it, but it was largely just…. minor things. A scrapped word here. An added paragraph. Shuffling a few words around

I dunno what I’m trying to say

It

Gosh

It’s really raw, this scene

It was really… really hard to write—well, hard isn’t the right word. But it just tugged in my stomach and y’know

Channeling how Sora feels about all this isn’t easy

He didn’t take the news of his Shadow loving him all that well. Not that he was supposed to. It’s just…

Whoo it was a bear to write

And then… Kairi touching Sora’s scar. That. I dunno. I had an intial… not even an initial draft or anything, just an idea of her just…. taking his face in her hands and just kissing it and. I dunno. I scrapped that, largely because I’m putting off Sora and Kairi getting together for, like, ever. So her kissing it didn’t feel right. 

Not forgetting, of course, that she didn't even get a chance to ask about it in Dead Inside, so this is the first time she mentions it

And when she brings it up here… kissing it doesn’t flow. It flows like this.

And there’s just. There’s something about…… about the scar and its meaning I guess its connotations?? How it…. like. emotional connotations I guess all the emotions that are wrapped up with it

“sure my Shadow loved me…. But he also did this to me”

Yes, if you were really wondering, his scar does go that far across his skin. I’ve mapped this out across my own face enough to be sure—it’s also undoubted that Shad’s chains did in fact catch Sora’s necklace in the strike. 

“How did the chains cut his necklace, anyway??” well if they were sharp enough to cut his skin, clearly they could be sharp enough to cut his necklace. Maybe it was the darkness that cut his skin + his necklace. 

Actually, it was probably the darkness

Oh and!! Here's where me recoloring manga panels for icons to use on the askblog comes in handy

I have physical on hand examples to show of Sora's scar though I'm sure you've seen these and I've mentioned this a million times but one more can't hurt

This one shows how it maps across his face--technically, canonically, it scraped his left eye a little and forces him to squint (think Zuko) buuuuuut I couldn't edit 40+ manga caps to make his left eye squint so

This one shows how it looks on his neck--I think there's a little more of it under his jaw you just can't see it from this angle

The scar continues all the way down to his right shoulder, but, of course, his clothes cover that.

So! There you have it.