Finally! ATR ch52 - in Which, Holy Crap, My Son Has Grown So Much

Sorry this is!! well!!! horrendously late!!!! Thanksgiving weekend meant not a lot of time available to write, and I was also trying to finish the Snowdin portion of my Undertale fic, Body and Soul. (Outside of editing, which I'm purposefully putting off, it is done, at least.)

Pluuuus I'm doing Christmas fic commissions and had to prioritize writing a commission over everything else. (Psst, like my work? Wanna pay me money to write something Christmas related with your favorite characters? It's five bucks, and my customer reviews have been 100% positive. Please consider.)

Basically, I never got a chapter of FtPverse written, and didn't want to upload and take away from my buffer, but, well, it's been nearly two weeks. I gotta give you something. So here we are.


In other news!!

The FF7 remake got another trailer, and oh my god, it looks so good?? Exploring Midgar in this scale, with everything so beautifully rendered and without the terrible camera angles has me really excited, and frankly, just hearing this game voiced is..... whew. It's good.

Also there was a part in the trailer where Cloud is surrounded by Shinra troops and that glitchy "something's wrong" thing happened before he ran and I.... I can't wait to see that play out. I literally can't wait.

OH AND, AS SOME PEOPLE HAVE POINTED OUT, CLOUD ALSO LOOKS DEATHLY SICK WHICH, IS KIND OF GIVEN BASED ON HIS SITUATION, BUT IT'S SO GOOD TO SEE??? Look at what they can do with a remake. I'm so hype.



If you've been following my #kairineedslove2k15 movement, well, introducing my final project for the year!

1000 reasons we love Kairi. 

I'm gonna take every reason I'm submitted and turn it into a booklet thing when 2016 hits us, then release it to the internet. Submit a reason you love Kairi!! Or five. Whatever.



Finally!! About Riku, my son, who's grown up so much.

It's not directly tied to this chapter, but this was the best place to put it, in my opinion.

I made another mix for Riku.

a place to call HOME from rarmaster on 8tracks Radio.

I'd like to call this his: "Oh, thank god, he's finally grown up" mix, because, well. Comparatively to the other two mixes I made for him, this is definitely a step up.

The central theme of the mix is him recognizing that he's still broken, and he wants to heal, he wants to change---"I'm in the same place I used to be, but I'm trying harder not to be" / "I'm the same, I'm trying to change." / "I'm gonna leave my past behind, I've had enough, I'm breaking free"

Along with that he really is in a much better place than he used to be, in Dead Inside. He's in a better place emotionally, mentally, and physically (his improvement is in no small part helped by living in HB, surrounded by people who love him.)

And, that's a secondary theme of this mix. That he's found a home, that he's found a place he's loved.

You can hear me rant at length here, (and check out other liner notes for the mix here).

BASICALLY I REALLY LOVE MY SON AND HE HAS!!! he has grown up so much. He's not the same boy he was when this started, he's not the same boy he was halfway through Dead Inside. He's different, now, and he's changed for the better.

He's happier. He's not whiney, he's not angsty, he's not quite as broken and I've talked about this before but it is so refreshing to write, it's so refreshing to write for him now that he's in a better place.

And I'm so proud of him.

[sniffles and wipes away tears]


ATR Ch52 commentary!! now!!! WHOOHOO!!!

read here!

tumblr tag!

I'd put a vague blurb about it here but I've talked so much already. It's time for a cut.




First off: writing music for this scene was actually this mix I made and posted here, er, a month ago or something. The Broken Ones, part 2. It was.... it set a really nice tone for this scene. Well, the Riku/Kairi convo portion of it, anyway.


Other chapter notes:

Okay so I thought about Riku writing down a list of what he knows about Kano, including “he loves Sora” but then I went “wait what if someone else reads this, someone else is probably going to read this, given what it even is” and so I thought about him writing it down in, like, code or something

Then I remembered he semi-canonically speaks three, uh, four?? different languages and, well, he could just write it in a different language (probably Japanese, the hardest for any non-speaker to decipher because lmao kanji)

Which lead me to thinkin about him writing a diary, should he keep one, in different languages so that even if someone read it, oops, what’s he talking about?? who knows

I actually wrote out Riku’s notes. lmao. You can read them here, if you'd like.

It’s a little thing and maybe I shouldn’t mention, but, Aerith was going to tap Riku on the shoulder except he’s real jumpy about that (thanks Larxene) so her go-to way of getting his attention is clearing her throat / making a sound

Kairi, meanwhile, doesn't know better and taps him on the shoulder. Also: should've this been brought up sooner? Yup. It's on the list of things I regret, uh, NOT considering and implementing in Dead Inside, along with literally other "Riku's suffered abuse, and it shows" tick.

  

Crying a little because Riku’s really trying to break self-harm habits, help

And that's actually, uh, all the notes I have. WELL ENJOY.