#rikunort

[darkfromday]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

For day 6 of @fanartfrenzy, I chose to fill the "ship with fewer than 25 works" bingo square. I'm happy to be able to highlight rikunort's fanfic at dusk, i will think of you!

So. Kingdom Hearts, my beloved. KH is one of my first fandoms, one of the fandoms I am the most attached to even after 2 decades, and it probably has the most ships I am feral about. Especially rarepairs. I was never a big Axel/Roxas shipper back in the day, but you know what ship I was really into?

Axel/Sora.

Yep.

This only increased once Dream Drop Distance came out and brought back Axel-as-Lea, with all the Somebody + Nobody baggage included. Most people (myself included) love throwing him at Isa these days, but you never forget your first love and all that. I still ship this chaotic gremlin with our sunshine boy.

Which brings us to the fanfic. at dusk is really really amazing. It can be hard to find Sora/Lea fanfics that give Roxas (and whatever past relationship he may have had with Axel, YMMV) the appropriate amount of focus without the reader feeling like the fic is just an akuroku with Sora slotted in instead. This fic nails it. Lea misses Roxas tangibly, but he is also living noticeably in the here and now (of post-DDD) and so acknowledges that that first love is gone. For the present day, I genuinely felt like Lea appreciated Sora for his unique qualities, AND that Sora appreciated Lea outside of his connection to Roxas.

And also, Sora calls him Lea. Did I mention how much I love Axel but enjoy it when people call him Lea?

So yeah. Lea/Sora has 15 works and you should read them all, but definitely read rikunort's fic first.

[kplays]

And so Riku holds them back

[ursacircusart]

We deserved the Vanitas Rikunort interactions.

[minijenn]

Hhhhhh ok so

The Discord got be back on my bullshit for Keys to the Kingdom AUs, and this is one of them! We call it the Trifecta AU, and the basic gist is what if both Kairi and Riku were also being slowly ‘norted throughout Keys just like Sora is? The answer? A fuckton of Destiny Trio Angst. More specifically, one of the biggest tenants of this AU is that each of the kids has their own monstrous “form” they go into based on negative emotions they can’t control, and have to deal with the traits of those forms become apparent more and more even when they’re outside of those forms. So let me explain each of them because I thought way too hard and way too long about how to design each of these so just let me fucking ramble for a hot minute, ok?

So to start we have familiar territory with Sora and Rage Form. I decided to draw a “fully progressed” version of Rage Form for him, since it already gets more and more “monstrous” in Keys itself (so the above design is basically what it would look like if allowed to progress all the way). I modeled his design off of a Darkside Heartless of course, and yes he is a very angery, violent boi who whats nothing more than to basically destroy everything in his path. Another piece of lore for this AU is that each of the kids is “given” a sigil scar, so the Org. can keep a close eye on each of them. Much like it is in Keys itself, for Sora, that scar is on his chest. 

Up next, Kairi, who was a bit tricky, but very fun to design! She goes into Grief Form, brought on by immeasurable sadness with the ability to spread that same sadness to others by way of the mournful aura surrounding her. I decided to model her design off of several types of Nobodies, giving her an almost alien type of elegance befitting a fallen Princess of Heart. Some of those features slip through when she’s still human, such as the paled skin, black sclera, and long necc. Her scar is torn up across her face, so its always front and center, poor girl. 

And finally Riku! His form is based around feelings of immense terror and dread, so hence we have Fear Form, which, despite being a sad, scared, gentle giant, kind of inspires fear in the hearts and minds of everyone who comes across him. Seeing as how he’s technically Sora’s Dream Eater, I wanted to twist that up by turning him into a Nightmare instead. Even outside of that form, he’s gotta deal with being a pretty Spikey Boi what with all those tusks and horn and spike. Not to mention the giant X shaped scar across his back....

So not only did I draw all three of this kids in their monster forms, but also drew them while they’re all inevitably on the run from the other lights and from each other because Xehanort got all three of them fucked up emotionally, thanks ya old asshole. And of course, doodles of all three of them suffering when they’re finally fully forced into the Org, omfg someone please take these poor children away from me or better yet, take them away from my Discord server cause they started this shit :| 

Also Obligatory Monster Size Comparison: 

[radcatuu]

neither of them know how to fish

[saishoguu]

ok First of all

[draceempressa]

It just crossed my mind that in a way, Xehanort qualifies to be called “Sorcerer of Time. “... Body hopping and all heeey that sounds familiar

Initially was thinking to put Terranort on Ma bc three souls in one but chronologically Ansem jumped to Riku after that sooo behold my shitty editing skills 

[furtuka]