musefic | Entries tagged with fandom: kingdom hearts

Finally! The last of the AU-gust 2023 fics! It may have taken an embarrassing number of months, but it is done!

This was my entry for Prompt 31: "Pick Two." The idea was to utilize two or more of the previous prompts in combination. I chose "Doppelganger" and "Behind the Mirror."

This continues directly from "In the Dark," and concludes the Doppelganger storyline.

The doppelganger that's been stalking Riku has escaped, taking over his life and locking the real Riku away.

Sora and Kairi are left with two questions: Where is Riku, and how can they banish the thing that's taken his place?

( The Ritual )

This is my second to last fill for 2023's AUgust challenge. The official prompt for Day 30 was "Afterlife," but I chose to replace it with one of the alternate prompts, "Shipwrecked."

In order to find the mysterious light in the fog offshore, Riku and Sora build a raft. They're going to find what's out there.

( The Raft )

This is the fill for AUgust 2023, Prompt #29: Dark AU. It follows immediately from "Through the Glass."

Pulled through the mirror, Riku is trapped while his doppelganger roams free. The only thing worse than being stuck in the dark and the cold is watching the doppelganger take over his life.

( In the Dark )

This is the fill for AUgust 2023, Prompt #28: Royalty AU. It follows immediately from "A Minor Risk."

I am slowly making my way through the end of the AUgust fics!

Kairi was trying very hard not to be furious with herself, but it wasn’t easy at the moment.

They’d misjudged. Badly. Which really meant that she had misjudged, because this wasn’t Sora or Riku’s fault. They might think it was, but she was the one who thought she could play bait and not get caught.

Kairi has been kidnapped. Sora and Riku are going to find her.

( The Rescue )

This is the fill for AUgust 2023, Prompt #20: Reconnection. It follows fairly immediately from "Excavation."

It's also the first time I've posted an explicit work!

This felt right. The three of them, in a tangle. It was awkward, with too many limbs battling for space and coordination, but it was also familiar, and how had it been years, decades, since this had happened? This felt right, against an infinity of time spent disconnected, separated. Why was this the anomaly?

( Reconnection )

This is the fill for Prompt #27 of AUgust: "Mythical Creatures AU."

Another one that got away from me, though only a bit! The idea of entering some kind of competition with a mythical creature as a partner was my first thought, and then I realized that it was sort of a daemon AU. (It's not fully a His Dark Materials daemon AU, but the basic trope is there.)

This is certainly another one that is very much leading into more story, though I don' t yet know for sure whether I'll have a good chance to continue it!

Riku, Kairi, and Sora all have their own reasons for entering the tournament, but they all have the same goal: they're going to win, no matter how likely or unlikely anyone else thinks that will be.

( The Tournament )

My fill for Prompt #26 of AUgust: Lighthouse AU. It's a sequel to my fill for Prompt #10 (Exile AU/"Kept Safe.")

Every night, the light appears from behind the low bank of fog, far offshore. Sora is the only one who's noticed it, until he shows Riku too. They know there's nothing out there... except it's clear that something is.

( The Beacon )

This is for AUgust Prompt #25: Eldritch Horror AU.

They spent late nights combing the footnotes of other obscure volumes, seeking out annotations of annotations. Examining daguerreotype portraits, squinting through a magnifying lens to see if a book in the background was the book. Exhaustive weighing of evidence versus rumor, attempting to verify provenance. All, naturally, complicated by the book’s lack of proper title. Simply referred to as "The Journals," or more rarely "The Dark Journal," did not aid the search.

...

Insatiable curiosity and seeking of knowledge were good traits for students to display, surely. What harm could anything do, in the hands or minds of such good students?

( The Dark Journal )

I actually think that some aspects of Kingdom Hearts lend themselves surprisingly well to an eldritch horror interpretation - heartless themselves, entire worlds being destroyed, the "forbidden knowledge" of so many worlds existing... it could all fall under that "glimpsing too much knowledge could drive you mad" theme.

I'm not sure I quite nailed the right tone for true eldritch horror, but it's an idea that was fun to explore.

AUtumn continues, slowly!

This is for AUgust prompt #24: Crime AU. (It'd probably be a bit much to call this a full Crime AU, but it does hinge on them planning to commit some crime, albeit with perfectly sound reasons for it.)

This is a sequel to two fics from 2020's AU-gust, "Professional Interest" and "Long-Term Contract." It's probably a good idea to read those two first.

Sora thinks he's tracked down the culprit who stole Kairi's adoption file, if not whoever hired him. Luckily for them, the man is still on the island, providing them a chance to try and get the file back.

( A Minor Risk )

So yes, AUgust has morphed into... AUtumn, lol.

This is my fill for Prompt 23, which was originally "Plumber." I used a joker for it, replacing it with "Western AU," and then let it get a little out of hand, and went with a Fallout: New Vegas setting, which is probably only *technically* western. But here we are!

Riku met the two of them in one of the shitty little temporary drinking establishments that cropped up outside of New Vegas. Nothing so permanent as a real bar, or even a caravan post; just a tent set up over a few makeshift tables, and someone ready and willing to part with some bootleg liquor out of the crate behind them in exchange for a few caps.

...

“The thing is, they’re absolutely onto something,” Kairi said, slamming the heel of the bottle in her hand down in emphasis. “There is absolutely some research in there that would help.”
( Vault 22 )

Work on much of anything creative has ground to a halt due to work stress, but I still hope to slowly get these fics out as I can!

This one is for prompt #22: "Celebrity AU."

It's a sequel to "The Contest," a fic I wrote for 2020's AUgust. It likely does make more sense to read that one first. (And I still had the same issue I had when I wrote that first one: I kept thinking of things that could happen later on in the story, but I don't know that I'm knowledgeable enough to convincingly write this as a longer fic!)

Having won a fashion design contest, Sora and his partner Kairi face the next hurdle: meeting famed model Riku Miyano in person.

( Starstruck )

I'm still trying to make my way through the rest of the prompt list! I'm trying something *slightly* different; rather than sticking to things solely in order, I am letting myself move on to the next prompt if I'm having a hard time with one.

That said, this is the fill for Prompt 21. The original prompt was "Coaches AU," but I'm using one of the jokers for the challenge, and instead writing a "Role Swap AU."

I am skipping 20 for now, until I get up the courage to finish and post an E-rated fic, ha.

Sora’s hand slipped out of her grip, and the water pulled her under. Kairi reached desperately for Riku in the dark of the waves. Please, let me protect them. Her fingers barely brushed Riku’s before the water forced them apart.

It was too dark and too deep for where they’d been standing, even given the storm. There was nothing she could do to get her bearings, and instead she sank.

( The Lost and The Found )

(Back in 2020 for AUgust, I also wrote a role-swap AU. That one is titled "All You Are Heir To," and gives Kairi Riku's original role, while Riku takes on Sora's, and Sora takes Kairi's. While I like that particular swap a bit more, this one was a fun challenge to try swapping the trio the other way!)

Well, clearly I did not get all the AUgust fics written during August. Alas! I'm going to do my best to finish the prompt list in September, though we'll see if I succeed.

This is the fill for Prompt 19: Shapeshifter AU

This is based off an idea from a couple years ago, when I was writing a fairy tale-inspired story for the SoRiKai discord. At the time I went with the Gold Tree and Silver Tree retelling, and this was a discarded idea. I was glad to have a chance to actually write it!
It was also pretty clearly inspired by The Decembrists Hazards of Love album, about a woman who rescues an injured white fawn that turns out to be a man adopted and enchanted by the queen of the forest. Though this story ends more happily than it turns out for them, ha.

Sora and Kairi are content to avoid the fae that live in the woods near their cottage, and the fae are content to ignore them. Until the silver deer comes to them for help. Then again. And again.

( The Silver Deer )

The absolutely gorgeous header that I was given for my fic!

This is the fic that I wrote for Set Sail, a Destiny Trio fanzine. If you're interested, you can find more of the art and fic on the zine's tumblr. There were so many amazingly talented writers and artists involved!

"Asteria" was a daughter of Titans in Greek mythology. Her name means "of the stars", and at one point she turned herself into an island, said to have fallen from the sky like a star. It seemed... fitting for the Destiny Trio in terms of imagery, ha.

Six years ago, Kairi was taken to the hub planet of Radiant Garden to pursue a prestigious education. Sora and Riku were left behind on the distant satellite of Port Destiny. Separated by seemingly impossible distance, they wonder if she'll keep her promise to return.

( Asteria )

I haven't given up on the AUgust fics, just on being on time for them I'm afraid. (My intent is still to make it through the list of prompts... but I just can't keep up the one per day pace!)

This is the fill for Day 18: Time Travel AU

(I suppose you could argue this feels plausibly post-canon as opposed to true AU, but I think I'm playing fast and loose enough with canon rules that it counts, lol.)

The first rewind happened out of desperation.

When Radiant Garden fell, it fell fast. There was no long, slow lead-up; no quiet stirring in the shadows hinting at worse to come. No warning. The darkness overran it in mere hours, first targeting the people who would have been most able to stand against it, overwhelming them by surprise and sheer numbers before spreading out to the rest of the then-unprotected citizenry.

( Reset )

I think I'm going to have to resign myself to being behind on the prompt list. (I'll likely be missing the next two days as well, but my intent is still to finish the prompt list... just likely not by the end of the month.)

This is the fill for Day 17: Fallen Angel AU

It's set in the same (otherwise unwritten) AU as a prompt I filled in the 2020 AUgust challenge, though this scene is much later in that hypothetical fic.

An angel loved their fellow angels, and he loved Kairi.

A guardian angel loved their charge, and he loved Sora.

It had become very clear that the love he was feeling was not the angelic kind that he should have been feeling.

( The Potential to Fall )

I need to find a way to make these shorter! I kept wanting to make this one longer and needing to rein it in. It's hard to capture the weird liminal feel of a good road trip in a short fic! (Though I love road trips dearly, and am sad I haven't had a chance to go on one in several years.)

This is the fill for Day 16: Road Trip AU.

Riku, Sora, and Kairi are on a road trip. They wind up making a strange detour.

( Detour )

Even later after midnight! I'm very tired!

This is the fill for Day 15: Ancient History.

Continuing the immortality plotline from the "Immortal" and "Writer" fills, though this is a bit of a jump down the timeline.

(While this is loosely, loosely based on parts of my experience on an archaeology dig as an undergrad, I took lots of liberties on how one would be organized and such. It's an alternate universe; it can work how I want.)

Arrival on the island felt… momentous in a way that she’d fully expected, yet hadn’t been able to prepare for. It had been such a long time. Impossibly long. She’d never thought she’d be back at all.

Nothing was the same. That was a given. Nothing was as different as it could have been.

There was no village. There were no familiar trails to find where the village had been. But no new cities had been built on top of it. The trees all looked the same, just in new places. Flowers she never thought she’d see again bloomed in the undergrowth. The air felt right. It smelled like home. If someone had asked her to name those things, or even to try and remember them, she would have told them she couldn’t, that it had been too long. Now the familiarity was like a kick to the chest.

( Excavation )

And again after midnight, if barely! Ugh.

This is the fill for Day 14: Witches and Wizards AU

This is a quick post-epilogue followup to my longer fic "All Strange Wonders", which was a Howl's Moving Castle AU. I don't think you need to have read it in order to read this one - I tried to toss in enough context clues for it to make sense.

They’d all agreed that the ocean would be the first place all three of them went.

Kairi knew that choice had really been made for Sora more than for her or for Riku. Not that they were opposed, it just held a little less excitement for them. Riku had grown up on an island, and for Kairi, well… water wasn’t dangerous to her the way it had been such a short time ago, but she was still a fire spirit. Mostly.

( Fire and Water )

After midnight again, whoops.

This is the fill for Day 13: Behind the Mirror AU

This is a direct sequel to the fill for Day 11: Doppelganger.

(I definitely plan on there being a third part to this one, but we'll see if I can shoehorn it in for the month, or if it has to come after!)

Stalked by his doppelganger, it seemed obvious that Riku wouldn't be safe at home, so Sora and Kairi drag him to Sora's apartment instead. The three of them take turns staying awake, waiting for the thing to appear, because none of them are convinced it won't follow.

( Through the Glass )