I decided I don't care what my readers think anymore (including those who have reviewed ever).
Ahem.
I love you all.
Yes. I mean it, because you make me want to write this. I don't care if you think I'm weird, it's true.
Recap: Darkness invades! Tal gets weapons (FINALLY!).
Chapter Begin:
The exhilaration that Tal felt was unparalleled. With guns blazing, and Shadows disappearing left and right, the protagonist never felt so alive, so… vindicated, and it was by her own hand!
Shadows charged her, and she shot them down. She inwardly smirked knowing she could have done it blindfolded, but don't credit that to Tal's mad skill so much as Vincent's intense training regimen.
The girl effortlessly breezed through the streets eliminating anything that dare provoke her wrath, namely the beings without hearts. "Killing" heartless didn't really register as actual killingin Tal's mind as she interpreted that as an act of ending the life of a living breathing thing. Heartless don't breathe… The fan populace assumes.
Because of this concept she didn't hesitate to fire and eliminate them. Which was all fine and dandy, but as every Kingdom Hearts gamer; it is common knowledge that the only person who can destroy a Heartless is a Keyblade wielder. So what happened to the ones Tal destroyed?
Under normal circumstances when a Heartless was destroyed temporarily they would chill out in darkness for a while, and when the appropriate conditions were met, they would reform. That process could take hours or days.
That of course is under normal circumstances.
The process that could take hours or days was now sped up to seconds or minutes, so the Heartless she killed re-spawned within mere moments of their destruction. Add that to the already increasing population and what do you have? A Heartless infestation bad enough to make you want to pack up hop on the nearest Gummi ship and go crash at the next planet.
But since that wasn't a viable option for our beloved protagonist, oh how much more loved is she now that she's armed, she continued through the streets, ignoring the peeping eyes from bolted windows: individuals tucked away inside scared, and defenseless.
The fan girl knew one thing, and one thing only; "I have to find Riku." And that was her new objective for Riku was the only one who could stop the terror that was flooding the streets of Radiant Garden.
The author wonders if perhaps Hollow Bastion would be a more fitting name considering the hell that is rearing its ugly head at this current moment.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Just imagine Tal's frustration when she returned to the area where she saw Riku last only to find, Riku not there. Not only that, but imagine being in Tal's shoes for one moment and realizing something right then and there. This realization is; you're in a foreign city and the current locals are heart thirsty beasts. Because of this fact you cannot ask for directions lest you be royally killed.
"Oh, hey Mr. Shadow, do you know where the grocery story is?"
Shadow tilts his head to the side, and then points his twitchy claw finger in a direction.
"Thanks dude." Person turns to walk away when a swarm of Shadow jumps onto the person kills them.
See kiddies, this is why you never trust a Shadow. Now, aside from a Shadow obviously lacking the mental capacity to know what a grocery store is, let alone do anything other than twitch, that little scenario did serve a purpose. 'Le, gasp, the author isn't digressing?' The reader thinks or says. Well, not totally, but the whole point of that was to bring to light the fact that there was no one around for Tal to ask for help (the locals are hiding and thus useless).
The layout in Kingdom Hearts 2 left much to be desired, and additional construction work had been done making Radiant Garden more of an actual city.
So what does Tal do in a situation like this, while fighting off Heartless? She gets angry of course! Angry that she didn't know what to do, angry that what she was currently doing was in all actuality ineffective; aside from keeping her alive.
If only she could stop for a second to collect her thoughts, then she could form a plan of action, but noooooooo. She had to keep dodging Heartless and waste her ammo on these stupid twitchy things!
If only Tal could have been able to climb a building to get a scope on the city. Then she could have seen where the most intense battling was, and assume that her comrades; namely Riku were there. If only, but that was impossible with Heartless pouring off of the roofs like a heavy drizzle.
This was more then an invasion, it was an all out leave-no-survivors attack.
Falling off the building and spawning so thickly the ground was now carpeted with Shadows. There was no way to stop and think, so she continued forward hoping she was heading in the right direction.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Swish! Tal skipped backwards; guns firing. Claws slashed where she stood seconds prior. The twitchy creatures that bit her bullets dissipated into wisps of darkness. The last Heartless dispersed into nothing. She fell to her knees panting, fishing in her pocket for more ammo.
"One round left?" She breathed raggedly, staring at the bullets. She loaded the gun, and cocked it.
Glancing up, Tal's eyes tightened, and her jaw tightened. The once cleared area was now swarmed with more Heartless then before.
She glowered. The rapidly increasing Heartless population had already depleted most of her ammo, leaving her with one gun, and one round of unused ammo. Once that was gone, all she could do was use her guns as makeshift clubs.
And once she resorted to that method of fighting, it would only be a matter of time before her stamina would be depleted, making her a sitting duck.
A Heartless pounced on her back, clawing through the back of her shirt. She grabbed the thing by its antennae, and chucked it as hard as she could over her shoulder. Her back burning where the flesh was recently exposed, and her shoulder wound was dampening her shirt with fresh blood.
She couldn't face the multitude of creatures in her dilapidating condition. Not if she wanted to survive.
The initial excitement that had fueled her had waned, leaving the teenage girl running on only adrenaline. That made the pain in her back and shoulder bearable, if only barely.
Baring her teeth, Tal charged forward, dodging the monster that's appetite had yet to be sated; with her heart.
The protagonist was amazed with the clarity that she thought with in the midst of this chaos. She would have thought that she would have been rendered incapable of functioning with the madness running amok but that wasn't the case. She credited some of her rationality to her survival ability, but also to Vincent's training.
She would forever be indebted to him.
She pushed those thoughts aside for now wasn't the time, and if she were to dwell on such things, she probably wouldn't be living much longer considering her depleting ammo state, and frankly making her guns makeshift clubs seemed quite unethical. She stood a better chance shoving them down Heartless throats and choking them all to death.
But that was an unrealistic battle method leaving her open to attacks, and losing her two guns until the two unfortunate creatures dissipated due to asphyxiation, returning her weapons so more may be destroyed in this way.
Unless they wouldn't choke because they don't eat hearts so much as absorb them… Or do they? The game was never very clear on this, and despite the morbid curiosity Tal was not about to sacrifice some random bystander for the sake of science lest she become Xehenort Jr. What? You think she'd sacrifice her self for this? No way, then how would she see them eat her heart being dead and all?
Snapping back to reality and retreating from twitchy minions, Tal focused on her main goal: Finding Riku. Once she found him they could locate the source of this madness and stop it.
And maybe this whole thing would be the key to getting her home. If darkness was how she got here, then maybe darkness would be how she got home.
"Holy crap I'm practically reciting Ansem's dialogue."
She is referencing the little monologue Xehnort's heartless rattled when Sora first walked through the door, and was returned to the pseudo Destiny's Island in Kingdom Hearts: "All worlds begin in darkness and all so end." But no, she wasn't "practically reciting," because he said nothing of this sort. His talk revolved around the destruction of the worlds. Tal was thinking about returning home. See the lack of relevance? Yes, I thought you did.
One hop, skip, and a jump later, rounding a corner Tal was blindsided, flying into a wall, crushing her right arm, and breaking her would open fully.
Bitter tears ran down her face, Tal stifling a cry. She tried to jump up; wrenching her injured arm and collapsing. Snarling, she planted her hands palms down, despite her arms shaking and a sharp searing pain shooting up her right arm. She could feel the blood seep through her clothes, and run down her arm. Slowly she pushed herself up. "I didn't come allthis way to get owned by over grown ants!" She screamed. "I won't lose!" Standing up, she braced herself against the wall, panting heavily, and vision blurry.
Her left hand reached for her gun, studying at the multitude of beady yellow eyes. They twitched and jerked, leaning their weight to their hindquarters, readying to pounce.
"Heh." Her lip curled back, bringing her gun up. She fired.
We all know when the going gets tough in Final Fantasy and in Kingdom Hearts due to some major loopholes the protagonists are able to survive. This story is no different for FF and KH physics apply. Well that and this story would suck if Tal died… and the author would have to change the genre to tragedy.
Upon impact with the entity of darkness, an explosion occurred taking out several more. Vincent had slipped in some special ammunition just for her sake. Tal wanted to cry, touched that Vincent cared so much, but before she could the heartless re-spawned increasing their numbers.
She radiated waves of pure hate. Never again would she think these things were cute. "Although I won't be thinking that for long." She seethed, firing again. And again.
But it was a futile effort as they continued to re-spawn. Tal vowed to fight this to the end; until her heart stopped beating.
Her arm wavered, dark spots dancing across her vision. If not for the wall that she leaned against she would have fallen over quite some time ago.
Her gun clicked, her last round now empty. She pulled the trigger again and again; the empty click of the gun sent a wave of despair over her.
"I can't lose." She choked out. "I can't die." She blinked furiously, trying to dismiss the black spots. Tal pushed herself off the wall, grabbing her other gun, holding it by the barrel.
She had made up her mind. She was going to go down kicking and screaming, guns swinging.
"You've got spunk kid." She felt a hand come down on her head. She blinked several times, shock paralyzing her.
The hand lifted, and the figure walked past her, spiky red hair pulled into a slim ponytail at the nape, accentuating the slightly wrinkled blue suit. An electro mag-rod was propped casually on his shoulder.
"Reno…" The girl whispered eyes shining in pure adulation. The inner fan girl started screaming with fanatical of joy, and demanded Tal fuse herself to someone so absolutely… the author cannot think of any word suitable to describe Reno so she will leave this up to the readers.
Tal would have willingly obliged with this request but someone gently holding her arm stopped her. A warm and placid wave washed over her, the mind numbing pain that Tal barely endured slowly ebbing. Tissues that were savagely ripped opened mended piece by piece.
"You're very brave." A blonde woman with cropped hair smiled at Tal, the strain of the spell quite evident. Her one hand held Tal's arm, while the other hovered above her shoulder, glowing brightly.
"Elena?" Tal blinked.
"Healing you is harder then I thought it would be." She narrowed her eyes, the spell barely intensifying.
"Guessing from the look on your face you're wondering why we're here." That wasn't a question. It was a statement, but it wasn't Elena that spoke. Appearing on her other side was a man wearing a crisp blue suit, long black hair and a tilak on his forehead.
"Uhh," Tal's was currently experiencing cognition failure as her brain was attempting to digest the fact that she was saved by the Turks. The Turks!
Let's forget for one moment that they were the scum of the earth. Shinra's dogs; despicable in the eyes of anyone with morals or honor. I mean, if you were a Turk you didn't brag to your mom about it unless you wanted her to cry.
But in the ever forgiving eyes of a fan girl, their lowly occupation wasn't that big of deal. She could see past their faults, as she did Riku. They were cool; especially since they had Reno and Rude. Thinking of Reno and Rude was like thinking of peanut butter and jelly. And thinking of that made Tal hungry because food was something she hadn't had for sometime.
Yum, PB&J sandwiches. Peanut butter jelly time.
"Vincent called in a favor," Tseng began bringing Tal back to swarming Heartless, where there was no peanut butter, no jelly, no bread, and no dancing banana. "He asked us to check on a noisy apprentice of his."
"Noisy?" Tal growled.
Elena giggled. "If we didn't hear you yelling we wouldn't have been able to find you in time."
Well that's good. Tal's ranting was actually useful for something other then a form of catharsis for the girl.
"There you are!" Elena stood up, brushing her hands off. "You're all healed."
The fan girl stood up slowly, experimentally moving her limbs, finding Elena's report to be true. She was healed, and even her old injuries were gone.
"Boss," Reno narrowly dodged an attack, swinging his rod the creature dissipated in a thin wisp of darkness. "There's no way we can defeat them."
Rude took out a bunch with a low sweep kick.
"Wait, when did get Rude here?" Tal pointed at the bald Turk.
A ghost of a smile danced on Tseng's lips. "He's been here the whole time."
"Boss!" Reno warned, dodging another attack.
Tseng glanced around, conflicted. He wasn't sure what to do either. These creatures were new to him, and spawning as quickly as they were created quite the dilemma.
"We have to find Riku." Tal shoved her guns in their holsters.
"Who's Riku?" Tseng looked down at the girl, his eyes drilling into hers, trying to break into her thoughts.
"He's about my age, yay tall." He held up her hand, gesturing his height. "Long white hair, pale." She left out the part where he was drop dead gorgeous. "He's the only one who can stop the Heartless."
"Where do we find him?" Elena glanced around, tense.
"Most likely Ansem's study."
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Another reason why the Turk's were AMAZING! They had a helicopter. What did this mean? It meant that Tal didn't have to run around the city to find Riku, but instead got to snuggle with Reno.
Would have snuggled with Reno but first off, they almost crashed when she glomped him, and it took both Tseng and Rude to get her off. Once they accomplished separating the two, Elena had slapped her across the face telling her to get herself together.
The Turks attributed Tal's little fan girl moment to stress from the invasion, but they were wrong for obvious reasons. Vincent never warned the Turks of Tal's status as a fan girl because he wasn't aware of it himself, lucky guy.
Tseng took it upon himself to act as a barrier between Tal and Reno, unaware of how dangerous that could be he continued to drill Tal for answers in a very informal interrogation to figure out why Heartless were popping up faster then bad fanfiction.
"Why are the Heartless swarming every where?"
"Uh," Her mind was operating on Reno function only. The inner fan girl was dancing around, screaming Reno's name. It was very distracting.
"Tal?" Elena shook her shoulder gently.
Fan girl decidedly ignored her, continuing her dance. Logic Tal tackled Fan girl Tal, tying her up and shoving her into the small corner filled with Riku, Axel, and Reno pictures and plushies.
Tal blinked shaking her head. "Um, Heartless…" She chewed the inside of her cheek. "It's the darkness. The Shadows are drawn to it." She yelled over the chopper's blades. "I don't understand how it's happening though. Sora sealed the Keyhole to this world so this shouldn't be happening." She shook her head. "And the Organization isn't capable of this. No one can control Shadows. They're purebloods."
"Purebloods?" Rude looked over the edge of the seat.
As much as Tal would have loved to show her gamer knowledge and impress Rude she didn't have enough time to educate him in the science of Heartless Purebloods and Emblems. "I don't get how the Organization would get the purebloods to attack en mass." She growled.
"It doesn't matter if it doesn't make sense. It's still happening." Tseng coldly stated.
"But…" She looked at her calloused hands. It did matter. Once she could make sense of the situation she could help find a way to solve the problem.
Ammunition was dropped in her hands. She looked up at Elena. "I noticed you were out. At a time like this you can't run around with empty guns."
A small grin made its way onto Tal's face.
"We're here." Reno casually looked over the edge of his seat.
Tseng made his way next to Reno, the two switching places. Elena stood at the door of the helicopter, throwing down a rope ladder. She saw the confused look on Tal's face took liberty to answer the unspoken question. "We don't want the Heartless to over run the helicopter so we're not going to land it."
Tal tried to approach the opening but her hair whipped around, blinding her. She pulled back, loosing the ponytail and braiding her hair. Gathering her courage she approached the opening again and looked down, gulping. The swarming blackness was anything but inviting.
"Scared?" Reno smirked. Tal's Inner Fan girl squealed, trying to squirm out of her metaphorical bondage. Tal's primal urge to glomp Reno and ask for babies was rising taking over every corner of her mind. She then realized something; why was she holding back? He was bishie, and she adored him? She decided to give into her desires right then and there.
"Hurry! I'm sure your friend Riku can't hold out for very much longer!" Tseng yelled from the front.
Riku. Yes, that was why Tal wasn't mauling Reno; because Riku needed her help. So did Yuffie, Leon, and the others. "Let's go!" She started down the ladder. About 10 feet from the ground she dropped, pulling her guns and easily landing.
For the very first time Tal knew exactly who she was and what she was doing. She was Talon, a fan girl with guns and a sense of purpose; to protect her friend.
Reno and Rude followed in the girl's wake.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Riku panted, running through the halls of Ansem's former study. He had searched this place up and down but couldn't find the source anywhere. Surely it had to be in a secret room, but how could he find it?
And despite how much he hacked and slashed the Heartless continued to come at him. If he was having trouble holding his own then how much more trouble would Tal be in? She didn't have a Keyblade.
He fell to his knee panting. He wouldn't lose here. He couldn't lose here, but standing was too hard anymore.
"Riku!"
He sighed, shaking his head. He must have been more exhausted then what he assumed because he thought he just heard Tal's voice.
Gunfire erupted, and Heartless dispersed into wisps. "Riku!" Tal slid onto her knees, holding Riku's face in her hands. "You're exhausted." She said softly, her brow knitting together in concern.
His eyes widened in shock, a smile of relief tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"We've got to get out of here." She stood up, grabbing Riku's arm. He stumbled after her but then pulled back.
"It's somewhere. The source of all this!" Riku gestured with his other hand.
Tal shook her head, pulling even harder. "No, it's not in the Room of Sleep. It's where the old Castle used to be. That's where they're generating."
"It's great to see that you're happy to see each other, but we can't hold these things off." Reno chided. Before Tal could react to this comment Riku was lunging at Reno Way to Dawn poised to kill. Reno fended off the attack, throwing in bits of martial arts, which Riku danced around.
Tal watched in fangirly glee as the bishies went at it.
"Why are you attacking me? We're here to help." Reno grunted, parrying another blow. Inner Tal squeal at the awesomeness right there!
"You're Axel right?"
"No, I'm Reno."
Riku paused, jumping backwards to fully evaluate his opponent. Tal bounced up by his side. "That's Reno of the Turks. Nomura based Axel's character off him, but they're two separate people."
"That's… not Axel?" Riku decided to ignore the Nomura bit having no idea what Tal was referencing but it must have been common knowledge in her world.
"Who's this Axel?" Reno raised a slender brow, dodging a Shadow.
"Nobody." Tal shrugged turning towards Riku. "Okay, so now that that's out of the way we've got to blow this Popsicle stand."
"Leon said the source of darkness was coming from in here, somewhere." The white haired teen defended.
"They're wrong. Trust me on this."
"Are you sure?"
"Imma fangirl, of course I'm sure." She smirked.
"Come on! I don't want to die today." Reno barely dodged another assault from the mutated ants, and counter attacked.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Tal gazed out the window, watching the spherical blob of darkness hovering in front of the remains of the old citadel that Sora battled Riku in many games ago; when they were enemies.
"How do we defeat that?" Elena screamed over the chopper blades.
"We don't." Tal replied, looking at the blonde. "Riku does."
"So we just sit up here and let him have all the fun?" Reno pouted. Tal had to look away from him unless she wanted to become a bubbling mass of fangirly goo.
"Tal's coming with me." Riku stated stiffly. Tal looked up at him, crinkling her eyes in confusion. "You know more about all of this then any of us. If I want to defeat him I'll need your help."
She felt a little afraid right then. Her heart started pounding, and her hands felt clammy. If Riku needed her help then things were worse then she realized. They were a lot worse because Riku never asked for help.
She pulled herself up, standing at the entryway to the helicopter, staring at the dark mass they were approaching. Heartless poured out of it and like a ripple affect poured out on the grounds.
She wetted her lips, gripping the side of the wall with a white knuckled grasp. "So, how do we get down there?" She smiled nervously.
"We'll jump." Riku's eyes never left the spherical mass, his hair whipping about.
Tal's smile faltered and her eyes grew wide and fearful. "WHAT?"
Chapter End:
I'm ending the chapter here because the next little bit get's a bit intense and I don't want to leave you hanging in the middle of a battlesk type situation.
I'm sorry about taking a month to update, big estate sales (along with dealing with crazies), I just recently found time to write. I have been mulling this story over in my mind, and I hope this is yet another chapter to please.
Also, despite the seriousness, I hope you got some laughs in there.
Goodness, trying to post a chapter at 1 a.m. in the morning has my brain frazzled, so I can't really gather my thoughts. Sheesh. Sorry if I digress.
Author's Tangents: Everybody, you all ROCK! For the first time like evar I got 9 reviews for one chapter. 10 if you count lord Piggy for reviewing twice :p.
I don't beg for reviews because I think it's uncouth (I used my thesaurus for that word :D) but when I get them I like to show my appreciation because I get all fuzzy inside. For me, it's just hearing what you have to say.
Hearing about your favorite parts, or ideas that you want to see happen. I love all that, and it makes me feel obligated to continue this for you. That's an obligation I suppose I can live with (wink, wink).
aurdox's shout outs: (to the beautiful people)
lord Piggy: Chapter 12: I tried to do a fan girl moment here but it didn't fit. I'm sorry. I really want Tal to revert, I really really do. It'll happen I promise. Everyone should be nice to Tal, now that she can cap 'em. I'm glad I'm still funny because I worry about losing that. You're welcome for the shoutout! It is what I do :D
Chapter 13: Tal is maturing, but hopefully not too much. Aw, you liked the part at the end? I just pulled that out of nowhere (quite literally. 4 in the morning I have no brain). I do like chocolate. A lot.
Less-Than-3: The dialogue beneath the article was Marluxia's (Marlushia tee hee). Sorry I wasn't clear about that. I'll fix that when my brain is functioning. Glad to appease you :3
Void Of Doom And Cupcakes: Thank you for your review. I'm glad… no delighted (thesaurus again), that you liked that bit. I guess I worry too much about what people think, but to see that my decisions are approved makes me feel loads better. I promise Tal will have relapses, but again… bad timing on my part. I'm so sorry.
DeLiCiOuSlY , HyPeR: First and foremost, please ignore the space in the middle of your name, if I didn't put that there then your name would get butchered by fanfiction.
I'm excited that you reviewed because I love hearing input from the people who enjoy this story. I'm having a difficult time writing a reply because I don't know exactly what I want to say so put up with with me please. I guess what I want to say is that I feel honored that I gave you a new way to look at Kingdom Hearts.
Shy of re-iterating what you said to me; I guess I'm just trying to say thank you for letting me know this. It really means a lot.
Ju-san Kikan: I don't know about best (smile sheepishly). I have my faults (such as character description, and also imagery). I do care about my fans though, you guys mean everything. Espcially to Tal.
Tal: "If it weren't for you guys I'd be in the recycle bin forever ago!"
Impatience is okay. Don't ever feel bad for making me feel bad. I mean, okay… er… maybe that is bad… Oi, now I'm not making sense.
Non-patient (giggle snort).
Oh goodness. The cake bit did sound weird but that's ok with me, cause that stuff makes me laugh, and I say weird stuff all the time.
I like sweet things (except for sugar cookies), and churros can be assorted. Now how would we tell them apart; I guess we'd have to eat them to find out.
The Non-Existent Gazette… I made that up on a whim (snicker). I'm delighted you liked it.
Minx The Shadow Thief: Worshiping isn't necessary… but if you insist do I get a throne and a cape? I kid, I kid. I'm glad that my story isn't getting off track because I'm sure you've noticed by now that generally speaking I do.
(Digressing, I apologize) I am officially striking glad from my vocabulary. I use it too much. (Back to the review)
That you would call this a great story is too much. I mean, I just don't know how to respond without sounding like a loser. I think I need to take a class on how to handle compliments because frankly I suck.
How I revolve the comedy around the idea? I haven't a clue, I just write and while writing think about what I want to accomplish with the story (not my life). What ensues is what you see here. Sometimes though I do screw up and then have to make a formal apology like chapter 3.
My ideas are the result of reading too much crap. After reading a bunch of shameless self inserts involving fan girls and bishes and watching the characters I love go OCC I went off the deep end and started contemplating a fan girl's hell; that would be what the municipal refers to as: reality.
Honestly, if you launched yourself at any KH character screaming for babies would they oblige? Maybe Xemnas…. Lol, again I jest.
Also, some of my ideas are just those "What if" moments. When watching things it just triggers ideas. Over active imagination I suppose.
I think now in my ripened years (hyperbole) I wouldn't die a horrible fan girl death, but many years ago in my prime, I could write a story about it but it wouldn't be very long; And she was killed. See.
I update so you can release my knees now :D
Darkmekmon: Awwws, thankies. I'm gla… er, thrilled to see someone who is so enthused about my writings.
I'm not really focusing on romance so if its happening its because it just feels… right I suppose. I hope this chapter isn't discouraging in regards to Tal's fighting but if I was good enough at portraying the Heartless populace then I guess I did fine.
Just to be clear, she can fight, but with this chapter it was like the grasshopper verses the ant colony. Grasshopper's goin' down.
And the Xemnas being a pedo… It's a hard fact to refute, poor guy. Y'know you can also spell Sex Man out of his name (snigger).
daydreamer nightweeper: How was vacation? Good I hope. Late reviews are okay with me. I don't get tired of praise (which sounds awful… and that makes me sound awful… oh jeez I'm so ruining my image). It's good to know that I haven't murdered this story because I really thought I would have by now.
I cheated with Tal's character development by having the 6 weeks with Vincent. Timeskips as cheap as they may be give the author a chance to develop their character without making it too sudden, but despite the maturing I still want to retain some of her basic personality traits. The fact that it is realistic to you is a big relief to me, so thank you for telling me this.
I'm curious as to what adventures await our protagonist as well. I do want to have a Pirates of the Caribbean adventure as well as an Atlantis one (finny fun -snicker). If you have any additional requests please let me know.
Tal and Riku? Tikuness? Honestly, I wasn't planning anything and still am debating on where this will go. You're touching on some subjects I can't really discuss here… :3
I don't know how long this story is going to be, but to clarify it won't be over anytime soon. It did start out as a oneshot. A very simple 3,000 word oneshot. Ah (scratches head) you're asking some really deep questions. I can't say how many more chapters. I'm also am not sure about a sequel because I'm still working on this story.
How did Xemnas make the World that Never Was disappear? Who ever said it was Xemnas. I can't bring up anything else lest I spoil the surprises.
I'm uber happy that you liked the omake. Guess I should do more of those.
Dream Theme: See, I have a knack for describing total strangers. Coincidence… (shifty eyes) maybe. Tal and Miroku… hm… I never thought to compare the two. Tal is over the top, but I think that's why we like her. Miroku the monk from InuYasha, right? (I haven't watched that since I was in high school – 10th grade).
"Hey Riku," Tal sidles her self next to Riku.
"Hey Tal- Ah!"
Tal blinks innocently, "What?"
Sputters, "You just grabbed my butt!"
Hm… Interesting concept. Aw, you're not annoying me. If anything I'm afraid I'm bugging everyone else…
I'm honored that I inspired you and I will keep writing. Thank you for reviewing.
Everyone, another big thank you. Ahem, I mean THANK YOU! Ah ha, get it? It's big :D
A preview would suck so instead I'll give you the title of the next chapter and let you make of it what you will.
Chapter 15: Hell hath no fury like a fan girl scorned.
Thanks again for the continuous support. (P.S. I apologize about typos)
aurdox signing off… (and going to bed)