As things move on into Dream Drop Distance, there are some things I want to work out from the start before I even set to writing, and I thought perhaps those of you who have stuck through my series so far might be able to help me with it.
The biggest roadblock i'm hitting is HOW to write it. As i'm sure anyone who's played it knows, the game basically splits itself in two stories: Sora and Riku. You switch back and forth between them. With Toshiro added, that would be three stories in one i'd have to write. The challenge seems fun, but i'm curious if readers want to just have Toshiro's version and not bother dealing with Sora and Riku's stories unless they involved a change due to Toshiro's presence, or if I should still include their side along with Toshiro's own. And if I go with doing all three, should I do each of their segments in each world (meaning there would be three chapters, one for each character, per one world and the chapters would be very long) or should I stick to chapters as I do them and simply put line breaks between the three of them to show shift in perspective. It's quite the interesting challenge for me and I wondered what people might prefer to read.
I think I've figure out this one for the most part. Someone pointed out the plot point of how Riku essentially becomes a sort of Dream Eater for Sora in an unconscious effort to protect him while Xehanort drags Sora into darkness to become a vessel. In that vein, it would make more sense for Toshiro to just be put into Riku's storyline, which would let the two of them start bonding and would let me keep to a set path that I can change as needed, which will definitely happen. As for structure, I think I'm still going to have Sora's storyline just for those who want the full POV and I will just highlight any parts that are changed dramatically for those who just want to skim it for what's new, and then have Riku and Toshiro's path in it's own full chapter. The reason I want Sora's part in still is not just because I had a few people ask but because it will help me make sure the stories are crossing over properly and I can include new changes without it being weird little snippets in between the main parts. I have a bad habit of forgetting what I'm doing and making things up as I go so I need to make sure I'm consistent, at least a little bit. For those who just want Toshiro's POV, like I said, I'll put in some kind of noticeable marker for what's an important change so you can gloss over the story that's already known, I just had a few people ask for Sora's path as a refresher to the game since it's been out for a long time.
My other curiosity is what to give Toshiro as his beginning spirit. Sora gets the hamster and Riku gets the bat, and while I know all of you are as tempted as I am to give him the dragon, the dragon spirit is one of the higher level ones that you get late game, so it feels unfair. I'd rather him start out with a low level one just like Riku and Sora.
I have made little Dream Eater teams for all three of them much like one would make a pokemon team, lol, so this part is covered, I took everyone's suggestions into account and did my own research as well. No spoilers though! You'll see them in the story, nicknames and all! Though I'm sure my search history of Japanese baby names might look weird to my parents haha.
For those who don't know, I have a poll up regarding the Pirates of the Caribbean world in KH3 since I put the cart before the horse a bit and did the Davy Jones story in my version before it actually happens in game. As of February 2020 the lead vote is for me to go back and rewrite my version to keep Davy Jones for KH3 but that's way more tedious work than just replacing the KH3 version lol that I haven't written yet lol. Go put in a vote if you have a preference.
I may add more questions when I actually get to writing, but for now these two are the most important to deal with before I even open a new document, and i'm always happy to hear ideas.