the cat stash

the strength of our hearts

Sometimes, all it takes to cut through the darkness is a connection.

A rewrite of the Kingdom Hearts series after KH2.

general fic info:

main playlist (yes I know it's insanely long at the moment, I'm going to condense it into a much shorter playlist sometime soon so it works better for the entire series.)

the word "rewrite" implies that I dislike KH as it is, which is very much not true. I just had a cool idea and wanted to rewrite the entire series to tell a new version of the story with my idea in mind.

there will be a total of 3 main fics in the series, with maybe one or two shorter ones to fill in the gaps. the first two main fics are already posted and I'm working on them at the same time to maintain continuity, as they are parallel stories and will eventually converge at the end of the first fic. these fics cover the entire story from the end of KH2 to just before the beginning of KH3, while the third fic will focus on KH3 and ReMind.

this story is heavily Soriku & Destiny Trio focused. not to say that the other characters and relationships aren't important, it's just that Sora, Riku, and Kairi are the heart of my story.

Soriku is a veeeeery slow burn in this series. but! it's for a good reason! I'm not going to leave you all hanging when it comes to their relationship and how it develops. it's going to be good, trust me!!

Kairi is aromantic. this is very important for her side of the story. of course, it's not all of who she is. but it affects every part of her life, and her being in the closet makes that much more difficult... and that's exactly what I want to explore in this series. :)

if I list a relationship in the tags, it will be explored in the fic. I won't tag relationships that aren't important to anyone's characterization or development at some point in the story. if I don't tag a major trio or friendship or something, that relationship is still present, it's just not given as much attention as the tagged relationships.

most of the KH3 arc of the story is inspired by Sleeping Realm theory and the posts I've made about that theory. many of the changes I've made for my fic serve the purpose of supporting the topics and themes the Sleeping Realm theory presents. thus, my series puts a lot of emphasis on love (in all of its forms), sacrifice, and the importance of memories.

the strongest theme in my story is that of finding yourself through connection. this is the core of every single character arc in the entire series. I didn't plan for this btw, it just sorta happened. but I really like this direction for KH's story, so it stuck. :)

there are content warnings in the chapter notes & on this post, but the series isn't nearly as upsetting as it sounds. the warnings are only there to tell you what to expect. I promise it isn't too bad, there's just a lot of heavy stuff in the subtext.

when KH4 releases, I'm going to continue this series with a fourth main fic. but I want to finish writing what I have planned so far before I start working on post-ReMind stuff.

WARNING: from this point on, this post contains a bunch of spoilers for future chapters of these fics. tread carefully! if you don't want too many spoilers, but you still want to know what my fic is about, just go directly to the series using the link above and read the tags there. when each fic is completed, I will update their tags to match the descriptions in this post.

the strength of our hearts: Flower Lore

in my series, flowering plants represent hearts. each person has a flower or two that represents them, sometimes even more than that (which I'll get into in a different post). however, there aren't any set rules for how this works. this is because these flowers are simply the mind's way of observing something as complex as a heart.

for this reason, flowers can represent much more than just single hearts. they can represent one's connections, fate, values, and so on. the possibilities are truly endless. also, there aren't many people in-universe who are inclined to study this phenomenon, so much is still unknown about these heart-flowers.

in the age of fairytales, heart-flowers were much more well-known and understood. after the Keyblade War, those who survived and went on to train new Keyblade wielders would pass on the knowledge of heart-flowers, so that those who wish to understand themselves and their place in the world better would know where to start. but of course, much of this knowledge has been lost to time. some older worlds may hold remnants of the studies done on heart-flowers, but it's difficult to say how many people would've written this information down.

okay, enough with the in-universe description of heart-flowers. let's get into why I decided to do this for my fic.

initially, I got a vague idea for this just from thinking too hard about Destiny's Embrace. then I went down a rabbit hole of the fairytales Disney movies are based on, and found some awesome symbolism I really wanted to use in my fic. then I thought about it more, and decided to turn the heart-flower idea into a metaphor for the whole story, as well as a core part of a certain someone's journey in figuring out who she is.

Naminé is the character I wanted to have the most access to heart-flowers, so to speak. she has the ability to connect with hearts and meddle with or repair the links between memories (which in my fic are what makes up a heart). so naturally, it follows that she would also be able to see the 'true form' of hearts: the flowers. now, because she was told she didn't have a heart of her own for so long, she unknowingly suppressed the new heart she had gained from the memories she made as a Nobody. this is why she doesn't start seeing the flowers until her introduction chapter in part 1 of the series (chapter 3). she also needed guidance from the castle and Ven to even connect with the hearts she saw there in the first place, meaning she still needs time to hone the ability before she can do it on her own.

so that's the basic information done. now to get into the super awesome metaphor I intend on using with Naminé and the flowers.

one of the things Naminé discovers in the castle is a greenhouse. in it there are many plants, including the ones she drew before she was led to the greenhouse. the flower she sees first is Aqua's, iris ensata. Terra and Ven's flowers are also in the greenhouse, Naminé just didn't see them & didn't know to look for them yet. now then. the thing about these greenhouses is that they've been abandoned for many years. the one Namine found was in stasis, just like the rest of the castle. meaning that if the castle were to be returned to normal (in my fic at least), the greenhouse would be just as run-down as the rest of the building. now, with what I've posted of my story so far in mind, imagine this...

Naminé really takes to the garden. she loves spending time in it, drawing the flowers and tending to each plant. the greenhouse basically becomes her home. each time Sora and Riku save another person through the castle card worlds (starting with Repliku, Roxas, and Xion), Naminé plants a new flower from the salvaged seeds she got from cleaning up the dilapidated greenhouse. each time, the flower matches the newly saved person's heart. and when the cast is all together again, Naminé's garden will be full of all of their flowers, thriving despite the poor state of the greenhouse.

the metaphor here is twofold. the obvious interpretation is that Naminé is taking care of all of their hearts. she's meeting all of these new people and adding on to her garden in kind, and through her connection to the castle and her unique abilities, she takes care of the people these hearts belong to.

Naminé could even use her garden as a way to make sure everyone is okay even when they're on other worlds. plant starts dying? time to call that person back home. and so on, and so forth.

but the actual purpose for Naminé's garden in the story is that it's a way for me to show how things are going for everyone whenever necessary. when everything has calmed down and everyone has been reunited, the garden thrives. I'm kinda thinking about having the last scene in the series be of Naminé in her garden, when her favorite greenhouse has finally been fixed up. she's finally safe, and so is everyone else she cares about.

I'll continue this post after I take a nap. I am very eepy. next up is showing off the flowers I chose to represent all of these characters.