My Heart Is So Link Shaped

cat?

perhaps not

YOU GOT IT BOSS!

The initial fic is right here, "darkness in the basement" (i really need to keep working on the fic oof)

but I'll go into more detail here (including a bit of spoilers under the cut because i really wanna blabber about this)

Okay so! When Ventus destroyed their heart, his half got rescued by Sora, but Vanitas' half was basically cast out into the void with no body to return to. So when Aqua brought Ventus' empty body to the Land of Departure and subsequently Castle Oblivion, he was dragged along with, ending up in the lowest floor while Ventus slept in the highest floor.

He's stuck as a Flood now because he no longer has a body. I like to think the Vanitas Remnant really is that; a pitiful attempt at anything that's left of him trying to restructure himself, but only ending up as an Unversed recreation. That's what the Vanitas in this story is, his mind was too weak to truly bring himself back initially and that's why he's in the form of an Unversed at first, because he's not human anymore. Up until a certain point. It's also why his dark suit is now white instead of red (there's no symbol on his helmet though).

Eventually, with the help of

inhumane science experiments

he gains enough energy to have the ability to transform into other forms of Unversed, though the Flood tends to be his preferred form until he regains his human appearance. But you can't exactly sit on someone's shoulder parrot-style as human, now can you?

Skipping forwards a lot, Vanitas eventually ends up in Radiant Garden around the time of Dream Drop Distance and after being a little shit for a few weeks, is finally reunited with the only person he's ever really tolerated that he watched, you know, die. I say "tolerated" because they weren't really friends in Castle Oblivion, only truly bonding in Radiant Garden and become practically inseparable (you know those neck pillows? yeah that's flood form vanitas wrapped around ienzo's shoulders)

Also because he's still connected to Ventus, he feels when Xehanort tries to possess Sora and ends up having a panic attack because he thinks Xehanort is coming after him again :)))

(the image is bigger then i intended but meh)

design from my vanitas and ienzo friendship au where vanitas is turned into a flood after dying bbs, trapped in the basement of castle oblivion, and eventually gains the ability to transform into any unversed form

one common thing is the red marks along his chest being consistent in every form. this includes his human form, both on his skin and the dark suit, which has turned to similar colors to the remnant colors, just with the remaining red on his chest.

little bastard creature from a dream/nightmare i had, where it had the ability to "paint" you into the 4th dimension, except your eyes still couldn't see into said dimension so it just looked like you were being cut into or falling apart. If you refused it would scream and chase you like a hound from hell, and it was impossible to escape. If you know SCP-096, it was that minus the death since I woke up before it caught up.

what made it a nightmare is that despite my fear of being chased, my dreams always repeat over and over to "get the best version" of it :(

pokémon baking book and those edgy teen songs

the perfect combination

certified tool of mass harassment

smile!

it might just be "this game has a multitude of creatures you interact with in one way or another"?

Playing Creatures of Ava has made me wonder what the heck "creature collector" even is as a genre. Ava uses a research system very similar to Pokémon Legends Arceus, but otherwise has little to no RPG mechanics and certainly no team building. Does creature collector as a genre apply to non-RPGs? Palworld, as I understand it, is not an RPG. Is that a creature collector? It is certainly marketed like one.

Is Pokémon Ranger a creature collector? You (temporarily) recruit creatures and make a team out of them.

Is Bugsnax a creature collector? You literally collect creatures but you don't make a team out of them, you just feed them to people.

What constitutes collecting creatures? Does Pokémon Snap, a game about collecting photos of creatures, count?

Zoo Tycoon? Metroid Prime??

@megadrivemenace us