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Unversed - Blog Posts
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.
(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.
my favorite little guys
i realize i've never posted any of my kingdom hearts art on here before despite my recent reblogs
so uh, just gonna post them in order i posted them on twitter :)
and apparently the first kh fanart i ever made was a flood on a chair :D
100 DAYS OF KINGDOM HEARTS DRAWINGS:
DAY 64
sometimes i think flood are cute but then i remember how big they are and get a little nervous
"Hajime is a mage and magic passes through his whole body leaving a trace (which disappears after a while). this is noticeable by the color of his blood and the shade of his eyes, as well as by some other parts of his body!! thunder = green, blizzard = sky blue, darkness = purple, etc. (Hajime can not use fire and fire based attacks)"
Hajime's expressions concept (kind of). just testing my skill
KH OC week 2024 - Day 6: Journal Appearance.
I would like to write a little about Hajime's design and why it is exactly the way you see it now.
The hairstyle has been there since the first design (I wrote about it), the reason why it is so: Hajime is directly connected to Vanitas, and Vanitas is a part of Ventus. However, the back of Hajime's head is shaved (the exact reason is still unknown in the plot, perhaps it was done by Even, perhaps it is his personal manifestation). Outside of the plot, I did this so that Hajime would have more of his own personality in his look despite how he is related to certain canon characters.
Directly about the face: Hajime has quite thick eyebrows and eyelashes, this is his own manifestation. The Hajime's gaze is heavy, the corners of his eyes are lowered. The eye color is jade, which has been with him since his very first design and is in fact the opposite color of the eyes of the Unversed. It is also noticeable from the look that Hajime has a darkened area from the eyebrows to the eyes: this is also natural for him. What was received later: dark bags under the eyes.
+ Hajime has an interesting feature: when he cries, his tears are partially colored black. This pigment is secreted by his body. This is also reminded by the darkened tips of his fingers and toes.
The Hajime's skin color is noticeably dark, which was inspired by Master Xehanort. This can be explained by the fact that Vanitas is connected to darkness.
When I drew his outfit I relied on the designs of the Unversed from Birth by Sleep. I took a little from each Unversed and came to the version that you can see now. (+ I think I'll use the last one for his appearance in KH III).
I really wanted to convey the feature of the Flood: pointed limbs, so Hajime has such pointed shoes and silver claws on his gloves. (+ I really love Aqua's shoes). The color of the outfit is inspired by the same Unversed.
@khoc-week
KH OC week 2024 - Day 4: Dream Past.
I
Hajime is an experiment of one of Ansem the Wise's apprentices - Even. This experiment with Unversed was hidden from others and was inspired by Ansem the Wise's research, and later by the interest of one of the other apprentices, Xehanort.
???
The experiment was only half successful: the successful part is that the Unversed now has a human form and the subject has a heartbeat, but the heart rate was much lower than normal. The unsuccessful part is that the subject was in a coma.
Even considered the experiment a failure, as he believed "the heart failed to take hold". Hajime was left in the same room where he was created, and all reports of this failure were destroyed. Even concluded that Hajime would likely die after a while with such a low heart rate, either from complete cardiac arrest or some other dysfunction of an imperfect heart or a weak body. Several times after that, the scientist came to make sure, but the heart still beat at its own rhythm, it seemed strange, but it still did not give hope and after some time it was forgotten and erased from memory as an unsuccessful attempt at experiments with the heart.
II
While the Hajime's body was left to die naturally, something was happening inside him that would make him the character we would later know. He was about to take a long, arduous journey through the blurry horizons of his own heart.
Even, and at that time Vexen, will not know that the experiment was successful after all and after 10 years Unversed, gifted with a heart, will finally awaken from sleep.
@khoc-week
KH OC week 2024 - Day 3: Connection.
VANITAS.
For Hajime, Vanitas is a never-ending nightmare.
Since the Unversed are completely under Vanitas control, and Hajime is in his previous form is Unversed, he is directly connected to Vanitas. During and after awakening, Hajime continues to see this dark silhouette everywhere, still hear his voice. For a long time Hajime can't even name what and who he sees and hears, but his fear changes to anger and again to fear every time he hears that voice.
Only the manifestations of Vanitas in Hajime's heart can bring him close enough to breaking and falling under control again.
@khoc-week
KH OC week 2024 - Day 2: Past What was your character creation process like?
this one will be morally difficult for me 😭😭
I didn't find much old art to show, but I think these ones will say a lot.
Hajime as a character has existed since 2016. In March 2016 (I was 13 uuum 13 ehem) I learned about KH and somewhere around the same time I came up with this, at that time - eh, I don't know- at least unoriginal character who was literally a goth Roxas (I didn't knew about the existence of AUs idk, and Roxas is already ''emo boy'', but 2007 was almost here idkkk, we can joke about it for a very long time actually, but the fact remains a fact).
His name changed many times and there was no special meaning behind them (Sea, Syon), I just liked the way they sounded. I can answer the question why I named him ''Hajime'' right now. Internet says: ''Hajime (Japanese: はじめ) is a Japanese name meaning "beginning" (初め, 始め)''. I liked the way it sounded and its meaning and it gave me a hint where to move the character's story now.
+ in the Hajime's story he chooses this name for himself, because obviously no one gave name to him, but he needed a word to talk about himself and (i'm not sure about that) in the book he finds this name and I can say that it was chosen by him randomly.
He had a terrible written story on the basis of some other AU (???) and without сorvalol I can’t read it, even though it’s stored somewhere in my old dms from those years, I still don’t want to show it 😭
Around 2017 and up until 2019, I tried to make... something... out of him. It feels more like I just periodically returned to KH in a fit of baseless nostalgia and I really wanted to shove a “piece of myself” into this universe (which was already tired of me lmao).
2019 reminded me about KH in the form of KH III release and... this character again (+ my friend's kh oc- Jun).
I think that for a long time I didn't wanted to fundamentally change his concept (which was literally just that he exists and somehow travels around the worlds) because I was emotionally attached to this character. In essence, he was not just a character for me, but also memories that were triggered by each repeated hyperfixation on this universe.
It seems to me that the most obvious indicator of how I jumped back and forth into the KH universe is noticeable by the fact that it gave me the opportunity to look at one of my redraw series with this character through the years.
From 2020 to 2023 there was a long lull with this character.
2023 has been jUiCy in rethinking from the start because the long break gave me the opportunity to finally stop give in to nostalgia (or at least less) and loosen my emotional attachments to unworkable concepts. Therefore, this character now has the opportunity to finally become something better than a copy of another character.
However, this epic attempt was quickly abandoned as soon as the hyperfix ended.
We've reached the present time (mid-2024).
I slammed my fist on the table and decided to finally play through ALL the Kingdom Hearts games (that was therapy for my soul) and finally my understanding of KH universe became kinda complete (I still don't understand everything, the plot is very complex u'know). From what I began to understand, I decided to give this character another chance and close this damned gestalt.
This story is still ongoing, but I told in general details everything that happened to this character all these 8 years. This actually shows not only how the character changed, but also how I changed as an artist. Even my ''psychological problems'' can be seen through this story, and what amazes me the most is how over the years, using Hajime as an example, my drawing skills improved.
At such moments, you understand that you are not standing still and thoughts about "I have no progress in my art" no longer arise.
@khoc-week
KH OC week 2024 - Day 1: Introduction.
''What if unversed will get it's own heart?''
name: Hajime (self-chosen name) | age: ??? | gender: male | experiment № ??? | keyblade wielder
short description: Hajime is a "not very successful" experiment of one of Ansem the Wise's apprentices, but that gave him a body in which his heart could now exist. Now he has his own weak, imperfect heart, and a body to match. At the moment he was created, and for a long time after, he was in a very deep sleep. For the worlds outside he slept for more than 10 years, but all this time he tried to get used to his new heart, understand it, and wake up for the first time.
For Hajime this was his first internal awakening, 'cause all this time before he was just a creature driven by instincts, filled with negative emotions. Finally waking up from a long sleep, for him his whole body felt heavy, his bones bent for the first time, his skin was unusually soft and warm. Everything seemed painfully unfamiliar, he was lost. Hajime had a lot of questions in his head, all he wanted now was answers.
nature: Hajime is always more susceptible to his negative emotions, while the positive ones are somewhere deep inside, hidden and very difficult to reach. This makes him emotionless most of the time, where anyone would smile or laugh he feels something strange, and it is hard for him to give free rein to natural positive emotions, they always get like a lump in his throat. He has yet to understand what is happening to him.
my comment: For me Hajime is a child between me, the Kingdom Hearts universe and my huge interest in it. Another attempt to create an art project. I decided to see what interesting things I can come up with within this universe, try myself in something new, absorb new knowledge in the concept, design and other things that I love based on Kingdom Hearts. I was amazed by many interesting scenario, design and art decisions made by developers. Hajime is also my personal huge experiment on the basis of "what I am capable of and what can I learn".
I can't say for sure what awaits him in the future, but for now he is motivation for me. (and now there is a good reason to rewatch Disney films)
I'm very luckily returned on Tumblr and came across this event. I am also very glad that now i had reason to share the already finished concepts and ideas of this character, who has been with me for quite a long time and has survived a kind of creative hell in my head lol. + sorry for my english, i'm not a native speaker!
@khoc-week
thanks to some nice people here on tumblr who was interested in my kh oc Hajime!! so here some upcoming ref wips for him!! he's not just a fan character, he's like a whole project for me since i want to make a lot of concept art for him cause I'm really into kingdom hearts universe now 🥀
i really enjoy playing chain of memories so here some cards