Hey lover-boy! Hate to interrupt you! (commentary on ch113)

I probably could've uploaded this chapter sooner, but I didn't trust to do so on airport wifi, I felt sick when I got home, and, well, I've been playing Epic Mickey all morning

Which, by the way, Epic Mickey is a pretty decent game. I'm still working on getting used to the controls, because they're pretty much contradictory to every game I've played, but... it's a nice game. A bit heart wrenching, since Wasteland is home of all the forgotten Disney characters, and at least twice someone as come up to Mickey and is like "you remember me, right?" and he's like "not really..." and they're just like "oh, well, that's okay. Everyone else forgot about me, too."

Anyway, onto the chapter.

Lol. The first note I have written to myself?

"Riku, shut up. I want to write this from Namine's POV, thanks, NOT yours"

As you can see, that didn't work out too well...

Did I mention the speil about the spare shirts? Did I post it earlier? I don't remember...

I'm going to say it again.

Aerith USED to have a rather large amount of spare shirts laying around for cases when someone was injured and needed their shirt washed or repaired or just plain needed a new shirt. Why? Well, Zack had a nasty habbit of needing spare shirts... And, of course, he ended up ruining most of the shirts by -- what else? -- getting injured again. What few shirts are left Aerith doesn't want to use and therefore she keeps borrowing shirts from Leon.

The thing about Leon writing a letter to Rinoa was supposed to go in a couple chapters back, wehn Sora and Riku were talking, and Riku's like "hey, where's Leon?" Sora replies "recovering" as Aerith replies "writing a letter". Aerith then tells Sora not to feel bad, because he inspired Leon to get in touch with Rinoa again (admittedly, in a very indirect and odd way, but...) Since it didn't make it in that chapter, it goes here.

No, in case you're wondering, I did NOT forget Kairi. Kairi's just being really quite because she has no idea what's going on or what to say and feels out of place

I think Tifa's pushing Riku so much to go expel that excess darkness because she knows what can happen if it's merely suppressed. I'm not sure if there's a specific reason why surpressing it is so bad, though. Well, it's probably that eventually you can't suppress it any longer, and when it finally breaks free, the damage it deals is like, ten times worse.

Okay, well, I had planned that Riku's dark mode would change appearance as a result of him being superinfused with darkness, but, well, I don't have time to think of what the new version would look like. I have more important things I need to be doing than planning that. While, yes, it'd be cool, and it makes perfect sense for it to happen, I just don't have time. So, unless inspiration strikes, his dark mode is staying the same.

After Namine asked "You had to do this TWICE?" I considered having Riku just grunt a yes as reply, but then I relized that he wouldn't really do that. I mean, I'm sure he'll eventually grunt a yes to her, but I think that normally he'd actually give her a proper response

Hmm, not sure if I answered this question, but I'm a smidge too lazy to check...

Why does Riku's darkness act up after having light flood through him?

Well, the darkness, wanting to override the light, sort of clusters together/awakes/starts acting up.

It's not weird that I talk to my characters while writing, is it?

Because I did it again:

"Namine, were you waiting to say all this until you and Riku were alone, or was Tifa just interrupting you earlier?"

oh, and here's a conversation I had with magik about this:

me: Riku, stop being so complicated and give me something I can write down, please
magik: lol. Good luck with that.
me: The fact that Namine's freaking out isn't helping. Also, it would help if Riku stopped ANALYZING things...
magik: lol
me: He's as bad as Vexen sometimes...
magik: don't let him hear you say that
me: lol, I won't 

random extra conversation that didn't make it in (for slightly obvious reasons)

Namine: I was scared. And they kept delaying, me!
Riku: Who do I need to yell at?
Namine: Well... Kairi did the most delaying. Don't yell at her. You can yell at Joseph if you'd like

Riku nearly hugs Namine, and then backs out of it.

What's funny, is that Namine so wanted him to hug her there. Because if he had, well, with his arms around her, she could easily forget all of her pain and all of her fear and just let it all be okay.

I suppose Riku could've known that and therefore didn't hug her because he knew that wasn't what she needed, but, honestly, I doubt that. His brain doesn't work that way. He's very... impuslive. So all that he did was probably only on impulse. 

uhm, the next stuff I put in my notes I don't remember enough to comfortably mention. So... moving on...

btw, if you hadn't guessed "she" is magik's Namine

Admittedly, no Riku's thought process isn't entirely coherent. But, thats the way we think. We start one thought only to realize something else and start down an entirely different and only slightly relevant trail

Namiku bickering... I love it. Just love it.

Why didn't Namine subconsciously remember something THIS BIG?

Because she didn't WANT to. She drew pictures mainly of things she wanted to remember, things that comforted her.

How does Riku nearly dying fall into either of those categories?

ugh, why are my notes so out of order?

Well, going back a bit, the reason Riku's surprised that Namine doesn't flinch away from him when he cups her cheek in his hand is because last time he did something like this, it was to magik's Namine, and she flinched away. I don't think he really expected Namine to flinch away here, but the fact that she didn't still came as a surprise. Make sense?

Also, Riku shocked Namine's hand. It wasn't her face. I know it kind of might have read like that, but it was her hand. (Hence why they were holding hands in the first place *cough cough*)

"I should've died, but I didn't and that's all that matters!" (or... whatever that quote was...)

my thoughts upon writing it?

"Oh! THAT'S why Tifa was so insistent on mentioning that Riku should've died!"

 For the life of me, I can't remember what inspired this next little thing, but I shall write it down for you in case one of you happens to be asking/wondering

"Wow! Riku's doing a lot better!"

He's forgetting. Shoving all of his hurt aside. And what better way to forget about one Namine than to spend time with another?

oh! maybe that's in the sense that "he recovered very quickly from Shad's taunting earlier that day"

That's probably it.

heheh. I love how Riku keeps getting hit in the back of the head with things. I mean, technically, I think this is the "first" time, but I'm pretty sure I've written two other scenes where someone throws something at him and it hits him in the back of the head.

talking to my characters again:

"Joseph you little devil!" 

"Now, Riku, don't think that. You like Joseph."