Riku

WHEN YOU WALK AWAY, YOU DON'T HEAR ME SAY

❝PLEASE, OH BABY, DON'T GO.❞

The tale of Riku starts and ends as a tale of a boy who wanted something he can't have. It's especially hard to help if the one thing he wants happens to be his best friend.
[break][break]
Oh, it's not as if his life is missing that friend entirely. From the very beginning, he and this friend - Sora, his light, the boy who gave it meaning since the first word left his lips - stayed close to each other. Thick as thieves, peanut butter and jelly, the two boys dominated the islands together. Familiar faces echoed their backdrops, but the wind whispered of the two of them and their unbreakable bond, and no amount of additional background noise would shatter it. It's a bubble that wraps around them, their own little world that they've devised together while existing upon a real one, and indeed it's an existing world as they construct all their fantasies together, ranging from pirates to king and knight to dragon slaying or just a casual run down the beach. It's laughter that brings them together in the beginning, with Riku a little demanding but with Sora always smiling.
[break][break]
He's everything, Sora is, and little Riku knows that. He hardly knows anything outside of him; and it's that even when two strangers wind upon their shoreline that brings Riku to vow to obtain the power to protect what matters to him. Honestly,
there's not much wondering because there's not much to wonder about. It's Riku and Sora, Sora and Riku, and that's all the world that Riku finds himself needing. A vague question, an expansive answer, or otherwise; it doesn't matter, because it's the two of them and there's nowhere, or no one else that Riku would rather be.
[break][break]
There's little to break up this world, and to Riku, that's a good thing. To Riku, that's a good thing even after that bubble's been accommodating. To Riku, a part of him still believes it'd been a good thing, back then. It's hard to argue that he and Sora hadn't been happy where they were. Sure, there's some fragility there in their friendship, that if anything's ever perturbed or shaken them up then Riku loses control and when Riku loses control, Sora falls into despair.
There's a fear, a hidden tension, there, lying beneath the surface threatening to bubble up, because Riku wants to keep Sora safe, but how do you keep him safe when you don't know what the word "safe" means?
[break][break]
Simple: the world offers an explanation. It throws it in, shakes up the formula, because you must learn.
[break][break]
In this case, that explanation begins to arrive through Kairi, the princess from another world.
[break][break]

YOU'RE GIVING ME TOO MANY THINGS

LATELY, YOU'RE ALL I NEED.

The tale of Riku reaches its conflict as a tale of a boy who's succumbed to jealousy. It's especially hard to help if the one thing that causes that jealousy is his best friend.
[break][break]
The impossible has happened: the bubble has popped. The shield that guides both Riku and Sora has been permeated, and it's been permeated by none other than, of all things, a girl. It spins like a fairy tale; there she is, the rare red-head with the bright smile on her face and even princessy origins (not that they know of these, at the time, but they may as well have; she just radiates princesshood), coming between the two of them. There they are, the boys, who've had mostly no one aside from each other, and there she is, the beauty who can smile once at Sora and suddenly it's like a thousand knives have jut out between them. It plays out just as the tales would expect you to think, with the boys suddenly beginning to devolve into petty squabbles over her as she remains oblivious to the boys' plight.
[break][break]
Except that's making it too simple, and Riku is not a simple boy. He may follow the chapters, beat-by-beat, but there's a few pages missing and lines added that don't quite fit in with the narrative.
[break][break]
See, the type of jealousy that he experiences isn't the typical testosterone filled nonsense of fighting to the brink over the girl. It's easy to assume what gets him in the gut is the way that her eyes crinkle up on her face, but in reality it's the face that that prompts that makes his stomach churn. Because on the other end it's not her he's seeing, but instead the best friend whose world he shared, the one whose oath he made for when he was little. He's smiling and laughing with her, sounds and sights for Riku's primary, and suddenly he's third-wheeled because they stand there exchanging secrets off on other parts of the island while he sits and ruminates alone. And suddenly he's realizing just how much of his world is Sora, because when he attempts to replace it it's much like attempting to replace the soul - it doesn't work. There's always something missing when he hears Selphie attempting to chat him up, or Tidus attempting to invite him to some sport that he's never played. A half has been cut out and he's bleeding.
[break][break]
Push, pull, push, pull, and suddenly the protector becomes the aggressor in an attempt to congeal the gaping wound, and he tries to meet that smile of hers with one of his own while it turns sinister on the boy who's betrayed him. Left his side for hers, huh? Let's see who's easily replaceable. Let's see who can push away the other first, because Riku is not one to be pushed aside, oh-no. Sora's gotten where he is because of him. It twists inside him, burns him up, and Riku's beginning to forget all those grins and games and running on the beach and falling over with wheezing breaths and the bliss that passes through them with the salt in the air, and it becomes replaced with visions that make him want to throw up every time they pass through his head of two love birds, two love birds who don't need him and will never need him any-more. And suddenly he wants to build his own world, go out into the sea and leave this behind because it feels like a suffocating god-damn cage when there's nothing but lovey-dovey words passed by people who often forget he even exists.
[break][break]
Get out, he wants to do. Get out, leave the island, explore other worlds. Grab strength.
[break][break]
The promise feels so far away from his mind that he's not even sure why he wants to go, just that he does, and as the urge grows so too does the shadow cast through his heart, smothering any warmth that might have existed for his home, his family, and the friends he used to promise himself he held so dear.
[break][break]

REGARDLESS OF WARNINGS,

THE FUTURE DOESN'T SCARE ME AT ALL.

The tale of Riku continues on as a boy who realizes his mistake and seeks to correct it. It's especially hard to help if that mistake is what results in life as they know it to change.
[break][break]
If you'd told Riku that he would have his body taken over by a man who would use it to destroy all worlds and seek the greatest power of all through some mythical place called Kingdom Hearts back when he was younger, he'd have laughed such a notion off.
[break][break]
Then again, when summed up in such a way, it's hard not to think of it as ridiculous; the better, more proper dressing of such a journey that Riku's gone through can be better addressed as falling into human vice and letting it control him to the point that it's inflicted pain upon everyone he knows, and everything he knows, including his home and those he'd promised and sought to protect.
[break][break]
It begins with subtle pushes deep within the resonance of his heart as he's drawn to the door within their (his, his and Sora's, his and Sora's) secret spot, the very same that Sora betrayed him in, symbolizing their devolving friendship, symbolizing his leaving, he pulled away first, not me showed Kairi when she became a friend of theirs. The door always captivates him, always seduces him even has he attempts to get Kairi and Sora to work on a raft with him in order to leave their world, a cage it is. Too small, it's destroying him and eating him up from the inside out, and that door? That door must mean something. 'Subtle' becomes 'too intensely powerful for him to control', and it's with some oddly possessed confidence that he pulls the knob, unleashing upon his world and everything with it the very feelings stuffed within his ribcage as they seek to devour it like the world has devoured him.
[break][break]
It only makes sense that the darkness, of all things, is what beckons Riku. Oh, it's not so much that he is evil, conventionally anyway, but rather that it draws him in, a comfort that smothers out all knowledge and destroys it deep within, and maybe it's his home, there, when Sora used to be his light. He'd been the one shining thing there, but Riku pushes him away and it only makes sense, then, that he's falling into it, that it makes him feel good because feeling good equals not thinking at all. And he still doesn't think, really, not putting two-and-two together that their world dies because of him, or maybe he does realize it? In a way, he does, but darkness is mind-numbing and that's what he needs, and when it's enveloping their whole island he doesn't even think about Kairi but instead Sora, there, with his hand extended to him. Kairi, Kairi, Kairi. Sora brings her up, but Riku's god-damn sick of hearing about Kairi. It's them, they can look for Kairi sometime else but right now it's Riku and Sora.
[break][break]
He thinks, in hindsight, he should've seen it coming when Sora failed to grab his hand.
[break][break]
It's dirty, how it worms its way into him and takes over his mind and brain; it's like a drug, snuffing out any individuality that Riku might have had, a one-of-us sort of deal he falls under because it's easier. It's easier than having his entire world fall down, it's easier than dealing with the weight on his shoulders that it might be his fault. And that's certainly more than a physical sense. It's always been a physical sense, because his world didn't just die when the heartless controlled it, ambushed it and made it their own. Heartless, souls much like him, feeding off of everyone else rather than doing anything for himself. No, his world died when the one person he thought needed him the most gravitated toward someone else.
[break][break]
In reality, it's Riku who needs Sora.
[break][break]
That need is only picked upon and picked upon, and Riku wonders even now how he'd been so quick to believe Maleficent when she whispered sweet nothings about how Sora betrayed him, but maybe it's because it'd already been validating what he'd thought before rather than pointing out the real flaw, the real downfall that destroyed them both. He's only fifteen, so it's easier to blind himself to that reality, and it's funny, because he's so willing to be blind to that and yet be rightfully suspicious when Maleficent announces plans in helping Kairi, considering her heart's left her. Oh, he's found her and he's protecting her, because he doesn't hate Kairi, not really. Even if, even now, it's easy to think she's destroyed him and everything he holds dear.
[break][break]
And even if, when he really thinks about it, the only one who's done any destroying is he himself.
[break][break]
It's ridiculous, it's shameful, how much Riku falls into because he has nothing else there. He's swept it out beneath his feet, so it's easy to look up to this power as a way to compensate for it. It's easy to see Ansem, a HEARTLESS (goodness, not a suspicious name at all for his species!), as a savior, an angel come to bring him only the greatest benefit. It's easy to project his lack of caring about Kairi and how selfish he'd been onto Sora, and about how Sora never cared at all about him or about Kairi, because all he wanted was to absorb all this adventure and power to himself.
[break][break]
You know, because Riku didn't want or do that. Not at-fucking-all.
[break][break]
There's only one consolation prize at the end of it, and that's when it becomes apparent how much it's hurting all of them. Of course that's only when Ansem is fully attempting to control his body, and not when Sora is practically lying at his feet as Riku has taken the keyblade from him. Riku still has nightmares about that, about Sora's face when he looks up at him pathetically, crestfallen, and full well knowing he'd caused that.
[break][break]
Maybe it's good that Sora grew without him, that he learned to defend himself, that he made new friends. But in hindsight, Riku wishes that he hadn't been his teacher.
[break][break]

WHEN WE ARE OLDER YOU'LL UNDERSTAND

❝NO, I DON'T THINK LIFE IS QUITE THAT SIMPLE.❞

The tale of Riku transforms into one of a boy who wants his best friend back. It's especially hard to help if the best friend he wants back is the very one he placed in that position in the first place.
[break][break]
After all, why would Sora be asleep otherwise, if Riku hadn't been the one to steer him into a path that led him into Castle Oblivion, his cage for the next year?
[break][break]
His own journey - that is, Riku's - turned into one of self discovery. There he is, walking along it and stuck within his own head, and his head is not a nice place to live, especially as Riku has to resist getting drunk off of darkness again to smother all individuality and the pain that comes with it. It lurks, it haunts at the back of his mind as his desire manifests deep within his heart, and its duality as he struggles to keep along with the line of light makes everything difficult. Oh, he's part-way trapped here with Mickey, as the two of them fell into the Realm of Darkness together, with the remnants of everything that makes Riku who he is lingers at his fingertips, but no matter how the king promises to stay at his side (and it helps, to be certain!), it's not enough to combat his lingering will within his heart, the desires that he has and the ones that he wants to keep.
[break][break]
It's all the more tempting when he's picked up by a mysterious figure by the name of DiZ, and from there he finds Sora, trapped within a pod.
[break][break]
It's all humbling for Riku, really. He stands there with the boy he's hurt the most, who he knows will smile at him the instant he sees him again, and his gut wrenches. He didn't let himself feel remorse back then, but there it is, the taunting words of the organization echoing sharply within his head and his own reflection taunting him. There's Ansem, and he lies in wait for Riku, ready to leap on him the instant he shows weakness, and Riku knows he can never be an object of the light again. He can never contain the purity of the boy who fought so hard to find him, who fought so hard to save Kairi, who never succumbed at all. It's a pain that's so alien and yet so familiar underneath Riku's skin, knowing that he hurts from shards that he's poked himself with, and yet he can't complain. He can say that ouch, it hurts, but what good will that do when he's the only one to blame for it?
[break][break]
Maybe that's why he's so dogged in bringing Sora back. It's a new drug, in a way, doesn't allow him to think. He has something else to focus on, someone else to beat up and take everything out on, to scoff at. Oh, Roxas looks like him, thinks like him, is him in a way and that's probably why it hurts to say he should essentially die so Sora can live, but it's easy not to feel like it when Roxas's face isn't his. Riku wonders sometimes if he ever really changed when he thinks about how easy it'd been to reach back into the darkness again simply for the sake of pushing Roxas back toward the boy he must reunite with. His wrist bears the mark, and it's almost a wound of pride, knowing that he's gone through so much to fix his mistake. A ridiculous sentiment, to be sure, but it's the only one that's keeping him alive anymore when everything else serves as a reminder that he will never be good enough for light again, and it's all his fault.
[break][break]
He tries so adamantly to keep away from Sora. He knows he's bad for him, like poison in his veins. He knows that he'll just sway him again, like he always does, and Sora might be better off without him. Further, he doesn't want him to see his face. Not like this. Not when his body's become Ansem's again, the man who destroyed everything for the both of them. He practically is Ansem. He doesn't hide that fact from DiZ when he asks.
[break][break]
But as usual, Riku needs him. He needs Sora, lets himself get too close. And in a way, he needs Kairi too. He doubts she will ever care about him as much as she does Sora. He doubts that he'll ever bring himself to feel for her the same way he does for Sora. But he's not going to leave her to die, and he owes her, because he knows he's brought her pain, too. He knows if it weren't for him, Sora and Kairi wouldn't have known separation like he did. And it's that that keeps him from being separate long enough for either of them to forget about him, just as Sora slipped from his mind thanks to the witch's machinations.
[break][break]
Oh, god, it hurts. It hurts when he's smiling and laughing with Sora again, like they hadn't in years, with no jagged edge to it. It hurts enough that he finds himself saying things he'd tried to lock away so close to his breast once he's taken a blow to the ribs against the leader of the organization. Things about how jealous he'd been of Sora. Things about how lucky he was to have him as a friend. He laid it all out to bear because he couldn't resist it, because it's Sora and he wants him back, oh god, he wants him back. He wishes he could go back in time and change everything.
[break][break]
He can't run and hide and darkness from it all anymore. His heart is in pieces, but he'll do what he can to stitch it back together instead of pretending swallowing it whole solves anything.
[break][break]

❝WISH I COULD PROVE I LOVE YOU,

BUT DOES THAT MEAN I HAVE TO WALK ON WATER?❞

The tale of Riku nears its conclusion as a tale of a boy who would give anything and everything for his best friend. It's especially hard to help if the friend he's willing to give everything up for is part of a gambit for nefarious deeds.
[break][break]
Oh yes, the test. It's a test to see if they're ready, ready to become keyblade masters - and it's only after they've submerged themselves into slumber that Yen Sid admits that it's not the usual way of doing things. Really, Riku has no doubt that Sora will pass; instead, the cloud remains thickly over his own heart, not certain if he's even fit to wield a keyblade, let alone have the title of master adorned to his pelt. There's guilt to swallow later when Sora agrees to it and it's that agreement that places him right into their hands. A boy who would do anything for him, has done anything as he's chased him for well over a year in order to drag his tail back home, and there he is, placing himself back into the line of fire for Riku. It's any wonder to him at this point if he deserves it.
[break][break]
The trials and tribulations that follow resemble any other pattern that they've gone through. Enter the worlds, clear them of their ill, lock keyholes, done. But there's something amiss bubbling behind the time loops, a plan in the works and machinations that none of them manage to predict until Sora's well within the jaws of fate. It's from the very beginning that Riku's drawn himself into his concern, before the test even starts, because he notices when the boy's nodding off that something isn't right. Hearts drawn together as if by fate, and adorned on Riku's back is a permanent mark, a permanent mark that signifies what he really is and what Sora really means to him, because it's only for him that he will earn the mark at all.
[break][break]A Dream Eater. It's a creature that roams the realms of dreams, bouncing about merrily as it serves its master, and Riku... Oh, he's in quite the pickle. He's in the pickle because he's not in his own dream like he thinks he is, but he's instead become a part of Sora's. He's his Dream Eater. Yes, the same as those dopey Meow Wows who smile at him with their tongues stinging out or the Komory Bats who flutter about with fangs about as intimidating as a Halloween costume in broad daylight. He's among them, and he's become this creature for Sora and Sora alone. Does he regret it?
[break][break]
No. Not really. In fact, it's a title he wears with pride because it's a title he's earned specifically for Sora. The one thing he's done for him, the one good thing, and it's what's marred him permanently on his back, the symbol etched into muscle. But there's no agony to the process, there's no pain, there's no anger or regret or any of that, there's only a sense of belonging that Riku never earned before. No longer does the world around him feel like a cage because he's realized just what, or who his world really is, and as long as he can keep to that world then nothing needs to change, he doesn't need to go anywhere. He's only felt restless because it smothered him, being trapped in loneliness, and when he attempted to salvage it the feeling never went away.
[break][break]
He knows there's other people who are locked within Sora's heart. He knows that Sora's identity is muddled, that Xehanort is reaching deep within his head in order to make him think that "Sora" is nothing more than an empty shell. But Riku knows better.
[break][break]
Sora is home, and he always has been. It's not a surprise, then, when others have found him home, too.
[break][break]
He rescues, with Lea's help, Sora's body. His mind may not be fully intact, but it's better than it being usurped completely, and Riku's learned to better appreciate that Sora is there. What's most important of all is the fact that Sora is everything, and that realization has finally sank in for Riku. No longer does he have to wonder his place. Keyblade Master is the title he earns, unlike Sora who "failed" because he'd been captured. It's a lofty title to Riku, and honestly Dream Eater fits him more. He doesn't know what he's supposed to do as the Master. He doesn't think he truly earned it.
[break][break]
But maybe it'll be okay, so long as Sora is by his side. ✻

MY HEART'S A BATTLEGROUND

WHERE FEARS AND LIES MELT AWAY

Riku walks the line between light and darkness, which is represented by his keyblade, Way to the Dawn. A keyblade, in layman's terms, is a blade that can transform through keychains and is the only weapon capable of destroying heartless, those who have lost the light in their hearts due to one reason or another. It's also able to close and open locks between worlds, which makes it highly coveted. Keyblades are based upon the "heart", or the soul, of its wielder, and as such generally speaking it's impossible to steal one, as a wielder can simply call their keyblade back. Way to the Dawn sprouted after Riku's previous one, Soul Eater, and represents his midway path between light and dark. Generally speaking, keyblades can only be wielded by those aligned with the light, but Riku is an exception to this, in part because his keyblade had been passed down onto him and in part because his path is not an entirely dark one.
[break][break]
That being said, Riku's heart is certainly capable of darkness, and as such Riku can utilize abilities that are related to it. The most useful of these abilities comes in the form of him being able to open up Corridors of Darkness at will. These are portals that briefly enter the Realm of Darkness and allow him to traverse large spaces that he would ordinarily have to take time to pass through; think of them much like wormholes in functionality. Various other dark abilities are also within his utility, including the Dark Shield, which he uses primarily to protect himself and Sora, and Shadow-related abilities. He's also able to control any heartless around as they listen to the strongest heart, and with his settled in between light and darkness, he'll be the go-to in most situations.
[break][break]
There's various other abilities and equipment that Riku can utilize that is similar to Sora's. For instance, he's able to right himself in the air when taking a hit, drill forward with his keyblade, and deal heavy blows with it in spiral and other motions as well as counters that he can utilize. In other words, Riku is well-versed in combat, and with such an array of abilities at his arsenal he's no slouch.

[break][break]

WONK UOY NAHT NOITCEFFA EROM DEEN I

SNWOD DNA SPU YNAM OS

It's hard to say whether Riku can be considered entirely human, what with the fact that he has transformed into a Dream Eater.

[break][break]

Dream Eaters are creatures that inhabit sleep. They come in two forms: Spirits and Nightmares. Spirits are friendly Dream Eaters, the kind that provide good dreams, while Nightmares are exactly what is said on the tin. They inflict status ailments upon hapless sleepers in order to provide them with torment, and in this way they feed upon dreams in order to service themselves. They don't tend to ally with one particular person or another, though they tend to be more frequent in Sleeping Worlds, that is worlds that have been freed from darkness but have yet to wake.

[break][break]

Riku is a very particular Dream Eater, a Unique Dream Eater, of which there are only two. Riku isn't just your average creature rummaging about dreams, either; he's very specifically Sora's Dream Eater, and as such much of his abilities are mostly utilized within Sora's Dreams. Some of them are extensions of his abilities during his wakefulness, so rather than cover those again, this section details one other ability that he has: Dream Links. Dream Links allow him to connect with fellow Dream Eaters, and through that, strengthen himself as well as better his ability to initiate special attacks. Riku in particular is special in that he gains wings whenever he merges with other Dream Eaters. This is something that Sora is not able to do as instead he has his Dream Eaters fight for him.

[break][break]

Riku is the only one able to have this grandeur effect on other Dream Eaters. They're generally immune to combat otherwise. Riku is also a lucid sleeper ever since becoming a Dream Eater, which means that he's able to fully control himself while sleeping. Compare this to Sora, and he's essentially his guardian angel at night. Or, well, let's be honest with ourselves; he's his guardian angel in general. That's what Riku has made himself to be. ✻