Arden [Riku Replica] (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
boundbynaught) wrote2019-03-07 09:27 pm
boundbynaught) wrote2019-03-07 09:27 pm
Entry tags:
Canon Update 3.0
Player: Frudence
Character: Riku Replica / Repliku / "Arden"
Current Canon Point: end of re:Chain of Memories (Riku's Side), when Repliku "dies" by fading into the Darkness
Updated Canon Point: Kingdom Hearts 3, Keyblade Graveyard: Skein of Severance, just before the Riku Replica Vessel ("Replitwo") is defeated in battle.
Updated Background:
I'm going to refer to "Arden" as the original Riku Replica character that I'm updating and "Replitwo" as the Riku Replica Vessel that Organization XIII created. Apparently, because Arden was created using data and memories the first time in re:Chain of Memories, the Organization was able to reconstruct a similar vessel and bring the same Heart of Riku Replica from the past - before Arden's memories were overwritten, so he still knew he was a Replica. That is Replitwo, a completely separate timeline and character from the original Riku Replica whom I play, now going by Arden in Empatheias.
Arden fades into the Darkness at the end of re:Chain of Memories. According to him, "my body fell to ruin and the Darkness took my broken mind." So, his body deteriorates in the Darkness, because it was an imperfect creation - Arden and Xion were the first of the replicas created. The replica bodies made for the KH3 villains ("Vessels") are a better fit for a Heart in the KH 'verse.
Early in the game, Riku and Mickey are searching The Dark World for Aqua and come upon a swarm of Heartless on the beach where Sora and Riku once sat near the end of KH2. Riku is swallowed up and nearly defeated; this is when what's left of Arden's heart/mind finds Riku. As it would happen, Riku's prediction from the end of re:CoM that Arden's heart would eventually find its way to the same place as Riku came true.
Chapter 2 > Reunion
One of the ways that he must have immediately noticed how much Riku's grown and changed is a line very soon after he's joined with Riku: "What if [Aqua]'s feeling as scared and alone... as I felt the first time I came here?" This will inform how he reacts to Riku later, building off of the way they'd started to understand one another as Arden lay dying at the end of re:CoM. Riku leaves the broken half of Way To Dawn on that beach "for the other me", but Arden will later return with it in one piece.
Notably, this would be the first time that Arden has seen multiple keyblades in use, let alone ones that are not The Kingdom Key that Riku was the original wielder for and fought over with Sora back in KH1.
Next there's a stretch of the game where Arden is dormant inside Riku's heart, tagging along with Riku's adventures and hearing all of it while not actually engaging with anyone. The important pieces that Arden would be privy to for a better understanding of the overall Kingdom Hearts metaplot - which informs his later goal to help Naminé - are the true purpose of the original Xehanort Organization XIII, the new Organization XIII and its membership, and their efforts to fill out their ranks including time-travel.
Riku and Mickey return to The Mysterious Tower where they are encouraged to keep looking for clues to Aqua's disappearance, so they go to Radiant Garden. While there, Sora calls Riku, and Riku relates what he knows about Replicas. The way Riku talks about replicas is a major shift, as far as Arden knows. It plays a huge part in both how Riku sees Arden and how Arden sees Riku, moving beyond Real Thing and Fake to two people whose origins are as intertwined as that of Sora and Roxas. Additionally, Mickey plants the seed that Naminé could become real again, if only she had a Replica body to be put in. Arden would not have known she was even in that kind of predicament before this conversation, but the possibility of getting her out of it will be something he latches onto to give himself purpose.
At no point does Riku actually mention he had a replica based on himself at one point. Riku clearly does remember Arden, but this will remain a sore spot in terms of Arden's personality - his self-sacrificial nature being amplified by the fact that this whole time, Riku is still the only person to know that he exists, or ever existed at all. So his fate doesn't matter, but he's following along and developing a plan for how he might be able to help someone else important to him - Naminé. If he can make sure that she has a vessel, then that's all that matters.
Still at Radiant Garden, in Ansem the Wise's study, Arden would also have found out that Zexion was recompleted into Ienzo. This is major because a huge sense of guilt Arden had before was that he killed Zexion, destroyed him for good, despite Zexion never actually doing anything to harm Arden. Additionally, the way that Ienzo describes Vexen's research proves for Arden that he was a true experiment and not "significant progress."
Mickey and Riku return to the Realm of Darkness to look for Aqua at the same beach they left before. In the process, Mickey is taken by a swarm of Heartless that have Aqua inside them, except she's been touched by Darkness. This is when Arden makes his first visual appearance in the game.
Chapter 10 > Too Late
Riku summons his keyblade again and Riku walks out across the water, able to stand on it through Aqua's magic. Together, they fight Aqua to a standstill, then Sora appears and joins the fight. They summon their joint keyblade and that releases Mickey to the beach, where Riku stays while Sora finishes the fight with Aqua. This releases her tie to the Darkness, but she sinks down into it again. Sora rescues her, and they make it back to the Destiny Islands beach where Aqua recovers.
After Aqua recovers, she goes with Sora, Donald, and Goofy to recover Ventus, and all five of them return to Yen Sid's mysterious tower along with Lea, Kairi, and Riku. There, Goofy reveals that Riku is "a true Keyblade Master now." This would certainly be news to Arden and soon after that, he learns Sora did not pass. If nothing else, it gives him an impression of how much time as passed, when he later recounts to Sora that the both of them had "moved on" and he was looking for something he could do to not feel like a failure.
The group then bring up Naminé, proving that Sora does remember her, and would welcome her back even though she's currently trapped in Kairi's heart the same way that Roxas is in Sora's. This would encourage Arden to follow through on his plans.
The 7 Guardians of Light take the rest of the day off. Riku goes to the Destiny Islands beach and sits near the shack. Arden appears just a few feet away, closer to the pier. This would have also been the first time Arden got to see Destiny Islands "for real", even though he's not able to touch it or feel it himself.
Riku is slightly shocked that Arden speaks up, because Arden hasn't until now. Given the way the conversation ends, Riku seems to have been waiting for Arden to make the first move in acknowledging their connection, but he did try to create an opening for it - given that Kairi says Riku intentionally walked away from her and Sora to have some alone time. That didn't guarantee Arden would talk to him, though. Lastly, by now, Arden has committed himself to his goal to focus on Naminé and figured out that she needs a vessel in order to be recompleted.
Interval 11-4: Respite > A Replica's Resolve
Following the day of rest, the 7 Guardians of Light head for the Keyblade Graveyard. Arden is with Riku when everyone loses the battle against the Organization and the prophecy comes to pass, "the light expired." Sora goes on to the Final World and rescues the 7 Guardians, including Riku, using the Power of Waking. However, there is no indication that anyone but Sora and Kairi remembers this time period, so I'll include Arden along with not remembering anything except the introductory warning from the Xehanorts and Vanitas, plus the ensuing fight against the horde of Heartless. This is where Arden and Riku are pulled back to along with the other Guardians.
They approach the battlefield again, where they encounter Terra possessed by Xehanort just like the first time before Sora rewrote time, but Lingering Will joins the fight, then so does Replitwo. Like everyone else upon seeing Replitwo for the first time, Arden assumed that this was really Riku's heart from when he was possessed by Ansem Seeker of Darkness.
Master Xehanort then forms the Skein of Severance labyrinth out of the rocky earth in the Keyblade Graveyard. Along with the other 7 Guardians, the group gets split up, such that Riku ends up fighting alone until Sora shows up. The opponents in Riku's battle are Ansem: Seeker of Darkness, Xigbar, and Replitwo. Namely this means that Arden would have had long enough with Ansem SOD and Xigbar to know how they fight, but in particular his attention would have been on Replitwo. This is when he builds up a suspicion that Replitwo is actually his heart from the past, but doesn't have it confirmed yet. It doesn't get confirmed until Riku actually defeats Replitwo a few minutes after his pull-point.
The scenes in Riku's battle ("Final Confrontations I") can take place in a few different orders, but I'm going to go with the order presented in Theater Mode for KH3:
- Ansem Retreats
- Riku and Riku (Repliku's end point, and Replitwo's as well)
- A Vain Promise (Xigbar leaves the field)
- A Replica for Naminé (the scene which hints Sora didn't see or hear Arden, just Riku's side of the conversation, and the end of this combat sequence)
It also doesn't matter if Sora fights alongside Mickey ("Final Confrontations II") before coming to Riku's aid, because Arden wouldn't have experienced the fight alongside Mickey regardless. (That's the fight that is against Xemnas, Luxord, Marluxia, and Larxene.) Additionally, due to the game's structure, there's absolutely no way for Arden to have been present for the other fights which reunite the Wayfinder Trio (Ventus, Aqua, and Terra) and the Seasalt Trio (Roxas, Xion, and Lea). The most important call-out there is that there's no possible order of events within the game's slightly fluid fight sequences here in the Skein of Severance in which Arden ever gets to see Xion, let alone interact with her. Technically he saw her when the 13 Vessels presented themselves at the Crossroads against the 7 Guardians of Light, but with all of their hoods up, there was no way for him to know it was her.
So, Arden will remember Ansem retreating from the fight, but not Replitwo's defeat in the "Riku and Riku" sequence, and Xigbar will still be an active threat at the time he returns to Empatheias.
Updated Personality:
The biggest changes are an injection of nihilism and a self-sacrificial streak. If Repliku canonically follows a similar arc to Riku, then this is Arden's blindfold period, like when Riku was going through 358/2 Days. This is when Arden is looking for redemption by holding up the person he cares about the most, Naminé. At this point, he still doesn't have a name and, among the primary protagonists, no one but Riku even knows about him. If Even is genuine in his desire to make amends for his past scientific experimentation as Vexen, canon gives us no indication that that includes Repliku, only Naminé and Xion.
The fact is that Arden didn't have to go with Riku on his journey. He could have stayed in the Darkness and disappeared there permanently. He chose Riku. He chose to hang on just a little bit longer and try to make his existence matter, but to do that he had to accept tagging along with Riku.
So Arden will be dealing with the prospect that he might be stuck attached to Riku as a ghost, thereby losing his autonomy and the entire life he built for himself in Empatheias. He's been telling all of his castmates after him that it's possible to have a fresh start in Verens, so he's going to feel like that applies to all of the Replicas and Nobodies except him. On the flip side, he's okay with that; that's the nihilism. Whether in English or Japanese, Arden will go on in the next few minutes to tell Riku essentially the same thing - that the world already has him (Riku), or that he (Arden) is good/done (with life) since Riku is there/exists. Much like the perspective of Naminé, Roxas, and Xion, Arden assumes that there's no place for him. This liminal existence he's stuck with attached to Riku seems to him as confirmation of that.
The only time Arden got remotely heated about anything at all is a few minutes into his future, and even then it was on the cusp of completing a process that he's sure will be the end of him - because it will mean a new beginning for Naminé. This is why he'll be pretty mellow at best and despondent at worst starting off. He does have a better opinion of Riku now, and won't reject his help in communicating to others, but he'll also treat that with the same gravitas as if Riku was reading off Arden's Final Will and Testament. Especially due to their stronger bond in Empatheias already, it's possible for Arden to reach a point where he's open to gently teasing Riku - building off how they spoke at the Beach - for whatever it is Riku's doing at any given moment, but that's also because he won't have anything better to do and Riku's the only one who can hear him. He still isn't likely to experience any emotions with any intensity aside from Ennui itself, because of thinking that his life is over.
Updated Abilities:
With mod permission, Arden is returning to Verens in the same limited form (ghost/specter-like) that he exists in during the Kingdom Hearts 3 game, where he is tied to Riku's heart, only visible to him, and can only speak to him.
- While in his limited form, Arden can float a few feet off the ground and fly with good maneuverability, but he also can't move more than a few yards away from Riku at any given time.
- Arden can lend his power to Riku for a generic power boost by fully merging with him temporarily, rather than just hanging around nearby in ghost form
- Arden is now in possession of Way To Dawn
Per request of the mods, these changes are a heavily restricted version of my original proposal for Arden being temporarily stuck in a Force Ghost style form akin to how I saw Shiro from Voltron and the Seraphs from Tales of Zestiria treated in Empatheias.
Other:
Riku will have to carry Arden's amulet, and in a few weeks I'll update Arden again so that this limited form is truly limited in duration as well.
Questions: n/a
Character: Riku Replica / Repliku / "Arden"
Current Canon Point: end of re:Chain of Memories (Riku's Side), when Repliku "dies" by fading into the Darkness
Updated Canon Point: Kingdom Hearts 3, Keyblade Graveyard: Skein of Severance, just before the Riku Replica Vessel ("Replitwo") is defeated in battle.
Updated Background:
I'm going to refer to "Arden" as the original Riku Replica character that I'm updating and "Replitwo" as the Riku Replica Vessel that Organization XIII created. Apparently, because Arden was created using data and memories the first time in re:Chain of Memories, the Organization was able to reconstruct a similar vessel and bring the same Heart of Riku Replica from the past - before Arden's memories were overwritten, so he still knew he was a Replica. That is Replitwo, a completely separate timeline and character from the original Riku Replica whom I play, now going by Arden in Empatheias.
Arden fades into the Darkness at the end of re:Chain of Memories. According to him, "my body fell to ruin and the Darkness took my broken mind." So, his body deteriorates in the Darkness, because it was an imperfect creation - Arden and Xion were the first of the replicas created. The replica bodies made for the KH3 villains ("Vessels") are a better fit for a Heart in the KH 'verse.
Early in the game, Riku and Mickey are searching The Dark World for Aqua and come upon a swarm of Heartless on the beach where Sora and Riku once sat near the end of KH2. Riku is swallowed up and nearly defeated; this is when what's left of Arden's heart/mind finds Riku. As it would happen, Riku's prediction from the end of re:CoM that Arden's heart would eventually find its way to the same place as Riku came true.
Chapter 2 > Reunion
Arden: "Didn't expect to see you again."We get more details alluding to how this happened later when Arden and Riku talk on the Destiny Islands beach. After Arden saved Riku, his essence stayed with Riku. Arden wasn't in the Darkness nearly as long as Aqua, probably about a year, but like everyone stuck in the Darkness, he didn't experience it in real time 1:1 duration either. For all that time he was stuck in the Darkness, he never expected anyone to find him, so the connection to Riku definitely took him by surprise. Yet, he offers to help Riku anyway. Arden will eventually explain that he decided (very quickly, it seems) that he'd "rather face my end with [Riku] than in Darkness" - alone and a failure. He saw helping Riku as an opportunity to redeem himself, and he took it.
Riku: "What...?"
Arden: "Why did you even come here?"
Riku: "Because somebody needs me."
Arden: "Do you want some help?"
Riku: "Who are you?"
Arden: "Me? I'm..."
One of the ways that he must have immediately noticed how much Riku's grown and changed is a line very soon after he's joined with Riku: "What if [Aqua]'s feeling as scared and alone... as I felt the first time I came here?" This will inform how he reacts to Riku later, building off of the way they'd started to understand one another as Arden lay dying at the end of re:CoM. Riku leaves the broken half of Way To Dawn on that beach "for the other me", but Arden will later return with it in one piece.
Notably, this would be the first time that Arden has seen multiple keyblades in use, let alone ones that are not The Kingdom Key that Riku was the original wielder for and fought over with Sora back in KH1.
Next there's a stretch of the game where Arden is dormant inside Riku's heart, tagging along with Riku's adventures and hearing all of it while not actually engaging with anyone. The important pieces that Arden would be privy to for a better understanding of the overall Kingdom Hearts metaplot - which informs his later goal to help Naminé - are the true purpose of the original Xehanort Organization XIII, the new Organization XIII and its membership, and their efforts to fill out their ranks including time-travel.
Riku and Mickey return to The Mysterious Tower where they are encouraged to keep looking for clues to Aqua's disappearance, so they go to Radiant Garden. While there, Sora calls Riku, and Riku relates what he knows about Replicas. The way Riku talks about replicas is a major shift, as far as Arden knows. It plays a huge part in both how Riku sees Arden and how Arden sees Riku, moving beyond Real Thing and Fake to two people whose origins are as intertwined as that of Sora and Roxas. Additionally, Mickey plants the seed that Naminé could become real again, if only she had a Replica body to be put in. Arden would not have known she was even in that kind of predicament before this conversation, but the possibility of getting her out of it will be something he latches onto to give himself purpose.
At no point does Riku actually mention he had a replica based on himself at one point. Riku clearly does remember Arden, but this will remain a sore spot in terms of Arden's personality - his self-sacrificial nature being amplified by the fact that this whole time, Riku is still the only person to know that he exists, or ever existed at all. So his fate doesn't matter, but he's following along and developing a plan for how he might be able to help someone else important to him - Naminé. If he can make sure that she has a vessel, then that's all that matters.
Still at Radiant Garden, in Ansem the Wise's study, Arden would also have found out that Zexion was recompleted into Ienzo. This is major because a huge sense of guilt Arden had before was that he killed Zexion, destroyed him for good, despite Zexion never actually doing anything to harm Arden. Additionally, the way that Ienzo describes Vexen's research proves for Arden that he was a true experiment and not "significant progress."
Mickey and Riku return to the Realm of Darkness to look for Aqua at the same beach they left before. In the process, Mickey is taken by a swarm of Heartless that have Aqua inside them, except she's been touched by Darkness. This is when Arden makes his first visual appearance in the game.
Chapter 10 > Too Late
Aqua: "Do you have any idea how lonely it is here? How frightening it is to have no one? All that's left in my heart is misery and despair... and now, you can share it!"This implies Riku has misery and despair in his heart, but it flashes to the same symbolic black space where Arden and Riku met originally, when he tied himself to Riku's heart. To me, this implies more that Arden is the one holding the amount of misery and despair within Riku that he's referring to, and he's encouraging Arden to come out. Arden approaches from the Darkness, Way to Dawn in hand and Dark Mode appearance, and comes to stand beside Riku. Then, he disappears into little balls of light, while Riku gains some additional power based on the wavy heat-like Darkness strands around his body, in particular his right hand.
Riku stands up and approaches Aqua at the shore of the beach.
Riku: "There's no need. Got my own."
Riku summons his keyblade again and Riku walks out across the water, able to stand on it through Aqua's magic. Together, they fight Aqua to a standstill, then Sora appears and joins the fight. They summon their joint keyblade and that releases Mickey to the beach, where Riku stays while Sora finishes the fight with Aqua. This releases her tie to the Darkness, but she sinks down into it again. Sora rescues her, and they make it back to the Destiny Islands beach where Aqua recovers.
After Aqua recovers, she goes with Sora, Donald, and Goofy to recover Ventus, and all five of them return to Yen Sid's mysterious tower along with Lea, Kairi, and Riku. There, Goofy reveals that Riku is "a true Keyblade Master now." This would certainly be news to Arden and soon after that, he learns Sora did not pass. If nothing else, it gives him an impression of how much time as passed, when he later recounts to Sora that the both of them had "moved on" and he was looking for something he could do to not feel like a failure.
The group then bring up Naminé, proving that Sora does remember her, and would welcome her back even though she's currently trapped in Kairi's heart the same way that Roxas is in Sora's. This would encourage Arden to follow through on his plans.
The 7 Guardians of Light take the rest of the day off. Riku goes to the Destiny Islands beach and sits near the shack. Arden appears just a few feet away, closer to the pier. This would have also been the first time Arden got to see Destiny Islands "for real", even though he's not able to touch it or feel it himself.
Riku is slightly shocked that Arden speaks up, because Arden hasn't until now. Given the way the conversation ends, Riku seems to have been waiting for Arden to make the first move in acknowledging their connection, but he did try to create an opening for it - given that Kairi says Riku intentionally walked away from her and Sora to have some alone time. That didn't guarantee Arden would talk to him, though. Lastly, by now, Arden has committed himself to his goal to focus on Naminé and figured out that she needs a vessel in order to be recompleted.
Interval 11-4: Respite > A Replica's Resolve
Arden: "How long have you known that I was with you?"This is a major shift in how they spoke at the end of re:CoM. It has much more camaraderie and even hints of friendly ribbing. Arden never calls Riku by his name, but neither does he call him Real Thing either. Likewise, Riku has no name by which to call Arden, but he doesn't refer to his status as a Fake or Replica either. For all intents and purposes, it's just two guys catching up and talking about one's goals. It's also amazing that Riku would say something like "Take the time you need" while carrying Arden around in his heart like that, after how much venom they spit at each other in re:CoM. Riku had games' worth of time to shift his perception about the Replicas and Nobodies and their rights to their own existence, but Arden had to come to terms with his own looming end alone. That he can admit he'd rather fight alongside someone else, and for someone else's sake, until his end... that's a testament to Arden developing a few of Riku's better qualities in a very similar arc as Riku himself. Arden is now willing to rely on Riku to carry him somewhere so that Arden can make a difference in Naminé's life.
Riku: "You did save me."
Arden: Hm.
Riku: "I think you came along for a reason."
Arden: "I didn't make much of myself as a replica. /sigh/ I was a failure, and after you and Sora moved on, my body fell to ruin and the darkness took my broken mind. I was all ready to give up and let it happen, and then you showed up."
Riku: Heh. "You took that as a sign?"
Arden: Hmph. "Maybe. I'd rather face my end with you than in darkness."
Riku: "That's... what you want?"
Arden: "Yeah." Huh. "But I'm not done yet. Got one last thing to see through."
Riku: Hm. "Take the time you need."
Following the day of rest, the 7 Guardians of Light head for the Keyblade Graveyard. Arden is with Riku when everyone loses the battle against the Organization and the prophecy comes to pass, "the light expired." Sora goes on to the Final World and rescues the 7 Guardians, including Riku, using the Power of Waking. However, there is no indication that anyone but Sora and Kairi remembers this time period, so I'll include Arden along with not remembering anything except the introductory warning from the Xehanorts and Vanitas, plus the ensuing fight against the horde of Heartless. This is where Arden and Riku are pulled back to along with the other Guardians.
They approach the battlefield again, where they encounter Terra possessed by Xehanort just like the first time before Sora rewrote time, but Lingering Will joins the fight, then so does Replitwo. Like everyone else upon seeing Replitwo for the first time, Arden assumed that this was really Riku's heart from when he was possessed by Ansem Seeker of Darkness.
Master Xehanort then forms the Skein of Severance labyrinth out of the rocky earth in the Keyblade Graveyard. Along with the other 7 Guardians, the group gets split up, such that Riku ends up fighting alone until Sora shows up. The opponents in Riku's battle are Ansem: Seeker of Darkness, Xigbar, and Replitwo. Namely this means that Arden would have had long enough with Ansem SOD and Xigbar to know how they fight, but in particular his attention would have been on Replitwo. This is when he builds up a suspicion that Replitwo is actually his heart from the past, but doesn't have it confirmed yet. It doesn't get confirmed until Riku actually defeats Replitwo a few minutes after his pull-point.
The scenes in Riku's battle ("Final Confrontations I") can take place in a few different orders, but I'm going to go with the order presented in Theater Mode for KH3:
- Ansem Retreats
- Riku and Riku (Repliku's end point, and Replitwo's as well)
- A Vain Promise (Xigbar leaves the field)
- A Replica for Naminé (the scene which hints Sora didn't see or hear Arden, just Riku's side of the conversation, and the end of this combat sequence)
It also doesn't matter if Sora fights alongside Mickey ("Final Confrontations II") before coming to Riku's aid, because Arden wouldn't have experienced the fight alongside Mickey regardless. (That's the fight that is against Xemnas, Luxord, Marluxia, and Larxene.) Additionally, due to the game's structure, there's absolutely no way for Arden to have been present for the other fights which reunite the Wayfinder Trio (Ventus, Aqua, and Terra) and the Seasalt Trio (Roxas, Xion, and Lea). The most important call-out there is that there's no possible order of events within the game's slightly fluid fight sequences here in the Skein of Severance in which Arden ever gets to see Xion, let alone interact with her. Technically he saw her when the 13 Vessels presented themselves at the Crossroads against the 7 Guardians of Light, but with all of their hoods up, there was no way for him to know it was her.
So, Arden will remember Ansem retreating from the fight, but not Replitwo's defeat in the "Riku and Riku" sequence, and Xigbar will still be an active threat at the time he returns to Empatheias.
Updated Personality:
The biggest changes are an injection of nihilism and a self-sacrificial streak. If Repliku canonically follows a similar arc to Riku, then this is Arden's blindfold period, like when Riku was going through 358/2 Days. This is when Arden is looking for redemption by holding up the person he cares about the most, Naminé. At this point, he still doesn't have a name and, among the primary protagonists, no one but Riku even knows about him. If Even is genuine in his desire to make amends for his past scientific experimentation as Vexen, canon gives us no indication that that includes Repliku, only Naminé and Xion.
The fact is that Arden didn't have to go with Riku on his journey. He could have stayed in the Darkness and disappeared there permanently. He chose Riku. He chose to hang on just a little bit longer and try to make his existence matter, but to do that he had to accept tagging along with Riku.
So Arden will be dealing with the prospect that he might be stuck attached to Riku as a ghost, thereby losing his autonomy and the entire life he built for himself in Empatheias. He's been telling all of his castmates after him that it's possible to have a fresh start in Verens, so he's going to feel like that applies to all of the Replicas and Nobodies except him. On the flip side, he's okay with that; that's the nihilism. Whether in English or Japanese, Arden will go on in the next few minutes to tell Riku essentially the same thing - that the world already has him (Riku), or that he (Arden) is good/done (with life) since Riku is there/exists. Much like the perspective of Naminé, Roxas, and Xion, Arden assumes that there's no place for him. This liminal existence he's stuck with attached to Riku seems to him as confirmation of that.
The only time Arden got remotely heated about anything at all is a few minutes into his future, and even then it was on the cusp of completing a process that he's sure will be the end of him - because it will mean a new beginning for Naminé. This is why he'll be pretty mellow at best and despondent at worst starting off. He does have a better opinion of Riku now, and won't reject his help in communicating to others, but he'll also treat that with the same gravitas as if Riku was reading off Arden's Final Will and Testament. Especially due to their stronger bond in Empatheias already, it's possible for Arden to reach a point where he's open to gently teasing Riku - building off how they spoke at the Beach - for whatever it is Riku's doing at any given moment, but that's also because he won't have anything better to do and Riku's the only one who can hear him. He still isn't likely to experience any emotions with any intensity aside from Ennui itself, because of thinking that his life is over.
Updated Abilities:
With mod permission, Arden is returning to Verens in the same limited form (ghost/specter-like) that he exists in during the Kingdom Hearts 3 game, where he is tied to Riku's heart, only visible to him, and can only speak to him.
- While in his limited form, Arden can float a few feet off the ground and fly with good maneuverability, but he also can't move more than a few yards away from Riku at any given time.
- Arden can lend his power to Riku for a generic power boost by fully merging with him temporarily, rather than just hanging around nearby in ghost form
- Arden is now in possession of Way To Dawn
Per request of the mods, these changes are a heavily restricted version of my original proposal for Arden being temporarily stuck in a Force Ghost style form akin to how I saw Shiro from Voltron and the Seraphs from Tales of Zestiria treated in Empatheias.
Other:
Riku will have to carry Arden's amulet, and in a few weeks I'll update Arden again so that this limited form is truly limited in duration as well.
Questions: n/a