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bluest-planet · 9 months

Text

Language and Shape.

A bit taken out from this earlier part. Anyways onto cute, Flood Vanitas! Ft. Illiterate Yoruhua lol.

"Nothing's changed! I've done everything you've told me to do, and none of it works." Vanitas complains.

He pouts, arms crossed as he looks at them like they're some kind of traitor, which... Was technically true on multiple levels, but not here.

"This kind of thing takes time, Vanitas, you can't force something as personal as your body to shapeshift that easily."

A deep sigh escapes her, "Érebos, it might even take at the very least, a year. And that's looking on the extremely bright side, it took me years to properly develop a Clavat- eh, human, form- Over my years, I still am." Yoruhua replies, face still buried in their books and journals.

'Sol ardenti! Why does this have to be so hard?'

Why did language and writing have to become something barely unrecognizable? Thank Érebos, that Yoruhua was at least conscious and hearing enough within Void Gear to evolve and understand spoken speech over the eons. Enough time linked with their previous wielders was the only thing saving them now.

Trying to get back to their work- because if they were able to learn this, then Orichalchemi would have one less thing to worry about when they got her back- they paid no mind to Vanitas wandering around their space.

So Yoruhua buries himself in all kinds of syllables and scripts…

'So the characters are completely different here... And none of them are using glyphs anymore?! Until Ori can repair Quiet Regalia, I'll just have to learn this the hard way. Okay... This looks the closest to the descendant of my language…'

"-hua."

'The TL sound doesn't really exist anymore, I... Think. It's either a K or L…'

"-ruhua."

'This is.. entirely incomprehensible... Without glyphs they just use entirely different, unique words to describe something instead of adding suffixes and prefixes? Oh this'll take me centuries to understand-!'

"YORUHUA!"

She jumps in her seat, frantically trying to catch herself so she doesn't fall, "Ack-! What in Érebos' name, did something happen-?!"

He turns to see what all the fuss is about, only to not see anyone.

"Vanitas? Vanitas, where did you go?" Yoruhua rises from their seat, but yelps when something pushes up against their shoe.

"Hey, watch it! I'm down here, ogre!" A familiar, muffled voice yells.

"Vanitas! I'm so sorry!" He quickly lifts his shoe and back away, only to see a small dark red flood skitter away from them.

He kneels down to meet him, but even then Yoruhua is a lot bigger than the tiny Vanitas. If anything, this only made their jarring height difference worse, like comparing a lion and a housecat, downgrading Vanitas from lynx.

"Yeah, you better be sorry! You almost crushed me, freak! Now help me up!" Little Flood Vanitas hisses.

Sheepishly, they reach out for him to hop onto their arm and get a better look at him. Carefully bringing him over their desk.

"oh wow... Look at you! You did it!!" Yoruhua broke into a wide smile, "this isn't what I imagined when I first brought it up shapeshifting, but this is fine! Certainly intriguing for a first shift..." She muses.

Vanitas stomps his little foot and grumbles, "are you done gawking?! This isn't what I wanted-why am I so small- Tell me how to undo this!"

She coos, enamored by his transformation and little tantrum. He reminded her of some of the younger homunculi she cared for in the past. "aw...but you’re so precious, so soon?"

Vanitas screeches, "YES!"

"Okay! Calm yourself!"

"I AM COMPLETELY CALM!"

She smiles to herself wryly, "uh-huh... Of course you are. Ahem, just take a deep breath and blank your mind. Stop thinking so hard about what you look like." She tries to coach.

The little flood squirms under her gaze but eventually settles, "this better work."

Vanitas' chest rises and falls as his eyes close and he stills, Yoruhua intensely watching in bated anticipation.

They wait a few seconds, then about a minute before Vanitas growls and groans, "this is impossible! It didn't work, again, fix this!"

They shake their head, "it shouldn't be that hard to go back. Being calm and not worrying about appearances is key. Your body should just relax and go to the default you're used to. With the body you're most comfortable in."

"but mine never has been!" He yells.

Yoruhua's eyes widen, "what-"

"-my body has never been just mine! I don't..." Vanitas' tiny form crumbles, sinking into a pitiful puddle on the desk, "I don't- I've never had a body I was... Completely comfortable, in. I lost that a long time ago and I'm never getting it back."

They frown, "Vanitas…"

The puddle shrinks, "why did you think I wanted to learn in the first place...? This was stupid, and now I can't even go back. Nothing ever goes my way."

Yoruhua stays silent, unsure how to comfort him. Their own form was not one they were ever unsatisfied with, not when shapeshifting came so easily to them. And, despite the fact they technically shared and understood Orichalchemi's odd relationship with having an inorganic body- this was an entirely different issue.

Yoruhua, as a homunculus, going between a monstrous form and more 'human-like' appearance, not including sharing fusion with Ori, or even body swapping with her on one occasion... all were just him in the truest way possible. Just a reflection of who he's been since birth, changing with time. Unrestrained, chaotic, self expression, like any other form of Darkness.

How and why Vanitas didn't have a decent grasp on half of that as another homunculus-

"oh." She says audibly, hitting her palm with her fist when it hits her.

'He wasn't always made of Darkness, neither was he raised in the Realm of Dark for any of this to feel natural by Light's rules. That's a tricky one to handle...'

Red eyes open and peer at her from the puddle, "...what?"

He dips his hand into the puddle and dredges Vanitas up by the scruff.

He squawks, bunging around in her grasp, "what do you think you're doing?! Let me go!"

Yoruhua huffs, "oh relax, you used to toss me around like this all the time in Void Gear, actually, I'm sure you did worse than that on occasion." She cups him in her palms, scratching under his fuzzy, yet staticky chin with a thumb, "it's okay though, this makes it even."

He half-heartedly pushes it away, "I guess…"

"Listen, I honestly have no idea how to comfort you, nor do I know how to 'fix' you."

"Tsk, I don't need your pity-" Vanitas begins to argue, but Yoruhua cuts him off.

"-but! You're right, you don't need me to. If you were able to shapeshift in the first place, then I believe you'll be able to go back eventually. Let's just ride this out, don't give up yet and don't be so hard on yourself." They encourage.

He glares, "but I don't wanna to be stuck like this."

Yoruhua gently pets him with his fingertips again, soothingly tracing down his back, "I know, but trying to force yourself back will do more harm than good. Don't worry, I'll keep you safe and sound!"

Vanitas can't help but cringe as she babies him, but a small part of him embarrassingly rumbles at the nice petting.

His sister quietly laughs to herself, earning another glare, but she feigns ignorance, coughing behind her glove.

Vanitas crawls away from her hand, "Well, since I can't do anything-" and instead hops up onto her sleeve, till he reaches her shoulder.

He brushes up against her cheek and pushes past her surprisingly soft hair, drawing a ticklish snort out from her.

"-I guess I'll just have to help you with this, your handwriting is awful." He snaps, pointing a claw at her handiwork.

Yoruhua immediately frowns, "I'd like to see you try going from millennia old glyphs to modern written words! I'm doing my best, punk."

Flood Vanitas bristles, "oh I get it, think you're too good for my help?! I'm never offering to help you again, hag."

His sister's voice goes high with indignation, "hag? Hag?!"

Vanitas squeaks when he's pulled away from his comfy perch, immobile in her grasp, "H-Hey! Not again!"

Yoruhua flicks him upside his muzzle, looking very offended, "I'll have you know I was one of, if not the most sought after Prince of Night in my era!" She gestures at her hard work, "I was a master in calligraphy, languages, chaotics, and mathematics you couldn't even conceive of, zygote!"

Vanitas hisses, and manages to nip their bare arm and points at their journal, "you spelled 'realm' wrong right there, genius."

Yoruhua's face blanches at the mistake, "oh. Um. Right. Guess some help wouldn't be entirely unwanted. You know, because you're from this era, you're my best resource." And unceremoniously drops Vanitas back down again.

Flood Vanitas mentally rolls his eyes and skitters up to their head this time, nesting on her fluffy hair, "at least like this, I get a front row seat to your mistakes."

"Hey, rude."

He scoffs, "and you used a 'k' instead of a 'c'- stars, wait, this worse than I thought, how have you been navigating the maps if you're this bad?"

Yoruhua stays silent.

Vanitas stills, "Hold on- have we been running around blind this whole time?!"

"It's not blind if I'm following a trail! I, um, recognize most worlds from your travels anyways! You never said anything-!" She tries to defend,

He lets out a loud groan and leans over their head to berate them to their face, "STARS ABOVE, it's a miracle we haven't gotten lost- you suck at everything! Teaching, reading, explaining, and now directions?!"

She sheepishly tugs on her hair, "uhm. To be fair. Orichalchemi was always the better navigator… heh, ha, she was an actual caravaner, I only ever watched while I was in her shadow… or made plans on the map we had in the castle…"

Vanitas can't believe what he's hearing, "...I'm just going to pull a rat, and take the reins from here. I may not have my body back, but I can still tell you what's what if we're taking a break from shapeshifting."

She looks up at his beady, glowing red eyes and sighs, "alright, can you read over this for me?" Offering up their notes to him.

He perks up at the distraction and lays on his smug attitude, "of course, your majesty. Now, pay attention- time for the student to take the role of the master!"

Yoruhua hides a smile under the shadow of their head, letting Vanitas do exactly as he says.

'Let him have his fun, he can learn his lessons later.' He thinks. Unaware of his bad habit, indulgence, getting in the way of resolution.

But for now, he takes genuine joy in being taught something new for the first time in ages.

#kh #kingdom hearts #kh vanitas #kh oc #kh fanfic #starry stories #ugh this one really did not want to work with me. originally meant to be kinda angsty but i didn't want jt to be so it was editied #honestly maybe it should've stayed cut im not 100% with this one #but whatever its done and now ill take what i like and what i dont for good storry purposes #anyways FLOOD VANITAS #ugh so cute! maybe ill keep him like this lil #got another one cooking ✌️ had a mental health crisis but now im okay dbfbf #mas or menos that is #anyways Yoruhua is struggling out here. Ori spoke old greek & Yorhu has a mix of Nahuatl japanese spanish and latin so its all a mess to he #him*#anyways Yoru is struggling between being a good big sibling and their intinctual loyalty as a literal sword #like. that fucks someone up lol yoru has some issues and way of viewing vanitas that needs to be worked through #but at least its better than Xehanort like. theres hope for em both this time lol #they're at least both able to heal in their own way being nice and vulnerable to each other #and caring about someone new other than themselves #anyways later!!!!

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