Quick rundown of AU!Sora~

Name - Sora
Age - 30~s (He honestly doesn't know his exact age. And will sheepishly admit to it if asked.)
Height - 5'9"
Weight - ???
Appearance - {One} {Two}
Filled out. He has long since lost that scrawny teenager look although he's not exactly all brawny. Still more runner built but he has sacrificed some of that to act more as a power house due being older; he's slower than he was. His face is weathered with creases of age. Some more apparent than others. His brunette hair a mangled, tangled mess. Long and disheveled. With a hint of what should be a beard on his chin. Seems he just can't grow one though. His body itself does have the wear and tear of scars. The grand majority of them really aren't all that bad-- more so from his body constantly having to heal over more than anything. There are only a few harsh ones, but these are covered up by his clothing. His attire is in as bad of a state as he himself, really. Tattered and ratty. It looks like he hasn't changed in a while-- which is the truth.

About the only thing that hasn't changed about Sora is his eyes. Still that sharp, distinct blue. They might not shine with the same innocence they used to, but they are still as gentle and compassionate as always. In a way, he has become more like Riku than he has realized because his expressions seem to hold more in them than in his smiles-- but that might just be because his smiles don't come as easy as they used to. Or as powerfully. But they're still there under the surface.

Attire - Would say almost same old since Sora's a particular fan of the tanktop getup with jacket combination. Only he's let go of the jacket since his last one was torn to ribbons. He had outgrown it considerably by then anyway. Still wears a dark top though. Pants instead though with some quirky straps and checkering. Wonder where he got those tastes.
[Subject to change. Still in the process of designing. Ugh. Designs.]

Personality -
Sora's considerably more toned down from his younger counterpart. Not that he isn't still Sora. Because Sora will always be Sora. But the years haven't been all too kind to him, leaving him a little more than jaded compared to how he used to be.

Until the day that Sora knows for one hundred percent certain that all he cherishes has been lost, he will keep on striving forward. He is someone with an insane amount of initiative, pushing past the limits where most people would give up right then and there. It's not to say he doesn't have his moments of doubt. He's had them when he was younger and he's gradually become more prone to them as he's aged. But somehow, he still manages to get himself out of those ruts and back on the field.


Background -
Tl;dr Version -

Highlights -

→ The original events of Kingdom Hearts I happen, undeterred, up until Hollow Bastion.

→ AU begins specifically just as Riku declares himself the real keybearer. Sora hesitates longer than he did initially before heading into the castle.

→ Because of this hesitation, Goofy and Donald end up fighting Malificent
without Sora once they find out that the Princesses of Heart are there.

→ Riku thinks he can only trust Malificent by this point. However, while he is aware of Ansem's presence (just this foreign voice in his head at this point, more or less the voice of the power he has taken on), he does not trust him. But he does have enough confidence in himself to believe he can easily hold his own with this darkness and stay in control.

→ Donald and Goofy stop Malificent but are then confronted and defeated by Riku.

→ At that point, Riku has tried to use the keyblade to bring back Kairi but finds it will not respond to him.

→ So, when Sora finally encounters Riku, instead of Sora gaining the keyblade back through his speech tactics like in the original timeline, Riku actually throws it at Sora's feet, deeming it worthless. He can have it back.

→ Sora argues with Riku that what he's doing is wrong, but Riku counters with the same spiel. That he's forgotten what truly matters: he and Kairi. And that Sora will not stand in his way. So, Riku and Sora fight it out like originally in canon.

→ However, Sora gets jabbed something vicious in the end by the Keyblade of People's Hearts. It is through this that Kairi awakens and Riku really truly begins to fully believe that darkness was his answer all along. After all, it reawakened Kairi.

→ This comes as a shock for Riku who finally realizes that Kairi's heart had been inside Sora all that time- but why? And had Sora known? And if he had known, had he hid it from him? What if Sora had been fully intent on keeping Kairi from ever waking? Or what if he'd been too self-preserving to do anything to free her? Riku's confusion boils over to anger.

→ Kairi, in the meantime, is just as confused. What's going on and what's that awful feeling coming off of Riku? She starts to question things as Riku pushes to make her understand that he just saved her when Sora wouldn't do anything. When Sora had her heart in him the whole time but wouldn't act on it. He wants clarity, he wants her to understand, but all the while, Kairi just seems more and more panicked by all this happening.

→ Donald and Goofy, having finally recovered and spotting what's happening, get in the way. Goofy stays and fights while Donald drags Kairi off before things get any worse.

→ Riku defeats Goofy and goes after the other two. Kairi is still lost to confusion as Riku fights and defeats Donald, too.

→ By that time, Sora, in heartless form, has found his way to the chamber where this is taking place. Just as Riku is about to finish off Donald in his blind anger, Sora gets in the way.

→ Riku easily smashes Sora away, but he stubbornly bounces back, anchored between Riku and Donald. It's Kairi that feels the familiar light beneath the shadow of their friend though and she calls out his name before she realizes it and how much jeopardy that's about to put him in.

→ As soon as things click with Riku, he goes after the heartless, wanting to permanently rid of Sora.

→ However, almost instinctively, Kairi interferes as she does in the original game. In the process, she's stabbed through the back by the Keyblade of People's Hearts and loses her heart again.

→ But because of her, Sora's form is regained. This time, however, Kairi's heart does not nestle into Sora to sleep.

→ Riku, in a blind rage with darkness clouding his thoughts, blames Sora for Kairi's actions feeling she should have never gone through what she did for the person who was preserving himself rather than acting for her. He takes Kairi away with him again as a lifeless doll... only no one knows where her heart is.

→ But that only further motivates Riku to follow through in the dark prods that touch his mind. He accepts a large portion of darkness, enough to use to get him to the door and fast in order to try and force his way through. He feels that it may be the way to rescuing Kairi's heart and restoring her.

→ Sora doesn't immediately follow due to Goofy and Donald's sustained injuries. As they did in canon, they return to Traverse Town to recuperate before everything comes together at a head (while Kairi did lose her heart again, her moment of regaining it was enough to trigger the door and all that fun stuff).

→ Ultimately though, Sora intervenes as he does in canon. He follows through and fights the fight. It ends with Riku defeated although not fully possessed at this point (which means Sora's infamous speech here never happens). Still, the door is forced open by Riku's actions in his full intent to retreat.

→ While Sora wants to follow, he soon realizes (because Donald and Goofy kind of bop him on the head about it) how dangerous the door is. And so he tries to close it with the aid of his friends.

→ It's not until Mickey belatedly appears that the door is finally able to be closed. And it's Mickey on the other side who promises he'll find a way to reach Riku on that side. Sora will have to find another way.

→ Events of Chain of Memories occur as they would only Riku doesn't go to Castle Oblivion; Naminé also goes in with the notion that her loneliness will be cured by making Sora believe that she is the important girl to him that lost her heart.

→ Only to have a shocking revelation that she is a part of her, having pieces of her Other's memories. But because she lost her heart twice, that's why Naminé is an incomplete nobody of Kairi's. The memories were scattered when they should have all come to her. (Riku Replica serves to exist just as he did in the original game, badgering Sora on that it was his fault in the first place that Kairi lost her heart-- She doesn't want to see him) *It also should be noted that there is no good luck charm on hand.

→ Sora still follows through and defeats Marluxia. Afterward, Naminé gives Sora the choice to keep his memories of her or go to sleep and have them rechained and restored. He chooses the latter, of course, and goes into stasis with his friends, Donald and Goofy.

→ Days events run their course only instead of playing guardian to Sora, Riku plays guardian to Roxas and later Xion. It takes him a while to realize their connections to Sora however.

→ This stasis lasts for five years as opposed to one since Roxas is destroyed rather than returned-- but in his last will scatters the remaining memories he has.

→ Roxas himself was destroyed by the Organization for turning on it and trying to destroy Kingdom Hearts. Riku tries to counter this because he knows that without Roxas, Kairi's heart won't be restored since Kingdom Hearts will then come to a standstill. So! His objective was initially to play quiet guardian to Roxas. As far as he cares, Sora is better off sleeping forever for what he did to Kairi.

→ Regardless, his attempt fails and he has to begrudgingly accept that Kairi will only awaken then if he reawakens Sora.

→ However, while Sora's been asleep, the Heartless have only grown stronger. And while Riku had initially intended to restore Kairi, the man behind the curtain presents his own ambitions and Riku is unable to overpower him. Thus, only two years after does Riku become prisoner to Xehanort's Heartless.

→ This specifically happens when Kairi's body finally fully vanishes when the rest of her memories finally vacate themselves to Naminé. This also gives Naminé some more hints of Kairi (such as having strawberry blond hair as opposed to her original blond). But because of Kairi's title as a Princess of Heart, Naminé's connection with Kairi is far more disconnected. In a way, her connections to Kairi are like Xion's were (only she actually holds Kairi's memories as opposed to holding Sora's memories of Kairi). She can have a tendency to act as she does through them. However, she also realizes distinctly that they are those of Kairi.

→ However, due to the efforts of Naminé and DiZ, Sora does eventually awaken. But not before things start to really go wrong.





→ In the meantime, it's actually the king pulling a deus ex machina and finding Aqua within the confines of the Realm of Darkness blahblah ends up being the one to stop Xemnas' crazy plan. I don't even known. Jodie's gonna take a break from writing this instead of adding random shit at 3 in the morning just because she misses working on this AU. Everything will make sense eventually, she swears.