Ven

Links: Theme || Playlist (also--not mine) || Character tag || Gallery

Age: 17

Height: 5'6



Notes:
Extremely sensitive to darkness

I was borrowing Kat’s hcs that he’s kind of in the clouds and withdrawn, but playin through the game that doesn’t feel like him?? and it’s always jarred with my characterization of him in ftpverse sooooooo

Regardless, he’s actually probably hecka depressed now that Vanitas is gone—that’s half of him that is literally missing and it’s hard to recover from that plus a decision to kill the both of them (which is definitely what he attempted to do at the end of BBS. He knew his actions would kill them both and it wasn't until his heart found Sora's that he even dreamt of survival)

He is actually pretty “broken” in spirit and just generally exhausted

            (worse than Sora)

He tries to be bright and positive around everyone—strangers don’t need to know he’s hurting and he doesn’t want to worry Aqua—but can only hold it up for so long

Wind reacts very!! Strongly!! To him!!

Extremely patient though

Extreeeeeeeemely selfless omg the only time he’s selfish I can recall is when he chooses to abandon Sora (in FtP) and he regrets that for the rest of his life

His heart is 100% light so he's not prone to any negative/"dark" emotions and has a really hard time keeping a grudge. The one with Xehanort is the only one he's managed and that's sort of a righteous grudge
What consists as "dark"/negative emotions is either really loose or very specific, so let's just clarify and say "happiness comes easy to him, anger does not, and while sadness is 'negative' he's more likely to get sad than angry"
He tries to take time to find the wonder in the world??
He's also really big on meditation

He’s got wisdom beyond his years but in a lot of ways he is like a child—all of them are children

He’s the best of the BBS trio when it comes to social skills, and often reaches out to new people, and clicks with them the easiest (of the three. This does not mean his social skills are Stellar)

http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=25600979

History:

BBS in general

Living with Aqua and Terra and Eraqus for... what was it?? four years?? But yeah. Living with Aqua and Terra. Training under Eraqus. Etc.

His connection to Vanitas

His rather unremembered past with Xehanort

The time he spent in Sora’s heart

UPON LEARNING ABOUT VANITAS AND THE X-BLADE HE CHOSE TO KILL HIMSELF AND VAN AND RIP XEHANORT’S SOURCE OF POWER RIGHT OUT FROM HIS HANDS HE LITERALLY CHOSE TO DIE IF IT MEANT AVOIDING XEHANORT GETTING POWER IF IT MEANT AVOIDING ANOTHER WAR (please read this on that subject)

Eraqus attempting to kill him

Being worried about Terra so bad and STILL being worried about Terra like Aqua is worried but Ven is too and where Aqua lacked faith in Terra he had it tenfold

Fighting Vanitas, being tormented by Vanitas, killing Vanitas

The time he spent in Sora’s heart, experiencing things through Sora’s eyes

Sensing the darkness in Sora’s heart, that darkness chasing him out—also, meeting Shad in Sora's heart, and assuming Shad is Vanitas (there was an ASAS chapter on that)

Fighting Style:

Swift attacks

A lot of wind

A lot of light

Can move extremely quickly (largely because aid from the wind--literally, near flight is not out of the question for him thanks to abilities like Superglide)

As of lately uses Blizzard a lot

Really but a lot of swift attacks influenced by the wind, he runs fast he can fly and glide on the wind currents, quick strikes, etc

Command Styles he uses a lot: Fever Pitch, Wingblade, Cyclone, Sky Climber

Shotlocks: Pulsebomb and Multivortex

Battle Log entry:

Ven's fighting style consists primarily of many extremely quick attacks, and he also has a strong affinity to wind, along with light. Being from a different age, he knows a fancy trick known as Command Styles that let him unleash even stronger elemental based attacks once powered up.
His speed may not be something you can overlook, but his strength definitely is. Powerful light and wind attacks are all he can really manage--his physical attacks, while extremely quick, are rather lackluster. Catch him with enough force before he can wear you down, and you're sure to win.

http://c-l-o-c-k-t-o-w-e-r.tumblr.com/post/43843691848/a-meteor-shower

Relationships with other characters:

Eraqus

Eraqus is like a father to him I mean Eraqus was a father to all of his pupils in honesty

Eraqus however,,,,, feared him,,,, and while Ven wasn’t aware of that initially it did affect how Eraqus treated Ven and once Ven was more than a blank slate

Once Ven was progressing and Eraqus could feel the power in him and knew of Vanitas’ existence, he forbid Ven from leaving the world and that frustrated Ven so much. It can't have been easy learning that his own Master--the man he saw as a sort of father--feared him

Not that he resents Eraqus, of course. Honestly, once he gets a grasp of his own power and what he and Vanitas together are capable of, once he gets a grasp of how truly terrifying his own power is, he forgives Eraqus for being afraid, because he's afraid too.

He was horribly saddened to hear of Eraqus's death, and even more shaken up to hear that Terra played a hand in it

He was there when Terra shoved him back and sent him away

He saw it

And knowing how that battle ended—in Eraqus’s death

That’s

Well

THEY WERE ALSO MEDITATION BUDDIES like I mean I think Eraqus and Terra probably spent the most time meditating together because Eraqus was trying to help Terra get a handle on the darkness in him

Ven and Eraqus still meditated a lot because Ven enjoyed it so much

Terra

http://sykehaol.tumblr.com/post/65769026168/i-wanted-to-do-a-panel-redraw-so-i-did-also-f-u

Ven really really really looked up to Terra for his strength, much like he looked up to Aqua, (though the two had vastly different strengths)

Admittedly he latched onto Terra more than he ever latched onto Aqua, but that was probably because Terra was a little closer in age + they're both boys 

(No matter how many ways I slice their ages, Ven is usually no more than three years younger than Terra)

Terra is like a big bro and Ven really looks up to him he wants to be as strong as Terra, and looked up Terra because of his physical strength. I bet when Ven was still a little blank/right afterwards he didn't understand that strength came in different forms, and physical strength isn't everything, but by the time he realized that he had already come to admire Terra and it's not easy to shake admiration

And of course!! It's more than he admires Terra they are also really good friends all three of them are. They're friends they're family. Like brothers.

The game states that he loves Terra and I’m sure he does love Terra very deeply and care for Terra very deeply and he loves Aqua too but his love for Terra is stronger

If I had to sum up their relationship in one image it would be this image:

by trapinchmon

Aqua

http://blackpaopu.tumblr.com/post/95959300192/thank-you-so-much-for-3000-followers

Like Terra is an older brother to Ven, Aqua is an older sister (the age gap between them is roughly 4 or 5 years). He looks up to her a lot, too.

She babies him really bad though, but he doesn't mind too much. He usually takes it with a playful frustration, and it's rare that he's ever more than exasperated with her about it.

Granted, he gets pretty upset about it in BBS itself, but that comes more from "EVERYONE'S TREATING ME LIKE A KID I AM NOT A KID WHO IS THIS VANITAS DUDE WHO IS XEHANORT WHAT'S GOING ON WITH TERRA NO AQUA I'M NOT GOING HOME STOP BABYING ME"

After BBS of course, after they reunite, any frustration about the babying is gone. He's still playfully frustrated about it, but he's also largely grateful, because they've both been through a lot and it makes her feel better and it makes him feel better.

Aqua becomes his rock in a lot of ways, though he never tells her just how much Vanitas' death has affected him. He's just grateful for her support, and he's with her 100% of the way as they go searching for Terra.

Vanitas

http://mrbenvey.tumblr.com/post/89642467277/ventus-with-vanitas-for-cute-and-adorable

Heeeee and Vanitas are complicated. They are two halves of the same whole and he cannot really bring himself to hate Vanitas. Thinking about Vanitas just makes him sad, regardless of what Vanitas did to him and how Van threatened him

Ven has had “7” years (mind you not all waking) to think about Van to come to terms with Van did and I’m sure their hearts rejoined and it’s just like Sora with Shad. They hate each other at first but once they rejoin they understand each other like they understand themselves and you cannot hate someone you know so well—not when there is an ounce of good in them

And while you’re like “bleh but Van should be fully evil” wellllll on the flip side Ven is fully good and can forgive so easily and openly and besides Van is technically darkness and darkness is not fully evil

ANYWAY most of what Ven thinks of Vanitas is all thought in hindsight—in hindsight he regrets Van’s actions and that they were necessary. He regrets not being more compassionate to Ven. He regrets so much and it disheartens him

Plus he feels so incomplete without Van around and like I said he’s honestly a little depressed because of it—he’s empty he’s even more aloof than he used to be because the thought of Vanitas just weighs heavy on his heart

And the fact that part of him is missing does not help

Vanitas took so much with him when he died

Also if you take my rendering of the final VenVan battle into account he considers Vanitas as a brother accepts him as the other half of his heart and a person who deserves his love without even second thought, and he so regrets that his actions in destroying the X-Blade and both their hearts were necessary he wishes he could’ve saved Vanitas he wishes he could’ve saved them both

He thinks it’s unfair—so unfair—that he got to live while Vanitas did not

And what complicates matters even further, is there's a part of Vanitas in Sora's heart--deep in Sora's heart, and that part calls out to Ven and it makes him sick with longing and it,,,,, It complicates things

Sora

There's,,,,, there's a lot to cover about Sora

Ven is initially really fond of Sora. Sora's the boy who saved him, the boy who reached out to comfort him and offer him refuge not once, but twice. Ven thinks he's a great kid.

And then he meets Sora

For real

after nearly 10 years.

He's already a little uncomfortable about Sora upon his reawakening--he was there when the darkness crept into Sora's heart and forced him out of it, forced him out of a healing sleep forced him to flee. He feels just how far Sora has fallen

Ven's sensitivity to darkness comes largely--if not entirely--from his stay, and the corruption of his stay, in Sora's heart.

They share a sympathetic link, though it's not nearly as strong as Sora/Shad's or Ven/Vanitas, but it is there, and it does resonate

Sora did save Ven when he was young he reached out to Ven’s broken heart and he healed it

And he reached out again to save Ven after Ven destroyed the X-blade and Vanitas and his own heart in the process—Sora reached out and took him in until he could recover (thus forging the connection)

The darkness in Sora’s heart, however, grew steadily, and Ven was not prepared to handle that. Not so quickly. Not so much. It jolted him out of his healing sleep, scared him half to death, and he was forced to leave Sora’s heart because it was no longer a safe haven for him.

Sora is devastated for this, and Ven forgives him (again, he can't really hold a lasting grudge), but that doesn't make interacting with Sora any easier. He can still sense the darkness beating in Sora's heart, and even worse, feel what's left of Vanitas in there, calling to him. 

Calling to him from the depths Sora's heart, where he knows he can't reach it, because he is too gentle to rip it out of Sora's heart himself

He does long quite desperately for it, though

There was this bit about Ven blaming himself about letting the darkness (aka Vanitas) into Sora's heart but actually thinking over it more that is Incorrect because he did not choose to stay in Sora's heart or shackle himself to it, and certainly Vanitas was not involved---not in FtPverse

In FtPverse, he felt Vanitas's heart shatter, and suspected that his heart would too shatter, before finding himself in Sora's heart---he later thinks that "well if I survived maybe Vanitas did, too" (and meeting Shad in Sora's heart only furthers that line of thought), and he a little blames himself for letting Vanitas in, maybe, but he's not even sure if that was Vanitas, plus I don't think?? he remembers meeting Shad for a while???

If anything, he's more traumatized by the darkness in Sora's heart than he blames himself for it

Shad

Ven and Shad have almost as complex a relationship, despite never meeting.

Once Ven hears about Shad, and Sora explains to him what Shad was like what he looked like, Ven becomes thoroughly convinced that Shad was Vanitas. 

That is not the case, of course, but without concrete proof--without actually talking to Shad--he'd never know for certain. So he's convinced that Shad is Vanitas, that Vanitas survived like he did...

And at first it's hope, because Vanitas survived

But then it is pain, because he remembers Sora killed his-Shadow-who-Ven-thinks-is-Vanitas, and thus Vanitas is dead, again, and they didn't even get to see each other.

Riku/Namine

He understands them both in very quiet ways

He and Namine draw a lot together—his drawing’s aren’t very good but he humors her and the pure comfort of doing something together, the same thing with another person... it is a nice comfort

He and Riku are meditation buddies and they talk a little but most of the bonding they do is in silence

Kairi

He’s generally very sweet and gentle with her and respects her so much for being pure light like himself, and more importantly being born that way she didn’t have to suffer the loss of half her heart to get that way

NOT THAT HE’S JEALOUS VEN CAN’T GET JEALOUS

He’s just grateful that Kairi doesn’t have to feel the pain he did

Roxas

I do have info on him and Roxas but unlike the other characters it is actually spoilers for book 5, not "general things that happen in a book 5 scenario and not spoilers" sooooo I can't currently share them

http://palito-de-pan.deviantart.com/art/Ventus-244309092