Original ► KHI Holiday Writing Prompts 2021!

[Max]

We're a week away from Christmas everybody, and as promised I've done my best to come up with seven writing prompts that center on this holiday season for us to work on! You could choose to do one a day for seven days, do all seven, if you think three of the prompts are rubbish but four are pretty good you could just do those four, whatever you want. I know everyone has diffferent traditions and not everyone celebrates Christmas, so I tried to keep it neutral and use the term holidays for most of these challenegs. So whether you want to write about Christmas, Hannakuh, whatever holiday you celebrate or even just the winter seasons, it's up to you. This is meant to be a fun way to encourage some writing and creativity here in our community, so do just that with it: have fun and be creative! You can feel free to post your entries in this thread, or if you would like to make a new thread to house all of your entries then that's fine too. I can't wait to see whag everyone comes up with, and I hope you guys enjoy!

-A Heartless Holiday: Write a Christmas or holiday themed story from the perspective of a heartless. Will they spread holiday cheer, or holiday fear?

-Create a Christmas or Holiday Folktale: There are all kinds of legends and myths out there, and now it's up to you to write the newest. Some may call Santa Claus a folktale in and of himself, a man who will climb down your chimney and leave you toys. What Holiday legend can you come up with?

-Happy Holidays Crossover: Write a Holiday season crossover story. It can be as simple as Disney characters hanging out with Final Fantasy characters, or characters from two other entirely different series'.

-200 Word Holiday Story: Keeping it to 200 words may be harder than you think, you'll run out of words right as it gets good! To make this one a little extra challenging, tell a Christmas tale in exactly 200 words, no more no less.

-White Elephant: Write your own White Elephant gift exchange story. It could take place in the Kingdom Hearts universe, Final Fantasy, be a completely original set of characters, whatever and whoever you want. For those unfamiliar, I'll poorly explain what this is. A White Elephant is a gift exchange where a bunch of people come together to exchange gifts to no one in their group in particular. One person will choose a random gift that was brought at the beginning and open it. The next person can choose a new mystery gift, or steal a gift already opened by somebody, and this continues until all the gifts are opened and everyone is left with what they have. I'd love to see someone go crazy with this idea. What random gifts would Sora, Goofy, Axel, and Cloud bring to an exchange with the KH characters, and what random gift would be coveted and stolen over and over? If my explanation of a White Elephant Gift Exchange was awful, I'm sorry

-3 Day Holiday Story: This one will be a little different, write a holiday story over the course of 3 days! Be it in 3 chapters, or stopping and starting up again the next day, give your brain time to work this one out over a few days and think on things. Whether you post one part a day for three days or post it all at once after three days is up to you.

-A Holiday Poem: Pretty self-explanatory. Can rhyme or not, it's up to you, I'd love to see what you can do. A-B-A-B, a Christmas tree, your imagination is the key. So do your best and let's have fun, you have until Christmas is done!​

 

[Soldier]

-A Heartless Holiday: Write a Christmas or holiday themed story from the perspective of a heartless. Will they spread holiday cheer, or holiday fear?

Seems like this one was tailor made with me in mind, interesting.

 

[Max]

Seems like this one was tailor made with me in mind, interesting.

I can't wait to see what the Soldier heartless gets up to

 

[Cassette-Disk]

Despite having been interested, I didn't really have any set ideas for what to write yet. I'm pretty excited to start thinking something up, though!

 

[Max]

Despite having been interested, I didn't really have any set ideas for what to write yet. I'm pretty excited to start thinking something up, though!

Everyone has plenty of time I'm sure whatever you write is gonna be fun to read haha

 

[Max]

We've technically got one more day to see some prompts pop up, but seeing as how none have been submitted yet I thought I'd ask if everyone would like more time? We could push it to New Year's, or a little longer if a week wasn't enough time. I make the rules, so mwahahaha!

 

[Cassette-Disk]

Oof yeah I'm gonna need that extension, buddy.

 

[Max]

Oof yeah I'm gonna need that extension, buddy.

Consider it granted, but only because I like your hat.

 

[Cassette-Disk]

hey can i get another extension until like uhhhh next christmas thanks bud appreciate it

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Hahaha I tried but everybody getting sick at work essentially killed my energy, but here is the idea of my 200 word prompt:

Riku looks out at the freshly fallen snow, and he imagines Sora next to him, pressing his face against the tall den window to try and get a better look at it. He can almost hear Sora’s jubilant laughter, picture the smile on his face as he tries to convince Riku to go outside with him.

Riku’s hand presses against the cool glass, sighing for what was probably the millionth time this week alone, then turns back around to find King Mickey waking across the room with two cups of something warm in his hands.

Normally he would give the King a small smile—some reassurance that he was okay, but he couldn’t find it in himself to be happy. Christmas is one of Sora’s favorite holidays, but he isn’t here to enjoy it…

Mickey presses one of the hot mug into his hand. Riku looks down at his friend, feels the tears well up in his eyes, and looks away..

Mickey sips at his mug while rubbing Riku’s back, and they both stare out at the fallen snow as Riku quietly cries until his hot cocoa turns cold.

 

[Max]

Hahaha I tried but everybody getting sick at work essentially killed my energy, but here is the idea of my 200 word prompt:

Riku looks out at the freshly fallen snow, and he imagines Sora next to him, pressing his face against the tall den window to try and get a better look at it. He can almost hear Sora’s jubilant laughter, picture the smile on his face as he tries to convince Riku to go outside with him.

Riku’s hand presses against the cool glass, sighing for what was probably the millionth time this week alone, then turns back around to find King Mickey waking across the room with two cups of something warm in his hands.

Normally he would give the King a small smile—some reassurance that he was okay, but he couldn’t find it in himself to be happy. Christmas is one of Sora’s favorite holidays, but he isn’t here to enjoy it…

Mickey presses one of the hot mug into his hand. Riku looks down at his friend, feels the tears well up in his eyes, and looks away..

Mickey sips at his mug while rubbing Riku’s back, and they both stare out at the fallen snow as Riku quietly cries until his hot cocoa turns cold.

Way to instill sadness in my morning right before work For real though, that was really good, I could picture it as a cutscene in the next entry! Maybe they could visit Christmas Town first and ask Santa for help!

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Way to instill sadness in my morning right before work For real though, that was really good, I could picture it as a cutscene in the next entry! Maybe they could visit Christmas Town first and ask Santa for help!

Haha happy to share the holiday angst!

Thank you! I might expand on it since that was just the summary lol

Santa would probably make Riku cry again XD He certainly made Sora sad for almost-Christmas back in KH2 over Riku lol

 

[Clue.Less]

Hahaha I tried but everybody getting sick at work essentially killed my energy, but here is the idea of my 200 word prompt:

Riku looks out at the freshly fallen snow, and he imagines Sora next to him, pressing his face against the tall den window to try and get a better look at it. He can almost hear Sora’s jubilant laughter, picture the smile on his face as he tries to convince Riku to go outside with him.

Riku’s hand presses against the cool glass, sighing for what was probably the millionth time this week alone, then turns back around to find King Mickey waking across the room with two cups of something warm in his hands.

Normally he would give the King a small smile—some reassurance that he was okay, but he couldn’t find it in himself to be happy. Christmas is one of Sora’s favorite holidays, but he isn’t here to enjoy it…

Mickey presses one of the hot mug into his hand. Riku looks down at his friend, feels the tears well up in his eyes, and looks away..

Mickey sips at his mug while rubbing Riku’s back, and they both stare out at the fallen snow as Riku quietly cries until his hot cocoa turns cold.

Oh no, I went from "awww so cute" to crushing heart-break within a couple lines!



(It's beautiful)

@Max I saw your prompts just a few days ago! And I've been in such a Hurt/Comfort mood this holiday season I don't think I could have done them justice anyway Thank you for putting them together for us!

 

[Max]

Haha happy to share the holiday angst!

Thank you! I might expand on it since that was just the summary lol

Santa would probably make Riku cry again XD He certainly made Sora sad for almost-Christmas back in KH2 over Riku lol

Who knew that in the KH lore Santa not only brings holiday cheer, but also makes our boys sad and contemplative

Oh no, I went from "awww so cute" to crushing heart-break within a couple lines!



(It's beautiful)

@Max I saw your prompts just a few days ago! And I've been in such a Hurt/Comfort mood this holiday season I don't think I could have done them justice anyway Thank you for putting them together for us!

Hey, anytime! I meant to tackle some of the prompts myself, and I still might, but I've actually been writing a couple other things for fun lately, shooting some writings back and forth with a buddy of mine. If anyone ever feels like tackling any of these prompts, feel free. I know there was a deadline, but that's more of a formal thing to get people a kick in the butt to write. It wasn't a contest, so who am I to stop anybody from just writing whenever the heck they want haha.

 

[Soldier]

Alright, time for a bit of a mini rant boys and girls!
Okay, so in my head I knew what I wanted to come up with, and executed it as best I possibly could. the prompt turned into an essay (oops, guess I got a bit carried away) as they tend to do when put in my hands. But as you all know, I'm a biologist, not an English major (though I was told I COULD be one at one point) so I tried to refrain from falling back into my regular patterns (which is hard to do in KH 1). It's also very ironic that it's so hard to convey the passage of time in a game where time travel is not only established but also a functional part of the canon. So for the sake of this, consider "star fadings" the unofficial measurement of time in KH 1 and only KH1, because apparently the solar/lunar cycle means nothing to these people.
So here's my submission.
A heartless holiday



It had been sometime since I had been formed, from a lowly shopkeeper that succumbed to the darkness. While I have little memories of what happened before becoming a soldier, I distinctly remember a boy in red entering through a large wooden door shortly before my demise. From what my fellow soldiers tell me, we’re under the leadership of the “foolish witch” as they call her. According to them, her true name is Maleficent, the mistress of all evil, but we can call her whatever we want, as she lacks the capacity to truly understand us. Most of the alphas in this rustic town mention a greater figure who is truly behind the strings, but as a mere soldier I’m not given much information. For now we follow the foolish witch and eagerly await her demise, as her ambition has given us many hearts and worlds to conquer.



As I slowly jerk through the streets, the visor of my helmet clacking with each step I find myself in front of a bright building with a neon sign that reads “Hotel”. Using a corridor I pass through the door and head into the main foyer, listening for any signs of life to hunt down, when I happen upon a green door where I could sense two beings beyond it.

“Aw, come on Squall, can’t we at least have a tree in the hideout? It’s Christmas!” said a female voice,

“It’s Leon, and we can’t, you know this town has barely any grass, let alone trees. And this is a temporary setup, we’re not staying here permanently with the heartless running around.” Responded a male’s voice.

“hmph, why not just a little one? I’m pretty sure Merlin can conjure one up, it’ll fit in the corner, or on the wardrobe, or at least a small party, 2 hours, 1 hour tops.”

“Do you even realize we’re still dealing with a threat that’s been slowly erasing worlds one after the other? Until the keyblade chooses it’s next wielder we’re fighting uneven odds. How many stars have we lost in the past few days?”

“Dunno, kind of hard to keep track when it’s permanently night here.”

“Exactly, so we can’t waste any energy putting up decorations or trees, this is a safe haven for those who lost their worlds, if we lose it we might as well just give up.”

“So much for good will towards men during the holiday season” grumbled the female’s voice.

Holi..day? That word sounds familiar, but I can’t place it. Is it some sort of event where prey tend to gather? It certainly seems like it given the girl’s persistence on hosting a gathering. This might be good intel to report to the alpha.



Slipping into the corridors I meet with the designated alpha of my designated world, a large heartless clad in purple armor. His head, arms and legs were disconnected from his main torso, and were constantly twisting and turning with each step. A metal faceplate obscures the trademark yellow eyes of the heartless.

“.Ssolldier #1,113 reporting in, boss”.

“…I’ve been expecting your report for some time, what have you learned….” Asked the alpha

“The resistance is holed up in the second district, in the hotel…, permission to lead an assault sir?”

“permission granted, I’ve heard from other scouts that a key bearer has surfaced in the town, do whatever it takes to hunt him down, you should pick up on his location quite easily.”

“Understood, alpha,” As I turn to leave, I remembered the conversation the two people had in the hotel , and figured I might as well ask about it

“actually sir, one last question, what’s a holiday”

“That’s of little importance to your mission #1,113, it’s just something the people do at random, something about gifts and being together”

“But, if they get gather together, wouldn’t that mean more hearts for our cause? We might be able to achieve more if we assault one of these… holidays?” I realized I should stop; the higher ups despise foot soldiers who speak up and suggest strategies. That’s the job of stronger heartless, not mere pawns.

“That was one of our plans quite some time ago, however it seems they’ve stopped doing these gatherings out of fear of our assaults. The time for talking is over, dismissed!

“Yes, alpha, right away.”

After the conversation with the alpha, I couldn’t get the thought out of my head. What is a holiday? What’s a Christmas tree and why is it so important? Why am I having these thoughts when I’m supposed to lead an assault on the resistance? Shaking my helmet, I wander through the town rounding up heartless for the mission. Since we’re all linked through corridors, the alpha has coordinated with the groups spread across the world to close in on the “hotel”, upon phasing into the world near a small waterway, I feel an intense sensation in my body, urging me towards the hotel

“The wielder of the keyblade must be in there” I thought, “This mission has to be successful, I will have that heart!” Just then one of the scouts is launched out of the second story window and two figures descend upon the soldier. One look at them, and I can tell they’re a part of the resistance. The taller of the two had brown hair parted in the middle that descended downward in spikes, wearing a leather jacket and carrying a sword with a gun handle. His shorter partner had spiky hair, yellow shoes, a red jumpsuit and carried the keyblade

Wait, red jumpsuit…

“Nevermind that, he’s the target, after him!”

“Don’t bother with the small fry, find the leader” ordered the older figure to the younger one, “Let’s go”. With that, he dashed off in the direction of nearby doors, while my fellow pack members surrounded the keyblade wielder.

“This is it, the moment we heartless have waited for” I think, preparing for a lunge, but the keyblade wielder does something unexpected, he runs away. I want to pursue but I was ordered to remain at my post. Do I disobey orders in pursuit of my target? Or wait as intended? If I deviate and succeed, will I learn more about this holiday called Christmas? Or be rendered a deserter?

*Several star fadings later*

In the end, I decided not to pursue my prey and our sector paid dearly for that. Not only was the alpha struck down, but the keyblade wielder formed new allies at the site of the alpha’s demise. Since then the foolish witch has been sending wave after wave of heartless after them, only for them to come up short. Since we’re all on the same wavelength, I can sense when my fellow heartless are slain, though our numbers are immeasurable compared to theirs. As our forces are met with more and more resistance, I’m moved around to different worlds, a desert with more sand than they know what to do with, the innards of a colossal creature and some bizarre forest of giant mushrooms and flowers. In spite of this forced travel, I’m still as clueless about what a holiday is, and must trudge onwards in constant ignorance. Perhaps one day I’ll remember what a holiday is”

 

[Max]

Alright, time for a bit of a mini rant boys and girls!
Okay, so in my head I knew what I wanted to come up with, and executed it as best I possibly could. the prompt turned into an essay (oops, guess I got a bit carried away) as they tend to do when put in my hands. But as you all know, I'm a biologist, not an English major (though I was told I COULD be one at one point) so I tried to refrain from falling back into my regular patterns (which is hard to do in KH 1). It's also very ironic that it's so hard to convey the passage of time in a game where time travel is not only established but also a functional part of the canon. So for the sake of this, consider "star fadings" the unofficial measurement of time in KH 1 and only KH1, because apparently the solar/lunar cycle means nothing to these people.
So here's my submission.
A heartless holiday



It had been sometime since I had been formed, from a lowly shopkeeper that succumbed to the darkness. While I have little memories of what happened before becoming a soldier, I distinctly remember a boy in red entering through a large wooden door shortly before my demise. From what my fellow soldiers tell me, we’re under the leadership of the “foolish witch” as they call her. According to them, her true name is Maleficent, the mistress of all evil, but we can call her whatever we want, as she lacks the capacity to truly understand us. Most of the alphas in this rustic town mention a greater figure who is truly behind the strings, but as a mere soldier I’m not given much information. For now we follow the foolish witch and eagerly await her demise, as her ambition has given us many hearts and worlds to conquer.



As I slowly jerk through the streets, the visor of my helmet clacking with each step I find myself in front of a bright building with a neon sign that reads “Hotel”. Using a corridor I pass through the door and head into the main foyer, listening for any signs of life to hunt down, when I happen upon a green door where I could sense two beings beyond it.

“Aw, come on Squall, can’t we at least have a tree in the hideout? It’s Christmas!” said a female voice,

“It’s Leon, and we can’t, you know this town has barely any grass, let alone trees. And this is a temporary setup, we’re not staying here permanently with the heartless running around.” Responded a male’s voice.

“hmph, why not just a little one? I’m pretty sure Merlin can conjure one up, it’ll fit in the corner, or on the wardrobe, or at least a small party, 2 hours, 1 hour tops.”

“Do you even realize we’re still dealing with a threat that’s been slowly erasing worlds one after the other? Until the keyblade chooses it’s next wielder we’re fighting uneven odds. How many stars have we lost in the past few days?”

“Dunno, kind of hard to keep track when it’s permanently night here.”

“Exactly, so we can’t waste any energy putting up decorations or trees, this is a safe haven for those who lost their worlds, if we lose it we might as well just give up.”

“So much for good will towards men during the holiday season” grumbled the female’s voice.

Holi..day? That word sounds familiar, but I can’t place it. Is it some sort of event where prey tend to gather? It certainly seems like it given the girl’s persistence on hosting a gathering. This might be good intel to report to the alpha.



Slipping into the corridors I meet with the designated alpha of my designated world, a large heartless clad in purple armor. His head, arms and legs were disconnected from his main torso, and were constantly twisting and turning with each step. A metal faceplate obscures the trademark yellow eyes of the heartless.

“.Ssolldier #1,113 reporting in, boss”.

“…I’ve been expecting your report for some time, what have you learned….” Asked the alpha

“The resistance is holed up in the second district, in the hotel…, permission to lead an assault sir?”

“permission granted, I’ve heard from other scouts that a key bearer has surfaced in the town, do whatever it takes to hunt him down, you should pick up on his location quite easily.”

“Understood, alpha,” As I turn to leave, I remembered the conversation the two people had in the hotel , and figured I might as well ask about it

“actually sir, one last question, what’s a holiday”

“That’s of little importance to your mission #1,113, it’s just something the people do at random, something about gifts and being together”

“But, if they get gather together, wouldn’t that mean more hearts for our cause? We might be able to achieve more if we assault one of these… holidays?” I realized I should stop; the higher ups despise foot soldiers who speak up and suggest strategies. That’s the job of stronger heartless, not mere pawns.

“That was one of our plans quite some time ago, however it seems they’ve stopped doing these gatherings out of fear of our assaults. The time for talking is over, dismissed!

“Yes, alpha, right away.”

After the conversation with the alpha, I couldn’t get the thought out of my head. What is a holiday? What’s a Christmas tree and why is it so important? Why am I having these thoughts when I’m supposed to lead an assault on the resistance? Shaking my helmet, I wander through the town rounding up heartless for the mission. Since we’re all linked through corridors, the alpha has coordinated with the groups spread across the world to close in on the “hotel”, upon phasing into the world near a small waterway, I feel an intense sensation in my body, urging me towards the hotel

“The wielder of the keyblade must be in there” I thought, “This mission has to be successful, I will have that heart!” Just then one of the scouts is launched out of the second story window and two figures descend upon the soldier. One look at them, and I can tell they’re a part of the resistance. The taller of the two had brown hair parted in the middle that descended downward in spikes, wearing a leather jacket and carrying a sword with a gun handle. His shorter partner had spiky hair, yellow shoes, a red jumpsuit and carried the keyblade

Wait, red jumpsuit…

“Nevermind that, he’s the target, after him!”

“Don’t bother with the small fry, find the leader” ordered the older figure to the younger one, “Let’s go”. With that, he dashed off in the direction of nearby doors, while my fellow pack members surrounded the keyblade wielder.

“This is it, the moment we heartless have waited for” I think, preparing for a lunge, but the keyblade wielder does something unexpected, he runs away. I want to pursue but I was ordered to remain at my post. Do I disobey orders in pursuit of my target? Or wait as intended? If I deviate and succeed, will I learn more about this holiday called Christmas? Or be rendered a deserter?

*Several star fadings later*

In the end, I decided not to pursue my prey and our sector paid dearly for that. Not only was the alpha struck down, but the keyblade wielder formed new allies at the site of the alpha’s demise. Since then the foolish witch has been sending wave after wave of heartless after them, only for them to come up short. Since we’re all on the same wavelength, I can sense when my fellow heartless are slain, though our numbers are immeasurable compared to theirs. As our forces are met with more and more resistance, I’m moved around to different worlds, a desert with more sand than they know what to do with, the innards of a colossal creature and some bizarre forest of giant mushrooms and flowers. In spite of this forced travel, I’m still as clueless about what a holiday is, and must trudge onwards in constant ignorance. Perhaps one day I’ll remember what a holiday is”

Sorry it took me a minute to read this, been busy with the New Year's weekend and I didn't want to rush read it.

I finally had time to sit down today and give your story a read, and I loved it! I love the idea of the heartless have these conscious thoughts, thoughts that even call back to when they were human. When I imagine the Soldier speaking to the Guard Armor, I imagined it portrayed in-game through the text on the screen we see in the very beginning, like that "voice" guiding Sora that we never hear, just white text fading gently in and out.

You placed the story real neatly into a spot in the first game as well, which was also fun and made it easy to imagine the when and where it was all going on. Very nicely done, I like to believe that that Soldier is still carrying on somewhere, yet to be struck down and clinging to some tiny bit of who he once was, even if it's just a familiarity with the idea of Christmas.

 

[Soldier]

Sorry it took me a minute to read this, been busy with the New Year's weekend and I didn't want to rush read it.

I finally had time to sit down today and give your story a read, and I loved it! I love the idea of the heartless have these conscious thoughts, thoughts that even call back to when they were human. When I imagine the Soldier speaking to the Guard Armor, I imagined it portrayed in-game through the text on the screen we see in the very beginning, like that "voice" guiding Sora that we never hear, just white text fading gently in and out.

You placed the story real neatly into a spot in the first game as well, which was also fun and made it easy to imagine the when and where it was all going on. Very nicely done, I like to believe that that Soldier is still carrying on somewhere, yet to be struck down and clinging to some tiny bit of who he once was, even if it's just a familiarity with the idea of Christmas.

Thanks, I tried to keep in mind that the heartless are more wild and animalistic, hence why the Soldier refers to the guard armor as "alpha" similar to a most animal groups. I got the idea from wolves actually, which while wild animals, display a unique pack mentality and acknowledgement of those stronger then them. From there it pretty much mostly wrote itself. As for the Guard Armor conversation I didn't think of it being interpreted that way, but I can see that it definitely would fit, heartless don't tend to make that many sounds, so they could theoretically communicate via telepathy or some other manner. My idea was that it was similar to that of a literal army, with commanders and underlings mounting assaults on the populace and performing reconnaissance on resistance groups.

As for the feeling of being human the Soldier portrayed, I mostly derived it all from when Sora was turned into a shadow later in the first game. When speaking with Kairi in the waterway, he mentions falling into darkness, slowly forgetting who he is and what he experienced until she restored his humanity. Aside from this one instance, we don't really know what goes on in the heartless creation process, so I just used the vagueness to fill in the rest. I'll be brutally honest, I'm not one for fanfiction. Maybe I've just been soured by reading a few in my younger years but it never really appealed to me. If you enjoy reading/writing it, great, just don't force it down my throat. That being said, this exercise did allow me to flex those muscles again, so I suppose it isn't that bad.
(Also, props to any of you who caught on the intentional reference to the timeless nature of the worlds in the essay, I put that mention in the mini rant for a reason!).

 

[khkid]

I write stories