Inspired Scents: Kingdom Hearts I.II

Part Xigbar of my Kingdom Hearts inspired scents series. Check out the inspired scents tag for some of my other write ups, including part Xemnas of this one! I'm not saying there are XIII parts to this series either, but it would thoroughly amuse me if I did manage to get there. And will I continue to include silly Riku smell screencaps for all of these? Only time will tell. 

Lazy Afternoons: The familiar homeliness of sun warmed pavements, sandalwood, honeyed oats and the nostalgic sound of the Sandlot and Struggle Bats, and a perpetual twilight. 

I feel like whenever people make fandom scents, the easiest go-to is always the characters, but with the amazing soundtrack from KH (shout out to Yoko Shimomura), I can't help but feel it's a bit of a missed opportunity to not feel like they're inherently part of the KH experience. Just like Disney parks have atmospheric music to get you into the vibe of the area, the field themes of each world just bring back a certain feeling of coziness. I love the original version with the simplicity of the synth plonking out a very nostalgic and calming tune, but I think the remastered version from III with the real strings and woodwinds gives it a more complex timbre that makes the world feel more lived in, with a sort of fantastical magic and energy. While I'm not the type of person who can just casually listen to boss music on a whim (anyone who's just casually listening to Nier battle tracks are to be feared and revered) (I also have a deep trauma associated with BBS's music, especially Secret Whispers), but Lazy Afternoons is exactly that - a relaxed, laid back track that just throws us back into better times, KH2 prologue times, a time when the worst thing to happen to you was the end of your summer vacation. 

This is a scent that just luxuriates in the sense of comfort, of warm sun and coziness. While I definitely wanted this scent to be an atmospheric leaning scent, I also wanted to add some snuggly oats/nutty energy here. To be totally cliche, we're adding in some Hay (for Hayner) and Oats (for O.at.lette). I am conveniently ignoring Pence's existence here (but I think he's so into the spooky stuff he should have his own techy/ghost thing), but I also love warm, smoked sandalwood, and I think it would just add this lovely wood groundedness to the whole thing. I think there needs to be something in here that just adds that extra something, maybe cashmere, maybe a ghost train, maybe bricks, just for another layer of coziness. 

Diamond Dust: Crystalline mint, vanilla, cold air and biting ice. 

Okay this is comparatively, way more straightforward - I, like a freak, absolutely love the command deck and I love BBS. So here, we're channeling both the keyblade and the command style. I just think it's neat. I also don't know why people don't actually love the command styles more? I think it's a cute little additional upgrade to your base combat, and I love that it's sort of 'elementally tuned' to the type of spells/magic you're casting (even though it rarely ever actually has any real significant benefit until like, KH3). 

Anyway, I don't know how much more simple we can get, this is just an icy, minty little treat. I absolutely love a little minty candy cane vanilla. Throw in a bit of extra winter in there for kicks. 

Flantastic! : The taste of sweet victory, giant caramelized flans and thoroughly bludgeoned fruit. 

Pick and choose as you please, a horrific and mentally scarring combination of cherry, grape, honeydew, orange, strawberry, watermelon, and banana flan - a lovely treat you can't escape if you really want that Ultima Blade (and boy is it worth it) (..sort of). For some reason, I decided that if I was ever to be a proper fan of the game, I absolutely needed to get the Ultima Blade, and if I was going to get it, I wanted it to be from III, because I don't care what anyone else says, the gameplay in that game is super fun and I love it a lot. By that I mean, it's just really flashy, but isn't that what you want? That's what I want. I roped a few people into my own personal hell to help me with this so it wasn't all of my own work (unfortunately? fortunately) - most of the flan were pretty easy to get, but Honeydew bad, and Cherry was basically a 7 hour endeavor nonstop. Even when you're not the one suffering through it, watching it isn't a fun time either. Frankly, it makes me want to punch innocent cherries - I know it's not their fault but this isn't how I wanted to spend my life.  

Anyway, this is a pretty straight forward scent. I like the idea of having a fruit melange here with a creamy, caramel flan, but I also like the idea of just having a caramel flan note with all that gorgeous syrupy caramel and eggy custard accented with some sweet, fruity nuances. All flavors of gourmand are valid to me.  (Even if I have personal beef with Cherry Flan).