Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Rough Timeline

Series: Planet of Possibilities, Special Treats and Rest (POPSTAR)

1. Control Halt Delete
2. Let the Games Begin!
3. Loaded Spring
4. Behind You
5. Do Starry Knights Dream of Eternal Sleep?
6. The Curious Case of the Feather Bluster
7. Non-Knightonian Fluid
8. Rocks Fall, Everyone Flies
9. Stray Like An Aro

Series: Hatoful Dreams

A timeline detour of Galactic proportions and a follow-up to POPSTAR. Begins in the spring after Rocks Fall, Everyone Flies.

1. Kirby's Delivery Service (Two-parter 1/2)
2. Broken Hato (WIP!) (Two-parter 2/2)

Time unknown / Vague

• Lollipop Star
• Mirror, Mirror From the Sky — Who's the Wickedest and Why?

Miscellaneous and Experimental (may not align with the rest)

This is where I put anything that's a bit more out there that doesn't neatly fit into canon (or what I've made of it lbr).

• Frost-Bite

Random Ramblings/ Headcanons

I'm not sure how much of Popstar is Dream Land so I've pretty much been fudging it whoops

E.t.a.: I've decided there are self-governing territories on the surface of Popstar that don't fall under Dream Land. But since Dedede became a competent king they have made alliances and free travel and trade is allowed at all times.

• I treat his wings as a permanent part of his body. He can stick them inside of his dimensional cape, though, so he doesn't have to awkwardly fold them up all the time. This does mean he can't fly when they are inside.
• I treat his cape as attached to his pauldrons, so as long as he wears those he can fold and unfold his cape at will. The dimensional cape can roll/ pack itself up so small it can't be seen, thereby "disappearing". He can also throw it off entirely, for dramatic effect.
• Wings => Cape: He folds his wings close to himself, unrolls his cape, then sticks his wings inside so they don't get in the way.
• Cape => Wings: He pulls his wings out of his cape, folds the cape away, then extends his wings again.
• He can switch so quickly it appears as if his cape and wings actually transform.
• He can warp with his cape, but only short distances. So a locked door won't stop him but he can't just teleport wherever and whenever.

• Kirby can choose whether to eat or inhale something. If he inhales it doesn't get digested, it ends up in a pocket dimension like the one in Squeak Squad where he can store and retrieve things to a limited extent.
• Kirby has a cellphone in Amazing Mirror, so he has one here too. Where does he store it? Who knows. Will he use it more than once? Ask again later.
• Kirby is not so much a bad Warp Star pilot, he's just bad at landing and doesn't care because he's squishy yet more durable than most people. His passengers on the other hand...had better brace themselves!

• He's often depicted as living in the castle, but I have him living in the castle town flower shop instead. He still visits the castle at least three times a week, though, as part of his special training to become a spear wielder/ Royal guard. (Meta Knight pulled some strings for him after being impressed by his skill and dedication, not wanting to destroy his dream but feeling the need to make sure the child wasn't practicing unsupervised.) This way he is connected to both King Dedede and Meta Knight.
• He's friends with Kirby. I picture him as being around twelve, maybe thirteen. He's more straightlaced, sensible and mature than Kirby, but still young enough to get intimidated and/ or starstruck fairly easily.

• I'm not sure what the situation with Dedede's fingers is. I've scoured every official picture of him and nowadays he seems to have mitten hands 95% of the time...except when he doesn't and suddenly manifests pointer and middle fingers and his mitten just morphs along with it?! I guess he needs to have at least two fingers underneath his mitten to do his peace sign, but still. I think I'll treat him as being able to point and pinch but keep it vague otherwise.
• Meta Knight's "hands" are probably just magic glove nonsense. I'll treat him as having glorified nubs with a small thumb underneath his gloves.
• The Waddle Dees and Kirby don't seem to have any problem holding things. Everything they hold seems to just stick to their nubs or go right through them. (creepy) I imagine it makes it difficult to pinch, pick up and manipulate small objects though.

I imagine Meta Knight's voice sounding mostly like in the anime, but without the spanish accent. So "clearly sounds like a guy" but not "growls in brawl levels of concentrated testosterone". I figure he's mostly a guy because he wants to be, because he's just a featureless orb otherwise. But if Kirby with the Mike ability can make his normally high-pitched voice into a guttural "T͖̙̣̻͚ͬ̆́ͅE̸̫͓͓̦̭͌͠S̴̹̖̳̅ͥ͛͌̈̚͡T̵̻̦͖̐̽ͮ̓ͤ͑́O̺̙͇̤̖ͩ̈̀͢͡", why wouldn't they be able to choose what their voices sound like?

I'm not entirely sure whether to go with the anime or game version of Galaxia. Personally I don't really like depicting her as a nagging mommy voice in Meta Knight's head. But the sword's clearly not just a regular piece of metal either, so I do give her a certain amount of sentience. She can choose her own champion and reject the unworthy. She doesn't speak, per se, but Meta Knight can feel her presence and guidance when he wields her.

King Dedede as I want to depict him is mostly friendly and responsible at this point. He doesn't hate Kirby and would drop the bluff and cooperate for a common goal. That doesn't change the fact he still has an ego, hates losing, is a little self-absorbed and petty and likes teasing just a bit too much. When push comes to shove he would do what's right, though. I think he definitely feels like he has some things to make up for.

Kirby about Dedede: "King Dedede is my friend! He's a little confused sometimes, but he's got the spirit! And his cake is really tasty!"

Dedede about Kirby: "Kirby's my rival. An' by MY rival I mean if anyone tries to kick his ass I'll kick their ass faster! The kid could do with a li'l less crashin' in my courtyard though. Or showin' up unannounced 'n' raidin' my fridge, or kickin' my ass— Hold up, now I'm gettin' all worked up about that pink menace again!"

I mostly adhere to game and official art depictions of the characters, not the anime. Although I've definitely cherry picked a couple things I liked from the K:RBAY anime anyway, like:

• Meta Knight (accidentally) jumpscaring people, perching on things and his eyes dimming and brightening. (But not the way they change colour.)
• Galaxia having some level of sentience and the ability to choose her wielder.
• Kirby saying "poyo" when he's exited or confused. (But not exclusively speaking like that.)
• Dedede having a rougher speech pattern than the others. (Although not to the same extent as anime DDD, and his voice doesn't "sound" as rough in my head when I write him either.)

• Their personalities. I could never see Anime Dedede and Meta Knight getting together, for example, because they simply don't have the right chemistry for it. In fact, they seem hostile to each other. AniMeta literally kicks him off a cliff, for crying out loud!
• Anime DDD is significantly more of a slob and a selfish loud-mouthed asshole than in the games.

• Kirby in the anime is like a toddler, but in the games he's clearly old enough to understand speech and think mostly coherently (judging by him describing his own copy abilities in some games.) He even speaks at times. (In Epic Yarn, for example.) Heck, he literally reprogrammed the Robobot Armour himself!

  That's why I depict Kirby as young and a little starry-eyed and naive, but aware of his surroundings and strengths well enough to make his own judgments. Even if they're not always entirely correct. He's precious and precocious, but not an actual baby who accidentally defeats monsters by sneezing stars at them. He can at least spit them strategically!

• I know a lot of people love the idea of Hispanic Meta Knight, and I think him randomly showing up perched on any high object he can find, accompanied by guitar music and a Spanish accent is really funny! But since this only happens in the anime, I've decided not to give him a Spanish accent in my own fics. Unless at some point I write one that's set in the K:RBAY universe, that is.
• The Star Warriors don't exist in my fics because Nightmare was never a galaxy wide threat like in the show. He was definitely dangerous and his existence haunted Meta Knight, just not to the same extent.

We don't know a lot about him or where he came from, but here is how I interpret his growth.

1. A variety of things take place that we are not privy to, but it leads to Meta Knight being a damaged individual who is somewhat paranoid, stand-offish and always on the lookout for threats.
2. He comes to Pop Star with the first couple of his Meta-Knight's to settle down and find refuge. He hopes the Fountain of Dreams will protect them. He allies himself with King Dedede for mutual protection.
3. Kirby's Adventure takes place. Nightmare has found Dream Land! He fears he may have led him there and realises there isn't much they can do. Dedede's plan is a stopgap at best and Dream Land's last defense rests on the shoulders of a child! He's torn between helping Kirby or stopping him from confronting Nightmare.
4. He decides this was a terrible idea. Dedede is not fit to be his king, as his pride, immaturity and lack of communication get in the way. Kirby is an impressionable child who is easily led astray. He himself has been a coward in not facing Nightmare directly. No more. Pop Star needs a protector. He must, no, WILL protect Dream Land from threats! Even if it's the last thing he does.
5. Meta Knight's Revenge takes place. Consumed by paranoia and single minded obsession with his goal of protecting his new home from any threat, he readies the Halberd. The inhabitants of Dream Land must be woken up to reality! Threats could be anywhere, anytime! He is the only one aware of this and that must be changed! How unfortunate that Kirby opposes him in that goal. Hmph! Then the child will learn the truth the hard way.
6. He swiftly gets his ass kicked by the Kirb and gains the heart-breaking realisation that his blind obsession nearly killed his loyal crew, endangered the very child he wanted to shield from having to protect the whole planet and brought him dangerously close to becoming the very threat he swore to destroy. He has made the same grave mistake he resented Dedede for earlier: he let his ego get in the way of communicating or working together.
7. He does some self-reflection. How to fill in his goal of protecting Dream Land? How far to go for loyalty? How to build trust and let himself rely on people again? What does being 'the most powerful warrior' mean? He still faces Kirby occasionally, but no longer to win at any cost. Now it's because he wants to see the look in his eyes. Is he just playing around? Or does he understand what's going on and what he's up against? He gains respect for Kirby's strength and resolves never to dismiss him as a mere child again.
8. He and King Dedede bond over their shared defeat by Kirby. He comes to realise Dedede has made a genuine effort to earn his title as king and improve himself as a person. He has matured and become more responsible. Dedede realises Meta Knight is no longer obsessed with asserting himself at any cost and has become better at cooperating and accepting he can't control everything. A new respect and trust grows between the reformed and improved duo as they learn to work together as equals and hone their respective strengths.
9. My fics (so far) take place beyond this point.

• He's not actually dumb dumb, just not an intellectual. (Even if his brain gets fried every time I put him in Meta Knight's aura. Oops.) Given enough time and incentive he's quite capable of figuring out what's going on and will attempt to do something about it. It doesn't always work, but the thought counts.
• He's perfectly capable of tinkering and fixing practical problems.
• His ego gets in the way sometimes. Once you poke through that he becomes able and willing to listen to reason again. (He will sulk about it, though.)

• I saw an interesting discussion on Tumblr here with some interpretations I like a lot: https://www.tumblr.com/jojo-schmo/713330626898657280/pounds-my-fists-on-the-table-excitedly-oh-oh?source=share

  It discusses how rather than creating elemental powers he seems to conduct them very well depending on his environment. Which could be the reason why he's such an attractive host for Dark Matter.

• He only lets Meta Knight get away with ordering him around. (And even then not always.) If anyone else tries something they get the Nope™ glare, a huff and if they persist a quick knock on the noggin.