Daybreak Trio

Daybreak Trio is the poly ship between Player, Ephemer and Skuld from the Kingdom Hearts fandom.

Canon
Player meets Ephemer while he's fighting an Invisible. They help him and the two of them quickly become friends, despite not being in the same Union. Ephemer tells them that he wants to investigate the Clock Tower. Unfortunately, they don't reach the top. Ephemer promises the Player that they'll go back the next day.

However, he goes on his own that very night, and disappears. Player, unaware of that, waits the entire day for him at the Fountain Plaza. Chirithy cheers them up. Time passed, and one day, Player goes back to the tower with another friend of Ephemer's, a girl named Skuld who was in the same Union as him. Upon reaching the top of the tower, one of the Foretellers (either the Foreteller of Player's Union or Ira if Player is a member of the Vulpes Union) appears and tells them that Ephemer is dead.

Player makes a speech and challenges the Foreteller. After defeating them, the Foreteller reveals themselves to be Ava. She tells them that they are both worthy of being Dandelions, just like Ephemer. Skuld decides to join, while Player doesn't want to leave everyone else to die, even after learning the truth by Master Gula. Skuld says that it's fine and that they need to think about it, before leaving.

After that, Player is attacked by Nightmare Chirithy. Player ends up on the battlefield of the soon-to-be Keyblade Graveyard. They nearly die, but are saved by Skuld and Ephemer. The latter apologizes for being so late, before making Player a Dandelion, so they can survive after the end of the world. Ephemer and Skuld, who have since become members of the new Union Leaders alongside Ventus, Brain and Lauriam, then decide to erase Player's memories of fighting in the Keyblade War and replace them with fake memories of Player accepting Ava's offer to join the Dandelions, believing that Player wouldn't be able to handle the trauma of fighting in the Keyblade War.

Later on, when Lauriam is searching for his little sister, Strelitzia, who went missing while she was trying to recruit someone into the Dandelions Ephemer and Skuld were able to deduce that Player is the person that Strelitzia was trying to recruit. Ephemer then takes Lauriam to meet Player, after Lauriam finishes asking Player questions to see what they know about Strelitzia's disappearance, Ephemer decides to spend the rest of the day hanging out with Player to make up for how he hasn't been able to spend much time with Player recently due to his job as a Union Leader. While Ephemer and Player are hanging out, they both notice that the world has started glitching and go to the tower and travel to Game Central Station to find out what's causing it. Eventually Ephemer decides to return back to Daybreak Town while Player continues to investigate.

The Player jumps out a portal to stop an attack by Darkness. Once they are filled in about the situation, they decide to stay behind with Ephmer and Skuld. The three chat, until Darkness appears. That's when the Player pretends to be possessed and attacks their friends. They hurt Skuld to force Ephemer to trap Darkness in the Portal Cable, sacrificing themself in the process. Of course, neither Ephemer nor Skuld are aware of their plan and think that they truly lost them to the Darkness. Ephemer, still hurted by what he did to Player, reassures Skuld that he'll be there for her and the others. They get into the last two pods from the Ark and leave the crumbling and glitching data-Daybreak Town.

Fanon
Like many other poly ships in the Kingdom Hearts Franchise, the appeal for the Daybreak Trio comes from them being the main trio of their respective game in the franchise, Kingdom Hearts: Union Cross. The ship has existed ever since Skuld's first appearance in the story as her history with Ephemer and her becoming friends with Player made it clear to fans that these three were going to be the game's main trio. The ship's popularity eventually began to slowly decline later on in Union Cross' story, due to Ephemer and Skuld's new positions as Union Leaders, meaning that while they got plenty of opportunities to interact with each other, they were rarely ever given opportunities to interact with Player (especially Skuld, who wouldn't interact with Player again until the final three quests of the game). However, once the finale of Union Cross was released, the ship's popularity came surging back in full force, largely thanks to the final two quests focusing on the trio.

There are currently 10 works with the tag 'Ephemer/Player Character/Skuld' and 8 works with the tag 'Ephemer & Player Character & Skuld' on AO3.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

Variations

 * EpheSkul refers to the ship between Ephemer and Skuld
 * PlayEphe refers to the ship between Player and Ephemer
 * PlaySkul refers to the ship between Player and Skuld