Inner Music

[kangaroop.livejournal.com]

Title: Inner Music
Word Count: 369
Characters: Demyx
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Mild KHII ones. 

He sat on the handrail on Naught's Skyway, softly plucking the strings of his sitar. If he had had a heart, he might have been afraid of falling down the endless dark abysm that extended below his feet.

At first glance, anyone would think that Number IX shouldn't belong to the Organization. Instead of training on his fighting skills, he spent endless hours alone with his instrument, playing bizarre and irregular rhythms. Xigbar had once said that Demyx had a deaf ear, but the musician knew better: Without a heartbeat, he could no longer listen to the inner music that guided him as he played, just as his sister had taught him during his childhood.

 Remember, Emyd, the key to your inner music is inside your heart.

Demyx had tried to prove his sister wrong, but to no avail. No matter how long he played, how hard he plucked the strings, how hard he tried to portray the emotions that were now a distant memory, no one listened to his sitar. No one turned around. No one looked at him. It was as if his music no longer existed.

 

 Just as himself.

 But Demyx still remembered the times when his music could be heard. The nights when he would sit and play a mellow melody, accompanied by Shanti's enchanting voice.

 The same one that had lured her husband from the jungle many years before.

 The same one he had heard as a terrified scream that fateful day.

 She had left the village that morning to wash her newborn son's diapers. She had been busy humming a lullaby when a dark, menacing creature had emerged from the river. He had been collecting fruit not far from there. He didn't remember what had happened after he had dove into the current, despite knowing he wasn't a good swimmer.

 So maybe he wasn't exactly the right guy to play the hero part that day. But he didn't mind, for he knew he had made the right choice.

 He had made it listening to his inner music.

 The same one that was now silent.

 The same one he now desperately tried to emulate with his sitar.

 Until the day he'd be complete.

 

 ___________________

Thank you so much for reading ^^. You get a cookie if you caught the Jungle Book reference in this drabble.

BTW, as I was looking for info about "The Jungle Book 2" at Wikipedia for this drabble (I wasn't sure about Shanti's name), I found out that if there had been world based on this movie in the games, Sora and Mowgli would have shared the same voice :P.

Comments

[writingpuck.livejournal.com]

I loved how you gave him a believable back-story, especially with his knowledge of the sitar. :)

It's amazing how much Haley Joel Osment's voice has grown in such a short time, heh-heh.

Anywho, I loved this. Very well-crafted (especially with the phrase flashback preparing the reader for the longer one). :)

[kangaroop.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! ^^. I was torn between this back-story or having him been eaten by the Kraken, but in the end I thought this one made more sense with the sitar thing :D.

I usually watch Disney movies in spanish, so I didn't know he was a voice actor until I played the first game. I must admit I was impressed that he could pull out the role of a cheery guy, because he usually had such depressing roles in the past (like A.I. and the one about making good deeds... those made me cry. Oh! And Sixth Sense too!).

[writingpuck.livejournal.com]

I think Pay it Foward made everyone cry, it was just one of those movies. *nods* But now that I think about it, you're right! Asides from cartoons, Osment is one depressing kid.

If you were serious about the Kraken, I'd definitely like to see that (is way too curious, hee-hee).

[lindskaba.livejournal.com]

;_; oh Demyx. I do adore him. I really enjoyed your discussion of his lack of a heart and what effect it had on his playing. *sniff*

[kangaroop.livejournal.com]

Thanks ^^. I work at a pre-school and the music teacher there told me once that one of the first things she teaches to small children is to listen to their heartbeat, so then they can understand what is rhythm and melody.

[(Anonymous)]

Demyx needs more love like this. *happy sigh* I liked your prose and your version of Demyx's background.

[kangaroop.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

[kastia.livejournal.com]

Wow, your really seemed to capture how Demyx must feel sometimes on a daily basis, and how he would most likely spend time playing his sitar instead of fighting.

Poor Demyx *hugs*