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Nov. 26th, 2007 11:06 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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kh_drabbleChallenge: [127] Linguistics
Title: an upstairs harmony
Wordcount: 594
Summary: Vexen finds Roxas bemusing, but he can't really understand why that is. Of course not; as he's dead.
Notes: I can't seem to write drabbles, titles, or summaries anymore -- but I did get the wordcount under 600, in the end :D
Quite by chance, Vexen observed how the rest of the Organization treated XIII, and what he observed intrigued him.
They didn't like Roxas. His companions understood what the Keyblade was, and they tolerated the boy's presence -- but they never liked it.
He could never tell what VII thought, but VII and XIII rarely interacted, so far as he observed. VIII seemed to think that Roxas was his friend. Vexen didn't understand, because the Axel he knew was much too busy with his own schemes and games to pay attention to the quiet strange boy with such childish eyes.
IX said he loathed Roxas, but the truth was, he was afraid of him. That was understandable. Demyx was afraid of his own existence, and he still childishly denied his Heartlessness. All he wanted to be was real, so how was he to embrace something like Roxas, who had never been real and who most likely never would be?
"He's cute, just a kid," X said, "Only type of kid that's the bad seed, the one that's just born evil." But XI thought Luxord's view gave XIII too much credit -- "He's unpredictable, but that only makes him a liability. The girl is the important one; we can use her for things." XII agreed, there, but when asked point-blank for her opinion on Roxas -- honestly? She always just thought he was creepy.
It made no sense. There had never been similar dislike among the Order -- there was amusement at Demyx's attitude, maybe, and isolated cases of personal resentment, but otherwise, his companions were generally indifferent to one another.
Vexen had long since learned that the best way to really find out the answer was to confront the problem directly, and so he finally went to see XIII.
He found Roxas in the library, sitting still and silent, only moving to occasionally turn over a page. "Why do they all hate you?" the Academic asked him.
Roxas turned his eyes to Vexen's face, and considered the man for a moment, before he said, "It's not everyone. Axel likes me, I think. And so does the Superior."
"Axel is a loose cannon; he thinks differently, somehow, and he can't be counted with the rest of the Organization. The Superior does not like or dislike anyone; you're very useful to him, and so he will not act against you."
Roxas did not disagree with either of these statements, but he did not answer the question, either. Vexen asked it again -- "The rest either fear, loathe or distrust you. Why is this, XIII?"
The boy turned the question on him this time. "Do you hate me?"
Even might have paused a moment before telling such a small a child that he could not stand it. But Vexen did not feel bad or good or anything at all when he answered, "Yes, I think so. It's the way your eyes are still bright, even though you haven't got a soul or a heart or the memories of one. It irritates me -- you shouldn't still look like that."
Roxas could have made up some answer, but it was pointless to lie -- they never understood, even when he told the truth. "It's because I still have one, that I look like Somebody. And it scares them because they've forgotten what Somebody looks like."
And of course, Vexen wouldn't understand, but Roxas didn't elaborate. Why bother? He'd tried to explain to the others, too, but they could never-- quite-- it for what it was, which was just the harmony between the ones who were long since dead and the divide between those who might, still, be alive.
Title: an upstairs harmony
Wordcount: 594
Summary: Vexen finds Roxas bemusing, but he can't really understand why that is. Of course not; as he's dead.
Notes: I can't seem to write drabbles, titles, or summaries anymore -- but I did get the wordcount under 600, in the end :D
Quite by chance, Vexen observed how the rest of the Organization treated XIII, and what he observed intrigued him.
They didn't like Roxas. His companions understood what the Keyblade was, and they tolerated the boy's presence -- but they never liked it.
He could never tell what VII thought, but VII and XIII rarely interacted, so far as he observed. VIII seemed to think that Roxas was his friend. Vexen didn't understand, because the Axel he knew was much too busy with his own schemes and games to pay attention to the quiet strange boy with such childish eyes.
IX said he loathed Roxas, but the truth was, he was afraid of him. That was understandable. Demyx was afraid of his own existence, and he still childishly denied his Heartlessness. All he wanted to be was real, so how was he to embrace something like Roxas, who had never been real and who most likely never would be?
"He's cute, just a kid," X said, "Only type of kid that's the bad seed, the one that's just born evil." But XI thought Luxord's view gave XIII too much credit -- "He's unpredictable, but that only makes him a liability. The girl is the important one; we can use her for things." XII agreed, there, but when asked point-blank for her opinion on Roxas -- honestly? She always just thought he was creepy.
It made no sense. There had never been similar dislike among the Order -- there was amusement at Demyx's attitude, maybe, and isolated cases of personal resentment, but otherwise, his companions were generally indifferent to one another.
Vexen had long since learned that the best way to really find out the answer was to confront the problem directly, and so he finally went to see XIII.
He found Roxas in the library, sitting still and silent, only moving to occasionally turn over a page. "Why do they all hate you?" the Academic asked him.
Roxas turned his eyes to Vexen's face, and considered the man for a moment, before he said, "It's not everyone. Axel likes me, I think. And so does the Superior."
"Axel is a loose cannon; he thinks differently, somehow, and he can't be counted with the rest of the Organization. The Superior does not like or dislike anyone; you're very useful to him, and so he will not act against you."
Roxas did not disagree with either of these statements, but he did not answer the question, either. Vexen asked it again -- "The rest either fear, loathe or distrust you. Why is this, XIII?"
The boy turned the question on him this time. "Do you hate me?"
Even might have paused a moment before telling such a small a child that he could not stand it. But Vexen did not feel bad or good or anything at all when he answered, "Yes, I think so. It's the way your eyes are still bright, even though you haven't got a soul or a heart or the memories of one. It irritates me -- you shouldn't still look like that."
Roxas could have made up some answer, but it was pointless to lie -- they never understood, even when he told the truth. "It's because I still have one, that I look like Somebody. And it scares them because they've forgotten what Somebody looks like."
And of course, Vexen wouldn't understand, but Roxas didn't elaborate. Why bother? He'd tried to explain to the others, too, but they could never-- quite-- it for what it was, which was just the harmony between the ones who were long since dead and the divide between those who might, still, be alive.
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