Post by Axel on Mar 10, 2011 23:27:51 GMT -5
Name: Axel
Age: ~25 (10 or younger as a Nobody)
Gender: Male
Race: Nobody
Occupation:Former Organization XIII's Number VIII
Side: Neutral (with an inclination toward Light)
Weapon: Twin spiked, fireproof chakrams that he can call and dismiss at will:
Techniques and Magic:
Fire: Axel controls fire just in general, but on a combat basis he's capable of the Fire/Fira/Firaga trinity depending on how serious he wants his damage. All three manifest in a simple fireball, but in Fira and Firaga's case it's larger and faster accordingly.
Family: None known.
Character Personality: Originally, Axel was more of a bastard. He killed and he hurt and he just didn’t care. His heart wasn’t in it, really—and it never truly is. While he’s mellowed out since meeting Roxas and Sora both, he is still capable of cruelties. Now, though, he’s also capable of empathy, and that can and will bring him up short when it gets down to the wire.
Killer or not, Axel is laid back and smooth. He has an ear for wit and an eye for cracks in the façade of anyone foolish or smart enough to work with him. And he might prefer to spend the day napping, but he’s not lazy about the dirty work—unless it involves his friends. He’ll take orders and snark away without any true complaints right up until the minute he has to take out Sora or one of the kid’s counterparts, and then you’ll never have a worse employee. At the end of the day, though, Axel cares about Axel. Given the choice between himself and a friend, except in the most extraordinary of circumstances, he’s going to save himself.
Character History: Lea grew up in Radiant Garden with his best friend, Isa. On a day out, they met this kid Ventus, who was moping around with a wooden Keyblade. Lea decided this merited a fight and they sparred, shmoozed, carried on, and went home happy. That is, until a bunch of scientists got cocky and screwed everything up for a select few Nobodies. The accused decided to rely on strength in numbers and banded together, and Isa and Lea joined not long after to become present-day Saïx and Axel. Their relationship went right down the tubes after that, because the loss of a heart changed them both, and where Axel mostly kept his old personality and faked a lot of his emotions Saïx didn’t seem to see the point. The gap between them only widened when Axel got mixed up with Roxas, the newest recruit and Keybearing ace in the hole for Xemnas, since Axel started sharing his tradition of “icing on the cake” with the kid up on Twilight Town’s clock tower. Sora interrupted this by reaching Castle Oblivion, where the Organization intended to use Naminé to manipulate him. Axel, as part of the force against Sora, abruptly bid adieu to Roxas and got the order from Saïx to eliminate any traitors he found in Oblivion’s residents.
Naminé called to Sora’s heart and Marluxia finished the job, bringing Sora right through the front doors and beginning the process of dismissing all his KH1-era memories. About a floor later, Axel and his total disregard for anonymity showed up in order to snark and test out the new punching bag. Sora beat him, but Axel was only seeing how he did anyway, and maybe because he saw so much Roxas in Sora he offered to help him figure out Oblivion. Though, it also could’ve been to muddy the waters, as generally when one wants to manipulate a Keybearer with no beginning or end to his trust, one doesn’t do it by playing the villain. Even Maleficent knew that much. At any rate, Sora refused, preferring to leave it to his own abilities and possibly because Axel had just, y’know, tried to kill him. So Axel vanished back up to what amounted to Oblivion’s observatory, where Larxene noticed that he’d taken an interest in the Keybearer. Axel claimed it was because he’d gone Heartless and back, but we all know there was some Roxas in there too. He also made the bold move of suggesting he was a traitor in order to force Larxene’s own admission, which worked, and put him in good standing with the real ringleader’s right hand.
Larxene was up next to bat Sora around, and her tactic wasn’t an extended hand but a twisted knife, but Sora got through it anyway and she returned to Axel just so he could jab at her already wounded pride. Just as she started to throw a tantrum, Vexen showed up to complain about wasting so much time on Sora because he must have briefly forgotten the plot of Kingdom Hearts. Axel suggested he go show them how it’s done, and Vexen called on his valet—sorry, Replica—in order to dump a metric ton of salt into Sora’s wounds. This worked until the Replica kept running away (a fact that was in no way Axel’s fault or responsibility), and after a brief mathematical discrepancy Marluxia sent Vexen to deal with Sora instead as a test of his mettle and pride. Axel pointed out that Vexen was probably going to kill Sora at that rate, and Marluxia shot back with a slightly more flowery version of “I knew that, idiot,” and pointed out that Axel might want to get rid of Vexen and his chilly resolve before both endangered their plot to take over the Organization. Well, it was Marluxia’s idea, but Axel was kind of going with it for the moment.
So Vexen fought Sora and that sucked, and then Vexen fought Sora again and that sucked more, but Sora won anyway both times and Vexen decided to start blabbing everything Marluxia and Naminé and memories and lol you have a Nobody. That stuff simply was not cool with Axel, so he interjected for just a second to send that little loose end up in smoke and vanished to let Sora carry on. He didn’t seem initially affected by the event itself, and in fact seemed to relish taking Vexen out of the game, but after Sora’s visceral reaction to the sight he seemed as annoyed with Marluxia as if he’d been ordered to kill someone in front of Roxas. In fact, he was so annoyed that he single-handedly undermined their entire operation by letting Naminé run off while she was under his watch. But then, that might’ve been his plan all along. Who knows with Axel, seriously. Larxene complained about it, too, but it was really too late since Sora got rid of her after she broke the Replica and smacked Naminé around.
Axel popped down to the basement where Vexen’s cohorts used to hang out before Lexaeus died at Riku’s hand, all in order to have a friendly bet with Zexion over who was going to die next. Axel figured Marluxia, and Zexion figured Axel, and then Zexion went off to get rid of Riku since it didn’t look like he was going to be necessary. It sucks for Zexion that he wasn’t right, because once Marluxia died and Sora joined Naminé and the Replica ran off in a butthurt mess, Axel took Vexen’s old doll down to tie things up right by eliminating Zexion. And that was the end of everything Oblivion.
Axel took his sweet time coming back, too. Maybe he had to lie low while Sora was nodding off and DiZ was sniffing around, or maybe it was to make a dramatic entrance, but he was gone long enough for Roxas to get worried. The Keybearer had made friends with Xion in Axel’s absence, and kept hearing dire reports from Oblivion that someone had died—opp, someone else died—hey, y’know, everyone at Oblivion pretty much died just the other day—until it seemed completely ridiculous to assume Axel was still alive. He was, though, and showed up during one of Roxas’s missions out, indulging in their icy, cakey pastime before hitting the castle because he was in no hurry to get to the part where Saïx chewed him out. Thing was, Vexen and Zexion were people in Saïx’s way in the hierarchy, so in addition to knocking out the traitors Xemnas knew about Axel had no qualms with getting rid of those two as well. Icky jobs didn’t faze him.
As punishment for taking such a stupid long time, he got assigned to his next mission with Roxas, because the Organization obviously doesn’t understand how to shot punish. They were out in search of Xion, who’d gone missing during a mission the other day. After a bunch of asking around and Pence being a smartaleck, the two of them tracked her down in front of Twilight Town’s mansion, trying to fight an invisible thing that she’d spent a day and a half looking for. Once she was rescued, the newly established trinity took their habit to the clock tower and did that crap for days. And then a problem arose, because Xion had this run-in with an Organization imposter that sent her into a coma. All this could have been avoided if she wasn’t sent after the imposter, since admittedly that makes absolutely no sense in the first place. The guy wasn’t a Heartless, and even if it had to be a Keybearer because the Organization was worried another two or three of them might get wiped out, Roxas had more experience between them. Xemnas probably sent her and not a team of lances and chakrams and water clones because he knew she was repairable and replaceable, but in that single gesture he unwittingly jeopardized his own plans to the point of irretrievability. Peachy.
At any rate, while she was out Roxas flew like a bird at Neverland and asked Axel to ask Saïx just what the hell was up with Xion. Axel did and got no answers, it sucked. She woke to a mission happening between Roxas and Axel, and Axel wheedled Saïx into making it the most awesome trinity mission that ever awesome’d. And at the end of it Xion conked again and Axel carried her bridal style back to the castle and it was fabulous. Saïx got derisive again, and then Xion suddenly found out she couldn’t use the Keyblade. Axel devised a plot to keep the busted Keybearer with the properly functioning one, so all they had to do was make Roxas work double duty to keep Xion alive. Saïx didn’t like any of this right from the get-go, but apparently he and Axel were still close enough that wheedling worked wonders, so things went well up to a point. Fortunately enough, on what was to be their last dual mission together, Xion rediscovered her ability to summon the Keyblade. The Keyblade showed up on the clock tower for the first time ever and Xion dedicated its summoning to Roxas and Axel in a move so cute a kitten blew up.
Then things went right back to normal, except for the fact that they didn’t. Xion got interested in Castle Oblivion and Axel tried to diffuse that interest, but she still ended up running over there when he just happened to be cleaning out the castle. She got into some stuff she shouldn’t have—stuff he’d already discovered—and when Axel got back to see Roxas he couldn’t bring himself to say so. Then she started seeing this blindfolded guy, and worst shot straight to worst when she eloped with him. When he was sighted at Oblivion, Roxas wanted to run over there, and Axel got Saïx to allow it with the two of them. Except Roxas passed out just past the threshold so that little dealio didn’t work.
Axel popped over to Twilight Town with the comatose Roxas, who shouted Riku’s name when he awoke, and apparently that worked like a summon because Riku and Xion showed briefly before tearing off again. Saïx sent them both out to Twilight Town, Roxas to deal with the imposter and Axel to bring Xion in bondage style. Roxas started chasing the imposter only to find out it was Xion, and he tried to convince her to come back with him, but she was clearly too disillusioned to do so. Axel knew it, too, so they engaged in a little scuffle, but when Roxas shouted for them to stop Xion actually did and Axel knocked her out in order to bring her back. This really, really ticked Roxas off, like damn did it tick him off, and Axel knew it did, but still mostly acted normal in spite of things. His arguments with Saïx didn’t illuminate anything except that he was going to have to choose between them, a fact that was growing more and more obvious, although for a little while it looked like Xemnas was going to choose for him.
Ultimately Xion was saved on a technicality: the fact that she was preventing Sora from waking. But things got worse from there. She wasn’t just sapping memories from Roxas, she was sapping his strength as well, and Axel told her so when she finally asked. Roxas grew more fragile and Axel and Xion were both delicate around him, but Roxas didn’t see any reason to stop pushing himself and neither did Saïx. In a particularly underhanded bit of manipulation, Roxas and Xion were assigned to the same Heartless, only they were each deluded to believe that the other one was the Heartless. Axel got between them at the critical moment, “meddling again,” and they had their last day on the clock tower together. Axel finally mentioned to them that they might wanna check their ice cream sticks for the chance at being a WINNER!, and Roxas recalled just then that he’d gotten one, but didn’t say so. It didn’t really matter, because Axel didn’t know what the WINNER! thing meant, anyway.
The next day meant a mission for Axel, Xigbar, and Xion, and Roxas ran solo to Twilight Town. Tensions exploded in Wonderland for the trio, though, and Xion took on Ventus’s image to Xigbar’s eyes. She took him out and told Axel that she didn’t have any more time, revealing to him that she now (most likely) looked exactly like Sora. Axel let her go, and then got chewed out for it by both Saïx and Roxas when he tried to explain to Roxas what Xion really was. While Axel got his orders to bring Xion back, Roxas went out and placed a device that the Organization didn’t see fit to explain to him, and then when he couldn’t get anything else out of Axel, he lost it, left behind his WINNER! stick, beat Saïx into putty, and ran away from the Organization, passing Axel in his fateful walk out. Xion got to Naminé, but then Axel crashed the party, spilling all his frustrations to her in a final rant born of being clotheslined back and forth between responsibility and kinda-sorta-maybe-I-hope-genuine friendship, and the fight ended in his favor. Beaten to the point of collapse, he got all the way to the castle before he did and Xemnas took Xion to be fixed again. Alone in his room later, with Xion dead at Roxas’s hand and Roxas comatose at Riku’s, Axel found the WINNER! stick and tried to figure out how everything had turned out so wrong.
It didn’t end there, either. Like Xion before him, whose memory started disappearing from the moment of her death, Roxas became Axel’s target. He’d been uploaded into a false Twilight Town, given a new personality and a new set of false friends to lose, and Axel discovered the hard way that Xion’s wasn’t the only memory erased from Roxas’s mind. He faced the kid during the Struggle tournament, but DiZ interfered. Xemnas gave the order to eliminate Roxas totally, apparently preferring to have Sora awake and assembling Kingdom Hearts at half-potential or just out of being such a sore loser, but Axel had to be convinced through force. So a few days later he took Roxas on outside of the usual spot—but DiZ interfered. Finally, with the computer smashed and Roxas about to rejoin Sora, Axel tore into him in the basement of the mansion and lost. Inevitably, horribly.
He fell into DiZ’s hands with Naminé, and Riku was ordered to get rid of them both, but instead he let them go. Naminé still wanted to see Kairi and Axel still wanted to see Roxas. So they compromised, and Axel went to collect Kairi. However, he wasn’t honest with her about who he wanted her to see, and even if he was she probably wouldn’t have trusted him. King Mickey obviously didn’t like any of it anyway and sent a portal to Kairi’s aid, which led her to the real Twilight Town where Sora had already met up with the real Hayner, Pence, and Olette after waking. Axel followed and took her from there, but in the process of bringing her to Naminé he was intercepted by Saïx. The Organization took her into custody, and Axel encountered Sora at Hollow Bastion, where he explained Xemnas’s goal and apologized for getting Kairi involved. Saïx cut that one short, too, and Axel spent the next rest of Sora’s adventure fleeing from Nobody ambush after Nobody ambush, culminating in the Dusk armada that separated Sora from the World That Never Was. Axel was no longer the example of speed and strength he used to be, and cleared the way in a final firework. The truth was, in tracking down Sora, he’d been trying to see Roxas. But Sora made him feel the same way, which had been the truth even a year ago when he held out a hand to the Keybearer at Oblivion. His death brought out Roxas in a battle with Sora, and their consciousnesses met for just a frozen moment in time on the clock tower, ephemeral as a tear.
Character's Physical Description:
The Flurry of Dancing Flames is about 5’8” and extremely lanky and angular, and the black Organization cloak makes him look even more slender than he really is—in part because it’s very snug around him and not nearly as flowing or roomy as some of the other members’ uniforms. This also improves the effect of his sinewy gesticulations. The man practically moves like a snake when he’s going through his subtle interrogations, and he’s about as dangerous.
His eyes alone should tell one that; they’re bright jade, not quite neon. When they’re not blazing green fire or rimmed with suspicion, they’re appraising the world with sardonic amusement or softening into a smile or casual smirk at the few people he considers friends. Just under them are what look like two tattoos, purple upside-down tears, with no determinable origin. His hair is an explosion of blood red spikes that trickles a little ways down his back, but they’re swept away from his face like he’s afraid he’d burn the ends if they got in the way of his eyes.
Quotes: "Got it memorized?"
"Got it memorized?"
"Commit it to memory."
"You got the number memorized, huh?"
"Get it memorized, man."
Roleplaying Sample: [Lifted from an old RP, obsolete site; Roxas in question gave consent upon unconsciousness.]
To Axel, that response didn't have any Roxas in it. It was all Sora, but that was fine as long as it kept Roxas going. Before he could get moving again, though, Roxas turned into a cry and a jolting mass slamming into his side, making him catch himself on one hand and grope for his best friend with the other.
Roxas fell limply into the curve of his arm.
No no no no no no no no--![/b][/color]
But it didn't feel like the kid was fading, and the second Axel could shift his weight around and get into a better position he realized why Roxas had collapsed. And it wasn't the one Neoshadow, either. The presence of one meant others, writhing their way out of the ground in the typical loose circle and crouching aggressively in preparation to spring. Adrenaline and not stubbornness dragged Axel to his feet, pulling Roxas up with him like a doll with one hand curled at his shoulder and the other under his knees, and green-fire eyes studied the dark blue veins and curled claws and zigzag antennae of the shadows. Vaguely, he wondered what Sora would think right now--if it would be any different from his own determination not to go down like this. He would not succumb to darkness like this--not again--with his best friend's head lolling against his arm and the smothering nothingness of a city that was never meant to exist closing in all around.
Maybe it was supposed to end this way. But it wouldn't.
Maybe there wasn't anything after this.
We'll find out together.
Axel's boot scraped the ground like striking a match and fire responded in a dragon's breath, shooting out in a fan at the Neoshadows on his right to clear a path. He didn't even wait for the flames to completely dissipate before tearing through--Roxas would understand if he got a little scorched--and moved in a fleeting run, no longer concerned about portals or Potions or the castle or the Neoshadows. Get away, find shelter, put the pieces together later.
Not that there was any shortage of places to hide, but evading the shadows wasn't easy. More than once one of them flared up from the ground in its signature shockwave attack to try to knock Axel off his feet, but only three of them seemed to give serious pursuit. He wasn't even concerned about why they were attacking--they obviously thought there were some hearts in the equation or they were under orders, and Axel didn't have the means to convince them otherwise or sway their fickle loyalties--but they eventually tapered off and he slowed, panting. Staying out on the street was not going to work.
BAMN
Jade eyes surveyed the dark little room. It wasn't much, just a storage house, but it had what looked like a cot and for the moment that would do it, so Axel kicked the door closed behind him and set Roxas down, stretching his arms out with a pained hiss. "Hey." He leaned over to pat Roxas's cheek, shook him lightly, snapped his fingers. "Snoozin' on me again, lazybones? C'mon." It was probably better if Roxas slept it off now, but what Axel was really going for was just a groan. Maybe a word. Enough to tell him that the kid wasn't checking out on him completely after all that, because that would be a little anticlimactic.
Password: Admin Approved
Other Characters: None
Age: ~25 (10 or younger as a Nobody)
Gender: Male
Race: Nobody
Occupation:
Side: Neutral (with an inclination toward Light)
Weapon: Twin spiked, fireproof chakrams that he can call and dismiss at will:
Techniques and Magic:
Fire: Axel controls fire just in general, but on a combat basis he's capable of the Fire/Fira/Firaga trinity depending on how serious he wants his damage. All three manifest in a simple fireball, but in Fira and Firaga's case it's larger and faster accordingly.
Cooldowns:Arena of Fire: At his command, fire will leap up in a circle around Axel’s opponent and himself and the floor will turn to magma. He can keep this up on the short or long term unless a counterattack obliterates it, and as long as his opponent is trapped inside Axel can leap through the flames to recover on the other side and attack from any angle.
Fire: N/A (too minimal)
Fira: One post.
Firaga: Two posts.
Cooldown: Limit one per thread. Active for five posts; nullifies fire techniques for one post following.Teleportation: If Axel is working with an arena of fire, this technique is unnecessary, as he can just leap through the flames to escape attack. But if he’s in a wide-open area, he can disappear briefly into a combination of flames and darkness and reappear several feet away. This is not comparable to his Organization standard ability to open Corridors of Darkness, as it’s much faster and only works over a short distance.
Cooldown: One post.Explosion: If Axel is already in dire straits, a more severe form of this attack will also harm him and may even weaken him to the point of imminent death. But the usual form is milder, manifesting in a charging period followed by a debilitating explosion with a small radius. However, the floor catches fire in a much larger radius around him, so having a floating or gliding or flying ability will help his opponent in this case.
Cooldown: Limit one per thread.Assassins: Only while under the command of the Organization (or in absence of a stronger influence) Axel can summon Assassin Nobodies, which attack from the ground in punishing strokes and block all attacks until the victim counters. They can also float and attack from the air, and in a dire situation they will run into their opponent and explode in a kamikaze attack.
Cooldown: Limit eight summons per thread in two groups of four, separated by three posts minimum.
Family: None known.
Character Personality: Originally, Axel was more of a bastard. He killed and he hurt and he just didn’t care. His heart wasn’t in it, really—and it never truly is. While he’s mellowed out since meeting Roxas and Sora both, he is still capable of cruelties. Now, though, he’s also capable of empathy, and that can and will bring him up short when it gets down to the wire.
Killer or not, Axel is laid back and smooth. He has an ear for wit and an eye for cracks in the façade of anyone foolish or smart enough to work with him. And he might prefer to spend the day napping, but he’s not lazy about the dirty work—unless it involves his friends. He’ll take orders and snark away without any true complaints right up until the minute he has to take out Sora or one of the kid’s counterparts, and then you’ll never have a worse employee. At the end of the day, though, Axel cares about Axel. Given the choice between himself and a friend, except in the most extraordinary of circumstances, he’s going to save himself.
Character History: Lea grew up in Radiant Garden with his best friend, Isa. On a day out, they met this kid Ventus, who was moping around with a wooden Keyblade. Lea decided this merited a fight and they sparred, shmoozed, carried on, and went home happy. That is, until a bunch of scientists got cocky and screwed everything up for a select few Nobodies. The accused decided to rely on strength in numbers and banded together, and Isa and Lea joined not long after to become present-day Saïx and Axel. Their relationship went right down the tubes after that, because the loss of a heart changed them both, and where Axel mostly kept his old personality and faked a lot of his emotions Saïx didn’t seem to see the point. The gap between them only widened when Axel got mixed up with Roxas, the newest recruit and Keybearing ace in the hole for Xemnas, since Axel started sharing his tradition of “icing on the cake” with the kid up on Twilight Town’s clock tower. Sora interrupted this by reaching Castle Oblivion, where the Organization intended to use Naminé to manipulate him. Axel, as part of the force against Sora, abruptly bid adieu to Roxas and got the order from Saïx to eliminate any traitors he found in Oblivion’s residents.
Naminé called to Sora’s heart and Marluxia finished the job, bringing Sora right through the front doors and beginning the process of dismissing all his KH1-era memories. About a floor later, Axel and his total disregard for anonymity showed up in order to snark and test out the new punching bag. Sora beat him, but Axel was only seeing how he did anyway, and maybe because he saw so much Roxas in Sora he offered to help him figure out Oblivion. Though, it also could’ve been to muddy the waters, as generally when one wants to manipulate a Keybearer with no beginning or end to his trust, one doesn’t do it by playing the villain. Even Maleficent knew that much. At any rate, Sora refused, preferring to leave it to his own abilities and possibly because Axel had just, y’know, tried to kill him. So Axel vanished back up to what amounted to Oblivion’s observatory, where Larxene noticed that he’d taken an interest in the Keybearer. Axel claimed it was because he’d gone Heartless and back, but we all know there was some Roxas in there too. He also made the bold move of suggesting he was a traitor in order to force Larxene’s own admission, which worked, and put him in good standing with the real ringleader’s right hand.
Larxene was up next to bat Sora around, and her tactic wasn’t an extended hand but a twisted knife, but Sora got through it anyway and she returned to Axel just so he could jab at her already wounded pride. Just as she started to throw a tantrum, Vexen showed up to complain about wasting so much time on Sora because he must have briefly forgotten the plot of Kingdom Hearts. Axel suggested he go show them how it’s done, and Vexen called on his valet—sorry, Replica—in order to dump a metric ton of salt into Sora’s wounds. This worked until the Replica kept running away (a fact that was in no way Axel’s fault or responsibility), and after a brief mathematical discrepancy Marluxia sent Vexen to deal with Sora instead as a test of his mettle and pride. Axel pointed out that Vexen was probably going to kill Sora at that rate, and Marluxia shot back with a slightly more flowery version of “I knew that, idiot,” and pointed out that Axel might want to get rid of Vexen and his chilly resolve before both endangered their plot to take over the Organization. Well, it was Marluxia’s idea, but Axel was kind of going with it for the moment.
So Vexen fought Sora and that sucked, and then Vexen fought Sora again and that sucked more, but Sora won anyway both times and Vexen decided to start blabbing everything Marluxia and Naminé and memories and lol you have a Nobody. That stuff simply was not cool with Axel, so he interjected for just a second to send that little loose end up in smoke and vanished to let Sora carry on. He didn’t seem initially affected by the event itself, and in fact seemed to relish taking Vexen out of the game, but after Sora’s visceral reaction to the sight he seemed as annoyed with Marluxia as if he’d been ordered to kill someone in front of Roxas. In fact, he was so annoyed that he single-handedly undermined their entire operation by letting Naminé run off while she was under his watch. But then, that might’ve been his plan all along. Who knows with Axel, seriously. Larxene complained about it, too, but it was really too late since Sora got rid of her after she broke the Replica and smacked Naminé around.
Axel popped down to the basement where Vexen’s cohorts used to hang out before Lexaeus died at Riku’s hand, all in order to have a friendly bet with Zexion over who was going to die next. Axel figured Marluxia, and Zexion figured Axel, and then Zexion went off to get rid of Riku since it didn’t look like he was going to be necessary. It sucks for Zexion that he wasn’t right, because once Marluxia died and Sora joined Naminé and the Replica ran off in a butthurt mess, Axel took Vexen’s old doll down to tie things up right by eliminating Zexion. And that was the end of everything Oblivion.
Axel took his sweet time coming back, too. Maybe he had to lie low while Sora was nodding off and DiZ was sniffing around, or maybe it was to make a dramatic entrance, but he was gone long enough for Roxas to get worried. The Keybearer had made friends with Xion in Axel’s absence, and kept hearing dire reports from Oblivion that someone had died—opp, someone else died—hey, y’know, everyone at Oblivion pretty much died just the other day—until it seemed completely ridiculous to assume Axel was still alive. He was, though, and showed up during one of Roxas’s missions out, indulging in their icy, cakey pastime before hitting the castle because he was in no hurry to get to the part where Saïx chewed him out. Thing was, Vexen and Zexion were people in Saïx’s way in the hierarchy, so in addition to knocking out the traitors Xemnas knew about Axel had no qualms with getting rid of those two as well. Icky jobs didn’t faze him.
As punishment for taking such a stupid long time, he got assigned to his next mission with Roxas, because the Organization obviously doesn’t understand how to shot punish. They were out in search of Xion, who’d gone missing during a mission the other day. After a bunch of asking around and Pence being a smartaleck, the two of them tracked her down in front of Twilight Town’s mansion, trying to fight an invisible thing that she’d spent a day and a half looking for. Once she was rescued, the newly established trinity took their habit to the clock tower and did that crap for days. And then a problem arose, because Xion had this run-in with an Organization imposter that sent her into a coma. All this could have been avoided if she wasn’t sent after the imposter, since admittedly that makes absolutely no sense in the first place. The guy wasn’t a Heartless, and even if it had to be a Keybearer because the Organization was worried another two or three of them might get wiped out, Roxas had more experience between them. Xemnas probably sent her and not a team of lances and chakrams and water clones because he knew she was repairable and replaceable, but in that single gesture he unwittingly jeopardized his own plans to the point of irretrievability. Peachy.
At any rate, while she was out Roxas flew like a bird at Neverland and asked Axel to ask Saïx just what the hell was up with Xion. Axel did and got no answers, it sucked. She woke to a mission happening between Roxas and Axel, and Axel wheedled Saïx into making it the most awesome trinity mission that ever awesome’d. And at the end of it Xion conked again and Axel carried her bridal style back to the castle and it was fabulous. Saïx got derisive again, and then Xion suddenly found out she couldn’t use the Keyblade. Axel devised a plot to keep the busted Keybearer with the properly functioning one, so all they had to do was make Roxas work double duty to keep Xion alive. Saïx didn’t like any of this right from the get-go, but apparently he and Axel were still close enough that wheedling worked wonders, so things went well up to a point. Fortunately enough, on what was to be their last dual mission together, Xion rediscovered her ability to summon the Keyblade. The Keyblade showed up on the clock tower for the first time ever and Xion dedicated its summoning to Roxas and Axel in a move so cute a kitten blew up.
Then things went right back to normal, except for the fact that they didn’t. Xion got interested in Castle Oblivion and Axel tried to diffuse that interest, but she still ended up running over there when he just happened to be cleaning out the castle. She got into some stuff she shouldn’t have—stuff he’d already discovered—and when Axel got back to see Roxas he couldn’t bring himself to say so. Then she started seeing this blindfolded guy, and worst shot straight to worst when she eloped with him. When he was sighted at Oblivion, Roxas wanted to run over there, and Axel got Saïx to allow it with the two of them. Except Roxas passed out just past the threshold so that little dealio didn’t work.
Axel popped over to Twilight Town with the comatose Roxas, who shouted Riku’s name when he awoke, and apparently that worked like a summon because Riku and Xion showed briefly before tearing off again. Saïx sent them both out to Twilight Town, Roxas to deal with the imposter and Axel to bring Xion in bondage style. Roxas started chasing the imposter only to find out it was Xion, and he tried to convince her to come back with him, but she was clearly too disillusioned to do so. Axel knew it, too, so they engaged in a little scuffle, but when Roxas shouted for them to stop Xion actually did and Axel knocked her out in order to bring her back. This really, really ticked Roxas off, like damn did it tick him off, and Axel knew it did, but still mostly acted normal in spite of things. His arguments with Saïx didn’t illuminate anything except that he was going to have to choose between them, a fact that was growing more and more obvious, although for a little while it looked like Xemnas was going to choose for him.
Ultimately Xion was saved on a technicality: the fact that she was preventing Sora from waking. But things got worse from there. She wasn’t just sapping memories from Roxas, she was sapping his strength as well, and Axel told her so when she finally asked. Roxas grew more fragile and Axel and Xion were both delicate around him, but Roxas didn’t see any reason to stop pushing himself and neither did Saïx. In a particularly underhanded bit of manipulation, Roxas and Xion were assigned to the same Heartless, only they were each deluded to believe that the other one was the Heartless. Axel got between them at the critical moment, “meddling again,” and they had their last day on the clock tower together. Axel finally mentioned to them that they might wanna check their ice cream sticks for the chance at being a WINNER!, and Roxas recalled just then that he’d gotten one, but didn’t say so. It didn’t really matter, because Axel didn’t know what the WINNER! thing meant, anyway.
The next day meant a mission for Axel, Xigbar, and Xion, and Roxas ran solo to Twilight Town. Tensions exploded in Wonderland for the trio, though, and Xion took on Ventus’s image to Xigbar’s eyes. She took him out and told Axel that she didn’t have any more time, revealing to him that she now (most likely) looked exactly like Sora. Axel let her go, and then got chewed out for it by both Saïx and Roxas when he tried to explain to Roxas what Xion really was. While Axel got his orders to bring Xion back, Roxas went out and placed a device that the Organization didn’t see fit to explain to him, and then when he couldn’t get anything else out of Axel, he lost it, left behind his WINNER! stick, beat Saïx into putty, and ran away from the Organization, passing Axel in his fateful walk out. Xion got to Naminé, but then Axel crashed the party, spilling all his frustrations to her in a final rant born of being clotheslined back and forth between responsibility and kinda-sorta-maybe-I-hope-genuine friendship, and the fight ended in his favor. Beaten to the point of collapse, he got all the way to the castle before he did and Xemnas took Xion to be fixed again. Alone in his room later, with Xion dead at Roxas’s hand and Roxas comatose at Riku’s, Axel found the WINNER! stick and tried to figure out how everything had turned out so wrong.
It didn’t end there, either. Like Xion before him, whose memory started disappearing from the moment of her death, Roxas became Axel’s target. He’d been uploaded into a false Twilight Town, given a new personality and a new set of false friends to lose, and Axel discovered the hard way that Xion’s wasn’t the only memory erased from Roxas’s mind. He faced the kid during the Struggle tournament, but DiZ interfered. Xemnas gave the order to eliminate Roxas totally, apparently preferring to have Sora awake and assembling Kingdom Hearts at half-potential or just out of being such a sore loser, but Axel had to be convinced through force. So a few days later he took Roxas on outside of the usual spot—but DiZ interfered. Finally, with the computer smashed and Roxas about to rejoin Sora, Axel tore into him in the basement of the mansion and lost. Inevitably, horribly.
He fell into DiZ’s hands with Naminé, and Riku was ordered to get rid of them both, but instead he let them go. Naminé still wanted to see Kairi and Axel still wanted to see Roxas. So they compromised, and Axel went to collect Kairi. However, he wasn’t honest with her about who he wanted her to see, and even if he was she probably wouldn’t have trusted him. King Mickey obviously didn’t like any of it anyway and sent a portal to Kairi’s aid, which led her to the real Twilight Town where Sora had already met up with the real Hayner, Pence, and Olette after waking. Axel followed and took her from there, but in the process of bringing her to Naminé he was intercepted by Saïx. The Organization took her into custody, and Axel encountered Sora at Hollow Bastion, where he explained Xemnas’s goal and apologized for getting Kairi involved. Saïx cut that one short, too, and Axel spent the next rest of Sora’s adventure fleeing from Nobody ambush after Nobody ambush, culminating in the Dusk armada that separated Sora from the World That Never Was. Axel was no longer the example of speed and strength he used to be, and cleared the way in a final firework. The truth was, in tracking down Sora, he’d been trying to see Roxas. But Sora made him feel the same way, which had been the truth even a year ago when he held out a hand to the Keybearer at Oblivion. His death brought out Roxas in a battle with Sora, and their consciousnesses met for just a frozen moment in time on the clock tower, ephemeral as a tear.
Character's Physical Description:
The Flurry of Dancing Flames is about 5’8” and extremely lanky and angular, and the black Organization cloak makes him look even more slender than he really is—in part because it’s very snug around him and not nearly as flowing or roomy as some of the other members’ uniforms. This also improves the effect of his sinewy gesticulations. The man practically moves like a snake when he’s going through his subtle interrogations, and he’s about as dangerous.
His eyes alone should tell one that; they’re bright jade, not quite neon. When they’re not blazing green fire or rimmed with suspicion, they’re appraising the world with sardonic amusement or softening into a smile or casual smirk at the few people he considers friends. Just under them are what look like two tattoos, purple upside-down tears, with no determinable origin. His hair is an explosion of blood red spikes that trickles a little ways down his back, but they’re swept away from his face like he’s afraid he’d burn the ends if they got in the way of his eyes.
Quotes: "Got it memorized?"
"Got it memorized?"
"Commit it to memory."
"You got the number memorized, huh?"
"Get it memorized, man."
Roleplaying Sample: [Lifted from an old RP, obsolete site; Roxas in question gave consent upon unconsciousness.]
To Axel, that response didn't have any Roxas in it. It was all Sora, but that was fine as long as it kept Roxas going. Before he could get moving again, though, Roxas turned into a cry and a jolting mass slamming into his side, making him catch himself on one hand and grope for his best friend with the other.
Roxas fell limply into the curve of his arm.
No no no no no no no no--![/b][/color]
But it didn't feel like the kid was fading, and the second Axel could shift his weight around and get into a better position he realized why Roxas had collapsed. And it wasn't the one Neoshadow, either. The presence of one meant others, writhing their way out of the ground in the typical loose circle and crouching aggressively in preparation to spring. Adrenaline and not stubbornness dragged Axel to his feet, pulling Roxas up with him like a doll with one hand curled at his shoulder and the other under his knees, and green-fire eyes studied the dark blue veins and curled claws and zigzag antennae of the shadows. Vaguely, he wondered what Sora would think right now--if it would be any different from his own determination not to go down like this. He would not succumb to darkness like this--not again--with his best friend's head lolling against his arm and the smothering nothingness of a city that was never meant to exist closing in all around.
Maybe it was supposed to end this way. But it wouldn't.
Maybe there wasn't anything after this.
We'll find out together.
Axel's boot scraped the ground like striking a match and fire responded in a dragon's breath, shooting out in a fan at the Neoshadows on his right to clear a path. He didn't even wait for the flames to completely dissipate before tearing through--Roxas would understand if he got a little scorched--and moved in a fleeting run, no longer concerned about portals or Potions or the castle or the Neoshadows. Get away, find shelter, put the pieces together later.
Not that there was any shortage of places to hide, but evading the shadows wasn't easy. More than once one of them flared up from the ground in its signature shockwave attack to try to knock Axel off his feet, but only three of them seemed to give serious pursuit. He wasn't even concerned about why they were attacking--they obviously thought there were some hearts in the equation or they were under orders, and Axel didn't have the means to convince them otherwise or sway their fickle loyalties--but they eventually tapered off and he slowed, panting. Staying out on the street was not going to work.
BAMN
Jade eyes surveyed the dark little room. It wasn't much, just a storage house, but it had what looked like a cot and for the moment that would do it, so Axel kicked the door closed behind him and set Roxas down, stretching his arms out with a pained hiss. "Hey." He leaned over to pat Roxas's cheek, shook him lightly, snapped his fingers. "Snoozin' on me again, lazybones? C'mon." It was probably better if Roxas slept it off now, but what Axel was really going for was just a groan. Maybe a word. Enough to tell him that the kid wasn't checking out on him completely after all that, because that would be a little anticlimactic.
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