ROCKtober catch-all

[icingonthecake]

Who: Axel (icingonthecake) & Various Y'alls // some closed prompts but general OTA!
What: catch-all for October; some planned events with CR and some stuff for anybody to pop into if you want!
When: throughout the month
Where: errywhere
Warning(s): Axel is a huge nerd idk what else to tell you


In general, Axel has mostly enjoyed the time he's spent on El Nysa. Certainly some times have been better than others... That whole thing with the kidnappings kind of sucked, even if he wasn't directly affected, and the fighting an undead zombie dragon god thing he could have done without, but all things considered, he's had a fairly good time here. He's met some interesting people, done some interesting things, encountered some... unusual situations. To say the least.

Hey, it beats carrying out icky orders for the Organization, at least.

He's still kind of reeling from all that ghost nonsense, honestly, so maybe don't sneak up on him unless you want a chakram in the gizzard. He's been seen casually helping out with memorial efforts, offering general assistance and also if anybody needs a welder, he's got some unorthodox methods. Other than that, though, he's spent most of his time appreciating how lucky he is to have his BFF here with him, and occasionally taking trips back up to the station to visit a few friends who have gone back into stasis. Free time is usually spent in the general vicinity of the housing districts of Olympia, where his apartment is, but he can be found just about anywhere if the occasion calls for it.

He will definitely be spending some time in Wyver during the festivities, cuz those guys like fire almost as much as he does, and he has recently become very interested in getting to know some dragons better. I mean, he didn't really enjoy the whole Ysverai thing, but he's still willing to think dragons are cool, so. Someone point him in the direction of a cool dragon he can become friends with and adopt.

[[basically if you wanna do something feel free to start a thread, this whole month's event and outline stuff is basically OTA at any time for anyone, i'm up for just about anything. you can hmu on plurk at cassowary if you wanna discuss anything or have me start instead or whatever!!]]

Comments

[icingonthecake]

Something very weird is going on, and Axel doesn't like it one bit.

"Was... was it only Sora?" he asks, though it's more just wondering aloud than actually something he expects Roxas to answer. Roxas' memories have always been a little unreliable, and he guesses that makes a modicum of sense, given the special circumstances under which he came into existence at all, but... why would he remember a fight that Roxas doesn't?

Well, okay, Roxas forgot about him entirely that one time, so maybe this isn't so out of character after all. Still, something seems really off. Even if he can't summon up the context or the situation, he's really very sure he remembers these conversations. Something about using too much force, something about how...

This isn't about friendship. If that's all, I gotta go.
... Why had he been such a jackass? Sure, Axel knows he's kind of a jackass by nature, but be that as it may, he's usually not deliberately a jackass to people he likes.

He glances up again when Roxas voices confusion, and then looks startled.

"Rox, are you..." He shakes his head. "Are you crying?"

Nobodies can't cry, can they? Not... not really. He may have shed a tear in that strange liminal space in a dream, but that doesn't count, right? That wasn't real... right? So... why is Roxas crying? And why does he kind of feel as though he might join him at any moment? They have no hearts, so why does his chest ache like a wound healed misshapen?

He quickly places the shell back in the box and closes the lid, letting his hand rest on it a moment, and then gets to his feet.

"I'm gonna..." No, he can't get rid of these. He's not sure why he can't, but something in him is utterly rejecting the idea of just discarding these shells. So he shakes his head quickly, rubbing at that throbbing headache again, wishing it would stop thrumming behind his eyes. "Maybe we should just put these away," he says, and strides toward his bedroom.

[pullsheavendown]

What else would it be about but Sora? What else did he have in his past but his existence as Sora? There was nothing. He's sure of that.

But what Axel is saying doesn't make sense if that's true.

"I don't know." He shakes his head, more out of confusion and frustration than to supply an actual answer. His face is wet, but why? Both his feet areplanted on the ground, but suddenly Roxas feels like he's in freefall.

"You...go ahead," he managed, moving back toward the kitchen table. He needs to sit down. "Do you still want some cocoa?"

[icingonthecake]

"Mm?" Oh. He'd forgotten about he cocoa, too. "Oh, ah... sure." Honestly after this, he kind of wants something stronger than cocoa, and for a moment, he has to smile. Ryoko would have indulged him, he's sure, and dumped half a flask of something pungent and awful into his mug for him.

He misses her a lot.

He doesn't know what else it could have been about, either, besides Sora, but... even so, he's sure there's something else. He's sure of it.

He shakes the thoughts away and holds the box in both hands, moving to the dresser against the wall. Pulling open the bottom drawer, he pushes aside a few notebooks and other miscellaneous items. He doesn't have that many clothes, so the bottom drawer of the dresser has always just been where he's kept various personal items, things that are important and he wants to make sure to keep track of. Daily logs... he never got out of the habit of writing that stuff down. He's kept a log of things that have happened since he came to El Nysa, and as he places the box in the drawer, he retrieves the logbook to flip through some of the older entries. His first meeting with Ryoko, the time he sparred with Urbosa in the gardens... Sneaking Riku out of the hospital. Good friends who are gone now.

It aches. Whether he has a heart or not, the space where it should be aches, when he thinks back on these people who are gone, and he really doesn't like the sensation at all. He's been to their pods, all of them, and those of others who have gone back into stasis, and the ache lingers every time he leaves... but he can't not go. He's sure they can't hear him, that they have no idea he's there, but still he goes. Because he misses them, even if he shouldn't be able to.

His eyes sting, and he squeezes them closed, placing the notebook back in the drawer, and then he spots something else: a different notebook, one he doesn't recall having. It's bound differently than the others, with a spine instead of a spiral, and a dark blue leather cover. It's much fancier, and therefore looks far more important, but he can't remember why he has it, or where he even got it. He reaches into the drawer and picks it up, and a lance of something races through his body, like a chill. Opening the cover, he looks at the words on the first page, in what is very obviously his own handwriting, and all the air leaves his lungs.

Xion Reports

[pullsheavendown]

Roxas finishes what his friend started, heating the milk and mixing in the cocoa until both mugs are steaming and just right. Part of him is proud of himself, that he did it without scorching the milk or overdoing the cocoa, despite rarely having cooked anything for himself before coming to this world (even if Axel would have heated the treats up on his own and not needed a microwave). The rest of him is distracted, unsettled, by the strange delivery and the stranger effect it's had on both of them.

He sits at the table, waiting for Axel and mulling over what this could be about when something catches his attention. It's not sound or movement; it's silence, because Axel should have come back here by now, and hasn't. How many minutes hasn't been? Not long enough for the cocoa to go cold, but Roxas has lost himself in thought for at least a few. Maybe his friend did the same.

All right then. He gets back up, carrying a mug in each hand, making sure not to spill as he pads back to the other bedroom.

"Axel? Cocoa's ready," he says. "What are you doing?"

[icingonthecake]

It took him a good minute and a half to even open the notebook. As soon as he put his hand on it, the headache had returned tenfold, and he'd sat down on the bed with the book in his lap and a hand on his head, waiting for the pain to subside.

It hadn't.

A good seven or eight minutes have gone by when he hears Roxas' voice, and it takes a moment for it to register. It takes another moment for him to really snap back to reality, and yet another for him to actually look up and acknowledge Roxas' presence. He stares at him a moment, the notebook open on his lap, and just sort of opens his mouth, but no sound comes out.

He had forgotten about her. She had been his best friend, their best friend, and they had just... forgotten about her.

He stares at Roxas for a moment, mouth ajar, then makes a beckoning gesture with one hand.

"C'mere for a minute," he says, looking back down at the notebook. "I want you to look at something."

He waits for Roxas to approach, then takes one mug of cocoa and set it on the nightstand before holding up the notebook, open to the first page.

Hey Axel, this is Axel. Or maybe you're Lea, now, if Sora's not full of beans. Whoever you are, I'm sure you recognize your own handwriting, so you should probably take this seriously.

You might not remember now, but Roxas isn't your only best friend. You have another, and her name is Xion, and her story is in this notebook. At least, as much of it as I actually knew.

[pullsheavendown]

Roxas can't ever remember seeing Axel like this, with the expression currently on his face. He can't even recognize it. And maybe that's because he's a Nobody and has always been behind on everything involving emotions, from lacking memories of his own human life, but he doesn't think so.

He doesn't look angry or upset, but he doesn't look happy. And whatever it is, it's more than perturbed, too, even though Axel isn't a showy person when he doesn't want to be. Heck, anyone else might not be able to tell much is wrong at all.

But Roxas knows him better than he knows anyone else in this, or any, world. He knows something wrong.

"Okay," he says, with only a small amount of trepidation. Handing one mug over, he takes a seat beside his friend and reads...Axel's diary? Kind of?

"This..." He frowns, then looks back up at Axel, confused. "You wrote something to yourself? Why? What's this about?"