His End of the Bargain - Castle Oblivion [Closed]
To be labeled a failure was far worse than the kiss of Death itself, or at least to the eyes of a Nobody. For failure meant that they either haven’t tried hard enough, or that their hardest simply wasn’t enough. And when a life so fragile relied on nothing more than Hope, failure acted as a parasite that left a Nobody weak.
Weakness wasn’t to be sympathized. It was to be taken advantage of by others.
Axel mused these thoughts while he scraped the toothbrush along the edge of the sink, pressing its bristles against the porcelain surface to rid the ivory of any specks of grime that had accumulated during his absence. His toes idly curled into his foot and the redhead pushed them into the floor, smiling al bit slightly when that familiar cracking and popping noise filled the hollow bathroom.
As he promised to Roxas, Axel was filling in his end of the deal by cleaning the entire area with nothing more but an instrument specialized for orally sterilizing. However, he hadn’t once thought of complaining about his position; the blond had won fair and square and he himself condoned the rules and supported them fully.
It wasn’t as if Humility truly existed among the Nobodies anyway.
Still, the redhead was a bit more sensitive to the temperature around him than the others, and he had to shift his bare feet every few seconds to relieve them of the chilled marble surface while he worked diligently. The time that he had spent there was long and tedious, and he worked with care as if this were all an experiment to help gain what he had lost long ago. That every stroke against the porcelain was a calculated slice into a beating heart, its steady rhythm aiding the instrument to cut deeper until it disrupted the pacemaker and destroyed it all together.
Though there was still the painfully obvious difference that Axel would have actually had the decency to wear clothes during such experimentation, but the boundaries that were pitched up had included the lack there of. However, despite the setting of being an area solely to cleanse the air was a foreign ailment that scraped harshly against his naked skin.
In a less flattering description, it was just really cold.
The redhead absent-mindedly pressed an unoccupied hand over his other arm to accumulate a sliver of warmth, concentrating on his tasks with perfect precision. He had lingered in the bathroom for several hours, slowly making his way along the different stations as if they were their own separate entities; which they were for how they served their purpose anyway.
But no matter how physically occupied he was, Axel’s mind was busily wandering through the endless halls to his thoughts and how often he pondered about a subject determined how long and spacious each was. And one that he found himself constantly lingering in happened to be about the whereabouts of both the previous occupants in this Castle. Their absence, to the more human individuals, was one to be concerned about.
Yet the Nobody felt nothing more than playful curiosity, or at least that was what he preferred to believe. It was of no concern to him, really. Natural selection was as evident as ever among those who lacked their sense of being. And Axel knew he was a prime example to this through the events that bestowed upon him over four years ago.
It was only then that he noticed he had been rubbing at the same spot for the past several minutes, Axel’s grip slowly loosening on the toothbrush until it clattered lifelessly onto the bottom of the bowl.
And just like that he clasped his hands together and set them over his front side, deeming his bathroom duties complete for the day; calmly walking out of the bathroom still wearing nothing more than the skin over his body.
But halfway to his room the redhead had to freeze in his steps, green eyes glancing about the white halls like he had heard a faint whisper nearby. Though it was less of a whisper and more of pure instinct informing him that the air wasn’t as undisturbed as he had assumed it to be. Those shades of emerald promptly narrowed, but Axel regained his steady pace and finally reached his own quarters to duck inside.
He may not have the same honed senses as Riku, but after four years of roaming these halls Axel couldn’t deny the feeling that there were more people here than he would have ever wanted.
Weakness wasn’t to be sympathized. It was to be taken advantage of by others.
Axel mused these thoughts while he scraped the toothbrush along the edge of the sink, pressing its bristles against the porcelain surface to rid the ivory of any specks of grime that had accumulated during his absence. His toes idly curled into his foot and the redhead pushed them into the floor, smiling al bit slightly when that familiar cracking and popping noise filled the hollow bathroom.
As he promised to Roxas, Axel was filling in his end of the deal by cleaning the entire area with nothing more but an instrument specialized for orally sterilizing. However, he hadn’t once thought of complaining about his position; the blond had won fair and square and he himself condoned the rules and supported them fully.
It wasn’t as if Humility truly existed among the Nobodies anyway.
Still, the redhead was a bit more sensitive to the temperature around him than the others, and he had to shift his bare feet every few seconds to relieve them of the chilled marble surface while he worked diligently. The time that he had spent there was long and tedious, and he worked with care as if this were all an experiment to help gain what he had lost long ago. That every stroke against the porcelain was a calculated slice into a beating heart, its steady rhythm aiding the instrument to cut deeper until it disrupted the pacemaker and destroyed it all together.
Though there was still the painfully obvious difference that Axel would have actually had the decency to wear clothes during such experimentation, but the boundaries that were pitched up had included the lack there of. However, despite the setting of being an area solely to cleanse the air was a foreign ailment that scraped harshly against his naked skin.
In a less flattering description, it was just really cold.
The redhead absent-mindedly pressed an unoccupied hand over his other arm to accumulate a sliver of warmth, concentrating on his tasks with perfect precision. He had lingered in the bathroom for several hours, slowly making his way along the different stations as if they were their own separate entities; which they were for how they served their purpose anyway.
But no matter how physically occupied he was, Axel’s mind was busily wandering through the endless halls to his thoughts and how often he pondered about a subject determined how long and spacious each was. And one that he found himself constantly lingering in happened to be about the whereabouts of both the previous occupants in this Castle. Their absence, to the more human individuals, was one to be concerned about.
Yet the Nobody felt nothing more than playful curiosity, or at least that was what he preferred to believe. It was of no concern to him, really. Natural selection was as evident as ever among those who lacked their sense of being. And Axel knew he was a prime example to this through the events that bestowed upon him over four years ago.
It was only then that he noticed he had been rubbing at the same spot for the past several minutes, Axel’s grip slowly loosening on the toothbrush until it clattered lifelessly onto the bottom of the bowl.
And just like that he clasped his hands together and set them over his front side, deeming his bathroom duties complete for the day; calmly walking out of the bathroom still wearing nothing more than the skin over his body.
But halfway to his room the redhead had to freeze in his steps, green eyes glancing about the white halls like he had heard a faint whisper nearby. Though it was less of a whisper and more of pure instinct informing him that the air wasn’t as undisturbed as he had assumed it to be. Those shades of emerald promptly narrowed, but Axel regained his steady pace and finally reached his own quarters to duck inside.
He may not have the same honed senses as Riku, but after four years of roaming these halls Axel couldn’t deny the feeling that there were more people here than he would have ever wanted.