Marly
A Day in the Life Of Marluxia:
I had realized fairly early on that having a greenhouse in a realm that lacked sunlight was somewhat pointless, however I was not one to let such trivial things as quirky dimensional physics deter me. A quick visit to a rather pleasant little world on the far side of the galaxy had remedied the situation nicely after I procured seven dozen heat lamps. Why seven you ask? It's always good to have extras on hand, and there was the fact that I simply ransacked the entire village taking every heat lamp with me, as well several pallets of high quality fertilizer, some rose stakes, plant food, decorative pots and hair spray. Demyx keeps stealing mine.
Thus I found myself in a rather stuffily warm greenhouse in the early morning hours turning on six dozen heat lamps while crooning softly to my babies. I also have a stereo with a special personally selected mix of harmonious music. The daffodils seem particularly fond of a fellow who goes by the odd name Manilow, while the roses like Tom Jones. I have yet to figure out what the pansies enjoy, they seem to delight in confounding my attempts to stimulate their growth, but then they have always been of a childish nature. The heat lamps burned away merrily and I turned the stereo on softly in the background and picked up the morning paper. I perused the Unlife and Times section, flitted through the classifieds (noting that someone had put a Sitar up for sale, one cent or best offer. Contact at Castle Oblivion, box number 8.), and settled on the business section. My eyes ran steadily down the page, my lips nimbly reading off my substantial gains to my captive audience. I sighed in a facsimile of unhappiness noting that both Diet Organization XIII Cola and Vanilla Organization XIII Cola had lost several points. I'd have to go back upstairs to the Office Room of Abject Failure and look over the PR and marketing strategies in the next day or so...I should also get around to renaming the room, after all, it was bad PR in and of itself. That wouldn’t do.
I closed the paper, checked on the water timers and left the room, carefully closing the door behind me. Any loud noises could upset them, and having to shelter the poor things from Axel's activities was hard enough on me as it was. Soundproofing seemed to be the logical choice, and since I had stolen Vexen's Bank of Nothingness Visa it would at least be a painless affair. For me. Of course, I'd have to shuffle my plants around while the construction was taking place, but sometimes parents must make difficult choices to ensure the long term care and safety of their children. I'd call the contractors this afternoon, and hopefully they had fired the dusk responsible for the unfortunate cave in of the disco room. Xaldin still had his heart set on restarting that project, the disco ball hanging lonely and unused over the breakfast nook. No one actually used the nook and so we left it alone, that and the fact that we were threatened with being skewered should we try to remove it.
It was well after figurative sun-up by now, so going to the kitchen seemed to be a good idea. Other Organization members were bound to be up and about by now. I sauntered down a hallway, up two flights of stairs, swaggered across a balcony....stopped to drink from a water fountain....sashayed down another staircase, down a hall, swished through an empty ballroom and past the indoor pool. Four hallways and six corners later I reached the kitchen where a small number of members had already begun to congregate. Of course, I hadn't expected Axel to be amongst them, since he is the most violently non-morning person I have ever met. Demyx still twitches when it's his turn to wake the redhead for our early meetings. I would've walked out immediately, except Larxene had to bring attention to my presence in the room. I would have to have a chat with her about that later, if I felt up to risking unlife and limb. I wasn't sure if a Nobody could grow limbs back, but I wasn't about to offer myself up as the subject in such a test....Larxene and Vexen would both jump on the opportunity. Perhaps I could suggest Axel as replacement. I sighed, it wouldn't work, and after all, I still felt the redhead held a certain usefulness I'd yet had the opportunity to fully explore. I'd put it on my to-do list below visiting the PR room and having a manicure.
"Good morning, Larxene, Axel, Xigbar." I greeted casually, grabbing my flowered teapot from the counter and pouring myself a cup.
"That's a matter of opinion," Larxene stated with disinterest, nibbling at a low-fat low-carb organic-soy-imitation-cream-cheese spread bagel. I bet the spread belonged to Xemnas. Since it had been Vexen's turn to buy groceries I imagined the chore had gone forgotten and left undone, and we were down to the last semi-edible things in the pantry. In proof of point, Axel was staring with repulsion at a imitation-egg turkey-bacon whole-wheat breakfast burrito. I thought it wisest to stick with my tea.
"It's gone cold." Axel smiled, holding a hand up suggestively. "I can always--"
"I'll take the cold tea and skip the third degree burns, thank you kindly."
He shrugged. "It heals....y'know, eventually."
"On the bright side, Demyx wasn't able to play his guitar for a week." Xigbar interjected from the corner where he was downing massive, and impressive, amounts of black coffee.
"Ah, ah, ah! Sitar!" an altogether too happy voice came from the doorway, and we were gracious enough not to collectively sigh...though Larxene was unable to not roll her eyes. I hardly blamed her. "Morning everyone!"
We made a various assortment of grunts and nods in response. Although I must wake up early, both to take care of my plants and attend to my daily lotion regimen, Demyx was by far the most aggressively happy morning person in the entire castle. At least Xemnas has talked to him about his melodic wake up calls to other Organization members....for Demyx's own safety. From what I understand both Axel and Saix had lodged serious death threats against the young musician, and then against each other for lodging threats against the one they themselves were trying to threaten. I had long given up on understanding either Saix or Axel, although the latter might prove useful. Saix was far too gone in worship of Xemnas to hold any role in the plans currently working through my mind. I spent an awful lot of time in the quiet with my plants, it gives a person an awful long time to think about things. Love, money, fame, marketing your own brand of cola, what truly is the PERFECT shade of pink, and of course, overthrowing an evil organization with the intention of putting yourself on top. Larxene had been non-committal but seemingly interested, though I wasn't dumb enough to believe that she might not simply be leading me on while guarding her own secret ambitions. Her ambitions might very well include carving a generous portion out of my flesh and holding a barbeque, I wouldn't put it past her...and since there really didn't seem to be anything else in the cupboards at the moment....
I turned my attention back to Demyx, his hair, undoubtedly held rigid with a generous portion of my hair spray, was peering deep into the foodless depths of the Refrigerator of Ruin and Decay. Seriously, weren't Xemnas' choices in naming rooms and objects in the castle reason enough to overthrow him? Demyx managed to find a bag of mostly good lettuce in a drawer and some only-slightly-past-it's-best-before-date blue cheese salad dressing on the door. As he whistled to himself I mentally ticked him off my ever shortening list of people to look into further. I doubted Demyx had a 'further' to look into, he was pretty much just a surface, no real depths. He was a relatively weak fighter and had a wishy-washy disposition, not really of an use to me. Perhaps if I ever needed a patsy, or just someone to randomly take a fall for me, but otherwise I didn't think I could even come up with a purpose for him. It seemed to be one of the few things Xemnas and I saw eye to eye on.
"You're quiet this morning." Larxene commented softly, arching one perfect eyebrow carefully for the perfect emphasis.
"I think I'm feeling unwell," I lied gracefully, not willing to share my interior monologue in the presence of one of the original members of the Organization. I would keep in mind though that out of the original six Xigbar might be the most likely to see the advantage in having a switch up take place. He'd probably go along just for the chance to participate in some random chaos. Axel might join in for the exact same reason....that and I'd promise to let him burn some things. Saix comes to mind.
"Go see Vexen." The redhead suggested, tossing what remained of his burrito in the trash....that being the entire thing.
"I'd rather actually get better thank you."
"No sense of adventure."
"No, just a healthy survival instinct."
Larxene rolled her eyes again dramatically, though she saved a knowing glance for when she turned to face me alone. "Fine, just go lay down already, if you're feeling unwell. Unless you have other things you have to take care of today?" she left it hanging with a smug smile.
I kept my face blank, which wasn't hard, and cursed her silently. She enjoyed playing games far too much, she might have just as much fun exposing me as she would siding with me. Not that any sides were clearly drawn.....yet. I still had far too many variables to think through. I also needed more capital, taking over an evil empire is a costly undertaking, and with my stocks not performing quite up to my standards....I still had time to work on things before they reached the critical point.
"I'll do that Larxene, thank you for your concern." I added wryly, smiling slightly at her. She scowled darkly for a moment, but it was gone by the time she turned enough to let the others see her face. I'd say she was two-faced, but knew she had far more facets than that.
I turned dramatically on my heel, the hem of my coat brushing across the top of the pile of petals that had accumulated at my feet while I'd be standing stationary in the kitchen. "See you later." I tossed over my shoulder.
"You’re not even gonna clean that up?" Xigbar demanded gesturing at the pretty mound of scattered pink petals. I thought they were an improvement over the bland white floor. "’Cause I'm sure as hell not."
I simply ignored him and walked out, knowing he was likely fuming behind me. As the door swung shut I heard both Larxene and Demyx utter high pitched squeals. A moment later the smoke alarm began to blare noisily and a sly voice cut over the racket. "Hey, it's clean isn't it? What's your proble-hey ouch that hurts! Dammit Lar-ouch-xene! Stop freaking throwing things! Ack!"
I decided that my feeling unwell perhaps wasn't so large a lie after all, and going to my room for some peace and quiet was the best idea. Besides, the final dozen heat lamps were stationed around my bedroom, and the last time I'd left them unattended to long I'd managed to melt half of Demyx's vinyl collection I'd borrowed. On the positive side of that I had found out that Mums prefer Depeche Mode. Go figure.
I swished down the hall, an errant dusk had taken up trailing behind me with a whisk and dustpan...undoubtedly at Saix's command. He wanted to keep a tidy home from his main squeeze Xemnas after all. Void forbid that people actually try to liven up the place with colour somewhat. I still can't forgive them for painting over the pink wall paper I'd hung in the den. It had brought out the highlights in my hair so nicely. As soon as I owned the place I was hiring the best decorating firm in all of non-existence. Seriously, what gave Xemnas the impression that he and a committee of dusks knew enough to decorate an entire castle, I wouldn't trust them enough to decorate a doll house.
I turned around a few more corners, up a flight of stairs, up the elevator and through the room with the disappearing path...which was completely impractical and served no purpose. Of course, Xemnas said that he'd told himself that if he ever owned a castle it had to have a bottomless pit floor room, and even Saix had been unable to persuade him out of the idea. Eventually I made it back to the Proof of Existence and my own room. The heat lamps hadn't caught anything on fire thankfully, and I gave a drink to my pride and joy, Marly Jr, my own hand nurtured new breed of rose. He's gentle and beautiful and the PERFECT shade of pink....of course he has a taste for music by the Grateful Dead, but otherwise is as flawless as can be. I hummed a few bars of Touch of Gray and sat back heavily on my bed, slipping deftly out of my boots. There's a trick to it you learn after having been here a certain length of time, though since I still saw Demyx trip over his own feet trying it (and amazingly enough, that was while sitting down), it might have something to do with skill. After all, there was no one so skilled or graceful in the Organization as myself. Unless you wanted to count Marly Jr, who I had dubbed honourary member XIV.
As I laid down and began to drift to sleep I smiled. Damn Larxene, as soon as I was queen bee around here Marly Jr was being promoted to the rank of number II.
The End.
Whatever the end result, thanks for the opportunity to apply! It was fun to try writing this!
~Ry
I had realized fairly early on that having a greenhouse in a realm that lacked sunlight was somewhat pointless, however I was not one to let such trivial things as quirky dimensional physics deter me. A quick visit to a rather pleasant little world on the far side of the galaxy had remedied the situation nicely after I procured seven dozen heat lamps. Why seven you ask? It's always good to have extras on hand, and there was the fact that I simply ransacked the entire village taking every heat lamp with me, as well several pallets of high quality fertilizer, some rose stakes, plant food, decorative pots and hair spray. Demyx keeps stealing mine.
Thus I found myself in a rather stuffily warm greenhouse in the early morning hours turning on six dozen heat lamps while crooning softly to my babies. I also have a stereo with a special personally selected mix of harmonious music. The daffodils seem particularly fond of a fellow who goes by the odd name Manilow, while the roses like Tom Jones. I have yet to figure out what the pansies enjoy, they seem to delight in confounding my attempts to stimulate their growth, but then they have always been of a childish nature. The heat lamps burned away merrily and I turned the stereo on softly in the background and picked up the morning paper. I perused the Unlife and Times section, flitted through the classifieds (noting that someone had put a Sitar up for sale, one cent or best offer. Contact at Castle Oblivion, box number 8.), and settled on the business section. My eyes ran steadily down the page, my lips nimbly reading off my substantial gains to my captive audience. I sighed in a facsimile of unhappiness noting that both Diet Organization XIII Cola and Vanilla Organization XIII Cola had lost several points. I'd have to go back upstairs to the Office Room of Abject Failure and look over the PR and marketing strategies in the next day or so...I should also get around to renaming the room, after all, it was bad PR in and of itself. That wouldn’t do.
I closed the paper, checked on the water timers and left the room, carefully closing the door behind me. Any loud noises could upset them, and having to shelter the poor things from Axel's activities was hard enough on me as it was. Soundproofing seemed to be the logical choice, and since I had stolen Vexen's Bank of Nothingness Visa it would at least be a painless affair. For me. Of course, I'd have to shuffle my plants around while the construction was taking place, but sometimes parents must make difficult choices to ensure the long term care and safety of their children. I'd call the contractors this afternoon, and hopefully they had fired the dusk responsible for the unfortunate cave in of the disco room. Xaldin still had his heart set on restarting that project, the disco ball hanging lonely and unused over the breakfast nook. No one actually used the nook and so we left it alone, that and the fact that we were threatened with being skewered should we try to remove it.
It was well after figurative sun-up by now, so going to the kitchen seemed to be a good idea. Other Organization members were bound to be up and about by now. I sauntered down a hallway, up two flights of stairs, swaggered across a balcony....stopped to drink from a water fountain....sashayed down another staircase, down a hall, swished through an empty ballroom and past the indoor pool. Four hallways and six corners later I reached the kitchen where a small number of members had already begun to congregate. Of course, I hadn't expected Axel to be amongst them, since he is the most violently non-morning person I have ever met. Demyx still twitches when it's his turn to wake the redhead for our early meetings. I would've walked out immediately, except Larxene had to bring attention to my presence in the room. I would have to have a chat with her about that later, if I felt up to risking unlife and limb. I wasn't sure if a Nobody could grow limbs back, but I wasn't about to offer myself up as the subject in such a test....Larxene and Vexen would both jump on the opportunity. Perhaps I could suggest Axel as replacement. I sighed, it wouldn't work, and after all, I still felt the redhead held a certain usefulness I'd yet had the opportunity to fully explore. I'd put it on my to-do list below visiting the PR room and having a manicure.
"Good morning, Larxene, Axel, Xigbar." I greeted casually, grabbing my flowered teapot from the counter and pouring myself a cup.
"That's a matter of opinion," Larxene stated with disinterest, nibbling at a low-fat low-carb organic-soy-imitation-cream-cheese spread bagel. I bet the spread belonged to Xemnas. Since it had been Vexen's turn to buy groceries I imagined the chore had gone forgotten and left undone, and we were down to the last semi-edible things in the pantry. In proof of point, Axel was staring with repulsion at a imitation-egg turkey-bacon whole-wheat breakfast burrito. I thought it wisest to stick with my tea.
"It's gone cold." Axel smiled, holding a hand up suggestively. "I can always--"
"I'll take the cold tea and skip the third degree burns, thank you kindly."
He shrugged. "It heals....y'know, eventually."
"On the bright side, Demyx wasn't able to play his guitar for a week." Xigbar interjected from the corner where he was downing massive, and impressive, amounts of black coffee.
"Ah, ah, ah! Sitar!" an altogether too happy voice came from the doorway, and we were gracious enough not to collectively sigh...though Larxene was unable to not roll her eyes. I hardly blamed her. "Morning everyone!"
We made a various assortment of grunts and nods in response. Although I must wake up early, both to take care of my plants and attend to my daily lotion regimen, Demyx was by far the most aggressively happy morning person in the entire castle. At least Xemnas has talked to him about his melodic wake up calls to other Organization members....for Demyx's own safety. From what I understand both Axel and Saix had lodged serious death threats against the young musician, and then against each other for lodging threats against the one they themselves were trying to threaten. I had long given up on understanding either Saix or Axel, although the latter might prove useful. Saix was far too gone in worship of Xemnas to hold any role in the plans currently working through my mind. I spent an awful lot of time in the quiet with my plants, it gives a person an awful long time to think about things. Love, money, fame, marketing your own brand of cola, what truly is the PERFECT shade of pink, and of course, overthrowing an evil organization with the intention of putting yourself on top. Larxene had been non-committal but seemingly interested, though I wasn't dumb enough to believe that she might not simply be leading me on while guarding her own secret ambitions. Her ambitions might very well include carving a generous portion out of my flesh and holding a barbeque, I wouldn't put it past her...and since there really didn't seem to be anything else in the cupboards at the moment....
I turned my attention back to Demyx, his hair, undoubtedly held rigid with a generous portion of my hair spray, was peering deep into the foodless depths of the Refrigerator of Ruin and Decay. Seriously, weren't Xemnas' choices in naming rooms and objects in the castle reason enough to overthrow him? Demyx managed to find a bag of mostly good lettuce in a drawer and some only-slightly-past-it's-best-before-date blue cheese salad dressing on the door. As he whistled to himself I mentally ticked him off my ever shortening list of people to look into further. I doubted Demyx had a 'further' to look into, he was pretty much just a surface, no real depths. He was a relatively weak fighter and had a wishy-washy disposition, not really of an use to me. Perhaps if I ever needed a patsy, or just someone to randomly take a fall for me, but otherwise I didn't think I could even come up with a purpose for him. It seemed to be one of the few things Xemnas and I saw eye to eye on.
"You're quiet this morning." Larxene commented softly, arching one perfect eyebrow carefully for the perfect emphasis.
"I think I'm feeling unwell," I lied gracefully, not willing to share my interior monologue in the presence of one of the original members of the Organization. I would keep in mind though that out of the original six Xigbar might be the most likely to see the advantage in having a switch up take place. He'd probably go along just for the chance to participate in some random chaos. Axel might join in for the exact same reason....that and I'd promise to let him burn some things. Saix comes to mind.
"Go see Vexen." The redhead suggested, tossing what remained of his burrito in the trash....that being the entire thing.
"I'd rather actually get better thank you."
"No sense of adventure."
"No, just a healthy survival instinct."
Larxene rolled her eyes again dramatically, though she saved a knowing glance for when she turned to face me alone. "Fine, just go lay down already, if you're feeling unwell. Unless you have other things you have to take care of today?" she left it hanging with a smug smile.
I kept my face blank, which wasn't hard, and cursed her silently. She enjoyed playing games far too much, she might have just as much fun exposing me as she would siding with me. Not that any sides were clearly drawn.....yet. I still had far too many variables to think through. I also needed more capital, taking over an evil empire is a costly undertaking, and with my stocks not performing quite up to my standards....I still had time to work on things before they reached the critical point.
"I'll do that Larxene, thank you for your concern." I added wryly, smiling slightly at her. She scowled darkly for a moment, but it was gone by the time she turned enough to let the others see her face. I'd say she was two-faced, but knew she had far more facets than that.
I turned dramatically on my heel, the hem of my coat brushing across the top of the pile of petals that had accumulated at my feet while I'd be standing stationary in the kitchen. "See you later." I tossed over my shoulder.
"You’re not even gonna clean that up?" Xigbar demanded gesturing at the pretty mound of scattered pink petals. I thought they were an improvement over the bland white floor. "’Cause I'm sure as hell not."
I simply ignored him and walked out, knowing he was likely fuming behind me. As the door swung shut I heard both Larxene and Demyx utter high pitched squeals. A moment later the smoke alarm began to blare noisily and a sly voice cut over the racket. "Hey, it's clean isn't it? What's your proble-hey ouch that hurts! Dammit Lar-ouch-xene! Stop freaking throwing things! Ack!"
I decided that my feeling unwell perhaps wasn't so large a lie after all, and going to my room for some peace and quiet was the best idea. Besides, the final dozen heat lamps were stationed around my bedroom, and the last time I'd left them unattended to long I'd managed to melt half of Demyx's vinyl collection I'd borrowed. On the positive side of that I had found out that Mums prefer Depeche Mode. Go figure.
I swished down the hall, an errant dusk had taken up trailing behind me with a whisk and dustpan...undoubtedly at Saix's command. He wanted to keep a tidy home from his main squeeze Xemnas after all. Void forbid that people actually try to liven up the place with colour somewhat. I still can't forgive them for painting over the pink wall paper I'd hung in the den. It had brought out the highlights in my hair so nicely. As soon as I owned the place I was hiring the best decorating firm in all of non-existence. Seriously, what gave Xemnas the impression that he and a committee of dusks knew enough to decorate an entire castle, I wouldn't trust them enough to decorate a doll house.
I turned around a few more corners, up a flight of stairs, up the elevator and through the room with the disappearing path...which was completely impractical and served no purpose. Of course, Xemnas said that he'd told himself that if he ever owned a castle it had to have a bottomless pit floor room, and even Saix had been unable to persuade him out of the idea. Eventually I made it back to the Proof of Existence and my own room. The heat lamps hadn't caught anything on fire thankfully, and I gave a drink to my pride and joy, Marly Jr, my own hand nurtured new breed of rose. He's gentle and beautiful and the PERFECT shade of pink....of course he has a taste for music by the Grateful Dead, but otherwise is as flawless as can be. I hummed a few bars of Touch of Gray and sat back heavily on my bed, slipping deftly out of my boots. There's a trick to it you learn after having been here a certain length of time, though since I still saw Demyx trip over his own feet trying it (and amazingly enough, that was while sitting down), it might have something to do with skill. After all, there was no one so skilled or graceful in the Organization as myself. Unless you wanted to count Marly Jr, who I had dubbed honourary member XIV.
As I laid down and began to drift to sleep I smiled. Damn Larxene, as soon as I was queen bee around here Marly Jr was being promoted to the rank of number II.
The End.
Whatever the end result, thanks for the opportunity to apply! It was fun to try writing this!
~Ry