[fic] The Five Steps

[ronsard]

Drabblejitus! Dude, I don't know. It's so late and I'm so bored and uninspired. Does the word gen even have meaning anymore, coming from my mouth?

Title: The Five Steps
Fandom: Kingdom Hearts II
Genre: General
Summary: A portrait of grief. Five perspectives converging on canvas, and five people not directly involved in the drama.
Disclaimer: I own

Comments

[empath_eia]

Thank god for It's All About Axel and Roxas. Because, you know. It is.

♥

[ronsard]

Maybe the only thing ever that can make me quote Toy Story 2.

[ronsard]

I've always wanted to write some kind of bystander-fic about Axel and Roxas, I just never thought it'd be like this. Plus, the ways of the drabble tend to elude me; I think the Xemnas one was the only piece that was strictly 100 words, and the Hayner bit was what I wrote first, actually intending for it to be a standalone. The way I've always broken it down is this: denial is effusive and effortless; anger is irrational; bargaining feels slippery and wrong, like bacon grease; depression has no taste, an empty feeling; acceptance is the opposite, both light and heavy at once, a quiet passing. It's weird to back into each of those places, even for the purpose of fic.

[ronsard]

LOL, math geek. I wish. A literary representation of, like, Mandelbrot would be awesome.

[ronsard]

Wait. You surely have seen my "Axel is totally Amy Winehouse" icon before.

[kokanshu]

Guh.

As someone's said up there ^ I love how every piece is missing Roxas, yet is all about him anyway. But then, it's always like that with Axel. Your characterisations are spot on - I particularly love the Xemnas part, because really well written Xemnas makes me happy.

[ronsard]

Xemnas? In MY FIC?!

Haha, the problem with Xemnas is that there's no sure way to write him well, since I doubt even the game did that properly. IC writing would involve substantial amounts of purple prose and incomprehensible logic, neither of which is conducive to readability. Xemnas sucks.

[kokanshu]

I'm of the opinion that he's just completely fucking nuts, and should be written as such - like those cold calculating serial killer characters you get - I'm thinking Hannibal here. He waxes lyrical a lot too, it's just what he says and the other character's reaction that makes it so god damn creepy. That's how Xemnas should be written - the long monologues in the game are close, but instead they end up being frustrating, because, at the end of the day, you're playing a game, and unless the cutscene is particularly shiny, you just want to get the hell on with it. Also, no one acts scared of him. There needed to be more scared/scary, like there was with Maleficent (in the first game - she was a joke in the second) and Ansem. Even Saïx was scarier.

He has potential to be awesome. But he gets ignored, laughed off or written badly, most of the time :/

[ronsard]

Ah. That is quite possibly the most interesting take on Xemnas I've ever been introduced to. I really don't read much about him -- in parts due to the obvious lack of good writing you mentioned -- but even with known good writers, there is just always something off about the portrayal. For example, one person always gave him a certain vulnerability that didn't seem to fit with the character. It could work with Xehanort, to a degree, but I think Xemnas is Xehanort Mk II, wiped of passions and extremes. He's very singleminded, but lies like a snake. You're right that he didn't seem very scary in the game -- he didn't seem very well-done overall, to me.

[sexpress]

asdhsajhd I LOVE Axel+Namine gen. Goddammit, Amano.

[ronsard]

Yes. Gen. Totally >_> *coughs*