(no subject)

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

Who: Koios, Roxas
What: Koios wants that talk. Roxas doesn't.
Where: Alexandria
When: The day after this thread.
Status: Ongoing

The door closed. Koios sighed in relief; those idiots had been getting annoying. And they had a serious problem with mood swings. One minute, the lot of them were ranting and raving about how they'd lost the advantage, and the next they were celebrating the fall of a world important to their enemies and the recapture of a Keybearer. What they didn't seem to realize was that none of them had actually done anything to make it happen.

Some days, he really just wanted that whole damn organization to fall apart already. He was counting the minutes until it did.

With a roll of his eyes, Koios made his way through the castle to the eastern wing. The prisoner would be there, watched carefully by the castle guards. Not that they were necessary; it was more of a formality. A stupid one, in his opinion, but he'd decided to bite the bullet - they didn't want to risk another unexpected escape.

He finally reached his destination and suppressed the look of distaste he was certain he had. The kid was already going to be stubborn about this; Koios had already gleaned that from their fight yesterday. He didn't want to make him even less likely to talk. So he forced his expression to be neutral, reminding himself again that that shouldn't be so hard to do anymore.

Guards dismissed, he walked in the room, shoved his hands into his pockets, and loitered, pointedly ignoring the prison he'd crafted for the moment. It was a cage made of pure glass, without a door or a lock. He'd made sure that it was big enough to be comfortable - he'd had even thrown the kid on a mattress before he'd made the thing - but the one thing he couldn't help with now was the temperature. A distinct lack of glass in the windows made that a little difficult. Maybe they could put some tapestries over them.

Time to give up the charade, he thought. Turning around to face the cage and its occupant, he said, "So, Keybearer. You ready for that talk now?"

Comments

[thirteenth_brat]

How did he mean that? Did he simply mean chatting them up and getting someone to tell him how any other known Nobodies had gotten their Hearts? Or did he mean to threaten them to force Roxas to talk? It was a bad prospect either way.

In all honesty, if he thought he could trust the guy to think and not try to recreate the circumstances, Roxas would go ahead and tell him how he'd gotten his own Heart. But he knew from experience that the lack of a Heart also meant a lack of moral grounding. The ends justified the means, no matter what the means were, hence the lengths the Organization had gone to in their pursuit of the Heart of All Worlds and Xemnas's personal actions towards the Dreaming.

There really wasn't much Roxas could do about this situation. Sure, if this Nobody went and asked Song, he'd be given the less dangerous of possible ways to get his Heart. But Song could only help him get his Heart back. She couldn't help him get a separate Heart from his Other, which was what he had specifically asked about. Roxas and Namine had been the only ones to remain separate from their Others and there was only one known way to manage such a thing.

"I don't think it'll be the answer you want," he said quietly.

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

"Yeah? So what answer would I get, then?"

This is why he hated those of the Light. The brats were so uppity and righteous and stubborn that they refused to see anything that wasn't from the Realm of Light as anything more than something to be destroyed. That was what they'd tried to do before; and look how well it had worked out. And not a one of them were as bad as any of the Keybearers, their "heroes."

One way or another, he would get the answer he wanted. It didn't matter how. One of them would crack. He just had to find a way to make it happen. This one, Koios judged, would be through his friends, the other Keybearers and the Princess in particular. The girl... judging from her past, wouldn't be too hard to break. As for the "refugee" woman... he didn't know, just yet. But he did know she had an affinity befriending for those her friends considered "evil."

He really wished right now that this kid hadn't been the ideal person to ask about this. It was starting to be more trouble than it was worth.

[thirteenth_brat]

"They might advise a little more patience for one thing," Roxas growled, "For another, they may not be anymore willing to answer your question than I am."

It occurred to Roxas that part of the problem here was this Nobody being more or less alone. Had he the guidance of another Nobody or had he at least met someone a little more knowledgeable about Nobodies, he would probably have known better than to try to get his answers by trapping or kidnapping someone who knew those answer.

This was probably asking to get hurt, but Roxas felt a need to inform this Nobody of where he had fucked up, "You know, if you hadn't started out with getting in my face and in my way, you might have been able to get some answers out of me."

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

"I never 'got in your face,' kid," Koios said quietly, and flicked his hand. Immediately the glass in his shackles began to thin as it shifted to form small spikes digging into Roxas' skin. The kid was lucky Koios couldn't feel anger anymore; he'd had a terrible temper when he had a heart.

There was a knock on the door, and after getting the order to enter, the guard came in with a laptop in hand. Morgan's laptop. He spared no glance at Roxas, instead delivering it to Koios and leaving immediately. Koios smiled slowly as he turned it on and found the correct site. He looked up at the boy in the cage and walked up to him, turning it around so he could see it - it was the refugee website.

"Your friends," he said as he scrolled down the page, voice devoid of any hint of emotion, "are fine. Every last one survived, and each in good condition, physically, if not emotionally. They're moaning about your precious, lost Radiant Garden, and arguing amongst themselves, but they are all alive and well." He set the computer on the floor, just out of Roxas' reach, and stepped back. "And you know what the best part is? They aren't even aware that you aren't with them yet."

[thirteenth_brat]

Roxas winced as the shackles shifted and turned sharp. Wasn't it bad enough that he had a possibly broken wrist? Actually, probably not, given that he was dealing with a guy that... while he might understand right and wrong... he didn't give a damn. Given the display of 'anger' so far, it was probably a safe bet to assume it might be worse if the guy did have his Heart. Then again, if the guy had his Heart, they probably wouldn't be here.

"What do you call getting in my way and refusing to get out of my way when I was too busy for you, then?"

He didn't give the guard any more than a passing glance as the man handed a laptop to his captor. He had a feeling he knew what was going to be pulled up. It was a bit relieving that his friends were okay, but that didn't mean he had to forgive this idiot the trouble he was causing. Though he sort of suspected that his absence wouldn't be noticed right away or at least not realized for what it was, the reminder of it was still mildly unnerving. Rather than call attention to it, he took something else that was mentioned and went with it.

"Speaking of vanished worlds... you wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you? I mean, you were holding the Princesses of Heart captive and their worlds are among the worlds that have vanished." Bravado. Stupid, but it might help him at least a little bit. That and it distracted him from the pain in his wrists.

[sandandflannel.livejournal.com]

"Determination."

He was really getting tired of this crap. The kid wasn't going to cooperate, he'd figured that out already. If he was going to get the answer he wanted, Koios would have to get at some of the kid's friends. The Songbird might do well enough for that; she liked dreams, right? And she'd helped the others get Hearts, and restored her own, or something to that effect? Maybe she could help him, too.

Or maybe the Mistress of Evil herself would oblige. That was always an option, and a much more tempting one at that. Maybe he would explore that one, instead.

Koios raised an eyebrow in surprise at Roxas' question. "And why would I care about the Princesses of Heart, or the vanished worlds? I'm just a Nobody who wants his damn Heart back."

[thirteenth_brat]

Roxas thought bull headed stubbornness might be more accurate a description than determination, but kept his mouth shut on the matter. His captor's impatience on the matter of getting a Heart suggested to Roxas that even if someone else was willing to help him, he might not like their methods, not to mention again the issue of what he wanted versus what he'd get with a safer answer to his question.

"I didn't ask if you cared. I asked if you knew," he replied, trying to keep his tone even, "Then again, it's probably a stupid question. You wouldn't tell me if you did know how they vanished. Which is fair enough, I guess." He didn't want to suggest that the dude stop wasting his time and go do something else because he already knew what that something else was going to be.