interstellar5555 | Fate meant it to be [closed]

Entry tags:

demyx,
roxas

Fate meant it to be [closed]

Who: Demyx and Roxas
What: Two musicians with a past all too familiar meet up at a musical equipment store looking for different things (to buy), but looking for similar things (reason)
When: Mid April
Where: Best band equipment selling store that also has an ice cream shop next to it
Warnings: At best vulgar. Other than that, TBA

With all the memories that have come rushing towards him in his extended period of sleep, Roxas has been left a little off his balance here. There has been way too much that has populated his mind of what was, what would have been, what should have been.. and everything about where he is now disagrees with that, upsetting this supposed balance he thought he had.

So, to cope with it in a way that doesn't involve serious self-destruction, he'll be at the most popular store available that sells band equipment and is closest to an ice cream shop. If anyone asks, he's looking for anything to accentuate the sound that drums have to offer. But really he's just looking for a distraction. All this is too much to take. Where is ---- when Roxas needs him?...

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The elevator carrying them up to the top hums as it passes floor by floor, not many covered, but it's slow, so..

"I'm sure we'll have something for that. If not, you'll get it down. Right?" Demyx was, as far as Roxas knew, a master as getting that particular instrument in tune no matter what. After all, he did spend a lot of time doing just that between missions. Or so he led on.

Ding. Doors open.

"Ah, well, here it is. Welcome to our suite. Not much, but home." What he's gesturing towards as he describes, lackluster at that, is the full penthouse suite that Virgo offers their musicians at his level. A large kitchen, which is obviously begging for use given the untouched and dusty counter tops that aren't covered by dishes whatever else, all which lines a rather large recreational room. Here, on hardwood floor, is where most of the instruments take place, along with couches and televisions and whatever other entertainment distractions one could hope for.

Hugging the walls are doors to their rooms, which were shut, for good reason.

"You wanna try it out right away, or get the grand tour?" Which, honestly, could entail just what?

"I can tune it by ear, don't worry about that." Demyx laughed lightly, still in a better mood to have an instrument in his hands, ready for his use.

"It's big, like ours kind of, but different." Demyx mused and smiled. Almost all of the doors were closed, and it was probably empty at the moment.

"It's okay, just sit me down somewhere so I can get my hands on this. It's not Arpeggio, but it'll do."

That'll make things easier. "Alright, wherever you want. Sit down in the studio," by that he means wherever the instruments are placed, "and go nuts. I'm going to get something out of the kitchen first.. you want anything?"

"Just some water!" Demyx called as he grabbed a seat on a comfortable looking couch. It was far above the seats he was used to in the Organization. Xemnas had no taste for interior design.

He made himself comfortable and eased the sitar out of the case with great care. It was a nice model, made of an expensive wood. He checked over the frets and the strings and began the slow process of tuning it. Each peg was turned and adjusted. Unlike Arpeggio, this model had four main strings, but he could work with it. His head was bent in concentration, focus sharp and unlike his usual demeanor.

Water it is. Simple, but smart. For himself, Roxas will be pouring a mix of liquor and... ice. Why not have it cold if it's available?

When he's back at the living room area Demyx will get the water and Roxas will keep the loaded drink for himself, sipping as he notices the fine work Demyx has already put in. "You're ready to go already, huh? Man.. I wish we had someone with your talent in our band. We have so many new people they practically picked off the street," with that a long sip of his definitely-toxic drink, "Not that this is a bad thing, but with all the work my other band mate and myself put in, it'd be nice to have what you got."

Sigh. "That's alright though. You want me to listen in for a bit while you get the hang of it?" As much as he's acting like he can and is willing to play along with whatever Demyx is able, he knows better to know that Demyx is far more practiced at this sort of thing than he is. That and with his hands on a new instrument, he probably wants some time to get used to it. At least a few minutes.

He could worry about drinking when he didn't have a beautiful instrument in his hands.

"I've had years to play with my sitar. I know all about them." He smiled shyly at Roxas, as though that was a secret.

"I lost this talent until I remembered it. All I do is sing and I'm a much better sitar player than I am a singer."

He strummed the strings lightly. "My band is...well I don't know. I don't think they like me much." He turned a peg and tried again. It was a nice, solid note.

"I don't mind if you want to sit and listen. Scales and tuning isn't that interesting, but I need to warm up. It's been awhile, I think."

It's as if Demyx took the thing and revived it from the dead; it's already sounding like new. Or at least, as much as he figures a new one would sound like. "I kind of miss being able to have weapons at my hands whenever I needed it." He thinks about that for a moment. "Not because I get into a lot of fights or anything, just it was nice. Didn't have to carry them around, and you never know when it could be useful."

As far as Roxas knows, he doesn't know too much about the band that Demyx is in.. only that he was in it. Or is he? "Have you met everyone there yet? Honestly I didn't even meet all mine until we got up on stage.. and then they disappeared."

Yeah, he'll definitely sit and listen for a while. That could be therapeutic.

An old unused sitar could sound good as new with the proper care and attention. It was lucky it didn't need to be restrung, really. "Yeah." He agreed softly. "I kind of feel...vulnerable."

That made sense, his life had been nothing but fighting for years, his battle skills determining his worthiness as an individual. At the moment, he was weak and unable to defend himself if it came down to it. He didn't like that feeling at all.

"Yeah, I've met them." Demyx said, lips pressed together as he considered what he wanted to say. If it was anyone but Roxas, he'd bite his tongue. However, if they were going to enter into a partnership, they were meant to trust each other. That would be hard.

"I met Sora first." He started, skipping over the scales and going right into a tune full of thought and melancholy. "He was nice, I guess. He gave me a balloon and told me they kinda didn't want me there, because they liked the other guy."

Now he knew, it really wasn't his fault. "Then there's Jaime, who kinda finds me tiring. Reminds me of Vexen a little with his sighing. B seems like a nice guy. He was friendly at least. And Maxxie I barely know. I mean, he moved out too so I won't see him that much anyway. They're okay, but it's like when I was recruited you know? Everyone knows each other, everyone has a history and here comes Demyx to screw everything up."

So he did see Sora. There's that, at least. If the worst has happened, he'll be able to find out without asking people he barely knows. That's a conversation he'd rather save for later, because he has a bad feeling about it.

Lips meet the glass again, sipping as he puts as much thought into paying attention and appreciating the sound as the creator is into making it. It's very relaxing and thought provoking, setting the mood something heavy as more of the relationship dynamics Demyx has had thus far unfolds.

"In this kind of business I think that's just the nature of the beast, unfortunately. Things change so much too, even if you do get used to someone, doesn't matter because they might be moving on or gone. I've already seen.. three band members come and go? It's only been a few months at that. There definitely isn't consistency with anything around here, but oddly enough you get used to it." Total opposite of what they're used to.

"It would be nice to have something to rely on though, to know is going to be there."

If anything should happen to Sora, Roxas could ask Demyx, there was that at least. He was quiet a moment as he played, the music turning thoughtful as he listened to Roxas' experience.

"I don't...like that." He admitted softly. "I always thought if I had a heart I'd fit in somewhere, you know?"

Demyx thought people would like him, although that was quite the dream considering what he'd spent his youth doing.

"Yeah. I'm used to a rigid schedule. Routine. Everything being the same."

That warrants another sip. Someone isn't helping much here, is he? "There's going to be somewhere, it's just finding it. This situation we're in doesn't make it easy though with all the change all the time." There's something to be missed about that structure when it's so free-fall like it is now. But not being told what to do every day all the time.. can't beat that. For a moment he really thinks back to what it was like in the World That Never Was and how it felt to be surrounded by people constantly searching for meaning, feeling alone, ironically to find that all along having some of those people around was what would've been the answer, for him at least.

A thought occurs to him that makes him smile. "You know, we're kind of lucky here to have known each other and meet up like this. I mean, what are the odds of that, really?"

It wasn't that Roxas wasn't helping, but that Demyx was unwilling to just let go of everything all at once. He was tenacious, wasn't he?

"Yeah, I guess. I don't know, I can't remember there being a bunch of changes." He hadn't been there long, but change was something he was a little afraid of.

"You think so? I guess...I don't know math was never my thing!" He laughed.

This is one hell of a place to have to endure a serious learning hardship in terms of getting used to things taking a turn as often as they do. This might not be the best place or situation for Demyx to get out on his own in this way.. but it definitely isn't the worst. Hell it isn't that great for Roxas himself: just looking at a few of the things he's done already..

..let's not do that.

His train of thought is interrupted with that comment that comes off more as a joke. With a laugh, "Me neither, I guess we're both out of luck with that. I'm going with my instinct here though. Man.. did you ever think, back then, you'd be in a situation like this?" By that he can mean free, playing music, getting paid to play music, under the subtle control of another entity other than Xemnas and his craziness..

There was likely no good place for this to happen, no way for it to go gently. Demyx was balancing precariously on the edge and his net had been taken away from him. He'd done things there he would never have at home. Saix would have flayed him alive.

The comment had been meant as a joke and he grinned back at Roxas. "No math, don't make me!"

He hummed a little. "No. I was starting to think I'd belong to Xemnas until I died." He admitted softly.

The thought of belonging to anyone has Roxas visibly shudder in the slightest. No wonder he left that place high and dry when he did, how he did. "Thank God that's not the case anymore, right?"

The drink in his hands is almost gone, save for a few cubes of ice that stubbornly refuse to melt. One long sip later and it's all gone, save for the ice. "You want to step this up?" By that he means by hopping on the drums and playing along to the tone Demyx sets. "I think we can do this. Probably will be easier than any day in Agrabah." And infinitely more satisfying.

"Yeah. You don't think he sent me here because I'm good for nothing, do you?" Demyx asked him, clearly worried that that was the case. Why was he even looking to please the bastard? He had no idea. It was conditioned.

"I think I'm ready. Let's jam Rox!"

For Roxas, it's a firm belief that "He didn't send us here. We came here by other means. His hands aren't in this." Even though someone else is responsible, which doesn't make it any better, just knowing that it doesn't belong to Xemnas is nice enough to deal with it.

Once he's seated in his spot, quickly familiarized with the setting and moving into the zone, he picks up his sticks. "You lead." He'll provide a nice, slow rhythm to appropriately accompany the beat Demyx had set earlier so he can carry on with what he had already started.

"I'm on it." Demyx said and changed his melody to something more appropriate for a drum beat, a little more fast paced and showy than his stream of consciousness.

Although they were playing, his mind hadn't stopped working. "You think he'd take me back then?"

That is quite the talent to admire that Demyx is putting on display, being able to concentrate as he is and produce a pleasant sound while holding a conversation. When Roxas is really working at it, he can only do that.

"Um.. maybe, but would you want to go back?"

"Don't I have to?" Demyx asked him, still disbelieving that one could just walk away. What would he do with himself? Where would he go?

"I mean, the light would kill me too, right?" He said with a nervous little laugh.

"I'm kinda damned by now anyway. He named me and everything..."

Playing, really playing while holding a serious conversation is not something that Roxas is going to add to his list of skills. It takes a few, not because he doesn't have interest but he'd rather move his music into an easy beat he can keep up with while engaging.

"You don't have to go back any more than I do. So, not at all. As for the light.. I think you're past that point. Wouldn't it have done something by now, anyway?"

Roxas just didn't have the benefit of his years of experience. He was not able to do anything like that as a beginner, not even close. Demyx could play with his eyes closed if he felt like it.

"I don't know, they haven't found us either, have they?" He asked, tilting his head. At least, he didn't think so. That girl he'd met, Destiny, he had no idea she was connected.

"I'm not sure that I can't avoid it. I mean, I don't like missions and stuff but what will I do instead Rox? What-I have nowhere else to go. My family, my world is gone!"

That unhealthy stream of self-doubt earns an especially rough smack on the cymbals, the crashing sound reverberating for a few seconds longer than it should have. "You'll just live. Even if you don't know what you want to do yet, it'll be on your own terms at least."

Hell, even Roxas doesn't know what he really wants out of this life. "Like your music, just let it do what it does."

"You say that Roxas, you say that like I know how to do that!" Demyx said, flustered. "I don't know how to do that, I don't know what to do. If I didn't have a schedule I'd...what would I even do?"

Demyx's self-doubt was creeping into his music, his mood so easy to read when he had a sitar in hand.

"I'm supposed to be an adult for one thing but I don't even know adult things."

Okay.. that one was on him. The drum beat slows to a stop, sticks eventually finding their home back at rest on the surface of a snare. "You're right.. I'm sorry. I don't know how to do that myself, actually."

Being the age he is, he shouldn't. "We'll figure it out though.. right? How hard can it be? Tons of dysfunctional people do it every day. Why can't.. we?" Hopefully that's comforting, at least as comforting as it can be, but he realizes it might miss the mark.

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melodiouspacifist - 2016-05-08 15:36 (UTC) - Expand

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