![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(crossposted to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
stayintheroom)
This is I guess the third in a series of character pieces. This time, it's Lexanthia "Lex" Nakasan, the other female of ID-0780 (Anjirousu is the other) and one of the more functional characters in this universe.
Lex has gone through a couple of personality changes from the first time she came to me. But I like her better now. She's not as well-adjusted as Hiroshi, but she's not nearly as broken as Anjirousu or Ashura (thank god). And I've discovered that she's a fascinating character in her own right.
Title: The Unforgiving Minute
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ultranos
Rating: PG
Summary: Stand on your own two feet and walk
"If you walk out that door, young lady, don't expect to ever come back through it!"
In retrospect, stepping into the secret ID recruiting office in Valis had been rather anticlimactic. After months of carefully planted questions and searching, after skulking through the city at night to get to this place, the dingy little building tucked away between two equally-dingy warehouses was slightly disappointing. On the other hand, it was her ticket out of this place.
Lex really didn't care how the hell it looked.
The pain in her right eye was incredible. She raised her head and saw through a haze of blood that the window she had been sitting next to had shattered. There was broken glass all around her, but the sound around her was muffled. She felt so tired and it was so hard to say awake that she really didn't fight it when the darkness overwhelmed her.
She woke up in a hospital. Her head was wrapped in bandages. The doctors said she had suffered a concussion. Might have also fractured a rib or two. Her right eye, though...it was gone. Destroyed by shrapnel from the blast. They said there wouldn't be too much scarring around it, and they tried to find a cybernetic replacement that would fit a child's head, since her family didn't have the money to pay for a straight-up biomechanical eye. What they found was a bulky contraption wrapped around her head and covered a quarter of her face. It hurt her neck to wear it, but unless she wanted to be half-blind, there wasn't much choice.
Her parents never came to visit her in the hospital. They only came when she was released.
The office was cleaner on the inside, not that this was a feat by any means of the imagination. The man sitting behind the desk was nondescript. Completely nondescript. Lex guessed that's why he had this job. That and the fact that he was apparently unfazed by anything. The sight of a twelve-year-old, one-eyed girl standing in the middle of his office didn't even warrant a raised eyebrow.
He wordlessly held out a datapad. She took it. It was a form.
It took a long time to get used to the thing on her head. The world looked different out of it.
The world was different.
The teasing never stopped at school. The other kids chased her down, until she climbed farther than they could reach. They called her all kinds of names. Cyclops. Idiot. Freak.
Tavez.
Her parents barely looked at her now. When they did, they yelled at her. For tripping into something she couldn't quite see. For being in the way. For being in the wrong place at the wrong time and costing them so much in medical bills.
She tried to keep her head down, tried to keep quiet. But it hurt. Only Sako and Ran saw her the same, treated her the same way they'd always treated her. She was still their sister. But Sako was eight and Ran was five.
And Kyra...Kyra didn't count. Kyra was an infant. And Lex wasn't allowed anywhere near the little girl. As if she were some horrible monster.
The form didn't take long to fill out, not counting the short pause when she filled out her name. Considering she was essentially signing her life away, Lex thought it would have taken longer. Maybe there was more when she actually got out of here.
She handed the datapad back to the man behind the desk. He took it, looked it over, and then waved her onto the back room. Lex grabbed her bag, pitifully small considering it held all her worldly possessions, and walked into the small room. Like the office, it was fairly plain. The main feature was the transporter in the middle of the floor.
The man followed her in, and motioned that she stand in the middle of the transporter. He moved over to the control panel and looked at her once she stood where he had indicated. He looked at her, his gaze boring into her. Then, he nodded once.
Lex disappeared in a flash of light.
It had taken a few months to track down someone who knew where the ID recruiting office was. But Lex was nothing if not persistent. She couldn't stay.
"Lex?"
She raised her head as she stopped stuffing a small pile of clothes into a rather worn rucksack. Sako stood in the doorway of her room, eyes wide. Ran poked his head out from behind his brother, his eyes also wide and slightly watery. "Ran? Sako?"
Sako looked unsure for a moment. Then he seemed to gather up his courage, stuck out his lower lip in the way only little boys trying to be older than they are can, and asked her "Are you leaving us?"
Lex bit her lip. Sako was observant for an eight year old, and Ran wasn't exactly dim either if his slightly trembling lower lip was any indication. Her silence was damning enough.
She looked down at her hands. If they'd figured it out enough to confront her, they deserved to hear it from her. That didn't mean she could bring herself to look them in the eye as she said it. "I have to."
"Why?" Lex screwed her eyes shut when Sako asked the question. How could she say it?
"Don't you love us anymore?" Ran, with that damning, five-year-old logic. Ran, who was doing his best to understand why his family was coming apart. Ran, who sounded like he was trying not to cry.
"What? Oh god no. Oh Ran..." Her head shot up and she found herself fighting tears herself. She struggled to keep her voice from cracking. "Ran...Ran it's not you. Or Sako. Or even Kyra. Oh god, Ran, come here. Please."
The little boy came out from behind his brother and went willingly into his sister's open arms. Lex clutched him tight as he buried his face into her shoulder. Sako came into the room and stood a few feet in front of them as she rocked Ran as he cried.
"Ran, I love both you and Sako very much. And Kyra, too," she said softly.
"Then why?" The fabric of her shirt muffled his shout.
Lex looked up and stared up into Sako's gaze. Sako's jaw was clenched, but his eyes glistened with unshed tears. "I don't think Mom and Dad love me." Ran pulled his head away from her shoulder and looked at her with a vaguely horrified expression on his tear-streaked face that made her heart break even more. She dropped her gaze to his. "They don't want me anymore. They made that very clear. They don't yell at you or Sako nearly as much, and they never smack you in the head when you make mistakes. And...Ran, they won't even let me near Kyra. It's as if I don't deserve to be near her."
"But...but you're the best, Lex." In the world according to Ran's logic, Lex was the pinnacle of awesome. She was the one who watched him and Sako and made sure they didn't get into too much trouble. When he got hurt, it was always Lex who was there to make it better. She snuck into the room after their parents tucked him into bed and told him stories. He knew Sako listened to them too, from his bed in the other corner, even if he'd never admit it. He didn't understand why his parents were always yelling at her; didn't they know that she was the best older sister in the world?
And Lex didn't know how to explain it to him. But Sako...Sako understood. After all, adults were always underestimating Sako. "Ran," he said softly. "Lex has to leave. She wants to stay, she doesn't want to leave us, but she has to." He leaned down and gently pried the little boy away from Lex and held him in his arms. "You'd better finish packing, Lex."
She stuffed the last of her things into the bag and stood. "Sako..."
"You'd better go soon." Sako held Ran in his arms, and suddenly looked older than his eight years.
"Right." But she didn't move. She stared at him. And then wrapped her arms around the two of them. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
"I know."
She stepped back. There was one last thing...
"I'll take care of them. Both of them."
Lex nodded. She knew he would. She strode from the room, out to the front door, leaving Sako holding a quietly sobbing Ran. Her hand was on the doorknob when she felt a presence behind her. She slowly turned her head and saw her father standing a few feet away, cold fury in his eyes. Her mother was behind him.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Lex schooled her features into a blank mask. "I'm leaving."
"I said, where do you think you're going?" he yelled.
Lex kept her voice perfectly calm and her face as yielding as stone. "I'm leaving. You obviously want me gone."
"And where are you leaving to?" Her mother joined in.
"The IDs."
"If you think I'd let any child of mine join those depraved mercenaries..."
"I'd like to see you stop me. And when was the last time you considered me your child?"
"Don't you dare take that tone with me!"
"I will speak however I wish. I'm getting the hell out of here, and I'm getting out now." She paused. "Notice how you didn't answer my question." She opened the door.
"If you walk out that door, young lady, don't expect to ever come back through it!"
Lex walked straight ahead and slammed the door shut behind her.
She found herself in another room, wider and more open than the one she had left. The walls were grey concrete and steel. A man in uniform stood by the door. He smiled at her when she looked at him.
"So you're our new recruit. They've sent up your paperwork. We'll review it and get you processed." He led her to an office and offered her a seat as he sat down behind the desk. "Oh, and I might as well mention it now, but we can help you get rid of that contraption on your head."
Lex blinked. "What?"
He smiled. "Well, we have the technology and facilities to either give you a biomechanical eye or make you a full-blown skiz. It's up to you. But let's take a look at your papers."
Lex wished her head would stop spinning. A skiz? An honest-to-god skiz? She could honestly turn this disability into such an advantage?
She watched him look over the form she had filled out. It only took a minute. "Well, everything seems to be in order, Miss..." He trailed off, searching for her name.
She smiled. "Nasakan. Lex Nasakan." Nakasan. 'One who walks alone'. This was who she was now.
"Right. Welcome to the IDs, Lex Nasakan."
stayintheroom)This is I guess the third in a series of character pieces. This time, it's Lexanthia "Lex" Nakasan, the other female of ID-0780 (Anjirousu is the other) and one of the more functional characters in this universe.
Lex has gone through a couple of personality changes from the first time she came to me. But I like her better now. She's not as well-adjusted as Hiroshi, but she's not nearly as broken as Anjirousu or Ashura (thank god). And I've discovered that she's a fascinating character in her own right.
Title: The Unforgiving Minute
Author:
ultranosRating: PG
Summary: Stand on your own two feet and walk
"If you walk out that door, young lady, don't expect to ever come back through it!"
In retrospect, stepping into the secret ID recruiting office in Valis had been rather anticlimactic. After months of carefully planted questions and searching, after skulking through the city at night to get to this place, the dingy little building tucked away between two equally-dingy warehouses was slightly disappointing. On the other hand, it was her ticket out of this place.
Lex really didn't care how the hell it looked.
The pain in her right eye was incredible. She raised her head and saw through a haze of blood that the window she had been sitting next to had shattered. There was broken glass all around her, but the sound around her was muffled. She felt so tired and it was so hard to say awake that she really didn't fight it when the darkness overwhelmed her.
She woke up in a hospital. Her head was wrapped in bandages. The doctors said she had suffered a concussion. Might have also fractured a rib or two. Her right eye, though...it was gone. Destroyed by shrapnel from the blast. They said there wouldn't be too much scarring around it, and they tried to find a cybernetic replacement that would fit a child's head, since her family didn't have the money to pay for a straight-up biomechanical eye. What they found was a bulky contraption wrapped around her head and covered a quarter of her face. It hurt her neck to wear it, but unless she wanted to be half-blind, there wasn't much choice.
Her parents never came to visit her in the hospital. They only came when she was released.
The office was cleaner on the inside, not that this was a feat by any means of the imagination. The man sitting behind the desk was nondescript. Completely nondescript. Lex guessed that's why he had this job. That and the fact that he was apparently unfazed by anything. The sight of a twelve-year-old, one-eyed girl standing in the middle of his office didn't even warrant a raised eyebrow.
He wordlessly held out a datapad. She took it. It was a form.
It took a long time to get used to the thing on her head. The world looked different out of it.
The world was different.
The teasing never stopped at school. The other kids chased her down, until she climbed farther than they could reach. They called her all kinds of names. Cyclops. Idiot. Freak.
Tavez.
Her parents barely looked at her now. When they did, they yelled at her. For tripping into something she couldn't quite see. For being in the way. For being in the wrong place at the wrong time and costing them so much in medical bills.
She tried to keep her head down, tried to keep quiet. But it hurt. Only Sako and Ran saw her the same, treated her the same way they'd always treated her. She was still their sister. But Sako was eight and Ran was five.
And Kyra...Kyra didn't count. Kyra was an infant. And Lex wasn't allowed anywhere near the little girl. As if she were some horrible monster.
The form didn't take long to fill out, not counting the short pause when she filled out her name. Considering she was essentially signing her life away, Lex thought it would have taken longer. Maybe there was more when she actually got out of here.
She handed the datapad back to the man behind the desk. He took it, looked it over, and then waved her onto the back room. Lex grabbed her bag, pitifully small considering it held all her worldly possessions, and walked into the small room. Like the office, it was fairly plain. The main feature was the transporter in the middle of the floor.
The man followed her in, and motioned that she stand in the middle of the transporter. He moved over to the control panel and looked at her once she stood where he had indicated. He looked at her, his gaze boring into her. Then, he nodded once.
Lex disappeared in a flash of light.
It had taken a few months to track down someone who knew where the ID recruiting office was. But Lex was nothing if not persistent. She couldn't stay.
"Lex?"
She raised her head as she stopped stuffing a small pile of clothes into a rather worn rucksack. Sako stood in the doorway of her room, eyes wide. Ran poked his head out from behind his brother, his eyes also wide and slightly watery. "Ran? Sako?"
Sako looked unsure for a moment. Then he seemed to gather up his courage, stuck out his lower lip in the way only little boys trying to be older than they are can, and asked her "Are you leaving us?"
Lex bit her lip. Sako was observant for an eight year old, and Ran wasn't exactly dim either if his slightly trembling lower lip was any indication. Her silence was damning enough.
She looked down at her hands. If they'd figured it out enough to confront her, they deserved to hear it from her. That didn't mean she could bring herself to look them in the eye as she said it. "I have to."
"Why?" Lex screwed her eyes shut when Sako asked the question. How could she say it?
"Don't you love us anymore?" Ran, with that damning, five-year-old logic. Ran, who was doing his best to understand why his family was coming apart. Ran, who sounded like he was trying not to cry.
"What? Oh god no. Oh Ran..." Her head shot up and she found herself fighting tears herself. She struggled to keep her voice from cracking. "Ran...Ran it's not you. Or Sako. Or even Kyra. Oh god, Ran, come here. Please."
The little boy came out from behind his brother and went willingly into his sister's open arms. Lex clutched him tight as he buried his face into her shoulder. Sako came into the room and stood a few feet in front of them as she rocked Ran as he cried.
"Ran, I love both you and Sako very much. And Kyra, too," she said softly.
"Then why?" The fabric of her shirt muffled his shout.
Lex looked up and stared up into Sako's gaze. Sako's jaw was clenched, but his eyes glistened with unshed tears. "I don't think Mom and Dad love me." Ran pulled his head away from her shoulder and looked at her with a vaguely horrified expression on his tear-streaked face that made her heart break even more. She dropped her gaze to his. "They don't want me anymore. They made that very clear. They don't yell at you or Sako nearly as much, and they never smack you in the head when you make mistakes. And...Ran, they won't even let me near Kyra. It's as if I don't deserve to be near her."
"But...but you're the best, Lex." In the world according to Ran's logic, Lex was the pinnacle of awesome. She was the one who watched him and Sako and made sure they didn't get into too much trouble. When he got hurt, it was always Lex who was there to make it better. She snuck into the room after their parents tucked him into bed and told him stories. He knew Sako listened to them too, from his bed in the other corner, even if he'd never admit it. He didn't understand why his parents were always yelling at her; didn't they know that she was the best older sister in the world?
And Lex didn't know how to explain it to him. But Sako...Sako understood. After all, adults were always underestimating Sako. "Ran," he said softly. "Lex has to leave. She wants to stay, she doesn't want to leave us, but she has to." He leaned down and gently pried the little boy away from Lex and held him in his arms. "You'd better finish packing, Lex."
She stuffed the last of her things into the bag and stood. "Sako..."
"You'd better go soon." Sako held Ran in his arms, and suddenly looked older than his eight years.
"Right." But she didn't move. She stared at him. And then wrapped her arms around the two of them. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
"I know."
She stepped back. There was one last thing...
"I'll take care of them. Both of them."
Lex nodded. She knew he would. She strode from the room, out to the front door, leaving Sako holding a quietly sobbing Ran. Her hand was on the doorknob when she felt a presence behind her. She slowly turned her head and saw her father standing a few feet away, cold fury in his eyes. Her mother was behind him.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Lex schooled her features into a blank mask. "I'm leaving."
"I said, where do you think you're going?" he yelled.
Lex kept her voice perfectly calm and her face as yielding as stone. "I'm leaving. You obviously want me gone."
"And where are you leaving to?" Her mother joined in.
"The IDs."
"If you think I'd let any child of mine join those depraved mercenaries..."
"I'd like to see you stop me. And when was the last time you considered me your child?"
"Don't you dare take that tone with me!"
"I will speak however I wish. I'm getting the hell out of here, and I'm getting out now." She paused. "Notice how you didn't answer my question." She opened the door.
"If you walk out that door, young lady, don't expect to ever come back through it!"
Lex walked straight ahead and slammed the door shut behind her.
She found herself in another room, wider and more open than the one she had left. The walls were grey concrete and steel. A man in uniform stood by the door. He smiled at her when she looked at him.
"So you're our new recruit. They've sent up your paperwork. We'll review it and get you processed." He led her to an office and offered her a seat as he sat down behind the desk. "Oh, and I might as well mention it now, but we can help you get rid of that contraption on your head."
Lex blinked. "What?"
He smiled. "Well, we have the technology and facilities to either give you a biomechanical eye or make you a full-blown skiz. It's up to you. But let's take a look at your papers."
Lex wished her head would stop spinning. A skiz? An honest-to-god skiz? She could honestly turn this disability into such an advantage?
She watched him look over the form she had filled out. It only took a minute. "Well, everything seems to be in order, Miss..." He trailed off, searching for her name.
She smiled. "Nasakan. Lex Nasakan." Nakasan. 'One who walks alone'. This was who she was now.
"Right. Welcome to the IDs, Lex Nasakan."
◾ Tags:
