User Profile

Character: Axel
Series: Kingdom Hearts
Version: Before CoM and KHII
Age: He looks to be in his early to mid-twenties, though only considering his life as a Nobody, he can't be out of his single digits yet. Thus, somewhere between 1-9 years old.
Gender: Male

Sexuality: Heaven only knows; Axel is incapable of feeling love, attraction, or any of the other emotions typically associated with sexuality and the things revolving around it. If it's convenient or useful, he might toy with flirting with anyone, regardless of their sex--the fact remains though, that he simply can't be interested. (Though if you managed to find a way to restore his heart so that he could love, he'd be majorly indebted to you. <3)

Appearance: Axel's hair is very spiky; it's kind of frightening, though he probably couldn't get it sharp enough to stab people with, despite popular opinion. Unlike most redheads, Axel is not a carrot-top—rather, his hair is a genuine blood red, shaded haphazardly darker and lighter along the spikes to resemble the flames he wields. Spiky though it is, it is swept back and away from his face, rather than pointing straight up and defying gravity—-a style that's more impractical than impossible to maintain, though it seems to have become his hair's natural state since his rebirth as a Nobody. It nicely contrasts with darkly lined—he adamantly denies wearing mascara or eyeliner of any sort—-peridot eyes, marked with an inverted black teardrop mark centered beneath each eye. His expression tends to stay easy and casual, disarmingly friendly; taken at face value, he looks like a pretty nice, even somewhat charming guy, if a bit snarky and over-the-top.

The rest of him only tends to confirm this; he's a lean, lanky guy-—who would like to assure you that the spikes don't make up that much of his height—-with broad shoulders and childbearing hips and a trim waist, along with long limbs and clever hands. He tends to use his body as casually as his looks, moving about and holding himself with a loose, easy, seemingly unguarded air that belies his sharp mind. His outfit makes an interesting counterpoint to this image though, calling to mind a flair for the dramatic, and possibly tastes running mildly towards punk culture or fantasy and gamer stereotypes; he wears a surprisingly comfortable outfit of a long-sleeved black shirt and trousers, with knee-height silver-trimmed black leather boots and elbow-length black leather gloves. A long, black hooded cloak goes over it, with slightly pointed shoulder pads, silver-beaded drawstrings, and a hem that reaches his ankles; the sleeves are slightly belled, though tight around his wrists and most of his arms to reduce air resistance. The upper portion of the cloak is similarly close-fitted, though once it reaches his hips, it becomes much more loose and flowing, all the better to billow dramatically.

Personality: As a Nobody, Axel cannot, in fact, feel emotions as a normal person is able to. He's simply incapable of experiencing them, though he can and does remember them—-extremely vividly, perhaps moreso than the other Organization members, likely due to prolonged exposure to Roxas. He believes he is able to feel emotions, to some degree, when he is with Roxas and Sora-—whether this is true, or simply a product of increasingly vivid recollections in their presence, is uncertain. In spite of-—or perhaps because of-—this, Axel can rightly be considered one of the biggest wild cards in Organization XIII, a man so thoroughly masterful at cunning and deceit that he seems to be able to fool even himself at times with his seeming lack of guile.

While the original six members, all scientists, could easily be considered more intelligent than him, Axel is arguably one of the shrewdest members of the group, shrouding his savvy beneath an easygoing, dismissively laid-back attitude. Axel's breezy, confident—-some might say cocky, though he easily has the skill to back up his bravado—-attitude doesn't deter him from frequent bouts of sarcasm and the occasional (equally lighthearted) act of manipulation or cruelty. Barring those, Axel tends to be a pretty nice guy if he likes you enough to get friendly, with a quick sense of humor, firm loyalty, and seemingly limitless, fiery energy, including a notable flair for the dramatic and sensational. He adheres stubbornly to his values and beliefs-—though it seems rather difficult to pinpoint what exactly those are.

He values friendship and loyalty tremendously, and will go to extreme lengths to mercilessly expunge traitors from those he is loyal to—-though he is willing to use betrayal as a means to accomplish this, and is willing to betray those he seems loyal to, in order to serve his own personal, even selfish goals. He exhorts people to commit things to memory, especially his identity, with such frequency it seems almost obsessive; though he would never admit it's anything other than his gimmick or catchphrase, Axel is desperately afraid of the oblivion that lies beyond memory. Being rejected by both light and darkness, being nothing, nobody, and not technically existing at all, nor being able to feel genuine emotions..... All Axel has left is the memories of his real life and real emotions to assure himself that he is a real, valuable, worthwhile person-—that he once was and may someday again be "somebody"—-much less that he existed at all. If he is no longer there and even his own memories fade, how else can he assure himself some form of existence other than in the minds of those whose lives he has touched?

It is this need to connect and not fade away that drives Axel to prize loyalty and friendship—-especially with Roxas, who makes him feel, and thus brings him closer to genuine existence than anyone else—-so highly, and yearn so deeply to restore his lost heart. Though he doesn't have a temperament especially predisposed to villainy, he accepts it as a necessary evil in order to get his heart back, and until he is able to feel again, he is ready to use his lack of emotions to allow him to do whatever dirty work is necessary, regardless of the pain he causes others.

Fears: To quote, "when you look into the abyss, the abyss looks into you." Axel is terrified of what lays beyond. Beyond knowledge and comprehension, beyond memory, beyond existence, beyond light and darkness, beyond life itself. As a creature whose very existence teeters on the knife's edge between what is and what lays beyond it, he clings to what he can to avoid being plunged into the void. Being forgotten, isolated, unreal, or dying are all anathema to him, and he does everything he can to avoid them. Being unable to feel, this fear is quite often in his mind, and in general is an extremely deep-rooted, pervasive part of him.

Perhaps because of this, it may (or may not) come as some surprise how frightened Axel would be of losing Roxas, should such a possibility come up. Roxas is the one person he considers a true friend, someone who can understand his condition--and, to some degree, alleviate it. When with Roxas, Axel believes he's capable of feeling emotions, and that leads him to prize their friendship enormously, perhaps as much for that as for the more mundane roles friendship serves. While Kingdom Hearts is arguably a stronger, surer way to get his heart back, it's also remote and non-sentient; Roxas is right there, helping him now, and is capable of choosing to restore him if the option were there. It's a smaller, more buried fear than the above, but when push comes to shove, it cuts deeper--to the point where Axel would be willing to face the former fear head-on, burning away his entire life energy in a single attack in an effort to rescue Roxas and see him one more time. It's possible he might even come to feel similarly about Sora, should the two of them actually become friends.

Abilities/Weaponry: As was already mentioned, Axel can be shockingly clever when he has a mind to be, all the better put to use by the fact that he tends to pair it with the element of surprise. He won't shy away from direct confrontations, but neither will he refuse trickery and subterfuge to get his way, either. His potent memories of human emotions help him know how best to manipulate those who still have them, while the fact that he has none himself keeps him from making sentimental little mistakes that would screw his plans up. Beyond even this, he can pass through people like a ghost to experience the whole of their memories, giving him further fuel for any designs he may have on that person or those they're close to.

His fighting style is swift, light, and graceful, frequently almost like a dance in its motions, and rather frustrating to more traditional fighters; he prefers to use his inhuman speed and Nobody abilities of warping through dark portals to strike with blinding precision, and withdraw out of attacking range before a defense or counterattack can be mustered. It's something that tends to keep him quite safe, and his opponents confused and on the defensive while he either cripples them quickly or bleeds and exhausts them to death trying to keep up with him. Having two chakrams--technically indestructable, and summonable at will, since they're part of his own being--that can serve as both ranged and melee weapons, plus basic defenses if need be, makes him incredibly versatile on the battlefield.

He becomes even more formidable once his innate control of and general immunity to fire is added to the mix, giving him an extraordinarily potent elemental ace up his sleeve to fall back on, should he encounter an opponent where physical force is impossible or just impractical. He can also summon Dusks and Assassin Nobodies as he needs, though they don't seem to see a lot of use--they're not strong or smart enough to be used for tasks that are too complicated.

Weaknesses: Obviously, Axel is a Nobody. He's not happy about this fact. Neither is anybody else, really, but they aren't doing anything about it other than trying to kill him. Axel isn't happy with his lot, and if he weren't forced into a difficult position, probably wouldn't be inclined towards villainy at all. He's driven by his need to recapture his old life and emotions to do things that sometimes go against even his allies, and tends to make him plenty of bitter enemies, along with the rest of the Organization's doings. Unless he's pretending and undercover, therefore, or the person is just exceptionally ignorant or not overly-moral, then Axel is going to have a hard time getting along with most people, even when you don't take his personality into account.

Roxas is his best--maybe even only--friend, and because Axel is attached to him, the relationship and other Nobody himself can be a liability or used as blackmail, should anybody twig to it and try to use it to their own advantage. He dislikes water as a matter of principle--not so much because he's weak to it, but because it makes setting stuff on fire an absolute bitch--, though ice is his elemental weakness, and damages him out of proportion to what it should do. Another weakness his is the Keyblade, which is probably the easiest way of all to put him out of commission.

History: He'd certainly rather not talk about it, ever, but Axel hasn't always been Axel. He was born Lea, (pronounced "Lee", since his parents prematurely choosing a girl's name based on a not-quite-accurate pre-birth gender divination) the only child of two French Gypsies in the Hunchback of Notre Dame world, in the early to mid 15th century. With unusually fair skin and lustrous red hair, many suspected someone in his family tree had indulged in a fruitful union with a real Frenchman--it was a fairly prevalent rumor, but as nothing could be proved, the matter simply faded into the realm of relative apathy, only trotted out occasionally by people fighting with him. It helped that he was quick, clever, and friendly, a joy to know and a credit to his family, who took no small amount of pride in him.

That pride only grew when he showed an aptitude not only for dancing, his family's profession, but also an affinity for the considerably more dangerous arts of fire-breathing and fire-dancing; he was enchanted by movement, heat, and passion of all sorts, and took a keen interest in the superstition and supernatural. Soon there seemed to be no doubt that Romani blood ran thick in his veins. He was wed very young--a child groom, not uncommon in that time and culture--to a lovely young lady from a family of musicians. She moved into his family's home, of course, to be with her new husband; the two didn't touch each other, far too young and uncertain to treat each other as anything but a stranger they had been thrust into a bewildering bond with.

Slowly they overcame their awkwardness, and weathered the stormy years of adolescence together, learning about themselves and each other as they grew into something like adulthood. It was a slightly traumatic, rather uncomfortable experience, but being forced together at least made them get to know each other--and as they learned, they grew friendly, and from friendship blossomed a hesitant but strengthening, firmly rooted love that would surely last the rest of their lives.

Eventually, Lea and his wife broke away to form their own home and life together--a happy one, if not nearly as easy or comfortable as many Parisians had; they stuck mostly to their own, and endured the slings and arrows of those their talents didn't thrill as best they could. In spite of it all, that life was cut short by a tragedy nobody could have foreseen.

It was New Year's Eve night, and Lea was leading a traditional performance for the occasion, taking the role of the mythical phoenix which cleansed, healed, and renewed, rising from its own ashes to grant its blessings to everyone in the new year--his brilliantly feathered costume was completed by hair painstakingly styled into swept-back spikes to give him the appearance of a plumed crest, and darkly rimmed eyes joined by black symbolic tears that the bird was supposed to shed. Painted tears were soon joined by real ones as the celebration burst into chaos, thanks to swarms of strange living shadows with glowing eyes overrunning the area.

The Heartless tore into the unprepared crowd; some managed to escape, and a few were trampled by the attempted mass exodus, but most had no chance to leave, much less survive. They tried, of course. Anything that could be made a weapon was used as one; Lea even managed surprisingly well with the blazing spoked wheels he had been dancing with. Ferocity and sheer numbers overcame desperation and self-preservation in the end, and he had just enough time to see his wife go down under a swarm of Shadows before he was backed into a corner and had his heart torn away.

Axel woke up alone hours after the carnage had subsided, physically frozen as he had been before the assault, hair, makeup, and all--his body remained untouched, but his heart was a completely different matter, as was everything else that had made up his life until then. There was no way to tell where his own Heartless had gotten off to, or anyone else's, even if he had known anything about them or what had happened--he had evidently been the only one with a strong enough heart to retain a human shape. In this state, he couldn't even properly mourn, try though he might; he could do little else but leave.

He soon after quite willingly entered the Organization as Axel, The Flurry of Dancing Flames, the second member (after Saïx) to be recruited aside from its original six founders. He joined entirely to work towards getting his heart back so he could have a normal existence again; it's very hard to enjoy your life, or anything else, without a heart--especially when you don't really have much left of it to enjoy, or a decent home to do so in. His relationship with the Organization is purely a pragmatic one, but because it helps him towards a goal so important to him, his loyalty is fierce--of course, it doesn't hurt anything that he has become rather friendly with Roxas since he's joined, either. The two of them have become surprisingly close, for Nobodies, and have an impressively.... well, normal relationship, without a lot of the rivalries, petty arguments, disdain, and veiled manipulation that characterize many other relationships between the other members.

He recently migrated to Castle Oblivion, an enormous palace under Marluxia's care, on his Superior's orders, as Sora was headed in its direction. While there, he's become.... well, "friendly" might not be the best way to put it, but at least casually acquainted with Naminé, Kairi's Nobody and Marluxia's pet/slave witch, who manipulates memories usually via drawing. Their relationship certainly isn't antagonistic, but nor is it friendly like his with Roxas; he drops in to see her whenever he has time and boredom to spare, and likes to bring her gifts--just little treats, really, like sweets or fresh crayons--and make small talk. She's a curiosity and an interesting, amusing diversion, rather like a guest from out of town, or a novel pet, though he likely treats her much more kindly than most other Nobodies.

The conspiracy to take over the Organization has not yet showed its face, and Roxas has not yet left them at all--in fact, Axel's work for the Organization has gone pretty smoothly up until the point where he fell into Dollsy--it might not have been much of one, but it seems he's now lost his second home as well.