perplexme | Fifty-Third Keychain

[Roxas is not stupid. Let's just make that clear. He's a bit of a derp, yes, but he's not stupid and he's been keeping track of the days. Valentine's Day is very soon, and he knows that that usually means the Malnosso do everything they can to mess with them on the holiday.

That being said, he's preparing himself for a weekend (or a whole week, really) locked inside KH house. In his hands he's got a stack of red origami paper, a stack of white origami paper, and a box of cookies. Food's important, after all.

As he starts walking home though, he starts letting his mind wander. A holiday dedicated to love. Xaldin explained love once. Axel explained love once, too. Roxas liked Axel's better, even if all of it was pretty unclear back then. Years later it's still kind of unclear though, especially given what he's seen with people around Luceti. It's due to that line of thought that he finally pauses in the middle of the town square, juggling with the things in his arms to open his journal and address the public.]

What kind of love stories are common where you guys are from? Are they real stories, or are they kind of like fairy tales?

...and if you can't think of love stories, maybe just talk about what you think love is.

[He's going to close the journal as he continues on his way back to the house. Don't worry, he'll open it again to talk to people when he gets back to his bedroom. Once there, he's going to be spending some time working on using his origami paper to fold a bunch of these. Once he's got a handful folded up though, he's going around the house and taping them wherever he sees fit. Could be the wall of the kitchen, could be the bathroom door, could be Kairi's bed, wherever! Housemates are free to catch him in the act of either making or hanging the hearts. And maybe steal one of his cookies.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm just looking for something that explains what love actually really means. Make sense?

Hah...well um, that's a pretty broad spectrum.

There's familial love, platonic love, romantic love, physical love...there's a lot of different kinds. I guess I could generalize it for you, if you'd like.

Generalizing will probably be easiest...why are they all different?

Different feelings with how you approach them, levels of comfort with the people involved, so on and so forth. There's a lot of smaller, lesser feelings involved whenever you try to categorize love.

I think pretty much the only thing you can say is the same about all of them is a desire to be around that person and make sure that person is and stays happy.

That makes sense. And so the level changes based on how happy you want the person to be and how comfortable you are.

...does love have to involve feelings?

...generally speaking. I can't really see how you can love someone without them.

So people without feelings really can't love. That's generally how it is? [He's mostly checking to see if Xaldin and Axel were right.]

Er-

I'm not sure. I've never met someone without feelings before. ...maybe more like if people can love, they have feelings.

There's a few of them running around here. But if a person doesn't know what love is, how would they know they can? [Roxas has a tendency to ask questions that really don't have answers. Sorry, Guy.]

The same way you diagnose an illness. You look at the symptoms.

The symptoms...that whole wanting to be with people all the time and the funny feelings in your stomach thing? That's what Emil said, anyway.

Yup. There's quite a few symptoms for the lovesick, especially that of the romantic variety. Some of them you wouldn't even imagine being symptoms of love, too.

You wouldn't be able to tell me what they are, would you? Just in case I need to know for later.

Well, like Emil said, wanting to be around that person and having a strange feeling in your stomach. A desire to make sure that person stays happy and healthy; just a general feeling of wrongness if you see them upset or crying.

But there's also things like being upset when that person spends more time with someone else instead of spending time with you, or even getting angry with that person over things that usually wouldn't make you angry. Behaving irrationally is another big one; doing things you usually wouldn't do, acting on impulse.

Any of this sounding familiar?

Sort of, but not really. I want both of my best friends to stay happy and healthy, and sometimes they both really make me mad about stupid stuff they do, but the other stuff doesn't really fit.

Love's one of those things we're not supposed to feel, so I doubt I'll ever really recognize any of those symptoms.

No, I don't think anybody would have all of those symptoms. Being in love varies person to person, after all.

But it sounds like you love your best friends so at least you have that.

It's a start. Axel and Xion are two of the most important people to me, so if I can love them then I guess that's enough. ...thanks for answering though. It helps.

No problem. I hope you work out what you need to.

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