#xigsem

shoutout to @/venacoeurva for the meme, which you can find here should you be interested in filling it out

Oh my god, love notes from Ansem alternate between being very plain, to the point lists of things he likes about Xigbar(’s actions) and then like...some stupidly exhaustive purple prose, but about very technical things.

So it’s like

“Xigbar maintains all the qualities one could ask for in a person: intelligent, diligent, follows orders but remains flexible enough to improvise should the situation call for it. It is no wonder that in his life as a human, he was charged with such a high honor as being a royal guardsman...though, of course, that accolade must be reconsidered, seeing as how his liege changed hands. [Ansem chuckles here as he finishes writing that because he’s a little shit wrt DiZ]”

“It is no wonder, then, that the instinct that drives the thirsts of my Heartless entity longs for such qualities. Qualities I adored as a human, and so the Heart’s memory seeks even now. He brings warmth to this consuming Darkness, like the warm dark nurturing soil to plant life. My guardsman: do you know what hunger you have brought to this being that could previously hunger for nothing more but knowledge and Heart?”

and then Xigbar reads that and lightly slaps him on the shoulder and laughs because, “Jeeze, you really gotta learn how to get to the point. If you love me, just say you love me!”

Is any member extremely (maybe even violently) protective of the other?

Xigbar is very naturally protective of Ansem (and all the Xehanorts) though perhaps not in a romantic manner: he has spent hundreds upon hundreds of years waiting for the right Keyblade Master to come along and be the ultimate bearer of No Name for him. There’s no way in hell he’s going to take any risks losing him. Eventually, those feelings evolve into a more genuine sense of concern and protectiveness, though Ansem/Xehanort is a powerful man, and certainly the most powerful Keyblade master of his generation; he knows and trusts Xehanort can handle himself the majority of the time.

Ansem, however, and perhaps surprisingly, feels a more genuine sense of concern over Xigbar. As far as he knows, Xigbar is just a man...sure, a durable Nobody at this point, but just a man. A man whose competency at guardsmanship, whose loyalty and dedication to the Plan and patience with seeing it through have gone unmatched for a decade. Ansem views him as a cog in the machine, sure, but an extremely vital one, and one to whom he has grown sentimentally attached. Sure,someone could take his place as a vessel, but could anyone really take the place of someone so intimately in tune with his thoughts?

What TV Trope would best describe your OTP?

Captain Smooth and Sergeant Rough with a dash of Unholy Matrimony for the more obviously romantic trope. (Ansem is the Smooth, Xigbar is the Rough, and together they make a headache for the heroes and a surprisingly effective duo otherwise).

What sorts of things would they give each other “just because”?

Neither are really “gift givers”; Xigbar’s the type of person who’d be going through his room one day and finds something that reminds him of Ansem and hands it over. It could be a book (”I dunno if you’ve read this one yet. Grabbed it from a different world on a mission.”), or a small trinket, like a compass (”Because I know you’re always goin’ somewhere new, and who knows? Maybe even Heartless can get lost, y’know? Ehehehe.”)  They’re rarely given with the intention of being a grand gesture, but the thought behind it often leaves Ansem to mutter a quiet “thank you” and appreciate the gift, because those gifts also contain “Heart”...and how could a Heartless resist?

Ansem, on the other hand, gives the gift of his time, attention, and rare patience. Ansem doesn’t like being a teacher as much as he likes to lord his knowledge over others, so it really means something when he calls Xigbar over to sit next to him, “please, I’ve just read this fascinating new theory and I want to know what you think of it”. He shares his warmth when Xigbar flops over and leans on his shoulder, and gives the gift of a rare, genuinely gentle smile when Xigbar starts lazily rambling through his own confirmations and denials of whatever author it was’s theorem.

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[sprinkles flowers on the ground] please talk...

Xigbraig running into Ansem for the first time after becoming a Heartless and it just slowly dawning on him as they talk just. The monster he’s created, and marveling if it can possibly go so much further

Ansem’s like, the first recorded humanoid heartless, and I wonder if that’s like, over all worldlines and instances. If so, that must be so new and fascinating and capitvating for Luxigbraig. Imagine existing for so many hundreds upon hundreds of years; you must think you’ve seen it all, but then this one man ends up different, and special, and interesting. Sure, he’s just supposed to be observing his charge, directing him to the ultimate destiny of a second Keyblade War, but this is like capturing lightning in a bottle. And better yet, it’s someone with a scientific mind, who’d be overjoyed to dissect this experience with someone who would appreciate it.

It’s like a moth to flame, seeing some mythical creature in the wild; Ansem sometimes catches Xigbraig just staring at him with a genuine sense of wonder that is almost never seen on the man and chuckles. Every part of Ansem is a source of joyful bafflement; those fingers that are so long and delicate and perfect for minute detail work, soft human hair and skin, and warm human lips that can speak human languages (languages! a polyglot, because Ansem is a curious explorer, who has seen many worlds, just like Xigbraig, and suddenly the world feels a little less suffocatingly large with one more person to share and understand it with him)

and a heart, who has existed in many bodies now, who appears youthful even though they’re in their 80s, now, 90s eventually