Code Lyoko: Revolutions and Evolutions

Chapter 72

AN: After prayer and God's help, I wrote this chapter, and I believe it is the best I've written to build on two characters in light of the past chapters' events. I thank all of you who have read and continue to read, and I hope you all enjoy it; and I'll see you next chapter.

Pagliacci-11.

"Why, Dad, why are they always so damned mean to me? I've tried to use humor to disarm them; it doesn't work!"

"Odd, you need to know this. As much as you may enjoy humor, humor does not solve everything. The funnyman is loved in your mind, but you're not old enough to understand why; that's a good thing. However, with your sisters, you need to remember they are some of the many reasons comedians are made great."

Odd came to know the truth of his father's words over time. He was six when he was told this, and with time, Odd had been able to fit some of the pieces together. Comedians were loved mostly for the pain they have experienced. The only reasons they were laughed at was because everyone either related with the pain out of fundamental similarity from their own lives or, what was even worse, they laughed at this pain because it was not them.

In many ways, his time, specifically his conversations with Sylvia, had confirmed this. Equally, Sylvia took it a step further when she proposed that his sisters merely oppressed him due to a simple adage, might makes right. As much as Odd may not publicly admit it, Sylvia was right. In some way, his sisters, had it been passive or fully affrontive, antagonized him in so many ways. The locking in the bathroom, yeah, that was mild as could be, and because of that, he could at least admit that one. There were other things, things he dared not bring up to his friends out of purest shame. Not even Ulrich, one he would consider his best friend, did not know the extent of the literal hell that fueled the comedy they all enjoyed.

Bizarrely, Sylvia had grown worthy of this trust, far more quickly than any other had. Odd couldn't explain why, but it was so. Sylvia had simply let him speak, without judgment or condemnation, everything that was on his mind. He never felt judged or antagonized, but equally, he had never overly judged her or persecuted her. As Odd spoke to her, Odd could sense that for once, he was speaking with someone who more than understood his pain. Sylvia's understanding was not passive knowledge like many others he had tried to talk to, but someone who genuinely understood.

Odd never spoke about Sylvia to the group, silencing his most accurate thoughts as they rallied their skeptical arguments more than their outright objections towards her. Aelita's breaking down a while back was, he supposed, understandable. But why had she broken down? Odd remembered how dedicated Aelita had become in her rallying of her courage to destroy Sylvia. But why did she break soon afterward?

Odd had consulted Sylvia on this a while later, and Sylvia's response troubled him, "Because, Odd, she is much like you. Although I am not nearly as cruel as your siblings, she is learning your same lesson. Love, much like comedy, cannot solve all problems. There are those in the world who see loving people, such as yourself. Why? To abuse the hell out of them. This is largely for their personal benefit because a genuinely gentle disposition is counted as a weakness in the eyes of the everyday world."

Odd didn't wish to admit this but more than understood such a point. He'd heard Aelita's personal views with Jeremy on a few occasions concerning Sylvia, and when Odd had told Sylvia these views, he was amazed at how she wasn't bothered in the slightest.

"Her critiques are trifles, mere trifles. I've heard so many such complaints, I'm not numb to them, but I am indifferent to them."

"What's the difference?" Odd asked.