When Needs Must

[elementoftreachery]

 Really Mun, while I appreciate your interest in playing me, I am going to have to protest where it is you plan to send me. 

It is not a place fit for a leading man, after all, least of all because they intend to perform some rather risky surgeries. If I had wanted to be in the company of people like my father again, why I would have gone back to Archadia.

And do be honest, you know that our intrepid little group would be utterly hopeless without me. Any group is without the leading man. 

Comments

[northswainsglow]

I question your use of "utterly hopeless."

[elementoftreachery]

Well, you are certainly quite capable, your highness, it's poor Vaan I'm really thinking of. Whatever will he do without either of us?

[northswainsglow]

He is more than you think to give him credit for, and I have been advised that while we are here, time stands still where we had been before. { Not that any such consolation alleviates all of her concerns. }

But tell me again why he needs you there? { This might be playful, though. An 'I missed you,' if not in so many words. }

[elementoftreachery]

Being advised and knowing are rather different things. I prefer the knowing.

_{[ There's a quirk of his lips at that, hearing it even if she did not say it. ]}

Why, my dear Highness, I am the leading man! Every adventure needs its leading man, and Vaan isn't quite ready for that roll I'm afraid.

[earls_pawn]

Any group without a head is a chicken without wings. I do hope your mun listens, though it never really seems to help.

[elementoftreachery]

Alas, no. She is rather set on it and a bit to easily swayed by the words of others, I fear. My prospects are looking rather grim.

[earls_pawn]

As are mine. Are you to be alone of those you know when you arrive at that cursed place?

[elementoftreachery]

I would assume so. As of yet I have not discerned any excitement over my interacting with my fellows once more. You're cast to similar fate?

[fatedcircle]

Protests don't usually help.

[elementoftreachery]

Believe me, I know - neither with her or my intrepid little group. Being the reasonable one seems to be a bit harder than I expected.

[fatedcircle]

(It never is.)

I've noticed.

[elementoftreachery]

It worked out quite well when it was just Fran and myself, but you throw in a princess, a traitor, and two urchins and suddenly it counts for nothing.

[snitchings]

[ Someone has daddy issues. It's okay, Balthier. So does everyone she's at, she's like 90% certain. ]

A leading man, hmm? What are your talents? Triple-threat?

[elementoftreachery]

_{[ Daddy issues? Please. It's like herding cats. It is more like frustrated owner issues. Or really, issues with getting tangled up in this mess when all he wanted was to rob the Palace treasury. ]}

Dashing, charming, and I have my own air-ship. What more do you need in a leading man?

[snitchings]

That really is a triple-threat.

[ YOU'VE GOT A NICKNAME IF YOU EVER HEAD OVER TO SAID GAME. ]

Air-ship, huh? Ever need a gunner?

[elementoftreachery]

It's never quite come up, but one never knows in my line of work.

_{[ So not a no, but not a yes. It's always just been him and Fran, you know, but lately it has been a +4 kind of crowd. Maybe he'll miss it once they part ways. ]}

Though admittedly it has of late.

[nottheonlyend]

And where is it that the leading man shall be starring, if his mun gets their wish.

[elementoftreachery]

_{[ Oh Fran, he is going to miss you so, you have no idea. ]}

It is a place known as Sanctum, though I think the name is misnomer.

[nottheonlyend]

Known that name is, although in name only.

[piratebooty]

These Mundane, they enjoy their games.

[ Something could be said about the psychological foreplay of dangling a person over a potential home/prison, however one wants to see it. But like many things, she leaves it implied. ]

[elementoftreachery]

_{[ Oh, he knows. By know, he reads very well between the lines of Fran's few words. ]}

One could almost say they are worse than the Imperial Senate, or even my father.

[piratebooty]

[ A comparison to those, especially the latter, really does say something. ]

Except the Mundane dictate your fate.

[ Which is something neither of them are known to enjoy. ]

[little_lost_lizard]

"Ssurgeriess"? Iss that what they're calling it? I wass under the impresssion that that generally involved fixing thingss.

[Have a blue lizard girl with an expression of what might charitably be called severe distaste. She'd be wrinkling her nose if she had one.]

Ssome people are jusst far too eager to sslice people open and rummage about their innardss.

[elementoftreachery]

Well, I hope that's not what they're doing during whatever it is they do, but I suppose they'll have to get a peak. Enough to make a man blush.

_{[ He might have been more askance at her appearance, but there's a host of odd creatures in his world, including some lizard folk - even one that wants his pretty head. ]}

[little_lost_lizard]

[Well, Ssil's pretty clearly not a bangaa, at least. Being pretty clearly not familiar things is her whole problem, really. She continues to hiss when she speaks, but her mun doubts it's much less annoying to read than to write, so feel free to imagine it.]

I certainly hope my mun has no plans to send me there. As you said, if I enjoyed such company I could always go back to the Institute.

Besides, they'd be relying on Myrtle to make the ship fly. And that is a disaster waiting to happen.