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AreYouGame Prompt #1
Title: A Delicate Balance
Author/Artist: nal_rene
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Word count: 560
Prompt: Final Fantasy XII, Fran/Balthier: Vulnerability - Where I does not exist, nor you
Summary: The truth of Sky Pirating and it's risks.
A/N: Can you guess who's point of veiw it is? And where did you guess correctly?
Sky pirates are strong and independent. We bow to no one; we obey no laws. That's what everyone says, but who are they to say? How do they know?
They don't. It's all wishful thinking, a childhood dream.
If sky pirates are strong, then how did the head hunters catch us? If sky pirates are independent, then why do I need you? If sky pirates bow to no one, then why do we bow to Ashe and Larsa and Al-Cid? If sky pirates obey no laws, then why do we obey our own laws?
Everyone says that sky pirates are free, but they are wrong. Sky pirates are gulls in a cage, shackled to another gull. It is a gilded cage that pirates choose, but a cage all the same, and there is no freedom in cages.
Of course, it's not hard to escape that cage. Death is the key to the unpick-able lock, and where one gull goes, its mate is soon to follow.
What few understand is the insanity that must posses a person in order for them to choose this life. And what they don't realize is how easy it is to fall out of that cage, to want to fall. The cage floor is so high that you look out and feel power and elation and freedom. But then, you look down and know fear.
Their ship is their home and Sky Pirates cannot afford to be poor homemakers. Everything must be as clean as a whistle and must be fixed as soon as it breaks or else, one day, the ship will fail mid-flight and dash you to pieces when it falls.
The ship is our cage. This life is our cage. Funny, how you hate cages, but love delinquency. You love our ship. You love our cage. I love you. Thus are we shackled, hanging on perilously to the bars of our cage as the door flies open, tempting us into the darkness. If you or I let go for even a moment, the darkness will devour us.
To thrive, a sky pirate must make a world, a partnership, where I does not exist, nor you. It is all about us and no one else can exist. This world is exclusive and lonely. We can trust no one except each other. I couldn't bear to live like this with anyone other than you.
We are strong and independent. We bow to no one save Lady Luck and, our mistress, The Sky. We obey only our own version of the pirate code, that only you and I understand. Everyone says what we want them to say and only we know the truth of it.
They see us a superior when in reality our bellies are eating themselves for lack of substance. They see us as free, but freedom is just an illusion. They see us as invincible, untouchable even, but that is because they do not see the scars or the limp. They think we hold unimaginable riches and they're right, we do, but only for a few moments before the money is used on the ship. They see us as proud and do not see the fear in out eyes or the insecurity in our interactions with them. They see me as charming and you as mysterious.
We would have it no other way.