application: isle of avalon

[theleadingman]

Player Information

Name: Christine
Contact Information: myyahelle@gmail.com, PM theleadingman on DW
Characters Currently Played In-Game: Jade (Dragon Quest XI)

Basic Character Information

Canon Name: Final Fantasy XII
Name: Balthier (Ffamran mied Bunansa)
Age: 23 as of current canon point.
Canon Point: End of FFXII, just before the epilogue.
Canon Information: Balthier @ the Final Fantasy Wiki
CRAU Designation: No

In-Game Information

Familiar Choice: Moogle; he keeps a bunch of them as his ship crew at home so he has a not-so-subtle fondness for them.
Magic Choice: Alchemy
Inventory:

• Fomalhaut with ammunition.
  
• Kanya.
  
• A small, portable toolkit for working with small parts.
  
• A pair of silver wire-rimmed glasses.
  
• Princess Ashe's wedding ring, which he took as collateral.

Play

Thread Sample: here

Q1: You've been stranded on a desert island with only one standard-size travel suitcase. If you could only have 3 items in that suitcase, what would you want those items to be and why?
A change of clothes, a razor, and my toolkit. Even with the most basic items within it, the latter can be used to solve a myriad of problems if you know how to use it properly. As for the rest— well, just because it's a desert island is no reason not to look one's best. You never know who might come to your rescue, should you be unable to escape on your own.

[If he can't charm or engineer his way out of a particular problem, he hasn't come across it yet. It's only a matter of time, of course.]

Q2: Tell us about a defining event in your life that you think influenced who you are today.
I'd rather not.

[But of course, the incident in question comes to mind immediately— it's never far from his thoughts, no matter how many years he's spent trying to put it behind him, no matter the lengths he's gone to in order to keep the truth from those he now considered to be friends. His father's descent into madness had been no quick thing; it had been a slow and excruciating process, painful to watch and beyond frustrating as he had slipped further and further beyond his son's grasp, but it was being reduced to a bargaining chip in a bid for power that had finally made him snap.

It was then, upon being made a Judge in service of the empire so that his father might have greater access to resources for his mad experiments, that Ffamran had ceased to be and he had started to plan a new life for himself, away from the Empire and his father's all-consuming obsession. Balthier was born sometime after, once he had made his escape, determined to leave his old life behind him and never look back. That hadn't worked, of course; all roads lead him back to Archades, but who he was had certainly changed. Once a studious, dutiful son, a prodigy in academics and engineering— now a pirate with an ever-growing bounty on his head. Two entirely different lives, indeed.]

Q3: What does family mean to you and who do you consider a part of your family?
Blood means little in the long run. There are those who will tell you that family ought to be people you can trust, regardless of circumstance, but one can never truly know the mind of another.

[His own experience with family has been fraught at best, relationships that have been tested and pushed beyond limits time and again, and in the end, there was nothing to show for it. Now, when family comes to mind, it's Fran he thinks of, though saying such a thing outright has never been his style. Fortunately, he's never needed to— they have an understanding.]

Family are those you trust implicitly, even if it means choosing them for yourself. If you're fortunate enough to find such a soul, let them know.

Q4: Tell me about a time you were involved in a personal conflict (not a physical fight). What would you do differently to resolve it?
Most conflicts have worked out in my favor so far.

[Well. That's not entirely true, but he has a great deal of difficulty being honest with himself at times, let alone others.]

I find most situations can be talked through quite easily, if you know what to say. Those that can't— well, perhaps I might have tried a different approach to some, but the beautiful thing about being a sky pirate is that if the weather doesn't suit you, you have the freedom to simply disappear.

[It's not running away if nobody gives chase, is it?]

Q5: Do you have any regrets? If so, what are the biggest ones? If not, what is something you wish you had gotten to do back home?
I try not to make a habit of holding onto regrets. There's no changing the past; wishing you could does little good for anyone.

[Better to leave what's past behind and look ahead. Even if the past catches up from time to time, there's nothing to be done about decisions that have already been made. All anyone can control is how they deal with such things moving forward.]

As for what I might have done back home, it would have been nice to have the opportunity to properly say goodbye to a few people— if only for the opportunity of making a dramatic entrance following my long but unavoidable absence even before coming to Avalon. I wouldn't have stayed long, with as many corners of Ivalice as there are that remain unexplored, but the last time we saw one another lacked a certain degree closure.

[Some of his friends might think he's dead, is what he means, but it's too garish to say so bluntly.]

That said, I'm not convinced that opportunity is entirely passed. There's no telling what's ahead.