I'm a Fun Guy, I Promise! (Closed to Flamebird)

[Flamebird]

Lifting a hand and wiping her cheek, she thought of these words once more. Simple, but not easy.

When Rehtul mentioned wanting to meet the ones she felt loyalty towards, Felicity closed her eyes. She thought of him, Shinsou Vaan Osiris. His power, intelligence, leadership, cunning... his kindness to her.

"I was lost." Felicity explained, "I had left my alchemy teacher who just kept getting shadier. I was a wonderer with no family or friend to turn to. I had no goal, no drive."

She smiled, "Then he found me."

Still leaning against the wall, Felicity crossed her legs. As the mirror glistened on the table, she lifted her head and rested it against the wall. Still smiling, still crying, she gazed up at the roof in thought.

"General Osiris took me in, gave me a new home with a new place. I have responsibility now. General of the Brotherhood. Protector of Whitevale. It's a title I carry with honor..."

The more proper, tight clothes told of that. Sure, they were on crooked. Sure, they were wrinkled. Sure, Felicity's face was puffy from crying and her hair was loose and tangled. Yet, it was obvious from the attire she wore that she took her job seriously. Or at least tried to...

Rehtul's previous words about moving on sparked in her mind again. "Simple, huh? Moving on? I have a real purpose and responsibility now.." She scoffed. She looked down at her hands, crumpled and limp in her lap. "Some days, I do great leading patrols and helping reassure the people of Whitevale. Other days, all I can think of is the family I lost or the old mentor who..."

She grimaced at the memories. One finger twitched, but that was all. The physical sensations some days were something else. "It's definitely not easy. Not when they were the ones who made you who you are... But..."

Determination fluttered in her chest. A hopeful, small glimmer of light in the gloom. She looked up at Rehtul with all the passion and zeal in the world. "I will protect Shinsou Vaan Osiris with my life. He picked me up, gave me a purpose. I owe him everything now. He's the only family I have left..."

[Rehtul Orlouge]

Rehtul listened and nodded through most of what she said. When her eyes lit up, however, he found himself unable to move, even so much as a movement of his eyes. He had rarely seen anyone talk of another with so much zeal, at least not since the disbandment of the Knights. When she finished, he had to tear his eyes away and stare for a moment at an empty space on the wall.

"Alchemists..." he latched onto one of the first things she said as he tried to order his thoughts about how she talked about this Osiris fellow.

"Alchemists can easily fall into shady activity... they know the most of potions and poisons, after all. They tend to ask whether they can do something rather than if they should..." He was talking more to himself than to her, fighting to put disparate thoughts together into a coherent line of thought.

Rehtul drew a line with his finger in the air. A shimmering mist formed in the air, drawn from the moisture in the air.

"You've actually found someone you want to follow, with all your heart, someone to protect," he chuckled, though there was a slight tinge of remorse in his voice.

"I'm actually quite happy for you. It's something everyone needs, a cause to fight for." As the last few words left his mouth, Rehtul tensed up visibly, and the hair on the back of his neck began to stand on end as his eyes dilated and the temperature in the room dropped noticably.

"I have my own goal, though I doubt it's as... commendable as yours," he said, his voice little more than a growling whisper. He clenched a fist and forced himself to calm down.

"Still, I'd like to meet this man, if possible."