Entrance fit for the Leading Man [Larsa]

[Balthier]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,450px,true][atrb=cellspacing,0px,true][atrb=style, width: 450px; background: url(http://i52.tinypic.com/otj5sn.jpg); background-color: #FFB000; border-top-left-radius: 50px; -moz-border-radius-topleft: 50px; border-top-right-radius: 50px; -moz-border-radius-topright: 50px; border-bottom-left-radius: 50px; -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 50px; border-bottom-right-radius: 50px; -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 50px; padding: 10px, bTable] [style=display: inline-block; background: url(http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x48/strawberrysplash376/con_balthier01.jpg); opacity: 0.7; border-top-left-radius: 25px; -moz-border-radius-topleft: 25px; height: 100px; width: 100px;] [/style] [style=display: inline-block; background: url(http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x48/strawberrysplash376/con_balthier01.jpg); opacity: 0.8; height: 100px; width: 100px;] [/style] [style=display: inline-block; background: url(http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x48/strawberrysplash376/con_balthier01.jpg); opacity: 0.9; height: 100px; width: 100px;] [/style] [style=display: inline-block; background: url(http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x48/strawberrysplash376/con_balthier01.jpg); opacity: 1; border-top-right-radius: 25px; -moz-border-radius-topright: 25px; height: 100px; width: 100px;] [/style] [style=background-color: #D1D1D1; color: #FFBB00; font-family: arial black; font-size: 30px; letter-spacing: -3px; text-transform: uppercase; text-align: center; opacity: 1; width: 412px; line-height: 24px; margin-top: -3px; text-shadow: #000000 1px 1px 1px;] ( A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR ME ) [/style][style=background-color: #FFC000; color: #4a4a4a; font-family: arial; font-size: 9px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 7px; text-transform: lowercase; text-align: justify; opacity: 1; width: 262px; padding-left: 100px; padding-right: 50px;] ( this captain goes down with the ship, all hands on deck, stand hip-to-hip. i shout the orders, "shoot to kill!" i'm dressed to thrill, i'm dressed to thrill. and all my enemies, i want their eyes to see their captain walk the plank, destroy them, rank by rank )[/style] [style=background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #4a4a4a; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 11px; text-transform: none; text-align: justify; opacity: 1; width: 392px; margin-top: -12px; padding: 10px; border-top: 10px solid #D1D1D1;] 'Vaan...I told you to keep her until I get back, not leave her here.' Balthier thought, looking through the corner of his eye at his ship, nicely guarded by Head Hunters. 'Look at the mess you've got me in.' He would give Vaan a nice lecture about this. He awoke up without his partner, Fran, either. This day was not going so well for the Sky Pirate. The Head Hunters decided to call in their little search for Balthier, knowing the ship wasn't going anywhere. Well, they were wrong. One stayed back while the others left. But Balthier was sure he could slip by the Head Hunter. He had done it before, after all. With the lightning of the day at his side, Balthier moved, slowly, out of the eyesight of the Head Hunter. When he next moved, he would be at the Strahl's side. 'Dust? Vaan...' He would really be in for a lecture if he ever were to catch even a hair of his head. This was the last time he entrusted anyone's care to the Strahl. Balthier slipped in the airship. It was slightly stuffy, as if it had been sitting here for months without an owner, which was strange. Vaan wasn't the type to leave his airship here, collecting dust, for months on end. 'At least there was nary a scratch on her.' Instantly Balthier stopped his movements, realizing that the Head Hunters were back; he didn't need eyes to see them nor ears to hear them. Their stench was horrid, after all. It was time for a getaway plan, it seemed. 'What luck.' He remembered the device installed in the Strahl quite clearly. The voice changer. It had saved him a couple of times. It was time. "This is Larsa Ferrinas Solidor. I order all men back to the castle." It was simple, and caught the attention of the guards, but mostly, the Head Hunters. They were in shock that the voice came so suddenly. At least he was better than Vaan. With that, he turned on the invisibility while they were distracted as the Strahl simply 'disappeared' from the hanger. When the head Hunters finally turned around and saw no airship, they looked around in a frenzy. 'Balthier! He is back!' One of them spoke in his raspy voice. 'He fled on his airship! How?!' Another enraged. But either way, they both saw no need to stick around as they started to run off. However, Balthier was smart enough not fly immediately; the noise an airship made wasn't as silent as he'd like for a scott-free getaway, but it was enough. Though, as he waited, he wouldn't get the chance to leave. For, in fact, he'd meet an old acquaintance of his. One he pinned to a wall but an acquiescence nevertheless. No matter. Balthier waited. [/style][style=background-color: #FFBB00; color: #4a4a4a; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 11px; text-transform: none; text-align: justify; opacity: 1; width: 392px; margin-top: -12px; padding: 10px; border-top: 10px solid #D1D1D1; border-bottom-left-radius: 25px; -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 25px; border-bottom-right-radius: 25px; -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 25px;] TAGS :: Larsa LYRICS :: rum is for drinking, not for burning by senses fail. NOTES :: Testing out Template. [/style]

[style=font-family: arial; font-size: 9px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 7px; text-transform: lowercase; text-align: center; margin-top: -10px;]( post template made by DARKEE of ON THE EDGE ! )[/style]

[Larsa Ferrinas Solidor]

When a certain blue-haired man expressed confusion at "how quickly he'd gotten over here", Larsa was faster than most at connecting the dots. The Strahl's voice morpher... Could it be?

Balthier is alive?

He had not reappeared after the fall of the Bahamut, despite his leading man tendencies and beliefs. Neither had Fran, for that matter - all believed them to be dead, having sacrificed themselves to restore the Bahamut's glossair rings to buy it just enough power to pass over Rabanastre and crash beside her. Thereby saving the lives of the millions of residents within the capital of Dalmasca... at the price of their own.

Or so it had seemed.

The Strahl had come to rest in Archadian hangars, surrounded by legions of head hunters that never seemed to leave when told to (both the profession and the insult to the man's memory disgusted the Emperor; Balthier was much, much more than a criminal) and soldiers to keep them at bay and guard the ship from thieving eyes. It was, after all, one of a kind.

And that technology seemed to be, as well. To so readily parrot a voice upon mere admittance to the airship - he had heard the tale of Vaan impersonating his own voice, and Larsa could not decide whether to be flattered or slightly amused at his ineptness at imitating a highborn.

But Marquis Ondore seemed to believe them, and that was the point, after all; or he just searched for an excuse to let the able group of six storm the Bahamut without seeming a pushover.

Reminisce and nostalgia ran through his thoughts as he quickly crossed to the hangar wing of the palace, observing the suspicious lack of people - and lack of the Strahl.

All of the head hunters had gone, and the soldiers with them, because the ship was no longer there.

Though the Solidor heir was not such a gullible boy so as to fall quite so easily for the trick. How he knew it was a trick, call it a flare of instinct, or an express knowledge of the features of the airship that belonged to the most notorious sky pirate to ever fly. Or perhaps it was the telltale shimmer, as if evaporating water, that showed itself in the air if one looked carefully enough.

He drew closer, the slightest quirk of a smile presenting itself on his countenance, somewhat of a fond memory that was connected to the ex-Judge echoing in his mind.

Close enough to the cloaked ship now that he may touch it, if he reached. Confident that the pilot would hear him, Larsa spoke.

"You are still here. Sky pirates fly, do they not, Balthier?"

[Balthier]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,450px,true][atrb=cellspacing,0px,true][atrb=style, width: 450px; background: url(http://i52.tinypic.com/otj5sn.jpg); background-color: #FFB000; border-top-left-radius: 50px; -moz-border-radius-topleft: 50px; border-top-right-radius: 50px; -moz-border-radius-topright: 50px; border-bottom-left-radius: 50px; -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 50px; border-bottom-right-radius: 50px; -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 50px; padding: 10px, bTable] [style=display: inline-block; background: url(http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x48/strawberrysplash376/con_balthier01.jpg); opacity: 0.7; border-top-left-radius: 25px; -moz-border-radius-topleft: 25px; height: 100px; width: 100px;] [/style] [style=display: inline-block; background: url(http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x48/strawberrysplash376/con_balthier01.jpg); opacity: 0.8; height: 100px; width: 100px;] [/style] [style=display: inline-block; background: url(http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x48/strawberrysplash376/con_balthier01.jpg); opacity: 0.9; height: 100px; width: 100px;] [/style] [style=display: inline-block; background: url(http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x48/strawberrysplash376/con_balthier01.jpg); opacity: 1; border-top-right-radius: 25px; -moz-border-radius-topright: 25px; height: 100px; width: 100px;] [/style] [style=background-color: #D1D1D1; color: #FFBB00; font-family: arial black; font-size: 30px; letter-spacing: -3px; text-transform: uppercase; text-align: center; opacity: 1; width: 412px; line-height: 24px; margin-top: -3px; text-shadow: #000000 1px 1px 1px;] ( A PIRATE'S LIFE FOR ME ) [/style][style=background-color: #FFC000; color: #4a4a4a; font-family: arial; font-size: 9px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 7px; text-transform: lowercase; text-align: justify; opacity: 1; width: 262px; padding-left: 100px; padding-right: 50px;] ( this captain goes down with the ship, all hands on deck, stand hip-to-hip. i shout the orders, "shoot to kill!" i'm dressed to thrill, i'm dressed to thrill. and all my enemies, i want their eyes to see their captain walk the plank, destroy them, rank by rank )[/style] [style=background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #4a4a4a; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 11px; text-transform: none; text-align: justify; opacity: 1; width: 392px; margin-top: -12px; padding: 10px; border-top: 10px solid #D1D1D1;] Balthier couldn't help but be amused. Larsa had seriously questioned the man about flight? "Indeed they do. But where's the freedom when one is being pursued by Head Hunters? I'd rather hold my flight than have a run-in with them." So he had waited until they were gone - but Larsa was even quicker than that, halting his flight. "But it is in good fortune that I didn't fly right away. I bring you news, though I fear it would bear ill towards you." Ah yes, his encounter with Amalia. "As you know, the Lady Ashe - Queen I should say - has been rightfully given her throne back, correct?" Baltheir obviously knew these things; he was preparing Larsa for his news. "To the Queen now, the Lady Ashe has taken her life and that Archades is once more the enemy. She is now Amalia, head of the Resistance of Archades." Hopefully this would be familiar to Larsa. He knew about Ashe wanting to crush the Empire in revenge for her fallen Dalmasca. So yes, Balthier was actually telling him Ashe lost her memories as Queen. She was now the Resistance leader - and also...enemy of Larsa. [/style][style=background-color: #FFBB00; color: #4a4a4a; font-family: arial; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 11px; text-transform: none; text-align: justify; opacity: 1; width: 392px; margin-top: -12px; padding: 10px; border-top: 10px solid #D1D1D1; border-bottom-left-radius: 25px; -moz-border-radius-bottomleft: 25px; border-bottom-right-radius: 25px; -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 25px;] TAGS :: Larsa LYRICS :: rum is for drinking, not for burning by senses fail. NOTES :: HE BROKE THE NEWS. [/style]

[style=font-family: arial; font-size: 9px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 7px; text-transform: lowercase; text-align: center; margin-top: -10px;]( post template made by DARKEE of ON THE EDGE ! )[/style]

[Larsa Ferrinas Solidor]

"To the Queen now, the Lady Ashe has taken her life and that Archades is once more the enemy. She is now Amalia, head of the Resistance of Archades."

To describe Larsa's current expression, it would be silent, but quite possibly the closest the young lord would ever get to unadulterated, abject horror. Lady Ashe-

"She is ill?" he asked carefully, gaze diverted to his shoes. "... and that Archades is once more the enemy." The statement left a hollow feeling in his chest, grief for a woman he looked up to greatly. She was too strong, too proud, and had suffered too much for this to happen now.

But there was little he could do. He was her enemy, in her mind. Perhaps she would come to kill him? She did hold a post as leader of the Resistance, after all.

"Insurgence," he corrected himself aloud. Perhaps months ago he had done the proper thing and given it its true name - a Resistance against the Empire's unjust rule. Perhaps he had come to side more with the righteous band of six than his own family.

But now, there was no Resistance. No rule to rebel. And the warrior princess who had sacrificed her title and life for her country now was none of those things - only a delusional pseudo-nationalist.

It was cruel, but true. Until such a time as the true Lady Ashe returned, it would do little to protect his own life, his citizens, and his country to persist in giving unnecessary militants the moral high ground. He knew of what acts the Resistance had committed under the flag of freedom, a type of "end-justifies-the-means" philosophy that had been the lesser of two evils when compared to Vayne and the Empire. But truly, now, was the Empire evil? Was he evil?

Until such a time when Lady Ashe - no, Amalia - could answer that for herself, he would defend his country. If that entailed seeing the woman as a national and personal enemy... then so be it.

"What will you do?" he asked of Balthier, reaching out and placing one single gloved hand on the invisible hull of the Strahl, as if reassuring himself that it was still there. "Balthier."