Chapter Text
For my entire life, I’d always craved adventure. I remember in my childhood years the escapades made into the woods behind my house that stretched on until the sky was a brilliant crimson, and the days where I’d do nothing but lay in the soft mowed grass under an oak I’d climbed countless times and study from my plethora of guidebooks on everything I had fetched from the community library that would help me and my future career, though I wouldn’t call it so with such love for the subject.
My parents never supported me, especially on that front. They’d called it a “child’s delirium” amongst them and their friends, and when they’d address me about my future I could hear a harshly sympathetic tone and softened eyes, as if they were talking to a hurt animal. Instead of being an aspiring adventurer, I was just known as their little boy with impossible daydreams, ones that would be swept away like the catching seeds of a dandelion against a soft breeze.
We grew further apart as time grew on, and, during my teen years, I finally stopped calling myself that boy from before that they always knew me as. A great rift was driven between us, and in that moment did I truly realize they didn’t have my best interests in mind. Eventually it became far too much to bear being around them. I decided to leave as soon as I could support myself living alone, and head to the one place that I knew would be best for me and my aspirations: Swarleid, or, as it was known by every person who was familiar with it, Abyss World. Thus, shortly after my seventeenth birthday, I went on my lonesome to pursue my dreams.
Leader listened casually as I retold my story, and would occasionally stop to swirl around the remnants of a frappé with a plastic straw, though never lifting it to their lips. After I'd finished, they popped off the lid and chugged the entire thing before setting down the cup with one hand and wiping off their mouth with the other. Then, they raised an eyebrow at me, adopting a more serious look as they spoke.
"So that's why you wanna join our team, eh?"
"Yes..."
Twirling one of their dreads with a dandelion-yellow finger, they were seemingly locked in deep thought.
"We're good friends and all, but you sure? Just- " I flash them a hurt look- "the other folks and I have been together for all our lives, it'd be real awkward if you're gonna join now..."
Clasping my hands together, I let my head hang low as I beg, "Please. I don't know who else I'd talk to for this opportunity, and you're the only person I really know around here."
"Well if you're comfortable with it then sure. Just a warning is all." I give Leader a warm grin and a confirming nod.