arcanarum | 004 ⚜ Video ⚜ A new enterprise

Allo, tout le monde~!

[Francis beams to everyone paying attention on their compacts. He seems to be standing against the wall of his room, if the dungeon motif behind him is any indication. And he also seems to be wearing not only modern-day clothing, but colorful clothing, not something which would be allowed by the town's tailor for such a dark figure as the Phantom.]

You must have noticed my fabulous clothes, non? Would you believe they are handmade by none other than myself? [He lets out a bit of a chuckle.] Oui, oui, shocking, I know. I have been experimenting quite a bit with what and what we cannot summon with our imaginations. It turns out, while you cannot summon your clothes from back home - because it will disappear as soon as it appears - you can obtain the fabric and thread and the like, and make your clothes from your world this way.

This is where I come in, Mesdames et Messieurs. I will offer my services as a remarkable tailor - and as long as you can provide me with enough of a description of what you'd like, so that I may draw it out for you, then I will make it for you! Of course, this cannot happen for free. All I want in return are some of those little gold coins we all were given on our arrival. One coin per hour of work, that is all that I ask! Of course, bigger things will take longer, and therefore it is justified, non?

Simply contact me if you are interested. We can talk about it individually, if you would like to know more.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You're not going to tell me you're a master of soufflés next, are you? [A light chuckle.] You seem so passé about the whole thing. Fighting monsters is usually rather fantastical, non? Though I can only imagine it becomes boring after a while.

Ah, no. I have never made a souffle before. _{[ A slight smile curves his lips and he shrugs. ]} It's not so much that it becomes boring as you just... get used to it, and it becomes normal. But I only actually fought them for the past year. Before that I just... saw them, sometimes. _{[ He wants to clear up misconceptions, at least. ]}

Perhaps I can teach you sometime.

[He nods a little.] Still, you are very brave to fight them. We have nothing like this in my world... though Angleterre swears he sees them all the time.

Perhaps you can! I would like that.

_{[Another shrugs as he looks aside.]} Just... did what needed to be done. Besides, they're gone from my world again, now. But... who is Angleterre?

Magnifique~ I would love to!

Ah, Angleterre, this is England. He goes by Arthur, aussi. [And the name Arthur is still so butchered with his natural accent. Sorry, Minato.]

_{[He smiles a little again. And he doesn't mind accents. Although his pronunciation is better as a teenager than it was as a kid, he still has room to improve.

But then the comment about England confuses him.]}

There's someone named England?

Oui. Just as I am "France". Mais, I still go by Francis. [A bit of a smile.] Surely you've seen the man that claims to be called America? He is loud and obnoxious enough, I am sure everyone on this island has heard of him.

You are... France?
I haven't met anyone calling himself America.
[There's a pause as he considers this.]
Maybe he's introduced himself by a different name. But... is it normal where you are from for people to be named for countries? [He obviously hasn't considered the possibility of personifications of countries.]

Alfred Jones, perhaps...?

Et oui, it is. And we are not... exactly countries so much as we are countries. [Yeah. He knows that's gonna break your brain, so he tries to explain further.] We are immortal beings who... well, we are anthropomorphizations. Personifications, if you will. And there is one for each country. I am the one for France.

Oh! Yes. I have met him, then.

[And then he blinks at the explanation, tilting his head a bit as he thinks about it.] I... see. I think. [More blinking. To be fair, he's used to using a supernatural manifestation of his psyche to do battle with manifestations of repressed human emotion and thought and death and whatnot. So as totally weird as it is to learn about anthropomorphic countries, it doesn't really seem like something out of the realm of possibility to him anymore - especially not after having been here for a while as well, anyway.]

That's quite interesting, actually. But -- if you don't mind my asking, are you conscious of the entire country all the time? Or... [He trails off, unsure how to articulate his confusion with how, exactly, this work. Because he'll totally accept that it does work, at least.]

Ah. [A pause.] I'm sorry. He can be... well. My apologies if he was ever off-putting.

We bodily can only be in one place at one time, much like you, mais, we are reported to about the comings and goings of our citizens. And, of course, we have plenty of paperwork involving government business.

No, he was fine. [Except for the wanting to throw Minato up a waterfall to turn him back into a dragon. But well, you can't have everything.]

I -- see. It seems like there would be more paperwork than one person could take care of, if things run for you the way they seem to run for governments back home...

[... sob he knew it.]

Oh, there is plenty of paperwork. That is the one thing I cannot stand about being a nation! Mais, it must be done. I have really no say in the matter. Only my people do.

At least there is no paperwork here?
But that is unfortunate... I have never understood the need for as much paperwork as there is.

[It's always been such a bother with changing schools and whatnot for him. He can only imagine how much worse it must be to deal with a whole country's paperwork.]

At least there is that.

Because, mon cher, voiced contracts can easily be broken. With paper, there is proof. Particularly between countries, that is important.

Hm. ... I suppose that is true.

And a signature feels more binding than a voiced promise.

That is the one problem we have, being nations ourselves. We fight as the beings we are, the identity we have established ourselves... and we fight as nations, the identity our people have established for us.

[A bit of a sheepish smile.] It was certainly interesting fighting together in a war with four other nations, while none of us really got along as people. I did my best to get along with everyone, really I did...

... sometimes no matter how hard you try, you just can't get along, though, unfortunately.

But here are you just yourself...?

Oui, it is a sad truth. Peace is difficult to master, even if the human race, as a whole, has gotten better at it, as of late.

... that, I am not sure about. [A thoughtful frown.]

... little by little, we learn, it seems. ... personally, I hope that the humans in my world can learn to move beyond despair and properly embrace the life we're given...

[But then there's a pause as he regards France curiously, as if waiting for France to elaborate.]

004 ⚜ Video ⚜ A new enterprise

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I swear I never got an email about this tag. Sorry for lateness!

It's okay! No worries ;w; I backtag for ages

<3

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