savetheearth | 04 ✝ [video; laptop computer]

[When the video feed comes on, a very tired looking Francis Fell is sitting at his kitchen table with a steaming cup of tea to his right, pinching the bridge of his nose. The fact that he looks tired is rather significant, considering he lost the need to sleep a long while back. He clears his throat a little, before looking up and gives a bit of a grim smile.]

I had no less than nine long distance phone calls in the past five days from the UK, all from family members worried about my well-being. It started with one of my younger cousins, who happened to catch wind of the chaos here in Locke City via the news. With a family like mine, news travels fast. Aunts, uncles, cousins... Eventually word came down to my parents, and my brother.

[He gives a bitter laugh as he rakes his fingers through his hair, looking obviously stressed out.]

I had two insanely long phone calls today, from my parents, and then my brother's family. They... I can not believe this, but they want me to move out of the city. Honestly the most outlandish of requests came from my parents who want me to move back to England, but my brother...

Do you know how exhausting it is to argue with a man who is way too logical for his own damn good for two hours straight? [His eyes grow wide and he gets an expression of great anger on his face as he gestures in the air.] I love my brother, but he can go to Hell for the dirty things he pulled, for how difficult he's made this for me!! After he couldn't convince me to arrange a transfer to another university, he tried to convince me to move out of Locke City and simply commute to LCU. It makes way too much sense, and under any normal circumstances, I probably would have agreed! But these aren't normal circumstances. I can not leave this city. I would... forget everything. And I can't let that happen. I want to know who I am, who I was, it means everything to me right now to figure that out.

I was able to get him off my back long enough to be able to hang up the phone, but I know I haven't heard the last of it. [Francis presses his palm to his forehead, propping his elbow up against the table, eyes fixed on the wood. It takes him about half a minute before he continues speaking, letting out a hefty sigh.]

Please, do any of you have any suggestions? Have any of you faced the threat of being forced to leave the city yet? How in the world can I convince my family that I can't leave the city, without telling them everything? The very last thing I want is to drag them into this, to put them all in danger. I understand it's a holiday, but I could use the advice...

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What if you told them that, even if its dangerous, you have... duties and stuff that mean you have to stay in the city?

They'd have questions...

Maybe I could convince my parents that I have my reasons, and that those reasons are private, but my brother is a stubborn bastard. He would never let it go. No duty to him could be more important than my own life. I'm not a soldier.

Well, that is a real pickle.

...What if you told him you had a girlfriend then? Would that help?

[Francis can't help himself. He covers his mouth as he bursts into a fit of giggles, which turns into slightly louder laughing that he's attempting to suppress.]

You have no idea how bad of an idea that is... They've been wanting me to get a girlfriend since I was sixteen. They've been harassing me about it since I turned twenty. My mum would demand she come to England with me for Christmas, demand to give her hullos over the phone every weekend, my dad would never stop talking about how to 'properly treat a woman' and ask me how my dates have been going in great detail, my brother would never even believe me, and I would probably get a flood of letters that say 'congratulations' on them from the entire rest of my family.

A lie like that would be exposed in less than a week.

[He rubs his chin in thought.]

Well, I guess that option's a no-go...

Would they react the same way if you told them you had a boyfriend?

Err...

[He had never even thought about that. How would his family react??]

I really don't know. I don't think they would react the same, surely, but I don't know how they would react at all. It really doesn't change the fact that they would discover I was lying rather quickly...

Right! I guess I shouldn't have expected much of a difference...

OOoh! Oooh! What about a pet? Pets are hard to bring into new environments quickly, right?

A... a pet? That's hardly a good excuse, either to keep myself from moving or to deal with the hassle of getting a new pet.

[He's never handled a pet more high maintenance than a goldfish.]

I don't think you realize the full issue at hand. They want me to move out of the city for my own safety. Worrying about not upsetting a cat or a dog or something with a move would mean nothing in the face of making sure I stayed alive.

DEFINITELY a big pickle then.

Well, parents don't usually respect their kid's wishes, but you could probably ask that they try that.

You know, my family is surprisingly accepting of my wishes, it's just my safety they're up in arms over right now...

Honestly I suppose it's not one-hundred percent necessary for me to give them a reason that I want to stay in the city, but keeping a secret from them... could really damage my relationship with them.

[Which seems to be the last thing he wants to do.]

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