Sine Qua Non

The Prologue: Warnings from the Weaver

When a story-teller begins a story, he or she cannot forcefully stop the listener from staying. The listener, or reader in this case, has absolute freedom to hear or read the parts they choose, and to leave at any point. That is why most story-tellers start their stories with a captivating description of some location or some character, or sometimes a witty remark, or even a philosophical remark, if they are confident enough.

This story starts out miserably.

It starts with four boys huddled together in the airship hold, breathing heavily. Above them, footsteps echoed off of the metal grating.

They are not kidnapped for some extravagant ransom, nor are they slaves fearing a cruel whip. In their minds, perhaps they are daring adventurers, searching for the dragon and damsel- however, that will be much later. Right now, they are merely stowaways, penniless and hopelessly lost.

They are your typical twenty-somethings, with the exception of the seventeen-year old Sydney, currently scrunched between Julian, twenty, and Martin, twenty-one. Behind Julian, wide-eyed and unusually quiet, is the usually brash and loud Jay, twenty-two. If this was a play, the lights would brighten about now. As it is, they are still in a dark, musty hold, trying to keep their breathing silent. Sweat drips down their backs. This is the beginning of a story which is sometimes dark and oppressive, like its beginning, and other times harshly bright.

Do not expect a romance story.

Do not expect a heroic, moralistic story.

It is about survival, overcoming everything for survival, and then understanding that all they ever needed was right in their hands. It's tragic, it's helplessly naïve at times, and it's written by someone who has had no near-death harrowing experiences like the ones described here. Everything is most likely a few times less realistic than it could be, but ever since story-telling began, the tales have always been rewoven in different patterns, using the same worn scraps.

My story uses my own scraps (very few), those given out freely by others, and some that have been “borrowed”. I don't worry about the last since, after all, I don't expect to make money off of this.

Just to give credit where credit is due, though- Thank you to KAT-TUN for providing me my mental actors (Kamenashi Kazuya as Julian, Nakamaru Yuichi as Martin, and Akanishi Jin as Jay. Best cast I could imagine.), and thank you to Square Enix for the wonderful setting of FFXII, some of which I have temporarily “borrowed” for this story. The title is from the dictionary on the Reference website.

However, I can boast that the weaving itself is wholly my own. And Sydney is mine. You can't have him.

Now that I have either confused you, bored you, informed you, and/or amused you (hopefully the latter two), you have your choice whether or not to read on. Either way, I am only the story-teller. You are the reader, my listener.

Leave or stay.