Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy XII or any of its characters, and I'm not making any money from this.
The Entite
Penelo knew it was a terrible idea from the moment that troublesome gleam entered Vaan's eyes. Nothing good ever came from that look. He pointed at the orb of flames floating around the derelict oil platforms. "What in Ivalice is that thing?" he asked.
"An entite." Fran replied tersely. She was quite tired of answering his inane questions. Penelo looked at her curiously in hopes that she'd explain further. "It's a powerful elemental being created by the gods to rule over its respective element. They only appear when the weather is to their liking. This one is a fire elemental, which makes it weak against water." Fran explained. The other party members appeared marginally interested, but looked eager to move on.
"I'll bet it has some fantastic loot." Vaan declared. The troublesome gleam became more pronounced.
"'Twould be suicide to attack such a strong being as we are now. It wields high level magicks strong enough to wipe out our whole party and we can ill afford to waste time battling it." Fran scolded.
"Fran's right, Vaan. Leave it alone. We don't have time for this." Penelo pleaded.
"I didn't want to fight it." Vaan insisted. "I just wanted to steal from it." He clarified, as though that made things better. "I bet the stuff it has is worth a ton of gil, and we're hurting in that department lately." He had a point there, Penelo had to admit.
"Your funeral." Balthier quipped, not making any effort to stop Vaan. Penelo glared at him, then searched the faces of the other party members. None of them seemed overly concerned about Vaan potentially barbequing himself in a robbery attempt. No one was going to back her up.
Penelo had hoped that Basch would attempt to reason with her impulsive friend. The older man was standing off to the side with Vossler looking like he couldn't decide whether to be amused or worried. At that point Penelo gave up all hope of dissuading Vaan from his dangerous plan. She'd never had much luck using reason with Vaan in the past, so she decided that it was futile.
She hadn't expected much from Balthier. If anything, he seemed to be making Vaan worse. Basch, on the other hand, disappointed her. Vaan seemed to actually respect him and might listen to his counsel if he offered any. She didn't know Vossler well enough to know what to expect from him. The princess generally ignored Vaan's silliness and didn't seem to care what he was doing now.
"Here Vaan, at least take this. You know this is a terrible idea." Penelo said, holding out the manufactured nethicite that Larsa gave her. If she couldn't stop him, she could at least try to keep him from being seriously injured or killed. "It should protect you from its magicks." Vaan placated her by equipping the accessory.
"Thanks, Penelo" Vaan said with a winning smile as he turned to observe his target for another moment before making his attempt.
The rest of the party stood together on one of the many bridges connecting the oil platforms as Vaan dashed toward the entite. Penelo readied her healing magicks, which her friend would almost definitely need after this foolish effort.
When he reached the great ball of flames, Vaan quickly thrust his hand inside, grabbed something, and yanked it out. He made a hasty retreat, just not quite hasty enough. The entite was none too pleased about being robbed and scorched him with a powerful fire spell, the worst of which Larsa's gift absorbed. Vaan raced back toward the rest of the group with the angry orb of fire hot on his heels.
Everyone came to the same conclusion at the same time. As one, the rest of the party fled. They didn't stop until they reached the platform at the far end of the bridge. The entite gave up its pursuit of Vaan at some point along the way.
"Of all the stupid ideas!" Vossler exclaimed. "You nearly got us all killed!" The knight was obviously infuriated that Vaan had endangered Ashe and the rest of them for such a silly reason. He proceeded to give Vaan a piece of his mind. Balthier joined in, lecturing Vaan on how he shouldn't steal from foes stronger than himself.
Penelo had to agree that Vaan had been stupid to rob the entite, but the loyal part of her demanded that she stick up for her friend. "Hey, neither of you tried to stop him before he did it. So you can't say much now." Both men shut up at that. Penelo turned to cast a cure spell on Vaan, who handed Larsa's gift back to her.
"Thanks, Penelo. This really saved my skin. Check out what I got, though!" He opened his other hand to reveal a gleaming orange crystal. It looked similar to the fire magicite she'd seen at the bazaar, only better.
She noted his scorched hands and focused another cure spell on them. "Looks nice Vaan, but was it really worth it?"
"Hey, no pain, no gain." He laughed.
She sighed. Boys were impossible. It looked like he hadn't even learned a lesson from the experience. He'd probably do it again given half a chance.
Ashe seemed to be taking all the drama fairly well. She came over and winked at the two of them. "Well, Vaan, it would seem that you've performed a miracle." She remarked, gesturing toward Vossler and Balthier who were still standing together griping about Vaan's foolishness. "This is the first time I've ever seen those two agree about something."