"Hey, Arthur."
Said man's body noticeably winced upon recognizing Ananias' voice before reluctantly turning toward him, an uneasy grin plastered onto his face. "Ah," he let out a nervous laugh, "Ananias. How goes things? Did you, um, perform any recent acts of justice lately?"
Ananias shook his head. "Nah. For the most part, it's been a pretty slow day. But enough about me. What about you?"
"Er, um, what about me?"
"You know. Those good luck charms Lady Elise and I gave you. Did they work? Did your luck get any better?"
"Ah! Yes, well... perhaps." Arthur frowned. "Unfortunately, I haven't the faintest idea of whether your lucky charms worked or not!"
Ananias' eyes widened in surprise. "B-But how is that even possible? Shouldn't it be obvious?"
"Yes," Arthur admitted, folding his arms and giving Ananias a thoughtful nod, "in theory, it should be. However, I regret to report that many unfortunate instances got in the way of that."
"And just what exactly do you mean by, 'unfortunate instances'?" Ananias cautiously asked.
"Well," Arthur began, "the first lucky charm that I wore was the one that was shaped like the letter 'L' -"
"That's probably because it was supposed to be shaped like the number seven," Ananias embarrassingly murmured.
"And, at first, everything seemed just fine... until I decided to help a poor little girl fetch her poor little kitten from up a tree!"
Ananias frowned. "Did something go wrong?"
Arthur nodded sadly. "Yes! You see, after I succeeded in getting the little girl's kitten down that tree, I realized that the lucky charm somehow got caught onto one of the branches!"
Ananias uncomfortably cringed at the thought of what he assumed had happened next. "Um, you didn't climb back up to go and get it, did you?"
"Well, of course I did!" Arthur matter-of-factly said, earning him a weary sigh from his fellow retainer. "After all of the hard work that you and Lady Elise put into making them, how could I not? It would've been an injustice otherwise!" He then frowned. "But unfortunately, once I had found it, a crow managed to grab it and fly away. And it was at that moment that the branch that I was on gave out and I came crashing down onto the ground."
"Oh, gods," Ananias said.
"Ah, but don't worry about me, my friend! I am a sprightly fellow, after all! One fall from a tree could never keep a hero like me down!"
"That's not what I'm really worried about."
"Ah, yes. You wish to know about what happened to the other lucky charms, don't you?"
"A bit, but if I were to guess, I'd say that something about the same happened with each and every one of them?"
Arthur nodded his head shamefully. "Yes. One got stolen by a pickpocket and before I could catch him, I tripped and tumbled into a fountain. I lost another one hunting for food, but before I could find it, I ended up being caught in a trap that I, myself, had laid! Another was lost when I went to train in the mountains, but before I could find it, I was caught in the middle of a rain storm and was struck by a bolt of lightning! And yet another was lost when I went into town on horseback, and before I could start my search for it, something had spooked the horse so much that it flung me off and I landed onto the back of a wagon, which then rode itself into the marketplace where we made an absolute mess of the place!"
"Okay, you... you can stop there," Ananias said, raising a hand up for good measure. He then pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "So you lost all of them, huh?"
Arthur nodded. "Yes, even the box."
"Man, when you said not to get my hopes up, you really meant it, didn't you? That bad luck of yours... it's quite resilient, isn't it?"
"Yes, but if it is any consolation, nothing terribly unlucky happened to me before I lost your charms, so perhaps they worked after all!"
Ananias shook his head. "There's no point in that if they just end up getting lost." He held his chin and thought for a moment. "Hmm. Maybe we need a more durable approach."
Arthur's eyes widened in surprise. "What? You mean, you aren't going to give up just yet?"
"Of course not," Ananias nonchalantly replied. "What kind of friend would I be if I just gave up on the first try?"
Arthur let out a hearty laugh. "Well, you are certainly persistent, I'll give you that!"
Author's Note #1: The next supports will be Silas, followed by Leo, Keaton, and Subaki.
Author's Note #2: The Fire Emblem Warriors poll is up on my profile! Vote for which five characters you want for Ananias to support with from that game the most and, in the end, ten characters will be selected for Ananias to support with, so make your voices heard. Happy voting!
Author's Note #3: As Ananias has no real connection to the Three Houses cast and has no real reason to be there anyway, there will be no Three Houses supports for him. I know that an Anna is in Three Houses, but if we went by that logic, Ananias would have to support with every Fire Emblem character that has ever existed, which would be unrealistic to do, at least for one person. If any of you want to do that yourselves, however, then you have my blessing, it's just that I won't be the one doing it. Sorry.
