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A Conversation
WHO: Abel, Eleven, Emet (And 1 looming Estinien)
WHAT: Meeting across enemy lines
WHERE: The Visionary Shrine
WHEN:ย 5/10, After the New Arrivals
WARNINGS: Attempted Manipulation?
The time has come to meet with a few individuals on the opposing side. Theirย meeting during the chaos that the new arrivals brought had been purposefully brief, spurred by the fighting at the shrines around them. Today they could speak with one another without the added burden of potentially being involved in a squabble. At least, one could hope.
He proceeds to the Visionary Shrine - an easily accessible halfway point between their two territories. It's the most amicable are for such a meeting to take place.
ย
Slipping out of Achamoth with the added commotion of new arrivals is simple enough, while covering the distance between the city and the Shrine is somewhat more difficult. Emet-Selch arrives there while the shrine is still quiet and abandoned. He finds a comfortable bloom of shadows off to the side where he could wait... and carefully observe who approached.ย
Would they be true to their word and entertain speaking to one another? Or would this all have been for nothing?
WHAT: Meeting across enemy lines
WHERE: The Visionary Shrine
WHEN:ย 5/10, After the New Arrivals
WARNINGS: Attempted Manipulation?
The time has come to meet with a few individuals on the opposing side. Theirย meeting during the chaos that the new arrivals brought had been purposefully brief, spurred by the fighting at the shrines around them. Today they could speak with one another without the added burden of potentially being involved in a squabble. At least, one could hope.
He proceeds to the Visionary Shrine - an easily accessible halfway point between their two territories. It's the most amicable are for such a meeting to take place.
ย
Slipping out of Achamoth with the added commotion of new arrivals is simple enough, while covering the distance between the city and the Shrine is somewhat more difficult. Emet-Selch arrives there while the shrine is still quiet and abandoned. He finds a comfortable bloom of shadows off to the side where he could wait... and carefully observe who approached.ย
Would they be true to their word and entertain speaking to one another? Or would this all have been for nothing?
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He's quiet for a moment, and then adds: "...And, I suppose, to bolster my faith in his methods if it turned out to be a success."
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It's a genuine observation, not just because of his biases on the subject. Admittedly, he's felt this way from the start, but it's safe to say that what he's seen here hasn't changed his mind.
"I feel it's unlikely that any of you will simply be talked out of your opinions," he says. "You can debate these matters until your faces are blue and in the end 'twill change nothing. 'Twould be an insult to your convictions to think otherwise."
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If nothing else, he can appreciate such honest assessments of the situation. Asking to speak with the Pleroma is not without the understanding that their ideals could never come to an agreement. There is no compromise to be reached here - one side must succeed and the other would not.
"Although, that point of view does stir my sense of curiosity." Emet-Selch gives the Dragoon a thoughtful look. "Why would you give a Kenoma the option to return with you if you thought they were beyond your reach? Why not crush their shard and be done with it?" Namely, Howl.
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"You and Howl are nothing alike," Estinien says. "I believe in your ability to have chosen this path by its own merits. Howl chose nothing... he was broken."
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"Be that as it may," He begins slowly. "your paths may cross again in the future. Do you intend to let him go a second time, or gamble that he will choose to show you the same courtesy as you have shown him?" Letting Kenoma go and assuring that their ranks keep numbers seems an unwise strategy if they are truly 'beyond help'.
Then again, one could not underestimate the frivolous logic of so-called 'heroes'.
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He'd sensed enough doubt and despair in the man that it felt unlikely that he was entirely in control of himself, but he isn't going to tell Emet-Selch about Howl's fragile loyalties. He'd offered mercy only because he had the luxury of doing so, and because he thought there was a chance it'd be more constructive than the alternative.
"Make no mistake... unlike some of my comrades, I do not intend to prioritize the Kenoma's redemption over the Pleroma's survival. If you intend to scold me for my sentimentality, you've found the wrong man."
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Emet-Selch turns around to look in the direction of the other two who had joined them. The Regent had named their legacies as easy targets, and one had to wonder if the ostensible quality of optimism was true with all who shared it.
"Though I wonder how many of your Pleroma comrades share the same sentiment as you, and how many hold fast to the notion that we are ones to be saved."
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And so, he asks: "Which would you prefer?"
After all, it seems as if Emet-Selch is annoyed by the latter. Though, if so, he wonders why on the earth the man would be attempting to form a gathering such as this, where seemingly the only purpose is to discuss each other's sentimentalities.
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It's honestly why Estinien can't imagine any kind of philosophical discussion with Emet-Selch to ever bear fruit, no matter how many Pleroma he fulls in to debate with him over it.
"In truth, you seem incapable of appreciating the worth of any world or people that are not your own."
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"In spite of what you might think, I am not beyond appreciation." His expression sullens softly. This is quite the opposite of having nothing to lose. This is a potential chance to fix everything. Fix all of it if this solution held true.
To which, he echoes the Dragoon's own words back to him: "This world of yours simply lacks all of what I hold dear."
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That's what he can't quite understand. If this cosmos ends, it won't truly be the same, will it? Whatever world he creates will be no more the home he loved than the one Alphinaud described him creating in the First.
"Whatever beings you create there... they will not be your friends. Your loved ones. What remained of them will be gone with the cosmos you destroyed to create it."
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"As it stands, our worlds are gone, torn apart by an unseen force. That is what we have all experienced." It is the only constant he has seen so far.
He glances back toward Abel, who he had left within the mouth of the shrine. "Your colleague has offered me proof to the contrary in the form of hopes and wishes masquerading as truth." Oh, how he wished to believe those words.
"If you've anything more than that to offer, I implore you provide it next we meet." With that, he begins to lumber towards the path he had taken from Acamoth. His time at the Shrine is at an end. "Until then, I will continue down the path with most promise."
no subject
So it goes.