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A Conversation
WHO: Abel, Eleven, Emet (And 1 looming Estinien)
WHAT: Meeting across enemy lines
WHERE: The Visionary Shrine
WHEN: 5/10, After the New Arrivals
WARNINGS: Attempted Manipulation?
The time has come to meet with a few individuals on the opposing side. Their 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.
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.
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: 5/10, After the New Arrivals
WARNINGS: Attempted Manipulation?
The time has come to meet with a few individuals on the opposing side. Their 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.
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.
Would they be true to their word and entertain speaking to one another? Or would this all have been for nothing?
no subject
"My motivations have not changed: I want nothing more than to have my people and those I love to return to me. Your Pleroma does not offer that, while the Kenoma may have the means to see that desire through." Simple, forthright, and provided with no hesitation.
"If you wish to convince me further of your cause, then provide me ways to prove the Regent's promises false. Something other than dreams, wishes, and the word of one man."
no subject
If someone were to tell him he could have back all he'd lost, one day - truly promise the return of his kin, his world - would he be strong enough to decline it?
...Abel's shoulders slope a subtle fraction lower before he answers.
"I don't want the Regent's promise to be false. What I want... is to come here one day and offer you an alternative. A better way than the one laying before you, so even if the Regent's words do end up hollow - there is still something left for us. For all of us."
A way back; a way forward. A way to save what was lost and to start anew, perhaps. A happy ending for everyone.
It should be obvious even as he says it, Abel doesn't truly believe such a thing is possible - and just as obvious, he fully plans to keep looking anyway.
no subject
In the face of yet another impractical promise, his hope for any other solution only dwindles. Such hopeful-sounding words are so often empty in what they offer. There would be no such expectations here.
"I have given you what you need aim for to earn my interest. I should ask the same." He motions to Abel with an open palm. "What would it take for you to abandon this world? To admit that its recreation is the best path forward?"
no subject
Abel sees, now.
His gaze trails to the other man where he had been absent-mindedly looking at some point at the shrine entrance. Abel's answer is delivered with gentility, but an undeniable resolution.
"There's no offer you - or any other - could make me, no price I'm willing to pay to sacrifice the lives of all these people and their world. I don't have the right to make such a choice, and I never will."
no subject
Over the years, Emet-Selch found that the simplest solutions were often the best ones. It may have been pointlessly 'hopeful' to get a detailed answer in this case, but it was the most direct path to get what he was looking for. And even if he didn't get an explicit set of instructions it provides him with an answer.
This answer makes the solution clear: they will have to break this one. Break him in every painful and excruciating way until there is nothing left of this person. If it is deemed too much trouble then they would need to crush his very soul. The glance is pitying because empaths like this truly walked the worst path.
He sighs, "That is a shame. I was hoping we could work together toward our mutual betterment."
no subject
Abel understands that there are some distances that words cannot bridge, some gaps that cannot be closed by pretty, fanciful words nor the very best of intentions. He had hoped Emet-Selch might be the sort of man who could see reason - value in the lives around him, and... it isn't as though he has given up on such an endeavor, either. This Kenoma is not the sort to burn the world to the ground for the sake of it. He has a heart that beats, longs, suffers, grieves, burns with an unbridled depth most could not fathom; one who feels so deeply cannot pretend he is incapable of learning to love anew, because love - and loss in that love's wake - is always the source of such passion. Abel truly believes that.
But it will be difficult. And it will take time.
So, until then...
...He stretches his hand outward.
"Please don't give up on me. Even if it can't be today, and even if it might not be all you hope for-- I will give you something worth your while."
no subject
‘Giving up’ on Abel implies that he has any faith in him to begin with.
He asks a question of his own instead. “Shall we consider our business concluded for today? I am sure your comrades are exceedingly anxious to return home.”
no subject
His smile is only slightly more demure as he lets his unaccepted hand fall, and he gives his company a nod of agreement and assent. It's alright, Emet-Selch; even if this man cannot see a path forward that might bridge the gap between them - Abel will.
"I've taken up enough of your time; you're right... ah-- then, allow me to see you off with my thanks for humoring me, would you?"
no subject
This has not been an entirely unproductive conversation. Although as far as strategic value, he would be returning to the Regent nearly empty-handed. Convincing those who were so stalwart in their beliefs would not happen in a few short meetings - he knows this.
And so they inevitably would march onward toward betrayal.