meet and greet

[cancrymods]

If you've been paying any attention to the screens around Invidia (and it's honestly harder NOT to pay attention to them than it is to actually do so) then you'll be familiar with Esme, the woman whose face graces every single screen. Some initial poking around has revealed that Esme is a sort of idol to the people of Invidia, whose enviously glamourous life has taken the city by storm but that's more or less all you've learned so far.

But it looks like you might have the opportunity to learn more sometime soon.

Just as the dark sky of Invidia gives way to what passes for daytime, all of the screens in Invidia light up with the same video – it's Esme, perched on what looks to be a fancy throne in the middle of a white void, nothing to distract from the glaringly insincere sincere smile on her face as she addresses the camera.

"Good morning, lovelies! ❤ I've been soooooo busy with work and filming lately, I haven't had even a single second to see any of you in person! And what's the point of all that hard work if I don't even get to see your smiling faces at the end of it? So today we're having a very special event! For this afternoon only, I'll be on the Starlight Stage on the roof of our mall, all ready to shake hands and sign things and see all of you lovelies face to face again! Make sure you hurry on down to see me, okay? Bye-bye-bye! ❤"

With a wave and a sickly sweet smile to the camera, Esme signs off.

Looks like you've been given an opportunity to do a little investigating...

Comments

[alcahest]

[ Mona, who has been quite stunned this whole time with the way things went and kind of just fretting in the background but not having the confidence to intervene, finally speaks up: ]

... She said... she didn't want us to erase her. Isn't that what she's scared of...? [ she seems mildly distressed by this notion. ] ... She... doesn't want to go.

[discutio]

...I wonder. It's possible our goal has consequences of which we're not yet aware, so I would like to hear her perspective.

[alcahest]

[ the stressful situation seems to have made it harder for Mona to verbalise her thoughts than usual, but she persists. ]

... I want... to ask her to come with us.

[discutio]

I would prefer it were we not adversaries, myself. But not knowing what her goals or desires might be, I can't promise that will be a possibility.

[seasharp]

What?!

[excuse]

You can't be serious, can you?

[alcahest]

[ she wavers a little in the face of conflict, but. she's set on this thought. ]

Don't you think that... she's scared because this is everything she has? She doesn't want us to take it away.

[seasharp]

Maybe she doesn't even deserve it in the first place! Not when she's like that... You heard her, didn't you?

[alcahest]

[ why does that hurt so much? she has the capacity to feel that, and not enough to understand the feeling. it's an awful thing. ]

... Does that mean she should disappear?

[seasharp]

I'm... I'm not saying that [yet], but...

I don't think there's any future for us as allies.

[daughterofthemark]

It must have been some time since she had to think of anyone but herself. I'm certain this is not all she is.

[seasharp]

So she just gets a free pass, because she's been on her own?

She just gets to act like this?

[schardynfreude]

...Once we've spoken of the situation, on both of our sides, it will have to be her choice.

[He doesn't sound angry, but he is rather quiet.]

[discutio]

...What are you thinking?

[he would really like input from someone not a hotheaded teenager]

[schardynfreude]

Ah...?

[Take a breath, settle.] Nothing important to the group, I assure you.

It is alarming that she isn't an Executor, that she hates them or fears them or both. It suggests she isn't one herself, so she may not be able to come with us. She may not be capable of it physically or emotionally.

...Thank you for stepping in as you did. Although I can't imagine what moved you to do so after Autumn was so thoroughly...[is there a polite way to say it] trounced.

[discutio]

The only way to find out is to ask outright, at this point. Hostilities won't get us anywhere.

[He frowned slightly, adjusting his visor as he processed what that meant. It only really hit him then that he was probably wildly outclassed one on one.]

[Strangely, the obvious danger didn't register as something he cared about.]

...I wasn't thinking about it, truthfully. I didn't want anyone else to be hurt, and I was hoping I could defuse things rather than half to draw a blade on her myself.

[schardynfreude]

I...

[He lets the thought trail away and doesn't pick it back up again.]

In any event, more information is better than none. Even if the way she treated you was unacceptable. Autumn...I will not say she deserved what she did, because of course not, but she was the first to draw a blade and become the first aggressor.

But if this Esme ends up starting a fight, we will finish it.

[alcahest]

[ mmmrhgh. she appreciates his calm tone and she's sticking close by him. she kind of wants to hold onto his sleeve but she hesitates to do so. ]

... Mh. I know. It's her choice, but I... I want... [ she's not sure why she's struggling so much with this. something about it is too big for her to contain; something about it hurts. ] ... I don't... want to take everything away from her...

[schardynfreude]

[Come here, then. He hears the tone and the hesitation in her words, and he places and arm around her shoulders.] It seems this place bends to her will. It isn't entirely real, in a sense.

[alcahest]

[ she curls into him, apparently more distressed than her expression shows. ]

... If it didn't... she'd be alone.

[ this is clearly important to her, even if she can't verbalise the reasoning. something about this is upsetting her in ways she doesn't understand. ]

[daughterofthemark]

I agree.

[emberserker]

Did you see how she was acting? She knew we were aware, she knew what an Eidolon was, she said "it's been a while since anybody woke up." She's been awake at least since there were other Executors besides Rei and ourselves. And yet all she wants is power. Why do you want someone like that?

[alcahest]

... What power? [ she has the Authority that Rei mentioned, but— ] All she's doing is... making people pay attention to her.

[emberserker]

Isn't that enough? That demon just wants everyone to want her, to want to be her!

[alcahest]

... Doesn't that sound like... she's lonely?

[daughterofthemark]

I would be frightened as well, if I believed all of us were coming to kill me.