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

[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.

[discutio]

I'm willing to overlook a rocky start, given that Esme clearly believes she has reason to fear us. Whether Autumn is of the same mind or not is up to her, but as you said--she did rather start it.

[He sighed, putting a light hand on Chiron's arm.]

Regardless--if things do turn irrevocably hostile, I won't hesitate. You've nothing to worry about on that front.

[schardynfreude]

[Pat pat on his hand.]

I've no worries there, no. And I'll cleave her head clean off her shoulders.

[discutio]

Just try not to follow Autumn's lead. If things do turn violent, it should only be after we've exhausted all else.