[LOG] Apartment Life [Closed]

[wewillwewill]

Who: Elidibus and Emet-Selch
When: Early Feb [Backdated to Arrival]
Where: ADI Apartments, D1
Summary: Two (former?) Ascians finally get to say what's on their minds about all this.
Warnings: Probably some condescending sounding talk about mortal kind. Possible references to mass murder/extinction. Lots of FFXIV Spoilers/Endwalker expac Spoilers.

What a strange day it had been, even for two who had seen a thousand thousand years and more.

It was no great feat to seamlessly cooperate and appear as much less than they truly were, surely. Elidibus had no intention of offering more about himself than the fact that he was able to calmly react to a situation such as the one they found themselves in, was intelligent and had come from a society with 'some magic'. There would be no hint at how deeply troubled he truly was, robbed of his senses and great magic, blind to this unknown star.

And bound to some unknown entity who wished to use them for its designs. Hoist on one's own petard, is it? A terrible irony and one he was not especially amused by.

It did not mean he trusted the ADI any more than the creatures that are claimed to have summoned them. But they offered assets and his pride was not so unreasonable as to reject what might be useful. Modern Eorzean had been like enough to 'English' to get by even before he had been led to the room with the mysterious paper.

Elidibus had been surprised to see Emet-Selch. Not from the fact that the entity obviously saw use in grabbing the Unsundered while they may have been in a weakened state. But to see his face.

The memories which were invoked by seeing not an aetheric signature, not a mortal vessel or a robe and mask clad figure, but features of a time long gone.

Yet he could not ask questions there. He listened and learned. When Emet-Selch had suggested the name 'Solus Galvus', there had been a small twist in Elidibus's heart to know his dear friend had indeed lived the countless eons in kind. He had hidden it well, though during the entirety of it all, there may have been small indicators and hints in the younger Ancient's manners to suggest that he is not quite the same as last Emet-Selch saw him.

A brief hint of emotion when the name 'Themis' was suggested to accompany Galvus. The ability to look at rather than through without the clinical detachment of the shell that he'd become as Zodiark tore away his memories and left only a driven caricature of the young man he had once been.

They had parted briefly when taken to shops by different agents. Some things would take a little more time to process, but the basics were found. Food, clothes, household necessities and the smartphone at the very least. Plus the borrowed sweats. Robes were not part of this star's common fashion, more's the pity.

At an appointed time, they were dropped off at the 'D' building of the ADI's apartments, given a basic rundown of appliances and ameneties, handed keys and... well, left to themselves finally. The door closes behind the agents and their footsteps are head in retreat.

With the food that needed to be kept cold likely having been put up during the housing tour, there is no rush to do anything in particular. Elidibus is silent, but moves to a window facing the lot they had entered from. It's from there he can watch that yes, the agents all leave as they said.

"Their actions are full of contradictions and border on naivety." Elidibus offers in the Ancient tongue as the vehicles drive away. "How much more is there to this tale of theirs that we are worth more alive despite the risk?

Who welcomes obvious harbingers of apocalypse with such open arms? It may add a general impression of manpower which doesn't have to upset the status quo of a world ignorant of the supernatural, but the risk seems far greater than it's worth. What more could there be?

Or like so many mortals, have their short lifespans blinded them?

[ Curious about Ancient Language sound? Please feel free to hear the weewoons here. ]

Comments

[wewillwewill]

Given the rooms in question are of equal stature, it's just a matter of putting the belongings in one. One day they might try to assign a third roommate. It's probably for this reason Elidibus chooses the middle-most of the three. Even if Emet-Selch chooses to move to a preferred view, there will still be a small Emissary acting as a passive buffer for better or worse.

It doesn't take long and soon Elidibus is back to start taking care of whatever remaining bags of food items were left out when they arrived. Even if it proves they don't really need these- or will it? The representatives of the ADI had said they were human and it certainly feels like they're extraordinarily weak enough to consider this an undeniable truth.

But even if they don't need all the staples, it's best to go through the motions, as always.

"To more personal matters," Elidibus brings up as he's back within speaking distance. "I found myself reluctant to speak of such matters amongst our hosts. But I have to admit I feel weaker than even when I have had the occasion to take mortal host."

The vessels of mortals upon Etheirys may have been but a fragment of what they had once been. But even so and particularly the hosts they were inclined to take were often more than these humans of Earth. Far more in some cases.

Elidibus pauses with a distant look as if plumbing the depths of these very limits and looking for words to describe them.

"Though I cannot say they are... entirely gone, every sense seems robbed of me." Other than slight, distant and cotton wrapped pulses where the latent fear brings hint of what's supposed to be.

What may go unnoticed meanwhile and certainly by Elidibus, is the sudden appearance of a folded white robe- plain of adornments they had donned during the long millennia in service of Zodiark- and red mask within a few paces of the Emissary. Surely that is nothing to worry about... right?

[unnecessaryflourishes]

ADI might certainly one day see fit to try and assign a third person to their room, its true. Not that Emet-Selch is likely to be particularly inclined to be personable on the off-chance that they do, but this is not anything particularly out of the ordinary. Nor is it anything that is likely to be immediately relevant besides. As such, he is more than content to leave Elidubus to the matter of the rooms - they are all largely the same from what he has seen, with the potential exception of the view and at the moment he has no particular preference one way or the other.

(It is, after all, hardly as if this is anything even remotely similar to the beauty of Amaurot, and while Emet-Selch may have had long millennia to grow accustomed to various sorts of views, across a multitude of civilizations, he cannot claim to be particularly impressed with what he has thus far seen of this city.)

"An apt description. Even when I had cause to act as if I were naught more than mortal in truth, I yet retained my faculties with magic."

Even when said host had been Garlean by birth, and thus not typically able to use magic. A simple enough thing to overcome, once he had taken up residence in Solus' body. That he cannot do so now stands out all the more, to say nothing of the fact that even his soulsight is gone, or as good as.

"It is as if we have lost something of ourselves, in coming here. Something that we have yet to regain."

A pause.

"That or something about the process of making us fit in here has left us... diminished. Far more so than would have ever been the case on either the Source or her shards."

Neither is a comforting thought, truth be told. But given that ADI's explanations can only go so far there is perhaps nothing for it but continue on as best they can. Even if Emet-Selch very much intends to be less than thrilled about having so much less than he's used to for as long as he can get away with. The sudden appearance of a plain white robe and a very familiar mask, on the other hand, is enough to distract him somewhat. He spares a brief moment to peer at the robe and mask, as if he might regain his soulsight simply trying hard enough, and then he speaks up again.

"I thought you had left those aside?"

And unless Elidibus intends to change back into his robes now that they are in the relative privacy of their own residence, he sees no immediate reason for them to be present. Much less to have simply appeared, as they seem to have.