[closed] my shadow's here to meet with me again

[aquaveiled]

WHO: Himeka & Emet-Selch
WHAT: Himeka questions Emet's presence in Solvunn and then shows him how to enter Horizon
WHEN: Mid-September
WHERE: Solvunn Communes & Horizon


[ It has been a struggle for some, but Himeka found her stride within Solvunn not long after arriving. Even dirty, hungry, and exhausted she managed to barter and earn good favor with a few of the locals, giving Relena, Estinien, and herself someplace safe and warm to stay for the night. One night turned to two and with continued help, they have proven themselves useful enough to stay with a pair of siblings trying to uphold their family's farm in the Primary Settlement. It's a boon given that it makes the trek into town much easier.

And Himeka loves going into town as much as she enjoys walking from different family houses to see who may need an extra hand. (It would be helpful to pike them out if the had something akin to a giant exclamation mark over their heads, of course.) But town has proven the best place to pick up odd jobs after she has done her work on the family farm for the day. The more connections they can make, the better. It's an old habit at this point and has served her well in nearly every place she's travelled. She shows no shame in approaching nearly anyone.

It's as she's eyeing the local baker's shop that she draws a pause, catching sight of someone she hasn't spoken with much since...well, since they escaped. Seeing him in the dungeons that day had been enough of a shock, but when he was inclined to accompany them through the portals, she was admittedly curious, if a little preoccupied with getting her friends out and to safety.

Now that they are getting established, however, she can once again entertain a few questions. Himeka has spotted Emet-Selch a few times at a distance and each time she was wondering if it may be the last before he had enough of dirt roads and the ever present smell of livestock.

This time, though, Himeka purses her lips, squinting at him for a moment, not bothering to try and hide her stare. Then she steps away from the bakery and weaves through the crowd towards her target. ]

What are you still doing here?

[ The fact that she asks so plainly almost makes it not sound accusatory.

Almost. ]

Comments

[unnecessaryflourishes]

[Solvunn is, perhaps unsurprisingly, both not exactly the sort of place Emet would have chosen to remain in, and somewhere that leaves him halfway nostalgic for the way the world was, once. Back before there had been Hydaelyn, or Zodiark. Before the world had been shattered into a myriad echoes of something that had once been. On the other hand... he's no stranger to having to work his way up through the system, whatever that should be. And for all that it rankles it's at least nothing more than an inconvenience.

(He has, of course, been keeping loose tabs on Himeka and the company she keeps. But save for those first brief conversations, they have not directly spoken. Something that is less deliberate than it is an artifact of why he had chosen this particular location over any of the others they had been offered.)

Still, he does spend a brief moment simply... observing, once he's realized she's spotted him. And once she does make to approach, he makes no attempt to leave. (There are worse people he could spend time talking with, after all.)]

It's hardly as if I can leave.

[He does not clarify whether he means unable to leave Solvunn, or unable to leave the world entirely. He may not mean to, absent any further questions along that line. But if naught else, he doesn't seem to be particularly put out by the almost-accusatory tone of her voice.]

[aquaveiled]

[ That is not the response she had been expecting, if she had been anticipating anything in particular at all. Emet-Selch had walked alongside them through a few of their adventures around the First, but tended to leave before things got overly messy or show up once they had concluded. Something that had driven at least a few members of their party up the wall.

(Thancred. It was Thancred.)

But something about "small town life" didn't line up with her impressions--at least what she has of his great city of Amaurot or the creation of an empire. Neither seemed part of the Cottage Living aesthetic.

Himeka looks around them as if she's checking for secret guards or traps before raising a brow as she looks back up at him. ]

From what I've seen people may come and go as they please.

[ Though... ]

...Or do you mean you are regulated to walking away from here like the rest of us?

[unnecessaryflourishes]

[Of course he had. He might have promised the gift of his knowledge, certainly. But that had not come with a promise of more physical sorts of assistance. There'd also been the fact that he hadn't cared to offer anything else, of course. It would have been a very poor trial of all that humanity had to offer if he had.

(Plus his comings and goings had given him time to see to his own preparations, without needing to concern himself over whether or not Himeka and her fellows would have approved of them.)

Still, those are considerations for another time. Things that have little enough bearing on the conversation at hand, and things that he generally has little desire to address - even if her apparent assumption that there might be some manner of trap merely waiting to be sprung is worth a brief flicker of amusement.]

I would have thought you aware of how our abilities are - or rather are not - affected by now. But if it should help to prove the point....

[His voice trails off as he raises a hand in a gesture that is no doubt more than familiar and snaps... and a swirling portal of darkness opens up before them, in the style that he and his fellow Ascians have always preferred.]

You would find it quite functional.

[Not that he cares to step through it, of course, given that they are having a conversation. Instead it lingers a moment longer and then - assuming she doesn't decide to step through it - shrinks in on itself until it vanishes once again. Whatever his complaint, it's certainly not that he is required to walk everywhere.]

[aquaveiled]

[ She frowns a little at the jab, intended or otherwise, but only just so. ]

You forget that I have only recently regained my own. We were barred from more than the outside in those cells.

[ Himeka would have had no compunctions sending a series of magically charged explosions down the corridors of the dungeon if she had the opportunity. Such devastation would have been her intention. ]

Besides...

[ She takes a step closer as he summons his familiar void portal, raising a hand as if to poke it. ]

I've never had such abilities.

[ Himeka pauses, finger narrowly hovering on the edges. She slowly turns her gaze back up to his face without lifting her chin. ]

Can I touch it?

[unnecessaryflourishes]

[In this case, at least, the jab had very much not been intentional.]

Perhaps so.  And I will grant that you and I are but two individuals of many, here.  But regardless of the speed with which they do so, all of our abilities do appear to return to us.

[There may be some limits that he has not yet discovered, perhaps.  But as he has not yet done so, he feels reasonably comfortable in saying that there doesn't seem to be much of anything that is barred from them.  Save perhaps by anything that might be frowned upon by the individuals of the settlements themselves, but that is hardly the same in the long run - and not something he means to address at the moment.  Instead, he simply nods at Himeka's question.]

If you so desire.

[By the shrug in his voice, he's not entirely sure why she would, but there's no harm in it either.  Darkness-aspected though it may be, the aether comprising it is unlike to do anything worse than feel a little cool to the touch.]

[aquaveiled]

Something of which I'm very grateful for.

[ Unexpected, and admittedly she had feared it wouldn't be the case, becoming so defined by these abilities as she is. Without them? She felt utterly powerless--useless, even. But she doesn't feel like going into that nor does she imagine Emet-Selch would care to ask. Which is just fine with her.

With his permission--though it's debatable if she would have stopped had he not given it--Himeka reaches out to poke the little void portal. A little cool, yes, so she sticks her hand in it. And looks up around them.

Then frowns. ]

I was hoping I'd see my arm come out the other side somewhere.

[ Wiggling her fingers inside the void, she tries to grasp at something--anything, but feels nothing. ]

Can you imagine how jarring it would be to suddenly have this hand come out of the fabric of reality and steal your spoon or something?