[open w/ some closed threads] escort missions.

[arkitect]

WHO: Emet-Selch + others
WHAT: Catch-all for threads related to this.
WHEN: October, current & backdated
WHERE: Accompanied outings or the Gallows
NOTES: none currently!

[thread starters will go in the comments! this will contain both closed, preplanned threads and open thread options, please feel free to hit me up on plurk or discord if you want anything specific!]

Comments

[acreage]

I can respect that, [ he says, briefly lifts his hands in a conciliatory gesture, ] and I agree that they should be kept out of this. God knows they've gone through enough.

[ there's the question, potentially, of emet-selch's motives, and that can easily extend to the question of why them? uncharitable minds may turn to the question of whether or not they can be trusted. a beat, and then he adds, ]

You were good with him.

[arkitect]

Well, by my age, one learns to deal with others, regardless of their own years.

[an easy dismissal, but certainly not the whole answer. a few moments of consideration follow, internal debate over what to share.]

I have watched over my own, before.

[acreage]

[ he wonders which part of that he wants to ask about first. by my age, and he thinks back to gabranth — a man who looks younger than he is, but untold centuries in age. it's not impossible that emet-selch could be the same, particularly since they seem to come from the same dimension. the same something, anyway, since gabranth had recognized him. ]

You have kids?

[arkitect]

I did, [he says, expression and tone both remaining neutral despite what that past tense implies.] But unlike myself, they were mortal.

[acreage]

I'm sorry.

[ he says after a beat. it's clear enough what happened: i did. ]

I can't imagine how hard that must've been.

[arkitect]

Such is the way of life, when it is fated to be cut short.

[a dismissive enough response, accompanied with a small, idle wave of a hand. it's the only time the subject has really come up like this, at least since he shed his former identity; condolences offered then were meant for someone he wasn't. they've never exactly been given to emet-selch, and it's far easier to brush it off.]

[acreage]

[ well, okay, if you're determined to sound supervillain-y. there's an instinct to be offended by his dismissiveness wars with the obvious care he showed the boy and his mother so recently. after a moment, ]

Then why bother helping them?

[arkitect]

[sometimes it's just better to be this way about it than to acknowledge: yes, it had hurt before. to allow anyone else to actually perceive that, to tacitly acknowledge there's a degree here of-- well, of opening up to the possibility of the same thing happening again.

but there is probably a hint of that in his answer.]

He reminds me of my firstborn. That's all.

[acreage]

[ well.

it's a more honest answer than he'd been expecting. he's quiet, lets the idea of that settle. maybe it's naïve to believe emet-selch — he doesn't think, say, gabranth would — but he doesn't have any real reason not to. if it is a play on his sympathies, it is working; but it's not like the other man is getting much of anything out of it. ]

Okay, [ he says, presently. ] I won't ask you anything else about it, but my offer still stands.

[arkitect]

We will see, then.

[both whether he takes holden up on that offer, and whether he really won't ask anything else. people get curious-- it's a part of what they are-- and he wouldn't be surprised if anyone wanted to try to evaluate him further, after everything. his current reputation doesn't lend itself well to being taken at face value.]

Did you have further business here?

[acreage]

[ there's always more he wants to do out here, but there's something to be said for his actual duties with riftwatch, no less important than this work. and, for today, he doesn't have any particular business in the city proper of kirkwall. so he only considers it briefly before shaking his head. ]

No, [ he says. ] If you're done too, we can go back to the Gallows.

[arkitect]

I suppose we may as well.

[exhaled as more of a sigh; really, he's never minded the place, but being stuck there certainly hasn't improved his opinion of it.

as he turns back to the gallows, he adds, offhandedly:]

If you require help with any of your work, at some point, I may well prove to have the time.

[it will make the entire situation a bit more even, maybe, more of an exchange.]

how did i miss this tag wtf

[acreage]

I'll keep you mind,

[ he says as they turn back in that direction, not entirely unsympathetic. it may sound like a platitude anyway, at least until he adds, ]

What is it that you're usually doing around Research?

[ he's not around the offices infrequently, but doesn't spend as much time as their resident scientists and engineers. it'll help him get a better idea of what kinds of things, theoretically, he could ask emet-selch for help with. ]

dreamwidth notif hell

[arkitect]

A degree of magical experimentation, but aside from that... primarily studying this world's version of magic, as well as its history and languages. Without an understanding of the latter, in particular, it will be difficult to truly delve into the most interesting subjects.

[can't read up on everything when it's in languages you don't necessarily speak well, after all. (and while he doesn't say it, he can definitely be seen helping to organize books and materials often enough as well.)

but having answered that, he asks in turn:]

What is it that brings you to work out here, in addition to the division?

[simple altruism, or a different sort of draw to aiding the people here?]

wheezes

[acreage]

[ that is good to know, actually. he's tried his best to read up on local cultures, history, but it's a work in progress; and he's certainly never applied himself to studying languages, which has plenty of practical applications he may have use for. he nods, acknowledging, files away that information.

if there's anything he intends to say about it, he's stopped by the question. breathes out, considering how to answer; looks ahead as he does. ]

It has nothing to do with the division, [ he says, soft. ] I was in Tantervale when the dragon came. I was in Starkhaven when the army was on its way to set up the siege. I saw what these people survived.

[arkitect]

Well-traveled, aren't you-- but hardly fortunate in that.

[were he in the mood for it, there would be a jab to be made here about being in the right places at the wrong times, but-- not this time. it's a better answer than he could have given, were it something trite about just wanting to help the downtrodden. more personal.]

I imagine those incidents must linger in your mind, then, to be so driven to assist after them.

[acreage]

[ in the right places at the wrong times could be the title of his biography. starkhaven was by choice, at least, but the tragedy that befell tantervale was only one in a string of similar incidents in his life. james holden, here to watch stations and civilizations and cities die, and live to tell of it. ]

Well, [ he says with a sideways glance, a wry eyebrow lift, ] if you'd seen that dragon, you wouldn't be forgetting about it in a hurry either.

[arkitect]

Mayhap I would not... though the rise and fall of entire nations have at times proved unremarkable, much less that of a singular settlement.

[filed under: things that are said entirely too neutrally.

he does have a good memory for the things he's seen, but once you've seen enough in your life-- these things begin to stand out less.]

[acreage]

Maybe if you've seen enough of them.

[ in other words: can't relate. ]

[arkitect]

Depending upon one's measure of 'enough'.

Were they your first?

[acreage]

[ he's quiet, a long moment. but then: ]

No, they weren't.

[ that's not a secret, even here. ]

[arkitect]

Yet they still affect you enough to be so moved by them.

[almost nothing more than an idle observation, but there's the slightest easing of the detachment in his tone. difficult to catch, maybe, but there regardless.]

Then whatever you have seen has not been sufficient to pass that threshold... if such a thing exists for you.

[acreage]

That's a good thing.

[ his tone is wry. not combative himself, but just some ways this side of it. ]

It means peoples' lives still matter to me. If I lose that, I'm lost.

[arkitect]

Many would. It takes a particular kind, you know, to witness the cruelties of the world repeatedly without eventually becoming numb to them-- it is a rare heart that can have that sort of empathy wrung from it repeatedly, without breaking from the strain.

[he's musing aloud, a bit, but emet-selch glances up to cast a sidelong look in his direction.]

I do wonder if it will prove to last, in your case.

[acreage]

Well, [ he says with an eyebrow lift, ] if it doesn't, you're welcome to say I told you so.