You needn't make it sound so painfully dramatic. But yes, had I allowed such events to wrest away that which I had been seeking to preserve, then what point would there have been at all? Emet-Selch or no, my life's purpose is theirs. I could never so easily let them go...
[But that is their people, their world. And another matter entirely. Although he can see where it links, certainly. Was that not what Byleth had been trying to do in his way? As spectacularly dreadful as the attempt may have been.]
[Emet-Selch stares into his mug, his eyes stormy as he allows the residual warmth to soak into his fingers. It doesn't help much, but it's something, at least. No one is here but them, and Hythlodaeus upstairs, perhaps. It's not as if there are any eavesdroppers waiting in the wings to use his own words against him.]
[He huffs out a sigh. While he could speak in riddles and metaphors, he is far too weary at the moment for that. Still too agitated and riled up. And so he will speak plainly so as to get this whole discussion over with.]
As I said, I am well aware that the actions and choices of the other Emet-Selch have naught to do with me, and have told Byleth as much. And yet they now affect me all the same. Whether I act on them or no, whether I deign to believe them, the account can never be unheard.
I feel...dissected. Exposed, like some novel specimen displayed under glass.
[He shakes his head in disgust.]
To think that after only a scant few years of knowing someone, I would grant them not only my true name, but personal details about myself, thoughts and emotions that I have not revealed to another soul - not to you nor Hythlodaeus. The very idea is preposterous.
[And, what? Some manner of oath? To remain at his side until he grew weary and tired of immortality and chose to return to his own star? To be granted a peaceful end? It is all simply...unfathomable. Emet-Selch is scowling again hard, his forehead aching with the weight of it - an act certainly not helped by the hard bone just beginning to protrude from where his bangs have been brushed back.]
He all but implored me to speak with you following our conversation.
[Well, it wasn't a conversation so much as it was a torrent of information and his own childish outburst, but.]
[Emet-Selch sighs again, this one long and exhausted and distinctly...uneasy.]
no subject
[But that is their people, their world. And another matter entirely. Although he can see where it links, certainly. Was that not what Byleth had been trying to do in his way? As spectacularly dreadful as the attempt may have been.]
[Emet-Selch stares into his mug, his eyes stormy as he allows the residual warmth to soak into his fingers. It doesn't help much, but it's something, at least. No one is here but them, and Hythlodaeus upstairs, perhaps. It's not as if there are any eavesdroppers waiting in the wings to use his own words against him.]
[He huffs out a sigh. While he could speak in riddles and metaphors, he is far too weary at the moment for that. Still too agitated and riled up. And so he will speak plainly so as to get this whole discussion over with.]
As I said, I am well aware that the actions and choices of the other Emet-Selch have naught to do with me, and have told Byleth as much. And yet they now affect me all the same. Whether I act on them or no, whether I deign to believe them, the account can never be unheard.
I feel...dissected. Exposed, like some novel specimen displayed under glass.
[He shakes his head in disgust.]
To think that after only a scant few years of knowing someone, I would grant them not only my true name, but personal details about myself, thoughts and emotions that I have not revealed to another soul - not to you nor Hythlodaeus. The very idea is preposterous.
[And, what? Some manner of oath? To remain at his side until he grew weary and tired of immortality and chose to return to his own star? To be granted a peaceful end? It is all simply...unfathomable. Emet-Selch is scowling again hard, his forehead aching with the weight of it - an act certainly not helped by the hard bone just beginning to protrude from where his bangs have been brushed back.]
He all but implored me to speak with you following our conversation.
[Well, it wasn't a conversation so much as it was a torrent of information and his own childish outburst, but.]
[Emet-Selch sighs again, this one long and exhausted and distinctly...uneasy.]