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[hellufacade]

You have reached Solus Gavus, Theater Director. Leave a message, unless you're trying to skip out of rehearsal. Save the excuses and just show up, alright?

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[hellufacade]

[ He sighs and dramatically sets his newspaper aside. His ears flick.]

I thought you’d left. What ever could be the matter with you?

[eightfoldlight]

[ Yenh knows there's some magic nonsense happening, so the 'why' of that wasn't in question. Her 'why' is more of an existential question. Of all the transformations to affect him... ]

[ She carries herself toward him with nothing but casual swagger. ]

I needed to do something.

[hellufacade]

Alright, well. Now you’re here. [ He leans heavily on his knuckles, propping up his head.]

I’m not starting rehearsals until all of this is... [He sighs and gestures to himself. ] Done with. Which, by the way, is boring! But I’d rather not be photographed like this. [So he hasn’t been to the club probably? ] So if you thought you might dance today or try on a costume... Sorry to disappoint!

[eightfoldlight]

[ Yenh frowns. She had been hoping to try on a bat costume in the midst of everything. At least he handed her an easy way to tease him: the power of photographic evidence. ]

We couldn't have that, could we? [ She backflips up onto the stage and neatly settles on the edge. She sits in a deep squat and stares down at him. ]

What is that you're up to, instead? Reading the newspaper?

[hellufacade]

Unfortunately, I have to do all of my own information gathering these days. How do you gather your information?

[He does watch with interest as she backflips onto the stage. ]

So? What do you think? You’re curiously quiet about my new appendages.

[eightfoldlight]

The usual way: I ask questions and I listen. The only difference is, I don't have a network of others helping me do so.

[ She tilts her head at his question, as though it were a strange thing to ask. ]

I grew up around men with ears and tails like yours. There's not much to say.

[hellufacade]

You left the room in shock! [He stands. Seems like he hadn’t gotten any shorter unfortunately. He stalks towards her and tilts his head up, hands on hips. His tail swishes from side to side. ]

Is it that you find me irresistible like this, then?

[eightfoldlight]

[ Yenh's stare is piercing and direct, but bis words slough off her carefully-orchestrated casual demeanor. What is there underneath is not lust or shame or embarrassment. It is resignation and maybe a little exhaustion. ]

You're even acting like one of them.

[hellufacade]

[He folds his arms. ] What, is it disgust, then? [His eyebrows lift. ]

Was there a particularly despicable man in the tribe from whence you came?

[eightfoldlight]

[ She raises her eyebrows back at him. In part because he's actually asking a question about her, but that's easily mitigated by how he appears to be asking it out of insult. She responds casually.]

No, they were all equally annoying.

[hellufacade]

[He tilts his head and blows a breath of air from his nose. ] I had wondered if I was given these limbs to torment me, but it seems that the true target had been revealed. Well, never you mind. I’m not a tribesman. Same old me. [As if that’s any better.]

So why did you come here? You still haven’t answered...

[eightfoldlight]

[ It really isn't any better, but if she's lucky, maybe he'll stop saying things like that. If she isn't, she'll have to cross that bridge once she gets there. ]

I can't very well leave you be for too long, can I? Every time you're left to your own devices, you're bothering Nonah with giant robots, or getting blackout drunk about teenagers unable to remember their 'thee' from their 'thou'.

... and I wanted to try on the bat costume.

[hellufacade]

The difference between thee and thou isn’t hard! ...Don’t take their side.

[He places his hands on his hips. So he was being monitored, then? ]

Funny, I was once your highest priority. And now I register slightly above the desire to try on a bat costume! [ His voice drops into an angry snarl.] Oh, how things change.

[He sighs, the levity filling back into him. ]

Mark me, I won’t be making the same mistakes twice.

[eightfoldlight]

[ Yenh sighs as he manages to get to the heart of the matter much more quickly than she had really wanted to. She isn't about to abandon the chance to just come out and say it, but she low-key resents that she couldn't just shitpost on him for a while longer. ]

You are my highest priority. [ She furrows her eyebrows, clearly trying to find something else to say. As much as she and Nashir had discussed showing Hades compassion, it was incredibly difficult in the moment. ]

Simply because I mentioned the bat costume in the same breath...

[hellufacade]

Am I your highest priority? It hardly feels like it.

[...Is... is he cranky about how often she comes to see him?]

Were our roles reversed you would find me acting much differently from how you have chosen to do so! Are you feeling a touch useless with all that isn’t going on?

[eightfoldlight]

[ He hit close to home, and her answer is an annoyed 'tch' before she can find the words. ]

What, do you want me to follow you around? Here I thought I was giving you a chance to branch out on your own.

[hellufacade]

Oh, how magnanimous. What would your fellow Scions think about that? [His ears position just so. Did Hades really need this additional layer of expressiveness? ]

[eightfoldlight]

[ Yenh's own ears fold back, and her voice drops to a guilty mutter. ]

I'm not certain they'd think my conduct while around you is any better. [ Wait. ] You didn't answer my question.

[hellufacade]

I thought that was rhetorical!

[Still not an answer. ]

But since when did you care about what I wanted?

[eightfoldlight]

[ Yenh squints at him, feeling desperately uncertain about all of this despite knowing what her mission is. ]

Don't get it twisted, Hades.

[hellufacade]

Oh, I’m not! [He was. ]

You’re the hunter and I’m your unwitting quarry. But you’ve done a piss poor job at keeping up with me. Either you’re losing your touch or you sense, however latently, that there is something wrong here— Something somehow more concerning than the presence of an Ascian!

[eightfoldlight]

[ She frowns. He wasn't entirely right, but right enough that it makes her uncomfortable. This is the kind of discussion she would have preferred to have with someone like Urianger or Y'shtola or Alphinaud. ]

Of course there's something wrong. Why would they continue summoning people like us when they'd already averted the end of the world? If the United States is at war with the Communists of the Kremlin, why are we not fighting? The worst I've seen with my eyes is the poverty and depravity one would find in any Eorzean city.

[hellufacade]

Why indeed? Oh, but you’ve never been used as a tool for a distraction before, have you? Well. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. As far as you knew. Besiiiides! It’s a Cold War. Not the same sort you dealt with in Ishgard!

[He thinks she doesn’t know the difference between physically cold climates and a stand-off. Is he right? ]

[eightfoldlight]

[ Yenh rolls her eyes and chooses not to correct him. ]

What do you think is going on, then? A distraction from what?

[hellufacade]

The world was supposed to end. The people here recognize this world by half. Isn’t it obvious?

[He crosses his arms and stares at her expectantly. ] Go on. Say it. I know you have a brain somewhere under those furry ears.