[video, 15th June, Nesir Aeser] Job seeking?

[disregardeddagger]

[Nesir's still not really sure how these phones work but she's got the basics down. Not that she's tried talking on the message boards yet. It felt strange when she could just speak to them face to face without the trouble of pressing buttons and not accidentally pressing the wrong thing on the glass.

But she did admit it seemed a good way to reach multiple people at once and she can do it whilst being physically out of the way.

On a rooftop actually. It had seemed the safest place to spend the night, after waking up in a heap of rubble.]

My name is Nesir Aeser. I have been here about three weeks and was serving Noctis, the god Nox. He is gone now. [She sounds pretty matter of fact about that. She had been aware such things would happen, though it had not prepared her for the suddenness when it actually happened.]

Are there any gods in need of a shinki? I can fight with a variety of weapons, I turned into a dagger for Noctis though that might not mean anything going forwards. I'm decent at climbing. I probably have other skills I haven't figured out yet.

[That might be a lie, she's figured bits and pieces but she isn't about to announce them over this phone. She can explain further is she actually gets any gods interested in naming her.]

Please tell me if I should actually be letting the heavens know and being officially reassigned or something.

Comments

[towards_okeanos]

[Actually... not so unusual. Sometimes personal possessions of shinki stayed on the empty lot even if the Temple vanished. Sometimes there was nothing left. The empty space where Zelda's Temple once was is still vivid in his memory. He has never tried looking for traces of others. It would be a folly. Hardly probable he would find anything.]

Alright. Then we stay here. We can go back to the living room and wait there. Ada should be back soon.

[He looks at Nesir. It's easier to concentrate on practicalities now. Whatever Noctis provided her vanished with his Temple and now she has nothing.]

We can go tomorrow to buy you some clothes for change and anything else that you may need.

[disregardeddagger]

Thank you, that is appreciated. [Part of her dislikes the idea of being in debt to any other person, for any reason. But on the other hand this isn't quite like that. This is part of their agreement, that he will provide for her and she will work for him. He is not just giving her things, he is providing for her so that she can fight for him.

And it really is appreciated.]

[towards_okeanos]

Ada is even sooner than Iskandar expected. Sometimes he wonders if bending spacetime is not actually her skill. The Temple looks cleaner than it ever did when it was just him and Waver here. Not the everything-aligned-in-perfect-harmony style that was prevalent when Symmetra was living with them. More...homely.
He introduces ladies to each other. He can only hope they'll get along.

Ada may look like she's just an old lady with a sweet if a little vacant smile and grey hair in a tight bun. The kind that looks completely innocent and harmless. but give the impression she will kill you in your sleep if you cross her. Ada harbours no murderous tendencies of her own. Unless she perceives someone a threat to her god. She's completely devoted to her god. One of the myriad ways she shows it is cooking. The other would be assassinating his enemies should she met any. She can be surprisingly agile for an old lady.

She bows to Iskandar than smiles to Nesir.

"Sit, dear, the dinner would be in a minute."

She would kindly refuse any offer of help. Kitchen is her territory.

[disregardeddagger]

She is very similar to Noctis' souless shinki. Not in look or age but in mannerisms. The very idea of a person with no soul strikes a deep unease in Nesir but Ada seems friendly enough, if a little vacant.

Nesir got the feeling that help wouldn't be allowed, Ada seemed to rule the kitchen and any ways all the equipment confused Nesir. She had a feeling cooking wasn't an unknown skill of hers. So she sat, with a grateful smile.

"Thank you. I look forward to it."

It's been a while since she ate. She sat quietly, it's hard to know what to say to someone you have just agreed to serve. She wants to know more about him but isn't sure on how forward she should be.

In the end she decides to speak, "How long have you been a god for?"

[towards_okeanos]

If she ever shared her opinion on the soulless with him she will find that Iskandar has a very similar one. He definitely hasn't thought it through before but not only Ada's presence causes him almost constant distress.
He did the most stupid thing he could giving her name after his adopted mother. Queen of Caria. A woman who was as much a strategist and a military commanded as she was a lady of noble birth.

He thought it would ease things. Instead, it just made everything worse. Somehow, he knew not how, Ada, or rather the soulless namesake of her, picked up little details about her original counterpart. Iskandar has no idea how because they never spoke about his mother. Ever. Yet, somehow his soulless knew for example that one thing that his Carian mother loved to do was to shower him with gifts, exquisite food especially. Her cooks could put the ones in Babylon to shame so the food was truly superb.
At one point he had to directly reprimand her for the excess because she was really going overboard.

To have a soulless do the same now...

It's difficult.

The question comes as a relief because for that too, there is no simple answer.

"Hm. Depending on how do you count." Iskandar takes a deep breath. "If you take into account the fact that I'm a son of Zeus, that makes me half-divine from the start. Then there's Egypt where I was officially recognized as pharaoh and thus a living god. On that count, that would be a little over two thousand years."

He pauses. How long is he here? Not even a full year yet. It certainly feels longer.

"But if you count only my time here than I'd say closer to eight months."

[disregardeddagger]

Two thousand years. That was pretty impressive. Eight months was impressive enough when she considered she had no knowledge of anything past a couple of weeks ago.

But more importantly he had spoken of before he was in the heavens and yet. "You were a god before you came here?"

From what she had understood many of the new gods were just ordinary people before they were brought to this place and made to take the place of gods.

[towards_okeanos]

“Yes” Iskandar smiles. That requires explanation because none of it was as straightforward as it is on The Far Shore.

“Though that was different than here. Not so clearly defined. I wasn’t hearing prayers and I couldn’t teleport to places. I was a mortal man with divine parentage. Some believed in my divinity, some didn’t.”

Those who were able to understand what he did and why what would have been impossible to any other man was a child’s play for him. Those had no doubts.

“But I had temples and people made offerings in my name.”

[disregardeddagger]

He was a child of gods? Born as a mortal? That was almost even more impressive than being brought to this shore as a god. After all this was some... strange happening. Being born to gods was a different thing. It's hard for her to even get her head around that, difficult to even understand the concept.

"People worshipped you even as you walked among them?"

Gods walking the earth at all strike her as strange, though the ones here can do so perfectly well. Nothing comes to mind about any gods of her own world, missing memories are difficult.

[towards_okeanos]

"Some did. Some were very opposed to the very idea and even questioned my lineage. I never met my godly father but there were many signs to those that chose to believe them. Those that didn't I would not try to convince. I had no need for people that can be swayed by skilled orators. If it is not their own decision to heed my words than I would not be able to count on their loyalty later."

He's been almost too late for the age of the gods. Sometimes he thought they really left. Zeus had many children. Their stories passed into legend either heroic or tragic or both. But none in his time. Sometimes he thought he's the last one.

It was so different then than here.

[disregardeddagger]

"That's true enough, forced loyalty is very rarely true." She says, as if she has any experience or knowledge. At least the remembrance of any. But she still feels he was right, if people could not be convinced then they would be no use to him.

"I guess there is no doubt now, no one will deny that you are indeed a god."

As he was here in heaven. A god with a temple, prayers to hear and shinki to serve him. He must have followers who prayed, people who believed in him and trusted him to help them.

[towards_okeanos]

[Iskandar laughs.]

Yes, they rather won't.

[Even if being acknowledged as divine was never his top priority. He knew who he was. It didn't matter if others chose to believe it or not. He loves his followers as much as he always loved his people and yet ... There's something he will not tell her. Something he would never utter in presence of any shinki. Ever. That he would much prefer to be human, mortal and alive, than a god whom people don't see unless he makes a great effort for them to notice him. It is this disconnect that causes him the most pain.

Fortunately, it is time for Ada to emerge from the kitchen carrying a tray full of food.]

[disregardeddagger]

[She nods and falls silent, she senses he is thinking though she couldn't even begin to think about what. She has no idea of the thoughts of god even if her short time with Noctis had taught her that gods were not that much different than humans.

Ada emerges with food and Nesir stands to help her. It all smelled pretty delicious.]