Nero is immediately unimpressed. Linear time is where he tends to operate, and this has already been irritating enough to wrap his brain around. "What is part of your idiom, then? I'll try to refine my questions so that they're more to your liking." There's an edge to the words, though. No courtesy. He's making his displeasure plain.
Penuel doesn't quite smile, but their face takes on the briefest glimmer of approval. "Rebirth. Redemption. Salvation. Judgement, of course. I wish to strengthen these values in the World."
If he could pull even more of a face than he is already pulling, Nero would. Rebirth? Redemption? He is uncomfortably reminded of his conversations with the Warriors of Light, and what they've reported that their Nero has gone about doing. Limited as her perspective is, apparently she has noticed that. "Lovely. I've already deduced that you want me to advance your goals. Same as the rest of your lot. But what motivation do you intend to give me?"
"You are worthy of my Choosing, and thus I hold you to a higher standard than those who are not. Should I obtain the World, you and my other Chosen will determine the fate of your fellow Travelers, at your discretion. Motivation is not mine to provide, but I do not take kindly to being thwarted."
Holding Nero tol Scaeva to a 'higher standard' is a good way to set oneself up for disappointment. He even knows this... but he also knows enough to not say so much aloud. The behind you kick tomorrow is the behind you must kiss today. "You're fortunate that I'm such a naturally-motivated man." He smiles thinly. "And 'obtaining the World'... that's the prize at the end of this long game?"
"And would this be a literal world or a figurative, and much more enriching one?" He thinks he already knows the answer, but he would like a confirmation of his hunch. The latter seems much more like the reward for such a contest.
For a moment, Nero is speechless. Is that really the answer? It is, isn't it? "'All of the above', then. Fine. A 'game' this big should have an enormous prize waiting at the end." He crosses his arms before him absently, not fully realizing how defensive he's feeling. "How many others are on this 'team' with me?"
"You underestimate the stakes. We wish to see ourselves reflected throughout the whole of reality; that is the World." And it is indeed an enormous prize.
"There are six others of my Chosen currently in ambit, and five out."
Nero's eyebrows lift. That is enormous. So much so that for a moment, he fears for what he has gone and fallen face-first into. Only a moment, for the grandness of it all quickly sweeps him onward from the feeling. "A team of half a dozen, then. Fine. I don't suppose you're permitted to give out some names?"
"It may." Well, he'll try to cooperate. Or to get them to cooperate with him. He has ways of doing things. And though not a single one of those names is one that's familiar to him, he'll endeavor to remember them.
"I'm something of a latecomer to the team. I don't suppose you or one of your competitors had anything to do with me... finding my way back here?"
"Liminal space. This entire journey your lot seem set on having us make. I'd ask fewer questions if I had more answers in my head, but somehow, I suspect there's quite a lot I've been made to forget." He will not forget Moebius anytime soon, that's for certain... not that it does him very much good here and now.
"Your arrival to Liminal Space was Fortuna's doing. Another of our number Sorts those who have not yet been Chosen, in her absence. After that was completed, I brought you here to speak."
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"There are six others of my Chosen currently in ambit, and five out."
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"Feliciano Vargas, avatar of Northern Italy. Jesse McCree. Randolph Lyall. Right Suzuki. Vilari Mahariel. Yukino Mayuzumi."
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"I'm something of a latecomer to the team. I don't suppose you or one of your competitors had anything to do with me... finding my way back here?"
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