powersthatbe | Conversation Space I.

Lupa stands perfectly still at first, one hand near his sidearm. When no instant threat appears he turns in a slow, measured circle, surveying the room with all his senses.

And on not seeing immediate exits, he tries to portal out.

The portal doesn't open.

"We are not letting you leave just yet," says a voice behind him. "First, we must talk, Lupa who was once Greg."

The tattoo splashed across his stomach picks up a red glow around the edges, and the room warms. Stifling, for someone not used to a lot of heat, but comfortable for someone like Lupa himself. Lupa turns, with the carefully telegraphed movements of a soldier not wanting to startle another. His expression is carefully neutral as he looks Emperor over with a quick, but thorough, assessing gaze.

"If you mean to talk, then do so. I don't wish to be parted from my comrades for any longer than necessary."

"Indeed," he says. "I am Emperor, numbered four among the Major Arcana. I have chosen you as one of my Travelers."

Lupa's carefully neutral expression turns to a frown, and his gaze is cold and hard. The only sign of more turbulent emotion than just that calm disapproval is the tattoo on his stomach. It begins glowing bright red, circuitry lines extending from it for an inch or two. They stop there, because Lupa is keeping careful control of his transformation, but he's still very disturbed by the idea of being Marked.

After a moment he crosses his arms over his chest. "So you intend to brand my flesh with your mark. Why? You know enough about me to know I was Greg, so I shouldn't need to tell you why I'm opposed to the idea."

"I know," he says simply, crossing his own arms in the mirror. "It does not matter. All Travelers are to receive Marks now. We were given the chance to Mark as we willed up to five on our designated Jaunts. Now we are dividing the remainder and though many of the Arcana wished to claim you, I have won the day."

Edited 2016-11-12 04:00 (UTC)

"The last mark forced on me requires me to devour other people to survive. What consequences does your mark have, Emperor?"

Lupa isn't sure he'll get an answer, but at least the question is asked. He would wait patiently for whatever answer comes, but the last words catch his attention, bringing his head up and tipped to the side.

"Why me? What makes me so valuable to so many of you... Arcana?"

"None like that," the Emperor says. "And you are valuable to many of us because you embody the qualities of many of us. To me, most of all. You are a leader and a father, are you not? You bring control, structure, and stability to those you command."

Lupa shifts his stance, going slightly more open, but still on high alert. It's done very deliberately, and he doesn't speak until a moment later.

"I'm a Leader, yes. Father... perhaps not in the literal sense. I'm no longer Greg; I may have never been since being reborn into the Junkyard. It would need to be Fred's choice to accept me as father or not."

Lupa still feels that way towards the boy he's never met, but he's been thinking about it, and that seems the most honorable way to approach the issue.

"I understand why you would choose me, but why should I choose to follow your leadership?"

"You serve as a father to your men," the Emperor says, "whether or not you count yourself Fred's father. As for why I ask you to follow me... would you wish for a universe where the things we both value have greater weight than they do now? I would."

Edited 2016-11-12 10:24 (UTC)

"It seems to me, that outside the Junkyard fatherhood is already valued. You say order and stability, but what kind, and what cost? I have experienced, directly and indirectly, order and structure imposed on others to their detriment. I have personally rebelled against the Law laid down by the Karma Temple. Order is only good if it benefits the people it is supposed to be supporting."

Lupa doesn't have anything against the idea, but the Junkyard, and the world outside of it both desperately needed change, as the order there was a ruin to both. Lupa doesn't want to become a part of something similar, even tangentially, so it bleeds a note of challenge into his voice.

"Indeed," says the Emperor. "I would like to think my order is that which is beneficial."

"The Karma Society believed their order was beneficial when it was slaughtering children for food and declaring lives unworthy of the benefits of their order without knowing the people." Lupa says that as a simple fact, keeping the way he recoils from the concept carefully in check. That reaction will not help him make his point.

To show his willingness to listen, he finally sits in the provided chair. "I will listen while you detail why your plan for order will benefit and not harm."

"A good ruler," the Emperor says, "is much like a good father. In fact, they are one and the same. A king should be the father of his nation, much like a general is the father to his men. If possible, I wish to be father to all. To guide and instruct, to provide structure and prosperity. Infanticide is not what I would consider a product of good government. Your Karma Society was a corruption of my ideals."

"I don't disagree with the ideal, but having seen such corruption, I'm finding myself wary of those who claim to be the answer to it. If I cannot trust you..."

Lupa trails off with a shrug, and is silent for a long moment, sifting through his memories with eyes closed.

"You wish to be a father to all, but a child or soldier must trust their father-Leader fully and without hesitation and be given that trust in turn for such a relationship to function. The Travelers don't trust you or your fellows. I cannot trust you as things stand, and I trust your fellows even less, to the point where I would be ready to stand against them if they threatened my Tribe and comrades, even unintentionally. I've seen little evidence that you and your fellows give us that trust in turn."

Lupa gives the mirror a pointed look but then focuses on Emperor's face again. "What is your answer to that issue that stands between us?"

The Emperor sighs. "In truth," he says, rubbing his temple, "I am all Order, good or bad. It is what I am. I cannot change that. This Karma Society of yours is a corruption of all that I am, my face in reverse... but it is mine, just as much as you are mine. It is... difficult, sometimes, to trust you Travelers to act correctly. You are much younger beings than we. Children, from our viewpoint. I know not how to gain your trust in these matters. I could say that among the Arcana I am one of the more straightforward and trustworthy and that would be true, for it is written into the things that I am, but that would not make you trust me. I would not ask you to trust the other Arcana, apart from the Empress, either, for it unfair to ask you to trust what I do not. I can only try to trust you to be who you are and hope that I am eventually trusted in turn."

He looks Lupa directly in the eyes. "It would reassure me, however, if you still keep being all the things that you are, all the things that call me to you: leader and father figure and strong protector."

"What you determine as correct... I don't believe some of your fellows would consider correct, isn't that right? If you are all so..." Lupa pauses for a few moments, head tipped as he looks for a word to express, "bound by what you represent, and you each represent something different, it only follows."

A breath. A glance at the room. Then Lupa turns his full attention back to Emperor. "I'm not a child; I never was. Those experiences and memories were denied me, and I'm less for that. I won't stand against you, or change what decisions I make to be an obstacle to you. I will continue to be myself, but I'm learning, experiencing, growing. I'm going to change. I think I am changing right now. I was created to be only a soldier and I'm so much more than that. Here I have a chance to begin anew, and explore what I can become as a person. I won't step in to stop that, and if I become different than what creates and binds you, so be it. At this time, you haven't convinced me that the changes you would write into the core data of the universe would be the best ones. Unless..."

Lupa takes a step forward, gaze intent. "You speak of Empress, and imply that I should trust her. What is she bound by? Is she your comrade? Should one of you win, would you both win together?"

"She is bound by her archetype, of course," the Emperor says. "She is fertility, abundance, motherhood, femininity, beauty, satisfaction, the growing world. Where I am hard, she is soft. Where I am strict, she is forgiving. She is my counterpart, helpmeet, and wife and I trust her implicitly--and yes, that does mean she is my comrade. Should one of us win, we would not quite win together--it would be she whose qualities shall be reflected throughout reality, not mine--but we have talked of what we would use our prize for at that point, and I trust her not to abuse its other powers. If her qualities are more appealing to you, I pray you support her."

Edited 2017-01-06 08:15 (UTC)

"What are its other powers? Also, why can't you share the prize? If you are comrades balanced in the way you say, wouldn't a world reflecting both of you be more balanced and whole? I can understand why those who are opposed to each other would find sharing unpleasant, but those who support each other... Sharing makes more sense to me."

Lupa isn't really expecting both questions to be answered, but which one Emperor chooses not to answer will be an answer in itself.

"That is not how Synodiporia works," the Emperor says simply. "As I said, it allows one to be reflected throughout reality. It allows us to set terms for the next round; it gives us the power to do what we find necessary for the Travelers in our care and protection, as well as our fellow Arcana; and, not insignificantly, it gives us the power to return our fallen siblings to us--to reincarnate them, in your idiom." He sighs. "It has been... a while since I've seen little Star, much less Hierophant and the other two."

Lupa wants to press, and ask if anyone of them has ever tried to share a win, but he suspects that would get nowhere, and as long as the Arcanum is answering questions, he needs to get as much information as he can.

"What is it that you find necessary for the Travelers?"

After a short pause, he continues, almost hesitantly. "I'm... sorry that your comrades? were lost. What happened to them?"

Lupa is pretty sure that won't be answered, but he might at least find out whether or not Emperor considered them favorably like he does Empress, at least.

"They died," the Emperor says tiredly. "Fortune, Temperance, Hierophant, little Star... they all died. My siblings, my brother-friend, my sister-daughter. They were family. We are family, all of us. Or at least that is how the Empress and I see it." He's silent for a moment, staring at some point just beyond Lupa's ears.

"The Empress and I have agreed we would return those who wished to leave our care to the places from whence they came. For those who did not wish to go home, we would provide a place for them in liminal space, where they would have all those things that mortals need: food, homes, beverages, chairs, some degree of answers appropriate to mortal comprehension, what other things they might wish within reason. And our protection."

"Reviving lost comrades is a worthy cause."

Lupa has so many questions, but he's aware that there might not be time or patience for them all to be answered, so he sorts through what he wants to know.

"Am I correct in the supposition that our worlds will be changed to reflect the winner as well? And what of those of us who can't return for some reason; would remaining remove us from the cycle of reincarnation, or would our data return to the proper place once we expire? What effect would remaining have on our other lives if our data doesn't return?"

Lupa is aware of Sera's supposition that it's not reincarnation, and perhaps she's right. However the similarities are so great that Lupa can't help but wonder if it's not whole worlds being reincarnated.

"Your data will eventually return to the cycle of reincarnation," the Emperor says, "at least, such as I understand it. We do not plan to keep you alive indefinitely. We realize that is detrimental to mortals."

Lupa is a little disappointed that some of his questions weren't answered, but he won't press on the issue. The most vital has been answered.

He takes a long, slow breath. Now comes the point where he must decide, and he has one more question to ask. The answer will determine whether or not he'll make an attempt to begin trusting Emperor or not.

"When we began this conversation, you mentioned that others wished to claim me. Before you Mark me, I wish to speak with one of them, if possible and they are also willing. They have known you longer than I, and I'm interested in knowing what else about me caused you as a group to pull me here. I assume you have a means of contacting them?"

He's not going to dispute being Marked by Emperor, but a refusal will show that Emperor isn't willing to trust him, and therefore not a worthy leader to follow.

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emperorsquared - 2017-03-07 11:34 (UTC) - Expand

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