Conversation Space I.

[powersthatbe]

The room is small, intimate. You are alone. There is no sign of a way in or out. Ping-pong balls crunch underfoot, and empty giftboxes, meticulously wrapped and ribboned, are lined up against one wall, while a humming wall of server blades are racked on the opposite wall. A high-backed, gilt chair with red velvet cushions faces an ornate, full-length mirror, and beside the chair is a mug of steaming hot chocolate on a tiny side table, steaming invitingly from beneath a layer of fifteen half-melted marshmallows.

What do you do?

Comments

[awitchdidit]

Beatrice looks around the bizarre room approvingly for a few seconds, but slaps a hand over her eyes with a grimace as soon as the corner of her eye glimpses the reflective surface of the mirror.

She turns around and puts her back to the back of the chair so she can lower her hand and check the rest of the room without embarrassment or magical difficulties.

"This is a bit more crowded than your usual spaces, no?" she finally asks, forcing a smirk to her face. She puts her hand behind her on the table, reaching very carefully for the hot chocolate without actually looking in the mirror's direction. "Assuming this is a room for one of the Arcana, of course. None of your players mix their metaphors quite like this, in my experience."

[rosewater_path]

"Clever girl," the mirror says, and in it is captured the image of a blue-haired woman glowing with cyan LED lines on a white jumpsuit. Over her head, a "loading" icon turns in its eternal circle, and in one hand she holds a circuit tester with an elongated probe-needle on each end.

"Arcana, huh? I think I like that better than the other one."

[awitchdidit]

Beatrice turns her head to peak at the mirror, making sure she can't see her own reflection before turning to face Magician fully.

"Either is a valid term. Overpowering the other cards in the deck, or revealing the secrets of reality," she observes, picking up the hot chocolate fully now. "I like secrets and control, myself."

[rosewater_path]

"I noticed," the young woman says with a chuckle, and steps out of the mirror, ducking so her loading icon doesn't catch on the frame, then leaning back up against it just as if it was a solid surface after all. "But it's the secrets thing that let us meet already. That was a neat little cheatcode you figured out."

[awitchdidit]

"I have something of an advantage," Beatrice says. "I've hosted a game like this before. Not quite so elaborate or sprawling as this endeavor of yours, but I have some insight into how they're made and where the seams in the rules may lie. Just a bit, but enough."

She blows on the hot chocolate and nods her head to Magician. "May I sit?"

Another thing she wished she had more of in her own game: courteous guests.

[rosewater_path]

"I'd say be my guest, but you already are," she says, casually. "Besides, I don't really need chairs. When I sit, it's in the driver's seat."

[awitchdidit]

"Indeed. The Magician wouldn't have it any other way, would she?" Beatrice asks, sitting down and sipping at the chocolate as she collects her thoughts.

"So...this is the part where the game gets serious, yes? There's a few people worried that you're simply going to pit us against each other in a deathmatch," she observes. "That seems a bit anticlimactic after all the mystery and obfuscation thus far, though. I'm curious where this is really headed."

[rosewater_path]

"I think only Bondage Biker and the Hooded Creeper would like that," she says, wrinklong her nose and shaking her head in disgust. "Which means - well, there might be a few death matches in your future. But that's not the way most of us play things. I'd expect more mystery and obfuscation instead!"

[awitchdidit]

"I'm glad to hear it," she says, grinning. "So what's the difference now, then? Is there something you need that you're showing yourself directly, or is this simply a check-in?"

[rosewater_path]

"If there was something I needed, would you give it to me?" ROSE asks, face suddenly serious. "I know that we've done a lot to inconvenience you all, and most of you have negative feelings about us."

[awitchdidit]

Beatrice quirks an eyebrow. She'd assumed that ROSE knew she and the Trumps in general were unpopular, but not that she cared.

"I know no one does something like this without a reason," she says, serious now herself. "All I want is to know what that reason is. Whether you trust me with that now or offer it as a prize, as long as I know it's possible to know...I'm not cruel enough to spoil someone else's game."

[rosewater_path]

She taps her foot, and purses her lips thoughtfully. "Your lot are good at figuring things out," she says, as if trying out the sound of it. "And the ones that are mine are better than most. Whether I tell you or not, you'll probably reason through it in another dozen rounds or so."

[awitchdidit]

"I honestly and truly appreciate your faith in that respect," she says. "I will listen to you now or figure it out then. It's up to you what you think will make a better game."

She wouldn't, or at least didn't, when she was in the Magician's position, but sometimes she considers how things might have gone if she had.

[rosewater_path]

"I'm going to let it wait, then," she says after a moment, sunny again. "At least until Armin decides that's the answer he wants to trick out of me."

[awitchdidit]

"He's a devious one, isn't he?" she observes. "And all for the good of the group, too. A rare combination."

She takes another drink of hot chocolate. "This is excellent, by the way. Normally I'm a tea-drinker, but I can't say no to something with this much marshmallow. At any rate...to answer your original question, I'm going to play this game out to the end. If part of that is exchanging favors with the woman who Marked me, we can talk details."

[rosewater_path]

"Hey, I like initiative as much as I like brains," she says, clicking her tongue. "Sure, cleverboots. Let's talk details. What exactly are you looking for?"

[awitchdidit]

"At this point, I barely know. You Arcana plucked me out of a perfectly peaceful afterlife to give me a journey across the Fragments of Reality, and I've frankly had a wonderful time," she says. "Well, mostly. I suppose as long as I have the tools I need to solve your puzzle, that would be it."

There is one other thing she'd ask for, but she's not willing to reveal that part of her heart just yet. Not to someone with power over her. It's probably outside the bounds of the game anyway.

[rosewater_path]

"I'm one of the only ones rooting for you to solve it - but I think you're doing well," ROSE assures her, face scrunching up a little. "It's... even for me, it's hard to know how you'll think or react. We take each other by surprise a lot."

[awitchdidit]

"Tell me about it," Beatrice responds with an understanding smile. "I had a single player I spent a long time studying, and I still couldn't predict what he was going to do from one moment to the next."

When it comes down to it, that's the main reason she can't condemn the Arcana the way others do. She knows, in the face of free will, that omniscience is an impossibility - a front. And one she doesn't begrudge them trying to keep up.

"So if it's only your goal is to be understood, or for us to understand, what are the others after?" she asks, curious.

[rosewater_path]

The look ROSE shoots her is knowing and skeptical. "Only is such a loaded word," she intones. "Almost as bad as assuming we have unified goals. Goldie, sweetie, I'll be happy if you understand me. But I won't let anybody stop me. Some of us are kinder. Some of us aren't. Half a dozen will stomp on you for funsies."

[awitchdidit]

She shrugs. "Oversimplification on my part. What I meant was to try and get an idea of what factions are among you, if there are any. You, who want us to understand, against just as an arbitrary guess the Tower who probably enjoys our distress. Who's on which side, or whether everybody's on their own."

Another calm drink. "Obviously you have some other goal. Otherwise why challenge anyone to figure it out? Even if the journey is the fun part, all journeys have a destination."

She taps her fingers on her cup. "Say, speaking of destinations, I can't help but notice one card who hasn't been reported, alive or dead..."

[rosewater_path]

"Really?" ROSE asks. "I can't imagine anyone I know like that, Goldie. But don't knock Superhoodie. He's a hard guy to get to know, and you might be surprised by the things he wants, no matter what he enjoys. But then... I might be surprised, too. He's one of the few who can."

[awitchdidit]

"Oh really?" she asks. "I have to admit, Ougon Yuki wasn't pious enough to have met him on-Jaunt, so I can only guess. I'd be interested to know what his endgame was if it's something other than the obvious wanton destruction...aha, honestly, interesting as you are in particular, I do want to know about all of you."

She grins. "And I'll say again more clearly to make sure that was an intentional omission: how does The World figure into all of this?"

[rosewater_path]

"Never met 'em," ROSE denies, holding up her hands. "Honestly, if you ask again, I'm afraid we're going to hear a rooster and I'm going to go found a church or something, and that'll be awkward for all of us."

[awitchdidit]

"I know better than to say something three times unless I mean it," Beatrice says, nodding. "It's just invigorating to come at this from the side of the detective, you know? I spent so much time being the mysterious woman that this whole journey's been a nice change of pace."

She smirks. "Although I am curious about something...I locked someone in a room with no windows, doors, or other exits, just food and water to keep her alive. At no point did anyone or anything pass between the prison and the outside world, and yet when I returned later, my captive was nowhere to be seen. What did I find instead?"