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

[neverfeltthatway]

Armin blinks at his sudden appearance, looking slowly around the room. After finding no exits, he tries to reach out to the telepathic network, to no avail. Nothing like this has happened before, that he can remember - and yet, instinctively, he has a fairly good idea of what's going on here.

"ROSE?" he calls out tentatively.

[rosewater_path]

"Not even waiting for the dramatic reveal?" a familiar voice calls, and then she steps theough the mirror in a pixellated shimmer, a circuit probe in one hand and a loading circle over her head.

[neverfeltthatway]

Raising his eyebrows a bit, Armin shrugs. "Is that the standard protocol? I didn't realize - you can do it over, if you like. I'll even pretend to be surprised." He says this all straight-faced, giving every indication that he's entirely serious.

[rosewater_path]

"Don't sweat it," she says, dismissively. "My ego can take the hit, even right now."

[neverfeltthatway]

His mouth twitches a little. "Unless I'm mistaken, your ego could always take a hit or two." He glances around the room. "So. We're moving on to phase three. Are you here to tell me what that means?"

[rosewater_path]

"Is that gonna be your one question, shortcake?"

[neverfeltthatway]

Armin grimaces, briefly. "Let me rephrase. I assume you're here to tell me what that means."

[rosewater_path]

"And what does that make you?" She waves a hand, shakes her head. "Nevermind. You're half right. We're for... let's call it a tune-up."

[neverfeltthatway]

He blinks, not seeming to get the reference, but doesn't object when she dismisses it. "To make sure we're on the same page as we go into the third stage, and start competing more directly in the jaunts." It is almost, but not quite a question.

[rosewater_path]

"Ding ding," She replies, grinning and pointing at the sky. "I'd say 'win a prize,' but you're already an overachiever enough to freak even me out a little bit."

[neverfeltthatway]

He blinks again, and just barely stop himself from saying 'really?' or 'I am?' He's determined to get something useful out of his one question, and while ROSE has been fairly generous in reminding him that he only has one so far, he wouldn't put it past her to answer a question he hadn't intended to ask. Since he's already slipped up once in this conversation so far, at that point, he'd deserve it.

"...I didn't know that. I wouldn't have expected to be capable of anything that can freak you out."

[rosewater_path]

"There's a whole lot your kind and mine don't expect about each other," she says, voice lower and more serious for the moment.

[neverfeltthatway]

He mirrors her gravity instantly. "That's true. I imagine there's a lot we could learn from each other, if we took the time to do so."

[rosewater_path]

"That's what I'm hoping."

[neverfeltthatway]

Armin considers that for a long moment. "...You have things you would learn about us," he says finally, not quite a question. "Perhaps there are questions I could answer for you."

[rosewater_path]

"Sure." She pauses, thinking. "...What's the little dangly thing at the back of your mouth for?"

[neverfeltthatway]

"The... the uvula?" He blinks, surprised by the question, but then thinks back to the biology book Thorne had given him. "I think it prevents food from entering the nasal cavity when you're swallowing something, and it helps to produce saliva. Plus... some languages use sounds that you make with your uvula. Though that's just something it's used for, not exactly what it's evolved for."

As he's speaking, he carefully reaches out with the new power he gained in Newport, trying hard to replicate one of her abilities as subtly as he can - though in truth, he doesn't really know how to do it subtly, as it's not detectable by normal human senses. On the other hand, he doesn't know if she could detect this at all, or if it'll even work in the first place.

[rosewater_path]

For a moment, he sees the room as she sees it - a satellite space, orbiting a larger unsphere of liminality, itself orbiting a much larger unshape, tethered by glowing, thrumming lines of connection, meaning, significance. She is in each of these unplaces, although in the others she is distributed, unpresent, not crudely coalesced as she is here. Then a strident twang travels along another string, connecting him to her locus, snapping his perceptions back to the physical.

"That is bad for your health," she says, sternly, raising a finger.

[neverfeltthatway]

He blinks several times, trying to regain his equilibrium and process what it is he just saw.

After a moment, he raises his eyebrows mildly. "I would hardly be one of your chosen if I didn't even try."

[rosewater_path]

"You could have asked. Seriously. Messing with that kind of thing is bad news, especially if anyone else is paying attention."

[neverfeltthatway]

"I didn't know that's what it would do, and it seemed unlikely you'd let me mimic the abilities of one of the Arcana. And further unlikely that I'd get a chance to try, if I warned you about it first. Plus, I still don't really trust you." He pauses a moment, cocking his head to the side. "...Was anyone else paying attention?

"That's not my one question, if you don't want to answer - I won't be asking that today."

[rosewater_path]

"I don't really trust you, either," she echoes, then snorts, a sadly skeptical kind of sound. "You think you're like me, hot stuff? Figure it out."

Shen snaps her fingers, and just like that, he's back in Liminal Space.