Conversation Space IV.

[powersthatbe]

The small room is painted a dark beige, with stained wood paneling on the lower half, and lush burgundy carpeting. The ceiling, however, is cracked and bowed, sagging alarmingly, occasionally shedding chips of plaster. Wrought-iron lamp-posts in the corners suspend pale, wan globes of light, and between them along the walls run rows of painted sunflowers, all turned towards the center of the room as if listening attentively. A jutting spire of granite rises from the floor on a diagonal, its flattened top sporting a cracked wineglass from which the wine (a white) slowly spatters teardrops across the plinth. And there is no chair, but a therapist’s couch, blue with gold trim, and ornate scrollwork on the legs, beside which the fluted horn of a phonograph player pipes music into the room, quiet enough to just be background ambience.

Comments

[chalicejoker]

Hajime doesn't appreciate being snatched away from whatever he was doing in favor of this, and his transformation belt immediately appears as he tenses, readying himself for a fight. He knows who's brought him here after talking to enough of the others, and he's not happy about it. He immediately starts looking around for a sign of his host. His gaze lingers on the crumbling ceiling. It wouldn't be hard to hit that, to bring it down, but then what? Being stuck in a cave-in isn't the best idea, but if he needs a risky out? Attacking the ceiling is worth considering.

"Show yourself," he demands, figuring that of course he's being watched at this point.

[powersthatare]

The tall figure is suddenly there, swaying slightly under its dark robe, cadaverously slender and roughly seven feet in height.

[chalicejoker]

...that actually worked. Huh. Despite the fact that he is on the shorter side of things, Hajime isn't at all fazed by the extra height the robed figure has on him. Once they'd worked out why people were being pulled aside, he'd been psyching himself up for just one thing.

He rushes at the robed figure, fully intending to try to land a solid punch.

[powersthatare]

The figure twitches, and a curtain of debris cascades from the ceiling, slamming into Hajime from above and deflecting his rush.

Unwise, the figure's voice booms, echoing from the ceiling like the rolling growl of thunder.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime had been expecting the hooded figure to dodge or to respond with some kind of counterpunch. Not something from the crumbling ceiling he'd been eyeing earlier.

He's knocked to the ground, and he's pretty sure he's going to be feeling this later. He spits a bit of green blood on the floor before trying to pick himself up. "Don't care." It was worth a try.

[powersthatare]

"I AM Beyond your power," the figure states, voice beginning as a stentorian howl from above and seeming to travel and shrink, ending as if only an echo from down a long dark tunnel.

[chalicejoker]

Was that supposed to scare Hajime? It only pisses him off more. "Then why do you need me?" It is hard to act tough when you're still recovering from having part of the ceiling thrown on you, but Hajime is trying. He jerks a thumb at his arm, where his Mark is hidden by his trenchcoat. "Because that means something."

[powersthatare]

"YOUR REACH exceeds ours," he admits.

[chalicejoker]

"And what is it that you need me to reach for?" Hajime still isn't happy with this. Not at all. "Assuming I'd even do it." There's an unspoken I won't in there somewhere.

[powersthatare]

"CHANGE!" The figure says, volume lending emphasis.

[chalicejoker]

That makes Hajime twitch. It's what his buckle says when he transforms, for crying out loud. "Change what?"

[powersthatare]

"Everything."

[chalicejoker]

Yes, this is ever so forthcoming. So much information here. "And if I don't?" There's a note of challenge in Hajime's tone.

[powersthatare]

"disaster," the voice speaks from around his knees, hissing its sibilants.

[chalicejoker]

"...is that a threat?" Hajime doesn't think much of threats.

[powersthatare]

"IT IS our nature."

[chalicejoker]

"And it's in my nature to not want to cooperate with people who are just trying to use me."

[powersthatare]

"THERE IS No escaping that," he says, chidingly, vexed, the ponderous figure swaying and turning on its heel. "WE Encompass all." Scarecrow-like, his long arms spread. "ALL MORTAL ENDEAVOR Serves one of us."

[chalicejoker]

Interesting. Very interesting, even if Hajime doesn't like it.

"Then why'd you pick me?" asks the apocalypse bug who immediately tried to attack before talking and would deny that any of this might be Tower-like. "I wasn't even myself when you did." No, he was just an old man that exemplified the worst he could be, that's all.

[powersthatare]

"YOU Are impulive."

[chalicejoker]

Hajime can't even argue that point--it would be kind of foolish after he'd tried to punch Tower. "...that's it?" If he's a bit suspicious, there are other reasons he'd guessed at. Aggression, the whole apocalypse thing he had going...

[powersthatare]

"IT Is ... foremost."

[chalicejoker]

Hajime scowls. "You just want someone who knows how to wreck things, to hell with consequences, then?"

[powersthatare]

"NO. CONSEQUENCES Are... everything."

[chalicejoker]

"The hell kind of consequences are you looking for, then?" Hajime is getting a little fed up with all the vagueness here.