Conversation Space: The Ultimate

[powersthatbe]

You feel as if you've stepped through a door.

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VI. The Lovers

[cupidand]

You find yourself in a wide open pink space, with swirls of white, gold, and red drifting through the air currents. You can smell chocolate and sugar. When you breathe in, there's the sense that you're inhaling something intoxicating. You can taste the slightest hint of champagne on your tongue.

There is black-and-white checkered tile beneath your feet and bubbles floating around about a dozen or more feet above your head. Some of them glow. Closer to the ground where you are, there's a loveseat, with gilded wood, and pink and red upholstery. There's also a metal wire table enameled in white next to it, the wires forming heartshapes that radiate outward from the center. On the table is a champagne flute filled with something bubbly and pink.

continuation of Matthew's thread

[cupidand]

PSYCHE lands on one end of the loveseat and Matthew on the other.

"Okay," she says turning towards him. "Since this is a serious talk now, we're just going to have to ignore my bubbles for the time being. So. Let's start with Mobebius. Moebius was kind of what you'd call an anomaly, at least in the kind of Jaunts we usually run. We send you into hairy situations, yeah, but they're mostly not extreme. Okay, yeah, sure, there was Harrogate, but honestly, that's 'cause Astræa has a bone to pick with the Elder Goobers and kind of overestimated your competency.

"I mean sure, Moebius' world was in our pool of worlds to send you to, but there's all kinds of Jaunts we've got in our pool that we've never bothered to send you to yet and we probably never will, like that extreme sports one. And we didn't send you there lightly either. You'd all thoroughly earned the trip. And since Morty and Malbolge were the ones you caused the trouble for, they were in charge of the consequences. Morty decided he wanted to put you through that whole Groundhog's Day reset thing. I mean, cycles kind of are his thing, so I figure that was his idea of a good punishment." She shrugs. "Possibly he was even inspired by the movie. He likes comedies.

"Anyway, Morty set the first term, then Malbolge set the second, which was that it needed to have pain and futility, and then we checked our list and there was Moebius, which suited both terms. So they sent you there. The memory stuff wasn't a side effect we'd planned on, but it was probably for the best. And hey, you guys took down some people who really needed to be taken down."

[comebewe]

Oh god.

Oh god.

"You - you didn't send people to Moebius because it's part of your bloody game, you did it because you wanted to...fuck...you wanted to bloody dole out punishment..."

It's a good thing she plopped him into that chair, because if she hadn't he'd be needing to sit down right about now. They covers their mouth with one hand, as if trying to hold back the horror. The Arcana made Travellers die, over and over again, just an endless parade of death...because they wanted to punish them. And not just the Arcana as a whole, but one that had decided to mark him.

[cupidand]

"No, no," she says. "It was part of the game. But if you hadn't done what you did, we'd have probably sent you somewhere less... difficult, maybe? Yeah, less difficult. And honestly, if you hadn't all banded together-- I mean, it was a full Jaunt punishment because you'd all earned it. We wouldn't do that if it was only a large portion of you that had."

consolation prizes

[fridgeninja]

He's not at all surprised to be here again. And he's not very surprised that the summons waited until he found tophat, tailcoat, and ascot. He'll straighten his clothing a touch, then sit, smiling, reaching for the champagne right away.

"PSYCHE-chan," he says, nodding to her. "It's good to see you again." As usual, his words are brimming with sincerity and warmth, however even the tone of his voice sounds.

Re: consolation prizes

[cupidand]

"It's good to be here to see," she says tiredly. She's wearing a matching formal suit in white. "For a while there, I was--" She sighs and looks down at the large cartoon of triple chocolate raspberry ice cream on her lap, then manifests a second spoon to hand to him.

"I really hate that mutt."

[fridgeninja]

"He's your opposite," Souji says, getting who she means right away, and reaching down to pull his spoon along the edge of the ice cream, scooping it up in a thin curlicue. "I don't think that's too surprising, that you wouldn't get along." He bites his lip, then glances up at her. "Was you still being here a... close call?"

after Valentine's plans

[rustyhonesty]

The space definitely is different from the one he saw that was made as a joint project. It's a bit weird, being in a very pink space like this. The taste of champagne is very familiar and he sighs, thinking it's very much like PSYCHE to come up with a place like this.

He walks closer over to the loveseat, looking around at the floating bubbles. As pretty as they are, he keeps in mind he's not here to admire the space - but ask something he's heard recently.

"I appreciate you taking time to meet with me, PSYCHE-chan."

Re: after Valentine's plans

[cupidand]

"I'm just glad you still want to talk," she says tiredly as she suddenly comes into being. She's in a pink suit with a red bowtie and is sprawled over half a loveseat. There's a stack of heart-shaped packages on her lap. The top one seems to be labeled with Jean's own name in loopy pink cursive. "You and Souji... Elphie's gone and Zak hates me now. And I never did get to grab Inanna before it was too late--they fell out of ambit between making our picks and my joint week. Do you hate me, Jean?"

[rustyhonesty]

"That's what I want to find out." Seeing her like this is pretty sad. When Jean had met her before she was so full of energy.

The box with his name makes him curious, but he doesn't comment on it yet.

"I wanted to hear your side on some of the things I heard. I don't want to jump into conclusions without hearing you first."

[rustyhonesty]

Eren going to talk to Chariot made Jean think back on his own patron Arcana. It had been a while since he last talked to PSYCHE - mostly because he didn't really agree on things she had done. Yet he felt like he should at least check in and see what she's been doing.

The smell of chocolate brings the previous liminal back into his mind. It's not a bad thing, really. He had just forgotten how similar it smells here to the Lotus ponds.

[cupidand]

"Durga just had to steal my chocolate, didn't she?" Lovers says, suddenly sharing the couch with him. "Hey, Jean. I kinda thought you hated me. You want some popcorn? Champagne, maybe? Or heck, I can get you better chocolate than Durga can. I have all the best chocolate."

[rustyhonesty]

Well that was a quick appearance. Jean tries not to look too startled, but he is a bit. Not too much, but enough to show a bit. You never knew how the Arcana would act, huh?

"I wouldn't say I hate you. I just don't agree about some things." Hate is too strong of a word that he reserves only for a few people these days. "Champagne and chocolate sound good, actually."

welp

[all_onis_are_true]

...Right. Hiroshi can't be too certain, but he's about 95% sure that this is not, in fact, the jaunt.

He rubs his temples, trying to ignore the strange feeling the air around here is giving him. He does find himself needing to sit down, however. Is this yet another Arcana's space? Why does he keep getting yanked around to these?

"I know you are here somewhere, whoever it is. Could you please come out so I know whose realm I am in?" he speaks out to nobody in particular.

Re: welp

[cupidand]

"Hey," says a dark woman with a pompadour. She's dressed in a sharp white suit, with a gold waistcoat and a light pink shirt underneath. "You're Hiroshi, right? I heard about you from Lune. You can see alternate timelines, right? Something like that?"

She plucks a champagne flute like the one on the table from the air, then comes down to sit next to Hiroshi. A tub of popcorn flits into being in between them.

"Welcome to my conversation space, by the way. I'm Lovers, though my friends call me Anima, sometimes, or PSYCHE. You know, like 'Cupid And?'"

[bigbookofd]

Ah. Well.

For all he's been warned, and all he was expecting this meeting, the actual aesthetic of this place sets Ringabel's teeth on edge. This place would meet with the enthusiastic approval of a certain Red Mage (or the bearer of that job's Asterisk, at least). And air heady with something intoxicating, when Fiore DeRosa already leaps unbidden to the mind...

Ringabel sits on the couch, legs folded into a "4," frowning. "Am I to assume I am in the abode of the lady Psyche?" he asks to no one in particular.

[cupidand]

"That would be me, yeah," the woman who suddenly materializes on the couch next to him says. "Love the hair, by the way."

She's got a pompadour of her own and is wearing a tailored white suit with blue accents.

present delivery

[rustyhonesty]

Jean is in a happier mood than usual when he's entering PSYCHE's space. He's carrying a bunny-shaped bag full of chocolates a certain moon rabbit wanted him to deliver and he has his own parcel which appears to be a painting.

"I brought you something since you missed Valentine's Day... well, mine's a White Day present since I wasn't sure if we would still be in Liminal when that happened, but the other is definitely Valentine."

Re: present delivery

[cupidand]

Yeah, you're going to get a pair of arms flung around you, Jean. "I love presents!" Psyche says, her white suit sparkling. "Whatja bring me?"

[breakaleginhalf]

Gil steps out of his Bridge-portal from Magician's personal space, into Lover's--

And immediately sneezes. It's very loud and kind of gross-sounding. "Fucking hell." The smells weren't overpowering, but they existed, and the sheer unexpectedness of it was a shock to his enhanced senses.

[cupidand]

A woman who looks unsettlingly like Janelle Monae, albeit with an almost invisible seam running down her front, dividing her neatly in half, appears on the loveseat next to him. "Oh hey," she says. "I don't get visitors who aren't my kids, usually--and you're one of ROSE's, aren't you?"

Just to the side of the loveseat there's a painting of two of her, dressed in white and black gowns, displayed on a white easel.

late in the post-Grid liminal

[rustyhonesty]

Somehow, every time Jean visits his patron Arcana, his mood is vastly different from the previous time. Last time he was happy beyond his dreams and now he was kind of serious and worried. Not that he walks to blame and suspect PSYCHE for being involved with the Jaunt. Likely him being one of the Trojans was just a very cruel coincidence.Likely the virus itself was something unrelated to the Arcana. But he needed the confirmation, considering it was Grid.

For now he just waits for PSYCHE to speak up first, not really doing much except stand around.

Re: late in the post-Grid liminal

[cupidand]

"Jean!" And there she is, condensed down to a single person-sized person. She gives him a hug right away. "Good to see you! Especially after that mess of a Jaunt, wow."

Pre-Jaunt Liminal ft. Sara

[rustyhonesty]

"Are you alright, Sara?"

Jean is indeed successful in creating a Liminal Bridge that could carry someone else over as well. There's a sense of pride within, satisfied he managed to do it.

Though he does feel a bit bad for barging in like this. It's not even Mikasa he's with, which would have probably been a great joy for PSYCHE. But this was important...

Re: Pre-Jaunt Liminal ft. Sara

[otomechapilot]

Sara nods, mumbling her thanks, taking in the... everything... that's Lover's space.

From her expression, she's not really impressed. She clenches her fist on the hand with Fool's mark.