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

[rosewater_path]

"I'm really, really sure if you think about this conversation you can figure it out," she says, still looking dismayed.

[vorenado]

If he was the sort to laugh he would, but he keeps his amusement at her reaction to himself. "Of course."

[rosewater_path]

"So if you're through having fun, have you got any real questions for me, Slick? Not that I don't appreciate you wasting your shot to jerk me around."

[vorenado]

Her reaction proved something to him, whether or not if she caught on to what he was doing. Her displeasure at it means little.

"Why the Arcana? Is it simply a mechanic of this game you are playing or what you truly are?"

[rosewater_path]

"I don't know if you've noticed, but we're pretty bad at pretending. I'm one of the best at it, and even I can't fool you lot for too long. We are what we are."

[vorenado]

"And what assurances can you make for those who willingly help your achieve your goals?"

[powersthatare]

"I'm offering each and every one of you a one-way ticket to wherever you want," she says, promptly.

[vorenado]

"Those of us who belong to you."

[rosewater_path]

"Did I say that? Everyone we took, Slick. Everyone you lost along the way. Every. Single. One of you."

[vorenado]

"What has happened to those we've lost?"

[rosewater_path]

"Just that. They get lost. We're not sure why, except that Liminality isn't always kind to people like you. Pulling them back to where you are takes energy - like, a lot of energy - so we don't do it while the game's in play. We can't afford to. But I don't let people stay lost forever."

[vorenado]

"So those who are gone are different than those who have found themselves trapped within a dungeon?"

[rosewater_path]

"The dungeons are one place the wind up. Just not the only place."

[vorenado]

"What other places are there?"

[rosewater_path]

"More like states of being. There's that thing you do with your unconscious minds. There's superpositioning. And then there's... you could call it an odyssey, I guess. A conscious transition through many layers of space."