Conversation Space II.

[powersthatbe]

As Thorne shared with the network, Travelers who vanish find themselves alone in a small room. But it doesn’t look quite as described last time. Paper lanterns hang in the corners, and a lemniscate of live, spicily scented blue roses traces a figure eight on the floor. A little marble plinth sits beside the looping roses, with a champagne flute balanced on it, pink, fizzy liquid quietly effervescing within. In place of the throne that was there before, each half of the loop holds a brown leather sphere - a yoga meditation-ball chair. They’re a little tricky to balance on.


The walls, floors, and ceiling are tiled, a prismatic fade from one color to another, each tile unique, just slightly different in hue than those around it, each colored line giving a sense that it belongs to a bigger pattern, but never revealing enough to allow anyone certainty about what that pattern might be. It is only a glimpse of a larger world… in this small, quiet space.

Comments

[swinglow]

"Travelers act for us," Cairbre elaborates. "When we cannot."

[bite_the_hand]

At this point his fists are clenched so tightly they're shaking. "That still doesn't tell me what you want from me! Fine! But you could at least tell me why you're treating us this way! Why do all of you keep hurting my friends!?"

[swinglow]

Cairbre blinks slowly at Eren. "Howso?" The thrumming engine of its voice sounds honestly curious.

[bite_the_hand]

Eren's fingernails dig into his palms and blood begins to drip slowly from his fists. Somewhat oddly, no steam comes from the wounds, at least not yet. Perhaps because Eren honestly doesn't seem to notice the small wounds he's accidentally inflicting on himself. His voice becomes more quiet but also takes on a dangerous edge, and doesn't lose any force from the drop in volume. Right now it's taking every last shred of his self-control to stop himself from flying into a violent rage.

"How can you ask me that!? You've taken our freedom! You turn us into other people who do horrible things we're helpless to stop and forced to remember doing! You bring us our friends and loved ones only to take them away again! Fuck, how can you leave us to be tortured to death over and over again until we kill our own, and then ask me how you're hurting us!?"

He's heard about Moebius. Heard about it from someone who'd been put through it; someone who just happens to be his best friend. Armin had quite recently asked him what the Trumps could do to him that they haven't already done. That alone would make it impossible for him to ever forgive the Trumps' actions. Taken with everything else? What they've also done to Mikasa and Jean and Thorne and everyone? With the way his and everyone else's freedom has been taken from them and is taken all over again every time they Infiltrate? It is far, far too late for an understanding to be found.

[swinglow]

Another slow blink as the horseperson slowly bounces on the meditation ball. "Not all of our actions were taken together. Some of that I did not personally do."

Chariot's head dips downward

"Even so, I am sorry."

[bite_the_hand]

The apology catches him off guard. He becomes slightly less tense - but only slightly. Still ready for a fight but it's a step towards disarming him at least.

He's quiet for a long moment, and when he finally speaks the sharp edge is gone from his voice; at least for the moment. However the accusatory tone is still very much there. "But you're all working together, aren't you? Even if you didn't do it yourself, you were complicit with it!"

[swinglow]

"Traveling together," the Chariot corrects. "Synodiporia. Playing together. Not working together. Working sometimes to opposite ends. Jaunt choices, winning terms, not always unanimously decided. At time, infighting. By no means united."

There is a brief pause as the Chariot thoughtfully bounces.

"Did not stop these things," it admits.

[bite_the_hand]

And the moment of relative calm is gone as quickly as it came. "Playing together!? So everything you've put me and my friends through is just a game to you!?"

[swinglow]

"More than just a game." The Chariot seems to be struggling for words. "Synodiporia," it says finally with a huff.

[bite_the_hand]

"What the shit does that even mean!? If it's not a game, what do you get out of it!?"

[swinglow]

"Walking together. Fellow travelers. For the chance of The World. Weight. Meaning. Power. Primacy. Possibility. The World."

[bite_the_hand]

"Stop speaking in riddles! I still don't-! Fine! Fuck it! Just tell me why you didn't stop the others! And give me a straight answer this time, dammit!"

[swinglow]

The Chariot bounces slow and thoughtfully before it finally answers.

"Wished to avoid casualties," it says finally.

[bite_the_hand]

"So you avoided those casualties by torturing my friends!? Just because you can bring us back to life doesn't mean being killed doesn't effect us!"

[swinglow]

"Did not torture," the Chariot replies, bouncing a little faster on the meditation ball. "Not personally. Specify?"

[bite_the_hand]

"But if you didn't stop them, you might as well have done it yourself!" For a tense moment it looks like Eren might resort to blows instead of specifying as requested. But he forces himself to take a deep breath and calm down some. He then begins to count offenses off on his fingers, still bloodied from when his nails had dug into his palm.

"You Trumps take our loved ones away from us without warning or telling us what happened to them! When you do bring them back they might not even be the same people we lost! You brought us to Liminal Space against our will and trap us there! You turn us into other people who do things we'd never do, and we're forced to remember everything they did! We're forced to remember hurting our friends! And our friends have to remember people that look like us hurting them! You send us to worlds where the air itself is full of 'radiation' and other poisons! You make Liminal Space take forms that remind us of things we'd rather forget! When Mikasa came back from Bando she nearly died because you bastards waited until the moment her overlay was injured to bring her back! And I don't even know where to start with what I've heard about Moebius!"

[swinglow]

There is another long pause where the Chariot slowly and steadily bounces, as if thinking about how to address all these concerns. When it does speak, the bouncing steadily increases in speed, reflecting something that might be agitation.

"Do not turn into people. Possess them. Possess the ones closest to you. Ones most like you. Not your bodies. Theirs. Never your bodies. Bodies kept safe. Expectations injure you. You become liminal. Mind works upon liminal space, upon liminal bodies. Bando was not mine. Moebius was not mine. Customary not to interfere with Jaunts not ours."

[bite_the_hand]

There's a long pause while Eren tries to process all of that. When he finally does speak, at first all he manages is a single (but very loud) word: "WHAT!?"

He stands there blinking for another moment, then shakes his head like he's trying to clear it. When he does, his hands start slowly steaming as his powers finally kick in to heal his injuries - a bigger step than the horseperson might realize, As Eren's Titan Shifting abilities require some form of injury to activate. Cairbre will now have an extra second of warning should Eren attack with that particular power.

After that Eren finally decides to have a seat on the other meditation ball. He also finally finds his voice. "Let me get this straight," he says, seriously but less aggressively than before. "When we Infiltrate, you've got our bodies hidden in Liminal Space somewhere, and you put our minds inside of those people? Why!? What good does that do!? And why do they look like us!?"

He sighs, and uses Liminal Manipulation to create a small cloth to clean the blood off of his hands. "So Mikasa was only hurt because she expected the wound to still be there. Are you trying to tell me that was an accident then!? Whichever one of you was in charge of Bando should have realized that would happen!" And that's when something seems to click in his mind. "Wait... Are you saying our bodies have been turned into the same stuff Liminal Space is made of?"

[swinglow]

"Not the same," Chariot says. "But more liminal. More mutable. Effect of liminal space. Liminality, thought, both intertwined. Allowing form changes. Allowing Jaunt effects to pass over. Yes. Bodies kept safe while minds possess. Influencing those possessed. Appearance can be point of commonality. Connected minds can aid recognition. Tower is Tower."

[bite_the_hand]

His hands now clean, Eren sets the bloodied cloth to the side for Liminal Space to reclaim. He then raises one hand to run his fingers through his hair as he makes a sound that's almost a growl. Thankfully, there's more frustration to it than threat.

"Half-Liminal, then." That makes a lot of sense to him really. At least it'd sure explain a hell of a lot. And if they can influence Liminal Space, well, why shouldn't Liminal Space be able to influence them right back?

Unfortunately, the way Infiltrating works on the mental end sounds like more of a Telepathy thing, which doesn't make nearly as much sense to him. There's a reason his ability to influence the Network only got as far as the power to yell directly into people's heads. Even so, he's going to try to follow up on the topic. Maybe Armin can at least learn something from it later. "We must not influence them much, because the people my head gets stuck in have done lots of things I'd never do. How is that better than letting us just stay ourselves?"

Then Eren's voice takes on a sharp edge again, although this time that animosity is not directed at the Chariot. "This 'Tower' is one of you? And they're the one that let Mikasa get hurt?"

[swinglow]

"Ranked sixteenth. Chaos. Sudden change. Disruption. Downfall. Ruin. Ran recent Bando Jaunt with Judgement. Influence is variable. Some more receptive. Some less."

[bite_the_hand]

Well that certainly cemented Titan-punching the Tower as one of Eren's life goals.

"I still don't understand why sticking us in other people's heads is better than just letting us be ourselves! Or why you have to take away our freedom by trapping us in Liminal Space in the first place! What do you want from us!?"

[swinglow]

The Chariot bounces silently for a while as it thinks how to answer. "Mutability. Physicality. Wild card. Way forward. Must see Synodiporia through to end."

[bite_the_hand]

"That still doesn't answer my question!" Eren jumps up before he realizes what he's doing, but after that he stops himself from doing more than grinding his teeth frustration. He's honestly starting to wonder why he keeps trying to ask it questions, but he's not quite ready to give up yet. "But why do you need to keep doing this 'Synodiporia' thing!? What happens if you don't see it through!?"

[swinglow]

"Events already in motion are difficult to stop," Chariot says. "Synodiporia was set in motion, must remain in motion. Must reach the end. Must achieve the World. If not I, another. Loss began this cycle. Arcana unbalanced. Want to be whole again. For power, possibility, and primacy, yes. But for many, also wholeness."