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]

"More than some think. Less than others. My personal name is 'Cairbre.' You may call me that. Or Chariot. Or Charioteer. All the same to me."

It seems to be pronounced like Car Bra.

[truerevelation]

Not being spied on all the time, then. That's... something, again.

"Cairbre..." He stumbles over the pronunciation a bit. "Alright. Thanks." It's strange having a name to put to this individual he's wondered about for so long. But then again, what hasn't been strange today?

[swinglow]

Cairbre inclines its head in acknowledgement.

[truerevelation]

Kanji regards it for a moment, just thinking about the situation. "Actually. Got another question, if you're still answering 'em. When you're pickin' up Travellers from their worlds. Why do you pick who you do?"

[swinglow]

"Random," Cairbre says. Then, "Partly. Filtered for people who matter. Luck too, lots of it. Fortune's parameters."

[truerevelation]

"...You're talkin' about Fortune as in 'Wheel Of', right?" he asks, frowning again. "But huh. You guys can wave a hand and grab a bunch of people from wherever, but it all just comes down to... luck in the end who gets pulled from where?"

[swinglow]

"Wheel of Fortune. Fortuna. Yes. Ensured that it would be lucky. That is right. That is how."

Cairbre bounces a bit faster. "Miss Fortune," it admits.

[truerevelation]

"You..."

Kanji scratches his head. "Were you two friends?" he asks, his tone a little softer. A wheel keeps moving... it makes sense, he guesses, but it's still strange to think about.

[swinglow]

"Yes."

[truerevelation]

Part of Kanji's mind races to then you know how you make us feel, but the thought's abandoned as soon as it comes.

It's lost a friend. He can't be so petty right now. It knows how they feel, sure, but more than that - he knows how it feels. On some level, anyway. He lets out a long, subdued sigh. "Damn," he says. "I'm sorry."

[swinglow]

"I too," Chariot says. "Was bad luck."

[truerevelation]

"Bad luck, huh." Especially with Fortune involved, it definitely sounds like it. Kanji pauses a moment before he asks - "Do you have any other friends here?"

[swinglow]

"Magician," Cairbre responds immediately.

[truerevelation]

"Just her, huh... man. That's rough," he says, his tone sympathetic. Though again, he thinks he sees how they'd get on given their archetypes...

[swinglow]

Cairbre gives a broad shrug. "No enemies either. Not even Hanged Man."

[truerevelation]

That's better, at least, and Kanji actually smiles slightly. "Heh. Guess you two had to pull it together for the whole Nova Venezia thing anyway..."

[swinglow]

"Annoying. Incomprehensible."

[truerevelation]

"Tch, I think everyone knows someone like that." He's a little quiet for a moment. "Tryin' to understand each other... it's what a lotta stuff comes down to, huh. You two are just so different to each other, 'n you lot are just so different to us."

[swinglow]

"Yes. Am trying with Chosen."

[truerevelation]

"This beats the hell outta playin' 'guess the Liminal'", Kanji says with a faint smile. "Why don't you come out more often to talk? Keep hearin' and seein' Empress and Lovers gatecrashing, but ... apart from that ..."

Perhaps if they'd talked sooner, things would have been so much easier, for all Kanji gets a bit of why things had worked this way.

[swinglow]

"Difficult," Cairbre says. "We are... bigger. Must condense ourselves to take forms. To speak words. Only do when important."

[truerevelation]

"When you're runnin' around on Jaunts, whatever body you're usin' then... same deal, right? All shrunk down? Was the proxy you or were you just controllin' it?"

[swinglow]

"Yes. But not the usual way. Possessed it directly. It is easier to possess automatons. Or become data. Or take over conduits for spirits. Can be more diffuse than incarnating as mortals."

[truerevelation]

"Huh. Yeah, I think I getcha," he says, nodding. Sure, Izanami might have been fine running around as a gas station attendant long term, but ... even she's smaller than them, if she could end up in Liminal Space.

For a moment, he pauses. Automatons... "How much ...stuff do you need to be able to possess somethin'? How complicated does it have to be?"

[swinglow]

"Something like a proxy," Cairbre replies after a very thoughtful bounce.