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

[uzoda]

Those aren't the best answers he's ever gotten, but not the worst, either. Not enough to take the hopeful smile from his face. "What exactly do you want from us? Why haul us all here and send us all world-hopping?"

Maybe other people have posed this question, and maybe other people have even shared the answer... but he wants to know this for himself. And from the being that seems to have taken the most interest in him.

[callmemeibe]

"Us? You mean my Chosen? I want you to help me win Synodiporia. I marked you because you represent my ideals. The best chance of winning is through you. But do not mistake me: I'll help you. Not only will I grant you power..." She pauses, eyes turning from him to her spear. "I will return you to your home. That is, if I win."

There is a pause, and then her eyes turn to him again, her eight hands shifting her spear a little. "There seems to be a… misunderstanding. I did not bring the Travelers here. You were chosen at random. Across many different universes."

[uzoda]

"Your chosen, everyone else... I guess I'm not just asking about you but the... general you. The rest of your kind." But there's an answer to his question in all of that, and he has to ruminate on it for a few moments before he can compose an answer.

"...I'm not sure that I believe that this is random. I don't know how much you know about me, but my life's been kind of.... card-themed for the last major part of it. And it looks like it's going to stay that way. Getting tossed into some kind of tarot battle royale isn't nearly as surprising as it would be to a lot of people. Maybe you... and I mean you-you, you didn't bring me here or others here, but someone or something did and I'm not sure if I'm amused or not."

Having vented all of that, there's a much shorter pause. "...what if someone doesn't want to go home, after it's all done?"

[callmemeibe]

"Believe what you like. But I assure you, it is random selection. Fortuna saw to that before she... unfortunately passed."

She visibly frowns, disappointed in the death of Fortuna. But she does continue.

"I would let you stay, if you wish."

[uzoda]

"Fortuna?" He doesn't even think before he turns the name around as a question. Who? What? But he's not lingering for an answer, because if he stays, then...

"If I were to say, what would I be staying for? Because... the game would be won, right? So all the travelling would... stop? Or wouldn't it?"

[callmemeibe]

"You would know her as... Wheel of Fortune."

There is a thoughtful pause. "Would you wish to go somewhere else? I thought Traveling was stressful for you all. But if there's someplace you want to see..."

[uzoda]

Her lack of comprehension brings a sad kind of smile to his face. For all that the Arcana have gone to the trouble to gather them here and call them their own, they don't actually know everything, do they? He lowers his eyes, looking away, and goes to actually have a seat on that ball, finally.

"I don't really mind travelling. Or Travelling, going from place to place... it doesn't matter where I am, as long as I'm with someone very important. Someone that was brought into this before me." He needs a moment, lips pressed together, to work out the exact words for this. "Hajime Aikawa. It's... complicated, but on my world, and probably on his world? We can't be together. We'll lose control of ourselves, and fight each other, and one of us will lose, and we'll end the world. Here, though... well, everyone says it won't happen. It won't, will it? Liminal Space is different. All these worlds we go to, they're different. So... I'll go anywhere, if it means we can be together while we do it."

[callmemeibe]

"Ah. It is for another." She pauses, frowning. "One of Tower's. But... if you place faith in him. Then I will concede it. You and he may go wherever you desire."

[uzoda]

That frown isn't encouraging. Frowns don't come with positive news, do they? And he had become so accustomed to negative news, when it came to him and Hajime, that he was already presuming the worst. Her actual answer makes him untense, and let out a breath. "...thanks."

Having asked all of that from before has reminded him of one more very, very important question. "...since I'm here, my world's Hajime's... is he the last one left? I, I mean, am I really gone from my world?" His tension is back. His absence would leave only Joker Undead left to be the default winner of the Battle Fight, and from there... apocalypse.

[callmemeibe]

"You are welcome. I will always listen to my Chosen's concerns."

She thinks for a moment about her answer, before stating, "Yes. But you can return to your proper time. I can ensure this."

[uzoda]

This news is not good news, the way that Kenzaki interprets it. His eyes go wide, and he springs to his feet. "I can't be gone! If I'm gone, then everything ends." He trips over his words, passes a hand over his face. "My proper time... so it'll be like I never left? I could be put back, and everything would go normally?"

He needs a yes. He needs a yes more than he needs to believe that he could miraculously remain by this Hajime's side.

[callmemeibe]

"You are gone. You are here in Liminal Space. Yet nothing has ended, not yet." It's very difficult for Durga to articulate what she wants to say, and so she lets out a bit of a frustrated sigh. "I do not intend on ending your world. You may be sent back then. Or you may stay with your friend. But you must choose, not I. I do not take volition from my Chosen."

[uzoda]

"I'm..." Is he both? No, no, it doesn't seem that he's at both. "So wait, wait, when this is done, you can just... put me back where you found me... no, no, when you found me, and everything'll be fine. Right?" He does not know if he's going to like any answer that he gets, at this point. Stay with Hajime and end his world. Return and keep the world safe, and lose all of this with Hajime. But it's the same choice that he'd had to make before, isn't it? But she hasn't said so... "If I chose to stay... then would there be a me in that world? Or would I be gone? I... I'll make the right choice, when the time comes, you've got to believe me, but you have to tell me what'll happen!"

[callmemeibe]

"Only if I am victorious," she warns. "There are some who would revel. In destroying your home world. If it meant reinforcing their idiom. But it's... theoretically possible for such to occur. There could be other options to pursue, also."

She shakes her head, sadly. "I cannot tell you what will happen. Only what might happen. I know it is difficult, to trust. But please trust me. I will help the Travelers. In any way I can. As long as it doesn't endanger my siblings. But I don't have the power necessary. Not now. But I can, if I win. If I do not..." She shakes her head again, and her shoulders droop at the thought. "Help Empress, or Chariot. They will take care of you, too. Should I fail."