Conversation Space IV.

[powersthatbe]

The small room is painted a dark beige, with stained wood paneling on the lower half, and lush burgundy carpeting. The ceiling, however, is cracked and bowed, sagging alarmingly, occasionally shedding chips of plaster. Wrought-iron lamp-posts in the corners suspend pale, wan globes of light, and between them along the walls run rows of painted sunflowers, all turned towards the center of the room as if listening attentively. A jutting spire of granite rises from the floor on a diagonal, its flattened top sporting a cracked wineglass from which the wine (a white) slowly spatters teardrops across the plinth. And there is no chair, but a therapist’s couch, blue with gold trim, and ornate scrollwork on the legs, beside which the fluted horn of a phonograph player pipes music into the room, quiet enough to just be background ambience.

Comments

[iseethe]

"More than some Travelers think, less so than others," she says, ambiguous as always. She places her grey hand on his cheek.

[itsananimalthing]

At least he can take that to mean "not all the time", which is a bit of information to start with. He resists the urge to twitch back and away from her, holding very still instead. His eyes are still hidden behind his goggles, so it's hard to tell just where he's looking, unless you're looking along another spectrum. "So when's the last time you checked in on me?"

[iseethe]

"Time's relative," she says, letting go of his face after a second. "In liminal space, moreso."

The space of half a dozen heartbeat, and then, "You were alone. Deliberately so. You'd have thought you were SAGE's--not mine."

[itsananimalthing]

"If you know anythin' about me before you snatched me up for your game, here, you'd know that's how I spent a pretty big chunk of my life," Riddick reminds her. "I'm pretty used to it." It isn't as if he and Hermit don't share a number of traits, too.

[iseethe]

But she took her turn first.

"It was during that tacky display of MALBOLGE's," she says, examining her fingernails. "The time before that? You were examining the floor while a naked thing of Mei's shrieked."

[itsananimalthing]

Okay, that does get a snort of actual amusement. "At least he was helpful while he shrieked. Almost punted him off the catwalk, though." More than once. "So tell me this. You got allies here, with the other Trumps? Friends? People or things you care about? Or you all just doing your own thing?"

[iseethe]

"Does a very friendly rivalry count?" she asks, looking up. "We all of us want to win it for ourselves... but there are ones we'd find more acceptable to lose to than others. Hakan and Mei, for instance. If one cannot win, they would wish the other to."

[itsananimalthing]

"And what about you?" Riddick presses. Got to be specific, with Moon, if you want anything at all-- anything she isn't willing to share for free, that is. "You got any special ones you wouldn't mind winnin' in your place if it had to go that way?"

[iseethe]

"Didn't I mention a friendly rivalry?" she asks. "Sol," she says decisively. "In a pinch, Miss I Have Many Names."

[itsananimalthing]

Though he's not sure who that is, he's pretty sure it's not Strength, Judgement, or Emperor, which are the three he cares most about not fighting against. So he nods grimly. "So you got somebody you care about in here. I got some of those, too. One of 'em your group did somethin' with recently."

If Moon has been watching him, she'll know who he's talking about.

"Where did she go?"

[iseethe]

"Your lover," she says, quietly. "Penuel's girl. She has gone out of ambit, recently. You don't really understand how that happens, do you? It's not often something we would trigger deliberately. We don't need to."

[itsananimalthing]

"Nobody does, sister," Riddick points out. "It ain't like we got an instruction manual with this Traveling shit. So explain it to me. What's 'out of ambit' really mean, and what causes it?" And how does he fix it, but he'll be able to better work that out once he has an answer to the first two.

[iseethe]

"Sometimes," she says, in a distant voice, gazing at the wall, "the mind rejects Liminality. Individuals fall out of ambit. It requires more energy than we care to spend to retrieve them while their minds are still in rejection, so we leave them there. In time, sometimes, their minds begin to reach out again, so that they may become retrieved."

She looks back to Riddick. "You Travelers call it Dungeons."

[itsananimalthing]

So she's still here. He's not sure whether he's relieved or pissed off. He watches her, keeping his expression impassive, but there's tension to him, too. He's silent for a moment, digesting that, weighing what to ask next. In the end, he does with: "What happens when this is all over?When one of you fuckers win this thing? Do we all go back where you took us from? Or do we get to do it all again for a new set of Trumps?"

[iseethe]

"That depends on who wins," she says, simply.

[itsananimalthing]

"So you guys decide what to do with us, in the end. Guess we gotta hope for somebody generous. What happens if you win? What's your world you wanna see happen?" Because Moon's... ambiguity... seems hard to impose on everything else in the universe.

[iseethe]

"We all want a universe that better reflects ourselves. Should you aid me, however..."

She touches Riddick's cheek again, lightly. Her flesh feels almost like silk. "I'm sure we can come to an accord, pilgrim."

[itsananimalthing]

This time, he doesn't even tense up, just staying put. But he smirks faintly. "That don't answer my question, sister. What does the Moon's universe look like? I gotta make sure that's a universe I wanna live in, after all."

[iseethe]

She laughs, low and amused. "Dear servant, you should know it would be out of character for me to give you a straight answer on this. It is one I think you will do well in. This current universe was Fortune's. Use that and what you know of us to extrapolate."

[itsananimalthing]

His hand comes up then, to grab her wrist, if he can. "Call me 'servant' again, and you'll find me fightin' for somebody more like Tower or Emperor just to spite you. You might have more information than me, maybe more power, but that don't make you better, or any kinda master over me."

[iseethe]

She lets him. Under the silky texture of her skin, her bones are as solid as porcelain.

"Pardner," she says, imbuing the word with a western drawl. "Pilgrim. Let go of me?"

[itsananimalthing]

He holds her for a beat longer, as if to show he can, but then does let her go, though he doesn't step away from her, either. "This universe of yours, that we're in this game to change. Does it touch 'em all? Every one the Travelers come from? Or just the ones we visit on Jaunts?"

[iseethe]

"Yes," she says.

[itsananimalthing]

"Not a helpful answer," Riddick comments. "But guess I asked for it not bein' specific enough." And he doesn't ask again. Given what she's said so far, he can guess, unless her implications are outright lies-- also possible. She'd want to tell him what she thinks he'd want to hear, to get him on her side. Everything she says he has to take knowing that.

Instead, he asks, "One more question. Did you really take my name?"

[iseethe]

"Do you still want your kiss?" she asks in return. "Or are you only interested in kissing Penuel's girl these days?"