"Right," Psyche says. "Okay, so. Heartbeat Academy was supposed to be my Marking Jaunt. So while matters were coming to a head with Astræa's and MALBOLGE's jaunt, I went looking through our--well, they're not actually really anything like files, per se, but that's a decent metaphor for them--anyway, I went looking through our Jaunt files to see if we'd found a decent scenario that heavily involved my archetype and idiom, because of course if you're going to Mark Travelers, you want them to be in a situation where they can show their suitability for you. And one of the ones we'd spotted and logged for potential future Jaunts happened to be the world with X-Pressure--where there were some pretty intense love polygons brewing at Heartbeat Academy. So I figured, why not do mine there? It surely wouldn't be as dangerous and intense as dealing with the Elder Goobers had just been. That Heartbeat Academy had PSYCHE--a name entwined with the mythology of my archetype--well, I figured that was a sign.
"So we connected Liminal Space to that world and sent you--well, their--minds out to begin the Jaunt. The Travelers who were compatible with people already in that universe Infiltrated as them as usual. The rest of you were given the appropriate Jaunt bodies for that world--again, as usual. I went and possessed PSYCHE, because it's easier for us to become data in order to interact with you. After all, we're mostly ideas. That's how I got my current personal name, actually, and my preferred appearance. You lot kept calling me PSYCHE after that and I-- well, I liked it. Mostly I'd been calling myself Ms. Arrows before that. I still kind of see that as my surname? It's why I used it when I snuck into January. Anima is just the Latin version of Psyche.
"So I possessed PSYCHE, gave the odd hint, and mostly let the Travelers sort out the situation, because... well, that's what we do on Jaunts. Especially on Marking Jaunts, because they're there for us to see the ways in which you shine." She shrugs. "Of course, Lune's kid is still pretty dramatically butthurt over everything--but as far as I can tell, he's always been a drama queen. And like most Travelers, he thinks we've interfered a lot more than we have with the starting conditions of Jaunts. We don't need to create the Jaunt situations. There's plenty of them already out there in the multiverse. All we need to do is find them and use them."
no subject
"So we connected Liminal Space to that world and sent you--well, their--minds out to begin the Jaunt. The Travelers who were compatible with people already in that universe Infiltrated as them as usual. The rest of you were given the appropriate Jaunt bodies for that world--again, as usual. I went and possessed PSYCHE, because it's easier for us to become data in order to interact with you. After all, we're mostly ideas. That's how I got my current personal name, actually, and my preferred appearance. You lot kept calling me PSYCHE after that and I-- well, I liked it. Mostly I'd been calling myself Ms. Arrows before that. I still kind of see that as my surname? It's why I used it when I snuck into January. Anima is just the Latin version of Psyche.
"So I possessed PSYCHE, gave the odd hint, and mostly let the Travelers sort out the situation, because... well, that's what we do on Jaunts. Especially on Marking Jaunts, because they're there for us to see the ways in which you shine." She shrugs. "Of course, Lune's kid is still pretty dramatically butthurt over everything--but as far as I can tell, he's always been a drama queen. And like most Travelers, he thinks we've interfered a lot more than we have with the starting conditions of Jaunts. We don't need to create the Jaunt situations. There's plenty of them already out there in the multiverse. All we need to do is find them and use them."