Conversation Space: The Ultimate

[powersthatbe]

You feel as if you've stepped through a door.

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Comments

consolation prizes

[fridgeninja]

He's not at all surprised to be here again. And he's not very surprised that the summons waited until he found tophat, tailcoat, and ascot. He'll straighten his clothing a touch, then sit, smiling, reaching for the champagne right away.

"PSYCHE-chan," he says, nodding to her. "It's good to see you again." As usual, his words are brimming with sincerity and warmth, however even the tone of his voice sounds.

Re: consolation prizes

[cupidand]

"It's good to be here to see," she says tiredly. She's wearing a matching formal suit in white. "For a while there, I was--" She sighs and looks down at the large cartoon of triple chocolate raspberry ice cream on her lap, then manifests a second spoon to hand to him.

"I really hate that mutt."

[fridgeninja]

"He's your opposite," Souji says, getting who she means right away, and reaching down to pull his spoon along the edge of the ice cream, scooping it up in a thin curlicue. "I don't think that's too surprising, that you wouldn't get along." He bites his lip, then glances up at her. "Was you still being here a... close call?"

[cupidand]

"It wasn't a sure thing," she says. "And no, I'm not explaining why. I have learned my lesson about explaining things with Morty's kid."

She angrily jams her spoon into the ice cream, levering up a large chunk of it.

[fridgeninja]

"You don't have to if you don't want to," he says agreeably, after his first bite of the ice cream. "But it's not the same. I'm your Chosen, after all."

The Truth is a dangerous thing. While he wouldn't lie, the bland deployment of facts has its uses other than the straightforward.

[cupidand]

She considers this as she spoons more ice cream into her mouth.

"Sorry," she says after she swallows. "You are my Chosen--but it wouldn't be a good idea for any Travelers to learn how to kill us. We don't need you doing it on purpose."

She scowls at the container. "Ugh. That stupid-- Did you hear him on the Network? He made me out to be some kind of-- of-- cackling harpy. Look, you guys had to be taught a lesson, enough of us agreed upon that, but we didn't-- Look. Here's the thing. Before Moebius, the only one of us who really understood mortal death was Mortimer. Even after... But. I mean. We didn't realize when the Jaunt started that it would damage you like that to have your Jaunt bodies die so often, not when your real bodies were perfectly safe the entire time. We figured you'd be all right, because the real you would still be all right. We didn't realize... and then the Jaunt was underway and we figured out what it was doing but it's not like we could have just stopped it. You were away for Austin but stopping like that put Durga in a lot of danger and she was at full strength at the start of it--"

She shoves another spoonful of ice cream in her mouth. "And Bun-Bun's kid, she was acting like I bring disease and-- Look, only the Automata were us. The rest were coincidences. Nobody got sick in Brooklyn, but do people give me credit for that one? Nope."

[fridgeninja]

"I'd rather nobody dies, if it can be avoided," he says, evenly, taking a second spoonful of ice cream for himself. "No Travelers, none of the people we visit, and no Arcana. I realize that might not always be possible, but it's something to try for." He leaves out the fact that, under the circumstances, he's willing to kill Arcana if it saves the lives of natives. It's still absolutely true that he'd prefer no bloodshed.

"I try not to jump to conclusions," he adds, a little more sympathetically. "If I hear anyone speculating like that, I'll let them know. But I think I must have missed it."

[cupidand]

"Yeah, well, that's a laudable goal, I guess," Lovers says. "But if any of the three has to die, it ought to be you. No offense--but we can bring you back. It's dead easy when you're on Jaunt and even here in liminal... I think Morty's got a mechanism worked out to whisk you immediately to the infirmary so he can fix you while you're still only mostly dead. That's what happened to Hakan's kid and that brat of Morty's."

[fridgeninja]

Souji considers that in sober silence for a long moment. Callous as the logic is, unpleasant as dying is, she has a point he can't casually brush aside. After a moment, he decides he agrees. The real point of contention isn't about the Travelers, it's about whether to put the natives or the Arcana first.

"What are your goals?" he asks, changing the subject a little, and offering her the next spoonful he retrieves from the container as a diplomatic gesture.

[cupidand]

She actually smiles, if only for a brief second, before licking the ice cream sensuously from the spoon. "Now? Keep watch over you, I guess. It's pretty much all I've got left as stake in the game. I didn't even manage to get clear of the special qualifying round. And Elphie fell out of ambit, which is about the worst possible thing for poor Zak." She shrugs. "Maybe help where I can for who I can. It's only cheating if you get caught, right?"

[fridgeninja]

"I don't think we ever got a clear enough explanation of the rules to recognize cheating," he says, smiling at her smile, and at something that sounds a little more like empathy from her. He'd like to encourage that.

[cupidand]

"Well no," she says. "You're game pieces. A bishop doesn't need to know all the rules of chess, just that it moves diagonally."

[fridgeninja]

"But if another player tries to illegally promote a piece to gold general, if I knew about it, I might be able to stop it - and help your goals."

[cupidand]

"True," she says. "Okay. So. In the broadest terms, any interference in rounds not your own is considered cheating. And during round two, claiming Travelers when it's not your round to claim is also cheating. Oh, and half of anything ROSE does is cheating. Basically, if it ends up with Penuel making a face like they're sucking a lemon, it's cheating."

[fridgeninja]

Souji nods steadily. All right, he understands most of that, and it sounds relatively straightforward. "And what happens if someone is caught cheating?" he asks. "It seems like usually, they get away with it..."

[cupidand]

"Well yeah, for now they do," Lovers says with a shrug. "Punishing people would require a quorum and there's enough of us who see it in our interests that cheating isn't punished. But that's now, when we're all relative equals. When the World is achieved, the Arcana that gets it could punish people." She makes a face. "And will, probably, if Penuel's the one. It's according to their idiom, but they make it very obvious that the five of us have been judged and found wanting. Uh, that's Mei and ROSE--and me and SAGE and MALBOLGE."

[fridgeninja]

Souji pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose, thinking fast. Empress had shown an interest in the baby outside her proper turn, and the rest were all involved in the Grid - he can put those pieces together pretty straightforwardly, he thinks. The weddding might also be laid at PSYCHE's feet...

"Does anyone get punished if we win?" he asks, gesturing back and forth between the two of them with his spoon. He assumes cheating would be less of a consideration, but there's her grudge against SAGE to consider, and he's not sure who else that might spill over to.

[cupidand]

"We can't win," she says--and she angrily spoons a large chunk of ice cream into her mouth. "I can't even play for real. I lost the qualifying match, after I'd worked so hard to get back in. If we had--I dunno. 'S not like I could kill SAGE without creating another imbalance and I'd like some time to enjoy my victory before we did that again. Maybe stick him somewhere where he can't run away and hide. That would serve him right. And it'd be kind of tempting to mess with Penuel a little too..."

She sighs. "It doesn't matter. Ugh, and I'd had such great plans for what I was going to do with the World if I got it. I was gonna make a nice planet for everyone with all that stuff mortals like, like chairs and beverages and winter dances and object permanence and staying with the people you love--and then I was going throw open all the dungeon doors and pull everyone out of ambit back in so they wouldn't be left behind--and then you'd all have a nice home together and you could keep all the important bonds and relationships you made here." She scoops up another chunk of ice cream and shoves it in her mouth.

"It could have been great," she says, a little muffled.

[fridgeninja]

So. She'd been planning on keeping them imprisoned forever, as her private soap opera. That... was a little disappointing, but not a surprise. And it didn't particularly matter, now that it couldn't happen.

"I suppose I meant... will you be helping MALBOLGE or one of the others to win now? Is there a new goal?"

[cupidand]

She nods, spoon in her mouth. She takes it out to say, "And if xie doesn't work out... Mei, probably. Me and Mei, we're fond of each other. Otherwise, I guess maybe Cairbre would do. I mean, Cairbre is Cairbre. It's kind of a dope, but it's a friendly dope and doesn't hate anyone. I just need to make sure that jerk SAGE doesn't win. Or Penuel."

[fridgeninja]

"I think it would be easier to persuade Travelers to support Mei or Cairbre," he volunteers after a moment of thought. "They've both made a good impression on a lot of people."

[cupidand]

"We'll go with Mei first," she says. "She's a sweetheart. Me and her used to have a thing together, you know."

[fridgeninja]

"It doesn't surprise me to learn," he says. He hadn't known, but it would never really surprise him to learn Lovers-san had a relationship, no matter who it was with. Except Hermit.

[cupidand]

"Mm. Then she and Hakan became an item for real and not just symbolically and that was that. He's fine with her dallying with mortals, but not the rest of us."

[fridgeninja]

"I'm sorry it happened that way," he says, diplomatically. "For someone like you, that can't have been easy."