Conversation Space: The Ultimate

[powersthatbe]

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

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[comebewe]

"It must be so hard for her," Matthew says, so very dryly.

Who'd have imagined it, huh? Matthew and Gil, actually kind of working together.

[rosewater_path]

"Which is why I want it to be better, for all of us," she says, rolling her eyes. "Look. I can't just wave my wand and get my way. And if you think I'm not being watched very closely to make sure I don't cheat this time, you don't understand us at all. If I could come out and tell you what I needed to win, that would have been almost the first thing I did."

[breakaleginhalf]

Gil maintains his unimpressed expression, but one ear twitches back up to 'relaxed' position. He can understand that, at least.

"What about Hot And Cold? Is it still cheating if we make wild-ass guesses and you tell us if we're completely off the mark?"

[comebewe]

Matthew's eyes flicker to Gil for a moment, and then he asks: "Watched how closely?"

[rosewater_path]

"Tediously closely, Cupcake," she assures Matthew. "You can do whatever you want, but my replies? Those are being sifted very carefully."

[breakaleginhalf]

Now both ears are flicking back in annoyance, and he shoots Matthew a faintly frustrated look. Then his gaze goes lower, turning thoughtful; and he reaches an arm over his shoulder to scratch his own back, remembering the Mark that sits between his shoulder blades. "What about one on one answers?"

[comebewe]

Alas, right now Matthew isn't really standing in frustrated solidarity with Gil. Mainly because they're now feeling rather indignant about something else entirely.

"Cupcake?" he says. "Cupcake?!"

(It was one thing to be called 'Cupcake' once. But twice? How the hell is he someone who gets called 'Cupcake'?!)

[rosewater_path]

"You're sweet and you come in a package with several others," she says, and shrugs. "Would 'Cupcakes' be better?" Her gaze flicks sideways to consider Gil for a moment, but she doesn't answer his question, at least not directly or immediately.

[breakaleginhalf]

"If that's the logic you're going with, you could probably call him, like. 'Donut', too. Or 'Marshmallow'." But that's mostly his mouth running on autopilot while he thinks. How the hell did you activate your Mark or whatever to talk to your Arcana? How the hell is she supposed to tell him how to give her as much of an upper hand against Empress as possible when she can't even acknowledge a half decent idea?

[comebewe]

"Piss off," Matthew growls, glaring at Gil. Do you want them to set you on fire, Gil? They are definitely thinking about setting you on fire right now.

[rosewater_path]

"He doesn't look squishy enough," she says, critically. "And I don't see a hole in the middle, except the one all of you come with..."

Meanwhile, inside Gil's mind, a set of ideas is taking shape.

1. Find the Mutineer
2. Unite the Others Behind Them
3. Solve for ???
4. Defiance

[breakaleginhalf]

Okay now Gil is very distracted, because welp - that worked. And now he has to try and remember it for long enough to report back on the network when he gets half a chance.

So when he talks it is absolutely not paying attention: "I could probably make him a new hole."

[comebewe]

"We could probably burn your bones," they growl.

[rosewater_path]

"Hey now," ROSE tells the both of them. "I'm all for starting things, but try not to be a couple of donuts about it."

[breakaleginhalf]

That gets an amused snort out of Gil. "Okay, fair." He turns to Matthew slightly. "Sorry for casually threatening to disembowel you."

And then he's back to Magician. "But, I've got one more question. Not about this jaunt, an older one. You free to talk about those?"

[comebewe]

"We're not apologising to you," they say, churlish. But hey - at least no one's being set on fire?

[rosewater_path]

"I'm free to talk about aspects," she says, turning to face Gil fully and give Matthew the cold shoulder. "There are still details that have to stay secret under the rules, but I can waggle my eyebrows mysteriously if we have to change the subject. Ask away!"

[breakaleginhalf]

"That's cool, I was more looking for your opinion on a thing." He folds his arms casually over his chest. "So babe, gimme your hot take: what do you think about what went down with Moebius?"

[comebewe]

Their eyes turn to watch her closely. She can give him the cold shoulder all she likes - it makes no difference to them. But they want to hear the answer to this one.

There's a reason, after all, he suggested it to Gil in the first place.

[rosewater_path]

"I don't punish people for being clever," she says, flatly. "No matter how much bad luck it causes for us. But I helped make sure we got something worthwhile out of it. One horrible little murderzoo, shut down for good."

[breakaleginhalf]

Well, there's a slight upgrade in respect from Gil for that. But then, he doesn't know anywhere near enough about Moebius to make a proper judgement call.

He looks over at Matthew. There's your question asked.

[comebewe]

Then what do you punish people for, he wants to ask. But even they know that that is too dangerous a question to ask. Not here, in her space, to her face.

"Helped how?" He asks. "You didn't pick the location, if I have things right. You didn't set the terms. So what, exactly, did you do?"

[rosewater_path]

"I was a voice in the discussion, Cupcakes," she says. "I helped pick the moment. The exact time you could wreck their shit and make the biggest difference. I made sure they didn't just hire new producers and import a new cast."

[breakaleginhalf]

"Timing's a pretty vital thing." It's quiet, but definitely an agreement. Gil definitely knows how important it is to find that one perfect moment to launch a plan. He never would have escaped his Durance, if he hadn't.

He looks back up at Magician, and asks at regular volume: "Was there any Arcana who were like, properly opposed to it? For any reason?"

[comebewe]

Matthew answers, before Magician does. "A few. Assuming you believe them. Assuming they're telling the truth. Assuming that everything we've heard about Moebius isn't the Arcana's attempts to scramble some kind of bullshit justification for it out of the hopes that we'll actually play for them. Because that's what you all want, isn't it? You all want us to win your game for you. You want us to be nice little pawns, who trust that you're the best ones to win the World, no really, honest, cross our mystic little hearts and hope to die."