Conversation Space: The Ultimax

[powersthatbe]

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

Comments

[rosewater_path]

"...Thanks," she says, after a long, curious look. "Me, I'm doing okay. I have a problem to solve, a contingency to plan for, all kinds of nice meaty stuff to keep my cognition en pointe. Not everybody can be me, though. Your gang... you're going to have a rough ride. Not right away, and nobody's saying whips and chains - or anyway, nobody's letting the whips and chains crew drive the universe - but it's going to change some priorities."

[breakaleginhalf]

"Yeah, I guess all the rules folks aren't really as good at keeping up-to-date as you," he comments. But there's a curious look in his eyes at that. "Honestly, most of my side is expecting another Moebius, we're pretty divided on what to tell you guys in your little detective thing. Some of the old folks really don't want round two of the Hunger Games."

[rosewater_path]

Her eyes do something funny - scanning the air back and forth. Then she snorts.

"Okqy, I get that," she says. "Look. I like you. But there's stuff I can't talk about because of rules, and stuff I won't talk about because we only trust each other so far."

She holds up her fingers. They are not very far apart.

"I can say that we're... hmmm. We're doing our best not to be indiscriminate unless you push us. There's some stuff coming up that might not be pleasant for you - but not that unpleasant, and not as punishment. But we're the only game in town, and you have to work with us at least a little. We won't be fair. Well, most of won't be. But we won't be... desperate."

[breakaleginhalf]

He is like ninety percent sure she just multiverse-Googled that.

"Fair as fair can be, right?" he comments dryly. "'s'not like any of you embody that right now. Or haven't thrown stuff at us before that was 'unpleasant, but not punishment-unpleasant, just kind of a bitch-ass of a world'."

[rosewater_path]

"It won't be a Jaunt," she says. "I mean, yeah, you might wind up in another world that sucks for you, but that's not what I'm talking about. You'll see."

[breakaleginhalf]

His ears prick up sharply. "And no spoilers, of course, 'cos you'll get in trouble." He's used to that concept at least.

Not that he won't try hunting for them in the one way he knows works.

[rosewater_path]

The first idea that comes to mind would be - well, a dungeon, or an odyssey - what they used to call 'walkabout' before it came to mean a side-Jaunt. Arcana have claimed in the past that those aren't intended as punishment, but it's presumably no coincidence that after Travelers rebelled in Belljar, the most vocal rebels all vanished.

[breakaleginhalf]

Well, he sure doesn't like that idea.

He continues, without missing a beat and more than a little wary. "But it says a lot that if it's not a Jaunt, and sure as shit not home, there aren't a lot of options left to stick your misbehaving pieces. Besides putting them in time-out, maybe."