Conversation Space: The Ultimax

[powersthatbe]

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

Comments

[pendingjudgement]

"Similar in its fashion, perhaps."

And just like that, Deedee is not alone in this strange space.

[lightnovelexperiences]

"Is it?" Deedee asks.

She turns, and regards the angel.

Apologetically, she faces her, palms up and open. "I'm not sure which one you are," she says. "I know very little about the Tarot, just that you're... probably one of the Arcana. Should we introduce ourselves?"

[pendingjudgement]

"Judgement, twentieth of the Arcana. The name I have chosen for myself in this round of Synodiporia is Penuel."

They know perfectly well who Deedee is, but saying that seems to defeat the purpose.

[lightnovelexperiences]

"Judgement."

Her ears droop. She sighs. Point made.

"Something I need to learn to exercise, I guess. I'm called - no. I choose to be Deedee Yeowoo," she says with a fist over her heart, unsure why she corrected herself, clarified, to Penuel. "Weihu Monk. Late of Mundus. My level is probably meaningless here; it's not the same kind of game."

"Is it?"

[pendingjudgement]

"You are undergoing a rebirth, are you not? That brings you into my idiom." At least they're in a place where they can properly acknowledge that, now.

"It is a game, but not the sort where your level applies. We play for the World."

[lightnovelexperiences]

"What does it mean to gain the World?"

Because really, what else could she ask them?

...Ah. "And - and what do you represent, what's your domain? Judgement? Rebirth? What would your World look like?"

[pendingjudgement]

"The one of us who does is reflected throughout reality. Fortune won the previous game; this one is nearly completed." That it could end any way other than one of the Arcana winning hasn't so much as crossed Judgement's mind; Deedee will have to hear about that from the Travelers themselves.

"Rebirth, redemption, things coming full circle... retribution, but no longer to the exclusion of all else. For a time, I could not see past the worst aspects of myself."

[lightnovelexperiences]

Deedee, ever fighting her depressive streak, has to smile a little at that.

"We've all been there, huh? Even the gods contend."

She sighs.

"And how do I... what do I do to, pardon the phrase, stay on your route? If I want to fight for you, what should I do and what am I up against?"

[pendingjudgement]

"Act within my idiom, as much as you are able. The remaining competitors at this juncture are Justice, the Chariot, and the Magician." There's a certain distaste when they name the last of those three.

[lightnovelexperiences]

She nods, and she notes that distaste.

"I take it you aren't fond of the last two," she says. "Though I'm not surprised that Judgement is fond of Justice. Keeps us honest."

[pendingjudgement]

"The Magician... bends rules to suit her whims, often to dangerous degrees."

[lightnovelexperiences]

She nods. "And Chariot?"

She will, of course, ask for second opinions before taking her patron deity's word for it. Everything about her aesthetic screams Lawful Good... and Deedee can, perhaps unlike her, understand when the greater good requires getting a little Chaotic. That is her exercising Judgement, and she won't allow others to gainsay that, not even Penuel.

[pendingjudgement]

Nor should she.

"The Chariot does not flout the rules in the same way." They simply don't see eye to eye on some things. (Not as badly as Chariot and Hanged Man fail to understand each other, at least.)

[lightnovelexperiences]

"That could mean either that... Chariot doesn't flout the rules, or that they flout them differently than Magician does," she points out.

"...Uh, can I get names and genders here? I'd rather not insult them if I can avoid it. Yours too if you don't mind."

She coughs. "...She/her here. If it's not obvious."

[pendingjudgement]

"So it could. The Chariot is less inclined to rule-breaking, but it was the designated keeper of Fortune's contingencies, in the event we needed them without her direct input." Which they did. But also they didn't. It's the kind of thing that would probably give most mortals a headache.

At Deedee's follow-up question, Penuel... smiles, reserved but genuine. (Their own siblings have a habit of getting it wrong. Someone asking, for once, is refreshing.)

"Our names are less important than our archetypes, and regularly change with the cycles of the game. None will be offended if you refer to them by archetype, as they are more constant.

"I am calling myself Penuel this cycle; I prefer the singular 'they.' The Magician, I believe, settled on ROSE after she used it as an alias in one of her... grander rule-breaking stunts. The Chariot is going by Cairbre. It uses non-gendered pronouns. Shall I go through the rest?"

[lightnovelexperiences]

Given everything Deedee chooses to be, is it surprising she'd ask?

"If you could give your sibs preferred forms of address to me in writing, it would help me memorize it and remember," she says, honestly. "Ears are big, you see. Too much in one drips out the other."

[pendingjudgement]

Surprising, perhaps not, but no less refreshing for it.

Penuel nods, and the requested list appears in Deedee's hands. There would not have been nearly this much detail on it before Phase Three - possibly not even before their dungeon - but the context will help her get oriented.

[lightnovelexperiences]

She reads it, slowly, then puts it in her Inventory (Hammerspace, but don't worry about it) and nods.

"...I'm surprised at how much Valiant Anima got right," she cracks. "Okay. Okay. Anything else you think I should know before I go forth and seek redemption in your name?"

[pendingjudgement]

"Not much time remains to determine who will obtain the World. Use it wisely."