[Secondish day of Chuck E Cheese Liminal]

[itsananimalthing]

So hey. Everybody. Tell me what all our asshole patrons had to say about Moebius. I already talked to Malik and Matthew, so I got their stories. Already know that we killed one of 'em, so Moebius was a punishment, presumably for that. Death was behind the whole doing-things-over part, and Devil was behind the whole kill-all-your-friends part.

Also there's the tidbit that Lovers claims they don't make the places they send us to, they just pick 'em. Which is interesting. Unless she was lying, though I'm guessin' she wasn't.

But mostly I wanna hear if any of the rest of you talked about Moebius with your Trump. I got most of my memories of that Jaunt back, but not much of anything from that whole thing we apparently did to earn it, and I'm thinkin' that's gonna be pretty important. I'm hopin' somebody else can give me somethin' to go off of to jump-start workin' on that.

Besides, nobody ever talks about this shit, and we're down to too few people who lived it to let people forget about it.

Comments

[amadine]

I'm not certain whether it would be better if they truly didn't create the worlds they inflict on us - and inflict us on - or worse.

[itsananimalthing]

Still kinda strains the brain that they can always find people to shove us into in all these worlds. Similar names and everything. But I didn't get the impression she was makin' it up. No reason to, right then.

[amadine]

You mean aside from "because she can"?

I've wondered more than once if the similar names are related to the same magic that allows us to understand one another despite speaking several dozen very different languages. In no small part because it occasionally fails utterly when there's no conveniently similar substitute.

[itsananimalthing]

I got the whole conversation downloaded. I'm pretty good at spotting lies. Probably why I wound up with the Trump I did.

That other bit's interesting, though. Like we're only hearin' our names, or names like ours, and it's actually somethin' else. That'd at least make it more believable.

[amadine]

The coincidences certainly do strain credulity otherwise. I suppose the real question is, do we actually always share an appearance with the people we possess, or is that a trick of perception as well? One that falls apart when the Traveler is far enough from the species they're inhabiting that there's no chance of clear resemblance.

[itsananimalthing]

If they can fuck up our names, they can fuck up how we see things. They've done it before, back during that long liminal.

[He doesn't like it. He doesn't like it at all. Next time he investigates, he's going to see if he can't break through that shit... they can break through translation if they try hard enough, surely anything else is also doable.]

[amadine]

That was different, I think - not random, but certainly uncontrolled.

[itsananimalthing]

Still proof it's a thing they can do, even if it got out of their control for a while.

[amadine]

At this point, I'll only consider it a revelation if it's definitively shown that they can't do something.

[itsananimalthing]

Well, they do die. So they ain't entirely all-powerful.

[amadine]

Everything dies. I'm not entirely certain that's something we should consider a functional limit for any of our purposes.

[itsananimalthing]

Means we can kill them. Seems like we've done it before.

[He doesn't care if they can hear him. They already know, after all.]

[amadine]

Or they assigned the blame that way, in order to avoid taking their own share of it.

[itsananimalthing]

Hey, don't take all my hope away, sister. I'm lookin' forward to trying again.

[But he says it with amusement, not seriously. Well, mostly not seriously.]

[amadine]

My apologies. Far be it from me to stand in the way of someone's vengeance.

[Like him, she sounds mostly amused. Mostly. Her plans may not involve the death of any of the Arcana, but she can hardly fault her fellow prisoners for being more bloody-minded.]