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[comebewe]

[Before the rebellion, before liminal space changes, Matthew speaks to the network]

We have information to share.

First: This is Fool and Judgement's jaunt. They're still in liminal space, by the way. It's all the other ones that are in the jaunt, being a giant rock. They are, according to Fool, pursuing a 'possibility'. One that has 'a chance to restore many worlds whose possibilities have been forever lost' to them. Don't ask me what that means beyond that; Fool's allergic to answering questions and Judgement is a prissy bitch.

I believe that to pursue this possibility, they are draining the dreamworld of it's power, and stealing it's secrets. Fucking the place up in the process is apparently an unintended side effect. [and why yes, Matthew does indeed sound rather dry when he says this particular point. Someone is not impressed.]

We also have reason to believe that whatever is behind the Starquakes, they are...similar, but not the same, as the Arcana. Something on the same scale, perhaps. Or perhaps the Arcana are also more like places than people. Or maybe they all just really like fucking up this place! Seems to be common theme at this point, really.

Comments

[whatspringislike]

But - we can't let that happen! It doesn't matter if it's what they want. This place - we've got to save it.

[comebewe]

[well that’s...weirdly vehement for a kid who, at least in Matthew’s experience so far, does nothing but whine.]

It matters.

It matters because they’ve never interfered with a world like this before. It matters because they’re changing the rules of the game. It matters because there’s something they want, and whatever it is, it’s something they’re willing to go to extremes to get.

Doesn't mean we should all just sit around, say 'oh well' and do nothing, mind you. But context matters. It means there might be...consequences, for interfering. It means that they very fact that they Marked all of us might make things difficult.

[whatspringislike]

It seems like there's consequences no matter what we do. If we're going to be stuck with this, we should... I don't know... but everyone here's been so nice! They don't deserve this! We have to do... something.

[He fades back and forth between sulkiness and outrage as he speaks. Still whining, but whining with a purpose.]

[comebewe]

There are always consequences. [there's a kind of mental shrug. And, perhaps, a bit of a sense that Matthew doesn't really feel all that inclined to put up with Ikari's whining]

You go do something, then.

[chalicejoker]

I tried to wreck it. Did what I could...it wasn't spinning as well and the swirling colors went kind of strange when I was done, but I don't know what it looks like now.

I could try what I did again.

[crouching_sin]

... That depends on what you did.

[chalicejoker]

Tried to direct some of Tower's own power against them.

The power to decay, make things degrade, fail to work right...

[He lets that hang.]

[crouching_sin]

[... Wait.]

That's a Tower thing? But I can do that.

[professorwolf]

So this isn't the typical come to a world, fix a problem. They are actively doing something here. That doesn't really happen often, that I recall. If it helps, we can heal the spars around the cabochon. It's tiring, but do-able. I just don't know if we can stay ahead of the damage being done.

... may I ask, why did you think Judgment was a prissy bitch?

[The words sound awkward in his mouth. They're not ones he usually uses. Some people might even, at times, call him prissy.]

They're the one who marked me, you see, and while I am very approving generally of what Judgment stands for, Penuel didn't really... give the best impression. But they weren't that bad, either.

sorry for misgendering you, penuel

[thornsofmalkav]

She mostly let Orlea do the talking, but when she did it was clear that she thought that we were a nuisance at best. And Orlea didn't want to leave us alone with her. I think he thought she'd smite us if she could. She was really annoyed that we could sneak into the yin-yang.

Now that we're done with this, I can probably help you heal shit down in the cabochon cave? I mean, I have a thing I need to do in Liminal Space first, but after that I'll come down with you. If they respond to Liminal Healing, I can keep doing that shit until I pass out.

Lyall is prolly the only one here gendering them properly XD

[professorwolf]

I'm not sure. The healing I'm doing is from a blessing from Apollo's mantle. But you can certainly come down here and help, I won't say no.

Penuel, when I met them, was very... focused on punishment. Judging, as it were. I didn't honestly think "Judgment" was supposed to include actual judging, the card seems mostly about forgiveness and renewal. I don't suppose an Arcana can be trapped in a "reverse" cycle or something, could they?

Re: Lyall is prolly the only one here gendering them properly XD

[thornsofmalkav]

I mean, Tarot cards can be reversed. It's not, like, beyond possibility that Penuel is too.

lyall is indeed the only one gendering Judgement properly

[comebewe]

What Thorne says is right, yeah. Our interruptions aren't permitted, apparently. And she apparently has one hell of a stick shoved up her arse. But Fool didn't just not want to leave us alone with her: he said that being alone with her wasn't safe.

We cannot help but wonder why.

Given a choice? I'd want Fool to win this jaunt.

[professorwolf]

I'm... not sure what I think about that. Judgment as a concept is a good card with a good set of ideals. There isn't really very much about the ideas behind it that can even go badly... except this exact situation, and that's not even as bad as Devil or Tower could be.

How much do we focus on the personality of the Arcana, and how much do we focus on the ideals of the card?

[comebewe]

Are you sure about that? Really sure?

Because quite a few of them have what we would call 'good sets of ideals'. And sure, Judgement seems like a nice set. Forgiveness and redemption and new starts and all that stuff. Except there are few things in this world that can be so neatly divided into 'good' and 'bad', and it's not so clear - from our position as mortals who cannot comprehend the kind of change the Arcana would enact on the universe - what exactly a universe with more of Judgement's ideals would look like.

Does a world with more forgiveness mean that that forgiveness is always earned, or deserved? Will it be a universe were you are obligated to forgive, to smile and play nice with those that have wronged you, even while you still burn with rage at what they have done? Will this be a universe where those who withhold forgiveness are shamed, where you are expected to forgive and forget?

And then there is the question: who decides who gets redemption? Who decides who is worthy of it? Will the criteria for those who deserve it, and those who don't, be the same as what we would want it to be? How high will the bar be? How high should it be? And what happens to those who fail to meet it?

This is the problem with the Arcana, and their game. Maybe when they do their reflecting thing, we'll like the results. But maybe we won't. But we have no way of knowing which way things will fall. We have no way of knowing, just from looking at a set of their ideals and idioms, whether more of those will actually be a good thing. We are too mortal, too limited in our understandings and perceptions of the universe, to possibly be able to guess that ahead of time.

We judge them on their personality, and on their actions, because it is the only thing which we can have an understanding of.

[awfullyironic]

Fuck them. Fuck all of them. Obviously they don't give a harrowing frothy shit about causing multiple mass genocides with every alternate timeline they sprout.

[comebewe]

...Okay, while I agree that the Arcana's current methods are dubious and highly destructive, calling it 'multiple mass genocide' seems hyperbolic to the extreme.

[awfullyironic]

Yeah, no. That's exactly what this is. They're spawning timelines that can't fucking sustain themselves. Alternate timelines don't just get to exist. Time has a way of snipping off the dangling threads like the excess chin hairs on some grizzled old lady's face. Trust me. I've seen this shit happen before but they got me too nerfed to do anything about it.

[thornsofmalkav]

I know that's how they work in your world, DS, but I dunno if it's how they work everywhere. The weirdest shit can be universe specific.

[acapriciousthing]

Sounds like they're trying to regain access to worlds that managed to shake them.

[comebewe]

Something like that. But there's more to it, I'm sure. There was something they were leaving out, something that they did not wish to tell us. Even outside of the fact that Fool apparently has to answer everything as a negative.

[acapriciousthing]

Something they know they shouldn't be doing? That they know we would never help them accomplish?

[thornsofmalkav]

So yeah, basically what Matthew said.

I think we started to get through to Fool? He seemed surprised when he told him how badly the cabochon drill thing was fucking up Questing Country and, like, got kinda anxious about going to talk to the others that were manning the drill. On the other hand, Judgement was super annoyed at us and I got the feeling that Fool being around was the only reason she hadn't tried to smite us. He didn't want to leave us alone with her anyway.

Anyway, I've also been talking with my friend Reiko--she's an Infiltrator--and she went down to Merge with the Cabochon and talked with someone I am pretty damn sure is Magician. And, like, Magician didn't seem to realize that the cabochon drill was fucking things up so bad--Reiko described her as being surprised and genuinely consternated about it--and then when Reiko asked her if what they were doing was bigger than a Valence, Magician got real quiet and said they were playing for, Reiko quotes, 'stakes that would blow your socks off, kid.'

... I haven't met her personally, but it does kind of seem to me that if Magician is getting quiet about something it's pretty big and important.

[comebewe]

Fool might have told us about trying to regain access to worlds lost, but there was...more to it, than that, I'm sure. We do not believe we know what they are really after.

[thornsofmalkav]

I think there's more to it too. A lot more.