synopsychic | Open Broadcast || Jaunt

Get your bearings, don't assume your friends will recognise you if they haven't piped up on the network already, and decide what you make of the stakes. At this point we don't have nearly enough information to make big decisions.

I have an idea, but that's mostly because I've been here before, and there's someone I need to talk to before I spring it on the group at large anyway.

Dude, did you meet your Arcana?

Since both you and Lance are yourselves, let's meet and review the situation.

[Huh. He doesn't think he recognizes this person.]

... Who are you?

[And information to make 'big decisions', huh?]

What decisions can we make, anyway? [And...] Do you guys always work as a group?

... Yeah.

[It was... weird. Mainly since he was alone in there.]

Did you meet yours, too?

Where are you?

Yep. She was nicer than I figured but I uh. I kinda want a do-over, I feel like I missed a bunch of stuff I should've asked her but couldn't think of at the time.

How'd it go for you?

My name's Naoki.

There's... at least fifty of us here total, including people who are infiltrating and accounting for the jaunt split. That's a lot of potential to shift this market-shares business one way or another. On the other hand, there's about as much consensus as you'd expect in a group of that size. [Which is to say, hardly any at all.]

As a group we tend to fall out in favor of uncovering secrets and improving the lot of oppressed factions.

I'm Keith.

[Easier this way, right?

And, hm.] So that's what makes an Arcana win or lose this match? [The market-shares business going one way or another, that is.

And well--] Aren't we all marked by different Arcana, though? [How is a consensus even possible? Unless not everyone wants their Arcana to win?... Just. Some of this stuff makes no sense at all.]

[... She. So it really is someone other than Mortimer.

He doesn't like this one bit.]

It was... okay. I guess. [But hm--] Where are you, though?

Sometimes it's specifically what happens while we're here, sometimes it's how that happens. We're not likely to know for sure until it's over, if then, but sometimes we can make educated guesses. The biggest thing happening here, right now, is the potential new share of the market, so it's most likely that which faction gets it, or whether it's granted at all, will be the deciding factor.

Assuming Fortune's not exploiting her own loopholes so they potentially both win, anyway, and that's not an assumption I'm about to make.

We are, but that doesn't really have a bearing on how we all interact with jaunts. Some of us are more willing to play ball than others, about half of them have been knocked out of the competition by this point anyway, and they can't actually make us do anything - suggest a course of action, sometimes, but they can't force it. It's usually easier to look at things on a case-by-case basis, figure out what the best thing here is, and go from there.

[ Good question. Where is he? Is this north of the place or south? ] Little ways outside the market, down towards the river.

[ He's not normally the type to ditch the crowd, but he needs to be able to hear himself think to do stuff on the network. ]

... Why does that even matter to them? Who has or hasn't got the potential new share of the market? [Isn't this another 'universe'? Or are all of these 'universes' or places or whatever they are sent to during these 'Jaunts' part of something bigger controlled by the Arcana?

And-- huh.] ... Who's Fortune? [Another Arcana, he is assuming? Though--] And what do you mean, 'exploiting her own loopholes'?

And isn't that weird? [It seems so weird to him. Well... All this mess seems weird, but her saying it like it's the most natural thing in the world only underlines how weird it is.] They mark us, but for what? [How are people marked by Arcana that, apparently, already lost, still playing?] But well, good to know.

[The market is... massive. But he did see a river before.]

Okay-- Don't move. I'll meet up with you.

[... Huh. Dejá vù. Weird.]

It's stuff that pings with their archetypes, most likely. ['Control' may be too strong a term, but they certainly have stakes in these worlds regardless.]

Fortune's one of the Arcana. She won the whole game the last time they did this, so she got to set the rules for this time. Death and Hermit had a match... just over a year ago, I think, and they both managed to win - they wanted two different things to happen, and they both did. The person who made the rules absolutely knows where the back doors and shortcuts are. I just don't know if she's using them.

They're looking for people who ping their archetypes. We're more than just those archetypes, so whether we always agree is an open question.

Isn't what weird?

Yeah, got it.

[ And this time he actually does just that.

... Wait, this time? Weird. ]

[It actually takes him a little longer than what he'd like to finally find Lance. It's not easy: not when he doesn't know the place, not when everything is so crowded (even outside the market). But, thankfully, the clothes he is wearing are easily recognizable, the jeans and jacket like nothing around them.]

Lance! [He calls out, walking fast towards him the rest of the way.]

So the power balance of this entire world is really just a game to them...? [Honestly, he would understand 'control' or 'power' better, as reasons.

And wait-- Wait, wait, wait.]

... So the Arcana who wins gets to set the rules for the next game? [His eyebrow rises.] So when does the game end? [Is Mortimer the only one interested in ending it?] And how can someone who made the rules be playing, too?! [Isn't that cheating? Man, the more he tries to understand what's going on here, the less sense it all makes.]

That they mark us to begin with. Even if we... 'ping their archetypes' or whatever, what's the point of marking us if that doesn't have any influence, if we can just do what we want in the end? [Like she said, right?] They could have just brought us here and let us do whatever. [Which feels, right now, like it's exactly what's happening: what Naoki says happens, anyway. If in the end they, as a group (or not) decide what they want to do and if the Arcana can't make them do anything... why are they marked by one to begin with?]

What did you mean earlier about how half of them have been knocked out of the competition by this point? Half of the Arcana already lost?

Edited 2019-01-21 19:58 (UTC)

[ There's so many. Lance has trouble not staring, all those wings and horns, so while he meant to keep an eye out for Keith, he's kind of sidetracked watching the crowd when he hears him call his name. Once he does, though, Lance spots Keith almost instantly, raising his hand in a greeting that looks more casual than he feels. ]

Hey!

[ +1 familiar ~~mullet~~face. That's good. ]

I think it's less that this is the game and more that it's the board this part of the greater game is being played on. It's complicated, and they're not very big on direct answers. The game ends when there's only one of them who hasn't lost anything, and at least so far, the winner's decided to start it up again, for one reason or another.

[Well, Tower was probably into the idea of stopping the Arcana's game for good, but even if Naoki doesn't approve of their murder, he wouldn't have wanted to see that end play out. A universe founded on archetypal chaos and disaster would not be pretty.]

We know the marks keep us connected to Liminal Space. That's not an aspect of all this that I've really dug into, though. Thorne-san might know - I think she's at least been part of some discussions about it after the fact, with people who did ask.

Since they started going head-to-head, we've only had to deal with two of them at a time. Even before that, more than two showing up on any given jaunt was... kind of a big deal.

Edited 2019-01-22 22:52 (UTC)

Open Broadcast || Jaunt

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