[ raven isn't one for whiskey, but she is going to make herself a cup of milk tea. she, too, isn't really down about anything that happened (though she does recognize the situation as being incredibly unfortunate). it doesn't mean she's not tired, though. what a waste of time.
she walks into the dining room to make her tea when she spots rideaux with whiskey. she gives him a quick glance before she walks into the kitchen area to make her drink.
when she's finished, she takes a seat across of him. ]
Tell me exactly how your original abilities worked. I need to know where you obtained that kind of power.
You know, most people start with a greeting before going straight into demands.
[ He takes a sip from his glass -- slowly enough that she can throw in a snarky greeting if she wants, and get mildly annoyed by the wait if she doesn't. ]
You'll be disappointed, then, to know that I was born with it. It was a power the Great Spirits so generously gifted to a particular bloodline.
[ There is a lot of sarcasm in those italics, but it may not be a surprise, given he's been relatively open about his disdain for spirits.
Liquid ones aside, obviously. ]
My own family happened to be an offshoot of it, though they were far enough removed that no one recognized what it was.
[ there. happy!! anyway, back to the important stuff. she is, in fact, disappointed that it's not a power she can harness for herself. ]
I'm curious to know how the power itself works, exactly. Even though I'm aware that I'll never be able to obtain it, I'm curious to know how powerful you really were before you came here.
[ He does indeed smile at that. See, that wasn't so hard. ]
It's called the chromatus. When using it, we transform into a unique form with armor and increased strength, speed, and agility. It allows for the manipulation of space-time, to an extent -- we can briefly move an opponent into a small, contained dimension with us, where we temporarily have increased stamina and access to additional artes.
[ He's just been getting increasingly looser with Spirius's most closely held secrets each day he's been here, and honestly, he finds it strangely satisfying. It's just a good thing Raven is never going to meet Bisley.
That said, he is going to deliberately leave out the detail of how they transform and what the physical source of their power is. Should he ever manage to get access to it here, he's not about to risk anyone interfering. ]
Its main use, though, is allowing us to travel to fractured dimensions -- alternate versions of our world's reality that diverged and branched off into different timelines -- and destroy them. Specifically, we destroy the divergence catalyst in that dimension, and it erases that timeline and everything within it from existence.
[ raven listens carefully. the chromatus would, indeed, be something she'd like to obtain for herself -- though it's not too different from her maiden powers other than the added ability to take an opponent into a contained dimension. she isn't sure how much she'd like to be in another dimension with salem, but that's neither here nor there. ]
Dimensional factors aside, the chromatus doesn't sound too different than what are known as maiden powers back where I'm from.
[ she takes a sip of her tea, because the explanation is kind of a doozy. ]
They're made of magic, which is a rare feat on Remnant; it's difficult to explain exactly what they can do. The best way I can put it is that maiden powers come with great power that shouldn't be in the hands of the weak.
[ ...He's judging the term "maiden powers" pretty hard, and has to force himself to move past that. It sounds like they're talking about using feminine wiles to get a man to carry something heavy for you. ]
Oh? What happens if they end up in the wrong hands?
[ That part definitely doesn't sound too different so far, though, so he can kind of imagine. ]
Maiden powers transfer over to whoever is the last person in the current Maiden's thoughts before she dies.
[ she shakes her head. ozpin was a fool to think he could forcibly transfer over the previous fall maiden's powers over to pyrrha nikos without consequence. ]
Those powers ending up in the wrong hands could cause mass destruction; gather all four Maidens and you'd have a nearly unstoppable force.
[ considering cinder tried to steal her maiden powers? yeah, there's a possibility. ]
We're not. [ she shakes her head. ] Some Maidens want to use their powers to help others. Some want to use it for destruction. I only want to use mine to defend my tribe against the real unstoppable force on Remnant. I believe I told you about her before.
[ Her name would have been more memorable if he were from Earth, probably, but as it is he just remembers it starts with an S and ends with a consonant. ]
Have you tried? Taking someone else's for yourself, I mean, if some of them are that bad.
[ He takes a sip from his glass, remarkably casual about suggesting murder. ]
I'd rather recruit the Maiden to my side, personally. Should my successor turn out to be someone ill-willed, I wouldn't want them to have more than one Maiden power in their arsenal.
[ murder's fine. look, she's done it before. plenty of times. ]
[ That's why he likes her. As well as he likes anyone, anyway. ]
Personally I wouldn't worry that much about things that happen after I'm gone. And in your case, if the alternative is letting her destroy humanity, it sounds like you wouldn't have a successor anyway.
So if the recruiting doesn't work out, I think you'd be wise to keep that in mind as an option.
Oh, please. It's hardly about being noble, I owe it to them.
[ she catches onto that bitterness -- it's something she hasn't heard out of them yet, not while they're speaking one on one like this. sounds like she hit a nerve. she'll keep that in mind.
moving on though: he does pose an interesting question. ]
The pictures I got last Tuesday weren't indicative of any sort of progression, if we're going off of the assumption that they weren't edited. That being said, it's hard to say for sure with so many uncertainties. If I had to pick? I'd think that everything's on pause.
[ clearly she's just been lucky because resentment is like 90% of his being ]
It wasn't very clear to me either, though I suspect that if time were progressing normally, they wouldn't have had a very big window in time in which they could have taken that picture.
[ Though given that suicidal dipshit and the other person from his world, they're clearly able to pull people from different points in time, so it stands to reason that they could travel to different points as well. Who's to say that wasn't a photo from well in the past? ]
In that case, what do you think happens when we die here? "We" as in a general collective, of course -- I have no intention of dying here, and I'm sure you don't either.
[ at the mention of death, her answer is simple: ]
Of course not.
[ she doesn't have plans to die anytime soon, unlike, well, a certain suicidal dipshit. ]
I'm almost certain The Lady is gaining something from all of these deaths. She wouldn't have made the game otherwise. ... At the very least she'll have more corpses to experiment on.
What that means for ourselves and our homes, however... That's something I'd need to think on.
Oh, certainly. But yes, that's the part I'm curious about. Does anyone who dies here then disappear from their own world? Or are the versions of us here just duplicate copies that no longer have any effect on what happens in the places we came from?
[ ...Is he now a fractured version of himself, basically. ]
I think they're probably obscuring the answer to that question on purpose to give themselves more leeway on coming up with motives.
When they first introduced themselves to us and said they'd make these murders "worth our time", I asked her what she planned to do to make it worth mine. She said she'd look forward to seeing if I accepted her proposal when the time was right to offer it, or something like that.
Obviously what they offered this week wasn't it, so I wonder if they don't have something in mind specifically targeted to each of us.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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she walks into the dining room to make her tea when she spots rideaux with whiskey. she gives him a quick glance before she walks into the kitchen area to make her drink.
when she's finished, she takes a seat across of him. ]
Tell me exactly how your original abilities worked. I need to know where you obtained that kind of power.
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[ He takes a sip from his glass -- slowly enough that she can throw in a snarky greeting if she wants, and get mildly annoyed by the wait if she doesn't. ]
You'll be disappointed, then, to know that I was born with it. It was a power the Great Spirits so generously gifted to a particular bloodline.
[ There is a lot of sarcasm in those italics, but it may not be a surprise, given he's been relatively open about his disdain for spirits.
Liquid ones aside, obviously. ]
My own family happened to be an offshoot of it, though they were far enough removed that no one recognized what it was.
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[ there. happy!! anyway, back to the important stuff. she is, in fact, disappointed that it's not a power she can harness for herself. ]
I'm curious to know how the power itself works, exactly. Even though I'm aware that I'll never be able to obtain it, I'm curious to know how powerful you really were before you came here.
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It's called the chromatus. When using it, we transform into a unique form with armor and increased strength, speed, and agility. It allows for the manipulation of space-time, to an extent -- we can briefly move an opponent into a small, contained dimension with us, where we temporarily have increased stamina and access to additional artes.
[ He's just been getting increasingly looser with Spirius's most closely held secrets each day he's been here, and honestly, he finds it strangely satisfying. It's just a good thing Raven is never going to meet Bisley.
That said, he is going to deliberately leave out the detail of how they transform and what the physical source of their power is. Should he ever manage to get access to it here, he's not about to risk anyone interfering. ]
Its main use, though, is allowing us to travel to fractured dimensions -- alternate versions of our world's reality that diverged and branched off into different timelines -- and destroy them. Specifically, we destroy the divergence catalyst in that dimension, and it erases that timeline and everything within it from existence.
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Dimensional factors aside, the chromatus doesn't sound too different than what are known as maiden powers back where I'm from.
[ she takes a sip of her tea, because the explanation is kind of a doozy. ]
They're made of magic, which is a rare feat on Remnant; it's difficult to explain exactly what they can do. The best way I can put it is that maiden powers come with great power that shouldn't be in the hands of the weak.
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Oh? What happens if they end up in the wrong hands?
[ That part definitely doesn't sound too different so far, though, so he can kind of imagine. ]
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[ she shakes her head. ozpin was a fool to think he could forcibly transfer over the previous fall maiden's powers over to pyrrha nikos without consequence. ]
Those powers ending up in the wrong hands could cause mass destruction; gather all four Maidens and you'd have a nearly unstoppable force.
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[ Since it was three up until about a month ago, and now he's been pushed down from third place to fourth. Which he's not about to admit to. ]
It isn't possible for more than one of them to transfer their powers to the same person, I take it?
Even so, "nearly unstoppable" sounds like you shouldn't have to ask for outside assistance, unless you're not all on the same side.
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[ considering cinder tried to steal her maiden powers? yeah, there's a possibility. ]
We're not. [ she shakes her head. ] Some Maidens want to use their powers to help others. Some want to use it for destruction. I only want to use mine to defend my tribe against the real unstoppable force on Remnant. I believe I told you about her before.
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[ Her name would have been more memorable if he were from Earth, probably, but as it is he just remembers it starts with an S and ends with a consonant. ]
Have you tried? Taking someone else's for yourself, I mean, if some of them are that bad.
[ He takes a sip from his glass, remarkably casual about suggesting murder. ]
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[ murder's fine. look, she's done it before. plenty of times. ]
That's not a bad suggestion otherwise.
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Personally I wouldn't worry that much about things that happen after I'm gone. And in your case, if the alternative is letting her destroy humanity, it sounds like you wouldn't have a successor anyway.
So if the recruiting doesn't work out, I think you'd be wise to keep that in mind as an option.
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[ she takes another sip of her tea, then: ]
But you do have a point. I haven't heard of anyone obtaining two Maiden powers before, but I've seen someone try with little success.
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Yes, that's very noble of you, and I'm sure there's no way that preoccupation will someday put your own odds for survival at risk.
[ There's a hint of bitterness there about something, but he takes a drink and moves on. ]
Are you worried about how things are progressing without you right now? Or do you think time is paused in our worlds while we're here?
[ It doesn't seem like they've ever gotten a very clear answer on that. ]
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[ she catches onto that bitterness -- it's something she hasn't heard out of them yet, not while they're speaking one on one like this. sounds like she hit a nerve. she'll keep that in mind.
moving on though: he does pose an interesting question. ]
The pictures I got last Tuesday weren't indicative of any sort of progression, if we're going off of the assumption that they weren't edited. That being said, it's hard to say for sure with so many uncertainties. If I had to pick? I'd think that everything's on pause.
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It wasn't very clear to me either, though I suspect that if time were progressing normally, they wouldn't have had a very big window in time in which they could have taken that picture.
[ Though given that suicidal dipshit and the other person from his world, they're clearly able to pull people from different points in time, so it stands to reason that they could travel to different points as well. Who's to say that wasn't a photo from well in the past? ]
In that case, what do you think happens when we die here? "We" as in a general collective, of course -- I have no intention of dying here, and I'm sure you don't either.
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Of course not.
[ she doesn't have plans to die anytime soon, unlike, well, a certain suicidal dipshit. ]
I'm almost certain The Lady is gaining something from all of these deaths. She wouldn't have made the game otherwise. ... At the very least she'll have more corpses to experiment on.
What that means for ourselves and our homes, however... That's something I'd need to think on.
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[ ...Is he now a fractured version of himself, basically. ]
I think they're probably obscuring the answer to that question on purpose to give themselves more leeway on coming up with motives.
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[ because that's not a question she would have asked herself. (least not until this week's motive) ]
That's most likely the case, but either way, I'll see if I can get an answer from The Lady regarding alternate selves and realities.
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[ He raises an eyebrow at that second part. ]
You know, that almost makes it sound like you're on friendly terms with her.
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[ she shrugs. ]
Civil, at best. Probably because I haven't gotten on her nerves yet.
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[ And his problem is that he finds her really fucking annoying. ]
I'm still waiting to hear that offer she said she'd make me, though.
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[ now that piques her interest. ]
What offer are you talking about?
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[ He takes a drink and sighs. ]
When they first introduced themselves to us and said they'd make these murders "worth our time", I asked her what she planned to do to make it worth mine. She said she'd look forward to seeing if I accepted her proposal when the time was right to offer it, or something like that.
Obviously what they offered this week wasn't it, so I wonder if they don't have something in mind specifically targeted to each of us.