communion; open to all.

[appeale]

Hey.

[ even to those who have only encountered Rudbeckia's presence in passing via Communion, something is noticeably different. her mind has always been something warm and friendly, deliberately appealing to make others feel at ease; she herself would withdraw timidly from the touch of another's mind, always guarded and cautious while doing her best not to seem so.

now, the landscape that surrounds her is unwelcoming and barren. those red sands that used to warm her feet have turned cold. and most significantly, not a trace of fear remains in her – but it isn't courage, or strength, or confidence that has changed her.

the impression of her blank stare is that of someone who stands on a ledge uncaring of which way she might fall. ]

What the hell did you guys do in the Oracle trial?

Comments

[hauntedking]

...we mostly judged whether worlds were worth preserving or not. It was... unclear.

[ He feels a little dizzy, give him a sec. ]

I didn't... I didn't expect this.

[ The change in her draws attention. But he's still coming to terms with everything. ]

[appeale]

Really? There wasn't anything about this? Because it was pretty obvious the Blight was going to happen after that first one, but everyone just went ahead anyway.

[ they'd thawed an island afflicted by a magical plague, and then were surprised when the plague spread. even before that thing wearing the Tribune's body showed up, she's always thought the way everyone blindly goes ahead with this stupid conflict without thinking one step further is absurd. ]

Still, this is pretty extreme. Who won?

[redsoil]

Nothing of value. I was on Shimmer the entire time.

[ He actually did nothing at all. Advocates SUCK! ]

Tezcatlipoca and I were trying to have a bit of fun before the Oracle started, and the timing was awful.

[appeale]

[ there's no warmth, but the harsh edges of her soften only at the touch of Set's mind. ]

Seriously? That stuff isn't good for you.

[punkisntdead]

[This coming from a stranger, Chloe's got no basis for noticing the change in demeanor. That particular sort of uncaring attitude kinda hits in a real familiar way however, so she can't help but pay attention.]

It was just us fucking around in a bunch of fake dream worlds.

[Simultaneously cool and tiring, but waking up to these changes everywhere almost feels like they're still stuck in that loop.]

You say that like you weren't there, though.

[appeale]

I wasn't. I was kindly given a pass for this one.

[ her tone remains light and airy, but there's a sharper edge in her mind: she doesn't want to talk about whatever happened to her. ]

—Were they actually fake, or did you fuck up something real?

[semicharmed]

[ Under other circumstances, Matt might've started with some dry remark. We dreamed pretty hard or a few of us started experimenting with sainthood.

But through the connection of the Stargazer, Ruby's demeanor is clear as a whip of arctic wind. There's something at work in her that Matt's not sure how to identify--exhaustion, maybe, or emptiness. It scares him for her, though. Gets him thinking, okay, no messing around. ]

Something dark talked to us, [ he says. ] While we were sleeping. It was wearing Cyrus like a mask, and it said-- [ A jagged flicker of pain, for what's been done to Cyrus. What's being done. Did Yima know this would happen? ] --that everybody who wanted to preserve the dream worlds we visited had given it a gift. A meal. That normally the preserve people "resist and destroy," but this time they were allies.

[ And also it's been a century, Matt???? Way to bury the lede. ]

[appeale]

[ casually: ] Oh, Meridian already knew about that. The Cyrus thing, I mean.

[ no hesitation in throwing them under the bus. they chose to keep it a secret, so she feels they deserve some responsibility here. ]

I did say at the time that we probably shouldn't just keep doing Oracles like normal, since that thing seemed pretty happy with the "choices" we'd made. But everyone here is a psycho, so that was never going to happen.

[a_noble_flame]

[Alice's communion is warm but the flames have gone out for now. It's like a banked hearth barely glowing with life.]

... I had a dream.

[She pauses there, rubbing her head a little. Or trying, she has so much hair to deal with now...]

Besides all the worlds. It was me ... but not.

[appeale]

Oh, an alternate universe version of yourself? That's not uncommon around here.

[bakedapple]

...

So did I.

[ He'd hesitated to say anything, considering how their last conversation went, but... this is important, right? ]

What did you see?

[kaientai]

What makes you think it was our fault?

[ ugh. ]

I've always said we don't know what we're dealing with with the Oracles. This seems about right.

[hauntedking]

They're certainly confusing.

[appeale]

Yeah, I said we shouldn't treat this Oracle as normal after D told us about that shadow thing, but apparently you psychos just fought about it as always.

[fursuit]

[ Look, other people will cover the actually useful answers. Tezcatlipoca is here for one reason and one reason alone: to complain. ]

Y'know, chased Set around, mostly. Maniac got juiced right before he took his fuckin' nap, so he was a huge pain in the ass!

[ Was Tezcatlipoca about to do the same thing? Yes. That does not matter. ]

Took, I dunno, thirty worlds before I finally kicked his ass enough for him to calm down.

[redsoil]

How many worlds were there in total, anyways?

[appeale]

The gods of war and conflict really spent an Oracle trial just playing tag?

[ it should be funny, or maybe bewildering... but, ah – it seems she's lost the ability to feel any of those emotions. there is just a hollow cavern inside of her. ]

Well, thanks for providing my husband enrichment, I suppose.

[baltimores]

[ Incredulously, not because of Ruby's demeanour — more familiar to him than not by now — but because of the nature of her question: ]

Nothing.

[ Listen, he knows he's at fault for a lot of things, but not this time?? So he's maybe a little defensive here too. ]

[appeale]

[ despite the accusatory nature of her question, she doesn't actually seem to be angry at him – or anyone, really. whatever has happened to her, she's been hollowed out by it, so disconnected from herself that no emotion can take root.

still— ]

Really? You're sure these idiots had nothing to do with this?

[eightfoldfiend]

[Yuber's presence across the Communion is cold and strangely still.]

We won.

[appeale]

[ the deliberate sound of a few sarcastic claps. ]

Congratulations? That really seems like it matters right now.

[picketship]

[Generally, Demeisen's communion is more like speaking with someone in the same room than like sharing a mind. He projects his voice and his image with such precision he may as well be right next to the person with whom he's speaking, but generally lets tone and body language fill in for actual sent emotions.

From another Stargazer, though, they come through regardless: a slight edge of irritation, prickling behind an otherwise unruffled appearance.]

That's what I'd like to know. I checked out halfway through, and when I came to, Springstar was a fucking hole in the ground.

[And not the "someone nuked it" kind of hole, either. That, at least, would have been straightforward.]

[appeale]

[ ah, a Stargazer. it used to be that she would shy away from that connection, but she's so emptied out that there's nothing left to fear will be exposed. her own feelings are already distant and foreign to her; somebody else's, no matter how close their connection, can't reach her either. ]

I missed the whole thing, so coming back after a couple months to see that a century had passed was a shock. But I assumed it was just some stupid choice made by the trial.

[dreamflowers]

Had tea and played with kittens.

[She knows others have answered a little more earnestly, so Jade is hitting the "smartass" dialogue option.]

[appeale]

Wait, did you actually? Because in that case, I'm pissed off that the one time I got to miss an Oracle, it wasn't actually that bad.

THIS IS SO LATE FORGIVE ME...

[narsinssist]

Why, I had a grand time!

[ SiGHS ]

Not to get into the details, but it was rather fun seeing all these varied little snapshots of different worlds, and understanding who came from where.

[appeale]

Well, that sounds a lot less dire than usual. Lucky you.

[ of course the one she gets to miss out on is the least murdery??? ]

It's a little on-the-nose for an Oracle, isn't it? Visiting worlds and then choosing whether to preserve them or not. Though, I wonder why Zenith won with that vote.

[ she says that, but it's a very idle curiosity; it's evident from the undisturbed surface of her mind that she couldn't really give a damn either way. ]