-Overflow- for 24 - Autumn Reception

[godsoffortune]

Who: Everyone!
What: Autumn Reception
When: September 30, 6 PM
Where: The Gods' Meeting Hall
Summary: The Heavens are throwing a formal party! Old and new gods alike are invited, so put on your nicest outfits and some good dancing shoes, and come see what this shindig is all about.

Continuing from HERE!

Comments

[revolutionfalcon]

Then you're going to have to figure out what it is you want to do with that one shot if you want to convince anyone to join you.

[It's an incredibly rare and generally not very intelligent sort who'll jump in on a "one shot or failure" sort of mission without knowing exactly what it is, in his experience.]

[all_seeing_eye]

I already have a pretty good idea.

[Grinning a little, she pushes up her glasses.]

I just need backup to pull it off.

[revolutionfalcon]

Good luck getting it if you're not going to tell them the actual plan. [He puts that very bluntly, since it seems like something she needs to hear - even in saying it's not easy, she seems a little too assured she'll find support and success.]

[all_seeing_eye]

Fine.

[She doesn't expect him to agree, but if he wants to hear it, she'll tell him.]

Back home, my powers only worked in the cognitive world. Basically, an alternate reality created by strongly distorted thoughts and desires. We called them 'Palaces,' and my friends and I had the ability to enter them. Once we were there, we would infiltrate our way in and steal the target's Treasure - a literal manifestation of whatever was at the core of their distorted thoughts. And that, in turn, would fix the distortion and affect their behavior in the real world.

[Pausing for a moment to make sure he's following, she continues.]

The fact that my powers work here strongly suggests that we're in someone's Palace already. Given that this place calls itself Takamagahara and the Amatsukami are in charge, I'd say there's a pretty good chance that it belongs to Amaterasu herself. And based on the fact that she appears as an innocent little girl here instead of as a powerful shining goddess, and that her major problem seems to be the constant invasion of faceless enemies that no one has ever seen and who don't seem to leave behind any trail, I'd say there's an equally good chance that her distortion is paranoia or some kind of persecution complex. Basically, the helpless little girl is the way she sees herself, so that's how she manifests in her own cognition. And her enemies might not even exist at all, which is why no one here has ever been able to catch them. So if all of that is true, what I need to do next is get into her temple, find her Treasure, and steal it.

[revolutionfalcon]

[He wouldn't have gotten along very well here if he was incapable of listening to other people describe the mechanics of their own worlds, so he pays close attention to the explanation. He doesn't look convinced at any point, though - on the contrary, his skepticism of the idea subtly increases as she goes on.

When she finishes, his first reaction is to sigh quietly.]

You have an inflated idea of your own world's importance. [Assuming this entire place is a concept that exists, to their knowledge, only in her world...it's not something he can see a lot of people rushing to support her for.]

Those enemies have been seen and acted in the human world as well, multiple times. So you're suggesting that not just the Heavens, but this entire world is one of these "Palaces", and I don't think I need to explain exactly how unlikely that is. Not to mention there's a reason she's a kid, which you'd know if you knew anything about how this world worked.

[all_seeing_eye]

[Futaba just groans at the response.]

Yeah, that's exactly what I expected you to say. I knew I was wasting my breath.

[She shakes her head.]

That doesn't mean I'm wrong. Most Palaces aren't very big, sure, but one created by the distorted thoughts of an actual goddess? That's on a whole other scale. Plus, we don't know how long this has been going on. The gods have been around for a really, really long time. If Amaterasu started to collapse under the pressure of being in charge early on and nobody did anything about this place, of course it would only start to grow, and maybe even draw people in to sustain itself.

[Still, she's not ending it there. It seems like he has more to say.]

You have to know how hypocritical you sound right now, lecturing me about not understanding how the world works when you're making plenty of assumptions about mine, but humor me. What's the reason? I think I've shared more than enough with you to have earned some information, even if you don't believe me.

[revolutionfalcon]

[This only sounds like more speculation and happenstance to him, especially if she's arguing that the Heavens are just a Palace but still claiming the gods existed the same way. To his eye, it's riddled with inconsistencies, and doing nothing to change his mind any.

He doesn't seem fazed by the remark on hypocrisy, but he gives her a rather dismissive look.] The only assumption I made about your world is that it functions differently to this one. Which is based on plenty enough evidence from others here.

[He's never met anyone whose world is identical to this one in its subtle functions and mechanics, whether it's the lacking presence of an afterlife or some kind of power that doesn't exist normally in this one.

While he does take some pause on actually giving her the details on Amaterasu, he figures since she's outed herself as a child already, it makes less difference than it once did.] The gods here who aren't us only reincarnate if they have enough followers. And even if they do, they're reborn as children. Someone's killed her fairly recently.

[Which, in Heaven's terms, could probably be a few years ago, but still. In any case, since it seems they've reached an impasse, he starts to turn away.]

But if we're both wasting our breath anyway, then we may as well end it here.

[all_seeing_eye]

[And to her, it sounds like he's disagreeing on general principle just to rile her up. Or because he's a jerk. Or a little of both.]

That doesn't necessarily render my theory invalid on its own, you know. But yeah, I think by this point we're both out of things to say. You haven't talked me out of it, and I'm clearly not going to convince you either.

[She does hold up a hand, though.]

But can I at least trust you as far as not going public with what I'm up to? I took a pretty big risk telling you all of this, you know. If it all blows up in my face, I promise I'll take my lumps and eat a big bowl of I-told-you-so.

[revolutionfalcon]

[At the question, Shun just shrugs a little, only turning his head back slightly towards her.] If it's not going to harm anyone who isn't naive enough to join you in a bad idea, it's your business what you do. Just be prepared to shoulder the consequences for anyone else you drag in as well if it goes wrong.

[Getting dragged in is deserving of consequences in itself, but if it blows up in their face, it's still primarily on her.

Still, that's all he has left to say to her right now, so with that remark, he starts to head off, back into the crowd.]