(no subject)

[lady_moon]

How long had it been since the whole family had convened?

Years.

A small portion of the family had gathered over the Gorlim issue, but this was a full-out, all-call of the family.

Every card Made or Awoken was now in attendance.

Moon sat at her place to Justice's right, though she remained huddled in on herself as her eyes scanned the long table where everyone gathered.

Ruin sat further down, in his appropriate place designated by his creation, and the last one, the one on Justice's left, was Mary Anne, the final card Made. Moon gazes at her over the wide table, eyes steady if wide and a little frightened.

Justice stands, commanding silence and attention.

"It seems change is upon us," he calls, his blind, milky eyes moving over the family.

Comments

[destroy_restart]

"Change is eternally that which makes the world move on," Tower says, "and in the old times, we wore other names, but change still ruled. Tell me something new."

Beat.

"Like we're playing chess for one of our own now."

[wheels-spun.livejournal.com]

Change is upon us, Wheel thought to himself. Uncharacteristically, he was in the same form as he wore when he and Moon had spoken in the Bar.

It unsettled him. He'd become quite used to his ever-shifting appearance.

Why should it stop now?

"But the cycle of change has never taken this direction before," he remarked. "Why should it start now?"

"You say that, because you're used to the wheel turning in a certain direction," another boy—the Six of Swords, Passage—said. "Who says it cannot go in a different direction?"

[tarot_npc]

"It wouldn't be change if it was the same as it always was," Devil snaps, rolling his eyes at having to point out the obvious. "We've all heard more sentients than we care to count whine about not wanting their lives to change, but change comes to them anyway. I'm not about to sit here and listen to you do the same thing.

"And grow up, would you? You look like the kid from E.T.. It's annoying."

[eight_or_eleven]

"I do not think he can, this time," Justice says calmly. "At least, not for now."

"All part of our evolution," Strength reflected. Shujaa and Utani lay several yards behind her, listening intently. This was Utani's first major meeting, and here was her chance to learn how things were done. "Some of us are changing by not changing.

Interesting..."

[lady_moon]

Moon buries her face in her knees, the red of her dress creeping up and slowly devouring the white bit by bit.

"Changing and swirling, paths distant and I can't see them, not like before, and it hurts my head more and more and the storm is raging. It's here and raging and it won't stop!"

[three_of_swords]

"The paths are becoming obscured," she says in her quiet voice. "We as the dream are becoming the dreamers."

It frightened her, just as it did Wheel.

[bright_daughter]

It was so much louder here--

the call, the need

her sister's, her family's

--but Star's face remained watchfully placid.

[destroy_restart]

"We are part of the story, now," Tower says. "Or at least some of us are. It does not frighten me: we always change. And Milliways is the kind of place that is bigger than everywhere else. Who is a god elsewhere ends up a gardener or security man there."

Beat, while he puffs on his cigar.

"Yes, really, I think it's that place levelling us."

[tarot_npc]

Sun, on the other side of Moon from Justice and Star, leaned forward and looked down the length of the table. The sunglasses were not because of the brightness of the room, but of his eyes.

"If it can change the endless ones, then why not us?" he asked rhetorically. "Frankly, I just don't see the necessity. We were in a good place before this. Everything was clear and simple and to the point. We had our duty; we did it; we had a beer afterward and thought nothing more of it. What's the point of going back into the darkness?"

[song_tra_bong]

This much of the family in one room sets her teeth on edge. You can spot the line of tension along her jaw if you know where to look.

"It's not about going back," she says, eyes fixed on her hands, curled into fists in her lap.

"Doing nothing but the same thing--stagnating--that would be going back."

[ten_of_swords]

Ruin growls. "We have to change," he insists. "It's time. How long have we just... stood here? And not even really stood here. We don't guide!"

Fortune sighs. "Ruin--"

"No, shut up, Fortune. This is important. A handful of us already sway everything as we see fit. We present the choices we want them to see, not all the choices. We're already mixed up in it all, and it's the lot of you who Awoke who can't keep up," Ruin snaps.

Judgment's eyes narrow. "Are you saying we are not impartial?"

Ruin's eyes flash. "That is exactly what I'm saying. We're not impartial, but we all hide behind the barrier of our distance to allow us to do some of the most unspeakable things in the name change."

[eight_or_eleven]

"Like how you nearly cracked their minds to get at Moon's, Ruin?" shot Logic. "You're fortunate that the wizard has recovered from it, at least."

Misery put her hand on Logic's.

"What's done is done. Berating him over it won't change it."

She had had a fondness for the wizard that stemmed from her days in the bar. He reminded her of the myriad misfits she'd gathered over the years before she joined the family.

"And it certainly won't make him feel better about it."

[lady_moon]

Moon tugs at her hair.

"Not ready yet. The egg can't hatch until the chick inside is grown. But we're not grown. It hurts and I don't like it. He hurts and I hurt and it's like taking a deep breath and holding it and holding it but then you forget how to breathe!"

"What was forgotten will be remembered," Memory whispers, though her voice carries easily in the room. "New bonds will be forged to shackle the cards, but are they necessarily unwanted bonds? What would The Lovers say if they were here?"

Skill tsks. "It seems there is a divide. Those for the change, those not. Those willing to accept what is being offered," her old eyes turn to Moon, "and those who are afraid of what it means."

Moon sniffs and shakes her head, looking at the red of her skirt.

[destroy_restart]

"Change happens," Tower says. "We see it does, and we see it effects some of us. Denial won't help us at all -- and no river in Egypt jokes, please, Devil -- and discussing whether it should happen is like trying to stuff a chick that's already hatched back in its egg."

Beat.

"Bloody pointless. So, instead, we should talk about what we do next."

[tarot_npc]

Devil rolls his eyes. "Oh, don't be such an asp. There Antony way I'd ever be so kohl-ed."

He held up a hand before anyone else could jump in.

"Look, it's simple. Milliways is the problem; leaving is the answer. Nothing ties us there, and in a very real sense, we don't belong there at all. Milliways as a plane hosts no sentients of its own. So we seal ourselves off from it. It's a harmful distraction we don't need. Problem solved."

[lady_moon]

Moon's head snaps up, tearing filling her eyes.

"Leave? We can't leave."

She shakes her head, her voice gaining in volume.

"I can't leave!"

The mere thought of never going back causes her heart to ache terribly. Ache in a way that is deep and tender and old.

[wheels-spun.livejournal.com]

If it was his intention to, he'd certainly succeeded in causing several cards to begin bickering over the Devil's words.

"We should stay away!"

"No! We continue to visit!"

"But they're altering us!"

"And it'll help us become better guides! We lose too many sentients as it is! We can't keep losing more!"

This continued for several more minutes, before a quiet voice spoke up.

"It's too late to resist the changes made to us, since they began when each of us Awoke or were Made."

Unity was speaking.

"Every time we touched a sentient, they touched us. We didn't notice it at first, because the alterations were so tiny. But over time, it adds up. Like drops in a bucket of water.

The changes some of you are resisting was begun long ago. You're only just noticing it now."

Wheel eyed her.

"You say that, because you were once one of them. Once a sentient yourself."

Unity shook her head.

"I say it because it's true."

Wheel found he couldn't come up with a retort for that.

[song_tra_bong]

Mary Anne has been staring in stunned silence since Devil last opened his mouth.

"If some of you want to cut yourselves off from that place, I don't suppose the rest of us can stop you. But if you think to cut us all off without a consensus--which you will not get--then I hope you're ready for a fight."

It'd be a perfect excuse to punch something.

[ten_of_swords]

Ruin tries not to smirk at Mary Anne. She would be the most against sealing them from Milliways.

"Legs is right," he says, looking up and down the table. "What's happened isn't going to be fixed by us locking the door and throwing away the key. For better or worse, it's begun."

Judgment nods. "There is little option, then. We will have to see this through until the end."

"Until the end," Ruin agrees.

Eyes turn to Moon, who shakes her head over and over, mumbling.

"She will have to be the sacrifice," Judgment murmurs. "She is the only one of us touched by it thus far."

[three_of_swords]

"And what happens to her?" Sorrow demands softly. "What happens if she can't see it through until the end?"

[lady_moon]

"Don't talk about me as if I can't hear you!" Moon snaps, wiping her cheeks. "Not the oldest, but just about, and if I have to do this I will because I'm the big sister and I will do what I have to!"

[eight_or_eleven]

More murmurings broke out amongst the assembled.

Sacrifice? One of their own? Madness!

They were not going to offer anyone up as the lamb to be slaughtered, and in the name of change, no less!

"Does this mean that you accept the challenge and the path laid out before you?" Justice asked quietly. "You know what it means to say 'yes'."

At once, there were several voices going "Yes! Say yes!", and others going, "No! Say no!"

Strength looked across the table towards Moon.

"If you need me to be there for you if you take on this, I will."

[lady_moon]

Moon's eyes remain fixed on Strength.

"The ripple in the pond is becoming a tsunami," she whispers.

[destroy_restart]

Tower is sitting through all this, shaking his head.

"We are archetypes," he says. "Sentients gave us our shape and our meaning, even though we are forever: - wherever sentients live through their stories, there we are! But we are also the cards that they painted to make sense of their stories."

Beat.

"As they change, so do we. It's always been that way, we didn't just always notice. But now that we have one of our own in a story, in a place where we are part of the story ourselves, not so much has changed as we think. And we are not kicking Moon out there, locking the door, and picking a new moon. It simply will not happen. Whoever doesn't want to be involved simply stays away from Milliways."

[bright_daughter]

"So much fear." Her voice is soft tremulous thing, but it reaches every corner of the room. They are the first word's Star has said since walking in and slipping to sit about her chair. "Have you forgotten the unforgettable?"

Star pushed up from her chair, fingers slipping slowly down the arms of it as she abandoned it. "The shattering maelstrom brings forth an ending they never predicted. You predict the fall, you yell about derision or division or immolation. There is another direction this could all could go."

[tarot_npc]

Harmony watches her sister, the pale silvery-pink eyes following Star.

"You speak of joy and happiness," she says, her voice warm and soothing. "A path which merges and melds and becomes stronger because of..."

She tilts her head.

"Because of love."

[bright_daughter]

"Love," Star said, with a nod. "Faith, trust--"

Her blue-silver eyes scanned the room, briefly touch on each of the faces she knew so well. The faces that were the entire reason she was woken from her own slumber. "--family. What is there we can not weather together? What change could come that trumps that truth?"

"We do not balk when walkers become family. Why balk when the hallowed steps choose us back? Why not leave some room, some quiet space to believe, to hold to what we know?" Star smiled, a quiet, pleased little thing. "Love has come, and it has gathered the full family for the first time in ages. The outcome is not promised in any direction than it ever has been."

[eight_or_eleven]

Love.

The mere mention of the word caused her own heart to skip, and her eyes to look into Justice's milky ones.

The two of them had been very close. Lovers, once, but Strength had ended it when she thought that they were becoming too much like the sentient peoples.

Justice had, as humans would say, carried a torch for her ever since.

But if we are free to love...

She studied his face, and knew exactly what he was thinking, and feeling—

—and knew she was doing the same.

Is love not but a face of courage? Is courage not the thing you personify?

She knew now that, if a vote were taken, what her ballot would be...

[lady_moon]

The room was silent.

Completely.

They waited.

And she knew they waited for her.

Moon sniffs, wipes her cheeks, and takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly. She looks up at Justice and nods.

"I will walk this path until its end, if there is an end," she whispers.

The fear she feels is as palpable as her determination.

[ten_of_swords]

Ruin glares at the other cards.

"Do we not remember what happened the last time she decided to fall in love? The balance was upset and we could only put it back by locking her away from herself!"

"That will not happen this time," Judgment replies. "Moon has learned from that time, has lived more, and through Milliways, she has made attachments. This, I think, will be much different than the Broken Girl."

Ruin shakes his head, but Fortune cuts him off. "Moon has made her choice, Ruin. It's done. Her feet are firmly on the path. Her choices, and the choices of her wolf, will either lead to happiness or grief. We can only do as we have ever done and guide her when we can."

Harmony nods. "She is a walker now."

[tarot_npc]

Justice stands, and all eyes track to the movement.

He says nothing, merely turns away from the table and walks toward one of the exits with a slow, purposeful stride.

The meeting was concluded. There was nothing more to say.