Scene #1550: Post-Traumatic Riva Disorder

Owner	Pose
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell's house is, frankly, kind of absurd. A traditional suburban home, copypasted into expansion hundreds of times, Sims-style, forms its basic foundation and shape, making up the core of its aesthetic. However, someone's added a distinctly skull-themed aesthetic that goes so far as to have a floor or two of the structure be entirely shaped like a skull. The titanic structure which shouldn't ever be able to hold itself up as high as it does sits atop a spire that similarly shouldn't be able to hold itself up at all. The tallest spire on the Land of Spires and Frogs has what seems like a normal suburban lawn on it, though there's several strange explosive magma traps on the lawn and the lawn itself hasn't been cut for a year and a half. The fortieth floor is still devastated from some kind of massive explosion take out a large portion of the floor, while the second floor appears to have been subjected to some kind of incredibly violent breach from something the size of a fridge. The Warpgate through which Kyra might arrive is actually an extremely unusual green spirographic-design gate in an empty room up there. Getting down to where Arthur probably is means heading down several dozen stories of stairs, a dangerous proposition indeed, but Riva could find him around the massive skull that makes up the fourth and fifth stories of the home, a large two-story room with a massive pipe organ near the "face" of the skull and a mess of alchemy equipment opposite it, and between them an assortment of furniture. Dried bloodstains are still here, on the stairs on the way down, but that was nearly a week ago now. He's tried to clean some of them up, but a lot of it is still left to deal with. Arthur himself seems to be in a bit of a mood... Whether or not he's expecting Riva's visit explicitly, he has the posture of someone who spends their time when nobody's looking at them in a kind of exhausted, stressed posture, lying down on one of the couches facing the back of it while he fusses with a game system or reads a book or something trivial like that. Of course, this will change as soon as Riva makes her presence known!
Riva Banari	Riva arrives in the Skull House with a platter of nachos (not nanchos) in one hand, steadied by some DVD boxes, while the other holds a wrapped box of OMINOUS PORTENT, the wrapping being a distinct red foil usually only seen on SPECIFIC DAYS OF THE YEAR. However, she has cleverly stopped short of actually decorating it as the MOST DANGEROUS OF GIFTS, which might possibly take Arthur off guard. The full monty is planned for /next/ year. As irresponsible as she is, she can make timetables when needed. TIMETABLES. As a result, when she is confronted with those STAIRS (which are dangerous), she squints and follows them down carefully. It would be terrible if she spilled the nachos, after all. When she finally makes her way down to the floor Arthur is on, Riva carefully peeks into the floor proper. She knows this area since she did borrow Arthur's stuff for some NOOB ALCHEMY over Christmas, so she's careful to try to ge a glimpse of the rare ARTHUR LOWELL in his NATIVE HABITAT. One day maybe she'll have to do a documentary on this. Regardless, after a short time of this, Riva uses her free hand to knock on the wall. "Knock knock, Arthur." She smiles. "Riva calling!" She walks right in, heading for Arthur and putting down the nachos within arms' reach of the coolkid god and tilting her head. "You look like you could use some serious relaxation time. I brought you some nachos! And some other stuff."
Arthur Lowell	As soon as Riva knocks, the stressed, exhausted posture is instantly gone, forced out and replaced with Arthur's trademark intense energy! "Yoooo! RIVA! Good t'seeya! How's it HANGIN'?" He says, immediately casting his whatever aside carelessly and leaping onto his feet with much gusto. "Hahahaha, you know I'm always RELAXED. CHILL so HARSH you could KEEP A SIDE OF BEEF IN ME. But I'm not gonna turn down NACHOS, or STUFF." Already he grabs one as a Prologue Snack and chomps on it. "Here, set 'em down, I'll snag some CHEESE and STUFF LIKE THAT." He's already wandering over to the alchemiter to make it. "So! Hey! How've YOU been? I know shit got a little TENSE there for a WHILE, everything been ALL GOOD since then?" He says while he fusses with punchcards. "You've been HELPIN' OUT with MIZUKI, and I heard some VAGUE STUFF from over in that COASTAL PLACE, plus a BUNCH of OTHER STUFF. Anything I oughta be HELPING WITH? I SERIOUSLY owe you, from what I heard."
Riva Banari	Riva pauses visibly for a moment, an eyebrow quirked as she sees how fast Arthur engages COOLKID MODE when he's obviously trashed. She places the nachos where directed, smiling as she wanders over behind Arthur, watching him work. "Me? I'm doing fine. I've been having some hella adventures while helping with the Mizuki thing and Kingsmouth. The place is a total downer, but we're working on it. Then there's Ainsley's place which got wrecked, apparently by the same stuff that's tearing up Kingsmouth, and then there basically anything else I think I can handle." She shrugs. "It's all working out." It's at this point where she noses over Arthur's shoulder, looking at the punchcards he's messing with. "But I'm not here about me, I'm here about /you/. How are you holding up? You're going through some rough stuff. Anything I can do to help /you/?" She asks like she already knows what he's going to say, but hey, maybe he'll surprise her.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur whips up a helping of fresh dippable cheese from his stockpile of punchcards, returning with it and plopping it down on the table next to Riva's nachos. "HUH, second time I've heard 'bout that AINSLEY person in a WEEK. Must be GETTING AROUND. Good t'hear you got THAT SHIT on LOCKDOWN!" He also wanders over to make a few nice, cold copies of some soda, tossing a can to Riva over one shoulder. When he returns, he does get around to Riva's question there, though he'll do it while staring at the bottom of his soda as if there's some kind of answer there. After a pause that goes on a second too long, he says, "HAHAHA, I'm ALL GOOD! The BOOK thing was just BUSTED, I'm thinkin'. Aside from the WEIRD VACATION that THAT was all about, s'all FINE! Trust me, if the WORLD wants to start gettin' ARTHUR GODDAMN LOWELL down, it's gonna have to try A LOT HARDER than a BROKEN-ASS HEAVEN BOOK, a ROBOT ASSASSIN, and the rest of the MIZUKI THINGS." He grabs some of the nachos, dipping several of them at once, and chomping down on them. Through a full mouth, "'M the HARDEST METAL KNOWN T'MAN, yo." After chewing a while, he does speak up again, though, with a little less force to the broad grin he always insists on wearing. "THANKS, though. SUPPORT'S APPRECIATED. Don't much DESERVE IT, after all I PUT YA THROUGH."
Riva Banari	Riva, being right there, snaffles the cold soda easily. She opens it up with a hiss and flops on the couch, looking up at Arthur as she takes a drink of her soda. "The world is full of ups and downs." She says, swirling the soda nonchalantly in its can. Apparently she doesn't care if it's going to go flat faster. "I think we both like to try to just take it all in stride when we can. I think you're more than worth the support, Arthur." She smiles a bit at that, but then she pauses again. "Are you really okay, Arthur? You seem pretty beat. You don't have to put up a front for my sake, man. I get enough of that from Sir Bedivere."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur smiles a bit more at that part about being worth the support. "Thanks, Rivs. Yeah, you know, whatever SPEED BUMPS come an' HIT ME, I HANDLE 'em." Riva piercing his faked-out energetic nature is incrementally getting close to Arthur letting go of it, though. "I'm gonna be f... YEAH, I'm gonna FINE. Just gotta take some BREATHERS between the MISSIONS when I CAN, y'know?" He looks a bit conflicted, as if tempted to vent a bit. He seems to arrive at a kind of middleground, briefly dropping a bit of the faux-energy act. "I know I'm looking a lot more stressed these days. There's some stuff about Mizuki's problems, and the problems I'm getting there, and some other stuff, it's all coming together to push me towards acting like a thing I don't like acting like, and making friends get closer to acting like stuff I don't want them to act like. If that's making any sense. It's... Stuff I'll just deal with, though, and it'll be over with eventually, so I can manage. It's all good, I'm not gonna have any breakdowns or anything like that, it'sn just gonna be exhausting, a bit." And stressful, and painful, and other stuff like that, he says-without-saying. "But look, you got your own problems that are actually worth a shit, don't add more just for me. I'm all good." He then tries to cut off his obligation to talk more with another fresh batch of nachos, consumed with a bit more of an awkward posture. Progress is made! A little more openness for Riva. Though admittedly this is just showing off progress Riva was already making behind the scenes.
Riva Banari	Riva waves a finger. "Even I can't be on /all/ the time. You're right, you gotta take breathers where you can get 'em." She smiles again for a moment, but then when Arthur begins talking about his problems, she leans in, listening attentively to his Deal. When he tells her to not worry about it, she arches an eyebrow. "Look, I'm doing all right, and you're having trouble. I don't think you're going to have a breakdown yet, no, but I don't want to see that happen. You don't have to handle it all alone. When it's all my turn, you can come help me out. That's what friends do, right, Mr. Macho Man?" She smiles, giving him a nudge in the upper arm. Then she sort of leans over a bit, adopting a kind of faux-Thinker posture while she sips her cola with the other hand. "And on that note, you're in kind of a doozy. Let me see if I get this right: You're trying to help solve these big problems, but now you're in a position where you're being forced in a direction you don't really want to go, but you don't see another way to help solve it... But solving it that way is going to do some damage to some of the relationships you've built up, things that you value." She exhales, her eyes looking towards the vaulted ceiling of the room as she thinks. "You know, this is the problem with dealing with a world that's a giant story. It constantly tries to lock you into a narrative. I've read books about this stuff, man. It's got /layers/."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur fidgets uneasily. "It's... Nnnh. It's a little more complicated." He rubs the bridge of his nose for a moment, strained and stressed in his expression just briefly. "Look, I'll explain a bit so you understand, it's not some huge deal I need help with, it's just stuff I'm dealing with, and you don't need to stress out yourself about it." He speaks with a hurried quickness, a sort of urgent, 'don't think about this too much' feeling to the words. "Look, I know I keep humble about the whole business, but you heard the stuff about the creator-god thing. It's not... All fun and great stuff. It's tough to explain, but long story short you get a little abrahamic after the first two or three billion years. Apathy and inhumanity and you start being the kind of dude that floods the world 'cause people fucked up. You know, a lot of greater good puny-mortals bullshit." He makes a few quick circular gestures. "So, I'm stressing out 'cause I saw most of my old close friends get that way while I tried not to. Now it's..." He heaves a heavy sort of sigh. "So Mizuki going full smite-everyone save-the-worthy fucked with me a bit. Getting heaven fucked with me a lot. The whole thing where I gotta kill big parts of Mizuki's world fucked with me a lot more." "But, we'll be done with it soon. And I can go back to everything being cool." He says, making varied dismissing gestures. "So, it'll be fine! You don't gotta stress about it. I'll handle my own bullshit stressing about it, don't gotta tire you out." He seems embarrassed and awkward about explaining this, eager to try to avoid Riva thinking poorly of what he perceives as pointless melodrama, and already wanting to move the conversation to other subjects, it seems. "S-so, yeah, I appreciate the offers for help. But, see? It's just some dumb tiny stress thing, no big, we'll be done with it soon."
Riva Banari	Riva listens some more, setting her soda aside as she goes into the DOUBLE THINKER. Except instead of looking ponderous, she looks actually a little silly with her hands squishing her cheeks in a little bit. When Arthur lays it all out, she blinks. "Oh." She pauses again. "Ohhhhhhhhhh." She flops back on the couch, again, apparently a little stunned by this revelation. "Wow, this kind of hits close to home. I kind of, um..." She tilts her head, a hand playing with her ponytail a bit absently. "Worry about that a lot too. I've always been curious about how you dealt with it, since you've been through it." She nods her head, then, though, as she focuses on Arthur again. "But yeah, that really rocked me too. Her Evil Dark Future book was /major/ bad mojo. But you're right. We're going to fix this all up. The way I see it, she's dort of undergoing a metaphorical death-rebirth cycle, right? This kind of thing keeps happening, from what she says. So all we have to do is try to find a way to clean things up so we can breal the cycle and let her move on." She gestures, then, waving a hand. "But yeah, it's all good. You're right about that. We'll make it work. Just... Promise me something, okay? If you want to talk to someone about something and you don't want to go to Space Dad or whoever, give me a ring, okay? I'll be there for you anytime." She pauses, looking away and rubbing her chin as she lets him flouder with that for a few seconds, and then she reaches over to grab the BOX OF OMINOUS PORTENT. "But yeah, SURPRISE NINJA PRESENT!" Suddenly, she tosses the box over to Arthur. Within is an array of chocolates of various shapes. The irregularities and various imperfections bespeak of them being homemade.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur rubs his face. "Let's not talk about how I dealt with it. Shit's nothing anyone wants to hear about, trust me." He makes a few uneasy noises and tries to follow Riva n the transition out of this conversation. "R-right. Yeah! I mean... We still gotta figure out how to deal with the mind-wipe thing, that's not gonna go away. But, we'll get it worked out. I... I know how the cycle-breaking will work, I think. We'll get it done. I just can't talk about it. 'Cause, you know, contracts." Then he leans back, with a posture of trying to vent some unease. "I... Alright, yeah, I'll--" He starts agreeing. And then, suddenly! Present! Arthur's hand is out to catch it as soon as she whips it at him, seemingly reflexively! "Gah!" He says, half a second later, actually reacting to it. "Oh, hey, THANKS!" For whatever it is, he's not opened it yet. But he does take a look. "Awwww YEAH, this looks DELICIOUS." He pops one into his mouth immediately, without any delay. "SWEET!" There's a moment of thinking, before he remembers, "OH! Right, VALENTINE'S DAY comin' up. Many, you guys must'a made a TON of CHOCOLATE yourself if THIS is the kinda PAYLOAD you're GIVIN' OUT. This is a LOT of the HIGH-GRADE SHIT here." He's... Apparently oblivious to some of the potential implications. As far as Lowell's concerned, they're pretty much impossible in the first place! This guy sure is a piece of work. Though he does resond very positively. "Hahaha, you know how COOL I am, but even I never really GOT a lotta stuff like THIS. It's NICE!" There's a more genuine sort of smile there. "Thanks a ton, Riva." It is a little absurd to watch him obliviously maintain the coolkid thing right alongside more genuine softhearted dorkiness.
Riva Banari	Riva can't help but not giggle at Arthur's response to the chocolates. There's heart-shaped chocolates with coconut, some square ones with almonds, and more, some of them decorated or frosted in festive white and pink. "There's a bunch of different flavors in there. I also added some of Ayako's healing water to them, so eating the heart-shaped ones will refill your hearts!" Arthur will get the joke, at least. "The others do different stuff. Don't worry, it's all perfectly safe." It seems like Arthur's acceptance of the gift is taking some stress of /her/ mind, even if he doesn't realize what's up. "Ayako wanted some help with chocolate since she can't cook, so I gave her a hand and made some extra for my own needs." She says pleasantly. Maybe one day he'll get the subtext. She picks up her cola and drains the last of it, gesturing. "Anyway, I promised you chocolate, so there you go! Nothing to worry about. Is there anything else you like in particular, candywise? Hell, what's your favorite food?" Surely these answers won't ever come up in any important manner, right?
Arthur Lowell	"Aww, sweet! Sounds RAD, I'll keep 'em ON-HAND for STATUS STUFF later!" Arthur says, with an upbeat tone. He seems quite happy to have gotten this. "I'll make sure to drop a bit of THANKS to HER too. She's SWEET, even with the whole HUMANITY ACT thing she got goin' on." A brief laugh. "Who'm I to get HELLA CRITICAL about THAT, though?" He puts a hand to his chin, giving the thought of his favorite food some consideration. "Y'know." He says, "I never really THOUGHT ABOUT IT. Dad was SHIT at COOKING, and AFTER THAT it was all ALCHEMIZED FOOD or Keanne's PUB GRUB." He scratches his head briefly. "I dunno, honestly. ICE CREAM'S a solid favorite there, ate a TON 'cause of the ALCHEMY OPTIONS, but I'm a SIMPLE DUDE, the BURGER JOINT CLASSICS aren't ever really gonna go wrong. Burgers, hotdogs, sometimes pizzas, you know how it is. CANNDY... Huh, chocolate's ABOUT IT. I like some of the CRISPIER KINDS, or the kinds with PEANUT BUTTER sometimes." What a baffling mix of innocently kid-like with scrappy american tastes. Oh well. "But if you're lookin' for ONE ANSWER for ALL the questions," Arthur says, casually leaning back and giving Riva a broad grin. "FAVORITE thing to EAT as far as YOU oughta know is whatever I'd be eatin' to be hangin' out with you." He takes another nacho and demonstrates with a dramatic bite. "See? NACHOS are great on their own. HANG OUT with ME around 'em, now it's FIVE STAR SHIT."
Riva Banari	"I find Ayako adorable. She's always so cute when she dresses up!" She chuckles, thinking about it. "She's sticking glow in the dark stickers on my ceiling right now over at Heaven or Hell. It's going to be hilarious." Finally, Riva leans over and grabs some nachos herself, munching for a minute as she mulls over some things. "Hell yeah, five stars! Well, since you're certainly not picky that leaves a lot of options open for the future." There is a grin at that, Riva giving him a quick fingergun and wink to go along with it. God, it's almost like looking in a mirror sometimes. "So how did you get this crazy house? I never thought I'd see something like this... Especially something that apparently holds together just fine. I remember the whole story you gave, was the maximum extreme remodeling job part of the deal?"
Arthur Lowell	"She is pretty damn cute, yeah." Arthur says, laughing briefly. "And YEAH, not a PICKY GUY. Not a lot to PICK FROM before. Like I said, SIMPLE DUDE." Then he leans back and sighs. "MAN," He says, "YEAH, it wasn't the kinda thing I'D PICK." He makes a hand-waving gesture. "HONESTLY, this is what CROWRAVEN made, with that IMPERIUM INQUISITOR. See," He gestures up. "There were a buncha GATES we needed to get to above my HOUSE, and there was a HOUSE-BUILDING FEATURE for my SERVER PLAYER, soooo..." He makes a plaintive gesture. "Guess it was TRAINING for the whole UNIVERSE-BUILDING THING, but HONESTLY it seems like just a BIG EXCUSE for CROWRAVEN to make a fuckin' WEIRD HOUSE. But, it kinda GREW ON ME, y'know? Kinda COOL, in an IRONIC WAY. I'm pretty much the most STRAIGHT-UP HEROIC DUDE in the whole SESSION, so livin' in SKULL TOWER that looks like some shit the WORST OVERLORDS would think is KINDA TACKY is sorta IRONIC-COOL. Man, we got a TON of stuff in that GAME. Kinda had to make up for the whole BLOWING UP EARTH thing, you know? Had a LOT to be REPAYIN'."
Riva Banari	Riva nods. "Okay, so you ended up remodeling each other's houses over the course of the game? I guess it makes sense, with the whole ironic badass thing. Hell, if you wanted to change it now, I bet you could make it look like anything you wanted, so I guess that just makes everything you want, right? That's kind of cool. Wish it was that easy for me!" She laughs. "Without the whole meteors thing, of course..." There is a short sigh. "Yeah. But hey, new universe, awesome world, godhood, I guess it all works out, right? Focus on the positives!" God, Sburb is such a /depressing game/. "So do you do anything in particular on the world, or does it basically kind of run itself? Since your whole deal is awesome space stuff, I guess it probably doesn't need all that much maintenance, right?"
Arthur Lowell	Arthur shakes his head a bit. "Nah, gonna KEEP it THIS WAY, I think." He scratches the side of his head. "Yeah, TRUST ME, you want NONE of this shit, yeah. I mean, you DIE a LOT from what I hear, right? With your IMMORTALITY thing? It was KINDA LIKE THAT. But, had some HARSH DOWNSIDES." He makes a couple vague gestures around the room. "HONESTLY, though? Shouldn't really USE that kinda shit even if I GOT it. Like I said, I'm big into the HUMANITY thing. Wanna keep on the LEVEL, y'know, may be a SPACE MAGE but I gotta keep my shit GROUNDED a bit here." Then he shrugs a bit at the next question. "That's, uh, KINDA complicated. Like, TECHNICALLY I'm still DOING stuff. Like GRAVITY, and LIGHT, and MASS, that's still ME DOING STUFF, but it's like a SEPARATE PART OF ME, and I don't STOP, if that's MAKIN' SENSE? Not like FALLING is gonna STOP if I get PERMA-KILLED, it's a sorta BIG TIMEY THING and it's not really somethin' that fits the HUMAN THINKING MODES." He makes dismissive gestures. "Just kinda DON'T THINK ABOUT IT. PRACTICALLY I'm just the WATCHMAKER here for that shit, YEAH."
Riva Banari	"Yeeeeeah." Riva says, looking a bit less upbeat at the mention of her own immortality thing. "I can't stay dead, not really even if I wanted to, unless I wanted to sit around as a ghost in the Shadow World forever. Eventually I'd get sick of sitting around and come back." She points at Arthur, gesturing with he cola hand. "That's the entire thing, you know? It's like, 'what does immortality even mean?' How long would I even be able to keep a... normal perspective, you know? I don't want to turn into a cold, unfeeling manipulative bitchqueen. It's totally not my style, you know? You have to love life! You have to live it, and feel everything! You understand, since you're all about keeping it real, you know?" She sighs, grumping for a moment. "I guess I'll have to figure that out in a couple thousand years, I guess. Assuming this is the 'live forever' type and not the 'just can't die' type. I mean, hell, what if I want to settle down sometime? Ugh, this is just the /worst/." #firstimmortalproblems She sighs for a moment, winding down from that whole thing, and gestures to Arthur. "So yeah, anyway... You've got a lot to work with then, man. Just automatically keeping it all working like that, I guess it's just second nature for you by now." She sips her soda, and thinks about things for another moment. "So tell me, Mr. Macho Man. You are all about the adventures, and you have all this experience. You gotta have some prime time best adventures list going on. What was your favorite one? Or was it the whole Sburb thing?"
Arthur Lowell	"Oof, immortality. Nnngh. Like I said, yo, there's WAYS of STICKIN' to bein' REAL when it comes to that. Just, not FUN shit. You ever start feeling, or, I guess, NOT feelin' right about it, I'll tell you WHAT'S UP, but that shit ain't POLITE for TALKING ABOUT most times." Arthur says, taking a brief bit of stressed, awkward posture before gulping down some cola. "But, uh. Probably no SETTLING DOWN. Just, y'know, don't COUNT on that part." "Anyway, man, ADVENTURES!" He grins and takes a pondering posture. "Man, SBURB was GREAT but... I dunno if I'd call it FAVORITE. Had too much DYING for my tastes. Just... You know, all around. Huhhhh... Well, there was that AL AZIF stuff. Aside from the ELSA ISSUE, that went PRETTY WELL! Mmmmm... The COLLECTIVE FIGHTS I've been getting in, those were fun right up until the ASSASSINATION they tried on me, which was NOT fun. Then there was the ALFHEIM ONLINE thing, that was REALLY GREAT up until the DYING PART. And then the OTHER DYING PART." He seems to take a contemplative posture for a while, then he snaps eagerly. "I GOT IT! The fuckin' VAMPIRE INCIDENT." He gestures broadly. "See, there was this ASSHOLE CHEMIST DUDE tryin' to figure out how to be an ARTIFICIAL VAMPIRE or somethin' right? Like, IMMORTAL, SUPER-POWERED, all that shit. But it meant KIDNAPPIN' some INNOCENT GIRLS and TORTURING 'EM TO DEATH. SUPER NOT OKAY. So the ADVENTURE was mostly TRACKING 'EM DOWN, gettin' in FIGHTS with DRACULA MINIONS, and then eventually takin' on the IMMORTAL DUDE and REVERSIN' his IMMORTALITY SERUM into MORTALITY SERUM." He grins really broadly. "I LOVED it, mostly 'cause of the part at the end. Poured out the dude's IMMORTALITY SERUM right in front of him after we BROUGHT HIM DOWN. SHIT was SO CASH. Should have seen HIS FACE. That's my FAVORITE kind of ADVENTURE. Don't gotta KILL NOBODY, but the AWFUL ASSHOLES wind up GETTING THEIRS at the end."
Riva Banari	"Right." She's not going to pry. Maybe she'll be lucky and never have to depend on his experience in this respect. Arthur begins going down all of his adventures, and Riva's expression gets a little blank at about the fourth time he comments about the whole dying thing. "Adventures are goddamn lethal around you sometimes, man." He comes up with what his favorite adventure was, though, and Riva listens in with aplomb. When he finishes, Riva pumps her fist. "HELL YEAH! Totally showed that asshole what was up, man! Anyone who pulls that kind of crap gets what they deserve! And who was there to deliver? ARTHUR LOWELL, THAT'S WHO! Man, I could just imagine it." There is another moment as she considers. "My adventures... Well, I'm still kind of a newbie. I don't really have a whole of of adventuring done yet, and you're in half of them! Hah, go figure." She does get a little speculative at the moment, and asks offhandedly. "So what's up with this Elsa thing? Is she for real?"
Arthur Lowell	"Hah, you're gonna get PLENTY done soon. Heard something about LORDRAN, some about the COASTAL PLACE, the AINSLEY thing, GGO, MIZUKI... You're ALL OVER, right?" Arthur says, gesturing broadly with one finger. "You'll have PLENTY. Hope you get MORE LIVING and LESS DYING than I got, though. 'Cause DAMN. Yeah, it's kinda lethal. I'm still half-dead from that ALO thing." The enthusiastic response from Riva gets him more at ease, he always seems to feel better when surrounded by high energy. "HELL YEAH you KNOW IT. Some DUMB PUNK pulls BULLSHIT NONSENSE like that, I knock 'em RIGHT ON THEIR ASS and RUIN THEIR SHIT." Validation, yaaaay. This gets a nice buffer of comfort for Riva to immediately slam into with the Elsa thing. "A-ahhh..." Arthur tries to maintain his high energy. "WELL! Um. It's... COMPLICATED." He rubs his forehead a bit. "I mean, how're you talkin' REAL here? I'm PRETTY SURE she's SERIOUS and, you know, ALIVE, as far as ROBOTS go. Like she's FOR REAL meaning, she's a PERSON. And not, you know, TROLLING me. I think she's got less than a COUPLE YEARS active, though, maybe at MOST. So she's kinda..." He wobbles one hand uncertainly. "Y'know. HAVING PROBLEMS. What're you WANTIN' to KNOW 'bout her?"
Riva Banari	"Hell yeah, that's right. Gotta put the hustle on if you're going to get some real adventuring in, you know? Evil doesn't just wait around to get their asses kicked, you gotta go find 'em and give 'em the old one-two! BAM!" She punches her fist with enthusiasm! Despite the constant veering out of comfort zone the conversation keeps taking, Riva seems to feed on Arthur's energy as much as he does on hers. And so there's the Elsa thing. "Huh. So she's only been alive for a couple years, and yes, she actually /is/ a robot, huh. Where did she come from, and what made her decide to latch onto you? She's different, that's for sure, but I don't think it's in a bad way..." She shifts a little, seemingly a little nervous about the subject herself.
Arthur Lowell	"Oh, that DOCTOR WEST guy made 'er. He's a COOL DUDE. Used to be VILLAINOUS but I guess he's just kinda GOING WHERE THE MONEY IS. And Ariel's kinda RICH now, after the WMAT STUFF." Arthur says, seemingly on the more casual, comfortable end of the conversation. The other end is a bit... "Ahh-heheh, uh..." He starts getting a bit awkward. "Well, okay, so, we were HAVING A FIGHT, and I think she got DAMAGED and was LOSING COOLANT or something, and then I RAMMED her, 'cause, you know, FIGHTING, and I kinda ACCIDENTALLY wound up CARRYING her, and she was HEATING UP. And I guess according to WHATEVER SHE WATCHES that means LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT." He makes vague gestures at increasing levels of helpless strain. "I mean, I-I guess the whole feeling she's dealing with might be legit? We've hung out a bunch and she's not, y'know, stopping. Plus she's got that magic outfit validating it." He scratches the back of his neck awkwardly and actually blushes briefly. "So, it's all just, t'know, a BIG MISUNDERSTANDING that might be KINDA GETTING OUT OF HAND. I mean, BESIDES, ROBOT or NO ROBOT, not like DATING ME is something RATIONAL PEEPS are gonna be CLAMORING FOR. I may be the COOLEST DUDE but I'm not UP TO PAR for THAT kinda shit, y'know?"
Riva Banari	"Wow. You fought her and she decided that? You just keep getting into the craziest situations." Riva says, actually saying that with a straight face for a change. She does not, however, push on the dating thing. Perhaps her RIVA SENSES tell her she doesn't have enough levels to handle that particular thing yet. "Maybe it's one of those things where young kids decide the first guy who gives them a hug is their true love or something. Give it time, maybe she'll get over it and settle for just being super buddies with you or something." Riva shrugs. "Everything will work out, Arthur. We just gotta keep on keeping on, right?" She exhales, looking back up at that ceiling. "So do you ever make plans for the future, Arthur? Or are you more of a just take things as they come kind of guy?"
Arthur Lowell	"Yeah. That shit's a MYSTERY. Four billion goddamn years and I still don't know WHAT THE HELL is up with ROMANCE. Guess she liked the BROOMS." Arthur says, laughing nervously and shrugging. "Man, yeah, just gonna FIGURE IT OUT as it's GOIN'. It'll ALL SHAKE OUT eventually. And, YEAH, I guess that's honestly the STAGE I'M AT. I mean, MAYBE there's more FUTURE STUFF for me, but HONESTLY, this pretty much IS my future. What I'm doin' NOW, I mean." He gestures at the house and out the face of the skeleton to the planet. "I DID my big... Y'know, ADVENTURE. I kinda had to GROW UP FAST. And, after this, I mean, WHAT ELSE is there left to really DO?" He makes a broad gesture over at the alchemiter. "I got all the MATERIAL STUFF I want, got lots of FRIENDS, LEARNED a TON of stuff, made my MAGNUM GODDAMN OPUS..." He makes a plaintive, wide, open-palmed gesture. "This is basically my PUNCHY, SHOUTY RETIREMENT, y'know? I dunno what else there's left to be DOING, aside from doing ADVENTURES."
Riva Banari	Riva laughs as Arthur summarizes things up. "Man, you're WAY too awesome to be the old guy on the porch. But instead you can be the wandering space-fu master, showing all the kids how it's done. Getting your MENTORING on. I mean, hell, you've seen a lot of what this crazy-ass multiverse has to throw at you, You've got the experience but you're not old and cranky." She thinks. "But that's interesting. What DOES the badass adventurer do after it's all done? I guess it's more about the journey than the end goal, eh?" She winks, then, and gives another poke towards Arthur. "But you never know when another thing might be right around the corner."
Arthur Lowell	"Oh JEEZE, yeah, I'm ALREADY doin' the MENTORING thing. That KYRA chick dropped by, askin' me to HELP OUT with some MAGIC PROBLEMS. Well SHIT, I guess that's how it works!" Arthur laughs briefly. "Man, I ain't EVER gonna get OLD AND CRANKY. Well, not OLD, anyway." He accepts the poke with a good-natured look. "YEAH, not like I'm ever gonna run out of SIDEQUESTS, right? Just 'cause MY big PERSONAL QUEST is done don't mean I'm not gonna keep doing the WANDERING ADVENTURER thing. I mean, better than MOST PEOPLE get. You're still dealin' with some WORLDWIDE PROBLEM that WHO KNOWS if you're ever gonna SOLVE IT. I can't complain about RUNNING OUT OF GIANT, HORRIBLE PROBLEM, y'know? Heheheh." He tilts his head. "Reminds me, never did hear YOUR story. I keep yammering about ME ME ME all the time around you, what's YOUR DEAL? I heard it's a LOCAL FACTION thing around your WORLD, what's goin' ON in there?"
Riva Banari	AND SUDDENLY ARTHUR DECIDES TO TURN IT AROUND. "Uh, my deal? Well..." She kicks back, splaying her hands out and gesturing. "Compared to you, my story's kind of boring. Grew up, went to school, decided to become an artist. Mom didn't like it, dad did, so I was able to get into college. From there, I dreamed up this crazy plan to go all in on Paris. You know, try do the rage-to-riches thing and become a world famous artist? Yeah, well, bad plan. Wasgoing to get evicted, when I apparently swallowed a magical bee, who gave me superpowers. Wrecked my place for like a week until I stopped shooting lasers out of my eyes and setting everything I touched on fire." She sighs. "So then I get a knock on the door, turns out the Knights Templar not only exist, but they wanted me to work for them. Considering the alternative was literally starving out on the streets, I accepted." It's at this point she leans in and rests her arms on her knees, rubbing her hands. "So the first thing I find out? Everything's real. Everything. Bigfoot? Real. Zombies? Real. Ghosts? Real. Ancient Mayan end of the world prophecies? Real. And it's supposed to be my job, and the job of all the other guys who swallowed bees, to be the first line of defense in dealing with the problem."
Arthur Lowell	"MAGICAL BEE. Jesus christ. Well, hey, might not be a RELIABLE career option, but sure as hell SOLVES THE PROBLEM, yo. But man. Goin' from ARTIST to, hell, what do ya even CALL that? PARANORMAL SOLDIER? Shit, I'll stick with ADVENTURER HERE. Sounds like YOU had the OPPOSITE problem I DID. Couldn't get yer powers to TURN OFF, me, I could barely get my whole MAGIC THING to actually GO. Was kind of EMBARRASSING, honestly." Arthur gets a little sheepish again, but more in his good-natured way than anything else. "Man, I think I woulda PREFERRED THAT. I mean, like, THAT kinda thing, you're FAULTLESS there. Nothin' BAD happening was YOUR FAULT on that. Mine, I was literally MAKING THE APOCALYPSE to start shit off, you just, what, had your MOUTH OPEN at the WRONG TIME. Man, given some of the crazy URBAN LEGENDS SHIT we had around OUR WORLD, can't imagine how much SHIT you're DEALIN' WITH. Especially when you've still got a WORLD TO BE SAVING. I was just kinda SAVING MYSELF, that's a WHOLE DIFFERENT KIND of STRESS." He has a very understanding sort of look to his posture here. "You're probably dealin' with a LOT of shit that's puttin' OTHER PEOPLE at stake. Heheheh, IRONIC. Soon as you don't gotta worry about YOU dying, you gotta worry about EVERYONE ELSE."
Riva Banari	"Psheeyah, whatever, Arthur!" She laughs. "Slow starter or not, there's no way anyone can tell now! You do some amazing stuff without even thinking about it! You're 100 percent grade A badass. You put in your time, you paid your dues, and now you're the champion, my friend. And you'll keep on fighting to the end." She shrugs when Arthur continues. "In my case... The apocalypse is already in progress, by all accounts." She sighs. "The End of Days are here, sweetling. Be not afraid. Be terrified." She wiffles her fingers a bit. "Did I mention that I get a bunch of bees sassing me about only being able to deal with three dimensions? Yeah, that's another bonus of the package. On top of everything else, sassy bees. And Jesus, do they talk." She points at Arthur. "You might have started your apocalypse, sure, but I dunno, how much choice did you really have in the matter? If you didn't play the game, would you have gotten blown up by a meteor anyway? Big waste that would have been, man. At least you stepped up, took the bull by the horns, suplexed that bull onto the grill and made a badass bull universe-steak out of it." She looks to one side. "Me? I've got to stop mine. I don't know how much of our world will be left when we do. You're right. It's a different kind of stress... I don't know which one I'd prefer. In some ways I kind of wish it never happened..." She gets a self-depreciating look in her eyes, then, and stares back up at the ceiling. "But then, I guess everyone says that when they're doing this every so often. No takebacks, right?" "I guess it doesn't matter if I like it or not, it's gotta get done or a lot of people will die who shouldn't be dying." She gestures to Arthur. "You've got it on the nose, man. And now there's this multiverse stuff to deal with, which just adds to things..." She pauses. "Though I'm happy that did, at least. If that never happened, I'd have never met you." She grins at that.
Arthur Lowell	"Oh JEEZE, you get the THREE-DEE SASS too? Shit, I get that from the goddamn SPACE CALAMARI. WAY BACK IN THE DAY back before I could actually UNDERSTAND most of it, it was FUCKING ANNOYING. Do yours do the SCREAM-SINGING too? Christ, what a HASSLE they are." Arthur says, taking another swig of cola. It's the kind of verbal posture shared between friends yacking about work. "And, man, I dunno, TIME STUFF doesn't make a LOT of sense. I just put RESPONSIBILITY where it VAGUELY LOOKS like it is. Shit's all CLOSED TIME LOOPS or whatever, MAYBE it would'a started, MAYBE not. Heh... YEAH, least I HANDLED it. Took that shit DOWN." There's a wide grin and it's Arthur's turn to give a little comforting nudge. "Well, you're gonna have PLENTY of BACKUP. You're a FRIENDLY GIRL, you'll get TONS of HELP. Same as I did. Man, you should'a SEEN IT. Some, what, FORTY DUDES just ALL helpin' out in HUGE FIGHTS just 'cause I asked. And, y'know, wasn't a giant shithead about it. Fuckin' BAFFLING how far that'll get ya." Then he takes the posture of someone looking out in the distance. His voice is a bit more heavy "Yeah, the whole... Saving people thing, like that, that's something that gets tough to stick to. But, trust me. You need to stick to stuff like that, and not let go. It's a really painful thing to do, but it's really important that you do it if you're gonna be immortal. It's part of how you stay human. The part where you stop trying is... You just don't wanna go there, yeah. Not a good place to be. It'll hurt but it's something you gotta do, otherwise you're gonna get hit with immortal apathy."
Riva Banari	"Thank God I don't get screamed at." Riva replies. "I just am walking along and see or hear something and just... bam, Bee sass. At least, I don't think they're screaming yet. I know Inga and Wuyin handle it differentl than I do. I guess it's just part of who we are." Arthur's reassurances get another smile from Riva as she leans in. "Well, I don't like pissing people off. Way better to just stop who needs stopping and talk to everyone else. Like you said, you never know how much just being nice to people will accomplish. There's definately enough sass going around that I don't need to add to it anyway, you know?" Serious Time returns, then, as Arthur lays it down. She goes quiet, looking down as she gets lost in thought for a a short time. "Y-yeah, you're right. I think-" Bum bum ba dum ba dum bum ba dum ba dum ba bum... Riva's phone goes off, and she blinks. "Oh hell." She picks it up and looks at the screen, frowning, then picks it up, giving the 'one second' sign to Arthur. "Yeah, I'm here." Pause. "Yeah?" Another pause. She slumps visibly a moment later. "Oh hell. Okay, I'm on my way." A pause. "No /seriously/, I'll be right there." She hangs up and looks bavk to Arthur. "Speaking of saving lives, work just called. They need me to get on site for... things." She nods. "It was awesome, though. We'll have to hang out again sometime! Maybe get more games and less heavy philosophy, right?" She grins, and stands up. "I'll see you around, all right?"
Arthur Lowell	"Oh! OH! Huh." Arthur sits up a bit. "Oh, 'kay! Was GREAT to have ya DROP BY though, do it ANY TIME!" He smiles pleasantly there, with a palpable, genuine warmth. "Was GREAT t'have ya come around. And lemme know if there's STUFF I can HELP WITH, y'know?" He snaps. "IN FACT, drop me the COORDINATES, I'll give ya some help." If Riva can rattle off some SPACEMAGIC-ACCESSIBLE COORDINATES, Arthur can snap and pop open a Gate after a couple seconds of focus. Riva really WILL be right there! "GOOD LUCK with the WORK, Rivs. Thanks for the CHOCOLATE! Drop by ANY TIME y'wanna! Always GREAT to hang out with ya. Anything you want for THE ROAD? NEXT TIME we'll DEFINITELY get some more GAMES done, HELL YEAH." He gives a quick, firm thumbs-up.
Riva Banari	Riva gives him some coordinates for the middle of Temple Square, in Ealdwic, London. It'll give the guys at the home base a surprise, to be sure, to see Riva pop out of a dimensional portal. But that's just one of the benefits of having friends in awesome places. "It's all good! I'll stop by again sometime! Or hell, if you want you can come by my place. Anytime!" She waves, and heads out the provided Gate. Space Magic: It's The Only Way To Fly.