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Persephone Kore      This land is peaceful, its inhabitants kind. Well, almost- they're still gamers, and that means even in a place with theoretically infinite resources, they still find something to squabble about.

     The glowy neon aesthetics of a space-fantasy-opera video game clash with the peaceful scarlet landscape of her terraformed, wish-granting Moon. Persephone, herself, blends more with the latter than the former.

     Her aura is palpable before anything else, even from the other side of a Warpgate, so it's no surprise when she's there.

     "Hi, Kale~" she says, lounging idyllically under a tree on the glass-smooth crimson 'ocean'. (One can walk on it like solid ground if one wishes. And I do!) "Did Lily-R put you up to this again? Or are you just coming to visit?"
Kale Hearthward Kale's busily trying to confiscate those little vials they're trading around and fighting over. He's got a bag he's steadily filling up with them.

"... Hello, Persephone," he says, via whatever alchemy goes on in his mind deciding to use her first name this time instead of her last name.

"Rook doesn't put me up to anything that I do," he says, which is a boldfaced lie in general but in this specific case true. "This is all me. And - you weren't here to experience it last time, but in a way it's all you. I'm here to remind the Concord that it can't just do whatever it... wishes."

"And I guess that's literal, in your case," he adds, glancing down at the crimson ocean he's standing on.
Persephone Kore      Persephone laughs. It's not a mean laugh- she's probably incapable of that- but it feels 'mean', in a certain very specific way.

     "But I totally can, you know," she says. She stands up. Even here, walking on what looks like and is 'an ocean' of wish-potential, her heels clack menacingly with each step. "And it's really of you to pretend that I can't! Or do you mean that you're going to stop me?"

     There is the sense, as always, of being a fascinating little bug being gently held in Persephone's hands. If she weren't being gentle, she'd destroy this entire place without even trying. And her eyes gleam, ominously, with anticipation at the idea of getting to be just a tiny bit less.

     "Are we really, for real, going to fight about it? Are we going to do this again?" She is hopeful, almost giddy.

     Behind Kale, an obelisk of solid diamond rises out of the crimson sea and shapes itself around the Warpgate, encasing it like a mosquito in amber.

     No way out. Except to say 'No, I give up', of course.
Kale Hearthward Flash back, to that first fight. Kale barely making a dent in Persephone's... armor? Shielding? Wish-enforcing volition?

Kale glances back at the formation blocking the warpgate, and then back front at her. He keeps his expression carefully neutral.

"Yeah, I mean that I am going to stop you," he says.

Kale, tiny little bug, looks up at her. Figuratively, since in the literal sense she's lounging while he's standing.

"I don't know your whole deal, Kore," he says, as he reaches back over his shoulder, gripping the hilt of one of his swords. "So I don't know how much this is important to you or not, but..."

He draws. Still a tiny bug in her hand, but perhaps now a bee instead of a fly. "I think it's important, for me to keep being 'me', to try, regardless of whatever else."

The jet boots kick in, and he races towards her. A simple plan of attack, but one with force behind it. "So we're doing this again!" he says, as he tries to close in and swing at her, bringing the sword across her position in a rapid dashing slice!
Persephone Kore      "Ahahaha. My 'whole deal', huh? Maybe I haven't told you! I'm too used to having my mind read."

     It's a cute effort! Really, you're doing great so far! But she wishes that it simply would not hurt her, and so it does not. Kale's lunge comes a little short. His blade does not find her, but is rather slammed back by an utterly irresistible force, one that ought to turn every bone in his arms to jelly from the deflection but somehow mercifully fails to.

     "I want everyone to have what I do," she answers, completely and utterly unhurried. "A universe of human will, so that everyone can manifest what they want. Where what 'should be' totally destroys what 'is'. Haha, does that make sense?"

     Chains flow out of the red ocean at her whim, each link nearly as big as his torso. Her telekinesis shoves him back, gently, to create a hundred feet of space between them. Closing in again would require dodging and swooping through those seeking, flowing chains without getting snagged- but they're coming after him whether he does or not.

     "This moon... it isn't perfect. It's made of just a few wishes, not trillions! Mine, Darren's, Lilian's, Ishirou's... but you can think of it as a 'test run', okay? Not quite all the way there, but something to help us imagine what it could be! So yeah, it's important."

     "But if you wish to beat me enough, maybe I'll let that come true, too~"
Kale Hearthward Kale falls back as the chains come at him. He dodges in midair - improbable feats of acrobatics keeping him just out of harms way of each. Something distracts him, though, enough for one to slam into him and knock him off balance, literally spinning through the air for a moment before he can arrest his errant momentum.

"Lilian's wish? Ishirou's wish?"

"... Well. If that's what it'd take..."

He adjusts the grip on his sword, and breathes into the hilt - and it unfolds, revealing a polished, free-spinning mirror suspended between two sharp edges.

"I'm going to tell you about *my* wish!"

He kicks into motion again - there's a hundred feet of space between them, and possibly more at her whim, but he still aims to cross it - diving and spinning and zig-zagging around the chains, and using his sword to fend them off - each swing leaving a shining afterimage of the blade, giving him cover he can use to get further in and closer to her.

"You're one of Rook's four!"

Dodge, swing, and - one of the chains gets the drop on him, seemingly, but a contingency wind spell kicks in, blowing both bird and chain away from each other just enough.

"If I can defeat you...!"

He closes in the remaining distance rapidly, swinging at- not at her, but the space around her, creating more shining blade trails, trying to box her in. "Then I'll be one step closer to granting *MY* wish!"
Persephone Kore      Persephone reaches out to touch one of the sword-trails with her hand. It cuts her, just as expected. Beneath her skin is red, homogeneous, the wrong color. She looks at the cut thoughtfully, and then shoves the rest of the sword trails away.

     "Oh. Really? That's disappointing. I really thought you'd let go of an awful wish like that."

     Some of the will to fight does leave her, but for completely the wrong reason.

     "You're still trying to 'earn' respect. Because you haven't found it within yourself, yet. Striving for someone else's approval... please believe me that that isn't striving at all."

     A simple hammerblow of telekinetic force strikes the area he's in, sending roaring waves across the scarlet sea like ripples in a pond. But despite the force, it feels somehow half-hearted.

     "Aren't you insecure, already, about being given everything? What makes you think being 'given' respect will make you feel better? It won't."
Kale Hearthward "That's..."

The hammer blow sends Kale flying back, skidding (almost surfing) along the wave of force. "Wrong. I respect myself plenty enough..."

The bird's sword keeps shining, and he keeps holding it at the ready, but - he hasn't made a move to try to close in for an attack yet. "Are you saying I don't?"

"..."

"What, *if*, you are right, then? What would I even do to find respect 'within' myself?"

It takes a moment for him to realize it, himself - he's been thrown off by Persephone's shift to being half-hearted. "What'd be the *right* wish?"
Persephone Kore      Phony comes to a halt, too. She cups her cheek with her hand, slightly taken aback but mostly just contemplative.

     "You told me, a while back, that Lily-R makes you feel small. The way she struts, the way she's puffed-up, the way she's looking down on things. That's why you want to 'earn' her respect. Why you want her to give it to you."

     "Do you think she makes me feel small? Do you think I feel the need to earn her respect? Haha, of course not."

     "You have to be..." A little pause. Communicating like this is easy, but words are harder to cram big thoughts into. "Certain, in your heart, that you're not below her. That her approval doesn't mean more than your approval, and that you already approve of yourself."

     "You'd have to wish to understand yourself, and love yourself. Not that I don't think being small is cute! But if you don't like that feeling, that's the right wish."

     "Because if you need her approval to not feel small... even if she gives it, she could take it away again, couldn't she?"
Kale Hearthward Kale's sword lowers a bit. A bit. The two halves of the blade close back up, covering the mirror core once again.

"Well, even so..."

"... Even if - I don't look to her, even if I don't depend on her approval, it's hard, because it feels like everyone else does. That she's everyone else's friend, that she can strut and look down on and be a - a mean person to everyone else, and they'll all take it and then hang onto her every word."

"... That there's..." He frowns a bit more. "So many people coming to help her, now, friends and enemies both, when I know that if I was hurt like that I wouldn't even get half as many coming to help me."

"And you're telling me, I need to do what, set all that aside, and love myself despite that?"
Persephone Kore      "Why do you think everyone else looks up to her? Why do you think they want to help her?" Phony answers. She walks closer, but it isn't a threatening walk; just how you'd approach a casual rendezvous. The heels do not clack menacingly.

     "It's because she has that self-love, that confidence. It's everyone else chasing that desire that you are, wrapped around her finger, wanting her approval. Hahaha, not that that's bad!"

     "But if you ever want people to look up to you like they look up to her, if you want to stop being small like that... being a follower won't give it to you, Kale. No matter how much she approves of you, you'll never become like her that way."

     She is close, now, close and unguarded enough that attacking her would feel like a shocking break. She has no intention of attacking either. "Do you see her picking fights with people just to 'prove' something? Or me? That's the behavior of someone small."

     Persephone taps his chest with her fingertip. "You can know it in here, Kale. But proving something means you don't already know it!"

     She winks. Her powers conspire to ignite the tiniest star next to her lashes when she does; just a twinkling little sparkle. "So. Are you going to be big today, Kale? Or small? I said I have faith in you, a long time ago! And I really still do."
Kale Hearthward Kale's sword lowers further. He rocks backwards an inch at the tap, mostly out of exaggerated effect.

"..."

"With no offense intended, Miss Kore," says Kale. "I kinda think you're full of it."

It's said without much emphasis, though, and the sword gets brought up... and brought back, sliding back into its sheath.

"But, fine. It's worth a shot."
Persephone Kore      "Ahahaha. I already know what you think! But if I were upset by thoughts, you know, I'd be a lot less happy."

     Out of the red ocean, she conjures up two trees- a grand oak and a draping, elegant willow- and links them together with a hammock, leaning back into it with her hands behind her head.

     "But, I'm glad. It's a beautiful day, isn't it? While you're here and being big, how about I teach you to wish upon the Moon?"

     She lifts a fist-sized globule of that glass-smooth crimson ocean up with her telekinesis, floating it in front of Kale. It's totally opaque, like liquid wax instead of water. Whatever he wants it to be, it tries to become.

     It's a nice, lazy way to spend an afternoon, should he so wish.