1450/Rivalations Atop the Tower

Rivalations Atop the Tower
Date of Scene:	30 January 2015
Location:	A Quiet World
Synopsis:
Thanks to:	Mizuki
Cast of Characters:	183, Riva Banari
Tinyplot:	A Chime at the Precipice

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Mizuki (183) has posed:
    In spite of the bleak, barren whiteness that encroaches upon the epicenter of the world, the Clock Tower stands firm. Its corrugated, Gothic spires stand with all the same pride that they did on the day Mizuki first invited others inside its doors, and though the atmosphere may be a bit quieter, its sense of dignity has not left it at all. The sconces lining the walls light the area just enough that it does not seem dark, but just dimly enough that the atmosphere can be just as reflective and whimsical as is befitting an edifice of its lofty statute. Yes, from its peak to its base it is a domain that could not be any more suited to its lady.

    The ride up from the elevator at the base of the building is a rather uncanny one that might well make one wonder of their mental health. Vague, neon imprints of childish drawings - clocks, flowers, that sort of thing - gradually glide up and down the walls. With no light in the shaft, it would appear that they're floating in the midst of some deep abyss, but in all this mystery you would never leave the confines of the tower. It is as though it contains many universes in its walls rather than rooms, and each one is as colorfully surreal as the last. Quite like a Disney ride, really, just more personally adapted.

    Mizuki would be standing immediately to Riva's right as the elevator comes to a halt, offering her a gentle bow. She's smiling, and something might tell her that she's in a very good mood today. Perhaps it's the world itself giving this impression? Doubtlessly the place adjusts with her moods, and on this day she could swear that she feels smothered by warmth at all times. Like a blanket fresh from the dryer, or a hug immersing your being at every moment without hindering your step. Ah, but with a flick of her bangs, Mizuki would address her guest properly.

    "Greetings, Riva," She would raise from her bow, "and welcome. This is where I spend most of my days. I read and I write with the backdrop of my world's many faces reflected in my clock's face." She would turn about, now, pacing toward the lonesome couch on the far side whilst still rambling on as though she were Wonka in his factory. "The tower is quite mobile, you know? The others have not seen, but it can actually move itself wherever it pleases in this isolated reality without consequence. And when it does, I can drain away the color in the clock's face," She would flick out two fingers in demonstration, causing the stained glass window pane before the couch to become invisible, "to behold it."

    Nothing could be more indicative of her grandiose lifestyle than the way in which she relaxes.

Riva Banari has posed:
Riva has long wanted to get some more time to visit with Mizuki regarding various matters.

She just wishes it was with less... worrying circumstances in mind. Nevertheless, she arrives with a smile on her face and a spring in her step, there will be time for other things later. There is always time.... Right? The presence of the clocktower brings to mind a lot of things involving time. She stops springing when she gets to the tower itself and steps quietly into the elevator, looking around to take in the environment with the kind of instinctive absorption that an artist possesses, pondering placement, decoration, lighting and meaning behind the craftwork of someone who could make anything they wanted, physics be damned. In a world like this, everything is as it is because its creator wished it to be that way at some point in time. The neon lights and imprints in the shaft cause her to watch with an expression of amusement as she travels upwards.

When the elevator comes to a halt, Riva glances to both sides, and she blinks at Mizuki. She grins when she sees the Dream Author, and she gives a whimsical bow herself, with a little flourish. "Mizuki!" She says, and then as she straightens, she gives Mizuki a hug in additional greeting. "It's so good to see you again!" She says, smiling. "I don't think I've ever had the chance to talk to you in private before, you're always so busy!"

She follows Mizuki, walking along behind. "I've never seen a mobile clock tower before. So this is kind of your home base, then? Your time-palace?" She chuckles, and looks over as the stained glass becomes clear. "Oooooh. Very pretty. And alwayas handy. I guess even clock can have two sides, eh?"

Riva rubs her chin and looks over everything in general. "So how have you been lately, Mizuki? You seem to be exceptionally happy today. What's the occasion?"

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Riva's sudden hug would, naturally, get a bit of a jump in return, but surprisingly... she returns it. In earnest. This is likely the first time she's done so for anyone in the Multiverse aside from Arthur... and Priscilla... and... my, my. She would be careful to hide it from Riva, but in retrospect she has grown close to a great many individuals without her fully understanding what this means. Still, she would have regained composure by the time they're facing one another again, the pink that remains on her face likely being subtle enough to be explained away as a small 'cosmetic adaptation' or such. It might sound silly for a woman who can essentially appear however she chooses to worry so about makeup, but if she were questioned she would simply say: 'Alas, sometimes the allure of a little blush is just too much to resist, even for me.'

    Riva's smile would only bolster her own, though. These warm behaviors seem to be a bit infectious! 'Always so busy', though? Bah! She would wave her hand in dismissal. "Me? Busy? Hardly. I've my preoccupations and things I do to busy myself, but nothing so pressing that would keep me from meeting properly with my extraversal..." She would pause on the word a moment but eventually manage to say, "... f-friends." Why is that such a difficult thing for her to say? Perhaps its connotations are just a bit too bold for her, but whatever the purpose she'll likely adjust in time. Especially if she keeps meeting people like Ayako and Riva, goodness!

    She would keep walking astride Riva, stopping once she reaches that red satin couch and gesturing for Riva to sit first. The only other articles of furniture in the entire room are the massive portraits on the walls, each of them depicting a single person, and a modest wooden table which is currently home to a stack of books and a pair of filled teacups. Riva's next inquiries would make her smile open into a modest giggle, though, as she would bow her gaze somewhat in embarrassment. "Either of those titles would be apt. Were it that this tower could venture forth from this world, though, even moreso." Her eyes would level with Riva's again. "Now, grant you it isn't my -only- home, but it is the one I've come to enjoy the most. Well, this one, and that more simple abode you might've seen out in the stars. I love them equally."

    Then, a glance back to the glass. "Oh, this clock has many more sides than two, I assure you. But, yes. When I built this place I decided that I would not fancy watching its hands tick all day, every day, and would prefer to watch the rolling waves or the falling snow. Now, there are days when I prefer to feel more isolated, and at those times I will allow it to appear more solidly, but otherwise I find this condition lovely." She would gingerly swish her left hand to her side, sending the images beyond the circle aperture spinning. This image would indeed settle on 'rolling waves', but... they're frozen in time. Ivory, and completely white. Mizuki would hesitate only a moment to frown before scrolling her hand again to give her a different visual.

    Ultimately, that visual would end up being Silent Night, her library. A particular aisle of its interior, in fact, which would be quite strange considering the Clock Tower is presumably much too large to fit inside that archive. Hmm. Regardless, the visual would look something like so: http://tinyurl.com/ljy8x5w

    Mizuki would have a seat now if Riva has done so already, looking to her with the best smile she might be able to salvage after that encounter with one of her world's broken facets. "Ah... I've had my ups and downs. Very significant ones. The last several days had been rather miserable, but I resolved many of them yesterday which has left me with the sort of relieved euphoria you see me with now." She would gently tilt her head. "You? Ah, and was there a specific reason why you wanted to speak?"

Riva Banari has posed:
People blush around Riva a lot. Some people describe Riva as 'huggy', but this is sort of a simplification of Riva's social cues and tendencies. She doesn't seem to worry if people get embarassed about it.

Case in point: Riva is standing there listening to Mizuki with a smile on her face and with her arms crossed, seeming to enjoy the spectacle and flourish of Mizuki's grandiose tendencies. After all, is it not the nature of a creator to take pride in and want to show off their creation? But when Mizuki waves off the accusation of being busy, Riva tilts her head... And when Mizuki finally admits that she has friends, Riva's immediately emits a squee, interrupting Mizuki's walk by reaching out and taking her hand in her own, exctedly. "See! SEE! I said, 'Mizuki, you just need to get out and work with people'. And I was right! Now you have a bunch of friends who care about you, and you about them! It's the best antidote to what ails you." She lets go and hops away, letting the reserved Mizuki recover again.

They walk through the tower, and Riva sits down on the couch. "Ooooh, comfy." She comments, grinning. "But don't worry, Mizuki. One of these days, maybe you'll find a way to make your dreams a reality and then anything will become possible! Then you can roll out in a swank clock-tower castle all over the place and people will be all, 'oh my god, it's a clock tower castle, it's even more awesome than Big Ben!'" Riva waves a hand then in faux-dismissal, "And then you can be all, 'Oh, it's no big, it's just my little place I get together with my friends'." She leans back in the couch, laughing at the vision that is clearly playing out in her head. It might involve Mizuki sitting in the clocktower with 'cruisin' shades' and driving the place around like a giant dream-gothic clock-ferrari.

She's just silly like that.

However, Mizuki has more wonders to show, and Riva leans forward to look over at the images in the clockface. "Wow, I guess this place really does have it all! I guess there's advantages to the unlimited power of the imagination, right?" She pauses when one of the images shows stark white waves. Riva's laughter dies down too, and she looks a little unsettled at that, but she doesn't make an issue of it, trying to look more condemplative than worried.

The Library, at least, removes that white elephant from the room. Riva looks back, getting rolling again as she nods to Mizuki. "I'm glad everything is working out for you. There /is/ a reason why I wanted to speak with you, actually, besides just wanting to meet with you and get to you know you better. I get the feeling it might be related somehow."

She pauses, tapping the side of her head. "We haven't heard or seen from Arthur lately. I wanted to check with him on some things, but no one's seen hide nor hair of him. I heard that the last thing he mentioned was that he was going to come meet with you to help you with something. I assume it was probably something super-adventurous, but um... Do you know where he is?"

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    "... well, Creation bless," Mizuki would mutter. As reserved as she tries to seem, it's abundantly clear that she's enjoying Riva's attitude, and the swiftness with which Mizuki's smile revives from its earlier misstep is proof. She would softly reach out to ruffle the other girl's hair. Once, she might've thought this gesture could've come off as degrading, or condescending, but now she's fairly confident that Riva would get a kick out of it more than anything. Her expression would only begin to soften as she releases her and walks away, at which point she would find it in herself to reply, however faintly she does. "It..." Her eyes would close almost immediately, "... is refreshing to know there are so many people who care, yes. I've had my Seekers with me all this time, but I made it a point only to 'adopt' children who truly needed to see Utopia to regain faith in living. As a result, my outlook on things had vicariously become somewhat dour, and... well. It's taken me until rather recently to begin recovering from that."

    At Riva's next words, she would simply shake her head. With an almost ethereal softness, she would return, "... I've already had my dreams come true, Riva. The point now is that my dreams revolve around seeing yours through to their ends. Or," Her fists would clench in her lap, somewhat, "to find a way that they might never have an end. If there is one thing that being around you all has taught me, it is that no amount of time in eternity can take away your joy in living, nor your curiosity, if you do not allow it to. So there is no reason this world, or any of you as individuals, should ever need to end." Her eyes would slowly blink open, and she would exhale. She would look out of the window a moment, idly. "... though, my dreams finding anchors in the hopes of others has only made them all the more steadfast, it's true." She looks to her with grin tinged with -energy-. A sort of determination she might previously have thought impossible for the self-proclaimed 'witch' to find. "There will come a day when what you say comes to pass. That much, I promise."

    But then things get just a trifle more serious. At the mention of Arthur's name, that look would lose some of its mirth, but none of its strength. "I've a bit of a tale to tell," She would fetch her tea glass, sipping from it, "so you'd best brace yourself." Ahem.

    "A few days ago, now," She would recline in her seat, again regarding the bookshelves, "Arthur and some others went into something called the 'Book of Heaven'. This showed them a condensed iteration of their own ideal realities. A being inside the book, The Warden, did her utmost to keep each person who went there within her grasp. Most all of those who went in returned, but," She would look to Riva with a hint of severity, "one did not. I trust you know who I am referring to."

    Another sip before she sets her cup back on its table. "I have been bracing myself since to attempt another journey into the book to retrieve him, but it will be exceptionally dangerous. If it is a difficult sojourn in a group, it is even more so on one's own when you've no one else to help you break away from Heaven's influence. One loses themselves, and they remain trapped there so long as they are unaware of their condition or unwilling to emerge. Worse, even though Arthur himself is virtually immortal, if one spends too much time in my domain they tend to be... altered -- twisted into shapes better suited to this world. I do not believe I need to tell you that this is a messy process when it is not handled appropriately, and not something we want to have happen. At all."

    She steeples her hands. "So there is more than enough precedent to retrieve him. Goodness willing, I'll make the sojourn after you've left or some time after. It would be... terribly, horribly wrong for the one responsible for his condition to endure out here when he lies trapped there, but I can only hope he has found something to console him. Something to ease his heart, somehow."

Riva Banari has posed:
True to assessment, Riva seems to enjoy Mizuki's response of hair ruffling, laughing in response. "It's okay. It's like how you lose depth perception if you only have one eye. If you don't have enough people to help you with other viewpoints, sometimes you lose your place." She winks at that.

Mizuki brings up her drinks. "My dreams? Well, I have a lot of dreams, Mizuki." She adopts a ponderous, thinker-esque pose as she rests her chin on her knuckles. "But now we're getting into the deeeeeep philosophy section. You're way more personable than my old philosophy class though." She chuckles. "As much as I'd love to be happy and carefree forever, Mizuki, I know that a lot of one's love of life depends on the spirit behind it. And with the good comes the bad. You'd know that more than anyone, I'd think. Forever is a long, long time."

She shakes her head though, and gestures. "We can get back to that later, though." Instead, she listens with rapt attention. She notices Mizuki's loss of amusement, and arches an eyebrow, worry flickering over her face. Riva's one to wear her emotions on her sleeve, it seems.

"Oh my goodness... That sounds extremely..." She pauses. "... Dangerous? I guess it would be kind of terrible to be trapped in a dream world where everything was exactly the way you want it... But if we couldn't tell, wouldn't that become our reality? How would we know what was the dream and what was reality?"

She picks up her cup and winks, taking her own sip. Mmmmm, tea. She might not be a tea addict to the level of some of the others in the Union, but she does enjoy a good brew. It's a nice change from coffee and soda.

She stops smiling when Mizuki mentions one of them getting trapped in there. And then the other mention of the book not just making the reality, but altering /them/ to make them stay in it more easily. "But... What... That's... Oh god." She suddenly stands, starting to pace back and forth. "Damn it! Arthur! Why did you, ughh!" She turns around and paces the other way. "Okay, so he's trapped in the book. It's probably some rampant action hero gig of infinite adventure and badassery, but he has that /out here/." She gestures with the teacup she still holds in her hand, and then turns around, continuing her train of thought as she seems to be thinking about something. "No, this is totally unacceptable. I can't work with this! This ruins /everything/."

Riva torns to look at Mizuki, and nods. "Okay, so you're going to go help find him and pull him out, right? Is there anything I, or whoever else, can do to help with this? I don't care what it takes, I just /absolutely/ need him out of that book. You need me to get you something or someone? Just name it."

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    For once, Mizuki would remain relatively unphased by Riva's ship in mood. Rather, she just retains that same, miserable look she had been wearing before, her gaze slowly meandering to some section of the floor. She looks... ashamed? Probably a pretty rare thing, for her. "I do not know what his heaven is, Riva," Her tone is again quite soft, "but I know it is not that. And somewhere, I'm sure, so do you. He already has the life of an eternal action hero whether he likes it or not, so something of that nature likely would not have enough dissonance with this world to prompt his wanting to remain. No, from what little I was able to garner, the feeling of his 'utopia' was quite somber." Her eyes would narrow further. "I... should think you know why this worries me."

    She would gently shake her head, finally finding it within herself to meet her gaze again. "Though," Her arms would fold, "you're correct. We must act as quickly as we can. The longer he remains, the more he will adjust to that world, and then even if we can recover him the change in his perception may be traumatizing when he emerges." She would massage her forehead with a hand. "Still... that does not make this any easier."

    She would already have been thinking of something to ask her to do - or any one to do - before she asks. Really, she wants very much to tell her that she could be helpful -- it's demoralizing to tell someone this invested that they cannot. But she's having trouble. What could she ask her for? To go in with her? No, that would likely mean endangering her for no purpose whatsoever. Or perhaps she ask her for a rope? Bah, that's perposterous. A rope couldn't keep her from --

    -- wait.

    -Wait-.

    Her eyes light up in that instant. She has an idea. "I have two ideas. One, we find another person who can tamper with dreams, like that Elliana person perhaps, and ask them to wake me if I've been asleep for too long. Two," She would stare at her a moment, "you burn the book of heaven while I am inside." There's an effectual pause. "There is immense danger in either approach, I know, but it's all I could fathom. If we allow a foreign presence to traipse here, they could tamper with its fabric. But if you were to burn the book, we could lose Arthur forever. I suppose with the particularly worrisome connotations of the second option that it may bear more explanation, so give me a moment." Ahe-hem!

    "The book was designed with the reader's safety in mind. As such, it will wake their dormant memories if its physical existence is ever compromised. That means that Arthur and I would regain our memories for just long enough to leave, but the risk inherent there is that we may not find eachother in time. That option must be a last resort -- something you only do if I've been unable to find him for an extended period." She would sigh. "Sadly, these are the only ways I could see anyone else helping. Those who have already been inside the book will have built up mental walls against it that would prevent their return, so they cannot aid here either. It's all very troublesome, and I more and more want to curse myself for having it made in the first place."

Riva Banari has posed:
"Because it resonates a lot with you and what you're going through. Immortality..." Riva shakes her head and sighs.

"You're the expert on this, Mizuki. I trust you on how to handle this completely. I-" She pauses, suddenly losing her voice and gaping for a moment as Mizuki suggests burning the Book of Heaven.

With /both/ of them inside. "Lose Arthur forever? But we're /already/ going to lose him forever if we can't get him out of there! I..." She looks away, chewing her thumb for a moment as she goes quiet. "I can't lose you /or/ him. And there's no way I'm giving up on him." She finally says, quietly. "But I can't go in after him or I'll just get stuck there too and make your job even harder. But dreams... Elliana... She's the Lady of Nightmares. I am /pretty sure/ she's pretty inherently anathema to /this/ world let alone to that book. That might be as dangerous as burning it."

Riva sighs, and plops back on that super-comfy couch with a grunt of frustration, draining her cup of tea and then gesturing with it towards Mizuki like a finely-decorated china pointer. "If I wasn't such a dumbass, ugh... We have to play this one straight, but how to give you a backup? Something to help you in dreams..."

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    To what Riva says about Elliana, she would just nod. "So I've heard from others. But do not mistake this world for one fully characterized by pleasant dreams. It isn't. The negativity of its inhabitants - and my mind - must go somewhere." Her expression would dip yet further. "... though I do not believe it would be productive to have her here even if she did agree to come, no. It would take far too much time to rationalize the details." She would shake her head. "And though I am the only one who has any knowledge of these matters, I am by no means an expert. Part of what it means to live in a reality wrought by dreams is that things are lacking in concrete logical explanations. There may not exist ways to undo certain phenomena at all. Though I am not ashamed of it, the looseness of the logical systems I've put in place give this world many vulnerabilities."

    Though, Mizuki would interject in her own thoughts. "But we will -not- be losing him, no." She would crease her brow. "We will find our way of this, I promise you. He... he will be safe. And," She would raise an expository finger, "in all these dour facts, there is at least one thing that might soothe you. Though I cannot be sure, I believe the ideal self I occupy in the book of Heaven is one intent on providing happiness to others. In this way, we may use the small number of people in the book to our advantage. I will likely gravitate toward Arthur straight off, at which something one of us says may jog each of our memories. But we shall have to see."

    Another sigh, this time of exasperation. "Again, I am very sorry about all this. I had known of this danger before, and yet I still allowed him to go into the book without qualm. I must accept some of the blame for this disaster, and if it would help you to be angry at something, I should like for that 'something' to be me."

Riva Banari has posed:
"On the other hand..." Riva gestures again. "Maybe the way to solve the problem of a heaven would be a hell." She shrugs. "Ironic, really. And don't be sad about that, Mizuki. No one can be happy /all/ the time, no matter how much I try to prove otherwise." She bounces a little on the couch absently.

"I agree, your plan sounds like a good one. The problem is getting your book-spirit to cough up Arthur. If I have to put the damn thing on a grill to do it, then..."

She stands and then walks around the table, getting on her knees next to Mizuki with a serious expression, and places a hand on her leg in comfort. "Look, Mizuki. I know you well enough to know that you gave everyone as much warning as you possibly could before they went in there. It's not your fault. I'm not going to get angry at you, nor am I angry at Arthur for falling victim to it. There is only one being who deserves anger over this. And it's the Warden. It might share some of your traits and will, but that doesn't mean it couldn't let Arthur go if it wanted to. And ther's where the blame lies."

Mizuki (183) has posed:
    Mizuki would carefully contemplate Riva's words, drawing in another, deep breath before responding. "Yes. Yes, I suppose you're right. But I have never really believed in the concept of 'blame'. People are products of their experiences and their biology in most worlds, which are things they cannot control. In fact, I read a Haiku once that was written in reference to the way women are treated in patriarchal societies. It... was not written in the proper format of syllables, mind you, because the author was a neophyte in the art, but. It establishes a paradox. Women cannot be who they wish, it says, because their lives are dictated by society, but the final line says this: Men cannot control themselves. You see, this poem does not blame men because they, too, are a part of some instrument far higher than the society they devised to put themselves at the peak of a hierarchy, but it also laments the poor treatment. Though I digress."

    She would take a breath after this. "Still. I appreciate your saying so. I tend to make exceptions in this philosophy so that I may yet blame myself, and it... can be rather painful, when it happens." She would gently shake her head. "But all that aside! We have made plans. We have collected aid. I have the utmost confidence in the abilities of those we've rallied, and I am certain that Arthur will emerge from this safe and sound. Patience, Riva, is all it will take. Patience." Her smile is back in full, now. "Our friend will be with us again just as soon as we've had our proper time to make preparations. And none of this would have happened were it not for you." Her smile widens further still. "Thank you. Earnestly. I know this is not something you do for me, but I feel my going in there alone would have been a grave error. You have pre-empted any more tragedy."

    When she stands, she would offer Riva one more hug. Yes, you read that correctly: she, on her own will, hugs the other girl. So much for Reservedzuki! Emotional highs impact everyone, apparently, even thoughtforms. Whilst completing that gesture, she would add, "You have been a good friend to me, too, Riva. More and more lately I have begun to see just how much of a blessing my coming to the Multiverse truly was because of people like you. And this, I suppose, will be the first of many attempts I make to give to that larger realm in kind."

Riva Banari has posed:
"That's a really profound thought." Riva replies, putting her hands in her lap. "I never really thought about it that way, but it makes sense. At the same time, at any time they could change it if they really wanted to. The cycle can be broken, right? All you have to do is make up your mind to do it and do what needs to be done."

Way to oversimplify hilariiously complicated things like large-scale sociological change, Riva.

She smiles again. "Mizuki... We do enough things that we have to blame ourselves for in this world that we don't need to go taking on everything else, too. You can't live your life weighed down, you'll never get anywhere."

Her eyes flick to one side when the mention of aid comes up. "... I believe in you. I'm just..." She sighs. "Patience is not one of my virtues. Shocking, I know, right?"

She stands too. "We'll get Arthur out safe. We're going to do everything we have to do..." She then sighs, clearly clenching her jaw slightly as she comments distractedly, "Even if we have to use Elsa."

In her distraction, she is suddenly surprised when Mizuki gives her a hug of her own volition. There is a moment's pause, and then Riva gives Mizuki a tender hug too. Once she breaks away, Riva nods. "You have a lot to offer, Mizuki. All you have to do is accept it and become a part of it instead of hiding away. We're all a part of /this/ story, and it's better when someone experienced like you adds to it!" She winks, and gives Mizuki some cheerful fingerguns.