Scene #6937:

Owner	Pose
Doctor Strange	The Sanctum Sanctorum. On the outside, it looks like an old New York townhouse, situated in a charming but humble little nook between two others. The front door is unremarkable, but it swings open as soon as Yuuki knocks. Inside the building on Bleecker Street, things look far older, and far stranger. Upon first entering, Yuuki will see a cool, spacious mansion with richly stained hardwood floors and a large grand staircase. Traveling up the length of the stairs is a regal purple rug. This rug extends all the way to the doorway, which she can see behind her if she turns. On either side of the rug, there are, spaced out in even intervals, a few chest-high display pedestals with what might be objects d'art placed upon them. All the way at the top of the staircase, there is a great, grand window. Its latticework forms an intricate, nearly arcane pattern. Floating before that great window, cast in relief against ribbons of filtered light, is the Sorcerer Supreme.
Yuuki Kuran	It had been a few days/weeks/months/subjective short-long time since the end of the dream of the Batter's World, and Yuuki had since finished her recovery, such that it was. She had hoped that Stephen Strange had finished his recovery as well - something slightly more important, as the good Doctor had more to lose in that fight, as it had turned out. More pain to experience. Being let in after the soft rap of her knuckles on the door of 177A Bleecker Street, the Director of the Concord slid through the door and let it close quietly behind her, looking up at the floating form of the Sorcerer Supreme highlight in silhouette by the great window. Adjusting her scarf down and away from her lips to reveal a soft, relaxed smile, Yuuki began speaking. "Thank you for seeing me in your home, Stephen. I hope you've recovered - at least physically. I wanted to thank you for standing with us - for a permanent solution, against what hooks and pain would be visited upon not just my friends, but the Multiverse were it allowed to fester. It is a... Well, it's not a very good-feeling consolation to know that in the end nothing mattered, but perhaps we can remain good partners and friends moving forward. Do you think so?"
Doctor Strange	Strange looks well. Physically, he bears none of the cuts or bruises from the fight. He slowly descends the staircase, until his wrapped boots touch the floor. He listens to what she has to say. When she brings up his health, he nods. The sorcerer doesn't seem unhappy to see her. In fact, when she asks if they can remain friends... "Our friendship isn't in danger," says Strange. "It never was." He nods briefly to his right. This is her only warning for what happens next. The surroundings of the Sanctum rush past her in a blur, air whipping briefly at her. Both of them now stand the exact same distance apart, in the exact same way. The difference is that they're no longer in the foyer--they're in a study. It's likely one of many--bookshelves line the wall. A fire is already burning in the fireplace, which bears an unadorned wreath. It smells of pine. Strange takes a seat in a high-backed, leather upholstered reading chair, and invites Yuuki to do the same. There is a small coffee table between them. "George is a different story."
Yuuki Kuran	Knocking some slushy New York wet-and-miserable from her boots, Yuuki smiles up at the taller Sorcerer Supreme. "I was still worried. Pain can drive people apart, even if they don't mean to. But I also meant professionally. We've worked together now for a few major considerations, and I wanted to make sure we kept working closely for positive ends. And..." Yuuki's eyes flash a bit mischeviously as her chin comes up, the corners of her lips curling in on themselves. "You know, I am rather good at reading people." She snorts, as the mask of smug cattishness falls as quickly as it had arose leaving a more simple and seren look of light amusement. "But I thought that you of all people would balk the most at that sort of nosiness, and I felt terrible when you stood across from me when Moonfin fought us. You had such walls built up - I suppose it's completely forseeable that a man of your talents and calling have them! But still..." She bows, and her hair whips around her as she does when the room shifts, nearly beaning herself with the table as it wooshes towards her low-bent head, though of course Strange is good enough to just barely miss her. She rises slowly after, now bemused. "I deeply apologize for violating your headspace, Stephen. Even if we were temporarily across from each other, and it's understandable to take one another as serious threats, I can still understand if you resented me for it." Yuuki happily sprawls out backwards into the chair, floofing out her coat with a whumpf of air as she does, adjusting her wintery skirt over her stockinged legs sitting knees-together but heels apart, near the feet of the chair. "I brought some gifts for you. Ones that, I'm sure, someone in our Concord would like, but I know that sometimes the best use is in the right hands. The most intelligent hands."
Doctor Strange	Pain can drive people apart. Strange folds his hands in his lap. Her mention of his mental defenses draws no obvious reaction in his expression, but he does at least nod in response. "I appreciate the concern," he says. "And the trust placed in me." He seems to know what she means before it's revealed. It could be some talent of his, but it could just as easily be experience. "But the apology isn't necessary. The nature of our positions means that conflict like that is... going to happen." He lifts his hand. There is a cup of coffee between his thumb and forefinger. It shakes slightly from the tremors. Strange gives Yuuki a glance, silently asking if she'd like some as well. Once he has his answer, he continues. "And if it's important enough, one of those conflicts might see us using everything we have. Your psionics, my bag of tricks." Strange gestures with one hand--'and so on,' the gesture says. "The nature of our friendship... is that one of those conflicts might be the one that ends it." He takes a sip, and stares into the cup. A short-haired sorcerer with emerald eyes and a seemingly permanent frown stares back. Strange leans back in his seat. "I realize that now. After... you know." He takes a sip, then shakes his head and makes a dismissive gesture with his free hand. "Anyway, it's a Grand, isn't it? I have a place prepared."
Yuuki Kuran	It's always rather strange talking to the Sorcerer Supreme. Yuuki gets the impression that it's not all an act - but some of it is. She also gets the distinct feeling (and appropriate tension around the brow, in a concerned half-furrow of her brow. Her irises narrow, catlike in their reaction. "Stephen, are you..." A scoff, as she accepts the coffee as it's given, leaning down to pick up the cup and bring it into her lap. "You're not using your time-sight for a conversation, are you?" She shakes her head, her mind visibly largely made up even if he denies it. "And my 'psionics'? It's..." Her phone comes out, as she taps away, frowning. "Psychic powers? Well..." She scrolls down a bit more. "Mmm. I guess. I don't have any strong powers of the mind, though. I could say it's more about what I'm 'feeling', but..." She pockets her phone. "You're just going to say that it's all the same. I've always known it as a kind of natural magic. And doesn't everyone want to be magic?" Her little laugh, perhaps at Stephen's expense, is airy and windchime-light as usual. "They're pieces of a world. Building blocks of a universe. They have no value as weapons, but more than that..." "You're more responsible than many when it comes to these things. I can feel it - from the corners and the stands here. Feelings - powerful feelings. Bad feelings. Things that are hateful, convincing, whispering. And you've them on display! Not even locked away under chains and vaults."
Doctor Strange	Doesn't everyone want to be magic? He nods. They do--or at least, something close to magic. The comment about the time magic, however, doesn't get any response at all. She might have expected as much. He also doesn't seem to think it's the same--he shakes his head and briefly holds up his palm in disagreement, but doesn't say anything. After a sip of coffee, "Even if those building blocks don't need to be contained, they deserve it." Indeed, the thought of those hateful artifacts moldering in the darkness, never to be used again, is a satisfying thought. A fitting punishment. "They're misshapen, and sickly, and anything they build would just be the same--with a share of cruelty thrown in." Strange shakes his head. After a sigh, the sorcerer finishes his coffee and sets it aside. "It's not like they wouldn't have plenty of company," agrees Strange. He waits for Yuuki to finish her coffee, then extends his hand. "Let's get it over with. The sooner they're locked away, the sooner we can talk about something less awful."
Yuuki Kuran	The raised hand gets another humored nasal scoff. "Then I'd accuse you of being the one with psy-onyx too!" "I don't think they're diseased... I can't feel that. I felt them - held them in my hand. And I've come to a realization about them. After the Batter's World, the world of 'Mortis Ghost', I think I've decided." Yuuki sips her coffee once, putting it down after - propriety fulfilled - Following it, from inside her coat, a small glass domed case filled with thick, roiling smoke. "They're just simple things. They have no flaw but in how they're used, no sin but their misuse." From behind her neck in her hair, she pulls a hidden hair-clip or scruchie, withdrawing the twinkling voxels of white cupped in her hand. "I thought to give them to you because of something else, though, Stephen."
Doctor Strange	Stephen spends a moment quietly contemplating the name Yuuki gave that world. It's certainly more fitting than what he'd jokingly called it. That much, he's willing to let go. But the comment on the nature of the Grands cannot go unanswered. "That," says the Sorcerer, his mind flush with knowledge of certain other world building devices, "...is exactly the issue. But you know that, or you wouldn't have brought them to me. Let's see 'em..." When she brings them out, Strange first concentrates upon the Grand of roiling smoke. "The Grand Spectral," says the Sorcerer Supreme with a nod. His focus shifts briefly to the white shapes. That one, in particular, draws a knowing frown from him. A bizarre object, associated with sugar. He nods gravely. "And the Grand Chocolatier. I have just the place." A gentle breeze seems to blow, too strong to be a draft. The Grands disappear, as if the Sanctum itself plucked them out of space. The weight of the Chocolatier in Yuuki's hand is simply... absent, in an instant. "So. Why bring them to me?" He may as well ask, now that they're locked away.
Yuuki Kuran	As the Grand Chocolatier is whisked away from her hand, the right corner of Yuuki's lip is pulled across her cheek in a mote of vexedness. Clearly, she had wanted to hang onto it a few more moments for effect, but the matter - and the moment - has passed. The tightness fades quickly. "I'm aware you acquired the rest. Of your skills, and your discretion. I was in your head, at least for a short time. I understand..." The smile is more somber now. "... what sort of man you are, Stephen Strange." A gesture is paid to the well-appointed library, and the large chairs they sit in, next to a crackling fire. "Your fireplace is next to all that paper, but there's no risk of burning, is there? It's because you're mindful - and you have the power of 'The Future'. Of Agamotto. I am blessed to be able to have a long 'past', and an overage of 'present', but you have that rare blessing of 'future', don't you? Tangibly, not in a distant sense, you have full access to all three. The Batter's World is a story with an ending for you that's different than other people. You can see the Grands and know: 'If I had time to think about it, I could make perfect use of these'." "I cannot. Zero and Priscilla cannot. The Paladins cannot, and neither can the Concord. But you - Sorcerer Supreme, you can. If it were me, I admit, I'd use it for something impulsive. Creating my own diseased world that I couldn't see the pain and hooks in. For some reason like 'helping a friend'." "I don't think you're the kind of man who would do the same." "Friends, like you observe, are always at the risk of being gained or lost due to circumstance."
Doctor Strange	"The future..." He's silent for a moment. "It's a blessing I intend to use, from now on. I hadn't, previously. Not to its fullest. My master had." He frowns. His attention is momentarily somewhere else. "I didn't like how it affected her, or the things it made her do. Now..." He shrugs his shoulders. "I see the necessity." Strange rubs a scarred hand upon his face. It's the gesture of someone who's tired--physically or otherwise. His hand drifts to his chin, and he shifts in his seat, stroking his goatee. "As for the Grands... well..." He falls silent. If there's a next time... he won't hesitate to use the Grands, or something like them, if it saves lives. "After recent events--I'm more sure of that than ever." At least, he's sure that George was lying about the extent to which they could help. "Anyway. Everything is subject to being lost, our friendship included. At first, you think something like that is scary, but it really isn't. It's one of the few things in this multiverse that's... fair, for lack of a better word." He frowns slightly, and shrugs. "Someone in your position--someone with an abundance of 'the present'--knows that, because of that, good things are all the more precious."
Yuuki Kuran	"Necessity is an odd thing, Stephen. I think that there was a solution in that, a way to do everything right. There had to be one. A path through that, a perfect series of steps." Yuuki draws her hands back, laying them across her upper arms and squeezing lightly. "Where my friends didn't have to be hurt, even. But that path..." Her coat creaks and creases with strain from her fingers. "I think, though I may just be rationalizing things, that the path was chosen for us a long time ago. I choose to believe that George was genuine in guiding us towards what was left that was best." Her hands drop into her lap as Strange brings up the preciousness of the pleasant present. "Of course, Stephen. Giving up hope for any sort of... pleasing moments and warm light is what kills you. Even if it's hard - especially if it is hard - I think you have to try. Accepting what is, and finding what can be better. Surrounding yourself with friends." A bashful look. "And holding on tight to those things that are bright and warm around you - but not too tight."
Doctor Strange	"Thank you for coming to visit," says Strange quietly, with a nod. "And for being my friend. I know... that Mortis Ghost wasn't pleasant for any of us. The mental thing, well..." Strange shrugs his shoulders. He doesn't say it. He doesn't have to say it. 'I'll just have to be ready for it next time' is the gist of his expression. "But you and I, we are still friends. And for as long as we are, I'll enjoy that. Now..." He rises from his chair. "I made a promise to myself, after that world. A promise of improvement. The Grands were... possibly the best gift you could have given me. Not the items themselves, but the sentiment behind it. I need to get back to my training, Yuuki." "But I also need to think about a Christmas gift for you. So," he says in his usual deadpan fashion, "What I'm really saying is, get the hell out of my house." He gives her an impish frown, a slight inclination of his head. A joke--a sign that though the world got its hooks in him, he is healing.
Yuuki Kuran	Yuuki returns the quiet nod with two of her own, her bangs bobbing like waves down her cheeks. "You should get some sleep, Stephen. I won't ask you to 'take a break' - I can't, even - but you need some time to let your tension go. Spend some time relaxing, unwinding. Self-care, even." She taps at her chin, her smile becoming filled with a wry sarcasm. "And if it's Time, perhaps you'll be able to find some." "An improvement, but maybe not what you meant." Strange bids her to 'get the hell out of my house', and Yuuki raises both arms from her chair, hands up and fingers splayed. "Alright, alright. You don't have to be so forceful. I'm interrupting ice cream and talk radio time." Her form blurs, the definition and color draining out of it, ad with a pop and a flutter of wings, disappears into smoke.