10866/The Journey: 0 - The Fool

The Journey: 0 - The Fool
Date of Scene:	13 May 2022
Location:	The Velvet Room - Hallway
Synopsis:	Select memebers of the JLD pass through the first of the Tarot themed doors in the Velvet Room. They have conquered the first step of the Journey, that of The Fool and come to grips with who they are and where they are in life. The only way to go now, is forward.
Cast of Characters:	Chas Chandler, Sara Pezzini, Lydia Dietrich, Jonathan Sims, Gabby Kinney, Cael Becker, Tim Drake, Robbie Reyes

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Chas Chandler has posed:
    In the short time that the JLD has been acquainted with the castle, the hallway from the sitting room to the gardens has always been something of an anamoly. Sometimes it's a short jaunt--maybe 10 feet--from the door to the end of the hall leading into the moth or butterfly (depending on the time of day) filled expanse; and then sometimes it stretches on endlessly, the doorway to exit seeming to never draw nearer, with door after door after door lining the deep blue walls.

    This time it's somewhere in the middle. There is a new door, however, on the left side of the hall. It's different than the others. Instead of being solid blue oak it's made of a heavy looking metal, more a dungeon door than anything inviting. Above the door, a metal plaque of dark wood framed by yellow butterflies reads 0 - THE FOOL in blocky stylized letters.

    Chas stands before the door putting a hand up to it but pulling away at the last moment because who knows how anything in this castle truly works (what with the Body Bridge Room and all). He frowns and looks up at the door. "More. Tarot" he sighs. "I swear, that man had some weird obsessions."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
It was literally the first time Sara had been called by Chas, and it was about a new door appearing in the Velvet Room. She hadn't really had a chance to explore the place, other than the other day when searching for Jon, but that had been poke head into room, see he's not there, move on. Now she was on her way there to check out a magically appearing door, something apparently the place was known for.

Arriving still dressed in her usual detective uniform, which really was just a nice shirt and jeans, with her hiking boots and leather jacket over her shoulder holster, she immediately heads for the hall the new door was indicated being in.

"Evening," she offers to those already present, her 'professional' face still on. Apparently the NYPD officer mode was still engaged.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia stands next to Chas, looking at the door thoughtfully. "At least it's got a consistent theme," she says, still a little groggy. She was woken up by the insistent text from Jon, and managed to trudge herself out of bed, feed, shower and dress herself and head to the Velvet Room.

    Tonight she's dressed for warmer weather. A light pink sundress brings some color to her pale skin, and a pair of strappy sandals adorn her feet. Her aura of ectoplasm is lazily twinkling about her as she stares thoughtfully at the door.

    "So... The Fool," she muses. "The beginning of a journey. Heedlessly charging ahead." She looks over to the group assembled, "So is that what we should expect should we open the door?"

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon, having sent out a general text to the JLD letting them know there was a change in the castle and there'd be an exploration party, arrives at the Velvet Room with staff and sword, /just/ in case. There hasn't been anything to fight in the castle, but there's been dangers of various sorts, and who knows when there might turn out to be a fire-breathing dragon down in one of the dungeons or something?

    A /friendly/ fire-breathing dragon might be kind of cool. Imagine if the JLD had its own dragon? (The Ghost Riders don't count.)

    "There are worse things to be obsessed over," he comments as he comes through the door into the hallway and walks over to join Chas in peering at the new door. He's wearing a t-shirt and jeans and sneakers, his normal wardrobe these days, brightly-dyed hair slowly fading. He'll need to go touch it up soon.

    "The Fool... hmm. I've been looking into the tarot a bit, but I'll admit to missing the significance of a lot of the symbolism around here. My old mentor called it New Age poppycock, 'playing cards masquerading as fortune telling.' But he thought most fortune telling was poppycock. But the Fool... beginnings, right? Like Lydia said. Umm... naivete, trust...? Maybe watch out for a cliff just on the other side of the door."

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"The only way to tell is to open the door," Gabby chimes up from behind those already gathered here. Where did she pop up from? Well, she'd been exploring. Still. Sometimes the rooms changed. Sometimes the hallways. Lots of locked doors. In this case? She'd heard the voices and come jogging down the hall to join them and now, there she was. This time at least she's not doing anything untoward.

"The Fool represents the Unknown as well," she adds in while regarding the symbol there. "Or more accurately what is unknown to the individual represented by the card. Could just be saying that what's beyond is something we don't know yet and have to step forward to explore without hesitation." Pausing, she looks around those here only to give a small shrug.

"Uh, classmate of mine went by the name 'Tarot' and .... anyway. It was a thing."

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael arrives with Jon - but she hangs back as he forges forward, her hands shoving deep into the pockets of her jacket. The new tattoo on her neck, a simple design showing a broken wrench, still looks a little red and irritated as it continues to heal. She watches the gathering near the door, feeling the familiar and comforting weight of her gun tucked into a holster under her jacket. Will it be of use in the astral plane? Who knows. Does she care? Well. Honestly, yes, but better to have it, right?
    "Hey Sara," she offers casually. The others get a simple nod of greeting.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Initially, Tim had been trailing behind Gabby as she explored. He's curious himself about how the Justice League Dark has been doing since their foray into the Astral, and now... well, here they are. That the Velvet Room is itself part of the Astral plane just makes him even more curious about how things have developed.

    But Gabby is Gabby, and eventually Tim's desire for methodical exploration wins out, so they split up. Trying to do *anything* methodical while at the whims of the Astral plane's... uh, well, see, Tim's not actually one-hundred-percent sure what the Astral can do. Another point of curiosity!

    At some point he's given up -- or decided to collate the information he gathered so far -- so he's been MIA. Until just now, when he pops up behind Gabby. "Seems the most appropriate card to entice us into some risk-taking behavior," he adds.

    He's dressed casually, which in Red Robin speak means a tactical jacket with the RR embroidered on the breast and most of his gear hidden away. And the mask, of course, with the lenses blocking his eyes from casual observation. He pulls a hand out of his pocket to wave at folks. "Yo."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie, once again, has been lured back to the Velvet Room on promises of.. well, nothing, actually. He'd gotten a cryptic text message from Jon about some door, and what was he going to do? Stay home like a sissy?

Besides, once they spot the new door, he'll confess to some small amount of curiosity of his own. Having headed over here right after getting off work, he still smells like engine grease and clove cigarettes; his hands are jammed into the pockets of his usual battered leather jacket, unzipped over a ratty metallica tee shirt and faded jeans with holes in the knees. He hangs out at the back, looking about as suspicious of the goings-on as he ever is.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    The sound of soft footfalls comes up the corridor. Out of a shimmering haze of blue light a man appears. Even with the hunched back state of his posture, he is almost as tall as Chas. The final stages of male-patterned baldness forms a half curtain of whispy grey-silver hair that hangs carelessly around his shoulders. He wears a simple black suit (complete with coattails) and a white shirt with a thin black tie, white gloves cover his hands and pointed toe black loafers cover his feet. But it is his facial features that are most astonishing.

    His head is almomst a perfect sphere. His ears are long and pointed, not too unlike the modern portrayal of elves. Bushy, long black eyebrows frame a pair of blood-shot bulging eyes with no color to them aside from the pinpoint of a black pupil. But his nose... his nose is long, and pointed. More beak-like than anything on a human face. It stretches out from his face a full 8 inches.

    He stops not far from the group and bows at the waist, which is much higher than one would expect on the frame of a normal person. His voice is high pitched, reedy but respectful and deferential. "Welcome to the Velvet Room," he says, his nose bobbing in echo of his words. He rises and his bulging, unblinking eyes move to the door. "Ahhhh. I see that your souls have decided to brave the castle and become true owners of its secrets. This is good. Too long has it been since the Master took the Jounrey. This will be very interesting indeed. Shall I open the door for you?"

    Chas blinks and takes a step back from the man. "What the fuck?" he says. "I thought? You were with that man in the mask when he left. You didn't go with him?" he asks, sounding flabbergasted.

    The long nosed man shakes his head. "We are servants of the Castle. Even if the Master was the one who made us, we are bound to the stones of this place and are not permitted to leave. Thus it is our duty to assist those who come within it. Such as yourselves."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Tarot is less about fortune telling as it is about revealing hidden truths," Lydia tells Jon. "That /might/ include glimpses in the future, sure, but it's also about interpreting what's going on /now/ and in the past." She reaches out a hand and brushes her fingers against the butterfly clad frame of the door. "Without any kind of mysticism behind it, the meaning of the cards can spark new connections in the querant's mind. Stuff that they might not have considered before and give them new insight." She retracts her hands and hums thoughtfully, "Hm. The wings are soft and velvety, like real butterflies."

    She nods to everybody as they come in, but Red Robin gets a surprised, "Oh! Red Robin! I didn't expect you to be here. Welcome to the Velvet Room. It's...." she sweeps a hand to indicate the strangeness of the castle, "Weird."

    She blinks rapidly when Igor arrives. "I didn't know the place came with a butler." Her eyes narrow as she asks, "Are you the butler?"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Still attempting to get her bearings, Sara looks around as Robbie and Red Robin come up to join the group. These are faces she knows, so she accepts their presence and offers nods, then looks back toward the door. As the hair on the back of her neck stands up however, her eyes start searching for what caused the reaction and there it was... a face she didn't know.

Instinct kicks in, hand going toward the gun under her jacket, but she doesn't draw the weapon, she doesn't need to. Witchblade senses to danger, even if she doesn't know this person.

"This place just gets stranger," she comments quietly, watching the butler intently. "I think you all need to introduce yourselves, rather then just popping in when you /think/ we need to know about you."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon looks around at the group gathered, making note of who's there just in case they all get separated or something. He offers nods to various people as they arrive, opens his mouth to say something--and then blinks at the long nosed man as he appears.

    "Ahh... hello. Thank you?" He gestures to Sara at her statement. "Yes, that's a good question. What is your name, and how many others like you are there around here? And what do you know about... us?"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney turns toward Red Robin once he rejoins her from her need to burn off some energy and just run the halls several times. At least the door and the gathering of the others here, along with Jon's text, had caused her curiosity to focus enough to, well, FOCUS. A grin is offered to Red Robin with a nod of greeting. "Hey, we found a door--" she begins to state the obvious when she pauses to sniff the air.

It was the arrival of others that causes her to do so. Maybe it was that smell of cloves which so often lingered around Rien. The fact that it lingered on Robbie earns a moment of pause as her mind wraps around things again. "Hey Robbie. And Cale, Chas, Jon. Lydia...." She points at Sara. "Don't know you yet, hi, I'm Gabby." Then her hand swings to point toward the man that just appeared.

"DEF don't know you. So you're some kind of like, guardian of the place and we're about to go on a cosmic journey yadda yadda." Her gaze shifts around everyone here. "Do we get an intro or do we just..." Her hands swing toward the door with a 'swooshing' gesture. "Go?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael's gaze shifts towards Robbie for a moment - the smells lingering around him familiar to her, and key to some powerful memories - but she simply offers him a small, brief smile, before turning her attention towards the strange, almost alien being in their midst.
    "Are we... not concerned about this guy? I'm concerned about this guy," she remarks - without moving up from her position towards the edge of the pack.
    It keeps her away from Chas, and that's all the reason she needs right now to hold position.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Faces of varying familiarity levels are noted from where Red Robin remains, tucked away in the back of the group. Similar to how Robbie lingers outside of the main cluster, both suspicious. That's just Tim's neutral state, even for people who he trusts with his life.

    It's good to have a Plan B just in case, though.

    (Hint: The B stands for Betrayal.)

    Gabby's acknowledgment gets a habitual chin-lift of greeting as the two Outsiders come back together, and then a more outwardly emotive smile-and-nod is aimed Lydia's way as she calls out to him.

    "Figured I could come loom in the dark corners for a little while, help with the ambiance." Under his breath, quiet enough that only Gabby -- and anyone with super-hearing -- will hear, he says "ambiance" again. But with the pronunciation all wrong so that it sounds more like "um-Beyonce". Then he clears his throat lightly, covering up laughter at his own dumb joke.

    He doesn't start quizzing the strangely shaped man that has come through the door. Instead he just observes from a distance, using the telescoping lenses of his mask to examine the finer details of the new arrival, his outfit, anything for potential clues about his origins or intent.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Sara and Cael and Tim get a collective upnod in return from the Ghost Rider, and Gabby a fleeting smile, but he keeps his gaze zeroed in on the hunch-backed man who's come out to greet them. He doesn't have any weapons hidden under his jacket aside from, well.. himself. He is however going to prowl in a little closer, casual-like. Nobody mind the punk ass Mexican kid in the grungy leather jacket doing a sneak.

Nah, he doesn't have a stealthy bone in his body. He's full on going over there to check him out.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    If the tall hunched man in the suit seems uncomfortable by any of the scrutiny, he doesn't outwardly show it. "Ah, yes of course. Where are my manners?" he says, placing a hand to his chest. "My name is Igor and I am custodian and part time bartender of this place. There are others. You have met Nameless, of course. Aside from myself and he, there are... four others that you may or may not meet." He smiles, his mouth literally spolitting his face from ear to ear. "If you meet them, then they will introduce themselves as is only proper."

    He gestures to the door. "If you wish to truly master this place, then the Journey is the path you seek. Everything starts with the Fool. It is empty and yet in this emptiness holds endless possibility. All things should start there, don't you think?"

    There is another blue pulse of light and the door itself clicks and slides open with a loud creak of rusted hinges. The passage beyond glows with blue light that flickers and flutters. No. Not light. Butterflies. A curtain of blue morpho butterflies obscures whatever lies beyond the opened door.

    Chas turns to regard the others. "Umm... yeah. This, uh... he looks to Sara and Jon. "You two are in charge. I mean, this entire thing is well above my paygrade. But the guy seems harmless enough and if he's a servant of the guy who used to live here, he was nice and cordial if a bit cyptic."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Name given, Sara offers Igor a nod. Witchblade offered information in her mind, whispering like he always did, but this 'servant' was no threat and it looked like the rest would show up just like he did, out of no where. That would cause the same problems he did, but perhaps only two more times. Knowing it could happen only meant there would be a certain level of paranoia until she'd met all of them.

Looking back to the door as it opens, she's not surprised by what she sees. No one could specifically plan for butterflies, but there had to be something to block vision into the room, right? The idea was to take faith and just walk in.

"Igor isn't a problem," she comments in response to Chas. "No threat that Witchblade can feel, and he's a part of this place. I'd prefer the others make themselves known sooner than later, but if this is how they do it... can't change tradition, right."

Shifting her eyes to Jon, she gestures toward the now open door, "Want me to go first? Got built in danger sense."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia's eyes are still narrowed when her nostrils flare to take in his scent. "Hm," she says, "Interesting. Not even human-ish." That's about all she has to say about that.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon's eyes narrow as he peers at Igor for a long moment. "Yeah, he's not human," he agrees with Lydia. "I'd say... not quite faerie? Faerie-adjacent? Kind of like Vorpal, but less... chaotic. And he's a part of the castle, intrinsically linked to the stones of it. I agree, Sara, I don't think he's any danger, really. Everything he says kind of... resonates with the same... air as the castle." He kind of waves a hand generally around.

    Then he turns to peer at the door with its curtain of butterflies. He... hesitates. Actually takes a step back. Clears his throat. "Ahhh... well. Yes. Maybe..."

    They frown. "It's... /not there/. The door, I mean. Magically speaking. It's empty space. That's /really/ disconcerting." They hesitate, and look at Sara. "I get the feeling the order doesn't entirely matter, but... go ahead, just in case." Admittedly they're half-expecting someone else to just jump on through the butterfly curtain, someone with less reluctance to go on some soul-seeking Journey.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"Eh, I remember someone saying something once about a magical house with a kind of... soul, or presence, or awareness of it's own." Gabby pauses trying to recall that conversation. It was with Illyana and likely about a certain Sorcerors place, but there were so many distractions.

Namely, butterflies.

"Oh, hell yeah that's cool actually," she gushes before glancing toward Red Robin with a bright grin. Her hand lifts to gesture to her Robot Unicorn Attack shirt which reads 'Chase your dreams' and has ... a butterfly leading the charge in front of the racing unicorn sillouhette. "See you on the other side!"

While everyone deliberates about who should go through she skips forward, arms outstretched to wiggle her fingers through the butterflies as she passes into the room. There's a muffled, "Aww not real," about the butterflies morphing through her fingers but that's the only thing. All that's seen is her back as she vanishes into the room of nothing.

The back of her shirt says 'You will fail.'

Cael Becker has posed:
    "Gab- oh for the love of-" Cael says with some frustration, as the //child// disappears throgh the door first. She looks towards Jon, her eyebrows raised, her expression attempting to convery 'you're the one who insists on working with children' before she starts moving towards the door.
    "Well let's not leave her alone in there," she insists with some urgency.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Gabby looks at Tim. Tim looks back at Gabby. He opens his mouth to say something -- three guesses as to what he might have said, though chances are it starts with "N" and ends with "O" -- but, there she goes. Off chasing her dream (hold onnnn to the niiiiiight).

    His hand hangs in the air for a second, outstretched, too slow. Then with a groan that echoes with the kind of heaving despair of someone who has suffered a great many indignities (AKA operating a team of teenagers with no sense of self-preservation) Red Robin follows after with a quick "Excuse me," as he slips through the group to the... curtain of butterflies.

    Silently. Like a ninja. If not for the aforementioned excusing himself, because he has manners. The point being, he manages to get from the back of the crowd to the front with the kind of crowd-surfing skill of a pickpocket working the tourist-filled streets of Rome.

    Don't worry. While Tim could technically lift a few wallets here and there as he went, he didn't!

    He does turn on the precipice to fire off a cheeky two-fingered salute to the general audience before he yeets himself out into the unknown after Gabby.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie's getting itchy feet standing around like this, waiting for them to move. Were this anywhere but the astral plane, he'd probably be long gone, everyone else be damned. But when it comes to magic.. well. Things that can actually, maybe kill him deserve a little extra respect.

He's about to suggest they maybe *don't* go through the door, when Gabby just goes for it. Like she does.

Like Red Robin, the Ghost Rider feels an obligation to follow along after her. Unlike Red Robin and his ninja-like ways, he opts to just elbow his way past the others and plow right on in like the bull in a china shop he is.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    "I look forward to seeing your progress" Igor says before a burst of blue-white light surrounds him and he fades in his own flutter of butterflies and light.

    Chas sighs. Even if he doesn't need to, the expression is a useful one and conveys volumes in the simplest form. "Kids, right?" he says. He moves toward the door. "Nothing for it but to go in now I guess." He says before he steps through the curtain of butterflies and disappears into the beyond.

    The room beyond is enormous. Seven rocks jut out over a black chasm that seems to go on forever into darkness. It's a cliff's edge. No two people appear on the same cliff overlooking the chasm. Seeing those to the left and right is doable, but it would require some ability of flight or expert acrobatics (looking at you Red) to get to someone else's cliff face.

    There is light, enough for it to be daylight, though it's source is anyone's guess and since it doesn't immediately cripple the vampire among them... it's definitely not light of the sun. Turning shows that exiting the massive room is not likely, there is no return curtain to pass through back into the hallway.

    A soft jaunty tune starts up. The tone of the osund is that of someone whistling, even though no one, besides those who entered are visible in the room... yet.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara mutters under her breath as Gabby walks right past and through the open door, "Fucking herding cats, Jon...." then without another word follows the teenager through.

Standing on a cliff face alone instantly changes the gears of thinking in her head. She looks around and can see the others about fifteen feet away, uniform spacing, shit. She's no expert in magic, but that screamed mathematical for a reason. There was no real way for her to know if the drop off the cliff was real or part of the magic of the room, so the next thing that occurred was all about self preservation.

From the bracelet on her right wrist thousands of tiny tendrils of metal explode out, ripping through her clothing to form the beautiful, albeit revealing armor of the Witchblade. The familiar gauntlet forms on her right hand and forearm, and the last thing to form are the massive metal wings with feather imagines etched into them.

"Everyone alright in your locations?" she calls out. "I can move us together, just not sure that's the right play for this."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia just /stares/ as Gabby just charges on ahead, throwing caution to the wind. With a heavy sigh, she pushes on through the barrier only to find herself over on a cliff edge overlooking a bottomless pit. She looks to the left and right of her to see who's there.

    "Is everybody all right?" she calls out. "Did anybody fall in?" God, she hopes not. She looks down at her feet and then back out into the expanse. This is The Fool, and that is a cliff. What comes next is obvious.

    "I'm going to step off the cliff," she says. "I can fly so if I plummet I can catch myself." With that, head held high, she takes a definitive step off the ledge.

    And she drops like a stone.

    She's gone for a few moments before popping back onto the ledge. "Well," she says. "We're not supposed to act the fool and just leap before you look."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon doesn't even blink as Gabby disappears through the doorway. Instead, he... laughs, looking to Cael with a twinkle in his eyes. "Well, that settles that, I suppose. She probably has the right attitude, hmm?"

    Honestly, this is /precisely/ why he spends time around a team full of teenagers with no sense of self-preservation, and insists on working with children. It keeps him from being too hung up on being overly serious and cautious.

    With a shrug, he steps through the door... and onto a rock jutting out from a cliff overlooking a chasm. Good thing Jon isn't particularly afraid of heights.

    Almost on instinct, his wings flare out, but he doesn't do more than hover slightly above the rocks. "It's all magical," he calls out. "Similar to the castle, but... with more Wonderland mixed in. I'd guess we're getting closer to the border of Faerie. And I'd guess we're on separate rocks for a reason." He frowns out at the chasm. "I would /guess/ that... look, the Tarot is supposed to be the Journey of the Fool, right? The... journey of a soul, from infinite possibility through trials and hardships to... well... infinite possibilities all over again." He doesn't know a /lot/ about the Tarot, but he knows that much, thus far. "So I'd guess that we need to... work through the challenges separately, but as a team."

    He huffs out a breath. Peers across the chasm, and then down at his own feet, hovering a few inches above the rock. Then he comments, "Maybe... /because/ you can fly, it's not actually a danger to you, Lydia? Maybe someone else who can't fly should try jumping off?" Yes, he's really suggesting this. Yes, /really/. In an entirely serious tone. Magic doesn't usually submit to real-world logic.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"Hey! Doing good so far!" Gabby assures from her own cliff edge where she's standing ... No, crouching, to reach out and touch her hand to the air in front of her. She had a few ideas already even if this was a first for her. "Is this like Indiana Jones?"

Nope. Her hand goes through air, swishswish, and she looks up when Lydia calls out explaining what she was doing. A quick nod is given as she rises to her feet to clap her hands over her thighs knocking off non-existant dust out of habit. A glance to the side takes in Sara's change in attire with a low whistle. "Does that hide INSIDE you like my claws do or... Okay nevermind, I'm getting distracted." A puff of air is blown out while she shuts her eyes tight.

Time to Focus. For real. Not just be the over-enthusiastic scatterbrain she always was.

"If this IS anything like Indiana Jones, or the tarot card itself," she reasons while looking around again at everyone here. "Maybe we all have to step off at the same time for it to count. Since we're all here. I mean it doesn't really seem like there's a destination to get to though but it's about the journey, right?" Insightful or just babbling? Both? Talking out loud helped sometimes.

"I can survive a fall. It'd take me a bit to heal though, but better I take that first leap than Red Robin or someone if it's like Jon says."

Cael Becker has posed:
    "I'm not... particularly fond of heights. But I'm also not fond of the idea of stepping off a cliff," Cael remarks dryly, as she unexpectedly finds herself in a precarious position - and takes a step back to compensate. "...so. We have various versions of leaping into the unknown as possibilities. What else is there? Maybe we //are// supposed to all try to get to the same spot? But- I have no way of doing that," she muses with a faint frown on her features.

Tim Drake has posed:
    No expectations. At the very least, Tim's understanding of how the Astral plane works extends that far, so the only certainty he has as he walks through the butterfly curtain after Gabby is that he has absolutely no idea where he's going to end up.

    He's pleased to note that Gabby is within eyesight once he's... arrived? Hm. He flashes her a quick thumbs up, both a confirmation of his own status and -- based on the accompanying head-tilt -- requesting a status of her own. That silent communication handled, Tim begins to look around, head tilting this way and that as he takes in their present location.

    Doing what he does best: observing. Well, snooping is how it usually goes, but observing sounds less negative.

    And while people begin to banter about the possible solutions to the problem, one Tim isn't sure is actually a problem in the first place, he... sits down.

    On the edge.

    Feet dangling over.

    And then he starts humming along with whoever (or whatever) is whistling, just a beat behind, like Red Robin is trying to learn the song himself.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas emerges on his ledge and looks over the edge. "I... honestly don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this" he says. Lydia tumbles over and falls and falls and falls and reappears. "I... braver woman, than me..." he says. He listens to Jon's suggestion and shrugs. "I mean... I could probably survive it, but how is that an actual journey?" he asks. "It's just... a fall. A leap of faith? Is that truly all it needs? To know that we trust it and are willing to go to the next step?" he asks.

    Each ledge gains a new companion. A medium sized mongrel of a dog. It doesn't look particularly friendly, but at the same time it's not aggressive. It bounds and sniffs at the others on their various ledges. Showing no signs of irritation or dismay for any of the less than human participants.

    No two dogs are alike, and they are all very much mutts in terms of makeup. Even so they finish their inspection of their companions and settle down near them, peering over the edge and looking at their individual player with curious doggy eyes.

    The jaunty whistling tune grows in volume.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Watching Lydia step off, even knowing she can fly, does not do Sara's heart good. Thankfully she reappears, but that just means Sara doesn't have to dive after the vampire. "I don't like this at..." she stops mid sentence as Gabby starts questioning, and her brain shifts gears once more. "I'll explain later Gabby, promise."

The appearance of the dog on her ledge doesn't add any confidence to the situation, but it's just a magical dog, right? She knows she's safe over all, so she kneels down and offers a hand toward the dog to be sniffed, or attempted bit, whichever happens. "Hey there little guy... or gal," is said in a calm, soothing tone, then continues in the same tone. "Are you supposed to mean something? You mean nothing to me little dog, should I adopt you? I have no snausages for you, they were in my pants pockets. Might be able to find them in the shreds of clothing."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "I'm not sure," Lydia says looking out over the chasm again. "My brilliant idea didn't get me anywhere, so I'm not sure what we should be doing instead."

    She's surprised by the addition of a dog on her ledge with her. She didn't hear the dog walk or anything. She looks at it with just as much wariness as it does her. She's used to this kind of behavior from dogs, though.

    "Um. Hi," she says to the pooch. She looks to the others, "Usually there's a little dog nipping at the heels of the fool on the Tarot Card so... this really /shouldn't/ have come as a surprise."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon looks around at the others, noting their various reactions to things. Some of them are fine and trying to think things through, some of them worried... Tim--Red Robin--seems entirely unconcerned and is sitting on the ledge, whistling. He peers down at the dog for a moment, lets his feet land on the rock and leans down to offer his hand for the creature to pet.

    "Gabby's right, I think," he says. "This is about the journey. And we're taking it together." He smiles. "So... let's try stepping off as a group, then? If you want to lead us, Gabby?" He looks over at Sara--to see if she objects--and then over toward the teenager, raising a brow. It's a decent suggestion. Maybe they all have to move on together?

Gabby Kinney has posed:
"I'll hold you to that," Gabby assures Sara about the explanation for later. It's Red Robin's whistling that actually causes her to pause as she becomes a bit more aware of the sound as opposed to just the situation. It was something new to add in to the mix that she hadn't considered before. Maybe she hadn't realized it was whistling OUTSIDE of her head. Lord knows she got musical ear worms often enough that she tended to ignore them.

The newest addition to the scenario earns a gasp. Instantly she's crouched down holding her hand out to be sniffed, and once done she very eagerly pets the mutt. Who cares what sort it was? "Hello there pupper! I don't know where you came from or if you'll stay around but I love you!" Lifting her head she calls out, "I'm naming mine Regina Sausagepants Esquire the Third!"

With that she stands and claps her hands together. "Yeah, exactly, Jon. Okay let's get this on the road and try." A deep breath is taken, and she stares out over the expanse. "Just me, and my companion, and I'm taking all my baggage," she hoists her hand up over her shoulder as if she were hefting something... Perhaps the stick and bag that many tarot cards depicted? Beneath her breath she mumbles, "My sisters died, I survived, I gave part of my soul for another, I found new family and friends, and cared about someone who didn't care about me, and none of it matters anymore because I'm moving forward."

With a grin she purses her lips to whistle along like Tim had. Then pauses, and calls out, "By the way I heal and I can't feel pain, so don't worry anyone."

Again she whistles, stretches her arms overhead looking up toward the sky with a grin, and she walks off her cliff edge.

Cael Becker has posed:
    Cael's attention is likewise captured by the pup - a little thing with a long, squat body and beige scraggly fur. She crouches near it, patting her pockets until the finds a few of Bear's treats, offering this over to help make friends with a dog that doubtlessly does not actually exist - though her gaze turns sharply to Jon at his suggestion. "Well. ...you all first. Jon, if Gabby goes splat, and you don't catch me, I will definitely come back and fucking haunt you this time. You know that, right?" she remarks in a dry voice.
    Yup. Joking about her own death and her now properly departed ghost sister already...

Tim Drake has posed:
    A life spent swinging between the rooftops of Gotham's skyline does not predispose one to a fear of heights, so Tim is perfectly comfortable as he looks down over the edge of the cliff face, past his feet to the gaping chasm below.

    As people begin to react to the appearance of the canines, Red Robin twists to take note of his own mutt, to whom he aims a thoughtful frown. Behind the lenses of his mask, he frowns.

    "Hey there," he says, though it isn't until the pup begins sniffing at him that Tim offers a careful hand in the dog's direction for ease of scent-checking. "You here to go on an adventure with us? Hope you're not too upset about being stuck with the fools." Like Gabby, he'll dole out the pets once the sniff test is over.

    Assuming it's passed. Either way, afterwards Tim turns back to the chasm. He rests his elbows on his knees and steeples his fingers. "The Tarot can be interpreted as a journey, can't it?" he asks of Lydia. "The Fool as its protagonist, and the Major Arcana the experiences and challenges the Fool faces."

    He rises to his feet, toes nearly hanging over the edge. The only reaction he gives to Gabby's downwards departure is a deep sigh that makes his shoulders droop, then he hikes up one side of his jacket to get at his belt. All he does is put his hand on the grip of his grapple gun -- security blanket! -- before he throws himself off the cliff.

    It's just like any other building in Gotham. Take in a breath so that the wind doesn't steal it from you. Don't fight, just turn your body into it. Let go.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas doesn't look particularly enthusiastic about leaping into a gaping chasm. He may be an angel, but does he know how to fly? Nope. Still, he runs a hand through his hair and shakes his head glancing at his own grey and white dog. "So... we're..." It's then that Gabby jumps, followed by Tim. "...doing this then?" he finishes lamely. "Guess that answers that" he mutters and looks across the chasm to Jon. "If I die, I'm going let you know that I am going to be very put out by it all" he says before stepping from his cliff.

    For those that jump the dog offers a mournful howl as they fall into the blackness. And they fall. And fall. And fall. The endlessness of the chasm seems quite true after a while. Even so, something about gravity doesn't seem to work right as, it doesn't take long for each of the Fools to catch up to one another in the freefall. Soon, the only thing to see is the walls of the chasm on all sides and the emptiness of space before them.

    Another figure materializes out of the nothingness around them. He is dressed in the rags of a vagabond and carries a small pack attached to a stick. The feather in his simple cap flutters in the wind but even so he looks resigned to his faith. "Oh... hello friend. Took a leap of faith as well, did you?" he asks. "I hope you're not too engaged in matters of the world. I've been at this for... well, forever really" he says, a chuckle bubbling up from his chest as he falls.

    He rolls over onto his back and whistles. It's the same tune that was resonating in the hall above, simple but whimsical and full of the carefree joy that comes with ignorance of the trials that lie ahead.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Jon's question toward Sara gets a nod, but then Gabby is just jumping, followed by Red Robin, and the decision is made. It was easy for them to make that choice and jump, or perhaps not easy but it was solely their choice. For her, she had to hold a seconds long debate with Witchblade about /not/ flying when she jumped. He was really not keen on the idea, in fact he protested loudly, but that didn't stop her from jumping after the others.

For one singular moment she hovered, then dropped. Witchblade just had to make his protest fully known before relenting and she's finally falling and falling. Maybe she should have let Witchblade fly down?

At the bottom the appearance of yet another unknown variable sends a chill up her spine. This was becoming a pattern, one she didn't like "Time is relative," she states. "A minute could be an hour, and hour could be a day."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    "Exactly, Red Robin," Lydia says with a nod. "It's a journey to enlightenment, typically, but it could be interpreted as /any/ journey." She watches as Gabby, followed by everybody else step off the ledge, and she just shrugs and leaps as well.

    During their infinite fall she somehow isn't all that surprised to find the vagabond there falling with them. "And there he is," she says to the rest of the JLD. "The proverbial fool. Or, perhaps in this case, the literal fool."

    She twists her body about until she's facing the man. "Are you content with just falling?" she asks. "You were on a journey, once."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    Jon does not get rid of his wings; in many ways, the wings and crown of Ma'at are more important to who he is, now, than his own hair or fingers. Instead he furls them in tightly, takes a deep breath, and gathers himself, noting what Gabby did. Carrying the baggage and moving forward anyway.

    Is he... actually ready to move forward, baggage or no? Well, not really, but too late now! He steps off the cliff and drops.

    "Maybe we should have a 'dealing with the World of Dreams 101,'" Jon muses aloud as he catches up to the others. "Nothing around here is going to follow literal real-world logic. Everything's made of magic, just like the castle. Including him." Jon gestures to the Fool, and waves to him, before going on, "Nobody was going to die, or if they were, they'd just wind up alive again. Igor said something about 'mastering the castle,' right?"

    They sigh, and shake their head, and then twist around in the air to unfurl their wings and sort of lie back on them while falling. "S'pose some of that's just... learning by experience," they mutter to themself, and peer up back the way they came.

    "Wonder why you're always depicted as a bloke?" This to the Fool. "If you've infinite possibilities, shouldn't you have no gender at all?"

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney flips around in the air a few times trying to find a way that was most comfiest. It wasn't as if falling in general was bad or uncomfortable since it seemed that the possibility of 'hitting the ground' was mitigated by magic. She'd kind of expected that to some extent as well. Still. She flips around to look back up to where she had jumped from calling out, "I'm sorry Regina!" A sigh is let out as her attention shifts over to grin at the others joining in on the 'leap of faith.'

It's the traveler, rambler, the Fool that she looks to then while crossing her arms behind her neck like a pillow. "There's lots to be attached to, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't move forward. Or that we should be content with being in one place, or predicament, either. Can't keep moving if you're just..." Her hand slips from behind her neck to gesture around.

"Don't you want to see more?"

Cael Becker has posed:
    As all the others step into the void, Cael leaves the pup behind and steps forward, over the edge - squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, and spreading her arms and legs. Her goal was to slow her fall enough to allow the others to //hit bottom// first, if that were to happen - to give herself enough time to be saved. But when she opens her eyes she finds herself falling along with the others, at the exact same speed, regardless of their respective aerodynamics. "...well that's just not fair," she remarks. "Are we just going to bin all of physics?" Fucking Astral Plane, I swear.
    "...if we don't figure this next bit out do we just fall forever? Because - I mean, it's slightly better than hitting bottom, I suppose. At least for the moment. But it's still not ideal..."

Tim Drake has posed:
    Freefall. It takes a while, a solid few seconds, before Tim has started to feel the panic of it. Feel the inevitable ground coming up to meet him, even if he can't see its approach. And then it's a few moments more before he's settled back into his previous stance before the leap. Expect nothing.

    It's more of a struggle than he expected to tuck himself into a seated position, legs folded together and hands clutching his ankles to keep his posture together. Sort of a workout, in its own way. Actually kind of fun.

    Maybe his concept of fun is messed up.

    "This is its own form of stagnation, in a way. The fall is supposed to be a transitionary period, the journey between the jump and the landing."

    He tilts his chin to look upwards.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas plumets and eventually catches up to those who leapt before him. "Oh... lovely... no rhyme or reason to the when, just as long as it's in relative tandem..." he says with an exasperated shake of his head. "You know..." he mutters, looking to his companions, "it was easier before, when I was a tagalong to the whims of the mystics instead of an active participant in the mystical enlightenment."

    The Fool laughs. "That's the rub of it, isn't it?" he asks. "Why am I what I am? Why are you what you are? Why are any of us made in the image we are made or the image we decide to give ourselves? What makes us, us?" he says with another laugh. "I suppose that's why I'm on this fall. I was thinking to myself 'what makes me... me?' And the next thing I know, I'm walking off a cliff."

    He doesn't seem to mind. "It's not too bad, once you get used to it" he says, eyeing Cael. "Really rather refreshing... the wind... the nothing else. Good to just let it go..." He nods to Lydia. "And I imagine I'll be on another one soon enough, but for now... I'm content with this one." He tilts his head back and relaxes in freefall.

    The walls of the chasm start to shift and flicker, light playing over them until the light coalesces to images. It's different for each participant. The formative points of their life. Their trials, their struggles, their wins, their loses... all of them play as if in some strange montage. And as they play, their weight is lessened on the heart. It's not gone; after all, release is something that is done actively. But it's not as heavy a burden to carry and a sense of moving forward is what is left in its wake.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Endless falling. Of /course/ it's endless falling. Sara can't even the math that's required to figure out how, with as much metal as she has on her, she's falling at the same rate as everyone else. Thankfully she doesn't has to, she just tells herself, 'It's magic, fuck you!'

Then the images showing the things in her life, a montage from childhood through to now. Most of it she has already had to come to terms with, some still clung to her soul like open wounds, and the most glaringly obvious was dealt with in December thanks to a geas from an angel. Still, she watched each image as it passed, wondering what the others saw, grateful they couldn't see Michael Yee be gunned down, or what happened Jake McCarthy... something she has /never/ talked about.

"Our pasts form who we are," she states when the images fade away. "How we deal with them, what we do as a result of them, how we move past the pain, all a part of who we are. What is the point of showing us what we already know?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
    Lydia just shakes her head at the complacency of The Fool. "Contentment isn't your thing. Or, at least, it's not /supposed/ to be your thing." She looks around and gives a helpless shrug. "But this is the astral plane so who knows?"

    Then images start fluttering past her and she gasps. She's been through this before. When she died. When they tell you that your life flashes before your eyes for some people it's a very literal experience, as it was for her.

    The lightening of the burdens within her is also something that she's experienced before. This was the idea behind her burning of the past ceremony... to make peace with the things that she had lost, and to embrace what it was that she had become.

    "I think it's trying to unburden us from the past so that we can move forward freshly," she says to Sara. "It wants us to move forward with open eyes, and light hearts, I presume, free of preconception." She gives another helpless shrug, "That's /my/ guess at least."

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    "You wanted Power," Jon remarks to Chas, briefly in mentor-mode. "You wanted an edge. You /wanted/ to be an active participant in the mystical realm. Well... this is a part of it."

    He takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, then closes his eyes. He, of all people, doesn't need to see his life reflected on the cliffsides to remember the important bits; they flash through his mind all the time. Letting go of the past is difficult when the entire purpose of your existence is to record it and remember it.

    Instead, he tries to focus on the fall. The feeling of falling without caring so much about what's behind and what's ahead. The moments when he's felt that way, /entirely/ in the moment, not fretting about the future or mourning the past. It helps, a little. Points a way, at least personally.

    He doesn't open his eyes as he says, "We don't know ourselves, not really. We think we do, but we don't. We think we understand ourselves, but we don't. The moment we think we know ourselves, we're already moving on. That doesn't make the process of trying to know any less meaningful--in fact, trying to know oneself is one of the most meaningful pursuits there is."

    Finally he opens his eyes. He's not doing very well with letting go or letting the fall lighten his heart, but he knows quite well why; he frowns up at the images on the cliffs. "Meaning doesn't make it any easier, though," he mutters.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
For once the ever chatty Gabby falls silent when the walls begin to reveal images of her past. Eyes growing distant as she relives them again but from the third person, as if she were watching a movie. Distant, disconnected, and yet... Yet. It was the death of her sisters. Eight in total, all who had died either through some test, experiment, new weapon, or just in the battle to gain their freedom. Though it was years in the past now, she starts to cry.

It's quiet. Not the wracking sobs of someone torn apart from the inside. Just quiet little gasping breaths as her hands lift to swipe at her eyes several times before she just gives up and lets herself feel and process what she hadn't been able to at the time.

And it was a relief to be able to do so finally. "I'm sorry you're gone, I miss you, I love you. I always will. Thank you." Lost in her own little world for a moment she smiles reminding herself that she'd swore to live and enjoy life to it's fullest--because that was ultimately their wish for her to experience all they couldn't.

There were more memories to follow. More to process. The kidnapping. The torture. These were all horrible experiences but with the past she had before, she had already gained strength and experience in it. It was at her core where she came from that gave her the strength to move on. It had been familiar and so she knew she could survive, and move on. So she does.

"Yeah," she agrees with Lydia giving a nod. "You have to know where your journey started, even if you may not know where it's going."

Cael Becker has posed:
    As images begin to flicker on the walls, Cael's hand reaches out - finding Jon's and clinging onto it, presumably for support. But not all the images are sad, or traumatizing - there's a birthday party with her mom, and a couple of friends from school at a park. Balloons, and a cake with a doll magically 'baked' into it, and a handful of presents. There are times spent with Alis - just sitting in a garage, talking, and laughing, while Alis worked on a car or a motorcycle, and sometimes waxed poetic about one of the boys in their classes.
    The memories that weren't as kind... did have the sting she expected, even walking into the house filled with the stench of her mother's decaying body. Or holding Alis while her lips foamed with pink bubbles. Or the golden glow of those recessed lights as she woke trapped in a wooden room with no exit. Or handing Jon over to Michael, in that blasted church.
    It was all in the past, and Alis had told her to look to the future, hadn't she? To live?
    She squeezes Jon's hand, turning to flash them a brief smile - perhaps to let them know she's alright.
    Because she is.

Tim Drake has posed:
    There's something to be said about quiet reflection. Tim is no stranger to meditation, not with as much training as he has. Yes, meditation is as much a part of training for the Bats as hand-to-hand combat and picking locks; the indomitable will they're all so well-known for is as much a learned behavior as it is innate talent.

    Still, you need some inborn skill to do what they do, and surely Tim would see those pivotal moments of his childhood playing out on the walls of the cavern right now, the indicators of raw talent soon to be honed.

    If he were looking.

    Though he doesn't have Jon's mystical gift of perfect recall, Red Robin has a damn good memory. Enough that he doesn't need the help of an Astral construct to relive them. He'd rather not, though, so he looks away, instead studying the others as they face their own memories playing out for them.

    It's only the mixed company that stills his tongue. Otherwise he'd probably make some sort of joke about reliving trauma, but that's a weakness he won't expose. Instead his expression hollows out into a grim frown, the sort of unhappy equilibrium often witnessed on the Dark Knight himself. Maybe it's just an imitation in this case, the familiarity of it a good defense against things Tim is not willing to face amongst relative strangers.

    Typical for a Bat, to reject an offer of solace. They're an untrusting lot, and while outwardly Tim might seem... relatively... easy-going, he's possibly the most suspicious of them all.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas' remembrances aren't the most pleasant of experiences. He's lived a lot of life for someone only a few years past 30. Homelessness, his streetlife, his time meeting a man who promised him adventure and danger couched in whimsy and carefree attitude. It was something of a lie though, there was pain. But at the same time, it was a good existence... for a little while.

    He met his wife. He had a child. He lost the wife... but not the child. Even added another one through legal means... and then the decision that changed his life and his existence and the trauma of being made a victim. He watches himself on the Gat eof Heaven for a long time. Four months, all of existence. It's all the same to him. Regardless, he escaped and now he has a new lease on being. All of time spread out before him. It's liberating in it's own way and he says as much out loud. "There is some freedom in letting go of what you were before to become something new... isn't there?" he says.

    The Fool nods. "It's a process, but you get used to it" he says and then he fades in a pulse of blue light. The group feels themselves slowing and then... they reach the bottom. It's sand. Soft, shifting sand and an opening. Above the opening is a card spinning in air. It slows and turns faceup to show the very card they experienced. 0 - The Fool, a vagabond about to step off a cliff with a hound at his heels. Another curtain of butterflies obscures what lies beyond the door.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Landing softly in sand was the surprise at the end that Sara wasn't expecting. She had hoped the 'plummeting to their death' part of is all wouldn't happen, but the whole slow down and land thing, not so much. It was chaos to her mind, all this. She couldn't fathom the point of any of it, and yet she went through it with her friends and allies all the same.

"I already let go of who I was," she offers to Chas. "I had to, when I /finally/ accepted being Witchblade's wielder. This was just a walk down memory lane for me, though I do have a better understanding of parts of my life from getting to watch it laid out like that."

Looking toward the butterflies, like they could be missed, she gestures and says, "I think that's the way out." Then starts walking in that direction.

Jonathan Sims has posed:
    It's the sand that gets to Jon, weirdly enough.

    The whole time, they've been trying to be a leader or a mentor or a reassuring boyfriend, to help the others, figuring their own time stepping off the cliff into the unknown is well past. And sure, one Journey ends and another begins and so on, but even so they're not the /Fool/ this time, right? That's someone else, even though in the back of their mind they know that's everyone, really.

    But then they all land on the sand, and Jon stares down at it for a moment and then drops to their knees and picks up a handful, letting the grains fall through their fingers, frowning as something fundamental in their self-perception shifts. They've been dealing with the fact that they don't know themself at all as well as they thought they did, that the changes brought on by dying are less changes of core self that the shedding of an outer persona they'd put on to keep safe from the world.

    But they've been entirely wrong about something as simple as when their current journey began. It wasn't when they became Archivist, or when they joined SHIELD, or even when they became Gaea's Champion.

    It was when he walked out of Michael's false world and found himself in the desert. When he refused to believe a comforting lie and chose painful, harsh truth. When he turned away from everything he thought he'd wanted and walked out the door not knowing what might be in store. And then kept on walking, for forty days, following the sun, trusting he'd find the river at the end. The first time he'd directly met Ma'at, heard her voice.

    As the others talk, or move toward the door, Jon just... stares at the sand for a long moment, then closes their hand around the small palmful left and deliberately encase it in an emerald crystal so it'll hopefully remain with them.

Gabby Kinney has posed:
Gabby Kinney somehow, in spite of all her flipping and rolling and twisting around in the air that had been going on before, somehow lands on her feet. A decent metaphor for her life so far as well. Once on semi-solid ground she rubs her eyes again a single time to get the dampness out of them, and then she looks to the others offering a smile. "Guess we go on from here, then." A step is taken forward before she pauses to regard those around her.

A hand is offered out to Red Robin, and another out to Jon once he finishes with the sand. She waits. "We might have started at different times, but we're all in this together now. And we don't have to go on this journey alone. That's part of what being a team is, too."

Cael Becker has posed:
    As they land, Cael releases Jon's hand, wiping at her eyes, and looking towards the curtain of butterflies. So- that was that, then? After a deep breath in, and then out again, she starts to move forward - then stops when she realizes Jon isn't walking with her.
    She looks back towards them, watching Jon running sand throgh their fingers, and encasing some of it in green material - and she holds her hand out towards them once more.
    "I'm not going anywhere without you, Your Royal Godliness," she remarks - with a smile playing on her lips. Her gaze flicks towards Chas for a moment, then lands back on Jon once more before she asks, "Shall we?"

Tim Drake has posed:
    Boots in the sand. Tim unfurls from the lotus position as they approach the ground, and he pushes himself up into a stand as soon as there's ground to push *against*. His expression betrays nothing, not with his eyes (and like a solid third of his face) hidden away by his mask.

    He casts his gaze around them, but finds nothing. Just more sand, and with an exhale of breath he turns towards the opening and its swarm of astral butterflies.

    There's no thumbs up to confirm how he's doing now. The offering of Gabby's hand prompts a pause and a half-stutter in Red Robin's step before he reaches out to clasp it, giving one firm squeeze before moving on. A quick nod of the head, and then he's making his way towards their exit, wherever it takes them.

    Fingers crossed for a way back home, but again: no expectations. He waits at the threshold for Gabby before crossing over.

Chas Chandler has posed:
    Chas sets his feet down with a nod. "It's a rite of passage. Even if you have let go of your past... we as a group have to make this journey together. And the first step on it, is The Fool" he gestures to the card above the butterfly door. "I imagine we'll all come to understand ourselves and one another more with subsequent cards and subsequent passages. But... the first step is both the easiest and the hardest in its own way." He moves forward and steps through the curtain, trusthing them all will follow his lead.

    They emerge back in the hallway of the Velvet Room. Once all have cleared the passage. The door closes and then vanishes. Along the upper runner of the walls the image of The Fool card appears running the length of the hallway. He looks to the others. "I don't know about you guys, but... I could..." he pauses. "Actually, I couldn't but I'm going to anyway. Who wans a drink?" He chuckles and starts back for the sitting room and its bar.