12363/Hangin' Out for Fun & Profit!

Hangin' Out for Fun & Profit!
Date of Scene:	09 August 2022
Location:	The Velvet Room - Sitting Room
Synopsis:	Circular arguments are round!
Cast of Characters:	Rien D'Arqueness, Balder

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Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Since her return from the ivory tower in the Astral Plane, Rien has been trying to make herself more visible. It's good to keep putting herself out there and reminding people that any lingering memories from the Not-Rien were false, that she is the real Rien. So she sits at Nameless (the piano), playing Clair de Lune by Debussy. There's a glass on top of the piano that holds a measure of something of a mellow golden-amber color, and one of her herbal cigarettes rests in the ashtray, still lightly burning and scenting the air around her with nice aromatics.

Her fingers move across the keys with confidence, this is a piece she's played countless times, enjoying the ebb and flow of the music. And she seems to be speaking to the room itself. Or possibly she's trying to bait one of the VR's inhabitants into coming out for a bit.

"These tarot rooms that you've been putting us through... do they provide a purpose? I'm having difficulty believing that you're contracted to provide us with introspection and reflection of the self, that you're here to challenge us to better ourselves. Seems a touch odd for a stronghold in the Astral." Those deep blue eyes scan the room for signs of any of the trio they've met thus far.

Balder has posed:
Balder hasn't been to the Astral Plane in a long time.

Too long.

He misses it so: the memories he can see, the emotions that are on full display...it's like peace can truly reign because all who venture there can hide nothing from one another. Though Balder uses his key to open the door into the Velvet Room, the God of Light discovers Rien playing the piano to magnificent effect.

The most protected son of Odin witnesses the glory of her musical excellence, but he looks upon her...yet, who does she speak to? Balder too has sensed a strange...presence that makes up the Velvet Room.

Strange.

"Whom do you speak to?"

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
"Ah, Balder, bon soir! Please, come in, have a drink, have a seat."

Rien turns a warm smile towards the Asgardian and tilts her head in the direction of the bar. There's a rich chuckle to follow as she glances around the room again, "Igor, Elizabeth, Lavenza... or any of the other inhabitants of the Velvet Room that might care to make an appearance. When we took over this castle, we didn't realize that it came staffed. As we've explored more and opened more, they've started to reveal themselves. They claim to be seven in total, but we've met only three so far. Four, if you count the being in the Tarot rooms."

As the piece reaches its crescendo, Rien quiets to focus on the complex notes and lets the music speak for her. As she winds down, her smile reappears and she looks to Balder once more, "How have you been? I feel terrible that we invited you in and then all but disappeared into this newest wrinkle. But I was very flattered that you joined the effort to collect me from the ivory tower."

Balder has posed:
It's only through thepower of the Allspeak that Balder even knows what 'Bonsoir' means. He gives her that kind smile as he starts towards her. He's without the garb ofa warrior. He wears light clothing mixed with bits of hardened leather: what amounts to Asgardian casual wear.

His axe is nowhere to be seen, strangely enough. "Staffed?" The names don't seem to strike any particular chord with Balder, but he appears curious.

"I help where I can. We are much different from many Gods, who act through intermediaries or...sadly, do nothing at allbut observe." Balder frowns at that then. The world would be a much more peaceful place if more Gods were so direct. "Life happens in mysterious ways and the Nornir will always weave their tapestries."

He shrugs. "I've been well. How have you been, all things considered?"

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
"Mmmmmmmmm... that isn't always a good thing. Many Gods chose to step back only after they'd put humanity through a living Hell with their petty bickering and power plays. Having multiple pantheons 'taking an active hand' in the world would mean even more conflicting views, territory disputes, and arguments." Rien glances up to Balder with a light smile and a small shrug. "I can appreciate the Gods letting people handle their own problems. It's nice to have the assistance when requested, though!"

She stands from the piano, moving around the end of it towards him. In her own casual wear, Rien is wearing a pretty white with blue watercolor flowers patterend across it as if a wind were blowing the blooms, and a wedge-heeled sandal. She leaves her hair free, tucking a lock behind one ear as she smiles. "Staffed... ah, I don't like calling anyone a servant, but they are beings that.. live in the VR and assist us within the bounds of their contract."

Reaching him, she tucks a hand around his arm and motions towards the bar, turning to head in that direction with him. "You know, I'm doing much better than I expected. Accepting that I am neither wholly good nor wholly nad, and embracing both sides as equal, important parts... it's really given me a measure of peace."

Balder has posed:
Balder's arm is stolen! Taken by a sudden motion towards the bar, Balder looks upon Rien with a slight shrug. "Perhaps. Yet, so many pray to them and yet they are never heard. Only a select few." Balder looks upset at this. "But you are right. If all the Gods were involved, the disputes would be even more legendary than the Council of the Godheads." he frowns.

But he smiles at her. "You play the piano with incredible skill. Did you play in your youth or with a band?" Balder questions, but he nods. "Good, good. The acceptance of oneself, both the light and the darkness, leads to a harmonious balance. We are what we are. We require both in order to be whole."

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
"To be fair, from my understanding, most of the prayers are 'make me rich/pretty/famous' prayers from selfish people that can't be content just being themselves." Rien glances up at Balder and offers half a smile, "So I can understand the Gods not tripping over themselves to answer most prayers."

She halts them at the bar and motions for him to take the seat next to the one she claims. Settling in, she turns away from the bar itself and lifts a finger in a 'please wait' gesture. Facing the room, she rubs her hands together, then snaps fingers on both hands, then rolls them clockwise three times. The light blue glow of her magic surrounds her hands as she claps them together and starts to pull them apart, opening up a portal to what looks like a very old-fashioned but fancy storeroom. A decently sized barrel rolls its way out before propping itself upright on the floor.

Banishing the portal with a wave of her hand, Rien moves to heft up the barrel, setting it on the bar and motioning for a tap with the other. The tap is thrust into the barrel and seated well. She fills a pair of horns with a golden liquid that looks quite familiar to Balder, smells familiar too. Asgardian Mead. Passing one of the horns to him, she winks, "I'll return the barrel when we're done."

Rien lifts her horn towards him in toast and grins, "To acceptance of oneself! May it make a better person of me."

Balder has posed:
Balder raised a brow when a portal opens and a storeroom appears on the other side, yet when a barrel rolls on into the Velvet Roo, the horns are called and suddenly, Balder has a horn of Asgardian mead in his hand. "This was not made for mortal consumption." he chuckles. "But I hear tell you are more than meets the eye." He raises his horn to her. "Skjall!" Balder proceeds to down the entirety of the horn in the opening seconds.

Then he looks upon her. "You would be surprised. Many are for healing their loved ones before the end, or bravery in war. Not all are so selfish. Many are imply be to save them from danger or death or banish a great evil. Few still pray to me, still few remember my name." He chuckles. "I answer what I can. I am not as powerful as my father - I cannot be everywhere." He frowns. "Some prayers may yet surprise you." He teases her.

"It feels like it has been forever since I have drank the mead of my homeland."

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
Chuckling softly, she calls out, "Skjall!" and follows suit, draining the horn of its contents only moments after Balder finishes his. Rien blinks once, sways slightly, then rights and smiles, "That was brief, but intense. Very nice! I need more of this. Do you think Odin would be terribly upset if I left him some sort of payment and kept a barrel?"

Rien smiles faintly, "Nobody prays to me and I intend to keep it that way. I can get far more done in a day without having the prayers of true believers in my ears." Shaking her head, she smiles and offers, "Even Odin cannot be everywhere. I can teleport at will and travel time and dimensions with a wave of my hand, but even /I/ cannot be everywhere."

She grins, "But I would be delighted to be surprised by the prayers of humanity." Pausing, Rien adds, "And to answer your earlier comment.. no, I'm not mortal. My father is termed a 'mutant', though I'm not wholly convinced he isn't some disgraced primordial god still wandering the earth. It fits his situation far better. But. I am the result of biology and magic combining into a unique specimen. Not human, but not god. I have a human-like physiology. Cells, atoms, etc. My heart beats, blood pumps. But I am immortal. Truly immortal, not just functionally so."

Balder has posed:
"I doubt my father would be insulted." Balder suggests. "There is more mead in Asgard than there are people on Midgard." This is /not/ an overestimation. Seriously. If there's anything that Asgard isn't lacking, it's warriors and good drinks. Though he tilts his head. "As can I. Though don't misunderstand my meaning - I merely wish I could be. I feel as if I could help more people. Though at times, I'm not needed. All that is needed is hope. Even in the darkest of nights, hope burns through as a light all of it's own."

He chuckles. "Prayers are not necessary for action. I can go between worlds, dimensions. I've rarely needed a reason to transcend the boundaries of space and time. Yet...even something as subtle as telling someone the world still spins is better than inaction."

He tilts his head at her. "Only the soul is immortal." Balder tells her. "You have years, experience...yet all things die. All that begins, will eventually end. Your predecessor may be a God of the Hunt, but I suppose we might yet ever know."

Pray Balder never dies. If Balder dies, Ragnarok begins. Everything ends.

Supposedly.

"Yet I sense the strange characteristics within you."

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
"Excellent. I have at least a couple of items he might be interested in... if only because Loki is also interested in them," Rien smiles brightly, moving to refill both horns, offering it back to Balder cheerfully. "Do /you/ teleport, or does Heimdall teleport you via the bifrost?" There's genuine curiosity in the question, and perhaps just a smidgen of teasing.

She toasts him with her horn before draining it once more, blowing out a short breath, "Mon Dieu, that does have a kick. Very nice. I haven't felt the effects of alcohol... well, ever. This is nice." Rien lifts a hand towards him, "Hope is good... hope is very good. But sometimes hope needs to be a person, not just a concept. Sometimes the symbol needs to be more than just a symbol."

Rien flashes a grin at him, "That's not even close to true. Just because your pantheon believes that doesn't make it so. I have the memories of the being that created this universe. 14 million years worth of memories. That being still exists. It's 'death' was not an end, just a transition. We only /assume/ that there will be an end." She winks, then turns to glance around the bar for something. Not finding what she's looking for, Rien lifts a shrug and turns back to Balder.

"I was created to be the eternal opponent to a demon that cannot die. My powers.. the magical ones, that is, draw from multiple sources. I can channel the energy put off by others, take it for my own and utilize it against an enemy. Not so much an energy vampire as... a conduit. An open conduit for a broad swathe of energy types. Including Null Energy, and Power Cosmic."

Balder has posed:
"The bifrost is merely a transitional gateway that refrains from the need to expend energy. I can transport myself just as easily, but then Heimdall would be quite insulted indeed." Balder smiles a moment, though he shakes his head. "If Loki has interest, it would be in the best interest of all to keep away." Balder does not wish to combat his brother in anything, but he can't be permitted to be...well, the broad term is mischievous.

"Not always." Balder tells Rien about the concept of hope. "Sometimes, the very idea is enough. Every situation is different fro the last." Though Rien tries to convince him that not all things have an end. "I miss having such thoughts." Balder tells her with a look of seriousness. "Transitional or no...nothing lasts forever. The fabric of this universe will eventually, regardless of what we do, come to an end. Regardless of what that 'end' may be. There is no assumption. Millions of years, billions...Regardless of pantheon or belief. Memories are fragile and tamperable. I wouldn't trust them. If it comforts you to believe otherwise, you have the right to do so. I see no purpose in dispute."

Balder seems to let the matter pass after that. After all, he will go to Valhalla. That, in itself, is an 'end'. "Interesting." Balder comments as to a demon that supposedly cannot be killed. "Can it not truly be killed or have you simply not found a way to end it's existence?" he questions her.

Rien D'Arqueness has posed:
"Aw, poor Heimdall. Then yes, you should absolutely use the bifrost so as not to upset him. I can't imagine he gets to have much of a life, stuck in the entryway." Rien shakes her head and smiles, "I should visit him sometime. Just to visit, offer some company." She lets out a small laugh and shakes her head, "It's something that he claims he made, but somehow lost. I happened to find it before he could. I've been holding onto it since."

Rien lifts a brow towards Balder, "What part of eternity spent alone is supposed to be /comforting/? I think you mistake certainty for comfort. But you can only speak to your own pantheon. Their history, their belief, their predictions. But what ends your pantheon won't end everything else. Frankly, no individual pantheon is so powerful or important that it could end all existence for /every/ pantheon and place." She shakes her head, "You wish to be comforted by belief that your own pantheon is the 'correct' one, that's fine. But that seriously limits you, and forces you to play out a role that was written long before your birth." Rien looks to Balder, "I choose to make my own path. I follow no pantheon, I answer to no Gods, I am my own. Accepting limitations, accepting 'fate' only got me kidnapped and held in an ivory tower. But the 'fate' that had been foretold for me didn't come to pass. I resisted. My friends came for me. And the future that my captors had forseen did not come to pass."

She retrieves her horn, only taking half a horn this time, then shakes her head, "It's not that simple. The demon exists as long as suffering exists." Rien looks back to Balder, "Not something I can control. What I /did/ was trap two iterations of it together in eternal combat in a magical cage locked with love, and hidden in the depths of Hell."

Balder has posed:
Balder tilts his head. Then he actually starts to laugh. "You are good at assumptions. I can speak to many pantheons. I have. Ragnarok is greater than the Norse. The Ragnarok I speak of is /far/ more severe. Yet, it will not be the end of /truly everything/. More of a rebirth. The cycle that continues. Eternity is comforting in a way. I have my role to play, else I have no reason to be here at all."

Balder looks Rien in the eyes firmly. "I find no comfort in endings or continuings. I find comfort in the here and now. You continue a conversation in circles, that leads to the same conclusion: There is only the here and now that we can even pretend to guarantee to be any certainty. We all have things to answer to, a greater responsibility. Though the concept of fate escapes you: a fate foretold is a fate that can be changed. A fate that becomes another fate. Fate itself is a contradictory determinant. Anyone can foresee a fate...but does Fate ever change?"

Balder starts to chuckle. "You speak of much, but you say so little." He shakes his head.

Balder consumes the horn once more, though it doesn't effect him in the slightest. He makes it look easy.

"Interesting." Though he offers no words on whether or not what she did was effective. "Let us hope this demon remains there."