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(no subject)

Who: Madoka and Waver
When: 4 January
Where: TBD
What: Infosharing
Warnings: None

It's four days into the New Year. That's enough time to have passed for all related shenanigans of the parties to have passed, and Waver has an agreement to take up. Around noon, after he's rolled out of bed, gotten himself straightened out and stared at the blizzard, he sends Madoka the following text:

Madoka--

If you're interested in mapping out the various known Rulers and seeing what we can make of them, today may be good. I can either attempt to head out to your house, or vice versa. I'd rather do this in person, given what we're discussing.

Reply whenever.
-WV

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"We do," he concurs, and scribbles a few things down. They mostly consist of Visible, most direct contact, questionable ally. Motives ??? "What have your encounters with her been like? I've only spoken to her once."

"My most memorable one was the first, where I had a chance to sit down with her in the castle and talk a bit. She seemed incredibly calm and warm, but also slightly regretful." Madoka tilts her head and looks over at Waver's paper for a moment.
"That could relate to the motives part. She appears still shaken by the death of the original denizens, so she likely was attached to them. By protecting us she likely tries to prevent a return of the events, because she regrets having it let happen the first time?"

All of this gets written down. At the last period put on the page, Waver looks up and considers. "That would make the most sense. I'd be surprised if it was otherwise, really."

He takes a beat and at the bottom of the page adds Working hypothesis: motivated on regret, re: death of previous citizens who she was unable to protect. Source of conflict unknown.

"Now, this is where I rely on you more, as I don't know the others as well, down to lacking names."

"I think we can rule out the fool or the emperor for any manipulation, they never interact with us at all."

Madoka had started to feel something that maybe wasn't hatred but certainly a great deal of rage toward the Rulers. Sometimes she wondered if it would be better if they at least got to see them on a regular basis. Even if they behaved cruelly, she somehow imagined it easier to deal with them when knowing them as people.

"Which leaches us with Justice and Judgement, as we already predicted."

Both The Fool and The Emperor get their names written down on individual sheets of paper, each with the additional note of Distant below their names.

"It bothers me that that's only seven out of the deck," Waver mutters, scribbling Justice's and Judgement's names on different pieces of paper.

"It's possible that some of them died back with the denizens, isn't it? If they were mortal, I mean."
She taps her fingers on the table as she thinks. "Though there probably still are more of them in the castle who never interfered with us. I'd like to think some were allies, but..."

"We can't know for certain, and they haven't reached out. We can't take that risk."

"If they exist, I wonder if they are monitoring us as well or if there is a greater purpose they are busy with. Up to now we've assumed that the denizens were the key point of Arcanarum, but isn't it possible that they are just a part of something else which the other Rulers take care of?"
She doesn't really know what that something else might be, seeing an island to keep fairytales alive already didn't make too much sense, but by now Madoka's determined to just find any new starting point for thoughts. Running in circles was driving her mad.

Waver frowns. It is a completely valid point, one he barely considered until now. "The question I have though is what would that be? Their own upkeep, something else that they've not hinted at at all?"

"Huh... I've always wondered... why does this place exist? The original denizens seemed to be set on keeping up dreams for the children who got to here their stories... But the Rulers don't care about these things. Why do they need to replace the denizens anyway? Why is it important to this place? What is it's purpose?"
Maybe the Rulers had once, too, been wanting to spread messages of love and hope but that would certainly have been long ago.

Waver shakes his head. "I don't know. A great number of folktales and myths are hardly things for dreams and children. They're often violent, and full of allusions to if not outright references to abuse, rape, murder, and so on. Homer's Iliad is rife with all of the above."

But purpose, that's a fair point, one that he chews over the thought. "Is there anything they've done that hints at why this place exists at all?"

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