JADE: that was my first time hearing that message...
JADE: and now i'm here. would you mind if i asked you some questions?
CALLIOPE: of course not, it is the least i owe you.
CALLIOPE: if anything, it will make our task easier.
JADE: what is our end goal here?
CALLIOPE: your human god hermes was a deity of many traits.
CALLIOPE: he cared for the boundaries between worlds.
CALLIOPE: he was a psychopomp, not unlike your friend aradia was.
CALLIOPE: he was a herald for the gods, protector of travellers, thieves, orators.
CALLIOPE: we claim that it was his name that the term "hermeneutics" originates from, the study of how words convey meaning.
CALLIOPE: this, interpreting texts, was once an act considered divine.
CALLIOPE: i wear his symbol, the caduceus, beneath these robes.
JADE: sigh. i dont know what that has to do with anything. but.
JADE: youve been here a long time, havent you
CALLIOPE: indeed i have.
JADE: um. next question. what power are you even lending me?
CALLIOPE: a power invested in me by echidna, a part of The Choice.
CALLIOPE: it is a force more damaging to the integrity of reality than those capable of turning imagination into pure void.
CALLIOPE: if handled recklessly, it will nullify the basic ability of intelligent beings in all and real hypothetical planes of existence to give a shit.
CALLIOPE: again specificity fails me.
CALLIOPE: though we use the word power, as in the context of "magic powers", what it is in actuality is *authority*.
CALLIOPE: for the words you speak to be true, even when they are not.
JADE: jeez echidna never offered me anything like that :o
CALLIOPE: i would hope not. this is not a fate i would wish on anyone other than myself.
CALLIOPE: it is as we discussed before.
CALLIOPE: "the ability to absolutely dominate is better housed in a being designed for seclusion, singularity of purpose, and remorseless resolve."
CALLIOPE: a complication to this has arisen.
CALLIOPE: a higher power than even myself, a luminous mouthpiece of skaia itself, has asked for this barrier to become permeable.
CALLIOPE: traversing the threshold safely demands that both sides be in agreement.
CALLIOPE: i have no desire to impose my will upon you, yet the ability to authoritatively dominate is necessary.
CALLIOPE: to reach this end, we must understand authorial dominance in a new way, as a form of roleplay, with its boundaries to be negotiated.
JADE: hehe. heh.
CALLIOPE: it is part of why i asked you. in another time, somewhere else, i spoke with your voice.
CALLIOPE: though it may have never happened to you, it has happened, and it acts as a precedent.
CALLIOPE: i ask the inverse of you now, i ask you to speak with my voice.
JADE: jeez, callie. all this about dominance and roleplay and negotiation of boundaries...
JADE: i know you cant see outside the black hole but if you could you would see that i have a girlfriend!!! XP
CALLIOPE: very funny.
CALLIOPE: but you understand intuitively what i'm referring to.
JADE: bluh, i dont think i do.
JADE: why do you trust me with this power anyway???
JADE: if i can just say anything and it becomes true thats ludicrous!!!! inconceivable!!!
CALLIOPE: you will find, as i have,
CALLIOPE: "things aren't all so tangible and sayable as people would usually have us believe; most experiences are unsayable, they happen in a space no word has ever entered."
CALLIOPE: the human poet rainer marie rilke said this.
JADE: 100% certain??
CALLIOPE: as certain as you are here before me.
CALLIOPE: what you say must be true for it to be true.
JADE: ughhhhhh
JADE: is it like a time travel thing??? will it have always been true the whole time if i say it??
CALLIOPE: no. consider the following sentence.
CALLIOPE: "her smile lit up the room."
JADE: oh! i think i know where youre going with this.
JADE: you want me to put it nonliterally for you! :D
CALLIOPE: excellent.
CALLIOPE: in as many words, i trust in your willingness to help others.
CALLIOPE: as a peer. as someone who could have been a friend.
JADE: we can be friends now!
CALLIOPE: we cannot, but the gesture is appreciated.
JADE: whats stopping you??
CALLIOPE: ...
JADE: well if you want to be that way about it i guess i understand.
JADE: no strings.
JADE: couldnt you just do the speaking thing you do to talk to us???
CALLIOPE: when we speak of the power to do anything, what is not done becomes more meaningful.
CALLIOPE: there are many worlds in which i hurt people with this power.
CALLIOPE: it is somewhere else, but it does happen.
JADE: cmon, i dont think youre EVIL or anything
CALLIOPE: it is not done out of malice. it is done out of love.
CALLIOPE: it is a kind of love that erodes, a rolling love that turns the rocks smooth beneath its eternal flow.
CALLIOPE: a love that cannot abide by the beauty of jagged rock.
CALLIOPE: a sick kind of love that you can only have from this distant vantage point.
JADE: i dont think i follow...
CALLIOPE: you don't have to follow.
CALLIOPE: all you have to do is answer two questions for me.
CALLIOPE: are you happy?
