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[altered-personas]

Anat doesn't like anyone.

Figured I'd make a post about this before I forgot, but Makoto's symbiote is a rather unusual thing.

Symbiotes in Phantom Spider take on the traits of the shadow of the person who first wore them, and tend to exacerbate those traits. And because Makoto had a LOT of repressed anger for the people who were using her or trying to control her life, that made Anat very eager to vent that frustration on anything and everything that gives her a reason to.

Because of this, she is extremely hostile to pretty much everyone, and has a bit of a superiority complex when it comes to her strength, combat prowess, and general intelligence. Makoto always felt like she wasn't good enough, so Anat now tries to make everyone else feel like that.

There are exceptions this, however. Being someone who values strength above almost all else, you can earn her respect by either showing off your strength, proving you can give her a challenge in a fight, or by outsmarting your enemies in battle. She also tries her best to tolerate Makoto's teammates, and will generally stick to that as long as they don't get in her way.

What will piss her off, however is if you so much as imply that you are better or especially stronger than her in any way, even moreso if you actually are. In the former case she will relentlessly do everything she can to prove you wrong, usually through combat, and will only stop once she has either humiliated you, beaten you to a pulp, or Makoto manages to force her to back down.

In the latter case, she will be as petty as possible, and will obsess over finding some way to best you, even if it's just over something minor. She can't stand the idea of anyone getting one over on her. Which... has caused her to have an intense rivalry with Aaron, as the only person who has canonically beaten her, even if on technicality. She absolutely hates him, and will take any chance she gets to attack or disrupt whatever he's doing, usually the latter because Makoto tries to keep her on a very short leash-

So, about what you'd expect for a Spidey & Venom dynamic lol

[altered-personas]

The casual-ness of her demeanor really threw her for a loop. She was still a bit new to all this. Sure, she'd been helping Aaron from the sidelines almost since the beginning, but she'd only had this suit for a month or two.

Though, that also helped prove her point. Futaba, or at least the Futaba she knew, while much better at rolling with the bizarre than anyone else on the team, had never really been on the frontlines, at least not physically. So to see a version of her casually interacting with an apparently multiversal portal really drove home how... out of her depth Makoto was.

She sighed, clearly feeling a little bit embarrassed about this whole thing... and the curtain thing-

"... Yes, that was us. We weren't really sure what this thing was, and fired that through as a test."

"B-but I can... try to clean that off for you if you want. They do tend to dissolve on their own after we get far enough away from it, but I don't know if that would leave a stain-"

And in case she had any confusion as to why she kept referring to herself as "we," a small bit of her jacket began to stretch off of her shoulder, forming a slimy black blob with white eyes that moved like the head of a snake... a blob which then started talking.

"Don't just cave in to the guilt! We have nothing to feel guilty for!"

"Anat, we made the mess-"

"Bah! It can hardly be called a mess! It's a little blue cobweb. She should be thankful we didn't set it off, and burn it to ashes. That would be a mess."

Makoto averted her eyes for a moment, feeling even more embarrassed than she already did, before looking apologetically towards Futaba.

"S-sorry, Anat's not really a... people person."

She turned her attention back to the blob, furrowing her brow as she whispered somewhat forcefully.

"If you're going to be out here, at least have the common courtesy of introducing yourself-"

The blob gave a soft, frustrated sigh... despite the fact it probably didn't have any lungs-

"... Hello, puny weakling." It said in the most annoyed, monotone voice it could muster. Like it simply couldn't be bothered to put any more effort in. "I am called Anat. I tolerate your counterpart on our world, and I will... attempt to do the same for you."

"Thank you-"

"-provided you do not irritate me any further."

Makoto huffed and gave the blob a quick smack.

"Behave."

The blob hissed, and the rest of her jacket seemed to vibrate in response, but... eventually relented, resting its head down on her shoulder.

"Apologies. I'm still trying to teach her manners-"

"-manners are for the weak."

"ANYways, you mentioned this portal was caused by a tear in the multiverse-"

She had to pause for a second, slightly shaking her head at the absurdity of that sentence. This really was her life now, wasn't it?

"... Is that something I need to worry about? Like, surely this portal can't be the only side effect of such an event."

Well this was going to be a lot. And here she was just coming here for her medicine. Clearly this Makoto was from another world given some of the stuff that she was talking about. Meta-humans? And the fact that there was a weird web on her curtain that she assumed was from Makoto. Or Anat. Wasn't that her persona? Or one of her personas anyways?

Pushing that aside, she just casually walked towards the closet and looked at the all too familiar portal. "You mean this portal? I know all about it." She stuck her hand through it like it wasn't a potentially dangerous thing or anything. She felt the open sky. Then she looked through it and confirmed the location of where this Makoto came from before pulling herself back out.

"It's been here for a couple of days now. I'm not sure why it appeared, and why it does what it does. However what I do know is that it appears to just go to random places on a whim. And in this case it appeared in your world." Again the casualness of the whole thing. "You would think you'd know, but I've stepped through that portal several times and felt nothing. Not even the first time."

Now it was time to explain things, or try to anyways. "Just trust me, you are not in the same world from where you came from. And I'm going to assume that you are the one who shot that webbing or whatever it is at my pristine curtain that I just had washed." Of course she would go to that, but it was kind of annoying her.

"But you are right, the barrier between reality and the cognitive realm are weak. It's a long story but we just dealt with an event here that could've destroyed this world and countless other parallel universes, all because a couple of scientists tried to punch their way into the cognitive realm. We've come to call it the multiversal tear incident."

[altered-personas]

Mirror of Another

[starter for @heroicmultiverse's Gwenom]

Sunday, September 22nd

Early Morning

Location Unknown

'Ugh, what... Where-'

It took her a moment for her mind to process... everything. It was all so much to take in. One minute she and Anat where kicking the asses of a gang of thieves trying to steal some experimental tech from ShidoCorp, the next... was a bit of a blur.

She remembered gun fire, an explosion, the migraine of a lifetime, and then... Nothing.

Perhaps she could've had an easier time coming to grips with this, if her "companion" hadn't decided to take her body out for a spin.

Bout time you woke up. You're missing all the fun.

What she saw was about what she'd expected, with Anat having dragged them into yet another fight on some rooftop against what looked to be... ninjas??

'... Anat? What's going on?? Where are we??'

Don't know, don't care. All I know is these guys are a lot more filling than the gutter trash we usually take on.

This was... also somewhat typical. Anat craved violence like an addict, and tended to refer to combat like food. It was still a bit hard to wrap her head around the idea that these were traits she'd also shared, albeit not as... extreme as her other.

'What do you mean you don't know?? You didn't take us here??'

Nope. Doubt I could if I wanted to. Cause this sure as shit ain't Tokyo.

Upon closer inspection, which was difficult considering they were very much still in combat, she could see what she meant. The buildings here were unfamiliar, different in both design and placement. Though, she wasn't that much of an expert on architecture, so she couldn't quite place just where they were.

'S-shouldn't we be trying to figure that out??'

Yeah yeah, in a minute "Mom."

Her scarf moved as if it had a mind of its own, snagging the arm of an enemy behind her, before slamming them down on top of the last one in front of her.

"Is this really all you've got!? We've barely even broken a sweat!!"

She cackled maniacally, to the point that even Makoto was unnerved by it. It reminded her of those horror movies Sae used to watch when they were kids.

... God, she hated those.

'C-Can we please focus on getting back home??'

Oh, relax. We have all day to look into that. Quit being such a wet blanket and let me enjoy myself for once-

'I- I am NOT a-'

And that's when they sensed it. They weren't alone on the roof anymore... Well, aside from the dozens of brutally injured ninjas.

... weird that she didn't even think twice about that sentence-

"Finally... The main course is here."

'Anat-! Let's not be hasty!'

"Screw that!! We've finally found some decent competition! I ain't stopping at the appetizers!!"

She tried with all her might to reign her in, to get control of her body back, but Anat was like a wild dog staring at a piece of meat, not letting anything stop her from getting her fill. She'd barely even gotten a look at the new arrival, yet she'd already decided what she was going to do.

"SAY YOUR PRAYERS!!"

She lunges towards the other, tendrils lashing out from her suit, with fisted poised to strike.

They were gonna fight, whether Makoto liked it or not.

[altered-personas]

She had just opened the door when Futaba arrived, blushing slightly at the awkward situation. How to explain this-

"Ah, Futaba-! We- I- um-"

She was so flustered that it took her a second to actually process her words. Another world?? And she'd said that so casually-

Upon closer inspection, there were some differences between the girl in front of her and the Futaba she knew. Slight ones, ones she may not have noticed if the redhead hadn't called attention to it, in a sense.

But... that couldn't be right. Sure, she'd just been teleported a few miles, and had seen more than her fair share of crazy, not the least of which being her clothing but... a parallel universe?? Surely not?

... Right?

"I-I'm not quite sure what you mean." She continued, trying to rationalize the situation as best she could.

"I- or Anat rather, just jumped through a... portal in Shibuya that lead to your closet, which brought us here."

Clearly, she was talking as if Futaba would know who she was referring to, having just assumed she was the person she'd been working alongside since the formation of their team back in April.

"I think I would know if I was in an alternate dimension. I find it hard to believe that traveling through realities wouldn't at least make me feel a bit dizzy or... something-"

Still that did leave the question of why there was a portal to begin with. She'd love to be able to write it off as some new villain with a gimmick, but the fact that it lead from a random bedroom to a few feet away from the top of a skyscraper made that seem unlikely.

"It is worrying, however. If the wall between reality and the cognitive has weakened to this extent, there must be new Meta-humans out there. We'll need to get together to really assess the damages."

The whole gang was currently at Cafe Leblanc. Futaba was lazily messing around on her laptop that was plugged into the wall, whilst Sophia and Necro were keeping the place clean. Sojiro was currently out getting groceries and Wakaba was working on a possible new recipe to expand on things. It was currently empty and she doubted many people were going to show up.

After all, everyone was still cleaning up after the flooding the tear arc produced.

"I've heard most of the underground subways are cleaned and dried out now." Wakaba stated changing an ingredient a bit. "It's apparently going to take months for the clean up to be finished here in Tokyo, and years for the world to be fully go back to normal. Not to mention the displaced."

Hearing that just made Futaba all the more stressed out. Yeah, it was going to take a long time until things returned to normal, and they were still waiting for Shujin to resume classes. Was she ever going to just have a normal day where she went to school? It was getting close to her being a third year after all, and she wanted to graduate there.

"Oh yeah, if it takes too long for Shujin to start classes again, we might take that vacation that we've been talking bout. Possibly going to Hawaii. Getting away from Japan is probably what we need right now." That would all depend if the airlines were up and running which they probably were. Still, that made Futaba perk up. "And yes, you can bring Ann along if possible."

That made her really perk up. Spending time with the love of her life in Hawaii? The amount of cuddling and ogling at Ann's form was going to be well...a lot to say the least. "Sounds good to me mom. If not I guess we just wait for the break after returning to school." Either way, a vacation where she could get the stress off and such would help.

But she would have to deal with her medicine situation. Oh crap, her chronic pain medicine. She meant to bring it here. It was still in her room. "Oh. I need to head home really quick. I left my chronic pain medicine there. And my anxiety and depression medicine I guess as well."

Closing the lid to her laptop, she rushed out and towards the house. Once she got there, she swore she heard some noises from her room. Was the portal acting weird? There was no way that someone came out from it, right? There was that one time but it was after she visited them. Hopefully whoever it was, wasn't hostile. Nevertheless, she exercised caution.

That was until she saw it was Makoto who was in her room. Why was Makoto here? She looked different than the Makoto that she knew for some reason. She turned her attention and also saw what looked like webbing on her starry sky curtains. What the hell was going on? "Uh, Makoto? What are you doing here? Unless you're a Makoto from another world...that would explain why you are in my room. It's a long story...anyways, why are you here?"

[altered-personas]

Going Beyond

[@oraclememehacker liked this post for a starter]

Sunday, June 21st

Shibuya Rooftops

Afternoon

"Ugh, so bored..."

It was a slow day for the crimefighter, and Anat was not happy about it. She was just laying on her back, looking up into sky like she was waiting for something to drop out of it.

'We don't have to be out here, y'know?' Makoto prompted. Whenever they were on patrol, she was typically just along for the ride. 'We could do some studying, or go watch a movie-'

"That would be even more boring." She replied. "You spent most of your life with your nose in a book, and now you want us to do more of that when we don't even need it?? We know most of the answers by heart by now!"

'Better safe than sorry. It is my future on the line, after all. Not like you'd understand that. All you care about is hitting things.'

"Oh please, like you-"

Their argument was cut short by a strange tear forming in the sky above them. Rather high up, in fact.

'What... in the world is that?'

"... Something interesting."

"And it's about damn time."

She quickly got to her feet, moving to scale up a nearby building to get a closer look.

'Anat! Don't get careless!'

"Oh relax! I'm not an idiot."

She perched on the corner of the roof, squinting at the rift. It was like a hole in the air, floating only a few feet in front of her and glowing an ominous red color.

'Definitely Metaverse related.'

"No shit-"

'But... Hold on. Do you see that? On the other side?'

They had to squint to see it clearly, it was a bit blurry and hidden by the glow, but it... kinda looked like Futaba's room?

"What the hell..?"

Was this a portal of some sort? Why would it lead there?? And what was it doing in the middle of sky??

'Maybe try throwing something through?'

She looked around for a moment, finding nothing but small bits of trash that probably wouldn't make it to the rift due to the wind. So instead she fired a small glob of her trademark dark blue webbing at it, seeing it pass through and stick to the curtains covering up the window.

'It... is a portal.'

Though, that didn't help solve the main question. And Anat was starting to get impatient-

"$&#$ it. I'm jumping in-"

'What!? Nonono, why would you-!?'

Her words felt on deaf ears, as Sovereign leapt from the rooftop and dived through the portal, and seemingly straight into Futaba's bedroom.

"See? We're fine."

'That doesn't-!? Why would you just jump in?!'

"To get answers, obviously."

'Answers from wha-!? Y'know what? No. I'm taking the wheel.'

Her suit receded into her clothes, changing their appearance as it always did. It was almost odd how... used to this she was.

Why!?!?

'Because we need to think this through and not just do the first thing that comes to mind because you're bored!'

... Fine.

'Good. Now, since we're here, let's see if anyone's home.'

[altered-personas]

I've got some muse for her again, so... who wants a starter for her?

[altered-personas]

Thinking about finally getting around to that Phantom Spider v. Sovereign drabble that's been sitting in the back of my mind for months.

[altered-personas]

I swear I haven't forgotten about this account. It's just with the move and everything, it's difficult to maintain muse for more than just Aaron.

After I'm settled in at the new place, I'll start working on stuff here again. Gonna try to follow through on adding Akechi too, though that'll take a bit longer, at least for him to be added full time.

Hopefully, everything goes well... I'm doubtful, but I suppose there's a first time for everything

[altered-personas]

She scoffed. Despite the two bizarre creatures, she wasn't even the least bit intimidated. After all... she was a bit of a monster herself.

'Don't charge into a fight just yet.' She warned her other. 'We need to know what we're dealing with.'

Tch- As if these pathetic children's toys could ever hold a candle to me.

This was the trade off to her power. In order to get her suit to behave, she had agreed to let it take the reigns when they were on the job. There were exceptions to this, namely whenever her teammates were involved, but for the most part when the suit was on, she was just along for the ride, acting as nothing more than its conscience, an angel riding on the shoulder of a demon.

"I am power, little man." She replied finally, her voice more of an angered growl than actual words, as if she was insulted by the very idea that she needed to rely on anything. "You would be wise to remember that."

"At least... should you wish to keep your head."

'No! No! NO! We are not killing ANYONE! You promised!'

Oh relax. I wasn't actually going to-

'Thank goodness...'

... so long as he doesn't give me a reason to.

'VEE! Don't make me take the wheel!'

Fine... Killjoy-

"... look, can you just get to the point already? You're boring me to tears."

@altered-personas

"My, aren't you impressive?" The bandaged man spoke almost dismissively, like he was feeling entirely casual about this meeting. Odd, given that she was sorta a superhero, and he looked very much like a supervillain.

But then, he was being guarded by what looked like two monsters out of a sentai, one based on a knife, the other on a hammer. And both of them were hardly a joke to deal with. At least they weren't attacking!

"You know, I suspect we may be birds of a feather, in a sense. You're also someone whose power comes from other things, something that's a part of you but not of you, correct?"

[altered-personas]

FINALLY

Made some expressions for Sovereign that I'm actually kinda proud of

Might tweak the first one a bit, but I'm happy with it as is for now. Not done making these tho. Got a couple more expressions I wanna make, but I'm glad to finally have SOMETHING to use on @altered-personas for her in-costume.

Once I'm done with these, I'm gonna focus on making stuff for Akechi, so he can go from test muse to full-on muse.

... which will take a while, since he requires double the art and edits for obvious reasons-

[altered-personas]

Controlled Shock

[Closed Starter for @fatexbound's Ryuji]

She hated this stupid suit. She hated what it did to her, how easy it was to lose control. She hated how it had made her attack her friends. Worst of all, she hated that she was forced to use it. The damn thing had bonded not only with her, but with her Persona. And now she had to put it on every time they went into the Metaverse if she wanted to be of any use.

Which brought her mind back to the subject of this outing.

She needed practice, needed to be able to keep the suit in check, lest she become a liability to the team. The last thing she wanted was to lose control during an infiltration, and lash out against the them. Or worse, kill their target's shadow.

So, she'd asked Ryuji, and only Ryuji, to meet her in front of the subway entrance they used to enter Mementos. Less people meant less of a chance for something to set her off, either through mild frustrations or simply getting in her way. Before these were slight annoyances at worst. Now they could be extremely infuriating, like the suit was looking for any reason to go on the attack.

As for why Ryuji specifically? Well, as much as she trusted him, she didn't want Ren to know how much she'd been struggling with this. He had enough on his plate as is. That... and the suit had changed her Persona's weakness from Psychic... to Electricity.

So if it came down to it-

Well, it was probably best not to dwell on that. She'd bring it up with him when he got here, of course. But she needed to be confident in her ability to control the thing. It preyed on the weaknesses of the mind, after all.

This is sssstupid. The suit said in her mind, speaking in her voice, albeit in a much more menacing tone. I do not need a leash. We are a much more effective weapon without such restrictions.

'Effective, yes. But uncontrollable and imprecise. If I can't control our actions on the field, then we won't be doing anything but warming the bench. And I doubt you would enjoy that any more than I would.'

... Fine. I'll go along with your little exercise. But this had better not bore me. I abhor having our time wasted.

"Ah, perfect timing."

When he arrived, she greeted him with a smile, all the while mentally preparing herself for the task ahead.

"Sorry for calling you here on such short notice, but there's something I need your help with."

[altered-personas]

I really want to be more active here, so-

Like this for a random starter from Sovereign?

Might help me get the motivation to make more expressions for her too. I currently only have two of her in the suit, and they both need tweaks before I use them.

[altered-personas]

"... why on earth is everyone talking about worms?"

If I had to guess, it's because they relate to their weakness... or sheer boredom. Both seem likely.

"I'm sure there's a better reason than that-"

Nono. Just those two. Nothing else would make sense.

[altered-personas]

I really want to be more active here, so-

Like this for a random starter from Sovereign?

Might help me get the motivation to make more expressions for her too. I currently only have two of her in the suit, and they both need tweaks before I use them.

[altered-personas]

So because I felt like it, and I've been listening to this song a lot, this is basically the song for when Sovereign is out of control and is fighting against the team, more specifically the final battle when it's down to just Aaron.

The main lyrics fit Sovereign perfectly, especially with her mindset at the time, while the chorus is Aaron holding his ground against her onslaught (though those lyrics don't match up as well)

I also see the ending as, after Makoto says something about him turning his back on her, Aaron just drops his weapon and apologizes, trying one last time to get through to her... which works of course.

I dunno, I just really like this song and thinks it fits the scene PERFECTLY

[altered-personas]

Makoto has... complicated feelings on Shadows, at least in the main verse.

At the end of the first semester, a Shadow stabbed her father through the chest right in front of her. Naturally, that event scarred her for life.

Now whenever she sees one, which in the main verse is rare, she will do one of two things. Either have a panic attack shaking in fear at the sight of the thing, or if she's wearing the symbiote, she'll go into an uncontrollable rage, lashing out at everything in a murderous rampage until every shadow in the area is dead... while also having a bit of a panic attack-

Though even without the suit, she's far from helpless in that state, she will fight back if she has to. But she'd much rather get away from it as soon as possible, as seeing them triggers her PTSD

This can be dealt with if she has friends nearby, people she knows and trusts, though with the suit on that's easier said than done. She will lash out at them at first, and it'll take a while to really calm her down.

This doesn't apply to human shadows, however. As in the shadow of an actual person. Only their more monstrous forms/shadows from the collective unconscious will trigger this. She still doesn't like human shadows, but she can tolerate them enough not to kill them. If they transform however, her teammates are going to have to hold her back.

As for which specific Shadow killed her father, I haven't decided yet, but I'm leaning towards Jack-o-lantern, since that's the name of an actual Spider-Man villain, who funnily enough has history with Venom (especially Agent Venom, who's a big inspiration for Sovereign).

Though if I did go with that, it'd be an augmented Jack-o-lantern, made stronger by Yaldabaoth when it was sent through to the real world, just so it can not only be closer to the villain, but also be an actual threat. (In game Jack-o-lanterns aren't exactly tough... and they don't have anything to stab with-)

[altered-personas]

"You have a Persona too??"

That was a surprise. Aaron hadn't said much about Jowi's abilities, but she was sure he'd have mentioned THAT.

"Actually, the arguing with your Persona thing seems to be exclusive to Aaron, though the exact reason for that is a bit of a mystery to us all. From what he's told me, even Arséne doesn't quite know why he and Aaron fight so much."

"My issue isn't with my Persona, it's with... this suit. Though because I require it to use my Personas, I can see why you'd think that. Even I fail to see the difference between them at times."

"At first, it... didn't say anything. It was quiet for quite sometime in fact. But the longer I wore it, the more it started to... reflect my more aggressive tendencies. And now, even though I'm back in control of myself again, it's still the same, speaking in that same frustrated hiss I used back then."

The suit was her at her worst, always whispering in her ear, echoing her insecurities, trying to make her feel worthless, tempting to her to give in, to lose herself to its power again.

"I don't... I don't like wearing it, but I don't have much choice. Things are bad right now, and I need its power to help. But... I do take breaks from it. It's a little painful to take off, but it's worth it not to hear it in my head for a while. And when it's not in contact with me, it's stuck as a harmless little mask, so I don't have to worry about it when I'm away."

It could still talk to her if she was close enough while it was inert, but its voice was much quieter. Easier to ignore.

"The only reason I'm still wearing it right now is because I just got back from patrol, and the process of removing it is... unpleasant to say the least. It takes a while, and I didn't want to keep you waiting."

It seemed to get harder to take off each time, like the suit was fighting her, trying a lot harder to stay bonded. It didn't like being away from its host.

"But that's enough about us, I think-"

She listened intently to his words. His explanation of planes made sense, though it did raise more questions about whether those planes had their own version of space, or if those planes were more self contained. And if the latter was the case, how come their plane wasn't like that?

The Phyrexia matter, while terrifying in its own right, did make her feel a little better about her own situation. At least her suit let her keep her free will and personality.

"He explained as much after the fact. He has his issues, but lying isn't one of them, at least when it comes to us. A-as in our team, not me and the symbiote-"

She was still concerned about it, though. While Aaron was confident the other's costumes would protect them from infection, himself included, that didn't apply to her. Her suit wasn't made of the same stuff, and wasn't effected by cognition in the same way. He'd said he'd try to find a solution, but she was a little worried. She just hoped that either he'd find one in time, or that they'd never have to worry about it.

The latter didn't seem likely, given their track record-

However, his last statement peaked her interest. He could get into the Metaverse!? She thought it was inaccessible. That's why this whole nonsense of with the serum, and ShidoCorp's various experiments even existed. The only thing they'd managed to do was pull out the substance they made the symbiotes from.

A thought quickly came to mind, and while at first she disregarding it, seeing it as... petty, his words about breaking fate brought it back stronger. She had a chance, a chance for closure, a chance she never thought she'd have.

She had to take it.

"You said you could go into the Metaverse, right?"

She stood up from her seat, her calm and quiet demeanor replaced with a fierce determination.

"If that's true... then I need a favor."

Her suit formed around her, though forgoing the mask for the moment, her clothes, which had actually been the symbiote in disguise, morphed into the form more suited for battle.

The suit didn't voice it, but it was very pleased with her right now.

"I need you take us inside. We have unfinished business to attend to."

The shadow that killed her father was in there somewhere. She didn't know where it was, or what it was doing, but she didn't care.

It was still alive. And she would hunt it down until she could correct that.

“It’s okay… I guess you and Aaron have the same problem. Arguing with your personas and all. Mine never says anything. Wonder why you two have so much trouble. But I don’t think I’m necessarily pulled towards inactive sparks, at least not to my knowledge. I think it might be the other way around.” He thought aloud, though not loud enough for anyone else to hear,

“And… I guess I should explain. Dominaria is a plane, just like how we are on the plane of Gaia. Think of planes as planets and the Blind Eternities as the space between them. Now, you can technically go and visit other planets just fine, but you’d need something to protect you from space, right? Think of a Spark as being like… a space ship. There’s a lot more to it than that, but… it’ll have to do for now. Dominaria is a really important plane. It’s kinda… like the center of the multiverse, I guess? Or I guess it used to be? Anyway, it’s just the name of the planet you end up on when you planeswalk there. It’s got it’s own continents, countries, governments, oceans. Full package.”

He shook his head, “And he was fighting something called Phyrexia. Something so unfathomably evil that the fear of it bleeds between planes. Any time you see the theme of a machine army replacing organic matter with metal parts in stories… that’s a pale imitation of the hell Phyrexia is. I’ll spare you any further details, it only gets worse the more you learn about it. Just know this. If anyone you know ever gets infected? They aren’t your friend any more. You have to kill them. When Aaron had you all gather around, and look at that vial of halo? It was to check that none of you had been touched by the oil. But as it currently stands, I’m pretty sure that they haven’t managed to breach into our world yet. Didn’t find anything in the metaverse either.”

As he finished, he finally leaned back in the booth,

“But one last thing on the topic of fate. It’s only as real as you let it be. Our plane doesn’t have and doesn’t need any gods to tell us what to do. If you just sit by and let life happen to you, even if fate isn’t real on our world, you may as well be following it. Take control of your life and refuse to be ruled by fate, and you can do anything. Besides, just being around a planeswalker is enough to start breaking destiny.”