Ramona is having a day and it is still morning. She is going to have to figure out how to keep her jaw attached to the rest of her head and get her wits about her or she is going to be completely useless to these people.

"Once we're inside, I will need a few moments to myself to prepare. Is that possible?"

"Certainly." 

The wizard tower has a elevator that does not run on electricity but on a Floating Disk, a open elevator shaft, and a sitting room with sumptuous chairs and a fireplace and a tea setting and some bookshelves. It's less nice than Bastran's place, for the obvious reasons. Caris will show Ramona to a chair. 

"You can tell the Unseen Servants -" Caris has them wearing hats, so they're possible to identify; they'd otherwise be invisible without mage-sight - "when you're ready for us."

"Okay... I am going to assume that if I just say out loud, 'I'm ready,' then that'll work!"

Once Carissa has left the room, Ramona runs through a quick sensory grounding exercise. She plants her feet on the floor and feels her connection down through her spine, down her legs, into the floor, and feels the solidity of it. She tenses and relaxes all her major muscle groups. She breathes.

She whispers to herself.

"Carissa is incredibly hot. Of course she is, she created this form, why would she not make herself hot? This just makes sense."

"Carissa can fly. While I did not predict this specifically, this too makes sense."

"A lot of weird shit is going to happen today. That's okay."

"They're just people, with regular people problems, but empire-sized. The same principles still apply. I know how to do this."

She deliberately raises her voice to a normal speaking tone.

"I'm ready."

Altarrin Gates them in, several minutes later than the time Carissa specified because he ended up having to coax Bastran out of his quarters for it. 

He's wearing kind of a lot of shield-artifacts, and brought the item of Detect Thoughts just in case, but he's not exactly nervous. This is Carissa's home ground - if the gods had the ability to come after her here, it would probably have happened sooner, when she was a more vulnerable target - and Ramona isn't Gifted. If something does go wrong, he can Gate them (with or without Ramona, depending on what went wrong) to a secure records cache in a fraction of a second. He's not anticipating that anything will go wrong, though. 

He's pretty sure Bastran is terrified, but mostly not of physical danger. 

Bastran is probably going to have to talk about his feelings in front of Altarrin of all people, which he's not looking forward to at all. But he's as ready for this as he's ever going to be. 

They can go in. 

The Unseen Servants have conveyed that Ramona is ready! Caris will show them on up.

"Hello! I'm Ramona. Can we sit down and then do a round of introductions?"

Altarrin sits down. 

"I am Altarrin and this is Bastran. ...Should we also share more background about ourselves?" 

Ramona is feeling a bit awkward because she doesn't actually know Carissa's name or pronouns in this form and even worse, she doesn't know if the others know that Carissa has another form. She decides to play it cool and hope that someone else says the name and the pronouns so Ramona won't have to give anything away by asking.

"Yes, would you please? Just a little bit about yourself and how you're connected to each other. I have already heard some of this but I learn something new as each person explains."

"I'm Carissa, or Caris when I'm a boy. I'm a wizard. I - uh, I don't know how much context is relevant. I'm from Cheliax, on my third tour of service at the Worldwound I met an interdimensional traveller who I started dating as part of an elaborate conspiracy to convince him that we were the good guys, we were not the good guys, he left, I started working on an elaborate plan to betray my country of which one step was to erase my own recent memories, to my recollection I then ended up in Altarrin's office, he took me prisoner, I started making magic items for him and the Empire, I - misunderstood some things and thought my situation was fragile, I set out to seduce Bastran, we got along great, there was an attempt on Altarrin's life, it turned out to be the windup for an attempt on mine, he Gated back in to rescue me, I went on the run, I surrendered, I was imprisoned for a while, I got my tower, I live here now doing magic research."

Ramona's decision to remain unfazed is holding up!

She takes notes as fast as she can, and then looks up at the other two men.

Altarrin didn't actually discuss with Carissa whether Ramona was trustworthy to know about his immortality, but the rest of the situation doesn't make a huge amount of sense without that. He's read her confidentiality agreement, and - like she said - it's not like she could easily report him to any authorities about it here, even if the murder-involving part makes it a reportable thing, and it's not clear what any authorities on her world could do about it. 

"Altarrin, as I said." Proooobably Ramona does not need a rundown of every name he's gone by in his previous incarnations. "I am an Archmage-General of the Eastern Empire, and have been since before Bastran became Emperor; I was among those who selected him as a candidate and mentored him. ...I am also immortal, and about seven hundred years old. I was one of the founders of the Empire, in the aftermath of a Cataclysm that nearly destroyed civilization on this continent and was - significantly my fault."

He's not going to get into the details just yet, Ramona asked for a 'little bit' and he doesn't love talking about it.

"Unfortunately, the local gods seem to be opposed to the rebuilding civilization part and regularly had me assassinated, which is much of why the Empire ended up as...paranoid...as it is now. I met Carissa when she unexpectedly appeared in my quarters from her world. This was obviously one of the most important events that had ever happened in Velgarth's history. The Emperor's court is not always a very safe place, the politics are - very ruthless. I tried to keep Carissa safe while I worked out a way to make her immortal as well, and decided how to use her magic and the knowledge she had obtained from the other other world, but it - did not entirely work. As Carissa said, there were some significant failures of communication about my intentions and plans." 

There's vastly more than that, of course. That'll probably do as a quick introduction. 

Ramona is writing furiously.

"Immortal... archmage... almost destroyed civilization... his fault..."

She looks up again and nods pleasantly.

"Thank you for summing up so concisely! I imagine it's not easy with seven hundred years of life!"

She looks at Bastran. He looks... less ready for this than the others.

Bastran hadn't wanted to go first either, but having to follow that up is kind of intimidating. He's also simultaneously grateful to both Caris and Altarrin for downplaying how much the Events were a direct result of him being an idiot, but now HE has to be the one to say words about it with his mouth and that's terrible. 

"Uh. Bastran. I've been the Emperor for a decade or so. I'm also a mage, that's usual. I - guess I met Caris when he decided to seduce me. It...was pretty obvious he wanted to seduce me because I'm the Emperor, but if I turned down people for that I would literally never have any romantic relationships, so. Caris was - very good at seduction. ...I prefer men, which nobody exactly minds or anything - the Emperor can do what he wants, I guess - but is really inconvenient for marrying and having an heir, so Caris was going to offer a solution to that. There was some really bad timing with Altarrin and an obvious-godplot assassination, he actually made it out but we all thought he was dead at the point when Caris revealed the, uh, stuff. And I guess neither of us was really paying attention to how Caris - Carissa - actually looked very suspicious to the Office of Inquiry when they were investigating Altarrin's 'death'. There was some godnudging there, for sure, they ended up thinking he was probably an agent of a torture god from his world, even though he obviously isn't. So, uh, their combat mages were planning to burst into my quarters and arrest Caris as soon as he was alone, which I had no idea about, but I guess Altarrin - despite being really badly injured in one of his secure bases that he has 'cause of the being immortal - was scrying the Palace and realized, and Gated in to warn Caris to run. Assuming he was going to die, you're really not supposed to Gate into the Emperor's bedroom and there are countermeasures, but..."

Helpless shrug. "He comes back and Caris doesn't, I guess he thought it was worth it. Anyway, we had Altarrin as a prisoner, dying, and Caris was on the run but negotiated to use healing magic from his world to save him, and Altarrin was questioned by the Office of Inquiry for days about Caris while I negotiated with Caris about surrendering. Which was a really bad idea from his perspective, but I - think he didn't have a choice, he was under the standard loyalty compulsions to the Empire. ...I was kind of horrible to both of them, because I was terrified, but that's not much of an excuse." 

That isn't even all the things, somehow, but he's been rambling for a while and should probably wrap up. 

"- And eventually after he surrendered for interrogation, I managed to mostly convince my advisors that he's not here to take over or destroy the Empire, and we freed him and reinstated Altarrin to his position. I think both of them are understandably unhappy with me about things, though." 

Bastran's story made somewhat less sense to Ramona... what's a godnudge?... but honestly there are tons of things that don't make sense yet. She's not going to chase them all down right now. The point of the introductions is not really to build a picture in Ramona's head of the exact sequence of events that occurred, it's to get everyone talking and slightly less anxious, and give Ramona a chance to see how they hold themselves. Are they tense, are they confident, are they pissed off? At each other, at themselves?

So far Ramona's seeing a lot of tension and a lot of shame and regret. Not a lot of finger-pointing so far.

It's probably hard for any of them to get back that light, zingy, world-is-full-of-joy-and-possibility feeling Carissa was longing for, when there are black clouds following everyone around.

"Thank you, all of you. I can see that none of this is very easy to talk about and I really appreciate you being here and telling me about it. That takes some courage."

"I want to start by asking each one of you - how do you feel about being here, talking to me, even though we didn't actually do anything yet?"

How does she feel? Carissa has very rarely in her life had occasion to think about this. It is not the sort of thing that is supposed to matter if you're not a toddler. Abrogail cared about it but Abrogail was - well, Abrogail.

How does she feel? ... an expectation that actually the current balance of understanding about whose fault everything was is favorable to her because she's the best at lying, and a candid account of everything will be less to her advantage. An expectation that something bad will happen. Frustration about the universe which gets quickly diverted away because one shouldn't feel frustrated with anything that powerful. Awareness that this is the logic that causes one to work for a torture god. 

Wow, no wonder she doesn't usually do feeling things, it seems super counterproductive. "I feel fine."

Carissa is definitely much more guarded around the other two. She wasn't exactly emoting wildly even when she was alone, but when she talked about what she wanted there was some force and passion behind it, and she seemed to be in some mildly visible distress. Now that Altarrin and Bastran are here, Carissa's mask is firmly in place.

Ramona doesn't challenge it.

Altarrin is pretty sure that that was - not the kind of answer Ramona was hoping for. He's going to try to make his more informative. 

"I - am definitely somewhat distracted by the implications of there being a fourth world we can reliably access. And I suspect I am going to be a little on edge because I am - used to interference from the local gods whenever I do anything interesting. ...I am not nervous about answering questions, I think, just about the general background threat level, which - to be clear I think the odds that we will be disturbed here are very low and feeling tense about it is not very reasonable, I just have - certain past experiences and priors about this." A slight shrug. "I am not really sure how to talk about relationships or improving them, but I assume you have a plan for guiding us through that." 

He's also pretty worried about Bastran, who looks miserable about being here and is definitely the one who's been coping the worst with the aftermath of Events. Altarrin doesn't think he's coping perfectly, or anything, but the main source of unhappiness is still being trapped in an Empire that he allowed to get driven into a corner of unpleasantness by the gods and that he doesn't see ever getting any better than this. He thinks he's mostly fine with how things are with Carissa. He would probably be mad at Bastran, actually, but that would conflict too hard with being worried. 

Altarrin is shaping up to be the Adult In the Room. Ramona can't tell yet if he's actually significantly more developed or if he's playing a role. She'll wait and see.

(Well, he is the only one of them who's seven hundred years old. That helps.) 

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. 

...Bastran can also tell that Ramona is looking for answers that mention actual feelings and he wants her to think that he's good at this, it's just terrible that "this" is saying words about his feelings, which are all stupid.

"I'm - this is definitely uncomfortable? Which I guess I expected it to be. It's fine, it's - it'll be worth it if it makes things better afterward." 

"So a range from 'fine' to 'uncomfortable.' That's all pretty normal. Even in my culture, where going to relationship therapy is a pretty normal thing, people feel pretty anxious about it. I imagine it's much stranger for you. I'm gathering that you don't particularly have this in the cultures you're from, and you're not sure what to expect -- so let's talk about that a little bit."

"I don't particularly have goals for you, except to support you in your goals. Generally people who come to me want to find more peace, satisfaction, joy, or something like that in their relationships - or they want to have less conflict, hurt, disappointment, anger, that kind of thing. They want to fight less and feel better. The details vary but those are the broad themes."

"I also help people with their sex problems. Sometimes the sex problems are connected to the relationship problems, or sometimes they're totally independent. Sometimes they're physical, sometimes psychological, sometimes relational, often a combination."

"But whatever you've got going on, it's for you to decide what you want and for me to help you get that." 

"So, let's do a thought experiment."

"Imagine that we work together for a while. We meet several times, in various combinations, and we talk through everything. And then one day, it's our last meeting. The reason it's our last meeting is because we are done. We have succeeded. You got what you came for. Therapy has worked!"

"How do you know that you're done? What is different, either within you or between you?"

That's pretty straightforward. Some of it feels more awkward to talk about to Bastran's face but they're going to have to get that out of the way sooner or later. 

"I want Caris to be safe and happy, and feel secure in whatever arrangements he decides would make sense with Bastran, and to be in a good position to someday become a Lawful god and build us an afterlife. I think we have not really talked through - what mistakes we think we each made - especially not in terms of their interpersonal effects. I would like to actually finishing have the conversation with Bastran about - leaving the Empire - and for the conclusion to be that it is much better for all of our goals if I can go freely. ...I want Bastran to be all right, I am not sure if he is any less trapped by the Empire than I was - am - and I think I owe him an apology for that, since I built the stupid Empire, but I have not at any point figured out how to say it. I think that would be most of the things?" A slightly rueful smile. "Though it might be that many of them cannot be accomplished just via relationship counseling."