Julie leans in and caresses Akira's cheek, grinning. "Really, mon cœur, as cute as your fluster is, there's no need to be embarrassed. It's natural to fantasize."

She leans closer still, whispering in Akira's ear now. "I think you have good taste. Doctor Takemi is éblouissante, is she not?"

Akira shivers. 

She feels vulnerable. These two know all her secrets.

... At least it is probably not a trick, if they know so much and so deeply about her... 

"Yeah," she says very very softly. "She's lovely."

She ducks her head and blushes deeply.

"Awwwwwww." Joker smiles and hops down from her seat on the bloodstained altar. "Would you like a hug?"

She doesn't know what to do. 

She feels adrift and at sea, lost in a very large space. 

"... yeah," she says distantly. "I'd like that."

Joker comes over and very gently wraps her arms around Akira. 

"Shhhhhhh," she says. "It's okay. I know you've been strong for a very long time. But we're going to see you safe."

Akira doesn't want to believe it, but maybe it's true. 

She's so, so tired.

She leans her head gently on Joker's shoulder, and cries.

Julie wraps her arms around them both, stroking Akira's hair softly. "It's okay to cry, mon trésor. You are safe with us. We will always love you."

After a little while, Akira's tears run out. 

She takes a long breath. 

"Okay." Her voice is a little steadier now. "I'm going to trust you two. But if this is a trick —"

Her voice breaks and she goes silent.

"I know, love. You'll have your vengeance if it comes to that. You've always had that ache in you."

Joker squeezes Akira softly. "I won't betray you. We're a team."

"I swear to you both, moitiés, I swear on the sea of souls that I will never lie to either of you. If I misapprehend something or make a mistake, I will tell you as soon as I see it. The two most important people to me in the entire modern world are right here, and I will never betray either of you."

She squeezes them both close.

(Something about that oath viscerally feels binding on Julie, and everyone present can feel it.)

Akira takes a slow breath, then raises her chin and carefully steps out of the hug.

"Alright. Tell me about this place. You said you'd created things here, but that you need my help somehow. How?"

"This is a mindscape. It's a little like a Palace except that it's under our concious control. That makes it both stronger and weaker. We can't pull in Shadows, I've tried, and as far as I can tell it takes continuous focus and attention to make anything that remains, at least without you present. I don't know fully what you can do here. It's your mind originally, after all. But I think we'll be strongest if we act together to make something. Julie and I were able to force this room to exist together: with you we think we could have something more comfortable as well."

"It might be nice to make a house. Three bedrooms, a shared sitting area, things like that. Connect this room and a few other features through an office, peut-être."

Joker frowns. "I'm not sure if we have the strength to sustain a whole house. But it would be worth trying."

She looks over at Akira. "Shall we try it?"

Akira takes a long breath, then nods. "Okay."

"I can lend power to this, but I suspect both of you need to create and commit the details, if we wish to stabilize that power across the whole space."

Julie takes Akira and Joker's hands in her own, then closes her eyes with a deep breath.

"Tell us the story of our home, moitiés. Where do we spend our time? What do those rooms look like? What does it feel like to spend time there? How do those rooms connect to this space?"

Akira takes a slow breath of her own. "Right now I really, really want to be in Leblanc's kitchen making coffee. Can we — make that?"

"It's as good a place as any to start. Julie?"

She nods. "Picture it, mes trésors. A cozy kitchen, inspired by Leblanc but all our own. Picture the tile, the wooden shelves, the glass-doored cabinets. Perhaps the countertops are reminiscent of Leblanc's bar? Peut-être we have an island of the same wood? Are there barstools? Appliances? What does it smell like? How is it lit? Feel the story in your hearts, moitiés, and tell it to our world."

As she speaks, Akira and Joker feel an energy of sorts running into them through their clasped hands, curling eagerly within them, ready to be spent.

Akira closes her eyes. 

"It's... got a peninsula, like my parents' kitchen... barstools at the edge, dark wood... No kitchen table, I've had enough stressful conversations there to last a lifetime..."

Joker closes her eyes as well. "Black marble countertops. An induction range and an oven, both black. An espresso machine like the one at Leblanc..."

Akira reaches out blindly and finds Joker's hand. She clasps it, making a triangle between her and Julie. 

"I think I see it..."

And suddenly all three girls feel a ripple around them. Julie stands, pulling the other two to their feet. "Marveilleux, chéries. Let's see what we've built, no?"

And when they open their eyes, a new door is visible.

"Alright," Joker says. "Let's see what we've got." 

She walks over to the door, opens it, and gestures to Akira to go first.

Fine, sure, she'll go first. 

Akira steps into the new room, and looks around. 

The kitchen is just as she imagined it. A long bar with teak stools and a chunky espresso machine sitting by the oven. Bone china hides behind glass-doored cabinets above the countertops, and a sink nestles against the far wall with a dishwasher below it. It's an odd mix of Café Leblanc and her own home's kitchen. 

... Her gaze goes sideways. There is a kitchen table here that she did not ask for. It's covered in books and newspapers, completely submerged in paper. It's teak as well, matching the countertops and appliances, but it's otherwise absolutely identical to the one she had at home - circular with a central plinth below, basket-woven chairs surrounding it. The chairs are covered in debris as well, except for her own, which stands empty and pushed out as if it had been waiting for her all this time.