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Post by Obscuris on Nov 9, 2015 3:20:24 GMT
“I’m not so sure about this, Sun”
“Oh come on, you idiot! We need the money and you can get closer to the tarot cards. I refuse to keep eating only corn like a damn fowl! Even you’re fat ass is getting thinner… Auch! Why did you do that?”
“Eugh… fine. Let’s get this over with!”
“Finally!”
“This sucks… A place where magic and reality crashes, where everything is decided by the luck of the cards. Come see what waits for you in the future! Will it be love? Will it be change? Will it be success?
Lana’s future reading is open for business!”
In a tiny apartment in Dublin, Lana's Future Reading opens its gates. When costumers came in, a strong incense smell will be filling the air and they would only see darkness. A single and solitary candle shone weakly over a small round table and in the other side of it, a mysterious hooded figure sat silently with its face invisible to the naked eye. This wasn't just to create an atmosphere. The deep smell of the incense worked as a charm to conceal the potent odor of the chicken (at least Arlana wished it was chicken) the Chinese restaurant in the first floor was frying and the dim light made it really difficult to notice that the hood was just a black t-shirt Arlana had cut and put over her head. Her deck was in front of her, on the table, resting inside a wooden box that held a few precious stones she was able to buy, painfully, with the last drop of her savings.
The girl sighed form inside the hood. "This better work or I’ll be having Sun stew for dinner" she muttered as she made herself comfortable on the chair and waited for her first costumer.
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Post by HungryHunter on Oct 27, 2016 3:14:22 GMT
Jun Li didn't know why she took this job.
That was a lie, she knew. It was Ireland. She expected rolling hills and charming small towns. What she was getting was run down buildings and a hellishly hard time finding this sorceress she was supposed to take down. But wait... this crappy building looked just like the one the sorceress was supposed to be in. Jun trudged in, wandering the halls for signs of magic. "Jun, what is that?" The Shattered One asked. Jun didn't have to ask what it was talking about, the scent having crept into her nostrils as well. She noted the sign. Future Reading? Nonsense. But perhaps diverting nonsense. She did like the incense. She entered Arlana's cramped apartment. "I suppose you're... Lana." Jun looked down at the teenager with a raised eyebrow. "How much?" Jun asked. She might as well patronize the child. If she lived here, she needed the money.
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Post by Obscuris on Oct 30, 2016 23:01:52 GMT
Arlana left the magazine she was reading on the table and stretched, letting out a loud and exaggerated yawn. On the other side of the room, Sun laid on a comfortable pillow as he changed channels on the TV, looking for something to waste time on. The tarot seeker fidgeted on her seat and sighed a couple of times, in a futile attempt to catch her companion’s attention. “Suuuuuuuuuuun!” she finally said “I´m boreeeeeeed… we’ve been here for months and nobody showed up yet!” to stress her words, the girl leaned over the table and pressed her head against the wood.
Sun raised an eyebrow and shook his head, irritated, without taking his eyes off the TV “Don’t be such a pussy, we’ve only been here a couple of hours” he grunted. “It feels like months” Arlana groaned and picked up the magazine again, boringly going through it. “Just shut up and deal with it, we need the fucking money” Sun replied. With his gaze on the screen, the flaming bird didn’t catch Arlana’s venomous glare. “I should have convinced Cian to come with me, at least he isn’t a prick…” she muttered under her breathe and was about to start one hell of a yelling contest when the unexpected steps of Jun going up the stairs caught them by surprise.
The tiny room became a whirlwind of movement. Arlana threw the magazine under a couch, turned off the lights and threw her “cloak” back on her head. Sun turned off the TV and, flapping his wings vigorously, glided over the small table and ignited the candle in the middle, before sneaking out to the bedroom just as the doorknob turned.
With her heart pounding on her chest, Arlana lowered her head so that her features were hidden under the room’s dim light and the shadows of her cloak as she watched her first costumer enter her house. The whole number she had rehearsed for that moment almost slipped away of her mind and the girl took a few moments to reorganize her thoughts. Hopefully the candle light and the strong stench of incense would be enough to make that pause seem more mysterious than awkward. “Names are mere masks, cover ups we use to hide our true form” she said, with slow cadence and an enigmatic tone. The words made Arlana feel monumentally stupid and had to stop herself from face palming. Why did she ever listened to Sun? She could be finishing the last chapter of the book she was really into and instead was stuck doing that. But well… a girl had to eat.
“But yes… I’m called Lana in this realm” she added, with the same ceremonious tone. That whole charade had been Sun’s idea, of course. Despite Cian’s objections, the flaming bird had decided that all that obscure and mystical atmosphere was perfect to force short minded idiots to throw their money at Arlana. “Take a seat, child.” She offered, gesturing towards the chair directly in front of hers “We must not let the puerile physical world distract us, for now. I sense that you have come here to ask a question” she laid her hands on the table, with her palms facing the ceiling. Between them, the tarot deck rested with a few gemstones on top.
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Post by HungryHunter on Oct 31, 2016 2:28:54 GMT
Jun was unimpressed to say the least. "If I didn't have a question, I wouldn't have come here. I'm seeking a magic user." She didn't expect any useful information, but why not? The kid looked hungry. "Can you help me, or should I leave? And you didn't answer me. How much?" She pulled a leather wallet embossed with a gold JL from her pocket, the very vessel of her wealth betraying it.
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Post by Obscuris on Oct 31, 2016 22:46:51 GMT
Arlana gave Jun a long and calculated stare, glancing at her from head to toes. She had to make a super human effort to avoid staring directly at the wallet. The golden letters on the prime quality leather were all she needed to see. After a few months living with a painfully low salary, even lower after all the trips had taken to go looking for the Cards, which had left her surviving out of junk food and instant noodles, Arlana saw on that wallet a delicious chance. She was already savoring a juice steak in her mind when she realized that she had to answer Jun’s question.
It was a delicate subject. If she asked for a small amount, she wouldn’t get anything out of it and if she asked for too much, she could start scaring off costumers. “How much is your future worth?” she finally said, against the metaphorical complains of her stomach “Let us see what fortune can tell us, first. You can decide how much the information is worth once you have your answers.” She crossed her hands over the deck and added without thinking “It’s seems that luck is already in your favor. If a sorceress is what you look, you have found one.”
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Post by HungryHunter on Nov 1, 2016 23:06:18 GMT
Jun blinked slowly when she comprehended the young girl's words. "Have I?" She laid 50 dollars on the table. "Lana... is her name Arlana Caswallan?" She rested her chin in the palm of her hand to look into Arlana's eyes through her hood.
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Post by Obscuris on Nov 2, 2016 19:13:56 GMT
Arlana’s eyes sparkled when Jun laid the bill on the table. Fifty bucks for just a simple reading? Score! She reached for the money slowly, trying to avoid breaking her character by giving in to the impulse and jump on top of the table. “The magic of the Tarot is powerful… very, very powerful...” she replied with the same ceremonious tone, as she put her pay on her pocket “Don’t take my for some opportunist fraud, like the fake fortune tellers that swindle the short minded to squeeze some pennies. I can guarantee that I’m the only one that knows the true secrets of the Tarot in this country, if not the world” she said. False pride aside, that was probably the most truthful thing Arlana had said since Jun entered. After all, she was the only one that knew about the true Tarot magic and had not one, not two, but three cards of the Mayor Arcana in that very house.
“Now… shall we take a peek into your past, present and future?” Arlana picked the three stones that rested over her deck and placed them in front of Jun, at regular intervals on the old tablecloth. On the left was a sapphire, in the middle an emerald and in the left a ruby. With her limited budget, Arlana couldn’t even remotely afford buying actual precious stones. But those replicas should work for now.
"Pick one of the stones" she indicated, moving her hand over the table and doing a small gesture when she touched each stone.
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Post by HungryHunter on Nov 2, 2016 19:41:12 GMT
Jun made no expression when Arlana took the money with obvious need, but her heart soared just a little. This was what she had wealth for. Bringing that little spark to destitute economies. Was that not the obligation of the rich? "Well I've already paid. You might as well do your job." Jun polished the hand guard of her sword while she feigned disinterest. She could tell at a glance her stones were fakes. Tacky. "Blue." Might as well take her favorite color.
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Post by Obscuris on Nov 2, 2016 23:15:59 GMT
“Sapphire for wisdom and royalty, interesting…” Arlana muttered, inspecting the stone under the candlelight as she put the other two away. For a brief moment, her eyes glanced at Jun´s sword and sighed internally. Who carried a sword in broad daylight and went around asking for a sorceress? That woman took the hidden out of the Hidden World. Arlana wasted a few moments staring at the candle through the crystal and admiring the shades of blue. This was actually an empty gesture. With all that stone play, Arlana was buying time to clear her mind.
From what Cian and Sun had explained, there was some truth to the whole tarot reading business (after all, the myth had to come from somewhere) but only a few had the actual ability to do it and, even if you had it, it was still terribly unreliable. The reader only had to clear his mind and enter a state of emptiness, concentrated solely on the cards, and act unconsciously hoping it would work. Sun had described as “digging in a pool of shit trying to find a gold coin”.
Luckily, the girl didn’t have much trouble achieving that state. With ominous movements, she shuffled the deck of tarot cards offered to Jun opened like a fan, the cards facing at the table. When Arlana spoke, the mysterious tone she was using disappeared, replaced by an emotionless and unearthly voice. “Choose as many as you want, you who dare walk the path of the fool. But choose wisely, as these cards are powerful in ways you can´t even imagine. Pick only a few and your questions might be left unanswered or pick too many and risk your future, as the cards can not only tell your fortune, but also change it”
There were twenty two cards in total, an entire deck of regular Mayor Arcana cards, for Jun to pick.
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Post by HungryHunter on Nov 4, 2016 4:02:53 GMT
Jun nodded when Arlana spoke of the values of her pick, resisting a smile. It was all bullshit, but she was flattered that even this little rock knew her worth. And a fake one at that. She looked over the cards, ignoring the fact that Arlana called her path that of the fool. She briefly considered the spread. "There are 22 cards." The Shattered One told her in a voice Arlana could not hear. "Thanks. Think I'll stick with three." Jun mumbled back in a voice she very much could. She grabbed three cards right from the center of the fan.
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Post by Obscuris on Nov 9, 2016 1:28:36 GMT
Arlana left the rest of the deck aside and laid the cards picked by Jun on the table, the same way she had spread the stones before. The cards were laid face down and the horrible and cheap purple of their backside reflected the weak light of the candle. “Many are drawn to pick three cards, it’s one of the simplest ways for the cards to act.” The girl explained and then ran her hand over the cards from left to right, as she continued “Spread like this, we will learn about your past, your present and your future” a faint graze on the back of each card accompanied her words.
“We shall look into your past, as the beginning is the most vital part of every story” with a quick twist of her wrist, Arlana revealed the card furthest to the left. In bright colors, the image showed a white marble tower surrounded by a dark and stormy sky. A zigzagging golden thunder struck the top of the tower, which barfed stone and fire, as two human figures jumped out the window trying to escape the chaos above them. “The Tower is the card that defines your past. It represents a time of great turmoil and destruction that shatters peace and harmony” The words came to her mind unconsciously and flowed through her mouth in an unstoppable torrent. “But I see more in this… this marble tower is a sign of a great empire of solid foundations that aspired to be eternal and bigger. The lightning…” her fingers ran through the golden line “comes from above, from the spiritual world and tells me that the destruction of that empire had some ties with a mystical and unearthly realm… a dangerous situation. And this…” she pressed on one of the figures were falling off the tower “…this is you. Despite that hell, you managed to escape and disappeared into hiding. Yet you weren’t alone.” Arlana pointed at the figure’s hand, a white piece the tower’s marble firmly grasped on its hand “You rescued a piece of that empire and carried it into your exile”
Arlana stopped and blinked a couple of times. Where the hell did that come from?
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Post by HungryHunter on Nov 9, 2016 16:17:00 GMT
Jun's eyes widened as Arlana seemed to read her history perfectly, if vaguely. This was supposed to be hokey nonsense. Just a trifle to pass her time. She set her face and studied the card. "Well I didn't need you to tell me that. I lived it." She huffed. She wasn't letting this child see the gaps in her armor. "I suppose there's nothing new to learn about my present either, is there?" She was in fact itching at the possibility this next card would expose her soul to the fortune teller.
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Post by Obscuris on Nov 11, 2016 4:01:27 GMT
A wave of satisfaction cruised through Arlana when Jun confirmed her reading. That was awesome! The girl had to quickly force herself to calm down and get back to that emotionless state the reading required. The last time she had tried to read the second card of a costumer with that rush of happiness, she had ended up telling an 80 year old man that the baby he was expecting would born with perfect health two months later.
Biting her tongue to stop a scathing reply, the young tarot reader reached for the middle card. “The past doesn’t usually keeps secrets, it’s already carved in stone and immovable. But the present is in constant change and might reveal us just a bit more” With those words, she revealed the card. “Hum… the Wheel of Fortune…”
The card showed a great will of stone surrounded by a blue and slightly clouded sky. An angel, an eagle, a winged lion and a winged bull sat over the clouds, each one on a different corner of the card and all of them with a blank book on their hands. A snake made its way to the wheel through the left and Anubis laid back to the edge of the wheel on the other side. Inside the wheel there were some symbols, which Arlana didn’t really pay attention to, and the letters T-A-R-O appeared on the cardinal directions, reading the word “Tarot” when going around it to the start. Standing proudly on the top, there was a sphinx grasping a sword on its hands.
“The Wheel of Fortune is card with many meanings hidden within it and it’s one of the hardest to read” Arlana explained “But now knowing your past, the cards might reveal the right path. The Wheel is a card of cycles. That tragedy and conflict that shattered your old life…” she pointed at the Tower “shoved you into the Wheel, forcing you into a never ending cycle in order to fix the damage that was caused to you. The Wheel keeps turning and at its lowest, you find yourself the furthest away from your objective only to spin again to the highest point, where the Sphinx stands. The Sphinx represents life riddles and hardships necessary to achieve your goals and in your case it reflects each step you take further towards rebuilding the Tower. Then you’re make your way down the Wheel, looking for your new step, in a never ending cycle.”
With a short break to catch her breath, Arlana stared at Jun. “The cycle continues, yes. But the card suggests me that you don’t patiently wait for it to spin. You are constantly fighting to push it to its highest again, reaching for what you desire at all costs. You aren´t doing this on your own. The snake flying towards the Wheel, with its sinuous trail coming from the sky to the physical world, reminds of the lightning that destroyed the tower.” She followed both with her fingers, showing the similarities between them “A piece of the spiritual world is helping you and I’d would say it’s the same one you managed to rescue from the destruction of your past. With it at your side, you face the challenges every time you reach the Sphinx and these are represented by the four beings on the clouds. They are supernatural in nature: beasts, mythical creatures and even angelic foes that you chase and face, over and over again.”
“You confront this challenges with stoicism and ferrous resolve. However…” Arlana raised a finger at the height of Jun’s nose “pushing the Wheel is not an easy task, as it gets harder and harder with each turn. If you get trapped inside of it, each steps gets you closer to your doom.”
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Post by HungryHunter on Nov 11, 2016 22:49:30 GMT
Jun bit her lip, saving herself from a cut when scales appeared across it. Arlana only made one mistake and Jun didn't even know it. Jun was already trapped. She was too stubborn to stop, too greedy to know when to stop. She was Sisyphus for life, forever pushing uphill. "It will end when I have what I deserve." She grumbled. "I know what I'm risking, but it's all for what I deserve." She was less convincing to herself than she was on the outside. And that may not be so convincing as her voice faltered. The Shattered One moaned in her skull. "What's your problem?" She hissed at the demon. "Nothing." It assured her, but it sounded deeply depressed. "Oh, don't be like this. It's not true. You aren't loosing me anytime soon." "If you insist." The spirit didn't sound convinced. Jun just huffed and rapped the table, demanding the last card.
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Post by Obscuris on Nov 15, 2016 1:47:29 GMT
Jun’s vehement and bitter grumbles took Arlana by surprise. That Asian woman looked so reserved and elegant, with an air of superiority surrounding her, but Arlana’s reading seemed to break through that though exterior like a hot knife cutting butter. Following an impulse, the tarot reader reached for Jun’s arm trying to comfort her but her hand fell limp into the table.
The tarot seeker saw herself somewhat reflected on Jun. The death of his father and the destruction of her child hood home had taken her off balance. She was in pain, disoriented and afraid. If it weren’t for Sun and Cian, she would have traveled a very different path and she, more than anyone, knew what Jun was going through. And although the need to help the girl grew strong on Arlana’s chest, Jun didn’t seem like the type of person that would happily accept the seemingly pitiful helping hand of a stranger. But Arlana was too stubborn to let that be, of course.
“The Wheel is a card that urges for change” she said “When it appears on a reading, especially after the Tower, its warning the reader about the dangers of staying inside the wheel. But it also gives advice to the ones that willingly decide to keep trapped on its turns. The four beasts on each corner…” she pointed after a brief pause and giving a small explanation about each one before passing to the next “represent a sign of the Zodiac. The angel, Aquarius; the bull, Taurus; the eagle, Scorpio; and the lion, Leo. This four signs, in particular when they show those wings, represent stability amidst movement and change. When you are inside the Wheel and you feel incapable of enduring its trails, never lose yourself. Keep your center, remember who you are and maintain that through the turns.” The girl took her hands to her chest, close to her heart and slowly pronounced a phrase that her mind couldn’t contain “Through all the changes that the Universe brings, I feel the center of stability which is within me.”
With a sigh, Arlana felt as if her strength abandoned her and leant back against the chair. She took a few moments to recover and enter the emotionless reading state once again, which seemed harder than ever. “I already said that the past never changes, which makes it the easier to read. The present is trickier to find, as it is in constant change yet it exists. The future it’s not one nor the other, as it branches in uncountable streams and jumps, each different from the others. To help us look into your future, we need to avoid diverting for the right paths. So now it’s the time to ask the question which drawn you here, the one that will guide us through the complicated spider web the future is.”
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Post by HungryHunter on Nov 15, 2016 5:10:10 GMT
Jun made a mental note to be more careful about speaking out loud when she spoke to the Shattered One. Arlana was wise to keep her hand to herself. Jun's fingers continued to rap on the guard of her sword. Her skin hardened into glassy scales and softened again in rippling patterns over her body. Jun locked her mind on Arlana's words but rejected them at all turns. Of course she wouldn't lose herself. How weak did this child think she was? Or was it a bit deeper than that? Was she meant to not let the Shattered One control her body? She already rarely did.
This advice was meaningless. Especially when Arlana asked her what question drew her here. Jun had long since realized she didn't need to ask it. "I came to ask where I could find a sorceress." Jun sighed, and in an instant her blade was out of its sheath, resting at Arlana's neck. "I found her." Jun sounded detached, like this was just a job.
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Post by Obscuris on Nov 22, 2016 2:03:29 GMT
In that semi emotionless mood the card reading required, Arlana’s brain took longer than usual to process what the hell was happening. The entire scene seemed to happen in slow motion and all that went through her head was “Damn… that’s a nice sword”. It wasn’t until the blade was at her neck that her brained snapped.
“Wait… WHAT?!” she yelled and instinctively threw herself backwards, gracelessly rolling off her chair to gain some distance. The girl took her hand to her neck and stared at the tip of her fingers in disbelief. Shiny and crimson blood dripped from a small cut on her neck, sliced by the edge of Jun’s blade when she fell. Watching the red liquid drip down her fingers was worse than whatever Jun could do to her.
Arlana felt her heart sink, cold sweat covered her back and started to breathe heavily, almost hyperventilating. She could feel how she started to lose herself and clenched her teeth. “Remember Siberia, remember Siberia, remember Siberia” she muttered like a desperate mantra until she finally recovered just a little. “What the fuck do you want?!” she yelled, her voice broke a couple of times as it made its way through her clenched teeth.
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Post by HungryHunter on Dec 6, 2016 1:30:01 GMT
Jun held her sword steady, red blood emphasized by the blue roses painted across it. What could this child even do that she was worth killing? She didn't seem powerful, dangerous, or even competent. But she could read things about people. Certainly that was a dangerous enough power to be worth her blade? Jun stopped when she realized she was trying to justify killing a child. She sighed deeply. This wasn't worth the money. She pulled a handkerchef from her pocket to clean the blade, then offered the pommel to Arlana.
"Touch it. Otherwise you'll bleed out." The pommel would undo the curse of the blade and reduce Arlana's bleeding to normal levels. Of course, normal levels of bleeding from a neck wound weren't ideal. She pressed the handkerchef to Arlana's neck. "Hold it there until you can get that stitched up. Use this to cover the charges." Jun slipped a stack of bills into Arlana's hand. "Don't let me meet you again." Jun sheethed her blade and walked away before Arlana could question anything.
"You let her go." The Shattered One seemed shocked in her mind. "She wasn't worth much." Jun dismissed the demon. "That she wasn't. I forgot your empathy was based on profit." The demonic voice did the usual job of a demon in taunting her. "We'll make up for it. What else is in the United Kingdom?" "MI13 member, uses a glamor." "I'm not getting involved in politics." "Succubus and some Medusa kid." "Ugh." "A strange man who fights with a key..." The two continued throwing ideas back and forth as they left the apartment behind.
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Post by RedLenai on Dec 13, 2016 2:34:34 GMT
A few hours after the sunset, the noble paladin was leaving a restaurant of Chinese food, even though he could simply teleport to Ireland, he preferred to take a plane to avoid suspicion from other people. He couldn't prevent that his body was completely tense, traveling to his native country wasn't something entirely reliable, but it was the only way to get some information. He had heard the rumors of a seer, who, unlike many people, was a real one. He couldn't help but give a glimpse at the briefcase he carried in his right hand, as if the object were going to disappear from his hands at any time. It had been almost 19 years after leaving Ireland ... or rather ... Inishtooskert.
But unfortunately, his heart couldn't bear the fact that he hadn't had news about them in a long time. He had only heard a strange rumor on an Island near England about an alleged disaster caused by a giant and a group of freaks. But that didn't caught his eye... no, taking out a small piece of newsprint from his pocket, he read it...
"[...] Some locals claimed to have seen blue flames [...]"
He took a few steps, a bit lost. Looking near the Chinese food restaurant, he had no plans to eat there in the first place, but as long as he didn't look suspicious he ended up eating a large plate of Fried Rice.
So until he finally concluded, in the same building of the restaurant, they had apartments. He climbed stealthily up the stairs, careful not to encounter any enemies or any unwelcome guests. Smelling the incense behind one of the doors, he was about to knock the door, until he noticed two things. 1, that the door was already open and 2, the humble sign that had written "Lana's Future Reading." ...He was finally there.
Carrying the briefcase closer to him, he took a few steps in fear... But why? He was an adult of more than 400 years who appeared to be middle-aged! He sighed for his own occurrences, What kind of example would be for the other Driao-? Oh.... That was true... he had been banished...
He took a few steps to see the figure of Arlana on the table and that single candle,he barely looked at the girl and couldn't help feeling a stitch to the heart. It looked a lot like... well, he adjusted his tie, while he cleared his voice.
You must be Lana, right? - He said in a soft tone, his voice wasn't too deep, but behind that attempt of British accent, his true voice escaped with his native Irish. His blue eyes radiated a certain affection for the poor girl. Even feel a great admiration just by seeing her, offer her power while subsisting had to be very difficult, also while being so young...
I'm wondering if you can track or know about someone else... well... three people to be exact. I-I have some objects of their belongings - The man said, putting with delicacy his briefcase on the table. He didn't opened it yet, but he needed to be sure about her powers - You can help me, right?
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Post by Obscuris on Dec 17, 2016 3:27:38 GMT
As usual, it took Arlana more than what was humanly possible to react. Unable to understand what the hell was happening, the young tarot reader froze on her place while Jun seemingly lost all interest on her. She placed her shaky fingers on the edge of the mystical blade and watched blankly as the Asian woman left her house. It wasn’t until the door closed behind her that Arlana processed the whole thing.
The girl stood up and brought the fallen chair back to its legs with a delicate calm, which vanished as she clenched the chair back until her knuckles turned white and her knees trembled. Biting her lips fiercely, the girl walked angrily around the room in a vain attempt to suppress the wave of feelings on her chest and the unbearable need to kick something across the room. It wasn’t until the tears fell from her eyes that she jumped into a couch and muffled her weep in a cushion.
“Fuck. Fuck! FUCK!” she muttered, suffocating her tears. Why was she so fucking useless?! How much time had passed since she had dived into the Hidden World? Almost two years?! Two years of hunting for cards and going head first into danger and what had she achieved? A random girl with a sword was enough to make her freeze, to fill her with that horrible fear that overflowed her throat and made her entire body tremble. Her entire journey, all her promises and dreams could have ended in a mere instant. And she couldn’t do anything about it. She was so fucking pathetic.
It took her a while to take her hopeless, disgusted, sorry ass out of the couch. With swollen eyes and a painful knot on her throat, the girl wiped her tears in her t shirt. Her eyes caught a glimpse of the stack of bills left by Jun, which probably slipped off Arlana’s hand as she stormed around the room. At the sight of that pitiful gesture, the girl’s self-loathing was violently replaced by anger. In a fit of rage, she reached for the stack and ripped the bills to shreds with her bare hands and threw them into the candle, watching with macabre delight as the money turned into ashes.
The dancing flames seemed to calm her temper as she dropped to a chair and ran her hands through her face. She was about to call for Sun and Cian to tell them about what happened, but Sun’s incessant mocking and Cian’s condescending comments were the last thing she needed. Instead, she went to the bathroom and, doing her best not to look at her bloodied neck, cleaned her neck and bandaged the wound. She returned to the main room, put her “hood” back on. She waited for her next costumer as a seed of determination grew inside of her chest, turning an idea into an unavoidable truth: The next time she saw Jun, she was going to punch her right on her pretty face.
On the table, the tarot cards were still spread. The last one, the one foreseeing Jun’s future, was still facing down. Arlana followed a sudden impulse and turned the card face up. A smile crawled its way into her lips as she stared at the beautiful blonde man drawn cheaply over the card. Well… maybe she wouldn’t have to wait too long to have her payback. With an almost ceremonious gesture, the girl picked up the Fool and put it inside the deck once more.
A few hours later…
The sun had already disappeared under the horizon, but Dublin was still buzzing with activity. It was Friday, after all, and nobody wanted to waste that beautiful spring night staying home. The infamous Irish taste for alcohol drove thousands into bars, where the drinks where cheap and the company merry. Cinemas overflowed with couples and families catching the latest movies, the pots and pans of restaurants moved in a blur and the rooms of… questionable hotels were slowly getting occupied by couples looking for other ways of entertaining themselves. Maybe It was that effervescent and overwhelming atmosphere what lead Arlana to leave the her shop open that late at night, or maybe it something else was telling her that she was going to be needed. And indeed, she was.
“Indeed I am” she answered “And I can help you… for the right price” The mysterious, enigmatic and fake tone she used before had disappeared and there was even a hint of irritation on her voice. After her encounter with Jun, Arlana didn’t feel like acting all high and mighty to impress her costumers. She took her time to observe her newest costumer as he put the briefcase over the table. He looked old, old enough to be her father and despite his stuttering, he looked like a serious and attractive guy. Arlana failed to see beyond that and didn’t notice the subtle change on his eyes when they laid on her. But, can you blame her? At that point and with her luck, she was more worried about that guy taking a scythe out of nowhere and trying to take her head to the Queen of England. After that last thing with Jun, the girl thought there wasn’t a limit to the possibilities.
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