ORIGIN - Tarot Cat

Wilder led Diem Dark through the majority of Andromeda, heading towards the oasis of Eidolon's rest, where a quiant and odd-looking abode, composed of seemingly random crystals, stood tall. She landed in front of the quart-crystal doorway, her wings folding and softly dissolving away as she turned towards her friend. "Sorry its a bit low for you but please, make yourself at home!" The entrance was bigger then her, but it still would require the humanoid-figure of Dark to bend down to fit through.

The interior, at least, was fairly roomy. Without the kids at home at the moment, it was even more open. There still wasn't a lot in here at the moment - a large, messy nest of feathers and ferns and old bits of cloth and miscellaneous other comfortable things, with many indents in it to suggest that more then one gembound rested here, baubled lights hung on string and hung above the main interior, some bits and bobs around the room, collected trinkets and treasures, and the remains of a couple of meals.

She padded up to where some of their collection was and pulled out a small stack of cards wrapped in an old, worn strip of leather.

"Here they are. Take a seat - whenever you're ready I'll start the reading." I'll try at least, she thought, but kept to herself.

@Diem Dark

Diem tucked downward, half folding over and wriggling his wings to get through the little gap. Once inside he stepped sideways to be out of the way, and then sat, looking around with fascination. "Oh, I love this. You've really made it your own," he observed, and then turned, setting Bitey down beside him. The ghostly alligator hatchling began to wander about, biting at nothing; Diem mostly ignored this.

"If I find anything cool that looks like it'd 'go,' here, I'll have to bring it back as a thanks for this!" He then kicked out his feet, a bit, taloned toes stretching before relaxing.

"So! What's the future hold?" he asked, firing Wilder a friendly glance.

@Wilder

Wilder purred. "Thank you! I made it myself - magic can do some incredible things, with enough practice." Her tail gestured towards the crystal walls. "If you'd like to, I wouldn't say no to filling some of the empty space!"

Once Diem had settled comfortable, she slowly unwrapped the cards. She felt a little nervous - she hadn't done a proper reading like this before. She usually helped herself shuffle them with magic, but her nerves kept it from manifesting properly. So she clumsily spread the cards around and mixed them up before regathering them in a bit of a messy pile.

"Okay. Uh, here." She pushed the pile forward. "Break it into four piles, please." She waited a moment for Diem to do so before beginning the reading.

Silence fell over the small hut as she slowly placed the top card of each pile into a diamond shape. Once the four cards had been laid out, face down, she took the rest of the cards and put them to the side. "This spread will help you find a direction, I think. It's for troubled times. Although I don't know if you're particularly experienced "troubled times" but it could a guide for you future endeavors."

She sat and pointed with her paw towards the card closest to Diem, on the bottom of the diamond. "This card represents where you're coming from." She flipped it over, revealing the image of a human man, robed in bright green and gold with a crown atop his head. He leans lavishly against a golden throne, set in a field of grape vines. In one hand, a scepter, in the other, a golden pentacle. "So...you come from wealth...or something like that. A higher status, maybe. Someone...with more then others. But it was pulled reversed so..." Indeed it was, the card faced Wilder, rather then Diem Dark. "Perhaps it was a life of excess. Or not the right kind of things. You had things, but not what you needed. Something like that." She shrugged, hoping that this wasn't too awkward a reading.

She went, next to the card to the left of Diem. "This card represents what is directly behind you." She flipped it over, revealing a card showing a sky at sunset, gorgeous orange with clouds of all shades, and right in the middle a great golden wheel, emblazoned with the sun itself. Symbols decorate the edges and creatures can be seen in the distance, flying in the great beyond. Wilder paused for a moment, staring at it with mild confusion. "Um. Well, this is a card about fortune, good and bad, having control, but also not. And its...reversed?" She stared for a long moment, before looking up at Dark. "Perhaps there was...something that happened, some event or a situation...that was neither good nor bad, it simply was. But...you perceived it as bad. Or...I don't know. A reminder that you still have control over things, even if it doesn't feel like it? It could mean a lot of things and in this context I'm a little confused. Sorry-" she added, trying not to look as embarrassed as she felt. "I did say I'm a little new at this. I'll just...move to the next."

She flipped over the card on the right side of Diem. "This card is what lies in front of you." The card showed a man standing before a door, cracked open. In his hands is a large wand, raised defensively, against numerous others raised against him. From the magic of the cards, one could almost see his eyes moving from one wand to another, but never backing away. Wilder nodded. "This is much more clear. There is a challenge coming. To you, or your beliefs. You must remain steadfast - don't run in fear or surrender. Rise up and defend yourself."

The final card, at the top of the diamond, she then flipped. "This card is your next step, where you will go next." The card showed a man, upside down. A golden chain wrapped around his ankle and strung across the upper portion of the card, holds him to a sun of gold. The sky around him with blue and bright and, despite the predicament he is in, he seems at peace. Wilder purred, almost in amusement. "Your next step...is to be true to yourself. This man seems to be in a predicament, hanging himself upside down, but he is unbothered. Calm. He may be different, or strange, but he knows who he is. There are many new perspectives coming your way and you must know what to sacrifice so that you may see them from the best angle."

She was quiet then, giving Diem a little time to think it over and take a closer look at the cards, if he wanted to.

@Diem Dark

He sat content, watching with a bright gaze. Black-clawed nails gently tapped the cards, though he handled them carefully, as he split them into those four piles. Afterward he simply listened, rapt.

A faint smile curved the fleshy skull of his face as he listened to the mention of wealth or the like. A faint nod seemed to be subconscious, albeit a good enough indicator that Wilder was correct.

The second had his head tilting to one side, eyes blinking once or twice as he considered. He didn't interrupt, though. And the third had him straighten, looking thoughtful. A challenge? ...I'd best get training, he thought, a little bit surprised. He hadn't expected that when he'd come here. Be true to myself, though? That should be easy enough. He managed not to smile, at that thought. It was why he'd come here, after all, despite the blurred nature of some of those memories.

He leaned in, examining the cards closely for a moment. "The artwork on these is beautiful. Did you make them yourself?" he asked. His eyes went to Wilder's paws. It seemed unlikely, but then, magic was a fantastic thing and he knew full well all the wondrous applications of it.

One arm reached out, then, the other moving to adjust his sleeves so they didn't move the cards. A finger gently tapped the card with the beautiful sun and wheel upon it. "This one's really pretty, in particular. About what you said... Could it also mean giving up control? Like-... On purpose?" There was a flicker of humor in his eyes as he looked to Wilder, and as he added: "If I could tell you what an amazing honor it is to get a tarot reading from a black cat-... Or what an honor it would be, where I come from-..." the skull-face twisted into a broad grin. "It's pretty amazing, actually. So I've a challenge coming, and I need to face it, and be myself? Is there any difference between these two, timeline-wise?" he asked, pointing between the hanging man and the defensive mage. "I mean, uhh--when you say 'what lies in front of me' and 'what comes next?' Is one farther out than the other?"

He watched with keen interest, wholly absorbed in Wilder, and in the cards.

@Wilder

She left the cards in front of them for Dark to look at as she settled down, tucking her paws comfortably under her chest for the coming discussion of her reading. She felt warm and satisfied - although there's been a bit of a...roadblock with that second one (and honestly she still could not figure out what it meant in context, but perhaps he could tie it to something) the rest had gone quite well and she could see that he was processing it and finding some understanding.

"No, no," she laughed, lightly. "I'm not much of an artist. I'm not sure who made them, but they were passed onto me by someone special." She wasn't sure if Diem Dark was aware of the surface - many weren't - but this wasn't the time to have that conversation.

She leaned in closer, looking again at the card, labelled at the top with an X and at the bottom, Wheel of Fortune. "Hm, no, I don't think so. It's more about...change and fate. The wheel is the rhythm of nature, the circle of life, all things constantly in motion. And the sun in the center is always steadfast, turning along with the wheel as one. It's wisdom in the face of change, always turning with the wheel, but never governed by it." She paused for a moment, thinking, her tail gently waving behind her thoughtfully. "You say...giving up control on purpose? It could be pointing to that, or more specifically the change it had on you. All things constantly change. We can either accept control or our lack of it or resist it and turn away." She flashed back, then, to her own life, all the change that she had gone through herself. She had not been wise through most of it, resisting change at every turn. Perhaps that's how she ended up with so many burdens on her shoulders.

She wasn't sure what tarot cards and black cats had anything to do in common or why Diem seemed pretty tied up on it, but she purred anyways, as she leaned back from the cards. She considered his next question for a moment. "It's up to your interpretation, if the cards ring something in you down the line. As I said before, this isn't an exact foresight. Sometimes, foresight doesn't make sense until it does. But from my own way of reading, 'what lies in front of you' refers to what you will be facing in the future. 'The path ahead' is your response. The difference between the situation and the actions you take."

@Diem Dark

He leaned back, a soft "Phew," escaping him, eyes widening in distant thought. It wasn't a relieved sound, exactly, but the sort one might make when confronted with a whole lot to think about all at once. "I wonder if that's actually for me," he murmured aloud, brow lowering down in thought, again--and then his eyes happened upon Wilder.

An arm shot out, finger pointed with extreme excitement for the paws tucked beneath her. "LOAF!" Diem cried, ecstatic, as though the cat tucking her paws was the best thing he'd seen all day. Hands clapped together softly, and he rocked back a bit as though containing himself. "Oh my god. You loaf. That's so good!" He paused. Blinked. "Uhh. Sorry, the cats--cats do that, but they don't talk, where I'm from. We consider it..." 'Cute?' Can I say cute? Will she take that the wrong way? It sounds weird when they can speak. He cleared his throat, trying to be dignified. "Um. A good omen." A nod.

Sure.

"...Sort of. Anyway-... I'll bear this in mind, if I can remember it all. Uh. Be true to myself, know what to sacrifice, be ready. If I'm not already forgetting stuff. My memory's-..." Fragmented. Flakey. It'd never been great, but the transition here--a combining of forms and purposes--had destroyed much of it. And that was okay; it was necessary. Some part of his mind remembered that, accepted it. But it meant that some things had holes in them.

...Metaphorically. Not like cheese.

"Not great," he finished, and flashed a smile. "I'm curious, do you do these often? How'd you learn them? Do they come true, a lot?" he asked. They were bright questions, interested--not demanding. The idea of a black cat far beneath the 'earth,' so solemnly reading tarot in a den adjacent to a spirit cave, was fascinating to say the least.

@Wilder

sorry for the delay!!! the tag did not tag D: