ORIGIN - [FF] Get Your Fortune Told! (Booth!!)

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Kitty woke up from her brief nap as the first footsteps began to ring excitedly through Polaris, and she sat up to look around with her eyes sparkling. The red panda took a moment to groom herself and make her fur look presentable before she called out, "Come get your fortune told! Past of stuff and future of you! I can see it all!" She hadn't really thought of anything she wanted in exchange, but tacked onto the end, "anythin' pretty as payment!" and left it at that.

Rocks, crystals, feathers -- that sort of thing. Hopefully, she'd get someone to bite (because there were plenty of those things in Polaris already, and she'd have felt weird offering her services for nothing).

---

Kitty is doing fortune telling! If she manages to successfully cast Hindsight on your character, she will try to use the information she gathers to guess at what they'll do in the future (I will randomize the moment she sees). If not, she'll make up something vague.

If she successfully casts it on an object (most notably, stones!) she will tell you what she's seen, but if not she'll make up a rather convincing lie. Come one, come all -- get your fortune told by ~~the fraud~~ the mystical seer!

There were so many booths to visit! Comet didn't know where to go first. Her eyes scanned the area, and finally settled on a very familiar raccoon. "Hey Kitty!" the wolf still remembered her first encounter with the red raccoon. It hadn't gone so well. "Fortune telling sounds interesting, I brought a bird, would that be good payment?" Comet was not sure if raccoons ate meat, so she tacked on something else, "It has pretty feathers."

Something like fortune telling was always fun, although she could already guess that her future probably consisted of her getting hurt and doing crazy stuff. She could only hope that Kitty wouldn't see the same.

@Kitty

A festival was in town. Matthieu had seen the whole setup from their cranny in Polaris, but did not attempt to interact with the newcomers. They were not his friends, the twisted creatures of chitin and mandibles. They were more... different, with furs, and paws, and (dear god) symmetrical limbs. They piled together strange materials before assembling them in bizarre shapes. Then more visitors came, and more, and ambled around with delectable goods (shiny goods), and the Siamese Twins finally bit.

Matthieu, after a bit of a struggle, slipped into the shadows of the crowd largely unnoticed. They hadn't bumped into anyone in particular, but sooner or later someone was going to gawk at two children fused into one and they didn't want to be around to see it. It was uncomfortable here.

Bee was the first to see it-- a small corner booth being manned by a russet, furry thing. Hopefully they could hop in, grab some things and return to sulking in the corners. Shyness at it's finest, huh? As a bit of a precaution, though, the upper humanoid folded his body and legs inwards before they approached, so they resembled the quadruped shoppers just barely. Also uncomfortable, but Boy was used to tight stretches.

"Hello." The oversized bee grumbled from partially behind Kitty's tower, hoping she wouldn't notice the conspicuous lump on her back. It didn't strike them yet which way was the front. A pale beast was there too, but they seemed too preoccupied to notice the fair folk. "We-- I want a fortune." Wait, they had to provide a payment? What exactly was a payment? The wolf had a dead bird, and she referred to it as such, so Matthieu quickly deduced that payment must've meant any dead thing. It would take too long to go out and hunt, so they instead tried to make a pretty flower to wrench out.

Bee held up a foreleg, letting beautiful lilacs creep out of the exoskeleton... before ripping it out harshly with her mandibles and offering it to the panda. "Payment."

@Kitty

With @Pride keeping a close eye on her Jampa felt comfortable enough to wander from booth to booth; she kept her distance from a few of the gemlings she came across out of a precocious apprehension, being too shy to involve herself with so many people all at once. She had never seen this many in one place before, and some of them had odd proportions, patterns, and qualities that caused her to stare and stumble (often to the mortification of her father; staring isn't polite, dear).

There was a small gathering by one particular booth, and Jampa fell in behind them, trying to figure out what was going on. The booth looked to be run by a small fuzzy creature, red and white and patterned with a mask. She did not want to get too close; however, Jampa was very curious.

The creature accepted a few trinkets. A bird from the fluffy white creature, a flower (of sorts) from the other. Jampa had not brought anything to give away, so she was briefly derailed by this complication. That gave the masked creature time to take the offerings and have small private conversations with each of them, and Jampa was left trying to discern a good gift of her own.

Her wings, currently tucked in a way that they trailed like a cloak over her shoulders, were all that she had. She raised them and tucked her head beneath one, tugging and primping at the feathers, until one large feather came away cleanly. It hadn't hurt. She preened a few of them back in to position with her nose, then tucked her wings again.

"Um... Excuse me," the girl coyly spoke around the feather grasped in her mouth, held by the quick between her teeth. "When.. When you have a moment. This is for you, for a... fortune."

She'd wait her turn, though. It seemed like the host was quite popular.

Kitty's eyes lit up, and her tail flicked up behind her as Comet approached her first. Then two more! Oh, how exciting -- she shifted back and forth on her paws and eyed the bird greedily. Pretty feathers, and a nice snack -- both were excellent offerings, and both together... "Comet first!" she announced, glancing at the bee thing. "I'll help you in a moment."

She swallowed hard, and then put on a much more lively and animated persona. "C'mere, Comet -- I'll have to touch you for it to work best," she explained for everyone's benefit, "but if that's not okay, then I'll still do my best!" Aka -- lie. If she were allowed to, she'd gesture for Comet to move closer and then reach across the counter (notably, with her injured paw) and lightly touch it to Comet's forehead. If not, it didn't really matter -- Kitty didn't need to look into Comet's past to guess at her future. She knew her well enough already.

She closed her eyes and waited, counting her heartbeats -- one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. She opened her eyes and pulled back, settling back behind her counter. "You're coming to understand yourself," she said gently, thinking back to how sharply Comet had shifted when she'd realized that Kitty was injured. "Balancing yourself, like I balanced the rocks." She gestured to her haphazard pillars, four rocks high each. "You're going to have to make hard decisions, but taking the easy path won't help you as much as taking the hard one." Comet had taken a risk in helping Kitty, but now she had an ally in and the favor of the Voidcrawlers (though she likely didn't know it).

@comet

Just as she was turning to the insect (it reminded her of Madhukar's bugs -- maybe Madhukar would like this one?), a feathery deer thing gently called for her, and Kitty's eyes lit up. "Yes! Of course, just a moment--" She glanced at the bee as she grew flowers on herself and then ripped them off. Well that was... horrifying, but it was pretty, so with a strange look at the beast, she tucked the lilacs gently away and cleared her throat.

"Alright -- if you are okay with touching, come here, yeah?" When Matt offered a bit of themselves, Kitty closed her eyes and briefly prayed in the vaguest sense of the word that her elusive ability would work -- this was something she needed at the moment, especially considering she knew nothing about this strange, plant-making creature.

The bee-being, tiny toddler arms, clutching self and stone as they stared together at the Spire -- legs folded underneath, a whisper of will, and then a flash of ultraviolet magic-- thrilling! Joy across foreign, faery features, and then a second creature of similarly insectoid design crooning out as though they were friends before the vision ended.

Kitty pulled away in much the same length of time and her eyes lit up. Lovely. Just... lovely. "You'll have curiosity," she explained, thinking back to the joy at the sight of magic. "A thirsting for knowing, and a desire to find secrets -- and you'll find them, too, if you look hard enough. And... you'll have others," she thought, picturing the grub again and how Madhukar had once explained how worms turned into butterflies, "who are like you, in curiousness and in body. Friends! Family."

@matthieu

Now it was the pretty deer-bird's turn, and Kitty was suddenly thrilled with the amount of feathers she was getting. This one in particular was gorgeous -- long, blue, and shiny, it would make a perfect accessory for her den, but for now she graciously accepted it and tucked it behind the counter with the flowers before reaching out to gently touch Jampa -- she'd reach for her forehead, but settle for anything Jampa would allow, and then closed her eyes again.

A child struggling awkwardly out of a turquoise prison, shattering steadily around her. Shaky legs and clumped-up feathers she worked carefully to mend, and then a tall, white stag taking notice and stepping closer to protect her. A gentle first influence -- a protector, a parent?

Kitty's eyes opened, and she settled back, considering her vision. A positive first influence could dictate a lot of things -- hers with Madhukar had been neutral (though initially negative), as Kitty had been born with an abundance of caution. Fear, even. Perhaps it would be good to instill some of that in the child? (These calculations happened very quickly, mind you -- her vision hadn't revealed all that much.)

"You trust easy," Kitty guessed, looking her over. She just seemed to radiate kindness. "You're a pure thing -- like light. But sometimes there's things that try to take light for themselves." She thought about how her and Carja liked to eat eggs -- to the birds, they were tyrants, consuming babies, but to other Gembound they were just enjoying a treat. Perception always mattered. "Careful who you trust," she said gently, "'cause one day, you'll get hurt." And then, so it wasn't such a grim reading, "But! There's other light, like you. Find it an' hold onto it, 'cause good friends and good family are worth keeping."

Honestly, that was true of anyone, so Kitty was comfortable saying it. Still, she wished she'd had anything more useful to go on...

@jampa

Allowing Kitty's paw to touch her forehead, Comet waited with both excitement and dread and what the raccoon would say. A few beats of silence as Kitty closed her eyes. What did she see? What fortune would she tell? The paw was lowered, and she turned her ears towards the red raccoon, as Kitty told her her fortune.

"You're coming to understand yourself," Comet nodded, thinking of her talk with James. She was starting to reconsider her actions and motivations. "Balancing yourself, like I balanced the rocks." A gesture to an unsturdy pillar of rock that was somehow not falling over. "You're going to have to make hard decisions, but taking the easy path won't help you as much as taking the hard one." It was... creepy how everything seemed to ring true for her. Somethings were starting to fall apart, and she needed to learn how to stop that. Taking a hard path... there were many meanings that could hold for her. Comet could only hope she was thinking of the right one.

"Thank you." she smiled at Kitty, whether the fortune had been real or not, she knew that it was right. She knew what she needed to do.

"Exit Comet"

Well, the creature accepted their payment, so that was good. The massive insect stared forth calmly and offered a foreleg (the same one she just ripped flowers off of, unfortunately) when the panda requested. This was fun.

And then came the prediction. The "Kitty" closed her eyes, opened them back up again and began talking. They had "curiosity" ('wanting, wanting to know'), and a thirst, and someday they will find the answers to secrets. Sounded just about right, even if Bee debated if they really wanted to spend more time thinking over things. And they will have others with them-- was she talking about the other Children, the Queen and the Blue and the Marshmallow? Must've been. Though the harpy and bat did not like them very much ('They screamed and clutched their eyes,'), they trusted this so-called psychic. Spiritual and arcane beliefs were one that came easily to the fusion. Maybe they'll come around eventually.

"That was nice." The humanoid's head, which was previously pressed against their insect abdomen, snapped back to give Kitty a smile. Whoops, forgot about the whole "don't look weird" routine. As quick as they could they scurried back into the shadows, hoping no-one had gotten a good enough look at them to know their faces. They didn't want to be known.

Exit Mattheiu!

Ahh, there were some... strange ones, here. The atmosphere was one of a festival: bright and busy, and Pride briefly wondered if this was the sort of gathering James had had in mind before he'd seemingly abandoned, or forgotten (probably in favor of more urgent things, in fairness) the idea. He approved, really; maybe he'd bring it up with James again later but the whole place gave an air of happy frivolity, as if other troubles had been put on hold, for now. I wonder if Nassir would have liked it, he thought idly--then dismissed the idea gently; no, the cat would've likely been a little nervous with so many others close by.

He turned his attention back to the newest booth: a small creature, soft-furred and of multiple colors, the likes of which he'd never seen before. It was offering fortunes, and indulgently Pride watched as Jampa moved ahead for hers. Jampa was already paying, but Pride, glancing down at Thalia, saw wide-eyed hope there and offered a little smile. She was grown, or nearly so, but her excitement was visible. Jampa was independent--so was Thalia--but it seemed that Thalia wouldn't turn down letting her dad pay for something.

Pride was fine with that.

Nose to the ground, he summoned up his magicka: and from it swelled the rock itself, changing into a multi-faceted, massive diamond whose refracted light cast rainbows of color in all directions. This he nudged toward Kitty, adding: "If the feather isn't enough, I have this--will this do for the three of us?" A pause, as he waited--if it wasn't, he could probably make more.

Maybe none so fine, though--this was, as he gazed at it, a really nice diamond.

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