[OPEN] *draws a tarot card* oh sh—

[silentabyss]

who: Noah & You
what: Tarot readings~
when: Post-Disney fieldtrip, so 02/12 and on
where: Dorm Common Room
warnings: I'm on my pagan bullshit again it's fine

[If you venture into the dorm common room at any point after the fieldtrip ends, you will find Noah sitting in the middle of the floor with a deck of tarot cards, Trying His Best. He only recently acquired these cards (they were scattered about his room, see) and he hasn't had too much time to play with them.

Obviously, the correct thing to do is to play with them now. Step right up and get a very amateurish tarot reading free of charge! He has a book open in his lap about how to do this, including multiple spreads that he can use. If he spots you while he's nose-deep in studying, he'll wave you over with a hand and ask if he can read your fortune — you just have to tell him what you're interested in knowing. Past, present, future? Love? Interpersonal relationships of a non-romantic nature? Just ask!

As a disclaimer, Noah is not responsible for any harm that comes to you if he divines your future and it turns out really badly. That is not his fault. Your fate was written in the stars, after all.]

Comments

[miirai]

... Mii? Are those cards?

[It has immediately peaked Rika's interest as someone who actually has played quite a bit of card games in the past.]

[silentabyss]

They are. Um... they're for divination. Fortune-telling.

[He motions Rika over to sit if she'd like, but either way, he holds some of the cards out. They're thicker than playing cards, the backs of them blue trimmed with gold and with a golden crescent moon in the centre. If she knows anything about tarot, she'll find that the major arcana are all astral bodies rather than your traditional "The Fool, The Magician" types.]

[miirai]

Fortune telling? I've never had my fortune told before... what's my future looking like?

[She actually isn't familiar at all with this sort of thing, and even if many things have upset her in the past couple of days, this. This is exciting, and fresh, and new.]

[silentabyss]

Let's find out.

[Noah shuffles his deck, and then shuffles again just to make sure. It's a pretty general question... he doesn't think he needs to make this reading too complicated, so he decides he'll just pull a card from the top of the deck and flip it over. Laying between the two of them now is the Five of Wands, Upright.

He frowns, running a hand through his hair. That's... well. Not great?]

So... the Five of Wands represents arguments, conflict, fighting, and disagreements. Not... not to the level that a major arcana would, since this is just a minor one, but it looks like you might get into some minor altercation soon. The card says you can expect a lack of cooperation or control, pettiness, chaos, or unruliness of some kind. I think knowing that you might get into an argument or conflict soon will help you be able to deal with it better. If you're the sort to get really angry like I am, maybe it'll help you manage those emotions before you say something you'll regret?

...

Sorry it's not a nice reading.

[Everyone else gets such good readings and then.]

Luckily, minor arcana don't last long.

[jokey]

[Tarot cards? Akira's quite familiar, but he's hoping these readings are coming out of the goodness of the teller's heart. He is, as he's been accused of being, flat broke.

Waved over, Akira slinks over to the boy on the floor and joins him cross-legged on the floor. Now then, what does he want to know...? His present concerns don't extend far beyond wanting to go the fuck home, but seeing as that's an unrealistic ask, he'll stick with an old classic:]

What's my love life looking like?

[Will he get a girl/boyfriend? Perhaps ten? One for each arm will do nicely, thank you.]

[silentabyss]

[Ah, a fellow useless bisexual!

The readings do come out of the goodness of the teller's heart on account of Noah has not realised this is something he can do to make money, but also because he's still learning his way around the art of tarot reading, so he wouldn't want to charge anyway. Noah's deck is moderately different from your standard tarot deck; all of the major arcana are astral bodies, though someone with knowledge in tarot would be able to derive after a bit that they mean the same things as a normal deck would.]

Love life, huh?

[Noah nods and shuffles the deck a couple of times, cuts the cards, and then settles on a five-card spread, laying out cards in a plus sign shape. He flips the middle card first, and squints like he's trying to recall what the card means before speaking.]

Draco, Upright. [The Wheel of Fortune, basically. But with a dragon on it.] This card represents you as you are now. It seems like there are some big changes coming your way. If you resist them, you're going to find they manifest in a less-than-desirable way, so go with the flow. [Beat.] You might have issues with resisting big change, being here, which I get. Don't do that.

[The deck says do not. Noah flips over the card on the left side of the plus sign. It's the Three of Cups, upright.]

This second card in the spread is about past relationships and influences on your life. It's the Three of Cups — a card about sharing love. I don't know what you did before coming here, but you must have had someone important to you, right...? Keep them in your mind if that's the case.

[Noah moves on to flip the bottommost card.]

This position in the spread is about the issues in your life you need to address before you let love in. The card is the Eight of Wands... it seems like you might move too fast. Whoever you find, you'll probably connect with them quickly, you might even become obsessed with them, but that could come back to bite you in the long run. Being obsessed with someone isn't good. Remember to slow down and go with the flow.

[He taps the Wheel of Fortune Draco with his finger, then moves on to flip the topmost card.]

This card represents areas that need more development before you let love in. It's a little like the third card. In this case, it's the Queen of Swords. ...are you maybe not that good with displaying emotions, or someone who can be overanalytical? Or maybe you're hiding emotions behind something like a smile? [He's just guessing based on card meaning, but if that's the case, he absolutely gets it.] She's asking for you to work on being more genuine, if that's true.

[Finally, he flips the rightmost card in the spread. It's labelled "XIV -Horologium" with an image of a ticking grandfather clock on it, a constellation drawn through the actual art itself. In a normal deck, this would be Temperance.]

This last card is the likely outcome in your quest for love. Um... basically, if you find balance in your life — going with the flow but remembering not to get obsessed or move too fast, and working on showing your true colours rather than hiding under a mask, and keeping what you care about close to your heart, you should find a fulfilling but balanced love life. [He taps the Three of Cups, wondering if there really is anyone in Akira's life who had showed him love before, but he doesn't ask because he doesn't want to be nosy.] Horologium wants you to make sure you have perfect balance before getting started, though.

[All of the fluff from the Eight of Wands and the Queen of Swords are in agreement.]

[adsum]

[ hello... hi...

Keigo pokes their head in when they see Noah and the cards ]

How far into the future can you see...?

[ Do they get to exist past March? that's mostly what they want to ask ]

[silentabyss]

[!! Hello!]

Well... I don't really know. I let the cards lead.

[According to his research, that's what you're supposed to do. Let the cards lead as you divine fate.]

S...sorry. I don't have anything like a natal chart or a good way to read the heavens... But if you have a question in mind that's not a yes-or-no question, the deck should be able to help.

[Because tarot doesn't really do well with yes-no questions, but if they wanted to word their "will they exist past March" question in a non yes-no way, that could work.]

[adsum]

[ "Will everything be okay," they want to ask, a question ever present in their life, but it's so broad that they have to take a mental step back and think a moment. It's like making a wish... it has to be something impossible. ]

What... do I have to do...

[ ...something impossible... ]

...to save my brother?

[ They look up at Noah like is this a valid question, if it's not they have a thousand more at the ready ]

i'm fucking weeping i died and left this for 2wks and now theyre dead,

[silentabyss]

[That's a valid question! Noah nods and sets to work, shuffling and shuffling again, idly wondering who Keigo's brother is — he thinks it might be Amami if he's remembering right, like, in the adoptive sense. But maybe it's one of their blood siblings?

It's an important detail and Noah should ask about it, but he doesn't, and he keeps shuffling until—

Without explanation, a single card jumps out of the deck and lands on the floor between them. Noah's hands stop moving as he parses what just happened, and then he silently sets the deck aside and picks up the fallen card.]

Oh... um. It's... The Tower, Reversed.

[Noah gently tucks the card back into the deck like he's almost afraid of it. When Fate deigns to throw a card out of the deck at you, that's The Card, and you listen to it. That's unfortunate, because...]

...there's... nothing you can do. The Tower says to not resist change — or rather that you can't resist it, but you can only brace for impact.

[He looks sheepish, honestly, that his deck would give such a response.]

[notsosou]

[Shin's curious as he's waved over and sits down, especially since, well, Noah has magic and so he's assuming this will have some actual power behind it, but what to ask?]

If you like... Ahaha, I'm not sure there'd be anything good, though...

[He's tempted to ask about his future, but... it's not like he has a good history when it comes to predictions of it (much as I the mun personally would love a classic past-present-future spread).

Instead of what's certain to be in his future... maybe.]

What do they say about what I should do next?

[In other words, how to achieve his goals? Keeping the people he cares about safe, keeping himself safe, finding a way for everyone to leave the school if they want to, unraveling it's mysteries in general before the current cycle ends, and things he doesn't even know he should be doing yet... what kind of person does he need to become if he's going to achieve these things?]

[silentabyss]

[There's a slight touch of magic in this deck. He can use it to give people passive attack buffs and stuff, but currently he's using it to try and divine the future. He's not quite as good at this stuff as Natsume is, but it's good to practice on all your friends by potentially making them scared for the future, yes?]

Mm... okay. Let's see...

[He shuffles the deck a couple of times thoroughly, puts it down on the floor between them, cuts the cards... with that all taken care of, he thinks for a moment. What's a good way to find out what to do next? Noah decides to use a simple three-card reading instead of one of the more complicated types that could answer that question but would take far too long to do. Laying out two cards facedown on the floor between himself and Shin, he says,]

The leftmost card represents you as you are now, the middle card is issues you need to tackle, and the rightmost card is what Fate believes you should do next to tackle those issues and move forward — okay?

[Okay! And with that, Noah flips the leftmost card. If Shin is familiar with tarot at all, he'll find that the numbers on the cards match up with your standard arcana, but they're all named for astral bodies.]

...the first card is Jupiter, Reversed. [The Emperor, is what that is in a regular run-of-the-mill deck. Noah squints down at the card to recall its meaning, and then carefully says,] ...the deck thinks you're a rigid individual. Are you struggling with stress because you're too hard on yourself? Maybe you're not sleeping enough because of that or something?

[He looks at Shin seriously for a moment before his eyes flick back down to the cards and he flips the middlemost.]

Columba, Reversed. [The card is marked with a 0 — the number of The Fool. There's a nice drawing of a dove on the card, the constellation running through the drawing.] Normally, this card signifies the beginning of a journey, but it's Reversed, so... it says that this new journey or beginning is something that you're reluctant to jump into. Or will be reluctant to jump into, since this is the future. This goes in line with Jupiter saying you're too rigid, I think.

[He flips over the last card, another major arcana. This one is labelled "VII - Auriga" and depicts a man riding a chariot with an almost-rectangular constellation drawn through it. It's the only upright card, and is synonymous with The Chariot if the picture wasn't glaringly obvious.]

What you should do, according to Auriga... first and foremost, you need to take better care of yourself. [If Jupiter thinks you're stressed, buddy, you've gotta find some stress relief.] Furthermore, you should cast out the fear you have of jumping into a new journey and just go for it. You can't get whatever it is you want if you don't take a leap. Um... stay focused on your goals if you want to achieve them, too, and you should be successful.

[Pausing, Noah leans back a bit, folding his hands in his lap.]

All in all, Fate says you need to learn to loosen up a bit so that you can have this "next", if that makes sense. Or, alternatively, the next thing you should do is loosen up a bit so you can focus more on your goals? S-something like that...

[subtract]

[I could put Clamor here....... but it's funnier if it's Add, so he's going to show up first, fuck ur stupid magic card bullshit. He wrinkles his nose at whatever Noah is probably practising right now like the concept of fortunetelling itself personally offends him.

... because it does, really. He's a time traveller. Why should he listen to what fate has to say?]

Don't tell me you take that garbage seriously.

[silentabyss]

[Noah's trying to learn the Celtic Cross spread which is the worst spread in tarot reading in this essay I will—]

I'd be lying to you and you'd see right through it if I did.

[Noah wants to roll his eyes, but, well... if Add time travels so much, he guesses it makes sense Add wouldn't believe fate. That, and Add's a scientist, and Noah finds that people who are really good at science just don't believe in things like this.

It makes more sense to him when he thinks of Senku maybe not buying into it since Senku's world doesn't have magic, but Add? Erm, yeah buddy, maybe you time travelling is a form of fate. Hmm...]

The cards were scattered in my room, and... I found the last one in my brother's spellbook, which... [His expression softens.] I haven't told anyone that it showed up. I wonder if Harque was here at some point or if he's trying to help me in some way.

[Not the point. Noah shakes his head like he's trying to rid himself of sentimentality.]

Do you want your fortune read?

[subtract]

I didn't ask for your life's story... [SIGHS, he's bitching but really... he doesn't mind that much. he's more annoyed that Noah is telling someone like him all these weirdly personal details like they're friends... isn't that kind of stuff supposed to be private? why would Add be the first person he tells this to?? if he's supposed to say something to that he's already fucked it up, so welp]

... reading the future, I don't doubt it's possible but the activity is completely pointless. Time isn't a straight line, it's an infinitely splintering web of possible outcomes. It's impossible to know which thread your time will diverge to until the present catches up with your so-called prediction. All you're doing is rolling the dice and hoping your guess is relevant. If you're close enough to claim it was "right", then you say your prediction was accurate. If the future you predicted never occurs, then you say it was avoided thanks to the prediction...

Besides, you realize I'm an entity that exists outside of linear time? What makes you think you can read my future? If something happens that I don't like, I'll simply reset it. This school can't limit me forever.

[he's saying all these words about how stupid tarot is and how much he doesn't care about it, and yet... he is still here. talking about this.]

[silentabyss]

Uh-huh.

[Noah, not listening to this, starts shuffling his cards. Intermittently he'll say "yeah", "okay", "sure" and such so that Add gets the sense that he's listening even though he's wholly focused on drawing a card and setting it out between the duo.]

"If something happens that I don't like, I'll reset it", which means the fortune was correct and that it happened, just that you got mad and reset the timeline. [Checkmate. Noah flips the card he drew over.] So, anyway...

Your card is Pegasus, Upright. [The Magician, technically. There's a constellation that looks absolutely nothing like a winged horse on the card art, overlaying a chalklike drawing of an actual pegasus.] The good news is, the deck thinks you're more than capable and that you have the skills needed to be successful in... whatever it is you do. As for a fortune, Fate says you're going to have positive changes coming your way, but you're going to have to use your intellect and willpower to make that happen. What you define as a positive change is up to you, of course.

You're welcome.

[waitingforplayer2]

[ Very, very, very late in February - like, in its waning hours - an extremely weary and exhausted gamer girl approaches Noah and sinks into a chair in front of him.

She's heard about the tarot readings and she's even seen a few. Hope's Peak wasn't absent its share of occultists, and they show up in games too, so she's at least a little bit familiar with the concept. Not that she's previously held much stake in the idea, but...

This is a girl at the end of her rope. At its core, it's also just looking for ... she doesn't know what, maybe comfort or maybe just companionship, with a friend.

It's a long time before she's able to voice her question. But she came here knowing what she wanted to ask the cards. It's just hard to say out loud. ]

Why am I here? [ There's a lot couched in that question - why has she been brought here; what is she supposed to do next; what reason does she have for existing in this strange in-between way. She doesn't know which of those to ask.

So she goes broad. She doesn't know what else to do. In this case... start with the big picture, and narrow it down later. ]

[silentabyss]

[Noah sits and waits patiently until such time as she can voice her question, already shuffling his cards to fill the silence in the interim. When she speaks, he fixes her with a glance — sympathetic to her plight, because he asks himself that every day, though maybe in a different context.

One card could answer this question. One card, and if she wants to ask more, she's welcome to. Noah sets the deck down between the two of them and pulls a card, flipping it so that she can see it.]

...it's The Sun, Upright.

...

It's because you make people happy.

[It's a question of existence, "Why am I here?", and that's how the deck answers it. Perhaps it's also an answer as to why she died and came here. Maybe every purgatory needs someone like Nanami to keep them happy, even if she's crumbling doing so.

Noah recalls always feeling happy in her presence. How could Fate disagree with that?]

I mean... that's simplifying it a lot, but that's the gist of it. The Sun is a card that represents positivity, freedom, optimism, and fun. It says that people are drawn to you because of that, and that you breathe life into everyone you meet. It's a warm card for a warm person. It's... fitting for you, I think.

[waitingforplayer2]

[ Success. The dam finally breaks. Nanami covers her face with her hands to hide her quiet tears as best she can.

When she's finally able to look at him again, still shaking with emotion, she hesitantly finds her voice again. ]

Even now... the cards still see that. I wonder... [ She looks away. She had a feeling she was like that before, but... so much has happened since Hope's Peak. ]

[socialize]

( tarot isn't exactly something she's familiar with, but it isn't something that maple finds herself unable to recognize either, as she gets a peek at one of the cards a certain very special boy has brought into the room during another one of his readings. and, to be honest, it is a little bit tempting. don't get her wrong, science may be the very heart of asunaro, and it may be the heart of how she was made, but... well, suffice to say she's always been made to be a little bit of a romantic at heart. of course this isn't an opportunity she could bring herself to pass up on!

oh, but she shouldn't be presumptuous either, should she? so it's with a smile on her face that she'll wait her turn to make her way over to the boy, tentatively leaning over so she can get a closer peek at his cards before she meets his eyes with a smile. )

Hey, hey, are you doing readings, by chance?

[silentabyss]

[The cards are very pretty and nice — a little larger than traditional tarot cards are, and riddled with constellations in the art. He looks up when she approaches and smiles — he doesn't know her, must be new.]

H-hi. [Shy mode: activated.] Um... yes, I can do readings. Do you want one? I-I mean I'm assuming since you asked...

[His face turns red. Oh no, help him.]

[socialize]

( oh, how cute! he might seem a little timid, but maple's expression is warm and hopeful, and she supposes ranmaru was a bit shy in his own right. shin too, come to think of it. so she has some experience with this type, and hopefully he can warm up to her if they chat a little. )

If you could! I have something I really want to ask about.

( and saying that, she'll straighten out her skirt a little, sitting herself down across from the boy. )

Do you do love fortunes?

[shimashima]

[ Oh? The boy seated on the floor is beckoning to him? Alice glances around for confirmation, and indeed, it seems that the invitation is meant for him — there's no one behind him. Surprising though it may be, it makes him curious. The scene is set up for people to have their fortune told, so perhaps this boy is offering every passer-by such services.

It's presumably in good fun, a harmless activity, and nothing involving spells or curses. Approaching, Alice stops in front of the stranger, lowering himself to his knees after a moment, expectantly. ]

Yes? I accept your offer.

[ What should he request, to narrow it down? Hmm... ]

Do you specialize in any particular fortunes?

[silentabyss]

[Certainly nothing involving spells or curses! Noah couldn't cast a curse to save his life, actually.]

Specialize... um, well, I've done a lot of love readings recently, and things about "what should I do next". But I wouldn't say I specialize in anything specific, no. You can ask anything, as long as it's not a yes or no question.

[Tarot cards do not like yes-no questions.]

[shimashima]

[ Giving the options presented to him some consideration, Alice rubs his chin. Love readings certainly sound popular, and it could be interesting to hear what the cards divine. Why not? Even if he doesn't necessarily put much stock in their predictions... ]

In that case... I've made my choice! I shall request a love reading as well, since you're clearly an expert to consult. What does the future hold?