Defying Expectations, Tuesday, Per 3

[glacial_queen]

Karla had promised the class no final last week and she had no intentions of going back on her word for that, especially after the weekend the island had just had. They were meeting in the Danger Shop for their last class, though the food and drink from JGOB and the Perk were all real enough. The Danger Shop was programmed to look like an amusement park, complete with rides and games, though there was one pavilion tent sitting rather prominently in front of the midway.

"I hope you've all gotten some ideas on ways to avoid or defy whatever expectations you're facing in the future. Whether it's just carving out a little more room for yourself under the weight of your parents' wants or deliberately turning your back on whatever fate has in store for you, I wish you all the best of luck." Karla toasted the class with a cup of tea, giving them all a smile. "For the next hour, feel free to ride the rides and play games of skill to your hearts' content, though any prizes you win will be unable to leave with you. But for those who are interested, I've programmed another guest."

The tent flap opened to reveal an older woman standing there. "This is Helene--sorta--my mentor in the Hourglass. As a Black Widow, she is capable of seeing into the future." There was more than just simple Damger Shop protocols involved with that, but Karla saw no reason to get into that. "Black Widows are the caste of dreams and prophecies. For those who are interested, she'll take a glimpse of into your future and tell you what she sees." Helene didn't look much like an amusement park fortune teller; she was dressed sensibly, in sturdy blues and grays, with no shawls or turbans in sight. And she made no grand pronouncements or tried to entice anyone in to see her, she simply nodded at the class and returned into her tent.

"Regardless of whether you want your fortune told, have fun for the next hour and perhaps I'll se some of you next semester. Either way, I wish you best of luck for whatever life holds for you."

Comments

Get Your Fortune Told

[glacial_queen]

Enter Lady Helen's Tent of Mystery, which really isn't all that mysterious. The inside is decorated to look like a small sitting room, complete with tea (for drinking, not reading), some comfortable chairs, and a nice book. The only thing out of place is a large web made out of silk inside a wooden frame on the coffee table.

[Without further input from a player, all Helen's fortunes will be vague references to canon. No major spoilers will be given without permission from the player and I'll be more than happy to edit if the prophecy gives too much away.]

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[giveherahand]

"I don't really believe in this stuff, you know," Mara said as she sat down.

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[glacial_queen]

Helene didn't look fazed by Mara's announcement. "It may not be real in your world," she said, sipping at her tea. "Darkness knows that this world's images of witches is ridiculous enough. I wouldn't be surprised if the same idiocy surrounded the idea of seeing the future."

Her voice was tart, more like a teacher with limited patience than a fortune-teller trying to lure in customers.

"You don't have to believe in what I can do for it to work," she added. "Besides, you believe enough to sit down and try it."

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[giveherahand]

"I was being polite," Mara said with a little smile. Tartness she was used to. Open hostility was homey too.

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[glacial_queen]

Then she was going to love Helene. She'd overseen a large coven, including a traumatized, nine year old Karla who'd been prone to acting out. Suffering fools gladly was not in her repertoire, even as a hologram.

"I'd rather have you be polite and disbelieving, than rude and convinced," Helene said, pouring herself more tea. "Care for a cuppa, dear? Or would you prefer we get right on? You were curious enough to come inside, even if it was just to tell me you were too smart to fall for anything."

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[giveherahand]

"I'd love some tea," Mara said. "The niceties are important."

She'd been trained to be a very polite assassin.

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[glacial_queen]

"It'll give you something to occupy your time with, while I engage in some superstitious claptrap for your entertainment," Helene said, a wry twist to her lips. "Usually, a reading like this calls for blood, but Karla says she worked around that." She snorted. "If it's anything like some of her workarounds back in her journeymaid days, we'll be lucky if we don't end up exploding. Impatient girl."

Because that was just what Mara was hoping for today. A trip down memory lane, starring her teacher and accompanied by an old woman who swore she was a prophetess.

"Here," she said, pushing over both a cup of tea and the spiderweb-in-a-box. "Run your finger down the center strand in the web, and then you may fix your tea however you like. We have cream, honey, sugar, and lemon, but not milk because we're not barbarians."

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[giveherahand]

Mara, looking bemused, touched her finger down the web, then took her tea and added some lemon.

Re: Get Your Fortune Told--NFB, thanks

[glacial_queen]

Not a bad way to take one's tea. Helene would nod approvingly, if she weren't busy manipulating the energies in the web to peer into Mara's future.

When she spoke again, her voice had a faint, echoing quality, as if she were talking from the other side of a long hallway.

"The Empire will fall, little Hand, and all your blades in the dark cannot keep it standing. The seeds of its destruction were sown before its creation and there is nothing you can do about it. But you will not remain standing, and you will wander, and you will find yourself lost in a dark wood. But in that dark wood, you will find the light."

Re: Get Your Fortune Told--NFB, thanks

[giveherahand]

Mara was shocked to her toes, which meant that her eyes widened almost imperceptibly as she sipped her tea.

"I'm not one to spent time outside, really," she commented. "There aren't a lot of woods in my future."

Re: Get Your Fortune Told--NFB, thanks

[glacial_queen]

"So you say, little Hand," Helene said, setting the box aside and picking up her tea. "But you also don't expect to see the end of the Empire in your future, but there it is."

Re: Get Your Fortune Told--NFB, thanks

[giveherahand]

"The Empire has been set up to last for centuries," Mara said haughtily.

Re: Get Your Fortune Told--NFB, thanks

[glacial_queen]

Helene wasn't even going to dignify that with a 'bitch, please' expression. Not when she could give the universe a 'Can you believe this kid?' look instead.

"So?" she asked, draining her cup. "I'm sure many of the people you've killed also expected to live a lot longer, too."

RE: Get Your Fortune Told

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa had really mostly just ducked in here because out there was loud, and she needed to go somewhere that was less in your face to catch her breath for a few minutes. She blinked in confusion at the sight of the room within, though, and for a half a second, her knee-jerk thought was that she was clearly in the wrong place, and maybe she should leave.

It probably showed on her face a bit, at that.

"Oh! I-- I'm sorry. I was expecting..." She stopped and frowned a little. She wasn't sure just what she was expecting. The last person (or troll) she'd met who had told her fortune for her had been right at his figurative doorstep out in the mountains. Why not a living room?

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[glacial_queen]

"You didn't expect me, dearie, and that's just fine." Helene was pouring herself more tea, and waved at a second teacup in invitation. "We approach things differently in Kaeleer than people do here. What we do is real, so we don't bother to dress it up. Care to sit down?"

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Oh, tea. Elsa would never say no to that, and she even smiled and dropped a slight curtsy before making her way over to sit.

Whether she needed her fortune told or not, this was by far preferable to the noise and bustle going on outside.

"Thank you," she said, smiling faintly. "I'm not terribly used to all of the spectacle outside, I'm afraid."

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[glacial_queen]

"You're going to need to get used to it," Helene said bluntly, indicating the chair across from her before picking up the pot and pouring into a delicate bone china teacup. "You may not be a Queen the way I'm used to, but I'd have to be a deaf and blind failure of a Black Widow to miss the signs."

She offered Elsa a wry smile to go with the tea. "If it helps any, the reluctant Queens are usually the best ones. They know too well the price of failure."

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa bit her lip and nodded a little before tentatively making a reach for her tea.

"It helps... a little," she replied. "It's what I've been raised to do. I can't imagine walking away from the responsibility of it."

As terrified of it as she was.

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[glacial_queen]

"It's not enough to guarantee that you'll be a good Queen, but it's a better foundation than most," Helene declared. Apparently, she was also a graduate from the same school of diplomacy that Karla had attended. "And it's a good reminder that there's more to your position than pomp and circumstance."

She pushed the box containing the spiderweb towards Elsa. "Usually, this requires a drop of blood to work, but Karla believes she has a workaround. Normally, the very idea of a Karla-related workaround would have me in a panic, but I haven't been programmed for useful responses." Her lips thinned and she rolled her eyes. "Instead of blood, I simply need you to touch the center strand. Actually touch it, with skin."

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa winced a little, and then set down her tea.

"I'd almost be more comfortable with giving you a drop of blood," she admitted, looking down at her gloved hands. Of course today would be one of the days she chose her gloves over the bracelets Barry had made for her. "Do I have to hold it there for long?"

She was willing to give this a go, fake Helene, but if she had to maintain that contact and her fortune got upsetting, it was going to get chilly in here fast.

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[glacial_queen]

Helene gave her a small smile. "Not long. Though your cheek would serve just as well, if you wanted." Sure, nuzzling the web would be weird, but Elsa still might find it more comfortable than taking off her gloves. "Finding the wiggle room inside your restrictions makes life easier. Especially for Queens, bound by laws and treaties as they are. Your survival--or that of another--might depend on finding new ways to interpret the words of another."

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

"True, and I'll most certainly be working toward learning that," Elsa replied, her smile going a little warmer as she nodded at Helene's words. "But as a Queen, I'm going to have to learn when to and need to be willing to step out of my comfort zone as well. An inflexible Queen will leave her kingdom with no room to grow, and herself with no room to learn, and I would like to do as much of that as I possibly can."

Elsa had learned a thing or two, it seemed, since coming to the island almost a year ago. She took a deep breath, and then carefully pulled her glove from her hand, reaching one finger to delicately touch the web.

"Here and now, I have control of what happens if I push my comfort zone for a few moments. And... more pragmatically speaking and without meaning any offense, I won't be hurting anybody real in this room, if I'm wrong."

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[glacial_queen]

"That's what I like to see," Helene said. "A good girl with her head on her shoulders. You keep that up and you'll do fine. You take all the time you need, dear--or as little, I suppose-- and push the web back towards me when you're ready."

Re: Get Your Fortune Told

[iceolatedqueen.livejournal.com]

Elsa was still smiling as she ran her finger delicately along the spidersilk, tracing the threads of the web for a few moments. She pulled her hand away again and put her glove on only once she noticed a thin layer of frost along one of the strands where her finger had passed, and frowned a little at it.

Once her glove was back on her hand, she reached to move the web back toward Helene.

"I'm sorry," she said, softly, "if the frost obscures the reading."

Or if it damaged the web at all, but she was mostly just holding her breath and hoping that wasn't a possibility at all.

Re: Get Your Fortune Told--NFB, please!

[glacial_queen]

"A little frost won't hurt it," Helene assured her. "It gives the Craft a bit more to work with, in fact. Besides, the Blood are no strangers to frost and ice. We just limit it to when we're angry."

She picked up the box and had her fingers follow the path of Elsa's own, readying her Craft to read what the threads told her.

When she spoke again, her voice came from a distance, echoing slightly. That which you fear will come to pass. But fear can turn to freedom; some chains must be worn if only too see how to be broken. Leash your fear, learn to control it, and perhaps this path I see will not come to pass. Control is strength and love is an open door.