fandomhigh | Hubris from Revelation: the Social Engineering of Ultimate Truths [Monday, Period 3]

Ghanima was completely unaffected by whatever was going around this week, apparently, as she sat serenely in front of the class.

Sometimes, being able to control yourself on the cellular level to, say, render a certain pollen inert was fantastic.

"Some of you are most likely having concentration issues today, so we'll keep this simple," she said, trying to keep a neutral face (though some essence of a smile was probably peeking through).

"Earlier in the semester we talked about prophets and oracles, and you had the chance to read your fortunes i if you liked. Now, since we're closer to the end of the semester, you have another chance to read your fate, or the fates of your classmates."

She gestured around the room, at the tarot cards, bones, oracle cards, kau chim, polished crystals, and various other ~~moddable~~ devices. "There's many different ways to see the future. Just no necromancy in class, please."

Who knows? Perhaps visions of tiny visitors would dance in their heads!

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Tell your future! Or someone else's! Or just read lots of books about fortune telling, and try to focus on the words. Ghani won't judge. Much.

If she's there!

She's there, using her own Dune tarot to idly flip through and see what's just under the surface of the world.

sorry, it's the anniversary of my dad's death, so I'm a little scattered. BUT if anyone wants an Atreides to read their cards, hit me up in Ghani's thread!

Lana Beniko

Concentration issues? Lana had spent most of the morning meditating, and had thoroughly channeled an awful lot of energy through the Force. Now she really needed to use it all for something.

Lana was here. And possibly throwing bones and shuffling cards with the Force; anything to use some of the excess energy she had.

Force meditation could sometimes reveal the future. Actual visions weren't one of Lana's strengths, but that just meant it took more energy to try, which was just fine with her!

After a bit of (largely failed) meditation for visions, Lana came over to see what Lady Ghanima was doing.

"Those cards look different from the others," she noted.

The others mostly just looked like a fancy sabacc deck.

Astrid Magnussen

Was Astrid going straight for the tarot cards?

Of course Astrid was going straight for the tarot cards.

She was tempted to ask if she could run upstairs for her mother's white kimono, because it felt a little wrong doing a Magnussen reading without it, but she figured it would be fine.

She was also tempted to just do a quick reading on herself, just to see if maybe, just maybe, anything that hinted toward something...romantic was in the cards, which was something she'd never really dream or hope to do for herself before, but it was just that sort of day, she supposed.

On the other side of that coin, though, was the fact that she wasn't sure she actually would want to know.

She was curious what the cards would turn up today, though, shuffling them idly and looking around to see if anyone looked like they might be feeling a little adventurous or interested.

"They are unique to my dimension, as far as I can tell," Ghanima said, fingers shuffling the six-sided cards with the ease of someone long-familiar with their deck. "Anyone can use them where I am from, it requires no particular magic, but the greater your talent with simulflow or prescience, the more accurate a reading you can get."

"It is the easiest way for me to glimpse the futures my brother can see so clearly, without indulging in a Spice trance myself."

"Sorry," Lana said, "simulflow? Spice trance?"

These were foreign terms to her.

"You'd be quite good at simulflow, actually, with training," Ghanima replied thoughtfully. "It is literally the simultaneous flow of several threads of consciousness at any given time; mental multitasking, as it were. I can consult my genetic memory, my own memory, and process all sensory and extra-sensory input at the same time to arrive at a conclusion that seems almost instantaneous to most people."

"The Spice is... life," she continued, gesturing to her eyes. "Long life and health, for almost everyone. Death, should you stop taking it. The cornerstone of interstellar travel. My mother's people use it to create almost everything; paper, plastics, explosives, cloth... it a naturally produced awareness spectrum narcotic that forms a fundamental block of commerce and technological development for the entire Imperium, and influenced much of the culture of my home planet, as we are the only source of the drug."

"And, for some of us who have been bred for it, it can awaken the ability to see the paths of the future with a clarity that others can never possess. It is possible to purposely overdose on the drug, and enter a trance that allows you to look forward and backwards through time."

"It sounds like an amazing substance," Lana said. "Very different from the drug my galaxy calls 'spice'."

She eyed the cards and Lady Ghanima. "I don't know which to ask first - which paths of the future you see, or if you can teach me simulflow. Maybe the latter? Enhancing the present sounds better to me than knowing potential futures."

"To know the future is to be trapped by it. Ironically enough, it is my goal to make these--" Ghanima tapped the cards, "--worthless. Artistic relics, perhaps, or a game, but fundamentally unusable. A universe of infinite surprises, that is what I crave. For the most part, I use these for amusement. I've only really attempted to see the future once, and only because I saw no other way out of the situation. I'd rather never do it again."

"But the simulflow...it requires both mental and physical training, to be able to handle simultaneous input and to sharpen the senses you already have. It's a substantial time investment. Are you sure you're willing to undertake it?"

"Are the results worth it?" Lana asked.

"You're a little old to start the training," Ghanima said bluntly. "Which will make it more difficult. Usually, the Sisterhood starts girls the moment they can sit-up as babies."

"That being said--" There was a blurring of air, and Ghanima was on the other side of Lana. "The results have multiple applications, if you can achieve them. And I have never let what the Sisterhood thought was proper dictate a single thing I've done, and I've had remarkable success with non-traditional students previously."

Lana grinned. She could just feel how she had moved in the Force, but not how it had happened; that could definitely be worth it. And the faster thinking even more so.

"Fortunately, I love to learn." She bowed. "I would be grateful for your teaching, Lady Ghanima."

Hubris from Revelation: the Social Engineering of Ultimate Truths [Monday, Period 3]

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