UN: ScielCandide | Video

[cache_coeur]

[The camera is fixed on a table, upon which sits a neat stack of cards –– black with gold foil in the shape of a sun and moon bisecting each other. The user’s hands pass over the deck and spreads it wide into an arc. Her hands are tanned, with two rings on her ring finger and one on her index finger, and she has so many colourful braided bracelets that some wind around her palm.

Her voice is pleasant, playful, French, a little theatrical:]

Bonsoir, mes amies!

Tonight and tonight only, I will tell your fortune with a single card. Tell me your name, and if you would like to hear about love, money, health or the soul.

If it moves you, you must repay me with an amusing anecdote about yourself.

Ready to play?

Comments

[cache_coeur]

Maelle! What a beautiful name. I’m pleased to tell you that the cards have a match for you!

The Seven of Cups says your lover is a dreamer. They have a tremendous ability to fantasize –– so much so that they can escape into a world of their own creation. An artist, of some sort. [She keeps going, just to lay it on thick:] They will inspire you with their ability to see all the possibilities of life, and to see the beauty and richness within it.

[maellum]

Any lover of mine would probably be begging to escape, yeah. A fantasy world in which they didn't make a very questionable choice.

[She laughs. This is so silly.]

[cache_coeur]

[She chuckles, too.]

How fortunate that they’ll have you to ground them, then. True love takes patience and discernment, and they’ll look to you for that.

[maellum]

Sounds like a lot of pressure.

[cache_coeur]

In equal measure! Getting your feet to float off the ground can’t be an easy task, either.

[maellum]

For one, I enjoy my feet firmly on the ground. [Stop being a brat, Maelle. She laughs again, knowing how she sounds.] I'm just not easily impressed, I guess.

[cache_coeur]

The cards don’t ask you to be, Maelle. They only ask you to be open to possibility.

[maellum]

Fine, fine. Consider me open to possibility.

[She could not sound more cynical.]

[cache_coeur]

You’ll thank yourself eventually!

[maellum]

And you'll be right to tell me you told me so.

[cache_coeur]

Never! I am just a conduit for the cards.

[maellum]

Are you having fun?

[cache_coeur]

A bit! The rest is hoping all this superstition will reach Lune and she’ll get annoyed enough to burst through the portal.

[maellum]

I believe in you. How many readings do you think you'll need to do?

[cache_coeur]

[She draws a card and looks at it off-camera. She replies, seriously:]

Five more and her return is guaranteed, but I must be patient and prepare.

[It also encourages her to communicate openly and work through any issues constructively, but she doesn’t need to say that part out loud.]

[maellum]

So... do we need to find a mop and bucket?

[cache_coeur]

[For the first time this whole evening, Sciel actually turns the camera on herself; her expression is amused.]

The floors are filthy. [By Lune standards.] Let’s.

[maellum]

[Groan!!! If she's in the apartment, she likely hears that somewhere down the hall, too.]

Tomorrow?

Off-network

[cache_coeur]

[Oh, she certainly does. She cuts the feed and gets up, padding across her room to poke her head out the door.]

If you want help, it’ll have to be. I’m going out for a drink shortly.

[maellum]

[Someone's been a little quiet lately, but it's been more contemplative than entirely depressed. She's just been particularly inclined to lounge since the end of the mission, starfishing on the couch, limbs hanging off the back and the heel of one foot on the floor. She's sixteen and this is comfortable.]

Yeah? You just posted that, how did you already manage an outing?

[At least that makes Maelle laugh.]

[cache_coeur]

[Sciel ventures out, following the sound of Maelle’s voice. She’s not surprised to find her sprawled out again, and she just smiles as she stands in the entrance of the living room, buttoning up her blouse as she goes.]

I asked.

[She stops buttoning at plunge of her very modest cleavage, and tucks the shirt into the waistband of her pants.]

Besides, it would be a waste of time to address so many people at once and not come out of it with an engagement.

[maellum]

[See, Maelle would likely never ask. Not with a stranger, which is what she assumes going on here. Socializing is exhausting, even when Maelle isn't the one actively doing it.]

Who are you meeting? Shall I leave a light on for you?

[Must be nice to not have a curfew!]

[cache_coeur]

I didn’t get his name. [Oops.] Just the front hall light is fine.

[That way if she comes home drunk as fuck, she won’t stumble around and wake the whole house up.]

[maellum]

[Up go Maelle's brows.]

Well, if Gustave asks, I'll make up a name.

[cache_coeur]

[Sciel gives a little huff, and jokes:]

Tell him Jean-Napoléon.