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]

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.

[maellum]

[That gets a real laugh out of her, albeit brief.]

Poor Gustave. Do we tease him too much?

[... nah.]

[cache_coeur]

[A grin.]

He misses it when we don’t. I know it in my heart.

[maellum]

Oh, it's obvious! He likes the attention.

[And they're happy to give it. He knows the teasing comes from a fond place.]

[cache_coeur]

[She smiles, turning from Maelle briefly to check herself in the front hall mirror, adjusting the way her trousers sit. She still offers, playfully:]

Would you like to set up another little trick, before I head out?

[maellum]

Oh? Do tell.

[Maelle is sitting up, now. She's all ears.]

[cache_coeur]

[She goes to her handbag and sets it on the back of the couch so she can rummage, eventually producing one of those tiny clear elastics. She’d found them in her bathroom of her California house, and, ironically, kept a few to give Gustave. Maybe they’d be useful in some machine or something. What does she know?

Either way, Gustave will know them soon. Sciel goes over and deposits it into Maelle’s palm.]

Put this around the trigger on the kitchen sink’s spray hose. He’ll turn it on and…

[She mimes a blast with a flap of her fingers.]

[maellum]

[Maelle looks down at the little elastic, folds her hand closed, and holds it to her chest. A promise. Her grin is wide.]

Oooh. Evil. He's going to yell your name first.

[cache_coeur]

Oh, he’ll know. I’ve tried it before with bits of wire, but he notices. That’s part of the game!

[She smiles. Maybe he’ll even catch this one! It’s not completely invisible. She reaches out to gently pinch Maelle’s cheek, playful.]

And you need to practice keeping a straight face!

[maellum]

He's going to start checking every part of this apartment for traps.

[Not that Maelle wouldn't find it hilarious. He certainly never had to worry about that in Lumiere with her and Emma.

At the pinch, she laughs, playfully ducking away from Sciel's fingers.]

I'm going to need to be in a different room. I'll know when I hear the spray of water and Sciel!

[cache_coeur]

It’ll be extra funny, then, with you tearing across the apartment to get out of sight.

[She tries one more time, just to be funny, and then relents and goes to fetch her shoes instead.]

Now I’m off. I shouldn’t be too late, but call me if you need anything, alright? I’m never too plastered for you.