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

[will_chase_balls]

Yeah. I'll do my best no matter what. I'd say whatever god made a system that needs anyone to choose entire universes to be destroyed is cruel and sadistic, but that's how gods are.

[cache_coeur]

Must there be a god at all?

[will_chase_balls]

I'm pretty sure there are gods, but it's not like they do anything to help anyone so they're definitely not needed.

[cache_coeur]

I can’t say I feel any differently, though I do think I stopped believing in them recently.

[will_chase_balls]

Oh yeah? Why's that?

[cache_coeur]

I looked one in the eye and found her to be… human, in some way. No different from us.

[will_chase_balls]

That makes sense. Seekers of the Blood of Vol believe that everyone has divinity within, and everyone has the power to become a god, and that the only reason new people don't achieve godhood anymore is that those who have already achieved it strike down anyone who comes close so they can retain their unique status. We believe people are only mortal because gods fear us living long enough to become like them, and the only reason they tolerate the undead living forever is because someone has to have their own living blood to achieve divinity.

[cache_coeur]

[Well, that tracks.]

How do the gods prevent them from manifesting what is already within them?

[will_chase_balls]

It takes a very long time and lots of study to discover how to manifest the divinity within. Legend has it there was a member of the house of Vol who came close, and the gods struck her down as well as her entire bloodline.

[cache_coeur]

And she had no way to defend herself against them?

[will_chase_balls]

If she did, it clearly wasn't enough.

[cache_coeur]

Well, obviously not!

So what is Vol?

[will_chase_balls]

Vol was her surname.

[cache_coeur]

Ah. And others seek her blood?

[will_chase_balls]

It's figurative. Not literal. It's the name of the religion because Seekers hope mortals will one day find whatever she discovered.

Only without the smiting.

[cache_coeur]

Sounds like quite the ordeal. Do you think they’ll be successful?

[will_chase_balls]

Sooner or later, I'm sure someone will succeed at it, especially if they have enough time to research it. Since vampires are doing the majority of the research, time is something they have more than enough of.

Oh, I almost forgot. I'm supposed to tell you an anecdote. Want to hear about a time I did a stealth mission in clown make-up?

[cache_coeur]

[That pulls a laugh from her.]

Yes, I would love to hear your clown story.

[will_chase_balls]

So, we were all supposed to be sneaking into this warehouse/factory thing that was being used as a front, except I'd been spotted scouting it out the day before and had to hide my face. I happened to have a clown costume, so I figured I'd just use that, so I got all dressed up and walked in the front door to pretend I wanted to order the stuff they were making for my act while my friends snuck in through the back. It was actually working and I had them convinced, but I heard a fight break out so I ended up shifting and tearing through the place to get to them and back them up.

Anyway, I still had my make-up and costume on, but people actually seemed more terrified of a wolfman in clown make-up than a regular, non-clownified wolfman.

[cache_coeur]

[Oh, she’s still laughing.]

You know, a mime I could manage. A clown? I don’t think I’d want to meet a clown in battle. Much too frightening.

[will_chase_balls]

Apparently a lot of people agree with you on that. I never knew clowns were so scary.

[cache_coeur]

[Amused:]

What do you think it is that people find frightening? The smile?

[will_chase_balls]

Maybe it's the painted on smile with wolf teeth behind it. Both halves of it being scarier than either on it's own.

[cache_coeur]

Though it does make me wonder –– was it difficult to get out of your fur?

[will_chase_balls]

The trick was waiting until I shifted back to wash my face. I had some stubble I had to wash it out of, but that's not near as tricky as fur.