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]

[She laughs, good natured.]

Oh, no. Most of my loved ones need a dot on every 'I' and every 'T' crossed, and my handwriting is a little unpredictable, so to speak. I'm happy to do my part but I leave final decisions to my more ambitious companions.

[nottheboss]

That's how I like it, too. I never wanted to be the one in charge. Too much shit goes wrong.

You working with anyone here?

[cache_coeur]

So it does. That’s why they need people to support them, isn’t it?

[She nods.]

Three members of my team are here. It’s very funny to come here off a mission to save our people only to be told we have to save the entire world, too.

[nottheboss]

Yeah it's wild isn't it? To go from thinking your world is dead to hearing you can save it. Can't even picture what that'll look like.

[cache_coeur]

It's unusual. [She can picture it though, quite easily. The sun will rise the same way it always does, and this time everyone gets to keep living under it.] Are the people in your time still having children?

[nottheboss]

Yeah but probably not on purpose. I've seen pregnant women and babies, but kids get you killed, they make too much noise, draw in the rotters in herds.

[cache_coeur]

[Her brows knit.]

Oh, that's terrible. [All of it.] But easier to think it's dead if you'll have no one to pass it on to.

[nottheboss]

Yeah. Kids keep hope alive.

[He won't let himself think of Matthew and how tiny that body was to bury.]

You think you'll want a family after you save your world?

[cache_coeur]

[The question has her hesitating for the first time all day; she takes a little breath in before being honest anyway.]

I didn't imagine myself having one before my husband came along, but the desire didn't go away when he passed, either, so... I'll see where I am when the opportunity comes.

[nottheboss]

[He nods thoughtfully]

I like kids. I just can't picture a world where I'd have one. Definitely not the world I've got.

Anyway. What's a card that means bad shit's going down?

[cache_coeur]

[Sciel pauses, and there's the smile again, helplessly amused.]

Every card has a context. Why do you want the cards to tell you bad things?

[nottheboss]

[He fidgets. Does he want to hear bad things?]

So I can be prepared. Something bad happened to me back home. I don't want it to happen again.

[cache_coeur]

What happened?

[nottheboss]

[He can't look at her.

Get your chin up, he hears Pope say and he tries.]

My commander burned me. Killed me. He thought I was lying to him.

[cache_coeur]

[There's a little pinch to her brow, concern. How terrible.]

Things like that don't happen twice, nor can the cards warn you of someone coming to attack you. But they could help guide you through the process, if you wanted.

[nottheboss]

[He feels cold. Scrubs a hand over his face.]

Okay. Yeah. What's that look like?

[cache_coeur]

I can teach you how to do a reading. What all the cards mean is going to take some effort and practice on your art –– it's more than you'll memorize today –– but you could turn to the cards any time you had a question or felt unsure about what you needed to do.

[nottheboss]

[He desperately craves direction. He always has. He's just tired of getting that direction from people who want to hurt him.]

Yeah! Yes. I want that.

[He hands the card deck back to her.]

What do I do?

[cache_coeur]

[She takes the deck and shuffles it; she riffles and bridges them, so fast it's almost a sleight of hand.]

Shuffle, then fan. [She does so, spreading out the cards on the grass between them in one smooth arc. The foil glints in the sunlight.] You can get a more layered reading by pulling multiple cards, but it's easiest to pull one.

Think of your question for them.

[nottheboss]

[The question is the same one he's asked himself before starting anything new: will I be any good at it?]

What's the best reading you ever got?

[cache_coeur]

Draw one card and flip it towards you, rotating up. [She gestures; a swipe from navel to throat. He gets the second best:] The cards told me my husband was going to propose, so I went ahead and registered us to be married so I could surprise him, too. We had a good laugh about it.

[nottheboss]

Really? [An honest to God grin this time. That's a hell of a proposal story.] I guess I can give up on sneaking up on you. They can be that specific?

[cache_coeur]

[A wry smile.]

Sometimes. Two of Cups, The Lovers, and the Four of Wands. The union of two forces, a decision about a relationship, and a happy marriage.

[nottheboss]

[Well the last two are things he doubts will ever apply to him, but two of cups he commits to memory. He needs allies. He needs to know that his brother is making wise choices in his alliances, too.]

What was his name? You don't have to answer that, I just... Names matter.

[cache_coeur]

Pierre.

[It always feels so good to say his name.]

Would you like to draw?