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

[demainvient]

Of course she did.

[ Warm and fond as his fingers curl around his glass, where his drink is already a little alarmingly low. It's buzzing through his veins, lightening his head for what feels like the first time since Lumière. ]

No one ever has more questions than Lune. It used to drive me crazy, back in the workshops, but it always ended up helping.

[ A thought which leads his bourbon-soaked mind back a few conversational bends, to something else Sciel had said about Lune. ]

You know, Sophie said the same thing. About me and Lune.

[cache_coeur]

Sometimes you need someone to give you a good push!

[It’s good to see him relax, if only in this context, loosened up by alcohol. While she’s not nearly as swept along yet, it’s easy to meet him where he is anyway, where things are fine. Casual.

Open, even. She loves to hear Sophie’s name out of his mouth, and so the news delights her in more way than one.]

Well, if Sophie said it, it must be true. No one knows anyone better than an ex does. What did you tell her?

[demainvient]

[ He lifts a hand from around his drink, waves her curiosity off. ]

What could I say to that? It was the day of the Gommage.

[ So like Sophie to try and find happiness for him, even on her very last day. His heart aches, but it's an old, familiar grief. ]

I didn't say anything at all. Thankfully, she dropped it right away.

[cache_coeur]

[Sciel finds herself chuckling.]

Of all days! That's so dark. [Sciel loves her a little more for it.] Well. Next drink's to her, then. I know she already got one but she can have another.

[demainvient]

Of course she picked that day. She always did have a dark sense of humor.

[ And he seriously doubts she really meant for him to hook up with Lune; she just wanted to inject a little levity into a terrible day. ]

Yeah. Next one to Soph.

[ And one to Pierre after that, maybe... Tristan, Lucien, Catherine, Margot, all the rest. By the end of the night they'll have had enough to toast to the whole Expedition, probably, and maybe it'll feel almost normal again, finding themselves tucked into a corner of a booth somewhere, laughing and curled into each other.

He lifts his drink, tips it, gives it an exaggeratedly considering glance. ]

Which means we'd better finish these up, so we can get to the next one.

[cache_coeur]

[She reaches over to him, hand roving from shoulder blade and down his back, a little smile on her face. Sophie knew he would make no effort to make it so even if he did take it seriously, of course, but she did want him to be happy. If that meant being with someone else, so be it. She'd come to that conclusion years earlier. Why not make her blessing clear?]

Mm, yes. It'll be a challenge to top this one, but they can't all be the best.

[Back to the menu she goes!]

[demainvient]

[ The touch is nice, grounding, and he leans back against it with a smile before leaning over to the side, peering obnoxiously over her shoulder at the menu as if he might be able to try and discern what she'll pick next. ]

What's "tequila," do you think?

[cache_coeur]

[She chuckles, taking the opportunity to learn the side of her head against his temple.]

I’ve tried tequila, actually, and I want to see what you think of it! So let’s do that one.

for a wrap!

[demainvient]

[ He lifts his current drink and nods in agreement, enjoying the pleasant warmth already seeping through his limbs. ]

Tequila it is.

[ What could go wrong? Even if they wind up messily drunk and stumbling back home, barely holding each other up, it'll be worth it. He's almost forgotten that tarot card existed at all. ]