Beards and Fortunes (Aenisa)

by **Arisia** on April 17th, 2017, 8:58 pm

8th Of spring 517

Arisia decided that she didn't like how beards felt, it tickled her neck and just felt odd that it was there. Well of course it felt odd, one she was female, and hadn't had a beard until that morning, and two it was an illusion. It seemed Ionu had decided that a beard would suit her today, it didn't, but it at least looked amusing.

She also decided, that now she had the curly beard that reached down her neck, it was the perfect day to get out her tarot cards. The kelvic then went outside into the streets, trusting that the city would take her to where she needed to be. Wherever that was on the day.

As she suspected, no one batted an eye at her newly grown beard. In usual Alvad fashion, they were all used to it by now, though she did spot a few people eyeing it with surprise, they seemed like outsiders. Arisia herself had been new her just last season, but the city already felt like home.

She stopped walking in a reasonably crowded part of the city, and took a seat on the ground in a clear area, and laying her cloak on the ground to sit on. Her beard moved as she did, slight brushing against her neck irritatingly. It still looked good though,
and that was all that mattered. At least she told herself it looked good, that was certainly debatable.

Once the girl had settled down in her area, she placed her cards in front of her and began to call out with a grin to the crowd. "Come have your fortunes told! See what happens in the future!" She smiled as she yelled out, an inviting smile asking anyone who was nearby to come and see. Naturally she didn't mention cost at that point. The mention of money tended to put people off, so she decided to leave that until after she read their fortune.

She adored her cards, they were old, and a gift from her old employer and teacher. She had taught the girl everything she knew about fortune telling, and she hadn't even been interested in it at first. Though she had come to enjoy it, and it was a job she liked to do, so a good job.

word count :

by **Aenisa** on April 17th, 2017, 9:57 pm

8th of Spring - 517 AV

If it was one thing that was for sure in the city of Alvadas, it was that the future was never predictable. Aenisa had managed to figure that out the first couple of days that she had come to the city. A ghost had taken her body, she had been looking for the Inverted and never had she managed to guess the location of her home without help. Alvadas was one of those places that just carried you on a journey of craziness and extremes to the maximum before it dumped you in the sewers with an angry mob of killers. Aenisa thought that she had known the world as she had come to the city, she had left Wind Reach in search of true falconers, learn from masters beyond the city and to find the true gods. Alvadas had derailed that thinking the first day she arrived in the city. Somewhere, someplace there must still be some order in the city though, someone who could see the future, tell her what she was looking for, what she must seek and find.

Never had she found herself in the right part of the city, being used to a specific spot in the city that housed much of the commerce back in Wind Reach. In Alvadas it could all be clustered together like a mad pit of business or they could be spread out across the city like a giant game of hide and seek. It was all up to the ruler, Ionu, to decide. Pushing open a small gate that lead out of the alleyway, Aenisa found herself standing at the edge of a small, town square, odd.

She needed to find herself a job, something for herself and hers and for the future if she would want to survive on her own, today was that day. Aenisa was aiming for the Sanity Center and that peculiar woman who was taking care of the building and all those that came to visit. Crossing the square and heading up one of the larger roads she soon heard the voice of someone further up the road.

“Come have your fortunes told! See what happens in the future!”

Aenisa scoffed a little as she heard the woman, she realised that she was not alone in doing this, she could hear a pair to her left question the legitimacy of the claims of the womanly voice. All the same, it had been bugging Aenisa, she should be able to know what happens, right? She oversees her own destiny, her future is already chosen, is it not? The closer to the woman that she got, the less of a sceptic she seemed to be, Aenisa had heard tales from her childhood of people with the ability to see and read the future. Patting her pocket, she had some coins with her, no doubt the service was not free of charge.

Wading through the crowd to step to the side of the road, Aenisa saw the woman sitting on her cape. A frown quickly developed on her face, a bearded lady. Not only was this woman doing something that Aenisa wasn’t sure was working but she was also doing it, looking, at least to Aenisa, ridiculous. How could she expect to be taken seriously with a beard as big and bushy as the one that she had? It seemed to at least be big and bushy from where Aenisa stood, inspecting the woman. She patted her pocket again and then realised that her body had already made its mind up, she was going to see what she could learn from the woman.

Aenisa approached the bearded woman to the tune of her cry for business. Leaning over to converse with the woman, looking like she was bowing for the woman. Aenisa allowed her curious eyes to search the cards that were stacked on the cape and then to the woman. She spoke. Soft and friendly in her tone.

“Hello. You think you can see my future?”

Aenisa didn’t allow for much time for the woman to answer her as she was already sitting down across from the woman, folding her arms in front of her own chest. It was a defensive posture that made her look even more sceptical about the practice than she would have been. Although she was giving off a vibe of being sceptical, Aenisa was curious and hopeful that the practice would prove itself to be true and that she would be told of great feats and riches. A complacent grin was subtly hiding on her lips as her eyes were wandering between the cards and the woman that sat across from her. That beard was an atrocity that should be shaved off, Aenisa was debating on whether the beard was real or fake, she felt like leaning forwards and just tugging at it. Perhaps she could bring it up casually in a conversation? She was going to have to try…

"So, what can you tell me with these cards? A lot of people grow beards here?"

Smooth as a square wheel. Smooth as a shovel into stone. Aenisa didn't care about her bluntness and she was focused on the cards now, she didn't appear eager but inwardly she was racing to get to know her future.

SPACER

by **Arisia** on April 20th, 2017, 7:52 pm

A woman with bright red hair sat down in front of her abruptly, asking her if she thought she could read her future. The red-head sitting in front of her didn't believe that fortune telling was real, but that was fine. Arisia didn't particularly care, at all, about whether she was sceptical or not, though it sometimes was easier to get along with someone who wasn't sitting in front of the kelvic girl with her arms crossed.

Arisia pondered how she would answer the woman's question for a moment, she liked to be mysterious when she was reading fortunes, the feline kelvic found that it was an amusing thing to do. It annoyed some of her customers who were more on the serious side to no end, however some of the people who came to her to have their fortune read enjoyed it, while others just accepted it. She smiled before speaking with a gentle tone of voice.

"Well it's up to the customer whether I can actually see the future, it all depends on whether you believe what the cards tell us."

She smiled after saying this, picking up her cards in her hands and looking over them slightly before holding them out to the other. "Here, shuffle these while we talk."

Her teacher had neglected to tell her exact!y why she had her customers shuffle the cards whenever she read a fortune, but it was something she had always done. When Arisia asked her about it she had said that 'it helps for the cards to see their future.', which the girl didn't quite understand, but she supposed it had to make sense if her teacher had told her to do it.

She chuckled when the woman bluntly and suddenly asked about her beard, she was clearly not from Alvadas, as barely anyone in the city would be surprised by a woman with a beard, not in Alvadas. Stranger things had certainly been seen here.

The fortune teller decided that she would answer the question about her tarot cards first of all, since she had asked that before the other question about the current state of her face, specifically the beard that she had at the moment.

"I can tell you what you want to know really, questions about the future, work and love are common things that I am asked about. Though I can give a general reading if you don't have anything specific you would like to know." Her voice was kind as she spoke about her tarot cards, and happy. It was clear she enjoyed her work.

"As for the beard." She paused with a slight giggle, much more childish than one would expect for her appearance. "Well it is Alvadas, unexpected things happen here, like I unexpectedly woke up with a beard this morning. I'm sure it's happened to someone before. You seem like you're new here, not many people who live here would ask about the beard, or be surprised."

word count :

by **Aenisa** on April 21st, 2017, 7:07 am

8th of Spring - 517 AV

Aenisa had taken her seat on the cape and was waiting patiently for a few moments as the woman across from her was speaking. It was up to herself, whether the woman could see the future or not? What did that even mean? Aenisa knew of no such magic within herself, it all seemed preposterous. All the same, to Aenisa it wouldn’t matter much as long as the reading didn’t burn a hole in her own finances and so she decided to stick with it even though the urge to walk away was there.

Aenisa was given the cards with the instructions of shuffling them, why did she need to do that? Shrugging her shoulders in a discontent manner she took the cards into her hands and then she curved an eyebrow for a moment as she asked the woman. “This helps with you cards?” They were going to talk after all, she might as well learn something of what the woman was doing in the process. Aenisa found herself infected by the woman as she cracked a thin smile back at her as she had asked her question. Even if her hands were busy with the cards, which she had yet to shuffle, her smile being busy with satisfying the good mood that sizzled off of the woman, her eyes were fixed on the beard, still.

She was unsure what exactly she was meant to do to shuffle the cards and had therefore asked the question to deflect the attention away from herself for a few moments. The idea came to her that maybe the cards were magic and she could just shake them, no, the idea seemed silly to the woman. Then it struck her. Aenisa allowed for the cards to drop down onto the cape as she started to slide the cards about on the piece of cloth. Having never shuffled any cards before, Aenisa did what she thought would get them most mixed up in the briefest of time. The slight sting in her hand came back to remind her of the dangers of the city as she sat in front of the woman, safely and shuffled the cards. Like a whirlpool of chaos and darkness, the cards started to move about in a circular, non-linear pattern on the cape, sliding around like pieces that would eventually slot into order. A chaotic shuffle no doubt, the future of herself sliding about on the cape. As this was ongoing, Aenisa listened to the woman as she was giving a brief explanation of what it was that she could do with the cards. As she was done, Aenisa seemed a little too eager as her answer immediately followed the description, giving away her inner curiosity of what she could learn about herself.

“Future!” The words were upbeat, hastily exclaimed and they deceived Aenisa’s sceptical exterior, showing how excited she had become at the prospect of having her future told, even if it was for just a moment. Realising that she might have sounded a little bit too excited, she was quick to add. “Uh… Have heard that it be good to learn about future.” Adding a thin smile after this as well and then she focused on the cards for a moment, trying to avoid any awkward stares that would see straight through her.

Aenisa started to slowly gather together the cards that she had created the sea of chaos with, one by one she was ordering them into a small pile of cards, the woman was still talking. Aenisa thought it all sounded so very weird, she had woken up with the beard hanging from her face, that is what the woman was telling her. Aenisa wasn’t sure if she should laugh at this or if the woman was being serious. A frown flashed on her features as she was unsure how to respond to the woman. She was right in that Aenisa was new to the city though. Slowly, Aenisa started to respond to the woman.

“Yes, I am. I come here days ago.” She made a gesture with the hand that was holding the about half-finished stack of cards, the idea was to gesture towards the Sanity Center but the gesture could might as well been directed to the graveyard for all Aenisa knew. She continued to stack the cards, painfully slow. “You get used to beard? How long you lived on Alvadas?”

Her eyes went up to search the features of the woman for the briefest of moments before they continued to focus on the stacking of the cards. Aenisa was making order out of chaos, making the abstract into something real, she was proud of what she was doing. What Aenisa had been doing would be something close to what a kid would do, in about the same time as well and with the same efficiency. As the stack was ready and done, Aenisa offered it back to the woman across from herself and then she decided that this was the best time to ask about the name of this woman.

“I am Aenisa, who you be?”

SPACER

by **Arisia** on April 26th, 2017, 8:15 pm

The feline kelvic nodded after being asked if shuffling the cards helped her with the reading, ever talkative and chatty, Arisia smiled, telling the girl what her teacher told her. "Well, it does help quite a bit. My teacher back in Syrilas always told me that it helped the cards to tell the future, see what the customer is like and things like that. I never really understood that part of the craft, it was very..." She searched for a correct word for a moment. "Vague."

The fortune teller herself had to hold back a loud laugh while watching the Inarta attempt to shuffle the cards, and sort of succeed in a kind of odd way. It reminded the feline of a child trying to shuffle them, and was probably like she was when she first tried to. It was almost endearing.

The woman excitedly answered quickly with the word 'Fortune', a little bit too eagerly for someone who was apparently not believing about fortune telling being real, but she didn't mind that much. The woman seemed to realise how eager she had sounded, and as she backtracked Arisia chuckled slightly.

"Okay then, the future it is!" She smiled brightly and spoke just as eagerly as the woman had, picking up the cards that had been messily stacked and tucking them into a somewhat, though not that much, neater pile than they had previously been in.

Gesturing to, something, Arisia wasn't quite sure what, she spoke again, confirming that she was new to Alvadas and therefore, not used to the illusions in the slightest. Naturally, a lady with a beard was new to her, an extremely odd sight to someone who wasn't used to the oddities of the city. The multicolour-eyed girl answered with a smile to the questions.

"Well, not specifically the beard - though I'm unsure if this will turn out to be permanent or go, but the illusions. Things like myself waking up with a beard happen almost constantly, it's just like a change in weather to people who live here." The feline paused, fiddling with her hair slightly before answering the second question.

"I've been living here since the start of winter, though it feels like I've been here much longer already, like home." She supposed she had to thank the presence of her bondmate for that.

Now that she thought about it, her eyes were just another oddity on top of the beard, and it was slightly surprising that the Inarta hadn't pointed those out too. Surely all of it put together made a rather silly appearance.

"Aenisa's a pretty name!" Arisia grinned at the other when she introduced herself, though she noted in her head that the other had a pretty face too, and immediately noted that she didn't have the time to think like that, and her attention had to be on her bondmate only now, though it was true that she thought of the girl as a sister really. Turning her attention back to the topic,
she smiled and introduced herself. "My name is Arisia."

"Anyway, we should get to the tarot reading." The fortune teller grinned, laying her cards down in front of her, and then gesturing towards one of them. "This symbolises the present."

word count :

by **Aenisa** on April 27th, 2017, 8:14 pm

8th of Spring - 517 AV

It did seem strange to Aenisa that the shuffling of the cards would play into anything of this. Deep down however, Aenisa was hoping that a piece of her life essence would show the way into the future for her through the cards that she had shuffled. Aenisa snapped up that Arisia had been in something called Syrilas but Aenisa had no idea where it was or what it was. So many weird things that came out of this weird woman’s mouth and from her weird visual features. Aenisa enjoyed it, she needed a nice encounter with someone, mostly the city had seemed hostile, here, she felt at ease. The sentence was closed off with another word that flew past Aenisa, furrowing her brows for a moment, she decided that she knew what it meant. Vague, it sounded like, plague, she had heard of that, she knew the word and instantly she decided, it was something like that, maybe it was a water plague. No other explaination seemed to be viable and so she decided that vague was a water plague.

“Syrilas?” She asked, trying to mask her ignorance of the word plague by asking about the other unknown thing in the conversation that she had heard. Aenisa smiled politely at Arisia as she was trying to hide her inner emotions and paranoia about the woman and what she was doing. It wasn’t unusual for her eyes to flicker over the cards that lay before them, feelings of dread, euphoria and numbness all mixing together as it was slowly building within her.

It seemed to Aenisa that Arisia had been a level too happy about reading her future, why did the woman seem too eager to read the future? Was it because it was the easiest to fake, was it because Aenisa had given something away, subconsciously? Whatever it was that made Arisia so happy about reading the future had now put Aenisa on the suspicious side, her eyes narrowing as she searched the woman, still a smile pursed on her lips.

“Future tell me what? A lot? Little?” Aenisa thought that she was speaking in a good, fluent common tongue but at the same time, she knew, it didn’t sound right.

Their space wasn’t invaded by the passing crowds that always seemed to stream past the duo on the cape, to Aenisa this was a good thing as she wouldn’t have been very happy with people bumping into either one of them. Even if she was trying to appear calm and not too interested, this was important to her and at the same time, it wasn’t. It wasn’t that Aenisa wasn’t listening to what Arisia was saying as much as it was that she wasn’t listening to anything at all. The mumbling of the crowds was annoying her slightly, it had blocked any voices from being processed by the young Inarta woman. It took Aenisa a few moments to realise that Arisia was talking, a few more before she focused enough so that she blocked out all the other sounds in the vicinity.

She was talking about the beard and how it was all an illusion that she would have to live with. Short illusions, devious, mostly was what Aenisa had encountered during her time in the city so far. Arisia had lived in the city since winter and although she hadn’t been in the city much longer than Aenisa herself had, she seemed so at home with it, strange. Aenisa doubted the answer that she had been given, her mind was like a shell with spikes in it, she was determined to keep an open and at the same time, shut, mind to not give many hints to Arisia. There were some oddities with the woman beyond the beard which the woman had explained to her, there was something about her eyes too. Aenisa had noticed it before but with the general state of the woman it seemed to be among the more normal things that the woman was displaying. Aenisa wasn’t going to comment on other features, fearing that it might be an illusion and if she was insulting, that it might not be one.

There was the briefest of pauses as the woman was commenting on Aenisa's name and before she had introduced herself as Arisia, something had crossed the mind of the woman across from Aenisa. Feeling the urge to ask if she had gotten some sort of vision or something of her future already but then again, she hesitated, she wasn’t supposed to believe in all of this, if it worked, it was magic. A curse from the gods that had been passed down onto herself and if it didn’t, she wouldn’t look quite so gullible. Thanking Arisia in her head as the woman got back to the cards at hand, Aenisa shot a smile across her lips and poured her vision over the card onto which Arisia was now gesturing towards. Aenisa had no idea how this was supposed to work past what Arisia had told her and so she spoke.

“What it mean? Do we start with present all time?” She wanted the woman to get on with the show but at the same time, she wanted the woman to milk the moment, pull her in, embrace her in the magical show that she was putting on. Aenisa was having mixed feelings and didn’t quite know what she wanted, she looked at Arisia for guidance. She wanted her future to show success and order but now as they were getting down to business, she feared it might show the opposite.

SPACER

by **Arisia** on May 11th, 2017, 6:45 pm

"Yes, Syrilas. There are lots of people there, it's a city that's almost entirely inside. There are knights and it's kind of boring compared to here." It was true, she did find the city of illusion much more interesting, much more exciting than Syrilas ever was to the feline. She had felt like she was in as cage inside the city. Too many walls and not enough outside. Alvadas was chaotic, without much organisation or planning it seemed, she couldn't even navigate through it. The chaos was what made it fun, and the fortune teller already adored the city of illusion, much more than she had ever liked Syrilas.

"It all depends on what the cards show. Though I will tell you as much as I can, if you want to. I have to say that you shouldn't take it as fact, or as permanent. I believe that the future can always be changed." The woman smiled as she spoke, it was obvious she really believed in what she was saying. Even though fortune telling was something she had chosen randomly in a moment, she had grown to love her choice of work. She could help people through her tarot card readings if she chose to,
and that made the feline kelvic smile.

The woman nodded at the Inarta's next question, happy to answer her. "I usually start with the present, what's happening at the current time, what's happening now. I've decided to do 5 cards today, and each will symbolise a different thing." The woman paused for a moment, with a look over the card that she had picked out, holding it out in front of her to show her curious customer.

The card she held out was health, and she smiled placing it down. "This card is Health, and it means you have good health at the present time, which is a great thing." The woman paused for a moment, a gentle smile on her face. "Do you have any questions about this?" She asked, not wanting for the woman to be confused.

"I'll move onto the card representing the past next."

word count :

by **Aenisa** on May 11th, 2017, 7:48 pm

8th of Spring - 517 AV

She nodded along as the strange, bearded woman who sat in front of her started to explain what Syrilas was, a city, but in a box? That is what Aenisa got out of it as she tried to wrap her mind around what the woman was saying to her, it seemed annoying. A boring city, that seemed like a blessing in Aenisa’s mind, Alvadas was already wearing her patience thin. Trial by fire was always a good way to do something, at least that is what her father used to say to her as she had been a kid. Believing in the elders had turned out right wrong for Aenisa as she now sat on a cape like piece of cloth with someone reading into her future on a few cards.

“Inside? How be that city inside? Like box?” Aenisa couldn’t hold the question within her and as she asked about the box she had made like a square with her hands to signal even further what it was that she meant. Aenisa was never sure if people understood what she meant and at the same time it seemed to her like the words that the common tongue used were ineffective.

Aenisa allowed for the words to flow freely from the bearded lady with the weird eyes, she shouldn’t focus on the features of the woman. Having never before encountered a woman with a beard and strange eyes in her life, Aenisa figured that she shouldn’t say anything more about it. It was however fascinating that it seemed real enough to her and yet, as the woman had explained, it was all just an illusion. As the woman was carrying on her demonstration and information about the card trick that she was about to do, Aenisa found herself nodding along. Five cards and none of them were really a guarantee that what she was told was in fact right, she was offering up something which as she said, could change. Typical, Aenisa thought. In the end then anything that this lady was saying was subject to change, five minutes after she stood up and her purse was lighter. It was also possible that what Aenisa would be told could come true though, she could end up with a lot of good foresight.

Health, Aenisa looked over herself from head to toe as she was told about her own health. Her hand was aching some still but other than that, she was indeed in good health, that much the card got right. How did the card know that though? Was the card magical and could it see into her soul? A frown formed as she looked at the healthy card, it seemed to smirk at her with the kind of smirk that only a smug card could produce. Aenisa looked up as she was asked if she had any further questions about the card at all.

“Yes.” A nod accompanied this positive answer of hers. “Health…” She tried to copy the way that Arisia had said it but her accent would have made it sound more like “heat” than it would the actual word. “… How long it last? It last me long life?” The reassuring smile of Arisia allowed Aenisa to know that although the question in fact was a self-answered question, there were no stupid questions.

SPACER

by **Arisia** on June 10th, 2017, 8:16 pm

OOC :

The kelvic woman held back a small chuckle as her curious customer made hand movements like a box, she would of usually laughed but didn't want to offend the other. "Not like a box, more like a massive building with smaller buildings inside." She paused for a moment, thinking again. "I think it was a castle, actually."

Looking down at the health card again, she thought over the few questions the Inarta woman asked. Arisia knew that she couldn't actual!y tell how long that it would last, but the woman who she was giving a fortune reading to did not know that. The feline kelvic thought for another moment before answering her question.

"I am certain that your health will last you a long time, perhaps a long life, if you keep going the way you are at the moment. The present cannot be changed, only the future can." The quirky fortune teller kept her answers vague, but attempted to make what she said positive. She only kept them vague because in truth she did not know whether that health that her tarot cards told her was going to be long lasting, or whether it was only temporary.

Hopefully it would last the red haired woman a long life, but Arisia decided to not think for too long on it since her next cards would likely tell her, or atleast hint at, whether it would last.

She looked over the next card, the one that represented the past, carefully. It showed order clearly on the front of the card, neatly written in common.

by **Aenisa** on June 10th, 2017, 10:56 pm

8th of Spring - 517 AV

Castle, castle, castle. Aenisa searched her own head for a visual depiction of what a castle might be, she really needed to pay attention to these words when they were on offer. For a moment Aenisa thought about asking the woman what it might be like but then she knew that the answer that she would be given would be the same. It is a city inside, a box city, a castle. It was clear, a castle is a box city, a city inside. Slowly Aenisa found herself focusing back on the bearded lady, she nodded her head several times and flashed her a smile to show that she had understood. “Castle. We got castle here? Who lives in castle?” Aenisa managed to nail the pronunciation on the word and felt quite proud, not that she would have felt less proud if she hadn’t. New words weren't always so easy to say.

The light focus on the conversation was put in contrast to the focus that was placed on the cards by her bearded fortune teller. Aenisa had now totally been absorbed by the cards and forgotten about her own sceptical outlook that she had once she had first taken a seat across from the lady. The explanation as to Aenisa’s long life and long good health made her feel happy and made her feel validation for the fact that she was doing something great with her life. After all, if she wasn’t going down the correct path in her life, why would her health last her a long time? It was self-validation at the highest of levels and it made Aenisa happy. Cracking a smile she nodded rapidly, clearly showing her absorption in the magical event that took place in front of her.

“I live long? That is good card.” Aenisa remarked as she pointed at the card with a bright smile on her features, her eyes sparkling lightly from the excitement of the good start to the reading. “It tell me how to make me better?” She asked just as happily as well before her focus ventured onto the next card.

Order. Aenisa furrowed her brows for a moment as she was inspecting the word on the front of the card and then she allowed her gaze to drift up to the bearded lady again. The urge to pull her beard came over her again, her hand twitching by her side as she eyed it, bushy and inviting. Focus, her mind told her and Aenisa shook her head a bit as if to shake off her distractions before she came to focus on Arisia again and not on her beard. “That be good too? Good card? It show good thing?” She pressed on, clearly excited by the cards that were being drawn about her future and past. She felt like she needed to inject some casual conversations into the reading as well, to try and get to know the woman a bit more. If there was something that Aenisa had learned from her short time in Alvadas and her time in the world in general it was that people were interesting. “How long you make card like this?” She asked, keeping calm and casual about it all.

OOCNo worries, take your time, this doesn't need to be a rush anyways.

SPACER

Closed Beards and Fortunes (Aenisa)