Completed The Happy Ever After

[Amolina]

Amolina was a woman from Ravok. She was born there, had grown up there and lived there always. She was now 25 years old and knew no other life. The city, with its floating platforms, canals, bridges and boats was her world. She knew the world was bigger than the city, yes…but even if she had been able to afford it she had never had reason to undertake any dangerous long journeys through unknown wilderness. In practice Ravok was her whole world. There she had her small apartment to live in, places and people she knew, childhood memories, the safety that every citizen was promised, in a pleasant climate. She lived there like all others in the NHC complexes, like one small bee in one of many big hives. Every day the sun rose anew, and she did all the everyday things she used to do every day. The days kepts passing by, the seasons and the years. And the weather was nearly always good. In a way the town was like a ship. A ship broken apart, but saved and tied together, floating on, continuing to exist, on the vast lake they lived on every day. The city was floating and the citzens were floating on with it – and so was Amolina Moletta. Like many other citizens she kept herself floating from day to day. It was perhaps not overly exiting and not particularly luxurious, but it was a safe life. But was this true? Wasn’t life moving on and changing all the time? Lately it had even nearly ended, in her case. She didn’t feel so safe. Not anymore. While she shuffled the cards she thought about things people think of when they are about to get their fortune read. For instance she was wondering about money and if her career would ever go anywhere and if something exiting would happen in her life soon…something exiting good, that was. Amolina was like most people use to be and tended to only think of good things that could happen, and disregard the rest. She knew bad things could happen, and had happened too, yet she somehow seemed to think no bad things would happen...it wasn't particularly logical, just very human and irrational. But now, holding the deck of cards in her hands and hearing how the fortune teller spoke about it like it was sort of a living thing that would draw out things from her mind, she started to feel a wee bit worried. What if the reading would tell her things that weren’t so good… It was silly to suddenly be anxious, she told herself. But, nevertheless ...now it started to feel like she was about to ask questions she wasn’t totally sure she really wanted to be answered. The enigmatic girl waited silently. Amolina had an impression of a gleam that showed only briefly in the fortune teller’s eyes, before it went away again. The girls dark eyes were calm, her face expressionless, but her mild and soft voice seemed to brim with secrets and mysteries. Amolina looked back, her light blue eyes peeking out through the black silk of her mask, and in this moment she realized one important things about impersonation: the eyes of someone else cannot be faked. It was possible to imitate another persons looks, behavior, movements, voice, everything – but the eyes were unique and they couldn’t be copied. Only the outside of someone, the image which they showed the world, could be impersonated. The person behind the surface would always be a secret and a mystery. “And now?” She handed the fortune teller the deck of cards and waited for the next step.

[Amelia Cross]

She carefully looked at how Amolina’s hands moved when shuffling the deck of cards. She wasn’t exceptionally good with them or horribly bad, nothing of great interest so she soon enough turned to her glass of tea and toke a lazy sip. Waiting for the woman to hand over the cards, so the fun could start.

”now, they speak” she reinforced that smile of hers once more, with a gentle closing of her eyes for a short moment, just to give that faked impression of a warm, kind and welcoming smile that reached her eyes, even if it didn’t. Amelia toke the cards and turned them towards her, so they would facing her in the way they were facing Amolina. She set the cards to the side, and began pulling them from the top, placing them in a certain order on the table.

A single card in the middle, then one card on all four sides of it, she left quite some gaps between the cards so she could flip them over whenever she needed to without the risk of ruining the almost too perfect layout. On the right side, she laid out four more cards, in a straight vertical line. Amelia fixed out the cards to make sure they were all straight, and then looked over back at Amolina. ”I must warn you, I’m honest” she wasn’t trying to scare the woman, she just wanted to make sure she realized, that everything good or bad, she really saw. Even if she did tend to lie, she liked people to think she didn’t.

She pressed her fingers against the card that was in the middle, it was a bit more worn than the most cards around it, and with one short movement flipped it over. It was an upright, eight of swords, a woman tied to eight swords and blindfolded eyes. She saw this card in her own layouts one time too many. But she didn’t let personal matters interfere with her reading. ”You are trapping yourself, at this moment, at this part of your life…you have made yourself a prisoner of your own mind…you are losing yourself, or might I dare to ask, maybe you have already lost it? Hiding behind silk….” maybe she was being far too depressive with this card, it was not always a sign of bad things ”but don’t find it as black as it paints itself, it all depends on the angle you look at it…” she didn’t really announce the better parts of this card, wanting to keep them to herself until she found a fitting part of this reading to announce it.

The girl flipped the card that was on the right from the eight of swords, this card, was her past. It was a card that did not say much on its own, so she also flipped the one that was below the eight of swords. That card, was the more recent past. Needless to say, Amelia looked at them a bit more skeptically than she did before. These cards weren’t sunshine, it was an evil man, a card of the King of swords, a reversed one at that. The other, a nine of cups, also reversed. This woman had everything going wrong. A nine of cups for Amelia, this card was always a pain to see. As it identified with a with dreams broken, wishes abandoned and overall unpleasant things. ”I’d like to say, that you had a lover break a relationship just recently, but this man..” she said resting her finger on the card that wore an illustration of a man sitting on a throne, holding a sword. ”this man is not a lover, this man has been taking advantage of you…and caused illness, he commanded you….and let me note, he might not be over the grudge he holds on you just yet” ragging her finger to the other card, the reversed cups of nine, Amelia’s lip twitched just a bit before speaking ”problems with money and dreams, you have dreams you want to fulfill but don’t really work towards them hard enough…it’s a pain to see, as it links with the king and makes it so clear, that he had turned your recent life in a nightmare…I fear, you might even be seeing him more, standing against your dreams…”

”don’t be tied down, look at your dreams from a different angel, look at them and let them tell you what you have to do. A cookie cutter doesn’t work for everyone, maybe your star is brighter than those people want it to be….?” Keeping a statement in between the cards was always refreshing, not to mention, it invited people to trust her.

[Amolina]

Amolina watched and memorized the way the fortune teller held the deck and the way she put the cards on the table, the spaces between the cards, the care she took to adjust them so they lay in perfect order. She observed and memorized the movements of the girl’s hands, the way she flipped the cards up to show the pictures, and the order she did it in. And then the reading begun. And what a reading it was… it didn’t exceed her worst fears, yet, but it was depressing enough. Amolina was already feeling one of her immediate wishes coming to nothing…it was the wish to cheer herself up with this distraction. Unfortunately, the fortune teller sounded sincere enough. And it wasn’t like the things she said were wrong – the opposite, her words were creepily close to reality. Then again. It wasn’t hard to find bad company in Ravok – chances were the fortune teller counted on most people having been taken advantage of by evildoers that held a grudge. It could be just a quite safe bet for a fortune teller that wanted to make you believe in her words. “I had a few problems lately” she said, trying to not show that she felt upset after the things she had been told so far. “So. If I want to get anywhere, I need to try new ideas, work harder for my dreams and watch out for enemies and sabotage. But my chances to succeed are small and I will get problems with money, disappointments, backlashes… ” Looking at the pictures on the cards, she laughed. It was just a short and somewhat tired laugh, the way people can oddly laugh when a situation seems to be hopeless. “That woman would sure have lots of swords at her fingertips, if she wasn’t a blind fool” she said a bit aggressively to the first card. Then she looked at the picture of the man who sat on a throne holding a sword and looking smug: “Well, there’s a man who thinks he’s smart, but he can actually just wield one single sword , which is typically male, if you have noticed …” Sarcastically. “And look."She pointed at the third card "That seems to be all the empty cups that held all the spirits someone tried to drench sorrows in, which is just so typical too…it must be because his throne has been overthrown, it's turned upside down on the card.” She looked at the cards that had not been turned yet. Did she really want them to be turned? It could be best to stop it here, pay the girl and leave. Then again, the sinister start of the fortune made her morbidly eager to see what was behind the rest of the cards – there might be something that could make this look better ! Or worse… “I must admit the cards are pretty telling. Perhaps it’s right that I ought to try to think of things from new angles. Like right now … I wonder what will come next.”

[Amelia Cross]

Having a few problems didn’t really give Amelia enough of solid grounding to base any further guesses upon, since the girl didn’t name any of those problems directly. Amelia was good with her readings, but she was used to using a good amount of guessing and re-phrasing in her work…neither of what was a given in this situation. She listened to the woman more and realized, if she didn’t add something I between her silly description of the cards, she will potentially lose so much. No, that couldn’t be good.

Amelia offered one more faked smile with her eyes, and from the top of the deck, that was laid aside she pulled two cards. She flipped them over and began speaking ”So, a man who has been causing you trouble…he is associated with illness…dare I say poison?” Amelia’s last statement was more of a question than anything, before she continued paying with the cards ”He is somewhat tall…dark haired…pale, and has blue, maybe green eyes…hmm” she tapped her long finger against the card as she looked at the other one that was laid besides it. She wasn’t really interested in it….but it was her job to give out information ”and it looks like you have been facing more than just financial problems, he didn’t even cause you financial problems…he caused you a potential risk to the life...” Amelia said, and with that, she toke the two cards to the side, not wanting them to overlap the main layout.

”now, moving on with the rest of your fortune” Amelia brought her fingers gracefully to the cards that where laid out in the vertical line. She flipped the upper one, a small barely notable twitch of the corner of her lip that was gone as soon fast as it had appeared. This card was not something she would like to see in any woman’s layout, a reversed empress. Harsh, harsh. ”you are a funny woman” she said with a ghost of a true smile playing on her face before flipping the next card below it ”You know, she is a strong woman, she is just lost…you lost something along the lines of your own life” Amelia realized she was speaking in circles, too big lops, ”this woman, this woman is saying that the one thing that is affecting you most now, is loose of something…loose of something highly important in your live, and I say, its your own faith in yourself. You are in a huge creative block dear, she is saying that by being like this, by being an empress facing downwards to the world, not the way she should be…what in the right mind would cause a woman to be hiding and not believing in her powers? Not following her own destiny?” this was directed more at her silk mask than anything, as it was burning Amelia’s curiosity.

Amelia flipped the card below it, and she was not really sure how to react to it, so she didn’t. She kept still with her usual mask and just spoke ever so casually ”the only thing that seems to be affecting you from outside is a huge amount of competition, but it isn’t something that can’t be concurred by skill, now is it? Competition is something we all should face and face with pride and honor” Amelia herself, loved and cherished competition, she thought of any competition as a challenge and any challenge was a good challenge, because a challenger was a rival ”anyone who challenges you, should be kept closer than a friend, a friend will always tell you, you are amazing…a rival will push your boundaries”

”this card…is your fears and hopes…” she said lazily dragging and tapping her finger on the card that was lower.

[Amolina]

It had started to seem like the reading told more than expected. Amolina watched the fortune teller turn a card with a picture of a woman. Just like the man with the sword, the picture was turned upside down. Amolina saw a small change in the fortune teller’s expression when this card came up. Though what it meant was impossible to know. But as the fortune teller’s otherwise so immovable face had actually showed a brief reaction, Amolina assumed the card and it’s message must be important. After listening to the interpretation her mind was under bombardment of troublesome questions she had no answers to. Promptly she went out on a sidetrack, just like water runs around an obstacle. She pointed at the cards. “Look. She is turned upside down, just like that man with the sword. They are looking at things from another angle. Perhaps they can see a few interesting things others are blind for. I really wonder what they are thinking, when they watch what’s happening around them…don’t you?” After this small, weird observation – or distraction – or evasion – or outburst of absurd fantasy – or philosophical insight – Amolina forced herself to focus on the reading instead of sending her thoughts away on sidetracks. “So. This card is saying that I lack something important in my life. And this seems to be caused by a huge amount of competition. And the consequence is that my creativity is blocked.” This made sense to Amolina. “It seems to be about my actress job. It’s terribly hard to get roles and the competition is huge.” She smiled and shrugged. It was nothing new to her that success required hard work and lots of stamina. “But like you say it’s about working at my skill, go to more auditions, try again and try harder.” She didn’t know what to think of the other things the fortune teller was saying. It was vague and confusing to say the least. Keeping anyone who challenged her closer than a friend didn’t seem to be so wise – Amolina found her friends important. She put value on them. “If you ask me, one true friend is worth much more than a whole bunch of challengers and rivals” she said. “But let’s go on. Fears and hopes? Let’s see what next card will say.”

[Amelia Cross]

Amelia liked hearing the woman’s interpolation of the cards and how they could or could not be right and wrong, what they saw and what they were by just the illustrations. She could remember the time when she first saw Tia’s tarot deck, and she would see every card with the innocent mind of a child, she would see nothing but the beautiful pictures and the message and feelings they brought over her…not the thing they said so clearly. ”it’s the wrong angle, you see dear, when a strong woman is flipped over, she doesn’t see things the right way…she sees something differently, but it won’t be anything good until she changes her mind and faces the challenge and overcomes her own boundaries…but you know one thing that this woman is not, she is not an actress…she is an artist though” She didn’t realize why or how she had started to blabber away, but it didn’t matter for the most part, as it was just that, blabbering…except that one little thing…actress. A creative block, competition, but it doesn’t say it’s about being an actress, for some reason, Amelia began thinking that the woman before her had chosen the wrong trade for her…or the wrong use of talent.

”Ravok is a city of art, but I must come by once more, a creative block might not be exactly as flat out as no inspiration for acting, I dare to assume, that your calling isn’t the stage…an actress has more than one way to survive, and for the right set of knowledge and for a woman as a priestess to show up, I say, she is a sign… ” she began while casually flipping the card of hope and fears over ” you desire luxury you can’t afford, wealth and respect, an actress that acts to avoid things she fears…do you even remember the last time you where honest to yourself and honest to others about yourself? Stood up for yourself? I doubt so, the cards don’t seem to think so, you have a strong personality that wants to shine, but your mind is sneaky…you pretend and lie in order to survive, and while this isn’t an unusual deal for the people of Ravok…you are different, you understand that you don’t agree to the stronger ones, but you pretend you do…you aren’t a sheep, you are a wolf in disguise ” Amelia was clearly becoming a lot more talkative, she used hand gestures in order to try and keep Amolina’s attention, changed her tone of speech from the dry to engaging…she invited the woman to listen to her, maybe to even believe, trust her?

Maybe because Amelia didn’t really have friends, but her view of them was a lot more different than most she came in contact with, for her, there were people she respected, not friends…but there where rivals”you can never trust a friend fully or predict his actions, because you can never know when a friend decides it’s time to do something that is better for them, not you. But you can always trust a rival to be a challenge, to do everything in their power to oppose you…therefor you can predict their actions, be prepared and safe…but when a friend decides to turn their back on you, you can never be prepared and are left with nothing but tears and scars” the cross explained with her voice growing softer, but with all the hand motions, her face still kept still like it would break if she smiled sincerely. Crack and fall to glass pieces.

She casually toke one more sip of the tea, gradually becoming more and more found of it. Maybe she would even drop by this place some other time, some other day and season…year. ”you are afraid to be yourself, and that is the biggest challenge you have to face, no matter how good of an actress you are, you can never act to be you, and you know that, don’t you? You know that you can put a mask and pretend to be someone else, but you can’t pretend to be yourself…when it comes to that, you are just you and your silk mask” those where rather hard words, but Amelia had to tell them, or at least she felt like she should tell them.

Her finger flipped over the last card, and then, then it call came together ”the shadows seek you” short and simple, before her eyes came up to meet the woman ”the stage is not your thing, it’s a lovely hobby that you can use for some extra miza, for fame…but it won’t bring satisfaction to your soul, or to your financial standings…only the shadows will…” Amelia pulled out a card from the deck of tarot, and she threw it over the last one ”you, you have worked as a spy, the dark side…haven’t you? That’s when the man comes in, the pale green eyed and dark haired man who caused you a lot of nerve and health wreckage, and that man will be a cause to a series of unfortunate events in your life…but none the less, exciting events”

”but if you wish to know more, please, show me your palm”



oocI'm sorry its taking me so long D: and sorry for the amount of blabbering Amelia does in this post...

[Amolina]

It was of course completely true that Amolina pretended lots of things and lied frequently in order to survive – or even just to get by. And it was true that she desired luxury she wasn’t able to afford, and would not say not to be wealthy and respected. But…the fortune teller was saying Amolina wasn’t an actress! This was disturbing words! To work as an actress and be a success on the stage had been Amolina’s dream for years, and her secret fear was that her lack of success so far was due to not being talented enough. And now the fortune teller was saying that not only was she not an actress, she was on the totally wrong track and the stage wasn’t her true calling but ought to just be a …hobby ! Amolina stared at the fortune teller in disbelief, stricken, startled, stunned. Now she was told the cards showed Amolina had worked as a spy. For the dark side ?! As she actually had done a temporary job spying on a black sun agent, it was really unsettling to hear that those painted cards could reveal it. Amolina had hoped to be able to keep it a well hidden secret. A buried secret even. The shadows were seeking her ?! She felt worried !She didn’t want organized criminals to come after her on top of the trouble she already had to deal with. Oh, she would never spy on somebody again, never! She wasn’t a sheep but a wolf in disguise?! What ?! She wasn’a kelvic, for sun’s sake ! Perhaps she needed to wash the dress in case some of the KRI smell lingered despite her efforts to clean it away… Anew, the fortune teller warned Amolina for a pale, green eyed, dark haired man wreaking havoc in her life and becoming cause to not one single bad thing, but a whole series of unfortunate events. But. There were plenty of dark haired men in the city and not having looked particularly much at people’s eyes, Amolina only listened to this. She would watch out though, and try to avoid unnecessary contact with green eyed people. “If I meet a man with green eyes I will turn the other way and run, in order to avoid lots of misfortune and unhappiness.” Also, the fortune teller persisted in the opinion that rivals and adversaries were better than friends because you could predict that they would do bad things to you …“So you mean that I ought to keep a distance to friends in order to shelter myself for the possible pain in case a friend betrays me?” Amolina shook her head. She was from Ravok, her mindset was ravokian, she thought of betrayal in a completely other way than this fortune teller seemed to do. To her it was a natural risk she would need to take. “You are speaking like you don’t believe in friendship and love and find it best to not seek it. But in my opinion it’s better to suffer a few tears and emotional scars now and then, than never dare to be close to somebody” she said. “Though it is certain that rivals will betray you…you can sure trust them to do that!” It was obvious that the reading of the cards had come to it’s end now. But the fortune teller was offering to tell her more…Amolina hesitated. Finally she smiled and shook her head. She had lots of things to think of already, and she felt she didn’t dare to add even more now. “Thanks, but you have already given me so many things to think of for the future…” She thanked the fortune teller again and gave her the payment they had agreed on. “Perhaps when we meet again, another time, I will let you read my hand.” She smiled. Now, after the fortune teller took farewell and went on to find more customers, Amolina would stay for a while on her char at the café. She would finish her iced tea slowly, thinking of all the things the fortune teller had said, over and over and over again. The fortune glowed in her thoughts, mystic and enigmatic like the fortune tellers face. And silently she thought… Who am I ? OOCWonderful fortune Amelia I’m wrapping up and handing in here like we said in PM. If you like you can add a final post for Amelia too. Until we meet again, all the best and have fun, and thanks for this thread, it was great fun

[Vanari]

Amolina

Observation	+3 XP
Philosophy	+2 XP
Composure	+2 XP
Planning	+1 XP
Rhetoric	+3 XP
Intelligence	+3 XP
Storytelling	+1 XP

Lores :

• The Woman Beneath The Layers
• Fortunate Teller: A New Project
• The Grace and Finesse Of A Fortune Teller
• Freedom Through Impersonation
• A Fortune: Trapped, Lost Lover, Dreams
• Me, Not An Actress? Then Who Am I?

Amelia

Observation	+3 XP
Composure	+2 XP
Rhetoric	+3 XP
Intelligence	+2 XP
Fortunate Telling	+3 XP
Philosophy	+1 XP

Lores :

• Sick And Tired Of Lies
• Getting Paid, Nothing More
• Dreams Of A Monster
• Is She...Copying Me?
• Delivering The Bitter Truth

Loot :

+5 sm for Amelia, -5 sm for Amolina

Notes :

That was a delectable read

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Cheers