Closed Card Tricks and Mischief {Nephti}

[Kawari Newid]

5th of Fall, 516AV
Noon

The streets were aglow with colourful hues as per usual in the city of illusion, only a few clouds in the sky cast their shadows across the bustling streets below. Despite the changing of the seasons, the city maintained its warm, temperate climate, which was due to Ionu's influence- or so Kawari had been told that morning by Winona, at the Watering Hole; Winona, who had offered no further explanation before moving off to help prepare food. Left with more questions and half a day of free time, Kawari had decided to see for herself if this was true, though how, she was not sure, and so she soon found herself wandering aimlessly through the streets of Alvadas.

Ionu's city was far from boring; a fact that was reaffirmed every time the tanuki stepped outside. What had been a stone street in front of the Cave was now a thick blanket of lush grasses that extended until the next corner, where it was cut off by what looked like sand.

Twenty chimes and countless streets later, Kawari found herself by the Bizarre, which she first recognized by the multitude of smells emanating from the large building. People, animals, food, goods of all kinds- all of these had their own smells, like a signature, that overlapped and mingled with one another in a nearly overpowering swirl of scents. She was tempted to enter the ever-lit building in pursuit of the unknown odours and aromas until she notice the building which sat beside it.

Large, perhaps even bigger than the Bizarre, sat a stone building covered in moss and ornate designs, which she couldn't help but trace with her eyes. The stone appeared weathered and old; dust and dirt filled some of the lines for some added definition, while many of the edges had been worn smooth. Nevertheless, the lines and edges connected and merged, and soon the potter felt as though her eyes were playing tricks on her, as time after time, they seemed to return to the same spot.

Drawn to the intricate etchings in the stone, Kawari had unconsciously begun to wander towards the vast building, until she caught herself nearly walking into a young woman with many arms, and paused in her tracks. "S-sorry," she apologized as she gazed at the woman's arms with awestruck wide eyes; she had never seen a person with so many arms!

Just as the word left her mouth, the sound of a bell rung out nearby and the kelvic's eyes flickered towards the sound, only to notice that the ornate stone building was no longer there.
'Illusion?' she wondered, before turning her attention back to the woman with many limbs... perhaps they were an illusion too?
"You have... many arms?" she said cautiously. The comment was in part a statement, but questioning at the same time.


Kawa: Common
oocSorry! This was long overdue >.<'
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[Nephti]

Something about the grand temple of Ionu had drawn her closer and it was here she decided to pay her respects to the father of Illusion by flickering the cards in their mysterious ways, attempting to catch those who worshipped him with her own little attempt to mimic the god of this city.

Whether they found it a good enough attempt, an amusing failure or simply mocking of the true illusions that could be created, she couldn't tell, but took their smiles and coins gratefully, returning the first and pocketing the second. Her pockets jangled, but still she stayed, resting on the mossy steps and pulling cards out and around, attracting the attention of the people nearby with her large, flashy shuffling and spreading of cards.

She even made use of the temple itself, hiding cards behind moss or matching intricate carvings on the walls with the delicate drawings, giggling slightly when illusions got hold of them and started to twist them even more, adding green tufts or changing them to a darker stone grey. The minute she pulled them away, the illusions fell, clearly drawing power from the home of Ionu himself.

Then a bell rang out, above the noise of all the people around her and above the noise of her laughter, and Nephti rose, having lived in Alvadas long enough to know that the noise signified a disappearing temple. Sure enough, as she stepped forward and away from the grand structure, turning to watch it go, it disappeared completely, leaving an empty patch of grass. As she reached out a hand towards it, wondering whether it was simply invisible or actually gone, she noticed the woman who had bumped into her, having apologised and now staring wide-eyed at her multitude of arms.

"You have... many arms?" the woman asked, careful not to be too nosey but also clearly very interested. Standing a little taller from the pride of her arms and her race, she extended all six as if she was about to shake hands, knowing that it would be stupid to try take them. Her pack of cards still lay scattered throughout the hands, sticking out with smiling or scowling or whatever the faces were doing faces.

"I have six," she found herself saying, accompanied with a smile, "Last time I counted." The Eypharian found herself giggling at her teasing of the woman, before bringing all her hands back to her side, smoothing her dress out with the empty ones. "Yes, I have many arms. I am Eypharian - we are born with many arms. Lots of Eypharians have six, lots have four. I believe you have never met a Eypharian, in the past?"

That was sort of obvious, considering her surprise and bewilderment, but Nephti didn't care, asking anyway. She smiled, tilting her head and settling down on the grass in front of where the temple had been, gesturing for the woman to join her. "Maybe you can ask more, and I will then read the cards, for you?" After all, the woman looked young, with a bright future, and she seemed curious too. And familiar - perhaps she had seen her around Alvadas before. You never knew, after all - there were far too many people to know them all. Hopefully, however, she would leave today knowing one more. And what better way was there to do that than read a fortune.

[Kawari Newid]

Before her fascinated gaze, the woman of many arms straightened with pride, while her many arms reached towards Kawari. At first the Kelvic stared in a mix awe and bewilderment as her eyes slowly made their way from one hand-held card to another, not recognizing the offer for a handshake. She was still a bit slow with 'civilized' mannerisms, as Old Man Sal would have put it.

Some of the cards had little people on them, some smiling, some angry, some that looked mischievous, and others that looked terribly sad. There were even one with bones. Each seemed to have some delicate writing, but the kelvic had some difficulty in discerning what they said.

"I have six," said the smiling woman, who seemed amused by her reaction. "Last time I counted." The woman then withdrew her hands and agreed with Kawari's assessment, and declared herself to Eypharian, something the tanuki had never heard of before, let alone how many limbs they had.
"Four and six…" she murmured as she tried to picture people like the woman before her and only managed to picture duplicates with a varying number of arms. "Never," she affirmed, smiling with delight at the thought of such a people; having more than two hands seemed like an interesting and useful characteristic to have. 'If I had four… six hands, I could throw two or three pots at once!' she thought, grinning at the thought.

While the potter had been considering the usefulness of multiple arms, the woman had settled on the grass where the great structure had been only a few chimes before.

"Maybe you can ask more, and I will then read the cards, for you?"
'Read the cards?' the kelvic wondered, more bewildered than she had been at the disappearance of the large stone structure or of the woman's arms.
Kawari paused for a fraction of a chime before she followed suite and sat cross legged where the woman indicated, facing her, intrigued.

"How exactly… do you read cards..?" she inquired hesitantly, unsure. Her head would tilt to the side in a rather canine like manner. "… and why?" Kawari waited patiently for the woman's reply. Her keen and alert eyes would observe the cardholder's every movement.
What did one even read about in cards?

Common, Pavi

oocSorry, this post is overdue and short. - -'
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[Nephti]

The woman's eyes flickered from the many arms to the many cards, clearly curious about both. Nephti smiled widely, prepared to speak about the cards to her, but waited just a moment for her to say everything she wanted first. No point launching into a long speech about the tarot cards and what they gave her if she had other things to say that interested her more.

Although what was more interesting than a deck of cards?

Her mind, for example, was still on Eypharians, and the disbelief that they existed. That people could have more than one pair of arms. Yet she smiled, not confused but just amazed, and Nephti was glad to have taught her something, however unimportant and indirectly she had done that. It was something hard to get your head around - just like it was hard for Nephti to understand how people could manage with only two arms - even with only four. She needed all six, and anything other would be unnatural to her.

With her seated on the floor, the woman joined her, cross-legged, and looking a little bewildered still. Her arms, still, perhaps? Or maybe the cards now - or something completely different. Nephti wasn't the best at guessing, and she didn't really need to be. It was revealed to her soon enough.

She didn't know about fortune tellers either, about reading the cards and learning from them. Nephti almost swelled with excitement - she'd get to tell her all about it! And show her too, that was the natural progression after telling someone about fortune telling. But one step at a time. She could start before she explained enough to the woman.

"Sorry, your name?" she asked, wanting to know before they began, "I am Nephti. Nephti re Bisret." Her decision to say her first name was simply due to the woman's interest in her arms. What else made her Eypharian than her name? It just seemed fitting to give it all.

With that done, she pushed the cards forward, spreading them between both so the images were visible clearly from either side. Some faced Nephti, others faced the woman, most were obscured under each other.

"Fortune telling," she said quickly, wondering if the words meant anything to her, "That is why I read cards." She pushed through them, showing that each looked different, intricate images drawn that represented anything and everything. "If someone has a question. They ask - I take some cards. Each one - the picture, the name - they say things. Like the Star." Finding it, she pulled out the most worn one and passed it to Kawari. It was of a woman, staring at a starry sky, long blond hair flowing down her back and a jug of water in her hand, which she poured. "It says hope. It says other things, too, but to me it is always hope."

Pausing for a second to let the woman have a closer look at some of the cards, she then continued, "With question, the cards say answers. They tell story, they mean something. I can read them - tell you what they say. They know things. The past. The present. The future. I read them to learn and to share what I learn."

It was a strange thing to describe, and she wasn't certain if it made perfect sense. It was just fortune telling, to her. Something that was obvious, because it was almost all she did. To another person, it was her staring at pretty cards and saying guesses as answers. Maybe it was that, at one level. But at another, it was so much more.