Welcome to Gaia! ::

A grin cuts deep into Lliam's face. "A fortune-telling. Oh, I would love one, Myles. Card-reading is a true mystical art, a magic--like your gift, if you will. I would love to hear what the future has in store for me.... and for Colon. If you read my cards you must read his as well." He smiles, and pats the seat next to him, inviting Colon to sit. "Come here... come sit next to me. I won't bite you, Colon, not unless you ask me to." He delivers this line half-heartedly, as though he's aiming at a joke, to make fun of himself.

"I do wish you wouldn't be so...wary of me, Colon. When someone like you is afraid to be in the same room with me, how do you think that makes me feel about myself? A man cannot help the Gift he is born with, Colon. You cannot be rid of yours and I cannot be rid of mine. You are a life-bringer, I am a death-bringer.

Come and sit. I believe the cards will show a lasting friendship between us..."

For a moment he hesitates, but a second later he stands up and hobbles over next to the two. "Your right Lliam, I guess I've just been a little shaken up, long night after all." He smiles a sits more comfortably into the seat, "Go on then, lets see what the cards have to say."

Myles slowly deals the cards while saying, "On an earlier subject, I hope you aren't planning on forgetting exactly why my life was in danger, Lilam. I wouldn't have been incapacitated if I wasn't giving Colon the power to bring you back."

When he is done speaking, the cards on the table look like this:

(Image removed for bandwidth recycling. The spread, for those interested, is Waite's Celtic cross with these cards:

Querent: 1 of Prickle
Card 1: Apostle of Boom - Dr. Van Van Mojo
Card 2: Cow of Sweet

Card 3: Season of Boom - Discord
Card 4: Season of Prickle - Bureaucracy (reversed)
Card 5: Z (zero) of Orange
Card 6: The Great Pyramid (reversed)

Card 7: Apostle of Orange - Malaclypse the Elder
Card 8: 4 of Sweet
Card 9: The Golden Apple
Card 10: Season of Orange - The Aftermath (reversed)

You may now proceed with the rest of the thread. Thank you.)


He rubs his chin thoughtfully with thumb and forefinger as he studies the cards.

"The card that stands for you as the querent is playing with us, telling us what we already know. The suit of the card indicates the element of earth, but it also indicates touch. The Touch of Earth sounds like as apt a description of you as any. But the value of the card also tells me something else. Your Touch of Earth doesn't surmount you. You are the master of it and know well your role in the cosmos. In other words, despite the free-wheeling impression you strain to give the world you don't need a comic-book character to impart the classic line, 'with great power comes great responsibility.'"

He looks at the cards with curiosity, and goes more rapidly now. Pointing to the piled cards in the center, "You are in the middle of a great action concerning a person. Things are happening rapidly, but at the moment you are distracted. Inundated by sensation, drowning in the flavor of it all."

Pointing now to the card at the top of the cross, "But when you look ahead, the goal you aim for is to disrupt something. I get the impression that it's a force that seeks to mold you. To control you. You want to throw it off."

Pointing to the card at the bottom of the cross. "You are in this situation because organization has failed you. But that same failure gives you a bit of advantage. You're below the radar at the moment."

To the right of the cross. "In your past there has been an oversight, a lack of vision or motivation..."

The left card. "...but in the future you will have an opportunity to take control of your own self-creation."

He then pauses, examining the column of cards at the right. Then he indicates the bottom two cards. "I see you approaching the situation with a bit of a false front. An illusory you to charm and distract. But again, there is sensation all around you, that can overwhelm you."

Moving his hand upward, "The third card in the column indicates your hopes and fears, and it's a doozy. The Golden Apple, man, you don't go halfway, do you? Just remember, the Apple is addressed To The Prettiest One, but vanity felled the gods of Olympus themselves."

The last card, at the top of the column. "This is a toughie..."

He lays two more cards beside it. The first inverted, with an image of a spear bearing a banner with an eye at the apex of a pyramid, the name at the bottom proclaiming itself The Bavarian Illuminati. The second, the Tower of Babel, a ziggurat-type structure with obscure lettering above it. Myles looks at them long and hard, and then starts laughing. lol

He raises an eyebrow at the words "golden apple," but remains quiet, waiting for Myles to finish. He knows that there is wisdom to be found in the messages of cards and random fortunes, not because of some mystical fate, but because people need reasons to follow the right paths in life.

And just like that, his smile is gone. He sits up quietly, leaning in to see the cards himself, as though he would be able to find a mistake and correct it for Myles. Of course he has no idea what any of the cards mean, and he almost laughs himself at the irony of the situation.

He doesn't really know what to say, but of course...it's all just fun and games...