we interrupt your regularly scheduled Babish rip-off for this important announcement

[otomechapilot]

I'll do the cooking show after the Jaunt, I didn't have time to prepare it, but...

What's this I hear about Tower falling?

Comments

[reallymean]

One or more Travelers opted to give Tower a push.

The truly remarkable thing is that it appears to have worked, not that the attempt was made. The first question half of our new blood ask is how to kill the Arcana - eventually, someone was going to test whether or not common opinion was correct.

[otomechapilot]

...and that it worked against something you'd think would make it stronger. Tower had to be happy that people were rebelling. Maybe not so much against it, but...

This might be a conversation we should have in person?

[reallymean]

Maybe it decided the only way to win was to lose.

[She does have her theories as to why Tower fell. That isn't actually one of them.

There's a pause, and then the impression of a faint sigh.]

You may be right. Come to the Castle and we can talk.

Move to action?

[otomechapilot]

True. Dying and leaving the other Arcana in chaos while flipping us both birds seems like The Most Tower play.

[Sara doesn’t believe that for a second, either - or at least doesn’t think it’s anywhere near the most important reason.]

In the mood for anything? I’ve been working on baking, and mixed soft drinks.

Sure!

[reallymean]

Nothing in particular. Surprise me.

[The door to the false Castle of Lions opens without difficulty, as it always does. Allura isn't visible in the front hall, though her opal-furred spirit companion is, sitting stone-still as though waiting to play escort.]

click on the link for regrets

[otomechapilot]

[Sara salutes the companion, as ever; hand over heart into drawing an invisible sword. Likewise, Gabriel the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcat, no longer going "I'm a cat now, I'm a girl now," sits and bares her neck to the lion.]

I think Allura's expecting me. Brought something you can eat, too.

[She produces a crabcake.]

[reallymean]

"Your courtesy does you credit," the lioness replies, a low, strangely musical purr running beneath the words. She rises to greet them both, circling to brush against Gabriel's flank and Sara's hip in feline approval. "My Champion is in her garden. I'll take you to her."

[otomechapilot]

"Lead on, Companion," Sara says. It seems right.

She's playing with the Fool card of the deck she called up as she walks.

[reallymean]

As the lioness leads the way deeper into the Castle, they pick up an escort. Somewhere, somehow, the mice have found pieces of rodent-sized armour, and long needles to use as swords. They stop to flank the door into the Castle's garden, while the lioness opens it with the press of a paw, and continues inward. It isn't far to where Allura sits, on a patch of grass beneath a tree laden with fruit that resembles nothing so much as silver peaches. She looks up as she hears the door hiss open, and offers a smile that doesn't mask the tension around her eyes.

"Sara. Gabriel. Come have a seat."

[otomechapilot]

Sara doesn’t bother to hide her fear. But she smiles back, and sits, and takes out the 78-card deck she habitually creates.

“I... figured something out between asking to talk and actually coming,” she says. “You first, though, explaining it is tricky.”

[reallymean]

"I wasn't part of it," Allura assures, frowning slightly as she takes note of her young friend's unease. "And it occurred before the last Jaunt, so I know..."

She pauses, then shakes her head, apparently dismissing her conclusion on that particular matter.

"The Arcana assembled a number of us to hunt for the killers, with the promise that if we succeed, we can agree to veto one Jaunt, or assure one return."

[otomechapilot]

"It's not worth it," she says, very quietly. "It's even less worth it with Tower gone... I'm pretty sure. I've seen how people get punished by the Arcana. From your dungeon."

She shudders.

[reallymean]

"That was a pale reflection of the real thing," Allura replies, fingers flexing as she fights to keep herself from rubbing at old scars. "And a large part of the reason some Travelers might consider it very much a worthwhile bargain. I have no intention of serving anyone up for torture, but I'm not the only survivor of Moebius who was called to investigate."

She turns to regard Sara steadily. "People like you. If you hear anything, if anyone confides in you - whatever it takes, keep it to yourself. Moebius broke us. The punishment the Arcana devise for the people who killed one of their own will be so much worse."

[otomechapilot]

"I know," Sara says. "Especially the part about it being a shadow of the real thing, and that Judgement is going along with two-wrongs-make-a-right punishments."

Her eye twitches and she grimaces.

"Doesn't that strike you as weird? Or - do you know Tarot, Allura?"

[reallymean]

"Only what I've picked up as a Traveler," she admits. "We did have divination systems on my planet, in the time of the Ancients, but none of them were based on cards meant to represent broad archetypes. But it's enough to make me suspect that we weren't the only ones Moebius broke. I think that's why they're investigating this time. The last time they lashed out, it damaged Judgment. If they were to lash out blindly this time, it would damage Justice, and possibly Emperor - and this time, we know they can be killed."

[otomechapilot]

Sara looks up at her for one long moment of shock and relief.

Then tries to hug her.

"...thank God," she says, "thank God, someone else sees it too. I mean, I - I hoped I was wrong but - Allura, losing Tower is really, really bad, I -"

She breathes. "Would you like me to teach you cartomancy? I think it'll. Help. Me explain."

[reallymean]

Allura startles slightly, not expecting the sudden hug, but doesn't pull away. Instead, she just hugs her friend tightly in return.

"If it will help you explain," she says. "It's probably long past time I learned anyway."

Tarot Knowledge is go

[otomechapilot]

She squeezes again - hard enough to mean it - and leans back, sitting down on the ground and laying out a blanket.

"So," she begins. "Tarot has two decks, major and minor. The minor," and she holds up the four aces - Cups, Pentacles, Swords and Wands - "which are like, progression on a theme; and the Major Arcana, which is mostly what we care about. Stop me if you've seen these guys before."

She deals out the majors, in a circle; starting with the Fool, and in numerical order. Each names an Arcana. The Empress card is not Mei; but then, none exactly match.

"Each represents... related ideas, which I'm gonna simplify into three or so. Fool is Beginnings and Questions and Wonder; Magician is Skill and Thought and Reason; and so on. I'll go through all of them, but there are a few I particularly care about when I mention this bolt from the blue."

These would be: the dead arcana; Lovers and Devil; Judgement; and The Tower.

[reallymean]

Allura leans forward, elbows resting on her knees, and watches Sara deal out the cards. This simplified explanation, at least, she's familiar with, but she doesn't interrupt - if nothing else, a refresher on the basics is never a bad idea.

"I'm with you so far."

[otomechapilot]

"Has anyone told you about the Fool's Journey idea, by the way?" Sara shakes her head. "Might matter. Might not."

She holds up the Lovers and the Devil. Visually, they copy a pose - man and woman in stylized nudity, a figure above, a symbol linking them; but for Lovers, it's an angel giving thier blessing above a pomegranate tree, and for the Devil, a classical ramheaded Baphomet chaining them to a treasure chest.

"Lovers and Devil touch where 'I love you' and 'I want you' do," Sara says. "Mirror images. Lovers is that in a healthy way; not only Romance, but Friendship and Relationships as a whole, while Devil is Corruption and Hunger and Instinct."

She pauses.

"Why is the Lovers so bad with people if what they are, is relationships?" she asks. "Why is Lovers so bad at not being the Devil?"

It's rhetorical, but she also wants to know what Allura has figured out.

[reallymean]

"Relationships aren't inherently healthy," Allura replies. "Let alone inclusive. Many of the Arcana seem to behave as the darker side of their idiom as often as the positive side, if not more so."

[otomechapilot]

“Lovers acts more clueless and unhealthy and stalkery than makes sense given her - ideas,” Sara insists. “And a story from Jean, from her - thier? - perspective made me realize why. She was afraid of what I’m talking about. It’s why they attacked the Hermit - to force him to stay.”

“Because Hermit is individuality, and without him, they had nothing left to keep them separated.”

“Without morals -” she flips Hierophant face down - “or Balance -” then Temperance - “There’s not much left keeping Love from being Lust.”

[reallymean]

"So you believe they can be changed by one another's presence or absence, and not just by the impact of their actions, or of ours," Allura sums up. For her own part, she isn't entirely convinced - but the theory certainly has its merits.

[otomechapilot]

“Lovers and Devil were worried enough to try the first Grid,” Sara reminds her. “Magician was worried enough to stop them from killing Hermit, or worse, from rewriting what the current Hermit’s Individuality meant with that virus.”

She frowns. “The Arcana beleive it. Their actions scream that they do from the rooftops. That’s a good enough reason to be worried about Ruin, Revelation and Revolution dying.”

[reallymean]

"For now, at least," Allura says. She straightens, head tipping backward as she searches the leaves of the tree above, as though it might hold some answers. "The Arcana are born or...created somehow. Emperor confirmed it, even if he was cagey with the details. I'm not convinced strengthening the Arcana is in anyone's best interest, but if it is, it might be possible to rekindle one of the ones who was lost."