Ami Aihara (Aradia Megido) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
livingdeadgirl) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
redshiftlogs2019-09-03 05:21 pm
livingdeadgirl) wrote in redshiftlogs2019-09-03 05:21 pm
Entry tags:
Death Reversed [semi-open]
Who: Ami, Ben Hargreeves, otherwise open
What: Uncannily accurate tarot readings (there is no other kind)
Where: The park
When: Early September - thread with Ben takes place a few days before the open version, as Ami will need some time to process things.
Warnings: None currently
Format: Prefer brackets but prose is fine too!
Ami is in the park.
This, in itself, is not unusual. Apart from when it was overrun by mushrooms, she's been through the park a lot, especially in the evenings. It's the best place to look at that distant, unfamiliar sky. The openest place in the colony, where you can really feel like you're outdoors, and not... what's the word...
baseconfined.
But today, she brought along her backpack. And from inside it, she produces a box of tarot cards. These are nice cards, too. The backs are deep black with an almost velvety feel, and an intricate design in metallic silver ink.
She's found a nice, flat area to sit, and she's laid down a placemat she found somewhere so the cards won't get dirty. And with that, she begins shuffling the deck...
[ OOC NOTE: If you'd like Ami to do a tarot reading for your character, let me know whether you want it A) uncannily accurate or B) just random cards. If A, please hmu on Plurk or Discord (Kae#6067) to hash out the details! ]
What: Uncannily accurate tarot readings (there is no other kind)
Where: The park
When: Early September - thread with Ben takes place a few days before the open version, as Ami will need some time to process things.
Warnings: None currently
Format: Prefer brackets but prose is fine too!
Ami is in the park.
This, in itself, is not unusual. Apart from when it was overrun by mushrooms, she's been through the park a lot, especially in the evenings. It's the best place to look at that distant, unfamiliar sky. The openest place in the colony, where you can really feel like you're outdoors, and not... what's the word...
baseconfined.
But today, she brought along her backpack. And from inside it, she produces a box of tarot cards. These are nice cards, too. The backs are deep black with an almost velvety feel, and an intricate design in metallic silver ink.
She's found a nice, flat area to sit, and she's laid down a placemat she found somewhere so the cards won't get dirty. And with that, she begins shuffling the deck...
[ OOC NOTE: If you'd like Ami to do a tarot reading for your character, let me know whether you want it A) uncannily accurate or B) just random cards. If A, please hmu on Plurk or Discord (Kae#6067) to hash out the details! ]
no subject
Although a little hesitant, she nods. ] That... might be a really good idea, actually. I don't think he was trying to be mean, he just seemed... scared.
[ Which is kind of worse I guess??? ]
So yeah, maybe after we're done? [ There are, after all, still two cards to go. She places her hand on the one on the right. Ready? ]
no subject
[ It's not that Ben is incapable of imagining people he likes are flawed and can be mean. He is very well equipped to acknowledge when people he cares about fuck up. But in this case, because it is Cole specifically ... Ben is sure the intent wasn't to be cruel. ]
Maybe some of it is like... a cultural thing? I've kinda picked up on the fact that the place he comes from is, like, super different from Earth. That might be why - he freaked out over some thing that you or me would think is so totally not a big deal.
[ He also wonders, privately, if some of Cole's own demons or uncertainties may have played a role. But saying that to Ami would feel like revealing too much and betraying Cole's trust. So he keeps that bit to himself. ]
But I'll ask him, and I'll let you know. You've got my word.
[ And he gestures to her to turn over the next card. ]
no subject
Thanks, Ben.
[ In the meantime, maybe she'll get some comfort from her Future card. She turns it over.
It's a girl wearing a little black dress, so dark that it blends in with the background. She's in motion, dancing, her hair flinging droplets of water like stars - or perhaps stars like droplets of water. Her eyes are hidden, but her smile isn't. She's joyful, confident.
Ami smiles, too, albeit a little awkwardly after where the conversation just was. ]
The Star. Well, that's a little better. It signifies renewed hope, faith, a sense of purpose. Becoming your best self.
no subject
He grins, nothing awkward about it, and says: ]
Hey! That's good news!
[ All of those things sound like they're indicating a positive outcome, if Ami were to recover those memories. Or even if Ben can just help smooth over this Cole situation. Either way, there's hope. Purpose. All that. ]
Seems like things are looking up for the both of us. We match!
no subject
Haha! Yeah, kind of! Or - ooh. Perhaps we're going to star in Wheel of Fortune®! [ Fingerguns!! She's not even a little bit sorry. ] You can be Pat Sajak, and I'll be Vanna White.
[ ... Then she frowns as something occurs to her. ] Wait, they weren't married or anything, were they? I am not up to date on my Wheel of Fortune® lore.
no subject
He's still chuckling when she asks if they were married, gives a big rolling shrug, shaking his head. ]
No clue. Maybe? But it's not like game show hosts are usually married, right?
[ Ben has seen a lot of Wheel and shows like it, while Klaus was in rehab. Game shows were pretty much always on TV in common rooms - hard to find fictional TV that could be guaranteed not to show characters getting drunk or high or anything else that might jeaopardize someone's recovery. So it was all Jeopardy and Wheel and things like that all the time. ]
Doesn't matter. We can be the "we're just buds" version.
no subject
[ Which just leaves one more card. And she's feeling pretty good about it now - the future's going to be okay, so whatever lies forgotten in her past can't be that bad, right? At the very least, she feels up to facing it. Her fingers touch the back of the card. Anyway, it's not like this is going to... I don't know, show her some kind of mystic vision or something. This is just tarot, after all. She's not any kind of seer, it's just for fun. ]
Hi, Pat, I'd like to buy a vowel.
[ And she flips the card.
This one depicts a hooded figure, pure white like all the others, hovering barely an inch off the ground, a lily beside him. Above one hand floats a key; in the other, he holds a bleeding skull. But here's a twist: the card is upside-down.
Ami frowns and tilts her head at it, not upset, but ... mildly perplexed. Her voice goes quiet, pensive. ]
Death, reversed.
no subject
[ Ben feels like maybe he'd heard about that being referenced - maybe in a book, maybe a movie - but he hadn't realized that one of the actual tarot cards in a deck just said 'DEATH' on it in great big letters. That seems remarkably shitty. Who would want to see a card like that.
A lot of different possibilities present themselves. Ben isn't the only one in this place who has had more than a brush with death in his past. Maybe somewhere in those memories Ami doesn't have access to, she'd died. Maybe only for a minute.
But then it sinks in that she'd said reversed, and he remembers her saying something about one of his own cards having a different meaning reversed. So he asks, still brightly, trying to lighten the mood if he can: ]
Oh but, upside-down means it is opposite, right? So what's the opposite of the Death card? Being, like... super alive?
1/2
[ Like how winter leads into spring.
As the words leave her mouth, she's struck with the oddest sense of déjà vu.
She's said that before, when explaining this card to someone else. But who? When? She squints, chasing the fleeting hint of memory like it's a white rabbit obsessed with its stupid pocketwatch. But this time, it doesn't get away.
Who was it? Why... the very person who gave her these cards.
Ami's eyes widen, her focus drifting into the middle distance. ]
It's Ryoji's card.
2/2
Ryoji, he - he got me this deck! I couldn't remember who - it's his arcana!
[ But what does that actually mean? It doesn't make sense. He was Death? She remembers his face, but also a huge form surrounded by coffin-shaped shields. She was going to teach him tarot. He saved her life. She laughed at his funeral - but he wasn't dead, he was Death, with a capital D -
She presses a hand to her forehead, shaking her head slightly.]
I... don't understand.
[ It doesn't make sense. Everything popping into her head, it's impossible. Is this real? Is this what she forgot? When did all this happen? ]
no subject
Which doesn't really make sense, why she is saying these things in that voice of revelation and surprise. It's not like she's explaining it to him - she's saying it aloud, more to herself. Like she didn't know.
And that is only confirmed when she talks about not being able to remember who had given it to her. And what with the conversation they'd just had about her memories, that makes Ben's heart beat a bit faster. He stays quiet, watching as she touches her face and shakes her head and looks so baffled.
Finally, he asks: ]
Don't understand what? What just happened?
no subject
[ Her mind races, following the thread deeper and deeper. Ryoji saw her in a vision once, but it wasn't her - it was a different her, with fairy wings and horns - wait, she had horns!! Her hand moves to the side of her head, where they should have been rooted, but finds only a pigtail. Her head feels too light all of a sudden. What happened to her horns?
It's making her confused and scared and slightly dizzy, and it's difficult to focus on now and then at the same time. But she meets Ben's eyes, finally. She wants to tell him what's going on, but she doesn't know. One thing's quickly becoming clear, though - ]
... I think maybe ... my world isn't as normal as I thought.
no subject
It's a relief when she finally meets his eyes again - Ben's face is twisted up with concern, and her words don't mitigate that all. ]
Your world?
[ What's her world got to do with any of it? He asks, voice a little clipped with urgent worry: ]
Seriously, Ami, what's happening, are you okay? Do you need to go to the infirmary?
no subject
No? I don't know. Maybe.
[ The present, Ami. If she's going somewhere, she should pack up the cards. She puts them neatly back in their box, the deck first, then the spread. Star. Moon. Death reversed...
She lingers on that one, holding it in front of her. ]
Reversed... means resisting change. Personal transformation...
[ The horns, yellow eyes, black lips. She'd been transforming into something. Or someone...? A deep, existential terror takes hold of her, and she hastily returns Death to the box as well, as if she can't get rid of it fast enough. ]
Yes I think we should go there please thanks!
no subject
So he just waits for her answer, watching how she picks up that Death card like she's seeing it for the first time. She says something about resisting a change, and despite her distraction and alarm, she is speaking coherently, breathing okay. Not a seizure probably? God, he has no idea. He just wishes he could help
When she shoves the rest of the cards away and says, in that urgent frightened way, that she wants to go to the infirmary, he gives a quick nod and gets to his feet, offering her a hand up. ]
Okay. Let's go.
[ He'll stick with her as long as she wants him to, even if all he can really do is hover and ask questions and worry. Those are three things that Ben Hargreeves is very good at. ]
no subject
They won't find anything wrong with her medically, once they reach the Medbay, but it doesn't help that she struggles to articulate her "symptoms." Flashbacks? Intrusive thoughts? Hallucinations? It's like all of those, and yet not quite any of them.
In the end, there's really nothing she can do other than sleep it off. The images need time to put themselves in order, to congeal into proper memories. That's all.
She'll see him the next day at dinner, and be able to tell him she's okay, but as to what it actually was? "Maybe another time." ]