Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world. ~T'ien Yiheng

[mistresswanda.livejournal.com]

Monday, the 11th of June
The Dormouse, afternoon

I have found, quite curiously, now that I am no longer surrounded by tea I want a cup almost every day. It might be because it is no longer work; but I would bet that it has more to do with the way Hope blends them. It's like she has a sixth sense about what will taste good together.

It's raining and blah and I have no interest in being 'Mayor von SacherMosch' today. I just want to sit and have tea and sweets and not be in charge of anything. So much so I forgo all the pretty dresses in my closet and opt to wear a pair of old, comfortable jeans and a t-shirt I found at the flea market. I have no idea why anyone would want a shirt advertising hardware, but the 'Pretty Hate Machine' part amused me greatly.

With my hair up in a pony tail and a walk that clearly states "I'm off the clock!" I head over to The Dormouse for lunch. I silently pray it's not too busy as I shake raindrops from my hair and push open the door.

(open)

Comments

[hopenotfaith.livejournal.com]

"Don't envy you, 'avin' all those people to explain to," I say t'Wanda. Sip me tea. "I wonder... if I did a readin' of the future fer someone in the carnival," deliberately don't suggest Genny cos she might 'ave reasons to not want to 'ear about the future; that sort o'thing's private, "might get a bit of a - peek at what's goin' on 'ere."

[genny-duvall.livejournal.com]

Everybody's lookin' at me! I wouldn't mind if it was only the twins or Miss Wanda, but all of 'em and that pretty gal Leah. Leah's lookin' at me real hard, with her eyes all focused like she's thinkin' 'bout everythin' that's goin' on. Bet she's real smart! But I ain't sure I want to know what she's plannin.

"Never strong on explaining'" says Faith, and I nod.

"Yeah. they ain't," I mumble.

"Sorry to put you on the spot, Genny. It's just... people are coming to me as their mayor, wanting to know why the show is back. Those that remember," I explain, and shake my head. "Guess I should get over there and see if your Management will talk to me."

"Maybe they would now that you're mayor?" Sure hope they don't get mad at her! "I dunno, Miss Wanda. Honest, I don't hardly know how Management decides who to talk to and who not to, but if you do go…be careful?"

"You could do - " Mine, I almost say. Catch myself, though, 'cause then I think maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to do mine. If I'm gonna do somethin' 'bout Management, what if they could tell if the readin' was about them?

"You could do Momma's? Or if you gotta have the person here to read for 'em…well. Um. I'm here?"

[leah-pontarlier.livejournal.com]

This is all very interesting! I am sitting quietly, sipping my tea and listening. But I have a question, and it is something that I have wondered before. Put down my cup and lean forward a bit so Hope can hear me.

"Does the reading have to be for a single person? Or could you do one for a group? Such as the people of Excolo?"

[hopenotfaith.livejournal.com]

About to answer Genny when Leah pipes up.

"...Ain't never thought o'tryin' to read for the town," I say, thoughtful. "Hmm... I dunno if I can, cos that's a lot of people, a lot o'different fates all tangled up. But could... Give it a try." Fumble me cards out onto the table.

[genny-duvall.livejournal.com]

"Could you do it?" I ask, lookin' from Leah to Hope and back again. "For the town?" That's better'n me, better'n Momma, even. Whatever Management wants here, it don't have nothin' to do with us - it's about Excolo and the thing in the Tower.

Just hope that lookin' at Excolo's cards don't bring Hope too close to the Tower.

[mistresswanda.livejournal.com]

A reading for the town, now there's an idea.

"Leah, that's a excellent idea. Let's se if it will work." I smile at the blonde woman, and turn back to Hope. "I speak for the town, and give permission to read for it as a whole." I say quietly, and offer to shuffle the deck if it helps.

[hopenotfaith.livejournal.com]

I pass the pack o'cards over t'Wanda. S'pose as Mayor she does have the authority to represent the town.

"Genny shuffle'm next, so we can see the carnival, too," I say. Faith comes back over an' sits next t'me, an' I lean into 'er, grateful to be able to see through 'er eyes. "We're goin' to try to do a readin' fer the town," I say. "About the future." Take the cards back an' I lay out the celtic cross (http://www.angelpaths.com/spreads3.html). A bigger spread'n I usually use, but this is for the whole town.

"First card's the present," I say, an' turn it over. Ace o'Pentacles, an' I see in a rush the busy marketplace, the growth o'the town.

"Ace o'Pentacles is a card o'profit," says Faith. "Shows that the town's been doin' well. People are prosperous."

"Second card's th' immedate obstacle," I say, an' steel myself before turnin' it over. Expect to see the Tower. It's the Fool, reversed. Look at it, an' instead of seein' I feel, strange moment like bein' on a tightrope, drunk swayin' sensation. Shake me 'ead to get rid of it.

"Fool don't usually come up as a problem card, even reversed," says Faith. "'S a good card. But what Hope's seen... 'S a symbol of new beginnin's. But the problem 'ere is whether we want it, an' what sort of new beginnin' it might be. A card o'change. An' it's an obstacle cos there's lots of different directions it could go in... An' lots of people're willing to steer it the way they want." Feel the back of me neck prickle.

[genny-duvall.livejournal.com]

"Genny shuffle'm next, so we can see the carnival, too," Hope tells me. I nod, and say, "Okay," and start shufflin'.

Been ages since I've done this. We ain't gotten another card-reader in the Carnival. Hired one on for a while, but everyone could tell he was a quack.

These cards ain't no quack cards, though. I can feel all them little tingles as I'm shufflin', just like I used to. I know there's somethin' real happenin'.

They start in like they always do, readin' and talkin' together. "First card's the present," I say, an' turn it over. Ace o'Pentacles, an' I see in a rush the busy marketplace, the growth o'the town.

"Ace o'Pentacles is a card o'profit," says Faith. "Shows that the town's been doin' well. People are prosperous."

But then Hope looks all woozy for a sec. "You okay, honey?" I ask, leanin' over.

Faith's the one that talks, but she don't look too happy neither. "Fool don't usually come up as a problem card, even reversed," says Faith. "'S a good card. But what Hope's seen... 'S a symbol of new beginnin's. But the problem 'ere is whether we want it, an' what sort of new beginnin' it might be. A card o'change. An' it's an obstacle cos there's lots of different directions it could go in... An' lots of people're willing to steer it the way they want."

I gotta think hard 'bout that one. "But it ain't sayin' that things shouldn't change, right?" I ask real slow. "Just that…there's lots of different ways that it can change, and some of 'em'll be better'n others?"

Like ours? Maybe?

"Does it say which changes are best?"

[mistresswanda.livejournal.com]

Chew on my bottom lip as Hope and Faith explain the first two cards. The first seems spot on, and the second isn't bad; change is inevitable. But neither of the twins seem happy about it.

"There's natural change, there's effective change for the betterment of all... and then there's 'Excolo' change." Sigh and twirl a strand of my hair from my pony tail about my fingers. Wonder if Rose has any sense of anything moving behind the scenes? Continue to chew my lip and wait for the next card to be revealed.

[leah-pontarlier.livejournal.com]

Everyone looks at me when I ask my question and Hope seems a bit doubtful at first but then decides to try anyway. Though she first has both Wanda and Genny shuffle the cards. And she lays out more of them than I've seen her do since she first explained the basics of how to read the cards to me.

Another thing that is different is that Faith is telling us about the cards, Not Hope. Though I realize that maybe this is only new to me since I have only ever known the twins as they are now.

Once Hope turns the first card over the whole table focuses their attention on it. I sneak quick glances at the others, Genny looks a bit nervous and so does Wanda when Faith explains about the second card. I'm a bit worried about Hope if the the other cards in the reading have similar effects on her to this one. But I also think we need to know the final outcome so I stay quiet.

Until Genny asks,Does it say which changes are best?

"That information is more likely to be shown by the other cards in the spread." I tell her quietly, hoping to avoid getting glared at by Faith for interrupting.

[hopenotfaith.livejournal.com]

"Just that…there's lots of different ways that it can change, and some of 'em'll be better'n others?"

"Sort of," I say, bitin' me lip. "The cards, they... ain't that interested in what's better or worse. Just what can be. An' sometimes what we see, 's easy to tell if it's good or bad. But sometimes it's not."

"Road to 'Ell is paved with good intentions," says Faith, with a bit of a smirk, but we go quiet for a minute after that. Know everyone's thinkin' bout the Tower.

"Does it say which changes are best?"

"That information is more likely to be shown by the other cards in the spread."

Smile at Leah.

"Yeah, got to have context t'work it out. Th' third card's called foundation. Says where th'origins of our situation are." So I turn it over, an' again I expect to see the tower, but I don't. Instead...

In the dry dust of a train of wagons a woman coughs blood and is dying and dying but does not die, and says she has a dream of a town by a river, and when she dies the rest of them dream it, a map in pieces, and her husband weeps and says she is in them all now, and their leader says no, it is God - they hear God's voice in the wilderness; and they build it, a town. There was blood. There's always blood. Before then, so long before, men put a body in the ground here and it rose up and they called him a god; he was the first god they made, not found, but not the last. They put many other bodies in that ground after that, but they stayed there, meat and bone into dust, and animals lapped the blood.

"Excolo," I say, faint an' shakin', and Faith squeezes me 'ands.

"I don't even know 'ow to begin explainin'," she says. "Hope saw the birth of this town. Two births. I dunno. When it was made into a town, an' before that, when it was... woken up. Or maybe just when people realised what it was, this place. Gods come 'ere. But they was also made 'ere. The 'igh Priestess card, she's a card o'mystery, o'power within us, of gifts we 'ave we don't know about yet, the guide to... all secret things. I think... Excolo's a door, 's what it's sayin'. But not to a place. To knowledge."

"Est deus in nobis," I say, all quiet, without thinkin'.

[mistresswanda.livejournal.com]

I can't help but shiver when Faith tries to explain the third card. The birth of the town, in more ways than one. I know all pantheon's start from somewhere... nowhere actually, but to think it happened here...

"Excolo's a door, 's what it's sayin'. But not to a place. To knowledge."

"Est deus in nobis,"

"They say knowledge is power... the more we know, the more control we have over the outcome of the town's path?" I muse out loud. I think I might be biting through my bottom lip at this point, so I leave off that to gently drum my fingers against my tea cup. "I think this may all be beyond my pay scale," I sigh, both curious and worried at the same time, and wonder what the rest of the reading will hold.

[genny-duvall.livejournal.com]

Hope's all trembly, and Faith's more serious'n I've ever seen her. Ever.

They explain all about it - the town gettin' started, the town gettin' woken up, all the things that went into makin' Excolo what it is. Everyone's just quiet. Don't really know what we can say, after all that, with the twins lookin' so pale and serious.

"They say knowledge is power…" says Miss Wanda after a bit. "The more we know, the more control we have over the outcome of the town's path?" I muse out loud. I think I might be biting through my bottom lip at this point, so I leave off that to gently drum my fingers against my tea cup. "I think this may all be beyond my pay scale."

"Or maybe…the more we're connected to Excolo, or the longer we stay here, the more knowledge we'll get?"

Leastways, I hope it's that way 'round, 'cause if knowin' more's the only way to control what's gonna happen, then I better get to readin', 'cause right now I don't know nothin' 'cept paints'n colors.

"And that's why…everyone wants Excolo?" Everyone meanin' the Tower, but I ain't gonna say that! Not when the cards're out, and not when everyone who's here knows what I mean. "To get the knowledge?"