Video: UN - Runeseeker

[onerthes]

[Vira-Lorr was seated in her shop, reclining in her chair and looking at the table, her omni set up on the other side. She had a frown on her face, her eyes narrowed. The third eye glittered a little, seeming to almost glow softly in the low light of the room. The candles that were set out flickered and gave the fortune teller's chamber a soft, almost eerie glow.

On the table in front of her were a set of three tarot cards. She steepled her fingers, looking them over before sighing and turning her gaze to the feed, shrugging.]

Well, I never said my visions were always pleasant. Just a thought for my fellow sleepers, as you get ready for the next month. The locals call February a bitter month, and the story of Doorway is not exactly a happy one, trapped and forever waiting for someone who may never return.

Next month, you may be plagued by the possibilities, the imaginings and wishes that you might have in your hearts. Unsure, you might just find yourself at a crossroads, an important decision to be made. And if you choose one way, you may find yourself... what is the saying? "Crying over spilled milk" while you do not see the cups there, full on the shelf and waiting. But a choice always has at least two possible outcomes, yes?

[She reached over and drew another card. She smirked softly.]

Perhaps you might find what it is you want. The season of the Egg Moon is supposed to be a time of Rites, after all. Follow your hearts and choose wisely.

[And with that vague smirk, she flicked the camera feed off.]

Comments

[onerthes]

Seeing the future is rarely precise. I sense things, but they're not always clear. I have a feeling people may be caught in the midst of their desires soon, and the choices they make may be hard ones.

Nothing more.

[slayerskiss]

Ohhh, that makes a lot of sense.

[Kind of.]

When you say desires do you mean screwing or?

[onerthes]

[She laughed brightly and ran her fingers up through her hair.]

It's not quite so ... direct? I was performing the reading to see if I could get an insight into what might come soon. In the past, things that happen here have affected people of all stripes.

So, if it meant relationships? It might mean sex. It might mean very close friendship. It might mean family. The answer probably would depend on the person. In your case? Since you brought it up? Perhaps it is about sex.

[slayerskiss]

[No, that's just the one she has the most experience with. Also probably the most trauma, but let's not go there.]

I mean, I get laid plenty so I sure as hell don't see what I'd be on a crossroads about there. But I don't really have any close friends or family here. Or in general.

But it doesn't have to mean relationships? It can mean like, general wants then?

[onerthes]

I suspect it might be deeper than just a tryst, yes. The cards can be wrongly interpreted, and this place... it clouds my third eye at times. So, I can never say things certainly. But, considering we are in a time of Rites and Rituals, and the Doorway's month approaches, I think this may at least relate to relationships somewhat.

However, getting technical? Desire [She tapped the 7 of cups] may refer to any number of wishes your heart has, and disappointment or successful partnership isn't necessarily a relationship.

When looking into the future, you never know things for sure. Just... good to have a guess walking in, yes?

[slayerskiss]

I'll pass. Three boyfriends was enough to convince me not to go for anything deeper than a "tryst." [Seems like someone needs to be taught what heteronormativity is. Someone call Dirk. More than that, the idea she'll be at a crossroad between getting what she desires seems... wrong to say the least. She can't get what she desires from here. Maybe some of it but she's long since given up on getting what she wants.]

I guess. I mean, I have my own cryptic batshit visions to deal with, and they mostly just give me a headache. Unless hindsight counts for something.

[onerthes]

Been at that point in my life before too. [She laughed softly.] But hindsight is always quite the valuable tool, so long as you draw a lesson from what came before and try not to do the same thing again.

That always seems to be my problem.

[slayerskiss]

[That attitude pisses her off. Don't act like her emotional intimacy issues are a phase that she'll get over, fuck you she'll never not want to be single for the rest of her life. But she counts to ten in the back of her head, and lets out a huff.]

Not me. I learn from my mistakes. When I say hindsight, I mean that you only know what the visions were about after it's already happened, which makes it pretty useless.

[All the subtle hints towards Buffy's death and neither of them ever figured it out.]

[onerthes]

[Unaware that she'd touched a nerve, she focused on the part that they were talking about here. Hmmm, no... that was fair.]

That is part of the limit of seeing the future. At best, it's vague, and situations can change. While it might be a helpful guidepost for some, it could just as easily end in disaster. And sometimes? Even knowing what is coming is useless, as it changes nothing.

So, this vision may not be of help to you, where it is for others.

[slayerskiss]

If only it wasn't vague, I guess.

[She's not bitter.]

What are the chances this vision just doesn't come true?

[onerthes]

Because so much is unknown? I can't say. I'm trying to see a vision for what is around two hundred people all at once. So, there's a chance it just may not apply. It's all very ... general, and that's why it's also vague.

I'll admit. I did this because I was concerned about this month.

[slayerskiss]

Yeah. Which is fair, I can respect that.

I guess the best we can do is just keep it in mind, y'know? Not much to be proactive about yet. Except this giant monster.

[onerthes]

Oh yes. That thing. I'd obviously be very careful of it. Had a tangle, and only a recent change made it safe to even encounter. I'm not sure it can be killed, at least not yet. We don't have the means.

[She grunted.]

But as with anything, just keep it in mind. I hope that my concern about my patron is unwarranted. [But if her tone said anything, she didn't think it was. She both had a keen interest in the Doorway, and also didn't trust her.]

[slayerskiss]

...Your patron being?

[onerthes]

The Doorway.

She's the Pthumerian associated with next month, and with relationships. I have a very complicated relationship with their kind.

[slayerskiss]

Like a love goddess? Huh.

[Yeah, that seems screwy.]

Any reason behind the complicated relationship, or just general distrust? I'm willing to trust your judgement, just curious.

[onerthes]

Not exactly. [She laughed.] I'm dating one of those.

No, think of her like this. She is a Pthumerian who, for love, chose to wait for her lover's return forever. So, to her our relationships, romantic or not, are the most important thing. Like, how Nevermore, the Raven, is obsessed with learning and so teaches lessons, or the Moss King with a gamble, or a bartered deal.

They have their focuses.

As for my distrust? I have mistrusted gods for a lot of my life, and anything with that much power makes me leery, because of how it can corrupt and be abused. Added to that? Those Pthumerians I have known, they have a lot of trouble understanding how we mortals live. So, for instance, how she sees relationships? It may not be how we see them at all.

And I think I might have once knew her, in the nightmare. That one was prone to being blunt to the point of being cruel.

[slayerskiss]

[She's confused, but she's in too deep now.]

Yeah, I mean, I was raised Catholic. Just makes people really sexually frustrated, to be honest, and then they take it out on you. I figure if that god exists, he has to be a giant asshole or else he'd, I dunno, tell those followers to knock it the fuck off.

Huh, so they're like aliens? Guess that makes sense.

Who was she? The one you knew in Deerington, I mean.

[onerthes]

Mmmm. I've heard a few stories of Catholics. That lines up...

And yes. They're very much what you'd call aliens, with incredible powers. The one I knew before stood still as a statue over a pool of blood. She was in a set of boats trapped in the side of a mountain that we only eventually found a way to get to. She and a few deer seemed trapped, though I think she could have left any time. She was clearly waiting for someone to return, someone that would never come.

[It was that which made her think the woman on the boats was the Doorway actually.]

We heard a voice in our minds when we found her, and she would answer one question, and only one, at a price of a bit of blood. It was true, and absolute, like a prophecy only clear. But oh she was very blunt about them.

Still, she never lied to me once, even if she could be very cold in her own way.

[slayerskiss]

What's with this place's obsession with fuckin' deer, anyway?

At least she gave a clear answer, that's something. My own... I dunno who gives me the dreams, my predecessors I guess, they're all cryptic as hell. I'd take bluntness over that.

[onerthes]

Ramona Derwin [Her lips quivered in an ugly sneer at the mention of her name.], a woman of incredible power and gift in technology and combat, was first of the Sleepers summoned by Julia Sodder. Her magic was tied to the natural world, and to Deer as some sort of totem. She bound the Pthumerian of the Moon, Julia's mother Cynthia, and used her soul to resurrect each of us to keep our spirits trapped in the nightmare. The more we were trapped there, dying, the more we were turning into deer ourselves, guardian spirits trapped by her magic.

So... the deer were former sleepers trapped there by a crazy woman's blind desperation.

[She snorted and nodded.]

As cruel as it was, nothing she said was false. It's more than you can say of some Pthumerians.

[slayerskiss]

Damn. [Well, that's deeper than she wanted to go. She takes a minute trying to parse that before she settles for a simple response.]

Sounds like a bitch. [Thanks, Faith.]

[onerthes]

Well... she's dead now. So, she's a dead bitch.

[No, no, the wicked look of Schadenfraude on her face there for just a split second did not really speak well for Vira-Lorr, but she didn't care. She hated Ramona.]

But yes. The deer are probably spirits of people like us, trapped as protectors, and since the people revere us? They revere them.

[slayerskiss]

No shit? My favourite kind. [If you're worried she's going to judge you, she won't. She's not actively murderous now, but she still doesn't have a leg to stand on when it comes to moral superiority.]

Did they call it Deerington before or after the deer?

[onerthes]

You know... I have no idea. In the nightmare most of the town records were degraded, molded and corrupted. I think it was because it was a child's dream, so the only books intact were ones she knew, which included a lot of fantastical tales, connections to our worlds.

She had trouble with more detailed things as she was still quite young when she died. So, I don't know that she knew of the name at its founding. It was Deerington as long as we knew it.