Audience - Jacopo

[holyspirits]

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[holyspirits]

[ he is leggier so he may retrieve yes. ]

Small doesn't mean it isn't good. [ but... curious. ] What was it a photo of?

[obdure]

It doesn't. Coins are small and money is always good.

[ So! He gives them their box. Here you go. ]

... People I used to know.

[holyspirits]

Money is always good. [ hard agree. they take box! but they are not opening it yet. ]

... are they people you liked, once?

[obdure]

We drifted apart.

[ time to blind box open... He gets a polaroid. It's of him about fourteen and a blond girl about twelve. Pretend they are medieval children instead of 1800s, they are still the same characters.

Looking at it, he's quiet for a moment as cracks form on his face, like breaking pottery. ]

It happens when you become busy.

[holyspirits]

[ oh this is a baby. this is not what they think in so many words, but they do look at this picture, and they notice the cracks. it makes them pause enough to find the right words. ]

But you were close before. Who became busy first?

[obdure]

Lordship takes up too much time for friends, unfortunately.

[ He will tuck the polaroid back into the box, closing the lid and all. ]

Will you be opening yours?

[holyspirits]

Even Lords need companionship, but I suppose with the way things were people kept you way too busy with their demands.

[ which sucks. but they can take a hint even though they are going to come back to asking who that is. instead, they will open their box! and pull out... a single tarot card? it is a page of cups. ]

Ah.

[obdure]

... It does.

[ Squints at their card. ]

The occult?

[holyspirits]

[ a sigh. ]

It's not—well, for you it may be considered the occult. [ old. ] ...are you familiar with psychics at all? Or the art of seeing someone's future?

[obdure]

... The year is 10XX if that means anything. That sounds like what people would call witchcraft or a vision from God if you ask me.

[holyspirits]

[ fascinated by how this man would have said that out loud, but i'm not questioning it and neither are they. ]

I'm sure there are still people where I'm from that would call it that. This is a tarot card. Tarot cards are used to read a person's future. My mother specializes in card readings. [ ... ] And she would always tell me this particular card was the one she thought represented me best.

[obdure]

[ listen I would need to go back to the first game to check the year. I just know it's somewhere between 1000-1120 AD or something.

Anyway, he doesn't judge despite it being different from what he knows. It isn't freak shit, so. ]

How sentimental... What does it mean?

[holyspirits]

[ you're valid. ]

It has a lot of meanings. Usually it's about new beginnings, messages, and possibilities. She used to say it was mine because of all of the potential the cupbearer held, and how that potential was just like mine.

[ which seems sweet, but it was also a lot to consider. ]

[obdure]

That seems like a lot of expectation, but promising. Depends on who you ask.

[ Fascinating, but still superstitious to him so he's like. That's neat, I guess. Maybe it's something, maybe it's nothing. ]

[holyspirits]

Oh, I've been told my fate practically since I was born. I think expectation's always been around. It was... nice to know what to expect, but equally frustrating for so long.

But when you're from a family of psychics it's expected.

[obdure]

Did that not feel... Suffocating?

[holyspirits]

[ they stay quiet. ]

I don't know if suffocating was the word I'd use. But it did mean a lot of how I spent most of my life was ruled by that one prediction in my fate. And it meant not being able to do certain things other people my age would do. [ a pause. ] I'm the only one in my family without those kinds of abilities. What I do is a little different, but it means I can't tell my own future. But I wanted to make it for myself.

[obdure]

That's a break of freedom, at least. Your life is yours, or was... After all. It does sound nice on the flipside, to be destined for something great.

[ Sometimes, not all the time. ]

As you can tell, I know very little about psychics, or that world in particular.

[holyspirits]

Oh. It wasn't greatness. It was about killing someone I love.

[ to clarify. this was a thing hanging over their head for years, knowing they were destined to kill the person they loved. ]

I can always do a reading for you myself another day if you were ever curious. I can't feel the connection of the cards as well as my mom or the others, but the basic meanings come through alright.

[obdure]

[ OKAY WELL HE'S IN SHOCK

fumbling like this would happen to him, though. ]

[holyspirits]

[ HELP. yeah that's about what they expected. ]

Ever since I was little, that's what I was told. So the solution for me was to never kiss anyone, and never fall in love.

[obdure]

... I guess that would do it.

[ Even though he's doubtful that it would be that easy. He isn't even sure if he should ask, but. ]

Did you succeed?

[holyspirits]

[ haha, about that. ]

No. Not at all. Not with a lack of trying, but... no.

[obdure]

... I'm sorry to hear that.

[ Genuinely, and he normally never apologizes. ]

Do you think it would have been better to never have known them?

[ Said quietly, like this would be enlightening to someone (to him). ]

[holyspirits]

... maybe I thought that once, but I don't now. [ and to clarify: ] I knew he would die within the year before we ever fell in love. I saw his ghost. And when we first met I couldn't stand him, but I knew his fate. I couldn't... I was always meant to be a part of it. Eventually...

[ there's a long pause like they're trying to compose themselves. ]

He asked me to. He asked me to kill him, because we needed a sacrifice to stop a demon. And it was the only way. So he died in my arms and we purged the monster of its power. [ and... it's fair to explain. ]

And then we asked for a sacrifice in return to bring him back.