letterblade

yunatwilight just got herself a Tarot deck. (I think I got her hooked.) She sat down on whim to do a reading, knowing it would be for some character or another, as readings don't work on her, but not knowing who.

So, using ye olde Celtic Crosse, she pulled out the first card, the primary influence on the then unknown character.

Two of cups, inverted.

So I looked it up in the booked I had handy (Rachel Pollack's book on the Haindl Tarot, though that was not the deck she was using, which is the Gendron Tarot), and we hummed about it for a bit, and then she pulled the second card, the crossing card.

Ace of cups.

Which was when I told her we had a character crossed by love and happiness, and she looked at me and said Yuna!

Whereupon we prepared for much mindfuckery, because decks seem to like to do that to us.

Root: five of pentacles, for loss and difficulty. Whereupon we looked at each other and said Braska!

Crown: four of pentacles, for stability and strength.

Past: Knight of swords, inverted. Whereupon we squinted it for a while, and I realized that the book I had was useless for court cards because Haindl's are so idiosyncratic, and she said Auron and I said Seymour. But that became clear later...

Future: King of swords, inverted.

(Now bear in mind here, we are both working with

yunatwilight's theory that most of the plot has occurred because Auron has been manipulating everybody to get his revenge on Yevon. So, yeah, moving out of Seymour's worldview into Auron's...from Seymour's nihilism into Auron's plot for a world without Yevon or death...)

So, with great trepidation, we moved into the second phase (y'know, like those darn multiphase bossfights)...

The querent herself: Three of cups, inverted, for stifled and suppressed emotion. I don't think we need to explain?

The environment: Eight of pentacles, for movement about the earth. From Besaid to Zanarkand, from Yuna's home to Tidus'. And also the quest for knowledge that's been going on for thousands of years, that drives the plot. (How we came to that conclusion is a little complicated to explain.)

Hopes and fears: Ten of swords, inverted. The ten of swords is utter ruin, devastation, murder--Sin--but inverted it becomes the aftermath--the Calm! That was about when we started falling over, at least until we drew...

Final outcome: Nine of swords, for mourning, at which point

yunatwilight yelped "GUH!!" about an octave above her normal speaking voice and loud enough to risk windowpanes.

Either proving that these things are smarter than we give them credit for or the human mind can adapt anything to a provided set of symbols, depending upon your point of view. (Me? I take both. I'm greedy like that.)

NOTE though that I still haven't finished the game, 'cause we haven't had time, so PLEASE no end of game spoilers in comments!

We are also working on a Star Trek tarot. More later.

PS:

yunatwilight also just drew the next card off the deck, which would've been the first in the next reading. What do we get? The ten of pentacles, for wealth and power.

yunatwilight says: And in the next game she becomes a treasure hunter! With lesbian subtext! *pauses and whines* But not enough!