jack_babalon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jack_babalon) wrote2009-11-05 01:43 am
jack_babalon) wrote2009-11-05 01:43 am
Entry tags:
Solitarot for two
Vicky Penumbra had no shortage of talents. She could sculpt faces out of a puff of cigarette smoke, drop Rilke verses in German while absent mindedly belly dancing and by staring into her cat's eyes tell the exact time of day down to the minute. However none of that was of interest to me. It was only her unique gift of divinging the future by playing a game of strip poker with tarot cards that bought her to my attention.
Down to boxers, socks and a long gray scarf I shuffled the deck without hurry. An old Waite number by the looks of it, yellowed and dog earred, having seen more years in this world than the both of us combined. I tried to bluff with the Lovers in the previous hand and lost my pants to the Devil. This was when Vicky ceremoniously announced that though my affair would go undiscovered - it would end only in a memory of obsession that would haunt me throughout my remaining days. Prior to that I confidently laid four Knights and the King of Swords across the table. Each was slain by a single Chariot backed by a run of Cups. Of this she would only warn that my closest friends were leaving town soon - each supposedly off to refill their spilt chalices. So far I had won from her only the spiked collar she wore around her throat and a slight smile when my Queen of Wands trumped her seven of Pentacles.
"You're not really interested in your future." she said when I finally dealt.
"That what the cards say?" I ask without looking up, instead my focus sifting through the possibilities.
"No, not directly... the way you play them. Reckless, as if you could care less."
I look up at her from the fan spread of arcana in my lap. Vicky is just staring at me. She's got a crudely drawn third eye framed in a red lipstick kiss peeking through a veil of strawberry blond bangs. Didn't bother asking what that was all about. Her face is as impassive as the smoke masks she creates while chain smoking her endless supply of black cigarettes. Returning to the cards, I remove one and place it arbitrarily at the end of my spread, savoring the quiet tension perpertrated by my pose of concentration.
"Why Madame Penumbra" the words flow with exaggerated innocence out of nowhere, "Is there something you're trying to ask me?"
"Why are you here?" her voice flat, unflappable and channeled from some vast inner cool.
"You don't know?" I wave my free hand before the remaining deck. Clearly unimpressed, three eyes blink patiently in wait of an answer. I oblige, plucking a single card from my hand, holding it up so it blocks half my face as it reveals my play:
"See here's the thing." I confess with a lopsided shit eaten grin, "I could care less if I win or lose, whether I become rich or broke, lonely or loved. I know how it ends. The same way it ends for all of us. To be honest I'm just here to play the game. The way I hear it no one's ever beaten you.."
I leave the sentence open for her to fill in. Instead she just stares blankly into the Wheel and then back to the unexamined hand I dealt her. Without bothering to look at the choices she selects a single response blindly from their ranks - sliding it out and turning it up across the table with neither drama nor flair:
The card's meaning washes over me without soaking in. All of it does, really. The omen pregnant symbols embedded into the imagery, what roles this random cast out of a forgotten fairy tale play, even the rules of the game remain unclear despite my best efforts to comprehend them.
"Well?" I can't help but ask, crossing the Star with my Wheel.
"Well what?" her lips curl mischievously around the secret she won't tell, "I thought you weren't interested in your future."
"I'm not." I sigh exhausted, "Just curious who won this round, s'all."
"You'll see." and her snowball white cat hops in her lap, telling her that our time here is clearly up.
Down to boxers, socks and a long gray scarf I shuffled the deck without hurry. An old Waite number by the looks of it, yellowed and dog earred, having seen more years in this world than the both of us combined. I tried to bluff with the Lovers in the previous hand and lost my pants to the Devil. This was when Vicky ceremoniously announced that though my affair would go undiscovered - it would end only in a memory of obsession that would haunt me throughout my remaining days. Prior to that I confidently laid four Knights and the King of Swords across the table. Each was slain by a single Chariot backed by a run of Cups. Of this she would only warn that my closest friends were leaving town soon - each supposedly off to refill their spilt chalices. So far I had won from her only the spiked collar she wore around her throat and a slight smile when my Queen of Wands trumped her seven of Pentacles.
"You're not really interested in your future." she said when I finally dealt.
"That what the cards say?" I ask without looking up, instead my focus sifting through the possibilities.
"No, not directly... the way you play them. Reckless, as if you could care less."
I look up at her from the fan spread of arcana in my lap. Vicky is just staring at me. She's got a crudely drawn third eye framed in a red lipstick kiss peeking through a veil of strawberry blond bangs. Didn't bother asking what that was all about. Her face is as impassive as the smoke masks she creates while chain smoking her endless supply of black cigarettes. Returning to the cards, I remove one and place it arbitrarily at the end of my spread, savoring the quiet tension perpertrated by my pose of concentration.
"Why Madame Penumbra" the words flow with exaggerated innocence out of nowhere, "Is there something you're trying to ask me?"
"Why are you here?" her voice flat, unflappable and channeled from some vast inner cool.
"You don't know?" I wave my free hand before the remaining deck. Clearly unimpressed, three eyes blink patiently in wait of an answer. I oblige, plucking a single card from my hand, holding it up so it blocks half my face as it reveals my play:
"See here's the thing." I confess with a lopsided shit eaten grin, "I could care less if I win or lose, whether I become rich or broke, lonely or loved. I know how it ends. The same way it ends for all of us. To be honest I'm just here to play the game. The way I hear it no one's ever beaten you.."
I leave the sentence open for her to fill in. Instead she just stares blankly into the Wheel and then back to the unexamined hand I dealt her. Without bothering to look at the choices she selects a single response blindly from their ranks - sliding it out and turning it up across the table with neither drama nor flair:
The card's meaning washes over me without soaking in. All of it does, really. The omen pregnant symbols embedded into the imagery, what roles this random cast out of a forgotten fairy tale play, even the rules of the game remain unclear despite my best efforts to comprehend them.
"Well?" I can't help but ask, crossing the Star with my Wheel.
"Well what?" her lips curl mischievously around the secret she won't tell, "I thought you weren't interested in your future."
"I'm not." I sigh exhausted, "Just curious who won this round, s'all."
"You'll see." and her snowball white cat hops in her lap, telling her that our time here is clearly up.
no subject
but something about this piece seems... real.
(no subject)