[Jihatsu] It's May 3rd. After a visit to the World Reversed chasing down Reiji and finding only trouble, Wataru went home, made a giant bowl of ramen with ingredients cobbled together from the conbini downstairs, and fell asleep on the couch with his phone in his hand, thinking about how to tell Satoshi - _what_ to tell Satoshi. He wakes up fairly early (for a Wataru), feeling kind of stiff but surprisingly well-rested. Does the dishes, brews up a pot of coffee, takes a shower, and sends an email to Katie about the whole ... Reiji ... thing. He looks at his phone and thinks about what to tell Satoshi. He sits down to play some Beyond Good and Evil, but is ten minutes in when he stops, feeling fussy, brain full of Arcana stuff. He shuts off the Gamecube and shuffles into his bedroom to get his cards. He sits on the living room carpet this time, his back against the back of the couch. He thinks about the items he looked at a few days ago - not as fresh in his mind as they would have been had he gotten the chance to do the reading on the 30th, as he would have wanted, but hey, life happens. He tries to remember the key points... then realizes he took notes, so he goes and grabs those! The gist of it is: - Letter from Murimura to Shuffle staff warning about security risks, painstakinsly typed out onto a typewriter by a person with slim fingers and unpainted nails, working from a back room in some dusty institutional setting. Retyped - maybe edited or altered? - Letter with identifying info censored, from Yukio Akatsuki, about an annual dinner party with four old dudes experts in weird fields who may have ties to Arcana, photocopied in an office copy room and with text added by typewriter by the same person. - A key, stolen by some staff member at Global Personnel Services out of a maintenance closet, probably same person with the typewriter. Wataru takes a deep breath and thinks about this a bit. It's all such a goddamn mystery. Why bring this to their attention at all? And why _Taki_? Really, what he needs to figure out is who is behind this. Who is the person with the slim fingers and the satchel, who is willing to risk a reliable entry-level office job to leak vaguely pointless info to a colander-headed sous-chef. He closes his eyes, hands almost absently starting to shuffle his deck of cards. Keeping his eyes closed, he lays out cards - thinking about the person who went through all this trouble to get this to them, slim fingers on a typewriter. Their identity, their connections, their intent. --- [Grysar] Wataru goes with a variant Celtic Cross. He wants to know a few different aspects of his target. The first card is the Heirophant, the target of the reading. A keeper of secrets or forbidden knowledge, that figures. But also a mentor, one inviting another to join them. Wataru finds himself thinking about these roles more than the Arcana herself, but he finds himself unable to dismiss that possibility as well. Taki herself had raised that possibility, although.tangling with Hinako was likely not how Wataru wished to begin his day. The second card is the opposition, laid crosswise atop the card. The six of Pentacles, generosity, which may be fate's idea of a joke because from what Katie told you, Murimura Yorihisa was ungrateful and withheld information. This information can hardly come as a surprise, but as Wataru takes it in he also notices that the six of pentacles gazes down and to the left, looking towards the face of the Hierophant. This opposition to the target of your reading may be active, if this is Yorihisa, he may well be on a mole hunt. The third card below, the foundation of the current situation. A knight in shining colander helmet, or less metaphorically, the Knight of Cups. The fourth card, working its way up clockwise, the eight swords stand around a woman bound and isolated. Separation and a fear that prevents escape. THis is the distant past that influences the target of your reading. Working up to the top, what does the target seek to achieve: the four of wands? That's a change of pace. A happy home, often associated with new friendship, relationship, marriage or childbirth. That... doesn't seem right. But no the card is there, showing four poles with a house behind it, even if the fit may be inexact. The sixth card, moving to the right of the Hierophant, the near future: the three of swords, heartbreak. suffering. The card has a physical weight about it, as if embodied. The image is clear and striking, a heart pierced by three blades. Now off to the right working a column of cards from the bottom: The current position of the target on the matter... Nine of swords. There's been no small number of swords in this reading and none of them good. Despair and regret. Only three of the nine swords lay behind the woman who is finding no rest in her bed, but the face that some of the target's problems are illusionary seems to be of little comfort. How others see the target, the seven of cups, illusion and disappointment. There may be some actual Arcana worked in here somewhere, or there's just a lot of woe to go around. The penultimate cards are the targets hopes and fears: the Queen of Swords. You didn't get far enough with Katie to discover if that was a known, living, Arcana, but looking at the card, this is a woman that does not need powers to have a commanding presence. Discernment, stoicism, cutting through lies. Quite the odd for of hopes and fears for someone seen as the seven of cups. The final card: the outcome. Not one locked in stone, but the result if all continue on the present course. The hermit reversed. Isolation without the benefit of wisdom that comes from time apart. --- [Jihatsu] Wataru looks at the cards and frowns. He would have preferred something clearer, but... He shrugs, puts the cards away, and starts writing an email. Date: May 3rd, 2004, 12:45 PM To: Katie Andrews From: Wataru Yamada Subject: reading about Taki's stuff / draft email to check [encrypted email] Hey Katie, So I did that reading finally, about the person who got Taki that info about Global Personnel Services and stuff. It was kind of confusing. The card that came up was the Hierophant, but I don't actually think it was Hinako, although I guess it could be? Do we know if she works in an office? Either way, it was someone who is a mentor, someone inviting someone to join them. Could somebody be scouting Taki to work for GPS? There's a real opposition there though, from the Six of Pentacles, Murimura. Like he's actively looking for the leak. Whoever got Taki that info might be in trouble. Taki's sure at the center of it, though. This is about her, for some reason. But the underlying distant past is the Eight of Swords. Do we know who that is? Metaphorically, might be about separation, about fear that prevents escape. I don't know what this means. Did something happen to Taki that made her feel trapped? The cards seem to be saying that whoever Typewriter-chan is, she/he is just trying to get a happy home out of it. Four of Wands. This seems weird, but whatever? Anyway it might not work out - the near future was the Three of Swords, heartbreak and suffering. Not sure if that was for Typewriter-chan, Taki, or me. Probably not me. Either way, the person who got Taki the stuff is in a bad way right now. Nine of swords. Despair and regret. Maybe they've already been found out, or know the axe is gonna fall soon. Got the Seven of Cups for how others see the person, though. Illusion and disappointment. Poor Typewriter-chan. Do we have a Seven of Cups yet? Their hopes and fears is the Queen of Swords, who I don't think came up yet either? But I guess on top of wanting to make a good home for themselves, this person is looking ahead with trepidation about the possibility of having discernment and a commanding presence. Sort of creepy. I guess you don't join GPS without delusions of grandeur, but at the same time, why would they be risking it to give us info? Final outcome: Hermit reversed. Isolation without wisdom. Typewriter-chan is painting him/herself into a corner. I don't know if we want to help, or even if we can, but this person's situation sure seems like shit, and I'm worried they got themselves there for TAKI for some reason... Anyway, I was gonna send you a draft of the email I want to write to everybody, but this reading ended up bringing up more questions than it answered, so I'd be curious to see if you have any ideas first. Take care up in Aomori, don't eat too many apples, Wataru