XIV Parts 1 to 5 (Tarot Story)

==== XIV ====

Part 1 -----------

"I'd really like to know how good I'll, like, do on my finals ya know," the female student sitting across the desk matter-of-factly remarked, her overly glossed lips pouting into a frown the moment the two bits of flesh seemingly mashed into one. The focus of her equally overly cosmeticized eyes had been more drawn to her own manicure than anything else until just a moment ago.

Trust me clown girl, you're just wasting both of our times. Yet, as the entertaining picture that formed in my active imagination of this girl pulling a balloon animal out from within the depths of her cleavage warranted at least a small chuckle, I simply shrugged and obliged her request by beginning to shuffle my deck of tarot cards. Too often have I had to do tarot readings for people like this, who can't even come up with a decent question even if it'd kill them. In fact, it's been 'too often' to the point where my mind just doesn't even register it as such anymore. As I continued to shuffle, I glanced over my shoulder at the two other girls in the clubroom. One was trying their best to stifle her fits of giggles, the cause I can already easily guess without thinking too hard, while the other was calmly reading a book.

"Like, hurry up will ya? I don't have all day ya know." The gratingly obnoxious voice snapped my attention back.

With interest in not only the avoidance of wasting my own time, but also ignoring her verbal incarnations of impatience in mind, I pull the first card from the top of the deck, flipping it horizontally and laying it off to the side. A question like this, where details like the querent's past and present aren't that important, only requires at most a five card spread. Unfortunately, I'm feeling a bit spiteful towards the world right now, so she only gets three.

"First card...the five of Pentacles. I suppose getting bad grades isn't anything new to you?"

"W-Wha..!?"

"Not to mention that you probably didn't study or make any effort to obtain better grades." Her already flushed cheeks took on a brighter shade of red as the words came flowing out of my mouth, my expression likely showing little change, aside from miniscule bemusement perhaps. Apparently that card hit right on the mark with her past, and she is anything but proud of it.

"Second card, ten of Cups. Lately things have been going well in your family and you have possibly turned a new leaf or met someone who has changed your previously terrible studying habits. Good for you."

"Y...You..."

"Last card, Reversed King of Swords. Ohoh, how fitting. You will become a heartless person who crushes fellow human beings' opinions and ideas into dust, yet be incapable of accepting new facts and theories. Censorship, manipulation of facts, what have you."

"How....how dare ya! Like, what the hell does that even have to do with a final exam!? Screw ya and your tentacles!"

"Pentacles."

"WHATEVER!" The room was suddenly filled with the noisy scraping of a chair being suddenly shoved a couple feet backwards. In the next instant, a small coin worth a measly one Nagn'ji was flung at my general direction. If she had thrown it any harder, it might have broken the sound barrier. As I mulled over that visual in my mind and resisted the urge to just toss my tarot cards into the air, she stormed out of the room, the loud clacking of her high heels echoing throughout the hall outside the clubroom.

"Pffthahaha, harsh as always, eh Rin?" The silence following the clown's departure was broken as quickly as it started by the outburst of my fellow club member, who had been suppressing giggles throughout the entire reading session. Her extremely long blue hair quivering like a scarf in the wind as she laughed. Her name was Luci, a third year who excelled at most forms of fortune telling, though her specialty was Astrology.

"My, my, one would almost think Rin had recently broken up with her boyfriend, the way her words were weighted with such ingrained loathing." Another voice sprang up from the couch in the back corner, the young blonde girl plopped her book down on the table and leapt up to her feet, meandering towards me.

"I know right? She's so frightening...in such an adorable way." Luci said with her usual friendly and playful tone. You were more likely to witness a bank robbery than see her in any other mood. As I was about to verbally protest the impossibility that a person such as myself would consider even having a boyfriend in the first place, I quickly found myself unable to speak, let alone breathe as my face was pressed into the other girl's generous bosom.

"There there, big sis Astor will make it alllll better." Her crimson eyes burned their way into my own as she stared down at me. Not literally of course, but they were such a vibrant red, you wouldn't be surprised if she'd start firing laser beams from them at any given moment. The girl who owned the bust I'm currently suffocating in is none other than Astoriz'rag, or Astor for short. She's a fellow first year, originating from some foreign high-class family or something.

"Mmppph.." My brow furrowed, a stark contrast to my shoulders sinking in defeat, mostly out of exhaustion. The tinges of sunset piercing the corner of my vision from the room's row of windows.

"Be careful Astor, if you press her into those any more than that, we may have to send a search party to find her, haha!" Another hearty laugh flew from my azure-haired friend.

"Aww, fine..." Astor jokingly whined, ruffling my blonde hair before she pulled herself away from me. Oxygen once again filled my lungs with an audible gasp.

"Geez, I thought I was going to die. You really need to encourage her to let go of me sooner, Luci." I shot her a small glare, my hand coming up to fix my hair. Astor had messed it up enough that I needed to retie the small ponytail sticking out the side, and I made sure to grumble enough to let her know of my displeasure.

"But Rin, you looked like you were enjoying it so much, I just couldn't interrupt your moment of bliss!" Her hand brushing through a portion of her blue hair absentmindedly as she grinned at me.

"I don't just walk around shoving my face into girls' chests on a whim, you know. What do you take me for, you-know-who?" I said, my disdain showing no signs of calming itself anytime soon.

"...Urgh." Both Luci and Astor groaned almost simultaneously, as if to express all sorts of unspoken phrases in its place. The sudden wave of displeasing memories filled the room as quickly as I even mentioned the alias. If I looked hard enough, I felt like I might be able to even see the despair on their faces.

"Anyways...it's almost time." Luci said, returning to her usual tone, eager to dodge the topic as quickly as she could.

"Right, I guess I'll see you all tomorrow then." I said, sitting up from my chair and stretching, putting my tarot deck back into its velvet pouch and waving to the both of them.

"See ya, Rin!" Luci enthusiastically waved back, following Astor's soft smile and wordless wave of her own.

As I exited the room, sliding the door closed behind me, I turned to look up at the sign hanging shortly above it. An almost invisible smile crept up on my face. It was just the start of the first year and already I found the right club for me. Well, clown girls aside, at least.
Fortune Telling Club, huh?

Part 2 ----------

As a high school student, the number of times I've been in an awkward situation cannot be counted on both of my hands anymore. They typically come when you least expect them, and when they end, they leave you feeling quite incomprehensible, perhaps even to the point of uttering some sort of line like 'what the hell just happened?'. Just as I consider uttering something along those lines myself, my attention is brought back to the girl sitting across from me, her impassive expression staring down at the spiral notebook in her hand as she skritches the pencil against the surface of a page. I had been the only one in the clubroom today ever since my classes had ended earlier, when she ended up making her silent appearance.

"Uh..." I muttered, an attempt to begin my usual introductions, but was quickly cut off from the motion of her lifting the notebook. She was holding it up for me to read what she had written, her expression not having changed in the slightest. I promptly shook off the notion that this girl's face was painted on as it came to my mind, opting instead to actually read the message.

Tarot card reading please. Query: What direction is my life headed in?

Well that's...straight to the point. I gave her a slight bow to indicate my acknowledgement, before giving my tarot deck a quick shuffle. It was probably for the best that she requested tarot, I'm not very good with most of the other fortune telling methods out there. Hell, even my confidence in tarot isn't exactly high, but I typically enjoy it and my faith in the cards heavily outweighs that anyways. I've done many readings for students now, and I usually enjoy them as long as the querent is not one of 'those' sorts. This girl seems quite nice, but there's just one tiny problem.

"..."

"......"

There are generally only two reasons for me to open my mouth: When I have something important to say, or when someone talks to me first. Therefore, when you put someone like me in the same room as someone like her, there's only one result. Completely deafening silence. Now, if it was the type of silence you tend to seek for peace and relaxation, to just 'get away from it all', I wouldn't mind. This? The level of similarity is akin to the distance between the Earth and the Sun. If my life was a comedy routine, I'd expect to hear a laugh track at this point. Unfortunately for me, it's nothing of the sort.

With a far-too-audible thump, I placed my deck onto the plastic surface of the desk. This girl's query was a pretty typical one, usually asked by first timers and skeptics, or people that just don't know what else to ask but want a reading anyways. Still, for some reason I had a strange feeling about this query in particular. Hopefully that's just my overactive imagination being itself. For this sort of question, a simple five card spread will suffice.

I drew the top card of the deck once again, flipping it horizontally. "Let's see here. Two of Cups. Hmm, seems you've recently met someone who you've taken a liking to, maybe even fallen in love perhaps?"

I glanced up at her face, perhaps out of habit to make sure she was paying attention and had heard me properly, maybe a bit of curiosity as well.

Wait...is that what I think that is? Is she blushing? I mean, of course, I would think most girls our age would probably blush at the notion of falling in love, yet my brain just stamped "Ice Queen" onto her memory profile just a moment ago. Written to disc internally, so to speak.

"...Reversed High Priestess. You or someone close to you is keeping secrets, whether new or old, and it's holding you back from getting where you want."

The notebook came up once again.

*blush*

"......."

Oi...What's with that? As if I couldn't tell that you were blushing already.

"Reversed Devil. Instead of listening to your inner temptations, you've opted for the stricter path, bottling up your desires and keeping yourself in check."

I didn't really notice until now, but these cards I'm pulling are pretty straightforward. That's actually rather unusual, most readings tend to have a bit of fog surrounding them. In the end, that wasn't too important right now, and I hadn't finished anyways.

"Hmm... fourth card is Queen of Cups. If you intend to improve the direction your life is heading, this card indicates that you need to take this new found relationship and embrace it. Tell the person how you feel deep down and hope that they will reciprocate them."

The notebook lifted up again, but the message hadn't changed. Instead, she was hiding her face behind it. Is she blushing harder now? Well, I...guess that's understandable?

"Last card then, let's see.... Strength. Under current circumstances, your life is heading towards a direction of power, passion, and gentleness. You have the fortitude to tame your raw desires. It's up to you whether or not you are willing to look the person you love in the eyes and let them know you have true feelings for them." I concluded. That reading was almost like looking through a window pane. It was the first one I've had in a while that was this concise and accurate, and the three major arcana showed just how powerful the energy was. Maybe this girl has more emotion in her then I gave her credit for?

I reached out my hand, moving to pick up the cards placed in between the two of us.

*clasp*

"Eh..?" Flinching slightly, my expression transitioned from complacency to bewilderment. I looked down slightly to see both of her hands grasping mine, her notebook having been dropped into her lap. I then looked back up at her face to notice it was leaning in much closer than before, her distant, brown eyes drilling into my soul.

"Uh...w-wha..."

She had moved her face so close, that I was able to make out the individual intertwining threads in her irises with ease. Initially, her eyes had given off a creepy sense of emotionlessness, but now it's more like a creepy sense of devotion.

As quickly as she had placed her hands around my own, she let go. The girl stood up silently, her black hair sweeping behind her in the movement. She bowed towards me, before turning to leave, the door sliding shut behind her. After sitting in awkward silence for a minute following her departure, I noticed something in my hand. A coin was placed in it, the typical 1 Nagn'ji payment for the service.

"....Just my...overactive imagination, perhaps?" I said to myself, perhaps to delude myself into believing that there was not one, but two girls now who are lusting after me.
Oh how wrong I was.

Part 3 -------------

There is something extremely perplexing, almost anomalous, about high school cafeteria food. Very commonly, when you order fast food, it doesn't look as good as the pictures, but usually still tastes pretty good. Cafeteria food? It looks bad and tastes bad. Sometimes it makes you wonder if it is even food at all, as opposed to some sort of clay-substance that they just molded into the shape.

I continued to contemplate the existence of cafeteria food as I walked down the empty hallway, carrying a tray with something that looked like pizza. It smelled vaguely of pizza, and appeared to have been made from pizza ingredients, but there was just something about it that reeked of 'not pizza'. The fact that it looked a little like someone took a crappy digital camera picture of a pizza, messily glued the picture to some moldy cardboard, and tried to pass it off as actual pizza didn't really help its case. I then discovered that my finger had unconsciously been prodding the slice to assure myself it was not actually cardboard, my mind too preoccupied with enjoying the vacant hall to notice.

Which brings me to something more important than cafeteria food: hallways. A hallway is always at its absolute best when you're the only person in it. More often than not, hallways are crammed with way too many people. To calculate how many is too many, all one must do is follow this simple psuedo-equation: If number of people in the hall is greater than 1, TOO DAMN MANY. I'm sure there are people out there who would say they 'don't mind', but those people aren't giving any thought to it at all. 'What's so great about empty hallways?' they would ask. Well, for starters: You can walk in any part of it as fast or as slow as you want, no concerns about bumping shoulders or impatient people behind you. Then, more importantly, you don't have to worry about the Walls of Leisurely Chaos; aptly named after the impassable barriers of friends who absolutely must walk side by side down the hallway at the breakneck speed of 'not fast enough'. 'Ah, but there must be something that is not great about empty hallways, right?' they would then ask, in some feeble attempt of turning the argument around to their favor. To that, I could only think of one thing in response.

Running into disturbingly insane people.

I had, for some reason, stopped walking. Why did I stop walking? I don't know. Surely it couldn't have anything to do with 'what the hell is this girl doing!?' running circles through my brain. The thought repeating itself in my head and the subsequent lack of cognitive reasoning reminded me of some computer illiterate dunce hammering the mouse button on a program that had locked up. Thus, unable to end any of my figurative processes, I just stood there frozen in time, staring at the purple-haired girl who had placed my slice of pizza on her face and was now staring at the ceiling.

Yes, you heard me right. My pizza; her face. Would you like to know what bothers me the most about this? It's not the fact that she decided to take my slice of pizza and place it on her own face, it's that she made absolute sure to flip it over first so it was cheese-side down.

"....Um....what are you doing, exactly?" To continue with the computer terms, you may notice I have quite a noticeable thought processing latency right now. Despite latency usually being a negative thing when high, it may be for the better in this case. After all, I have so many questions backed up in the queue, that if I did not have said latency, it would have sounded more like 'Whathewhopizzfacewhyouappleorangeagles?'. I personally think it safe to assume that asking such a question would have potentially reduced me to the level of insanity that this girl currently exuded.

"Staring at the ceiling with pizza on my face." She said confidently with a smile, pizza grease dripping down her face in the meantime. Thank you Captain Obvious for gracing us with yet another one of your not-obvious-at-all quips! That sure put my mind at ease.

"I see that, but why are you staring at the ceiling with pizza on your face exactly?" Instead of questioning my own sanity for even trying to hold a conversation with this girl, I instead brace myself for the impact of another potentially not-obvious one liner. It hurts me more than it hurts her, that's for sure.

In response, the girl simply gave a shrug, her eyes looking back at me while her face continued to point upwards. Honestly, I couldn't tell you whether she was preventing the pizza slice from slipping off of her face, or she was incapable of moving both at the same time. It was then that I actually took notice of this girl's features. Her purple hair was quite messy, almost similar to bed-head; the clumps of her hair were protruding in various directions. Sure, I could easily make the assumption that 'She typically puts messy things on her face often, so it's messy', but for all I know this could be a rare occurrence. However, it wasn't the hair that really garnered my immediate attention, but the eyes. This girl's eyes were all kinds of abnormal, not that I could necessarily talk, but this was a little different from my case. In the center of her eyes were black pupils like normal, then from there it was pale white and slowly transitioned outward to a pale blue. While the color was certainly something to take note of, the truly disconcerting part was how blank they were. It was as if someone had reached inside her head and turned the switch off, her eyes drowned into the depths of her insanity.

"I've disguised myself so that the squirrels can't find me. If I can't see them...they can't see me!" With the same level of pride and confidence as before, she stated the nonsensical. "Ahh, I'm such a genius, I can't believe this would work! If only I had thought of it sooner."

"What squirrels? The ones outside? In the trees?"

"No silly! Really, trees, I think that's the last place you'd find them. I mean the ones in here. I see them running around all the time, with their little wigs and purple hats."

"...Okay, first off I'm pretty sure that I've never seen squirrels in this school building, let alone wearing wigs or any kind of hat for that matter."

"Yeah, people tell me that. A lot. I think they're full of it though, I mean, why else is the sky green?"

".....What." I have no words for this situation at all. Nothing.

"AND! And! They steal my pencils! It'll be in my hand one moment, gone the next. And guess what? I asked one of them--the squirrels I mean, and they told me that it was so they could write the Declaration of Squirreldependance." She exclaimed, growing more and more worked up by the second, her eyes looking less and less sane than they already haven't been.

"I don't....even--you know what, I think I need to leave now. Yeah, just gonna...walk away. You enjoy that pizza and your...squirrels, yeahhhh." I said, skirting around her to continue walking back towards the clubroom with the rest of my cafeteria food. I turned my head to look back to see her standing in the same place she had been. For a moment, I considered taking the slice of pizza back, but then thought against it. After all, who knows how she may have reacted if I had 'blown her cover', not to mention I don't exactly feel comfortable eating something that was sitting on her face for long past the three second rule.

As I reached the clubroom door, my stomach growled. You'd probably be thinking that I would say 'I sure could go for some pizza right now', but I think it would be best to stay away from it for a while. Perhaps for the greater good of our school, at that. In the end, I had walked away from that girl without mentioning something logical to her:
"Assuming there even were squirrels in this school building, wouldn't they just climb you and eat the pizza off of your face anyway?" I said aloud as I slid the door open, my face flushing as I was met with the bemused stares of Luci and Astor on the other side.

Part 4 --------------

The really convenient thing about joining a club in my high school is that attendance is voluntary. If you really need to cram for the next day's big test, or just aren't feeling up to dealing with your 'unique' club mates, you don't have to show up if you don't want to. Of course, this means that while on most days you'll see most of the club members, occasionally you'll be by yourself. Then you have the other common scenario, where you have a club mate that decides only to show up rarely, if they ever actually show up at all.

I must say, there is something extremely weird about the Fortune Telling club's ability to attract the stranger variety of people. So strange in fact that it sometimes makes me question the level of 'normal' contained within my own existence. You know something is up when being part of a group causes you to even question anything about yourself at all. Luckily, while most of the club's members are rather eccentric, I would have quit already if other people I've happened to encounter outside of it were members. Anyways, today just happens to be a day where one of the no-show sorts ended up showing his face, thus causing me to revisit my evaluations of 'self-normalness' or whatever you want to refer to it as.

"I see you decided to go with Tarot reading," the boy who stood nearby me said as he eyed the blue velvet pouch in my hand. "You know, I'm a master at Tarot reading myself. Though that's to be expected coming from me of course! After all, once I see a method of divination, I can immediately master it and I never forget how to do anything once I've learned it!"

His hair, which resembled something like a large black hedgehog glued to his head, struggled to maintain its gel'd rigidity as he swept his hand back through it in an egotistical manner. Of course, to accompany this, his face held a confident smirk, and I all-too-naturally expected to see one of those small glimmers to appear at the corner of his smile.

A moment later, I heard a snort behind me, and I didn't even need to turn around to know it originated from Luci. She had been sitting on the couch for the past half-hour reading an Astrology book, but even aside from the knowledge of her location, I could recognize that snort anywhere. If you placed her into a pitch-black room and blindfolded me, while the latter would be a rather redundant action, I'd know her precise location the moment she snorted. Noticing completely pointless actions of people like this typically only occurs under two circumstances: When you are in love with them, or when you have been friends with them for many years. In this case, not to disappoint anyone who may be interested in Zostorin'qo X Luci (or vice-versa), it happens to be the second of the two. In the end, while coincidental, I thoroughly enjoyed the delusion that the snort had originated from the hedgehog on this man's head instead.

"Master of Tarot reading? I hope you're ready to prove that through an example, Ark'has. Surely if you're a master you will have no problems at all doing this." Luci said with her paradoxical smile, seeming to hold a friendly warmth, yet cut like a cold knife at the same time. It sent a shiver down my spine, and I wasn't even the recipient.

"R-Right now? Well, sure, I just have to uh... warm up first!" I swear I could see a visible sweat drop appear as he said this. No joke.

"Haha! Take all the time you need, we have public-use decks in the storage over there. You may also be able to talk Rin into lending you hers, but that's pretty doubtful." She wasn't wrong to assume that I would say no. It's a pretty common preference that Tarot readers do not let people use their decks. There are a variety of different reasons for it, but in this case it'd probably be because I don't know him well enough to even let him touch the cards. You never know with some people, after all.

"N-No need, one moment!" He started to pat his school uniform's pockets, 'hmm'-ing and 'hrm'-ing while he searched them for what I'd assume is a deck of his own. "Oh! That's right, I left my amazing Tarot deck at home! I'm sorry, you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see my display of awesome skills." His face contorted back into a grin, the sweatdrop not disappearing despite this.

"Ohh, that's too bad. I suppose you left it next to the 'amazing' crystal ball and the 'amazing' book on palm reading you had forgotten before?"

Did the sweat drop just get bigger? Yeah, I think it did. "Of course! I'm such a forgetful person sometimes, you know?"

"Funny, you were just saying earlier that you didn't forget anything. Or did you forget that you said that too?" Luci's smile of fire and ice continued as her drilling continued, her fingers fiddling with the small silver star on her necklace. Meanwhile, I picked up my cup of Rupl'rof tea and sipped it, my focus returning to the magazine I had been skimming idly prior to the man's arrival. I had been reading an article about cleansing Tarot decks and passively considered trying out some of the methods it described, though felt a bit skeptical about the validity of it.

"O-O-Oh, look at the time! I'm going to be late to the meeting with my math teacher! I-I'll have to catch you guys later." He stammered, quickly retreating to the door of the clubroom. As he quickly slid the door open, a loud squeak came from the other side. At first I thought the door track could use some lubrication, but then a green blur caught the corner of my eye, followed by rapid pitter-pattering of someone running down the hall as the door was closed again.

"The hell was that?" I said, turning around to Luci, who had decided now was a good time to flip upside-down on the couch while reading her book. As expected, her uniform's skirt willingly obeyed the laws of gravity and Luci's lacy undergarments were in full view. While I'm used to seeing this myself, it was probably for the best that Ark'has had made a hasty departure, or he probably would have turned into Perkl Pig at this point. While Luci has a way with helping and guiding people, she was not unfamiliar with the methods of 'warfare', and I imagine she would still have flipped upside-down even if he had stuck around.

"By 'that', I imagine you mean our fifth club member." Luci said, her face growing a slight red as the blood rushed to her head. To this day I still don't understand why she likes doing this.

"Fifth member? I didn't even know we had more than four at this point."

"Of course, because Gin has never come to the club since the very first day she joined. I wouldn't be surprised if even Astor has no idea she exists either. You may very well go through all of high school and never meet her. That girl is quite the recluse, so I'm amazed she even was at school in the first place."

"You sure seem to know enough about her despite that." I'm starting to doubt my earlier statement about being used to seeing Luci's underwear, as my eyes struggle to avoid looking at the exposed white cloth. Bad self, stop being so curious about other girls' lingerie. I blame the certain influences that keep popping up around me.

"Well, I did know her in middle school, but that's about it. We didn't really get very close, but that's a story for another time. More importantly, I can't help but notice you haven't told me off for sitting like this yet." She quickly changed the topic, then gasped in an over-dramatic way, her legs intentionally spreading apart even more. "Don't tell me that you're starting to enjoy it now. Has Rin turned to the dark side!? I'll need to start watching my ass, hahaha!"

I sighed loudly, waving my hand at her to display my exasperation, before turning back around in my chair. "Very funny. You'd best stop, you're just asking for you-know-who to walk in and see you doing that. Unless you actually want her to make a 'detailed' examination."

"Mmmh... You make a good argument, but it's a risk I must take to maintain my absolute comfort! I'll just have to flip your skirt to distract her and then make a quick escape, fufufu~ A perfect and foolproof plan, I must say!" Her hand extends out with an upside-down peace sign as she declares her master plot.

"Assuming you have a chance to even react before she leaps across the room, that is." With that said, my mind began to picture the girl we spoke of as one of the purple squirrels that crazy girl claimed existed.
Somehow that was oddly fitting. Somehow.

Part 5 -------------

"C'monnnnn Rin, pleeassee? Big sis Astor will do almost anything!" So she said, as she stood bowing in front of me. If she were to bow any lower, I'd imagine she'd look like she were trying to touch her head against her ankles. I would like to think I'm the sort of person that wouldn't mind a person bowing to me as if I were a queen, but this just feels awkward, especially since it's a fellow club member and someone two years older than me.

"Really Astor, I was up pretty late last night dealing with stubborn coding. Can't it wait until tomorrow?" I ask, a yawn cropping up at the end of my statement to further push my point. A wild storm of long blonde hair strands was offered to me in response as Astor vigourously shook her head.

"No, I need to know before tomorrow! It's really important that I get this query read before the next day comes around. I wish I could tell you more, but...please! I'm begging you!" She said, her facial expression growing more and more desperate as the seconds ticked by. My lords, make it harder and harder to decline why don'tcha. At this point, I can't even tell if she's doing it on purpose. Though honestly if she is, it's certainly a freakishly convincing act.

Unfortunately, I have run out of viable excuses to say no, and continuing this any further is just going to make the atmosphere more awkward than it already is, as I glance over at Luci who offers me a shrug. "....Fine, since you seem to have such important reasons for it, I suppose I have no choi--"

Before I could even finish my resignation and compliance, I found myself once again diving face first into the Pillowy Crevasse of the Darkest Dark Abyss, also known as Astor's cleavage. What is it with all the girls I know and having these random lesbian tendencies? If it weren't a rather ludicrous concept in this case, I would chalk it up to the doings of a higher being, perhaps some author who needs to get his or her perversions in check. After all, I never asked for this. Once again, the only thing I could do amidst my suffocation was go limp and sigh deeply until my face was released.

"Now that you're done depriving me of oxygen, please take a seat before I change my mind." I waved my hand nonchalantly towards the chair opposite the one I usually sit in while doing readings. Technically it doesn't really matter where I perform the Tarot reading, but out of convenience and some personal comforts towards this spot, I end up choosing it above any other location anyways.

"So, what is this burning query you have for me anyways--And please, for the love of god if you say 'What direction is my life heading in?' I will smack you so hard that your gigantic moons will enter an orbital flight path around your head." I said with a serious face, eliciting a bout of snickering from Luci in the background.

"There's no way I'd be this desperate if it was something that unimportant. What sort of person do you take me for exactly?"

"If I didn't know otherwise, I'd surely say a big breasted bimbo. Guess it's good that I do."

"Someone sure has boobs on the brain, not that there's anything new about that." Luci chimed in again from behind a random magazine as Astor gave a small sigh and a shake of her head. I think I need to have a word or two with the peanut gallery later.

"Anyways, my query is.... 'How can I get the person that I love to reciprocate my feelings?'"

Oh boy. Here we go again with the awkward topics while doing readings.

"..." "..."

Then the deafening silence appears like a frequently reoccurring ninja.

"Oi, are you sure? I mean, yeah it's not an uncommon sort of query, but..."

"Absolutely. I must attain some guidance, for tomorrow is the only opportunity I'll get in a long while." I could have sworn that I saw a glint in Astor's eyes as she spoke. There's no doubt now that she is quite serious and aims to be as aggressive as possible with whatever guidance this Tarot reading may give.

"Alright, if you say so, but don't say I didn't warn you if you regret it later." I shrugged and pulled out my Tarot deck, shuffling it and making sure to rotate a lot of the cards 180 degrees. This is primarily to ensure that reversals are likely, but not too likely (or vice versa). Many readers tend to ignore reversed cards, and while I agree that they can make things more troublesome, I feel that the negativity needs to be there all the same. After all, not everything is happiness and rainbows. I finish my shuffling and prepare myself for a larger reading, especially in this case because the query is going to need higher levels of detail than a simpler spread could offer. The Celtic Cross spread should suffice--wait a minute.

"Actually, before I pull the first card, this person you love isn't me right?" I mutter to her in a low enough voice so that Luci doesn't catch it.

"What? No, why?"

"Nothing, just my idea of a lame joke...." I say, a feeling of relief washing over me. I would probably have to join in on whatever that purple-haired girl was smoking if I found that even more girls seemed to be in love with me.

I draw the first card from the top of the deck, placing it down on the center of the desk face up. The cards of course represent different things depending on what spread you are using, but they usually follow the same sorts of themes regardless. Luckily, because Astor is an experienced club member, I won't need to actually explain what each card represents and can get right to the point. I'm sure somebody out there would think in this situation that she could just do a reading for herself, but that's just no fun at all. I speak as my fingers lightly adjust the Four of Swords card I had placed down. "Alright let's begin then. Four of Swords. You've been waiting quietly in preparation for the best moment to make your move, as you have already insinuated."

Astor gave a firm nod as she watched intensively. Sometimes you will end up doing a reading for someone who isn't extremely interested in the whole process, likely pushed into doing it by their friends or something. Unfortunately, this really ruins the overall experience and tends to make it not worth it, sometimes even affecting the card's energies and giving way to a high level of inaccuracy. In short, you're gonna have a bad time. Luckily, Astor is clearly more than interested in what this reading has to offer, as she's literally on the edge of the chair in anticipation.

"Reversed Four of Cups. While you are preparing to take action and execute your 'master plans', something just doesn't feel right about it. Perhaps there are big obstacles preventing you from progressing or taking action, or maybe just a high level of uncertainty."

"Well....yeah, I guess you could say that..." Astor said, a frown forming on her face as I pull the next card from the top of the deck.

"Hmm... Eight of Swords. At some point in your past, something was holding you back. You were incapable of escaping it and were forced to deal with it. This sounds like a big connection to the previous card."

"Mm... I wouldn't be surprised if that was when I had fallen in love, whether I realized it at the time or not."

I took a mental note as she filled in additional details behind the reading. Anything, minor or major, is an important piece to consider when you need to see the whole picture. Of course, in the end, the truth behind the scenario is actually none of my business, and most often is never mentioned to me. This can prove to be a significant barrier for the reader as it's more difficult to interpret the meaning behind each card if you don't have much info to connect to. Hence the generic lines that I've been spouting.

"Page of Pentacles. Down the timeline, something happened that greatly changed who you are, which reinforced the love you feel for this person."

This time a slight blush appeared on Astor's face, further causing my curiosity to increase. Just what exactly could be going on in this girl's life I wonder? In the end, that sort of reaction means that this reading is pretty accurate at this point.

"Three of Wands. That's a good sign, since it means that the best possible result of your efforts is straight up progress. You may even be able to sit back and wait for the love of your life to come to you. Though as a best possible outcome, there's a lot of maybe in it of course."

"Aww, I got all excited there for a moment. Surely something to look forward to though."

I could have sworn that for a split second her eyes had gotten all dreamy and sparkly. Must have been my imagination...or a hallucination-not that I have those, but that's aside from the point. Next card!

"Reversed Queen of Swords. Very soon, you will encounter a time where you will be distant and cold towards to your love interest, whether intentional or not. This could very well be the first steps to gaining their attention. At the same time, be careful, as your reasoning may become inhibited. Try not to make rash decisions that could jeopardize the efforts you've put in thus far."

"Distant and cold... hrmm. I can't honestly picture myself that way at all."

"Sounds more like you're doing a reading about yourself, Rin~" Luci couldn't let that opportunity to chime in slide.

After using my ultimate ability, Ignore, a Major Arcana makes an abrupt appearance. "The Tower, interesting card to pull here. There are quite a number of possibilities as to what it is saying here, but the biggest factor is clear: Lies will have to come to light or play a major role in your situation. There is no avoiding it, so long as you want to forge ahead on this path."

A tense silence permeated the air once I had finished speaking. So intense that it actually made me jump a little when Astor broke said silence and sighed out loud, her brow furrowing a bit. It doesn't really come as much of a surprise when you tell someone they have to deal with something purely negative. No one wants to deal with that, but sometimes you have no choice in life. Actually, make that most of the time. Regardless, is it just me or is she taking this really hard all of a sudden?

Wow, another one. "Mmh...The High Priestess. Once again, many possibilities exist here, but I consider it possible that someone or something will come along that will mystify and perplex your love interest. This could, of course, insinuate the existence of a love rival, though that isn't always the case."

To this, Astor didn't really say anything verbally, but her face had 'Oh great, like I need even more problems than I already have' written all over it.

"Like I said, it's a possibility. It's more important to consider that whatever happens could potentially benefit you in the end."

"I guess so, but still..." It was quite clear that Astor's mood had soured quite a bit, but we weren't done quite yet. There's no telling if the reading will end with good or bad news. Or maybe neither. I just hope that she won't start crying or something, that would just make me feel bad.

"For the penultimate card, we have the Four of Wands, clearly four is your lucky number or something. Thankfully the meaning behind this card seems pretty easy to understand. You have hope that the initial foundation, or stages, of your plans have been set. At the same time, you fear that it may be too early to take action just yet, referring back to the card we pulled before that revolved around the same issue. It is up to you to determine when is the best time to make your move."

"Sadly, we wouldn't be doing this reading if I knew when that was."

Which brings us to the last card. As is custom with this one, you tend to have to draw additional cards that make its meaning more clear. Three is usually the most, as any more would be overkill.

"Let's see what we have here... Hmm...King of Pentacles. Unfortunately, that is not a clear enough picture by itself."

Have I ever mentioned that, out of all the cards in the Tarot deck, the court cards are the ones I hate the most? They always seem to complicate things and just make readings that tiny bit more a pain in the ass. I sort of question what they were thinking when they made them.

"Additional cards are... Reversed Page of Cups, Reversed The Moon, and The World. Okay then..." Damn, that's a lot of Majors all of a sudden.

"So what's the verdict?"

"Well, from what I can interpret from these cards... In order to get them to reciprocate your love, you will have to be a supportive and stable person, even through times of both sadness and darkness. Only then, will you be victorious in your endeavors..."

"So...basically what I've been doing this entire time then."

It's not that uncommon that the reading will tell you what you already know. This just means that what you've been doing up until this point wasn't the wrong thing, and just confirms you're on the right path. A lot of people tend to feel disappointed that they couldn't learn anything new about what's going on though. Understandable, and Astor currently reflects this as she puts on a bit of a pout.

"Then why doesn't it seem like I'm getting anywhere!? It feels like he'll never see me for what I am..." Astor said with another sigh mixed in, her expression progressing to frustration.

"Well, I'm not sure what else I can say, perhaps the mentions of lies and being distant and such are the things you still need to experience?"

"I don't now, maybe..." Astor asked, looking on the verge of tears. I figured that the prospect that she had been on the right path would make her happier, but I guess that wasn't what she was looking for in the end. I guess most people just want the easy way after all.

I stood up out of my chair, walking over to her and patted her on the head. I'm not really sure why, but I felt that words just wouldn't really do much good anymore at this point.

Astor wrapped her arms around my waist and buried her face into my chest. Normally this would be incredibly awkward, but I let her do so anyways because she seemed so upset. I'm not usually the type of person that goes out of her way to comfort others, but in this case I can't help but feel partly responsible for this.

After some time, she seemed to calm down, and made a loud sniffle sound, at least that's what I originally thought it was.

"By the way Rin, you smell really nice--ow!." She said, interrupted by a prompt karate chop to the head by yours truly. "If you are feeling good enough to make lewd comments about my body, then get off me already, geez"

"Fine fine, you always take things so seriously~ But yeah, I should probably be going." Astor said, before standing up and slinging her bag over her shoulder. "Thanks again for the reading, Rin. I think I have a pretty good understanding of what's going on now." I was about to say the usual 'you're welcome' and such, but then she had to go and plant a random kiss on my forehead to throw me right back off balance again.

"Oi, what do you think you're doing?" I said, putting on a face that was a mixture of anger and embarrassment. Before any retaliation could come her way, she was already bolting out the door, with a giggle and a wave. "That girl..." I could only sigh as I shook my head. Will she never stop trying to tease me every chance she gets? Then again, she isn't the only one around here that tries their best to mess with me, as I looked over at Luci who had been rather silent this whole time. Her gaze came up to meet mine, a smirk filling her face.

"What? Is there something wrong?" I questioned, expecting her to tell me that Astor had left something on my forehead or something as my hand starting to wipe the area she had kissed.

"No, it's just... You do know that Astor has a brother complex, right?"
".....Oh"