It's one day like any other for Jai but as he walks down the streets of
Haven, he notices something unusual for Haven in one of the alleys. A young
street performer has set up to perform the cups and balls routine and the
moment Jai comes closer, she raises a hand to wave at him. "Good evening good
Sir. Would you like to try your skill at a game?"


"Depends," Jai says, pausing when addressed by the street performer. "Are
you any good, or just running a scam?" Jai asks in a bored New York accent.
Glancing over a shoulder, Jai wonders aloud, "Am I being set-up for a
pickpocket? I beat other people's kids," is added as a warning. </color>

"Am I any good, am I running a scam?" The performer echoes his words with a
peculiar timbre tinging her voice. As Jai comes closer he can see how her hair
is as blue as her eyes while she offers him a Cheshire smile. With flick hands
she produces three small yellow balls between her fingers which she tosses up
in the air, speaking all the while they land. "No, no pickpockets, base
trickery like that disrespects the game don't you think?" The cups are turned
over and slowly she moves them around in a lazy shuffle. "Where do you think
they are?"



"They're under the cups," Jai says. "Do I win?" There's no relaxation at the
performer's assurances, and Jai makes a point of another over-the-shoulder look
as if to prove still being on-guard. </color>


While looking up at him and maintaining the smile, the young woman slowly
lifts the cups one by one. Below the first, nothing. Below the second, nothing
and the third... same as the rest. With the flourish of a performer, she then
shows Jai her empty pals and rolls up her sleeves as if to demonstrate they
can't be there either. "Oh my." She says in faux surprise. "Where could they
be."
Even as he hears her voice, the alley changes and twists around Jai, and either
it's growing enormously large or he's growing very small. "Why, there they
are!" She says excitedly as three giant balls twice his height come crashing
down towards him.

Jai thinks; "Ah, fuck."


Throwing up both hands, Jai attempts to dodge the gigantic balls. "Hey kid,
knock that shit off!" Jai lurches to the side, nearly hitting the ground in the
effort to not, barring the absolutely inevitable, get knocked the fuck out by
magic balls.

"Need a way out?" Jai hears the performer ask and suddenly she's next to
him, holding out her hand, palm turned upwards as if inviting him to a ballroom
dance. Opposite her a doorway suddenly appears, its edges gleaming invitingly
in a warm golden colour complete with an green emergency exit sign above the
frame. "Do you trust me?"


"Hell no I don't trust you," Jai sneers, even as a hand reaches out and
grabs onto the one offered by the performer. "But if I get squashed, you're
getting squashed with me," is the vindictive follow-up to that statement. "Your
move."
Jai thinks; "Fuck, I'm gonna be late."


Jai thinks; "Nero is going to actually murder me."


Jai thinks; "Nero can suck a dick."


Jai thinks; "If I die, I swear to god no one better touch my shit."

"Oh my." The performers surprise sounds more genuine this time as she pulls
him in with sudden force even as she falls backwards and just as she's about to
hit the pavement with Jai on top, they suddenly fall through the ground itself.
After a brief moment of absolute darkness, everything is suddenly bright, blue
and... cloudy. The performer is keeping him in a tight embrace as they fall
recklessly through the sky, headfirst towards the ground. "Have you ever wanted
to fly like a bird in the sky?"


"Now really doesn't seem like the time for poetic daydreams," Jai says, a
bit pointedly, eyes fixed on the much-too-rapidly approaching ground. "What the
fuck is going on? Am I tripping?" Jai closes one eye, then the other in a
rapid, low-tech vision test. "Fuck, did someone poison me?" </color>

"It's my belief." The young woman whispers into Jai's ear as they continue
to fall, their clothes fluttering and smattering loudly against the headwind.
She puts one hand over his heart as she continues. "That as long as you remain
true to yourself, you can never truly die. Who cares about being late, who
cares about Nero. What do you want Jai? What are you letting holding you back?"



"Aht - mind your business," Jai says abruptly when Nero's name is brought up.
"Who the fuck are you, anyway?" A glance is given toward the approaching
ground, then toward the hand. "The only thing holding me back at this
particular moment is a very real fear of death."


Jai thinks; "I should have taken the longer way around. Less alleyways."

"What even is death?" She asks as they abruptly stop falling and Jai is
jerked hard by her hand. Somehow she's holding on to a treetop and Jai is
dangling by his arm near some branches. "Fear is the mindkiller and the mind is
the only weapon you'll have in the end, hone it, leave your fear behind and
come find me."


"God fucking damn it!" Jai explodes in fear and/or anger as the falling
stops and the dangling begins, all in one not-particularly fluid moment. "I'll
leave my fear behind when I have solid ground under my fucking feet," the
native New Yorker bitches, desperately attempting to reach for the branch
overhead with a free hand. "Come find you my ass, you better hope I don't
fucking find you," is muttered quietly during the struggle.


Jai thinks; "If Nero is behind this I'm going to cut off his head and rape his fucking throat."

Even as Jai explodes in a shower of curses at her, the young woman keeps her
hand in his and the world around them shift. Suddenly they're back in the alley
with her table and the three empty cups. When she lets go off his hand, the
three yellow balls rest in the palm of his hand but when he looks away for just
a moment, they're replaced with a business card reading: The Countess of Sudden
Reversals, Morgana's Path 27


Jai thinks; "The Countess of Sudden Reversals, Morgana's Path 27. What the actual fuck is this?"

Glancing from the balls to the performer, Jai raises a hand as if to peg her
in the head with them - only for the balls to be replaced by a card. Jai reads
the card aloud with a deep frown. "Fuck is this?" A foot is lifted gingerly
from the ground then placed back down as if to ensure it is actually there.

"It's what it looks like, for once." The young woman admits as she bends
forward in an impressively deep almost gravity defying bow. "It's been a
pleasure to have you as my audience. Perhaps we'll meet again sometime."


Slipping the card into a pocket Jai nods. "I hope you don't think I'm paying
for this magic act," is said gruffly, the performer given a mildly disdainful
side-eye. "You tried to kill me, you're lucky I don't slit your little throat."

His threat earns him a twinkle from her blue eyes as she dares him. "Why
didn't you try?" She asks him and he can hear her voice rattling like dice as
both the performer and her table suddenly vanishes.