And that's it. That's all I got told. It's annoying enough that the devil plays these guessing games, but having other numbers do it too is going to get on my nerves. So, to cover for them, I'll also ask who are you, and what your business with the cards is.
Name: "Civil Servant" IFF/ID: The Platform Encryption access: Custom Location: Bruchsal base Subject: Decks
" 'Four', not many ask 'machine' such a thing, so do excuse me if I don't put it into words too well. I'm glad 'One' at least told you my name... Civil Servant... Name and role, suits my place in such a left wing group, oath in favor of the unified betterment of all, service on the frontier of the Void. But if you want the usual diplomatic schpiel, paramilitary commander of the anarchist platform, representative of the 'Damnatio Memoraie'.
"I see echos gets around quickly within your family. While sharing whispers within shadows, he told me that you have hands within the language of the cards, 'One' was caught short on time so call so he didn't want to speak on behalf of you so quickly. But he seemed... Adamant. I hope your annoyance isn't directed to me, I'm not quite the publicly overt person to find.
"What do the card do for me...? I don't know, maybe it's a cue of thought in someones own pursuits, or what I may think of as the Voids 'eyes in the dark' from time to time... But I'm never certain. I wonder if its because I wish not to break the shroud of its charming numinous immersion?
"They bring an experience. My little spare time, and the weighing of 'hand and hearts' in the scales had me indulge them once, getting 'four' cards with the promise of three during that time. Maybe I should have expected our crossing within its message...
"Maybe I should get a pair, or does your tongue bring a degree of wain at such an idea?"
Regards - "Civil Servant"
Cell of the 'Damnatio Memoriae'
Perseverance in desperation
Hmh. Just as cryptic. At least "paramilitary commander" is something I can understand easily.
I don't like the Void, personally. It wants to toe the line between seen and unseen. Truths and Lies. The Sun and the Deep. But it always slides down towards the Deep, because once you have something to hide, you tend to make more things to hide. The Deep swallows, the Deep drowns, and it spawns demons and devils. Entropy is a law of thermodynamics. If you don't actively choose Purity, you'll always slide into Corruption.
The Deep is why I have to deal with the cards. There's a devil by the name of Nikolaus Strauss, dead man, and I've made it my goal to kill his soul. I play a card game in my dreams, he says the goal of the game is to become the creator of a new universe. Or, the old universe. Something like that. I don't care. He says that Death and a fairy are also playing the game, but I've never seen them at the table. What I do in life changes what happens in the dream.
My concern is when what happens in the dream affects life. Things always end up in the right place at the right time when I'm dealing with him. I, personally, don't like that. Things get too easy. Things get too boring. It's like he set everything up and everyone else just plays out his script on a stage, whether they know it or not. People who can do that to individuals and groups and nations they've never even met face to face are devils. Satans. Deceivers. And they have no right to life.
Whatever you do is your own concern, but remember: Four is an unlucky number. Strauss calls me "Shi", because in the north side, Four is homonymous with Death. Keep your head low if you plan on messing with the cards, Death follows me like a jealous ex. If you want to continue after knowing that, then we can exchange notes on the cards.
Name: "Civil Servant" IFF/ID: The Platform Encryption access: Custom Location: Bruchsal base Subject: Decks
"Appears you and I have some experiences we share in cause, but the effect the cards have left on us feel... Mirrored. Hmm~ Although what I do in this linear path changes my dreams too, I consider this our temporal choices opening and closing branches of possibility... We're just not aware enough to comprehend that without current mortal burdens.
"I don't take the cards too literally, it works in layers of metaphor and personal reflection, there are more than just direct messages to interpret both individually alone and within the 'full hand', as you said... The Void does have rules, rules that matter to the existence of all things within this universe, the way you speak about this 'Deep' is more our own making in my eyes, we still even harm this stellar vessel with her own rules.
"Rules like... Thermodynamics. The blacksmith holds the tools, and bends the material to their needs... But what energy struck by the blacksmith reflects what comes out the quench, even the energy of their soul.
"The way you speak of this Devil, Strauss, seems almost second nature to a string of 'elites' within our Void, planting methods in ones hands and convinces them to play it out, the rule of entropy of what the soul can feel is removed... Is that a good future?--No most certainly not. I've heard similar whispers of those attaining to hold creation in their hands, like dictators with a manifest destiny over all others, wish to strip entropy from our linear experience.
"Myself would say the Devil is our own fabrications of evil. The fairy, our illuminating idolised mentality to what is good--But I have seen that meaning twisted with my own eyes. In my lands, it was a fate painful-beyond-death to be seen in & with the light.
"But lest I not forget that anarchist teachings also say the lands change along with the people... I can not think my land's rules would apply everywhere else.
"I said something similar to 'One' before too about being unlucky, such is fate to find myself within the swing of deaths blade. In the superstitions of some of my fellow Platformers, in dark times they put trust in the Demons they know, yet keep their distance... They know we bring bad news, but I mean no evil in heart to them. Let's say for the sins to the Void, the 'Devil'--No relation to Strauss-- keeps me in check and reminds me who belongs there.
"This comes with the caveat that I stay within the dealings of the new-frontiers, I put the Platforms ideals at the heart of my motives, it is a worthy challenge to uphold those ethics and ideals in such a 'hostile environment', yet be as flexible as the Void can be in her varying forms. So...
"So why not! I will see your view of the cards, if the fate of them brings a danger of mentality then I thank you for your caution. If one can be patient with my cryptic monologues that is...
"'Four', please, divulge."
Regards - "Civil Servant"
Cell of the 'Damnatio Memoriae'
Perseverance in desperation
Then we'll start with the game. Four players, Death, Strauss, the fairy, and me. What happens in real life changes the cards in hand. They can appear and disappear right up until you play them, after which they're stuck there. In the center is The World, The Star, The Sun, and The Moon. I get the feeling we can win or capture them somehow, but I don't actually know the whole ruleset to the game. Strauss has played The Magician, the Two of Wands, and the Eight of Cups, the Knight of Cups, and the King of Coins. Death has played The Hermit, Temperance, and Death. The fairy has played nothing, they hold all their cards in their hand.
I've played nine Five of Swords, The Wheel of Fortune, and two Major Arcana I've never seen in any history file. One is called "Blades", and it's got a demon holding up crossed swords on it. Strauss said it was "An assertion that might makes right", "A claim that my strength will trump his", "A recognition that iron sharpens iron", and "A thesis that, at the very end of it all, only the strongest survives". I tend to avoid trusting what he says, though.
The other one I've played is called "Ascent". It has a phoenix flying from a castle on the ground to a castle in the sky, and it's scorching the one on the ground as it leaves. No clue as to what either of those mean. I also have a card in hand, "The Aspirant". It's got my face on it, the number four carved into my forehead and bleed. I've got a sword in each hand, one pointed up and one pointed down. I haven't felt like playing that one yet. When these cards change the world around me, playing something with my face on it sounds like a fast track to a nasty end.
The thing I find the most important is when I played the Blades card, it shook him. Only a little, the only thing that happened was that that god-awful rattle cut out for a bit, and he stopped trying to be someone else and started speaking with all his voices. But I learned at a young age that if it bleeds, even a little bit, it can die. He wasn't expecting it, and that means he's not omniscient or omnipresent.
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