Fiona lingered on the question she had thought about it, she had even gone to another reader but backed out at the last minute.
“I must confess if I were ever to do a reading for myself I might be tempted to reshuffle the cards until I get an answer that I would find satisfactory.” She laughed at herself imagining her mentor chastising her for trusting too much in such a mundane thing.
“But yes I have thought about it, but to be honest my primary fear about the future is the inevitability that my willpower will fail and this… Thing inside me will reek havok upon the world.”
Fiona held up her hands and crimson sparks danced across her finger tips and she gazed almost despondently at them as they blazed with an almost angry hum.
“Sometimes I wonder if there even is a particular reason why this power is forced on me, it has been centuries since it has emerged but I am still no closer to tangible answers as to where it came from and why it exists.”
She folded her hands together and sighed.
“Through me it has the means to do great harm even just incidentally, it just a matter of when, i’m not even sure there is a way to truely control it and that terrifies me.”
Stephen watched as Fiona invoked the power within her, and for such a brief display, its intensity was unnerving. It seemed barely restrained, and if she felt inclined to unleash it at full strength, its effects would be devastating.
“In all that time, you’ve never been able to find out how you received that power and what it’s meant for?” Strange asked, surprised that she’d still know so terribly little about something so dangerous. “I can only imagine how difficult it’s been to know so little while trying to keep it in check.”
Fiona’s power, as strong as it was, combined with Strange’s and Wong’s abilities, would likely be magnetic to Mordo, who was hell-bent on ridding his world of sorcerers willing to bend or break the rules he had so fiercely adhered to. They’d all have to be abundantly cautious going forward, and hope that nothing would happen to trigger a terrible tragedy.
“While you’re here with us,” Stephen said quietly and confidently, “we’ll do everything we can to look out for you, as we trust you’ll look out for us. We’re in this together.”
He held his eyes upon Fiona for a few seconds, and then slowly stood. “I should let you get some rest. It’s pretty late. If you need anything, my chambers is at the end of the hall, on the left.”
Fiona nodded silently for a moment, feeling tiredness beginning to set into her. It was reassuring that she had allies in Strange and Wong.
“Thank you Doctor Strange, I look forward to working with you. We shall accomplish much together in the days ahead.”
She watched the sorcerer leave for his chambers, his cloak billowing lightly at his feet as he moved to the door. Fiona saw the collar of the cloak bend once more as if looking at her one last time as its master closed the door behind him, his footsteps echoing down the hall.
Fiona sighed and changed into her night wear, letting down her long black hair. Her eyes were now heavy and she desired to feel the comfort of soft sheets and deep sleep.
The witch could still sense a kind of ominousness, and it weighed on her mind like a stone. As she lay she tossed and turned and tried to tune out the feeling as to not have it color her dreams.
“Such is life” Fiona mused with a small chuckle “Honestly if I had a pound for every situation I went into blindly I would be a wealthy woman indeed.” She said remembering the time she unwittingly wandered into the lair of a master vampire.
“But don’t doubt that even such a tiny flame can make the difference between the cold unknown and the warmth of the certainty you seek.”
She glanced at the cards she had laid before them eyeing them for a short moment.
“I imagine that the signs shall present them when you least expect, they almost always do, for better or ill.”
Fiona tried giving Strange a reassuring smile, before she snapped her fingers and the cards dematerialized.
“If it is any consolation to you Doctor Strange, many of those with gifts of prophecy grow to fear the future, existence is often governed by chaotic forces beyond human hands and in the end all we can do is to do the best we can and hope everything works out as it should be.”
Stephen listened with rapt attention as Fiona spoke. Between her charming and soothing accent and her refreshing perspective on prophecy and fate, the Sorcerer Supreme found her fascinating.
“I guess the tiniest light in the darkness is better than none at all,” Stephen reasoned. “I spent far too much time in the dark in recent years, so I’ll take whatever I can get.”
A thought came to his mind, and Strange leaned forward, locking eyes with Fiona as he spoke in a gentle baritone. “Have you ever done a reading on yourself? I ask because you spoke of those with the gift of prophecy fearing the future, and when I look in your eyes, I see a mixture of courage…and fear of the unknown.”
His eyes looked down, away from Fiona, into an empty spot on the table. “I’ve seen death, literally, millions of times over…mine and billions of others. You’d think that with experiencing such finality that often one would grow apathetic about it, but it still scares the hell out of me…the uncertainty of it all.”
Fiona lingered on the question she had thought about it, she had even gone to another reader but backed out at the last minute.
“I must confess if I were everl to do a reading for myself I might be tempted to reshuffle the cards until I get an answer that I would find satisfactory.” She laughed at herself imagining her mentor chstising her for trusting too much in such a mundane thing.
“But yes I have thought about it, but to be honest my primary fear about the future is the inevitability that my willpower will fail and this… Thing inside me will reek havok upon the world.”
Fiona held up her hands and crimson sparks danced across her finger tips and she gazed almost despondantly at them as they blazed with an almost angry hum.
“Sometimes I wonder if there even is a particular reason why this power is forced on me, it has been centuries since it has emerged but I am still no closer to tangible answers as to where it came from and why it exists.”
She folded her hands together and sighed.
“Through me it has the means to do great harm even just incidentally, it just a matter of when, i’m not even sure there is a way to truely control it and that terrifies me.”
Fiona extended her hand and moved it about just above the spread out deck, allowing the spirits to guide her toward the card sequence that would convey their answer.
She began pulling cards and lining them up in a row from first to last.
The High Priestess
“Interesting, The Priestess represents mystery and the unknown, something that has yet to be reavealed. Perhaps an event that has yet to be triggered or a secret that will be brought to light.”
The Magician
“This card speaks of your skill, determination and resourcfulness, likely your proclivity for the mystical arts.”
The Tower
“The Tower represents catastrophe and destruction, it indicates a sudden and unforseen change and a loss of control”
The Seven of Wands
“This card indicates you will be pushed to battle but you will stand your ground, you will be tested and it will be tiring however you will turn the strains of conflict to your favor.”
The Six of Wands
“This final card indicates you will be victorious in your endeavour and your goals wil be acomplished.”
“All in all it seems that your chances are quite good I would say.” Fiona said with a small smile.
Stephen watched and listened in silence as Fiona set out the tarot cards before him and explained each one. When she was done, he managed a smile, but also sat back with a heavy sigh. The descriptions were all so vague and could be interpreted in many ways.
“I wish I could say I felt comforted by your reading, but honestly, I don’t know what to feel,” Strange finally said aloud. “At least this felt more believable than that the person who did my last reading. I felt like a kid at a carnival who got suckered out of his last dollar after that one, and I didn’t even have to pay for it.”
He met Fiona’s eyes. “I’m sorry; I’m not disparaging your skill; I promise. Coming from the medical field, I rely on some degree of certainty. When I looked at a patient’s MRI scan, I knew what to look for and if there was an abnormality, I’d know it when I saw it. With this, I feel like I went from walking in the dark to walking with a lit match.”
“Such is life” Fiona mused with a small chuckle “Honsetly if I had a pound for every situation I went into blindly I would be a wealthy woman indeed.” She said remembering the time she unwittingly wandered into the lair of a master vampire.
“But don’t doubt that even such a tiny flame can make the difference between the cold unknown and the warmth of the certainty you seek.”
She glanced at the cards she had laid before them eyeing them for a short moment.
“I imagine that the signs shall present them when you least expect, they almost always do, for better or ill.”
Fiona tried giving Strange a reassuring smile, before she snapped her fingers and the cards dematerialized.
“If it is any consolation to you Doctor Strange, many of those with gifts of prophecy grow to fear the future, existance is often governed by chaotic forces beyond human hands and in the end all we can do is to do the best we can and hope everything works out as it should be.”
I’m going through the open threads I have that are almost a month old in which I was the last to reply, and I wanted to check in and see if we’re continuing them, ending them, or if you wish not to write with me anymore, or if they’re just on hold for various reasons.
Please, PLEASE do not interpret this as me pressuring you, rushing you or forcing you into replying to or writing with me further. Please understand that I don’t know your schedules or your personal situations, so I’m left with checking in this way.
There’s absolutely no rush and you’re not obligated to write with me if you don’t wish to. I just want to make sure you haven’t posted something and I just missed it somehow.
I’ll @ you in the list below; just hit me up in an ask or Tumblr chat message, or on Discord:
Hey hey just wanted to let you know that I am still around, work and current world events have been taxing on the mind body and spirit, still very much interested in RP its just been on the back burner while I try to recover my vigor. I will try to get out the next reply by wednsday, it’s been sitting half finished in my drafts looking sad for far too long lol
“I do, it’s a flexible form of divination. The cards allow me to glean information about the future, receive messages from ancestors and reveal insights about people.”
Fiona walked into the room Strange presented to her, it was considerably larger than her room back in England. She looked around a moment before turning back to Strange.
“Would you perhaps be game for a reading?”
She asked with a playful smile. She twirled her hand and a deck of cards conjured in her palm.
“I would be most interested indeed to see what they have to say about the Sorcerer Supreme himself. I think you may find my perceptions usually are not so dull or vague as a party trick.”
“Well,” Strange replied, “I’d certainly trust your reading of the cards more than I trusted the girl that read them at that party back in the day, especially after the one medical board member who she told would have a long and successful career ended up losing everything in a sexual harassment scandal four months later.”
He entered the room and took a seat across from Fiona. He wasn’t completely convinced of the accuracy of Tarot reading, but he was too curious about Fiona’s powers and knowledge to reject her offer.
Looking out a window Fiona could see the sun had disappeared into the distance.
“Thank you, both of you, hopefully in the morning we can devise a plan.”
Fiona rose to her feet with the two sorcerers. Wong gave her a small smile and nod and went off toward his library while she followed Doctor Strange to the guest wing.
As Fiona trailed behind him down the corridor, the collar Strange’s cloak twisted back upon itself. It may not have eyes but she could tell it was watching her, either out of curiosity or protectiveness of it’s owner. Perhaps it could sense the Darkstorm in her past the wall of Lightforce energy.
Wong had spoken of Strange to Fiona both in person and through letters, she knew that he was a surgeon and that he had a gift for the magical arts, however she didn’t know much about him as a person.
“Tell me Doctor Strange, have you had any experience with Cartomancy? The art of Tarot that is.”
She asked still following behind him. The question was genuine even though she knew that it wasn’t something that Masters of the Mystic Arts normally deal in, it is one of the most mundane of the divination methods, she also knew that Wong in particular was skeptical of it.
Strange could feel the Cloak of Levitation moving oddly around his collar, but he just attributed it to its usual overprotectiveness of him and paid no mind for the moment. When Fiona asked him about Cartomancy, he smirked and held back a chuckle.
“I think I had a tarot card reading once at a party I attended back during my residency days. ‘Big changes are in store for you’, the reader told me. It all sounded like nonsense to me back then, but considering what’s happened since and what I’ve seen and done, I’ve learned to be a bit more open-minded.”
He and Fiona reached her room, and he unlocked and opened the door for her. “I hope this will be alright.” It was a rather spacious room with a large bed, an empty wardrobe, a desk set and a comfortable upholstered reading chair.
“So, why do you ask about cartomancy? Do you practice it?”
“I do, it’s a flexible form of divination. The cards allow me to glean information about the future, receive messages from ancestors and reveal insights about people.”
Fiona walked into the room Strange presented to her, it was considerably larger than her room back in England. She looked around a moment before turning back to Strange.
“Would you perhaps be game for a reading?”
She asked with a playful smile. She twirled her hand and a deck of cards conjured in her palm.
“I would be most interested indeed to see what they have to say about the Sorcerer Supreme himself. I think you may find my perceptions usually are not so dull or vague as a party trick.”
Fiona nodded her head in agreement, a powerful and vengeful sorcerer on the loose bodes ill for a world still recovering from the chaos of billions of people suddenly reappearing after 5 years.
“I will stay, at least until he can be captured and the stolen power recovered. In the mean time we should formulate a way of drawing Mordo out.”
The matter of the barrier being breached still lingered in her mind, Mordo doesn’t seem to be the type to do something like that, if he indeed believes that magic is being misused.
“Do you know of any reason Mordo would breach the barrier? From the way you describe him he doesn’t seem to be the sort who would do it.”
“Mordo was one of the most skilled Masters of the Mystic Arts,” Wong explained, having known the man longer than Stephen had. “The Ancient One considered him a trusted friend and advisor.”
“And the revelation of her secret devastated him,” Strange added, “so if it meant that much to him to steal power from other sorcerers, he’d use any means at his disposal to accomplish that…but not the power of the Dark Dimension. I know, for certain, he wouldn’t go that far. He saw the consequences of that firsthand.”
“I’m not sure we should take any possibility for granted, at this point,” Wong said.
Time had gotten away from the trio, and it was now getting late. “Let’s get some rest before we do anything else,” Stephen advised. “We’re no good to anyone, including ourselves, if we can’t even stay awake.” Strange turned to Fiona and said, “I can show you to a room.”
Looking out a window Fiona could see the sun had disappeared into the distance.
“Thank you, both of you, hopefully in the morning we can devise a plan.”
Fiona rose to her feet with the two sorcerers. Wong gave her a small smile and nod and went off toward his library while she followed Doctor Strange to the guest wing.
As Fiona trailed behind him down the corridor, the collar Strange’s cloak twisted back upon itself. It may not have eyes but she could tell it was watching her, either out of curiosity or protectiveness of it’s owner. Perhaps it could sense the Darkstorm in her past the wall of Lightforce energy.
Wong had spoken of Strange to Fiona both in person and through letters, she knew that he was a surgeon and that he had a gift for the magical arts, however she didn’t know much about him as a person.
“Tell me Doctor Strange, have you had any experience with Cartomancy? The art of Tarot that is.”
She asked still following behind him. The question was genuine even though she knew that it wasn’t something that Masters of the Mystic Arts normally deal in, it is one of the most mundane of the divination methods, she also knew that Wong in particular was skeptical of it.
//It’s my birthday!!! It’s probably going to be a pretty low-key one for me, so I’ll be hanging around off and on here during the entire day, replying to drafts and what not.
I just want to tell all of you that your amazing writing talents and humbling kindness have been the best gifts I could ever hope to receive. Thank you so much for continuing to make this RP experience the most rewarding I’ve had in a long, long time.
Fiona thought on the revelation of the Ancient One using the energy of the Dark Dimension to sustain her immortality. Even being as experienced as she was, potentially exposing her mind to Dormammu’s influence seemed a very dangerous risk to take.
“I suppose I can understand how that would be upsetting. I’m sure your mentor had her reasons to do what she did, she was always very mysterious to me, in the times that I met her I never was able to read her, she must have been very good at hiding it.”
“I have to practically drown myself in Lightforce energy to keep my own magic under control. Perhaps the Ancient One felt that drawing on the Dark Dimension was only the only way to do what needed to be done.”
“I’ve come to realize that, now,” Stephen explained, “She was careful to keep it from everyone, but Kaecilius and his followers exposed her secret to us. It was still in defiance of her own rules, and to Mordo, it was a betrayal of what the Masters of the Mystic Arts stood for. I’ve come to see things a bit differently; that sometimes the rules can’t apply.”
“But we are obligated to find every possible way to obey them, Stephen,” Wong argued. “You and I and the rest of the Masters know this.”
“So did Mordo, surely…and yet, it would seem he’s the one draining the powers of other sorcerers. It’s his Sling Ring.”
Wong shook his head, ashamed at how such a renowned and respected Master could have fallen so drastically.
“We need to plan a course of action; Mordo is as wise and cunning as any of us; perhaps even more so. If we face him unprepared, we’ll lose,” Stephen declared. “Fiona, we’ll need your help. Would you be willing to stay here, at the Sanctum, with us until this is resolved? If he knows you have his Sling Ring, your life may be in danger.”
Fiona nodded her head in agreement, a powerful and vengeful sorcerer on the loose bodes ill for a world still recovering from the chaos of billions of people suddenly reappearing after 5 years.
“I will stay, at least until he can be captured and the stolen power recovered. In the mean time we should formulate a way of drawing Mordo out.”
The matter of the barrier being breached still lingered in her mind, Mordo doesn’t seem to be the type to do something like that, if he indeed believes that magic is being misused.
“Do you know of any reason Mordo would breach the barrier? From the way you describe him he doesn’t seem to be the sort who would do it.”
Once Helena let go of the goblet or cup of sorts, - or when her abilities let go of it - she could feel a small ache in her shoulders and arms, even just after a small act and movement like that one. It took a lot from her mentally, took all her focus, just to make sure she didn’t fling the object somewhere accidentally or even make the object teleport. And though the work took a lot from her mind, it could easily drain her physically at times too.
“Thank you, Doctor. It’s… odd finally having time and finding the right place to work all this out.” She let out genuinely, watching as Strange let the cup slip into a portal he conjured just beneath it.
Even just from the few things she’d seen him do with his abilities, she could tell he was very great at handling those abilities and they seemed quite powerful too. She admired his skills, to say the least, and she hoped one day she could have such a strong control over her powers too. Helena’s eyes flickered to the pedestal the cup had abandoned, eyebrows raised as she heard it clink onto the stool and regain its balance there as she listened to Strange speak of teleportation.
With furrowed eyebrows she turned as he disappeared only to reappear once more a few feet in front of her. “Okay… Okay… I think, I can do that,” She said with a nod, mostly trying to assure herself of it and convince herself. She noticed before how that seemed to help her often enough if she did ever try to teleport somewhere on purpose, though it went wrong in one way or the other most times, but simply believing in herself in her abilities helped her a bit.
With closed eyes, she took a deep breath, imagining the spot next to him, visualising exactly where she wanted to be and which way she wanted to be facing. A bronze glow emitted from her entire figure this time, the glow especially strong at her head and just above it, though it did flicker a bit. As she focused, she felt herself teleport, opening her eyes only to find herself in the bed of grass that had been past that tree where the cup had landed. And she’d managed to fall from the teleportation as well, landing on her knees as she steadied herself, though the grass was luckily soft enough to land on.
Brushing the slight dirt off of her hands, Helena looked to Strange with a small smile. “Well, could have been worse.”
“It’s a start,” Strange replied, cocking his head and smiling. “I wouldn’t expect you to nail it on the first day. It took me weeks to just open a portal. The Ancient One left me at the summit of Mount Everest until I could open one. Thankfully it didn’t take me long.” He quickly looked at Helena and chuckled, reassuring her, “Don’t worry, I won’t do anything like that to you!”
In the blink of an eye, Strange and Ella were standing back at their starting point in the garden, looking at the pedestals with cups and the tree ahead of them.
“What I will do, though, is tell you what she told me: ‘You cannot beat a river into submission. You have to surrender to its current, and use its power as your own.’“ Strange walked around to face Helena as he continued.
“Focus and control is vital, but you have to find a balance between control and freedom. You have to free your mind and let the current of your power carry you exactly where you want to go, or do what you want it to do, and no more than that. It doesn’t make sense; trust me, I know…but before this is all over, it will.”
“You’re right… I suppose it is a start of some sort.” Helena returned the smile, hands still brushing against her trousers, trying to get rid of the stray strands of grass and muddy dirt tainting her palms. “On Mount Everest? God, sounds both interesting and scary- And I trust your reassurance.” She laughed lightly, almost feeling a shiver descend down her spine at the mere thought of standing there on top of Everest, alone and most likely nervous.
Helena managed to keep her balace as her and her mentor suddenly returned to where they stood earlier. The teleporting wasn’t getting too weird, but she still wasn’t quite used to the feeling, especially when she decided to work it herself.
Keeping her eyes on the pedestals for a moment before turning towards Strange, she nodded along to what he said. “Thank you… The Ancient One does sound as wise as she seems. And you make some good points- I think- I think I’m just scared, scared of dipping my feet too far into the current.”
There was a lull in their light and pleasant lunch conversation, and instead of feeling awkward or the suddenly urge to fill the silence with something, Wanda found herself just… staring at him. Staring and smiling. It made her stop and think for a moment because, although she had no idea what her own smile looked like, it felt… like how she used to smile at Vision.
It didn’t surprise her, given how she now realized she’d been feeling for some time about Stephen, but she’d only just now become aware of it. That was how it had happened with Vision, too. One day she just… knew. She cared for him.
Her cheeks took on a subtle shade of pink. “You’re staring at me, Stephen,” she said, not at all annoyed by it. No, in fact, her smile still remained as she told him so, and she bit her bottom lip playfully. It felt good… to care for someone like this again.
“Well, good. You deserve to smile more, after everything that’s happened,” she said, but as soon as she did, her smile faded into something a bit more serious. “I really mean that. None of us would be here right now if it weren’t for you. I know that many others had a hand in it as well, but… I wouldn’t even be here right now if you hadn’t done what you did.” She swallowed hard. “I just want to see you smilenow. That’s all I want. Because there’s been too much pain otherwise. You know…?”
Wanda shook her head, trying to shake off the wave of reminiscence that had threatened to bring her down. “Sorry,” she said with an awkward smile. “I was almost a bit of a date-ruiner right just then.” Chuckling at herself, she turned to the food. It was hard for her to leave everything at home and unburden herself sometimes, but when she was with Stephen, she found it much easier to change the subject to something lighter. “But for the record, I likeyour grouchy-sorcerer-self. It’s cute. A lot cuter than I think you are aware.” She could hardly contain her grin after that comment. “Your reputation is safe with me, though.”
She laughed even more at herself when she saw Stephen’s reaction to her trying to jalapeno poppers. “No, I haven’t! I guess I don’t get out much.” her grin widened and she bit her lip, tilting her head at him. “Adorable? Really? Okay, so it’s going to be that kind of date,” she teased… and she was loving every minute of it. “They really are good. These are pretty common around here, then, I am to assume?” Judging by his reaction, that was the only sensible conclusion. What other wonderful foods was she missing out on?
“So what’s something you know how to cook that’s a popular New York dish? And mind you, I am just distracting you so I get to eat more of these,” she joked, taking another popper. The real reason was that she loved to learn more about him and could listen to him speak in that wonderful voice of his all night long.
