............Why was the Professor eyeing him like that? The Slytherin Captain was trying to do a service here. Apparently Myrtle had the hots for him...So, why not take advantage of that? It seemed like a good idea to him...

Clearing his throat, Dylan did as he was told, diverting his attention from the ghost and pulling out the boxed tarot cards. They were supposed to just pick one at random, right?...Others seemed to be hand-picking the card they wanted...but he didn't want to did it that way

Instead, he divided them in half, shuffled a few times...and then laid the top one down on the table.


Setting the remaining cards to the side, the Slytherin flipped through his book, looking for an explanation. It seemed like a great card...The name was fantastic, anyway...

Oh, here we go.

Raising his hand, Dylan smirked. "I got The Emperor, ma'am. It says this card basically represents power, control, and authority. It's also supposed to be the male counter to The Empress card..." He continued to read..."There's notes about the different aspects of the card in here, too...His beard, the ram, and then the staff...Each with their own meanings within the card."

"The beard related to 'experience', the ram to 'determination', and the staff to 'balance'." Hmmmm. Dylan quite liked this card. It was like a perfect representation of himself...if he could be so bold to even think it...And he was, of course.

After giving the students a few minutes to pick a card and then look it up in their textbooks, Calista listened to their answers. For the most part, except for a few who seemed to be goofing off with their cards (they would just be a step behind then), they had done fairly well. "Good job everyone, as you can see after just dealing with the Major Arcana cards there is a lot of memorization work tied into Cartomancy. For now since you all are beginners you are going to be allowed to use your textbooks."

Professor Elwood picked up the Empress card herself and held it up for them all to see. "Before we move on to the other two groups of cards I want to explain something important about ALL of the cards in this tarot deck that Miss Potter hinted on in her card report." She gestured at the Hufflepuff before pointing her ringed finger at the card. "When a reader or the person being given the reading draws this card, the Empress, they will be shown the nourishment and sustaining powers they have with others. But if it is drawn this way," The professor flipped the card upside down so that the woman on the throne had her head at the bottom of the frame, "You get the opposite meaning. You will be characterized as having a malnutrition attitude to your careless raising of others." Yeah, so obviously not so good as the original meaning.

"So now that we have been introduced to the Major Arcana cards, let's talk about the Minor Arcanas. As I and some of your classmates have mentioned at the beginning of class today, there are suits to tarot cards much like regular muggle playing cards. The Minor Arcanas of this particular deck of tarot cards don't have the elaborate pictures that the Major Aracana do but instead have a number of small pictures that is the same as the number give to the card. For example, three red hearts on a number three card."

"However Tarot Cards have different suits than regular playing cards? Can anyone tell me one or even all of them? You may use your textbook."

OOC: Hey guys, when I say you can use the textbook it typically means it's up for you all to research the information on the internet. Sometimes I link you to sites that I want you to use, but because Tarot Cards are so widely used, I trust the information you find will be rather close to my own. Once the lesson is over I will be creating a 'chapter in the Divination Textbook' for you all to use for OWLs/NEWTs in the Divination Classroom Forum.

Minor Arcanas suits. Ella could sure find those. The blonde used her finger to skim her textbook, green eyes searching the text. Hmmmmm. Ah-ha!

Raising her hand, the blonde waited to be called on. "Professor, there is the wand suit." She said with a small smile, picking this particular suit for obvious reasons. Also, she didn't want to name all the suits so that her classmates could answer as well.

Alyssa listened again as Professor Elwood explained more about the different types of cards in the Rider-Waite Tarot card deck.

The Minor Arcanas have different suits? Alyssa quickly looked down at her textbook, to see what they were. When she found the page, she read the information in them before she raised her hand.

"Professor like Ella said one of the suits is the Wands. The other suits are The Pentacles, The Cups and the Swords."

O_o should she have only answered one? The Professor had said one or all of them.

"There's the cup suit, which I think is pretty cool," Alex said, raising his hand as he flipped through the book. "There's also the pentacles but I don't really know what that is, exactly," he added with a shrug. What WAS a pentacle? Hmmm.

Jory hadn't known or remembered that the four suits were different from the muggle playing cards. He quickly scanned his textbook, looking for the names of the suits. "Oh, so that's what they're called,'' he muttered.

Jory raised his hand. "They're called The Swords, the cups, the wands and the Pentacles.''

Minerva listened to the professor, the Empress card seemed tricky, she would have to remember this. Taking more notes she listened as Professor Elwood as she went on. Looking through her book she put her hand up.

"Professor.. There are four tarot suits. There are the cup, swords, wand, and pentacles." Putting her hand down Minerva listened to the rest of the class speak about the suits. Minerva was very interested in this lesson, it seemed really fun.

Mackenzie quickly looked through her book finding the chapter on tarot cards, raising her hand slowly hoping to not draw attention to herself. "cup, swords, wand, and pentacles" muttering under her breath while she looks around at the other students.

Belle heard the professor's instructions and picked out a card. She set aside the tarot cards from the boxes on her desk. She pulled out all of the Major Arcana cards. Belle got out her textbook and flipped through to the chapter on Tarot Cards.

Belle then raised her hand and said, "Professor i got the magician, and the magician is the focus on new beginnings. It also can mean to have new opportunities to use talents, love urges and the future."



Belle looked into her textbook and wondered what different suits Tarot Cards had than regular playing cards. Belle flipped through it and found some information. "Professor i know the tarot cards categorize the 4 major aspects of life. The Pentacles are knows as Discs and Coins, Wands are rods and staves, Cups are chalices and goblets and Swords are blades." Belle was going through some more and they even linked the aspects to zodiac signs and colors. She thought it was really cool.

At the start of the next question, Eliza had her hand in the air fairly quickly, but after hearing the answers before she had a chance to speak, she put her hand back down. No use in repeating the same answers, right? Cups, swords, wands, pentacles. Yep, she thought to herself as she read from the textbook. She'd remembered swords first for some reason. I wonder if that means anything?

Nate looked at the teacher, then glanced down at his deck when she said to respect people more, or to use more manners, something along those lines. Manners are for people who are to nice, and don't know the true meaning of life....life isn't fair. he thought to himself. So then he shuffled his tarot card deck, and raised his hand while saying "One out of the four suits of cards are swords." Then he pulled the top card to reveal the seven of swords. With his hand still raised he said "Like the one I just pulled from the top of my deck, the seven of swords." That seven of swords thing after he said the swords wasn't rigged, I swear. Finally he lowered his hand.

West stuck his hand up. "Well they're Wands, Pentacles, Swords, and Cups, and I read a thing once what said that they can be associated to Hogwarts Houses, like Wands are Gryffindor, Pentacles are Hufflepuff, Swords are Ravenclaw, and Cups are Slytherin. I seen a magical version with Wands, Galleons, Quills, and Cauldrons too. "

Because he read stuff.

Why did she have a feeling that by the time the class was over she'd have a much better knowledge of what was inside her text. The girl didn't make reading a habit you know so this was all getting...getting really odd.

Nevertheless she went flipping a few pages again when the Professor asked another question. She didn't know the answer for this either but the Professor said the texts could be used...not like she wouldn't have used it anyway if push came to shove. No way she was gonna be the only one in the entire room who didn't know the answers. Pffft.

While skipping she heard everyone giving up the answers.

Meh. Now she'd just sound like she was copying.

This meant more reading 'til she found something worth mentioning. Oh, here we go. "I found their muggle suits too, like the wand maps to the clubs, Pentacles are the diamonds, the sword's got dibs on the spade suit and the cups the hearts--" Heeeeeey, they had the whole thing right here. This meant they could still play with the cards, yes?? "Neat."

Soooo... since everyone seemed well aware of the four suits, Mo didn't bother contributing with everyone else. Nope. Cups, wands, swords, pentacles. Got it. He was boss. Besides, it was much more amusing for him to go through the deck and mentally assign cards to his classmates. That probably explained why he was laughing quietly to himself as he flipped over the cards. Probably.

Alice.. did not know. Like usual.

But after listening to everyone else's answers and checking her textbook, she got a pretty good idea of the suits.

So she took mental notes. And said nothing. And that was all.

This is what the redhead did not UNDERSTAND with her peers. How did they ALL have time to know every answer in every class. With Divination Selina was super knowledgable, but that was because it held a keen interest for her. She knew the answer, for reasons ahem, but she was not going to repeat the same old, bloody answers. The redhead seriously wanted to know how her peers found so much time to know all of these subjects. It would help with her NEWTs.

So she just kept her mouth shut. She didn't want to just keep recycling everyone's answers. Now it was just time to wait until the next question. Hopefully Elwood knew that she knew the answer.

Seeing no use in repeating answers (and since when did everyone have to take up EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE ANSWER anyway?), Sky set to separating out her cards into the Arcanas and wondering what that Ravenclaw boy up there found so funny. She didn't see anything funny in the cards, nope. Not even a wonky eye. Maybe it was a private, inside joke? Yep, that had to be it.

SPOILER!!: Right answers!

Quote:

Originally Posted by TakemetotheBurrow

Minor Arcanas suits. Ella could sure find those. The blonde used her finger to skim her textbook, green eyes searching the text. Hmmmmm. Ah-ha!

Raising her hand, the blonde waited to be called on. "Professor, there is the wand suit." She said with a small smile, picking this particular suit for obvious reasons. Also, she didn't want to name all the suits so that her classmates could answer as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireboltAvis88

Alyssa listened again as Professor Elwood explained more about the different types of cards in the Rider-Waite Tarot card deck.

The Minor Arcanas have different suits? Alyssa quickly looked down at her textbook, to see what they were. When she found the page, she read the information in them before she raised her hand.

"Professor like Ella said one of the suits is the Wands. The other suits are The Pentacles, The Cups and the Swords."

O_o should she have only answered one? The Professor had said one or all of them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FearlessLeader19

Jory hadn't known or remembered that the four suits were different from the muggle playing cards. He quickly scanned his textbook, looking for the names of the suits. "Oh, so that's what they're called,'' he muttered.

Jory raised his hand. "They're called The Swords, the cups, the wands and the Pentacles.''

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bazinga

Minerva listened to the professor, the Empress card seemed tricky, she would have to remember this. Taking more notes she listened as Professor Elwood as she went on. Looking through her book she put her hand up.

"Professor.. There are four tarot suits. There are the cup, swords, wand, and pentacles." Putting her hand down Minerva listened to the rest of the class speak about the suits. Minerva was very interested in this lesson, it seemed really fun.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danielle_Daughn

Mackenzie quickly looked through her book finding the chapter on tarot cards, raising her hand slowly hoping to not draw attention to herself. "cup, swords, wand, and pentacles" muttering under her breath while she looks around at the other students.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lissy Longbottom

"There's the cup suit, which I think is pretty cool," Alex said, raising his hand as he flipped through the book. "There's also the pentacles but I don't really know what that is, exactly," he added with a shrug. What WAS a pentacle? Hmmm.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hpfan18

SPOILER!!: Card Choosing

Belle heard the professor's instructions and picked out a card. She set aside the tarot cards from the boxes on her desk. She pulled out all of the Major Arcana cards. Belle got out her textbook and flipped through to the chapter on Tarot Cards.

Belle then raised her hand and said, "Professor i got the magician, and the magician is the focus on new beginnings. It also can mean to have new opportunities to use talents, love urges and the future."

SPOILER!!: Professor!

Belle looked into her textbook and wondered what different suits Tarot Cards had than regular playing cards. Belle flipped through it and found some information. "Professor i know the tarot cards categorize the 4 major aspects of life. The Pentacles are knows as Discs and Coins, Wands are rods and staves, Cups are chalices and goblets and Swords are blades." Belle was going through some more and they even linked the aspects to zodiac signs and colors. She thought it was really cool.

Quote:

Originally Posted by natethegreat

Nate looked at the teacher, then glanced down at his deck when she said to respect people more, or to use more manners, something along those lines. Manners are for people who are to nice, and don't know the true meaning of life....life isn't fair. he thought to himself. So then he shuffled his tarot card deck, and raised his hand while saying "One out of the four suits of cards are swords." Then he pulled the top card to reveal the seven of swords. With his hand still raised he said "Like the one I just pulled from the top of my deck, the seven of swords." That seven of swords thing after he said the swords wasn't rigged, I swear. Finally he lowered his hand.

"Very good everyone." Professor Elwood was glad that they either knew the suits of the Tarot Deck on their own or have been able to successfully navigate their textbook--a win win in the Divination professor's opinion. She was going to move on after she addressed some rather interesting thoughts pressed forth by a certain young pair of a Lion and a Snake.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

Why did she have a feeling that by the time the class was over she'd have a much better knowledge of what was inside her text. The girl didn't make reading a habit you know so this was all getting...getting really odd.

Nevertheless she went flipping a few pages again when the Professor asked another question. She didn't know the answer for this either but the Professor said the texts could be used...not like she wouldn't have used it anyway if push came to shove. No way she was gonna be the only one in the entire room who didn't know the answers. Pffft.

While skipping she heard everyone giving up the answers.

Meh. Now she'd just sound like she was copying.

This meant more reading 'til she found something worth mentioning. Oh, here we go. "I found their muggle suits too, like the wand maps to the clubs, Pentacles are the diamonds, the sword's got dibs on the spade suit and the cups the hearts--" Heeeeeey, they had the whole thing right here. This meant they could still play with the cards, yes?? "Neat."

While the other students had been telling her what the suits were it was odd but Alexa Cambridge had been quiet, her nose in her textbook. This was definitely a strange but nice sight (Come to mention it, Myrtle was being rather quiet too).

But her reading was not pretending, nope. She gave a decent bit of information. "Thank you Miss Cambridge. That is correct, oftentimes we tend to ignore Muggle means of things as witches and wizards but there are some fortune tellers in the Muggle world who practice Cartomancy without these decorative or elaborate cards but instead use the decks of fifty-two with the diamonds, spades, clovers, and hearts."

She smiled at the girl before adding. "Five points to Gryffindor for Miss Cambridge's thinking of others besides ourselves."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tegz

West stuck his hand up. "Well they're Wands, Pentacles, Swords, and Cups, and I read a thing once what said that they can be associated to Hogwarts Houses, like Wands are Gryffindor, Pentacles are Hufflepuff, Swords are Ravenclaw, and Cups are Slytherin. I seen a magical version with Wands, Galleons, Quills, and Cauldrons too. "

Because he read stuff.

Huh. She had never really thought of it that way before.

"Interesting Mr. Odessa," It seemed that he had gotten over his obsession with 'Westomancy' long enough to participate in today's lesson? "Having not attended Hogwarts myself, I never really made that connection but I can see how whatever text you read that in made that connection." She turned to the board and wrote with chalk rather than her wand in her excitement.

Quote:

*Gryffindor - Wands: Gryffindor is characterized as being brave and full of courage; ready to rush into dangerous situations.

*Hufflepuff - Pentacles: Hufflepuff is known for trying to find the positive or worth in every situation, social interaction and responsibilities.

*Ravenclaw - Swords: Ravenclaw is known for booksmarts, theory and strategy.

*Slytherin - Cups: Slytherin is known for keen intelligence, stirving for what is needed and high aspirations and emotions

When she was finished writing this down she turned to West and the rest of the class. "Now assuming I didn't botch your all's house values, as set down by their founders, the Sorting Hat, and Hogwarts, A History, I see what Mr. Odessa is saying about the possible connection between each house and a Tarot card suit. The characteristics I've written on the board are ones that coincide with the ones of your houses AND each tarot suit." It was so awesome when things out of textbooks connected with things in the students' everyday life.

"Five points to Slytherin for Mr. Odessa's extra studies and bringing that to us to look into today." Very good indeed.

More on the suits of the Minor Arcana. "Despite the Hogwarts houses being connected to the Tarot suits the Rider-Waite deck has each suit connected to one of the four elements. Which, coincidentally, now that I think about it, also match up with your Houses according to some literature." Continuing. "Wands are representative of Fire and are for adventurers, ambition and passion. Pentacles represent Earth and talk of relationships, things of physical nature, money, and health. Swords stand for Air and matters of the mind and the voice. Because swords have a sharp edge it also represents the repercussions of our words and expressed thoughts. And lastly we have Cups which match up with the element of Water and represent emotions and oftentimes extremes such as hate or deep love. These are most connected to visions and psychic abilities."

A lot of information to throw at them all at once but it was all in their textbooks if they hadn't taken it down in notes. They WOULD need it for their homework though so hopefully they got at least most of it. "Now, before me move on I am going to quickly explain the basics of the Court Cards. These cards are pictorially representative much like the Major Arcana cards but there are only four different Court figures: the Page, the Knight, the Queen, and the King. There are going to be four of each of these figures in the deck, one for each of the four suits." Elwood paused to let that sink in.

"Some quick tips for reading Court cards when they come up in a spread. Almost always they represent a person in the reader's life, and although gender doesn't always matter, it usually does (Women are the queens, others are male). Each member of the Court stands for some symbolic meaning." She went back to the board to lay it out for them:

Quote:

* Four of each, one of each suit.

Pages - messages/messengers
Knights - movement/trips
Queens - creators
Kings - Mangers/Organization

"And lastly, a tip for when you draw Court cards, you can use the Zodiac sign that correlates with the element of the suit and use the attributes of it to make your reading of that particular card. (Oftentimes: Cups - Scorpio, Cancer, Picses; Pentacles - Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn ; Swords - Gemini, Libra, Aquarius; Wands - Aries, Leo, Sagittarius)."

And that was her script for the day. "Now if any of you have questions before we begin now's the time. If not we are going to start our first reading called the three-card reading." She flicked her wand at the already crowded board to draw a diagram.



"As you can see there are a few different types of readings to do with this spread but for fun we will start with the Past, Present, Future one. For this you can either work with a partner and each do a reading on each other or on your own by drawing for yourself. Go ahead and get started. You will need to draw each card individually and then palce them in the correct format. Please divine the meaning of each card to the reader before going on to the next one. We will only be using three cards, one per period of time (past, present, and future)." Callie turned to walk around the room as they worked, ready to help and answer questions as needed.

OOC: I know this is A LOT of info but just take your time and read through it, it's not as hard as it seems. Here is a site I think will help you out a bit. The cards you "draw" can be chosen at random or you can work with a partner to get whatever reading you want. No worry. You will have about 24-48 hours to work on this spread so take your time and have fun. I would like a post per card please so if you are working with a partner you will each need to post three times. Have fun and don't be afraid to ask questions!!

Belle was soo keen on listening to the professor. She saw what the professor was writing on the board.

SPOILER!!: Belle's Notes

*Gryffindor - Wands: Gryffindor is characterized as being brave and full of courage; ready to rush into dangerous situations.

*Hufflepuff - Pentacles: Hufflepuff is known for trying to find the positive or worth in every situation, social interaction and responsibilities.

*Ravenclaw - Swords: Ravenclaw is known for booksmarts, theory and strategy.

*Slytherin - Cups: Slytherin is known for keen intelligence, stirving for what is needed and high aspirations and emotions

Belle thought it was really interesting. She saw her house hufflepuff and it described her well. She was known for trying to find the positive or worth in every situation. Belle smiled and nodded.

Then she saw the professor put more information on the board. Belle copied it down

SPOILER!!: more notes!

* Four of each, one of each suit.
Pages - messages/messengers
Knights - movement/trips
Queens - creators
Kings - Mangers/Organization

After she copied them down, she heard the professor saying they could use partners for this card exercise. Belle got up and went to find a person to partner with.

Ella had been taking notes on the particular points Professor Elwood presented as well as some interesting facts that West shared with the class. Smart kid, West was. The blonde then smiled a little when learning they would be doing their own readings now. The practical parts of lessons were always the most fun in the badger’s opinion.

The three-card reading, that’s what they would be focusing on first. More specifically, reading for the past, present, and future. Ella was interested to see if the cards she picked had an accurate meaning for her life so she decided to work alone. Besides, she didn’t want to totally butcher anyone else’s reading.

First card was to be placed in the past spot which was on the left. The blonde picked at random and when she had a card, she glanced over at her textbook to see what it meant. Hmmm.

The Hanged Man.

This was the card that Ella placed down in the past position and the one she tried to apply to her own history. After reading the story and interpretation, the blonde’s green eyes grew a little wide. The Hanged Man was said to be in a sort of trap, caught between the future and the past, unmoving. Ella had sort of felt that way right after her mom left. She was dealing with all the things from that but knew that there were better times to come, yet they hadn't happened yet. The blonde scribbled this down and continued reading on.

This card was also said to mean selflessness and sacrifice. Ella bit her lip and nodded her head while skimming the text. This actually made a lot of sense too. The fifteen year old had sort of had to take on the mom role to her little brother as she was the oldest child and her Dad was off at work a lot during the summer. That could be considered selflessness and sacrifice in that some of her childhood had been sacrificed.

... WHAT.

BLINK. BLINK. BLINK.

Alec furrowed his eyebrows slightly as he listened to what the Professor was saying. There was a lot of information being given out and... he couldn't really register all of it. Bits and pieces did stick out to him, though, the bits that seemed to be the most important. His eyes flew to the board once it was mentioned and... he smiled slightly. Yeah... this was starting to make a bit more sense now. Just a bit. He bent his head slightly and started scribbling away as the Professor continued talking.

Scribble... scribble... scribble...

Zodiac signs... hey, his one was a Hufflepuff! GRIN.

Scribble... scribble... scribble...

Okay. Wait... what? His head snapped back up and he blinked at the Professor. Oh... they could partner up? And pick out cards and explain them to the person they were working with and then place it down in the past/present/future section? That was what she had said, right? Nodding to himself, Alec scribbled down the last little bits before placing his quill down and looking around the classroom. He needed a partner... someone who wouldn't mind working with someone who... well... someone like him.

... BELLE!

GRIN. "Belle!" he called to the older girl, waving his hand a bit at her, "Erm... do you want to partner up with me?" Unless she was going to go and partner up with someone else... How awkward would that be?

Jory wrote as fast a s he could, taking down notes as Professor Elwood spoke. "Think I'll work on this solo,'' he thought. Right, so they had to randomly select three cards and apply them to their past, present and future.

"Here we go.'' He shuffled the cards once again and then drew one from the middle. "The Devil,'' the badger muttered. "Uh oh. Does this mean something evil or something?'' He placed the card to the left position which signaled the past and consulted his text book.

But he was wrong."It means being honest with yourself,'' Jory murmured. "What do you desire, what makes you feel powerful and will help you reach your highest goals?'' Now to relate this to his past.

He certainly knew what he had desired in the past and even until now. When he had just started primary school, he wasn't good at school work. Sometimes he got low marks or grades. But soon after, he became tired of disappointing his parents and had made up his mind to work hard from that moment.One could say he had become obsessed with improving, visiting the library more often and cutting back on his football and cricket games. He had desired that, all right. It had been his only goal. And it had worked from then on up until now! "Being able to keep up the hard work certainly is rewarding but it never made me feel powerful,'' the Puffer thought. But it will certainly help him achieve his goals. Being honest with himself back then had certainly helped.

Ethan listened while the professor lectured for a bit, not really feeling the need to take notes just yet. The same information was basically in the text book and they had done tarot readings in his third year at Beauxbatons. So he was somewhat familiar with it.

Until she spoke on the connection between the suits and the four Hogwarts houses.. that was remotely interesting. Not that he necessarily felt the need to write it down though.. And funny that his zodiac sign matched up with the Ravenclaw suit too.

He listened to the instructions for their practical assignment, then turned to Minerva sitting next to him. "Would you like me to do your reading?" he asked with a small grin.

Most of the information about suits and each of them having a face card was nothing new to Eliza, since she'd played with muggle cards before, but there being 78 of these tarot cards did complicate things a bit. She took down notes about certain areas that interested her. Specifically the idea that each of the suits could be related to a Hogwarts house. Once the professor went on to explain how they could each be linked to an element too, it made more and more sense that the houses would apply as well. Then when she mentioned the zodiac signs, in accordance with their own element relation, she discovered that her sign was under the Cups suit, aka Slytherin. Well that's weird, but i guess everything can't always match up. Being a Pisces and all, she really was sure she was a good match for a water sign. I guess I do flow with the situation usually...but in tangible applications, I much prefer Earth, or Wind. Both together actually. Well and water too. The beach sounds lovely right now, she thought as her mind drifted.

Oh, but back to the reading. I guess this is all sort of personal so maybe I'll just do my own for now. Unless someone really needs a partner, then they can grab me. Either way! she thought as she spread her cards again. There I go, acting like a water sign again. Flexible 'ol self.

She reached for the cards and plucked one at random and flipped it over. Five of Pentacles. Okay... She flipped through her book to find the explanation. So this is my Past card and it says...there's a poor couple that needs help, but won't ask for it. It's about loss and poverty and bad luck... And it also has to do with society and what it approves of. Being outside of the church, the couple chose to do what they thought was right no matter what society said. Disapproval...hard times...struggle... But they still had each other. She paused to think about all of that and how it might apply to her past. It didn't take her long at all. Well, that could be about my parents of course. Mom is from America, Dad from England and Merlin knows neither of their parents were too thrilled about it. Especially Dad's. But then again Mom's didn't want them to live in England, so far away... Yeah, this definitely, er I mean, if this is real at all, is about my parents and their struggle to stay together despite the social expectations. Mhm. She set the card down and went to choose another.

Hmm, a tarot reading? Should he do it by himself or with a friend? Mo spread out his deck of cards on his desk top face down, tapping the tops of them with a fingertip until he reached one near the middle. Just playing a little game of chance here...

Queen of Wands.

His face crumpled very briefly before Mo leaned waaaaay out and tapped Alice on the top of her hand. Flashing the card at her, he informed her very solemnly, "My cards say we should be partners. See? This is your card right here."