Public Soothsayer

[Henna Ashina]

AUGURY HOUR | CIRCLE OF SEERS | CORUSCANT JEDI TEMPLE

Doubt colored Henna's vision as she gave a final glance over the holo ad. It was never supposed to be this; her offering for readings had been a strategized recruitment for the seers. The New Jedi Order had always suffered in the scholarly department. As of late, the disparity had grown, the war with the Maw calling to padawans far louder than a library ever could. So it was that she had promised readings to those Jedi who were interested... and half the galaxy.

That part had been at the insistence of Li'ara, the most in touch of her apprentices. The mysteries of the force were not for Jedi alone - or so the twelve year old girl had lectured Master Sarratt. Ashla's guidance belonged even to those who had not been blessed. Henna could not disagree with that wisdom, but she had bartered for Li'ara's attendance in Sentinel theory, and in exchange the young girl could style a post on a light side holo forum.

In her office on Coruscant, Henna sat, clothed in her typical cream and gold robes. Candle flame reflected on the golden trim of the tarot cards as she pulled them out. They had not seen the light of day since her youth, when she used her glances of the future as a party trick in the Hapan Court. Though more traditional then her brethren, Henna's philosophy on the force was far laxer than the Jedi of old. The tarot cards were not even neccesary; but they did offer focus, and looked pretty. So she went to work shuffling the deck as she awaited her first visitor.

An OOC note: I'll be reading fortunes but not going very in depth with any one person - probably just a post or two to have some fun. Feel free to DM if you'd like to return to the temple and make Henna explain what she saw.

 

[Mercy]

Henna Ashina

This was a bad idea. Mercy knew that. You didn't walk into a Jedi Temple as a Sith and lived to see the day. Not if you were alone. Not if the Temple was smackdab in the middle of Coruscant. No, you had to be damn suicidal and then some.

But the heart wants what it wants.

Right now it was so extremely curious about the advertisement it would not hear no for an answer.

A free prophecy! Was that not the coolest thing ever? Mercy figured since it wasa prophecy made by a Jedi it would most likely be at least a little bit lame.

Like.

Eat your vegetables or!

meatmeatmeatmeat. The hivemind wasn't happy. It felt the stirring of all the Jedi... and it knew it was being threatend. Unbeknownstly to Mercy it acted in self-preservation. It swallowed her connection to the Force and to the outside world made her seem normal.

Well... relatively speaking. Still a gargantuan muscular woman with a strange eldritch sleeve tattoo on her right arm. Sunglasses worn in the interior of the Temple. No respect. Even fiddling with a lighter as Mercy casually waited her turn.

Until Henna called her in.

"Sup. Yar the Jedi offering up prophecies?" Mercy grinned and took a chair without asking. "How ya do it? Grab my arm? Shake some animal bones on the plate?"

Mercy peered around.

This place didn't really look mystical.

"Hey, this is the real deal, right? Not some charlatan chit?"

 

[Henna Ashina]

AUGURY HOUR | CIRCLE OF SEERS | CORUSCANT JEDI TEMPLE
Mercy

"People will label me what they desire," Henna greeted the woman. "It concerns me not. The force shows me the truth, no matter how they deny it."

There was a haziness to her visitor. Like oil on troubled waters, her presence shimmered and shifted with each movement. It paled the shock of her appearance, though the rather large ginger had not been what Henna... expected. The master adjusted into the pillows, whilst the deck came to rest on the short table. A gesture invited Mercy to join across.

"Sit, if it pleases you. Or don't."

Cards began to fall without permission. Despite her hesitancy, the woman had come for one purpose, that much was certain. A bit of drama was sprinkled into the master's motion as she laid them face down. One, two, three, four. The circle she placed them in felt natural as she peeked behind the curtains to gaze upon the tapestry of destiny. Time was not always certain when she looked. The past seemed to cross the present as she flipped the first card.

"Nine of sabers, reversed." The cards were painted in the aesthetic of the Tythans, this one show a woman grabbing her face, with sabers pointed at her. "You are lost. You wander with no end. A spiral into madness... one I suspect is near an end. You have found a comfort in struggle, for at least it is familar."

The next flip revealed the present. An elder Je'daii master greeted them upside down.

"The priest, reversed. You blaze your own path despite struggles. There is freedom unknown in breaking from tradition. A card of trailblazers, never known to the meek."

"Judgement." The scene was brutal, a man striking down another. One after another, Henna broke her pattern, revealing another. "The temple."

An umber gaze rose from the cards to meet her guest.

"I may not know your name, but I know you. Callous disregard embraces the chaos it sows. You believe, because of your actions, you are certainly free... yet fail to see they are a direct result of all you've shied from. Even the sword will break under flame should it stay long enough. The fires grow... you have already fed it. Your day of reckoning is upon you, though you still possess the means to reshape it."

An eyebrow raised as her monologue came to an end.

"Still believe me a charlatan?"

 

[Miri Nimdok]

"The cards give answers that are just detailed enough to be easily applicable, but still vague enough to avoid being dismissed as inaccurate."

Miri had entered the room quietly. Listening and observing, she stood a little off to one side with a sleeping newborn nestled in the crook of one arm. Kyell had their other twin. Despite her skepticism, Miri had come here to have her fortune read, if only for the fun of it. At least, that's what she told herself.

"You at least have the Force on your side," she said, taking a seat. "Perhaps your fortunes have greater insight."

Henna Ashina Mercy​

 

[Mercy]

Miri Nimdok | Henna Ashina

She closed her mouth.

"I... well, you are just... it's probably luck." Mercy huffed there as Miri slinksed in and sat down. Yes, Mercy had stayed on her feet, because on the off chance the Jedi figured out she was a Sith? Easier to throw herself out of the window. "Besides, I have been doing better!" Miri seemed to be rather skeptical herself and Mercy found herself nodding.

"Yeah. I haven't beaten the crap out of anyone for no reason in ages, you know." Neither has she murdered someone because their face annoyed her.

"But... yar probably not a charlatan." Eyeing her up and down.

Mercy reached out to lightly tap Miri's shoulder. "Keep yar mouth closed, the Jedi seems to enjoy getting a reaction outta her clientele." And after dispensing that bop of seeming wisdom, she turned on her heels to speed out of that office. It was getting on her nerves. The office, the people in it, her outsized presence that didn't seem to belong in such a small room.

But even then Mercy couldn't stop hearing Henna's words in her head.

And the flicking of cards between her ears.

No matter what else would happen in the near to far future. No matter how long she'd live, how many more people she'd break or be broken by, this moment would always stay with her.

Not all people were made to hear deeper wisdoms like this.

 

[Henna Ashina]

AUGURY HOUR | CIRCLE OF SEERS | CORUSCANT JEDI TEMPLE
Miri Nimdok

Mercy's explosion left Henna hollow. Denial would not change what was fated. The reaction was not unknown, but there was a fervor to the woman's that left a sad expression. One could only hope, with time, she would realize acceptance was the only way of it. Her next guest was greeted with a nod.

"The same could be said for the future itself. A vague paradox, shrouded in mystery." She considered.

Henna's gaze found the bundle in her arms, and her expression only grew more wistful as she began shuffling for another hand. Would that she could glance her own paths and know if motherhood was amongst them. A different spread was laid than before. A simple three card, one of the most common. There was nothing exceptional in the force that caught Henna's attention for this one.

"The empress." The first card featured a woman upon a throne carved of stone. "Independent, and nurturing. No surprise, with the babe. My congratulations."

An intense image came to Henna. A scale, teetering. A grimace formed in the lines of her face as she flipped the next card.

"Eight of Bendus, reversed. There is so much still to do... The crafter toils, but his energy is misdirected, unfocused."

The final card met the candle light.

"Ten of chalices."

Whispers would rise in volume, orange glow flickering as the flame danced. The force was no forthcoming in it's meaning, but Henna prodded, sweet words convincing Ashla like a lover.

"Femininity showers you, wherever you may walk. Your path as a future wife and mother will be a long and prosperous one. Yet there is a challenge you must take up, directly at odds with the life you are building. It will not be forgotten nor cast aside. It must be met, if you are to to find harmony and stability. Those around you will help you, if you can find the strength to ask... but you must be the one to paint the stroke."