tampered | Log; Ongoing

When; Friday, October 23, in the afternoon
Rating; PG for potential language
Characters; Angela [

moresake]
Summary; Angela goes for a bit of psychic entertainment at Yuuko's place and gets more than she bargained for.
Log;

Lunchtime is meant to spent around food, not getting predictions via a water bowl. But Angela regularly bucks the right and proper trend, so she slips out of the hospital and follows the curving lines on her self-made map during her lunch break that won't be spent in the cafeteria. She can eat in her office like she does every other day anyway. Right now, she has more important things to tend to.

Where the lines lead is right up to the edge of a part of Xanadu she hasn't had a chance to explore. If she had been there before, the Victorian-styled house that stands in front of her would have definitely made its mark on the artistic part of her. There would have been no way she would ever forget that type of classic architecture in such a modern city. The size of the house isn't tiny, but not giant either. Just right, to be exact. Business must be good for this psychic.

Angela quickly climbs the steps on the porch and lightly presses the doorbell, ready to hear what Yuuko has to tell her.

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Yuuko waits to answer the door until the doorbell actually rings. It is her roommate's parlor trick to answer beforehand (for he is a seer too), but as she always tells him, she thinks it's rude.

She's dressed for the occasion in an elaborate kimono of riotous color. She always thinks that presentation is important, especially for something like this. The red in the kimono matches the red of her lipstick, which curves with her broad but rather mysterious smile. I know something you don't, she seems to say, without actually saying it.

She leads Angela into the living room and gestures widely to indicate that she can sit where she likes. On the floor in front of the couch, where there would generally be a coffee table, there is a low bowl of water (http://www.onemanga.com/xxxHolic/1/21/). Yuuko leans down and swirls her fingers in it before sitting down on the couch, looking across at Angela.

"What," she asks, "do you need to know?"

Angela nods a greeting when the door opens and waits until Yuuko turns her back to wrinkle her nose at the strange odor that permeates the air inside the house. Must be some weird incense.

"How much is this going to cost me?" is the first thing Angela asks as she glances around the heavily-curtained room before settling into a single chair. She could have just jumped into the meeting with the more important questions, but like Angela mentioned, she's not willing to hand over her life's savings, no matter how curious she is.

Yuuko laughs, lounging back against the couch. "The most important question," she drawls out. "The price depends on what you need to know. The contract between the fortuneteller and the client must be an equal exchange."

She shuts her eyes for a long moment, and then opens them again, staring. Sometimes it is possible to see a little, even without knowing certain things about the client; the price of their wish is invariably one of these things. "You paint," she said. "That can be sufficient. Will that work for you?"

"I can do that." It's not cash money which seems odd to Angela and it's something that comes in easy supply. The fact that Yuuko knows she paints isn't odd either since Angela has said she was an artist on the network more than a handful of times and Angela just chalks her knowing up to simple network research.

"Can you tell me how my friends are? I just want to know if they're okay," she asks, concern tinging her words. Her fingers wind patterns around each other and it's the only outward sign of the anxiety that's building up inside Angela. Ever since they left, she can't help but wonder if that time stopping theory is true.

Yuuko nods. She leans forward, drawing a magical array from her sleeve, and slips it into the water, swirling it around again so the array floats and spins slowly. A very concentrated wind arises, whipping through her hair without really disturbing the rest of the room. Her voice is far-away when she responds.

"Difficult choices," she says. "Belief is quite powerful, and quite dangerous."

When the wind start ups, a little creeped out is the best way to describe Angela's reaction. Her eyes dart around the room, looking for the hidden wind machine that has to be around somewhere. She's had readings before, but none with a wind that leaves everything but the client and the reader untouched.

"Um..." Angela hesitates after failing to find the source of the special effects, "okay. And that means what exactly?"

Yuuko shakes her head. "I can't tell you that. You can't afford it."

She leans forward, considers the array again. It shines, without any apparent external source of light, and Yuuko's eyes glow in the reflection.

"It's not yours, you see. But what else is here... Angela Montenegro... That isn't your birth name, I see." She grins momentarily. "A good practice, a layer of protection." Then she trails into business mode again. "You're in love with someone, but he isn't the person that you're promised to. That situation will resolve itself in an unusual manner. Second time isn't the charm, I'm afraid. Hold tight to yourself, not to others. There's no telling whether they will return to the City, even by stretching my powers."

She breaks the surface of the water, then, and everything stops-- the wind, the glow, the distant look in her eyes. When she looks up, she's grinning again. "You didn't believe in magic, because you've never seen it done. You should know that the world-- especially this one-- is much larger than it appears."

Angela's rearing up to inform Yuuko just what she can afford when the name business is dropped like a hot rock. Holy hell, it's the private investigator situation all over again, only this time there are no ex-girlfriends for Yuuko to find that out from.

"I'll admit, you're good. Nobody here knows that." She's rather impressed at that tidbit of information only to get sent back into a state of anxiety with the rest of the reading. Second time isn't the charm? Second time as in second marriage? Yuuko hit on the fact that maybe Angela is in love with somebody she isn't promised to, but what goes under the heading of 'unusual manner'?

"Well, you can't really blame me for it when I got sawed in half five nights a week for a paycheck in the name of magic." Angela drags her hand through her hair, not at all happy with the news that Yuuko can't tell her if she'll be stuck here alone for much longer or not. The potential end of the reading is serving to confuse Angela more than how she was when it began. "Is that it? You're done?"

Edited 2009-10-24 02:46 (UTC)

"Stage magic," Yuuko says, waving a hand, "is certainly not what I do. And yes, that's all. The ability to see out of this dimension is very limited by the magic of this place. The last time I had a clear reading, I was using both the full moon and accompanying someone with even greater powers than I have."

She smiles a little, still, reclining against the couch and picking up the elaborate pipe resting on the couch arm. She preps it, eyes on the object, as she continues, "The future is a very elusive thing. But there is hitsuzen. What must happen, will happen. You can count on that... Angela."

"Then maybe I should come back on a full moon when you have your friend?"

It's not so much a question of whether she should or not, but more if she can. Angela's been bitten by the knowledge bug and it's only a matter of time before she gets addicted to these roundabout answers to her direct questions because, after all, any answer is better than no answer.

"I'll call you later about the painting or you can call first," she says as she digs inside her purse and comes up with business card for Yuuko, a wary eye on the peculiar pipe, "By the way, I officially have no idea what the hell hitsuzen is."

If she didn't find out anything else today, at least Angela now knows the source of the smell from earlier. Somehow, she's not surprised things like that are available in the City.

"You could try," she says, lighting the pipe, "but that was, itself, a special occasion, and done from utmost need, due to concern about alternate worlds. We paid the price then, ourselves."

She takes the business card, her painted fingernails brushing Angela's skin, and she says, "Hitsuzen means a predestined happening. As I said, what must happen, will happen. It is a state in which all other possible futures are no longer possible. Those are the things that I see."

"And," she says, blowing smoke, still grinning, "I see that we will meet again, so I should give a name." Not my name, Angela might notice. "Yuuko Ichihara. Until then, keep well."

Log; Ongoing

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