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.
Name: "Civil Servant" IFF/ID: The Platform Encryption access: Custom Location: Bruchsal base Subject: Decks
"Four, you show more than just imagination, what words I will give do not mean overstepping what you've experienced... But no matter the context, you've come to me for a different perspective... I then will share.
"You have played a lot of cards, more than anyone else, and you still have one remaining in your hand... The ideas placed in these new fabrications is defined by the dream too, and dreams are made up by our mind reorganizing our interpretations into something barely perceivable. But in this age of Sirius, your mind can never truly be alone, even when one sleeps.
If the world changes around you when you play, listen to your the players like Death and the fairy are certain within this reality, potentially meaning more to your situation, but maybe you should begin understanding on how you perceive these participants. Dreams like these are not easy to remember, you are not just an observer, you an active player whom can make decisions within the rules of the realm.
Strauss is... an outlier, a solid manifestation too familiar for 'normal' dreams. He tells you the groundwork to those of an unknown Arcana and seems to take pleasure in your continued investments. If one card shook him only for a moment to sing his true song, then you should consider the cards he's played, and what they show him to be in both upright and mirrored-down. A lot of it shows leaving old worlds, forming the future in the extremes, beware if you decide to trust him to shape what you know and act on. I don't sleep with the most villainous beast haunting my mind constantly at night, even ones whom my instincts pilot me to terminate... but these days it's hard to find yourself being the sole voice in your dreams.
You have played a lot of cards, more than anyone else, and you still have one remaining in your hand... The ideas placed in these new fabrications is defined by the dream too, and dreams are made up by our mind reorganizing our interpretations into something hardly recognizable during its process. I know the cards provide a basis of motive, but their true meaning only becomes intertwined with those that they read from.
I'll never know the true worth or purpose of these cards and I won't write that story for you, either it's already enscribed or has yet to be written... but I will comment as this game sees cards going in all directions, up and down, to beware the mirror meanings. My judgement thinks the idea of a scorched earth to begin anew within the "Ascent" that should concern you, that was in your hand and now it's been played... What did you leave behind, and was it worth it to you?
And the "Blades"... Know your path within the life you're in, might conqers, but it will embolden only what is left behind. Be it in the person, or the ash left in the toil. Being told the the strongest survives is a tale as older than Humanity in Sirius, I on the other hand think those that fail to adapt willingly will find themselves conquered, or removed from the equations in total. We sit on a very turbulent moment in Sirius, hanging like Damocles blade, hidden beyond what most see through state guidelines and numb corporate ideals.
These hands are both cards and chips at the same time, the rules of the realm...? Not so clear. You're only seeing the result of what hand is played. Maybe you'll want to hold onto that hand for a little longer, the cards don't seem equal, you're placing more into that pot than everyone else... Or maybe it is the card you are supposed to keep, all that is you, is in there.
But should you trust my judgement? Depends if you value the cradle of a 'worthwhile life' being played for the games pot... Or what it'll cost you to win it, even if you intend to 'win'? If the universe, creation and the entire purpose of our temporal realm is to fall into the hands of one person... I would ask are they worth that power?
So, a small common commander of the Platform has insight into things most people would regard into the art of a mystical 'street-urchin', or do you consider my eyes worth the talk and time without currency...
Speaking of currency, 'One' wanted these deliveries. They're sitting in my haulers cargo hold right now, lots of medical equipment and questionably strong elixers, fresh from the undiluted masses of cryer wholesale shipments. Where does he want them, I saw there was a rather butcherous junker breakers yard in Omega-55 when I spoke to him earlier...? Does he still wish for these?
Regards - "Civil Servant"
Cell of the 'Damnatio Memoriae'
Perseverance in desperation
Well, in the case with the Ascent card, when I played it, Strauss asked me if he had "ever told me what it takes to become a god?" The only thing that really changed at that time was I started putting together how the game works. I had decided that I was going to beat him at the game. Not sure what would possibly be left behind by that, I'd think it would have to be something else.
Come to think of it, what Strauss said about winning the game was that the winner would "become the god of the new reality", and "become the template on which the universe is rebuilt". My response was that if that was the case, and if I was representing natural selection because of the Blades card, then I had already won. Natural selection is the law of life. If you aren't the most equipped to survive, you don't survive, and you cease to exist. All he had to say back was something about philosophy and how I can now truly start playing the game.
I haven't gone back to the dream yet. I don't really feel the need, I haven't made any really big change in the world, so I don't think I'd have a card to play, and listening to Strauss is gimping yourself no matter how you spin it. Even if he's telling the truth, he's probably lying.
Also, I'll check in with One. I'm sure he's got a whole bunch of plans for medical equipment. As long as he doesn't make me haul them.
Name: "Civil Servant" IFF/ID: The Platform Encryption access: Custom Location: Bruchsal base Subject: Decks
"Four... Four of blades... Take my words as concern, for you and those around you. You likely see weakness in my care, I imagine it won't get me far in a family like yours. I wouldn't personally like to be a part of it, mostly from what I've heard from 'One'. But I don't mind the dialogue we share... For now.
"To become a god... It's a familiar temptation, I would be careful if I were you, some organizations decree such a status a dangerous to the stability of all. I can't support your ambitions in this dream, but in my heart for the people around me, I wouldn't want you to lose yourself. I always ask to those who seize it is... 'What then?'
"It's always the eternal question I ask, and to become a template for the rest of the Void to thrive off. In my honesty, even I wouldn't wish myself to be the template to define the rest of eternity? To be an all seeing eye over the oblivious and fearful society? Only to perpetuate the horrors you fought to cease onto every temporal position or maybe just carve everything into something else on how you see fit, like an icarus-cycle in this life full of hard lessons...
"The blades, they stand alone, and therefore this will take the throne of existence and be the basis of everything, not matter how you try to shape it. But would you enjoy it for anything more than the moment of conquest of over Strauss, existence, and the Void? Because I see satisfaction in a enslaved Void harvested and built from, and to forever be, pain and blood.
"Natural selection means more than just our limited view of superiority In this linear realm, we least have the dignity to separate our capable minds beyond the aspects of animalistic ideals of 'progress', sometimes these alternatives branches speak volumes for finding ones self satisfaction. I think I've found my peace being capable as a helping caretaker... Instead of dictating over the rules of the Void and others, things seem easier when you're capable of working with the Void, rather than bend her to your will.
"But do not consider me naive and gentle because of my defence of what is good. Because in my hands, I would have dropped the cards, and cut the spine of Strauss in half, to release that shell of its haunted spirit... I don't pander to those who act like 'gods and masters', let alone those who have corruptive ambitions to our 'Ace of Pentacles'.
"For the sake of your next dream, I hope you win yourself... Rather than the game winning you."
Regards - "Civil Servant"
Cell of the 'Damnatio Memoriae'
Perseverance in desperation
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