(Lmao It’s okay, I got a good laugh out of it!)
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Gwen soothed, suddenly worried for Marla. This prophecy stuff seemed like taxing magic, and the girl beside her seemed too kindhearted to pry apart the future’s bloody jaws each day. “Like I said earlier, you’re brave enough already.”
(Lol I'm glad for that, at least)
Marla let out a tiny snort. "I appreciate the sentiment, but I still disagree. Thank you, though. Reading the Tarot… It's terrifying to read a correct fortune, especially when some of the more malevolent cards are turned over. Especially….." When it's your own fortune. Marla shuddered, trailing off. "Let's just say that you don't want to draw Death."
“That makes sense.” Gwen replied, giving Marla a disapproving look for her self-depreciating comments. “Death usually isn’t a good guy.”
“Mm, to say the least.” Marla quieted for a moment, remembering… Then she was shaking herself out of her reverie, fixing a bright smile back onto her face. “Tell me a little about what you do.”
“I hate to say it, but it’s not that interesting.” Gwen shrugged. “Our Professor is pretty good about giving out assignments based on magic abilities. There are a few light benders in the class, so they get extended time or paired with a grower with with magic as a group deal.” She explained. “I like the class and everything, I’m just more excited for what I want to do after college, I guess.”
“Right, makes sense.” Marla gave a smile. “What do you want to do after uni?”
“Wildlife conservation. Probably get shipped off to a National Park somewhere and live like a creepy old hermit.” She shrugged. “That probably sounds super weird, I know.”
“To be honest, living as a hermit on a nature reserve sounds like a pretty sweet deal,” she answers honestly, though laughter danced in her eyes.
“Ah! Someone gets it!” Gwen beamed at Marla. “I know I said this already, but man did I pick the right girl to body slam on my way to class!”
Marla, a hopeless wreck in front of any cute girl, ever, flushed night pink again. She was beaming though, brushing hair out of her face. “To be fair, it was me who did the body-slamming— Sorry about that— but I’m very happy we did.”
“It’s all good. My skull is pretty thick.” Gwen joked, adjusting her bag strap on her shoulder.
Marla snorted again, covering her mouth to trap an embarrassing fit of giggles. After what seemed to be much too soon, they arrived back at Treetop, still chatting amiably.
Marla cleared her throat, giving Gwen a bashful smile. “I’ll see you around, I guess? Text me too, if you want to, I mean.”
“Will do!” Gwen smiled warmly, getting out her keycard to scan herself into the building. “I’ll probably text you when I’m bored after class.” She admitted, a bit sheepish about it.
“Alright, sounds good.” Marla raised a hand in farewell, taking a step back. “See you around, Gwen.”
“See ya!” Gwen offered up a wave as she entered the building, cradling the plant pot in her arms.
(Skip?)
(Yeah sounds good!)
(to when? I can start, btw)
(I’m so sorry I keep vanishing! It’s been a busy day! And maybe at the very end of the day?)
(dw about it, how're you? sure, and sorry to keep bombarding you with questions, but are they just going to bump into each other again? or just text?)
(I’m good! You probably don’t remember this since it’s been like six months, but I still work with horses every Saturday. How’re you doing today? And yeah, they can text, I can’t see Gwen being social after a long day of classs.)
(Ah that’s so cool, how were the horses? Sorry I don’t remember 😬
Sorry I haven’t been on since yesterday afternoon, I was throwing up and stuff, so I didn’t come on
Makes sense, I can relate to Gwen lol
Ah okay I had this long segment planned out but now I’m too tired to write it, give me a couple minutes, sorry
(They were good! And I wouldn’t expect you to remember lol. Don’t apologize for not being on! Your health always comes first. I hope you’re feeling a bit better today! But please get some rest.)
Thank you <3
I know I’m taking forever, I keep trying to type this up but it’s not coming out like I intended, do you mind if I took a bit to respond to other rps? I’m sorry
(I don’t mind! I’d rather you take the extra time have have what you wanted rather than something forced.)
Thanks, British
Won’t happen again
Honestly don’t worry if it does, we all have those days sometimes!))
(Yeah I guess)
The sun had begun to set by the time Marla got home from her classes, casting long shadows across the floor. Everything was bathed in a dying golden light— except, of course, the cards spread across the floor in front of her. Her roommate had gone off with her significant other, and as soon as the door had closed behind her, a deadly music had sounded from beneath her bed, beckoning her, calling her. She’d had no choice but to retrieve the dusty purple velvet satchel and remove the cursed deck; she knew what would happen if the cards were neglected.
Five of them now sat facedown on the floor by her criss-crossed legs, their jewelled backs unaffected by both light and shadow, glinting dangerously like the eyes of a feral beast in the dark. And they were beautiful, she had to admit, what with their almost stained-glass design, painted in vivid hues of blood-red, deep blue, and plum, but they were not to be trifled with. Misuse of an older deck such as this was dangerous, even deadly, and so Marla’s fingers trembled as they grazed the top of the leftmost card.
Marla turned it over, the card much heavier than expected. The Fool winked back at her, offering up its secondary meaning: reckless choices, folly, wasted energy. She bit the inside of her cheek, a spark of fear igniting within her.
Next, her fingers hovered over the card beside, hesitant as they flipped it. Justice. At least she’d drawn one potentially positive card..
Marla moved to the middle card, but for some reason, her hand refused to turn it over. Her heart rate sped up; this would not turn out well. But she moved on to the next, attempting to distract herself from her mounting dread. The Hanged Man swayed from his noose, soulless eyes drilling into her. She clenched her jaw, her hand beginning to tremble. Sacrifice and missed opportunities were evidently to come..
The fourth card, farthest to the right gave off such an unearthly glow that she knew what it was going to be before she turned it over. The Moon, only in its purest, most dangerous form. Marla began to panic, fingers drifting back to the card in the middle as of drawn by magnetism, the only card still facedown. A tiny whimper escaped her lips as she flipped it onto its back— and her heart stopped.
The dark figure of Death stared back up at her, unmoving, unrelenting.
(Finally done! Keep in mind that I have no idea how Tarot cards work and am making most of this up
Could Gwen text her now?)
(Okay that was literally art and completely worth the wait)
Gwen suffered through her classes and the evident boredom that always came with them. The best moment occurred as she showed her orchid to her shocked professor. The worst, however, happened a few moment later when she got into a spat with a rose bush.
At the moment Gwen sat in her room, her left arm wrapped up due to all the thorns that had previous been removed from her arm. She stared blankly at her phone.
To text or not to text. That is the question. She thought, debating on contacting Marla. Did she want to? Yes. But did she know how to start a conversation? Nope.
She eventually summoned the courage to do so. Unsure of how to start without seeming lame, she snapped a photo of her arm and sent it with the message. “Guess who got beaten up today?”
She froze after she hit send, adding a “This is Gwen btw” and groaning aloud at her own stupidity.
(Ahhhh thank you
asdfghjkl I love Gwen so much)
A loud ding cut through the dread that was practically overflowing from Marla. Dazed, she blinked, searching for the source of the sound. Her eyes were drawn to her phone, and perplexed, she moved to pick it up. But something stopped her, a magnetic force turning her head to face the cards again. Death. A snippet of the morning’s vision flashed through her mind. She shuddered, but squared her shoulders and sent the card the fiercest glare she could muster before breaking the spell and unlocking her phone.
It was a picture and a text from none other than Gwen— her lips had the audacity to curve upwards into the shape of a smile, even in this situation.
MARLA: Ouch, what happened? You okay?