Oddity Specialist: Manifestor
Page 3
She points at the last person that left the table, who is currently on the phone.
“They got a fortune, that their career would have a problem and are currently being fired.”
“Um, okay.”
Her wide open, piercing eyes turn towards Quinn.
“How did she know?”
“I don’t know, but if it’s an oddity we can have Lucifer check it out.”
“Already have.”
Lucifer says leaning over the back of the bench.
“I can’t sense a thing coming off of them.”
“That can’t be right. How else could she be getting the fortunes correct?”
“Luck, deduction, both. I’ve seen exactly seven fortune tellers who faked it with those two traits. That did a convincing job, that is. Of course, there was one who could do it without luck.”
His demeanor shifts, as he says the last part of the sentiment.
“But...”
Her attention goes back to the fortune teller.
“If it’s not an oddity, then it’s not really in our jurisdiction.”
Quinn notices that she seems down.
“Hey, how about we head over and get that food now?”
“...Yeah, okay.”
They start walking over to the food court. Then Neri stops walking, holding a somber expression. Quinn looks back, then gives a smile.
“You want to investigate?”
She nods her head.
“Then let’s go.”
Neri begins to smile brightly, then starts walking at a fast pace away from here.
“Come on!”
“You had to excite her.”
Lucifer says.
“She seems a lot happier now though.”
“I suppose, you have a point.”
They head back to the office and begin combing over files. It gets to the point where Quinn heads off and brings food back. Neri continues looking over things as she eats. Hours continue to go by, until.
“Found something.”
Neri gets up from her desk and the two head back to the mall.
“Hello.”
The long haired, blond girl, adorned in blue fortune teller attire, looks up.
“Hi, would you like your fortune told?”
“No.”
Neri takes a seat.
“But I would like to have a conversation with you.”
The girl gets a bit nervous.
“I um, am very busy, but if it won’t take too long-”
“It won’t.”
“...Okay then.”
“I’m assuming, you think, that I think, you’re able to predict the future.”
“Perhaps.”
“I can see why you would think that, since I’m sure I’m not the first person to come by. However, the fact you don’t know what I am actually going to say, means you can’t see the future.”
“...What is it, you are going to say.”
“Those cards don’t predict the future. They change the future.”
The girl’s green eyes open wide. Neri continues.
“It didn’t make sense any other way. The future has far too many variables to be able to predict, without something more then a simple trick. How could cards do that? They couldn’t. Not enough information. However, they could mark someone with something that would make the fortune happen.”
“You know about these things as well?”
Neri’s smile shifts into a confused look.
“As well?”
“As you can see-”
She motions to herself.
“-I am a fortune teller.”
“…What?”
“The paranormal, forces beyond our normal reality, I tap into them.”
Neri strains herself in order to keep her expression unmoving.
“Let’s skip over that for now.”
Quinn says, before continuing.
“We’re interested in that deck of yours. Could you allow us to examine it?”
“…I would, but…”
“What is it?”
Neri asks.
“It’s not normal, I fear that it has been cursed. A curse, you would not want placed upon you, as well.”
“Meaning, it cursed you?”
She gives a nervous nod.
“Yes, I am afraid so.”
“How did that happen?”
The young woman looks away, then taps her index fingers together.
“About that.”
“Yes?”
“I saw that the fortunes I told with this deck where coming true and I thought, maybe I should read my own fortune.”
“…How did that go for you?”
A fearful look spreads across the woman’s face.
“It was different. Two of them where normal, slave and death, the other two were not.”
“What where the other two?”
“It said I had to tell ten fortunes a day, or die. Since then, I did as instructed, but…”
“But what?”
She struggles to get the words out.
“The fortunes had started out as being good, but now they are almost all bad and getting worse.”
“I see.”
Neri thinks on this information for a moment.
“Quinn.”
“Got it.”
He looks over to Lucifer, who is currently looking at dispenser.
“Uh-huh.”
Lucifer walks over and picks the deck up.
“w-What? You have psychic powers?!”
She looks at Quinn with sparkling eyes.
“Close enough.”
Lucifer keeps looking over it, examining it from different angles.
“Well?”
“I can’t sense a thing. However, it obviously is tied to an oddity of some type, going off the story we heard. Meaning, you were right.”
He places it back down. Neri turns back to the girl and in a serious manner asks.
“Who gave you this deck?”
“…It was a woman, who entered into my shop for a reading. After I gave the reading, she gave me this deck and told me to use it, because it had special powers. Sensing that it had spiritual energy, I decided to give it a go and well, you know what comes next.”
Neri gives a questioning look to Lucifer.
“Yes, yes, if I can’t sense something, obviously no one else could either. Anything short of an expert, at least.”
“Can you give us more information on the woman?”
“She came in late at night, right before closing time. She was wearing a black veil that kept herself mostly covered. I did catch a glimpse underneath it. Her skin was bronzed. She was wearing a silky, shoulder-less, white dress. She also had this pendant on, where a large sun symbol sat at the end of a pearl necklace. Honestly, they were dressed really oddly.”
The trio simultaneously look down, examining over the oddly dressed woman.
“This didn’t send up red flags?”
Quinn asks.
“Not particularly, a lot of my customers can be, rather eccentric.”
“Did it look like they had on a cap or crown under their veil?”
“Now that you mention it, I think so, yes.”
Neri looks at the symbol on the back of the cards. A blue background, with white markings. A dragon’s body circles around the sun, that morphs into a cornucopia letting loose golden coins, that drop onto a scale. The scale is balanced, with the moon on the other side. Each coin has simplistic ship wheel on them.
“What did this woman say about these cards?”
“A fortune teller, needs cards that can deliver people’s fortunes.”
“Okay.”
Neri turns to Lucifer.
“Is this Tyche, slash Fortuna?”
Lucifer side eyes the girl.
“Seems that way.”
“Okay, well, we have a culprit.”
“You mean, the goddess of luck?”
The fortune teller asks. Quinn
thinks to himself. “Ah, of course. Fortuna, fortune, luck, I get it. Still have no idea who this is.”
“Yes.”
“w-Wow, the goddess of luck, taking an interest in me. My skills must be world class then?!”
“Tell her right now, that it’s coincidently and only happened because she was in this town.”
“That seems mean.”
“I want more then mean, crush her spirit, make her cry if you can.”
“Hmm, I’m good.”
“Tsk.”
“Wait, so you mean that even other oddities, that have a similar status as you, would seek out your power?”
Neri asks. Quinn watches the fortune teller, as she watches Neri. “Should we be discussing this here?”
“Of course they would be interested in my power. There is a reason I tend to stick inside of hell.”
He pauses, then begins to glare at the girl.
“Also, never compare me to any run of the mill oddity that calls itself a god. I’m beyond the mere conception of godhood, I am the concept of conception itself. A god of gods.”
“Wouldn’t king of gods be more accurate?”
“...”
“Going silent means I’m right.”
Quinn sees the irritated look in Lucifers eyes, as he turns around. “She catches on fast.”
“Anyways, we have figured out who did this, now we need the why and how?”
“Why is obvious.”
Lucifer states. He then patiently waits upon the detectives words, judging each one.
“They want to use the collected energy here, in order to boost their own power. More accurately, they use the power boost to create a situation that will elevate their power, on a more long-term basis.”
“...Likely correct.”
“Umm-”
The fortune teller begins to speak. She looks a little bashful, as she does.
“-I find this whole thing fascinating, but I need to tell one more fortune today, or I’ll die. So, if we could, maybe save this for a bit later.”
“If you tell another fortune, another human being could be hurt.”
“...I know...”
She seems rather down now.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else I could do to solve the problem. I was scared...”
“That’s okay, we’re here now. I promise, we will solve this.”
“...Thank you, that – sniff – makes me feel much better.”
She holds back her tears.
“Oh, by the way. I’m Neri and this is Quinn. What’s yours?”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Molly.”
Neri nods her head, then begins to think.
“A moment, if you will.”
Quinn says to Molly, while also somewhat directing it at Neri.
Quinn and Neri take some distance.
“Hm? What’s up?”
“What’s the plan?”
“Oh, that. I don’t know.”
“Huh.”
“I think we need to study Fortuna and special items. Figure out what the deck is doing. Then we can come up with a counter.”
“Okay, but we don’t have a ton of time.”
“You’re right. We can take Molly with us to the office. Do our research, then have her use her last fortune telling for the day.”
“That seems, fine, but if we don’t figure it out in that time.”
“We would be in a very bad situation. However-”
“We can’t let an innocent person get involved.”
“Right.”
“Even with that plan, we still need a backup, just in case.”
“A back up? Okay, let me think.”
Quinn let’s her think, as he himself thinks it over. “Something that could work, even not knowing what the details of the situation are. Not knowing the parameters. Actually, we do have some of the perimeters, right? That means we could come up with a working hypothesis.”
“Maybe, a working hypothesis would work?”
“Mh-hmm, that would work. If that’s the case, let’s work under the impression that the cards imprint something onto the target, that triggers the fortune to come true.”
“Like what type of thing?”
“Well, what have we seen attach itself to something.”
Quinn thinks it over.
“Ghosts and specters.”
“Exactly.”
“Those can be starved out, or have a condition met to undo it.”
“The condition in this case, would be triggering the fortune to happen.”
“Then one way to trigger it, would be to have the fortune come true, but in a less destructive way.”
“Sure, worse case scenario, we will work under that perception.”
“I mean, that seems like a good solution, if it’s correct.”
“It could be better.”
The confidence in Neri’s voice, leaves Quinn little choice, but to acquiesce to her decision.
“Okay.”
The two take Molly back to the office, then begin researching. “It’s a really good thing, that Neri’s first action, was to familiarize us with the organizing of the place.”
Quinn spends his time mostly grabbing material for Neri to look over. Once in a while, having a moment to look over something himself.
“Got it.”
Neri says, sitting at the long table, covered in files, in the reception room. The tense Molly, and the faking a nap Lucifer’s attentions are grabbed.
“What is it?”
“We were close, as is.”
“Okay?”
“Each card has an oddity called a Misfortune Specter attached to it. These specters then are attached to the person who receives the reading. They then go onto make the reading a reality. It fakes out people, into thinking that the fortunes are real.”
“But why?”
Quinn asks. Neri is about to answer, but Lucifer does first.
“Because human belief powers oddities. If enough people believe that Fortuna has power over time, the more it becomes real. She’s looking to expand her domain, while increasing her power of luck.”
“I see.”
Quinn states, before asking a follow up question.
“What would a specialist do in this situation?”
“Stop her.”
Quinn gives a hesitant nod, then refocuses in on Neri.
“Your idea of forcing the conclusion of the reading, by having a controlled, less extreme version happen, would work. However, there is a better method, that I figured out.”
Molly looks wowed by the first part of Neri’s sentiment, then amazed by the second.
“That would be?”
Quinn asks.
“We have the opposite of the fortune happen, or at the very least, appear to happen.”
“What would that do?”
Lucifer asks.
“It would cause the people to actively disbelieve the fortune. That belief, would directly affect the specter attached to them. If it’s strong enough, the specter would dissipate. If we could keep the targeted individual away from the unlucky event, that would eventually work as well, but we don’t know if that would result in the specter simply returning back.”
Neri turns her attention to Molly.
“Did any of the readings you gave, seem to not come true, or did a certain cards or cards simply stop working?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Most likely then, there is a fail safe on starving them out. It also implies, that once the job is done, the specters most likely return, even stronger than before. Especially give, that the readings seemed to get harsher as time went on.”
Neri gives a focused, intense look.
“That means the only real option is, to take them down, head on.”
She punches her palm.
“I think I understand what you mean.”
Quinn states.
“Alright.”
The man musters his courage, turning to Moll
y.
“Tell me my fortune.”
“w-Wait a minute.”
Neri states, raising up her hand towards Quinn.
“What?”
“Why should it be you?”
“It has to be one of us two. That already narrows it down, however it clearly shouldn’t be you.”
Neri leans back, knowing where this is going, but yet she still asks.
“Why is that?”
“Because you are going to be better at undoing it then I am. More then that, because of the differences in our physical capabilities, it’s safer for me, in case the fortune causes physical harm. That includes the differences that a certain someone causes me to have. On top of all of that, I believe you have more weak points then I do, in terms of what can be exploited by the Misfortune Specter.”
“Those points are all correct and I came make a couple assumptions on the last one.”
Neri takes a moment, thinking this decision over.
“Very well. If where doing this, I’ll make sure that you aren’t hurt.”
“Of course you will.”
“Ahhh. I can feel a special energy emanating off the two of you, truly incredible the power you share.”
Molly states.
“y-Yeah, sure.”
Quinn says, put off by both the sentiment and the delivery of it. Molly sets up her reading at the smaller table, with Quinn across from her.
“Whenever you are ready, we can begin.”
“I’m ready.”
“Then I will start.”
Molly begins the reading. She starts going over a preamble on spiritual energy and the other world entangled with this one.
“Can we cut to the chase?”
“...If we must.”
She clears her through, then begins placing the cards down.
“These cards in order represent, romance, finances, health and happiness, then finally career. If the card faces you, it’s a positive reading, if not...”
“Negative.”
“Yes. They will also be major and minor arcana cards. These dictate the potency and effect of the read.”
“Understood.”
“From the last few readings I gave, there was always one that was negative in a serious way.”
“Got it.”
“Then I shall begin. First, romance.”
She places her hand over the top card and flips it over.
“Positive, temperance. Should I give my perspective on the reading?”
“No, just move onto the next one.”
“Okay.”
She moves her hand over the next card.
“Finances.”