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The Death tarot card is often misunderstood and feared, primarily due to its name. However, in the upright position, this card signifies not physical death but rather a profound transformation. It represents the end of a significant phase in your life that you recognize is no longer serving you.
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As it turns out, the smell of freedom was rubbing alcohol and febreeze.
I mean, the second we walked into the office, I was hit with it. It kinda reminded me of the morgue. Where I saw r̵̪̂e̵͖̿d̷̝̐a̶̝̎c̵̱͐ṯ̵̊e̴̳̚d̶̰̅'s dead body for the first time. Hwoo, not a good time for me.
I turned to find some lady sitting behind a desk, twirling her hair between her fingers. She chewed pink bubblegum while she scrolled through the blocky desktop computers, her eyebrows furrowed and head rested against her hand. I coughed awkwardly, not sure how to pursue this.
Her eyes shifted up in a mean glare.
"..Can I help you?" She asked, not moving a muscle. I sighed and walked closer to the desk, and propped my elbows on the smooth... marble? Holy shit, I should not be touching this. Marble was like gold from McPoorVille aka where I grew up, Stone Creek.
"We got sent here by Achlys. She said that this place would be able to give us a home?" I said irritably. I didn't like this lady's attitude.
"Ah. I see. Names?" She asked.
Shit. I didn't want some lady to know my name. She could probably access my criminal records. And know I was stealing shit and was supposed to be in Yvinsha, legally. Did I mention that all Stone Creek citizens that'd survived were shipped to Yvinisha and assigned a new life? No? Well, that's what happened.
"I'm, uh, Ko. Ko Nocturne." I lied, silently apologizing to my entire family line.
She raised an eyebrow.
"What about them?" The woman , who had a name tag that read Drew, asked. She rolled back her office chair to point at my friends.
"OH! Uh-" I started, turning to them.
Moon blinked. "I'm, uh, Winter. Winter Berry." He tried, fidgeting nervously.
Pheonix spoke up next. "I'm relevant!"
She turned to the invisible camera. "Enjoy that meta joke."
Let's rerun that. Pheonix, Behave.
Pheonix smiled and raised her hand. "I'm Azamaine Martinez!" She spoke up, waving cutely. Weird. Didn't expect her to have the full alias ready for the taking. Pheonix pointed at Skylar, who was promptly not paying attention.
"And that's my silly little friend, Jazzi Puri!" She introduced. Skylar, who had just come to from what looked like a hard zone-out, waved nervously, smiling awkwardly.
"Y-yeah. That's me!" She stammered. I facepalmed and turned back to the lady, Drew, who looked so done.
"Alright. Let me just run some background checks. You can wait in Achlys' office, since you're her problem now. Oh, and make sure you wreak it extra for me. Her dumbass sister left me on read." Drew declared, waving her hand to the left. As much as I wanted to hear more about this drama, I decided to go into the office instead of pissing Drew off more.
She sighed and turned to her computer, the sound of keyboards clicking filling the room before I shut the door to Achlys' empty office.
I slumped into the chair, too tired to even think.