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The Final Fantasy Tarot Deck
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| 22 THE FOOL REDUX: Delita Hyral (Final Fantasy Tactics) |
[25 May 2006|12:01am] |
He dreamed he was the conductor for an orchestra of the dead. There were only two people in the audience: a brother and a sister, eating poppy petals and giggling.
He woke on the ground when his chocobo began nudging him. He might have slept for minutes. Or for years.
He dazedly stood up and mounted the creature. He did not feel any pain, though his hands and surcoat were stained red.
He did not look behind him. He knew what he would see.
Instead, he urged his chocobo forward, and they both walked, step by step, into the sunset.
( and this is the end, my friends )
A complete list of the drabbles is available here.
Lemon Jelly, "His Majesty King Raam" (8.7 MB)
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| 21 THE WORLD: Alma Beoulve (Final Fantasy Tactics) |
[24 May 2006|11:59pm] |
Standing there, he can see the jumble of past and future: his death overlying his conquest overlapping his birth.
But she can see her brother.
He watches his thwarted destiny come untangled: the slaughtered sheep, the burning pyres, the bloody altars. This time, things will go as planned. This time, things will be better.
But she can see her brothers: the phosphorescent dead beside the blood-stained living. This time, they stand together.
And he can see them too.
His nerves writhe; his blood slows; his cells revolt. Her resolve thickens; his resurrection flounders.
"Stop that," he says.
"No," she says.
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| KING OF CUPS: Vivi Ornitier (Final Fantasy IX) |
[22 May 2006|11:59pm] |
That night, they put on a shadow play for him. Eiko did the voices while Dagger slid jointed silhouettes in front of Marcus' projector. It was an old fairy tale, but Eiko got it wrong. She gave it a happy ending.
He didn't notice. He sat in the dark, raptly watching as black figures struggled against the harsh light, which began to shine through the puppets as they grew bent and torn. He swung his legs like a child, as steady as a pendulum clock.
But when they turned on the lights, they found him still, the clockwork run down.
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| KING OF SWORDS: Beatrix (Final Fantasy IX) |
[21 May 2006|11:18pm] |
Beatrix fought her first duel as Garnet's champion when the princess was twelve years old.
One night, a young nobleman drunkenly toasted a local legend: the princess was actually a goblin changeling.
"But a damn comely goblin," he shouted, to the delight of the tavern.
The next morning, he woke with a splitting headache and a card demanding satisfaction.
He tried to flee, but Beatrix was waiting for him. The nobleman was renowned for his fencing -- but Beatrix was better.
For the rest of his life, he walked with a limp, but he became one of the princess' staunchest defenders.
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| 20 JUDGEMENT: Faris Scherwiz (Final Fantasy V) |
[20 May 2006|11:51pm] |
After the deckhand was whipped, Bartz found the pirate captain watching the sunset.
"It was an ugly business today," he said suddenly.
"Yes," Bartz said.
"But discipline," the captain said harshly. "My ship must have discipline."
Bartz said nothing, and at last the captain stirred.
"What I need is a swim to clear me thoughts," he said to himself -- and with that, he started over the ship's rail.
"Wait," Bartz said. "Now?"
"Of course now," the captain said. "We're barely moving."
"Then...then, I'm coming with you. There might be sharks or something."
"Fine," Faris said. "But keep your distance."
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| KING OF PENTACLES: Gau (Final Fantasy VI) |
[19 May 2006|11:59pm] |
"She flew away?"
"Yeah," Sabin said sadly. "Something like that."
They were building a snowman next to one of Narshe's disused mine shafts.
"Where she go?"
"We're not sure."
"Oh."
"We're just waiting for Locke to wake," Sabin said, giving their snowman a coal grimace. "And then we'll do something."
Gau finished their creation by tying his scarf under the snowman's lopsided head. The two stood back to survey him.
"Needs shoes, though."
"You may not give him your boots, Gau. You need shoes."
Gau scowled, but he was secretly delighted.
"Hey," he said awkwardly, "Gau not fly away. Ever."
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| KING OF WANDS: Gippal (Final Fantasy X-2) |
[18 May 2006|11:15pm] |
"It predicts the future. We think."
"You think?" Paine asked.
"We only excavated it last week," Gippal said.
The machine suddenly beeped and printed a slip of paper.
"Oooh," Rikku said. "It says, 'You'll sing hopelessly to the three-headed queen.'"
"Yeah," Gippal said. "Exactly."
"So what's the use of it?" Paine asked.
The machine beeped again.
"'Fight fate with a kiss,'" Yuna read. "But whose fortune is it telling?"
"We're not sure," Gippal said, not looking at her.
The machine beeped again. This time Gippal got to it first, and he would not let them see his fortune.
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| QUEEN OF WANDS: Eiko Carol (Final Fantasy IX) |
[16 May 2006|04:21pm] |
For Her Highness' sixteenth birthday, mummers performed "I Want To Be Your Canary." Sentimental tragedies were passe, but the play was a childhood favorite of the princess.
That night, she climbed out a window and snuck down to Tantalus' theatre.
The players were roasting potatoes on the roof, where their leader swung her around in a mock-waltz. The castle had paid them in wine, and they drank and sang in equal measure.
The princess was pensive, however. "Do you ever..."
"What?" asked her companion.
"Regret the life you chose?"
"No," Dagger said. "Do you?"
"No," Eiko said, smoothing her skirts.
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| 19 THE SUN: Edgar Roni Figaro (Final Fantasy VI) |
[15 May 2006|11:59pm] |
He appeared at breakfast once, covered in grease and dust, but otherwise he vanished into his clanging engines.
In his absence, she haunted his library, walked his battlements, and liberated strawberry preserves from his kitchen.
One day, she found him asleep in his mother's chapel. Rain drummed against stained-glass windows. He didn't look dead, but for a moment she had the lurching sensation that one of them was a ghost.
"Why, Terra," he said, opening his eyes. "I think I have just dreamed the solution to a most perplexing problem."
"Yes, Edgar," she said to questions unasked and heretofore forgotten.
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| QUEEN OF CUPS: Edea Kramer (Final Fantasy VIII) |
[14 May 2006|10:55pm] |
"Poor, poor boy."
He stirred slightly against her knee. "Don't call me a boy."
She chuckled deep in her throat and continued to stroke his close-cropped hair. "It won't seems so bad in the morning, Seifer, I promise."
"Mmph," he said, but he allowed her to pull him up in her lap and sing him lullabies until his indignation was forgotten.
--And the woman called Edea opens her eyes, discomfited by the rebellions of this flesh and its restless memories. Beside her, her naked knight mutters uneasily in his sleep. She remains awake, unrepentant but unamused by her host's censure.
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| QUEEN OF PENTACLES: Freya Crescent (Final Fantasy IX) |
[13 May 2006|11:22pm] |
"So...what did you think?"
Freya ate a peanut. "Well. I liked the flood at the end. And the pyre. That must have been tricky to do."
"Ah, Cinna and Dagger were the ones responsible for the stage effects. They did a good job, didn't they? And, uh, any other thoughts?"
Freya ate another peanut. "I don't understand why she let the prince's advisor kill you at the end."
"Really? But I'd...I'd forgotten all about her and married another woman. She was upset."
"Oh, I got that," Freya said. "I just didn't understand why she didn't kill you herself."
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| QUEEN OF SWORDS: Quistis Trepe (Final Fantasy VIII) |
[12 May 2006|10:48pm] |
She was always severe and demanding, but everyone agreed her knives had really come out on their mid-term essays.
"Man, she corrected my grammar. And said my thesis statement was 'insipid.'"
"DISAPPOINTING."
"I heard half the class just flunked it. And there were only two A's. What about you, Seifer?"
"Mmm? Oh, she's just a bitch," Seifer said, laughing. "I don't pay attention to anything she says."
And he rolled up his paper, obscuring the red-inked words that said, "This shows great promise" and "I expect more participation in our class discussions; you're certainly capable of insightful points, Almasy."
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| 18 THE MOON: Rydia (Final Fantasy IV) |
[11 May 2006|11:37pm] |
He is uneasy with her. He brings her water, handkerchiefs, and ribbons -- the little things he might bring a child -- and he treats her as an awkward uncle might.
She is a woman to the others, but to Cecil, she is still just a child. There are some evenings she could slap him.
On other evenings, she just wants to stroke his hair.
She melodramatically confides in her monsters, who are already bored. She flirts with her companions, who revere her as an exotic freak.
She tries to take comfort in knowing she is still just a girl to Cecil.
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| KNIGHT OF SWORDS: Squall Leonhart (Final Fantasy VIII) |
[09 May 2006|11:59pm] |
"How can you be so calm about this?"
"About what?"
"About this mission, dammit! About Edea! She raised us, man!"
"I don't think she's acting like our mother anymore, Zell."
"See, that! That! How do you do that?"
"...Have you seen the headmaster recently?"
"Um. Sure. He was in the nurse's office. He looked like he'd been crying."
"He refuses to lead the Garden. Why aren't you asking him how he can abandon us now?"
"But she's his wife, man!"
"And he wants us to kill her. And she wants to destroy us. We need somebody to be calm here."
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| 17 THE STAR: Setzer Gabbiani (Final Fantasy VI) |
[08 May 2006|11:09pm] |
"It was when she stabbed herself on stage last month," Setzer said. "Her lover had perished in a shipwreck or something, but Maria died very prettily, and I realized that here was the actress who could teach me sobriety and solemnity."
"Ah," Celes said, shuffling the deck.
"I lack the actual graces, of course, but I hope to fake them one day."
"How tragic that you got me instead," Celes said, dealing cards.
"No," Setzer said slowly, "I suspect you and yours can teach me better things. After all, a man gets sick of nothing but sobriety and shipwrecked lovers."
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| KNIGHT OF PENTACLES: Adelbert Steiner (Final Fantasy IX) |
[07 May 2006|11:59pm] |
They covertly watched from the rafters.
"This is cruel, isn't it?" Dagger whispered.
"Only if he finds out," Zidane said.
"This morning," Marcus said, "he spent two hours asking about his character's motivations."
On stage, a man shouted, "My lord, the herring approaches."
He stopped, and they heard him mutter, "No, no, methinks that is far too coarse."
"How long has he been practicing?"
Marcus sighed. "Since this morning."
"You should have told him that he's playing a clown," Dagger insisted.
"But he's got to have dignity, or it won't work. It's better this way."
"My lord, the herring approaches."
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| KNIGHT OF CUPS: Locke Cole (Final Fantasy VI) |
[06 May 2006|11:47pm] |
"Break a leg," he says.
She does not hear; she is intent on her current campaign. Repeating her lines under her breath, she marches off to the stage with her head held high and her sword arm free.
He remains in her dressing room, which smells of another woman's perfume. The orchestra begins to play. He watches himself in her mirror. He traces random shapes in the spilled powder on her table: a cross, a spiral, a heart. Somewhere, a woman is singing about love persisting past death.
He suddenly smiles and wipes the patterns clear in one sweeping motion.
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| KNIGHT OF WANDS: Seifer Almasy (Final Fantasy VIII) |
[04 May 2006|11:56pm] |
A knight is merciful, generous, and true.
High as he stands, the air is still gritty with sand. All he can see is desert, but he knows the ocean lies beyond it.
And beyond the ocean sits Balamb Garden, which he will destroy.
A knight is loyal to his king and country.
He can still smell the blood and burnt flesh from torturing his prisoner. He can still smell Edea's perfume.
Everything seems cleaner in movies and dreams.
A knight champions Good against Evil.
He laughs. He doesn't doubt his sorceress. He isn't crying -- there's just sand in his eye.
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| 16 THE TOWER: Kefka Palazzo (Final Fantasy VI) |
[03 May 2006|09:39pm] |
On the top of his magnificent tower, God-Emperor Kefka sullenly sipped blood through a twisty straw.
It was saltier than expected, but after going to such troubles with the maidens and leeches, he felt he ought to enjoy every last drop, damn it.
He wasn't sure what he would do afterward. The day was young, but he was tired of collecting teeth, and you could throw people out of high windows only so many times before the novelty erodes. Maybe some Light of Judgment? Or some knitting?
The truth: the terrible God-Emperor -- feared and worshipped in equal measure -- was bored.
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