Ep. 32- The Party of the Discarded Pt. 2

Today was 2.2.22. I didn’t even think about that until someone asked me if I was “manifesting”.

“What’s manifesting?” I asked.

“Attracting positive energy and eventualities toward you by focusing on them. Today is a very powerful day”

I had no idea. I spent half my day sleeping and the other half trying to catch up on my job.

Are you “manifesting” anything today?

I guess I meditate every day, but usually I’m thinking about how even the sturdiest metal attracts rust. Something about impermanence. Anyway, that’s what a book I read once told me to do. I guess it’s supposed to make the idea of death and decline less scary.

I envy people who don’t have to do this.

Today was a powerful day huh?

I guess the numerologists have more pull than we thought.

int. hermit’s hovel night

We pick up, as we have the past several episodes, within the Hermit’s hovel. The Party of the Discarded is here- the Devil, the Hanged Woman, the Queen of Swords, the Knight of Cups, the Pale Horse and the Alice. Overseeing them, of course, is the Hermit with his magic lantern. Alice is now at center stage, having received the cue to tell the party something Very Important.

ALICE
When the Pale Horse first took me from my world, we were chased. It was a monster. At our back. Tendrils. Concrete. Wires. It devoured everything in its path, like a storm or a wave that you couldn’t dodge, just try to outrun. You call it the World Machine. I thought it looked like The End.

The Queen of Swords stiffens at this, she has stopped drinking. Instinctively her hand goes to her own blade’s edge. The Devil places a hand on the knee of the Hanged Woman, who edges closer to him. The Knight of Cups’ armor rattle a bit, betraying a tremble. He is the first to speak in a sputtering denial.

KNIGHT OF CUPS
The babbling of the Fool means nothing. The transition from The Real is traumatic, at best. It would be little wonder if she were a bit mad.

ALICE
Hey.

PALE HORSE
Alice.

ALICE
No, I am not “mad”. I’m not just a hysterical pixie. I have sat here quietly this whole meeting while everyone has made a big show over all the things I don’t know, and when I finally get to share what I do know, what I saw with my own two eyes, they just call me crazy.

The Pale Horse draws her to him and speaks in a hushed, serious tone.

PALE HORSE
I will vouch for you, but you need to understand that what we are telling them is deeply upsetting. What we saw is this world’s apocalypse, its would-be-destroyer.

ALICE
(terse)
Then why won’t they listen.

PALE HORSE
Because denial is the natural reaction in the face of paralyzing fear.

The Pale Horse then turns to the rest of the group, filing past Alice and taking center in the lantern’s dim light.

PALE HORSE
If you won’t believe the Alice, then believe me.

DEVIL
Why-

PALE HORSE
(cutting him off)
Why should you believe a half-card? That’s what you’re all thinking. He’s just a half-card, worse than a reversed card. Why should we believe some creature who bears the weight of some unimaginable break? A mad, suicidal beast who dares take your form?

There is no answer to this, but the unease of the group is permeable. Even the Alice is uncertain what is about to come.

PALE HORSE
I am the Pale Horse. I once bore my lady, Death, the most feared card in Arcana next to the Tower itself. Together, we traveled across Arcana, toppling kingdoms and signaling the changing of crowns and ages. We traveled to The Real and collected souls and reaped the broken life threads of the mortals therein. We, alone, were beholden to no god or king. In this land of rules and contracts, we alone were free. And while I called my lady, Death, my master- it is no exaggeration to say she was my other half. And in that sense, you are all right- without her, I am half a card, torn in two by a breach in contract that I cannot even recall. You may ask, what happened to my Rider? If I knew, if I had any idea- I would not be here, regardless of the stakes. Make no mistake- the World Machine is real. The Alice speaks the truth and I have seen it with my own eyes. Even now it roams the Lost Highways looking for a way to breach Arcana, and unless we scale the Tower and put its power to our defense it will eventually find a way in and destroy EVERYTHING. And even then, I tell you all- if I ever catch scent of my lost master, my missing half- I will leave you all where you stand and I will pursue her until all this world burns or until I am no more. But until that day, I stand with the Alice, because she is not mad- she is very, very serious (when she wants to be) and what she has told us is the second most important thing in the world to me.

The Pale Horse turns to Alice.

PALE HORSE
I vouch for you, Alice, as a card of the Arcana. If you’ll have me.

ALICE
This is what you meant when you said you’d probably hurt me again?

The Pale Horse can only grimace at this, but then softly nod.

ALICE
It’s a shitty deal. Idiot. You said a lot of nice things and then messed them up with a lot of stupid things. You’re basically guaranteeing me second place- the whole world, second place. I don’t accept it.

PALE HORSE
I’m not giving you a choice. I’m following you. Even if no one else here does- I’m following you on this journey to restore the Tower, until such a time as my master-

ALICE
One condition.

PALE HORSE
…Name it.

ALICE
No more masters. You call her your other half, or nothing.

PALE HORSE
…A pointless insistence on semantics.

ALICE
Words are important. But…I’m glad you’re using yours, more. Fine. Follow me as you wish, leave me when you want. I couldn’t ask more of anyone else, regardless.

At this admittedly awkward declaration of fealty, the party seems rather split. The Queen and Knight have looks of contemplation, the Horse’s speech having impressed them. The Devil can only sneer and the Hanged Woman seems more repressed than ever. The Devil, of course, is the first to cut in.

DEVIL
Well, that was a whole lot of words dedicated to nothin’. So you saw the big scary World Machine. Big deal.

QUEEN OF SWORDS
Hermit, is that why she’s here? Is the Alice the Awakened Fool?

PALE HORSE
I saw her aura, the Fool’s carnation, bloom in the Moon’s Meadow. There’s no doubt.

KNIGHT OF CUPS
The Awakened Fool…we haven’t had a new Fool in….hundreds of years. Haven’t had need of one…

DEVIL
Sure, sure, maybe Alice is special, maybe she isn’t. I still say this isn’t our problem. Well, my problem, or her’s, specifically. The High Priestess and the Magician- they can just snap their fingers, make it all go away, like they do every other…inconvenience. We aren’t necessary to this plot.

HERMIT
Until we hear otherwise, we must assume the top floor has been abdicated and they are unable to help. Or unwilling.

DEVIL
Fucking typical. Absolutely fucking typical.

ALICE
I’m sorry, but who are the High Priestess and the Magician?

DEVIL
The absentee parents of arcana. Mom and Dad to all the happy little cards here. They fix everything so that it works all nice and orderly.

HERMIT
Disregarding the Devil’s sarcasm, he is essentially correct. They are the rulers of Arcana, who oversee the land’s magic and doings from atop the Tower.

KNIGHT OF CUPS
I shutter to think who could be capable of such maneuverings as silencing the upper chambers of the Tower.

QUEEN OF SWORDS
Only wishful thinking would avoid the obvious answer, Knight.

HANGED WOMAN
The Sun’s beams know no boundaries.

QUEEN OF SWORDS
(her lips drawn in a thin smile)
Yes…the Sun. So it’s war after all…