coded-tarot

''The Five of Eyes''\n//A cloaked figure stands before a great door.\nFive large peep-holes are carved into the door, and an eye gazes out from each of them.\nThe cloaked figure is uncowed.\nThe door unlatches, and swings slowly open.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Evaluation\n* Gatekeeping\n* Vigilance\n* Sousveillance\nIf they find you unworthy, it's because they only see the world through narrow apertures and narrow minds.

''The Two of Guns''\n//A country lane winds through fields of grain, lit ominously by a full moon, cut in two by clouds.\nTwo combatants stand on opposite ends of the lane, backs towards each other, guns raised to the sky.\nThe combatants are hard to see, they seem to shimmer and flicker as if made of black fire.\nTwo scarecrows stand as silent witnesses from the fields.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Honor\n* Vengeance\n* Insult\n* Purpose\n* Anticipation\nThe card conjures up past situations in which you felt slighted,\nfilling you with feelings of rage and embarrassment that just enrages you further.\nThe anger clears your mind and time seems to slow.

''The Queen of Pills''\nA vast expanse of small shelves, flanked by glimmering mirrors.\nPacked neatly and meticulously, row upon row, is a multitudinous menagerie:\nwhite cardboard boxes, thin foil packages, and orange plastic bottles.\nIt seems as though there might be more “cures” to be found here than there are known human diseases.\nIn front of them, a figure poses, with carefully styled hair, immaculately-applied makeup, and an ear-to-ear grin.\nTheir eyes shine with a great many emotions: despair, ecstasy, confusion, grief, and pride.\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Desperation\n* Dependence\n* Self-Medication\n* Hubris\nArrayed against the overwhelming forces of life, people find help anywhere they can.\nThat which helps you might also hurt you.

''The Breakup''\n\nOH.\n\nI'm so sorry.

''The Nine of Snakes''\n//A figure is holding an fruit, freshly plucked from the tree.\nThey take a large, juicy bite out of it and smile widely.\nNine snakes have fallen upon them from the tree.\nSeveral snakes are biting the figure.\nThe remaining snakes are preparing to bite, venom dripping from their fangs.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Sacrifice\n* Net Gain\n* Reward\n* Debts paid\n* Temptation\nThe juices dribbling down the figure's face match the venom in flavor.\nThey are both products of the same venture.

''The Ace of Eyes''\n//A burning eye that sees through wood, flesh, stone, and spirit.\n...\n...\n...\nIt sees you.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Piercing Judgement\n* Evil\n* Failure of Barriers\nThe judgement of the Ace of Eyes isn't a judgement of good and evil.\nIt exists outside such petty laws.\nIt sees you, and it hates you.\n

\nYou separate the cards into an auspicious number of piles, forgetting which ones you put into which stack.\n\nYou then combine them again.\n\nThe cards are neither sticky nor slippery.\nThey leave nothing to be desired.\n\nIt is a perfect tactile experience.\n

''The Machine''\n//A great mass of people stand in a line that winds this way and that around a huge hall.\nThe people are counted and sorted and sent to different booths.\nThey give pieces of themselves: blood, hair, spit, fingers.\nThose pieces are organized and catalogued meticulously.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Faceless Power\n* Assignment\n* Bureacracy\n* Taxation\nTheir demands are unreasonable.\nBut you must submit to live.

WARNING:\nYour brain is a pattern-finding machine.\nIt can find meaningless patterns and invest them with meaning.\nIf you invest something with meaning, make sure it repays you.\n\n[[Let the cards fall where they may.|Shuffle]]

''The Twins''

''The Forest''\n//A figure stands alone in a vast, dark forest.\nThe trees tower above them.\nThe glowing eyes of various creatures can be seen.\nLooking at the card, you can almost hear birdsong, howls, grunts.\nThere are scattered flowers and colorful mushrooms on the forest floor.\nThere is no path, but the figure walks with purpose.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* The Unknown\n* The natural world\n* Secret wonders and horrors\n* Trailblazing\n* Exploration\nThe Forest is dark and deep, and it might not end.\nBut you can still find your way through it.

''The Storm''\n//A catastrophic rain falls on the land.\nCities sink into the depths, forests are drowned.\nThe earth is washed clean.\nThe rain doesn't end until only water remains.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Purification\n* The End\n* Divine Punishment\n* Terrible Catastrophe\n* Cleanliness\nGod only let Noah live so someone would be around to tell people not to fuck with him.\nWhen it comes again, there's no dove, no rainbow, no covenant.\nJust the cold, wet grip of death.

''The Four of Snakes''\n//A figure stands in a labyrinth, examining a strange compass.\nThe compass is unmarked, except for four great snakes that writhe around the surface.\nThe snakes coil around each other, hissing and biting.\nTheir serpentine drama is cyclical, but always appears to be approaching a point.\nThe compass needle stands apart, alone and unmoving.\nThe direction it points doesn't seem especially imporant.\nThe figure shrugs, then walks off in a random direction.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Confusing advice\n* Beautiful distractions\n* Magnetism\n* The illusion of progress\nThe cold, abstracted stone of the labyrinth might seem morally superior to the distraction of the colorful snakes,\nbut they're both just passtimes while you starve to death.

snake milker?

''The Seven of Pills''\n//Two figures sit at a table, eating dinner.\nOn the table is a box with seven compartments, all but one containing seven pills.\nOne compartment has been opened, its contents presumably consumed.\nThe figures look tired, but content.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Twilight\n* Necessity\n* Support\nThe systems that support your life are part of your body.\nTo be denied them is to be dismembered.

You drew the <<print $cardside2>><<print $card2>>.\n\n<<display $card2>>\n\n[[Return|Draw]]\n<<set $worth to "known">>

''The Ten of Teeth''\n//A great wolf pursues the sun through the sky, its bloody maw spread wide.\nIn its mouth are countless teeth, but ten great fangs tower above the others.\nThough the sun is visible, the sky is black as night.\nTen bright stars frame the sun.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Peril\n* Hunger\n* The Approaching End\n* Beasts\nThe great beast appears to be about to swallow the sun, but the sun yet rises.\nThe threat of the beast is real, but there are ten hopeful stars.\nThe unnatural darkness is a terrifying illusion.

''The Butterfly''\n//A butterfly hovers over a small pond, causing ripples.\nThe pond becomes a lake. The ripples become waves.\nThe lake becomes an ocean. The waves become storms.\nThe ocean becomes a planet. The storms rage across it.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Chaos\n* Causality\n* Unintention\n* Transformation\nWhen the butterfly destroys life as we know it, it's cute.\nWhen people do it, it's just tacky.

You take five cards from the deck and lay them out in front of you, face down. <<set $card1 to $deck[0]; $card2 to $deck[1]; $card3 to $deck[2]; $card4 to $deck[3]; $card5 to $deck[4]>>\n\nIn each card is held a secret about the world or yourself that has been buried inside your soul.\n\nWhich secret should be revealed?\n\n[[Your becoming.|Past]]<<if $past is "unknown">><<else>> - The <<print $cardside1>><<print $card1>><<endif>>\n\n[[Your worth.|Worth]]<<if $worth is "unknown">><<else>> - The <<print $cardside2>><<print $card2>><<endif>>\n\n[[Your power.|Power]]<<if $power is "unknown">><<else>> - The <<print $cardside3>><<print $card3>><<endif>>\n\n[[Your fate.|Fate]]<<if $fate is "unknown">><<else>> - The <<print $cardside4>><<print $card4>><<endif>>\n\n[[The fate of the world.|World]]<<if $world is "unknown">><<else>> - The <<print $cardside5>><<print $card5>><<endif>>\n\n\n[[Shuffle][$shuffle to "stacked"]] the cards again.\n<<if $past is "known" and $worth is "known" and $power is "known" and $fate is "known" and $world is "known">>[[Look|Deck]] through the deck.<<endif>>

You drew the <<print $cardside4>><<print $card4>>.\n\n<<display $card4>>\n\n[[Return|Draw]]\n<<set $fate to "known">>

''The Clone''\n//This is a picture of... yourself?\nHow did this get here?\nEvery detail is correct. Every scar, every hair, every memory.\nThis could only be you.//\n\nThat's curious.\nWhat a strange coincidence.

You look at the next card in the deck.\n\n<<display $deck[$cardnum]>>\n\n<<if $cardnum < $deck.length-1>>Look at the [[next card|Examine][$cardnum to $cardnum+1]]<<endif>>\n<<if $cardnum > 0>>Look at the [[previous card|Examine][$cardnum to $cardnum-1]]<<endif>>\n[[Reshuffle.|Shuffle][$shuffle to "stacked"]]\nLook at your most recent [[fortune|Draw]].

''The Train''\n//A train cuts its way through a large city.\nIt's night, but the city glows resplendent, and its streets are full of people and cars.\nThe mass of people and cars looks impossible to move through.\nThe train doesn't stop.\nA figure sits in the train, reading a book.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Motivation\n* Advancement\n* Solitude\n* Success\nIt can be hard to leave people behind.\nBut you really don't want to be late for the train.

''The Plague''\n//It starts with one careless decision.\nSomething that should be clean is filthy, and someone gets sick.\nIt threads its ways through the holes in our systems.\nNo one identifies the symptoms.\nThe vector boards planes, coughs, sneezes, shakes hands.\nThe vectors go home to their families and hug them tightly.\nThis is all merely implied. The picture on the card is unremarkable.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Failsafes\n* The Worst Case\n* Unforeseeable Consequences\n* Blameless Tragedy\nIf you're sick, please just take the day off if you can.\nI know it's not always possible, but you deserve it.\nAlso, it could prevent the end of the world, maybe.

''The Ten of Birds''\n//A great hawk perches solemnly, dominating the center of the frame.\nGripped in its talons is a dead raven.\nAround it wheel eight ravens, crying out in sorrow and rage.\nIt's deafening to look upon.\nThe hawk doesn't seem to notice.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Grief\n* Death\n* Injustice\n* Wailing\nYour tears are real even if no one sees them.\nThey're still warm on your cheeks even if they don't flow.\nGrief pours like ketchup.

''The Key''\n//A fantastically shaped key dominates the frame.\nYou can see in its fractal curves the way it would perfectly fit into every lock you've ever seen.\nEvery door would open to it.\nBefore it lies a simple iron lock, tightly shut.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Perfection\n* Failure\n* Complexity\nA great key can open many doors.\nThe perfect key opens the door that's in front of you.

''The Three of Guns''\n//Three figures stand at a crossroads.\nThey eye each other suspiciously.\nYou see each one of them has a gun trained on the one they're not looking at.\nThey slowly circle each other.\nA dry wind blows, stealing the last of the moisture from their dry mouths and chapped lips.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Ignorance\n* Suspicion\n* Anxiety\n* False Choice\n\nWhen all things are said and done, some problems solve themselves.

You drew the <<print $cardside5>><<print $card5>>.\n\n<<display $card5>>\n\n[[Return|Draw]]\n<<set $world to "known">>

#menu-saves, #menu-restart{\n\tdisplay: none;\n}

You're tempted to just look through the entire deck,\nbut you know that would ruin the mystery.\n\nAre you sure you don't just want to look at [[your fortune|Draw]] again?\n\nMaybe if you give it another [[shuffle|Shuffle][$shuffle to "stacked"]] you'll come closer to some cosmic truth?\n\nThink very carefully before you [[examine the substructure of fate.|Examine]]

''Forty Seven of Guns''\n//A figure stands, holding a gas-powered rifle with a polished wooden stock and a matching grip.\nThe barrel cover, made of the same wood, is stained with splotches of wine-red.\nA thin trail of smoke winds from the barrel to the ceiling.\nIn the background are broken stained-glass windows, and the glass covers the floor.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Destruction of beautiful things\n* Regret\n* Compromise\n* Painful choices\nSometimes people destroy beautiful things.

''The Two of Snakes''\n//A figure stands, puzzled, two snakes in their hands.\nThe left hand snake has broad red bands and narrow yellow bands, separated by narrow black bands.\nThe right hand snake has broad red bands and broad black bands, seprated by narrow yellow bands.\nAs the figure contemplates, both snakes rear up to strike.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Indecision\n* Subtle yet critical differences\n* Pluralism\n* Venom\nPay close attention to the markings, and trust your instincts.\nWaiting has a cost.

''The Ace of Teeth''\n//A bone-white mountain dominates the night sky.\nA single star shines behind it.\nThe peak is stained blood-red.\nEvery part of the mountain looks too sharp to touch.\n\nA lone figure stands at the base of the mountain, and stares up at the peak.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Challenges\n* The bleeding edge\n* Fighting through pain\n* Dreams that hurt\nAt the peak, even the air is sharp.\nHold your breath.

''The King of Teeth''\n//The picture is unspeakable.\nRows and rows of gleaming pointed teeth spiralling into a blackened maw.\nBits of flesh and blood are stuck in among the maze of white razors, drawing the eye in deeper as the teeth themselves seem to spin and undulate.\nAt the center of the card where there once seemed to be just darkness stands a figure.\nThey stand definite and tall, leaving their shield and sword at their feet as they walk towards their fate.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Acceptance\n* Calm\n* Terror\n* Surrender\nYou can’t look at the card without being overtaken with a sense of dread.\nDread that quickly erupts to pure gibbering terror.\nThe terror washes over you, driving out all other emotions until all that is left is nothing.\nNot a normal nothing, but an absence of anything.\nIt leaves you strangely calm.

''The King''\n//A regal figure stands at the far end of a battlefield, surrounded by servants.\nIts eight arms, a mark of royalty, point in every ordinal and cardinal direction.\nThe figure has the air of one who has accepted their fate.\nThe attendants watch fearfully in every direction, and throw themselves in front of stray arrows.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Devotion\n* Power by proxy\n* Co-dependence\n* Unreciprocated protection\nThe ideal you're willing to die for wouldn't do the same for you.

''The Rook''\n//A mighty figure towers over a battlefield.\nIts four mighty arms hold cannons that aim in each cardinal direction.\nEverything within its field of fire is obliterated.\nA small figure wielding a tiny knife approaches it from an ordinal direction.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Conventional Power\n* A History of Violence\n* Blinding Pride\n* Angles of attack\nOverwhelming power reveals its own strengths, and by omission, its own weakenesses.

A reversed card has an aspect of misfortune, a cruel twist.\nIt can also be a triumphant defiance of fate.\nWhich is which is beyond my power to determine;\nI am but the remains of the thought that created me.\n\n[[Return|previous()]]

''The Apology''

''The Ace of Socks''\n//A figure stands forlorn, holding a solitary sock.\nThe floor around them is strewn with discarded clothing.\nNone of other clothes are socks.\nMoonlight streams in from a high window.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Irreversible loss\n* Small, aggravating pains\n* Acceptance\n* Grief\nIt's ok to just buy new socks, or ask for them.\nIt's ok to just wear mismatched socks.\nIt's ok to not wear socks.

''The Eight of Teeth''\n//An unarmed figure and an armed figure face each other in combat.\nEach figure has their own crowd of onlookers.\nThe unarmed figure is skillfully parrying a blow from the armed figure's bone-white dagger.\nAt the same time, the crowd behind the unarmed figure is placing seven bone-white daggers into their back.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Betrayal\n* Knives unseen\n* Mobs\n* Danger in solitude\nDespite what people might tell you, you can't watch your own back.\nYou've got to find someone you can trust to do it for you.

''The Knight''\n//A mounted figure in black gallops across a battlefield.\nFrom its form emerges eight crooked wings.\nThe wings describe great arcing paths that ignore principles of inertia.\nThe figure's foes are left in disarray behind it.\nOnly one pursuer persists, a similarly winged mounted figure in white.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Rule-breaking\n* Flight\n* Escape\n* Complexity\nThe structure of convention is a shelter, a scaffold, a prison.

''The Seven of Snakes''\n//A cloaked figure stands over a bedridden figure.\nSeven snakes are wrapped around the cloaked figures body and limbs.\nThe cloaked figure bends down and reaches out a hand.\nA snake hangs off their arm and sinks its fangs into the bedridden figure.\nThe bedridden figure has a look of deep contentment.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Healing\n* Venom\n* Wisdom\n* Trust\nThe standing figure is a healer, or maybe a poisoner.\nThe bedridden figure is sick, and needs medicine, or maybe poison.

''The Ace of Snakes''\n//A great serpent encircles the world.\nIt runs under the ocean, like telegraph cables.\nIts rippling coils hold the earth together.\nIts fangs are sunk deeply into its tail.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Unending\n* Chasing your tail\n* Hugs\n* Self-sabotage\nWe rely on so many things that we never see or understand.\nOur reliance isn't born of weakness. It's born of circumstance.

''The Six of Guns''\n//Six chambers are opened.\nInto each chamber, a figure inserts a single deadly bullet and a single intent.\nA bullet for peace.\nA bullet for safety.\nA bullet for justice.\nA bullet for vengeance.\nA bullet for betrayal.\nA bullet for spite.\nSix shots are fired, and they thud into their target.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Entropy of Intent\n* Justification\n* Force at a distance\n* Consequences that outlive you\nWhen the coroner pulls the bullets out, they all look the same.

''The Two of Socks''\n//Two matched socks, hung up to dry with other laundry.\nThe sun shines happily down on them.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Order\n* Peace\n* The Calm after the Storm\n* Home\nThis is a state you can find, or have found.

''The Ace of Pills''\n//A figure stands in a bathroom, holding a single white pill, appraising it.\nIt's not a dirty bathroom, but it's not a clean one either.\nLike most bathrooms, it's a battleground of filth and apathy.\nThere's a broken condom in the trash can.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Triage\n* Control\n* Regret\n* Planning\nThe best-laid plans are recursive.\nIf you break them open, you just find more plans.

''The Two of Birds''\n//Two parrots are perched on opposing sides of a cage.\nThey squack at each other in turns, each mimicking the other.\nThe original utterance is lost, garbled beyond recognition.\nNeither sees the stone flying towards them.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Miscommunication\n* Repetition\n* Infighting\n* Tunnel-vision\n* Repetition\nA closed system tends towards entropy.

FREE* READING WITH REAL* DIVINING CARDS

''The Tomb''\n//A figure stands at the foot of a great monument.\nFar beneath it, past soil and root and stone, there is a great stone chamber.\nA second figure is trapped within it.\nIt beats at the walls, howling, cursing through dead lips and rotten teeth.\nFar above, on the surface, the figure gently places a flower next to the monument, then leaves, never to return.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* The Long-Dead Past\n* Regret\n* Closure\n* Grudges\nBurial is not a ritual for the sake of the dead.\nDead things don't demand that we cover and hide them.\nWe send our dead to the underworld so they might trouble us no more.

dentist? (dark)

''The Pawn''\n//A small figure in black stands tall on a battlefield.\nFrom its form emerges three arms.\nThe central arm points forward with a grim determination.\nThe other two arms hold swords, held at forty-five degree angles from the forward direction.\nBefore it stands another figure, and they appear to be at an impasse.\nFor now.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Subservience\n* Ambition\n* Advancement\n* Stalemate\nDon't be trapped by the idea that you should only move forward.\nSometimes you have to find an angle.

''The Page of Birds''\n//A great flock of all kinds of birds flies north.\nAt its head is a strange figure, unfeathered and unbeaked.\nIt flies on great waxen wings, effortlessly leading the flock.\nA trail of wax droplets marks the figure's path, as the hot sun beats down on its wings.\nThe droplets are of every shape and color, an odd iridescent rain of dreams.\nThe figure shows no sign of slowing, no thought of landing.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Confidence\n* Creativity\n* Controlled failure\n* The Melting Point\nIf you had crafted your wings from wood, they might not have fallen apart so spectacularly, and you wouldn't have fallen as far.\nBut you might not have been able to get off the ground.

You pick up the deck.\nThe cards are stiff, almost sharp.\nYou'll have to be careful not to cut yourself.\n<<display $shuffle>>\s\n\n[[Pile shuffle.|Shuffle][$shuffle to "pile"]]\n\n[[Overhand shuffle.|Shuffle][$shuffle to "overhand"]]\n\n[[Riffle and bridge.|Shuffle][$shuffle to "riffle"]]\n\n<<if $shuffle is "stacked">><<else>>[[Draw]] your destiny.<<endif>>\n\n<<shuffle $deck>>\n<<set $cardside1 to either('[[Reversed|Reverse]] ',""); $cardside2 to either('[[Reversed|Reverse]] ',""); $cardside3 to either('[[Reversed|Reverse]] ',""); $cardside4 to either('[[Reversed|Reverse]] ',""); $cardside5 to either('[[Reversed |Reverse]] ',"")>>\n<<set $past to "unknown";$worth to "unknown";$power to "unknown";$fate to "unknown";$world to "unknown";$cardnum to 5>>

You drew the <<print $cardside3>><<print $card3>>.\n\n<<display $card3>>\n\n[[Return|Draw]]\n<<set $power to "known">>

''The Angel''\n//It's so... beautiful...\nIts great wings, resplendently iridescent.\nIts eyes, piercing, judging, but also loving.\nIts edges, perfectly sharp.\nIts surfaces, twelve in number.\nIts vertices, somehow infinite.\n\nIt is screaming.\n\nA message, uncapturable in this disgustingly vulgar language, is delivered.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Realms beyond\n* The Divine\n* Inspiration\n* Comprehension fails\nWhen a signal is greater than your ability to comprehend it, it might just be noise.\nOr it might be a really, really, really big signal.

''The Cinema''\n//A crowd of awed, angry, sad, happy figures stare up at a bright screen.\nThe screen is blank.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Projection\n* Self-Narration\n* Stories\n* Crowds\nYou aren't a passive receiver of the world.\nYou project ideas on to it, and they bounce back into your mind.\nThe cinema is full of people, but you are alone in it.

<<set $deck to []>>\n<<set $shuffle to "stacked">>\n<<buildDeck $deck>>

''The Cage''\n//A figure grips the bars of a giant golden birdcage.\nIt is opulently furnished, but disheveled.\nA rich meal sits half-finished on a great table.\nThe figure pulls at the bars, but also stares back longingly.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Imprisonment\n* Luxury\n* Freedom\n* Asceticism\n* Desire\nIt can be hard to know what you want.\nHow can you choose between the safety and comfort of your cage, and the promise of life beyond?

''The Desert''\n//A tiny figure stands alone, engulfed in a vast suburban wasteland.\nRed Solo cups and Snickers wrappers drift aimlessly through the empty streets.\nThe lonesome howl of a leafblower can be heard.\nIn the distance, a large sign heralds a beacon of commerce.\nThere is a shimmering veneer of prosperity, but as you examine the card, it seems to disappear.\nIt may have been a mirage.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Loneliness\n* Function Without Purpose\n* Waste\n* Wanderlust\nThe landscape is fake.\nThe thirst is real.

''The Queen''\n//An incomparable figure surveys a battlefield.\nFrom its body, eight terrifying arms are extended, pointing in each of the ordinal and cardinal directions.\nThe figure is heavy with import, glowing with deferred hopes.\nWhere it goes, light swells, and where it leaves, darkness overtakes.\nIts steps are heralds of victory; its stumbles are omens of defeat.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* The vessel of your hopes\n* The terror of defeat\n* Commitment\nPeople told you not to put all your eggs in one basket.\nYou struck them down with your basket, heavy with eggs.

''The Ten of Eyes''\n//Ten figures are shown in ten frames, each living their own lives.\nIn each frame, an eye watches them.\nNo one notices the eye, but everyone knows they are watched.\nThey go about the business of their daily lives with that knowledge.\nEvery action taken is slightly more intentional.\nEvery indulgence is slightly more shameful.\nBut their lives go on.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Complacency\n* Guilt\n* Scrutiny\n* Adaption\nOnce you've accepted that you have no secrets, it's almost freeing.\nThere's nothing left to hide.

\nYou grab a small selection of cards from the middle of the deck and place them on top. You repeat this a few times.\n\nThe cards are neither sticky nor slippery.\nThey leave nothing to be desired.\n\nIt is a perfect tactile experience.\n

You drew the <<print $cardside1>><<print $card1>>.\n\n<<display $card1>>\n\n[[Return|Draw]]\n<<set $past to "known">>

''Charity''\n//Innumerable figures sit in a line, waiting for a collection tray.\nAs the tray passes, each gives a piece of themselves:\nArms, legs, teeth, eyes, tongues, hearts, livers.\nAll in the tray.\nOnly one figure denies the tray, and lets it pass them by.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Sacrifice\n* Demand\n* Material Justice\n* The Boundary of the Self\nWhen the plate comes to you, think deeply.\nHow much of you has already been taken?\nIt's ok to take sometimes.

''The Ace of Guns''\n//A huge artillery piece dominates the frame.\nIt's barrel is steeply angled, aiming at they sky.\nFigures scurry around it, reloading it, servicing it, maintaining its parts.\nYou can feel the anticipation as its target is calibrated.\nYou can hear the peal of thunder, the cries of the dying.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* War\n* Goals\n* The military-industrial complex\n* Overwhelming sound\n* Human-mechanical interface\nThe machinery of death is beautiful only if you're standing outside of the firing solution.

''The Ace of Birds''\n//A pair of talons clutches an elephant.\nYour eyes follow the legs up, but they seem to take forever.\nThe legs are like towers, great and stout and scarred by time.\nThe plumage washes over you:\nred,\npurple,\ncrimson,\norange,\nvermillion,\nbrown,\nblack,\n\nAll burning. The flames engulf you.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Beauty\n* Scale\n* Fire\n* Passion\n* Rebirth\nNothing that beautiful can last forever.\nNothing that beautiful can die.

''The Promise''\n//Two figures stand across from each other, half-embracing.\nA thread emerges from the first figure's mouth.\nIt winds slowly around them: their heads, their necks, their chests, their waists.\nAll the way down to their feet.\nThen it winds its way back up into the second figure's mouth.\nBoth figures are crying.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* The Social Fabric\n* Imprisoned by Love\n* My Words are My Bonds\n* Grief\nIt comes out real easy.\nIt's exactly what they want to hear, what you're conditioned to say.\nEven if you don't regret it, you have to wonder: what would life be like without it?

''The Lock''\n//A heavy iron lock.\nBefore it are arrayed a number of keys of all shapes and sizes.\nMany seem to fit, but none can turn.\nThe lock awaits the correct key, and nothing will dissuade it.\nWhat lies beyond it is unknown.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Secrets\n* The Wrong Answer\n* Shapes\n* Destiny\nA perfect lock opens only when the key is right for it.\nDon't let anyone tell you that the best lock is always open, or always closed.\nThe lock chooses. And you choose the lock.

\nYou cut the deck, around the middle, and hold half in each hand.\nYou bend the cards inward and release by the thumbs so they fall to the table interleaved.\n\nYou then lift the cards up, forming a bridge, which causes them to fall back into place.\n\nThe cards are neither sticky nor slippery.\nThey leave nothing to be desired.\n\nIt is a perfect tactile experience.\n

Doug Lindsay\nCharlette Hwang\nAlex Lindsay\nElizabeth Camporeale\nAndrew Stoller

''The Two of Eyes''\n//A pair of eyes stare at you.\nYou stare back.\nThey stare harder.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Accusation\n* Skepticism\n* Attraction\nDon't look away, and don't blink.

''The Schoolhouse''\n//A figure stands in the front of an empty classroom, textbook in hand.\nThe desks are dusty, long-deserted.\nThe figure lectures, but seems sad and frustrated.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Abandonment\n* Solitude\n* Learning\n* Underfunded Education Systems\nThe teacher tries so hard.\nWhy doesn't anyone listen?

''The Bishop''\n//A figure strolls across a battlefield, emanating a pompous air.\nIt is dressed extravagantly, signifying not just wealth, but status.\nFrom its form emerges four beautiful arms pointing in the four ordinal directions.\nIts entourage of servants and favor-seekers follow behind it, carrying the symbols of its station.\nNo foes engage it, as it is simply above them.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Clout\n* Social Hierarchy\n* Peace through Power\n* Consensus of One\nDon't give your enemies the satisfaction of knowing you recognize them.\nLet them shrivel in your apathy.

''The Two of Teeth''\n//A figure holds a strange, bone-white sword above their head. Their stance is aggressive.\nThe blade is long and looks almost dull, but for its organic serrations.\nThe hilt is short, but looks somehow sharper, and cuts into the wielder's hand.\nA second figure stands before them, kneeling, submissive.\nBlood drips from both ends of the sword.//\n\nConcepts form in your mind, unbidden:\n* Self-destruction\n* Pain\n* Dominance\n* Blood\nSome things are too sharp to touch.\nIf you need to hold them, wear gloves.\n