While holding her card, Shiko had started absentmindedly walking, her thoughts in a turmoil. While it was intriguing that she had received something from what might've been an illusion come reality, it also felt...amiss. Was someone like her suppose to receive this card? What did this card even mean, asides from the usual tarot readings. If she remembered correctly, Temperence meant balance.
"Maybe I just need to rest, get a drink, slow down my thoughts for a moment." Muttering to herself, she continued walking until she reached a convenience store. Pushing open the door, she peered inside. However, immediately, something was off. "This is midday still...where's the cashier?" Mumbling, the girl entered the store, and glanced around. Not a soul could be found, nor anything disturbed. It was as if all life had disappeared, vanished into thin air.
Turning around, she walked back towards the entrance, once again opening the doors. Even outside, there was no sign of activity. No pedestrians walking, no automobiles were in motion. However, she was snapped out of her reverie as she suddenly felt something blunt collide against her rear.
A very loud shriek echo out.
Stumbling out the doorway, arms flailing, Shiko fell to the ground with a yelp. Quickly turning her head to glance over her shoulder, she beheld the sight of a...hopping mop. "W-why is it a mop?!" Almost crying to herself, she unsteadily rose to her feet, before running. The sound of the mop hopping rapidly after her was clear to hear, a somewhat disturbingly wet, squelch with every hop.
Taking random lefts and rights, Shiko found herself taking a wrong turn, and faced against a wall. A dead end. A squelch told her that the only way out was blocked by the nefarious mop that had been hounding her. Turning to face the mop as if she was facing her execution, Shiko quickly searched her self, trying to find something of worth to utilize. A pencil, a comb, hairpin, the tarot card. Nothing. She didn't even have the usual clipboard with her.
However, as her fingers brushed over the tarot card, Shiko felt an urge, almost akin to sweet whispers from the depths of one's mind. Taking the card out, she looked at it once more. Holding it out, the girl spoke, her voice clear and almost confident.
I am the one who walks along the boundary, neither one nor the other. To neither help nor harm. To hunger, but not gluttonous, to arouse but not lustful, to tire but not slothful. I am that which divides the world.Major Arcana XIV: Temperance!
As soon as she spoke those words, her
appearance changed. "Eh?! What kind of outfit is this?!" Fretting slightly as she looked down on herself, with the first words that popped into her head being cosplay. However, another squelching sound interrupted her, as the mop edged closer towards her. Glancing back down, she looked at the rifle in her hand with surprise. Shifting her eyes back and forth between the weapon and the mop, she brought it up to her shoulder and pulled the trigger.
With a pitiful sound, akin to a plastic pellet fired out of an air gun, a bullet flew from the barrel and ricochet off the mop without even leaving a scratch. "At least this gun doesn't seem to be able to hurt people..."