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Tarot Club Gathering: The Great Swap Session
The ancient, long bronze-mottled table gleamed softly in the flickering starlight of Sefirah Castle nestled between dimensions. It was the monthly gathering of the Tarot Club—though this time, the fog was removed from the faces of the tarot members and, three chairs remained conspicuously empty.
"Regrettably," Mr. Fool said with his ever-amused smile, fingers tapping lightly against the armrest of his high-backed chair, "Ma’am Hermit, Miss Magician, and The Moon send their apologies. Urgent matters."
A collective hum of disappointment passed through the others.
Audrey Hall, radiant and sharp-eyed as always in her role as Mrs. Justice, leaned forward with a sudden gleam in her eye. “Well! Since we’re fewer today… why don’t we do something fun? Something to know each other better?”
“Oh no,” muttered Xio, Ms. Judgement, squinting as if sensing trouble.
Audrey grinned wider. “We swap traits.”
“Using your powers?” Leonard, Mr. Star, asked cautiously. He instinctively glanced at Mr. Fool, who was watching with a gentle, amused expression.
“I can facilitate it with a binding of Spirit and Thought—” Audrey began.
“No,” Mr. Fool said, softly but firmly, and yet so gently the words brushed like falling feathers. “Let me use my power's and make it happen randomly.”
There was a slight shimmer in the air as his power—Grafting—began to hum quietly, a reminder of the power's a sequence 1 power in the hands of what a god could do.
Derrick Berg, Mr. Sun, cheerily clapped his hands. “I wonder what trait I’ll get!”
1. The Height Swap: Mr. Sun and Ms. Judgement
A ripple of power passed over the table. Xio blinked—and suddenly, she was towering.(2.05 metres) She glanced down in disbelief at her elongated limbs and stretched clothes. Across from her, Derrick let out a gasp. He was now small, even his clothes were covering him.(152 cm)
“Oh!” he squeaked, legs dangling from his seat. “Everything is so… big!” He looked at the ancient ceiling like it had just been rebuilt by giants.
Xio crouched, eyes wide. “Everything’s so small.” She glanced to her side and immediately looked away—'Mr. Fool’s head is now below mine'. Her lips tightened. Blasphemy.
2. The wierd Swap
Audrey was next. With a faint shimmer, her form shifted—shoulders broader, face sharper, her voice deepening. She touched her throat in surprise, she now looked like a graceful extremely handsome man, if not for the now wierd dress tightened awkwardly around her. “Why did I think this was a good idea?” she muttered, tugging awkwardly at the fabric of her dress. “This is terribly uncomfortable…”
Across the table, Gehrman Sparrow, aka Mr. World, flickered in a subtle shimmer. Everyone watched as the cold adventurer's broad frame… became elegantly feminine. Long hair, sharp cheekbones, the same unreadable cold gaze—but now unsettlingly beautiful but also extremely solemn, cold, and scary.
Before anyone could speak, Mr. Fool also shimmered—and became a woman.
Six heads turned in unison. All five immediately looked away.
A pause. Mr. Fool—now with graceful hands and a velvet voice—tapped 'His' chair three times. Then 'She' chuckled softly.
“It’s fine. I… swapped with the Evernight Goddess.” ('He' was panicking inside and only managed to think of not being discovered by saying this).
Leonard’s pupils shrank. As a devout follower of the Evernight Goddess, his thoughts spiraled. Is that… is that even allowed? Can the Evernight Goddess be… swapped? Is 'She' now… 'Him'? Is 'She'—no. Stop. He shook his head violently. Blasphemy. Blasphemy!
And yet, when he dared glance at Ms. World, he couldn’t help himself. He stared—then peeled his eyes away. Only to glance again. And again.
3. The Nature Swap
Next came Alger Wilson, Mr. Hanged Man, stoic and solemn (though inside he was excited to swap with Mr. World). The shimmer passed again.
Suddenly, Alger’s posture changed. He slumped with flair, crossed one leg over the other, and flicked his hair to the side dramatically. His voice lifted a pitch and curled with elegance. “Oh no,” he said helplessly. “Oh no.”
Across from him, Leonard, now carrying Alger’s essence, sat stiff-backed, gaze cautious. He acted respectfully to 'Ms'. World, his voice cautious, almost scared. “wow this is wierd.”
He turned toward Derrick—Mr. Sun, now a small adorable creature bouncing in his chair—and felt a twinge in his gut. Easy prey, he thought. Swindleable. He stopped himself, shook his head.
Final Reactions
“Ms. World,” Derrick chirped, now practically child-sized. “You look nice!”
Gehrman, now Ms. World, stared back silently. The room trembled and started freezing not one word but everyone except leonard, and Audrey trembled.
Audrey—now awkwardly but curiously checked herself—groaned and covered her face. “I’m never living this down.”
Mr. Fool, still woman-shaped, waved a hand dismissively. “This is a one-time thing.”
“Oh no,” said Alger in Leonard’s flamboyant tone, “this might be heard by others.”
Leonard, tense and formal, raised a hand. “Let this remain a Tarot Club secret.”
The room nodded solemnly.
“It will be,” said Ms. World, her voice carrying the weight of divine warning. “Anyone who speaks of this outside or to the other members will find their bodies… cold.”
And everyone truly believed it.
By the end of the gathering, Mr. Fool reversed the swaps one by one, except for Alger, who couldn’t stop sitting with a tilted wrist and legs crossed till the power finally left him. Audrey left muttering about buying trousers. Leonard avoided eye contact with Mr. World.
The gathering ended with a knowing silence, a shared joke, and the kind of camaraderie only possible among those who shared a secret about an embarresing dark past.
No one mentioned the shimmer that still lingered faintly around Mr. Fool.
And no one dared ask or think if he had really swapped with the Evernight Goddess.