Odd, but Even so (D7 - LM - Fortune)

[Feature]

The morning at the Gatehouse had been quite productive - even if maybe not the way Feature had expected or predicted.

But what good were predictions, anyway? Tthey could help one take decision, of course. But with exceptions aplenty to every rule, 'underlying order' a lot and any kind of cosmic teleology a joke?

At best you'd see what you expected. No surprise, which could be good, but where's the fun?

At worse (or best?) your predictions would prove wrong, sometimes catastrophically so. The fact that you had done a prediction to begin with will then serve either to make you laugh at your sense of control, or make you the laughing stock of your social circles, depending on how social you are about your predictions.

Of course, laughter is a good thing, right? So what's not to like??

That all went through the monodrone's head...er... inside as they hopped along on his way to the Lady's Ward, following the talk on the streets that this Black Marian was offering free fortunes at the Singing Fountain. They observed the Ritual repeated by all those who came for her readings, and it was just as they came to the thought about laughing always being worth it that they thought - why not?

They stood in line and started tic-tac-giggling. Fortune was such an interesting word for this! And free fortunes at that. How much was a fortune worth if it was free?

Some more giggling later, they went quiet as they realised. The fortune might bring fortune, or it might bring misfortune. For one who knew now to trust order, misfortune might bring laughter - to oneself or others, as they had established above. So if one knew not to pretend one knows, a fortune brings either fortune or laughter - which is fortune in itself. That explained it, of course!

Assuming they weren't assuming too much... 70-30 on that, maybe?

Grinning at their conclusion and thinking of bringing that discussion back to the Gatehouse ('oooh was the Black Marian actually Bleak Marian, maybe??'), their time came to step forward, drink a ladle of fountain water, and hear the Marian Bleaker's words.

...

...

They wondered. There were symbols there. Which symbols?... the theatre of their mind kept going back to books they'd had these last years, lists of relationships made by authors old and recent, lists of objects, drawings, sentients, words often said to mean one thing or another. Of course, different sources often ascribed similar meanings to different things, or different meanings to the same thing, or no meaning at all to something others deemed crucial.

Maybe it was just the same problem with immanent meaning that was often found... pretty much everywhere?

The monodrone laughed and thanked the Marian heartily, genuinely happy.

They might not find out anything particularly interesting about the future today... but the list of signs gave then something to think about - maybe joke about? And they did possibly figure something out about the world, and fortunes!

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OOC:
Going for an Easy (DC 10) Insight check.

With +3 and Reliable Talent, that's an auto-pass, so I'll just stay with that!

Success and an Accurate Insight providing a Guidance Boost (+1d4 to relevant checks)!