You're here for the fic; all of it is also on my personal site.
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It had been several days since Renna had read through Jester's plan. It was risky, a little desperate, and relied on some useful happenstance which might or might not happen.
So, it was actually better than a lot of their plans. They'd probably even get about halfway through before they needed to improvise this time. In the meantime, there was ice cream.
Mia held her breath as she retrieved her phone from under the pillow. She slid it over, keeping its screen pressed down against the bed. In a combination of practiced motions she turned it on, set it to silent, and lowered the screen's brightness down to minimum. Satisfied that she had done everything on her mental checklist, she turned the phone over and entered the lock screen password.
Tap. Tap tap tap. Tap-tap, tap-tap, tap. Tap. Tap tap taptaptap tap-tap, tap tap. Tap. Tap.
Tap.
She was in. Mia exhaled in a slow, quiet breath as she moved past several screens of installed apps, all the way to the end, then one additional screen over. She tried to slide the display over to the right once, twice, then an undisclosed amount of times further in a memorized staccato rhythm. At last, the display relented, shifting over to its final, empty screen.
Or so it would appear to the unsuspecting user. Mia pressed a finger to a spot just off the middle of the screen—careful not to scratch it—and from the blank spot she'd touched launched an otherwise unassuming messaging application. She selected the only entry in the contact list, and began writing.
"Day 274. Status unchanged. No new developments." Her fingers deftly tapped out her message on the on-screen keyboard, carefully hitting the virtual keys with the soft spots of her fingers to avoid making any more noise. She'd gotten better at that. "No suspicious activity observed." SEND.
Invariably, when you see a Cohost user going "tee hee look! Other websites, run by cowards and fools, would have put a length limit on this input field!" they are demonstrating why Cohost's failure to do so was either incompetent or direct pandering to griefers
First - Previous - Prompt List
The Fool's magic is that of tricks, not spells.
It is significantly less prestigious, loathed outright by actual magic users, and the ratio of effort required to usefulness is abysmal.
But if you're already practiced in slight of hand and you want to impress someone who also can't do real magic, there are worse skills to pick up.
"Pick a card, Highness!" The Fool says, smoothly spreading the deck across the table in a face down arc.
The Queen thinks on it, for a moment. Hovers over the cards, carefully considering, before taking one and peeking at it.
The five of diamonds.
"Got it?" Asks the Fool, and the Queen nods and places it back in the deck as her jester collects the cards and begins shuffling. "Good. Keep it in your mind."
The Queen watches, rapt, as the Fool shows off her skills. Makes half the cards spring from one hand to the other, before bridging the halves together and recombining them.
She knows it isn't magic; that if she can just watch closely enough through all the flourishes, she'll see what's really happening. Her card is already tucked away somewhere, it has to be, for the trick to work. She just has to find it. The shuffle, the flourishes, all are just for show-
"You remember it?" The Fool asks slyly, and this too is a misdirection - of course she remembers what her card was, but asking imposes a mental tax, adds one more distraction obscuring the trick. The Queen nods, frowning and biting her knuckle as the Fool places the deck down.
She didn't see the card.
"Good." Says the Fool, sliding a card off the top. "Is this your card?"
The Queen blinks. Between her fingers, the Fool holds the queen of hearts.
"...No?"
The Fool's eyes go wide, and she turns the card around to look.
"Really?" She asks. "There's something of a resemblance, I think."
"Nope."
The Fool shrugs.
"Hmm. Perhaps if your Knight was here." She says, and she says it like a joke, but there's an undercurrent, a hard edge to her words.
"I-"
"Such a shame. I'd offer to try again, but you see..."
The Fool spreads the deck out in an arc again, and flips the cards in one smooth motion.
They are all the queen of hearts.
"'Tis the only card I have." She says smugly, as the Queen does a double-take. She had focused too closely on ignoring the deck to try and spot the hidden card, and missed the Fool swapping it out entire.
"You- You still didn't pick my card."
"Nope!"
"Fucker." She says, giggling.
"Would you like another one?" Asks the Fool, as she picks the deck back up and shuffles it. She slides another card off the top and hands it, face up to the Queen.
0 - The Fool?
"Wh-?!" The Queen sputters, as she takes it in her hand and inspects it. "What?! How? When?? This doesn't even have the same back!"
The Fool just grins and leans back on her hands, letting the Queen struggle to figure it out.
After accepting the fact that she isn't going to figure it out, the Queen... hesitates, to speak. The Fool's jovial moods come less and less, now, and when they do they are laced with bitterness, and she can't help that feel that it stems from a misunderstanding- That she thinks perhaps the Queen is only joking when she is kind to her.
"My Fool, I..."
She can't speak freely, but she has to say something.
"If we may speak seriously for a moment, I feel that you, you saw something, that you weren't meant to, and it's led you to think-" She says, and the Fool cuts her off with an exaggerated sigh.
"Yes, yes, I befoul your honor as a lady, I get this enough from your sweetheart." She says with vitriol. "I don't need it from you."
"I, but, that isn't-!" The Queen stammers, as the Fool gets up and storms off.
"That isn't what I want to say to you..." She says, to no one.
