seven/seven

FEYXUAN Nguyen

THE SEVEN-TO-NINE CURSE DECK

tw: suicide, implications of (childhood) sexual abuse

the cards:

HOW TO READ:

1. shuffle the 10-card deck
2. lay all the cards face-down

TO DIVINE YOUR CURSE:

3. count seven from the left, then select that card and move it higher than the rest, on an upper tier.4. count three from the right, then select that card and move it lower than the rest, on a lower tier.5. THE RESULTING PAIR DESCRIBES YOUR CURSE. the nature of the Incident(s) that made the history that made You.A HISTORY / A HURTING / A HAUNTING.

TO DIVINE YOUR FORTUNE:

6. count seven from the right, then select that card and move it higher than the rest, on an upper tier.7. count three from the left, then select that card and move it lower than the rest, on a lower tier.8. THE RESULTING PAIR DESCRIBES YOUR FORTUNE. the heavenly variant of fortuitous luck that resides in you.A POWER, A DIVINITY, A GIFT.

TO SEEK YOUR INNATE DOMAIN:

9. count one from the right and nine from the left OR count one from the left and nine from the right10. the card you selected from the right goes on a lower tier.11. the card you selected from the left goes on an upper tier.12. the upper card designates the FORTUNE you possess in the HEAVENLY EGG OF YOUR HEART.13. the lower card designates the CURSE you possess that threatens to kill the CHICK INSIDE HEAVEN'S EGG, WHICH LIVES INSIDE YOUR HEART OF HEARTS.14. a chick that cannot break its shell will die without being born. THE CURSE MAY KILL THE CHICK, SO THAT IT DIES WITHOUT BEING BORN. so that You die without being born.15. but FORTUNE'S FAVOR may just be what allows the chick to hatch and realize its full potential. what is an egg, if not a potentiate? and who are You, if not somebody that could be somebody.IF YOU DON'T TURN INTO A CURSE-BEARING CURSE, THAT IS.

A WISH FROM THE DIVINER:

the wish inside my heart of hearts is that curses like myself will go on to hatch eggs rather than kill them.but such things start within a cultivation of self. and that begins with knowledge.

KNOW YOURSELF.
the mirror takes its measure of you.

HANASHIRO

A HEAVENLY LILY, an exile from heaven, a nine-tailed fox, and nothing of the sort. the type to lash out violently, to go from 0 to 100 in a second, to hurt people when they get too close, when they refuse to play their parts in the divine play HANASHIRO has always been a part of.VIOLENCE IS SUDDEN, BUT ORDINARY. the heat of violence rises and calms like a summer storm. in a vicious, ungraceful flurry, and then calm all at once.THE FATED ADVERSARY OF LUN KOCHOURAN.

【A FALLEN CAMELLIA IS A BEHEADING. EVERY TIME, EVERY PETAL FALLING AT ONCE: A SEVERING. 】

LUN KOCHOURAN

A NEKOMATA, a humble little nekomata, hailing from a devious family of neglect, but such things are ordinary, too, ne? an endlessly patient minor constellation of a hunter, subtle and precious...but extraordinarily lonely, neglected. gives everything to others, leaving nothing for themselves. though in the giving, they replenish themselves.THE FATED ADVERSARY OF HANASHIRO.

【ONE REASON TO LIVE MAY NOT BE ENOUGH TO COUNTER THE THOUSAND TO DIE. BUT IT'S A START.】

SENGREEN LE

THE LAST GLASSWING KNIGHT, abandoned by the lord they were born to serve, purposeless, seeking purpose. learning ambition, to let go of ingrained, deeply conditioned servitude. in the lunarian court, there are such games of power...that even the most powerful are not aware of. BUT SENGREEN IS ALWAYS AWARE OF POWER. those who do not have such a thing...always note what heaven looks like from below.THE FATED ADVERSARY OF LIN XUE.

【WHO SERVES A SERVANT?】

LIN XUE

THE LAST OF THE LAST ELEVEN, the moon emperor, such a girl as only men know how to be, sometimes-titted, sometimes-dicked, frivolous and erratic. determined to end a matrilineal bloodline curse by simply ending the bloodline with her. a roaring river running down even the most stubborn of stone, LIN XUE is defined by his instability, her unpredictable and violent ocean tide bearing down on the rest of the world to his own destruction. if only SOMEONE would let him.THE FATED ADVERSARY OF SENGREEN.

【IF I, THE EMPEROR, AM THE MOST POWERFUL, AND YOU HAVE POWER OVER ME, DOESN'T THAT MAKE YOU THE MOST POWERFUL?】

SAIGO NO RAN

A RABBIT, A COURTIER, AN UNWILLING BRIDE, the nonpareil of her time. she has the type of labyrinthine memory and unnatural intuition that only palace concubines or war prizes develop in their minds. she is the CROWN OF NOTHING, the crown prince to an empire she should have inherited. but that the usurper stole from her through A MASSACRE! A MASSACRE! seven siblings and none left but her. she was a cat, once.THE FATED ADVERSARY OF LUOYUE.

【THE NONPAREIL OF MY TIME, WHAT A MIND, WHAT A MIND!】

LUOYUE

RIVER DRAGON, A CELESTIAL BEAST, god begot forgotten, a god of the least. LUOYUE is a river dragon that fell out of the time stream...but never forgot her friendship with a girl while she stood in the forest of fireflies and dead lies and wisps of souls that heaven denied...LUOYUE REMEMBERS. as the jade remembers being just a precious stone...and the pearl remembers its home. LUOYUE remembers.THE FATED ADVERSARY OF SAIGO NO RAN.

【WHEN THE GODS ASK 'who remembers?' IT IS SHE】

FEVERFEW THIEN

A DOLL-LIMBED FALCONER, born into a lily house where such unspeakable things do occur, perhaps was once a singing-bird, though such times are long and gone. HAS A NASTY, FEROCIOUS BITE AND TEMPER, rage simmering to full flame inside their hollow, loose-jointed bones, stitches coming undone...THEY WANT FOR ONLY ONE.but they hate him for it. they hate him they hate him they hate him. for making them feel as though...perhaps they could ever have anything they wanted.THE NATURAL ENEMY OF MIZUMI SANEMI.

【SANEMI, SANEMI, MIZUMI SANEMI. 】

MIZUMI SANEMI

A DOVE, ORDINARILY GENTLE, BUT RECENTLY TROUBLED AND FRAUGHT. his heart grows cold. and it grows cold for naught. the curse of his bloodline is that HIS FIRST LOVE WILL BE HIS LAST, and when that love is a man, and he is the only viable heir to a prestigious, noble clan, and his beloved sisters are dead, slain in war, when they should have worn the red of ascendance...of honor, and not the blood of his own bones that stains his hands...SANEMI IS CAUGHT BY DUTY AND HONOR NOT TO EVER LOVE A MAN. but he was born with this curse. and with this curse he will stand....OR PERHAPS FALL, BY HIS OWN HAND.THE MORTAL ENEMY OF FEVERFEW THIEN.

【WHY IS IT WHEN I SEE YOUR FACE I FEEL NOTHING BUT THE RED RIPE PERSIMMON FLESH OF RAGE.】

INVIOLET TRUONG

BOTH FALCON AND FALCONER, a terrifying force of inviolation, of rage, of KNOWING too much about their rank and station and of HEAVEN'S DEALINGS, of HEAVEN'S NATIONS, of heaven's operations and denotations. IV knows of such things that heaven forbids them to. that heaven will never forgive them to.INVIOLET WINDS THEMSELVES INTO AN INFINITY LOOP OF FORBIDDING THE SUICIDE OF THEIR MOST BELOVED. which, in turn, forbids their own suicide.but such infinities are not meant to be possessed by mortal minds, and IV is still yet human, despite everything.fortune only gives such favors to aid in self-annihilation.THE HUMAN TRAPPED IN AN INFINITY LOOP WITH GOD.

【I KNOW THERE IS STILL SACRED LEFT.】

SACROSANCT

FOUR-ARMED FALCON GOD. NOT JUST A CURSE, BUT THE VERY WORST. devoted utterly and completely to inviolet beyond self, beyond measure, beyond able to conceptualize himself outside of inviolet. they are inextricably intertwined and will be forever, until one of them dies, and then the other prevents it.IN ONE WORLD, THEY WERE BOTH SUICIDES. but IV began the infinity loop of preventing the first sacrosanct's death, though he in the end still fell by his own hand, and so IV rewound again and again, until they got it right. have they got it right?WHICH sacrosanct are they seeing. SACROSANCT DOESN'T KNOW. never knows.but he needs IV.THE CURSE-GOD CONTINUALLY TRAPPING INVIOLET TRUONG IN THE INFINITY LOOP THEY CREATED.

【DO YOU SEE ME AS I AM OR AS I WAS?】