Arcana

Brenden:
Ha, ha! Shove it up yer 4,000-year-old arse!

Queen of Pentacles:
That b*tch has been a thorn in my side for nearly 20,000 years. I cannot begin to understand her motivation for crossing. But after your men locate the witches, have them focus on her whereabouts.

Brenden:
Well, think of us like The Operators in "The Matrix." See, it's our job to compile and assess knowledge, and assist you on your journey. But it has to be you, the Runner, ultimately, takes action and advances the Gambit.

Stairs:
Okay, I hear that term all the time, but I still don't know what it means.

Brenden:
Well, the goal of all our lives is to realize we're living within a mythic structure. In a nutshell, that's what the Gambit's about. And the Tarot is simply a way to provide parameters for the process. But the point is, throughout the Gambit, it's going to be your job to find out what myth you're in, and successfully navigate through it.

The Emperor:
Heh, a quirk of mine. You might call it an obsession. Time and position are very important to me!

The Emperor:
Now, my name is Logan. I am the owner of this establishment. How can I help you? A wedding, a formal occasion?

Stairs:
My name is Stairs. I'm a Runner, and I'm here to send you back to Other Side. So... are you going to cooperate or are we going to do this the hard way?

The Emperor:
Guess I'm not as good at this as I used to be. Before you do that, let me say something. [He smirks] You will never succeed.

Stairs:
We'll see about that.

Xerxes:
So... Runner: You are indeed illuminated. That's no matter; we're just getting started.

Stairs:
That's Charm, my new employee. She's into schaden, something.

Brenden:
Schadenfreude!

Stairs:
Yeah.

Brenden:
Heh heh heh. I used to date one of those sick puppies, once, back in 1525.

Phoebe:
I partook in some schadenfreude once. It was fun.

Brenden:
Wait a minute - it wasn't, uh [points at Phoebe]

Phoebe:
If it was, let's hope we never remember.

Phoebe:
Xerxes' origins are unknown. Some lores hold that he's an Original. Fought in Adam and Lilith's War of the Ancients, and was a part of the First Arcana. Now, Xerxes is allied with the House of Pentacles and head henchman of the Phoenix nobility.

Brenden:
I was gonna call ya, but I forgot my phone.

Stairs:
You'd forget your dick if it wasn't attached!

Stairs:
Look, things are just getting back to normal with Eliza, okay? I can't do this right now.

Brenden:
Yeah, well, normal's not on the agenda anymore, boyo. Not after you got that Fool card.

Brenden:
It's like this. Have you ever read Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces?

Stairs:
In college, so... mmm [shrugs] .

Brenden:
Well, you see, uh, Campbell pieced together what ancient humans have known for thousands of years. You see, life's got a pattern. See, uh, boy or girl is comfortable with own life, boy or girl is...

Stairs:
Just stick with boy.

Brenden:
Gotcha. Uh, boy has to leave own life, boy doesn't want to leave own life, ahhh, boy meets a wise man or woman...

Stairs:
Yeah, yeah, I get it: adventure, despair, self-actualization... Star Wars 101.

Brenden:
Exactly.

Brenden:
Roughly five thousand years ago, the Elder Gathering - sort of like the elves of Middle Earth - along with Eve, invented this sort of Life Progression for newborns to experience - or run through, hence the term Runner. They hoped to use the Runner as a way to temper the power of the Phoenix nobility. And The Gambit is a way to test the Runner to see if he's worthy.

Stairs:
Okay, job interview. What do the words Runner, Phoenix, and Serpentines mean to you?

Charm:
Well, um... I was a runner in high school, and Phoenix is my favorite X-Men character - well, actually, Dark Phoenix...

Stairs:
You're hired!

Brenden:
Say, uh, it may be the booze here, but... I seem to have this problem.

Stairs:
Oh yeah?

Brenden:
Yeah. This person, uh, I came in contact with recently... uh, a past-life person, uh, keeps callin' me...

Stairs:
[laughs] You got tracked down by a one-life stand?

Phoebe:
You guys order some shots? [They stare at her] What? Do I look okay?

Brenden:
Fantastic. That's not the point. What are you doing here? You're supposed to be at home...

Phoebe:
At home, monitoring Web traffic, reading about gods and goddesses, and missing out on all the fun. [Slugs him]

Stairs:
Mostly I'm upset by the fact that I don't get upset anymore.

Phoebe:
This Runner was stupid enough to post his address on Facebook.

Stairs:
It's a fact: Ron Burgundy is the greatest character in the history of man!

Brenden:
You're not listening to me.

Stairs:
Oh, I'm listening. I'm just not believing.

Brenden:
I know it sounds insane, okay...

Stairs:
No, it's beyond insane. Adam and Eve and Lilith, and Phoenix thousands of years old, living among us? Atlantis?

Brenden:
You recognize the synchronicity at work here. Okay? I know you do. So why is it so hard for you to believe that everything I'm telling you is the answer to all your questions and feelings?

Hope:
I'm getting the hell out of here. These Northwest winters really, really suck.

Xerxes:
Yes, they do. [Brightens] It's where the action is! [laughs]

Brenden:
The Magician's supposed to be neutral, as he or she sets up the parameters for each successive card in the Gambit, but there's no telling how far Xerxes' reach is, so you just have to be careful. Also, just like the Devil, the Magician's a Trickster. Hard to tell what he has up his sleeve.

Stairs:
Hermann, how do I believe any of this? I mean... Sleepwalkers, Phoenix, Inferno, a Gambit, alchemy - come on!

Hermann:
You're thinking of the traditional alchemy. Turning lead into gold. That's a metaphor. The real gold is within. Inside each of us, Stairs, is an inherent duality of forces. We are both the creators of God and the world, and imprisoned by earthly matter.

Stairs:
But how? How is any of this possible?

Hermann:
How can light be both a particle and a wave? It just is. The world is full of the incomprehensible. And the truth is, Stairs... the evolutionists, the creationists - they have it all wrong. The human story is like nothing that you've ever been told.