It's All In The Cards
I woke up, not for the first time, surrounded by darkness. Everywhere I looked an endless void of black greeted my vision. It felt oddly familiar.
“Hello again Ace.” A voice said from behind me.
Oh damn, now I know where I am.
“My Lady, how lovely to see you again.” I replied, turning to face her and sweeping into a theatrical bow.
Lady Luck was, as ever, beautiful to behold. She still had that wild red hair, perfectly contrasting her charming green eyes. However, rather than the slinky black dress she wore last time we met, she was now dressed in a long, split leg dress that was as green as the fields of Ireland. She stood just behind a roulette table, one hand nonchalantly spinning the wheel.
Normally, this would have been a perfect scene for me, were it not for the frown that adorned the goddesses’ face.
“Erm....hate to bother you and all m’lady but...am I dead?”
“Not quite, though not for lack of trying on someone’s behalf.”
“Oh...so I’m dying? That sucks I guess.” I scratched at my head nervously. “So how did that happen?”
“I believe that an old enemy of mine may have interfered. She’s been quite jealous of my position for some time and I believe she sees this Chess Game as a way to gain some power.” She let out a melancholy sigh, “Seriously, you make one little joke about a Goddess at a party and she vows an eternity long vendetta.”
“And what? She’s affecting the Game?” I was still quite confused. The affairs of the Gods seem a bit like something that should show up on the Jerry Springer show.
“Yeah, though it would be a bit hypocritical of me to accuse her of cheating since I’ve been doing the same.” She muttered. With a flick of her wrist, two dice appeared in her hand, which she idly began to shake.
“Who is she then? This great and terrible enemy?”
“Her name is Até, a rather minor Goddess in the Greek Pantheon, but an annoying one. She lays claim to the domains of Delusion, Folly, Strife and Misfortune. It is on the last one that we have some serious disagreements.”
“I take it this is one of those arguments that didn’t really go away over time?”
“Not really, no. We’re half-sisters you see and when we weren’t fighting for Daddy’s attention we were fighting over who got what domain. It got worse when she tricked our father, Zeus, into making some meaningless oath and he got mad and threw her off of Olympus.”
“Wow,” I muttered,”Overkill much?”
“Yeah, Dad did always have a temper on him. Still, I may have compounded the issue a little when I spent a couple of hundred years taunting Até that I was the favoured child.”
I stared at her in disbelief, my gaze being met by her utterly calm eyes. “That is just cold.”
“I admit that it wasn’t my finest moment. In my defence, I was very young for a Goddess at the time and had finally won a little spat that had been going for around three hundred years.”
I shook my head sadly at the immaturity of the deity that was supposed to be my chosen Goddess. “So basically we’ve got a pissed off goddess who isn’t afraid to cheat. What do we do?”
“That’s simple,” She said, conjuring a pack of cards into her hand. A disturbingly familiar looking pack of cards, judging from the marked Ace of Spades on the top. My hands flew to the pouch that should contain my deck, finding nothing, causing Lady Luck to grin. “We simply need to be better cheaters.”
“And how do we go about doing that?” I asked, still eying my deck.
“We stop being quite so subtle. Até is known for her ability to induce rages in mortals, forcing them to act rashly in the heat of battle. However, despite her pretensions to cunning she’s still rather easy to trick, and that infuriates her.”
“Okay, trick her. Got it.” I paused for a moment, “ You realise that I’m still bleeding to death on the floor, surrounded by enemies, right now don't you? The only tricks I can pull off are the one’s involving blood and death, and they’re not very fun ones. Really ruin the mood at parties.”
“That is also quite easily remedied,” She replied, gently laying her other hand on top of my deck. A bright shine began to pulse out from her hand as she slowly pressed down, causing the cards to seemingly disappear into her arm. “When you wake up, simply draw two cards.”
Feeling a sudden weight in my hand, I looked down and saw the deck there, each card still glowing slightly from whatever Lady Luck had just done to them. “Draw two cards? And what exactly will that do?” I looked up and almost jumped out of my skin as Lady Luck was suddenly standing directly in front of me, seemingly without crossing the intervening distance.
“It will do just what it needs to do.” She said cryptically before leaning in and placing a kiss directly on my lips. My eyes shot wide open at the sudden show of affection, before slowly closing as I felt drowsiness descend upon me.
My world exploded into searing pain, quite a sudden change from the calming emptiness of whatever void I inhabited when talking to Lady Luck. My mind reeled as it tried to desperately acclimatise to the sudden change, giving me a splitting headache to pile on top of the burning pain I could feel in my chest, which was pressed against the rough floor.
Oh yeah, bleeding to death; got to do something about that.
I could feel the deck of cards in my left hand, which was strange considering I was sure that they were in a belt pouch when I had been attacked. However, for the sake of my own survival I chose to disregard this and began to fumble at the deck, my thumb scraping the top card in a pathetic attempt to draw it with what little energy I had left. Finally, my thumb hooked under the top card and managed to flip it off, the little piece of plastic-coated paper fluttered from the top of the deck, as if caught by some unseen wind, and landed in front of my nose.
It was a face card, the figure beaming up at me taking the shape of that lovely mistress, the Queen of Hearts. I was still confused over what this was supposed to do though. I know gods are supposed to work in mysterious ways and all but I would really rather have some divine healing about now rather than a short, potentially fatal game of solitaire. I have never been a big fan of solitaire; it takes two to cheat after all and in solitaire you can only cheat yourself. Lady Luck having me play such a dull game now seemed like adding insult to injury, considering the massive pain that was storming through my ribs.
Wait...Where did the pain go?
Hesitantly, I began to lift myself up, looking down at my chest where I expected to find a lot of bloody holes. I was met with disappointment, though it was a joyous disappointment, when I was just greeted by my normal, whole chest. A bit more blood covered than usual but still in one piece.
Looking back at the card in front of me I noticed that it seemed to have lost its colours, the normally powerful red now muted to a dull grey. Some kind of healing magic? Well that is incredibly useful, even if it does only have one charge.
Slowly, I clambered to my hooves, swaying slightly as I regained my full height. Of course, this movement had the unintended effect of drawing the attention of the other conscious inhabitants of the room. Two unicorns, two pegasi and an earth pony were all staring at me in amazement, making me feel a bit awkward.
“Er...hi, how’s tricks?” I said nervously.
One of the pegasi, who I recognized as Vibrant Melody, managed to close her hanging jaw enough to respond. “How in Tartarus are you still alive?” She demanded, receiving a shrug from me in return. “Oh well, looks like we’ll just have to kill you again.” She commented with a shrug of her own before nodding to her two unicorns, who began to charge their horns.
Lady Luck’s words echoed in my mind, ‘Draw two cards.’
I was swift to do exactly what she had told me to do, my right hand flashing to my left and grabbing the topmost card. I glanced at it, wondering what magical effect I might get this time. The twisted grin of the Joker card stared at me, the colourful clown seeming more joyful now than he had ever been before.
“Joker?” I said, “What the hell does a Joker do?”
I looked up from the card to see if anything had happened to the room, however the only difference I noticed was that the unicorns were now ready to cast their offensive spells.
“Oh shit!” I yelled, dropping the card and bodily throwing myself out of the way of their magical volley.
As soon as I hit the floor I tucked my body up and rolled back to my hooves, ready to keep dodging at the first sign of a shot heading my way. Nothing came though. No magical battery, no charging ponies or speeding pegasi. Nothing. Confused, I looked around to see the unicorns still eagerly firing spells from their horns, directing them all at...
Me?
Well, not me obviously, but what appeared to be a perfect copy of me. The fake satyr shuddered as shots thumped in to him, spouts of blood and gore shooting from him as the destructive spells tore his body apart. Judging by the fact that both of the mages were focused on my double and not on me, I hazarded a guess that, at the moment at least, they were unable to see me. Not one to let such an opportunity pass by, I began to move towards the unicorns, creeping up to them as they continued to fire. I secured my new magical deck into my belt to free my hands for what I was about to do.
A veritable fountain of blood shot out of my clone's mouth as a large portion of his chest disappeared. He fell to his knees, blood-matted hair falling forwards to cover most of his face and precious life blood dripping onto the floor around him. Suddenly, he raised his head and the grimace of pain turned to an insane smile.
“Made you look.” He chuckled before disappearing in a poof of smoke, leaving a Joker card hanging in the air to gently fall to the floor.
The unicorns had the decency to look confused as their injured enemy disappeared, their heads slowly turning to look up at me as I reappeared between them. Their eyes widened with fear as their enemy, which they had so far managed to keep at a safe distance, was suddenly close enough to take them out with ease. Something that I promptly did.
“‘Sup?” I asked as I grabbed their respective horns, bringing the stunned unicorn’s heads together with a crack. The violent strike to their horns caused the two magical ponies to drop like a sack of potatoes, falling to the floor at either side of me.
The rest of the room were staring in shock at me, which I can’t really fault them for. I would be pretty surprised too if my nearly dead enemy got back up twice and took out my friends. Another thing I would be is quite angry, a trait I apparently shared with my opponents here as the two remaining minions were now charging at me from the front, whilst, judging from the sound of rapid hoofsteps I could hear from behind me, Vibrant Melody had also decided to join the fray.
My hand right hand shot to my knife sheath whilst my left went for a new card, hoping that the whatever effect it bestowed would be a useful one. I had just enough time to notice that it was the Seven of Diamonds before I sent it flying towards the earth pony and pegasi duo with a flick of my wrist. The two ponies, seeing a mere card heading their way, ignored it and continued their charge, a mistake that proved foolish for them. The card, upon reaching its targets, suddenly exploded outwards in a flash of light, the searing brightness blinding them. The shouted in surprise and pain as they stumbled around completely visionless, occasionally bumping into each other and flailing about with their hooves, often managing to hit each other in their confusion.
Diamond causes flares eh? Well they are quite dazzling.
Seeing that one problem was dealt with, for now at least, I turned to face my remaining foe, only to be forced to throw myself back from a quicksilver strike that lunged for my throat. Melody had activated her hoof-blade amulet as she had leapt at me, hoping to impale me upon it. Seeing that she had missed, she leapt again, snarling and with intense rage etched upon her face. Até’s influence I presume. Lady Luck had said that she was good at inducing rages, though I hadn’t expected her to be doing it to her own side.
Speaking of rages, I could feel my own anger mounting and forced myself to take a deep breath to calm myself. Now that I knew what the opposing deity could do, I would be able to work towards preventing it from happening to me.
“I’ll kill you!” Melody screamed, practically foaming at the mouth now, “How dare you defy me! Trying to take down my operation! Trying to take down me! I’ll kill you!”
Well at least she was confident in her objectives. I don’t even know what my goals here are, other than the obvious one of surviving. If I could find someway to make money out of this situation then that would be awesome but for now I’m going to focus on surviving if at all possible.
On the subject of my continued survival, I was once again forced to leap back as Melody leapt forward and slashed at my legs, attempting to cripple me. Thankfully, despite her pegasus speed, I was still faster on my feet than her. Lightly, I danced back to avoid her pressing attacks, each slash becoming more and more wild as she forced me to retreat. Several times I saw that she had overextended herself, leaving her neck or chest open for a swift stab from my knife. However, each time these opportunities came up I let them pass by.
I was no killer after all.
Of course, with the Lady Luck’s augment to my deck, I now had an offensive alternative to the nasty business of killing. The moment I got a spare second from having to dodge attacks I drew a card from my belt, hoping for another Diamond. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to check the card before being forced to throw it, immediately throwing myself back to avoid a disemboweling strike.
The small rectangle of magical paper shot through the air, striking Melody square in the face before she even had time to react. The moment the card touched, her eyes shot wide and she began to hyperventilate. Her head darted round, as if desperately assessing some unseen threat.
“Fire! Fire everywhere!” She began to shout, despite the clear evidence otherwise.
The scarred mare began to run around the room, flailing at herself and everything around her, trying to put out the flames that only she could see. My enemy having run off, I decided to sneak a quick look at the card that I had used on her. The Ten of Spades.
Fear effect eh? I’ll have to be careful with those ones, they seem nasty.
I decided to take the brief respite I had managed to buy to assess the conditions of my opponents so that I could best use my tactical advantage of being able to run up and smack them upside the head. The pegasus was still hovering around and rubbing at his eyes, as was his earth pony company. They seemed to be slowly recovering from the effect though as they would occasionally look blearily at the room, blink a couple of times and then go back to rubbing their eyes. Of course, this temporary blindness put them at a severe disadvantage when it came to the game of ‘dodge the crazy flailing mare.’
So far, the pegasus and I were doing well. The earth pony? Not so much.
The stallion just had the time to let out a strangled yelp before his boss’s wildly swinging hoof smote him in the side of the head in a desperate attempt to get rid of the illusionary fire. Melody must have been surprisingly strong as the struck pony dropped to the ground immediately, about as conscious as a lightweight after a drinking contest.
Seeing that the pegasi was about to recover, I chose to take him out of the fight before he had any chance to make a move. I grabbed another card from my belt and, since I had the time, actually checked it this time. The Four of Clubs. If what I suspected was correct and the power of these cards were based upon their numbers then this would be a fairly weak attack. Then again it could have some amazing effect that would more than make up for the lack of power.
Shrugging, I flicked my arm out and released the card, sending it spinning through the air towards the pegasi. By sheer chance, he just managed to recover from his earlier blindness in time to see a second of my surprisingly dangerous cards heading his way. A look that was two parts resignation and one part fear crossed his face before he immediately slammed his eyes shut, perhaps expecting another flare.
However, no light came from the card as it struck the pegasi. Instead, his head shot backwards as though he had just been punched in the face by a burly Scotsman. The strong blow to the head proved to be too much for the nimble but fragile winged pony as he fell from his hovering position and slammed into the ground headfirst. It seemed that, instead of hitting him with the force of a thrown playing card, the Four of Clubs had instead opted to hit him with the force of a thrown brick, a decision I could entirely get behind.
Only one enemy remained. The big boss, Vibrant Melody. As I turned to face her she seemed to come down off the fear effect that had been placed on her, looking around her in confusion as whatever horror she had been seeing faded away to be replaced by the equally shocking sight of all her minions defeated and her enemy standing triumphant.
Raising my knife into a guard position just as Iron had taught me, I let my other hand draw a card from my belt, readying it for another throw by holding it in between my index and middle finger. I allowed a smirk to cross my face as I noticed the hesitance on Melody’s face. With her henchponies defeated, she wasn’t feeling so sure about fighting this little old satyr.
Letting out one last snarl of impotent rage, Melody chose to retreat. She spread her wings and shot upwards, flying gracefully into the vent system that I had arrived through, disappearing in an instant. Loud coughs and thuds echoed through the vent as she encountered the same problem I had in my unconventional travels. If vents weren’t made for climbing through then they definitely were not made for flying through. She was not going to be having a pleasant journey.
Letting loose a relieved sigh, I dropped my stance and relaxed my tense muscles. I then went around the room and picked up all my thrown cards, replacing them in my deck before surveying the room. Everyone other than me was still out cold, although that was not the really important thing that caught my attention.
Swift Storm had been given a pudding cup that, somewhat miraculously, had been unharmed in the fight. I quickly crossed the room and grabbed my prize, taking a seat on the unconscious form of one of my defeated opponents as I began to dig into my stolen dessert whilst I waited for my friends to wake up. The sweet taste of victory filled my mouth.
It tasted like chocolate.
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I think it gives him something to help even the playing field. An ace in the hole, if you will.
Why is this being updated at 3-5 in the morning? More importantly, why am I awake for this?
Sidenote, one of my favorite champions is Twisted Fate, so I'm quite pleased with this turn of events.
Magic cards? Well thats just lucky...
I'm going to die for that one... CONTINUE YOUR WRITING MY GOOD SIR!
Magic cards? There's a Magic: The Gathering joke in there somewhere...
Interesting.
However, I think you should make the aces the strongest, rather than the weakest (assuming that aces represent "1", and not "14"), like an "ace up the sleeve" to turn the tide of battle into your favor.
However, the aces could have some risky effects…I leave the decision up to you.
DANNDYY MAAANNN!!!!! XD "oh dear, looks like you activated my trap card."
nah, it'll always depend on the card he pulls out (it is all due to chance anyways)
Some ideas for the aces:
Ace of spades: Creates visions that drive the affected to the point of madness.
Ace of hearts: Can heal any fatal injury, or resurrect the recently killed (by recent, I mean one minute or less)
Ace of clubs: The force of an earthquake.
Ace of diamonds: Upgraded flash-bang, releases heat and sound as well.
I think as they are now the cards make him a bit too powerful, but at the moment I kinda expect there to be a significant drawback. Like once a card has been used it can't be used again.
If that IS the case, Lady Luck told him to draw two cards... I wonder if he's going to get it later for immediately throwing them around like candy.
Fifty cards, a luck of the draw, even the best of chance is a fickle thing when relied upon. Limited each is, and in that, with chance, and what happens when another plays upon lady lucks hand, or can they at all? The deck is not one that stays stacked for long anyhow. His mind and wit are what he draws his strength from, a hero of guile. And even the best of them has their tools in question, and to draw from the deck, well, not really, for i really wonder when you consider what the royals of each may do. After all, royalty is often difficult to control, and even more to appease.
I think you handled this pretty well. One of the main things is that the situation Ace got the cards in was not inescapable by normal means, so you therefore avoided the dreaded "deus ex machina" plothole, in which the only way the hero can survive is a major copout by the writer.
My understanding of the cards was that each is a one-off, a single use and then they're useless as anything but normal cards. This is good, and like previous comments before me I suspect that Lady Luck is not going to be pleased with how freely Ace is using them.
Lady Luck's intervention was well done, we've known from the beginning that she's not playing entirely fair so her stepping up her game when another deity starts interfering is entirely in character and even encouraged.
So overall, I'd say you did a good job of introducing magic, new items, and furthering the relationship between characters in this chapter. You haven't jumped the proverbial shark yet and at the rate you're going you won't be any time soon.
"Oh dear, you activated my aluCARD" Bring it on, DANDY MAN!
How about luck of draw? like some cards hurt him or some drawback for using certain cards like diamonds,his veiw range could be less for whatever number his card is like 7 of diamonds seven minuts of a little less seeing
I'd say that as long as he doesn't start using the cards for everything then you'll be good, they're his ace and should only be used when he's otherwise screwed
great chapter once again! keep up the good work
i think the cards should only work against the weak willed..... these arn't the droids... oh watever
The guys got magic cards.....and magic hands.
Hey dandy man! You missed whopwhopwhop
A very interesting development. Also, I like that theme music. I was listening to Illusionist while reading, but it isn't about TF as mush as it could have been.
I like the cards make being a patron of lady luck more......pronounced
and now he has a weapon powerd of luck so.......cool
I think the cards are a wonderful idea, it levels the playing field and allows ace to be more useful in different situations. I think they should be reusable, but being a being a former "magician" ace would want to save his best trick for last. Also there is the fact that enemies can dodge, and if he uses them more than once or twice enemies will catch on and, well, dodge the cards.
What would happen if he decided to just throw the whole deck at someone?
I was expecting a Deck of Many Things, or some variant thereof. Generally, a DoMT only affects the user (though some cards will do things like turn one of your friends into an enemy, or let you auto-defeat the next monster you encounter), and all of the black cards are negative effects while all of the red cards are positive effects.
If he's only able to use each card once, though (as suggested by the Queen losing its color), things could certainly be interesting with only 53-54 (how many Jokers are in his deck?) uses, and Ace using them like candy in this one fight.
(Now we just need a Duck of Many Things!)
he's gonna need the cards later on, many of the pieces are extremely durable or unstoppable, so having the cards balances Ace out in the playing field. I probably wouldn't have the cards be single use, but maybe have a long 'recharge' rate on them (or side-effects)
too powerful? nope. he is supposed to cheat after all, and fair fights are so easy to lose.
2129774
pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw2604-Luna_saw_what_you_did_there.jpg
2130939 No such thing as a fair fight, only an honorable one, and we all know that Ace is not insanely honorable
I think it balances him out just barely enough. If the cards do have multiple uses, they should probably have a detrimental factor added to them, like using a Hearts card heals Ace instantaneously for the amount possible by the card, but slows his natural healing rate down for however long the card takes to recharge. Clubs should probably be a double-edged sword, doing damage to both the attacker and attackee à la Double Edge or Take Down from Pokémon. I think it's fairly reasonable to balance Ace out with the other pieces now, and still not sweep away anything and everything he runs into.
Never before have I loved the blatant use of deus ex machina as I have here.
Or (nearly) self aware deus ex machina for that mater.
As long as Ace gets the occasional "WELP, THAT DIDN'T WORK" moments when using his cards, I don't mind. That or you can conveniently turn it off, because, say, he already saved his ass here.
I absolutely love this development. I honestly think this should be taken even further as the story goes on, giving him a new deck of cards with different abilities. I've heard that a star could be used for cards. It would be really interesting. The numbers, jacks, queens, and kings would stay the same, but the effects would change.
Brilliant!
his luck helps him chose the correct card for the moment!
Brilliant I say!!!
I just realized. Tarot Cards would work great as well.
For once someone use magic cards in a way besides razor sharp/exploding I really like how you did this one question would tossing certain hands like a straight, full house,royal flush, four of a kind, or dead mans hand (aces and eights) cause different/special things to happen?
I'd say it makes him more fun! Having a magic deck of cards? Fuck yeah! Where can I get some?!
Just imagine, he uses them in a poker game against some baddies then uses them while they are holding them!
That would be awesome! These cards add a different element to this 'game' which certainly makes him very lucky to have them. So I say hell yeah he should keep them!
2132291 Ooh! Now there is an idea! I second that!
Deck of Cards? I'm reminded of Darken, and also of a Bard from a DND campaign I played. They'll be a solid addition to his arsenal, provided he manages to ration them wisely. Even with luck as his master, he can't be lucky forever.
How long does it take them to recharge? Single use Health/Illusion/Flashbang/Impact/Fear spells are nice and all, and I imagine that there's going to be some blockage that needs busting with the King of Clubs, a nice bit of white-mage action with the Hearts and so on... but are these all completely single-use?
Given the time-scales involved in journey times and so on, having a week or so recharge on them wouldn't be all that harsh, but so long as they did I could see a dramatic moment coming with a healing card that recharges at the very last second, that kind of thing. But the drawback of throwing them around like confetti would simply be that he's got no options in an emergency, should it happen within a few days.
Also, I must now adapt a cocktail from The Hitch-hiker's Guide. I need to make a drink that makes you feel like having your face smashed in by a four of clubs wrapped around a red brick. I shall call it the Dirty Unfortunately Local Gargle Blaster. More on that when it happens.
Sounds like an apt thing for Ace to use.
I have only one thing to say...
PUDDING!!!
Oh great, Ace just became Twisted Fate from League of Legends
How many times has Ace nearly died by now? Four? Five?
2136648 nah twisted cards kills his opponents, ace's hurts them, alot, but doesnt kill them.
dude, every paladin should carry his goddess's weapon, and what better weapon for luck than cards other than maybe dice? besides which, it's not like it's as powerful as a deck of many things
What does the Ace of Spades do O.O
Hmm, what's the most random or crapsack deck out there?
Dominoes
Uno
Monopoly chance and chest cards
Pokemon cards that never does what the title says
Yugioh cards that never do what the title says
Colored post its or index cards
Flattened cereal boxes
Greeting cards
Sweethearts candy
Stick of Starburst
Gum
M&Ms
Baseball cards
Dollar bills from several countries
Coins from several countries
Coupons
Oh yeah, victory TOTALLY tastes like chocolate.
2129871
You activated my Alucard.
2180490 OH SHI-*Gets brutally mauled.