Hypnovember 2023
Prompts - 1. Twinkle, 30. Nirvana
For GoddamnBats
By Limewah

The carnival had a whole different atmosphere at night - a little quieter, thanks to there being no kids around, but not too much less busy. The after-dark activities, as well as the opportunity to drink alcohol from take-out cups, brought out a whole different clientele. 
Socks was a little uncomfortable out there, though, being a teetotaller. Seeing other tipsy people made the possum a little nervous. His pierced ears were flattened as much as a possum’s ears could be. His hands were shoved deep into the pockets of his baggy hoodie as he stood off to the side, a stationary rock in the stream of revellers.
He’d be far less awkward once his date was there to support him.

Where was she…?

Obviously there was no chance of her standing him up without a reason - they’d been dating too long for that. She would have sent some sort of excuse. But it was weird that she was late, and that she hadn’t texted.
His eyes scanned from tent to tent, trying not to stare too long at any particular thing, or any particular person. But he could feel eyes on him already; eyes that had been boring into him for the last while. That fox who was idling outside her tent, a starry blue tent with multicoloured stripes of shimmering fabric sewn onto it. It reminded him of the northern lights - that was probably intentional. 
She was draped in a green veil with a matching, frilled dress that went down to just a little past her hips. She was clad in a dark corset, too, as well as long green leggings held together with a lattice of dark cord. It was a very provocative outfit, as provocative as her piercing blue eyes. She was very clearly eyeing him up. 
She didn’t beckon with her paw, but he felt an unconscious tug towards her. One that had pulled him forward, away from the tree he’d been leaning against about five minutes ago, through the crowd so slowly and inexorably, that he didn’t realise it until she had disappeared into the tent and he’d followed after her.

“It’s good that you entered,” she said with a deep, husky voice, as she lit a stick of incense. “The spirits have shown me that it will rain very shortly.”
“O-oh, really?” he said. Now, if he was cynical, he could have imagined she had checked the weather forecast on her phone. But he didn’t see a phone anywhere, and that sheer outfit definitely didn’t have any pockets for one.
As the thin stick of sweet-smelling wood slowly smouldered, a curl of grey smoke spiralled upwards, and the scent began to fill the room. 
The fortune-teller had taken up a seat in front of a round table, with a crystal ball perched in the centre. She looked up at him with an expectant, come-hither smile.
“Aha…” Socks laughed nervously. “I don’t think I can pay for a reading right now.”
“That is perfectly fine. I can tell that you are in need of a reading.” her paws were shuffling a deck of thick cards, a slow, circular rhythm that Socks had a hard time looking away from. The soft flick and snap of the cards was soothing, almost hypnotic. She had beautiful hands. 
And beautiful eyes… her irises were pink, like they were caught in the flash of a camera. He wanted to compliment her contacts
“How do you mean?” Socks said, filling the gulf of silence. 
“You are in some inner conflict, nervous, uncertain about something. I intend to help relieve you of those fears, by showing you your future.”
She laid her cards out on the table, face down. “We will begin with a short meditation, and lead into the reading. Please, sit.”
“Uhm…” Socks checked his phone again. Nothing from his partner. “S-sure.”

He slithered into the stool opposite the vixen, forced to sit up straight and remain focused. His face was refracted and stretched in the thick ball of glass. He looked from it, to the vixen, and back to it again as her paws reached out to orbit it.
“You understand where to look,” she said. “Your body already knows what it wants. That is good. That means your mind is already open, more open than you realise.”
“Mhm?” Socks’ interest was piqued. 
“And this first part of your reading will open it even further, that I can promise you.”
Her voice made him feel a little bit fizzy-headed. When she spoke, it was hard to think of anything else. She had a very magnetic charisma. 
She began to hum softly, her hands dancing around the crystal, so close her claws almost raked against it. He wondered what that would sound like. His attention was drawn effortlessly from her left paw to her right, the dance and waggle almost like a pendulum.
She leaned in lower, her snout and head dipping down until her glinting eyes were visible behind the ball.
…Was it ball changing colour?
Or was it just a trick of the light?
It was like he was watching a timelapse of a night sky, pink and blue and green lights twinkling in and out of existence. It was like the ball was filled with little sparkles of swirling stars, like a shaken snowglobe.
It was dazzling.
“Count the stars,” she said.
“There’s so many, though,” Socks said, his voice already a little slurred.
“Do your best.”

Socks tried his best, for what felt like long minutes.He lost track before he even reached five, and had to start again, and again. For some reason, the task didn’t seem so silly to him.
“Your mind is focused. Your thoughts are slowing. Your jaw has fallen open.”
Oh, it had. He tensed his jaw so he could-
“Let it hang open.”
He let it hang open, his gaze softening to take in everything - the dancing lights, the swirling hands, the gleam of her eyes.
His hands had slipped from his lap and were now dangling at his sides, his head dipping forward as his spine curled down. His legs spread as his shoulders drooped. His mind was full of the sparkles of light, empty of everything else, at her behest. The rest of the world was gone, the interior of the tent melting into a vast, starry sky. There was just the table, the fox, and the ball.
“Well done,” she intoned. “Deeper and deeper. Your mind is clearing, the fog that clouds your true self is lifting. We are burning it away like a warm sun, allowing your mind to clear completely, as clear as this glass you are staring into. Yes?”
“Ye…” Socks grunted, his face completely slack and still.
The fox smirked. Socks didn’t notice it.
“And, with this totally open and yielding mind, you will be able to choose the cards that determine your destiny without fail. No superfluous thoughts or fears to hold you back.”
“Uhhhuhh…?” Socks mumbled.
“Yes…” her voice, deep and low and seductive, guided the possum’s head closer to the ball until his nose was almost touching it. “You have not blinked in some time. You may do so.”
Socks blinked slowly, the left eye doing so slightly out of sync with the right. Drool poured from his slack mouth, his gaze even more unfocused than before.

“Let us begin.”
The glass turned translucent again, and Socks saw his dazed reflection. He did not react to it.

The soft slide and snap of the cards drew his gaze away from the globe. Five cards were laid out before him, face down.
“Now. You will choose three. And those three, as well as the order, will determine your correct course in life.”
Socks would have nodded. But he was too relaxed, his mind was too clear. He was in paradise.
“Let us begin.” she slowly hovered her hand above each card, moving from the left, to the right, and his gaze followed. Her fingers wiggled, and he grunted. 
“This one?” her hand swooped down and picked up the first card, flipping it over.
The golden-filigree wheel on the glossy black card caught Socks’ eye.
“Yes… the Wheel of Fortune. An excellent sign. This tells me that luck and a windfall is in store…”
“Next.” she only moved to the next card over before her fingers wiggled again, and Socks grunted once more.
A beautiful feline with an ornate headdress stared up at the placid, tranquil possum.
“The High Priestess. In this context, you have a teacher, a feminine presence who will give you the proper guidance you require. I believe this has already transpired, has it not?”
“Unh…” Socks’ head barely moved in a nod. He did not worry about divining its meaning. He was free of those cares.
“The next one? Yes, of course.” 
The final card, next to the other two, was flipped. A goblet, upturned, pouring into another one… though the picture faced away from him.
“Yes, Temperance… the inverse. This suggests that you will… feel the urge to indulge, and to give something of yourself away. Your money, your love, your time. This is not ideal… but this can be prevented, alleviated.”
“Yes…” Socks said, finding himself a little more able to speak as his gaze was guided by the fox’s paw, back into those dizzyingly deep eyes.

“Now, I can help you with this. Your High Priestess, your teacher, will help you gain some Temperance, to ensure your Wheel of Fortune turns. And you desire that.”
“I do…”
“Once this is done, you will be free of desire. Free of worries and fear. All it will require, is for you to divest yourself of your earthly possessions. Place your wallet on the table.”
Socks felt sensation return to his sleepy, heavy arms, and did as he was told. He did not mind the speed with which the fox snatched the wallet and opened it up.
“Do you not have any cash?” she asked, sounding a little more hurried than expected.
“No,” he said softly. “Cards…”
“Mhh. Alright. They’ll do.”
Before Socks could put two and two together, she waved her arms around the ball, it sparkled to life again, and he ceased to worry.

A vibration against his thigh made him grunt.
“Is that your phone?” the fortune-teller asked. 
“Yes… I think it might be my girlfriend,” he said. She seemed unimportant to him, now.
“Let me see.” 
One insistent paw reached past the crystal ball, and he placed it in her palm without taking his eyes away from the only thing that mattered, the one thing in the world that gave him bliss and succour.
He could see her silhouette through the magic ball as she pecked away at the screen.
“Oh, you have a money app on here. Good. You will divest yourself of your wealth and your earthly possessions through it, won’t you?”
“Mmhm…” Socks said, smiling sweetly, salivating from the corner of his mouth.
The sparkles on the ball took shape into a dense mix of squares. She held the phone camera up towards it, and it pinged. 
“Hmmh, fingerprint scanner...” She slid the phone back across, and he picked it up. “Put in… let’s say, one hundred dollars. Just enough of your wealth that you won’t miss it.”
Socks obeyed, not even seeing the name on the screen, or how much he was putting in. Giving the money away felt perfectly right… The weight of wealth was lifting off his shoulders, and with it, a deeper sense of peace.
“Good. And with that… you may leave, remembering none of what you have experienced.”

There was a dismissive, businesslike tone to her voice, but it didn’t matter to him. He felt like he was gliding out of the tent, back into the night air.
The raccoon was waiting for him outside, glancing around frantically until her eyes met his. Rose ran to him, confusion and a little annoyance on her face. 
Socks was serene. He pitied her for feeling petty emotions. She seemed angrier when he told her what he had done, and he allowed her to brush past him and stomp towards the starry tent.
Maybe in a few minutes she’d emerge just as unburdened as him… he could think of nothing better for her.
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