[center]Three-card monte - also known as find the goddess, find the lady, find the queen, find the maiden, find the mother, three-card trick, three-coconut surprise, triune trick, Hecate's Delight, Cerberos's Delight, Kindly Ones' Delight, Hermes' Delight, and the Turtle Game - is a confidence game in which the victims, or "heroes," are tricked into betting a sum of money on the assumption that they can find the object of their quest among three face-down cards (trump, tarot, oracular, business, or otherwise).[/center]

[right][b]Carmen Oya[/b] has transformed her cube into a bar. There is no bar on Tellus which has the space to sprawl out beyond the confines of a cube, and so the distinction between bars is simply in terms of quality and vibe. To open a bar is an admission that one's tightly-circumscribed living quarters cannot sustain oneself without a tightly-knit group of regulars choosing to leave their cubes and come to [i]yours[/i]. She sleeps in a hammock that unfurls from the ceiling and she sleeps amidst her drinks, which all refill themselves overnight. She likes making cocktails and dislikes the sight of herself in a mirror in the dark.[/right]

She's screaming

[center]It was Hermes Trismegistus who first demonstrated to humanity what could be done with three cups and three balls, though the historical record is silent on whether she performed this revelation with the fan, the wand, or the cigarette. It did not take much encouragement for nascent mortalkind to consider how they could use this holy miracle in order to profit at the expense of others.[/center]

[right][b]Cassia[/b] is coiled at the door to a secret vault. She is made of stone and she has four mighty arms and a scaled trunk. She has never met her sisters, but soon there shall be no need for the vault to be hidden by a mighty warrior, for it will be sealed away by a host of ten million demons, and she may be released from her long and silent vigil to blink beneath the stars. She has spent centuries memorizing the location of each slab of marble around her and has given each one a code name.[/right]

Yue is asking if she's got a lash? a lash? a lash? in?

[center]To transform the game of balls and cups into a hunter's snare, there must be an element of misdirection. One of the most enduring is to portray it as a test of skill, pricking the hero's vanity with a poisoned needle. They are special, they are different, they are unique: surely they can overcome this challenge by nothing more than proving their innate excellence, skill, [i]arete.[/i] Some performers ensure that they are seen losing beforehand, or for small wagers.[/center]

[right][b]Xenophonia[/b]'s cube is a maze of aquariums. She watches the fish listlessly circle around and around the plants, the miniature sunken temples, the hollow rocks. She makes a loop of the entire cube three times a day, speaking to her pets about their lives, their secret hopes, their piscine dreams, but never asks them if they dream of the sea. She does not dream of the sea. The very thought is incomprehensible to her - how would all that water be cycled? She likes snails and dislikes betta fish.[/right]

[i]stop it stop it stop it stop it[/i]

[center][b]Attention-Grabbing Gambit:[/b] many performers of three-card monte utilize a various number of methods to distract their heroes from the con being played out in front of them, many of which are [b]Crowning Moments of Awesome[/b] in their own right. [b]Hermes' Return of Tellus[/b] may soon be one of the most famous ones ever - check out that page for details![/center]

She shrieks. Above her, Yue blurts out: "I'm so sorry, did that make it worse?" She's holding a vial with a dripper and inside there's [i]sunlight[/i]. Redana blinks, and the sunlight soaks into her Auspex. Her heart is thundering in her chest, but she can see again, she can [i]think[/i] again, without her mother...

"Mom."

"I'm really not?!?"

Redana wraps the stammering sun farmer into a tight hug, nearly forcing her up onto tiptoe, and then stumbles past Hades, crumpled on the floor like a wadded-up piece of homework, and she lunges through the door after Bella, towards the home she gave everything in order to escape, towards all of humanity [i]cutting in line.[/i]

Towards her [i]mother.[/i]