This is born out of a problem I've been having with the crew "stumbling" onto Noah. I've fixed some things with that encounter, namely the out-of-place slugfest I once wrote about ages ago. And instead reshaped it to help their plight (hiding from their pursuers, esp. Custodians who sense magic) and also to show Noah's abilities, i.e. the world that exists behind his ribs.

Now, rather than having Noah try to safeguard Tisandra in his world and some hackneyed donnybrook break out between he and the crew and then trying to explain how this aggressive fucker should go with them... they're instructed to find shelter in Noah by Thomas's instruction. And at that point in the story, well before they can find it in Clarence's circus, they NEED shelter. Being attacked at every step by two stripes of enemies can get pretty fuggin exhausting.

So this lead me to some work on Thomas and the greater plot.

Thomas is the catalyst. Through him and his prophetic scrying I'm able to set up HOW exactly the characters proceed on their way to Mag Mell and can use his divinations to secure they go on the right path. That way plot-specific character encounters AREN'T just by pure circumstance but by design (with a lot of chaos in between). His ability to see the future sets the ball rolling, so I can't fuck up what he tells them to do or where he tells them to go. Because once it's handed over, there's no going back.

With that in mind, he needs to write them a list of people he foresees (but in the disjointed framing that comes with seeing something you're not wholly familiar with. Divinations being notoriously enigmatic). This also allots me little narrative trap doors to put in if I want to use them later.

Some thoughts I had on the walk-in today involved maybe steeping these predictions in the Tarot.

• Bobby = The Chariot
• Tisandra = Strength
• Zuzu = Temperance
  
• Noah = The World
• Clarence = The Fool
• Rossum = The Hierophant
• The Huntsman = Death

In other words (so the idea goes), these are the cards Thomas gives her, to guide her way. Exactly like the list of people Dream and Delerium kept for their road trip in Brief Lives.

Curious for Marie's take on the above, as she and Ari are the only Tarot experts I know.