✶Whoa, a DTAE!✶ “Welcome in, please take a seat!” … “It’s okay, no need to pay up front. You just look like someone who could use my services, is all.” … “Yes, plenty stumble in here uninvited. All are welcome in my humble abode. Now let’s get started, pick a card…” ✶ Altair may seem cunning and sly on the outside, radiating mystery and knowledge, but in reality he’s actually quite empathetic. He has the uncanny ability to watch others through magical eyes created by himself, which allows him to easily find out their problems and ailments. When he spies someone who looks like they’re in need of his services, he allows his shop to appear before them. Altair learned basic Tarot, palm readings, and divination from his grandmother, but didn’t believe in them growing up. It was only when his magical ability manifested that he decided to use his skills to help others. When his grandmother retired, he took over her shop and started welcoming customers. He tends to use his card-reading to bring people’s awareness to problems in their lives that may need fixing, as well as giving cryptic advice that always seems to help in the long run. To his customers, he seems like a cunning and mysterious psychic, but all of his friends know him as an empathetic problem-solver that’s afraid of seeming vulnerable in front of others. ✶ “Sit still and listen to the stones,” Altair’s grandmother rumbled. He squirmed in his seat, impatient, but he ran his paw along the pebbles nonetheless. “Remember that the stone chooses you, not the other way around.” “I knowww,” He whined, but he still did as she instructed and picked up the stone that called to him. He didn’t know if it was special or not, it just felt right. He waited as his grandmother inspected the rune on the stone and hummed to herself, but she didn’t tell him what it meant. “Grandma, what’s the point of all this?” He mewed. “What if I don’t even end up with powers, like mom?” “She still knows how to read the world through tools such as these,” his grandmother reminded him. “You need to know what patterns to seek out in your life, instead of blindly stumble through it.” Altair sighed, but didn’t argue any further. He secretly hoped he had inherited his grandmother’s abilities. He was unsure about taking over her shop, and he wasn’t as confident as her when it came to divination, but the idea of having magic powers seemed cool. Little did he know, they would end up manifesting completely randomly. ✶ It happened while Altair was sitting in the park, practicing party tricks. If he didn’t end up being a psychic, he hoped to become a magician or an actor, and make magic happen on stage. Just as he tossed up a coin, preparing to make it ‘disappear,’ it happened. Altair’s vision spun, cut out, and reappeared, showing him a multitude of details around the park. ✶Stars above,✶ he thought in confusion. ✶Where am I?✶ He tried to look around, and he saw a kit walking along the railing to a bridge, teetering perilously. His vision suddenly snapped back to normal, and he caught the coin and looked around. There was the bridge, on the other side of the park, with the kitten still on it. He raced over, just as the kit started to sway and fall. Altair caught it by the scruff, and eventually managed to find its panicked parents who’d lost it. ✶That was strange,✶ Altair thought to himself, shaking his head. ✶At least I helped someone.✶ ✶ Over the course of the next few weeks, similarly strange incidents occurred. Altair’s vision would cut to a random place nearby, showing someone in trouble, and he would help them. It was all peculiar and eerie, and he decided to ask his grandmother about it. “You have the Sight!” She exclaimed once he’d asked. “While my powers are different, yours must be like my mother’s. With practice, you can control it.” Altair’s head spun; he had never expected to actually be magical. He’d been told his family had a long history of magic as a kit, but he stopped expecting to inherit the abilities as he grew older. Now, though, his long-held hope had finally come true! Only, everything felt strange. Why him? His grandmother didn’t force him to take over the shop. Instead, he practically had to beg her to teach him how. She was reluctant to teach him, afraid that she would pressure him into continuing *her* dreams, not his own, but he insisted. He’d always wanted to help people and dazzle them, and now he had the opportunity to. This time, the magic would be real, not just disappearing coin tricks. He used his abilities to watch his grandmother work with her clients, and he noticed that her skills were more than just card-reading. She comforted her clients, made them tea, listened to her stories. She cared for them, and she genuinely wanted to help them. The more he watched, the more he cared, too. He wanted to help the people that came by, in ways only he could. And eventually, his grandmother let him.
All art by me! Don’t trace, steal, recolor, or repost!
