31_days challenge fic: MxO

[matrixrefugee]

First time I've done one of these in too long... I don't think I did a one for November December or January. So, I thought I'd put my current fannish obsession to good use:

Title: Power LInes
Day/Theme: February 07: cross my palm with silver, I cannot tell a lie
Series: The Matrix Online
Character: Sieges, my player character; Madame Naomi Tarasova
Rating: PG

Notes: A lot of this hasn't happened yet, but it fits the spirit of the MxO and my reserved but bouncy little scattershot in training... Special thanks goes out to crowdog66 for helping me come up with a phenomenally great title.



She had never been one to peer into the future, but so much uncertainty had crept into the very fabric of the Matrix, that this time of desperation called for desperate measures. Sieges loaded her guns carefully before she jacked into Downtown by way of a hardline in the Historic District. She'd heard of a mysterious woman known as Naomi Tarasova, or "Madame T", who told fortunes with shocking accuracy. Some claimed this woman had been a protege of the Oracle, and anyone with that repute must have some spark of credibility.

In a small courtyard near a large, ornate office building, Sieges found a dark figure waiting in the shadows by a fountain, a woman with a dense shock of jet-black hair held back from her face with a silvery headband and thick mirrorshades hiding her eyes from view. Somehow the flaming heart tattooed on the fortuneteller's left breast, above the neckline of her strapless black leather gown gave Sieges hope.

"Are you Madame T?" Sieges asked.

The dark woman crossed her gloved palms on her breast. "I am she. What brings you to me, redpill?"

"My name is Sieges... I'm, uh.... I work for the Frenchman." She paused, licking her lips nervously. "I just need to know what's going to happen to all of us, what the powers that be have in store for us... my faction, my employer... me..."

"I can give you a glimpse of what is to come, if you can complete some tasks for me," Madame T replied.

"Oh, I'd do anything right now... I'm scared to death, but I fight harder when I'm fighting scared," Sieges replied, realizing she was babbling. "Sorry, I talk more than I should for my size."

Madame T smiled, with a trace of indulgence, then leaned a little closer to tell Sieges the details of her first task...

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Some hours later, Sieges returned to Madame T's courtyard, battered and shaken, but feeling richly rewarded for having completed her tasks, and hoping that she would be similarly rewarded with a glimpse into the future.

Madame T smiled and held out a hand to her. "Let me see your palm, Sieges."

The girl slipped off her right glove and put her hand, palm up, in the fortuneteller's hand. The older woman bent over her hand, her unseen eyes scanning the lines and creases in Sieges's palm. "I see division... I see strength in spite of it... I see dark places you shall have to travel through. You won't be alone: you find companions easily, as shy as you are. ...And there's a man, a pale-haired man... one who doesn't value your heart, even though you give it to him freely, even though he's able to put you in contact with powerful personages and you help him set up a power base of his own."

A thought crossed Sieges's mind, but she pushed it away. "Is there anything more?"

"You'll have to wait and see..." Madame T replied, gently folding Sieges's fingers with her own.

Comments

[crowdog66.livejournal.com]

*applause*

Very nice work!