#i've tried to look into the hexagrams

[theblindhakune]

I'm so bad at doing character designs but I really wanna make my own Medicine Seller, one of the weaker 56. At least there's a clear template to them now that we have 2 reference points

[misterjauthor]

RING OF DESIRE

"WHERE do you want me to put this, Mr. Ashton?"

I tore my eyes away from the clipboard of delivery invoices and looked at Sean.

My store clerk carried a microwave-sized box. Colored tattoos covered his arm from his wrist all the way up until they disappeared into his black t-shirt sleeves.

"How many times do I have to tell you to call me Blake?" I looked around the cramped back room of my antique store. "Just put it..."

Antique furniture of different sizes lined the walls. Stacks of corrugated boxes occupied every available space except for a gap wide enough for one person to walk through.

"...on my table." I pointed with my pen, faced the wall of boxes, and let him through.

The twenty-five-year-old lifted the box above his head and sidled behind me. "Excuse me, Mr. Ashton."

Oops, this was not a good idea. But it's too late. I tried to be as flat as possible to keep contact to a minimum.

The meaty bulge in the front of Sean's jeans rubbed against my butt as he passed.

Don't be a homophobe, Blake. It's just a dick. It doesn't mean anything.

After Sean put the box on my table, he headed back toward me.

"Wait, I'll get out of the way." I hurried to the end of the tunnel of boxes. His dick is not going anywhere near my butt again. "Is that the last box?"

Sean stopped in front of me. "Yes. Do you want me to do the cataloging later or—"

"I'll do it now. You go ahead and man the front. I'm not in the mood to deal with people today."

"Okay, Mr. Ashton." He turned around and left the backroom.

"I told you to...whatever," I went to my messy table and opened the box.

Inside, an ornate jewelry box sat on top of the box contents.

"Nice!" I took it out and went around the table to sit on my chair. "I can get good money with this."

There might be more good finds inside.

I opened the lid and checked. "Bingo!"

Of all the high-value items, a gold signet ring with a round bezel caught my eye.

"Hello, beautiful." I picked it up and examined the engraving, a unicursal hexagram.

A soft whisper cut through the silence. "Put it on."

My head snapped up. "Who said that?" I craned my neck over the towers of boxes to see if anyone was in the room.

Nothing.

I returned my attention to the ring in my hand. What would it look like on my finger?

"Put in on," the whisper said.

Ignoring it, I brought the golden band closer to my left ring finger.

It fit perfectly. Like it was custom-made. The precious metal warmed my skin as it hugged my finger.

Smiling, I stared at my hand in front of me and thumbed the engraving. This belongs to me.

"Yes," the voice whispered near my ear.

Wait. What am I doing? I don't like wearing jewelry. Never have and never will. I tried to take it off.

The ring remained on my finger.

"What the fuck? Why won't it come off?" I hooked a couple of fingers on the gold band and pulled hard.

It won't budge.

I checked for anything that was making it stay on.

But everything was clear.

"Let's try this again one more time." I got up from my chair for better leverage, gripped the ring tight, and pulled harder. My whole body strained at the effort.

And just like what happens when a rubber band snaps when it has reached its limit, my hand slipped and hit me on the mouth.

"Motherfucker!" I touched my bottom lip.

The ring was still on my finger.

"Fuck it. I'll deal with you later." I sat back on my chair and started going through the rest of the items inside the jewelry box. "If you want to stay on my finger, be my guest."

The pain on my lip lingered.

"WHAT the fuck? Even olive oil doesn't work?" I stood in front of my kitchen counter, pulling on the ring.

All my previous attempts have failed. I've been trying to get this thing off the whole day. 

I went to the sink and poured a generous amount of dish soap on the thing.

The thick and cold liquid coated my finger.

As I rubbed it into a lather, I made sure it entered the space between the gold band and my skin.

I gripped the antique jewelry tight and pulled with every ounce of strength.

My fingers slipped and hit the sink with a clang.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" I bit my lip and panted while shaking my poor hand.

Once the pain subsided, I looked at my hand.

Bubbles covered the ring, but it hasn't moved, not even a smidge.

"What do you want from me?" I threw my hands up and chuckled. "Great, I'm talking to a stupid ring.

The two-tone doorbell echoed through the house.

"It's fucking midnight. Who could that be?" I washed my hands to get rid of the oil and soap.

Ding dong.

"Yeah, yeah. Just a sec!" I snatched the dish towel and dried my hands on the way.

Another doorbell.

I draped the dish towel over my shoulder and opened the front door. "What the fuck do—"

"Hey, bro." Davis, my brother-in-law, stood outside the door in a tight white t-shirt contrasting his brown skin and loose gray sweat pants.

My eyebrows furrowed. "Is everything okay? Come inside." I stepped aside and motioned him in.

He went straight to the living room and sat on the couch. His back leaned on the backrest with his legs open wide. An outline of a fat sausage was imprinted on the crotch.

Why am I looking at Davis's dick? I turned away and headed for the refrigerator. "Beer?"

"Yeah, make it two."

After grabbing three cans, I returned to the living room. "Heads up."

Davis sat up and caught the beers I tossed.

"What happened?" I pulled the tab on my beer and sipped.

"Mandy kicked me out." He opened his.

"Did she find out about—"

"Yep." He knocked back his beer and tried to drink the whole thing in one go.

"Hey, hey, hey. Slow down." I hurried to get the beer away from his mouth. "I already told you a thousand times to stop fucking your secretary. But you wouldn't listen."

"I have no idea how she found out." 

Sitting on the couch next to him, I said, "You know how snoopy Mandy is when it comes to your cheating. She'll do anything to catch you."

Davis finished the rest of his beer and opened another one. "Can I crash on your couch?"

"Of course, you didn't have to ask. And lucky for you, Thomas is away in college. You can sleep in his room."

"Speaking of. How's my favorite nephew? He's a junior, right?"

"Yeah. He visited last weekend and will be back during the holiday break."

"Nice."

We talked and finished a couple more beers. Then, we decided to call it a night.

"This is his room." I opened the door and took Davis inside. "Sorry for the mess. I haven't cleaned up after he went back to the university. I'll go grab some new sheets for you."

"Cool. I'll just have a shower, then I'm going to bed."

"There are towels in the bathroom." I started collecting the dirty sheets and pillowcases.

His back to me, he pulled the tight t-shirt off his built upper body and tossed it on the desk chair. The top part of his massive back tapered into a tight midsection.

My heart thumped hard inside my chest, waiting for his next move.

He hooked his thumbs on the waistband of the sweat pants, pushed them down to his ankles, and stepped off.

I licked my lips and stared at his almost naked body in skimpy boxer shorts.

Davis looked back and asked, "Is there something wrong?"

As an excuse, I answered, "I was going to ask if you need anything else."

"Actually, there's something." He turned to face me, revealing the soft monster pushing the front of his underwear into a big mound.

Snapping myself out of it, I tore my gaze away from his crotch before he noticed. "What?"

"Can I borrow underwear? Mandy didn't give me a chance to get some of my clothes before kicking me out. And since we're kinda the same size, your stuff will fit me."

"Sure. I'll bring it over."

"Thanks, bro." He flashed me his pearly whites before going inside the bathroom.

What is wrong with me? Why do I keep checking out Davis's body? With dirty linens collected, I went out to get fresh ones.

A few minutes later, I returned.

The bathroom door was slightly ajar.

I started preparing the bed for him. As I changed the sheets, some of the steam escaped into the room and distracted me.

Through the gap in the door, the bathroom mirror showed Davis's naked silhouette on the translucent shower glass.

My shorts tightened at the front.

Blake, stop it. I walked around the bed to get the bathroom behind me and went back to finish the sheets.

When I got to change the pillowcases, the bathroom door opened. My brother-in-law came out in only a white towel wrapped around his waist. His solid chest displayed a light scattering of black hair.

"That shower felt so damn good. Just what I needed." He dried his afro buzz cut with another towel.

My eyes zeroed in on the swinging dick hidden underneath the cotton material.

Heat spread over my entire body, and my pits started to sweat. The front of my shorts got tighter.

To be continued...

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Mister J

[twocubes]

Kinda concerned that the kids are getting so into tarot. U ought to be doing I Ching readings while off your tits on acid, like Phillip K Dick intended.

i mean i do have a "get high off your tits on acid" card; like, the people whose acid i'd been borrowing (the couple times i tried) have both lost their acid somewhere (because they are bad at cleaning their rooms) so it's not really an option right now, but, i do have a card to that effect

part of the joke here is that i'm inventing a divinatory tradition from things that are not intended as such. i have been planning on trying to design some more systems that involve dice, so i guess i could do a "roll a d4 + d8 six times to get a hexagram" thing and then have you look at a card as a divinatory thingy, but like.

it feels contrary to the whole project to use an extant mystical tradition.

the only text on the tarot that i've read through-and-through is that one chapter in that book on procedural storytelling; if anything is really the basis of my improvisation here it's that. everything on top of that is finding things that work from the perspective of that framework but don't have the relevant mystique.

like personally i'd rather have people roll a (3+d6) and three d16s and try to divine from the corresponding unicode character in the CJK Unified Ideographs block