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It was Jordan's day off - or, more precisely, it was one of a string of "days off" that would continue until he acquired a new job, seeing as how the small business that he'd been working for had shut down, and he was going to have to find a new one soon, as that was part of the deal with his grandfather about staying in Ashdown and taking summer courses. This was part of why he was in the city center at the moment. The other part was that it was about time for lunch and there was a bagel shop that he liked, and he could really use a cup of coffee too.

He paused under the shade of a small, fenced-in tree that shaded the sidewalk to watch a young girl getting a tarot card reading from a shirtless and rather scruffy-looking guy who had set up with a milk crate and a bit of cardboard in lieu of a stand. Jordan wasn't entirely sure whether he believed in tarot readings; it was probably random chance and social engineering, but he wasn't one to discount that quiet possibility that something else was at work. Anyway, it was pretty much harmless.

As the girl ran off smiling, Jordan took another look at the entrepreneur who was now gathering up his cards. The guy looked familiar. Had he seen him before? Somewhere around campus, probably; the guy looked to be around the right age to be a student himself, and a scruffy and eccentric appearance wasn't in any way an indication that someone wasn't a student. Jordan checked his wallet and took out a five. He could have a regular coffee instead of a fancy one.

He stepped up and dropped the bill into the guy's backpack. "Hey," he said cheerfully, "I could use a little advice."

"Magic 8 ball?" Jordan repeated, sounding a little skeptical. "That might be a little non-specific. Maybe tarot. I'm looking for a job, thought I might ask if there's some kind of direction I should be looking." He produced a slightly sheepish smile. "Can't hurt, right?"

He wondered if this guy genuinely believed in what he was selling, or whether he was just selling it. Maybe it didn't matter. The results would be the same either way, whether or not it was influenced by anything out of the ordinary.

"I can shuffle," Jordan agreed. Not as well as this guy could, apparently, but he could manage a deck of cards fairly fluently. He watched the smooth interleaving of thin cardboard with interest.

"I was gonna ask you that, actually," he said. "I guess that suggests the answer's probably yes. I go to Rider-Waite, maybe we saw each other around there somewhere?" He felt faintly awkward looming over the guy while they were talking; he checked the sidewalk under him to make sure there were no suspicious stains or wads of gum, and sat down.

"Oh, well, congratulations then," Jordan said, nodding in return. "Fine arts?" It wasn't a surprise in any way; art students were often a little eccentric and into the unusual or mystical, at least the ones he'd met.

He accepted the deck of cards and focused on them with a small frown of concentration, attempting to follow the instructions. The tarot cards were a little longer than the playing cards he was used to, and his first try at shuffling was a little clumsy, but he got the hang of it quickly. He shuffled the cards together a few times, then offered the deck back. "That good?"

"Once when I was a kid, but not since then." Jordan had spent his allowance on a reading at a fair when he was ten, over his mother's scowl of disapproval, and come away not much enlightened but feeling as though he'd seen something out of the ordinary. He'd gotten a lecture about wasting money afterwards, which had only somewhat diminished his sense of satisfaction.

"Guess that'd make some kind of logical sense," he said, and picked six cards out of the spread-out deck, pulling them out and handing them back to Wil. "If it's about me, it should be influenced by me, or something."

Jordan's eyebrows jumped up when the card was revealed, but he nodded as he listened to Will's explanation. "Guess that's fitting enough," he said. "I did just lose a job, that's a pretty big change, and not exactly under my control. Maybe not as dramatic-sounding as death," and he did spooky fingers, smiling.

Jordan nodded thoughtfully. "That's relevant," he said. "Maybe it's telling me to make sure my resume's fully up to date, huh?" He chuckled. "I sure hope my efforts will continue to pay off."