{1st Clow Card; username:sakurakinomoto; video}

[keystaff]

[When the feed starts, there's initially a frowning green eye and light brown bangs, before Sakura holds her necklace a little farther in recording, trying to check it.]

Um, this is....this is working, right? I've only replied to others with this so far. Ah, I think that's it!

[Well. She guesses it is working anyway. There's a shift of movement as she gets a little more comfortable, sitting cross-legged on her bed and brushing some bangs from her face, biting her lip and taking a deep breath before starting.

I'm Sakura! I just wanted to thank everyone that's helped me here so far. I know this isn't easy and there's....a lot going on, but if we work together, we'll figure it out and get home! I'm sure of it! I heard others also got things? Some from home, or animals or something? I got a new spell. So, I wanted to let everyone know I can help if you get hurt, okay? Or, I can try. At least try help with the worst of it until we get you somewhere safe to a doctor, I mean.

[Is she rambling? Possibly. A little. But she figures the more help she can offer, the more useful she would be and this way people would know to potentially come seek her if they were injured, right? If she doesn't say anything, how are they supposed to know who might be able to assist them if they were to get hurt in more fighting or something? Not to mention finally mentioning the other magic she has available.]

Besides the Clow cards, this is one other way I can help. I want to do my best. To get all of us back home! Or....those that want to go back, anyway. I know I was in the middle of things, so. I can't be the only one. But I can't do anything about that from here, so I just have to do my best to get home and figure it.

[But. That's not why she's talking like this. Sakura shakes her head, giving a light laugh and looking almost sheepish for trailing off like that, almost apologetic.]

A-anyway, I guess that was the main thing. Other than wondering what everyone else makes of all this. The...the warning. And at that last festival, I mean. What we can do about this? And the sun. I should-- this is enough. Um, thanks for listening!

[As if this were some speech at school. She gives a slight bow of sorts, the motion of it swaying her necklace before she turns it off, rather flushed but pleased with herself at the same time in that last glimpse. She has been meaning to speak up with the necklace for a while and just been so busy and distracted with everything.]

Comments

[grunehexe]

Yes- in an altogether more supernatural way than my potions and salves can manage.

[The Clow Cards, though... That's curious.]

They are spirits in their own right? Bound to physical cards?

[keystaff]

Potions and salves? I never learned anything about those. I could read fortunes once I had enough Cards, but Kero always helped me figure them out. I guess you could call them that though. I never really had to explain all this stuff before I came here. It was kind of a secret back home, so....

[So explaining, sharing and showing the Cards is still quite new to her.]

[grunehexe]

You have the gift of divination as well?

[How amazing it was to her, that not only was this girl her age, but shared something of the magical past? She certainly knew about secrets... She had grown up on tales of the witch trials, on the desperate knowledge that the outside world didn't understand magic... That if anyone knew she was a witch, it would mean a most painful death.]

- Kero is your familiar?

[keystaff]

I suppose so. Sometimes I have these dreams too.....

[Dreams which prove her power is still only growing more powerful over time. Even so, she shakes her head at that question. Kero isn't her familiar. More a friend.]

Kero-chan isn't like that. He's the Guardian of the Clow Cards. Or, one of the two of them. He rules under the sign of the Sun, and Yue is the Moon.

[Yue though. All that is still rather complicated. Not something she has actually really discussed with anyone here.]

[grunehexe]

What is it you see? Is it the future, or the past?

[Once she'd thought she possessed the gift... Dreams, symbols... Things that were made clear to her when events occurred. But the Green Witch's line was famous for healing, not prophecy, so it's all she gave thought to in that regard.

Her brow furrowed, fingers curled beneath her chin in thought.]

The cards are aligned to the stars, then?

[Another method of divination and magic she was no practitioner of but had knowledge of.]

[keystaff]

Oh, it was...the future. Though it doesn't always make sense right away.

[Understandable. Sometimes it can take time for her to piece together what they mean. When she actually recalls the dreams at all and doesn't just forget the moment she wakes, that is.]

Not the stars. But I guess that could be, like a combination of the two, maybe.

[Sakura just doesn't quite recall far enough herself to realize that is exactly the case with her own power and potential. That her power comes from the stars rather than either the sun or moon.]

[grunehexe]

... It never does, does it.

[She'd thought she knew what her last dreams had meant- when her visitors had arrived from beyond the dark forest. But being sure it meant that her visitors would change her world... She hadn't thought it would mean the downfall of everything she'd ever known.

It was easier to focus on Sakura's cards.]

Are there other elements bound to the cards, then?

[keystaff]

No. Sometimes Kero-chan can help me try guess in figuring it out, but I guess it's sort of....like at the time when the dreams happen, I don't quite have all the pieces?

[Something like that. Regardless, she hasn't had any such dreams here. Not yet anyway.]

There are Cards based on the four elements. They were made using Clow-san's magic, combining the magic from the west and the eastern cultures. I think mine is similar, but still different. Using the Cards, I can just tap into the magic still in them already.

[grunehexe]

That makes perfect sense.

[It's a puzzle you're trying to put together without actually knowing what the picture is supposed to look like. Frustrating-]

Who is this "Clow"? A famous warlock in your world?

[keystaff]

Oh! Y-yes. He was an amazing sorcerer. The one that made Kero-chan, Yue-san and the Clow Cards! The most powerful sorcerer I know of. My friend, Syaoran-kun, he's a descendant and he's been sort of helping me with the Cards, actually. He moved over to Japan from Hong Kong to find them.

[Yes, 'Syaoran-kun', because they finally, earlier that same day before she arrived here, got to that point of using first names for each other.]

[grunehexe]

Is he still among the living?

[Is that the polite way to go about asking that?]

[keystaff]

Clow-san? No...he died a long time ago.

[Hence the mention of his descendant, Syaoran. Why she claimed the cards and Guardians. Or, one of them thus far. She still has to somehow force Yue to accept her.]

[grunehexe]

I see- My apologies?

[It seemed sort of touchy- but she thought to ask. After all... she was a descendant of the Green Witch by generations, but perhaps it could have been a grandson?]

[keystaff]

It's okay. I mean, I didn't know him myself or anything really. I know Kero-chan and Yue-san must miss him, but....I'm doing my best. For them. For everyone to keep them safe from the Cards.

[To prove herself. That she is worthy. To make Syaoran believe. To make Yue accept her.]

[grunehexe]

Then... though he has a blood descendant... it is you who are his magical heir?

[She thinks she's getting it...]

[keystaff]

Well, Syaoran-kun has his own sort of magic too. He's just not the Cardcaptor, exactly. He can't seal them like I can. I'm just the one that found the book with the cards in it and accidentally set them loose, really.

[She looks almost sheepish as she tries to explain. Kero has always been better at this than her.]

[grunehexe]

Then... the "Cardcaptor" may be anyone, or must you be predisposed to certain magical abilities?

[She is gonna figure this out.]

[keystaff]

Oh. It was Kero-chan that did it. That made me one. But it might be because of my magic. I just never knew I had it until that day.

[And this will make a lot more sense once she is told that her father is technically half of Clow Reed's reincarnation.]

[grunehexe]

I see... so some facets of it are yet unknown to you.

[nod nod nod]

[keystaff]

Yes. But I'm sure I'll learn more once I'm ready. Maybe after I get Yue-san to accept me. I already caught all the cards, so. That's it. I think....

[grunehexe]

So the acceptance of the Moon's guardian i all that stands between you and mastery of these cards?

[keystaff]

I think so. I'm not sure what if anything might be left after that. I was just about to start taking that test when I was brought here with ALASTAIR and all.

[grunehexe]

I see...

- I'm sure you have already considered this option, but. Are any of these Cards you hold potentially aligned towards the Sun, beyond the Guardian itself?

[keystaff]

I know....Firey and Earthy; They're under Kero-chan. The thing is -- I--I don't want to fight him. I don't want to hurt him.

[Because it's Yukito. Her brother's best friend. Her crush. She just can't.]

[grunehexe]

Ah, I meant-

[She'd explain, but first her attention was caught by what Sakura said.]

- The test is a fight?