That night, they obliged. The Void Demon proved to be even more huge and fearsome than Ivan's books had warned, and right there with it was Cupris, eager to watch the horrific punishment of the mage who had humiliated him. Just as the infernal pair were about to make with the torment, however, Ivan whipped out his secret weapon -- a dildo that the elder Crowley had enchanted as a spirit-capturing fetish. With an invocation of Cupris' name, Ivan entrapped the Boredom Demon within the ensorceled sexual aid. He then tossed the device to Cupris' archenemy Charissa, in whose hands (and, er, other parts) the rival demon would soon learn a whole new definition of Hell.

That done, Ivan produced another enchanted dildo and stepped threateningly toward the dumbfounded Void Demon, promising a similar fate unless the Unpronouceable One swore not to come near Ivan, his friends, or the Huntington campus for at least half a century. Bereft of its smarter brother, the demon quickly acquiesced and vanished. Thereafter, Charissa looked upon Ivan with new respect -- and not a little fear. Naturally, he didn't bother to explain that he'd had help making the fetishes; demons might sometimes be smart, but they were always paranoid, and a little bluff could go a long way. It was time Charissa stopped thinking *she* had the upper hand in their bargain.

The next morning at breakfast, Ivan recounted the story to his magely friends. Though weirded out by his choice of demon-prisons, they were also glad to hear that the Void Demon wouldn't be a problem again until they were all grandparents.

During morning classes, each of Our Heroes was surprised by the appearance of a second Tarot card, usually placed atop a book bag and noticed only at the end of class. Obviously, the mysterious "Tarot-rist" was keeping close enough tabs on the situation to know about the teleportation alarms on the kids' rooms, and had chosen an alternate venue for the second wave of "deliveries."

Gathering at lunch, the gang shared the new cards around. Ivan had the Magus, Melanie Temperance, Tyler the Wheel of Fortune, Jasmine the Sun, Kerry the Hermit, and Corinna the Devil. All eyes turned to Tenna Gilman, who had gotten one of the first wave of cards but hadn't produced one this time. Tenna insisted that she'd gotten no unusual deliveries this time around, but such an inexplicable break in the pattern was difficult for the others to believe. Kerry didn't have to borrow much of his sister's emotional perceptiveness to tell that she was lying, and let her know it by the stare he gave her. Finally Tenna broke down and threw out the Tower -- an ominous gift, to be sure.

Having completed his demon-hunting activities, Ivan was on the case at once this time, and provided his own reading of the pair of cards each youngster had received so far. His interpretations:

Ivan (The Fool, The Magus):

This symbolizes the tendency for me to want to be the center of things and to be the fulcrum that they turn upon. It also points up my tendency to want to be the one person who can say or do things that others can't. The Fool is a figure of wisdom as well as foolishness. The magus also represents a person who is powerful but seemingly lacking in a moral compass. the operative word is "seemingly" The mage does not see the world in the form of black and white morality.

Mel (Strength, Temperance): "I don't have to tell you what you already know," was Ivan's comment.

This basically points up something that we allready know about Mel. She is perhaps the steadiest and most balanced one of us.

Tyler (Death, The Wheel of Fortune): Ditto from Ivan.

This is the Tarot equivalent of "Well DUH!" in tyler's case it symbolizes a person who is an agent of change and also is one who has undergone a complete transformation himself.

Jasmine (The High Priestess, The Sun):

The High priestess is the place where all roads meet. She is the borderline between the heart and the mind. between intellect and intuition. She is the moment when you are totally in sync with yourself and the outside world. She is the Tao.and she is also the struggle to reach the same. The Sun indicates power,creativity, and the highest forms of transformations

Kerry (The Hanged Man, The Hermit):

Consdiering Kerry's weird obsession with his sister this indicates a situation that is totally stuck and can only be fixed by letting go. The Hermit also indicates a general turning away from the others but it might also indicate that the solutions to Kerry's problems are within himself if he is willing to look.

Corinna (The Empress, The Devil):

Like Yin to the Emperor's Yang, the Empress seems to represent a very heavy sort of female energy which is not that hard for me to see considering Corrina is the most aggressively girly girl in our whole bunch. In a normal tarot deck the devil is deemed a bad card because it indicates bondage of some sort (mental, physical, spiritual...handcuffs) but in a Crowley Thoth deck it indicates creative and procreative energy of the highest order.

Tenna (The Star, The Tower):

Tenna's cards indicate that her situation is crystalizing into completeness it also indicates great internal upheaval.

The kids discussed their options. There was still no clue who was sending the cards. How might it be possible to shed some light on the situation? Suddenly Ivan knew the answer: he pulled out his own personal Tarot deck (the Crowley variant, of course) and commenced a reading. Though the effort revealed no direct clues to the identity of the mysterious cartomancer, the reading did suggest that the kids were being evaluated somehow, presumably for a future assignment yet to be revealed. It seemed the cards were meant to encourage each recipient to recognize not only his or her own strengths and weaknesses, but everyone else's -- because the group's greatest flaw, the cards indicated, was its failure to cohere as a real unit.

Ivan agreed completely with that assessment, and as de facto leader of the cabal, immediately dedicated himself to overcoming the obstacle. He decided to begin a program of fully evaluating each member's capabilities, for the purposes of group training in combining diverse talents and individual cross-training in weak areas. Tyler would begin instructing everyone else in marksmanship and martial arts. Likewise, everyone else should begin thinking of ways to teach their specialties to others, so that the loss of any one member would not cripple the group.

That was for the future, though. First, Ivan had in mind a group project that would allow everyone to sweat and strive together as a team: the continued renovation and expansion of their headquarters. He polled the congregation for suggestions, and Kerry requested a greenhouse for his plant experiments. Very well, declared Ivan, they would build the thing that very day.

And so, following afternoon classes, the gang spent the next several hours at the hardware store, and the remainder of the evening experiencing Adventures in Carpentry, with a break for a nice dinner at the local steakhouse. In the midst of all this, Ivan took Mel aside to give her a special assignment. As part of the group-cohesion plan he had in mind, he wanted to help heal certain schisms within the group, and figured that Melanie would be the ideal "Counselor Troi" to lead that effort. At the moment, Ivan was particularly interested in the alienation of the Gilman twins from each other due to Kerry's Whole Incest Thing (tm). Mel surprised him by revealing that Tenna had already confided in her, and thus she was well-informed of the situation.

Meanwhile, Kerry himself was getting increasingly antsy because his sister had yet to give any response whatsoever to his overtures, whether he wrote to her directly or used Jasmine as a proxy. Noticing that Tenna was preparing to hike back to school and retire for the night, he asked Jasmine to catch up with her for a chat, as she'd done previously with Brandon. Jasmine, who'd been waiting for some response from Ten before accosting her, was nearly as uncomfortable as Kerry with the idea of pushing an unwanted discussion on the other girl. However, her ever-present curiosity quickly won out, and she agreed.

Tenna, of course, knew exactly why Jasmine was there as soon as she caught sight of her. Asked why she hadn't responded to Jasmine's offer to help her secure her mindlink with Kerry, she explained that she had found an alternate confidante -- one less bound up in her brother's point of view -- who was teaching her the necessary techniques. Jasmine tried to present herself as a neutral party interested only in helping the siblings come to some kind of happy resolution, but Tenna wasn't having that. She could see perfectly well that Jasmine had been sucked into Kerry's sick little worldview, and was only here to persuade Tenna to buy into it as well. Frustrated in her aim, Jasmine asked Tenna to give her *something* to tell Kerry. The twins were as close as any two people could expect to be, and Jasmine could see that being at odds with his sister was really starting to get to Kerry. Reminded of the link she and Kerry shared, Tenna became angry, and decided she DID have a message for her brother: she wanted it gone. THAT was the true heart of the conflict, entirely apart from Kerry's creepy infatuation. The one thing that Kerry valued above all -- the special bond the siblings shared -- was something Tenna hated and wanted to be rid of. And she no longer cared if Kerry knew that. Declaring the conversation at an end, Ten stalked off to bed.

Jasmine returned to the Halfway House despondent, unsure what she could possibly tell Kerry that would not completely destroy his will to live. Turned out he had fallen asleep on the floor of the new greenhouse, after moving in his plants. Roused to semi-consciousness, he realized there was bad news to be learned, and decided to wait 'til morning to deal with it.

Leaving Kerry asleep in his greenhouse, Jasmine returned to her room. It hadn't taken much effort to narrow down the likely suspects for the identity of Tenna's confidante, and so she woke her roommate for a chat. Jasmine and Mel wound up staying up most of the night discussing the Gilman Situation. Mel revealed that Ten was undergoing a severe identity crisis. In her case, the standard adolescent uncertainties -- including some doubt as to her sexual preference -- were exacerbated by fears that Kerry might subconsciously be influencing her through their link. Ten's exceptional people-reading ability was another problem she wanted to be rid of; constant exposure to other people's inner feelings had made it both hard to keep friends (since everyone came across as being quite shallow) and hard to focus on her own needs and wants. Mel wasn't sure if getting rid of her gifts would actually be the best solution for Ten, but it was clear that something needed to be done to alleviate her fears so that she could develop more confidence and perhaps then arrive at a long-term resolution. For her part, Jasmine was growing more and more certain that there would be no incestuous romance in Kerry's future (though she steadfastly maintained that there was nothing intrinsically wrong with the idea), but she still wanted to see her second-best friend come out of this whole thing with some kind of happy ending. Both girls understood this would be no quick fix, and resolved to continue working with their respective twins and consulting with each other.

Breakfast the next morning found Kerry absent. Nearly everyone else wound up cutting class -- Jasmine to find Kerry and deliver the Bad News; Ivan to perform more carpentry and eavesdrop on the latest developments in the Gilman situation; Tyler and Mel for reasons of their own.

Jasmine found Kerry in the greenhouse, just waking up. Unsure how to tell him what she'd learned from Tenna, she first consulted telepathically with Ivan, but turned down his offer to explain things to Kerry himself. Kerry waited patiently through the very obvious mental conversation, and then finally got his metaphorical punch in the gut as Jasmine explained Tenna's identity crisis and her resentment of the so-called gifts the universe had seen fit to bestow on her. Kerry took the news calmly as always, his emotional shields firmly in place. After reassuring Jasmine that he wasn't going to kill himself and that he didn't hate her for being the bearer of bad tidings, he announced that he was going for a walk. He did just that, heading off into the woods to be alone, while Jasmine returned to her room to monitor his wanderings, lest he should decide to take up life among the wild beasts or something.

That was it for the session. Jimmy's tales of Kerry's wanderings and the folks he went to see can be found on his Huntington page.