Spirit Reading and Divination are different

"She had hair like-eh? You have a way to read my mind?", Mr. Mariachi asked, "You can see the beautiful face that haunts me"?

"I think so...just get over here for a second", RJ instructed as he got up from his chair and tossed the control orbs of the internet array behind him. The orbs sailed in the air for a second before floating back into orbit around the giant floating circle.

After replacing the control orbs, RJ bit his thumb and began squeezing the newly open wound. As the blood began to gather at his thumb, he began to use his other finger to draw a series of runes onto the palm of his other hand. As soon as he drew the runes, they would immediately shrink in size and begin squirming on the skin's surface like fish in a pond.

"Okay...", Mr. Mariachi said pensively before walking up to RJ.

Eventually, RJ stopped drawing runes into his hands and closed his fist. When he opened his hand a second later, the runes had formed themselves into a neat and delicate spell circle. This circle was the main component for the [Spirit Reading] spell.

"Alright then, Mr. Mariachi. You're not gonna not like this next part", RJ warned.

"Huh? Wh-Nyeeeh"!

Just as the skeleton was about to ask why, RJ had grabbed the skeleton's forehead with his newly imprinted palm. As the spell circle made contact with the skeleton's skull, mana began to flow between RJ, the circle and the skeleton.

From an outside perspective, it looked like RJ's eyes had roll backwards and that he was just firmly grasping onto the bard's skull. Meanwhile, the flames in the skull's eyes looked much dimmer than before.

From RJ's and Mr. Mariachi's perspectives however, a rather different sight was unfolding before them.

Evidently, [Spirit Reading] was a lot more involved than RJ assumed. He thought that the skill would just let him view the memory as one would watch a television episode, instead he got a full sensory, first person perspective.

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The smell of "mary jane" and barbecue filled the air as the two of us ran down the street. Street vendors were setting up their wares for the day, from fresh produce to seafood to random handcrafted knick-knacks that hippies seemed to love.

Off to the side, a bunch of guys and gals with long hair and denim jackets were listening to the latest rock albums. Right next to them, someone in a home-made tie-dye shirt was having one hell of a trip and puking into a trash can.

All and all, another beautiful day in San Francisco.

"Come on ****, we're going to be late", she said to me as she kept pulling me forward. She was so beautiful whenever she got excited, the way she smiled would make even Marilyn Monroe jealous.

Don't get me wrong, blonde curls and blue down-turned eyes could make any man weak in the knees, but I prefer my girls with long black hair with soft brown almond eyes.

"Ay mi amor, they'll still have plenty of seats when we get there", I complained in jest. I know this was important to her, but I couldn't help but tease.

"Baka! A cinematic treasure such as this must be properly respected and viewed", she scolded at me cutely, "and that requires the best seats in the house".

"Whatever you say", I replied in dopey exasperation.

The two of us kept running until we managed to get to the cable car station, just in time as the conductor made the last call for boarding.

The two of us made our way to a window seat and watched the people, the bikes, the cars and the scenery passing by as we made our way to the theater.

From the corner of my eye, I could see the pair of street names that I was sure would become a landmark for years to come:

Haight and Ashbury Street.

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The entire scene felt like it took several minutes to RJ and Mr. Mariachi, but only a few seconds had passed in reality. After the memory had come it's end, [Spirit Reading] ended and caused a small shockwave that knocked RJ and Mr. Mariachi backwards.

Mr.Mariachi fell apart into a pile of bones while RJ was sent flying. Luckily, Tatterhood was there to catch RJ before he fell on his butt.

"Hello there", Tatterhood said as she caught him, "what'd you find out"?

"...Well, Reya was Japanese for one thing", RJ said after making sure his vision was back in focus, "And our friend here was from the height of the Hippie Era".

"The Era of Free Love? Groovy", Tatterhood replied.

"Ay caramba! What was that amigo?", Mr. Mariachi asked as he reassembled himself, "It felt like I was in some kinda waking dream and...what happened to my clothes"?

"Guess we have to call you Senior Hippie now", Tatterhood commented.

For reasons unknown, the skeleton bard's original mariachi outfit had become noticably more colorful and incorporated more "psychedelic" patterns. Additionally his pants had become more akin to bell-bottoms.

"These are surprisingly breezy", the bard commented about his new pants.

"Anyways", RJ interjected, "we now know who Reya is and we have a lead on where to finding out more on who you are... were...undead amnesia is weird. But for now, it's currently way too late for us to be going out. I don't have work tomorrow, so we can go to Haight-Ashbury first thing in the morning".

"He's right", Tatterhood agreed, "Besides, what's the worst that could happen while we sleep for a night"?

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All was quiet in Haight-Ashbury, as a cool night breeze blew through the streets.

Wind chimes played their distinctive tunes as the breeze went by, adding an air of mysticism to the evening.

Along this intersection, a variety of fortune-tellers had set up shop and practiced their crafts here, whether or not they were accurate was up to anyone's guess.

Among these would-be could-be soothsayers, was a run-of-the-mill shop called "Donnie's Divination and Healing Crystals".

The proprietor of the shop, Donnie, was currently shuffling his tarot deck when a strange chill crawled up his back.

Prompted by the strangeness, Donnie felt inclined to perform a reading for himself, but not with this deck.

After putting away the deck of tarot cards, Donnie pulled out his smartphone and made a few taps.

Moments later, a gold and blue deck box, decorated like a night sky, appeared on the table. Waving his hand, cards began to rapidly fly out of the box and form a fortune-telling cross. With another wave, the cards flipped over.

"Huh...that's a weird one".