Me: “I was willing to attribute the fucked fortune cookie and the cold coffee to happenstance, because shit happens. But when the computer locks up, and a passing coworker says out the blue that I have the worst luck… and when I order bacon on my sandwich and the server says they’re having bad luck with off bacon so no special for me today… and when the hot water runs out and my daughter says out the blue that I’m not having any luck today… and when [a MMORPG group run] goes to shit and a player remarks we’re not having any luck today… all in forty-eight hours… well… You wanted my full attention, gratz, you fucking have it! Have you anything to say for yourself, Inverse Fortune?”
Inverse Fortune: “You noticed! I’m so happy! ^-^ ”
Me: “… wut.”
IF: “I’ve been watching you with the [other cards] and I really like you and I’m so glad [the spokes-spirit] picked you and I know there’s so many ways I could mess things up for you so I tried to make as little a mess as possible but most people don’t even notice these things but you did and now I get to officially be a part of your deck and you don’t even know how happy that makes me because I know it’s the little things that matter and other people always wanted me to make these big changes happen like winning the lottery or revealing an affair at the worst possible moment but you see it’s the little things during the day that can make or break a person and you saw all the little things and didn’t let it slow you down and that makes me so really gosh darn happy!!!!! ^-^ ”
Me: “… Okay.”
IF: “And just to let you know, I’m also a luck-eater, and other people would have me do that to people they just didn’t like to be mean, and well, I heard what you said to [Inverse Death] about how sometimes you have to hurt a thing to make it better in the long run, and well… do you think there is a place like that for me? Because I don’t like making people sad, and I really like how you came back from every bad luck thing, and I want other people to come back from bad luck things the same way. :’( “
Me: “Uh… I’ll have to give it some thought. Hmm. Do you eat all luck, or only good luck?”
IF: “If there’s a chance for something special to happen, I make that chance go away. ~nervous~”
Me: “Then, yes. There is a place. Because if you normalize luck and chances, then yes, you can mitigate bad luck just as you can give it. But it will take small steps to find out how and for how long.”
IF: “ :D :D :D Yay! ^-^ Is this where you show the card and I go in it? Because I’m so happy I’m afraid I’ll miss my cue!”
Me: ~produces card~ “Will you be my servitor, and accept me as your master?”
IF: “ :’D I accept! I have the best luck, today!”
Me: ~puts card in deck and puts deck in my pocket~ “So… that happened.”
One thing about that discussion that didn’t make it into the write-up because of how it was framed, was that Inverse Fortune can only work in the cracks of preparation. The more prepared you are about a thing, the less effect IF’s roll of the dice can be.
For example, let’s say you’re planning to go on a road trip. You had the tires checked last week, so no need to check them today, right? Inverse Fortune says to check those tires anyway, because wouldn’t it just be shit luck for the tires to be low? Even if the tires are just fine, that you checked them reduces the range of “luck” that can affect them.
Inverse Fortune implies there is a level of personal responsibility about what kind of luck you have and where that luck manifests. If you leave things in your life according to chance, then chance is what happens. But on the flip side, if you try to control your environment to an exacting degree, luck (good AND bad) is going to be experienced as your environment is normalized against your will.
The trick is to find that balance of maintaining yourself and your environment without creating a wider imbalance between yourself and the world at large. You can’t ever stop chance events entirely. You can place yourself so that the negative effects of those chance events are mitigated or avoided.
And that is where the philosophies begin, so that is where my pontification ends.