Tarot Hearts

**Tarot Hearts** is a Story Arc of the the Exteria Multiverse. It takes place in Interra and follows the perspective of young and optimistic Coquelicot Tulipa.

## Story Arc

### A Strange Book

Coquelicot, a young student, enters **Levi High School**, a high-class catholic private school in Princeton Town, where she quickly encounters Flora Mitara. The pair, highly independant and disobedient, decide to explore forbidden parts of the school. They stumble upon a strange book, the Grimoire of Eliphas, which allows Coquelicot to make contact with an entity called the Fool of the Arcana.

Now possessing powers of the Arcana, Coquelicot, alongside Flora who also inherited powers from the Magician Arcana, witness the attack of a strange entity over high school. This entity, the Reversed Magician, born from Flora's doubts, is dispatched by Artemis, a mysterious woman tied to the Moon Arcana. Artemis explains that they are Witches tied to the Arcana, and should their emotions become unstable, they would summon an abomination called Reversed Arcana from the Initium.

### Encounters and Confrontations

Coquelicot quickly adapts to life as a witch, encountering the supreme order among them : the school director Minerva Stryx of the World and her assistants, Nora Skyfall of Justice and Grace Lorrimer of the Hierophant. She also quickly falls in love with the young teacher Jacob Osea, forming a rivality with Jennifer Hena of the Empress. She also quickly befriends Meg and Dia Tymena of the lovers and forms a rivality with class president Regina Ulton of the Emperor.

The first incident happens when the young girl Jemina is manipulated into joining an organization rival to Minerva's, a Dark Senate directed by The Devil that aims to make magic public and threaten Minerva into hiding. To save Jemina from being expelled, Coquelicot exposes the Devil's right hand woman, Ariana Sarkan of the Hanged Man. Ariana is arrested ; however, upon learning that Minerva might sentence her to death, Coquelicot breaks through Minerva's defenses to bring her back.

This causes Regina and Coquelicot to fight, and as Regina is defeated, her shame takes control of her and awakens the Reversed Emperor, resulting in a ferocious battle. Regina is saved at last and Coquelicot makes amends, helping slowly Regina with recovering.

### Bonds are Made

Coquelicot keeps encountering new people, like her sports teacher Draka Matoi of the Chariot, the apathic but sympathetic Sidia Ming of Strength, and the dynamic Marisa Kirisame of the Star. She manages to ask Jacob out on the pretense of needing scholar guidance, and organizes a day to the mall on her day off.

Simultaneously, she is contacted by the Devil in her informatics class due to her computer being hacked by the latter ; she refuses her offer to join her. This also allows her to befriend Haruka Tensei of the Hermit who helps her during class and invite her to the mall as well. By doing that, she shatters the hold the Reversed Hermit had over her.

In the mall, she also encounters Skylar Umina of the Wheel, as well as a new friend of Flora's, Uta Arakawa of Judgment. Together, they prepare for Coquelicot's date the day after. Then, as they speak, Coquelicot's conversation with Haruka - a telepath - makes her realize that Jennifer suffers deeply from jealousy due to Coquelicot's bond with Jacob. Coquelicot then decides to talk with Jennifer and casually offers her to "share" Jacob which she accepts, the pair slowly beginning to understand eachother.

### Ill Omen

Coquelicot has a strange dream that night, in which a dark figure known as Death tells her to beware of Samhain and the Tower. Paying at first no heed to it, she goes to her rendezvous with Jacob alongside Jennifer, and they quickly make their move on him, to Jacob's pleasure. However, he warns them that he suffers from amnesia, and might be in danger due to threatening letters written by a girl named "Lilian".

Coquelicot discusses with Minerva upon returning home and learns that Jacob has a natural magic-protecting field around her house. She also learns that Samhain is a celebration where Arcana incarnate in the real world, and agrees to reunite all witches into Jacob's house to prepare for this apocalypse.

Coquelicot thus encounters Hazel Smith of Temperance and Jayne Pernella of the Sun. She also faces the Devil, Mara Tianma, who accepts to join them. She also reconciles with Ariana and helps her transcend her obsession with death by making her fight the Reversed Hanged Man. Then she goes to Jacob's house for the final preparations.

### Final Preparations

All together, save for the Tower and Death, the Witches are joined by the latter. Revealing herself as a version of Uta who did not survive Samhain in the future, Death, known as **Telexia**, tells of the Tower's plan to eradicate Jacob and destroy all other Witches. In order to prevent that, Coquelicot is sent into the Initium alone in order to clash with the Tower.

Coquelicot finds out that Jemina is in fact an unconscious Lilian manipulated by the Tower's willpower and manages to save her after an epic confrontation, allowing Lilian to return to the real world. Coquelicot however passes out due to surviving in the Initium for that long. She wakes up only a few hours before Samhain. Visions from the Initium still haunting her eyes, she knows why to battle.

### The Cursed Night

Samhain comes, and with it, the nightmarish attack of the Reversed Arcana. Coquelicot, with the others' support from afar, manages to take most of them by herself, barely surviving yet overcoming all obstacles thanks to the occasional aid and bond from those who believe in her. The battle leaves her exhausted, almost broken, but victorious.

However one more arcana remains, the Reversed Fool. Revealing itself as Jacob himself - or rather, a copy of Jacob's personality born from the Grimoire's creator, **Eliphas Levi**. Seeking to end his own humanity, the Reversed Fool attacks Coquelicot in the hopes that she will destroy and purify him, but she refuses. Instead, Coquelicot forcefully binds her soul to the Reversed Fool and separates his existence from Jacob's.

Permanently scarred by the experience, bearing marks of a strange civilisation, Coquelicot remains victorious, as Samhain has ended and everyone is safe. Finally, witches celebrate together, alongside with a recovering Jacob, appreciating their triumph.

## Characters

* Coquelicot Tulipa (0)
* Jacob Osea (0)
* Flora Mitara (I)
* Marceline Omoide (II)
* Jennifer Hena (III)
* Regina Ulton (IV)
* Grace Lorrimer (V)
* Meg Tymena (VI)
* Dia Tymena (VI)
* Draka Matoi (VII)
* Sidia Ming (VIII)
* Haruka Tensei (IX)
* Skylar Umina (X)
* Nora Skyfall (XI)
* Ariana Sarkan (XII)
* Telexia (XIII)
* Hazel Smith (XIV)
* Mara Tianma (XV)
* Lilian (XVI)
* Marisa Kirisame (XVII)
* Artemis (XVIII)
* Jayne Pernella (XIX)
* Uta Arakawa (XX)
* Minerva Stryx (XXI)

## Trivia

* This storyline plays with the common tropes of the Magical Girl genre.