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The MiniAugur
"While there were a handful of diviners at work in the city pre-Exile--Tarot card readers, palmists, carnival-style 'fortune-tellers' complete with crystal balls--in the aftermath, it seems at times that everyone has begun forecasting the future. Some, like the mystics of Compost Oracles Inc., make a living at it. Others, like the Chromatics, treat it as a hobby, comparing the color of the sky-shell to that of days previous and adjusting their expectations accordingly. There are people who predict the weather based upon the drifting of plastic bags, romantic futures based upon Chalkbot battles, and agricultural yields based upon the activities of the crocfather Mad Green. . . . Most of these, professional or otherwise, have demonstrated less accuracy than was once found in the Farmer's Almanac, but there are exceptions. . . . The most successful of the city's prophets is known as the Minfield Park Augur. His real name is unknown--he claims that his real name is unpronounceable by humans--although it appears that up until the time of the Exile he was known to area residents and police mainly as The Bird Guy. His age is similarly indeterminate; those familiar with him pre-Exile estimated that he was in his sixties then, and forty years later he is still gray, sharp-eyed, and agile. He used to panhandle and spend his money on bird feed, but nowadays the feed is donated by fortune-seekers. What the Augur himself lives on is anyone's guess. . . . The MiniAugur (as he is often called) successfully predicted the death of Mayor Faldbakken Jr., the manifestation of the Black Tower, and the catastrophic 'Day of Two Nights.' . . . Most of his predictions are based upon the flights of the Minifield Park blackbirds, which numbered in the thousands until May Day 2002, when an unexplained airborne confusion of gravity resulted in the deaths of 90% of the city's avian population (see p.446 & Appendix). Following that tragedy the MiniAugur stopped giving predictions for a time and went into mourning. . . . Two years later, his renewed predictions saved the staff and students of the Cesar Chavez Boulevard Bridge School when a structural failure led to its collapse." (p.47-8)
