TheStarsAreRight:CarlNote5
REDLAND
OOC- We'd talked a bit about maybe moving some things along a bit through email. If that's not the plan, let me know, and I'll shut it down and save it for next month!
IC-
Redland looks up suddenly from his study of one of Boris's diagrams. "Carl, I... I hesitate to bring this up, since you've so graciously agreed to let me off the hook and make the, er, sacrifice yourself. However, while under the influence of ... uh, whatever that stuff was, an idea came to me that, unfortunately, seemed like it might make some sense."
He stands up and paces uneasily, then continues, "I was thinking that something that I value quite highly, is my independence... you know, my, uh, my ability to walk away from... from all this, if I so choose... and since I'm the guy who really pushed to make this bargain, maybe it is fitting that I'm the one who pays the price. If that, uh, if that makes any sense at all."
He sits back down again and stares intently at the diagram.
CARL
OOC- sorry for the delay, I think moving things in email is a good idea. --Chaz
- - -
Carl is surprised by the outburst. He frowns, looking at Jack for a moment.
"I --" He stops, thinks a bit, then starts again.
"Jack, I put you on the spot out there. True, you asked for the job, at least you asked *about* it, back when we were talking hypothetically, but I hardly think it's fair to say that you pushed for this.
"It doesn't seem to me that I'd be letting you off the hook for anything. The Dark Pharaoh came to speak to me. It's the King of Life It wants to bargain with. How can I not be the one to offer up the price?
"Already we're trying to skirt around the edge of that offer, play a tricky balancing act with our sovereignty. That you were willing to stand up to speak on my behalf is something for which I'm grateful -- but I cannot simply let others -- you -- take the fall, at least not without being damned sure you know what you're getting into -- and that I know why you're doing it.
"So, what are you thinking? What are you offering? Are you doing it for me? For yourself? For a cause? And why?"
Carl watches Jack's face, intent, his voice soft, then waits.
REDLAND
When Carl starts asking questions, Redland picks up his omnipresent notepad and jots down a couple of notes to himself to organize his thoughts. After pausing several moments, as if unsure himself of the answers, he smiles wryly.
"Well, I hate to lead with this one, but:
1) making the offer presumably raises your estimation of me. This is valuable to me, insofar as my association with you offers me access to knowledge that I cover." He continues excitedly, "These drawings of Boris's promise incredible insights into psychology. Studying the Fae, communicating with the Outsiders... fascinating. Just think of what could be done. The social sciences could move forward at an unprecedented rate..." He trails off sheepishly...
"2) You, and those associated with you, seem much more altruistic than I am. There's a good chance you'll take the sacrifice upon yourself, even if it makes more sense to dole it out to someone else. Alternatively, the Dark Pharaoh may only accept a sacrifice from the King of Life. Either way, I get to have my cake and eat it to... I look like a good guy at no cost to me.
"3) I've lost my job. I'm so poor that I could barely afford to buy Roxanne hair pins for Valentine's Day. I'm probably homeless, though I'm afraid to contact anyone back home. I've been less than useless so far on our journey. In particular, my conduct at Bailey was disgraceful. I mean, even I have my pride. If I'm going to mooch off your goodwill, I'd like to contribute something.
"4) After three bad reasons, I do have one, objectively good reason. If I make the sacrifice instead of you, it puts more distance between you and the transaction, which, as I understand it, is the reason to use an intermediary in the first place."
Redland takes a breath and continues.
"Am I doing it for you? You seem like a nice guy, but I've known you less than three weeks. For a cause? Saving the world is a worthy cause, but I'd certainly be better off if someone else would do it for me. I guess I'm doing it for me, even though I don't really want to do it. Maybe because I don't want to do it. As to what I'm offering," he laughs, "heck, perhaps the whole thing is moot.
"I suppose I'd be offering to take up the cause. To make a good faith effort to save the world from the evil influences of Outside forces. To stick with it, even if feel endangered and want to go back to researching the gold standard. Something like that, but, you know, more eloquently stated."
He stops and smiles in his typical self-deprecating way, unsure if he should have spoken as he has.
CARL
Carl sighs, faint hint of what might be a smile on his lips.
"That was ... very eloquent, Jack,' he says. "And thoughtful. Thank you."
He shifts his shoulders and leans in, more serious now.
"I believe you are correct in your four points, though there are some implications that you may not have considered. For one, I don't want you or anyone else to offer themselves on my behalf; and that very fact makes your offer more ... appropriate and more valuable. So much so, that the likelihood of you being an acceptable sacrifice is in direct proportion to the wholeheartedness with which you pledge -- and I accept -- your life and service, knowing that I must then turn around and offer you up to Him. It.
"But if you offer that service to me in advance, then you cannot offer it in the binding. All you have then -- all I have -- is to play you like a token and offer you to the pact.
"But if you do not offer that service to me, then you would be offering your freedom and service to the pact -- and by extension, to the Pharaoh. I don't know if that would make you Its tool, rather than one in the service of the FIght, but it seems likely. I also do not know whether that makes your offer unacceptable, because it no longer binds the King of Life.
"We don't know what happens to the binding objects. We don't know if they are destroyed in the making of the pact. You might die; you might be tied in body and soul to something of the Pharaoh; you might be consumed somehow, or changed, and I have no way to know.
"Is that something you are willing to risk with open eyes?"
REDLAND
"Hmmmm. I'm not terribly interested in becoming a tool of evil. Death, enslavement, corruption. I don't know... my skepticism sometimes seems like a frail shield in the face of such powers.
"With our current state of knowledge... I mean, even if my eyes are open, I'm still walking into darkness."
He shuffles uneasily.
"Well, certainly I wouldn't want to offer any service in advance. If the subsequent offering was rejected, I'd have done something that I would consider to be a large sacrifice, for, in some sense, nothing.
"As to offering up service to the pact... I guess that's what I had in mind, but I certainly don't want to become somehow enslaved to the Dark Pharaoh. "
He looks down, shamefaced. "I hate to be a coward and rescind my offer, but maybe we should consider alternatives. I'm just ... I ... I'd be lying if I said I wasn't afraid."
CARL
"We are all afraid, Jack," Carl says softly. "I'm afraid all the time. The Pharaoh in particular terrifies me."
He sits up straighter, then, and smiles, fanning his hands outward in a shrug
"But that is the nature of the battleground, isn't it? I think the Pharaoh likes it that way. It plays with us as It does precisely because we are ignorant and afraid. Or ignorant and *un*afraid, in which case we walk blithely into things and get used up." Carl snaps his fingers.
"Alternatives? Yes. Before you spoke up, I was thinking of ... things to offer as bindings. For all the reasons we've discussed, I don't dare offer anything truly personal, or anything too tightly bound to the Kingship. But things of value -- yes, those I have, things I really hate to lose. I've sent for a couple of them, haven't decided which -- if any -- to offer yet.
"The trick here is to see what the Pharaoh offers, and to try to match its intent. The Pharaoh has done this, oh, I don't know how many times. This little contract, in and of itself is not so important to It. It wants to see what we will do, to look for the chinks in our armor and make things 'interesting.'
"That's a problem, isn't it? because It has all the experience."
REDLAND
"Hmmmm. If I understand correctly, what you are saying, we should gather up as many potential 'sacrifices' as we can prior to the meeting. (Heck, we can even keep my offer in our back-pocket). Then, during the binding, we can see what the Dark Pharaoh selects as his sacrifice and, er, 'match up' accordingly. If we have an array of items we will be more likely to select one that is of the proper magnitude and 'kind'.
"This seems like a good idea. Perhaps we could also check with the rest of our group and see if we can muster up any additional sacrifices."
"It is also my understanding that the three day deadline was a maximum. I wonder if we should we take the whole duration or make our move sooner. I guess, to some extent, we also need to figure out what our next move will be."
CARL
Carl nods at Jack in thoughtful agreement, glances around the room at other members present, as if to see if they have any comment.
"I do wish I knew what the Pharaoh would choose. It likes to toy with us; I wouldn't be surprised if it demanded our offer first, just to watch us squirm.
"The thing is, this deal is, deliberately on our part, trivial. As trivial as we can make it. The binding should be in keeping with that, not with the Pharaoh's desire to crank up the cost. If it were larger, it would be easier, in some ways, to find something worthy of the exchange. There are...."
Carl stops. His eyes grow wide, and a look of astonished surmise crosses his face, as he flicks his gaze from one face to the next, before looking down at the tabletop, hands clasped before his mouth seeing something far away.
"...precedents," he finishes softly.
CARL
Carl stares at nothing for a moment, then looks up at the others.
"I just realized where I have seen this before," he says.
"I told you about the battle out at Land's End. Most of you have seen the place where it occured. Here's some more of that story.
"When I first came into the Fight, the leader of the French group was a man named Pierre Farquel. We never met, but I know from the older guard, and the accounts of the day, that he was much loved, a very charismatic man. He was also extremely knowlegeable and had a number of useful occult skills, including some of the abilities I now associate with those of the King of Life; but there was one ability he notably lacked. M. Farquel was utterly unable to manipulate his own ponic energy directly, even in the simple ways you have been taught -- the charging of rings, the mental contact.
"Farquel's own late writings imply that he once had that ability, that he missed it and regretted its loss. He never explained to his followers, and his earlier journals were all destroyed by him in 1903, so much of his own past is a mystery now. But four years ago, when I first re-opened the London house, I found some things that cleared up a bit of the puzzle.
"You recall, perhaps, that the big battle of 1884 crippled both the French and the Spanish groups. That battle was sparked, at least on the French side, when Farquel's only child, his daughter Elyssa, was abducted, tortured, and killed. Her body was found stuffed into a drainpipe in London. The evidence pointed to the Spanish as the murderers.
"That battle really isn't part of this story. But the weird and tragic part of this is that Elyssa continued to live in the London house for another twenty years or more. Her father bought her dresses, shoes, hired a governess; he writes of playing with her in the evenings at home."
Carl looks around the room, intent and sad.
"But you see, Elyssa wasn't normal, wasn't well. She never grew up, never aged, never ... learned. Each day she forgot what she had discovered the day before... She was always his daughter of 1884. Forever.
"I even met her once. Or met her spirit, which may be the same thing. A sunny child, innocent, but lonely. She is gone now, no longer in the house.
"The evidence we uncovered led me to conclude that M. Farquel bargained with one of the Outsiders to return his daughter to him. he gave up his ability to work the energy ... and in return he got his little girl. Or a copy of her; one who could never change. Later, when he discovered how terrible and flawed his bargain had been, he destroyed everything he could find that might allow others to go down the same path he had followed.
"I never knew which entity he bargained with. In retrospect, and in light of what has happened these past few days, it seems to me likely that he bought Elyssa from the Pharaoh."
