Part 1 of 2
"Marlon, Marlon, welcome, it's good to see you!" The voice came from behind a desk. The desk glittered. It was impeccably polished, it was entirely cleared of paperwork, and it had a crystal doodad here or there which also glittered. One couldn't help but see the crystal about the room, on awards arranged very specifically nonchalantly, on a decanter filled with, Marlon knew, a sweet red wine the man behind the desk favored over the more traditional high power drink of scotch.
The man behind the desk. The room was atop a tower, catching, it seemed, always the proper light to set the area ablaze. So unlike the somber, intimidating office of your average CEO, the place was alive. And it glittered. And none of it glittered like the man behind the desk.
"Mr. Beryne," Marlon said.
"Please, Marlon, not so formal. You do know why you're here," the man asked somberly.
It was all going according to tradition. When called into Beryne's office, one never knew if they'd be harassed, congratulated, promoted, given a bonus, or fired. Beryne loved this game, and no matter the subject he played it gleefully, up in his palace of light.
"Well, I," Marlon began.
"Of course you don't!" Beryne interrupted. The smile that came along with the small explosion seemed real, this time, though Marlon never knew. None of them ever went to his eyes.
He sagged, almost imperceptibly, with relief. It was unlikely he'd be canned here on the spot, though such things were hard to predict considering with whom he was dealing, but he was always afraid that, just once, the other man wouldn't follow through on his little gag. Marlon had never gotten past "Well, I," and he no longer even had a sentence he knew how to finish should he have to.
"Marlon, please, have a seat." Beryne gestured to a single empty wooden chair across from him. The younger man sat down. "I found you, what is it now, ten years ago?"
"Something like that, yes." Ten years to the day.
"And while you were a wonderful clerk, of course, did you see yourself then where you are now?"
Marlon thought. Congenial even in his fury, Beryne was much easier to work for than series of increasingly snide and scheming bosses he'd been working for in his clerk days. And, of course, there was the approximately 1000% pay increase.
"Not unless it was over the dead body of old Aaron Markey," he joked, remembering the most formidable of his old supervisors.
"Hah, Markey! Priceless," Beryne gushed. He turned as serious as he could. "You were barely a babe down there in accounts, with a bad tie and one tradeMarkey outrage away from the financial blacklist."
Marlon groaned inwardly and laughed outwardly. Sometimes he thought the other man did things like this on purpose to watch others squirm in cognitive dissonance. Beryne was right, though. He had been just out of college and thrilled to be on Wall St, even in such a menial position. Scrawny, with a cheap haircut and a poorly fitting suit he ran into Beryne by pure, well, he'd thought at the time, bad luck. That brief exchange put him in upper management in a decade.
Ten years later he'd filled out his suit, alright. Not all of it was paunch, either. Beryne, on the other hand, hadn't changed at all. Didn't seem to have aged a day.
"My boy," the man behind the desk said slowly, "you're here for a very special reason. Very special indeed." He rose from his chair, tall and thin, almost skeletal. "This company has a plethora of employees and," he chuckled, "many more than that who we do not employ but work for us nonetheless." He stalked around the desk fluidly, precisely. "But very few we truly need.
"I would like to make you one of those few. Someone we truly need. I require, above all else, your loyalty. And in exchange you will have your heart's desire."
Okay, I'm hooked.
Quote from: Doktor Howl on June 25, 2013, 02:28:01 AM
Okay, I'm hooked.
Good, because this is entirely due to LOBB. They're a short couple of pieces but I realized after finishing LOBB that I haven't done any writing since LMNO's History of Boston thread (which I never completed).
I also just found the "Topics" tab under my user profile and found a bunch of stories I posted the first part of and never followed up on.
:lulz: Oops. I'll try not to do that with this one.
I like it so far.
This could, nay, will get very interesting!
Part 2 of 2
"Did he sign, my love?"
"Of course he did." They always signed. Even in the old days they signed, or they shook, or they let their blood or they plucked a hair. Funny, none ever asked just what was meant by heart's desire.
"And what did you give him?" The woman speaking was slender and graceful and, more than anything, severe. Hers was a cold beauty, by her own preference striking, but unmistakably above. She sat across from her husband at a long table overflowing with fruits and cheeses, wine and milk in ornate pitchers of silver.
Delight came to her husband's eyes as he answered. "Marlon Pina is a simple man, even by man standards," he said simply, beginning a well known repartee.
"Ah, most difficult," she said. Her eyes widened slightly, now truly engaged. Savoring the moment of unknown, she sipped a sweet red wine and idly plucked a petal from a flower set in a nearby vase.
"You smirk," she said, "so it must have been a rare one indeed. That would eliminate love," and she plucked another petal. "He was well compensated before your meeting, so I do not believe it was wealth," another petal removed. Three petals remained on the flower. "My beloved husband did say simple, so I must say it was not power," two petals. "Health is popular but this Marlon Pina, if I recall, is a young man still and not likely privy to very much illness in himself or loved ones." She removed another petal and placed her fingers delicately on the last one.
The man watched with increasing interest at each eliminated possibility. He was leaned forward now in his high backed wooden chair, one elbow upon the table and his pointed chin resting on his fist. His eyes were fire.
"A simple man," the woman said thoughtfully. "My husband you've brought me a treasure." She paused. "Fame," and pulled off the final petal.
Across from her, the man lifted his goblet. "Nothing so drastic as fame but I must award you some credit for closeness. A toast to Mr. Pina. May he be well liked," and he drank deeply.
"Well liked? Such a rarity," she laughed like bells and drank his toast, "nearly as antiquated as wishing for rain!"
"Oh it was wonderful," the man said fondly, "he even read the contract. Well, attempted to. Gave it a spirited try." And when he had, Marlon Pina would say, the words swam before his eyes. He'd read so many like it over his years under Oliver Beryne. He'd seen so many sign away everything without understand a word of what it meant. It was like magic.
"So what will you have him do?"
"A man so dull as he? He'll be protecting our interests in government. Federal Reserve, likely. We cannot do everything ourselves, my dear Titania, or there would be no time for fun."
"Lord, what fools these mortals be."
FUCKING RAH!
Selling your soul in exchange for friends. How terribly 21st century.
However, I gotta say, I don't think the devil (or whatever) would have to make it difficult to read contracts. Nope, I'm pretty sure HE'S the honest businessman, and his contractees are the ones always trying to cheat the deal. I think he'd have it in black & white.
Thanks, Dok!
It's been far too long since I did any writing. Feels good.
Quote from: Eater of Clowns on June 25, 2013, 11:00:30 PM
Thanks, Dok!
It's been far too long since I did any writing. Feels good.
Well, I'm sort of pulling the whole Hell thing together. We might be able to squeeze a short novella out of the combined work.
By which I mean, "that story was good enough to be published" (and then some), though a little too short as a stand alone.
Damn, thanks. Yeah, it's very short.
I think I missed my mark, though, because Hell wasn't what I was going for. A few weeks ago I had this idea of what the Fair Folk would be like in modern day. Scrap the parts of the old stories that were reflections of the time they were written and try to keep the spirit of the Fey intact. At first I was going to go with the "fairies need to be believed in to have power" thing but American Gods has done it. So I tried for: they exist no matter what, couldn't gain a solid foothold in the real world with their old ways. They're clever, so they adapted, using their standard trickery and indecipherable bargains. And then that just brought me to big banking.
When I wrote the first part yesterday, I pictured O. Beryne just telling Marlon that. I didn't like it. It, somehow, turned into that. Not an actual reveal, but a game, just manipulating mortals for the fun.
I don't know if I kept with the characterization of Oberon and Titania from other stories. They seemed colder, more royal elsewhere and not likely to take part in games. And I'm pretty sure it was Puck who said "Lord, what fools these mortals be," but I'm a nerd so I threw it in there anyway.
I think explaining my thought process just now was a longer story than the actual story was. :lulz:
Quote from: Eater of Clowns on June 25, 2013, 11:29:20 PM
Damn, thanks. Yeah, it's very short.
I think I missed my mark, though, because Hell wasn't what I was going for. A few weeks ago I had this idea of what the Fair Folk would be like in modern day.
Oh, I got the Titania reference. But when you come right down to brass tacks, does it MATTER if the entity you sold your soul to was the devil, Oberon, or Halliburton?
Not really, I'm thinking. And I'm also thinking that the terms of the contracts in all cases are nice and clear, because there's more satisfaction in watching stupid mortals sell themselves cheap, as opposed to trickery.
Hell and Faerie are often combined. There's a whole thing where Faerie pays Hell a tax or tithe, which is sometimes part of the Thomas the Rhymer or Tam Lin story thingie, like Pamela Dean's version (http://www.amazon.com/Tam-Lin-Pamela-Dean/dp/014240652X). Elizabeth Bear has written four books (http://www.elizabethbear.com/?page_id=615) cover part of that.
But that isn't what I initially meant to post. I meant to say; damn, EoC, I really liked that and I'd love to see more! I suspected Fae or sidhe before Hell but wasn't sure because of the contract part. That didn't detract from the story, though. It added a bit of mystery that went well with the vivid imagery.
Well done. :)
Quote from: Cardinal Pizza Deliverance. on June 26, 2013, 12:29:35 AM
Hell and Faerie are often combined. There's a whole thing where Faerie pays Hell a tax or tithe, which is sometimes part of the Thomas the Rhymer or Tam Lin story thingie, like Pamela Dean's version (http://www.amazon.com/Tam-Lin-Pamela-Dean/dp/014240652X). Elizabeth Bear has written four books (http://www.elizabethbear.com/?page_id=615) cover part of that.
But that isn't what I initially meant to post. I meant to say; damn, EoC, I really liked that and I'd love to see more! I suspected Fae or sidhe before Hell but wasn't sure because of the contract part. That didn't detract from the story, though. It added a bit of mystery that went well with the vivid imagery.
Well done. :)
Good to know, and thanks. I'm not as up on my myths as I'd like to be. The contract just seemed like the modern incarnation of the bargains in old fairy stories. I was thinking of the warping text as a reference to mortals in the fairy bazaar, how seemingly simple interactions carry a lot of stipulations incomprehensible to humans.
Dok is right, though. A clean contract probably makes more sense with the myths.
Quote from: Eater of Clowns on June 26, 2013, 12:59:57 AM
Quote from: Cardinal Pizza Deliverance. on June 26, 2013, 12:29:35 AM
Hell and Faerie are often combined. There's a whole thing where Faerie pays Hell a tax or tithe, which is sometimes part of the Thomas the Rhymer or Tam Lin story thingie, like Pamela Dean's version (http://www.amazon.com/Tam-Lin-Pamela-Dean/dp/014240652X). Elizabeth Bear has written four books (http://www.elizabethbear.com/?page_id=615) cover part of that.
But that isn't what I initially meant to post. I meant to say; damn, EoC, I really liked that and I'd love to see more! I suspected Fae or sidhe before Hell but wasn't sure because of the contract part. That didn't detract from the story, though. It added a bit of mystery that went well with the vivid imagery.
Well done. :)
Good to know, and thanks. I'm not as up on my myths as I'd like to be. The contract just seemed like the modern incarnation of the bargains in old fairy stories. I was thinking of the warping text as a reference to mortals in the fairy bazaar, how seemingly simple interactions carry a lot of stipulations incomprehensible to humans.
Dok is right, though. A clean contract probably makes more sense with the myths.
Fae myths are big ones for names having power, so if you know someone's full name and use it, they've got to do whatever you say and for not being able to outright tell a lie but dance around the truth like a mad bastard. So the contract with tricksy language would make sense. Seemingly clear-cut but 'open to interpretation' depending on the reader. The heart's desire thing for instance. Marion might think he's getting immortality and a Maserati but what he actually gets is being well-liked. Which will probably work out because he seems like the kinda guy who'd do better with being liked than with having a Maserati, from what I read. :)
EOC,
Write more things.
That is all.
Quote from: Junkenstein on June 27, 2013, 07:28:01 PM
EOC,
Write more things.
That is all.
I really, truly want to. And thanks!