Yarva Demonicus Etrigan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
personaldemon) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
taxonomites2012-07-23 12:22 pm
personaldemon) wrote in taxonomites2012-07-23 12:22 pm
Entry tags:
[Text] / [Location: a cafe in Speares]
Does anyone know if transfer of credits can be accomplished from one person to another, here? So far all I have managed is using them at the stores or with the hatches, and as it happens this 'allowance' they give us isn't really adequate.
Where I was from, I offered my services in a consulting capacity, but if I cannot get payment for such here, then that isn't incredibly practical.
....on a similar note, if anybody wishes their tarot read, it appears I'm doing this for free until I figure out a way to return an investment on the deck I just hatched.
If so, I'm at the version of the Café Procope that they have apparently stolen from Paris and transplanted here. It is in the Speares district. I may be found at one of the upstairs balcony tables.
Where I was from, I offered my services in a consulting capacity, but if I cannot get payment for such here, then that isn't incredibly practical.
....on a similar note, if anybody wishes their tarot read, it appears I'm doing this for free until I figure out a way to return an investment on the deck I just hatched.
If so, I'm at the version of the Café Procope that they have apparently stolen from Paris and transplanted here. It is in the Speares district. I may be found at one of the upstairs balcony tables.
no subject
He considers the statement and frowns. Specifics...he's rarely been good at those and right no is no exception.
"I've been here two annuals, nine months, and...maybe a couple weeks. Not much of it has made any sense." He swirled his glass and glanced at Jason. "I'm just...not sure if it's for anything, right? What's all this doing for me?"
Pause. "Okay that's not really helpful but I'm in one of those 'evaluating-your-life' phases, you know?"
no subject
"An 'evaluating-your-life' phase is as good as any a time to seek guidance. Very well...."
The glass coffee table receives the cards, one after the other. The Hanged Man. The four of cups. Lastly, the Fool.
Jason arched a brow. The theme of running major arcana was being borne out some more in Taxon, it seemed.
no subject
"These are those major ones, right? Kinda funny to get two of them."
We'll just let the meta ride for a moment.
no subject
"Mathematically unlikely, yes-- however, all day long I have been drawing an 'unlikely' proportion of cards from the major arcana. Perhaps it is something in the water."
He withdraws his hands from the cards, laces them on the tabletop and studies the tableaux for a few seconds in silence.
"In the position of the past, the Hanged Man. A card symbolizing sacrifice, and surrender... It has ties to a myth of my world; a god who bound himself to hang from a tree for nine days in order that he might receive knowledge of sacred mysteries.
"Some see other stories suggested by the Hanged Man as well; the Christ-myth, Osiris or Mithras... but always a theme of sacrifice of the self, destruction of the self, in order to obtain some form of salvation or victory."
no subject
"Yes, that's...in a round-about way, yes." If he'd told her she'd have just killed him and then there would have been no way to stop the machine. By having his brain taken, a door was left open. "Not the greatest sacrifice but it's up there. And in the end it made the difference."
Still, a hell of a lot to go through to babble numbers at some jerk in a fedora.
no subject
How sad it is when you've only half a brain
And hang at the edge of knowledge's black abyss;
Not whole, but no longer forgetful of your pain
It proves Gray's words that ignorance is bliss?
"How does one weigh sacrifice?" Jason said aloud, countering Glitch's words. "You say 'not the greatest'; I somehow doubt there is an objective spectrum upon which one's capacity to think as one ought is carefully delineated is being lesser than some, greater than others. All sacrifices are sacrifices..."
His fingers move to the middle card, eyes studying the picture of the man sitting lost in his own thoughts.
"In the present you've disengaged. You've retreated into yourself, possibly as defense against sustained injuries, possibly as resignation. You are dwelling within the world encompassed by your head, distanced yourself from others.
"The four of cups can be considered a warning of this state-- an alarum to re-engage with the rest of the world."
ohoho
...one's capacity to think as one ought. He hadn't explained it, had he? Not all of it, no, and his eyes narrow just a fraction. Maybe Azkadellia had told Jason, or maybe his divination skills are greater than some simple card reading. Still.
"I'm still here," he says with a shrug. "That's my measure."
And he's listening again, studying the card. Opportunities dismissed, discontent, ignoring what's in front of him. He thinks of his little house, his increasingly tight circle of friends, and nods faintly.
"I keep saying we all stick together here but...it gets so easy to just close in." And there's the offered cup which he's holding back from, the happiness he's not letting himself embrace for all sorts of reasons. "I lost someone dear and I have been insulating but it's not what I want."
Or what she'd want. He looks up with a wry little grin. "I like people, it's a thing."
no subject
This Glitch, or whatever one wants to call him, is aware and engaged in the reading-- whatever the damage to his mind, there's still both the glint of shrewd intelligence in those eyes, and insight and self-awareness in the words. Jason nods in turn.
He makes an expression that isn't quite a smile at Glitch's I like people.
"Then you seem well-disposed to take the warning and be able to act upon it. Leading us to the Fool, in the future position.
"A card of beginnings, fresh start, the open promise of a new day. It's far from a declaration that one is stupid; rather the Fool represents the querent in a child-like state of hope and optimism for the road to come, a road where the Fool pursues his passions.
"Faith and loyalty are themes of this card, symbolized by the dog, the rose.
"I said the Fool isn't a card signifying stupidity; it's not. Yet it contains warnings about the consequences of blind optimism as well. Notice the small size of the Fool's knapsack for the road: the journey has not been well planned.
"The Fool stands as both praising the positivity and optimism represented by the card, and at the same time warns the querent to be responsible and to consider consequences as he acts."
no subject
Ambrose is dead, long live not-quite-Ambrose and all that.
Not that not-quite-Ambrose is a bad fellow to be or anything. Glitch nods and his hadn creeps out so fingertips and touch the edge of the Fool card. Faith. Loyalty. Optimism. And his little dog too.
"That's me, the wide-eyed optimist." At least it had been, and if he was going down that road again it would be wise to do so with caution. "Thank you Jason, this has cleared up a number of things."
no subject
"Which is more pleasant to deliver than the alternative." Not that he particularly cares about 'pleasant', but... easier. Easier has its appeals.
He considers the glass of whiskey Glitch drinks from with faint, casual jealousy. Once his guest leaves, perhaps. He settles back in his armchair, hands dangling over the armrests.
"You've been here longer than anyone I've yet talked to."
no subject
"Really?" he says and looks around. It seemed like he'd hardly been there much time at all but...well, some people don't like people. "Not really one for socializing, I take it."
no subject
"Although, as you are the first person to be in my house, the latter also applies. Unlikely to change much, since, as you say, I am not a particular social butterfly."
no subject
"Ah, well, glad to break it in for you." Or something. He shakes his head, which jangles the zipper's tab. "And since I'm here I may as well ask how you're coping with this place and...if you've got any weird questions about it."
He's relaxed, and donig that exuding-earnestness thing. The been-here-too-long, seen it (almost) all look.
no subject
"How I'm 'coping'? Mnh. Are you the psychiatric counsel, Mr. Glitch?
"As for 'weird' questions... I fear my barometer for the 'weird' is not particularly reliable."
no subject
"Nah, a passing interest, I think--" I think someone like you with your issues with masculinity and "--but no. I'm just interested in how people settle - and 'settle' is very subjective." He arches an eyebrow of his own. "It runs the gammut from folks happy to be here to others trying to blow the city and everyone in it up, with most falling in the middle."
tl;dr - He doesn't want the latter, Jason, please don't be crazy.
"And as for, ah, weirdness barometer reliability?" Glitch glances upward, going a little crosseyed in the process. "Everybody's is skewed. Maybe I should say there are no stupid questions."
no subject
Although Etrigan might. Or possibly just try to burn the whole place down. He dismisses that with a tiny headshake to himself.
"Hmn. Fair enough. I suppose with the lot of us coming from such different lands there really is no 'normal', is there." Jason studies the ceiling himself for a moment, thinking, before asking, "In all your time here, have they given you any clue, or have you drawn any conclusions, as to what our captors want?"
these keywords are always apt
"They want us to live," he replies. "The want us to work together, to be happy, to dance when they pull our strings. What they want from us is what we're giving them just by being here, there's no bargaining with that."
<3
"We're entertainment, then," he drawled, letting his head drop back against the chair's padding. "That's charming.
"And their power? It really is as limitless as it seems?"
no subject
"In my own world I created a machine capable of stopping the orbits of celestial bodies," Glitch replies and takes another sip of his drink. "And I've been here longer than anyone. It might not be limitless but it's pretty damn expansive."
no subject
"And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed..." He reached for the bottle (to hell with it) and poured himself a finger of whiskey as well.
"And with all these gathered here-- geniuses and the other... entities... nobody's figured out how to free themselves?" More a statement than a question. Jason frowns into his glass.
"I know of beings powerful enough to do such a thing but-- this isn't their work. I would know it if so."
no subject
"Apparently there really are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy." Which is to say he may have pilfered (probably on Mayland's suggestion) a book of Shakespeare quotes at some point. "Espeically since folks have established this isn't Earth or heaven or the nome king's kitchen or whatever...I'm pretty sure none of the rules apply."
no subject
He closes his eyes a moment. Etrigan's insights might be helpful here, but the demon... has nothing to say. Curled down like a cat in the coals, unhelpful, lazing.
Etrigan is only ever quiet when it is inconvenient.
So they are somewhere outside the power of heaven or hell, but all the rules they each have brought with them hold true: Etrigan still lurks in his soul, and whatever sorcery holds this man's mind in.... whatever state it does... also seems binding. Mnhm.
He has a sip of alcohol, then sets the glass down to avoid temptation.
"Well. That's not exactly encouraging, but I suppose it could be a good deal worse, couldn't it-- they might actively seek our torture, and not merely the inadvertent sort they visited upon us with their Swag Peninsula re-enactment."
*Swag Peninsula is now the fake fandom version of Treasure Island just saying