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poly_chromatic2013-02-23 12:13 am
infernoandhearth) wrote in poly_chromatic2013-02-23 12:13 am
Entry tags:
Sextándi Villieldr - [Video]
[The following goes up as a video, early Saturday morning. Luke hasn't noticed, obviously. Curses, and that.]
There seemed no help for it. David did not dare protest any more in case the others realised why he did not want to strike a match. Perhaps it would do no harm if Astrid struck it for herself. Reluctantly he took out the box. Most reluctantly he tossed it over. "Here. Catch."
Mr Wedding caught it, smiling. "Allow me," he said. Courteously he opened the box, took out a match and struck it.
"Thanks," said Astrid.
The next second, Luke was standing in the window looking alarmed and uncertain.
"Run, Luke!" shouted David. "Quick! It wasn't me!"
Luke turned to bolt without a word. Mr Chew dashed across the room to stop him, but before he got near the window Luke was dragged back through it, struggling between the lady chauffeur and another lady who looked rather like her.
"Bring him here," said Mr Wedding. Politely he passed David his matches back. "Thank you, David." David hardly had the heart to take them. Luke's face was so white you could see every freckle singly. David had a feeling his own face was rather pale too. He kept thinking of those snakes.
"Oh, David, I'm sorry!" said Astrid. "And here I was trying to help you."
David did not really attend to her. He was trying to follow Luke, who was being dragged further away across the room, and Mr Chew and the Frys were milling about in front of him, making it difficult. Astrid, puffing on her disastrous cigarette, followed David, still apologising and asking him what was going to happen to Luke. David wished he knew. There seemed to be a great many more people round Luke now and they were all very angry.
"Tell us what you did with it," said Mr Chew.
"He's bound to start lying," said Mrs Fry. "Make him tell the truth for once in his life."
"The truth, Luke," said Mr Fry.
"I didn't do it," said Luke. "It wasn't me."
"You always say that," said Mrs Fry.
Most of the other people were shouting accusations at Luke at the same time. David did not notice much about them except that they were tall and angry and that one man had only one ear. Nor did he notice particularly where they were, though he had a feeling that they were no longer in Uncle Bernard's dining-room but somewhere high up and out of doors. The chief thing he noticed was how small and frightened Luke's harassed figure looked among them. Never had David felt for anyone more. It was just like himself among his own relations.
The similarity struck Astrid too. "He looks just like you when we all go on at you," she said. "It's making me feel awful!"
In fact, it was more official than a mere family row. The tall people, angry though they were, were standing in a ring to which David was sure there was some kind of order. Luke, in the middle and firmly held by the two ladies, was more like the prisoner at the bar than anything else. David was sure of it when a girl with red hair like Luke's came from what seemed to be the lower end of the circle, looking rather frightened, as if she was breaking the rules, and tapped Luke on the arm with an encouraging smile. Luke smiled back, in spite of his unhappiness, and David almost envied him.
"That will do," said Mr Wedding. The girl, looking even more frightened, went back to her place and left Luke on his own again. Mr Wedding stood at the head of the circle with the Frys and Mr Chew. He was taller even than the Frys, and darker, and more complicated, and David could see he had more powers, in a more mysterious way, than anyone else there. "Luke," he said, and Luke looked up at him hopelessly, "I want a confession from you."
"I didn't take any revenge," said Luke. 'I swear it."
"Be careful what you swear to then," said Mr Wedding. "If you didn't hide it, why could a mere child set you free? Answer me, and tell me where it is."
"I can't," said Luke. "I don't know,"
"Oh, put him back in prison!" said Mrs Fry, and the rest of the circle took her up. "Shut him up again. Make sure he suffers."
Mr Wedding waited until they had stopped. Then he said, in a sad, grim way, like a judge pronouncing the sentence. "You've brought us down to your own level, Luke, by doing this, and because of that, unless you can put it right, you'll have to go down to a deeper prison and a worse punishment than before."
This was too much for Luke. "Oh, please not prison again!" he said. "If you don't care how horrible it was, don't you think at least I've been there long enough to pay for any crime?"
"Not for what you did," said Mrs Fry.
"But it was a mistake, an accident!" Luke said frantically: "I meant it as a joke – I didn't think for a moment it would kill him."
"Yes," said Mr Fry. "A very fine joke, to put the blame on someone else."
"I know. That was part of it," said Luke. "I wanted to do something impossible and make it no one's fault. But I did take the blame. I did give myself up and go to prison. What more do you want?"
"Either give back what you took or go to prison again," said Mr Wedding. "And you can stop denying you did it too."
Luke opened his mouth as if he wanted to deny it, but he seemed to realise no one would believe him if he did. He looked desperately round the circle, though whether he was looking for someone who sympathised or a chance of escaping, David could not tell. He did not find either.
David was so sorry for him that he shoved his way into the middle of the circle. "Look here," he said. "Luke told me he didn't do anything and I know he meant it."
There was a great silence, and everyone looked at David. Most of them were haughty and indignant. Luke gave him a harassed smile. Mr Wedding also smiled, a curious secret smile, but not, it seemed, because he was glad to see David.
"I see I should not have let you keep those shells and stones," he said. "Take my advice and go away. Don't you realise by now that Luke has no conscience and has simply charmed you?"
"I haven't!" Luke said indignantly.
David knew that this was simply Mr Wedding not playing fair again and, though he suspected there was some trick behind it, he did not let it bother him. "That's got nothing to do with it," he told Mr Wedding. "If you want the truth, Luke told me he did do something. But it wasn't a revenge. It was for someone who's dead now and he can't prove it."
"How very convenient!" said Mrs Fry, who seemed to have her knife into Luke properly, in much the same way Mrs Thirsk had for David.
"But it's true," said Luke. "Someone came to me in prison and asked for a way to hide something so that it might never be found, and I told them. But they didn't say what they were hiding. It was a good thousand years ago, maybe more."
There was some murmuring at this, and the man with the ginger-gold hair said: "Yes, that fits. That could be it." David was a little surprised to see him, because he had not noticed he was there before.
"My dear Luke," said Mr Fry, "don't try to pretend you didn't know what you were hiding. You took such good care none of us should ask you about it."
"That was part of the charm," said Luke. "None of you could ask me in prison, and I couldn't tell you a thing until someone else told you first. I didn't want you finding it. Besides," he added, quite in his usual manner, "I'd got sick of you all coming and asking me things. You never left me alone."
"Then who was it asked you to hide it?" demanded Mr Chew.
"It'll never be found if I tell you that," said Luke. "That's part of the charm too."
"It would be!" said Mrs Fry. "Liar!"
"Now, now," said the ginger-haired man. "That gets us nowhere." He turned to Mr Wedding. "I'm the chief sufferer after all. If I vouch for him, can Luke go free and try to undo the charm?"
Mr Wedding smiled at him and then looked at Luke in a way David thought was rather regretful. "I notice he hasn't offered to undo it," he said.
"Can you undo it?" Mr Chew asked Luke bluntly.
"No," said Luke wretchedly.
There was another great silence. The ginger-haired man looked nearly as dejected as Luke. Then Mr Wedding sighed and signalled to the two ladies to take Luke away. David had a feeling that Mr Wedding wanted to send Luke to prison about as little as Luke wanted to go.
"Can't anyone undo this charm?" David said.
"I doubt it," Luke said sadly over his shoulder as the ladies moved off with him. "Only someone who doesn't know what he's looking for."
"Then that's simple," said David. "I can find it for you."
The ladies stopped and looked enquiringly at Mr Wedding. Mr Wedding did nothing but stroke the raven on his shoulder and look grave. The ladies looked at one another and evidently wondered whether to drag Luke away or not.
"You'd never find it, David," Luke said. "I'd better come clean before you make any promises. I bargained to have it made as difficult as possible, you see, because I thought it might be a chance to be let out of prison, if I was the only one who could find it. But that all came to nothing, and anyway I guessed what it was yesterday, so I can't find it now. No one looking for it was to name any names and the thing itself was a secret. And I was to hide it somewhere where there was no time and not to know where that was. So you see?"
David did see, and he was daunted.
Mr Wedding stirred. "The truth at last," he said. "Have you told him all the conditions?"
"Yes," said Luke. "Truly."
"Then," said Mr Wedding, with just a trace of triumph in his manner, "what do you say, David, to another bargain on the lines of our first one? You find what was hidden before midnight on Sunday – you can have any help you need – and Luke goes free and unharmed until then and for ever after if you find it. What do you say?"
David hesitated. He had a feeling Mr Wedding had tried to lead up to this bargain all through, which meant there must be a catch in it. Probably it was simply impossible. But Luke was looking at him with such radiant eagerness that David had not the heart to refuse.
"Why give him such a short time?" asked the ginger-haired man, while David hesitated. "As this seems to be our one chance of finding the thing, and as so much of our powers are bound up in it, couldn't you give him a month?"
Mr Wedding, with his eye on Luke's expectant face, shook his head slowly. "No," he said. "You can have until Sunday, Luke. My arrangements are made. David, I think if you haven't found it by then, you never will do. Do you agree to the bargain?"
Luke was looking so wretchedly nervous by then that David said: "All right. I'll try and find it."
All the people in the circle shouted, and nearly all of them, even Mr Chew, advanced on David to thank him. But Mr Wedding took hold of David's shoulder and steered him very firmly away downhill towards the french window. Luke, drooping and white, came along with them beside Astrid.
"You'll have to forgive a trick or so," Mr Wedding said as they went. "I think this is a better bargain than the last, David. Keep those shells and stones in your pocket, by the way. They come from a place of power. You'll find they can take you back there, if you need to go, and anyone else you choose with you. And I'll do all I can for you. I want Luke free too." David looked up at him uncertainly and saw Mr Wedding was quite in earnest.
[ooc: Obviously, the bits that happen inside David's head are only noticeable in the expressions he makes. I nearly scripted it out but I like DWJ's writing too much to tread over it. For visual reference...
Mr Wedding: Looks about forty and is the tall dark handsome stranger fortune tellers said you'd meet, only he's missing one eye. The other is very blue and very piercing.
Mr. Chew: Huge. Hulking. Brutish. Small glaring eyes and a beak of a nose.
The Frys: Beautiful and loud and big and blonde.
The ginger-haired man is pretty self-explanatory but he's even taller than Wedding. Probably buffer too.]
There seemed no help for it. David did not dare protest any more in case the others realised why he did not want to strike a match. Perhaps it would do no harm if Astrid struck it for herself. Reluctantly he took out the box. Most reluctantly he tossed it over. "Here. Catch."
Mr Wedding caught it, smiling. "Allow me," he said. Courteously he opened the box, took out a match and struck it.
"Thanks," said Astrid.
The next second, Luke was standing in the window looking alarmed and uncertain.
"Run, Luke!" shouted David. "Quick! It wasn't me!"
Luke turned to bolt without a word. Mr Chew dashed across the room to stop him, but before he got near the window Luke was dragged back through it, struggling between the lady chauffeur and another lady who looked rather like her.
"Bring him here," said Mr Wedding. Politely he passed David his matches back. "Thank you, David." David hardly had the heart to take them. Luke's face was so white you could see every freckle singly. David had a feeling his own face was rather pale too. He kept thinking of those snakes.
"Oh, David, I'm sorry!" said Astrid. "And here I was trying to help you."
David did not really attend to her. He was trying to follow Luke, who was being dragged further away across the room, and Mr Chew and the Frys were milling about in front of him, making it difficult. Astrid, puffing on her disastrous cigarette, followed David, still apologising and asking him what was going to happen to Luke. David wished he knew. There seemed to be a great many more people round Luke now and they were all very angry.
"Tell us what you did with it," said Mr Chew.
"He's bound to start lying," said Mrs Fry. "Make him tell the truth for once in his life."
"The truth, Luke," said Mr Fry.
"I didn't do it," said Luke. "It wasn't me."
"You always say that," said Mrs Fry.
Most of the other people were shouting accusations at Luke at the same time. David did not notice much about them except that they were tall and angry and that one man had only one ear. Nor did he notice particularly where they were, though he had a feeling that they were no longer in Uncle Bernard's dining-room but somewhere high up and out of doors. The chief thing he noticed was how small and frightened Luke's harassed figure looked among them. Never had David felt for anyone more. It was just like himself among his own relations.
The similarity struck Astrid too. "He looks just like you when we all go on at you," she said. "It's making me feel awful!"
In fact, it was more official than a mere family row. The tall people, angry though they were, were standing in a ring to which David was sure there was some kind of order. Luke, in the middle and firmly held by the two ladies, was more like the prisoner at the bar than anything else. David was sure of it when a girl with red hair like Luke's came from what seemed to be the lower end of the circle, looking rather frightened, as if she was breaking the rules, and tapped Luke on the arm with an encouraging smile. Luke smiled back, in spite of his unhappiness, and David almost envied him.
"That will do," said Mr Wedding. The girl, looking even more frightened, went back to her place and left Luke on his own again. Mr Wedding stood at the head of the circle with the Frys and Mr Chew. He was taller even than the Frys, and darker, and more complicated, and David could see he had more powers, in a more mysterious way, than anyone else there. "Luke," he said, and Luke looked up at him hopelessly, "I want a confession from you."
"I didn't take any revenge," said Luke. 'I swear it."
"Be careful what you swear to then," said Mr Wedding. "If you didn't hide it, why could a mere child set you free? Answer me, and tell me where it is."
"I can't," said Luke. "I don't know,"
"Oh, put him back in prison!" said Mrs Fry, and the rest of the circle took her up. "Shut him up again. Make sure he suffers."
Mr Wedding waited until they had stopped. Then he said, in a sad, grim way, like a judge pronouncing the sentence. "You've brought us down to your own level, Luke, by doing this, and because of that, unless you can put it right, you'll have to go down to a deeper prison and a worse punishment than before."
This was too much for Luke. "Oh, please not prison again!" he said. "If you don't care how horrible it was, don't you think at least I've been there long enough to pay for any crime?"
"Not for what you did," said Mrs Fry.
"But it was a mistake, an accident!" Luke said frantically: "I meant it as a joke – I didn't think for a moment it would kill him."
"Yes," said Mr Fry. "A very fine joke, to put the blame on someone else."
"I know. That was part of it," said Luke. "I wanted to do something impossible and make it no one's fault. But I did take the blame. I did give myself up and go to prison. What more do you want?"
"Either give back what you took or go to prison again," said Mr Wedding. "And you can stop denying you did it too."
Luke opened his mouth as if he wanted to deny it, but he seemed to realise no one would believe him if he did. He looked desperately round the circle, though whether he was looking for someone who sympathised or a chance of escaping, David could not tell. He did not find either.
David was so sorry for him that he shoved his way into the middle of the circle. "Look here," he said. "Luke told me he didn't do anything and I know he meant it."
There was a great silence, and everyone looked at David. Most of them were haughty and indignant. Luke gave him a harassed smile. Mr Wedding also smiled, a curious secret smile, but not, it seemed, because he was glad to see David.
"I see I should not have let you keep those shells and stones," he said. "Take my advice and go away. Don't you realise by now that Luke has no conscience and has simply charmed you?"
"I haven't!" Luke said indignantly.
David knew that this was simply Mr Wedding not playing fair again and, though he suspected there was some trick behind it, he did not let it bother him. "That's got nothing to do with it," he told Mr Wedding. "If you want the truth, Luke told me he did do something. But it wasn't a revenge. It was for someone who's dead now and he can't prove it."
"How very convenient!" said Mrs Fry, who seemed to have her knife into Luke properly, in much the same way Mrs Thirsk had for David.
"But it's true," said Luke. "Someone came to me in prison and asked for a way to hide something so that it might never be found, and I told them. But they didn't say what they were hiding. It was a good thousand years ago, maybe more."
There was some murmuring at this, and the man with the ginger-gold hair said: "Yes, that fits. That could be it." David was a little surprised to see him, because he had not noticed he was there before.
"My dear Luke," said Mr Fry, "don't try to pretend you didn't know what you were hiding. You took such good care none of us should ask you about it."
"That was part of the charm," said Luke. "None of you could ask me in prison, and I couldn't tell you a thing until someone else told you first. I didn't want you finding it. Besides," he added, quite in his usual manner, "I'd got sick of you all coming and asking me things. You never left me alone."
"Then who was it asked you to hide it?" demanded Mr Chew.
"It'll never be found if I tell you that," said Luke. "That's part of the charm too."
"It would be!" said Mrs Fry. "Liar!"
"Now, now," said the ginger-haired man. "That gets us nowhere." He turned to Mr Wedding. "I'm the chief sufferer after all. If I vouch for him, can Luke go free and try to undo the charm?"
Mr Wedding smiled at him and then looked at Luke in a way David thought was rather regretful. "I notice he hasn't offered to undo it," he said.
"Can you undo it?" Mr Chew asked Luke bluntly.
"No," said Luke wretchedly.
There was another great silence. The ginger-haired man looked nearly as dejected as Luke. Then Mr Wedding sighed and signalled to the two ladies to take Luke away. David had a feeling that Mr Wedding wanted to send Luke to prison about as little as Luke wanted to go.
"Can't anyone undo this charm?" David said.
"I doubt it," Luke said sadly over his shoulder as the ladies moved off with him. "Only someone who doesn't know what he's looking for."
"Then that's simple," said David. "I can find it for you."
The ladies stopped and looked enquiringly at Mr Wedding. Mr Wedding did nothing but stroke the raven on his shoulder and look grave. The ladies looked at one another and evidently wondered whether to drag Luke away or not.
"You'd never find it, David," Luke said. "I'd better come clean before you make any promises. I bargained to have it made as difficult as possible, you see, because I thought it might be a chance to be let out of prison, if I was the only one who could find it. But that all came to nothing, and anyway I guessed what it was yesterday, so I can't find it now. No one looking for it was to name any names and the thing itself was a secret. And I was to hide it somewhere where there was no time and not to know where that was. So you see?"
David did see, and he was daunted.
Mr Wedding stirred. "The truth at last," he said. "Have you told him all the conditions?"
"Yes," said Luke. "Truly."
"Then," said Mr Wedding, with just a trace of triumph in his manner, "what do you say, David, to another bargain on the lines of our first one? You find what was hidden before midnight on Sunday – you can have any help you need – and Luke goes free and unharmed until then and for ever after if you find it. What do you say?"
David hesitated. He had a feeling Mr Wedding had tried to lead up to this bargain all through, which meant there must be a catch in it. Probably it was simply impossible. But Luke was looking at him with such radiant eagerness that David had not the heart to refuse.
"Why give him such a short time?" asked the ginger-haired man, while David hesitated. "As this seems to be our one chance of finding the thing, and as so much of our powers are bound up in it, couldn't you give him a month?"
Mr Wedding, with his eye on Luke's expectant face, shook his head slowly. "No," he said. "You can have until Sunday, Luke. My arrangements are made. David, I think if you haven't found it by then, you never will do. Do you agree to the bargain?"
Luke was looking so wretchedly nervous by then that David said: "All right. I'll try and find it."
All the people in the circle shouted, and nearly all of them, even Mr Chew, advanced on David to thank him. But Mr Wedding took hold of David's shoulder and steered him very firmly away downhill towards the french window. Luke, drooping and white, came along with them beside Astrid.
"You'll have to forgive a trick or so," Mr Wedding said as they went. "I think this is a better bargain than the last, David. Keep those shells and stones in your pocket, by the way. They come from a place of power. You'll find they can take you back there, if you need to go, and anyone else you choose with you. And I'll do all I can for you. I want Luke free too." David looked up at him uncertainly and saw Mr Wedding was quite in earnest.
[ooc: Obviously, the bits that happen inside David's head are only noticeable in the expressions he makes. I nearly scripted it out but I like DWJ's writing too much to tread over it. For visual reference...
Mr Wedding: Looks about forty and is the tall dark handsome stranger fortune tellers said you'd meet, only he's missing one eye. The other is very blue and very piercing.
Mr. Chew: Huge. Hulking. Brutish. Small glaring eyes and a beak of a nose.
The Frys: Beautiful and loud and big and blonde.
The ginger-haired man is pretty self-explanatory but he's even taller than Wedding. Probably buffer too.]
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Of course, that doesn't always work but locking someone away is merely going to infuriate them or make them suffer, at the very least; either way it is not an improvement.
Keep in mind that my opinions may not be the same as David's, despite the various similarities. Still:
Most people are unhappy when they find themselves taken with the idea that they are alone, isolated, misunderstood or under-appreciated. Whether or not that is rooted in any reality does not actually matter - unhappiness remains and then there are various coping mechanisms in play. Perhaps it is an extraordinarily simplistic and laughable idea to come from a telepath but I sincerely believe that many people would be happier if they could bring themselves to talk - and listen - about the things that trouble them.
Buddhism claims that all attachement leads to misery but I am none too fond of suggesting that people force themselves not to make attachments (as is probably obvious). No one is born alone in a vacuum, or at least no mortal being is. Occasionally when one finds themselves unhappy at the hands of others, despite various reasons they feel they should be able to look past or beyond it, they grow older and are driven to encourage that same happiness in others. Due to my unique position it's understanding I'm trying to encourage, and one can't find understanding without communication.
You've attended school with him? You don't find it terribly boring?
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Do you manage something out of it, even if the other person doesn't appreciate it? Or if you don't manage to free them at all, or make them happy.
I missed about 2000 years of human knowledge and history, Charles. I'm catching up.
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It depends on why I've failed at it, I suppose. If it is just poor timing or any number of other facts. I learn, so yes, I manage something out of it but I would rather it be an actively useful and successful learning tool instead.
I hadn't considered that, though I don't envy any instructor that doesn't manage to hold your interest.
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They're most of them alright. I try to not do anything that would mess David up particularly.
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Have the two of you taken your A-levels yet?
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