Accounts Unbalanced

Accounts Unbalanced

Postby Glenn » Mon Jan 15, 2018 5:52 am

Somehow, the Gilded Lily was still standing. For a theater to survive the aftermath of the summer of forced frippery some years past was impressive, but then its owner and operator was a man who excelled at survival.

Stefan,

It has been years since our last encounter and even longer since our first. Instead of pleasantries, I would bring forth from memory two encounters in the middle that were of some importance between us. Once I came to you with opportunity and an accompanying need. Once I came to you with need and an accompanying opportunity. In the first, it was an equal exchange. In the second, it was anything but.

As you must know, I have retreated from Myrken Wood. I have and you have not. We all have our failings, Stefan. I had many in the years you knew me. I had experienced such things that would bring you a sort of well-contained delight, purely, let us say, from a scientific point of view, of course. I regret not having shared them with you years ago. I wonder if it might have changed things between us. I wonder if it might have sparked something magical (that is a word you have much learned experience with after all). Regardless, they caused certain failings and exacerbated others.

For one, I thought i had time that I did not in fact have. I avoided the position of Governor for quite a while, knowing it would lock me into a sort of inevitability. I tried to find others to provide cover and to be consumed with the tedium that went with it. Power is best utilized in the shadows. I'm sure you'd agree. When my hand was forced, the sands started to slip down and that was that. It meant I had to delegate certain tasks that would have been served well within my hands. To you, I delegated one. By that point, I was on my way towards a sort of recovery and thus I did not agree to terms that we would have found common ground upon just a year before. You went forward, trodding upon that ground despite my clear misgivings. It did not end well for myself or for Myrken.

We have our failings and we have our strengths. Your patience and restraint amazes me now, years and miles away. That patience remains one of the most remarkable things I ever encountered in my time in Myrken Wood, and I think you can understand the breadth of that statement. You must be assailed with endless temptation there and yet you know your own proclivities and desire so well that you sup from the cup instead of drinking deep. There is a near endless supply and yet you show restraint. In the face of those around you who do not, who are loud and coarse and unrestrained, a little misdirection is almost unnecessary. Yet there you are in the business of it.

Have the years treated you well, Stefan? Have you treated them well? Do you find your thirst easier or more difficult to manage as the years drone on? Do you merely survive with by meeting the bare minimum of your needs or do you begin to desire something more?

Glenn Burnie
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Re: Accounts Unbalanced

Postby Dulcie » Sun Jan 21, 2018 2:54 pm

It had been a long time since his servants had brought him a hand stamped letter. These days it was mostly official correspondence. Taxes, requests for use of the theatre, the sort of boring mundane things that Stefan Berdini abhored. Life should be anything but these tedious little tasks, so when something that seemed out of the ordinary his hands were eager to accept it. As he read the letter he chuckled to himself, something that his servants would have found strange had they been in the room. It was rare to get anything but a snicker from the man. He was quick to read and quick to pick up his quill and ink. It was far too intriguing of a letter not to respond to.

Dearest Mister Burnie,

I must admit that I was surprised to receive a letter in your hand. Your absence from Myrken Wood is often met with it's share of rumors and mythology. I believe at one point there was speculation that you had been turned into a were creature, though I happen to have met the local werewolf and she seems rather harmless, tamed by your brother in law and I doubt capable of turning you into some sort of beast. Fairy tales aside however, I have heard whispers that you have been writing letters, and I am honored to find myself counted among your correspondents.

I suppose one could argue about what did and did not end well for Myrken. I admit, I have stayed out of local politics in the past few years, but I sense a quiet in the air these days. Chaos has a way of clearing the darkness from the light. Shadows however, always remain. It is impossible to lose those altogether. What I did or did not do is hardly the point of the matter, but merely one element in the sequence of a story that has been written for many years before I arrived in Myrken Wood and I imagine for many years afterwards. A time will come when the children of Myrken know nothing of the Storyteller, or Golben, or the woman who had them all decorated in finery. We are quick to forget these things.

You are quite correct, I am patient. It is perhaps the best virtue I have. The years have treated me kindly. The theatre thrives as ever, for the population of a troubled village love nothing more than a distraction from their village. I am intrigued that you question my thirst as if you know anything of it. I believe we have always hungered, always thirsted for different things Mister Burnie. I survive, for I am a patient man. I have my own ways to feed my hungers, but my time will come again and then I shall have my fill.

I do hope that you are well. I wonder often at how a man such as you survives without those to govern. I often wonder what the people of Myrken would do if you were to return. I am most curious about how you are living now. Perhaps you will see fit to write me again.

With my deepest curiosities,

Stefan Berdini
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Re: Accounts Unbalanced

Postby Glenn » Fri Feb 23, 2018 3:48 pm

Stefan,

Were I a pessimist, I would say that it is a question of tolerance, of base cost and benefit. What do you provide Myrken Wood? Entertainment. Perhaps a semblance of culture, not elevated exactly but elevated enough for the needs of your patrons. It is not a conscious effect, not necessarily, but an unconscious one. It means that you will not be the first they look at, but instead the third, the fourth. In this, however, if you are not the first, then you shall never be looked at. Then, of course, you make yourself useful to certain figures who can protect those who are useful. Perhaps a governor with specific needs for whom a monumental end may justify slight and incremental means.

I am not a pessimist. Nor, to the dismay of one of my other correspondents, a realist. Would you believe me still an idealist? Would that make you a romantic if such a notion brought a wistful smile to your face? Can one be a romantic and a sharp pragmatist? I wonder if the combination of the two is the exact thing which creates an illusionist, an man who understands and appreciates the delusions that we set upon ourselves (as a race, not as individuals) but that also desires to profit from such a thing. You are, I think, a literal version of what most opportunists only are in the abstract.

You have a level of ingenuity and a penchant for hard, dedicated work. You devote yourself, yet it is all to twist perception, to control it, to shape reality. From what I know of you, you do not make literal deals with demons. You do not channel power from arcane sources. You have mastered a physical control over the perception of reality and I admire that. I think, however, it is not enough. I think that you have tried to create a physical power quite similar, on a small, controlled scale (the same scale, perhaps as your illusions, relatively) over life and death itself. Were we to catalog such things, we could do so on scale and on depth. What you have tried to do is very deep indeed, even if it is not particularly wide.

Would you say this is how you are driven or is it a wholly superficial supposition?

Burnie
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Re: Accounts Unbalanced

Postby Dulcie » Fri Apr 20, 2018 2:07 pm

Mister Burnie,

I was so disappointed to find that your last letter included so very little of yourself and your circumstances. I wonder now why you write to me if not to exchange information and give me some insight into your life so far from here. My curiosities continue of course, and as you have pointed out there can be a sense of monotony here (at least when things are calm anyhow).

You muse over romantics, however I suspect you may be one yourself. You seem to be imagining a great notion for the things I do. You are correct, I have no commune with the devil, no arcane powers. I manipulate reality, fool perception. It is work of course, but you make it sound almost as if I wish to be a God, controlling life and death. What a silly notion for someone who performs what is simply more elaborate parlor tricks.

No, what I enjoy is the trickery of it all. The eye that looks one way that should be looking another. Fooling people into a sense of amazement and disbelief when the answer is right in front of them the whole time, only to see them realize it with smiles upon their face. Isn't that what any good performer would want?

Now then, what of you? Have you been to any good theatres since you left? I would love to hear how mine compares.

Sincerely,

Stefan Berdini
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Re: Accounts Unbalanced

Postby Glenn » Thu May 31, 2018 7:05 am

Stefan,

Apologies for the delay. I found your humility in the face of my romantic notions particularly disappointing. I continue to posit that your theatrics are, unlike most of your ilk, to make you seem smaller than you truly are, not larger. That is not to say that I think you are some sort of preternatural entity. Quite the opposite. My regard for you is that you have stretched the limit of what is humanly possible to create the perception of the impossible. Perception does not matter more than truth, but it does matter almost as much as it. If we lived in a world where we were not beset upon by gods and monsters, it would be impressive. In a world with such a power imbalance, however, it is positively inspirational.

I'll forgive your humility and speak instead on a more palatable way that you did, in fact, inspire me. Razasan is many time larger than Myrkentown. It is many times wealthier. It has a sort of civic nobility which Myrkentown certainly possesses. There is culture here. We have our hints in Myrkentown, now and again, and we have a connection to nature, both that which grows and that which is within ourselves, which may not exist here. Instead, there are lavish theaters, if you have the funds to patronize them, with elaborate costumed historical dramas. Kings and Queens. Princes and Princesses, some with effects that would impress even you. For those of simpler means, there are bawdier establishments. For those with none at all, there are open air stages staffed by those who wish the notoriety to end up in one place or the other. Often times, the chase of these entrepreneurial spirits by those employed in the name of public decency is more entertaining than the act itself.

I saw a one-handed woman fight a much larger man in a pit. What have you done today?

So, it is truly a wealth of entertaining riches here in Razasan. You would be a very small fish in this very large pond. Yes, even you. Better you stay where you are, a large fish in a fishbowl that eats any smaller one foolish enough to come close.

Surely you have some request for me that is more along the lines of the specific. Have you heard of a self-professed sorcerer or prestidigitator here whose trick you would like me to learn?

I owe you much, after all.

Glenn
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Re: Accounts Unbalanced

Postby Dulcie » Thu May 31, 2018 1:35 pm

Dearest Mr. Burnie,

What joy receiving your letter brought me. You see I am coming to expect them now, a little hint of entertainment, a breath of culture. Yes even as you describe Razasan I can picture it in my mind's eye. How I would long to be a fish in that pond. You see you are wrong, I once entertained Royalty. It's not perhaps as pleasant as one might assume, but the budgetary constraints were practically non-existent. A fair contrast to what my little theatre undergoes now.

Fighting pits are so barbaric, really, you should avoid them at all costs. I hosted a dancing troupe this week. Far more entertaining, especially the young ladies who have newly found themselves out in the world. Innocence is such a gift. I imagine that is difficult to find where you are. Along such lines have you begun courting anyone? A significant amount of time has passed since your loss, perhaps it is time. In a city of princesses and wealthy daughters I imagine you could do well.

I wonder perhaps, if you realize how dangerous it can be to be offering favors. There are creatures that latch on to such things. It is quite lucky for you that I am indeed simply mortal, and a favor I would happily accept without any hold on your soul. Yes, indeed, there is a theatre I have heard of in Razasan that has an illusionist. I believe her finale is supposed to be something that one can barely describe. I would be interested to know your opinion on the matter.

Sincerely,

Stefan
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Re: Accounts Unbalanced

Postby Glenn » Thu Jun 21, 2018 4:58 am

Stefan,

Your responses are somewhat more prompt than my own. You'll forgive me for that, I'm sure, as you will forgive me for a great many things. You seem the sort. You are a man of perspective and as such you can differentiate large slights from small. I am more the type to simmer. You have your releases and I have my restraint. How different it was once.

I wonder what keeps you in Myrken, then. The Council was dissolved so you have no responsibility. Your financial entrapments are easily escaped from. I think you might have both more and less autonomy here. As I said, there are fighting pits. For those to exist a level of corruption must be necessary. You indicated such as well. I think, however, you find such things distasteful, not the corruption itself, but the necessary obligation. Palms greased are attached to minds that remember. It's all so messy compared to your current life. There is a simplicity in solitude. I admire your singular vision in this.

I have my own solitude of course. Were you complicit in Rhaena's summer directly or just indirectly through Golben's traps? I would have thought that she might have embraced you, as she did Giuseppe, but then you were likely too wise to leap at temporary gain given the long-term risk. If she had won utterly, then there would have been plenty of time to take advantage of it. If she fell, then you would neither fall with her nor lose your mind or your secrets in the process.

Have you been back to Golben, Stefan? You should visit. Something has latched on to your handiwork, something born of blood and death and betrayal. Something purely Myrken. I think you would be interested to see it.

No, there are no princesses for me. A queen immemorial, a hobbled seamstress, a crimelord, that sort of thing, but none romantic. It is hard to have everything than to settle on something. In truth, I do not think myself capable of it. At least I can write to you, however, no?

Oh, Stefan, it's not the offering of favors where the danger resides. It's the accepting of them. It's your soul that I have a hold upon now, for attached to this letter is a diagram of how I think the trick is performed. I do not think I am correct in the least, but i do think that within my fumblings, you will find the clues you need to work out the truth yourself. As payment, your first born will suffice.

Glenn
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Re: Accounts Unbalanced

Postby Dulcie » Thu Jul 12, 2018 2:01 pm

Glenn,

Your letter comes at an interesting time. I sense a change in Myrkenwood that is hard to describe. It is as if something is on the horizon that I just can't place my finger upon. It sounds as if you wish to coax me there to Razasan. I admit I am tempted to travel, as I did once, roaming from one city to another and carrying on my show.

You wonder at what it is that keeps me here, but I am afraid I don't have an answer. Perhaps I don't even know myself. There is a difference in performing and merely hosting the show. I find joy in both of course, but I am human and grow older with each day. It is difficult to do the tricks that I once performed. That is however partly an excuse. There is nothing like the thrill of the stage, but there is also nothing like the thrill of chaos, and Myrken has that in spades. Perhaps I think that I will be of use to this little town someday, or maybe it will be of use to me. I suppose it's anyone's guess. I did however enjoy my role as Councilor. I believe I could have been Governor one day, though I suppose sharing my bed with one was as close as I would likely get.

I was not complicit with Rhaena, at least not in the sense that you mean. I chose not to interfere as it was not my place. I am a foreigner after all, it would not have been my place to judge her behaviors. I had power in my own right, I did not need hers, though perhaps the time would have come. I am however glad to have my mind in tact. You do leave me wondering about Golben, you have peaked my curiosity and I suppose I shall have to now make a trip to that Gods forsaken place. I do hope it was worth what you intended it for.

A bit of advice my friend, there are women who are worth everything, and there are those that are worth an evening. Perhaps you do not need everything, but only something. Life is too short to spend only writing letters.

How you made me laugh in your closing. Please do take my first born. Once you find them do tell them that I should like to meet them. I've often wondered at how many children may owe their existence to me. Perhaps by now some may have even grown to harbor a vengeance. What a good play that should make. Thank you for the trick, I am most intrigued by it, I shall have to place my own study into it.

Stefan



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