Log:Entertainment and Power

Entertainment and Power
What one does for what they want
Participants Carter & Lux	Jun 8th 2018 Lux has a plan. The question is can she convince Carter to it?
Location Crescent Island
Lux is sitting on the patio to her small cottage. She has sent an invitation to Carter specifically, and had a young man bring him out to the island in the mittle of the lake. The man was young, unesncrolled, and terrified of both Carter and Lux. Lux, meanwhile, as a beatuiful english tea set out on wrought iron table she sits at. Her wyrd is controlled, soft but glass like smokes of light drifting up in the air. She has a cup already poured for herself, but fresh steam rises from the pot ready to go. Carter is slow to arrive. Not late, but slow; Lux can hear the motor of the little boat that brings him out come to a stop long before she hears the sound of the old devil's hooves crunching against the rocky path, and even that sound goes on for some time before he finally limps into view around the side of the house. The devil is wearing one of his customary suits, with the addition of a cigarette clamped between his lips, which he puffs steadily on as he shuffles his way around towards the patio and, finally, comes to a halt a few yards from Lux. He offers the other Fairest a sort of half-bow, leaning forward over his cane, before straightening up and resuming his walk towards her. "Lady Lux," he says. His voice rolls out, friendly and warm, even as his eyes take in the view of the cottage with an apparently total lack of interest. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this invitation?" Lux stands and offers a hand toward the chair as Carter approaches. "Master Carter," she says with a soft curtsy toward him - the barest of movements with a crossed ankle. "Welcome and thank you for accepting. I apologize for the length of the path - there is nothing to be done about it. Otherwise simple rain would flood my home." She settles back in after Carter does. Then she pours him a cup of tea "Sugar? Cream?" she asks before settling in to her own chair and sipping. "There are very few like us here, Master Carter," Lux says with a soft twinkle in her green eyes. "You, Myself. Void. November. Maybe one or two others with the same level of power we have. Undoubtedly we have schemes. Plots. Manipulations. You don't get as powerful as we do without burning some of those methods into our very souls." She smiles slightly. "I am contacting those I named with a proposition. A pledge to make, a Motley of sorts. An agreement to keep our ... work... seperate. To respect each other and not to act directly against one another. Those like us... if we go to act against each other, many many would suffer." Carter lowers himself into the offered chair with a grunt of relief as the weight leaves his misshapen legs, then falls silent. He accepts the cup of tea with a nod, but doesn't drink from it. He merely waves away any offer of tea or suger, takes a long drag on his cigarette, and lets his disinterested gaze settle on Lux's face for a time as she speaks about her plan. When she finishes, he exhales, sending a long cloud of smoke rolling out towards the lake, his eyes drifting away again. "Oh, I'm sure that you have schemes, Lady," he says. His voice is edged with amusement, teasing. "But I'm getting far too old for that sort of thing. Besides, even when I was younger, I was more about /doing/ things than /planning/ things, if you understand me." He glances back towards her, just for a moment. "But a motley is more than a simple pledge of non-aggression. And of those you've listed, I /barely/ know you, and have never even met this 'Void' character. What makes you think that we would make a fitting motley?" Lux puts both her hands on her cup, holding it under her face, breathing in the steam. "It is not something that happens over night of course," she says as she watches him carefully. "And non-agression is such a simple way of stating what I am aiming for." She shrugs slightly. "Truth be told Carter, the four I've name, we look at the world differently than even most of the young one achieve even close to out level of power. As you say, you were a doer, rather than a planner. And now, you are too old for such things. But your very knowledge, your life long existence leaves others hanging off your words. Leaves others listening to your ideas and concepts as you speak them, even if it is not on purpose." She sips again from her tea cup. "November is benevolant. She only seeks to let others pick paths, and she makes sure that all of those she picks have the open paths they can. Void is a Pantheon member like November - you should meet him. He is old, tired, and has walked this earth for possibly as long as you." She smile again. "There is too much time, chance, and oppertunity as long as those like us are all in the same place. Too much oppertunity for our friends to ask our help. For the likes of us to end up on opposite sides. That woudl destroy this freehold. Better that we make sure we do not end up that way, and that instead we actively support Fate's Harvest." "I'm well aware of my effects on others, yes." Carter inclines his head slightly and taps the ash off the end of his cigarette. And, again, his eyes drift away, making him look as though he's barely listening to a word that Lux says, as if even the power of that much Wyrd so close to his own isn't enough to hold his attention. "I've certainly lived with them for long enough." He lifts his cigarette to his lips again, takes another drag, and lets his gaze drift upward towards the dark sky overhead. The flames in his hair and the bloody golden glow around him flicker and gleam in the night. "Miss an Nua is... capricious," he says. "Not malevolent, certainly, but not entirely benevolent, either, if my assessment is to be trusted. And it usually is. Which is fine. It's more interesting that way. This 'Void', I haven't met, and can't speak towards. But you..." There's a soft lift on that last word, and his eyes drift back down towards Lux's face. "You are an interesting one," he says. He holds his cigarette between his index and middle finger. "You speak as though you know me, though we've hardly met. And, bluntly, you seem to be more concerned with bringing us together for /power's/ sake than anything else." A soft smile plays about his lips. "'Actively support Fate's Harvest'. An alliance of the strongest Lost in the area? No one could stand against us." It's hard to read that statement. His voice still sounds more amused than anything else, even as his eyes flit away again, this time alighting on the distant sight of a yacht plying the waters of the lake. There's no reading that permanently icy expression. No way of telling what he actually thinks about the idea just yet. Lux gives a tip of her head. "It would very possibly appear that way." Her eyes sparkle slightly, and she shrugs. "Such power is not for the likes of me. Bound by oaths I am, oaths that prevent me from doing things that many would find ... unpleasant. What power I gather about me is to be used for the good of others." She smiles again, taking another sip of her tea. "I won't claim that others often find what I do and who I see to be ... troubling. It is often because they mistake my contenance for that of a cold blooded manipulator. A woman who will let nothing stop me." She shakes her head. "There is much that stops me from doing what I would wish. What I feel would be best." Another sigh, a change of position as she settles her cup onto the table and her hands in her lap. "I would not force anything upon you, of course. That would be folly, of course," she chuckles slightly, but it is without true mirth. "Think it over. Meet Void at some point. Ask me questions. Speak with November on your thoughts. Perhaps this is all for naught - perhaps none will wish to join together. But perhaps, it can be something that can bring good support to the freehold. Or something that can simply make sure it does nothing to endanger the lives of those with far less power than us." "A manipulator?" Carter rolls the word across his tongue, chuckling without smiling. "Well. They may be right, Lady. You certainly strike me as a schemer. And someone who does not give up on her desires easily." He shrugs, lifts his cigarette to his lips, and inhales again, still staring out across the water. For a moment, there is silence as the old devil quietly smokes. Then he says, "You couldn't force anything on me even if you wanted to, no. As for speaking with the others... well. I have little to no interest in altruism. Or for protecting others. Those are for the Summers and Dawns of the world. I'm here looking for /entertainment/, Lady. Not power. Not protection. Pleasure." He shifts his weight in the chair and drums his fingertips along the top of his cane. "Thus far, I have yet to find much of it. If you want me to give this idea of yours any consideration at all, you'll have to try a different tack, I'm afraid. What would be /fun/ about it?" A sharp laugh expells from Lux, and a tip of her head. "Well. That is a factor I had not considered. Perhaps I should have, given your Entitlement. Ah, It seems I acted with a little bit of haste. Tsk on my part." She chuckels slightly, turning to her tea and taking another sip, collecting thoughts. "I had tought you would be the most ... complicated to convince. I was correct, but for the wrong reasons. Given your ... aultruism with Widget I thought I had made a correct choice but..." she spreads her hands slightly and turns in her chair to the side, looking out over the ocean. "There is chaos coming in this world, Master Carter. Too much power is gathering here. Too much chance of attention with this power gathering in a wave. And its only a matter of time until one of us steps over the edge and joins the True path." She tips her head. "With the likes of us gathered together, it will be a very... very interesting time. A true entertainment of power and ... the growth of that power as others try to fight it, control it, or ... just hide. Alone, by our selves.... it will be too simple. Together, it will be quite the show when one... or all... of us start to find that path far more drawing than it currently is." "My treatment of Miss Widget has to do with principle, not altruism. There is a difference." Even as he says it, though, a fleeting smile passes over Carter's features, and he reaches out with his free hand to pluck up his own cup of tea. By this time, it must be lukewarm, but he sips at it without any sign of irritation. "There's being kind, and then again, there's being practical. Miss Widget is a case of the latter." He alternates tea and cigarette, now, lifting one, lowering the other. And, the whole time, his eyes continue to wander over the surface of the lake. "I'm a very simple creature, Lady," he says. "I have, or at least had, immense appetites. My interest in in sating them. Or, nowadays, in reigniting them. But I see no reason to think that I could find any kind of stimulation in swearing a motley oath to you, or Miss an Nua, or this Void character, that I could not find in simply talking with you on my own terms. Whether we are a motley or not, the same pressures and risks still exist. The same interacting forces are still in play. Nothing particularly changes, save that I am oathed to protect and support /you./" Again, he chuckles under his breath. This time, though, there's a brief grin to go with it, and Carter shakes his head before exhaling another cloud of smoke. "You have a politician's mind, Lady Lux," he says, "and an eye for gathering power to advance your own schemes. But I'm afraid that I'm not a creature of politics any more. Not now. Not yet. Perhaps never again." There is a pause, then another tip of Lux's head forward. "Ah, That is too bad," she says after a moment of silence. Her hands remain in her lap, her eyes facing the water as she considers what next to say. "Understandable, I suppose. And I suppose, it is a bit refreshing for someone to speak so plainly around me. Rarely do even those with minds as sharp as ours speak in less than riddles. As you put it, it would be a wonderful gathering of power." There is a wistful tone to her voice, and a shrug. "I shall speak with November and Void then. If you change your mind, or if you discover some other reason within you that would mark for you such an endevour, I am certain those two would be easy to bring around to adding another. In the meanwhile, I suppose you will have to find your entertainment elsewhere." She finally turns her eyes back from the water to glance at him, appraisingly. "I am not certain you will find such thing here in The Falls or the Fort, Master Carter. Perhaps I am wrong, but mostly what I see are a few who have the silver plated ambition to actually take charge and do what is needed... and far far more needy souls who do not understand what real power is, only that they think they can convince it to do what they want, when they don't even know what it is they want." "There's a time and a place for dancing around the truth," Carter says, tilting his head slightly to one side. "I wouldn't gain anything from feigning interest except more conversation. Which is welcome, but would be faintly more interesting if we were both being truthful about what it is that we want." A quick, wolfish grin flashes across his face before fading back into the fog. "Things are usually more interesting when everyone is honest about their desires." He chuckles again. "And you'd put yourself among the first category, obviously," he says. The hand holding the cigarette gestures, trailing smoke through the air. "The ones with the power and the will to do what needs to be done? Of course. People like you always do consider themselves among that category, whether or not it's actually true. Whether it's the case with you, we'll have to see. As for my entertainment... oh, I don't know. If there's anywhere I'm going to find it, it's here." He shrugs, drains the rest of his tea, and sets the cup down on the tabletop with a soft clink. "But then again," he says, "perhaps there's nowhere I can find anything to entertain myself, and the first action your new motley will have to take will be to face down the Gentrified creature that used to be called Carter Logan. We'll have to see how it plays out." Another small smile from Lux "Oh... I am not certain that such a motley would face a Gentry. I'd hand that off to the Legate who roams these halls. I think... that if anything, a motely of the likes I aim to form would seek to capture the new Gentries Title for themselves." She smiles once more, then pours herself another cup of tea, clearing preparing to dive into the small talk polite manners requires...