(Untitled)

[waltsnothereman]

There were parts of life on Tabula Rasa that everyone had to come to grips with sooner or later. The disappearances. The stretches of tranquility (many would say boredom) broken up by the occasional bouts of complete madness. The existential problems that arose with the knowledge that, somewhere, you were nothing more than a fictional creation

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[slowspeedster]

Bart hadn't meant to stop in the rec room, exactly. He'd considered attempting to coax something new to read that wasn't comics about home, but it was nearly always fruitless. Being stopped like that as he was barely paying attention to his surroundings actually made him start.

"You know, I think that phrase is right up there with 'no offense, but...' in meaning exactly the opposite," Bart said, giving a slight smile at Wanda. "I've worked alongside a few folks who would probably classify as demons, but that isn't where you're going."

He hesitated, and his amber eyes looked older than the fountain of youth that had been a bonus of speedster biology. He hadn't actually had anyone try to give him everything he wanted, not precisely, but he'd had to make tough decisions. "I suppose the paradox Extant threw at me counts. Or when I told myself that if I killed Inertia, the Black Flash would leave me alone. I mean, I was more of a sidekick. The weight of the world isn't supposed to land on guys like me."

[waltsnothereman]

"No offense, but how do you think heroes are born in the first place?" Wanda teased lightly, but there seemed to be a slight war going on between her joking and serious halves. "No, but seriously, that's -- good answer. The point is, some things can be justified, right?"

[slowspeedster]

"You can justify it, sure. But whatever decision you make, you can't go back. It changes you," Bart said, relaxing a bit at the teasing. "If the devil shows up to make an offer, you have to be doing something to make him notice."

[waltsnothereman]

Wanda nodded slowly, mulling his words over. "Maybe I'm just an eye-catcher," she said with a slight smirk, but the joke was half-hearted at best with everything else she had on her mind. "Maybe some things are worth being changed over."

[somanytitles]

"I do not know this creature that you speak of," Aragorn said, frowning a bit. He thought he had heard the name once or twice, but he hadn't inquired about the context.

That was one of the reasons he were here, to get something from the magic bookshelf. He found that most of the books were from worlds other than his own (actually, all of them were) but the more he read the more he understood the places other people were from.

[waltsnothereman]

Well, that was an unanticipated sidebar to have to touch on, but from what she could tell, Aragorn -- sorry, Strider -- seemed to be chock full of interesting opportunities for those. "It's like a god, but with more of an eye for destroying than creating," she said, counting on the fact that most creation myths had a devil to hold true. That she was talking about an Inuit one specifically in this case only complicated matters further.

[somanytitles]

"I know of such things," he said with a nod. Sauron and Morgoth definitely fit that definition and the balrogs in general did. He could not imagine making a deal with such a creature that was so evil in its nature.

"But I would not make a deal with such a creature."

[waltsnothereman]

"No?" Wanda asked, hardly surprised, but still trying to gauge her own feelings on the matter via those of someone else. "Not even if you really thought you could come out on top of it?"

[spirited_hero]

[waltsnothereman]

Wanda smiled patiently, having expected just such a snap judgment from Zell, and nodded. "Probably not, no, you're right. But what if it was for something really important? Do you think it could ever be justified?"

[spirited_hero]

[waltsnothereman]

"I already said it was a hypothetical question. A thought experiment," Wanda said unconvincingly, giving up on the act almost immediately. "Maybe I'm just a hell of a dreamer. Or will be. One day." It was probably wholly inappropriate given the subject matter, but at that last bit, as the truth of it slowly sunk in, the ghost of a smile flickered across her face, cutting through all the doubt.

"Heh."

[usethecompany]

Archie, in a manner wholly appropriate for a good Christian gentleman, started at the question. Back stiff, eyes wide, he turned to acknowledge the questioner, a woman who's striking appearance had embedded itself in Kennedy's memory despite the best efforts of Shrove Tuesday's rum. It was this memory that softened his response, but only some.

"I should think not," he replied before deciding perhaps some other meaning lurked within her words. "Presuming you mean the real devil and not some figure of speech?"

[waltsnothereman]

"Yyyyyes and no," Wanda said, tipping her hand back and forth as she tried to figure out how to answer that. A perspective wildly different from her own was exactly what she needed right now, and cute, old-fashioned singing guy seemed to fit the bill perfectly. "Probably not the one you're thinking of, but for the sake of arguing, it might as well be. The devil, but with slightly more realistic odds of beating him if it came down to it, we'll say."

[usethecompany]

His mind may have been thoroughly decided at the first blush of questioning in this vein, Kennedy listened closely to the details provided by the woman, such as they were. Her question seemed philosophical and rhetorical, though on this island one could never be wholly secure in any assumption. Archie took it as such besides, but considering the new information only led him to shake his head with a contemplative frown on his features.

"The danger with making a pact with the devil is not that he should defeat one or exact his payment," he said. "Any sort of complicity with that kind of evil tarnishes the soul and opens one up to possibility of more, perhaps more terrible, encounters with evil. A man is judged by the company which he keeps. I would make no such association."

[waltsnothereman]

He had a point, loathe as Wanda was to admit it. She'd certainly been affected by her share of corruption when it came to the Great Beasts, after all, and a zero-tolerance policy would probably be smart. But she still couldn't help but push it. "Not even if it was for a really good cause?"