Closed RP: Chance and Henry in the library

[h-m-winter.livejournal.com]

Henry, in a frame of mind unusually thoughtful even for him, had made his way to the library on something close to auto-pilot. Next to his and Camilla's room, the library was a kind of sanctuary, whether he had any specific aim in mind or not.

It wasn't often that he did not, and today was no exception. He had spoken to a Dr. Chance Silvey about Caketown, which, so she said, was somehow connected with King Leonidas of Sparta. His own curiosity now piqued, he was determined to add his own research to hers--whatever this 'Caketown' and 'Candy Mountain' were, he had a feeling their connection to ancient Sparta would be...interesting, whatever else might be said of it.

He laid claim to an entire table, thumbing through the card catalogues and hunting up anything and everything that might have any bearing at all on his triumvirate of subjects. He'd brought an array of parchment and straight pens, determined to stay here until at least dinner.

Comments

[chance-silvey.livejournal.com]

Chance doesn't generally have a problem being punctual. She arrives just when she said she would, finding Henry Winter easily enough given that he's taken over a whole table. She's hit the jackpot, she hopes -- he definitely seems to know his stuff when it comes to Sparta. Or at least he knows how to use a card catalog.

"Hey. Thanks for coming." For her part, Chance only has a couple of books. "The library doesn't have a whole lot about this type of liopleurodon, or about the place names mentioned in conjunction with it. What I do have I mostly found by accident at Flourish and Blotts, with some help from Dr. Brennan (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/1346962.html?thread=68258962&style=mine#t68258962) -- Billy, if you've met him." She hoists her copies of Cavities and Sea Oddities: The Liopleurodon/Candy Mountain Connection and The Rise and Fall of Spartan Soufflé: A History of Ancient Greek Pastries. "They don't exactly read like scholarly work, either. More like your average Nessie-hunter's tabloid stuff. But there is also this." She sets down the first two books, and holds out a third to Henry: The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times. (http://press.princeton.edu/titles/6811.html) "It's not perfect (http://palaeo-electronica.org/2000_2/books/hunter.htm) but it's definitely interesting. Especially in conjunction with this kind of work. Liopleurodon magicus is one elusive plesiosaur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liopleurodon)", she concludes ruefully, and takes a seat next to Henry.

[h-m-winter.livejournal.com]

"Not a problem," he said. "You've caught my interest with this. I studied a great deal about ancient Sparta in school, and never ran across anything like Candy Mountain or a Liopleurodon." He'd done enough reading to know that, while magical history was often directly intertwined with Muggle, the magical half rarely got written down by Muggle historians.

He eyed the assortment of books, wondering if any of them would actually be of any real use. "Now, I have to ask, how much do you know about ancient Sparta?"

[chance-silvey.livejournal.com]

"Next to nothing. I didn't do a lot of ancient civ. Didn't do a whole lot of anything that wasn't in the hard sciences, to be honest. Other than your typical breadth requirements when I was an undergrad, and most of that I can't say I retained all too well." Chance shrugs. "Not that I'm knocking the humanities. I just had a really specific focus, I guess you could say, from a really early age. My grandparents were both professors in my field -- a geologist and a paleontologist -- and they started me off pretty early. What I know about Sparta I've gotten from the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Encylopedia Magica that this library has, and --" she points to the gaudy cover of The Rise and Fall of Spartan Soufflé.

It has a guy in a toga and a chef's hat. He's holding a plate with a big cake on it. A cake with lots and lots of frosting adornments. Weirdly, he has a toothbrush tucked behind his ear.

"So, yeah. Probably you should assume you're starting with a blank slate, here."

[h-m-winter.livejournal.com]

Henry actually smiled, a little dryly. He knew all about having a specific focus--his had just been on the other end of things, as it were.

He reached for the book, eying the cover with a very slight amount of disbelief. The chef hat he could deal with--barely--but the toothbrush? Not so much. The contrast of the chef hat with the toga put him strongly in mind of Susan's trucker hat, and he almost laughed.

"All right," he said, pulling out a neatly bound parchment notebook. "I wasn't sure how much you'd know, so I made some notes. I'll try to give you the concise version, and let you read the more detailed information later."

Briefly, he outlined the history of ancient Sparta (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparta)--customs, language, religion, and general culture. He talked about Leonidas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonidas), the hypothetical King Kandy, and the legend of the Spartan 300. "As for Candy Mountain and the Liopleurodon--the Spartans, like most Greeks, were notoriously superstitious. Assuming these things were real, that they were a place and a creature of magic, that must have leaked into the Spartan pool of story."

[chance-silvey.livejournal.com]

Chance listens with thorough interest and all due attention. She likes lectures. Never cared for that group discussion shit, as empowering as it's supposed to be and all. She wants real information.

She's grateful for what she gets. More, she's impressed. If Henry Winter were a professor, he'd probably get rock-bottom teacher evaluations for the dryness of delivery, the lack of pizzazz, but that's all to the good. When something's interesting and solid, you don't need to jazz it up. Shouldn't need to.

"You ever teach?" she asks, casually.

[h-m-winter.livejournal.com]

Henry was fully aware of his penchant for long, rambling monologues--it wasn't often he found an appreciative listener. Not everyone could follow the essential thread behind the rambling.

He blinked, surprised at her question. "No," he said. "No, the closest I came was translating Catalus. I died when I was quite young." It was still an odd admission to make, but his naturally reserved nature saw little wrong with revealing it--after all, it seemed half the school had been dead at one time or another.

[chance-silvey.livejournal.com]

"You too?" Chance shakes her head very slightly. "Sorry to hear it. I lived long enough to get my doctorate and an assistant professorship. And to teach a bunch of thankless Bible Belt creationists their basic geology. I like to think of Hogwarts as a nice research fellowship."

[h-m-winter.livejournal.com]

Henry actually winced at the term 'Bible Belt creationists'. Creationism vs. evolution was not something that had ever been an issue for him, but the mindest of that sort of person was immensely distasteful to him. He wouldn't have gotten his degree even if he hadn't died, thanks to Julian, so that at least hadn't been lost to his suicide.

"You know, I never considered that," he said. "It's a good way to think of it. I've certainly done enough research here." Granted, much of it had been on Dark magic, but it was research nonetheless.

[chance-silvey.livejournal.com]

"It took me a while to come around to seeing it as something positive. This place, I mean. For a long time I thought I was hallucinating it -- last few seconds before brain-death, who knows what the dying person sees? A magic school in Scotland with a talking hat would be just Lewis Carroll enough, wouldn't it? Helps there are other paleontologists here." Grant, Billy, even Dr. Sattler whom Chance doesn't really know well at all.

"Of course, maybe that's how I'd imagine the afterlife, too. Populated with paleontologists. So I expect the verdict's still out if you want to be technical. But it's easier to accept that we're all really here. Occam's Razor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor), right?"

[h-m-winter.livejournal.com]

Henry could no longer remember just what he'd thought, when he first showed up here--the headaches he'd had not long after had rendered most of that time a malleable, unreliable thing.

"We're not dead," he said. "I know that much." Susan and Silas's zombie girlfriend, as Camilla called her, had proven that to him. Silas himself had been dead before he came here, too.

[chance-silvey.livejournal.com]

Of course, Chance has to ask. Even though she knows better.

"Feel free to tell me there isn't any answer, but -- what makes you sure of that?"

[h-m-winter.livejournal.com]

"Camilla has a bodyguard of a sort--a monk named Silas--who is good friends with a zombie woman." He still couldn't bring himself to say 'zombie girlfriend' aloud; he firmly believed Silas was both too psychologically damaged and too much a monk to form any kind of actual relationship. "And the woman you met--the one wearing the hat at the time--is an incarnation of Death. The jewelry and the hat were, I believe, the result of her inability to understand the finer details of humanit." Having known Susan beforehand, he knew that she would never wear such a hat, or so very much jewelry. "There would be no need for a Death in the afterlife, nor would I think there would be any zombies. Would be a bit redundant, really."

[chance-silvey.livejournal.com]

"Well, there wouldn't be any need for a talking hat, either," Chance points out. "But fair enough." She pauses. Without thinking, she finds herself tracing a seven-sided figure on the tabletop, and makes her finger stop, folding her hands so she can't do that anymore. "If you don't mind my asking, in a place where no one can die why would anyone need a bodyguard?"

It's none of Chance's business and she doesn't care enough to pursue the question if Henry deflects it, but she is curious.

"I've met her brother. Seems like too much of a drunk to pose any real problems." Chance has found Charles Macaulay decidedly unimpressive.

[chance-silvey.livejournal.com]

"Hey, I'm really glad you could stop by." Genuine gratitude in Chance's voice, and nothing but the utmost respect for her friend the centuries-old space commander, the holder of many advanced degrees and a scary-ass sharp pointy weapon. "Henry, this is Professor Jadzia Dax, who teaches Astronomy here and knows a lot about the Kandy dynasty. Dax, this is Henry Winter, whom I've kind of dragooned into this research on Sparta and Caketown. I'm wondering whether King Kandy and King Leonidas of Sparta might not be connected in some way. Henry thinks maybe something mythological? I was just saying there might be some mystery cult involved, if this book is anything to go by." She points to Cavities and Sea Oddities. "Stuff about shunning the nonbelievers, and the magical liopleurodon showing the way."

[h-m-winter.livejournal.com]

Henry was not normally at ease with meeting new people, but he gamely rose to the challenge. "Pleased to meet you," he said, standing and extending a hand. "What can you tell me about the Kandy dynasty? I have to admit, I'd never heard of it until I met Chance."

[daxtastic.livejournal.com]

"Anytime," Dax said, with a comforting smile. "I'm glad you owled. I've got reason to believe this research may not be the safest avenue of study."

"Pleasure's all mine," she replied in kind, shaking Henry's hand firmly. Right down to business - she liked that in a research partner. "As far as I can tell, they're a relatively recent monarchy. Then again, the nation of Candyland only came into public view in the mid nineteen forties. It's entirely possibly that they've ruled for centuries, and only recently chose to make themselves known to the world."

[chance-silvey.livejournal.com]

"Not the safest avenue of study, yeah. According to this, they may have some kind of organ-stealing cartel going on. Specialising in kidneys. Ugh. Guess that's not the best thing for PR, either. No wonder they want to keep a low profile." Chance knows what she's getting into. Liopleurodon magicus is a find worth the risks.

[h-m-winter.livejournal.com]

Henry's eyebrows went up. "Organ-stealing cartel?" he echoed. This just got weirder and weirder. "Surely, if they were an ancient dynasty, that couldn't have been their initial purpose." Even with magic, he had a hard time seeing people stealing and transplanting organs in ancient Greece--always assuming, of course, that Candyland and Sparta were in fact connected. "Has anything concrete been heard from them in the recent past, or are we in the dark?"

[daxtastic.livejournal.com]

"I've been working out a theory," Dax said, booting her data pad. "In regards to the alleged trading in human organs." She sat the pad down on the table, for all parties to see. "What I have here is a graph outlying the net profit of the Hershey company. $4.944 Billion dollars in 2006 alone. Hershey, and other major companies of its kind, are able to gain such a profit by virtue of outsourcing. The Hershey Corporation's main plant is located in the aptly named Hershey, Pennsylvania. However, the company owns hundreds of smaller farms and production centers in third world countries. Like any standard globalized business model, they are able to keep their production costs low, charging one dollar for a candy bar that cost less than five cents to make."

"The Hershey Corporation is by no means the only snack food producer to adopt a globalized business model. Nestle, Branch's...essentially all publicly traded companies have long since joined them. And they're pushing confectionery companies that can't afford to extradite production costs out of business. Candyland has no metropolitan area to speak of. No shops of any kind. Its only cash crops are the sugary confections grown by its farmers. And no one's interested in buying them. The nation is broke. Food is literally falling from Candyland’s trees, but no one can afford to eat it."

Somber for a moment, Dax went on. "The Royal family relies on taxes from local farmers to meet the costs of their lavish lifestyle. Since losing the bulk of that undeserved income, I purport that the Kandys have turned to the black market, in order to make up the cost. I recently met with a young man, whose entanglements with the nation of Candyland far exceed my own." Dax switched the display over to a picture of the ever-elusive Neb-1 (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/1431939.html?thread=72755587#t72755587).

"This man calls himself Neb-1. It is likely a doctored identity. It is my belief that Neb was once highly involved with the Candyland government. Diminished motor capacities aside, Neb is an intelligent individual, and a master strategist. Furthermore, he seems keenly aware of how the Hershey business model -specifically 'The Milk Chocolate (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/1409045.html?thread=71695125#t71695125)', Hershey's primary seller- has affected the farmers of Candyland."

"It appears that some sort of altercation occurred between Neb-1 and his employers. If we want answers, I believe that he is the one to give them." Dax sighed, leaning forward in her chair anxiously. "But there’s no guarantee that he’s in any sort of metal state to provide reliable information. Whatever the Kandys did to him affected his synaptic relays. He can barely warble out a full sentence, much less reveal the entire underbelly of a corrupt empire."

[chance-silvey.livejournal.com]

Okay.

Chance has dated an astronaut. Or ... space doctor. Whatever. And Dax herself is from outer space. So Chance can rationally accept the idea of a pudgy green alien being in cahoots with organ traffickers. Right?

She blurts out: "Shit. I hope the chocolate isn't made of liopleurodons. Or kidneys. I've eaten Hershey bars."

[h-m-winter.livejournal.com]

Henry had never eaten Hershey's chocolate in his life, but nevertheless he found the idea disturbing.

"The Kandys must have a global underground network, then," he said. "Perhaps with its roots in ancient Sparta, or an ancient cult at the very least. The stealing of kidneys derivative of human sacrifice? Or maybe the chocolate itself is seen as some kind of communion by the Kandy cult's followers?"

He was writing as he spoke, and out of habit he was writing in Greek. "Though how the liopleurodon would fit in, I don't know...perhaps it's the deity the Kandy cult sacrifices to?"

[daxtastic.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't worry about that, Chance. As their main source of income, I can't imagine they'd waste human organs on a rival mass-produced chocolate bar. However, I can't vouch for the liopleurodons. Who knows what makes Milk Chocolate appitizing to so many." Dax personally didn't care for it. Far too much processed sugar. Kidneys might actually help the taste. Give it some kick!

"Mm. It's the only way they could operate so quietly." She pulled up a picture of the king (http://www.hasbro.com/candyland/images/char_KingKandy.png) in question. "His robes are certainly ornate enough for the leader of a religious sect."

Mulling all this over, Dax had A Thought. "...Neb didn't seemed all that concerned with everyday milk chocolate. He took the time to specify 'The Milk Chocolate'. What do you two make of that?"

[chance-silvey.livejournal.com]

Chance rubs at her temples. "Jesus. This goes way deeper than I suspected." She imagines liopleurodon remains as something akin to a fossil fuel, only instead of making gasoline, the Hershey people are making food.

She's got to shake this. If she keeps on thinking this way she's going to wind up wearing a tinfoil hat. Focus, Chance, focus.

"The milk chocolate. That's a telling stress on the definite article. Maybe that's got some kind of cultic significance too." She's thinking along the lines of what Adrienne Mayor writes about in The First Fossil Hunters, of course. Folklore and rituals, that kind of thing. Definitely nothing like Templar conspiracies.

"What the author of Cavities and Sea Oddities says is this: 'The magical liopleurodon has spoken. He has shown us The Way.' At this point I can't rule out anything."

[h-m-winter.livejournal.com]

"It sounds like it might be directly related to the liopleurodon," Henry said. "Whether the chocolate is a product of the liopleurodon, or is some kind of offering, I couldn't say." He pictured some dark ancient coven drowning a sacrificial virgin in a pit of chocolate goo. Now there was an image that would have given even Julian pause.

"We may be dealing with something whose roots go even deeper than we know," he said seriously. "A millennia-old conspiracy."

[daxtastic.livejournal.com]

"It seems to me that we need to get a sample of liopleurodon," said Dax. "We can theorize all we want, but without a chemical analysis, we can't cross reference Milk Chocolate recipes."

"They're a lot more common than you might think," she said, with a small shrug. Dax herself had been party to at least two millennia-old conspiracies! "Luckily, the older secrets get, that more careless people become about keeping them."