"You need to get up," Olivia said, slapping Benny on the face lightly from the opposite side of the bed, and Benny groaned, pulling the covers up over him.
"No I don't, I'm an adult, I don't have to do anything I don't want to," he said, half asleep. But this protest didn't last long, because soon enough, Olivia was out of bed and pulled the whole bedding off him and tossed it into a bundle on the floor. Benny figured there was no arguing with a girl like Olivia, so he relented and dragged himself out of bed. Benny showered, they cooked breakfast together and then Benny got dressed. He kissed Olivia goodbye, knowing she'd be off to work as well, and then headed to his usual spot in downtown Vegas, for his daily street magic show. Yes, Benny Harrison had been doing street magic in Vegas for god knows how long, but what he didn't expect was that Allie Meers was keeping a keen eye on him today, and not because she thought he was particularly talented - though she did - but because she figured if anyone knew how to really pull off an illusion of grandeur, without the benefits of distance from an audience and on a stage with props, it was a street magician. *** "Good morning Claire," Agent Siskel said, plopping a box down on the table of their usual meeting room. Claire leaned forward and pushed the flimsy lid open just a tad, peaking inside and smirking. "Donuts? Really? Is it my birthday?" Claire asked as Agent Siskel smiled and pulled her coat off, hanging it on the back of her chair and taking a seat across from her; Claire furrowed her brow and asked, "...where's your partner?" "He's dealing with some paperwork," Agent Siskel said, "so I figured it'd be a girls day." "Are we gonna get pedicures?" Claire asked, and Agent Siskel genuinely laughed. Claire then opened the box again and reached inside, pulling out a sprinkle covered cream filled donut and taking a bite of it, moaning at the sugar high rushing to her head now. "Claire," Agent Siskel said, "...I need your help. Usually I wouldn't ask like this, but...I have something that I just cannot crack on my own, and I need an experts advice. I'm willing to believe you're not a bad person, inherently. That a lot of what you did was a direct result of being off medication. That the mere fact that you sought medication is proof enough that you don't like what you are when you're off it, and want to be a better person. But I need to know...how do you get people to do whatever you want?" Claire leaned back in her chair and continued chewing, and once she was half finished, she set her donut down on the little sheet it'd come wrapped in on the table and sighed. "...I've already told you...you promised people things you can't give them," Claire said. "I know that, and I...I know that that's a real honest answer, but how did you do it so thoroughly, where they never question when they're finally getting what they want? How did you get them to be so loyal?" Agent Siskel asked, and Claire cocked her head, her red curls bouncing lightly. "Well," Claire said, clearing her throat, "and perhaps this is different for everyone but...people want to be lead. Oh sure, you have those outliers who are true independents, and those folks who claim they want to be individuals, but the gods honest truth comes down to the incontrovertible fact that really people want to be told what to do. They want to not have to be repsonsible for their lives or decisions or actions. Take religion, for example, okay?" Claire leaned forward and cupped her hands, Agent Siskel now fully engrossed as Claire continued. "I mean, religion offers people the most ridiculous shit you can imagine, shit you can't even prove, and yet people follow it blindly," Claire said, "yet I'm out here offering people tangible rewards. Attainable things. Things that they could theoretically be given if they follow me. Things I actually fully intended to eventually give them. But religious ferver? That's a whole different story altogether, man. You can't convince those people that they won't be eternally rewarded because they're so desperate to think their lives mean something in the grand scheme of the universe that they're willing to completely overlook or outright ignore glaring plot holes and logic gaps all at the hope, not guarantee, HOPE, that they'll eventually be given what they want, and not even when they're ALIVE." Agent Siskel nodded. Claire made some excellent points. Claire leaned back in her chair, picked the remainder of her donut back up and finished it, then spoke again. "So," Claire said, mouthful of donut, "how hard is it to get people to be loyal to you? Not very. It's just that you have to be skilled enough to get them to believe it. Charisma's a hell of a drug, Agent Siskel." *** "Good show," Allie said, approaching Benny as the crowd on the street dispersed and Benny grinned upon seeing her. "Hey!" he said, "been a while! Saw your new billboard, looks spiffy." "Yeah, things aren't...things aren't bad, career wise," Allie said, "can't say the same for my personal life." "Eh, personal life is overrated," Benny said as he began to collect the money people had put in the top hat by his feet; while he stood there and counted, Benny said, "so what brings you down to my humble venue?" "Actually," Allie said, crossing her arms, "I...need your help." Benny looked up and smirked. "Is that right?" A little bit later, Allie and Benny found themselves at a little diner nearby, Allie buying him lunch, and Benny interested at her supposed proposal. While he bit into his enormous burger, Allie sipping on a milkshake, Benny couldn't help but wonder what could possibly bring a talented powerhouse like Allie Meers to ask a street magician for help. "So," Benny said, wiping his mouth on a napkin, "...what's the rub?" "Look, I wouldn't be asking this if we hadn't worked together before," Allie said, stirring her milkshake with her straw, "but the thing is...you don't do magic at a distance. You work up close and personal. There's no...screen between you and your audience. Therefore, I must conceded...you're more talented than I am." "I'm not more talented, Allie, there's varying degrees of talent, and I just happen to excel at a form that you don't, simple as that. No reason to put yourself down." Allie smiled and nodded. Benny had always been such a nice guy, and she felt bad about dragging him into her mess, but she desperately needed help. "Well, flattery aside," Allie said, the both of them laughing as she continued, "I...I need advice. I need to know how you convince people something in front of their eyes isn't real." "Well," Benny said, "one of the keys to doing magic in general, as I'm sure you're well aware, is misdirection, but there's also the fact that you have to convince them that what they're seeing is real and hopefully well before you pull off the illusion, because that faith in its reality will carry them through the obviousness that it isn't. I'm doing just that, but at a much closer scale to their eyes. Become their friend, not someone doing a trick. The trick is secondary in my situation. I'm there having a conversation, I just happen to be doing magic." Allie nodded, sipping some more of her milkshake as Benny shook his scruffy oak brown hair and rubbed his hand over his light stubble. "So...you're saying I have to befriend whoever it is that I'm conversing with in order to get them to trust me enough to not question the unreality of the trick?" Allie asked, and Benny snapped his fingers and pointed at her. "Bingo." "...I suck at making friends," Allie said, causing Benny to laugh. *** "Were you popular when you were a kid?" Agent Siskel asked, sipping her cup of coffee she'd brought for herself, the other cup sitting in front of Claire. "Not particularly," Claire said, "which is why it was so challenging to hone my skills at getting people to trust me. But if you try hard enough at something, for a long enough period of time, and you care enough about it...eventually you'll master it. Why do you ask?" "Because you strike me as a very popular person," Agent Siskel said. "You're just saying that cause I led a cult," Claire said, making Agent Siskel chuckle and nod. "Fair," Agent Siskel said, "but you mentioned charisma being a hell of a drug. How does one develop charisma without being popular?" "That's an excellent question, and I wish I had an equally excellent answer for you," Claire said, leaning back and picking her own cup up, taking a long drink from it before sighing and adding, "the truth is, while you can learn to lie, and learn to make people like you because being fake isn't hard...you can't learn to be charismatic. That's something you either have or don't. I didn't know I was charismatic until I came to lead. But it's not something I'd wish on anyone. Being charismatic is...awful. It leads you to believe that you're better than others, that you can get away with anything, and it's...it's dangerous." Agent Siskel nodded, listening. She hadn't heard Claire be this thoughtful or open about her ideas about identity before, and she could see now, being back on medication provided by the state while she was incarcerated, what an intelligent and interesting woman she actually was when she was stable. "...trust me, being charismatic is what ruined me," Claire said, sighing, "that isn't to say I'm not a bad person, because I am, admittedly. I won't deny that. I also won't say that I'm not a bad person when I'm on medication. If you're a bad person, you're a bad person, regardless of your medicated state. Sure, medication keeps me more or less off the path of being bad, but only because I'm stuck in this prison. If I were not here...I couldn't guarantee that, even on medication, I wouldn't be bad. I'm not saying I'd continue to go around murdering, but...I'm certainly not an angel." "Nobody is," Agent Siskel said, shrugging, "that's the most damaging thing that media has really done to our psyche and our viewpoints about morality. It's convinced us that there's just good and evil. Cops vs robbers. Cowboys vs Indians. In reality, there's no one perfectly good or bad side, everything is gray. Sometimes people do bad things for good reasons, and sometimes people do bad things...because they're bad people. It just varies. Did you do a bad thing? Yes. Do you feel remorseful for it? Certainly seems so. But that doesn't make you evil. In fact, I'd be willing to say that the mere fact you feel remorse is proof positive that you're not evil. Evil people don't feel remorse. They feel pride in their evilness." Claire nodded, listening carefully as she took another long drink from her coffee cup, then reached back into the box and pulled out a bear claw and took a big bite of it, chewing momentarily before swallowing and speaking again. "And what if you're wrong?" Claire asked. "What do you mean?" Agent Siskel said. "What if someone convinced you they were doing things for the right reasons, but in reality they were just evil," Claire said, "what would you feel then, Agent Siskel?" Agent Siskel leaned back in her chair and exhaled, thinking. "...I guess then I'd have to reevaluate how I judge people," she said, "but I like to think I'm pretty good at gauging folks." "Well, you seem to know me well enough to know I like donuts," Claire said, mouthful of bear claw. "Please, everyone likes donuts. An affinity to pastries isn't a character trait," Agent Siskel said, both of them laughing. *** Molly opened her front door, only to find Benny and Allie on her porch. Molly sighed, rolled her eyes and stepped aside, allowing them to enter. As they entered, Benny, hands in his coat pockets, whistled as he turned around in the living room and admired her home. Allie took Molly by the arm and tugged her a little ways into the kitchen, lowering her voice. "Who is this guy?" Molly asked, and Allie glanced over her shoulder at Benny, still taking in Molly's domicile. "He's someone I did magic with on and off for a bit," Allie said, "you're gonna use him to help build Tony's vault. Nobody but us is gonna know he's involved." "And why am I gonna use him?" Molly asked. "Because he's an expert at up close magic," Allie said, "and right now, we need that. Because we're gonna build a backdoor into it." Molly nodded slowly, unsure of what exactly it was Allie was planning, but she smiled and walked back to the living room, extending her hand. "Hi there, I'm Molly," she said. *** If there was one thing Agent Siskel had never expected Claire Discroll to be, it was honest. She'd dealt with so many people in her line of work who'd lied to her face, who'd sworn up and down that they were telling the truth, who stuck to their guns regardless of the mountain of evidence to the contrary...she was expecting that with Claire, and for a while, Claire also did that. But now, having spent a bit of one on one time with her, she could see that Claire was speaking openly and honestly with her, giving her the information she really needed and wanted, and some she didn't even realize she could use. "So, if I might ask something a bit personal," Agent Siskel said. "I'm a Scorpio," Claire replied, making Agent Siskel laugh. "No, uh...not...not that," Agent Siskel said, tapping at the lid of her coffee cup, "no, um...what makes someone become a cult leader? Because you have to understand, I've dealt primarily with blue collar criminals or outright murderers. But you're nuanced. You're something unique to my line of work. I guess I'm just curious how a seemingly otherwise normal woman like yourself becomes entrenched in something like this." Claire sighed and sat back in her chair, folding her arms as she looked down at the table. "...as cliche as it sounds, it all goes back to my parents," Claire said, "not to be a trope, but maybe had they treated me a little differently, I wouldn't have acted out the way I had, and I wouldn't be here right now. But I suppose when people control your every move, it only makes sense that you'd want to eventually usurp them and have that control for yourself, even over others." "...so...what happened? How'd this all get started?" Agent Siskel, and Claire smiled. "I made my bed one morning," Claire said, and Agent Siskel got a confused look on her face as Claire divulged her origins.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
ABOUT
Allie Meers is what she dreamed of being since she was a little girl...a successful Vegas magician. The only problem now is she can't make all her problems disappear; Allie grapples with her strained relationship, crippling addictions and FBI agents on her tail, all while trying to stay at the top of her career. Archives
December 2023
Categories |