Won't You Sign a Contract With Me?Those words have, for centuries, been regarded with suspicion and contempt, whether the question was submitted by political agents or random strangers on the street almost too strange to be
real.
A Deal is So Very Easy to Make.Faust is a well known legend, and one that inspires many a tale, as well as warns humanity against it's own destruction. How many, however, can resist the lure of
anything they've ever wanted?
What Do You You Want...Power? Fame? Money? Contractors, of sorts, peddlers in the deepest wishes and desires of the human psyche, merchants of Sin, they will sell you anything, in exchange for something simple, really.
Most ask for a certain action to be performed every time their services are used; Setting a Fire, Folding Paper, Smoking, and Chanting among the simple, rather understandable ones.
But there are others...some who ask for Mutilations, who ask for Self-Injury, who ask for Drowning, Murder, and, oddly enough, Card Games...
You Won't Notice A Thing. Just One Little Change in This Clause...The Price of a Contractor-Client partnership is often simple at first, but it tends to change, so slightly and slowly that the Client is for the most part unawares. What could start as a simple Price of physical pain can take the smallest of steps to bloodshed, to amputation, and suicide...although no Contractor would ever let a Client die that easily.
Not Without Paying Your Dues.The Price is not the only factor affecting the Client...the Clients change as time goes on, and their Bond with the Contractor Grows. They tend to take on the habits of their Benefactor, their appearance, and even attitude, although the main effect is always the same; a severe decrease in empathy, and a sociopathic attitude. They grow extremely self-serving, and their innocent, rather vapid perversions grow and twist into horrific caricatures of what they once were; the minor sins a Client grew up with would take over his personality, with enough time.
Don't Think We're All That Bad...Contractors care for their clients well, increasing their lifespans and equipping them with whatever they desire, as well as certain...side affects. A Client grows to resemble their Contractor, and even picks up a few tricks from their ever-gracious benefactor.
'What Are We?' Hmn...How Sweet.'Contractors are scarcely seen between the folds out our reality, and rarely appear to anyone other than their Clients. Their image varies greatly, and they can look just as human as their Client...though most of them are too horrific to imagine, Lovecraftian beings hidden under a paper-thin guise.
They were hovering just outside our world, not quite present in their own dimension, and so they cannot be harmed except by those who have a strong connection with their world, such as Clients, though at great risk to the silly human's sanity and well being.
They do not seem to actually achieve anything by taking on Clients, other than personal pleasure, although as a partnership wears on, a Client may notice that their Contractor has been looking very...solid...lately. They can affect more and more of the human world, and some have even taken out multiple Contracts.
A Deal Is A Deal.There is no exit clause in these agreements. If a Client no longer desires the aid of his Contractor, the agreement is terminated, and the human is dragged, screaming, out of his dimension and into the world of the Contractors. Safe to say a Termination has only happened a few times.
Clients are much more likely to lose their Sanity and Perish, or simply die, than they are to wish for a termination. If not out of fear, then out of growing, all-consuming Greed.
Step Right Up, You Know You Want To.Why not just refuse a Contract? For every twenty Selfish Idiots there has to be at least ONE difficult, questioning individual. Sadly, it is that small number of individuals they seem more than happy to prey upon.
Contractors cannot touch any human who they've not signed an Agreement with, so how can they possibly lure those people gifted with common sense and a healthy sense of suspicion?
I Don't Need to Touch You To Cause You Pain...They take those people in their weakest moments. If no such moments exist, especially strong Contractors can
create those moments of turmoil and loss. A simple tipped torch, or malfunctioning vehicle is all it takes to render someone perfect for the picking.
If not through manipulation (however weak) of their environment, Contractors can always whisper in the ears of those around a potential Client, and cause all the damage they need from there.
So What? Ooh, I Like
You.There seems to have been an influx of Contracts recently. Events that could've been written off as coincidental tragedies are now occurring at an alarming rate. Arson, murder, and heinous crimes of all kinds are spiraling out of control, and any Client can see the multitudinous crowds of people walking through the cities with monstrosities of all kinds hanging onto their shoulders.
Something needs to be done, and only a few could ever be clever enough to outwit their own Contractors in order to start reducing the population of Contracts. Or, perhaps, some Clients may want to be the
only Clients. Some still were given a Rogue Contractor, one who wants to thin the ranks of his own species in order to reign supreme in the Human world. No matter the reason, tensions are building, and this dying planet can not support the influx of destruction caused by these warped monstrosities, the only hope lies with those who have only recently made their contracts, those who still have their minds, and their self-Control.
OOC :
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