Marco's Heart

[peccatore]

You find yourself in a bright white, circular room. It's nearly empty; too bare, almost clinically so. But the bareness of it means that what is visible here stands out:

A podium in the center, where a familiar figure sits, head buried in his hands. Three paths running from the podium to three different spots near the edges of the room - not corners; circles don't have corners - where three doors leading seemingly nowhere stand with no regard for their complete lack of structural support.

It doesn't take you long to figure out where you are, does it? You only have to decide where to start.

Comments

[nevercaught]

"My own mind concocted a farce of its own, because I couldn't allow other people to see me in my vulnerabilities and imperfections," Jarlaxle says. "I understand."

[peccatore]

"Vulnerabilities... Imperfections..."

He clenches his fists.

"I should rot in Hell."

[nevercaught]

"I wouldn't know much about that," Jarlaxle comments. "Lolth's power is connected to the Abyss, not the Hells. Were you a worshipper of Asmodeus or another such devil? On Toril, one's afterlife is supposed to be determined by their gods."

[peccatore]

"Wha--? I, uh. As, Asmodeus?"

Achievement unlocked! Jarlaxle, you have thrown Marco for such a loop that it's knocked him out of his autopilot self-loathing!

[nevercaught]

"He's the most powerful of the archdevils in my world," Jarlaxle says, "enough that he's a full god. I've slept with a couple of his worshippers, actually, but I never saw much use in worshipping devils myself."

[peccatore]

Marco nods slowly, unsure how to process this information while hating himself so violently he has locked himself and a dozen other people in a gallery of his wrongdoings.

"Okay."

[nevercaught]

"What devil do you worship?" Jarlaxle asks, curiously.

[peccatore]

"Wha... I don't...?"

[nevercaught]

"I assume that if you worship a god—or even if you give lip service to one—you would be bound to their particular afterlife," Jarlaxle adds. "Rather than the hells. Though I suppose it may work differently in your world. You do not seem to wish to go to the hells, no matter what you say about deserving."

[peccatore]

"That's, that's now how it... Um."

Marco does not know how to draw a line from this to what's eating him.

[nevercaught]

"Then how does it work?" Jarlaxle asks, innocently—or rather, with his best approximation of innocence. He is doing his best to keep Marco slightly off-balance, as confusion is preferable to active self-loathing.

[peccatore]

Marco hesitates before pulling a copy of the Holy Bible from thin air. He is still very reluctant to uncurl himself, though - he just sort of extends his arm, barely enough to hand the book over.

"I'm... Catholic."

[nevercaught]

"I see," says Jarlaxle, who doesn't see at all. "Is this your holy book, then? May I take a look at it?"

[peccatore]

"G-- Go ahead."

Marco is feeling a very different kind of fear now.

[nevercaught]

Jarlaxle, quite naturally, decides to begin at the beginning of the book and spends some time reading. Finally he says, "This is all very interesting, but I have read all through the first book and it does not say anything at all about the hells."

[peccatore]

"You-- You've read that much? Already?"

Given that this IS the Bible as Marco remembers it, chances are it's pretty abridged.

[nevercaught]

"I am a fast reader," Jarlaxle says, "and admittedly, I may have skimmed the genealogical bits somewhat. But no, this book Genesis is very interesting and I find I have much sympathy to Isaac, as someone who was also meant to be sacrificed by a parent and then was not. Should I continue on with the second book, Exodus?"

[peccatore]

"I... You... S-Sure."

He hesitates.

"... For Christianity... Which Catholicism is derived from... The most relevant information is, in the New Testament. It, uh."

Marco's brow furrows. He's looking for a word, and it's not coming to him, and it's frankly frustrating.

"It... retcons... many parts of the Old Testament."

That's not the word he wants. This annoys him visibly.

[nevercaught]

"Retcon?" This is perhaps not a word that Jarlaxle is familiar with.

[peccatore]

"It, it means, er-- There are parts of the Old Testament that are no longer... applicable, to Catholic people. Because the New Testament stated different things."

[nevercaught]

"Oh, I see. Let me skip ahead to your New Testament, then. Which book should I start with?"

[peccatore]

"Uh."

He doesn't know.

"The... The first one."

[nevercaught]

Jarlaxle consults the table of contents.

"The book of Matthew, it says."

He opens to that section and begins to read again. "Ah!" he says, a few pages in. "Here is a devil. He is trying to get the demigod Jesus to do or say certain things and Jesus is refusing."

[peccatore]

"That would-- Yes. That would be the Devil."

[nevercaught]

"The devil?"