#faustian contract

[spookyscarycreepydollgirl]

Pred who is the dapper, boisterous and mysterious ringmaster of a travelling supernatural carnival. Mostly he’s an emotivore who feeds off the emotions that guests to the Carnival experience while there, he also grants wishes in exchange for being bound forever to him and the carnival. But every now and then he finds a soul that’s too mouthwatering to resist and instead of requesting service as payment he requests something a little more intimate and fatal.

This pred totally refers to his belly as a “Ride with a one way ticket” and makes other such puns along those lines probably including the old magician pun of “Making [name] disappear”. I like to imagine he’s quite cordial with his meals, if it’s taken a long time for him to convince them to sign a contract he might even be tremendously attached.

Not all of them quite understand what they’re getting into, he tries to make it clear but well he’s not human you see and they don’t always understand what he means when he says “In exchange I want you.”

But of course there’s nothing more satisfying than sitting back and digesting one of these special treats, trapping their souls inside him, making them a part of him forever.

He works very hard to maintain his Carnival after all, he deserves to break diet every now and then.

[super-productivity]

Just thinking about things in terms of Sebastian’s perceived 'newness' to human interaction and how that has some people wondering if he's quite young for a demon or questioning how many previous contracts he's taken etc.,

From what Sebastian has said, we know that 1) he intentionally starves himself between meals to make the next soul taste better; 2) a human lifetime is 'but a moment' to him, so he could easily go a century or two between said meals; 3) he only ever takes one contract at a time, by virtue of personal aesthetic; 4) there was some period of time before his gaining of said aesthetic where he was 'sloppily sampling souls' as opposed to taking the time to cultivate them to his more individual taste.

So really, regardless of whether that period of soul snacking was a time of scavenging in his youth, or just the sort of insta-deal that one probably wouldn't count as a proper contractual fulfilment, even if Sebastian is pushing 1000+, and the 'sloppily sampling souls' lasted for only the first 2 or 3 centuries (though it could well have been longer. We don’t know how long he's been bored of that kind of thing), its quite probable at only one contract per 100-200 year interval that this one with Ciel is still somewhere within his first 10 proper, more lengthy, contracts.

[chibimyumi]

Hello, I hope you are well. I recently read a piece of fanfiction that featured Ciel gouging out his contract eye; thereby nullifying the contract. Although I personally do not think the story will go in that direction, I wonder what WOULD happen if a contract mark was forcibly removed through means such as this. What is your opinion on this?

Dear Ihaveathingforlegs (I myself have a thing for legs too),

I’m doing fine, just quite busy, hence my late response. My apologies for that. I hope you are doing fine too!

Ah, I think Ciel gouging his eye out to escape the contract is a bit similar to the starting premise of season II; surely an interesting thing to think about!

While interesting and even kind of a delicious thought, LOGICALLY I myself don’t think physically removing the body part on which the contract sign is engraved would allow anyone to escape the Faustian bond. That would make it quite easy for any party within the contract to just cheap-skate their way out of it. Instead of a battle of wits with deadly stakes, it’d become a battle of who’s had HAD it first. I think most humans at least would rather lose a body part than a prospect worse than going to hell for eternity, after all.

In short, IF O!Ciel were to actually gouge his eye out in the contract, I think the contact will just remain. I think it’d just result in a raised eyebrow and a round of ridicule from Sebastian.

Since you asked this-person-who-can’t-do-short, let us look at a hypothetical case where Faustian-lawfully, opting out of a contract is possible through physical removal of the contract sign.

Abusing GAPING LOOPHOLES

Under normal circumstances if a human wanted to form a Faustian contract, they’d have to know what “ingredients” to put in to summon a demon. That is to say that they’d probably know 1. a great sacrifice is needed for the ferry fee, and 2. their own soul as service fee.

Knowing this, it means that a human needs to be determined that whatever it is they want from the demon (even if a pedantic one were not to fuck them over immediately), their sacrifice and soul are worth the bargain. If someone is willing to sacrifice their very soul for this bargain, then choosing to lose a body part instead is USUALLY less big a deal. Why capable of giving up your soul but not - say - an eye or a leg? There are plenty humans living their lives without an eye or a leg, and they didn’t even “buy” supernatural services with it.

So IF it were possible to just physically remove the contract sign after you’ve enjoyed all the services from the demon, then that’s a damn good bargain! It’d be like buying a house, stay in the house, and rip the contract that makes you pay the mortgage.

Apparently demons can choose where to carve the contract sign with at least some liberty. If physical removal of the contract sign can free the contractor from paying their end of the bargain, then surely a demon would choose to carve the sign onto a vital body part. Humans can survive surgeries, so if I were a demon under such Faustian laws, I’d obligate the human to let me operate on them and carve the sign onto their heart or lungs. (Of course if the carving on vitals can be done magically I’d just do that) Otherwise I’d eat them instantly or do something else unspeakably horrible to them within the Faustian laws.

Sure, then the contract sign is not very conspicuous and therefore less controllable/powerful, but I am not sure that’s automatically a bad thing. It surely is better than being scammed out of a contract.

Besides, contract sign or not, good luck escaping this ↓

Well, though the premise of physically removing a contract sign is super interesting, this is my take on it ^^ I hope you found it interesting.

[bloodymisanthropist]

Faustian Contract cursors

I made some custom cursors for those of you who are interested. They are available to download here. Instructions on how to use them are in the description of each post. I also plan on making another batch of an alternate version (different colour, along with a slightly different design.) That will hopefully be out within a few days. I've listed previews down below, and screenshots of how it looks against a light and dark background - I'm using #6.

[the-fox-populi-says]

@facets-and-rainbows put up a first summary translation on the Blue Knight forum! http://www.theblueknight.host-ed.me/forum/index.php/topic,4861.0.html And oh dear tasty lord Satan- Looks like Meph saw the whole twin deal coming YEARS ahead. Or maybe he's just being practical, keeping some favours in the bank, just in case. Like a good mob boss. "I'll make you an offer you can't refuse~"

[smilexblack]

I must say that every beauty has its own demise.. for everything has their little miscreant desires

This is indeed a fine story of humans in reality.

~Black~

[blackbutlerofficial]

Learn about Faustian contracts in anime! Black Butler The Movie (live action) may differ from the anime, but it still centers around a Faustian contract. Here are some other titles that also feature this contract! (Add to your Black Butler collection, and get your copy of the movie from Funimation today: http://funi.to/2pEaydY)

[camisala01-art]

Ciel Phantomhive.