A Falling World:Chapter 8 Part 3 A Conversation In A Bar

“So between a cat and a person you would actually choose to save the cat?” Marcus asked.

David responded quickly to the question he was waiting for “I am interested in promoting a happy, healthy, cooperative, flourishing society. I believe the best way to accomplish that is through participating in moral hills or plateaus while avoiding moral valleys. Because those are my values I personally would choose to save the kid over the cat but someone else may have different values than I do and choose to save the cat instead.

“What I like about this version of the moral question is that you can delve deeper into a person’s values. You can investigate why despite participating in a moral hill and putting themselves at risk you may still consider them a bad person.

“So rounding back to your question Luther. If I had to choose between a room of money and my family I would choose my family. But that is because of my values in the most simple case. As things become more complex more of my values come into play and a very simple question that needs to be asked is how much risk am I willing to put myself in and where are the moral valleys, plateaus and hills I need to be aware of? I am not going to push through fire for you or anyone else and there is nothing wrong with that. We still aren’t aware of everything that is going on but we all know that there’s risk involved so now is as good as ever to choose not to engage with the system and solidify my position in the moral plateau.”

The table was quiet when the waiter returned. David had his order ready and asked for a dish with a lot of chips alongside a burger. Sitting across the room he noticed a group of four with two figures he recognized as a pair that always sat in a car watching the house. On occasion they would follow him to the places he went in the afternoon to fill out applications and look at his stocks. “And four shots of vodka please.”

“I think you’ve had enough for a while.” Luther interjected.

“They aren’t for me.” David said, as he tilted his head in the direction of the figures he recognized. “I know them.”

“Would you like me to bring the drinks to their table?” The waiter asked.

“No I’ll bring it over. Thank you though.” David replied.

When the waiter left Luther asked who David recognized and when he pointed over to them Luther only saw an empty table. “I only recognize two of them,” David responded “they’ve been scoping out the mansion for a while. I told Henry about them but he didn’t seem to care at all. So I’m guessing they are either staff hired to forever stalk us or they aren’t associated with Henry but are harmless enough to not raise any alarms? I don’t know.”

Perplexed Luther informed David that he didn’t see anything and when Marcus looked over he thought Luther was joking. “What do you mean? They’re right there!” he mocked.

 When the waiter returned with the drinks David brought them over to the table much to the surprise of at least one of it’s occupants. “So a couple of you have been watching the mansion for a while now. If you’re interested in a conversation I’m all for it. Who are you guys?” David asked.

“Why don’t we talk later in private.” Hastur said “You’re making yourself look crazy speaking to thin air.”

“I really don’t care.” David replied. “If you want privacy to have a conversation you can join me in the restroom but if you’re the type to have a conversation right next to the barricade between urinals I am absolutely going to piss on your leg.”

Hastur smiled at that “Why don’t we find you later tonight? Perhaps when you’ve had a chance to sober up?”

“Nah,” David responded “I’ve already started drinking. If you want a sober conversation you can do it in the day inside the mansion instead of sitting in a car on the corner of a street.” David turned to leave but spoke over his shoulder to the group “I’ll be back.”

When David returned from the restroom he noticed that all the drinks were where he placed them but all four of the figures were gone. Returning to the table with Luther and Marcus in as much of a straight line as he could muster he handed the still full glasses to the two of them and asked Marcus what happened to the other group to which he answered that they just left.

Luther wanted to know what happened as well since despite his efforts he couldn’t see them at all. David answered that they sounded like they wanted to talk later when he sobered up a bit but they already missed their window on that one. David explained that they may or may not be catching up with him later to have a conversation so if he’s gone for like 10 minutes he’ll be with the maybe invisible people. “As far as I see it, worst case is that they’re staff and they want to drag us back to the mansion. Best case, they work for someone else and maybe I can get some information that doesn’t stem from Henry.”

After the three of them ate their food they tried a few of the games present in the bar before bar hopping. When midnight struck they found themselves in a loud club with the lot of them as drunk as the rest. It wasn’t until two in the morning that Luther and Marcus made their way back to the mansion and realized that David wasn’t there either.