[From his - admittedly somewhat uncertain - understanding, their odd position now is the closest they'd be to standing on equal footing, here. High and low, possessor and possession, stuck in a stalemate between what they'd ordinarily want and what the house expects of them.

Charlie's appraisal tells him everything his rambled train of thought doesn't.]

You'd be surprised.

[He can handle quite a lot of bullshit, thank-you-very-much, he just doesn't like to, and his usual position - admittedly, the only position Charlie has ever seen him in - allows him the leverage to not have to endure any bullshit he doesn't care to.

But he's not in such a position here. For all the airs put on about these new deities being the most important guests... well, all it took was this auction to twist that notion on its head, prove they were just as at the mercy of the house as everyone else.

So there were no good choices here.]

I suspect merely going through the motions will not end well for either of us.

[Neither of them will be pleased by the outcome, both of them will be punished by their strange markings, and they'll end up worse off than when they began. Amusing for someone, surely, but not a boundary he'd like to test if he could help it.

And yet, there are no better ideas coming to mind.

So he brings a hand up, biting idly at his thumbnail as he tries to think of something.

(And tries to settle with the idea of propositioning Charlie DiVincenzo.)]

Side with 'the big guy'. You've far more to lose by not doing so than I do, and you've helped enough already by doing this.

[A vague gesture to the little alcove to encompass him rigging the auction.]

Anything you could possibly want to do will be better than what anyone else would have expected, so go on. Play their game.

[A little bit more of that too-honest impulse has him biting his lip before he spells out anything worse.]