"They might be the colour of your hair. Or they might be all of your memories before you were three."
— "Slave Girl" describing how much her wares cost, Stardust
There's no free lunch at the criminal "social club". There's no free passage through a portal in a fantasy story. And no "free tip" from a corrupt stockbroker. We all know that. How you have to pay for these useful things may vary.
Sometimes it's bits of symbol-stamped metal. Sometimes it's units of energy or actual immediately useful objects. Some places use bitcoins. Others prefer seeds of the World Tree or some such.
The Fair Folk have a tendency to only accept payments made in actual valuables. That is, things you'd be reluctant to part with. Things with emotional value, if little material weight, or things that are part of you (not necessarily arms and/or legs, but, say, the hearing in your left ear or your first childhood memory). Or favours that will be pain to pay, sometime in the future.
Similarly, if you ask The Don for a favor, he doesn't ask you to pay a fee in dollars. He tells you that someday he may return to ask for a favor, which you have to follow through on. Maybe he'll ask you to keep a crate that Fell Off the Back of a Truck hidden for a while. Maybe a huge "associate" recovering from a bullet wound will stay with you. Maybe you'll be asked to "deal with a problem".
This carries a significant risk of being plot-fuelling, as well as emotionally engaging for the reader. Do you feel sad for a guy who has to lose a year of life to pass a troll's bridge? How about one who must give up "whatever they find at home that they were not expecting"? How about a regular person who now owes a favor to the local Big Bad, who uses assassination as a business tactic?
The Bazaar of the Bizarre often will take these, and so can a troll or another Threshold Guardian who isn't interested in Secret Test of Character. Deals with the Devil are also likely to involve these as the price that the dealer must pay, and are more likely to screw you over down the road. Compare Insubstantial Ingredients.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- One episode of the 1980 Astro Boy guest stars another Tezuka character, Black Jack, the master surgeon who can charge any fee for his skills. In the episode, he is asked to perform a life-saving surgery on a crown prince, and is given the key to the royal treasury and a promise that he may take anything he chooses. After the successful operation, he recalls the promise and says that what he chooses to take with him when he leaves the kingdom is an unjust law that he's learned has been causing the prince grief.
- In one Doraemon story, Nobita comes across one of Doraemon's abandoned gadgets. It talks to Nobita and introduces itself as "The Devil Card". Its demonic projection tells Nobita that he can shake the card and get virtually limitless amounts of money, but in exchange, his height will be reduced by 1 mm per 300 yen he pulled out of the card when the midnight (i.e 12:00 AM) comes. This causes a problem later in the story when his parents found the card and uses it to gain a lot of money without knowing its consequences for Nobita. He later resolves this by Doraemon using his "Grow-up Flashlight" on Nobita when the next 12:00 AM comes.
Comic Books
- Largo Winch: In order to rescue his friend from a Myanmar prison, Largo asks for the help of a Triad, who says they'll eventually call in a favor (Largo tries to ask that it not involve anything immoral, the Triad head answers that Largo didn't ask of the morality of what he's asking, Largo accepts). The favor is called in when Largo is told to steal the (possibly) original Tao Te King while invited to a Chinese businessman's home, which then escalates to him being framed for the businessman's murder.
- Enchantress from Marvel Comics' Secret Wars (1984) is beseeched by Volcana to be teleported to Molecule Man's side, after learning that he'd been hurt by the X-Men. Volcana offers "anything" as payment, which Enchantress accepts. Later, when Enchantress needs to warn Asgard about a new and awesome threat, she cashes in Volcana's IOU by extracting Volcana's life energy for a huge trans-galactic teleport.
Film — Animated
- In The Black Cauldron a trio of witches trade the secret of how to destroy the titular artifact for Taran's magic sword. Later, they offer the sword back in exchange for the Cauldron itself, but Taran instead demands the life of his friend, Gurgi, and the witches oblige.
- The Little Mermaid (1989): Ursula the Sea Witch offers Ariel the chance to become human, walk on land and meet her dashing prince. Her price: Ariel's voice. "No talking, no singing, zip." This is in stark contrast to the Hans Christian Anderson tale, where the Sea Witch's price was a bit more tangible: her tongue.
Film — Live Action
- Johnny Mnemonic, despite taking place in an implicitly materialistic science fiction setting, has a version of this: To accommodate the brain implants that enable him to act as a data courier, Johnny sacrificed his childhood memories and, therefore, a part of his identity.
Literature
- The Coldfire Trilogy has deals with the devil as a major theme. While sanity and free will are common tolls levied in exchange for power, the charges can get exotic - identity, memory and moral certainty are traded away too. At one point a character is resurrected in exchange for one of their personality traits.
- In The Gates of Night the party gets a night in an inn in Thelanis, the Faerie Court, in exchange for Daine's voice, though the innkeeper agrees to return a voice to him when they leave, like it was just a loan.
- The Dresden Files:
- In Grave Peril, Harry's Fairy Godmother accepts a year of his girlfriend's memories in trade for letting Harry off the hook for breaking a magical vow. Unusually, she's able to recover the lost memories later.
- A variant in Ghost Story has same said fairy godmother so interested in the story of Harry's escape from his Evil Mentor and subsequent confrontation with an Eldritch Abomination that she offers information in exchange for Harry telling her what happened. (The Fair Folk being what they are, this is treated as a transaction.)
- Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell has Mr. Norrell's make a deal with one of The Fair Folk to bring a politician's fiancee back to life in exchange for a portion of said life and one of her little fingers.
- The Kingkiller Chronicle has Auri a homeless crazed waif, who gives and receives a variety of gifts, some tangible and others less so, like a secret, a song, or a moonbeam.
- In The Last Wish Duny (cursed human) asks this sort of payment from Pavetta's father (in hopes it'll turn out to cure his curse). Duny asks for what Pavetta's father will find unexpectedly upon returning home. Pavetta's mother is not best pleased by her husband's apparent inability to count to nine. Geralt later asks for a similar payment for sorting out the situation to the satisfaction of all parties.
- Mislaid in Parts Half-Known: Antsy traded away the names of every holiday she knew to a vendor in a Magical Land while she worked for the Shop Where The Lost Things Go. It doesn't bother her much because she still has the memories of the events themselves, but it makes them a bit confusing to talk about.
- In Moonflowers, Chinese-American Ned Song makes a Blood Oath with his father's patron-spirit the Lady of Scales, since he needs to break The Wild Hunt's curse on his family. The Lady goes through memories and the color of his hair before they settle on the color of his eyes, and she notes that there's some risk of going blind—but some people gain powers instead.
- Neverwhere: The London Below has a barter-based economy, but the Marquis de Carabas deals in favours, and Lamia wants to be paid in Richard's life.
- Padraig, a Fair Folk in Pact at one point offers Maggie Holt his aid in exchange for his choice of something from her backpack. Thinking there was nothing of value there, she agrees. Then he uses an essay there to take her name causing her entire power and being to slowly unravel, while he impersonates her.
- An exchange based on this trope is a major plot point in Ursula Vernon's novel The Seventh Bride. An evil sorcerer has figured out that he can use his powers to make marriage work as a Magically-Binding Contract. So he flatters or coerces various women into marrying him, whereupon he "gives" them his name, and in exchange they owe him a "gift" of his choosing. So far, he has taken his previous wives' life, death, magic, will, sight, and voice, and plans to take the titular bride's youth.
- Shadow Police: Members of London's magical community often trade in intangibles. In The Severed Streets, Ross exchanges her capacity to ever feel happiness for being allowed to study the auction's ledger for 15 minutes.
- In another Neil Gaiman Fairy Tale example, Stardust has the slave girl discuss various exotic payments, only to settle for Dunstan's kiss.
- In Wielding a Red Sword by Piers Anthony, Mother Nature takes the protagonist's stammer as payment for a favor.
Live-Action TV
- In the Doctor Who episode "The Rings of Akhaten", Akhaten has this sort of economy. Just as their ersatz god feeds upon emotional memories, they pay for goods and services with objects imbued with sentimental value.
- On Lost Girl, Dyson gives up his love for Bo to a Norn to be able to help Bo fight her mother. He was expecting to lose his ability to turn into a wolf, which is what the Norn asked for the previous time he'd come to her for help. Kenzi gets his love back by threatening to take a chainsaw to the Norn's sacred tree.
- In order for the Dark Curse to be cast in Once Upon a Time, the caster must destroy the thing they love most, normally a loved one.
Tabletop Games
- Ars Magica: Faerie markets have curious notions of fair exchange and don't often communicate them to mortal visitors. Oddities, services, and favours are common enough to barter with, but an incautious merchant might literally pay with his good name by mistake.
- Changeling: The Lost: Goblin Markets accept such items as eye colors, springtime afternoon, or a song, sometimes represented by Experience Points or dots in the Point Build System. Justified in that they make useful Insubstantial Ingredients in Hedgespinning.
- This
fan-made guide to the inventories of various types of merchant in Dungeons & Dragons includes a section on the prices that could be charged by a Fey merchant. Some are physical things, like a lock of hair, your firstborn child, or someone else's firstborn child, but most are these. A few examples include a syllable from your name, the sight from one of your eyes, an important aspect of your beauty, your dreams (allowing the merchant to control your dreams as they wish), your past (causing you to forget everything that happened before that day), and your legacy (causing anyone who goes more than a week without seeing you to start forgetting that you exist).
- Warhammer 40,000: Dark Eldar can directly manipulate souls, so it's often a price for their intervention. Sometimes they take other things, like heartbeats or dying breaths.
Video Games
- The Yaga in Dreamfall Chapters is a primordial being that feeds on fear, but lets Zoë pass for a slightly milder cost of some of her memories (admittedly, ones that Zoë may want to forget, anyway).
- If you're out of Funds in World of Horror, you may be approached by a strange, sinister man who offers to buy one of three different things from you for 2 Funds. Of the three things he's interested in, the most tangible is the Jar of Bloodnote ; alternately, you can sell him a Fond Memorynote or Peace of Mindnote .
Web Animation
- In volume 9 of RWBY, the titular team ends up in the Ever After, a wonderland-esque realm where the surreal is real, and run into the peddler Jinxy who offer valuable treasures (including Yang's stolen arm) in return for a this kind of price. He sells a statuette for a hug and Yang's arm for "knowing what it feels like to be loved", which Yang is unwilling to pay. Ruby also tries to purchase an item she's drawn to, but can't muster up enough to pay "enough hope to fill a jar". Blake mentions that in a fairytale they read as children, the main character ended up in the same situation, and ended up paying her happiest and her saddest memory.
Webcomics
- The shadow creatures in Missing Monday treat any other form of payment as rude. They are also very into Exact Words.
- The Property of Hate has nightmares and dreams. RGB also pays someone once with his hand (but he can get another, so he's not very reluctant to do that).
Web Original
- In the Metamor City story "Whispers in the Wood" Abbie Preston trades a song to a greater Fae in exchange for the answers to three questions, and only afterwards realizes that the price included her memory of the song as well.
- SCP Foundation
- SCP-738 ("The Devil's Deal") is a writing desk that offers a Deal with the Devil for various prices, like the death of your best friend or memories of your mother.
- SCP-1323 ("A County Fair") . The inhabitants of SCP-1323 sell fair tickets for varying prices: a joyful laugh and a sorrowful tear (1 ticket), a cherished memory (5 tickets), A Year and a Day (10 tickets), a lost love (25 tickets), and a favor (100 tickets).
- SCP-1879 ("Indoor Salesman"). SCP-1879 is a man who appears inside a person's house and tries to sell them something. The price he asks in return is sometimes intangible, such as "12 years of your time". When the person agreed, they disappeared for 12 years. When they reappeared they were the same as when they vanished, with no memory of the intervening time.
- SCP-2523 ("Goblin Market") . The workers in SCP-2523 sell anomalous Halloween items in exchange for such things as "The memory of a childhood family trip", "The ability to sing" and "Empathy".
- "SCP-2557, A Holding of Envelope Logistics®" is one of these itself, with the concept of it as a set of containment procedures being sold to an extradimensional banking firm, resulting in Hostile Show Takeover. The article contains testimonials from other investors who have made bank by trading on things such as "cancer rates in Selkirk, Manitoba", "the effectiveness of new HR policies at E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company", "Tony Blair's poltical career", and even the beating sounds of a "trip hammer trip hammer, trip hammer, trip hammer".
- SCP-2791 ("Fauste Bank plc"). The entities involved in SCP-2791 sometimes demand non-tangible things as part of their Deal with the Devil, such as the memories of the summoner's name or a period of torment after death.
- SCP-738 ("The Devil's Deal")
- In Welcome to Night Vale the pawn shop sometimes pays in cash and sometimes in intangibles like "a good night's sleep" or "an interesting idea about time".
Western Animation
- In Adventure Time, Marceline's childhood stuffed toy Hambo is used as a component to power a portal for Simon Petrikov to reach Betty Grof.
- In Family Guy, when Brian and Stewie try to rent a helicopter, the shop accepts cash, check or a "jaunty tune". Now guess with what they pay.
- On Gargoyles The Weird Sisters oversaw a covenant between Macbeth and Demona. He would give his youth in return for her being able to fight for him. Both would share the other's pain as a side effect, and each would have Complete Immortality until slayed by the other.
- One Rick and Morty episode involved a shop run by the devil. Everything was free in terms of money, but each item came with an unadvertised curse. For example, one artifact made the user irresistibly attractive to women at the price of impotence. Out of spite, Rick set up a shop across the street that reversed these negative side effects for a trivial amount of money.
