I don't quite know how to help with your problems, but it seems to be fixed in a later snapshot of 5.8.1:

> /appl/cpc/devel/bin/perl -v

This is perl, v5.8.1 built for PA-RISC2.0-thread-multi
(with 1 registered patch, see perl -V for more detail)

> /appl/cpc/devel/bin/perl -e '$a = pack("C*", 0x7f..0x81); for ( $i =
+ 0; $i < length($a); ++$i ) { print ord(substr($a, $i, 1)) . " " }; p
+rint "\n"'
127 128 129
[download]

I have a vague feeling that the 'c2' you are seeing is the list separator character. You might try setting $" = '' and see what happens. Also try $\ and $/.