Part Two: The Detective

[lestercraft]

Who: Arthur Lester and others
What: Recovering from the Forest Talkers (emotionally) and existing (generally)
When: October!
Where: Milton mostly

Content Warnings: General Malevolent warning (Lovecraftian horror etc) to S5

Comments

[sputnik]

He's quiet for a few long moments. His creature. Everything in him flinches at the concept, though he choose his words thoughtfully, trying to keep too much emotion out of it.

"The thing is.... since this place changes the rules, weakens it... it might be possible to actually kill it, here. The bond it has with me isn't so strong in this place."

He has no access to its memory anymore. For all he knows, that might mean they're not as tethered as they are back in his world.

"I just need to find a way to test that out, but I'm rendered unconscious whenever it leaves my body, so that makes it difficult for me to be involved." He smiles weakly. "But there are people with medical experience in this place, and I think I can trust some of them."

Sorry Arthur, he's still stuck on Worm Removal here.

[lestercraft]

Honestly, Arthur doesn't blame him. And he'd be lying to himself if he expected a single conversation to change Konstantin's mind on something this life-changing, this threatening to his very existence.

At the very least, he can caution him. Advise him in a way that has at the very least merited the weight the topic deserved.

"Medical experience is one thing," he says, calm and easy. No judgement, or at the very least trying not to sound patronising. "But experience with the things we have is another beast entirely. If the creature can exit your body entirely, a-and yet the harm that's done to it still affects you, then whatever ties it has to you are more than biological."

[sputnik]

Konstantin certainly doesn't disagree. There's a reason he hasn't pursued something like this yet, taken... months, almost a year in this place. He knows it's risky, and... he has to be cautious. The last thing he wants to do is cause some irreparable damage to himself. There are people relying on him, here.

There's Vasiliy.

"It's definitely symbiotic in a way that no creatures from Earth seem capable of being," he nods. "But I'm thinking I start small. Someone forces the thing to stay outside of me for longer than an hour, just a little. See what happens. And maybe we can eventually test what happens if it doesn't get any food. If I stop being a good host for it.. maybe it will let me go."

There's an irony here that he's willing to let himself be a lab rat again, but... if there's even a chance the thing could be separated from him here...

"...I have a child, back home. A son." He stares at his hands for a moment. "If I manage to make it out of this place... and if I'm somehow still alive back home... I have to find him. Help him. I can't do that if I have a dangerous monster inside of me."

[lestercraft]

"...I have a child, back home. A son."

He rests his elbows on his knees and clasps his hands together over his mouth. Somehow the news is equal parts completely shocking as it is... well. Of course this complete stranger with a dozen other parallels to him has a fucking child as well.

He just has to breathe through that for a moment, as his chest tightens with heartache.

And then a deeper one, steadying himself to keep talking, and he clears his throat gently so it doesn't crack. "I want to be there. W-when you do it." He sits up again, and the look in his gold-cracked eyes is a challenge. "I'm not any sort of medic, I'll admit that. But it-" with a gesture to Konstantin's stomach. "Regardless of anything else, it clearly trusts me, at least to some extent. And I think you'll need someone there with that ability, someone willing to pull the plug if this goes south sooner than you're expecting. If you can't survive apart, I will make sure you survive together."

His eyes only soften then, sympathetic. "If nothing else, it's the only way you'll get to try again later."

[sputnik]

Konstantin looks back up at him, perpetually struck off-guard by things that Arthur Lester says to him. 'I want to be there'

He wants to help him. Him, who's still practically a stranger (even if, after all that's been shared between them now, Konstantin feels some bond to this man, something deep and desperate and yearning). Him, who could be a danger to the other man who's already known such horrors through his life. Arthur doesn't owe him a thing. And yet here he's offering to... make sure he survives, during this (a thought that Konstantin initially kneejerk flinches from, because some deep shameful part of him would still rather die than exist like this, sick and weak and in so much pain. He doesn't have the medicine from the facility here to keep him from feeling the nausea, the ache. Every day he feels it. The thing, wet and coiled inside of him; his body protests its presence, again and again, he fucking hates it—)

...But Arthur's right. Surviving is the only way he can try again later. So Konstantin bows his head for a moment, sighing slow through his nostrils, deeply considering all of this. Eventually, he nods.

"I don't suppose there's any sense trying to convince you that the last thing you of all people need is to get closer to my trouble." This particular man has every right to turn away from Konstantin. But he doesn't. He won't. He's kind, and brave.

"...Thank you." A softer exhale, a shudder of breath. "It can form.. trust. It's happened before. It understands when people help it, and.... I do think it might be less likely to harm someone like that." So it's... a good thing, ultimately, if Arthur does continue to befriend his disgusting little passenger. Maybe it won't hurt him. Maybe it might even protect him if it's ever necessary, the way it protected Tatiana.

"But I want you to do what you have to do. If it ever approaches you again in the meantime... if you feel that it's becoming a threat... I don't want you to get hurt for me."

[lestercraft]

It's a rush of relief, when Konstantin relents, lets him help, and he finally smiles, a more natural and genuine one as his tension settles a little.

"Don't worry. You're actually not the first possessed person we-" ah, the automatic 'we' makes his heart hurt. "Th-that I've helped, in- in this way. Perhaps not quite so literally, but... we find we have a sense of duty, John and I, in- in being like this. Being aware of the wider world, the unnatural and surreal. To help those who are in over their heads when they discover it, to try and prevent any more loss or pain that we can manage."

It wasn't a perfect science - it wasn't even that, it was just two assholes trying to be better than the world that dragged them through the mud and helping other people escape it. But Marie and Hattie were better, and Oscar was...

...he was better without them, at least.

"And I'm certainly not afraid of pain, so." He gestures to his face with a wry grin. "You'll have to do worse than that to scare me off."

[sputnik]

Fortunately, this place has weakened the creature enough that it doesn't seem nearly as deadly as he knows it's capable of being, but... it can still do damage. ....And it can kill someone here, if the conditions are right. He knows that now. Someone's dead because of the thing, an Interloper who got caught in the crosshairs. (Gord, his name was Gord. Konstantin barely knew him.)

"It sounds like you've had more than enough pain for a lifetime," he says with something that's not quite a smile, more a wince. "This little fucker better not cause you any more." He glances downwards, knowing the thing is capable of perceiving what's going on even when it's inside of him, assuming it isn't asleep. It can hear people's voices, feel the vibrations of them. Surely it recognises Arthur's. He hopes that the more he's around him, the more the thing might associate the younger man with friend-not-food.

"....And if there's ever anything I can do for you, please— Please tell me."

[lestercraft]

That gets a soft chuckle despite the entire mess of their circumstances.

"Look, you don't need to worry about me, really. All of my problems, they're-" he flaps a hand dismissively. "They're not here. So I can focus on what's actually in front of us."

He can only hope that when - if - he gets back, that John and Yorick have figured something out, that he's not just dead. But he can't worry about that now; all it serves is sending him into a panic. Having other people to worry about here - Konstantin, Charles- it helps keep him sane.

"I suppose I should meet Vasya at some point, though, just so he doesn't have to worry about me knowing the truth."

[sputnik]

Konstantin lifts a brow at that, and offers a huff and a smile. "This place apparently has its fair share of supernatural entities trying to fuck with us. Your problems from before might have just been traded out for a new slew of them. So I'm going to have to keep an eye out for you, too."

Sorry Arthur, he's going to worry about you just as much as you've been worrying about him and his situation. Especially considering this poor guy's track record for getting hurt, maimed, killed...

Something in his eyes softens at mention of Vasiliy, shifting his liquid-dark eyes to a warmer brown. It's a reaction that Konstantin can't stop from happening at this point, something fond.

"I'll introduce you. You should come over for dinner sometime. We have meat."

Vasiliy's also not... normal, there's something strange and wrong about him, too. Something Konstantin doesn't really know how to fully define. He has to wonder if Arthur might've run across anything like that in all of his journeying with the supernatural. He won't betray Vasya's secrets, but it's something to think about bringing up to his housemate. Arthur is a good ally to have.