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[Not for the first time he wishes he had control of his eyes again, so he could rest with his head in his hands and appreciate the warm darkness, the satisfying pressure of being able to press his palms against his face. Instead of just unblinking, unyielding darkness.

...he knows Parker used to keep a bottle in the office somewhere. For celebrations, or bad nights. He wonders if it made it across.]

...no. Not like that. I was still... well. I was worried about you, more than anything else. That that was... going to be it. My... [He takes a long breath, and sighs it out slowly. There's a tiredness there, the drained emptiness of a recent argument that seeps into his words.] My destiny. My every choice leading us step by step closer to my own demise. To be consumed by you, without having ever solved the mystery that brought us together in the first place.

[ Musing in turn, less tired and drained then... relaxed. This is nothing like the existence he had in the Dark World, but it's also nothing like being the King in Yellow, nothing like the reign of The Unspeakable in Lost Carcosa. Nothing like the aeons of whispering into mortal minds who meant nothing.

It is smaller.

It is... closer.

He is an endless being, contained within less than even half of a single human form.

And he would rather die than give it up. ]

[Even I hadn't realized until that moment that you had consumed me instead.]

Edited 2022-11-01 04:32 (UTC)

[Something about that is so... unexpected, that Arthur laughs, a quiet but abrupt chuckle.]

Oh really, that's- is that how you see us? That I-I-I-- tainted your godliness in some way, this- fractured soul of the King in Yellow, it's...

[His voice slows, and his eyes widen in alarm as the words come back to him, from the place where he'd been reduced to nothing, nearly nothing - except for a single memory, and a dark figure trying to talk him out of it.]

...entangled, in... mine.

[Not tainted, Arthur. But I am not what I was. I am not a piece of a greater whole. Not in a way that matters. I was that, but now I am something new. Something...

Yes. Right.

Entangled with you.]

[ A soft wry chuckle.

[The King in Yellow, his name Unspeakable, his realm unattainable...

And you were the catalyst through which it- I- came to be.]

Edited 2022-11-01 05:11 (UTC)

Let's not discredit that you did most of the work yourself. I've still known you for less time than you were trapped in my mind during the coma.

[He'd passed out after being stabbed in the guts and woken up a month later to the Entity having suddenly decided to become John. And much more decent conversation, as it were.]

But... I am glad, you know. That I... that we could help you discover humanity, i-in a personal way.

[Arthur...

You choked on your drink when Rawne told you the date he's from. But that span of time, so... so impossible for you to take hold of...

Nothing of note for the King.]

[ He knows there's a chance Arthur may get offended but he'll continue and hope he doesn't. ]

[Yet your influence in so short a time had done what untold aeons could not, did not. All that time when I was what I was.

And now I'm not.]

[ A wry sort of chuckle. ]

[I'm not trying to give you a big head, Arthur, or butter you up. But this entangled thing we are... as commonplace and everyday as it is while we live it, it is anything but. ]

Edited 2022-11-01 05:30 (UTC)

[He's more exasperated than offended. At least he's not being called 'meaningless' again.]

I suppose you have a point. Us adjusting to it as well as we have by no means makes it common, o-or even considerable as such. What we are is... unusual. Unique.

[He's quiet for a few moments, then huffs.]

Or, it is back home. Some of the people we've met here already seem to function on entirely different scales.

[ Does that worry you? ]

Only in as much as we don't know what we're up against, here. At least back home it was either some abomination from the Dark World, or your own fucking cultists.

[There's no real heat there, though, just a sort of resigned exasperation.]

There's just going to be a lot of... a-adjusting, I suppose. To some people's... powers.

[ The girl with the butterflies...

I am sorry about that, Arthur. ]

It's fine.

[In the faintly clipped tone of "It's not fine, but we don't have the leisure to talk about it".]

It was unreasonable of me to expect you to recognise that. I'm not sure I could have if I could see.

[ Except they do have the leisure. But he knows that tone well enough and it's been a long enough evening, a nice enough evening, he doesn't want to argue. ~~Growth~~. ]

[ I'm sure we'll both get better at figuring out the other people here. It's part of our jobs, isn't it? ]

Yeah. And you said... eight decks, around twenty rooms each. At maximum capacity we'd only be dealing with around a hundred and sixty people, which- it didn't seem to be quite that many at the party, surely. It shouldn't be too difficult adjusting.

[ We should do a walk around together sometime tomorrow. Give you a sense of the scale of things.

Were you assigned a job?

I was. ]

[That gets a more genuine chuff out of Arthur, and he shifts in his seat so he can pull the communicator out of his pocket and slide it onto their desk.]

That was messaged to you? You'd have to let me know.

[ It was. Here, let me show you how to-

You can actually set it to read out to you, if I'm not here. And to give a sound notification when you get a message. ]

[ He won't touch it until Arthur gives the go ahead but then that left hand will work fast to fix the settings.]

['ll be working in the art gazebo up on the deck.]

Edited 2022-11-01 07:57 (UTC)

Thank you, John.

[He may well keep it up while John is present, even just to give himself that slight edge of independence he misses.

But the reveal- well, it would make Arthur blink, but there's a visible oh! in the way he sits up a bit straighter.]

The art gazebo? Really?

[He's baffled, but in a positive way, he's madly curious.]

[ He doesn't begrudge him that independence, hence finding out these things in the first place to show him. But he had checked with some of the odder names he knew and it had had a bit of awkwardness. Not that he expects Arthur to be writing swathes about Shub Niggurath. ]

[ Yes. I'm not sure what that will entail but I'm... excited to discover it. ]

Well, you'll definitely have to show me it later. A gazebo is- it's like a pavilion, a small, open structure - like a house without any walls or windows, just the roof and struts holding it up. They're usually quite lovely.

[ And they're used to house art? ]

[ He's not quite sure what this will entail, after all. They'd sort of skimmed the art gazebo in their 'tour'. Natalie deserved her booze after helping him. ]

Or quite possibly create it. It could be that art supplies are stored there. [Never let it be said Arthur Lester would discourage the arts.] It's actually quite common in the summer for people to use the space to paint or draw, I often saw young artists doing so in one of the parks overlooking Miskatonic River.

[ Arthur will no doubt feel John perk up immediately at that. ]

[ You think I'm meant to supervise the creation of art? ]

[ Exciting!!! ]

[John's delight is infectious, and Arthur can't help but grin.]

It would seem so? But let's make sure to see the place for ourselves before you get your hopes too high. You still haven't told me what my job is, yet?

[Hint hint, friend.]

[ Oh! Sorry, Arthur. One moment... ]

[ He's sorting through with his hand and- ]

[ You're working in.... the communal wardrobe! ]

[ He definitely sounds like he thinks that's a pretty neat spot to be in. ]

[ I've been down there. It's where I picked out my new clothes, the softer robes I'm using now. ] [ There's the soft murmur of him reading- ] [ You'll be working with a Mr. Edward Teach. ]

[Arthur can't help the loud scoff of surprise, and he's quite glad he doesn't have that extra drink he was thinking about.]

The wardrobe, seriously? The Admiral is aware that I can't see, yes?

[It's largely rhetorical, but it still feels ridiculous.

...but even so, he does remember quite a bit about fabric types and functions, and it shouldn't be too hard to learn most of them again by touch. He'll just have to leave the actual putting away to his coworker--]

Sorry-- John, did you say Edward Teach?

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