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NOTE: I am forever backtag friendly and absolutely open to doing things from past events that won't really have an effect on things at any given time. For example, if you'd like to do something with Peter aged down or when he was his spider dream guide, etc.
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[Right! Because confronting your housemate on his supernatural issues isn't fucking awkward or bizarre enough. As if her facial features realize this, Henry screws her face up, then not a moment later deals herself all in by bending down to sit on the bank (not without another cautious look around them; she doesn't belong to any helpful magic ring clubs).
If Peter's going to demonically hulk out and kill her today of all days, standing or sitting won't matter. She can put on a brave face. She's better at it than him. And she's not the one at the center of it all, so paralyzed by whatever had happened in his past that he hadn't even been able to talk about it without choking up the first night they met.]
Yeah. [She looks him over, draping her arms cross her lap. Confirmation, as clear and candid as she can make it.] I thought you were going to say something like that.
[Demon. It's so unavoidable and final coming out of his mouth that she can feel her arm hair threatening to prickle to life, but simultaneously, it's a strange relief to finally hear. Like they can finally stop after all this dancing around each other.]
I knew there was something. With the way you get, and the haunted shit. [And attacking her. That, too.] When did you figure it out?
[It wasn't from the very beginning, that much has been plain; this past year he's been just as afraid of himself as anything else, just like she had her first year of being a mutant freak.]
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Though, then again, maybe it's just.... easy to believe. Looking back now, "demonic possession" hasn't exactly been a subtle thing. The signs have been there for a long, long time. He just couldn't.... put his thumb on it. And he couldn't accept.
Still. He's known about it long enough. He should have said something. And the discomfort shows on his face at her question; Peter looks down, like he can't look at her. ]
I guess I started really.... figuring it out back when the... the Titanic stuff happened.
[ So...... months and months ago. Fuck. ]
I forgot who I really was and all that, but..... whoever I thought I was, knew he had a, uh... a demon. He knew that was what it was, and he was terrified about it.
[ ....Deerington had concocted a pretty on-point little au for him. ]
...And over time, I guess I... I've met people who know about stuff like that, and they've..... helped me see it, too. [ He's staring at his hands, refusing to look up at her. ]
Looking back, I can see it's been with me this whole time. I thought it was just... some shit my head made up, or.... a ghost following me around, or.... I don't know. Something.
[ And then it's there. ] I'm sorry. I should have told you sooner. I just.... I didn't know how.
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After all, if anyone has a right to be angry about people not being upfront, he could easily make the case she's the worse offender between the two of them. After all, the clues and hints--the weird social media profiles Deerington had cooked up for him; his erratic, violent episodes--had been piling up way earlier than that, and she hadn't confronted him then, either. She hadn't pressed him to see a doctor when he'd refused. She'd left him alone, and he'd left her alone, and she can see the selfish neglect behind all those times she'd looked away and gone on acting like she didn't see him: the desire to avoid dealing with something she didn't know how to deal with.]
I remember.
[It's matter-of-fact sounding. She remembers how he was on the ship, of waking up and trying to talk to him. And then she'd gotten busy with her own bullshit.
What forgiveness she has any claim to, she gives with a sidelong look and the same matter-of-fact inflection:]
I didn't ask.
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Being here has fostered a new layer to Peter's avoidance techniques, because if he starts thinking about whatever the fuck's wrong with him, then he has to face whatever the fuck happened that night back home β the one right before he'd woken up in this place. It means he has to face that there's a 99% chance his parents are both dead, and he might be dead, and that there's nothing for him anymore. He has nothing. He is nothing. The literal demon's only the surface of his other ones.
But it's definitely the Big Bad here, the heaviest weight to share with a person, and he's really never willingly told anyone about it up front, without being pushed against some wall. He did tell Luna, but it was because.... keeping it from her was keeping her at a distance. Everyone else who knows only knows because the thing's refused to stay quiet; it's clawed its way into a disconcerting amount of fellow Sleepers' lives, a giant twitching spider falling into their laps. At some point, he's had to address it out of necessity, usually paired with horror and apology after finding out the demon's caused some awful kind of trouble for someone.
But outright saying it before? How do you tell someone there's a monster inside of you?
Her reply has the boy scrunching his shoulders up, tensing. She doesn't sound mad, or upset, and maybe he was expecting those reactions. It should be a relief that she isn't, butβ there's part of him that thinks that's what he deserves, and there's an odd tension to be met with something else instead. Something that's not a raised voice or a sharp tone, something that's not openly upset with him. It makes his nerves flutter more, makes him all shaky. Peter smooths his hands out over his knees, slowly, trying to steady himself. He feels like he should say sorry again. And again, and again. ]
Is thereβ is there anything you wanna know? Anything I can.... explain.
[ Why not open the floor to questions now that the Big Thing is out there. Now that its title has been voiced, given form, given identity β demon. ]
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But that's what she wants. What she needs.
So wrapped up in what she'd needed, she'd pushed Townes to the brink of a mental breakdown. She'd ruined her relationship with Jenna because of what she'd needed. Gutted her mom. And Anna... And Sean, and Cliff, and Logan, so many people she'd pushed away or hurt because her need superseded theirs.
What does Peter need?
She rubs her palms over her knees, scraping off whatever impulse there is to treat him like a chance to rectify mistakes made with other dangerous men in the past. She's careful, both because she doesn't know the first thing about monsters and demons and because she's the proverbial bull in the china shop of traumatic subjects.]
So how can we stop it? This is Deerington, there has to be a way. Like the guy on the network said.
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By the time the question comes, he's a little better off, eyes lifting to look back up and over at her. The boy draws in a sharp inhale β then a soft exhale, as though readying himself for something. ]
I don't know. [ It's not his favourite answer to give. ] There's a lot of... people here, who know about shit like this. I've uh, I've met with some exorcists and stuff. But this thing.... it's apparently really strong. It's... it's like, a king.
[ Yes, there is a fucking demon king inside of the boy you've been living with all this time, Henry. It sounds so bizarre it's almost funny to say aloud. Almost. ]
There's........ rituals and things, involved with it? And so it's like... something to be really careful with. [ Aka it isn't as simple as purchasing an exorcism and getting cleared one day, apparently. ]
....And I don't know exactly how it... got into me, back home. So I haven't really been able to... help anyone understand where to go from here. All I know is after my sister.... My mom did a sΓ©ance. To try and... talk with her. [ He's never told anyone that before. This, too, sound so bizarre it's almost laughable, only Peter looks like there's a gun aimed right at his head with each word. ]
....Something did talk to us. I thought it was Charlie at first, but.... I don't know. I think it's been following me around ever since then? I saw it.... Like I kept seeing this weird light and I think maybe that was the thing. The demon.
[ His voice quietens, and his hands start up their slight trembling again. ] I don't know why it wanted me. I don't know why it's here.
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... A king?
[A flat, bemused-sounding echo, one she tries very hard to keep free of judgement. She also needs to be the one to make sense of this, which is no easy task for someone still struggling to accept each link in this chain of logic. If demons are real--if the multiverse is real--then is God? Satan? No. No. Better to keep her focus and existential crisis trained on the link in front of them. It's enough of a stretch to believe the glassy-eyed thing she's seen convulse and drool on itself, the thing that had talked to her with all the personality of an automated messaging system, is supposed to be some kind of evil demon king. For real?
But the rest... She'd known his family was a painful point to linger on from the moment she'd first seen him flinch from pictures of them and refer to his sister in the past tense, but it's something else to listen to him color in the blanks. A seance? Their lives are competing for "worst B movie plot line." It still makes her shiver on the inside.]
Are you okay? [If she didn't live with him, if she wasn't around him so often, it might be easy to lose sight of the most important person standing in the shadow cast by his family's colossally unsettling nightmare. Her tone starts out strong, but ends on an uncertain note.] You seemed... like you were better. For a while.
[And then it talked to me. But she isn't so crass as to say what he must already know.]
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As far as demon kings go, Peter's.... not too versed in the subject, of demons in general. And he doesn't care to be even now that one supposedly nests under his skin; he hasn't done research on "demon kings" or "Hell" or any of those scary words. He didn't even know demons had kings. (He didn't even know demons were a real fucking thing.) He can tell from Henry's tone that she..... wasn't expecting this either, and it's something they might even laugh about if this were in any other context β a demon king? Really? That's stupid β but the context is the creature that's haunted him from the moment she met him, and it's directly interacted with her recently, and there's nothing humourous about it. ]
I don't know. [ The same answer as before, different question now. The question shakes him a little, because he... genuinely doesn't know how to answer it. He moves his legs a little, nudges the heel of one foot out into the small rocks by the river's edge, digs up wet earth. ]
It was.... it was quiet for awhile. It didn't try to like... come out or anything. But maybe that was worse, because I started like... fading away more. [ He swallows, unsure how to voice this. ] Luna got really scared that I'd fade away for good, so she.... did something. We did something, together. With the thing. She did all this research on it and.... made a pact with it. To try and help me.
[ Saying it aloud is another Bizarre Thing amongst Many Bizarre Things. It doesn't feel right against his tongue; it's like something out of a horror movie. ]
It's been hiding for a long time, but now I think it's.... getting stronger. I don't think it's going to hide away anymore.
[ He looks back up to Henry, brows drawn tight, face tense. There are... many implications here: it's not going to lie low anymore, just making its rare appearances in form of throwing him around or piloting his body in brief spurts to pick up items or do its artwork or all of the other activities it's been getting up to in its time here. Sneaky little things, things that are more easy to overlook.
It's going to want time to move and wander and meet people. To speak to people. To get....whatever it is it wants from them. Time to be with Luna, whom it sees as the witch and seems to be drawn towards on a level that's almost spiritual, some ancient connection. It's going to.... make itself known to Henry, apparently. Face to face, not hidden behind him and barely functioning, but using actual words, as clumsy with them as the creature still may be. It's been slowly absorbing and learning and strengthening over time. ]
You've seen it? Like..... like when it's stronger than before.