hypnagothic | [The City] IC Contact

And what of the demon after?

[ A short shrug. ]

I'm working on it.

[ That's reassuring!! ]

I see.

[ flatly. ]

Christ, if I had an answer for you, I'd give it.

[ She sits back in her chair, annoyed -- at herself, the situation, him, the City, all of it -- and rubs the bridge of her nose. ]

I'm fully fucking aware of how it sounds. [ Despite the swearing, she's keeping her tone as even as a hangman's tread. ] And I'm fully aware of how little I can do in this fucking place. Trust me.

Maybe I can bind it. Maybe I can't. Maybe I can pull it out of him and put it in a ring. Maybe I can talk to it and find out what it wants and they can set up a happy little co-op in his brain. Maybe I do nothing and it scratches 'round the inside of his head until he rips his scalp off with his own nails trying to get it out. And maybe I do something, and I destroy a kid who-- [ Here her voice shakes briefly before she steels it. ] --came to me for help, and I live with the consequences of that.

It's all infinite possibilities as long as I don't have its name.

[ he refocuses on her, a subtle turning of his head. ]

The host requested your help?

Yeah, like I said.

[ She did not say that! She said "the host thinks he's cursed." ]

For what he thinks is wrong. He knows there's something wrong, he knows these people tried to do something to him. He doesn't know what.

You have not told him that he is possessed by a demon. Why?

[ See, that question, she expected. ]

Would you want to know, if there wasn't anything to be done?

Every person has a different answer to that question. You can only ask him to know.

I know.

[ he lets that answer linger in the air between them for several moments before speaking again. ]

So you only wish to know the demon's name at this time.

[ Hopefully he doesn't think shame is going to be much of a motivator for Constantine. Like, it is, but there's no guarantee it won't motivate her to do something even stupider than you wanted. ]

That's where I'm starting.

Were I to acquire it, I would require something of you.

That's fair. Do you know what?

That you inform the host of the demon's name.

[ Mm. Should've seen that one coming. ]

Right.

[ She falls silent for a minute, chewing the price over. That would, of course, probably be the ethical thing to do. But Peter has so obviously been fucked up by what happened to him, and is so naive to the world of the supernatural except in the ways that it's hurt him, that Constantine isn't sure ethical and in his best interests are the same thing, here. It took some care and coaxing to get him to agree to a cleansing -- something even non-believers can usually shrug and get behind without too much sturm und drang. How's someone like that, someone who's too traumatized to have open doors in his apartment, going to handle being told that the thing he's scared of isn't behind a door -- it's behind his skin?

He might be able to handle it. He stepped into the spell circle with her, after all, in spite of his reservations, and he muscled through what must have been a lot more discomfort than she thought. Hard to say. But, then, there's the question of how his passenger might react to being outed to its host, what it might do to him in defensiveness. But if she had its name ...

There's also the small issue that she might have to tell Peter she lied to him. But, you know, she's lied her way back out of situations before. ]

Let me think about it, [ she says slowly. ]

Why is that your price, if you don't have any stake in it?

Because I am not the one who would pay the price of your meddling.

[ She raises her eyebrows at him. ]

You're not the same person I met, dream lord.

[ he looks more closely at her, eyes narrowing. ]

[ Quiet: ] It's a compliment.

[ He can ask her to elaborate, if he really wants to talk about Rachel Moodie. ]

It's a fair deal. I just need to think about it.

[ he continues peering at her suspiciously for a moment before blowing out a subtle breath through his nose, the tension easing off. ]

Very well. Who is the demon's host?

[ And there's another question she expected -- not one she's so sure about answering now, though. Peter and Vanessa know each other, judging by the way he was trailing around after her at the gala, but she isn't sure whether he and Dream have any connection. ]

If I tell you that, and I don't take you up on the deal, what will you do?

Nothing. Unless the demon were to force the issue somehow.

[ Another slow nod. ]

S'pose it's better to have more eyes on him than not.

His name's Peter Graham.

[ he frowns lightly. ]

The child following lady Vanessa?

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