Delusions (Patreon)
"Could I have your hand, sir?" Max didn't move, which Dexter was, sadly, getting used to.
"Sir?" Max jerked, then turned and stared at him, lost and blank. "Your hand, please."
Max's hand lifted shakily, and he laid it gently in Dexter's upturned palm. Dexter gave a quick and quiet "thank you," then turned it over in his own hand, observing him closely.
Too closely - his knuckles were rough and his fingernails were dull and cracked in places. His once-soft, not-a-day-in-his-life-subjected-to-hard-labour hands were now, already, toughened and split and scarred in places, especially the heel of his palm. He turned it over again, this time to stop looking so intensely. He had only wanted to give it a cursory glance to begin with.
"Do you know what I see, sir?" he asked as conversationally as he could manage, running his fingers along Max's abused flesh. He seemed to be at least half paying attention, his eye gazing down between them, and he'd occasionally twitch, encouragingly Dexter thought. He seemed to want to curl around him, then stopped and shook, his hand squeezing into a fist. Dexter coaxed him back out, encouraged him to hold himself lightly.
"What do you see?" He was almost startled by Max actually continuing their conversation, that happened so rarely now, shaking and quiet as it was. He took a deep breath, was he really going to do this?
"I see a hand, with five fingers." Max remained quiet, though his brow curled, and a guarded look came into his eye, though he still wasn't looking at Dexter. He felt a pang of guilt, but he had to try. "What do you see?"
Max's eye unfocused and began to water. He looked up, but not enough to reach Dexter's gaze in return, instead staring through his chest, and he felt just as hollow and empty as he must look to him.
"Do you take me for a fool, DAX?" Quiet and as close to angry as he'd heard since they'd been here.
No, not angry.
Betrayed.
He swallowed down the stinging lump at the back of his throat. He had to put on a brave face, had to keep his composure if he wanted Max to get better. That was the only thing he wanted, more than anything.
"Of course not, sir. Genuinely, what do you see?"
Max pulled his hand away and turned his body, his bandaged side facing Dexter. Shutting him out, pointedly. Dexter's empty hand curled into a fist, he was no better.
"Please, don't..." Max took a shallow, shuddering breath, and several beats before he spoke again, even quieter. "Don't ridicule me." Dexter could hear his breath catch, and he wanted nothing more than for this all to just stop.
"Sir, I didn't-"
"I've had enough of that." He shook his head stiffly, the action strange and wrong, like he had forgotten how. He stilled, his head turned even further away. "More than enough."
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hiiiii :3
i read tags on that post you reblogged for me and i agree that its most likely that kayne is nyarlathotep since it'd pretty much align with cthulhu mythos - it often takes human form to walk the earth and it's character is pretty similar to kayne's. It also acts with seemingly no particular goal again just like kayne! and i can't really think of any other gods in cthulhu mythos that would fit him so well
also I'd love to hear more about that theory of yours ^_^!!!!!!
Aw thanks for asking about this! :D
{Putting this under a cut because this is a lot of information. It’s pretty condensed but still quite long}
Please take in mind that this theory only just popped into my head when I read the post, so this has more holes in it than Emmental cheese.
I was thinking on the fact that Harlan’s post mentioned explicitly that Kayne’s identity will be addressed in season 4, and I was wondering what other things have been added to the podcast this season. Most notably are the characters (Oscar, the Butcher, Daniel, etc. - Noel is a Very Close Contender for being Kayne for me), but we’ve also had some other things at least slightly confirmed. Probably one of the most important things that have been confirmed it the time dilation.
I seem to remember that there were quite a lot of theories around time loops and similar phenomena (I think a few were on @ty-betteridge’s blog but I can’t find the posts for some reason). With Scratch’s apparent ability to live longer in dreams than in the real world, eldritch time dilation is basically canon, as far as we know. This could further open the door to other time-related shenanigans, including time loops, to be canon as well.
It’s also been mentioned in the time loop posts that John could in fact be a future Arthur (I may have got this wrong because it’s been a long time since I caught up on the theories). I personally don’t see that (I don’t know how that would fit in with the KIY stuff) but I do really think there’s going to be some stuff involving timeloops and Arthur and John.
Anyway, enough of that ramble! Let’s get back to the important part: who is Kayne?
I 100% believe Kayne is Nyarlathotep - or at least one version of him. Maybe not the one directly from the Lovecraft source material, but definitely an entity that shares the same role as him in the story. Especially with the common description of Nyarlathotep as “joyous”, and we can defintely say that Kayne is enjoying himself with Arthur’s story.
I say that Kayne may not be entirely based on Lovecraft’s Nyarlathotep, because that entity is described as an Outer God, and this theory hinges on the fact that Kayne’s origin is something much closer to home.
So what are some things that we know for sure about Kayne / Nyarlathotep?
From Lovecraft’s source material: his description tends to be of a “tall, swarthy man” but it’s often noted that he can shapeshift.
From the podcast: he has no canon appearance apart from wearing a black suit (and other details), as described by John in part 20. He is also noted to be playing piano in his first appearance.
He also has an Extreme interest in Arthur’s life, as far as to having “watched [Arthur’s] life unfold”. He wants to find out what’s “different” about Arthur compared to other people.
So here’s my theory:
Kayne is Arthur (+ John) from the future.
If you’re thinking that’s a slightly far fetched, I agree! There are several problems with this theory that I need to iron out. I’m replying to this ask because I hope other people can add to this theory, correct me on things that I got wrong, share some more stuff about Nyarlathotep, etc.
One question with this theory is that surely John would recognise Kayne if he looked like Arthur?
Well, that’s already got an answer - Kayne can shapeshift, so probably changed his appearance to throw John off his scent. That might also explain the difference in accent between Arthur and Kayne: Future Arthur!Kayne is trying to be incognito, he doesn’t want Arthur and John to find out who he is.
Another question is why is Arthur!Kayne doing this?
The motive I think Arthur!Kayne has is pretty evident: he wants to find out what makes him different, what allowed him to become Kayne. We’ve already been told that Arthur is different to most people in that he can hold a piece of the King in Yellow in his mind without succumbing to their will (compared to Marie’s sister, who was taken over completely by Mr Scratch, and the people who did not survive John’s book). Perhaps this difference allowed Arthur to become Kayne (remember that Kayne discusses hearing voices too, perhaps in a similar manner to John + Yellow in Arthur’s mind). Maybe what sets Arthur on the path to becoming Kayne is… accumulating other parts of Gods? Mr Scratch maybe - Arthur might be strong enough to keep charge of his body and Scratch just lives in his mind like Yellow did (if his plans with the stone go badly).
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muahaha so at the end after thistle gets attacked by the winged lion. his desires got eaten right? including his desire to resist any bad thing that someone else wants to do to him. Idk you could probably write something really cruel and sexy about that.
ALSO im so glad we share a source now <3 i was actually thinking itd be so cute if our s/is interacted!! if that’s possible. i dont know what kiera’s situation is (like who is she what is she doing down here how did she meet thistle) but cath is just a normal adventurer hanging out in the dungeon sometimes?
- @minkymeatshop
Ah, the Winged Lion incident... I’ve been thinking about that for quite some time, actually.
But I have to disappoint you – I don’t think I would take advantage of Thistle’s loss of desires. To say that Kiera wasn't happy about Thistle's current condition would be a major understatement.
That is to say, there’s still plenty of suffering potential for this pair post-canon.
But first, I think I should talk a bit about Kiera separately. Good news: if your s/i is an adventurer, then they can surely meet.
To make it brief, Kiera is a 302 year old half-elf mercenary who decided to fight depression by getting addicted to adrenaline. She stands out thanks to her strategic talents, use of magic, and most likely illegally acquired regeneration abilities.
Kiera descended into the dungeon when it first opened, hired by the local authorities to explore it and to hunt down the Lunatic Magician, but it’s been years since anyone last saw her on the surface.
Technically, she also used to have a party – there was an entire team of distinguished warriors and scientists hired alongside her, but her companions long since abandoned her. Kiera doesn't mind it – despite how boisterous and eccentric she is, she has always been a loner.
Anyways, she’s a bit intense, but friendly. She wouldn’t mind hanging out, but probably not for long – she’s doesn’t like taking companions as they just slow her down. From the information you have given, I think Kiera would like Cath, mostly because she would find her interesting. However, she might try to provoke her to a battle... I think it would be fun to imagine how they would interact, but I really need to know more about your s/i first.
Now, when it comes to Kiera's relationship with Thistle, I must say that she never hated him. Her reasons to antagonize him and try to kill him are a bit more complicated. Also there were multiple stages to their relationship, their attitude and approach towards each other changing with time.
No matter how much she didn't want this to happen, by the time of the manga timeline, Thistle is Kiera's only friend, her favourite enemy, and the person she loves the most.
So to answer the question of "why did she try to kill him?" Well, at first she was just doing her job. But in later years she was only half serious. On one hand, she used "I'm trying to kill you" as an excuse to just start a fight because that's her way of entertainment. On the other hand, she was seriously trying to force herself to kill him to sever this unfortunate attachment, to protect her freedom and her peace of mind.
Everything else she did – hurting him, pushing his buttons, or just teasing him – was done because she finds Thistle's personality fascinating and she wanted to study his reactions. And he's oh so reactive. Fun thing about Thistle is how honest he is – he's bad at hiding his emotions, and he doesn't hold back when expressing his opinion.
So when Winged Lion ate all his desires... There's no point in doing that anymore. She sees no point in hurting him when he won't fight back or avenge himself, or even react at all. And honestly, she's scared of doing something wrong that could only worsen his condition. Because she wants her tiny menace to society back, and she will do everything in her power to bring him out of this state.
I can say that there’s still a lot of possibilities for suffering, since from now on things will be… difficult (well, things were already difficult before, but in a different way). Now, to name a few...
First of all, Kiera was also traumatized by Thistle being eaten. Thistle she fell in love with is expressive, powerful and driven. He's got a strong personality and a bitchy attitude. So seeing him so apathetic and passive was disturbing.
Imagine seeing your only friend being reduced to an empty shell. He's breathing, his eyes are open, he's probably even conscious, but he's completely unmoving and unresponsive. I think that when Kiera first saw him in such state she was close to a hysteric, trying desperately to wake him up. Made even scarier by the fact that no one at that moment knew what exactly Winged Lion did to him.
To think about it, if Kiera got really desperate, she could try doing something drastic to try and force some kind of reaction out of Thistle, hoping that maybe some violence might shake him out of his catatonia. But it is likely that she would just make things worse for them both.
Also! Since being devoured by the demon strongly parallels sexual assault and includes violation of the body, Kiera would have to be very careful with any future intimacy because it is possible that the wrong action might trigger him. Made even worse by the fact that Thistle lost his desire to resist so she will have to be super vigilant to read his reactions and know when to stop... And now I want to write a fanfic when something does go terribly wrong like that. Make it a smut that just turns into psychology halfway through.
But that kind of scenario will most likely happen at least 20 years into the future, when he's conscious and functional enough to gain an interest in sexual intimacy.
(Similar to what I said earlier, I'm not into dub-con or non-con, because I'm not interested in sexual activities if my partner doesn't show equal enthusiasm.)
There's also some misery reserved specially for Thistle: post-canon Kiera stayed in Melini, refusing to leave his side, yet she obviously misses the battlefield and is bored staying in one place. I imagine that realizing that now he finally has a person who loves him and will not leave him, but at the same time being stuck here because of him makes her miserable... Yeah, there's definitely quite a lot of guilt and maybe even self-hate here. Especially considering how Thistle always seemed to hold the happiness of his loved ones as the highest priority (even thought with time he stopped understanding what makes them happy)...
.
.
.
.
Anyways, here's a cute picture of Kiera made in picrew because I'm too depressed to draw:
(The face of a girl who will sneak around your house, drink your liquor, and read your diaries when you aren't looking)
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