Chapter Text
Wh- where….
Jon gasped, suddenly aware that he was awake and seemingly alive. What had happened? The last thing he remembered was.. His thoughts trailed off as he reached for the stab wound on his chest. Ah. right. He died. He vaguely remembered getting sucked through a portal but most of the details on how he ended up here were fuzzy. Where even is here? He took a moment to take in his surroundings. He was stuck in some forest, with no idea who or what was nearby. He was suddenly struck with a bolt of realization and sat up straight. Where is he? He got up and began blindly running through leaves, stumbling over roots in the dim morning mist.
“MAHTIN?” from a faint ways away he heard a reply and ran towards the source of the noise. He tripped over a root and fell face down on the dirt. How pathetic.
“Are… you okay?” The strange unfamiliar voice came from a short man, even shorter than Jon, who was kneeling down inspecting the stranger that just collapsed in front of him, weary and bleeding. The man had long curly dark hair and was dressed in a well put together outfit- some green cardigan with a dusty brownish gray skirt that fell to his ankles. He wore a collared shirt for some kind of camp and had… were those mushrooms growing in his hair? And worms? Jon’s mind immediately labelled him as a corruption avatar and he got up and backed away, weary of this possibly dangerous individual. The individual stood up, using his cane for support and stared curiously at Jon.
“.... well?”
“Oh, yes i-im fine,” Jon lied, unsuspiciously. “I- who are you? Where am i- whats-”
“woah , slow down. You're clearly injured badly. You're at the campgrounds of Camp Here and There. I am Sydney, one of the nurses. What’s your name?”
“Jonathan Sims- the archavi-” he paused, aware that giving his title could either mean nothing or lead to his death, “Jon.”
“I see…” Sydney paused for a moment before helping Jon up off the ground. “Well come on, we need to get you to the nurse’s office, you definitely aren't well.”
“I- there's someone i-i need to find. I… we came through a portal- i think- and I don’t know where he is.”
“We may know who you're talking about, I found another individual in the forest but he was too injured to say much so he’s resting. Come on.”
The nurse helped him back to the office and Jon promptly searched the room for Martin. Instead, he found a pathetic wet paper bag of a man lying down on a cot. This was not Martin. Who tf is that? Too tired to figure it out, he collapsed onto a cot opposite the stranger’s and was about to pass out when a name popped into his head. Arthur. He was suddenly very awake and now terrified. So I guess the eye can still reach me. Arthur, huh? He looked over at the stranger. Now very awake, he decided to go look for Martin. He hopped off of the cot and snuck his way to a back door. He was able to slip through unnoticed and made a mental note of the location of the cabin before heading off in the other direction. Where is he? The eye gave no answers because it’s an asshole, so he decided to just head towards where he woke up earlier. He was thinking back to the stranger as he walked. Arthur, the beholding said his name was. Jon wondered if he had appeared in this world the same way or if he actually belonged here. Either way, the beholding seemed fascinated with him… what was it? His eyes. Jon knew immediately. The ceaseless watcher was always intrigued with other’s eyes, but his seemed special, in a way. Powerful. Not Arthur’s eyes, the beholding told him. Well, who else could those eyes belong to? The king. The king? Who is that? John Doe.
He walked for a while longer, not entirely sure what this meant or who he was. In the moment, the only thing on his mind was finding Martin. He walked for a while in the mist, finding it harder to see with every step. The beholding did not appreciate this lack of visibility and started screeching like an annoying cat. He came across a clearing and a strange individual appeared before him. He was clad in a black suit, stained with blood, with a long flowing blonde ponytail, red circle glasses, and several necklaces. One of which was one of those crappy plastic bead necklaces they throw out at parades. Actually, now that he was looking closer, nearly all of the necklaces were one of the crappy plastic bead necklaces. Why did he have so many? He looked like a petty asshole, a “mean girls” type that would bully you in school, turn around, accidentally walk face-first into a locker with full confidence and still receive applause.
“Hello! :)” The ominous thing(?) smiled.
“... who are you?”
“Straight with the questions huh eyeball boy?” he grinned an unsettling grin that told Jon he was not a being to mess with. “The name’s-”
“Nylathotep.”
He paused for a moment, adjusting his glasses and the corners of his mouth twitching in either surprise or anguish, Jon couldn’t tell which.
“Who told you that?” the being asked after a moment.
“I- that's not important.”
“Well, you were technically correct, but I like to go by Kayne. It's more… catchy, ya’know?”
“I see. What do you want?”
“Not much. Here” he tossed a stone into Jon’s hands, smooth, sans the odd engraving on the side. “This too shall pass” he said in a booming theatrical voice like the little theatre kid failure he is.
“What is this?”
“Give it to a friend of mine, will you?”
The stranger disappeared into the air with a pop and Jon, still Martin-less, decided to keep looking.
“There you are!” The nurse, Sydney, came up to him with a look of disappointment. “I get that you may not want to be trapped in the cabin but you're hurt, and you're gonna stay there until you get better.” He ended his sentence with a stern note of finality.
Jon trudged behind him, staring at the stone which he had been given. Weird. After arriving back at the nurse’s cabin Jon looked up at the stranger, Arthur, and felt compelled to give him the stone. He decided to keep it for the time being, there was no telling what this object may be capable of.
“Like I said, we’ll get out of here soon enough but for now, I just want to rest. We’ve had a long day.” Arthur sat on his cot, seemingly talking to himself and making sweeping exasperated motions. His eyes seemed to move separately from his head, and darted around the room, taking everything in.
“Who are you talking to?” Jon realized what he had done only when it was too late.
“John, the eldritch being in my head.”
A moment of silence passed, and Jon noticed all the color drain from Arthur’s face.
“Wha- how?”
“I- I’m so sorry, I” Jon paused for a moment. “I forgot I can do that.”
Arthur looked up at him with horror and began fuming.
“How can you do that? What the fu-”
“I'm so sorry,” Jon looked like he was about to cry, “I- there's- it's a long story but… that's something I can- shit how do I explain this.” he paused for a moment. “I need to get better at not asking direct questions” he murmured, avoiding eye contact for possibly the first time in his life.
Arthur paused for a moment, his golden eyes staring at Jon. “Whatever the hell that was, never do that again.”
Jon paused for a moment, weighing the consequences of the decision he was about to make. He knew he should not use the powers of the beholding. But damn am I not curious? He thought to himself. After a moment, he came to a decision. Being a curious idiot, he continued to ask annoying questions like the little jerk he is.
“What happened before you arrived here?” His face turned stone cold and a cool breeze blew through the crack in the window. How convenient.
“I- We fell through a strange portal Kayne created and now we're stuck here.”
“That was… actually a very short and concise explanation… how odd.”
“Do you want me to go on a ramble about my life story or something?” he raised one eyebrow as if to mock Jon.
“Well, I mean… that usually happens in this scenario”
“Oh, boo hoo. You don't get any more of an explanation than what you pried out of my head.”
“Fair enough.”