It's Called Brand Loyalty

[westfallcorndog]

 "So, I got a question..."

Asking today is Harrowheart, who's wandering the Nexus' Downtown district puffing away at cigarettes and stopping at holiday stalls up and down the major streets. He leans over now and then to consider the merchandise on display, pensively looking over the goods with his arms folded behind his back and his hands rubbing at his chin or scratching his sideburns. But he doesn't buy anything – not yet anyway. 

"Should you change things about yourself to get what you really want outta life? Or should you always be the 'You' that comes most natural, and get whatcha get outta that?"

Comments

[outpostcook]

"Well! Didn't expect to see you out here!"

Kinner remembers Harrowheart from the conversation about penguin meat a while back, and waves hello. He was just checking out some of the stalls, not expecting to bump into anyone he knows. He's still a little intimidated by Harrowheart's appearance, but is also trying not to show it.

"Hello, Harrow. Nice to see you - I was just lookin' for possible gifts to give my friends." The small cook was after something there for a certain Greek titan, a blobby space alien, and a mechanic he'd befriended recently. "Hope you're doing well." He considers Harrow's question, not bothered by the cigarette smoke. It was a smell he was used to. "I reckon it's best to be true to yourself, but sometimes you do have to change yourself for other people. I ain't got the nicest personality, and I've been trying to work on that. I'm a businessman now. Gotta be professional."

[westfallcorndog]

Harrow chuckles quietly and nods toward the nearest booth. "Lookin' for some presents, too. Ain't easy on a budget, I tell ya what. Doin' well, though? I figure that's relative. I'm still dead." Another laugh, this one more sincere.

"You're a business man? What're you in the business of exactly?"

[outpostcook]

"I run a food cart. Kinner's Kippers - as you can tell by the name, it's a seafood place." Kinner can't help but smile, too. "It's the same for me, to be honest. I'm still dead, mysef. Can't do nothin' about that. But there's worse things than bein' dead, I reckon."

There isn't anything he can do about being dead, so he may as well live with it.

[westfallcorndog]

Harrow blinks in surprise and looks Kinner up and down. "You're dead?" he asks. "You look like a breather to me!" Talk of kippers can wait. This is big news!

[outpostcook]

"Yeah. I'm glad I look alive, myself." Kinner nods, a weak smile on his face. "My expedition ended badly. We unthawed an alien than we found in the ice. It was a shapeshifter - anything it ate, it could spit out a copy. So we were tryin' to find this creature in our camp. At some point there I was, milking a cow, and suddenly a blue tentacle wraps itself around me. Last thing I know, the cow's turning into a blue alien with red eyes, lookin' right at me s its skin starts fusing with mine."

[westfallcorndog]

Harrowheart pulls a face as he listens to this. How many times has he milked cows himself? Now he's imagining one of them turning into some sort of tentacled slime and consuming him. It's long after Kinner has stopped talking that Harrow realizes he's staring at him with a disgusted grimace.

"Cool."

He clears his throat and shakes his head and quickly clarifies, "I mean, not cool. Hell, Idunno why that just came outta my mouth. That's a real nasty way to die, man. I feel like I had it easy, bleedin' out." Harrow raises the handless stumps of his wrists.

"So, you, uh... Are you the alien, then, or?..."

[outpostcook]

"S'all right. I mean, it's not the way I woulda wanted to die, but at least it makes for a good story, huh?" The cook laughs, making it clear that there are no hard feelings. "You're dead, too? I guessed as much a while ago. Lotta dead folks in the Nexus."

Kinner isn't offended by the disgusted look, either. Hell, he completely understands - being assimilated and digested by the Thing was not a pleasant experience for him. He's glad he can't remember what happened that well.

"Nah, I'm not the alien. I'm still old Joe Kinner."

[westfallcorndog]

Kinner laughs and Harrowheart laughs too. As long as they're talking about death they might as well, after all! Then he elbows Kinner and says, "An alien would say he ain't an alien, wouldn't he?"

Then he gestures to himself and says, "I ain't just dead, I'm undead. Whole different kinda thing. Sounds like you probably got here by dyin', but I was dead and came back long before I wound up in this place. Shit like that'll happen on magic worlds like mine, though."

He nods at Kinner then and asks, "You met any other magical folk since you got here?"

[outpostcook]

"If I was a slimy shapeshifting alien with blue skin and red eyes, I figure that's the kinda thing I'd know about," Kinner replies, gently ribbing right back, hiding a real worry under a bad joke. He still doesn't know to what extent Things know they're Things, and to what degree Things could control themselves.

If a Thing didn't want to hurt anyone and stayed in human form, would it still be a Thing? But Kinner knows he's not a Thing, the Thing is back home in his world, pretending to be him.

"I've met you, of course. There was Alex, he was nice, and that guy with the cage on his head, who was weird. A couple gods, as well as people I think might be gods. There was a talking polar bear."

[westfallcorndog]

"Cage on his... Oh! That guy! Shit, you know what he did to us at Hallow's End? I figure not, you weren't round these parts for that. I'd tell ya if you wanna know? And if you don't I'll say this: Best be careful round that guy."

Mentions of the gods unnerve him. He starts to glance sidelong at Kinner, suspicious of what he says, but then he has to go and mention Ice Bear and Harrow can't help the little laugh that escapes him.

"I don't think the bear's magic. He's just a beastfolk! Y'know? There's tons of folks just like that back where I'm from. Seal folk, bear folk, cow folk. Even wolf-people, but only part time."

[outpostcook]

Kinner shakes his head, somewhat reluctantly remembering the Micolash incident. "Oh, you don't need to tell me to be careful 'round that guy. I thought he was tryin' to summon the alien that ate me right into the Nexus. I was scared half to death."

He doesn't know what Harrow's talking about with Hallow's End, but seeing what he did of the cage-headed man nothing would really surprise him anymore. Micolash genuinely scares Kinner, and not much does outside of the Thing.

"But I'm up for a scare. What did he do at Hallow's End? Now you've got me wonderin'."