The Calm Before The Storm

[outpostcook]

 Something's been bothering Kinner. There's a visible unhappiness in the little cook's expression, even beyond his usual gruff attitude. He sits in the Plaza, thinking, for once not manning his fish shop. He's going after the Thing soon, and he's not completely sure what to make of that. He knows exactly how dangerous the alien is. Even if the Thing where he'll be going isn't exactly the same creature, it's close enough. In some ways, it sounds even worse. But he can't give up with lives on the line.

He's got a better idea of what to expect than most, but that's a small comfort. After all, the Thing incapacitated and devoured Kinner alive, without much of a fight. This time he'll be better armed and better prepared, but still. He's not exactly thrilled about facing the creature, even with help. And, he realizes with a hint of sickness, he'll be putting his new friends in danger, too.

Kinner, when push comes to shove, isn't scared to look death in the face, and it's Palmer's world, but it's everyone else he's afraid for. Horvath. Alex. Blaze and Ghost. Prometheus. Cricket. Cricket most of all, since the others have magic or other quirks to protect them. Cricket doesn't. Kinner would rather he die than Cricket.

At the very least, he won't make an easy meal this time.

"Have you ever had somethin' you didn't want to do," he finally asks, voice trembling a little, "but you had to do it anyway? Were you scared?"

Comments

[outpostcook]

"It sounds dangerous." Kinner doesn't have a great history with shapeshifters of a Thing vein, and the idea of losing his sense of self frightens him badly. Kinner's greatest fear after his encounter with the Thing is losing his humanity. "I ain't a sorcerer, but I kinda like bein' plain old Joseph Kinner. Will say it's interesting to hear about, and you've got a lot more practice than I have, of course. I dunno much about magic at all. Your shapeshifting sounds very different than whatever it is that the Thing does." As far as Kinner knows, the alien needs to kill a human being or an animal to take their form. He doesnt have a great sense of how it works, but that much was clear.

"I just find it amazing that Merlin and King Arthur and all those folks were apparently real people. I grew up thinking they were just stories. Seems like they're a lot more than just that, at least in my world." The whole multidimensional concept still confuses Kinner, who isn't a scientist, but he's slowly getting used to the concept.

If he ever gets a message back to his world he'll see if he can talk Norris into a visit. He is a physicist.

[bitterguardian]

“It’s very dangerous, but very different from what you’ve described of this other creature, yes.” Horvath isn’t sure quite how that works, either, although if he thought about it at great length he could come up with some solid biological theories. That’s not his current train of thought, though.

“I’m afraid there are many alterations of details, over the centuries, even in my own world. I’ve heard stories of Merlin that don’t sound a bit like the man I knew. There’s far less I can say about Arthur. He was a busy king, when I was a boy, and had little to do with us apprentices. When I did go along on business to wherever he happened to be, I was instructed to make myself useful and keep out of the way.” He doesn’t sound bitter about it, and maybe a little wistful, just because he’s talking about his own long ago boyhood.