PC CATCHALL WITH NERO

[greatdeduction]

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[greatdeduction]

...And why not?

[perfectdistance]

I wonder what ya think.

[greatdeduction]

...

I'm too tired to make deductions today, my dear fellow. [He looks down at his whiskey glass.] You don't feel you deserve it, perhaps?

[perfectdistance]

Somethin' like that.

[After betraying a partner, what hope is there? Nobody should put their trust in him.

It's safer to keep people at a distance.]

[greatdeduction]

...I'm a liar, a cheat, and someone who ruined a friend's trust of me by inadvertently hurting his loved one.

[...]

From what even little I know of you...you're better off than I in the "you deserve it" department.

[perfectdistance]

[So that's what that meeting was about.]

You barely know me. 'n that's on purpose.

[greatdeduction]

Haha.

[A wink.]

Same with me, Mr. Turner. How odd, to find similarities through such circumstances.

[perfectdistance]

It's all strange here, ain't it?

Easier when people don't know you. Or at least, only as much as you want them to see.

[greatdeduction]

Oh, certainly. I've perfected the art at pretending to be myself.

[whatever that means]

I hardly want anyone to look behind the curtain. And yet people have. So troublesome. So...vulnerable.

[perfectdistance]

I'm not as good at pretendin' as I wish I was.

Do ya regret letting people in?

[greatdeduction]

...

I've only let two people in, during my entire life. Not even my daughter knows all of me. Knows everything I keep. [...] I don't regret it, no. But I do regret when I let people see the human being behind the detective, sometimes. It's never as perfect as people expect it is.

[perfectdistance]

[...]

There's no such thing as a perfect person, Mr. Sholmes.

Only one person thought he knew me.

[greatdeduction]

A great detective has to be perfect.

[...]

But I guess he didn't? Not really.

[perfectdistance]

Accordin' to who?

He knows me better than most. But not as well as he used to.

[greatdeduction]

Me, of course. Everyone. I'm a world-famous figure, of course, with my adventures known the world over.

[He has to be.]

I'm assuming he did something that he expected you would approve of, but you didn't.

[perfectdistance]

That doesn't mean you gave up the right to fuck up.

[He takes a long sip of his whiskey.]

No. He's always been the kinda person who does what he wants to. Regardless of what other people say.

[greatdeduction]

No, I did. If I make a mistake, people are hurt. People are killed. As one saw earlier...if I dig too deep, people can be wounded, and that hurts more in the process. There's too much at stake.

[Another sip of his whiskey.]

Ah. So...he didn't fully consider you in that.

[perfectdistance]

[There is something fucked up about that, but Nero can't really make him feel any better.

He lets it go.]

...

[Maybe it's just because of what he saw in the miasma and some prodding from others.]

I told him to stop comin' back almost dead. Didn't listen to me at all.

[greatdeduction]

[Yeah, great detectives are messed up! Who would've thought!]\

...Oh. [And a sad sort of frown.] That would take a toll, yes.

[perfectdistance]

[we need a therapist so bad]

Watched him do it for hundreds of years.

I couldn't take it anymore.

[greatdeduction]

Hundreds of years...?

[Wow.]

I don't blame you, quite honestly.

[perfectdistance]

I had to watch him die down there in the miasma.

'n I know it ain't really him but... it's still my worst nightmare come to life.

[greatdeduction]

...

[His expression darkens.]

This place sees fit to mentally tear us down. It is easy to say it isn't real. But it feels real, all the same.

[perfectdistance]

Brad's not that stupid. His weapon is a rifle, he'd never run straight into a monster. He knows damn well how to keep distance.

[It wasn't him.

The hurt is real, but it wasn't him.]

[greatdeduction]

...You have to keep telling yourself that. The senses may be fooled.

The heart can't be.