PC CATCHALL WITH NERO

[greatdeduction]

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[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.

[perfectdistance]

The heart, huh?

[Nero doesn't even know if he loves him anymore. But he certainly doesn't want him to die.]

He's not here anyway. It can't be real.

[But the warmth of his voice, the pride in his eyes-

...

Bradley shouldn't look at him like that.]

[greatdeduction]

It isn't.

Keep the mind of the real thing in your mind, and...keep that, over anything else. [A sigh.] And if it pains you, then put him in the back of your mind, and focus on the road ahead.

[...]

I did that for ten years. Letters were only so much. But even that was enough, some days.

[perfectdistance]

[Put the thought of him away. Because it hurts, because Nero was the one who made it hurt-]

I did that for a century, 'n he showed back up one day. Real good at bein' inconvenient.

[greatdeduction]

Oh, goodness. He tracked you down?

[perfectdistance]

Neither of us meant to. Some shit happened and now we're stuck in each other's lives 'til one of us dies.

[greatdeduction]

...What?

[HUH]

Is this...a wizard thing?

[perfectdistance]

[ SIGHS HEAVILY. ]

You've seen the mark on my arm. I'm a Sage's Wizard, and so is he.

And we're stuck like that until we die and somebody else has to replace us.

[greatdeduction]

...

[WHAT IS THIS. MAGICAL BINDING MARRIAGE THING]

So you're fully and totally bound to one another? There's really no way to break it besides...death?

[perfectdistance]

[NERO MADE IT SOUND THAT WAY. BY ACCIDENT.]

We're stuck with the responsibility of stoppin' the moon from destroyin' the world.

There's no getting out of it.