A familiar voice, a terrible mistake, a parting glass...
Summary[]
Synopsis[]
In flashback, Dennis Collins, the Butcher, addresses the boy. He asks if the boy was old enough to hunt, and explains how his own father took him on a fox hunt, reminiscing about the tradition of the parting glass, and each of those glasses were made to look like animals. Dennis Collins had been handed a glass that was made to look like a lamb. They had toasted before the fox hunt had started.
In the present, John informs Arthur that this is a treeline up ahead and that he's seen something move. They discuss how they are still searching for the area that the Dollmaker had called the Hunt, and that had explored a two other regions with no success. They both worry that stumbling into the Butcher's eye-line, unaware of his presence, would be a lethal mistake.
John describes the forest more fully, noting that the trees are approximations, made of stone and without leaves. The two of them having been observing it from the relative shelter of a ditch, and John had spotted movement on a hill nearby, overlooking the woods. Arthur realizes that this hill would make a good hunting blind.
They reiterate that they do not plan to use the lighter on the Butcher, except as a last resort, because learning that the Butcher they've been sent to kill is the one that they had known would make the task of killing him much more difficult. They begin to approach, and Arthur briefly hears singing in the distance. John describes the hill as being made of metal and carved into it is the face of a wolf, but before anything more can be said, gunfire forces them to seek shelter in the trees.
They are quickly approached by a man with a french accent that calls them by the name Reynard. The man is oblivious to Arthur's attempts to convince him that he is not Reynard. He explains, somewhat incoherently, that they do not aim to kill, but instead to force their prey into the woods, and that there are two people that hunt here: the Butcher and the boy. The man introduces himself as Grimbard, and he has been in the woods for two days. He insists that they must wait, and that will keep them alive, and suggests that they do so in a nearby hole that Grimbard has dug. He warns that the Butcher and the boy have made many traps.
As they follow him, John notices that the hill has two faces, one of a wolf and one of a lamb, and both face the forest.
As they follow Grimbard, he stops and points out an old trap. A rope snare. Arthur wonders how the Butcher got the materials to make such traps.
Arthur also asks if anyone has tried to kill the Butcher. Grimbard warns that, in order to live, they must wait and hide. The Butcher and the boy only come down to kill and to set traps. People have tried to kill the Butcher when they have come down to do one of these tasks, but many have died that way. Grimbard further warns that the boy watches the Butcher's back, and he's only ever seen one time that the Butcher came down alone.
John notices an axe nearby, and Arthur realizes that it would make a better weapon than just the scalpel that they had been given by the Dollmaker. Grimbard realizes that by reaching for the axe, that Arthur has triggered a trap. Grimbard pushes them out of the way, but gets caught in the trap himself. Arthur offers to try to cut him free, but Grimbard insists that there is no time, directing Arthur to seek the hole and to leave him behind.
Arthur and John flee, but hide near enough to see what happens. John sees an older version of the Butcher than the one that they had known approach, in the company of a boy that John thinks may be a child version of the Butcher. He thinks that the way that the older Butcher is interacting with the boy is fatherly.
The two Butchers cut Grimbard down, and the older Butcher restrains Grimbard and hands over the knife to his younger counterpart, who stabs Grimbard to death while Grimbard is restrained. John and Arthur express regret for having triggered the trap that killed Grimbard. The older Butcher than marks the younger Butcher with a bloody handprint on his face.
John wonders if they should take this chance to follow the Butchers back to their camp on the hill, or if they should follow Grimbard's advice and hide and wait. Arthur decides that waiting is the wiser course of action, and they leave to seek Grimbard's hole to hide and wait.
In flashback, Dennis Collins talks about the fox hunt, and how exhilarating it was. He also adds that much of the hunt was waiting, and took a lesson to heart from the experience: waiting is your greatest advantage, to know when to take your shot, and the one who waits the longest is the one who wins.
In the present, Arthur and John have been waiting in the hole for many hours, with nothing much happening. To pass the time, Arthur points out that he has the easier job of the two of them, needing only to get comfortable and wait. John, meanwhile, has to act as look-out.
The conversation naturally turns to how this arrangement may soon be over, with Arthur noting that he no longer misses his sight and doesn't feel very impeded anymore. John encourages him that it should feel nice to be whole again, but Arthur feels that separating isn't likely to go the way that they want it to.
Their conversation is interrupted by movement, and John realizes that the Butcher has returned to reset the trap that they had sprung. John is unable to see the boy, so they begin to carefully and slowly try to sneak up on the Butcher. They get very close before Arthur steps on a twig and alerts the Butcher, who signals the boy back at the blind. Gunshots force Arthur to seek shelter in some nearby brush, where Arthur realizes that if he waits that the Butcher will have to try to flush him out, and he'll be able to attack when the Butcher is too close for the boy to shoot without risking hitting the Butcher.
Arthur taunts the Butcher, about how he seems to have adopted another version of himself, about how Arthur knows about the music he hears, about the Butcher's issues with his father, and calling him by his actual name: Dennis Collins. The taunting works, and the Butcher approaches. Arthur attacks, but the Butcher stabs him with a knife. In desperation, John tells Arthur to use the lighter. The lighter seems to confuse the Butcher, and it gives Arthur time to briefly get away.
As the Butcher recovers from the lighter, he recognizes Arthur and signals the boy to come down from the hill. The Butcher offers to help Arthur patch the stab wounds, and Arthur expresses confusion, knowing that the Butcher that he had known had died as a much younger man than this version. The boy approaches, and the Butcher requests bandages.
This version of the Butcher explains that when Arthur, Detective Noel and the Butcher had all gone to the Order of the Fallen Star together, Arthur had told Detective Noel to stay behind to take care of the Elder Things. Detective Noel had died, but the Butcher and Arthur had easily killed Larson, but in the chaos that had followed, the Butcher and Arthur had been separated. The Butcher eventually made it out of there, but he had never seen or heard from Arthur again. However, their meeting had had a lasting impact on the Butcher, who had decided to act as his own agent from then on.
The Butcher offers to bring Arthur back to their camp, to swap stories, and turns his back to Arthur. John realizes that they boy has also left the area, and forgotten the rifle, and insists that they need to kill the Butcher now. The Butcher remarks that it would be nice to have a friend again, and speaking about how the boy is a good lad, who the Butcher believes is shaping up to be just like him. He acknowledges that he's trying to be like the father he never had to the boy.
Arthur sneaks up on the Butcher with his back turned and slits his throat, and the Butcher bleeds out in front of them.
The boy returns and observes the scene, and when Arthur tells him that he can leave, the boy removes the supplies the Butcher had made him wear and departs. John believes that the boy was ultimately appreciative for their decision to kill the Butcher, who seemed to have kept the boy as a prisoner, and Arthur agrees.
They behead the Butcher and return to the Dollmaker.
In flashback, the Butcher addresses the boy, describing the end of the fox hunt, and how his father had encouraged him to be the one to kill the fox with a knife. The Butcher had brutalized the animal, and the men of the hunt and jokingly called him the Butcher for how badly the animal's body had been mangled. This was how the Butcher had gotten his taste for killing, and how he had gained the moniker he would use for the rest of his life.
At the Dollmaker's workshop, Arthur and John are greeted, and the Dollmaker is pleased with their acquisition of the Butcher's head. They take it from Arthur and place it in a jar of something called Weavewater.
They then reveal Arthur's new body, which they had made in Arthur and John's absence. They ask why Arthur needs a new body, and Arthur answers that they mean to leave the Dark World, and this is a requirement for doing so. The Dollmaker is pleased by this answer, as they had suspected that this might be the case, and had added features to the body which would make it well-suited to travel. The Dollmaker speculates that they've figured out some way to avoid the Hollow, which they elaborate to be an in-between realm where nothing ever happens, and which this body is not meant to travel to.
They reveal the new body, which John confirms is identical to Arthur's current appearance, and the Dollmaker remarks is identical down to 'almost the last detail'.
Arthur asks if this means that their transaction is concluded, and the Dollmaker confirms that it is, except for the business of putting Arthur in his new body. John thinks that it might be better to carry the new body back to Yorick, while the Dollmaker offers to supervise the process now, and warns that once they leave, they will consider the job done with no possibility of refunds, returns or further troubleshooting.
Arthur and John decide to take the Dollmaker up on their offer to help them into their new body. The Dollmaker collects bottles from their shelves and tells them that they need to get the organs warmed up before they're fully started, and then also gives Arthur something to drink that will put his organs to sleep, and more closely resemble the starting state of his new body. The Dollmaker comments on the challenge of creating a body that could hold two souls, and also notes the impossibility of Arthur surviving so many severe injuries. Arthur and John wonder if those were the Manager's doing.
Arthur drinks and begins to feel drowsy. The Dollmaker suggests that he lay down next to his new body.
In flashback, the Butcher continues his story, telling how the men on the fox hunt had taunted him with the title of the Butcher, and how he'd drank from his father's wine-skin, which contained a much stronger drink than wine, which caused him to become dizzy and to accidentally lick some of the fox's blood from his lips. He felt that when he arrived home, he'd be different, a new man.
In the present, John tries to keep Arthur awake, and the Dollmaker warns that the process of entering the new body will feel a little like a jump. Arthur slips out of full consciousness, apparently nearly ready to make the jump, and the Dollmaker assures John that he will follow Arthur.
With John alone, the Dollmaker asks what John and Arthur intend to do with Arthur's old body, and then asks if they can have it. John doesn't want to make the decision without Arthur, but the Dollmaker presses, reminding John that he is part of Arthur's body, and pointing out that it will be useless to Arthur and John afterward.
John decides against giving away Arthur's former body, and the Dollmaker is disappointed and annoyed by this response, finally deciding that they will just reclaim the body from wherever they bury it regardless of what John has decided.
Unexpectedly, Arthur begins to mutter something, which the Dollmaker says is not supposed to happen. Listening carefully, the Dollmaker realizes that he's saying "my favorite". Arthur wakes back up, as the workshop is damaged by an explosion. The Dollmaker is upset, seeing the state of the workshop, and realizes that there was a third soul inside Arthur's body that he had not disclosed. Believing that this was the point of Arthur being secretive, the Dollmaker tries to throw them out of their home. Arthur tries to beg for the new body anyway, and the Dollmaker destroys it, forcing them to leave empty-handed.
In flashback, the Butcher recounts that when he returned home, his father gave him the parting glass, which was shaped like a lamb, and that he was a good follower, just like the hounds. He went inside, where his mother had seen his face and warned him not to cry. He hadn't realized that he had been. At this point, he realized that the parting glass had been a toast to the fox, the one who didn't yet realize that they were already dead.
In the present, John tries to reassure Arthur that they don't know how long Kayne will wait, and that time moves very differently in the Dark World, so they may yet have time to try to convince the Dollmaker to make another body with enough time.
Arthur doesn't seem enthusiastic about this plan, but claims he's just shaking off the cocktail the Dollmaker had given him. Nonetheless they make their way back to Yorick who greets them immediately, and asks where Arthur's body is. They admit that they failed to get the body from the Dollmaker.
Yorick warns that this is unacceptable, because without that body, Arthur will be entirely removed from existence, and be unable to stop Kayne and prevent the waking of Azathoth. John begins to propose trying to wait out the Dollmaker's anger and trying again, but Yorick cuts him off to explain that they are out of time. John tries to argue, but Arthur interrupts to say that they don't need a plan, even as Yorick and John continue to argue over him.
Arthur finally shouts to get their attention, reiterating that they don't need a plan, and then saying that they have all that they need. John is confused, reminding Arthur that he still needs to have a body in order to leave. Arthur replies that he doesn't, but that John does. And then he asks if he correctly understands that if they move forward with Yorick's plan now, that Arthur will die, but John will escape from the Dark World in his own body as intended.
Yorick confirms Arthur's understanding. Arthur declares that they have all that they need, then, and Yorick goes to prepare, telling them to return to the spot where they first met him when they are ready.
John tries to stop Yorick, and to convince Arthur that this is insanity. John refuses to believe that he can do this without Arthur and doesn't want to. Arthur tells John that he has to, and then remarks on how far they've come, before finally replying to the realizations that he'd had about John's struggles with hating himself that had been revealed in John's eulogy of himself. Arthur apologizes for the role he might have played in that.
John gets increasingly distraught as he realizes that Arthur means to sacrifice himself so that John can go back alone to stop Kayne, even as Arthur tries to comfort him, and assure him that he isn't doing this because he wants to die, but because he wants John to live. John tries to convince him to keep fighting, but Arthur comforts him, recalling John's fears about how he'd stolen Arthur's eyesight in the eulogy and Arthur deciding that it wasn't stolen after all, but instead Arthur had gifted them to John.
They reach Yorick, who explains that they'll need to enter his mouth, along with the body of Hastur. John asks for a moment, and tells Arthur that he never wanted this from him, and tells Arthur how much he owes to him, all the things Arthur had shown him about vulnerability and love.
After a brief comment about their shared love of poetry, Arthur recites "Space and Dread and the Dark" by William Henley, which he thinks is apt for the moment.
John says he'll miss Arthur and Arthur remarks that he wishes he could hug John. John says that maybe Arthur can, and projects so that they can hug. John tells Arthur that he loves him.
Yorick warns that since they will be separate, he can't guarantee where John will end up, and with Yellow still alive, he's not sure how John will feel or how much he'll remember. John is confident that he'll remember.
Yorick instructs Arthur to pick up the body of Hastur and walk towards the mouth, and assures that it will be over quickly. Arthur thanks Yorick for everything, and Yorick thanks Arthur in return. John notes that it is so bright. Arthur begins to weep, telling John to enjoy it all. John assures Arthur that he will, and that he has.
In flashback, the Butcher tells the boy that there's someone coming from the east, and that the boy should get the gun. He tells the boy that they want them in the woods and alive for now. He assures the boy that they've got all the time in the world, and that the man approaching is a dead man, he just doesn't know it yet.
Votes[]
- Chapter 276: Follow [189] / Hide [234]
- Chapter 277: Kill The Butcher [257] / Do Not Kill The Butcher [241]
- Chapter 278: Enter The Body Now With The Dollmaker's Help [252] / Take The Body And Head Back To Yorick [185]
- Chapter 279: Give The Body To The Dollmaker [64] / Do Not Give The Body To The Dollmaker [279]
- Chapter 280: No vote.
