While Erikson seemed leery of Khalid’s proposal, which the would-be therapist more or less expected, he at least offered to spread the word, which was all Khalid really needed of him. He offered his fellow man a grateful nod, then let him off the hook to go and handle Rebecca’s papers. Their dynamic was such that the two of them could never really have a normal conversation. One merely imposed upon the other until the other could scurry away. That hardly bothered Khalid, though, as long as Erikson did his job. Compared to her worrywart associate, Theria seemed more enamored with the idea, even if she was simply making a professional effort to be polite. Even if the two essentially said the same thing, the manner of speech made all the difference; one’s assurance could easily be interpreted as disingenuous placation, whereas the other implied considerate appreciation. For her graciousness Khalid offered the gorgon an affable smile and respectful bow of the head. “You’re very welcome, Miss Lasthena.” Recommendations from well-connected, well-liked, and generally trusted individuals like these two carried a lot more weight than the word of an unusual stranger like him–as Holloway’s response a moment later aptly demonstrated.
The veteran regarded Khalid with thinly veiled distrust, a subtle, half-imagined menace in -or behind- her eyes. Now that her aloof, thousand-yard stare lay on him directly, Khalid found her gaze rather intense. Staring at the sun was bad enough without it staring back, burning him away layer by layer in order to ascertain his true intentions. Since Holloway couldn’t actually peel him like an onion, though, she could only make assumptions about him, very few of them favorable. People tended to be most uncharitable the moment they deduced that someone wanted something from them, and the soldier looked down on him like she might some grifter in a back-alley bazaar. Her condescension rankled Khalid, though he kept his expression restrained to one of polite disappointment. He’d barely said anything, so why treat Shoggoth Therapy like a trick? Well…that was rather the point of it, admittedly, but how would she know?
“As you wish,” Khalid told her without any edge to his voice. “Though ‘wants’ have nothing to do with one’s duty, hm?” Before any healing could begin, they would need to earn one another’s trust, and that began with respect. Maybe she could relate to someone else who’d endure unpleasant truths in their line of work, earning him a modicum of respect. Or maybe, since she saw herself as protecting others from her past for their own good, his willingness to gaze into that abyss would be seen as a challenge. Either way, he didn’t plan to push any harder, but Khalid figured it wouldn’t hurt to say something.
Not long after that, more monsters began to come out of the woodwork. A strange procession passed through that consisted of a auricomous fox and a scarlet-haired girl with a rather commanding presence. The multiple tails of the former and the unblinking incandescent eyes of the latter suggested that there was more to them than met the eye, and to someone in the know, the truth was stranger than fiction. They were Miss Yumeiko and Miss Ryu, a fox spirit and a red dragon, respectively. Together they made an odd pair, considering whose company Yumeiko typically kept, and the dragon’s excitement suggested that they were up to something as they headed toward the courtyard. Before Khalid could guess what, though, another woman came the opposite way: Iris Madril, one of the condos’ more infamous werewolves. And judging by the tattered state of her clothes, she’d just concluded another one of her episodes.
It was starting to get a little too crowded around here for Khalid’s liking, so as Iris pulled up, the eruditionist veered away. Better to make himself scarce before ‘the wolf’ decided to eat anything else. Of course, eating a Shoggoth was a suicidal idea in theory, since it would not so much get digested as digest and assimilate its host from within, but the cryptozoologically-challenged couldn’t be trusted to know that, so he stood to lose a great deal to an impulsive, ignorant chomp. Still, Iris’s situation was interesting, especially to an armchair psychologist like Khalid. To him, it seemed that as long as she mentally divided herself into two beings -the woman and the wolf- each would oppose and impede the other. If both halves accepted the other, maybe the werewolf could become more than the sum of her parts. Hopefully word of Shoggoth Therapy would reach her ears.
For now though, Khalid left the building and ventured out into the ordinary world. He would have to trust Erikson, Theria, and his poster to advertise his new practice, as he had too much to do today to stand around and solicit storytellers himself. Classes, meetings, and errands would demand a decent chunk of his time for today. Still, he kept his phone on hand in case anyone called to schedule an appointment, checking it almost as often as he checked on the Shoggoth in his satchel. Things were already getting interesting, and the day had only just begun.
