Cloud City: A Podfic Series

Parker touches his cheek. “Few more days. I’ll make them good.” “Good?” says Arthur, very tiny. “I just want to hurt John.” “You will.” Parker’s tone is vicious. “But you don’t have to hurt, too. Come on. I’ll treat you like a king until it’s time—and when it is time, it won’t fucking hurt. You have my word.” It’s a lie. Arthur knows it’s a lie. He sniffles. “Okay.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/...

You are taking the biggest fucking risk. “The biggest fucking risk, Hastur, was choosing to trust you after I learned what you did.” Hastur is silent. “I still hate you for it,” Arthur says. “But… I trust you. I’m making that choice. And now, I need you to make that choice, too.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He feels Hastur on his lips and under his tongue, behind his eyes and so very careful not to knock Arthur out of his own body because if he is too much himself, he would. And then it’s gone, and Arthur is gasping, and somehow on his knees, and the bugdog is licking his face with concern and making weird little whimpering buzzing sounds. “Got a kiss after all,” he blurts, laughs weakly, and hangs h...

Parker , thinks Arthur, because it is Parker, because Parker’s never been nice , and after today’s little episode they were over , but he was a detective, he’d solved murders, he was one of the good guys, and now— Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“You fuck,” Arthur says quietly, again not recognizing his own voice. “How could you do this to me?” Hastur sighs. You can be so smart, sometimes. And others… it’s like you’ve pulled the plug on your own intelligence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sit, witch. It’s the Defiler.   And oh, Asenath’s face. She already looks tired. Now, at these words, she goes dead pale, making her stubble stand out, making the kohl around her eyes seem bruisingly dark. “Oh,” says Asenath, and falls into her chair as though unplugged from her power source. “Well, that sucks.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why did it have to be his eyes? Funny; he hadn’t expected the blindness. Of all the horrors he’d imagined, prepared himself for prior to his Contract, he really hadn’t thought his sight would go first. That felt like being trapped, somehow. It felt like being cheated. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Parker eyes him. “Do you have any control over him at all??” “Funny,” says Arthur. “Asenath said that to him about me .” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Feeling like prey isn’t new, but it is terrible. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Don’t suppose you know who the King in Yellow is.” I do. “Wh- you do? Who? What is he?” An Esoteric. A true god , Hastur says . Mighty; ancient and wise. He goes by many names. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Maybe he is just tired. Maybe it’s just the horror of finally losing body parts, which is normal for a Contract, but… he hadn’t, all this time. Maybe it was the speed of it all, or the sudden, weird betrayal from the being he’d come to trust over the last five years. It still seems like a fair deal to him. But when had he started viewing Hastur as… more? Trustworthy, at least? Maybe a friend? Arth...

That growl again. I saw something, Arthur. I saw something with that second body that we need to follow up. Arthur frowns. “Okay. We’ll go after it tomorrow, when I’m released.” Am I going to have to take over? Hastur says, and it is a threat. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You could put it off until we’re inside. I wouldn’t want to use you up too fast tonight. “No, I can’t risk missing anything. Do it.” As you wish. And then that familiar pain, the burning power of sharing his nerves and his brain and his eyes, and it’s always too much, always so much , and he stands still and breathes steadily and waits for the worst of it to pass. In the beginning, he’d lose preci...

The Trailer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.