slightlyoffchilt | - IC CONTACT POST FOR MASKORMENACE -

Ah -- would your inner social circle not take well to your psychiatric treatment, or is this simply more a personal matter?

[Chilton had yet to delve into Peter's current socialized acquaintances; he had been so invested in the twists and turns of the Petrelli clan. Angela, in particular, was a complicated figure, as Chilton believed that he had detected some mixed loyalty despite her problematic mothering.

Perhaps Peter's imPort contacts ought to be the next topic of conversation. While Peter wasn't a hermit, he quite clearly tried to keep to himself -- mostly for reasons winding back to Sylar, it seemed.]

Regardless, I'm glad we're at an understanding.

[ Oh, well, actually- that seems like a valid question, all things considered. Though, Peter's pretty sure he doesn't have much of an inner circle to speak of, he's made it rather easy on himself to keep it from being a topic he comes close to bringing up. Because he doesn't need that kind of help, he is perfectly sound. ]

I don't know how they'd take it. Depends on the person, I guess.

[ Out of what like, three people, Peter? But he clears his throat. He would kind of like to speak to someone he doesn't necessarily have to hold his shit together with. If he'll let himself. Maybe. ] But yeah, I've gotten to the understanding part.

I'd like to discuss those dependable persons, then. [Chilton likes a little wordplay, and he certainly won't spare his patients from it.] If that is all right with you? I think, given how much we have conversed about your past, now would be a vital transition into discussing your future. Especially -- [Chilton exhaled, lightly.]

Well. There was that recent address to the Network, wasn't there?

[Sylar. Always Sylar.]

[ Except no one's actually all that dependable, though he sees what you did there well enough. He pauses for more than a few seconds, trying to restrain the urge to say "You got it wrong," but he finally exhales a gust of a breath. Don't do it, Peter. Don't self combust. ]

Sure, why not. But Sylar doesn't have anything to do with people in my inner circle. [ Not true. He always comes up in conversation; Peter hates it. ]

He's not a part of this one. He just always has to have something to say.

He doesn't?

[Light, airy skepticism. Chilton wouldn't push his thumb to this wound too harshly, too quickly. Not right now, not without Peter under some alcoholic influence. But Chilton wanted to express his angle, for the appearance of transparency at least.]

I might be more convinced once we examine your connections. Play a little six degrees, you know. It would do well to trace a mental outline, at least, so we can anticipate problems.

I believe you, when you say how dangerous he is.

[ He's not going to comment on that one because silence is enough of an answer - no, he does not. Sylar isn't part of his inner circle in the way that... oh- Those other people are. Those other people. Whoever those people are.

Though really, Peter's not even contemplating the alcohol much. ]

Sure, why not. Should I bring paper? We could draw a flow chart. [ Okay that was a touch snarky, but he's more tense about things than he would like to be. ]

A flow chart. [Chilton repeats that with a smile -- he found the banter rather charming. Snark was his dialect, after all, and it was rare for patients to exhibit some sass without the usual fanged hostility.]

Probably won't be necessary. I think we could manage it more abstractly.

-- And in the vein, off the top of your head, do you know the personality types that Sylar is attracted to? Power being a given.

Only helped with liquor, i'm guessing. [ But okay wait what, that's a sudden conversational shift. Unless Peter missed the marker somewhere, he's left actually thinking over the question instead of desperately trying to ignore it just to be a pain in the ass. ]

You mean apart from people he can control. Manipulate. The obvious. He likes people who're like him. People who he can make like him. [ Peter stop. ] Also likes thinking he's part of a family. [ Peter no. ]

But that- [ .. well shit. Listen to that silence. ] -that's different.

[Make like him. That sentence alone stills Chilton for the moment -- that behavior, encapsulated within a singular sentence, paralleled the most dangerous aspect of Hannibal Lecter. Chilton felt uneasy as his perspective concerning Peter's foe trembled. Was that but an outlier parallel, or was Peter simply Sylar's Will Graham?]

Different, how?

[Chilton's voice was more a whisper that this point. Sylar likes thinking he's part of a family. If there was any doubt that Chilton had been underestimating Sylar through denying the Lecter mirroring, that evaporated at Peter's final assertion.]

Does he want you as his family? And in what sort of role?

[It all came back to Peter. He was the obsession point, the first dot to connect along Sylar's mindscape.]

It just is.

[ Because it's worse than that and Peter knows it. The things he doesn't like sharing, the cruelest things of all - empathizing with Sylar to the point of the strongest kind of connection, the thing Peter was horrified by, the only ability he'd needed badly enough yet desperately wanted to be rid of.

But this is his least favorite conversation, nearly as bad as anything regarding Adam. That time when everything collided and Nathan would have left him for dead. And yet he'd told it before, he could tell it again.]

Look, we were- my parents told us we were brothers for awhile. Not just because they could, the had their own agendas, but- [ But Sylar changed and Peter knows it. It's the one thing he'd really like to say; Sylar saved his life and the fact that Peter still wants him dead makes him a reprehensible human. And he knows it. He just wants to say it, for once, to someone, to anything that's listening that it was more complicated than he could stand, but it was inescapable. ]

And I took Sylar's ability for awhile, I used to be an empath, but it's not as simple as that. There's a reason behind all of it, it didn't just happen. It's not like I wanted it.

[Peter took Sylar's power -- for awhile. Borrowed it, perhaps. And Sylar appeared to define himself by his power; it wasn't a difficult leap of logic to see how dangerous an empath with such physical involvement could become. After all, hadn't Will enacted something similar, albeit in the abstract recesses of his mind? No powers involved, just feeling and thought and bloodshed. Peter was remarkably like Will, and Chilton (of all people!) understood how unique a relationship between oneself and that friend/foe dynamic could be. Empathy was a disease.]

Your parents routinely lied to you.

[Reciting the stated fact. This observation took a serious tone.]

It's little wonder why you would want to find familial meaning elsewhere. Am I to assume that this specific emotional impulse is something shared between yourself and Sylar?

[Did anyone know of Sylar's childhood? His upbringing? Perhaps only Peter could source that information.]

[ It's a fact, sure, but Peter can't help jumping on the bandwagon to further emphasize it. An opportunity to complain about his family nowadays is near golden. ] My parents are full of shit and so is my brother. That's never exactly been news to anyone, even if Nathan always gets the benefit of the doubt.

[ It's not said angrily, just matter-of-factly (despondently), and for a few seconds, Peter even thinks the Sylar topic's been dropped. That he doesn't have to explain what happened or what would've happened or how he got Sylar's ability so desperately- so different from all the rest. It was all so complicated and while telling bits and pieces was effective, it barely began to got to the true core of the matter. It just happened to require a hell of a lot of words Peter didn't much feel like sharing. ]

And sure, maybe. Sylar likes having a family, he's different when- [ It's like a rushing sound in his head, and Peter wants to plug his ears so he can drown out the words he'd been halfway inclined to say. Words he'd rather not exist and he'd rather put so far up on the top shelf that no one might actually see. ]

Do we have to keep talking about this right now?

[Close. They were so close. Chilton took an ample pause, restraining himself, along with his intrigue. He needed to keep perspective, to push Peter in that more fruitful direction -- and yes, while that would inevitably involve Sylar, that man didn't have to infect every single step of the way. Sylar wasn't the compass arrow.

Another motivation needed to assume that role for Peter.]

We don't -- you're correct, we're getting ahead of ourselves.

[So calming, so cooling a tone. He spoke with an intended balm.]

It's just rather easy to engage these tangents with you, Peter. You're so receptive, you really know how to flow a conversation.

[He's different when. That was a tempting hook, and Chilton made note to return to that singular phrase. He's different when.]

I'll meet you shortly, shall I? That prophesied drink probably sounds delightful right about now.

Receptive?

[ Peter's somewhat foreign when it comes to compliments - feigned or otherwise - which is only partially why he's surprised by the proverbial pat on the head. He's not sure what to make of it or even how to respond, considering the idea of knowing how to make a conversation flow seems like something he'd be told he's rather terrible at.

Especially considering that as of late his talking-people-up skills have fallen into the shitter. But Peter, for what it's worth, has always been almost a small sucker for compliments from an interested - engaged - party. Someone who seems to want something from him. Even if it's just words.

So he doesn't make too grandiose of a fuss, merely sounding confused for a few seconds before he clears his head with a shake, momentarily forgetting about Sylar. ]

Right. Yeah, sure. I'll be there.

You know -- you listen. High praise, coming from a psychiatrist. It's a valued trait.

[After all, listening was a layered art, as it involved comprehension and deduction. There was no passivity to the ability, Chilton would argue. So many of his patients didn't listen, and he found that they suffered for it.]

See you then.

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