"Well, at least we won’t starve to death tonight. We'll survive on stubbornness and anxiety! And maybe some of the mushrooms I didn't already eat. Don't get your hopes up though because I may have eaten a lot of them. Don't tell Meg though, she still thinks it was Jake."
The Entity never really followed the survivors back to the campfire before. It was strange, sitting by warmth of the crackling wood rather than observing them from above. Lilith was spacing out as she gazed at the flames, all the while the Entity tended to its needs elsewhere while it contemplated on how its puppet could slip away from the group. Thankfully it could multitask, even if having a conscious open to Lilith was distracting. There seemed to be no good option to take her away without alerting them, but if it needed to, it could abandon her for the time being as though she was asleep. Unfortunately, her pulse would be nonexistent if they checked on her. That would be suspicious. It would be suspicious if she just faded away into the fog, too. What a bother.
His voice grabbing its attention, Lilith turned her head to him and tilted it to the side. Ah,Dwight, he was such a silly one. Certainly one of the most unusual mortals that have been drawn into its realm, and there had been many.
At his rambling, Lilith let out a quiet chuckle. Although a smile was on her face, there was no hiding those cold, dead eyes. The Entity would never be able to fabricate a living being to perfection. She only briefly held eye contact before her gaze returned to the fire.
“Right, it was Jake… Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”
When it comes to the distinction between perfect perception and absolute obliviousness, Dwight couldn’t comfortably claim either focus. Sure, he could detect the unease settling over the camp like a miasma, and he could tell his teammates were more tense than they usually were while crowded around the comforts their campfire had to offer after yet another night of horrors narrowly avoided, but when it comes to identifying the cause of the subtle change in the air, he’s at a loss for logic--locked into a stalemate between the obvious and what his eyes inevitably relay to his senses. Perhaps it’s her? A new face often ruffled the feathers of his flock; Nea’s had. Arguably, their new Swedish companion still managed to ruffle his formal-wear feathers, but he’s come to the conclusion that it’s partially his own fault for letting her push him around and lead him out of lockers by the nose after she’d squared off with the others and found them less inclined to listen to her uncouth style of reasoning complete with both of her shoes slung at the back of his head. Compared to Nea’s crass integration, the woman settled by their fire had done little than nursing a chilly disposition, and if that meant she had more to answer for than what her fair features entailed, then Dwight would have to pull a public display of jazz hands in Jake’s direction just to illustrate the differences in temperament temperatures between all of them as individuals. That’s fair enough, right? His relaxed opinion on the stranger’s frosty stare has little to do with him finding her...natural assets naturally unalarming, right?
Flinching as she twists her head to not meet his gaze, but drill through it--as if she were looking through him, Dwight offers the newcomer a hesitant smile. It’s not like he isn’t used to people completely tuning out his presence; usually, he even wanted them to if it meant avoiding a confrontation that could very well end with him forcibly crammed into an office cabinet for the sake of bets placed with lifesaver mints in his old job’s communal candy dish. Not so long ago, he’d probably stuff himself into the cabinet to avoid confronting a face like hers on the basis he knew little of holding conversations with a Goddess once trapped in the glossy cover of a Glamour magazine. When had he washed his hands in the creek, exactly? Oh wait, they’re only soaked in his sweat.
“Gee, thanks. Besides Claudette, I think that makes you the only other person here who wouldn’t sell me out in a heartbeat.” He can’t trust Meg or Nea as far as they can throw him, and Jake...well--Jake seemed to derive a passive pleasure from sticking his leg out in the way of a sensitive issue just to watch everyone stumble over it and into each other. Dwight breathes a sigh of relief as he manages to join her on the log without tripping over it into the fire. Pausing to judge their stock of firewood from a safe distance, he plops an even safer distance from his company for the night and gives his cheek a sheepish scratch--mostly to hide the furtive glances he sends her. “Sorry if everyone seems a bit--uh...inhospitable tonight? Sometimes it takes them a while to adjust. I know it might feel like you’re part of the problem, but...as the real problem around here, I can guarantee you aren’t.”