This is Milton August, modelling for Boston artist Richard Upton Pickman. It's not going well. Milton is sitting on a splintery box, pretending to eat a cheap doll, buck-naked and feeling stupid. The cellar's too close to the surface; Milton can't help thinking of the terrible infinite sky a few thin meters of earth and masonry above him. The artist's sketches are creeping him out as well; Milton knows nothing about art, but he knows what he doesn't like.

RUP is being hard to please. "What's that expression meant to be? I'm asking for Obscene Unearthly Appetite, you give me Disney Character With Bag-Lunch! If you can't look eldritch, try and look something other than goofy! Can you at least drool?... Oh, more than that! A louse wouldn't drown in that! Yogsuthoth-In-A-Can, what's wrong with you?"

Milton is on the verge of quitting, but he knows he won't. Pickman's a jerk, but a charismatic jerk, and Milton has never been strong of will. A few years from now, Milton will be fighting Moonbeasts in the Dreamlands to help one of Pickman's pals on some silly private quest, and wondering what the heck is wrong with him.

More on Pickman here, and a full account of the quest here.