Arthur "Artie" James Harrington is a recurring character in the InCryptid series. He is cousin to series narrators Verity, Alex, Antimony, and Sarah, although the relationship to Sarah is only by adoption.
About[]
Appearance[]
Average height and weight, with the build of someone who works out because he has to, not because he enjoys it. Brown hair, brown eyes, a sweet and kind smile.[1]
Personality[]
Artie has one of the most soothing minds Sarah knows. His pheromones taste floral to Sarah and he adores his Camaro. He is a fan of the Fast and Furious franchise.
Artie hates Sarah doing math telepathically in his head and (like Sam) the Happy Banana Song.
Abilities[]
Being an incubus, Artie produces pheromones that attract anyone who is attracted to men, except for blood relatives or members of species incapable of breeding with Lilu (like Johrlac or Aeslin mice). To counteract this, he wears very strong cologne whenever he has to leave the house. He also has empathic abilities, allowing him to know what someone is feeling.
When forced into weapons training, Artie prefers the use of guns. Alice says he has "potential" as a marksman, which is a high compliment from her.[2]
Professional Life[]
Artie lives at home in parents' basement, mostly out of fear that his incubus abilities will influence the people around him. He is the family's tech and forgery guru.
Biography[]
In high school, Artie took life drawing classes for a while to try to learn how to socialize with people. He was worried about affecting girls with his pheromones, so he mostly took classes with male models. According to Verity, this made his mom think he might be gay (though Elsie had already come out, so if Artie was gay he would have told his family already).[3]
In the Series[]
Singing the Comic-Con Blues[]
Antimony and Sarah convince Artie to attend Emerald City Comic-Con with them. Officially, they are going to hunt down a problematic cryptid. Unofficially, they want to get him out of the basement and to have a good time. Sarah uses her telepathy to keep people's attention off of Artie.
IM[]
Artie messages with Sarah while she's recovering from her injury.
Survival Horror[]
Artie and Annie are pulled into a cursed video game made by a vindictive cuckoo.
Imaginary Numbers[]
Artie is torn when Sarah arrives in Portland, upset that she appeared with no warning after years of keeping him at arm's length. They quickly work past it and finally admit their feelings for each other. When Sarah is kidnapped by the cuckoo hive, Artie teams up with his cousins to get her back.
Calculated Risks[]
Sarah accidentally wipes all memories of herself from Artie's mind, along with her other allies. Artie is hit hardest by this loss, as Sarah has always been his best friend and confidant. He struggles reconciling his memories of self-isolation and agoraphobia with the knowledge that it was partially due to Sarah's friendship giving him less incentive to put himself out in the world.
When they return to Earth, Artie's mind is completely wiped: a blank slate. Sarah pieces back together his memory and very being using memories of his life from her own mind and that of all his loved ones. When he wakes up, they embrace.
The Mysteries of the Stolen God and Where His Waffles Went[]
A year after his return to Earth, the aftereffects of Sarah's restoration of Artie's mind, which James considers to have been a "brute-force reprogramming job"[4] are beginning to show. Artie suffers from "stretches of absence" similar to a waking coma, which are becoming more common. Elsie seems to avoid physical contact with him, although James is not sure why.
No One Leaves for Good[]
Arthur (not Artie, as his new personality insists) accompanies his sister and parents to the Price Family Compound for the reunion with Alice and Thomas. Elsie is very uneasy around him.
Relationships[]
Sarah Zellaby[]
Artie and Sarah have been close since they first met, and this eventually turned into love. However, neither of them believed the other felt the same way about them, and so it took them until Imaginary Numbers to admit it to each other.
Elsie Harrington[]
Elsie loves her little brother, and considers him to be "dead" after the events of Calculated Risks. She does not regard the "new Arthur" as her brother, but a stranger wearing her brother's corpse.[5]