A devout communist, Fyodor lived in an austere one bedroom apartment in a grey building that was built during the 1970s. The elevator in the building didn't work, so they had to walk up five flights of stairs to get to Fyodor's floor.

John was aware of Dr Milichenko from knowing people that had watched his videos on YouTube and become big fans of his, believing, like his other fans, that Dr Milichenko was one of the foremost thinkers of the western world. John had watched a few of his videos and found him to not be very impressive at all, just a man whose best friend was a thesaurus who was using big words and complex sentences to pass off stale, old ideas as profound. There were also many things about Dr Milichenko that just flat out didn't make any sense, like how he identified as a red-blooded communist but was constantly berating the radical left. John was really interested in getting an answer to this question and the raven could feel it. It surrendered control of John's body back to him and told him to take as much time as he wanted to question the doctor.

"There's one thing about you that I'm very curious about," John began, "which is why you are constantly attacking people on the left when you identify as a communist."

"That is because the communist's fight is the fight for the rights of the proletariat, but lately the left is not concerned with this, they are focused on things like racial equality, homosexual rights and, my favorite, gender pronouns, not realizing that all that they're doing is distracting attention away from what the primary focus should be, which is the ability of everybody to share equally in prosperity."

"Do you not consider those other issues to be important?"

"Of course they are important, and I am not discounting them because I am a racist or a homophobe, but what good does it do if a gay person can marry but cannot afford to feed himself?"

"It seems to me that you are guilty of a certain amount of hypocrisy on this issue because you spend an awful lot of your time talking about political correctness why many view as an issue that's meant to distract attention away from real economic issues."

"I'm talking about it because these idiots who call themselves leftists are incapable of grasping the bigger picture; look, if you ask a gay person what they would rather have: being surrounded by people that are respectful of their feelings and an empty stomach or to be called a faggot but have a full stomach? I think I know what they would rather have, they'd gladly accept being called a faggot if it meant they also had a full stomach."

John was so stunned and appalled by what he had just heard that he needed a moment to collect himself mentally before he asked his next question.

"Why do those two things have to be exclusive? Can't people be taken care of and be respected?"

"You would think so, but look at what these people's reaction is when they hear a black person being called a coon or a woman being called a cunt, they become completely hysterical and irrational and lose all sight of what is important."

"This language that you're using to describe these people, it's abhorrent."

"I'm not using this language, the point that I'm making is about when others use this language, and when you react hysterically and irrationally to language all that you are doing is driving them to be more offensive and their defense is always going to be that their entitled to use whatever language they please because the right of freedom of speech is something that is bestowed upon them by their constitution, so what have you accomplished?"

"Are you saying that people who say abhorrent things about other people should just be left to say it because they are very sensitive and have freedom of speech?"

"I'm saying that's what makes it futile to protest what they say."

"And as long as something's futile you shouldn't bother with it?"

"Yes."

It was obvious to John that Dr Fyodor Milichenko was nothing more than a pig, a racist, homophobic, misogynistic pig whose ability to convince people of the virtue of his views through verbal calisthenics made him a very dangerous person, which made the raven's interest in him troubling.

"Are you done with him?" The raven asked John.

"Yes, truth is I'm afraid to ask him any more questions because I'm afraid of what'll come out of his mouth."

"That's the power of the snake, the human that it adopts is able to be persuasive no matter what point they're arguing. Anyway, now that you're done with him, I'll be taking over again."

"The snake, where is it?" The raven asked Fyodor.

"What just happened? You're not the same person anymore."

"No, the person that you were talking to is the owner of this body, I just borrow it from time to time."

"What are you?"

"If I were before you in my true form you'd be looking at a raven right now."

"So you've possessed this man?"

"Yes, but that is not important at this moment in time, what is important is you telling me where the snake is so we can wake it up."

"It's in the room, through that door."