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[loungelizard]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, LARRY LAFFER. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 069.69.069.69 *** < LarryLaffer > has joined 069.69.069.69 <LarryLaffer> Hiya! <LarryLaffer> Leave a message, I'll get back to you when I can! <LarryLaffer> For immediate responses, i.e. business inquiries, booty calls, or telemarketing, call my landline at ###-###-####.

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[loungelizard]

[Larry opens his eyes and looks at Steve. He lets out a sigh -- he regrets telling the truth, but he did ask for it.

Not that Steve really understands it -- or is at least regurgitating it in a way that captures how Larry actually feels. It's something between "hee-hee" and reciprocal schadenfreude -- not every death is funny, but he does enjoy watching any guy who wants to punch above his weight with Faith get punched with his own dismembered fist...knowing damn well that is, effectively, the position he would be in.

It's not hypocrisy. He prostrated himself before Lust when he first got here, after all, knowing full well she'd probably eat him, and only a small chance that she'd actually fuck him before that...and he'd still think it was funny, even though it would be his own death.

Maybe he can't expect a real person to truly understand. It seems useless to push the conversation to try to make Steve understand it, when it's probably fruitless anyway -- even if he understood it fully, he'd probably still feel the same way in the end.]

A floppy disk, actually, but the sentiment is the same.

[A beat.]

Please don't tell anyone about this...the coping mechanism, I mean. You're the only person I've ever told.

[hairday]

[ Steve sighs right along with Larry. ]

'Course not, buddy.

[ When you've got a history of confronting challenging emotions by exploding about them, and there's this big thing ( that starts with can and ends with nibalism) you've anxiously been avoiding talking about to any serious degree, and then this really swell charity worker who helped you get your footing on day one ( who you'd therefore began thinking of as one of the Good Guys ) suddenly says something that doesn't quite track with that?

Things. Things happen.

And now the vibe in here's all wrong. He stares at a knot in the wall, then looks back to his host. ]

And now I physically can't, because I'm giving you my word. I did read some of the monster manual or whatever, and I think that's how this works?

[loungelizard]

[It's weird for Larry too. He's not used to people blowing up on him like that. Being ignored? Sure. Being amicably shrugged off? Absolutely. Being calmly but rudely handled? Oh, all the time. But this? This is a new one for him.

Larry shrugs.]

I wouldn't know anything about--err, "oaths"? Other than passing mentions I've heard. Besides the endless need to craft, I haven't noticed anything else psychological--Oh!

[Larry taps at his chin with a claw as he glances askew, as if their conversation hadn't gone way south just a few seconds ago.]

Actually -- I just thought of something. I've always been a people-person, but I have this...ah, need, now. Go out and socialize, be with people, be around people. Now, normally I don't notice unless I'm alone for a few hours -- and this crushing loneliness sets in really fast!

[hairday]

[ Well, if Larry's content to dust off and pretend none of that happened, so is Steve. ]

Weird.

[ Some gears turn.

He's been working two jobs lately, living with a friend four floors over his head he's already naturally inclined to bother. Whether he's felt different when he actually finds himself alone, it's hard to say, when, really, he's been restless since the Fall of '84.

...

Suddenly, a hit on the mental search engine. ]

Does it matter who? [ He snaps his fingers a couple times. ] The other day I offered a ride to a guy covered in blood, and in hindsight I'd love to know why I just... did that? I thought I was being lenient, on account of the TAGE stuff, but... no, no, that was dumb.

[loungelizard]

Ehhh, I dunno about that. There's lots of reasons why someone might be covered in blood around here -- ranging the full spectrum of "victim", "perpetrator", and "completely innocent bystander"!

[Larry giggles.]

I can't say that I'd be any more compelled to pick up a hitchhiker than I had previously, but I wouldn't write it off, either. The specifics of the ways we change inside -- [He taps the side of his head] can be different, just like how our physical forms can be different, too. Related, but not exact.

[hairday]

[ Which is why you don't risk it! ]

Oh. Yeah, no, I don't picture you doing a lot of driving with those flippers in general. My concern was more like- like I was wondering if maybe our standards drop way down when there aren't many options for company around?

[loungelizard]

Mm...no, not really.

[He looks down at his feet and flexes his weird webbed hand-finger toes. Stop that, Larry. They're weird.]

Couldn't say! I never really had high standards to begin with. You never know where you'll find your next friend! Or drunkard at the bottom of his barrel with a handy item.

[video games]