woof

[trice]

RATE THAT TASTE

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[rephase]

[ It is fascinating. He sits rapt, listening with obvious attentiveness to Gordon, to the explanation of the serious existential threat Bryony represents, the protectiveness over Warren, the outrage against the unethical, coercive practices of using convicts as test subjects, and - perhaps most curious to him of all - the empathy and understanding for 'the shit people' who 'should still matter'. He breathes, carefully, thinking, digesting, considering it from many angles, like a jeweler looking at rare and curious cuts in an old gem. ]

Such a loyal soul seems to exist in you. How strange that you think Warren might not be held in fascination by you also. I wonder...

[ He stops, does a quiet little exhale, almost the beginning of a laugh. Despite the grim topic, it is funny to follow that up with the middling, average discussions about instruments. ]

I should like to hear you play, in calmer circumstances. But I feel more than an audient void, you could use... a friend. [ He's never done this before. Been friendly like this, with no real goal, and it's novel, and exciting. He has had mortal alliances, and friends, and relationships, but always with some converging, third interest; to reveal truths or publish work, to create strange syntheses, or test fortitude. Never simply to be, and observe the fortune of some other without any personal desire. ]

Forgive me if I'm inexpert at it. I have little practice, but I am enthused to learn, and if nothing else, I can validate your feeling about this woman. And your friend, your... crush? I see why you hesitated to 'burden him' with your feelings, with this context.

[goldenbullet]

[He hadn't noticed the way the other man was watching him while he ranted, words spewing easily from his lips. Gordon is very good at talking, he can talk a lot if no one stops him, but now that he's maybe noticed how much interest this guy has taken in... everything? He feels a bit like he's under a microscope.

Might just be the way the guy talks.]

So what are you like an android Egyptian king or something?

[Little practice in being friends? Validate his feelings? Is he in another weird sci-fi situation?! His best friend getting cryonically frozen over and over counts as sci-fi totally shhh.]

I don't need my feelings validated, I guess... hn, I guess it just felt good to say it all to someone who wasn't part of it all. Even if I sound crazy, which honestly is most days ending in Y, typically.

... or wait-! Did Overhead get into making androids now? Are you an android spy sent to befriend me?

[rephase]

[ It is a rare human who doesn't take what he is personally (as if he could help being what he is, any more than they can, and as if he could have a conversation in a non-human form without several initial annoying questions and/or murder attempts), though happily there are other third dimensional dwellers who are happier to see and celebrate him, he still occasionally dips back into talking to humans. There is the odd human. Sturgeon's law for all the rest of them. ]

What a rude question to one who has been so compassionate and interested in your problems.

[ He stands up. ] For whatever it is worth, I hope you find a satisfactory conclusion to your problems, along with better manners.

[goldenbullet]

H-Hey, wait- okay maybe that was rude of me.

[It was.]

But it's a little hard to trust anyone with the bullshit I've been through, okay. Evil scientists and the company I work for kidnapping me and making me "work" for them while they experiment on my friend, under threat of death by the way thank you very much.

[Gordon sighs, standing too, rubbing at his neck. He feels bad, but it's hard not to fall back into conspiracies and paranoia with everything he's been through.

Is it a poor excuse? Suuure, but it's his excuse!]

Have you ever had someone threaten to snap off a mercury thermometer in your willy before? Or to drag you behind the back of your own car until you're a bloody pulp? I have!

... erm, but uh even if you are an android spy, thanks for listening?

[rephase]

I would advise, at the very least, a paper trail with a dead man's switch, and to accept the possibility that you may not survive this employment. [ That much is quietly neutral, and he is still somewhat interested, even with the partial acknowledgement of Gordon's stress as excuse... he won't just tell him what he thinks Gordon should do. Half the fun in interacting with humans is letting them come up with their own ideas. ]

For the record, I am not now, nor have I ever been, human born. I take this form that I may not overly disturb those I speak with. [ He is quick to add: ] I don't have any interest in deception, any more than a closeted gay person would be quiet for the sake of 'leading someone else on'. Many people don't notice, you have good instincts.

[goldenbullet]

[Gordon deflates, nodding lamely.]

Me ending up on ice is... a very possible reality, trust me I know.

[Evil scientist lady has threatened him with the possibility, don't worry.]

Oh- uh. I was mostly taking the piss about the android spy thing? I mean, sort've.

[He definitely thought something was off with this guy, but he could never have guessed he actually wasn't human. Then again he had been talking with a giant robot from space so. Anything is possible.]

Soooo... if you're not human what are you then? A shape shifting cryptid? An all powerful being from another planet?

Or a not your business Gordon stop asking it's rude?

[rephase]

And there is nowhere you can go together that this institution cannot find you? [ Surprisingly (for some, anyway) he has helped people escape murderous institutions before. Like Salem! ]

I see. Yes, I don't have all the perfect mannerisms or social graces. [ Something is 'off' about him the way an autistic person would mimic neurotypicals, with mixed success. ] My High Priest is substantially worse than I am at imitating humanity. [ And he finds that funny, personally, because his High Priest likes humans arguably more than he does. ]

What I am is far more difficult to know than what I am not. [ A monster? A messenger? A mask? All, and none of these? ] For someone in extremis, as you are, the truth may not bear easily. But consider me, at least, no harbinger of further suffering for you. That much is accomplished well enough by others who are human through and through.

[goldenbullet]

Kind of? I mean we're working on getting out of here, me and someone else that is, getting Warren and I out of here. She's on the outside and used to work for Overhead too, now she's in hiding from them and it's a whole bloody mess.

If we do get out we'd be hiding too!

[Overhead doesn't take kindly to deserters. Or people putting their nose where they don't belong. People disappear... people end up dead.]

Honestly most humans don't either.

[Gordon being one of those humans.]

Oh uh- that's a relief? Haha... eh, so humans are the real monsters yadda yadda?