15:52 <tom> “I’ve never been more sure before in my life - Putin doesn’t have the T-Levels to invade Ukraine.” 15:54 <tom> The images of soldiers looking around uneasily segue into a pretty woman talking in the foreground of maps covered in stitched lines. Bob offers the blunt back to the Vorloth, which has either entered some kind of hibernation state or else silently killed itself with a hidden capsule of poison to escape the conversation. He takes up a half-empty bottle of beer and chugs. 15:55 <tom> He pats Five Dewy on the ‘shoulder’ and the whole thing just sinks slightly lower into the couch. Grumbling, Bob turns to Kaga: ”You’ve been on pretty good behavior, dude. Gotta say.” 15:56 <tom> The rest of the farmhouse is darkened but for the little lamp next to the couch and the flickering of the TV. A little sea of discarded cans and bottles lie before his throne. 15:58 <VoxPVoxD> Kagemenauch was enthralled by the stock footage of distressed soldiers and war materiel on the move, but once the newsreader comes on it loses him. He tilts his big jowly head Bobward. "Were you expecting me to rip your throat out in your sleep? Urinate in your boots?" 16:01 <tom> “Ha! You know you’re not allowed to. Normally you’re a lot meaner.” Bob hucks a can on a high trajectory over the sink into the kitchen trash, makes a little fist. 16:01 <tom> “Are we... are we becoming friends?” 16:02 <tom> He hits it, and if Kaga says anything in immediate fashion it’s lost in the hacking and the smoke. 16:05 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga: "La Boetie said that friendship flourishes not in kindness but in sincerity. Do you believe that?" 16:06 <tom> “Oh yeah, totally,” Bob laugh-coughs. 16:06 <VoxPVoxD> "So if I lied to you, you would feel hurt?" 16:06 <tom> “Yeah dog.” 16:08 <tom> He leans forward to set the little smoldering stub in the ashtray on the cofee table, accidentally disturbing an empty can that rattles onto the hardwood floor. 16:08 <VoxPVoxD> The demon falls silent for a moment. His gaze drifts back to the television, where the newsreader is now talking in front of a picture of Putin caught mid-word with his mouth open. Everyone looks bad that way. Finally: "Then I suppose this is a kind of friendship." 16:13 <tom> “Hell yeah dude.” Bob goes to pick up the Vorloth and deposit it back in the little grow tent occupying the far side of the living room. A stream of light-diffracting mist bleeds out through the zipper as Bob hefts the drooping creature in. ”There we go. You’re lucky as hell I was gonna start a grow, bro.” 16:15 <tom> He zips up the tent and rubs his hands before turning back to Kaga: ”So in the name of honesty...” 16:15 <VoxPVoxD> "There's something very England about buying a farm and then growing crops indoors in your house." 16:15 <tom> “You think I’d let my babies be outside in this dogshit weather? No way, haha.” 16:15 <VoxPVoxD> "Hmmm. Go on." 16:16 <tom> He just blurts it out: ”If she goes full evil, is she gonna get horns and like, a cute little tail? With the little spade at the end?” 16:18 <VoxPVoxD> Outside, as if on cue, tires crunch gravel. 16:18 <VoxPVoxD> Before the car horn signals formal arrival: "If?" 16:19 <tom> Bob winces; the window is closing: ”Don’t play games with me man, c’mon.” 16:20 <tom> “This will be a significant factor in whether I throw up the horns in the end.” 16:21 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga: "No two Hellspawn look alike. It's not for me to say. Whatever form a lost soul takes is an expression of its loss, and what it seeks to gain." 16:21 <VoxPVoxD> "If you're asking more broadly if you'll still be attracted to her... rest easy, William." 16:21 <tom> “Tease.” He goes for the door. 16:22 <tom> Actually, fuck! He reaches down to scoop up a little herd of cans to hide in the bottom of the trash bin. 16:22 <tom> “Roll those under the couch boy!” 16:22 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's there in sunglasses and headscarf, looking like an old timey movie star. She's got a shopping bag in hand. Bob can hear the sound of crinkling aluminium behind him as he opens the door. 16:23 <tom> Bob, cheeks flush, eyes just a little redder than usual: ”Willie! So how was sicily?” 16:24 <tom> “We didn’t get a chance to talk at the- you know, it’s cool-” he retreats back into the kitchen, mumbling. 16:24 <VoxPVoxD> To what extent, as Bob opens the door, is Willie confronted with the scent of beer and weed? 16:25 <tom> Oh we are so far past that. The whole place smells like fertilizers and chemicals. Willie might be a little alarmed until she strolls into the living room to see the black monolith of the grow-tent occupying about a third of the living room. 16:26 <tom> “Sh, he’s sleepin’.” 16:27 <tom> It’s impossible to hide the alcohol exuding from every pore on the man’s body. If Willie lights up, he’d be a fuel-air bomb. 16:32 <VoxPVoxD> Bob and Willie enter the living room to find the cans gone, and Kaga sitting in Bob's chair. "Ahhh, Sicily was wonderful, I was so sad to go... but I did miss this place. I was in Taormina, lovely coastline, beautiful sunny day. I was walking along and I saw a rusty old cannon pointed out to sea. There was a little table by it and I had the strongest mental image of you sitting there, 16:32 <VoxPVoxD> in a lawn chair and a helmet, with a coolbox full of beer, ready to light the fuse." 16:35 <tom> “And they said we live in age without heroic death.” 16:35 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "If it's heroic death you want, I'm sure there'll be work in Kyiv soon enough. It's all anyone is talking about on TV anywhere." 16:36 <VoxPVoxD> "Oh!! I brought presents." 16:36 <tom> Bob goes over to pet Kaga: ”Oh naw, I’m hundo percent cer- more gifts!?” 16:36 <tom> “Amazon, play Kino.” The stupid little orb flashes with blue lights and the speakers flip on: https://youtu.be/K69_m4gtZDk 16:37 <tom> “Careful, Jeff’s listening.” 16:40 <VoxPVoxD> Three gifts! One of them is a bundle of fabric with a lovely pattern of lemons hanging ripe from branches; another of them is a bottle of very fancy- or rustic-looking olive oil; the last is a heavy black vase or jug. "The fabric's a bit odd, but I know you love making things. It'd make lovely drapes, or... I don't know, I'm not at all creative. But it's lovely." 16:41 <tom> “Oh man, molotov components. You really do care!” 16:42 <tom> He’s still laughing as he takes up the folded fabric and kneads it with his fingers. ”And what’s this-” He wiggles the jug and listens for sloshing. 16:44 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I got some wonderful limoncello and almond wine for Sam and Aaron. That's not the kind of cocktail you're into, though. That is a stone vase made from the lava off Mt. Etna. Again, sort of open-ended - you could put flowers in it, or make a very pretty bomb." 16:45 <VoxPVoxD> Once the bag's handed off she folds her arms and contemplates the dog sitting in the people chair. "So how was he?" 16:45 <tom> “Totally cool. No secret hidden shits either, unless he’s gotten really good at it.” 16:46 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga: "He was- oh, you were asking him." 16:47 <tom> “You not gonna let him give his cute lil mission report?” Bob asks from the kitchen area as he makes a show of doing some dishes. 16:49 <VoxPVoxD> Willie reflexively follows Bob into the kitchen in case there's some tidying she can help with. How bad is it in here? How repaired is the farmhouse? "Oh, fine. How was he, Kaga?" 16:49 <VoxPVoxD> Kagemenauch doesn't move. "His depressive fits are less irritating than yours. I will miss his company." 16:51 <tom> He sets the vase down on the counter and pushes it closer to the window. The kitchen’s been hastily cleaned, with little tracks of spilt beer where the cans were quickly shoved off the counter into the trash. 16:51 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "You've just been itching to hurt someone's feelings this whole month, haven't you?" 16:51 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga: "No need; we've been watching world news." 16:51 <tom> “Oh great, how’re you,” Bob says immediately. 16:52 <tom> “I mean Kaga? Oh like I said he’s been real good. Didn’t even like, stomp on any birds nests and kill their babies for fun.” 16:52 <tom> “That I know of.” 16:53 <VoxPVoxD> "I told him to be on his best behaviour. Because you can behave, can't you, Kaga? You sadistic little worm. Yes you can." Willie's speech morphs into babytalk over the course of a few words. 16:53 <VoxPVoxD> "I'm fantastic. I really needed that holiday. I think Sergio did too." 16:55 <tom> Bob’s drying his hands on a rag before presenting a pack of smokes. ”I got a little space heater out on the patio if you wanna stay a minute and chat?” 16:56 <VoxPVoxD> "That sounds wonderful! Kaga, come outside. Get one last lungful of fresh air before returning to civilisation." 16:57 <tom> “How warm was it at night out there?” Bob asks as he goes over to fiddle with the shitty little electric heater on the patio table. He rubs his hands together for warmth. ”A nightwalk on the beach would be a lot better without the wind-chill.” 16:58 <tom> The little heater rattles on and Bob reaches over the table to hand Willie a cigarette. 17:01 <VoxPVoxD> Willie takes a cigarette, watching Bob as she lights it. "It's not exactly the tropics, but it was much warmer than here. There was some wind come up from North Africa, kept it above 10 at night. Nice walking weather in a jacket." 17:02 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga is getting some exercise on the brown, frosty earth beyond the patio. He runs in a wide circle and then across it at haphazard angles. 17:03 <tom> “It really is a shame we don’t have any snow for him to make pentagrams in.” 17:04 <tom> Bob lights his own cigarette and turns around to sit with his back to Willie, stretching out with his hands over his head: ”He got anyone over there in Italy?” 17:05 <tom> “Sergio, I mean. Like cousins?” 17:05 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "There'll be lawn for him to desecrate soon enough. Spring's not that far away. As the passing of the crown tells us. Does Count Starling just go to sleep for nine months now? In one of those big recliners at the retirement home?" 17:05 <tom> “I think he just gets a little faded.” 17:06 <VoxPVoxD> "Something you two have in common." 17:06 <tom> “You know how it is with those old guys.” 17:08 <VoxPVoxD> "Sergio's probably related to a quarter of the people on the island. But we couldn't exactly ring up a great-aunt and make her cook for us, could we? He actually needed me to translate for him sometimes." 17:08 <tom> Bob exhales upward over his head in a little cloud of smoke and vapor. The heater casts a warm shadow over the table. ”He’ll have to get pretty gone to be on my level.” 17:09 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "...so how are you?" 17:11 <tom> He twists to finally look across the table at her: ”Look, it’s not like anyone died, or something, you know?” 17:12 <tom> “I don’t really have fuck all to complain about.” 17:13 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I don't know why everybody does that." 17:14 <VoxPVoxD> "When I was very young I thought it was just my family that was weird. Then I got older and thought, no, it's an English thing. But no. Practically everybody does that." 17:19 <tom> “Does what?” His confidence is shattered. 17:20 <VoxPVoxD> "Just sit and writhe in quiet agony. You know? The classic stiff upper lip. Utterly bonkers." 17:20 <VoxPVoxD> "So come on. Out with it." 17:20 <VoxPVoxD> "You want to talk! I'm your friend." 17:21 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's projecting more comfort and confidence than she feels. But just as he invited her to sit, she did sit down. Better out than in, yeah? 17:23 <tom> He turns back around and rubs his throat, swallows: ”Oh you know, it’s just.” He gulps. "Willie, just between you and me, I think I might be real fucking stupid?" 17:24 <tom> His back's turned so she can't really see his face until after he plucks out his cigarette and rubs his eyes and turns to her, eyes red: "I blew it. It was one in a million and I just blew up the bridge under me." 17:25 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "What happened?" 17:26 <tom> "We got to know each other." 17:26 <tom> "And hey you know, it turns out, I fucking suck ass and can't relate." 17:26 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Except as a protector, you mean." 17:28 <tom> "I mean that's stupid too, yeah? I wasn't thinking. I was thinking with my dick! I was doing dick-thinking, Willie! I shoulda just left her alone after Boston. Fuckin' stupid." 17:29 <tom> Bob ashes out his cigarette and folds his hands in his lap. "So yeah, I blew it. That's what happened. That is what is happening in the house of Goreman." 17:30 <VoxPVoxD> Willie smokes and looks out at the dog, who has taken to rolling around on the patch of earth he wore down. "I have... a couple of thoughts." 17:31 <VoxPVoxD> "Firstly, that was terribly rude of Sumi." 17:32 <tom> "I ain't mad. She's gotta hold her colors." 17:32 <VoxPVoxD> "Colours you continue to march under." 17:33 <tom> "Nothing's changed, the job's still the job." 17:33 <VoxPVoxD> "I'm not saying you ought to be angry with her, just... I think that was more Sumi-ness than the situation really called for." 17:33 <tom> He shrugs. "I can take it." 17:34 <VoxPVoxD> "Anyway. The second thing I think is that dumbness is relative. Like, IQ is a statistical thing, right? You don't judge yourself against a hypothetical person who makes no mistakes. You judge yourself against the people around you." 17:36 <VoxPVoxD> "And, honestly, 'over time we realised we weren't as compatible as we wanted to be' is how a lot of relationships end. A lot. I'd guess a plurality, even. That manifests a lot of different ways. Fighting, cheating, mounting indifference, whatever. But the underlying cause is the same. People grow apart, or they come to know themselves better and realise they weren't all that close to begin 17:36 <VoxPVoxD> with." 17:36 <VoxPVoxD> "So in that respect you two are as dumb as pretty much every man or every woman I've ever met. Certainly every man or woman I've ever been with." 17:37 <VoxPVoxD> "The only difference is that your first date was saving her life." 17:38 <tom> "You know what fucking sucks? That was like the bestthing I ever did," he slurs. "An now I just feel kinda embarrassed. Like, sorry kid, I'm gonna make it all weird now." 17:38 <tom> "Ah, fuck it." 17:39 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "It was already weird. It was always weird. You're, frankly, weird people." 17:39 <tom> "Fuck it." He reaches for a half-empty bottle of clear something next to the heater before it potentially ignites from the radiant heat and swigs it. 17:40 <tom> "You're driving, so this is all mine." 17:40 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Mind the cigarette. I don't want you to drop it and self-immolate when it touches your clothes." 17:41 <tom> "Yeah, what if I want that? Fuck, not like that." 17:42 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Then you'll have to hope you burn up before I put you out, because skin grafts will totally ruin your baby face." 17:42 <tom> He rubs his hands together; the space heater doesn't quite fill the whole patio. "At least it's warm in hell." 17:43 <tom> Bob rubs his chin. "You're right, I should grow a beard." 17:43 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I'm surprised you haven't started. Wasn't there some American bloke who joined the Taliban back in the day?" 17:43 <VoxPVoxD> "And now they've gone legit and everything. This is your shot." 17:44 <tom> "A few Americans, some Euros, and some dudes from Atlantis, if the report was right." 17:44 <tom> "I think we lost the war on terror because Mu and Lemuria sat it out." 17:45 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "At least Oz still has your back." 17:45 <tom> "Oh don't you fret, a few weeks into depression and I'll have the scraggliest, patchiest piece of shit goatee you ever saw." 17:45 <tom> "Just fuckin' kill me if I get that fargone." 17:46 <VoxPVoxD> Willie snorts. 17:46 <VoxPVoxD> Then she sighs. 17:46 <VoxPVoxD> "Do you feel like you have a better picture of what you want now?" 17:48 <tom> Bob leans forward over the railing to shoot Kaga a warning look, just in case. "Don't you start-" 17:50 <tom> He palms the table and swings back around to face her: "What I really want right now is to get some water before my head implodes like a submarine." 17:51 <VoxPVoxD> For some reason Willie starts giggling. 17:55 <tom> He comes back out with a tall glass of water by the time she's finished. He can't help but smile a little. 17:55 <tom> "We are just, so fucked, aren't all of us?" 17:58 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I'm doing great. I'm rich, I've got great jobs, great friends. People let me give them relationship advice, quite inexplicably." 18:01 <tom> "You need to get a second tone of foundation, hun. A little paler, so there's less contrast." 18:01 <tom> Bob lights another cigarette. 18:06 <VoxPVoxD> Not at all mad: "I'm glad that you feel secure enough in our friendship that you can just say things like that and not be afraid I'll set you on fire." 18:06 <tom> "I got so much alcohol around that you'll just blow up with the rest a'the house. Mutually Assured Destruction." 18:07 <tom> "That was really shitty a'me, sorry." 18:07 <VoxPVoxD> "I'd survive an explosion. Worst case, my clothes'd burn off, and you wouldn't even be alive to see it." 18:09 <tom> "Kaga said I could just wait in- shit, what'd you say again, man?" Bob leans over the railing to address the rooting hound: "Third circle? Which fucking circle of Dante's inferno was it-" 18:09 <tom> "He said I could just go to hell and wait and you'd be along eventually. Something like that." 18:11 <VoxPVoxD> Kaga barks twice. 18:11 <VoxPVoxD> Willie scoffs. 18:14 <tom> Bob chuckles. "Yeah, something like that." 18:14 <tom> "Look, don't worry about me. Easy come easy go, that's- that's how I always go, yeah." 18:15 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "That is an obvious, made-up lie." 18:15 <tom> Finger guns. "And I'm sticking with it." 18:16 <VoxPVoxD> Willie puts out her cigarette. "Why?" 18:19 <tom> Bob: "Oh c'mon. Nobody needs that melodrama shit. I'm supposed to be a fuckin' professional." 18:23 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "As soon as you can work out how to load lying to yourself into a mortar I'll concede the point. Until then... you've got a bit of a reset to play with. Your relationship ended, but your life didn't. You've got work, friends, connections. A city you've still barely explored. And quite a lot of money." 18:23 <VoxPVoxD> "So if that wasn't what you wanted... you're very well set up to find out what is." 18:25 <tom> "Look I don't wanna go through a catalogue of weird shit I'm into, here, ma'am. Right now my balls wanna just ascend back up in." 18:25 <VoxPVoxD> Willie rolls her eyes. "You know what I meant." 18:26 <VoxPVoxD> Wait. Did he? "I meant what you want from life, not sex." 18:26 <tom> Now he really does look like he's bracing for a blast of fire to just ash him like the cigarette. "I need time to figure some shit out. Not looking for any weird blood slavery gig just yet, thank you very much." 18:27 <tom> "I've already started. I'm taking care of plants." 18:27 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "So I smelt! Going to try and become the Seelie Court's dealer, or is that strictly personal use?" 18:31 <tom> "Personal for now. We'll see how I feel about the flower. Got some seaweed coming in the mail, might move the grow tent out into the workshop so the smell isn't too bad." 18:32 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "You should grow actual flowers. On the land, not in a tent. The whole hillside will get lovely sun all spring. It'll look beautiful." 18:34 <tom> "Oh yeah, actually. Could tear up all this turf and put in some sunflowers.." 18:34 <tom> He seems to contemplate it for a moment. 18:36 <VoxPVoxD> "Open space. Viable. Safe. You've got the time and the resources to spend." 18:36 <VoxPVoxD> "You've just got to work out what you want to do with it." 18:36 <VoxPVoxD> "I know you too well to believe it's nothing." 18:39 <tom> Bob rolls his eyes and steps inside. "I'll just be a sec." She can hear him stomping around, disappearing inward into the destroyed bedroom he's been patching up into a de-facto workshop. He comes back with a little plastic rectangle. "II'm not going soft just yet. I've been busy here." 18:40 <VoxPVoxD> Oooh. "Oooh." 18:40 <VoxPVoxD> "What's this?" 18:41 <tom> Bob reaches into his pocket and pulls out the visor, flipping the plastic inset into place behind the lenses and putting them on. It's pretty goofy- like he's got a second pair of sunglasses on his forehead, forgotten in the haze. "Okay, but check this out-" 18:42 <tom> He taps the side of his visor and the little rotors flick the plastic inset down over his eyes. Willie's been messing around with the stripped-down pair Bob gave her to recognize the itty bitty little camera in the corner of the frame flickering on like an LED. "Gwup, still- still working out the motion sickness-" 18:43 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Is that a GoPro done up to pass for glasses?" 18:43 <tom> "Okay, hear me out." 18:44 <VoxPVoxD> Willie looks uncertain for a moment... but she reasons that he wouldn't show it to her if it were just a sex thing. "Sure." 18:44 <tom> He steadies himself on the table. "Okay, so, I've been gettin' scrambled a lot. Like a lot, a lot." 18:45 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Right." 18:45 <tom> "When it comes to the nightclub freaks. I've noticed it's always the eyes you gotta watch out for. So, you know, I start thinking." 18:45 <tom> "Their shit doesn't work if your eyes are closed... or through cameras, right?" 18:46 <tom> "So why not just- well, look, I still need higher-def cameras here. Maybe I can pull one out an ODIN." 18:46 <tom> "The night-vis is kinda grainy." His smirk sours. 18:47 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Does it protect you from cyberbullying as well?" 18:47 <tom> Bob smiles ruefully: "You just gotta close your eyes." 18:47 <VoxPVoxD> "And count to fuck, yes." 18:48 <VoxPVoxD> "That'll come in handy if you ever need to kill Weaste." 18:48 <VoxPVoxD> Or Sergio. 18:48 <tom> "What's that weird old fuck up to, anyway?" 18:49 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "He's still playing den mother to a bunch of monsters who are stronger and less human than he is." 18:49 <VoxPVoxD> "I feel sort of bad for him." 18:49 <tom> The little LED at the corner of his visor blinks a placid beat as he turns to look at her through the grainy cellphone camera. That's what you get for going cheap, asshole. 18:50 <tom> Snorting: "Oh yeah?" 18:50 <VoxPVoxD> "It must be terribly lonely to have no true peers, and only people of roughly equivalent rank." 18:50 <VoxPVoxD> "Especially when the giant with the anime sword is the most normal one." 18:52 <tom> "He's so normal," Bob adds between another swig of the clear bottle with the weird sheen. 18:53 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Compared to Auld Father Crime, the Lounging Lizard, and the Phase Pervert? No contest." 18:54 <tom> "I know this is how we're playing it now," he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. "Still gives me the heebie jeebies thinking those guys are just out there." 18:54 <tom> "I mean shit, Ruth laid out like twelve people and she's just like, who knows." 18:54 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I mean..." 18:55 <tom> "Funny to think we woulda probably burnt her out if we went with my plan." 18:55 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Maybe don't lead with that if you run into her." 18:56 <tom> "I mean it's true, isn't it? Fucked up weird-ass world." 18:56 <tom> "You know like, why she's alive and Lie-am's bit it." 18:57 <tom> "That dude was just an asshole." 19:02 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "If there was any sensemaking in the world I'd have died four or five times since I was 15. God's got no plan. Don't give Jubilee the satisfaction." 19:02 <tom> The blockers flip back up and Bob removes the visor, only whining a little bit when a few strands of his hair get caught in the hinges and get pulled out when it goes. It's just a prototype! 19:04 <tom> He sets it back down on the table. "How many of those times were in the last six months?" 19:05 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I guess that depends on how deeply you embrace the logic of a horror movie writer." 19:07 <VoxPVoxD> "I feel like, after Sicily especially... I think things are basically okay. I feel safe with Sergio." 19:10 <tom> He winces, but mostly succeeds in hiding it before he thinks she can tell. "Dude's like an experiment to see what happens if you give basically a good guy the keys to being just totally fucked up." 19:10 <tom> "I guess it's good he's the way he is, yeah?" 19:10 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "...I hope so." 19:10 <VoxPVoxD> "My biggest fear right now is the danger I pose to him." 19:13 <tom> "My biggest fear is that his blood dad can make me eat my gun. Hence," He taps the visor on the table and the motion of the little blindfold flipping down causes the device to do a little wiggling dance. 19:15 <VoxPVoxD> Willie wonders if it's easier to mind control someone into doing things they subconsciously want to do. 19:16 <VoxPVoxD> "If you got in trouble, you'd have the rest of us at your back. Not to mention the whole Winter Tor." 19:17 <VoxPVoxD> "The people Sergio'd be counting on to protect him are the people who are the biggest danger to him." 19:18 <tom> "I'd help. Oh, you meant me." 19:18 <VoxPVoxD> Willie makes a face. "I know you'd help him. But you're not who he'd call if he was in danger." 19:18 <VoxPVoxD> "The people he'd call are the ones who are most likely to get him killed." 19:22 <tom> "Well y'should, I'd love to kick their asses." 19:22 <tom> "It's been too long since I got to cook up ANFO." 19:23 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "That's why I got you seeds for Christmas and not fertiliser. I knew you'd have that on lockdown." 19:26 <tom> Bob brightens up instantly. "Shit, you're right-" Bob slaps the table. "I bet I could grow an artichoke in that vase. That'd be perfect. You ever seen an artichoke flower?" 19:26 <VoxPVoxD> Willie shakes her head. 19:28 <tom> "It's like the most purple." 19:29 <VoxPVoxD> "That would look gorgeous in the black stone vase." 19:29 <tom> "I think you got me some Colorado Stars in the packet, yeah." 19:30 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Yeah! I'm really keen to see what you bring to life." 19:30 <tom> "I can put some starters in the grow-tent for now... that'll give me something to do tomorrow." 19:32 <VoxPVoxD> When he mentions tomorrow, Willie takes it as a signal to fuck off. She brushes her slacks, trashes the butt, and stands. "Speaking of tomorrow... I'm going to make you a big lasagne. Do you want me to bring it out here or will you come to mine and pick it up?" 19:33 <tom> Bob: "I'm not gonna make you drive... and I could use a reason to be sober." 19:33 <tom> "You hear from the others yet?" 19:35 <VoxPVoxD> "I checked in at Aaron's office. Unflappable as ever." 19:36 <VoxPVoxD> Willie takes a deep breath, and then gives Bob a hug. She's got to do laundry when she gets home anyway. "Chin up, Goreman. It's going to be a blessed year." 19:37 <tom> He returns the hug, squeezing her gently: "Oh yeah, for sure, things can only get better." 19:37 <tom> Right?