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[doctorize]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, DOCTORIZE FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 018.07.154.55 *** DOCTORIZE has posted an AUDIO MESSAGE. If you wish to listen, type LISTEN01. <USER> LISTEN01 AUDIO MESSAGE PLAYING... <doctorize> This is the line for Dr. Daniel Dickens. If you'd like to leave a message, please do so here. I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible!

Comments

[peccatore]

[That comment... isn't something Marco should linger on, let alone pry into. Him and Danny aren't friends, after all - they might greet each other outside this room, but their relationship is a professional one, albeit of a very different nature than what their mothers likely assumed.

(If they'd found out, would it have even mattered?)

And yet, Marco is too soft, too prone to irrational guilt, to just keep talking about himself after something like that.]

... I'm sorry.

[doctorize]

[At that, Danny blinks at him, as if almost uncomprehending, before he shakes his head, seemingly focused on the topic once more.]

Ah, no, you don't have to apologize. This isn't about me: please, continue.

[peccatore]

It... It doesn't feel quite right to go on about me when you're also... You know.

[Marco doesn't KNOW what happened with Danny, exactly, but it's clear enough that he has something on his mind.]

I could come back another day.

[doctorize]

No no, you don't have to do that--if anything, working is actually much more helpful to me now than to post-pone for another day.

[Because talking to other people, whether it is actually helpful or damaging others, is better than being alone with his own thoughts, frankly.]

[peccatore]

... If you say so.

[He does kind of get it, he supposes. Before things got as bad as they ended up getting, talking and working were the usual ways he distracted himself. Even now, he does what he can to keep it up. But still...]

Uh... Sorry, where was I?

[doctorize]

You were talking about what happened when our... ah, unexpected guests paid everyone a visit here. About what had happened during your parents during the time they spent in this place.

[peccatore]

... Right.

[Not that he really forgot what he was talking about; it's more like he wanted to buy himself time to get his thoughts together. He's not sure how well it worked.]

My dad... It was someone running from AM that killed him. I-I think it was another one of those... Whatever this was. This thing that happened.

[doctorize]

AM?

[... so hey, funny story, but guess who has been here since February and still doesn't know about AM yet...]

[peccatore]

[See, Marco figured Danny had been here long enough to hear about AM - and clearly, anyone who knows AM knows what he's like. So says Marco himself, who took a good half year to realise AM was bad news.]

Uh... Tall... Big tall demon. Long hair.

[doctorize]

Oh, that tells me so much.

[Danny, don't be sarcastic and rude, not during a therapy session at least--]

[peccatore]

[WOW]

I-I-- I'm not sure how else to describe him. Black scales, uh... His hair is very long.

[doctorize]

I see. It must be pretty long if that's quite a noticeable trait. But personality wise, it sounds like he's not the type of person you would want to meet.

[... Well. For most normal people, anyway.]

[peccatore]

He's... fine if you only meet him in passing. Most likely. I've never seen him try anything out in the open or... or anything like that.

... But... I've known him since I first arrived. And I know him well enough that... I've seen how dangerous he can be.

[doctorize]

Hmm... I'm honestly kind of shocked I haven't met him before now. I suppose I'll have to keep an eye out for him.

In the meantime, shall we return to the topic at hand? Unless there's something else you want to share about this AM person here.

[peccatore]

[... He has to think about it, actually. In all the time he's known AM, a lot has happened. But is it really worth talking about? What could Danny possibly do to help? AM hates him, and that's that. If anyone can do anything about it, and Marco doubts it, it would have to be himself.

Maybe he can express one small worry, though.]

I think... he knows there's something wrong with me.

[doctorize]

In regards to your mental state here? Why would he know about something like that?

[peccatore]

[Marco COULD take more than 7 seconds to think of a proper reason, or he could just say...]

I-- Isn't it obvious?

[doctorize]

... No? Not unless you were talking to your parents out loud, right in front of other people.

[peccatore]

I... I guess I didn't, but...

[But ISN'T it obvious? Can't people tell at a glance that there's something wrong with him?]

People-- People have told me before, you know, it's not just him, it's been... more than just him. People have called me crazy.

[doctorize]

Really? Were they people you would have considered friends, or were they simply antagonistic to begin with?

[peccatore]

I...

[Well, you got him, Danny.]

I guess... mostly the latter.

[doctorize]

Then why take it so seriously? I know I wouldn't: people like that are going to try to find some way to insult or demean you, regardless of whether or not what they say is true. As such, it's best to ignore them when that happens.

[... Even if say, Zack, is one hundred percent correct whenever he calls Danny a "crazy asshole", but--]

[peccatore]

[Well, Marco can't speak for what other people may or may not say about Danny. He's still unaware of many things about him, after all. But what he thinks he can say is...]

... But I am crazy.

[doctorize]

No, you're unwell, which is different from being "crazy". A crazy person would be so adamant that what they believe in is right that they wouldn't be willing to admit that they need help, let alone seek it out.

[A pause, and then he suddenly says--]

After all, if you were crazy like that, I wouldn't have let you meet my mother at all, when she was here. I likely would have tried to keep her from you by having gotten up and walked away that day.

[peccatore]

[He... isn't sure how to feel about that. It's a compliment, right? Then... Why does it make him feel so uneasy?]

... It's probably a good thing you didn't meet me last year, [he mumbles, before adding, embarrassed:] I mean, I wouldn't have-- I want to say I wouldn't have hurt her. I never even forced anyone to the arcade, I was just... just... telling people things... that might not have been true. Without realising it.

[Sure, it might have ended up escalating into a strange compulsion to redeem the wicked by feeding exclusively on them, but since that went away just about immediately after he changed back from a nephilim, he's willing to chalk that up to a monster thing. Which doesn't excuse the rest. Being an angel didn't influence his decision to shove Greed into a machine whose mechanics and purpose he did not understand.]