[RL with Sam- You can't handle the truth!]

[assistant_god]

((Whenever you're ready, dear~))

Orlando was lying on his back on a flet in the Lothlorien simulation, as he often could be found these days when online. He had a window displaying code open in front of him which he was scrolling through. The expression he was directing at it could have been a scowl if he had focused on it, but he was clearly too

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[scanningthief]

And rather suddenly, there is Sam, standing not too far away.

Look out, Orlando. This is a kind-of-annoyed-looking Sam, if you should look up and notice.

"So, what's been keeping you busy lately? Haven't seen you around that much."

((Why yes I'm kind of ripping off the general style used at Outside Inn. It's easy to work with, what?))

[assistant_god]

Hmm? Sam.

...She didn't exactly sound happy.

He moved the window off to the side with a flick of his fingers and sat up, looking a bit out of it (he'd been working for a while, after all).

"I hadn't been doing nearly as much work as I should have, so I've been making up for that."
That was what he meant to say.

What came out was pretty different.
"I've been avoiding you."

...He blinked. What the hell?

[scanningthief]

Sam sighs, and tries to keep her voice level as she replies to that. She fails miserably, and doesn't notice how confused Orlando looks. "You've been avoiding me? Well, gee, Gardiner, thanks. Really. Not like we're best friends or anything."

She kind of wishes she didn't have such high-quality gear, right now; she can feel her fingernails digging into her palms as her hands clench into tight fists. She's angrier than she should be, she'll admit that if he asks.

As to why? That's utterly different. There's no way to describe that weird lurching in her chest anytime she hears his voice, even when it's saying something like that... there aren't any words for the things she shouldn't think about him.

No, there are. She just doesn't want to say them, because there's no way he'd say the same things about her. No way at all, so she won't admit that there are, and she won't admit that that's the reason she's angry.

[assistant_god]

"I don't know why I said that!" he didn't quite yell. Was he really that out of it? He put a hand to his face. "Really. I mean, of course you're-"

Oh no. He hadn't caught that virus from the comm, had he?

Eros had started it. Eros.

...Maybe he had been that out of it? He hoped? The things he might say...he wasn't going to think about that, he knew where it ended. And it hurt.