AUDIENCE FOR: Rupert

[guestservices]

Comments

[agleam]

I could go my entire lifetime not hearing that word again and be happy...

[he sighs, though, nodding.]

But - yeah. I know what you mean.

[guestservices]

[with feeling:]

Me too.

[...]

What about you, though? How are you holding up?

[agleam]

I'll be okay, but... Not right now. I don't want to act like any of this is okay.

[guestservices]

What do you want to do instead?

[agleam]

I don't know. Figure out a way to make sure this doesn't happen again next week?

[guestservices]

...I'm not sure why you came to me for that.

[agleam]

I mean, you asked, but also - don't sell yourself short, you're pretty smart!

[guestservices]

No, I mean... I work here. For the guy who wants you to entertain him. I'd say he considers what happened today to be pretty entertaining, and it'd be the opposite of my job for me to help you find a way to avoid it happening again.

[agleam]

[...]

And you work here why, again?

[guestservices]

Can't really be picky about jobs in this economy!

[agleam]

I think you can definitely be more picky than this! Haven't you had other jobs before this?

[guestservices]

We're getting close to "I'm really not supposed to talk about myself because you're the guest here, Rupert" territory.

[agleam]

Why's your boss so against that, exactly?

[guestservices]

Because you're the guests he wants to be entertained by, not us? We're not the stars of the show here.

[agleam]

Wow, I'm honored.

[deadpan, before he continues]

I don't get why that means we can't get to know each other.

[guestservices]

[their fox ears droop a little and their tail swishes. swish, swish.]

Because it's boring for him to hear stuff he already knows about me.

[agleam]

Sure, but there's stuff I talk about with others that he's already heard, and there's no rule against that.

[...]

But I don't want to get you in trouble, either.

[guestservices]

[sighs]

We're just going to go in circles at this rate. Let's talk about something else!

[agleam]

...Okay. What do you want to talk about?

[guestservices]

Pretty much anything other than that would be good.

[agleam]

[...]

Did you have a good week, apart from yesterday and today?

[guestservices]

It could have been worse.

...did you? Apart from yesterday, today, and uh... where you woke up...

[agleam]

Mm... The middle of the week was pretty nice. I mean, the games and everything. It's always nice to get to know people better.

[guestservices]

I definitely prefer to get along with people when I can! It's... hard sometimes, though.

[agleam]

[he tilts his head.]

Hard? How so?