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[enflame]

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[enflame]

They're trying to headbutt my screen! They really don't like this turtle business!

( He quickly pushes the home button, making the turtle go away. Lisko looks up from their position, trying to find where their picture screen friend went. Scratch, scratch...why did they leave? )

I think they're actually pretty mad I showed them that. ( Teach them more words so you understand your kid more, Emil... )

[lalliho]

[Poor baby... This is why you gotta study when the dads teach words.]

Rub under their chin. We'll have to keep an eye out for turtles... I hope they don't see a lizard and hate it.

[enflame]

( Emil does as he's told, though Lisko still looks troubled, looking around, obviously antsy. They wanted that friend! To smell it and pap at it!! )

I think they're still upset...I wish this lizard could telepathically tell us things. ( He thinks about what Lalli looks like when he's upset -- "sensory overload;" that fancy phrase Akira used. He casually kicks the blanket up from around his feet and slips it over Lisko instead. It seems to distract them enough -- they now have a blanket hole to explore! )

That should work. I don't think they'd get mad at other lizards, would they? ...Actually, do you think they remember the lizard world at all?

[lalliho]

Yeah. Genette said no.

[Telepathy Lizard would have been much easier...]

…I don't know. I don't remember a lot from when I was little.

[enflame]

I'll show them a lizard and see what happens.

( He waits for an opportunity and sees Lisko's nose poke out from the blanket hole. Emi found a yellow, lizard thing. Time to show them his search results! Their beady eyes move from the screen to Em, somewhat confused. The scratching starts again, and they gurgle softly, trying to get to this friend too. )

Maybe they aren't angry. More like...kind of sad?

[lalliho]

Oh...

[That's. Upsetting.]

…Do you think we made the wrong choice?

[enflame]

No! No. ( Emil refuses to entertain that idea. He made the absolute right choice. If he had left them back on Aimintas, he would have felt horrible for abandoning them. They're happy, otherwise...just maybe lonely among nothing but humans. )

I guess they feel a little left out. We don't really look like they do. ( No more blanket tunes for you. With a grunt, Emil hefts them closer, making sure they can look at him. No more scratches; his tablet can't take any more of them. Instead, they focus their hands on his face, soft grabby paps. Thank goodness he's telepathically speaking, not using his mouth. )

[lalliho]

[Lalli's not so sure... Lalli's used to regretting nearly everything in life because of the decisions he's made. Lalli's spiraling.]

I guess. Maybe.

[enflame]

( Don't worry -- Inexperienced Optimist Emil is here to save the day. )

All we have to do is find them a lizard...or some lizard-like friend to hang out with for a while. Not a turtle, though.

( He's not as sold on those things. )

[lalliho]

Mrh.

[That's...true...]

I guess I can start...looking at people more when I give them stuff.

[Instead of avoiding all eye contact and running away as soon as he rings the doorbell or has his signature.]

[enflame]

I wonder if they'd be content with just an actual lizard. That's what they were looking at in the pictures -- actual animals. That should be easier to find than actual other world people.

( ...Actually what if this little shit is so spoiled they just want a pet, what the fuck. Lisko The Scammer. )

[lalliho]

I don't know. Maybe they speak a lizard language we don't. It... It feels really bad to not have anyone understand you.

[Lalli's greatest talent is that he can connect every depressing part of his life to another, making everything an unstoppable and infinite line of depression.]

[enflame]

I don't think so. They've only ever talked to us, and they know words we tell them and only make bubble noises otherwise.

( There, there, Lalli. ) We understand them most of the time... They just want family and friends, not only us.

( Having friends has turned out to be pretty great, so he can't blame them. His own melancholy comes from some underlying fatherly issues. Don't leave his nest too fast, Lisko. The lizard stops papping him only to collapse on their tummy, snoot resting on his face. Ow. )

[lalliho]

The bubble noises might be talking...

[The gods know how much Lalli considers Swedish and all those other Scandinavian atrocities to be weird noises rather than words...

Also...]

What are we, if we're not their family or friends?

[enflame]

Family. ( Said very astutely. He will hear no other verdict on the matter!! )

Babies just...sound like that, sometimes. It's gross. I'm sure lizards make that noise, too -- blub blub, remember?

[lalliho]

[He keeps his thoughts to himself. Half were too uncertain, and the other, too grim.]

…Blub blub.

[Such an enthusiastic assent.]

Making friends of my own is tiring enough.

[enflame]

There's not as much work in involved as I think you're imagining. We just have to take them to where lizards are, and Lisko is charming enough that they'll make friends on their own. Who wouldn't like them?

( Be friends with his kid Or Else is the true sentiment here. )

[lalliho]

Wherever that is.

[ugh!!! Now he's going to fret about lizards all day. And turtles. And friends.]

You said Ruby doesn't like them.

[enflame]

Ruby is strange and meek. She doesn't count. ( In the meantime, he's typing slowly into his Internet thing -- this shit really is great -- 'where are lizards?' and coming up with a lot of different things. )

I think there are stores here that have lizards. Small lizards. That's a start. ( grandpa is stil bad at reading the search results )

[lalliho]

[mumble grumble gramble, it does count!!!]

Maybe. They aren't people though, if they're in stores. I guess we have to try and see, but I don't think it's the same.

[enflame]

The pictures I'm showing them aren't...people. Well, you know what I mean. I don't know if they know that, though.

( Emil looks at Lisko, looking at him with shining eyes, almost like They Know. Chill out, little lizard -- you'll see kindred spirits soon enough. )

People are talking about that holiday coming up. It may be a good excuse to do something for them.

[lalliho]

Oh. I guess. You want to do that?

[Guess he'll have to dedicate some time to Not Working, then...and figure out gifts...]

[enflame]

Well, we always do something similar around this time back home. It seems natural enough to go along with it.

( Crimmus...well, Not!Crimmus, but close enough. )

[lalliho]

[Yule.....! The fact that they already have an equivalent holiday actually makes it weirder for Lalli, but he manages to keep that to himself. Maybe it was just because he was bad at the whole celebrating thing...]

Okay. What do you want, then?

[enflame]

For Sun-something? Hmm...

( He thinks about this carefully, while putting his tablet down to shuffle Lisko closer to his face. Hello, baby...getting gifts for a baby lizard is easy enough, but what does he want? )

A sweater or two would be nice, but I wouldn't mind if you surprised me. ( He's greatly enhanced his wardrobe in Shehui, but his closet could always use some expanding. Also, he likes to have some knowledge that he'll like what he's getting, but he's also morbidly curious about what Lalli would get him unprompted. ) What do you want?