Welcome to Gaia! ::

I slung my arm around Gene's shoulder, still watching Richard carefully. "I'm with you, Gene. I can't draw to save my life! I can't do a lot, actually." Except for sleep. That I was sure I could do. I pulled Gene closer. "You look a bit edgey. Is everything ok??"

"Sorry. I just... you would not understand it. It is not at all rational." Gene tried a small smile, hoping to reassure his new friends. He had not meant to worry them with his behavior, but he did get extremely nervous about even saying certain things. Things that did not follow a strict line of sense and logic. Irrational things.

"That is irrational. No one can really do such a thing. To say otherwise would make me a liar or deluded. Rational people cannot believe in that. I am a rational person." Gene said the words in a monotone as if Richard's words had set off a recording. It was not far from the truth; he had these ideas drilled into his head repeatedly until he believed them. He thought he believed them, but Richard had guessed so close to the truth... to what he had thought was the truth... it shook Gene's foundation in his parents' rationality. He briefly chewed his lower lip. When he speaks it is almost too quietly to be heard. "But... I used to think something like that. That I could turn into a cat. It started after I was kidnapped years ago... My parents tell me I must have made it up. I imagined that my kidnapping was more than just that. A kind of... escapism. But they don't believe in escapism, so they fixed me. I understand nothing like that can be real now." Gene exhaled slowly, feeling calmer despite having spoken more in one go than he ever had before. He still did not know how the others would react to his childish delusions, but the die was already cast. Worrying about it now was illogical and would change nothing. Gene continued to eat in quiet calm.

I walked around to Gene, and whispered so that Rae couldn't hear, "Don't worry, I know what happened, it was no escape," I was so happy to tell someone, someone who knew, someone who could understand. I turned to the picture of me and wrote Don't Worry Underneath. I began to laugh, "Oh course, but wouldn't it be so cool," I lefted Gene's chin, and gave him a I know look.

Gene looked at Richard wide eyed and found he could say nothing. This was not possible, it was not rational. It was some kind of trick; Richard intended to trick him some how and make fun of him. That had to be the reason Richard was pretending to know about what had happened to Gene. But that did not really make sense either. How would Richard have known enough about him to lure him into lowering his defenses and talking about what happened to him, what he thought happened to him? "I suppose it would be cool." Gene finally says quietly. He wanted to call Richard a liar and just run from the cafeteria, but he did no such thing. Who could possibly understand why he would? As much as Gene was nervous about opening himself to whatever Richard had planned, he had no choice but to bide his time and at least hope that it would be done swiftly so he could return to his usual routine.

"Well, I enjoy standing up for people. Especially for you, because you are awesome. I gave you my number for a reason." Gavner smiled.

"Well I won't ignore you. No, I will not. Call me or text anytime, hun." He called alot of people hun, it was his thing.