Welcome to Gaia! ::

Aside from what was visible of the wallpaper, what he was typing didn't seem to be of interest: a long list of apparently-unrelated words, organized into two columns. Pointedly he minimized the window, remembered the wallpaper, pulled it back up, then remembered that it was America, who wouldn't care, and minimized it again.

"It isn't fun. Or at least it's fun for a minute but the fun isn't the point," he agreed mildly, apparently unruffled by Ever's nosiness. "Anyway that doesn't answer my question, but I take it from the non-answer that what he did was stand around smiling that robot smile of his--" and here Taym produced an imitation of H's benevolent smile that was truly unsettling in its accuracy "--and saying nothing."

"I'm not sneezing at ecstasy," he said, and this was actually a very tiny drug joke but Ever, not being a fan of heroin, probably wouldn't get it, "I just--it's different."

He started typing again as soon as Ever was no longer hovering. "There's a rush or whatever, there's a body high, but that isn't the point. Not for me anyway. ******** that, I just wanted the nod. It's that feeling when you wake up and it's your day off so you can just ********' sit there. Hollows you out. People who take meth say it makes you certain of your own genius. Heroin makes you a grateful idiot."

This still did not sound like fun, maybe. He refrained from also mentioning that getting laid would cease to be a concern. This was one of heroin's better selling points, in his opinion.

"Anyway, it's not embarrassing myself that I was curious about." For once. "I just wanted to know if he was watching me like a hawk all proud of himself for making me do something he thought, mistakenly, I'd find tragic. It wasn't a hard decision. There was no ********' dilemma. I'm under intense scrutiny for a few hours, injecting safe material with a fresh rig after two years of absence and without any immediate way to get my hands on any more. Risk ********' free. Why the ******** wouldn't I?" All this, thick with derision. If that had been one of H's motivations, Taym clearly thought less of the doctor's intelligence for it. "They wanna give me a couple of hours out of my head and all the safety in the world to do it in they can be my ********' guest. My boss," he informed him abruptly, "seems to think that Dr. H likes to see people made into lesser versions of themselves, and will go out of his way to see it happen. Does that bother you? Since he's your boss, and all."

Instead, after a pause (during which Taym thought not about himself or any of the dozen people he'd seen broken by Deus but about America telling him that she'd thought she was only good for breaking things until she'd come here), what he got was exactly that.

"It does that, for some people. If I'm pissing you off trying to talk shop and raining all over your good mood feel free to leave, by the way."

"I have a daughter, you know. Five years old. Old habits, blah blah. I know how ******** unlikeable I am," he added tonelessly. "There's a lot of reasons I spent eight years on heroin. Dr. H claims he's a father figure, too. I guess I need to work on my creepy smiles and condescending terms of endearment to make it go down smoother."

"If I were any good at it I'd be out there with her," he observed quietly. "I just told you that I knew how ********' ineffective it is. You're kind of a snide a*****e yourself, but I have been consciously attempting to avoid pointing that out at every opportunity. I'll go back to it."

"America Jones."

The faintest hesitation, but it wasn't Taym's place to tell America's secrets. How is she was a loaded question with America right now, one that he hesitated over asking her.

"She was. She's out now and fine. She'd ********' love that," he added, with a wry and crooked grin turned secretive down at the screen rather than at Ever. "She likes strawberries. And peaches. And chocolate, yeah. Bring her back something for her minipet, too--toy or something--and you'll be in her good books forever."

This time it was Taym's turn to bite back a sarcastic comment, about China white and a fresh rig. Instead he gave him a skeptical sideways glance, and chose to accept the offer as an olive branch whether it was intended that way or not. It meant that Ever got no quip at all in return.

"No, but thanks for asking." A pause, and then, with grim exhaustion: "See you next testing session."