Voice-testing, homeless, you know the drill...

[leveraging]

Look, uh... mundane? I don't know what you're worried about, you've got some experience at this thing.

[ . . . what ]

No, just... run with it for a second, will you? This roleplay you're doing - you're basically just pretending you're someone else, right? And your goal is to... what, compromise people with feelings, emotions, manipulate them like putty in your hand, right?

That's really not that different from what I do. What I did before. Though, to be fair, our kind of roleplaying was far more expansive... and involved... and meant to defraud people who deserve it, but that's beside the point...

[ . . . Nate, Nate. No, I do not want to be compared to you as a conman, okay? This is different. DIFFERENT. ]

My point is, you're worrying about this more than you should be. So just... relax, take a deep breath, straighten yourself out and let me talk. It's not that hard.

And if all else fails... we've got backup plans. Use them.

Comments

[secondshift]

I wanted to shoot him, but, you know. Ethics.

[leveraging]

Nothing wrong with that. Gotta settle with what you can based on what you can do, after all...

Me, I'd rather not have my hands stained with blood. My son... he wouldn't have approved, you know?

[ Destroying his career, though, is totally A-okay. ]

[secondshift]

Yeah, I get that. I guess maybe I haven't gotten over my anger yet.

[leveraging]

... does anyone?

Even if all the time in the world passes, the pain never really goes away. It just dulls and scars over, but it's still there.

[secondshift]

That's true.

I guess I'm just pissed, not just for me and our son and his parents but like, the state of California. My husband helped a lot of people and that's not just me being facetious.

[leveraging]

I think that the only thing you can do to honor his memory is to keep living for his sake.

For someone who's impacted so many people like he has, showing that the community can move on thanks to his efforts is one of the best ways to honor him.

Outside of creating something for him in his name, but I understand that some communities aren't able to do that.

[secondshift]

We've just kept his office empty. It's a start.

[leveraging]

Nothing wrong with that. Makes for a good memorial.

[secondshift]

Wow, we're kind of getting all nostalgic, aren't we?

[leveraging]

You call it nostalgia, I call it only revisiting the past. Nostalgia implies longing, wanting things that could have been.

Holding on to it too much means you miss out on the future... I speak from experience.

[secondshift]

I sense a story.

[leveraging]

It's just a bit of advice that Sophie gave me during a con. We were creating a legendary antique coupe using a story we concocted to get a corrupt Wall Street banker to break his plea bargain with the government.

I may or may not have made a comment about living just for the moment, though to be fair when you pull off a successful con there's quite the rush in it.