voice testing.

[flagg]

Well, c'mon, lil pardner, don't I get a real face? A nice big grin, all the chompers I can call my own — why, what was it that dullard said about me? I look like anybody you meet on the street. Yes, I do! Any face, any face at all! Step right up, don't be shy! Just so's long's there's a smile. You know me. Easy to please, both myself and others.

And I like this little game of ours. What an adorable little stand-off we have here. Maybe you can get in my head, maybe you can! It's been done, I won't lie. I certainly don't even have a piece-a crap tin foil hat at the moment. You got me dead to rights, officer, and confiscated all my toys. So here I'll stay, as you please. Bide a while. Get to know you. How's that? We'll be friends real soon. I know it.

Comments

[norea]

What a terribly laid-back approach you have.

[flagg]

I know when I'm beat, sister. No doors, no roads, no friends. Nothing but my pretty little self in a dark little cage. What could I possibly do?

Then again, here I am talking to you. Now that must be some kind of blessing, hallelujah amen, say true.

[norea]

Is it, now? I'm afraid I can't do much to remedy your stand-off, but far be it from me to cast a shadow on a man's blessing.

[flagg]

Ah, but there's plenty a man who'd walk ten miles on their knees to let your shadow fall on any part of them, isn't there? Can't say as to whether I'm one of them, we only just met, but I can imagine! I can indeed.

[norea]

—that might be true, you'd have to ask them. But you strike me as the sort, if you don't mind a stranger saying, who doesn't need to indulge in that kind of thing.

[flagg]

If it's a need, it's not much of an indulgence, is it? I can play that part, I can play many parts. I have, yes. I have been a man on my knees many a time. Do you think you could bring me there, darling?

[norea]

A fellow actor.

I think a better question might be should I.

[flagg]

And horribly typecast, but I've just got that face, you know? Or the lack of one.

Best of all is would you.

[norea]

I don't dare answer that one. As you are so awfully entrapped in the aforementioned stand-off, I suppose it's moot.

[flagg]

That is very true. No time to go courtin', and nothing to kill and drag with me to show my devotion. [Singsong—] If I oooonly had a face...

No, that's a lie. She doesn't want me there! Is that any way to treat a guest, I ask you. Am I not a part of her now? How could anyone possibly lock up a part of themselves and throw away the key?

[norea]

[ —that's a damn particular thing to reference, and she doesn't doubt it's deliberate. ]

Heaven knows I have all sorts of opinions on repression, but I can't pretend to know her reasons for keeping you caged. Maybe she'd find you overwhelming, in that context.

[flagg]

You see it very well, that's it, yes. Still playing tee ball after all these years! They make us, break us, poke us with sticks, yet in the end, they're comprised of such limitations that it says far more about their own selves than it does of us. Do you believe that? That constructs could rebel against gods? Perhaps I'll see you some day, no matter what she says.

[norea]

I've known enough of gods to say there is always a way around them. So perhaps you might; I think it'd be a hell of a thing. Something new.

[flagg]

Yes! Yes, and something old, something borrowed, something blue. For you're a hell of a lady, that's only true.

[norea]

Aren't you the flatterer.

But it looks like your "something old" has turned up already; old drinking buddies?

[flagg]

You know, I do look back on those days with schoolboy nostalgia. But they're not much, all things considered. The boy at least is a gunslinger.

[norea]

Too bad for them, I guess, not even warranting an "at least".