"Hi Valentine thanks for the ride!!"

Backpack goes in the back. Camillo goes in the front. Valentine goes in Sultana.

“Happy to miss the meeting!”

Valentine has five stars by his name. Unfortunately, this means he costs 1500 Pearls, just like Z would have.

He’s saved up just enough overnight and through the train ride.

Noooo ... his pearls ......... he still needs to buy Cato ......

Whatever. Worth it!!

Valentine shows up in his Stable.

He's breathing at a normal speed.

"Hey Valentine can I ask you a..."

Uh. Actually, if he makes Valentine crash the car, he won't be in good shape to roll anything back.

"...later question. Ask you a question later. When we get home."

“—yes, of course.”

Valentine is, by necessity, good at driving through a sense of impending doom, so there’s no change.

“Is everything all right?”

"--yeah! Nothing bad. Just -- making some big decisions."

Why does he ever open his mouth.

“Understood,” he says, catastrophically worried and driving very well.

He could look at Valentine's thoughts, but honestly, what would be the point? He already knows.

He tells him little details about what he’s missed in the past couple of weeks, things he doesn’t care especially about following up on and that wouldn’t be too terrible to repeat a second time.

As soon as they’re up the driveway, he — doesn’t look at him waiting for an explanation. He waits to see if he gets out of the car.

He has fifty pearls? He has fifty pearls. Right. Here goes.

"Okay. Weird hypothetical. If I had the ability to magically mess with people's minds and bodies. And I got points for it that I could use to, like, cure polio and make gay marriage legal in Iran, or whatever. But -- in this hypothetical--"

He can't make eye contact. He will completely lose his ability to keep saying this insane thing. "--uh, in this hypothetical, I can't do it with consent. Like, it doesn't work if the person knows what's going on. Would you be okay with me doing it to you."

…this was really not on his list of possibilities.

“…in this…hypothetical.”

He sighs, goes into Sultana, and turns his hair bright red.

“Oh.”

"Sorry."

"Can we just stipulate you're not having a psychotic break and get an answer to my question."

“Yes, of course, I…”

This is a lot to process. He takes a deep breath.

“…cure polio, you said. Gay marriage legal in Iran. That sort of…scale. For — doing what, exactly?”

"Just sort of ... messing with people? I gave Z fangs and, uh, a craving for steak tartare. -- you can't make specific requests. I have to make you forget this conversation, and that makes me forget too. I just know if you said yes."

He turns his hair back a normal color. It keeps showing up out of the corner of his eye, and it's distracting.

If that’s really the question, then…

“💧︎❄︎✋︎👍︎😐︎✋︎☠︎☝︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎☼︎ ☠︎⚐︎💧︎☜︎ 🕈︎☟︎☜︎☼︎☜︎ ✋︎❄︎ 👎︎⚐︎☜︎💧︎☠︎’❄︎ 👌︎☜︎☹︎⚐︎☠︎☝︎✍︎”

He rolls it back.

Valentine stares foggily into the middle distance for his allotted ten seconds,

and then looks back up at Camillo, waiting for his terrible revelation.

Oh shit he needs a terrible revelation.

Uh.

"I think Z wants to date me."

“…yes,” he says, inviting him to go on.