#2) i feel like ur not complaining about writing gunmeister smith

[empiriical]

"oh, i get it," elmer says, voice cheerful as ever, as if he's solved a riddle instead of, apparently, the inner workings of a hitman-with-no-record's mind. "hm. that's too bad."

elmer, for all his lack of tact, has a keen intuition. smiles reveal so much. but even in the absence of one...

"what you're saying is that you want something that would result in you not being able to be considered 'good' by other people's standards. you're definitely not the only person in the world who has that desire! although, i think they're thinking more less about what other people think, && more about what they want. && that's fair too! if it makes them happy, who am i to judge?"

smiling brilliantly at laz, elmer has a look about him of a mad genius math professor who's just completed an enigmatic equation. then he claps his hands together in childish delight, && that illusion is shattered. "that's the thing — i really don't care if you're good or not. as long as you can smile, nothing else matters to me. although, if you're going to kill people at some point in the future, could you do me a favor && try to make sure they die happy? then everyone wins!"

then, expression turning oddly serious, he places a hand on the man's shoulder, forcing eye contact. "so i guess that just leaves one issue, mister gunmeister smith — will killing someone make you happy?"

❛ you're a pretty good guy yourself, so relax and just live. ❜ / elmer for laz. idk what this is. take it

He stops short before managing to speak, jaw shutting with a quick snap so he doesn't say something he's not prepared to.

They haven't encountered eachother more than once, so Laz doesn't know what to make of Elmer C. Albatross quite yet. He's something like the simplest possible enigma---while Laz can figure him out relatively quickly, the question was never "what". It was "how".

Obviously, he shouldn't want to hear something like that. It's the opposite of the image he strives for, though he gets the impression that Elmer wouldn't actually fear him even if he were a madman who killed for the fun of it. In any case, there's not really a reason Laz should want to hear the words "you're a pretty good guy" out of anyone's mouth, even if it is coming from someone like Elmer.

Not everyone is as quick to accept the things people lay out in front of them as Graham.

He reaches up and tugs the brim of his hat just enough to obscure his eyes, which surely hold unwarranted frustration.

"Tch ... As if you could assign a word like 'good' to a lunatic."

But Elmer isn't wrong. He's the only hitman he knows to have yet to take a life, and he's too cowardly to carry through with something like that in the first place. Laz knows that if there were ever such a thing as a "good" hitman, he would be the closest thing to it.

"Those of us with ambition don't have the luxury of relaxing. If even one person still thinks I'm good, I haven't done enough."

just elmer things. / accepting.