Re: lakeside mansion; hugh c./dietre a.
Dietre’s number of friends had dwindled while he was in Quiet Home. Misha had disappeared and Damian was no help in finding out what happened. Daniel, too, had vanished without a word. Adrian was at least contactable, but was sequestered in an undisclosed location, supposedly for his own good. That left Noah, who was very nice, and very friendly, but had a whole other social life that did not include Dietre. He didn’t feel that they were close enough friends for him to bother with his problems. Dietre hated to be a burden.
“Feel free to talk as much as you please,” Dietre offered. “The more you talk, the less I have to figure out something to say…” Yes, he was attempting, just a little, to joke. His sense of humor hardly had a pulse. It was very subtle, and definitely dry. Dietre wasn’t entirely joking, however. He did like for other people to do the talking, he was just so bad at it. His life was so dull and miserable, he felt he never had anything interesting to say.
“Hm…” He paused to think before answering. “I prefer novels if I plan to spend some time reading. Poems I enjoy more on an individual level. But I do enjoy both quite a bit.” Even before he was officially released from Quiet Home the first time he was committed, when he first came to Repose, he was allowed day trips to the library. He continued to visit whenever he was in need of reading rather than actually buy books. He might have come from money, but being disowned and working at a carnival meant he was now in a much lower income bracket. He could not justify paying for books if he could read them for free.
“...I don’t think I’ve read any plays, aside from Shakespeare.” He wasn’t sure he’d like them much. He wanted to know a character’s thoughts and feelings. You didn’t really get that from a written play. He kept this opinion to himself, though, not wanting to offend Hugh.