Desperate Fans

Claudius sighs. This is why he shouldn't abandon conversational responsibility -- try to start a light-hearted banter about a boy's taste in other boys, and someone will veer so hard from the subject they end up bringing up dead friends. Easy to do, Claudius thinks, when you're one of those dead friends yourself. "Perhaps in time he will be. You learn never to rule out a possibility, in a place like this."