Jake was as usual totally unaware of what Randall really felt like.

At ten years old, he just hadn't really caught up to speed with how annoyed adults could get about these things. Even monster adults. But either way, he wasn't exactly too afraid of the lizard with a whole bunch of friendlier monsters around anyway. "Well, I'm sure Sulley was pretty intimidating and all, he's like so big," Jake admitted. "No offense, but a lot of kids are more scared of big monsters. Y'know?"

Bouncing off the walls and trying to get home? Ha! People really underestimated how bad the human world was, didn't they? He really couldn't be sure but he still spoke up. "I mean, I guess I wouldn't be too sad about going home. But I um... I have reasons," He said looking to the side. After all, he wasn't about to tell just about anyone about his home life. "Besides, the human world is so boring. I love monsters... I always have."

Wait, trying to solve the energy crisis? He frowned a bit. "I don't think there's even an energy crisis to solve. I heard they fixed that, with laughs," man he felt smart. Being able to say stuff even adults didn't know. "You don't think they'd just stop scaring kids for no reason, did you?"

Top Scarer...  Whatever Randall's reasons he already had it good before his crimes.

"I made top scarer at least once in my time." he shared, he wondered if this other motivated his crimes, and who his rival might be. He smirked at Jacob really not wanting to go home. "The human world is so dull they create fantasies. Our world to them is a fantasy world." he proclaimed.

"Yes, laughter was the solution. When I left there was a potential crisis on the horizon, for that reason I took extra courses. Double major, plus a minor." he groaned. "Hard work, but as long as I remember them, will help with new job."

He pondered something to himself a moment, and then answered Randall's final question. "I don't know who. I have vague memory of the event. However it will come back to me." He looked to Jacob. "Remember child, just as scaring was only our job, so is... entertaining. They are doing it to produce energy, not from the goodness of their hearts." He seemed to have a cynical view about monsters.

"Yeah... that's generally how it goes." Randall muttered to Jake's first statement. "You're big, hairy, and fairly loud, you can scare kids. I had to be a bit more inventive with my own techniques." He acknowledged. As Jake stated the human world was boring, Randall actually found himself smirking and uttering a small chuckle at that, his shoulders slumping as he did so. "Oh man... yeah... I guess to you this must seem exotic... I guess I could see that." He mused aloud. "I admit, I never really considered how one of you humans would see our world... wasn't exactly focused on that because..." He pointed to Chupacabra, wagging a finger. "As he said... going into your world was just a job... and a good one to boot; helping to power the world and get paid well to do so." He explained, having heard Jake state he had "reasons" for not wanting to go back, but honestly not caring at the moment about this human's motivations for staying. It was apparently all right with all staff and he was in no position to make it otherwise. 

"Eh, I just know in your uh... shoes..." He said, looking down to the kid's feet. "I'd be doing whatever I could to get back." He concluded. "As for the changes, I have literally no idea why or how laughter is more powerful... but I can't say I'm sold on that... at all." He muttered again. He raised his fronds once more at Chupacabra's words. "You? Top scarer?" He asked, folding his uppermost arms over his chest. "Good for you." He said, but wasn't being sarcastic. "Must've been a hell of a scarer in your day." He commented. "So..." Clearing his throat, he shifted his gaze to the monster. "You can't remember... well... I might still have some contacts here and there... unsure if they'll talk to me, but if they do... you throw me something, maybe I could find out for ya." He offered, inwardly pleased he could help another monster's revenge plot. Already he was stirring up trouble; he just had to be careful how he did that. Too much attention and the authorities would come crashing down on him like a wall of bricks. 

Top scarer was a big thing wasn't it?

Though he didn't think about how exotic it exactly was either. He hadn't really actually thought of it. But he guessed it did help that he had always surrounded himself with monster stuff too. Though then again... Honestly he was going over it in his head. Just how fantastical was it to the kids who didn't read or do research? "I mean, I was telling him too. I was a big monster fan," he explained honestly. "I love reading about them, and legends. They call a lot of them Cryptids. There's even a whole field of science, did you know that?"


OH. If he were in his shoes he definitely wouldn't be saying that. But he didn't say anything about that, not wanting to really put himself out there like that still. "I guess I wouldn't mind going home. It's just... Sometimes I think that the monster world is better," He explained. "Like that feeling I don't really belong where I was y'know? I don't know... Sometimes I feel like people didn't get me back home."

Did that mean people got him here all the time Probably not, but at the same time he felt way more in his element. "But laugh power is really powerful. Least from what I've seen. And I sneak down here a lot." He admitted.

Chupacabra scoffed, "Job pays well.if you don't end up stuck in the other world after two years."

He hrmed, tilting his head. "Laughter was in the beginnings of research when I was in college. Dangerous instability must have shuttered it." he wasn't the only thing a decade behind. "I remember helping a friend write a paper on it."

Was that related to his disappearance?

He nodded to Randall. "Don't risk your neck for me." he chuckled a bit at his joke. "Find out who. Companions may sell him, or her, out. Only if police cannot handle it, I will handle dirty work."

He turned his attention to Jacob, "Here that science is simply biology." he chuckled. His spirits seemed to be lifting. "Some monsters enjoy your world. Feasible the reverse can be true. Though it sounds you have... other issues, if you don't miss family."

"Yeah, that I knew, of course." Randall nodded. "The Loch Ness Monster, the Yeti... they're all real to us... they've just been banished and live in your world." He explained, frowning slightly. This kid studied this type of thing? What was he, like a nerd? Gulping, Randall was suddenly thinking back to his own childhood, and his own intense interests in scaring... but he promptly shook his head. This was stupid; he wasn't anything like this brat. But damn... was he really this annoying growing up? 

"Eheh... join the club." He muttered, knowing he wouldn't belong here, yet had to make his mark again... had to get back what he had somehow. "You probably shouldn't be sneaking down here, kid. This is an active... whatever they call it... laugh floor, and we monsters have to work." He pointed out. "Is there like a place you should be?" he asked, looking down to Jake briefly. 

"Yeah well... lucky for me, I should still have a secret account they haven't touched yet; unsure how much I still have left in it but... it might be enough to get me a place for now since I have... no place to stay." He replied to Chupacabra, partly growling the words. "And hey, if you insist, buddy." he added, holding his finger to his thumb. "You want to get your hands dirty, be my guest." He then paused as Chupacabra seemed to be driving at something with Jake's family, and he didn't interrupt, though he didn't have much further to say, deciding to at least listen to what the kid had for an answer. 

Wait, they were all banished?

Why the heck would someone banish some of the coolest monsters!? Jake almost seemed a little disturbed by that, after all he'd have killed to meet some of these in person. But he guessed he could officially cross that off of his "to-do list". He was thinking on it when Randall mentioned how he probably shouldn't be on the floor, or how there might have been somewhere he should be.

Well, he'd never!

Well, OK so it was true - but he'd be damned before he was told he was not supposed to be here by someone who was lead in by guards. "Well, that makes two of us, doesn't it?" He said in a matter-of-fact tone to his voice. "Because I get the feeling you're not exactly supposed to be here either."

Other issues. Jake froze up a little when the Chupucabra brought that up. He tugged a little at his shirt to cover his bruise and seemed a little shy about it. "I mean... I just... It's complicated," He admitted that much. "But it's not really my "family'. It's really just my dad and I."

El Chupacabra nodded, "Billy the Kid, The Boogeyman; Criminals make for great stories." he shrugged, it made sense enough to him. 

"He, presumably is here to clear out his desk." he said speaking metaphorically, "Myself however..." as strange as his circumstances, he belonged here on the laugh floor even less, and the strangeness of the three of them was what kept anyone from pointing that out, really.

"I can sympathize with your plight." he noted. "You do not wish to talk." he noticed, and stated so plainly. "Still, I have more to do while I am in the facility." the monster explained, his eyes looking around for a while, focusing on a vent, through which he would soon make his exit. "Thank you both, our paths will surely consider to cross."

This time, Randall decided to answer Chupacabra first in regards to Jake pointing out the purple monster shouldn't have been here either. "Actually..." He began emphatically. "I am here by court order... I think they're hoping I'll lead them to some secret lair or something." He said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "I don't have one anymore, so I can't lead them to what doesn't exist. I'm pretty much on my own otherwise... no place to stay, as I said earlier." He grumbled that last part. 

"Eh I didn't mean anything by it." He waved one of his upper hands now to Chupacabra. "Didn't mean to brush ya off if that's what ya thought.. I was just offering my services." He clarified. But as Chupacabra brought up the "other issues", Randall's eyes flicked downwards to Jake as he answered, and when he caught the subtle shifting of his sleeve, his lips pursed. 

"Wait!" He exclaimed, the lower of his hands shooting out to seize Jake's arm and yank it up, but not hard. His green eyes blazed intensely as he suddenly jerked the sleeve down, exposing the discolored splotches that marked the child's skin. For a moment, his grip tightened, and a look of sheer recognition and horror crossed his features. It was like he was seeing a ghost, but then his hand relaxed, becoming far more gentle before releasing Jake from its grasp. Stumbling backwards, Randall shook his head, an unexpected change having passed over him in mere seconds. "That's..." He lurched forwards, gripping the frame of the nearby door to steady himself, his knuckles turning white from the effort. 

This was abuse, plain and simple. Looking downwards, the serpentine monster was actually shaking, as if there were a small earthquake rattling the building. While he had no qualms about kidnapping children in the past, this... this was a basic thing drilled into scarers from their earliest classes in college... it wasn't permissible in the human world, and it wasn't permissible here. It not only made the child less likely to be frightened of monsters in the closet, it was the infliction of physical pain on someone far less capable of defending themselves. Still clutching the frame tightly and not looking up, Randall finally spoke. "Do you... do you have a monster assigned to you? A... jokester or whatever it's called?" he asked through clenched teeth. 

Jake had to do a double take. Billy the Kid? Maybe that was something to ask about later.

He could however sympathize to a point with Randall. He knew what it felt like to pretty much have nowhere to turn to. Sure, he'd always had a "home". But how many times had he come home to no food? Or to a completely empty house? Too many times. Of course, he had a feeling it wouldn't last that way for long with Randall however. "I'm sure you'll at least be able to find a place easy," Jake replied. "You have to have friends in the city right?"

He... Was not expecting Randall to grab him like that.

His first reaction was abject terror until he realized what he was doing. But it didn't help much, his eyes widened into little saucers. And the moment he could, he seized his army back and rubbed it, shaking his head. "It's nothing! I played some sports back home. I got 'em in an accident." He defended rather quickly. Not wanting even a monster to know - given his dad's threats. "It's just... Nothing. Doesn't even hurt anymore."

Anyone assigned to him? Jake gulped, not wanting to get anyone in trouble by the way that Randall was shaking. "I mean, of course I do. Tylor was my Jokester," He explained. "At least right now - I used to have a scarer too but that was a long time ago..."

He backed up a little. "I should probably go back now..." He offered in an attempt to get out of this conversation.

"Ironic, huh?" Chupacabra said in response to Randall being the only one who should be here on the Laugh Floor.

He recoiled, but should have seen Randall's actions coming. He shuddered, looking down. "Oh boy. Child. Understand, this is a very uncomfortable situation." he moved toward the wall and the vent, looking to each of them. Randall had standards for a villain, if nothing else.

"Yes. Your... jokester." the word came out with difficulty. "Go to someone you can trust about this. This is a very serious situation. Go to Tylor if you can trust them, unless it is them." he naturally knew little otherwise.

It was clear that he didn't want to deal with the situation further, not only by his redirection, but also that his claws shredded through the edges of the vent. The noise surely drawing attention, and he would disappear in short order, into the darkness within.

Those are not from an accident." Randall said, rotating his head to peer at Jake and partially Chupacabra. "Been through a lot... I know what's what." He replied insistently, almost darkly. Sighing, he pushed off from the door now, seeing that everyone was apparently getting ready to leave, and a pang of guilt washed through him over how he'd handled the child. "Uh... kid... uh... look... sorry about earlier." He said, waving his lower hands in small, circular motions as his upper ones were almost shrugging with the hands out. "If you uh... I'm not sure you should walk back on your own... if you want, I could at least walk you over there." While feeling guilt, he was also hoping this might look good on his tracker, as he knew that damn collar was pinging his location every place he went.

And Tylor? Tylor who? It wasn't a name Randall was immediately familiar with; he'd need to look in to this at a later time, see if his... jokester knew about this abuse. Still... he figured it wasn't good if the kid was wandering around on his own since... it was either Tylor or his father... the kid hadn't mentioned anyone else, and if the former... danger could be right around the corner, and that was something Randall wasn't willing to risk right now. 

Not from an accident? Of course the guy had to be smart.

Jake chewed the inside of his lip deep in thought. A part of him wanted to brush the lizard off, but that was him with most adults. Or at least one's he didn't know well. If nothing else, he had always been friendly or nerded out with the monsters. But they were still adults - for the most part. And when adults started to get onto him bad things usually started to happen. Or, people were just frankly pretending to care - that happened a lot as well.

Still, he decided to avoid the question and focus on the apology. "It's whatever. Not the first time," He shrugged a little, completely dodging the subject now. "You can come with me if you want. But it isn't anything special. Just our living quarters and all."

"I'm not really interested in the living quarters." Randall replied, nearly muttering the words as he moved to Jake's side. "I don't know the way, so you may as well lead." He pointed out, gesturing with one of his lower hands for Jake to start walking. "I've got other concerns about why you shouldn't be off on your own right now." he added, figuring it should be fairly obvious to Jake as to why. 

Tylor... Randall rolled that name over in his head again, trying to think if it rang any bells with him, but he was drawing blanks. There weren't any Tylor's on his scare floor from his time, as far as he knew, so perhaps a newcomer? It had been six years, after all. "So... how long you been here?" he asked, figuring it was best to make casual conversation after clearly putting the kid on edge; he didn't need an awkward walk back to the room. Folding all his arms behind his back for the moment, he looked down to Jake for his response. 

Jake could already tell he was thinking it was Tylor’s fault.

That wasn’t exactly true, after all, Jake had been really good at hiding his bruises. And obviously, Tylor wasn’t going to hit him. Tylor was his friend, or at least he had assumed so by this point. “I know what you’re getting at. Tylor doesn’t hit me, he’s a goofball but he’s my friend,” he said very pointedly, and that wasn’t a lie. “See this is why I didn’t want people to see my bruises. I live on a farm, shit happens all the time.”

Of course, Jake cursing might have thrown any adult off. But given the fowl-mouthed nature of his dad? It wasn’t too shocking,

He’d been turning the corner to lead the way to where he’d been “living” and started to say… “Uh about a week I think? I’ve lost…” though he was a little stunned when some random, smaller lizard creature launched itself out of nowhere. “Uhhh did anyone else see that?”