"I ..." Lance looked away, one hand rising automatically to thumb at the crook of his elbow. Even after having told the story over and over, it was the same with every retelling. "I don't know how much you remember or knew of it--back there, but I was using drugs when I first got there. Stopped there, but then when I came back out, I guess I just ... picked up where I left off."

He exhaled, glancing back over at Sefton and finding a wan smile from somewhere. "I'm off now, but ... my coming to people with someone I'm claiming I met in my travels? Or worse, trying to claim you're from an alternate dimension? Either way it'll make people wonder. I don't exactly have much credibility these days." Not yet.