Eventually, Emil's laughter dwindled into snickering and then faded away completely. It was a good laugh. He wasn't impressed with Russel yelling at him - people yelled at him all the time - but he was making a good point. This ah, condition might make it hard for him to leave his house... or use the internet. Or watch TV. Heck, maybe even read certain books.

"You look fine to me," he remarked. He sounded pretty unsympathetic, but in fact he was watching Russel closely. "You feeling bad or something?"

It was genuine concern. It was a silly prank, Emil didn't want to hurt him. Surely his past self wouldn't have done it constantly if it was really dangerous...?