The atmosphere aboard the USS Enterprise was less tense recently as Lore seemed to be in a better mood. He was still very unhappy about being kept here against his will, but he seemed to be too busy making life horrible for everyone else to really think about it.
Lore had sort of become the ship's honorary prankster, and he had taken Wesley under his wing as a twisted protege. The ensign appeared to have forgiven Lore, as well as many others on the ship.
Lore had been on a forgiveness rampage, apologizing to anyone he believed he may have wronged, and extracting forgiveness by any means necessary. For instance, Lore apologized to Picard recently, and when the captain did not wholeheartedly forgive him, Lore had dumped all of his expensive earl grey tea bags into space. Picard hadn't liked that very much, but he told Lore he was forgiven anyway, just so he would leave. He was becoming worse than Q, which was saying a lot.
Currently, Lore was conversing with Guinan and Worf in the mess hall, telling jokes. The other day, he had had Geordi program a joke code into him that allowed him to come up with original jokes on the spot. Guinan and Worf didn't know how Lore had managed to get Geordi to do that, but they suspected it had to do with his VISOR going inexplicably missing for a week.
"Ok so tell me if you've heard this one," Lore began, "A Ferengi walks into a bar-" he was cut off when Guinan raised a hand.
"Please, no more bar jokes, I can't take anymore," she said, tears in her eyes. Worf nodded, unable to speak through his silent laughter. He looked like he was dying, gasping for breath the way he was.
Lore grinned. He hadn't felt this happy since… well, forever, actually.
"I think that's enough jokes for today," Guinan said, wiping her cheek with a sleeve. "We want our stomachs to stay intact."
"Weak," Lore quipped with a smirk. Guinan gaped at him dramatically.
"Who you calling weak? You won't think that when I'm done with you," she answered, reaching underneath the bar.
"Careful Guinan, don't want to get in trouble with Picard for destroying Data number two over here," Worf said, finally able to talk.
Lore's mood immediately soured. There was a lot he could take, but being grouped with his brother was not one of them. Data and Dr. Crusher were the last two crew members he had to apologize to, and he had yet to take those steps. He hadn't apologized to Dr. Crusher because he had physically hurt her, and had threatened her son. The maternal instinct was something that only fools messed with. And Data, well… his problems with Data went deeper.
Worf seemed to sense that he had hit a nerve and winced.
"I'm sorry, Lore, I should have thought that through," he apologized.
"It's fine," Lore answered stiffly. He stood from his stool abruptly. "I think it's time for me to leave. I have… stuff to do."
"Stuff" likely consisted of Lore squirrelling away into his room and throwing things. Or maybe stewing in his feelings. Whatever it was, he couldn't handle being in this room right now.
Lore missed whatever Worf and Guinan said, as he had already vacated the mess hall. He started walking towards his quarters but paused. And then he made a decision. This isn't what he needed right now. He needed to fix this problem, or else it would eat him from the inside out. And he knew just the perfect person to help.