Hurray! He might be slightly more sensitive if Epibat was something of a friend of his, too, but mostly he's curious about what she thinks and feels about it all.

That sounds reasonable! Durian didn't play FLARP, but he followed whatever boards there are to the game, and would've chatted with the more social players. They probably were friendly and exchanged their curious intellectual thoughts. Until Epibat died, and Durian got curious about just what had happened... at which point he would have started trolling Pherae more often.

Hmm. Whereabouts does she live?