@larry.trainor

[testflight]

[ posted late at night, the musings of an old man who cannot sleep and has spent too long browsing the news: ]

I know there are a lot of plants and yes, they're growing very fast, but

an entire political platform running mainly on getting rid of them? Really? There's got to be a better way.

[ he likes plants. ]

Comments

[testflight]

No. Or no more than any other place, I think.

[ and maybe now he's the one prying, but - ]

Is that what makes you so angry? This place.

private forever

[bloodbathing]

[ Maine's first impulse is to say that it's none of Larry's business. Brush the question aside as he has so many times before. But he catches himself. Reminds himself that Larry felt that rage without recoiling.

It still takes him a few minutes to answer. When he does, the message is private. (He'll talk about sweet dogs publicly, but his emotions? Hell no.) ]

Anger is easy. Useful. Keeps me moving. Better than feeling upset about shit.

[testflight]

[ the response takes a while and larry very nearly apologises and withdraws the question, never mind, it isn't important —

but then the answer does come. private, yes, but that makes it feel more important. ]

I used to be angry. Not here, not because of any place. There was something inside me and I was angry at it a lot.

[ the negative spirit, literally, but also —his homosexuality, that he wasn't normal, that he wasn't as he believed he should be, had to be. ]

I don't think it ever kept me moving.

I'm glad it's different for you.

[bloodbathing]

Easier when it's outside. Can fight it. When it's inside, it sucks.

[ Maine is struggling with that right now. Trying to deal with a power that he can't control. One that has hurt someone important to him. ]

[testflight]

It hurt me and I hurt it and then it hurt me more in this vicious cycle of torture.

It, he isn't here. But I think we almost managed to make peace before. [ that's definitely the negative spirit now. larry is still very gay. ]

[bloodbathing]

[ On his side of the connection, Maine blinks in surprise. ]

Had someone else inside you?

[ That's the way it's sounding, at least. ]

[testflight]

[ well, ]

Yes.

[bloodbathing]

Oh.

[ It doesn't sound impossible to Maine. His AI partner lived in his head for months back in the station. And he knows that in the future he'll never live, he had even more AI in his head. Knows that the future-Maine turned himself into a vessel. ]

Sounds rough.

[testflight]

It was. But it's also strange now that he's gone.

He was the reason I survived the plane crash. But also the reason for the plane crash.

[ he's not entirely sure why he's telling maine this; the man probably doesn't want to hear his sob story. and yet.

and yet, maine has no more flinched from larry than larry from him. ]

[bloodbathing]

Complicated relationship.

[testflight]

[ that gets a laugh from larry, although it doesn't translate into text ]

You could say that.