@joe.jones | 10 july

[malta]

What do people do for hobbies around here? Aside from volunteering for medical torture.

Has Victorian flower languages come back in style yet? Bookbinding and leathercraft seems obsolete by now, but what about backgammon or cards. I once lost a game of trappola to the Duchess of Ferrara, she was shark. Scrabble? Does that work with the translator? Pomme de terre is about twice as many points as potato.

[ please enjoy that this translates to "potato is about twice as many points as potato" unless you also speak french.

anyway joe is bored come talk to him ]

Who wants to bring fencing back in fashion?

Comments

[malta]

Loyalty in love. We have been together for 920 years.

[testflight]

[ 920 years. 920 years.

larry is barely a hundred. he's never had what this man has. he doesn't know he ever will, but ]

I wish I had that.

[malta]

[ something ugly twists in his gut for a moment, cold and sick and tasting like the antiseptic smell of the lab where booker told them they had suffered nothing in all their years because they had each other. larry can't mean it like that, so joe steps back a moment, finds nicky in the kitchen to curl his arms around him, nosing at the back of his neck until he doesn't want to scream anymore. ]

It is a blessing I have always been grateful for. It was a leap of faith, loving Nicolò

[testflight]

[ there's a pause and it leaves larry worry that he's said too much, that he's given away too much. he repots a plant that doesn't need it yet just so that he has something to do with his hands, wishes he had someone he could hug, could hold, be held by.

that way madness lies. ]

I can imagine.

[malta]

I don't know if I can offer anything more than hope. I have watched the world change and watched love like ours become accepted and legal and blessed.

[ it is not perfect, it never will be; man is fallible and too stubborn sometimes to learn from that, but it is better. ]

[testflight]

[ hope doesn't come naturally to larry, but -he can at least acknowldge this much. wants to, in fact, if only because joe is saying it and he feels some kinship and wants to keep that feeling alive. ]

I noticed that. When it was decriminalised, when gay marriage started being legalised in some countries.

[malta]

[ joe and nicky have been married 20 times since it was legalized, they possess a grand total of zero chill. every time is it legalized somewhere new, they were married again; the first in maastricht because there was a church there that nicky wanted to see again.

(they've not been married in the united states because joe didn't relish being "randomly" searched on their way to their honeymoon. joe would be agitated, he would get them in trouble with the flight police; he'd lived through one inquisition, he tried to avoid any others.) ]

Have you been to a pride parade?

[testflight]

No.

[ part of larry wishes he could give a different answer. part of larry is terrified joe will invite him for one. ]

[malta]

Nor me.

I'm proud of who I am, I'm proud of Nicky. It's still hard to get past the fear.

[ joe is not a brave as he wishes he was. ]

[testflight]

[ larry lets out a breath he hadn't quite realised he'd been holding. ]

I have a friend. Danny. They're very good at being a place for people to be who they are, openly and without fear.

I wish there were more places like Danny in the world.

[malta]

I think I read that wrong.

Your friend is a place?

[ nicolò is his home, yes, but this feels different. ]

[testflight]

Danny is a street. Sentient, before you think I make friends with inanimate objects.

[malta]

[ a sentient

street

called danny

okay, okay, you've got this, yusuf, it's fine ]

Well I'm glad Danny offers a place where you can be yourself. They're doing important work.

[testflight]

Yeah. Danny's special.

[malta]

If there were more streets like Danny the world would be better off.

[testflight]

I completely agree.