day 44

[inflori]

[ His voice, even in his head, is tired. Exhausted and extremely irritated, even, with the petulance of a mind not yet fully awake. Petre was pulled from his comatose state just as suddenly as he fell into it, the stress of a broodmate being ripped from him having lifted from his symbiote. Now it's ready to keep going, but it hasn't given Petre the same courtesy just yet. He'll get there eventually. ]

( Why do you have to be so loud? )

[ ... All of you, he means. Ugh. ]

Comments

[deployed]

( Some people, maybe. Not everyone. )

[ emotions are tricky. ]

[inflori]

( Yeah, well, you'd know. )

[ stupid humans with their stupid feelings. ]

[deployed]

[ and bellamy has so many extra feelings. no point in getting offended about it. ]

( Are you alright? )

[inflori]

( No. I'm not.

He's dead. )

[deployed]

( I'm sorry. )

[ there's nothing else to say. ]

( The rest of us are still here. It's not the same, but you don't have to deal with this alone. )

[inflori]

( I dealt with it when Angel went to sleep. It's just - whatever. I'm not gonna hold anyone's fucking hand. )

[deployed]

[ Angel's name stirs up pain as it settles; Bellamy still misses her. ]

( It's hard. You should let us help, if we can. )

[inflori]

( Everybody keeps saying that, but no one actually knows how the fuck they can. )

[deployed]

[ All Bellamy has are stories. But he doesn't think Petre would take to them the way others in the Nest had. ]

( That's how it always is. )

[ Which likely isn't a selling point. ]

( They'll try. Something will work, and it'll hurt less eventually. )

[inflori]

( It doesn't have to hurt. It never hurt before I came here. )

[ Only because he'd never experienced the circumstances that led to any of that pain. It pisses him off to be so human now. It's weak. ]

[deployed]

( You were lucky. )

[ What Petre is exactly is hard to parse, but Bellamy hasn't dug into Petre's mind for answers. The circumstances of the lives others have experienced are strange to him, but it's not so strange that Petre hadn't experienced loss like this. There had been plenty of people even on the Ark who had been cushioned from heartbreak. ]

( It won't hurt forever. And distractions help pass the time until it stops. )

[inflori]

( That's cute. )

[ It'd be nice to accept it, if Petre weren't reluctant to believe anyone could have happy endings (or deserved them). If Petre had remained in his world and grown up to learn different lessons, he'd come to that conclusion soon enough: that no one deserved a happy ending. ]

( What are you doing. )

[deployed]

( Reading. I was reading. )

[ what else is new ]

( Why? )

[inflori]

( Reading what. )

[ No answer for you, Bellamy! ]

[deployed]

( Alien fairy tales. I think. Could be a history book for all I know. )

[ y u dodgin' the question!! ]

[inflori]

( Doesn't it just say that on the cover. )

[deployed]

( It doesn't say anything on the cover.

[ An image offered up in explanation: a book cover bedecked in ornate pictures, without any title to speak of. ]

[inflori]

( What kind of shit book doesn't say anything that's on the cover? Who would wanna pick it up to begin with? )

[ Petre. Pls. ]

[deployed]

( Me. )

[ Bellamy at least is staying calm in the face of this line of questioning. For the moment. ]

( I wanted to know what it was. It doesn't matter about the title. )

[ Though a title would hve been helpful. Bellamy won't deny that. ]

[inflori]

( Of course it matters about the title. That's how you know what the fuck you're reading. )

[ Forgive his prickliness. Or don't. Petre is having it roll off him a bit too easily. ]

[deployed]

( I figure that out by actually reading it. )

[ is he being mocked what's going on here ]

[inflori]

( That's such a waste of time. Imagine reading the whole thing and then you realize it was just a pile of shit that you didn't want to read about after all. )

[deployed]

( I don't feel that way about books. )

[ Not yet, at least. The novelty of having access to so many of them hasn't worn off, and Bellamy isn't sure that it ever will. ]

( It's still a story. It's someone's history, or something important to them. There's something of value, if you look. )

[inflori]

( No, thanks. There's better shit to do with actual people. )

[ Like... be a shit at them?? ]

[deployed]

( Like what? )