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duplicitymemes2023-07-10 08:51 am
duplicitymods) wrote in duplicitymemes2023-07-10 08:51 am
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TDM #31
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It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit. Yet, solace is found in the lies we tell each other, comforted by the peace of knowing that we're not alone in our depravity, and once on this path, sin itself becomes the lesser of two evils masked in a cloud of normalcy. This is how Duplicity has functioned since the beginning. The divide of power and social standing is overt in that Dominants influence the decisions made both publicly and privately while Submissives cater to the rules presented to them. It is the way of Duplicity to assign random designations at birth with no leeway in altering what has been given. Climate in the Up is far stricter than that of the Down; violating outlined personas for a Dominant or Submissive while in full view of others is punished by degree of infraction. In the Down, many tend to turn a blind eye to these sorts of offenses. To counteract the discovery of the deceit gene – a natural "negative" response to all stimuli – the LIEs program was founded. The program had been designed to introduce new subjects to the current environment and test for the deceit gene through immersion in Duplicity's standing society. Sexual impulses and encounters increase the chances of detecting the gene within these individuals. Participants are typically released from LIEs after a year; however, results have remained unsatisfactory and testing still continues. ... and you're here! Finally! Welcome to Duplicity. After choosing a door and stepping through to the other side, the first thing that greets you are the enthusiastic faces of people in medical scrubs and pristine lab coats. Their enthusiasm translates to eagerness as they strip you of your clothes to perform a thorough examination—you will be healed, bathed, and given a paper gown to wear until your items can be processed and delivered to your residence later in the evening. You are also given a device that accesses the network as well as the time and location of Orientation. If you enter Duplicity into the Up, congratulations! You're a Dominant, which means you are immediately picked up by a limo after processing and taken to your high-rise. Here, it is two Dominants per floor with separate apartments. If you enter Duplicity into the Down, congratulations! You're a Submissive, which means you are directed towards public transportation with the address of the motel you'll be living in. Here, it is two Submissives per room with a shared common space for all rooms. Enjoy your free time until Orientation! Participation is mandatory for all new and past arrivals. It's the hottest part of the summer. Prepare to sweat. |
 After stepping through the door and participating in Orientation, LIERs are assembled together in the Up for a tour of Duplicity in its entirety. Seats are in pairs and randomly assigned to Dominants and Submissives alike. Traveling from Fiddler's Square, the train journeys through various parts of the Up, showcasing society and examples of lifestyle. Along the way, frequent stops are made; a variety of passengers can be seen exiting and entering the doors. A Dominant with a kneeling Submissive takes a seat near the front of the train at one stop. A small group of Submissives board and sit closer to the LIERs at another, all seemingly content in their roles. As the tour continues through the Up, the train passes close to the Market and White Wall Bridge and zips by North Park before heading into the Down and bypassing Red Wall Bridge and South Park. The train makes a "final" stop at Riddler's Square, where inhabitants of the Down are instructed to return to their temporary housing. Those who live in the Up are permitted to stay on the train and revisit the same locations while returning. |
 (cw: aphrodisiacs, dub-con, groping, public nudity, public sex) It's summertime! To beat the heat, LIEs has decided to throw a pool party directly following Orientation at one of the city's public pools! Attendance is mandatory for new arrivals and strongly encouraged for everyone else. New arrivals are provided with (skimpy) swimsuits to wear, but LIERs who have been in the city a while have the option of bringing their own gear. Of course, skinny dipping is allowed as well, and there are many spots on deck for people to tan themselves. Speaking of tanning, why not help out a fellow LIER by rubbing some lotion on them? Or, if you want to avoid a burn, get someone to put sunscreen on your back? The formulas of the complementary products that LIEs provide may or may not have a mild aphrodisiac added to them, but at least you won't burn and you may get that nice golden tan you've been chasing — all over! While one end of the pool is reserved for people to splash around in or float casually, there are numerous games and water activities for people to join in on as well: In a sexy twist on Marco Polo, though in Duplicity the call and response is "lucky" and "get me," the seeker must try and tag other players by tugging at their swimsuits. They'll be rewarded with 30 seconds of foreplay, groping and whatever else they can accomplish within the time frame. Dominant and Submissive pairs face off against one another in piggyback chicken fights or jousts using inflatable toys and suggestively shaped pool noodles. Are those dildos stuck to the bottom of the pool? You bet! Dive down and retrieve them before handing them to the next person behind you to toss in and dive for or just collect as many as you can. There is, of course, the option of using said dildo on yourself or someone else for others to watch and enjoy on the pool deck. No judgment here. For those who prefer a slightly more private option, there are curtained cabanas available and it's easy enough to duck inside with a partner for a quick tryst. |
 (cw: aphrodisiacs, dub-con, altered mental states, miscellaneous kink) Whether it's the obnoxious, telltale jingle that signals the arrival of ice cream trucks, or the vehicles happen to be spotted in their various parking spots all around Duplicity — including some smaller carts made to navigate the narrower streets of the Down, it's obvious that they're popular considering the warm summer weather. It seems the locals can't get enough of the cool, sweet treats on offer — and, even better, the trucks are offering free samples in addition to selling regular sizes. Popsicles and soft serve ice cream are on the menu, and each frozen bite has its own unique set of effects. The menu: Want sprinkles with that? Enjoy your added aphro! |
 (cw: dub-con/non-con, pet play, leash and collar, training/discipline, exhibitionism) A new public park has recently been built on a formerly empty lot in the Up. The bigger sign on the gate reads "Dog Park," and the smaller sign adjacent to it includes the posted rules that all people need to abide by in order to enter. If you're curious about what such a structure entails (after all, there are dogs in Duplicity), you're in luck: today, there's a meet-and-greet being hosted for pets and their owners, sponsored by a local "pet" shop, with banners advertising the event posted at each end of the park. This is a Dog Park, alright, but it's intended for a very specific kind of play involving the LIERs who want to wear the collars in question as well as the LIERs who are interested in holding their leashes. Even if you've never harbored an interest in it before, don't worry — random bystanders will be enthusiastically pressured to join in by event volunteers, so you might find yourself wearing a collar or holding a leash in very short order regardless. All pets must be collared and leashed properly in order to enter the Dog Park, and owners must remain in close proximity to their pets at all times. There are toys for tugging and fetching, a few pieces of special playground equipment, and more than enough space to run around. There will also be obedience challenges issued to various pairs at random, just to see how in sync both pet and owner are with one another. If you decide to participate and remain on your best behavior, you might even earn a nice treat in addition to a pat on the head. The pet shop will be handing out goodie bags consisting of take-home collars, as well as animal tail plugs and other sex toys and gear, to everyone who takes part in the event, willingly or not. |
Please read carefully. On each Test Drive Meme, there will be a section noting character roles; these will vary each TDM. On an IC level, characters will still have gone through the doors but the assignments are OOCly randomized. When applying, there is a section of the application that denotes whether the character chooses "left" or "right." When participating on the TDM, there will be a third option. Players may link either a top level or a thread (five or more comments from their character) from the TDM and title the link as "Door Pass." This means that the player is choosing to take the designation that they were randomly assigned on the TDM, rather than taking the designation of a door. If the player decides to select a door rather than use the pass, then they are trying their luck; they may get the same designation they had on the TDM or the opposite. Once the application is submitted, players can't change their choice. To assign roles to characters for this TDM, use the following guide: If your character is a night owl, they are a Dominant. If your character prefers the daytime, they are a Submissive. To Note: Characters can only swap their designation for one of the following reasons: an event occurs that allows it or there are OOC reasons that make it a necessity. Any swap always requires mod approval and each character can only ever switch once. Characters that are being reapped will keep their previous designation but players can choose to tag on new TDMs with different designations for fun! Test Drive threads can be used as activity proofs for characters currently in-game. Please remember to mark any necessary content, and have fun!! |
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He doesn't know what to make of the declarations. Obviously things changed from what he knows, but how? Another cycle of together before tearing apart? Or did they figure something out that lasted? Or had Alex just remembered further forward, but not far enough to see whenever Michael screwed it up. He didn't have answers, and part of him didn't want to ask because whatever happens there isn't HERE either. "Alien melodrama and multiple abductions?"
"Indulge," Michael's mouth twists. "Eating isn't exactly indulging. And they provide all the food for us slobs, right?" Maybe they could set up a lab and test the food, figure out what they use and develop something that would nullify it ahead of time.
Not exactly his line of work, Liz could probably manage it better than him. But it'd be something to work on.
"If you came back, how do you know you were really dead and it wasn't all some screwed up stage play they make you go through?" Michael asked. "How did you come back?" He paused, and then asked, carefully neutral. "The hot chocolate guy - Valenti?"
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Alex sighed a little. He should have known the Kyle question was going to come up. He just hadn't expected to get it right off the bat.
"No, not Kyle. Like I said, just a friend. But Kyle, I am seeing him. It's not exclusive. For either of us. Mostly because there was someone else in my life I wasn't giving up." That neither of them were giving up, but that was another thing that was Kyle's to explain. Or not. And a part of Michael's life here. The one that he'd forgotten. Or had never lived.
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Being experimented on was something Michael's spent a hell of a lot of time thinking about. It's not shocking that it's right where his brain goes.
His lips twisted into the cynical little smile that wasn't much like Michael's real smile. "Hard to be exclusive in a place that wants you to screw everyone you meet." He didn't ask if the person had been him. Michael wasn't sure which was worse - if it was, or it wasn't. "He's kind of an obnoxiously overcompensatingly decent guy these days, so I get it." And good looking, and stable and not an alien who lived in a trailer and had trouble follow him everywhere he went. Yeah, Michael got it.
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"I got a job offer. For Deep Sky. Turns out Deep Sky is Kyle's uncle. Not that I knew that at first. I just knew that he gave me a puzzle to solve and I couldn't help myself. I was interested. And that puzzle eventually brought me back into your orbit. And we did what we always do when we're together. But there was a difference this time. We were ready - both of us - to not screw it up."
Not that there hadn't been a few stumbles. But the important thing was that the stumbles hadn't brought things to a jerking halt like they had in the past.
"And as for why I kissed you... You were gone, Michael. One day I just wake up and you're not there. I don't care if you remember the city or not. I don't even care if we were together or not. I lose someone I love, I lose you and then you show up again, you're getting kissed."
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His head tipped into the hand on his neck, the thumb on his face. Michael was and always had been tactile as hell. It was a secret Alex had figured out early. He touched Michael and as long as they weren't in the middle of a fight, he'd just settle for it.
Now wasn't any exception. "I know you do. It just seems like we're never in a place where that matters more than all the bullshit we come up against, or make for ourselves," Michael said. He opened eyes that had gone half closed. "You ever wish you'd gone with him instead?"
He leaned away finally, reluctant about it, but trying to keep from getting distracted.
"I wasn't objecting. Just trying to make sense of it." He ran a hand through his hair, then rubbed at a bare arm. "So you died, you got drugged into sleeping with a friend. The food's not safe. The city's watching us. Everything is about sex. What happens if you just don't play by their rules? How bad does it go?"
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"But after dealing a lot with my past and then with yours, I don't know. Maybe we were finally ready to put the baggage behind us. Or maybe we always would have gotten there eventually. As for whether I regret letting him leave, the answer is no. Because I did it for me and what I wanted. Not even who I wanted because that didn't come until later."
He'd known that Michael and Maria weren't together anymore because she was still one of his best friends, but that didn't mean that Michael hadn't found someone else. With Alex being gone more than he was home, he hadn't really kept up on Michael's personal life.
How bad. "At best you get arrested. At worst, they arrest you, drug you, and basically offer you up to anyone who pays. Actually, no, there may be worse than that, but only if there's a Dominant you have to answer to."
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"You probably would have a lot less chaos in your life if you ran off with a green haired guy instead of sticking around Roswell," Michael said. Or if he settled down with the hot doctor who used to be his best friend before a brief trip to homophobic asshole town. (Which Michael guessed had been hiding same-sex inclinations by being a homophobic bully. But he'd kind of figured that might be the case as soon as he'd heard Isobel spent time hanging out with Valenti in a queer bar.)
He grimaced at the answer. "You said Max was here, and I was here before. Or some version of me. No chance whatever drugs they use don't work on us then." He'd already known it because whatever they did to knock him out before he woke up the first time here had worked. But it'd have been nice to be wrong. "And you're supposed to get one of those or they what, assign you someone to give you a hall pass to get food or go to the bathroom and get off with you on the regular?"
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"The drugs work on everyone. Human, alien, supernatural. Even android seems to get caught in at least some of the mess that happens." He glanced at the curtains surrounding them. "And the fact that there are non-organics here should tell you exactly how true the reason we're supposedly here is." You couldn't get DNA from an android. At least not any DNA that would express itself as a trait in the individual.
"As far as what they'd do to you if you don't get a Dominant? They'll arrest you. I almost went down that path once. I only didn't because Maria had gone down that path and needed someone. I...wouldn't suggest it. If you want someone you know, I'd talk to Kyle. Otherwise, I do background checks on Dominants and I know someone who does contract negotiations."
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"How does that make sense?" Michael asked, exasperated. Androids weren't ALIVE. "Maybe there's some kind of future nanotech in it that programs it in," he muttered to himself. "Seems like the whole thing is bullshit designed to give them a 24/7, multi-cultural peep show."
"I'll just ... I don't know. Figure it out. They said something about time, who knows, maybe they'll just check me out before I even have to," Michael said. It had happened before, right?
God this was so damned creepy. "I-" Michael stopped whatever he'd been about to say, swallowing. He changed his mind. "Look, I'm sorry you got stuck here and for all the shit that's happened. If you had to be here though, I'm glad you've figured out ways to work with it and not be miserable though. With Valenti or whatever else." But Michael was getting less and less confident he'd manage the same. "Still trying to figure out how much of this is real, honestly."
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His smile turned into a dubious look and he shook his head. "Nothing about this place makes sense. Not their reasoning for the program, not why I can't seem to hack into their system, none of it."
His heart seized a little when Michael joked about not being here long and he looked away. What Michael said next didn't make anything better. He pressed his lips together and looked back at Michael. That was one of his theories. But. "I prefer to think of that theory more as the Matrix. We're all plugged in. We just need to figure out what the red pill is. Which means we're all real."
He took a breath. "Of course I'm miserable. Not all the time, but not knowing what this place is or how to get out? But look. If you're not sure what's real or not, ask me any question that you want." He reached out and grabbed one of Michael's hand. "Look into my head and see the truth. Or at least my truth. Anything I can do to get you there."
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"Yeah. And you love things that don't make sense," Michael said, giving him a wry little smile. It was something they had in common, even if they approached and reacted to it very differently. They both liked to understand what they were dealing with.
He darted his eyes to the side too when Alex looked away. He got it. He'd want Alex to get out of here too, but still hate it if it happened when Michael was still here. He'd probably felt that way when the last version of him, or clone, or unmemory-wiped version of him was here and then not. "Real wasn't any better in those movies. The real part was shitty food and really shitty sequels."
"I don't think you're LYING, Alex. I just don't know what the hell to think yet. About anything." And yeah maybe he could do the mind thing Isobel could too, if he tried hard enough, but he didn't really want to, either. "I still know you well enough to know when you're lying." He looked down to look at Alex's hand on his. "Get me there for what? Just so we're on the same page while we're abducted?"
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"That's the page I want. Anything else..." Them. Michael and Kyle. "...that can come with time and I'm not going to push because this place is weird enough without the rest of it."
Even if it made his heart hurt and all he wanted to do was kiss Michael again. Because Alex never felt relief that someone was back home because he didn't know that they did go home. He wasn't any kind of an optimist. He was a pessimist who worked hard to create something better and knew he wasn't likely to succeed as much as he wanted. And here, how much he could do was extremely restrained.
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He sighed, turned his hand over to curl his fingers with Alex's, squeezing once. "I'm working on getting there, but once I do, pretty sure all I'll want to do is get us out," he pointed out. Not that he's ever had that much luck finding a way off earth. This wasn't earth though, he didn't think. Maybe this one he could crack. "So what do you even do here, day to day, if you've been here that long? Just bang your head against a wall to try to get out in between whatever sex crap they insist on?"
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He managed a small smile at that.
"Let's see. There's a community center in the Down and I work there. Self-defense classes and intro to technology for those people who aren't from Earth. Or at least not modern Earth. Kyle works at Haven, that's the hospital in the Down, and I help with the security for that."
Yeah, maybe Alex was using all of his free time to distract from the fact that he was beating his head against a wall and doing more harm to himself than the wall.
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He'd seen the flickers of reaction, the sorrow over people Michael didn't even know, but the Michael before might have missed too, for all he knew. He didn't know how to offer sympathy about that when chances are if they really did get to go home, they were better off. And if not, they were probably dead, or would be whatever the hell Michael was - another version of the same source.
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"I don't do all the jobs on all the days, you know. I kind of rotate through them depending on what's going on."
He gestured with his free hand at the party outside of the bubble they'd created for themselves.
"Otherwise, why would I be here?" Not that he'd had a choice.
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"It sounds like you still work too damn much," Michael told him. "Even if you probably like some of it at least." He considered Alex and then asked him more quietly. "Makes it easier not to think?" he guessed.
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He sucked in a breath. "So I try not to think about it and keeping myself busy helps me do that. Especially when digging into their systems gets me nowhere."
Government systems, theirs or a foreign nation's, had been a challenge but doable. These systems? He couldn't get anything from.
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He followed Alex's gaze down though, seeing the M for the first time and turning his arm gently outward to see it better. Going home for Michael wouldn't be worse than staying here. Roswell was shitty, but it wasn't a tyrannical sex state. So that M was for someone, and it wasn't the Michael that had been here before. "You wanted to remember him that much?" he asked. He tried not to sound hurt, but he didn't really manage it.
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"I fought it like hell for a long time, but I fell in love. And now he's been gone almost as long as I knew him."
Bass was another thing that Alex kept tucked away. Except it had come out with Barry at the beach. And now he was telling Michael - someone who didn't remember his time here - about such a touchy part of Alex's past.
And, judging by the look on Michael's face, he was going to have to go nearer to the worst of it. "When you showed up, it got complicated. Because I didn't think I could love more than one person at a time and Bass didn't want me to. So that was the status quo for a while. But you and I..." He sighed. "I've never been able to stop loving you. I never want to stop loving you."
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Michael looked up, jaw ticking as he swallowed. "I've never been able to stop loving you either, even when I tried. And I tried really hard." When Alex was gone, enlisted and out of reach. Again with Maria. But even loving someone else hadn't made him stop loving Alex. And Maria had known that as well as he did. It hadn't been the reason she gave for cutting him loose, not entirely, but he was pretty sure it was as much the reason as her powers.
"I tried to be better for you," Michael said. "The last few months, when you were gone, I tried to ... I don't know. Grow emotionally, or something. But you came back with someone else. And then I'm here, and you've got someone else on your arm, in your bed, more in your past. I'm not mad about it, I'm not saying you shouldn't have or anything. But the way we keep circling and crashing into each other, then going right back to pulled apart - starts to seem like it means something after enough times, doesn't it? Like maybe we're not supposed to make it, no matter how much we want it."
And no, he wasn't mad, not really. He was mad at himself, a little, for being hurt. Because he couldn't manage more than a couple months with Maria before circling back to Alex, had never had any other real relationship in his life. But here, Alex found someone else he loved enough to tattoo his arm. Fell for Valenti. And had been with Michael. Michael wondered if the other him was just a better guy, or if he'd just hidden how it felt to be a piece of the puzzle instead of half of a whole.
Or maybe he was just too damn new to this place to get it. But he felt like an outsider with Alex right now, and that was one thing he never really had felt. They'd been on the outside together, when they were with each other, even if Michael had kept secrets most of the time. "Look, I just need to figure out everything here. I'm still playing catch up." It was a shitty excuse, and he hesitated and then added. "It's probably going to sound like bullshit, but I'm sorry you lost him, whoever he was. I never want you to lose things or people that matter to you, even when I don't get it."
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Alex's heart was pounding a little. Losing Michael because Alex was in love with Kyle was not something that Alex would have expected. But then, before it had been Michael who'd slept with Kyle first. More or less. Michael who had come to terms with loving multiple people first. Michael who had been patient with Alex while he had his existential crisis. So Alex could be patient now.
But first there were a few things they had to get straight and his fingers shifted and curled in Michael's hair.
"First of all, no. I don't think it means what you're thinking. I think it means that neither of us had good role models for love when we were young and then my father happened and I left for ten years. And it was kind of like we hit pause on figuring out what adult relationships were supposed to look like. Do I think it'll be easy? No. Do I think it'll be worth it? Always.
Second, I'm not trying to push anything on you. I know the first few days, weeks can be a mess and I'm not doing any favors with the information rush. I just need you to know where I am. I haven't fallen into the weeds the way Kyle has, but I'm not the same person I was back in Roswell. Probably for the best, because if I hadn't had Kyle when you disappeared..." His voice caught and he felt a sharp pain in his chest. Even with Kyle, he'd broken. Badly.
"But I think that year you were dating Maria proved that we can be friends if nothing else. And I'm fine with being that while you get your feet under you and figure out what you want." A beat. "Or with benefits if you need help with quota."
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"Yeah, maybe," Michael admitted. But Alex had years here on him. Years with other people, time lived, a whole different, screwed up world to cope with them in. That other Michael had figured out a place, he guessed, but had it been what he wanted, or just the best he could get?
Michael thought it was probably the latter. And if he wanted to be honest, that's what he'd take too in the end. Because he never really got by without Alex, not really. He just survived and kept going for lack of a better idea, dreaming of another world he'd probably never see and half the time forgot to want to get to, when he was with Alex. He just usually wasn't with him.
He tipped toward the fingers in his hair though, because he was weak as hell for Alex. "I'm glad you had him. I meant that. It's just a lot to take in. Feels kind of like ..." he trailed off and then shook his head. "I don't know. I also know that all of this is probably the last thing I should be worried about when I need to figure out how to get around here." And a way back, or to get communication back - but if some other him with years here hadn't figured it out, along with Alex and Kyle, Michael wasn't liking the odds.
He huffed a laugh though, finally slipping his hand free of Alex's with a last squeeze. "Yeah. You and me can definitely pull off casual, friendly sex without any baggage or feelings getting in the way." His tone was wry. "Just give me a few days to figure things out, all right? And keep in touch so I know you're not dying of dehydration from a mandatory participation orgy or something."
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"Just because you're leaving now, it doesn't mean you're getting rid of me, Michael Guerin. Relationship or no, sex or no, I am not letting you walk away. And I'm not going anywhere either. Metaphorically speaking at least."
And in the meantime, he'd focus on how he felt back in the Long farm. Instead of how he'd felt outside the Wild Pony when Michael had kissed him and they decided to try a real relationship.
"And..." A pause. "This sounds wrong, but I'm glad you're here. I missed you."