Well. I'm not saying it's right. It isn't. But. How often are people that are considered "broken" taken seriously in your world? And how much more often are those people ignored or babied, and have their agency and their voice taken away?
[Sorry. Give her a few minutes to process that. What the hell?!]
I don't know what to say, actually. Do you think that's possible? And are we really from different worlds? You're from New York too, right? Maybe it's not different, so much as just a matter of finding each other in it.
[A few minutes and a couple of bouncing dots appearing and disappearing later...]
Would that invitation possibly extend to little sisters?
There's always a way. There has to be. We got here somehow.
I don't know if we're from different worlds, to be honest. I never paid much attention to serial killers, but when the Surgeon got arrested I would have been almost brand new to the city. I would have noticed a headline like that.
[Neal stares at that last question, shocked and realizing he shouldn't be.]
You'd really want to go with him to a totally different world, if you could potentially get back to your own? Your life sounded all right, from what I know.
I could get another reporter job in a heartbeat. I love my mom, and I have a million complicated feelings about my dad. But Malcolm is the best part of my life. I don’t want to go back to one that doesn’t have him in it.
[Even as angry and upset at him as she was at home, that sharp, vindictive streak that sent her careening into that path that led to that awful prank she pulled on him really only existed because of how much it hurt her that Malcolm, of all people, had lied to her over and over again for months.]
[ Neal might argue the responsibility for those choices if he knew that train of thought, but as it is, he understands her stated feelings.
He understands them too well. Painfully well. It makes him think of Peter, of Sara, of Mozzie and June and of a life he thought for a little while he could keep.
He shakes it off.]
Well. My landlady is extremely friendly and has an extremely large house, until you're able to get your own place.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[Neal almost, almost shares his own unfortunate track record, or at least that it exists, but deletes that note before sending it.]
I'm glad. That you worry about him. Some of the things he's said about his New York made me wonder about... things.
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What kind of things?
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Why wouldn't they? Listen to him? He didn't seem to think it was strange or wrong at all.
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I'm not saying it's right. It isn't. But.
How often are people that are considered "broken" taken seriously in your world?
And how much more often are those people ignored or babied, and have their agency and their voice taken away?
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I don't know how people can look at him and just see 'broken.'
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We weren't exactly the people that people were ready to genuinely try to get to know.
We were a splashpage article, Neal.
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I’m not sure what that says about life back home, that this is better.
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I don't know what to say, actually.
Do you think that's possible?
And are we really from different worlds? You're from New York too, right? Maybe it's not different, so much as just a matter of finding each other in it.
[A few minutes and a couple of bouncing dots appearing and disappearing later...]
Would that invitation possibly extend to little sisters?
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I don't know if we're from different worlds, to be honest. I never paid much attention to serial killers, but when the Surgeon got arrested I would have been almost brand new to the city. I would have noticed a headline like that.
[Neal stares at that last question, shocked and realizing he shouldn't be.]
If you wanted to come then yes.
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Yeah... it was kind of everywhere.
[She didn't expect that answer, either, so they're on level ground, here.]
If I don't have to give him up, I don't see why I should try to stop him from being happy.
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I love my mom, and I have a million complicated feelings about my dad.
But Malcolm is the best part of my life. I don’t want to go back to one that doesn’t have him in it.
[Even as angry and upset at him as she was at home, that sharp, vindictive streak that sent her careening into that path that led to that awful prank she pulled on him really only existed because of how much it hurt her that Malcolm, of all people, had lied to her over and over again for months.]
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He understands them too well. Painfully well. It makes him think of Peter, of Sara, of Mozzie and June and of a life he thought for a little while he could keep.
He shakes it off.]
Well. My landlady is extremely friendly and has an extremely large house, until you're able to get your own place.
[Provided Malcolm wants to come with him.]
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[Is any of this even possible? Who knows. But the sentiment is nice, in a way Ainsley personally hasn't experienced a lot of in life.]