[ ... What? What? Matthew just squints at the text for about three straight minutes; this feels like reading from the textbook of a class he's never attended.
(Declan would understand. The Lynch family didn't utterly fail their sons in the lying department; it just so happens that, due to necessity and extreme unfairness, one brother's ability far surpasses that of the other two. Far, far surpasses.)
[ God he is so disappointed. Well, at least Matthew put in effort, even if it's a failed attempt because Dorian is a nosy shit.. ]
Piece of advice #3: before lying, if possible, check your story with other people. I asked Gansey if I could bring over soup or buy you the really good cold medicine. He said no.
The phone getting lost is plausible though, points for that.
[ Good grief, Dorian, that's like three different things he's supposed to remember while making things up on the spot. He can't do all that! This is going to be a mess when he has to go back to work and school. Also, hang on-- ]
you wanted to bring soup?
[ He might be a little touched if he weren't relieved that this did not happen. ]
I'll take your word for it. But please, if something like whatever happened happens again, don't be afraid to ask for help. There are people of all sorts in this world—who knows, one of them might be able to fix what went wrong.
[ Matthew doesn't quite know what to say to that, because--well. He has no idea what anybody else could do about his particular situation. So this is another delayed reply. ]
i don't think it'll happen again
[ God, he hopes not, at least. Please do not get Ported out again, Ronan. ]
can i ask you something? that doesnt have anything to do with the other thing?
[ There's a pause of few minutes before Dorian sends off the text. ]
It depends. Here, everyone's already so strange that someone like me is hardly strange in comparison. But back home? Some people managed to adapt wonderfully. Some people are terrified. I've had both people who tolerate my immortality and people who've tried to kill me because of it. It makes matters worse that half the time, my immortality is revealed in less than ideal situations to begin with.
[ People have tried to kill him because he's immortal? That's unsettling. And awful. Also. Seems like it should be obviously impossible, to Matthew, but what does he know about trying to kill people. ]
like what kind of situations? and what about your friends they dont flip out over it do they?
Well, it depends. Some of them flipped out. Some of them took it better. As for the situations...well, someone thought I was a monstrous scientific experiment reject one time.
[ Matthew said his question was unrelated to the prior topic but it's really not and Dorian's answers aren't quite as reassuring as he'd hoped they'd be. "No one treated me differently and no one thought I was strange even though I'm different from them", is more the kind of thing Matthew wanted to hear. ]
but that was just one time like you said the experiment reject thing most people wouldn't think that probably
Most people didn't know about my immortality to begin with. And, at least for me, it usually got revealed in situations where immortality was the least weird thing we encountered.
Look. The last time someone new learned about my immortality, it was an old friend of my fiancee's who then tried to feed me to a Siren. Everything's weird and I am indeed the least weird.
[ welcome to Confessions of Dorian Gray, enjoy the bonkers. ]
[ He knows he should have told him personally, but he doesn't want to have to keep this knowledge inside of his chest when he's not sure what time Matthew'll be back. ]
[ The response is delayed, both because Matthew is trying not to get caught with his phone and because he has to read the texts three times to make sure they're real. ]
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