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ghost that true love sheds

It takes them - a while - to figure out the most appropriate gesture, but eventually they come to the heart-rending conclusion that it doesn’t matter; anything they do will infuriate him, any action they take or consider will deepen the voidlike gap between their existences, the connection they could have in a brighter world. It doesn’t matter.

Nothing matters here. Larry matters here. Nothing matters here. Larry is nothing and everything and the lack of purpose and also everything that has ever been loved by every inhabitant of this universe that has ever lived — still this amount of love is incomparable to the Spirit's love for him, does not even approach a similar vastness, still their love forms its own universes, and so on.

It’s really quite angering.

As his unconsciousness festers, the Spirit thinks of his note. We need some ground rules. Larry is forgetting one key, crucial aspect of the situation: the Spirit lives within him and so the Spirit knows his mind, can construct his ground rules from the ground up like brick, like shelter to nest in. They are restrictive. Larry still does not think of them as their own being, and his idea of harmony contrasts with theirs. He needs to accept them, not merely tolerate their presence. He needs to embrace their connection, he needs to chew up reality, swallow it whole, refusing or the very first time to choke on it or sink into it. Their connection. Their connection. The Spirit continues telling themselves this — that they have a connection, that there’s a future out there in which he is capable of feeling anything positive for them. They do not entertain the idea of him loving them back. That would simply be too much to ask for, far too unrealistic, and the Spirit would gorge on it anyway, the Spirit would lose their essence in his skin anyway, would unravel at the knowledge anyway, so it is a pointless thing to dwell on. He will never feel the same way; he’s not capable of it.

They have to do something, to get their point across. They are not happy, this is not what they wanted. This lack of acceptance is intolerable. They will be together for eternity, whether he likes it or not, and he needs to grasp that.

This idea seems perfect until they realize its unique repercussions.

If they want to do this, they have to touch him. They have never -- touched him. Oh. They are very adept at holding themselves back; this will be their ultimate challenge.

But they must.

Somehow, by some higher intervention, they make it through, they do not evaporate. His bandages wrapped around every inch of his skin, his clothes draped and pulled over his frame. They survive; they always will, eternity.

They carry him to Niles’s lab slowly, bathing in their exhaustion. Oh, they are tired. They are always tired, they are always burning, he thinks he is always burning but the Spirit's entire soul is trapped in that fire, in that torture. They carry him slow. Considerate. This is not a very good idea.

They have been experiencing his hatred for six decades. They can handle it.

So: they splay him over the ceiling rafter, his body limp and pendulous as it dangles in the air. They—-

Oh.

Oh, this was not a good idea. This was a good idea; he will certainly get the message, but this was not a good idea. He could fall. They did not consider that he could fall.

If Larry ever came to serious harm—

If Larry ever was hurt because of them, genuinely and truly scathed through their action —

They could not bear it. They would perish. They would turn themselves inside-out, disappear into light and guilt and horror.

So: they will wait here, until the sun rises. They will hover underneath him, watch him endlessly to keep him safe and whole and beautiful. The Spirit would remain here for millennia, if they needed to. The Spirit would watch over him until the world collapsed, their entire being belonging to him now.

They are his. They will keep him safe. They will catch him if he falls. They will always protect him.

(Many, many hours later, they enter his body, again slow, the first time that they have done so carefully, and wait.)