You Barium
CW: Dark dark dark. Death, not exactly death wish more like mentally giving up? Mental breakdown. Brief suicide mention. Uh, digging your own grave. Brief mention of torture and like messing with memories/unreliable memories. A lot of Doom Patrol S4 spoilers. Just. Dark. Poor Larry. Looking up chemistry jokes was supposed to be a fun shippy thing but the angst cannot leave Larry Trainor alone</3 - Written for the RP server Feral Void.
What do you do with a sick chemist? If you can't helium, and you can't curium, then you might as well barium!
What do you do with a dead chemist? You barium!
Might as well barium.
Might as well bury him.
Bury him. Bury yourself.
There are dangers here we can’t ignore.
Out there’s where danger lies. Remember, we’re unstable. Dream with me a bit longer.
Fuck you for giving me hope.
You can put your faith in me, Rama.
You have my faith, Larry Trainor.
Bury him.
You promised we’d find another way.
You might want to check the shelflife on that promise.
Fuck you for giving me hope.
Why are you digging a giant hole in the ground?
It’s not a hole.
… Oh. Dark.
Sail deep out into the bay of bengal. Go for one last swim. Then, while I still have control over my abilities, turn myself into a block of lead. And that’ll be that.
And you call me dark?
At least it’s more poetic than digging your own grave in front of a rotting greenhouse.
Funny. If that doesn’t sum up Larry Trainor’s entire fucking life, he doesn’t know what does.
How’s this for an epitaph? Here lies Larry Trainor: He failed at everything.
No one survives Larry Trainor.
He’s not dying anymore. But Rama is. Rama is still unstable. No more Immortus, but entirely new super powerful interdimensional beings intent on playing with them like they’re toys.
And a supercomputer testing out new, fatal elements with people as test subjects in the interest of “furthering science” who would probably find the radioactive man and the combustible Man in Many Elements whose body is breaking down absolutely fucking fascinating!
They’re together again but nothing has changed. Keeg’s vision of having to throw Larry into the sun, the reason they gave up their longevity to Immortus in the first place hoping, praying, having faith and believing in fucking miracles like Rama said, that reason was because it’s never going to fucking stop. If it’s not the zombie butt apocalypse it will be something else. It’s just a matter of time. As for Rama, he doesn’t have much time.
What do you do with the man in many elements when he’s dying? You barium.
Zinc of how fucking funny it is. The man who made Larry dare to dream again, who made him, for one moment, believe in miracles.
Fuck you for giving me hope.
He’s just going to end up polluting the nearest river. Not even in the Bay of Bengal where he’s allegedly from. “Allegedly” because he doesn’t really know, the Bureau of Normalcy took everything from him, including any reliability of his own memories. It’s not even going to be the “poetic” death he wanted. They couldn’t even give him that.
Rama says it’s okay to believe in miracles. Larry says he has to live in the real world.
I’ve lied in relationships before. This isn’t real life. There are dangers here we can’t ignore.
There’s no shame in believing in miracles. I’ve spent my life believing in them. I’m not planning on stopping now.
Fuck you for giving me hope.
Not Rama, though. Himself. Why was he stupid enough to let himself fall for him? Stupid enough to think, with everything he’s been through, that maybe things would work out this time. How many times does he have to roll that stone up the hill before he understands it’s never going to stay at the top? It’s always going to roll back down? How many times before he just gives up?
What do you do when the man you love is dying? When you can’t trust anyone around you, and don’t know how to stop him from completely falling apart? Your friends aren’t here, your best friend is probably dead. What do you do when you don’t know how to stop yourself from falling apart when you lose him? When you’re going to let another child of yours down? This child who set you up with him in the first place, chose him, had all the faith in the world in him, and you, the child that’s all you have left of a being who had been with you for over sixty years then left without a word? One child committed suicide, another joined the organization that tortured you and so many others, including Rama. The last one, your hope, your life, your light, your second chance… Is stuck with a failing father who can’t even save their love or ever do anything right.
What do you do with the man in many elements when he’s dying?
No one survives Larry Trainor.
Here lies Larry Trainor: He failed at everything.
You barium.