I was completely silent.

He is always ramling. Random things that seem to trip and stumble over themselves. But he pays his half of the rent, and he's fun to be around.

And this... Was nothing abnormal.

"Ace. Who is 'we', and what the hell are you talking about?"

"No, no, go ahead, finish eating!"

I looked down at my bowl of cereal. A mound of whatever coated in sugar. A plastic spoon sat haphazardly on the lip.

I didn't even get to eat my first bite.

"Um, no. Explain what you mean by that."

"Uh, airborne pathogen... Grey goo, you know what that is? It's like that, except it isn't. It's nothing like that. It's more like a pseudo-replicant type thing, I don't know what it's called-"

"Ace slow down-"

"-consumes plastic and then recreates itself using plastic. Like mitosis. Not like mitosis! Nothing like it actually. More like-"

"ACE!"

He froze, head titled in confusion.

I exhaled.

"Simple terms buddy."

"Oh! Uhm, imagine bacteria!"

"Okay?"

"It's like that!"

I sighed again. All the weight and pain of the world behind it.

He's weird. Anyone can see that. But he's imaginative if nothing else.

"Let's start at the beginning... What is it called?"

"Thorid-7. Formally, 'Thesis-768-AngelKiller'."

"What does it do?"

I took a bite of my cereal.

"Uses plastics in the air and in materials to reproduce!"

"How does it do this?"

"Matter conversion mostly, using a modified-"

"Basic concept buddy."

"Right, right..."

"Why did you release it today?"

He looked around for a bit. Eyes darting from the couch to me, then to the cabinets, then his hand.

Then he looked at me. Eyes carrying such a heavy confusion.

"Um, to control the world?"

"How?"

"Uh..."

He began to look around again. He hoped that the ceiling or floor would answer for him. They didn't. His last hope was me, staring at me. He wanted me to answer for him.

"Come on bud, I know you got a plan."

"Well... Clothes...?"

"Clothing?"

"Most shirts are made with some form of plastic in it, I think..."

"So...?"

"Make plasticless shirts and stuff... Corner the market... Capitalism...?"

I shook my head gently. He hadn't even fully thought through the idea.

He probably just thought it was cool.

Not that I blame him.

"Ace, buddy."

He looked up at me.

"I like the idea. Use Captalism."

His eyes lit up at that. He began to squirm. Like you offered a kid candy.

"Go on then, finalize this plan of yours."

He sprinted off to his room. Snickering to himself.

Maybe I'm not the creative type, but writers are still fun to be around.