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[corkscrewed]

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[epistemological]

...really?

[ He snorts and takes another sip.]

Not much. Maybe see if I could find your body or something.

[corkscrewed]

[ his nose wrinkles. ]

Immediately into problem solving mode. Maybe I wouldn't have wanted to be put at rest.

[epistemological]

But you couldn't make a proper choice until we'd found it, now, could you?

You'd deserve the choice.

[corkscrewed]

What if I'd been dead and didn't know it? Like, if she'd gotten me while I slept.

[ lmao he's just.


he's just thoughtfully considering awful scenarios here. ]

[epistemological]

[ Yeah, he's going to squint at you on that one. ]

Is there a point to this line of inquiry?

[corkscrewed]

[ martin is undeterred. ]

Just trying to figure out how I might've been dead in the Institute.

[epistemological]

Honestly, it's more amazing that we're all not dead.

[corkscrewed]

— like Sasha.

[ he hesitates, but takes the water instead of the liquor. ]

[epistemological]

[ He winces. He shouldn't have, and he knows he shouldn't have.]

...sorry.

[ It being longer... doesn't make it any better.]

[corkscrewed]

No, it's — don't be sorry. You miss her, too.

[ he just wishes he remembered her. ]

I keep having these — thoughts. It's... ugly.

[ and he didn't mean to admit this out loud. ]

[epistemological]

Thoughts?

[ It's an invitation. ]

[corkscrewed]

Just...

[ he makes an unhappy little noise. ]

You won't think less of me?

[epistemological]

[ There's a short pause, but it's the kind of pause you give because you want to give an honest answer.]

No. No, of course not.

[corkscrewed]

I miss her. I - think I miss her, at least, but it's hard to know-

[ the words are so hard to say. more quietly, he tries: ]

I keep thinking, what an awful end that has to be. That - it's like she never existed at all. No one can remember her.

[epistemological]

Melanie can.

[ He takes a sip.]

Sometimes... sometimes I envy her so much my hands clench. She can see her face.

All I have are tapes. Tapes with her voice.

[ He looks over at Martin.]

I have them with me. If- if you'd like to hear it.

[corkscrewed]

You do? You - I thought you said they were all - yes! Please. If you don't mind.

[epistemological]

The- the Not!Sasha stole them. Kept them in her desk. I recovered them, just before I went to smash the table.

[ And that is all he's saying about that as he gets up from his chair, going over to the same corner that has the file box. There's a case beside it where there's some tapes and he pulls out three of them and a second tape recorder.

He tries not to meddle with the one that's become his warden item. But he puts the second one on the table and places the tape with Sasha's full statement on it in there.

Then he presses play.]

[corkscrewed]

[ the alcohol will have hit fully by the time the statement ends. martin watches the recorder, silent for a long moment, before he clears his throat and glances over at the table. ]

She sounds like a stranger.

[epistemological]

I've listened to it... dozens of times. And every time, I tell myself 'this is Sasha. The real Sasha.'

[ He ejects the tape.]

She always sounds like a stranger.

[corkscrewed]

Maybe it's just because... people always sound different on tape.

[ he's scrambling here. ]

[epistemological]

[ He looks up at that.]

Martin.

[ That's all he says.]

[corkscrewed]

I just mean, maybe that's why she doesn't sound familiar.

[epistemological]

Martin.

[ Self delusion is not a good idea.]

[corkscrewed]

I should go back, at least. I should - take care of - the thing pretending to be her.

[ he's getting punchy now, more upset than he'd realized. ]

[epistemological]

I'm bringing her back, Martin.

[ He looks up past his glass at Martin.]

That's what I'm doing here. I'm going to save Sasha. And Michael Shelley. And Gerard Keay. All the sacrificed archival assistants. All those trapped by the Institute.