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From:

cactusy

You mean where would I be on a scale of one to ten?

From:

heyboss

Yes.

From:

cactusy

Eight, eight-point-five.

From:

heyboss

Why?

From:

cactusy

That's kind of a vague question. Is that a "Why is it so high, you should just leave" or a "Why is it so low when you act like you're at a 10"?

From:

heyboss

Do you act like you're at a ten?

From:

cactusy

Enough that I've gotten the "if you hate it here so much you're always free to leave" conversation a couple times.

From:

heyboss

Then that's my question. Why is it so low even though you act like a ten?

From:

cactusy

Because if it's real, it's worth it. Ten is "I would leave right now", right?

From:

heyboss

[Uh oh.]

You don't think this is real?

From:

cactusy

[Oopsie!]

Uh-- I don't know, probably not. I kinda go back and forth; right now I'm leaning towards no.

From:

heyboss

What makes you think it's not.

From:

cactusy

Look, am I freaking you out? If I'm freaking you out, don't worry about it.

From:

heyboss

You're not freaking me out.

Does it worry you to talk about it?

Edited Date: 2023-06-09 02:49 pm (UTC)

From:

cactusy

Just makes me kind of tired.

I have experience with people trying to mess with my sense of reality. It's, uh-- look, you know the Enclosure? I spent about a year in something like that, being run through a bunch of scenarios. All of them were designed to make me think they were real, and all of them were designed to get intel out of me.

From:

heyboss

You hinted at that when we first met.

So you think this might be the same thing?

From:

cactusy

Yeah.

From:

heyboss

Can I tell you a story?

From:

cactusy

Uh-- sure. Yeah, if you want.

From:

heyboss

There was a man named Andrew. He had done something terrible, something so bad that his mind refused to even acknowledge that he did it. Instead, he created an entire world. A new reality where he was a hero and he could solve a mystery that would save people. He didn't have to be a monster. That was his reality.

What makes his reality less valid than the one I perceived for him? It wasn't the truth, but it was his truth.

Point is, even if you're right, even if this whole thing is some sort of dream or illusion, the choices you make, the relationships you form, the things you do, are no less relevant here than they are in someone else's perception of reality.

From:

cactusy

[She listens all the way through, without interruption. When he finishes, the silence continues on her end for a few beats.]

Okay.

[And then for a few beats more.]

Can I be honest?