[ he blinks. he's not sure what he thought the answer was going to be, but it wasn't that. ]

Even though you made it in the first place?

[ ...or maybe that was why? if he wanted to try to see what those feelings that shouldn't have been there looked like, or something? ]

Dahut made modifications on his own. I realized it at the beginning of this week, when I sensed that his range of emotion was beyond mine.

He didn't report his findings to me, though he did explain to me how it was done... even though his work was still incomplete.

So were you curious or angry?

Only in the sense that I wondered why he hadn't reported it to me since I've ben waiting on him to produce results for years, but he said it was a recent development in his own timeline.

But we were able to discuss how he did it, and I devised how to make Relivers with fully functioning emotional capacity.

[ . . .

but even after he says it, there's a hue of confusion in his emotions. wait what.]

Huh...?

That doesn't make any sense...

[no shit scien

but he's lost in his thoughts i'm so sorry]

[ yeah uhhh ]

That's not... what actually happened, right?

It is... though it's complicated. We came here already remembering two different series of events.

But that was our conversation on Monday. [ . . . ] It makes Thursday harder to explain.

...Yeah, I mean. That kind of doesn't address the thing where parts of him ended up in different rooms on Thursday night.

[ the vibes are honestly less judgmental than might be expected with that remark, it's truly just. what happened there?? ]

Hm... His brain and Reliver piece of him belong in the Institute. I left his heart where I knew it would be safe.

[ . . . ]

But I know best of all that the protocol is to take dead Reliver vessels and burn them to ash.

Yeah, I remember.

[ ... ]

Were you just like, that out of it that you don't even really remember what happened?

[ he could see doing the opposite of the proper protocol to divert suspicion from himself, but it doesn't seem like he really wanted to get away with it... ]

I was entirely in control of myself, and I am responsible for all that I've done.

Okay, so... why did you do that?

[there is a long, contemplative silence. his weird reliver emotions come up again, a swirl of confusion and sparks frustration. he is trying to answer the question.]

... It made sense to me at the time.

But I am aware, more than anyone else, that such a statement makes me sound like a fool.