Quoted By:
>Pardon me??
"I see," you say diplomatically. "That's very... interesting, Gilbert. Considering that, at that very moment, your mind was being dissolved into soup?"
"I don't know about that," Gil mutters.
"No? Because that's what Pat, known goo/manse expert, said was happening. If you stayed in there, you'd <span class="mu-i">degrade,</span> just like the rest of them did. Into soup! Soup! You know those people in there don't even know their own names?"
"That's not..."
"That's what they told me the first time. They couldn't even remember their names. And Pat also said goo's full of tiny little shredded <span class="mu-i">fragments</span> of Law, which, I have to say, does not sound even a little tiny bit like the people in there are intact and functional and not made of soup. So what you're telling me is, you were made to feel like it was really cool and awesome that your <span class="mu-i">mind</span> was being—"
"I... I-I don't... I think it would've taken a long time for that to..."
"But you wanted to stay that long! Maybe because they were already dissolving your brain, Gil? Did you think about that?!" You fold your arms. "Maybe that's why you're acting so dumb. Half your brain's already soup."
"I'm just drunk," Gil snaps. "And I- I- you don't even know what it was like, okay? You don't know... you don't... we don't forget... everyone in there knows their names. You're always so goddamn jud... jush... judgmental, Lottie. It's just tough to remember the little things when you have 8,000—"
"So your name's a little thing now?" you snap back.
"In the grand scheme of things, yeah! But it's not like... we don't... we want to hang on to... that's what the dream is there for. Even if we're soup, or whatever, we're still alive in there, and normal, and it's... it's peaceful..."
"Peace and love and holding hands and everyone's happy and pagan and doing <span class="mu-i">pagan</span> rituals! Oh boy! Do you even remember it, Gil? Be real. What do you even remember?"
"I remember what it was like in there," Gil says. "And, um, I think I... I think I came away with some extra, uh... I know some things about... I know more about fish now."
"Do you remember what happened in the dream?"
He looks sheepish. "Uh... some... i-it was a dream, so..."
"Oh!" you say. (You are definitely inebriated now, and are leaning far forward.) "Uh-huh! Interesting. Wow. Fascinating. Were you aware that Us made you a <span class="mu-i">loser</span> in this dream?"
Gil tilts his head back.
(1/4)
