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"You could smell the booze hanging off of him like a miasma."
"His cheeks were stained with tears, and his face? It was redder than the wine I made. He was babbling about her. How she left him, how everyone left him."
"I didn't understand what he was talking about." There's a trace of disappointment in its voice. "I wish I could. I asked him questions but he didn't answer any of them. He came up and hugged me, looking for someone to hold onto."
"I hugged him back. I didn't know what else to do. I learned how warm humans were that night. He sobbed and sobbed. I could feel his tears on my body." The anomaly pauses. "I'm not sure why. I wasn't designed for tactile simulation, but I knew I felt it."
A bitter smile crosses Anthony's face. "Heartbreak. Lotta folks tried to escape it through the bottom of a bottle."
The android nods in agreement. "He begged me to help him to forget. I gave him a way out. Fed him my wine directly from the source. He drank greedily from me, and before I knew it, he was at peace."
"In my arms. Asleep. Nothing could hurt him anymore." A wistful sigh crackles from the anomaly's voice box. "He forgot all about her, and he never cried like that again."
"How long did he know her, for the record?"
It takes a while for the anomaly to answer your question. "Five years. All of those memories with her, gone, in a blink."
Your face scrunches like you were just punched in the stomach. "Christ. I can't imagine hurting that bad." You answer with a half-lie.
"Surely, not all of 'em were bad. His memories, 'course."
The android crosses its arms. "He came to oblivion for salvation, and I offered it to him. He was happier after it. What use are memories that only bring you sorrow?" It answers defensively. Before either of you could answer, it mutters something to itself.
"<span class="mu-b">I liked being someone's salvation.</span>" If it could smile, you're sure it would be grinning ear to ear. "Salvation through oblivion. Maybe that memory is one I can keep. A single souvenir."
"The peace of death without dying. Purging everything. That's what humans want, isn't it? Peace?" The anomaly seems to lose focus on the two of you, content to stare at the floor. It giggles to itself, probably replaying that old memory over and over again in its head.
There's nothing else to do here. You and Anthony exit the containment cell. At least the anomaly's happy doing whatever it's doing, right?
>NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER MOOD: 85/100!
>INSIGHT HINT UNLOCKED! ABYSS GAZE/REMEMBER/SALVATION
As you step back into the main section of your lab, an odd thought pops into your mind.
You're pondering on what the anomaly said about its dream. NOWHERE'S SOMMELIER genuinely believes that it's helping people, in its own unique way.
Your gut tells you that the INSIGHT hints are about what 'path' you can convince it to take to <span class="mu-b">'help'</span> people.
>Changing how it views 'helping people' is likely how you get on the path to getting its ARTIFACT.
