Quoted By:
"Who says I did anything that needs to be paid back?"
Horse Face— oh, God, he still has the camcorder out— cranes his head sideways. "Not beating the evil allegations, I must say!"
"Who asked you?! Who even are you?!" Pat tugs the towel tight around herself. "This isn't your problem! I just don't want to waste my time on pointless, doomed-to-fail experiments, alright? It's not a viable option. It's not—"
"Doomed-to-fail because it's impossible to sift individuals from the conglomerate— and if one were to do so, there would not be enough of the individual left to create an independent functioning person? Is that the sum of the issue?" Horse Face ignores the other questions.
"I— yes. Essentially."
"Why not extract multiple personalities into one body? I imagine they'd raise little objection, given the origin, and with a gooiform base the physical aspects ought to be accounted for. Multiple faces, or whatnot."
Pat's brow pinches. "..."
INDEED
WE WOULD NOT OBJECT
TO REMAINING TOGETHER,
EVEN AS WE SEPARATED
...IF SUCH A THING
WERE MADE POSSIBLE
"There you have it," says Horse Face insouciantly.
Pat's brow does not unpinch. "I haven't done multiple personalities before."
"Then it's a challenge!" you provide. "Just like I said! Remember? An expert challenge for..."
"I haven't— and what kind of process would this be? How many fragments are in you?" Addressing Us. "Thousands? You want me to sit around generating thousands of new bodies— hundreds at <span class="mu-i">minimum?</span> You want to feed all those people, Charlotte? Clothe them? House them? Remember, they're 200 years old! They've never seen the seafloor before!"
"I don't think they'd eat? And I assume..." You drop your voice. "I mean, Gil <span class="mu-i">came</span> with clothes..."
"I was— okay, but they still need to go somewhere, don't they? I'm not taking them in, Charlotte. I have enough abominations to babysit. Are you going to babysit them?"
"No! They're— they're mostly grown adults!" Don't think about the kids Claudia threw rocks at. "I'm sure they can take care of themselves. And they can stay here! And... and mingle with the Headspace people, when they stop by! And go on adventures outside, but only if they want to. The body's probably the important part, right? They just want their bodies back?"
FOR SOME OF US
IT WOULD BE THE CULMINATION
OF LONG-DWELLED-UPON HOPES
TO BE ABLE TO STAND ON TWO FEET
AND IN SOME SENSE TASTE THE AIR
AND LIVE AGAIN
"I don't know about 'air,' champ," Pat says nastily. "I'm not interested in sitting there extracting hundreds of—"
NO
LISTEN
FOR SOME OF US...
WE LIKE IT HERE, WITH OURSELVES
WE DO NOT WANT TO SEE OUR WORLD
IN ITS TROUBLING DESTROYED STATE
OR WE THINK OUR TIME HAS PASSED
WE DO NOT ALL WANT TO GO.
NOT EVEN MOST. SOME.
"So just a hundred, then. Two hundred?"
(2/5)
