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You contemplate. "You could at least put on a shirt. I don't think you're stuck not having a shirt forever."
"I— I have a shirt?" He does, technically, but it's useless: the front's completely unbuttoned, and there's nothing underneath. You've been attempting to avert your eyes. "See? This was pointless. You are never, ever going to understand how I feel, and you're never going to put in the bare minimum effort to try! Because you don't care! You want to know all the facts, so you can sate your need for— for gossip, or whatever, but you don't give a fucking flying shit about me. You don't. I wish you'd stop fucking pretending, Charlotte."
"Why would I care?" You scowl. "You just murdered your poor stupid copy in cold—"
"I killed him because he's ME! He's me before I broke! I— I couldn't let him see... I couldn't let him know what I... how fucked I am. He's me if I never... if I never..." Ellery stares down at the dwindling puddle of silver goop, ankle bobbing. "I can't go back. And I— I don't like to see him. I don't even like to read his notes. He's still normal."
Normal! Well, everything's relative, but— still! "He's not <span class="mu-i">normal.</span> He's a stupid mirror copy who keeps dying, who... um, do you not think it's weird to make him so happy about being shot? By the way? He seemed <span class="mu-i">really</span> happy about getting shot."
"Good," Real Ellery says shortly. "I told you. It's better than being in pain."
"Um, sure, but..." Like he saw God. "...really, really happy. You don't think that's even a tiny bit perverse, or..."
"I just thought he should be happy for <span class="mu-i">one</span> time in his miserable fucking life."
"Oh," you say.
"Is that enough? Are you done? Are you willing to fuck off now?"
"No? I didn't even tell you why I came here?" You flourish. "I'm blowing up Headspace tomorrow!"
"You're blowing up..." Ellery inhales. "Okay. And killing thousands of innocent people?"
"Nope! I'm evacuating them! I have it all worked out. I don't even need you for any of it. I just figured that you should probably know, since you've spent a while, uh, trying to sabotage them, which is fine! That was a nice thing to do. I just figured I should probably hit them at the root, right? Kill <span class="mu-i">all</span> the people in those awful prisons? It's faster. Also more fun, probably, then going around and shooting people with crossbows... though maybe you like that?"
He doesn't rise to the bait. "What are you blowing up Headspace with?"
"Uh, a bomb! It's not very big." You mime the size of the plum can bomb. "But I'll just use my heroic ingenuity to—"
"You're not blowing up Headspace with that. You realize the size of the place?"
"I was going to blow up the middle of it! So the rest collapses."
"The middle of it is gigantic. It's fucking Headspace. You need something better than that. You need..."
Ellery falls silent. He looks down at the puddle some more.
"You what? Ellery?" You duck to see up at his face. "You what?"
"...You need something better," Ellery says. "Me."
