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[agnominal]

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[agnominal]

Sleeping. Finally.

He becomes distressed and rouses when he is cold. I have not been able to venture far for very long.

[emps]

Your first mistake was falling asleep without a second body around. He only lets go when someone else is around to hold onto.

... Distressed, though?

[agnominal]

He calls for the dead.

In his sleep as well.

[emps]

You know, for once, I would have appreciated the lie.

I'm sorry. That he's calling for them and that he's distressed.

[agnominal]

He seems to do it less if I remain. So I will.

[emps]

Well, if you need anything, I can bring it by.

Or... drop it at your apartment, I guess.

[agnominal]

That would likely be for the best.

He is still certain you mean him harm.

[emps]

I know.

I knew he was on the run for a while before I ... recovered him. He's always been kind of squirrelly,
so it's probably worse now. And I proved I was a threat to him. At the very least, I'm not safe.

[agnominal]

You will need to speak to him. Eventually.

He cannot stay hidden away here forever.

[emps]

Yeah, he kind of needs to agree to speak to me first.

Right now I'm giving him time. Let him get food, let him get rest, then I'll talk to him.

[agnominal]

Very well.

I will keep you informed of his condition.

[emps]

And let me know if you need anything, too.

At some point, I should catch you up on what exactly this whole mess is about.

[agnominal]

If it is regarding the AI, I am aware.

[emps]

How much did Price share?

[agnominal]

A great deal. Are you referring to something in particular?

[emps]

I need to know what you know to fill you in.

I'm not trying to trick you. There are some things that Church might not want to share, so I don't want to go spilling it if you don't already know.

[agnominal]

Such as the mind that he originated from?

[emps]

Yeah, that'd be part of it.

York used to be involved with that mind's daughter.

[agnominal]

I know.

Much of what I learned of Agent York was done with Agent Carolina in mind.

[emps]

Right.

Well, I wasn't there for all of this or what York did to Church, but; he recognized the body that Church is in, and freaked out when he heard the name and shot him. Didn't realize Church was the Alpha.

And Maine, last time York heard of him, was in full-on Meta mode. Maine doesn't take people he cares about getting hurt well.

It's a whole mess of York's trauma, the history Maine hasn't gone through, Church's history, and Maine's stuff.

[agnominal]

A great deal to untangle, in other words.

[emps]

Yeah, tell me about it.

Also, Church likes to pretend he's a ghost half the time.

[agnominal]

That was apparently the popular theory in Blood Gulch at the time.

I suppose when you've considered yourself a human being with a life and memories of your own, accepting that you are nothing but code based on someone else would be difficult to accept.

Didn't the Epsilon unit continue to use the identity "Church"?

[emps]

They're still people. They might not be human, but both of them were people.

Also, yeah, he kept using Church. But apparently, Caboose thought he was Church and told him stories. Episilon's whole thing was memory, so he remembered a lot about the Alpha. As close as you could get to the original, I guess.

He was... supposed to be mine, not Carolina's.

[agnominal]

But this is the Alpha. We know that for certain?