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[doctorize]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, DOCTORIZE FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 018.07.154.55 *** DOCTORIZE has posted an AUDIO MESSAGE. If you wish to listen, type LISTEN01. <USER> LISTEN01 AUDIO MESSAGE PLAYING... <doctorize> This is the line for Dr. Daniel Dickens. If you'd like to leave a message, please do so here. I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible!

Comments

[doctorize]

[Indeed he does, so for now, he'll start with the first part of what you said.]

Egon's announcement? ... Ah, are you talking about his alignment with the Fog God? I could swear I remember hearing him saying something like that on the network...

[Although, Danny had mostly ignored it at the time because he could literally not care less about either the Fog or Fourth God. At least, he hadn't right up until Rachel had started expressing interest in following one of them here...]

[peccatore]

The network?

[Marco furrows his brow. He... honestly doesn't know. All he can remember is the TV broadcast, and the panic it sent him into. Even after talking it out with Elias, he ended up going off on Egon in such a way that the man himself had to ask if he was okay.

It's frustrating. Maddening, he'd say, if he could bring himself to even snidely laugh at it.]

Ugh, it doesn't-- doesn't really matter where it happened.

[doctorize]

[Maybe it was a TV broadcast Danny is referring to? But again, he had not paid enough attention to really care about where he heard this information from.]

I guess not, but that is what you're concerned about, right? Why?

[peccatore]

Well, I...

[It's hard to even say WHY it hit him so hard. Even when he tries to put it into words, a part of him fears that he's just... irrational.]

I-I'd taken him to the arcade just a few weeks before it happened. So I guess... I guess I felt betrayed, in a way.

[doctorize]

[... Ah.]

Because he has chosen to follow a different path than yours?

[peccatore]

[That question feels harder to answer. That in itself isn't the problem, is it? He was never trying to recruit Egon, after all... unless we was lying to himself.

Marco hesitates.]

I think... I got scared he was just trying to use me all along.

[doctorize]

Ah, I see.

[And at that, Danny nods in understanding now.]

The feeling that someone has used or manipulated you in some way is not a comforting experience to have.

[peccatore]

[In turn, Marco nods back. It's reassuring that Danny seems to understand, even if this isn't the biggest thing on his mind right now.]

He says that's not what he did, but... but I can't quite drop the thought.

[doctorize]

[Danny hums in thought a little here, tapping his pen against his clipboard.]

Well, it's tempting to say that you're simply being paranoid, but at the same time, I do think it's reasonable to be wary. In this particular case, anyway; I'm not saying immediately cross over to another street if you see him walking down the same sidewalk as you, but for the time being, remaining cautious around him may be best. Does that make sense?

[peccatore]

... Yes. [And he nods again.] Just... I'll keep reasonable. Right? Be wary, but not... hostile. I'll try to remember that.

[doctorize]

Good!

[Danny makes a note of something, before he then speaks again.]

And then there was... well, recent events regarding the visitors we had. [There's a slight pause, before he asks.] What happened with you and your mother, after the two of you left that day in the park?

[He's curious now to know how things went once Marco was no longer around him or his own mother.]

[peccatore]

[Aaand here we are.]

A... A lot of things went wrong. I mean... Not immediately. Things seemed okay for a few more days. You, erm... I'm not sure if you had a similar experience, I think several people did...

Did-- Did I mention my dad showed up too? Along with her?

[doctorize]

I don't recall you mentioning that he was there too, I'm afraid. However... given some of your remarks in the past, I can guess that something happened while you were reunited with him here.

cw: hallucinations

[peccatore]

... I'm not even sure how to put it.

[And, indeed, Marco stares ahead of him for what feels like a long time before he finally finds the words to use.]

Gradually, they turned into... They started... acting just like... [Marco taps his temple. There's a weight in his chest.] ... just like the "parents" I keep hearing.

I wasn't even sure if they were real at first, to tell you the truth. When they first showed up. But then it got worse and worse, and-- and sometimes it was almost like I was hearing them from two places at once. I don't know if that was real. It was hard to tell them apart.

[doctorize]

I see... so what did you do? How did things turn out, by the end?

[peccatore]

I just kept running. And... They kept coming.

[Ultimately...]

... Someone... Someone else killed my father. Someone AM was after. But my mother, she-- she didn't seem to care he was dead. She only ever talked about what I did.

[doctorize]

... Did she die too? Or did she simply disappear like some of the others among us had done?

[peccatore]

[He nods.] She vanished.

... Well, the apparition did, I guess. The... usual one is still here.

[doctorize]

I see... a shame, that the voice is still there.

[There's a pause here. He's no longer actually looking at Marco and instead at his clipboard here. He might be a little lost in thought here, considering the comment that slips out next.]

... Though, it's good that the other one only vanished. You're lucky, in that regard.

[peccatore]

[That comment... isn't something Marco should linger on, let alone pry into. Him and Danny aren't friends, after all - they might greet each other outside this room, but their relationship is a professional one, albeit of a very different nature than what their mothers likely assumed.

(If they'd found out, would it have even mattered?)

And yet, Marco is too soft, too prone to irrational guilt, to just keep talking about himself after something like that.]

... I'm sorry.

[doctorize]

[At that, Danny blinks at him, as if almost uncomprehending, before he shakes his head, seemingly focused on the topic once more.]

Ah, no, you don't have to apologize. This isn't about me: please, continue.

[peccatore]

It... It doesn't feel quite right to go on about me when you're also... You know.

[Marco doesn't KNOW what happened with Danny, exactly, but it's clear enough that he has something on his mind.]

I could come back another day.

[doctorize]

No no, you don't have to do that--if anything, working is actually much more helpful to me now than to post-pone for another day.

[Because talking to other people, whether it is actually helpful or damaging others, is better than being alone with his own thoughts, frankly.]

[peccatore]

... If you say so.

[He does kind of get it, he supposes. Before things got as bad as they ended up getting, talking and working were the usual ways he distracted himself. Even now, he does what he can to keep it up. But still...]

Uh... Sorry, where was I?

[doctorize]

You were talking about what happened when our... ah, unexpected guests paid everyone a visit here. About what had happened during your parents during the time they spent in this place.