“Well, that’s better than... not? I guess? Does it— do you know if it does anything else?”

"It sucked me in to reading the statement, like I said, it made me feel like I was there and I was the person giving the statement, it wasn't-- it wasn't obviously supernatural, I wouldn't be surprised if it were a thing actors experienced, but it is not a thing that happens to me. And afterward I felt much more tired than I should have been and I had the more intense sense of being watched. And I felt very-- satisfied. Like this was a correct thing to have done. Which I think is the most terrifying of all, honestly, things should not be poking around in my head making me happy about things. It feels like the sort of thing that might be addictive."

“Right. Right, yeah. 

I... we should probably report this to artefact storage, right? So they can test them and see if they’re addictive? Or. Otherwise dangerous?”

"...the problem is that Elias told me to read the statements into the tape recorder because the previous archivist did that."

“...well, that puts an upper bound on how dangerous they could be, at least? I think?”

"...or it means that Elias told me to do something that would cause me to be mind controlled, knowing perfectly well it would cause me to be mind controlled, and didn't tell me."

“He wouldn’t do that. 

...Would he?”

"...well I don't know but I feel like I lack your touching faith in human nature."

“...I guess that’s fair. ...I could try it and see what happens? I don’t have any great solutions here. Um, sorry. Hopefully I am being helpful as a sounding board?”

"Yeah, you're great, if it weren't for you I would probably have just walked out and quit and regretted it for years."

Blushing! Stuttering! Martin is definitely smiling back but he is also very flustered and not very capable of words!

He eventually manages a coherent “...thank you.”

It is really easy to fluster Martin! Lev finds himself smiling.

"I don't think you should try it, I've already been exposed and we should probably limit the exposure to one person. I don't know what to do because-- what I want to do is to instruct everyone that under no circumstances is a non-digitizable statement to be read into a tape recorder, and possibly ban tape recorders from the premises to be on the safe side. But I feel like this would tip off Elias if he's trying to expose me to mind control without my consent. I'm not sure at all what the safest thing to do is. --And of course he might be helpful if by some chance he actually legitimately didn't know," Lev adds as an afterthought.

“Okay, so, if he is trying to mind control you, what would be the right thing to do? If you don’t want to tip him off and you also don’t want to be mind controlled? I, uh, assume you don’t want to be mind controlled?”

"...well I might want to be mind controlled. If I knew what it did and approved of it. Or if I was going to learn something really interesting from the experience."

(He was not sure if that second caveat would have existed a few hours ago but he can't regret having changed it.)

“O...kay! But we don’t know what this does, right, at least not well, so— I guess we should either be figuring out what it does or figuring out ways for you to be avoiding it without being suspicious? That—isn’t great if he’s inclined to be helpful, but if he’s not...”

"In the short term, I can just decide that tape recording the non-digitizable files isn't worth it until we hire a blind employee and hope like hell we never do. But that's not as safe as I'd like from someone deciding to do it anyway, and I really don't like having people around mind-control artifacts and not telling them. --I don't know, does Elias seem sketchy to you? You've been working here more than three days."

“Um, I don’t... know? I haven’t talked to him all that much, I mean, so, mostly just in a... professional capacity?”

"...man, you like people way too much. --I guess I shouldn't complain too much, you are putting up with me."

“...thank....you....? I think? Um, I wouldn’t call it putting up with.”

"--oh shit I didn't get baselines."

“...Baselines?”

"--it feels like my personality is different but I didn't measure it in any way! How am I supposed to know if it's a real change!"

“......you, uh, seemed pretty sure? And any way of testing it would be— doing it again, which seemed like it really freaked you out. Unless we go with the ‘telling artefact storage’ plan, but if you don’t want to tip off Elias...”

"I could self-deceive into all sorts of shit! --And if I do it a second time I could have a spotter and see what it looks like from the outside."

Martin considers this.

On the one hand, Lev was literally just worried about addiction risk.
On the other hand, Martin has the spine of a limp noodle, especially talking to his very smart and nice and handsome boss.

“....if you’re sure?”