"--Oh, sorry, my first name is Lev. I'm not great at this--"

“...It’s okay. Give me a minute to google you?”

And, a couple moments later: “—Okay, wow. Yeah. Okay. I... I guess you exist outside of my head, then.” She gives a short, nervous laugh. “Hi, I guess. Sorry about the, uh, dreams?”

"--uh, no, my fault, entirely my fault, I was hoping that if I had people give statements to Research it wouldn't happen-- in the future I am going to have an informed consent form but you're, uh, the second person this has happened to. Um, with me anyway. I assume it happened to lots of people with the last archivist but research ethics was not really one of her strong suits."

“That’s... kind of a lot. And your institute just, what, hasn’t told anyone about this?”

"Informing me of things is also not really one of the Institute's strong suits."

“Sounds like a shitty job.”

"Yeah, it's really not great! --Anyway, I'm partially calling to, uh, apologize, and partially to see if I can get your help as another paranormal investigator? It's obviously important to figure out what the nightmares are like for the people experiencing them so I can write the informed consent form. Also it might help me figure out what the fuck the Magnus Institute's local evil spirit is up to."

“You know what? Sure. I’m in.”

"Great! --Uh, the big question I have right now is whether the nights you have nightmares match up with the nights I have nightmares? Because if they do then maybe I can get statements from a lot of people and then each individual person will have to deal with fewer nightmares? Which is definitely much more ethical than making you all relive it every night."

"You said last night, right? That matches for me, at least."

"Yeah. --I kept a journal but you might not remember what nights you had nightmares. At least you're not going 'I've had horrible nightmares every night since I gave the statement,' which is a relief."

“I mean. Pretty close. Not that I wasn’t having nightmares before I gave the statement.”

"...well that's not great. Fuck. I'm sorry."

“Well, it’s not your fault. I... assume.”

"I mean I should have thought of warning you of the risks. --I guess probably not all of the nightmares are our fault. And it's going to be hard to figure out how many are our fault regardless since, uh, everyone who gives a true statement is traumatized."

“Apology accepted. You’re not wrong, though. Trauma certainly is a... confounding variable. And I doubt I’m the only one that’s true for. ...I should probably thank you for letting me know but I’m really not feeling it right now.”

"Yeah, that's... totally understandable. Do you want to meet up at some point and talk about how to investigate it?"

“That’d be great, yeah. And, uh, thanks for believing me, too. My statement, I mean. I don’t think the rest of my team does.”

He thinks about it briefly and then says, "Our local evil spirit won't let true statements touch digital electronics. Can't type them into a computer, can't speak them into a recorder, even if you try to summarize it in an email it just won't take. So. I have an advantage in believing you."

“...Huh. Wonder if that’s what messed up my footage.”

"I doubt it, the Magnus Institute's thing is a pretty local effect, but the paranormal usually doesn't play well with electronics." He realizes what he's saying and hastily adds, "Although it really depends on the kind of paranormal activity, some of them seem to be fine with everything and some of them can't handle lightbulbs."

“Huh. Want to compare notes when we meet up?”

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. --Uh, what was my eye arrangement exactly?"

“Lots. It was like... the important thing about you, in the dream, wasn’t that you were a person, a living breathing person—no. The important thing was just that you were watching me. And the dream wanted to make damn sure I knew it.”

"Thanks."

And he can set up a place and a time for a meeting and get off the phone. 

He emails Martin:

Melanie's helpful! Also how do you feel about me being, like, literally covered with eyes?

Then he starts watching a bunch of Ghost Hunt to see what he thinks.