"Is there anything you'd like me to—do?" she asks, when it becomes clear Denice will say nothing more.

She thinks about it, then shrugs and shakes her head.

"Okay. So, um... see you later?"

Nod.

"Luck," she says, and heads out into the city; if Sadde follows quickly enough she can see her heading into the subway.

Sadde won't follow. Off she goes to Orientation

Denice keeps an ear on her until she's out of range, and then settles into the work of learning how to get by in this neighborhood.

Compared to the Sideways, it is completely sensible and good and not crazy at all.

There are still the muffled edges, though.

Yup. She's still not getting closer to those than she needs to - one of her criteria in picking her new lair is 'away from them' - but her stay in her previous location showed her that they don't move or have anything weird come out of them or anything, so she's not too worried.

If she ever goes to the street level and tries to look at what these edges are, she might understand that the reason why stuff is muffled that way is because it's less... real than the rest of the city. More the idea of a city than an actual city, with fake buildings and fake space and a fake(r) sky.

Except for the one tower jutting up into the sky, large windows reflecting the sun, perfectly defined in the undefined edges of the city.

Her curiosity does get the better of her, once she's settled in and not worrying about where her next meal is coming from, but mostly she explores the area by ear while she waits for Sadde to return.

Sadde returns four days later.

...it is Sadde. But it... also isn't Sadde? Sadde is different. Uh. Anatomically.

He also has a basket that seems to contain food.

She is not actually sure whether that's Sadde or not. But he's sure acting like Sadde, and if he is this's the, oh, fifteenth? twentieth? weirdest thing she's dealt with over the last two weeks, so, hm.

She makes him wait half an hour, just to be on the safe side, and makes sure her escape route is clear as she approaches.

He waits half an hour. He brought a book for just such an eventuality. When he spots her, he smiles and waves.

She manages not to startle much.

She seems to be doing okay; she's had a shower since he last saw her, and she's wearing a different, clean outfit, and she doesn't seem especially hungry or anything - still wary, but that's to be expected.

"Sadde?"

"Hello." He offers the basket. "I got some food and other stuff. There's, ah, a couple clean clothes—they're some hand-me-downs Orientation gives us, not exactly your size—but you got some?—anyway, and there's a cracker, that's a phone that's like super cheap so cheap it's basically free because it's infinite, and a couple of books, I didn't know what you liked and I still don't exactly have money I bartered for them and um there's a thing I should tell you but it's kinda bad and some people react really not well to it."

Please wait, brain processing... "Thanks. Bad?"

"Um... I don't think it's bad, it's just weird and I realized you wouldn't know it because you're not going through Orientation so someone should tell you." He shifts his weight a bit.

"...okay..."

"Okay so. Um. Ah." He looks around, as if trying to look for inspiration, or something that will make him not have to be the one to tell. "You. Ah. People are like..." He clears his throat. "Um." He looks down and says, very fast, "Youareactuallyacopythereisstillayouwhereyouarefrombutthisoneisjustasrealitjustisn'ttheoriginal."

She blinks, looks vaguely concerned; sways gently in place, toward him and then back. "Okay."

"...okay? Okay! I was worried. A, um. A lady um. She k—she took her own life yesterday, when she found out. She thought she wasn't real just because she was a copy, but. Um. That's not true at all, I was born here and I'm surely real, right? So you're real, too."

Ahh. Yeah, okay.

"Hug?"

"—yeah."

Hug, slightly squeezy; she'll stay until he seems to want her to let go. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Kinda. I think." He pulls away. "It happens a few times, I think. People don't take the Echo Revelation too well, or there's religious stuff around it... I don't know. I am my thoughts and my memories. Even if I were copied... well, so what? A copy's just as good as the original. I think, therefore I am."