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[Souji is, surprise surprise, in the di-- Actually, this time he's in the kitchen. For a change of pace. He's got the device propped up on something so that he can talk at it hands free. Sitting in front of him is a piece of the rainbowiest rainbow cake a person could possibly make.]

Today is my sixth anniversary.

[He nudges the cake a little toward the camera.]

So I made cake. There's plenty of it, so I'll leave it here in the kitchen in case any one wants to have some.

[With a smile that seems quite tired, he shifts the cake to one side, and glances after it. With his gaze still cast away from the camera, he asks:]

How long have you been here? Do you want to go home? [He looks back at the camera again, his expression more thoughtful than tired now.] I'm kind of...doubting myself in that regard.

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Six years? [ Robyn seems fairly awed of this fact, blinking into the camera. ] ... This summer, it will only be two for me. I can't imagine -

[ ... But, maybe she can. It isn't as if she has a place to return to when she leaves Wonderland, after all.

The Warden is quiet for a moment before speaking again. ]

What is it you doubt?

[He smiles a little, still looking a bit tired. He couldn't have imagined it a few years ago, either. He'd never seen anyone stay so long, except for a couple of people who had arrived before him.]

I doubt whether or not I really want to leave.

[It feels like an odd thing to admit. He should want to go home, right? Wonderland is an alarming brand of terrible even when it's being relatively innocuous.]

I can understand that. [ Robyn replies gently. ] For many, there are things here that we can't find in our homes.

[ Life, for one thing. ]

I imagine you have friends here that you would be sad to lose.

Yeah. A few really good ones.

[A few really good ones have already gone.]

It's strange, but there are things about life here that are more stable than my life at home.

I understand that feeling. [ Her recent life at home had been traveling across the country in the middle of a civil war, after all. ] There is something to be said about the... lives we are able to lead here, for however long they last.

[That hesitation in her word choice gives him pause.]

Do you ever think this place might not be real at all? That this is something like a dream?

I considered that, once, but not anymore. I think that it's real.

[ She has no real evidence to base that off of, but you have to believe something, right? ]

What about you?

I go back and forth on it. But even if it is a dream, like some dream we're all sharing somehow, I'm still here experiencing it.

And a vivid dream. [ A very real-feeling one. Though, most dreams seem that way when you're in them, don't they? ] What do your friends think, primarily?

Like you, that it's real. [He really leans in that direction, too, but there's always that thought that he's wrong.]

Mm. [ There's a pause as she considers it, and then a small sigh. ] Well... it isn't as if we have much proof either way. It would be hard to confidently say one or the other with what we know now.

Either way, there are things to like about this place. And things to dislike.

I guess you could say that about most places.

You could. [ The Warden smiles again. ] But at least it's more of a... healthy mix, here. The good and the bad, that is.

I never really thought about it, but you're right. There's a real balance.

Well, as long as you make the good times good yourself. [It was easy to let things get you down here, if you let them.]

Exactly. [ Hard as that may be sometimes. ]

Congratulations, again, on your anniversary. I hope we'll speak soon?

Thanks. [He's not sure why, but being congratulated for it doesn't bother him as much as he'd have thought it would.]

We will. I'm certain of it.

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