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[Souji is in the diner, putzing around, cooking things. He's been trying to cover as many shifts there as possible in order to a) keep himself busy and also to b) give Tohru a break.

Since most of the people in the Mansion probably aren't going to be ordering curry or anything else he's used to cooking, he's been practicing making American foods. Hence the delightful image filling the feed when he turns it on.]

I think I figured out how to make good American-style hamburgers. [This is an important distinction to make.] But...now I have too many. If anyone wants one, just come by the diner.

[Because this is too many for even him to eat.]

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You make it sound like a theme party.

_{[Adam takes a while to type the message, unsure of just about everything, including how he's supposed to feel about someone brushing Hell off with a word as casual as "stuff." No one who knew what it was really like would put it quite like that.

Lucky, to not know.]}

I don't know what you're trying to say.

_{[He considers texting what he's thinking, a combination of "fuck you" and "this is insane," but since he can't possibly qualify as sane himself, he doesn't. Different worlds, real hellhounds, Michael free from the pit... why not. Why the fuck not. This is Wonderland, after all, who needs to keep their head screwed on straight?]}

those events--when hell hounds show up or when the fog comes--are from our worlds, based on our memories. whatever we've been through can happen here as an event.

You know how that sounds, right?

_{[He's so tired of this. He can barely hit the 'send' button, and when he does he almost feels regretful.]}

i don't know how it sounds to you, specifically, but it's the reality we're facing here.

[Souji gets the feeling he's making a bad impression here, but he's not sure why, exactly.]

It sounds like I'm having a mental breakdown and imagining this whole thing. But that could be unrelated.

_{[Even if he's feeling sarcastic, the message is still mostly true.]}

I'll have to take your word for it.

that probably isn't what's happening. i'm real, anyway. i guess if you think you're hallucinating me, you probably don't believe that, but it's still kind of arrogant to think i came out of your imagination.

_{[He's not sure what he believes anymore, but believing he has power or infallibility certainly isn't it.]}

Being crazy isn't arrogant, it's just being crazy. No one said it had to make sense.

I thought people who were crazy didn't know they were crazy.

No offense, but we're talking about different worlds and Wonderlands. Going with that logic doesn't make you look great.

_{[Someone who could shrug off the kind of stuff they were discussing probably wouldn't know they were crazy, either.]}

We're about even.

two and a half years here has made it easy to accept a lot of crazy things as normal.

[His own world wasn't exactly full of normal experiences anyway, so he had a headstart.]

_{[Adam thinks about this message for a long while.]}

Are we talking that long in normal time?

_{[He doesn't know how to ask the question any other way, though even he's not confident how someone who hasn't experienced what he has can answer. According to Dean and the others here, time in Hell had been... different. What had apparently been only three years had felt like forever.

Is it the same here? Did the days just march on and on, endlessly?]}

not at home, no. i mean, when i go home, it will be like i never left.

here time passes normally though. there are days and months and years, with normal seasons and everything.

_{[It's okay to admit he's confused, right? He doubts the other person is holding any high expectations for him at this point.]}

How do you know that?

_{[It's not a very comforting thought.]}

the part about time at home?

people from my world have come here from different points in time. times when i know they were there. they never left for weeks or months, but they spent that long here.

Then time is passing differently here?

_{[Or they're talking about some kind of time travel, which after Michael doesn't seem as far-fetched as before. In actually, Adam doesn't know what they're talking about, only that whatever this place is, it's the farthest thing from normal a person can get.]}

pretty much. while time passes here, it doesn't pass at home.

Stop me if I'm wrong, but you're saying you've never left. So you've never been back where you're from to see for sure.

That about it or am I missing something about this omnipresent thing?

that's it. i haven't experienced it myself, no, but i know people who have.

[And a moment later, he sends an addendum:]

not like the friend of a cousin of a friend's in-law. i mean, people who are close friends at home, who i can trust. there are people here now who know, too.

_{[Really? Because this sure feels like a friend of a cousin of a friend's in-law story, only with different worlds, and people dying, and a dozen other impossible things.

Adam hadn't been entirely joking when he'd talked about being crazy. He gets the uncanny sense he's sliding closer and closer to the major mental break just waiting to happen.]}

Sure, if that's what they're telling you.

_{[This is as much of a concession as he knows how to give at the moment. Sure, why not magical worlds where time makes no sense.]}

i think if you talk to other people, you'll get the same info. i guess mass hallucinations are possible, but i don't think it's likely.

[...]

i still have a lot of hamburgers, if you want any.

_{[If he asks anymore questions, he's going to break the question mark key. He doesn't feel like he's going to get any closer to understanding things no matter how many games of 21 Questions they play, anyway, so he just texts back:]}

I'm not big on diners.

_{[More like he's not big on stepping foot outside of his room, but saying as much would mean having to explain why.]}

i can bring it to you.

[He's known enough people who like to stay shut in. That doesn't mean they can't eat good food.]

_{[There's another delay between receiving Souji's message and sending his own.]}

Don't think it'd be a good idea. Door's locked.

_{[And it's not opening if Adam can help it. Given how weird this place already is, maybe that'll be enough to get the point across, if not the truth.]}

i understand.

[Adam can believe that or not.]

if you ever change your mind, let me know. hamburgers don't take long.

_{[The place isn't Hell, but it's still strange. He has to think someone who's been around longer than a few months has heard weirder excuses.]}

They come out of the closet even faster than that, don't they?

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