[Open to Fellow Investigators]

[remembrances]

[Gilbert has really gotten to the point where he's had enough. He's confused, and he knows he should have paid better attention when people were talking about things before, but he's still just, well, a mess.

Those who know him might not be that surprised by this.]

If someone is... if someone is an infiltrator [That's the word, right? He thinks so. Terminology.] Is there any way to snap them out of it? How long does it last?

[He doesn't like it. Any of it. So he adds, in a mental mutter.] What if you shake them really hard?

[Right okay back to being an adult. A sulking adult.] My brother doesn't remember me. Once this is over, he will again, right? Are there lasting effects? Is it dangerous to him now if I talk to him? I mean, if I'm a reminder of his actual life or anything, it won't break anything in him, right?

[Someday he will not have this many newbie questions. Maybe.] Is there anyone this has happened to before, where you forgot who you were and became someone else because of these Trumps? Were you all right? When it ended... were you really all right?

Comments

[remembrances]

So with as much explanation as there is when we arrive to begin with.

[Gil is building a mounting grudge against the Trumps or whatever they call themselves.]

[notinthecards]

That's right.

[remembrances]

Is anything in our control here? Or are we pawns completely?

[Not that he hasn't spent a great deal of his life filling that role, he's just not fond of it.]

[notinthecards]

That's a surprisingly complicated question.

[remembrances]

Does it have an answer? Even if it's a complicated one.

[notinthecards]

Well. They change who we are sometimes, but they don't make us do anything. Punish us if we don't, though. Think of it as something philosophical - if we have free will, what does that mean? Does it change the way we live, or just the way we see it?

Just like anywhere, homme, you get what you pay for.

[remembrances]

It means that we can at least be ourselves. I... memories are important, aren't they? They're... mm.

What's the price here then? How much does it cost to get by without losing yourself entirely?

[He's a little wound up about all this, more than a little worried.]

[notinthecards]

Not too many lose that much. No, I think the Trumps chose us because of who we are, so they don't take everything. But if you don't fight what they want, your life maybe a little easier. That's a price, no?

[remembrances]

Not one I'm willing to pay. I don't even know their ends or intentions.

[He is done being used by people with half truths and full lies.]

[notinthecards]

They don't give us that much choice, homme. The question is if we go along rough or go along gentle. Me? I like gentle better.

[remembrances]

I don't particularly feel like making it easy for the people who kidnapped us and throw us around like ponds to keep doing it.

[So if it's inevitable, so be it, he'll still go kicking and screaming. Anyone who keeps him from his master is no one he'll play nice with.]