Pause for doggie skritches. “Hello. Hello, who’s a good boy?” A heavy pet to the dog’s side before he moves into the apartment more.

“So. It helps to get one thing really clear.” He looks at Tatsuo solemnly, eyebrows high. “Zee doesn’t deny that he died. He didn’t get out of it somehow. He died. And when he came back, he was all the way out on the fifth? Layer? Whichever one we’re pushing out towards. That all happened out there.”

Good dog. Petting dogs while having these talks is helpful. “Retrospec kept calling that place unreality. That’s the level of- malleability that we can expect out there.”