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[coppelganger]

crystal | letters | in-person

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crystal, once the negotiation results are public

[youwonscience]

Hey, you busy?

[coppelganger]

[ There are soft musical sounds in the background as Sarah answers—some kind of plucking instrument that sounds surprisingly nice (well, surprising because it's Sarah playing it). ]

Busy, no. What's up?

[youwonscience]

Why the fuck does anyone go into politics on purpose? I mean, that's mostly rhetorical, but, like, if you have any insight. Because I feel like I've been run over by a truck and they don't even have trucks in Thedas.

[coppelganger]

Because they're sociopaths. Or narcissists.

[ There's a small pause. ]

Did something happen?

[youwonscience]

Other than my vacation to Skyhold in the form of arguing in a room for days on end, no. I just... needed some moral support now that I'm not sworn to secrecy anymore.

...not gonna lie, it feels kind of weird not to be Skyping you.

[coppelganger]

Yeah, it is weird. We can pretend we're using our clone phones, if that helps.

[youwonscience]

I may take you up on that.

On the bright side, at least they're not forcing phylacteries on everyone, which was the big goal. And we're officially not demons. So... yay?

[coppelganger]

[ Sarah laughs. ]

You sure about that? I feel pretty demonic some days.

[youwonscience]

[Cosima laughs too, despite herself.]

Careful, someone will hear you and try to like, banish you back to the Fade or something.

[coppelganger]

If that happened, d'you think I'd end up back in a Mexican prison?

[ She sounds like she's... not really considering that as a possibility, but not exactly joking either. ]

[youwonscience]

Honestly, Sarah? I don't know, but I don't think it's that straightforward. If it were, I'd have told you. I like having you here, but I know you've got to get back.

[Assuming they can. The fact that her memories line up with Sarah's but Sarah doesn't remember Cosima disappearing leaves a couple of possibilities. One is that she goes back to the exact point she left; wakes up with no memories of Thedas. The other... has some data supporting it, but is a more complicated prospect, and Cosima doesn't want to go speculating without being sure. At least surer.]

...also I don't think you told me how you wound up in a Mexican prison.

[coppelganger]

[ Sarah sighs, a low exhale, before she says anything else. ]

It's a long story. The military and the Proletheans and DYAD are all connected, Cos. They're trying to find the original genome and fix whatever went wrong. [ She bites her bottom lip, not sure if she should say anything else, then decides against it. First, because of the massive amount of information she'd have to give Cosima over what's essentially a magic two-way radio, and second because she's still not sure how she'll get out of the military camp or what they even did to her before she got here, and thinking about it makes her anxious and freaked out and angry. ]

[youwonscience]

You mean the root of clone disease? Shit.

[The reality of having to face that, eventually, is something that never really goes away, for all she talks about it little these days. She knows what happens if she goes too long without treatment -- she thinks about it every time she leaves Kirkwall, the possibility of something going wrong on the road, not having the option of spirit healing at length.]

I can't say I'm surprised Leekie was in bed with the military, in some ways. You don't get that kind of funding from everyday grants, it was going to be the military or rich people hoping to live forever or something. Still.

[coppelganger]

Yeah.

[ Again, Sarah hesitates, and then continues in a rush: ] Look, I know it's a lot, and you don't remember, and we don't have to talk about it all. But you should know there are other clones. The military raised a bunch of boy clones. They're our siblings, biologically. We're Project Leda, they're Castor. It's important, so... you should know. [ God. It sounds so stupid blurted out like this. ] I'm sorry.

[youwonscience]

Wow. That's... a lot. Have you met any of them? The Castor clones.

[A pause, then:]

You don't have anything to be sorry about, you know.

[coppelganger]

[ She's just going to not respond to the second part, because Sarah's self-loathing knows no bounds tbh. ]

I have. They're all working for the military. Not good guys. They were raised self-aware, like a bunch of steroid-fueled Rachels. [ Shit, does Cosima even know who Rachel is? Sarah isn't sure, but she doubts it. ] One of them broke into Felix's flat and held a gun to Kira's head, before.

[youwonscience]

Oh my god. She's OK? You're OK? Shit, I mean, I guess maybe it's been awhile for you, but still.

[She knows Rachel's name, enough about her for the comparison to make sense broadly, even though they haven't met.]

[coppelganger]

Pretty recent. I sent her to stay in Iceland with her dad for a while. She's alright, I guess.

[youwonscience]

I hear Iceland is pretty.

[It's a lot to process. She exhales, audibly.]

Is that how you ended up captured? Going after them after one threatened Kira?

[coppelganger]

No, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Y'know, as usual.

[ She's trying to lighten the mood a bit. ]

[youwonscience]

Shit, Sarah.

[But it succeeds, in that Cosima laughs a little.]

It's weird, you know. I've been here so long on my own... before you and Helena showed up, it sort of felt like my life at home was more and more kind of unreal. Not like it didn't happen, obviously, but just... distant. And now there's so much that you've lived that I don't even remember being there for.

[coppelganger]

I feel that way too. Not for the same reason, just... you don't remember, Helena doesn't remember. It's almost like it didn't really happen.

[youwonscience]

I'm sorry. I wish I did.

[Not because it sounds like it went well, exactly, but so Sarah felt less alone. Gently, a joke:]

Just wait until, like, Alison from five years ahead of you inevitably shows up.

[coppelganger]

[ Sarah laughs, genuinely amused at the thought of Alison showing up, even if she is from some point in the future. ]

I'm not sure she'd be able to survive in a world without PTAs and homeowners' associations.

[youwonscience]

Oh my god, are you kidding? [Laughing a little:] She'd be seneschal in like, two weeks, maximum. She'd force a merchant into reverse-engineering glue guns and glitter so that we can send out real invitations to shit. The entire base operations project would be running scared.