Poppy: You- ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ถ๐จ๐จ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฎ๐ฆ!
Hinoki: Only a little bit. Just enough so we could have this chance to talk. (๐ต)
Poppy: I - You - ๐๐๐๐ฉ -
Hinoki: ๐๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐ฉ. Just listen.
Hinoki: I found this place with your father years ago. After I came back from Tartosa - you were still so little.
It was ๐ต๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ๐ด๐ค๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต - imagine hot-boxing in a yurt, completely nude at a 50 person orgy in the Komorebian mountains when all of a sudden - you find yourself somewhere else.
๐ฆ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ผ๐บ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฝ๐ต๐๐๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐น.
Poppy: Okay - and why are we here now?
Hinoki: Baby, this placeโฆ It's not just some drug induced apparition. ๐๐'๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ผ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฒ. A shared space between every life we've ever lived, ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐๐, ๐ณ๐๐๐๐ฟ๐ฒ, ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ฒ๐น.
Hinoki: It was in this pocket space where I found I was able to peek behind the curtain. Into the lives of other versions of myself, running adjacent to my own.
In one life I had a son who I abandoned in a pizza box in Moonwood Mill- in another a set of twins- also abandoned. In every single life - the same terrible mistake. ๐๐ซ๐๐ง and ๐๐ซ๐๐ง. Mistakes that I ran from.
Ones I'm still running from.
Poppy: So you're a terrible mother in every universe or whatever, ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ. But that still doesn't explain why you dragged me in here with you.
I mean- Are we even still talking? Back there? Can they hear us?
Hinoki: ๐๐๐จ, as a precaution we've only dipped one foot in. Any more could get dangerous.
Poppy: Dangerous?
Hinoki: In small doses, this between space is easy enough to slip in and out of.
But linger too long and there's a risk of separation - the soul becoming detached, lost, corrupted. No longer being able to find it's way back it's host- our bodies in the material. With no way back, you would be left completely catatonic.
Hinoki: But sometimes, when the pain builds up- I come here to forget.
๐ง๐ต๐ถ๐ ๐ฝ๐น๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐น๐ฒ๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐๐ถ๐ฝ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐บ๐ฒ๐บ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฒ๐.
After a time they always return, but for a short while I am able to leave the heavier ones here.
Dealing with a few pieces of my mind at a time became easier than living with the whole.
Poppy: Mom, I'm sorry.
Hinoki: There was no way you could have known. And you wouldn't have believed me anyway. Rightly so.
Poppy: So is that why you can never remember which one of us is which?
Hinoki: ๐๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐บ.
Poppy: What!? It's an honest question!