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Brian didn’t do anything to the new Carmen that appeared in front of him -- she just fell over on her own. There was a part of him that wondered if he was supposed to test this new person in front of him, like, get her to say something that only the real Carmen would know or whatever, but two things stopped him. The first was he didn’t want to get too paranoid. A password just set the point of failure back a bit. Who was to say what someone could and couldn’t figure out? And if he went down that road, well, then he’d just be back where he started. The second reason, though, and the more important one in his eyes, was there was no way something trying to copy Carmen could ever be as dopey as the real thing. The fake Carmen had tried, but it had to give up the ghost eventually. His phone buzzed. Brian’s first reaction to the news was, “Holy shit, we spent how long trapped in there?” But he didn’t want to think about it, so he just let the expression hang in the air while he read the notification. “Yeah, okay, we’re done.” He grabbed the box of seals and a flashlight in one hand and offered the other hand out to Carmen. Unless she picked herself up, Brian dragged her along out of the building. It was relieving to see Shiki, if only because it meant he didn’t have to drive this time, especially this late at night. Becoming aware of the time made Brian’s brain realize how tired it was supposed to be, even with a sleep schedule as weird as his was. That inner paranoia bubbled up again in a “How could he be sure anything was real anymore?” sort of way, but Shiki seemed to know exactly what Brian was thinking. “We ARE Shiki,” they said. In fairness, Brian thought, nothing could be as weird as Shiki was for the same reason nothing would ever be able to replicate Carmen. But he didn’t let that get in the way of a good snark. “Well, you’re welcome, I guess,” Brian said. “Had to deal with a worse version of Carmen that I think was about to eat me, but the seals are still working, so I guess that’s good. Do we have to go apologize to this ghost too? Oh thank god, you got McDonald’s.” Not that he was a particular fan of hamburgers -- there was a reason he took Carmen to tacos the night they’d met -- but just as he had only just now realized how tired he was, the missing hours had not negated his growing hunger. He snatched the top burger in the stack and unwrapped it messily. He grimaced after one bite. “Get them without pickles next time,” Brian said, but he kept eating.