[For the second time that day, he feels his eyes start to water. The thought that you might not be human. That he's something else, that he's an alien, that as try as he might, he'll never counted as a human being.]

[Retrospec brings memories of the past, yes. But god, it would be so easy if it was just memories. But when is the day going to come where he's going to wake up and not recognize himself in the mirror. Will he just stay in bed forever, hoping to sleep the rest of his life away? Would they come after him with pitchforks and torches? Would he be like some Gregor Samsa, hated by his loved ones, doomed to die by the same hands who reached out kindly to him?]

[He lets out a laugh, like he just told a joke, but he's shaking like a leaf.]

Maybe I'm just mistaken. I-I mean, maybe I'm jumping to conclusions. I worry too much. I make things bigger than they are. I've done that for my entire life.

[He hasn't gotten a lot of memories back. Good hearing doesn't mean he's a monster. The fact that he had tentacles for hands? Maybe he's an actor. He stars in horror films. Wouldn't that be nice? The idea of it all just being a role instead of cold, unnatural reality?]

That's why, when Mateus offered...I wanted nothing but to take it. To see the truth and then hide it away. And then go back to my normal life. Without magic, without subway cars, without monsters. I just want to be me.

[The tears are already streaking down his cheeks.]

I don't want to be something else.