It's weird as all fuck is what it is. And frankly? A little unsettling. Zero is him, and she knows everything there is - and for a minute he looks at her with a faint stab of ridiculous pity. Of all the people out there, she had to get saddled with him.

"Huh," he says, tone carefully neutral. If this piece of himself is anything like the other 'pieces' of himself he's run into -

Zero shatters that thought with a sharp caw, diverting Tim back to the dream's present. He threads his way carefully around the tree trunks, eyeing them warily despite how innocuous they might look, and steps out from the trees and into the sun.

He blinks at the shock of standing in the unfiltered sunlight for a moment, on a little strip of beach. The roar and crash of waves is - it's -

It's weirdly nice.