[ It's like he's been stabbed now, rather than slapped. The shock has merged with pure pain, while confusion swirls around them both.

No, it's... it almost makes sense. It has been like a story was hidden from them, pages being revealed at random. But... ]

How do you know that? How do you know it's not the opposite? That we're being lied to?

[ That "we're" betrays him; he's starting to actually consider this as fact, as canon, as the way it should be. Even if he's got his teeth into the fiction and isn't planning on letting go. ]