I.1 - IX.6 [video]

[trephaestos]

[comes over the network delayed, all at once. Signature stamps read out the timeline.]

[ Day 1, broadcast 1, accidental video: ]

[The term was reserved for this arrival. Anatole has never been given one more literally scorched

Comments

text | because you totally need more cr with river. but I can't not.

[impossibly]

fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fitre firre fire fire fitr efirre fdi fire fire fire fire fire figr fire fire cir fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fdire fiefireieifdeireifeie fire firefirefireifrei fireifreifrieifr ifreifi

Text | I ALWAYS need more CR with River! MORE ALWAYS!!

[trephaestos]

[…for hell's sake… ?

Lets it sit for a while. Intends not to respond. Can't it already be enough to…? But at last picks up the forge and types. This is a clinic, after all. The person on the other end could be worse; people can get triggered. He doesn't need to be the looniest tune.]

OK now. No more fire. It's all right

Text

[impossibly]

wrong, both counts.

Video

[trephaestos]

[switches to video to show his improved appearance: burns nearly healed]

Look.

[The option is appealing not to engage. On the other hand, is genuinely interested in diverse perspectives on the current situation-and perhaps a look at external madness to gauge his own current similarity to it…]

Text

[impossibly]

[ This would normally prompt River to switch to video too, but not on this occasion. ]

don't

Video

[trephaestos]

[a shadow crosses his face of incredible outrage. As instantly, like a spirit had entered him only long enough to continue passing on through, all energy and intensity drop again. His eyes go dull, face haggard, exhausted.

Unguardedly weary,]

Are you real or playing with me?

Video

[impossibly]

can't it be both

I didn't mean to upset you!!!! there's just so much

it's so

Video | assumes you're still text?

[trephaestos]

[a quick, shaken exhalation of a laugh]

Yes, it could be both…

[lowers his eyes to the keypad. Has barely been learning the functions of this thing, not going into depth, not pushing its limits, pushing its parameters, or taking it physically apart.

Decides to play a moment now.

While staying on video, he simultaneously, so the words appear while still showing his face, types in and sends in Text: ]

so much what?

Text | an excellent assumption.

[impossibly]

you're harder to follow than most people, you know

you're standing below flawed architecture. if everything is seen through the filter of your perception, and your perception can be tricked, how can you distinguish between "real" and "not real". if i see lights in a dark room, if i really see them, but you see nothing, which is the truth? if you've gone mad but everyone around you acts as though you're sane, which is the truth? if something you had learned was impossible happens, is it a lie, or a trick, or were you wrong the first time? occam's razor says there can only be one thing: sane or not sane, dead or not dead, real or not real.

can't it be both?

Video hybrid | & my eyes follow up as you rise to the impossible challenge of RT PERFECTLY AS USUAL

[trephaestos]

[if not in a wheelchair he'd sink to his knees.

Still something of a prayer even in the automatically, defensively cynical-but genuinely dazed,]

真理的话总是自相矛盾的. 'The words of truth are always-'

Text

[impossibly]

無

Video

[trephaestos]

[undizzies self and frowns to parse: his ability to read Chinese is worse than his ability to understand it spoken. That particular symbol-

A Buddhist monk asks a Zen Master-

What is inapplicable? Calling the words "paradoxical"? Calling them "truth"? -Or are you accepting the designation "Master"? or playing after all…?

(Well, had nearly admitted as much with "both"…)

Unbidden, something "Jack Dawkins"-

Artful Dodger Phantom of the Opera poisonous mist yeah tell me I'm not dreaming that these aren't from my head

-had said written flashes into his mind. "common reference doesn't entail common origin." Why did that feel so important… so obvious yet like he was missing an aspect of it…

Quotation source-Laozu-inapplicable…?

His head hurts from the gears whirring. For a moment he pushes it all aside.]

I'd like to recognize you if we met in person.

Text.

[impossibly]

挤眉弄眼! 你在吃我的豆腐嗎? ¹

[ ¹ literally: wink! are you trying to eat tofu? whereby 吃豆腐 is slang for lechery / taking advantage. ]

Vidtext hybrid

[trephaestos]

[for reasons not to go into right now, actually familiar with that idiom. Raises an eyebrow and types back, words appearing under expression:]

not cyber

[pointedly wipes clear the text box and levels the video viewer]

People like hiding behind these machines. That's not what machines are for.

[minding that he's just had long conversations with Near and Erik. People keep refusing to show their faces]

Video.

[impossibly]

[ Still laughing when she swaps modes. ]

Mu, simultaneously an answer and a lack of answer.

Video.

[trephaestos]

[...

Does not know what he'd been expecting but you are not it

Mouth already hanging open, so goes ahead and buys time by letting it say whatever it can find]

Not a rebuke: an example.