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Formidable

He considers his world, reduced to the unblinking black eyes of the cameras and various monitors -- strange mirrors in which he's constantly reflected back at himself.

Formidable

And on the other side of those black eyes, thousands more watch through their television screens -- silent, stunned.

Formidable

Pity, sorrow. He regrets this on your behalf.

Formidable

He misses her dearly.

Formidable

"Out here". The material world is no longer home to her.

Formidable

Because of the Miracle Line. She thinks of you as a client.

Formidable

They began from the same point, but their lives have spiraled off in such different ways.

Formidable

Even for them, this is a bit much.

Formidable

And yet he has constructed an entire mental apparatus just to be here again, with you.

Formidable

He's not hiding it. He's screaming.

Formidable

He should have been giving literature classes at a university, not out here, down here, doubting everything...

Formidable

Politeness, professionalism, the performance of empathy. These are the things he was taught would make a good man, or at least a correct man. In his moment of greatest extremis, they all deserted him.

Formidable

So lost that the idea of a connection, no matter with whom, far outweighs the loss itself.

Formidable

By 'here' he means 'the world'.

Formidable

A tightly-bound profiteering brotherhood beyond the comprehension of lower classes.

Formidable

Besieged by failures in work and love, each of his attempts to resolve one immediately defeated by an agony from the other.

Formidable

Excitement high enough to render danger irrelevant.

Formidable

There is no undercover. This is just Ramses, doing what he does.

Formidable

You have struck the cruelest blow.

Formidable

Pulled himself up by his bootstraps. Well done for him.

Formidable

One hundred photographs. A family of strangers.

Formidable

Memetic contagion. A massive risk to any modern organisation.

Formidable

A liquid supper.

Formidable

This conversation is many levels beneath the cat. It knows what it thinks.

Formidable

That's... that's none of his business.

Formidable

He might cry later.

Formidable

Formidable

A scab across his heart he can't quite stop picking.

Formidable

He wants you to tell him that it's not bullshit. He wants it to be real.

Formidable

The reigniting of a custom you'd feared lost forever.

Formidable

Not exactly how you would be best described.

Formidable

He is surprisingly jovial compared to when you first met him...

Formidable

She doesn't care at all.

Formidable

The irreverent self-image of a trickster people, eternal underdogs.

Formidable

He doesn't think it's for the best at all. Part of him is still hoping that the visions will arrive, albeit late.

Formidable

You hurt his feelings.

Formidable

He misses this version of her the most.

Formidable

Your adversary's grudging acknowledgement is the greatest compliment you can receive.

Formidable

Fair play, he thinks. If this is to be his final performance, at least it's a big stage.

Formidable

A measure of last resort. Reports state it being extremely painful for the recipient.

Formidable

It would be so very easy to believe her. As if for you and you alone, it's no act.

Formidable

She casts it off, just like that. As if the phone was passed to a different person.

Formidable

He includes himself like one coming to terms with the things done during a blackout, or a bout of amnesia.

Formidable

There he is. He's back.

Formidable

There is a correct answer, but neither of you know what it is.

Formidable

There's another Melita, she thinks, looking at the same form but filling it in differently. She wishes she were that Melita.

Formidable

The voice speaking these words, it's not entirely natural.

Formidable

Can you say the same?

Formidable

A wistful lover, content to gaze upon beauty without ever touching it.

Formidable

Nor for you, either. You've made her just like you.