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An artifact of no substance onto which nothing of substance has been recorded.

Amateur wirework.

Seeing what will come with it.

What's this disc doing to you?

One among their number turns to look at you, his technicolour robe billowing behind. He wears a small, neat moustache, as well as a large pair of headphones.

You don't recognise the artist.

No existential effacement detected with this one. Nice.

Maybe we're bomb proof, maybe we die grooving. Either way -- it will mean victory.

COLD OR HOT THE WORLD WILL STOP --

Or maybe that's just your vision burning prismatic at its folding edges.

We're going to die.

No... you're coming home.

Your blood froths. Demanding you fight or fuck.

YOU UNDERSTOOD NOTHING OF THIS SCREAMING MAN'S MANIFESTO. IS HE FOR REVOLUTION OR AGAINST IT?

Evil. Evil. Turn it off!

No use. The Umatic disc encoding method is basically extinct. You can't play this thing without specialised equipment.

No use. This disc must use a non-standard encoding method. You'll need special equipment to play it.

A Protypo 909 50-watt with multi-disc changer. Last-generation model, designed for affordability at the expense of power and clarity.

But, below that: vanilla, must. The pulpy fragrance of paper.

Reeeally get up in there.

The artist has broken the boundaries of the panel to traverse time and space, the Hombre slithering through a chiarascuro dreamscape.

Or, worse: It gets adapted into a film.

FORTUNATELY SUCH SUCH MEGA-VIOLENT CONTENT IS BANNED IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLICS.

Wait! There's no neatly perforated line to guide your tearing. And the binding's flimsy -- any operation you attempt, without the proper precautions, will become a dissection.

Extract the Hombre.

Careful. Slower.

Stop, stop! You're killing him!

Another asset undone by your recklessness.

It's a testament to the Ombre Hombre's popularity that they've been able to afford to keep it running this long.

The deity acknowledges its supplicant; your heart rate ratchets up a joyful notch.

You know... these kind of magazines often have illustrated centrefolds... or detachable posters...

At the cost of its resell value. Condition: DEFILED.

The pads of your fingers itch.

So the trail ends here.

This is a Umatic. While the form-factor's the same as any modern disc, the encoding method is entirely different.

Your part in this 'exchange' is done. The null entity had better have come through.

It'll be a relief to get out of this place.

Strong opening hook. Tonally ominous.

The Opera has unofficially been considered the last come, last served among the world three's leading intelligence agencies for at least two decades.

Roger Klaus Twitchitov, Director-General of the Operant Bureau from 58 until his untimely death in 87.

RUTHLESS CRITIQUE IS ONE THING, BUT THAT'S JUST UNCALLED FOR.

ONLY THROUGH REPEATED TESTS OF PURITY AND UNWAVERING DESTRUCTION OF THOSE WHO FAIL THEM CAN A PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC POPULATED BY ACTUAL PEOPLE BE CREATED.

As for operant 'excommunications'... HOLOCENE is a case in point.

To master the own goal is to master the element of unpredictability.

The text seems genuinely uncertain of what it is more interested in doing -- getting to the heart of the Opera's problems, or delivering the former director a literary pummelling.

Distrust as a replicating sickness.

It's his own current condition he is describing: the terminus of mistrust.

Why would someone redact something they wrote... from themselves?

Skill checks - ZERO PARADES field manual - Page 161 of 197