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[Video] 001
[ A newcomer, it seems, just outside the bay. Their voice is muffled inside the cartoonishly oversized mask. It's unmoving gaping grin is either endearing or chilling. Maybe both. ]
Hello. My name is Jerrie. The hologram and pamphlets were rather helpful, but I find myself in still a bit of a skeptical trance.
Can someone assure me that I'm not having an elaborate fever dream?
Hello. My name is Jerrie. The hologram and pamphlets were rather helpful, but I find myself in still a bit of a skeptical trance.
Can someone assure me that I'm not having an elaborate fever dream?

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Well it's not a fever dream, but if it was a lot of people are having the exact same one.
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Alternatively, Mass Hysteria might be involved.
If Okham's razor proves true, I think either scenario would be the more likely than the one presented. Being whisked away to some strange wonderland where we must still work and pay mortgages.
Rather mundane in its fancifulness, no?
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That might be the case but oddly enough, kind of prefer it to having things happen all the time.
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The sun rising is not a happening for lack of it fitting the category, but that we've been so desensitized to it that it no longer carries any kind of impact.
A happening that might better fit our concept would be if the sun did not rise, even though in this case, a happening is actually the lack of something happening. Such is language, yes?
But look at me prattling on. Do you mind if I ask what sort of 'happening' you've become tired of, for some sense of scale?
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But the one I am on about is mostly body horror I believe it's called. Changing into something that well one wasn't asked if they wanted.
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I mean the cause could have been found, but I was preoccupied during it to really pay much attention to what people might have said.
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I assume therapists are very skilled here.
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[Plus with what she went though back home it was something she could just get use to easily.]
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Many people wouldn't recover from something you've experienced in a lifetime.
That's what I find odd.
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Not all can, that's why there are mental health issues make do make it impossible, but not a case for everyone, like myself.
[Video]
"I can, for what assurances from a stranger are worth. Of course, everything must come through our senses, which are not infallible, so it call comes down to faith, like so many things. Another assurance: if it is a dream, it's unmatched in its sensuality, however fantastic."
Re: [Video]
Are you a philosopher? Poet? Perhaps both, as they often go together.
Your placation does invite complacency, but perhaps the idea of a patient fighting their way out of a coma through willpower alone is more a fanciful narrative than a reality. Or to assault a different convention, who is to say that a dream is a poor substitute for reality? Its a construct for the good of society rather than that of an individual, and perhaps I can stand to be selfish for once.
But I've speculated enough. I don't believe I caught your name.
Re: [Video]
Heh, no, neither I'm afraid. You think so? I recall one poet who was hard on philosophers for dreaming of less than what's in heaven and earth. Ah, but we're not looking for dreams, eh?
[Ted's lost at the next bit, taking an uncomfortable amount of time trying to parse that. He's sure it must mean something, were he only wise enough to decipher. Alas, he does not understand, falling back to moralizing.]
"Mm...well...I wouldn't recommend either complacency or selfishness, here, unless you'd like to disappear. Either enervation tends towards that consequence.
Oh, I'm Ted, by the way. Pleasure to meet you. Yourself?"
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If the former is true, I wonder if this pure altruism could be harvested as a form of renewable energy. At the very least we might try hooking up a generator to Ayn Rand's coffin, to benefit from the energy of her rolling in her grave. Ah, but perhaps she doesn't exist here. I'm unsure if that's a tragedy or a godsend.
Ah, but I am losing track of myself again. I am Jerrie, and I am similarly pleased to make your acquaintance, Ted.
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Haha, don't quite believe in independence, myself. The amount of things sustaining life seems almost pure grace, or else some grand conspiracy. Suppose I meant selfishness as more as...self-seclusion, say. Like a hermit. If you don't make connections and bind yourself to others, in some degree, you'll be adrift and, eventually, utterly absent. Like a plant without roots; won't last long that way. No taking existence for granted, here.
Oh, Jerrie, that's a hard one! So many possible derivations. Jerome or Gerald; well, it's a fine name either way. Can I be of any use to you, at present?
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Pardon, but did you say you don't 'believe' in independence? I feel like that's a statement deserving of elaboration.
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Hah, oh, no, I mean that "Jerrie" itself comes from something more definite. It's just hard to place what, and so hard to know the meaning. But all three or so are good.
I believe it only in the case of God. The uncaused Cause, and all that. Everything else depends very heavily, in my experience.
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That comes from the scripture as well, does it not? Humility before God, for which we are naught but servants.
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Hm? Oh, what you said does, but I think my bit came from Aristotle or something. Entirely too dry for scripture.
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Oh, Aristotle! My ignorance is showing. I know more of his math and science than his philosophy, I'm afraid. The elements are particularly interesting for their effect on popular culture, if not long-term scholarship.
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Yes, I especially like their effect on drama. You might be...phlegmatic?
Speaking of ignorance, I confess curiosity in that mask of yours. Would you mind telling me, in the manner of Aristotle, its final cause?
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Aristotle attempted to break down the world into the four elements of Earth, Wind, Fire and Water, which did pave the way for the modern table of elements, but it was very primitive indeed. The same way the Miasma theory paved the way for the modern Germ theory, or how Einstein's theory of relativity made obsolete many Newtonian laws, and what Quantum theories intend to do with Einstein's theories.
As for the Mask, I'm afraid your curiosity shall remain unsated. Although I'm impressed you've gone so long without bringing it up.
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Heh, don't forget about aether! Though, then again, perhaps the whole thing ought to be forgotten and done away with, being folly and all. Ah well.
[He figures the mask would remain mysterious. Phooey.]
At least you didn't say: "Mask? What Mask?" Goodness knows there'd be stranger truths about it.
Well, should you ever need help, don't hesitate to make use of me.
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I kid.
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[It's rare someone takes him up on that offer, let alone asks exactly how. He looks lost.]
"Oh. Well, all the common things men can do, of course. I've also been here a number of years, which makes me...seasoned, I suppose. I know a thing or two, though of course none of the things people really want to know, like how to get back or other, inner machinations. I'm still beholden to the deepest mysteries like everyone else."
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I received something of an orientation already from the woman in white, so I'm not entirely sure what questions to ask. I will probably head to the job center once I'm situated in my temporary housing to appraise the offerings.
Do you have any initial wisdom to impart?
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Something sagacious, eh... [That's a tough one; there's so many good quotes. He figures he'll just go back to basics and the "beginning of wisdom."]
"Fear God. Nothing much can go wrong with you if you do that. Well, good evening, Jerrie."
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You as well, Ted.