(This transcript portion has been cleaned up as much as audible. Uncertain passages — pauses — have been left as ellipses.)
V: “And why is it I don’t see you frequenting the Metro as much?”
C: “I feel klempt.” (laughs) “Really however, unlike the trains running on time, there are too many dead ends. Lack of followup!”
(both laugh heartily)
V: “The old wasters’ gossip in circles. Nothing comes of it. But their time circles the drain — explain this new way of life.”
C: “I sense you’re not eminently curious. Still, since I wish to tell, it started when I decided to go to the supermarket when everyone else was at work. It was so quiet, I felt a wash of peace as I picked out eggs under the halo-ringed lights. I began to wonder what would happen if I time-shifted holidays, too. Break the social cycles, the ‘dumb norm’.”
V: “Ayum?”
C: “Never too late to start, yea. But there’s always an escape velocity. I saw ‘friends’ drifting away from me, afraid of what I had become, as if I was a monster — a vampire, drinking time?” (laughs) “In retrospect, I wonder if such a process is easier if we did it together, like group dieting. Friends help each other instead of pushing the tall daisy down. I plainchanted (…) and know this is how it must be, the faults of many.”
V: “Ayes?”
C: “Not being involved, understanding, invested in what they talk about. The old wasters, how often I’d hear complaints about Vrina or Skerbincht, and of course it is easier to yap-yap than catch a rabbit in a trap. My metacognitive abilities had entered this fresh zone. I had become painfully but joyfully self-aware, self-conscious, a true discovery of self. Without the useless guild that usually clouds it!”
V: “Ayux, I can relate. Too much drive-by chit-chat, not enough ‘we’re going on a road trip, who is committed? Who is in and not a ass-bastardly coward?’ But the world knows much fear, which is how we are built. With fragile scaffolding that is confused with quality training wheels. This shield is like an overprotective parent, which does not allow us to experience the world as it really is.” (grim huff) “I’ve always think you and moi like each other, due to independent thoughts we surface like pearl divers, and share.”
C: “Perhaps.” (wry laugh)
V: “There is so much that doesn’t matter, so don’t get into it. As Party says, ‘Chop the slop!’ You don’t know at first, but this rapid knowledge iteration, demands personal inquisition. Never count on the first time to be perfect, but thrive the dirt and tunnel through, that will get you closer to whatever you call this ‘perfection’. I think a-sometimes, maybe I’m a hatir (misanthrope), but I really do love some of our kind. Of course, the ones unloved, they are not kind to themselves.”
(rustling sounds, likely the two gentles ascending the train)
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