"Aren't the connections obvious enough for you?" A voice asks.
"What?" replied xxxx.
"The theme repeats itself! You are swallowed and the story ends. It is not the nature of the universe you are observing. It is your nature. It is you."
----
The power of secrets and mysteries is that they are secret and mysterious. In that spirit let me reveal some things:
1) "A more perfect machine" is a planet sized machine that runs using a continent sized cylindrical weight and a small steel ball that runs a precise course to reset itself and maintain the system. There is a .0000000000001% chance for both objects to pass each other at the same time and get wedged against each other, halting the machine entirely. Perpetual motion is impossible but this system is very close. Of course by the time we observe it, it has already crashed. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold. How can we deal with a reality in which everything is broken or breaking? This struggle - its my struggle - what do I do with myself now that I am seriously and probably irrevocably ruined?
2) The power behind the Ochoet is that it can be used to unmake existence. No one would actually do this unless they were completely and utterly obsessed with non-existence. That person is Figarus. Because I do not have this kind of obsession I cannot yet properly convey these feelings in Figarus, that is why his story is not written.
3) When I think of his story I ponder how it will end. Does Figarus turn the key and unravel the universe? Does he punk out? I can't answer because I don't know the answer. If he doesn't then its all for nothing. If he does, then there is nothing - it is all over. Figarus represents me and the ochoet represents suicide. Figarus cannot locate the Ochoet for the same reason that I don't have any real desire to kill myself - he is still searching and so am I. However, I know that someday he will find what he is looking for and then we will face a decision together. That will be an interesting day.
4) Edun deserved everything he got and more.He was shown mercy.
5) Maybe if I am forced to endure enough misery I will show some character and resolve and break out. The possibilities play out in "A Sleeping Giant" and "Torture Me."
6) I wrote a sequel to Rorac's Stupid Axe but it was a jive so I deleted it. In truth - when they jumped down that well they ceased to exist entirely, just like everything else that goes down there. If they return, it is not them, just a hollow representation of them, a fake and a farce. Not the originals at all.
7) I, too, "jumped down the well" and am no longer the real me. I am not sure when exactly this happened but I am certain that I took a door I shouldn't have and no longer exist as real humans do. I am very serious about this. I realize I put up a decent front and conceal this fact (somewhat) well to everyone, including myself. Realistically I know and have known for a long time.
8) this scares me, because I look for something, anything, and I see nothing nothing nothing.
9) really, nothing at all.
10) so returning to #1, I am the broken system. I try to grind it out and persist despite the fact that everything is (I am) broken and I do a somewhat adequate job of it - but how long can it last? Surely it is showing... mentally, physically, emotionally...
11) something has to give.
The end.
Wait, no, I have to give myself a potential "out" *phew*
and of course this is literally of no concequence whatsoever:
"Cherry-Gerrard and his friends suffered unspeakable physical and mental punishment during their journey. Their ordeal had a scientific rationale; the emperor penguin is one of the most backward of birds, and its eggs might hold clues to the evolution of our species. What Cherry-Gerrard discovered on his journey, however, is that it was quite possibly not worth it.
He did somehow survive and lived to a healthy age -- but as a melancholy, withdrawn, brooding old man whose spirit had been permanently altered by the test he put it to. If there is a worst journey in the world, Cherry-Gerrard was there and took it and knew what it was like."
-Roger Ebert
That is all.