The source of the Nile

As far as I know, this is the end of this; consider this speck of world fully explored. Possibility will have to encompass something greater.

As I sat down with my coffee and muffin, I read over again where I've been recently. It's funny, I've been in on the secret from almost the beginning, and so have you, but trying to see it all from an outsider's perspective is still daunting. Hell, even seeing it from my own perspective is daunting.

For example: "I" know that I hate coffee, but *I* don't know that. Or is it that I gave up coffee, and have just been trying to tell myself that I hate it? Either way, here I am, drinking the coffee, hating it. My relationship with the remaining half-muffin is even more complex.

Wait... what's that inside the muffin? A slip of paper? It's a chinese fortune muffin? But my fortune is just a bunch of random words, strung together. It's too early in the morning and late at night for this. I almost gave up and asked a bro for help. In fact, I tried to, but fortunately inspiration struck, and the bro was pretty useless anyway.

7:00 AM me: fuck! I totally don't get this puzzle Bertha sent me
7:06 AM me: whoa
solved it :)
7:14 AM bro: hiya bro.
what's the puzzle?
7:15 AM me: holiday commemorate continue somehow acceptance military
sometimes
revolve pretend truthful breakup without everywhere computer downtown
girlfriend cuddling thought nineteen counterpart
I was trying too hard
:)
7:17 AM bro: hm, I'm not getting it...
7:19 AM me: it looks too much like spam!
but the solution is dead simple
7:32 AM bro: still nothing, unless she's saying she wants go out with
you on valentine's day, if the answer has anything to do with the
semantics of the words.
but I doubt that it does. still overthinking on the form of the words
me: hah, I didn't get that if it's in there
The answer is simply a numeric reduction
only one letter from each word is used
bro: hm. I've tried like 8 forms of that :)
me: But I think you got stuck in the same trap as me
bro: probably
me: but it's because I was looking at the whole sequence
not the individual words
as it turns out, she just uses G as a mask on each word
so you pluck the 7th letter out of each, and you get it
7:35 AM bro: awww
I had tried up to the 4th letter. I suck.

It's hard to keep up when the messages are like this, a perfect combination of obscure and obvious, trite and profound. And the messages are everywhere now: the bottom of the cup of coffee has a rot13 sonnet. The slight disturbance of the fabric of the futon is a calligraphy that demands interpretation. If I just think about it long enough, everything will make sense. Last night's rooftop vision will mesh seamlessly with my breakup with Alyssa which will tie back in to the view from east rock and the arrangement of cranberries (or is it chocolate chips) in the muffin. The knots in my hair contain knowledge the world was not meant to know.

But then, it's all at a bit of a remove, too. I'm seeing the whole world wrapped in its significance, but then it breaks down again into the meager stream of bits with which I interact with the world. The thin gruel of a chat room through which I can query why things are and how they became, but never truly experience them as they are. I can influence events only indirectly, as if by suggestion, but never truly choose. The action is always flowing at least two steps ahead of understanding.

There is knocking at the door again! It's some kind of pattern... no... not morse code... something a little bit trickier than that.... My mind whirls with the possibilities.

But then, I suppose I could just open it and find out.

Helle ilotes!

And that marks the end of the LJX fiction. I'll have a post-mortem up soon explaining the whole thing.

Thanks for reading!