Endless scrolls of messages spill across the small screen, like a nosy virtual neighbor, disregarding any notion of consent.

The Linguist: There's something unusual in the way this dialogue is unfolding.

The Linguist: Who in their right mind would greet a person missing for over a year with "You're back"? As if your last exchange had been a few minutes ago.

The Linguist: I'd be willing to put money on it-you have no concept of time whatsoever.

The prisoner requires no special insight to see it. "The Linguist" on the other end of the screen is not the one he had previously been speaking to.

Aleph: You're not the Linguist.

The Linguist: Naturally, I'm not Ludwig ... your Linguist.

The Linguist: You can call me Lorentz Butterfly-if that name holds any meaning for you.

Aleph: As you wish, then, Lorentz Butterfly.
He complies without resistance, reshaping the designation in his mind.
Aleph: Then you're saying that he has vanished? The Linguist, I mean.

Lorentz Butterfly: That's right. One day, he just up and disappeared. There's nothing left but an empty husk and disaster in his wake. No one can say for sure what happened.

Lorentz Butterfly: Everyone's been scrambling around since. It seems like we keep expecting him to just reappear and take back his garbage spot as easily as he left it.

Aleph: Then, you're searching for him as well.

Lorentz Butterfly: That's a generous assumption. But at least if we're talking about what it is I'm doing, then sure. As for why I keep doing it ... haha ...

Lorentz Butterfly: Let me paint a picture for you. I'm in a long-abandoned office. How I got here is irrelevant. Let's just say a certain research institute's security team dropped the ball. This place is empty, worthless, except for this III-X6 computer, former property of your Linguist.

Lorentz Butterfly: Getting it up and running without setting off any alarms wasn't easy. I've said this a thousand times before. Refined dragon tree resin is a disaster waiting to happen. Using it for any electronic device was madness! Now, the entire circuit board is crawling with these damn critters.

Lorentz Butterfly: This computer, much like the Linguist, has been weighed down by an utterly gratuitous affinity for "classical design.

Lorentz Butterfly: All things considered, the fact this thing still functions is nothing short of a miracle.

***Laplace / Lorentz / Thief / Robber / Researcher / Arcanum / Linguist***
The prisoner orders and reorders the words in his mind, absent of ethical weight. So far no answer presents itself.

Lorentz Butterfly: The only thing of any use in here is a remote communication program. It's so damn clean. It almost makes me mad.

Lorentz Butterfly: *emphasized tone* Even more baffling is that this program is still running after all this time, and there is only one chat visible in the logs-yours.

Lorentz Butterfly: For someone "the Linguist" never mentioned to anyone else, Mr.Aleph, you two certainly had a lot to talk about. Your chat history reads like an infinite loop-between June 12 and June 22, 2004, you dissected a single preposition over the course of 3,000 messages.

Lorentz Butterfly: From March to July 2005, you two spent four months fixating on whether Holiday Language exists, exchanging 1.2 million words ... With a little editing, it could pass for a landmark philological thesis ...

Lorentz Butterfly: I have to say, it's a bizarre thing. You're like some kind of ghost in the machine, a hallucination he conjured. So, what are you? An undercover Laplace agent, or maybe just an imaginary friend?

Aleph: I'm not with Laplace. As for being his friend, I wouldn't know how he defines us. We merely exchange our thoughts when the occasion arises.

Lorentz Butterfly: Alright, you're touchy about calling them a "friend." That's fine. I wouldn't be surprised if Ludwig felt the same way. I suppose that makes you something of an unofficial advisor to Laplace.

Aleph: My responses are not confined to Laplace as an institution, nor were they reserved for the Linguist's questions alone.

Lorentz Butterfly: Oh? So you'll just answer anyone about anything? Why's that, Aleph? Think you know everything? That's a bit egotistical. Unless you're actually a program. Just some old process running on a loop in this dusty thing? Oh, maybe that's why they've kept you on ...

Aleph: I'm not a program.

Lorentz Butterfly: Thanks for your honest answer, Aleph. And yet, oddly enough, I feel more confused about you than ever. No matter. I think your responses might somehow be more mechanical than a program. So, let's change the subject.

Open your eyes to see the future that we know?

Uqbar 1

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