.




 ... .
 
 
    ..  . .
    
    
    
        .... .. ?
        
        
        
        
                          .... you
                          
                          
         .. .                 
                          .   .
                          
                          
                    ..
                    
            are a wee bit woobly.
            
            
        ugg, hold on..
              
              
              your fingers are curled,
                as if they are grasping
                    something in front of you
                      
                      
                      
                    but there's nothing to hold
                so you curl them around
              your forehead instead.
              
              
              
          your big throbbing forehead
              
              
              
              throbbing... and empty.
              
              
            .    no thoughts.
                
                
          head swimmy      .         .
              
    
  ..your head is definitely
    swimming right now.
    
    .. .less brainy
            breaststroke.. .
  
           ..more
                despe
                    rate
                      dog
                    gyp
                add
              le.  .
        .. . .
    uggh
  hhh
    it's
        all
          bob
            bing
             .
          ..
         ar
       ou
       n
     d
   .
   .
    .
     o
      ka
      y,
      
    brea
  the.

 .
 
 . .

. ..

 . 

. .

...

ste
ady
the
wav
es.



now.

  what's
  
      the situation?

        look around and
        take inventory.
  
  
              hm
  
  
                    hmm
  
  
  
              .hmmm, it's much ....
            
            
            
      darker than you were expecting
  
  
  
  
    no, 
        hold on..
        
          are your eyelids even open?



                ahh
                
                  you are
                blinking blearily, yes
          
                
                
                
            
            okay.
            
            

      
      
      
      
    maybe. it's....
    
    
      
      
        uh    ..        . .
      
      
                 maybe it's morning, right?
      
      
      
      
      
      ...isn't it just like your brain
        to tag in john c bladder
      for a chokeslam wake-up call
        before earlybirds can even
      clock in for their shift
        in the pecking order.
        
        
        
            haha, right bladder?
            
            
            
              i said    
                          right,        bladder?
            
            
            
                ..bladder? entering your heel phase so soon?
              
               
              
          .. you're not leaving me high and dry, are you?
          
          
          
          
    no reply.
    
      for better or worse,
          your body's sense of
            "midnight potty humor"
                doesn't seem to be
                    responsible for this
                      untimely alertness...
          
          
        
          untimely, yes.
          
          
          
                  it's too damn early
                  
                  
                      ..surely, surely
                    
                
                it's just godawful o'clock.
                

                        ..                
                                  .... 
                            
                       clock.
                     
                     ..
                      . . .
                     
                          ..huh.
                
                
                      no chunky red digits poke stoogeishly into your tender, bleary corneas from across the bedroom


                        no alarm is tugging insistently at the corners of your ears to remind you that time flies,
                          daring you to weakly swat it away as it buzzes by your head again in nine minutes.
                                                        
                  
                               your toes curl as you realize you somehow miss the comfortingly annoying 
                              
                                ritual of daily lunar death, heralded by the pool of dim orange blood
                                    creeping coyly through a crack in a cruelly crumpled curtain.
                                    
                  
                  
                                      the secret omnipresent hum of a world crackling into life,                              
                           
                           
                           
                          -- swerving down perilous highways to hellish nowhere
                                    
                                                                  
                                                            pacing silent hallways to who-the-hell-knows-where --
                                          
                                                                                
                                              
                                              
                                     the unnoticeable vibrations of the living
                                                                            
                                                                            
                                                                            
                                                                            
                                                                      sound all the louder in their absence.


                 
                                                
                                                                 the absolute stillness is disorienting.
                                                                   
                                                                   
                                                                
                                                                  
                                                                  
                                                                                                  nothing
                                                                                        is familiar.
                                                                                        
                                                                                        
                                                                            all is strange
                                                                         
                                                                            
                                                          all too strange
                                                          
                                                          
                                                          
                                              you feel strange
                                                
                                                absence.
                                                
                                                
                                                
                                                
                                                
                                                                    void..
                                                                    
                                                                    
                                                                    
                                                                                          .emptiness?
                                                
                 
                 
                                                          it's well and truly
                                        
                                        
                                                                  blank

                  

                        
                  
                  
                  
                                    
              
              
              
              
            
              
              
              
              
              
              
              
                                                              ..blank . .
                                                              
                                                              
                                                              
                                                              
                                                              
                                                              
                                                                           ..    .
                                                              
                                                              
                                                              
                                                              
                                                              
                                      .   . .                        
                                                              
                                                              
                                                              
                                                                                      .    .          .
                                                
                                                
                                               . blank  .   ..    .
                 
                 
                                  . .       .
                 
                 
                 
                 
                           - ..  blank ?
                 
                 
                . .
                 
                 
                 
                  blank is...
                  
                  
                  
                  
                        .
                  
                  
                  
                    it's... blank .

                               
                       
                       
                         blank... on purpose .
                         
                         
                        
                          intention behind the blank
                         
                              blank means something
                              
                              there's
                              a reason
                              here, you
                              feel it.
                              a logic
                              behind
                              blank
                          
                                   so...
                                                
                                                                
                                       .. .power outage?
                                                                  
                                                                             
                                                                                          
                                              ..  .. extended nightmare?
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                                      
                                                   ..  . . .sudden onset blindness??
                               
                                  
                                            no, no that's not it.
                                            
                                      something goes here.
          
                            you're blanking.
                            
                but you are not blank.
                            
          fill in the space.
          
          
        blank. .  
            
            
            
        ..means .


            ..nothing.
            
            
            
                  which is waiting
                    to be filled
                 
                                      
                          
                        
                      this space
                      appears blank
                        
                        
                        
                        but it is not truly,
                          
                          
                              ,-=-.-blank-.-=-'
                                
                              
                                                  so . .       how does...    
                                                                              .        .  nothing
                                                                                                       .       .  .become full of life?
                                                                                                                                        .
                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                              
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