The Furies are at home in the mirror

[MalfGuy2]

There is nothing.

Only cold, primordial darkness.

Your being, your consciousness ferments in it - No larger than a single grain of chlorophyll.

It is safe here. No grand failures, no impersonal malaise encroach you.

Safe and sound in The Long Quiet.

...

An inordinate amount of time passes.

You feel like if you lay here, you might not ever wake up.

...But what's this? Somewhere in the sore, listless *imagination* around you - A sensation!

---

"Tell me. What's waiting for me?"

There is a giant ball, outside of this strange Hole In The Universe. And evil apes. And the evil apes are 'duking it out' on the ball.

You'll end up walking among them, in one way or another. It's basically all just evil apes dukin' it out on the big ball.

"How big is the ball?"

You can't even make out the ball while dukin' it out, it's so unfathomably large.

"How small are the apes?"

Infinitesimally small.

"And what's this 'duking it out' you keep saying?"

Competing for resources, labor, and time? It's just a silly expression you stole from the infinite darkness.

The part of the presentation you want to take home is this: You have to be better and stronger than all the evil apes, or you lose.

"That's sad."

Yes. So sad, it's lasted thousands and thousands of years.

And you drowned in that sadness a similarly long time ago.

"What do you mean, drowned?"

---

---

"You lost."