Comment:

My writing often inadvertently reflects real things in the world or in my life or in my subconscious. That's just a thing my brain does, and it's usually pretty nifty when I can spot my own symbolism after the fact.

I will admit, Caleb is one of the rare cases of art predating life, rather than vice versa. In the time since I first started writing them, I've had my first proper guilt-and-fear-induced nervous breakdown, and, among other things, my fun new anxiety symptoms include stammering and stuttering and locking up when I get even slightly uncomfortable.

It's not often that I develop retroactive empathy for my own characters in such a visceral way. Sorry, Caleb. This shit s-s-s-sucks, doesn't it?

Transcript:

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0410– 2167/07/07/12:15 - Rosenthal College, Delta building, classroom 0109
HA: Ha, Caleb, check it out, I literally got mine to tell me that two plus two is “usually five”.
CP: Hrm. Yeah, yeah, that’s… that’s pretty funny.
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HA: Is something wrong?
CP: It’s… it’s n-nothing. It’s just strange how… it’s strange how humans used to be, y’know? Like… none of this was necessarily being done by stupid people, they were just… incorrect. Like Aristotle insisting on the four elements.
CP: It… it makes me wonder what we’re wrong about now. What we don’t know we don’t know.
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HA: I think that’s the point of these history lessons. They not only show us where we’ve been, they necessarily imply where we should be going, they reveal that Homo sapiens isn’t done with our advancement. It can be easy to forget that, when Tuesday looks the same as Monday did.
CP: Yeah. I guess. I just… I worry sometimes about whether I’m… whether I’m helping or h-h-harming. That’s all.
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HA: Forgive my prying, but… out of curiosity, when you say you “worry sometimes”, how often is “sometimes”?
CP: Uh… until recently, I would’ve said “only twenty-two hours a day”, but if last night’s n-nightmares were any indication, it d-doesn’t actually stop while I’m asleep...
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