Conversation · Noid

"Oh, it'd be easier to list stuff I'm not suspicious of. I'm not suspicious of sound and colour. Mechanics and chemistry also have a trueness about them. Most anything else deceives. Wants to steal your life away."

This is a good, dangerous line of questioning. You should prod him on!

"And what are the most suspicious things?"

"I don't have a top ten list of things I'm most suspicious of. But if I had one, the left-right complex would be number one. Number two would be their sole accomplishment -- the pig/wheat paradigm."

Something is off here... you feel like it should be the other way around.

"Tell me more about the left-right business."

"I prefer not to. Both ask the wrong questions. Any spark of light from either one is accidental. Their combined movement's only concern is producing enough pig and wheat for everyone -- the end goal of humanity..."

"The original mistake was assuming that words have more being than bodies. That's what led us astray, far from our true lives. But we may yet find a way back."

Whatever this true life is, you feel it's the real centrepiece of this mythology.

"What's suspicious about the production of pork and wheat?"

"It's our only shit." He shrugs. "We should make better use of not being animals -- or cereal grain -- ourselves."

"What's bad about animals? Animals are cute."

"Nothing, animals are cool guys, I like animals too. But that doesn't mean I have to be one myself."

"What's bad about cereal grain? Having enough food could be a precursor for greater things."

"Yes, having food is a means to an end. But the Left never talks about the end, only the means. Caps are likewise suckers, constantly sleepless in worry."

"Yeah. It's our only shit and we fucking suck at it!"

He gives you a long, suspicious look. "Correct."

He can't help but doubt your sincerity in this matter. There is no other way -- you are a police officer.

"I was being sarcastic. This world has its fair share of problems, but it's not like you guys are going to solve them."

"Neither will anyone else."

Say nothing.

The young man doesn't say anything either. After a while he takes out a magnet and runs it over some nails in front of him.

"Don't assume I like the status quo, because I'm a cop."

"Precisely! The status quo doesn't need to be loved."

(Look him straight in the eye:) "Shit, piss, cunts, dicks, f****ts! Fuck the World!"

The young man looks startled.

"Does this mean you are mentally ill?"

"Mental illness is a term the powers use to homogenize people. I think I don't reach mental illness. I am merely politically ill. A suspicious element."

"Well, that was certainly stimulating. I want to ask you about something else now."

His eyes flicker.

"Don't you mean the left-right paradigm and the pig/wheat complex?"

"Nope. Politics is an inert complex of daily corruption and inane thinkpieces. The real paradigm is economic and it concerns pig and wheat."

"This is where the innovation happens. It's only a theory, but I suspect they're breeding a pig/wheat hybrid. Probably in Graad."

"Got it. Tell me something else."

"Good call, not exposing yourself to stuff like that."

"May I ask why? What good is being suspicious?"

"A reasonable question. Say, I get hurt. I want to make sure it never happens again. So I analyse the situation. Exercise caution. Caution is suspicion."

"What do you think about this church?"

"It's a miracle of carpentry. Dead bodies carved into total shapes. Now it can be something more." He rubs his hands together.

"How old do you think the church is?"

"That's right. The first settlers built it, plus six more like it. On the coast here. Was one of the first things they did... must've been really scared of something. But I understand..."

"Alone on an uninhabited archipelago, forced to face themselves and nature. Pre-industrial quantities of solitude. The sea. Perhaps something more... fundamental."

He means something para-natural. He must...

"I would want to build a safe place for myself and my own as well..." His voice echoes in the wooden cavern of the church.

"Something more fundamental? You mean the sound anomaly?"

"Maybe." He looks up under the rafters. "Maybe they were unable to face the nature of the world -- perishing."

"Right."

"People are always afraid of all sorts of shit. They're right to be. The world is a trap..."

"Three-hundred and twenty years. A little more. The first settlers built it, plus six more like it. On the coast here. Was one of the first things they did, must've been really scared of something. I understand..."

"How are you settling in?"

"Hard to say, cop-man. Sines in here are distinctly wild. Gonna take a while before everything's properly synced..."

"I did get to talk to the crab-man, though."

"The crab-man?"

"Yeah, you know. The guy who lives in the rafters, walks around upside down on the ceiling. You know, like a crab."

You begin to wonder if this speedfreak has ever seen a crab before.

"Oh, right. Crab-man, got it."

"Anyway, he's been giving me kind of a psychic rundown of this place..."

"Dude's seen some crazy shit. But he's actually a lot like us."

"You mean all his Mother's love stuff isn't too spooky for you?"

"Have you been listening to what Egg's been saying? Love is hard core man, and a mother's love is the hardest core of all..."