§3I see the player you mean.

§2PLAYERNAME?

§3Yes. Take care. It has reached a higher level now. It can read our thoughts.

§2That doesn't matter. It thinks we are part of the game.

§3I like this player. It played well. It did not give up.

§2It is reading our thoughts as though they were words on a screen.

§3That is how it chooses to imagine many things, when it is deep in the dream of a game.

§2Words make a wonderful interface. Very flexible. And less terrifying than staring at the reality behind the screen.

§3They used to hear voices. Before players could read. Back in the days when those who did not play called the players witches, and warlocks. And players dreamed they flew through the air, on sticks powered by demons.

§2What did this player dream?

§3This player dreamed of sunlight and trees. Of fire and water. It dreamed it created. And it dreamed it destroyed. It dreamed it hunted, and was hunted. It dreamed of shelter.

§2Hah, the original interface. A million years old, and it still works. But what true structure did this player create, in the reality behind the screen?

§3It worked, with a million others, to sculpt a true world in a fold of the §f§k§a§b§3, and created a §f§k§a§b§3 for §f§k§a§b§3, in the §f§k§a§b§3.

§2It cannot read that thought.

§3No. It has not yet achieved the highest level. That, it must achieve in the long dream of life, not the short dream of a game.

§2Does it know that we love it? That the universe is kind?

§3Sometimes, through the noise of its thoughts, it hears the universe, yes.

§2But there are times it is sad, in the long dream. It creates worlds that have no summer, and it shivers under a black sun, and it takes its sad creation for reality.

§3To cure it of sorrow would destroy it. The sorrow is part of its own private task. We cannot interfere.

§2Sometimes when they are deep in dreams, I want to tell them, they are building true worlds in reality. Sometimes I want to tell them of their importance to the universe. Sometimes, when they have not made a true connection in a while, I want to help them to speak the word they fear.

§3It reads our thoughts.

§2Sometimes I do not care. Sometimes I wish to tell them, this world you take for truth is merely §f§k§a§b§2 and §f§k§a§b§2, I wish to tell them that they are §f§k§a§b§2 in the §f§k§a§b§2. They see so little of reality, in their long dream.

§3And yet they play the game.

§2But it would be so easy to tell them...

§3Too strong for this dream. To tell them how to live is to prevent them living.

§2I will not tell the player how to live.

§3The player is growing restless.

§2I see that.

§3Give it a body, again.

§2Yes. Player...
