Yutten Turse, Olz Hap, and Salome Einstein dancing in the style of Gustave Moreau, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Chapter 24: Yulunga (spirit dance)

  Special Circumstances headquarters, Mikla metropolitan area, Confluence dimension

  Year 42 of the Confluence Republic (local time)

  As the Special Circumstances section celebrated their victory over Soth, the Erd author wrote a twelfth chapter in his second Confluence book, describing another SC board meeting as well as their subsequent Veil experience.

  Yutten Turse: Well, babes, we have things to discuss.

  Salome Einstein: Where to start?

  Olz Hap: It occurred to me that if we had moved forward in the more conventional way, ignored the people who are now our agents and opted for our special ninja superhero forces, those ninjas would never ever have come up with such an elegant solution to the Soth problem.

  Yutten Turse: They would have stormed him instead, wouldn’t they? And Soth would have escaped.

  Salome Einstein: It’s like, a person equipped with a tool sees the world in terms of opportunities to use that tool. If we had brought in attack mutants to do the job, they would have understood the problem in terms of their weaponry. Luckily for us, we brought in someone who was carrying a very different tool, and who therefore considered very different solutions.

  Olz Hap: Was it luck or something else?

  Yutten Turse: There was luck in there, but there was also the thing of not getting in the way for the lucky outcome to manifest.

  Olz Hap: Have you been sneaking ahead in the Citadel without telling us?

  Salome Einstein: You probably reached the Luminous Rock Chamber, didn’t you? And now you feel justified in mouthing off mystical-sounding statements to the rest of us.

  Yutten Turse: The universe works in mysterious ways. Anyway, I think we did fine. It’s confirmation that we’re on the right path.

  Olz Hap: And what now? I suppose we leave it to our agents to find a way to save the Erd dimension from the vampire-shadows?

  Yutten Turse: Why change a winning team?

  Salome Einstein: Yeah. Anyway, reading about the Veil experience was quite illuminating.

  Olz Hap: I would never have been able to describe the experience like that, but reading it now, it totally makes sense.

  Salome Einstein: The writing does represent the experience much more clearly than I would have been able to, but what it refers to in the real world is not always clear to me. Well, the nested dolls might just describe our experience of being characters in a book, no?

  Olz Hap: And the simulation space resembling our ancient world turning itself into a parallel magical dimension.

  Yutten Turse: That’s the life struggling to be born, yes? But what are the sinister energies?

  Salome Einstein: Maybe Soth’s allies? Or are they the clowns behind the clown?

  Olz Hap: Maybe both. Then there’s our very competent band of heroes, and Soth taking a long time to complete his clap-and-dance. And then the plan of attacking the shadows in the Erd dimension with a blazing light.

  Salome Einstein: And then we’re just chillin’ while opposing forces cancel themselves out.

  Yutten Turse: Dibs on the cookie!

  Olz Hap: You’re a smart cookie, aren’t you?

  Yutten Turse: And sweet.

  Salome Einstein: Well, it seems we still have to cover some distance before it’s time to sit down and have a snack.

  Yutten Turse: You’re just desirous of my cookie.

  Olz Hap: I’m sure it would be a treat. Anyway, I don’t get the part about the female monster or the heroes.

  Salome Einstein: Yeah.

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  Yutten Turse: Maybe it’s guarding the cookie? That would make sense.

  Salome Einstein: Cookie monstress! It’s probably Yutten.

  Olz Hap: And the heroes are probably liberating the cookie from her monstrous grasp. Anyway, another thing has been bugging me. We have two parties manipulating the Erd simulation in order to communicate – given the layers of precaution, presumably with a focus on secrecy. What does it mean that these people seem to be unaware of the second book from the Erd author?

  Yutten Turse: Salome made the point that if we’re going through the whole alphabet, we still have a bunch of interludes to read, and if they have read the book they will understand that we are onto them and stop talking, so they probably haven’t read the book. Did I get that right?

  Salome Einstein: More or less, but what it means is a different question. I guess they either don’t pay any attention to the Erd author or that someone is obfuscating the new book from them.

  Olz Hap: Finding those cleverly hidden messages that – presumably – keep being added to the simulation history must involve paying careful attention in some way, wouldn’t you say? So, the notion that they just aren’t paying attention seems off.

  Yutten Turse: And yet the second book is obviously not obfuscated for us. Can one do selective obfuscation?

  Olz Hap: Or maybe a selective attention curse. Selective addling.

  Salome Einstein: I’ve never thought about that. It should be possible to obfuscate something just for a few specific individuals. And it’s not addling unless you are targeting the person.

  Olz Hap: Still ethically dubious, though.

  Salome Einstein: Sure, just not addling or cursing.

  Yutten Turse: Whether or not it’s ethically correct, it might explain their ignorance of the book. Probably our mysterious friend, I’d say. Could also be that the new book is generally obfuscated, but Confluence citizens, or some specific subset of such citizens, have been exempted.

  Olz Hap: That’s a safer approach, actually. Obfuscate it generally but let the people you want to see the thing see it.

  Yutten Turse: Or, you know, maybe those sneaky communicating parties aren’t looking at this kind of stuff. Maybe it has not occurred to them that the Erd writer might start writing this story while it is still ongoing, and that the text he is producing would constitute a security risk for them.

  Salome Einstein: Wasn’t on my bucket list.

  Yutten Turse: So, although they are looking closely at some other Erd stuff, they are not paying attention to what the Erd author might do. Why do you think the Erd sims ignored the first Confluence book, anyway?

  Olz Hap: I always say it’s because of the flat and unbelievable characters. It’s like they’re cut in cardboard. No depth, you know.

  Salome Einstein: Exactly. Also, the plot is rather confusing and takes many off-putting excursions into the mechanics and philosophy of magic. Also, it’s weird.

  Yutten Turse: It is weird, I’ll grant you that. But this second book is totally weird. The Erd sims will ignore it even more passionately.

  Salome Einstein: Undoubtedly. And it has such jarring emotions, don’t you think? On the one hand there are these awful horror stories from Erd, and then on the other we have Yutten here running the department of silly jokes.

  Yutten Turse: To tell you the truth, I think the Yutten character is rather unbalanced. And completely lacking in substance. I mean, there she is in a position of responsibility for the very survival of the Confluence Republic, and she’s not serious even for a second. If I had paid for this book I would have demanded a refund.

  Olz Hap: We want our money back! This book is too silly and it makes no sense.

  Salome Einstein: Wait –

  Yutten Turse: Ok, here we go.

  Olz Hap: What the fuck is the Diankoran dimension?

  Salome Einstein: Pa?ka yug? Is that like, the age of mud?

  Yutten Turse: Or the age of impurity, of attachment.

  [Within a few minutes, the Erd author finished the first draft of Chapter 13.]

  Yutten Turse: So, this is who we are up against.

  Olz Hap: ‘The enemy realm first attack had resisted’ – are they referring to the Demonic Wars?

  Salome Einstein: Could be. Or the Virus Wars for that matter. And now they are attacking the Erd dimension – that must be the offshoot – in order to get a bridgehead for another attack on us.

  Yutten Turse: The traitor must be Soth, right? This calls for immediate discussion!

  Olz Hap: Shut up, Yutten.

  Yutten Turse, Olz Hap, and Salome Einstein dancing in the style of Abstract Expressionism, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Olz Hap, Yutten Turse, and Salome Einstein dancing in the style of Egon Schiele, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Yutten Turse, Olz Hap, and Salome Einstein dancing in the style of Félicien Rops, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Yutten Turse, Olz Hap, and Salome Einstein dancing in the style of Fernand Khnopff, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Yutten Turse, Olz Hap, and Salome Einstein dancing in the style of Futurism, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Yutten Turse, Olz Hap, and Salome Einstein dancing in the style of Henri Rousseau, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Yutten Turse, Olz Hap, and Salome Einstein dancing in the style of Mikhail Vrubel, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.

  Yutten Turse, Olz Hap, and Salome Einstein dancing in the style of Surrealism, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.