>Return to Penny
The complicated yet surprisingly mundane drink order was eventually filled without a fuss, at evidently no charge. As you re-enter the laboratory, you feel the thrumming presence of the "Narration"-thing momentarily fading. It seems to have "stayed outside" this time.
DOCTOR PENNY CELIA:
You have correctly fulfilled the specifications of the assistance requested of you. This has had the intended positive effect on my present state.
You have correctly fulfilled the specifications of the assistance requested of you. This has had the intended positive effect on my present state.
FERN:
You're welcome! And it was no trouble at all, for once.
You're welcome! And it was no trouble at all, for once.
DOCTOR PENNY CELIA:
Miss Flair is familiar with my particular preferences, yes. In light of your having accepted and completed a desired task of your own volition, I am obliged to extend an equivalent offer within my capabilities, not including your testing results, which are a part of my basic duties and will be delivered to you following their conclusion. You likely do not need to explain your situation further, as I have completed perusal of all data compiled by Query, including the logs of their fellow Computoids and correspondence with presently uncorrupted Hospital subconcepts.
Among the latter category, Willis has relayed a maximum-priority digital correspondence that reads "HI FERN LOL." Do with this information as you see appropriate.
Miss Flair is familiar with my particular preferences, yes. In light of your having accepted and completed a desired task of your own volition, I am obliged to extend an equivalent offer within my capabilities, not including your testing results, which are a part of my basic duties and will be delivered to you following their conclusion. You likely do not need to explain your situation further, as I have completed perusal of all data compiled by Query, including the logs of their fellow Computoids and correspondence with presently uncorrupted Hospital subconcepts.
Among the latter category, Willis has relayed a maximum-priority digital correspondence that reads "HI FERN LOL." Do with this information as you see appropriate.
FERN:
You can tell him "hi" back and "keep out of trouble" for me. Otherwise, from the sound of things, I don't think I should take up too much of your attention, but I appreciate any fresh insight you can give that won't be a hassle.
You can tell him "hi" back and "keep out of trouble" for me. Otherwise, from the sound of things, I don't think I should take up too much of your attention, but I appreciate any fresh insight you can give that won't be a hassle.
DOCTOR PENNY CELIA:
You are on the correct track to the best of my evaluation, bearing in mind that while my conceptual parameters are broader than those strictly endemic to medicine, there is enough overlap that I cannot absolutely guarantee that my perspective has truly resisted all corruptive influence without some above-zero margin for error.
My connectivity to the Hospital is currently stable. But the connection point. Itches.
...I have reason to believe it may be wiser at this point in your efforts to trust your own judgment above all else, as I do believe you have developed as comprehensive an understanding of relevant phenomena as can be reasonably expected.
You are on the correct track to the best of my evaluation, bearing in mind that while my conceptual parameters are broader than those strictly endemic to medicine, there is enough overlap that I cannot absolutely guarantee that my perspective has truly resisted all corruptive influence without some above-zero margin for error.
My connectivity to the Hospital is currently stable. But the connection point. Itches.
...I have reason to believe it may be wiser at this point in your efforts to trust your own judgment above all else, as I do believe you have developed as comprehensive an understanding of relevant phenomena as can be reasonably expected.
FERN:
Thanks, but I know by now that isn't saying much of us "greys" or whatev-
Thanks, but I know by now that isn't saying much of us "greys" or whatev-
DOCTOR PENNY CELIA:
I respectfully but firmly hold contention for that sentiment.
I respectfully but firmly hold contention for that sentiment.
FERN:
So you don't think we're just stupid? Most things I've talked to-
So you don't think we're just stupid? Most things I've talked to-
DOCTOR PENNY CELIA:
I can surmise you have encountered the common consensus among the branchinated and conceptoborn that the insular unicore, finite personal continuum and short-range perceptosphere inherent to your morphoform constitutes a state of quote-unquote "stunted" conceptoperception, whether as a consequence of incomplete ongoing development, adaptational stagnation or hypothetical regression from some quote-unquote "higher" state of consciousness, and while the complete nature of grey-phase existostatus remains unknown, your ongoing success - that of both the unbranchinated matterborn in broad terms and you as an individual - only lends support to my quote-unquote "unpopular opinion" that the grey-phase matterborn exhibit a refined specialization away from broad-spectrum radial perception to focused monozonal perception in a state of linear spiralization that offers sophisticated existential stability and resilience, and indeed, my peers and I need look no further than ourselves to observe how every compounding attribute of a system inherently compounds the number of ways in which that system can be exploited by an external threat or suffer some internal failure, e.g. the countless disadvantages of quote-unquote "advanced" branchination as the outer edges of our definitions only persist in a state of constant fluctuation and our cores contend with a continous bombardment of existothreats mutually imperceptible to the quote-unquote "primitive" grey in their natural state, which, it should be emphasized, has survived unchanged through all recorded interzonal metacataclysms with few of its representatives ever noticing there was a threat at all, let alone having to retcon undesirable spiralation rings or prune conceptoseptic branchination paths just to restabilize.
I can surmise you have encountered the common consensus among the branchinated and conceptoborn that the insular unicore, finite personal continuum and short-range perceptosphere inherent to your morphoform constitutes a state of quote-unquote "stunted" conceptoperception, whether as a consequence of incomplete ongoing development, adaptational stagnation or hypothetical regression from some quote-unquote "higher" state of consciousness, and while the complete nature of grey-phase existostatus remains unknown, your ongoing success - that of both the unbranchinated matterborn in broad terms and you as an individual - only lends support to my quote-unquote "unpopular opinion" that the grey-phase matterborn exhibit a refined specialization away from broad-spectrum radial perception to focused monozonal perception in a state of linear spiralization that offers sophisticated existential stability and resilience, and indeed, my peers and I need look no further than ourselves to observe how every compounding attribute of a system inherently compounds the number of ways in which that system can be exploited by an external threat or suffer some internal failure, e.g. the countless disadvantages of quote-unquote "advanced" branchination as the outer edges of our definitions only persist in a state of constant fluctuation and our cores contend with a continous bombardment of existothreats mutually imperceptible to the quote-unquote "primitive" grey in their natural state, which, it should be emphasized, has survived unchanged through all recorded interzonal metacataclysms with few of its representatives ever noticing there was a threat at all, let alone having to retcon undesirable spiralation rings or prune conceptoseptic branchination paths just to restabilize.
FERN:
S, sorry...That was a little much at once, for me.
S, sorry...That was a little much at once, for me.
DOCTOR PENNY CELIA:
...Also incorrect. My communication patterns are considered "challenging to follow" by conceptoids both equal to and far exceeding my own intellectual parameters, exonerating your comprehension skills of any deficiencies on your part.
I can re-evaluate what I desire to express and carefully formulate a second attempt.
...
...Yes. Good.
...So...
Some of us are of a greater scale than yourself, with many more components with which to achieve many more feats, but with this comes many more ways we can be harmed, and many more ways that we fail. Would you rather wear a "hat" for every job at once, or fit through a door without it knocking any number of said hats to the floor? And what if some of these hats are elaborate enough that they start fires in places you were too big to know existed? What if some of them were the only thing holding some of your fluids inside? What if some of them stored pieces of your brain? There are purposes to being so much at once, but we could not survive without the "smaller" beings, and neither are "better" than the other in any sense.
...Also incorrect. My communication patterns are considered "challenging to follow" by conceptoids both equal to and far exceeding my own intellectual parameters, exonerating your comprehension skills of any deficiencies on your part.
I can re-evaluate what I desire to express and carefully formulate a second attempt.
...
...Yes. Good.
...So...
Some of us are of a greater scale than yourself, with many more components with which to achieve many more feats, but with this comes many more ways we can be harmed, and many more ways that we fail. Would you rather wear a "hat" for every job at once, or fit through a door without it knocking any number of said hats to the floor? And what if some of these hats are elaborate enough that they start fires in places you were too big to know existed? What if some of them were the only thing holding some of your fluids inside? What if some of them stored pieces of your brain? There are purposes to being so much at once, but we could not survive without the "smaller" beings, and neither are "better" than the other in any sense.
FERN:
Actually, I have heard a few "conceptoids" admit to that kind of outlook, and it's just common sense, isn't it? But to be honest, I still couldn't shake the sense that they felt a little sorry for me. For us. I mean, don't get me wrong, I've gotten to know some truly kind people, creatures, possibly furniture since coming here, things I might always count as friends just as much as any human being in my life, but even when I'm pretty confident I have their respect it feels a bit like it's an exception to a rule. There's definitely a feeling like the smartest member of my species is still kind of a talking animal around here.
...Sorry. Guess I've had to get that off my chest for a whi-
Actually, I have heard a few "conceptoids" admit to that kind of outlook, and it's just common sense, isn't it? But to be honest, I still couldn't shake the sense that they felt a little sorry for me. For us. I mean, don't get me wrong, I've gotten to know some truly kind people, creatures, possibly furniture since coming here, things I might always count as friends just as much as any human being in my life, but even when I'm pretty confident I have their respect it feels a bit like it's an exception to a rule. There's definitely a feeling like the smartest member of my species is still kind of a talking animal around here.
...Sorry. Guess I've had to get that off my chest for a whi-
DOCTOR PENNY CELIA:
Do not accept or internalize that perception.
Judging by responses I generally elicit, I evidently express even my most personal opinions in too technical a fashion, but I will do my best to construct a better expression of my most sincere feelings on this particular topic.
...Thinking...bear with me.
...
.....Hm.
...Maybe...no. There are clearer words for that.
Alright.
I hope this will be sufficient.
...What you have endured to exist is a spectacular achievement, and your supposed "limitations" are as intrinsic to that as any of your capabilities. The sum of what you can and cannot understand or accomplish all contibute to the absolute uniqueness of your lived experience out of all possible entities in every possible continuum. Nothing can be you or ever live your world as you will have known it except you, yourself, and that special world you carry will have always mattered, now and to infinity, regardless of whether any part of it will ever be seen, understood, appreciated or remembered by any other thinking thing or it is destined to fall silent and lie secret with your final breath. I say this to you, but also to every last one of your kind that may ever hypothetically perceive my words. You are strong, and smart, and have been gifted an existence that is yours alone.
Do not accept or internalize that perception.
Judging by responses I generally elicit, I evidently express even my most personal opinions in too technical a fashion, but I will do my best to construct a better expression of my most sincere feelings on this particular topic.
...Thinking...bear with me.
...
.....Hm.
...Maybe...no. There are clearer words for that.
Alright.
I hope this will be sufficient.
...What you have endured to exist is a spectacular achievement, and your supposed "limitations" are as intrinsic to that as any of your capabilities. The sum of what you can and cannot understand or accomplish all contibute to the absolute uniqueness of your lived experience out of all possible entities in every possible continuum. Nothing can be you or ever live your world as you will have known it except you, yourself, and that special world you carry will have always mattered, now and to infinity, regardless of whether any part of it will ever be seen, understood, appreciated or remembered by any other thinking thing or it is destined to fall silent and lie secret with your final breath. I say this to you, but also to every last one of your kind that may ever hypothetically perceive my words. You are strong, and smart, and have been gifted an existence that is yours alone.
