“Wow, wow,” I protested, “this is the short version? Speak Thetan, please.”

the gossip playbook. Chapter 1: If you want a rumor to fly, deny it.

We tame it, only to become dependent on it to the point we no longer remember how to survive without it.

Being a Code-stickler was the perfect cover for Nyasha to maintain his freedom of operation. His un-charismatic, introvert, geeky persona was the ultimate protection from any accusations of biased political agenda or personal ambition.

negates all statistical probability for coincidental occurrence.

I could probably find the plans for that in the Archive somewhere, I thought. Ha, the privileges of adulthood!

I knew the pattern all too well — every single failure in my life, every disappointment started exactly like this: my inability to stay calm in front of injustice. To face a possibility of inequality and resist that creeping feeling that I must do something, that I have to step in and fight this. That was my greatest weakness, and by dio did I pay

“Everything is real, except your thoughts,”

isn’t about proving something, te? Or carrying an investigation to its official conclusion. It’s about sowing rumors, doubts — sending you off to fight the invisible spectres of hearsay! The investigation itself never reaches a conclusion, it just somehow dissipates. No one cares, believe me — people are too busy to follow those things closely —