>Oh boy! A message from Santa Claus? Read it!
muse: did you warn her like i told you?
CALLIOPE: yes! of coUrse i did! what choice did i have?
muse: did she seem frightened?
CALLIOPE: no! it only made her more hellbent! bUt again, like i've told yoU every time: only becaUse she wants to help yoU!
CALLIOPE: she knows yoU're like me. she knows that it hUrts a trillion times more than you let on and yoU won't say it.
CALLIOPE: she's not trying to do anything bad! so please don't do anything to my jane!
muse: i see. she was not frightened. how vexing.
muse: she will surely come to regret losing her life if she tries to stand between me and my promised death.
CALLIOPE: she's not going to force yoU to do anything!!! she's only going there to talk to yoU!
CALLIOPE: if yoU trUly want her to abandon yoU to yoUr dismal fate, then why not tell her 'no' to her face, instead of skUlking aboUt making her play gUessing games aboUt what you want, and Using me as an Unwilling proxy? not that i expect yoU to listen to anything that i ever have to say!
muse: i want only one thing.
muse: i am tired and close to being able to die. i will not tolerate stubborn, obnoxious interference, nor suffer tedious pedantic debate about my choice. you should hope that she thinks well on your delivered warning.
CALLIOPE: Ugh.
muse: oh. and.
muse: jane is clearly some sort of sparkleheaded imbecile, as beautiful people often seem to be.
muse: there is no way you can ever become that troll girl.
muse: there is no way you can ever transcend.
muse: if you would like to delude yourself otherwise, then you are wasting the life i gave you.
CALLIOPE: jane is smart and yoU know it! and she's right! how do yoU know that it's impossible? how do yoU prove impossibility? yoU can't!
muse: calliope.
muse: i am basically you. we are formed from the same seed. we are of the same essence.
muse: do you think i never checked?
muse: do you think that i did not spend a billion years checking, out in the furthest ring where the murky darkness of every consciousness was available at my fingertips?
muse: i checked, and checked. and checked and checked and checked. to see if there was anything. anything that could let me change substantively. from what i was. to what i might once have wanted to be in remote and forgotten days.
muse: i checked and there was nothing.
muse: there was nothing.
muse: give up. live the life you were given.
CALLIOPE: ...