. ..... O_ O . [O .] . _. (Iteration 12. Observe: Subject state [symbol state acknowledged]. Further observation.) The now-familiar clinical thought accompanied the reset. 6:58 AM. Kitchen. Red apple, unchanged.
Elias bypassed the apple, heading straight for the window. He leaned in close, examining the eye symbol taped to the glass. Yes, it was still there – the minuscule black dot inside the pupil, a persistent alteration to the persistent symbol.
His mind, starved for data, latched onto it. What did it mean? A single dot. Binary? '1'? On? Yes? Acknowledged? Or was it simpler, cruder? Just a marker, indicating the system had registered an interaction, without specifying what?
He needed more data points. Could he make another dot appear?
He looked at the clock. 6:59 AM. He ignored pens, sticky notes. Direct modification hadn't worked. Rejected messages hadn't worked. But the system had reacted to his focused mental state, first with the apple, then with the dot.
He closed his eyes, focusing not on a question this time, but on a statement. He visualized the eye symbol clearly in his mind and projected the thought: I see the dot. Acknowledge. He tried to make the thought clear, concise, devoid of the emotional frustration that had triggered the apple's appearance. A simple input, hoping for a simple output.
He held the thought, concentrating intensely. 7:00 AM... 7:01 AM... 7:02 AM... He felt a faint strain, like pushing against something immense and unyielding.
7:03 AM.
He blinked.
Kitchen. 6:58 AM.
He rushed to the window, heart pounding with anticipation. He peered at the eye symbol, tracing the pupil's edge.
Only one dot. No change.
. ... O_ O _ [ _ _ ] |. [O .] (Iteration 13. Observe: Subject attempts targeted [connection action]. No state [change]. [Symbol state] maintained.)
Frustration flared again. So, direct, calm communication yielded nothing? Was it only emotional outbursts or attempts to break the loop that triggered responses? Or was the dot not a response to his message at all, but merely to the act of trying to leave one? Perhaps the system wasn't reading his notes, just detecting the anomaly of paper appearing where it shouldn't.
He needed to test that. This time, he wouldn't write a message. He grabbed another sticky note. He drew a simple shape on it – a square. No words, no questions, just an abstract symbol. He stuck it to the window next to the eye.
7:01 AM. He watched the eye (with its single dot) and his square sticky note.
7:02 AM. If the system was reacting to messages, this meaningless square should be ignored. If it was reacting to anomalous objects, it should be erased like his note with words.
7:03 AM.
He blinked.
Kitchen. 6:58 AM.
He checked the window. The eye symbol remained, single dot unchanged.
His sticky note with the square was gone.
. .... O_ O .| _. [O .] . (Iteration 14. Observe: Entity state error [anomalous object] detected. Reset action. [Baseline state] maintained.)
Okay. That confirmed it. The system wasn't reading his notes; it was simply deleting unauthorized objects appearing on the window pane. The eye symbol was authorized. His notes weren't.
But then... why the dot? It had appeared after his attempt to leave a written message. Coincidence? Or was there another layer he wasn't seeing?
He looked back at the red apple sitting on the counter. It had appeared after his mental scream. The dot had appeared after his written question. Both were responses to his actions, yet his attempts to control or direct those responses failed.
He walked over to the apple. On impulse, he picked it up. He turned it over and over. Still perfect, still red. He thought back to the rooftop figure. The eye symbol appearing exactly where the figure had been.
Was the dot... location? A coordinate? Inside the pupil... He looked around his small kitchen. Was there something in the room the dot was pointing to? It seemed impossibly abstract.
He glanced at the clock. 7:01 AM. He needed a new approach. He looked at the apple again. What if the communication wasn't meant to be written? What if the objects were the language?
He took the apple and placed it directly in front of the window, centered beneath the eye symbol. A clear, physical juxtaposition. The apple, the first 'gift'. The eye, the second.
7:02 AM. He watched the arrangement. Apple below eye.
7:03 AM.
He blinked.
Kitchen. 6:58 AM.
He looked eagerly at the window. The eye symbol was there, single dot unchanged.
The apple was back on the counter, in its usual spot next to the coffee maker. His arrangement had been reset.
. ..... O_ O [O .] _. O . (Iteration 15. Observe: Entity [object location] state error. Reset action. Subject state [persistence] noted.)
He sighed, leaning his head against the cool window pane, right next to the inscrutable eye. Fifteen loops. Each five minutes long. An hour and fifteen minutes of his life, repeated, examined, manipulated. And all he had learned was that he was trapped, observed, and occasionally acknowledged by cryptic symbols he couldn't decipher. The dot remained, a tiny black speck of utter mystery.