Plugging into other nodes—ok, *connecting with other humans—*is essential for this game. To make teh-dsa thrive, to make it spark the gap between not-alive and alive,[^1] you have to be willing—no, *eager* to infuse your physical and intellectual and emotional and (god forgive me) *spiritual* DNA with other text files—other fucking *humans,* for fuck’s sake! This fundamental need is often at odds with the learned response of furtiveness. Use your SUDS meter to start learning about that response. More on that as it develops. Some humans are gorgeous on the outside, some only until you get up close, some are scary and hideous. But they’re *all* ultimately gross bags of vermin when you get right down to it. Sweaty sacks of septic hazard. But get right down to it you must (and secretly want to). Even if *you* don’t remember when you needed no coaxing, no desensitization, *your dreams* remember. (2015) [^1]: What *is* that gap? What is the difference between those two states? Is one a non-state, and what could that possibly “mean?” I don’t know yet! Time seems to be going so fast! I’m not dead yet. But here’s one possibly significant data point: to be alive is to be able to die!