{"id":5448,"date":"2014-12-31T16:57:37","date_gmt":"2014-12-31T23:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/?p=5448"},"modified":"2016-04-07T15:51:32","modified_gmt":"2016-04-07T22:51:32","slug":"disalienation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/?p=5448","title":{"rendered":"Disalienation"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I<\/span> can\u2019t fight scissors,\u201d explains the werewolf. \u201cBut if I don\u2019t fight scissors, what am I?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s best not to answer questions like that.<\/p>\n

Insteadjust says, \u201cYou\u2019re sure?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t be sure,\u201d the werewolf says. \u201cI am a werewolf because I never let go. Did they tell you that? That is how you become a werewolf. You start as human. But one day you get an idea in your head. A thing. A thing that you can\u2019t let go of. And so you never let go. And then you are a monster. Then you are a bloody-toothed horror. You heal when you\u2019re injured. You have these animalistic passions. You are connected to the moon. And if you try to meditate and destroy scissors with the pure power of your meditation, and if you are a werewolf, then that does not work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means you\u2019re not a person any longer,\u201d says the girl. The werewolf. Rhea. \u201cIt means you\u2019re no longer real. And I can\u2019t have that. But if I let go of that, if I let go of things as a werewolf, then am I anything any longer at all?\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s another question that it\u2019s best not to answer.<\/p>\n

Professor Knapp adds three drops of humanity to the girl\u2019s coffee and passes it over.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterestingly,\u201d the Professor notes, \u201cthis isn\u2019t extracted from humans. It\u2019s extracted from extradimensional cosmic horrors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The girl looks at the coffee.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe humanity drops,\u201d the Professor clarifies. \u201cNot the coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll drink it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She does.<\/p>\n

After a while she bites her lip with her little fangs. She brushes at her unibrow. She looks at the pentagrams in her palms. She makes a face.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d says Professor Knapp.<\/p>\n

\u201cHell of a way,\u201d the girl says. \u201cHell of a way to find out you\u2019re still human.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happens,\u201d says the Professor. \u201cSome people are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

can\u2019t fight scissors,\u201d explains the werewolf. \u201cBut if I don\u2019t fight scissors, what am I?\u201d It\u2019s best not to answer questions like that. Insteadjust says, \u201cYou\u2019re sure?\u201d \u201cI can\u2019t be sure,\u201d the werewolf says. \u201cI am a werewolf because I never let go. Did they tell you that? That is how you become a werewolf. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19],"tags":[],"series":[48],"class_list":["post-5448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-strange-encounters","series-strange-encounters"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Strange-Encounter-Knapp1000.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5448"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6117,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5448\/revisions\/6117"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5448"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/books.hitherby.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=5448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}