Vernon Wright - October 12th, 2008 (I)

Confusion means I’m still thinking, at least I have that going for me.

=== Credits ===
Produced by Halfwit Podcasts ( https://www.HalfwitPodcasts.com ).
Written by Matt Spaziani ( https://vocal.media/authors/matt-spaziani ).
Vernon Wright is voiced by Jonathan Swenson ( https://www.jgswenson.com ).
Based on the journal role-playing game "The Machine" by Adira & Fen Slattery ( https://adira.itch.io/the-machine ).  

Music and sound effects used with Zapsplat Gold, and Ghosthack Music licenses.  

Transcript

Vernon Wright - October 12th, 2008 (I)

Okay, I might have done something. I also might have broken a piece.

I had my day off today and ran some errands in the morning, and it’s cold outside, anyway, so I didn’t really want to go hiking or anything. There’s a forest only a few minutes away that I promised myself I would explore at some point, but it’s not going anywhere. It’ll still be there when it’s warmer.

Anyway, that left me with nothing to do but hang out at home and look at those wooden pieces for a few hours, so that’s what I did. The pieces were where I left them from the night before, so I resumed rolling them between my fingers. At one point I stopped to make lunch, but I kept going while eating, and when I rolled a handful of pieces against the floor, I heard a loud click.

Honestly, it’s good that I was eating and only using one hand, or else it would have been really hard to figure out where it came from. I rolled each of the pieces in that hand individually, trying to imitate the same motion against the carpet, and in one of them I heard it again, and I felt it, too. I put the other pieces in the box and examined that piece by itself. It looked like nothing had changed, and I almost gave up and put it back in the box, but I rubbed it against the carpet again, and after a few minutes, it clicked again.

This time I was able to feel where on the part it was coming from, and I looked closely at that area, about an inch from one of the ends. At first I thought it was the same, so I rubbed my finger across it, and my fingernail caught on something and the piece pulled apart. What I had thought was the grain of the wood was actually a thin slit, and inside it was…I don’t even know. Some kind of rubber, I think. It reminded me of an accordion, with a thin strip of wood at one end and the rest of the piece at the other.

I think it’s supposed to do that? No, that’s a lie - I don’t have a clue. They didn’t teach us how to decode mysterious wooden rods in college. If it isn’t supposed to do that, then I broke a piece. If it’s supposed to do that, though…how many of those are there? Most of the pieces are covered in grains of wood. How many of those are slits like this? Or is this the only one? Like…am I gonna have to go through and find these on every one of these pieces?? There’s dozens of the fucking things! There’s no way I’ll find them all! Hopefully I broke it and just won’t have to deal with it anymore.

No, I don’t mean that. I’m just tired. I’ve been doing this for most of the day and I can’t get anywhere. I’m going to have a beer and relax for a bit. I have work tomorrow…maybe I’ll think of something later.

"This Machine Belongs to" is a production of Halfwit Podcasts. This episode was written by Matt Spaziani. Vernon Wright is voiced by Jonathan Swenson. Based on the journaling game "The Machine" by Adira and Fen Slattery.

If you'd like to support our endless toil with the machine or listen to our other podcasts, visit HalfwitPodcasts.com, or find specific links in the show notes of each episode. 

Lastly, the most efficient way to build The Machine is by telling friends of its importance in our once meaningless lives. Some day, This Machine could belong to you.