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What do you know?

It's from Othello. You spend the whole play with Iago fucking everyone, and they finally figure it out, and all the characters - and the audience - are just begging for an explanation. There's almost always an explanation, you know? But that's all Iago says.

'Demand me nothing: what you know, you know.'

You ever feel like that? Like there just is no why?

That's just ridiculously obvious.

How do you figure?

Of course you know what you know. That's why you know it. That's like stating 'My skin covers my body'.

I'm not so sure it's that simple.

You know, people overcomplicate things. Sometimes, it really is just that simple.

Maybe.

...it's from Othello.

I recognize it, I just don't agree with it. Like I said, they overcomplicate it. The smarter someone is, the more they seem to try to prove it by taking something simple and plain and making it as confusing as possible.

How do you know something, anyway?

Ask yourself a question and see if you know the answer to it. Is water wet? Yup. Is the sky blue? Usually.

What about subjective things?

There's never a right answer to that. But, you know what you know.

What's your name?

Jinx Cereus. You?

That's quite the name.

Matthew Callahan.

Well, it's really only 'Jinx', but I need a last name when out among the normies.

A much more appropriate name. It's nice to meet you, Matthew.

Normies?

The pleasure's mine, even if you are a bit dismissive of my rambling, brooding Sunday thoughts.

Humans? Mortals? Normies...

Ooh... I didn't mean it to come off that way. Sorry.

I suppose that's me then.

It's alright, it was needed. Introspective doesn't suit me.

I always thought we had the explanation for why from the beginning of the play. Iago was all the explanation you need. There are always men who want nothing so much as to see the world burn around them. When people fall prey to their worst natures, they succeed.

But yes, there are times when it feels like all the things going wrong have no cause behind them.

I guess it just seems in a lot of other things, they still want the bad guy to explain his motivations. You know back when they had the gallows, after they hung you a bit, they'd let you confess your sins before they cut you open?

Yeah.

...you wanna go to visit Janet>

[She leaned forward conspiratorially]

Introspective doesn't suit anyone.

No?

That was full of a bunch of other problems and religiosity. But, yes, we want a reason because it makes them more human, less of a monster to haunt us in the night. Brutality without reason cannot be talked down or taken down.

What do you have in mind?

The lady has already tipped your hand on that one.