Driftwave Static

The tape, it's my childhood, Dex. I'm on it. Then you're already erased, Molloy. Not yet. [static] It's not just static, Dex. I can see the playground, but it's bleeding. The signal is the only truth left, Molloy. Watch yourself dissolve. [static] The playground isn't a memory, Dex. It's the destination. The signal is hungry today, Molloy. Feed it. [static] The recording is finished. [singing] Vera, run. [static] The tape, it's the park in Roney. That's me on the swing. Your past is just a low-fidelity broadcast, Molloy. [static] The grain, it's under my skin. I can see the source code in the swing's shadow. Don't look for the ghost, Molloy. You're just a glitch in their broadcast now. [screams] The grain is screaming. I'm losing the horizon line in the tracking error. Stay in the loop, Molloy. If you desync, the signal dies. [static] Recalibrate the sand in, Molloy, or the processor blows us all to static. The tape is eating my head. I'm seeing the playground, the swings. Dan, the magnetic grain is forming a face. Molloy, stabilize the sand in. If that signal desyncs, the processor will vent static directly into your nervous system. The tape is eating my head. I can feel the magnetic grain. I am back at the swings, Dan Dex. [tires screeching] Molloy, they're jamming the signal. Stabilize the processor or we're static. The tape is loop lost. I have to cut the feedback. [tires screeching] Molloy, stabilize the processor or we're static. The tape is loop lost. I have to cut the feedback. The first-gen tape is not your past. It is the master recording generating you. [tires screeching] I stabilize your pulse. The jammers are scrubbing the childhoods, and the signal is drifting. It's not just a signal, Dex. I'm remembering the day they pressed me into the oxide. [static] The signal is overlapping. I'm losing the highway. There was never a highway, Molloy, only the tracking error. [static] The meatloaf isn't a memory, Dex. It's downtown San Francisco. The drywall is thirsty for jazz today, Molloy. Chug it. The trouser's fully liquified. [dramatic music] He's a transmitter, Bit. He's been broadcasting Vera's location this whole time. The child will finish erasing her. I simply waited. No, his signal is overrunning the scanner. It's eating my read. [dramatic music] The child loop is inside the coliseum now. It's rewriting our stage frequency. If that signal locks the master reel, she dissolves permanently. His broadcast just punched through. We have seconds before Vera flatlines. The child loop is overriding the physical layer. The stage is becoming the signal. The carrier frequency is hardening. If we stop dancing, the master reel locks us in. Vera's signal is flatlining. The broadcast is punching through our very bones. [dramatic music] The tracking is drifting. I'm losing the swing box to the noise. Lock the phase, Molloy. They're eating the sig's edge. [static] The signal, it's not noise, Fal. It's a mirror. I'm seeing the birthday party at the edge of the tracking. Push through the grain, Molloy. If you lose the thread, the jammers turn us into magnetic dust. The broadcast is final, Snow. There is no off switch for the soul. The signal isn't coming from him anymore. It's coming from inside the orchard. You. You're erasing her to make room for yourself. I am already gone. [static] The signal is peaking. It's not erasing her, it's consuming the stage. I can't hold the frame. The coliseum is bleeding out. [laughs] The hardware is melting. The signal is consuming the source. My form is bleeding into the static. The signal is flatlining because there's nothing left to record. [dramatic music]