Framing Device - Chapter 1: The Arachophobe

Well yeah I have plenty questions, but I'm trying to spread them out.

I can ask them all at once if you want me to, but for now, I'm wondering if you have a name?

Stranger: "I'm M.E.A. Or just Mea if you don't feel like typing out all the periods."

You are glad that she phrased that sentence in a way that makes complete sense in both spoken word and transcript form. For clarification, you are attempting sarcasm. The irony of the fact that sarcasm is also notoriously difficult to parse via text is lost on you.

Mea: "...Alright."

does this dysfunctional protagonist family look like this

Mea: "I'm sure some of them do. Theoretically infinite multiverses about theoretically infinite families in theoretically infinite states of dysfunction. Try not to hard to think about how an entire multiverse can be 'about' a single family. People have literally lost their minds trying to figure out the whole protagonist riddle."

You wonder if she meant "figuratively" there. You decide not to let it bother you. It's annoying, but language is fundamentally about communication and the ambiguity introduced by her use of the colloquial definition introduces a smaller barrier to communication than your insistence on correcting it would.

Mea: "What? Fuck, dude, no. A guy literally lost his actual mind. As in 'it was never seen again.'"

is there any other rooms here?

also what were you running from?

Mea: "A shitload of other vaults, yeah. None of them accessible from in here, though. Also I was running from the station's guards. They are the fucking worst."

Can we get back to the Arachophobe please?

She repositions the screen so it fills your field of view again.

Mea: "Sure thing. Our temporal desynch means it's been a few days there, right? Plenty of time for votes."