V. Comfortably Numb

3 recorded changes; 17 marked passages in the text, 17 of them with no recorded reason.

Click a type to show only those changes in the text.

Rework chapter 05 for the new shape agreed with Project 1: chapters easier to follow around Percy, continuity fixes from Project 1's brief. (edit)

editorial change 1 (passage not located in the text)
Reworked so that Flinch finds Percy's page himself, UG's curiosity and the refused route are shown, and the Percy confusion is cut, following Project 1's brief.
was: The ruled hand had answered him before he opened the book." / "That was how it felt, at least. [[flinch|Flinch]] came down to the study at half past six, because [[unclegrumble|Master]] would not be up until nine and the lamp wanted seeing to, and the [[arcanum-journal|Journal]] was lying shut on the desk with a faint warmth along its spine, as though it had been held. He did not mean to open it. He picked up the lamp. He put the lamp down. He opened it." / "On the left-hand page, in the ruled hand:
now: [[flinch|Flinch]] opened his Journal in the cellar at half past five, because [[unclegrumble|Master]] would not be up until nine and he liked to know what was in the house before the house did." / "It had ticked in the night. It did that now, softly, like a watch being checked, and he had stopped sitting up for it. On the left-hand page, in a sprawl with a blot on the first word, was Master's good morning. Under it, in the ruled hand, was something else.
answers feedback G1, G3 (see the feedback behind this edit)

world change 2 (passage not located in the text)
Part of the same rework of this chapter; see the first change.
was: *There is somebody you should meet. You will find you have a great deal in common.*" / "He read it standing, with one hand flat on the desk, the way a dredger reads a notice that has been pinned to his own door." / "It was not unkind. It was that he had asked about the house, and the answer was about a person, and somewhere between the two something had been decided on his behalf. He had asked who was at home. It had told him who was coming." / "In [[brill-the-before|Brill]], in the corner by the fire, [[percy-spamchop|Percy]] had not touched the pot of something warm." / "He had not opened the book either. It was back in his sleeve beside the poster, and he had been sitting for an hour with his hands in his lap, watching the fire do nothing in particular, when his left hand went away." / "That was the only way he could put it. It did not hurt. It was simply no longer where he had left it. It had gone a long way down a corridor and was still there, small and clear at the far end, like a thing seen down the wrong end of a telescope. It lay in his lap and was very far off, and he was entirely calm about it, which he put down to a general numbness of long standing.
now: *There is somebody you should meet.*" / "And under that, in a hand he did not know, small and upright, each letter looking as though it had been told to stand straight and had done so, was a list." / "*[Held.]{note=percy-spamchop}*" / "*[A hand that writes straight, and does not know why.]{note=percy-spamchop}*" / "*[A ring, cut For [[deliah|Deliah]].]{note=percy-spamchop}*" / "*[Four deaths in a village of the cursed, and some company who came back for me. I have not said thank you. I do not know how it is done.]{note=percy-spamchop}*" / "*[Gnomes: a recent dislike, found rather agreeable.]{note=percy-spamchop}*" / "*[Owing: a name. A trade. A past that I cannot locate and would, I think, rather not.]{note=percy-spamchop}*" / "*[Is there anybody out there?]{note=percy-spamchop}*" / "He read it standing, with one hand flat on the wall, the way a dredger reads a notice that has been pinned to his own door." / "It was not unkind. He had asked who was at home, and the answer was about a person, and somewhere between the two something had been decided on his behalf. A man had set down a list of himself, with a heading and an underline and a column for what he owed. It was the sort of thing Flinch would have done, and he had never done it as well." / "He had asked whether anyone was there. Here, it seemed, was someone. He found he did not know what to do with the fact, and so he did what he always did with a fact he did not know what to do with. He took it up the stairs to Master." / "UG was in the kitchen in his dressing gown with a notebook open at the wrong place and a pencil behind each ear. Flinch put the Journal down in front of him and stood back." / "UG read the list quickly, and stopped, and read it slowly, which Flinch had seen him do only a handful of times." / ""[A voidwalker,]{say=unclegrumble}" he said. "[A voidwalker, who objects. He's a warlock, Flinch. Shadow, fel, a pet with opinions. He's one of us.]{say=unclegrumble}" He turned the page toward the lamp as if the light might make it truer. "[Where's he writing from?]{say=unclegrumble}"" / ""It don't say, Master."" / ""[Then we shall ask the one who knows.]{say=unclegrumble}" He took his own Journal from the dresser, wrote *Flinch's correspondent* at the top, and beneath it, *Please send this to him.* He shut it, and opened it." / "*Good morning, Unclegrumble. There is no account registered to that name within the service area. I am unable to send pages to persons I cannot find.*" / ""[Ha,]{say=unclegrumble}" said UG, enchanted. "[It didn't do it. It doesn't know where he is. Which means it didn't *mean* to do it, which means it's not a route, it's a leak, which means—]{say=unclegrumble}" He stopped, and put a pencil in his mouth, and looked at nothing with great energy." / "Flinch had seen the look before. It had preceded the eel." / "Two worlds that have lain against each other long enough will begin to wear through at the same place, and the wearing needs no help. This one had been given some. The world in the north had been put up quickly and its edges left until later, and UG, in the days it had taken him to talk the Arcanum round to carrying a page to a dredger in a cellar, had spent a good deal of time leaning on one particular corner of one particular wall with a pencil. He had not meant any harm. He had been curious. Curiosity is the most patient tool there is, and the least supervised, and it does to a thin place what damp does to plaster.¹" / "Whoever tends such places had not meant it either. It is the nature of a well-run system to notice a leak and to intend to mend it. It had not noticed yet. It would, and when it did it would write, politely, and with dates." / ""[Write to him,]{say=unclegrumble}" said UG, coming back from nowhere with a sudden smile. "[Say hello. Say it's a marvellous list. Ask what thread he's on.]{say=unclegrumble}"" / ""I don't rightly know what a thread is, Master."" / ""[Neither do I, quite, but it'll be very interesting to hear.]{say=unclegrumble}"" / ""Master." Flinch did not raise his voice, because he never did. "I'd sooner not, yet. I'd sooner know who's reading first."" / ""[Nobody's reading, Flinch. It's a list.]{say=unclegrumble}"" / ""It's got my question on the end of it, Master. It's answering me."" / "UG looked at him for a moment, and Flinch saw him decide not to push, which he did perhaps once a year. "[Then we shall wait until you're ready,]{say=unclegrumble}" he said. "[It will keep. It's a very good list.]{say=unclegrumble}"" / "Flinch went back down to the cellar. He did not write. He sat for a while with the book on his knee, and said once, to the green lantern, in case it was keeping a record, that he did not rightly know what he was afraid of. Then he put the kettle on." / "In the corner of the tavern in Brill, [[percy-spamchop|Percy]] had not touched the pot of something warm." / "He had not opened the Journal either. It was in his sleeve beside the poster. He had been sitting with his hands in his lap, watching the fire do nothing in particular, when his left hand stopped answering him." / "That was the only way he could put it. It did not hurt. He looked down and it lay in his lap as it had been left, and he told it to close, and it did not, and he went on telling it until it did, a breath late and with pins and needles. He had not felt anything like it since the waking, and he found that he disliked it, and that he would have kept it if he could, and he noticed both and put them away.
answers feedback G1, G3 (see the feedback behind this edit)

editorial change 3 (passage not located in the text)
Part of the same rework of this chapter; see the first change.
was: "[I do not know where. It is not in this room.]{say=mezzlos}" He waited a moment. "[It is closing.]{say=mezzlos}"" / "Percy turned his hand over. It came back down the corridor in no hurry, with a small flourish of pins and needles at the end, and settled where it had been. He had not felt anything like that since the waking. He found he did not like it, and that he would have kept it if he could, and he noticed both and put them away." / "He took out the book to write it down: *[Candle leaned. Left hand absent. Cause unknown.]{note=percy-spamchop}* The page held his list on the right and the [[arcanum|Arcanum]]'s two answers on the left, as before, and nothing more. Nothing had come for him. Whatever had opened had not opened on his side." / "He wrote the three lines and closed the book." / "The page had begun to fill while Flinch watched." / "It did not appear, the way the answers appeared. It arrived, from the bottom of the left-hand page upward, in a hand so upright that each letter looked as though it had been told to stand straight and had done so. The air in the study changed with it. There was woodsmoke in it, and under the woodsmoke the cold clean smell of fish on ice, and for the length of a breath the room was larger than it was and had a fire in a corner it did not have. The lamp on the desk guttered, and held." / "Then the smell went, and what was left was a list." / "Flinch read it as he read everything, twice, once for what it said and once for what it left out." / "*[Held.]{note=percy-spamchop}*" / "*[A hand that writes straight, and does not know why.]{note=percy-spamchop}*" / "*[A ring, cut For [[deliah|Deliah]].]{note=percy-spamchop}*" / "*[Four deaths in a village of the cursed, and some company who came back for me. I have not said thank you. I do not know how it is done.]{note=percy-spamchop}*" / "*[Owing: a name. A trade. A past that I cannot locate and would, I think, rather not.]{note=percy-spamchop}*" / "It was a ledger. A man had set down a ledger of himself, with a heading and an underline and a column for what he owed. Flinch felt something shift in his chest. It was the sort of thing he would have done, and he had never done it as well." / "Further down, there was a line he read a third time. *[Gnomes: a recent dislike, found rather agreeable.]{note=percy-spamchop}*" / "Master was a gnome. So, for that matter, was [[nobbybanks|Mister Nobby]]." / "At the bottom, on a line by itself, was a question. *[Is there anybody out there?]{note=percy-spamchop}*" / "He had asked whether anyone was at home. The book had answered, and it had answered this one too, and he understood now what it had meant by *somebody*. Here he was. A hand that wrote straight. A man who kept columns. Flinch looked at his own writing on the margin of the list book beside the Journal, which leaned a little to the left and had a blot on the F, and thought that the book had gone and found itself somebody with a proper hand." / "Two worlds that have lain against each other long enough will begin to wear through at the same place, and the wearing needs no help. This one had not had any. The world in the north had been put up quickly, and its edges had been left until later, and the house at [[founders-point|Founder's Point]] stood where nothing was sealed as well as it would be. Nobody had meant a page to cross. UG and Flinch had done nothing but be curious, which happens to a thin place the way damp happens to a wall.¹" / "Whoever tends such places had not meant it either. It is the nature of a well-run system to notice a leak and to intend to mend it. It had not noticed yet. It would, and when it did it would write, politely, and with dates." / ""Master," said Flinch, "there's a page."" / "UG was at the kitchen table in his dressing gown with a notebook open at the wrong place and a pencil behind each ear. He looked up with the expression of a man who has to travel a long way back to find the subject. Flinch put the Journal down in front of him, open, and stood back." / "UG read the list. He read it quickly, and then he stopped, and then he read it slowly, which Flinch had seen him do perhaps twice." / ""[A voidwalker,]{say=unclegrumble}" he said. "[A voidwalker, who objects. Flinch, he's got a voidwalker. He's a warlock.]{say=unclegrumble}" He turned the Journal toward the lamp as if the light might make it truer. "[Shadow, fel, a pet with opinions. He's one of us.]{say=unclegrumble}"" / ""Yes, Master."" / ""[And it introduced you. I said it was a conduit. I rather expected something of the sort.]{say=unclegrumble}"" / ""Did you, Master?"" / ""[I may have,]{say=unclegrumble}" said UG, and Flinch, who had lived in the house for a long time, could not have said whether it was true, and neither, he thought, could UG." / ""Master. It says he don't like gnomes. Here. A recent dislike, found rather agreeable."" / ""[Agreeable!]{say=unclegrumble}" said UG, delighted. "[A dislike with a date on it. Marvellous understatement.]{say=unclegrumble}" He looked up. "[Flinch, you're not worried about that?]{say=unclegrumble}"" / ""I'll say it the once, Master. I don't rightly know what he'd do, was he to meet one."" / ""[Then we shall find out. Write to him. Say hello. Say it's a marvellous list. Ask what thread he's on.]{say=unclegrumble}"" / ""I don't rightly know what a thread is, Master."" / ""[Neither do I, quite, but it'll be very interesting to hear.]{say=unclegrumble}"" / "So Flinch took the Journal back to the study and wrote it himself, with a good deal of crossing out, and a few lines from Master." / "*Dear Mister Percy,*" / "*I am Flinch. I keep the house at Plot 38, Founder's Point, which belongs to Master. I read your page, which I did not mean to and am sorry for. I do not rightly know how it came to me. The book said somebody should meet you, and I would not like to say it is right.*" / "*You asked was there anybody out there. There is. I am here, and so is Master, and so is Mister Nobby, though he is more a letter than a person. I do not know who else.*" / "*Master says to say it is a marvellous list, and to ask what thread you are on. I do not rightly know what he means by it. He says you are a warlock, by the voidwalker, and I think he is pleased. Master is a warlock also.*" / "*I have a kettle, and a lantern, and a niche. I do not say it to boast. It is only that you did not say whether you had a house, and I thought you might like to know it was possible.*" / "*Yours respectfully, Flinch.*" / "He read it over. He had not said that Master was a gnome. Nobody had asked, and he was not sure it was the sort of thing one put first. He had said so to himself once, plainly, and he did not put it in." / "He shut the book. He opened it." / "*Delivered*, said the ruled hand, and under it, after a respectful gap, *Is there anything else I can help you with, Flinch?*" / "In a tavern in Brill, in a sleeve, in a book that had not been opened since it was put away, a reply was written on the left-hand page. Every person who had had a hand in it knew what it said, and the one whose book it was did not. He would open it in the morning, as he opened it every morning, and he was in a manner of speaking the last to know.
now: "[I do not know where. It is not in this room.]{say=mezzlos}" He waited. "[It is closing.]{say=mezzlos}"" / "Percy took out the journal he had been keeping all his life and wrote it down: *[Candle leaned. Left hand slow. Cause unknown.]{note=percy-spamchop}* He did not open the Journal. Nothing had come for him. Whatever had opened had not opened on his side.
answers feedback G1, G3 (see the feedback behind this edit)

unlisted v2-u1 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: The ruled hand had answered him before he opened the book. That was how it felt, at least. Flinch came down to the study at half past six,
now: Flinch opened his Journal in the cellar at half past five,

unlisted v2-u2 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: the lamp wanted seeing to, and the Journal was lying shut on the desk with a faint warmth along its spine, as though it had been held. He did not mean to open it. He picked up the lamp. He put the lamp down. He opened it…
now: he liked to know what was in the house before the house did. It had ticked in the night. It did that now, softly, like a watch being checked, and he had stopped sitting up for it.

unlisted v2-u3 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: the ruled hand:
now: a sprawl with a blot on the first word, was Master's good morning. Under it, in the ruled hand, was something else.

unlisted v2-u4 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: You will find you have a great deal in common.
now: And under that, in a hand he did not know, small and upright, each letter looking as though it had been told to stand straight and had done so, was a list. Held. A hand that writes straight, and does not know why. A ring…

unlisted v2-u5 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: desk,
now: wall,

unlisted v2-u6 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: It was that he had asked about the house,
now: He had asked who was at home,

unlisted v2-u7 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: He had asked who was at home. It had told him who was coming.
now: A man had set down a list of himself, with a heading and an underline and a column for what he owed. It was the sort of thing Flinch would have done, and he had never done it as well. He had asked whether anyone was ther…

unlisted v2-u8 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: Brill, in the corner by the fire,
now: the corner of the tavern in Brill,

unlisted v2-u9 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: book either. It was back
now: Journal either. It was

unlisted v2-u10 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: poster, and he had been sitting for an hour
now: poster. He had been sitting

unlisted v2-u11 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: went away.
now: stopped answering him.

unlisted v2-u12 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: It was simply no longer where he had left it. It had gone a long way down a corridor and was still there, small and clear at the far end, like a thing seen down the wrong end of a telescope. It
now: He looked down and it

unlisted v2-u13 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: and was very far off, and he was entirely calm about it, which he put down to a general numbness of long standing.
now: as it had been left, and he told it to close, and it did not, and he went on telling it until it did, a breath late and with pins and needles. He had not felt anything like it since the waking, and he found that he disli…

unlisted v2-u14 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: waited a moment.
now: waited.

unlisted v2-u15 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: turned his hand over. It came back down the corridor in no hurry, with a small flourish of pins and needles at the end, and settled where it had been. He had not felt anything like that since the waking. He found he did…
now: took out the journal he had been keeping all his life and wrote

unlisted v2-u16 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: absent. Cause unknown. The page held his list on the right and the Arcanum's two answers on the left, as before, and nothing more.
now: slow. Cause unknown. He did not open the Journal.

unlisted v2-u17 jump to the passage ↓
Rationale unrecorded.
was: He wrote the three lines and closed the book. — The page had begun to fill while Flinch watched. It did not appear, the way the answers appeared. It arrived, from the bottom of the left-hand page upward, in a hand so u…

Feedback record 2026-10-17 12:58, given 2026-10-17 12:33. The words are as given.

Plan of change written: 2026-10-17 (accepted 2026-10-17 12:59)

New version published: 2026-10-17 13:02

After-edit summary accepted 2026-10-17 13:04

Prompted by: feedback record of 2026-10-17 and Project 1's brief for Welcome to the Machine (as written in the plan)

Objective met: yes

Suggestions for a future edit:

• Footnote 1 now has a different job from the old one: it carries the joke, while the paragraph above it carries UG's curiosity. If a reviewer finds the narrator interlude too long, the second paragraph of it can go without harming the chapter.

Reflection, written afterwards:

Chapter V is 7,081 bytes against 9,605. The confusion around Percy is where most of the cut came from: Flinch now finds Percy's list himself, the long reply letter moved to chapter VI, and Percy's left hand is shown once. UG's attempt to route a page to "Flinch's correspondent" and the Arcanum's refusal are new and short; they show his curiosity as the cause of the leak without making him the culprit. The plan quotes the old chapter in very large blocks because almost every paragraph moved.