““-jeez, these guys, with their on-again, off-again relationships, lutgen said; -Yeah, Dave said: now you see them, now you see them once more; -They're virtual insects!, Jurgen said; -Virtually innumerable, said Dave; -I wonder, though, if we haven't got it wrong, Jurgen said: I mean, I wonder if maybe these guys' natural condition isn't to be lit up-if their ground state isn't actually when they're glowing; -Hm, said Dave: so what they're actually doing is turning off their lights -Right: momentarily going under; -Flashing darkness -Projecting their inner voids -Their repeating, periodic depressions ... -So then, I suppose, we should really call them douse bugs---;. -Exactly... -Or nature's faders---;. -Flying extinguishers -Buzzing snuffers-! -Or maybe -Or maybe, despite what it looks like, maybe they really are glowing constantly, Jurgen said: but, through some malign unknown mechanism, their everlasting light is periodically swallowed up by un-understood atmospheric forces; -So then they're being occluded -Rudely occluded -Denied their God-given right to shine ... -So that, I suppose, would make them-o horror-victims -Yeah: victims of predatory darkness -Of uncontrollable flares of night; -So it isn't bioluminescence, but eco-eclipsis -Exactly: ambient effacement -Nature's station-identification -Ongoing lessons in humility ... -In fact, that might explain the nits' efficiency factor, Jurgen Said: you know, these guys burn so cleanly that they produce what's known in the trade as cold light they put together this real slow oxidation reaction within these little cell-structures called photocytes, using a really weird enzyme and substrate that're, like, named for the devil; and the result is virtually 100% efficient: almost no heat is lost at all... -So, in fact, these folks should be our heroes -Exactly: our role models -Our ego ideals---;. -Hosts of syndicated talk shows -Spokes-things for massive advertising campaigns---;. -In fact, children should be forced to leave their families and go be raised by them-MacArthur winners, all...””
