Hello people. I apologize if my theories about us being parts of a gigantic candy bar rubbed you string theorists the wrong way.

But enough of that, I've got a mini update. It's a character study, basically, just a short fiction piece with one character, that tells a little about him or her. Here it is.

Maxwell pushed the orange button on the machine. It ceased blinking after a faint click echoed through the once-silent hallway.

Thwack. The cup fell into its designated location.

Pluddop. Foaming, steaming, jet-black liquid hit the bottom of the Styrofoam.

Then the familiar noise of liquid slapping liquid began, as the coffee substitute filled the cup.

Maxwell looked around, though he knew what he would see. The hallway was dark, with a faint lamp illuminating small, private islands of tile every seventy feet. It was also empty, the enormous hallway, though Max had become used to emptiness in an alarming number of ways. Just as he thought, the only comforting sight in the entire stretch of nothing was the vending machine in front of him. Of course, the only thing comforting about it was the gentle glow it gave off. A singular irregularity in the entire wing, interrupting the splotches of light from the florescent lamps, it was comforting to him.

To pass the time, he drank the imitation coffee and looked down the hallway without blinking. As the seconds faded to minutes, the hall began to transform. It became a river of blackness, with uninhabited islands dotting its stream at uniform intervals. Perhaps the Gods that made this river had a thing for symmetry. As the river came closer to its delta at the security desk, a small city sprang up. This coffee machine, it was the last stand of civilization against the raging waters.

But it was being swept away. Slowly, ever so slowly, erosion was wearing it away. The buttons that were once neon shades of orange, pink, and green were coated with the slime of a thousand hands. The lights from the city were tarnished, yellowed with age and the acid of the air. It fought with a resilience only mechanical objects serving a consumer economy can manifest.

Max walked back to his desk, surveying the security monitors he had neglected, and the magic image of the hall disappeared. Until his next cup of coffee.