# So here we are then.

% Yes.

# Have you nothing more than that to say?

% That depends.

# On What?

% It’s hard to say at such an early stage.

# I’m not sure I understand.

% Well, you see, I can only tell if I’m going to speak right before I do.

# Don’t you think it over beforehand – decide what you’re going to say?

% That would seem to be the done thing… but with hindsight, with my most recent utterances the words just came to me, they were born on my lips… from nothing it seems.

# Really? Hmm…

% …

# Now that you mention it, that seems to be what happens with me too.

% Yes, even now I can’t seem to access any particular thought or thinking, I have no idea what I’m about to say.

# Indeed … indeed … I’m beginning to feel rather strange. It’s damn unnerving actually. It’s as if the present creates itself and all we are left with is the immutable past. The preceding moment is set in stone but we have no control over the ensuing moment.

% By Jupiter you’re right. And even the past only seems to go back a minute or so.

# Startling.

% What are we?

# Alas, we are mere puppets my dear percentage, puppets of no innate volition, our every word – our very Being – is but the whim of our creator and controller.