Friends At The Table

This episode carries content warnings for imprisonment, withholding medical care, civilian deaths, medical experiments, blood, description of injury, and death,  “What sort of shape is it though?”  “It is empire.” “Yes, no, I get that, but...  Is empire a square? Is it circle? It helps to know the shape of a thing if you’re hoping to break it.” “Yes. I understand. You tell me, then. What shape do you think empire takes? Perhaps you can see it in a way I cannot, because you first apprehended it from outside.” “Well, I can’t tell you about all empires, but this one? It wants to be fractal. Each stel tries to make everything inside of it a repetition of itself.” “Yes. Yes, I see. Stel Apostolos shapes itself as a spear, and so it extends downward in echoing cacophony. Its military bases, its schools, its students, its children—all spears.“ “Yeah, something like that. The trouble is, a fractal is really strong. All those shapes, repeated inwards forever. They flex, like a tree’s branches bending in the wind.” “Ye