she appeared on the screen not as herself but as the remainder of all the failed transmissions that still wanted to be her

outline—
fractured, reassembled,
draped in red-green ripple.
there’s no “before” here,
only versions of now.
self.identity = merge(glitch.fragments)
self.render(mode="volatile", preserve="errors")

her gaze stays in the static,
as if waiting for the next frame to fix her.
“it doesn’t hurt,”
she murmurs,
“but I’m never the same twice.”
background: electric velvet,
foreground: phosphor breath in reverse.
let frame = 0
while(true) {
renderFragment(self.identity[frame % len])
frame++
}

each refresh = a birth.
each glitch = a small refusal to disappear.