The algedonicist stood crookedly at his desk, caught by a spasm not in the process of standing up, but rather in the process of having just stood up. He waited for the firing in his lower back to stop and observed his posture: left leg straight, normal, but pelvis so twisted his right leg was on tiptoe – leg? foot? – to even things out. The only science, this. Tiny increments of wow, oh boy.

Wow; oh boy.