03:14. Hand shaking like flame. Wasn't. Just hovering over the trace, watching Fogo slot boundaries.
Schedule doesn't announce. It arrives. One slot reading validator-7A3F. Next slot, 7A3F behind me. The Fogo's 40ms block keeps hashing. No pause. No ceremony.
Blinked. Missed it. Eyes dry, then—
Gone.
Fast rotation shrinks the window while you're still thinking the last one. Kept refreshing. Like Fogo low latency SVM runtime would wait. It doesn't. Zone vote two slots ahead, tower climbing, still parsing what 7A3F didn't finalize.
Thumb drummed the desk. Didn't notice until sound matched fan pitch.
Thought I caught it once. Real-time. No—wrong. Saw replay clearing. Rotation happened earlier. The 40ms block means perception arrives late. Always. Reading history while present votes.
Tower doesn't care. It climbs. One vote. Next. Node voting 4,891,224 while eyes on 4,891,222. Gap isn't large. Fatal.
Tried predicting next. Finger hovering like I could pre-load. Chronicle build doesn't reward preparation. Presence. Arrival. I forget.
Hand cramped. Holding mouse too tight six slots. Didn't notice rotation into 4,891,228. Just—absence. Then presence.
Nobody owns the chain. You borrow 40ms. Fogo's SVM Parallel execution hands it off. 1.3s finality feels permanent. It's not. Just—fast enough mistakes feel like latency.
Sat back. Chair creaked. Fan pitch dropped. Thought something failed. No. Node behind on gossip. Caught up three slots. Three leaders I didn't name. Didn't greet. Just.. Ahh! nothing.
Trace refreshed. New leader. Didn't catch ID. Didn't matter. Rotation moved on. Tower climbed forty votes without me. Stomach tight. Not nausea. Displacement. Standing on something faster than balance.
Hand still shaking. Put in pocket. Lanes running. Leaders rotating. I was just...
There.
Or whatever.