Thanks for reading "Alphanumerica," Cromag, and for the feedback and support!
The story is in second person to convey the feeling of subjectivity and confusion in the protag.
Nictitate by itself can simply mean to wink. The writer who uses it that way is probably complicating the reader's life just to avoid a synonym, though, which I'd rather not do.
A
nictitating membrane, however, is a specific aspect of animal biology (familiar to us in snakes and reptiles) and requires equally specific terminology.
Webster's definition
The alternative is make people recognize a nictitating membrane simply by describing it. I might have done that if the descriptions weren't dense already, and if they didn't have to propel the narrative.