#code 002: eye of the storm.

[stormslullaby]

❛ i don't look like a ghost, do i? see? warm. ❜ - rimbaud

silent hill 2 remake sentence starters.

when the fog had started drifting into verlaine's basement where he had carefully tucked himself away from the world, he had ignored it for the most part. even if his subordinates had made him aware of what was going on, he could care less what happened anymore. it still wasn't that storm that he was waiting for.

there's a shift in the atmosphere around him and an all too familiar presence that has him exhale heavily. at first, he doesn't dare look -- he simply whispers " you're not real; you're dead " to himself. until he feels the familiar warmth of a touch to his face that he'd so desperately craved to feel once more; that even if it's not real, he finds himself nuzzling into his palm anyway.

tired pale eyes open once more upon hearing the words, lacking any sort of light or fire that they once may have held. the voice echoed itself, but there was no doubt that it belonged to rimbaud. and the figure's face, despite lacking any discernable features, was his. even if the tears that quickly gather distort rimbaud's glowing figure and he clenches his jaw so tightly that it aches.

" you can't do this to me again, arthur. " it's still barely above a whisper, voice breaking as his eyes sting. had he not been tormented enough for his sins ? " you can't. "

@memoryextrction

[cardest]

Norway playlist

The trolls have gathered around to see the Mother North dance at midnight in the Trollheimen fjellområde as they listen to this epic NORWAY pllaylist I put together! Takk!

Are you ready? Have you your wits? This is the it.... NORWAY PLAYLIST songs are right here to listen to: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-iHPcxymC1_gH0U66TKasbEjdbkPxeW7 001 Folket Bortafor Nordavinden - Ur Is Ka Ha So 002 Satyricon - Commando 003 Arcturus -  Fall of Man 004 Dimmu Borgir The Serpentine Offering 005 Borknagar -  The Eye Of Oden 006 NORDJEVEL - Sunset Glow 007 WArduna - Fehu 008 Z-off - Hurra For Norge Norsk punkrock 009 Shakma - Night of the coven 010 Duivelspack - Yggdrasill 011 Enslaved - Path To Vanir 012 Kalenda Maya- Villemann Magnhild 013 Mental As Anything - Beserk Warriors 014 Chontaraz - Rondamauh 015 Manes -  Menn På Helveg Hastar 016 Norske Gutter - Hvem Faen Tror Du Du Er 017 Iron Maiden - Invasion 018 Solefald - Oslo Melancholy 019 Immortal - Sons of Northern Darkness 020 Slegest - Blodets Varme Gjennom Meg 021 Old Man's Child - The Millenium King 022 Covenant - Bizarre cosmic industries 023 In The Woods - I Am Your Flesh 024 Satyricon -  Ageless Northern Spirit 025 Golden Core - Rúnir Skal Rísta 026 Inferno - Metal Attack 027 Nordvegen - Ullensvang 028 Arcturus -  Ad absurdum 029 Ánne Máddji Heatta - Madji  at Dawn Light 030 Eldrim - Heimkomst 031 Hedvig Mollestad Trio - Approaching / On Arrival 032 Sirenia -  The End Of It All 033 Byrdi - Solsnu (feat. Kjell Braaten) 034 Bard Spec - Fire Tongue 035 Eirik Jarl - Norse song 036 The Open Mind - Thor, The Thunder God 037 Seidrblot - Skeggöld 038 Black Moon Circle - The Machine On The Hill 039 Sigmund Eiks - Knepphallingen (Hardingfele) 040 Satyricon -  Now, diabolical 041 Amberian Dawn - Valkyries 042 Gåte - Huldra 043 Enslaved -  Waruun 044 An Danzza - Rúnatal (Canción Rúnica de Odín) 045 Burzum -  Belus' Død 046 Abbath - Harvest Pyre 047 Aura Noir - Abbadon 048 Beatles - Norwegian Wood 049 INCULTER - COMMANDER 050 KAUNAN - Halteguten 051 Mortiis - Across The World Of Wonders 052 Skuggsa - Kvervandi 053 Covenant - Planetarium 054 Kampfar - Daimon 055 Adrian von Ziegler - Vinterns Drm 056 Blind Guardian - Valkyries 057 Ulver - The Argument, Plate 2 058 BigBang - Girl In Oslo 059 Gorgoroth - Bergtrollets Hevn 060 Emperor - Curse You All Men! 061 Tom Trussel - Oslo City Blues 062 Vazelina Bilopphøggers - Borghild 063 Dosdfall - Hemlig Vrede 064 Dimmu Borgir - Progenies of the Great Apocalypse 065 Kryst The Conqueror -  Valhalla 066 The Dogs - Oslo 067 Enslaved - Eld 068 Solefald - Loki Trickster God 069 Dunbarrow - You Knew I Was a Snake 070 A-ha - Take On Me 071 Ulver - Høyfjeldsbilde 072 Mayhem - Freezing Moon 073 Skambankt - Balladen Om Deg 074 Djerv - Headstone 075 Arcturus -  Raudt og svart 076 Øystein Sunde - Bleieskiftarbeider 077 Wardruna - Helvegen (The Way To Hel) 078 Ihsahn - Unhealer 079 Kampfar - Dominans 080 TNT - Seven Seas 081  NRK  Til Dovre faller - 1814 082 skuggsa - Rop Fra Rynda - Mlt Fra Minne 083 Iskald - Innhøstinga 084 Kvelertak -  Rogaland 085 Svarttjern - Hellig Jord 086 Renaissance - Northern Lights 087 Fred Åkerström - Oslo 088 Concrete Steps - Big Fish 089 Trevor Morris -  Northern Lights / Entry to Kattegat 090 KaadaPatton - L'absent 091 Adrian von Ziegler - Einherjer 092 Enthroned - Skjeldenland 093 Jokke og valentinerne - her kommer vintern 094 Styx - Man Of Miracles 095 Residents -  Arctic Hysteria 096 Martine Kraft - Himmelfot 097 Red Harvest -  Anatomy of the Unknown 098 Audrey Horne - Out of the City 099 Darkthrone -  Arctic Thunder 100 Trevor Morris - If I Had A Heart 101 Immortal - The Rise of Darkness 102 Sepulcher - Corporeal 103 Mysticum - LSD (from Planet Satan) 104 Empyrium - Under Dreamskies 105 Slagmaur - Norwegian Giant 106 Aeternus - Fyrndeheimen 107 Thorns - Existence 108 Solefald -  Crater of the Valkyries 109 Tristania - Libre 110 Trevor Morris -  North Sea Storm 111 Arcturus -  The Chaos Path 112 MAYHEM - A Grand Declaration Of War 113 Manegarm -  Odin Owns Ye All 114 Kampfar - Hymn 115 Dimmu Borgir -  Gateways 116 Dødheimsgard -  The Snuff Dreams Are Made Of 117 Satyricon -  The pentagram burns 118 Enslaved - Midgards Eldar 119 Folque - No har Jonsoknatta kome 120 Nekromantheon - Rise Vulcan Spectre 121 Iron Maiden -  Invaders 122 Tsjuder - Throne of the Goat 123 Einherjer - Naar aftensolen rinner 124 Mork - Holdere Av Fortet 125 Nidinger - Baldrs Draumar 126 Arcturus - Du Nordavind 127 Green Carnation - Into Deep 128 Darkthrone -  Too Old Too Cold 129 Pagans Mind - Through Osiris Eyes 130 Kvelertak - Blodtørst 131 Tristania - Year Of The Rat 132 Ulver - I Troldskog Faren Vild 133 Cirith Ungol - The troll 134 Eliwagar - Huldresagn 135 Vårsøg - Fram kom ein skreddar 136 Amethystium - Solace 137 Audrey Horne -  Bridges and Anchors 138 Gayte - Til Deg 139 Nanci Griffith - St. Olavs Gate 140 Folque - Liti Kari 141 Hin Onde - 24th of September 1155 142 Trevor Morris -  Ragnar's Sail 143 Enslaved - Ruun 144 Purple Hill Witch - Astral Booze 145 Thulsa Doom - Machine of Oslo 146 Svarttjern - Code Human 147 Leaves' Eyes -  Vinland Saga 148 Darvaza - A New Sun 149 LUMSK - DUNKER 150 Solefald - Tittentattenteksti 151 Raga Rockers    - Fritt liv 152 Isengard - Landet og Havet 153 In The Woods... - Pure 154 Communic - Conspiracy 155 Dimmu Borgir - Vredesbyrd 156 Arcturus -  The Arcturian Sign 157 Gorgoroth - Carving A Giant 158 Panopticon -  Norwegian Nights 159 Asmegin - Blodhevn 160 DumDum Boys - Lunch I Det Grønne 161 Taake - Nordbundet 162 Gehennah - Deadlights 163 Trønder Thunder - Tordenskjold 164 Årabrot - Maldorors Love 165 Misotheist - Blood Of Rats 166 Windir - 1184 167 BLOOD RED THRONE - InStructed InSanity 168 Deathhammer - Chained to Hell 169 Satyricon - Die By My Hand 170 Myrkskog - Bleeding Wrists 171 Ring Van Mobius - End of Greatness 172 Valkyrja - Crowned Serpent 173 Kjøtt - Hvit Hud / Svart Skinn 174 The 3rd And The Mortal - Why So Lonely 175 Voluspaa - Ferden Går Videre 176 Abyssic - Transition Consent 177 Myrkraverk - Nær Døden 178 Romantic Noise - Sagitario 179 Shining -  The One Inside 180 The Devil and the Almighty Blues - Distance 181 Manowar - Thor (The Powerhead) 182 Djevel - Det Svartner Paa Likbleik Hud 183 Øresus - Angst 184 Turbonegro - City Of Satan 185 Gåte - Sjå Attende 186 Immortal - Where Mountains Rise 187 Cor Scorpii - Fotefar 188 Cadaver - Hypertrophyan 189 Hugsjá - Ni Døtre av Hav 190 Kalandra - Brave New World 191 Borknagar -  Up North 192 Ved Buens Ende - You That May Wither 193 Alestorm - The Sunkn Norwegian 194 Brød & Sirkus - Frykt 195 Burzum -  Jeg Faller 196 Djevel - Et Menniskes Hele Korpus Og Legeme 197 Helheim - Ymr 198 Leaves' Eyes -  Farewell Proud Men 199 Sylvaine - Mørklagt 200 Enslaved -  Convoys To Nothingness 201 Gaahls Wyrd - Ghosts Invited 202 Hagalaz' Runedance -  When The Trees Were Silenced 203 Dismal Euphony - Et Vintereventyr 204 In Vain -  Image of Time 205 Khonsu - The Malady 206 Arctic Sleep -  Pine Mountain 207 Flametal -  I Am A Viking 208 Dimmu Borgir - The Sacrilegious Scorn 209 Trevor Morris - Vikings Attack 210 Wongraven - Tiden Er En Stenlagt Grav 211 Endstille - World Aflame 212 TYR - Eric the Red 213 Synthetic Gentlemen - Kick 214 OBLITERATION - Detestation Rite 215 Judas Priest - Halls Of Valhalla 216 Urarv - Red Circle 217 Old Man's Child - Doommaker 218 Abbath -  Winter Bane 219 A-ha - The Sun Always Shines On TV 220 Eldrim - Attergangar 221 Nan Madol - Tidal Waves 222 Vreid - Lifehunger 223 Acârash - Cadaver Dei 224 Triosphere -  The Sentinel 225 Vargvrede - Song of Betrayal 226 Vemod - Å Stige Blant Stjerner 227 Emperor - Inno A Satana 228 Eivør - Í Tokuni 229 Arcturus -  For to end yet again 230 Enslaved - The River's Mouth 231 Nidinger - Ash Yggdrasil 232 Covenant - Planetary black elements 233 Khold -  Forrykt 234 The Wretched End - Tyrant Of The Mountain 235 Voluspaa - Av Sin Klokskap 236 Solefald - Jernlov 237 Vredehammer - Viperous 238 Hellish Outcast - Partition of Lust 239 An Danzza - Rnatalins Rune Song 240 Green Carnation - The Quiet Offspring 241 1349 -  Nathicana 242 Sirenia -  Spor 2 243 TAAKE - Nattestid Ser Porten Vid 1 244 Virus - Black Flux 245 Blood Red Throne - Requiem Mass 246 Edvard Grieg - March of the Trolls (Orchestral Version) 247 Tidfall - Prophecy Horizon 248 Limbonic Art - A Void Of Lifeless Dreams 249 Lindy-Fay Hella - Three Standing Stones 250 Borknagar -  Winter Thrice 251 Panopticon - Håkans Song 252 ULVER - Nowhere (Sweet Sixteen) 253 Vondur -  Panzer Legions Of Vondur 254 JORN - Traveller 255 Disiplin - Liberation 256 Beyond Dawn - When Beauty Dies 257 Ruphus - Inner Voice 258 Leaves' Eyes -  Norwegian Lovesong 259  The 3rd  & the Mortal - Death-Hymn 260 STORM - Noregsgard 261 Satyricon - Hvite Krists Død 262 R. Stevie Moore –  Norway 263 Lucifer Was - In Anadi's Bower 264 Susane Sundfor  - White Foxes 265 Kjeld - Betsjoend 266 Kari Rueslåtten - Sørgekåpe 267 Green Carnation - Sentinels 268 Agenda - Suffer 269 Mortiis -  Tribute to Euronymous Unreleased Outro 270 Sirius - Sidereal Mirror 271 Insidious Disease - Betrayer 272 Gehenna - Through The Veils Of Darkness 273 The Deviant - Atomic Revolt 274 Varde - Halvdan Svarte 275 Carpathian Forest - He's Turning Blue 276  Ragnarok TV show - Outro 277 Sâver - How They Envisioned Life 278 Dold Vorde Ens Navn - Drukkenskapens Kirkegard 279 MANES - Young Skeleton 280 Nattefrost - Nekronaut 281 Cadaver Inc. - Primal 282 Ida Maria - I Eat Boys Like You For Breakfast 283 ragnarok - En Verden Av Stein 284 Mari Boine - Chasing Myself Into Reality 285 Death By Unga Bunga - Don't Go Looking For My Heart 286 Hexvessel - The Tunnel At The End Of The Light 287 Urgehal - The Iron Children 288 Darkthrone - Soulside Journey 289 Theatre of Tragedy - Der Tanz der Schatten 290 Wardruna -  Kvitravn 291 Einherjer - Dragons of the North 292 Thale OST - Thale theme 293 Hedvig Mollestad Trio  -Bewitched, Dwarfed and Defeathered 294 Motorpsycho - Spin, Spin, Spin 295 Susperia - Vainglory 296 MYRKUR - Jeg er Guden, I er Tjenerne (Live at the Mausoleum) 297 ICS Vortex  - Odin's Tree 298 1349 - Beyond The Apocalypse 299 PRISTINE - You Are The One 300 Tristania - Beyond the Veil 333 Immortal - Where Dark And Light Don't Differ 444 Folket Bortafor Nordavinden - Odin 666 Satyricon -  Mother North  Songs are right here at this link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-iHPcxymC1_gH0U66TKasbEjdbkPxeW7 Have I missed a song or band? Let me know. Takk!

[eeraygun]

Top 204 Sonic Releases of 2019

001. Holly Herndon - Proto 002. Barker - Utility 003. Summer Walker - Over It 004. Topdown Dialectic - Vol. 2 005. Vatican Shadow - Berghain 09 006. Polachek, Caroline - PANG 007. Various Artists - It Takes A Village: The Sounds of Physical Therapy 008. Rosalía - A Pale 009. Jenna Sutela - Nimiia Vibié 010. Croatian Amor - Isa 011. Octo Octa - Resonant Body 012. Special Request - VORTEX 013. Fabio & Grooverider - 30 Years of Rage 014. Oli XL - Rogue Intruder, Soul Enhancer 015. Karenn - Grapefruit Regret 016. Stenny - Upsurge 017. Geo Rip - TTT Mixtape 018. DJ Gigola & Kev Koko - Tender Trance 019. Davis Galvin - Davis Galvin 020. INSTINCT - INSTINCT 05 021. Daes, Cam - Mechanosphere 022. Blawan - Many Many Pings 023. LOFT - and departt from mono games 024. Various Artists - PDA Compilation Volume 1 - And the Beat Goes On 025. PJ Swerve - "24 Seconds" 026. IVVVO - doG 027. Hilda Guðnadóttir - Chernobyl 028. Aurora Halal - Liquiddity 029. Endless Mow - Possession Chamber 030. Lee Gamble - Exhaust 031. Contagious - Contagious 032. Aseptic Stir - Year of Detachment 033. Various Artists - CRXSSINGS 034. Clairo - Immunity 035. Overmono - POLY011 036. Schacke - "Trained To The Floor" 037. Various Artists - Various [Крым Мрык - KMV02] 038. Off The Meds - Belter 039. Andy Stott - It Should Be Us 040. Ioannis Savvaidis - Diataxis 041. ISSHU - IS 042. Kali Malone - The Sacrificial Code 043. Brannten Schnüre - Erinnerungen An Gesichter 044. Various Artists - Total Solidarity 045. Erika de Casier - Essentials 046. Madteo - Dropped Out Sunshine 047. Helm - Chemical Flowers 048. Hugo R.A. Paris - Threaded Habitat 049. Holdie Gawn & Micawber - Gleech Huis, Parsec Telemetry 050. Carla dal Forno - Look Up Sharp 051. Eris Drew - Raving Disco Breaks Vol. 1 052. Luc Ferarri - Photophonie 053. Various Artists - SUPER XXXCLUSIVE LIMITED FR33 COMPILATION 054. Rare Silk - Storm 055. Thought Broadcast - Abduction 056. River Yarra - Frogmania 057. Exael - Dioxipp 058. James Shinra - Darkroom EP 059. Varg & Coucou Chloe - I Get Lit 060. Various Artists - Oscillate Tracks 002 061. Ariana Grande - MONOPOLY 062. Various Artists - Tiny Planet Vol.1 063. Peter Van Hoesen - Kelly Criterion 064. Various Artists - SPORTS 065. Ariel Kalma - Nuits Blanches au Studio 116 066. Felicia Atkinson - The Flower and the Vessel 067. Itchy Bugger -  Double Bugger LP 068. Funky Doodle - Live From Yellowknife 069. E L O N - Pneumania 070. Ka Baird - Respires 071. Lena Andersson - Söder Mälarstrand 072. J. Albert - Wake Me Up 073. LXV - Loss Function 074. Panthera Krause - "Spring Irre" 075. M.E.S.H. - Hart Aber Fair 076. HOOVER1 - HOOVER1-2 077. Alleged Witches - Initiation Rituals 078. Panda Bear - Buoys 079. Various Artists - Slam Jam, Vol. 1 080. SSTROM - Drenched 5-8 081. Roger 23 ‎- Is Demanding For A Cultural Negotiation 082. Alec Pace - Luminous 083. Innere Tueren - Innere Tueren 084. Alex Falk - OOF 085. Moor Mother - Analog Fluids of Sonic Black Holes 086. Dothedu - Lick The Gloom EP 087. Stef Mendesidis - Klockworks 26 088. Dream Cycle - Part Three 089. Various Artists - 4 Down 090. Desert Sound Colony - Zenome Archetype 091. juneunit - juneunit 092. S Transporter - S Transporter 093. Meitei - Komachi 094. Ama Lou - "NORTHSIDE" 095. Wata Igarashi - Kioku 096. Conducta - KIWI KRUSH 097. Skee Mask - ISS004 098. 100 gecs - 1000 gecs 099. Metrist - Pollen Pt. I 100. 6siss - Prisma 101. Various Artists - Drie 102. Pelada - Movimiento Para Cambio 103. Renick Bell & Fis - Emergence Vol. 1 104. BLD - Toby 105. Various Artists - Σ2 [radio.syg.ma] 106. J E L L V A K O - INTEGRATION 107. Ana Roxanne - ~~~ 108. Ziur - ATØ 109. Amazondotcom - Mirror River 110. Vladimir Dubyshkin - Budni Nashego Kolhoza 111. SDEM - IIRC 112. Hontos - Subway Series Vol. 2 113. Ekhe - Hed Fuq 114. JV & Palf - Wren EP 115. FKA Twigs - Magdalene 116. Adlas - Currents 117. Rory St John - Excommunication 118. aphtc - Rewind The Subject 119. Steve Hauschildt - Nonlin 120. Anne Imhof - Faust 121. Tenebre - Polystructures 122. Sa Pa - In A Landscape 123. Jas Shaw - Exquisite Cops 124. Nathan Micay - Blue Spring 125. Quirke - Steal A Golden Hail 126. Kallista Kult - Kallista Kult 127. Actapulgite - Le Malin 128. Jorg Rodriguez - VCO Fields 129. Bergsonist - د 130. No Moon - Where Do We Go from Here 131. Sean McCann - Puck 132. Jessica Pratt - Quiet Signs 133. Mahalia - Love and Compromise 134. Régis Renouard Larivière - Contrée 135. Chris Watson - Glastonbury Ocean Soundscape 136. J Colleran - EP01 137. Locked Groove - Sunset Service 138. DJ Bogdan - Love Inna Basement 139. Second Storey - The Cusp 140. A.Fruit - Nocturnal 141. Blenk - Fragments of Vision 142. Katsunori Sawa - An Enlightenment Manual, Your Consciousness Of Truth 143. K-Lone - Sine Language 144. Rhyw - Biggest Bully - Felt 145. Seth Nehil - Skew _ Flume 146. Stanley Schmidt - Smart Replies 147. Al Wootton - Body Healthy 148. Marja Ahti - Vegetal Negatives 149. Ena - Baroque 150. Mister Water Wet - Bought the Farm 151. Tujiko Noriko - Kuro OST 152. Astor - The Aubergine Dream CS 153. Leon Vynehall - I, Cavallo 154. Koffee - Rapture 155. dgoHn - dgoHn EP 156. Shiken Hanzo - The Centipede 157. Gacha Bakradze - Extensions 158. Various Artists - PNP 004 159. Jenny Hval - The Practice Of Love 160. Joy O - Slipping 161. Keplrr - Translucence 162. Shadowax - Nikolai Reptile 163. Shygirl - BB 164. Cucumb45 - Slother EP1 Lyf Og Bio Ao Heilsa 165. Yan Cook - Somatic 166. Charli XCX & Christine and the Queens - "Gone" 167. Interplanetary Criminal - Move Tools 168. Ariel Zetina - Organism 169. Japanese Acid Person - Keep Falling Asleep 170. Michael Speers - xtr'ctn 171. Yak - Termina EP 172. Roberto Clementi - Plebiscite EP 173. Elmono - Coopers Dream 174. Ellll - Confectionary 175. Plantetary Assault Systems - Plantae 176. Various Artists - CHERUBEAST 177. City & I.O - Spirit Volume 178. Shed - Oderbruch 179. Pris - Sulphur City EP 180. Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow 181. Sophia Saze - Self Part I 182. Naco - EP 183. Banshee - Thought Bubbles EP 184. 33emybw - Arthropods 185. Yung Baby Tate - Girls 186. RHR - Nocturnal Fear 187. Private Press - .370 EP 188. Mani Festo & LMajor - Borai & Denham Audio Present Club Glow Vol.2 189. r²π - Largo Nilo EP 190. Voiski - The Bat Who Wanted to See the Sun 191. Semma - Ribbons & Bows 192. PTU - Am I Who I Am 193. Rod Modell - Captagon 194. Lurka - Stay Let's Together 195. Inland - Time Leak 196. DJ Safeword - Post Love Electronix 197. Mike Davis - Anti-Mimesis 198. Alan Backdrop - Natives EP 199. MATRiXXMAN – Planet X EP 200. exos - Alien Eyes 201. A², Stopouts & Andy Panayi - RM12005 202. J Tijn - 4x4 203. Kapoor - Extract Part One 204. emptyset - Blossoms

[moreweirdfuture-blog]

DUST (奇妙な未来 # 002)

Her flight to Oregon was long and boring, and the only detail Marris remembered was a message a previous passenger had scribbled on the back of a coffee-stained aviation catalogue:

 eighty percent of dust is human skin

 For the rest of the day, she pictured a military grade laser aimed down from space with the explicit instruction to fry her epidermis.

 Two minutes after Marris’ plane landed in Oregon she was sent to fix a weather anomaly. The sandstorm had grown from passing tumbleweed to full blown gale. Marris pulled her jacket over her head and ducked low to keep the sand torrent from stinging her cheeks.

 “How long?” she yelled from over the roar of sand and wind. “How long has it been like this?” She covered her mouth with her sleeve.

 The western obelisk extended far into the sky and was a signal repeater for the intelligent sand. Power outages had already been reported across Eugene.

 “Since yesterday evening,” the technician shouted back. The storm could calm itself within seconds and resume as quickly. Marris took a soil sample during one such moment of calm and tinkered with the obelisk’s settings. But the storm picked up as if to resist, so the team bounded across the barren field and crammed into a tiny Honda. The car shook violently, but not enough to arrest her anxiety.

 Months ago she had been hired as a climatologist to replace the woman who preceded her. She could be fired for any reason. We reserve the right. Those words hugged Marris’ chest until she felt a tight and narrow pressure constrain her breath. It didn’t help that a coworker had asked her to identify the differences between D-camphor and R-camphor. She became so paralyzed with stupidity that she wondered if it was a test whose results would resurface as evidence in front of the jury empaneled to judge her merit. She had spent that entire week tinkering with the weather code to prove to herself that she was capable. 

 She was returned to her apartment, a squat yellow building situated downtown between the flat freeway and junk riverbed. Her room was cold with one large bay window. She imagined she could disappear into it and spend the rest of her days gawking at the crease of garbage across the street. Outside, the sandstorm blotted the sky like an insect swarm advancing in startling subtlety.

 It was too late to do more work, but work was all Marris could think of to keep occupied. A layer of grime covered her belongings despite having wiped them down just an hour earlier. How much dirt could there possibly be in the world?

 She emailed a geologist at the nearby university and reviewed the weather code for clues about the disturbance. She fell asleep to a stream about desertification. The entire hotel jolted in temper tantrum and she woke.

 She had been dreaming of her husband and figured he was probably painting at that moment. Her husband liked to wake up early and walk down to the ocean to paint.  

 “World’s empty in the morning,” her husband said. “Makes me think of ancient times.” It too gave Marris pleasure to imagine a world before human ego. 

 The apartment intercom sounded and removed her lucidity. The smooth voice reminded everyone to stay calm. A Barometrix advertisement played, and she fell asleep to the blur of smiling faces and children skipping underneath vaulted domes.

 She unpacked her things while she ate bread and chocolate and the television played an old horror movie where the world was on the brink of collapse because temperatures had risen and temperate regions became price grabs. Her phone sounded early the next morning, long after the television signal had dropped.

 Marris met the geologist outside a coffee shop near the university. Bits of sand hung in the wind like tissue butterflies.

 The geologist sipped his coffee and eyed the vial. He promised to return the analysis results within a couple days.

 On her walk back to the apartment, her doctor called. Marris had forgotten all about the therapy visits that Barometrix required of employees. “I will,” she said. As soon as she answered, the city moaned like the corpse rising from dust. Lights blew out in cascade, and for a few minutes, Marris stared at the sky, empty except for a black wall hanging on the fringe.

 When the power returned, an update from the technicians revealed the obelisk was functioning properly, which confused Marris. She was certain the sandstorm originated from a miscommunication between the obelisk and intelligent sand.

 She phoned her husband and they talked for an hour. She was cautious to fall asleep, as though if she weren’t careful the awful dreams would creep in.

 The next morning she was driven to the power distributor, where the software technicians led her around a building with a low, beige ceiling and every window faced a multi-level parking garage anchored by kaleidoscopes of abelia. They tweaked the intelligent sand’s conversion behavior and updated its firmware. The city had grown impatient, but within days, the weather programming returned to normal, and the regular rain and growth schedule resumed. Marris relaxed for the first time since she had arrived.  

 A school friend phoned that he was moving west for work, so they met at the airport and went for lunch. Lorne had a narrow, tall body with a quick mouth and indestructible, black hair, and a lazy way of smiling, like he wasn’t really trying and was genuine and nice with it and had nothing to hide. His eyes stayed verged on eureka, and it unsettled Marris, like he was always one step ahead of her in a lemniscate. In all her memories of him, he was standing in front of Bunsen burners and chemical compounds. Because life was a competition, Marris was glad that they lost touch not long after she found work as a climatologist. Lorne preferred classrooms, formulas, and abstract this and we conclude that, and just the idea of walking into an ivory tower of whiteboards and Rosetta reminded her of his egg headed friends who made her mad as hell.

 She met them once at a get together in Pullman. They gawked at her like she was an animal of too questionable a cachet to be enshrined at their zoo. They discussed stochastic environment models and n-gram weather plotting. She tried to change the topic, but one had the audacity to say, “I guess you know enough to smile and nod,” and she never liked them since. Marris could have sworn she caught Lorne laugh at the comment. Probably he hadn’t, but he certainly didn’t say much about it, other than, “Aren’t they the type?”

 That got to her more than anything.

 She realized he had been talking for long enough that she couldn’t remember when she stopped paying attention.

 “We’re getting married so we can buy that second house,” Lorne said. Marris felt herself flatten. “He doesn’t love me,” he insisted. “It’s an economic arrangement.”

 “How about the job?” she asked. Lorne dabbed his mouth with a napkin and smiled.

 “That’s why I wanted to meet,” Lorne said. “We will be working together soon.” He leaned back and Marris’ skin began to itch. “So,” his way of beginning an explanation annoyed Marris to death, because whatever followed would be just as coherent without, “Barometrix is looking to expand its product line, and the presentation I gave last fall on advanced methods for cellular conversion must have caught their attention.”

 She wanted to go back in time. She had staked Oregon out on her own. For all it mattered to her, she had created the damn state, and here he was gerrymandering it.

 They paid and walked to the parking lot. Pink hibiscus choked the wet asphalt. Out of nowhere, Lorne turned around and drew in a breath.

 “Don’t be unhappy, Marris.” Marris couldn’t figure out for the life of her why he would assume she was unhappy, so she asked what he meant. He searched for the meaning in a paint splotch, like you just couldn’t wait to hear the read on that one, and said, “I had a dream I could breathe underwater. Isn’t that weird?”

 “Yeah,” she said and nearly slipped on a petal.

 “It made so much sense, so I got up and,” he put his head under a make-believe faucet, “of course I couldn’t—“

 “That is such a strange dream.”

 “—But I was the only one who knew about this secret that had evaded science,” he said and grinned. “No one else but me knew.” He let her go, like he was ready to die and didn’t need company for the journey across. “I was the only one.”

 She got in her car and watched his vroom the corner and disappear.  

 Marris felt gross the rest of the day, like all the world was running sideways and she missed the memo.  

 She liked reading and spent a few hours with Time to get her mind right. She enjoyed the article about a new tier schedule for Internet prices, and another about soaring oxygen costs in Indochina, where the author went into excruciating detail about dirt.

 An internal company memo circulated that Lorne Jimenez was the new head of product management and she read a listicle placing Barometrix as number one in a top three list of climate conditioning companies that year.

 She went for a swim in the rooftop pool. The air had grown sticky with sand and she ate avocado with baked egg and cantaloupe. She covered her face with a book, and hours later everything was sparkles. She peeled the book from her eyes and fixated on her highlighting: it wasn’t until…2024…scientists… manipulate precipitation…reverse…desertification. The air still smelled like wet jasmine and straight black clotted her periphery. It frightened her to imagine a world where the weather was not programmed. What would you do if you had no water? Pray for rain?

 A pen pal of hers from Zimbabwe messaged that he had become enrolled in a climatology course, and Marris felt a surge of pride. She had been fostering his interest in the field, and it was all the news she needed to get her to smile.

 A dull hum caught her attention the next day—a rattle of glasses, passing conversation, wheels crunching gravel, and it played together so well Marris felt a hidden smartness, like all of the random noises you heard in your life might actually add up to mean something if you really wanted. The therapist would be delighted to hear such a positive remark. Marris got a kick out of defying people’s expectations. Each time she did, she was proving someone a fool.

 “Is it useful to know that?” the therapist asked during her visit. Marris always asked, “what’s wrong with me?” as a joke. It really bothered her that the therapist had not picked up on the habit after four months. The room was warm and a dim white light cut through the blinds, a paste-white, mechanical glare that made Marris sleepy, like she was being examined under a microscope and there was nothing to do but close her eyes and wait for it to be over.

 The therapist was a young woman who always looked like you were one second away from telling her the best story since Moses. She was pretty and it bothered Marris, because she did not trust pretty people: how could anything bad happen to the good looking? Marris had hoped for an older man who would intone “Mmm! I see,” no matter what Marris said, and Marris would arrive at her own solutions, and he would smile and nod, all the while tracking her success with a wise detachment. He would compare her life to a molecule, or the weather, and suddenly it would all make sense.

 But Doctor Parnham was not like this at all. She seemed treadmill in every way, and Marris knew it was true because of the family photos all over the walls, all of them smiling in front whatever. Marris wondered why she would be forced to endure it.

 Marris considered mentioning her epiphany, but she was irritated enough to hope being uncooperative might be the most frustrating thing for a therapist, like all that school time would amount to nothing in the face of disinformation.

 The therapist scribbled responses to questions on a tablet, but paused when she asked how Marris’ husband was. Marris responded, “Fine, I spoke with him night before.”

 The therapist lifted her head and looked inquisitive, like this was a topic they had discussed and resolved in a previous session, but Marris didn’t care. In fact, she savored the look of indignation that crossed the therapist’s face.

 “How was he?”

 “Fine,” Marris said, hoping to avoid the topic. The therapist tapped her pen against her clipboard, mentally practicing a response.

 “Can I ask what you—“

 Marris’ phone rang and she excused herself to answer it. The signal to the power distributor had failed without warning and the city sat in chilly stillness. She apologized even though she was not sorry and left.

 They packed into the helicopter, along with Lorne and a few other technicians scrambling with code on screens. The ground pulled away and Marris’ stomach sunk. The chopper deafened her, and the cacti shrunk like pygmies, and the brown bougainvillea kept dying everywhere they flew, and she saw rectangles of blue on and on in the opposite direction, getting microscopic until they were gone. Lorne’s hair whipped about and he smiled to calm her.

 When they broke over a mountain range, the helicopter hovered smartly for a few moments, and Marris felt a supreme stillness, maybe the best there ever would be, before the pilot jumped. A plume of sand and glass zapped the obelisk, slicing it like glue and mucus straight through until the structure toppled sideways and made Marris’ heart thud like it was the first and last kiss. But it was Lorne’s expression that shocked Marris the most. The rest of them were yelling jesus this and mother of god that, while Lorne kept mumbling under his breath, “A man is but the product of his thoughts,” over and over, and it gave Marris a chill to hear him so religious. 

 A national weather advisory kept people indoors and Marris couldn’t keep a connection because the old power grid had not been used in decades. Marris stared at lines of weather code for five hours. Her apartment rumbled. Her contacts fused with her eyes until blinking just left her blurry. Pizza crust and napkin wedges got all excited when the geologist called and insisted they meet within the hour. Marris rushed to meet him. To make it in time, she stubbed her toe and hopped from the apartment in mismatched socks.

 They met near midnight at his lab, a musty prefab structure that a passing philosophy major might mistake for maintenance. Every few minutes, the geologist looked behind him and patted his khakis. He could not input the passcode to the laboratory correctly until his third try. Marris imagined the alarms that would sound and it made her armpits sweat. A few more turns and Marris arrived in a room that reminded her of Lorne, stuffed with scales and incubators, a wall of wilted plants, stacks of chemistry books and grimy tech magazines, fluorescent tube lights and rows of soil carefully labeled and stocked in petri dishes.

 The geologist prepared a glass slide and cover for the specimen, and it clicked when he set it beneath the microscope.

 “Ordinarily,” he adjusted the microscope lens, “this could wait until morning.” He mulled his beard. His voice got conspiratorial. “But this isn’t ordinary.” He encouraged Marris to look, and Marris saw the sand grain close-up, like her husband’s paintings, big circles of amber and spirited rivulets of gray and blue, all lightning and motion like they had an appointment in Nantucket and were about to shoot off that way at any moment.

 “This,” he explained, “is a normal intelligent sand molecule.” He introduced a heat source and the sand liquefied. He removed the slide and prepared another specimen. “Now, a sample from the soil you provided me,” the geologist said in clinical cadence. He provided the same source of heat, but the sand remained immobile. This contradicted the behavior Marris had encountered in the weather code.

 “Is there something wrong with the conversion code?” Marris asked.

 “I thought so,” the geologist explained. “But watch…” his voice hung in the air. He stared at the wall and nothing happened for half a minute, except him mumbling C’mon like a criminal flirt. He concentrated like he was trying to move air, and the entire slide leapt as if propelled by thought. “Someone’s re-written its conversion mechanism.”

 Marris covered her mouth so the scientist couldn’t see her terror. She thanked the geologist, who insisted they talk more, but she hurried from the lab and down the windy corridors, forgetting where she was every other minute, too busy emailing Anitha to schedule a meeting for the next morning.

 On the taxi home, she discovered sections of code she remembered writing months earlier—edits to what catalyzed the intelligent sand. Not heat, to counteract drought and deforestation, but thought—more specifically, the language of thought: mentalese.

She called Lorne, but his phone went to voicemail. She was rushed with nerves. She needed to keep this a secret and not disclose her own involvement. Maybe if she kept quiet, someone else would be blamed?

She found research articles filled with words like thought ordered mental expression. She arrived home so delirious with concentration that she jumped when her phone buzzed. She set it between her neck and shoulder, and her husband’s voice bled through. But her husband must’ve been about some nonsense, though, because she remembered none of it. She woke to the wah, wah, wah, busy tone, realizing only after wiping the dried drool off her flannel that she was late.

 The company headquarters absorbed the pinnacle of a craggy rise near the ocean, tucked behind the freeway and bound by dead juniper, blazed from a firestorm years earlier. The sun shimmered off the glass, and no one dared walk on the lawn that became intelligent sand the closer you got to the beach. Marris swiped her employee badge and took the escalator several accordion style intervals to the third floor. It bothered her that everything about the building seemed inescapable, from its design, from the way people nodded at you, to the denim and plaid, and the espresso that made Marris want to plow through time like a bulldozer, forehead first, and hope she might emerge lobotomized, anything to escape the copy-paste mannequins she had been led to believe were human.

 Her supervisor was a gray-faced woman named Anitha who had the habit of staring straight ahead like she was off somewhere else whenever she was under stress. 

She did not bother explaining that it had been her own desire to tinker with the weather code that was causing all of the disturbances. 

 The group of them packed into an elevator and it hummed its descent beneath the rock. When they reached sufficient depth, the walls illuminated in hexagons. Lorne delivered Marris to a room where she equipped protective gear while scientists in smocks pressed buttons that flung sand sideways and upwards, and it turned into rain, and then glass, and melted, and then tiny sinks with oblong holes absorbed the pellets through plastic tubes.

 The sandstorm had already cost the city one million dollars’ worth of damage. Much of Oregon and Washington succumbed to quicksand and sinkholes. Gas lines had broken and homes caved in after severing from their foundations. Seismologists anticipated a magnitude-9.0 earthquake, which, when combined with the sandstorm, the sloshing, sliding, shaking and flooding, the region would upend, paving the road for the final wave, where the real destruction would begin.

 They were under direct pressure from the government to fix the issue immediately, and in case Marris forgot, screens throughout the laboratory hallways broadcast news of the growing storm until Anitha shut them off and mumbled, “not helping.” 

 The pressure made her fret, and Lorne was as useful as a map of your hand.

 It seemed to Marris that he was purposefully sabotaging the process, but she couldn’t prove it, just that he was slow as molasses and didn’t seem to be doing much.

 When showed the culprit code, he examined it with his chin set into his hand like the French sculpture and said, “Ah.” 

 An hour later Marris found him in the experimental chambers looking like he had discovered how to turn water into money. He pointed at her when she entered. A grain of sand popped through her protective armband and stung her skin. “Ow!” she exclaimed and rubbed at the sting. “My God,” he said and chuckled.

 By sunrise, Anitha emerged with Lorne, who looked like he had just been forced to swallow medicine, and Anitha waved her hand. “It’s fixed,” she said, and within moments the sandstorm receded, and Marris felt the Earth’s intestinal grumble come to a sudden and final halt.

 Anitha and Lorne met with a team of lawyers to advise how to explain the anomaly to the National Weather Administration. The meeting adjourned after hours of legalese, where plausible and accountability were the only words Marris could make out.  

Before she left, Marris found Lorne smoking in front of a hexagonal pulse with his hair unraveled, right next to the elevator.

 “The rest of the team headed home.” Marris noticed her echo. He rubbed his chin like he had taken a wrong turn.

 “I saw a man yesterday,” he finally said and politely coughed smoke to the side, “who looked like he wouldn’t know how to open a door if it said ‘push here’ on the front.” He smiled. Marris blinked. An exit sign loomed above his head.

 “I’ve been up since the sundial,” Marris said. “Call it a night?” She gathered her belongings to leave. Then he looked her square in the face and it felt like skilled karate.  

 “Do you ever wonder what it would feel like to burn?” She thought it was a strange question and she paused.

 “I don’t like to think about that,” Marris said and suddenly got sick. Lorne’s eyes thinned.

 “Oh, right,” he wiped his face, “your husband died in that,” he exhaled and searched for the word, “firestorm,” he put the cigarette out in the wall, “a few years back.”

 The air evaporated from her lungs.

 “I hope you’re not mad,” Lorne said and stared at the wall.

 “How did you—“

 “I looked at your psychology evaluation in the company database.” He smiled. “How else would I have known?” He pushed himself off the wall. “I’m so tired,” he admitted, “so,” he cleared his throat, “agreed, let’s call it a night.” He walked past her, and the pulsing white wall lamp hurt her eyes.

 Marris had not realized Doctor Parnham submitted her evaluation. She looked at her employee profile in the Barometrix database when she returned home and it read patient grief over husband death unresolved recommend leave of absence and she wanted to be done with that doctor then and there.

 Marris sunk into her bathtub and let the water rise to her neck. It was so hot she grimaced to withstand it. The popcorn ceiling glared at her, and she wondered how long it would take for the ceiling to disintegrate into nothing if left up to time. She fell asleep in the tub and dreamt her husband visited, but there was nowhere to sit with the place submerged in water. Her husband walked out, flying the five hours whence he came all the while texting her about how they would never meet again. Marris woke up short of breath and exhausted. She immediately emailed him a synopsis of the strange dream and ignored the return-to-sender failure notice.

 She feared returning to work and the ensuing conversation with Anitha. She had already made plans to fly back home and disappear under a mountain of sheets. She played the different scenarios over in her head.

 But when she returned the next day, Lorne was gone, and the headquarters looked like a tooth hole. Half the building had collapsed in on itself.

 FBI agents and news reporters cast their shadows like a parallelogram. Anitha was caught answering questions, and a film crew stuffed microphones everywhere.

 One of the detectives spread his hands wide. “Sorry ma’am,” he said. She showed her employee badge and he grumbled into a two-way radio until a large man with short mustache appeared from a car.

 She was escorted home in a Lincoln with tinted windows and was instructed to stay in her apartment. The news broadcast Lorne’s face, and the only words Marris could make out before she got sick was wanted and terrorist.

 By ten, the night had gotten dry and cold. She smelled sand and beach on the horizon.

 “Excuse me,” Marris said to an officer standing outside of her place. She did not have solution for her contacts and could not remove them properly without. The officer smoked a cigarette and put it out on the patio outside of her unit and shook his head no as if to tell her to go away. She took her contacts out and blinked—she could see nothing, like the world was all one blob of color.

 She fell asleep near midnight with the television flashing across her face.

 A car alarm woke her, a nonstop honk that echoed in the night and invaded her dreams. The moon hung like an eyelid, and Marris heard scratching at her front door. She could see nothing, and she called out “Hello?” but no one answered back. The clock said it was two in the morning. She walked to the middle of her house. The car horn got louder. A cone of lights flickered through her window and she got an awful feeling like she should hide.

 “Marris?” She heard a man’s voice from the other side of the front door and knew it was Lorne, because he was speaking through a smile, like he already knew she was home but felt the sociopathic urge to be courteous just the same. “Marris,” he said. She tensed up in the same way she did when she imagined the dead creeping up behind her and she found it hard to move. “Are you there?”

 Suddenly it sounded like a million pennies flinging against her walls and plaster going hara kiri. Skeletal light poured through the front door. She felt the path to her room and the door fell in chunks.

 She flung herself beside her bed and shoved the side table, sending perfume and a lamp clacking to the floor. The sound would not stop, and like light speed anorexia, the wall ate away at itself.  

 “Marris?” Lorne asked from over the roar. He stumbled in the dark, looking for a hidden treasure that he would compel to reveal itself. His voice was low and casual, and she could feel his smile, like the nurse swabbing your arm before slipping the needle. “I know it’s late.” His omniscience bloated the house. Through the eyelash size slats that grew lengthwise on her walls, his teeth glowed. Glass chewed through sheetrock. His point of view guided its trajectory. The moonlight poked through pea shaped holes emerging in the walls and she covered her ears but could still hear glass crack and wood hiss. The ceiling fragmented into ash that coated her hair, and pellets of sand and dust stung her shoulders. Although it was only a minute, it felt like hours, with every moment worse than the one before. His footsteps got louder, then paused, poised to find the spot marked X, when confetti red bombarded the house. The footsteps funneled down her hallway until a hush as thick as space consumed the house and he was gone.

 A police siren blared and Marris let out a long breath. Two paramedics lifted a rise of white cloth into an ambulance. A wake of trees toppled sideways like country cows sat parallel to a row of cars that had split like cake.

 Marris waited in the police station until morning, a coffee cup between her hands to warm her, and her eyes blanked out on a disposition report that said, please press hard, you’re making five copies.

奇妙な未来 

The koi pond reflected a levitating sand Shiva. His many hands all pointed to something just beyond Marris. The statue angered her, like most religious art, because it assumed there was beauty beyond what you could see and feel, and there was hardly even that.

 A nurse who kept apologizing for the wait said her name was Ophelia and led Marris down a maze of halls with twisting juniper and barred windows. She wasn’t sure if anyone was actually looking at her or the human shape in her place. She was about to turn and walk out when she found Lorne sitting in a wheel chair perched next to a sandbox. He stared at the sand and she stood beside him. His wrists were strapped to the chair and his hair looked like wrinkled seaweed. He smiled at her when she approached.

 “Oh,” he said and couldn’t have looked happier. “Marris, did you know some zircon sands are four billion years old?”

 “I’ll be right over there,” the nurse said and pointed at a bench that looked too small for a child. She pulled out a book and began to read. The walls were all pink wallpaper torn in the corners like someone got bored, and a stale odor made her grimace. She was convinced Lorne was faking it. She snapped near his ear when no nurses were looking, and a man who she thought was an orderly walked by her and hissed, “You’re not nice,” which seemed to be the worst insult she had ever heard at that moment.

 Two psychiatrists in long coats walked by and Marris smiled at them, and when her gaze shifted Lorne was staring right at her.

 “What’s going to happen to me?” he asked. Marris dug a hole in the sandbox, and Lorne looked pleased. She studied the room and waited until no one looked. She held her hand over the sand and within seconds it rearranged like she had never been there.

 “Our mother feeds us life,” Marris said, “so that we may in turn feed her with our death.” He looked up at her knowingly and smiled. 

 When the visit had ended, the nurse appeared. As she wheeled Lorne down the hall, he turned and asked, “Ophelia, did you know zircon sands are over four billion years old?”

 On her way back home, Marris realized how much of an invasion of privacy it seemed to have her psychology profile available for company viewing. She assumed it was something only supervisors and managers had access to, but she took it upon herself to look up Lorne’s profile, and sure enough, she could read his and anyone else’s. She didn’t want to nosey about in other people’s business, especially not in what had become a federal case, but she did read Lorne’s: patient fear of abandonment manifests in hyperlocution, which seemed an awfully condensed sentence for such a complex person. It didn’t make too much sense to her, but she felt responsible nonetheless. She also got it into her head that none of it would have happened the way it did if she had not been forced to talk to that idiot doctor.

 Her flight to Seattle was prepared, but before she left she felt it necessary to pay her therapist one last visit.

 “This visit is unnecessary, Marris,” Doctor Parnham explained. “The therapy was a mandate only for Barometrix employees.”

 It bothered Marris that she used the word unnecessary.

 “Oh,” Marris said. “I know. I just felt like I had made so much progress.”

 Doctor Parnham smiled, but the interest didn’t seem to go deeper, and Marris felt her face flatten and her fingers tighten.  

 “So,” and it reminded her of Lorne and irritated her all over again, “you are moving back to Seattle?” she asked.

 “Is it important to know that?” Marris asked and the Doctor smiled and shrugged lightly as if to say nothing was important, if you wanted it like that. 

 Marris looked outside, past her tacky pictures and into the sky beyond, where the clouds sat in the sky, fat and young.

 “Marris?”

 Doctor Parnham began to rub her eye. 

“Oh god,” she said and excused herself. She blinked rapidly and turned red-faced.

“I think,” her eye twitched shut and she flinched in discomfort, “I’ve got sand in my eye.”

  Marris had a window seat on the flight, and her favorite parts were when the plane lifted off and landed, and hovered just enough so she could see the patchwork of ground below and she could imagine what it looked like in ancient times, before anyone existed. She woke to a disaster film where someone said, “Your son wants to go into a helicopter and drop a bomb into a tornado,” and she laughed hard enough that the woman next to her laughed too.

[stormslullaby]

"you sure got a lot of nerve." from chuuya!

" so do you, little brother. "

he'd admire that fire a little more if it wasn't directed at him. the only other example he'd seen was dazai. as far as verlaine was concerned, the traitorous brat had it coming.

a beat of silence, distant pale eyes lifting from documents he hadn't come into possession of until recently; the ones that had been a bit more carefully hidden away. it's what he had kept himself busy with at times, alongside his poetry and training gin and kyouka. anything to fill the void for a while and keep his mind occupied.

" i highly doubt that you'd come and see me unprompted, " when he speaks up once more, it's barely above a whisper, that same smile plastered on his face. " so, tell me, why're you here ? "

@noctudreams

[stormslullaby]

one-liner starter call.

" fix your form and try again. " a firm tone, sharp eyes watching her.

@memoryextrction