#Taox

[thefirstknife]

Any thoughts on Taox showing up in the game? The siblings, as far as we know, never found her.

At this point with The Final Shape being such a wild concept for a location, as well as Darkness being tied to memory, history and emotions... It might be possible for anyone to appear as some sort of phantom, memory, nightmare, simulation or something similar.

I don't personally think it's really something that needs to happen. The most likely fate of Taox is that she died a long time ago. Even with evading the siblings, the civilisation she hid with got entirely destroyed: she either died without the siblings even noticing or if she tried to flee, she went somewhere else to hide and died in obscurity. She may have even fled again in some sort of cryo, but there would be no way to find her at this point or to know if she'd still be alive in there.

That's just the most likely scenario overall, but we simply don't know if there could possibly be any plans to give the siblings a closure on Taox. It's definitely not something that really needs to be fully explained so it's not super likely, but it all depends on how many details they want to bring a closure to explicitly.

[flowers-of-io]

Oh boy I had a dream about Taox and Savathûn and it was so fucking delicious, like fr FIC MATERIAL, something about Savathûn's own dream where she captures Taox and Taox calls her out on all that she's done, and Sav crushes her hand when Taox reaches out to touch her face

[xivu-arath]

(Taox knows moons, knows tides, as any engineer who has dealt with the Fundament’s waves knows them, and it is difficult to trust something so vast, with so little presence.)

“You have nothing to fear here,” Chroma-Admiral Rafriit says, curling his arms in a gesture Taox takes to be reassurance. “Even if these Deep-blighted find a ship, only a fraction of them can leave the planet. You are safe from their hunt, and they will be swept away. This I vow.” He wields authority with grace and ease, and Taox cannot help but look at him with bitter envy for it.

There is much to envy about the Ammonite. Their moon glitters with ships coming and going, resonates with the deep hum of distant engines, greater than any she could have dreamt up. It is barely a day since the final ships capable of flight were destroyed on her orders, and the thought of what could have been if – if not for the king’s madness, if not for the court’s withering, if not for the worms, if, if, if – it bleeds like an open wound.

Anyone left on the Fundament is twice doomed, once by the syzygy and once by her hand.

She will bear this weight for every long year of her life, though now she doubts she will live much longer at all, whatever Rafriit’s assurances, or the Ammonite’s faith in the knowledge the strange, weightless moon overhead has granted them. (Taox knows moons, knows tides, as any engineer who has dealt with the Fundament’s waves knows them, and it is difficult to trust something so vast, with so little presence.)

“I hope that you are right, Chroma-Admiral,” she says, as graciously as she can manage. He abandons her after that for more pressing duties than the care of a single krill.

Perhaps it is insight, granted after long years of struggle, that has her ask for a ship long before the Leviathan breaches out of the Fundament, and its hunters – she glimpses them from orbit, uncoiling from the planet with sinuous and hungry grace – follow.

But Taox rather thinks it is fear.

[eri-223]

The Osmium king used to watch the flocks.

He would stand on the prow of the city and pronounce, and Taox, among the courtiers and wage-workers, would follow the line of his gaze to the flapping wings and needle spikes. The birds would flock to the line between the ocean and the rainclouds, and then the words would come, not sweet nor cruel, but measured, difficult in their simplicity. The Osmium king would often speak by moonlight, and so the birds would return to their far shores overhead.

After he discovered the familiar ... well, Taox rarely saw it. She couldn't have said what it would have looked like against the horizon. She only saw that the king's eyes now looked down.

[savyir-genesizz-the-wizard]

Marc is the husband of Devrim Kay and a former guardian of Suraya Hawthorne. Just read the Rain of Fire's lore.

Taox was a Krill who once tutored the Osmium King's three daughters, Xi Ro, Sathona, and Aurash. Look, there is a lot to tell. In short

[synnthamonsugar]

taox for the blorbo meme c:

The Books of Sorrow and all of Destiny lore, in fact, would be so much shorter if Taox had had a gun.

From her POV, I understand why she was pro-Osmium-king-and-kin-icide; but the true good end would have been if she'd kept control of the Court (and kids) long enough for the Traveler to step in and grant them the Light. :(

I know she probably died in stasis like ten billion years ago but with everyone and their mother coming out of the woodwork suddenly (The Witness, Rhulk, Nezarec, etc.) I would LOVE to find out she survived and actually have her be plot relevant. How would she react to knowing it was all a set up, and that her student had finally secured her freedom after a lifetime of subjugation?

[newattitude]

Aii & Ego's - Loa - Aleutia - Tattoo Taox - XX par ✰ ​​​​​​​​Pтιтɴoυrѕ Alтer ✰ Via Flickr : ✰ Credit ✰ 

  Aii + {egosumaii} - + Serenity Hair + 

  [Aleutia] - Dima Top & Shorts - Uber 

  Taox Tattoo - Akiyiki Yori 

  :::Loa:: - Emily Set LeLutka EVO X 

  xx - Ziptight Arms / Maze 

  xx - Ziptight Garters / Maze Soft Thighs 

 NEW ATTITUDE ● New Attitude Blog ● Twitter ● Tumblr ● Pinterest ● Instagram ● Flickr ● Facebook

[carleybenazzi-blog-blog]

11.01 by carley benazzi Via Flickr: Blog Instagram Poison Rouge - Annis hat UNORTHODOX- Volume hair KUTU Lenny nose ornament Taox Tattoo - Neck demonium Dernier - Yonce catsuit

[studioneiro]

gold digger by Wiwi Geddins-Swot Via Flickr: OR (Optmus Race) FF32 V8 HOTROD Tres Blah - Quill Mini Skirt @ Fameshed Tres Blah - Puff Sleeve Top @ Fameshed TAOX TATTOO - CHEST FOREVER YOUNG LYBRA :: GOLD DIGGER maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/True%20Love/114/107/21 studiOneiro: Joys Bento Poses

[soft-jihoonie]

#Whipped - Chapter One

TaoTao: Does anyone wanna help me with this essay i’m stuck on?

Read by 11 people

TaoTao: Y’all can go suck a dick

Jongdae’s hoe: gladly

-----

Chanyeol is obvious, Kyungsoo is oblivious and no one says no to Yixing.

Chanyeol x Kyungsoo | Jongdae x Baekhyun | Sehun x Jongin | Minseok x Luhan | Yixing x Tao | Kris x Junmyeon - chatroom style fic - 1.3k words

Disclaimer: this fic was started prior to Yifan’s arrest and I do not support him in any way. Any further chapters including him merely write him as a character for continuity

The members chat names are:

TaoTao: Tao

Dog lord: Kai/Jongin

No.1 Vivi supporter: Sehun

Lu: Luhan

Kyungsoo: D.O/Kyungsoo

Kris: Kris/Yifan

Myeonie: Suho/Junmyeon

XingXing: Lay/Yixing

Jongdae's hoe: Baekhyun

Baekhyun's hoe: Chen/Jongdae

Yeol: Chanyeol

Hot dad: Xiumin/Minseok

Chatroom: Fuck This

TaoTao: Do you guys ever think about how many toes there are in the world?

Kyungsoo: I hate this chat and everyone in it.

Lu: ^

Hot dad: ^^

Yeol: but not me right soo?

Kyungsoo: Especially you.

Jongdae’s hoe: and that kids is the sound of all of Chanyeol’s hope dying

Yeol: soos just joking!! i know that

Kyungsoo: Do you guys ever think about how much quieter life would be without Chanyeol around?

Yeol: but i love you soooooo

Kyungsoo: That’s nice.

No.1 Vivi supporter: Why did no one tell me savage Kyungsoo hyung was out?? You hoes would really let me miss that??

Myeonie: Sehun! Language!

No.1 Vivi supporter: But hyung you know you’re my favourite hoe?

Myeonie: Awhh Sehun

Baekhyun’s hoe: and here comes Jongin in 3

Jongdae’s hoe: 2

Baekhyun’s hoe: 1

Dog lord: Sehunnie I thought I was your favourite hoe?

Hot dad: I can’t believe that works every time

No.1 Vivi supporter: I -

No.1 Vivi supporter: Shit u right, sorry not sorry Junmyeon hyung

Dog Lord: ^-^

Yeol: #whipped

Kris: you can hardly talk Chanyeol

Kris: and babe you’re my favourite hoe

Myeonie: I would hope so if you want to get any tonight

TaoTao: I would like to delete that image from my brain

Lu: But then your brain would be empty

TaoTao: @Hot dad Your boyfriend is being mean

Hot dad: Last I checked, there’s nothing mean about telling the truth

TaoTao: Xiiiinnnnggg

XingXing: Come on guys, leave poor TaoTao alone

TaoTao: Luv u XingXing

No.1 Vivi supporter: Suck up

XingXing: What was that Sehun?

No.1 Vivi supporter: Nothing Yixing hyung!! I was just saying how hot you looked today

XingXing: Thank you Sehunnie ^-^

Dog lord: “Sehunnie” ??????

Lu: Uh oh

Dog lord: “S e h u n n i e” ?????

Myeonie: Okay kids, don’t you think it’s about time you get on with uni work?

Kris: you know they’re not actually our kids, right?

Myeonie: W u Y i f a n

Kris: okay kids, listen to your mother

Yeol: #whipped

Kyungsoo: Shut up Chanyeol.

Yeol: anything for u soo

Jongdae’s hoe: i’m gonna puke

Baekhyun’s hoe: don’t worry babe, i’ll hold your hair

No.1 Vivi supporter: Do you think chanyeol realises how obvious he is?

Kyungsoo: Obvious about what?

Dog lord: .....

Jongdae’s hoe: .......

Baekhyun’s hoe: .........

No.1 Vivi supporter: I give up

TaoTao: Does anyone wanna help me with this essay i’m stuck on?

Read by 11 people

TaoTao: Y’all can go suck a dick

Jongdae’s hoe: gladly

Chatroom: Fuck This

Yeol: @Kyungsoo can u come to the studio to record vocals?

Kyungsoo: Why?

Yeol: youd sound so good on the song we are writing

Kyungsoo: You think I have the time for that?

XingXing: Come on Kyungsoo, your voice is perfect for this song!!

Kyungsoo: Alright then, i’ll be there in 10 minutes hyung.

XingXing: Yay!!

No.1 Vivi supporter: @Yeol Ouch you okay hyung?

Yeol: never been better hahahaha

Yeol: hahaha

Yeol: ha

Yeol: i have to get back to the studio bye guys

Lu: Great, you broke Chanyeol

Chatroom: The Hoes™

Yeol: hahahaha dont you love being rejected by ur crush

Baekhyun’s hoe: oh boy, here we go

Jongdae’s hoe: dude he’s still coming to the studio

Yeol: BUT HE NEVER DOES THINGS WHEN I ASK!!!!!

Baekhyun’s hoe: okay but no one says no to Yixing hyung

Jongdae’s hoe: yeh it’s the rules

Yeol: maybe ur right i mean he wouldve said no too if jongdae was the one asking

Baekhyun’s hoe: I am offended

Jongdae’s hoe: woah babe, a capital “I”? calm down

Baekhyun’s hoe: i’m chill i’m chill

Yeol: asdfghjkfhfsfnlkjgoerhgerlrgndkfsm

Jongdae’s hoe: you okay there hoe no.3?

Yeol: whydoeshehavesuchaperfectsingingvoiceplsENDME

Baekhyun’s hoe: you need me to come to the studio for moral support?

Yeol: p l e a s e

Baekhyun’s hoe: i’ll be there in 5 mins

Yeol: jongdae ur my best friend ily

Jongdae’s hoe: uhm bitch i’m right here

Yeol: srry dae ur my best friend after baek

Jongdae’s hoe: too late bitch go choke on Kyungsoo’s dick

Yeol: dtfyguhijonfwpmdksuwuohgfiejhfuck

Baekhyun’s hoe: do i need to call an ambulance?

Yeol: i choked on my drink bc of baeks text and soo started patting my back HE TOUCHED ME GUYS

Jongdae’s hoe: why am i friends with you

Baekhyun’s hoe: i’m at the studio, Chanyeol looks like he’s dying and Yixing hyung is v concerned

Jongdae’s hoe: don’t care let the hoe suffer

Baekhyun’s hoe: this is why i’m the nice friend Baek

Jongdae’s hoe: it’s more fun being a bitch Dae

Yeol: j o n g d a e

Baekhyun’s hoe: gotta go, the hoe is struggling

Jongdae’s hoe: Jongdae: i’m the nice friend

Jongdae’s hoe: Jongdae 2 secs later: calls Chanyeol “the hoe”

Chatroom: Fuck This

Hot dad: Why do Monday’s drag so much? Work seemed to last forever today

XingXing: Tell me about it, Yeol and I spent hours in the studio today

XingXing: It’s 8pm and I only just got home

No.1 Vivi supporter: Yeah Chanyeol hyung only got home 10 minutes ago and went straight to his room

Lu: Speaking of, Chanyeol hasn’t said anything here since Kyungsoo rejected him

Kyungsoo: I didn’t reject him, I still went to the studio.

Lu: Because Yixing asked

Kyungsoo: You don’t say no to Yixing hyung.

Jongdae’s hoe: it’s the rules

Baekhyun’s hoe: where did these rules come from?

Hot dad: Junmyeon probably

Lu: Junmyeon

Kris: Myeonie

TaoTao: Probably our literal mum Junmyeon hyung

Myeonie: YES OKAY WE GET IT

Kyungsoo: Luhan hyung is right though, Chanyeol’s never this quiet.

Jongdae’s hoe: .......

Baekhyun’s hoe: ...........

Yeol: @No.1 Vivi supporter pls come to my room

Kris: is anyone surprised anymore that Chanyeol shows up as soon as Kyungsoo mentions him?

Yeol: oh hey soo didnt notice you there

TaoTao: I call bullshit

Kyungsoo: What do you mean Tao?

TaoTao: I.....

TaoTao: @Yeol What do you need Sehun for?

No.1 Vivi supporter: Yeah we literally live in the same house, come to my room hyung

Dog lord: is that a good idea?

Yeol: what if i cant leave my room and you clearly have headphones in so i have to message you here

No.1 Vivi supporter: .... You got stuck under your bed again didn’t you?

Yeol: maybe...

Myeonie: Again? This has happened before?

No.1 Vivi supporter: Sigh i’m coming now hyung

Baekhyun’s hoe: Sehun is done on a whole new level

Yeol: ur the best dongsaeng!!!

Kyungsoo: Idiot.

Yeol: soooooo dont be mean

Yeol: comfort me in these hard times

Kyungsoo: Oh, would you look at the time, I have to go.

TaoTao: Every day I lose more and more faith in Chansoo being real

Kris: ^

Lu: ^^

Dog lord: ^^^

Jongdae’s hoe: sorry Chanyeol but ^^^^

Chatroom: Hot dad + Kyungsoo

Kyungsoo: HE GOT STUCK UNDER THE BED.

Kyungsoo: AGAIN.

Kyungsoo: WHAT A DORK.

Kyungsoo: I WANT TO PROTECT HIM.

Hot dad: Y’know, instead of just yelling to me every time he does something you apparently find cute, you could just be nice and stop pretending you can’t stand him?

Kyungsoo: Sounds like hard work.

Hot dad: Lord knows I need at least a bottle of wine to deal with this...

Hot dad: Okay but y’know maybe he’d realise your feelings then?

Kyungsoo: That’s exactly why I act the way I do hyung

Hot dad: But Kyungsoo if he knows your feeling then you could maybe idk, act like normal people and date?

Kyungsoo: But Chanyeol doesn’t have feelings for me?

Hot dad: Breathe Minseok breathe

Kyungsoo: ?

Hot dad: Sigh whatever go back to telling me about your dork

Kyungsoo: Well considering you asked.

Kyungsoo: HE’S SO CUTE. HE’S SO TALL BUT HE ACTS SO SMOL THAT HE PROBABLY FORGETS HOW TALL HE IS SOMETIMES.

Kyungsoo: HOW MANY TIMES HAS HE GOTTEN STUCK UNDER HIS BED? THAT’S ADORABLE, HE’S ADORABLE.

Chatroom: The Gays

Hot dad: Babe I need like a bottle of wine right now

Hot dad: Oh god he’s gushing about Chanyeol’s ears now

Hot dad: Make it two bottles

Lu: Babe it’s Monday night, you have work tomorrow

Hot dad: Did I fucking stutter?

Lu: I’m about to head home, i’ll pick some up on the way

Hot dad: I love you

Lu: I love you too baby

Hot dad: Buy me the good wine and i’ll suck your dick later

Lu: 2BOTTLESOFGOODWINECOMINGUP

Divider is from this post

[galacticdrift]

okay, "Ahsa" is a LITTLE too close to "OXA" for me to think it's a genuine coincidence/accidental similarity in naming, especially given how prominent Maya "MSund12" Sundaresh also is throughout this year's content thus far.

the lore consistently refers to OXA as a "machine," but also as something kinda messed up and janky and "mad." I think it's not beyond the realm of possibility that either the "OXA Machine" somehow crucially featured Ahsa the creature, or that perhaps Ahsa encountered the machine on her travels and integrated it within herself, or developed from it somehow.

[flowers-of-io]

When Taox writes "And if I fail, let the Leviathan in the deep eat me" in chapter 2. vs. when Oryx writes "If I fail, let me be wormfood" in chapter 50.

[xivu-arath]

at this point I am just loading up excerpts and shooting them at @eri-223's head

here is all I have written for a taox backstory

Taox hatches into a world filled with problems. Her continent is a small one, defences half-built and buildings rain-worn, and when she is done squalling and crying and pushing her siblings for more room, she wonders at what can be done.

“Nothing,” her mother tells her, third eye half-closed in thought. Or perhaps in sorrow, already guessing at how many of her children will survive their first year.

When she is one year old, claws less clumsy and a well-known hoarder of useful things, Taox is tithed to the Osmium Court along with nineteen others. Raiders beset her home, and with only one mother and aging knights for protection, they take what they want – food and weapons and most terribly, newly hatched broods. So when it drifts close enough to the larger continent – and much larger, with graceful swooping lines of its buildings, wide-cast nets heavy with promise, well-ordered arrays of knights – it offers their young in return for protection and bolstering.

It is a neat bargain, the immediate future exchanged for the chance of one lifetimes ahead. Taox does not mind leaving, because the Osmium Court has many more builders and mechanics and engineers, and she follows the ones who do not chase her off or threaten to toss her into the waves.

[simplyanafied]

Skin Fair 2023

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[speaker-of-the-void-cats]

Seeing the murals above the Veil enclosure

These murals are loaded with meaning. My feeling's been that they represent the Veil in many ways. For one, we have the duality of Light and Dark, not opposites, not the same, but a dyad, essential to each other, joined by the thinnest of lines. We see this in the middle mural where people hold the pillars up, separating above from below, Heaven from Hell.

Cousin Asher, you would find the concept of vacuum welding upsetting—press two sheets of metal together in void, and their atoms cannot tell which sheet they belong to. They cross freely. The two become one.

We see this again in Avalon, a side that looks like Egregore and a side that looks like the Tree of Silver Wings. A pillar sits behind. A sun hangs above. It is impossibly white.

It makes me think of the blight in the Nokris fight in Arrivals and in the battleground this season. It looks like a sun. It looks like it's been Taken.

Turn the Veil vertically like in the Ishtar Facility and what do you get?

A chalice holding the souls of all who have gone before. It rests in an unfamiliar place, a place it does not call home.

An hourglass of Light|Dark, ticking away time, life, death, until nothing.

Only two others have transcended their design. The first, an hourglass counting down with infinite patience. The second, a forgotten blade sharpened anew. And now, the Dredgen. Visit us again. We wish for you to understand what we understand. For now, it is my purpose to speak to you and you alone… but only if you remain worthy.

A pillar holding all the universe within itself, but also keeping it woven together, held aloft by those who struggle in the realm between life and death, god and man, here and beyond.

What happens if that pillar crumbles?

There's been a lot of invocation of Unveiling, the Garden, and implications that there's a bigger picture we're missing lately. We heard from the Veil's artist that it is represents "the mind and memory of the universe."

Truth to Power talks of black hole super computers and the idea of the data of all life being archived, of how

YOU MUST CAST ALL THE LIFE YOU CHERISH INTO A BLACK HOLE.

We've seen "black box" archives for destroyed civilizations discussed all over.

WHO|WHAT|WHERE IS OXA|TAOX

U. "Black holes are the densest possible computers in the physical universe. They are also the most secure, since they can be made to retain their information until they evaporate in the deep cosmic future. The Hive operate small singularity computers, such as the World's Grave, and the Vex sometimes pack enough energy and information into a small area of spacetime to collapse it into kugelblitz black hole like the one you can see outside. But a true stellar-mass or galactic-mass black hole computer is inconceivably more powerful.

"If Savathûn plans to predicate her existence on the concealment of her secrets, as Oryx predicated his upon the sword logic, it would be logical for her to safeguard her deepest secrets and her throne world in a supermassive black hole computer. To defeat her would require a journey below the event horizon and the exposure of her most jealously guarded truths." GOTO R.

Z. You leap from the Tower and escape Quria's simulation.

What is that purple and pink kaleidescopic energy in the dark, egregore goblet of the Veil? When Ghost links to the Veil, that energy seems to be what rockets to the Traveler and pierces it, allowing the Witness to part the curtains of reality and enter somewhere above and beyond us.

And then Nezarec, Master of the Void is freed. Wardcliffe Coil's lore refers to the Void as the basement of the universe. Inanna/Ishtar is thought of by Savathun in reference to the Veil and Neomuna, which Osiris hears as well. He then speaks of myths of the underworld. Katabasis. Hades. Hell. Perdition. The inferno. The Abyss.

O: [sips tea] Though my senses were darkened, that much was clear through the murk of her throne world. There was a secret she kept veiled, even to the last.

O: [sighs] I do not fully understand what I saw, and for a Human to understand a Hive mind... How many legends of katabasis do we have, Ikora?

I: We currently have dozens of stories about descending to the realms of the dead, though research has indicated many more must have existed, lost in the layers of Human history we will never lay eyes on. Mathematically, there were likely hundreds.

I: [pauses] Inanna and Dumuzid and Geshtinanna, Orpheus and Eurydice, Izanagi and Izanami, to name a few. Gods and goddesses, mortal and immortal lovers, always seeking to descend and return with the lost.

O: And neither the lost nor those who searched for them were ever returned the same.

I:...Is that how you think of yourself?

O: [scoffs] Do I sound that dire? All Guardians, all Lightbearers have done as much. But others, well... I wonder, do our former enemies have similar stories...

I: What exactly are you getting at?

O: Frequently, the underworld—or those realms beyond mortal existence—possess wisdom the living do not. What then, is knowledge from a dead Hive god vested in deception.... [long pause]

I: So. Neptune, and secrets.

O:...Inanna...

I: What is it?

O:...A thought. An echo of one. The return from the underworld, and Inanna cast off her veil... It makes sense. I did not understand, when I first felt clutching whispers. Carrying wisdom away from Kur when she strode into the sunlight again.

Ishtar entered the underworld and faced seven gates. At each gate she was stripped of clothing until she entered into that place naked and alone.

If you do not open the gate for me to come in, I shall smash the door and shatter the bolt, I shall smash the doorpost and overturn the doors, I shall raise up the dead and they shall eat the living: And the dead shall outnumber the living!

She is killed. After three days in death, she is rescued by two beings sent by one of the gods

From Wikipedia:

After Ishtar descends to the underworld, all sexual activity ceases on earth. The god Papsukkal, the Akkadian counterpart to Ninshubur, reports the situation to Ea, the god of wisdom and culture. Ea creates an androgynous being called Asu-shu-namir and sends them to Ereshkigal, telling them to invoke "the name of the great gods" against her and to ask for the bag containing the waters of life. Ereshkigal becomes enraged when she hears Asu-shu-namir's demand, but she is forced to give them the water of life. Asu-shu-namir sprinkles Ishtar with this water, reviving her. Then, Ishtar passes back through the seven gates, receiving one article of clothing back at each gate, and exiting the final gate fully clothed.

Eliksni servitors contain a record of their people, archives of those who have entered into death before the living. They are built in the image of the Traveler, a great machine with an unknown purpose, but which has exhibited a drive to protect and preserve life, all life, whether we understand its actions as such or not. It has shown, time and time again, a willingness to throw itself in front of the blade, for us. Its neutronium shell is heavy, dense beyond imagining. It's movements do not come without great effort and intent.

I believe the Witness has, in linking Ghost to the Veil, created a union of two types of records of civilization. One, the record of death, the other, the record of life. The Witness has entered into the Void, the afterlife, underworld, basement, and end of the universe, in order to face the greater gods. Or maybe, to unleash them...

Things I saw inside A wild river and a broken dam (or maybe it's just the sea crashing through a narrow gap I can't be sure). Waves slam through the gap and where they hit the stone they throw up pillars of spray that pierce the mist and crash down in thunder. There's a giant in the cataract, trying to wade against the current, and I can tell it wants to reach the lever and pull the lever which will seal off the flow or maybe give it the sword, but the torrent throws it back so it just keeps its head down and tries to push on. I can't see the face but it breathes out white smoke. I feel for it hard. A world painted around the interior like a stranger Earth everted and glued inside itself but I don't believe this one it's too much like a metaphor. A switchboard or a train station, empty, dead (waiting). The tunnels branch off into infinity. I stare down one for a long time and see a pale worm move in hungry coils around itself. I think this one is the most likely although I might have brought the worm. An egg but I'm not sure if the broth inside is warm still, or if it's gone to rot, or if the warmth comes from the struggles of the tiny winged zygote or the bleed from the wound or the thoughts of something thinking very hard. A star I think. We count on stars as steady friends because they always rise and always shine but a star's a delicate truce: an explosion caught by its own mass so that it can't erupt and can't collapse. Thus I imagine the state of the machine might be. But one force or another has gone awry and now it rests here, snuffed and broken, waiting for the two rival forms of ruin to be set in balance again.

Ghost Fragment: Mysteries 2 — Ingress via dreams alone

[eri-223]

Destiny 2: eulogy

To my lustrous colleague, As far as Sathona is concerned, you are a “devil.” We did not quite have that word, when we were hatchlings. But we would have seen you as a malicious person from beyond what we knew of reality itself. We would have seen you as an outside context problem. We might have seen you as pre-emptively post-apocalyptic, coming as you did from long after the Helium Drinkers might have slaughtered our family and our vassals, long after the Syzygy. We would not have been able to recognize what you are. 

As far as my newly-morphed self would have seen you … well, you would have been a conquest. What a game we would be playing now if the Hive fleet had fetched up on Lubrae before either the Traveler or the Witness did! Would you have harbored Taox, like the Ammonite did? Would the Deep have made the Hive and the Lubrean marauders fight, or would it have recognized something ironic in this altered map of the war? Ah, well. That’s all just play-pretend.

As far as today … well. As far as I know here, now, twice-dead at least and still alive … the Deep had pretty words. It took me too long to realize they were also stupid. 

Actually, I take back my supposition. It’s flattery to call you a devil. My siblings and I, when we were two, would have thought you were some sort of common fisherfolk from the Bone Plaza.

You should have tolerated your home long enough to have some place left to slink back to. I’d have hated you from birth, fellow stooge. If the universe ever forgets you, I’ll remind it. Someone must be a cautionary tale, after all. 

Best regards, Savathun 

for @februaryficletchallenge. the prompt is "yesterday/today/tomorrow." this is a negative-first draft; in fact I am actively playing gambit as I edit this story.

despite this story, I do actually ship them