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In the single ring of Galbar, a small creature moved.

It glowed brightly, and its light threw colourful patches of hue and shade between the river of drifting fragments. The floating stones were large, and some dangerously fast. They threatened the little animal to swirl and flap away, but though it veered to avoid danger where it could, it held on, doggedly, to a course that instinct alone bade it follow.

Diaphane's twelfth daughter came to her grandmother's call in a flurry of colour and light.

[i][color=9e0b0f]At last. Now we can begin.[/color][/i]

Jvan had poured great diligence into her latest gallery. A diverse collection, each item fashioned from the raw material with a different set of cuts. As the change-eater played in its shadows, the portal of Ovaedis stretched itself open and released, in a silent wheeze, the first patchy cloud of nocti.

The orbital factory swivelled, and released another clutch. The nocti scattered between the unhewn stones like autumn leaves, or the fry of fish. They were flattened things, in darkened colours ranging from the deepest mauve to near-black greys and blues, and they rippled like silk. The largest were as large as whales, and barely two inches thick.

The edge of each noctus was slightly broadened, and its interior plane was not continuous but open, crisscrossed with a veinous network of connections. Though restricted to two-dimensional shapes, the inner tissue of the nocti were nonetheless fabulously intricate. Some had parallel arrays of wide ribbons with the most meagre of slits between each vein. Others had only the wispiest of tendrils stretching like ancient cobwebs between the frame, too sparse to be easily visible. Yet more were stitched in concentric spirals and stars, tessellations and waves. In shape and habit, too, they were diverse. Most drifted freely above and between the rock, ribbons, discs, lobed splotches, while many were attached to the stone on one end or another, trailing into space, and many more still folded their flattened nets into the crevices of the stone itself, especially the smaller ones, the size of leaflets. Some even cemented themselves on the entirety of their circumference and let their interior veins billow out to the sun like a basket. Together they took taste of the sun, and grew rapidly, sponging energy from light, distilling matter from the darkness.

[i][color=9e0b0f]Lex lives once more.[/color][/i]

Ovaedis pivoted again at Jvan's bidding, and again it opened its yawning maw. The device released something like a viscous fluid splatter that rapidly broke up into globules and disintegrated.

And swimming free of that vibrant lime-green, sunset pink mess were the gaia. Such little things they were, the giants among them a few millimetres from point to point!

They spun and skittered, each gaian finding hold of empty space with difficulty. Together they migrated to the blooming noctus forest, and, finding purchase on the boulders, began to merrily consume one another along with the sooty, sessile growths that had preceded them.

The gaia were every bit as varied as the shadowy flowers of the nocti. They were like bubbles and films of some elastic liquid, drifting along in streams where there was no current, giving a faint tint to the emptiness. Most soon began to congeal into colonies of visible size, forming reefs on stone, spreading into stringy, sticky cords and membranes between the asteroids, releasing their grip to become free-floating, pollen-like spheroids. Many grew symbiotically upon the surface of the nocti, consuming what they shed, colonising the gaps between their veins. Some left deposits of solid matter as they grew, expanding the surface of the stone with layers of cronullations and pillars.

[i][color=9e0b0f]One more time.[/color][/i]

Jvan tilted Ovaedis in a now-familiar arc, and finally gave birth to the keystone of the noctus forest.

Neither cloud nor blob, this time, but a ragged solid tangle of bodies striving to separate, followed by another. Soon enough the clusters broke and scattered into the safety of the stone river.

Of the imago, what shall be said?

There are many ways to navigate microgravity, and the strategy chosen by each imagen dictated its overall form. 

Some blew themselves over the boulders on a fiery breath, taking for themselves every succulent noctus that floated beyond where other imago could reach. These conquered their own inertia by being small of body, and mounted their jets on flexible turrets to manoeuvre with ease. Their sensory stalks were many and keen.

Grounded cousins of theirs were no less nimble, and leapt about on coiled tails, launching themselves from rock to rock, every jump perfect lest they be lost into space to starve. These had many tendrils, barbed all, with which to latch on to their target and twist back, to leap once more.

The jumpers foraged upon the surface of the stones, seeking out those imago who spent their adult life reef-grazing on one rock. With nowhere to run, these small creatures fortified themselves, sprouting vicious coats of spines and toughened plates, flattening themselves close to their motherland with suction discs and sturdy limbs. These were joined by those creatures which lived slowly, becoming one with the reef they lived on, hosting nocti and gaia within their roots.

To the larger imago there was given the luxury of never having to risk the void at all. Their limbs, impossibly thin and flexible, branched hands and tentacles with which to simply unfurl and reach out to the next fragment, grab hold and drag forward. Such were the lords of the noctus forest, who hunted jetlets and leaps and clingers all, chasing down and consuming them.

And there lived with the others breeds which never touched the rock but rode on the solar winds, spreading nets and basking on billowed sails as smaller lives of every kind were caught up and consumed. 

These, and many others besides, were the imagen that claimed the noctus forest.

Claimed, but not ruled.

[i][color=9e0b0f]To your memory, Diaphane, I dedicate all this; And to your daughters, I pass it on.[/color][/i]

What grew between the bones of Lex was large and small, unimpeded by gravity or air pressure, but greatest of all would be the Diaphane dynasty. Here they joined their ilk, that which had never seen nor known life beneath the hooves of Slough. The noctus forest was a curious menagerie, stitched together from exotic particles and threads of vapour smaller than subatomic, patches and swatches woven from material cast aside by Time and reused now. Out of nothing, growth. Out of entropy, change.

Not Change, as such. Not enough to spur the wildfire growth and fertile brood of the first change eater. But it was something, and given time, there would be a community, a sisterhood, a warband.

All Jvan had to do was wait.

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...

Actually, no.

[color=9e0b0f][i]I've got plenty of irons in the fire! This one can warm up a while. Time for the tongs.[/i][/color]

In a blue atmosphere far below, where jungles sprawled and vines draped heavy over a folded grey landform from which carmine mists flowed at night, Jvan herself twizzled into being a small creature.

It was a softly coloured [url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Haeckel_Siphonophorae_59.jpg]thing[/url], in shades of pink and blue, with a velvety texture. Within its head were chords from which sound could be hummed, and from many pores on its body it emitted warm air to hold itself aloft, moving how it liked. The core of the messenger was small enough to fit into cupped hands, but it had a tail. A long, thin tendril, budded regularly with little bouquets of baby-blue organ buds.

From these it released a subtle and curious blend of aromas. Suffusions of all possible scents of flowers and fruit, and clean sea air and forest rain, of spices and cut grass. The combinations were never overwhelming, and alternated smoothly.

[color=9e0b0f][i]...At least until it's distressed. If I make it too palatable some Ashling's going to swallow it. Should be quick enough to escape much of anything, anyway.[/i][/color]

Jvan sent the new breed of messenger-angel on its way, twirling as it rocketed along, with a set of words. Stuttered words, unplanned feelings.

[color=9e0b0f]"Astarte!"

"I am Jvan, the flesh artist, and I think it's past time you and I spoke. I should apologise, anyway. You met me at an... Awkward time, and I wasn't feeling- Wasn't- Particularly well. Forgive me the embarrassing moment."

"But it's not too late to make up for a first impression! [sub](I mean. Hopeful.)[/sub] Join me in spirit, if you like, in the ring of Lex. There is a- A place there, a forest, a pleasure garden I've made to be alone in. I think I still need to be alone, for a while. Enough is enough."

"Later I'll go back to my plans. You might... I think you'll like them. A little secrecy, sabotage. Maybe just mayhem. We'll see."

"Do me a favour and don't tell Vest- Ah, damn him, nevermind. Just don't tell me if you [i]do[/i] tell Vestec. [sub](Sick of that griefing bastard!)[/sub] Uh."

"...If you choose to come, then. I'll see you."[/color]

The messenger sped off. This one, at least, was two-way, a high upgrade from the earlier species. Jvan wondered if what she'd said was worth listening to, and decided not to think too much about it.

Truth? Jvan didn't want to think about anything. She knew exactly why she was calling to Astarte, of all the divine caste. Why she was [i]copying[/i] her. [i][color=9e0b0f]It is so that I do not have to think of anything else.[/color][/i] So she could pretend, for a moment, that another force wasn't hard at work undoing everything her family had spent so long creating.

Undoing her family outright.

Bursting noise, harsh static. A rush of folding colours. Jvan groaned, the entire mountain-body releasing a subaudible splat of sound that hid the anxiety. Her [i]family[/i], damn him. [color=9e0b0f][i]Slough Rottenbone is my [/i]sister.[/color]

And Jvan would rather not look back at the imprisonment, though she knew she should, and would. And did.

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A second messenger left orbit, its protective casing disintegrating in the atmosphere to release the flier within.

It landed in an empty place where it had expected to find a tomb. A moment of motionless anticipation before it followed the scent of a deity. Its mobility was not exceptional, but, drawing near, something larger, deeper, and purposeful drove the pawn to increase its speed, beyond, perhaps, what it could handle. Sensory tendrils stretched and writhed, releasing the smell of bitter lungs exhausted by fear. Whatever mind had sent the construct was on high alert. Was horribly trepidatious.

Bobbing in air, it slowed behind the trail of footprints extending from the walking wood. Waited, in a miasma now of rising emotion, a smell like new sweat on an athlete's brow. Rushed forwards, spinning around the prison reformed, the defiance from inside the shell where something, [i]something[/i] had refused to come quietly, [i]something[/i] still glowed strange and lively from within. Drawing back again.

The silent messenger followed its quarry at a distance, the first flagbearer behind the leader of a rebellious parade. And far and wide it cast a faint aroma like old paper, like fresh bread, like dry leaves burning, to which were drawn the followers, the witnesses.

Hain abandoned their village and roamed after their god. An Urtelem matriarch guided her herd out of their way. Air spirits gusted around it. A far-wandering troll narrowed her gaze and muscled her way towards the weird-wood.

They fell behind and were left behind, and had to camp at night while the walker moved on, none of them bold enough to come forth and touch her side. They came and went, seeing the Rottenbone shackled and still free, following, they knew not why, in footprints on the unmarked path of God.

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[colour=Ivory][i]What do I remember? Hmm. Good question. Ha! You caught me out on that one.[/i][/colour]

[colour=AliceBlue][i]Well, I remember blue. I think that's my first memory. There was a lot of blue, really, a light bold glowing blue that kind of shone in the sun. And it was thick. It was very strange, like nothing I've ever felt again. The space itself felt, kinda, viscous. It had a taste, a really thin bland kind of taste. Like there was something in it, something blue that was[/i] filling [i]it that you had to push past to move. It wasn't like space at all, actually. It burned.[/i][/colour]

[colour=Mistyrose][i]I was moving fast. Oh God, I was moving so fast, through the blue. Hey! That must've been why it felt so bad! If I was actually moving [/i]through[i] something, then no wonder it burned! Why didn't it hurt more, though? It wasn't like hitting a Rock. Heh, I don't know. Can't help you. Sorry![/i][/colour]

[colour=Honeydew][i]There were other things, too, that I don't really remember. Colours moving fast. A voice, rippling through the blue stuff, kind of distorted, but no words. I left it behind as I moved. All of it- The blue, the glow, the voice, the colour. From then on, my memories are always around Lex, in the space.[/i][/colour]

[colour=GhostWhite][i]Now that I think about it, I know where that glow is. I see it all the time. It's that sheen that covers Galbar like a mist, only perfectly even, all around.[/i][/colour]

[colour=MintCream][i]Does that mean I come from Galbar? Huh. That's... Weird. I've always thought about it as the big unknown, that viridian-navy-tan-alabaster sphere that Lex life spins around. I see it, but it's way too far away to taste. That I might've actually[/i] been [i] there, let alone [/i] come from [i]there... Wow.[/i][/colour]

[colour=LavenderBlush][i]...Anyway! I remember what happened after that, really well actually. I remember being curled up inside myself like a ball, so tight that I had to break myself out, like how leapers hatch from their eggs. I'm pretty sure I [/i]was[i] an egg, though one without a shell. I could hear Big Grandma calling to me, so I went to her. Oh, you, you have no idea. You just have [/i]no idea[i] how exciting that was, moving around for the first time, tasting dust for the first time. Every Rock felt so huge back then![/i][/colour]

[colour=AliceBlue][i]I couldn't really orientate myself freely back then either. I kept thinking in planes, like 'up' was always up, so if you turned then 'up' was 'down'. Heh. Yeah, I guess I was dumb.
[/i][/colour]

[colour=Honeydew][i]After that I can remember everything. I remember seeing the whole forest coming out of Big Grandma, the nocti and the imago and everything. I remember learning how to feast, really feast on what I can hunt, and growing, and exploring what it all was and how it all worked. It's all pretty normal from then on.[/i][/colour]

[colour=Ivory][i]And now I see that little speck in the distance. It was glowing, back when it was in sunlight, and now that it's eclipse and everything's in Galbar's shadow it's dark again.[/i][/colour]

[colour=MistyRose][i]I can still see it, though. Clear as light.[/i][/colour]

[colour=GhostWhite][i]I can hear it. I can hear her. She's my sister and I can hear her. She's coming to me from Galbar.[/i][/colour]

[colour=LavenderBlush][i]She can tell me everything. She can tell me what the white swirls are and the difference between the shiny navy spaces and the matte green spaces and the gleaming caps that only grow in the shade.[/i][/colour]

[colour=MintCream][i]She can come and tell me stories, and we can tell those stories to my daughters together when they hatch. Together we'll start a sorority, a sisterhood of just Diaphanes like us, the biggest pack of hunters that Lex has ever seen.[/i][/colour]

[colour=AliceBlue][i]Then we'll go back to Galbar and we'll eat it all. We'll eat it all up.[/i][/colour]

[colour=Ivory][i]Together.[/i][/colour]

[hider=I wrote most of this with my phone on a train don't judge me]Diaphane's child makes her way through Galbar's ring, the remains of the moon Lex, towards Ovaedis.

Jvan spends 1 Might each to create three kingdoms of Other life that form a fully fledged ecosystem in the ring: The Noctus, Gaian and Imagen kingdoms.

Nocti are autotrophs that form a rough approximation of the role of algae or trees in Lex. They absorb sunlight, solar wind, and other forms of radiation in order to grow, either free-floating in Lex orbit or attached to a meteoroid. They are matte planar structures, though they can fold, and can grow very large.

Gaia are heterotrophs (mostly? There's exceptions to all of these) that fill a kind of 'fungal' niche. They consume and metabolise matter from the other two kingdoms, forming products that makes them invaluable symbionts as well as decomposing dead material. Most are microscopic, but they are colourful enough to tint space where they bloom, and some leave solid precipitate that is instrumental in reef formation on and around the meteoroids, contributing significantly to the increased concentration of large particles within the ring system.

Imago are animal-like organisms, though some are sessile reef builders or symbionts that contain nocti inside of them. They come in many shapes and sizes and may eat one another or life from the other two kingdoms.

Everything in the ecosystem is Jvanic, though its constituent chemicals may be mostly or partially non-exotic matter. Much of it can, to greater or lesser extent, violate Galbar's physics with regards to the conservation of mass and energy.

Jvan then tries to escape her anxiety over all the bad stuff happening in the world by Facebook-messaging Astarte and asking her to come over to Lex. We've all been there.

She does stop procrastinating long enough to send a messenging-angel to Slough. She seems pleased that Slough is back on her feet again, though still encased, and expends one free point to call nearby mortals using pheromones to follow and observe Slough's pilgrimage.

Then there's a section about one of Diaphane's unnamed kids that nothing really happens in other than characterisation.

[b]2 Might Ambient
1 Might Stored in Ovaedis
3 Free Points
Level Four[/b]
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