Antarctic Termite

all the world is out of your hands / then ascending into the dark

The air screamed with winds grinding against one another.

Rocks tore through the sky. In total darkness, the ash fused and shattered, becoming shapes unseen anywhere on land, let alone so high above the waters.

Something flew through the towers of smoke.

Ducking between falling ghost-shapes of basalt, over and around the space-tearing needle rain, between the great anvils of airborne stone, it settled in the corner that had been made for it.

"With the scales and sword of Amul'sharar as my witness and yours, swear this: That you shall accept this gift that I grant you, and while it stands never work mischief against me, or against mine."

"Agreed," said Phi without listening, and reclined on her shadowed throne.

The ash began to fall.

Somewhere over the Metatic Ocean, a grand shape was cast down from the cloud, billowing with smoke. It hit the sea with a momentous splash and sent white pillars into the air.

When the sky cleared up months later, it rose again.

...

See you not the power of your souls, that even gods should grant concession?

See you not the truth of my words?

I shall find you in your shelters. I shall find you in the caves.

I shall find you in the dark places it was foretold you would go, and together we shall rise into Metera, the city of the sky.

* * *

all the world is out of your hands / then ascending into the dark

* * *

The cackling carmine streak flew on. At its back gazed the night, and at its face shone the sun.

It was headed for a certain star.

The morning star, so it was called- Revered by some traditions as the lady Elysium, by others as the Sun's lost twin, by yet more as a way to mark the centuries, or the spirit of a king.

It was a planet, and it was growing closer.

Night sky turned to red. Collision was mere moments away. The voidborne blur began to smile.

" B A H A H A H A H A ! "

Impact.

The creature smacked into its prey with lethal force. Flames engulfed the atmosphere, leaving a fiery wound where it had entered, and fragments flew to orbit and strike down once again.

Isonymph did not slow. Once past the solid crust it slipped deep into the core, settling like a seed at the heart of the planet.

The Cancer bloomed.

From within, a dozen tendrils spun out into the magma, branching into roots and threads. One by one they reached the burning surface, and sprouted into stems.

Like ferns they rose, but dark and venous, swaying purple arms from a slick, sprawling base. Each root became a forest, and in the heights of each forest the fingertips opened, and steamed into the fire.

Eggs were pushed through the pores. The ground became saturated with foaming, living bubbles. All was snatched away on the wind.

Make It More! Make It Faster!

The tendrils bulged and burst with the weight of the life being forced through them, and the seed at the centre thrust more and more into the clouds...

Until there was a change.

The seeds hatched in swarms and hordes. Great chimneys of steam encrusted the volcanoes, their graphite skin glittering in the glow of phosphor and burning sulphur. Strange acids fizzed through their veins.

From the peak of the mighty tunnels strode creatures like castles, with porcelain bodies that shone in the green-and-blue riverlight, and they feared not the wind, nor the sour rains. They strode to the basins, where valleys had filled up with tar and with pitch, and drank deeply...

And sailors ballooned from the sky, where hot air was cheap and the gale was strong, where the lightning flashed with nourishment. They settled with bodies of sulphur and beryl, and regrew their synthetic wings.

The Isonymph laughed, and cut off its own limbs. It burst through the surface as the first forests fell, and leapt to the stars once more.

* * *

all the world is out of your hands / then ascending into the dark

Ovaedis watched with its million eyes. All of Lex watched with it. The world reposed in a net of marbled spheres, motionless above the planet they had been set to watch.

The array seemed to blink.

A moment of true vision was taken and locked. The core of the satellite kicked once more, its umbilicus whipping in the factory as the fetal mechanism stared into the worlds beyond.

A slick of glass spilled over the planet and rained in unbroken streams.

Unseen needles were flying from the maw of the Cancer's Womb, long enough almost to stretch between Lex and the world itself. They liquified in the upper atmosphere, forming pools as if to imitate the oceans below, or even the clouds between. And as the seas and mountains bent in their grip, like shapes seen through a twisted lens, they brought forth a monsoon.

The torrent struck deep into the ashen cloud. Droplets collided and began to coalesce in the sun-halting grey, as if to form a storm of their own within the volcanic haze. Obscured by the heat and dust, the twisted rain began to form into sheets, bending into whirlpools.

Matter warped in their grip, and was siphoned away into stony beams. Vaporised stone collected on the winds of distortion and was reassembled under its own speed and weight. Dust called to dust.

One particle at a time, the twisters began to build.

* * *

Outer Space — Stolen Frigate 💣

@HeroicSociopath Yo, are you still around?

The Technology Planet - Frixion Prime - Open

@FrankenDaughter We could certainly put the characters together on whatever ship they end up using to hop out. Our story isn't all that action-packed right now, though. We're just solving the Mary puzzle and then hopping aboard.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

@Lauder Drop the three of us a message! We'll talk you through anything that needs doing.

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

I have so many posts to do that would actually progress the story but noooooo I have to randomly spend an hour making something completely new

Should probably have music but I'm on mobile so I'll put some in later maybe.

<Snipped quote>
A forgotten god, or maybe just Julkofyr's imagination.

@BBeast

*potential for shenanigans intensifies*

Mid/High Casual - Divinus: The Deity Roleplay Mk.II

"Jvan?"

"Hey."

"You look so alone."

"Mmm? I'm alone most of the time."

"But now?"

"What do you mean, 'but now?'"

"Oh. I see." Ceeln sighed, but it turned into a smile. "Heh. I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

Jvan's head cocked, mimicking Ceeln's smile, but didn't say a word. Ceeln looked out over the city.

"Is it beautiful?"

"Yes."

Atoll spread out like a jungle before them. Vivid ribbons of people and animals crossed between each tower, lay restful in the corals and hung gently from the buoys. Here there was no ground, for the buildings only grew denser and more connected until the streets between were tunnels; no roofs, for citizens congregated on every surface and even in the blue-water sky; no murals or flowerbeds, for every wall was a garden and every stone was alive.

Ceeln could see almost nothing of it, but that didn't matter. Jvan's wonder was eyes enough.

"When you look at this..."

"Mmm?"

"Jvan?"

"I'm listening."

"What do you wish for?"

"..."

"...If y-"

"I wish for more."

"More?"

"Yes. More like this. Not... this, in particular." Jvan put two hands on their own heart. "This. This feeling. I want to see worlds like this. Galaxies. I want to take the cosmos in my arms and make it live. Make it wild, make it strange. Make the colours and the shadows. I want to be like this forever. Exploring. Creating. Just..." Jvan exhaled, gills shuddering along their entire body. "Breathing."

Ceeln smiled. Almost cried. Looked into the sky and could just about see the midday sun.

"I don't think I can give you that. No matter how much I want to. But..."

"..?"

"This is the least I could do."

"..!"

"The lensmaker said they were the best money could buy. I don't think he was lying, but..." Laughter. "It's not like I would know, anyway."

Jvan's hands trembled slightly as they danced over the goggles, then slipped the band over their gills. Ceeln's sister gazed out into the distance with eyes like liquid mosaic.

"..."

Ceeln laughed again. Jvan didn't say a word, but Ceeln could feel a heartbeat quicken in the water, and grinned. "So I wasn't duped! Excellent. The technology is called Fractal. Within optimal range, there's virtually no limit on the level of detail you can see."

"...I-"

Ceeln ran a spare hand over Jvan's head. "It's our birthday, little sister. Enjoy it."

"But I don't-"

The elder twin swept a massive tail and was gone into the waters, leaving only laughter, swirling away on the wake of a hundred fins.

"-have anything-"

Jvan trailed off, arms wrapped together, and watched their sibling go, feeling things they did not understand.

"-for you."

* * *

Dabbles lay in his hammock, watching the full moons through a porthole. They shattered over the water, a stream of broken white that lay upon the darkness below.

"Things change, do they not?"

Himpledonk was silent in her coop, sleeping as soundly as a pigeon ever could. Dabbles blinked slowly, brilliant green eye shining in the dark.

Yes. How things change.

The Sculptor turned and buried himself in his cloak, and the bright green light winked out.

?

I had an idea and immediately did this entire post while waiting for my lecture to start, so, uh. Yeah!

More mortal!Jvan and Ceeln shenanigans. Jvan talks about her worldview. We see a little more of their home city, as well as the origin of Jvanic Eyes, and Jvan's habit of giving birthday presents.

This time the dream/memory belongs to Dabbles, but anyone with the ability to access Raka could potentially see it.

The Technology Planet - Frixion Prime - Open

Canal sector twelve. Where had Ayem heard that before? Not long ago, no, maybe a few hours. Canal sector twelve...

The crash site.

Ayem turned her head and gazed into the distance, where a faint haze of vaporised sludge still dimmed the satellites, and SWAT dropships hovered like harriers over a fen.

"You're not in trouble," she reaffirmed, but I know I am. She didn't sigh, but she did deflate a little, just faintly.

Then she picked up her breath and went back to business, thanking Grazia's intervention with a nod. Mary became much easier to handle when she wasn't alone, it had to be said. "If you could point us to a commercial flight that can carry a spacefighter, I'd be grateful. It's about twenty tonnes and fits in a six-meter cube." Ayem wasn't too confident of Grazie's ability to secure transport, but there was always the chance that she knew exactly what she was doing. Better to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"We have to find out where we're going first." Mary's energy was boundless but her legs were small. They could walk to the outskirts, or find a lift. "It might not take long. We should go soon, though."

@Patches@SIGINT

The Technology Planet - Frixion Prime - Open

Larri is the new Siri.