The Legend of the What Cat and Fourth DreamingLong, long ago, between the times of the Third and the Fourth Dreaming, Iblis and Khaliq were playing cards in Khaliq's den. Iblis said, "All of the universes that you create are so boring. You should be more whimsical when creating a universe. Do something fun!"Khaliq considered this a moment, and asked, "Well, a universe must have rules in order to function as a complete and coherent system. But I suppose I could be playful about the manner in which I come up with those rules. Did you have any suggestions?"So Iblis looked around the room for inspiration. They were in a Divine Room, of course, since no universe existed at this time, and
The legend of the butterfliesLong, long ago, during the time of the Second Dreaming, every change in nature followed a strict and harmonious pattern. Each epoch was divided into a Warm Age and an Ice Age, each of which lasted precisely 200 civilizations. Each civilization was divided into a Golden Age and a Black Age, each of which lasted precisely 200 years. Each year was divided into a Growth Time and a Death Time, each of which lasted precisely 200 days. Each day was divided into a Day Time and a Night Time, each of which lasted precisely 200 songs by the World Bird. And so on.The weather was always perfectly predictable. In the Growth Time of a Warm Age, it would a
three-halves and a bunnyYou are sitting next to Peter again, which isn't so bad. You open up your lunch pail and pull out your sandwich, removing the top layer of bread. Peter is drawing mice with a dark green pen. You taught him how to draw the mice: three filled-in circles (ear, head, body) with stick feet, stick arms, and a triangle nose coming out in profile. Now the two of you tell stories with pictures of the mice. Maybe you will make comic strips when you grow up."That pen is weird," you tell him. "That color is like... it's like... toad spit." Peter laughs loudly at this, and writes a big "TS" at the top of the page. "Toad Spit productions!" he announces.
mn'teys wallI.Nékti sat on the floor of his home, putting the finishing touches on his late wife's totem. He worked slowly, using a set of sticks he had been gathering since before the last full moon. He lovingly contoured the breasts, and scratched thin symmetrical patterns into the legs and body, leaving a fine spray of clay dust on the floor. His drawing-sticks were green-gray and hard, in a variety of thicknesses and oddly-shaped tips. One of the sticks had a curled tip—he had found it laying in the mud by the river to the south of town—and he hoped to use it later to draw the hair on her head. Not the way it looked at the end, he th
momentary too-muchnessWe lay on the bank of the river that circumscribed campus, gazing up at the dusky sky, while waiting for the evening to begin. My eyes were open and pointed upward, so that my universe was a warm gray velvet oval of post-sunset sky, fading faintly to an orange glow in the direction of the city. One or two dots of daring stars feebly pierced the fuzzy gray blanket, and a thin branch of a tree, a black crooked arm, reached in from the right side of the universe to wave at me in the faint wind.Kevin and Carlos were laying on the grass nearby, talking. It was light conversation about things not connected to me, and it made me feel alone. I unde
On the Origins of Pandemonium1An Historical TreatiseOn the Origins of Pandemonium,And a Defense of Beelzeboul,The Thirteenth And Final Diabol,And His Act of the Establishment ThereofPart 1 of 2Pandemonium is not, as many have suggested, the capital of Hell. The confusion, however, is understandable. In much the same way that New York City is not the capital of the United States, nor is Dallas the capital of Texas, nor is Melbourne the capital of Australia. An easy mistake to make. "All Citizens' City"—for that is a literal translation of its name—is only the largest and most active metropolis of this land. And because of the n
JoshuaI would like to tell you about Joshua. Not because he is particularly unusual, or anyone of note. But rather, because he is not. I would like you to bear his utter ordinariness in mind as you read what follows. Joshua is just another person, and although by the time you have finished reading this you may develop a feeling in the pit of your stomach that tells you differently, I urge you to resist that feeling. Joshua could be anyone. If the stars had been aligned differently, or the genetic crap-shoot altered just so, he could have been you or me.Joshua had the look of a thing delicately made. At 17 years of age, his skin was pallid to the
Boobs, Ch 2: WhoreNanhesaan Beta-Saan ExpeditionXenologer BPrivate Working NotesObservation Kb ~3750 (standard)For the last several days, Xen-A has been on a ridiculous crusade with no results. But "no results" is what this journal is for, so I might as well describe what's been happening.The Intelligent Statistics (IS) module has been churning away since we landed, constantly comparing the trillions of fragments of information that it gets from the sensors. Every possible combination, every possible level of analysis, it compares and looks for patterns and rules and meaning. If there is some relationship between the angle that the boobs h
Boobs, Ch 1: JunkieNanhesaan Beta-Saan ExpeditionXenologer BPrivate Working NotesObservation Kb ~300 (standard)We landed on the planet Saan about 300 kilobeats ago. That is four "days" on this planet, although I only slept three times, and these short days will take some getting used to. This is the first time I have found for writing, just because everything is so crazy here. Crazy and fantastic, that is. As the saying goes: no matter how much training and simulation time you have under your belt, your first experience with real fieldwork will change everything.But at least I finally see the point behind keeping this private jou
a limerick(10√3 + 21/e) / 4 = ε + √343
ASTM-6400-04 Technical ReportWhat follows is Technical Report 8 from the scientific probe ship Tesselation during its expedition to explore the Arcturo-Seti Tau Major (ASTM) Star System. The focus of this technical report is an analysis of ASTM-6400-04, an auto-cataloged asteroid orbiting the star between the second and third planets of the system, as part of a densely-packed asteroid belt.The detection of visual and thermal anomalies on the surface of the asteroid caused the crew to rendezvous with the asteroid and take a closer look.Editor's note: the language of the original report has not been changed from the original filing, even though it does not conform to
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