[ from the city of gardens ]

springtime gusts quick and clear over crystal-paneled greenhouses, and the flowers blossom into veils of sweetness that trail after long-twined wind. you arrive on the back of a brass-winged beast—one of those newfangled airships built for nothing for devastation—as the war careens with the seasons, the skies going pale and ashen. choose a souvenir:

• invitation, sealed (x1) the cream-colored paper is unmarked, the seal of blood-dark wax unbroken, red like a lake of roses in falling snow. when you examine the envelope, the sealed-away contents appear to be perfumed in the fragrance of jasmine petals on soil; when you set the envelope back down, there are ruby-jeweled rivulets blooming along the veins of your palm, as if carved in blood. you feel no pain
• bronze gears, varying sizes (x6) you find a handful of gears discarded in...

[ from the world of skate matcha ]

you take a wrong turn through a twist of bookshelves and stumble upon a locked door. somehow, you have the key, though you don't remember picking it up before. choose a souvenir:

• potion (x4) stoppered vials gleam from their perches atop the polished shelves, the contents jewel-bright and haloed in deep ocean blues, glistening emerald greens, blooming ember oranges. you pick one up, examine it under the flickering glow of the lantern: when the light cuts over the glass, the afterimage is like a spill of uncut gemstones shattering over your irises. the liquid stirs, restlessly
• old book, hollow (x1) water damage has rendered the title illegible, though the giant krakens and man-eating fish embossed into the worn leather cover are still partially visible. you open the book to find that a section of th...

[ for josh ]

as a boy, the healer had always seemed to be preternaturally inclined toward plants, but nobody ever thought it strange.

it was nothing extreme, anyway - certainly nothing like the immortal entities that could send trees bursting out of the ground with enough force to level stone fortresses, or turn freshly-plowed fields into bountiful harvests with a wave of a finger.

no, at most, they thought that all the healer had was a natural talent with plants. convenient for growing his own herbs and brewing medicinal potions for the village high up in the mountains; nothing more, nothing less.

the healer lives a peaceful, secluded life, never straying far from his cottage in the woods . . . until the harvests fail for three years in a row. the farmers whisper of a curse, or a plague; something is overtaking perfectly healthy crops ov...

[ wilt & bloom ]

• 'rot hen, a dark beast of slight and slithers . . . '
• butterflies and moths and beetles and cockroaches have domain of this land, where the flowers are bright and the berries overripe, sweet and heady and repugnant. they grow larger than they have any right to be.
• { growth } is fickle, fickle, fickle, and you have more power than you ever imagined.
• the waters are choked with mud and algae. decay will feed the bloom, and the { blooming court } feasts every night.
• { the withering throne } is pale as bone, and its ruler plucks the eyes out of dead birds. her corpse-mouth is red with the hearts of small, dead creatures.
• the powers-that-be are cunning and sly, falser than vows made in wine. do not be d...

[ for josh ]

• the grass is green and the air is sweet, and the streams run quick and clear with the spring snowmelt
• it is quiet, here. it suits you - at least, you think it does. you've never had anything else
• the green calls to you; bud and blossom, flower and flourish. you can feel it grow
• the seasons change, and you can feel that too: you can feel it when the trees take one last breath then let it all out before winter as the leaves fall, or when the ground begins to thaw and buried seedlings start putting down roots
• your companion is half-man, half-wolf, and part of you can feel the wolf, too
• you do not feel that you are fit to save the world. but if not you, then who else?

[ from the deck of the equilibrium ]

you receive an invitation from the eccentric tian-vett family, welcoming you to a ball aboard their bejeweled behemoth of a spaceship. no matter which princess is courting your favor, you arrive to gilt-wrought star-shine and marble fraught in filigree and moonglow, somewhere between supernova and singularity point. choose a souvenir:

• torc (x1) a metal ribbon that fits like it was made for you—a slither of beaten gold wrought into a garnet-eyed serpent, gem-shard fangs a whisper of cool against your throat. when you accept it from the consort with a smile like a dying sun, the ember-glow of a nearby brazier seems to roar into something molten, devouring the air down to scorch-shimmer and shadow
• diamond pendant (x1) light ricochets like shrapnel off the frosted brilliance at your sternum. the dia...

[ november 2k20 ]

• magenta eclipse, v-900, gliterzilla 5000, ghost c-3200, north star, widow's wail, void maker, u-800, lightbringer, starry wrath, galaxial abyss
• shadowed alleyways in a city that gleams violet-bright, iridescent like a dream
• (there is rage that smolders like molten plasma, in this dream - because anger will always be better than despair)
• diamond-studded towers that shine like dying stars: blazing, brilliant, and burning themselves to dust
• ‘gratuitous violence: unnecessary, satisfying, heartbreaking, and so like everything else you love’
• robot unicorns - sharp, deadly, restless; rough around the edges, all salvaged scrap metal and boiling rage, tinged with anguish
• fury and exhilaration thrum through your ...

[ for ari ]

• the sea bulges and life rises. it is home
• the sea roils and rumbles, and the life that was not meant for it drowns. this, too, is home
• (someone will remember us, i say, even in another time)
• 'lies you have told yourself: your humanity is the largest burden you will bear'
• the water shines silver with moonlight. white sunshine shimmers over laughing waves
• 'our dead will drink the sea'

[ camila ]

• glazed confections of sugared roses and candy floss; treacle tart and petit fours
• miniature cakes and chocolate eclairs and winking bonbons. just try one - what's the harm?
• the second princess is honeyed venom and maraschino cherries dripping syrup-sweetness that rots, down to the very core, for all that her words taste of puff pastries and shortcake. her laugh twinkles like spun sugar
• she feeds you frosted flowers in blush-pink and buttercream; it eats away at your bones, fills your veins with saccharine poison. you come back for more.

[ for danielle ]

it is the turn of the century, and as bloody revolution sweeps across a snowy human kingdom, the faerie court - hidden away from the mortal world in a mirror universe, an alternate reality - takes a beautiful human prince as a pet.

an accomplished ballerina, with eyes as pure as moon-pale frost-lilies, the entire court is immediately enamored with the once-prince. like the other human captives, the prince is cursed to remain in animal form during the day, only changing back in time to perform after the sun goes down. under the diamond-blue skies, it is whispered that the queen herself chose his particular creature: a swan.

night after night, the prince dances until his feet are bloody under crystal chandeliers that glitter icicle-bright, silver like starlight. as the years pass, his hair does not grey and his flesh does not ...

[ for danielle ]

• icicles that glisten with starlight, moon-pale in the winter night
• the fae are lovely and loathsome, with eyes like diamonds and mouths full of bejeweled lies
• 'rot-hen, a dark beast of slight and slithers . . . you can put all the flowers in your mouth that you fucking want, but dying is dying and rot is rot'
• the cold is as ethereal as it is eternal, and you will never have loved for nothing
• white tulle and silk pointe shoes, trailing thorn-slashed ribbons and dripping with liquid rubies
• moonlight ricochets off the treeline, shimmering silver with sorrow
• your blood is dark with decay, corrupted and crimson-bright when warm rivulets kiss the snow

[ for danielle ]

take me to your paradise

kiss me in the blue moonlight

take me away, my hope in hell

take me to your paradise

  ———

moon-drunk, flower-bewitched, delirious with dream . . .

  ———

no need for elaborate words, no need for lies

you are my, and i’m your diamond lost

we’re under the same night sky, under the same sun and moon

right now, i’m almost at paradise

  ———

wide eyed, you look at me

set on fire in a silver dream

• lance, rupture, rift, puncture. moonbeam, ricochet, rose, shimmer. silver, silk. gold, platinum, halo, maw. jasmine, sun, gleam, dew. petal, weep, star, fall, veil, billow. prism, crystal, wither, ash. twilight, gloaming, dawn, breath; twirl, murmur, filigree, flame. pierce, blood, ember, flesh, whisper, shriek. slither, prowl, ophidian, obsidian, charge, churn, seethe. lightning, thunder, blossom, rot, bruise; bone, shine, shadow, slate. mercy, molten, smolder, blister, frost. wing, gossamer, froth, tumble, pirouette; sea, foam, lace, satin. scar, silhouette, soil, silent. whisper, hiss, dream, flash. rib, ribbon, rasp.

[ from the world of skate matcha ]

the ocean is deep and deadly, but this place of winking sunshine and frothing sea foam is soft like a dream. choose a souvenir:

• coral fragment (x1) blushing pink like the sky at sunrise, and chipped off a spine of limestone. the merfolk that left this place to ruin are long gone, but the bones of the reef are as alive as they've ever been. you cradle this piece of life in your palm, and the blooms of sea grass pulse and drift in time with the waves, as if waving hello
• jade vase, cracked (x1) sealed shut and polished to a shine, cool and blue like a river wreathed in mist. despite its age, the vase is still mostly whole. there are thin cracks slivered over the surface, like clouds marbling over water. you're not sure what's inside; when you hold the vase up to your ear and shake it (gently, gently), the only sound...

[ july 2k20 ]

• estelle, camila, kyvana, tselvya, salé-salé, minna / unma
• pirouette and flourish; filigree and flame; rot and ruin
• ‘let none be the noose’
• gilt mirrors, crystal chandeliers, clear blue waters, exotic flowers
• gold-veined decadence, lush gardens, jeweled daggers, blood-splattered stone
• opulent ballrooms, severed heads, scarlet eyes, deathly quiet, marble columns, purple flower petals, unmarked graves
• ‘the victor spoils. the loser learns’
• ‘in the end, there is no blaze of glory’
• colors: bronze-dark stone, jewel-bright flowers, candy-pink hair, glimmering emerald peacocks & golden (artificial) sunlight, pounding scarlet & dripping crimson, t...

[ hunter x hunter ]

• ‘killing monsters is the easy bit. it’s finding them that’s the hard part’
• lush mountainsides, dark caves, the stinging stench of death
• dripping crimson, dark like old gold in fire-limned gloaming: are you the hunter or the hunted?
• tall grass, dense forests, starry skies. moonlight ricochets off the treeline
• ‘whether we win or lose, hell lies ahead of us’. at what point do we become human?
• ‘that’s the thing - will you be able to kill one of those bugs if it has a friend it cares about?’

[ with fanfan ]

• ‘glitter-clad annihilation’
• flower, sunbeam, supernova, snow, sky, ice, nyx, flame, widowmaker
• a floating metropolis of starry skies, electric blue neon lights, gleaming monorails, bejeweled riding boots, and everything holo- glam
• pink clouds trailing wispy puffs like pastries dripping spun sugar. ice that glitters like diamonds under the violet, star-studded twilight; lava and laser geysers spewing fire and anguish under thunder-black skies, flashing with blood-red lightning
• robot unicorns - diamond-encrusted and golden-bright and abyss-dark and deadly like a nightmare or as dazzling as a dream, shining with flowers and flames and gemstones alike
• a pre-teen girl’s fever dream made fles...

in the span of all the universe's history, they have existed for but a blink of an eye; they will live and die with humans, yet their legacy has already been immortalized. their charges call it the anthropocene, a new geologic age of human-induced change, unprecedented in all the millions and billions of years that the earth has existed. with them, there is always the question: what will happen next?

  ━━

the dreamer is perhaps the oldest out of all of them; from the very beginning, humans have been drawing, painting, singing, imagining - dreaming.

he was there when the so-called cavemen first crushed sun-burnt mud and earth-sweet berries into pigment, and when they discovered that they had instruments built into their own bodies, where lungs pumping air from an atmosphere of nitrogen and oxygen work in harmony with vibrating cartilage and folded muscle. now, he guides t..._climate action_ and workers' rights and animal welfare and writing and dancing and creating, an...

the innovator has always been closely associated with the dreamer. it's never been a surprise.

  ━━

the innovator has roamed the earth since the first humans put together crude slingshots and learned that friction can generate enough heat to spark a flame, and he'll be around until the very last one of them is gone.

in the so-called anthropocene, the innovator is everywhere. he's never been a tinkerer himself, but rather a harbringer of change, and so watches over the economists who call for carbon pricing and emission allowances and market-based mechanisms, or the statisticians that run math models and computer simulations detailing the rise of climate-based threats. he trails behind engineers and scientists designing photovoltaics and hydraulic turbines that run purely on the force of falling water; powered, essentially, by gravity. his charges dream, too, and they play. they create spiraling steel trees with flowers and butterflies blooming out of every crack and crevice, or indoor forests made of nothing but projected light, a bi...

the trickster has always skirted the boundaries, balancing at the edge, and he has carved out a place for himself in this new era.

  ━━

some argue that humans bring destruction wherever they go, but the trickster knows that is far from the truth. his home is with the creatures who live with the humans, tricksy and stubborn and clever; the red-tailed hawks that make their nests and raise their young nestled in steel sculptures, the termites and ants and microorganisms that crawl through wooden beams and plaster walls, the squirrels that race fearlessly across metal railings and asphalt walkways.

but the trickster suffers, too, in this geologic age driven by human-induced change. there are birds that smash into shining towers of glass and steel with enough force to kill, and deer that don't sight sedans and minivans racing toward them at ...