641. New lands and skies, 9
The highlands we venture across are barren, but with colourful skies.
I still have ups and downs over my identity as a person.
But spending time with Nokarlık and travelling alongside that sweet child is the happiest of things.
We’ve changed so much. Constantly.
That’s why I love the principles of evolution and transformation.
R - And how fast a learner are you Nokarlık?
N - Hm?
R - Look at me.
As we walk across muddy landscapes beneath pale and white skies.
Surrounded here and there by patches of liquid skies from the north that float just above the ground.
Here I am, as human in flesh I could be and feel. All feels normal about me.
R - Hard to believe I’m the first human body you crafted, and from nearly nothing.
N - Oh. Well, all the knowledge is not mine.
She grabs something hidden inside the roots and strands of her unruly hair.
Between the claw looking nails of her index and thumb, she holds a small optical lens.
The philosopher’s stone.
N - Nightmare shared them with me. More than you’d think. There’s information in there I simply copy without understanding nor knowing all of it.
R - But you did tweak me.
She’s bashful. I know. Just as a gift to me. The most daiûa-esque of gifts imaginable.
I can’t complain of feeling my body young and strong in all sorts of ways. And everything I eat tastes so much better than ever now, it’s heaven.
There’s just the identity part that I’m still grieving upon.
R - So you do learn very fast.
N - I’m just happy as I am.
Lucky you. I’m smiling, genuinely happy for you too.
Nightmare wanted to create a living being with the best of both worlds, and the abilities to live after. She succeeded.
I noticed that magic and my toxic light don’t work as well as they used to, but there is still more than enough T.I. on Earth. Only less of it. It feels different but I’ll adapt in time.
R - Is there... Something else, inside my body?
N - What do you mean?
R - I feel like... Plants I guess, are trying to sprout across my back.
N - Oh?
A little further, I undress and she has a look at my back. Pinching me under the pretence of examining me, a few times.
N - You’re adjusting the roots of your vines yes. Looks like you’re planning to grow wings sometime, and are beginning to adjust your architecture for it.
R - I’ll grow wings?
N - You might. If you want to.
A pale figure with wide smile and wings shrouding my sight flashes through my mind.
I have a bittersweet smile and give a stroke to Nok’s cheeks.
R - You really are my child...
She giggles.
Under the sun, we move slowly forward where time is gone.
~
I tried to draw a genealogical tree, with who contributed to whom birth, resurrection and whatnot.
After five loops and the necessity to spread the identities as different Blumen, I gave up. It’s a mess. Too chaotic...
And, I kinda’ like it.
For then realizing I’m not quite just ‘another copy of a dead rose’, but rather the latest sprout of a very chaotic line of evolution, I liked it better.
Another Rose, sailing the sea of chaos.
Well... That’s what life is truly!
Alright. I will sail, and discover what comes next, conscious of my nature in it.
N - Your smirk is spooky mom.
R - Ah ah... It’s just, I realised one more time, how much there is chaos in life. Including inside what builds identity.
N - Yes, yes, I know...
I’m smiling brightly. So much she’s feeling uneasy.
That terrible nickname my last sister gave me. Today it genuinely amuses me.
I’m eager to see the advent of the dream kingdom that Nokaranlık sowed the seeds of. And I’m curious to discover where I will live on next. Only today, we head toward the far East.
Greener lands beyond this desert.
Curiouser and curiouser she would say.
N - You saw them before?
R - Hm. These liquid clouds and patches of sky on the ground yes. Much farther north. They are actually living beings. We can bottle some to carry along.
Nothing flies in these empty skies. But eventually, something new will.
There isn’t much to eat around here, but Nokarlık can hold on for a while, and I can enjoy even tree bark now, so we’re alright. Given how things taste good to me right now, I fear how sweet things would make me feel even.
With my stronger legs, we can move quite fast. Before we know it, the plateaux fall behind.
A new land of shrubs and perennial flowers begins at a lower altitude.
Cities are swamped.
A lush layer of flowery mush and moss covers everything human made on sight.
A faint smell of mead covers the land, reminding us that some places still hold their much more toxic clouds.
We enter the new landscape that is becoming a parse savannah it would seem.
~
The northern edges, to the western sea, are ghastly covered by some of the most aggressive spores I’ve encountered.
Like many other modern cities, there’s a toxic death that continue to linger. It’s strong, even after this many years.
Places where thousands of humans were swallowed by the white day, often end up like that. They became bacteriological abundance exploding into new hazardous species. They end up like tombstones where nothing grows or changes, until decay will gradually soften their grudges.
Nokarlık has seen things like that before. As for the city of lights ahead, who knows? It’s still a very long road ahead.
We head roughly East, and leave these southern graves in peace.
Wings, hm?
Feeling my humanity vanishing further spooked me at first. But now... Hm...
Well, we’ll see. What comes next, I wonder?
~
