Everyone Moved to Atlantis

February 17, 2018May 17, 2018 ~ Piece, of the Sky

Alli decided to walk through the park, with the statue of Farragut on his horse, although she remained afraid of bums. The tiny local square stood still, peaceful under the roiling orange clouds. No bums were asleep on the benches or under little tents of newspapers in the grass. As Alli passed Farragut on his prancing, green copper horse, a spear of lightning rent the sky from east to west. Then the bolt of lightning winked out; it was dark and there was nothing.

The rain fell on Alli’s face. She stopped looking upward and continued through the square toward the dry cleaners with its winking sign on 6^th Street.

Alli descended the dim street, with rainwater rushing along the sidewalk. The leaves swirled in little whirlpools over the gutters. She passed through the gate, past the trash cans and the garden, to her door. Entering the hallway, she mounted the steps to her flat. Alli entered her apartment, flicking on the lights to the kitchenette.

The rain ran down in rivulets splayed against the cold bay window of the breakfast nook. The apartment upstairs had a balcony that let down a waterfall.

Eventually, Alli got up, turned off the TV and walked across the carpet toward the bathroom, to brush her teeth and shower before going to bed.

She lay down under the cold covers. The room was dark, the apartment outside the bedroom door darker still. A peal of thunder grumbled in the distance. She shut her eyelids and fell asleep. The lightning cut the sky again and the thunder answered. Rain poured down.

***

Æon walked through the Temple of the Sky. Grey marble columns rose up along the main path through the edifice, and other carpeted halls branched off, full of fountains and shafts of light coming from small windows on the upper levels. She passed a pool made of obsidian, filled by a jet of water cascading down from the ceiling.

The sound of falling water mingled with the distant sounds of the city below, which floated up the white, dusty hill covered in tufts of dark green grass. The city fanned out from all sides of the temple – avatars rushed about their daily lives below. A white tree, eighty feet tall and with viridian leaves on its branches, stood in the east. At night, the world tree would glow blue with concentrated avatar energy.

PEACE AND SERENITY ARE GRANTED TO THE AVA’TARA, THE FIRST ASCENDED NATION

The inscriptions lay underneath a relief of white stone, which depicted a naked human woman reclining along the lower left corner, holding a fiery sword aloft by the middle of the blade. Æon knew she was the first Sky Avatar.

Looming above her was a crowd of men and women, also naked, clambering over each other to get at the shining sword. Their faces were bestial and ugly, frozen in grimaces, howls and scowls. They were the first anti-avatars.

Around the woman’s head, on the relief, was a circle of gold, the halo of an avatar. Æon shook her head and thought Time to get on with it.

Æon proceeded up the stone steps of the dais to her seat. On its high base, facing the steps, carved in avatar hieroglyphics read,

PEOPLE OF THE SKY

PEOPLE OF THE WINDS

PEOPLE OF THE WATERS

FROM THE DESERT OF ICE

The hum of avatars, in white robes, conversing on the temple patio, came in through the entrance way. The city chattered below.

While her avatar body sat in the Temple of the Sky, Æon opened her eyes in her Inner Space. All avatars and anti-avatars have an Inner Space, but this Inner Space was special. The Inner Space of the Sky Avatar connected her to the second spiritual world, where only she, in her role as the Iridescent One, could reset the universe.

Only her Inner Space housed an intricate clock, of concentric, spinning rings made of red light. Each of the red rings measured the milliseconds, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, years, centuries, and light-years until the next time the universe would reboot.

But Æon was not in her Inner Space to restart the universe. Æon sat at the desk and opened the computer. She keyed in the code for Alli’s Headspace using the numerical signature of the energy of Alli’s aura.

Alli was dreaming that she stood in darkness, wearing ancient white robes. Her eyes adjusted, and she saw she was in a desert. Pale light poked over the mountains on the horizon. In front of her, someone was lying face down on the ground. The figure was covered in rough-looking blankets and Alli assumed he or she was sleeping.

The bundle glowed and a woman shining with blue light stood up from the ground. She grew larger as she got to her feet until she was ten times as tall as Alli and her head scraped the black, cloudy sky. Her blue glow lit up the desert: the colossal human figure was on fire – blue flames leapt from her clothes and her hair into the sky, but she did not burn – it was an aura.

The figure looked down at Alli. The gold in her eyes shimmered and swam like oil rainbows on puddles. The figure knelt on one knee, to get a better look at her quarry. Alli looked back at the figure as those gold-flecked eyes and the blue face came closer and the fiery head came down from the clouds. Alli backed away terrified. She tripped over a rock and fell on the ground.

“Do you know who I am?” the woman asked.

“Æon,” Alli said. She trembled.

“Do you know why I am here?” Æon asked.

“To tell me that I am an avatar?” Alli said. And she shook even more.

“No,” Æon said.

Alli blanched; her skin turned almost gray.

“No, I am here to tell you that you are the next Sky Avatar,” Æon said.

Alli grew even paler and then the dream, or rather, the Headspace communication, ended.

Inside her Inner Space, Æon closed the laptop.

Music

コンシャスTHOUGHTS

CVLTVR∑

Collapse the Waveform

February 14, 2018May 5, 2018 ~ Piece, of the Sky

no more haters

The smell of the sea rose up from the bay and floated out to the park. Alli sat on a bench facing the water. Down the hill, lay a field and in the distance, the boardwalk. Alli could hear the carnival games: whack-a-mole, dunk tank, test your strength.

Clouds gathered for the afternoon thunderstorm. Some pigeons walked around nearby. They inspected a bag of popcorn dropped by one of the teenagers, who had recently passed by, carrying a giant beach towel and an umbrella.

The broad leaves of the trees swayed with the wind. The scent of the grass mingled with that of the water, teeming and receding, far out there, on the horizon.

Alli checked her watch. She was supposed to meet Nealy here today. She slapped a mosquito buzzing near the back of her neck. The bench was in the shade, but the temperature was still rising.

A kid went by on roller-skates, walking a platoon of dogs. The old man with the ice cream cart headed down to the shore. People lay on blankets, sunning, staring at the sky, reading paperback novels. Someone in a beret stopped by the water fountain, checked his phone and blanched.

Alli got up and walked down the path, lined with a canopy of trees. Their leaves fanned out, creating oscillating shadows. A folk band practiced off to the side, on a portable stage. She walked under one of the park’s scenic bridges, the air nice and cool, for a few seconds. A summer science class gathered around a hot dog stand.

Outside the park, and on the street, stood a Sephora and a Chinese food restaurant. Alli headed to Cafe Nero and ordered an espresso. She watched the cars stop and go outside the window. The cumulus formation was nearer now. Even inside, Alli could feel the air tensing up, despite the summer sunshine. Couples strolled by, arm-in-arm, at eye-level.

A bolt of electricity ran through Alli – there was Nealy – together, with another woman, a woman in a print dress, laughing about an unheard joke.

“If I was with someone, how would you feel?”

Alli nearly knocked over the cup and the saucer. She looked around and Nealy was standing right beside her. She looked back at the street – but the look-alike and her mate had already turned the corner.

“I thought I would find you here,” Nealy said, sitting down.

“It was too hot,” Alli said.

“You don’t spend too much time outdoors.”

Alli shook her head, “How was Shanghai?” On the coffeehouse speakers, one of Elvis’s Hawaii songs came on.

“Hot. Like here. Healthy food though.”

“Lots of good IPOs?”

“Could have been better,” Nealy said, “But fewer shell companies.” The waiter brought Nealy her coffee.

“Are you going to stay here now?”

“I will probably go back to San Francisco, but will still divide my time between there, and New York.”

They watched the lights turn from green to red, ‘Walk’ icon to ‘Don’t Walk’ icon.

“Will you stay in New York?” Nealy asked.

“For the time being,” Alli said. Her second coffee arrived.

“Where will you go next?” Nealy asked, looking at her.

“I haven’t thought that far,” Alli looked out the glass. The clouds hovered over the skyscrapers. It had begun to drizzle.

The rain started, slowly at first, but then began to pummel the sidewalk. Pedestrians ran, covering their heads with newspapers. The pale orange clouds sunk lower, heavy in the downpour.

The two of them sat there, watching the thunderstorm, listening to the low hiss of the espresso machine.

magic pool