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A newspaper clipping fails to collect dust in a drawer. An old photo pinned into a board shows him in good spirits. Through desaturated colors you see him over a pot on a ceramic stove, stirring with a spoon the size of his arm. the liquid in it is black. His horns shine about as bright as his smile. a handwritten caption.
Luxol mixing up nutrient broth for his house
He's not made broth in a month.
The lights have dimmed. the walls are showing cracks. it should be able to do what he has been asking, begging of it.
He crawls into the vestigial spaces again. Drywall fails to be drywall, he crawls between panels. A warm embrace of synthetic flesh. Later installations were based on fungi. The last one before the collapse used an algae fungi symbiotic system.
He crawls into the vestigial spaces again. Drywall fails to be drywall, he crawls between panels. A warm embrace of synthetic flesh. Later installations were based on fungi. The last one before the collapse used an algae fungi symbiotic system.
it would be so easy for it to consume him.
it should be so easy for it to consume him.
He has crawled deeper and deeper. He has not fed it .Why has it not eaten him? He saw over the genetic code. It should be able to. Yet no enzymes activate. No complex reactions. Nothing comes to denature the proteins that make him up. Silently, painlessly, it would.
It doesnt.
there is no answer.
there is no answer.
his breathing slows.
he crawls ever deeper.
Synthetics went from external white to black to red. the color flesh used to be. its wet now. and spongy.
All the biology is custom. he can hear it pulse, not in the coordinated way. The way a heart beats. moreso rolling waves, crashing and deflecting off eachother.
Hes crying now. the structure around him calms, presses down on him. A tinge of excitement goes through him, maybe, maybe it's doing that. Its not. It wont. For some ungodly reason it wont. By all accounts it should.
it wont.
hes tired. hes so tired.
the pulsing feels calming.
hes tired. hes so tired.
the pulsing feels calming.
he goes to sleep.
the house does not eat him
the next day he wakes up
crawls out
boils broth
cries to himself
the next day he wakes up
crawls out
boils broth
cries to himself
he’ll try again.
he’ll try again.
he’ll try again.