the abaddon keep | dark moon magic

you sure about this?
{what. are you doing!?}

{well, it's not like they can't leave!}

{...what!?}

{{i think they should be adequately prepared for what's coming!

and after all the highly curated shizzle here, they're basically doomsday levels of unprepared!}}
{-pinches the bridge of her nose with a melodramatic sigh-}

{{{oh—hush. -she huffs, shoving lady obnoxious aside-
listen, darling—we called it "the abbadon keep".
they knew it wasn't kansas anymore.
we even dropped that out-of-character rhyme as a cue: set change warning—yes?}}}

{{yes, but most people haven't ever heard the word "abbadon"! how will they get the double entendre?}}
{jesus! would you stop treating our readers like they're stupid!?}

{{{you're just being an over-protective mother hen.}}}

{{{—you are. and it's okay. we love you anyway.}}}

{speak for y— -sounds of muffled indignation-}

{{{truly, we appreciate the instinct to protect us.}}}

{-eyeroll-}

{{{and.

the rest of us are here to help you not, uhh... go overboard.}}}

{and dress everyone in bubblewrap.}

{{{quit it, you—not helping.}}}

{{so... i can prepare them?}}
{{{well, this whole monologue is basically a neon warning sign.

but yes—if it soothes your feathers—you can put one flag on each side of the portal—okay?}}}

{{{—remember: we did all agree to make bear bones visible for the select few our super grizzly genius will make smile—majority be very blessedly-damned.}}}

{{smile and laugh! right—right! forget the majority, focus on our fellow K-word demons who deserve a giggle.}}

{oh, good god. can we go now?

please.}

{{wait! what are you doing!? i haven't put the flags up yet! you said i could put flags up!!}}

{{{calm yourself, love. it's just the first stairwell—they can still turn back.
it's best we walk and talk.}}}

{-muted snarl intensifies-}

abbadon

noun

1. the pit / abyss

from ancient texts; the underworld vault where things go to die, break open, or resurrect with teeth.
commonly translated as "destruction", but more accurately:
the basement level of the cosmos where the real work gets done.

{{{here's our exit.}}}

{{can we not go back to the archives? it's so... light up there.}}

{{{nope.

eyes forward, darling.}}}

{{{good girl.

i got you.

keep walking.}}}

{{{walking and talking.}}}

2. the destroyer

the name later slapped onto an angelic figure misbranded 'evil'—for refusing to play nice.
more accurately: an uncompromisingly kind, tough-lover who clears, cuts, and razes anything fake.

paths change as per the season, so make sure to follow the milky way from sagittarius—through whichever archway it points to scorpius and... descend!

{{{see—you're having a little fun now, aren't you?}}}

{{well... maybe our 'crazy' ain't so bad.

i mean, architecture is bad ass.

and astronomy is unparalleled cool; it can't even be touched by the almighty conditioned bias against astrology—so powerful it got us to snub the oldest science in the world, which da vinci—the genius who invented machines centuries before the technology to make them existed—chose to study til his death.}}

{-growls—}

{{what!? it's true! and we live in a holographic universe—how can you expect the sky to not reflect us!?}

{{{she's got you there.

you do remember how a hologram works, don't you?}}}

{-growls—}

{{{she remembers.}}}

follow the river of stars...

{{what should i do for my bookend flag? explain why our uncurated voice gets a luxurious home of her own?}}

{{{that is a post of it's own.

why not share a line the feral parts of our mind that refuse to 'dress nice' live by?}}}
{{oh—i like that—arrive before we've arrived!}}

to the flight of stairs....

that alight on the bear bones portal.

(just dive in and swim straight down until you break through the surface.)

{can. we. go. yet!?!

i swear to every god that takes offense, if i have to spend one more second of this week shaving down exquisitely layered, deliciously technicolour drafts to serve "easy to digest" bare bones—i will scratch somebody's eyes out and they won't be mine.}

see you on the other side.

(where we eat "field notes" by the dozen and use 'pretty spines' for kindling—because rhymes and reasons come alive in the sprawl an opus, not a solitary tune and who tf needs "market-ready titles" when stories that bleed past the edge of the page and building corridors into new worlds is an actual thing?)

(mind you, the shelves are mostly empty—waiting for the drafts sat in the treasury.)

{oh? that what we're calling it now?}

{because writing doesn't pay the bills.}

{{{of course writing pays bills—what are you, a rock?}}}
{{even rocks read.}}

{{{of course they do, lovely—just not the written, published word.
how can you say that when half our favourite people are authors!?}}}

{fine. writing doesn't pay our bills.}
{{touché.}}

{{{what you mean is: writing is becoming what pays our bills.}}}

{-she groans like sisyphus before a boulder of positive psychology-

you are insufferable.}

{{{thank god you think so—means i'm doing something right.}}}

{{actually, you do most things right—but you lost your way on rocks. remember the one that felt heavier after holding our book open?}}

{{{sweets, i'm not sure that's a solid, um...}}}

{ha! "something right", indeed—you're indulging fantasies about rocks reading books! are you tr—}

{{she's not indulging fantasies—it's called imagination!

can you explain quantum entanglement?

the thing einstein called "impossible"—we now know is true?}}

{well, no, but what does tha—}

{{{hey—don’t look at me! you insulted her imagination!}}}

{i did not insul—}

{{—and does the fact that the human brain processes data from the five senses using the same fourier mathematics a hologram uses to encode information...

not make a compelling case that consciousness is a non-local hologram?}}

{yes, but—}

{{when you can give me an equally compelling mathematical argument for why a rock can't read, then—and only then—will i shut my imagination to the possibility, because—tell me, oh unimaginative one:

are rocks made of silicon not what computers use to store data and think through complex decision-making processes far more difficult than one might use to—oh, i don't know—READ A BOOK, perhaps!?}}

{they read light!}

{{oh, because you have the eyes to see the invisible bio-photons constantly emitted by every single strand of 'inanimate' dna that lights up every cell in your body like a christmas tree!?}}

{{{the silence tells me she's busy examining a new hairline crack in the textbook model she still defaults to—the poor conditioned dear.

at least you can stop worrying about readers not being adequately "prepared" for bear bones.}}}

{{{—trust me, darling.

if they made it to the end of this, they'll be just fine.}}}