Xhonglu's Error — (creative writing + life update!)

Xhonglu's Error
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by @d-pend
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Xhonglu's Error

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Out of an undifferentiated mass of thoughts, that seething cauldron of impressions, fears, and aspirations — comes a narrative grasping at the thin cords above: a sparkling multi-helical rope twining and untwining unto the far distance, where surely must repose some other form of intelligence higher, greater, more idealized.

The mass shuddered as it grasped, and organs insinuated themselves from the primordial liquid roughly as follows. Contrasting etheric viscosities separated into living layers. Ideas were born into colors. Colors were born into elements, elements into minerals, molecules into cells. Appendages laid the bricks for foundations of sentience through sense-gathering. Possibilities sparked and winked out. In timeless urgency a single hand ascended from the surface of the lake to grope about the quickly solidifying plane. As soon as it arose it quickly plunged back below as a weird tentacle seized upon it from below.

Xhonglu the cold moon was in the process of freezing the failed creation of heaven. Anti-light in cold aqua daggers was slicing frost into the puddle in laces of cruel elegance. Life was responding to the probability of nonlife with panicked writhing followed inevitably by stillness — every life but one. From the semifrozen morass an albino hand managed to flop itself onto a patch of hardened miniature berg composed of water and dead things.

"And what happened then to the hand that survived the destruction of Xhonglu that day?" queried the vivacious youth Xinlil. His father smiled and tapped first his own left palm, followed by his son's.

* * *


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Author's Note
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I hope this post finds everyone well! As you may have noticed, I have been absent from posting for a couple of months. I often go through phases where, for whatever reason, I lose interest in keeping up my creative output. This time, I have been using my "time off" to engage in a variety of activities, including planning my upcoming move in about two weeks (heading to Nashville,TN to room with a college friend.) My main pursuit has been getting educated and preparing to run an online business that I am pretty excited about as it will enable me to help small business owners increase their revenue.

I have also been staying quite active creating neural-net processed images from my original photography under DPend and from public domain images over on NGaged. Now, I have hundreds of images that may serve as fodder for writing inspiration! I am hoping to start posting more regularly here again as I feel one life chapter coming to a close and another beginning.

Also, I've been indulging in a lot of blockchain gaming, primarily Lost Relics, which is an ENJ-backed game in pre-release sometimes described as a mix of Diablo and WoW. Of course I keep up with @DCity and have gotten a bit more into @Splinterlands again with the announcement of SPS and its concomitant airdrop.

It's been highly enjoyable to listen to a bunch of audiobooks in the background while playing Lost Relics. I have been consuming a hefty chunk of the entire catalog of Edgar Rice Burroughs, a legendary pulp fiction writer whose most famous created characters are Tarzan and John Carter. Whenever I read or listen to writing, I get the feeling I'm in the dojo passively training for my own creative writing pursuits, though it still remains to put it into practice!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention I started getting into indoor rock climbing recently. I became a little inactive during the latter half of 2020 and it's been a lot of fun to try a new hobby that requires some fitness! My sister has been climbing for a long time and encouraged me to start going with her and her husband, which I've been doing a couple of times a week for the past month.

What have you been up to this Summer? Let me know in a comment below. Take care and stay well!

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Daniel P. / @d-pend
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creative writing by @d-pend
images created from public domain photos
using Deep Dream Generator.


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