From a human perspective, anybody who gets to walk around looking like a million dollars of goldleaf and sapphire should be happy every day of the week.
But, that had nothing to do with the smiles with which this particular warehouse manager on the frontier of the galaxy greeted everybody who was kind enough to put goods in his warehouse. I always scheduled my shipping runs that included his home world for a Monday.
He could no more pronounce my name in English than I could his in his home language; the universal translator could only do so much with a gap that wide. When he moved could you really realize … he was as fluid and as smooth as oil, like someone had suspended jewels in a heavy, clear oil held in a series of bubbles, and he sounded much like that when he spoke … stones gently tapping and rubbing one another in a heavy liquid, pleasant, unique, but not suited to human ears as speech.
Nevertheless, a smile among humanoids – for so he was, although in the most extended understanding of the same – is universal, and just counting the smiles on his face, his faces, and the faces on his body smiling was enough to cure any Monday blues I might have had.
It was like the “Choose Your Own Adventure” books as a child, except that all of these led to a happy ending, for this warehouse manager seemed to always be in a good mood, and the smiles just kept coming as he went through inventory and directed his clients to deposit their goods at the appointed spot.
My crew and I always left with at least half the number of smiles on us the manager had on him.
Try to count his smiles, and see if you will not add a smile to your own face to start the week.
This fractal made in Apophysis 2.09 is in one of my favorite palettes ... it has a view between gold and blue without a touch of blending green, and this is one of them ... I wanted this smiling creature to shine like new money with all its many smiles ... given that it is a fractal, you will be a long time counting!