#as fast as darkness

[jack-of-crowns]

@flashfictionfridayofficial

'To Gather Paradise' by @jack-of-crowns

Their forms are silhouettes here in the Shadow beyond the farthest boundaries, three Jinn magi backlit by the bright incandescence of nascent stars, three vessels of dark energy bourne upon the mnemonic currents of spacetime who are come to unwind the warp and woof of an inevitable tapestry.

The eldest extends herself in somatic patterns, her consciousness splayed wide, upswept as the branches of the sharpened thorns of reality that hedge them in. Mistress and apprentices; each lesson pierces her more deeply than either of them, for she has tasted the bitter fruit of her past many timelines now; she knows that eventuality brings her only the comforts of having played that role again, but to the uncharted courses of the children...

"Lane, recite," Qeral commands, voice thundering as a breaking wave through the quantum foam as the incantation of intentionality begins to manifest.

"The One Whom is All effaces what He wills and establishes what He wills, and with Him is the Mother of the Book." Lane's shadow lengthens as her spoken syllables acquire resonance and echo.

Mile's essence contracts in a deep fana. "Forgive me, Yüce Büyücü, but does not the natural expansion of the multiverse already create new spacetime? Why do we seek to intervene?"

Qeral laughs harshly, cataphracts of standing anger dashing over jagged crescendos of what cannot be undone. "Was our exile by The Eleven natural, Mile? Perhaps our next field lesson takes us back to Sheol, and -" She composes herself, adding "- and your question is valid. Yes, the multiverse expands, but it expands under the unblinking gaze of our so-called illuminated kin in accordance with their unyielding will, who shape reality into predictable patterns, easy to control. We create...alternatives. Observe."

The sama begins, an ecstatic whirl of antiquarks and fermions, of dark matter and Shadow in an intricate weave. The motion and sound of collapsing probability fields reverberate; the tableau of reality beyond them shimmers, and all six dimensions of spacetime fold into a construct of ineffable beauty. "This," Qeral says softly, "is an Empty House."

"How...how does one even attempt to operate this," Lane muses, her Shadow-self flickering in consternation. "I thought pure Chaos was a theory."

"And, is this...thing even ethical?" Mile chimes in sternly. "Aren't we also guilty of superimposition?"

Qeral drifts motionless for several moments; casting spells of this magnitude unaided are taxing. "Remember that I was there." The apprentices are silent, knowing their place. "I was there when we fell. All that was beautiful to be found in the darkness, cast out from every probable future and consigned to be nothing more than the stuff of superstition and fear-mongering. No, children, this is not a sigil of superimposition. This is liberation."

"Come, feel the fibrations of true freedom."

Qeral draws the apprentices within the flows of her own essence, for their unprepared consciousnesses would otherwise be overwhelmed by sheer sonsuz. Even so, they can not help but be dizzied by the onrush of potential, the vertigo of unrestrained choice as the three explore the impossible geometries of the Empty House. Within its chambers lie the branes of every possible future, every road not taken, every choice yet to be made.

They are at once and at one with each other; their interconnectedness expressing itself in desire, desire manifesting as seeds bringing forth the fruits of what else and what if. Instead of the proto-nebula before them birthing hot suns destined to fuel the fiery judgments of the Luminarians, their mingled selves are stirring the elements of reality, weaving it into ever-branching filaments of a cosmic web.

- The darklines? They must be! -

- The past of what never became, yes -

- And of all those unrealized yesterdays? -

- They are only realities as yet unchosen, -

- And the darklines are never-ending paths, -

- From possible pasts to improbable futures. -

- Infinite lanes, and each an unchartable course!

- Infinite miles, and neither starting point nor stop! -

- And all shall be all; everywhen and nowhere. -

They are all as children now, imaginations playing in a garden of delights, rewriting the pages of history's hellscapes with their limitless volumes of hope. Where the architects of authoritarianism seek to build dead ends of self-fulfilling apocalypses, there an Empty House shall stand, creating intersections of refuge and salvation. Manifold gardens all along the darklines will blossom in the cold of the cosmic voids, and the magi of the Nightshade Jinn will go forth to gather Paradise with shadowed hands.

[c-rowlesdraws]

Hey tumblr.

I want to share a post from The Guardian that was published today.

“Inside the building, staffers said that Doge cultivated a culture of fear.

“It’s an extreme version of ‘who do you trust, when and how?’” said Kristina Drye, a speechwriter at the agency, who watched dozens of senior colleagues escorted out of the building by security. “It felt like the Soviet stories that one day someone is beside you and the next day they’re not.”

People started meeting for coffee blocks away because “they didn’t feel safe in the coffee shops here to even talk about what’s going on”, she added.

“I was in the elevator one morning and there was an older lady standing beside me and she had glasses on and I could see tears coming down under her glasses and before she got off her elevator she took her glasses off, wiped her eyes, and walked out,” she said. “Because if they see you crying, they know where you stand.””

Everyone should read this article about “DOGE” tearing apart USAID (and then read more reporting about how they are being allowed to do the same to other US federal entities). Elon Musk and his minions are violating our highest laws and destroying lives and livelihoods in the US and abroad. USAID is less than 1% of the federal budget— this isn’t about cost-cutting or “investigating fraud”. It’s about cruelty and seeing how much unlawful devastation and psychological warfare they can get away with, with the intention to repeat this process at one federal agency after another. They already have access to IT systems at the Treasury, NOAA, and other agencies, and have taken over OPM (essentially HR for the federal government), using the latter to send demeaning and threatening e-mail blasts to civil servants.

I’m urging everyone who reads this to recognize what’s happening here and how abhorrent and frightening it is. I wager that even most people who wanted Trump back didn’t want a centibillionaire technocrat making unilateral decisions on which parts of the federal government to “feed into the wood chipper” (as he has described his team’s actions at USAID in a recent post on X, The Everything App).

Please call your elected representatives and urge them to act against Musk now— before his actions make our legislative branch totally irrelevant.

I’ve been seeing posts about Musk’s coup-in-progress going around on here, but I feel like a lot of people still aren’t aware of the extent of it, and I really want to help get the word out. I’m heartsick for all the civil servants at USAID and beyond. Some of them, their unions, and some Democratic congresspeople and others are speaking out, but these workers need us everyday Americans to speak out for them, too.

Thank you for reading. And anyone who isn’t American, please keep us in your thoughts.

[proselles]

alex hirsch was really just so pissed that no one saw his epic old man yaoi that he went and wrote a whole new book and made a whole website specifically to show meticulous evidence that this weird old man fucked a triangle.

he really said what were ford and bill really doing in that pocket dimension they shared, hm? did you ever think of that? oh - you think it was just chess? hm. interesting. i dont.

the ultimate rare pair shipper. i have never seen a creator do this before. absolutely fascinating at every angle.

[oasisr]

after hearing "simply having a wonderful christmas time" by paul mccartney 74 times while working in retail, I came to the conclusion that they shot the wrong beatle

[heartnosekid]

blvisuals on ig

[neon-mega-turtle]

Evenly Matched Adversaries

(Plot Twist:

Nashi is lying his ass off. They aren’t actually medicated. They’re just too traumatized to act out)

[uncanny-tranny]

Amatonormativity has destroyed so many people's understanding and acceptance of themselves, and it's heartbreaking.

Yes, it is normal to be in your 20s, 30s, or older and not have lost your virginity, had a first kiss, or a partner. It is normal to say that you aren't ready for those things, too! It is normal if your life doesn't follow the "college graduate -> engagement -> buying a home -> 2.5 kids and a dog" trajectory that so many people have idealized.

So many people associate maturity with losing your virginity, or having a first kiss, or a serious relationship, and I think that's a dangerous association. Maturity isn't gained through those things, and you don't have to have those experiences to be considered "mature" or "grown." It is not a bad thing to go at your pace. Nobody else can live your life but you. If you end up having those experiences, that's great! But it should be done because you want to experience them, not because you feel "broken" and "immature" without them.

[gaylittleguys]

unstoppable force vs immovable object

[bookinit02]

i really do think there’s a huge disconnect on here w/ people who have never used tiktok as to what it actually is and who actually uses it. the number of people i’ve seen call it a “teen dancing app” is actually insane. it has not been a teen dancing app since i was in high school, around 2016 - 2020. the main communities i saw on a daily basis were 1) black history/anti-racism educators, 2) high school & college teachers sharing in-classroom strategies and frustrations with the education system, 3) local/state political leaders giving real-time updates on behind-the-scenes government decisions, & 4) community activism & leadership. like tiktok is an adult platform. almost every person i interacted with was my age or older. and yes it completely depends on your fyp and how you interact with the app, yes there’s still teenagers and dance videos and literally anything else you can think of. but these communities of adults aren’t insubstantial at all, they have literally millions of interactions on a daily basis. there’s about a million other types of communities that i could name just off the top of my head, because the range of users was SO diverse and thriving. it’s a long-distance community tool, just like any other social media—and honestly much better than any other social media, because it relies primarily on the kindness of strangers. i saw at least 5-10 videos today of queer people in rural areas panicking because they don’t have any access to queer community on any other platform or in real life. and before i end this i do want to say i think tiktok is coming back, i think this is a highly orchestrated political move, etc., but i do know it won’t ever be exactly the same. people are panicking about free speech violations because tiktok was a place where people fucking SPEAK. i have never seen mass mobilization and communication in this same way for as long as i’ve been alive. it is the people’s app, not just a silly teenage thing. if you’re not on tiktok and never have been, please stop talking about it like you know anything at all😭

[johnny-dynamo]





Cool Rides by Loopy Dave

[fernsnailz]

cat's cradle

[this is from the team dark zine i made! you can find it all here]

[jack-of-crowns]

'And We Are Not Going Back' by @jack-of-crowns

We still remember them; though those memories will not reach this hallowed darkness for countless aeons yet to come, yet we still remember them well. Was is not written of Yusuf that the eleven would turn upon him, casting their own brethren into a pit so that they themselves could bask in the radiance of the brightest stars, ever remaining heedless of the prophet who had been set amongst them?

So it has been, ever since the rest of Jinn-kind chased us from the morning realms with all the fiery fury of a quasar, burning out every last trace of our existence behind us in their incandescent wrath as we fell starless into the unfathomable pits of Sheol. But there was yet one last beacon, there amongst the roaring maelstrom of foundering suns; the Presence of which no sensor could ever detect entered into our many minds and gave us the way.

Qeral comes up behind them then, slips an arm around Albot's degenerate iron torso, interlaces her fingers through the pensive digits of a restless hand. "Come to my chambers when your reverie is done," she murmurs to them, but their psions are fixed upon the dark waves of Shadow lapping upon the castle's hull with the asynchronous caress of chaos, searching for any signal that a memory too terrible to recall has betrayed its ghost upon the event horizon of this, their farthest sanctuary and refuge.

The sorceress simply clasps them that much tighter, willing her essence into the Hench with all the beautiful darkness she can conjure, smoothing the bubbles of Rydberg constants boiling within their network like the frothy crest of a rogue wave being dissipated into the endless expanse of the sea.

"Even if they come for us out here," she whispers reassuringly, "they will never be able to catch up to where we will be when they get as far as where we have been. It's a simple principle of the continuum after all; one can never outrun one's future- at least by traveling within the limits of electromagnetism."

Albot's physical and psychic tension seems to ease at her ministrations, and they gaze down at their mistress with the calmness that has come from the banishment of those long-past fears, for not all forgetfulness is a harbinger of sorrows yet to come. "You are correct, as always," they reply, as the two of them retire together. "They will never come for us, and even the optical echoes of their reign of terror will never reach us out this far, galaxies away. We have found our place in Allternity, and here we stay."

"And we are not going back."

[nekrosmos]

Returning from an op and immediately running to kiss your hot pilot husband under the first snow of the year 🌨️🚁

[angelspearlheart]

[humming-fly]

Team Dark Day 3 - wandering around in the woods before the sun rises is always oddly tranquil (even more so if you aren't worried about getting jumped by a mountain lion)

-and for those wondering what Shadow's wearing there:

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