BACKSTORY: Venus on a cosmic wave

Venus rode a wave shaped like a fancy French curve. It weaved through consciousness with elegant defiance, neither obeying gravity nor resisting it, but treating both as mere suggestions.

Time and space surged and recoiled like immense, interlocking gears. Ancient mechanisms whose purpose had long been misunderstood continued on regardless. They turned anyway, grinding forward, reversing without warning, indifferent to logic or witness.

Beings and non-beings collided in a restless churn. Some sputtered briefly into form before dissolving again. Others flowed together, merged, split, and reassembled, driven by irrational attraction. Life wriggled with the urgent need to persist.

Ancient creatures watched. Their gazes were heavy with a mixture of judgment and indifference. A camel stood apart, impassive and unmoved, as if it had seen this play out so many times before. Others hissed with envy at Venus’s effortless balance, her calm amid the turbulence.

The space they occupied could not be defined, and therefore could not be claimed. Borders dissolved the moment they were imagined. One day that would all change but for now Venus rode on. Untouched by futile gestures, her path sliced cleanly through the noise. – L/C