Hello Sparks!
Tuesday. Meta. Uncorking the Bottle of Embers.
Uhm… How do we do this again?
Ahem…
Anyone here ever try to quit caffeine? It’s harder than it sounds.
You know how many everyday things have it in them, besides coffee? A quick list?
Okay, off the top of my head, let’s see…
black tea
green tea
soda
chocolate
sandwich spread
muffins
Sooo many OTC meds, even headache pills — the stuff you use to manage the withdrawal.
Why am I doing this to myself? That’s the question we end up asking, isn’t it? Not why I let myself get hooked on a psychoactive drug (literally!!) in the first place. Why try to get off of it? I don’t really have a good answer.
I miss dreaming.
Heads-up if you try it, the first 24 hours are brutal so forgive me if this one is a little rough.
Enough personal drama… Business.
I am still a little behind, so this particular unBottled Embers has to do with this particular post.
Just a reminder—TLDR is giving me the ick, so to get to the bottom of things, we sift through—
Ash and Cinders
General Morgan meets Logan Luke and Tom on the tarmac at the PG base outside the city. Logan gives us the shape of it, and the garrison and off they go to Morgan’s office to discuss the reason he wants them there. He’s procured a rare specimen, a Ruby Observer, legendary, sort of demigod, and wants to see what Luke makes of him. Cathy is a little over the top with logan and a little under confident in her detention tech. But, highly pleased with himself about having both boys there to test, Morgan pushes for Luke to interrogate the Observer right away, despite the iffy containment.
They start the process. Logan has to hold and with nothing else to anchor to, he uses the tank itself. It doesn’t go well. The Observer resists, and Luke’s abilities are tested. At some point during the operation Logan starts struggling to hold the Observer, and a vision takes over, of a tree on a hill, chocolate and strawberries and a girl named Maggie.
Questions!
Did you happen to notice the base’s layout at all? Keep it in mind.
General Morgan does seem inordinately pleased with himself here, doesn’t he? What’s that really about? Just the fact that he caught a demigod thing, or something else? Could it be another power play like he did in Elle’s room? And doesn’t Tom seem very uncomfortable with everything that’s going on, maybe too edgy, even for him?
This is also the first time we get an inkling of Luke’s limits. He seems to be having a hard time. Maybe we get a sense of the cost of the work he’s been doing for the PG huh?
The chapter ends with Logan in a vision, of a tree on a hill, strawberries and chocolate and a girl named Maggie. He’s never mentioned a Maggie before, so it must be the observer, but why would Dennis show us this? What purpose does the vision serve?
Lastly, Morgan has been watching the boys for years, now he’s finally gotten a demo of Logan’s abilities, maybe even what seems to him like a stretch of them. What do you think he takes away from this? What exactly does he see, and more importantly, what doesn’t he?
Okay Nerdy friends.
I’ll tell you a tale of races elder and the crystalline sky.
Once upon a time, a planet of countless glittering gems turned its inexorable rotation. It was alive with rainbow colors, the light refracting and bouncing all around, too weak to warm the surface, and so it remained, inert.
Until one day, a comet, disturbed from its path came crashing down and scattered the rainbows into clouds of dust. The clouds hung in the air obscuring the light and so, cut off from the radiance of the sun by this new atmosphere, the gems started to change.
Their crystalline structure altered and diversified into organic forms, each after its own kind. Some took on the shape of plants, others became animals creatures of land and air and sea, and yet others became intelligent beings.
When these emerged, they were lost for a time, so confused by their new nature that they didn’t know how to be but over time they learned that they were capable of shaping the rest to their will. They imbued their world with an energy they found within their own changed bodies and drew out the forms of other gems until all the gems were gone, and their world thrived with the forms of living things.
But being made of crystal and unable to regain their spent energy save in crystalline form, they began to grow weary. Some of them lay down and turned to dust, others looked to the heavens. They could not regenerate under the cloudy sky, or grow new crystals in the dusk, and with their atmosphere irrevocably changed they could not return to their natural state. And so, the bravest and strongest of them ventured outward, to scatter far and wide amongst the stars, to search out new worlds to shape and mold.
And in the radioactive vacuum they could become crystals once again. But with the loss of their organic forms, they lost also, their sentience. Once again becoming inert, the beings lacked even the will to accomplish their original goal of growing new crystals in whatever material they encountered. And there they remain to this day, hanging in the cosmos, observing the worlds they are forever removed from.
The legends say that sometimes a crystalline observer is struck from the heavens to the surface of a planet. Under the atmosphere, they regain the memory of their purpose. If they come across a powerful being there, the observer will draw out their true form as they did for the gems of their own world.
As old as the tale of the Deity herself, is the legend of the red man with fire and sadness in his eyes that kissed her lips and changed her forever.
Well, that’s all for now.
Still one more episode to catch up. Not making any more promises about when. I’ll get to it when I get to it. Maybe when this coffee thing smooths over. Sorry.
Keep well friends.
—Jenny, out*
Happy speculating, till the next time! Next story episode drops Friday.
New here? Don’t want to miss out -
Need more and can’t wait - check out the Bottled Embers INDEX for the rest of the story.
Oh my dear Jenny, you have embarked on a challenge only attempted by sub-Deities of the boldest and bravest spirit, and with the Blessing of She HerSelf! Go forth and vanquish the Demon, bring peace to Dreamland!
* * *
This is a Gem of Creation Mythology that you dropped today...I love this bit of backstory!