The inevitable downward trudge
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processed photos
and creative writing
by @d-pend
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The day blazes with hazy intensity as I trudge up an uncharacteristically steep hill. Before the impressive summit, I pause to appreciate the beauty of this narrow slice of the planet. The solar orb burns behind an oily bubble of late afternoon cloud above and to the left of me. Unruly gnarls of grass and forgotten herbs (now known as weeds) assert their convolutions upon a cerulean horizon. Everything halts, subdued under an infinite roar of distant highway.

Eventually, satisfied with my mental (and actual) photographs, I proceed to the top and glance about. This is as expansive a view as one may find anywhere in the vast suburban sprawl of flat North Texas. Dense columns and slight wisps of cloud vapor stare back at the humanoid creature that has penetrated to the inner sanctum. HUDlike displays appear in my Mynd and I nod briskly as I ascertain the aetheric structural fitness of the entire panorama. From my augmented reality, hypersentient extraterrestrial guardians are visible behind their clever camouflages in the spaces between all earthly objects.

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Rough bricks of buildings seethe with the insectoid observation of million-faceted eyes. The aforementioned cloud-shapes hide avian nobles who glare sternly upon my feeble form. The very concrete of roads, sidewalks, and parking lots exudes intelligent spores of the invisible Mynd-mycelium below, immutably tracking the progress of the proud apelike beings that whizz, whir, and walk upon its surface. Were I to look down, fairies and elves of a hundred wondrous varieties would be hiding, and sleeping, and building, and chattering in the coarse grass below me. Even manufactured materials are the vessels for various abstruse intellects to incarnate into. It is all-pervasive. The universe lives — every atom thinks, and feels, and knows.
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To most, such a scene would be a vast revelation — perhaps a reality-melting shock impossible to recover from. To me, however.... a frown twinges my face into unsightly emotion. Have I become so jaded?

A deep breath brings the whine of nearby insects to focus. Another, and a second whine adds its harmonies to the mix — the electricity of my own brain. A third... the Schumann Resonance warbles below the subtle drones. Shall I take one more? My vision swims with film static. A fourth and final breath calls the Music of the Spheres forth to my perception in subaudible celestial tinkling.

Somehow, I became seated. I do not recall commanding my body to do such a thing, which ought to be slightly disturbing. Instead, I am filled with a profound expanse of Bliss. Heavenly views flick through the inner movie screen of my consciousness and I see the delicate blush of otherworldly morning glory blooms sway in the charmed wind of Elsewhere. About them flows an impossible lake sculpted Moebius-like to defy any known physics. Immortal trees rise at the horizon behind docks, umbrellas, and crafts built by I know not who. Beautiful glowing particles hover bokeh-like upon the entire view.

I am forced to blink at the overwhelming intensity of imagination, and an elegant "No Parking" sign grins at me from Earth. It frames itself gorgeously in a cretescape of artificial light and strained belief. Though I have returned to consensus reality, all the forms remain somewhat unclear and subtly flow into each other. Interesting, I think. The timelines are beginning to bleed into one another.

Glancing down at my hands, I behold a foundation of void, with neon colors painting geometric webbing that traces the spiderweb of my palm-creases in impossible shapes. Furiously, I blink my eyes harder — all the rainbows fade from my body, and it becomes again the hermetically-sealed urn of blood, organ, and bone.

My stomach rumbles noisily.
Yes, I declare inwardly.
It is time for the downward trudge.

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Original writing and images
by Daniel Pendergraft
— created for HIVE —
published on April 7th, 2022
to Alien Art Hive Community.
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_{Writing is fully original

and can be considered a first draft/blueprint

towards eventual completion of a finished piece

shared and preserved immutably on blockchain.}
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_{Images are original smartphone photographs

taken with iPhone 8+ and processed

using Deep Dream Generator

with custom style images.}
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