Symbiont

By John/55555:

Around the morbid star rotated a crimson world. It was not crimson in hue, but rather in nature, washed with the metaphorical blood of unnumbered warriors. In the many battles that raged on that world not a single drop of blood was shed, and the color of that blood is not known. It was a battlefield of minds, and many fell.

Long ago, before the sun grew dim, these were a happy, peaceful people. They had no great gifts, and no great defects. They had no currency, they merely bartered their simple assets. Grain, meat and the work of their hands.

Time spun on, but little changed in this happy backwater realm. And then the sun guttered and began to fade.

The peace was broken as the fields failed to return fruit from the seeds of the people. There was panic in the streets, and the sons of that world strove among themselves.

Something to do with telepathy and mind battles, but the chaos keeps them alive so symbiosis ha. SON.

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By Caleb/Cederak:

Bound

Herbert,

I need you. And you need me. We've been through a lot the last few years. I think the first years together were the most unexpected. When you don't know someone very long, there's a lot up in the air. The only thing that was certain was that I saw something in you, sitting there at my brother's wedding, sitting there so unsure of yourself. I had no idea where my life would take me when I was first introduced to you…I had no idea the importance you would come to play. From a casual conversation and not hearing a word from you for several months after, I had stayed busy pursuing life. And then there was that day in the supermarket, a bit of serendipity and a phone number and we were off and running.

I enjoyed the early times together, learning to know you and your life. We shared a lot of wonderful times and there are many ahead. Despite the bad fight we had that one, despite the few weeks we chose not to say a word to one another, even despite the car accident, we remain nearly inseparable today. I had reflected for some time about the idea of children…children with you. I want to stress even now that I would have been apprehensive about  the matter with any man, it wasn't a fault of your own. Hard to believe they have children of their own now, off to experience the world for themselves.

Always know that I love you. Know that I need you…and you need me. And even now, into our nineties, whatever awaits us, there are many wonderful times ahead.

Yours,

Lydia

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By GSR/Nate:

They say there are ten types of people in this world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t. 

Those people should not be allowed near the English language.

What there really are, of course, are two kinds of people: leaders and followers.  Writers and readers.  Elders and youngins’, haves and have-nots, ones and zeroes. 

Or in short: presence and absence.

Everything, if you think about it, comes down to that.  Zoom in on your favorite book or chair, your lover’s hair, the bullet in the body of your best friend, and it all really comes down to that: presence and absence.  Was there an electron here, rather than a proton? Was there anything there, rather than a bit of empty space?

And then you can scale up.  Your friend being dead (versus alive) is due to the presence of a bullet in his left ventricle (versus an absence).  Your favorite book is you favorite because of the presence of one set of words over another.  Your lover is your lover just as much because of what they aren’t as much as what they are. 

But then you’ve got to ask, what if the other option was gone? What if there could only be electrons, not protons? 

That’s simple.  Then there wouldn’t be such thing as an electron.  There would just be.  There’d be no name for that thing, because there would be something to distinguish it from.

And that, now that would be boring, wouldn’t it? No names, no change?

No definition?

So we latch on to opposites and alternatives – because they define us exactly as much as we define them.  Give and take. 

One and zero.

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By Nick:

Unity

That which is in space by nature is together, a communal entity, sharing together the same material place.

Even closer are those live in union with each other, or those who at least stay some what near one another. Blessed is the unitive, accursed is the separate.

But, this is not always the case, and as I move after my target, I reflect upon this fact, even as I finger the blade in my hand.

Unity.

Unity is what caused a dozen benighted fools to gather into one home, thinking it was the will of the Spirit.

Unity.

Unity is what made us quarrel, and in the end what broke us.

Unity.

###### unity.

Unity.

Separate species should remain separate!

Unity.

The Vortixx ahead of me suspects nothing. Should he but glance my way he should see me, for we know each other far too well.

Unity.

This is what unity breeds. I begin to run.

Unity.

Soon there shall be unity.

Unity.

He turns now, and we are joined only by proximity. He frowns, and I can almost hear the curses he’s about to sound off.

Unity.

I drive my first into his face, unifying myself to him through the blow. He reels back and my other hand shoots forwards.

Unity.

My knife slams into his heartlight, unifying it to him through embeddation.

Unity.

Well, there is certainly no union between us, I reflect as I wipe my knife.

Damn unity.