Quintet by Chipka
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No AI - This artwork was created entirely by hand or with traditional digital tools.
Description
Do you remember Oraset?
We'd gone in search of the fabled Myrasentian Sphinx, but we never found her. You knew—as well as I—that she has never lived. It is a pity that we live in an age without gods. Humanity has lived so long, and as we've grown and written our name across the night, we've left something out of our development. I didn't realize this until I sat with you on the East Bank of the River Mos.
Later, you wanted to see Koros, and a sky lit with two suns, and so—of course—we went there. We laughed at the doubled number of our shadows. We worked for a while in the landing pits: I will never forget those days, and our short life as docking crew.
We went to Pelem-Shest after that. We'd slept for a part of the way. Even with superluminal drives, it is a resource-expensive trip. We slept as our ship crossed through the Ingrian Rift, and so we missed it. I'm sure that we dreamed, but I can recall nothing but submerging myself in the hyperoxygenated fluid of my sleep capsule and breathing in that first, numbing lung-full of pinkish, half-gelatinous fluid. I slept as you slept, while our ship danced through hyper-g maneuvers that would have squashed us to wet/messy pulp, were it not for the fluid suspension that sustained us. Pelem-Shest was a quiet world, sad in its way, but I'll always remember it, because of the ring. The one you gave me.
Rudas was next. A hot/dry desert that stank of sulfur and salts; I've always liked the smell of salt, but perhaps it's little more than maudlin romanticism on my part. Their smells always remind me of you, the scent of your exertions during the long nights we spend at play between the expense of Terran-cotton sheets.
Now, on Tiamat, we make our home, and I am happy for it.
I smell salts when you sweat in the night, when I play naughty provocations across your flesh with the tips of my fingers. I always like it when you tremble and shiver...when your toes spread far apart before clenching as your back arches. Tiamat is a world for such passions as you've taught me to enjoy.
And it is here, beneath two moons that we make our home.
I remember Oraset, and our fool-hearted quest for the Myrasentian Sphinx. I remember the words of my family: the raging condemnation they expressed, all for the belief that I made my choices simply to spite them.
Them! They've barely seen even a quarter of the only world they've ever known!
You're a fool, they said, in their own distinct and incendiary ways. You're running away from the only life you're fit to live.
Those words in their sullen cruelty do not haunt me, but I remember them, and I feel their impact when they wander—ghost-like—through my mind.
Perhaps they are right.
Perhaps I am a fool.
But look at me...feel my hand—here, yes...right here!—with your heart beating beneath my fingers.
I remember Oraset and Pelem-Shest, I remember Rudas, and the long sleep we took in tanks of pink liquid. I remember these things, because each world, each un-found mythic sphinx has led us here.
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As akways, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and hopefully you're all having a great weekend.
Comments (30)
Fabulous images. As always your words move.
nice - well executed set!
Beautiful collage and image !!! Excellent artwork !!! Very well done !!! 5****** Hugs :):):)
Excellent collage. Spellbinding words to go with the scene.
SPEECHLESS
Great work~
Your worlds are mesmerizing; they seem so much more awake and alive than our little day-to-day...brilliant work!
Excellent work!!!
Very neat image and thank you. 5+.
Very well done and arranged, Chip. I especially like your choice of background for the five images.
another of your wonderful monologues, spoken to an unnamed lover & filled with all kinds of suggestions (of passion, play & passing-through many worlds)...I love how you give histories we only get glimpses of, but whose wholeness you make us feel; and how you intertwine them with moments between these two (beautifully written). And I love the details of the gelatinous-capsules people sleep in, and the fact that this grows out of a search for a sphinx...Then your visual is a set of planetary montages, very carefully done to not only look like real systems, but with configurations that look "significant"—ie, where each planetary-setup looks pregnant with symbolic meaning. (That's something you do extremely well both in image & word...) Another evocative glimpse into lives & many worlds, highly creative & with your always-thoughtful pacing & detail. Such a fine writer...
You've done it again, written words that are full of passion and life, and given them even more substance with this image--fantastic!!
fabuleux...very nice work !
Wonderful and very creative work
wonderful! I love the lights and shadows, the symmetry..
utterly wholesome creation, Chip!
Fine work, Chip; a story to read over and over again....
Oh my, fantastic Chipka. So creative and wonderful.
Your story is beautiful, my friend, full of light and love. The images you've created are all fabulous. I looked at them in full view, trying to decide which one I like best, and I changed my mind each time my focus moved. Truly awesome work, all of it.
Superb work
Brilliant work.
superb!
Awesome collage, great images!
Such exotic worlds meshed into a deeply romantic fable about questing. Nicely done.
well done.
cool spacetrip
Again, I'm torn between your words and your images. Each holds my eyes and mind .. each is so eloquent ..
What a fantastic collage..... very well done...
One of the best love stories I've seen in ages.
Great writing and great worlds too!