THE MUSE & TALE

For
my
Mother

who
the
wæves
may
shower
in
sugar

~

For
the
Captain

as
clones
of
one

~

For
Jusha

holder
of
my

blue


After everything was said and done, I found out a wild gang of barefeet alien hippies at the Telepathic Trancewave Festival had resurrected the Zauberin. She got in touch with me, boarded my ship & apologised for our holographic spark. She then gave me the real one which she had simply kept hidden, in fear of it being swept away by the Wæves. It was intact and more real than I could’ve ever imagined it to be. We took one last sailing trip together. We went further out than we ever did before. I showed her the Wæves, the reason why never to fear them, and then I said goodbye. To merge again only where the Wæves stop their crest and trough.

~

1. This part gets you into it

The Captain & I met for the first time™ under the stars one night on a unique little planet, located inside the constellation of Mandy. We both frequented this planet for its pleasant atmosphere. Life had evolved there to love itself to death. The concept of predator and prey did not exist. There was no food chain. All inhabitants fed on the elementary particles of hugs and kisses. A happy place. These particles vibrating along the air influenced our meeting no doubt. We quickly grew to love each other like brothers. And it is there the Captain told me about this peculiar tale he carried in his head: The Cow Princess & The Spacetime Where We Re-evaluate Our Feelings.

A marvellous story of a human and their clone, plastering themselves with stickers and travelling through dimensions in search of the Cow Princess like madmen. The story’s premise was fun, inspiring and full of adventure. So much so that after having been told the story by the Captain, I wanted to become a fulltime™ buccaneer and travel the expanses of the Milky Wæves myself. The story also felt incomprehensibly important. At the time™ I didn’t know why. I insisted we had to materialise it in some shape, so that we could share it with as many lifeforms as possible in and beyond the greater multiverses, all over the Milky Wæves. The Captain entertained the idea and acceded. So we set out on making an indestructible time™-pod containing the story somehow. One easy to float around difficult celestial corners and everything inbetween. A project.

It would take time™ to figure out how to best lay out the story for this purpose and what shape the time™-pod would take on. So while the idea marinated, we would travel together for a while.

~
Now, you have to know, I was adopted by a farmer’s family from the Nizede Plateau early on in life and that’s where I grew up. It’s a Plateau made entirely out of poo and sticky goo. It’s a shitty place. The important thing to know about the Nizede Plateau, however, is that everything in this vast and flat landscape doesn’t just stick and stink, it also fuses with your skin.
It does so painlessly and unknowingly. But then it also starts attaching to thoughts and feelings. Making it so that you forget anything other than the Plateau exists at all. Essentially trapping you in a two-dimensional plane, a Plateau, if you will. They also sell good chicken there.

I spent my early years on this Plateau but I always carried the faintest memory of something resembling the grand Wæves and a desire to, what I now understand to be, explore. One day I impulsively jumped on a space freight train carrying that year’s chicken harvest out. It ripped me right off the sticky surface. One of the train's stops was in the constellation of Mandy. I got off there and that’s where I ended up living for a while. Hopping in between its planets, one of which was that sweet planet the Captain and I met on.

Although I spent some time™ in the constellation of Mandy, feeling a new dimension and growing out of the Plateau’s two-point perspective before I met the Captain, most everything outside of the constellation of Mandy was still completely unknown to me.

~
In travelling with the Captain, he showed me around dimensions that surpassed experience. He walked me through a kaleidoscope of multifaceted senses, and introduced me to beings I would never have met otherwise. Acquaintances of this helm-taking socialite, the Captain.
I grew to consider him a great mentor. To him, the connecting grid between all beings, ~ the & ~ was of utmost importance. Togetherness.
He explained early on that he felt a gentle spark in the & the moment we first met. He told me that this spark revealed we would one day do something truly great together.

A Spark? The &?


Let me tell you the tale.


2. This part is pretty cool, but with some sadness too

It was the Long Heat on the Wæves. During these first few years of our travelling together, the Captain and I took on the odd job of sketching wormholes here and there. Making alien cash as draughtsmen whilst dreaming up the construction of our time™-pod. During this time™, I decided to go on my first solo adventure as a swashbuckling space~buccaneer as well.

I had checked my vitals, claimed an ill-equipped ship and took off.
It was then that I started documenting who and what I encountered, creating this very journal.

~
So here I was, strapped on and excitedly sailing along on my first adventure when æon-old Peacekeeper* suddenly spawned onto the helm of my ship. He didn’t explain himself. He didn’t explain much of anything at all, really. All he did was pull a faint glittery mist out of a bright white line he'd conjured in front of me, running from the tip of my nose to my lower belly. He then guided this mist into his container, and disappeared in a snap.
It left me in bliss. Admittedly, a sweet place to start a journey.
I sailed and sailed in this bliss for two moon-days. I felt inspired to dance for most of it. Until I took a left at the Plum Nebula and stumbled upon a pack of Matterlings*.
Magnificent creatures these behemoths are. Truly awe-inspiring but also deeply disturbing. They carry a black hole on their back and have to care for it. I could not get close, not within many light years. My ship was weak and I’d get brutally consumed if I did. No Matterling would stop it either, to them all was holy. From a distance, though (and you really don’t need to be that close, they are supermassive), it was a pleasure observing their ritualistic customs and natural beauty. I took notes and made a sketch.
Meanwhile, in another corner of the Wæves, the Captain had already landed in deep distress. Something had happened to him.
I cut my first adventure short, as I rushed to see him.

~
The Captain had been travelling too and he’d met an exotic healing-type creature. His type, unfortunately. This creature had horns made out of weird avant-garde chemical elements uniquely owned by its species. Interesting detail because it was only later that I’d learn these horns are a predictable sign of trouble for pirates.

~
A merging gone wrong. As many do.

Having been bound to the Nizede Plateau for a large part of my early life, devoid of sparks, I hadn’t attempted a merging with another creature before so I didn’t know the intricacies involved. Though I would also learn later that a merging required more than just a spark in the &. Sometime™s merging failed for whatever reason and that’s what had happened to the dear Captain. I listened to him in distress as much as I could. But help, I could not. Not yet.

Rather than go to a Memory Removal service and extract the memory of the spark as any sane sci-fi alien would’ve, he took the opposite route. He dove into himself. As far as he could. He ripped the spark out of the &, dragged it onto his ship and ate it. For months. Until no fire was left.

This was the first time™ I saw a spark and by extension the & in person myself.

The most beautiful poems and songs were conjured out of this violent consumption. Poems and songs DJ Universe itself continues to play to this day.

I sat by the wayside, worried but marvelling at the visceral determination.
This nuclear transmutation of matter.

A simple spark, resolved into the poetic beat of the Wæves.
He called it OBSO.

~
During this time™, our time™-pod was not being dreamt of anymore. There was no space for it. I continued going on solo adventures.

I had lunch with the Fisherman* a couple of time™s and went and sat by the Waste of Time* for a bit.
Terribly boring - would not recommend. Though his stash of Milk is impressive.

Oh! It might be time™ to explain the infatuation with Milk on the Wæves. Milk is generated in the Cow Princess’ left titty (the Milk-giver) and is the most valuable commodity in the universes and multiverses and so on and so forth, all over the Wæves. It is so valuable, in fact, that when the Cow Princess went missing, as the Captain’s story goes, pretty much everyone was very upset about it.

Did I tell you his story was actually a true story?

Well. More on that later.


3. This part is really exciting! Big adventure!

My solo adventures came and went, some booty was acquired and the Long Heat came to an end.
The Captain had survived his spark’s transmutation and started dreaming of our time™-pod once again. Though at the start of the Long Freeze, I went on one more adventure before committing myself to the time™-pod’s creation as well. A scavenging run rather, for valuables that might help us finance our time™-pod.
I hit up the Purple Dwarf nebula.

~
During my travels prior, I had learned of this mythical nebula hidden away within some forty dimensions. Treacherous waters, I was always told. Nothing more challenging for my shitty ship but it was apparently there that the rarest booty, the really valuable stuff, was stashed. So I was going to find out.

I packed my ship which was slightly more resilient now due to a new Jolly Roger I hoisted on it and some other helpful stuff I’d picked up on my travels, such as the Wævey Compass*. But apparently not quite resilient enough for the adventure I was about to go on. This, I’d learn quickly.

The journey through the forty layers of dimensions did go surprisingly well. There was this big intimidating book describing complicated steps, with tips and tricks, to help survive the journey. I took it with me just in case and it had some good points. But honestly, all you really have to do is let go of the wheel.

The authors of the book wouldn’t have made as much cash off that though.

As soon as I arrived in the Purple Dwarf nebula, however, I entered a world of trouble. And the book ended there as well. “Good luck buddy! Thanks for taking the time™.” It said on its last page.

The Purple Dwarf nebula is a ruthless test of one’s ship. And mine didn’t pass that test in any way whatsoever.

Popping through the fortieth dimension, I rapidly decelerated. I wanted to have a look around, make sure all was well and maybe even enjoy a view or two. Which, briefly, I did. Rarely on my travels before had I seen such stunning spacescapes. Waterfalls made out of the finest silky stardust crashing onto the event horizons of velvet black holes. Red dwarves dancing on rough canvases of bright blue dust clouds. Shapes and stories fracturing and scattering into stars composed of all colours at once but separate, their vibrancy increasing at a constant pace. All existing frequencies opened up and the poetic beat DJ Universe plays became a clear and phat ass bass.

But, it didn’t take long before my awe and ship were struck. A comet made of solid labradorite came in out of nowhere and ploughed right through my new Jolly Roger, ripping into it a gaping hole and pulling my ship to starboard hard. I completely lost balance. Frantically, I looked up and saw a stream of the comet's tail particles head towards me. I didn’t have time™ to jump or roll out of the way so I lifted my hands and covered my face. The particles hit me and I was mortified. But oddly enough they felt like the softest, most delicate caresses. When they’d passed and I checked for damage, their bright blue glow had ingrained into my hands.
I regained a foothold and tried to rebalance my ship. Before I could, though, an enormous stringy tentacle latched onto the bottom of the ship. And two more, swept in from the top. All three tentacles then started pulling in different directions. My ship was not really into this type of thing (some are, it’s a fetish). So it didn’t take long for it to shatter into a trillion pieces.
Here I was then, bobbing around in space, by myself. No ship and with my hands glowing like two bright blue fuck off beacons. When the Wævey Compass unbeknownst to me barrelling right towards me at high velocity, hit me in the back of the head and I lost consciousness.

~
I woke up on the shores of the Purple Dwarf nebula. Hands still glowing just as bright and looking at them didn’t help my massive headache. Regardless, I was still alive. And I reminded myself I was there to find booty. So I stood up and looked around. All around me were the depressed remains of my ship. My partially ruined flag and my Compass (which looked like it had just as much of a headache as me), I stuffed back into my pocket. The rest, I didn’t really care about. Looking over the horizon, I could see an unusually solid shape on the shores a bit further away. Definitely not something from my ship. I toddled towards it and as I got closer I realised the shape was a lot bigger than it first appeared. In fact, it was about the size of a cute and cosy café. Getting closer still, I saw it actually really was a café, or more like a lounge bar. I got excited until I realised it was clearly deserted and partially sunken into the stardust.
A drink would’ve done wonders, though, so I entered. You never know if these places still work! It didn’t. It was empty and dark and cold. But the blue glow of my hands made it possible for me to look around.
By the marks on the walls, I could tell this was once an ancient Tribe’s ship.

~
The Tribes are twelve-head teams of aliens who guard and maintain the Antibubbles in certain sectors of the Milky Wæves. There’s a lot to be said about them but we won’t get into that now.

~
Looking around this ship, I found a chest with a modest amount of lavish jewellery and pots and glasses for shots but also five large and important looking scrolls. In mint condition.

They certainly looked valuable and, opening them up, they appeared to be talking of an otherworldly, expansive inner realm. Its caption read “Life Hacks for a Student of the Imagination”. Great! I stashed them into my other pocket and moved on.

As I stepped out of this cold but cosy lounge bar, a small ship was waiting for me outside, hovering. This ship looked unlike any other ship I had seen. Seemingly glowing by candlelight, it was made up out of translucent layers upon layers of fabric-like veils and the whole thing continuously but slowly shifted shape and colours by the flow of photons dancing around it. At this point I also noticed a luscious scent had filled the air around me. Exotic herbs from around the Wæves were hidden within. Well, not really hidden since you could clearly smell them from a fair distance. But it was good stuff.
Inside, I could see a humanoid silhouette get more and more crisp as the creature inside moved through the walls of its ship, towards me. Ooh mysterious.

This, my fellow aliens, was the Zauberin.
Cute in trying to make it look effortless, she gently floated out of the walls of her ship and stopped in front of me. Without saying anything, she then gave me a kiss on the cheek and held one of her three hands against my hip for balance.

Well. That was that.

I looked into her eyes and the two dots below them were beaming. Slowly, I raised my glowing hand and held it against her most right arm.
Goosebumps ensued.
I’ll have you know, I learned what a spark in the & truly was right there and then.

I’ll keep it short; the Zauberin saw my ship get wrecked and came down to check if there were survivors and if so, to see if they were okay. I told her what had happened. I hit her with my best flirtations. We got on her ship and sailed out of there.

Curiously, she also had these uniquely shaped horns, much like the ones the Captain’s healing-type creature had. But I didn’t pay much attention to that fact. Our spark was enough to keep me distracted.


4. This part hurt to write

I showed the Zauberin the scrolls I’d found and she liked them so I gave her one, as a gift.
I asked her if she knew any cool shady merchants which would buy the rest off me. She told me of a dimly lit saturday market on an inner rim of the constellation of Hanz which might have those. So she flew us there and stayed by her ship while I went to find a suitable buyer. Due to its reputation of being dimly lit, we figured my glowing hands would attract too much attention at the market so the Zauberin gave me gloves with magical glyphs on them to hide the blue of my hands and off I went. Into the market.

~
Nevermind my glowing hands attracting attention. The market was nuts. There were mute buttons for sale at near-every stand so you could walk around without drowning in the audible spectrum and it felt like pretty much anything imaginable was probably for sale here. There were bootleg teleportation stickers, Hookahs of Time™, baby Matterlings with miniature black holes kept in cages, Surfers* for sale, all imaginable auras kept in vials, one stand even claimed to have captured the Little Cunty* which you could see for an inordinate amount of Milk.
All in all overwhelming but if there was a place I could find a buyer for the scrolls, it’d be here.

Inbetween the crowd my attention was caught by a group of aliens all dressed in orange robes. Each with a disproportionately large mechanical globe over what I assume was their head. In front of the group, one orange-clad lad strutted confidently holding a sign saying “No.1 Guru of the Imagination”. Well would you look at that! Chance just so happened that these were actual Students of the Imagination and their guru. I went up, introduced myself, showed him the scrolls and explained where I got them and why one was missing. He couldn’t contain his excitement and wanted to buy them off me immediately (bummed about one missing but he understood my predicament). He offered me more Milk than I could carry, deal made, we said our goodbyes and each went our way, happy.
I’d never had so much Milk in my life and I’m an impulsive alien so right after receiving it, while still on the market, I went and bought a brand new space~pirate ship. Huge and resilient. I thought, "Fuck it." and hired an enthusiastic crew as well. (They’ll remain nameless and unmentioned, but they were of paramount importance and help for this story from here on out).

~
I headed back to the Zauberin with my shiny new ship and crew and it got to my head. I even started calling myself a Captain. That was just an arrogant phase.

The Zauberin was impressed and, using my new ship, we had the most romance-riddled trips and expeditions together. We took a few breaks outside of time™ and skinny dipped into each other’s eyes as often as we could. We had plenty of cosmic lattes and enjoyed the multidimensional angles of our spark in the &.

Naturally, I had fallen madly in love. At one point, we visited a telepathic trancewave festival where she OD’d on some exquisite alien gash from the mushroom troll and died.

I’m cutting this part noticeably short because, just before that little mishap, she had gone and crushed my heart in a most dishonourable series of events.

I was wrecked.


~
It took time™ to continue from this Zauberin-centred chapter, I understood the Captain’s failed merging like never before. I didn’t want to go to a Memory Removal service either. This was my first real spark so I decided to, in the Captain’s likeness, dive in deep and grab it by its rays. I noticed it had a weird texture but still, I pulled it onto my new ship.
Digging into it with a knife and fork, it fell apart easily. It was a hologram, hollow.
I Milked what I could into three poems for DJ Universe to play and, to their tune, scrubbed that persistent blue glow off of my hands. A bitch to get off, that was. The poems went a little something like this:

~
💧
Though sparks
Dim when
One
is sailing
towards the rim

It rains
Pinky promises among freezing hands
For a ship to shift gears into different spheres
A cleaning of space
and soap and scrape
your scent off the interior walls
leaving them
without a trace
Walls
To be run into
if some

remains

It rains

💧
To accept a quest
collect the rays
Quest complete
Embrace
and graced
your hand
along my hip
Spell one
Spilt wine
Space made
“Don’t look at me like that”
A smile graced
your lips
“Like what?”
Spell two
A stone
Invited into my space
Compass
Pointing at you
Quickly erased
Spell three
Moss agate tucked
Got lost in your three dots
Knew I was fucked
Spell five
Dance
But no lips
Sugar
But no tip
Magic
Innocent tricks
Spell six


The hat
gave it away

I was cursed


💧
All hands on deck
Pulled one card
The Lovers
& Connect
Hit from starboard
Two time™s two
Look left
& Forget
Full speed ahead
Left my card
Keep it
& Eject
Losing altitude
Twist, turn
Jump ship ~

~
The horned species she and the Captain’s healing-type creature belonged to, I now know, is the antithesis of pirate-kin. By nature, a merging of the two is impossible due to the fundamental way in which the genes misunderstand each other.

I returned to the Captain. Now knowing more deeply of his previous perils and him understanding mine. He gave me comfort and hugs and I wiped the slate clean (not really, I was terribly damaged) because it was now time™ to work on our time™-pod together! Woohoo!


5. This part leads into the &

Riding a slug that continuously kissed our bum on our trusted sweetheart planet in constellation Mandy, the Captain and I were brainstorming and going through options on how to build our time™-pod. During the years I was off on my adventures, he, of course, did not sit still either. As an adventurer and true pirate by heart himself; he’d travelled around and gathered just as many new experiences. He even grew to love and eventually do a merging with another exotic, this time™ hornless, creature. Rather angelic, the new one was, in fact. In doing so, he’d strengthened his conviction that the & was of utmost importance. I had experienced the power of the & myself now first hand, and it had hurt madly. Though simultaneously I had grown an appetite to explore its potential for good feelings and chemical sparks further. We agreed sharing the awareness of it would connect lifeforms together.
This seemed like a pretty noble thing so we decided to make it the main objective of our time™-pod, now aptly named the & Of It All - The Captain always did have a knack for smart wordplay.


~
We would aim to use the Cow Princess story as a means to expose the &.
The Captain proposed to get everyone from the story together, including the Cow Princess herself, and have them act out their part in the story again. Over the course of three moon-days, in the form of a theatre-like play.
For it to be recorded and loaded onto the time™-pod.
That’s right, everything and everyone in the original story was real.

I'll now briefly tell you about that story.
~
The main characters were: the Cow Princess herself, the mushroom troll (her lover), You (the protagonist), Thæo (your clone), The two mothers (you and Thæo’s) and Nijitsu (your brother).

The Cow Princess went missing because she was out with her lover, the mushroom troll. You and Thæo go looking for her. You find the mushroom troll, though without the Princess. You kick his ass and find, in his pocket, twelve stickers that teleport you to any place you desire on the Milky Wæves. When you slap a sticker on, it seeps into your skin and turns into a sweet tattoo. Lots of things happen. Crazy interdimensional space stuff. And eventually you and Thæo find the Princess and take her to your moms’ house.
You’ve been gone and unreachable for a while so your two mothers react like any mother would. The Princess gets mad, and you feel bad.

~
That’s the jist.

Besides that, to really light up the &, we decided to invite the aliens I’d documented in my journal to our three moon-day long event as well and let them play their part too.

It felt a daunting task but the & seemed to dig the idea and made efforts in making it flow. At first, this came in the form of a shooting star that shot through the atmosphere of the peaceful planet the Captain and I were chilling on. It crashed into the forest right next to us with a loud crack and bang. We went to check the landing spot and, inside a spaceship notably shaped like a muffin, to our amusement, we found an adorably frustrated alien babe. She was frustrated because she was convinced she had everything under control right before losing control and almost her head in the process.

It was the right alien to crash here though because, conveniently enough, she had a tall antenna inbetween her inquiring eyes that allowed her to telepathically communicate with anyone she pleased using the &, anywhere along the expanse of the Wæves. The recipients of her call needed to accept the call first though, and how often does that happen with unknown callers, really? Apparently more often than you’d think. That, her innate urge to keep things under control, and her sweet tooth and heart proved to be a perfect fit.

We told her about our plans for the time™-pod, though not before letting the slug hug and kiss her bum too, and she loved it. Both the kissing and our idea.

~
The project gained traction. The antenna babe took it on herself to oversee the entire organisation and called all of the relevant aliens, which worked out great! Meanwhile, the Captain and I began looking for a space to build four elaborate sets in. Theatrical versions of real locations from across the Wæves that the original story took place in. We went back to the dimly lit saturday market in constellation Hanz. We asked around and found a suitable spot we could use for free just outside of the market, on a flat patch of land only inhabited by grumpy rocks. But that’s something we could deal with.

We grew a core team of ten aliens.
It started with the Captain, the babe with the brilliant antenna, and I.
Then, the Captain’s angelic partner joined and proved invaluable in the transportation of goods with his cargo ship, the only place where he'd occasionally let go of his angelic tendencies, and endless kindness.
Then, a mighty shape-shifting liquid blob, one with the ebb and flow of the Wæves, rolled in to coordinate the aliens in their physicality. He knew their mannerisms better than they knew it themselves.
Then, a photonics composer, master of his craft, joined to express the photons just right for a flawless recording. Then, a bubbly costumier famous across the Wæves would take care of the costumes and, together with a head-facemaker, make everyone look their best all three moon-days. And then a young multi-handed technologist helped in the construction of the sets and ensured the technology kept up.
With this team, we were satisfied.

We then collected a plethora of interstellar fashion designers’ garments, impossible fabrics and lights. We gathered facemakers and aliens from around the Wæves and let everything and -one match and blend. For one, to record the story truthfully. But mainly, to get as much life as possible involved in this nexus-like event for the &, exemplifying itself.

Three moon-days breezed by, a mountain of stories and sparks happened, were recorded and gathered. The time™-pod was loaded up. It was a blast.

Well, Look around and see for yourself.

the &

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


ENCOUNTERS

Peacekeeper

Unique entity. Interacting with this one was a pleasure beyond pleasure. As it floated on an air of acceptance in front of me, the Peacekeeper waved its hand along my forehead and materialised a crooked line, brilliantly white of colour, along the path of its finger. It then proceeded to pull a faint glittery mist out of this line. As it did so, I felt a sense of pure tranquillity ripple through my entire body, starting in between my eyes and ending along my extremities. It then gently guided this mist into the container it carried with it and disappeared in an instant along with the white line. The effects and blissful state of mind resulting from this ritual lasted for two full moon-days.

Matterling

As far as I've been able to observe, a black hole is placed upon each member of this leviathan species' back as a rite of passage into adulthood. It seems the creature must care for this black hole and maintain it for the rest of his life for it to not consume him. However, I've witnessed elders of the species not have a black hole on their back at all anymore, the reason for this is as of yet a mystery.

Waste Of Time™

This one owns only a crystal hookah in the shape of an hourglass. While it has countless of limbs, most do nothing. The few that do bother, only mess around with the hookah, its accessories and occasionally with some Milk. In the fifteen years I spent seated next to it to study its customs, I never saw it as much as attempt to do anything else.

Noodleist

Has a beard, a myriad of colourful strings hanging off its chin resembling a santoor. Its three fingers are in fact small hammers. He plays these strings like a santoor, each string hit emits a deep colourful glow. The aura surrounding him changes patterns throughout the deafeningly silent song he plays.

Fisherman

Together with his companion, the Fisherman uses wormholes to fish for new star signs in gravity wells. Over lunch one day, he explained to me how he "shoots for the stars". To weed out the undesired ones, he has to weigh them against a mysterious organ from his companion. The star signs lighter than the organ get thrown back into the gravity well, the ones heavier are collected. I don't think he does anything else with them, he just collects them in his big ass backpack.

Zauberin

As an occupation, she weaved the Milky Wæves inbetween threads coming out of three pots marked “Shimmering Sugar”, “sparks” and “Pinky Promises”. And just like that, she created these iridescent garments which when touched, kicked your neurons into the elusive Milky Ocean, beyond the Wæves.
With these threads of hers, she helped me fix my buccaneer’s flag too. Each of her three arms was imbued with its own gravity well though and as such they were attracted to each other which made for an awkward love triangle.

Surfer

Native to Photon particles, at first you'd think these creatures are just sculptures since they're born completely crystallized. In this state, they wait for the tides to come in. At which point they enthusiastically decrystallize and ride those waves in a gnarly manner forever. Problem is that a photons' tides cycle is so slow, matter of aeons, that most of the surfers never get to surf.

Ginger Pygmies

Inhabitants of the Ginger Kingdom, they live in colonies around the Ginger Palace. They dance, float, play around and have fun more than anyone. The more, the meme-ier. On their head they carry a bioluminescent ball which only lights up when a member of the royal bloodline is nearby. When this occurs, their heart rate goes up tenfold as well and they automatically slip into a state of awe.

Solar Mermaid

At first, I thought I’d simply met a fellow pirate. It was only slightly after our initial encounter that I’d started noticing hints of some trademark Solar Mermaid seduction.
I’d learned of Solar Mermaids from the Cow Princess right before so their nature lay fresh in my mind and I knew, layers weren’t their best asset. Seduction however, was.

But this one was different, certainly from the sacrum down she was all Solar Mermaid but above, her eyes told a different story. I’ll try to sit and listen for it one day.
Sadly, she didn’t lull me into a Solar Mermaid Trap at once. Perhaps because of a lack of time™, perhaps because her true nature does lie somewhere else.

Trashcollector

A young but wise traveller. She usually travels with two other souls by her side, though she’s the shortest. She looks up constantly but somehow in doing so she builds a mental map according to what’s above for what’s below, at her feet. There, she finds the hidden trinkets that nobody else picks up on because they’d be looking for them directly.

Cow~ards

Inhabitants of the Ginger Kingdom. They’re servants at the Ginger Palace and also obsessive worshippers to the royal family. Specifically, they praise and worship the Cow Princess’ left titty (the Milk-giver).
They are obnoxious addicts to the Milk but because they’re such devoted servants, the royal family keeps them around.
Now, with each carton of Milk they receive as payment is a silly gift card attached. And these cards hold cute little meanings.
In truth, the cow~ards aren't addicted to the actual Milk itself but to these cards.
For they're convinced they actually tell them their fate and without them, they feel blind.
The Cow~ards live out their days recklessly by the guidance of gift cards alone.

Waevey Compass

An adventurer's most trusty tool, always embedded into any real adventurer's ship. When you've explored and it's time™ to leave whichever cosmic body, the Compass will perform a ritual. It scans the nature of the cosmic body and its atmosphere, the adventurer and their atmosphere and the adventurer's ship and its state. Following this, it crunches the numbers and links the adventure itself back up to the Milky Ocean, beyond the Wæves. It then rips the ship's fireplace out of time™ and dips it into the instant where escape velocity is to be reached. The fire is stoked, the anchor is released and the ship drifts off. Onto the next cosmic body.

Little Cunty

A critter that randomly materialises into existence in random spots around the Wæves, when you get a hold of one (though the likelihood is tiny), it’ll convince you it knows the ultimate answer to the Wæves and everything in it. You can be his guest no problem but I’ll save you the hassle and the life-long quest some adventurers go on to find one; with full conviction it’ll tell you it itself is the answer. It’ll then disappear out of existence completely. Again.

Pointless

Vectorial lines hold this colossus together. There’s no individual points. no atoms. It roams through the Wæves just kicking around gas giants and ass.

Oni Vell Fruit

A common exotic fruit with seeds carrying a terribly addictive substance.
Ingest it once and your neurons get infused with a sort of magnetism to that specific fruit’s genetic strain. You’ll feel like literally all you’ll ever need from that point on, is this fruit’s genes inside you. Even when the taste turns bitter (this depends on the strain), the magnetism does remain.

Luckily the magnetism can be diffused by abstinence and simultaneous bathing in the lukewarm Pools of Time™ or by smoking the Crystal Hookah of Time™.

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THE ANOMALY

On their radar, the Plum Diving Tribe notices an anomaly on the Wæves.
Approaching it to investigate, they see shimmers and lights flickering on the horizon. Getting closer still the Tribe starts to make out what they see: fractal-like shapes twisting in and out of themselves and seemingly in and out of existence itself, impossible to actually focus on.

They stop close by and want to investigate. Captain Maria decides to leave her Tribe’s ship and while tethered to it, float closer to the anomaly by herself.
Slowly and slightly nervous, she gets closer. All of a sudden, when in arm’s reach, she gets sucked into the anomaly in an instant. The rest of the Tribe freaks out on their ship and starts pulling the tether, which was now cut.

Maria, while getting sucked in, feels her consciousness suddenly expand into everything and contract into nothing at the same time™, over and over, an infinite number of time™s as she floats towards the center of this anomaly. Around her, fractals twist and turn. She reaches a stop.

Out of nowhere a creature pops up right in front of her face, startling her. “Hello friend!” The creature says enthusiastically, its eyes sunken in the warmest of smiles. The truth of its words hit Maria with the purest loving and giving force. Unwittingly feeling comfortable, she asks: “Hey there, sorry for entering this… This… What is this place?” The creature responds: “It’s my ship!” Maria’s brows furrow. “What? How is it a ship? I see no shape, no walls nor fireplace!” The creature’s eyes squint into an even bigger smile. Out of nowhere a third arm pops into existence, offering Maria a plate of homemade brew. “My ship’s shape is the Wæves. Omnidirectional and omnidimensional, it just looks like it has no clear shape because you can’t see all of it. Hence all this weird stuff.” The creature gestures around itself and follows with its gaze.

Maria takes the cup offered to her. Puzzled but amused, she asks “How is this possible?” The creature looks her up and down, “You Tribes with your ships, holding it together with rope and bolts as it ages, constantly fighting the natural shape of it. Release the ropes, see what happens!” “But it would explode!” Maria protests. The creature continues, “It wouldn’t! You would actually feel the essential freedom of the Wæves. You wouldn't have to tire yourself out fighting your ship’s true shape anymore. Constantly trying to control and keep everything together, it’s silly. Every single moment, I care for my ship. I wash it, I read it nice bedtime™ stories. Visitors come and go. And I love it in its entirety. I don’t need to control it. It knows its own peace among the Wæves.”
Maria takes a sip of the brew, delicious. She closes her eyes, opens them again and asks “But you do travel?” “Yes.” The creature responds. “So how can you tell where you are and where you’re going with all of this going on?” The creature smirks. “Why should I? The Wæves take me where they may. I don’t pretend to know better. I just caress and love the currents my every living second and then I drown, like all of us. I sail free.”