The Great Takeover of the Place
18 Destructor-Culture Hippo!
“The baleful cloud approached, inexorably. What little sense of self I had left took the radical step of reaching out towards centre. This in itself indicates the dreadfulness of the situation for I was prepared to give up my purpose, my sense of self, in effect my very life, in order to escape the terrible trap that was closing around me. Had the cloud withdrawn its presence at that point, then that would have been the end of my voyage, for in less than an instant I would have been drawn into and fully identified with the intense point at centre.
“But no. The cloud thickened. In the screaming colour, distinct sounds arose as though of things being broken or torn apart. Corresponding webs of meaning formed within the turbulent darkness. I was near the point of recognising them and thus manifesting a self to do the recognising.
“I make a final, further attempt to break out. This came as a summons for assistance. My once golden band expanding rapidly, losing any solidity as it described an inflating sphere, its insubstantial surface expanding in all directions. It passed through the baleful cloud, causing a sickening shudder. It was all that could be done.
“The cloud solidified and out of its dark and stinking rumblings came at last the identifiable emotion of fear. Fear! For it screamed and the smell was of death and torn and broken things like the shattered bones of young and innocent creatures that had died in agony and oh, I tried to escape, tried to dive away, to hurl myself off, to flee the encompassing dread.
“See, how “I” have reappeared. How can this be, I railed at myself; how can one such as myself be so taken by surprise, so easily taken?
“My smudge coalesced, took on more substantial form- I had a body again! This came together with abject terror as the great, thickening cloud became a craggy rock, all glistening and wet with viscera, that bound me to its surface and wheeled away from centre, away from any intended direction or intention of mine and like a dark and lifeless asteroid it was gone from the inner spaces of Konsk.
“Almost immediately, for time and causality had reappeared as the fragmentation of sensory experience occurred, a distant vista formed. Like a huge darkness that drew in countless toobs and even hippos, winding and crushing them together accompanied by a cacophony of rending and shrieking and a babbling, insane commentary which as I neared I recognised as my own terrified voice.
“The fabric of the engulfed structures warped and distorted beyond all recognition as they were enfolded into the all consuming monster. Wailing, I hurtled towards the behemoth I had known in this manifestation for over ten thousand years. It screamed a scream of inchoate rage, framed by the dark, looming, pitiless, blind corruption of the all consuming sink of the destructor-culture.
“Enough!
“Stop. Stop! Oh, what is this the point of all this? For pity's sake, isn't there enough confusion already? How on earth, in all space and time, is this going to help?”
There was a prolonged hiatus here as the compilers ceased recording and attempted to reason with their witness but he remained unconvinced.
“I know, Oh, I know! Because I've been there, consciously, seen it, done it, you think I can help, put it in words, explain it all but its not that simple, its not that simple!
above: extract from notes for The Trueman Postulate.
“Look, these things, these entities that Spicer calls hippos, they're like membranes or whatever that exist in the higher dimensions, its them that dominate us, that control us. They dip into our four dimensional time and space reality...its the tubes, toobs whatever! The brain is just an interface!”
Now this caused considerable argument as Learner refused adamantly to continue the narrative in the current form. Instead he began to raise questions, old questions.
“What they sent me by myself for? All alone! How's I gonna avoid the influence of destructor-culture, how could it be otherwise? they stick me in a different time, in an udder bodice, I mean, another body and let me tell you matey, it was damn scary frightening and that's not the half of it! All the bluddy weird, shit noises and that electro-magnetic flux leaking out the plug sockets, I mean, what you expect?
“Didn't even know the language, did I? Oh yeah, some words and stuff that Spicer dood told me about and oh sure, yeah, he'd told me what to expect- Ha! What to expect? But nothing can prepare you for what to expect, not in the really heavy now! It was all going down, man! Could feel it in the very stuff of time and space, all going down!
“So whad ya get? Me spat out into a different body, a crap, poisoned body, like all them bodies in the really heavy now, poisoned, poison in the air, poison inna water, inna food, ya can smell it, it smell bad, really baad! Der's no escapin' from it, so whadya expect? Eh, whadya expect?”
The compilers noted with some concern that Learner's language was changing noticeably. Was this a reversion to a previous state, before he had developed his abilities with the, to him, new language? Or was he rather trying to break out of the rigid confines of the language?
“I'll tell ya matey, what ya expect, ya expect me ta explain it all, with these wordy things, but what good they be, when all they do is distract, they go roun' an' roun an' it's no better, is it? All dem wordy, worldly tings, like a smarty ace, smart ass, showin' off, innit? Or summat similar? Jus' muckin' abart?
“Crikey an' all that, I couldn't help it, could I? Once I sat me in front of that telly thing, teachy ting, well, game over init. I got sucked in, thinkin' it might help, might learn summat. Ha ha! Might learn summat! Ho ho. Oh what a dip stick, a dick head, but how was I to know? All bollox, innit, no help whatsoever, jus' dragged me deeper in, wrapped me up in that destructor-culture.
“But I needed help, help! An what they do? I get sent a dog! I mean, a dog? Seriously? A scabby, black, smelly ol' dog!...No bluddy use at all, really. Jus' got me deeper in the shit, really, in the end.
“Funny tho', as that destructor-culty thing got its teeth into me and took me away into that dark place of that total despair sort of thing, somewhere in the back of my mind, if the mind has a back, figuratively squeaking, speaking, I felt summat jus' brush ma hand, ver' lightly, brush ma hand. Like a ver' thin golden tread, goldfish thread, sort of wriggly and scrunched, almost like it was trying to make words, to spell summat, or figures, numbers, like a 'quation, an equation an' summat family, familiar about it.
“But at the time, dunno, dunno nowt 'cept where's ma dog? Where's that black Twm boy now? Need 'im, needy now, moron ever, more than ever, help sort it out, make more sense, comin' from a dog, a good doug, gord doggie, god damn doglet! Here boy, here!
“Here!”
Here ends part one of The Great Takeover of the Place.
The Great Takeover of the Place, part two, follows Rhia and Trueman in A Journey In The Emerald Palace.
Learner's adventures in the really heavy now are revealed in Heads At The Little big Farm, part one, 1984 and part two, All The Endings of the Earth.
Many thanks for reading. Suggestions, critiques, likes, dislikes always welcome- please keep them coming. Till next time in the Emerald Place, hwyl!