Untitled Part VII https://www.wikiart.org/en/cy-twombly/untitled-part-vii

The cloud people's spears were grass-like blades lacquered with a dirt slime, shot in flight from a string held taut by the feet, their arms a bow. One could hold hundreds, shoot every second, and aim precisely for our vitals. They slaughtered our image-keepers and breached our city easily.

Just got @johneltenney.bsky.social's zine about Gundella. Sweet!

Our city's giant eye is blind at close range, suited for deep space. So those who make up the eyeball itself have lookout duty, on that day tired by the night and blinded by dust. The cloud people pushed in the eye's aperture instantly, and moments later were shooting spears at our image-keepers.

None of the cloud people stayed behind. All gathered over the hills. There were millions. They covered the sky beyond the horizons with their murmuration. Some cast dust bombs into our city. Once the dust cleared a line of thousands of spear-shooters flew down into the city like giant spears.

That person you admire for their Strength? They're so scared.

In the late night hours a third of the host of the cloud people studied the ancient fragments and soon, the hive was in a frenzy. They learned that our city in the hills carries the whole history of the lost desert people. The cloud people awoke an army from deep in the ground.

Before even reaching the center of their own being, the scout had spread their message to the whole colony Seven small fragments of the history of the desert never before heard The Desert People lost to time were here fragments of their souls escaping all the way into every corner of the hive.

Dancing and droning broke out in the clouds. The cloud crowd shot away and our scout was carried away by a few runners following behind. They rapidly ushered them into a city too small for Hill Giants to enter deeply deep, through halls dug into the old mountain, all the way to the Parent.

Genuinely think everyone should try deleting a few social media apps and staying off them for a month.

Yes, it's Operation Inflation! An inflatable costume for anyone who wants to peacefully protest ICE. You can donate a costume at operationinflation.com 🎈

At dusk, the scout landed on a large flat rock where hundreds of cloud people gathered, awaiting scouts from all over the world. The colony quickly absorbed the scout linking limbs with them. And the scout's mouth went from mouth to mouth, exchanging invisible braids of history.

The Old Mountain Cloud People had long sought the history of these hills. The night before a remote western scout returned to the mountain with the first winds of autumn and with reports on the movements of our colony in the Dead River Basin.

It's #WorldAlgaeDay! Japanese algologist Kintaro Okamura (1867-1935) provided taxonomies & descriptions in English & Japanese for his monumental work "Nihon sorui zufu" / "Icones of Japanese Algae" (1907-1942). Find it in #BHLib via #MBLWHOILibrary www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography... 🧪

To get this dream we must go back. 4,000 years ago a hive of cloud people slept in the old mountain a short way's west of here. There are many species of hive people. Cloud people are human-sized but spend much of their time flying. One day, before dawn, they all murmured over this very city.

About to hit breakthrough number two. Want to make something beautiful so bad. 😭