#p. 9

[everyillumi]

[returntomytilene]

‘She was trying, as do all the nostalgic, for the magic of strange garments which transform the spirit at the same time as the body, and thus revive for an hour the grace of a vanished era. She was another Androgyne, vigorous as an ephebe, graceful as a woman. I fervently adored her ardor as a priestess serving a cult of abandoned altars. I loved her for reviving the sacred fires of ruined temples and wreathing broken statues with roses.’

— Renée Vivien, A Woman Appeared to Me, 1904, translated by Jeannette H. Foster

[dovesdanceatdawn]

P. 9

7. Theoretically, The Land of Scanning is the first thought that crawls to the forefront of the mind. It is in its prime, it is hopes and wishes, growing on nourished earth.

Deviation. Summary 4694: Location: ~~~~~~ In 1962, the last golden man saw The Land of Scanning and transformed. An eyewitness's account depicted him stripping his clothing and placing them and his shoes on the edge of our civilization’s borders. He sang a lullaby many have heard in their youth, and he entered The Land with his eyes closed. 

No one remembered his name, age, or address. A hole burned where his name should be on his discarded nametag. Governments of that time concluded his case cold and banned The Land of Scanning from curious eyes. But curious eyes did not stop searching.

8. Topic 789 en dash 449. A woman, unfazed by our society and our conception of time, whispers. She records her findings in ink and only ink. Pencils give her rashes, and paints sting her skin. She questions investigators when they interrogate her about her home. 

She tells them her name; they forget it. She hasn’t explained the orbit of tiny planets above her head. Scientists are too afraid to get close. It’s as if curiosity rolled over and died.

She names her tiniest moon, Cosmas. She doesn’t explain why.

Deviation. Summary 679: Location: ~~~~~~ “[. . .] Fields were blue and roads were orange. Cat's-eye marbles fell from pink clouds instead of hail. We [Mivvens, Nash, Hadley, and Walish] realized we weren’t hungry or thirsty. We didn’t want or fear. We set camp on the border and we watched the sky dance. Fifteen days. When we left camp, we felt the hunger. Damn near ate our clothes off. Luckily, we had food left over.” --Matthew “Mitty” Walish, 1968. 

After Walish’s excursion and the incident of 1962, few travelers dared to get close to the border separating us from The Land. For instance, in 1973, two women from ~~~~~~ walked to the border but could not remember why they were there. They turned around and hiked back home. In 1980, four students tried a trek to the border but failed to reach the road that would lead them there. 

In 1994, hikers found the Land woman babbling to a flock of starlings. When they asked her where she lived, she pointed to the sky and said, “Scanner.” She refused to return to The Land. Sources concluded her to be an agent.

9. Previous studies on her have pages filled with squiggles and the number three. Dr. J. M. Rader, head of the current study, knows it is useless to jot down any findings, but he persists.

She names her tiniest moon, Cosmas. Her largest is Rie. She hears what we think Rie means, and she laughs.

More squiggles. 

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