Jessica Rainey
Extracts from
ENDOMA
(and around)
ENDOMA
Construction of Endoma began in 35PrE with the major exterior and interior structures completed by ENTRY. 15km in diameter, 3km at peak, Endoma has an exterior surface area of 353.25km. The shell is a double layer of 166,200 neo-ethylene tetrafluoromethanol (NET) hexagonal panels, supported by 16 main beams, 208 supporting beams and 1664 subsidiary beams. At the summit of the structure - one-third outside, two-thirds within - is MAMILLA.
stage one recharge
you ease yourself back...lie flat
your body...fully aligned
you close your eyes
you feel
warm..comfortable..content
you breathe in...release a sigh
beneath you the recharger holds your weight
you feel
heavy..full..lethargic
below you
the form
warm...waxy
cradles you...lulls you
deeply
you breathe in...smile
your muscles relax...your tensions dissolve
you release...your breath...slowly
you feel
the waxiness give
in light pin pricks
the sensation hooks
on the soles of your feet
runs
up the back of each leg
gathers
at the base of your back
threads
along your spinal cord
and up to cast off
at your crown
these lines.........tingle......in anticipation
you tense...breathe in
you think...you feel
warm..heavy..comfortable..content
but you feel
hot..uneasy
the form beneath you is holding you down
you hold yourself back...hold your breath in
you feel...your body...resisting
somethings dissolving
you try to relax
feel the warmth of the wax
but you feel
tense..unsettled
you sense
the tingling
intensify
you try to relax...but resist
you try to invite the intrusion
so insistent now forceful
so animal almost brutal
you have little choice
your seams
rip........open
hot
pins
prick
you
feel
your skin
dissolve
Postcards from Inside
I
View from Hillthree of the South Downs. Lush green
Gives way to growing fields to natural
Parks and gardens: such a idyllic scene!
In the north, woodland, where the magical
Greenfingered weave their wicker world. Round stream,
The Circumference glitters, beautiful
Blue border despite its impurity.
Here four tributaries, full of reeds, cleanse
Our inevitable waste, the cycle
Feeds the central lake, the perfect circle,
Still, clear. Blue and green… imaginary lens?
No. The Floor: grounding our frivolity.
Covering a surface area of 177 km², The Floor is two thirds earth, one third water. Around the interior circumference of ENDOMA is a river, 0.5km-wide. This river has 4 tributaries that feed a 3km-wide lake in the centre; they also separate the 4 earth sections. These feature forest in the north, downland in the south, meadow and tended parks towards the centre, and various essential constructs in the east and west. Aside from the areas cultivated by the GREENFINGERED, nature is allowed to be nature.
removal of waste
one and two
internal flush
external scrub
II
Above glows interconnectivity
As dusk falls below. Four disks, The Ovals,
Dominate: they host our activity.
Between, descending, on the ordinals,
Four ringed forms: they aid our ability.
These are linked by routes to peripheral
Places: the higher ovals, outer spaces.
The Upper Network, our constellation,
Our city vision, geometrical
Positions charted with mathematical
Precision. And there our recreation
Time enhances our Endoman faces.
Suspended and animated above THE FLOOR, the Upper Network consists of: 4 OVALS, 3km by 2km, 1.5km above floor level; 4 RING STRUCTS, 1km in height, each with 4 rings diminishing in size from the base ring to the peak; 4 smaller UPPER OVALS, .05km by .03km, 2km above floor level; and 2 observation BUBBLESTRUCTS attached to the side of the dome-shield. These structures are all interconnected via 2 HICIRCLERS, 8 ROUTES and 14 vertical LINKERS.
Calcium, chloride, chromium
copper, magnesium... Zinc
deficiency equals impaired
immunity. Increase intake
to nought point five milligrams of
iron, iodine, sodium.
Excessive phosphorus equals
absorption rates reduced. Depletion
comple…
But they’s glowing.
P does not make glow.
Aw, they was looking green.
Potassium, selenium...
no trace element evident.
No trace?
Selenium test negative.
But yesterday there was no no trace,
today we must have trace.
No trace. Boost obligatory.
Now. A B C D E Folic
A K. Energy report please.
Well, they took a pickmeup or two... or…
How many?
Four.
What?
Sugarrush, Hi-skifter, Lone-Endo, Blast.
Not good Sub conscientiousness.
I know, I know but…
desired participation
in a dynamic experience
equals energy required.
No excuses. Four sugar high
PMUs are not conducive
to health, are not conducive to
wealth, are not conducive to a
refined recharge, a refined re…
Alright. Alright. Is conducive.
Forecast please. Do not overcast.
Do not overcast? Yet
undercasting is conducive to
the destruction of health, wealth
and Sub relations with a recharger.
Do you know how to know
what happens next?
These animal minds have
whims, fancies, urges.
They have their own wayward ways
and these ways involve
pickmeups. Or
skifting out the excess.
Update please.
We anticipate an average 24hours as follows:
mental activity : high : input : 2 times 4hours
mental activity : low : output : 1 times 4hours
physical action : high : input : 1 times 4hours
physical action : occasional : output : adding up to 2hours
mental creation with highs and lows, emotional : output : 4hours
mental, physical, emotional prep : our 2hour session with you.
We do not have any aches, pains, twitches, itches or sores.
We do not have any fears, phobias, niggles, or gnawing anxieties.
We did not have any health warnings or free radical alerts.
We are not requesting any booster options,
special flavours or colour conditionings.
We express a preference for the colour:
green.
(Aside from a little excess sugar
skifted out pre-recharge)
we feel our current state of health to be:
satisfactory.
Thank you. Preparing
vitamineral mix.
Postcards from Inside
III
Underside, multiple layers debase
Our pristine upside. The mechanical
Production of needs must still be the case.
We sift, shovel, smelt raw material
Into more material and surface
To breathe in within this monumental
Structure, encompassing our past foreseen.
Two hundred years, more, since the exigence
Of Outside sealed our dome-shield; construction
Barely complete; our Entry instruction:
Do not look out. With The Circumference
There and no bridge, we look within and dream.
I am lying on a field of bright bright yellow. Beneath me, an undulating surface supports my natural curves – the small of my back, the arch of my neck, the bend in my knees. Above me, against a backdrop of deep deep blue, coloured pods float. I am fascinated by this scene. There are 352 pods floating above me, most are green or blue, some red, orange, purple. They pulse, these pods, slowly, occasionally, as though shyly vying for attention. I watch a small green pod glow; it is subtle, the pulse, I have to keep watching. The pod returns to constant colour and the pulse moves to another – blue, further away, larger. I have trouble judging their size sometimes, I know they are not all the same, or equidistant from each other, or me. My eye wonders to another, further still, red, small, and another, closer, bright orange, big. I watch these pods for hours, lying on my back, looking up. They do not actually float, the pods, they change colour; but with the slow pulsing and subtle changes, they appear to float. They hang, suspended from an arboreal: there are nine of these in total. Each arb has eight branches: they are long, these branches, between 200 and 300 metres. The arb I am under is one of the larger ones: 300 metres tall, with a trunk 50 metres in diameter. This arb, these pods, have a total capacity of 50,000 motes. My focus shifts to the drifting motes in the spaces between the pods. They are everywhere, these specks, existing at a different pace to the pods. They drift around aimlessly, independently, until a pod begins to pulse, then, there are those among them that sense the change, that begin to shift, that find the direction and move, move, until all are moving en masse into the attracting pod. Then calm again. Then, when a pod begins to fade, they flow out suddenly en masse, starting small then spreading, spreading out into the space, until it is impossible to follow any one of them, lost amongst themselves. Then calm again. Occasionally one or two tiny motes dart across the sky space to be swallowed up by a pod already loaded, but generally the calm – the floating, drifting – sweeps quickly back to the space. But then another shift, further up or further across. My eye darts until I recognise that despite the general background of calm, despite the floating, the drifting, the rhythm is in fact fast; there are pockets of speed up here everywhere, all hours. 3,849 pods hang suspended over Ovella, and there are several on her surface, looking like fallen fruit. Ovella, that witch, the enchantress, holds 750,000 of us. Unable to resist her temptations, I too lift up, become a mote.
ingestion of stodge:
slow-release
energy plus
nutrients needed
I am
currently
(left forearm 4 bands) .......................................................... in year4 .............................................. (semi-permanent, cyclical)
(right forearm 3 bands) ................................................... of the 3nd15 ................................................ (permanent, increasing)
I have
(on my back) ............................................................ 326 lines/shapes/swirls
(on my front) ............................................................. 17 lines/shapes/swirls ...................................................... (all permanent)
(around my ring finger) ....................................................... 2 rings
these make me
208/326/17/E ................................................................ (permanently)
my tattooist tells me
the circle on my right shoulder blade is in a grand trine with the swirl in the small of my back and the dot just to the right of my left armpit
I am (therefore)
ingenious ...................................................................... (permanent?)
nu has read ...................................................................... my genetic profile
nu has interpreted ........................................................ my genetic profile
nu has created ...................................................................... my identity
I have
faith in my tattooist ............................................................................................................................................................................. (?)
I can
highlight a line/shape/swirl ....................................................................................................... (temporary, semi-permanent)
fill in the gaps (colour only) ........................................................................................................ (temporary, semi-permanent)
hide a permanent band/line/shape/swirl ................................................................................................................. (temporary)
I cannot
erase a permanent band/line/shape/swirl ............................................................................................................... (permanent)
They are
At the end of the 1st15 an ENDOMAN is given es adult identity, a full body tattoo. Semi-permanent bands on the right arm indicate the FIFTEEN CYCLE; on the left arm, which year within the Cycle. The number of lines on the back and front indicate the day and hour on which they was born, respectively. The number of rings on the right middle finger indicate which order within the hour they was created. The designs are influenced by an interpretation of the GENETIC PROFILE by a designated TATTOOIST.
you are lying on your back...enclosed within the recharger...your eyes are closed
you feel
warm..relaxed..clean
your body has been washed
you can feel
a substance...swirling...around
you feel
soothed..supported..floating within
your needs have been assessed
you have been fed
you feel
clean..fresh..ready
you can feel
the fluid apply to your form
and you like
this sensation
it soothes you..strokes you
smoothes you..coats you
the substance layers onto your shape
and you feel
touched
like you want to be touched
you feel
warm..washed..wanted
the waxiness moulds around your form
you feel
new
like you have
a new skin
supple..sleek..impenetrable
you like
the feel of this overskin
tight over your body
it envelopes you
this overskin
enhances your own
it energises activates
improves you
you feel
an energy electrify you
you sense the recharger dutiful
and your mind awakes
as your body lies still
for the past ninety-five minutes
you have been recharging:
proceed to active input
The overskin is an additional layer applied to the exterior of the body. Not only does it enhance the function of natural skin and provide added protection; it also eliminates the need to produce clothing. The overskin has a thermoregulation system that can be consciously directed to specific areas at specific temperatures. It is thinner over the hands and thicker on the soles of the feet. At the point of any opening it thins out to nothing with the exception of those below which remain covered. The overskin is applied during RECHARGING.
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return to sawbuck 5.1
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Jessica Rainey is a British writer living in Barcelona. Her work has appeared or will appear in All Angles (a bilingual English-Catalan short story anthology), Barcelona INK, Dusie, e-poema.gr, Páginas Rojas, Ricci Ricci Journal, and as a winner of the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s new poet competition.
Labels: 5.1, jessicay rainey, spring 2011
