LJ Idol Week Two: The Missing Stair
Mar. 24th, 2014 09:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jexiaUp and up the spiral stretches, past comprehension. Down it goes, beyond sight. Steps stretch between parallel corkscrew curves.
Each rung is complexly patterned, almost too intricate to understand. As you traverse the endless ascent, a pattern starts to emerge. Two rings on the left of the step, one ring on the right... or the other way around. Two-and-one, or one-and-two, linked through the middle, like familiar friends holding hands.
More steps pass, thousands of them. Two-and-one, one-and-two, one-and-two, two-and-one. Familiarity blurs your perspective, and a realisation hits you with the sudden clarity of a Magic Eye picture. There are different types of twos and ones, the essence of the shape the same, but with subtle variations around the edges.
Millions more steps, while you observe and theorise. It seems clear: this two is always matched with this one, whether as two-and-one or one-and-two; the other type of two matches the other one. One type has a double link in the and; the other has triple.
As you ascend the spiral stairs, you grasp for meaning. What is this place? Why are you here? There's nowhere to go but up.
You climb, one-and-two, one-and-two, two-and-one. Is there meaning in the patterns passing beneath you? Maybe they encode some vast repository of knowledge. Maybe they explain why you're here.
Two-and-one, two-and-one, one-and- you stumble, teetering at the edge of a gap, rawer and more shocking than a missing tooth. Millions of stairs, and this one is missing? What does it mean?
Somewhere outside your universe, a cell grows and divides, grows and divides, grows and divides, ceaselessly spreading with a malignant hunger...
Each rung is complexly patterned, almost too intricate to understand. As you traverse the endless ascent, a pattern starts to emerge. Two rings on the left of the step, one ring on the right... or the other way around. Two-and-one, or one-and-two, linked through the middle, like familiar friends holding hands.
More steps pass, thousands of them. Two-and-one, one-and-two, one-and-two, two-and-one. Familiarity blurs your perspective, and a realisation hits you with the sudden clarity of a Magic Eye picture. There are different types of twos and ones, the essence of the shape the same, but with subtle variations around the edges.
Millions more steps, while you observe and theorise. It seems clear: this two is always matched with this one, whether as two-and-one or one-and-two; the other type of two matches the other one. One type has a double link in the and; the other has triple.
As you ascend the spiral stairs, you grasp for meaning. What is this place? Why are you here? There's nowhere to go but up.
You climb, one-and-two, one-and-two, two-and-one. Is there meaning in the patterns passing beneath you? Maybe they encode some vast repository of knowledge. Maybe they explain why you're here.
Two-and-one, two-and-one, one-and- you stumble, teetering at the edge of a gap, rawer and more shocking than a missing tooth. Millions of stairs, and this one is missing? What does it mean?
Somewhere outside your universe, a cell grows and divides, grows and divides, grows and divides, ceaselessly spreading with a malignant hunger...