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((I’m losing the computer, so I decided to put all of the lists and writings that I didn’t want to delete in my journal.))
Eddie Hurley
1201-01
Final Draft, Narration
9/19/10
Journal Prompt #1, pg. 58
A Gangly Mystery
I feel almost compelled to recount my truly strange experience with a, once again, truly strange thing. It had a form so unusual that it could hardly have been imagined, and it appeared that a goodly portion of its usual surface form wasn’t even really a part of it. Odd, that something so strange would seemingly endeavor to look even stranger. Even knowing that the universe is an infinitely vast setting in which any possibility can occur, though, I cannot help but feel that this must be something unique in the universe, set apart from all other constructs.
Thinking back on my prolonged observation of the subject, I think that it was the materials around it that first caught my interest. Though not truly a part of the thing, by the seemingly natural air of their presence, it almost felt as if they were. Furthermore, their appearances varied quite widely in several ways. Colors went from one end of the visible spectrum to the other, with additional variations of reflectivity, as well. The colors and shapes that were so often plastered on these outer “shells” were often beautifully patterned, displaying admirable symmetry that couldn’t be ignored even with my knowing that my subject should be the main focus of my attention at all times. Textures were not excluded from the procession of variety, either. Sometimes the frames were soft, and sometimes hard; sometimes stiff & without give, while at other times amusingly stretchy. These versatile shells even managed to combine all of these different qualities at once, at times, both together and apart (while on the same piece). As for their purpose, it seemed as if they were, for some reason, supposed to reduce the effects of outside conditions on the subject. There was even one portion lower down that I could never see removed, no matter how long I watched. It is unfortunate that I could not discover all of the secrets of these strange coverings.
Now, I must continue with the details of my actual subject. There was one area of it that I found fascinating, because it was constantly changing. This area was an irregular oval shape at the very top of the subject. Two soft, liquid-looking spheres, recessed into the top of the area in question, and next to each other, shifted near-constantly, even as they were afflicted by ever-present subtle tremors. Every two or so seconds, a soft shield of some kind, with tiny, curved, dark strands hanging off the end, folded down and immediately rolled back up, once again revealing those strange orbs. The orbs were not perfect spheres, I realized after closer inspection, but had a slight bulge at the center (when they were pointing straight out), right over the darkest part of them. That part was almost eerily black, which grew and shrank in reaction to its surroundings, and surrounded by a ring of striated color, which was itself surrounded by white (the dominant color). That whiteness was broken up by almost invisible strings of red, which seemed to grow when the soft shield I mentioned had not come down enough for a while. I really must move onto other things, though, since I am starting to ramble. Below those orbs was an odd, stubby, somewhat pyramidal protuberance with two holes at the bottom of it. Those holes got smaller and wider at times, although I never found the cause. They did seem to either be taking in or shooting out small volumes of the surrounding gasses at any given time, though. Below that funny thing, there was a horizontal slit, with the top and bottom being bounded by a slightly darker version of the substance that covered most of the subject. Just like with the holes of the stubby thing before, the slit could expand or contract, even affecting the atmosphere in a similar way, with the primary differences being that it could emit a wide array of sounds, close completely, and open impressively wide to form a ring. When I once saw it open in such a way, I caught a brief glimpse of a disgusting-looking place. It was wet, and pink, with strange whitish rectangles sticking out of the top and bottom. Worst of all was a great lump of squishy… something… that moved and twisted seemingly of its own accord. Back on the outside, there were two ugly, irregular disks to the sides of the slightly flat and blank section on which the previously-detailed constructs were situated, once again sporting holes (one each). They did not seem to do anything, so I could not guess what they were for. I quickly noticed that the same kind of dark strands that I saw hanging onto the orb-shields were scattered across the entirety of the roughly oval shape that all of these features were situated on. Strangely, these strands seemed to slowly increase in length over several days, then suddenly shorten dramatically. This happened over and over again, over the weeks of observation. Of course, I could not have possibly ignored the huge mass of these same strands that occupied the top and back of the oval shape. The strands there were thicker, longer, and much more numerous than they were anywhere else on the surface of my subject.
The rest of my subject’s form was pretty unremarkable, compared to its topmost portion. A thick cylinder, just as soft as the surface of the rest of the subject, connected that portion to the rest, and I did manage to notice subtle signs of cords, some static and some pulsating, just below the surface. The bottom of that tube connected to a very large section, with both the height and width being roughly 2½ times that of the oval shape I first focused on, and approximately equal depth. Two slight bulges were noticeable on the front upper portion of this large area, with a small circle of a much darker color in the center of each. In the center of each of those circles was a small protrusion of the same color, which appeared to change shape slightly once exposed. On the central front lower portion of the large area, which was softer than the rest of the subject, was a strange little uneven indentation with no difference in color or texture, whatsoever. I found that distinctly odd, because it seemed to have no function. On the other side of the area was an almost completely blank mass of the substance that covered most of my subject. Its only distinguishing features were a hard and bumpy ridge (below the surface substance) that rested in a slight valley, and two more pronounced hard lines (again, below the surface) at the very top, one to each side. Horizontally across the upper front portion, horizontally across the upper back portion, and vertically all the way down the front, there was a slightly higher concentration of those dark strands than on the rest of the subject, not including the top and back of the uppermost oval portion, as I mentioned. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, the outer covering of the bottommost central portion of this largest area was never removed while I was present, so I cannot speculate as to what may have lain beneath it.
To be perfectly honest, these next parts didn’t impress or interest me nearly as much as the others. There were four (two of each kind) very long and somewhat big extensions from the largest portion, but since the two within each set (one set sprouting from the sides of the very top, and the other from the bottom sides of the very bottom) were inversely symmetrical, I will only describe one of each kind. The upper extensions were long and very mobile, with three main points at which angles were made, and fifteen minor ones that were concentrated at the very end. The first main point was connected to the largest portion of the subject, and seemed capable of movement within a range of about a full half-sphere. The second main point, which was a little less than half of the full length of the whole extension away from the first, could only bend in one direction, going from 180 degrees to about 30 degrees. The final main point of movement, with the same distance from the second as the second had from the first, was basically the same as the first in range of motion. The fifteen minor points, which branched from the far end of the somewhat flat disk at the end of the third main point of movement, each had a range from 180 degrees to about 90 degrees. The branches (all five of them) that those points were situated on were each segmented into three lengths (with one shorter branch having its first length hidden inside the disk) about 3½ times shorter than the length of the disk they were attached to. The lower extensions had the same basic structure and ranges of motion, but were about 1½ times longer than the upper extensions. The first main point of these came out of the sides of the bottom of the largest portion of the subject. The parts that paralleled the disks of the upper extensions were more like elongated ovals, though, and while the branches were similar to those of the upper extensions, they were a little more than half as long, and there were only fourteen minor points of motion, total, with the largest one having only two, rather than three. The branches at the ends of both the disks and the elongated ovals were all tipped on one side by a relatively hard, curved piece of some semitransparent substance.
The last thing I should really expand upon is the substance that coated nearly my entire subject. The substance was slightly elastic, but could still be marked if a certain amount of pressure (not very much) were applied. It was usually neither dry nor moist, although, oddly, it seemed to excrete moisture when the surrounding atmosphere was at higher temperatures. Most interesting, though, is that every inch of it was covered in lines, when inspected closely enough. They were different in different areas, but ranged from simple lines, to intricate crisscrosses, to elegantly complex swirls.
All things considered, my subject was a joy to study. Just as with any research subject, there were some areas that were tedious to detail, but still essential to the understanding of the object of study. However, in this case, there were many more fascinating features to strive to understand than there were boring ones. This particular session was devoted to purely physical superficial description, but I did manage to pick up one non-physical piece of information: one of the names that refer specifically to my subject and those things that most closely resemble it. Apparently, it is called a “man”. This… man… is a truly strange phenomenon which managed to both entrance and disgust me, so much so that I doubt that there is anything else like it in all reality.
 magic_doglover · Mon Jan 02, 2012 @ 03:56am · 0 Comments |
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