Standing on an island surrounded by fresh magma stood what looked like myself, perfectly formed and arrayed in a deep black trenchcoat. His skin was fair, hair golden brown, yet his sunken eyes blazed like the flames of a 15 foot high forge compacted into balls the size of sugar cubes. They flared 5 feet to either side, raging in between as his white-hot eyes stared at me. I could feel him: the majesty of all that power, the uncontained chaos, the destruction.

He smiled wide at me and my blood crystallized, warm but slow. My vision shifted and I could see a behemoth of a beast surrounding him, standing 70 feet tall and curled around to look above and past me: a one-headed hellhound, Cerebus in a transparent coat of flames so deep it bled into the rocks and scorched the earth. It was shocking how beautiful and vicious the creature was. I had seen him before: sometimes smaller, sometimes in different forms but always feeling enormous.

I stood there with no fear. They were not evil. They...we had the potential to raze people to their bones, yet spread out like brush fires and renew, replenish without thought or conscience, merely action; more a force than a foe or friend. For a moment I could feel points inside of me, bed-like hollows of green agate crystals and moss cusping tiny homunculi: small beings either sleeping or awake all over, either vibrating softly or pulsating with white light like fireflies.

But then I felt the vast well of anger slip away as I calmed myself, unclenched my fists and sighed down, down and out as if to snuff the lights away. Everything cleared and I was as I am now, feeling complete but with the nagging suspicion that there were parts of me tucked away from myself. Some day it might be useful to understand what these points of power represent, but as of yet there hasn't been much need; I do what seems right and I'm as forceful or calm as I need to be.

Reaching the end of that vision, I'd enjoy hearing what you think about the dusk and night photographs I took over the last few days:

Fronds at dusk.

"Inspector." A small light seen through a tent mesh.

A soft glow emanates from the left as the night strolls on.

"Floral fireflies." I don't remember taking this shot or anything like it.

"Jester rose." This one takes some explanation. Toward the bottom center is a small rose. Notice how it looks like there's a hole through it near its base, then how part of it seems to curve down into an exaggerated jaw. Now imagine the rose to the left of it is a very large back, with a slender line on the right that looks like an arm. The effect is a head looking off to the right.

An ominous opening descending into some lighted hall of evil.

"Citadel." A dark fortress teeming with lights.

A demon in mid-flight.

A licentious demonness. It's hard to make out the nipple of the left breast, but the rest of the form works out. Notice the head...eee.

A large vessel out in deep space.

"Pilgrims." Notice how the foreground rightmost light has a 'head,' a lower light that may look like 'hands' clasped in supplication and finally 'feet'. There are several standing nearby, others in the distance wending to the bottom middle.

"Night brook." The slender object in the northeast corner is a tree. Notice how the darkness running between it and the adjacent hill looks like a stream at night.

"Earth Smoke." How or why, I know neither.

It looks like you're underground, doesn't it?

This one is less convincing, but it has a nice earthy flavor.

A post.

Helmet or metallic head of some rusted, forgotten general...or a lamp...both, maybe.

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