LNH: WikiLull Visions #2: "Dive into the Heart -Destati- (Minor Key Calliope Cover)"

[Drew Nilium]

Once, there was a young person who wasn't really a boy and wasn't really a man,
and as it was the earlier part of the 20th century, he called himself a Kid.
And he left his home and went into the high places of the world, and studied
the arts of magic; and learned to respect them, and their practitioners, and
learned the secrets of the shadows thrown by the blinding light of Civilized
Men. And he called himself Occultism Kid.

For decades, he fought against those who would use these secrets in the name of
greed and power. And in the fullness of time, a Kid came to him, seeking to
study the arts of magic, and to learn the secrets of the shadows. And Occultism
Kid looked into his heart, and saw that, while a bit dusty and dented, it was
reasonably pure, and took him on as an apprentice. And Occultism Kid became the
August One, and the apprentice became the new Occultism Kid.

And in the fullness of time, the August One died. And his soul went through the
shadows and a choice was made; and a new life was born in the light.

And this new life grew, and discovered that they were not really a boy, and not
really a girl; and as it was the early years of the 21st century, they called
themselves a Kid. And in this different life, they forgot what they had learned,
and learned arrogance and heroism both; and they rose to fame, and fell to
ignominy, and learned humility too. And they sought, in humility, to study the
arts of magic, and to learn the secrets of the shadows; and they came to
Occultism Kid, and became his apprentice, and named themselves Kid Occultism
Kid.

And Kid Occultism Kid had gone out, and adventured, and been knocked insensate,
as happens in adventures; but below consciousness, their inner senses were
blazing, filled with an apocalyptic vision.

Well, *finally*, they thought.

There was a battle in Heaven. The combatants stood astride constellations, and
their blows wracked the firmament; and Kid Occultism Kid watched spacetime
shudder, and waves of wracking chaos shudder through the Looniearth below.

On one side was a sheer, all-consuming weight. It was the weight of duty,
thoughtless, devouring duty, duty for its own sake, alienated from the reasons
for duty, alienated from the concept of duty *to* someone, alienated from the
drive to fulfill your duty for the sake of others' happiness. It was pure
obligation, anti-life, the beast named Mundum.

On the other side were the players. Musicians, all, but none serious, none
dutiful, no little round glasses or severe suits or hardcore attitudes. Lesley
Gore was there, tossing a handful of gumdrops; and Andre 3000, bursting through
the coldness of space; and Mozart, gaily swashbuckling as he shouted lyrics
about licking butts. Weird Al Yankovic stood at their head, electric worldfire
bursting from his accordion, coruscating through the aether like a brief but
joyous candle in the cosmic dark.

The weight of duty seemed to be winning, a slow steamroller gradually crushing
the joyous light. But the players had a secret; they had dropped a ladder a
million miles high, and people, men and women and neither and both, were
climbing up it to join them. Once they reached the top, they would swell the
players' ranks. But could they climb fast enough? Were there enough of them to
turn the tide?

And the battle grew in strength and violence, and even the goofy lyrics and
light harmonies became loud enough to stretch space itself, and with a great
ripping noise that drowned out the music it tore, and Kid Occultism Kid fell...

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Drew "apocatastic" Nilium