(font: "Mukta")[While you sleep, a stranger emerges from the abcesses of your ego, something that formed in the spaces of your imperfect healing, and leaves a book on your nightstand. [[The book->Examine]] radiates the comfort you have been denied so many times.] [[How to Pray]]
[[The Canon]]
Table of Contents:
[[Saint's Lament]]
[[Sacrament of Desolation]]
[[Yelling Curse]]
[[The Destroyer's Prayer]]
[[Dirge of Lilith]]
[[Communal Plea]]
(font: "Mukta")[
(if:$htpVisit is true and $canonVisit is true and $saintVisit is true and $sacramentVisit is true and $curseVisit is true and $destroyVisit is true and $lilithVisit is true and $pleaVisit is true)[ [[Close the book->End]]]
(else:)[ [[Close the book->Warning]] ]
(transition: "dissolve") + (transition-time: 333s) + (text-style: "shudder")[speak backwards into pain ] ]It is not a prayer unless your body is broken into place. Twisted and pushed and tied into form and position and space. Prayer does not matter unless you know how to pray correctly.
(click: "how to pray")[
Prayer is a process of emptying. How can you be a receptacle of the divine if you have nothing to hold it? Think of yourself as a sealed container that needs to be opened yet also remember that you are of flesh.]
(click: "to be opened")[
To unseal the flesh, close your eyes and breath deep. Focus on your holiest wound. This is the wound the bestial dark tore open to rest inside your heart, and the wound that everyone you've ever met would put things in and pull things out of without asking. Now, it is your turn.]
(click: "your turn")[
Reach inside this injury with the arms of the body that it was carved into. Pull out all of your insides until they become silver threads that wind into the sky. Reach in once more and pull out the vessel that hosts the threads, of which you will know by a name. Discard that name and that vessel.]
(click: "Discard")[(font: "Mukta")[
(if: $beastVisit is true and $solaceVisit is true)[[[//You are now receiving the signal.//->Exit]]]
(else:)[[[//You are now receiving the signal.//->Table of Contents]] ] ]]
(set: $htpVisit to true)There are no canonical prayers for those who pray to the Abyss other than “darkness, please take me”
(click: "no canonical prayers")[
Although it might be more accurate to say that this is the only prayer in the shared-canon. This does not delegitimize your own pleading and begging to the living dark.
]
Do your best to remember this when you feel words bubbling up and you do not know what they are yet.
(font: "Mukta")[[[Return to the Table of Contents->Table of Contents]]]
(set: $canonVisit to true)(font: "Mukta")[Child, pray with me.
(click: "pray with me")[I pray that these words guide us true. I pray that those who lost their lives to our great foe will live forever in the memory of the dark. I pray that even a slightly better world than this is possible.]
(click: "is possible")[And if it is not, [[let it be known->Darkness]]]]AND YOU WILL BE SHRED TO RIBBONS BY MY ONE MILLION ONE MILLION INVISIBLE BLADES AS I LAY THIS CURSE UNTO YOU: MAY YOU BECOME AS I
THE FIRST DAY(click-replace: "THE FIRST DAY")[ON THE FIRST DAY YOU WILL COUGH UP EVERY TRUTH YOU HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED, BLOODIED AND FLESH-LIKE, FOR TRUTHS ARE BORN INTO THE BODY, AND LOST INTO AGONY]
THE NEXT DAY(click-replace: "THE NEXT DAY")[THE NEXT DAY, YOUR NAME WILL BE STRIPPED FROM YOU FOR ALL TIME. YOU WILL TRY TO INEFFECTUALLY FILL THAT GAP AGAIN AND AGAIN. EACH ATTEMPT WILL BREAK YOU INTO SOMETHING MORE ALIEN THAN THE LAST]
THE THIRD DAY(click-replace: "THE THIRD DAY")[THE THIRD DAY, A WHISK WILL REACH INTO THE DEEP RECESSES OF YOUR MIND AND STIR IT INTO A LABYRINTH OF WHICH YOU WILL BE ADDLED BY ESCAPE]
THE FOURTH DAY(click-replace: "THE FOURTH DAY")[ALL THAT REMAINS ON THE FOURTH DAY WILL BE DISSOLVED AS IF BY ACID IN THE SEA OF NIGHT AND WHAT IS LEFT WILL WASH UP INTO THE PALACE OF CACOPHONY & DISSOLUTION]
THE FIFTH DAY(click-replace: "THE FIFTH DAY")[WHEN YOU AWAKEN ON THE FIFTH DAY, YOU WILL BE STRETCHED SO THIN AS TO NOT EXIST AND YOU WILL BE MINGLED WITH THE KINGDOM AND ALL ITERATIONS OF ITS INHABITANTS]
THE SIXTH DAY(click-replace: "THE SIXTH DAY")[FROM THIS INANE MASS THAT STRETCHES TO THE ENDS AND BEGINNINGS OF TIME YOU WILL EXPERIENCE ALL THE WISP-FORMS WROUGHT BY AKELLAMET, YOUR DESTROYER AND BODY. THIS IS THE SIXTH DAY, WHICH CONTAINS ALL DAYS
ALL OF YOUR ENERGY WILL BE SPENT PULLING YOURSELF OUT OF THIS BODY AND INTO YOUR NEW ONE, WHERE FOR EVERY LIMB AND EVERY THOUGHT YOU TAKE, YOU WILL HAVE TOOK THE WRONG ONES. THIS FAILED ACTUALIZATION, THIS FOOLISH KATABASIS WILL WRING OUT OF YOU ALL THAT YOU HAD LOVED AND HELD]
THE SEVENTH DAY(click-replace: "THE SEVENTH DAY")[THE SEVENTH DAY WILL NOT EXIST, FOR YOU ARE NOT GOD AND YOU WILL NOT REST]
(font: "Mukta")[(if:$saintVisit is not true)[ [[Return to the Table of Contents->Solace]] ]
(else:)[ [[Return to the Table of Contents->Table of Contents]] ] ]
(set: $curseVisit to true)(font: "Mukta")[The leather binding is worn like the path you trace in memory trying to solve the riddle of your identity. It is not that you don't know who you are, it's that you lack a certain context. If you were to think of yourself without the expectations of who you think you are, you would then confirm what you know is true: that you are marked with holy wounds that will bleed forever.
(click: "you are marked")[
This book will not give you answers as to how the bleeding began or who caused it. It will, maybe, give you solace.
[[Open the book->Table of Contents]]]]Oh, holy beast,
(click: "Oh, holy beast,")[My form is bent and broken before you]
(click: "My form is bent and broken before you")[I am sick to my world]
(click: "I am sick to my world")[Cut open with junkyard organs]
(click: "Cut open with junkyard organs")[The hope inside me has died]
(click: "The hope inside me has died")[Please take these rusted burdens]
(click: "Please take these rusted burdens")[From this hollowed ground]
(click: "From this hollowed ground")[Let them rest in your many arms]
(click: "Let them rest in your many arms")[A far better home than I]
(click: "A far better home than I")[Take it all away]
(click: "Take it all away")[All that makes me]
(click: "All that makes me")[And fill me with something worthwhile, I plead]
(click: "And fill me with something worthwhile, I plead")[My precious feral divinity]
(font: "Mukta")[[[Return to the Table of Contents->Table of Contents]]]
(set: $sacramentVisit to true)darkness, please take me
(font: "Mukta")[[[Return to the Table of Contents->Table of Contents]]]
(set: $saintVisit to true)Dear angel of the pit,
(click: "Dear angel of the pit,")[I pray in reverse to thee]
(click: "I pray in reverse to thee")[To guide me through this sightless fog]
(click: "To guide me through this sightless fog")[As I pledge myself to your locust court.]
(click: "As I pledge myself to your locust court.")[Please forgive me for the sin of form]
(click: "Please forgive me for the sin of form")[And walk me through your evil heart]
(click: "And walk me through your evil heart")[To the place where I can rest peacefully:]
(click: "To the place where I can rest peacefully:")[Death in the Kingdom of Me]
(font: "Mukta")[[[Return to the Table of Contents->Table of Contents]]]
(set: $destroyVisit to true)Drink deep of this blessed pitch and speak backwards into pain, siblings mine. Know this: I am all things. I breathe them, I feel them, I live them. We who knew love as the child of desperation and obsession seek to learn the fullness of what we lack. We are all Augurs of Want, divining the future through desire alone. Now, let us partake in communion of each other.
(font: "Mukta")[(if:$sacramentVisit is not true)[ [[Return to the Table of Contents->Beast]] ]
(else:)[ [[Return to the Table of Contents->Table of Contents]]] ]
(set: $lilithVisit to true)May the light of this world eclipse.
(click: "May the light of this world eclipse.")[May every flame flicker quick and die.]
(click: "May every flame flicker quick and die.")[May the moon dance the sun into defeat.]
(click: "May the moon dance the sun into defeat.")[May every star vanish one night.]
(click: "May every star vanish one night.")[May nothing again shine with that cruel glint.]
(click: "May nothing again shine with that cruel glint.")[Let us raise silver swords and don silver crowns.]
(click: "Let us raise silver swords and don silver crowns.")[Let us call the machine-god's death into being.]
(click: "Let us call the machine-god's death into being.")[And reclaim it's vile kingdom.]
(font: "Mukta")[[[Return to the Table of Contents->Table of Contents]]]
(set: $pleaVisit to true)(set: $htpVisit to false)
(set: $canonVisit to false)
(set: $saintVisit to false)
(set: $sacramentVisit to false)
(set: $curseVisit to false)
(set: $destroyVisit to false)
(set: $lilithVisit to false)
(set: $pleaVisit to false)
(set: $beastVisit to false)
(set: $solaceVisit to false)
(font: "Mukta")[(text-style: "rumble")[CHILD, HAVE YOU SAID YOUR PRAYERS?]]
(font: "Mukta")[[[Return to Table of Contents->Table of Contents]]]
(font: "Mukta")[(text-style:"blur")[darkness, please take me]]
[[►->Credits]](font: "Mukta")[Child, have I hurt you so? (click-replace:"hurt")[scared]
I tried to save you.(click-replace:"save")[heal]
You were feral and afraid(click-replace:"afraid")[unloved]
When you called out for me.(click-replace:"me.")[anyone.]
[[Do you remember?->Saint's Lament]]]
(set: $solaceVisit to true)(font: "Mukta")[
Do you remember what (colour:red)[blood] tastes like?
(transition:"dissolve") + (transition-time: 20s)
[ [[HAHAHAHA->Sacrament of Desolation]]] ]
(set: $beastVisit to true)(font: "Mukta")[SUFFER, CHILD.
IT WAS FOOLISH TO TRY AND SAVE YOU.
(click: "SAVE YOU")[
LIVE IN YOUR EXALTED PAIN. NAME IT.
IT WAS AGONY THAT GUIDED YOU HERE.]
(click: "IT WAS AGONY")[
WE ARE BOUND THROUGH IT.
THAT CONNECTION WILL NEVER BE UNDONE.]
(click: "THAT CONNECTION")[
YOU HAVE BEEN MARKED A WITNESS FOREVER
BY THE POWER OF THE ALL-FACED BEAST.]
(click: "ALL-FACED BEAST")[
I GAVE YOU SANCTUARY FROM CEASELESS TORMENT, YET
ALL YOUR ACHES REFRACTED & REPLICATED [[INTO FOREVER->Escape]]. ]
]
(font: "Mukta")[THEY MERGED WITH ALL THE OTHER'S
AND YOU LOST TRACK OF WHO YOU WERE.
(click: "LOST TRACK")[
ALTERITY CANNOT HOLD IN THIS PLACE.
THERE IS NO SEPARATION BETWEEN US ANYMORE.]
(click: "BETWEEN US")[
DO YOU SEEK ESCAPE, STILL?
TAKE WHAT YOU NEED. I ONLY WISH TO HELP.]
(click: "TO HELP")[
CHILD, YOU CAN RETURN ANY TIME.
IN FACT, YOU ALREADY HAVE.]
(click: "CAN RETURN")[
NOW, GO BACK TO [[THE IMPASSIBLE GATE]]
RISE AGAIN, TERRIBLE & RENEWED ]
]
(css: "font-size: 333%;")[◍]
[[►->Credits]]//''Book of Prayers''// ''by Karin Malady''
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(click: "Twitter")[(open-url: "https://twitter.com/SweetNAwful")]
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cover art by Sqaure
(click: "cover art by Sqaure")[(open-url: "https://twitter.com/handdrawnsquare")]
Restart
(click:"Restart")[(reload:)]
(if:$beastVisit is true and $solaceVisit is true)[]
(else:)[ (font: "Mukta")[This feral dark has deeper secrets
Go to the Table of Contents
Await further instruction] ]