<<fadein 1s>>hot summer, cerulean ceilings,
skin slick and sweaty under the hole in the sky.<</fadein>>
<<timed 1s>><<fadein 1s>>even the grass is hot under our bare feet, half-melted in the haze.<</fadein>><</timed>>
<<timed 2s>><<fadein 0.5s>>you<</fadein>><</timed>> <<timed 2.5s>><<fadein 0.5s>>take<</fadein>><</timed>> <<timed 3s>><<fadein 0.5s>>a<</fadein>><</timed>> <<timed 3.5s>><<fadein 0.5s>>hit<</fadein>><</timed>> <<timed 4s>><<fadein 0.5s>>and<</fadein>><</timed>> <<timed 4.2s>><<fadein 0.2s>>I<</fadein>><</timed>> <<timed 4.4s>><<fadein 0.2s>>squint<</fadein>><</timed>> <<timed 4.6s>><<fadein 0.2s>>at<</fadein>><</timed>> <<timed 4.8s>><<fadein 0.2s>>you.<</fadein>><</timed>>
<<timed 5s>><<fadein 1s>>I can't make out your shape in the raw light, but I look at the shadow where <div class="tooltip">you are<span class="tooltiptext">carved from the empty spaces</span></div> and we laugh, and the smoke trails up the currents to the maw above.<</fadein>><</timed>>
<<timed 6s>><<fadein 1s>>you hand over the joint and I take a hit myself, mouth sticky and wet, the paper tacky where your lips touched it.<</fadein>><</timed>>
<<timed 7s>><<fadein 2s>>[[inhale.]]<</fadein>><</timed>>//did you know that the outer corona of the sun has an average temperature of <div class="tooltip">two billion kelvin<span class="tooltiptext">one million, nine hundred and ninety nine thousand, seven hundred and twenty seven degrees celsius</span></div>?//
exhale.
//<div class="tooltip">if you went there<span class="tooltiptext">I'd miss you</span></div> - stepped out of your front door and found yourself unthinkably, indescribably far from home - you'd freeze to death.//
you laugh, and take the joint from me.
//<div class="tooltip">it's because-<span class="tooltiptext">I <b>do</b> miss you</span></div>//
I watch the membranes of my hand flex and twist, the smoke from your lips glinting white in the glare.
//it's because it wouldn't <div class="tooltip">touch you<span class="tooltiptext">touch <b>me</b>?</span></div>//
I take the joint once again.
it hurts, now, my lungs protesting the rough treatment.
//all that energy, and it would never touch you.//
you lean back, tilt your face to the devouring sky.
//[[it might.]]////it might. if you waited long enough.//
//you'd freeze to death.//
//right, but if you <div class="tooltip"><b>didn't</b>-<span class="tooltiptext">if it never changed-</span></div>//
//how would that work?//
//I don't know. how would you get there in the first place?//
//alright, <div class="tooltip">I'll concede<span class="tooltiptext">I always do (I always did)</span></div>.//
my skin is dappled, lines branching like the veins of a leaf. I watch as the nails crack and start to bleed.
//I just think it's [[neat.]]//you hold out a hand. I take it, twining our fingers together, and it's not until you start to giggle that I realise you wanted the joint. I take another hit just to make a <div class="tooltip">point,<span class="tooltiptext">I love you</span></div> and you leave our hands tangled.
<div class="tooltip">our palms<span class="tooltiptext">hold me?</span></div> are sweaty, sticky, slick.
the earth around us twists, rolling hills spun out into filigree and lace.
I put out the joint on my thigh and lean my head on your shoulder.
I can feel the bones shifting beneath your skin, reshaping into vines that reach for the sun.
//stay with me.//
I mean it to come out light, caustic as the sky, but the words are borne from me purple and squalling.
you laugh, and my chest opens in a crimson chorus.
our hands are blurred, now, the molecules of our selves twined together.
inseparable, until the end of the world.
that end gapes raw and jagged and I turn my eyes from it, press my <div class="tooltip">face<span class="tooltiptext">hide me</span></div> into your neck.
your skin is wet and writhing.
overhead, the sky swallows.
<<timed 15s>><<fadein 3s>><center><<link '<span class="material-symbols-outlined">sync</span>' 'Untitled Passage 1'>><</link>></center><</fadein>><</timed>><center>//you know who you are.
just let me have this one.//
[[begin.|Untitled Passage]] </center>