After "The Final Clash" and "A Bird's Hunger", the third scroll in the Witch of Bubbles epos is ready. I still need to find a fitting name for the bundle, hopefully something more imaginative than The Blue Scrolls, although that could also serve the purpose of igniting curiosity when said with deep voice in the mist.

The story is growing from the inside, gathering volume and substance, the writings are longer as there are more elements to connect. I love the process as much as I enjoy the result. Again, the starting point is an experimental print, an image that brought a story to my mind, and the rest is just fun and subtle commentary.

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Part(y)ings and Meetings

On Ibikonos, nothing ever ended. The days didn't last long and the nights felt like an eternal fluctuation between sunset and dawn. The beats were hard and gravity optional after midnight.

 

The Mighty Giraffe belonged there. He wore mirror sunglasses and Hawaiian shirts tailored by beings with six arms and no sense of restraint. And that was how he danced across the span of three dance floors, knocking over a moon here and there, while he casually sipped drinks that fizzed, drinks that glowed, and drinks that changed form.

 

He was a beloved figure of the island that drifted through intergalactic space like a very confident mistake, pulsing with music, light, and the certainty that whatever was happening was important. And then, DJ TCTBT (TooCoolToBeTrue) got on stage. She was also wearing mirror glasses and Mighty Giraffe will always remember how the stars dimmed when she took place behind the decks, in a sequin jacket that shone brighter than all the three suns that revolved like orange, pink and lime neon disco balls in the iridescent vanilla sky of day.

 

From the first notes of DJ TCTBT's set, the Mighty Giraffe felt it: His long neck was vibrating in unprecedented resonance, as if someone had finally tuned him correctly. He was unmistakably in love, which in retrospect did not improve his judgment.

 

That set lasted five centuries, and for seven more afterwards The Mighty Giraffe would argue that these were the best five centuries of his uncalculably long life. During that time he learned new moves, tried new drinks, made new friends, and certainly didn't want that set to end. But, like all things except ancient beings that Time simply forgets, DJ TCTBT's DJ set one day came to an end, and she disappeared in the rainbow fog created by the fog artisan High Head Dragon, whose services cost the organizers one third of the revenue.

 

Ibikonos continued and you can still hear the booming bass, as the party planet is drifting across the galaxies. For the Mighty Giraffe, however, things would never be the same. He had experienced the Perfect Moment, the mystical and extremely rare convergence of Time and Space where all things reach equilibrium, also known as Nirvana III in the In-Between Universe. He knew that no matter how much he danced or laughed he would still be living in the echo of that moment that had passed. One night, without drama or announcement, he walked off the island and kept walking until the bass could no longer find him...

The Lingering Rocks of Ponder were not meant for beings who had once danced in the rainbow fog of the High Head Dragon. They drifted slowly in all the breadth and length of the Far-Away Realms, self-assured in their purple shimmer. For the Mighty Giraffe this was a place of silence and meditation, a place he had known since his first youth, when he vowed to become a Warrior of Good and the immortal Queen Langnek brought him there to teach him the move that would mark the end of his two-hundred-year-old training, the legendary Neck-Whip, or Nek-Whip, as it was better known among her students.

 

And as The Mighty Giraffe was searching among the Lingering Rocks for the Sound Void that Clears the Mind, that semi-mythical pool that fades in and out of existence in random spots between the rocks, he noticed a hovering glimmering shadow. He didn't know it then, but that was a Bubble: the live reflection of some being's strongest memory. A second later, there appeared, playfully chasing after it, a golden dragonfly, and right behind it a light-stepped girl with a hat that covered its face with a ravishing mystery that was immediately dispersed by her crystalline laughter that seemed to mock Ponder and its Lingering Rocks altogether.

 

The drifting bubble was approaching The Mighty Giraffe, who was curious mostly about the being that dared disturb the Sacred Silence that reigned across the Lingering Rocks of Ponder, catching light on its way to him. It took a while for the dragonfly and the girl to notice him, and when they did they hesitated for a second, while the bubble wobbled away from them and hovered in front of The Mighty Giraffe.

 

What shone before the Giraffe's eyes inside the First Bubble was a reflection of his Perfect Moment, alive and real. The Mighty Giraffe was speechless, not because he couldn't find the words but because his mind paused for a second, while he was trying to grasp what he felt: the blissful happiness of hope.

 

The Witch watched him watch the bubble. And she understood what the purpose of the First Bubble was and already sensed what she would eventually choose as her purpose.

 

"This is your bubble" she said. "It came to find you. Please, keep it".

 

The Mighty Giraffe stayed thoughtful for a moment. Then, he kneeled in front of the Witch of Bubbles.

 

"My lady" he said "I recognize a Guardian when I see one. You have given me immense joy, and my search for the Sound Void that Clears the Mind is ending here. I no longer wish to clear my mind. I want to remember everything, because I know that my Perfect Moment exists in this bubble. You are the noble one that will keep it safe. I trust my bubble and my heart to you".

 

Much later, people would call this moment The Beginning of Everything that Went Wrong. But they would be wrong. It was the beginning of something gentle and festive, that lasted very long.

The first publication of project philomuse is ready! It's a combination of stories of plants that thrive away from their lands of origin and testimonies of experiences of migration. The subjective map becomes again an excellent medium for simulating both movement and connection. The illustrations (with the exception of the pistachio, which I made myself) are emojis, so commonly found in text messaging, which has become second nature for mobile populations. I can definitely see this map as part of a larger project, similar to identitours.

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From the introduction: 

"The pistachio trees, the parrots, and I, all come 
from warmer lands. This daily view becomes the 
starting point for bringing together stories of 
plants and people who have taken root and 
thrived in unexpected places, as proof that 
everything's going to be all right, as we move, 
replant, reroot – and thrive." 

Philomuse will be present at the Extraterrestrial Publishing Zine Fair, at Dokhuis, Rotterdam, on 31/01/2026.

 

An audio version! :)

 

 

And a .pdf link.