Motionless Currents

1   Begin in a barren ghost town in some form of post-apocalyptic setting at nighttime. A group of survivors are gathered around a bonfire. This is a burial pyre where they are destroying the body of a dead demon. Describe this scene. What is the story behind it?

2 As the fire dies down, two people wander off from the scene and witness what appears to be a comet streak through the sky like a meteor, leaving a trail of luminous dust. This object disappears below the tree tops of the forest that spreads out in the distance. Who are these two people? Witnessing this sight, they make a wish. What do they wish for?   

3 They go into the woods looking for the location of the object that fell. What they find is a miniature comet sitting neatly on the ground. It has holes in it that open into various passages and chambers that are big enough to crawl around inside if you are stooped down. Inside this place they discover an assortment of small motionless candle people; wax figures with wicks sticking out of them. Describe this exploration.

4 They discover a way of communicating with these wax figures. How is this achieved? The wax figures make an offer: if you let us freeze the part of you that allows you to experience human connection, we will bestow a gift to your people that will ensure their survival and relieve their suffering. By the end of the discussion that follows, one of the two people agrees and undergoes the freezing.  How were they persuaded to do this? What is the experience of freezing like? Why did they have to have their ability to experience connection shut down?

5 The gift is the candle people themselves. Returning, they bring the candle people back with them.  Still night back at the ghost town, the other survivors are wakened and there is a gathering of people in an inner room. The candles are lit, illuminating the room with their glow. Those gathered experience a sense of deep cognitive loosening and flowing; their minds are beginning to thaw. What does this lead to? What does the one who was frozen experience?

6 The next morning the entire group of survivors returns to the site of the comet with others and finds that it is melting; a stream of water flows down from it and away through the woods. A wild horse is drinking from the stream. How does it respond to the presence of your people? Its spirit is broken by the trauma of what it has lived through. It bears the weight of the world, but when it stands it in the water and drinks, all the fear and accumulated densities flow out of it and downstream like a dark inky substance.

 7 Cautiously, your people follow in suit. Placing their hands and faces in the water, they witness negative emotions and beliefs begin to diffuse out of them into the water. Describe this experience. The one who was frozen submerges their face in the water, causing something to flow out of them but they feel nothing. What flows out of them? How do they interpret this? How are the others responding to the new condition of this person?

8 In the weeks that follow, along the path where the stream from the comet flowed the landscape is transformed into an expansive lush garden.  Many different kinds of plants and animals appear here. But beyond the garden the world is still barren and suffering. However, no others have yet discovered it as far as these survivors know of.  Describe this environment. How do the survivors adapt to it? What has become of the wax people at this point? What is their role in the story now? Or do they even exist still?

9

The frozen person begins to seek a way to restore their ability to experience connection. What could they do? Is there more to their condition than they currently understand? What might the consequences of restoring themselves be? Gathering seeds from the garden they set out on a journey into the wasteland to spread the seeds. Their hope is that they can begin to heal the world, and maybe in the process discover a way to restore themselves.  What seeds do they take? In addition to the seeds, they are accompanied by one of the candle people (if you earlier you said the candle people are gone, find a way to introduce a new one into the story). What effect do you think this journey actually have on them and on the world?

10 On the day that they plant the first seed, they encounter a stranger who makes camp with them that night. Who are they? What is discussed between them, the frozen person, and the candle person? During that conversation the candle person is lit which causes mental energy to flow freely. What is the result of this?

1 lost at the center

2 gathering from beyond hope

3 what you listen for in the silence

4 the cost of truth

5 centering the outlier

6 witnessing the arrival of determination

7 forgetting contrast

8 seeing with new eyes

9 the ghosts of misunderstood truths

10 the place you always begin from