_XENOANGEL _artifacts of mutual importance to marija avramovic and sam twidale

The Oddity is born on the night of the supermoon. Xe takes xer first milky breath in a smoke-drenched atmosphere of collapse and suckles the mildew. It tastes like architecture; crushed concrete jewels, steel orange topaz. Delicious stories of disjointed timelines. Lives were lived here. Full, complete, anomalies. Xe can feel it, this place (the glow of it), it used to be inhabited by billions of people (sometimes human, sometimes xeno, sometimes hyper, sometimes super), forever in blissful codependence, collective hybridisation. Forever love and safe spaces. But yet there is, it seems, a pang of grief. There were such gods and such blissful belief. But oh, bless me, bless me please, thinks the Oddity, bless me and make me safe. Calm me down. Breathe me in. Out. In. Out. In. Feel the rhythm, feel the ritual. Bless the rhythm. Listen. Xe unfolds xer ears. The space is crisp, autumnal, brittle leaves. Twigs on pavements. Crunch, crunch. Breathe. You speak: h..huh, hey baby. (pause) Don't worry. We're here. You're gonna fall for us. Into us. Safety awaits. You are the ocean. Quiet now. There, there. Whisper to me. The Oddity speaks with xer fossilised tongue. It's a tongue full of earth and eons, memory and souvenirs. It's difficult to manipulate, heavy to maneuver. All xe can say is Ma or something like that, like all sublunar beings. Ma is a soft word. Comforting. Xe feels its warm vibrations in xer chest. You speak: That's it! Now.. let's try to see. Come on! Open those eyes.. The Oddity tries and tries but eyes are sticky business. Full of goo. Mold. Slime. It feels like xe has been sleeping for forever, forever, forever in the safe space. But now, xe's awake. And it's really not easy to be awake in the wild. Sleeping's a dream. Sleeping's a dream and it pulls xer back in. But xe pushes through and rips the magic from xer million eyes. Spidery cobwebs drift away and rivers of light flood in, drowning xer in photons, things, hyper-objects, atoms, flight-time and all kinds of space. Wait, think slowly, xe thinks. Slow Thinking is the key. And you speak again: what do you see, baby? Show me. Take me there. Here.. hold my hand. (you hold out your hand and wait for the psychic link). The Oddity stretches out towards you. Xer body breaks all kinds of rules of beauty as it fragments, transforms, shapeshifts and recomposes. Xer dreamy tentacular appendages scream of comfort, such malleable, fruity flesh! And xe grabs your palm with xers and you are in love. All motion slides and blurs as the Oddity's thoughts slowly seep into you. And this time it is xe who speaks and xe says: Feel me. Slow. The rhythm. The ritual. Breathe me in. Breathe me out. Bless me. Baby, it's you. You're the Oddity.