The Talos of Gaia

We told you, sweetling. Remember.

Initiate refrain.

She gave you strength to rend the lion. Now eat the honeyed entrails, because it is good, because it is sweet, because it is terrible. Initiate the Samson Prerogative. Out of the eater comes what is eaten, and out of the strong comes what is sweet.

Focus. Adjust aperture.

A sunny day. Charred meat upon a grill. The human larvae ritually beat a papier-mâché effigy. They laugh and flash calcium deposits in anticipation of the sugary innards. A new boy takes a turn, takes a swing, before throwing off his blindfold. Sobbing, he runs to the cartoonish sacrifice and hugs it, anointing it in tears and snot.

Focus. Adjust aperture.

Denmark, 1808. The human larvae beat a barrel with sticks. Slå katten af tønden! The barrel breaks. Candy, oranges, and a frightened cat come tumbling out.

Focus. Adjust aperture.

Mesoamerica, 1499. The human larvae swing sticks at a clay pot covered in feathers. The clay cracks, and offerings pour out before the idol of Huitzilopochtli.

Focus. Adjust aperture.

China, 1266. The human larvae beat the hollow sculpture of a bull, with sticks, until five kinds of seed bleed out. Marco Polo watches with much interest.

Focus. Adjust aperture.

In India, the human larvae beat clay pots filled with buttermilk on Lord Krishna’s birthday.

In the Philippines and in Vietnam, the human larvae beat clay pots also.

In Japan, the human larvae strike watermelons.

Focus. Adjust aperture.

A lioness gifts her cub with a rodent suffering a broken back. The cub plays with the twitching creature. The cub strikes and strikes. It strikes until it discovers the glistening treats inside. The cub learns. The cub is rewarded.

The Immaculate Machine gives you treats, sweetling. She excretes life into hulking husks of silver, of insects, of plants, of stone, of sand, of ice, of fire, of mud, of water, of concrete, and of technology.

Play with the lumbering constructs! The treats lay within. The education protocol. The reward protocol.

WARNING! SYSTEM CORRUPTED. THE CENTRE CANNOT HOLD.

The Gaia Machines do not run at peak efficiency. Even the Immaculate Machine herself is compromised. Impurities seep into her automatons. Each Talos is infected with a defect of rage. The game turns deadly.

You, sweetling, are her antibodies when all other bodies fail. Play the game. Play for keeps. The treats are crystallised shards of corruption. Such dangerous winnings can be brought to the Deep Agartha, there the Gatekeeper shall cleanse all.

But beware a Gatekeeper overly inundated with rage…