A chrysanthemum mandala of lingams blossomed and seeded a gang of beings that resembled elves of fantasy lore. Lithe jeweled bodies held together by glittering rotating gears. Large eyes and narrow faces. Pointy ears. Mechanical elves. The professor’s consciousness, still under the influence of the psychoactive kuk-sha, grasped for concepts to describe them. Machine elves. He had heard that before. But as his mind raced, the stream of information became difficult to grasp. The elves’ bejeweled skin shimmered like that of an octopus, each geometrical face displaying an array of multimedia images imbued with layer upon layer of semantic meaning.
Previous chapters: 1, 2, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5, 5.5, 6, 6.5, 7, 7.5, 8, 9
Upon seeing the elves disrupt their drug-fueled reptilian orgy, the Arcasian women flew into a rage and grabbed their poles and spears. They swung wildly at the elves while the spooked lizards scattered in all directions.
But the elves were quick as they dashed along the beach dodging the blows, as if quantum jumping from one place to another, giggling and saying, “don’t do that! Don’t do that!”
The enraged women stumbled over each other as they chased the mischievous creatures. More often than not, they ended up falling face first in the sand and the waves.
A couple of elves approached Dr. Linnaeus and Esmeralda.
“It’s you!” they said in unison. “At last, we have found you. How good to see you! Hooray!”
At which point all the other elves raised their right arm and shouted, “hooray!”
The professor and his assistant did not know what to make of the creatures and tried to get away.
“Don’t do that! Don’t do that!” said the elves, rushing towards the fleeing pair and stopping in front of them. Their bodies vibrated in a kaleidescope of colours. A flow of images depicting humans shaking hands.
“Come with us!” said the elf girl.
“Yes, come with us!” said the elf boy.
The professor realized that the creatures weren’t actually talking for they did not speak any language but wore it on their skin. The effect was akin to that of the visually dynamic camouflage sported by the octopus species.
“Look at us! Whee! Hooray!”
Images flashed quickly. An ape walking with a spear. A man landing on the moon. Marilyn Monroe’s dress blowing in the wind. Seemingly endless, the images then floated up in the air, merged, and gave rise to abstract machines too fantastic to believe. Each was a dense object of meaning. Science. Art. Technology. Literature. Endless reservoir of knowledge encoded within its own dynamic grammar. A universal language composed of a myriad languages- atomic structures of syntax.
The visions and hallucinations were overwhelming. Esmeralda closed her eyes and covered her ears.
“Don’t do that! Don’t do that! Look at us!” said the elves.
She opened her eyes and found herself staring at the elf girl. Her large eyes reflected her image. Then somehow, Esmeralda switched places with the girl. She looked back at herself from the perspective of the elf girl. Then they switched back. Again and again and again- flashing back and forth like a movie reel. With each jump, she learned more about the elf, her life story. Oddly enough, when she switched back into her own body, Esmeralda also knew more about herself. Impossible ideas filled her mind. Engineered artifacts of consciousness, grammatical entities streaming down the strange attractor of their own evolution.
Esmeralda cried out. Then raising her hands she began to sing a whirring metallic song.
“Yes! Yes!” clapped the elves happily. “Do that! Do that!”
As she sang, an orb of light glowed beneath Esmeralda’s naked skin. It moved up her throat and then burst through her mouth like a fully formed butterfly. Radiant. It fluttered towards the chrysanthemum, which softly caressed the insect with its phallic petals until they burst in a shower of jewels.
This spectacle greatly pleased the elves who laughed with glee, raised their right arm, and shouted “hooray! Hooray! Hooray!”
The professor watched as the fluttering wings of the butterfly fanned the shimmering air around it. Countless diagrams and data points burst into existence. Drone data and ethnographic variables, arranging and rearranging into novel models of cultural evolution.
“The electronic stage!” he said laughing. Rosalind had been right. The model had predicted the existence of an island group who had reached the electronic stage, something that seemed impossible given what they had found so far. A culture that was barely out of the stone age. Yet, these creatures, these elves, clearly belonged to a more advanced people. A society that knew how to blend biology and electronics.
“Come with us!” said the elf boy.
“Yes, yes!” clapped the elf girl. “We want to show you something.”
Dr. Linnaeus and Esmeralda simply stared dumbfounded, unable to speak. The elves took the pair by the hand then happily led them into the forest.