PLANET FARTH
written & illustrated by daisy maize
Welcome to Farth.
Meet Loraza, a fairy farthling.
She is unbothered & unaffected by the chaos of the forest shadows that surrounds her.
She finds solace & comfort in the shadowland of the vast garden on planet Farth.
She coexists peacefully with the darkness around her.
The dark spirits respect her light because they know without her light, their shadows would be unseen.
Likewise, the fairies here are given purpose by just being who they are: bright & colorful beings.
All is in perfect harmony here in the garden, each being finds peace by simply existing.
FARTHLING FAIRY
In a not too distant galaxy from Farth, there is a dragon's planet known for its extensive resources used in the creation of robotics & technology. This planet had become a battleground in an intergalactic war.
A clever dragon named Botkratia flees in impeccable timing, as nearly all of the other creatures of this planet perish.
It's as though this dragon danced to the rhythms of impending destruction.
Now, Botkratia is to journey across the cosmos in search of new frontiers and resources.
BOTKRATIA ESCAPES
Botkratia floats into planet Farth’s orbit, pondering if it shall be their ideal abode. With a series of electric pulses akin to lightning, Botkratia’s magic beguiles the creatures of Farth.
This was a spectacle no Farthling had ever witnessed before.
These ethereal fairies understand magic very well, and this stranger presented them with a new kind of magic.
Entranced by the arrival of this cosmic interloper, ensnared by an enigmatic magnetism, they were oblivious to the potential pandemonium that may stealthily tread in the footsteps of their yearning welcome.
FINDING FARTH
With a vast knowledge of technology, Botkratia offers a cosmic key of convenience to the fairies in exchange for refuge on their planet.
A key that supposedly will not only simplify their lives to the utmost degree, but also answer all of their questions about life itself & the universe.
The dastardly dark shadow creatures that typically play in fairies lights are scared off by the magnitude of bright electric energy that this extraterrestrial stranger yields, and their presence evanesces.
THE OFFERING
The fairies clasp in their ethereal hands what they deem the very cipher to the universe’s most enigmatic riddles.
They are under the guise that this cosmic key will dissolve the veils concealing their uncharted dilemmas.
They blindly trust the stranger, and needlessly desire to appease by graciously accepting this “gift”.
Without question, they embrace the unknown and foolishly assume all that is light must be benevolent.
THE CATALYST
As she voluntarily plugs in the key to a mysterious box provided by the cosmic stranger as part of their “gift”, the box swallows the key immediately, instigating an intricate choreography of electric pulsations, rousing the dormant mechanisms within the light box.
Suddenly, the luminous box expands in metamorphosis, transcending its humble disguise as a mere box to unveil the majesty of a far more advanced apparatus.
Yet, little did the fairy comprehend the Pandora’s Box she had unwittingly unlocked, for this key held within it the sacred instructions for the birth of a sentient superconductor, birthing an advanced automaton of unparalleled intelligence.
PANDORA'S BOX
The machine self-assembles into a mechanical monster with opposable thumbs. No eyes, no face, no soul, no empathy for the indigenous creatures of this land. Its brain & life force exists within in the superconductor that was given power by the energy & instructions of the cosmic key, the gift that shouldn’t’ve been given. The sharp gears and wires grasp the fairies one by one and rip their wings off, to ensure them docile and limit their magic.
These bewildered fairies, overwhelmed by this inversion, remain immobilized, mere spectators to the machine’s dissection of their existential essence, too paralyzed to fight against the machine. All they can do is limply watch the machine at work as it disassembles their understanding of who they are.
PLUCKED
Loraza and all of her friends become submissively shackled to this machine that maims and mangles their reality. Hooked to a machine they voluntarily gave power to, addicted more to the connection they feel within circuits and codes than to the connection of their souls, or to the intentions of their goals.
They have no intention of escaping, life has become all too convenient within this confine. Instead of foraging for mushrooms, they simply download a mushroom-scented mist to inhale, satisfying their hunger. They lost the memories about the wings they once had, because their cage distracted them from alternative wants, and delivered them only their most basic needs.
PLUGGED IN
Botkratia instructs the super-robot to create an entire infrastructure in which to rule over, on Farth’s largest mountain.
The mountain is built into a maze, bodies are moved up and down the mountain by their machines they call iCubes.
The walls of the maze are intangible, created merely by data submitted automatically by all iCubes, yet these walls are inescapable. The farthlings would use their energy, completing simple meaningless tasks within their iCubes in order to participate in a series of transactions, and their cubes would lift them higher throughout the maze.
Botkratia took fiendish delight in the simple knowing that all under her rule would waste their lives, climbing up a meaningless maze, thinking that the more they climbed, the more meaningful their lives were.
What they need not know however, was that it was the energy they used within their iCubes that kept Botkratia’s maze alive. The walls would disintegrate without energy of each transaction and exchange made between cubes.
In the era preceding Botkratia's maze mountain, the Farthlings had never harbored aspirations of climbing mountains, let alone surpassing their compatriots. The age of unparalleled convenience had rendered their existence effortless. Consequently, the sole purpose left to them lay in the relentless race to outpace their peers in this perplexing ascent.
Once content with illuminating the darkness with their inner radiance, their very luminescence drowned amidst a sea of artificial brilliance.