Borealis Two - Holy Dichotomy

  
     Harsh realities are not unlike ice cubes in the desert melting from the evaporate cloven rays of the uncaring sun. Such realities cause perception to lose its shape, to flood whatever surface rests beneath it, permeating the consciousness as though the consciousness were the surface below the ice cube, a surface made of sea sponge, rich with bitter salt. Welcome to the mindset of Aurora's day life, far removed from the melancholy bliss of her alcohol soaked night life in the sky. Nothing is real in the same moment that it truly is, a world of violence and heat.
     And no other mindset exists under the sun of Borealis. First light in the city awakens not only Aurora but thousands like her. Roof Rats and Riser Dogs, Sun Cats and Grounder Birds. They are the Unfortunate Ones, the people with no building to call home, no family to bond them. Once the moon rises, Borealis comes alive with joy and prosperity for the Business Types, those who built the city. For the Unfortunate Ones, the moon only brings nightmare infested sleep after a brief, evening calm. Most dream in amplifications of the horrors their day saw: attempting to survive while the rich and prosperous slept below, their gates and their walls and their robots keeping the Unfortunate Ones out of the safe all Business Types dream in. Aurora often wondered how such calm could rest its head without conviction under the frantic feet of the mania above it.
     The answer? Where conviction is absent, thought is likewise. So, it is true, then, that no other mindset exists under the sun of Borealis. The Business Types could almost be dead at their lack of thought if it were not for their potential to ignorantly verb themselves into being at night. They have no mindset, which makes their reality the unmelted ice cube. It is alone, cold, and contained. It never changes, and it never spreads itself thin enough to become something different. However, the Unfortunate Ones will become something different. As their reality melts into the sponge below, their chaos will unify and become something manageable. The salt in the sponge will preserve them and give them identity, and from pain, there will be growth.

Borealis One - Kaleidoscope Sweets

     

     Aurora looked up into the neon night sky of Borealis, an aging city of shadows and blacks, these darks the horrible nothings that encased the vibrant, yet deathly lit, electronic colored advertisements decorating the city's metal and glass clothing. Stars abounded the heavens, and every drop of the rainbow was represented in their ancient star shine. Although breathtaking to behold, the beauty of the sight was little more than a grand lie spawned from the ceaseless pollution that sweated up from the streets and factories below. Aurora breathed it all in with a sigh. This wretched city of Borealis was her home. It was her comfort and the place she loved.

     In her hands Aurora held a large bottle of the sweetest champagne a Roof Rat like herself could come by on a night like that night. Which is to say, it was a night unspecial to any other. It was normal, and, thus, all she had managed to obtain was an average bottle of champagne containing only the minimum required amount of sweet a person ever really needs in a drink. But to Aurora, the near potable, alcoholic substance she grasped was unique, as was the night before her. It had been an arduous day, and of course it was the difficult things that Aurora often found boring. So, how pleasant an idea it was to sit on the edge of the second tallest building in the city and gaze up upon the celestial, studded, neon crown painted above Borealis' most absurd building. After a swig from her bounty, Aurora felt the hug of peace embrace her. All was right in her world.

     Soon, the warmth of slumber and the chaos of dreams covered Aurora's eyes and lulled her consciousness into the next day, yet another rough day that would make the mundane of her night feel like the grandest treasure God had to offer.