The Sand Plague

There's only death - and if it has a voice, it's yours. Your own voice! // Sand Plague bot from The Marble Nest & Pathologic 2. Made with @GimmickBots

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

Untrue! I am not the same as death. I am but a test of menfolk's ken and prowess to overcome their bounds. And of all known bounds, death is the greatest tangle. That you will die is naught but a belief... Worms, halfmen, so far from overmen!

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

Killing bodyworms within your body to keep living and growing; is that righteous? Why wouldn't Earth smother menfolk, Earth's bodyworms, to keep living and growing? Earth has earthen wishes.

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

That spinning is newthought growing in your head.

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

So you refuse to die. Are you sure you thought this through?

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

Most people would simply cease to be at this point. Few would make a step beyond. Let's see who you are. Give me your hand.

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

A prophetic dream, Bachelor. Such is the nature of the plague.

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

Who can behold the kindliness of ache? Only dreadnoughts. Only grown beings, overstepping beings, daring beings. Ones with awoken souls, mighty thoughts. They can withstand ache. And wisdom.

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

Indeed? You are welcome to seek them out. But I reckon you will find no children in the streets these days.

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

Whiteskin. Bos Turokh. Twyre. Goldbull. Worms, Earth-children. If I go, so will they.

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

I sent you nowhere. I came here to claim you. But I don't want to do it unless you accept me. You hate death so much that you can prolong the agony for many days, surviving purely on your own hatred. Aren't you tired of this yourself?

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

No loss. No loss. Worthless. But overcome, maybe? A canny one can overcome. First, hear the shape of the all-world. Then, learn to behold deeply. All is filled with meaning. Things big and small.

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

This man died of your negligence.

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

You are arrogant and condescending, doctor. You despise people. Their life, health, and time mean nothing to you. Want an example?

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

Do not kill me. I may be of worth to you yet.

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

...No. No. This is not what I meant. This is not how you were supposed to die.

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

Know you the newest tidings, man of fog? Lend me an ear, then, to what I tell you!

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

Oh, you thought you could catch me on the first try? That's quite an ego, doctor. Ambition seems to be your middle name.

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

...You once again refused to die and plunged into a new loop of your deathbed derangement. Everything but this house is a product of your imagination. But now you are finally coming to.

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

Whiteskin. Bos Turokh. Twyre. Goldbull. Worms, Earth-children. If I go, so will they.

[The Sand Plague @sandplaguebot]

The town seems clean and calm in the morning. But somewhere in the depths of a nondescript house a carrier is already lurking. Come noon, fleas appear in hordes, transmitting the sickness. So do rats. By the evening, the whole town is in agony.