33 Comments
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Gustave Deresse's avatar

Why I mainly read the paragraphs in backwards order, I have no idea!! My head hurts so much. I skimmed forwards afterwards. I'm deeply irritated with all the intelligent comments today. I'm not sleeping enough. This was a vibe though!! Thank you for sharing.

Óðr Sierra Sierra's avatar

It might be that reading all the smart comments backwards first isn’t the best preparation 😄

Maybe try recalculating them later and read the chapter forward, in order - it could help ease the headache.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for your words Gustave.

The journey is still unfolding....

Lidia Stanchenko's avatar

It’s a very atmospheric, poetic text. That blend of deeply familiar human emotions within cold, technological spaces is always fascinating to watch unfold.

Monica Fernandes's avatar

I am hooked.

Óðr Sierra Sierra's avatar

Thank you Monica for reading

Opening chapter coming in two days here

Monica Fernandes's avatar

Awesome! I subscribed, so I can’t wait!

Óðr Sierra Sierra's avatar

40 chapters published on medium already. But here will be revised version

Monica Fernandes's avatar

Wonderful. I am not on Medium, so it’s brand new to me. :)

Óðr Sierra Sierra's avatar

No problem

My editor still adjusting my voice for substack )))

Monica Fernandes's avatar

Hehe. Ok.

Cosmic Warlock's avatar

OOOOOOOOO chyeah borther! The COSMIC WARLOCK digs it!

Óðr Sierra Sierra's avatar

Chyeah!! )) good luck )) Space scene here will be as well ))

Miles Hack's avatar

This is a very humanistic poise all the characters find themselves in. There’s a sense of disorientation and certainty in the same presence of each other. There’s ideas of trust, and convincing speech. The laughter and realization of identity is the most satiating part of it all!

Love the style of morality laid out here! Great storyline! 👏

Mai's avatar

A very clever, curious write around the subtext of duality, consciousness, and our human propensity to attach names and meaning as a way of containing chaos. Oh how humans hate being meaningless! Laughter is a fabulous antidote.

Óðr Sierra Sierra's avatar

Thank you May, for such a careful reading and such a deep understanding. I’m genuinely impressed by your comment - it caught the core more precisely than I could have hoped.

Reading yours )))

Mai's avatar

You are most welcome Sierra - is it okay if I call you Sierra? I have no idea how to write or pronounce your first name 😕

Óðr Sierra Sierra's avatar

Thank you Mai

Yes please

My real name coded in Sierra )))

Mai's avatar

Funny thing, yesterday when I was leaving this comment, I was looking back through many previous one left by others, to see how you were being referred to. Most were avoiding it … so I thought, oh hell, I’ll avoid it too 😁

Óðr Sierra Sierra's avatar

Nice and smart ;)

Im noticing this as well))

Dipti  Vyas's avatar

This chapter is like Blade Runner meets a Royal Air Force thrift shop 🛩️✨—tense, mysterious, existential… and then suddenly, a patch with “RAF” turns everyone into giggling humans. I love how the “Est limit / Est ultra” eye contact ritual feels like the most serious board meeting ever, only to be undone by the cosmic absurdity of a jumpsuit. And that final laugh? Pure liberation. Identity isn’t declared here—it’s tried on, misread, negotiated… and sometimes it comes with a side of accidental comedy 😄.

Óðr Sierra Sierra's avatar

Im grateful Dipti

Thank you, this is a beautiful understanding and a very precise way of seeing it.

Yes, exactly. And on top of all that, everything is happening on Solaris - where meaning, memory, and projection constantly fold back on the observer.

The tension is deliberate: identity pushed to its limit, then quietly undone by something embarrassingly human.

The jumpsuit isn’t a joke - it’s a stress test. Ritual holds, posture holds, seriousness holds… until fabric interferes.

Identity here isn’t declared.

It’s worn, misread, negotiated and finally released through laughter.

Happy to make you smiling

Dipti  Vyas's avatar

That makes it even better—Solaris with a wardrobe malfunction 😄. I love the idea of the jumpsuit as a stress test: meaning under pressure, ritual under gravity, identity held together until cotton and embroidery say “not so fast.” Fabric really is the final boss of seriousness.

And yes—nothing dismantles a carefully constructed self quite like shared laughter. If identity has to survive that, it’s probably worth keeping. Thanks for folding the mirror back toward the reader—smiling was inevitable ✨

Óðr Sierra Sierra's avatar

Thank you Dipti

More to come here ))

Dipti  Vyas's avatar

Looking forward to it..

Gub's avatar

This helps explain a certain level of consciousness. Almost a map of dimensions?

I have a habit of adding

666

Last one being 22 11

I suppose 9 all day.

I haven’t studied much numerology only a little bit but I know enough to feel significance.

I’ve understood mark of the beast story with the first 3 numbers.

9 is divine.

Something meaningful there but I haven’t figured it out.

Also… love how humour was woven into this it really balances the energy!

Óðr Sierra Sierra's avatar

Thank you Gub, for reading it so attentively and for resonating with it on that depth.

That kind of attention is rare, and it matters.

My texts are a bit like sandwiches with a mysterious ingredient.

Different layers intersect - some obvious, some not and their effect often arrives later.

Sometimes it takes a little more time for the meaning to open in the right way.

I think you’re sensing pattern more than doctrine.

Numbers can become handles for attention, a way consciousness tracks itself across layers.

You don’t have to fully resolve it for it to be meaningful.

And yes - humour helps keep it from collapsing inward.

It balances the energy and lets the signal move without hardening.

Gub's avatar

Yes. It’s true I took a big bite out of the sandwich and now need to chew and digest, haha!

I also may have veered from the intent on ‘identity’ from this piece because of it. Over thinking.

It does feel like Re wakes up from ‘the matrix’ or ‘the system’ into a different dimension or level of consciousness or both.

AsukaHotaru's avatar

“For the first time in a very long while — not out of politeness, not out of function, not out of necessity.”

okay THAT’S the moment. the laugh sneaking in like “surprise, you’re human again.”

names wobbling, rules terrifyingly simple, and then..? relief breaks the seal.

soft sci-fi, sharp soul. yeah. i smiled with him.

SheHermit✍️🪔's avatar

“A name does not return a person to the past - it returns them to themselves” what a line!!! It stopped me in my tracks and made me pause and reflect for quite a while. Beautiful! ✨🤩🫶

Source Of Peace's avatar

My body felt alien.

I did not sense it at once. First came the dryness in my mouth, as though I had swallowed ash. Then a tremor in my fingers — barely noticeable, but constant, like background noise. I tried to clench my fist. The muscles responded with a delay, as if the signal were travelling through interference.

The skin on my hands looked like my own, but felt different. Too heavy. Too warm. As if it had been put on over another layer — and the first had been forgotten.

🫴

stabilise's avatar

It’s so good. I need to read it as a book in my hands to fully grasp. I loved this lines:

I see The Phobia of Invisibility

An Actor Who Forgot Himself.

A Beggar of Faces, smiling to be admitted to a stage he does not wish.

Phoeby's avatar

I loved it. Sci-fi is one of my favorite reads, and this story is excellent.