Codex - Starlight 2 Miscellany - Crowdsourcing Post

#1

We are crowdsourcing the miscellany for Codex - Starlight 2! This one is called “Three Dozen MORE Signs the Stars are Right!”

Submissions should be no more than 2-3 short sentences. By submitting here in the replies, you’re agreeing to let us use it (you’ll get a credit on the issue). We’re looking for evocative things; the purpose of the miscellany is to inspire the reader. Please do not submit any entries with sexist imagery (we won’t publish it).

Note: if you’d like your name to be listed differently on the Codex credit, send me a DM here (but please keep your submissions in the thread).

This edition of the miscellany is a sequel to the original published in Codex - Starlight, and it’s all about the signs of approaching strangeness and Lovecraftian weirdness. You can find a copy of the original linked below for inspiration…

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xYlE14_P5muRdOXWu6nm6I8FctRrrKM5/view?usp=sharing

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#2

Staring at certain constellations in the right order allows you to hear the song of the spheres. It sounds like murder.

3 Likes
#3

All phones buzz with an emergency text message, but instead of news of a kidnapped child, it reads: OUTSIDE. JOIN THE HOWLS.

3 Likes
#4

A viral video circulates of a mirror dissolving into a puddle, then shimmering beings surfacing from it like swimmers pulling themselves out of a swimming pool.

2 Likes
#5

When you dream, you are transported to the waking life of someone at your exact geographical antipode.

4 Likes
#6

Every tank at the Monterey Bay Aquarium boils. No aquatic creatures survive save for one giant Pacific octopus nicknamed “Patience,” spotted on security cams manipulating a fire door and escaping during the confusion.

4 Likes
#7

All milk everywhere spontaneously curdles.

3 Likes
#8

All of the cars in the parking lot of a mall just outside of Tampa, Florida are found rearranged, lined up alphabetically by license plate.

Dairy cows’ udders have spontaneously emptied themselves onto the stable floors. The milk has curdled into the shape of a calf, which the barn cats gently lick and snuggle.

A pair of short men who witnesses can only describe as “Leprechauns, seriously” arrive in the financial district of a major city, selling shares in a gold mine. All those who buy in disappear without a trace before the next morning.

A portrait in an art gallery begins bleeding from its subject’s eyes and scalp. The blood dries quickly, creating a new, horrible face over the original.

A child wanders onto a military base, seemingly lost. When it sweely asks a soldier to turn his weapon on his comrades, it cannot be refused.

A newspaper is published with underlined words scattered throughout the articles within. When assembled in the correct order, they form the lyrics of a song, as yet unwritten, whose unforgettable melody nonetheless consumes the minds of those that read them.

Signage along a popular hiking trail is damaged and defaced by unnatural claw, tooth, and circular sucker marks.

Therapists suddenly begin to recommend that their patients quit their jobs and become librarians or booksellers, insisting that it will give them a better outlook on life.

3 Likes
#11

When the smugglers take their “spice”, they see shockingly accurate visions of their futures.

2 Likes
#12

The jumpgate network has become unreliable: Some starships arrive at the wrong destination… or never emerge at all.

1 Like
#13

Every smartphone in the world receives the same email message from “yellowking@carco.sa”. The subject line is: “Have you seen the Yellow Sign?” The message is blank, save for the attachment, “yellowsign.jpg”.

5 Likes
#14
  • The spiders leave. They just … go.
  • Architectural steel warps and sings.
  • Owls begin to gather in vast murmurations.
  • The moon takes on a sickly verdance.
  • Sundial shadows lengthen and waver, like the flickering of a candle flame.
2 Likes
#15

The war is over. Peace reigns over the land. Guns are melted into plowshares, and among all the world’s wildlife, there is no fighting or competition. The idea of violence is hard to even comprehend these days, even to swat a fly.

2 Likes
#16

The night sky is perfectly visible every night. Every star bright and shining, even in the middle of the city. Almost like the universe wants you to see them, to know where they are.

1 Like
#17

You look into your backyard and see your cat and six others from the neighborhood in a circle, slowly moving back and forth in a bizarre feline dance. A pile of dead songbirds lies in the middle of their circle. The cats suddenly stop and all gaze up at you.

3 Likes
#18

A mysterious song sudden hits the top of the charts, The Stars are Alright, by the Don’t Say Who. :joy:

5 Likes
#19

The pull of the unseen constellation grows, shifting tides, first pulling the seas back, in places revealing miles of mud and detritus, then the mantle itself: volcanism, catastrophic sinkholes, and rivers of tar.

2 Likes
#20

anything from The nine lives of Thomas Katz.

All cellphones on this longitude buzz sporadically. If left on a flat surface, they align.

2 Likes
#21

The moon and stars have turned blood red, but only when viewed in a mirror.

5 Likes
#22

A star has been growing larger in our sky for the past week. They say it’s a comet. You feel called to take a pilgrimage to Mount Rushmore, where it’s supposed to make impact.

2 Likes