That link image looks quite a bit like what I would imagine in the under-the-moons city, actually--just with the city coming down from the roof in stalactites rather than coming up from the ground as the image suggests. Definitely a valid image for this setting, I think.

I want to sit and really give it a strong read through again (and am about to do so) since I had to read it before I went to work at a slightly faster pace than I would like. But gut reactions are often useful, or so Malcolm Gladwell keeps telling me, so let's dive in.

In general, this was great to read. A bit anticlimactic but that seems to be the point to an extent and I certainly never was waiting for a singular piece of writing to tell me "everything" or, really, anything. Still, C0DA does have content that will answer questions or lead the reader to come up with their own (preferably the latter). It's a small example to use in the whole context of the piece but my mind wanders to the mention of Mephala's black hands. I think that's a good example of what I mean.

But it's not really the reason I wanted to read the piece. I adore the Love Letter. Totally, 100% love it. It's this strange, beautiful prose poem that really captures, I think, all the things that Mr. Kirkbride does well as a writer. Conversely, I very publicly hated Landfall Day One and had some fairly negative expectations going into this piece. I wanted to see what we'd get here: the former or the latter. And well? It's a big blended mix of a lot of things but I think we get something closer to the former, which is wonderful. There's a lot of heart here, a lot of contemplative moments that really work. Moments that I enjoy far more than any scene involving ninjas and throat kicks.

Now, that's not to say there aren't things that bother me; for instance, being a heavily auditory individual, I just don't like the sound of things like "Tomorrowind" or "incongruitech". It's mostly present during the video tunnel jump scene. I thought that whole sequence was really fun to imagine in my mind but just sort of hard to hear/see. Like something was wrong with the tempo, if that makes sense. Again though, I'm super sensitive to the aesthetics of words and their sound in a way that's really had to articulate so that's more on me and my pseudosynthesia than on anything else.

And those are small complaints when you have something as interesting as Jubal sitting down and talking with Numidium and imagery as compelling as the hole in Lorkhan's chest sealing and an ending that's got such openness to it. Definitely want to really look things over; I'm curious how artwork with affect things when that time comes as well.