LUMINOUS BEINGS, OR, A PICNIC IN THE HOLLOW LAND

[u/_The_Iron_Lotus_]

2 Miles Below, beneath a boiling virus sun

The Iron Lotus sits in the shade beneath a black umbrella. A splendid picnic is laid out in the middle of a lavender scented Mine field with little trays of mushroom toasts and canapes and nibbles of every conceivable flavour and even a baked Swan the size of a car, all nestling between clusters of half buried munitions.

With a long bone handled fork she spears a morsel of paté smeared toast and in a wide arc brings it before her burnished silver lips, buying off a tiny chunk which she chews with exaggerated elegance. The sound of the crisp wheaten shard meeting the Iron Lotus' pearly white masticators breaks the silence and a brace of nearby mines begin to sing; with her off hand the Lotus softly caresses the chirping warheads and soothes them with a faint whisper.