Conversation

#introduction

Once, long ago, there was only the sea. And then from the sea arose the Great Turtle, upon whose shell the collected silt became the earth. And then the air-breathing creatures of the sea scrambled up onto the earth, desperate to stop having to tread water.

As is the way of things, once these creatures caught their breath, they immediately began to engage in savage gladiatorial combats. From these, one champion emerged: the legendary Sea Ape, whose opposable thumbs quickly mastered the use of weapons, and in whose prodigious hair claw and tooth both tangled harmlessly.

So the Sea Ape came to have dominion over all the earth, bending all other creatures to its will. For a time, all was harmony. But the Sea Apes multiplied, and what once seemed an endless expanse became crowded. Eventually came the dark day when one Sea Ape realized that a weapon could be used against another, and so came war to the earth.

And then came the reign of blood and fire, as war spread from one end of the shell to the other. But for all war's tragedy, it has one redeeming virtue: it pushes creatures to the limits of their ingenuity. And some Sea Apes, realizing the strength that could be found in numbers, began clustering together in settlements. These settlements they ringed with great palisades, to prevent entry to outsiders bent on war.

Within these palisades, the Sea Apes finally forgot the ancestral sea. They turned their minds from war to cultivation and trade, and created great cities, which prospered. And as their wealth grew they found new ways to apply it, inventing clothes and jewelry and quadraphonic hi-fi. So they adorned themselves with their new creations, and as they did, they became something other than apes. Something never before seen upon the shell. Something new.

Anyway, I'm Jason