.,~††£§### ###§£††~,.
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.~††£§#@## ##@#§£††~.
.,,~††££§@ @§££††~,,.
.,~††£§#@@ ...,,,††††††††††††††††††††††††††††,,,... @@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# .,† THE SPIRE ~†. #@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# ~†,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~†~, #@#§£††~,.
.....,,†£§ †~, ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE WAS A †,~ §£†,,.....
....~~††£§ †,~ BENEVOLENT SPIRE, TOWERING WELL ,†~ §£††~~....
.,~††£§#@# ,†~ ABOVE OUR TALLEST TREES. IT WAS ,~† #@#§£††~,.
....,††££§ ,~† CLAD IN WHITE SCALES, AND SHAPED ~,† §££††,....
...,†††£§# ~,† LIKED A MUSHROOM. ~†, #§£†††,...
.,~††£§§#@ ~†, WE LOVED IT DEARLY. †~, @#§§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# †~,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~†,~ #@#§£††~,.
.,~††££§§# †,~ IT PREDATED US BY MANY YEARS, ,†~ #§§££††~,.
.,,,~††£§# ,†~ AND WE DID NOT KNOW ITS ORIGINAL ,~† #§£††~,,,.
.,~†††††§@ ,~† BUILDERS. THEY HAD USED ITS ~,† @§†††††~,.
......,~†§ ~,† HOLLOW BODY FOR MANY STRANGE ~†, §†~,......
.....~†£§§ ~†, PURPOSES - A WOMBLIKE PLACE OF †~, §§£†~.....
.,~††£§#@# †~, GESTATION, A STORAGE OF STRAGE †,~ #@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@@ †,~ FLUIDS, A TEMPLE TO SOME KIND OF ,†~ @@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§§§# ,†~ ARCANE DEITY. ,~† #§§§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# ,~†~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~,† #@#§£††~,.
.......~†§ ~,† WE WERE GRATEFUL FOR ITS ~†, §†~.......
.......~†§ ~†, PRESENCE, AND HONORED IT THE †~, §†~.......
....~†£§§# †~, ONLY WAY WE KNEW HOW: BY †,~ #§§£†~....
.,~††§#@## .,~ BREAKING IN. ,~. ##@#§††~,.
.....~†£§# ...,,,††††††††††††††††††††††††††††,,,... #§£†~.....
.......~†§ §†~.......
.,~††£§#@# #@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# ...,,,††††††††††††††††††††††††††††,,,... #@#§£††~,.
......,†£§ .~† THIS PLACE WE CALLED OUR CITY: ,†~ §£†,......
......~††§ ,†~ WAVY AND FRACTURED, WITH EACH †,~ §††~......
.,,~†††§§§ †,~ COURTYARD ON A DIFFERENT HEIGHT, †~, §§§†††~,,.
.,~††£§### †~, ROADS BECOMING ROOFS BECOMING ~†, ###§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# ~†, DRAINS. AND SOME PLACES, LIKE ~,† #@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# ~,† THE SPIRE, NOBODY HAD ACCESSED ,~† #@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# ,~† FOR MANY YEARS. ONCE ITS WALLS ,†~ #@#§£††~,.
.....,†££§ ,†~ ARE JUST TOO HIGH, AND THE †,~ §££†,.....
.....~†††§ †,~ INTERNAL ROUTES TO LABYRINTHINE, †~, §†††~.....
..,,~~†££§ †~, A PLACE AMONG OTHERS IS EASILY ~†, §££†~~,,..
.,~††£§### ~†, OVERLOOKED. ,~† ###§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@@ ,~†~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~,†~ @@#§£††~,.
.....,~†£§ ,†~ SO, BASICALLY, THAT SUMMER THE †,~ §£†~,.....
....~††£## †,~ FOUR OF US SNUCK AND CLIMBED AND ~,† ##£††~....
.,~††£§### †~, CRAWLED FOR WEEKS, SEARCHING FOR ~†, ###§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# ~†, A SECLUDED PLACE TO DO DRUGS AND ~,† #@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# ~,† PLAY MUSIC ON OUR HANDHELDS. ,~† #@#§£††~,.
.,~~††£££§ ,~† INSTEAD WE FOUND VAST LUNGS ,†~ §£££††~~,.
...,,††§§§ ,†~ DRAINED OF THEIR CATALYST †,~ §§§††,,...
.....~†££# †,~ SLUDGE, AND A BIRDS-EYE VIEW TO †~, #££†~.....
.,~††£§#@# †~, MAKE SENSE OF OUR ROAMINGS FOR ~†, #@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# ~†, YEARS TO COME. ~,† #@#§£††~,.
.....~†£#@ ~,†~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~,~† @#£†~.....
.,~††£§### ,~† A CENTRAL SPINE, A STAIRCASE ,†~ ###§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# ,†~ AROUND IT, THE SEVEN TOROIDAL †,~ #@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§§§§ †,~ LUNGS STACKED OUTSIDE, AND THE †~, §§§§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# †~, CONTROL ROOM ON TOP. THE SOCKETS ~†, #@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# ~†, FOR ITS EYES. THE SMALLER SPIRES ~,† #@#§£††~,.
......~~†§ ~,† FOR RADIATING CONSCIOUSNESS ,~† §†~~......
.,~††£§#@# .~† INVITATIONS. ,†. #@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# ...,,,††††††††††††††††††††††††††††,,,... #@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§##@ @##§£††~,.
.,~††£§### ...,,,††††††††††††††††††††††††††††,,,... ###§£††~,.
.,,~†††££§ .,† IN TWENTY FOURTEEN, THE TOWER IS †~, §££†††~,,.
.,~††££££§ ~†, TOPPLED AND EATEN BY MACHINES. †,~ §££££††~,.
....~~†££# †~, AFTER A WHILE, SOMETHING NEW IS ,†~ #££†~~....
...,††††£# †,~ CONJURED IN ITS PLACE. IT'S A ,~† #£††††,...
.,~††£§#@@ ,†~ TINY MAW AT FIRST, SHORTER THAN ~,† @@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# ,~† US, AND WE LET IT BE. OUR ~†, #@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# ~,† JOURNEYS STILL END AT ITS FEET. †~, #@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# ~†,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~†,~ #@#§£††~,.
.,~††£§@## †~, BUT THEN WE ARE BETRAYED. THE ,†~ ##@§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# †,~ NEW TOWER EATS US. OTHERS ARE ,~† #@#§£††~,.
.,~†††£££§ ,†~ SUCKED INSIDE. NEW BUILDINGS ARE ~,† §£££†††~,.
.,~††££££§ ,~† MANIFESTED OVERNIGHT, ONLY TO ~†, §££££††~,.
..,,,†£££# ~,† DISAPPEAR IN THE EVENING FOG. †~, #£££†,,,..
..,,~~††§# ~†, FOR A WHILE ITS SOME KIND OF †,~ #§††~~,,..
...,,~††£§ †~, TIMESHARE SCAM. GOONS ARE PLACED ,†~ §£††~,,...
.,~††£§#@# †,~ OUTSIDE, AND WE GET BEATEN UP A ,~† #@#§£††~,.
.,~††££££§ ,†~ FEW TIMES, AND STOP GOING. ~,† §££££††~,.
....,~†£§@ ,~†~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~†, @§£†~,....
.,~††£§### ~,† IIRC IT'S CURRENTLY OWNED BY †~, ###§£††~,.
.....,††§# ~†, SOME ENERGY DRINK BARON WHO USES †,~ #§††,.....
.,~††£§§§# †~, IT TO HOLD ALL HIS FOURTY EIGHT ,†~ #§§§£††~,.
.,~††£§#@# .,~ CARS..... ,~. #@#§£††~,.
.,~†††††§§ ...,,,††††††††††††††††††††††††††††,,,... §§†††††~,.
.,~††£§§§@ @§§§£††~,.
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.,,,~†£§§§ §§§£†~,,,.