Once again I got inspired by an image that was shared on the Discord group Kult: Elysium. This one was made by user rosedragon, a talented and incredibly prolific visual artist whose works can be enjoyed here: https://www.deviantart.com/rosedragoness
This picture just spoke to me on a deep level. I sensed there was a story in there somewhere. So I sat down to look at it for a while, and wrote one of my shred fiction pieces for it.
"When wandering Limbo, and travelling through dreams of loneliness, corrosion, or unfulfilled cravings, one may well find themselves unexpectedly expelled from one of them - as it happens - and stumbling out here, into the Desert of Desolation.
Nothing here but thirst and seeking, and the occasional, yet ever-crumbling spot of poisonous hope. Such as the Oasis at Finger Rocks. Its clear waters are precious in this lifeless waste, soothing scorched throats - but you should never drink too much. All too soon, if you do, the oily sludge murking its depths will well up to despoil the shallow layers of clear, wholesome liquid on top.
Many a dream wanderer has fallen to that place's treacherous toxicity, yet no bodies or even skeletons are ever found laying next to that pool. Some say the poison affects their minds such that they are compelled to plunge themselves into the waters - their mortal remains becoming decomposed and sinking down as murky particles, themselves renewing the murderous nethersludge they so foolishly partook of.
For me, it's different however. Permanently banished to Limbo, with no physical body back home in my bed to wake up to, I inevitably ended up here of course, as so many others do. But having been marked by the dark powers long ago, and become more infernal machine than biological man ever since, I crave the very oils and venoms of this place for sustenance. The clear water would corrode my gears and dissolve my filter-valves, killing me more surely than the heat and exhaustion.
Fortunately, the hose has long become a fixed part of me, permanently fused to the mechanical mask where my face once used to be - so long ago, in the dimly-remembered life I led before this new existence I must now endure..."
