【everything's in order in a black hole】

[Divantae]

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𝑀𝒶𝓇𝒾𝓈
"of the sea"
taken from the Latin title of the Virgin Mary, Stella Maris, meaning "star of the sea"
✭

I've been apart of local cleanups with the environmental club at my school.
I have a rain barrel to use to conserve stuff like watering plants and my pets' water over using hose or tap water.
I grow my own vegetables (tomatoes, cauliflower, etc.) and I use natural fertilizer.
I reuse or recycle most of my plastics. I have a few reusable water bottles.
I turn lights off if they aren't necessary or if there's no one in the room.
I buy locally grown fruits and vegetables and occasionally meat and dairy.
For me, a lot of it is simple things, but they do add up in the end. I think that everyone should partake in these smaller acts because they're not hard or complicated and they still conserve resources. Out of everything listed, I will vouch for locally grown products always, because a lot of times they taste far superior to the artificial or fatty meat in the supermarkets. Plus, the meat industry is simply disgusting in their treatment of animals, never mind the things that may contaminate the meat. It's better to be safe than sorry.

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[Divantae]

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Charred black covers coated and smothered the sea’s waves; a wasteland of midnight falling upon the beaten back, ashen shores. On the rot of the coastline, five elders would meet under moonlight, their fins and fur clogged with the ink of the god of darkness, Raleigh.

“Hear ye!” shrieked an ornery sea otter over all the commotion and excitement that singed into the air, leaving labored coal trails of their breathing. “Alright, alright, first up!” he grumbled and turned away, revealing a circle of seaweed in the stained sand.

In turns, each animal would contribute their own items to the peculiar ritual before returning to the group surrounding it eagerly. The otter would patrol around, his eyes deprived of light and scarred and bubbling with the oil, tapping to see if any animals were stepping out of line and disturbing the circle. The final animal leader, a sea walrus, planted its broken tusks into the earth and limped away haphazardly, his wrinkled body covered in open blemishes of dark ooze.

The offering was finally complete. For the elderly sea otter, no price was too big to pay for the assurance of safety for his family. He knew all other leaders needed some good fortune too, as the walrus had an infection that would slowly creep into his brain. They were too determined to survive to recall nor reflect on the incident which turned the oceans into such a wasteland.

For a few moments, they all dropped their heads, their cracked eyelashes meeting the grains of silt. The walrus was the first to stir, lifting his heavy body and dipping back into the water until the oil ate him whole. Meticulously, they all were drawn back into the toxins until the otter was the last one left. Tears flowed from his aged eyes, painting the dirt with a shine until he sniffled and turned, heading for the graveyard of an ocean.

Sunlight spilled over the mountains, dumping its holy rays upon the torn landscape and blinding the otter pack’s eyes as they floated among the blanket of oil. However, the god of light Lucifer was powerless over the ocean’s haze, as the sun would just as easily be obscured, dotted out by rolling clouds of sable. The otters turned away from the sun and the shore, scrounging for any stray inkling of meat.

A crack of thunder rattled off, forcing creatures to the surface in a confused daze. There simply weren’t any thunderstorms in the ocean anymore, except for the occasional downpours of oil when the creatures dared disrespect the god of darkness’s name. Still, the noise had shocked and terrified the animals into crying out for forgiveness, praying that Raleigh wasn’t here to punish the ocean again with eternal shadow.

Complete darkness suffocated every living thing; it stole their breath away and tied them to earthly sin. It was a disorderly apocalypse of selfish animals outwitting and tricking each other, of seeking a way out until no other alternative presented itself. For these trapped animals, anything goes. Laws of the kingdom are only for the ones who do not fear everyday that their loved ones will be torn from them at any moment. They seek to escape mortality.

The oil began to bubble violently, brewed by some devilish witch in a cauldron. Even fish sought to escape, beaching themselves onto the icy sand, eyes darting off in every direction frantically. Hollow gasps echoed down the valley as all animals waited for a sign. They didn’t know what to think through the deafening silence. The old otter could have sworn he heard the slightest inhaling of a fish on that beach through the stillness. Then, the water exhaled, spitting out the hulking body of an oil-covered blob.

Screams broke the silence as the animal lashed its tail against the ground, kicking off to come closer to the animals. Its midnight hair shined glossily, covering its head, and its pelt was a cascade of unfamiliar faint pink markings. It cracked a smile as it came closer, breathing heavily and towering over the tiny beings. Mouth parted, its breath was foul and sour, exhaling the slightest dust of toxins.

Yet, its voice was gentle, if a bit raspy. “Don’t worry,” she started, though she quickly vomited up some undefinable black slush. The old otter was forced to lead the pack as the group retreated into the land or sea.

“W-who are you?” he demanded shakily, only growing more terrified as the mysterious giant ignored him, cleaning herself of some oil with an equally dirty tongue.

Startled a bit, as if she was interrupted from a deep daydream, she concluded, “Of course, I am Maris. I'll get straight to the point. It's about time someone took back the ocean blue.” He didn't need someone to tell him twice nor remind him of the gods that ruled over all animals. Maris, the goddess of the seas, had finally arrived.
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[Divantae]

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A hacking laughter erupted from the ancient otter as the goddess loomed over his scraggly form, raven hair spilling out in piles around him. “Wait a minute missy,” he came up for air, drowned in laughter, “You’re the goddess of the seas? Aren’t you supposed ta look like them drawings? Aren’t ya supposed to be as bright as the sun and all?” The animals hiding in the back of him shook in the shadow of Maris, convinced that she was one of Raleigh’s many tricks and illusions.

Batting her eyelashes curiously, she crossed her eyes and glared down at her paws. “How bad do I look?” she whispered hastily before a tiny flash of light bolted around her much like an angler fish's intoxicating lure captivating the audience. Squinting his raisin eyes, the otter realized that the flash of light was shining off of a mirror that a tiny faerie was holding steady for the goddess. All four of her eyes narrowed into the mirror, deep in thought, before she shrugged and the faerie was dismissed, tossing the mirror into the void. Despite her fascination with her reflection, she didn’t seem one bit bothered by her ruined body, devoid of color except for the blended pink on her sides.

“I think it’s befitting me. If the seas shall be covered in darkness, then I shall be too,” she concluded, “I am the goddess of the seas after all. It wouldn’t be accurate if I was so colorful and this- well.” They all surveyed the shimmering oil blanketing the still sea. The otter slowly nodded, ashamed of his folly, and the rest of the creatures felt daring enough to come out from their hiding with a sad smile from Maris. “My apologies that I didn’t come sooner,” she murmured softly, dragging her limp tail along, leaving a trail of oil as she drew closer into the crowd. She observed their mutated bodies: their scabs and the drips running down their noses, careful not to crush any of the creatures, before whipping around to the sea once more.

Breathing in uneasily, her eyes relaxed as they retreated themselves within their capsule lids. Her back pricked with anxiety, differing from her confident demeanor as some forgotten savior. Despite only just being born of the seaweed circle, she knew her goal well, crafted by the true goddess of the sea. She too was just a messenger of the gods, like the faerie which accompanied her on her journey. When the deed was done, when the light crashed upon the sapphire waves again, then she would… Shaking her head, she thought little of the consequences of being born as part of a goddess. She felt so normal among the mortals, undeserving of the hopeful and eager gazes they interpreted her every little movement with. Be happy, smile. That’s what the hopeless needed. She needed to reassure them, to show them the grace of the gods after all. They weren’t alone all along.

"Oh, uh." Maris jumped a bit, swiveling towards the gravelly voice of the otter. "I'm the one who should be sorry! I didn't mean no disrespect, goddess." Grinning, she nuzzled the elder affectionately, his eyes unbound from their sooty vines. Her own orbs widened in shock as she cured him, though she smothered her surprise with busying as she cleaned the rest of the animals of their affliction.

As they all climbed upon her sore back, ready to seek sanctuary from the blackened seas, the faerie to her side surveyed her with curiosity. They locked eyes. Explanations could wait for a little while.
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[Divantae]

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“That was rather reckless!” the pint-sized faerie squealed under the cover of the water, bubbles erupting from his mouth like a volcano spewing ash. “Why couldn’t you just wait for me to tell you everything first before you made that grand entrance?” he grumbled, his tiny brain scrambling under the consequences of her actions.

“I did what I had to. They clearly needed help, didn’t they?” she questioned, her mouth emitting sluggish bubbles that towered over her flighty companion. Said rescued marine life were currently huddled underneath the sea in a protective bubble ecosystem she summoned. Yet, she felt slightly faint by her display of brilliance, her stomach wavering ever so slightly with each of her magical cures.

“They did, but you need help before we can help anyone else,” he lectured, swimming up to plant himself on her nose, his iridescent fins fluttering like those of a hummingbird’s. “First up…”

“Can we skip this? Isn’t there actual work we should be doing instead?”

“I’ll go as quickly as I can. How about we swim around trying to find some turtles to help out? We can talk along the way,” her faerie compromised, shooting around her head as she slithered through the murky currents of the slimy water, taking up his offer.

“As I was saying when you were born, I am but a messenger god of the goddess of the sea, Maris, your mother. Well, more like you’re a part of Maris, sent to dispel the oil. You are but a messenger too, so we’re on equal standing,” he put added emphasis on that last part, as she was plenty big enough to eat him whole. “Believe me, being a god is very confusing. I stay out of the family drama of it all.” Maris couldn’t say she cared much to gossip about the gods either.

“Why can’t I remember much of anything?” she started uneasily, “Wouldn’t the deed be done far quicker if she came down here herself?” She found the tongue of the gods to be utterly baffling, what with all the talk of rebirth and motherhood, as well as the reasoning of her existence in the first place. It seemed she only existed to solve the problem and be tossed away. Maris could ask him about it later, though she doubted she’d get a straight answer. To be frank, she wasn’t sure if she even wanted to know the answer at all.

The messenger god eyed her with incredulity, though it was swiftly replaced as he realized why she was born anew entirely. “See, I hear of rules among the gods. Absolute power is not without its prices,” he simply put, gliding around the water after her. “The god of darkness Raleigh is responsible for this mess, you know from your goal, right?” She nodded, though her knowledge of the god was very vague, despite her task of eventually taking him down. “He abused his power of visiting the earthly world. Gods must send messengers to do their bidding, yet he did not, and here we are.” The faerie seemed rather dismissive, like he was keeping something back, though she didn’t want to press on further. Maris was intrigued, however. Could the gods be so easily corrupted by the world below that they had to restrict visits? What had exactly happened for the god of darkness to despise the sea so much anyways? A shiver crept along her bones, feeling guilty for such a monster, though she couldn’t pinpoint why.

“Not that I have to worry about that! I get to travel the worlds, lucky me!” he cheerily piped up, interrupting her suspicions. Sighing, she cleaned up some clams with her pinkie, giving her messenger a side-eye.

“...You know, I don’t feel comfortable calling you ‘messenger’ all the time, don’t you have a name?” Maris started, though the little faerie quickly fought against her words, assuring her that the goddess of the seas would never need such individualistic temptations as names, “How about…” she trailed off, looking around the cracked sand of the ocean floor. “Crab!” she grinned, holding up a crab with meaty, swollen pinchers.

“Put that down! I do not need a name!” he excused hastily, face growing more red by the second.

“Well, I don’t know which ‘goddess of the sea’ you knew, but I’ll be calling the shots from here on out. Crab it is.”
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[Divantae]

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Sharks stripped of their fins were shielded and protected by a vortex of sanitized water, spinning among the waves until they popped out of the other side with fins made of colorful stones, pieced together in an artistic swirling pattern by Maris's magic. Her mouth formed a smile before she popped out more stones from her mouth, arranging them atop a shark's back like a turtle's shell. Focusing in on a mother shark, she painted her with the faint pink from her pelt. She squirmed a bit as the colors faded from her, replaced by oil, and instead popped onto the shark. Clapping happily, she sent the shark on its way, finishing her work and huffing, exhausted from a long haul of fixing up sea creatures. She was victorious, however, as she had covered a lot of bases with animals, enough to repopulate. They'd thrive in her little ecosystem for the time being.

"It's getting rather tight in that bubble, you think you can make it bigger?" Crab ran his paws along its wall, oil attempting to seep into it. She was hoping she didn't have to enlarge it. She became soundless as she widened it, though she immediately had to hold a paw to her head in excruciating pain. Bubbles emerged from her mouth, though no sound followed. "What's wrong?" the faerie noticed, retreating to Maris's side dutifully.

"It's nothing, it's okay," she murmured, though her eyebrows furrowed in anguish. Crab tilted his head with skepticism, dancing around the goddess as he observed her.

"You clearly aren't. Where'd those colors go, on your pelt? Now you're just solid black!" he looked up, noticing a few specks of oil gathering from her eyes and nose. He didn't want to say it, but he doubted that she could save the whole ocean at the rate she was going. They'd need to get to the source of the problem. If she died, what would he do?

"Crab, it's fine. Don't worry about me," she waved a paw, minimizing her deteriorating health. "I will carry this out to the end, no matter what happens. That's what I'm meant to do, right?" She didn't quite understand why he was growing more worried about her, considering she wasn't even the same goddess he knew. Maris wasn't the type to show off weakness, so she'd be fine so long as she keeps cover. It was the least she could do for the inhabitants of the ocean.

An exhausted groan escaped him, then he turned towards her, "You weren't joking about the 'Crab' thing? That's really my name?" At least she got him to lighten up. She supposed any messenger would be distraught if their goddess had croaked. That's all it was. "I should at least rename you, too! You can't be 'Maris' since the Maris I know is in the heavens."

Contemplating deeply, she ended up nodding, seeing no harm in it. It was confusing having two Maris's after all. "Okay!" he announced after thinking of a name, "How about Mari? Sounds cute! I think it suits you well." Mari stared after him, then flashed him an innocent smile.

"I thought you'd give me a name like 'Lobster', you know, to go along with yours. I do like Mari, though," she patted his head with a finger. "It'll do."
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[Divantae]

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Jagged puzzle pieces of glass encroached the ocean floor, corpses gathered at the pointed tips. Mari breathed out urgently as she darted in between the sharp makeshift graves, her companion sticking to her inky side and averting his gaze of the dead. It was an abandoned battlefield of crystal, contaminated by oil shining off of the clear spikes. They both searched the bones for any signs of salvageable life, though the goddess would block Crab’s sight as they dove deeper into the abyss of bodies. It was a fate not befitting any creature.

The miniature faerie whimpered lowly, “This is all his doing. He’s cruel. Have no sympathy for what you must do.”

Nodding, she couldn’t say she defended those who would torture underlings in such a way, though that also got her thinking about the roles of gods. Gods were cold to the bone, they tore life from the earth and punished the creatures when they were just slightly disrespected. Power was too much to handle for all of the gifted gods. She was very glad she was born and bound to the world of mortals.

Truthfully, she wasn’t focused on saving animals at the moment, opting to instead look for any whereabouts of the god of darkness. Whatever amount of healing she could do was miniscule to the oil of Raleigh. He had to go and the best place they could look for him was in the deepest depths of the ocean, solely illuminated by the aquamarine glow of Crab. The light bounced off of her features as they descended into his lair. His arrogant show of power, while intimidating most other animals, would guide them closer to him.

Her hair whipped behind her as she swam along aimlessly through the colorless place, fangtooth fish attempting to nibble on her legs, though they retracted as they got a face full of oil. She would not be distracted from her goal, even if the god may be defended by whichever creatures lurked underneath the depths.

Little did they know, the faint light of Crab would also give away their position. Slivers of eyes narrowed from the shadows below, fangs opening up slowly and snapping closed furiously as he peered at the glowing goddess. His mind raced as he truly realized who she was, though he knew he’d see the day eventually. Not now, not today. Her nerve was unending and her luck was about to run out.

Her only warning was a bubble spitting from below before the mass of spider limbs blasted upwards, entrapping the two in a blinding cage of darkness.

All function ceased as her legs ignored her commands, her eyes eaten by the same darkness that engulfed the seas. Deafening silence overtook her ears as she faded away from reality. Her last sight was Crab shaking and screaming at her, buzzing around their uncomfortable cage. She thought it wasn’t so bad after all; the sweet scent of salt overcoming her as her mind faded away.

Pink and blue petals of eyes bloomed as she awoke in a place of equally pastel seas, swarms of flying fish leaping from the water and dipping back in peacefully. She had walked forward, atop the water and through the waves, until she broke into a sprint, though she had no idea what she was doing, still only a passenger in her actions.

“Ramiel!” she yelled, a hiss drawn out of her throat. “Care to explain before I make sure the seas never get an inch of rain again?” The male, Ramiel, avoided her fiery orbs.

“There’s nothing to say,” a low growl emanated from him, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Though it seemed quite the contrary as Maris presented him with a tiny bundle of black fur, grinding her teeth angrily.

“This is your child, is it not? Not mine, yours,” venom dripped from her words and her tail beat the ground. “I know everything. You sought out comfort, more than I could ever provide, and had him. I’m not that forgiving.”

He regarded the kit with a look as frigid as the blizzards he created. “I am only yours. This may be my kit, but it was a moment of weakness. Raleigh means nothing to me now.” The kit looked between the two, tears in his eyes as he vaguely understood what was happening. However, as he aged, he would grow a better understanding of the events that ensnared him, trapped him into the life of mortals.

Mari desperately fought her body’s impulses to carry out the distant memory of her life as a goddess, watching as they both had vanquished Raleigh to the seas of the mortal world. He was only a kit, but the two were so eager to keep his birth under wraps and pretend to be a normal, happy family in the eyes of the gods.

Secrets never stayed secret. Her eyes snapped open, ensnared and slowly suffocated in the grip of Raleigh. She understood everything and she knew what she had to do. Her lack of memories only further incriminated the gods. It’d be better if she didn’t know of Maris’s mistakes, if she just did what she was told and finally ended Raleigh’s reign of terror. Sympathy dotted her eyes as she lunged out at the shadowy keep of a prison, biting into him savagely until he relinquished his tight coil, oil twisting from their shared wounds. She just had to keep up the facade and smile; it wasn't so hard to do.

Crab cheered her on as she tackled his lithe form, both of them sinking further into the depths. For a split second, she saw the same kit in the deep reflection of his shiny orbs. Shaking her head, she finally lashed out at the illegitimate god, oil binding his eyes and limbs to the ocean floor.

The kit was cast down again, chained to a life of complete isolation in the abyss. Mari’s eyes glowed in the shadows, watching as he sank deeper down the more he struggled against the oil. Satisfaction did not swell in her heart.
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[Divantae]

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Her lifeless fur rose in plumes with the changing currents of the water as Raleigh’s powers were snuffed out, the oil trapping him in the darkness of his own conception. Mari’s gaze was pinned to the midnight which enveloped the adolescent god and her ears were numb to Crab’s congratulations, provoking his repeating ring of her name. Backing away from the exalted Raleigh, she instead focused up above, a whale floating by, howling an indecipherable song. Squids squeezed out the only ink around as they whizzed by, terrified of the oil-covered goddess. It was strangely calm, too peaceful for a wasteland once plagued by a vengeful god.

She was the one who didn’t belong anymore. It finally set in; she snapped back to reality, shooting back up to the surface in a daze, leaving Crab to chase after her. Mari couldn’t smile, even as she witnessed the sheets of oil dissolve, torn from the earth by some higher power. Her eyes widened as the oil swirled towards her, fully blotting out her eyes and clogging her ears, absorbing the weight of the world.

The cleansing of the oceans came with a price. Raleigh would not be satisfied losing so easily, rebelling against the goddess as he pinned all the darkness of the night to her. Mari wouldn’t be satisfied passing on either, without doing one more thing. Once luxurious locks of raven hair fell, dissolving in the water with a sizzle akin to burning. Her ears were clipped, cracked off. Sores emitted a nasty smell from her tail, which also started to rot away. The mammoth of a goddess lunged out of the water, determined to go out with a bang, not a shudder. Crab clung onto her diseased form, desperate to save what little was left of her. They both knew she was beyond saving. This had to be done all along.

Ignoring her unsightly form, she dragged herself onto the shore once more, plummeting into the soft silver cushion of sand. Her target was the seaweed circle, but it was long gone. She cursed fate through her breath as Crab stood on her nose.

“Get up! C’mon!” he urged through wheezes, attempting to drag her heavy head along the shore. Her pupils followed his movements, though her vision was taken by the shadows. “We can get you fixed up!” he cried out, “We have to go! You’re okay, it’s going to be okay.”

“It’s going to be okay,” she repeated through bated, rusted breath. Oil seeped out from her mouth as she coughed, though she left it agape, smirking. “It had to happen. It’s better this way, Crab.” Perhaps it was better that the oil had targeted her in one fatal blow, instead of her meticulous, tortuous healing. There’d be no suffering. Crab shook his head, fighting off tears, refusing to accept her fading body.

Her speech was like a frog’s croaking as she vomited up more sludge, her hefty body curling up around her faerie. He started yelling, screaming at her, “No!”

“It didn’t have to be this way! You’re the only friend I could have ever had,” Crab sniffed, before spilling more, “A god’s life is one of cruelty, never mind that of a messenger! I’ll never find someone like you again. The other gods won’t be able to ever see you, not even Maris could!” he whipped around, hearing the uneven steps of the otter as he gripped a cane of driftwood.

The otter’s ashen whiskers twitched as he laid down a bush of crimson seaweed at the goddess’s body. He limped off, eyeing the faerie with melancholy, not before Crab had yelped, “Don’t do it! She’s not dead yet!” He regarded the seaweed with fury, but he couldn’t do much as other animals lifted themselves out of the water, retrieving gifts of pearls and shells to lay around their savior. Stunning as the sea, her bubbling oil-covered body was hugged by the graciousness of the animals and her faint breaths cascaded like the sheen of waves.

His chest heaved anxiously, but Mari once again drew closer to him, chuckling, “Cheer up. Don’t be so crabby.” Though, with her jab at him, her head finally fell, planted lifelessly in the bank. Crab’s eyes widened, surveying her body so serenely fading into the circle of gifts. The oil was gone forever. He felt his body lifting upwards toward the gods, but he refused to go back, kicking against the current.

Crab yelped as he was recalled, his mission being completed. Vast seas greeted his eyes, containing all the colors of the rainbow. He knew where he was. Wiping his face of the mess of snot, he floated towards Maris’s floating island. The world of the gods seemed so devoid of joy and fake. He no longer wished to serve Maris’s lies.

“Hey, Crab.” It was a simple line. There was no ‘Crab’ of this world, only a messenger. He spun around, both baffled and hopeful.

His tiny eyes were met with the pink, lavish form of Maris, the true goddess of the seas. She wiped away his tears with a finger. “Why are you so distraught?” she questioned, seemingly oblivious to his plight. “I’m right here.” Despite her colorful, gentle form, her eyes cut shards into anyone who met their aim.

“It’s nothing,” he grumbled, fully realizing his hopelessness as a messenger. They weren’t the same, Mari could never be Maris, not with her judgmental sight.

“I know you better than anyone else,” she addressed him. “Why must you prefer 'Mari?' I remember everything. Am I undeserving of redemption?”

The messenger glanced away from her. He had always been so subservient to Maris, could she really be Mari after all? Mari was fair and kind, an equal, unlike most of the gods of this world. “I’ll hear you out,” he started, though he considered his next words carefully, “but you have to pay for all of your faults. I’ve said nothing when you threw Raleigh to the world of mortals. I stood by while the rest of the gods ignored his existence, as if he was never born. I think Mari cared for him, she cared for everyone, even with all of his monstrosities on full display. If we leave him at the bottom of the ocean wallowing in the dark, he’ll just lash out again. Mari already sacrificed to clean up her end of the bargain, now you should too.”

Maris considered his proposition, her eyes darting into her eyelids. “You assume too much,” she sighed, “I am Mari wholly, except with all of the powers she lacked and the experience of centuries she did not cultivate. I know of Mari’s sympathy for Raleigh,” her tongue rolled a bit as she questioned something, concluding, “I'll do it, though his crimes do not go unpunished either. He’ll be back among the gods, in his own realm of darkness. Moreover…”

“Sometimes gods are too stubborn to change, until they end up splitting themselves in two,” a smile snuck upon her face, a rarity for a goddess like Maris. Mari was far from dead. Mischief swirled in her eyes, relaxing Crab's shoulders. “There’s more work to be done, Crab, I’m sure you’ll see her again soon,” with that, he slipped her an eager grin, content with his new goddess.
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[Divantae]

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Word Count
4952

Title Lyrics
Fluorescent Adolescent
Arctic Monkeys

Username
Divantae

Name
Maris "Mari"

Gender
Female

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