Shel Graves' Sensorium

These great animals roam the plains. With thunderous hooves they charge forward leaving clouds of dust behind. They run faster than the fastest train. They trample terrain. They demolished entire towns, but avoid crushing a lone little girl flowing around her. Even her dropped teddy bear remains unharmed. The herd talks to the ghost riders bearing carriages. They share knowledge of routes and destinations. All are equals. Each comes to Grief in their own way. Many leave when they’ve seen the great herd pass, but they will return. The majestic beauty of the herd, in the otherwise barren land, haunts them. The Project: What is Emotion 365? 

The wide plain of Grief stretches into beautiful sunsets. A train speeds across it stopping at the little towns of memory filled with beings, but not the one you seek. Denizens gaze longingly out the windows. Some make pilgrimages from town to town. Alone they suffer thirst, hunger, and all the deprivations. Others take carriages drawn by ghosts. They stop at Reflection Lake. The smell of sage rises from its green waters. Everyone passes through Grief on their way to other places — no permits or visas required. Some stay in the tiny towns, but as no one wishes to reside the land feels empty and unkempt. The Project: What is Emotion 365? 

Mayor Scuba Danson presides over the seaside town of Presque Vu in Jamais Vu. He comes to all holiday events with his entourage. Every business owner — of the sweetshop, diner, and kite shop— joins the Presque Vu Chamber of Commerce. They walk along wooden sidewalks. Flags flutter from the street signs symbolizing holidays: the kite festival, the taffy weekend, the summer celebration, and so on. Presque Vu reminds visitors of places they have been before. The denizens speak a strange language, easily understood, but unfamiliar. Usually one asks for taffy, a coffee, or a kite. Visitors ask: “Which way to the beach?" "How is the weather?" "Is it expected to rain?” The Project: What is Emotion 365? 

The denizens chew salt water taffy in Jamais vu, a civilization along the seashore. Colorful fish swim with open puckered mouths and swarm after salt crackers where the land meets the blue-green sea. Pale yellow grasses stick out of sand dunes. Gulls squawk, almost word-like, in overcast skies. They fly into each other’s faces and those of passersby. “It sounds like they have an important message," says a visitor. “It’s only bird song," says another. In springtime, herds of whales pass by the shore. Denizens come to the sand to watch the whales breech. They spout mist through their blowholes and raise fins to air. After the holidays, everyone leaves and the little shops close. The visitors ask: “Who once ran the sweet shop where we bought our taffy?” “What about the diner which served coffee and scones?” “Where is the kite shop?” Everything is closed.

Horrified: a forest swept by frequent fires. No animal lives. It regrows in between the intermittent and unpredictable fires. A traveler would take days to pass through it on foot — the only way through —  and would become charred and crisped in doing so. The black scorched earth goes on and on. It’s still hot underfoot. Fire rises and sweeps across the land with every crackling footstep The land sizzles when the rain falls obscured by black steam. A hiss of approaching flame. A pop. It cools at the border. Grey moss grows. “It is far better to fly over Horrified,” the Guide advises. “There is no chance of walking through unharmed.” The Project: What is Emotion 365? 

Few visit Foolish, but everyone comes to the domed capitol Impractical. Beneath the dome the water plant runs, filtering the waters of Foolish. Impractical scientists measure the water repeatedly and recalibrate the equipment. The city has works around the water plant. On festival days (of which there are many), light, magic, and entertainment reigns. Entertainers of all types come to practice their arts and find audience. Impractical spends much time and energy marketing its entertainments to other lands and enticing visitors. Though it's expensive, nearly everyone visits at least once. Some choose to make their home here. There are no restrictions on immigration except for commonsense. Inside the dome, the hot dry air feels stale and recycled. “Do you have a strong sense of deja vu?” one visitor asks another. A Guide overhears and replies, “Yes, most likely you have seen and done this before.” The Project: What is Emotion 365? 

Riddled with rivers, glorious Foolish. Some may be crossed, some may not. Gushing rivers overflow their banks on soggy days. Water filters everything. Water becomes cleaner except for a few magical particles which the people of Foolish flush. The magic debris makes people giddy and forgetful. It tastes good, if a little funny. Other lands mock the toad-like Foolishers, but this land is where their water comes from. Visitors do not come to Foolish: It is simply too wet, but everyone drinks of its waters now and then. The Project: What is Emotion 365? 

Embarrassed, a bright red cloud, floats within the gray mists of Apathetic. It visits many lands coloring their suns bright red and bringing red rainfall. Sprites lie there and visitors may teleport into the cloud. Within lies a hot and a bustling city. Passersby are inattentive and often purposeless. Artists work on misty monuments: triangles, squares, and polyhedrons to mark events that no one remembers. “What is the purpose of this place?” a visitor asks. “To remember what others would prefer to forget,” says the Guide. The Project: What is Emotion 365? 

Apathetic does not exist in and of itself. It hovers like a cloud over other places. It floats by dropping the Rains of Malaise and the Grey Mists upon the people below. It disappears like those famed magical cities into the mists. Denizens, ephemeral spirits, live in the mist. Nothing touches them as they touch no one. They look down on the worlds below aloof. Their world offers no entertainments. The denizens neither eat nor sleep, build or create. They exist. They bring this troubled lack of trouble to other lands. “Are they sentient?” scientists ask. This passing cloud and its odd human-like shape piques their curiosity, but not for long. It turns into a fruitless search. “Nothing to see, nothing to find,” the scientist reports. “It is hard to convince some people, of that, however.” The Project: What is Emotion 365? 

Builders used the darkest stone to create the largest most ornate castle in all of Chagrined, the Castle Inconsolable. They built sky-high turrets and towers and decorated them with red, pink, blue, grey and green marbles.  “Marvelous to behold!” exclaims a visitor. Servants polish the marbles daily so it gleams. Gardeners maintain the grounds which include a hedge maze, a statuary, and orangerie as well as sweeping lawns with paths and fountains. Despite its beauty, it is a mournful place surrounded by mists and fog. Black deer with red tails roam the forest below Castle Inconsolable. “You are not allowed into this castle either,” the Contessa reminds you. Instead, you approach and watch the royalty ride through the gate on stag mounts. Black veils cover their faces. You wander the gardens and watch the servants work. They constantly trim vines and rake fallen leaves to keep the lawns and gardens pristine. The fountains gleam. Once a week on Yarlsday, the Inconsolab...

Castles of Neapolitan ice cream-colored stone top forested mountains in the deep green woods of Chagrined. Fairies, goblins, and herds of deer roam the forest. Some of the castle have multiple turrets, moats, and gates. Others are but a single tower. All are adorned with tapestries, paintings, sculptures, stained-glass works, vases and other fine artwork. Only castle residents or those with special permission may enter. “Be assured you are not one of them. No matter how many gates you go to, you will never be permitted to enter,” says Contessa Ril. Inside the castles, entire rooms may be filled with jewels. Banquet tables are laden with cakes. Guests watch the Bakers of Chagrined go in carrying multi-tiered cakes with frosting flowers. But visitors are not allowed. Instead, you roam the Chagrined forest and the fairies cast spells upon you. The goblins follow laughing and making crude jokes. “Would you like to play a game?” the goblins ask, but deny you entry if you agree o...

Taste:  plum Sound: purring rumbling Smell: cedar; sweet alfalfa Sight: a burst of sunshine Touch: Mary Shelley Extra: What is the first thing you think when you wake up in the morning? The absence of dog.; feeling especially psychic -- not wanting, praising; solastalgia — emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change Grateful for: Sam

Lava spews and flows from Fierce, Renewed’s largest and most active volcano, daily. Visitors marvel at its monstrous and deadly beauty. Lava bubbles orange and red. Nothing has time to grow. “Can’t we get closer,” visitors ask their pilots and captains, but the guides know better. “It isn’t safe, miss.” “That wouldn’t be wise, sir.” Only greedy or inexperienced guides succumb to begging and bribes. They inch closer to the lava or attempt to fly over Fierce. Passengers lean out to take better photos. At just such a moment, the volcano pops. A jet of lava spurts. Steam bursts. A passenger falls to her death — or the entire helicopter goes down. "Miles sent me a picture he took as he died, a bright red spurt and no sign of him," the widow said. A marvel, yes, but no consolation.

Lava covers Renewed. In the ring of volcanos, Commencement Peak erupts spewing plumes of ash. The sky turns gray where it was once blue. The red hot lava spills into the cold blue sea. It hardens into black rock. When shoots of green arise anew, another volcano in the ring erupts. The land roils, crackles, and rises. Seabirds sometimes land. Whales pass by. Few animals live here but those who may take to the air and sea. Visitors fly over in helicopters or watch lava sizzle into the Resume Sea from nearby boats. The land inspires them with wildness.

The crows of Watched Over are born in Guided. Here they receive their powers of foresight. They gaze and drink from pools black as their eyes. Flocks rise over the city at dawn and dusk. On occasion, a thief from another land will try to capture a Guided Crow to steal its luck. They sometimes pose as visitors and attempt to bag the crow before their arrival, but the crows usually evade them and always fly home. They are devoted to Watched Over and loyal. Rarely a guided crow chooses to accompany a denizen of another land. Sometimes the crows issue commandments: They tell the denizens of Watched Over which crops to grow, when to build or abandon cities (due to imminent floods or earthquakes), how many children to have, and when to travel to other lands or welcome travelers to theirs. All abide the rule of crows.

Cows graze in Watched Over under open sky. Crows accompany very denizen and visitors receive a crow companion for the duration of their stay. "I had only just entered when a crow swooped down and landed on my shoulder,” said Miss Emeline. “I expected it to speak, but it only nodded its head and cawed.” Few accidents happen here. The denizens are lucky. They love their crows deeply. “It is an auspicious place,” Miss Emeline said. “I wrote many pages while I was there and felt my words flow.” Denizens live in villages. Every one has their own cottage and garden. They greet their neighbors at the town square, the local pub, the library, or community building. They take their meals at home, but see friends everyday for snacks and storytelling.

The animals inside the Airship Deja Vu drink champagne while the land below them burns. They laugh about their “champagne problems” while musing on the scorched earth. They see the little traveler with zir’s tiny backpack crossing blackened streams and stumbling over fallen trees as zir make’s zir’s way back and forth sometimes nearing the border but other times losing zir’s way. The airship flies through the Mist Apathetic. Some lean out through the windows and shout, “This way! That!” attempting to guide the traveler, but they are too high up to be heard. The traveler, looking up, sees a dark ship blotting out the red sun surrounded by a haze of smoke. Sometimes the animals on board the airship get lost in the dining rooms, lounges, and parlors and can’t make it back to the sleeping quarters. Sometimes they forget to disembark at their destination and continue on back and forth over Horrified extending their trip. They have drunk too much champagne and become giddy whils...

High in the tropical hills surrounded by orchids, the Guest House Treated staffed by Extravagant fairies welcomes visitors. Visitors may apply for the seasonal butterfly watching retreats. While visiting they may be massaged by snakes with fragrant oils, take walks with leopards, watch the entertainments of tamarind monkeys, and bathe in the green waters pooled below the waterfalls. Colorful rocks line the soaking pools. Guests drink Treated elixir in flute glasses while they soak. Extravagant fairies bring them passionfruit cupcakes and mango smoothies. At the end of their stay, the fairies send them home with a custom-made bottle of perfume and jar of spice so that they may remember Treated as long as possible.

Orchids bloom in the tropical rainforest Extravagant. Fragrances of jasmine, frangipani, cinnamon, and nutmeg waft through the lush mountains. Flocks of colorful parrots and toucans whirl. A kaleidoscope of royal butterflies swoop. Snakes wind around tree branches. Golden tamarinds swing from vines and hoot. Fairies live in tiny tree houses. All beings including the leopards eat the abundance of fruit. They hiccup gassy fruity breaths. They make cupcakes and salads of passionfruit, dragonfruit, and star fruit. Everyone says Posey Glitz makes the best cupcakes. She closely holds the secret to her passionfruit topping. She also leaves the cupcakes to cool on the windowsill of her treehouse. Attracted to the sweets, the Sugar Butterflies perch upon each cake dusting the tops with their wings, leaving a shimmer of purple and blue. The Extravagant fairies ship their prized perfumes, oils, and spices to other lands and in return ask for protection. Only a few seasonal tourists are ad...

The underground capitol, Addled, rests on a giant mushroom, a home for caterpillars and moths. The caterpillars’ chrysalides hang under the mushroom gills. The steeply-domed mushroom cap criss-crosses with paths where the denizens live in a soft sponge world. They roam between their homes and farms while the caterpillars walk above them and the moths fly over. The denizens know only their land and don’t understand when visitors recoil asking, “Why are they so nervous?” When not farming, the denizens dabble in various arts and hobbies. No one esteems their work. There are no famous artist or musicians among them. They produce no notable works. They inhale the mushroom spores which cause them to live distracted, but long and untroubled lives.

An underground tunnel winds. Everyone comes to Lost from above in the woods where they explored without maps. They were new at the job. They defended on a slow incline or fell suddenly into a hole and awoke topsy turvy in narrow soil filled passageways. Lost pulses with life. The tunnels expand and contract to accommodate the size of those who stumble in. Some leave, most do not. The denizens of Lost are caterpillars who hatch into iridescent moths. Oft mistaken for fairies, they provide the only light. “You’ll never find your way out,” they whisper. They eat hallucinogenic fungus. Many varieties grow in the moist tunnels. People wander through the endless winding tunnels of Lost. The caterpillars and moths know where the passageways up to the light are. They simply mind their own business and do not bother to show anyone the way. "Why would anyone wish to go out?" they mutter. They don’t understand and do not try to.

Although not the biggest or most remarkable of Responsible cities, Sensible remains the role model for them all. The denizens create a well-run, working city that cares for all citizens and encourages their participation in civic life. It is well-organized with housing, parks, and all of the required Responsible elements: a city hall, museum, weather tower, walkway for exercise, and library. Janitors keep it spic and span and every denizen lends a hand. Maintenance crews keep roads and buildings in good repair and utilities in working order. Everything works. Toilets flush and do not overflow. Pipes do not break. The electricity does not go out. Giver crews care for the young, old, and infirm and help them take part in community activities from voting to festivals. Beloved animals roam the streets. They are well-fed and given medical care. In turn, they provide companionship and entertainment for all. Denizens feel civic pride, even more so in the capitol. Few tourists visit s...

Responsible: a land of strong cities in mountainous country. Brick houses and towers contain the libraries, city halls, museums, and monuments of Responsible. The denizens are historians and meteorologists. They keep archives and almanacs. They watch from weather towers. “See the dense clouds congealing in the mountains,” Bernard Ott says. The Responsible prepare for storms — really any weather. They begin what they finish. They build and maintain complete and well-organized cities. They welcome immigrants, though those who wish to join them must pass a series of tests. Visitors, even tourists, must pass these, too. All vote equally and the voting rate is 100%. No one shirks important civic duty. They have a high tax rate, automatically paid from their earnings.

The imposing lighthouse Pragmatic warns sailors of the reef that protects Equanimity. A talented nature artist, Hidalgo de Leche, serves as the lighthouse keeper with human companions Dolores Marque and Homer Griot, a dog friend Dorian, Fidalgo the cat, Juniper rat and her family, and Shirley, Jones, Ralph, Alex, and Nori chickens. Few fit into Pragmatic, but fortunately, the denizens of Equanimity do not need much governance. They proceed peacefully with simple goals. Pragmatic warns away those who would bring strife to their shores. They reject most offers of trade, preferring peace to prosperity. They repaint murals upon the lighthouse and replace the watch light. The Pragmatic family eats simply, but well. They express longing through art. Hidalgo lives in the topmost room below the light. She keeps a nocturnal pattern, the better to watch the night waves and mark the passage of ships from other lands.

Equanimity: a heath by the shore. Grasses wave in gentle winds. Terns fly over. Echinaeca cone flowers grow among heather and lavender. Worn smooth seashells ground into fine sand line the shores. What comes ashore now are beautiful whole shells of giant snails. Beyond the reef, seas crash hard against the rocks. Rainbow fish weave in and out of bright coral. Visitors come beach-combing and return home with shells and polished stones. Equanimity admits gentle and placid souls. The Guardians of Equanimity hold a Sounding Seashell to the forehead of each guest. Only those with relaxed minds may enter, observe, and join the works of these gentle artists, walkers, and beachcombers. They create works upon the shore unconcerned with permanence or preservation.

A flight of doves, Nonplussed, a city of wings and air, rise and float over Flustered. The doves coo welcomes to newcomer birds and swoop down startling sailors scouting for a place to land (but seeing that it is impossible). Recordings of the Nonplussed doves soothe babies and insomniacs. The doves watch over Flustered. They defend chicks from predators. They keep Council in the air. They often sleep serenely in flight gently rocking on currents of wind. No jets may pass here in this place beyond technology and commerce. It is quiet except for the wind, waves, and bird talk. The birds each keep to their own feathers either Flustered rocks or Nonplussed floating.

Flustered: a haven for birds. Rocks piled in the middle of a stormy sea. Sparse grasses clustered by a few fresh water ponds. Birds nest in the rocks or in the branches of madrone trees hanging over the ocean, red bark curled and peeling. Gulls and terns flock through the air. Geese and swans waddle over rocks. Vegetarian snakes and foxes hide in the grass. Ibis and herons stalk through the ponds. Turtles and toads sit upon logs and lily pads. Flocks of birds startled by winds rise. Feathers and feces drop onto the rocks. Curious sailors come near, but there is no safe place to land ships. They see the rising flocks and swirling birds. “There must be something over there,” sailors think. “To save us from the boredom of days at sea.” But there are only rocks and birds and slithering, stalking creatures who eat leaves, not eggs nor fuzz-covered ducklings. Feathers float out to sea away from the rocks. About Emotion 365: Everyday a New Land of Emotion 

Dull makes a hedge maze of billowy grasses. In the center square of Dull, the Pompoids make decisions slowly and never in the favor of supplicants. Visitors receive rude treatment. They are dismissed, their concerns with them. Although, as some have discovered, the Dullards are easily tricked. One may win concessions through trickery. Most simply avoid interacting with the Pompoids of Dull. Pompoid leaders loose their bounce and float once they enter the Dull maze. In the Dull capitol, beings dry and grey. They look like dryer lint. They move stiffly and sink to the ground. They drink droplets from the fountains and nibble hard berries that grow on the grass vines. They need little sustenance since they hardly move. Mostly they deliberate and rarely take action. They prefer to let things work themselves out in time or to outlast complainants who weary and away. About Emotion 365: Everyday a New Land of Emotion 

Winds blow the seeds of Pompous across its vast wide open plains, fertile fields, orchards, and forests and carry them to others. The persistent seeds easily take root. In other lands, the plants become weeds. Tumbleweed roll in the desert lands. Outsiders ask, “Can you contain your plants? Build a wall or wind nets?” The Pompous are uncooperative. Some neighboring lands build wind nets or blow towers to keep out the seeds from Pompous. Others give up and let the seeds of pompous take roots and overgrow their own lands, thereby Pompous grows and expands, unchecked. Herds of Pompoids large, round, soft, and billowy float and bounce over Pompous. They eat pompous grass and believe their lands, foods and kind are better than others. Visitors avoid Pompous. There is not much to recommend it, but it is so vast that beings fly or sail into it unawares. If they stay too long, they morph into Pompoids. It’s a danger of eating pompous grass and drinking pompous water.