Fossilized Gears
Fine silt scrapes against a fingertip, coating the edges of an etched obsidian monolith fused to the forearm. Beneath layers of calcified grit, clockwork gears pulse with a low-frequency vibration inside a nautilus shell structure. This intricate machinery suggests that what we call ourselves is merely an accumulation of mechanical intersections. Every rotation forces a choice between preserving these ancient rhythms or breaking them to allow for the viscous flow of mercury.