Chatterbox Monday

In the vast desert of the Arabian Peninsula, where the merciless sun scorches the earth and the cold moon casts long shadows over an ancient, sand-swallowed world, there lies a city unlike any other. A city born of dreams, aspirations, and a dark, unfathomable force that has driven men mad since the dawn of time. This is the story of Neom, the city of the future, and the horrors that dwell within its gleaming towers.

It was a time of great change when the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in its quest for progress and a new age, envisioned a city so advanced and self-sufficient that it would become the envy of the world. The city would be called Neom, a place where technology and innovation would overcome the harshness of the desert and tame the relentless sun. The architects and engineers could never have known the true nature of the forces they were to unleash upon the world.

As the city began to take form, strange things were whispered among those who toiled in the merciless heat. There were tales of ancient structures, unearthed from beneath the shifting sands, that bore the marks of a forgotten civilization. These relics, inscribed with symbols and images that defied comprehension, spoke of a time when otherworldly beings held dominion over the land.

The workers and scholars who studied these artifacts were filled with a sense of dread and unease, as if some indefinable presence had awoken from a slumber of countless millennia. They spoke of fevered dreams and visions of monstrous, nightmarish creatures, their forms twisted and grotesque, their minds filled with a malevolent intelligence that transcended human understanding. These visions were dismissed by the uninitiated as mere hallucinations, the product of sun-baked minds and exhaustion. But those who had gazed upon the unhallowed relics knew the truth: that they were glimpsing the ineffable horrors that lurked in the darkest corners of the cosmos.

Despite these portents of doom, the construction of Neom continued apace, with the city rising ever higher into the sky, its glass and steel towers gleaming like jewels in the desert. And as the city's power grew, so too did the influence of the ancient beings that had once ruled this land. They whispered secrets into the ears of the city's architects and engineers, offering them new technologies and scientific knowledge that could not be found in any earthly tome. The price for this knowledge was steep, for each man who received it found his sanity slipping away, replaced by a growing obsession with the dark, terrible truths of the universe.

As Neom's inhabitants began to dwell within its walls, they found themselves haunted by the spectral echoes of the city's past, the ghosts of ancient sins and forgotten atrocities. The city's very air seemed to hum with a malevolent energy, as if the entire metropolis were a living thing, pulsating with an alien, otherworldly power. And in the depths of the night, when the moon hung heavy and low in the sky, strange shapes could be seen moving through the shadows, their forms shifting and twisting, their features impossible to discern.

It was said that the city of Neom had become a gateway, a portal through which the monstrous beings of the outer darkness could enter our world. And as the city's influence spread, so too did the reach of these eldritch horrors, their tendrils entwining themselves in the minds of men, corrupting their thoughts and driving them to acts of unspeakable depravity. Those who resisted their influence found their lives destroyed, their sanity shattered, and their very souls consumed by the unquenchable hunger of the cosmic fiends that dwelled in the shadows of Neom's gleaming towers.

Yet in the face of this encroaching darkness, there were those who sought to pierce the veil of terror and bring light to the hidden corners of the city. Among them was a distant worker on the project, a man known only by the cryptic moniker, Dakylosaurus419. He was an enigmatic figure, a man whose true identity remained shrouded in secrecy, but whose determination to expose the truth of Neom's terrible secrets burned with the intensity of a thousand suns.

As Dakylosaurus419 delved deeper into the mysteries of the city, he began to uncover the true extent of the horror that had been unleashed upon the world. He learned of the ancient beings that had once ruled the land, their dark rites and unspeakable sacrifices, and of their insidious influence on the architects and engineers who had built Neom.

Armed with this knowledge, Dakylosaurus419 sought to rally the people of Neom against the cosmic horrors that held their city in thrall. He spoke to them of the terrible price they had paid for their city's splendor, of the souls lost to the darkness, and of the insatiable hunger of the otherworldly beings that lurked just beyond the veil of reality.

In the end, it was Dakylosaurus419 who would pay the ultimate price for his defiance. As he stood upon the edge of the city's highest tower, a gathering storm darkening the sky above him, he knew that the only way to break the hold of the ancient beings was to offer himself as a sacrifice, a willing vessel for the unimaginable horrors that sought to consume all that was good and pure in the world.

With a final, desperate act of courage, Dakylosaurus419 flung himself from the tower's edge, his body hurtling through the air like a comet streaking across the night sky. As he fell, the ancient beings reached out to claim him, their twisted, writhing forms emerging from the shadows to envelop him in their cold, malevolent embrace.

But in that moment, as his body was consumed by the darkness, Dakylosaurus419 found a strength he had never known before. With a roar that echoed through the heavens, he tore free from the clutches of the cosmic fiends, his sacrifice igniting a conflagration of light that swept through the city like a cleansing fire. The ancient beings were banished, their shrill cries fading into the void as the city of Neom was freed from their sinister thrall.

In the years that followed, the people of Neom would rebuild their city, their hearts tempered by the knowledge of the darkness that had once held them in its grip. They would remember the sacrifice of Dakylosaurus419, the man who had given his life to banish the horrors of the past and secure a future free from the shadows of ancient sins. And though the sands of the desert would continue to shift, burying the relics of a time long forgotten, the city of Neom would stand as a testament to the indomitable spirit of humanity and its unyielding defiance in the face of the unknowable horrors that dwell within the cosmos.

Outlook just does this. Even the really old versions.

Stop touching yourself, Bonesy.

I've kept lazybones Neom post, I watermarked it with the header in washout and changed the font to Papyrus, very epic..

Ok, I'll just copy and paste responses to you if the need arises.

You know what I meant, you fat chippy turd.

Crank killed it.

The crows were concerned this evening. Very noisy.

Lost at Scrabble in the pub.

It's OK though, my mate's splitting up from his partner, so I was able to claim I let him win to cheer him up.