More edits

Signed-off-by: Danila Fedorin <danila.fedorin@gmail.com>

content/writing/thevoid.md

@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ Then, it worked.
 
 When one of the children looked back at his cup, having been distracted by another's exaggerated gagging, he found it to contain a uniformily black fluid. This intrigued the boy; he went to prod it with his fork, but it never reached the side of the cup. Startled, he dropped the utensil, and watched it sink out of sight. This too was intriguing: the fork was noticeably longer than the container.
 
-The others soon crowded around him to examine what was later understood to be the first instance of the {{< thevoid "Everpresent Void" >}}. They dropped straws, arcade tickets, cheap toys (purchased with arcade tickets), and coins into the cup, all of which disappeared without a sound. The boy found himself at the center of attention, and took great pleasure in recounting his latest recipe. Soon, the {{< thevoid "Void" >}} was replicated in the cups of everyone in the party.
+The others soon crowded around him to examine what was later understood to be the first instance of the {{< thevoid "Everpresent Void" >}}. They dropped straws, arcade tickets, cheap toys (purchased with arcade tickets), and coins into the cup, all of which disappeared without a sound. The boy found himself at the center of attention, and took great pleasure in recounting his latest recipe. Soon, the {{< thevoid "Void" >}} was replicated in the cups of everyone at the party.
 
 ---
 
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ Only, the {{< thevoid "Void" >}} was not entirely featureless and endless. As ki
 
 With time, a light show emerged from the emptiness of the {{< thevoid "Void" >}}. It was not unlike pressing down on one’s eyes: colorful particles swirled in the darkness forming spirals and fractals. These gradually changed colors, appearing at times red-and-beige, at times blue-and-green, and everything in-between. 
 
-The display was polarizing. Swaths of children, though initially enthralled by the mysterious properties of the {{< thevoid "Void" >}}, were not sufficiently re-captured by some flashing colors. In the later parts of the week, they would leave lunch halls early to study, practice, or socialize. There were, they thought, better, more normal things to do. A minority, however, only grew more obsessed with their philosopher's stones.
+The display was polarizing. Swaths of children, though initially enthralled by the mysterious properties of the {{< thevoid "Void" >}}, were not sufficiently re-captured by some flashing colors. In the later parts of the week, they would leave lunch halls early to study, practice, or socialize. There were, they thought, better, more normal things to do. A minority, however, only grew more enamored with their philosopher's stones.
 
 ---
 
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ The {{< thevoid "Void" >}} was interconnected. By repeating a specific and preci
 
 ---
 
-It was not until weeks later that the first glimpses of a post-{{< thevoid "Void" >}} future revealed themselves, to no one's attention or particular interest. A groggy, not-yet-caffeinated Mrs. Leonard walking into class one day to find a sea of red fabric. Nearly every girl in the morning section showed up to class that day waring a red dress. Not a single one of the students could provide a concrete method by which they chose the day's wardrobe; feelings, whims, and even coin-flipping were cited as reasons for wearing the outfit. What's more, the same happened in Mr. Thompson's class, and in a number of scattered schools throughout the country.
+It was not until weeks later that the first glimpses of a post-{{< thevoid "Void" >}} future revealed themselves, to no one's attention or particular interest. A groggy, not-yet-caffeinated Mrs. Leonard walked into class one day to find a sea of red fabric. Nearly every girl in the morning section showed up to class that day waring a red dress. Not a single one of the students could provide a concrete method by which they chose the day's wardrobe; feelings, whims, and even coin-flipping were cited as reasons for wearing the outfit. What's more, the same happened in Mr. Thompson's class, and in a number of scattered schools throughout the country.
 
 Being a scientist at heart, and rejecting wholeheartedly the possibility of coincidence of paranormal involvement, Mrs. Leonard spent the rest of the day distractedly overcorrecting for her earlier lack of coffee. A satisfying answer eluded her, and she came home jittery and defeated. Walking past her son's room she noted that he was indulging in his habitual {{< thevoid "Void" >}}-gazing. In the depths of the pitch-black bowl, she glimpsed swirls of that very same shade of red.
 
@@ -66,9 +66,9 @@ Being a scientist at heart, and rejecting wholeheartedly the possibility of coin
 
 The mechanism that precipitated the red-dress curiosity was not all that sinister. The {{< thevoid "Void" >}} was not unlike an ocean, absorbing and releasing heat, mitigating changes in its environment. After a day in which red was prevalent in the collective thoughts of {{< thevoid "Void" >}}-viewers, the color dissipated like heat through the dark realm, was stirred somehow by the convection of its hidden currents, and re-entered the minds of practitioners in its altered form. They averted their gazes and went to put on red clothes.
 
-There was another way in which the {{< thevoid "Void" >}} resembled an ocean. Locations within it drifted through the darkness like rafts. Each day, some recipes would move closer or further apart. Whenever others occupied a nearby place in that ocean, their thoughts echoed in the silences between one's own. {{< thevoid "Void" >}}-voyagers, their eyes directed at customary, comforting blackness, would encounter each other there, often without knowing. With each encounter, they exchanged unnoticeable fragments of their minds.
+There was another way in which the {{< thevoid "Void" >}} resembled an ocean. Locations within it drifted through the darkness like rafts. Each day, some recipes would move closer or further apart. Whenever others occupied a nearby place in that ocean, their thoughts echoed in the silences between one's own. {{< thevoid "Void" >}}-voyagers, their eyes directed at customary, comforting blackness, would encounter each other there, often without knowing. With each encounter, they left unnoticeable imprimnts upon one another.
 
-If the Thompsonians or Leonardese were chemists rather than physicists and biologists, and if they were more inclined towards introspection or calm, deliberate thought, they might have observed this gradual exchange, and seen in it the physical process of diffusion, with its particles and collisions. They might have thought of drops of dye in water, swirling in beautiful patterns until finally there were no recognizable shapes, nothing to see at all except a gentle haze of red in an erlenmeyer flask. The final stage of diffusion, was, after all, uniformity.
+If the Thompsonians or Leonardese were chemists rather than physicists and biologists, and if they were more inclined towards introspection or calm, deliberate thought, they might have observed this gradual exchange, and seen in it the physical process of diffusion, with its particles and collisions. They might have thought of drops of dye in water, swirling in beautiful patterns until finally there were no recognizable shapes, nothing to see at all except a gentle haze of red in an erlenmeyer flask. The final stage of diffusion was uniformity.
 
 ---
 
@@ -86,13 +86,13 @@ Among some practitioners, there was a growing sense that the {{< thevoid "Everpr
 
 The echoes or films were not sent to convey a message. The {{< thevoid "Void" >}} was not aware of human logic or values, or even of the physical reality outside of its own darkness. It was indifferent to such things, and continued to behave according to some incomprehensible laws. Nevertheless, somewhere near the core of these laws was the desire to command human attention.
 
-Nature did not bestow upon humanity the mechanisms to defend against something as otherworldly as the {{< thevoid "Void" >}}. The stories they learned each day were spoken by a chorus of voices, so loud and numerous that it seemed the whole world was speaking to them. How could anyone deny that unified narration? In truth, however, each human argument sounded within that ocean's surf --- as did its refutation. Each Voyager heard fragments they were used to hearing, stories they wanted to learn. Though the {{< thevoid "Void" >}} reflected no light, staring at it was looking into an endless mirror.
+Nature did not bestow upon humanity the mechanisms to defend against something as otherworldly as the {{< thevoid "Void" >}}. The stories they learned each day were spoken by a chorus of voices, so loud and numerous that it seemed the whole world was speaking to them. In truth, however, each human argument sounded within that ocean's surf --- as did its refutation. Each voyager heard fragments they were used to hearing, stories they wanted to learn. Though the {{< thevoid "Void" >}} reflected no light, staring at it was looking into an endless mirror.
 
 ---
 
 Through this process, the modern-day alchemists' demeanor began to resemble their ancient counterparts' mercury-induced insanity. They spoke in baffling absolutisms. Their language, already rich with {{< thevoid "Void">}}-specific jargon, grew further removed from the words spoken still in coffee shops and bars. Anger and anxiety attracted attention, and so they were angry and anxious, exploding at times at seemingly innocuous occurrences. Sometimes, as with the red-dress incident, hundreds of alchemists were compelled to eat a certain food, or dress in a certain outfit. They swayed like kelp with the invisible waves of the {{< thevoid "Void" >}}.
 
-Concurrently, the {{< thevoid "Void" >}}'s influence grew, its versatility and power proving impossible to surrender. More and more learned to create viewports into the blackness. As they did, the prevalence of madness grew. It was soon a common experience to speak to an old friend or parent and realize that they were no longer the person they were months ago; that somehow, gradually, they had been transformed into someone else. It also became common to hear the words of the many spoken, unconsciously, by a single practitioner.
+Concurrently, the {{< thevoid "Void" >}}'s influence grew, its versatility and power proving impossible to surrender. More and more learned to create viewports into the blackness. As they did, the prevalence of madness increased. Soon everyone knew somebody affected by the lunacy. The victims remained entirely human; they kept their fond memories, their endearing mannerisms, their connections. The {{< thevoid "Void" >}} reflected their light like a carnival mirror and amplified thoughts, but it could not cultivate that which was not already there. There was nothing to do but to stand by them and hope that with time, their features would recede back into their former shape.
 
 ---