Add conclusion and make some edits

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

content/writing/thevoid.md

@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ The display was polarizing. Swaths of children, though initially enthralled by t
 
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-Like alchemists of the past, many of the remaining experimenters had a tendency to obsess. Even as the world --- with its track meets, birthday parties, and dances --- went on around them, they continued their close observation of the mysterious substance. The {{< thevoid "Void" >}} proved worthy of this sustained attention. The patterns that swirled in its depths were not entirely random: they responded, reluctantly and sluggishly, to the observer's mind. Anger and frustration tended to produce redder hues; sadness manifested in as a snotty shade of green. Focusing on a particular color made it more likely to appear, as well. Following its own peculiar kind of intuition, the {{< thevoid "Void" >}} responded faster when more individuals were present.
+Like alchemists of the past, many of the remaining experimenters had a tendency to obsess. Even as the world --- with its track meets, birthday parties, and dances --- went on around them, they continued their close observation of the mysterious substance. The {{< thevoid "Void" >}} proved worthy of this sustained attention. The patterns that swirled in its depths were not entirely random: they responded, reluctantly and sluggishly, to the observer's mind. Anger and frustration tended to produce redder hues; sadness manifested as a snotty shade of green. Focusing on a particular color made it more likely to appear, as well. Following its own peculiar kind of intuition, the {{< thevoid "Void" >}} responded faster when more individuals were present.
 
 Other promising avenues of research also grew in popularity over the following days and weeks. The precise recipe for the {{< thevoid "Void" >}} was not, it turned out, very strict. Though soda and fast food remained a constant fixture, the precise ingredients could be substituted for alternates. Pieces of swiss cheese worked just as well as cheddar. A fragment of a turkey patty replaced the traditional 100% Angus beef in a pinch. The resulting substance was as opaque and inscrutable as ever.
 
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ Neither group was having much luck. The tree's trunk was consistently much too s
 
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-The {{< thevoid "Void" >}}'s interconnectedness led to a renaissance. By sticking to a specific and precise recipe, one could reliably come back over and over to the same "place" in the infinite blackness. Painstakingly painted pictures persisted into the next day, and anyone with the same recipe could tune in to see. Enthusiasts rushed to claim recipes most affordable on modest allowances. Registries of locations and ingredients were posted on bulletin boards, written in bathroom stalls, tossed around as crumpled paper balls in class. Even those who had previously shunned the alchemists were drawn back into the fold by the promise of conjuring images of their own for others to see.
+The {{< thevoid "Void" >}} was interconnected. By repeating a specific and precise recipe, one could reliably come back over and over to the same "place" in the infinite blackness. Painstakingly painted pictures persisted into the next day, and anyone with the same recipe could tune in to see. Enthusiasts rushed to claim recipes most affordable on modest allowances. Registries of locations and ingredients were posted on bulletin boards, written in bathroom stalls, tossed around as crumpled paper balls in class. Even those who had previously shunned the alchemists were drawn back into the fold by the promise of conjuring images of their own for others to see.
 
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@@ -84,32 +84,28 @@ With adult influence, of course, came adult concerns. Though recipes for their w
 
 Among some practitioners, there was a growing sense that the {{< thevoid "Everpresent Void" >}} was alive. It didn't speak, or think, or breathe. Sometimes, though, its movements and currents were too deliberate to be mere chance. The connections that it made, the glimpses of nearby islands that viewers saw in the corners of their eyes, must've been chosen on purpose; chosen to entice. {{< thevoid "The Void wanted to be seen">}}. It spoke to its sailors in echoes of others' words, it showed them films whose frames were others' images. Encountering another voyager with his nearby recipe, it was insufficient to simply extricate his thoughts from one's own; it was also necessary to determine why he was sent as the {{< thevoid "Void" >}}'s emissary.
 
-More sinister was that the echoes or films were not sent to convey a message.  The {{< thevoid "Void" >}} didn't have an agenda or ideology to espouse. It was not aware of human logic or values. It was not even aware of the physical reality in which our world resided. It was indifferent to such things, and continued to behave according to some incomprehensible laws. Somewhere near the core of these laws was the desire to command human attention.
+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.
 
-Voyagers were entirely unprepared for the {{< thevoid "Void" >}}'s tactics. 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, what each person heard were the voices they longed to hear, the stories they sought 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. 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.
 
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 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 realized 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, through a transformed person's speech.
+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.
 
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-{{< todo >}}
+Years later, on a chill November night, a weary Mrs. Leonard re-entered her home, one lit house in an entire city of houses that were dark. Her son was away at college now, and her husband out with friends, leaving her to collapse onto the couch and revisit the events of the day. Her students had done well on their exams, and were rewarded with a day off; in class, they watched a nature documentary. The subject was the Amazon rainforest, and among its inhabitants were the leaf-cutter ants.
-Unused text below here.
-{{< /todo >}}
 
+Mrs. Leonard thought about the ants. Day after day they scoured the rainforest, collecting leaves to feed to a fungal garden in their colony. Day after day, the fungus emitted chemicals that diffused from the garden, swirling in the air currents that permeated the rest of the colony. Sensing changes, the ants altered their routes to look for different sources of food.
 
+There was, she thought, a first day to all of this, even a first moment. Before that moment, they were _just_ ants, going about their day as all their relatives do to this day. Then, perhaps, a worker returned accompanied by a spore, and changed the course of the colony's history.
 
+Outside, it was storming. In the dark, roads were discernible only through streaking reflections of stoplights in puddles. Rain drummed with increasing urgency against the house's windows; larger drops left craters in the waterscape forming on the glass. The resulting texture was not unlike mycelium.
 
+Mrs. Leonard wondered whether the first of the leaf-cutter ants were wary of the transformation occurring around them, whether the incursion of hyphae into their familiar tunnels concerned them. Something new was beginning to live alongside them, something decidedly un-ant-like. It thought nothing of workers, queens, or larvae, and it was unconcerned with conquest, hunting, or foraging. The fungus only swelled more with each day, entangling itself deeper into their lives. Were the ants really not afraid of this {{< thevoid "thing" >}}? She was sure she would be.
 
+It was over 45 million years ago, the narrator of the documentary had said, that the colonies likely began their new mutualistic way of life. That November night, the ants were still there, tending to their gardens. The fungus nourished their larvae in exchange for their protection. Perhaps, in some way neither she nor the ants could understand, that symbiosis warded off dangers that their competitors succumbed to.
 
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+Upon returning home, Mr. Leonard found his wife still on the couch, embers of a dying fireplace casting playful shadows across her face. He had no way of knowing, but she was dreaming of gathering leaves in a warm, humid jungle.
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-All influences on a particular recipe of the Void, all shifts in color and mood, were interconnected for any given recipe.
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-Another property of the {{< thevoid "Void" >}} was discovered shortly thereafter, when a particularly brave adventurer attempted to get a closer look at the patterns by dipping his head in an entire bowl of the stuff. Almost immediately, he recoiled, shouting. Just above his eyebrow were four small wounds, arranged in a neat line. They had been left by the fork from the arcade.
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-The precise definition of what constituted a "sandwich" briefly created a deep schism among the alchemists. Was a grilled cheese sandwich __really__ a sandwich?