Search: Sibsil Creed Known Cosmos Earth Press
Results: 1,734,129 entries
WOAH. Way too much. I needed to narrow it down. Bitsy had said Shurwinn was her mother’s home sphere, and since that’s where she wanted me to go, maybe that would help me focus the results.
Search: Sibsil Creed Known Cosmos Earth Press Shurwinn
Results: 67 entries
I opened the first one.
Recreating the history of Shurwinn is a task no historian relishes for the peoples were disparate and their objectives varied. But what we have been able to piece together is that a band of misfits on Earth rejected authority around the time Earth joined the 9 Galaxies in 2337.
Distrustful, these mostly vegetarian pacifists decided that they couldn’t rely on the leaders of Earth to make decisions for them. They thought that the warring governments of the past would continue in a new form. So, they rejected what everyone else had surrendered to and devised their own plan. A wide, wide variety of people pooled together, invested in starliners, and colonized an undesirable desert sphere in far-off Andromeda Galaxy.
Shrewd business skills and masterful marketing made the separatists a powerhouse in the Trade Guilds. They chose to be isolationist and marketed themselves as such, creating a demand for exclusive Shurwinn products across the Known Cosmos. Despite their isolationist philosophy, they were a remarkably successful colony.
There is much, much more to the story, however. And far more can be told about the reclusive, secretive Shurwinn.
- Sibsil Creed, Stories of Shurwinn, (2777)
I tracked the entry back to its origin: the Known Cosmos Earth Press stream site, but from over seventy years ago. HC had been right! Bitsy wasn’t that old, so this Sibsil Creed had been publishing little pieces about Shurwinn for a long, long time.
I found where the Stories of Shurwinn were organized chronologically and kept reading. It was the history of my home planet, but it read like it was meant for outsiders rather than Earthens.
In the year 2334, the humans of Earth developed spacecraft that they thought would carry them out of Sol System, but they were surprised at what they found. When they reached the orbital plane of Neptune, a vast armada appeared, blocking their exit—a fleet of starliners too numerous to count, each waving a white flag of peace.
The Earth ships received transmissions in English, Hindi, and Arabic: “This is a diplomatic retinue. May we meet for trade negotiations?”
And so the Earthens learned that beyond Sol was a collaboration of spheres, unified by a desire for peace. Nine Galaxies populated by humans.
There was no war. There were no governments; there were Trade Guilds—Manufacturing, Prison, Hospitality, Medica, Education, and so on.
The 9 Galaxies operated on a corporate structure. If your business succeeded, you had prosperity. If your business fell out of favor with the Guilds, you had no Trade partners and floundered.
Weapons manufacturing did not exist, for no one would purchase weapons, and no one would trade with anyone who made them. Murder was unheard of.
Earthens had to choose. They could adapt, form their own Trade Guild structure, and join the 9 Galaxies.
They would be welcomed. They could Trade for sophisticated technology, allowing for faster cross-galactic travel.
There was a Universal language, with many cognates in the Earthen languages. For whilst Earthens had thought themselves alone in the Cosmos, humans from the 9 Galaxies had been in their midst all along.
Earthens had a choice: leave behind their warring ways and change their sphere into Trade Guilds or remain isolated in Sol. For murderers were not allowed freedom of movement in the 9 Galaxies.
In 2337, Earth joined the Known Cosmos. This is a story of what followed.
- Sibsil Creed, Stories of Shurwinn, (2764)
That was the history of Earth alright. We’d disbanded our militaries and walked away from our military past in exchange for a place within the Trade Guilds.
But why was the Press publishing that history? Who cared when we found out about the 9 Galaxies and formed Trade Guilds? Of course, now those very Guilds might be guilty of colluding with tech companies to terrorize Known Cosmos citizens and parrot their original words on Discord, so maybe that was a clue?
What more could I discover by reading the history? What had Sibsil Creed hidden in plain sight buried in stories and cartoons?
I kept reading, and there was a lot that read like poems. Like this one:
Words
I hate words
Words
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
I love words
Words
Insufficient
Words
I’ll hum instead
Collected Unpublished Lyrics
- Sibsil Creed, Stories of Shurwinn, (2783)
I mean, what was that about? Why even bother publishing a poem like that? To appeal to readers who enjoyed lines of simplicity?
Then there were some entries that felt more like letters or just little snippets of stories. None of it made a cohesive whole. I tried reading them in chronological order to see if I could make heads or tails of it.
I figured out the design—how to do what you told me to do. You’ve given me 150 years, but you didn’t tell me when to start the 150 years. So, I’m going to use your birth certificate. Not your other certificates. Do you know how many certificates you have?
That gives me 97 years. Ninety-seven years to tell our story. Our story—yours and mine. The Shurwinn. The Known Cosmos. Because it’s all related, isn’t it? Isn’t it just one story?
Ninety-seven years to set the stage.
- Sibsil Creed, Stories of Shurwinn, (2764)
So, Sibsil Creed was telling a story over a century, and it was about two people. Who? And why?
I laughed so much writing our story! I cried a lot too. Do you remember how hard we cried? When we were alone—together? We cried, and it felt like we would die. And we laughed. We laughed until we hurt.
Sometimes I remember what I’ve written, and I wake up in the middle of the night hysterical. It’s so funny! And then I imagine the 9 Galaxies reading it in the days to come, and I think I’ll never stop laughing. Making babies upside down? Prophetic rodents?
Will anyone ever believe it was all true? You always said that stories should have happy endings. So let’s give them one. They’re going to cry a lot. But we’ll make them laugh. Let’s make the whole fucking Known Cosmos laugh.
Then maybe, maybe, we will change the world.
- Sibsil Creed, Stories of Shurwinn, (2765)
Sibsil Creed wanted to change the world? Well, not ambitious at all, friend. Have a go! Write a book! That’ll fix everything.
Ha ha. I couldn’t help laughing to myself. I probably would love this Sibsil guy—or gal. I mean, wasn’t Bitsy the present-day version of Sibsil? But she didn’t write this stuff from a hundred years ago.
Do you know that “sibling” is an Earth word? You probably do now. I wonder if you knew back then. It’s English. I’m learning English. And I’m getting really good at cussing. English has great cuss words.
Like ‘fuck.” I love the word “fuck.” I’m adding it to the sex scenes. Do you think it’s funny?
- Sibsil Creed, Stories of Shurwinn, (2766)
Okay, so Sibsil definitely wasn’t American. And they were saying “sibling” was an “Earth word.” No one from Earth would say that, so Sibsil had to be from somewhere else, but who were they talking to? Someone else who wasn’t from Earth? Were they all from Shurwinn?
Oh, sands, my mind was BLOWN! I mean, she was Ryst Nova, and she was standing there in this unbelievable— well. Just watch it. Endless caricature fodder.
- Sibsil Creed, Stories of Shurwinn, (2768)
I got chills when I came across a lyric that seemed like something HC had said at dinner in Miami:
Poems that are memories
Of things yet to come.
Collected Unpublished Lyrics
-Sibsil Creed, Stories of Shurwinn, (2769)
That was like what HC kept saying about my poetry. That it was foretelling or some sort of prophecy. So why was Sibsil Creed talking about prophetic poetry ninety years ago?
Entertain them now.
Affect them deeply.
So they keep looking.
Collected Unpublished Lyrics
- Sibsil Creed, Stories of Shurwinn, (2771)
It all started with a song.
He sang it, of course.
And I finally understood what you both saw that no one else could see.
How big it was. And it was up to me.
The unseen was seen.
- Sibsil Creed, Stories of Shurwinn, (2772)
There’s Graphics, and animations, and parodies, of course.
How can you tell a story without audiovisual?
With words alone?
That’ll never work.
- Sibsil Creed, Stories of Shurwinn, (2772)
Her eyes were like nothing I’ve ever seen. Pale green with turquoise around the irises. She was reserved, but had a hint of something wild in her that was wanting to break free. And if it did, it would pour from those eyes.
- Sibsil Creed, Stories of Shurwinn, (2776)
I’m publishing teasers—just little tidbits. And collecting stories from Shurwinn. They’re creating the Legend of Sibsil Creed. So when it’s time, people will really want to know the whole story.
- Sibsil Creed, Stories of Shurwinn, (2788)
Okay, so this Sibsil was collecting stories and creating a mythos. Trying to generate mystique and intrigue over a long period of time about a person, and it was looking like she had green/ turquoise eyes and had a wild side.
And probably, her name had been Ryst Nova, whoever that was. Why should I care about some green-eyed gal from a hundred years ago?
I read another entry that sent my stomach to the floor.
There are two worlds.
Collected Unpublished Lyrics
-Sibsil Creed, Stories of Shurwinn, (2788)
"Two worlds?" Like me with my dreams? My poem I wrote when I was seventeen, “Love Beyond?”
Some things are better left unsaid.
For they come from beyond.
Beyond where, you ask?
But I cannot tell.
Whispers and secrets
I know so very well.
For in the dark of night so deep
Where love grows and children weep
Is the place where worlds touch
And none need sleep.
I felt nearly frantic with need to keep reading Sibsil Creed’s entries. The most recent lyric from two months ago sent my heart racing:
I’ll see you when I get there.
- Sibsil Creed, Stories from Shurwinn, (2859)
If that was only two months old, then it was connected to Bitsy Joon. That meant she knew so much more than she’d explained to me. I took a calculated risk and opened my messages.
Sam: when is Sibsil’s next post coming out?
Bitsy: On Earth, it will be New Year’s Eve:
This is the last letter they’ll find. It explains everything.
- Sibsil Creed, Stories from Shurwinn, (2860)
Sam: And after that?
Bitsy: You will find out, very soon, Sam, and then you will understand so much. Even your pen name. Remember what we said about coincidence.
My breaths were coming too fast, but it wasn’t a panic attack. I didn’t need a paper bag to breathe into; I wanted to run and jump up and down and scream with elation and frustration at once.
I was on the cusp of something big. Something so ginormous someone had been writing about it for a century. It was just like Sibsil said. They’d wanted to keep people reading, tease them, get them hooked so they kept coming back for more.
And something was coming in 2860 that would explain everything. I needed to figure out who this woman Ryst Nova was, and I was betting HC had been following this story his whole life.
He probably already knew.
Sam: meet me in conference room 6
HC: On my way!