Do you ever get that nagging feeling you blew up the moon? The End The End The End The End tells stories of folk making peace with their lives’ arcs’, in a galaxy rapidly succumbing to personal and collective ends.

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It begins with a virus falling in love, rejected by a finger. The shirked virus’ despair evolves into hate and she sheds her viral load and transforms into a tiny devil. That Very Devil gate-crashes a tiny, underground party and, hearing what she believes to be the ‘biggest tune ever’, steals the DJ’s USB and runs away. As That Very Devil makes her escape, she hears on the news of the disastrous end to the great civilisation of the moon people, and decides to plug her USB into the (now dead) moon to see what mischief it will cause. The moon blows up, and That Very Devil is propelled to a far edge of the galaxy.

 

Here she meets Planet Clown Princess, an ancient and child-like clown planet, who suffers from acne and loneliness, and dispenses her wisdoms to anyone who happens to pass into her orbit. That Very Devil is lost after her long ride through the cosmos, and in a moment of vulnerability admits this to planet clown princess. The Princess’s advice is so good that it causes That Very Devil to melt with glee and drip off the flying USB stick into the void. The USB floats on alone. 

 

The USB travels on, eventually crashing in to a larger planet and uploading its cargo; LIFE.EXE. This once barren planet begins to evolve life, namely Oily Thompson, the farmer made of clouds, and a giant billboard monster. In his rage at seeing outdoor public advertising mar his paradise, Thompson slices and kills the beast with a garden hoe, causing its legs to remain rooted in the desert for 1000 years. By now Thompson has grown old and peaceful. He places his hand on the now trunk-like legs and is absorbed into the planet. The program is complete, LIFE.EXE has run its course, and the roots of Thompson and The Beast together activate the planet’s core, shattering the rock.

 

The core of the planet is released and crystallises into a galactic mirror ball, which lights up the black with stars. Planet Clown Princess gleefully notes that the stars have given her a crown above her head, and she is now a "real princess!". As these stories end, a black hole gathers up the remaining mass of each character and planet. Inside the black hole they morph together, evolving back into That Very Devil, who stares, shocked at her re-evolved hands, which now hold the collective knowledge of an entire galaxy.

 

I was inspired by clowns, the UN’s Hostile Architecture programme, the poem Ozymandias by Percy Shelley and classic British Sci-Fi comedy like the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.