I've changed...

I'm not the little boy you used to know and love.

Sweet Prince of The Ghetto and Prodigal Prince of The Almighty

Both are me.

My family gave me those names after a spiritual awakening that I experienced in my childhood…

But I was born Lord Rasquiat Almighty, to The Almighty queendom and The Ghetto kingdom, in the Tides of The Risen. I was given my mother’s surname, Almighty, because her family has a more healed and rich ancestry than my father’s family does. The society that I was born into honours ancestors in that way. I live in a very spiritual world, where ancestral altars, rites of passages, divination, astrological charts, crystal work, and talking to plants are not only the norm, but entirely necessary for survival and day-to-day living. It’s as vital as air and water to us.

Almost everyone here has some sort of ‘supernatural’ power. Some have more rare abilities than others. And if you haven’t been divinely granted full access to your powers, then you support those who have. You also train with your elders so that you’re as prepared as you possibly can be, for whenever the time arrives that you’re mounted with your powers. Late bloomers. Sometimes people’s powers aren’t realised until they’re on their deathbeds. That’s pretty common, actually.

I was completely endowed with my powers at the age of 7. This is the spiritual awakening that I was referencing in the beginning of this letter. It happened in these acres of pine trees, which stand at the borders between my world and Lady Solána’s world, separating them, as a neutral territory. It’s not that our people are warring against one another, they just function differently as royal societies. They have different beliefs, and simply made a pact to strictly remain separate in order to honour integrities, for lineage, for culture, for everything. It was in these pines of what used to be peace, away from my world, that I would come to experience what I was truly capable of, and afterwards, I privatised the land, calling it The Void On Empty Avenue. I promised Lady Solána’s people that I would bring her back. She was my first love, my one true love, and I lost her that night. Even now, I know I’ll never be the same…

XXXALKHEMEY, or TAOT (The Alkhemey Of Temptation), is the name of my supernatural ability. It’s the power to alchemise energies and spirits of darkness (primordial waters, primordial abyss, dark matter), the unknown, the dead or forgotten, the wounded, and the demonised, into something or someone that’s not just light, but rather, more known, remembered, understood, and felt, by not only the energies or spirits themselves, but other beings with whom they interact or contact. So, my power essentially brings an order of intimacy to chaotic dissonance, breathing more life into death. A rebirthing ability. Coming back to Oneness. But it’s a form of healing and transmutation that only I can effectuate, simply because of the way that my DNA is structured. And for a reason that’s still to be determined, I can transfer my signature powers into specific material items. Of course, my powers lie beyond the items. The true power remains within me, and the portal from which it all stems — the darkness of The Void. The items only become an extension of that. It’s in my books, or journals, I write in and read. It’s in the rings that I wear. My caps. My sneakers and boots. My art that I create. My favourite vinyl’s and my record player. My car. My whole home. Whatever I love and don’t want to lose, I inevitably imbue with my powers. This includes people, with effects and extent unknown…

XXXALKHEMEY, or TAOT, is also the name that my crew took on. We’re a very low-radar crew comprised of black sheep, lone wolf artists, and energy workers. There are five of us, including myself, all possessing different powers. We took on new names within our secret society, so just as I’m known by my three other names, depending on where I am and who I’m around, I’m known by 3SKY in our Land of the Unknown. So, there’s me. And you already know what you know about me. Then there’s God. Yeah, that’s what we call her. She has enkindling muse powers. A very magnetic person. There’s our androgynous soul named Killa, with time-traveling and shapeshifting abilities. We have Fathom. He has the ability to manipulate memories, perception and reality. And last, but certainly not least, there’s Light. She / They have the power to attract broken hearted, lowly beings and restore passionate ascension in their lives. God and Light work together quite often. In fact, they’re lovers, with an open relationship. Killa and Fathom’s powers could work hand-in-hand, but they always do damage together cause it’s very difficult to control the warp that happens when they link up. Maybe the two of them will get it together one day. I’m thankful everyday that I have all of them in my life. I do some amazing work with them, as my chosen family. Of course, I partner up with particular ones, occasionally, for special jobs, but I especially do profound work with Light. Their powers complement mine perfectly. Where I lack, she provides, and vice versa. We learn a lot from one another and share a very interesting bond that is sure to grow, standing the test of time…

Now, back to The Void On Empty Avenue and my spiritual awakening, because this is far more important. Technically, this was considered my second spiritual awakening, because in The Tides, we believe that the first is when we’re born into this life. My first encounter with my powers, in which I was endowed with them, or really, engulfed by them, as I said, I was 7. When the awakening occurred, I was in the Pines with my childhood best friend, Lady Solána Omni. She experienced it with me, but she didn’t survive it. The darkness overtook her, completely.

She was from across the Pines, the other world that’s strictly separate from mine, as I told you about earlier — the Fields of Heart Space, or The Meadows. Needless to say, our people didn’t approve of the friendship between Lady Solána and I, little did they even know of it. Hence, the peace of the Pines. We met there by accident, if there’s such a thing, both creating our own little safe havens, being inquisitive of the trees and the space between worlds, being rebellious. It was love at first sight, for me. We would go there to hideout, play, talk about one another’s traditions, and be free together. We built tree homes throughout the acres. Homes that we would disassemble regularly in order to stay low-key. Were we to ever get caught… Well… When the awakening happened, so did that. Except, it was more like I was caught, as Lady Solána was nowhere to be found, and I was the one to blame. To them, it was a perfect example of why we shouldn’t commingle. Although, I didn’t intend for any of what happened to happen, the fact of the matter is that it was my powers that did it, so it was me, even if I couldn’t control my powers, or me. Being a very sensitive matter that involved two different societies, it was quite a disgruntling conflict for them to decide how to handle in order to reinstate balance. You have an idea so far, but I feel like now is a good time to tell you exactly what happened to begin with. To fully go into my story and tell you about my world from the top, yeah? You have no idea how much I’m looking forward to it.

Next entry, we shall begin.

I hope to see you beyond the Pines.