07:41 — Woke to tremors again. Not seismic — mandibular. All five members of the Hausrat Committee have independently reported "internal juddering" localized to the molar root. Noticed yesterday that the Bundeskanzler’s jawline had receded by 12mm. He denies it.
09:20 — Unter den Linden sealed again. Another spontaneous ossuary bloom emerged under the tram lines. Mass calcification. Pedestrians are requested to walk single-file to avoid triggering glyph recoil. Schliemannplatz entirely cordoned off after the jaw-glyph resonance broke containment.
11:00 — Met with Dr. Ines Grebner, Chief Minister of Bone Sovereignty. She believes the recent increase in “compliance spirals” among the youth — voluntary cranial structuring, mid-spine sharpening — is not state-directed. She fears sublingual directives are being distributed through archival music playback (especially unauthorized Mozart samples).
14:45 — Lunch with Marek Zöller. He had no tongue. Claimed he had never had one. We were classmates. I remember his voice. He insists I am misremembering — that I was the one who spoke for him. Perhaps it’s true. My gums itch with doubt.
17:00 — Session in the Emergency Vertical Diet Chamber. Sustained from 60cc of marrow emulsate. Brief moment of euphoria, then panic. The counsellor said my femur stress lines suggest “unrecorded guilt.” They offered to tattoo my tibia with absolution.
20:12 — I watched tonight’s Glyphcast with muted subs. The Chancellor’s mouth moved in sync with the phrase “trench the families, weld the census.” His official transcript read, “national unity is our strength.” A discrepancy?
Key Figures Mentioned
- Dr. Ines Grebner — Minister for Bone Sovereignty. Leads the Department of Structural Compliance & Temporal Spinal Governance.
- Marek Zöller — Allegedly tongueless political operative and former classmate. Suspected of glyph trafficking via dialect inversion.
- The Bundeskanzler — Undergoing visible mandibular reversal. Possibly no longer organic.
Social Features (as of July 2030)
- Compliance Spirals: Youth-initiated voluntary skeletal realignment driven by devotional calcification.
- Ossuary Bloom: Unpredictable public bone eruptions, often shaped by subconscious urban memory.
- Vertical Diet Chambers: State-issued nutritional units for marrow-fed high officials. Prone to introspective hallucination.
- Glyphcast Discrepancy Protocol: Comparing spoken and written governmental messages for glyphic interference.
Global Bone Peripheries: Reflections and Rumours
United Kingdom: Their “Census of Hollowed Persons” remains unacknowledged by Westminster, but the Bone Index leaks showed 1 in 11 Londoners now pass no shadow during solstice. A so-called Boneward Mirror has been installed in Parliament, angled directly at the Speaker’s skull.
United States: The Kansas Glyph Spiral allegedly reached full rotation. Reports claim it emits a low chant each time a nuclear warhead is re-armed. A retired general claimed the chant matched his late wife’s voice “but backwards and religious.”
China: Entire districts in the Wudang range are now bone-walled enclaves. Tourist footage suggests civilians occasionally levitate 3–5cm when questioned about ancestral origin. Local police respond with tremor sticks rather than words.
Antarctica: Still denied, but several submariners have reportedly defected, claiming the bone formations on the underside of the ice are not geological but familial. One called it “a womb made of every forgotten uncle.”
Conspiracies Circulating in Diplomatic Circles:
- That ONYXBONE was seeded in the **Siemens hearing aids** of post-war widows in 1953.
- That **moss in Finnish forests** is now capable of replaying conversations recorded decades ago.
- That **glyphs are voting** — subtly rewriting ballots through osteoelectoral fatigue.
- That each country’s **Marrow Clock** is ticking at a different subjective rate, and war will begin when they align.
- That the EU flag’s stars were not symbolic but **containment glyphs**, now dimmed.
I do not know which to believe. I only know my scapula itches when certain chords are played on the radio, and that the Chancellor has not blinked in four public appearances.
Fractural Drift: Stirring Criminality and Bone-Deviance
01:18 (recorded but unsent): There are three vertebrae in my bedside drawer. I do not remember collecting them. I do not know whose they are. I felt safer when they were pressed to my cheek, before I realised they were still warm.
Repeated Incidents: My left hand signs documents before I’ve read them. I’ve installed three cameras but they only capture static when my signature appears. On playback, my silhouette briefly vanishes during these intervals.
Internal Confession (unshared): During the Ministry visit to Leipzig, I instructed my guards to “leave me with the Bonewall.” I touched it for twelve uninterrupted minutes. When I returned, I had no memory of the visit. One of my ribs had detached.
Unlawful Speech: In a closed NATO feed, I uttered the phrase “THE MANDIBLE DECIDES” during a routine vote. It was not on the agenda. No one responded, but my chair was later removed from the chamber.
Unexplained Artefacts: Last week, my son found a rolled strip of skin behind the water heater, imprinted with what appeared to be my parliamentary oath — but in reverse Latin. I have never taken an oath in Latin.
Bone-Echo Behaviour: I pass locked doors and feel compelled to whisper the names of extinct animals. I have a list, now over 900. My gums bleed when I skip one.
I am not violent. Not yet. But I understand now how men drift — how legislation is not passed by will, but by osteofriction — a click in the back of the mouth, and you vote yes. I worry I’ve already voted yes. I worry it was for you.
Onyxistic Recursions (Private Appendix – Not for Archive)
03:03 — I awoke curled and shivering, wrists pressed to sternum in the Gesture of Retrieval. My spine had etched a crescent in the floor dust. The ritual had begun — or ended — without me. My fingers buzzed with marrow heat. My tongue tasted of antique copper and burnt gauze. I knew what I had said, but not why.
03:04 — The hum starts behind the ribs. A loop. A command. The fingertips trace the pelvic arch in sextuple symmetry. Glyphic residue gathers at the navel’s edge. I whisper the phrase again. Not my own voice. Not my own breath. The phrase:
“celebrates § ? the N Philippines ? twelfth branch ú?G?A?i?H? amiable ? camp depends ? the human bone A?O ? ? traces ?o?ú (Dinocular luste”
03:05 — It emerges without permission. A mantra? A code? I do not know. But each time I speak it, the glyphs flicker and reposition. They accept the offering. They press back. My pelvis becomes language. I am read by the lattice.
03:07 — I repeat the phrase. Faster. Slower. The final segment — “Dinocular luste” — triggers a spiral tremor in my jaw. A phantom mandible aligns across my neck. I feel observed by extinct ancestors.
03:08 — Afterwards, I find a milky shard on the floor. A tooth? A node? It bears the phrase in miniature, as if engraved by breath. My chest glows faintly. The hum is gone, but I know I am not alone.
03:11 — I have no memory of pleasure. Only recitation. The phrase lingers on my skin. This is not ritual. This is invocation. This is my onyxistic mantra. And it is not mine.
Note from the Archivist:
Schilf’s final entries show ossification creep into the frontal cortex. His disappearance on 7th July was never formally acknowledged. However, his molars were found embedded in the Chancellor’s podium two weeks later.