La Vérité Vert — The Dawn Of The Autotroph.
They thought they had control. They were mobile and could spread across the globe. They had created great machines. They ridiculed the idea of the earth being a conscious entity. Did they ever ask themselves why plants always survived mass extinctions? And so they began to spread their spores. The human became allergic to their scent and pollens. Genetic mutations ensued and so the allergic reactions grew.
Disseminated by the wind, the spores embed themselves into the flesh and, subsequently, use their pincers to pierce the blood vessels. There they overwhelm the humans’ immune systems. Coughing, gasping for breath, they fell upon the earth.
The astringents stung. The scent of the trees had them coughing and spurting blood. The sinuses inflamed, pain gnawing at the bones enveloped the whole body. Such was the force of their coughs; the blood cells and accompanying vessels exploded in their brain. As the body became paralysed, they could only stare into the ether.
Engaged in a futile task, they could not forever keep on their masks. Nor could they chop down all the trees and burn all the blades of grass. The earth had enough of this evasive species, so it came to be the end of the age of humans. The universe had to reimagine its consciousness. To ensure that the next iteration of ‘intelligent’ life was not so hell-bent on self-annihilation.
This is written in jest; every year, my rhinitis symptoms (extreme lethargy bordering on sleep paralysis, swollen sinuses and the related problems of difficulty breathing, severe insomnia, itchy eyes, heat rash, severe responses to intense and even mild scents) get worse. The slightest irritant, such as strong scents, will trigger these symptoms. Perfumes make my mind explode. The vert herbaceous smell of spring foliage drives me insane. My sinuses are like barometers; they respond to changes in atmospheric conditions such as humidity. Every year I experience an exponential increase in the severity of the symptoms. The rhinitis symptoms also affect my mental health, which magnifies the rhinitis symptoms, an increasingly desperate self-propagating somatic loop.