Everlost has a minion!

Minion the Anpan

what is everlost?

"In the course of time and history there are certain places that can never truly be lost. The living world by its very nature moves on, but some places are forever. The boy now called Lief had the good fortune to stumble upon such a place many years before: a lush mountain forest that had once been the inspiration for poets. The place brimmed with such warmth and good feeling, it inspired countless young men to propose marriage beneath its canopy, and countless young women to accept. The woods caused stiff-collared people to lose their inhibitions and dance among the leaves, wild with joy, even though they knew such dancing could have them condemned as witches.

The forest was a fulcrum of life, and so when it grew old, and a beetle infestation routed bark and bough, the forest did not die. Instead it crossed. Its life persisted - not in the living world, but in Everlost. Here it would be eternally green, and on the verge of turning, just as the poets themselves would have liked to see it, had they not gotten where they were going.

It can be said, then, that Everlost is heaven. Perhaps not for people, but for the places that deserve a share of forever.

Such places are few and far between, these grand islands of eternity in the soupy, ever-changing world of the living. New York had its share of forever-places. The greatest of these stood near Manhattan's southern-most tip: the two gray brothers to the green statue in the bay. The towers had found their heaven. They were a part of Everlost now, held fast, and held forever by the memories of a mourning world, and by the dignity of the souls who got where they were going on that dark September day."*
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However...
"Not everything that meets an untimely end crosses into Everlost. Like the atmospheric conditions that lead to a tornado, conditions must be right for crossing. The love of the living, and the occasional sunspot both play a part - but perhaps the most consistent factor is the persistence of memory. There are certain things and places that the living will never forget- can never forget. These are the things and places that are destined to cross over."*
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Everlost is a world for those souls that are stuck halfway between life and death, souls that didn't quite manage to reach the light. It's a magical and dangerous place, somewhere where Afterlights, the inhabitants of Everlost, can find their forever or learn how to move on. Currently, only children and teenagers inhabit Everlost. No one truly knows why no adults are to be found in Everlost, however, Mary Hightower speculates that it's because adults always know (or at least think they know) where they are going, and thus cannot get lost on the way to the light.
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So if these souls are stuck in Everlost, in a world halfway between life and death, is there a way for them to get either where they were going or to return back to life?
I wonder what coins do...
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"Quantum science says that all that we believe is solid is 99.99 percent empty space. It only seems solid because that's what our senses are designed to tell us.

Astrophysics says that 27 percent of the universe is dark matter. In other words, stuff that is measurably there, but for some reason no one can see it and no one knows where it is.

Cosmic String Theory says that there aren't just three dimensions, but that there are actually eleven - but most of them are unable to be perceived from where we sit, no matter how comfortable our chair is.

And in the jagged coastline of Maine, people often have been known to say, 'You can't get there from here,' even when you can see the place right across the inlet.

In short, there are mysteries of science and of soul that will never be understood no matter how hard we measure, no matter how strongly we believe, no matter how deep our think tanks and how high our aspirations. But as anyone will tell you - for we all know this within our hearts - the impossible happens and grand cosmic mysteries are solved on a regular basis, although most of the time the solutions lead to even greater mysteries.

There is a place, however, where all the mysteries have been solved, and all the answers have been given, and there is nothing anywhere left to know. You can find it if you try, if you are true of heart, and strong of will, and know beyond all else that it is a world you wish to live in."**
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E V E R L O S T

*excerpt from Everlost by Neal Shusterman.
**excerpt from Everfound by Neal Shusterman.
concept for Everlost/the skinjackers trilogy belongs to Neal Shusterman.

gorgeous profile by hermes. ♥️
forest picture by thoosah on dA.