#hyperion

hyperion is a coastal redwood in northern california and the tallest tree in the world!! it was last measured to be 381.3 ft (116.22 meters) tall. this is another tree where its location is kept secret for its safety and to preserve the ecosystem around it :)

Part 1

"Come on, Clockwork! It would be fun!"

Danny Phantom hovered in front of his mentor, grinning like he’d just won the lottery. Clockwork raised an eyebrow, the red glow of his eyes dimming slightly. "If you say so, Daniel."

"Yes! Try taking your human form, and I’ll show you the human world!" Danny’s excitement was palpable. "So much must have changed since the last time you saw it!"

Clockwork considered if Daniel ever does listen to him. He had observed humanity through his portals—wars, empires, the rise and fall of civilizations. He had seen it all. There was no need to walk among them again.

But Danny wanted to share it with him.

That was new… the boy again forgot.

Clockwork had spent millennia detached from the world, content to watch from the safety of his tower. 

The last time he had taken a physical form outside of the Tower, humans had barely discovered fire that Prometheus gave them. 

Now, they had skyscrapers, computers, and something called "the internet." Danny had tried to talk all about it at once.

"You’ve never left this tower, have you?" Danny pressed. "Not since you became a ghost. You’re missing out!"

Clockwork sighed. "I see all, Daniel. Time is my domain. I do not ‘miss out.’ I see all of it, at once."

"Yeah, but it’s not the same as experiencing it!" Danny floated closer, his neon green eyes bright. "Please? Just for a little while?"

Clockwork hesitated. The boy was persistent. And, if he were honest, there was a part of him—buried deep beneath the gears and the endless ticking of time—that wondered what it would be like to walk the earth again.

Not the time, he was Kronos.

Not as a king of the Titans, Lord of the Golden Age.

Just as… something else. As Clockwork.

Clockwork’s mind drifted back to a conversation he’d had long ago, when he was still Kronos. His brother Hyperion had come to him, concern etched into his features.

"What is going on?" Hyperion had demanded. No greeting or small talk, just a demand from his King.

Kronos had looked up from his time experiments, his fingers still glowing with temporal energy as he saw what he could change and adapt. "I am unsure what you mean, brother."

"You’ve changed," Hyperion said, stepping closer. "And not for the better. You’re distant. Cold. You don’t care about the Golden Age, about Rhea, about your children. You don’t even care about your own damn kingdom!"

Kronos-Clockwork had feigned confusion. "I do not have my temper anymore for you to fear?"

Hyperion’s gaze sharpened. He remembers the old Kronos temper that the Siblings feared so much they ran away from as he became the King.

He had seen the flickers—the way Kronos’ skin turned blue for a moment, the way his golden eyes flashed red. He had felt the way time itself seemed to warp around his brother. "Whatever you’re doing with time, it’s not doing your body good. It looks like you’re ripping yourself apart. Are you even still a Titan? Or has your power already mutated you into something else?"

Kronos had that damn mysterious smile. "I know what I am doing."

"Do you?" Hyperion’s voice was low, urgent. "Because it doesn’t seem like it. You’re not the Kronos I know. You’re not the king who overthrew Uranus. You’re not the ruler who—"

"Who, you all feared?" Kronos had interrupted, his voice calm. "I remember who I am, Hyperion. Even you, my favourite siblings, wouldn’t talk to me that way, in the past."

Hyperion had stared at him, stunned. "What?"

Kronos had turned away. "You should look after my son Zeus. He’ll need guidance when he comes of age. Maybe talk to Chiron too."

"Zeus?" Hyperion had frowned. "Your newborn son’s name is Poseidon. You don’t have a child called Zeus or Chiron."

For a moment, Kronos had faltered. The timelines were bleeding together, his memories of the future and the past tangling like threads. "So they still have to be born," he murmured. "We have time."

And with that, he had left his brother standing there, whispering after him: "This is exactly what I’m talking about. Do you even remember who you are?"

Clockwork returned to the present, watching as Danny rummaged through a pile of clothes he’d brought from the human world. "Okay, so we’ve got options. Do you want to go with the classic trench coat look, or something more casual? Maybe jeans and a hoodie?"

Clockwork blinked. "I do not require clothing."

"Yeah, but if you’re going to blend in, you kinda do, and you can’t walk in a Toga, even if you did look good in it!" Danny said, tossing a black jacket at him. "Here. Try this."

Clockwork caught the fabric, examining it. It was strange, holding something so mundane after so long. But Danny was right. If he was going to walk among humans, he needed to look the part.

With a thought, his form shifted. The gears receded, his blue skin faded to a more human tone, and his red eyes dimmed to a warm blue. He stood before Danny as a tall, broad-shouldered man with white hair and a face that wasn’t Flawless, but it did look Human, yet Ancient and Timeless. Yet at the same time, he did look similar to how Danny looks.

Danny whistled. "Whoa. You clean up nice."

Clockwork adjusted the jacket. "Is this sufficient?"

bonus:

First of all, thank you for recognizing that my taste in sci-fi is elite.

But seriously, yes, I LOVE Adrian Tchaikovsky. His books somehow manage to feel massive and cosmic while still feeling deeply personal underneath all of the existential horror and giant concepts, which is one of my favorite things in sci-fi. If you have not read the rest of the Children of Time series yet, absolutely do that because Children of Ruin genuinely unsettled me in ways I was not emotionally prepared for.

I know people are probably tired of hearing me talk about Andy Weir at this point, but The Martian and Project Hail Mary are both such fun reads if you enjoy survival sci-fi and realistic science. I also absolutely adore Martha Wells and The Murderbot Diaries because Murderbot might genuinely be one of the most relatable protagonists ever written. It is basically just a little machine trying to avoid eye contact and interact with people.

I also really loved Ann Leckie and the Imperial Radch books. The way those novels handle identity, consciousness, and perspective permanently altered my brain chemistry a little bit. The same goes for Lois McMaster Bujold and the Vorkosigan Saga because the character writing in those books is genuinely incredible.

I also love Connie Willis and the Oxford Time Travel books because she somehow managed to make time travel stories feel emotional and deeply human instead of gimmicky.

Some older sci-fi that I love includes The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky, and Ubik by Philip K. Dick.

I am also a huge fan of Frank Herbert and Dune because the worldbuilding in that series is absolutely insane. James S. A. Corey and Leviathan Wakes are amazing too. And Jeff VanderMeer made me feel completely insane in the best possible way with Annihilation.

I have also always been a huge Dan Simmons fan and recently read Hyperion and LOVED it. I would probably sacrifice another human being to the Shrike if it meant Dan Simmons would go back to sci-fi and somehow capture lightning in a bottle like that again.

Borderlands corporate themed dividers!