By 7:07 the sun had dragged itself free of the clouds, like someone straining after a dream that dissolves the moment you reach for it. The jackhammer outside fell silent—union break, divine mercy, or maybe just shame—and in its place came a humming silence, the kind you hear only if you tilt your head.
I was underground, beneath the Central Library, where the air smelled of printer ink and juniper, where phone bars collapsed to zero. Reality was analog here, damp and fungal.
The conduit appeared where the wall should have been. Not duct, not vent—something stitched from hyphae, a living mesh that breathed petrichor, ozone, the faint sweetness of spent coffee. I reached out. It reached back.
They weren’t pipes. They were terminals. Green routers sprouting from the dark, chlorophyll repeating signals into the stone. It wasn’t compost. It was script. Infrastructure rewriting itself in spores.
The old logbook had warned in pencil on a tortilla wrapper: If you hear the roots humming, don’t answer. Unless it’s Thursday. At the diagram’s center, one word burned: Coremother.
Later at my workbench, under a grow light and a half-empty bottle, the fungi opened with a sigh. Under the scope they curled into glyphs—green curves with teeth, flickers of red and blue echoing between. The mushroom blinked.
I tested them. Basil sparked quick patterns. Rosemary drifted slow, contemplative, buffering memory. White noise, binaural beats, even an old mixtape—they all drew responses, the glyphs pulsing like ballots cast in secret.
It wasn’t communication. It was decision-making. A parliament in the soil. They weren’t speaking to us. They were speaking about us.
The memo had it right: Floravores are exceeding protocol thresholds—prepare to archive urban intention.
So I biked to Shoal Creek, dug into the roots of an oak, and felt it there—the truth. Austin wasn’t simply growing mushrooms.
The mushrooms were growing Austin. One glyph at a time.
Back home, I held the cassette. Floravores, Vol. IX. I didn’t press play. I already knew.
It wasn’t a ballad.
It was a ballot.
🚮 W.A.S.T.E.: Words Assisting Sustainable Transformation & Ecology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Coremother | The subterranean nexus where fungal and infrastructural networks converge, pulsing as the hidden matriarch of the city. |
| Future Austin | Future Austin invites you to explore a luminous vision of the city’s tomorrow—where imagination and reality intertwine to create a thriving, sustainable urban landscape. Here, grassroots ingenuity and cutting-edge technology power communities, transforming Austin into a place of boundless possibility. Through insightful articles and evocative Organic Fiction, you’ll glimpse futures shaped by innovators like ReLeaf, whose bold strategies—such as Vertical Garden Fairs in schools—seed green revolutions in unexpected places. From unconventional movements like Trash Magic reimagining music distribution, to fictional worlds alive with unseen energy and harmony, this collection offers both practical inspiration and immersive storytelling. Whether you’re drawn to actionable sustainability or simply wish to lose yourself in tales of a resilient, radiant future, Future Austin points toward the city we could create—and the one we must. |
| Glyphseed | A fungal mark or symbol that plants in soil or screen alike, sprouting decisions as if they were seedlings. |
| Mycoremediation | The practice of enlisting fungi as silent custodians, their branching mycelial webs breaking down toxins, filtering waters, and stitching damaged ecologies back into balance. |
| Organic Media and Fiction | The rapid pace of urbanization and its environmental impact has inspired various speculative genres in literature and media. Organic Media and Fiction, a recent addition, offers a refreshing counter-narrative to dystopian futures, focusing on optimistic, sustainable societies powered by renewable energies. ReLeaf, an Organic Media and Fiction-inspired platform, epitomizes this genre by blending reality with narratives that envision a world where humans coexist harmoniously with nature and technology. ReLeaf's ethos is rooted in the belief that a hopeful future of sustainable living is not just an ideal but a reality. It combines engaging storytelling, visual arts, and direct action to showcase the possibilities of an Organic Media and Fiction future. By merging immersive narratives with tangible solutions, ReLeaf serves as both a creative outlet and a catalyst for change. The narratives in ReLeaf are set in cities that integrate renewable energy and green technology into their architecture, infrastructure, and daily life. From urban gardens atop skyscrapers to solar-powered public transport, these stories offer a glimpse of future urban landscapes grounded in existing technologies and practices. They provide an encouraging perspective on how our cities could evolve by amplifying sustainable practices we are already exploring. ReLeaf's stories feature diverse, inclusive, and community-oriented societies, emphasizing social justice, community empowerment, and equitable resource distribution. These narratives reflect societal structures that could foster a balanced coexistence, highlighting the importance of these values in creating a sustainable future. Beyond storytelling, ReLeaf engages in direct action, promoting real-world initiatives that echo Organic Media and Fiction principles. By supporting community-led renewable energy projects and sustainable urban farming, ReLeaf bridges the gap between the Organic Media and Fiction vision and our present reality, making the dream of a sustainable future feel achievable. ReLeaf broadens the understanding of the Organic Media and Fiction genre by presenting a balanced blend of reality and narrative. It underscores that Organic Media and Fiction is not just a literary genre or aesthetic movement, but a lens through which we can view and shape our future. The Organic Media and Fiction vision put forth by ReLeaf invites us to imagine, innovate, and create a future where sustainability is the norm. By intertwining fiction with reality, it presents Organic Media and Fiction as a plausible future, offering a hopeful counterpoint to narratives of environmental doom. ReLeaf helps us believe in—and strive for—a future where humans live in harmony with nature and technology. |
| ReLeaf | Welcome to the ReLeaf Cooperative, where we dive deep into an innovative and revolutionary model of sustainability and community building. ReLeaf is a pioneer in developing scalable engagement strategies that foster community participation and work towards addressing pressing social issues such as homelessness. In this category, you'll find articles and Organic Media detailing ReLeaf's groundbreaking initiatives and visions. From creating sustainable gardens in Austin elementary schools to providing transparency in a world often shrouded in deception, ReLeaf serves as a beacon of hope and innovation. ReLeaf's approach of intertwining real and fictional elements in their work—such as characters, materials, techniques, and labor—sets a new standard for cooperatives worldwide. Its business model, which compensates for labor and knowledge contributions, creates a lasting benefit and helps people who have historically been marginalized. By meeting people with compassion, as resources in need of support instead of liabilities, ReLeaf has shown that everyone has the potential to contribute to society meaningfully. Explore this section to discover how ReLeaf is redefining the way we approach social issues and sustainability, with stories of inspiration, innovation, and hope. |
| Sporescript | The living alphabet written by hyphae, where moisture and memory form sentences without ink. |
| W.A.S.T.E. | 🚮 W.A.S.T.E.: Words Assisting Sustainable Transformation & Ecology |