蠱毒 · ko·do·ku · noun
One jar. One survivor.
An old ritual: put a lot of venomous little critters in one vessel, close the lid, keep whichever one is left. Thousands of coins go into the same jar every day. You know the rest.
Posted here at launch
see also: 孤独 (kodoku), loneliness
虫虫虫 + 皿 = 蠱
Three bugs on a dish. Nobody had to explain it.
Kodoku also sounds exactly like 孤独: loneliness. That is what winning looks like in a jar.
Old texts list snakes, centipedes, toads, all the way down to lice. Size was not a factor.
Same jar every day. Same six critters. Shake it and see who is left.
Lid on. Six inside.
First one in the jar. A hundred legs, every one of them already on the button.
Tail up. Does not move. Does not explain. Has been sitting in the corner since the lid closed.
Sat on something early. Still sitting on it. Calls it a long-term position.
Draws lines on every wall of the jar. Lives in the lines. Has a theory.
Says gm to everyone in the jar. Sheds a new account every few weeks.
Smallest one in there. Out at the first shake. Somehow back in for the next jar.
A word, a jar and a lid. That is the whole thing.