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Post by Morgan on Mar 31, 2020 15:10:28 GMT -6
It rains in the springtime here.
The human can hear it, somehow, even in the sound-proofed workstation that they were assigned to (A-496-Theta) that Morgan was spatially aware enough to realize was smack dab in the second section of the working area of the Labs. Or perhaps they were just a little bit bored, and their brain was trying to come up with some kind of stimulation while they worked mindlessly dropping Substance A into Vial 3 until it turned pink (and then put it carefully into a centrifuge).
It was difficult to navigate in the samey-ness of the Labs that Morgan had seen so far. They had memorized the path to their workstation more than the numbers on the doors. It made more sense to memorize the shortest thing possible. The timer beeped, it was break-time. The human stepped out of the workstation after cleaning up and clocked out before stepping out of the door and into the hallway. They stared at the floor out of habit. The walls were a neutral bland tone that made time feel like it was standing still. Disorientation was easy to come by if one didn't know the place by heart.
The human longed to know what was beyond the doors that their key card did not allow access to, but Morgan knew better than to arouse suspicion. Every day, it was the same thing. In hindsight, they weren't sure what they had expected. They had worked so hard to get into this job, but had never really thought of what would happen once they got the job. Like it would be so easy, now that they thought about it, to infiltrate and manage to gather information about Pops. Who would even keep records like that? Especially not at a place of work!
The human ate their lunch in silence, opening the plastic slip it came in that was blistered. They often made their own meals, but today they were feeling like... They looked down at the name printed on the plastic slip. Chocolate (substitute) Raspberry-Jam Filled Donuts. Yeah, they liked those.
[1]
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Post by Morgan on Mar 31, 2020 15:28:34 GMT -6
Lunch was quick. Morgan had been so excited to use their WATT to take down information on the people they worked with, at first. Now they just stared absent-mindedly at the WATT's game function as they chewed the... Oh yeah, donuts. Morgan had noted that most of the people they worked with were exactly like them. Staring blankly at whatever game they wanted to play while grinding up whatever food they chose. Morgan did note that there were a lot more members of different races that worked here than what Morgan often saw in public- mainly the Kapper were of note. Kapper did not often come to the Labs, partially due to their own society just being better, or at least that was what Pops had told them.
The workers did not often cavort with one another. Everyone sat the typical 'one seat away' distance from each other that was considered polite and minded their own business. Morgan could live with that, but it was not what they expected.
The break slipped by quickly, and Morgan stepped out of the Mess and back into the hallway once more. They had the route memorized enough that they could almost count their steps to get there. However, they didn't expect to nearly walk into someone, for the first time.
[2]
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Post by Morgan on Mar 31, 2020 15:40:04 GMT -6
Morgan was short, by human standards. They were tall for a short person, but definitely had a slimmer build than anyone else of similar size. Pops had said that they were born with a rare disorder that caused them to be built like this. The weak ankles, weak immune system, and tiny build that was only accentuated by their height... They were quite a bit weaker than other folks of their size. However, they were a little shocked when they just about bowled over someone MUCH smaller than them.
"Ooof- I'm s-" Morgan looked down, out of autopilot, and their eyes met through Morgan's glasses. The individual was short, and wrinkled. Morgan wasn't quite sure what they were looking at with the first glance, a wrinkled and non-furred dog of some kind? And then Morgan realized, this was a Kapper. A small kapper, hairless, a wearing a little skeletal black hoodie that just about swallowed their frame, and a pair of black slacks. They had a cup of steaming hot chocolate in a hand that was just about to spill, so Morgan reached out and quickly grabbed the cup, to keep it from spilling on the kapper.
The kapper made an angry face (for some reason that was when Morgan noticed that they had three eyes) and Morgan was prepared for a little word-spat when the (older? But not old) kapper's expression suddenly melted to shock, and then for a second, fear.
The same look that the other changeling had shown when they had seen Morgan for the first time... The same one that worked here and helped Morgan get this job.
[3]
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Post by Morgan on Mar 31, 2020 15:50:04 GMT -6
Morgan knew that look. "H-hey- Wait!" Morgan called out, but it was like the understanding that crossed Morgan's face had unstuck the kapper from her frozen shock state. The kapper turned around, still holding the hot chocolate, and practically scrambled away. Morgan would have, and perhaps should have chased her, but it was their turn to be frozen in shock. Morgan had never seen anyone react that way to them before- or dress that casually at this job for that matter! Morgan found that their hand was raised, having been thrust out (why, to try to catch hood of the hoodie as the kapper took off?) and they dropped it to their side, shell-shocked. Well, that was different. The human returned to work, but couldn't push it from their mind. Morgan was used to kappers, it wasn't the fact that she had been a kapper. It was the look. This person... Knew Morgan? No, cut that. This person had looked like they had seen a ghost. Perhaps they knew Morgan's father? A little robot vacuum was released into the Lab (they kept it clean) and zoomed around the tiled floor. Morgan stared at it in shock, only moving to put the drops into the vials and the vials into the centrifuge. They couldn't take their mind off of it.
A Breakthrough? Morgan's brain buzzed. Their heart hammered. This could be it?
[4]
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Post by Morgan on Mar 31, 2020 15:55:05 GMT -6
Morgan went home whenever it was time to clock out. Several others left at the same time. Everyone holding their lunchboxes and backpacks, and filing out in neat little rows against neutral-toned walls. They stepped out of the glass doors at the front of the building.
It was raining. Morgan sighed, and put their Labcoat over their head. No one else left with their labcoats, and truth be told this one wasn't the ones Morgan used for work, those stayed in the building and were used to keep chemical splashes from occurring. This one was Morgan's father's. The labcoat sufficiently kept the rain off of their head. They felt around in the pocket and found an awning on the way home to lean up against a brick wall out of the rain. A cigarette case was pulled from their pocket and flipped open. Their fingers shook as they used the lighter, fumbling until they finally managed it.
Shaking. Morgan knew it wasn't from the cold and rain. They were SO CLOSE. So close... Maybe Morgan should turn back around and go back to the Labs, stalk the front door, see if they couldn't catch that Kapper on the way out...
Morgan remembered Millicent at home, finished the cigarette, and put it out on the brick of the wall before going on their way. They threw the cigarette in a trash can.
They went home.
[5]
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Post by Morgan on Mar 31, 2020 16:01:48 GMT -6
Morgan stepped onto their property, and opened the front door with a retinal scan. The front doors opened by theirself, but Morgan placed a palm on the walnut wood of their own accord. Nothing felt real right now. However, Millicent was standing in the sitting room excitedly, hopping up and down out of happiness. "Morgan! Morgan, Guess what I learned today?" Millicent said. Morgan smiled. (Somewhere, in the back of their head, a little blond child waits in the sitting room excitedly... And waits... and waits... And sleeps on the couch there... and wakes up- and waits-) "What did you learn today Millicent?" Morgan said, beckoning her further into the mansion as the doors shut behind them. Thunder racked the home, but Morgan was absent. Dinner was made, conversation was had. Morgan's brain buzzed. Millicent was beginning to realize something was off. She got a little quiet, and as soon as Morgan noticed, they cracked a joke and broke the ice again. Millicent was shoving food in her mouth excitedly and Morgan was pushing their's around on the plate. "-And that's when I realized that-" Millicent was speaking. Morgan blinked. When had they- "So, where is grandpa anyway? I want to meet him!" Millicent said. Then, she blanched.
Morgan's face was pale as a plain sheet, and their left hand had dropped to their knee, working their slacks into their fist. Tears streaming down their face.
[6]
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Post by Morgan on Mar 31, 2020 16:07:30 GMT -6
It is like Morgan blinks, and suddenly, both of Millicent's hands are on their cheeks. "I am so sorry, I shouldn't have asked, hey, you don't have to tell me right now. You can tell me later!" Millicent says, backtracking. Morgan consciously let go of their pants leg. It was creased from the strain. They raised both hands and gently 'hugged' Millicent. They felt... Alone. They didn't want to feel alone right now.
A few moments pass. Millicent is surprisingly mature for her age, and has realized from listening to the radio and otherwise learning about the world that this probably meant that Morgan's father was dead. It made her sad, too. He looked so nice in the pictures? She didn't realize why she hadn't asked before, she just kind of understood that grown-ups didn't live with their parents often. She had sort of just assumed that he would come visit, sometime. She felt... Horrible, to say the least.
Morgan finally shudders, lets go, and stands up, turning around. They slicked their hair back with a hand, and used the other to lift their shirt up to undignified wipe the tears off of their face. Shame. The shame was palpable. They let out a shuddering sigh, and turned around, having 'put on' a happy face for her. "Millicent, your Grandaddy is..." Lie? Tell the truth? Morgan had no idea if he was dead or not, but 'missing' would be just as confusing to Millicent at this age as it had been for Morgan at that age.
"...G-Gone." That would work.
[7]
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Post by Morgan on Mar 31, 2020 16:13:32 GMT -6
Millicent understood 'gone' as dead. That was the usual- what was the word, Euphemism, right? Something humanoids tell their children to soften the blow. She understood the stress that Morgan was under, and of course she was sad too. Sad for Morgan, sad that she wouldn't get to meet her 'granddaddy'. However, that was how things were. She didn't know who or where her birth parents were either, but that was different. She didn't really feel sad about that. She never knew them, anyway. However, she did know THIS parent. She patted Morgan's hand. "Hey, we still gotta feed everyone else!" She said, giggling. She was good at distracting them, anyway.
Morgan nodded. "You're right, let's go..." They fed the houluh, and walked them. They fed Waar, and led him into his Barn (why he liked to sit out in the rain, Morgan had no idea), and went out to check on their Tat-lung family members (only to catch Seimei and Ryuusei cuddling). Morgan tried to shake the feeling and to feel normal, but they felt another night of insomnia coming on.
Finally, the pair went in and got ready for their nighttime activities. Morgan sat in the window, their favorite one, and Millicent sat on their knee as Morgan read her a story. (Somewhere, in the back of Morgan's head, a little blond child sits in their father's lap while the same story is read to them...) Millicent falls asleep.
Morgan takes her to her bed, tucks her in, and steps out of the room. "Someday. Someday I'll t-tell ya about 'em." They murmur.
They turn off the light and shut the door.
[8]
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Post by Morgan on Mar 31, 2020 16:23:48 GMT -6
Day in, and day out. Morgan had been excited at first. They looked everywhere that they could, without arousing suspicion, for the Kapper. It renewed their vigor for the search that had hit the ground and burned not long before due to how droll their life was. They spent some of their evenings out in the streets again, dressed inconspicuously so that they could keep an eye one other scientists to see if any of them might have more information than they were letting on. They both followed less folks (now that they knew which ones worked with them and thus were little peons that knew nothing) and figured a little more out. They drank at lots of pubs, and took lots of notes. They still preferred drinking by theirself, but it was easy to catch little scrap-lets of information whenever other people were drinking. They got silly, and sloppy. Morgan stayed this side of the drunk, drinking slow and watered down. After weeks and weeks of nothing, Morgan sighs, and realizes that they were at a standstill again. They find theirself sitting at their station again, staring at the little robot for the fourth time this week, and finally, finally they SNAP. The human balls up their fist, and just scarcely manages to keep theirself from hitting something. [9]
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Post by Morgan on Mar 31, 2020 16:31:06 GMT -6
They get much, much less than usual done that day. What were they even doing, anyway? Morgan knew what they needed to do for their job, and they knew 'what they were doing', but they just... The lack of information was absolutely infuriating. It had taken everything they could muster not to spiral down to a point that could cause Millicent to have one of those terrible absentee or abusive parents or something like that. Morgan would never fall down that far, but it was so hard some days to get out of bed. Thankfully, the break alarm sounds, and Morgan stands up, turns around, and goes to clean up and clock out. As soon as they turned around, they realized what they would have realized a bit ago if not for the fact that they were so out of their mind right now. The Kapper was sitting on one of the stools at one of the empty workstations, giggling at videos of Estharne and Enileaf doing stupid crap on their device. She looks up, her eyes blinking at different times (all three of them) and Morgan doesn't know what to say, or do.
"So kiddo. How's about a job?"
[10]
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Post by Morgan on Mar 31, 2020 16:38:21 GMT -6
"I uh, have a job." Morgan said, stupidly. Their tongue felt thick. The Kapper shot Morgan an incredulous look. Morgan was able to get a good look at her now. Large, cat-like ears, three eyes with square pupils (the middle one vertical), a bit of curly hair on her head. She had whiskers, but a sort of doggy face. She finally gives Morgan a patient smile, showing off the fact that she was missing some of her teeth, most of them were sharp. "Of course, I mean more like a work area change. You're obviously too qualified to work the centrifuges all day. My assistant quit this week. Well, this is the third assistant this month. I don't click with most." She babbled. Morgan realized that she was at least middle aged, maybe even a little over middle aged for a Kapper. Finally, Morgan realizes that they are being stared at, as well. "Y-yeah, sure. I'm gonna need more specifics 'an that." Morgan said, feeling skeptical at best. They were standing so stiff that their back was hurting.
"Of course." The Kapper said. She hopped down dexterously from the stool (how did she get up there, anyway?) with her device in her hand. Her tail flicked one way, and then the other. Tiger-like, another furry part on an otherwise furless individual. "The name's Dis." At this, they reached out a four-fingered hand, the thumb much further down the arm than Morgan was used to seeing. Morgan took the hand, shook it, and was handed an information packet.
"Here you go. You have the break hour to check it out. Then get back to me, yeah?"
Morgan blinked, and nodded.
[11]
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Post by Morgan on Mar 31, 2020 16:53:45 GMT -6
More Mind Racing.
It seemed like these days, Morgan spent half of their time numb, and half of their time mind-racing. A train without a track. Right now, they were bouncing between the two so quickly that they weren't entirely sure if they felt out of body due to it. The Kapper leaves the room, and Morgan realizes that they are two minutes late for break. They clock out, and move to go to the lunch room. No one looks up, everyone looks at their devices. Morgan leaves their WATT in their pocket, but sticks a couple of credits into a machine and turns the knob until two more donut packets are released. They sit down, open up the donut packets, and stare at the information packet for a second before opening it tentatively (they half expected it to explode) and when it didn't explode they slid the papers out and read them.
They read and chewed the donuts. Everything was quiet. Whenever the break hour was up, Morgan grabbed a soda and stepped out into the hallway. The Kapper was waiting outside of Morgan's work-room.
"What do you think?" She asks. Morgan can tell she's sweating bullets.
Morgan glanced at the door warily. Then they nod.
"Good good, you can start right now." She said, waving Morgan past. For the first time ever, Morgan walked down the drab hallways past their old work-station- and wondered what laid beyond them.
[12]
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Post by Morgan on Mar 31, 2020 17:09:56 GMT -6
They weren't sure what to expect. They'd spent so much time coming to this point, in the past. They walked down the hallways and stayed as alert as possible. They would have to learn a new route if they survived this. Morgan wasn't sure if they would. They'd learned from their teenage years that there were reasons that they weren't exactly safe, even in their homeland. Morgan had been born here, after all.
Morgan remembers the early days of the city, in their bright and fun glory. Who doesn't remember their early childhood in a wash of technicolor? Morgan had a very strong memory of standing in a wheatfield, grabbing up the sharp grains in their little hands, and their father picking them up to put them on their shoulders. They could remember going to the park. They could remember sitting in their father's lap as he flew on Katsu. They could remember accidentally stepping on one of Mosye's tails, and the resultant scratch on their arm. They could remember father coming home with Morgan's first pet one day, a beloved custom from the Labs that looked like one of Morgan's early drawings.
They could remember pops coming home to dinner late some nights, but they always got a story. They could remember pops teaching them how to tell sentient pets from non-sentient ones, and how to treat them properly... His koi seryn Blackjack teaching Morgan how to be gentle to even fish. Morgan can remember the day he left with all of his creatures, and was... Gone.
Patient, kind, caring pops- ever the doting father. And just gone.
He never came back. Day in and Day out. The mansion fell into disrepair, and Morgan was only twelve. The only work they could find was training pets.
Then, they had found the money. The blood money in the bank, paid each month on time in their own name- silence money. No sender. They knew. But they didn't know for sure...
[13]
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Post by Morgan on Mar 31, 2020 17:15:17 GMT -6
Morgan wasn't stupid. They used the money to hire staff, repair the mansion, expand the estate. They found worthwhile ventures to buy stock in, they loaned money and found ways to make more. At the age of sixteen, Morgan had managed to rebuild and expand the dilapidated life their father had left them in. Anyone with any mind for justice that wasn't as desperate as Morgan would have left the money in the bank and reported it. Morgan had no qualms about using what cards they were dealt regardless of the unethical nature of it. Pops had worked at the Labs, after all. Morgan had gathered enough knowledge from him to realize that the Labs controlled the entire city. There was no way the 'cops' were going to help Morgan figure anything out. The human instead began spending more and more time trying to find answers. It always felt like the more they figured out, the less they understood. It was obvious that their father was dead, but without a body, he was 'missing'. Most missing people simply went back out into the Beyond to live their lives. Especially when they brought their creatures with them- but pops would never do that to Morgan. They held onto that belief tooth and nail. There was no way that he would abandon any child at twelve, let alone his own kid. Morgan knew him better than that! But did any child truly know their parents? The bespectacled human couldn't keep the cascade of memories from rolling across their mind as they walked to what they knew could probably be their doom.
This was it.
[14]
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Post by Morgan on Mar 31, 2020 17:23:25 GMT -6
The Kapper leans forward, allowing a retinal scanner to scan her eye, and then she places a finger on the doorpad. She turns to Morgan and gives a nervous grin. "Can't be too careful!" Before the door opens. The individual beckons Morgan inside. The human steps in. Everything feels choppy and sharp in their head (it has for a while now, hasn't it?). The room is... Quaint. White tile, black grout. Black walls in glossy paint (easy to clean). There is a desk, and it is sat lower to the ground than usual. A normal sized settee is across the room. There are lots of technological baubles in here- some of them Morgan recognizes right away, some are definitely kapper technology, others Morgan has no idea what are. It was humbling. On top of the desk is a little sculpture of an enileaf painted in a skeletal coloration holding it's paw up in the air. Oh. She likes cats, doesn't she? There are plenty of little cat motifs everywhere. Mosca. Estharne. Morgan stands stupidly for a moment. This... Wasn't what they had expected. The Kapper moves past Morgan and sits at her chair. She waves for Morgan to sit down, and dry-mouthed, cotton-headed Morgan sits down on the settee just as the doors close mechanically.
"I recognize you." The kapper says, immediately.
[15]
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