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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 14:15:46 GMT -6
Endymion tilted his head the opposite direction this time, thinking. Morgan could practically feel the gears whirring in his head, it was really uncanny. Finally, he asks- "Why doesn't everyone put their surplus in a warehouse, and people come to get what they need and share?" He asks. Morgan looks at him, eyebrows knit. It wasn't a dumb question, Morgan was just surprised at his child-like sense of trust for people. "H-honestly Endymion? People are greedy." They said. "S-so, lets say that a person comes in because they're greedy, and takes all the meat in the warehouse. There w-will be no one else with it." They said.
"Then they need someone to watch, to keep people from taking all of something, or more than they need." He counters, his blue eyes wide and blinking.
Morgan shook their head. "But then you h-have people in charge, a ruling class. A hierarchical structure."
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 14:19:02 GMT -6
The human finally got the smokey quartz out of the rock, and carefully turns it over in hand, looking at it. Endymion seemed shocked, as if he had not thought about that before. "A-any time you have one person above everyone else, that person has power. P-power gets to a humanoid's head, a-and often they hurt those below them either physically, mentally, emotionally, or socially. Sometimes a-all of those." Morgan explained.
"Just pick the nicest person, then!" Endymion said. He wasn't going to let this go, was he? That was fine by Morgan. He'd have to be taught one way or the other.
"O-okay, but what if the 'nice person' lied? W-what if they aren't actually nice? You c-can't just trust everyone." Morgan said. "Plus, what after that person dies? People do not live forever. People may get used to that person, and think that their kid would be a good replacement."
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 14:22:47 GMT -6
The young idealistic draconic was not quite ready to let it go yet. "Make a system to where it only ever picks the nicest person in the whole place! There has to be a way to quantify kindness and goodness!" He says, desperately. Morgan shook their head, but showed him the smokey gem anyway. "A-any time there is a system, people will study it. They will find a-a-a way to break it, to take advantage. Especially if they are a greedy person. A-and greedy people pretend to be nice people all the time." They said, voice sad. "After generations of that, people b-begin to feel like it is just the way it is, like the ruling class cannot or should not be tested. T-they fear hurting that person, or m-making things worse. Truth is- humans cannot govern theirselves well. A-any time there is a system, people break it. Endymion." Morgan wanted him to understand. [30]
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 14:27:31 GMT -6
Endymion seemed incredibly troubled by this. Morgan looked at him and gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder before putting the smokey gem away in the backpack, and scraping the chips of carrier stone onto the floor. Endymion opens his mouth, and closes it again several times. Finally, he gets out- "Humans are not like draconics AT ALL!" He said, voice high-pitched in desperation.
"Y-you are right, Endymion." Morgan said, simply. "Humanoids are... Gross, really. I wish I could rinse my hands of most if not all of them... Maybe I could deal w-with one or two of them at a time, only specific, decent ones. Even if one h-human is bad, you have to treat them all l-like they might hurt you, just in case. T-trust me, they aren't worth giving them a chance." They started looking through the rocks again at that, searching for a promising one.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 14:30:47 GMT -6
Endymion blinks rapidly, as if he were about to cry, as if Morgan had just ruined his view of the world in one conversation, accidentally. "Are there any good humans?" He looked at Morgan with absolute ruin in his expression, sorrow leaking out of his soul.
Morgan sighed, and shook their head. "Humans are not g-good or evil. Humans just are. M-most are selfish to a degree or w-worse. That's how people are. B-but some people will g-go out of the way to help those they love. I have s-seen people kill, steal, or worse to obtain things t-to protect those they love." Morgan explained, further. "B-but, sometimes 'nice' or 'good' people, or the people that claim to love you? Those people sometimes hurt you out of fits of selfishness, too. P-people don't really think about other people, not for real. They j-just pretend like they do." Morgan frowned. "It makes t-them feel better."
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 14:33:53 GMT -6
Morgan selects a rock that they were pretty sure had nothing in it, but began chipping away at it out of nervousness anyway. That was the first time in a long time they'd actually talked about their beliefs philosophically. It was perhaps not the most tactful set of things to say to a child dragon, but they were sure that he was mature enough to understand what they were talking about, with time and plenty of consideration. After Morgan managed to get the rock pared down enough to realize that there was no gem inside of it, they tossed the remaining pebbles away and then grabbed another of the little stone and began to work on it. Endymion stayed quiet the entire time, making Morgan a little worried towards the end of the silence.
Finally, Endymion speaks, his voice soft and nervous. "Morgan- does that mean you're bad too?" The 'and does that make me bad too' went unspoken.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 14:37:27 GMT -6
Morgan stopped, lowered the stone that they had just picked up, the back of their hand on their knee and the stone in their palm. They looked straight at the young dragon. "In s-some ways? I'm the worst of them all." Morgan admitted. It was true. Endymion could tell that the human believed every single word of it. "But that doesn't mean that you are b-bad. You ARE a draconic, and not a human. Y-you may be bound to me, b-but that doesn't mean that you owe me anything, or that you're my copy, or that you are owned by me metaphorically, understand?" Morgan said, giving him a reassuring pat on the upper shoulder. "You have s-so much more in your existence than just dealing with me. I have failed a-at everything I've ever tried to do. N-nothing is ever good enough for anyone else, so why s-should it be for me?" They said.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 14:40:05 GMT -6
With those cryptic words, Endymion seems satisfied, or at least like he wanted to drop the conversation. Morgan let it drop. There was no point in ruining his newly formed and young worldview right now, and this was already enough for him to chew. They felt terrible that the poor young one was stuck with them. The 'foreverness' of it was just baffling to them. He'd forever be stuck with Morgan, regardless of whether he wanted to be or not. Had he even gotten a say? He wasn't bound to them like the books said that draconics and humans became bound. The human felt a little sick at their stomach over all of this, but it happened and there was no going back on it.
They had to try to make the best of this situation that made them want to cry.
Morgan picks up the stone again and goes to work on it, to see if anything is within it.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 14:50:23 GMT -6
Time dragged on and on. The rock had nothing in it. Morgan selects another from the pile. Morgan wondered why they do anything at all. This was the difficulty of feeling the way that they felt often about things. These rocks took thousands of years or more to form, and Morgan was reducing them to coarse chippy sand. In a thousand more years, they will be pushed beneath the earth and they would melt. Someday, they'd flow through convection up to the top of the earth again and wear down from mountains or other such features into rocks again. Some other force would break them open, and they would become chippy sand again. Morgan will have been dead thousands of years over by that point.
"It is up to people t-to find meaning for theirself." Morgan says, mostly to theirself. Endymion looks up, as if he is shocked at that declaration.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 14:53:33 GMT -6
Endymion seemed to consider that an answer to all of his fears, and he immediately perks up. "And it can mean anything, right? Anything you decide?" He says, grinning in his toothy draconic way. Morgan nodded. "Yes. Anything you'd like." They said, simply. Of course, it wasn't true. Other people often had opposing ideals and warred over it, and were rude to each other about it, and refused to right wrongs even thousands of years down the line. Because of that, Morgan tried very hard not to care. It was impossible not to care, though. Morgan cared way too much, far more than they should.
They wished they didn't care. It would be much more simple to not care, to pick up that mantle, that meaning, for theirself, and just refuse to even consider other people. That was what made some people the kings and some the peons. The kings didn't have to have the burden of caring for anyone else but theirselves.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 15:03:15 GMT -6
Morgan wasn't capable of being that way. However, they could pretend. They pretended very well in public. So far, they hadn't had any real hangers-on. They wanted to keep it that way. There was no real need to get other humanoids interested in being around them. They were exhausting to be around for any longer than work required. No, Morgan's tat-family, draconics, and of course Millicent were the only ones that really mattered to them. They tried desperately to maintain that status quo. No one else mattered. There was no purpose to fight humans for their own works. It was a dumb notion, and they never should have tried the times that they did.
Little Endymion cracks a huge grin at Morgan, and picks up another stone in his mouth to hand to Morgan. Morgan realized that they had pulverized the one that was in their hand, and they hadn't even noticed it before.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 15:06:23 GMT -6
Now that they had gotten the hard feelings out, they felt a little better. Their chest still ached, but they were sure that they would live in the long run. It was something that they tackled again, and again, and again over time, every time they had to deal with others. It made them want to be a complete hermit, and never speak with anyone at all. However, they knew that their father had told them that it was not a good thing for humans to be alone, so they tried their best. Some days, they had it worse than others, though.
The human carefully reaches out and takes the stone from Endymion, and he says- "That one should have something in it!" Excitedly. Morgan patted him on the back. "W-where did you get it, anyway?" Morgan asked.
"It was sticking out from behind another rock, over there~" He pointed.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 2, 2020 15:09:36 GMT -6
Morgan chuckled at how excited he was, and looked the rock over for a good position to start the first crack at it. They weren't sure why he was so sure that there was something or another in it, but they were going to give him the benefit of the doubt regardless. They found a good spot, and then began working on the stone, interested in seeing if the draconic's little theory was correct. They didn't know much about him. They had learned that he could make a loud noise that somehow had a force enough to knock them on their butt in the water at the river the other day, but he hadn't done it again since. They had found that he seemed affiliated with the thunder (a little storm had brewed up, the other day, after he had barked?) but other than that, they weren't really sure what to think of him.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 3, 2020 15:32:47 GMT -6
Morgan worked on the new stone, curious as to whether or not they were going to find anything. Of course it mostly had to do with Morgan trying to distract theirself from their problems. That's what this trip was supposed to be for anyway, but it wasn't working at all. They were, however, glad that they had time to be 'by theirself' (technically with their bonded, and the books were right, it technically didn't feel like anyone else was here) to think about all of the stuff that had happened recently. Being able to focus on this rock instead of the other issues was nice, for once. Maybe they could lengthen their stay a little longer out here, and have a good break from everything.
It sounded like a good idea, sitting there with only a flashlight as light. A good break. Their workers at WELP had been requesting them to have a vacation anyway.
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Post by Morgan on Sept 3, 2020 15:44:56 GMT -6
The rock was a little harder than the others, a tougher nut to crack. Morgan took the chisel to it a little harder than they had been trying, to get the chips and pieces to fall off. Finally, the rock began to give way. Morgan's hands were shaking, but they kept going on anyway. A bit away, Endymion seemed to be considering, carefully building up a worldview yet again. Finally, he makes a soft noise, and Morgan looks up, taking a moment's break from the work they were trying to do. "What is it, Endymion?" Morgan asks, voice a little cracked. The young draconic simply shook his head. "Just thinking of something funny." He said. "Keep going on." He said. "You're almost to it." Morgan had doubts about that, they weren't sure if they were ever going to get to the gem, this carrier stone was -hard-.
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