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Post by Morgan on Apr 21, 2019 22:39:30 GMT -6
It didn't take long for Morgan to be able to procure a few of the items required for this... Node creation process. The denizens of the Labs were controlled by the almighty credit, it seemed, and it didn't take long for a relatively low estimate of credits to be taken by a seller that was looking to get rid of something called a 'chaos' crystal. Chaos, huh? According to the mythology book, it was a male deity that was the patron of chaos, an element of lightning and venom. Morgan had been interested at first in any sort of magic, just to see if it was true, but as soon as the chaos crystal was in their palm, they understood two things.
The first of these things was the reason why the seller had been so keen of getting rid of this rare prize; just the proximity of it, the closeness with the flesh, made Morgan's skin crawl, hair stand on end, and Morgan could swear that someone was whispering... Somewhere. It wasn't that Morgan could 'feel' these things and tell where they were, like the book said some people could either... So It had to be that.
The second of those things was that Chaos fit them perfectly. Now that was a calling that Morgan felt they could answer; IF the experiment worked out, that was.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 21, 2019 22:47:04 GMT -6
Morgan had the call open for any crystals at first, but soon closed it to only the chaos ones and the prismatic ones, since they had decided that they would go with chaos. They already had one of the three crystals, so it was only logical. Morgan knew that these were supposedly some of the most rare, so the offer was raised a little, too. A mind crystal was offered as a gift by the jackalope next time he visited with groceries (this time fruit fresh from a garden) and that as a gift. 'Don't wanna see yourself get killed, kid.' Was the reasoning. Never mind the fact that Morgan was the same age as the tall mammalian. A mysterious benefactor shipped some carefully preserved berries right to Morgan's door; 'healing berries; use them or die, your choice' was the answer. Morgan didn't know if they believed in souls, but the book had mentioned them. Still, the abnormal kindness was met with skepticism, and not with joy.
The last pieces were acquired after Morgan paid the jackalope fellow to go out searching for them. He supposedly 'felt' crystals, and even showed of a bit of his supposed 'fire magic' to try to talk Morgan out of it, but it only stoked both the skepticism and the desire to try it. The two prismatic crystals were give from pawed-palm to bare-palm wrapped in a thin tissue. The jackalope looked concerned, and Morgan just winked at him. "Go home, and put on some clothes. Or take em off I don't really care, jackalope." At that, he was all but lead out the door with a sweeping, smaller arm.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 21, 2019 22:57:41 GMT -6
Morgan spent hardly a day preparing for the trip to the Dark Corners. They busied themselves with things that morning, waking up before the sun rose. Feeding the izer, feeding the creatures in the vivariums, making breakfast and mostly pushing it around on their plate instead of eating it... Yeah. The more time went on, the more that Morgan was anxious. It didn't help that Morgan woke up feeling like crap today. Some days, Morgan could just look outside and seeing a crumpled leaf falling on the ground would make them sad and introspective. This was one of those days. Morgan didn't feel like doing anything.
However, Morgan simply told themselves that this had to be done today, or never. Putting it off wouldn't help anyone, even if they felt like getting back in bed and just being there for the next few days. Morgan made sure all of the creatures were well taken care of, and then strapped on their boots. Then, they put the pieces for the nodes in their pockets. Their new prescription glasses were not quite done yet, and that made them feel too vulnerable.
This was happening. Today.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 21, 2019 23:02:10 GMT -6
Morgan was sick. The process had been horrendous on their already somewhat weak psyche that day, so after the... Process. Of the chaos node creation, Morgan was unceremoniously sent home, holding a little ball of chaos in their hands. They went home, fell into their bed, ignoring the creatures, and curled up in a ball. Exhaustion and emotional backlash struck at once, leaving the blond human a tearful, shivering wreck. The physical and spiritual nature of the sacrifice made them queasy and anxious; breaking into an after-adrenaline full-stop. Morgan had a headache, but didn't have the energy to get up and do something about that.
Morgan could feel the node as if it were vaguely whispering. Things that didn't sound like any language at all. Perhaps it was just Morgan's freshly healing soul, or somewhat broken mind, but they couldn't deal with that at the moment. The bedside table was hastily jerked open, and the chaos node was dropped into it. Morgan didn't know how long the stayed in the bed; but they ignored the knocking on the door that came afterwards.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 21, 2019 23:09:21 GMT -6
Eventually Morgan woke up. It must have been early in the morning. Morgan felt like there had been some kind of a dream there... Something about... Dragons? Morgan looked down at their hands, feeling vaguely like they must have lost their mind. They swung their legs over the bed, toes hardly touching the ground, and then felt their stomach both growl and heave simultaneously. A shower later, and Morgan was shoveling some kind of food down. They weren't sure what kind because they were really on autopilot. The creatures were immediately fed afterward, with Morgan feeling very sad. The creatures were all hungry. An extra helping would be administered later on during the day, that was for sure.
Morgan finally walked to the door, to check for mail, and found the bag including the glasses and necklace on the ornate knocker, along with a note written in what looked like a cross between chicken-scratch and something that wasn't common, as well as a bag of groceries. Surprisingly, the groceries were fine. Jackalope had been here. Morgan shook their head. He would make a good friend if Morgan cared for such things.
Morgan didn't care for such things, but took the bags and went back inside. The groceries were put up, the glasses placed upon their nose. They were beginning to feel normal, again. The node mumbled, burbled, and whispered in the upstairs room, and Morgan could feel it on the back of their neck.
[20]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 22, 2019 14:47:31 GMT -6
Morgan decided to ignore this call, for now. They busied about their day as normal. Read a book. Performed a quick experiment involving a strange metal that they had found to test it's electrical conductivity. Checked on the creatures again, and spent some time watching the crossbreeds and writing in their journal about their behaviors and unique eccentricities. Morgan was planning on training them after figuring out most of their latent abilities, but needed to test some things first. Actually, the intelligence of the creatures was the most important to the blond human. After this, they cooked lunch, sat down to listen to an informational radio channel about the Labs species. Afterwards, a book later, and the tutor came to teach.
The entire time that Morgan was going about their day, the node whispered. Sometimes, it was low, sometimes, louder. Morgan ignored it, showing no emotions regarding it on their face. Finally, the tutor left, and Morgan realized that they had to come to a decision about this. The node was not going to be silent, and Morgan knew that it was calling... For them. Blood of it's blood, so to speak, right?
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Post by Morgan on Apr 22, 2019 14:52:14 GMT -6
Finally, Morgan finishes the day off with a smaller dinner, and a second helping of food for the animals in the vivariums. The izer had spent most of the day in the cage, so Morgan let the creature out in the room for a while to get some exercise. Morgan ignores the babbling in their mind from the node. Or at least that is what they thought it came from, perhaps it could be something else? Logically, no node before and there was no noise, so yes node with noise meant the noise was the node, right? That wouldn't always be the case, but it made sense. This was a chaos node, node or no.
Morgan reads more of the book from earlier while sitting on the seat next to the window. The sun was going down now, and Morgan had successfully avoided the node the entire day. However, Morgan knew that they did not half-ass anything. Morgan knew that they would eventually swallow the node. In the morning. Yes, they wanted to get a good night's sleep before messing with this; for mental health's sake.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 22, 2019 15:03:45 GMT -6
The izer is finally placed back in the cage, and Morgan spent an hour watching the stars through their telescope... The sky was so beautiful from this area at night. The Avant Vall is just a gorgeous street; Morgan decided a long time ago after procuring the telescope. It was low-powered and nearly cost a fortune, but it was still quite beautiful to look through. Morgan finally yawned, and walked over to their writing desk to do a quick journal about what they'd done that day and re-focus the finances. Morgan's room was immaculate, the house was immaculate, everything was calm and orderly, just the way that Morgan preferred it... They liked it when things were predictable and orderly, even if they did enjoy risky things in what they considered moderation...
The chaos crystal seemed to sing, beckoning, asking, pulling. Blood of my blood.
Morgan finally walked over to the bed, turned off the lights, and went to bed. They slept very well, and had many, many dreams.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 22, 2019 15:15:07 GMT -6
Morgan woke up early in the morning again... The node was strangely silent. The izer was asleep. Morgan stared up at the glowing constellations painted on the ceiling, and then over at the dragons painted on the ceiling in the starry-scape above the area where the telescope and window seat were. The air had a slight chill to it, and Morgan was bundled up beneath the covers. It was springtime; and it still got quite cold at night time. Morgan was a bit thankful for it; heat was not at all pleasant; and chill was a bit preferable when they were sleeping.
Morgan leaned over, and opened the nightstand's top drawer. It was amazing how much glowing the nodes did. They hadn't really looked at it, before. They'd held it in the palm of their hand for dear life; the drain of the whole process was so extreme. Now, it was strangely quiet, and softly glowing. Morgan picked it up, turned it over, and then held it up to their face. It was a really, tiny marble. It fit nicely into Morgan's small hands. They put it to their lips, and then gulped with them pursed. When they did this, that would be it.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 22, 2019 15:30:56 GMT -6
Morgan pushed the node into their mouth, and swallowed it in one fell swoop.
The world erupted into color and song, and then whispering, all at once. Morgan stared out, blearily, not seeing quite that well without their glasses. Everything spun for a moment, and then they felt something like getting shocked by a wall socket; only all over at once. Morgan finally laid there, blearily. The world quieted down to a dull whisper, the electricity seemed to leave. When Morgan opened their eyes, they saw the world in an entirely new way. The world was no longer a string of rules and ideas; and instead felt like a new kind of wonder... What had to be thousands of ideas came to the head at once, and instead of feeling staggering, they filtered into thoughts that made sense in different tracks, no longer feeling like they only needed one train of thought at a time.
The izer was asleep, softly making a gentle noise. Morgan was acutely aware of the measure of chaos in the air, crackling in the area around them. They stumbled to the bathroom, and looked into the mirror. Their eyes nearly glowed a neon green. They couldn't see any better without the glasses, but they could almost feel the world around them in a new way. Morgan chuckled a bit, and then erupted into laughter.
Why hadn't they done this before?
[25]
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Post by Morgan on Nov 17, 2019 11:32:09 GMT -6
The nightmares. The nightmares were confusing at best, and horrific at worst. Some days, Morgan woke with the distinct feeling that they had a conversation with someone. Sometimes they woke up shivering, shuddering, and feeling alone. At other times, they woke up feeling like a whole different person.
Morgan always had trouble emotionally, self-admittedly (not that Morgan would state such things to literally anyone else) but this was distinctly different. They only remembered bits and pieces. A war, a war that never happened in Morgan's lifetime, running and running. Explosions and fire, flashbangs, a leap and a dive over a fence. Hiding in a depression in the ground as... Something was happening. Morgan never knew what it was, but it shook the ground at their feet in the dream hard enough to pitch them over and leave a distinctive burning sensation on their left cheek.
It took Morgan a while to place that cheek scar; so distinctive and fine, as the one their father had below his left eye, and when they did they couldn't stop touching that spot on their face.
[26]
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Post by Morgan on Nov 17, 2019 11:36:58 GMT -6
Of course the scar wasn't there, and it never was. After that, Morgan started keeping a dream journal with what they remembered. Only bits and pieces, pieces and bits. None of them made a whole lot of sense and some of them were absolutely inscrutable. Some were only a sentence long in the data-book Morgan kept (date - time awoke - dream: Rows and Rows of flowers, roses on the shop wall. Selected one; it was a swirl of red and ivory. and some were long but so confusing that Morgan couldn't really make heads or tails of them. (date - time awoke - dream: Hunched over a green tube, back hurts. Tried not to rub eyes, finally my eyes watered. Took glasses off, took gloves off, washed hands, and then rubbed them. Turned around to see that whatever had been in the green tube was gone. Confusion, lots of movement, glass shatters and there's green goop on my glasses, the wall, my arms- with blood, suddenly outside of the room and sinking down on my knees. Woke up feeling unlike myself again.)
Everything was kept intricately, but the more Morgan tried to create order in their life; the more entropy rose.
[27]
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Post by Morgan on Nov 17, 2019 11:43:12 GMT -6
The dreams weren't always painful and confusing, though these... Happier dreams tended to wake Morgan up in a sweat FAR more often than the ones that used pain to delineate Morgan from the dream-person, thankfully. This was partially because it was harder to remove their... Personhood, from being that person, whoever they were. Maybe lots of different people, how would Morgan know? (Date - Time Awoke - Dream Content: Worked on a vehicle of some kind. Made a breakthrough; the thing works. Spent a good five minutes feeling good about myself before I awoke. Felt really young this time; no achy muscles. \ Date - Time Awoke - Dream Content: Sitting in a copse of trees with a sketchbook, drawing a tat-lung that is, for some reason, draped in most of the branches of the tree across from me. It's black, with a raven-like beak. Suddenly, the tat-lung looked at me with a curious green eye, and then laughed at me! Promptly erased the serene face to capture the laughing one. / Date - Time Awoke - Dream Content: Wrapped in Black scales and feathers, hand in a black mane. Looked into Green eyes- felt... Awkward. It was as if suddenly the individual figured out that I wasn't who I was- as if I was looking in on something I wasn't supposed to be, felt pushed out of the dream. Woke up sweaty, disoriented, and [REDACTED].)
[28]
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Post by Morgan on Nov 17, 2019 11:46:58 GMT -6
That was when the dreams stopped for a few days. Feeling both a strange sense of loss and a bit confused, Morgan finally settled into feeling maybe like it was over. They weren't even sure what had happened. Perhaps it was an effect of the chaos node... Or perhaps not. Morgan finally got back to life; trying to get into the groove of things. For some reason, they wanted to increase the amount of beings on their estate, animal-wise of course... They would have to look into that!
A month passes, and of course things have made a turn for the worse. Waar... had, well and that had to have been Morgan's fault. Morgan never did anything right, they always screwed up, but this was fixable. Morgan snatched a black coin from their lockbox as well as a gold one, and runs out of the room...
A month passes, and the dreams return with a vengeance.
[29]
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Post by Morgan on Nov 17, 2019 11:53:53 GMT -6
Morgan started up the Dream Log again that first morning, cursing their luck; even before their morning cigarette today. They had to write it down. 'Another failure, not sure what it was. Back at home, hung up my labcoat, popped my back. Got into an argument with a sharp black-haired woman with bright green eyes. I think I loved her? She wanted me to stop, though. I was SO CLOSE to a breakthrough, so damn close. Couldn't stop, just watched as she left. Woke up feeling anxious in the middle of the night; those green eyes looking so tenderly, so full of pity at me.' And then, another had happened after that within quick succession. 'Rows and rows and rows of beakers. Fell asleep on my desk and woke up, adjusting my glasses. Finally, finally- there was a single blue tube. Heart leapt into throat so hard that I woke up.' And then another; 'Sleepless, so tired... Carrying something on my back. Driving to work with the youngun, thankfully they have daycare services for us of course. They haven't slept in so many days, I wish they'd just go to sleep! Managed to get into work, down a black coffee, and even then hated to hand off the tiny blonde child to the daycare watcher. I watched him turn the corner holding the bundle and felt sick enough to wake up.'
This felt like a breakthrough, but Morgan couldn't put it all together. The dreams slipped away nearly as soon as they typed them in.
[30]
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