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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2020 2:31:01 GMT -6
After proceeding to get sick over the particularly horrible vertigo, Morgan stayed in that position without moving too much for a while in order to try to catch their bearings. If the dragonoak was going to attack them, which was possible, they were just going to have to deal with it whenever that bridge came to cross. Or burn it. How did that saying go? While Morgan pondered that, the dragonoak sniffed at them, trying to figure out what was going on. The creature couldn't figure out what had caused Morgan to react like that, and quite frankly it scared it. However, it didn't move too far. If it noticed the way the scenery had changed, it did not provide any proof that it had done so.
After a while, the world stopped spinning, and Morgan began to slowly but methodically raise up (avoiding certain areas of the grass as they did so).
[2]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2020 2:40:35 GMT -6
The human was able to get up, and they realized now that they were no longer laying in a patch of flowers in a garden, but what felt like a literal carpet of grass. As in, some kind of vaguely synthetic... Carpet in a sort of green color. This was also a bit of a yucky area of course, with Morgan having been ill and all, but that at least didn't seem to cause too many issues. The entire experience had sucked, but it did make them realize that it was something that could be studied. Had this only made them sick because they swallowed the chaos node? Did it do this to everyone? They probably would have been told else-wise if it DID happen to everyone, since they had been trying to find information about the mansion from the general townsfolk.
The Dragonoak watched Morgan with pale blue eyes, and then cast her gaze away, finding them boring now that they weren't doing anything all that interesting.
[3]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2020 2:52:35 GMT -6
It was now that the Dragonoak wasn't paying as much attention to the vaguely uninteresting human, she noticed that the entire world seemed to have changed in the moment it took for the human to be sick. Now that it was paying attention to the world, the scent had even changed! When had that happened? The dragonoak had not felt them go anywhere? Unable to truly comprehend what had just happened, the dragonoak hunkered down slightly into the nasty-smelling and rather soft grass... There was no way that was grass, she decided. She wasn't sure what to do or where to hide, but she was stuck on this leash. She looked back to the human for guidance of any kind.
Morgan sat back on their heels quietly, taking in their surroundings, hand in the 'carpet-like' grass. The trees nearby weren't quite right. They squinted, focusing on them, and only realized that they weren't quite 'standing up straight' after focusing.
[4]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2020 3:12:38 GMT -6
The trees went up a little ways, sure, but then they curled back down to where their tops scraped the ground in a semblance of bowing, or perhaps of weeping. The human was not able to believe their eyes at first, so they removed their glasses and a soft cloth from their pocket to clean them off, and then they rubbed their eyes with their hand too for good measure. They placed them back on, and when they refocused it was pretty obvious that they were looking at the same trees from before. 'Yup, that is real.' They thought. It was time to go exploring. Against Morgan's better judgement (which would have been to go home and come back to make another excursion later in the month) the human took the Dragonoak by the leash, preparing to go further into the grounds (and hopefully away from the literal outdoor carpet). However, the dragonoak was cowering a bit. What was scaring it so badly?
[5]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2020 15:00:22 GMT -6
Morgan looked around, trying to ascertain exactly what was going on with the poor creature. Sure, the world was really weird, but there wasn't anything that looked too dangerous near them at this exact moment. The human reached down, noting that though they had decided not to touch the dragonoak until they were sure that the psycho-social bond had cemented (and they definitely were not sure of that) but the dragonoak seemed fairly gentle for such a 'scary' looking creature, and Morgan was somehow quite sure that she wouldn't bite them if they were careful. The dragonoak was flat against the ground, as flat as she could be, and Morgan felt pity while looking at her. "Come on, Meteora. You're gonna be a-alrigh." Morgan said to her, softly. Their voice was held calm, in an attempt to try to calm her down. Their hand finally meets the moon at the top of Meteora's skull dome.
[6]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2020 15:17:46 GMT -6
The dragonoak's pupils go from being tiny and constricted, to about normal relatively quickly as Morgan placed their palm on the creature's head dome. It was smooth, not really like most creatures that a person could pet, but Morgan was used to petting creatures with not-quite-fluffy bodies. They smoothly passed their palm over the creature's head, and then around it's jaw hinges. "You're good, very g-good Meteora." Morgan said, slowly calming the creature. "Now, come o-on, come on critter." Morgan coaxed. Of course the dragonoak had no idea what a 'come' command was, so it was not that the creature understood that at all. However, the coaxing eventually caused the creature to stand up shakily. Now that both of them were up and about, Morgan slowly lead the creature away from the outdoor carpet that was apparently meant to look like grass but did not. It was vaguely green, but not realistic in the slightest.
[7]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2020 15:35:22 GMT -6
The world was definitely what Morgan was consider 'bizarre' at this point. The mansion was not what it had been during the last month, but instead was more twisted. Things looked normal from a distance, but as Morgan began getting closer it was almost like they morphed into inaccurate representations of what these things were. A tree may look like a tree from a short walk away, but it was undoubtedly made of something not really realistic once they got there. The one Morgan was currently close to was obviously made of some kind of rubber and stone mixture. Morgan was fearful of touching it because for some reason it was vaguely flesh colored. It made Morgan's skin crawl, but thankfully the dragonoak did not seem to be too concerned about it. Perhaps the dragonoak had a different set of color vision and was not as concerned, or maybe it was because Morgan could recognize the (too shiny) attempt at human flesh tones.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2020 15:41:21 GMT -6
The Human considered leaning forward and attempting to touch it, after getting past the 'sorta-sick' stage of it. It was really interesting, seeing how the world had went from an idyllic spring garden and lawn to this joke-shop level of horrendous nightmare-fuel. The human wasn't exactly sure how to take it, and eventually convinced theirself through a haze of 'yuck', to touch the tree. Yes, of course it was what they already knew. The too-shiny skin-tone substance was rubber, as plain as day. It had bumpy areas where rocks were made into it. Whether in an attempt to try to produce a knobby looking odd facsimile of something. It was in the shape of a tree however, and bent down towards the top to scrape the ground with it's fake foliage. Long green plastic looking fronds, like a fake plant that someone would put in a waiting room.
If the dragonoak was bothered, it wasn't showing any reaction.
[9]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2020 15:45:43 GMT -6
The dragonoak finally bumps Morgan (a little over-hard) using it's head dome into the human's knee, nearly buckling them over. "H-hey!" Morgan said, waving at the creature in an attempt to calm it down. They weren't sure if it was being aggressive at first or just being difficult. After a moment of hesitation, the dragonoak bumped it's head more softly into the human's palm. "Ah, so you're jus' bein sweet. What a weird critter." Morgan mumbled at the creature, before rubbing the dragonoak's head a bit in an attempt to calm it down. "I've got to pay attention to things o-other than you every once in a while."
The dragonoak had drawn Morgan away from the vaguely grotesque sight. Even if it wasn't real, it was still obviously meant to provoke thought, as far as Morgan could tell. The pair wondered away from this particular horrific tree and towards the mansion itself.
[10]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2020 16:11:20 GMT -6
The mansion itself this month wasn't too bad, looking at it from the outside anyway. Morgan was surprised at how it looked relatively normal compared to the bizarro world that the month's change had brought to the mansion's grounds. Morgan took a moment to take a good look at the sky in an attempt to see if there was anything too different with that. It was absolutely beyond anything Morgan had seen before- like a child had literally illustrated a sky in crayons and then the mansion stuck it there. The sunshine was almost 'moving between two frames', with rays clearly visible. Morgan rubbed their eyes again. Had they eaten anything while they were out? It was almost... Unreal. What was going on?
The Dragonoak was looking up at the sky too, but it didn't seem confused. What did the sky even look like to a dragonoak? Probably just like normal folks, so Morgan was sure that the dragonaok wasn't seeing this.
[11]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2020 16:31:47 GMT -6
Perhaps the mansion had a more marked effect on humanoids, or maybe it was just Morgan. The human was aware of what the festival was this month; Tiken Tekai. A festival dedicated to Chaos and the supposed figure Luck. Sounded absolutely ridiculous but A-okay, Morgan was used to the Labs and it's weird traditions. Of course, after having swallowed a chaos node, perhaps the mansion was doing a little 'extra' for them this month. Not that they were very happy about it. However, they did hear something. The human tilted their head slightly and then tried to turn around as quickly as possible to catch what was making the odd noise. This didn't allow them to catch whoever it was, but it did frighten the dragonoak a bit with Morgan's suddenness. But what was the noise? It had been just far enough away that Morgan was not able to recognize the source of the noise or what it sounded like.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2020 16:44:09 GMT -6
After a moment of looking around (and seeing relatively normal looking foliage which Morgan was sure upon closer inspection would probably be made out of something completely ridiculous) Morgan decided that they had just heard something absolutely pointless, and that there probably hadn't actually been anything of note there. However, the human did turn back, and then turn quickly around to try to catch something just in case they had been wrong and then wrong again. Nothing, absolutely nothing. It was not uncommon for the mansion to have weird things going on, and teleporting items, and loud noises that were completely not real. However, the human was not used to not being able to 'tell' what the sound was, so to speak, or at least what it was supposed to be.
Trying to push it from their mind, Morgan patted the dragonoak to calm it down and they continued what felt like the long trek across the mansion's front yard.
[13]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2020 17:00:00 GMT -6
The walk felt like it was taking forever, and they weren't really getting any closer to the mansion. It was like the world was stretching in front of them, but it remained the same behind them. Effectively, they were walking in place. However, Morgan didn't feel like they were walking in place. This had happened to Morgan once before at the mansion, so it wasn't entirely terrifying. Morgan felt like the dragonoak was right beside them on the lead, but was the dragonoak experiencing this sensation too, or was it just something that was effecting Morgan's brain? The human had to consider these things, since they were studying the mansion. It would be valuable insight in the future as to how the mansion worked if Morgan was able to gather that sort of data. However, the tat-lungs were of no help, and creatures like this one could not speak or quantify such matters.
[14]
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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2020 17:04:22 GMT -6
That was when Morgan gathered that maybe, just maybe, they needed to bring Millicent out here on a picnic one of these days in an attempt to see if she could put it into words for them and would be willing to help. Not right now of course, she wasn't quite ready to go on another adventure out here, at least not until she was better worked with to know what to do in dangerous situations now that she had more freedom (she could fly now, and she couldn't the last time they were here), and of course Morgan needed to work with the dragonoak and figure out it's temperament before training it for the pit. Not that Morgan was super keen on the idea, but perhaps they would do well? Morgan doubted it. The pit was a scary place.
However, Morgan knew that eventually this 'backwards escalator' sensation would cease if they just kept at it.
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Post by Morgan on Apr 2, 2020 18:12:12 GMT -6
Kept at it was something Morgan could do easily enough. They did so, leading the dragonoak along as they did so. The dragonoak didn't seem to be tiring and neither did Morgan. It was very possible that this was one of those weird time or space distortions that sometimes happened here. However, the human wasn't about to consider that possibility as the only one yet. Nearly as quickly as Morgan had made that thought, the world stretched quickly and long, and then snapped back just as quickly. It almost felt like the snap had pushed the human onto the other side of some kind of invisible or perhaps even mental force-field. The human shuddered at the strange feeling. However, the dragonoak didn't seem to react in any sort of way to the strange sensation. Morgan frowned at this. The mansion was a weird place, a weird place indeed! However, they turned around and looked, but nothing seemed to be there.
[16]
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