The Sun below, the Ground above
Prologue 5
Morep loved coming to Petnelas's farm!!
It was like a refuge far away of all the problems plaguing Morep's mind. Pelombis was filled with reasons for Morep to be stressed:
- Empty shops along the main street
- An unorganized mess that was the Marketplace
- The mansions guest room repurposed as a storage place
- A lack of Im'eps to take over the jobs of those that passed away, resulting in a lot of multi-tasking. Like Morep who was now also Sinjorin'ep Pelotin's butler.
- The newspaper Morep kept bringing along for the other servants to read. But Morep was the only servant left so it was pointless... And anyway it was a paper of more then 150 jar'eps ago, the last journalist had passed away back then.
A conclusion was simple to reach for Morep, way to much stress in the city. Especially because of their butler job. Morep just wanted the following: wake up in the morning, perform their morning routine, sit behind their desk and do paper work, go back home at Late-hor'ep-sable'ep, perform their evening routine, go to bed. Those perfect day were of the past. Now Morep had to welcome visiting Im'eps and, worst of all, somehow entertain them until Senjorin'ep Pelotin was free. Morep didn't even really understand the concept of "entertainment".
Morep had thought about asking Senjorin'ep Pelotin to find someone more suitable for the job. But with barely enough work to fill up half a day of work, Morep couldn't possibly justify that demand. This abundance of free time also brought them to the current situation - visiting Petnelas farm at Early-hor'ep-fajr'ep.
This far from the city, Morep felt all the stress melt away. Maybe a bit to perfectly. It was true that Pelombis was far away, but that in it self was also a reason to be stressed - Morep was elsewhere then behind there desk during Hor'ep-fajr'ep. After a kick scan of their memories Morep realized this had happened every single time they came here for the past couple jar'eps. After a more careful analyse, Morep realized this effect was even becoming stronger after every visit.
Before Morep reached any bigger revelations, they suddenly halted their steps. Something was wrong. Really, really wrong! Moreps life should only consist of doing things. There shouldn't be any, or at least barely any, thinking. One of the only things needing active thinking for Morep was walking around. And that was only because all the other Im'eps were too incapable to place something back at exactly the same place as before. Otherwise Morep would just walk to work with their eyes closed. Even when answering questions, Morep always used the same answer for the same question - people tend to always ask the same things, especially when you have a memory like Morep's.
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The worst counter example happened a couple of days ago while Morep was putting down Senjorin'ep Pelotin's ideas on paper. The Mayor was going over the organisation for the Migration North that would start after next season, while making comments about possible problems that could emerge - those were then noted down by Morep. It was mostly a check list about basic needs like materials, food, fuel, etc. Like usual, Senjorin'ep Pelotin sometimes said more complex questions aloud instead, the main difference being that the answer wasn't found by just comparing numbers, but needed one to think about it. Yes think about it. So, when Morep made a suggestion it wasn't that weird they had a mental breakdown right on the spot. The shocked look of Sinjorin'ep Pelotin also didn't help - Pelotin never let their emotion slip and Morep, or any previous secretary, never mad suggestions.
More like, Morep thought they had had a mental breakdown. Their memories didn't provide them any answers to explain what happened, they didn't provide anything at all. Morep was trying to forget a bigger problem - an obviously pointless thing to try: they couldn't remember what happened back then at all. While most may not even have realized something was missing, it was a complete different case for Morep, who should be able to re-watch their day at any given moment.
At first, Morep thought they just had had a terrible essence-ache. It was only later, when the clock started turning purple 76 cycles to soon, Morep knew something was terribly wrong - 7.000 cycles per sekund'ep and 3 sekund'ep per hor'ep. Again, while most could just move on, Morep couldn't even if they wanted to. For the last 3 days their internal clock had been exactly 76 cycles behind! All the time! Morep's internal clock wasn't just a vague feeling that would adapt over time. No, it was an instinctive calculation that used the length of Morep memories to determine how late it was. Memories that were now flawed! Leaving a aching stress at the back of Morep's mind...
Actually, that had been the case. Right now - on the farm - Morep felt calm... To calm.
Once again forcing themselves to think, Morep reached the conclusion that stress was normal for them, like a toxic friend that kept clinging to you. Morep immediately made a list of reasons that should prove the current situation was weird. Highly abnormal even.
- The hole city was an organization mess because of the lack of Im'eps - stressful.
- The ground under Morep's feet was made of lign'ep instead of sable'ep - slightly stressful.
- Morep's internal clock was 76 cycles behind the supposedly "real time" - never fading stress.
- The upcoming meeting with Petnelas who always asked complicated question, as well as pushing Morep to give an opinion about anything - stressful.
- Finally, the act of even thinking about all this in the first place - highly stressful.
Going over the list a couple of times, Morep could only reach one conclusion: They should be extremely stressed out right now! But no, Morep felt perfectly calm... Visiting Petnelas's farm had always been the closest Morep had ever gotten to a vacation. To be precise the long walk in between was the vacation, talking with Petnelas was horrible. As if a delicious kivi'ep contained a small bit of sabl'ep, which left a sour after taste. And now, with that walking vacation revealing itself as something closer to a nightmare, it was like all the sap contained in your frukt'ep had somehow changed to sabl'ep. Disgusting!
Morep hated coming to Petnelas's farm!!