Discord's New Toy

I woke up to the pleasant noise of Stylo. It's a nice thing to wake up to. I reached up through the haze my sleep encrusted eyes were passing off as "sight" and wrapped my clammy hand around my iPhone . I yanked the only expensive thing I own off the tinny speakers. I turned off The Gorillaz and my hand rested there for another second before I remembered I had this thing called a job. With a sigh, I quickly rolled over, sat up and swung my legs off the bed.  I looked at the gray walls of my crappy little apartment. They were probably white at one point. I had no money for paint, so I stopped giving a shit about three seconds after first entering the place five years ago. A 23 year old man who just graduated from college with a liberal arts degree should be living the high life. All that fucking degree I worked my ass off for amounted to was a job sitting behind a desk at some crappy mechanical pencil company. Well, everyone has to start somewhere right? Hopefully I wouldn't end up starting and stopping here. I mean, I was LITERALLY a pencil pusher.

I shambled down the hallway like a zombie looking for brains. I turned right and shoved the door to the kitchen open and found my best appliance, the electric coffee pot. Oh baby, don't fail me now. I set that up, since I couldn't afford one of those fancy ones that starts making coffee when your alarm goes off. Student loans are a bitch, especially your first year out of uni. I should have just gone with community. Whatever. It is what it is. And it isn't high times.I popped some bread into the toaster and headed across the hall to the bathroom. The hot water helped invigorate me, especially with its' sporadic spurts of cold water. Ah, what a day. I toweled off and decided to hold off on brushing my teeth, since coffee tastes like butt after toothpaste has invaded your mouth. I held off on cream and put a little bit of sugar in my mug. After devouring my toast that tasted like and felt like carpet, I brushed my teeth, threw on some khakis, a striped button up shirt, and a black tie. Sighing as I grabbed my briefcase and stepped lazily into my loafers, I prepared for another invigorating day.

For some reason, I was in a cheerful mood by the time I got to work. It was a pretty nice day, and I had decided to start working out after work. I even bought a few old tae-kwon-do tapes. Maybe that had something to do with it. That all changed as soon as my eyes landed on the fat little woman that was my boss. She pretended like she wielded some sort of authority over people around her, even her superiors. She was infuriating, doubly so, since she stood only four and a half feet off the ground. Or less. I've got nothing against short people, or really any type of person. The only reason it makes it so much worse is really because she has to stand on her tip toes to snap her fingers in my face, which she does to everyone. Being five foot ten didn't help my case. Too short to be considered threatening, too tall to stay on eye level with my boss.

Fat pink fingers snapping in my face snapped me out of my reverie. I looked down at my boss, who had decided to dye her hair red over the weekend. She also stenciled her eyebrows and wore way too much eye shadow, along with a toner that was practically white. All in all, she looked kind of like a clown. Not enough to be funny, but enough to cause double takes. Near the end of the day she would always sweat too much and-

"Miller!" She yelled shrilly, even though I was literally right in front of her.

"Yes, Ms. Dodds?" Okay. Just the right amount of drawl. Enough to annoy, not enough to make angry.

With an annoyed gesture she shoved some order forms into my hands. Christ, again? Just when I thought today would be better, she shoves her work from last week on me. Of course they're all late, so I'll have to get these done before I can get to my own orders. Great. Looks like another skipped lunch break. Whatever. just do it and get it over with as quickly as possible.

"I expect those to be on my desk by no later 3 p.m. No excuses, understood?" She looked like she was a teacher looking down on a kindergarten student. I was tempted to grab her forehead and hold her there while she tried to get into her office, but I like money and food, so I decided against it.

"You got it Ms. Dodds."

Finally, the day came to an end. I was hungry after that skipped lunch break, so I grabbed a sandwich from the cafe down the street. I sat down at an outdoor table and watched the sun set over Seattle. Living here for five years and I could never get over that view. I sighed and thought about how lucky I was that I had found a job so close to my apartment. I didn't even need a car. I was getting close to being able to afford a nicer apartment. Those happy thoughts were utterly obliterated when a bird crapped on my pant leg.

I unlocked and locked my door, threw my pants at the hamper, and traded my work attire for jogging shorts, tennis shoes, and a plain white t-shirt. I looked outside and decided to bring a flashlight with me. Fall was slowly sucking the daylight out of the days and the streetlights were fickle about turning on sometimes. I ran about ten blocks with no stops. I was pretty proud of myself, so I decided to stop and look at a bookstore that sold antique books. I love the smell of old paper, especially after a run.

I didn't really look around all that much, just went up and down a few comfortably cramped aisles. I left without buying, much to the chagrin of the pimple infested teenager behind the counter. I ran ten blocks back to my house, using my flashlight about halfway there. I passed an elderly couple out for a stroll and saw some kids smoking in an alley, who promptly threw away whatever they were smoking as soon as they saw me looking. One of them said something about it being legal. The other called him an idiot and said something about being seventeen. I remember those days.

You could see the Space Needle from pretty much anywhere in the city. Night time was no exception. They lit that thing up like the Fourth of July. It was truly spectacular. Distracted by the towering structure a few miles away, I accidentally ran into a man wearing a black business suit and deep red tie. I turned to apologize and saw he had steel gray hair, golden irises, and small straight goatee. I was still somehow able to perceive all this in the almost dead light. While stammering out an apology, I noticed a strange button on his lapel. A bright red circle, with arrows emanating from the center, going out in all directions. Huh. I don't think I've heard of that organization.

He just smiled and said,"Oh, think nothing of it my dear man. A little bit of chaos is bound to happen at some point in our lives." He said the word 'chaos' with an almost lusting tone. Yeah, the guy was smooth, but really creepy. Who talks like that anymore? Why am I thinking so hard about this? I've got delicious food at the house, along with Gatorade and cable. I smiled at him and hurried off, my pace quickening after the encounter with the strange gentleman.

Arriving at my apartment gasping for breath, I wondered why I had increased my pace so much. That guy must have just set me on edge, for whatever reason. I don't know why. Anyone who could afford a suit like that didn't go around mugging joggers at night. Well whatever. I decided to forego cable in favor of one of my tae-kwon-do tapes. I paused the tape to grab some of that Gatorade. I grabbed some sandwich stuff as well. After finishing the routine, I ate the  sandwich I had made and finished the small green bottle of electrolytey goodness. I took another shower, brushed my teeth and got into bed. One down, five more to go. Then it'll finally Sunday.

That night I dreamed of that guy in the suit. I was jogging in place, but all of my memories were passing me by, in some sort of misty film. They came from farther down the street. Too far to see the end of them. All of my experiences, my innermost thoughts and feelings. My soul. The man just stood off to the side, clinically observing, but I sensed that this was just a facade. One put on in an attempt to emulate professionalism, when in reality, all he wanted was something to alleviate his boredom. I couldn't fault him there. But I didn't like what he was doing. This is my soul we're talking about here. "Hey!" I said, "What the hell do you think you're doing here?" I had stopped jogging at this point, and turned to stare at the man with the strange button on his lapel.

He looked at me in surprise, and suddenly smiled saying, "Sweet Celestia, you frightened me. All the others I've looked at so far seem to be ignorant of my presence." I didn't like the way he said 'others'.

"You shouldn't spy on people. These are my most personal thoughts." At that, I halted the ethereal film passing me by and looked straight into his eyes. What I saw there, wasn't evil. Just...chaotic. And also, mirthful. Like he enjoyed laughing at others, but not so much to hurt them. Suddenly I was no longer feeling threatened. Although that changed slightly when he scowled at the halted memories. Then he smiled again and said,"Well, you're quite unlike these other creatures, aren't you? Not a single one has stopped me from looking into their very cores."

"Who are you?"

"Your kind has many names for me. Discord, Chaos, Loki, to name a few. Your people are aware of me, although I have not been fully aware of you until just recently."

I was surprised to say the least, but hey, this is dreamland, so anything goes. "You mentioned...Loki? Are you a god?"

"No, Loki is a god. One who apparently brought about the end of the universe. I am no god. A god rules over his people, provides for them, demands sacrifice, pain, and prayer from them, and blows them up if he's feeling really squirrelly. I don't bother with that. I just do things. And the effect is rather amusing. In fact, you could say it's what I live for."

"So what do I call you?"

He thought for a few moments. "Kane would be preferable."

"Alright Kane, what do you want?"

"Oooooh, straight to the point, hm? I like you. What's your name?"

"You didn't answer my question."

"Yes I did. In fact I answered two of them." Followed by another slightly creepy smile.

"No you di- wait. Okay. Never mind. My name is Isaac Miller.

"Alright Isaac Miller, let's get started shall we?"

I barely had time to say "What?" When he snapped his fingers and turned into a monstrosity that scared the living crap out of me. I opened my mouth, but no words came out. I tried to scream, but couldn't. Ah. THIS scenario. The one where you're so terrified in a dream that you can't move or speak. A nightmare. The realization did nothing to alleviate my terror when inky black liquid began rapidly flooding the street, and in turn, my mind. Wait... not black. Brown. And really cold. Chocolate milk?