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 Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 6:47 pm
I wondered, when I first saw the orb, whether this was my father's attempt to make up for his latest screw-up. He always bought me expensive gifts to try to convince me to forgive him. I didn't even know what he had done this time, so I was hardly inclined to forgive him. When I was younger I would have forgiven him without a thought, seduced by the beautiful object, but now? I know better.
My name is Korea. Yes. You got it. Korea. As in the country. It was my grandmother's idea. She met my grandfather while she was working as a nurse in the Korean Conflict, and the year I was born my grandfather died, so she was able to guilt my parents into giving me this cursed name. My last name is completely normal: Harris, so it hardly bears mentioning, because no one ever things of it. After all, how many Koreas are there in any given student body?
Back to the orb, though. Like I said, I thought it was an I'm-so-sorry gift, but when I called my dad to ask what was up, he acted all clueless. I was, at first, unconvinced, but finally I came to the conclusion that he really hadn't done anything. Which set me to thinking.
I went back to the box the orb had come in and found the note which had accompanied the orb. That's when I figured out that my life had just entered the realm of the seriously weird.
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Posted: Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:21 pm
As I stared at the orb over the course of the day, I realised that it seemed to be filled with smoke. I wondered how the artist managed to create the illusion of motion and smoke within the glass, but no matter how much research I put into it during my free time online at the campus library I could find nothing on the technique.
I also tried to find something like it, just to see if there was anything out there. I looked mostly at paperweights - more paperweights than I ever want to see in my life - but I found nothing remotely like my orb. None were so very alive looking as my orb managed to be. Please don't ask how it is that my orb seems to be alive. I really couldn't tell you. It just does.
It was the utter lack of similar objects which forced me to accept that the note I had read and re-read could be true, and that this attractive orb could really be from someone called the goblin king, and that it might actually contain some sort of creature. I couldn't believe I was even considering believing it, but I was definitely running out of alternatives.
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Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:48 pm
I noticed something very odd about my orb this morning. Aside from the fact that its innards move on their own (which is pretty weird, let me say), the thing itself moves. On its own. Without any assistance from anything. Which is, of course, not normal. I noticed this when it rolled itself off my bed, and then bounced a few times on the floor for good measure before rolling under my roommate's bed and re-emerging covered with dust bunnies of a size to rival tumbleweeds. The dust bunnies were seriously gross.
I would have expected the thing to crack or break, or at least show some sort of reaction to having banged itself on the floor a few times, but its surface, when I examined it, was as smooth and unmarred as it had been the day I got it. Remarkable. Well, I was impressed, anyway. My roommate, in typical fashion (for her) failed to notice and continued typing furiously at her laptop.
She's an activist without a cause, poor thing, and she would love to be persecuted, but she's not. She has my sympathies, except when she preaches at me about getting more involved. Not gonna happen. Not in this life. The only cause I'm interested in is the Don't Give Your Kids Shitty Names cause. And only because I'm a default member, quite possibly in the cabinet, though I think kids like Ima Hogg and stuff get precedence. At least my parents weren't being deliberately cruel.
Since it can move on its own, I'm not sure if I'll be able to continue leaving it on my desk when I go to class, and I certainly can't bring it with me to class. I can just imagine the trouble that would cause. I guess it can share the sock and underwear drawer with my stash of beer and yaoi.
It would be kind of funny if it somehow managed to get drunk simply by being near the stuff, or turned gay. But then, I don't know if I'd be able to tell the difference. Half the time it's moving, I'm pretty sure it's like a Roomba, and completely unaware of its location except in relation to things it could hit. And I'm pretty sure orbs are asexual. Wait. That didn't come out right. You know what I mean.
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Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 6:07 am
I have been making an attempt to contain my orb, whose insides, I think, almost look more like flame than smoke much of the time, but it has not been working. If I leave it in my sock drawer with the porn and the alcohol, it somehow bumps the drawer open and I find it later in my backpack. Resignation, I have always felt, is the same thing as submission, which is the same as defeat, but in this case I may have to come to terms with the fact that my little flame-orb is not going to leave me be.
This came to my attention most noticeably this morning, when I was making a sincere attempt to confine the orb to the sock drawer and it kept opening the drawer whenever I turned around. Then - and I have absolutely no idea how it managed it - it looked smug. Yes. A crystal (if that is, in fact, what it is) sphere looked smug. I think I may be just a little bit batty. Or, more likely, school is making me that way. Or my roommate.
Last night she noticed the orb for the first time. Her exact words were: "Pretty, but useless." That's it. She just made a pronouncement, summed up something else's usefulness, and went back to ranting about the outrageous lack of dining choices for vegans on campus. Keep in mind, she's not a vegan, or even a vegetarian, and while I'm certain she knows a lot of them, she really has no reason to be championing their cause. And I'm getting a little tired of looking up at Che Guevara and Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rigoberta Menchu Tum when I glance at her side of the room. I much prefer my side, with its practically pornographic anime prettyboys.
But, back to the orb. Not only did it look pleased with itself for figuring out how to open the drawer, but it then followed me down the hall to the shower and proceeded to roll around happily in the stall. I'm sure there's something wrong with me, that I'm describing its actions with emotion words. Winter break is too far away. Anyway, it seems I'm just going to have to allow the thing to accompany me everywhere, as it seems bound and determined to do so anyway. At least, then, I'll know where it is.
Either that, or I can put it in a sock, tied to another sock, in the sock drawer and see how that works out. I won't. I'll just bring it to class, and if anyone asks, I'll say that it's a tension tamer or something. Everyone knows how ridiculous my courseload is this semester. They won't say a thing.
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Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 4:36 pm
I find it odd that a thing with neither eyes, nor ears, nor any other sensory organs that I can find is capable of recognition, but it would seem that my orb is.
Because one of my friends asked, and I was put on the spot, I told her that the orb was actually electronic, and was a new kind of non-living pet-thing. I told her my dad had gotten it for be, because he does things like that all the time, being a relatively-high-up designer for a certain famous software and technology company. I'm usually the recipient of all sorts of interesting bits of techno-junk.
My friend, Mya, asked because she had noticed that the orb would sort of do what I said as I was sitting in one of the many lounges on campus. I had just told it to cut it out (it was zooming around the room, hiding under furniture, and then darting out to trip them), and it obeyed and rolled back to me, and then deposited itself in my bag. Mya, of course, was astonished, and begged to see if it would listen only to me, or to anyone.
I had no idea, of course, so I let her try. It would seem that, although Mya looks a great deal like me, and sounds a great deal like me, the orb can differentiate between us. The thing refused to do a thing she said without my repeating it. I claimed ignorance as to why, and said it probably had a voice recognition chip that I hadn't realized I'd triggered. My dad's not good about including instructions with his gifts, though he usually gives some sort of identification, and Mya knows this, so she accepted it.
I continue to be impressed by this gift from the Goblin King, though I still can't think of any troubles that I might be having that this fascinating crystal could possibly help me solve.
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Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 3:48 pm
When I was little, I used to wonder about the stars. This was before I learned about millions of suns and solar systems and all that s**t they teach you in school to take the magic out of things. I miss being able to believe in magic. My orb makes it difficult for me to deny magic anymore, but there is still far less mystery in the world, and I think it is a crime.
I find that I harbor a growing resentment toward all those who destoryed my childhood fantasies and illusions with reality. The real world sucks. People who work hard and do mostly good are given nothing, and those who are thoughtless, vapid, and selfish get everything their little hearts desire. I know better than to say that it's not fair, but I can wish it weren't so.
Maybe that's the wish my orb is supposed to help me fulfill. Maybe I have good things coming to me, too. It would be nice. It's been almost a week since I received my orb, and while it gives me great pleasure, it has shown no signs of wish-granting. But who am I to complain? I have a decent life. Just because the beautiful girls down the hall have all the handsome guys screwing them all the time and the same guys don't give people like me - or me - a second glance, or even a first glance, usually.
Why the resentment? Well, my next door neighbor, room 518, had two guys in her room last night, one after the other. Both came to my room first, having been told to go to room 516. I answered the door, and when asked directed them to go next door. She screwed both of them, and neither one was the wiser. Neither boy was her boyfriend. He's away for the weekend.
I just don't see why it's like that. Well, I do, but, like I said before, I wish it weren't. Maybe the orb will help.
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Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:24 pm
My last words were, "maybe the orb will help." I feel that I must revise them, because I don't think the orb's going to help. Off-hand, based on the orb's recent and current behavior (which is to say, its behavior for the last hour), I think it's far more likely to act like a crazed, maniacal thing and freak me and my roommate out than to help.
But maybe I'm not being fair. Maybe its spinning around crazily and slamming into things and bouncing about is somehow to my benefit. I'm getting exercise trying to catch it. My roommate is being stirred from her usual state of righteous indignation to be bemused instead. I am creating lots of new swear words. Yes, this is exactly what I needed to make my troubles go away.
Thank you so much, Goblin King. Really.
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