《The Crawford's Multiverse of Madness》Prologue 1 - Who is Zeel Crawford?
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Chest heaving, heart pounding and a mad headache to top it all off - that was how everything began for me.
"Where am I right now?" I ask as cosmic dissonance eats away at what remains of my feeble consciousness.
Cosmic Dissonance – even though it was only a theory up until a successful Multiversal jump, it still feels more authentic than anything I have ever experienced before. It was a phenomenon that occurred due to being out of phase with the Frequency Threshold of a certain Universe or world.
I could have delved deeper into the topic for research purposes but it was borderline metaphysical and ever since my brief tackle with a cosmic entity – Let's just say I am not intrigued to mess with things on a cosmic scale anymore.
So let's see what I can remember – Cosmic Dissonance is a phenomenon that occurs when acclimating to the Frequency Threshold of another universe, during which you have a small chance to receive spasms of memories from what I coined a 'Cosmic Shadow' – vague memories from the subconscious-collective of human minds; it can also be called the Information Dimension – though you can only access it briefly after every jump. The entire process places immense strain on the brain.
I began speaking out loud attempting to get my wits about me, I had trained for this experience a lot but training could still not measure up to the real thing "Fucking shit this hurts. So Cosmic dissonance and cosmic shadows are real huh? No, it's more like an echo than something that actively targets Multiversal Travelers"
As I laid there sprawled out on my very own custom landing pit – a heap of trash, the thought then struck me "Psh, ha ha ha, I survived. Damn those fuckers who said it only had a 10% chance of success, this 10% looks a whole lot right now I bet. Those fuckers will probably die in that Universe" I then complete my self-bragging moment with a middle finger towards the skies while simultaneously thinking 'I am a motherfucking legend' 'I am so cool' 'And awesome'
So who am I? Interesting question to ask. To get that information we'll have to take a trip down memory lane, after all, you can't know who I am without first considering how I became that way.
My name is Zeel Crawford, 23-year-old, white-silver short hair that is surprisingly always well-kept with little maintenance on my part. I am 6"1 or 185 cm roughly, I weigh about 200lb but don't get it wrong, I'm not chubby just my bone density is a bit on the heavy side, I have light brown skin – so light I am often mistaken for a Caucasian.
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"I am unable to move for at the moment, and the cosmic dissonance is much more severe than anything I expected" I whisper to myself as I can feel my body ache from the pain my brain is experiencing, guess I will have to do something about the cosmic dissonance later since it could prove fatal down the line. Though I can always handle pain very well, not sure if that is a blessing or curse from the kind of childhood I had.
After a couple of hours of just lying there idly, I shakily attempt to stand on my two feet – slightly unstable at first but soon I was curling my toes like a pro as my body adjusted to the current situation.
I rotate my neck a couple of times and could hear a couple of clicks as my neck movement smoothens some more, then I look around the junkyard for any indication of where I might be. There, in an inconspicuous corner, as if trying to hide from my prying eyes "Raccoon City Junk Yard".
"I guess this is a primitive world since they still have 'junkyards'" I voice out after careful observations, with the cosmic dissonance phenomena mostly gone I was able to piece together the name of the universe I had just intruded upon "Resident Evil Universe huh? Sounds demonic"
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Zeel Crawford was born April 16, 4055 the son of 'The Crawford's' Tom Crawford and world-leading scientist Clara Crawford. From his birth Zeel was far above almost everyone, his family was a household name in the intergalactic alliance and often fought for the equal rights of alien species who were suppressed by humans, or as they now call their race – Homosuperiors. Humans are arrogant bastards right?
30th century was known as the year of major break-throughs and paradigm shifts galore. All forms of science whether physics, biology, chemistry, and their sub-fields experienced advancements by generations due to the invention of INT also known as Immortal Nanite Technology. With the emergence of immortality via nanites, humanity lost its … well humanity.
By the time everyone had realized that they had lost their humanity, they were already too infatuated with the gains of what immortal lives could bring – better technology, prolonged vitality, more time for space exploration, no sickness, and longer sex.
Every newborn since then in the 30th century would be injected with INT upon birth since it had a wide range of applications, but like everything in nature – everything comes with a price.
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The price of INT was something humans should have never let happen – the cost was the suppression of empathy for foreign beings and a previously undiscovered pathway in the human brain once again becoming active.
This pathway was previously eliminated by natural evolution as it was deemed not necessary for human improvement. That specific pathway governed – ARROGANCE! The nanites increased chemical process in the body and proceeded to fundamentally change neuromodulator processes within the body, by the end of the 30th century there was not a single human left untouched by the INT.
Tom and Clara Crawford were no different as they were born in the early 40th century, at that point it was already too late for any planetary wide major changes to occur. Tom was a man with a tough built, hulking arms and a height of 6"5 that made him look almost god-like. Of course, his white hair did not stop you from thinking he was a descendant of a god as it was a very rare natural color in the 40th century.
Clara rocked long silver hair that would put Freya herself to shame, 6"2 and loved watching sitcoms of the last two centuries as a pastime, Clara was born in Africa and was a warrior at heart even if she had not been back to her birth country in countless years.
In the mid-40th century, Clara got pregnant, much to Tom's joy. Upon learning of her pregnancy Clara and Tom fell into paranoia and depravity as they became obsessed with siring the 'Perfect Child'.
Together the two founded Project 'Pinnacle' in order to provide for their child the highest form of blessings anyone could ever wish for. During her pregnancy, Clara underwent every experiment from genome modification to body alteration in order to sire a perfect child.
The child known as Zeel became a beacon for all that humanity could be and soon everyone aspired to give birth to a 'perfect child'; by this time the INT had become a part of human biology meaning it could now be passed down hereditarily.
Zeel's birth was like a fuse that set off the destruction of the remaining positive trait humanity had left – collectiveness. Now instead of despising other species as a whole, the human race instead tried to outcompete each other through body modifications – becoming something entirely different from the humans they once were.
Abortions became common if the child was not 'Zeel-like', healthy and normal were now considered defects themselves after all who could be normal in an era of abnormal? Natural became unnatural and unnatural the new trend. Obsessions became a way of life, 'humanity' and 'morals' became derogatory terms.
But as always in any scenario, nature always demanded balance, and so almost as spite by nature itself the 'perfect child' Zeel was born with a major defect – due to all the experiments conducted by Tom and Clara during the prenatal period of her pregnancy, the INT in Zeel was amped up to an unnatural degree suppressing every piece of emotion a human should have.
Zeel was not even able to adopt the twisted arrogance that humanity had long since adopted – he felt nothing and with his remaining sanity, his mind automatically adapted and selected the next best thing – Rationality.
Unable to feel love or express any emotions whatsoever, Zeel's only saving grace was the minor fondness he held for his sister born a year or two after himself. Unlike Zeel his sister was born after grueling experiments where his parents entirely eliminated the INT from her system, gifting the human race its first natural birth in a couple of hundred years.
Later Zeel's parents also removed the INT from their own systems but could not do the same for Zeel as he was too heavily integrated with the nanites.
Finally, as all heroes require a tragic beginning to make the story appealing –whether the tragedy is real or fake, in the year when Zeel was 10 years old he was kidnapped by competitors of the Crawford, the Asheborns.
The attack was staged on a day when Zeel and his mother were on a walk home together from a nearby intergalactic spatial fun dimension.
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