For the uninitiated, the Treehugger norns are a special breed of the aforementioned creature that love nature. Beyond a simple love for the outdoors, they crave open environments, plants, wild critters, and fresh air. While I cannot find fault in these pursuits, I did wish to see exactly how these creatures would react to being denied their desired environs.
First I stepped into my preferred location of the communication room. It is small enough, surely, and is cold, heartless metal. There are no greenery or critters, and you feel the creeping dread of claustrophobia just looking at the place.
These norns do not just like open space, they crave it. They are not as social as other norn varieties, and in the right circumstances are physically afraid when crowded or trapped. So I placed eight (8) newborns into the room, placing barriers at either end to give it a nice, square feeling to it. I supplied plenty of food, and two vendors constantly shooting out more.
Upon their arrival, the eight subjects began to smile and grab the nearest cheese to happily eat. Several seconds of this and they began to realize how many other norns there were around them. In what was one of their last seconds free of pure misery, some of them cried out that they were bored. They would never have that problem again.
It has now been several hours and all they can do is run into the barriers, screaming that they wish to be alone. They cry that they are scared. They plead with me, their God, to free them from this torment. They beg each other for advice on escaping this horror, but none can help them.
They do eat, I must remark. Thank goodness for this. Perhaps, as with humans with anxiety issues, eating helps calm the nerves slightly. They spent at least 80% of their time screaming and crying for help, however.
You might notice a smaller norn or two in the mix. They will not reproduce normally, I regret to say. I must inject them with sex chemicals and urge them on. Even then, after almost 2 hours there have only been two offspring. They are simply too filled with terror and soaking with tears to bother with kissing or romance.
Another thing they will not do without my instruction is sleep. I suppose it is due to my soft spot for nightmares that causes my intervention at all. They are so exhausted from the nonstop crying, screaming, and running (bouncing off of the barriers) that when told to rest, they sit down and immediately fall asleep. They don't sleep long and I know their nightmares are crammed full of God chasing them down crowded corridors.
There entire domain is not enough for them to stand and all be seen.
A little over 2 hours has passed for most of the norns (the two younger excepting) and the first fatality has occurred. One of the males could take it no longer and his gentle nature (an advertised feature of this particular breed) fell aside to pure anger. He beat a nearby female to death in a matter of seconds by hitting her nonstop faster than I thought possible. I considered intervening, but I did not.
They are beginning to bore my vast intellect now, so I believe I will do away with them. I am turning off the food vendors.
2.5 hours in, and the moans of starvation have begun to blend in with the shrieks of "me extremely crowded" and "me extremely scared". I don't think it will be long now. Apparently they don't like me very much. Imagine that! And I was JUST about to release them into the norn gardens, with plenty of open space, plants, and animals. Oh well, if they insist.
Yeah, I don't particularly care for them either at this point. Plus, they were taking longer to die of starvation than I had anticipated. In response to the echoing cacophony of norn screams, I answered back "maybe hit norn!" This was all the instigation they needed. All 9 of them began wailing on their nearest neighbor. The sound of the slaps and cries of "me scared" and "me hurt" were delicious. With the death of the eldest female I told them to rest.
You can't really see her body in this picture, but she is back there, I assure you. They all kind of realized what they had done, like when the people stranded in a snow storm commit their first act of cannibalism. Sure, it has its moral implications, but things have slightly improved as far as conditions go. One less norn. Will they learn? Probably not. But they all dislike each other now. They used to (in the early times) sing about how they liked each other. When they realized that the other norns are what is causing their torment, they went back to a neutral state. Now that they have taken up arms against each other, they actually dislike their kind. Now how is God looking in your eyes?
Two more deaths, and this time you can see the corpses. They now refuse to hit each other. Perhaps their cage needs to be smaller, since there are less? No need, apparently. An enterprising young psychopath named Aswin has taken it upon himself to be the last norn standing. He has committed 3 more serial murders under the watchful eyes of God. He has not tried to hide his crime, and they screamed his name into the void, tears rolling down their tormented cheeks as they met their end.
There are only 3 left, and Aswin likes his chances at this point.
Looks like I bet on the wrong horse. Andre has come out of nowhere and finished of Aswin, just as he was on the verge of ultimate victory. Now Andre stands as the lone treehugger norn. Look at the smile on his face!
He actually has a chance to express an emotion other than fear or crowdedness! What shall his reward be? Starving to death among a pile of rotting norn corpses? Sounds about right.
Enjoy it while you can!
