It's already just about noon, and I finally manage to get up. The first thing I notice is that, just like the last five nights, I was still at my research desk located in the basement of my house. I looked down at the thing I was working on... it was supposed to allow someone to temporarily pass through walls thanks to a portal, obviously, created by the machine. Of course, none of this worked. I worked on just getting the portal to work properly for more than a week, basically non-stop, but just like my other inventions, so far, this has proven to be yet another dud. The machine, in the form of a ray gun as usual, looked pretty neat. It was actually much smaller than my usual ray guns, and was mostly a chrome color, which can be attributed to me not painting the thing yet. The handle on the device was some sort of rubber or plastic, the same material that now covers the laser gun that serves as the hilt of my sword. The desk was a complete mess, as usual, and had strewn bolts, circuit boards, springs, and various other things littering it... that's not even mentioning the saliva that covered the top of it thanks to the fact that I slept here. [i]Huh, maybe Aurum was right, I really shouldn't have bought a bed... I mean, I never use the thing.[/i] I think as I finally get up from the cold, black, metal chair. I remember the tinfoil hat on my head, and look around for my weird-looking green hat. I end up finding it in the middle drawer of a filing cabinet... one that I don't even remember getting, which was weird, because it had a lot of my stuff in it, somehow, the least of which was my hat. For some reason, this mysterious cabinet held several things that reminded me of when I still lived with my parents, including pictures, a couple old school uniforms, and the three inventions I made before I found a way around the brainwashing bubble. I shrugged, and decided to keep those things there before heading upstairs, and accidentally greeting the area where my parents would have been... immediately smacking my own forehead after remembering that I'm in my own place now. 

I've had my own place for one week and I still do stupid things like that. I would have made sure that I had my goggles on, but, since I was working on the dimensional ray, I still had them on from last night, so, I didn't need to bother with finding them. I did need to bother with showering before I left, after all, it's been a week, and I'm pretty sure if I take a step outside at this point, it would be considered biological warfare against Vrondi, or something. Sure, it would be difficult for them to actually make fun of me, thanks to the bubble, but I still didn't want to possibly incur the wrath of... wait, who was in charge again? Some sort of fire dragon, or something? Whoever it was could probably tear me to pieces if he tried... well, that, and my scales were kinda losing their shine, which was never a good sign of health for a scale-covered Bleek. After my shower, and putting my clothes back on (or, rather, the same hat, but merely an identical jacket and pants) I head back to the door, finally ready to go, I pick up the small brown backpack that held all of my stuff, and headed out the door. I was going to see just how much I could actually get for these old devices. The fact that they were no use to me, and eventually, I'd have some bills to pay made the choice to sell my old inventions much easier. Once outside, I got the usual laugh, chuckle, and occasional pointing child that I usually did thanks to the weird way I dressed, and I honestly didn't mind it. Sure, they probably think I'm stupid, and would point out tiny things such as how I dress, or how my inventions never work, or maybe even the fact that I don't spend all my time studying Ascension like the rest of the Bleeks do. Ever since I removed the cloth that covered my wings' natural color, and the contacts that hid my natural eye color, I've been singled out for being a 'half-breed' or a 'mutt' by some of the meaner citizens, but, I ignored all of that as I walked over to the nearest pawn shop... the only place that might have a chance of buying my things, and only then I'd have to really convince the shop that this stuff isn't COMPLETELY broken, and that it CAN be useful to someone, in some way, shape, or form... yeah, it was a long shot.

As soon as I entered the shop, I took off my backpack, and looked around for an employee who wasn't busy at the time. As I stood there, waiting, I tried to figure out which of the five or so employees that dealt with customers was the easiest to sell to. I couldn't come up with any answers, as they all seemed kinda strict, unfortunately for me. One of them, an elderly descendant who appeared mostly Seraphin, yet had white scales on the front of his arms, finally noticed me standing there, and had enough free time to deal with me. I smiled as I took out the junk, and he asked me, sounding somewhat annoyed "So, are you selling, or pawning this garbage?" with that, my hopes of getting anything for this stuff were dashed. "I'm selling, sir." I calmly said to the man, who laughed as if I told him a joke, and eventually managed to say "I'm sorry but we don't take trash." He then added, having calmed down somewhat "If you're not going to buy anything, and that's what you were planning to sell, then you should leave." with that, I picked up my bag of junk and headed back out into the world. [i]Well, that didn't work out like I hoped it would... hey, at least I didn't make a scene, or something. Who knows, maybe someday I'll make something that's worth something.[/i] I thought as I looked around at the streets, joking to myself somewhat. The streets seemed a lot emptier than they usually are, for some reason which I couldn't really think of, and, of course, whenever I asked if something was happening, nobody would answer, with the general populace generally preferring to pretend I don't exist when I talk to them. I was then left to wonder what could be going on that would drive others away from here, after all, to most of us, this was a paradise... of course, I still like it here in Vrondi, but mainly for the sunny and warm weather rather than the buildings or the population.