Mort Enjoys Fall
Mort took a moment to take in the psychic resonance of the city around him. Sometimes it was overwhelming, living in a city. Too many people, too many things. The psychic backwash could make your mind completely useless for days at a time. Mort was careful to filter all the incoming noise most of the time, but one could slip, especially if tired or stressed.
Right now, though, was a pleasant time. Mort turned his filter way down with a thought and absorbed the resonance around him. This quarter of the city was calm at this hour, especially in this park. The business men were not ready for lunch; the initial message runners were already about; the market was distant. Most of what was left were the shapes of the architecture.
And then there were the trees.
Mort had heard humans talk of the colors and the sounds of autumn. Interestingly, they often spoke of chaos, like "riots of color," yet seemed enraptured by it. Perhaps the human psychology was that different from cerebreks, but Mort doubted it. He suspected that, like himself, people just lacked the words to describe the utter harmony and beauty of the change.
Mort did not see or hear as humans did. Not having ears or eyes had that effect. But he sensed them all the same. Oh yes, he did.
While he didn't perceive colors, he perceived the leaves in intimate, almost sensual detail. A green leaf emitted different resonance than a yellow leaf. Each shade of yellow, each mark, flaw, or shade shift, each molecule emitted slightly different resonance. The resonance soaked -- basted -- into his mind, changing the sensations of the world. What humans saw as creeping color changes, Mort and his kind felt as psychic resonance, relaying the changes in the leaf itself.
The sounds of the season as well -- Mort didn't hear them, but he perceived the changes in the wind blowing through the trees as the leaves changed and dropped away. The movements of humans changed as they walked through the discarded leaves.
Mort felt sorry for humans, sometimes. They did not know the reality they missed. But Mort knew. He knew the essence of the world, the essence of change, the essence of life. As chlorophyll broke down, revealing a different reality of the leaf, Mort felt the change, the change to the leaf's ... leafness. And that in turn, revealed the changing reality of the tree itself. And the tree and the world reacting to the change in light and temperature, the world itself changed.
And Mort perceived it all in his mind, without sight, without hearing.
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