Chapter Text
Morgan the Corrupted.
Such is a tale that has been whispered down from elder to child for hundreds for generations and will be whispered for a thousand more. By the age of five, every child knows it by heart and it grows inside each of them. Each time it is told, the tale is slightly different and yet it is always the same.
No matter the storyteller, the story itself always begins the same. A young child, newly nineteen, with sunken eyes. They are more bones than flesh, their voice is quiet and hesitant, their nails are bitten to the quick, and their hair is perpetually mussed. Their name is a common one, thrown about carelessly.
Morgan.
Morgan was a petty thief, and by all logic, all the rules of the cruel society which had trapped them, they should have been despised. They should have been hated, for their existence alone was spit upon.
And yet, it was not so. The opposite, rather, was true. They were loved, something so simple yet so strong that it would break the hearts of a bitter, hardened soul. They were loved; by every person whose path they crossed, they were loved.
Well, not quite every person, some would say. For some curious souls must wonder why they traveled alone at such a young age, why - loved or not - they were starved and scarred, and why there was such overwhelming pain in their eyes that few storytellers could ever do it justice. And indeed, they went only by Morgan and no other name. Such evidence calls into question whether or not Morgan, who was so adored, was truly loved by the ones who had every reason to love them without condition.
But no matter. They were loved, if not by every person, by almost every person. It would be hard to see why, for their smile was awkward, their clothes baggy and torn, their face pleasing but not handsome. And yet anyone who happened upon them would feel as though they were meeting a god. This, however, was completely incorrect, for Morgan’s gift was not in their strangeness, but rather in their humanity. For they were truly kind, caring for those who could not care for themselves and stealing from those who were more than able to afford it.
Morgan, in their overwhelming humanity, soon became legend, spreading like wildfire. Soon, there were tales of an odd young child who could turn shouting into laughter, tears into grins. These tales bled into writing, into fireside stories, into neighborhood gossip. And soon, that gossip was whispered into the ears of the gods themselves.
They were not pleased; who were the humans, to raise someone so human above everyone else and worship them as if they were almost a god?
But to kill the young human would not do, for to kill them would turn them into a martyr. Even if it were done subtly, such a thing would be impossible to avoid because the gods’ every action are preserved in history forever. No, that would not do at all. So instead, the gods chose a villain to carry out their wishes.
The villain of this tale has gone by a thousand names, and perhaps will go by a thousand more. But to our hero, they were known only as Alex.
And to Alex, our poor hero's name would be treated as a treasure, to be spoken softly. Fondly.
But here we are, getting ahead of ourselves. Fondness was not part of the discussion, when Alex was sent. For they were Alex the Jealous, chosen by the gods, only Morgan’s age yet so much more than Morgan ever was. For they were gifted with powers greater than human comprehension. What they wanted, was. Whoever they wished to be, they became. They were ruthless but beautiful, handsome yet terrifying. Any person to lay eyes on them was both lovestruck and afraid.
So the gods, who had chosen Alex from birth, commanded them to destroy any trace of Morgan from the world. Not only to kill them but to remove them, to make their name mean nothing even if it was shouted from the highest mountain.
But Alex did not much care for following orders. They would kill Morgan, certainly, for the sole purpose that it would be entertaining in a world that had lost its charm. But they would not do so without first meeting this person who had garnered such interest.
They wanted something fun, and something fun is precisely what they found.
But they also found something they had not anticipated, and that something was love.