The Death Blossom Chronicles - 1 - Atman Process and The Death Blossom

Resulting from the Fourth Great War, Atman-253 is a drug that fundamentally alters the recipient, revealing their true nature. The death-to-life transformation known as The Death Blossom .

The Atman Process was the life’s work, and some say the divine inspiration, of Dr. Willard Ward. It is both credited for saving civilization and crushing it simultaneously. Dr. Ward sought a mechanism to allay the evils of society by enabling the peaceful co-existence of its inhabitants. It was Karl Marx that popularized the phrase “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” It was Willard Ward who changed that goal to “From each according to society’s need.”

 

Under normal circumstances, if there are such things in the history of the world, Willard Ward’s vision would have been completely dismissed, but coming as it did, on the heels of the Fourth Great War, it fell on eager ears. The Fourth Great War had brought all of the civilizations of Earth to the very brink of total destruction. Even today there are areas of such intense radiation fallout that they are uninhabitable by any living thing. It was out of this conflict, in the biological weapons laboratories, that several forms of drugs had been developed to fundamentally alter and control human beings for the betterment of society. The most successful of which was a combination of the drug that Dr. Ward had discovered, Atman-253, and the process developed to employ it most effectively.

 

Dr. Ward had selected Atman as the name of his project, and its products, not coincidentally. In the Hindu belief Atman is held to mean the universal self, the true nature of man. As fundamentally amazing and utterly staggering as it sounds, that was what Willard Ward set out to accomplish. A drug that would reveal the true nature of the person that consumed it. He was wildly successful at finally accomplishing this astronomical feat, in the form of Atman-253. The consequences of the raw drug were, however, a price too high for even the beleaguered warring nations clenched in the death throes of the Fourth Great War to accept. But when Dr. Ward developed the process of small doses and adjustments, known collectively as the Atman Process, the world was weary enough to accept it as the final solution for world peace. Out of desperate times came desperate measures.

 

In the Atman Process small doses of Atman-253 produce a mild catatonic state in the patient, allowing the brain to rewire itself according to the fundamental true nature of the recipient. Initially the process would require drug application followed by behavioral observation, but as the brain patterns of various archetypes became evident the process could be greatly enhanced by direct measurement of the outcome. Additionally, the measurement function provided the ability to halt the alteration short of the complete transition, leaving a form that was best suited to the needs of society. A person with a truly violent nature could be frozen at a point where their true being had been expressed enough to serve in military or policing roles, still needed for order. Just about any extreme could be halted at a stage which provided society an improved outcome. In the rare case of those whose true nature was that of an extreme predatory psychopath there was no safe limit for the alteration, and society’s needs demanded elimination of these individuals. By and large though most individuals could be altered to provide improved value to society, and out of desperation the mass alteration of entire populations was agreed in order to save the Earth from self-destruction.

 

When used in its raw form Atman-253 causes instantaneous physical death. During the period from physical death, defined by the end of heart function, to the cessation of brain activity the recipient under goes a complete brain transformation into that of its true nature. Those that have survived the process, which in real time may only require 5-10 minutes, have reported the intense hallucinatory nature of the transformation causing itself to be realized in a dream so real that the recipient actually believes that they were transported to a different reality to complete the transformation. The virtual time of this transformation could be realized as days or even years to the recipient. If the recipient survives the violent transformation of their neural pathways the “kickstart” of the new brain is usually sufficiently violent to restart the heart function. The surviving recipient emerges as a new human being, completely transformed. In the romantic writings of the underworld this has become known as The Blossoming, and hence the colloquial name for the entire process initiated by a full dose of Atman-253, The Death Blossom.

 

I have taken it upon myself to chronicle the stories of those that have sought out and attempted The Death Blossom. This is not meant to be a scientific chronicle, as I have not the power to record the fate of all of those that traverse this torturous path. Through my own transformation I have received empathic abilities that allow me to observe the Travelers, the name given in Blossom spheres to the willing recipient of the power drug. As physical proximity is required for this observation I can only but observe but a few Travelers. Here are the tails of those that chose to follow this path. Some stories of success, some of failure. All are presented here for your consideration. I speak not to the morality of this practice, nor its outcomes, but only seek to chronicle the lives that have been created and destroyed in the process.

Author's Note

I realize that this story can still be improved. I will not limit your comments. All comments that would improve the story or my writing are welcome.