LOCKED TO alchemicals

[deaftly]

[He doesn't remember anything. All he knows is that there's a bright light in his face and he just wants to sleep. After a couple of minutes of tossing and turning he finally opens his eyes and sits up. The room he's in is perfectly white, without any sort of interesting features. There's a desk and a chair, but nothing on either of them. They're as white as the walls and floor, and on closer inspection, the bed he's in is just as white and spotless as the rest of the room. The sheets are a bit on the stiff side even though he's been sleeping under them, and the bed is kind of hard for his liking, so he finally squirms out from under the covers and stands.

The clothes he's wearing strike him as being wrong, though he can't recall what the "right" clothes would be. They're white - like everything else - and they're very simple. He doesn't have anything to compare them to, but the material is soft and kind of thin and feels a little odd. He shrugs off his confusion about the clothes and starts for the door. Even the doorknob is white, which strikes him as strange for about half a second before he yanks the door open.

The room that he enters is spacious. Like the room he woke up in, everything is white. There's a sofa, a small table in front of the sofa, and a couple of plush chairs. There's a couple of doors leading elsewhere, and his first order of business is to see where they lead. One leads to a perfectly white kitchen which isn't interesting right now (though some part of him wonders if the food will be just as white) and the other door he comes to is locked. There should be a front door around here somewhere though, right? He doesn't want to be here. He can't remember why he's here (or anything, really) but being here doesn't seem right.]

Comments

[alchemicals]

Shit -

[And that will get Kimbley to back right the hell up, only to be brought to an abrupt halt by his back hitting the cabinets; he stumbles a little before catching himself and it takes him a moment to get his bearings.

He seems more startled than flat-out afraid, though; just the same, it takes him a moment to figure out words.]

You...You are not human, are you...

[He's got no idea what he thinks the guy is, but "not human" seems like a decent place to start.]

[deaftly]

[That gets Naki to flinch and he goes from looking scared to downright terrified. He can't seem to figure out what to do with his hands, but eventually he raises them as if to shield himself. He messes with the collar of his shirt with one hand while the other finally settles against his arm. Naki can't keep his eyes on Kimbley and instead looks anywhere but at the other man, all while continuing to back up. He hits the table, starts a bit, and maneuvers his way around it. For some reason he can't come up with anything to say, because telling Kimbley he is human seems to be a blatant lie at this point, but admitting to being something else is what's causing him to panic so badly. He has no idea why, he just knows that having someone find out about this is a very bad thing.]

[alchemicals]

[...Shit. Okay. Okay, let's just...breathe for a moment and try to work out what the fuck to even say to that, because of all reactions he could have gotten he was admittedly not expecting that one.]

...Hey. Hey, come on. I'm not scared of you or going to beat your ass or anything, I just want to know what the hell's going on.

[deaftly]

I... I don't know.

[His voice is very quiet, and for a moment Naki's not even sure if he spoke. He shakes his head and tries again.]

I don't... I can't remember shit. I don't know why it's bad, but it's... it's really bad.

[It's the only explanation he can offer and he knows it's not a good one. If he could remember anything else that would help...]

[alchemicals]

What's really bad?

[He's not exactly following, hang on.]

[deaftly]

People knowing that I'm not human? Or... being found out, maybe? I dunno. It's just bad when people realize, I think.

[He seems a bit more relaxed now, but he's staying way over here.]

[alchemicals]

Oh. Well, yeah, it probably scares the hell out of people.

[He shrugs after a moment.]

It'll be good for getting out of here, though - I mean, if nothing can hurt you like that...? Your chances will be better if you can just shrug off injuries like what happened earlier, right?

[deaftly]

Well, yeah, that's true. I don't know the extent of it, but it seems pretty useful.

[He's still a bit anxious, but he finally moves to sit at the table so he's not just hovering near the bedroom door awkwardly.]

...I guess it's gonna take more than that for my memories to come back though. I still don't remember shit.

[alchemicals]

...Yeah, probably.

[Ugh, this is really frustrating.]

Just because we haven't seen a way out yet doesn't mean there isn't one; maybe it just means we haven't been here long enough. Waiting shit out won't be so bad as long as there's someone else around, though - it's still going to be really bad, don't get me wrong, but at least there's someone else to talk to, I guess, and this way we can plan and shit.

[deaftly]

[He glances up at that, staring curiously at Kimbley while he works out what to say in response. He hasn't given up hope of escaping, but the words are nice just the same.]

Yeah. I mean, at least we're not in a jail cell or anything! Well, it's still locked and we can't escape, but at least it's nice. And there's someone else here. So we're not alone and it's not like we're being starved or anything.

["Jail cell" isn't quite right though, is it? He's not sure what to call it, but this is almost familiar somehow. Naki shakes his head. He suspects that's a memory he doesn't want right now.]

Anyway, we'll find a way out of this shit together! At the very least we've got the food idea; if they gave us this much food to start out with, I seriously doubt they'll let us starve to death here.

[alchemicals]

[...That first part seems to strike him strangely, and leading into the second...]

...Do you feel like we've done something like this before too?

[The question is sudden and blunted, like he's not sure what he thinks about it himself.]

Not this exact thing, because this is an entirely new sort of weird and suspicious for me, but the whole...being locked in somewhere and watched all the time thing. It feels kind of like I've done this before.

[deaftly]

Ahh-- you too? Yeah, it feels really familiar, and not a good kind of familiar like my name.

[Assuming it is his name, that is.]

I can't remember anything about it but yeah, it's... it's kind of freaking me out. But it's...

[He narrows his eyes and stares down at the table, absently picking up the pen to play with it while he thinks.]

...I don't think it was jail. I mean, I can't say for sure that it wasn't, but that doesn't feel right. I think it was sort of like it but... I dunno.

[alchemicals]

[He finally makes his way over to that table, though he's going to make sure the guy isn't going to just...bolt before he joins him properly.]

I don't know what it was for me, either. I get the feeling I wasn't eating very much, though - the starvation thing is what made me think of it. I don't think they were doing that because I think I'd be more fucked up than I am, but it doesn't feel right thinking about it, either.

[...]

...Do you think we did something? Before coming here, I mean - like maybe we did something fucked up and we're criminals or something.

[deaftly]

[He doesn't move when Kimbley sits down, so at least he's calmed down for the time being!]

You do seem kinda scrawny.

[Thanks, Naki.]

But... maybe? I dunno. Something about this is really wrong though, and I think it's just how nice this place is. I mean, sure, it's a little barren, but they gave us a lot of food and a nice bed, which... doesn't really seem like something you'd get if you'd fucked up somehow. I think the idea that we've been sold to some fucking psycho who put us in here to watch makes more sense, but if that was the case you think the fucker would at least give us something to do. I mean, I dunno about you, but I'm not gonna be all that interesting if I've got nothing to focus on.

[...]

Though maybe he gets off on watching us sit here and try to figure this shit out, that could be it.

[alchemicals]

[He's quiet for a moment, thinking that over.]

...No one's going to miss someone like that, though. If we did fuck up, I mean - who the hell is going to miss a pair of criminals? If anything it'd justify selling us off, right?

Or maybe the thing we sort of remember is wherever they were keeping us before, but that doesn't feel right either because I'm sort of used to it. I don't know how to explain it, but this is...familiar, like wherever I was, I was there for a really long time.

[...]

...You'd think they'd give us something to do, though, yeah. I can't even remember if I had any fucking hobbies, the least they could have done is give us some basket-weaving supplies or something. After a while I'm sure I'll be bored enough to give it a shot.

[deaftly]

I guess that'd make sense. I don't know if there would be anyone that would miss me.

[It's not said in a self-pitying way, it's just a statement.]

So if we did fuck up and I dunno, the cops were corrupt as fuck and allowed us to be sold off... then yeah, I guess that could explain some of this. I'm not really sure why you feel like you were there for a long time. Maybe you were thrown in jail before or something?

[With the amount of terror that this has brought on, it doesn't seem like he was only locked away for a little while either, but he can't be certain about that.]

I dunno how much I'd like basket-weaving though. It sounds boring as fuck. I mean slightly less boring than being stuck in a room with everything being fucking white, but they did leave us a pen.

[Naki uncaps it with a grin.]

I mean we could use the paper they provided, but I'm more interested in giving this place some color, what do you say?

[Naki no]

[alchemicals]

[Kimbley just leans back a bit in the chair, smirking quite like a douchebag, thank you very much.]

You want to go have fun, I'm not going to stop you. Who knows, maybe something important'll fall out while you're doing it and you'll remember something.

[Naki yes.]

[deaftly]

Fuck yeah!

[And off he goes! Naki picks a section of the wall where there's nothing and he begins to draw. The designs aren't anything specific, it's just whatever comes to mind first, but as he he works he gets more into it, looking incredibly happy. Some of the designs are geometric (though they're never exact) while others are more loose and flowing, like he's just letting the pen go wherever it wants. Either way it basically looks like a more simple version of this. He doesn't seem inclined to stop any time soon, sorry Kimbley.]

[alchemicals]

[Well, in fairness it's not like Kimbley is remaining totally still while he does that; he gets up after a moment, disappearing back into the kitchen and returning with another pen eventually. Apparently whomever left them in here doesn't seem aware of what a bad idea it was to leave them alone with white walls and ink; either that or this was exactly the intention and they want them to prove they have souls by creating art or something. Who knows, it's a bit hard to say; either way, after a while of watching him Kimbley seems rather content to find his own expanse of wall nearby.]

You ever done labyrinths?

[He's working on one as he speaks, marking out the dots and the cross for the initial setup before connecting them with easy, clear arcs; he continues very determinedly looping them around, the design eventually ending up as something like this by the time he's done.]

[deaftly]

Labyrinths?

[Naki stops drawing to study what Kimbley's doing. He says nothing as Kimbley works, but eventually it becomes clear to him what Kimbley's doing.]

...I always just called them mazes, I didn't know they had a name!

[...and apparently he doesn't know what a labyrinth is, but alright.]

You just try to reach the end. Though I can't remember if you start from the middle or the opening.

[alchemicals]

[He laughs a bit, but there's no cruelty in it.]

The outside. Labyrinths are different because there's only one path - you don't have to figure it out, you just follow it.

[deaftly]

Oh, really? I thought it was the same sort of thing. I was never good at that shit.

[Probably because he's really impatient...]

How'd you manage to draw it so easily? You were doing some weird thing with dots, right?

[alchemicals]

Yeah. You can draw simple ones like that, and once you've gotten it figured out you can start doing the harder stuff, it all works the same way.

...Come here, though, it does nice stuff to your head if you follow it. It's weird, just follow it with your hand for a while, you'll get to the center after a while.

[deaftly]

...Okay.

[He caps the pen he's holding and reaches out to start following the lines. He expects to get frustrated long before he reaches the center, but aside from having to pause every so often because his eyes kind of mess up where the lines are going, he eventually finds his way to the center. He stops and tips his head.]

...Huh. That's... kinda relaxing, I guess? I'm not really sure how to describe it.

[Kimbley certainly wasn't wrong though. It has done some nice stuff to his head.]

[alchemicals]

It does a great job at calming you right down, anyway.

[He starts setting up another one as he talks, crosses and dots and long arcing lines.]

By the way, I have no idea what you've been doing with the squares but they're interesting as hell.