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]

Yeah.

[He moves over toward the wall they were messing with yesterday, finding one of the labyrinths and tracing the path between the lines while he thinks that over.]

So either I just didn't hear them, I was drugged somehow last night so I wouldn't hear them, or they...I don't know, they made me forget them once they were done. I don't think it's that last one because I'd probably be bruised up at least, I would have tried to kick their ass.

[deaftly]

Yeah. Yeah, and I think I would've heard that and pitched in as well, so we'd both be bruised in that case!

[At least there's that. At least he can take small comfort in knowing that their memories haven't been tampered with even further.

...God, this is fucked up.

Naki joins Kimbley, finding one of the other labyrinths to follow because that seems like the best way to not panic over this revelation.]

I guess that does answer the question of whether or not they'll come in here, but... why? Why did they only leave the pens? I mean nothing else was changed or moved or anything, right?

[alchemicals]

...I don't think so. But that might be because we didn't really touch anything? I mean we fucked up the walls, but -

[...]

...They had to have noticed that we fucked up the walls with those pens, right? Why give us more, if that's all we're going to do with them?

[deaftly]

Yeah, that's just it. They didn't clean it off or anything. You'd think they'd want to take the pens and clean the walls if they're gonna come in here. But they left more pens... So are they trying to make us be creative or what?

[He doesn't understand and it's frustrating. Naki sighs and shakes his head, moving to restart the labyrinth again. He has a feeling he's going to be doing this a lot.]

[alchemicals]

Who knows, maybe they want us to prove we have a fucking soul or something. That's supposed to be what creation implies, right?

[deaftly]

...Are you fucking serious?

[That's possibly the dumbest thing he's ever heard. Naki throws up his hands.]

Why the fuck don't they just tell us what they want? Wouldn't that be fucking easier on everyone!?

[alchemicals]

Fucking sarcastic, actually, and they're an idiot if they think I don't have a soul anyway because I know for a goddamn fact that I do.

[...Kimbley.]

Either way, I don't fucking care. They're giving me pens, they can deal with more fucking artwork; it's not like I have anything better to do with my time.

[deaftly]

...I would ask how you can know for sure that you have a soul, but this conversation's way too deep for me.

[He shrugs. At least he acknowledges it!]

Yeah, maybe if they gave us something else to do... but I guess the pens are nice. I mean, I'm always fine with more colors.

[alchemicals]

Yeah-

[...Wait.]

...Why the fuck would you think you don't have a soul, though?

[deaftly]

I dunno, it's not something I ever thought about. Souls and shit like that. I dunno, I guess it never seemed important?

[alchemicals]

Oh.

[Huh. He goes back to tracing that labyrinth again, thinking for a moment.]

I...think it's important, though? I don't know why, now that I'm thinking about it, but I know I have one and I know it's important to have one for some reason. That probably sounds crazy as hell, but it's a big thing.

[deaftly]

Maybe like... a religious thing or something?

[He's not sure if that's right, but it sounds plausible!]

[alchemicals]

...Maybe? I think I believe in God or something, but I also don't think He really cares - He's out there but He doesn't give a shit what we do unless we really fuck up or something. I don't know if that's really religious or what.

[deaftly]

Huh. I don't know jackshit about religion, but I don't think it normally works like that.

[Isn't there usually a lot more praying involved??]

But I guess it doesn't really matter. It's your beliefs; you can believe what you want!

[alchemicals]

Yeah, it's just kind of weird that I don't remember where the hell they came from.

[He goes quiet for a moment.]

Look, if you're serious about the taking-shifts thing, it'll work better if one of us takes the bed while the other stays out here, and we switch off. That way we don't have to worry about being asleep out here if someone comes in.

[...He's still really unnerved by that, okay.]

[deaftly]

I'm dead serious. And yeah, that sounds good. Let's do that. We can take uh... two hour shifts? Is that good? I guess that doesn't leave much time to sleep though so um... four? Six? I dunno, six might be too long...

[He's really bad at this.]

[alchemicals]

...Yeah, that's the other problem. Unless we just don't want to speak to each other ever or want to be sleep-deprived, it's going to be hard to coordinate it.

[deaftly]

Ahh, that's gonna suck either way...

[Despite being something non-human, he's pretty damn sure he needs sleep.]

I guess we can test it out tonight and see how it goes. Though... if either of us gets tired and we're not sure we can stay awake we should at least go in the bedroom. I mean fuck, I'll sleep on the floor as long as I'm not out there when they come in.

[alchemicals]

[Ugh, this sucks so badly...]

At least they didn't hurt us any, I guess. They just...gave us stuff and left.

Maybe we're doing something right, who knows.

[deaftly]

Yeah. It could have been worse.

[It's just creepy as fuck...]

I don't get it though. Why leave us in the dark like this? They could have at least left a note or something if they didn't want us to hear or see them for whatever reason. If they're trying to get us to do something specific, it's gonna be kinda hard if we don't have any direction.

[alchemicals]

...Yeah. The most I can really think is maybe someone thought we'd make great pets.

[deaftly]

I guess that's the only thing that makes even a little sense, but... what about our memories? What the fuck did they do to us?

[alchemicals]

[Hmm.]

...Do you know about anything that can do that? Like the...scanning stuff you were talking about yesterday. I don't remember anything like that, but apparently you do, so...

[deaftly]

[Naki frowns, lost in thought. He doesn't have any memories to help him along, but from what basics he can remember...]

Nope. I don't think there's anything like that where I'm from. I don't know anything about medicine and shit though - at least, I don't think I do - so maybe something there...?

[The other option is surgery, but he's not sure how that would work on him.]

[alchemicals]

[...You know, that's kind of brought up a valid point somehow.]

It's weird, though, isn't it? We can remember all sorts of random inconsequential shit about whatever country we came from, like how tills work and how to write and shit, but we can't remember anything about us or what we did there.