Among The Living? (Niki/Vii)

Nikikeya

Blue Jacket
Joined
Sep 5, 2015
Posts
49
WhAt iS LiFe?

wHaT MaKEs oNe ALivE? 

WhY WeRe wE BoRn?

Who are you really? 

Two children wake up in a white room, they have no memories, only vague recognition of of the objects around them. They must now make there way through a crumbling building to the desolate world beyond...
 
The sensation was... 

Unpleasant.... 

A prickling against the skin which caused an echoing quiver in ones core. 

It made one wish to curl ones limbs inwards. 

It was...  

Cold...

It was cold.

Eyes fluttered open. Pupils expanding and contracting as the world around it came into focus. 

It was laying on its back, in a soft bed, the sides curving upwards to meet a glass arch above. The glass was damaged. Allowing the cold air in, and the gasses which had previously been filling the container out. Small slender hands reached up to press against the glass. Pushing at it until it slowly opened itself with a gentle whirring of gears, lifting up vertically, its hinges being somewhere below by the foot of the container. 

Reaching both hands up to grip at the sides of the container, it pulled itself up into a seated position and looked around...

Beyond the container was white room, in rather serious disrepair, panels were missing from the ceiling, halogen lights were shattered, and there were wires hanging out in several places. the room itself was in quite a disarrayed state, papers lay scattered on the desk, and floor, and all in all it seemed the room had be vacated in a hurry.

A second container, this one undamaged lay beside its own. Intrigued, it moved to investigate... 

Standing it looked down at itself, it had a plain white and grey leotard on its body. Nothing covered its feet. Taking a few minutes to balance itself. It stepped down out of the container. and winced. The floor was very cold...  

Forcing itself to ignore its discomfort, it moved over to the other container, inside was another, like it, but... different colored. 

Reaching out it tapped on the glass. When that drew no response. it went around the side and started to look for a seam between the curled sides and the arched class lid. It instead found a button, which once pressed, the lid slowly opened up, much the same as its own container lid had. 

A cloud of colored glass escaped the container, causing the child to momentarily feel woozy when inhaled. 

It swayed in place and then shook its head to clear it.

The container was open. The other one was stirring...
 
The other one’s fingers slightly moved. Then, its eyelids begun to twitch and eventually they opened. The eyes were violet colored, round and shiny. It stayed still though, staring at the other one looking down at it. It blinked, as if curious.
 
It slowly tried moving its arms, then legs. Once the child realized it could move, it grabbed the sides of the container to pull itself up.
 
The first watched the second curiously, moving back slightly as it sat up. Curious, it reached out, touching the other's cheek below the pretty eyes. The skin was warm and soft to the touch, so much nicer than the cold glass or metal it had been touching since it awoke.
 
The second also did the same. It touched the first one's hand with one of its own, then reached to the face. It was a nice feeling. It had no idea what that feeling was, but it liked it. It then retrieved its hand to look around the room. Then its eyes stopped at the half opening door at the further end. 
 
The first leaned into the others touch, liking it, it then watched as those brilliant eye darted before landing on something off away from it. Turning in the direction its companion was looking, it too noticed the door. Curious, it turned, abruptly loosing contact with the other. It froze, and looked back at the other, who was still sitting.

And then, almost instinctively, it held out its had again, palm up for the other to take.
 
The violet eyed child turned its head when the contact was suddenly broken. It then momentarily looked a bit confused when the other one held out a hand. Though, it soon understood the message and used one hand to hold on to the green-eyed child's hand.

It got up shakily, having trouble to keep balance for a while and had to use the other hand to hold the container so it wouldn't fall over. Then, it climbed out. One foot touched the floor and slightly retracted at the cold before really stepping down. Once it was firmly standing on its legs outside, it looked at its companion again. Its mouth opened and shut. It knew it was supposed to do something. But what?
 
The first child had no clue what the other was doing. It stared at it for a moment, and then, hand still firmly clasping the other's it turned to the door.

It knew that thing was called a door. It also knew words like Open, and Closed would go with it.

Open Door. It was an open door... well a little open. But mostly shut. A mostly shut door. 

It took several clumsy, wobbling steps towards the door, tugging its companion along behind it, before stopping, and after a moments deliberation, widening its stance, before continuing on... 
 
The second one followed in the same clumsy manner. It took them a while to eventually reached the door. The purple eyed child looked at the door and then reached out to touch it. It was hard, and also cold. It pushed, making the door open slightly. The door moved, making the squeaky sound due to lack of oiling.

Before them was a long corridor full of trashes and pieces of broken down paint. Everything was dusty. Dust was what its mind told it about the tiny things floating in the air, made visible by the bright sunlight coming through the window. Sun. Light.

Now more eager to explore, it released the other one's hand and moved over to the windows. Its eyes and mouth widened in amazement at the scene outside. Large and tall buildings everywhere. Houses was what came to mind when it saw them. Big and tall houses. They were all broken down and old, just like the room they were in before.
 
The first child stayed in the door watching the purple eyed one go and look out the window. It looked down at its bare feet.    At the dirty hallway, and finally, glanced back over its shoulder at the room, and its container. It had been soft in there... but not warm. No where was warm. Nowhere but the other child. They were warm. Their hand was warm...

Slowly, the first child wobbled over to stand behind the second. It reached a hand out, going for the others hand. But stopped as its hand entered the light. Sun... Light... 

It was warm...

Slowly, the child moved forward, so that it too was in the warm sunlight. It turned and looked at its companion. At how the light shined off the others white hair. It blinked, and turned away rubbing its eyes.

Sunlight made the other's hair too bright...
 
The second one remembered about his companion after a while. It turned to see the other one rubbing their eyes. The other's hair was really bright, it blinked a bit and looked back at the scenery to rest its eyes a bit. Then, it got an idea. Like something ticked in its mind. It wanted to see what was in the houses.

It walked over and touched on the green eyed one's arm, leading it closer to the window and pointed at the tall houses. It want to go there. There must have been a way... To go there.
 
The other child started as its companion lead it to the window, looking out it blinked. Outside was bright... and warm. 

It wanted to be warm... 

The other was pointing, gesturing outside as well. 

It wanted to go out too...

Curious, the first child pressed on the glass, straining, its frail arms pushing for all there might.

A horrible pain shot through its stomach and a loud rumbling noise caused the child to jump and peer around anxiously while clutching its sore stomach. 

A long high pitched gurgling sounded, and its stomach churned unhappily. 

Confused, the child looked at its companion. Then down the corridor where there was more light. Maybe outside was down there?

It pointed down the corridor. then outside. Then back down the corridor, taking its companions hand and leading it down toward the light.

The corridor opened into a huge atrium with a dark river running through it. Plant grew thickly over the walls ceiling and floor, and bright warm sunshine poured in through the glass windows (at least the ones not covered in viney plants...)

ES_newtrium002_5_712x342_FitToBoxSmallDimension_Center.jpg


 There were several doors leading off as well as three more corridors and multiple staircases. leading to upper floors. The first child stopped and stared in open mouth wonder...
 
The purple eyed one also stared for a while. The place was beautiful. It didn't fully understand what beautiful was but perhaps that was what you call the place they were looking at. It walked over to one of the plants and touched its trunk. It felt hard, but not cold. And it was... rough? The soil below soon caught Purple's attention. It bent over to touch the soil. Soft. It moved his hand on the surface, interested in how it could make the dirt move into shapes.
 
The first child went and examined the dark river, getting down on the floor on its stomach to reach down into the man-made canal and dip its fingers in. 

Cold.

Upset, the youngster withdrew their hand. Watching the liquid glisten on their skin. The child reached back down and splashed at the water, sending it flying everywhere.

A noise rouse from the depths of its stomach again, accompanied by pain. the child sat up and rubbed its stomach.

It looked around. For what it didn't know. Sticking wet fingers in its mouth, stopping to marvel at the taste. It sucked on its fingers and looked around. 

Around the atrium there were many tables and chairs, there was also many dusty machines whit pictures of food on them. The child observed this but it meant nothing to them. Still, the machines intrigued it. So, getting up, it wandered, for the first time, away from its companion, over to the far side of the room. it then poked at the machines. Pressing buttons and petting its hand against the cool plastic exterior.

Of course without power the machines were useless,

Still it continued to press the buttons for fun...
 
The second child was playing with the dirt still. It noticed the dirt sticking to its fingers and decided to put a hand in its mouth. Immediately, the child spat out all the dirt and tried to wipe them off its tongue. It tasted bad. Eww…
 
A small cricket jumped out from one of the bushes caught its attention. The child decided to follow the insect.
 
Tiring of pushing buttons, and still having stomach pains the first child wandered over to one of the plants, looking at the green shiny leaves and impulsively sticking one in its mouth. The flavor was bland, and slightly bitter, but the leaf was soon chewed up and swallowed down. 

Its stomach gurgled again much softer, and some of the pain left. Encouraged, the child grabbed and ate more of the leaves. 

It stopped when its companion wandered by chasing a hopping cricket. Confused, the first child stopped eating, and instead moved to follow the other child after the bug.

The cricket lead the children down a dusty side hall into a room, whose door had collapsed. Inside where row upon row of little round flying saucer like units stacked neatly atop eachother, around the room was littered with wires and other tiny parts, not all of which the first child's mind had words for.

The first child ignored its companion and the cricket and went to one of the stacked things. 

The child focused on the bottom unit, there was a button on it.

Reaching up, it pressed it...

Nothing.

The child moved on to the next unit up...

Nothing.

And the next up...

Nothing...

Undeterred the child continued to press buttons.
 
Violet followed the cricket all around the room. It tried to catch the bug to study it, but the creature was always one jump ahead of the child. The cricket hopped onto one of the units. The child slowly moved one step at a time to get near it, then jumped.
 
Violet once again missed the small insect but its hand hit the unit’s button by accident.
 
The saucer like thing shook and made a strange sound.  It began to light up.
 
A whirring and beeping noise from the far side of the room caught the first child's attention, turning it saw the other chid had pressed the buttons on one of the other units only for it to respond.

The saucer like device hovered up into the air and beeped and clicked, two orange lights like eyes turning on and began blinking.

"Personal Assistance Tinyunit #0005477-831004 activated. Please register verbal identification."

Both children just stared.

"Please register verbal identification." the floating saucer repeated.

"Please register verbal identification."

"Please register verbal identification."

"Please register verbal identification."

The thing repeated over and over.

"Veerrrr...?" the first child finally said, trying to copy the sounds the strange flying thing was making.

The second child also tried, to much greater result, "Pees!"

"Verbal Identification complete. Detecting Duel ownership. Is this correct?"

"Vaaa???" the first child said again.

"Doo." the second said profoundly. 

"Duel ownership confirmed. Visual Identification commencing." The flashing orange eyes turned red, and suddenly there was another whirring sound, and the floating thing turned first to the second child, and then to the first.

"Visual Identification complete. Now activation Personal Assistant A.I." 

The voice changed from tinny and strange to soft and pleasant.

"Greetings, I am P.A.T unit #0005477-831004, how may I be of assistance?"

Both children stared. 

"Pees?" the second child ventured.

"Initiating cooking module. Cooking Peas." P.A.T replied. A blue beam shot down onto a nearby table, and a plate of steaming green stuff appeared.

"There are your peas. May I be of any other assistance?"

The children just stared, the first child went to the plate of "peas" and went to touch it.

"Please do not touch that. They are hot. It will burn."

The child touched the hot food and pulled its hand back with a yelp of pain. Tears welled in its eyes and it started wailing.

"Sound registered. Initiating Child Care Protocol." P.A.T responded. Zipping over and shooting a blue beam at the childs scalded fingers. There was a cooling sensation, and the pain stopped.

The child stopped and stared at its fingers in confusion.

"Healing complete." P.A.T said.

"Hee-IG" the first child articulated.

"Activating secondary Child Care program: Education Module on." P.A.T stated. 

The children just stared.
 
And so for the next few weeks, the little robot taught the child simple words and phrases. They were doing fine so P.A.T decided to move on with the lesson. The two children sat in front of the hologram of the alphabet generated by the A.I. They stared as the robot pointed to one of the letters.
 
“This is the letter A. Please say A”
 
“Aaae?” The violet eyed child repeated.
 
“EI” P.A.T corrected the child.
 
"Ei... Ei... Ei..." the other child murmured softly. It was playing with a piece of machinery it had found in one of the rooms.

Over the past few The children, under the watchful eyes of P.A.T had explored a lot of the rooms on this level. P.A.T used the word level, or Floors, P.A.T explained that stairs lead to other levels. But P.A.T didn't let the children go on stairs. Though their motor skills had been improving, they still were far too unbalanced to risk on narrow steps.

The children had been fed, learned to bathe themselves with heated water P.A.T produced. The warm water was nice. The child liked baths. They had also been given more cloths. Including things that went on ones feet to keep them warm, called "Socks" The child loved socks. It just wished it could have more than one pair to wear.

The child glanced back up to see the letter had changed.

"Please say B." P.A.T intoned.

"Bee... Bee... Bee..." the child murmured, going back to playing with the metal and wire bit.

They'd been taken to a room with soft big long chairs called couches. Which P.A.T had called a lounge. There were more "Vending Machines" there, but they didn't work cause of "no electricity". The child still had fun pressing the buttons.

This was the room they "Lived in" now. They slept and were fed, and taught lessons here. They could play in the rest of the level. (just not too closer to the water in the atrium) but this was where they usually stayed.

It was nice. There were windows that let in the sunlight during the day, and let them see the "Moon" and "stars" at night.

The child liked it here. With the other child and P.A.T.

The other child though... they kept looking outside. They still wanted to go out...
 
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