[Week 32 | Day 1 | Dream] Some things you can't forget
(A slight warning for dead bodies I suppose)
It is a wonderful thing to awake to an exciting new world. The moment the Scientist had put you down, you and Three instantly began pulling books off of shelves and knocking things over in your eagerness to see everything. You want to know why fire flickered, what spiders were and what they did, what the Scientist’s tools were for...
You discover your first book on the Scientist’s shelf, he explains to you that this book once belonged to his daughter, and that he had read it to her every night when she was just a little girl. From the moment you and Three open it, you find yourself in a completely different world. It is a world filled with daring princes coming to the rescue of beautiful princesses, a plant growing to massive heights and a little human boy stealing from a giant, and princesses rescuing beasts from a evil spell. Anything could happen in this world, and it helps you use your imagination for the first time.
Your attention is particularly drawn to the pictures, they are so beautifully painted that you can’t help but stare. You attempt to draw Three’s attention to the pictures and point out the various expressions, poses, and even clothing that various people are wearing, but you sense that Three is more interested in actually reading the story. These slight differences between you are interesting, even if you find them just a little bit unnerving.
But now you are here, and you don’t know how to get back.
Where did he go?
You blink and look anxiously at the world around you. From your height of seven inches, the world is bigger and more frightening than you thought. Not long beforehand you and Three were happily examining everything inside the Scientist’s workshop, so many new things to discover, and so many wonders to remember. You were so focused on everything inside the shop that it didn’t occur to you that there was a world outside of it.
The two of you are standing in a dark and rundown alleyway, shivering as you both attempt to understand what is happening. The Scientist brought you out here, he told you two that it was time, and then left you out here in this alleyway. Such a cold alleyway too, you can feel it and you don’t like it. The Scientist’s workshop was nice and warm! They should go back there!
You never found your way back. You never saw the Scientist again.
It would have been nice to read that book one last time.
That was such a long time ago.
Three years by your calculation. The world has died since then.
You don’t see it as dead though. No, it is a world filled with an unspeakable amount of treasures and little bits of knowledge left for you and Three to find and collect. Every find is special, and every little thing deserves to be remembered. That’s what you do, you remember things. You collect things so that you can honor them by not forgetting them. It is not a fairy-tale world, but it is full of it’s share of wonder and intrigue. The world is not a lonely place as long as you have Three.
Where is Three?
You stand on the hood of an old rusty car and scan the broken streets and battered buildings for any sign of your twin. He has to be here! You glance inside the car and sadly look away. You and Three try so hard to cover all the bodies you find, but there are so many still scattered around that covering them all is an utterly exhausting job. There are no insects or other living organisms around to eat their flesh, so all the bodies are decaying very slowly.
It’s your job to look and remember.
But you don’t want to, and you feel guilty about that. You don’t want to remember the pale and sallow face of a dead human child. But it has to be done, so you edge closer to the windshield and peer reluctantly through the window. Your eyes flicker and whirr as you store the child’s face, hair, and clothing into your memory. You don’t know who she is, but you do know that perhaps one day you will find her story. Maybe a photograph of her still remains in one of these buildings, or perhaps she drew a picture for her parents before she died. Maybe she was an orphan who had nobody and was just using this car to hide in. The thought that she could have been alone in her lifetime makes you feel sad. You promise yourself that you will remember no matter what.
There’s still the matter of where Three is though. Is he hiding again? This is not the time to vanish suddenly! You tap your foot in annoyance and cross your arms. If Three is hiding from you, you’re going to steal is favorite marble and hide it where he can’t find it! He’ll find it in no time, but it’ll be the thought that counts.
You spot a shadow as it flits away into a building that was once a store and you inwardly sigh. So it’s going to be hide-and-go-seek huh? Well, it looks like you’re It. Like always. Three is such a cheater, you wouldn’t mind it if Three was It once in a while. You nimbly jump off of the car and scuttle over to where you saw the shadow last. He’s not there, and this doesn’t surprise you. Both of you were really good at hiding after all, even from each other. Ha, but you’re a really good finder! Three can’t stay hiding forever.
There! You see a shadow just as it disappears into an alleyway. Finding Three shouldn’t be that hard if he’s silly enough to try to find a hiding place back there. That happens to be one of the few intact alleyways in this part of the town! There aren’t a lot of places to hide. You shake your head and enter the alleyway after the shadow, wondering if you’re about to wander right into a prank of some kind.
Strange. You glance down the alley and blink when you see Three just standing there, with his back to you. Suspecting a prank, you creep up on him anyway, might as well get this over with right? Who knows, maybe it’ll make them both laugh. Three glances over his shoulder at you and suddenly gestures wildly.
Come! This way! Let’s go Four, follow me!
Without questioning it, you instantly dart after him as he disappears around another corner. When did he get to be so fast? You turn down the other alley after him and stop dead in your tracks.
This-
No...
Impossible!
The Scientist is standing at the end of the alley with Three standing on his palm. You just stand there, completely and utterly stunned by the sight of the Scientist. This old man is your father, your creator, and you love him unconditionally as such. Step by step, you slowly make your way down the alley towards them. The Scientist looks exactly like you remember him. So kind looking with a tired weight on his shoulders. It took you several years to find out why that weight is there, and with that you feel nothing but sorrow for him. He hadn’t deserved what happened to him. But if what happened to him hadn’t happened, then none of you would be here right now.
How do you react to someone with the knowledge you have? Nine told you didn’t he? Nine said that all of them are part of a Scientist, and that The Scientist had given them all his soul. They were given life to continue life. To save humanity by existing even when life itself ended. You shiver as the implications of that weighs down on you, what if you fail? What if you forget?
Suddenly, The Scientist turns and walks away. Alarmed, you run after him, silently calling out for Three. Three waves at you from The Scientist’s shoulder, but The Scientist does not slow down. You dart out onto the street and glance wildly around for them. You do not see either, but you can hear the others! One, Two, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, and Nine are all talking to each other somewhere. You spin around wildly, trying to pinpoint the voices, but they seem to be echoing off the ruined buildings themselves. Confused, you approach a building and suddenly realize that their voices are coming from inside! Three is probably in there too!
You smile as you haul yourself up the steps and wiggle your way though the broken door. Yes! Their voices are louder, which means that all of them are just-
[Four sits up in his nest suddenly and glances around frantically.
W-What?
Completely unaware that the Hitomi is recording, he automatically reaches over to his right where Three usually sleeps, but finds no one there. Instead he finds a marble. Much like the one that Three likes to play with. Four stares at it for a moment before violently throwing it away from him. The marble makes a loud thunk as it hits the side of Lenalee’s closet (where Four usually sleeps) and Four begins digging around his nest of blankets as if the blankets were hiding things from him.]