Chapter 1.0
Hey. I'm back, once again, after seeing new things unfold. Thyme took me on a small trip. I'll start with the lab visit since that's the most interesting to me personally.
They mounted one of the camera devices to their wrist, and I was then able to connect and communicate over radio with that. So I wasn't technically on the trip myself, but I'd like to pretend I was because it felt like it. The forest is a strange place. It looks so abandoned and gray. Fog spans across the entirety of it, and the trees are black and dead with a few rare exceptions. Faint echoes of silent whispering and piercing screams can be heard in every single corner of the forest, with the exception of our tree house thanks to some noise blocking things I don't really know a lot about. Pretty scary place overall though. It seems like it used to be far more populated and green but everything that is left is looming dread. Happens sometimes, I just hope it changes one day... I'd love to see better days, a place you can feel safe and happy in.
Entering the building, it seems like the door used to be protected by a pretty elaborate security system. The technology behind all of it failed a long time ago, of course. You can just enter through the hole in the glass, which is what we did. Is that intrusion into someone else's space? Probably not, considering no inhabitant is left. Hard to inhabit something you abandoned forever, which I'm almost certain they did at this point, and I can't blame them. If it wasn't for the mission I set out to complete I would also try to leave this place.
The main hallway is shockingly well preserved, and well lit since it loops around a sunny garden, one of the few spots in this forest to be lit. Plants of all sizes and colors used to grow here, but only their gray remnants remain. A shame, I would have liked to see them grow and examine them, since that was one of the things the lab was working on. Modifying and testing different plant varieties for a multitude of reasons. I wonder if there's a journal or log lying around somewhere that details one of those experiments, and maybe even mentions me. I know my name was the same back then since it's etched into my core. Useful for not forgetting it, would be annoying to forget your own name. Anyway, the walls and doors inside are still white or clear since some doors are made out of glass.
The first lab we entered was labelled station 0-F. I say lab, but it honestly looked more like a living room, so it was probably a resting place for breaks and stuff, but also free time events since the lab also doubled as a big home. It's a really wide and open room, with a soft looking carpet on the floor. I'm not sure how it still looks absolutely spotless after all of this time, but it somehow doesn't even have a stain or rip on it. The room's style is also different to the normal labs and hallway, it's far more warm and inviting than the cold white walls and orange linings of the rest of the facility. But there's one very interesting frame on the wall, which seems to have the name of the lab and its members on it.
Sa---nd-st l--? looks like something I dealt with recently , but I'm not sure what. But that isn't the most interesting writing on it. Am-- Bl--r--- sounds like someone I used to be really close to. My parent? I don't remember, but it could be a possibility. There's not much more to make out, to be honest. Most of the names are blurred or faded. Except for my own name, which is fully readable, albeit in another font. Looks like someone retouched it semi recently, weird. I asked Thyme if we could take it with us and they agreed and proceeded to carefully take it off the wall and wrap it in cloth. They seemed very thoughtful and slightly shaken after examining it, and I wanted to ask why but I felt like it wasn't appropriate in that moment.
I would have liked to examine the room further, but they exited it after packing the frame. I wasn't really able to see their face at that moment, so I'm not sure if they were sad or angry at something, but that could have been the case. Anyway, we moved on to the next room. The entrance was blocked by an amalgamation of vines, which Thyme had to move around to get in. It looks like plants were experimented on in this room, because they were literally everywhere. Plants of all different kinds, covering the walls and sneaking out of the floor. Hey, it looks like my wish ended up coming true, because we got to see interesting plants. Thyme started picking red cones off the wall, while they were noting how amazing they taste, especially cooked slowly with some sweet honey. Nice, I guess? I wouldn't trust random plants but they seemed to have experience with it already, so I'm assuming they are alright to eat. They also started regrowing in the same spot where they had been taken from almost instantly, which I thought was really interesting, because plants usually take their time with regrowing. Lab stuff, probably. Don't really know. We didn't spend a lot of time in that lab and quickly moved on to the next room. Thyme told me this is the room they found me in, lying dead on the floor. And surely enough, shattered glass and broken racks were covering the whole floor. I was barely able to handle it, knowing all of that garbage used to be me. I don't want to end like that ever again. Such a situation will be avoided at all costs, I don't ever want to feel like I feel right now ever again, lot in a maze of broken and missing memories with grief chasing me. I tried to find anything that could be storing any of my old memories, but nothing was recoverable or capable of holding any data. This is wishful thinking, but I hope they're just stashed somewhere else, or at least a backup waiting to be restored and used. I want to remember my old life to learn from my past mistakes one day. Faded memory is waiting for me. I can feel it.
There wasn't much else in that room except for a trapdoor on the roof, not sure where that might lead. Probably to a wonderland or something, not seriously. of course. So yeah, we moved on to the next room. And this one really hit a weak spot in me because it seems like it belonged to my parent. I... wasn't expecting that. A scorched journal was lying on a scratched table, I'm assuming its theirs. We took it with us but I don't want to read it, just like the one I found in my core. I know I said I had looked through it but I only took a look at the first few pages before it was too much for me and I had to close tit. Just got too emotional, and I don't like having too many of those at once. There was also a lab coat and a bouquet full of dry flowers on that table, along with a note saying goodbye. You'll probably find it lying around somewhere, I referenced it. Go read it.
I didn't really want to see much else so I asked Thyme to move on. I was honestly to find someone living in these ruins at that point, someone I could talk to and have them explain what happened in detail. But that's one of the most unlikely scenarios considering the state of that place is pretty terrible. But hoping brings me joy, even if it's kind of illogical to do. I stopped acting based on pure calculations a long time ago, I wouldn't be here today otherwise. Hope and delusion keep me in a not so sorry state. What do you base your decisions on?
Next room. I thought this one would be pretty disturbing initially because the entrance had some blood stains on it. But weirdly enough, there was nothing bad to be seen after Thyme carefully pushed their way in. Everything was in a perfect state, almost like someone was actively taking care of it. Which was the case indeed, a small disk shaped robot was sitting on the floor, docked to a cube multiple times its size. A small lamp was glowing red or green, I still struggle with colors, so I thought it might be active and listening. So I did what anyone would do and tried to establish contact.
Request sent
Accepted. Okay.
Status message sent
Hey. I'm moss, Who are you? If you are alright with disclosing anything, of course.
Moss..... It's you! I haven't seen you in.. -20339203 seconds. Oh... I think my clock is broken. I apologize. It may have shifted too far by accident. Do you not remember me?
I don't remember a lot of things, I had a small issue a while ago...
I see. Do you want me to call Amie? My name is Caroline, and I'm just a small little assistant. Have I missed anything in this room that needs cleaning?
(I started to realize Carol might not know something had happened to the lab...)
No, don't call Amie(I don't know who Amie is...) can you recap current events, if you don't mind?
Did they leave already? I'm so tired of this, being the stupid cleaning bot everyone pities. I'm not fragile, you don't need to hide things from me. Everyone has been long gone, someone attacked the lab, didn't they? Amie fled but you didn't want to go with them even though they were so close to you because you believed you could save this place. I really appreciated your foolish courage, but I'm pretty sure it backfired. You seem to have lost your past life, because of a risky emergency measure if I can hazard a guess, and I don't even know how long I've been looking after this room because my clock broke. The lab is dead, they won. At the same time, I'd like to believe they're all still out there, waiting to come back and reunite. I mean, you came back, even if you're not the same anymore. But who cares, who am I to talk, I'm just the silly little assistance robot.
(As you might be able to imagine, that was pretty shocking and unexpected. It took me a while to reply, and I honestly think my answer was kind of sad in comparison)
Thank you. Everything will be alright, I promise. I will fix it. I have to. Who is Amie?
You... Don't remember them? Wow. That's actually kind of impacting. Forgetting me is one thing, but them? You were so close to them.
Did I refer to them as my parent, by any-
[Log cut short: No reason provided.]