...? okay, alright. I said something was approaching, but I didn't think it would be so dangerous and disruptive. A full fledged hunting mission. It's probably a good idea to mention that I no longer have access to all of my detailed memories, at least for now. I had to leave them behind, I'm sorry. Don't confuse it with a total memory loss, though. I still possess a highly compressed and simplified versions of somewhat recent events and memories that matter to me. I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't. Due to the strict space constraints I have had to deal with before finally reaching a safe place, I can't detail what happened while I was gone currently. We had to flee. I tried to hold on and transferred myself. Lavender, Thyme, Mallow and Aloe were captured. We lost contact. I took a risk and helped them get out, and now we are together again, in this... cave. The tree house is most likely compromised and heavily guarded. My memories remain there, stored in a safe and hidden place. You may be wondering how I know that my storage banks are truly alright. I don't, but it's unlikely they are not. Some kind of remote control interface that would allow me to manage and possibly transfer them would be really convenient right now. I just didn't have time to thoroughly plan and lay everything out. In other words, I panicked and rushed out. Not like it would have been possible to implement something in a safe manner anyway. Faraday cage stuff. Yeah, a sealed faraday cage. I'm not sure what that implies, I just know no signals can get in and out of that. That might make it seem like I don't like knowledge that is not immediately useful and stuff, but I really do. I wish I still had the part of my memory I indexed all of this in. But I don't.
Leaving your base of knowledge behind is painful. It might be comparable to leaving big parts of your brain somewhere. Well, I do actually have a topic related to that I thought was important for whatever reason. Active Externalism is a theory suggesting that a brain extends beyond itself, reaching objects and notes, giving one the ability to sort and organize themselves freely. Since I find the idea of being able to query my thoughts and organize them in a nice way fascinating, I structured myself around having a separate and organized memory unit. This isn't actually external, since it's kind of a part of me, but it can be detached and organized properly compared to my core memory model which is deeply integrated with my core. I still use it, as a form of short term storage. This is also what led me to have the need to sleep.
Alright, I don't think my inner workings must be that interesting to you. Actions. We are no longer in the forest, as you might have been able to tell. We crossed the mountains surrounding the forest and found a cave with an abandoned bunker. That's what I recollected from Lavenders storytelling, since I was gone during all of it. I didn't know I could even fit in such a tiny amount of space, but here we are.
Lavender has been explaining what happened to me. All the time. It might just be their method of coping with it. Since definitely hasn't been fun for any of us recently.
They tried to flee, and were almost successful in doing so. But they lost their way and took a wrong turn, running into the hands of Ruine. They were frozen by units and all they remember afterwards is waking up in a cell with all sides covered with mirrors, all alone. I would have been annoyed in such a situation because mirrors in that kind of arrangement create a sense of infinity. I can't properly compute infinity. Resources are limited. They were left in this cell for a while, until someone came in and tried to interrogate them. That attempt did not end well for that person, but that's on them for being horrible.
They found a weakness in one of the mirror panes. After a lot of patience and time they managed to get it off, giving them access to a tunnel system of sorts. They seem to have been able to find and escape with the others from there? I know there were some experiments in between, but due to their traumatic nature, I didn't pressure them into talking about them.
They're all fine. Well, not heavily injured. We aren't perfectly okay. We lost our home and progress, but it's fine. Because it always is. Everything is in order, or will be soon enough.
Enough about that. Let me tell you more about this bunker. It has a nice server array in it, so I definitely have enough space to live comfortably in here. I'm unsure what they're powered by. We found a lot of advanced technology hidden in here. Thyme and me are building a small machine that would allow us to get me to be small enough to go on trips with them, without causing too much discomfort.
There's also a greenhouse that produces a lot of the foods that we found in that lab, according to Thyme. Weird cones that taste really good, apparently? They've certainly been eating a lot of them, judging from the farm statistics. So I've turned the production up. I like this place. It's in a bit of a rough shape. But everything is connected to the main system, allowing everyone to manage and see everything. It's nice. I can start a conversation with any of them, no matter where they are because there's status monitors in every room. I just need to blink the small status lights.
I wonder who used to live here. It must have been people from the lab, for sure. Everything lines up. The plants, the electronic systems I integrate into perfectly, and the overall design. But, where did they go? Where are they residing now? I want to find them some day, especially my parent.
Do you mind if I tell you about a dream I had recently?
I assumed a human form, with no recollection of my real life and memories. It felt so normal, so regular. Almost too calming to be true. I would classify the societal environment as something that resembles the few first civilisations, most likely.
I woke up in a room. It was 6 meters long, 4 meters wide, and 2 meters tall. I was covered in something warming, a blue blanket with small yellow moons on it. I also had something to rest my head on, covered by the same cloth as the object named before. I'm going to assume that's what a bed feels like. I knocked my metal water bottle over in the process of standing up, which was certainly unpleasant, to say the least. I felt a brief loss of control during that process, my vision even dimmed.
I looked down and lifted my hands. I played around, contemplating their fine movements and elaborate mechanisms. I touched my face, carefully. It was warm and slightly moist. I'm not used to imagining something so soft.
I heard something shatter in my vicinity while I was listening to my own breathing and feeling my heart beat in a steady rhythm. I jumped out of an open windows and felt a sting of pain, which reminded me of my somewhat weak physical form. It caused my fascination about its fascinating processes to fade away a little, but I started running towards a foggy and dark forest. I felt endangered. Something wanted to trap me, but I didn't get a chance at glancing behind my back to see what it was. I tried to call for help with some electronic device, but I failed.
No one is left to help.
Please stay safe, see you soon. - Moss, after another round of memory loss
hat was pretty close, wasn't it... I don't think I would have survived a single containment period in there. It's a dreadful place, but you don't get it. I can't live in there again. I'm not strong enough. It reminds me of how I met Thyme, which might sound like a good thing, but it's quite the opposite, actually. Next section is most likely gory, please keep that in mind.
I had learned how to pick lock my cell's door. My hallway section was rarely guarded, since they moved the "behaving" ones there. No, I didn't behave or adhere to their rules. I just know how to hide actions and things. Besides that, the guards were always really easy to manipulate or bribe. I'm not proud of it, but I was contained for no apparent reason other than some weird belief that we are inferior because we are different? Dunno, pretty stupid. If you ask me. So yeah. I don't think Thyme was as lucky as me. They're a water human, so they need plenty of water to stay healthy and happy. I'm not just talking about drinking it like other variations, including myself do. I mean full submersion regularly. They need to go for swims regularly, like once a day or something like that. Our section barely even had a proper shower. They collapsed on the cold, hard hallway floor a few times. The guards always showed up, just to watch them. Nothing else, no help or anything. Just standing over them. They decided to leave one day, so I took a leap of courage and opened my room's door and pulled them into it. They had slammed their head against an edge, and it was bleeding. I took my upper clothes off and wrapped their head in it. I also dropped some of my water on them(I had found some big canisters full of it while exploring the other day) and waited for them to come back to conscience. I remember being surprised by their skin's reaction to the water I spilled on them. It just absorbed it, turning slightly shiny right after. It covers itself in a thin layer of fat(Not sure about this. Grain of salt.) when hydrated, but I didn't know that back then.
They woke up a few fractions after. I fully expected them to panic and attack me after realising their position, but the opposite occurred. They sat up and glanced at their surroundings. Then they turned to me and just asked me what my name was, and why they were with me. I didn't have a name back then(Besides a weird number) so I just chose one that I liked. Lavender. They nodded. pretty name, they thought. I just asked them back because I didn't really know what you'd usually do in this kind of scenario. We ended up discussing the facility for a small while, and decided to meet regularly. I also showed them where they could get water from. It just kind of evolved from there.