- 10
- Posts
- 5
- Years
- Seen Aug 8, 2019
Keywords:
Aiming to follow these points:
Comments welcomed and appreciated.
There is a secret I've yet to tell anyone I know. It wasn't a huge secret which could throw my life into a mess; the worst thing that could happen was getting laughed at by the few people I'd consider 'friends'. If anyone else would've heard it, they would probably think I was a hippie freak or something. I don't think anyone would be blunt enough to state it out loud even if that were the case, but it still made me hesitate to voice my secret. My... desire.
I sighed while leaning on the wire mesh fence encasing the rooftop. Like the hundreds of identical skyscrapers around this particular one I was standing on, the fence was sturdy enough for a truck to ram into it with full power and still show no sign of damage. Not that anyone actually rammed a truck into the fence located 160 floors above ground; I just knew its strength from the advertisements.
It was roughly six o'clock, the time when the sun began to set. I almost always found myself standing here at this hour, staring into the distance until the sun bled its orange hue into the indigo of the night. And as always, I imagined what the setting sun would look like beyond the thick, ever-present carpet of cloud that hung over the City.
If not for the aforementioned and irritating grey cloud, I probably would have given zero attention to the world just like any other person living in the City. If not for it, I wouldn't have to come up here - one of the only places where I could actually see what the sun looked like as it stealthily sank beyond the desolate horizon, beyond the grey mountains and the wall surrounding the City.
I've always wondered what sunlight feels like. Not the ambient heat that warms up the day, but actual rays which apparently stung. Historical texts can only teach you so far. Well, I guess that's what makes learning so fun - imagining all these things that supposedly happened all the time in the past. Things like snow. And rain. And tornadoes and floods. In the City, there's none of those. Always the same temperature, always just enough light to brighten up the world during the day.
I stared into the distance until the day was over. Indigo conquered the orange and yellow, only to be replaced by artificial white of the City's lights coming on one by one. And with that, I slowly pulled myself off from the fence and headed down the building.
I took the stairs down. No one used stairs these days with how many floors people had to travel, so it allowed me to traverse down without needing to greet other residents and put up a fake smile if I come across them. Thankfully, I lived in one of the higher floors which made the trip not that bad.
"I'm home."
I spoke out of habit as I entered the unit that was my home. The bio scanners automatically unlocked the door when I was in the scanner's proximity, and the lights came on as I entered the living room.
As expected, there was no one home. I lived with Kana, my parents' friend and colleague, but she generally arrived home very late due to her work. She often apologised to me about how she couldn't be home sooner, and about how it was impossible to bring her work home to finish it due to confidentiality. It was to be expected from a researcher at Government Laboratories, so I've never held it against her. How could I, when she looked so happy going to her workplace everyday despite being sleep-deprived half the time? Her position also gave me privileges that my friends were often envious of, too. It's not like my library of literature and games were going to pay for themselves.
And so, like any other night, I prepared and ate dinner by myself. I'm not sure if I'd consider myself to be lonely; I had plenty of friends, and Kana generally manages to spend a whole day with me at least twice a month. But at nights like this, there's this sense of… stillness that sometimes bothers me. A sensation which felt like I was the only person in the world.
It was some time after I had finished dinner and cleaned up when there was an unexpected sound. I looked up from the holographic novel I was reading, recognising the noise as a delivery alert. Mail? at a time like this?
"Receive mail."
I spoke out loud, and a different holographic window appeared in front of me. It wasn't a mail, but a parcel. What's more, it didn't come through the Transporter like usual. Instead, it was apparently delivered physically.
I got up from where I was because if it's not sent through a Transporter, I had to retrieve it manually. The act irritated me a bit since I was finally getting comfortable in the posture I was in, but at the same time it made me apprehensive at the sudden turn of events. As I did so, I wondered when was the last time I had to open our unit's letterbox.
Within moments, I was at the dining room table with the parcel in hand. I sat down to observe it. It was the size of my hands, and was encased in metal. The sender wasn't written anywhere, just the receiver. That made me frown a little, because I was pretty sure the only people who could send anonymous deliveries were those related to the government. If this was something addressed to Kana I could probably understand, but the parcel clearly had my name. Perhaps it was Kana who sent it? But then, why? With those thoughts in mind, I pressed my finger on the identification panel of the box.
Nothing happened.
I blinked, unsure what was going on. I slid my hand across it while being confused, but then I realised what I thought was the ID panel was actually an archaic latch. I admit it took me a few more seconds than I would have liked for it to get it open.
The metal casing soon came away with a satisfying click, and revealed its two contents. The first was a folded paper - paper, in this day and age. I was sure people nowadays wouldn't even know what paper was just by looking at it. I sure wouldn't have known were I not interested in history. Then another thought made me freeze for a second - was it legal to have paper? Trees, the original source of paper, were a protected resource...
I shook my head to clear away the thought, making a mental note to dispose of it later just in case. For now, I unfolded it as I saw that there were markings on the inner side. It was words; the handwriting was messy, as if the writer had scribbled it down in a hurry.
Vee, keep that safe with you.
DO NOT FOR ANY REASON SHOW WHAT YOU HAVE TO ANYONE, ok?
Ok.
Oh, I won't be there tonight.
Come to the lab with that as soon as you wake up tomorrow, and show it to the guard if he hassles you.
MAKE SURE YOU COME STRAIGHT HERE.
I don't care if you have something special on tomorrow, COME. STRAIGHT. HERE. Got it?
Sweet dreams~
Kana.
I wondered if this was her usual handwriting. It was hard to say since Kana was the type to use a virtual pad or voice input rather than a holopen. Regardless, I was able to see her handwriting - a fact that somehow made me happy. Happy that I got to know another part about her.
Kana and I had been living together ever since I could remember, and she was more like a mother to me. But at the same time, there was always the lingering darkness in my mind - Kana wasn't my real mother, and so there was a distance between us unlike a normal daughter and mother. So knowing more about her, especially if it's something about her which others wouldn't know, made it feel like I could shorten that gap.
At the very least, this told me the sender really was Kana. While I didn't know her handwriting, it was typical of her to say two contradicting things like "do not show what you have to anyone" and "show it to the guard" in a single message. Also, "Vee" was my pet name which only a select few used.
The second object in the parcel was red and spherical. Upon pulling it out, however, I noticed that only half the sphere was red. The other half was white, with a dark line running a full circle in between to break the red and white hemispheres. It would have been two perfect halves if not for the white button placed on one side of the dark line. It was a peculiar device which I had never seen before; perhaps its purpose was to hold something? No, it was too small for anything remotely useful to fit in. There was no way of knowing, and I wasn't about to press the button even though the temptation was great. Who knew what disaster could happen by pressing it. Instead, I left the ball and the letter on the desk - I did mull over about what I should do with the paper letter, but since it was from Kana I figured it wasn't illegal - and decided to sleep.
It's been a while since I last came here to the laboratory. A month ago, was it? When Kana designated me as a one-day assistant. I wasn't able to enter the inner parts, so I was assigned to a different researcher back then much to her disdain.
The government-funded facilities really were immaculate, to say the least; floors were polished to the point where it felt like I was dirtying them just by walking on it. Holograms of famous and important scientists and researchers decorated the white-washed walls, frowning in concentration as they mixed chemicals in flasks or wrote down information on their portable devices.
Finding my way around wasn't too hard; clearly-labelled directions were all over the place, and I vaguely remembered where her lab was located. The hard part was-
"Hey you, kid,"
I heard a deep voice calling from somewhere. Looking around, I saw a man in what I recognised as a security uniform walking towards me. He was almost twice as tall as me, and most of his facial features were hidden behind facial hair. Yes, the hard part was to convince the security that I'm here for a reason and not to kick me out.
"This isn't a place open to the public. Leave."
He enforced.
"I'm here on Ka- I mean, Dr Hazama's request."
I said. There was a pause as he stared at me. I looked back at him, trying not to show my nervousness at the man. I wasn't sure what emotion he was showing behind all that facial hair.
"There are procedures. This... doctor you mentioned should have met you at the entrance. Authorized personnel only beyond this point."
I bit my lip and broke the eye contact for a second, quickly looking around to check our surroundings. In doing so, I confirmed that there were no one else around to help or hinder us. I hadn't much choice... the letter Kana wrote was ambiguous, so I tried not to reveal it if I could, but...
My hand went down to my pocket where the object that Kana sent was located, feeling its smooth and cool metallic texture against my skin. Seeing my movement, the guard's hand moved to his waist where I saw was a holster. He was probably getting into stance just in case I was pulling out a weapon or something. Kana once ranted about how unnecessary and disturbing it was to have people with taser-guns everywhere, even if they were security, so I was fully aware of what this man in front of me was capable of.
I could feel my heart pounding hard. I moved my arm slowly to prevent unnecessary hostility, but fast enough to get it out before he grew tired and decided to use his weapon on me. My mind was all the while praying that this would work.
The security didn't show any other movement, waiting patiently but that made him look so confident. I bet he could pull out his weapon and taser me before I even realised he moved if he deemed I was a threat. And so I was glad he wasn't hasty, and opened my hand out with the palm facing up, the red and white object sitting in clear view.
He breathed in sharply, eyes narrowing at the sight of the object. Then, his hand faltered, and I was surprised to see that his fingers were starting to tremble. His hand fell away from the holster, losing his stance, and… lowered his head into a small bow. Then he turned and left.
I was intrigued; just what was this object?
- Adventure
- Cheesy Names
- Deaths of Pokémon and People can and will occur within the story
- Dystopian Society
at least during the beginning - Female Protagonist
- First-Person Writing
- Pokémon not native to the setting
- Post-Apocalyptic
- World-Building has more focus than Pokémon battles
Aiming to follow these points:
- PG(13) rating story
- Two to Four updates per month
- Around 2000 words per chapter
Comments welcomed and appreciated.
Chapter One - City
Spoiler:
There is a secret I've yet to tell anyone I know. It wasn't a huge secret which could throw my life into a mess; the worst thing that could happen was getting laughed at by the few people I'd consider 'friends'. If anyone else would've heard it, they would probably think I was a hippie freak or something. I don't think anyone would be blunt enough to state it out loud even if that were the case, but it still made me hesitate to voice my secret. My... desire.
I sighed while leaning on the wire mesh fence encasing the rooftop. Like the hundreds of identical skyscrapers around this particular one I was standing on, the fence was sturdy enough for a truck to ram into it with full power and still show no sign of damage. Not that anyone actually rammed a truck into the fence located 160 floors above ground; I just knew its strength from the advertisements.
It was roughly six o'clock, the time when the sun began to set. I almost always found myself standing here at this hour, staring into the distance until the sun bled its orange hue into the indigo of the night. And as always, I imagined what the setting sun would look like beyond the thick, ever-present carpet of cloud that hung over the City.
If not for the aforementioned and irritating grey cloud, I probably would have given zero attention to the world just like any other person living in the City. If not for it, I wouldn't have to come up here - one of the only places where I could actually see what the sun looked like as it stealthily sank beyond the desolate horizon, beyond the grey mountains and the wall surrounding the City.
I've always wondered what sunlight feels like. Not the ambient heat that warms up the day, but actual rays which apparently stung. Historical texts can only teach you so far. Well, I guess that's what makes learning so fun - imagining all these things that supposedly happened all the time in the past. Things like snow. And rain. And tornadoes and floods. In the City, there's none of those. Always the same temperature, always just enough light to brighten up the world during the day.
I stared into the distance until the day was over. Indigo conquered the orange and yellow, only to be replaced by artificial white of the City's lights coming on one by one. And with that, I slowly pulled myself off from the fence and headed down the building.
I took the stairs down. No one used stairs these days with how many floors people had to travel, so it allowed me to traverse down without needing to greet other residents and put up a fake smile if I come across them. Thankfully, I lived in one of the higher floors which made the trip not that bad.
"I'm home."
I spoke out of habit as I entered the unit that was my home. The bio scanners automatically unlocked the door when I was in the scanner's proximity, and the lights came on as I entered the living room.
As expected, there was no one home. I lived with Kana, my parents' friend and colleague, but she generally arrived home very late due to her work. She often apologised to me about how she couldn't be home sooner, and about how it was impossible to bring her work home to finish it due to confidentiality. It was to be expected from a researcher at Government Laboratories, so I've never held it against her. How could I, when she looked so happy going to her workplace everyday despite being sleep-deprived half the time? Her position also gave me privileges that my friends were often envious of, too. It's not like my library of literature and games were going to pay for themselves.
And so, like any other night, I prepared and ate dinner by myself. I'm not sure if I'd consider myself to be lonely; I had plenty of friends, and Kana generally manages to spend a whole day with me at least twice a month. But at nights like this, there's this sense of… stillness that sometimes bothers me. A sensation which felt like I was the only person in the world.
It was some time after I had finished dinner and cleaned up when there was an unexpected sound. I looked up from the holographic novel I was reading, recognising the noise as a delivery alert. Mail? at a time like this?
"Receive mail."
I spoke out loud, and a different holographic window appeared in front of me. It wasn't a mail, but a parcel. What's more, it didn't come through the Transporter like usual. Instead, it was apparently delivered physically.
I got up from where I was because if it's not sent through a Transporter, I had to retrieve it manually. The act irritated me a bit since I was finally getting comfortable in the posture I was in, but at the same time it made me apprehensive at the sudden turn of events. As I did so, I wondered when was the last time I had to open our unit's letterbox.
Within moments, I was at the dining room table with the parcel in hand. I sat down to observe it. It was the size of my hands, and was encased in metal. The sender wasn't written anywhere, just the receiver. That made me frown a little, because I was pretty sure the only people who could send anonymous deliveries were those related to the government. If this was something addressed to Kana I could probably understand, but the parcel clearly had my name. Perhaps it was Kana who sent it? But then, why? With those thoughts in mind, I pressed my finger on the identification panel of the box.
Nothing happened.
I blinked, unsure what was going on. I slid my hand across it while being confused, but then I realised what I thought was the ID panel was actually an archaic latch. I admit it took me a few more seconds than I would have liked for it to get it open.
The metal casing soon came away with a satisfying click, and revealed its two contents. The first was a folded paper - paper, in this day and age. I was sure people nowadays wouldn't even know what paper was just by looking at it. I sure wouldn't have known were I not interested in history. Then another thought made me freeze for a second - was it legal to have paper? Trees, the original source of paper, were a protected resource...
I shook my head to clear away the thought, making a mental note to dispose of it later just in case. For now, I unfolded it as I saw that there were markings on the inner side. It was words; the handwriting was messy, as if the writer had scribbled it down in a hurry.
Vee, keep that safe with you.
DO NOT FOR ANY REASON SHOW WHAT YOU HAVE TO ANYONE, ok?
Ok.
Oh, I won't be there tonight.
Come to the lab with that as soon as you wake up tomorrow, and show it to the guard if he hassles you.
MAKE SURE YOU COME STRAIGHT HERE.
I don't care if you have something special on tomorrow, COME. STRAIGHT. HERE. Got it?
Sweet dreams~
Kana.
I wondered if this was her usual handwriting. It was hard to say since Kana was the type to use a virtual pad or voice input rather than a holopen. Regardless, I was able to see her handwriting - a fact that somehow made me happy. Happy that I got to know another part about her.
Kana and I had been living together ever since I could remember, and she was more like a mother to me. But at the same time, there was always the lingering darkness in my mind - Kana wasn't my real mother, and so there was a distance between us unlike a normal daughter and mother. So knowing more about her, especially if it's something about her which others wouldn't know, made it feel like I could shorten that gap.
At the very least, this told me the sender really was Kana. While I didn't know her handwriting, it was typical of her to say two contradicting things like "do not show what you have to anyone" and "show it to the guard" in a single message. Also, "Vee" was my pet name which only a select few used.
The second object in the parcel was red and spherical. Upon pulling it out, however, I noticed that only half the sphere was red. The other half was white, with a dark line running a full circle in between to break the red and white hemispheres. It would have been two perfect halves if not for the white button placed on one side of the dark line. It was a peculiar device which I had never seen before; perhaps its purpose was to hold something? No, it was too small for anything remotely useful to fit in. There was no way of knowing, and I wasn't about to press the button even though the temptation was great. Who knew what disaster could happen by pressing it. Instead, I left the ball and the letter on the desk - I did mull over about what I should do with the paper letter, but since it was from Kana I figured it wasn't illegal - and decided to sleep.
It's been a while since I last came here to the laboratory. A month ago, was it? When Kana designated me as a one-day assistant. I wasn't able to enter the inner parts, so I was assigned to a different researcher back then much to her disdain.
The government-funded facilities really were immaculate, to say the least; floors were polished to the point where it felt like I was dirtying them just by walking on it. Holograms of famous and important scientists and researchers decorated the white-washed walls, frowning in concentration as they mixed chemicals in flasks or wrote down information on their portable devices.
Finding my way around wasn't too hard; clearly-labelled directions were all over the place, and I vaguely remembered where her lab was located. The hard part was-
"Hey you, kid,"
I heard a deep voice calling from somewhere. Looking around, I saw a man in what I recognised as a security uniform walking towards me. He was almost twice as tall as me, and most of his facial features were hidden behind facial hair. Yes, the hard part was to convince the security that I'm here for a reason and not to kick me out.
"This isn't a place open to the public. Leave."
He enforced.
"I'm here on Ka- I mean, Dr Hazama's request."
I said. There was a pause as he stared at me. I looked back at him, trying not to show my nervousness at the man. I wasn't sure what emotion he was showing behind all that facial hair.
"There are procedures. This... doctor you mentioned should have met you at the entrance. Authorized personnel only beyond this point."
I bit my lip and broke the eye contact for a second, quickly looking around to check our surroundings. In doing so, I confirmed that there were no one else around to help or hinder us. I hadn't much choice... the letter Kana wrote was ambiguous, so I tried not to reveal it if I could, but...
My hand went down to my pocket where the object that Kana sent was located, feeling its smooth and cool metallic texture against my skin. Seeing my movement, the guard's hand moved to his waist where I saw was a holster. He was probably getting into stance just in case I was pulling out a weapon or something. Kana once ranted about how unnecessary and disturbing it was to have people with taser-guns everywhere, even if they were security, so I was fully aware of what this man in front of me was capable of.
I could feel my heart pounding hard. I moved my arm slowly to prevent unnecessary hostility, but fast enough to get it out before he grew tired and decided to use his weapon on me. My mind was all the while praying that this would work.
The security didn't show any other movement, waiting patiently but that made him look so confident. I bet he could pull out his weapon and taser me before I even realised he moved if he deemed I was a threat. And so I was glad he wasn't hasty, and opened my hand out with the palm facing up, the red and white object sitting in clear view.
He breathed in sharply, eyes narrowing at the sight of the object. Then, his hand faltered, and I was surprised to see that his fingers were starting to tremble. His hand fell away from the holster, losing his stance, and… lowered his head into a small bow. Then he turned and left.
I was intrigued; just what was this object?
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