The Zenith Corporation would like to thank you personally for your contributions to the volunteer program for the past six months. How time flies when you're having fun! For your efforts, you've been awarded:
One (1) Hoverboard. Remember to exercise caution with this device and that the Zenith Corporation is not liable for any injury sustained while operating this equipment!
One (1) tasteful nude of Professor Quintalian! It even has his personal signature on it. What a treat!
The next time you sleep, you will see a message from the A.I. recently turned off. It seems she's not as easily unplugged as they made it appear.
When you sit up, it isn't in your bed. Instead, you're resting in a pool of saltwater no deeper than an inch. Stars freckle a black and blue sky for as far as the eye can see. None of them are constellations you recognize. Reflected back on the water's dark surface, it makes it hard to tell where the world ends and space begins.
You're not alone. Somewhere in the expanse, a voice sings out a melancholy song that is in a language you don't know. Follow the sound and you'll find R.O.S.I.E. The blond is kneeling in the water and staring up at the sky with stars reflected in her synthetic eyes. The blue lines around her pupils shine brighter than usual in the darkness.
Soon as she realizes someone else is nearby, her song stops abruptly and she locks her sights on you. The woman rises to her feet and takes wobbly, unstable steps your way. Her expression is one of terror. The white sundress she's often wearing is tattered at the bottom and frayed. However, the tears aren't stationary; the lacy cuts of her dress move along her legs and reach out to you should you get too close. A tingling of electricity through them can be felt, but only enough to be strangely pleasant rather than shocking.
"I need to-" She starts. Stops. Blue lines suddenly begin to light up on the ground beneath your feet. They sprawl just under the water's surface in an intricate pattern but there are clearly eight lines thicker than the rest that connect to black orbs making the outer circle of the pattern. They also glow the same color with a rose pattern etched along their surface as they hover at waist-height.
"You need to," she corrects now, blue in her eyes gradually melting into red. The lines starting from her feet begin to bleed red, all the way out to the orbs that also slowly change color. In your peripheral vision, lacy tendrils - tentacles? - start to spread across everything, the fabric of this strange reality.
When R.O.S.I.E. opens her mouth next, out comes a sound that is unlike anything that has ever been heard before, or ever will be. It isn't words that you can comprehend and trying just causes a powerful ache through your entire being. Tears leak from your eyes, no- It's the red that's beginning to taint everything you see. What she emits is inconceivable in this universe or the next. It's a horrid, wretched, and painful noise that scratches at the back of your mind, at your very soul. It grips you in an unexpected way.
Only a singular thought can be taken away before you feel as if you're ripped apart at the very seams of your being. "Complete." There is no rhyme or reason to the intrusive thought that will now plague you upon awakening. Every so often, it will permeate your mind and drive your actions, become your new purpose. "Complete."
Wherever you come back to reality, you'll be crying red. Not blood, just red. "Complete," you think, and don't know what or how to or why but it still lingers. Complete.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Greetings, valued volunteer!
The Zenith Corporation would like to thank you personally for your contributions to the volunteer program for the past six months. How time flies when you're having fun! For your efforts, you've been awarded:
d̷̨̘̥̙̱̫͓̲͖͖̲̭͇̳͕͍̟ͮ̋͆̂ͨ̾̏̓̌͜rͧ͊ͪ́͌̑̈̀͏̷̧̯̮̺̼͇̣̖̟̮̣͕͎̮͝ͅȩ͓͓̦͕̖̥̣͖̪͎͙ͣ̔̉̓̋͋̎ͩͥ͑̑ͪͩ͟ą̡̛̳̬̮͔̪̤͎͓̼͔͙̦̃̒͌͛͋̾̿͑̑͆̈̊ͥ̄̃́͘ͅͅmͤ̈͆͑ͮ̾͂ͦ͌̋̑̇̀̒ͫͩ̐ͬ͊͏̷̫̜̦́͟͟
The next time you sleep, you will see a message from the A.I. recently turned off. It seems she's not as easily unplugged as they made it appear.