December 21, 2012

"Enter."

A precise line of eighteen year olds with the same epidermis color and corpus filed into room 333. Inside, a glass-domed roof served as the room's only barrier from the toxic air outside, and rows upon rows of ellipse-shaped containers covered the floors of the expansive space. Each one had a number written on it and each one was exactly three feet away from the other objects like it. Wires were attached to these, trailing along the floor in perfect parallel order. Never crossing, never out of line. A drawn out, pneumatic hiss echoed throughout the insulated room as the capsules' glass coverings slid down simultaneously.

One by one, the identical humans entered their designated pod. When the last of them entered, the glass covers sealed shut and the seats slid forward in unison to accommodate the newly added mass. Every body present was now laying down inside the containers with the same blank face they bore since infancy. A digitally enhanced voice spoke exactly three seconds after.

"Under the Kuonji Act, all eligible persons must enter and complete their mission in order to become a full citizen. The mission: to discover your characters' quests and to complete them within one year. Remember that whatever happens to your character, happens to you. After you have completed your mission, you will be granted full citizenship and your character will become permanent. A sedative will soon be administered in three seconds. Welcome to Alternate Reality."

And so, in exactly three seconds, the almighty President Kuonji set in motion his own undoing.

A figure floated in the middle of an inky, never ending, black abyss and said dully, "Number 110507."

Columns and streams of blinding white digits appeared everywhere while a popup with the picture of a slot machine materialized in front of the figure; the words 'Creating character...' typed above the image. It pressed the 'Stop' button with its index finger and waited for the inevitable.

When it did happen, the figure's brain registered only pain. Overwhelmingly horrific pain swept through its body in waves and eternal infernos, beginning from the figure's legs and slowly burning its way up with icy hot tendrils, causing the figure to collapse and writhe in grotesque poses. Endless shrieks of agony erupted from its throat as its body warped and filled out into a slender, lean one and its face structure morphed into a feminine heart shape. A pressure built with raging intensity behind her eyes while she clawed at her shaved skull- elongating and turning into a beautiful dark shade of auburn to complement her lightening complexion.

Then the pain stopped.

At least that's what she thought it was called. 'Pain' wasn't taught at her school, but it was the first thing that came to mind.

She lethargically awoke. Her once empty, dark eyes brightened slightly to a dark shade of gray. The girl laid still in her rigid, curled position for several beats, raising a tremulous finger to the trickles of salt water which escaped from an organ she didn't even know existed. She took several deep, rattling breathes, startled at the feel of a heavy thing thumping in her chest. Her skin, now the shade of cream, appeared luminescent in the darkness like the moon in a calm night sky; tiny dots of sweat shimmering back the color of the digits which adorned the void around her. She shakily stood up on wobbly knees, the pain ebbing away to an insistent twinge or sting. The girl panted tiredly, experiencing firsthand what 'pain' was like due to the fading effects of the drug she took with her daily supplements, which restricted her emotions and senses. If it wasn't for her instructor telling her graduating class earlier that Alternate Reality negated said drug- for all persons were required by law to suppress their emotions- she would've panicked.

Well, she thought, she would've panicked if she even knew what 'panicked' meant.

The girl, who somehow ended up a yard away from the popup, stepped up to it with an unknown sensation forming in the pit of her stomach. She shook her head to clear away the webs of the feeling called 'pain.' Her body felt tense and the girl felt like running away from the popup, but as to why she couldn't say. The sensation in her stomach infected the rest of her body and numbed it; perspiration collected in the palms of her hands while a frigid prickling attacked the base of her neck. She was frightened by the way her mouth dried up and by the way her pupils dilated fully. The girl faintly wondered if she was coming down with a 'cold,' before a loud ping noise brought her back to her senses and alerted her that new words replaced the old ones on the popup.

Choosing occupation...

The girl stared at the stop button, wondering why she felt paralyzed. With much effort, she lifted a trembling finger to it and pressed the button. Her body instinctively shied away when the slot machine slowed to a stop, but relaxed when nothing happened. Opening her eyes, bewildered as to why they were even closed in the first place, she looked at her chosen job; all different kinds of senses, ranging from the swooping feeling in her sternum to the urge to lift up the corners of her lips inundated her panicked brain. Promptly after this, the girl fell backwards, down into the enveloping chasm like a shooting star.

A warm sensation on her face startled the girl awake. Blinking her eyes rapidly, she was... surprised- she believed the word was- to discover that her body no longer ached and, instead of feeling heavy and closed up, she felt happy. Content. Light. So many words she never knew soared like weightless birds in her mind, and somehow, deep in her soul, she knew the reason for this was because of the nullification of the drug. Now she knew why the president implemented this game to stop depressed citizens from committing suicide. She no longer felt empty, or cold, or robotic. She felt like... a name glided to the front of her thoughts and tears streamed down her overjoyed face with no end in sight. But she didn't care, because she felt like a human for the first time in eighteen years.

She felt like Sakura Mikan.