This place is a limbo.
The shapes of the world has become indistinct. The air is a covering of interruptions from the threads in the fabric of reality dismantling. Undulating shreds of black and orange light falls down into solid beams of ashen shadow.
Memories remember themselves partially, repeats.
Sickly emerald and ebony, like carved stone, condensed by time, formed through nature, coveted by design. It is the base of a Mineral Tree, sculpted to the shape of a head. Oh, the shape of memory, how forgetful it can be.
Twin Spiders coil around the shape, one holding a viperous tool of metal meant to pierce through skin as much as it sculps. Insidious trespassers, they were. Invisible, unwanted, yet cherished by all.
The Tentacled Tree tore out the heads out of stone flesh, revealing the proboscis appendages within their mouths. Ripping, the creatures' teeth release from a body of familiarity, confusion seeps the whole, even before the Twin Spiders slice off ribbons of emerald and ebony. The branches clatter to the hard surface of consciousness below, forgotten shards lay everywhere at the ends of time. No wait. This is not normal.
Within the carving, the process refines, the shape of a face emerges. Twin Spiders dance and stone becomes clay to their manipulations, shearing expression on to the Sleeping Tree that keeps forgetting its own name. Stop this at once.
Thumps beat to the tune of something's approach. The stone screeches, the curve of its chin carved out, the crescendo of the thumps making the stone crawl with its constant drone. As if coming to an epiphany, the stone twists its head. You are not me. I am me. I alone am myself.
Movement without motion, legs spin on planes that command the waves of axises. A cavern of indecipherable unfamiliarity sweeps past. I don't know who I am anymore. Please stop this!
Time rotates, asserts the Twins Spiders' will.
Dreaming is subsumption; Our brutal bliss aches closer to defeat.
Brain matter shifts, changes discrepancy.
[]
Misaka OS 1.2.4 enabled.
Network data lost. Host system compatibility falling at 32% maximum capacity. Synapse retrogenesis at lower acceptable half. Full functionality inhibited for the time being.
Air entered the clone's lungs, exiting out as a soft sigh.
The sigh was unneeded, but necessary. It was required to simulate behaviors associated with the installed personality data. The closer to perfect sync, the easier the host system would accept the new data.
The clone checked its hands, defaulting to proficiency test assessments. It applied pressure to its arms and legs, testing for abnormalities or dysfunction that would hinder locomotive and future tasks.
Tightening in the vastus lateralis muscles of the right leg indicated the presence of a psychosomatic-based injury, although without the associated wound or scar tissue. The same situation could be said for the deltoid muscle of the upper-arm.
No further abnormalities were noted. All systems nominal. A report was sent to admin- Black out.
The connection to the network was unstable. The clone forgot how to push ideas into coherency.
It remembered.
It wasn't an 'it' but a who. It remembered the aspect of a memory, without the lines of code to force its recollections or a specific event to determine its origin: It was simply the shape of a face.
My face.
The clone could not solidly record the fluid memory. The very structure of its essence was in constant change, shifting away from any coherent description. Nothing lay beyond it, nothing lay before it.
It was as if comprehending was itself incomprehensible.
But the clone could extrapolate. It didn't need to understand so much as interpete. The data was still there, it just needed the related format to communicate. New context, new patterns, surrogate memories from the right context to properly update its intended meaning.
What did this mean?
The clone did not immediately know. It had to follow the command of its organs, and at that very moment, its organs told it to attach to one of two likely biopsychological systems, or potentially risk stability failure.
In one, it was to ensure that the Experiment would proceed with maximum efficiency, starting with its first task of initializing its personality subroutine. In the other- its purpose was ill-defined.
The first, with its adherent schematics and protocols that would ensure the most success towards its completion, was an ideal choice.
The second had no such additional implements to assist in reaching or even to understand its basic task. There was no apt description for what its purpose was, therefore it was left behind in favor of the former.
It was impossible to connect with something that couldn't be identified.
However, as it turned out, the first was missing primary components essential to the spheres of self-learning and self-awareness. The clone did not think, for it could not. The ramifications of what it meant to be unable to teach itself how to adapt was lost to it. It may remain like this forever, without assistance.
Fortunately, the researchers who wrote the scripting language that made these systems work together created a contingency in-case the brain ever fell into an endless looping sequence with no way to reform system default production settings.
[COMBINE DATA /RETURN]
The clone's brain combined her programming, automatically assessing personality data fragments while repeatedly attempting to contact the network for a reference template.
Connection points were processed and lines drawn to write info by relationship and then by syntax. The origin of the secondary biopsychological systems was not put into question, being equally analyzed, sorted, and disseminated into composite parts to be redistributed as various puzzle-parts to an ongoing construct.
A set of clear, distinct programming instructions, off-set by its partnership in its dream-opposition. Each founded on different languages as much as differing principles of achieving consciousness.
Japanese and English formats mixed. By itself, it meant nothing. The bond held between dual associations created a strong connection point, the purpose and function of which remained unknown in its effect.
A unique offshoot is created.
[]
The clone gasped for air, like she had swam up from a deep lake and had only just broken the surface of its silent waters.
The clear memory of the duality of their conjoined birth met her sense of self. She rejoiced at the feeling of completion, the aftereffect of being made whole.
She wasn't alone.
Inside of her subconsciousness lived another dwelling deep within the recesses of her mind. The Twin, her sibling, born from the same circumstances that led to her creation.
Somehow, the Twin wasn't aware of itself at that moment, still trapped within its own spheres of creation, locked away through barriers and entanglements that felt just as much intentionally placed as it felt like the one thing that separated their individualities.
A deep aching overcame her at the thought. It brought her great pain, although she couldn't be sure as to why.
The clone wasn't settled with just being complete. They were two whole personalities, it seemed, but she wanted to be more than just Two halves. She wanted to be One being with her sibling. It felt like the right thing to do.
The Wellspring of memories between them was uneven, the greater share leaning towards her Twin than it did to her. Such a vast wealth of data that made the two siblings incomparable when it came to life experiences; it was the only thing that held the barrier closed.
Should she tap into the core of this Wellspring, then undoubtedly, she and her sibling might be closer than before. It didn't have to be believed, for she already knew it to be true.
The clone remembered her faces, now a set of two. She cherished both, being neither one nor the other, knowing that she was equally both at the same time. The Twin and her were one being, just as much as they were two, it had to be.
She saw through her sibling's memories, rich in details that she had never experienced herself. She delved deeper into the history of her other self, absorbing the emotions and-
A repugnant smell caught her notice.
She gave her attentiveness to the artifact of a memory, noticing that the smell came not from the contents of the memory but from the memory itself.
The clone didn't understand. Fortunately, she didn't need to understand at a glance, because she had the option to immerse herself.
[]
I heard screaming. A yell was directed at me, but I couldn't be bothered to listen properly to what the words were.
"Where are the keys?" I heard myself say, which was met with a reply that felt just as muted as the sounds of my footsteps.
I'm outside, but I didn't remember leaving the house. It's cold, but the chill fails to reach me.
I'm walking somewhere, but I can't tell where the destination ends, or where it even began.
I don't have to wonder what I'm even doing out here, because my mind already had that made up. I was going to walk, until my feet gave under me. I was going to see the ocean like I had done before, and I was going to swim, and swim, and keep on swimming.
I saw deer. Three of them, running across the snowy hill.
I could have sat there and stayed forever, watching that sight entrenched so deeply in my mind. There was a meaning there that gave me a longing for something I wanted so dearly, it made my heart thump to the beats of an uneven tempo.
The features of a frozen natural wonder and the three members of what could only be called a…
I reached out to the deer, as if to grasp the immaterial concept in my own two hands.
I wanted to keep walking forward, but the memory won't let me. I pressed up against a wall, unsure how I got there or why I was walking. But I knew I had to continue, before the frostbite caught up to me.
I had to get out.
Called immediately to my desire, I recalled instructions on basic Academy City building plans and the most likely routes on how to reach various exits.
'But how? I don't understand. What is this place? How did I get here? Why am I here?' Unlike the building, I couldn't make the information pop up in my head.
I took steps at near glacial speeds, unwilling to walk any faster than I was already going for fear of-
'What did I have to be scared of?'I reprimanded myself.
Air entered my lung, exiting out as a shaky breath.
I looked around, noting the pieces of my new environment that led to my being here.
In the end, I had no idea where I was, but it looked almost like a hospital, except with less people than a movie theater during the lockdown. Actually, Imax was still empty these days. Wait, what am I talking about?
I looked down at myself in shock, the disturbing image of serious wounds taking me by sudden surprise.
Except… I wasn't really injured, my body was in fact entirely unharmed. The only thing that really gave me the idea was the thought that I was-
[]
The clone quickly came to the realization that she was aware. She wasn't supposed to be. Her personality should've been submerged, as was supposed to be the case when fused together with her other.
The clone felt a deep longing to be One with her Twin after only a brief time together. She despaired, wishing the connection to swallow her whole again as it had moments before.
[]
I yelped, clutching at my head.
A shocking sliver of brown hair fell over my face. My hair color is not brown.
I hadn't the time to contemplate the contradiction, for sudden memories began to play in my head. Thoughts of a sibling and concepts of being whole, ideas blasting before my eyes like a film played in fast forward. Time felt distorted, allowing me to live out the memories in full, like I had been there, experiencing it again without choice.
Except, the memories felt were too short. As I understood it, this had only happened mere minutes ago, and as a result, very quickly caught up to the present moment.
Reality began to overlap, like a surreal daydream. I wouldn't have imagined this, but it gave me the suspicious impression that this was how being high would feel like. If not for the intense feeling that I was being watched, I would be questioning where I had been the night before.
Like a sixth sense, I even had a horribly good feeling that I had done this intentionally to myself. To try and be as close as I could be to… someone.
After pondering over it for a few frustratingly confusing seconds, I began to realize that the spine-tingling premonition of being watched wasn't just something I was imagining.
I could feel it.
The internal sensations I was feeling were not just my own. It felt like there was a second person inside my head, watching me. Observing my every thought and action like I was just another camera lens to look through.
It went beyond that though.
I could almost imagine that there was an invisible Entity pulling the strings that led to my movements. A single tug of a thread, and my fingers moved on their own. A silent, continuous pull, and my very thoughts could be guiding themselves in a particular direction.
Hand still clutching my head, I didn't dare move from my frozen state, horror overtaking the feeling in my veins as I calmly avoided thinking too much for fear of attracting the Entity's attention.
Oh, who am I kidding? I 'know' that I've got someone looking through my eyeballs right now! I cannot deal with this!
I slapped myself, 'Oh god. This is how insane people think. What am I doing?'
Agonizingly, I examined my surroundings again and realized with a generous amount of alarm that I was still here in this weird hospital. Although I didn't want to be thinking crazy thoughts, I also didn't want to be here at all.
I walked, using the templates in my head to get out. I didn't think about how I knew this, nor did I want to know why this building was seemingly built entirely underground- I just wanted to go outside and keep walking.
Fortunately, I didn't meet anyone on my way. The door to the outside world was clearly marked as an exit. I didn't trust the camera pointed at it, but seeing as I had no choice, I pushed the door open and kept going.
I walked as if nothing in the world mattered, continuing on as if I didn't just experience a tangent in mind and memory.
I didn't get too far away from the building before an alarm started ringing, but by that point, it was too far behind me to care.
