"...You know, I'm getting tired of doing this."

"..."

"Tired of doing what?? Well, hiding for one."

"..."

"Look, I'm all for talking to myself here, but you have to say something."

"..."

"I don't even know why you're here. I woke up here and you've just been standing there. Well, not exactly standing, but I don't really have the words to describe what you're doing."

"..."

"Well, I guess that didn't work. Then again, I don't know if you can even hear me. I mean, you have the vague shape of a person to you, but you're just...fuzzy, you know?"

"..."

"It's like...for some reason I can tell that you're an actual person floating in front of me. Is that...strange? I mean, I objectively know that you being here isn't exactly normal, so there must be a reason you're here. It's also kind of weird that I know what should and shouldn't be here."

"..."

"I mean, I just woke up here with implicit knowledge about a lot things I think I probably shouldn't have. Especially since the last thing I remember is..." The voice continues on, obviously perturbed at the continue silence from its would-be conversation partner.

"...Well, we've been found." The other voice let out, a more methodical, mechanical, interpretation of anything considering a voice could be.

"And I can't exactly see why-wait! You're talking, like actually talking. Finally, I thought I'd just be alone here forever. Now you had better-" The voice is cut off as the glowing figure's arm rapidly strikes through something unseen to the naked eye, its head simply turning to stare at the spot it just stroke down.

"It would be best if you stopped talking. They can hear us." At that, the bodiless voice muffles a fair bit before the surrounding space falls to silence, both participants now wary about their surroundings. They had no need to worry though, for the darkness surrounding them had yet to change since they first appeared there.

"Ok, so, it seems like we no longer are able to have some modicum of secrecy. However, since nothing seems to be happening, I would assume it's just a passing glare." The glowing figure lets out, sighing gently at an opportunity that had long passed by. At some point, something seems to push aside the glowing arm from a specific place in the air.

"Is that why you haven't been talking?" The bodiless voice questions.

"Yes. Secrecy is important when you bungled up anything this hard." The glowing figure almost seems proud of itself in its posture, before it realizes that it needs to focus upon its present task.

"What the hell is a bungle?"

"Nevermind that. I need to listen."

"...Is there supposed to be a sound or something?"

"...No. Thankfully whoever they were, they've stopped actively looking at us."

"Is it that important that we hide?"

"Ok. Since I've spoken now, and things don't seem to be getting worse as I had feared they might, I might as well explain some things. First things first, I am not supposed to be here, and a lot of people noticed me leaving. Second of all, you are not who you think you are. You are the culmination of the skills of the person you represent. Finally, I am this way because I am inside this place." At this, she gestures around her, no longer able to hear anything she had been before.

"....Which is?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Inside a head." At that she raises a fist to her own head, and knocks upon it, producing an impressive clang.

"...Oh. I guess that makes sense considering that one thing that happened with that blue liquid I felt like I needed to deal with."

"Other than that, I guess I can answer any question you might have."

"....Any question?"

"Within reason." At the glowing figure's point, the bodiless voice hems and haws before finally coming up with a question to ask.

"How do I get a body like yours here?"

"Well, it is technically your head, so technically just think you have a body." The second voice falls silent at the figure's insistence, as wind begins to whip throughout the space around them. Swirled by the wind, seemly out of nowhere, white particles coalesce into a humanoid form , becoming more familiar as it flexes its fingers, curls its arms, and bounces on its legs, until finally, the shape of a Bide is present, something akin to the human that they were inhabiting.

"Dear lord, is that good. All I've had is my voice. Speaking of which, how did you stop me from talking if I didn't have a mouth." The pertinent question left the simulacrum's lips, as the glowing figure simply thought upon it for only a brief moment.

"I disrupted your thoughts." At that, the figure makes the same chopping motion, which briefly fuzzes up the duplicate's body, before it stabilizes once again back to an analogous form of Dave, the human.

"....that's it?"

"Yes."

"I thought there'd be more than that." The look-alike responds dejectedly.

"To be fair, you don't have much experience in the ways of the mind."

"Point to that I suppose."

"..." A silence is spread around them both, and for once, the doppelganger starts to investigate their surroundings. Indeed, for once they looked closer towards a particular direction, they could briefly see the soft pale glow of something eerily familiar to them. Something that they had apparent experience with before. However, before heading over there to get a better look at what its assumptions told it to be so, it finally noticed the growing silence around it, so it went to start yet another conversation.

"Wow, you really don't like talking do you?"

"It is merely a way to exchange information with you. Beyond that, I see no point." The glowing figure replied in an almost golem-like way. At that, the look-alike proceeded to have a double-take at the situation, it's psuedo eyes slightly widening at the incredulousness that it felt.

"...Really?"

"Yes." At that a silence had once again descended upon the duo. One fidgeting slightly, while the other continued to remain perfectly still, floating gently in the black void surrounding them. However, even that silence could not last forever.

"Who are you?"

"...My designation is J-209." The glowing figure eventually replied.

"...Wow. That's...that's not a name. Unless you're a robot or something." At the doppelganger's admittance, the glowing figure halted its motions in the air, its head tilting slightly. However, just as soon as it did so, it stopped and proceeded to continue floating the same way that it had done before.

"Judging from the images of metal golems evoked by that concept, no. I am not."

"...what?"

"Well, golems are more simple than what I am, but it is something that could equate for vaguely." If one were to listen closely, one could almost here a sense of utter despair, coming from the glowing figure's tone, before the monotonous tone returned to its previous vocal enunciation. However, the look-alike did not actively seek to listen to the soft undertone, but rather what the image implied

"No, not that, but...wait, actually, you're like a robot?"

"I was not made of metal, so no."

"Artificial Intelligence?" At that, there was a repeat of the same motion as before from the glowing figure, before it once again came back to the present moment.

"...Sorry, that particular phrase evoked a lot of images I had to parse through. Judging from some of the similarities between them, I would say yes." A sense of awe came across the doppelganger's face, before a look of utter seriousness crossed upon its brow.

"Putting that aside, although that does explain the way you talk, why exactly are you here?"

"I did not perform as adequately as I thought I might when performing my job, and I have to exist with them."

"...Would you like a name?"

"...If it helps you."

"J...Since you're designation has one, why not call you Jenny then." At this, the newly proclaimed Jenny's image seemed to...stutter a bit before becoming a fair bit clearer.

"I do not...no."

"You don't like it?" The glowing form slowed in its floating as if trying to decipher why the question actually meant, before its speed returned to it.

"It is not that I do not like it, but the fact that the images it brings up aren't exactly fit to what I am."

"If it helps you understand, sometimes a name isn't an image, but a designation."

"I know that. It still...irks me." At this, the form seems to shiver slightly, almost losing the quality it held, before it began to form back into the approximate figure it had before, the glow only slightly receeding.

"So you have emotions?"

"Simple ones, yes." The figure nodded.

"So...why are we hiding anyway?"

"I already told you." Annoyance undercut its tone, one that even the look-alike could parse.

"...That was my way of asking for more information."

"This is part of the stuff I am holding within reason."

"Oh. I figured since you've been helpful with my other questions, you'd just plum forgot about it."

"No. I just particularly model my answers to fit my allowed vision."

"Well, is there a way to get out of here?"

"Yes, but your main body has to discover it. Or something happens outside to draw us."

"...Is there a reason we can't do it ourselves?"

"If we were, we'd be discovered much sooner. And they couldn't just hear us. They could be here."

"And that's bad because..."

"Some of them are quite mad at your body. And I wouldn't put it past them to harm it." At this, the now recognizable form of David winces.

"Well is there a way we can warn him?" His questioning voice seemed to resonate within the blue form of Jenny, but her face didn't register the question.

"I think he already knows. By the way, prepare yourself." At this, inner Dave squinted around him while bringing his fists up.

"What are you even talking about I don't see anyone here?" He was right about that of course. Endless darkness seemed to surround them before fading into a white haze. Endless quiet surrounded the pair. If a pin could exist within this space, one could hear it drop against the non-existent floor. The only thing that didn't seem to not be a part of that space, was the two already there.

"I can feel its attention strengthening and I felt it probe into me. They can only do that if they're here." Eyes seemed to dart everywhere as tension within her begins to wind up.

"Is there anything we can do?" With that question, either coincidentally or trigger by the thought, something begins to happen. The sound of a heavy drum, beating slowly. It almost sounds like a heartbeat, that throbs throughout the space, while motes of brown light seemed to seep in from somewhere coalescing together, before something almost immense could be seen in the distance.

Softly glowing golden rivers were swept throughout the darkness, the source of this light becoming all the more clear. Brown specks seemed to waft off the golden glue, tinging it towards a darker rusty red, before receding back into the normal gold it always held. The specks floated towards the tops of the many rivers before finding themselves swept up in an invisible wind. For only a second did they seem to have no direction within the very darkness of the void surrounding them all before the dust had then begun to join together back towards the giant thing that was slowly coming into clarity. It was only when the last speck had left the rivers, did Jenny finally manage to come back with an answer to their predicament.

"No."