Time flew, and over the next few Sol-Cycles, Doctor Oswin kept 17 moving between a testing room, a medical facility, and what was essentially a storage locker that acted as its sleeping quarters.
Doctor Oswin didn't always attend to 17, she occasionally left on long journeys and left it in the care of the other scientists and doctors that kept the facility running. 17 didn't sleep, it merely sat and thought, and as it spent more time alive, it accumulated more thoughts and memories to accompany it. The others seemed to want 17 to try and make his own glowing lights, Spirits they called them. Doctor Oswin would show it several kinds of spirits each day and talk about each of their unique abilities and appetites. They were found all around the world, but usually could only be seen when they wanted to be seen. Witches, however, like Doctor Oswin and Capulet could see them all the time and even bend them into service. 17’s thoughts drifted to the Glyph spirit that almost perpetually lived in 17’s head now. According to Doctor Oswin, it gave the host the ability to understand what others were saying and in return it fed off peace derived from understanding. An odd appetite, but 17 wasn't one to judge, it didn't seem to require any sustenance. Something it only started to question while observing the lab assistants on something they called a “lunch break.” Doctor Oswin didn't eat, neither did Capulet, or at least they never did when 17 was observing. Were witches able to sustain themselves on emotions like spirits did?
“17!” Doctor Oswin called. She sounded exasperated, or was it annoyed? 17’s eyes focused on her. “17 where is your head? I've been calling your name for the past 5 minutes.”
“Food.” 17 simply rumbled. Doctor Oswin blinked, her expression morphing from agitation to confusion, then intrigue.
“Are you… hungry?” Doctor Oswin asked hesitantly.
“Hungry?” 17 asked. It hadn't heard this word before, but the glyph went to work defining it. “No. 17 not hungry. Doctor Oswin hungry?”
“I'm… no, I'm not hungry. I ate a while ago.” Doctor Oswin said, an eyebrow raised at the direction of this conversation.
“You eat?” 17 asked, an uncharacteristic note of surprise in its voice caused her to do something 17 had never seen before. She threw her head back and a loud sound erupted from her parted lips. 17 flinched in surprise and reflexively took a step back. The glyph wasn't any help in defining this action. She sounded almost like she was screaming, but her expression looked positive.
She eventually calmed down, a smile on her face.
“Yes, I eat. I don't do it while I'm working… Now what's with that expression?”
“Loud. Happy?” 17 rumbled. Doctor Oswin grinned, and tugged on its elbow, then said.
“That is called laughing. It's something you do when excited, happy, or surprised, but it's generally positive. Now come on, I want to run a few more tests on your emotional spectrum.”
“Today, we're testing your fear.” Doctor Oswin instructed. 17 was shackled to a hard stone chair with those same wooden shackles it'd seen on its first day. It tested them curiously, they were pretty light but 17 couldn't move more than a few inches. It tried to relax, but something about the scenario made 17 uncomfortable. Doctor Oswin called forth a blue flame and held it inches from 17’s nose. It gave off no heat, but 17 could feel it tugging on its emotions, drawing out its paranoia, its fear. 17 tried focusing on what it could remember about this spirit. Focusing on anything other than the fact that Doctor Oswin was coaxing it towards 17 and it had no way to escape. The flame was growing larger with 17’s reaction, a purple tendril licked 17’s cheek and it bellowed in pain, jerking away. It planted its feet and leaned back hard, straining against its bonds, producing a loud CRACK from behind it. Its eyes flicked over to Doctor Oswin, her face a mask, blank of emotion. She was testing it, but this wasn’t about how much 17 could feel fear. She wanted what she always wanted. A witch.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
This was a test and 17 wasn't in any real danger. Doctor Oswin wouldn't actually let it get hurt, right?
17 regarded the spirit anew, and drew out its archived memories, forcing its breathing to steady. It knew what this was, it knew where the fear was coming from and it knew it was safe. This was a will o’wisp, one of the many spirits with a lure, and one that fed on fear. 17 began focusing on a different emotion, curiosity, letting its academic mind diffuse its fear. 17 observed the will o’wisp deflate as its food supply was cut off, and smiled. 17’s eyes flicked back over to Doctor Oswin who now wore a slight smile of her own.
“Good.” She cooed, “Now command it. Promise a tasty reward after completing a task.” 17 nodded, and observed the will o’wisp again. Go that way, it thought, and 17 let you eat more fear. For a few seconds nothing happened, then that same nothing continued to happen. 17 frowned and tried again, and again, nothing.
“Move.” it rumbled aloud, frustrated, “Go that way.” It pointed with a finger towards the far wall. No response.
17 let some fear out, and observed the will o’wisp swell as it fed, then 17 let frustration swallow its fear, and watched the spirit deflate slowly. It repeated this process a few times, noting that Doctor Oswin was observing its actions closely.
“Your emotional control is good,” Doctor Oswin began, “Let’s focus on that for now. Substituting fear with frustration is a start, but you may start dealing with more than one kind of spirit. Instead of risking feeding another spirit, kill your emotions so they have nothing to feed on.” She instructed. 17 hesitantly nodded and one by one, tried smothering its emotions. Fear alone was difficult, so it tried replacing it with a presumably easier to control emotion. Annoyance. When it thought about it, it was remarkably easy to get annoyed at everything. These chains were too tight. 17 couldn't seem to grasp this test. Why wouldn't the spirit obey? Did it even hear 17? 17 felt a bit of joy at how easy it was to build this emotion, then remembered the assignment and drowned the feeling in annoyance. Why was it so easy to feel, so difficult to not?
“Are you even trying?” Doctor Oswin snapped, “You are just building your emotions! Killing them isn't that difficult of a concept!” 17 flung itself back in fear, and heard another crack from the stone chair. The will o’wisp roared in Doctor Oswin’s hand at 17’s fear so she flicked her wrist and threw it to the side. The spirit’s flames seemed to snuff from existence as it left Doctor Oswin’s fingers. She grabbed the wooden chains keeping 17’s torso locked to the chair and brought her face nose to nose with 17. Her violet eyes were filled with fury, then, nothing.
She gave an unnerving smile and released 17.
“See?” She asked, “Easy as that.” She turned and, click click click, strode away. “That's enough for today.” She called over her shoulder, then pointed at an observation window where a nearby door opened, and a lab assistant, Otis, hesitantly appeared. Doctor Oswin tossed the keys to him and left through the main door. Otis hurried over to unlock 17 as soon as the door closed.
“Your mom scares the shit out of me.” He commented as he unlocked the shackles on 17’s arms.
“Mom?” 17 asked, that was a new word. “Definition?” Otis blanched as he moved onto the torso chains, his oversized mitts fumbling with the lock.
“Oh, you know,” Otis stammered, “the one who makes you and raised you and loves you- um… maybe not that last part.”
“Loves?” 17 asked, another new word, it was learning so much today. Otis stumbled over himself, he was uncomfortable for some reason.
CRASH!!
As Otis released the final torso shackle, the stone back of the chair fell and shattered on the ground. Otis screamed and leapt from where he'd been crouching.
“I'll clean it!” He shouted a little too loudly and to nobody in particular. The room was empty save for the two of them. Before either one said anymore, he barreled out of the room, the door slamming behind him. 17 blinked, looked down and noticed its feet were shackled. It sat for a few moments, boredom seeping in, then picked up one of the fallen shackles. Otis had used a few different keys, but he'd taken those with him. 17 sighed, then let its curiosity take over. Using a hardened fingernail as a rudimentary screwdriver, it began disassembling the lock.