Anza called it the 'Habitat', a collection of rooms and areas that you'd be living in with the other children until further notice. The place where you'd been introduced to everyone was the Lounge, it branched off into three directions full of identical little apartments where you would all be staying when she had no need of you.
Apartments were shared between two specimens and their Keepers. Due to all the… excitement surrounding your arrival you hadn't been introduced to your Keeper yet, but Anza was very sure that you'd like her.
You were not.
You'd only been around for a few hours and everybody else had already decided to hate you so why would this new lady be any different.
Anza did what she did best and scooted you into your new apartment before closing the door behind you, once again leaving you to fend for yourself.
The apartment was bigger than you expected, basically one big room with doors on closets and bathrooms and stuff. Tile floors, no carpet anywhere. No color either. False windows dotted the walls and lit the space with artificial light in a way that was supposed to simulate outside but really sucked at it instead.
Everything smelled like bleach and wet paint. No fingerprints on anything, no footprints, no dust, no dirt.
You were no stranger to sterility but this felt different, this felt wrong.
Almost lifeless.
Less like a dollhouse and more like the IDEA of a home but inside of a terrarium, like an ant farm almost, an open nest meant to be observed.
Nothing scratched or scuttled behind the walls. You couldn't even hear the pipes rumbling or the AC wheezing. It was all too smooth and too clean.
You didn't trust it, any of it. And when the new woman stepped into your field of view, you didn't trust her either.
She smiled at you (red flag), and made eye contact (red flag), and knelt to your level (big red flag). She offered her hand for you to shake or sniff or whatever and you just stared at it like it might pop off her wrist and bite you.
"Hi, my name is Mara, I'm going to be taking care of you for awhile." Her voice was soft and calm, pale blue and warm. Her skin was the same color as yours. She kept her hand out for you to inspect, but made no move to touch or grab you. "What's your name?"
You shook your head in response, and watched her face flick through half a dozen confused emotions in barely a second.
"No you don't have a name or no you don't want to tell me what it is?"
You tilted your head and gave her a weird little smile that said 'wouldn't you like to know?' Mara pursed her lips in response and got to her feet, dusting off her standard issue white slacks as she did.
"Oh it's gonna be like that, huh?" She crossed her arms and gave you a smile of her own that said that your tricks weren't going to fly here, but feel free to fuck around and find out. "I guess I'll just have to call you something new every day until I find a name you like, OR you nut up and tell me what your actual name is."
Oh… oh this was going to be fun (not). Your ears flicked back and your eyes narrowed. "I don't have a name." You signed with barely contained annoyance.
"Ah! He speaks." Mara chuckled, "Looks like my earlier plan is gonna come to fruition anyway, you can't just not have a name, little buddy."
You huffed and stomped your good foot, Mara's eyes lit up with sudden inspiration. "That's it! I'm gonna call you Thumper… at least until I can come up with something better."
The door opened before you could respond and a familiar blonde head peeked inside. The second you made eye contact with Specimen 37, your heart nosedived directly into your feet.
Her little face lit up like the sun and she bolted forward to hug you, but the growl in your throat brought her to a halt. Mara put herself between the two of you and your opinion of your new Keeper immediately skyrocketed.
"Well hello there! You must be our roommates, I'm Mara, and you just met my little buddy." She held very firm, keeping 37 away from you as best she could given the circumstances. "He won't tell me his name, so I'm calling him Thumper for the time being."
37 stopped, looked Mara in the eye and arched a single golden eyebrow. "Did he LET you call him Thumper or did you just help yourself?"
"Duckie." Hubris warned. His hands were full of Styrofoam takeout containers piled high enough to almost obscure his vision. He bumped the door with his hip to close it.
"What? I'm just askin'..." 37 called back.
"Well Duckie--" Mara began.
"My name's not Duckie, that's just what Hubie calls me, my name is Specimen 37." The girl interrupted, following Dr Downfall into the kitchen area.
"...h-honey that's-- that's not a name that's a number." You watched Mara's face fall, melting into a mask of confusion and concern.
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Dr. Downfall set his haul onto the kitchen table and spent a few minutes searching the cabinets for plates and utensils. He set the table for dinner, with 37's 'help', and started scooping things onto his plate before sitting. He waved both you and Mara over, and slid empty plates in your direction.
Up until that point, with the exception of treats given to you for good behavior, you'd only ever consumed nutritional supplements. They came in three distinct forms, a thick paste like mashed potatoes, a thin gray broth, or a crumbly dry bar, but they all largely tasted the same.
Like cardboard.
You didn't know what to try first, and it must have shown on your face because 37 kept handing you things to sniff or nibble. It was nice, it made you feel included.
Downfall watched you closely, like he expected you to nibble 37's precious little fingers off instead. He didn't look at Mara at all but his tone was clearly meant for her.
"A number is all that some of these people have left. Not just the children either, stop an intern the next time you're out and ask them what their name is, I bet you my lunch for a week that at least one of them will give you a number and nothing else." He nodded at you, "I know for a fact that that one there has a number and not much else, mind telling us what it is?"
"7886." You signed absently while Mara interpreted, 37 had just handed you a raw baby carrot to sniff, you gave it a test nibble and recoiled at the texture. Mara stifled a giggle.
"We both have sevens in our names! We're almost name-twins!!" 37 bounced in her seat, shaking the entire table until a sharp look from Downfall made her settle. "I knew I picked a good friend."
"Ok but why numbers?" Mara asked, completely disinterested in the food.
"Are you new here?" Downfall replied
She nodded and he gave her a pained look that bordered on sympathetic but was also in the general direction of pity. It made him look like he'd just swallowed something gross.
"It makes them easier to deal with, easier to categorize and easier to eventually get rid of." He poked at the food on his plate, expression suddenly morose. "It's really hard to get attached to a string of numbers."
"So that's why you call her Duckie, then?"
Hubris didn't answer, suddenly intent on finishing his meal.
You were experiencing the joy of chicken tenders and macaroni and cheese for the first time when 37 broke the silence, "When we're done eating can I show 7886 my room?"
Downfall looked at her, then at you, then back at her. "If he wants to see it, he can."
37 grinned around a mouthful of half chewed baby carrot and wiggled excitedly in her seat.
After dinner was bath time. You had already been cleaned once that day and didn't see the point in doing it all again, but Mara wrestled you into the tub and scrubbed you down despite your protests. She gently washed your face with a soft cloth and brushed your teeth for you, since you didn't know how.
You hated the way the brush scratched against your gums, but Mara was quick and thorough and it was over before you knew it. She rubbed some Elbow Grease brand petroleum jelly onto your face once you were clean and dry and applied something else to your scalp to make it less itchy, taking extra care of the spots where your ears were grafted on because they were kinda gross and scabby.
The last thing Mara did before letting you go was dress you in your pajamas. Soft, nice smelling things with gray bunnies and clouds, all over a white backdrop. You'd had pajamas before, a long time ago probably, but nothing as nice as these.
The second you stepped out of the bathroom, 37 had you by the wrist and was dragging you towards a curtain covered nook in one corner of the apartment. You'd been this close to her before but now that she was even more fluffy from her own bath, you could see that her hair wasn't hair, it was thousands of extremely thin feathers. Her excitement was palpable, coming off of her in vibrant pink waves that made you a little bit nauseous. She threw the curtain back and posed dramatically in front of her 'room'.
Every available bit of space was covered in jars and bottles full of things. Terrariums full of moss and leaves, wet specimens of dead things, purple and blue stained animal skeletons, jars of buttons, bottles of dirt and sand arranged into striped layers, loose teeth, beach glass, dried flowers and dozens of other things you couldn't have hoped to name in a dozen lifetimes. You stared at it all in silent awe, watching numerous invertebrates go about their daily lives in the safety of their little glass worlds.
"Pretty cool huh?" 37 grinned, climbing onto her bed to better reach one of the jars. It was home to a colony of isopods with yellow faces. "These are my favorites, they're called rubber duck isopods cuz they look like ducks and over there are my zebras, and next to them are my spiky ones, I've also got jumping spiders and banana slugs and a millipede named Jeffrey."
Something tapped the metal of your foot curiously, something large and many legged. You looked down to see the biggest millipede you had ever seen, twice as long as a dachshund and nearly as thick around. It tapped you with its antennae and reared up a little to get a better look at you. There were several stickers stuck to the plates on its back.
You pointed at it and 37 followed your finger, she nodded with enthusiasm and recognition when she saw the huge bug, "Yeah that's Jeffery!" You picked the creature up and handed it to her, she settled him onto her shoulders like a feather boa. You weren't sure how to react to that at all so you turned around and left, 37 watched you go with a wry smile as if she were used to that sort of reaction. Your room was the same as 37's, just without all the jars and decorations.
A bed with a drawer underneath, lots of shelves, a curtain for privacy, and a fake window that was doing its best impression of the night sky.
Fake windows were a necessity this far underground, they simulated daylight and kept folks from going insane. This window was fancier than what you were used to, a screen that went the extra mile and showed you what weather conditions and smog levels were like outside.
You crawled into bed and slid under the covers, unsure of what else to do with yourself. Mara peeked in a while later with something behind her back.
"All tuckered out?" she whispered.
You shrugged, feeling the first fingers of exhaustion start to tug at your limbs.
"Well, I've got one more surprise for you before it's lights out." Mara wiggled a little, for emphasis. You had really had enough surprises for one day and really just wanted to go to sleep, so you sank beneath the blankets. Mara pulled them back and handed you something fluffy and white.
And breathing.
Your bear!!
You crushed it to your chest and smushed your face into its dense fur. It didn't smell like Nala anymore, her scent replaced by heavy industrial cleaners, but it wasn't soaked with drool anymore either so you weren't going to look a gift bear in the mouth… even if it didn't have a mouth. Mara tucked you back in, and kissed you between your ears.
"Good night Thumper, sweet dreams."
You curled up tight with your bear, listening to it breathe in the dark before falling headlong into a deep and dreamless sleep.