There once was a time you could remember, if only faintly, where the warmth you felt eclipsed that of anything else. Those who cherished you would call your name with joy, and those who thought of you only did so with the best of intentions.
They loved you.
And you loved them.
To those who held you dear, you were a symbol of togetherness. Of happiness and enjoyment between all who came to know you as a means of bringing people together. You were there when those who would call your name were seen as different from others, looked at in a way that made you feel uncomfortable. Then, time moved on, and so too did the number of people who gathered alongside you.
From the few, it became the many.
From the many, it became the most.
And eventually, people from all walks of life came to know you, appreciate you, and spend time under the roof which you called home.
Even if you weren’t there with them physically, you were always treated with fondness as they called out to you.
Oh, how you cherished those days.
If only they would last forever.
But nothing ever does.
Time waits for no one.
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It was the coldness against your skin which caused you irritation. It wouldn’t go away.
Without much choice, you began to open your eyes.
“...Mglph…”
A jumble of sounds escaped your mouth first before a rush of water began to fill your lungs. Panicking, and with barely enough consciousness to comprehend your imminent demise should you do nothing, you began to flail wildly against your surroundings. Your body desperately wished for oxygen, but you couldn’t breath as the water was engulfing your entire body.
Instead, you punched. Kicked. Internally screamed at the top of your lungs as adrenaline began to rush through your veins and wake up every last cell in your body for a hopeful attempt at survival. In what was surely seconds but felt far longer, your swinging limbs finally began to contain more force as they pounded against… Glass?
You're unsure if which fist it was that made the first impact, but the cracking sound of glass could be heard almost instantly. In a last ditch attempt, you swung your fists in determination toward the sound as hard as you possibly could, before the sharp crack nearby turned into the deafening sound of shattered glass. All at once, your body along with the water poured out of the hole, flowing right onto solid ground.
“*Cough, Hack, Hack, Cough*”
Water came spewing out of your lungs as you tried to get yourself together. It was awful. The dampness of your hair coinciding with the cold air around you felt disgusting, and the water which nearly drowned you had yet to fully leave, forcing you to continue your attempts at throwing it up. To make matters worse, the shattered glass surrounding you and cuts running across your arms and legs didn’t help; not to mention you could feel a few open wounds.
This was tragic, really.
Yet, you’re still alive.
Small blessings and silver linings, you suppose.
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It was almost forty five minutes later that you finally got back on your feet. After managing to dry yourself off using those long old white coats you found lying around, as well as putting together a makeshift outfit and attempting to apply first aid, you could safely say that now, you were back in action!
If only that made any sense, however.
“Where… Am I…?”
It was a strange, abandoned facility of some sort. Dim blue lights illuminated most pathways while dust collected all around. There was clear damage to the structural integrity of the place, with what may as well have been a hurricane tearing through most of the larger rooms, but the offshoot side rooms were all but left alone and in one piece. The facility itself… If that was really all it was, had been left in shambles and ruin, with nothing but broken pieces of brick and metal left behind. Your short walk through it had all but confirmed that.
Yet, that made even less sense…
Why were you trapped in glass in a place like this? Why was it abandoned?
Where are you?
And…
“Why… Am I crying?”
Tears ran down your cheeks as you tried to comprehend your apparent sadness. Nothing came to mind, however, no matter how hard you tried to remember.
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There were glaring issues with the situation at hand for sure, you acknowledged.
For starters, you never had a physical body to begin with, even if you always had a body. Things like bleeding, drowning and other sensations that would normally come with a natural human body were never things you had experienced before. Mostly because, well, you weren’t human. At least not in the normal sense. You were meant to be human, that much was for sure, but it felt more like you were modeled to look human, and that was fine. You got to spend time with everyone, and you never had an issue when it came to being in more than one place at a time. Everyone loved you, and you loved them; even if they came and went as the years had gone by.
In fact, aging was never a problem for you either! Your bright orange hair tied up into a ponytail had never once gone grey, lost its colour or had issues with falling out or splitting edges. Truly it was a blessing that your looks had stayed with you over the years, but again, that was mostly due to the unique composition your body had.
It had never been so… Real… Before.
And that wasn’t something you could easily decide as being good or bad.
Still, other issues took precedence at the moment: most notably the issues of your current location, as well as the problem with this surprisingly large and rather unusual gigantic door that you happened to stumble across.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
While the glass you broke out of, which you’ve now come to realize was a large tube, was seemingly the only one in the entire facility (as far as you’ve seen), the rest of the place was pretty much dead. Other than the dim blue lights emitting the most unbelievable sense of dread you’ve ever experienced, the other electronics had no power running to them, and anything else which could’ve helped her out had either been smashed to pieces or left completely useless. Heck, there wasn’t even a calendar in here!
This place, whatever it was, had been left to the ravages of time.
That was, however, with one exception.
A singular door, round in shape and painted pitch black, laid in wait at the southern end of one of the last remaining paths she could find without a roadblock or a dead end.
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It was incredible.
The sheer size of it was one thing, but in what appeared to be engravings carved onto the door were three mountains which lay above grassland, and in the top right corner shined down the sun as it watched over them.
These engravings were illuminated a beautiful bright red, and though its shine had dulled over the clear passage of time, it still shone nonetheless.
You watched it in awe. Left abandoned and alone alongside rubble and ruin, this door stood proud, dying, but unwavering in its purpose. Something about that resonated with you, though you’re still not sure why.
You wonder if it still works. Putting your hand against the door as a test just to see what happens is a mistake however, as instantly the ground below you starts to shake.
“Oh WAI-”
But, with much exaggeration, the round door slowly begins to roll to the side, revealing a room hidden behind it.
“...”
While normally you would never admit to being so spiteful, you silently hoped that whoever made the door open like that would stub their toe on a dresser sometime in the future.
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Entering the room leaves you stunned in silence. Not just from amazement, but also confusion.
This room, unlike any other you’ve seen thus far, is completely operational. From white LED lights illuminating all corners of the room, to computers running codes, dust being all but nonexistent and even a cool skateboard ramp (which she would absolutely get back to later), this place was absurd. How had it been in such good condition all this time, if the rest of this place was abandoned for what looked like dozens of years?!
A plaque on the corner of the room glints brightly into your eye. You look towards it, and read the words adorning its golden slate.
“Data… Room?”
You’ve never heard of it, but you suppose that if they’ve gone to the trouble of making the plaque out of gold, that should be the name of this room. Scanning around once more for anything you can use, you notice that the code the computers have been running are auto-generated. There’s no date, no prompts, no typing and no apparent entry into whatever it’s coding either. Skipping over that, you look towards the skating ramp and notice a silver skateboard laying down beside it. It’s been hardly used, and left in good condition.
Aside from those two things, there appears to be several doors in the center of the room. Aside from one, which is illuminated in a bright pink light, the others appear to be just regular doors. Remembering what happened the last time you touched something you had no idea about, you consider holding off on going towards them for now, as you continue to look for anything else which might be capable of helping you understand what’s going on.
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Alas, you find nothing. Even after what felt like hours of searching.
Tired, annoyed, and grumpy, you plop yourself down onto one of the chairs nearby the computers. They’re unbelievably comfy, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if you just fell asleep in it right now.
But as the chair rotated ever so slightly, the view of the doors in the center of the room once again came into sight. After a count, it appeared as though thirteen doors were lined up, circling the center of the room in the shape of a crescent moon.
The pink light on the door furthest to the left, illuminating it ever so softly, gave off a distinct feeling of foreboding.
But also, a feeling of impatience. As though it were suggesting all your questions would be answered if you just took one step forward and opened it, so you shouldn’t stall any longer.
It was almost like a challenge.
But was it one you should accept?
It is true that you haven’t examined all the routes this place can offer, but something tells you that you’ll be disappointed if you expect anything more.
Likewise, you’re safe inside this “Data Room.” It’s comfortable, illuminated, and most importantly might contain clues somewhere that you simply haven’t found yet. Would risking some unknown danger really be worth it, if the consequence was losing this place?
As the seconds ticked into minutes, you knew you had to make a decision.
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EXAMPLE YAMA VOTING BLOCK:
[ ] Stay inside the facility (8 Votes)
[X] Enter the Door (9 Votes)
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It’s true, you think to yourself, that willfully putting yourself into danger while unprepared is a terrible and stupid decision. Were the circumstances even slightly different, perhaps this choice wouldn’t even have been something to consider.
But the truth was that there weren’t any other options. At least, ones that would’ve made this choice less appealing.
“Stay inside the ruins of an abandoned facility, or take my chances touching some strange and foreboding door… Real great situation you’ve found yourself in, Yamako.”
Pushing yourself wistfully out of the soft and comfy chair, you walk towards the door. Your steps echo in the room, each one leading you closer and closer to the dangers ahead.
But you trek forward nonetheless. If answers could be found anywhere, then you would look.
Where is here?
When is here?
Why are you here?
Where is everyone else?
You might not receive those answers right away. And maybe, when you finally reach them, you’ll hate the truth you struggled to learn. But this decision is your choice.
And you’ll live with the consequences, no matter what they are.
“Alright. Here goes…”
As your fingers softly touch the doorknob, you feel every cell in your body begin to vibrate, as if pleading with you to let go. Powering forward, you turn the knob, and throw yourself headfirst into the room.
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It was bright. Blindingly so.
That light lasted a while. You didn’t keep track of the time, but it felt as though you couldn’t see for minutes.
Afterward, it was dark. Your eyelids, still closed, could no longer pick up any traces of white or pink. Instead it was darkness.
Were you back in the facility? Had the door somehow functioned as a portal or something?!
“No way!”
Forcefully opening your eyes, you quickly began to scan the room as your vision slowly returned.
Darkness.
Dust.
Concrete.
No rubble…?
Boxes….?
...Well, it wasn’t the exact room you were in before, but maybe this was a different part of the building?
“Well, this isn’t good…”
“Uhm…”
Apparently, the teleporting door also added a new voice to your head, as you suddenly hear something make a noise nearby. Rubbing your chin in thought, you turn to look towards the sound, expecting it to be a figment of your imagination.
To your surprise, there appears to be a human body on the floor.
To your utter horror, it appears that he’s not just alive and not imaginary, but looking right at you.
“U-uh…”
“W-w-who… Are you?”
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[https://i.imgur.com/zVAICYJ.png]
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“A-ah… I’m… My name is Emiya. S-Shirou Emiya.”
“O-oh. I’m, well, uh, Yamako. Just, ah, Yamako.”
“R-right… Um, it’s nice to meet you, Yamako, but you might want to run away soon!”
“W-wait, why?!”
“I’m not sure how you ended up in my shed, but I’m currently being chased by someone trying to murder me, and he’s coming this way NOW!”
“WHAT?!!!”
“Y-Yeah! You’ve gotta go, quickly!”
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The fear in his eyes is palpable. You can see him resolve to meet his potential killer head on, while terror still grips his heart.
He’s asking for you to leave, and quite frankly, this situation is completely out of your capability to understand.
Yet his eyes wish for help. Not to mention his hair is as orange as your own.
Hmmm…
Well, maybe there’s something to be done here after all.
“Ok,” you resolve. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Yeah, you have to- wait, what-”
Without pause, you grab the young boy by his arm, and hoist him onto your back. In seconds, you’re out the door, and in a minute, you’ve bursted out into a full sprint.
"AAAHHHHHHHWAWAAWAWAW"
As he wailed in panic while his arms flailed in the air, you smiled; content with your choice.
Leaving people behind when they wanted help? That wasn’t your style.
If you really chose to live like that, then how could you face the people who once loved you again?
Let’s go, Yamako. Grit your teeth, place both feet down, and chase after your answers your own way. Trailblaze the path you wish to see with your own steps, and leave behind a trail that you can be proud of when you look back.
[https://imgur.com/6EzNloC]