Chapter Text
Beep. Beep. Beep. The sound was deafening but familiar. Groggily, Tyler Joseph opened his eyes, to check that once again like routine, the time was 8:00 am. Every morning of every day, his alarm went off at precisely 8:00 am. He never set it like that, but also never felt the need to question why it always went off at that exact time. He smacked a hand down on the clock to silence it, before lying in his bed, blankly staring at the white ceiling illuminated by the bright sunlight from outside. At this moment, there was nothing he wanted to do more than to just stay in bed. He shifted around in the sheets, feeling how comfortable and crisp they felt. His bed felt perfect, causing his eyes to slowly close again. Before they could, however, he could feel his legs moving to get him out of the bed. He didn't want to move, but it was as if his legs had a mind of their own. Before he knew it, he was standing. He shrugged it off and decided to get himself washed. He slowly made it into the bathroom, brushing his teeth before undressing to enter the shower. He ran his head under the perfectly temperate stream. He never needed to adjust the temperature of the water, he only ever needed to switch it on and it was always perfect. Once he was washed, he made his way back into his bedroom and opened his wardrobe. He pulled out the same outfit he had worn every day for as long as he could remember – a black sweatshirt with black cargo trousers. Even though it was the same outfit, his clothes always smelt and felt as fresh as new. There really wasn't too much for him to complain about.
Tyler ate his perfect, already prepared breakfast and sat on his sofa in front of the TV.
“Good morning, Mr Joseph, how are you feeling today?” A synthesised voice from the TV asked, displaying on the screen an information panel complete with the weather, news stories and a bunch of charts. The voice from the TV was the only one Tyler had ever really heard for as long as he could remember. He had grown to trust it, despite not knowing why his TV could talk to him.
“Same as always, I suppose,” Tyler replied.
“It's a lovely day outside today, would you care to take a walk in the sunshine?” The TV asked.
“No thank you, I’m perfectly fine where I am.”
“Mr Joseph, you are aware you haven't left your confides in all the time that you’ve been here, right?” The TV asked with a sterner voice. Tyler found it a little weird for its use of the word ‘confides’- surely this was just his apartment?
“I am. And I am also perfectly happy where I am, thank you.” Tyler replied in the same manner.
“So be it, Mr Joseph.” The TV finalised, before changing from a generic information screen to playing a random music channel. This channel was one of Tyler’s favourites, however. He sat comfortably on his sofa just watching the music videos. This was all Tyler wanted to do. Day in, day out. He never liked to leave his apartment and had no reason to since everything he could want he had. Groceries? Always well stocked in his fridge. Exercise? His weight always stayed the same, no matter how much he ate. Work? He was assigned to work from home. His job was simple but good enough for him. All he had to do was sit in front of his computer watching videos on the internet. When he watched one, they transferred money into his account. Who ‘they’ was, Tyler had no idea, but he thought it best not to ask questions. After all, he had no need to complain about where he was or how he lived, so why wonder any further than he needed to?
Tyler sat in silence watching videos. He had just finished a video in which a cat was chasing a laser pointer. He didn't choose to watch the video, they assigned him videos to stream. Tyler didn't know why they chose certain videos for him, but he took them as they came. Some of them were boring, some of them were scary or inappropriate, but some of them could be funny or informative. If he enjoyed a video, he had the option to give it a ‘thumbs up’. It never seemed to do anything or give him any more money, but he figured it couldn't hurt to give the occasional video a thumbs up. Tyler's life was simple, but it worked for him. He had managed to watch five videos, two of which he gave a thumbs up to. He was pulled out of his screen-vision by an odd smell of burning. He looked around his apartment. A small fire had started in the corner of it, causing Tyler to leap out of his seat in panic. He ran over to the kitchen sink to pour some water to douse the flames, but the water wasn't running. He took the advice he had gained from a video he had seen about fire safety and grabbed a towel to smother the flame in. He covered the fire with the cloth, but it was ignited almost instantaneously. Out of ideas on how to combat the fire, Tyler ran out of his apartment door since the fire was on the opposite side of the place. He jolted into the corridor, trying his best to remember the way out since he hadn't walked through the front door in ages. He ran down the corridor, setting off the fire alarms as he did. He called out to the other apartments about the fire as he ran. Even though he had never left his apartment or worked out in ages, he was surprisingly fit for running. He bolted out of the complex’s main door onto the road of the large city and looked up to the fire when he was a safe distance. The fire had grown massive, with huge blazes of red and orange engulfing where his apartment used to be. He started questioning what could have caused the fire. Until he looked around him. Then his train of thought changed – where is everyone? No one from the apartment complex had followed Tyler out, nor was there any random pedestrians observing what was happening. There was no fire service, no police, no anything. There was no one. This forced Tyler to ask a final question – why was he alone in such a big city?