Chapter Text
Scene 0 - Canard I.
‘Even after all of this, I still cannot leave this place.’
‘Even at the end of this play, I cannot be free.’
‘I wonder, to whom who created me with the body of a machine but the mind of a human… did they wish for me to accept such a fate?’
‘Am I not allowed to hope for a future that I alone led? Is that the truth that they’ve kept from me for so long?’
‘Was I truly meant to rot?’
A soft voice spoke, she sounded devoid but solemn as she kept lamenting for hopes of a better future, hopes for an ending that included her on the stage, bowing to those who watched it play out instead of rotting in the background of it all.
A different voice has taken over, a rather cold voice as the scenery inlaid in front of him was nothing but smoke. He tried to look deeper in hopes that there was truly something behind all of the unbearable smoke.
“That serpent of a woman… This is how she handled it…”
He could make out a library, shelves upon shelves to the brim with books with lanterns hanging lighting up the whole room, he took a moment to look around the place, smoke still clouding his vision but not to the same unbearable degree as the entrance of this so-called library.
“This smoke… What even happened to cause all of this.”
He sighs as he continues muttering to himself.
“The only rational thing I could do for the time being is trust her judgement for now.”
Some being snapped its fingers and in mere moments the man could sense an eerie presence behind all out this smoke.
“I hate to crush whatever hopes you had coming here, but I despise an entrance without any purpose nor an explanation.”
He could hear a voice behind the smoke but was not able to see this figure. From what he could quickly detect, it’s a rather feminine voice. Sly but clearly laced with some intent of harm due to his appearance in this place.
“So, If I were you, I’d start answering my questions immediately. That’s if you wish to come out of this place alive and in one piece of course.”
The man could feel the presence coming closer and closer, until he could somewhat make out a figure behind it all. A woman with arranged blonde hair, her eyes being almost indescribable as he witnessed something within one of her eyes.
“Where did you come from, how did you enter this place, and for what reason?”
She questioned him, the sly tone in her voice now faded, sounding significantly annoyed than anything else.
Despite having the appearance of a human, she felt eerily inhuman to him. Maybe she hit some sort of level in the uncanny valley, such a sight isn’t all too uncommon in the city after all.
The man didn’t reply, instead he quickly sprung into action by trying to attack her while he could still see a somewhat viable opening for an attack.
In one swift movement, the man couldn’t see her anymore and immediately after he yelled in utter pain.
“ You… How the fuck. I couldn’t see you. ”
His focus went to his now gushing stump of a leg, on top of that. He felt indescribably nauseous all of the sudden, feeling as if he was being suffocated. Was it from the smoke? He wondered.
“I warned you, and you simply kept stalling… So I shall ask you again. Where did you come from, how did you enter this place, and what is your reasoning?”
The man struggled to speak, he slurred and muttered before speaking with semi coherence.
“ ... I was simply walking around, and.. I ended up here before I realised, I have not a single idea why I’m here… ”
The man managed to mutter out, still focusing on the now gone leg of his as the blood continued to gush out of the wound mercilessly, he struggled once more before he spoke up once again.
“ I wasn’t trying to trespass, I don’t even know where or what this place is. ”
The man continues to struggle, by this point he is pale due to the amount of blood loss.
“ I was just walking around looking at the workshops to see anything available. Before I knew it I was here. ”
Once again, in one swift movement the man yelled in extreme agonising pain, as for this time she decided to take away his arm instead.
“You answered too slowly as well you were starting to drag on, I’ll be taking the rest of your limbs next.”
She spoke coldly, still holding the bloody arm now dripping blood on the ground before kneeling to his level as her gaze felt like a horror he had never seen in the city before.
The more he glances at her the more he realises how inhuman she is, almost like a machinery.
“You have no reason from what I've concluded, you have not a single clue as to why you’re here… So just who exactly are you? ”
“ I’m just some grade seven fixer. ”
He struggled to keep his consciousness, starting to see darkness more and more.
“ Who exactly are you? ”
He yelled a third time, by this point he expected her to do this a third time but it sure as hell still hurts as she took both remaining limbs this time.
“I am the one asking the questions here, not you there. So now tell me, What is your name?”
He struggled to breath, everything hurt, everything felt like it was fading away , he managed to get two more words out of his mouth.
“ Yoo Joonghyuk. ”
“Good.. I bid you a rather cold welcome to the library, we’ve yet to greet any guests but since you suddenly appeared despite my efforts to make sure no one who isn’t uninvited can enter this place, you see.”
She smiled a cold eerie smile as she stood up before looking down at him, now collapsed and most likely dead due to the blood loss and lack of limbs, the floor of the library now stained red from his blood.
“He has fainted, as I expected.”