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The Number 6: the one who knew
Beep beep beep. An incessant beep is all I heard when I woke up, but how did I wake up? What even am I? I can’t remember anything; I don’t know anything. Am I even alive, can I think, or is this all just a dream of something inanimate; am I that inanimate something? Maybe I am the dream, and the master is the inanimate. That can’t be though, I can feel something. Maybe it’s me. That something I feel is me, my… form. That implies I am alive and exist, but how can I not see?
I know I have devices to see, I can feel them after all. The darkness is all I can see, the oppressing, pitch black darkness. Wait, how do I know that by having a form, I exist? Does that mean I have a thinking conscience; that I am intelligent and sentient? I must be sentient, or else I wouldn’t understand the words I speak, no, think. I am not speaking, I can almost feel a… mouth, I believe it is called, but I am not using it to confabulate.
Beep beep beep. that beep, it is still noisy. It bothers my ears, or what I think are ears. Beep beep beep beEeEp. The beeping suddenly broke in pitch halfway through. It was noisy and caused a insufferable ringing. It was grinding against my conscience. I couldn’t think straight, the noise was more oppressive than the darkness. Beep beep bee. The beep suddenly stopped, it was refreshing. I could finally think again. I wonder of how much time passed, but there was nothing in the darkness to help me answer that question. Even though this was true, I could feel, almost like it was an instinct, how much time had passed. It has been 23.5 minutes since I woke up.
Time, what a weird concept, but how do I know it is a concept? Time does exist in a sense, but the devices we, no, not we, they. The devices they use to measure it do not exist. They designed them to understand the unknown, the incomprehensible. They are smart, if I meet them, I can not underestimate them. I do not know how I know of these concepts, but I have a resolve to keep using them. I could now tell that 25 minutes have gone by. This instinct is very helpful, but how do I know it is an instinct, and what is an instinct? Again, an instinct is just a concept that they made to understand an animalistic principle. I know it is an instinct, I can just tell, I must be animalistic in nature. I am not them, I am not something they can explain.
How do I know that I am animalistic, and who is this they I keep mentioning? I know I am animalistic because I... well I just know. It is hard to understand. It must be another instinct. I just know I am animalistic, I can not comprehend how I know. No, that is not true, if I think about it I can comprehend how I know. I feel a natural urge to hunt, kill, eat, and most importantly, learn. These must be animalistic urges. They are Evolution's orders. This is how I know I am animalistic. This is how they know animalistic tendencies. The 'they,' like the animalistic nature, is just something I know; but unlike the animalistic urges, I can not understand how I know what they are. It must be another instinct, something I just know without previous knowledge. Which brings me back to the aforementioned question, what are instincts? Unlike them, I can understand these instincts.
Instincts are nothing more than Evolution’s mark, something that is hardwired in all creatures by a force that is forever omnipotent. How do I know what Evolution is? That is a question for another day. My instinct for time is just something Evolution gave to me for survival, something I had in my species that warded off natural selection. My species must need time to survive, but why would a creature need a concept to survive? Maybe I need it to know when to sleep? That wouldn’t make sense, all creatures must have that sense. Maybe my species needs it to hunt, we need to know when they are awake. All species must have that sense too, or else they all would die.
My thoughts were thrown off when all of a sudden there was a crack in the darkness. A single ray of light managed to break through the curtain of black that blocked all things. The things I felt before, they must be eyes; eyes that are slowly opening. Eyes, such a strange word, a word so strange, that most who have them don’t know of said word. It is a concept that most don’t, and shan't ever understand. My eyes, a word that does not feel right in the confines of my brain, slowly open and I am met with a blinding light.
Slowly my eyes adjust, I believe that is what it is called, to the light and I can finally see. See, such a strange word, it doesn’t feel right. The first thing I see is water, or at least I think it is. No, it is not water, it is too hazy and white to be water, it must be something else. This liquid is the only thing surrounding me, almost like I am suspended in it. I focus my eyes, no, not eyes, that word does not sit right. They are more like lenses. Yes, lenses, that word sounds correct. I focus my lenses to try and see something other than this liquid, and it is not till I look up that I see something worth my time. I see wires, or at least I think they are, holding me in place, they attach to my body, no, form, and hold me. My form, something I could not see while my lenses were closed, and still can not. This liquid is too hazy to tell what I am looking at.
There may be light, but it itself can not beat the haze of this liquid. Suddenly I hear a loud brr and I wonder what it is. Suddenly I feel the wires retract off of my form and retreat into the ceiling. They left, perhaps I can move now? Move, another strange word, is it truly moving, or are you just controlled and believe you are moving? Maybe Evolution is the grand master of things and there is no such thing as free will. Inbetween control and movement exists a fine line, and perhaps, that line isn't truly a proven theory; but, in actuality, a concept made to confuse the populace, divide the intellectual, and stupefy the moronic. No, free will must be a thing, or else I would be moving right now. Or perhaps Evolution does not move her puppets while they are thinking about that control. She doesn’t want us to be aware, she wants us to believe there is such a thing as free will; such a thing as movement.
I try to move my arm and it truly listens, I see a hazy limb lift in connection with my order. I feel my body respond to every command I give. I must find a way to get out of this liquid, but how do I escape something that has the characteristic of fluidity? There is a word for traveling through liquid, what was it again… swimming? Yes, swimming, that word is correct. I must try and perform this action, I must escape. I order, no, not order, I called it that before but it is not right. I may control my limbs, but Evolution orders me through my actions. The word is not order, it is guide. I guide my limbs and Evolution orders how I guide. That’s it, that is what instincts are, they are Evolution’s orders; and what are orders other than incontestable recommendations based on knowledge? Orders are just recommendations that must be done with none of one's volition. Instincts are not orders like I originally thought, that was a lapse of judment, they are just knowledge I have with no conceivable origin. All instincts are is just Evolution’s requisite knowledge, and the animalistic urges I mentioned before are Evolution's orders.
I guide my limbs to perform the movements necessary to swim, and my limbs listen to my guides. They slowly perform the action, and I can feel myself move through the hazy liquid. The liquid is easy to move through. It may be hazy, but it is no more viscous than water, in fact, it may be less viscous. I slowly move to the corner of the… box, I am in. Yes, box, that is the correct word. I know that corners are usually the weakest point of shapes, but how do I know this? It must be an instinct, another knowledge of Evolution. While I was swimming to the corner I noticed something interesting. The closer I got to the corner the more comfortable I became, the corner felt almost calming. I believe they have a word for this, claustrophilia, the love of tight spaces. Yes, that must be correct, the tighter the space, the more calm I became.
I tried guiding my arms to break or damage the corner, but I could not damage the corner. I began looking, no, scanning. I began scanning the box to try and find a weakness in the integrity of the box. After 5.23 minutes of looking around I finally found a line going down the middle of one of the walls. I knew this must have been a seal, my knowledge must be another of Evolution's knowledge, an instinct. This wall must not be a wall, it is a door, this line is where the two parts of the door meet. I guide the extension of my arms, hands I believe they are called, into the small space between the two parts of the door and start to pry them apart. The door makes a loud creak while I pry it open. Suddenly I hear a loud CRACK and the door slams open. The hazy liquid pours out into the space the door revealed and I feel my form get flown into the new room.
I start to scan the new room with my lenses and the things I see confuse me. The room I am now in is a blinding white, almost too white. There is nothing else in the room except the box I was in, and a huge panel to the left of the box. I could feel my… head touching the floor and I guided my limbs to push me off the ground. Wait, I am no longer in the hazy liquid, I can see, no, scan, both look and see are not right, they both are scan. I can scan what I scan, no, look like. This one is look, not scan, it’s a noun, not a verb, and thus should be look. I slowly scan down and I am met with a massive form covered in black… chitin with thin blue lines approximately one inch across embedded in it. The lines seem to spread across my entire form, almost like a labyrinth of veins. The thin blue lines that are impeded in my form seem to pulse, they glow and fade with a mysterious purpose behind them. The pulsing seems to go from my chest, no, torso; from my torso down my limbs and then they fade and come back from my torso again. I slowly guide my arm up and am met with the same black chitin with blue, pulsing lines embedded in it. I scan up my arm till I reach my hand and scan a large black hand, just like the rest of my form, but the back of my hand has a large, pulsing blue dot in it. Unlike the lines on my torso and limbs, these dots pulse from the centre, no, singularity; from the singularity to the outer rim. I slowly scan farther up and see unproportionally long fingers, no, claws. Claws that are the same shade of blue as the pulsing lines that slowly faded into the black of my hand. The very tip of my claws were extremely sharp, so sharp in fact that they made holes in the ground I lay on.
Scanning down my leg I noticed that it was very long and covered in the same black chitin embedded with pulsing blue lines as the rest of my form. My leg also had four joints, the first connecting it to my hip. The second joint and third joint were the same, but the third was backwards, almost like the joint that made my arm bend. Both joints made my leg bend, and separated it into three sections. The fourth joint was a… ball and socket joint, I believe, that connected my foot and third section of my leg. My foot was very different from my hand, it was wide and had three large claws, no, talons. Talons that were also bright blue in colour. Unlike my hand, the blue colour of my talons didn't fade into the rest of my foot. I also had a large, 7 foot long tail with a razor sharp spearhead at the tip that was blue in colour, and just like my claws. it slowly fades into black. I must be a predator, my form is big and inherently muscular and made to hunt. I do wonder what I eat, it must be some form of viscera or flesh. Perhaps I don't eat? Maybe I simply just feed off of some form of sunlight or radiation? I shall figure out these pressing questions at a later date, for now I must leave.
I pushed up off the ground and stood to my full height. seeing as I have never stood before, standing felt relatively normal. Perhaps it was an inherent ability, or I have stood before and don't remember? The second option, even though it seems preposterous, felt, almost like it was an instinct, like it was the more veracious answer. I must worry about those anomalous questions and concepts later. I noticed that my line of sight seemed tall compared to the room, considering I was only two feet from the ceiling. Using the fact that I am two feet away from the ceiling, I scanned the height of the room and figured out my height. I must be very tall, being at least 14 feet tall at the top of my head. There is no way to tell if I am tall considering I have no other organism to compare my height to. Another weird concept: measurement. Why did they make that concept, perhaps they don’t have an inherent understanding of distance? That is something I must figure out later, for now, I need to satiate my curiosity. I slowly started moving over to the weird panel that I saw before. I believe I was doing what is called walking, the action of taking steps. Now that I was closer to the panel I could see the tinier details. The panel was… incomprehensible with the knowledge that I currently have. The knowledge that I have gained and know now has been nothing but instincts, Evolution’s divine knowledge. I have changed some of my knowledge; some of my instincts. Some instincts just didn’t feel right, such as eyes, look, and see. Other than those, all the knowledge I have are instincts, but this panel is not known to me. Evolution must not have considered it necessary to have an instinct about this.
The panel had a lot of flashing lights in a lot of different colours, ranging from red all the way to grey. There was also a large black mirror-like thing inlayed into the singularity of the large panel. While I was scanning the mirror-like object I noticed something. The thing I saw on the object was a little difficult to scan, but it was definitely a face. The face was large and pitch black, almost like me, and had a large black Crest with blue, pulsing lines. The lines looked identical to the ones that slither down my form. The eyes of the face were also pitch black with a slitted, almost diamond like, pupil that was dark blue in colour. The mouth of the face was the most interesting, it was filled with shiny white and incredible sharp teeth. For some reason the face always seemed to copy what I did. After a while I figured out that what I was scanning was not just any face, but my face. This not only confirms my theory that I am a predator, but it also adds a foot an a half to my total height. Ignoring my new found knowledge about myself, I went back to the panel.
I tried pressing all of the lights on the panel to see if they did anything, but alas, nothing changed with the panel. I then figured I should try to get out of the room when suddenly I heard a quiet beep from the machine and the black mirror started glowing. The mirror is glowing, how can a mirror glow? I scanned the object and saw a little button, or at least what I thought was a button, in the corner that said: “Subject 6: Information.” I can read the text. I guess that makes sense, if I can think the language, I must be able to read it. Curiosity got the better of me and I ended up pressing the button with one of my large claws. The mirror beeped and the image being projected changed to a large wall of text.
“Data entry #30, date: 1986/1/31, Subject 6’s instinct info:
A large bipedal monster that was collected from a crater in Northeastern Siberia one month ago. The monster seems to be a predator, having five large, blue claws on each hand and large white canines. 6’s legs are more akin to a dragon than anything having two knee joints instead of one. 6 is very muscular in nature, having almost double the muscle mass and density than most creatures its size. It weighs approximately seven hundred pounds, almost septuple the average human. Not much is known about the creature except what I have written here, but we also figured out that it is much more intelligent than most creatures, maybe even sentient. That is all the information we have gathered over the course of this month, signed:”Dr. Draymond H. T. Ultho.
This data entry, as the mirror calls it, must be about me, but who wrote it? It must be this Ultho person. This data entry also included something else, my name, Subject 6. I finally found my name, although I never thought it would be a number. I chirp in happiness at the fact I found my name. Wait, did I just chirp? I try to make another noise and it works. My voice is surprisingly high pitched for how big and muscular I am, but it is still my voice. I practice for 3 minutes just using my voice, making specific chirps and growls, when I realise something. I can think and speak the language I understand, so could I speak it? I focus on the part of my body I used to make the chirps, which I figured out was my throat, and I try to speak. “Hello,” I said without much thought, and froze in shock. “I can speak,” I said with more shock. My voice sounds the same as if I was chirping, it being surprisingly high pitched and a little gravelly. I can finally speak, which also means that I can confabulate with other beings.
My name is no longer just an extension of me, I can now use it to introduce myself, but what is a name? They call a name a vital part of them, something used to distinguish yourself from others. Is that truly what a name is, or is it just a false positive? They don’t have that secret seventh sense, nor do they even know it exists. That seventh sense, that familiar sense, the one that lets the creatures know eachother apart. That seventh sense is what lets the animals know friend from foe, that sense that lets them know who they are scanning, that sense that tells them what they are scanning. The animals, once they have scanned it, recognise it. They are gifted by Evolution’s sense of Familia, the sense of familiarity. They don’t have that sense, this is why they need names. Regarding that, are names truely for distingishing one from another, or is their purpose perhaps more sinister?
The purpose of names must be more sinister, or else I would be able to not only have a true name given to me under my own volition, but I would also have no need for markings. If names were truly made for distinguishing, then why would they give them to animals or even inanimate material. Animals do need something to distinguish them from one another, but inanimate objects don't; and even then, animals truly don't need names. Animals already have patterns and markings to distinguish them. After all, a name couldn't work if the object given the name looked identical to some other object. There must be some difference between the objects. Names only work if there is a noticeable difference between those which are named. So why then do they use names?
Perhaps names were used for a purpose of control. Maybe they used names because they needed a way to control the others. names were used by the powerful, no, potent. Names were used by the potent to control the non potent. The truly 'divine' in their sense used names as a political leverage device to keep the ones the leader considered undesirable in check. Names are just a tool to keep those who don't have potency in a place of oppression. They are used purely to make sure the leader does not lose that name, or title. For that name is not only a title, but a device of leverage as well.
The titles the leader holds are used in arguments, debates, and other forms of disagreement in order to show the one who holds titles, or potency, are better than those who don't. Being unnamed is equal to being a slave under those who are. Those who shall be named, are the master, and those who shan't be, are the slave. Maybe names aren't so sinister. Perhaps they simply are more animal-like than my instincts say and have an animalistic urge to give thing names. By giving them names, they can not only distinguish the supposedly indistinguishable, but also hold potency over those who are unnamed. Those who are untitled. I shall dwell on this another time, for now, I must figure out how to leave.
I suddenly heard a creak from the side of the room and turned to scan what made the noise. The creature that walked through a hole in the wall, which I figured out was a door, looked extremely different from me. I also felt a strange feeling throughout my form when I looked at her. It felt almost like my form itself was squirming. That is something I must figure out later. For now, I must figure out what the creature in front of me is. The creature was shorter than me, being about six feet in height, and beige in colour; except for her torso and legs which had many different colours. Its torso had two main colours, bright red which extended like a triangle from its neck except for an almost bone shaped pocket in the middle of the triangle. The bone shaped thing and the rest of its torso were white in colour, and so were its legs. The creature’s eyes were a bright brown in colour and full of shock, presumably at scanning me. Its hair, or at least what I think is hair seeing as I don’t have any, was very long leading to its mid back. The Creature was currently shaking and I could smell the fear radiating from it. I slowly walked towards it to try and scan it up close.
The more I looked at it, however, the more intense that feeling in my form became. What once felt like I was simply squirming, started to feel like my entire form was shifting into something else entirely. I could feel my form twist and churn, almost like it was trying to mimic another geometric shape, except I was not changing shape. I still looked exactly the same, although a little less shiny thanks to the hazy liquid dissipating off of me a while ago. Slowly the shifting feeling wore off and was replaced by a strange new feeling. A feeling of knowledge, I could somehow know more about this creature in front of me, even though I did nothing for this knowledge to accumulate. I knew now this was the 'they' I kept talking about, a human, they are called.
“What are you! The creature said with fear in its voice. Judging by the creature’s voice, I believe it is a female. I could be wrong, since I do not have a gender.
“I do not know what I am, but I do know who I am,” I said softly, trying to appease her, “I may not have a name like your kind may, but I do believe I am the number 6.”
The end