Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Rank list:
LR-P : Low Rank Prisoner.
MR-P : Medium Rank Prisoner.
EXR-P : Expendable Rank Prisoner.
.
LR-EP : Low Rank Employed Personnel.*
MR-EP : Medium Rank Employed Personnel.*
HR-EP : High Rank Employed Personnel.*
.
██-OA : ████████████████████.*
██-██ : [RANK NO LONGER IN USE].*

FFR-UP : ██████████████████████.*

*as far as I know, these ranks have been made up by myself.

If these documents are shown to unauthorized personnel, you’ll be put up for demotion, and any cover-up fees will be sent to your relatives.
…
Authorized viewing is permitted for your rank - [FFR-UP].

-

The following document is rather more of a log than the documents for Z-317 or - the rather aggressive - Z-13.

Z-13 has been more restless and increasingly more and more difficult. Multiple attempts at interviews have been unsuccessful - Z-13 offers no response. Even after being offered to be called by his original name it remains a single sided conversation. Higher-ups decided on a way to try to pacify it as Z-13 is a MR-P and should be treated as such - as far as Z-13 and all prisoner ranks will know. Z-13 is an interest to science and will be kept alive for now.

As the result of a critical error, an EXR-P ended up dead in an incorrect place. Attempting to find them in the Banlands even when offering Death a ferryman token was a waste of time. However, using a method that has yet to be named, said EXR-P was found in a region that keeps a red-gold color. Due to the hostile organisms and coloration, the region has been named ‘Stygian Depths’ as ordered by ██████. Multiple prototypes of portals have been constructed to and from this region, however only one of them reached the target successfully is still standing. It is very risky to keep that portal open in the seconds that it is not needed.
A separate portal reached an area named ‘Depths’, and currently remains shut down. Only high ranking personnel can give the order to activate it. The only hostile creature in this area can not be contained nor studied as of right now, only given the name ‘Guardian’. They attack any EXR-P that does not have a high enough amount of “purity”. This can be avoided by a small dose of Pureblood. If the EXR-P is to die in Stygian Depths - as long as the Pureblood dose is at the correct measurement - their soul will get left in the Banlands until revival.

LR-P are given the task of cleaning the grime out of the portals. Only they clean the portals for a caution in case something dangerous is radiating from the portal. A threat hanging over their heads makes them clean anything better.
Both unfamiliar regions have been only visited by EXR-P and LR-P. High ranking personnel should not bother themselves with such an area.

Forced exploration of Depths reveals crumbling human-like structures, and numerous strange symbols covering the walls. Further study should be taken up on the meaning of the symbols.
Enough exploration takes one into a mess of pipes. New hostiles in varying colors may be found in regions past this point. The larger ones are similar to lizards, and because of this the lizards are named with their color and then ‘lizard’. Obviously. Each color of lizard presents its own difficulties, from speed to spit to size. Avoid lizards if possible, their faces are resistant to damage.

Under no circumstances is anyone allowed to stay on the other side of the portal for a day (with slight exceptions). Like our world, this one has rain. Unlike ours, however, this rain is not just torrential but has a high enough pressure and amount to cause death from standing in it and deadly flooding. Further investigation will be taken on the cause of such rain. At the time this is documented the rain has an average area of waiting time lasting 12-30 hours. It then rains for 4-18 hours non-stop.
Their day is thought of to be similar to our 24 hour day, but the clouds that increase in amount near the end of the cycle limit our area of exploration.

Further notes will be taken later.

Chapter Text

All Z-13 could feel was the squeeze of cheaply made plastic fabric against his skin. It only covered his more human half, leaving the mess of fins and scales below his waist free. He was sure they only used that fabric to remind him who’s in charge. Every cell in his body despised it and yet all he could do was find himself in a cell. A “nicer cell than the LR-P’s get” - but still a cell nonetheless.

The sound of someone else reached Sebastian’ ears and he instinctively tensed. The stupid doors were soundless when they opened. He couldn’t wait until the stupid gears made some sort of noise.

“Z-13.” Call me Sebastian for goodness’ sake. Treat me like the person I am. “Your childish behavior is not helping your case.” Watch how little I care. “As an MR-P you should know how this place works. You respond when you’re spoken to.” You treat me like an object and have the audacity to act surprised when I don’t respond like an object. “The higher ups are getting mad. They're going to find a way to have you respond back with or without your permission.” I don’t care. “That’s all they told me to tell you.” All of the Urbanshade operatives are just...

The person turned and left before he could finish his thought.

I don't like you anyways. Burn alive for all I care. 

He stretched the best that he could, the cold air causing faint goosebumps to appear here and there across his upper half. Urbanshade kept the temperature in his cell slightly colder than the main hallways. It's been a while since he's been out of his cell anyways. Less and less questioning from personnel are better than warm air. Being left alone is wonderful. Unless it's a negative reason to be left alone.

He grumbled quietly, picking at the irritating mess of his third arm. Stupid Urbanshade. I hope whatever musty, dusty, crusty man is in charge of you dies painfully. He is practically a corpse anyways.

He flopped down, onto the ground, staring at the ceiling. How long had it been since he was talking to his one and only friend…? Back before… all of this. He could still remember his friend’s first words to him. “Welcome, welcome! Despite what you have seen, heard, and / or been told, my name is not a buncha numbers. If I’m correct, you’ve been told to clean this room of all debris and random particles? Dust, metal clippings, rubber, whatever. However, if I can make it worth your while, I’m gonna ask you to cut a deal. You don’t come close and make friendly conversation, and I’ll point out the locations of the particles and friendship! It would be far more useful to you, compared to finding them yourself. Don’t ask too many questions, I won’t either. You get your cleaning done, and I get friendly conversation! No strings attached. Sound good?”

He closed his eyes as a bell rang harshly outside of his cell, falling asleep.

Chapter Text

SIX.

They scrunched up their nose, darting out of the shelter. Another foul smelling cycle ahead. As they scrambled out of the narrow pipe and up a pole that was found out to be a bad idea. A king vulture - seemingly going after a blue lizard - decided that they was a better source of food. Their vision cut to black as one of it’s spears came flying at him.

FIVE.

They jumped a second too late, hitting their head on the low ceiling of the shelter. They shook himself off, lightly rubbing their head. What a great start, like always. It wasn’t THEIR fault they looked like a bright snack amidst the dull landscape. They darted out of the shelter again, double checking his path on their head. What if he made a detour instead of going right to their destination? It wouldn’t take long - just a few cycles to poke around in the unknown - then right back on the assigned path. Nothing too wrong about that, right?

Grabbing a spear, they quickly made their way over to one of the pipes, their feet squelching on the damp ground. The nearest karma gate didn’t need THAT much, right? Pulling themself into the pipe, to the next spot, they were grateful that the round vultures couldn’t make it into the pipes - they would’ve been hunting them from Moon and back for the masks they stole.

Landing on the ground with a quiet thump and quickly resuming their pace, they thought. What if they went down into the ground? Where fissures cut through the ground and the earth tumbled deep. What even was down there?
They jumped to the side as a caramel lizard fell down right next to them. Fighting this close wasn’t worth it. A little bit of distance is best. Jumping over the side of the lizard as it began to hiss, they ran away. Tense muscles mean great jumps, and they scaled a pole as fast as their legs would take them before plopping down onto a ledge out of the sight of the caramel lizard. Sitting there for a moment to catch his breath, they stayed silent.

Scavenger tolls were easy, just grab spears out of sight, approach slowly, no fighting needed. Pearls were annoying to drag along without storing them, and he had had enough of any pearls for a while.

Slumping down into a shelter they curled into a ball and closed their eyes.

SIX.

The dull rattling of the shelter gate was the first thing they heard. They stood up, shaking themself off and stretching. They flinched slightly, rubbing their chest and scrunching up their nose in pain. He made his way out of the shelter, grabbing a spear as the sunlight hit their eyes.

They jumped out of the shelter, running away from where they originally were. Slowing down to a fast walk, they spotted a spore puff that was peeking out from under a rock. They kept an eye on the sky as they carefully pulled it out. They continued on forward, but only for a moment. They pulled at one of the tendrils of the worm grass, watching as the surrounding worm grasses opened their eyes to stare at them.

They looked around themself for a few seconds before they set the spore puff down onto the ground. After a moment’s thought they set it down closer to the worm grass. A second passed before the gray spores rose to the air as they began whacking it with the spear. They threw the spear to the side, making a new one, sitting to the side in wait.

When the rain deer came they jumped on top of it, the light fluff that coated it’s body a solid black. They rubbed it’s head, making another spear.
It was only a few minutes of waiting for the deers agonizingly slow pace to reach the needed karma gate.

They slid off of the deer and quietly made their way over to the gate. A shelter… they didn't need this one at the moment. The steam from the karma gate clung to their short fur and they watched as it dripped onto the gate floor.

It all passed by in a blur. Them exiting the gate, going a little too far forwards, then going for a tumble down. They stood back up, looking at the spears that they had dropped, but walked away. The only words that were in their mind were of the detour. To go west, past the Farm Arrays. To where the land fissures, to search down there.

And down there they went.
Through lizard clogged pipes, dodging scavenger thrown spears, until the world felt unnatural. They climbed into a shelter in the center of a strange mess of pipes and certain hostilities, rubbing their chest once more.

SEVEN.

They shook themself off as they stood. They climbed out of the pipe, making their way further down. It was strange to them how quiet it was, since earlier it was crawling with activity. It was only when he fell down a long tube and entered the next room did he see why.

Several of those things that looked like the Iterator's puppets, from the way they stood to the way they moved. They attempted to inspect what they were interacting with on the ground, but the sound of their footsteps drew all of the beings’ attention. One of them pointed at them, shouting something in an unfamiliar way, before the rest looked at them.

The tallest one of the group pointed a long object at them, and before they could process it and move, the object made a noise. They were hit with some sort of point-like object from the way it hit their skin. They tried to go back the way they came but one of them ran at them. A group of seven in total. The object in his skin reminded them of one of the spiders, the red one, as they could feel it starting to put something that made them dizzy into his blood. It was only a moment before their legs gave out, a mere few feet from the exit pipe, as one of the members grabbed him tightly by the scruff of their neck and pulled them back to the rest. They boxed up everything they had, talking in that strange way, before they too were nothing but an item in a box. It was strange, going wherever they were going, then all was quiet.

Chapter Text

Z-13 was eyeing the small vents near the ceiling as they quietly whirred, only looking up at the door when he heard other people conversing with each other. Something about an advanced Roblux mining rig giving them a lot of trouble, along with news about some sort of creature they had captured from a newly discovered place. There was a time when he would've been interested in exploring new places and help out some people, but since then a lot has changed. Going from with his family one day, jailed the next, and then handed over to Urbanshade. He used to be a handyman for the foundation, but his physical form had the staff put him to the side as they let more able people take his place. He shivered against the cold ground before he noticed a rug, about a square meter big, was lying in the corner of the room just on the other side of the door. They probably had put it in there while he was sleeping. A cardboard box that looked as if it had come out of a recycling bin was placed right next to the door, a white paper note standing against the brown underside. He sorted through the contents of the box, but it was nothing out of the usual. This week's clothing items, slightly damp but it's what he had to wear. He was thankful the scientists had stopped inspecting him as much, despite the occasional poking and prodding session.

His third arm holding the shirt meant for today as he dug through the rest of the box, finding only lint and bits of plastic that probably came from a candy wrapper. Despite the neatness Urbanshade claimed to have, things could still end up as a mess. The personnel in the blacksite were careful with other things in his unfortunate experience with them. They made sure everything was properly knocked out for transport, even taking measures to secure some sort of extremely low power device onto each subject, keeping track of vitals and calculating when it would be knocked out. He had no idea how it worked after all, as tampering with the small device got the business end of weapons pointed at him. He changed into the new sheet of clothes, dropping the old ones onto the lid of the box. He spent a few seconds adjusting his shirt before another personnel walked in. They didn't say a word until he crossed his arms and faced away.

“Z-13. Under normal circumstances you would be stuck in here until further notice. However, my supervisors have made a minor decision. They are going to let you go out of your room, but only to show you something.” He could feel the irritation building up inside him. “Since your positive behaviour has been steadily declining, the higher ups have decided that showing you their newest catch and letting you keep it will somehow increase your mood.”

The person walked out just as quick as they had come.

It would only be a second before he heard the quiet hiss of the door sealing itself into an airtight lock and the vents in the walls whirred slightly louder and with more force.

His mind went silent long before he hit the ground.

-

He awoke to being heavily restrained again. The Urbanshade personnel didn’t trust him with just anesthesia for drowsiness, instead making special straps and heavy metal chains to physically restrain him. His arms, torso, and tail were all weighed down. His tail, however, was chained across multiple sections to the floor. He wasn’t the only one restrained to the glee of watching personnel.
Something that looked vaguely like a chubby purple cat was chained by one of its legs to the ground. It wasn’t moving besides its breathing, just stayed curled up into a ball with its tail laying over itself. It did seem to have some sort of rubber casing strapped over its tail, strangely enough.

The same person from earlier stepped forwards, motioning to the creature. “This is what our lovely coworkers here at Urbanshade found. A creature from a different world!” It gave a quiet squeak in return, and the person walked over to it. “It’s biology is messed up, just like yours, but we’re not sure why it is so messed up. It has no mouth, but what we would think is it’s stomach shows scarring and signs of opening outwards to the chest.” They picked up the purple creature by the extra skin on the back of his neck, holding it so that it’s chest was shown outwards to him. A scar was there, colored white in the shape of an X. They let go of the creature, letting it thump back to the ground. “From our testing on it, we’ve seen that it can handle falls like a cat would, but don’t be tricked, it is bipedal a lot.” They grinned. “Oh, also the covering on its tail is to stop it from making spear-like objects, we had a lot of trouble trying to get it properly sedated, it knew how to dodge those things.”

Z-13 blinked. What were the scientists on?

“We figured, since your cooperative behavior has been declining, we’d get you a roommate.”

He wanted to be alone. He wanted to be free. He didn’t want a roommate of all things. He ran one of his hands through his hair. The poor creature was curled back into a ball, watching the personnel warily. He didn’t blame it. Z-13 finally spoke after a few seconds of processing everything.
“Wh… how does it eat with no mouth?” The person shrugged. “So you’re just going to wait and find out?”

The other personnel glanced at each other. The person that spoke to him first spoke again. “You finally spoke, it’s working already! See, that’s what you’re going to find out. You are a valuable MR-P and we just can’t let you get bored to death.”

The other personnel walked out of the room, the person in front of him stopped to say one last thing.
“Oh, and if you have anything to say about it, just call it Z-07.”
The last of the staff filed out, Z-13 was left alone with the new creature.

The door shut and the ceiling vents whirred again.

Chapter Text

EIGHT.

The first thing they saw when they came to was something giant staring at them. It was a large, and long, fish-like creature. Blue-grey colouration in a mixture of scales and rough skin. It was layered with scars across its surface, but yet it peered at them with a way they would assume to be curiosity. They scurried backwards from the strange new being, keeping their eyes on it. The thing moved backwards somewhat, saying something in that same strange language. They took a moment out of their surprise to study the room… but no easy access pipes. Strange, there were always pipes in every room. They looked back at the long creature as it stood watching them. It bent down a little lower to their head level but they stepped back a little more. Their mind was already formulating on what to do, make a spear, get what pips they could out of the salamander ended creature, make a ladder out to the covered pipes and get to the closest shelter.
That plan was instantly foiled the moment they realized they couldn’t make a single spear. They attempted twice more, but both failed. The strange creature pointed one of its three arms at something to the behind of them. When they looked, all they saw was a sleek black thing covering their tail, tighter near the base. It was slightly stiff but made out of some sort of strong material. The creature stared at them as they inspected the covering, attempting and failing to pull it off.

A clawed hand darted towards them, grabbing them and picking them up. They flailed around at the sudden grab, wanting to get out. The creature’s stone cold grip didn’t loosen, only tightening at their attempts to get free. It grumbled something under its breath as they bonked their head into it.
With a sound reminiscent of the Rot peeling away from a victim, the creature slid the covering away. They froze in surprise as the covering dropped to the ground. The creature set them back on the ground, discarding the covering.

They stepped back, making a needle. They pinched off the tether between the spear and them. They weighed the possibilities that it was just an extremely heavily mutated scavenger who got separated from the rest. Maybe it was another purposed organism like them. It didn’t matter though. The cycle would more than likely be ending soon. But, they couldn’t feel any close shelters. The rain will be coming soon and they had no idea where the nearest shelter was. Speaking of, they don’t even know where they are.

They held the spear in their grip, watching the strange creature inspect them once again. They took a moment to study the other living being, trying to fully tell what it was. What a weird creature it was. It seemed to have the tail of some sort of large lizard, the hair of a slugcat on its head, three arms of a scavenger…
Their thought trailed off, realizing how weird the thing exactly was. Was it a purposed organism or was it a failed experiment?

They adjusted their hold on the spear before letting it go, letting it roll lopsidedly over to the creature. It picked up the spear, confusion visible in its body. It appeared to test the strength and sharpness of the spear while bouncing it in its hands. They watched the creature attempt to jab it into the wall, surprised when it stuck. Of course the spear stuck, they made it! They shivered slightly as the air in the room got slightly colder through the vents but the creature didn’t pay attention to them. It somehow was able to move from its current position to a separate place in the room without needing any helping tool.

The room was coated in a semibright light which bounced off of the grey walls. The furniture, made out of something they could consider soft, was the same dull grey as the walls. The strange creature made another noise in that strange way, waving one of its arms at a pile of fluff on the ground. It looked from them to the spear in the wall before lightly pushing the pile of fluff in their direction.

They stood up properly and made their way over to the fluff. The creature watched as they poked at the fluff before they climbed onto it. They rolled onto their side, curling into a ball as they examined their own tail. Checking the holes for blockage, making sure that it wasn’t damaged. Nothing was off. They shut their eyes, laying in the fluff, thinking.
They were pretty sure that they were currently in a weird iterator can above the rain. They were completely full, a full cycle hadn’t passed since they got captured.
Something thumped from outside when they fell asleep, their thoughts dissolving into nothing.

Chapter Text

If these documents are shown to unauthorized personnel, you’ll be put up for demotion, and any cover-up fees will be sent to your relatives.
…
Authorized viewing is permitted for your rank - [FFR-UP].

-

The subject is of unnatural origin. Seems to have been made by an outside source, as it largely differs from our other captured units. There is a large amount of visible scarring, and it is definitely hostile if provoked. The subject is largely skilled, able to dodge attempts to grab it, able to logically think, as well as having many ways to move around. It is able to create spears out of small openings in it’s tail, although we have no idea what the purpose of this is. Unlike our other captured units, it lacks a mouth.
It has a large cavity in their chest, big enough for a sphere in between the sizes of a golf ball and tennis ball to fit into. The only visible access to this cavity is through the chest, although this leads to a large white scar. Something appears to have been ripped out of it.

Similarly to our other captured units, it is made up of Earth-like cells. They operate in cellular respiration, and contain nuclei that contain DNA. We have not yet been authorized to examine this or to take samples for examination.

It’s tail is a point of interest. It can create long, spear-like objects out of it. There remains a tethered connection between the tail and the artificial needles.

It is unknown how this creature will continue it’s species. No reproductive organs have been spotted, and it’s cells are not capable of enough duplication to make a clone. We may have to find more of its species to examine how they manage to continue themselves on.

Further examination is required, whether direct or indirect.