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Jeff shouldn’t be so worried. Should he? It was just a wig. A random wig showing up in his highly secured, secret under-water laboratory in Arctic where there is only one entrance and that is through under his bed.
He paced around. Looked under the tables, behind the machines and all around the little house he lived on top of the laboratory. Nothing. No sign of life. Just this weird feeling he gets when he looked out the window of this laboratory to the vast ocean. Who? Who could have removed him from his bed when his sleep is very light. Removed the heavy rug under his bed, found the creaky floor on top of the narrow entrance, took the key out of his necklace, entered, walked down two thousand steps or somehow find a way to use the elevator that requires a pass code, left a singular wig then did all those steps again to exit?
Can he be experiencing memory loss? Or worse, is he splitting his personality into two? Three? Is he forgetting what the other does- he stopped and looked at the wig again. Suddenly, the wig looked, weird. He haven’t touched it yet fearing it might be laced with something and he has limited time until he finds out where it comes from but maybe he should. Now that nothing had happened in his three hours of search, he is sure the owner of it is not here to take Jeff out. He quickly made his way back to his working table, took a pair of gloves, put them on and made his way back to the wig. He took it in his hands and turned it around a few times. His wide pupils watched as the ‘wig’ revealed leaves on top of each other with occasional orange flowers in between. “So it’s a plant” he murmured. “Maybe an animal entered through the vent?” he asked more to himself. A small animal who might have eaten it’s way through the vent might drag a plant this big since it’s relatively light for it’s size. He relaxed a little. “I am glad it was just a snotty animal” he sighed “But that means I will have to check on my ventilation and repair it” he tsched “Also what kind of plant is this actually? It looks so bizarre” he decided on researching the plant as he made his way back to his working table. He dissected it into parts to test on different things. One for molecular level, one to extract genes, one to understand where the fruit part is and where is the leaf and finally, a part where he can try and grow it on his own to understand how it looked when it’s grown. He then decided to start working. Even without the new plant, he has a long day of work ahead of him.
𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚
Fishes ran past, some got eaten, some stared inside, directly to Jeff who is drinking his coffee as he stared back at them until they decided to leave him alone out of boredom. Jeff wished he was bored too. For the first time in a while, he wished for peace. There haven’t been any intruders, no problem with the vent and the plant-the plant is something else. Jeff had never seen it. Neither anyone in the world.
On top of this mysterious plant, his dreams had been driving him crazy too. He had seen himself, as a child, wearing animal fur coat and running around in this specific region he decided to built his house in with a boy named Daou. He knows it’s not a memory. It can’t be. He was born and raised in Thailand. He came here to do a research, built this laboratory all by himself and- “How did I exactly built this laboratory and house?” he questioned himself. There was no memory. He only remembers building the final structures, like the door to his bedroom and the last stairs leading up to it. But he knows every part of this laboratory too. So how can someone else be the one who built it. He must have built it himself. He massaged the sides of his head. “Does it matter?” he asked more to himself. “I am here to research-for what?” he wanted to cry. All he does is sail around, dive to get unknown fishes or walk around and pluck the unknown plants. He then brought them to his laboratory and dissect them so he can run tests on them. If he sees something abnormal or new, he will try and understand if it’s something that haven’t been discovered yet or just something he hasn’t seen before. He does not remember why he is doing this though. Who told him to do this? Why he volunteered? He tsched. “Everything was okay before that damn wig” he murmured. That wig had ruined his perception of life. Now life is not simple. Now he cannot continue his life, waking up, eating breakfast, working until noon, drinking coffee, working until evening, eating dinner, drinking a relaxing tea and going to bed. Now he has questions. And he feels like he might actually go insane if he doesn’t get answers.
𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚
Another month has passed. Jeff’s questions calmed down. His mind and body went back to his old relaxing routine. He went back to diving, dissecting and exploring. That was until his coffee break on a random Tuesday. A second, he only closed his eyes to smell the coffee for a second. When he opened them, there was a whale looking at him through the enormous window. He is not usually scared of these whales. He sees them from far away while diving, he is very well aware of their dominating presence in this area. But this is different. He feels like he is being watched by this whale. Also, he or she shouldn’t be here. Jeff’s laboratory might be underwater but he is sure it’s still very shallow and close to the coast.
He wonders what made this whale come here. Can they have a predator so they ran away from them to get caught in here? Can a predator much larger than this whale exist in here? He gulped down, scared. “Hi buddy” the whale crashed onto the window which shook it and caused Jeff to jump in his place. “Don’t be angry now-” “Stop it!” a voice familiar yet unknown filled his ears. A boy taller than him stepped towards the glass “I told you not to come here, what do you think you can achieve by destroying his laboratory, house and endangering him?” Jeff watched in shock as the whale turned around and swam away. The tall boy turned around to face him too. Jeff is not sure what he should say. He could only stare at him with curiosity waiting for the boy to introduce himself. “Don’t come looking for me” was all the tall boy uttered before running away. Jeff would follow him in normal circumstances but he was still a bit scared. A predator, a human that can order a whale through a glass. This is surely not ordinary. Nor it’s something he wants to think about for now. So he cupped his now lukewarm coffee in his hands. Stared in the distance again. And let the weird static noise in his ears fill the emptiness inside his mind by shutting off his thoughts.
𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚ 𓇼𓇼 ⋆｡˚ 𓆝⋆｡˚
It had been two months since he had seen the whale. Jeff accepted the fact that there must be something wrong with him. Something that his brain does not want to register. He must be going crazy. His dreams are now filled with Daou, a boy named Offroad, a girl named Tali. They are going around on a world just like this, he has a grandma there, weird plants, weirder animals. He somehow misses his dreams far more than he misses Thailand. Which is odd. Because Thailand is his home.
He sometimes sees himself, as a fox, playing with other foxes. Sometimes he is a seagull. Sometimes a whale. Penguin. But primarily he is a fox. A snow fox. He wishes these dreams gives him some sort of information too. A door to what’s happening. Some answers to his questions. But they just served as more confusions to add on his previous ones.
That was until he got some sort of answer that he wished he would never get. Offroad looked at him in one of his dreams, like he knows this is a dream and he is not Jeff’s imagination. He is really Offroad. He looked deeply into Jeff’s eyes, he tilted his head to the side “Do you think this poor piece of Earth is your home?” when Jeff opened his eyes to his wooden ceiling, he had to lay there and wonder what that meant for long. What does Offroad mean? If Earth is not his home then where is his home? How can he find his home? How rich is this home? And why does this home look exactly like here? When he couldn’t come up with any explanation, he decided to leave it there and went to his kitchen to cook something for breakfast instead.
After he spent his day making sure his mind never revisits that weird dream again, he was back at his bed. But sleep wouldn’t come to him easily this time. No. He laid there and closed his eyes for long but he couldn’t fall asleep. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise though. Because now that he cannot fall asleep, he can work in his laboratory to advance his research.
He went down, opened the door just to stand there in shock upon seeing an unusual scenery. The very same tall guy from the whale accident was standing there in the middle of the laboratory, looking out the window. He turned at Jeff and he was about to run away again but Jeff is faster this time “Wait!” he caught up to him. “Who are you?” the tall guy sighed “Is there any point of knowing who I am if you can’t remember?” Jeff ignored his question “Are you Offroad or Daou? Or-uhm I don’t think you-but Tali?” the guy looked hopeful “So you at least remember our names?” Jeff awkwardly nodded “I am Daou” he paused “Do you remember why you are here?”. Jeff shook his head. A grim expression took over Daou’s face. “Am I an alien?” Daou looked into his eyes “We are not aliens” he explained. Jeff pouted “Then-” “We are spiritual beings Jeff, we were born to aid people but you-you” he looked frustrated. “I- what?” Jeff asked. He does not believe Daou, he still thinks he is hallucinating or dreaming. But there is no harm in learning more about these accidents, maybe he can understand his own mental illness through this. “You wanted to experience the life humans live when a young boy named Barcode moved in here and adopted you as a fox” that named ringed a bell in Jeff’s mind. A boy with big brown eyes and an addictive smile came to his mind. “In that very house, he lived with you until death, he took very care of you” Daou folded his arms on his chest. “You ate his body to gain his knowledge so you can reincarnate and meet with him again but instead you went crazy when his soul got lost, only a little part of it stayed with you, we watched as you built this laboratory and conducted researches but with every research you would loose a part of your memory” Jeff tilted his head to the side. He does not understand nor remember any of that. “After going through realms, talking to witches, shamans and other spiritual beings, Offroad learned that by consuming Barcode’s meat you have gained his memories, by doing research and interacting further with this earth to understand it, you exchange a part of your memory, so you are becoming Barcode to preserve him and loosing yourself in the process” he looked into Jeff’s eyes “We don’t want to interfere Jeff, we know you are doing everything knowingly so you can have him back but I can’t take this anymore, we are like a family and we miss our big brother” Jeff stopped. He looked away and out in the ocean instead. His eyes unfocused. His brain relaxed. “Are you the wig like plant’s owner?” Daou stayed silent. Jeff turned back at him “So my research is not for nothing” Daou took a deep breath. “You are not coming home are you?” he asked. “I think I am close to bringing Barcode back to this Earth, he even brought a whole new plant from where he is with him to let me know” he looked into Daou’s eyes “Would you have given up if you were me?” he asked. “Can’t you go from realm to realm and look for him instead of doing this?” Daou asked back even though he knows the answer. He just hoped he can trick Jeff this time. “He is not within our reach and he will be cast away further if I let go of his remains inside me” Jeff looked at Daou again, this time, with his full memory intact. “Now that I got my memories back, his light dimmed inside me again” he reminded “Do not bother me until he comes and I can trap him in here until he can reincarnate” Daou watched as his friend turn his back to him. For the millionth time since Barcode had lived on Earth. This was their routine. But maybe there is really hope this time. At the end of the day, he watched a muddy footstep turn into water, water into fire, fire into earth, earth into seed and seed into a wig like plant. Barcode might not be able to come fully back but he is at least trying. And that’s enough for Daou, even if it’s not for Offroad nor Tali, it had never been. They can’t do anything about it unless Jeff wants to though. So Daou went back to his pot as a snowdrop inside Jeff’s indoor winter garden and awaited for the next time Barcode will show up.