Work Text:
"Be good, QR-45H."
The mechanical voice echoed inside the small room he was confined in, slightly muffled due to the reinforced glass separating them.
Cucurucho– at least, thats what it thinks the giant polar bear is called– opened the door and stepped out of its chambers, leaving QR-45H alone. It rested its hand upon the reinforced glass.
The room was cold.
It couldn't be surprised, though. Every time it had touched the blurry window before, it had felt the same. Cold and hard, just like the rest of its room. The quartz was nice, though! It just wished it was a little warmer. It doesn't like the cold very much.
QR-45H let out a tiny hum as it let its hand fall down the glass pane, lazily raising its head to look at the rest of the room. Its room. Just like outside, it was made out of quartz. It liked that. The block was bright and reflective, allowing the ceiling lights to bounce light around the entire space, apart from one corner. It may not have seen many other blocks in its time, but it sure does know that this is a good block! Why else would they make its room out of it? And the hallway outside?
For a second, it wonders if they have glass outside. If there are other people outside... Well, people who aren't polar bears, at least.
For as long as QR-45H could remember, there were only two other living beings that it had "interacted" with. (It never responded when they talked to it. It didn't know how.)
The first individual it had ever met was Cucurucho, the big white polar bear with a huge, almost unsettling, smile on their face. Cucurucho is tall, it recalls. Though they spend most of their time sitting by the desk in front of its enclosure, it can see how big they are when they enter and leave the room. It's kinda hard to ignore when they have to crouch every time they pass through the doorway...
Other than that, Cucurucho is the one who conducts its "daily research", where they prick it with little needles and hurt it and write down its reactions on a clipboard. It's kinda creepy, but the last time it tried to tell Cucurucho it didn't like their research, they got really upset, and QR-45H doesn't like making people upset. (They said that was a thing they would fix though, so it's alright!)
Cucurucho visits it every day, but they're really only nice on some of those days. On really good days, they'll tell it that it's been doing good, and the tests will stop earlier, but on really bad days, Cucurucho is mean. They call it a failure, and a mistake, and useless, and all kinds of rude names that make it feel really really sad. Then they get angry about that, too.
Unlike Cucurucho, the other bear-employee-thing it's seen is nice to it all the time!
Her name is Elena, it thinks. She only comes to see it when Cucurucho isn't around, so sometimes it wonders if she's avoiding them. But then she has to do the tests where she puts a needle with a tube attached in its arm and takes its blood. It doesn't hurt too bad, but when she has to use all the different kinds of vials– eleven of them– it makes it tired and even colder than usual.
But she always gives it a hug afterwards, so it's 'kay.
One weird thing it noticed about Elena is that she doesn't have a face like itself or Cucurucho. It used to scare it a lot, but it's brave now and it can handle it. The pink ribbons on the side of her head also bring down her intimidation factor lots. And how she always apologises to it and gives it hugs. Elena is warm. It likes Elena.
It's also noticed that Elena doesn't like when it calls her by WS01, and she doesn't like to call it by its full name either. She started to call it "Ash" when they met for the fifth time. It likes it, but when it said the title in front of Cucurucho, they looked at it all scary-like, so it settles for QR-45H.
A loud bang on metal startles the QR entity out of its thoughts, its eyes darting towards the locked, reinforced door as it frantically pushed itself to hide in the corner of its small room.
This was new. Scary new.
It heard a cacophony of voices from outside of their room. There were people– unfamiliar people– in the hallway.
The walls that separated it from the long hallway ensured that it couldn't make out what any of them were saying, nor could it really even describe the voices themselves. They all blended together into one, but in such a way that it could tell that there was at least two people talking. Well, yelling, if it had to guess.
Fear bubbled up in its chest, hands instinctively covering its mouth as to not make any sort of noise. After a while, the noises fell into a soft, hushed hum that it could barely even hear. What were they doing?
Who are they?
QR-45H found itself relaxing after a few minutes of the little noises coming from outside the door, arms falling to wrap around its legs instead of covering its mouth. Realistically, there wasn't any way that whoever was out there could get in, so it didn't have to worry. However, its body was still tensed, still afraid in a way that was completely unintentional. It could now hear the static noise from the glitches that covered its body, which had grown and multiplied in response to its fear. Cucurucho said not to feel too much, since it would make it worse. It doesn't really know what they meant by that, but it takes it as fact anyways.
Just as sudden as the last time, a louder, more obnoxious noise came from the locked door. Immediately, it pushed itself back into its corner, the cold quartz walls pressing painfully against its back. Its hands found themselves back over its mouth with a loud slapping noise with the abrupt motion.
The din of its glitches, which had again began to spread and grow around its body, grew louder and louder as the scraping became more intense.
Had someone managed to kill Cucurucho? Or Elena? Were there no more people to protect it? Was someone here to kill it?
QR-45H was about to get up and throw itself underneath its cot that sat in the other corner of the room, but it had no time to do so before a click resounded throughout their enclosure, making it freeze. Slowly, its eyes crawled across the floor to look indirectly at the source of the click.
With a light, metallic creak, the door began to open, almost the opposite of how Cucurucho did so. With complete control. Confidence. It wasn't Elena, either. She would speak as the door unlocked, and right now, the space was silent apart from the continuous hum of static, which had only become louder. The little QR code felt almost faint, hazy with anxiety and anticipation.
It was useless, in this situation, it couldn't do anything, either to protect itself, hide, or whatever someone would do in this situation.
At a loss, QR-45H did the only thing it could think of, and shut its eyes, pain blooming around both eye sockets from the force.
Surely if it couldn't see them, they couldn't see it.
. . .
Jaiden, unwilling to let this opportunity go to waste, leaned her weight on the weighty hatch. They had all come this far, they even unlocked the door! By themselves! Without a key! Of course, she wouldn't let her comrades leave without seeing what was inside! She, Quackity, and Baghera had not sat in a circle for hours, every single day, planning this top-secret mission, just to leave right when they were about to uncover it all!
For months, they had all theorised about what sat at the end of this hallway. What could possibly be so secret that Cucurucho had it guarded so heavily? Why would they react so cold when asked about it?
It was unfortunate that ElQ couldn't help with their plan. He said he "wasn't curious" and "didn't want to know". Jaiden doesn't believe that in the slightest, she'd bet he was just scared.
"C'mon, guys," Jaiden giggled, amused at their apprehensive expressions. "We can't give up now! You know what they say..."
Quackity sighed, head dropping forwards as if he had lost all strength in his neck, "Don't ask for permission, ask for forgiveness..."
A grin made its way onto the bluebird's face as she planted her palms upon the door and continued pushing.
"You got it! We'll be okay, don't worry. You know Cucurucho loves us! They can't stay mad at us for long."
The words had caused a grimace to appear on both of the duck hybrids faces. It was kinda scary how oblivious Jaiden was about the blatant favouritism she had always been shown, but also sweet, since she didn't think Cucurucho would have any reason to treat them harshly.
The expressions were forced off of their faces as the entrance finally cleared, and Baghera found herself rushing to Jaidens side to peer over her shoulder, Quackity following behind with a tad more trepidation.
What they were met with was... Well.
They didn't know what they were expecting, but it wasn't this.
At first, Baghera couldn't see anything upon scanning the area, gently nudging Jaiden to the side so she could step into the... Room?
She didn't know exactly how to refer to it, really.
Upon stepping into the space, they were met with a white desk pushed against the wall, a matching birch chair sitting underneath. Other than that, there was nothing significant about the vestibule other than its infinitesimal size. Further into the room, however...
It was a ...bedroom?
The area was similar to their rooms, except it was sparsely decorated, leaving the blinding quartz walls uncovered. There was only a cot in the far-right corner, a small plastic chair, a purple carpet, and a little cabinet, which Baghera guessed held the clothes of whoever this belonged to. A child, she assumed, based on the crayons that hid under the cot.
Before she could remark on her observations, she was interrupted by a loud gasp from Quackity.
"Yo, what the fuck?" Quackity exclaimed, louder than he had been for their entire trip. He pushed past the other two individuals that stood in the middle of the room, making his way up to the left side of the reinforced glass that separated the two parts of the space.
The duck hybrid rested his hands against the grey-tinted glass, wings fluttering in what could only be described as shock.
There was a kid in there.
The child looked small, sitting curled up in the darkest corner of the bedroom. It was obvious that the kid was younger than them, and by a significant amount at that. Quackity was only eight, and he was still twice the size of the other!
"Wha- huh? What's up, is there something there?" Jaiden, sidled up to stand behind him, peering into the window. "I really couldn't notice anything too important, other than the fact that this room even exists-"
He tugged on her sleeve, cutting her off as he pointed into the far-left corner of the room. "Jaiden. Look– I don't– just look."
Quackity watched as recognition flooded into both Jaiden and Bagheras eyes as they took notice of the little one, who was still very obviously terrified. They were trembling so strongly that he could see it through the blurred surface of the window.
Baghera, voice slightly trembling, leaned over and whispered to her group members. "What do we do? Should we say hi? Are they even... real?"
"Of course they're real," The smaller found himself scoffing– he couldn't tell if it was in shock or irritation at this point– at the rapid-fire questions. "They're literally shaking, you can see them moving, bro!"
"Guys, be quiet! You'll make it worse!" Jaiden pushed them both back towards the doorway, crouching down to be close to the child's height. There wasn't much she could think to do other than attempt to try and calm them, it nearly hurt to see something so small carry so much fear.
"Little one, it's okay. We aren't here to hurt you," Jaiden cooed, as soft as she could bring herself to sound while so dazed. She raised a hand to rest gently upon the transparent walls surface, a gesture of which she hoped would show patience. "You don't have to be afraid, or hide, really! We, um, are safe people."
Their head popped up from between their knees at the words, the trembling that was racking their body calming significantly. Apparently, this one wasn't hard to please, since that pep talk was shit, if Quackity were to judge. But he won't. Because this is a serious situation and he needs to lock in.
Baghera stepped forward from her position beside him, sitting in front of the wall, saying nothing. Wordlessly, she motioned for him to move ahead as well. Quackity reluctantly complied, his body automatically moving to shift slightly downwards in an attempt to match the other's height.
They all sat in silence, revealing the hushed hum of static that filled the area, despite there being no electronic devices around. None that they could find, at least.
After a few minutes, the small figure pushed themself up onto their feet– they were tiny, too tiny– and began taking timid steps toward where they were seated. As they stepped into the light, the three older children began to take note of the... unusual appearance of the boy.
Not only were they small in stature, but they also looked fragile, way thinner than a kid of that age was supposed to be. However, that was a rather small part of their overall appearance when you laid eyes on the large glitched purple and black rectangles that surrounded their body, notably resting over their right eye.
It was unsettling, to say the least.
But still, no words were shared in the group as the brunette plopped down facing Jaiden, their small hands reaching up as if to hold hands through the barrier.
A stunned silence sat heavy between the four youth. There was really nothing they could do here, none of them planned for anything like this to happen. It felt like they were trapped there, stuck until Osito Bimbo or Cucurucho finally found them. Leaving the little one alone felt wrong, immoral, so they rested there, providing the companionship that they most likely didn't have prior.
But, as all peaceful things must to, their quiet companionship came to an end.
Footsteps started from the hallway, slow and similar to the tolling of a bell, before whoever was there noticed the door, previously locked, setting wide open.
The youngest immediately shot up, sprinting to and curling up on the cot that sat unchanged in the opposite corner of the room, leaving the remaining three perched on the floor as Cucurucho entered the room.
"What are you doing?"
. . .
QR-45H watched as Cucurucho took each of the three entities by the wrist and dragged them forcefully out of the room, robotic voice somehow conveying a fearful amount of anger. It really hoped that Cucurucho wouldn't get mad at it. It wasn't its fault.
If Cucurucho did get mad, at least QR-45H could find solace one thing. One question it now had answered.
There were other people in the facility, people that looked similarly to it, with their skin and their hair and their everything.
...Maybe, just maybe, it wasn't truly alone in here.