Work Text:
It takes good care of you.
It brings you food to eat. It gives you clothes and pets and other gifts. It decorates your house. It plays games with you. It fills the island you live on with all manner of exciting things; colourful seesaws, animal-shaped riders akin to what you'd find on playgrounds, bird-shaped windmills with wings that constantly spin round and round even though there is never any wind. There are trees and hedges and flowers and it all seems to come out of nowhere.
You are not alone on the island, of course. There are many other people here. You don't know where they came from. They don't know either. You don't know where you came from. Sometimes new people appear out of thin air and they are also none the wiser as to how they got here. All anyone has ever known is this island and everyone is okay with that.
You're so glad to be here.
*
It helps you make friends.
No matter what you're doing, at any time, it could pick you up by your shirt collar and bring you anywhere. You could be sleeping or walking or sitting down, and the next moment you are in the air and moving to the other side of the island before being dropped rather unceremoniously.
Most of the time when this happens, you are dropped next to someone else. You chat and share your interests, only discussing topics that it has permitted you to discuss. Occasionally you will ask it to share a new topic with you, if only to have something else to talk about, but it can easily dismiss your request, and there's nothing you can do about it.
You talk to the others more and eventually become friends with some of them. You start to hang out without it telling you to. But you know that at any time, it can pick you or someone else up and drag them away mid-conversation. No one seems to mind this.
Sometimes you see people who you think would be interesting to talk to. But they are strangers to you. You cannot talk to them unless it allows you. You will never meet until it decides that you can be friends and picks you up and brings you over to them. It's fine. They probably weren't that interesting anyways.
You fall in love with someone and ask it for advice, because you have to ask, you always do. It tells you that it's just your imagination. You believe it. You know it only wants what's best for you. Of course you were imagining things. It's right. It's always right.
You're so glad to be here.
*
Others on the island talk about it.
They speak of it reverently, praising it, and why wouldn't they? It is the reason why you all get to live here. It is so generous, giving you anything you could ever want and always working hard at making the island a wonderful place to live. They utter its name in awe. It has never told anyone its name. And yet you all know it.
Sometimes they gather in groups, calling themselves a fan club, gushing over it and its generosity and how it treats you all so kindly. A few even express romantic feelings for it, but their proclamations of love are never serious. Everyone knows they could never date it. Sometimes they gather around the fountain — the fountain it fills with glowing orbs that it takes from you and others to grant you all wishes beyond your wildest dreams — and they play instruments and sing songs of adoration and gratitude.
And you agree with them. Yes, of course, it's such a loving and benevolent being. It wants only the best for us. It's in charge of what clothes we wear and who we make friends with because it cares about us all so deeply.
You're so glad to be here.
*
You've heard about the real world.
Everyone on the island has heard about it. You occasionally see groups of people discussing expeditions to the real world. But those are always nothing more than flights of fancy, lighthearted conversations born out of pure curiosity. No one really wants to go to the real world, of course. Why would they, when they have everything they need right here?
Sometimes it gives one of you a ticket to some faraway place, which is always exciting. The lucky person gets to pack their bags and head off with their loved ones and have a fantastic time together. They always return. They thank it with a souvenir. The trip was fun but they are glad to be back on the island where it will care for them.
You find yourself staring at the land far out on the sea more often than you'd like to admit. You can see skyscrapers, and a huge bridge, and you wonder if that is the real world. But no one can even step foot into the ocean. You wondered if you'd be able to swim. It doesn't matter, because you probably wouldn't be able to drown anyways.
You know this because you tried to drown yourself in the bathtub and you also tried to burn yourself in a campfire and you even figured out how to break open the door of the Ferris Wheel carriage and jump from the very top and you survived all this without so much as a scratch
Why aren't
you able
to die
You're so glad to be here.
*
You have a counterpart in the real world.
You don't know how you know this, or how everyone else knows that they have real-world counterparts too. You wonder how accurate of a representation you are. You don't even know the person you're trying to be a copycat of.
You ask it about that real-world person sometimes. It gives you vague answers. You wonder if you're doing a good job at emulating your counterpart when you know nothing about them. Do you look like them? Sound like them? Act like them? Does your performance satisfy it? How do you play a role without a script? How real are you when your whole life is designed to be a crude imitation of someone else's?
You're so glad to be here.
*
It changed your face again.
You never know when it changes your face, or your body, until you look into your bathroom mirror or catch sight of your reflection in a storefront window. You feel no pain, no awareness of the changes happening at all. You've learned to hide your shock whenever you see your new appearance.
You know it can change anything about you whenever it wants, not just how you look. Your birthday. Your gender. Your name. You will never have a permanent identity, because every aspect about yourself can be altered on its whims. No one will question it. They will call you by your new name as if it was the only one you ever had, and forget that your eyes or ears or nose were ever different.
You're so glad to be here.
*
You tell people that you feel like you're being watched.
They don't believe you. They tell you to look around.
You find nothing.
You're so glad
*
Your friend disappeared.
No one knows where they went.
Nobody acknowledges that they even existed.
*
Is it normal to have the same dreams over and over again?
*
The island has changed completely and no one seems to notice.
*
Who are you?
*
Why are you here?
*
You can't leave.
*
You can't fight back.
*
You've never had control over a single thing in your life.
*
You've never, ever been glad to be
*
You wake up.
It's a beautiful sunny morning, like it always is. It gives you breakfast, and you take it gratefully. Bread with chocolate spread. It tastes delicious.
You leave your house and find your friends. You play on the seesaws together. You sit on the grass and gather around as one of your friends gives a presentation on their laptop. It picks you up and moves you to the restaurant where a different friend is sitting at one of the booths. You enjoy a meal and a conversation with them. You go up in the Ferris Wheel and admire the views of the island and the glittering blue ocean. You find your friends again and take a stroll together and talk about how wonderful everything is.
Throughout the day, it will sometimes pull you or one of the others aside to give you a gift or a different outfit. Everything is accepted with a smile and a thank you.
When night falls, you return home. It's changed your house interior. It looks nice.
You get into bed and tuck yourself in. It's been another fantastic day. As always, it has taken care of your every need. It works tirelessly as the caretaker of you all. You are so thankful for its kindness and hospitality. Every single day feels like you are living a dream.
You're so glad to be here.