Chapter Text
As Neil opens the door to the TLC research center, he realizes he has no idea what to expect. He’s cautiously pessimistic about this job, but Dr. David told him he could quit if he really didn’t like it. How bad could a job be on the very first day? After all, even the first days of school tended to be relatively merciful to him. Relatively.
He takes a deep breath and steps into the building. Neil immediately felt uneasy. He couldn't quite place the reason. Perhaps it was the unsmiling man by the door, or the smiling way too much woman at the front desk. Maybe it was the high, industrial ceiling or the classy corporate walls and furniture. Maybe he was just paranoid. But whatever the reason, his first thought was “I knew it. I was right. This place will be the death of me.”
Dr. David's words flash through Neil’s mind: “doing your best to follow orders will guarantee your safety in dangerous places.” He knew Dr. David was right, but Neil often had trouble following orders, especially when he was scared, like he was now.
He fished around for his courage and walked shakily up to the woman at the front desk. “Hello. I am Neil Sunshine. I am here for the first day of my job. Where should I go and who should I talk to?”
Hmm. He hoped that sounded right. Did normal people say it was the first day of their jobs? Or did they phrase it differently, like “my first day of work”? They probably said the first day of work instead of what he said. He would have to- a clipped tone interrupted his ruminations.
“Wait here, your boss will be here shortly. He’ll tell you what you need to do.”
“Okay, thank you.”
Neil waited, but there was nowhere to sit.
He had trouble standing for too long.
Just as he was about to sit on the floor, footsteps came down a corridor in the back of the waiting room. They sounded like normal footsteps, but the pacing gave off the feeling of a centipede pretending to be a caterpillar.
The source of the footsteps enters the antechamber and Neil looks up to see a striking face, perfectly symmetrical except for the eyes, of which there was one green as acid and one white as bone. Hair the reddish brown of dried blood cascaded down the man’s back, and a pair of round glasses perched on his nose like a raven on Odin's shoulder. He wore a smug expression as casually as one would wear a set of pajamas from their childhood.
Even as his lizard brain was screaming, Neil found his lamb brain whispering “Wow. The man is pretty. His hair is so wavy, it looks nice.” Then the lizard returned to break the lamb’s interlude with a “DANGER DANGER HE WILL KILL YOU STAY AWAY IF YOU WANT TO LIVE!”.
“Hello. My name is Wyatt and I am the CEO of TLC labs. Congratulations on getting this job, this will look great on your resume if you ever leave us.” He laughed (it sounded like glass shattering) and Neil wasn’t sure why he laughed or why it reminded him of violence. He didn’t like that he wasn’t sure why, about each of those things.
“Anyway, since it’s your first day, I'll show you the route to 01’s room. You’ll be working ‘with’ him. And remember, we’re paying you a lot more than normal for the easy task of following orders.” Wyatt led Neil down some hallways to a room with “01” on the door.
“Alright, here we are. Today's experiment will be a psychology experiment. I’ll set the temperature in 01’s room to cold and you’ll observe to see if 01 will cling to something heated but painful for warmth.” Wyatt turns the temperature in 01's observation cell to freezing. “You’re behind a glass window so you’ll be fine. I only turned down the temperature inside the cell. Your job is to take notes and make sure 01 doesn't die.”
Neil was right, he was definitely right. They’d have him torture in innocent person- “Oh, and before I leave, let me remind you that, being made from the flesh of death row inmates, 01 is essentially the incarnation of humanities sin. The worst of torture, war, murder, abuse and more all collected in one person: 01. So you shouldn’t feel bad for it.”
Oh. Neil guessed that the person who worked with the technology probably knew better than him, the new guy. So maybe 01 really was evil? He’d have to assume so, Dr. David had told him that following orders meant no one would hurt him.
Wyatt removed the cloth from 01’s containment room and walked out. Neil looked for a vicious monster but only saw a tired looking person with scruffy white hair, and different colored eyes like Wyatt, only green and red instead of green and white. The red eye and the white hair reminded Neil of a lab rat.
Well… Neil supposed it was time to start the experiment. No more delaying it, he guessed. Neil watched as 01 shivered, but 01 didn't move towards the heater covered in broken glass.
Maybe it didn't know the box was warm? Neil wrote on some paper and held it up to the glass: "the box in the middle is a heater". 01 looked confused but moved close to the box, not touching it.
But it wasn’t enough. Frostbite was going to set in sooner or later. 01 knew the experiment wouldn't stop until it got the “expected” (desired) result. There was no choice. After a few moments, 01 closed his eyes and threw himself onto the box, twitching in pain as he hugged it, eyes still screwed shut.