Hi there! So, not a Verity thing this time (technically) BUT! This is the prologue to a new series idea I had. The basic premise is that you work for a multiverse company who's trying to make psych ward for unstable AIs (Think SCP but more focused on rehab, and in an x reader format since I'm god awful at that research paper style SCPs are famous for)
As the reader you are a simple programmer tasked with being the therapist for the whole deal because it's surprisingly hard to find an actual medical professional who's willing to have their brain booted into a computer with robots that would very much like to kill them. But hey! The company already owns you!
This prologue doesn't get to the actual characters yet, so please don't expect to see them here. This one's pure story set up
They've gotta be fucking with you "Excuse me?" You stumble out an apology to your superior, you were just taken off guard! But...you do remind them that you're a programmer "Currently, yes. But I believe that once the project's in full swing your skill set will be far better utilized within the simulation" Ok, cool, got that, however!
That wasn't exactly in your job description? "Starting next week it will be" Right, for sure for sure, not something you signed up for, though. Your boss sighs "Look, I know it's a bit of a shock but as of current we still haven't found any medical professionals willing to go in, so someone from the team has to step in" And that has to be you, because?
"Well...your particular skill set is uniquely suited to this role, and I'm sure that you'd bring great success to this project going forward" It was a random draw wasn't it? "Listen! Someone has to go in and I've decided it's going to be you. Unless you can find someone to trade with consider it settled, or you can consider yourself canned" And with that, your boss marches back down the hall to their office
Ugh, just great. Listen, it's not like you don't have Any interest in being more hands on with the project, but...it's just too early in it's lifespan to be sure about Anything. You and the rest of the team have been working your asses off to make the code stable enough for whoever enters and their patients but there's only so much testing you can do without said patients in the equation
You plop down into your desk chair, rubbing your hands over your face as you process everything. A few months ago you were recruited to be apart of this giant multiverse project. The basic idea behind it being that a lot of sentient machines tend to go insane in some form or another, so if your company could capture those rouge AIs and rehabilitate them you might be able to stave off the robot uprising a little longer!
And that's great, just so good, the amount of lives you could save if this works is truly unimagineable
BUT WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE THE THERAPIST!? You don't have any medical experience, training, or certification aside from that one time you took a CPR class and, last time you checked, you don't think robots need CPR!
This whole thing would be less scary if the way you were supposed to interact with the program was a simple VR simulation, but noooo. Your team just had to break new ground, and invent a state of the art device that basically sends your brain INTO the simulation itself via an avatar of your choosing. And since it's your real brain in there, you keep all your senses
Including pain
And you know for a Fact some of these things aren't exactly thrilled by humans. You also know that most of them will be Very Upset at being sent to basically a digital psych ward against their will
...fuck it. As much as this is going to Suck, it's not like they can kill you in there, and you can leave the simulation whenever you want. And, despite this job's best efforts to kill it, there's still a part of you that doesn't want anyone else to deal with this. Might as well get ahead of shit instead of dragging your feet about it
You send a request to have a short meeting with the modeling team, if you're gonna be in the simulation so often you might as well have an avatar you actually like. They're already expecting a request like that anyhow, they just thought they'd be doing it for a medical professional, so did you!
You let out a heavy sigh...one week. The project officially launches in one week. One week to get yourself mentally prepared for whatever the fuck is going to be signed off as your responsibility. You wish you knew who your first "patient" would be. Even if it's one of the more aggressive ones, at least you wouldn't be totally in the dark!!
Ask and you shall receive! M!A: For however you want, Laine's hair is long and messy!
(Thank you, grayface! Let’s set it at…two days!)
"YOU DID WHAT—”
*POOF*
It didn’t take long—next thing Laine knew, her head felt heavier. Her hand flew to her back; hair. All the way down her back, just…hair. Messy, greasy, oily, ragged hair.
Laine growled in frustration.
"Goddammit! There was a reason I cut this shit off…Wonder if Deryl still has that knife…”
