Young Writers Society

"Uh, dude is okay. It's pretty gender-neutral, usually."

Emily cleared her throat louder. "Meyer. Character discussion is after debrief."

"Just take a deep breath, my dude," he said, figuring it would bug her. "I got this. We're in no rush."

He turned back to Alex and Sadie.

"Right, so, we've got three stages y'all are gonna go through. Stage one is identification -- we'll put y'all through some personality tests and trials and whatnot and figure out what your flaws are. Stage Two -- correction. Everyone's favorite part, y'know? Complete lie. That's gonna suck for you. BUT it'll help you along and then if you pass those two stages then stage three is integration where you'll, y'know, integrate back into society and stuff. We'll walk you through that if you survive. Questions? No? Good."

"I--" Sadie started. It was all so fast. She didn't have any questions and had all of the questions. All at the same time.

"Great, Emily?" Meyer said, looking back at her. "You've got a plan you're going to rigidly stick to now, right?"

Alex tensed, expecting some anger, at the very least annoyance.

Neither came, Emily only looked at Meyer with the same half-smile, posture still just as rigid before. “It’s good practice to have a plan, Meyer. It eliminates the chance for mistakes. It lights up the dark.”

She turned to Alex and Sadie.

“Next is character discussion. You can do this alone or with a partner. Since you two will be rooming together for the entirety of the experiment, it may wise to partner up. Once you decide, your caseworker will lead you to a room and ask questions regarding your personal life. Understood?0

"Wait, what does that even mean?" Sadie asked, looking between the three of them. "What characters am I supposed to be discussing? Like...fandoms? Or...?"

"Your character, Sadie Lovett. Your flaws are found in your character. So, do you want to be partners, or do you want to be separated?"

Alex's eyes fleeted between the face of Emily and Sadie. Xe crossed their arms, further hunching into themselves. "You decide, Sadie."

"I mean, yeah, sure, why not?" Sadie said to Alex, then looked back at Emily. "You're not making a whole lotta sense right now tho. Like... just ramble about stuff I don't like about myself? Instructions unclear."

"We'll ask questions; you'll answer."

She walked away, no warning. Alex lurched forward, turning to Meyer.

"Do we follow her or...?"

"Ohhhh I seeee," Sadie said, pieces finally clicking together. "Wait, how does it work for us to partner up, if only one caseworker is going to be asking the questions?"

She looked between Meyer and Alex.

"... and can you be the one who does it?" she asked quietly.

"Hah!" Meyer turned back towards Emily with a grin.

"We do it together, Meyer. Rules are rules. One caseworker for each subject. We alternate."

She kept going, seeming not to care if she left the others behind.

"We should probably go if we don't want her to get upset with us."

Meyer rolled his eyes and sighed, but started after Emily and gestured for the others to follow him. "She's right. We're sticking together for this one. Two times the fun, amirite?"

Alex shuffled along, their posture still absolutely atrocious.

"So, Meyer, just how personal are these questions?"

"Uh, pretty personal," Meyer answered, glancing over his shoulder at them. "I don't remember them, but they seem pretty invasive, not gonna lie. We can't make you perfect if we don't know how you're messed up, y'know?"

Alex nodded as they reached Emily. She stood by a door, which she promptly opened and entered. It had almost slammed shut before Alex had caught it. They held it open.

"After you two, I guess."

"Thanks!" Meyer clapped Sadie on the shoulder. "Ladies first."

Before Sadie could move, Meyer strutted through the door first.

She snorted but grinned and followed him through the door, giving Alex a nod of appreciation. Sadie glanced around the new room, starting to think she didn't like this after all. The more she thought about this, the sketchier it was.

She'd shown up at a random place to meet random people because of a random letter that'd randomly been on her car. And one of them was chaos incarnate; and the other looked like she'd never even heard the word 'fun' much less ever experienced it in her life.

The room was completely bare save for one table with four folding chairs. Emily occupied on, leaving one beside her and two across her. The walls and floors were a shiny linoleum, almost blinding in the fluorescent light.

Alex finally entered, closing the door gently behind xem. They had creeping doubts too. Was Emily even human? What had Meyer meant "if they survive"? The more they considered what was going on, the more they wanted to bolt. But there wasn't anything to go back to. They were a week away from homelessness with no job and very few prospects of getting one soon. So, xe steeled their nerves and sat in the chair across from Emily, forcibly swallowing any doubts they had.