The middle circle the pedestals form around is normally empty, but when everyone was summoned to theirs, a large machine from above descended into the empty space, on it was an amalgamation of purple flesh, wires, eyes, speakers, and television screens. The screens lit up, a face, resembling a crow's beak in a V shape and 2 white dots as eyes above the beak. A speaker had started a tune, it was a speaker tune that would play on the mall speakers before a message was put through them, and after the tune a voice recording had played
"Good evening, subjects. As you can tell the ninth pedestal has been claimed, the full circle has been completed."
One of the 'subjects' speaks up, "What? New guy? Oh patchy over there? We can tell, we have eyes." Sucks to suck when you're new nickname is Patchy. Josephine was embarrassed when the attention was shifted to her, but now she has to deal with what comes next.
The speaker began talking to Josephine. "Dear subject, you have completed the circle of subjects on door 2,454. We can finally begin The Odyssey."
"Odyssey? What.. Odyssey? I'd like to ask a couple questions first, with the first being who are you?" she said.
"That is the only one of the many questions you might ask. I am Monitor, I work right under The Administrator, who runs The Mercy Place.
"And why won't you answer any questions?"
"Because he has advised me not to if I value my existence" Monitor said, "You should quit asking them if you value your sanity."
Monitor had let everyone go off, warning them that tomorrow this 'Odyssey' would begin. In the meantime Josephine got to meet some of the other people there, which she refuses to call subjects. She meets the man with the sailor hat first.
"Oh, hi there, It's been a while since we last had anyone come here." He said. "What is your name?"
"Uh, my name?" She asked, she figured that she must have forgotten it when her memories were erased
"Don't worry I'm just joking. No one remembers their names when they get here, so we just adopt new ones. So to reword my question, what do you want your name to be?
"I think what that guy over there called me is.. fine" She awkwardly said
"Patchy is a good name, considering your eye patch. I introduce myself now that you've gone. My name is Varelle. I've been here a long time, but this is the first time I've seen Door 2454 with nine people. Well, I don't really know what is in other doors, but I think it's better not to find out." he said
Now she knows, or at least thinks, that she knows where she is now. The question is, what is The Odyssey, and if someone is controlling this entire place, who is it?
"Hey, why does he refer to you guys as subjects? And is Monitor human? He sounds like a computer program" Josephine asked
"Oh he is real." Varelle says, "But some people here, might not be. I've seen what Monitor does, he's tried his hardest to replicate human life without using genetics. The scary part is, I think he found out how to do it"
"Woah okay, I don't wanna get into that sort of stuff right now, so I'll just.. head out, alright?"
Someone walks up behind Varelle
"Varelle's just delusional when it comes to anything here, Monitor hasn't created any non-bio humans." They say. Varelle gives them an annoyed look, before they introduce themselves
"Listen newbie, if there's anyone bold enough to lead this odyssey thing than it's me, Monitor's told us countless times that he's sick of babysitting us so he's probably gonna chuck us into this without leading us." He says
"Patchy, this is Codannet, we call him Coda" Varelle says. Varelle gets a little closer to Josephine before telling her something else, "He has a bit of a temper, so don't try do much to him, he might just kill you."
"Alright then, uh, I'll try to avoid him." Josephine tells him
"Avoid me? You just got here! You have the chance to be friends with anyone here, right?" From what Josephine can infer, he's also a bit of a jackass
"Let's just go. Your dorm, well, just for the night I guess, is down that hall. I'll show you where." Varelle said
Varelle took Josephine to her room. It had a nice bed, carpeted floors, and some lights over by a desk. "This is where you normally would have stayed every night, if you weren't the ninth person." Varelle said to her. She says goodnight to him, and she takes off her hat before getting in bed. At least nobody could tell she was exhausted out of her mind. She didn't know one person could confuse themselves into exhaustion.