( * You are in first person as Paul! Thoughts are kept simple due to your WIPED MEMORY* )
"Paul! Paul!"
Blurs were swirling your eyes, as if you're was in a cloud.
You woke up in a room. An empty room. Blank walls as white as a sheet of paper. You looked down at your hands.
Just a dream...
His thought was interrupted when something tickled the top of of your head. Darn. Forgot what I was thinking. You look to your left side to see a figure staring at you. A closer look and you notice it's a weird type of reflective wall. You walk up and examine yourself in the 'Mirror in the wall' and see no changes. At least if I remember correctly... I've always had my ears at the top of my head always tall and dignified, and every person has a tail, so why do I feel weird?
Another second, and a door is opened, on the far side of the reflective wall, and a few people come through, closing the door behind them. The people look weird, tail-less, and their small, round ears on the side of their heads. They look at me. They look cold-hearted. I don't know why. My tail gives a flick behind me. I don't like these people. They are different. I don't know what to call them. What am I?
"Come, Paul."
My ears flick towards the sound and I jump, tail swishing back and forth.
"Subject's hearing is sharp. Fear of sudden noise."
One of the people unexpectedly says. I don't understand it. It must be talking to his no-tail friends. One walks up to me and grabs my hand. I don't want to touch it. I pull my hand away. It just looks at me and says another weird no-tail sentence. I don't really know why, but I follow it. It goes into the middle of the room with its other no-tail friends. It looks at the others, then me, and they sit down. Do they want me to sit? I look behind myself, nervous. My tail agrees. My tail simply flicks to the side, and then tonthe other side. I decide its feelings. It feels confused, like me. Finally, my legs get tired, so I go over to the no-tail people and sit. They have flat pieces of something flat out, and weird things on their muzzle. Blue muzzles..? I nervously flick my ear. They all stare at me. I don't like it. Am I sitting the wrong way? I wrap my tail around to the front so I can feel the tassel on the back of my hand. What do they expect me to do..?
"The subject is idle. Hey," one of the no-tails says, turning to one of its friends. "when will he talk..?"
Talk? I don't talk. I don't remember talking. I imitate one of the sounds the no-tail did.
"Hay." I look at it, hoping for a response.
It stares at me back. Does it want more?
"Paul?" I say, a little bit louder. Does it hear me?
It does a movement and it takes the blue muzzle off.
"Your name is Paul."
"Name?" I don't own a name. What is a name?
He points a finger at me, gently, not right up in my face, and says "You."
I guess it's more repeating games. "You?" I point to my chest.
It is pleased. It turns to his friends and looks back at me. " You Paul. You are Paul."
It is crazy. I am not a Paul. I am me. I am nothing else.
I get up and walk back to the reflective wall. I like this wall. I stare at the wall, and the reflection stares back. The reflection is my friend. It looks like it will understand my native language. I sit and face the reflection and I talk to it. It says the exact things back. I don't mind.
The no-tails are playing with their flat objects. I hear it. I hear them talking. I can only hear small fragments of what they are saying.
"He ... braying. Is ... natural? ...feel bad ... him. He ... does 't remember." Their comminucation is weird.
I stop talking and look at them. They are lost. With their crazy words. I should teach them how to talk. As I get up, I see another no-tail, rolling a machine in. It pushes the machine to the no-taisl already in the room. What is that..? I walk towards the machine, but they keep pushing me away from it. I don't want to see it anyway. I go to the center and sit down. They keep talking their crazy words. They stop talking and look at me. One of them gets up and pushes a button on the machine and just stands by it. It just stares. For a long time, the no-tails look at me for a long time, and I stare back. One comes leans me and unexpectedly flicks my ear. I don't mind. He goes around and behind me and lifts up the base of my tail for no good reason! I turn and tell him to stop messing with my tail. They all get up and go to the machine and one pushes a button. The machine yells.
"Stop messing with my tail."
"I didn't think the machine could actually translate that. He brays like he's been born a donkey." One of them says.
.
They always speak nonsense. One comes back to try and talk. He speaks nonsense. I don't like it. He sticks a fuzzy clip to the edge of the fake fur-coat I am wearing. They all wear the fake-fur coats. It tries to talk to me again, and I say softly that I don't understand him and I never will. I don't know where I am and you lack tails. Why?
The machine plays my speech back. Every word. I don't like the machine. And then it plays my speech into the gibberish the no-tails speak.
The no-tails pound something onto the machine and it starts speaking MY language! Do you want to know why? it says. I open my mouth to talk, and suddenly a no-tail comes around behind me again. I get up and turn towards it. I don't like when any no-tail touches me. I turn towards the machine and say yes and the no-tails pound the machine again. The one interested in messing with my tail isn't really helping the machine. It must have a different job I guess. The machine starts a list. One, I was genetically modified to where I don't have hooves or any major bone structure changes, and two, I have the sort-of mind of a young person.Three, I was modified to be younger as well..? I don't get it, but at least something is explained. Sastisfied, I go into one of the corners and sit up against the wall. They could really use softer things in here. Do they live like this? I find it hard to sleep. I take off the fake fur that has been on me for a while and put it on the floor to sleep on. I lay down on the fake fur and notice something wrapped around my wrist. " Paul .... Age: 11... Keep in confinement.... keep close eye on..... GPS tracked"
Weird, but I'll find out about this when I wake up. I wrap my tail around me, and drift to sleep.