First Day

I took a deep breath as I stepped out of my car, the cold autumn air hitting my face. This was my first big project job since becoming a genuine scientist and I needed a good first impression. Especially because I heard that my boss is rather strict... But none the less I'll work my hardest to get on his good side. I looked in the reflection of my car window and brushed my fingers through my blond hair. Files in hand, I walked into the white building. The floors were clean and shiny, and the walls were plain and white. It made me more nervous. I clutched the files as I opened a door with the key card I was sent and walked into an open room. There have been no windows thus far. There were tall, thin compartments sticking out from the wall as I walked to my new boss's office. I knocked on the doors and could hear a groan. The door clicked and I was greeted by a tall person. I was 5'4, so they felt incredibly tall.

"You're early." He said plainly. His tan skin and dark brown hair was different to my dark skin and blond hair. And for being a sanitary lab, he kept their shoulder-length hair free from hair bands.

"A-Ah! Sorry about that! I didn't see I was early!" They took the files from my hands.

"So you're Dr. Xavier then?" He asked. I nodded.

"Right. I'm Dr. Foster, as you should already know. I've been preparing my new project for years now, so you better be ready to start immediately." I nodded quickly.

"Of course! What is the project, sir?" I asked nervously. He picked up papers from their desk and handed them to me. I read through the papers swiftly, taking in all the details I could. It was an amazing concept.

"Making inanimate objects sentient? With some solution?" I asked, afraid I read it wrong.

"Exactly right, I've been working to make it for a while, and I believe everything's finally prepared." They said as I followed him to a room next to his office. There was a large metal table in the center, and what looked like a fridge. He opened the fridge and pulled out a tall tube of a light green liquid. The top and bottom of the glass tube were reinforced with metal.

"Open that drawer over there and pull out the tennis ball." He instructed. I pulled open the drawer next to the fridge and pulled out a plastic bag with a tennis ball inside.

"Wash it." They instructed again. I looked at the ball.

"Wash it?" I asked. He looked at me.

"Did I stutter?" He asked coldly. I shook my head quickly and went to the sink in the back of the lab and began washing the ball. I dried it with a towel and joined Dr. Foster at the metal table.

"Give me the ball." I placed it in their gloved hand and quickly put gloves on as well. He opened clips on the sides of the metal reinforcement, releasing pressure from within. I watched carefully as he placed the clean tennis ball in the liquid, and closed the lid again.

"This should do it for today. We let it set in the fridge and tomorrow it should have taken full effect." Dr. Foster explained calmly, putting the container in the fridge. I stood confused.

"What else should I do?" I asked nervously. They thought for a moment.

"Organize your office, it's next to mine, and make sure you read these files so you know what you'll be doing." They said grabbing more files and handing them to me. I quickly went to the empty office to organize. It had a small desk in the corner and a large shelf on the other side. The shelves had short baskets that I could roll out. It was already filled with many small bags of gross looking clumps. I couldn't tell what they were so I moved to my desk and began to read my files in the chair provided. This was... bigger than I thought. I have to raise all the objects, and teach them, and tend to their needs. And it seems those weird organic clumps on the shelves was their food. It also said they would have a small buzzer in their room.

I had a large grey panel above my desk on the wall. The papers said they could buzz it if they needed me and I'd hear their complaint or request through a corresponding speaker. And a small light would flash green when they pressed it. And if I needed to go to their room I could open a panel to see into their rooms. But there was also another handle to open one of the walls in case of an emergency. This was a lot to take in. What would he even be doing? It seemed like I had a lot of responsibility. I decided to take my files with me when I went back.

I still had an hour here so I decided to explore the lab. When I stepped out I could see 8 compartments, tall, but not very wide. Each has a small handle. These were the panels described in the files. I opened the panel and peeked inside. The walls were painted a pale blue. And the ground had extremely short fake grass. It looked like a nice diorama. But knowing living things would live here scared me. Especially if they're supposed to talk like humans would. I moved on to a small room. It was held off by a door so I entered. There were three rows of box-shaped compartments, all with rectangular doors without handles. I quickly flipped through my files and found what looked like what these boxes were. They were sleeping rooms. They were remote-controlled so the button on the wall inside the room would open them all. But the files also said Dr. Foster had a panel to open specific rooms individually. I pressed the button next to the door and all the small doors opened at once. I leaned down to look in one. It had the same short fake grass but the walls were a very dark blue, to represent the night sky and little white dots sparsely scattered around to look like stars. As I stood I read more about the rooms. Apparently, when the doors are closed it turns on small, dim lights inside the stars. Which is very cute I must admit, but it felt weird they were being locked in there. But it's probably for their safety. It seems cozy. I closed the doors with the button and left the room. Flipping to a new section in the files I could see something... off-putting.

The "punishment rooms".

According to the files it was to "teach any misbehaving subjects a lesson for rowdiness or misbehavior". They were short boxes on top of the normal rooms. On the side was a door. I used my keycard to open the door and peeked in. The walls were dark and it looked like there is no light. On one side was a pond of water and on the other was a part of a yoyle berry bush. The grass was purple to match the yoyle berry's origin location of Yoyle Land. The files say it locks and is always dark... seems evil. There's a latch where I can refill the pond. How long would he put someone there that I'd need to refill it? Weird. Looking at my watch it seemed I've almost run out of time.

"I'm going to head out then!" I said in Dr.Foster's doorway. They put up one finger to stop me and he stood to grab something for a drawer. He pulled out the white coat that made me internally squeal.

"Is this your size?" They asked handing it to me. I checked the tag.

"Yup! This'll fit!" I reassured him, tucking the folded coat under my arm.

"Alright, then Xavier, up and early tomorrow!" He said as I left his office.

"Will do!" I said leaving the office. The wind was colder when I left. On my drive home I could hear a vibration. I was getting a call from my best friend since high school. I put her on speaker as I kept driving.

"How did it go!?" Teressa yelled excitedly. I laughed.

"Went fine! I barely did anything and I'm off early!" I told them.

"So what's this thing you're gonna do? I know you said there was supposed to be one big thing you do." I sighed, looking over at the files on my passenger seat.

"I don't know if I'm allowed to tell you!" I said gaining a disappointed sigh.

"Shawn! That's so not fair! I tell you about my job all the time!" She whined.

"The difference is you work at an office for some company, I'm doing some big, slightly suspicious project." They groaned.

"You know if my job had some secret project I'd tell you everything about it!" She complained. I sighed.

"Fine fine. I'll tell you when I get home." I said.

"Yes! You better video call me though because I wanna see what you wore to work! Bye!" She hung up before I could respond. I sighed and kept driving in silence until I got home. I lived quite a nice life I'd say. A well-paid scientist gets a lot. I entered my small one-story house and took in the warmness that covered me as I walked in. I walked into my room and set down all my stuff, looking at my coat. It was white and pristine and had creases from its new folds. I'd have to iron it before tomorrow. I picked up my phone and dialed Teressa. She picked up before the third ring.

"Hey, Tere-"

"The outfit! Now!" They yelled cutting me off. I went to my bathroom and turned flipped my camera in the mirror.

"Oh! How simple, I thought you'd wear a suit? Aren't labs like super fancy?" She asked. I looked at my outfit as well. I was wearing a plain yellow t-shirt and black slacks with black dress shoes. It was quite plain.

"Oh wait! One sec," I yelled to the phone running out of the room. I unfolded the white coat and slipped it on. I ran back into the bathroom and showed her my coat. She squealed and clapped her hands rapidly.

"OH! It's so cool! Like a real scientist!" They yelled.

"Well, I... AM a real scientist Teressa." I said quietly. She laughed.

"I know! But it seems way more real with the coat!" They said excitedly. I laughed. I had a long workload ahead of me. I explained to them the limited basics of the project as to not spoil much. They was very impressed. I couldn't wait to do this project.

Which is what I thought until it was late at night and I was in bed. In the darkness, I felt like I was doing something wrong. Like the idea that these things we were making that could learn and talk felt weird. But it's not like torture on animals or anything. I'm just raising them. It's fine. It's fine.

My drive to work kept giving me a sinking feeling, but I tried to keep my cool as I entered the building and buzzed my key card. Dr. Foster stepped out of the lab.

"You're here, come in now I'm opening the vessel." I quickly set my files down and went into the lab area.

The container still contained the tennis ball... but it had limbs. And eyes. And a mouth. I couldn't believe my eyes!

"You'll have to clean this slime off it when I take it out and then help me put in the tracking chip." They said unclipping the metal lid. I watched as he pulled the small creature out. I was wearing gloves like him this time but they put the tennis ball in a towel. He handed it to me and I went to the sink and turned on the warm water. I used the towel they laid on and wiped the now clear goo off of it. It began to move and I almost jumped. It squirmed a little bit, it's little mouth scrunching up. It did not open its eyes. I dried it and it let out a small squeak. It was cute.

"Bring it here now, come on." Dr. Foster said so I brought the small thing over to the table.

"You'll use these surgical retractors to hold open his right eye and I'll insert this small chip under his eye." I blindly listened to him and used the small retractors to hold open the tennis ball's eye. It had tall black eyes with no definite sclera. It weakly moved its small legs. I only now noticed it's uneven arms. Dr. Foster had tweezers holding a small chip and a small flat metal tool. They used the flat metal to go in between the things eye and socket and moved it to pull its eye up. The tennis ball began to cry loudly and it shook me to my core.

It sounded like a real baby, a child.

But I couldn't move. So Foster pushed the tweezers in the gap he made and dropped the chip in. They pulled their tools out and I released the retractors out. The tennis ball still sobbed out loudly. Dr. Foster turned and grabbed a scalpel and walked back over to the small child.

"Damn arms came out wrong." They said under his breath. I looked at the crying baby.

"Wrong?" I asked. He pointed at the arms with his scalpel.

"From many of my failed experiments I've noted that fully developed arms have sphere shapes at the end of their thin limbs. It barely developed them so I'll cut off the false parts and mark it ineffective." He explained quickly before beginning to quickly slice off the balls small arm near their body. They cried louder, a scream of pain and upset. It hurt but I kept my composure.

"What is this about effective and ineffective?" I asked. They sliced off the other arm and used the towel to wrap him up and clean the blood.

"I'm making many of these creatures because many are bound to fail, so when they come out wrong I can have better ones. So I keep the failures for further testing and to see their interactions with the effective. " They said grabbing a role of thin red tape from a table along with scissors.

"So I mark them with red tape to distinguish them." He said cutting a small red rectangular strip of tape and pressing it on the side of the ball's face. They handed me the towel wrapped tennis ball.

"Take him to one of the compartments, his crying is infuriating." He commanded. I looked down at the small ball.

"Him? How do you know?" I feared more things if they had genitalia.

"From previous research, I learned you can tell by its teeth. So you should mark it down. As you'll read you'll need to keep tabs on all of the creatures." I nodded, having not actually read that part. I looked down at the ball as I walked. He cried loudly as I opened the small door to let him in. But I couldn't leave him crying. I left the door open and tried to soothe the little one. I pet him with a gloved hand until his tears calmed. He sat up and fell onto his back. I used my hand to pull him back up. I closed the door and ran to grab my files. Oh no! I should be teaching! Objects grow at a faster rate. A week after "birth" they'll already be fully developed. So today I can teach... talking. On my way back I had some horrid realization. No one's ever done this before. So how would Dr. Foster know how they are taught and how they grow. Unless there were others that... aren't here now. They've killed some, haven't they? That's horrible. Absolutely horrible. I leaned down to the door again. Tennis Ball turned towards me.

"Hi!" I said softly. He opened his mouth slowly.

"H-H" he started. I sneakily pulled out my phone and began recording. He stuttered.

"H-Hi!" He said in the smallest, high pitch little voice. I smiled happily.

"Hi!" I said again. He laughed.

"Hi!" He said back, smiling.

"Hi!" I said laughing back. Seeing his cute little face made me realize something. I didn't know what I was doing with a lot of things. But I knew one thing.

I will make sure I get anyone and everyone out of here someday.

NEW BOOK 🎉🎉

Here's the cover if the one it shows is stupid and gross looking (is it??)

I really like those "objects are made in a lab" stories

So I wanted one too

Fun right?

Well anyhow,

I have until May til I'm back to in person school so I should have tons of free time

New human designs!!!

Love them

:•)