Hex & Swatch

## Lore bits #1

PLEASE STOP IT HURTS IT HURTS

LET ME GO

"It won't stop moving. You can't do anything while this shit is happening."

"*I know."*

SEARING WHITE HOT PAIN

PLEASE MAKE IT STOP

MAKE IT FUCKING STOP

╎ ∴ᔑリℸ ̣ ⎓∷ᒷᒷ↸𝙹ᒲ リ𝙹ℸ ̣ ╎リᓵ╎ᓭ╎𝙹リᓭ

~ • ~ • ~

Swatch's distress is like a thick cloud around them as they run their fingers through their wavy fur.

I don't know what the Bad People did to them.

~ • ~ • ~

Callie gave Swatch the brush they always use for their fur.

Callie was nice.

Callie isn't anymore though.

After all, Callie is dead.

## Lore bits #2

I had a very vivid dream last night.

Of Swatch.

Swatch was a fox-like creature running free in the woodlands.

Then Bad People came.

They destroyed everything and took Swatch.

All I could see was blood before I saw current Swatch, but with a tail.

Then the dream cut to me arriving.

Then back to Swatch.

They were screaming.

I heard a light thud and saw the Bad People leading Swatch out of the room.

It took me a minute to realize what I was seeing after they all left the room.

A pink and purple tail layed on the floor in a pool of blood.

It didn't feel like a dream, rather a memory.

It couldn't have been, though.

Swatch said they always just had fur.

Besides, the Bad People had no way of turning animals into people, right?

## Lore bits #3

Area: 2c-9825

Place: 205

Subjects: #090115-9825, #040f04-9825

Workers: [REDACTED], Tarhe [last name unregistered]

~

Danger Level (1-10): 3 (#090115-9825), 9 (#040f04-9825)

Sentience: true

Intelligence (1-10): 7.5 (#090115-9825), 9.5 (#040f04-9825)

~

Notes: do not aggravate #040f04-9825.

## Lore bits #4

"RESTRAIN IT."

Fighting, screaming

"I'M NOT GONNA HURT ANYBODY!!"

"Sure you won't"

The voice is dripping with sarcasm

Hands are dripping with blood

~ \* ~ \* ~

All files say "redacted"

Every mention of what happened is "The Incident"

All details are "classified"

We're "monsters"

## Lore bits #5

A clatter as a knife hits the ground

People scattering

Blood all over the floor

People screaming

Bad People cleaning up the mess

People shaking and sobbing

Pink fur soaked red

~ • ~ • ~

∴⍑𝙹 ꖌ╎ꖎꖎᒷ↸ ⍑ᒷ∷

~ • ~ • ~

Ripped apart at my feet, she stays there. She doesn't move. Her hand is in my hand.

The rest of her is scattered around the floor.

## Lore bits #6

Her small fingers worked through the stack of files fairly quickly. She laughed quietly to herself. Oh how she hated her job. As if on cue, her metallic nameplate badge fell off and landed with an inconveniently loud clatter. Somewhere around 40 eyes turned to her as she scrambled to pick it back up. Everyone else in the room went back to their work. They had better things to do.

She held the nameplate for a little while, rubbing it and staring at the writing on it.

*"C. Polaria."*

She tiredly shook her head to herself and reattached the badge to her coat. She went back to her files, humming a tuneless song. The only thing about her job that she actually liked was the two kids she worked with a lot.

#090115-9825 and #040f04-9825.

~ • ~ • ~

TW: blood and gore descriptions. this should probably be classified.

Cold steel pressed against her throat. She tried to scream, but the steel only rotated and sank into her neck, cutting her off.

It didn't go far enough to be life-threatening.

That would be too easy.

The next thing she knew she was being dropped on the floor. The "C. Polaria" nameplate fell and spun away across the floor.

It was coated in red.

Searing pain shot through her arm as cold, cold steel went into the skin of her shoulder.

Back and forth, back and forth it went.

The tormentor seemed to get bored. They went to just plain stabbing. In and out. In and out.

The stabs synced with her breathing in some twisted irony.

Ripping and tearing, it was all over before she could feel much more pain.

All that was left was parts scattered around; arms, legs, torn, bloody organs littered around the cold, cold tile flooring.

The head lay cracked open and covered in thick, red blood, the brain taken cleanly out.

That brain was never found.

## Lore bits #7

There’s a new one.

The Bad People call her #130c1c-9825.

Her name is Tangerine.

She is smaller, younger, than Swatch and I.

Swatch isn’t in our place anymore.

The Bad People took them away after what happened to Callie.

~ • ~ • ~

I found a little pin in the mess of blood.

It says “C. Polaria.”

Tangerine cries whenever she sees it.

~ • ~ • ~

The sign on our place used to say “#090115-9825, #040f04-9825.”

Now it says “#090115-9825, #130c1c-9825.”

~ • ~ • ~

The Bad People took away Swatch after they found Callie, saying they were “too dangerous.”

They sobbed and fought the Bad People and tried to get back to our place, to our safety.

I overheard the Bad People talking about how “one of the subjects in 9825 killed a staff member.”

I don’t know what they did to Swatch.

But now there’s another worker at our place. This one isn’t as nice as Callie.

She hurts us.

I want her to stop hurting us.

I want Swatch back.

I want safety back.

╎ ∴ᔑリℸ ̣ ᒲ|| ⎓∷ᒷᒷ↸𝙹ᒲ ʖᔑᓵꖌ

## Lore bits #8

Different POV, eh?

This is strange.

You hear my thoughts…

They’re all looking at me weird.

I didn’t do anything wrong.

I was as scared when Callie died as anyone.

~ • ~ • ~

Footsteps echoed in the hallway as the new worker came towards the bloodstained place in 9825. The two subjects inside shrank back. The door swung open and the subjects darted to the far corner of the place. The worker scoffed. As if that would help them.

The older subject hesitantly approached, their hands shaking as they attempted a wave. The worker glared at the subject and the subject retreated.

“Well don’t leave, just enough with the whole ‘oh hi nice to meet you for the hundredth time’ crap.”

The subject came back, the smaller one clinging to their side.

The worker grabbed hold of the subject’s hand, dragging them down the hallway to the room they were dreading going to. The worker shoved aside the smaller subject, leaving her on the cold, hard floor.

~ • ~ • ~

I don’t know where I am.

It’s dark.

I need to get back to Hex.

They need me.

I don’t know who replaced me, but they’re probably young.

I’ve seen the Bad People bring in a lot of kids lately.

I don’t know where I am.

~ • ~ • ~

The afterlife isn’t as pretty as most people think.

## Lore bits #9

Tangerine shivers on the floor.

The scrapes all over her body spills out blood.

~ • ~ • ~

I hold the little “C. Polaria” nameplate in my hand.

I turn it over and over, not sure of what to do with it.

I’m honestly not fully sure of where it came from.

Maybe it has some information or evidence for something.

I don’t see anything on the front except the name and some scratches and a reddish smudge that won’t come off.

On the back, though, is something interesting.

In small letters, “KOI” is written.

A fish symbol is displayed above it.

I hadn’t noticed that before.

~ • ~ • ~

A dark figure strolls down a walled off hallway, whistling an eerie tune.

They smile as they study a large jar in their hands.

Their one eye is squinted in an unnatural way. The other is just an X.

They turn the doorknob on a door with a board over the window and walk inside.

They set down the jar on the table and turn on a hanging light.

They take the object out of the jar and set it down on the table.

Blood covers their hands and the table and the jar.

They smile and laugh quietly to themself.

They had gotten their revenge.

And vengeance was sweet.

~ • ~ • ~

Tangerine stands up.

She wipes her bloodied hands on her jeans.

She wasn’t going to let herself die.

Not again.

## Fun facts!

* Callie was around 30 when she died
* Callie was left-handed, Hex is ambidextrous, and Swatch amd Tangerine are right-handed
* Tangerine is 6 years old.
* KOI stands for “kind of illegal” and is a branch of Rocket!Corp
* the dark figure is also a character in cope
* Tahre is an anagram. It’s ironic though because while he hasn't shown up yet, he’s the opposite of what his (unscrambled) name suggests.
* Swatch was originally going to be all kinds of colors like Hex
* there was originally going to be Hex and Code (hex code), but i decided Swatch worked better
* Swatch's fur is about 2-3 inches long
* Swatch has watched every Spy Kids movie
* Hex has pyrophobia. unfortunately, Swatch is a pyromaniac.

## Lore bits #10

We’re on a fault line.

Interesting.

I wonder if it’ll cause a collapse.

~ • ~ • ~

His heart pounded as he sat in the empty room.

His interviewer stepped in quietly.

He stood up.

His interviewer smiled.

“Welcome.. What was your name again?”

“Tahre,” he says quietly.

“I’ve been associated with this.. company for a long time as my family members have worked here for as long as I can remember.”

The interviewer stares at Tahre for a second before approaching him with a metallic goldish nameplate pin and sticking it onto Tahre’s jacket.

It just said “Tahre” on it, as expected.

“You’re going to be in 9825,” the interviewer explains.

## Lore bits #11

I’ve been through this before, why does it still hurt so much

I feel like I'm dying

The pain is so much

Too much

Another square patch of gray is gone

A colored square comes into view

I struggle against the straps on the chair

The colored patch is stitched into place

Please make it stop

~ • ~ • ~

Tangerine breathes deeply, in and out. Her bloody shoes leave red prints behind her.

A chillingly familiar voice sounds behind her.

“Hello, kitten.”

Tangerine stops in her tracks.

“He-ello?” she says.

“Well, you did good last time, didn’t you, kitten? Got to about…. 30, was it?”

Tangerine doesn’t answer.

“You only have 2 tries left, kitten.”

Tangerine still stays silent.

She knows that’s the truth.

She can’t let it be wasted.

Not this time.

~ • ~ • ~

I’m still adjusting to you being able to hear my thoughts, if I’m being honest.

I’ve found that this place is bigger than I thought.

There’s a lot of room to walk around in the dark.

I can’t find any sort of means to an escape, though.

And I’m starving down here.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll last.

## Lore bits #12

I slink around the facility, avoiding any humans I see. I have to find out what the Bad People did to Swatch. Swatch is my sibling. I have to be there for them and save them.

I duck behind a crate for a second as I hear footsteps sound nearby and voices talking about things going missing in 9825.

When I’m sure the Bad People are gone, I start rummaging through the crate for anything valuable.

I leave the experience with a metal pole.

After that, I walk around with more confidence and more aggression. When I see the Bad People, I can knock them out easily. I'm not in the mood to kill today.

~ • ~ • ~

Iᒲ ⊣𝙹╎リ⊣ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ⎓⚍ᓵꖌ╎リ⊣ ᔑ⍊ᒷリ⊣ᒷ ᒲ||ᓭᒷꖎ⎓

リ𝙹 ᒲᔑℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ ᒷ∷ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ᓵ𝙹ᓭℸ ̣

ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ∷ᒷ'ꖎꖎ ʖᒷ ᓭ𝙹ᒲᒷ ʖꖎ𝙹𝙹↸ᓭ⍑ᒷ↸

I'm coming for the one.

╎ᒲ ᓵ𝙹ᒲ╎リ⊣ ⎓𝙹∷ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ 𝙹リᒷ ∴╎⍑ℸ ̣  ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ʖ∷ᔑ╎リ

~ • ~ • ~

I stare at the paper in my hand.

- Termination list

URGENT

  #040f04-9825

I have a bad feeling about this.