Emma Davis's Questionnaire

The smooth sound of the 20 something year old student’s synthetic shoes against the plastic-like metal flooring of the residence halls and the electric hum of the overhead lights are the only sounds here. They have been diligently hunting down a whole burrow of rabbit holes and cryptic clues that their mentor has layed out for them over the past month. Finally they arrive at room 6822, this is it.

with a sharp inhale they knock twice with their knuckle, wait a second then bang the palm of their hand against the door. There’s silence… then there’s more gut wrenching silence, did they go this far just to fail at the last clue? They rifle through the pockets of their spotless labcoat; a sign of a compulsive cleaner, or a amuture to the art of science. A tiny glint of green light reflects through the peephole but they don’t notice as they dig through their pockets.The student retrieves a small notebook containing borderline undeciferable scribbles. They mumble something to themselves as a bead of sweat trickles down the side of their face; Oh, what’s this? They’re scared, fear of failure perhaps? Maybe social anxiety for the impending conversation… GOOD… good… I’ve kept them waiting long enough, I’ll let them in now.

an unassuming woman cracks the door a little, the room is dark, something is producing a little light behind her but it’s impossible to tell what the source is given the angle of the door. An emerald green eye squints at the hallways lights before glaring at the student. In shock the student nearly drops their notebook, barely maintaining enough composure to ask “A-Are you…?” The silence radiating off of the woman says all she needs. “R-right.” The student stands at attention as if they were in the military and presents their fresh neck tattoo depicting 3 shards. Hm… they put the tattoo higher than was technically necessary. Not the smartest, but loyal and that’s all I need. Their palms are sweating and their eyes are trying to glean as much information about me as possible. They aren’t scared of failure, they are scared of ME… what a terribly fortunate thing…

The door closes before the sounds of chains and locks clattering loose emanates from behind the door, after a few seconds the door swings open and Emma stands there, silently gesturing for the student to come inside of her  residence. The unknown light source reveals itself to be a test tube of bioluminescence, doubling as a work lamp… despite a fully functional electric lamp standing dormant next to it. Vials and coolers litter the dark rooms, illuminated periodically by blue screens, muted holograms, or the occasional bioluminescent lamp. The students observations are cut short when the door slams shut behind them which forces a nervous gulp down their throat.

The room was cold from all the refrigeration units haphazardly plugged into the outlets throughout the habitat. Emma has pulled up a chair across from the student’s with a devious look in her eye. She places an empty tea cup infront of them without saying a word. The silence in the room was deafening. Finally she spoke. ”Care for some tea?” She reaches for a vial standing on a cluttered container. “Um… sure- I mean yes please.” Emma pops the lid of the vial and pours half of the contents into her cup. She takes a deep breath in, taking in the intoxicating scent of the thick tension. Like a painter working on their masterpiece she reveled in the control she had. Slowly she began to pour the yellowish liquid into the students cup. The moment it left the vial the liquid began to steam as if it was just boiling. She brings the vial back and puts it to the side, before turning back to the student. Her hands gently cup around her porcelain, letting her left hand tap on it impatiently. ”You’ve proved yourself resourceful up to this point.” The majority of her form is masked by the darkness. She only lets the bottom of her face and eyes be illuminated by the canister of glowing liquid sitting on the table. If this were a date perhaps it would symbolize a romantic candle. “Thank you.” The student nods and subconsciously mimics her body language. “I have so many questions.” They stare down at the Tea, was it tea? It smells like tea. It looks like tea. But something deep down tells them it’s not tea. They look up from their cup and breathe in before taking a sip; mmm, Chamomile "You've mentioned your job before, but you never said what it is you actually do." A devilish smile creeps across her face, flashing sharp ivory pillars at her victim. That's right, down the rabbit hole you go. "By trade, I'm a biochemist, specializing in neurochemistry." She taps her fingers rhythmically on the cup, nails making a mind-wrenching clicking. "Did you know there are over 60 documented neurotransmitters in the human brain? Just one chemical can cause excitotoxicity by stimulating those transmitters to spread like a disease..." Her eyes admire the drink in front of her before suddenly shooting up to meet the student's, staring right through their skittish eyes to their brain. "...untraceable." She says bluntly "They can also be altered more tactfully too. Like Norepinephrine, say someone ingested a carefully modified dosage of a certain chemical that blocks those receptors? Well, that person would experience an elevated heart rate..." The student's heart pounded in their chest, should they throw up? have they been poisoned? It was a mistake to come here. "Muscle tremors..." They slam their hands on the table and shoot up right "Enough!" as if on que, their legs tremor and abruptly give out, causing them to fall onto their back. "An uncontrollable release of adrenaline..." The woman is completely serene, slowly standing up with their tea cups still in their hands. The student scrambles backwards, fully in flight mode. The only thing that prevents their escape is the blasted wall behind them. "In short... they would experience fear." She takes a long slow sip of her tea, clicking her tongue and smiling. "Delicious isn't it? Don't worry, I didn't put anything like that into your cup, Only a sedative, which should kick in about..." The student goes to scream but nothing comes out. They try to move their arms but they don't respond. With heavy eyes they stare up at Emma who sports her iconic grin while crouching over them. "...Now."

Beep... Click crack pop... Beep... An intense wave of vertigo strikes them before they even gather enough strength to open their eyes. Their arms and legs are... wait... they cant feel or move anything below their neck. Beep beep... slowly they force their eyes open - to more darkness, great. Beep beep... Is that a heartrate monitor? where am I? They turn their head and they feel the muted sensation of a mass rolling over them in waves, its only till they hear the clinking of ice that they put it together, they are in a bathtub full of ice water. "Took you long enough sleepy head. I told you to come here with a full stomach, clearly you didn't." The familiar voice of Emma echoes through whatever room they are in, She sounds playfully annoyed in stark contract to her previous demeanor. "If you are worried about me stealing your organs don't bother, I have synthetic organs for that. What I don't have is a live test subject for some new chemicals I've made. I don't plan on killing you either, if I did you would already be dead." She speaks so matter-of-factly she almost seems agreeable until they remember she drugged and kidnapped them. "Why are you doing this?" The student whines. "For science, truly the only good reason to do anything. They would never let me test these chemicals normally, but here? I can push the boundaries of science for the better. I want to understand the human brain, it has been a searing enigma that has burned its way into my mind. I want to know, chemically, how fear can be induced or removed. I want people to respect me, to fear me, I want to have power..." She catches herself rambling and clears her throat. "Hold still, this first one should help you relax." there's the sound of the syringe's plunger dropping and a few minutes of nothing. Suddenly their veins feel warm, a pounding jungle drum rocks their body, and their mind rolls back into itself. They feel their body float out of the tub, gravity having become non-existent. They feel like they're falling through layers of syrupy dreams while shooting up through tender sheets of bodily music. The blindfold on them melts off with a searing cold flash. the room they are in is a bathroom, they can see the outlines of the walls and the machines plugged in. Everything they see is coloured in ways that shouldn't be possible. they roll over and look down, tub below them is a brilliant sea of fire smeared across the night sky. there is a blast of heat all over their body, the walls must be made of wax because at this heat they begin to melt and smear together. Finally their eyes look towards Emma, she is not colored wildly. She wears the same labcoat and clothes, casually sitting on a violet chair sipping a bright pink-yellow energy drink while examining a tray of sparkling vials. Her face is an empty void with thousands of piercing emerald eyes.

Emma’s most defining event was her involvement in the cloning process of Jack. She prided herself on her work, which was to chemically mimic the targets brain processes. This brought her down a road of neurochemical fascination and lowered her moral standards for humane testing under the guise of science. She was removed from the project after she tried to justify subjecting the clones to mind altering drugs to permanently prevent the clones from realizing they weren’t the original. Her idea was swiftly shot down and her access to the project was revoked. She vowed to prove them all wrong, to distill the art of mind alteration into an exact science - with or without their approval.

Emma doesn’t have many people in her life. she finds that most human connections prevent her from achieving her goals so she isolated herself from most outside influences save for a handful of friends, family, or devotees.

The Student, they live in her apartment, mostly as a living test subject or someone to trauma dump to. She doesn’t care for their name or anything, but they are loyal to her… involuntarily once she altered their mind chemistry.

Jackie. One of Emma’s old coworkers at some of her previous jobs. They were the head genetic doctor for the coming research program, and the one who shot her down. One would think there is an err of resentment but in reality Emma respects Jackie’s reasoning as to why they shouldn’t do that, though wishes the other scientists didn’t automatically take their side.

lastly, her older sister, Penelope Davis. She lived on her own with a comfortable office job doing administrative tasks. She was always sweet to Emma, even when the rest of their family was full of dysfunction.