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Description
Doctor's Orders

We don't have hardly enough food or gas to make it in one go, so we go to Oscar's, who makes us an actual dinner and lets Missile Kid sleep in an actual bed. I stay up with him in the shop beneath his house, and we talk into the night.

"Ever since the Helium Wars, I've been suspicious of BL/ind. All those patrols and laws don't make any sense anymore. They think something's going to happen. I think the Killjoys are up to something." I scoff and look at my hands, folded on the counter of the service desk. "You've got a beef with the Fabulous Killjoys?" Oscar asks.

"No, I've just lost great faith in them. Used to be, I'd do anything to be one of them, but now…let's just say they're not as 'fabulous' as you'd think." I say the last sentence more to myself.

"Never, EVER lose faith in somebody. The moment you do is the moment you lose faith in yourself." I look up at him.

"My mom used to say that to me." I say.

"Then your mother is very wise." He gives me a wink and a smile.

"Yeah, that she was…that she was." It's quiet for a moment, and suddenly I see a familiar face in the window: Bex. She waves at me and motions for me to come outside. "Uhhh…"

"Friend of yours?" I nod and Oscar lets me go see what Bex wants.

She has a bruise on her face, looks like from the barrel of a raygun by the burn marks. I don't ask her about it because she's already talking at a hundred miles an hour. "Gosh, I thought you were DEAD! What the hell happened to you?" she's surprisingly concerned for my wellbeing.

"Where's Joe?" I ask, not answering her. Why did she think I was DEAD? She shies away at the name.

"He's…around. You got a few minutes?" I nod and she takes me around a few corners, until she stops in front of this derelict building with a broken neon sign, dully advertising the name "CLR THUH". I can't make out the other letters.

"Where are we?" I ask. Bex scoffs.

"Haven't you been paying attention?" she pulls out a lockpick. I'm familiar with them. "We went down Memory Lane, took a left on Insanity, and wound up at a dead end for most of us—Clear Thought." I look up at the street sign on the corner: 'Insanity Road' had been scrawled over the regulation street signs. On the perpendicular sign, it said 'Memory Lane'. Doctor Death Defying HAD been giving directions!

"Why is it a dead end?" I ask.

"Because…" Bex kicks the door, lockpick shattered in her hands. Her hand is burnt where she was touching the door. "There's are no more keys left to this place."

A memory invades my mind: "Don't lose this. It's the only one left in the desert." Bex sees me staring off.

"What?" she asks. I pull the key from my jacket, and I take the chain off my neck. Bex's eyes latch onto the symbol on the key. "Where did you get that?"

Without a word, I stick the key in the battered lock. Obviously more people than Bex and myself had tried to break in. The key slides in easily, clicking in place. I look at Bex. She's not moving. Her eyes are wide. She nods at me to turn the key.

A couple things happen at once. First, I turn the key and the door unlocks. Then, a second later, the neon lights turn on. The door whirs mechanically and Bex grabs the handle of her sword. A panel on the door opens up, and a screen with green letters blinks "Enter: 1".

"Enter: one?" I ask. Bex is still. I turn the handle.

"Wait. You don't know what's in there." She holds a burned hand in front of me, a reminder of her failure.

"Obviously neither do you." I counter, pushing her hand away. I turn the handle and push the door in. The opening is swallowed in blackness. Not even the dim yellow streetlights bleed in. Bex takes a step back.

"This is too weird…" she says, before turning tail and running down the street. I ignore her and step on the almost-invisible doormat. Something else whirs. I reach in, grabbing blindly for the key. Nothing reaches out and gets me. I pull it out of the lock and put the chain back on my neck.

And I walk in.

Everything is black. No outlines, nothing. The door swings shut behind me, and I jump. There was no breeze. No invisible hand (as far as I knew). I hear my own heartbeat and my shuddering breaths, but otherwise everything is quiet. Everything is black. I hold my hands out to the sides, and my fingers brush a wall. I grab onto it, and feel my way backwards until I find a panel. I flick on the first switch and the hall is illuminated. I see what I'm doing at last and I flick on more lights, until doors and arches and a flight of stairs are visible. I walk around.

It's a generic house in the Zones: parlor, living room, kitchen, dining room, kitchen, bathroom downstairs, and three rooms, two bathrooms upstairs. I wash myself off and explore.

The kitchen has a self-tending greenhouse, and an innumerable supply of cans. My brain supplies a word: jackpot. I leave my bag in the hall and check out the parlor. It has a computer in the corner. I haven't seen one since I lived in the Southern Quarter. I sit down at it. Dead. "Of course." I whisper.

"Hello." A voice says from behind me.

I whip around with my raygun, pointing it at the hologram in the room. It looks exactly like Party Poison, but with black hair and a paler complexion. It's smiling, staring. I put the raygun away. "Who are you?" I ask.

"My name is Gerard Way. I am thirty-two years old, at the time I was extracted. This message was recorded November twenty-second, two thousand ten." I run my hand through the projection. Nothing but light particles and dust.

"Why am I here?"

"You possess one of five keys, and these keys are the only thing that opens the house. Yours identifies you as my future self, but the scans and body composition does not match you as my future self. I made a promise I would not look back on this life, so the key was obviously given to someone I trust." The blank blind stare of it's eyes doesn't track my movements well as I walk around it, raising my hands up as far as I can, trying to find the origin of the projection. "In essence, I am the part of myself left behind. I only know the things up until November twenty-second, two thousand ten." I do a quick calculation in my head: it's been nine years.

"So why are YOU here?" I ask, sitting on one of the parlor couches.

"This is the Dollhouse. It's constant, clean, and virtually indestructible. I am the Housekeeper. I control all computerized aspects, as well as the physical. I keep the plants alive, water clean, electricity preserved. In case of a power failure outside, there's a private generator in the basement."

"So you're a prisoner." I cross my legs. It feels proper.

"I have no desires, therefore no concept of freedom. Should my future self choose to take this life and these memories back, it's available to him. But I only come out when needed." It trails off, and I notice the wedding ring on his hand.

"You're married?"

"Her name is Lindsey. We have a daughter, Bandit. My calculations tell me she should be ten now." It's smiling again.

I'm quiet. Party Poison had never spoken of a daughter, let alone a WIFE. I hadn't seen a ring on his hand.

"So Party—your future self doesn't know what you know?"

"The memories I possess are idle in his mind. I can only assume it was for his own good. I don't know what he was thinking. Maybe this past life can be used against him in this future life?" Against the Killjoys…?

I have no ill will for the Fabulous Killjoys of the Battery City Zones, but I do believe in blackmail.

"So you," I motion to the hologram of "Gerard Way". "Are a projection of all of Party—Gerard's memories?" the hologram smiles and nods. It's a pretty updated and…clean…system, for lack of a better word.

"All of the responses are predetermined by your mood, context, and the security level of the answers." It recites.

"You have a brother…" I say, heart pounding in my chest.

"Mikey? Yeah, he's my little brother." Mikey Mikey Mikey Mikey Mikey. Bouncing around my head. I shouldn't be asking this…

"There are two more…" I say before I can shut my mouth. I want to leave. I get up.

"Ray and Frank. We're in this band, My Che—"

"Okay stop." I say. It ceases speaking. "L-Let me out."

"The door is unlocked." The hologram says, all smiles. I gather all my things with shaking hands. The hologram—Gerard—is staring at me. I swing my backpack over my shoulder and run down the hall. Before I close the door on my way out, I whisper that I'll be back.

Description
Doctor's Orders

We don't have hardly enough food or gas to make it in one go, so we go to Oscar's, who makes us an actual dinner and lets Missile Kid sleep in an actual bed. I stay up with him in the shop beneath his house, and we talk into the night.

"Ever since the Helium Wars, I've been suspicious of BL/ind. All those patrols and laws don't make any sense anymore. They think something's going to happen. I think the Killjoys are up to something." I scoff and look at my hands, folded on the counter of the service desk. "You've got a beef with the Fabulous Killjoys?" Oscar asks.

"No, I've just lost great faith in them. Used to be, I'd do anything to be one of them, but now…let's just say they're not as 'fabulous' as you'd think." I say the last sentence more to myself.

"Never, EVER lose faith in somebody. The moment you do is the moment you lose faith in yourself." I look up at him.

"My mom used to say that to me." I say.

"Then your mother is very wise." He gives me a wink and a smile.

"Yeah, that she was…that she was." It's quiet for a moment, and suddenly I see a familiar face in the window: Bex. She waves at me and motions for me to come outside. "Uhhh…"

"Friend of yours?" I nod and Oscar lets me go see what Bex wants.

She has a bruise on her face, looks like from the barrel of a raygun by the burn marks. I don't ask her about it because she's already talking at a hundred miles an hour. "Gosh, I thought you were DEAD! What the hell happened to you?" she's surprisingly concerned for my wellbeing.

"Where's Joe?" I ask, not answering her. Why did she think I was DEAD? She shies away at the name.

"He's…around. You got a few minutes?" I nod and she takes me around a few corners, until she stops in front of this derelict building with a broken neon sign, dully advertising the name "CLR THUH". I can't make out the other letters.

"Where are we?" I ask. Bex scoffs.

"Haven't you been paying attention?" she pulls out a lockpick. I'm familiar with them. "We went down Memory Lane, took a left on Insanity, and wound up at a dead end for most of us—Clear Thought." I look up at the street sign on the corner: 'Insanity Road' had been scrawled over the regulation street signs. On the perpendicular sign, it said 'Memory Lane'. Doctor Death Defying HAD been giving directions!

"Why is it a dead end?" I ask.

"Because…" Bex kicks the door, lockpick shattered in her hands. Her hand is burnt where she was touching the door. "There's are no more keys left to this place."

A memory invades my mind: "Don't lose this. It's the only one left in the desert." Bex sees me staring off.

"What?" she asks. I pull the key from my jacket, and I take the chain off my neck. Bex's eyes latch onto the symbol on the key. "Where did you get that?"

Without a word, I stick the key in the battered lock. Obviously more people than Bex and myself had tried to break in. The key slides in easily, clicking in place. I look at Bex. She's not moving. Her eyes are wide. She nods at me to turn the key.

A couple things happen at once. First, I turn the key and the door unlocks. Then, a second later, the neon lights turn on. The door whirs mechanically and Bex grabs the handle of her sword. A panel on the door opens up, and a screen with green letters blinks "Enter: 1".

"Enter: one?" I ask. Bex is still. I turn the handle.

"Wait. You don't know what's in there." She holds a burned hand in front of me, a reminder of her failure.

"Obviously neither do you." I counter, pushing her hand away. I turn the handle and push the door in. The opening is swallowed in blackness. Not even the dim yellow streetlights bleed in. Bex takes a step back.

"This is too weird…" she says, before turning tail and running down the street. I ignore her and step on the almost-invisible doormat. Something else whirs. I reach in, grabbing blindly for the key. Nothing reaches out and gets me. I pull it out of the lock and put the chain back on my neck.

And I walk in.

Everything is black. No outlines, nothing. The door swings shut behind me, and I jump. There was no breeze. No invisible hand (as far as I knew). I hear my own heartbeat and my shuddering breaths, but otherwise everything is quiet. Everything is black. I hold my hands out to the sides, and my fingers brush a wall. I grab onto it, and feel my way backwards until I find a panel. I flick on the first switch and the hall is illuminated. I see what I'm doing at last and I flick on more lights, until doors and arches and a flight of stairs are visible. I walk around.

It's a generic house in the Zones: parlor, living room, kitchen, dining room, kitchen, bathroom downstairs, and three rooms, two bathrooms upstairs. I wash myself off and explore.

The kitchen has a self-tending greenhouse, and an innumerable supply of cans. My brain supplies a word: jackpot. I leave my bag in the hall and check out the parlor. It has a computer in the corner. I haven't seen one since I lived in the Southern Quarter. I sit down at it. Dead. "Of course." I whisper.

"Hello." A voice says from behind me.

I whip around with my raygun, pointing it at the hologram in the room. It looks exactly like Party Poison, but with black hair and a paler complexion. It's smiling, staring. I put the raygun away. "Who are you?" I ask.

"My name is Gerard Way. I am thirty-two years old, at the time I was extracted. This message was recorded November twenty-second, two thousand ten." I run my hand through the projection. Nothing but light particles and dust.

"Why am I here?"

"You possess one of five keys, and these keys are the only thing that opens the house. Yours identifies you as my future self, but the scans and body composition does not match you as my future self. I made a promise I would not look back on this life, so the key was obviously given to someone I trust." The blank blind stare of it's eyes doesn't track my movements well as I walk around it, raising my hands up as far as I can, trying to find the origin of the projection. "In essence, I am the part of myself left behind. I only know the things up until November twenty-second, two thousand ten." I do a quick calculation in my head: it's been nine years.

"So why are YOU here?" I ask, sitting on one of the parlor couches.

"This is the Dollhouse. It's constant, clean, and virtually indestructible. I am the Housekeeper. I control all computerized aspects, as well as the physical. I keep the plants alive, water clean, electricity preserved. In case of a power failure outside, there's a private generator in the basement."

"So you're a prisoner." I cross my legs. It feels proper.

"I have no desires, therefore no concept of freedom. Should my future self choose to take this life and these memories back, it's available to him. But I only come out when needed." It trails off, and I notice the wedding ring on his hand.

"You're married?"

"Her name is Lindsey. We have a daughter, Bandit. My calculations tell me she should be ten now." It's smiling again.

I'm quiet. Party Poison had never spoken of a daughter, let alone a WIFE. I hadn't seen a ring on his hand.

"So Party—your future self doesn't know what you know?"

"The memories I possess are idle in his mind. I can only assume it was for his own good. I don't know what he was thinking. Maybe this past life can be used against him in this future life?" Against the Killjoys…?

I have no ill will for the Fabulous Killjoys of the Battery City Zones, but I do believe in blackmail.

"So you," I motion to the hologram of "Gerard Way". "Are a projection of all of Party—Gerard's memories?" the hologram smiles and nods. It's a pretty updated and…clean…system, for lack of a better word.

"All of the responses are predetermined by your mood, context, and the security level of the answers." It recites.

"You have a brother…" I say, heart pounding in my chest.

"Mikey? Yeah, he's my little brother." Mikey Mikey Mikey Mikey Mikey. Bouncing around my head. I shouldn't be asking this…

"There are two more…" I say before I can shut my mouth. I want to leave. I get up.

"Ray and Frank. We're in this band, My Che—"

"Okay stop." I say. It ceases speaking. "L-Let me out."

"The door is unlocked." The hologram says, all smiles. I gather all my things with shaking hands. The hologram—Gerard—is staring at me. I swing my backpack over my shoulder and run down the hall. Before I close the door on my way out, I whisper that I'll be back.