We slowly walked past that room in the vents and we were soon in another room, unannounced to us that it was were the Lookers get turned. I thought that it was surgical, but it was just a room that's white and a TV there were two mirrors, and I think that they were one-way mirrors because then They could observe the transformation. The broadcast was... really depressing, with slow, sad music and a very bored-sounding man who was just saying a bunch of demeaning, demoralizing things while staring straight at the camera. The surprising part was that there weren't any restraints, just a sofa with refreshments next to it. I felt sorry for them, no us, the Lookers because that means that they sat through that whole program, by their own free will. We started walking again but Tommy stopped. He was watching the broadcast, sitting as still as a pond on a calm day... with a pack of hungry piranhas hiding just under the water.
His eyes started to well up as tears started streaming down his face. Despite all of the pain that he must be feeling he didn't look away. In fact, he was agreeing to everything that the guy on the screen was saying. "Why am I like this? Am I human? Yeah, I'm a Looker. I'm a Looker I'm a Looker." Tommy was saying, no emotion in his voice what-so-ever. "I-I know that I'm ugly. I'm ugly..." Tommy said, eyes still glued to the screen. "S-Snap out of it! You're handsome and you're a human being. You're not a Looker anymore!" I said, shaking Tommy. "Who are you?" Tommy said, looking at me with dead eyes. "I'm L-203478. Why are you shaking me? Also, where are we?" Tommy said, looking around at the intricate vents, lifeless as ever. "P-Please snap out of it! We need you! Don't give up on us, and on our promise!" I plead, hugging Tommy. At this rate, I was on the verge of tears. I was shaking, and then I felt Tommy hug me back. "I-I'm sorry, I just saw it and I couldn't stop watching," Tommy said, looking away.
"Let's go, before things get so out of hand that you are unsavable. Also, never watch that broadcast or even think about the terrible things it said again." Kimera said, starting to crawl again. "Why weren't you affected? You looked at the screen too right?" Tommy asked, looking at me and tilting his head to the left. "Well I saw it, but I just got angry so I stopped watching it," I said, starting to walk with Kimera again. "Wow, you are truly special," Tommy said.
I didn't know he was right until now.
Tommy and Kimera, and I were crawling through the vents for a long time until we saw a very bright light coming from a very strange vent. It wasn't strange because of the bright light, it was strange because it was... blue. This was the only thing in my travels at the time that was blue, and it was calming. It was like ocean waves on a calm shore. The sight I saw when I looked through the vents was a long room that was full of cubicles. There were a bunch of Residents... but they looked like they were getting injected by something, but the vent holes were too small for me to see what they were injected with. They were all hooked up with VR goggles on and sensors on their bodies. They were slouched over on chairs and they looked so... dead, and lifeless. They had tubes in their mouths, but the worst part of it all was that it wasn't silent. They would sit up and laugh with forced grins on their face, or scream or just talk in all sorts of languages, unknowing that they aren't even where they think they are. It was a sad and disgusting experience that still haunts me in my dreams.
We were walking around the vents once more but then, we were over another room... It was a nursery. It confused me because you would think that there would be a lot of love and nurturing in that room, right? Well, there wasn't. They all had masks over their face and they were crying, but it was inaudible. I think it was because of the mask, but they were crying because they were terrified, tears streaming down their faces, and it was terrible because they also had something being injected, but it was a blue-ish gray. They looked... dead, lifeless. It was... eye-opening, to say the least. All of the vents we passed had people hooked up to machines, and they all looked stuck in a state of a feeling.
"What did that woman do..." Kimera said, worry staining his voice. "I don't know, but it has to be bad. We should probably keep this in mind, though, because it might come in handy." I said, trying to put authority in my voice to match his. It... didn't work at all. "Hah! You really are a cutie. Do you even know who 'she' is?" Kimera said, snickering a bit. "W-Well, no, but is it the woman that was in the happy room?" I said. "Well, no that's her sister who was somehow even worse than she was, but what you saw was just a facade, not the real thing when it comes to happiness. I know her well enough to know that she is probably the best actress, but the worst thing in this place, no matter how she looks." Kimera explained, a sort of worrisome anger dripping into his voice in every word. "Well, at least she doesn't remember meeting her. She was such a pain an I was just ten. She would just dream and dream while breaking your spirits. It sucked to see you like that." Tommy said, hints of hated and fear hiding underneath his words.