Challenge Entry

[tea-berry.livejournal.com]

Title: Empty Spaces
Challenge: [144] Pursuit
Word Count: 248
Rating: G
Summary: Had it anything to compare this to, the Experiment might have called this feeling emptiness.


"Unlike my Sally, it wasn't equipped with a heart."

Had it anything to compare this to, the Experiment might have called this feeling emptiness.

But feeling was not a memory.

There were no tender nerve endings, no desperate ache where a heart had been. No twist of despair or twist of anything at all really.

Only the dull sensation, somewhere in its borrowed mind and patchwork body, that something should be there. That the space inside its iron chest was horribly wrong.

"But if it wanted a heart, why was it going around stealing all those Christmas presents?"

The logic of a machine suggested that the flaw could quite easily be remedied, and a missing part, once found and installed, would replace this need.

The pursuit of completion found it reaching into paper wrapped boxes, their contents surprisingly useless. Objects that brought feeling to the truly living left the Experiment still wanting of something.

"Maybe because...presents are a way to give your heart to someone special."

But the logic of a machine suggested that if it could exist with only rusted metal and long dead organs, a heart could be constructed from painted faces and smiles.

And the pursuit of completion found the Experiment unmoving at the hands of three adventurers. Its demise was justified, its search was in vain.

"Hmm... when you put it that way, I feel sort of bad for it."

And it was not quite a tragedy, because feeling was not a memory.

Comments

[dreamer1789.livejournal.com]

^^ Well reasoned and enjoyable.

[tea-berry.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[fox_the_kitsune]

Talk about underappreciated characters. I don't think I've seen fic anywhere that makes much reference to the Experiment. I like this one and I don't think Sora's the only one to feel bad for the Experiment.

[tea-berry.livejournal.com]

The Experiment really struck a chord with me for some reason. I had always wanted to write something for it, and this challenge seemed perfect. :)

Thanks for the comment!

[fox_the_kitsune]

You're welcome. =D

I've actually read the fic you linked to in the deleted comment, though I hadn't noted the user name, and that's a good fic too.

[fox_the_kitsune]

No harm done. I thought the fic was good and now I know who wrote it. ^-^

[tea-berry.livejournal.com]

-embarrassed- My computer was being a doofus. First it posted my reply as a separate comment, then I deleted it and tried to paste what I had written into a new reply. Except it entered the last thing I had copied and pasted (which was that link.)

I should obviously not attempt anything when I'm sleep deprived.