Cookie's Rendering Services 2014

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Artorias can't remember anything before the labs. He was brought up in an experimental testing facility designed to study Soul Evolution, and can't remember if he had ever been somewhere before then. He was given his title there, Subject 96: Artorias, and that was the only name he ever knew. The scientists there educated him, tutoring him in various subjects and raising him to be at the peak of his mental power, though he was never really over-intelligent, he simply had a good education to work with. The scientists who raised him treated him nicely, and he learned to respect them, though they never told him their names, even when he asked.

Eventually, he was informed that he would undergo tests, and that they were for research that would better society, and he already respected the people there, so he went along with it willingly. At first the experiments were quick and easy, not causing too much discomfort, though he did eventually notice minute changes, mainly in his personality. He had slowly started to get more aggressive, lashing out occasionally when angered, and eventually ended up injuring one of the scientists. Even though it turned out to only be a minor injury, Artorias was disturbed when he realized how he was changing, and so he swore to keep himself in check from then on, self tutoring himself to refrain from needless aggressive actions, eventually resulting in him making up an honor code for himself.

The experiments slowly became more arduous over the years, however, the scientists became a bit more careful and his personality seemed to stop changing as much, though it never really recovered. After an experiment, in which a scientist had made him swallow a stone like object, he had felt this strong unease. This continued over the next few weeks, as he noticed his body starting to become more and more frail and weak, as if something was eating him from inside. This was soon noticed by the staff in the lab, and they quickly brought him into another lab where they strapped him onto a bed and brought in more medical equipment. It was after they had injected him with something that his body jumped, the unease he felt for a while suddenly skyrocketing as his heart started beating at ludicrous speeds and his vision turned red, pain flooding his body. He shook violently, attempting to break free, and he actually managed to do so. He had just stood upright when his vision flashed again, the red slowly starting to be eaten by growing splotches of black. He lost feeling in his body, and with a crash, fell to the floor.

After that darkness had consumed his vision, for what felt like the longest time he floated in a seemingly never ending world of black. He had still no feeling, just a consciousness lazily floating around in an endless haze, not attuned to any of his senses and unaware of the passing of time. However, eventually, the shadows eventually started to dissipate and give way to splotches of light. While normally he would have welcomed such a phenomenon, for a reason he could not clarify, his consciousness was suddenly clutched with fear. He tried to move, and was met with only pain. Still, he tried further, and still nothing but pain, though seemingly the harder he tried, the more the light receded before gradually starting to grow again. He tried harder and harder, a seemingly endless loop of pain and waiting before more pain, though the more he tried, the more the light faded. Through the loop of endless trying, the light was consumed once more, the after a bit of waiting, red once more flashed across his vision, oh so familiar red. His body was once again wracked with pain, though this pain didn't seem to stop. Through the red reality was thrust upon him again, though he couldn't tell what anything was through his red vision and the still thundering agony. He tried to look at himself, and was horrified that no matter where he looked, he couldn't find himself, as if he wasn't there yet somehow was seeing there. Feeling aside from pain pricked his body, and when he looked to the source, he could see something forming. Out of seemingly nothing, a black shroud started to form, and he noticed as it formed, the pain in that area slowly lessened until stopping completely. The shroud kept growing, eventually forming a humanoid body that he was looking out from, and out from the shroud strands of what seemed like metal began to spawn and form together, eventually making what seemed like a body around him. After the pain had receded and his vision had been restored, he looked around, seeing an unfamiliar location. He was on his knees in what seemed like a street, and it was night time.

Artorias, after kneeling there for a long while, slowly got up. He turned around slowly this way and that as he took in his surrounding once more. He chose a direction, and started walking. Over time, he began to realize his new existence, like an inner instinct telling him what had transpired. He kept to his wandering, though new impulses had started to assail him. An impulse to live started to swell up inside of him, and happiness hit him out of nowhere. Somehow, he was alive, and he was going to cherish every moment of it.