Monotone (An Amyplier Fanfiction)

~1~

I lay in bed with my eyes shut softly, nothing but pitch darkness surrounding me. Maybe, maybe this one time when I opened by eyes it would be different. Maybe a surprise was waiting for me, someone telling me how strong I've been and telling me that things will be changing. But as I opened my eyes, nothing happened.

There was the same old gray ceiling, the same black, white and gray walls and carpet. The same grayscale objects and accessories and everything. Everything is still gray. Still no color. 

I wonder what color looks like. Some friends have tried explaining it to me, but it's definitely hard to explain what a color looks like to someone like me. I'm not colorblind. Well, maybe I am. I know what black, white and gray is, but nothing else. Nothing vibrant. It's some rare disease that evidently only I got because of some fucked up genes or something like that, I don't know.

For as long as I can remember, my entire world has been in a grayscale. It was a pain in the ass to work with colored blocks at school and do seeing tests. Everyone thought I was just slow as hell when I couldn't tell the difference between colors. I just couldn't see them.

Clothes shopping was always an issue. Someone always had to come with me and determine which color looks best on me. The vast majority of them have said blue or dark purple. People tell me my clothes aren't really that colorful. I don't understand what they mean. I don't know if I ever have or ever will.

But as I lay there, wishing something was different, a blurry figure walked briskly into the room. Near the top of its head was a slightly lighter shade of gray, and more of a darker gray to black on all of his clothes. He looked up at me.

"Mark, the fuck are you doing?" he asked with his light Irish accent. It was my college roommate, Sean. "We've got class in less than 15 minutes and we have to finish that project in Hamilton's or we're gonna get an F! Hurry up!"

Without another moment of hesitation, he rushed out of the room, leaving the door mostly closed. Empty, I rolled myself out of bed and grabbed another colorless t-shirt and colorless pair of jeans. Throwing random textbooks into my backpack and stuffing a flavorless muffin in my mouth simultaneously, I slammed the door to the dorm shut and left for Tech Ed.

Everything I saw was just a blob of nothing. The sounds of people talking and rushing from their dorms to class seemed muffled. My legs were moving on their own, not knowing or caring where I was going. Nothing seems to register. 

What's wrong with me?

I stop in the middle of the hallway. People continued to pass, not caring what was going on. Hell, I don't even know what's going on. Everything seemed to overload on me all at once. Confusion washed over me. Why am I stopping? Why can't I move? All of the sudden, a voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Mark?" the voice said, sounding concerned. Looking around, my eyes fell on a tall figure in a blank suit. 

"Y-Yes, Counselor Kjellberg?" I managed to choke out in the midst of my confusion.

"You doing okay? You just kinda blanked out."

"O-Oh, uh, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

"Who's class do you have next?"

"Professor Hamilton, technology education."

"Come into my office for a bit, I'll call him and tell him you'll be late."

"Sir, I really can't. A friend of mine is waiting for me and we have a project due today."

There was a long silence. I looked up at Kjellberg's blank eyes and he looked into mine. I wonder what color my eyes are. I wonder if they're blue. Or green. Or brown.

"Well, okay. Just remember you're always welcome in my office, okay?"

"Y-Yes, sir. Thank you." Nervous, I slid my backpack further up my shoulder and left the scene quickly to prevent any further embarrassment. 

My breathing began to quicken as I rushed to Hall C and into Hamilton's class. As I entered the class, the familiar rush of overload slapped me in the face as I viewed everything in front of me.

There were rows upon rows of high quality computers lined up against the walls, and a complete other room just full of robot parts. There was a large area in the back of the room that was squared off for challenges and testing and sitting in the middle of the room was an incredible array of chairs with desks attached to them, the professors desk in front and an enormous projector hanging from the ceiling. 

A large majority of the seats were filled up and nearly a hundred heads all turned my direction when I stumbled into class. My face began to burn out of embarrassment as I shuffled to sit down next to Sean.

Looking up at the board, I couldn't quite make out the words. It just seemed like a jumble of letters smashed together randomly. 

"God, I need to wear my glasses more," I muttered, rubbing my eyes. "What does that say?"

"Uh... ah shit. It says 'Advanced Color Sensors (Challenge)'." Sean read aloud, his voice trailing off. I rested my head back and groaned aloud.

"Of fucking course." I growled, pissed off.

"Sorry, dude. Hamilton's either gonna give you the exception or put people in pairs or groups of four."

"Who would we have in a group of four, though?"

"Well you, me and Signe for sure. He also said there's someone new transferring here today, so maybe they'll join us and we can help them get accustomed to the bots and stuff."

"I suppose.... Okay what the fuck even are advanced color sensors? Aren't normal ones enough?"

"You tell me. I guess they can see very distinct colors, like turquoise or magenta or navy or something."

As my friend was naming different colors, another pain shot through my chest. I wonder what those look like. They're not the "normal" colors apparently. Normal ones are like blue, green, red, orange. I'm also told that Sean's hair is dyed green. Probably why he's my roommate, I can't tell what the fuck green looks like so I can't judge him.

Then, the bell rang, signaling class to officially start. Almost immediately, Hamilton told us to take out our notebooks so we could write stuff down before starting the challenge for the double period. Exhausted, I grabbed a blank textbook from my colorless backpack and began writing on my grayscale paper.

God, I'm tired.