Mikey kept in Reserves (M/M)

[bigsmile21]

Subject #3 (“Mikey B.” as he referred to himself) had been in the holding cell for months. He stood above 6 foot, in his early 30s, and had a thin but solid build. He had short brown hair and a bright smile; they made sure of it.

He wore loose grey scrubs and was barefoot. He had freedom to move around the 8"X8" cell, though his right ankle is chained to the wall. Where did they think he was going to go? He guessed it was due to his acting out, just as a reminder.

Mikey’s cell had a few amenities: toilet and sink (with no mirror), bed and pillow (no sheets), and a VR headset with remotes. Guards would bring him a toothbrush, toothpaste, fresh scrubs, food, and toilet paper each morning. He was supervised when using the toothbrush, toothpaste, and toilet paper, and had to return them after use. The food alternated between meatloaf on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and stew on Tuesday and Thursday. Weekends depended on how good he was and lately he hadn’t been very good.

He had one purpose in life, they told him: a clone of a famous singer who would replace the man if he ever died or failed to perform. Mikey was formerly kept in a pristine training facility with vocal coaches, fitness coaches, and luxury spa personnel on hand 24/7. They had trained him for his entire life (a few years due to cloning science) to sing and perform just like his prime DNA donor.

The donor had sold a platinum holiday record which kicked off his singing career. The company he signed on with saw potential for future gains and wanted assurances that their profit wouldn’t fall if their rising star crashed. The singer donated DNA as part of their contract under the pretense of "extensive drug testing", and the boys in the lab whipped up Subjects #1, #2, and #3 before the end of the year. The more the singer performed, the more data the scientists had to work with for training the insurance policies.

#1 seemed promising at first, picking up the singer’s mannerisms with minimal training, but suffered a mental breakdown three years into the experiment. It was decommissioned and placed in lockdown for further study. Currently, it is confined in the same facility Mikey finds himself in, but under tighter observation: its wears only a set of white briefs so the scientists can keep leads attached to its skin for monitoring diagnostics, while horizontally secured hand and foot inside an MRI where its brain patterns are evaluated. Images flash in quick succession and songs play on loop so the scientists can determine how to map its brain.

#2 is currently on tour. The original singer had a car accident after too much partying and did not survive. The record company managed to cover up the story and say their star was injured but recovering. Subject #2 was put into the field a month later and has since been going strong. Only one tabloid still runs a story titled “Famous Singer Replaced by Lizard-Man”, but the record company hasn’t made any attempts to buy them out, yet. Subject #2’s conditioning was rigid, incorporating responses for the supposed recovery and a public service campaign about drunk driving. Rather than cover up the drunk driving, the record company thought it would make their star “appear more human” by humbling their star in admitting his wrongdoing.

And then there was Mikey. He’d slipped off the training premises one night to explore the outside world. This included one trip to the mall, two shots of Tequila at the Mexican restaurant, three Instagram selfies with fans, and one drunken altercation at a different Mexican restaurant. Thinking back, he vaguely remembered the men in black suits (his “security detail”) escorting him away from his plate of chimichangas and into the limousine. He barfed inside the limo and passed out.

He then woke with an excruciating hangover inside his current holding cell. He never learned how the record company covered up the incident, and he didn’t care. They were inhumanly good at their job, so some spin about an impersonator or another PSA and the internet would find something else to focus on. Mikey wasn’t sure how long ago that night was. Because the original DNA donor had passed they could not make more clones. Subject #2 was performing well, and they planned to milk their intellectual property for as much as they could by conditioning Mikey to behave.

After his morning food, brushing, and toilet, he spent hours wearing the VR headset. They had programmed it with games for him to use, though it was less fun and like more training. He had to sing in sync with pre-recorded shows of his original DNA donor’s performances. When that got boring, he’d switch to dancing in tune with the songs, the VR headset and remotes tracking his movements. The games would give him scores and points, but he was the only one on the leaderboard. After that, he’d switch over to “mindful encouragement” but that was straight up brainwashing with a bow tied on it.

Each day's routine was the same. Escape seemed impossible, but at least he wasn’t being poked and prodded like #1. Recently, his VR headset would glitch, and he'd see Subject #1 strapped inside the MRI. On further thought, he realized his captors were doing this on purpose to incentive him to train harder.

[that1kid13]

interesting start, I hope you continue this

[NeedControl]

Yikes!!