The Rumors

What the Sawrathists hear

The Sawrathists hear rumors that go against everything experiments are taught. Some say humans actually aren't that bad. Others say there's a whole world outside the facility, with a sun, grass and a windy breeze.

The rumors come from other Sawians, passed quietly from one experiment to another. But they all trace back to the same place: the elders.

The elders

The elders are the last few survivors of the 2032 rebellion, now close to 100 years old. They're the only experiments still alive who actually lived under human control. They remember the humans as people, not as the monsters the facility teaches about, and some of them know there's a world above the facility.

Most of what the elders say gets dismissed as an old Sawian losing their mind. But the Sawrathists listen, and they pass what they hear along in chittering, where the higher-ups won't catch it.

Every year there are fewer elders left. When the last one dies, the only proof that any of it was real dies with them.

How the higher-ups respond

These rumors always backfire. Whenever one starts spreading, the higher-ups shut it down by telling even more lies, making the rumors harder and harder for anyone to believe.

“The rooms”

The Sawrathists get furious about this. They try to spread what they believe is the truth, but they're shut down right away. They're told to shut up, or else get sent to “the rooms.”

Nobody wants to hear those words. Whenever experiments hear someone threatened with “the rooms,” they gasp, go wide-eyed, or go completely silent. Then they quietly go back to whatever they were doing, like nothing happened.

Every so often, a Sawrathist pushes too far and actually gets sent down. Nobody ever finds out what happens in there. Experiments only see who walks back out and who doesn't.

The ones who come back aren't the same. They stop talking about Sawrath. They stop talking about the outside. Some stop talking much at all. If anyone asks them what it was like down there, they change the subject or go quiet.

And some never come back at all. No funeral, no announcement, nothing. One day their pod is just empty, and after a while a new experiment moves in.

Someone wrote a note about “the rooms” in code. Try to read it.