[Character awakes wearing a strange hat.]

In a flash of shock, Cammie twitched awake.

The first thing she saw in the darkness was a strip of dull neon blue light that looped into a rectangle with her in the centre. A low, faint hum resonated in the cramped space, and when her eyes eventually adapted to the dim lights, she could make out a dome above her, as if she were lying in a pod. Her neck was stiff when she tried to lift her head to peer at her surroundings. She was on a soft cushion, body bare except for something foreign wrapped around her head.

What the hell?

That was the first sentence she could formulate in the midst of her muddled thoughts. She lifted a numb hand to fiddle with the bizarre thing on her head. Her fingers discerned some sort of material that she couldn't distinguish the origin, as it felt like a type of fabric mixed between plastic, polyester and jute that was sewn over something...metal.

What's more perplexing was the shape was oddly similar to a hat.

A sudden hiss startled her. Simultaneously, pairs of yellow lights blinked above, and the dome began to rise. Bright light flooded her vision all too unexpectedly that she was temporarily blinded. Squinting, she gradually lifted herself up, only to find herself confined in another room.

The chill of the linoleum floor bit into the soles of her foot the moment she stepped out of the silver pod. The square room was nothing short of a prison aside from the advanced technology with its drab, monochromic shades, cold and unfurnished except the pod and a glass case to her left, where a pale green one-piece hung expectantly.

Everything seemed eerily familiar, but Cammie's mind was a blank.

She reached up to take off the "hat". However, when she yanked on it hard, her head followed suit and snapped downwards. Feeling stupid, she straightened herself and resorted to lightly tugging and attempting to shove her fingers under the gap, but the damn thing was as if it glued itself to her head. Her scalp even throbbed, like someone had yanked at her hair. She quickly gave up after deeming that it wouldn't be a big deal anyway.

She might not have any memory, but her body moved on instinct the moment she approached the glass case. Her hand instinctively typed in a five digit code: 0053A and the glass door slid open soundlessly. Her body manoeuvred itself to slip into the tight suit effortlessly, just like she had done it a thousand times.

Something dropped out of her suit onto the floor. It was a rolled-up paper no bigger than half her pinkie, which she could've easily missed. She frowned and bent to pick it up. Even with her memory loss, she knew that paper was not an everyday item in this digitalised era.

Don't worry about the empty mind. You'll remember in a few hours.

When you do, come to the sewage systems. Until then, blend in.

-MB-

What?

A plethora of questions sprang forth in her mind, voices of doubts and suspicions the loudest. She was absolutely befuddled. She wracked her brain, looking around to get any sort of clues to no avail. She barely had time to search for a place to hide the note when a loud beep overhead made her flinch. A mechanical voice with false effervescence reverberated in the metal cage.

"Greetings, beloved residence of Plutonia. It is now seven thirty in the morning, and the weather is 27 degrees with little wind, perfect for outdoor fitness. Today, brought to you by..."

"Blah, blah, blah, shut up," Cammie muttered under her breath. She glanced around. There weren't any potential signs of hidden cameras, so she lingered a little longer to explore her empty room. As advanced as the pod was, there weren't many things on it she could fiddle with, only three command buttons for choice: Open/Close, Sleep, Wake.

There were too little information. She ran her hands all over the pod, feeling for anything unusual that may give her more hints, only to find smooth, cold metal. Her hands reached towards the bottom-

"Resident 53A, please exit your room immediately. You are behind schedule."

A monotonous voice boomed in her room. She flinched and whirled around, expecting to get busted the first five freaking minutes (for what, she didn't know), but the metal door- the only exit in the ironically suffocating room- remained sealed. It was just the speakers.

A small breath of relief escaped her chapped lips. She stood up and stretched. With zero recollection of any form of memory, she surmised that fiddling around would bring more harm than benefit. So, until she remembered something, she decided she would do the next most logical thing in this ambivalent situation:

Follow the damn note that uses an almost obsolete product in the age of technology.

Approaching the metal door, she entered her code into the keypad naturally. There was a click, and the door hissed open. Cammie took a deep breath, pulled on an inscrutable mask, and stepped out of her confinement.

♤[4/5/2020]♤

This came out as some sci-fi and i ended up not really adhering to the topic, which is focusing on the hat lol. But in the concept i build in my head, i guess the "hat" plays some kind of major role.

Idk depending on what happens i may or may not develop the story/incorporate some of the ideas into possible future works.

:)