First, in which Angel arrives

[birdkiddie]

[The camera doesn't show anything but blue for a moment, then you see the mansion from above and a flash of something that looks like a giant dove. The camera is high up in the air, and the direction is clear. It comes from up and is headed down ...just that there is something in the way. A head, to be exact. Blond curls. The journal bounces off it and falls deeper, passing the face of a little girl that is stuck somewhere between fear, confusion, alertness and tiredness. Her eyes are hollow and smudged with purple rings, and one whole side of her face is a single bruise. And then there is only white cloth and the view of the mansion as the journal falls further and rotates.

It falls, and falls, and then you there are suddenly fingers around it and it is turned around to face the child from before. All you can see the arms that are full of burn marks and little wounds where needles have been inserted into her arms. There also is something that looks like an IV on her arm. If you look closer, you will see white feathers behind her back. Or maybe on her back.

She silently examines the journal, the little face tense, and after a few moments she switches on the audio.]

Max. Gazzy. Fang, Iggy, Nudge. Are you here?

Jeb. Was that you?

Comments

[Video]

[talks-to-fish.livejournal.com]

We would kill the others. [Her little face tenses, she doesn't like that thought. They have a limited, miserable lifespan, but still...] The scientists, too, and the Erasers, but...

What happened in the end? And now? Do you fight the normal people?

[Video]

[manticorean.livejournal.com]

Kill the other... what?

I... got hurt real bad. My brother Zack, he saved me. Now... well, there are other people out there. They're not normal, but they're not us... and they hate anyone who's not them. So I guess you could say they're the bad guys now.

[Video]

[talks-to-fish.livejournal.com]

Experiments.

[Considers what max just said for a moment. It sounds a lot like Erasers...]

Did the scientists at your school make them, too?

[Video]

[manticorean.livejournal.com]

... they're more than just experiments, though, aren't they?

No. Actually, one of them sorta was the scientist who made us. Like I said, it's complicated.

Re: [Video]

[talks-to-fish.livejournal.com]

Those that aren't failures, like the Erasers, they make into their soldiers. But many of the children are, according to them. [She presses her lips shut for a moment.] I'm not sure about us, but they can't control us, our minds are free. They consider that a failure, too.

[Video]

[manticorean.livejournal.com]

[She's quiet for a moment before speaking bitterly.]

Yeah, free will's usually looked at as a whopping failure.

[Video]

[talks-to-fish.livejournal.com]

[She doesn't know them yet, those experiments, clones of themselves and others, in the Itex branch in Germany that couldn't go against orders to save their own lives. That didn't even have the mind left to make the decision to run despite them knowing that they were to be eliminated within the next few days. But she knows the Erasers, and she has seen what they have tried with other experiments' brains and minds.]

But the less will we have of our own, the less effective we are. That's why they can't take it from us completely.

[Video]

[manticorean.livejournal.com]

[She smirks, having wondered all too often if it'd been possible to have been engineered with a soul, and if that would somehow make any kind of difference between the various generations of transgenics. The more physically advanced they became, the less human they appeared, which was a huge sacrifice Manticore had to make when it came to undercover ops.]

That's what they call a catch-22.

[Video]

[talks-to-fish.livejournal.com]

[Tilts her head for a moment, rubbing her nose, trying to remember.]

I've never heard that word.

[Video]

[manticorean.livejournal.com]

Oh. Kinda like, "Damned if you do, damned if you don't." Meaning that you can't win no matter what you try.

[Video]

[talks-to-fish.livejournal.com]

It's better if they don't win.

[She beats her wings harder, speeding towards the building.]

Are there others from your school in this place?

[Video]

[manticorean.livejournal.com]

I don't doubt it.

Nah, I'm the only one here, as far as I've been able to tell. But there are other people here, from pretty strange places. It shouldn't be too bad for you until you can get back home.

[Video]

[talks-to-fish.livejournal.com]

Are there other children?

[Video]

[manticorean.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've seen a few kids around. Most look around ten or eleven.

[Video]

[talks-to-fish.livejournal.com]

Why is everyone that old?

[Video]

[manticorean.livejournal.com]

Don't know. There are some teenagers around, too, and probably some younger kids, but I don't really know them. Why? How old are you?

[Video]

[talks-to-fish.livejournal.com]

Six.

[She raises her hands and pokes at the fingers, counting, while she lists the other people that she knows.]

I'm six, Gazzy's eight, Nudge's eleven, Iggy's fifteen and Max 'n Fang are sixteen. The Erasers look like adults but they're seven or eight, just grow faster. Scientists are adults. Those in the dog crates usually don't make it to the big ones. [And Angel herself is in a middle sized now.]

[Video]

[manticorean.livejournal.com]

You're all so young....

[The words come out in a thin whisper. Yes, she'd been trained as a soldier since she'd been able to walk, but that only made it harder to see other kids who don't get the chance to be... well, kids.]

I'm gonna head outside, if you wanna find me. We'll set you up with a room and clean you up, okay?

[Video]

[talks-to-fish.livejournal.com]

I'll see you.

[Going to descend slowly towards the door that she supposes to be the main door. You'll notice that she's really tall and slender for a six year old, no real baby fat at all, once you see her in person.]

[Video]

[manticorean.livejournal.com]

[Max nods before turning off the communicator, heading for the doors that lead outside. She hardly takes a few steps out before spotting Angel, considering how hard it'd be not to spot her. She'd seen mermaids and lizard people, so this? Not terribly surprising, even if she does feel a strange pang when she realizes that the girl looks much older than six.]

Angel?

[Video]

[talks-to-fish.livejournal.com]

[She descends towards max, folding in her wings smoothly seconds before her feet hit the ground. He shirt is torn at the back where the wings are, but they still fold flat against her back, flat enough to be invisible if there's a windbreaker covering them.]

Hello.

[Action]

[manticorean.livejournal.com]

Hey.

[Max quickly takes in aher appearance, looking for any major signs of damage or anything else that would raise alarm bells. Besides, y'know, the wings.]

Come on in. We'll find you a room, unless you're hungry and wanna get something to eat first.

[Action]

[talks-to-fish.livejournal.com]

[Except for one half of her face being a single bruise and the burns on her arms and legs and the general weariness, she seems to be relatively okay. Nothing that needs to be treated right away.]

What kind of food do they have here?

[Looking up at Max with hungry eyes. Food sounds very good to her right now, experiments usually only get the bare minimum, and since she was not to be trusted, she was classified as one.]

[Action]

[manticorean.livejournal.com]

Anything you want. The kitchen's kinda like magic.

[She tries to give Angel a reassuring smile as she moves to the front door and holds it open for her, but she can't help looking over the minor injuries over the girl.]

You need somebody to take care of those? We've got people around who know that kinda magic, too.

[Action]

[talks-to-fish.livejournal.com]

[Thinks for a moment and then shakes her head, setting the blond locks flying.]

They'll heal soon. We heal faster than normal humans, they say. And nothing's broken or bleeding.

[Plus she's much more concerned about the food now.]

Do they have popcorn? And marshmallows?