001 ✝ first step [action]

[manmade_angel]

[Going to sleep in her bed and then waking up on a bench was disorienting, but not as disorienting as the place she woke up in.

Nill had grown used to, perhaps even comfortable in, the dirty, crowded, and dangerous city she lived in. Granted, she lived in one of the more quiet places left in the town God forgot, but it was nothing like what she had awoken to find. Clean-looking buildings without bullet holes in them. Glass that wasn't broken or taped over. Streets without cars or garbage piling up in the gutters. Streets that seemed home to people who were smiling, or at least didn't look like they were doomed to live each day exactly as the last one.

But perhaps the most unnerving part of it was the inhabitants. All of them, walking around and going about their business--but they had wings. Well, some of them were hiding them under their clothes, but having done the same herself sometimes she knew what to look for. The sign was that slight crease in the center of the back, where the bone wasn't jointed so as to allow the wings to lie completely flat against a human back.

Why, though? Why was everyone suddenly just like her? Had they all been born as she had? And if so, why could some of them talk and laugh? Why were everyone's wings a different color? And why did some people cover their wings while others didn't?

Nill looks back at her own wings (still white), then out at the square. Her jaw clenches and she feels tears welling up as she looks for something familiar that would tell her where she was. But everything is just perfect enough to scare her, or far too familiar to be a comfort.]

Comments

[fourteen]

[ she's quiet for a beat, looking at Nill. ... poor girl. ] My name is Xion. You're in Luceti now. I know it's a little scary, but... I promise, there'll be people who will help you. You don't have to try and figure this out by yourself, okay?

[manmade-angel.livejournal.com]

[Xion... Nill wonders for a moment how to spell that, but remembers she has bigger problems than how to spell the nice girl's name. Problems like: Where is Luceti? Why is she here? Why does everyone have wings? Shouldn't there be some variety of genetic alterations--people who were part animal?]

[At least Xion is offering to help her answer these questions, though she doesn't know how to start or where to start. So her name might be a good place--she reaches out from under the jacket and takes Xion's hand gently. She writes out her name one letter at a time before retreating under the jacket again and waiting to see if Xion understood.]

[fourteen]

[ ... blink.

blink blink. ]

"I" ... "L" ... was that an "N?" Nill? [ tilts her head. ] Is that your name?

[manmade-angel.livejournal.com]

[Yes! Nill nods and smiles lightly. She's still scared, but Xion seems nice--if not a little confused as to why Nill is spelling out her name in her hand.]

[fourteen]

[ actually, she has a faint inkling -- having friends and acquaintances that were, or still are, unable to speak for whatever reason. and once that inkling occurs to her, she pulls out her journal and the pen she keeps tucked with it. ]

Can you write? If you have questions, it might be easier to ask this way.

[manmade-angel.livejournal.com]

[Oh! Well, yes, that might be easier if she's trying to talk to someone she doesn't know. Haine and Badou and Naoto just know what she's trying to say, but she's been with them for a while. Besides, all of these questions are rather complex.]

[She smiles faintly and takes the journal and pen. She writes: 'Why is everyone a genetic mutant?']

[fourteen]

[ ... blink. ]

A genetic mutant? What's that?

[manmade-angel.livejournal.com]

[.......well, erm.]

[She writes again: 'A demihuman? Someone who looks normal, but has wings or animal features?']