|
|
Post by #PI077A "Adia" on Jan 17, 2011 7:46:24 GMT -8
The sweet scent filling the air filled her nostrils as she took a deep breath in and slowly opened her eyes. Adia found herself in a large field surrounded by the countless green rolling hills of what she had come to call ‘the great meadow’. All around her, the wind, blowing gently, calmly, caressed the fields of golden stalks of wheat all around her, making what appeared to be waves rolling across all of her surroundings. A feeling, not a contentedness, or a simple feeling of joy, phases her and surrounds her as she looks around at all the unfamiliar faces. A bright light touches the world, and warms her smooth, human skin. A sensation that all of the bad in the world has fled before the light runs through her; and a light that is not coming from the sun, but as if it is coming from within echoes over everything in sight. In the distance, the voice calls out to her, and just as she takes a step forwards and reaches out, the dream ends, and she wakes up in a cage; a physical symbol of slavery, and a metaphorical symbol of being trapped in this grim reality.
Clutching the collar of a time long since past, she forgets her dream; and she takes shallow breaths, returning her mind to the present nightmare. A single deep breath draws in the air that tastes toxic compared to the dream and a short series of coughs echoes through the slave pens. As she looks around, to her left, to her right, Adia sees the others, and there aren’t many. “I don’t want to be alone anymore,” she mutters underneath her breath, wishing that the present nightmare would finally end.
|
|
|
|
Post by #PI094A "AVA" on Jan 17, 2011 19:22:13 GMT -8
 ☣ Don't Turn Away ☣♦ Leaning with her back against the grimy walls of the cage, Ava, as she now called herself, heaved a sigh, briefly closing her eyes in an attempt to forget time. It was just a matter of waiting now until the next time she was sent out on a mission. Until then, she was trapped in the stagnant hours she spent inside the containing room with the others. No matter how many times she banged and beat against the bars and cement closing her in, they wouldn't budge or shatter. There was no escaping - neither from the room nor the reality she'd been born into.
♦ The New Child woman simply trying to wait out the hours, she didn't open her eyes again until she heard a few, light coughs break the silence of the enclosure. She looked up to see another New Child clutching the collar she wore around her neck and mutter something beneath her breath. Ava strained to make out the words, anything that broke the monotony of life in the care catching her as interesting. Alone... That's right. Despite the others enclosed nearby, and despite the guards roaming the near the entrance, there's was a life of isolation. It enraged her. It made her fists clench at the frustration of her own powerlessness to change it, but that was the way it was, no matter how much she tried to deny it.
♦ "It'd be better to get used to it. I don't see it changing anytime soon." She commented absently, sitting up just slightly from her leaned over position. She didn't know if they'd ever be able to have the closeness many of the humans who'd made them did. After her experience with her old master, she wasn't even sure if she believed in such a thing.
|
|
|
|
Post by #PI077A "Adia" on Jan 17, 2011 19:47:32 GMT -8
Adia’s ear flicked at the words from the other girl, and she pretended not to care. “Get used to it?” she thought to herself, sitting silently for a few moments in her head; the one phrase that what mentioned by every whisper, from every person she’d ever met since she ended up here, was a constant reminder of the world around her, and how grim it was, and how dark it was, and how lonely and merciless it always was. The expression on her face remained. An emotionless, but sad look, it was the expression of some-one who was deprived of everything, as if made by some-one who perhaps once knew happiness, joy, and sadness, and all other emotions, but had forgotten what it all meant.
“I already have,” she said, without moving or changing her expression in the slightest way. She continued breathing in machinelike paces. The cold steel bars of the cage sank into her skin, and the chillls struck her through everything she was wearing. With a startling shiver, she finally moved to look at the New Child in the other cage and asked, “Have you gotten used to it?” After speaking she looked down to the floor for a brief moment, and then back up, “Because if you haven’t… then you must have something worth holding on to,” she said, “Do you have something worth holding on to?”
|
|
|
|
Post by #PI094A "AVA" on Jan 18, 2011 3:57:34 GMT -8
☣ Don't Turn Away ☣♦ The other New Child twitched an ear, but kept facing the bars as she eventually answered, saying that she already had. Ava wondered if that were true - if she'd truly gotten used to it, would she still be leaning against the bars and muttering under her breath that she wished things were different? Then again...perhaps getting used to something and putting away your dreams for something better were two different things. It's not like the raven New Child herself didn't want a life better than this. Humans were truly disgusting creatures...to give them life only for it be as stagnant and lonely as the one they had.
♦ She blinked in slight surprise, though, torn back out of her thoughts, as the other woman finally turned to face her, returning the same statement she'd made back to her in a sense. Ava blinked, having to think for a moment about how to answer. Had she?
♦ Eventually, she smiled just slightly as she looked back up. "Gotten used to it? Yes. Accepted it? No. I can live like this. I can survive just fine. But if a better opportunity or a way out ever presents itself, believe me that I'll be out of here." That's right. She still wished for something better, as well. It was something she'd fight for, something she'd kill for, if she ever saw even a glimmer of hope. She wondered if this other New Child felt the same way.
♦ The next part of the woman's question made the slight smile disappear again, though. ...Something worth holding on to? "I think the only thing I have to hold on to is the want to find just that one day." She eventually concluded. Indeed, finding a real purpose or something to cling to - one of her own declaration, not one that the humans gave her - was something that she craved more than anything.
|
|
|
|
Post by #PI077A "Adia" on Jan 18, 2011 5:40:18 GMT -8
Get out; escaping seemed like a simple enough idea, but without much anything to escape to, it would just be from one nightmare to another. Adia sensed some kind of connection with the New Child in the other cage, though she could not quite figure out what it was. She thought about the possibilities of her own escape as her prison-mate talked.
Getting out of that cage was only a matter of time, from there she could try to kill the guards, and make her escape that way; but if she did that, and got cought, she’d surely be killed if she was cought, and with security so high, it’s likely that that would happen. The next feasable opportunity to escape would be to wait until she was on the field somewhere, and flee combat, but where could she go after that. Going back to the city meant getting cought, almost for sure; she would have to flee the whole city and head into the wastelands where she would most likely be killed by remnants or some mutated beast, or even just die of starvation and dehydration.
Even if she could manage to survive, what would be the point? “And after you make your grand escape,” Adia began to ask, shifting around to face the New Child woman, “What then? You’ll have no food, no water, no shelter; I can’t imagine that there’d be anyone who would take you in. There’d be no point, it’s just an endless cycle of complete misery.”
|
|
|
|
Post by #PI094A "AVA" on Jan 18, 2011 23:00:25 GMT -8
|
|
|
|
Post by #PI077A "Adia" on Jan 19, 2011 7:22:01 GMT -8
Adia smirked a bit as she listened to the other new child. She chuckled a bit at the thought of a new child uprising, and quickly silenced herself so as not to raise an alarm to any guards that might be listening. “A revolution?” she questioned, “There’s only like, a hundred of us; and most of us wouldn’t even want to fight against humankind, including myself.”
As she went on she turned around to face AVA and spoke up a little, “And I think that that’s where you and I differ. While I don’t like the government, or being in this prison… I’m not one to think for myself a lot. It may sound weird to you, but I’ve actually had a good experience with humans, and I want that back.”
After saying that, Adia turned back and leaned against the bars again, “If anyone were even capable of taking the city down, it’d be the remnants… there’s not many humans, and less new children, but there could be hundreds of thousands of remnants out there.”
“Do you have a name to go by?” Adia asked in a much quieter tone, almost whispering.
|
|
|
|
Post by #PI094A "AVA" on Jan 20, 2011 5:46:06 GMT -8
☣ Don't Turn Away ☣♦ Ava knew the other New Child was right. Even if she could get a few others together , they would be put down easily. Thoughts of freedom and grandeur only meant so much in a world where you had to think realistically. "We are more powerful than them, though. Even though they created us, we have abilities that surpass theirs." She had to add that in, but then she looked down a bit again. "But you're right, I know - there just isn't enough of us, much less enough who'd be willing to rebel." She hesitated for just a moment as she looked back up. "But a good experience with humans? That sounds just as unrealistic, to me..."
♦ She kept her usual, slightly smile, but what almost sounded like a slight sadness crept into her voice. To her, though, the thought of a kind human seemed a complete impossibility, and was a concept that she couldn't quite comprehend. ...There was one exception, though, she realized. One confusing exception. "Though there was a human child I meant once, he seemed different. ...Are there really other humans out there like that?" Sometimes the fact that that boy was human at all seemed incomprehensible to her, as well.
The other New Child made a good point about the Remnants, too. Eventually, Ava just nodded. Remnants outnumbered both New Children and humans combined by the thousands. Yet she didn't bear the same anger towards them, so they spent less time in her thoughts. Her sole purpose now largely consisted of acting as a defense against them, but at the same time, they'd never managed to keep her locked in a cage. There was a part of her that desired revenge against the humans, but she didn't have that same feeling against the Remnants. Her dreams really were impractical. But that's all they were, so what did it matter?
"...It's Ava, I suppose. That's what that boy called me. ...You?" She asked in return.
|
|
|
|
Post by #PI077A "Adia" on Jan 20, 2011 7:56:19 GMT -8
“Adia,” she said, “It was the name my former master gave me before he died.” As she said that, she clutched her necklace and looked down in sadness, a single tear fell to the ground. “He was a good person,” she said, “Most humans are each good in their own ways, even if they seem bad from another perspective. That’s one of the things he told me, and I like to believe he was right.”
After she finished talking, Adia turned away and leaned back against the bars facing the other New Child. “Ava,” she whispered, “If you escaped, wouldn’t you want to try and find that child? If he had a big enough impact on you to get you to use that name… well I know I would.” “If I got the chance,” Adia thought to herself, “Would I escape? If she has a reason to be out of here… shouldn’t I as well?”
|
|
|
|
Post by #PI094A "AVA" on Jan 20, 2011 20:09:09 GMT -8
|
|
|
|
Post by #PI077A "Adia" on Jan 21, 2011 20:08:14 GMT -8
Adia hummed quietly as she sat there. It wasn’t any tune in particular, but just a calm, gentle voice flowing from her lips, almost as if it were the silent prayers of hope from a hopeless soul. “I wonder,” she thought to herself while sitting there, “Does she have any dreams like I do? Maybe escaping is her dream, and that’s why she desparately wants to do so.”
As she thought, she slid her feet forwards, and her back down the bars, laying down against them. She had just woken up, but she was tired again; there wasn’t too much to do except for sleep in the cages. After letting out a deep yawn, she turned her head towards Ava, “Ava,” she said, “What was it like for you… out there?” As she waited for a response, she rolled onto her side, and yawned once more, waiting to hear her story.
|
|
|
|
Post by #PI094A "AVA" on Jan 22, 2011 5:50:33 GMT -8
☣ Don't Turn Away ☣♦ The other New Child, Adia, started humming quietly as they sat in the otherwise mostly silent room. A gentle humming that sat in stark contrast to the grimness of the environment they were in. Ava closed her eyes briefly, letting herself fall limp against the bars that were cutting into her back, but she opened them again as the other prisoner stopped humming and spoke her name, asking her another question.
♦ Ava was silent for a moment, tracing over the memories of the time she'd spent on the streets. "My original owner was a rich man from the Eastern District. I left when he died." She started simply, keeping that part vague. "My animal is a raven - a creature made to survive street life - so I was lucky. I shapeshifted and stayed in that form for a long while, scavenging whatever I could and flying when I needed to escape. I guess birds are always roaming the streets and fields on the Surface, flying under something called the sky." That was something that boy she'd met had said he'd read once.
♦ "But down here, even in that form I was attracted a bit of attention, so I was always on edge and it was hard to get enough food. One day, I got desperate, walking into a store in my human form after finding some money on the streets, thinking that I could buy something. I was foolish. I was recognized and couldn't escape quick enough...so they brought me here." She just shrugged as she finished her story. "Even though it was hard, the freedom still felt good. It almost felt odd at first, being able to do what I wanted without having to worry about a master or be treated like an object, but then I got adapted to it, and this feels like hell now. I wish I hadn't slipped up." She finished with a slight, ironic smile.
Eventually, she sat down lower, only halfway sitting up as she let out a yawn of her own and turned her head back in the direction of Adia's cage. "So then...now it's your turn." A brief grin came across her features. "Tell me about this 'master' of yours that you seem to miss so much. What was it about him that convinced you that there were such a thing as good humans?" While she still wasn't totally sold on the idea, her curiosity was genuine.
|
|
|
|
Post by #PI077A "Adia" on Jan 22, 2011 8:34:56 GMT -8
“My story…” Adia said, thinking about her past, “I’m lucky to even know what my story is. My last master told me where I came from. I don’t remember how long it’s been since my creation, but something like 4 or 5 years ago, I was commissioned by some-one on the new children development team. They apparently were keeping me a secret, because they couldn’t actually afford me; and so they put in a false name and records in order to be able to make me. They were found out, and I was supposed to be destroyed; but this guy saw me. I don’t know why but I was apparently perfect for him; he paid money to have me, instead of just being destroyed. His name was Jonathan; he was very old. Even though I was created as a P class, he never had me do anything with him, or anyone else; he wanted to get my class changed to C, but he died before it could happen. After that, I was sold off to the highest bidder, which happened to be the government; so instead of becoming a PC class, I became a PI class. To my understanding, the only reason they did is because they found some combat knowledge in my genetic code from when that bastard who commissioned me tried to make me some kind of fighter or something.”
“That’s my story,” Adia said, “What was your original owner like?” Adia turned to listen to what Ava was going to say next.
|
|
|
|
Post by #PI094A "AVA" on Jan 22, 2011 18:44:00 GMT -8
☣ Don't Turn Away ☣♦ Ava was quiet as Adia told her story. It was something of an unusual one. She'd been originally created in secret, but when the creator was found out, an older man stepped in to save her from being destroyed? Apparently the man had wanted to get her class changed to C, instead. That was something else that was unusual. It was too bad for the other New Child that he'd died before that could happen, she thought to herself - while there were a few exceptions, most C-class New Children seemed to have better lives than those of other classes did. Ava had only ever met a few of them, herself.
♦ The woman tensed slightly, though, as her companion asked another question. Her master was one thing that she didn't like to talk about, much. She hesitated a bit, before giving her answer. "I'm also a PI class, originally created as P. My owner was a very wealthy man, who was obsessed with his work and his social life. He created me in order to be his 'wife' of sorts, saying that he didn't have the time or affection to give that a 'real' woman would want. I don't know how much, but he spent a lot of money on me, also giving me a few combat skills so that I could serve as a guard dog of sorts as well."
♦ She paused for a moment, leaning her chin against her knees. "I was a trophy for him. I was to be there when he wanted a 'wife' or a female figure at his side, but for the rest of the time, I was just supposed to sit and wait for him, like a doll on a shelf. I was to be seen and not heard. It wasn't any better than this." She suddenly fell quiet, unable to decide on whether or not she really wanted to speak the words she was about to. She briefly glanced around, making sure no guards were close enough to hear. She wasn't sure it would matter at this point, but mentioning it still made her a bit uncomfortable. "One day, I slipped some chemical cleaner - something that acted like a poison - into a meal he ordered me to make for him. He didn't notice, and he didn't wake up the next day."
♦ She paused momentarily, giving a slight sigh before continuing. "I was supposed to be destroyed after that, after they finally caught me and convicted me of his murder. But because of my rarity as an "A" quality creation, whatever that means, and the few combat abilities I had, they decided that I would be useful as an infantry member. So I became a PI-class as well. And well...here I am." She fell silent again after that. The New Child in the other cage now knew her whole story up to this date.
|
|
|
|
Post by #PI077A "Adia" on Jan 22, 2011 18:59:49 GMT -8
“Well then we’re both lucky, you see,” she said, “If it hadn’t been for that one person who found such a strange attachment to me, I’d be dead; and if it weren’t for your master, as bad as he may have been, putting forth the extra effort to your commissioning, you’d be dead.”
She turned around to face her whole body towards Ava, and smiled at her, “You know there’s more than one way to get out of this lifestyle,” she said, “Humans can be good natured, but collectively, they’re the scum of the Earth. If you stick to being a good person yourself, good things are bound to happen to you. If by chance, you treat the right human with respect and kindness, they might treat you back. But if you can’t give the people you’ve never met a chance, then you’ll never get one.”
“It’s nice to know that you’re already trusting me with your deepest secrets,” Adia told her, “but you really should be careful… you never know if another new child would be willing to turn you in so that they could gain their own trust with a human.”
|
|
