TW for needles and shots :] "Aaralynn Montgomery, Duchess of the Cequolet Dynasty, Head Professor of Governmental Scientific Matters and Affairs, and Head of the Facility for All Strange Terrors, also known as FAST. All that at fifteen?" The delivery man eyed the short, thin girl in front of him dubiously. Perhaps doubting her skill, she wondered. Either way, it was fine. She was used to it. "Indeed," she confirmed, signing the contract he'd handed her. "Most of the titles are just for show, though. Chairing the Governmental Scientific Matters and Affairs isn't much of a real job anyway. I spend most of my working day here." She waved her hand, encompassing the gray facility, and smiled weakly. The delivery man grunted and took back the contract, glancing it over once to check she'd signed the right spots, and returned to his truck. Aaralynn let out a breath, slumping gratefully, and turned back to FAST, or, as she often thought of it as, her precious child, her pet project. Her baby. Aaralynn went to her office and spent fifteen minutes writing and editing a quick report on Project 8's progress (very little reaction to doses 2 and 3, continuous attraction to mirrors and bright lights, very violent around the colors green and blue), before setting down her pen and going to give her newest project, which the moving men had just placed, still in its crate, in the soccer-field size cell, its very first check-up. Three scientists were surrounding it, watching it carefully and murmuring to each other. They each nodded to Aaralynn and left the cell quickly as she approached. Aaralynn was dressed in her usual for this first contact: dark gray body armor and a white scientist's coat. She walked around the crate once to look for the light blue button that would cause to crate to self-collapse, took a deep breath, and pushed it, jumping back immediately with her hands raised protectively. The walls of the high-tech crate folded downwards, revealing... a girl. A girl with black hair, dark eyes, pale skin, and two almost bat-like wings, but no bat could have had them, they were far too large and wide and long. She was sprawled across the floor, her wings covering much of her body, and appeared to be unconscious. Aaralynn approached carefully, kneeling at the girl's side and gently, gently running her hand over her wing. "Amazing," she whispered, a rare smile spreading across her face. "Simply amazing." The girl's eyes flashed open, and in one fluid motion she struggled to her feet, wings flung wide open, stumbling backwards. Aaralynn raised her hands and smiled. "Shh," she whispered, standing and slowly walking towards her. "Shh, now. Shh." The girl lowered her wings, folding them across her back, and stepped back, never breaking eye contact. Aaralynn smiled. "Do you have a name?" she asked softly. The girl nodded. "Can you speak?" She nodded again. "Gloaming," she said, her voice hoarse. "That's pretty. I'm Aaralynn. Gloaming, can you follow me for a little bit?" Aaralynn held out her hand to Gloaming, who looked at it uncertainly but nodded a third time. Aaralynn led Gloaming through a set of doors into a white-painted room with a faint scent of sterilization, where she slipped on a set of green gloves and started filling a needle with clear fluid. "Gloaming, can you sit down on the table for me?" she asked without turning around. Gloaming obediently sat on the table, which Aaralynn noted. Most of her patients were unreliable, dangerous, but this one seemed desperate for approval or attention. That was interesting. Aaralynn sat down beside Gloaming, the needle in her hand. "Where do you come from?" she asked. "Mountains, big, rocks. Then... wolves. Plains, fields, with flowers, then people. Screams. Truck, crate. Now... you." Gloaming sighed and slumped, closing her eyes. Her wing slipped off of her shoulder. Aaralynn adjusted herself, patting the shoulder with disinfecting cloth. Gloaming started, and would have hit Aaralynn with her wing if she hadn't pinned it to her back, jabbing the needle into her shoulder. Gloaming screamed, but Aaralynn managed to get all the fluid out of her needle and into Gloaming's bloodstream before Gloaming knocked her off of the table, sending her sprawling on the ground. Aaralynn stood, rubbing her bruised shoulder ruefully, and surveyed Gloaming sadly, the girl laying on the table, curled up and moaning as the sleep serum made its way through her blood. "I'm sorry, Gloaming," she muttered, strapping her to the table and preparing for surgery. "The other scientists will be here soon."
art from picrew :]
