Taken from the private diary of Sarina of Circle 2;
I recently became friends with an odd boy, a fae. Just on the cusp of adulthood.
I noticed that whenever his emotions took a strong turn his veins changed from green (their natural state) to pink.
I asked him about it and he said, "I don't know."
And I realised how little anyone in Tarin knows about Non-Human's anatomy.
Jin closed the tabs, opening another dark window with little icons. She deleted the tabs they opened and put the tab that was before, making sure nothing was out of place. Palo strode over to the door, his hand on the handle and he pulled it towards him, it didn't budge, he tried to push it. Nothing happened. "My mates, I think it's safe to assume. We're doomed," Palo said, he had a smile on, but it didn't reach his eyes.
"Move over," Misha said softly, reaching down to one of her pockets on her left calf, feeling something long and round she pulled out a slim screwdriver. Her eyebrows furrowed.
"Genius, I think this is yours." She unbuttoned the pocket and handed it to Jin, who took it and started to rummage through her own pockets. Finally finding the wrong pocket and unbuttoning it, it was the one above her right knee, and handed it to Misha.
During this whole transaction, the rest of the gang looked utterly confused by the switch of pockets. Misha fished something out of the pocket, it was a silver key ring with lock picks, skeleton keys, and bumper keys. Crouching down to look at the lock itself, it wasn't a complicated thing. With a delicate touch, the skeleton found its home within the lock. With a satisfied sigh, Misha pulled back, getting up and pocketing the rest of the picks. She placed her hand on the cool metal handle, she nudged the door towards her, it swung open.
"I think we're undoomed," she said, giving a small bow to Palo who smiled and sauntered through the open door, Yael grinning widely, her dimples deepening and walked out as well.
The hallway was white, clean and ugly. At least in Misha's eyes, it was too white, too blank. The walls white, the ceiling an ugly shade of beige, the doors painted white and unmarked. Palo looked around, and started going to the left .
"Dude. wait a minute" she called after him, he stopped and twirled around, she crouched down again and locked the office's door, it took less than a few seconds and then she was up again.
"Alright," she said, looking up at Palo. "Why are you going there?"
"Gut feeling?" he said, but he sounded unsure, a strange tone on the over-confident bastard, "Alright. lead the way then, posh boy," Misha said, waving her hand in a gesture for him to continue walking.
He shrugged and strode forward, Yael bouncing on his left and Lux looking around curiously on his right. Jas glanced at Misha.
"I'm going to assume you have a plan if anyone asks what a bunch of weird kids are doing?"he asked, although he already knew she had multiple plans, each easily manipulated to whatever situation they might be thrown into.
"Obviously. Quite a classic one as well, field trip. We detached from our teacher and the rest of the students because we thought we saw one of our parents who works here," Misha explained. "However there's also the 'We got lost' card we can use, I prefer to use that one, less risk of exposure to lies."
He nodded, slipping his hands into the pockets of his trousers.
"A classic one," Jin remarked, her arm around her sister's shoulder. "By the way, that was one of your slickest pick yet." Jin smiled, but Misha simply rolled her eyes and said, "It was too easy, besides it was just a simple tumbler lock. I wish it was more challenging." She simply sighed, stretching her fingers in front of her. Her blue nail polish was starting to peel off, her golden ring seemed alone without her usual assortments of other rings, its little ruby glinting in the white light, two smaller moonstones on either side of it. It was a gift from Nami, the thought of the honey-sweet memory brought a small smile to her lips.
Misha's forehead hit Palo's broad back, she stumbled back in surprise more than pain. She peeped over his shoulder, wondering why he stopped walking.
"I suppose we should head downwards, right?" Yael asked, looking around at the others.
"Right, we need to get to an UE and back to Hell," Jas said, Yael nodded and started to go down the stairs with the others following her. The stairs were as spotless and white as the rest of the building.
Huge glassy windows showing the ground, it looked so far, Misha knew that if she fell through this window she would feel the thrill of the wind in her face, her wings folded so they wouldn't break against the strong window. At first she would go head first then slowly she'll switch her position so that her toes are pointed to the ground, her face to the fluffy clouds, then just when the ground seems to be too close she'll spread her wings and fly off to the clouds. Feeling the cold and harsh wind, her hands spread wide, trying to catch every bit of the wind. Lux calling her name brought her back to focus and out of her daydream, she looked in front of her and realised her friends were already a floor away, she rushed, skipping a few of the steps. Lux was waiting for her, their friends a few steps away, they began to go down the stairs once they saw her.
"Are you alright?" Lux asked, their perfect eyebrows slightly raised and their lavender eyes trained on her face. She smiled and nodded. "Fine. Just got distracted for a moment"
She brushed her short blue hair away from her eyes, pulling out a small red hair tie and pulling up her hair in a bun as she and Lux went down the stairs.
The hair tie didn't belong to her and she usually didn't even use it, but she always seemed to have it on her, with or without realising it.
The spiralling stairs were persistent and eventually tiring Yael and Jin, who had the shortest legs in the gang. Yael walked in front of all of them as they walked through the door, it led them to another white, ugly hallway with unmarked doors.
There was a man walking with his head bent down, looking at the papers in his hands. He was wearing clean red ruby with pale green, like a muted turquoise contrast trim scrubs.
His dark hair dishevelled and in small braids that hung around his ear, his pale eyes moving fast along the lines. Palo walked towards him and stopped in front of him, startling him as his crazy pale eyes looked up at Palo who towered over him and was grinning his princely smile that made people nickname him the Feline Prince.
"So sorry to bother you, sir. But we're a bit lost, do you mind directing us to the lifts?" He asked. He had dilated his pupils to look like regular human's pupils, but still had his golden shine.
"Oh… Of course, it's…um.." the strange man hesitated looking around, just as confused and lost as the rest of them. "It's actually where I'm going… so just … follow me," he said, and he continued to walk, his pale eyes glancing from the bunch of weird kids he's leading and then back to his papers, glancing back at them every few steps. Misha could tell he was nervous, maybe it's their strange appearance or perhaps he has never seen children, both possibilities being very valid and highly probable.
Jin slowed down, walking next to Misha who was walking behind everyone, ensuring they were all following the strange man. They both looked at each other with their eyebrows raised and their eyes slightly narrow. It was their way of asking 'what is this dude's deal?' Jin smiled and shrugged, her eyebrows going to their regular position and her eyes narrowed down, she gave a quick glance towards the pale eyed man then back at Misha, 'What lie are we telling?'
Misha leaned towards her sister and mouthed,'we got lost during the school trip. He seems lost anyway, he won't know anything about it.'
Jin nodded, she walked slightly faster and whispered to Lux the plan then to Yael, who nodded at Palo whose ears twitched when he heard the plan so he whispered it to Jas, he turned around and grinned back at Misha with his thumbs up.
This was their strange way of communication. Efficient and quick as the whole affair only took less than a minute, and that way all of their stories would match.
The man hadn't even noticed anything but took a right through a doorway without a door, it was a small room with three lift doors on their left and more stairs on their right, but in front of them was another hallway without walls, well it did have walls but made out of huge glass windows, it was one of the bridges that led to the other building.
The man stood still, his gaze down at the papers in his hands. Jas stepped forward and pressed the button down, the man didn't even notice. Misha stepped quietly behind him, peeping from his shoulder, pretending as if she was looking at the hallway, but she wasn't. She looked down at the papers in his hands, skimming through the lines. There was a liner chart on the bottom of the page with a green line going down towards the end and a pink line stabilising in a clear almost straight line, on the top corner of the chart was written in clear mechanical font, 'NHS RS's report on the Sanctuary '. She took a step back, unsure how to react to the new info, her frown attracted Jin's questioning look, she was too short to be able to read the papers the way Misha did so she relaxed her muscles and looked down briefly with her hand on the back of her neck. She had used this gesture thousands of times, it had a simple meaning, It meant 'not now'. Jin nodded. Her long blue braids have come undone, her purple hair ties missing and her thick hair is in mismatched waves and curls, and when she nodded her curls bounced, it reminded Misha of the sea waves Jin loves so much.
There was a light ping, like a bell and the lift doors opened. The strange man walked in first not really looking where he's going and stumbled a bit when he walked straight into a tall man with paper white skin and a pastel yellow suit, who smiled apologetically and walked out of the lift, there were two women in the lift now and the strange man and the gang. The women were both wearing pastel colours, one a sickly pale pink suit and with a bright magenta tie, her brown hair in a tight bun, the other an ugly shade of pale blue skirt and a button up white shirt that actually complimented her dark eyes and blond curls that fell on her shoulder.
They were talking excitedly in low voices, they stopped briefly to greet the man, smiling and calling him John with respect.
Both of the women glanced at the strange group of the vibrant and wear-down appearance of the teenagers, the brown haired one glanced at 'John' perhaps hoping he would explain who they were, but his eyes were glued down to the papers.
Jin stepped to the giant panel of buttons and pressed G. There were also underground floors, but something caught Misha's eyes as her eyes looked over the many buttons, there was no 0, G button than -1. She didn't know why it bothered her, it's like the memory is tickling her prefrontal, maybe it was normal in the human cities not to have a 0 button.
The woman in pink turned away from her blonde friend and towards Jin, "Excuse me young lady. May I inquire what brings you youngsters to this place?" she asked, her tone clearly telling them that they don't have much of a choice but to reply.
"Well, I must be honest. We're mostly lost around this big place,"Jas said charmingly before Jin could say something, Misha had to turn her face away to hide her smile, he was a natural at bending the truth and he would make a great politician when the time comes. She saw Jin's grin hiding behind her uneven vibrant blue hair.
"You just happened to wander through the building unaware?"The blonde lady scoffed in disbelief.
"Obviously not, We were here to see my friend's Mama, she works here," Palo interrupted, putting on a small smile. This caught the attention of the strange man.
"In what department? Is she in the labs?" he asked curiously, his pale eyes looking down at Yael, who glanced briefly at Misha who nodded, so Yael nodded to John and asked,"Yes. how did you know?"
"Mery right? Lovely woman, always goes on about her kid and their friends,"John said, his eyes glancing into each of their eyes "So which one of you is hers?" he asked, Yael smiled, her dimples showing. "It's me."
He looked at her, his pale eyes looking her up and down "It's nice to meet you, Charlotte."His voice soft and low, but his tone is pointed, he looked back down at his papers. This silenced the women for a few seconds, but Misha noticed they were both glancing at Palo than at each, their eyes narrow in suspicion. The door pinged again and they were on floor 20, and a tall woman in a pale green suit walked in and nodded at both of the women in acknowledgment. She frowned slightly when she saw the gang standing in a corner of the lift, John standing between them and the women. The woman in green reached for the G button and saw it was already pressed.
Misha saw the way the women looked at each, giving little signals the same way Misha and Jin secretly interact with one another. Misha gave Jin a little tag on her wavy hair, without turning she gave a quick glance at Misha, before turning her gaze back to the women, she brushed her fingers against the side of Misha's stomach, a warning 'prepare for possible attack'.
Misha barely had time to respond before the woman in green turned to Palo,
"Young man, I couldn't help but notice you're not wearing your tag, why is that?"
She asked, her eyes glancing down at Palo's bare wrist than at his golden eyes.
"Why would I wear a tag?" he asked, his smile not wide like his usual, keeping his fangs out of sight. This brought the attention of John and he looked up at the woman then glanced down at Yael.
His pale eyes met with Misha's dark blue eyes, and there was understanding there, he knew that none of them were human, that they shouldn't be here and that Yael wasn't Mery's child, let alone was called Charlotte. She could see the hesitation in his eyes for a brief second, then it was gone.
"It is the law, it is part of the Treaty. How is it you got in here without one in the first place?" she asked, frowning in suspicion. "Ms Edward, this is Mery's kid and her friends," John said, and before anyone could say anything more, the door pinged and opened. In an unspoken or gestured understanding the teenagers broke into a run even though the doors weren't fully opened yet, leaving behind strange but nice John and the pastel women. Startling a bunch of pastel wearing people, they stumbled back in surprise, like a flock of pastel geese being flown away by a strong wind.
Lux grabbed Jin's hand taking the lead and they ran straight for what looked like the entrance and exit, the pastel women shouting warnings and commands.
As they broke out onto the street, they all flinched at the bright light of the sun but didn't stop to get used to it. Someone grabbed Misha's hand and pulled her to run faster, looking down she saw the perfect black nails and fingers tainted in vibrant and faded colours and she knew it was Jas's hand. She could hear the shouts of surprise and anger, being in a human city was not on her list of things she wanted to do. She glanced behind her and saw at least 15 guards all dressed in white, a horrible choice as blood would be not easy to get out of it. She thinks of taking out her knife when she remembered, this isn't Hell. You can't just go knifing people, especially since the judges usually don't look kindly on non-humans.
The streets were filled with people, mostly humans. Misa wasn't sure how she knew that they were human, but the scent of a busy human street filled her nose, the scent intoxicating her, making her stumble a bit but Jas took her arm and steadied her.
The busy street almost parted away for them to run when they heard the white guards' shouts of 'non-humans impersonating humans' warnings. Please, why would anyone want to be a human? So weak and self-centred.
Jas was in the lead, sprinting but not sure where to. Palo grabbed his arm and pushed him to the road, Jas stumbled then ran before the colourful cars could run him over.
The others followed him, making the cars stop and blasting their horns.
As Yael ran across the street she made a rude gesture at the cars, grinning widely and sticking her tongue out. One of the cars, a low blue one, started the engine again in an attempt to run over Yael but she was too fast, even with her short legs.
Lux and Misha were the last ones, she looked back and saw the white guards already starting to cross the street. She raised her hand, she could feel the engines humming in her veins and she tugged on them, closing her outstretched hand, making all of the cars go onto the road, blocking the guards. There were shouts of surprise and anger. Misha could hear a man shouting after her, "Wretched Scum, Go back to Hell!"
She sent him a vulgar gesture, laughing with delight at his twisted ugly face.
Lux tugged on her arm, and they both ran following their friends, Palo waited for them and ran behind them making sure no one got left behind.
Jas took a quick left to a narrow alleyway, the others had no choice but to follow a bit unsure as to where their friend was going. Jas has completely stopped, breathing heavily and leaning on the alley wall. Jin, who at first didn't notice that he stopped, had to backtrack. "Shouldn't we continue to run away from human law enforcement?"Jin asked, sounding a little winded. Misha smiled at this, Jin always refused to go on runs with her and now she was paying the price.
"Hold up," Jas muttered, his palms on his knees and his head bent down still trying to catch his breath. They heard the shouts of the guards, Misha touched her fingers to the edge of the alleyway wall, and the guards ran oblivious to them and ran ahead ignoring the alley.
"Now, what?"Yael asked, her breaths already returning to their natural steady rhythm. Jas slid down to the ground, sitting with his hands around his knees.
"Now, we know for certain that humans are full of crap," he muttered, Misha knew that he was thinking of the file they saw at Edward's office and the way she talked to Palo.
"I mean, what are we going to do now?" Yael muttered, looking around at everyone. "Well, we don't have tags, so firstly we should make ourselves look more … you know…" Jas said, looking up at Palo, who sighed and nodded.
"Jin, do you happen to carry a mirror in one of those pockets?" he asked, and she shook her head. "Sorry, but no."
Misha reached to the pocket on her right thigh and pulled out a small circular mirror and handed it to Palo, smiling slightly, it wasn't a happy smile but a sympathetic one. She knew how much Palo loved his strange appearance. He took the mirror and checked himself, his fingers brushed over his eyes and his golden irises changed to a shade of brown, but when the bright sun hit his eyes she could see the honey shine. His fangs looked too small, but it looked more humane. It didn't suit him. He handed the mirror back to Misha who looked at her own reflection. She looked at her golden freckles against her dark skin, she changed them to be just dark brown, it looked boring. Her dark blue eyes were too vibrant so she dulled them down a bit. She glanced at Jin, her lavender pale skin was now just pale white with hints of pinkish orange, her yellow pupils turning black, but she left her blue hair alone.
"Great, now we look boring." She muttered, disappointed by their appearance.
"Firstly, I always look fabulous, and for that matter, so do you. Secondly the orange uniforms of prison would look bad on your blue hair and would ruin your whole aesthetic," Palo said. "So, I think it's safe to look boring for a few hours"
"Hours are too much, but you have a good point," Misha said, he nodded. She put the mirror back in her pocket and looked around.
"I still don't understand what that letter was about or what it means," Lux said, their eyebrows furrowed. The others looked at them, surprised.
"It means that humans here are the only ones who are truly free," Jin said softly, but Lux still looked confused so Misha tried to explain her theory,"NHS means non-human-specie, the tag that Edward talked about, it means your danger level and your specie. It means you're not human. Rehabilitation Sanctuary, it could be a lot of things. But my most likely theory is that they take non-humans and they try to make them more human, more harmless and easier to control."
∞
Sidenotes:
Name: Daru. J. Eliazo.
Specie: Hybrid: Siren (Maternal) and Angel (Paternal)
Pronouns: Answers to She/Her.
Likes: Tech and swimming.
Dislikes: People and talking to people (unless they're interesting)
BTW, 'Tarin' is the term to their Earth, which is different than ours, but there would be refrences to ours mostly through Palo.