Freak Experimentals

[Flamebird]

Freak Experimentals.



[Closed to Evian.]

[Flamebird]

A third serving was placed in front of her.

Chocolate pudding, cheesecake, chocolate and peanut butter mousse, snickerdoodle cookies, and marshmallow fruit salad. Felicity shook, taking a fork and immediately digging in, despite her stomach's protesting.

Felicity was in a bar, trying to find escape. She vowed to never drink again, but binge eating was still on the table. The warmth of the fireplace nearby offered a sense of physical pleasure as she gorged herself. She had so many regrets, too many regrets. She needed escape. She was already halfway done with her plate. There were seldom few people in the bar. Good thing, for Felicity was on the verge of tears. It all started when she found her old home in ruins, then the regrets never stopped.

Felicity shook her head, forcing herself to swallow the sweets. The aromas of food and drink swirled around her. The bar, despite having only one or two guests, had people cooking as if expecting a feast.

Felicity sniffed the air. Was that strawberry shortcake she smelled? She would need some of that.

Slumped in her chair, Felicity continued on her gluttonous rampage. She needed escape from her sins, and this was currently her best option. She shoveled some of the mousse into her protesting mouth.

[Reytac]

Sugar after sugar vanished into what Evian was coming to believe was actually a portal to a bottomless pit that was masquerading as a redheaded girl. It was actually kind of interesting, in a macabre, disturbing way.

The redheaded girl had come in, and if she hadn't been projecting an air of depression that made it hard to see her as anything other than sad, he would have said she had come storming in. As it was, though, she had all but collapsed into her seat and started ordering anything and everything that the bar and attached restaurant had that had kind of high sugar content in it. He supposed it was a good thing that he'd heard one of the waiters mentioning that the chefs were experimenting with new things for the menu today.

She hadn't seemed to even register that he was nearby when she took her seat, and started ordering. So he had an almost front row seat to watching the sugar-laden foods vanishing past thin lips cracked by chapping, where the food apparently ceased to exist for all it was doing to her. He was disturbed, and a bit impressed that she was managing to eat so much. Still, it looked like she was starting to struggle, her three-fingered - and he wondered where her pinky went - hand quivering slightly as she kept forcing food into her system. Evian caught a waiter's gaze and beckoned him over.

"Might want to bring a bucket soon. And a mug of water." He inclined his head towards the girl, who paid the two no heed. The waiter, a gangly boy who looked to be not much younger than the girl in question, took a look at the redhead then nodded rapidly. He scurried away, avoiding another waitress who was bringing out yet another dessert.

Evian had seen plenty of people drinking to forget their woes. This was the first time he had ever seen someone literally gorging themselves to accomplish the same. He sat back and sipped on his mead, waiting for the eventual spectacle that was sure to come after this much force feeding.

[Flamebird]

Eventually, a throbbing overtook her throat. Felicity tried and failed to swallow what she knew was coming up. Thankfully, a waiter had magically appeared with a bucket. Felicity threw her fork aside and grabbed the bucket. The entire table rattled as she barreled to the side of the wooden seat. Vomit poured into the bucket as the half-neanderthal shook. It kept coming. Felicity was throwing up for perhaps over a minute before it was finally over. She grimaced, refusing to look into the bucket. Her body felt weak from all the sweets she had consumed, her cognitive functions flooded with the rot of treats. She looked to the table to see a tall glass of water. She started cleaning her mouth with the water. She gurgled, spat into the bucket, and repeated. She ordered a second water as well, needing to drown the manufactory sweets with pure, fresh water. At least, she was chugging water as the bucket laid aside on the floor.

Felicity lowered the glass, water dropping from her jaw. She looked down to the half eaten caramel cream sundae and knew she needed to stop. She sighed, pushing the dish away and resting her head on the wooden table.

She looked up to see that someone had been watching her the whole time. A dark haired man with a blue-amethyst coloring in his eyes. Felicity glared at the clean cut, awe struck person. "What you looking at?"

[Reytac]

“A whirlpool made flesh, almost.” Evian chuckled and took another slow drink of his mead before tilting it towards the redhead. “Over indulging, check. Vomiting up, check, though a bit earlier than most manage. And most people would go for alcohol, not every dessert the cooks have made that day.” As the girl glared at him, he watched one of the staff quickly whisk the used bucket away, leaving an empty one behind. He leaned back in his seat and drummed the fingers of one hand against the wood of the table. “You’re welcome, by the by.”

It was unusual, to say the least. These days most young ladies didn’t go out on their own, much less try to eat their sorrows away on their own. At least not at this time of day. So there was probably someone out there waiting on her, somewhere. He shook his head slightly - ruminations for another time, one that didn’t really change anything right now. This girl looked tough enough to handle herself if someone did try something, anyway. Or she would, if she wasn’t shaking a bit from her bout of upheaval, and the sugar rush. “Now then. If nothing else, I know sugary food probably turns the stomach now. You need something simple and plain. See if they have some wheat bread or the like. Help settle that roiling gut you’ve got going.” It was advice sore gained from one too many nights of troubled stomach himself - though her problem was not the same as what had caused his in the past.

[Flamebird]

Felicity was actually touched that someone had not only suggested the bucket, but was trying to help her out even more. The redhead sighed, letting go of the embarrassment induced anger. "... Thank you."

She ordered the white bread at the kind stranger's suggestion. Felicity leaned forward, resting her chin and muscular arms against the wooden table. Huddled, Felicity waited in somber silence as the waiter brought the bread. Felicity took a long look at the sad plate of the single plain slice of bread. After several long seconds of introspection, she reached out and took the bread. As she lazily brought it to her mouth, still leaning on the table, the girl glanced at the person still sitting across from her.

Ugh. People. Felicity was really starting to hate people. All people ever did was hurt her. Even the people closest to her. Why was Felicity so invested in them? Why this sorrow? Why was this stranger being so kind to her, when people were not kind to people? Felicity tried to be a kind person, but she failed again and again to the point of giving up. Yet, here this stranger was, being kind. She needed to know why. And she needed to know why the random act of kindness to a nauseous woman touched her so deeply.

"You know, you're not so bad…" Felicity took a nibble of the bread and slowly swallowed without much chewing, "What's your name?"

[Reytac]

"Good, bad, it's quite often a matter of perspective. I mean that more.. Metaphorically than literally." Evian have a lop-sided smile as he spoke. "turning around won't make a good person bad, or a bad one good. Why will, though, is who is calling them good or bad." This kind of thing had been on Evian's mind a lot lately. Good and bad, laws and morals and the like. Being stared at by death walking tends to do that, apparently. "A knight might be a beacon of hope for his people, the ones behind his shield. They see the shining steel that guards them. But the men in front of his sword curse him and despise him. They only see the crimson-stained iron that ends lives." He shook his head to banish the morose thoughts.

"Sorry about that. Apparently I get philosophical or something when I've drunk too much." He hadn't drunk all that much, but no need to worry the girl with thoughts and ideas he was still struggling through in his own mind. Evian's lopsided smile straightened out, widening into a full grin as he tipped his mug towards the girl.

"You can call me Evian, little red." Fingers twisted, and rough wood met smiling lips as Evian took another drink of his mead before setting the mug down on the table. He turned in his seat, facing towards the scarred redhead fully, and leaned one elbow on the counter to prop his chin up on his palm.

"Now, it's far from my place so if you want me to keep my nose clear just let me know. But why are you here trying to uh, crush your sorrows in sugar? Hm, that phrase really does work better as 'drowning them.'" Evian paused a moment as he quipped, his lips quirking in thought at that. If she didn't want to tell him, that was fine. But something had to have happened for a girl who didn't even look to be out of her teens, for all her injuries, to be in a bar and trying to overdose herself on sweets.

[Flamebird]

Felicity scoffed, a sad chuckle of irony overtaking her. She pulled her head up a little as she listened to the young man monologue. He sounded quite like Shinsou in that way, she liked it. When he revealed his name, Evian, and asked how she wound up here, Felicity's mind reeled.

Where on earth would she possibly start?

Evian's monologue echoed in her mind. Felicity pushed herself up and took another small bite of bread. Her life was constant insanity, it seemed. And it just kept getting crazier. Perhaps, Evian's monologue could explain it well.

Felicity swallowed the bread and lowered it to the plate. Looking down, she repeated some of his words. "A knight might be a beacon of hope for his people, the ones behind his shield. They see the shining steel that guards them."

Felicity looked away, harsh memories rolling in her mind. "But the men in front of his sword curse him and despise him. They only see the crimson-stained iron that ends lives.."

Felicity directly looked at Evian with exhausted, somber eyes. "I always wanted to be a hero."

The bar was a faded background to Felicity. Arms folded on the table, she slowly blinked. "I grew up shunned and cursed for my existence. In a culture that valued war, power, and a family name. I grew up determined to become a hero. So no one would have to go through what I did, and I would be adored and praised and never treated cruelly again."

Felicity closed her eyes. So many memories flooded her mind. Running away when she was fourteen. Being forced to watch her first mentor become a monster, then losing the family she returned to at fifteen. Leaving the apprenticeship of a shady alchemist at eighteen. Finding a new mentor and joining his organization, becoming a general. Then, failing to protect her home. Now, at nineteen her new home had been destroyed, her potential lover had betrayed her, she had failed to protect someone she and especially her mentor were close to. And now, she had recently taken the very life of the alchemist she had learned under.

She opened her eyes again. "All I've ever done was an attempt at heroism. But nearly every choice I made was a selfish mistake. Every time I have ever tried to take the high road, I failed. I never meant to kill, but I have accidentally taken lives on several occasions. Once, I killed willingly."

Her own words sent chills up her spine. She visibly shivered. "I failed to protect my home, my loved ones, and the people who counted on me. I wasn't strong enough."

She sadly smiled, a hint of amusement flashing then fading. "Now, I refuse to drink. The one time I got drunk I regretted what I did. But I need a break from what I'm feeling. And the usual thrill seeking doesn't numb me much right now."

Felicity looked down again, eyes narrowed. She frowned a dull frown again. She once again reflected on Evian's previous words. "Good and bad are a perspective, huh? Would you mind listening to a story and giving me your perspective on it? Considering that we probably won't meet again, maybe talking to a complete stranger, complete outsider would help."

[Reytac]

"Wanted to be a hero, huh?" So no one would have to go through what she did. Evian didn't know what exactly the redhead had gone through, but he did know something. He knew, intimately, the feel of cold steel and a clinical voice talking as metal met flesh and slid through it, the bands to hold him down chafing and tearing his skin as he thrashed. There had been no hero coming to his rescue, no one riding in to save him from the torments. His personal hell had never changed until he changed it. More than nearly anyone else, right now, she had reminded him of the hell of Salvar.

Slowly, slowly, Evian unclenched his other hand, the fingers on his leg having dug into his trousers as he was listening. This girl, she wasn't quite trapped by the rules and laws of society, just the ones she placed on herself. Except for maybe one. He didn't quite understand the reluctance to kill that the girl was showing - though, considering the way she had flinched when he was talking too much earlier, maybe he did. She didn't want anyone to see her as a monster. The dark haired man took in a slow, deep breath.

There was a serious juxtaposition between this redhead, trying to forget her past here, and the grizzled veteran he'd encountered recently. Evian lifted his hand up and gestured, rolling his palm out then back a few times. "Lay on, little red, lay on."

[Flamebird]

Felicity had noticed his tension, but was too caught up in her own woes to really reach for him. She leaned against the table again, understanding how cold and calloused she was becoming. She wondered if she really cared anymore. She took a long, deep sigh.

She began her story.

"I had gone through a lot as a little girl, but it never stopped my stupidity. I was fourteen when I ran away from home, with a mentor I never should have trusted. She offered power, and we seemingly found the answer in some alchemist. He had a serum he gave me."

Felicity grimaced, "He told me it was safe. He told me the side effects would be minor and I had nothing to worry about. He was a liar. He manipulated and whoo'd an impressionable fourteen year old into taking a deadly power, all just to further his own freak experiment."

Felicity looked down at her hands. "Every time I bleed, I get stronger. I physically get stronger, and radiation pours from my body. It burns, and it poisons without discrimination. It makes me rage, unnaturally, and attack even my friends in mindless madness. It's uncontrollable and frightening. He knew all about it, but hid it from me."

Felicity rolled her eyes, "I eventually became his apprentice in alchemy and botany. He told me we'd discover together what he already knew. He sent me on wild goose chases and kept me in the dark, so that I would stick around while he always took advantage of my cluelessness and powers."

She looked away, into the fire, "I could always tell he was shady. I disagreed with his business practices and left. I sort of dropped ever figuring my powers out until recently. They've been evolving again, and I'm scared of it. I returned to Daisuke, learned just how much he lied to me. He knew the ins and outs of the potion and never told me, only to perfect it and make it the ultimate weapon. When I finally saw the truth, I became so... angry..."

She reached up and grasped her forehead, "Turned out, he had hired another kid like me to repeat the process. He came in the same day I did. I got to witness his death to the serum injection, the injection I survived." She gritted her teeth, "Then he had the audacity to tell me he had a second injection for me to better control my powers. But I saw through that time. I had enough. That was it. I..."

Felicity's elbows pressed against the table as she rested her head in her hands. "I killed him. Willingly. I got angry, screamed at him and shoved my sword through his chest."

Felicity looked at Evian, "Tell me, do you think that's justified? Daisuke took advantage of a child, me, and lied for years. He experimented on me, twisted and defiled my very biology. These powers also poison my mind. If someone did that to you, would you kill them? To make sure they can't do that to anyone else? To unleash all the agony and make them pay for hurting you like that? Was it wrong, or right, what I had done? I have blood on my hands, and I spent hours trying but couldn't wash it off."