Juniper didn't comment when he talked about other people with even other physical mutations. She understood that there were people who had it worse than her physically but it didn't make her feel better. She felt the way she felt; she couldn't stop that. It had been hammered into her by her mother and her sense of self was so warped now that even if she wanted to look at herself in the mirror and see a pretty girl she couldn't. She only saw a monster. A freak. Though she would never ever see or say that about someone else. Mira, for example, might have had different coloured skin but she was beautiful.
Clearly apprehensive about going outside, Juniper just let herself be led, keeping her eyes covered and watching his feet as they headed the short distance from the barracks to the hologym.
When she looked around and the stark white room transformed in her very eyes into an open field at dusk, flowers and grass under her bare feet her eyes filled with tears that she quickly dashed away because she didn't want him to see her cry.
Her wings flexed and she looked at Marshall, hesitating only for a moment before she rolled her shoulders. Extending her wings to their full length it was possible to see just how impressive they were, and as she moved them up and down to build up the necessary pressure to lift herself off the ground, the wind they kicked up was impressive, it flattened the grass under her feet.
Moments later, though, she was in the air, soaring overhead, whirling and feeling, for the first time since she'd arrived, something close to free.