Who: Matty Mackey and Jin Ae Char What: OMG. WINGS. When: January 7, 2017 Where: Diner
Matty had stepped out of their apartment when Zayne came over to talk with Thursday. He needed to pick up food aka - he needed to get food they could reheat easily because he was not the best cook and he wanted something good for Thursday to eat instead of his crazy made up meals. Yeah, he was going to take this chance to sneak out. Well, not sneak out. He didn’t need to sneak out but he also didn’t want Thursday to think he had to be around all the time. He just wanted to be. Just in case. Argh. Was he rambling in his own head?
So he headed to the diner with a list of foods he remembered they had on their menu and foods that Thursday would eat. He got to the diner and went to the counter, talking to someone who worked there for what he needed. Yup, he got a strange strange look but he didn’t care. He went over to the booth and flopped down. It would take some time for everything to be cooked. That was okay. Matty had the time. He stretched out when he saw one of the waitresses. He sat up. Oh. Em. Gee. She had wings. She had really pretty wings. Would it be weird to glomp her? Probably. He fidgeted. Maybe he should stay put. He just didn’t see people with wings, like, ever! And she had a shirt! That meant people made wing clothing. Okay. That’s it.
He hopped up and walked over to her, “I’m sorry for interrupting but where did you get your shirt?” Did he realise what that sounded like? Nope. Not at all.
So, Jen had discovered two issues she had to overcome working at the diner. The first she’d already expected was the multitude of colors in the air and around the people. The second she’d learned was that her wings got in the way a lot. It had only been a few months she’d had them, and this was the first time she’d been really active with them. They didn’t really ‘fold’ well, so she just tried to keep them close to her back, which sort of made her a little wider than normal and so that had taken some getting used to before. It was close to the end of her shift and she was dropping off the check at her last table when she saw a white haired man approach her.
Jen turned and smiled politely- which quickly faded into a brow furrow of confusion. She looked down at her shirt, the uniform shirt she’d been given by the diner (alterations made by her). “It’s… the uniform.” She replied. “The diner supplied it.”
Matty made a face and waved his hands, “No no. I mean, clearly, it’s diner uniform. I can tell but you have it altered for your wings, which are really pretty by-the-way. I have never seen clothing altered for wings. Did you buy it? Is there somewhere that sells clothing like that?” It was all he could do from trying to look at her back to see if there was a big “MADE BY” stamp attached. Not it would be visible but still. He took a deep breath. Okay. Hold back. Let her answer. Stop being so damn weird for five seconds. 1… 2… 3… 4… 5…
“Oh…” Jen half glanced behind her and shook her head. “No I just scissors and a needle and thread.” She replied. “My mom taught me to sew when I was younger, said it was a skill that would always come in handy- it definitely has. It does make all my shirts a little drafty though, so that sucks.” She smiled, adding because of his compliment. “And thanks.”
Matty pouted and said, “Damn. I was really hoping there was someone around here that made clothing for wings.” Well, that just sucked. He probably should stop pouting about it. It wasn’t going to change anything and he could wear clothing, as long as his wings weren’t out, which sucked. Cool mutant powers; always having to hide them.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to jump on you. I was just hopeful,” Matty flashed her a smile, “Thanks anyway.” Maybe one day a seamstress would come.
Jen was confused. “Why are you hopeful for that?” She asked, from her perspective she was the one with the issue and she’d found a solution herself.
Matty would have loved to show Jen his wings but his were bigger than hers and if he stretched them out, well, people would get tickled with feathers or get hit or things would break and, yeah, there was a reason why he kept them hidden. Other than the clothing thing, which was pretty big reason, actually.
“I need shirts that accommodate wings and if you knew someone, I would probably pounce on them like a little kid on candy,” Matty explained.
Jen tilted her head, sort of trying to see if she was missing something. He didn’t appear to have wings, she glanced down briefly to make sure she hadn’t missed anything coming out from under his shirt. “Oh…” She was still a little confused. “Do you know someone else who has wings? I mean I might be able to show them how to alter a shirt maybe.”
Once again, Matty realised that he was probably only telling half the story. Especially when she looked at him like he had wings. Which he did. He looked sheepish and said, “I have wings. You can’t see them. I can hide them but they are beautiful and huge and wings. It gets uncomfortable sometimes to have them hidden all the time but I can’t really walk around shirtless. I could. I have a nice chest but I really shouldn’t. Especially when it’s cold outside. Or even shirts at home? Are nice but when wings are out? Shirts are gone.”
“You can hide your wings?” Well that made things make sense. “Do they hurt every time they come out?” Ok, maybe that question was a little personal, but Jen remembered the pain when her wings had basically exploded from her back (or that’s how it felt) and, while she can’t hide them, couldn’t imagine that happening every time if she could. She then saw her last table get up and leave. “Sorry, wait. Hold on. I’m almost off. I should go clock out before I get into trouble.” Jen held up a hand and quickly moved over to the table to clear it and slipped the cash for the check into her apron.
Jen returned after finishing up what she had to do, no longer in her uniform but a pair of light blue jeans and a white t-shirt with a heart and flower design on it complete with slits for her wings. “Sorry.” She said, approaching Matty’s table with a small smile.
Matty opened his mouth to answer when she told him to wait. He nodded and went back to his booth. He glanced towards the kitchen, wondering how long it would take for his food to be done. Probably a wee bit longer. It was okay. He could talk to… to… okay, he didn’t know her name. Did she have a name tag? He didn’t look.
He smiled when she came back and said, “I’m waiting for food. Well, for a lot of food because I can’t cook worth anything. Do you mind lingering at work a bit longer?” He assumed she wouldn’t because he kept talking, “It’s not painful anymore. It was the first time? But I’ve hidden them and hidden them so often now…” he trailed off. Okay. Not talking about the experiment, “It’s mostly uncomfortable. Like poking a bruise but it’s more uncomfortable to keep them hidden for a long period of time. In short, wings are awesome.” He looked at her shirt and asked, “Can I see the back? How did you do it?”
She didn’t mind waiting, she loved talking to people and it also meant she didn’t have to wait for the new way Quentin was going to try to ‘montage’ them learning their connection that day. She made a face as he mentioned pain the first time and nodded. “There was a lot of tearing and bleeding and…” She shook her head. “But it’s kinda cool that you can hide them. Mine are kinda just always here now.” Jen considered his question for a moment, she wasn’t a stranger to people looking at her wings. The doctor her mother took her to and all the other medical people who came in to have a look, the people who had evaluated her when she arrived at the island… but not a lot of random people asked. Probably because they thought it was rude- which she guessed it kind of was. But this man wasn’t asking to look at her wings, but her shirt- which was a little strange… provided she didn’t have the context.
“Sure.” Jen placed her shoulder bag on the other seat of the booth and stepped over before turning to let him see. Her four ‘feathers’ twitched slightly while she kept the other panels of her wings relaxed down her back. The shirt had a slit, slightly larger than the connection point of her wings just big enough to squeeze her largest ‘panel’ through. The edges of each slit had been reinforced with satin stitches around the edges.
Matty nodded, “I remember when my wings first appeared. I thought I was going to die.” He was also in prison and he knew what happened to people when they showed mutations. Well, he knew they disappeared. He also hadn’t been thinking that at the time as that he was thinking about he was pretty sure he was going to die because his back hurt so badly. What? He was growing new bones. Ouch.
He looked at her shirt, frowning slightly. This would not work. Her wings were different. She was a pixie. He wondered what her wings felt like. He knew he liked his wings being touched but it didn’t mean that she liked it. He moved back and smiled, “Thanks. I asked you, like, all the awkward questions. Well, not all. There are probably more.”
Jen moved around to the other side of the booth and shrugged slightly. “It’s ok. There’s been lots of awkward questions- you kinda get used to them. Better than people just sitting and staring at you.” She smiled. “Or the awkward questions you ask yourself. Like, ‘how does showering work now’.” Jen giggled.
Matty grinned and nodded, “Yes! Or does human shampoo work on feathers? Or do I need to buy that dish soap that’s good for oiled animals? And do I really want to be cleaned with a dish soap?” Matty laughed, “I know I’m lucky to be able to hide them. It does save on the staring. Though I don’t really care if they stare. Do you get a lot of questions?”
“My biggest fear was ‘can I even get them wet’, thankfully yes- they’re just fine wet.” She admitted, as far as his question went, she hadn’t found people too interested. “Only from the doctors and the people when I arrived. I think other people are too scared or nervous of being offensive to ask.” She answered honestly. “I’m Jen by the way.” Jen laughed slightly, she was really bad about introducing herself until half way through a conversation. “So, your wings are feathers?”
“Hi Jen! I’m Matty,” Matty was equally as bad but it didn’t matter. They got their names now and that was important, wasn’t it? He nodded and said, “I know. I had all the questions and yeah. So did everyone else.” And they pushed him to learn what he could do, if he could fly, how high, how long. He didn’t want to think about the experiments. He nodded at her question and said, “They look a lot like angel wings; white and big and feathers. Super soft. I often encourage petting,” he laughed, “What about you? Do you like your wings being touched? Or is it weird?”
It was strange, his purple was full of yellow, but sometimes she saw bits of black show briefly- not nearly as black as other peoples. “I… don’t know.” Jen answered honestly. “I mean it was kinda uncomfortable when the doctors and nurses were like, examining me but beyond that,” and the person who’d examined her when she arrived. “No one’s really touched them. I’ve only had them for a couple of months… and haven’t really made a ton of friends since coming to the island. I spent the first few weeks hiding in my room,” After meeting her… interesting roommate. “Because of migraines.” Migraines she now thought were made worse because of Quentin. “So I still don’t know a lot of people and my roommate doesn’t seem to be a real physical type person- not in a friendly way at least.” She was sure the guy would pick a fight at the drop of a hat, but comforting a friend? No way.
Matty felt sad for a moment when she said she hadn’t made a lot of friends. If it was one thing people needed on this island was friends. They really needed another party after what happened New Year’s Eve, something to perk everyone up. The government should pay for that but he knew that would never happen.
So he flashed Jen his biggest grin and said, “Well, we are now friends and now that I’ve said that and offer to pet your wings, that sounds a little pervy so I’m not going to do that but if you want to hang out sometime, I’m always game. Plus you can meet Thursday and have more friends.” Yup, being friends with Matty meant being friends with Thursday. They were a packaged deal.
“Cool.” She said, completely accepting that. “It’ll be nice to hang out with people who aren’t always grumbly- like my roommate.” Jen giggled slightly. “And you know, if you want food not bought from here- which the food here isn’t bad so it’s not a bad choice- but I love to cook. So, like, you can come over for dinners and stuff- the more the merrier. Well I can’t promise my roommate will be merry, but he tends to stop complaining when he’s eating.” She laughed.
“Awww, why is your roommate grumbly?” Matty asked. He lit up when Jen offered to cook for him and Thursday. He loved a person who could cook and he immediately asked, “Would it be weird to hug you? Because offering for coming over for dinner? Deserves hugs. All the hugs really.” He did pause then ask, “Who is your roommate? Is he new too? Does he like hugs?”
“I think it’s his default personality setting.” Jen joked with a chuckle. The yellow around him got brighter as he asked if he could hug her. “I don’t think he likes hugs- I’m ok with them, but he’s not really into other people.” Or at least that’s the conclusion she’d come up with. Beyond his conspiracies and foul mouth, he didn’t seem to really like anything or anyone (except being a jerk). “His name is Quentin, and yea he’s new too. We got here on the same day and were assigned to the same house. And as far as inviting you over… I always cook too much and have leftovers.”
When Jen said she was okay with hugs, Matty was up on his feet and he gave Jen a hug. He was careful of her wings but hey, hugs were hugs and he liked giving hugs. Then he flopped down on the bench again.
“Grumpy should not be a default personality setting,” Matty said, “But there is another guy around here, whose default personality is grumpy too. I think he needs more hugs but one day I tried and, yeah, not doing that again.” Matty shivered at the thought, “So. Yes. Food. I love food. Me and food? BFFs until I eat it.”
“I think I saw him at the new years party, he was very black- well not all black, purple and black… he kinda looked like a bruise.” She recalled the spot of darkness she’d pointed out to Zayne. “Quentin isn’t nearly as dark, but the dark makes him look like halloween with his orange.” Jen was rambling again about something that no one else could understand. She’d spent so long not talking about it because they were afraid she had something wrong with her that now she realized it meant something she forgot sometimes that others couldn’t see what she saw- now if she could only fully understand what things meant. Her first lesson in training was okay, and they’d come up with a plan of attack, but thus far it was just a plan.
Matty blinked at Jen and then asked, “He looked like a bruise? He was attacked before the party? Wait. Orange? I’m confused.” He thought back if he had seen, oh, what was his name? Phobia? Phobic? Whatever. Didn’t matter. He needed Jen to draw him a picture of what she was talking about because he didn’t know what colour confused was but that was him right then.
She grimaced for a moment and covered her face. “Sorry.” Looking back to Matty, Jen tucked some hair behind her ears. “It’s the other thing I can do I guess. I can see colors- it’s apparently energy? I’m not sure that that means, but I kinda see colors everywhere. Like clouds and ribbons and stuff.” She still hadn’t gotten down exactly how to explain it. “So, like Quen has this orange color around him- looks almost like what they draw aura’s as in those spiritual books. And then he frequently has these black ribbons that like swirl in the orange.” Yea, she sounded like a crazy person.
Matty didn’t think she sounded like a crazy person. These mutations manifested itself in a lot of different ways. Sometimes they sucked but other times they seemed really cool; like being able to see colours.
“Oh that sounds really neat!” Matty said, “What colour am I?” He looked down at his hands. He had no colours. Well, no colours that weren’t normally there. He wanted to see colours too. Though he was probably glad he didn’t see colours; could you imagine what the experiment people would do with that? Pass.
“Neat, that causes headaches.” And can be overwhelming. “Not everyone has a color, outside of yellows and blacks… but those aren’t always there either. But you have a kind of purple color.” Lots of people seemed to have purple. “And definitely yellow swirls,” Jen frowned a moment. “But sometimes some black creeps in- never for long though.” She shrugged slightly. “Don’t ask me what it means… I have no idea. They told me it’s energy… but I haven’t figured out what all the colors are yet.”
“Ick, headaches aren’t fun,” Matty said. He looked down at himself again. Yellow with some black? Was he a bumblebee? Now that would be fun. He was totally game to be a bumblebee. He even had wings! Wrong kind of wings and no bee bits. Okay, not a bee for him.
“Energy? Okay, minus the pain bits, it does sound cool. I’m curious to know what the colours mean when you figure it out,” Matty leaned forward, “It’s a shame our abilities didn’t come with some sort of manuel. Would make a lot of things simpler.”
Jen smiled softly. “Medicine helps with the pain. Apparently one of the trainers can actually absorb energy so we’re gonna see if that helps. Like he knows what he absorbs I guess so hopefully I can figure out a lot of the colors from that.” It was as good of a plan as anything. “The only one I think I know is electricity.” She said, gesturing to the light above her head. “Because like almost everything that uses electricity,” Which was a lot of stuff. “Has the same color.”
“He absorbs energy?” Matty repeated, “Aren’t you afraid that’s going to mess with your abilities? Or hurt them in some way?” Matty may be slightly nervous about experimenting with abilities but he knew the risks. He frowned, “This guy doesn’t work for the government, does he? You’ll have people you know around you? Someone you trust?” He realised he may be sounding paranoid but the world was a terrible place.
She shrugged. “I don’t know why it would? I mean maybe it might get too bright and could be more headaches, but all I do is see the stuff. I’ve never been able to touch them or anything.” Though the guy at registration seemed to think she might be able to learn how. “And I’m not sure. Rahim works in the facility, but he has an ID like everyone else. He seems like a nice person- doesn’t talk a lot. A little intimidating.”
Matty waved his hand and said, “Ignore me. I’m just paranoid about people because some people aren’t to be trusted but if he seems legit then hopefully he is.” Though that didn’t mean much but he wasn’t going to go raining on Jen’s parade. “I hope it works and you figure out the colours and whatnot. I want to know why I’m a bumblebee.”
Jen nodded. “You’re not bumblebee a lot.” She said, “Only sometimes- and only a little bit… Lot more purple than anything. But yea, I guess I trust him- I trust most people… unless I have a reason not to.” She was the type to always look on the positive. Some would probably say she was naive, and yea probably she was, but she preferred to believe in people from the get go instead of making them earn her trust. Of course once it was broken it was broken, but the world was a much nicer place if you assumed the best.
“Dang. Oh well, then I’ll be a purple-person-eater like the rest of people,” Matty said with a grin. Rawr. What was the song? A one-eyed-one-horned-purple-people-eater? That sounded vaguely dirty. He’d have to look it up later.
Matty didn’t want to be the one to tell her not to trust people. He also didn’t want her to learn otherwise. So he nodded then asked, “Did your family not come with you to the island?”
She shook her head. “No. My dad’s work is really important and my brother is in school and none of them developed strange things or got sick.” Jen missed her family, but would have hated if they had uprooted themselves for her. “And since I’m 18 now… It was about time I moved out on my own anyhow.” She said with a smile. “Of course, if my dad found out I had a boy as a roommate, it would completely freak out.” Jen laughed at the thought. Hell, she’d freaked out herself. Almost went to find a new housing assignment until things got weird.
“What does your dad do? If I can ask?” Matty asked. He didn’t really think that was a reason especially since coming off this island wasn’t really going to be a thing but maybe she didn’t know that. He wasn’t going to tell someone else that. Argh. Stop being a grumbly bumblebee and, hey, what happened to his food? He hoped Thursday was okay with Zayne. He was sure he was. Zayne came with coffee.
“Hey, roommate is not as bad a bedmate,” Matty said with a wink, “and even if he was a bedmate, who cared? As long as you are happy, right?”
“He works for Boeing. He kinda helps design planes.” She answered matter of factly. “And yes, if there was only one room I would definitely be in another place.” Jen hadn’t ever had a boyfriend or even gone on a date before. So the idea of sleeping with someone was so far away. Not that she didn’t want to date someone or have crushes, but she had priorities. “I almost did as it was, but ended up deciding to stay and make the best of the situation I was given.”
“Hey! That’s cool!” Matty said. He thought about what if he only had one room at their house? Eh, probably wouldn’t be radically different. He liked cuddle time with Thursday. She did not seem to cuddle with her roommate. Then again, she said he wasn’t very nice.
“Well, maybe you’ll make a new friend with him,” Matty said, “Or make him… didn’t you say he was dark? Find out what that means.”
“I think it has something to do with bad… like… vibes?” She was stupid, and some colors she had theories on, like the lights. Jen had been a straight A student and on honor roll after all. She was admitted into an IVY league college. “Like yellow is happy and black is sad? But I think it’s more than just happy and sad you know?” She shrugged slightly. “Everything is just a guess until I know for sure- like the lights.” And then there were some she just wasn’t sure about, like the sickly green cloud that was faint but sort of permeated a lot of the island and her hometown and other places she’d been in Washington (which hadn’t been many). And what did purple mean?
Matty titled his head. He liked to think of himself as happy. He liked being yellow. What was the black? When he thought about the experiment? Was that why he was a bumblebee? He looked down at his hands again. Very interesting and weird.
“I guess you are going to need to get to know a lot of people and a lot feelings and emotions so you can tell,” Matty said, “Do you keep of notebook? So you can see patterns?”
“I should keep a notebook.” She chuckled. “I should see if they have colored pencils or crayons on the island too.” Jen could picture already trying to find the right crayola color to match what she sees. “Patterns? Kinda. I mean, like, okay, so, the purple around you.” She said sort of waving her hand to signify the area around him. “Looks kinda smokey and is kinda like a cloud shape. The yellow kind of exists in it, like wrapping around it without actually wrapping, looks like wavy string. There's a lot of little orange bursts like tiny fireworks that normally happen all over, but are sometimes, mostly real faint. There's a light, sick green fog outside that looks like fog as it's going away for the day. Sometimes they look like waves or ribbons or even as thin as thread. Some seem to be consistent, while others seem to be random.” Jen took a breath, not having realized how much she'd rambled.
Matty tried to imagine what she saw. He ended up just staring at his hands again. He didn’t understand any of it. He frowned, thinking and said, “Does everyone have purple? Or green? Could it deal with our abilities or something?” He waved his hand again. No colours appeared. Not that he thought it would.
“Amazon,” Matty said randomly, “You could get new crayons and stuff and order them to the island?”
“That's a good idea too!” She'd only been on the island a little while and so she hadn't ordered anything or thought about ordering anything. Then she realized she didn't have a credit card or anything. Maybe her parents would order it for her? “I'll reach out to my mom tomorrow. See if she can help.” Jen smiled. Circling back to his other question. “Not everyone has one. Like the guards don't have spiffy colors for the most part, and like the guy at the counter,” she tilted her head, not wanting to be rude and point. “But I know he's a mutant. I think he's super strong?”
“I can probably give you a list of places that ship here,” Matty said, “There aren’t a lot but it’s better than the selection in the Marketplace. Though I’m still hoping we’ll get someone to make shirts for me.” He wasn’t sure how that would work, however.
Matty glanced at the guy at the counter, “Weird. Maybe it has to do with…. I don’t know. I have nothing.” He shrugged.
Jen laughed. “That's why I'm here.” Her wings twitched slightly, sitting on a couch or booth style seat had gotten interesting since her wings, a chair at least had space on the side of her that her wings could hang down, it wasn't as easy or comfortable in a booth. At least she'd gotten better about sitting on them. “So, is it weird?” She asked, leaning in to him. “Your wings? I mean like suddenly having this new appendage is, of course, strange. But the things people don't think about, like suddenly having nerves and stuff in said new appendage. I mean you read about it and see it in movies and stuff and you don't actually realize that these things come with all the same aspects as your hands or feet.” Yea now she was rambling again. “Like you see in movies pain represented, which makes sense. But like just having the air blow over my wings, or the way temperature feels or anything really…” Okay maybe she wasn't getting her point across about how strange it was, but maybe because he had wings too he'd get it.
Matty got it. He had thought about that too on occasion, “Yeah, or what does it do to your insides that you can’t see? I mean, I have to figure that my bones are lighter or something because I can fly. I have a huge wingspan but still. I don’t know. People weren’t born to fly and yet I’m a bird. Well, more an angel.” He winked at Jen. He hoped she knew he was kidding and didn’t think he was calling himself a real angel like Dia seemed to at first.
“This whole mutation thing is strange, which is why the government wanted to experiment on people. Why not learn what you can? Sure, consent is great and everything but who knows how long these mutations are going to last?” Matty rolled his eyes.
“Or how I can hover and my wings can't be as strong as yours- and are probably smaller too.” She smiled, happy he understood and it was cool he'd thought about those types of things too. The angel comment slid by her. “And like what are these.” She pointed up to the four independent ‘feathers’. “They have to serve a purpose right?” It kind of annoyed her that she didn't have as much control over them as her wings, they were just sort of there.
Jen frowned a little about the experiment comment. Of course she'd heard rumors about it, but really hates to think that there were people bad enough to do that. Sometimes groups of people acted poorly when individuals themselves mean well. “I like the wings, but I can think of one mutation that would be nice to lose.” She didn't even mean the colors- being linked with a surly conspiracy theorist would be nice to lose.
“I’m sure they have a purpose. All these mutations must have a purpose,” Matty said. Though for what, he wasn’t sure. He didn’t really think it was the next stage of evolution. It had to be some sort of non-funny cosmic joke. Or something. It wasn’t funny or fun in anyway.
“What’s that?” Matty asked, not thinking of her own abilities but that she was referring to one in general.
“Like we're all designed for a reason? You kind of sound like my roommate. He's always equating things to movie plots and stuff. Kept mentioning needing to have a montage where we learned out powers.” Jen said, shaking her head slowly. Jen as a bit more practical than that. What power though? She tried to think of something that wasn't what she really meant and shrugged. “Like I'm sure there's some.” She said. Jen wasn't a good liar.
“Dude, I want a montage!” Matty said, lighting up. Wait. Did he get a very long montage at Riken? Nope. That was not his montage. He opened his mouth to add something when he heard that his order was up. Win!
“BRB!” Matty said, heading to the counter and grabbing his bags of food. It smelt good and wonderful and, yup, he and Thursday would get to eat tonight without the fear of burning down their kitchen. He hopped back to Jen and grinned, “There is totally a reason for all this. Even if there is no reason, this is something about us as a people, I think. We’ll grow and learn and something. Happy thoughts.”
Jen stood up and slipped her bag over her shoulder. “Always. Gotta keep looking at the positive. I'll walk you out.” She offered.