ari laurent can't fly (chiroptera) wrote in theinvincibles, @ 2015-07-02 03:31:00 |
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Stepping out of his new bedroom, Sebastian winced as his wings caught on the doorframe, having to take a step back so he could pull each one in and then shuffle his way through into the living room of the apartment the agents had shown him to after processing. It wasn't too bad, at least. If he hadn't been held against his will and shipped halfway across the country, he'd almost call it 'nice', and there weren't any signs that his as-yet-unseen roommate was some kind of psycho. Needing a break from unpacking his bags, the young metahuman crossed over to the apartment's kitchen, wondering how bad a first impression it would make if he grabbed a snack and replaced it later. His original roommate had been transferred to Hawaii. How he had managed that Ari couldn’t quite figure it out, though he supposed good for him for figuring out a way to live in beach front property. It would be no time at all before the DMS found him another roommate, so he figured he might as well enjoy the peace and quiet while he could. That lasted only three days. When he returned home after a particularly caffeine-filled shift, the first indication that something was off was the fact the front door wasn’t locked. He opened the door cautiously and stepped inside the apartment before closing the door behind him. Though not even three steps into his home, Ari could feel the air vibrations of something moving against his wings. Slowly, he crept across the living area and as he rounded the corner to the kitchen, he saw... well. What appeared to be his new roommate. “Someone must have thought this was a clever joke.” Sebastian let out a shocked yelp and backed away from the fridge, closing the door and looking guilty, "Sorry, man, I--" He stopped himself as he caught sight of his new roommate. And his wings. Each of Sebastian's twitched for a moment, as if in sympathy. "Yeah," he nodded, looking decidedly sour, "I bet someone's laughing." “Put the two kids with wings together. That will be hilarious,” he answered with his own nod before his eyes darted from the multiple pairs of wings. Those certainly were different to say the very least. “I’m Ari Laurent. A delta with the clever name of Bat Boy. You?” "I'm Sebastian Rojas." He hesitated for a moment, then sighed, "And apparently because I refused to pick a 'codename', I'm supposed to go by Choir Boy." His face made it clear just what he thought of his DMS-assigned moniker. Sebastian nodded to the fridge, "Sorry, I wasn't trying to go through your stuff or anything, I just don't really know what the food situation is like here." Ari snorted at the mention of the other man’s code name. Just like this rooming assignment, someone definitely thought they were being beyond clever and cheeky with that one. Some things clearly never changed. “My middle name’s Sebastian. Well. The French version of it. Sébastien.” Shrugging, he stepped toward the kitchen counter. “And you get the food in the commissary. I just haven’t bought anything in about a week. You’re welcome to have anything you can find though.” "The commissary, right," Sebastian nodded, "Because I live in Orange is the New Black now." Hearing his mother in the back of his head, urging him to 'look on the bright side', he tried to move past it, "Uh, I moved my stuff into the empty-looking room. I figured that one was mine and you weren't just doing some… new age no personal items thing." A smile briefly flashed across his face. “I’ve been told it’s not like a prison commissary, but more like a Walmart. I’ll have to take people’s words on that since I’ve never actually been to a Walmart though. And yeah, that’s the right room. My old roommate somehow got to Hawaii.” "He got transferred to Hawaii? And I get transferred to Chicago. Yeah, someone's definitely laughing." Sebastian sighed and then shrugged, the wings on his back rising and flexing with the movement of his shoulders, "Sorry, I'm not usually this grouchy, I'm just pretty pissed off about this whole… thing." He gestured vaguely towards the front door and the DMS facility beyond it. He snorted. “Fucking Hawaii, right? I need to figure out how to manage that.” A private beach might just be the thing to get him outside of the facility. “And it’s okay. A lot of people are grumpy when they first get here. I’ve been here since I was five, so I’ve grown complacent and stuff.” "I only got found out a couple of months ago. I was in a facility in New York, but then-- well, I got transferred here. I'm hoping I don't get complacent, though." Sebastian glanced around the apartment, "So what do people do around here?" He just shrugged at the complacent comment. Unless the system changed, Ari wouldn’t be let out of here anytime soon and he refused to spend exorbitant amounts of time being angry at that. Being angry some of the time was bad enough. “Hang out. Drink coffee. There’s a bar if you’re over twenty-one,” he offered. “Sometimes they have things in the theater. And if you’re a delta, you can get day passes to do things. Mainly just make your own fun though.” "Okay, cool." Sebastian took that all in, "They tell me I'm a delta, but I don't really think I'm going to be going out much, you know?" He held his arms out at his sides, forewings extending for a moment then folding flat against his skin again, "People stare. It's a thing." Ari let out a noise that somewhat sounded like a small laugh. “Yeah, trust me. Totally get the people staring thing. There’s enough to do in here to keep you busy though. And for everything else there’s Amazon or Ebay.” "People still use Ebay?" Sebastian frowned, "They told me there's some kind of network here we're supposed to use. I never really checked out the one back in New York, is it like some kind of Craigslist deal? Or more of a college style thing?" “You’d be surprised at home many people use Ebay.” Don’t knock it until you try it, Sebastian. “And you don’t have to use it, but it helps pass the time. Kind of like Facebook. Without all your relatives. They had some of the technopaths in DC set it up and they did such a good job of it that the DMS can’t crack filtered posts. So there is that at least.” "So they can't censor it or anything? That's kind of cool. Unless it's exactly like Facebook and all you see are selfies." Hipster snobbery, thy name is Sebastian. “Nah, the selfies are thankfully kept to a minimum and mostly to Instagram.” Followed Brewed Awakening on Instagram for daily doses of them. “But yeah. At least there’s some privacy with things.” "Good to know. What about, like, political things? Are there any activism groups here, advocacy, that kind of thing?" Shrugging once again, Ari took a few more steps into the kitchen so he could carefully lean back against the counter. “Nothing really too official. And some of the agents are all for advocacy. Some are just dicks though.” "They're employed by a fascist regime. I'm pretty sure that makes them all dicks." Sebastian noted simply, as though there was no debating that idea. Following Ari back into the kitchen, he flexed and straightened his wings, working out a few kinks he'd developed while travelling from New York to Chicago, "So I guess things are just pretty quiet around here, then?" “Kind of?” Today was a quiet day at least. “I mean, APEX has a thing here and an operative was just killed in action. So stuff like that happens.” Sebastian blinked once, then twice, as though his eyes were at fault and that's why he'd misheard. "Wait. What." “They didn’t tell you APEX loves the Windy City?” "No, I--" Sebastian shook his head, "Someone was killed?" The shock in his new roommate’s voice reminded him that perhaps things were as tense in other facilities than they had been in Chicago recently. “Yeah. One of the operatives a couple of days ago.” Pausing, Ari drummed his fingers against the counter. “I mean they didn’t exactly say it was APEX, but everyone knows it’s APEX. But don’t worry! You’re not an operative, so you’re fine and safe.” Mostly. Sebastian nodded mutely for a moment, some of the colour draining from his face. "Right. No. Yeah. Fine and safe. But someone just died--" Opening and closing his mouth a few times, the young man looked on the verge of saying something. Some kind of speech or protest or anything, but finally settled on hiking a thumb back in the direction of his new room. "Uh, I should probably go-" Call my mom and have a long distance panic attack. "Finish unpacking, so…" Trailing off, he started to back up, the tips of his wings knocking against the kitchen's doorframe as he went. “Welcome to the Lock,” he said as he watched his roommate disappear out of sight. |