50 sentences about Alec, Dark Angel
Originally written for a challenge in which the aim was to write one sentence for each of 50 prompts about a character of choice.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.
1. Sound - Manticore was never silent, patrols stalking the corridors in the darkest of hours, the sound of animal screeching from the 'nomalies in the deepest of cells but worst of all the sounds of hidden pain and barely held in nightmares; nightmares that Alec knows only too well can become reality.
2. Taste - He could develop a taste for the high life, but in reality he'll take the taste of poverty laced with freedom over Manticore-driven slavery any day.
3. Party - He can be the life and soul of the party, the superficial pretty boy; it's a rare person who would spare the time to see if there's anything underneath.
4. Hot - In the chill that goes with winter, the poverty that surrounds him on all sides, for once he has something about his genetic makeup to be grateful for.
5. Flee - He didn't leave, there was never the possibility for him within his unit; but it never stopped him wishing that they had been the ones to flee that night.
6. Apology - He mutters the words she wants to hear, but he knows that Max will never hear the weight behind his apologies, the sincerity in his heart.
7. Pride - When he compares himself against the ordinaries, even against the 'nomalies and X-6s, he can't help but take a pride in what he is capable of, but it will always be tempered now, with the thought of what he could have been if it weren't for this.
8. Denial - He tried denial; it didn't work and he doesn't know where to go from here.
9. Mess - The world around him is a mess, he knows that, but it's got nothing on the overwhelming churn of emotion within him now.
10. Fate - It's his fate to be misunderstood, to be taken for something he isn't; he's not Ben and he's not a heartless automaton like Manticore wanted but even he can't define what he really is.
11. Stay - There are times when he wants to ask Max to stay, but he never will.
12. Leave - It's easier to not get attached, to just up and leave, so why can't he bring himself to do it?
13. Moon - Standing on the Space Needle in the moonlight, it's a unique perspective over the world he lives in every day now.
14. Brand - His barcode . . . he does his best to ignore its existence when he can, but he can't ever forget it's there, can't ever forget that he's branded like a prize calf.
15. Charity - Kindness, someone giving something for nothing . . . it isn't something he really understands; he's spent his whole life fighting to come out on top and stay there, Manticore was no place to show weakness by helping someone else in the years after Max's unit escaped : the only way to survive was to never give anything freely.
16. Second Best - He's never given into being second best easily, but in reality it's how he's spent most of his life; a second-rate superficial soldier, too flawed to be perfect in anyone's eyes and that was before Max compared him to Ben.
17. Passion - He fights with passion in his heart, but control and intent in his body; and throughout he's determined that what's inside can't be taken away no matter what they try to do to him.
18 Fever - He's not going to admit to anyone that he feels the fever of being in Heat, the urge to procreate so strong he can taste it, instead he locks himself away with the strongest liqor he can find until the urge passes, afraid of what he could accidentally do if he ever let the control slip.
19. Hug - He's never sure what made him think it was the right thing to do when Max told him about Ben, but something between them changed after that hug.
20. Smoke - The smell of smoke and burning flesh will haunt him to the end of time, the thought of all those who never made it out of Manticore alive.
21. Gloat - He can gloat at his superior intelligence and physical prowess over ordinaries (over Logan), but the reality is that his body is even more unpredictable than theirs; he could live forever invincible or be dead tomorrow all at the hand of a mere genetic quirk – he'll never know until it's too late.
22. Judge - Judge, jury and executioner . . . he never realized until he was permanently on the outside how screwed up life at Manticore had been.
23. Defense - The art of defense is to attack quickly and efficiently and exploit your opponents' weakness and keep everyone at a distance, to never allow anyone close enough to see who you really are.
24. Sick - There was a sickness that pervaded Manticore that he'd never have understood without his exposure to the outside; doctors, scientists, military, they were all involved in it.
25. Altered State - He doesn't know what the drugs they used were, although for his own safety he probably should, but they knew exactly what to give an X-5 to make them pliant and easy; it never stopped them knowing what was happening to them though.
26. Slow - He's torn; there are times when he wants to live this life to the full, experience it all and burn out fast and then there are the times he just wants to slow down and treasure every moment before it's all torn away from him.
27. Tempted - - He was tempted to try everything, take as much as he could like the world owed him everything, experience everything now and fast but then somewhere along the line there was Max and the possibility of her disapproval weighs heavy and he calms and lets life happen to him.
28. New - He doesn't own much, but the first time he can use his own hard-earnt money to buy himself something new, he's caught off-guard by the surge of pride at the honesty and legitimacy of it all.
29. Hold on - He doesn't know why exactly he clings to Max so tightly, why even under the lash of her tongue and the heavy disapproval, he stays and waits and holds on hoping for just a hint of approval or pride in what he's trying to become.
30. Safe - He's never really felt safe.
31. Shock - The body of an X-5 can take a lot of pain and injury before it succumbs, but when shock finally hits, it's nasty and without treatment frequently fatal – it's not something Alec ever wants to experience again.
32. Serious - He's not just a Jack the Lad, but it isn't until after they talk about Ben that Max begins to realize he has a serious side and that he can be trusted.
33. Desk - Even if this were all over, he wouldn't want to be tied to a desk job.
34. Apron - When he needs to lighten his own mood, he imagines Logan and Max with Logan wearing an apron with kids hanging off the strings and balanced on his hip and Max haranguing him about the cleaning and cooking he hasn't done yet, like he's some 1950s housewife.
35. Breakfast - Life at Manticore taught him to eat food when it was available, regardless of hunger; there was no knowing when someone would decide to withhold it.
36. Harm - Is not wanting to have to harm anyone ever again enough?
37. Muscle - There were no older generation of X-5s, no successful genetic predecessors to know what will become of his physique as he ages; still he'd like the choice to take loss of muscle tone over death now.
38. Sharp - There are times when his reflexes are too sharp; it's hard to hide what his real reaction to a sudden sound or a possible threat might be.
39. Fix - He'd like to think that there's nothing he can't fix to his own advantage, but he's already learnt that isn't true.
40. Flicker - A flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye is enough to have his senses flaring.
41. Sweet - It didn't take long to learn how to play the sweet little boy lost and have people fall for it; it's only now when he looks back that he's surprised there was anyone working at Manticore who would fall for it.
42. Art - He doesn't understand Joshua's art; only appreciates anything artistic for the money he can make from it; he wonders if it's possible to learn to be less shallow.
43. Shade - Manticore was black and white, this world outside is shades of gray.
44. Intelligent - There are many things that are easy to learn when your intelligence is superpowered like the rest of your body, but there are still things that he doesn't understand.
45. Blood - To never see innocent blood spilled again, it's a dream he's never shared with anyone.
46. Laughter - He'd never experienced genuine laughter until he met Rachel.
47. Hair - Wearing his hair longer to hide the barcode might be essential, but years of having being shorn are hard to ignore.
48. Nature - Nature or nurture – he hopes to overcome both.
49. Speak up - He learnt as a child to keep quiet and do as he was told, no matter how much of a smart mouth Max might believe he's got; he knows he earnt the right to an opinion while he was inside Manticore.
50. Animal - Cat, everybody knows that was the most successful of their genetic engineering mix but he has no idea how many other animal species are represented in his make up; no idea which one will be the one that screws up his chances of happily ever after.