Of Metis and Men- Ch. 3
Olivia finally had something to be excited about, June had finally bothered to roll around and that meant her birthday! While the facility observed most of the human holiday's to accommodate the kin folk, she had never really gotten excited about them. Her birthday was different; she was the only one in the facility with that particular date so it was all hers. She also remembered her last birthday party with her parents, a quiet affair but the love that they lavished on her was worth more than any huge party. Not that she didn't like gifts, in fact her birthday also meant the new computer equipment that she had been pining for over that past three months. She was on serious birthday count down and enthusiastic, so much so that even the other kids around her noticed. There was some teasing but since it happened every year, it became friendlier and less taunting, especially when she was prone to share the goodies.
Olivia knew her parents had died on a mission years ago, but was grateful each year when a goodie basket was delivered to her on her birthday with their well wishing on the card. She knew that Janus must have had something to do with the ordering since each year it was filled not only with sweet treats and the material items she had been pining away for, but also with small reminders that she had loving parents as well. For the last four years it had been all about serious technology. Her own computer, cd players, surround sound, digital camera, program platforms and more had been delightfully received. Some of the other children also received gifts but not many, and it was just one more way to ostracize Olivia from her peers, so she began to make a point to share the sweets, and hide the majority of presents she received in her room.
She was sure to carefully email Janus each time there was a new item that she wanted. To her credit, she always did her homework and compared many brands of the same item to make sure she was getting exactly what she wanted but even still the list was incredibly long this year and it would be more of a surprise than ever. Olivia carefully went over the copy of the list she had printed, and wondered if she should maybe add some lower priced items that could be used as fillers. She wasn't quite sure how much was allocated for her birthday, but quantity sometimes was just as important as quality.
Two days later she was working diligently on her motherboard down in the recreation room, pretending that she could ignore the ten days left until her birthday. Truth was in her head she was already planning on what to do with the new programs and pieces that she knew she would be getting. Wire and solder work took a lot of concentration and with how little she was paying, she often had to scrape clean a mess and start over so time was passing rapidly. She was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she growled and almost swiped blindly when someone tapped her on the head, it was almost gently.
"Olivia, you're being called."
She looked up into Justin's face.
"I tapped your head so I wouldn't ruin your wires." He lisped.
"Thanks Justin." She said feeling her heart calm back down "Did it say what I was needed for?"
"They called you to Lab room 4." He said "It was just a few seconds ago so you shouldn't be too late."
She nodded, quickly put her project away and moved even faster to the lab rooms. Like every other rule, being called on the PA system expected a prompt arrival and you were only called once. Most of the time it wasn't a problem since Olivia worked in a quiet area, but concentrating really hard often pushed all background noise into one unintelligible din. She was glad Justin had told her, he would probably get a smack or two from some of the others. There were plenty of other children who wanted very badly to see her in trouble. Every punishment was of a public nature, so no favoritism could take place and to serve as example for the others; however Olivia had not had a formal punishment in years. She saw no reason to fight against the rules, so other children tried to trip her up or let her take the fall but so far they were unsuccessful and she very much planned to keep it that way and set out on a full tilt run.
Her heart was hammering by the time she reached the med-lab doors, so she took a few deep calming breaths and walked in. Dr Abalene was sitting at his desk, looking serious as usual.
"Thank you Olivia, I know your free time is precious to you. Have a seat." He said.
She sat posture erect with her hands resting on her legs and looked at him.
"I just need to do some measurements and check your eyes and ears."
The whole procedure took about fifteen minutes and nothing else was said. She was summarily dismissed and left to ponder the odd lab session as she went back to the recreation room. Justin was waiting at the work table when she returned and smiled at her.
"So?" he prompted.
"Just some tests, maybe I have been complaining about my headaches too much." She said a bit puzzled but let the thoughts drift to the back of her mind as she took out her tools. "So would you like to start working on that remote?"
"Yes!" he said enthusiastically "Ever since my last one broke I have been forced to walk up and change the channels myself! I almost scratched my screen."
Olivia shook her head and giggled; some people just couldn't handle technology break downs. She motioned for Justin to bring up a chair and she began to show him the different tools they would be using. He produced his broken remote and slowly they began to exam it from all angles, tracing exactly where the problem was. By bed time a good repair plan was almost put together, but they knew better than to beg extra time so they carefully put the plans away and planned to finish them the next day.
As she made her way back to her dorm, Olivia wondered when she and Justin would finally change. There had been so many children changing now that no one really got special notice unless something really dramatic went on with it, and fortunately those days seemed to be behind them. Most of the children had been returned to their groups per normal with in three days, excepting those few who had harder times; Harold and Alicia never were returned to them, most of the children refused to speak about it and those who did had nothing nice to say but Olivia figured that it meant there were problems the doctors just couldn't fix and they may have been better off not going through it all. All the children understood death, it was taught early and often in their lives, everyone in the Garou nation understood that at some point in their live they would be called to serve Gaia in her fight against evil and that more often than not, fights would end in death. So the notion was familiar but the emotional impact on emotions that were already raging and out of control was a new experience, and a hard one for most of the children to handle.
Privately Olivia thought that the label of metis was a large burden. It was "The Garou nation, oh yea and the Metis too." They were a sub-culture and treated very much with snippiness or else little regard, but they were still expected to fight the good fight like everyone else. The only place they got equal treatment was in dying. She wondered if it would be so easy for other garou to be so prejudiced if the metis' only deformity was sterility, she snorted and shook her head. She knew that no matter what, there would always be some reason justified for treating the Metis with disdain, and she very privately thought to herself that she could understand why so many Metis would join up with the evil ones. From what she could learn and postulate, everyone who wanted was accepted in the Wyrm's camp and from what she could glean; treated according to their actions. Of course this was mostly her own deductions; it's not as if there was a big book of the Wyrm and its habits lying around anywhere.
These were secrets that she did not dare to share with anyone, even at the age of ten, she knew better than to ever postulate her theories aloud, else she might be mistaken to be Corrupted and taken away. Even though she was raised in the facility from the time she was a toddler, they would still take her aside and test her, find out why she thought that way and perhaps that someone had gotten to her before and planted evil thoughts like seeds, which were just now coming to fruition. It was frustrating to her because without being able to talk about the Wyrm and the Black Spiral Dancers, no knowledge was ever passed on and the Garou were left in the dark. Shouldn't you know your enemies as much as possible? It seemed that most of the opposing forces had user manuals for the garou camps, but relatively little was known about the forces of evil and darkness and that just struck her as slightly off kilter. Olivia understood that the world wasn't fair, but that did not mean that she had to like it and couldn't plan on how she might change things if she ever got the chance.
Two days later she turned eleven and her world took on a new perspective. She woke up promptly at five a.m. and excitement flooded through her. She wondered if Janus would be cruel and make her wait until the evening for her gifts but decided no matter what she was going to have a fabulous day. She sat up slowly, making sure there was nothing near her that she might accidentally break in her haste, and then looked around carefully in case he decided to hide her gift. To her absolute delight the goodie basket was sitting clearly on her desk, for her to easily find and access. When she was younger Janus would make it more of a challenge for her and often changed the delivery time, method and location to make it more exciting for her to find; however lately he seemed to understand the need for immediacy. She bound out of bed and gingerly lifted the heavy basket , it seemed to be well packed but she carefully placed in back on the desk and used extreme care so she wouldn't damage her gifts.
One by one she took out all sorts of delights. On the top there were all the sweets, which she would end up giving away not that she minded, she was not a big sweet eater not to mention that her favorites were always hidden away on the bottom. She stopped when her hand encountered a gift wrapped in holographic paper, mentally she ran down her list and couldn't think of anything that might fit the size of the box. Several similarly wrapped packages were underneath it and they were all numbered. Intrigued she gathered the little pile and went over to sit on her bed. Each was carefully wrapped, so she began with number one. By the time she to the fifth and last gift she was truly puzzled. She had gotten a carefully personalized set of headphones, a portable keyboard, several v-chips, and an electric pen made for her hand. As to what they all went to she was giddy to find out. Slowly she opened the last gift, and howled in joyous appreciation. It was the latest PDA handheld, definitely not something on her list, and the best surprise gift she could imagine having. Excitement filled her will a heady rush of energy. She hopped around, very much like the child she was and then sat down and tried each of the implements in her precious PDA, which all worked wonderfully. Olivia knew that Janus would be up early, he usually was and especially so on her birthday, so she immediately rushed to his office, knocked on the door, paused for a moment for permission and went barreling in.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she chanted over and over. "I never would have guessed, I never even would have thought about it. I love it!"
She sat down to take a breath and then hopped right back up.
"How did you manage to get everything? Never mind I love the surprise, this is perfect: she gushed on.
Janus smiled widely at Olivia as she went over each attribute and the capabilities of the machine. No doubt to anyone that this one was full blooded Glasswalker. If it was technical she delved in with an intensity that surprised most observers. The girl was still prattling on about all the attributes of the device and how she couldn't wait to work with it and make it interface with other equipment and programs that she had.
"Did you know it could also be used for a camera and a phone?" she was saying, when all of a sudden she stopped short, like the wind was knocked out of her.
"Olivia?" Janus asked, rising in concern.
She didn't answer, but was concentrating hard on placing her gift gently on the table as her hand shook. As soon as the PDA was on his desk she slumped to the ground and began panting. Janus quickly called for Dr. Abalene and gathered up a robe, some towels and basic supplies.
Olivia felt like she was being squeezed in a vice, her skin was hot and itchy and she couldn't see or smell anything. She curled in tighter to try to stop the feeling but it wasn't working in fact the opposite was true, she felt like she could feeling everything, from hard tile of the floor to the dust motes from the air settling on her skin. She called out in fear to Janus and to her absolute horror her own voice sounded tinny and small. Her bones kept popping and shifting but there wasn't paralyzing pain like she thought there would b. She wanted to know what was happening to her, but she had her eyes closed tightly as she was too afraid to look at what was happening to her. She was getting colder by the minute and started to shake, everything felt like it was being pressed into a cube, then all of a sudden it just stopped and she lifted her head and opened her eyes.
Everything was in focus but greater detail was missing, color was muted and definition was no where near as sharp as she remembered. Flat would have been the best way to describe anything, and desperately she closed and opened her eyes to see if she could fix them. Dr. Abalene and Janus were talking to her but it sounded muffled and tinny like her ears or head was stuffed with cotton, she kept trying to lean closer to hear them, their words were familiar but somehow seemed distorted. She felt weak, depleted and above all she was cold. She began to shake and curled in on herself, crying out piteously.
"Olivia, just relax you have had your first change and we need to give you an examination to make sure everything is okay." Janus said, but to Olivia it sounded like he was talking through fabric. He repeated the same thing over and over until she stopped calling out.
She nodded slightly and almost hit her head on floor, her shifted form was very light and she made a mental note to try and compensate for the weight difference. They helped her to her feet and gently put a soft cotton robe on her. She insisted on getting to the medical lab on her own two feet, Olivia figured it would be a way to regain some control of the scary situation so in a drunken waddle like a toddler she made it to the medical examination room and lay back on the partially reclined bed. She was left alone as they rushed out to gather various whatever's and took a moment to really look at what she could see of herself. Her skin was a light mocha color and her hands were ugly little stubby things, with short fingers and even shorter claws. Olivia snorted in disgust, how was she supposed to be able to attack anything with hands like that? She turned her hands over time and again, trying to figure out just how they worked, her wrist bones protruded a bit from the side of her hands, but no there was no threat that they were about to pop out of the skin or break.. As she turned her head, thick and heavy hair moved across her neck, unlike Erica's it wasn't stringy or straight, it was full, wavy and made her head hot. She looked down slowly at her feet, they were tiny with short claws there too and the oval muscles that developed in her natural form had carried over. Olivia was impressed that she could walk on them without tipping over they were so small. She opened the robe and continued to reacquaint herself with her body, she had very small breasts, and her stomach was a bit past flat, it actually caved in around her rib cage, and her navel was tucked in. Her legs seemed longer, apparently that was a deformity, and the fur that was on her body was just a light cover over her arms and legs.
Olivia began to worry, she knew her legs were deformed but she couldn't see or feel anything else and wondered if there was something wrong with her face. There was no mirror for her to use, so she fretted. She had watched enough television to know what human looked like, and she began to fret that she was going to look like some little human and not one of Gaia's chosen. She brushed the heavy hair back over her shoulders and tried to brush it with the tiny paddle left on the table. Out of nerves she put one of her claws in her mouth and began her bad habit of nibbling, and was more than shocked when the claw split off between her teeth. She was on the verge of keening her distress, but she took a deep breath of air and tried again to learn more about this new pitiful little form. Soon enough Janus and Dr. Abalene came back in and began their careful examination of her. She quietly sat there while they took all her vitals and then carefully over looked her for over an hour. They whispered in hushed tones, and her stupid ears couldn't make out a thing. They asked her to smell things while being blindfolded, and she was amazed at how dampened smells became. Fresh oranges smelled like week olds, no pungent oils and bitters to tempt her, no juicy fullness when she inhaled, just a stale citrus aroma. Olivia was quickly becoming disgusted with this weak form.
"Would you like a mirror?" Janus asked.
Olivia tried to say yes, but was finding it hard to form words with a homid mouth, so she nodded. She took the mirror and looked carefully into it, ever watchful for some deformity. She had small face, with clear bright wide eyes that were a dark brown. The red and gold of her fur had transformed in her hair and framed her face. Her nose was small but well set in her face. Her moth was generous, but not overly wide and when she smiled, she saw even white teeth, but the divots on her cheeks still remained. Her chin was a bit prominent and her cheekbones were easily seen, but nothing seemed too amiss.
"Am I okay?" she asked, well tried too what came out were incoherent sounds and the howled in frustration, and to her relief at least that was possible.
"Calm, Olivia. It will take time for you to learn to speak with your new mouth, just like it took time for you to learn human speech." Janus said. "We can find nothing wrong with you, but we keep each child three days and run various tests to make sure we have not missed anything."
She nodded and lay back, wondering what she was going to do for three whole days in the med labs. She couldn't even talk to anyone, she was starting to get grumpy when Janus held out something to her. Her face lit up as she saw her PDA, and her smile grew wider as she realized she could use it without all the crinos friendly attachments. Suddenly three days wasn't enough, oblivious to all around her Olivia opened the package, getting ready to use her new hands and began to learn.