ROOMIE PC

[fetteredwings]

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[fetteredwings]

[She sits in the chair, curling up as she hugs her knees. Don't worry about her balance]

Hmmm...I suppose it all started with my twin sister.

[shortsuits]

[He trusts she won’t topple over where she’s seated, so after crossing one of his legs over the other, he prompts her to continue.]

I didn’t realize you had a sister. What was she like?

[fetteredwings]

She was wonderfully kind to me, she was always so supportive and gentle...but to the rest of the world, she'll be remembered as the villain of the worst kind, a sell-out who played with state secrets for the fun of it all.

[Hmmm]

And because of her, people decided that my kind had to be hunted down and exterminated.

[shortsuits]

[Treason, it sounds like, and while the penalties for such a betrayal could be quite severe, there's executing a traitor and then there's condoning an outright massacre. Then again, it wouldn't be the first time people have used such pretexts for advancing some other agenda.]

That's rather extreme. [His gaze flickers to her claws, but only for a moment.] Just what were they so afraid of?

[fetteredwings]

We're strong. Not just physically, we have artes that let us influence people. There was once a man who accused me of ensnaring a whole town with my voice, once, and that's why my bounty was so high. [Her voice goes distant] He ordered his soldiers to kill anyone who tried to protect me.

[shortsuits]

[He catches the inflection in her voice, and that already gives him an inkling of what he should expect, even if the details have yet to be said.]

...And what did you do in response?

[Run? Or...]

[fetteredwings]

I was already sealed by then. They were fighting to free me.

[ studying her nails]

Maybe I should be glad he didn't think of using any commands

[shortsuits]

Because then you would've been forced to confront them against your will.

[That's what it all seems to be leading up to, at least.]

Did they manage to free you in the end?

[fetteredwings]

No. They died...they shouldn't have tried to begin with. Most of them couldn't even move without my help. They were old...so old.

[ with wrinkles and lines in their faces Nala had come to appreciate how they told stories about the passage of time]

[shortsuits]

...I see.

[For a moment, he thinks back to the sight of bodies strewn carelessly on stained concrete, limbs and torsos riddled by bullets as they lay cooling in pools of their own blood. It's not worth comparing terrorists to the elderly she's speaking of, but his mind automatically makes the connection regardless. They could only be described as massacres, after all.]

Do you feel responsible for what happened to them?