◼️⬛ || 𝕯𝖊𝖘𝖈𝖆𝖓𝖙 || ⬛◼️

|| 103 || Rule Breaker 🐛 O/F

"Welcome to Lune," Her eyes briefly flickered over you a second time. "Some of you look like new interns, so I'll introduce myself. My name is Juniper, and I am a Luna Moth. I was born here," Her antennae twitched again, like she was curious. A few people around you leaned in.

"While you are here, uh, please be respectful of the rules. For both of our benefits, stay on the other side of the glass. Juniper is for looking, not for touching. Someone next to you giggled quietly. It seemed that Juniper was more human to them than they had expected. You just pursed your lips and kept listening.

"Please turn off any cell phones or flash photography as flashing are kind of distracting to me," She slightly turned to face someone who had decided to splay a single hand over the thick sheet of glass that separated the moth from the humans. She grimaced, not that anyone could see it.

"Do not knock on the glass and please leave any food and non-water beverages in the cafeteria," The person quickly retracted their hand, and at least one other grumbled as they left to put away their sandwich.

"I will now go turn on the lights and we can begin my human socialisation session," The glow of her eyes disappeared, and instead the entire room was bathed in light.

You didn't even flinch, unlike the several people around you who gasped.

Juniper was a lot more insectile than what you had seen on the tapes. The extra eyes had barely showed up on the grainy footages, and you never noticed the second pair of fluffy arms she had. Three-fingered hands tapped thoughtfully against the glass, black claws clinking. It seems that Juniper didn't really care about rules that technically didn't apply to her. 

She smiled happily at all of you, mandibles clicking a few times before resting at the side of her face.

But the thing that caught your attention the most was the fluff. A layer of fuzz covered her entire body, and a thick ring of fur bunched at her neck, almost like a short mane. A part of you wanted to entirely disregard the whole 'Juniper is for looking, not for touching'. You briefly wondered what moth fuzz felt like. Maybe after this, you'd be able to figure out, if you were lucky enough.

The session went off without a hitch. It mostly consisted of a few scripted questions that you each had to answer like your names, age, some interests and whatever miscellaneous information that was relevant. After that, Juniper got to ask whatever questions she desired, and in turn, you got to do the same. All while, the handlers watched with sharp eyes, scribbling down notes and muttering between themselves.

You returned to your room feeling a little nervous, but mostly content. It was like waiting for a return call about that job you applied for, which in essence, was exactly what you were doing.

You only felt happier when you actually got that return call not three hours later.

<><><><><>

Five months. 

Five months since you had been transferred to Actias Luna's holding cell, and in that time you became more and more engrossed in your new work.

It was less like working with exotic animals and more like having a fuzzy roommate that liked to watch you work. For the most part, Juniper really only wanted to learn how to be more human, to the point you had a designated time period where you'd all go online and play video games together. As cringy and cliché as it sounded, you were basically a part of a family.

But, you were still the newbie, and that meant to one of your fellow researchers, you were disposable. No one really liked him. He was an asshole. But, like all assholes, he was the most senior researcher there, and he called the shots.