BEYOND 3A: BloodRed and ScaleBlack

The Thirty-Eighth Feather: Strawberry Croissant

It has been quite a while since the last time ALMACA's secret project was endangered, but they couldn't be so sure. Alessandro made the call to change the working location of their trusted testing cooperative, Yoko. She, along with the two Florida Kids, were relocated to a secret decommissioned war bunker under an undisclosed city in a state far from Florida that was recycled into a micro research lab.

Yoko, the one entrusted to take care of everything there, was making slow, but fruitful progress toward teaching those two artificial kids how to be autonomous. They learned to blink and breathe consistently, and they learned to crawl on four, meaning that it was only a matter of time before they learned to maintain their balance and walk.

Yoko, for a while, was trying to teach them how to speak, beginning with simple vowels. She sat them down on one of their beds and said with playfulness in her tone: "Alright, kids~! I wanna see how good you are with vowels, okay? Here, what's this letter~?" while showing them a card with the letter 'A' printed on it. The kids opened their mouths and let out a monotone yell. Yoko praised them: "Good job~! Now, what's this letter?" and switched to the 'O' Card. The kids took a few seconds to think but they made the correct sound. She praised them again and switched to 'E'. They stuttered a bit, but they got it correct again. After another praise, Yoko gave them a harder vowel to pronounce, 'U'. She said: "Come on, we've learned this one many times!"

The kids struggled to make the sound, however, and ultimately couldn't make a good 'U' sound. Yoko tried to stay positive and said: "That's okay! We'll learn it one step at a time! Alright, can you say this one?" referring to the 'I' card. Although the male one couldn't say it properly, the female one remembered that it was pronounced 'AE', so she ended up earning all the praise. The day went on, with more and more attempts, until it was time to close up. The kids were left in the care of other trusted guardians and doctors, and Yoko went home for the day. Along the way, she decided to stop by the restaurant in the woods again and order some food to-go for her younger siblings.

After a good thirty minutes of walking, she found her way to the restaurant again. She knocked on the door like before and was met with the owner, Levia The Serpent. He greeted her: "Hello ma'am, Can I help you with anything?"

Yoko: "Yes, I'd like two croissants to-go, please."

Levia: "I'm sorry, ma'am, but we just closed shop."

Yoko: "Aw, man... and I was speed walking, too."

Levia: "...You said you wanted croissants, right? Let me check if we have any left-overs."

Yoko: "Ah, Thank you so much!"

Levi shut the door and went to look around in the kitchen. Yoko heard from the outside some faint yelling and demanding to let go of the leftovers, followed by loud meowing coming from an angry cat, then the next thing she heard a loud 'THWACK' sound. The door was opened again moments after by Levia, who put the pastries in a white paper bag and said: "It's your lucky day, miss. I found exactly two uneaten. One's filled with chocolate and one is filled with strawberry jam."

Yoko: "Oh..."

Levia: "I know, no one likes strawberry jam."

Yoko: "No, no, it's alright. Thank you, here's ten dollars. You run a food charity, right? Consider this a donation."

Levia: "There's no need, really."

In the background, a faint meow could be heard, demanding him to take the money. He groaned and said: "On second thought, I'll take it."

When the sun had set and the moon took its place, Yoko had finally gone home. She granted herself the sweet chocolate croissant and left Corna with the other one due to thinking: "She's red, strawberry's red, it's a perfect match!"

However, when she stepped inside, all she found was a written note where she and Jake used to sleep. She inspected it and it read as follows: "You win. I couldn't find what I was looking for in time, now the organisation is hot on our tails. As much you would've loved for me to give you the satisfaction of kicking me out with an iron boot, I had to leave in a hurry. I made sure to erase my existence from the memories of your acquaintances. Jake and I will be going far far away and by the time you've read this, we've probably left the city. I hope you don't get killed in your working field. -With kind regards, Corna. P.S: I kept the whole "rent-free" thing unaffected, as my payment for troubling you. Good luck out there, athlete."

With mixed feelings, Yoko sat down on the pillow and began forcing the strawberry croissant down her throat, unsure of why she's feeling somewhat remorseful over those pests' departure. "I guess I got used to them..." She thought.

Thirty-Eighth Feather:

Plucked