It felt like years since Anita was done with the pokes and prods from the scientists, each test being horrendous and more oddly invasive than the next. With woozy feet and a feeling of deep regret in the pit of her stomach she dragged herself towards the Forma living area, a section of the lab pointed out to her by one of the lab coats after the several hour long session where Nora had her way with the poor young woman. They told her a room had been set up the instant her father learned of her development, assuring her that it would be comfortable and definitely to her liking. Comfort sounded perfect right about now, though it was questionable if there even existed a pillow that could ease the emotional distress she was feeling.
Much like a hospital directory, bright and friendly colored lines were etched out across the floors of the living area, guiding people with efficiency to where they needed to be. Anita followed the deeply calming navy blue with "FORMA LIVING QUARTERS,' carved into its surface every five feet, imagining it as a little helper repeatedly cheering her on to her destination that she remembered was mapped out to her by hundreds of scientists who decided her fate from now on.
The living areas were like college dorms in a way, sectioned off in units with a single spacious room for each person. The only difference was the metallic doorway entrance operated by a keypad, used for the utmost privacy by a Forma and their belongings; or as an instant locking prison if the necessity were to arise. Anita now stood before her own personal grey cube, staring at it with exhaustion and hoping she could move it with the force of her apathy.
A soft ping noise echoed above her after she finally mustered enough strength to lift a tired finger and trace the plastic button to her door, thus lifting the metal plate of her door to reveal her room. It was funny to add all of these "hers" to something she had never seen or claimed before until today, giving a feeling of homesickness she didn't expect would hit her so quickly.
"This little area of the hall now belongs to me," the words escaped from between her lips on their own. Her own voice felt distant like it was the one thing that actually didn't belong to her. Her ears weren't used to this melancholic hollow ring in tone. With a mumble, she dragged herself into the room greeted by fluorescent bulbs which automatically lit up with her presence. Too bright and too happy. She hissed at them. How dare they stop her from being dark and brooding.
The room itself was very much like the one she had left behind but simply brighter and clearly brand new. Every little knic-knac she owned before had a new place here on new equipment, brought in by the workers of the lab while she was busy being probed alien abductee-style. The old punching bag with a wayward tear haphazardly patched down the middle, now just a shiny new bag for her to ruin all over again. Even all her posters had been meticulously peeled from their original spots back home and displayed carefully on the walls and with a quick snap she tore down a certain flyer for a boy band she knew she wouldn't be listening to in a long time. Regardless, with so much to remind her of home, it was easy to choke up on old memories.
Just as she was about to ruminate on the constant negatives that seemed to be forcing their way into her life, a heavy knock sounded on her door. She forgot when exactly the door had closed but it must have been on its own due to crazy science reasons she didn't want to bother thinking about.
A deep breath and a cough to clear her throat.
"Who's tha-. . .Ahh, who is it?" Maybe if she pretended to be actually sure of herself, all the crap in her life would eventually find someone else to bother.
"Hey Anita. It's Jack, from before." Jack from before was the young man she was told earlier who was going to be her leader of sorts. The bronze skinned fit gentleman that seemed to wipe away every insecurity about this crazy new lifestyle off the face of the Earth with a dazzling smile only talked about in prophecies and legends. She'd known him for about half an hour but he already seemed like a dear old friend.
Anita wiped some dust that wasn't there off her sweat-shorts and made a quick stumble to open the door. Not remembering the actual method to open it with the keypad, she simply wiped her hand across every existing button, miraculously coaxing the metal plate to slide back into the wall.
The door pinged open and there he was, standing casually with arms crossed over a plain white T stretched out over fine tan muscle. She felt the effects of calm almost immediately when he flashed a playful smile, her arms crossed over her own chest in response leaning against the doorway like she'd been here for more than just five minutes and already owned the place. "Hey Jack from before. And no you can't look inside my room yet. It's awful."
His teeth showed again, still dangerously sharp as ever as he shot back immediately with the warmest laugh imaginable. "You don't think everyone's room starts like that? I thought my place was some warehouse just accidentally filled with boxes full of my own stuff the day I came in." It was pleasant reminiscing, mixed with some abject horror as Jack tried to calmly remember his first few weeks here at the labs, poked and prodded like the most interesting prize winning horse on display for the whole world to see.
He wiped a tear from his eye and resumed. "Anyway, what's really important is that you get comfortable as best as you can." His cold stethoscope memories shot back to be replaced by his commanding duties, brimming his features to life once more as that grin she'd know him for splashed into view. Those shark-like teeth of his lined up perfectly, shining, obviously well taken care of. Could teeth be so weird looking and yet, so cute?
"These rooms and this lab are the closest thing we have to home at the moment. Forma rights have come a long way since we started, but that doesn't mean it's completely safe to walk around on your own." His smile faded slightly, downgrading into a knowledgeable smirk. "Just stick with this area of New York for a while. Let the people get used to you while we learn what you can do, and everything will smooth over soon enough."
Anita grimaced for a brief moment never being one to enjoy restrictions of any kind. Even if they were small and meaningless on some occasions.
"What if I just wanna stop by a coffee shop and pick up a smoothie? Something super lowkey." Jack's gaze was resolute all the same telling Anita worlds of reason that this was not something to be playing around with. Her breath hitched in her throat as she prepared a counter argument, quickly thinking against it after a glance into the pleading light floating in Jack's eyes.
"y-yea. . . Okay." Anita's fingers crossed over themselves as she struggled for words. "Do Forma, ya know. . Do things? Can they do normal things, I mean?" Her body started to twist with her speech as she soon realized that reaching out regarding her daily life was incredibly embarrassing. She had to reach out though. For all she cared about this world before she was apart of it, it might as well have never existed at all, regardless of her father's occupation. If she didn't ask, she'd never know.
The look that shot back was needless to say, surprising. Jack's gaze was powerfully stern but full of confidence and always reassuring to anyone in his presence. He cleared his throat and got into position, ready to relay the textbook answer hammered into him from years of service. "All Forma may be re-introduced into society through a series of governmental programs after sufficient care has been made in their rehabilitation," his finger pointed skyward like some pompous jerk, but his smile won over in the end and broke through to the front, pushing the textbook off to the side, "at least that's what General Pierce says. Maybe like everyday." His chuckle was too honest to keep that up.
Anita smiled quickly finding this constant warmth of his to be her absolute most likeable feature. After a brief moment the words did eventually sink in. "General?" She perked up slightly at the mention of any military whatsoever being present before immediately forcing a cough and re-aligning her body with the door frame, trying REALLY hard to play it cool. "Yea uhh, there's a general that walks around these parts?" Nailed it
"Yea General Pierce. Head of the Human and Forma inter-relations sect of the military. You'll see him around eventually. Or hear him at least." Anita nodded, accepting the info she didn't quite understand just yet and waited for the next bit. After that, silence fell between the two strangers turned teammates. An awkward calm created by the tense young woman who didn't realize it was because she had no idea what to say. Of course she had questions, but what was the right way to go about asking them.
Jack's body rippled with his breath, clearly relaxed and in repetition having been the one to do this before with every new Forma, and every new recruit in general. Not every person joined the brigade itself; but every new Forma was like a science project time-bomb that needed to be dealt with carefully and in a confined space.
Anita flinched, noticing finally that Jack had reached out to place a strong palm against her shoulder two minutes back, realizing she had been staring at absolutely nothing at all for that amount of time. Jack smiled and continued, taking charge as he always seemed to do.
"Hey. Don't worry." Simple, beautifully effective.
She took her time dragging her eyes to look back up into his, staring into beautiful and focused brown she could swear told her everything was going to be okay. "Everything's going to be okay." It was like abnormally comforting clockwork. "I got through this, the others made it through this. We even had a little girl come in two months ago that could turn her hand into snakes," she swore she had read something about that a while back. "The one thing I can assure you of completely, and that if you ever feel like this is all too much, is now that you're here, you're never alone." He squeezed her shoulder, something that made her reach upwards and place her own hand onto his. It was warm. A warmth she wished she'd known for years. "If there's ever anything you need, make sure you tell us. Got it?"
She nodded, her lips moving in a 'got it' several times before she actually managed to say something. "Yea. . .thank you."
"Everyone has a hard time going through this at first. Trust me. It took a while before I sorted all of my problems out myself." He chuckled while Anita scoffed, tracing her fingers lightly back and forth across the oddly soft texture of his scaly hand. It was little things that shook her back into remembering that none of them here could truly be considered human anymore. But it was people like Jack that made her pretty okay with that fact.
"Thank you." She whispered again, letting them take another moment to simply revel in each other, and share in the understanding that there was one more person in the world that truly knew exactly what each was going through. Slowly, unbearably, Jack pulled his hand away, giving the once frantic young woman a soft pat before slipping his hand back into the pocket of his sweat pants. Military grade, pure grey, no fun allowed.
"Ring me if you ever need me. The uhh, panels on the doors also act as mini-telecoms, and you can buzz any of the Forma if you need. I'm sure you know all about this stuff with your dad being the scientist here."
"Pfft, Yea, of course I know how all of this works." She had no idea.
Jack waved her a goodbye, flashing those razor delights one last time before heading down the hall and turning a corner, out of sight.
Anita made sure he was gone, counting a full minute to herself till she felt it was a good time to exhale every bit of air in her lungs and flop back down onto her bed. Noticing the door was still unfortunately open, she leapt up grunting and moaning in her best cave troll giving the keypad another random swipe downwards which shut the metal plating firmly into the wall and closed her off to the rest of the world once more.
It took moments for her to close her eyes and let powerful sleep take her. The toll on her body from various events throughout the day, as well as the emotional strain she experienced was far heavier than she'd ever realize then, or even for the rest of her life time. However, within that deep sleep that claimed her, the tension faded, and her muscles returned to form snapping back into place with the power of well-deserved rest. In the morning she would forget about any kind of strain or tension for a brief time, her simple-nature looking out for her in that way. She'd forget that her life had changed forever in ways she couldn't possibly understand or control, and as soon as she remembers this she'd start into a tirade of curses and low grumbles directed at no one. The most basic form of venting and "dealing with it." Time would pass, and she would learn to take control. But for now, she was a 20-year old college junior with a pension for tomfoolery and aggressively curly brown hair, who was in the midst of dreaming her father explaining everything to her in a gentle tone as he always did, in some sunny location like a beach that didn't exist, and everything was alright for now.