*F*I*R*S*T* *P*O*S*T* 
Come Seek Us Where Our Voices Sound
"MOTHER #$%^ING SON OF A *&^%$!!!!"
Throught the innitialy calm inn, the echos of a foul-mouthed teen rattled the rustic windows. Behind the counter, a nearly deaf old man flipped the pages of the daily news, aparently unaware of the reverberating obscenities. Upstairs, an elderly woman, assumably the counterman's wife or sister... Heck, maybe both... scowld at her soup, glancing at the ceiling every so often. Again, we travel upwards to the third floor, this time to the cranky tennent. Alone, a purpleheaded wench feums over the contents (or lack thereof) of her traveling sachel.
"That sorry, good for nothing SAC robbed me for all I've got!" Whirrling on her heals, she turned to face the sleeping dogs on her bed."My wallet, my cloths, my... THE #$&#xKE;R STOLE MY CRACKERS, TOO!"
The vulgar young woman was none other then Rhonada Brinks, daughter to a wealthy import merchantte and trainer of exotic animals. Her purpose in this small appartment had been quite unclear since her arrival, but as she cursed to the hells her ex-traveling companion, the purpose seemed to unfold for itself. Through the semi transparent silken curtains the woman trode, parting them to lay a hand on the window beyond. Fierce rosen eyes glowerd past the clear panels, as if trying to make out the form of the jackle who had ripped her off; though, quite obviously, he was no where to be found. Furiously, she tossed the near empty bag to the floor, a small brown mutt ducking out of the way before he was pelted with the object.
The young male of the pack struggled to claw his way onto the bed with his sisters. Quite small, as opposed to the others, he wasn't as adept to this three dimentional scenery as his siblings. Noting the difficulties her brother was having, the oldest (and notably most well fed) of the trio bent low, biting the gnap of his neck and pulling him onto the plush covers to snuggle.
Roni noticed none of this.
Lost in her own rage, she ran her calloused fingers through her hair, touseling it as if it would make her feel better about the predicament. "How am I gonna pay to replace everything...? Where am I going to find the... or the....." She pressed her forhead against the glass. If it were in her nature to cry, now may have been the time. However, her thoughts were interupted by the thin chime of a bell. She turned quietly to the door, a hand lingering on the cool window. The small red flag indicating mail had been raised, so it was no surprise that a small pink envelope was sitting in the tray.
The midnight colored Alpha Female relenquished her playful grip on her brother and hopped off the bed for the notice.
"Jinx..." Roni called softly "It's probobly not for us... No one knows we're here."
Choosing not to heed her master's command, the mutt pulled the letter out of the slot and trapsed over to the human. Plopping her fairly large posterior on the boards before the woman, her ears perked, as did her head, extending the envelope. Roni frowned. She took the envelope before carefuly examining the embossed lettering.
R-H-O-N-A-D-A
Few knew her by that name. Even fewer were able to find her by courrier.
She spun towards the window as she ripped open the letter-- first examining the outdoors for some hint of a spy before moving her attentions to the note. She re-read the contents over and over, failing to grasp their meaning through the shallow depths of reason. "This is... Gibberish. Something about genetic tests and b*****d offspring.... Utter rambelings of a madman!" She crumpled the notice and swong her hand back over her shoulder-- as if to toss the accurrsed note out of her way.... but she didn't let go. Quietly, she pulled her hand back down before her, to look over the note... How did they know her name? How did they know where she was? This was no junk mail, that was certain. But what was she to do?
>_
It wasn't long before she arrived at the building. Silver lined the skyline for what Roni concived as miles. Trees rich with fruit littered the enclosed garden. Walls higher then Roni could have imagined ever scaling surrounded the plot of land harboring the Labratory.... if one could bother to still call it that. Roni was reluctant to open up the large doors that greeted her, but a round of encouraging yips from behind left her little of a choice. Entering the labs, it took her quite a while to settle on if this was even the correct place. The air was crisp and clean. The stark, cold demeanor she was expecting was nothing like the warm and friendly atmosphere that greeted her. All arround, there was a sence of peace and comfort as opposed to the bitter superiority she had come to expect from all places scientific. However, there one unsetteling fact that she couldn't overcome. No one was there. Aside from the woman, her managery of followers and the sound of distant music there had been little to no signs of life since entering the building.
Upon a desk with room enough for an assistant to sit behind, Roni noted, rested a bell. A common little divice often used to summon the aid of a worker, she recalled. Disregarding the sign, but yet doing exactly what it wanted, she rang the bell and awaited a sign of movement. The music clarified and became louder. A click followed as it was again stiffled and the clack of high heals could be heared coming down a corridor. Moments later, Roni had been greeted by a chipper young lass. The exchange between the two seemed like little more then pleasentries and other terms of no conciquence, but the next thing Roni knew, she had been ushered into yet annother corridor with a series of doors and windows. Door after door seemed to lead to a series of young ... girls? It was hard to tell. They certainly weren't human, not entirely anyhow. Roni paused at one door... staring in at the child beyond. "Her... Who is she...?" The one in the visor pulled out what seemed to be a chart of some sort. After regaling a few insignifigant stats and records, Roni had already lost intrest. She wandered into the room, leaving the Visor'd woman mid-sentence.
The room was.... fairly neutral. It was a nice sort of place, Roni guessed, but certainly not as homely as the rest of the lab. A quiet child labored away at what apeared to be a hand-made note book. She sat on the bed, nose pressed flat to the paper, the upper half of her body flattened against the end-table; which in this case served as a make-shift drawing desk. Papers littered the otherwise pristine floor; most of which seemed like they had at one point had something written, or perhapse drawn on them, but now only lay in scribbles, crumpled in their little heaps. A snap of a pencil tip was the first noise made when Roni had entered the room. The next sound to follow was the SCHRRAAACK of a page being ripped from the book and annnother few rustelings as it, too, was crafted into a ball and cast towards the ground. Roni knelt down, extending a hand to pick it up.
"Don't touch it."
Roni paused. She didn't quite know what to make of this girl. She was small, as were most children her age. Her hair was a sort of teal, crimped and short. Roni recalled sporting a similar hairdoo in her youth, though purple it may have been. The child wore a sweater of a modest shade, hued blueish green either by intention or the flaurecent lights illuminating the room. She seemed to be dawning a pair of snake skin pants. Odd.. Roni thought in silence, certainly less accustomed to child fassions then she'd care to admit. And lastly, it would seem, a pair of bluish legwarmers atop a seemingly usual pair of snowboots.
"I... Just wanted to see what you were up to. That's all."
"It's not ready, yet." the other girl grunted before retuning to her work.
"Well you seem very dillegent about getting whatever it was right, that's for sure." She smiled... Smiling wasn't somethign she did often, but when she did, it was certainly a comforting enough look.
"Nnnnn..."
That was the only sound for a few moments. Roni, uncomfortable with the silence, streightened up and closed the gap between them. Sure not to make any quick movements, positive that this would have frightened the young child, the woman sat next to her quietly, peering over her shoulder. The child meerly glanced back, before moving her arms in such a way as to block her vision.
"What's your name...?"
The girl paused. She hadn't thought about it much. A name.... "We don't have names..." she said softly; Quiet, if not a little meek. "They're going to let the parents name us..."
"Well that sounds a bit lonly, doesn't it...? Everyone aught to have a name."
"I..." she started. Roni paused for a moment. She knew all too well when someone wanted to say something. Unsure of the appropriate action, she put a hand on the girl's shoulder. The child quickly jerked away. "They call me Tilde!"
Roni was somewhat taken aback by the gesture, but figured it was little more then the girl's own quirks. "Tilde? Who calls you that?"
The girl looked down. "Er... No one.... Not yet, anyway..."
"So you picked the name yourself, then?"
The girl nodded. "It... It's the little squiggly line... Lots and lots of squiggly lines make up everything. A tiny little part of something beautiful..."
Roni gave annother charming smile. She leaned down a bit, to be more or less eyelevel with the child. "I think..." She paused for a moment, lending to the dramatic effect. "That such a name is fitting for a squiggly little thing such as yourself." For emphasis, she poked the little girl's arm, careful as to not push to hard for fear of hurting what could be something very delicate. Tilde seemed to glow with some sort of newfound confidence. It wasn't often that she was complimented, let alone by someone as funny looking as the other 'humans' arround here.
"You're weird..."
Roni gave a cheeky sort of smirk and cocked her head. "Thank you."
Tilde glanced down at the book she was yet hoarding. Quetly, she flipped open to a page towards the begining and ripped it out. Sheepishly, she turned her eyes away and held the page up to the older woman.
"For me...?" Roni was... confused... but took the paper. It was beautiful. She wasn't quite sure what it was, be it written word, mathamatics or some pice of art... But it was truely beautiful, none the less.
"It was going to be for my parents... But you might like it better."
Roni didn't know what to say. Her eyes darted between the paper and the girl a few times. "What if..." She hesitated. She recalled the Visor saying something about promises, but she wasn't sure what it was. "What if they were one in the same?"
The comment was only greeted by a minor grimace.
"... I could addopt you..." Roni clarified, uncertain as to why she felt she had to. She wasn't sure what compelled her to say such a thing. She was a traveler! She hopped from hotel to hotel, sleeping in tents and trees inbetween. Whatever means she had for taking care of a child had been stolen! And yet... This child. Roni knew it, somehow, that she had to take care of her.
Tilde, however, seemed a little less thrilled. "Yeah... Right..." The wave of confidence previously enstilled had ebbed in moments and all that was left was the quiet reverance of a child who'd been let down.
"I... er... What's wrong...?"
"You're just going to adopt someone else. They always do."
Roni couldn't belive her ears. However, her already wracked mind remembered percicely what the Visor had said. "Don't give them false hope... If you aren't going to adopt them, don't tell them that you will." Roni looked away a bit. It hurt her heart to think that someone could promise such a life of happyness to this child and then simply vani-... "Anyone who would do such a thing... isn't really worth your time, now are they?"
Tilde had no responce.
"It must be terrible" Roni began with reservation. "To want something so badly... To be promised such a truely wonderful life. Every following waking moment spent planning on this perfect world, running to the window with every footsetp that passes by with utter excitement. And that first night, you can hardly sleep, afraid that if you do, you'll miss your chance... And the same thing the next day, and the next, and the next... And just as you're hope begins to waver;" Roni held her breath, recounting her own tale in her own mind; "Nothing..."
Tilde looked up quietly, studdying the older woman's face carefully. "Nothing...?"
"Nothing." she repeated. "You remain on this brink, teetering back and forth in your own mind. You make up excuses for them. 'The paperwork must be really hard.' or 'Maybe they ran into a complication that I just don't know about.'... And then the realization sets in. No one's coming back for you. You're trapped in the hellish state that is post-denial with no one there to help you. The dreams of your perfect world lay shattered on the floor...." Roni and Tilde shared a glance at the mess twards the ground. "I... I wouldn't know," This, fairly obviously, was a lie. "But... I can try to imagine how painful that might be." She extended a hand, softly scooping up the tiny apendage of the strange little child. "I don't have much to give... Not a penny to my name and little more then the cloths on my back... But they're yours, if you'll have them."
Tilde looked back up to her, meeting loving rosen eyes with unsure crimson. A gentle squeeze on Roni's hand told her the answer, even before the child thrust herself into her arms.
Seconds turned to minutes as the two were locked in tearful embrace as only a mother and daughter could. A knocking on the door was the only interuption. The Visor had entered and seemed to have been filling out the paperwork during this sentimental exchange. "Have you decided on a name?" she asked in whatever tone seemed apropriate for the time.
Roni and Tilde exchanged glances and the adult gave a cocky sort of smirk. "I'm not sure... Tilde C. Brinks has a nice little ring to it, don't you agree?"
