“Thank you,” Gigi blushed. “I've always thought it was an old fashioned name, it was my grandmother's …” How many other Gigi's had she run across? “Oh, I'm early in my senior year, I've been working on this place since I was a freshman, wrapped up the work last year and since I leave at the end of this year supposedly I guess it wasn't too bad that you found out about this place to use once I'm gone … it was close to the supplies I filched so it was worth the investment though I had to put plenty of hours of work into this place.”

She fidgeted a little playing with the latch she always had to screw back into place before unattaching the fake lock and using the real one that she could pick now in her sleep. She was good with locks, tumblers were easy enough to figure out especially since she grew up tinkering with them in her mother's shop, fixing them, braking them, analyzing them …

Of course it was her father's work that drew out her passion, well she took it way beyond that.

She shuddered looking at the sketches, she wasn't a great artist but they served. There was the Tin Man, the Blob, she looked, Slarr though he was disinterested in her and the other two the plant guy and the giant had some fun with her that day in the forest.

She shuddered again in rememberance. She had recalled Slarr's name as the plant guy mentioned it. The others on the wall were pseudo names that she had given them.

“You have seen one? Most of the girls don't. Most are lucky but these things ...” she shuddered again and shook her head. “Sadly there are more.”

"Just one, so far." she said, raising a finger as she said so, "But it's bad news! I don't know if it's a shape changer or a body snatcher or what, but it's replaced the nurse at the infirmary. Who knows what it's doing to the students sent its way?"

It was an awful thought, but as Juniper closed her eyes, she couldn't help but titter slightly. Now that she had a moment to calm down, the adrenaline was running it's course. She felt positively giddy, finding a safe place to rest after so many close calls. She could feel relief welling up in her chest with every breath.

"Heh heh . . . " she covered her mouth with one hand, "Sorry, it's not a laughing matter, just . . . heh . . . I got away. That oaken desk had to weigh more than two hundred pounds, and she pushed it aside like it was nothing, but she never got a hand on me . . . heh."

"I was scared for my damn life, and she was all 'there is no escape', but I got away and now she's so busy scouring the island for me, maybe blondie did too. Not so smug now, are ya, bitch?" she laughed a bit louder, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes as she played all the close calls over again together in her mind. She buried her face in her hands, laughter and tears bubbling out in equal measure now, "Ha ha ha . . . all it took was guts . . . heh . . . guts, and a willingness to take the crazy way out, hee hee hee." she said, drawing her legs up and hugging her knees.

“Some can use illusions, some can change shape from what I hear. Others can control minds. They are all different,” Gigi shook her head recounting back to her first time her, winning over on one of the island inhabitants was something she had not heard of and thus she had assumed that stuff had happened with the tears and the laughter, hysterical laughter?

Know, she realized that she had escaped as she continued but Gigi brought her back to earth not because she wanted too but because she wanted to make it clear that this was not over just yet. Some of the inhabitants were quiet patient most where not thankfully but they tended to be more savage in nature.

“It's not over yet. You saw one of them, now the others would come ...” she sighed. “You will see them more frequently now. But the nurse has already won. Tomorrow I bet they'll be physicals. She will find out who you are from that, either you show up, she sees you and then pays you a visit or you don't show up and she cheeks on those that didn't narrowing down the search field. We're like ducks in a barrel to be shot at a whim since there's really no place we can go.

“I have never crossed paths with the nurse though and didn't even think she was one of them. Chances are she's not human ...”

She hated being the bearer of bad news and once upon a time she could be so naïve just like Juniper but she had become jaded over the years that she had to focus on these attacks.

"Ha ha . . ah . . ." she kept chuckling, whiping her eyes, "I'm not quite as naive as that. It's a small island after all, it's not like back home, there aren't enough people for me to expect my anonymity to remain for long. If the girls at the dorm notice my limp and start speculating in the halls . . . that'd be enough all by itself."

"It'll probably be like a war, there's no way she'll forgive me for showing her up. A stupid new kid, blundered right into her lair without even knowing, but I got away. No matter what kind of pressure she, or any of the rest of them, try to bring down on me, I'll have that. And, if blondie gave her the slip too, I even managed to take something from her in the process." she smiled a bit, "Mmn, that's a good point about the physical though. I hadn't thought that far ahead, yet."

She let her eyes fall half-lidded as she mulled that over for a few moments. She didn't mind a cage match, but when she thought back to the the horrible crunching sound as the desk had slammed into the wall, she had to agree that this was a lot more like being a fish in a barrel.

"What do they want?" she asked, softly, "If there are all these different kinds, they can't share an origin, right? There has to be some kind of ideological grounding, some kind of common ground drawing them together..." she paused a moment in thought, "And ... is this place fully sanctioned? Was it set up as some kind of twisted game reserve, or has the administrative staff just been compromised?"

“There is that … but some of them,” she sighed, head against the wall as it tilted back looking at the ceiling. They could hear the muted sounds of the security looking for Juniper outside. “Some of them play with you … they let you escape. Maybe a day goes by. Maybe two but they always show up, some enjoy letting you think that you got away when really you haven't.

“If she is cast in the role of a nurse then doing so draws no suspicion if she does a round of physicals. If she's the sort to have let you get away too … well, if she is she might even wait a few days before visiting you or finding some way to get you into the infirmary that you can't refute then it will start … I wish I were wrong but you'll learn I was about your age the first time ...” She shuddered even thinking about it.

Tin Man or the being she called Tin Man, the one that could control electronics and metal …

“If she is barely intelligent to keep the masquerade up she might not consider it. If I were here I'd do that though, seems easy enough and doesn't cost you anything to do … but I have learned you can only hope for small victories like you have today. You will loose, no matter how hard you try. I noticed that you're not moving so well, see what such a little victory cost and you only bought yourself a few days at most.

“I don't know what they want though I had not considered that this place might be a game perserve, that makes the most sense actually come to think of it. The creatures are vastly different in appearance, make up and abilities where a common origin is out unless maybe something A Mother of All Monsters sired them. I don't know how far this goes, if it's sanctioned or not but I guess it would be, the curfes, nightly security, the tiny uniforms as if showing us off … the best I could manage is hiding out under the radar to limit the attacks as best as possible.

“They all seem to want one thing. Sex in some form. Some take sustenance, others torment and take delight in braking you, others collect juices … I think they have different needs depending on the creature. Some delight in making you want it, some just delight in braking you down while others seem to have a psyiological need. I'm not sure, I've collected some facts on each one I've encountered thus far though it's barely a paragraph or two other than a description.”

"Eh!?" Juniper blinked at that last answer, apparently rolling it over in her head for a second before she really processed it. "R-really?" she asked, crossing her ankles reflexively as the implications started tumbling into place. "That doesn't make any kind of -- what sorta perverted --" she choked on a half dozen questions at once as her face started to blossom a dark red, either from indignation of scandal. But, she took a look at Gigi's body language, the way she shifted uncomfortably, and the way her eyes kept trailing away to the sides, and she knew she wasn't having a laugh at the Freshman's expense.

"That's fucked up!" she hissed, balling her hands into fists and hoping that the men clomping around above didn't hear her. Well, she'd always said she'd rather a harsh truth than a pleasant fiction...though she'd never thought that her conviction would be tested quite so strongly. And Gigi had been living in this reality for three years already, it was no wonder the girl was worn down, but a quick look around them proved that she hadn't given up completely.

"Gigi. . ." she said softly, leaning forward to crawl across the room and drop down beside her, though not too closely. "I'll definitely take my upperclassman's words to heart, and try to benefit from her hard won experience."

"Don't worry about the leg, a day or two of rest and I'll be right as rain. Totally worth it just to snub the bitch." she said with a faint smile, though that was an optimistic guess if she didn't figure out some sort of brace or spend those days bedridden and vulnerable, "As for her search . . . well, I'll just have to delay her as long as I can. Only one person got a good look at me, and they don't know my name yet, maybe I can still dodge this bullet. At least until the next creature decides they like the look of me."

She rolled her eyes off to the side, looking at the collection of hand drawn caricatures, each representing unspoken trauma and acts. How many other girls were suffering like this? Without even a single shoulder to lean on, how much information about their captors was out there, locked behind isolation and paranoia? She picked up her camera after a moment and snapped a few pictures, intent on reading over the details later. Forewarned was forearmed, right?

"I guess I'll just have to see about taking myself off the computerized roster, hopefully that'll give me enough time to find a hidey hole of my own." she said with a sigh, glancing back over at Gigi, "Speaking of which, have you got any place else? I'm grateful, but you said that some of these things can control thoughts . . . if I come back here, I might not be me. I'd hate to be responsible for anything else happening to you."

“Perverted? Yes. But sadly whatever, whoever is responsible for this mess doesn't seem to care. In the beginning I had been looking for these sorts of answers but even if I knew the truth I couldn't change anything. I think they have a lock down on all the communications. I write home but the tone of the letters I write happens to ignore what I have said in previous letters and other than the plane that brings us in I have seen no means of getting off the island … no boats or helicopters, so we're pretty much stuck here, fish in a barrel and these things get to pick us off at our leisure, well perhaps that's the wrong choice or words … they don't kill us but some of then make us wish that they had.”

Gigi let out another breath then shook her head as if displacing that though. “I don't know what happens when you graduate though, if they just move us again or let the monsters ...” she shuddered, maybe they let the monsters kill each graduating class and play with the underclassmen until such a time.. A new class renews the numbers so thereare always victims, always those that are going to be feasted upon at the end of the year …

“I can only hope that what little information I have gathered as meager as it is provides a little insight into matters.” She sighed running a hand over one of her pig tails nervously.

“You might get lucky but I won't get your hopes up. Ironically and don't ask me how, your leg would be fullly healed after an attack, during the things can do some damage but after, torn cloths and most injuries are healed.” But tuere were more than just psyical injuries too she knew, some wounds never healed completely they just scabbed over …

Gigi nodded. “Yeah, the one I call Mind Bender can control minds I think, he can do all sorts of other mental stuff, I have seen him a few times, as he is and in some of his disguises … he isn't as bad as some of the others ...” she paused as if thinking on something that she had left ufinished, shaking her head slightly as she processed it. “And there are those like Ripper that I know can do it …

“I've got another place, not as hidden as this one seeing how I didn't expect to make use out of this one as bolt hole but … yeah, another place that didn't take me any effort to make and there's … well … yeah ...”

She nodded to affirm what she had said then looked at the studemt before her. “So what's your story?” Knowing full well they'd have some time for Q & A seeing how they still had to wait for it to die down out there.

"It helps." Juniper said with a nod, "Without your help, three years from now I might be in exactly the same place you are. You've helped me avoid some major blunders, and given some insights I might've missed." she leaned forward and started probing her knee with her fingers, finally taking the time to really concentrate and gauge the damage. She grimaced a few times, but overall seemed to be breathing easier.

"Still, that healing thing will be convenient . . . I wonder what triggers it? Something in the food . . . maybe a kind of binary compound that interacts with foreign protein strands?" she chuckled "Assuming we haven't all been implanted with some kind of symbiotic life form and we're just being kept here for four years as incubators until they're ready to harvest."

"Sorry, I guess that wasn't really funny." she shrugged, "Just grappling with the notion of trying to sneak into the head of security's office ... lord knows the Infirmary didn't go so well for me."

"Mmn...my story?" she looked at the ceiling, organizing her thoughts, "There's not much to say, I guess. I'm a problem child, ya know? My parents got together kinda late in life, so they didn't have a lot of energy for a rambuncious little girl. The old man worked from home, always tinkering with his damned computer, and mom? I dunno, I think she had a stalker or something, she just never seemed to be at ease, ya know?"

"I guess you know what it's like to feel like there's constantly something going unsaid around you, being here, now. It used to drive me so damned crazy, I'm probably the only kid who cracked the secret of Santa Claus all by herself because she was trying to find out something about her damned father. At least I got a name out of it, Modnar" she chuckled a bit, "I used to be Juniper Brown, if you can believe it. Brown. Bleh."

"Anyway, I start hanging out with a rough crowd, other kids who didn't want to be home. Most of 'em had better reasons than me, but we didn't care, it wasn't a competition. Got some amateur piercings done, ya know how it is, just being a rebellious little brat. I kinda stumbled into muck racking as a career, I'd been surrounded by secrets so long that I'd kinda developed a sixth sense for when someone had something to hide. And most people are a much easier read than my Mom, I swear she used to be poker buddies with the devil or something." she reached forward to flick a small rock across the floor.

"So, unlike the the rest of the amateur journalism club, I actually knew how to dig for dirt. Picking locks, sorting through trashcans, cracking the rinky-dink alphanumeric passwords most people leave on their desktops. The majority of secrets in this world are only secret because no one is looking for them" she snickered a bit, "But I dug up something that the school board didn't want getting out. They squashed the story, but I passed the info on to the interested parties on the sly. Maybe not my most subtle moment." she looked over at Gigi again with a smirk, "My parents actually sent me here to keep me out of trouble. Guess you can see how well that worked out."

"How about you? You're totally rocking that steampunk Pippi Longstocking thing, not an easy look for most folks."

She had not thought the information would do much good, but it was nice thinking that all these horrors made a degree of sense as to why she had been made to endure them, that it was all meaningful to someone out there some time in the future at least even if that knowledge probably wouldn't help at all, she knew the horrors of the island and that try as she might she had not found a way t o defend against these best and it seemed inevitable as to what was going to happen.

That was a thought that turned her stomach imagining that there was something growing inside her, that the clock was ticking and after four years she would give rise to a new series of monsters … that made as much sense as them killing them after four years and would explain what happened to the graduating class. She theorized how the school explained this to the parents to have so many people vanish each year. Did their folks sign something that forbade them from speaking? She doubted it, they probably did but someone would have broken the silence by now.

Would the school ki;; to keep trouble makers silent. How this was handled was something Gigi had not known, nor did she ever figure she would learn before the year let up. Juniper's guess was as good as her own as far as the healing went but that varied on a case by case basis.

“Some of the creatures I have dealt with have had lingering effects even after for a little while so you can't always count on it resetting everything ...”

“No need to apologize, though I nearly wet myself thinking about the scenario of being a human incubator. And yeah, sneaking around the head of security is probably going to be even more difficult, better guarded than most places,”

She listened as Juniper spun her tail, nodding as she spoke though she would have traided in all her problems for a “simple” stalker though she realized that the simple days were long since over.


“You, a problem child, nah.” She grinned on the heels of her proffessing about sneaking into the security office. Yeap, no trouble there.

“Broyn, common enough and it would have annoyed me to have something so close, yet so out of reach at the same time. I'm usually working and off by myself somwhere so that doesn't come up too much but when it did it got bad. I'm sort of a recluse by nature … no one bothers with me and I rarely bother with them if it can be help. You know in our conversation I've probably spoke more that I have in four years of being here.” She giggled a little, covering her mouth near immediately so she was not overheard by the guards searching for her guest.

“I think that sounds bland well the combination does not have the same ring to it as Modnar.”

Her eyes traveled to follow the stone as it flick across the floor. She nodded absorbing what the girl had told her thus far.

Again she found herself stiffling a giggle with her hands. “I'd say, big trouble by the sounds of it.”

“Me? Well the really isn't much. I'm rather boring, a stay at home for the most part tinkering with inventions, which flop most of the time though ever so often they work as itended or even better. My father was an engineer and I took to his craft well enough but pressed into the theories and how things worked too. I thus easily adapted his plans and designes with a certain falair. My moher had a locksmith shop where I used to play around when younger and even worked on the locks, I managed to get pretty good at dismantling them or even unlocking them. I came here because of two reasons, mainly because I had a schoolarship her, one I don't recall filling out. That and they were suppose to have a goood tech program too. So I came her and with the first two weeks I became one of those limited few.”

She sighed but obviously did not want to think of it much. Tun Man …

“Do you have a boyfriend Juniper?”

"You say it's boring, but it seems pretty impressive to me." Juniper said with a smile, gesturing around at the walls, "If I tried to make a shelter like this, it'd be an over-sized rabbit warren, and I'd probably get rained out come the wet season. The school confiscates everything that even remotely looks like a weapon, and, I guess, I could make a shiv or something in a pinch. But you can make stuff that uses electricity, or petrol, or air pressure, or whatever. You could whip up something that might actually hurt these things."

"Though, I can see why you wouldn't. I mean, it's bad enough as the helpless lamb, what would they do if they caught a whiff of real threat from you?" she said with a shrug. She got really quiet for a long time when Gigi asked her about a boyfriend, looking at the wall across from her as thought it out.

"No. . .not really." she finally settled on, with a deep sigh, "There was a boy, sure. Before I got into journalism, older guy, Thomas. Him, me, and this girl Marian were really close, and when Thomas dropped out of school to get a job, we'd hang out at his place most weekends. It was a damn fire trap, but for us, it was freedom." she dropped her head to one side, "I. . .I don't let a lot of people in, so Marian and Thomas started seeing each other, and I just kinda ended up on the outside."

"They made an effort once, invited me over for the weekend like old times. We killed a couple six packs and were laughing it up. He started kinda grabbing at me and making these dumbass comments about how I never came around anymore, I jabbed an elbow in his ribs and told him his girlfriend was right there, laughing. And then she came over and kissed me, and the next thing I know the three of us are in a tangle on the floor."

"I kinda freaked out when I sobered up." she said, making a face, "Started shouting about how I didn't need a "pity fuck", and that the both of 'em could go to hell. I never did make it right between us, I could never find the words. I guess I don't have to worry about that anymore. That's about as close as I ever got." she shrugged her shoulders a bit, "How about you? Got yourself a man on the outside, or have the hard angles of humming machinery claimed your heart as well as your passion?"

She was blushing against those compliments. She had never though too much on her talents though she supposed that Juniper was right in many ways. Others she had been wrong though but she did confess that there was a certain pride that her work instilled in her. It had taken her the better part of two years to make a stable glorified hole in the ground and while she concealed it well, she thought, there had bben no real function to it, it was more out of the fact that the location was ideal though it would have been a twist of irony if they decided to move the supplies once she had finished.

“First order of business, fashion a hammer, it's easy enough. Second order of busy use that hammer to make a better hammer then you can branch out from there. Flatten steal, stealing some rope or using vine when I couldn't fing it and fashioning it to a wooden stick you can make a crude shovel, the trick is finding the metal … tin cans and other scrap.

“Most people find my work dull or can't follow it or both ...” she paused gazing at a diagram then back to Juniper. “I haven't been able to hurt them, annoy them somethimes but not hurt. I annoyed one or two of them, it's only worse when you get on the wrong side of them, often it is best to just give them what they want, well you never truly give it to them so to speak, right? Get it over and done with as readily as possible and be done with it and hope that they don't hurt you too badly.”

Gigi waited for her to continue, real patient so far but as the other student shared she nodded in understanding. “Did you three ever … you know ...” She went red just asking the question. “Sorry … you don't have to answer.” Yeah, that one had been a bit more personalespecially when she had just said that she let few people in. So in a way she was a loner two thun Gigi tended to be withdrawn Juniper more noticeable as she stood alone doing those sorts of things that drew attention.

But she was surprised when the younger girl answered her question as she pressed on. Complicated indeed! As an answer to her question this would have to be a no but there were cirumstances behind this. She though on this matter, and that was perhaps the reason why she didn't drink as she had aways told people if she did something stupid she wanted to be aware that she was doing it there would be no excuses that she could make after, no excuses. Of course by that token she was solely responsible when something went wrong. Still, this wasn't a bon headed ploy, in this case it seemed that alcohol got by those inhibitions. She had feelings and what she wanted had been there, besides it wasn't as if she were going behind her friend's back either since she knew. Ggi could have only hoped to be so lucky. Her first time nad been here with a monster, oh how pleasant that was, not. The blood and tears, Tin Man completely making her feel helpless as he took her time and again that night and several times since. He popped up since their interests seemed to overlap so she often found herself in situations where he had managed to be around.

“Wow, I'm sorry to have brought that up. That sounds … well harsh … and you have no idea what their mind was, if they had both liked you and were drawing you in or if they thought to spruce things up a little in the bedroom or if it were just out of piety. I don't think it was piety though, but what do I know I tinker around with machines all day. A machine won't cheat on you. A machine will always be there. A machine does as it's programmed to do.

“I've … well no boyfriend … I was, am a bit of a recluse and never really met anyone. I mean I had my far share of boys I had crushes on but had been too embarrassed to make a move on them. I have never known a human lover … well it's a bit complicated in that. I did once but that was in a dream Mind Bender gave me in trade once.”

"When some slobbering monster is pawing me up, I don't think I'm going to be able to just lie back and think of England." Juniper said with a sigh, "I'm really more the 'If you can't dwell in heaven, reign in hell' sort. Anything I can do to threaten, demean, or undermine these bastards is just another way they don't own me. I know you're trying to save me some agony, even if your body grows back, your mind still holds on to the trauma. It's just . . . the way I am." she said with a shrug. She thought back a bit to the woman in the showers this morning...how proud had she been, when it all started? Could Juni herself end up like that, a babbling shell who needed to be guided back to her room? The notion was insidious. undermining her resolve before it had fully been tested.

"And, no, you're right. Whatever happened that night, I don't think pity was the motivator. Well, unless wanting your friend to be as happy as you are is a kind of pity. I just got stupid when I woke up outside of my comfort zone, and then, well, I'd said such horrible shit, ya know? You don't just come back with your hat in your hands and say "I'm sorry I was a bitch and threw your feelings back in your face" over something like that." she scratched the back of her head, "I mean, like I said, we were close. Marian's the reason I got pierced, she was just so jazzed when she'd got her tongue done, but I wanted something I could hide from the folks. And Thomas? Hell, Doubting Tom is the one who did my ink. Sure, he was only an apprentice at the time, but the design was his work and I trusted him to do it right."

"But I can't fix it now." she said, folding her arms across her chest and taking a deep breath, "Heh, machines sound a lot simpler, that's for sure. They never screw up, they just break, and when they do you can patch 'em up without holding a grudge or anything." she sighed a bit.

"Frankly, I'm surprised you'd let that thing tinker around in your skull. I wouldn't be able to embrace some kind of consensual delusion, just because I'd be too worried what else he was dicking around with in my skull." she tapped the side of her head, "I can't blame you for wanting an escape, but what if you'd come out the other side as a baked potato? Or if he took the emotions you developed for you brain beau and used them as a template to rewire your opinion of him?"

“At first I was the same way until I realied I couldn't do much about it no matter how hard I fought it was going to happen and some of them made it worse for you if you fought back ...” Gigi professed looking back into the past. She shook her head, not wishing to dissolve her fighting spirit but at the same time warning her to. She paused. “Some of them want you to fight back, some of them take sadistic pleasure in tormenting their victims and showing them just how pathetic there best is ...”

She sighed then fell silent about it. Juniper would discover it all for herself in time no doubt. She saw one of them, now she would see others and the vicious cycle would soon start. She just hoped that this place didn't grind down the younger student as it had her, but it could be worse actually for her than it had been for Gigi. See she had not been that strong, she had been feeeble and never really thought much of her abilities to fight back though she suspected that Juni was use to fighting back and would be more unnerved to find that her efforts had been for naught. She could only hope that she was wrong though but in her time here she had seen lots of tough girls get reduced to quivering masses or disappear for days, months, sometimes years at end.

“Yeah, I guess it's tough to come back after that. It sucks though, it really does. Maybe ...” she shook her head realizing that was some dream that she could never hope to accomplish as her green eyes flickered to the crude ceiling over head. Her ears strained, listening for the sounds of the security guards outsided but she had not heard them as they must have already moved on to their next search patterns. She looked back at the freshman. “Can I see your ink?”

Seeing it or not she smiled at the comment about machines. “At least I can fix machines when they brake down though.”

She considered what Juni said. She could understand the freshman's destain there and thus moved to explain further. “Because it is rather simple … I could have fought and it would have made it worse, or it could have still done what it was going to do so there was no sense in resisting it. Most of them don't care enough to give you something in return and even if he were rewiring my thoughts about him that was a small risk. If there was at least one of them out there I didn't have to be terrified of if it ever came back. And if it made my mind mush, well it would have probably done so even if I fought so it would have been pointless. I could only hope that it didn't mess anything up and abided by it's word in that case … he … it did … but I only ever encountered it that once so I guess it became a moot point in giving me an escape of sorts although I did escape that night at least for a few hours ...

"Of course, don't ya know? Half the reason to get a tattoo is to show it off." she said with a grin, reaching up to her sleeve. With the way the shirt was clinging to her shirt, one could kind of see it as it was, but it looked more like a blurry shadow than anything distinct. As Juniper rolled her sleeve up, it became much more clear.

It was an angel, forced down on her knees with a blindfold bound tightly around her face. Blue robes were bound tightly to her body with thick vines of thorns which tugged at the fabric and tangled up in her arms which were pull taught over her head. As she started picking out the details, she could see that he'd actually gone over the work a number of times with fainter ink, building up the shading into a smooth airbrushed look, making the nipples stand plainly out against the cloth and throwing a flush of pink over the cheeks of her upturned face that stood out against Juniper's natural skin tone. For all that, the wings were free and spread, touched up with the lightest blue to give the impression of a whiteness that wouldn't have held to skin. In an arch over the image was a scroll of parchment with tall, stilted script "Justice Is Held Captive In The Absence Of Truth"

"Pretty good, huh? He spent a lot of time on it, wanted to make sure it was just right. Hurt like a bitch though."

"Hey." she said, trailing off for a second there, "I don't mean to presume but . . . are you really happy like this? I mean, I understand what you're saying, and why you'd want to concentrate on hiding, given the circumstances. It's just . . . it seems like you haven't got anything to keep you company down here, except a hard, lonely past." her eyes kinda wandered off to the blueprints on the wall, "You really pulled my ass out of the fire up there, and I want to repay you somehow. Maybe there's something you need for a project that you haven't been able to get on your own? I could be a go-fer, that's what Freshmen are for, right?"

“It's amazing,” Gigi took her arm to bring it closer to her eyes as she examined it. It was like a take off of the blind folded woman, the statue that was at the court houses with justice being blind. She inspected the artwork before rleasing the arm and scrunching up against the wall again. “How long did it take?”

“Happy?” She thought that word over in her mind.

“Can anyonereally be happy here? Well the enlightened of us anyway. The others get to go home I think. Nohallucinations or stories of monsters.And the rest of us, God knows. Your guess is as good as mine but I have foundthat it is best to limit my exposure and thus the attacks are fewer in nature … the few the better since my time is best spent doing other things.

“I suppose you can say it's a rather lonely existance but you get use to it. I don't think I would have found anyone before know to relay this too before now but my last year has me worried. In a way I hope it's my last year but that sense of the unknwn is getting the better of me. I know of girls that have suddenly disappeared and don't be surprised if tomorrow I am gone or this place doesn't exist any longer, stranger things have happened after all.”

She sighed again and thought. “There is something I need that I've been having trouble getting a hold of. A battery and I know where I saw one … there are a few upstairs but I need one that's going to last, the ones upstairs last for a short time in my projects and I'm so close to finishing … I hope it works I've been tinkering on it ever since I finished this place and well, I think I'm close to finishing it, especially with the help of Blob, unintntional of course …

“I almost got one out of the labs when I was there some time back but it's much to dangerous for me to stir you in that direction ...”