Jehoel was dizzy and limping as he was walked back to his room. The scientist was buzzing, thrilled. The small experiment, less so. The downy feathers on his small wings were mussed, his hair was skewed, and his face was bleeding. He had managed to triumph over the other subject, but it was rough going, with tiny claws growing in. Jehoel was pleased with himself, today- he’d done well, and he could be proud. He wasn’t sure why, but his limbs ached too much for him to care.
Powers: Influence and resources. He's a senior verbena scientist with a broad reach and access to a lot of their resources, including various genetically modified supernatural soldiers, verbena's workforce in general and a lot of scientific expertise in the field of mad science.
Weaknesses: He's human so he could be killed like, mega easily. Just ask Darcey.
Personality: Just like such a bastard. He thrives off being in power, and he believes in what he's doing 100%. He thinks that the place of a supernatural is either not existing or otherwise trying to aid humanity in some way. He sees supernaturals running around as a threat to order and peace, and seeks to eradicate or assimilate anything he comes across that isn't human. He's used to being in power and he's quite smug about it, too. Will often seem to really be hurt when test subjects don't co-operate, a sort of "this hurts me as much as it hurts you" kind of guy.
Jehoel was dizzy and limping as he was walked back to his room. The scientist was buzzing, thrilled. The small experiment, less so. The downy feathers on his small wings were mussed, his hair was skewed, and his face was bleeding. He had managed to triumph over the other subject, but it was rough going, with tiny claws growing in. Jehoel was pleased with himself, today- he'd done well, and he could be proud. He wasn't sure why, but his limbs ached too much for him to care.
He was so exhausted he wasn't paying a lot of attention to where he was until the scientist- Dr Rogers- sat him down on a white-tiled floor. "Don't touch anything," he said, as the seven year old lifted his tiny head to take in his surroundings. His cherubim curls bounced as he nodded and the scientist wandered over to talk to the curious looking lab technician.
He saw a fair bit of the facility- subjects in the angel experiment tended to be marched all over the place, and he was one of the newest. It was an inexact process, and so it took several years before a child who was considered viable was created. Jehoel was one of the best yet, he was told, the weight of responsibility balancing precariously on his fluffy shoulders.
"…afraid he's a little too docile. He does exactly as he's told, but he lacks the violent streak from the furies generation."
"The furies were impossible to control, though, you remember." There was a laugh.
"Don't, it was a nightmare. I thought Dr Leiss was going to throw me to them when she saw what the fights ended like. I'm just worried that this latest Seraph isn't going to keep the fights up once it gets a little older."
Jehoel was sitting by a row of glass-fronted cages, containing various animals, some normal, some hybrids. He traced his finger in a figure of eight over the glass of a scaly rat, drawing infinities.
"You're going about it wrong. They're made moralistic, so use that. Really push the cause, I'm confident he'll go for that one." They were both watching the boy now, as he stood up for a better look at some of the higher cages. His eyes skipped over some rabbits to an old barn owl, which peered back at him with keen interest.
The owl had huge, dark eyes, and something in Jehoel responded. He wanted to fall into those eyes and find some comforting night time. Even in the dead of night, there was little silence, and less dark- lights were always on at Verbena, and someone was awake, somewhere. The more he grew, the more the lights hurt his eyes- the area had to be dimmed for him to use it.#
Sometimes, he did things that made the scientists cross, or frustrated. When he was scared, he puffed his minute wings out, and when he was younger sometimes he panicked and scratched with his sharp little claws. They had clipped them down until he'd gotten a bit older and able to control the urges, but he still had to stop himself from lashing out sometimes. Sometimes he wanted to run- it was like being afraid, but it was never during a test. There was nothing to be scared of, but he still wanted to run.
The owl was attempting to reach towards him, he thought- her beak scrabbled uselessly against the glass. He jumped as the scientists behind him spoke- he usually had very good hearing, but he hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings, he was so fascinated by the owl.
"This isn't that same owl, is it?" asked Dr Rogers incredulously. The lab assistant gave an affirmation, and pulled out a set of keys. "I wonder if she recognises the subject as another owl…" The doctor pulled Jehoel away from the door as the technician opened it and reached inside. "It's definitely unusual for her to be this active at this time…" she knelt down and held the owl towards the small angel, who seemed as curious about the bird as she was about him. She craned her golden brown neck towards him, and he looked to Dr Rogers, for instructions or permission.
"Go ahead," the doctor said. That was what they said when they wouldn't give him instructions- they wanted to see what he would do. Sometimes he did it right, sometimes it wasn't. Swallowing nervously, Jehoel stepped closer to the owl and gently, nervously, ran his fingers down her back. The owl pulled herself up to her full height, flapping her impressive wings to steady herself, and gently reached her face down to the child's curls. He felt a tickling as she began to sort through them, neatening them and pulling them back into place. A smile spread across his face and he turned slightly, showing her the back of his neck, where soft, downy feathers were constantly growing. She immediately began preening them, busily taking off the loose ones, so much more carefully than when the lab assistants did it, yanking a brush over him with little care as to whether it hurt.
Dr Rogers was delighted. Dr Terry, the lab assistant, was thrilled. The trick was repeated constantly for various people, and visits to the animal sector became regular. Jehoel for once didn’t have to fight anything- not instinct, no instructions, no opponent. Having the owl preen him felt like the most natural thing in his life, and it was very nice to have something towards which he had no misgivings, for a change.
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