Twll mw more about the characters & plot abt Falcon in a Cage (I think it's called?)
Alslkdlslakdkdkslskdkc OKAY!!! 😁😁😁
So the basic plot of Falcon in a Birdcage is this:
During a large war, the government began developing "super soldiers" by genetically or mechanically altering normal humans into killing machines. While publicly, the super soldiers are beloved heroes and the face of the war effort, in private they are nothing more than prisoners, forced to kill on the battlefield and act as propaganda for the government, and subject to brutal abuse as part of their "training".
Aierson, the leader of the four super soldiers of Team Alpha, wants nothing more that to escape and taste freedom. He's tried it before. But the military has a trick up their sleeve that keeps him and all the others trapped: the fact that the human parts of their bodies continuously reject the modfications, and the only thing keeping the modifications from slowly and painfully killing them is constant injections from a special serum only accessible from their handlers.
While the four super soldiers of Alpha Team (Aierson, Nikka, Zyndra, and Terrane) have been fighting together for the last few years, their dynamic gets turned upside down when their superiors announce that they are going to be getting a newly created super soldier. Suddenly, all the abuse they've gotten used to seems fresh and even more horrific as they watch the new soldier get subjected to it for the first time.
While they try to protect the new guy from the worst of the abuse, the war finally comes to an end. But this is not the freedom they had anticipated. Rather, they have to navigate a whole new set of rules and abuses as they become the country's top celebrities and get bought by a ranking government official as her personal "pets".
The POV character is Aierson, the "Painted Falcon". He has large wings and talons. He's the leader of the team, and is desperate for freedom. He's actually a really good person, very kind and super protective of his team, but he's convinced that he's a horrible person and the others are far better people, and that reflects in how he tells the story. He's constantly highlighting his teammates' acts of goodness while diminishing his own as just "things that had to be done", and when the others do anything selfish or bad he hides it or brushes it aside.
Next is Nikka, "The Beast". She was the first of them to be made into a super soldier, and they transformed from a human into something monstrous and unearthly, with strange purplish skin and claws and an animal-like muzzle with too many teeth. She's the only one of them who was made completely unrecognizable, and no one knows who she was before (well, except the government, and they aren't telling.) While she started out as a pretty nice person, the military has put her through so much and consistently treated her like the monster they made her into, muzzling and caging her. She's gotten harsh and sarcastic and snappy, and is now the most violent of them.
Zyndra is the "Cyborg", who was made a robot in one arm and from the torso down. She's the heart of the team and very soft and kind, and the military hasn't been able to punish that softness out of her yet.
Terrane, the "Tank", was given tougher skin and an extreme healing factor, as well as removing his ability to feel pain. That would seem like a good thing, except he also lost pretty much all his sense of touch and feeling. He feels basically lost in his own body and has no sensation. His job is to take all the damage and protect his teammates, and he takes that job very seriously. He's a protector and a kind soul. Unfortunately, he can't protect them from the abuse the military puts them through.
I haven't named the new guy yet, but while all the other super soldiers were unknown people near the beginning of the war, he was a regular soldier, a medic, chosen for the program after he rescued a bunch of his team during a battle and became a national hero. This means the military has to be extra careful with him, because if people found out the way they were abusing them there would be a public outcry. Instead of mutilating him into something weird like the others, they basically just kinda Captain America-ize him and make him super strong and powerful. They have to keep up his public image.
One really unique thing about the story is the perspective. It's first person from Aierson's POV, but there's, like, two levels to it. There's the version of the story he's telling publicly, and then there's the side comments and private scenes he's keeping secret, because he knows it'll paint them in a bad light. It's kinda hard to explain? But like some parts of the text will be in parentheses or a different font, and that's the part he's not telling out loud.
Here's an example (TW for war, death, and blood):
As I reach the peak of my arc, hovering only a fraction of a second before I dive to tear into the oncoming soldiers, I close my eyes. Letting my instinct and training take over as my mind checks out. (I dive, and my claws rip into the enemy. Blood spatters my skin. A hundred nameless, faceless men fall before me.) This is who I am. I am not a man who weeps over death. (I am a monster.) I am a falcon who kills to survive. This is what I have been created to be. A falcon. A monster. (A killer.) When I come back to focus again, my talons are dripping with blood. A sharp whistle pierces across the battlefield. Our signal to return. I glance around for the others. (Among the dead bodies, they are the only ones standing.) I give a nod and we head without a word towards the waiting helicopter. We take our assigned seats and are lifted away. Terrane's skin is shredded, blood oozing from the few places the bullets managed to pierce. Nikka breathes heavily, her body all but trembling as it attempts to come down from the adrenaline. (Something animalistic still lurks in her eyes.) Cyborg's eyes glisten as she retracts her saw and swaps back to her hand.
Again it's still mostly just vibes, but it's got a lot of cool concepts and delicious whump 😈