#bbangie anon

[vxlkyrieonline]

x

Angela had already been wandering around for a little while (the building was so big, and so empty!) when she heard footsteps behind her. She wasn’t sure what sort of people would be in a building like this one, with its fading paint and dinged-up metal walls, but someone had to be better than no one, right? She could run very fast, if they weren’t nice. Curious, she turned around.

It was a cowboy.

A cowboy. He had the hat and the boots and the belt and everything, like he had stepped straight out of one of those old movies Opa liked to watch. Like someone had just gone straight back in time and brought him back with them and plonked him into the hallways, so out of place surrounded by grey metal and fluorescent lights instead of desert sand.

“...Yes,” she whispered, staring at the man as he crouched down. He smelled like smoke and he spoke English, and not Swiss German. That made sense for a cowboy, but all the labeling in the hallway was in English too, and that made no sense for Switzerland. And her parents were nowhere to be found either, and she didn’t know what was going on, she didn’t know this person, she didn’t know what this place was for, she didn’t know, she didn’t know-

Her lip wobbled, but she set her chin stubbornly and blinked hard. No. Crying never fixed anything, Mama said. If she didn’t know something, she should do her best to find out, not give up and stop trying.

“Yes. I’m lost,” she said again, a little bit louder this time. Her English didn’t sound like his - his was all twangy and American, the vowels drawled long and slow - but she did her best. “Do you work here?”

@jessemccowbae

[vxlkyrieonline]

Well.

I should have expected the magical nonsense to affect me eventually. Fortunately, I am now back to my usual self and none the worse for wear, apart from three days of built-up paperwork.

I honestly do not think I have had that much ice cream in a very long time.

[vxlkyrieonline]

A curious floating Omnic crosses the young girl's path, and he stops, before lowering himself closer to her, orbs slowing in their orbit. "Well hello, precious little one... what are you doing here? And alone, of all things... that simply won't do at all. It seems to me you could use a friend". -amgleko

Angela could only stare as the Omnic stopped in front of her, turning to face her with the same slow deliberateness of a B73 marking another target. She wanted to run, wanted to hide - in her mind’s eye she couldn’t help but see those soft blue lights suddenly turning red, the peacefully-bobbing orbs turning into deadly projectiles.

But Onkle Jesse had told her that this was the future, and that nobody on base would hurt her, and the war was over (!). So as they lowered themselves to her level, just as polite as every other grownup, she swallowed down her fear and looked into that unmoving metal face and did her best to be polite too.

“Yes. I wanted to see the garden. Do you want to come with me?”

[vxlkyrieonline]

x

“Yes. How did you know?” Angela had never met him before, ever, and yet he knew her name. Something felt very wrong about this whole scenario, but she couldn’t tell what. It was just a funny feeling in her stomach that wouldn’t go away, whispering that things shouldn’t be like this, something is wrong, you need to find some answers and you need to find them now.

Her gaze stayed firmly fixed on him as he talked, eyes still wide with something between mild terror and intense curiosity. Grownups liked to hide things from her, she had learned very quickly - sometimes they would tell lies, loudly and unashamedly, about things she already knew. That was okay, though. It just meant more time spent exploring, trying to figure out exactly what it was they didn’t think she should know.

But Jesse didn’t seem like he was lying, and he already knew her name, and lots of other things about her that she hadn’t ever told him. And if it turned out he was wrong, and people were going to be mean or something had happened to her parents, she would find out as soon as they met someone new, right?

“...Okay.” She still had lots and lots of questions - How do they know who I am? What do you mean ‘when I get back’? I don’t remember leaving. Are you a real cowboy? Is everyone else also a cowboy? - but Jesse said he would explain. So she asked none of those questions, and asked a different one instead. “What are we having?”

@jessemccowbae

[vxlkyrieonline]

It's been a while, and its getting rather quiet, huh? Let's change that. Remember when you were little, no more than a precocious hatchling? Lets go back to that for a bit! :D M!A You are young again Angie! I'm sure 76 won't mind watching you, and Hana will probably be a good sister. Maybe. Have fun~ - Sylvanon

This was not Angela’s bedroom.

Angela’s bedroom had pretty lacy curtains and walls painted soft blue (her favorite). Angela’s bedroom was lined wall-to-wall with bookshelves full of science textbooks, fantasy stories, and anatomical models she had pilfered from Papa’s things. Angela’s bedroom was a little bit messy, filled with all the things that made her happy.

This room was none of the above.

She sat up and looked around, staring at her surroundings with wide blue eyes. This room was mostly white and gold, and everything was neat and tidy, and it smelled like vanilla, and the bed was too big. Like a hotel room. Except it wasn’t a hotel room, because there were papers on the table and pictures on the walls, and hotels never had those things, at least not the ones she had been in. 

So, if she wasn’t in a hotel, and she wasn’t at home, where was she?

She hadn’t gone to sleep here last night, and her parents would have said if they were going somewhere. It was always dangerous to go somewhere, because of the war. Her lips pursed as she considered. She could stay and wait for someone to come tell her what she was supposed to do, or she could go out and explore.

Well, she wanted to be a scientist when she grew up, and Papa said that scientists always did their best to find things out themselves.

So, with some amount of determination, she clambered out of bed, patting down her clothes a little bit. She was still wearing her pyjamas, but she didn’t think any of the drawers would have something for her to wear anyway, and if she wasn’t in a hotel room, it was rude to look through peoples’ things. The door was big and metal and heavy, but slid aside easily once she pushed on it hard enough.

Angela Ziegler, six years old, shuffled out into the hallway. It felt like this place wasn’t really meant for children to explore alone, but that had never stopped her before. Maybe she’d find someone nice, who could tell her what was going on...