The book of life was supposed to be coming to a close... Her children now teenagers, the were-elf was quickly preparing for the days of graduation. No more trips to school, no bedtime stories... no party favors or pointy hats... The youngest was just a child still... probably the human age of 10. Colette, the oldest, was preparing for her drivers license... Taikobou was short behind her, and the twins were just about to hit puberty.
But fate had other plans. There were more stories, more endings... nothing stopped it seemed. Though the first approach of a man in a lab coat had been startling for the woman... asking her by name at her night shift, drawing her to talk in private... she was told they were a friend of Thomas'. co-workers, really... The story was given to her straight... two twins in their project needed homes. It was an easy "sale", as the tech had predicted... no reason to sugar coat it with fancy words to disguise the corporation as an adoption center... no blackmail to lure in an unruly parent, it was pure and simple. And the next thing Arafel knew, she was outside of the corporation...
Of course... the first thing she had said was she couldn't support another mouth. The thought of children alone was something that tugged at her heartstrings... if she could adopt every child in gaia, she probably would have... but there was just no way to take care of them all. She already worked two jobs... odd hours, barely had the strength to spend time with the kids she had thanks to the turn of her life... But the tech, he promised her housing. And sure enough... walking into the building, a man waving for her to take her seat... there were pamphlets to read, one of which was on the free housing. No rent, no utilities... her whole family could move in, simply for participating in their parent program. The prospect of that alone... not paying for such a large house all on her own, she could even quit one of the jobs! How could she say no?
Soon enough her name was called-- paperwork to be filled out, something of which she was quite used to... having run her own adoption center once upon a time. Lead back to a room that reminded her much of the rooms in the clinic... consultation rooms, right? A new face with the same coat as the man she talked to before came in, passing on papers of information... Opossums. Nocturnal... marsupials... she vaguely skimmed the information before being told to read it later. Much of it was on "predicted" results, however nothing was assured... and a few nods of her head later, the man left... returning with two young girls.
She had to blink-- rub her eyes, at the sight of them... it was like looking at a mirror image of each other. Both holding to either of the tech's hands in perfect symmetry, even the bows in their hair were opposite-- yet placed in exactly the same fashion! This was nothing like her experience with twins before...
The two let go of the technicians hand-- their steps following sync as well, causing the woman's stormy gray eyes to widen at the sight of it. It was amazing, wasn't it? How much skill did you need-- or was there really a mental connection between these two?
"Greetings."
Again, in synchronization! "Oh-- um.. hello--" Arafel stumbled, "What are your names...?"
"They don't have names-- this is Marsu05, and Marsu04 or... Marsupial 05 and 04."
"Oh..." that was strange, wasn't it? "Well-- little girls need to have names right? How about we come up with some?" She gave the two little girls a winning smile... but to no effect. The two simply stared... watching this strange new woman. The Tech couldn't help but sigh, wondering if this was really a good match-- well! The computer gave it a good rating, but this poor woman... Oh well, not his problem. "This is your new mother, you'll be living with her." he explained, flipping through his clipboard "That's it... please leave at your leisure, we'll be keeping in touch."
Before she could open her mouth the tech was leaving-- causing her jaw to fall slack for a moment, then snap shut... Oh-- Alright. Well... "Um... You'll come home with me then? What is it you two like..."
They stared a moment longer-- apparently lifeless, until they slowly smiled, offering only a sideways glance to one another. "You." answered the first "Games." came the second... "So you should play with us~"
There was no way to fight the eerie presence of that sentence-- if only the way it was said! But ah-- the woman pushed that down... smiling a little, alright-- games! She could do games.. like... tag? Or monopoly? "A-ahm... alright~ Well I have games at home... I guess we'll get going?" she offered the two a hand, to which they took in sync again, following their new toy out of the office, and into the big, wide world.
[D-Corp; Soaring to new acheivments]
