#she'd probably been more involved in the anomaly shit from the start

[laufire]

indra and raven are too smart for the lot of them. and at least indra's plot wasn't sidetracked by fan nonsense (if only because fans of the show dgaf about her, not seeing her as a romantic threat the way raven was lol).

[fedoraspooky]

Checking Up

AN: Wrote a little thing about Charlie's early days in the lab. Wasn't sure if I should post it, but it goes just a little bit more into the other scientists involved, so it might be interesting if you're curious about that. :o

No real warnings to note, other than the premise itself involving a superpowered child character being made into an unethical lab experiment while being lied to about it. :') Anyways I'mma tuck it under the read more if you wanna have a look!

~*~

The heavy doors opened with a whoosh of air. Dr. Soala's eyes made a quick scan of the sparse 'bedroom' that was Project Matchstick's cell as she stepped inside.

It was a mess to say the least- scorch marks could be seen streaked across the walls and floor, the small bookshelf was face-down on the ground with its contents strewn about, a few of which had pages still burning away and crumbling to ash… Even his bed had been overturned! It was a shocking display of power for a child, especially one as small as Matchstick, but… as an anomaly, perhaps it shouldn't be that surprising. Sure, Matchstick may not have developed much in the way of physical strength yet, but he hardly needed that to accomplish the upending of heavy wood and metal furniture when he could literally explode.

And it certainly appeared that he had, several times in fact.

It took a few glances about the room to locate him due to the mess, but she soon found him huddled against the wall, near where his bed lay right-side-down.

Matchstick was curled up tightly, mottled arms wrapped around his legs and face hidden behind his knees.

Normally when checking on anomalous projects, Dr. Soala would be flanked by at least one guard for safety, but… Those anomalies were usually objects, or animals. This one had human-level intelligence, and as such required… A more delicate touch.

Taking care to step over the ashy remains of a few storybooks without slipping, she approached with a bit more caution than usual. Normally Matchstick would at least look up whenever someone walked in, but he remained stubbornly unresponsive- in fact, he curled up even more when approached.

"Charlie?" She said, trying to use the name Matchstick was more comfortable with. Still no response. Concerning…

She kneeled down to be more level with him, and tried a softer tone of voice. "Charlie… Dr. Windsor told me you were upset, is that true…?"

Well, her colleague's more exact words were "That little shit BIT me!!" as he'd hastily washed and sterilized the wound in question, but she decided not to mention that part. Probably for the best, because she saw Matchstick's head lift slightly, followed by the faint glint of watery orange eyes peek at her from just above his knees.

"Yea…" Came a weak response. He'd been crying, though she feigned surprise as best she could, despite having observed his tantrum from the safety of the other room, waiting patiently until he quite literally burned himself out to come in.

"Oh… Why is that, are you alright?"

He just sniffled and shook his head 'no'.

"Do you have any wounds? Any cuts, scrapes, or bruises?"

He shook his head again, even though she could see he did have a few- some older ones that were almost healed up, and a newer bruise on his knee- or was that a skin change? Hm, she'd have to keep an eye on that. He'd been gaining more dark splotches on his skin since treatments had begun.

"I see… I only ask because I know it can be a little rough sometimes when we take you out to get some exercise," she said, brows furrowing a little.

'Exercise' was their code word for the pre-training phase of this project… The original plan was to start him on combat training early, but he didn't seem quite ready for that yet… So after a bit of back and forth with the project's lead scientist, she had managed to negotiate a start with more general fitness instead. It was still a tough regimen for a child to keep up with, but… Better than starting him off with training that was all but guaranteed to injure him.

He still thought he was in a hospital, after all.

"Okay," Dr. Soala broke the silence once more, "so if it wasn't exercise… Was it during your check-up?"

Another sniffle, and a nod. Ah, now they were getting somewhere. She sighed.

"Of course…" Dr. Windsor's bedside manner wasn't nearly as… practiced, as hers. He had little patience for children. At least it wasn't the lead scientist, Dr. Rainer was even worse. It was bad enough with him overseeing everything, his gaze was cold enough to even be felt through cameras…

"What did he do? I know the needles sting, but we have to give you treatment for your illness…"

"I know… But- but that wasn't…"

"…Was he being mean?"

"…"

"Hey, look at me… It's okay to tell me if he was being mean, it won't get you in trouble. That said, you still shouldn't bite him, his job is to look after you too."

At the mention of biting, Matchstick frowned.

"He deserved it…" He muttered into his knees.

"How? He was just performing a routine check-up, I do the same with you too."

"He said…" Matchstick's voice choked up a little and he gritted his teeth. "He said mom n' dad aren't coming back!"

"What?" Shit, he wasn't supposed to know that yet!

"He said 'no wonder they gave you up, you won't behave!'"

"Well that's not true. He must have been in a nasty mood, I will be sure to talk to him and make sure he doesn't say such mean things…"

"They… they didn't leave me here because they didn't want me anymore…? Cuz I burned down the house…"

"Oh no, absolutely not. I told you before, you're here because you're still recovering. And your parents are recovering too, that's why they can't take care of you right now. A house is just a house… They still love you, I'm certain of it."

She felt a tinge of… Something, as the soothing lies left her mouth. Guilt, perhaps… But it seemed to do the trick. He was tearing up all over again, but the tension held in his body had left, and she felt relieved as well- Matchstick could be unpredictable when upset.

She offered her hand.

"Now, let's get you into a new room while we clean this one up… Alright?"

She still felt guilty as she led him out into the hallway, knowing he was in for a rough future, but… Perhaps it could be assuaged a little by getting him something out of the snack machine along the way.