[The Den - The Undercity - 07:07 AM, March 12th, 2045]
“Miss. Miss Dove, please— Just, a different song? If you have to sing, please… literally anything else.” Pleaded a woman in a nurse’s uniform. Her hair, normally kept in a tidy bun, was frazzled and somewhat unkempt, mostly as a result of chasing an unsleeping, remorseless, excitable Jemma.
‘Dove’ as she was occasionally called by anyone who either saw her, or overheard her conversation with wolf, was bored. Had been bored. She’d always had an over abundance of energy, but after what Menagerie had done to her?
She practically felt like sprinting when there was nothing for her to focus on.
And they wouldn’t let her go and sit with Jade until she woke up, because that was ‘creepy’. Whatever.
Not like Jade would even notice, she was sleeping! Sheesh.
Jemma groaned and tried to focus again, turning to face the nurse— Leah— with a soft sigh. The wings she had wrapped herself in fluttered their feathers. Leah stared, and Jemma stared in mind, before the winged woman threw her hands up into the air with a grumbled shout of “Fiiiine!”
She sighed, turning her gaze to the floor and thinking for a while before she raised her head and smirked. She maintained eye contact with Leah, cackling as the nurse nary blinked at the sound of rushing ink.
The pitch-fluid spread over Jemma’s body like a tidal wave, giving rise to black fur, bleached bone, and burgundy chitinous plates.
A quadrupedal figure rapidly replaced the bi-pedal human, vaguely ursine in general shape, but longer and taller. The claws were short, blunt, and nearly hidden by the shaggy fur that covered the majority of the body. Enormous plates of bone rose and covered the neck, forearms, and the straight portions of the back legs. Chitin covered everything else, save for the face. That too, was mostly covered by bone, like a mask.
Jemma smiled in this new shape, an expression that was deeply unnatural on the bear-like ‘face’.
Ink swelled in the massive neck of the beast, before singing ABRUPTLY exploded into the air. Three? Or was it four? A small group of voices ripped into the brief quiet that filled the Den.
And then the thumping of a bone-bear monster running for its life. Down and around the now somewhat cramped halls did she run, singing and screaming the whole while. Leah meanwhile gave chase, hissing for her to, ‘PLEASE be quieter!’
Jemma didn’t listen, of course. This was fun! Plus, it was seven in the morning, people needed to be awake anyways! Clearly! Obviously!
She turned a corner, faltering for a moment as she came upon the room that apparently belonged to Wolf…
She quickly returned to running, and singing, as Leah’s footsteps got closer. Her volume only grew before she abruptly and finally stopped. Sensitive ears caught the sounds of people groaning, or shouting, or whining, or generally complaining! Perfect.
Leah slammed into her at full force, and the two slammed through the doorway that Jemma had stopped in front of. Oops?
Oh! It was Jade’s room. Perfect-er.