Registration Emancipation

Posted on Thu Oct 24th, 2024 @ 7:37 by Doctor Astrid Hohenberg & Almaz Awate

Chapter: Besieged
Location: G.O.U. Field Facility outside of Avalon Institute
Timeline: Late afternoon, Tuesday, February 2nd, 1993
1820 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

The people currently manning the registration stations in the hastily erected field hospital hadn't really expected a sudden onrush of residents from Avalon to come pouring through the gates. The fact that there were more workers inside the tents than there had been registrations was worse than they could've expected. The cold winds coming from the Loch sang through the fabric of the military grade tent covers. An awkward cough interrupted the silence, which made one of the nurses look up from her trashy romance novel.

"Excuse me." One of the administrative clerks put up a hand in apology and returned to the small handheld computer that allowed him to play some sort of block sorting game. The game had already made the rounds around the other idle hands, but he seemed most invested in getting the highest possible score on his boy game.

The conversations between the workers had kind of died out a couple of hours ago, and most of the sound around the tent was from the radio softly playing pop music in the corner. Interrupted every hour on the hour by a news update detailing how the new registration act was causing division across the U.K., with large protests in the major cities and some divisive language from the more radical elements in the mutant community.

"Excuse me," sounded a young voice. Perhaps once full of insecurity and a lack of self confidence, when she had first arrived at the institute, but the weeks since her arrival saw her change from a confused and frightened girl into a confident and strong-willed young woman. She was wearing her warm winter clothes and heavy boots, finally her gloves and shades, one perhaps more suited to the gloomy, cold weather than the other - yet both ever present. "I've come to register," The girl's voice sounded confident and purposeful, with a barely disguised hint of - anger, perhaps, or even disgust. She was here on a mission.

"Please step forward." A nurse got up from her seat and stepped towards an open booth. The one closest to the entrance. "Please state your full name and date of birth for the record. Have you brought identification?" Even though they hadn't processed many people it was clear the woman was going through the motions in regards to this registration. She clicked the pen a couple of times, awaiting the response.

"Almaz Awate," Though she had come to learn to hate the name. The name of her father, the bigot who had filled her heart and mind with hatred all her life, then discarded her the moment she didn't fit into his 'perfect' world anymore. You'd think someone like him would know what it's like to be treated as lesser because of what you were born as rather than what you did. "Born February 13th, 1980, in Asmara, Eritrea," The girl placed her ID on the desk, taking half a step back and observing the nurse with arms folded over each other.

There was a pause from the nurse as she looked up from her form. She looked closely at the ID put on the table and took down the details that she had just shared. "Please describe the nature of your genetic deviation."

At this Almaz took off her rubberized gloves, placing them on the table. Sparks arced between her fingers as she did. Next she reached up to take off her shades, her eyes ablaze with arcing electricity, the natural eye color no longer to be seen. "I am electrically charged," the girl explained, holding her hands up to demonstrate, fingers flexing and the crackle of electricity heard in the air. Her hair started to rise and frizzle, becoming statically charged.

Truth be told she was putting on a bit of a show - although she couldn't turn it off even if she tried, she was concentrating on it and pushing a bit more electricity out through her fingers than her normal 'at rest' state. She watched the nurse's reaction closely, before speaking again. "Do you honestly think you're in the right?" she asked, her voice calm, gentle even. "Do you think history will remember this - " she gestured around " - kindly? Or will people remember this like every other time minorities were made to register and identify? Like for example, Germany in the 1930s?" Almaz made sure her voice was never raised, never held an accusatory tone. She figured her words were inflammatory enough even without that.

There were a couple of people milling around now, and at the display as well as her words the guards were more nervously checking the status of their guns. It hadn't been long since they had been issued the new weapons. They were said to have kinetic blasts, top of the line. Developed to be able to stand up against mutants that could pluck bullets out of the air. After only a bit of training they knew how they handled, but none of them had ever used them in a live fire situation.

"Just doing my job, ma'am." It was spoken in a rehearsed monotone. "Please take a seat so we can draw some blood." Then there was a moment where she hesitated looking at the arcing electricity that seemed to bound over her skin freely. "Will we be able to approach without being affected?"

"Just ... doing your job, huh. That's what the Wehrmacht said in 1945, too. More than a few atrocities have happened to the choir of those words," Still Almaz's words were calm. It took all she had not to add a layer of venom to them and inwardly she was counting to ten to control herself. She wouldn't even be here if not for the fact that her father was militantly anti-mutant and most likely intimately involved with the current state of affairs and the legislation being pushed, him being a lawyer. A quick glance over at one of the guards at the - seemingly nervous - checking of the weapon.

At the nurse's approach and hesitation though she paused. Honestly, she hadn't considered that blood had to be drawn. It had been mentioned, but Almaz had forgotten about it in all that was happening. Honestly, she was just a teen, and hadn't acquired the wisdom yet that came with the years. "You can't touch my skin without getting a shock, strong enough t - " Her words faltered as she glanced down momentarily. " - to put down a mid-sized dog."

"Right.." There was moment of hesitation again. The nurse got up and looked over at a man who had been simply observing the proceedings so far. He didn't seem to respond to anything so far but now he walked out the room. The guards' nervousness didn't seem to dissipate much. The closest one slightly raising his rifle and taking a small step back. After about half a minute the man returned and simply placed a pair of rubber gloves on the table. It was going to make the needling a lot harder, but at least it would still make it possible. The samples from a specimen like this were simply too good to pass up.

"Does the thirteen year old teen make the armed and trained soldiers nervous?" Almaz asked, during the wait. Truth be told their fidgeting made her very nervous in return, and her sarcastic comment was mostly an attempt to calm herself more than anything. She didn't know why they needed a blood sample; DNA sequencing was in its very early beginnings and as a teenager she really didn't understand the ramifications of the whole thing.

She took off her coat as the man returned - halting when that seemed to make the guards even more nervous. "I'm just taking off my coat to make things easier. I'm not dangerous. Just - scared," she admitted, slowly undoing herself of the garment so she could place her arm on the table, palm facing up, to facilitate the blood draw.

There were several glances exchanged between the guards as she sat down and placed her arm on the table. The nurse had put on the gloves and awkwardly held on to the syringe. It was a thing she'd need all her finger dexterity for and using these thicker gloves was going to be a bit awkward. "Can you please make a fist." She wrapped a strap around the girl's upper arm and tightened it slightly so she could more easily see the bulging vein. "This might sting slightly." She tried to quickly slide the needle in but missed. "Oh. I'm sorry. It's these. One moment." She realigned the needle and took another jab, missing again.

The man that had been at a distance sighed and stepped up, tapping the nurse on her shoulder and indicating that she should step aside. When she did so he took the gloves off of her and then the needle. He tapped the vein slightly, wiping away the trickle of blood from the two missed jabs. Then inserted the needle in one smooth motion. After which he simply got back up and handed the gloves back over to the nurse.

Almaz winced slightly both times that the nurse missed. Still, she did her very best to maintain her composure, inwardly contemplating the irony of the situation, two trained and armed guards and a nurse nervous about a teen girl, yet not as scared as she was of the whole situation, feeling that any sudden, accidental movement might cause problems and even hurt someone. Confusion as the man took over from the nurse, combined with a slight sense of relief when he seemed infinitely more capable than the nurse.

Slowly relaxing her arm when he was done and had stepped back again. ".. am I free to go now?"

The nurse had filled the required vials and put them away in a rack for the moment. "We have all the information we need right now, Miss Awate. Thank you for coming in." A fake smile adorned the nurse as she stood up from the table and prepared to file all the information they had gathered on this individual properly. "Have a nice day."

With that Almaz put her coat back on, making sure to move slowly and carefully, not to startle the armed guards. Next, her gloves, and finally her sunglasses. It wasn't the weather for those, but she had - ... other reasons for wearing them. On her way out she hesitated a moment, her hand on the door handle. "You know, I envy you. All of you. You get to go home to a family that loves you. You can give them a hug. You can pet your dog, or cat," A moment's pause. "I was robbed of all that through something completely out of my control," as she opened the door and stepped out.