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NICOLE MATTHIAS
THE ORACLE
The elderly woman chuckled. Poor Boris still felt awkward about speaking to her. That was alright though, Nicole still saw him as her son. "Never been better. The weather's lovely, we have enough food for everyone, my kids are happy and growing up... that includes you by the way."
She was proud of the teenagers. They had come of age, and finally she could send them on missions without supervision.
Nicole didn't pay attention to Jessica until he spoke. She already knew what the teenager was going to say. In fact, she had known for a while.
The kid's negativity did not help the atmosphere of the safe house. It did not help the sense of family that Nicole and Acacia tried to build. He didn't want to be here and he didn't remotely like anyone here.
"We took you in," Nicole explained patiently, "to give you a taste of the family life. Training, fighting, working together... This lifestyle is clearly not for you."
The normally-smiling old lady had an emotionless expression at this point. Jess was the only teenager she did not see as a child. After everything she had done. She gave him space, gave him food, gave him his favorite drink. He had freedom to use any of the Safe House's resources. The electricity to charge his phone, for example. And he only responded with the same negativity and refusal to become part of the family.
Nicole was, quite frankly, fed up with this after over a year of the behavior. It had disappointed the old mother to the point where she did not consider Jess her child like everyone else.
Her voice, when she spoke, was calm and showed none of her anger. "I have bought you a flight ticket. Once your flight arrives at its destination, I do not care what you do. If you want to go back on the run, by all means, go right ahead."
Nicole had nothing else to say to Jess, so she turned back to Boris. Her familiar motherly smile had returned to her face. "Thank you, my son. Anyway, as I was saying, I am very proud of you. Would you like to show me how well your power is developed now?"
Tags: Boris & Jessica
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HAZEL JIN
At first, Hazel didn't even notice the mud ball colliding with her head. She just thought Alura was making some dumb gesture. Only when the gooey mud started to run down her face did she realize what happened.
"Twerp!" Hazel hollered across the field. "I'll GET you for this!"
She didn't specify what 'getting' Alura meant. Mostly because Hazel hadn't thought of a particularly scary threat, so 'getting' was a placeholder for an actual real threat.
Hazel flashed a huge grin towards Elise, who was disgusted by the muddy brown clothes idea. Drying off was sounding like a better and better idea every moment.
"I can barely feel my legs," Hazel replied, still grinning. "Let's hit the showers!"
Tags: Alura, Elise
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HICKORY JIN
Hickory smiled in approval. They had their sparring match all figured out. He always loved fighting alongside a friend, it was much more fun than fighting alone. Facing any enemy without a partner was thrilling, but there was always the feeling of something missing.
"We're sparring after dinner, when it cools down a bit. That okay with you?" Hickory asked Marie. "Don't worry, we'll do it before bed so Nicole doesn't nag us."
He chuckled- Nicole never got angry even when she pretended to be. Nobody in the house had seen Nicole truly mad. And, probably nobody wanted to.
Tags: Timber, Marie