The Birdcage - introductory side arc

[Keira Kelly]

Lucky took back the locket, staring again at the images of Tommy and Carolyn held within. "That she was, that she was.." she agreed quietly. She closed her eyes tight, holding back the emotions. It wouldn't do to be overcome here. It may have been seventy-five years, or a decade for her, since she had been taken, but without true memory of her time in Arcadia, it might as well have just been the matter of a handful of weeks since she had effectively lost her husband and daughter and as such, the emotion of it all was still raw. She pushed the wave of grief back through some effort, opening her eyes once again and sliding the slender chain which held the locket back over her head.

She cocked her head slightly, in an almost inhuman manner as she regarded Elleonorah's item. Not many of them managed to come back from Arcadia with items from their past lives; they could only surmise at the extent that they were controlled there, well that and the few errant, erratic memories of the escapees. It was surprising that both of them had managed it but it wasn't impossible. She glanced up at the Draconic, still in the curious pose. "Your mother? Classes?" she asked. "If I am not being too forward, how old were you when... were... you know..." she trailed off. She glanced back downwards, trying to be inconspicuous as was her habit. "Your family is still around then? You are lucky in that." she added.

[rivaan]

"Don't worry, it is only natural to be curious about such things." Elleonorah said with a smile." I was taken on my 17th birthday. Now that I think about it, I was just a brat and now I'm 29... I think or at least around that age." The draconic said with a sigh and looked out through the windows, not to far from them.
"Well yeah, they are still around and will be for a good while. Ironically, opposite to your situation while I was captured, here only 2 months passed." Elleonorah said with sad voice."Then again I shouldn't really be surprised now should I? I mean legends about them exist from ages. People who disappear only to return years later, looking the same, or return aged in matter of days..." She almost whispered." Anyways... all things considered I cannot meet them. Heck... a few more years I was going to be my mother's age."

[Keira Kelly]

Lucy, having finished eating the second helping of food, pushed away her tray. All this plastic was still so odd to her. It had been such a rare substance in her day. She pulled her idle thoughts back onto topic. "You are still lucky." she replied. She couldn't help but feel a touch jealous at the Draconic; the other woman had remained beautiful in a way, she had kept much more of herself it seemed, was still in touch with the modern world and her family was still alive. "Perhaps you cannot return to them.. then again, perhaps one day you can. You could even pretend to be a long-lost family member or some such or perhaps just enter their lives as a new friend." she suggested. "Either way, at least you can watch them from afar for now, make sure they live good lives. Even that was taken from me." she added sadly. "I cannot watch my daughter grow up, get married, have a family of her own. My husband is gone. He died without knowing what had happened to me." Her face was now a mix of sadness, pain and fear. "Maybe he thought.. that I had abandoned him.. and Carrie..." she realized. She knew that when the servants had discovered her missing, they would have passed word to her family who would have gotten in touch with Tommy in France. She shook her head, trying to push the pain and worry away yet again. "I can only pray that some day soon, I can find out what happened to my daughter too."

[rivaan]

"Not likely, considering my replacement is there. I doubt I will be able to stand her presence." Elle replied, wondering if this woman knew if she had a fetch.
"What if you had a fetch?" Elle asked." It's not out of the usual for them to leave a replacement for the...taken person. They may never have know what happened to you..."
"Well if you start searching for her, it should be relatevely easy to find out what has happened to her. I can't help with that though, I've never tried such search. Never had the need to do such thing, my family was very strict with knowing our family tree." She said going in thought." How were you planning on proceding with the search?"

[Keira Kelly]

Lucy went to reply but stopped. She knew a bit about these fetches, these replacements that THEY left when they took someone but... she had never really thought if they had done so for her, or more to the point, she hadn't wanted to think of such things. To think of her little girl being raised by a fraud; something that looked like her but wasn't made her skin crawl. At least Tommy hadn't known, she thought. He had been off at war and he had been.. She couldn't even continue the thought. It all hurt too much to bear thinking about at present. "I.. suppose I'd not be surprised that they'd replaced me." she replied in a quiet voice. "My only hope is that IT treated my little Carrie well..." she added but didn't truly believe it. How could such an abomination love and care for a child as a mother would? A part of her wanting nothing so much as to find her child, tear the offending fetch asunder with her claws... her claws... She looked down at the taloned hands, the hardened grey-blue skin covered with scars. They were not the hands of a human mother, not anymore. They were monstrous. Her eyes squeezed tight at the pain of the revelation. Perhaps the fetch would have been a better parent than she could have in this state.

She looked back to the Draconic eventually with haunted, sorrowful eyes. She nodded slowly. "My friend, Dante, said he would help me to search when he has the time." she replied. She refrained from making another comment back; she too knew her own family tree very well.. but in seven decades away from the world, many things had changed. Too many. It was as if she had started reading a story and then had skipped right to the end, missing all in between. "He said there were records and listings that could be checked from the little devices that he owns. These.. computers." she added. "That was how we found out about Tommy...." she trailed off.

[rivaan]

"From what I learned, they act as if they were the original." Elleonorah said." At least that's what I heard from other people in the hold. From what I observed on the social networks, mine seems to be acting like me with basically no differences." The draconic explained, hoping to disperse some of the worries in the other's mind.
"Well I've heard that's it's possible to check such things as soldiers who died during that war. Well if he says he will help. He will, when he can. I hope you will get the answers you desire then."
"Hmmm I should probably get going soon." The draconic said, looking out the window."Have to get home, before the old landlady decides to start giving me lectures about raising noise late at night when I get home." Elleonorah said with a sigh.