[okay, then. "chained by fear"]

Bio:

Name: HeartsJourney (Heart for short)

Age: [in reality it's 60 something, but I'm going to say that she's a lot younger, if that's okay] 16

Gender: female

Species: black iluvu

Personality: Cheerful and loving, like most iluvus are, but also very determined. Very supportive of friends.

History: Nothing interesting, she had had a normal, uninteresting life as a pet creatu until on fateful day when, during a portal crossing, she was accidently separated from her owner. She wandered around for a few hours trying to locate her owner, but to no avail. Strange people with masks and dirtied white lab coats found her instead.

Affliction: Creatu mostly turned human.

Looks: She's relatively short, but sturdily built. Heart has a cheerful face, with purple eyes so dark they are nearly black. She has shoulder-length black hair with merry curls. On her left arm, three purple heart marks are still very visible, and she still has her black, fox-like ears. Heart wears a purple, short-sleeved shirt the color of a black iluvu's hearts, and dark denim capris.

Other: She was graceful as an iluvu, but now that her tail is gone, she has become rather clumsy.

Alfar lay prone in his confines, a small, gutteral groan escaping his lips. Slowly he opened his emerald eyes, only to find his sight blurred and a vise-like pain buzzing in his skull. He groaned again, placing a hand on his swimming head. Wait...a hand? He jolted up to a stiff sitting position, immediately regretted doing so, and lowered his head as he stared in bewilderment at his talonless hands. Slowly he examined himself, first his bandaged and bleeding head that now lacked plumage and a beak in favor of humanoid facial features and raven locks, then his human torso swaddled in a white cotton t-shirt (he never understood humans and their obsession with clothes),  and finally his new bipedal legs and feet. He reached behind his shoulders and breathed a sigh of relief: his wings, his livelihood, were still present, even if they were ruffled. He tried flicking his crimson tail. Success! He thanked the stars that his whole self had not been absorbed in the abominable events that had unfolded.

Once the motion sickness of simply sitting had subsided, Alfar rose shakily to his feet, only to stumble to his knees within seconds. Frustrated, he crawled to the edge of his enclosure. Peering through the bars and blackness, he hears voices echoing off the walls. He hesitantly calls out to them. "Hello? Who's there?" Though his voice is flat, emotionless, and indifferent, his crouched position betrays his internal insecurities. 

Alfar nodded, watching intently as the Otachie's lockpicking skills liberated him. Or, as intently as he could, rather. His right eye was still blurry for some reason. Unbeknownst to him, his eye had been damaged upon his capture, causing a bit of shrinkage and permanently blurred vision. He chirped quietly as he scuttled from his crate, still trying to get the whole walking on two legs thing down. He looked at the one who spoke before, another male, but he wasn't an Easero. He chirped again, a little louder, and out of curiosity, not of nervousness, towards the Ebilia, more as an *censored*uring quirk. He turned again to the feline who freed him and the little Roditore. He finally stood, a lone crimson feather dangling before his eyes like a hypnotist's watch, and eyes them suspiciously. It wasn't that he was ungrateful, quite the contrary. It was just that in his forest his species was often prey to Otachies and their eggs were often lost to hungry Roditores.

 His forest! His eyes widened as his situation began to dawn on him. He turned to the Roditore, the more amiable seeming one, clucked slightly, and spoke. "Hello. Excuse me, but...where are we?" He continued looking arouns, again eyeing the crate containing the skittish Ebilia. 

Heart awoke to the muffled sound of voices and the dull clanks of locks being opened. Her cage was a little farther off than some others, and nobody had really noticed her yet. She was immediately afraid that they would all escape without her. She tried bolting to her feet, but a wave of dizziness and the recent quadriped to biped transformation sent her sprawling onto her face in what little space there was in the cage. She shut her eyes for a few moments and waited for some of the dizziness to subside. Then she stared at her new paws...well, hands. The trademark three purple hearts of a black iluvu were still visible on her left arm, but the other was completely bare. She sat up, wincing at the soreness in her muscles, and touched her head. Her iluvu ears were still there, fortunately, but she seemed to have human features. 

     Glancing around her cage hopefully, she noticed that there was not a trace of water or food anywhere. Nor was there any obvious escape route. She wouldn't last long in the cage without any water, she knew that. The dirty and mildew-smelling cement floor beneath her was very cold. She pressed her face against the grimy bars of the cage, remembering the voices outside, hoping that they were friendly.

     "Hello? Can somebody please help me?" 

((Lol, spikey...I think you got Blaze and Attentater mixed up. Blaze is the Otachie, the one who is overprotective of Serah, the human*former Rodi*. And Attentater's the Roditore who picked the locks.))

Attentater was about to answer the two freed Creatu when her sensitive ears caught the voice of another. She leapt from the cage, still unused to the idea of four legs, she stumbled as she ran to the back of the room. Drawing the same knife that had yet to be bent back into shape, she swiftly picked the Iluvu's lock, leaping up onto a nearby cage again, watching the hybrid curiously.

Blaze, meanwhile, fixed Umo with a hard glare. She sighed, shaking her head.
"Well, to answer both of your questions...We are like you, experiments. Poor Serah has been completely changed into a human. i was lucky enough to still have my wings, ears, and tail...."
She glanced at her feet, which no longer blazed with the fire she was used to.
"...And my paws. We aren't with them, that's for sure. If we were, would we be as we are, or would we have freed you?"
She glanced at her hand, as if expecting it to do some sort of trick, and instantly became frustrated. She withdrew her wing from Serah's shoulder and spun away, furling her wide wings.
"And I'm no longer a pyrokenetic. How messed up is this? No more fire. It was a comfort to me..And they tore it away!"
Serah glanced nervously at her partner, worried now. the Otachie was usually calm and supportive. But now, she had lost it. And in front of others besides herself. Something was wrong. The humans had almost completely changed her. Not just in appearance, but in personality.

((Fox I might not be on alot kay? ))

 Um walked out of his cage slowly and got up. He laughed alittle when the taller creatu slash human chirped. He then knew he was an esero for sure. He smiled and took a few steps trying to get used to the legs he had not been able to practice on. Then he strecthed like an Eblilia and smiled at all of them.

"Well you guys sure are nice. Helping a bunch of strangers. I don't like being human, I was very comfy on beings an Eblia. I felt normal and now I'm weird. Look at me! They don't even know how to dress me!" He pointed at his big collar and then his sleeves were huge on him. That was the only thing he likes was his sleeves. Then he sighed and just smiled.  Smiling was the best anyone could doright now, knowing they all were in this mess.

((so sorry, my mistake Fox. Always a bit awkward starting out after a very looooooong hiatus, right? :P))

The Easero flexed his wings as he listened, flapping them in surprise as the Otachie raged about her lost pyromantic talents, sending a flurry of feathers everywhere. His feathers ruffled, he eyed the cat creature closely before turning to the youngest member in the group with the oversized sleeves. He looked at his own unfamiliar duds and grimaced. "Yeah, I think I know what you mean" he mumbled. His gaze wandered about the basement, looking for any route of escape, but his eye continued giving him trouble. He blinked and shook his head, cursing under his breath. He turned to the human, or the previously Roditore female, and pondered aloud. "So...experiments...wonder what they were looking for with us..."

As soon as the cage door opened, Heart leaped out, or tried to. She ended up sprawled on her face on a concrete floor for the second time that day. At least it was a different floor, now. Just a little bit closer to freedom. Then she realized a big part of why she was so clumsy.

     "I have no tail!" she cried.

After a few moments of mourning for her lost tail, she composed herself. Grabbing hold of a cage bar above her, she pulled herself to her feet, noting the balance difference of being tailless. Once this feat had been accomplished and she felt relatively secure on two legs, she turned her attention to the roditore perched comfortably in an open cage above.

     "Thank you very much for letting me out," she said. "Do you have any idea where we are?" 

Attentater shrugged.
"Some basement of a run down lab in the middle of nowhere. No place special."
She drew her blade, again trying to bend it back into shape. Her red eyes glittered knowingly as she glanced about in the dark. She was almost sure that there were no others.

Blaze flared and furled her wings many times, a habit she had when trying to calm down. Serah, meanwhile, answered the Easero, gesturing up.
"Anyone's guess, really. They may have wanted to see how we responded, and when we didn't wake, they as.sumed us dead. Or maybe they want to see how we respond to being changed and abandoned. There could be camaras watching us 24/7 for all we know. or maybe they want to better the human race, and then decided against it, and left us down here. There are a number of possibilities."

((I understand. :D))

Alfar clicked his tongue against his teeth and visibly shrunk in irritation. Normally, when he had his beak, the harsh clicking soothed him enough to keep him off edge, but now the sound of human lips and teeth was as pacifying as silverware scraping across fine china. He turned to the Roditore. "Lovely..." he muttered, irritated but helpless to know why exactly he and his fellow captors had been rendered nearly useless with this metamorphosis. He watched as the Iluvu struggled to her feet and gave her a sad, knowing look. His wings ruffled a bit as he began to preen them, one of his last natural behaviors that the humans had left him with. 

Once his feathers were nice and tidy, all in order and smoothed, he turned to his rag-tag band of similar misfits. All had been changed from their normal selves, most afraid, all unsure of what to do, and all begging for release from this hellhole. Well, I suppose it's time to get to know each other he thought. He slowly sat down, crossed his legs, and beckoned his fellow comrades to follow suit. "Well, since we're either going to be spending a lot of time here, escaping together, or dying at each other's hands, we should probably at least know each other's names. My name's Alfar of the Rowan Flock. Well, now I guess I'm formerly of the Rowan Flock..." His wings slumped slowly as his gaze lowered to the concrete below him.

Blaze remained standing, and started pacing. It was a habit she had, when thinking. She had many habits, most of which she could retain in her current state. She didn't answer, only paced behind Serah as the former Roditore sat down. Blaze kept her gaze on the floor, only glancing up occasionally at the other captives, a light of protectiveness in her eyes. Serah gestured to herself, and then her friend, introducing themselves in turn.

"I'm Serah. Former Magenta Roditore of Relcore. Odd place for a Roditore, yes. But its a long story. And this is my ever-vigilant guardian, Blaze. Also of Relcore, though an Orchid Otachie."

She emphasized the word 'guardian' with a bit of sarcasm, causing Blaze to frustrate a bit. The Otachie girl stopped behind Serah, and bent down to whisper in her ear. The girl nodded, and Blaze continued her pacing.

"And she doesn't want me to leave out the fact that she is--was a pyro. But now she's unable to even light a spark. Poor thing."