Name: Elaide (“Ellie” by her family and close friends) Fenn

Pronouns: she/her

Student or experiment?: student

Species: human

Personality: She’s caring and empathetic, but is a bit jaded and tends to hide her feelings. She’s intelligent, hardworking, and incredibly ambitious, yet very insecure. She wants to rise above her family’s humble roots and become something they can be proud of, and she believes BIG Cadet Academy for the Valiant is the only way to do that. 

Skills and abilities: She grew up in the marshlands of Southwest Kyngdom, so she’s very knowledgeable about the natural world and traditional medicines, and she loves plants. She's also somewhat physically strong.

Likes: plants, reading, science classes, being alone

Dislikes: bullies, being underestimated

Other: she’s sixteen, almost seventeen

*Elaide*

Elaide hovered hesitantly at the back of the group of students all waiting for their turn on the archery range. She didn't care much for the focus BIG Cadet Academy had on weaponry and fighting. Elaide knew that she could be useful to them even if she didn't know how to hold a crossbow. Which she didn't. She'd been going to this school for almost six years now, and she still didn't know how to properly handle a crossbow.

She was hopeless; no wonder all the other students were always finding things to jeer at her for.

“Miss Fenn, I haven't seen you shoot any arrows," said Ms. Barallet, the archery instructor, a tall silver-haired woman with the watchful eyes and hooked nose of a hawk. 

Elaide took a deep breath, adjusuted her short blonde ponytail, and grabbed one of the standard BIG-Cadet-Academy-issued wooden crossbows, and loaded an arrow into it with trembling, unsure fingers.

A dozen or so other students were firing arrows at the same time as her, but for some reason, she felt like everyone was watching her. Maybe it was because she had more to prove.

"Do you think she even knows how to shoot an arrow?" whispered Jez loudly to her gaggle of friends. "Or is that not something they teach in the swamp?" Jessamine Luker had delighted in tormenting Elaine since year one. One of her favorite quips--one she reused on a weekly basis--was about how Elaide smelled of swamp. Nevermind that Elaide had grown up in a marsh, which was completely different.

Ms. Barallet never told them to be quiet; their parents had all paid good money to send their children here, unlike Elaide's. So Elaide tuned out Jez's friends' hysterical laughter, narrowed her eyes at her target, and released the arrow.

It stuck in the outermost ring of the target, a mere centimeter away from missing it completely, but that was enough for Elaide, and hopefully enough to keep Jez off her back for the rest of the day. Something told her otherwise, though.

~~~

lmk if I got any of the worldbuilding wrong :D

-Cress-

"Another bullseye, Miss Auclair! Excellent work, though I'd expect nothing less from you." Cress knew she was Ms. Barallet's favorite student. 

She frowned as she heard Jez and her little friends laughing at Elaide Fenn. The poor girl - six years in school and she still could hardly hit the target. Cress glanced over at Jez.

"Hey, Jez," Cress said. "Nobody wants to listen you and your friends' annoying laughter. It's ruining my focus." She held up her crossbow threateningly. "I'd hate to miss and, oh, I don't know, hit somebody on accident." Cress raised her eyebrows. Ms. Barallet wouldn't get mad if she accidentally hit someone - she couldn't do severe damage with the training arrows anyway, and being the favorite student had its perks. It helped that she'd been raised her, too, of course. Jez was a jerk, but she wasn't dumb. She knew all of that. She opened her mouth, closed it, then went back to archery. 

Meanwhile, Elaide had managed to hit the target, just barely. Cress approached her. 

"Here. Your form's wrong. You're going to want to hold it like this," Cress told Elaide, holding her crossbow like so. "Keep your focus where you want the arrow to go. That's how you hit the target."

**Zinnie**

Zinnia was having a day.

Every day was a day, actually.

Today, the lab had been having Zinnie and the other homo avians fly through hoops to "test their agility." Bo-ring. But better than the true experiments, the ones likely being done on Via right this very moment. They felt nauseous to think of it. 

They pushed the thought away and flew through a hoop with a particular amount of speed and energy. They'd be out of here tonight, and Via was coming with them. They'd start a new life. Be free.

Soon.

~

Sure, we can have the school be ages 11-18! I hadn't put much thought into that; thanks for thinking of it. Yes, we have three experiment slots left and you can have one! I think we can add some more soon, if you guys want to. I just don't want there to be too many because it might not be believable that so many could escape under BIG's watchful eye, but we do need a few more experiments rn. I actually don't remember if that's why Via is called Via… It's possible because I've done that with other characters before, but I feel like I remember coming up with her real name first and then basing her number off of her and Zinnia's age difference, not her name. And there's Zinnia's POV; thought it'd be good to start rping at the lab :D

~Avi~ 

The corner was his favorite spot. The place where he could fold in his tiny body and glare at anybody who walked by. The wall by the corner was also always damp, and the stone could always come off on one's fingers. So he painted. Painted and plotted. His arms always were covered by the latest piece of information or the latest plan of escape.

Nobody could know. Nobody could know that tiny 423, a weird looking one who often used his sharp mouth and rebellious thoughts to get himself into trouble was planning something that big. 

13 years. At least, that's what he thought. Avi wasn't sure. It was hard to tell the passing of years, or even just the passing of days! He stood up. Stretched his small, weak limbs as his legs struggled to hold him up. He walked over the the bars on one side of his small cell and began to walk in circles. 

Gotta get my exercise somehow, he thought grimly.

Reserving a spot for an experiment! is the number 613 taken to the best of anyone's knowledge?

Sorry for the late-ish reply :/

Here's my experiment charrie :]

Name: Nayr, officially known as Experiment 357

Pronouns: he/him

Student or experiment?: experiment

Species: Homo serpentes

Personality: Quiet and lonely, comes off as cold and jaded. Suspicious and distrustful of everyone he meets until given a reason to believe they can be trusted. Observant, always on guard for danger, and easily startled or frightened. When someone angers him, he can lash out — typically physically rather than verbally. Intelligent, and good at thinking logically, though he tends to act rashly when angered.

Skills and abilities: Intelligent and a logical thinker. Observant and cautious. Some of his serpentine features—like his fangs and snake-like movements—may help him in combat. 

Likes: The idea of escape, being alone, the outdoors (what he’s seen of them) 

Dislikes: the BIG guards and scientists, enclosed spaces

*Elaide*

Elaide began to load another arrow into the crossbow, face hot as Jez and her friends laughed behind her, but then she was distracted by Cress's loud, confident voice.

"Hey, Jez. Nobody wants to listen to you and your friends' annoying laughter. I'd hate to miss and, oh, I don't know, hit somebody on accident," Cress said, raising her eyebrows as she brandished her crossbow. At least Jez and her friends had the sense to stop laughing. 

Elaide knew who Cress was. Everyone knew who Crescent Auclair was. She was easily one of the - if not the - best archers in the school, and she had a sort of aura about her that made one instantly respect her, or fear her, though around here, that was basically the same thing.

And Cress was, in fact, walking over to Elaide. "Here. Your form's wrong," she told Elaide, demonstrating the proper form with her own crossbow. "You're going to want to hold it like this. Keep your focus where you want the arrow to go. That's how you hit the target."

Was Cress actually helping Elaide? Valiants rarely helped each other unless they could get something from it. It must have been some sort of a ruse, Elaide figured. But whether Cress was tricking her or not, it was advice she sorely needed, so Elaide tried to replicate Cress's form, focused on the bullseye, and released the arrow.

It didn't hit the bullseye, but at least it hit the target that time, somewhat closer than her previous try. "Hey, thanks, Cress," said Elaide, hesitantly offering Cress a slight smile. "I-I really appreciate it." She glanced over at Jez and her friends, and hoped Cress could tell that it wasn't just the archery advice she was grateful for. 

***

(also disclaimer: everything about Cress I said in this part is Elaide's perception of her and isn't necessarily true to Cress's character. just thought I'd clarify :])  

I'll post Nayr's pov later :]

Ack sorry I haven't posted on here in so long :[

-Cress-

Elaide attempted to copy Cress's form. She didn't do it perfectly, but she did it well enough to hit the target a little closer than last time. With some practice, Cress knew, Elaide could become a fine archer. At least, good enough to pass final exams. 

"Hey, thanks, Cress," Elaide said with a tentative smile. "I-I really appreciate it." A quick glance over at Jez implied she was appreciative that Cress had shut up Jez and her friends, not just for the help with archery.

For a moment, Cress was quiet. She knew something about herself: she was kind, but not nice. She did things for others to help them, but she wasn't friends with them. That was how you survived, she'd learned - by being tough, at least on the outside. In other words, she didn't take people's thanks. 

But Elaide was already teased constantly by Jez. She didn't need someone who'd just helped her to push her away again. 

"Y-yeah, well." Cress said slowly. "Not a problem." She looked briefly at Jez, then back to Elaide. "Don't listen to them," she said quietly. "People only feel a need to be like that when they know they're weak." 

**Zinnie**

Zinnia finished the hoops course for the third time while scientists took notes. It was almost lunch time. In their head, they went over the plan. Tonight, Zinnia, Via and the rest of the experiments who were escaping would meet up. Luckily, their rooms were all close together and conveniently near the yard. Theoretically, they could escape. Zinnia could probably carry each out a window to the yard, and then over the fence, though some experiments could use their own abilities to get out. Zinnia cared about their friends making it out, of course, and intended to help everyone as best they could, but Via had to be her first priority. 

Via was like Zinnia's sister. They knew Via was young enough that if she made it out now she'd have a chance for a somewhat normal life, away from these terrible people. She could be safe. She would be safe once they made it out.

Zinnia and the other experiments who were so obviously not completely human anymore, might have it a bit harder. But Zinnia would think about that later. 

***

I was thinking all the experiments who were going to escape soon could sit together at lunch? Mostly just to have some time where they talk and develop their relationships a bit before they escape. Anyone can start writing that if they want to, or I can start next time I post!