A brief history of Lila before her fateful interaction with Ryker from Living Transition: Chapter 15. This short explores more of Lila's character and her connection to Julia.

This short is part of the Wolverine Mystery arc.

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Lila: The Lonely Caretaker

Written by: Ryker-Wolf

      A little over a year before the young Ryker arrived at the Intramorph facility, what would soon be named as Traveler’s Village began first generation genetic modification with female subjects. One of these early subjects was Lila Alleen.

      On the morning before her orientation and injection, she stood outside the cab staring up at the looming facility and calling her best friend Julia.

      “You know why I’m doing this, Jules.” Lila sighed into her phone. “I can’t just couch surf in your home anymore. Besides, this will give me the opportunity to work with Intramorph!”

      “Yeah, I’ve been meaning to tell you this…” Julia replied. “I told you about that job I was trying for?”

      “Yeah?” Her voice getting hopeful.

      “I got it!” Julia squealed.

      “Oh my gosh! That’s great!”

      “Yeah, I should even get to see you around from time to time.”

      “Wait.”

      “The job is at Intramorph!” She squealed again. “I’ll still be close by to have an eye on you!”

      “I don’t need a nanny!” Lila laughed!

      Julia chuckled on the other end of the line. “I know, you haven’t needed a mom in years, but I just have a…feeling about this project of Intramorph’s…” She trailed off.

      “Oh?”

      “I just think that something is off, you know? Intramorph has a monopoly on commercial genetic augmentation, and no one ever seems to acknowledge it.” Julia paused again. “I just want to make sure that everything is on the level while keeping an eye on you.”

      “Okay, Jules.” Lila relinquished. “I gotta let you go. I have to get inside and join Project Corse!”

      “Alright, Lila.” Julia paused. “I’ll see you sometime, okay?”

      “See you sometime!”

      Lila hung up the phone and pulled her things into the facility. Not long after, she walked up to her shared doctor for all of the crocodile test subjects, quickly getting her injection.

      She is then ushered into the observation wing and given a short tour by one of the other subjects, being a female beagle woman. After her first day, she settled into her room and wonders about the future of her life.

      Over the next three weeks, Lila received daily checkups. At first the observation facility was maintained by designated staff over night, but after the first batch of subjects were fully transformed, maintenance quickly stopped. Similarly, daily checkups began to ebb.

      Lila, not enjoying how the facility was being treated recently, worked to form a group with her new friends and other fellow subjects to maintain the facility as much as possible themselves, spending their own money on cleaning products and work orders for repairs on larger scale projects.

      Despite not becoming a major leader in their growing community, Lila grew into a minor leadership role and often greeted new subjects and the occasional transfer.

      Julia and Lila maintained contact with one another, chatting on the phone nearly every day. This routine remained strong. Sometimes, Julia would be allowed to visit within the observation wing as a worker within the facility. Julia was friendly with Lila’s new friends, but often fell into an almost standoffish form when constantly having to look up at the other women.

      After several months in the facility, the first of the second generation subjects started to stream in, calling on older subjects to help with the transition and PT. Lila found herself helping several subjects, even an occasional visit from another facility. Even more rarely, she’d be visited by a male subject.

      Because of the new and additional responsibility, she began to slow contact with Julia. Calls and messaging dropped drastically when Julia announced that she was being moved to another facility as part of a promotion.

      Lila was sad to hear her best friend leave the facility. The first few weeks after Julia left the facility, Lila cried herself to sleep knowing that she wouldn’t be able to see her friend anymore for the foreseeable future. It was like she had lost her family all over again.

      They hadn’t died, but Lila was abandoned by her family when she was still in middle school. They had driven her to the outskirts of town one morning and kicked her out. It had taken Lila so long to learn to trust people again, making her odd leadership role somewhat strange.

      Perhaps she had vowed within herself that she would never abandon someone like her parents had her. Or maybe her friendship with Julia inspired her to continue working on her social skills and connecting with others.

      Without Julia, Lila found herself no longer grounded by someone. As difficult as it is to lead others without someone else to lead or ground herself, Lila learned to find ground in her time alone, separate from others. She would spend time every day to simply sit and think in her room.

      This practice eventually manifested and compounded with the other changes in her life across her time at Traveler’s Village and formed into the bubbly and cheerful personality that she exudes to all people she meets.

      Lila continued in this life up through her first interaction with the young Ryker. Despite only being a few years older than he was, she almost felt like Ryker was a younger brother to her, just from their one interaction. She hoped that she would be able to keep in touch with him, similarly to how she has kept in touch with Julia.

      One day, not even a week after meeting Ryker, Julia suddenly stopped messaging Lila. Every day Lila would send messages and leave voicemails, asking what happened to her friend.

      In her alone time, she started to degrade and focus on figuring out what happened to Julia, searching through what little of Intramorph’s files she could get to.

      Lila maintained her crumbling cheerful persona as she melted into despair inside. While her friends wondered why her attitude seemed forced, they never pressed her, thinking it was just some sort of burn out from working for Traveler’s Village so much. Every façade within Traveler’s Village began to slowly crumble as their cornerstone caretaker did.