Avi Wingfield

Avi is the main character and narrator of Volitation.

Appearance

Avi is a tall teenager with a thin build. She typically wears a purple hoodie with a pocket in the front and jeans with red slip-on shoes. She has short fluffy brown hair that she remarks is often a mess. Her wings are dark blue on top and cream colored underneath. After escaping from the zoo, she has a thin scar on her throat. By the end of the story, she has many scars, the most prominent being the Y-shaped scars on her torso. She also has stylized a “A.S.” branded on her lower back from her time with Sisko.

Personality

Avi is generally bubbly, although she tends to be aggressive and angry when put under stress or in an unfamiliar place. Throughout the story, Avi’s personality shrinks, becoming more flat to shield her from the trauma she experiences. She becomes more spacy and untied to reality, especially as she sleeps less from nightmares.

Story

Zoo Arc

Avi was on vacation with her family when she was kidnapped. She woke up in what she would later come to find out was a zoo exhibit. There she met a boy named Lee, who had bird wings. He explained that they had both been experimented on and that she also had wings. After a few minutes of panic, Avi started to accept this new life.

The two had to spend months together, taking on the roles of zoo animals, including performing for guests. During her first performance, Avi tried to escape, breaking her shoulder, and woke up in the medical wing. A vet named Asha helped her, treating her with kindness she hadn’t experienced from anyone else at the zoo. She was kept for observation for a few days and then sent back to the exhibit with Lee.

After she finished healing, Avi joined Lee in the performances again, but they now included a portion where audience members were encouraged to touch and pet them. One person yanked out one of Avi’s flight feathers. Frightened, she scared the audience away by flapping her wings and was taken to the medical wing again. Asha taught Avi and Lee about how their bodies function with their new alterations and began to grow fond of them.

She gifted them treats and extra food, things to keep them sane while at the zoo. One night, she broke Avi and Lee out, giving them money and supplies enough to get them out of the city and heading towards home.

While trying to find a way home, Avi suggested they find a police station to see if they could contact their parents. Unfortunately, the zoo noticed their absence and put out a call for the entire city, asking them to help bring Avi and Lee back. The two ran from the police and split up, agreeing to meet at a nearby park. During the escape, a cop shot Avi in the leg. Determined, Avi made her way to the park, but realized that she would be dead weight to Lee with her injury.

She convinced Lee to leave her to be captured and he begrudgingly left her. Soon after, Avi was recaptured by the zoo, where they removed the bullet, but also her vocal cords, preventing her from telling others what had happened to her, should she ever try to escape again. While at the zoo, she met Will, who was in charge of making sure she was healing well and wouldn’t hurt herself.

He hated Avi because she inadvertently got Asha fired. But eventually, he softened up a little, realizing she was in the same boat as him. Avi was put back to doing shows, but was dejected and no longer fought back. During a show, Lee and Skylar appeared in the crowd and helped Avi escape, but Skylar was captured instead. She convinced Will to join her and Lee and he agreed, leading the pair through a back exit to avoid the chaos.

The three wandered through the city, trying to find a way to leave once more. They decided to try to find help at a tourist center, but ended up getting kidnapped once more.

Sisko Arc

They woke up in a van to find out that they had been captured by a rich megalomaniac with a sadistic mind named Sisko. Lee acted out several times and was rewarded with a gallon of bleach to the face. Avi witnessed this before he and Will were dragged off in the opposite direction of her.

Avi was kept as an exotic pet in Sisko’s office, tethered by a chain. She refused to be compliant, destroying part of the room, and Sisko began an almost daily torture ritual with her under the guise of training. While in a meeting with a client, Avi caused another ruckus and as punishment, Sisko locked her in a sensory deprivation tank, where she began to lose her mind.

When Sisko had decided she’d had enough, he released her. Unfortunately, Avi mistook her time in the tank for her dying, so when she was released, she thought that Sisko had saved her life. This caused her to have some Stockholm syndrome feelings towards him and made her feel like she owed him for saving her life.

After several weeks of this, Sisko attempted to choke Avi in a fit of rage, but she managed to turn the tables and she strangled him to death. It was several days before they were discovered.

When the police and ambulance arrived, they took Avi, Lee, and Will to get their health checked out and very quickly found their alterations. Avi confessed to Lee that they felt uncomfortable being referred to as a girl after their time with Sisko, and switched to using solely they/them pronouns.

After everyone was interviewed, a pair of agents, Redwood and Salvador, approached them and gave them a deal: they could go with him and be safe with a place to stay and food. In return, the kids would tell them everything they knew about themselves and their alterations. Deciding they didn’t have a better option at the moment, the kids were soon on the road to a scientific facility.

Lab Arc

When they arrived, everyone there was incredibly kind. The kids received the food, care, and attention they needed and deserved. The scientists ran a few tests, mostly to make sure they’re doing okay physically and begin to check out their interesting biology.

But after a few weeks there, things became more and more sinister. Eventually, their suspicions were confirmed when their most trusted scientist friends slowly and meticulously vivisected them one by one. They took one of Avi’s air sacs and one of their ribs, as they poked around in their guts.

They woke up and found the partially healed incision scars on their torso several days later. They wanted to warn the boys, but found that their room was locked and later learned that they thought Avi was just sick. When they were able to leave their room, they realized both Lee and Will had also been vivisected and were visibly shaken from it.

The scientists dropped their friendly facade for the most part, and began treating the kids like lab animals. Redwood and Salvador, ignorant to the scientists’ plans at first, warn the kids that they’re planning another vivisection that the kids will die in the process of, as the scientists want to harvest their organs to study.

The two agents tried to help the kids escape, but Redwood was fatally injured and had to be left behind. The lab released a heavily altered Skylar with new wings, a tail, a bird leg, and a bird leg prosthetic to hunt them down. Lee managed to calm them down before they were able to do major damage to the group and they joined them in their escape. Salvador helped get the kids to a ghost town a safe distance away and stayed behind to hopefully slow the lab guards, presumably dying in the process.

Home Arc

The kids drove home, making slow progress as to not catch any attention and frequent stops, as Avi was the only one able to drive and they were consumed with guilt about Redwood and Salvador.

They finally arrived at Avi’s parent’s home and they welcomed them with open arms, inviting the others to stay with them.