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 Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 5:32 pm
After the "encounter" with Newt, Richard couldn't quite classify it as conversation, the cat woman left a trail of clawed trees all the way back to the village. Newt had gone feral, not insane like Jamal, but feral, barely capable of thought. And she not been able to snap him out of it. Could the change have damaged Newt's brain?
These and other questions bounced around her mind like rocket powered rubber balls as she entered the cafe to do what she had always done when she was troubled. Eat.
The changed feet cause her walk similarly to a woman in high heels, caused a distrubing amount of hip swing as she went to the meat counter and plopped a stack of three rare steaks on her tray with a glass of milk. Normally she wouldn't dare enter the cafe so close to peak hours but her mind was somewhere else at the moment. She barely felt the bruises that covered her left side.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 5:41 pm
Chana was pleased with herself, beaver and human. She had a great catch of trout. It was clearly spring, though on a tropical island it was always warm, and creatures all over the island were courting. Her plan today included getting a few of the fish quickly fried for her lunch, and the rest baked, so she could take them to Stewart later. She wasn't sure how goats felt about fish, but she knew he'd appreciate that she'd caught them just for him.
It was a bit startling to walk in and see someone else there, especially someone that was vaguely familiar to eyes and nose. She didn't think she remembered this woman...but, she'd been wrong before.
She delivered the fish to the cook and filled up a plate with salad as she waited. "Good afternoon," the beaver called over to the other woman. "Mind if I join you?" she asked, accepting a plate of her fried fish and approaching the table where the woman sat.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 5:55 pm
Richard had been staring off into space. For a few moments when Chana's voice broke into his thoughts, bring her back to reality. She blinked to find a beaver looking down at her in her ill fitting clothes. Several thoughts collided at once. First she had stupidly gone to the cafe too early in the day. Secondly, where the heck had this person come from. Thrid, did she know this beaver? Instinctively her left upper arm was drawn across her chest and her cheeks flushed slightly. This was exactly what she was trying to avoid. Normal conversation.
Her mouth worked for a moment before a voice came out. "Uhhh... sure. Be my guest." She inhaled, nostrils f lairing, the scent of Chana, coupled with her cooling steaks came through.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 6:02 pm
Even the voice was familiar...sort of. "Thanks," the beaver replied with a small smile and sat down across from the woman. Chana wondered what was wrong, and if she could help this stranger, considering that the woman looked rather unsettled.
She took a couple bites of her food before talking again, trying to get the woman's measure. "I'm Chana," she offered at last.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 6:12 pm
Chana... the name was familiar... She had met her before? Yes she had, months ago. That meant she might remember him too. The cat woman visibly winced, she closed her eyes as her tentacles rose up behind her to protect her from... the truth. She opened her eyes, bit her lip briefly and then said, "I'm Richard, we've met." She looked away, down at the steak.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 6:18 pm
This woman was...no. It couldn't be! Chana gaped at Richard as she attempted to wrap her mind around the concept. But...if the labs could make people into animals...wouldn't it be a piece of cake to change someone's gender? It made sense, in a horrible way.
"Oh G-d...Richard..." the beaver's voice trailed off again. She remembered him well, he'd been so stubborn, so proud...to see him (her?) like this was painful.
"G-d, I'm sorry," she finally said. Something inside said it wasn't a good time to say 'welcome to the better gender' to try and cheer Richard up.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 6:30 pm
"I'm fine. Its nothing to worry about." The words rang completely hollow merely filling the air. She speared a steak with two of her claws, bit into it and then using both pawhands to rip it away with an audible tear, leaving a large chunk of it in her mouth. She chewed it three times, open mouthed before sallowing it. The red juice dribbled down her chin. It tasted good at least, it was definitely colder than she liked though.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 6:36 pm
Well, this was an uncomfortable situation, to say the least and in more ways than one. On the one hand, the guy-turned-girl thing was hard to deal with anyway. On the other...the beaver was not made to feel at home by her...table manners.
"If you say so..." Chana replied quietly. She ate her own food delicately, carefully manipulating knife and fork in her oversized hands. It was one thing, in her mind, to snack on a fresh fish while she was in the river. But while she was in the cafeteria, she'd eat like the person she had been and still was. It was just that the beaver got so insistent when she was fishing...
But that was neither here nor there and certainly not helping. Chana searched her mind for something innocuous to talk about. No...no...definitely not...maybe some other time--that was it!
"Um, your newsletter was very interesting," she said, a bit more timidly than she'd been only minutes before.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 6:46 pm
Richard had a knife and fork on her tray but they sat there, unused. In the days since her transformation she simply had not noticed all the feline behaviors she had started to exhibit. It was as if all the manners and habits she had learned during his human lifetime were being overwritten.
She wiped her chin with the back of her pawhand and the licked it clean with a long tongue. She made a pleased mewling sound when Chana mentioned the newsletter and brightened up.
"Oh you actually read it? I hope you enjoyed it." The tail gave a pleased lashed while her ears perked up a bit.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 6:53 pm
Chana nodded, glad to be on a safer subject. Inwardly she cringed away from the very predatory motions Richard went through, but she managed to not let it show on her face.
"I did, but a lot of it's a bit hazy by now," she admitted. "I thought about offering to write an article for you or something, but I couldn't think of anything to write about." The beaver flushed under her fur.
"When does the next issue come out?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 7:03 pm
Richard smiled at the possiblity of Chana writing an article, quite forgetting that her mouth was filled with very dangerous looking fangs. "Oh that be wonderful if you wrote something, I'd love to get more submissions. Might even get me to finish the next issue. I've been distracted lately." She winced at that a little.
"As for things to write about, what you like to do?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 7:07 pm
The beaver smiled hesitently back. Those fangs were rather long...
"I really don't know. I spend most of my time swimming and fishing nowadays," she admitted readily enough. It was rather pathetic, but what else was she going to do? She had no job, no reason to do anything more. It was a wonder she hadn't bulked up more than she already had.
Maybe being a writer for Richard's (it was so hard to think of him being a her!) newsletter would keep her from losing so much time...even though that was all they had.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 7:20 pm
Richard looked down at the fish on Chana's plate as she picked up her steak and tore another bloody chunk off. After she had swallowed she pointed at the fish with one of her lower, human looking, hands. "Perhaps a guide to prepare the native fish of the island? Catalog what are the more tasty types." She purred encouragingly, as she finished off the steak with a few more bites, the blood dripping across her muzzle and pawhands.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 7:24 pm
The beaver blinked as she considered that. "Hmmm...I don't know...I don't even know what kinds of fish they are. Sorry." It was similar to one of the topics Chana had already considered and rejected as she read Richard's plea for more writers.
"Should I continue listing things I still do?" she asked, feeling very much like the college freshman trying to pick a good topic for her speech.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 7:34 pm
"Well there are lot of books in the entertainment room if you feel like looking them up" Richard replied as she licked the blood from her hands, the flat tongue curling around the sausage sized digits.
"Sure. You could even write an opinion column if you'd like. I seem to remember you were full of advice the first time we met." The smile turned slightly impish and she chuckled a little.
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