Welcome to Gaia! ::

The Dude grunted and finally sat down in the sand, looking at his fin-hands. The fact that most of his finers were of little practical use now sucked, but at least he was left with thumbs and index fingers. Something to hold a joint with. The Dude hadn't considered this implication before, really. And the prospect of a forcefull withdrawl due to inability to hold a jay was just a tad ridiculous. He grinned and chuckled ot himself about that.

Then he looked up at the girl next to him and nodded his head: "I am the Dude on this island. I am one of the study's subjects. So whom have you met already and what's your name?"

"Nice to meet you, Julianne!" - the Dude grinned wide and stretched his fin hand to shake.

"Oh and you met Ambrose, too? Good I suppose. I was afraid I'd scare you, considering I'm not looking too human right now. Did he ... err ... bring you up to speed on current events?" - he asked, secretly hoping that he would NOT have to tell this frightened little girl the whole sad story.

Hmm, this girl sure smiled a lot. Pretty green eyes though ... bit flat in the chest area. Must be a teenager. DAMN that Moreau, dragging children into this. First Thorn, now Julianne. The man had no morals, no heart, no consiousness. He'd probably shoot them all when he was done turning them into beasts. Or display them in cages at conferences, to impress the world. Aubrey's words floated thru The Dude's head: 'You all are going to be in text books someday'. The Dude was familiar with what it entailed. He remebered his high school days when they drew mustaches and dripping puddles of drool or worse under every face in their text books. Quite an honor that was ...

"Well, I am not sure how I can explain my hands otherwise" - he looked at the membranes. "But in a way, ignorance is bliss. So just ignore it for as long as you can. Enjoy life."

He took the cigarette case out of his pocket, pulled out one and lit it. A thin stream of smoke escaped from his nostrils as he turned away from Julianne, so as not to hit her with the cigarette smoke.

"Well said, Julianne" - he smiled and took a long drag from his cigarette. Then forming his mouth into an "O", he let out a smoke ring. Then another one. And a really small third one. It was a nice trick that he learned from a fellow dead beat, but it took a lot of practice. The three rings floated away over the water, dissolving gently into nothingess.

"The storm crashed my boat on those cliffs over there. So I am stranded on this island. A perfect subject, with all tracks conveninely covered up by the ocean. No body to look for, no traces at all."

"How about you?"

The Dude looked at the now thoroughly depressed teenager next to him, and ruffled the raven hair with his flipper hand:

"Well, you did get room and board, so in a way it's not too bad for you. And noone is stopping you from writing. I think it would be great if you would still write your stories. Hell, I want to read them sometime. Maybe we can persuade Aubrey to get the stories published, even, under a pseudonim? Moreau only wins over us if we give up hope. So don't give up." - the Dude said with conviction.

"Do you have family left back home? Or a boyfriend or something?"

The Dude quirked an eyebrow at the girlfriend statement: "Ah, open minded, are we? Heh. Just don't worry. Eventually we'll figure out a way to get back at Moreau and send a note over to the folks back home. For now, enjoy the weather ..."

He layed back onto the sand, the flipper hands folded under his hand, starring at the sky. It was blue liek a robin's egg, cloudless and divine. The cigarette was glimmering faintly in his mouth, almost completely burned out. The calming effect of nicotine was soothing his own worries and the faint but grating pain in his appandages.

"Hey Julianne, what kind of children stories do you write?"

"Really? Far out! Maybe you should talk to Cassidy. She likes scifi novels, I think. I saw her several times reading a paperback in the cafeteria. She's very nice, tall, blond, freckles all over her face. met her yet?" - he described the girl to Julian.

"Oh yeah, and she hasn't started sprouting anything yet, so it might be easier to talk to her. Besides, she is a girl, too."

With that statement the Dude finally stood up and trampled around, looking at his now oversized feet. He was DAMN thirsty and a bit hungry, too. Taking the cigarette out of his mouth and extinguishing it the sand, he put it into his pocket to be thrown away into garbage later. No reason to filthy up a beach like that with cigarette butts.

"Hey, you know, wanna come along with me, I'll just introduce you two? She is in duplex #3. She might even be around, now that she fgave up on the cleaning job."

"Well, thank you very much, Julianne. I appreciate your company, too" - the Dude grinned friendly and ruffled the dark hair again. Funny kid, this girl. So skittish. And yet so accepting of her fate.

"And the worst part about changing is that ... well ... it hurts." - he admitted. Then, hurriedly, he added to calm the girl down: "But I am sure Aubrey can give you a shot or something, against the pain. I think being our friend is in her job description, so she is trying her best to make Moreau proud."

The Dude paused, kicking up the sand with his extra large feet. He could really shovel up some sand into these new flippers of his. Neat.

"You know, if you are nice to Aubrey, she'll tell you what you gonna be. She told me. I am gonna be a California Sea Lion" - the Dude explained, treating the entire subject way too casually. "Have you seen any of them before? Big, sleep a lot and bark constantly? Yep. That's gonna be me, apparently. I think it was Moreau's twisted sense of humor or something, turning a beach bum into a sea lion. But the joke's on him, the p***k. I'd rather be a sea lion then a jaguar or a mouse or a dog. I'll get to dive all day long."

The Dude's stomach growled at him: "Erm, well, I think I really gotta go feed this growing body of mine" - he grinned and patted the belly. "You know, for the progress of science"