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All his rolling around woke the girl up a little more out of her morning fog, and by the time he'd looked down with his tousled blonde hair, she was conscious enough to tip her chin up to see his face fully, and smile back into the furry complexion.

"Well... when we actually got to sleep..." she said, her lazy smile filled with delicious, half- foggy memories of dark tumbles, "it was great. You're like a big soft pillow." She left a soft kiss on his chest and pushed herself up on her elbows to separate herself from him. "Did you...sleep well?" She said, laughing at the absurdity of asking such a commonplace question after what had transpired between them the night before.

"Then don't say anything!" Em said, laughing as she grabbed up a sheet that had gotten tossed to the foot of the bed. She wrapped it under her arms and around her middle and sat up, stretching her legs as she did so. Only then did she notice the noise and the motion that was going on underneath Ambrose, and she couldn't help but grin from ear to ear.

"Is your tail... wagging?"

"Eeeh!" She squealed happily, absolutely giddy with the absolute surreality of it all. So he wouldn't think that she was laughing at him, she spoke through her laughter as she fell back onto the bed in glee.

"It's just that.... it's so funny..." she had a massive case of the giggles, "that a w...wolfman and a girl with.... quills coming out of her head... oh, my side... I'm going to split my sides open.." she rolled onto her stomach, speaking into the mattress as she laughed, "spent a night together... and woke up with his tail wagging. Oh... I can't breathe...wheee.."

As soon as she felt his teasing touch along her side, Emelyn had a split-second realization in which she was just able to get the words "Oh no... not tickling... not..." before she had the reaction that, although common to that sort of touch, looked like some of the most bizarre, tribal behavior.

She squealed, kicking up her legs and rolling up against herself, folding her abdomen as far down upon itself as it would go which, admittedly, wasn't far. ...Yet. Tears streamed unbidden from her eyes as she rocked with laughter. Words like "No" "please" and "UNCLE UNCLE!" were all interspersed with joyous giggles and squeals until she finally rolled off his grasp and off the bed.

"Oh..." she said, getting her breath as she crawled to her feet. She held up her makeshift toga with one hand. "That... that is below the belt, wolfy. I am... ticklish everywhere." She pulled the chair out of her desk and sunk down into it, taking deep breaths that didn't quite clear the smile off her face.

"Whoo..." she said in an exhale of breath. "I wonder how soon it will take the island gossip mill to pick up on this one."

"No!" She said, pointing at him with her free arm, "No.... that is not good information for later. You have now forgotten you know this information. It is NOT useable," she laughed, digging out clothes from her dresser. As she dug through her shirts, she looked over her shoulder curtly.

"Are you hungry? Because I'm starving. ...Does the cafeteria even serve breakfast? I don't think I've ever gotten up this early."

"No peeking," Em mumbled, half-kidding and half-laughing as, back turned to him, she let the sheet fall and pulled a shirt over her head. Her jeans from the day before were still wearable, in the 'Em etiquette of laundry' and she hustled over to the desk to pick them up from where they'd gotten flung during... well... things...

Once she was basically dressed, she found her goggles where she'd dropped them and used them to pull the hair and quills from her eyes. After that, she looked around- the room was an utter mess, but something about it seemed to be a battleground where both sides had won. The imagery made Emelyn laugh, and she opened the door, wondering if anyone would see them leave the duplex together.

"To breakfast it is, then."

Ambrose paced back and forth a few times in front of Emelyn's duplex. He knew she was there. He could smell her fresh scent around the place. There were no excuses this time.

He held up his hand to knock again, but pulled it back again, running it through his blonde hair instead as he paced in a small circle again.

He had promised both Amaya and Angelina that he would talk to her. Soon. It was better that way. No secrets, no avoidance.... of course he HAD avoided her for a couple of days. Told himself he'd tell her if he ran into her - of course he hadn't even tried her duplex yet.

Now... he was here. In front of HER door. And... with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

He felt for her, he really did. And that made it all the more difficult. He had considered bringing flowers, but that would just lead her on. He had considered writing a note - btu that would just be plain mean and insensitive. He owed it to her to tell her face to face. However painful it might be. He had tried to come up with words a hundred times in his mind, but each time he threw them to the side. He would have been hurt if the situation were reversed... why would it be any different with her.

Finally, he realized - despite the fact that everyone he had spoken to had already to him as much, that there probably WASN'T a way to do it without hurting her. As frustrating as that was.

He raised his fist to knock again, swallowing hard, his tail tucked snugly between his legs.... and let it fall a few soft times on the door.

Maybe... maybe she was asleep. Maybe he should come back again some other time. He almsot turned to leave.

"Ow...good gods... just a minute!" Em called out to whoever stood on the other side of the door. At the sudden sound of someone's request to come in, she'd been startled into sitting straight up. ...Which would have been fine, normally, if she hadn't been scrounging under the desk at the time for a pen that had rolled away from her. She climbed to her feet, rubbing the spot on her head where the dull ache was starting to spread, pushing aside the limp quills that met her fingertips as she did. The door was only a few steps away, and she threw the door open, a smile waiting for whoever was there. It only spread further when she saw who it was.

"Ambrose!" She cried, holding herself back from vaulting onto him in surprise. She'd not seen him for days, and it may seem a little...needy to be so enthusiastic.

A wide-eyed, droop-eared and tail-tucked Ambrose was the one that greeted her. A weak smile met his face in response to her glowing one, one that could not nearly match her wattage.

Upon seeing her, all of his courage tried to flee from the light of her enthusiasm, but he tried hard to reign it in. He swallowed. "Hi... Emelyn! It's... It's been a few days since I saw you last...." A few very eventful days He commented mentally.

"And... uhm..." He winced. "I was wondering if... perhaps I could come in... and we could talk for a little..?" His voice seemed to grow weaker with every new word.

The smile wilted, withering away into the puddle of uncertainty that was building in Emelyn at the sight of Ambrose at her door. He didn't seem... pleased to see her. She didn't have the wolf senses- or, rather, even those innate animal instincts that would gradually be afforded her by her change... but even she could see that something was wrong. Her mind automatically wrapped itself around the worst case scenarios- either something had happened to him- maybe Moreau had done something to him? ...Or did it have to do with the fact that she'd not seen him in several days. ..What had happened during those days? She took a deep breath, and stepped backwards..

"Sure. Come on in. ...What's wrong?" The tone of her voice dropped dramatically in the pause.

He stepped uncertainly into her room, feeling more like he was intruding on her sanctum than ever before. what once had been a special place where things were shared was now uncertain territory.

Hesitantly, he sat down on one of the chairs and began to fidget. "Emelyn... I... I can't express how wonderful you've been to me over the past few weeks.... the conversations we've shared... helping me through a lot of really... really difficult times, and thoughts. And... Emelyn..." He drew a breath, venturing to look at her. "I do care for you. VERY much. I... I even postulate to say that maybe if things were to continue as they have been... that what we share might even rival what Angelina and I had."

The looming 'but' hung on the air, and he struggled to say it. But as he tried to give words to it, he couldn't... not just yet. He had to emphasize that he hadn't been stringing her along... that she wasn't a substitution. "You are a wonderful person, Emelyn. You... you're beautiful... smart... you always seem to have the right words.." He gave her a lop-sided smile. "And... well.... in... in any other situation... I would be happy to really push this to the next level." He bit his lip. "But..... but... but there's always a but, huh?" He winced.

"The... the unforseen... happened." His ears drooped. "What... what I never pictured happening." He tried to continue, he really did. He opened his mouth, but all that escaped was a weak whimper.

The words weren't real. None of it was real, and she hung on the but- quite differently than Ambrose did- as if every next word was going to bring the explanation for all of this... it was going to be fixable, it was going to be anything but an apology, a goodbye. It was going to turn every terrible, viciously pregnant 'but' into something positive. This was not going to be... what she thought it was.

Emelyn sat down on the edge of the bed, and put her hands out on her knees, outstretched with palms up- willing and waiting to receive something... anything other than the doomsday Ambrose was holding back.

"What, Ambrose?" She said, quietly. "It's alright. You can tell me. ...What are you trying to tell me?"

Ambrose's eyes flicked to hers again, his tail only tucking tighter as he still saw the hope in her eyes - seekign to help him despite what he was trying to tell her. And he didn't want to lose this for the world... he realized. Despite how happy he was with Angelina, and how resolute he was when he was with her, when he was faced with Emelyn, it made things a thousand times harder.

"I.... I had just begun to finally accept... realize... that there was no chance I would go home. That - for better, but mostly for worse, like everyone else here, I'm imprisoned with dire consequences to face if I considered fleeing. That.... that I'd never see her again. That... moving on was the only option. You helped me realize that.. and I was - and still am thankful - that you grounded me in the distinct reality that I was going to change again... that I was stuck here... and that she was lost to me."

He paused to fill his lungs with air again, as if the air might somehow lend him more strength to tell her what she deserved to know. "But.... we were wrong..."

Emelyn moved down off the bed and got in front of him on her knees, putting her hands on his knees, trying to draw in the feeling of him, and to comfort him. She was just now beginning to understand what he meant. Of course he'd not be over Angelina yet- there was so much history there. The night she and Ambrose had spent together must have entrenched him in guilt, wondering if he'd betrayed his love of Angelina. That must have been why he'd been avoiding her for days.

"Oh Ambrose, I'm sorry if we moved into things too quickly. I can see why you feel like we were wrong... that we should have waited. But we acted on impulse, on feeling. And I'm not mad that I've not seen you the last few days." She looked up at him, and those guilty, sad eyes with a comforting smile, and eyes filled with genuine care. "Oh you poor thing- you must be dragging yourself over the coals. A love has been lost, and you probably feel like you've been going too fast." She put one hand up to his face, tracing the shape of his jaw.

Ambrose winced. She was taking it figuratively when he meant things quite literally. The caring touch of her hands along the fur on his face... her tenderness and understanding... it hurt so much. Emelyn really was such a wonderful person... so understanding... and really would make a wonderful mat-

He shook himself from those thoughts quickly. NO... no he couldn't. As much as he felt for Emelyn.. and as much as he really did think that if things were different - if he had met her those years ago... that the same situation might be in reverse. But three years of a loving relationship were nothing to scoff at... he LOVED Angelina.

"That... that's not quite what I meant." He finally whispered. "I... I did feel guilty. I mean... dont' get me wrong - it ... it felt right, but in retrospect I wasn't sure if I was ready to move on quite that fast.... but.... but..." He swallowed again. "She... Angelina.... she..." A pause. Two words. He just had to say TWO words. "She's here."


A picture flashed into Emelyn's head- a memory that had been long buried, tucked behind snapshots of birthdays and happy events... she was nine years old, and she and her sister were waiting with their Grandpa John in the hospital waiting room- waiting for Grandpa John's doctor to come out and call him for his checkup. They'd seen a woman sitting across from them, silent, and her eyes were glossed over. When Mizzie had asked what was wrong with her, Grandpa John had leaned down, and with his peppermint breath, had whispered "She's swallowed all her hope. It's living down somewhere in her belly... and that's why she's here. Trying to get it out before it's gone forever." ....Emelyn had never completely known what that meant... until this moment, her eyes still and her face blank as all the hope slid down the back of her throat and into the pit of her stomach.

"Here? She's... here." She sank back on her heels. She didn't ask questions, she didn't disbelieve. She realized exactly what he was here for, and it made her blood run cold.

Ambrose could feel the tension build and turn frozen within the span of a breath, and it set the fur on the back of his neck on edge. Edge with anxiety... and guilt. Why... it wasn't fair...

His face crumpled and he nodded. "Just... a day ago... she.... she showed up on my doorstep..." His words seemed like they belonged to someone else. He saw the hurt in her eyes. He could have slapped her and evoked less of a hurt look from Emelyn. "She... never gave up looking for me. Caused... caused too much of a stir.. threatened them...." His ears crumpled back to match his expression. "I ... She didn't know... until she saw me.... the truth..."

He stopped talking about Angelina. "Emelyn... I... I'm so sorry. You have to understand.. I care for you... I care very much for you. And I don't think it's fair... that... because we shared so much.. because we understand eachother ... that because of that this has to ... hurt that.... does that make any sense? Why is it that when you get close to someone - the closer you get... the more damaged it can become...?"

She was looking... not at him, and not even at the space beneath the chair, at the wooden legs, which is where her eyes were trained. Instead, her eyes were nowhere, and everything she saw was just a 2-D whisper of a world, where the actual reality was in her mind, repeating every one of Ambrose's words in her head. She heard the pain in his voice, and it registered, but quietly, almost an afterthought, as she ran her fingers through her hair and pulled it up into the back, entwining her fingers into frustrated fists and pulling the hair in her grip into a tight capture. The ache spread down the nape of her neck, and her ears pounded- although that had nothing to do with her self-inflicted squeeze, but rather, the pumping blood that had rushed to her head.

"I don't really want to hear this, Ambrose." Her voice was low, even, and devoid of emotion- a sure sign that she'd been struck with an emotional brick. All the feeling had been sapped out of her voice, leaving only a blank canvas of words that was possibly... the most raw, emotional way she could possibly convey the hurt. "Normally... I would love to pontificate this. But all I can hear now, is that..." she paused. "Oh god...." she released her hair and covered her mouth. "God, what do you want me to say, Ambrose? What can I possibly say to this?"

The coldness in her voice... and the pained shock that he knew that he was responsible for dug like claws into his heart. He wished that there were some way...any way to make this easier for her.

At her pained question, he spoke a pained, strangled gasp. "Emelyn... I... Please, I'm not doing this to hurt you. I don't want you to say anything untrue... Dear Lord... Emelyn... I want... I want to stay friends... to be here for you... to support you with what we're both going through... But... God It's not fair. I wish there were a way I could say this to you - any way - without being the one to just cause you more harm.."

She was silent for a good long handful of moments in which her expression was unreadable and her body language inexpressive. After that pause... she laughed. It was not a cheery laugh, but rather, one wracked with irony, low and breathy as she pulled her chest in, concave, so that her form doubled into a 'C'.

"I want to stay friends. Ohhhhhh...." she breathed out a long, rasping laugh. "Oh, I love that line." She ran a hand up roughly through her hair, the proto quills pricking her palm as she did so, and leaving her to trail damaged fingers back down the line of her head. "I know you don't want to hurt me," she said, tensing her other hand where it lay on her thigh, "but you have to realize- there's really nothing you can say right now to make me feel better." She paused, a wound growing in her feelings and in her voice. It was that wound that reached out to her heart, to tell her to look up into his eyes and tell him that she didnt' blame him, didn't want to hurt him, either... but also, made her feel weak, and low. So she closed off that part of her feelings and crawled to her feet, her eyes cold once more.

"GOD!" She said, almost a scream into the ceiling as she paced back from his wolfen form and back towards the wall. "God, this is so unfair. You feel like s**t now, but you're going to get exactly what you wanted. What's going to happen to me, Ambrose? What's going to happen to the goddamn martyr? I was a martyr for Moreau, and now I'm going to be one for you."

Ambrose was on pins and needles during the strained silence... wanting to say something... reach out to her to tell her that it would be okay.... except that he coudln't do that now. Not... not anymore. She was no longer his in that sense... and it felt as if something was being pulled from him forcefully.

Ambrose crumpled. "I... as contrived as it sounds I DO want to be your friend, Emelyn! Despite how many times on countless movies or shows it's said as a parting with no truth behind it, it's robbed the truth from that statement. I DO care about you and I really wish there were a way to keep that closeness alive even if the romantic side is.... isn't. To still be friends, yes."

He cowed back at her explosion, whimpering, the guilt rising up in his gullet and stinging his eyes. "Emelyn... I... I never expected.... you're not a martyr... you... you're a friend. A wonderful person! Please don't compare me to Moreau! And I'm not getting 'what I wanted.' I'm not getting your happiness. I'm not getting all of us free from this prison... and I'm not regaining my humanity. I've instead shouldered the burdon that even if Angelina probably got here because of her own prying, that maybe I'm not completely guilt-free in bringing her here to suffer the same fate of all of us here. That instead of being able to be happy for her - free in America and living her life, having a future... that some aspect of me will always feel guilty that she's here. That it's one way or another MY fault that she's here. Because I signed up for the damned study instead of taking a normal job like she told me to do."

She was up against the wall- both physically and mentally. The breath was tight in her chest, and she exhaled, trying to let out the stone that sat there. "Guilt guilt guilt guilt guilt..." she said, tensing her hands into fists and releasing them with each repetition of the word. "You feel guilty for having Angelina here, guilty for what's happened to us, guilty that I feel like screaming and crying and throwing something at you..." she had to pause, and let the lump in her throat die down before she continued to speak, knowing that if she pressed on while it still resided there, it would turn into tears... and she couldn't bear to cry in front of others. And especially not in a situation like this...

"And guilt for me, for even slightly insinuating that you're like Moreau... guilt that I want you to feel as awful as I do right now... guilt that maybe you do... and guilt that even though I see Angelina being here as a terrible thing... I don't think it..." her eyes locked with his for the first time since the fateful conversation had begun, "...for the right reasons." There was nothing that could keep those tears down now, and they came, unbidden and silent, streaming down her cheeks. It was not just this loss, that she was feeling- but every loss that had occured to her... her grandfather's... and then Mizzie... her life had been destroyed long before she ever wrecked upon these shores, but then, so much more had been taken away from her- the possibility of being healed, of living a normal life, of getting closure. Then The Dude, and the possibility of understanding someone else, having someone else care back for her. ...She'd lost all purpose to why she was here, as she realized the lies Moreau had told. And now, she was losing yet another someone in her life. And in that moment, as she lost all abandonment and those few tears wet her cheeks- something in Emelyn... shut down. She didn't even realize it herself- but surely, something inside had.... died.

"I'm not mad," She said, whispering, "But I think it's time for you to say goodbye."


Ambrose was fighting his own struggle to keep the moisture from his eyes and the creak from his voice. It was only the years of practice in swallowing his emotion into a bitter, painful ball into his chest that kept him from also breaking in front of her. But every telltale sign - especially with the newly expressive set of ears and tail that he had acquired spoke well enough to his guilt and his nerve-wracked pain at seeing a woman he cared about breaking in front of him... and yet there was nothing he could do. No white horse that he could ride to her rescue. He couldn't even take her into his arms, smooth her spiny hair back and tell her it would be alright.... because... quite simply, he couldn't promise that.

As much as he wanted the world to just be... okay again. To see a genuine smile light upon her face and the light to come back into her eyes instead of the icy coldness, the anger and the pain that had taken its place.... he knew that it was beyond his power to give her that hope back now.

He nodded dumbly at her list of pain that they both suffered. And almost - for a ghost of a moment before his ration backfired and turned away the idea - wondered what it would be like if they did become simple animals... immune to such pain and torment that only came as a payment for the gift of sentience and emotion.

"I'm sorry..." The words seemed hollow... reverberating against the empty feeling that was being quickly filled by that ball of repressed emotion. He needed to get out of here... and yet... he couldn't bring himself to turn his back on her... his back on a woman in need.

But her words cut him off for him... turned him away before he made any actual movement to leave. She was done with the conversation. "If... if there is anything I could say... anything I could do, Emelyn, to make things better. Now or in the future... please... just tell me. Even if this werent' a tiny Island... I wouldn't want to lose you completely..."

"That's a little... easy, isn't it?" She said- not unkindly. She was truly trying to express how hypocritical and unfair the situation seemed to her. "If you get to keep me as a.... friend, and then you have Angelina, you'll be making an already unfair situation even more skewed in your favor. And I hate..." the word dripped with emotion, so much that it bore repeating, "hate hypocrisy." She sniffed, and let out a ragged breath. "And I don't know if we can ever go back to being friends." She dropped her head into her hands, and discovered that her skin was burning to the touch. "I don't know.... if I want to set myself up for any sort of loss again. ...I didn't mean saying goodbye now, Ambrose. ...I meant... maybe you should say goodbye... to me. At least then, it would seem a little more fair."

"Fair?" The word was a whisper. "How does losing our friendship... tilt the scales in your favor? And how is this a situation of losses and gains...?" He shook his head, confused. "I'm not trying to ... to... gloat on my gains... to have my cake and eat it too... well... I mean... I like you... and I thought... I thought that maybe... if we meant enough to eachother to try a relationship... that maybe there's something there strong enough not to want to kill entirely.."

HE shook his head with a shrug, wrapping his arms around his torso, feeling that ball of emotion strain against its container. He wanted to bawl.... he wanted to scream... but... he couldn't. Not here.... not now.

"If me... saying goodbye..." The words were forced, strained through clenched jaws. "Would be better for you... If you would think me a hypocrit for trying to hold onto something meaningful.... then I will."

She nodded. "Losing our friendship... makes us see the situation for what it is. It's not us pretending everything's okay, pretending we can tip the clock back to a time when we just confided in each other on the beach, or talked about what we lost. It's not... trivializing what we were... or...could have been," she said, almost angry- but she didn't know if it was at him... or with herself. "If we were just friends now, that would say that everything that happened those nights ago, everything I felt, was nothing!" She screamed, distraught, coming forward off the wall as she did. She pointed at the bed. "While you'd pick up the pieces with Angelina, and you'd still have our friendship, and her love, and everything that we were would be just a smear of a memory that we'd pretend never happened. So yes. We'd be a hypocrite to 'hold onto something meaningful'," she was almost hysterical now, "when it would reduce my feelings to rubble. I don't even know what we were, Ambrose. I don't know if we were going to become anything. But even so, I'm not willing to pretend it never happened."

Ambrose cowed as she yelled, backing away, and instinctively closer to the door. He took her explosion, balling it up tighter... and tighter.

Swallowing, and taking a breath, he tried to keep his face straight... dry... keeping it - and him - from crumpling under the torrent. He had hurt her... hurt her by taking things to the next level... she was right... he couldn't abandon it... couldn't pretend it never happened... that they never felt for eachother.

"I ...." The words were scattered about his mind. "I... woulnd't pretend nothing happened." He whispered hoarsely. "I... wish we .... could... I don't know... I don't know what I'm even saying anymore." He whimpered. "I'm sorry, Emelyn. I Truly am. I did and still do care for and about you. And I want to see you happy again. I... I'm sorry it's not with me. You're a wonderful person. And I am horrible for doing this to you... it... God it's such a frustrating... unique situation."

He shook his head. "I... I can't... I can't say anything... to help. I... I'm making things worse." He rambled, half to himself, choking on the acrid taste of the emotions. "I... I'm sorry.... Emelyn. G... Good.....bye."

And he turned, taking a heaving breath, and opened the door.

"Goodbye," She said, not coldly, but firmly, to the sillouette of the man against the doorframe. A part of her wished to beckon him back, to say that she didn't blame him, and that she didn't expect him to make her feel better. ..But the rest of her kept her lips closed, only letting that one, final word pass through them before sealing them for good. As soon as he'd leave, she knew she'd be draped across the bed, wishing for sleep so that she wouldn't cry. ...And she knew that when he closed that door... it would be stay closed... for a long while. She had no desire to see anyone, or to feel anything but this deadness for a while.

Ambrose only nodded. He couldn't trust his voice any more at this point not to break and crack and finally loose the tears that it was taking all of his muster not to loose.

And with a final 'click' of finality, he stepped out of the doorframe and shut the door behind him.

He couldn't head back to his duplex, not now. He loved Angelina... and he felt overwhelmingly guilty about Emelyn... but she woudln't understand this - not the pain he had just caused - and he didn't want to laden the guilt onto her for causing her the pain. So instead, he fled, to the shady coolness of the jungle. Into the wilds like the animal he was for doing this to her... and to the place that a part of him labeled as a safehaven. He ran, not looking where he was going, through the trees and brambles until his legs gave out -more from mental exhaustion than physical.

"Ugh. Blast you, radiation." Em said, growling under her breath. She'd been walking down the line of duplexes when the sun came out from behind a cloud, piercing her vision with a band of intensity that left her reeling. Not a small part of her wished that she'd not convinced herself that she shouldn't be a hermit, and to take her first excursion out into the world of 3-D people for days. After all, being blinded wasn't quite what she considered 're-entering society'. So she quickened her step, one hand cupped over her brow, and made her way to the fuzzy figure that was making its way into the community center. She could see only that whoever it was carried something... and she hoped with all her might that it wasn't Ambrose. ...Or Angelina. Her hesitation came through in her gait, which slowed, cautious as she made the last few steps to the figure. Only when she was almost right to the side of her, did she recognize Joli through the glare. "Oh, Joli. Seems we're always running into each other these days."

Joli had been preoccupied thinking about her conversation with Hargun and the voice came slightly as a surprise, turning she saw the female she'd met twice before "Allo Emelyn, yeah we do, though not literally luckily" she chuckles "Least I can see you better this time though" she shifts the pile of clothing in her arms

The space between Emelyn's eyes furrowed into thin lines of thought, but then eased as the realization clicked. "Oh, the night. I still forget that others don't have nightvision. ...I've found it relatively useful." She looked at the laundry, and eased a helpful smile onto her face. "Would you like some help with that pile? It looks a little awkward. ...Perhaps you'll get some nightvision," she said then, segueing as the thought jumped back into her head.

"Help would be lovely, Thankyou, Hargun was kind enough to give me some clothing she had outgrown, I've come not to trust a single thing that the staff send me" she replies turning more towards Emelyn so she could pull some from the pile "I'd rather stay the way I am right now... though I know if feral labs has anything to say about it I won't"

"True," Em said, taking half of the clothes from Joliette's possession, and walking with her, matching her pace. "But I think you'll find... that if it does come to a change, you'll be able to deal with it better than you might think." She wanted to say more, but held her tongue. Somehow, playing the 'reality check' had been... more than tiring- heartbreaking, really. Instead, she brought the conversation back to something Joli had said. "What, is something wrong with the clothes the staff gave you? The clothes they gave me were all perfectly acceptable."

"The git.." she spat the word nearly "sent me clothes that /looked/ fine.. But they dissolved in water, ones before that i would never ever where, leather and slags cloths mostly" she sighs "I've never been so very embarrassed in my entire life!"

"In... in the water? Dissolved? Oh my..." she almost dropped the clothes in her clutches. "Are you serious?"

"Completely... ask Chubbs, I was at hte beach wearing the swimsuit when I learned it" she bit her lip her ears turning red

"Chubbs? ...I've not met anyone by that name. He must be new," she summarily dismissed, trying not to laugh- or drop her jaw- at the absolutely mortifying prank. "What in the world did you do? How did you get back to your duplex?"

"Chubbs lent me his shirt, he's the red-haired big ol teddybear of a guy who lives in 25. And then I went for a walk in the jungle... and smart me got lost" she pushes open the door of the hall with her back

"Oh my god, that's... absolutely crazy. You poor thing. ...Man, whatever did you do to piss Sabin off like that?"

"Uhm could be I'm vegan, and he seemed to hate that idea the time I met him... or it could be I shredded up his 'script' and sent it back to him.... Either way He seems to have it out for me... he's the one who came after me in the jungle... he may have had the last laugh in that encounter... but I got one too" she grins suddenly

"Script? And oh, you so have to tell me about this last laugh thing," Em said, hungry for this almost soap-opera of happenings that kept her mind fully off of any problems she had in her own life.

"When I first got here he had me convinced this was a movie set" she explains "He even gave me a script for the 'movie'... After I found out the truth and it set in I had a screaming fit and tore it into shreds" she chuckled "And mailed it him... as for the laughs.. Well..." she walks into the laundry room and puts the pile on a table "He got a lil cocky with me out there. I don't know if you know but I have a black belt in martial arts.. so uh I punched him" she did a slow motion of her move "Caught him just below the solar plexus... knocked the wind right out of him" she sighed her smile slipping "And then he put me to sleep"

"Oh..." Em said, following her a step behind into the laundry room, and easing herself up onto one of the low-slung washers, "I'm sorry that happened. ...I've seen it happen before." She didn't want to say anything more about the situation, however, the security cameras fresh on her mind. And if she still wanted Moreau to feel that she was on his side... he couldn't have any footage on her speaking badly about him- or showing any doubt about his 'master plan'. So she hoped Joliette could understand why she was suddenly quieter than usual.

"Yeah, wasn't fun, especially waking in the meat locker, luckily Colche was nearby when I woke," Joliette noted her quietness "Going to sleep, it was just like what you mentioned about Dude... 'Subject Rigiel Sleep' he said " She turned to grab her clothing from a washer to move it to a dryer

"Colche must have been confused," was all Em could think of to say that was still 'safe', pulling what she knew of the girl to memory. "At least you're okay, though."

"Yes a lil I think, she helped me down, oh well... I really don't want to think about it, I threw up after it and I don't wish to repeat that... " she smiled softly "What have you been doing besides climbing mountains?"

Em thumped the front of the machine with her heels, and pounded her palm on the edge of the washer softly, just to hear the muffled, metallic resonation. "Well.... I've been playing the hermit, actually. Today is the first time I've been outside in a while." Her eyes darted to the corners, wondering where the cameras were, and hoping that no one would review this and wonder what she'd been doing up on the mountain.

"Hermit? You don't seem like a hermit to me, just don't strike me as that kinda person" Joli put her hands on the edge of a dryer and hopped up on it and sat down

Em smiled, tilting her head down to look at the tile floor, her eyes following the grout automatically. "Thanks," Em said, kicking the machine again with a gentle prod of her boot heel, "I'd like to think you're right. But I tend to lock myself away after I find I have to..." she tore her eyes away from the tile, and looked up at Joliette from her drier perch, "cope with anything emotional. ...Ambrose. I don't know if you've met Ambrose yet, but we were... sort of a little.... well, a thing." She took a deep breath, and widened her eyes for a moment before letting them go back to their normal size. "And then, as will always happen on this island, the unbelievable happened- his girlfriend... fiance, whatever- showed up." She took another breath, but found that it left her as soon as it had been inhaled in a soft sigh. "But hey, what are you going to do, right?" One shoulder raised and lowered, and she rolled her head onto the other shoulder, resting it on the offered piece of anatomy.

"Oh I'm sorry, yes I do know Ambrose... I didn't connect his distraught worries, He had no idea what to do..." she bites her lip "I guess in a way it's lucky I haven't anyone like a boyfriend on the mainland..." she looks away "Sorry that had to happen to you, to ambrose, well to anyone" she sighs

"The Soap Opera of Dr Moreau," Emelyn said, quite somberly, actually. ....But as soon as it cleared her lips, the realization of what she'd said clicked in her mind, and a bubble of a laugh formed deep in her chest and escaped in an uncontrollable stream. She laughed so hard that she struggled with regular breath, and her eyes narrowed. "Oh.... it..." she bent over, doubled onto her thighs as she laughed, "it really is... oh god, my side... a soap opera!"

Joliette blinked for a moment then realized what Em was laughing about and her lips broke into a smile and she too started laughing "I bet they think so too" she replies refering to the staff

"Oh... oh god, my side is killing me. So which one of them.... is going to have the... siamese triplets that have two different parents?" She couldn't stop laughing, and almost fell off the machine.

Joliette laughs "Uhmmm" she giggled trying to think "Vasile and someone?" she jokes leaning back against the back of the dryer laughing and looking up at the ceiling

"It could be with Sabin," Em said- or at least, as close as she could get to talking in her state. "That baby would be covered in white from... his head... to his a**!"

The image in her mind Emelyn had just created in her mind made her laugh even harder "Oh dear that would be hillarious" she says mid-laugh

Em changed her voice into a high, squeaky baby-like voice, and impersonated this imaginary spawn they'd created in the midst of their hilarity. "Mommy... I've got a fur wedgie! ....Wait.... which one is Mommy?"

"Sabin!" Joli replied immediately before sliding off the dryer onto the floor in a fit of giggles "Mommy Sabin!" she said sticking her hand in the air

"Oh god.... I wouldn't want to see that baby take it's mealtime, then!" She squealed, covering her hands with her mouth as soon as she'd said it, the memory of the cameras jumped into her mind. "Joli.... there... there are cameras in here!" But she said it supremely amused, and looked around for the offending bits of machinery. "You may have some company in the meat locker!" She guffawed

Joliette laughed laying back onto the floor her curly hair fanned out around her "So? let the git think about having a white haired baby from head to toe! Serves him right that gormless arse" she giggles "Better order that cradle Sabin! I'm sure you can hear me!" just then she really did not care what the git thought, she was having a BLAST making fun of him

Em opened her eyes wide, exaggeratingly doe-like, and batted her eyelashes at the corners of the room. "Pleeeeeease don't put me in the meat locker," she said, a faux-pathetic tone in her voice, and she jutted out her bottom lip and let it quiver. "But I can understand if you want to shove me somewhere. ....Is there a candy pantry anywhere? No? How about a nice game closet? Linen closet? ....Nursery?!" She squealed, jumping off the washer and easing herself to the floor on her knees, too overwhelmed with laughter to stay standing.

Joli burst out in renewed laughter and put her hand to her chest, the laughter hurt but she needed it so very badly. She couldn't find words and just kept laughing

"I... ache... like... a dog..." Em said, her words halting as she sucked the last bit of breath that clung to the walls of her lungs. "Oh.... my side... I think I've cracked a rib." Somehow, though, that seemed funny to her as well, and she found herself being lowered even further to the floor by her uncontrollable body. Her forehead finally touched the tile, the mirthful tears streaming out of her eyes and leaking down her cheeks and onto the ground.

"They may think they injected us to become a pair of hyenas" Joli laughed closing her eyes and the few tears of laughter that were trapped in the corners of her eyes rolling down the side of her head to her ears

"You don't know what you're turning into yet? Oh no!" She said, still submerged in the humor of the situation. "Watch Sabin turn you into like... a slug!"

Joli's laughter died "Somehow nothing would shock me... 'And you can be my whatever I like. Deer, salamander... slug...' " She repeated to herself Sabin's own words from when she saw him in the forest. Somehow.. if she had to become an animal she'd rather be a hyena then a slug... any day

Emelyn sobered up quickly, and she eased herself back into a sitting position. She pushed the hair out of her face from where it had been tossed as she'd ragdolled her way to the floor, and sat back on her heels, wondering how she could have said something like that, even in the midst of their hilarity. Her side still ached, and she took shallow breaths. "I'm sorry," Em said, her voice low, "I just thought the hyena thing was so funny... I wasn't thinking very clearly. But if I were you, I wouldn't worry. At least... I mean... you had your tertiary injection before you ever set him off..." her voice trailed off for a moment.

"I wouldn't be so sure, I think he hates the fact that I refused his injection, and that I'm a vegan, and he certainly knew those before he found a way to make me black out and injected me" she opens her eyes and turns her head to look towards Emelyn "It scares me, the power they have, that my fate lies in the hands of... them"

"Oh, no, I just mean that, whatever they chose for you, it was done before any of this. So I doubt it will be anything... bad. Not that I know if you can qualify any of it as bad. It's just.... different."

Joliette quirked a brow "How do you mean, chose for me before all this, surely they didn't know I was coming here"

"Chose the serum for you. ...You've already had the one injection- we all do as soon as we get here. So you couldn't have had time to really... well.. piss anyone off before they chose the serum."

Joli thinks about this "I think I pissed Sabin off the second I walked in the front doors of Feral labs by saying no to the 'immunization' that I didn't believe in them. I certainly wasn't tricked here in the same way many of the islanders have been, I was, sorta a surprise visitor I suppose"

Emelyn nodded. "So was I. ...I can't say I put up the same fuss you did, though. Back then, no one had changed yet, and we had no idea what was going on. We all still though that it was just a medical research island. ...You know, in some ways, it was easier back then. Now there are so many deceptions going on at once." She wondered about the newcomers, and whether they knew yet- but she'd been so long in her self-imposed isolation, that she'd not met any of the newcomers, sans Joliette. So she asked her, instead. "...Have you met many of the newcomers?"

"People who arrived after I did.. Yes a few, theres a father, a curly haired girl named Chana who thinks this is a camp for persons with mental disorders, Chubbs who came here for a boxing match to get money to build a gym back home, Ray, a goth-like lady who laughted me off when I told her the truth about this place, thats it really... That I've met at least" Joliette says

"So none of them know the truth about the place yet?"

"I dont know about the father and Chana, but Chubbs knows, he's turning into Tazmanian Devil, Bear and Wolverine.. I dont know if Ray found out I was not pulling her leg yet or not" she sighs

"Wait... all three at once?" Em scooted around the laundry table so she could fully exhibit her disbelieving stare to Joli. "Are you sure? How on earth did he figure that one out?"

"Yes all three" she says looking up at Emelyn's expression, "he called on the intercom and asked... And then punched the intercom smashing it to bits when the git made fun of something else... I heard the noise of the punch and knocked on his door and helped him bandage his hand and he told me"

Em put her hands to her temples, turning her face into a sort of stress sandwich. It really was the soap opera of Dr Moreau- but somehow... it didn't seem so funny anymore. "That's... a lot to handle," she said softly, not looking at Joliette anymore.

"Yeah, but then I think theres a few people in that boat, Hargun with her horns, and from what I heard the girl who is turning into a snake with wings" Joliette sat up "I just hope they dont do something like that to me"

"Cassidy," Em said, supplying the name softly, looking back at Joliette and wondering when she'd broken their eye contact. "...And I hope they let you have it easy," she said, scooting forward to put a hand on her shoulder. "But you're a tough cookie. You'll be able to cope with anything, I think."

Joliette smiled softly "Thanks, I hope so too, and same for you, we both have a long way to go with their plans"

"Hmm...." Em said, pondering aloud. "I'm actually pretty set, I think. ...Except for the quills. I'm not looking forward to that growth." She shuddered involuntarily.

Joli nods "Well at least you have a defense at any rate, It will be interesting to see if Hargun can fly when she's further along"

She nodded as well, wondering to herself what was in store for this outspoken, pleasant woman. Without realizing it, her eyes darted to the corners again as she thought.... please don't give her too hard a time with this. She's already been through so much, losing her life here. At least give her the dignity to pass through this with some ease. ...Or that we can escape this at all. The thought passed her mind again, but she suppressed it, not willing to think on it, as if Moreau could monitor that, as well. "Well," she said, getting to her feet with some difficulty as she limped up on sleeping feet, "I haven't been out of my room for days, so I should go get something to eat before I pass out. It was great talking with you again," she said, then grinned. "If we get in trouble, it was worth it."

Joliette smiles and nodded "I need that laugh, thankyou Emelyn, I'll run into you again I'm sure, I'm in 27 and 28 if you ever wanna find me" she pushes herself up to stand

"I'm sure we'll bash into each other again soon. If not, I'll seek you out and bother you," she said, smiling. "Oooh.... foot cramp," she moaned, and gave another 'what are you going to do' shrug before she turned and half-limped out of the room.

Joliette relaxed against the dryer waiting for it to end and thinking about the conversations she had had that day