Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ambrose felt a pang of pity for the boy who couldn't be too far from his own age, but had apparently led a much different life than his. He knelt down in the sand by his side and put a furry hand on his shoulder in an attempted comfort.

As he did so, he couldn't help but glance to the epee that he lay besides him, his mind asking the same thing and understanding the fear behind Julian's voice. He shook his head vehemently. "No... I mean... they couldn't take us that far... I..." He furrowed his brow, trying to remember exactly what Aubrey had said. "She mentioned that we should keep our intelligence... our ability to speak, and we wouldn't be complete animals." He swallowed, that thought alone terrifying.

Ambrose settled into a full sitting position, looking out over the ocean, lapping languidly at the beach. It was relaxing, admittedly. It was no surprise that the Doctor had chosen this location as their facility in some manner of appeal to the sanity of their patience.

He glaced sidelong at Julian. "webbed...? But.. they were still functional... right?" Ambrose swallowed. From the sounds of things the Dude might be even worse off than he. Didn't sealions have flippers? Not even separated into fingers/toes like canids?

Ambrose pondered the question. "My appetite had increased after the first shot.... and..." he gestured vaguely. "I felt like I had a lot of energy after I got over the initial nausea from the injection. But other than that, nothing that drastic."

Ambrose nodded, visualizing the changes that Julian described applied to the Dude. "well, He loves the ocean.... I suppose that explains why he wasn't too horribly upset. I bet he'll be a fantastic swimmer..."

The blonde man was idly kicking some of the sand with his sandal, burrying his foot in the sand.

"It can't hurt to eat, I'd think. You'd probably want the energy that your body is certainly going to require from you.... I don't know what would happen otherwise. I'm no doctor or anything, though."

He glanced over at him again, debating asking. Finally, he spoke up. "It... sounds like home wasn't necessarily a pleasant thing for you....?"

He watched the man speak, feeling pity for him. They were from worlds apart, literally opposite ends of the spectrum, and yet here they were now, in the same boat, irregardless of the lives they had led before.

The situation was so far removed from any of his problems he had ever had, he hardly knew what words of consolation to offer the young, painfully thin man.
"Well..." he hesitated. "I... I'm sorry about that.... I know how hard it can be to do things on your own.... that's why I came here. I heard of a 'medical study' they were offering... $5000 for two weeks... supposedly. I was going to use that to support myself for the next semester at the university." He sighed. "At least there's plenty of food here now, right?" He tried to smile, finding it much more difficult than his companion.

"Not that I doubt that I'll ever see any of that money" Ambrose tried to sound helpful. "Even if I did, what could I do with it? Try to bribe the dolphins to get me out of here?" He snorted.

"Alice?" Ambrose asked, looking at the torn-up book cradled in his arms.

Ambrose gave a wry smile, listening to the boy's fascination with this story. If what he was saying about the low income of his family was as accurate as Ambrose pictured, it was possible that that was one of the few possessions he had had since he was a child. No wonder he appeared so attached to it. It was his proverbial security blanket.

"An original copy?" Ambrose whistled, knowing a little of the value of old, famous books. "That is certainly an impressive gift. Make sure that you keep it protected from the humidity here."

He pondered what he knew of the story "You know... in a way that's sort of ironic. Given the strangeness of that story, and what's going on here. There are almost parallels" Ambrose mused. "All the strange... well... transformations."

((Hoo boy - Ambrose is trying to help him not be as scared, but something tells me that this will do the exact opposite for poor Julian's delusions xd ))

Perhaps that wasn't the best thing to say, was the first thought that came to Ambrose. Remembering the unsettling smile that didn't seem to leave the boy's face even when he was upset, he wasn't quite sure at the boy's stability. He had thoght that drawing an analogy of his current situation to his childhood wonderland might help him cope with the fear, view it perhaps more positively.... but... still... maybe it would. Sure it would - he already looked happier, or was that just another defense mechanism?

He opted to take that as a joke, and laughed. "Perhaps." He smiled. "Though I'm just glad that it probably won't be me, judging from the fur."

Ambrose leaned back, his hands behind him in the sand as he reclined, watching Julian leap about on the log.

"I don't know what logic or lack thereof Moreau has in his choice of our fates. Although The Dude's seems remarkably appropriate..."

He eyed Julian, about to ask to remind him just what the Jabberwock's particular fate was until Julian leapt into prose, surprisingly quoting the nonsensical poem. His eyebrows lifted, impressed with the memory. He could understand passion for something.

With a chuckle and a glance at his not-exaclty-sharp epee by his side. "Well, even if that were the case, I doubt we have any "vorpal" blades." He grinned, trying to lose himself in the lighthearted jokes on their less-than lighthearted futures.

"But I must ask" Ambrose queried. "What exactly is A jabberwock? A dragon of some such?"