Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ambrose held Colche in the hug for a good few moments - getting the impression that even if she didn't show it, that she needed encouragement and support at least as much as he did. Ambrose couldn't help but feel like he was building a family here on the Island that he had always felt excluded from back home, wanting to belong but never quite getting the approval that he wanted so badly. He was older now, and he had fooled himself into thinking that he could be independent - and not need the support of a family - that he could prove to them in his own way his value.

Now... with Colche, with Amaya... it was like he didn't HAVE to prove anything... they just accepted him for who he was - saw that he was a good person, that he cared for them, and that was enough.

He smiled, sharing the light laugh at Colche's purring just as she giggled at his wagging. Finally parting, he rubbed her hair in an affectionate, brotherly manner. "Colche is very nice." He said, "And I will look out for you." He said tapping her back on her nose. "And your speaking is getting much better." he said honestly.

He took her hand again, and with an excited grin that nearly matched her own - the smile actually reflected in his eyes, so much of the sadness that had been weighing on his shoulders disappating, as he led her deeper into the jungles, a bit of the boyish curiousity returned that had been long suppressed since long before coming to the Island.

((Sorry I took so long to get back, Colche - I had to go to two separate places for Kamiki and I to vote))

~ New RP ~


Ambrose ran blindly into the wooded jungle from Emelyn's duplex, his emotions a tumoltous mess. He couldn't go back to Angelina.... not just yet. He had hurt himeself and Emelyn in his actions, and he knew that if he ran to her arms than it would only be to burden her with the same guilt. A guilt for a woman that she didn't even know.

He didn't want her to think that he resented her. He didn't want her to have to shoulder yet another weight in such a short time. And right now... he didn't want her to see him this weak... this upset over another woman.

His lupine instincts carried him deftly into the woods - no longer impeded by the brambles and briars and underbrush like his first venture into the thick, mysterious jungle. Instead his feet carried him fleetly over bush and between trees. Sure, a few brambles caught in his fur, but for the most part he ran, his thoughts not touched on by where he was going or how he was getting there - letting instinct completely take over his body.

Bird calls and monkey screeches came from his hurried plight, scattering at the scent of a predator. Ambrose paid them no mind. Instead he ran, ran until he was deep into the jungle and he collapsed to his knees, tired of the hurt, and frustrated at the massive ball of grief in his chest. His lip was quivering and his eyes stung with unreleased tears.

His time here on this Island had slapped his dignity aside before - bringing him to the tears that long ago he had promised himself that he would never shed. Thus far, very few people had seen him in his moments of weakness - where the dam in his soul was overcome with emotion and broken apart in a fit of weakness. Angelina.... and now Emelyn and Amaya. The Dude had seen the forbidden anger that he had pent up long ago. All traits of lesser men, or so his father had beaten into his head. And now, where was he...? On hands and knees, his clothing torn by brambles and thorns and branches in his mad run into the woods, panting and muffling sobs, his once distinguished features deformed - twisted into those of an animal. An animal in the woods - where it belonged.

He had hurt the person who had grown the closest to him here. The one who had given him that shoulder to cry on. The one who had seen him in his weakness, and opened herself to him. Opened herself to the risk of pain... and the risk of love. And now, because of the reciept of the wish he had held most in his heart - Angelina... the granting of an impossible dream... she was hurt. And more than that - she had screamed at him... yelled at him. He had tried to help her as she had helped him... and he ended up hurting her more than Moreau ever had. And because of HIM, Angelina was here as well. Whether or not it was his bemoaning his situation to Aubrey or not... his mere presence here, his decision to take 'the easy way out' for money over the summer... it was because of him here that Angelina had come looking for him. Because of him, her hopes and dreams of the future were cut off as well.

He wrapped his arms around himself and looked to the shady canopy overhead. The welling sadness was building in his chest - and he couldn't hold it back. He squeezed his eyes shut. He was alone... the middle of the woods...

And... he opened his throat to let loose a primal yell of frustration, sorrow and rage.... bundled up into one vocalization of his emotions - not a weak cry, but a shout - a cathartic scream. But when he opened his throat to release this complicated, poison ball from his chest - what emerged was not a shout, but a mournful, wavering, and ultimately very lupine howl..

The howl rose out of his chest and carried across the air. In the wild, wolfcalls traveled for miles as a method of long-distance communication, and this one was no exception.

Ambrose gasped for breath as soon as the howl finished its decline to nothingness. All at once he was speachless in fear. The only other time he had lifted his voice to the crescendo of a lupine howl was for a drunken and good-natured dare at a beach party, when he could look in the mirror and still see a man looking back at him.

Now... now he felt the howl in his bones, and the book he had read years ago in Jr. High and scoffed at the value, Call of the Wild, came into sharp clarity. Ironic... overly ironic. He was scared... scared at feeling the animal in himself - something wild that was at home in this jungle... something that before he would have been anxious about kneeling in the dirt let alone lifting ones voice to loosen the beast inside....


... and yet another part of him... found it exhiliarating. The song of his voice was more of a relaease than quivering tears... it was a shout to the skies itself... a long note of pure emotion.

And... after all... what were men but animals themselves... was growling or howling any less demeaning that being wracked with quivering, weak tears?

The thought hung in his mind in stillness for a moment before he lifted his short muzzle again, squeezed his eyes closed, and loosed another unmistakably lupine howl. This time, while it still screamed his injustice, his guilt, and his pain... it was stronger - intentional.

Ambrose was just starting to breathe more evenly after his second howl... it... was amazing how much of a venting device that was.... Was... it a bad thing that it made him feel good...?

But before those thoughts could be followed to their conclusion... there was a noise.

A person. His ears pricked. And beyond that.... an unfamiliar voice.

He stood... slowly, hesitant, suddenly feeling very vulnerable and out of place. What would they think of him?

He took a few steps towards who it might be instinctively curious. Then he caught the whiff of fear... turned quickly to a mild anger. He paused, hung between curiousity and anxiety. Should he see who it is... or run.

But where? He thought indignantly. Back to his duplex to more issues? Deeper into the woods? He was no coward! He took another few probing steps in that direction.

ANything - even more conflict - had to be better than the mental wall he had been beating his head against.

Ambrose had approached closer, his footfalls silent. Thus, her muttering did not fall on the deaf ears of the surrounding trees, but instead on the sensitive ones of the wolfman.

He swallowed seeing the form emerge through the brushes. Indeed somoene he didn't recognize. A tall woman, clad in clothing that didnt' suit either the tropical island or a forrested area.

He swallowed. He could go back to his little area in the woods and run his head against more problems... or he could face whomever this was... and hatever possible repercussions. And, if her newness to him were any indication along with the number of new people that had been coming to the isalnd recently was any indication, than it was quite possible that she was a very new-comer. And that promised MORE hurt. But... it might at least save some of the others the pain of telling somoene. And right about now, Ambrose felt about as low as he could get... what was one more punch.

Maybe... deep down, he wanted to be seen as a freak by someone.... someone to express how low he was feeling.

He approached closer, silently, hi words too caught up in his mind... until his foot (perhaps intentionally somewhere) snapped a dry branch underfoot.

But instead of meeting the stranger with a snarl or a growl as his appearance might suggest, the figure instead whimpered, his tail tucking and his ears lowering.

He hesitated, realizing all at once that perhaps this was not the best of ideas after all. She... obviously had not been given "the talk" by anyone else. His own self-destructive perspective that this couldn't make things any worse suddenly was cast into serious doubt.

Taking a breath, he summoned the courage to take a step forward. He could be brave. This would be a distraction.

Right.

Remembering her train of speach he eventually found his voice. "Perhaps you are no longer the freak here." He said eyeing her with caution.

Ambrose whimpered again, and went to go take a step forward. However, after seeing and smelling the fear on her, he stopped.

From... the looks of things, she hadn't even been primed to the truth on the island.

A werewolf. Ambrose almost snorted. A werewolf would have been preferable. IF that were the case, at least he could be human looking most of the time.

His ears flicked back. At least... this was a very different problem. ANd honestly, maybe it WAS preferable.

"I'm... not a werewolf." He spoke quietly. "And... please... I'm not going to hurt you." He held up a hand - which furry, padded and tipped with claws - probably didn't help.