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 Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 8:20 pm
New RP
Like a drop of blood on ivory, Zach stood out against the uniform soft beige of the sand he was lying on, flat on his stomach. Being able to put his back against anything was going to have to wait quite a while, seeing how it was now dominated by several spines and a pair of miniature wings. A little ways away was the ocean rolling in and out with a dull roar. There seemed to be a silence in the air that the storm had left behind, dimming the jungle's din. He was there to relax this time. If everyone else planned on scampering around solving the mystery of whoever tried to take Aubrey out for good, they could. It wasn't his problem, and he didn't want to get on the bad side of her attacker anyhow. He was content to sit and forcefully attempt to rummage for memories that seemed deliberate to not exist.
Besides, stretching out in the sun felt pretty good on his scales. He barely wanted to move right now. Every inch of his body was still rather sore. Moving was an inconvenience.
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 8:36 pm
Another day in the light had passed, but the light had brought nothing to Emerwyn. Her mind was still lost. What was it?
She didn't know why her mind would betray her so.
This terrible occupation completely deprived her of appreciating the weather that was her favorite.
Even after a few days had passed since the storm, it could still be smelled on the air. And with her new senses, it was even more acute, and so much the more appealing.
She followed this scent through the jungle, hoping that perhaps by following this other thing that she desired - to wrap herself in nature's beauty - she could find what she knew in the deepest reaches of her heart she longed to have.
A salty breeze blew Emerwyn's hair out of her face, and the ocean opened itself to her. Far across the beach, she could her the oh-so-soft, so subtle waves, caressing the sand with their smooth fingers, making the surface soft and cool.
A figure lay to the distance, off to the right.
A color dominated it, one that Emerwyn was never entirely fond of. The creature also had a sense of forboding around it. But, the breeze had carried her here - she'd forget fear for the time.
The sun caught Emerwyn's hair, lighting it up slightly in an amber glow. Her eyes, however, were in shadow, covered by her heavy brow. Still, they were bright, and searching.
She moved slowly in approaching the figure, not wanting to frighten or disturb it. Something in its scent was familiar, only ever so vaguely, and that of the visage she could actually see.
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 9:26 pm
Zach continued to stare glassy-eyed at the sparkling blue-green sea, lost in thought. His tiny wings gave an occasional involuntary twitch as the muscles continued to adjust to their sudden and baffling existence attached to his back. He had no shirt on, because quite honestly no shirt he had would comfortably fit the spiky arrangement of protrusions from his spine. After having destroyed a very nice hat and a shirt combatting his horns alone after his first change, he didn't feel particularly comfortable chancing the new anatomy with anything that reminded him of his former life.
It was only when the sound of Emerwyn's hoof-like feet padding through the sliding sand reached his ears that he snapped out of his thoughts, mentally empty-handed. Raising his head a bit, he turned around to see an odd figure moving toward him. She was pretty, but it was evident that the island had done its work to her as well. He spotted the two animal-like ears and the strangely off eyes right away before his eyes slowly traveled down to the hands and feet appeared nothing more than hooves.
"Er, hello there," he smiled at her unsurely. She looked somewhat lost to him.
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 9:32 pm
His face was exposed to her and she discovered that beyond the bizarre change he'd undergone, she had seen him before - but he did not see her.
He was the one who was talking to Emelyn, here at the beach, when Emerwyn had chosen to become a shadow.
Something was a little different, past the transformation, whatever it was that he was.
This man had two arms. The one she'd seen last time, only had one.
Emerwyn smiled down at him, a little misty-eyed.
"Hello. I'm sorry if I've disturbed you..."
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 10:07 pm
Zach noticed the lingering glance at his left arm - much as his mind was still inclined to regard it as the same unfortunate stump of one it had been for so long - and gave a slightly unfriendly grimace to it. Dark thoughts fueled an agitated paranoia that sent his tail chopping into the dips of the sand. Change. It was a word that held such bitter meaning on the twisted rock they both stood on. He felt almost lucky that he had barely a memory of the changes. From the look that Kaveri had given him and the same one this stranger had, there was something he evidently didn't know about his new appearance.
Lethargically due to the heat, he pulled himself up more until he was in a sitting position. His tail was hanging low out of of the back of his white sweat pants, brushing across the sand in rapid movements. His wings twitched again, something he seemed not to notice. His glance was suspicious. Adeline, or a ghost borne of memories, would not cease to torment him as long as this new arm was around. "Not at all... I just figured no one would come by the beach with all this Aubrey stuff happening." He wriggled his long toes a moment to dig them into the sand. What could he say? He still felt a certain shame in his new appearance. With every change he was looking less and less himself.
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 10:20 pm
Emerwyn's dark brow furrowed in guilt. She had not meant to stare at him, and now she'd obviously made him upset. He did not look any stranger than any of them, and she had a mind to tell him that.
As he pulled himself up, she squatted awkwardly, yet somehow comfortably, on her hind legs. There was, in fact, something intriguing about the way he looked. Something out of the books Emerwyn had read as a youth.
"Aubrey stuff" Emerwyn shook her head. "All I am concerned about is remaining safe, and protecting those whom I care for."
Emerwyn's face turned now a little sad. She could see how he felt. He'd wanted to escape the crowds.
"Would they think of you any different than they think of me? We are all cursed. You needn't feel ashamed." She smiled softly and reassuringly at him. She couldn't bear to see people so upset.
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 10:54 pm
He gave her statement a wry smile before speaking, the ear-fins folding and unfolding slightly as he spoke. "I've... failed at that before, with a high price. Must be nice that you have people worth protecting." It was evident from the tone of his voice that the barest bitter tinge of envy had worked into it. The lizardlike nervousness that seemed to lie under his emotions forced his guard up again.
He studied her expression some more, trying to figure out what she was becoming. It was hard to guess. She looked too graceful for a farm animal, but she had no telltale features to speak of. He let his gaze drop instead to where his two hands were folded in his lap. The tail flicked side to side. "They would. I've almost... hurt a few people. That's all... I don't feel that comfortable around them. By all means, they loathe me. Getting away for a while is the best I can do."
He leaned his head to the side a bit, still wondering what animal had been cruelly mixed with her blood, before changing the subject. "So what brings you to the beach today? I don't think I even caught your name, Miss...?"
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 11:12 pm
Emerwyn returned his grin with a melancholy one. An empathetic one. She'd failed before, too. She still didn't know what had happened after she left.
It was sick that even under the circumstances they had found themselves in, people could still be cold and unforgiving. Could they not understand? Or was this something the man had conjured, assumed in his own insecurities? Emerwyn did not know him well enough to pry into his personal life. She'd already done that once... What a fool she'd been!
Emerwyn cast her eyes down, as the man seemed to be appraising her. It made her feel slightly awkward. Perhaps he was returning the favor. "Emerwyn. My name is Emerwyn."
Her eyes flicked upward toward him again. "I felt something leading me here. I've been lost for a while..." There she went, being so cryptic. There was no wonder people took her in with a wide berth.
"I'm sorry... W-what is your name?"
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 11:47 pm
"Nice to meet you, Emerwyn. I'm Zach." Being formal was something he hardly did any more, except at the height of stress. His expression was polite but on the cold side, his yellow eyes expressionless enough on their own to guard his innermost thoughts. Forgiving? The islanders didn't forgive anyone... Why else would a staff member have been practically murdered?
The directness of her words was surprising. They rang with familiarity. The tugging of his instincts was more of a sharp jab to his common sense rather than something he could follow, but he figured for most people it was a much milder struggle. Or, perhaps she too had woken up somewhere odd, somewhere she didn't want to be be. "Well, this place isn't that big, so I doubt you mean you can't find your way back to the village. Lost... and you don't know what's 'leading' you?"
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Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 12:01 am
Emerwyn sat down completely, relaxing her legs. She was beginning to feel a little comfortable, even if he was not.
Emerwyn sighed with a smile, and shook her head. "Oh, no, I am not trying to find my way back to the village." She searched her mind for words. "I seem to find myself... lost in my own confusion. I don't know why, or how, but I've forgotten something. And I know it is something so important. Perhaps it is these unnatural things that have done this to me. All my thoughts have become merged together. The past is the present. And some thoughts are lost completely. But, something, the thing I'm looking for, is trying to call me back..." her eyes shone, glazed with moisture. They began to drift from Zach's face, and off away, looking at nothing in particular. She saw, in her mind's eye, a white object in the distance, over the waters.
"Oh, you must forgive me again." In an instant, Emerwyn's eyes had cleared, and she was laughing at herself foolishly. "I do not mean to rant like this... I just - can't seem to keep my mind straight anymore.
Do you ever feel that way, Zach? Like everything in the world is working so hard against you, until the one thing you had left to hold on to, simply disappeared while you were too distracted with your own self-pity?"
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Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 6:44 pm
Zach continued to regard her uneasily. Forgetting something... perhaps she had lost some time. It was apparent that he wasn't alone in having forgotten a considerable amount of time. No one ever wanted a blank spot in their memory. Part of what made him feel human was to be able to look back on his memories and really know that he'd been himself. There were a few times on the island when that simply wasn't possible... and he never wanted to repeat them again, as much as they continued to happen on occasion.
"Oh, that... see, I guess you and I both forgot something - a stretch of time, huh? And so did a friend of mine, Kaveri." Friend? Well, it was an adjective of sorts. Not the sort of word he seemed to be able to associate with a greater part of the island anyhow. "I have no idea why, but it's strange enough that more than one of us has a problem like that. I've been trying to remember something too, but I've got almost no grasp on this memory gap. Hopefully you won't have the same problem."
"That sounds really nerve-wracking." His tail swished behind him in a slow arcing movement. He looked at her for at least ten seconds before answering the pointed question. "I guess I'm guilty of that. That's the way my humanity was lost. Well... the life I led without animal DNA turning me into this... thing, more like it. But you understand, right? You spend so long getting frustrated with your fate that you forget you can still try and stop it."
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Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 6:59 pm
Emerwyn had to catch her breath while Zachary spoke. Strange indeed, that she was not the only one suffering this. A psychological side-effect? She did not even know this Kaveri fellow.
"Strange indeed," she mumbled back.
Emerwyn waited patiently for him to answer. She was surprised the young man was even taking her seriously. It made her feel a little better, and once again a little bit more comfortable with him.
It made Emerwyn feel also a lot less foolish when Zach actually connected with what she said. But, Emerwyn's large ears perked at his last statement.
Someone still had hope? A small fire in her that she'd thought had died away brought back some small warmth. Or at least, the memory of it.
Hope. It was what she'd thrived on. Now, she'd all but abandoned it.
"We can still try..." Emerwyn echoed him, her eyes growing heavy again. They shone with the threat of tears, but she was silent.
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Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 10:15 pm
He nodded, a strange mix of concern and confusion reflected in his body language as he leaned back a little bit. The wings once again gave a pathetic flutter behind him. He felt the pain lance down his back and blinked sharply. Whether he had any control over the muscles or not didn't seem to be the issue - the new muscles were out of place and seemed to have uncontrollable tics and leftover soreness from whenever he'd grown them. He wasn't sure whether it was a relief to think that he had practically no memory of changing, but he'd take it as such.
"Oh, well, yeah, you can try. I guess... I mean, good luck with it. I'm sure there's a few things that Moreau hasn't thought of - attacking Aubrey sounds like it was one of them. But I'm sure you'll find a way..." He failed to see her eyes start to glisten, not aware of her past. With his right hand he rubbed the sore spot where the chip had zapped him several nights ago. Whatever was going on was completely beyond him. Kaveri had dug up some disgusting stuff, and both himself and the gigantic bear of a man had been completely soaked in blood. Everything was getting far too insane for his liking. He brought both hands in front of them, eyeing the left claw with considerable uneasiness. "It's been too long for me. I... I give up. I give up."
It was such a weak thing to think, to say. Others were still fighting their unfair imprisonment and they'd been there a lot longer than he had. But he'd been prone to snap from the very moment he'd set foot on the island. The stress had worn away at his mind and the changes were erasing all he was from existence. Fate, if one could call it that, had taken so much from him. So much... even Adeline. She was dead, and no matter how many times people told him that the rope had just frayed too thin that day, he knew it had been his fault for bringing her along. He had lost only his arm to the fall that had smashed her skull open and revealed the fragility of life in all its morbid detail. It had taken years to recover, whole years in which suicide had been so close. But he'd been too much of a coward for even that. If Adeline were in any beyond, she'd have killed him twice over for trying. And now that he had his arm back... despite how utterly sick the circumstances were, he'd finally gained something from life instead of losing it.
Just an arm, right? It felt like more. His tail swished behind him on the sand. At least it was a weight off his mind.
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Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 3:42 pm
So, she was mistaken. He had lost hope as well.
The small remnant of a flame sank again, in the salt waters that had carried, then trapped her here.
Why had they all resigned themselves so? Why did she allow herself to be so affected by them, by their lack of faith? How could she let complete strangers rule her mind?
And yet, here she was.
There were many people on this Island. Emerwyn had no way of fathoming just how many. Here they all lived, making feeble attempts to build something on this small prison of sand. But, beyond all of that, they all had pasts. Their lives didn't simply begin on this Island. They all had families, homes, reasons to live, and to thrive, and to love.
What happened to all of that?
What happened to make them all forget that? To let go of that?
"I give up."
Emerwyn's heart broke once more inside of her. She could no longer stand to sit by and allow these people who have become some kind of bizarre family to her suffer so.
But what could she do?
The salt waters came from the sea to her eyes, making them drown til they overflowed over her face. She wanted to reach her hands out and comfort him, but she couldn't get over her own helplessness.
Her body sat limp on the sand, the tears trailing silently down her face, mourning the loss of something she couldn't remember.
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Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 11:33 am
Zach turned his head in time to see Emerwyn start crying. He was dumbfounded, a little unsure of what to do. Comforting was obviously not his strong point. Whatever he'd said had hit her much harder than he could have expected trivial words to do.
"Uh... did I... say something wrong?" he asked, flickering a very nervous smile before lapsing into a wide-eyed grimace of helplessness. He wasn't a big fan of physical contact. The prospect of a hug crossed his mind (at least, he'd seen it work for other people), but he figured it really wouldn't do much for either of them. After all, he was some kind of nightmare of a creature, and she looked more like a... well, a horse or something given her hands and feet.
He crossed his arms close to himself, hunching over them a little bit. As he spoke he looked at the sand rather then Emerwyn. "Hey, um, look... just forget about what I said, okay? I always say the wrong thing. Go ahead, hope! It can't hurt you."
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