[Journal] Duplex #1 - Ambrose Maurlias & Angelina Swanson

[Ambrose Maurlias]

Ambrose took a shaking breath and nodded, letting them in and then closing the door softly behind them as he padded after them to take his seat back on the edge of the bed.

"I know, Amaya... only one person is really to blame." He responded, dejection in his voice. "I... I knew this had to happen. I Just....." He shook his head. "As Emelyn knows, I was trying my damndest to pretend it wasn't going to."

He looked to Emelyn as he spoke, wrapping his arms around his knees as he drew them to his chest. Knowing it was futile to hide the animal parts... there was no part of him that wasn't 'tainted' by the serum. "Thanks, Emelyn...." he looked back to her. "I..." he shook his head again, staring at a blank spot on the wall "I don't look anything like myself any longer..." he winced.  

[Amaya Vaughan]

Amaya dried her eyes and nodded, glad for the comforting but also ashamed she was crying in the first place.

Eventually she forced herself to calm down enough so she could talk without having to gasp between sobs. The tears began to dry up on her cheeks, only a few slipping from time to time. "You still look like you to me... your eyes look the same." Even though her face was grave, her green eyes still met with his. Amaya had always believed that looking into a person's eyes revealed most of their soul and today was no different. He might have looked like a wolf on the outside, but Ambrose was still inside.  

[Emelyn]

Emelyn nodded, and found that her words had been taken by Amaya- and also, her tears. For as much weeping as the girl was able to do, tears running in her eyes and down her cheeks, Emelyn couldn't manage to get any of the sorrow and fear she had for this man come to light. ...But she felt it all. Deeply, and she went to Ambrose where he sat at the edge of the bed, wrapped to himself as if to press his knees through to his back, and she looked down in the eyes that Amaya had so thoughtfully mentioned.

"It is you..." she said, a whisper, and then... they came. The tears that had hidden themselves from her made themselves known in a silent torrent, and she reached forward and ran her fingers through the blonde hair atop his head. "What's happening to us is... terrible," she said, and her knees practically buckled as she sank next to him on the bed.

"Oh Ambrose," she said, facing him, and then dropping her head and the weight of her thoughts onto his shoulder. One hand hung limply at her side, and the other she placed on his knee.  

[Ambrose Maurlias]

Ambrose looked to them, their sincerity and support really touching him. His eyes and attention were pulled back from their hollow stare at the wall to look between the two of them.

"Thank you, Amaya..." Despite her young age, Amaya repeatedly impressed him wiht her insight and maturity. "I... I was so frightened." He admitted quietly. "I was hoping, I guess, that it would take longer to take my ... human face away." His ears crumpled back. "What's going to happen to us...." he added with a whisper.

He leaned towards Emelyn as she approached. "It... it really does help... knowing that there are at least people like you who are here...." He gave a weak smile. "I just wish that I don't have to see these same things happen to the others here..." He couldn't bring himself to say them specifically, but the implications were there. "But... I mean.... I guess part of the most frightening thing is that this really means that I can never go home again...." He gave a small smile that had little happiness actually behind it.  

[Amaya Vaughan]

Amaya didn't know what to say. Her eyes left his once more to look at the carpet, tears falling from her eyes and sliding down her cheeks. For the most part she stayed silent, only speaking in a shakey voice when her brain could think of a logical sentence and her throat wouldn't lock up.

She licked her dry lips with her tounge and immediantly regretted it. Even in that short time her tounge was exposed, so much sadness, dispair and anguish touched her taste buds. Amaya's neck lurched slightly and her hand rose to cover her mouth. All the negative emotions in the room was enough to make her sick to her stomach.

After regaining her composure, she spoke up again. "At least... we can be scared together..." She wasn't sure if Ambrose or Greer or anyone else had said that to her before, but she could recall it being said and it brought a strange comfort to her.  

[Emelyn]

Emelyn nodded over to Amaya... and regretted that what she was going to say next couldn't be said allowed. She put her fingers to her lips in a quick motion, and shot her eyes at Amaya.. then at the intercom, as if to say- I can't say this louder than a whisper. Then she leaned in, as if to give Ambrose a hearty embrace... but whispered in his ear...

"We can find a way out. Moreau still thinks I'm on his side. We can find some way to either stop the treatments, or to at least bear them out until the end... and then get him.. out of power," she said, less of a whisper than an echoing breath that took the shape of speech. "And even if we can't go back to the mainland... we can make this home. Free from opression."  

[Ambrose Maurlias]

Ambrose's heart swelled with Amaya's comforting, and he nodded. "That, that is very true, Amaya. At least we have eachother... we can still do fencing... talk to eachother. And yes, we can be here for eachother." He gave Amaya's hand a squeeze.

He blinked in surprise as Emelyn leaned forward. His sensitive ears heard her quiet whisper without any difficulty. He swallowed and nodded, and ever so quietly, as they were parting. "Thank you, Emelyn... I don't think it's safe to escape before they're finished with us... as much as I despise to face that. But if we could do the latter..." his eyes hardened.... "Or... at the very least... yes, we can make this Island our home." He squeezed her and parted the hug.

He looked over his two friends, and he felt so much better... as scared as he had been to be seen like that... it was more than made up for by the support. Little did Ambrose realize, the packing instincts that had started to bud in him after his second injection was blossoming.  

[Amaya Vaughan]

Amaya blinked at Emelyn and gave the room a once over, her eyes being the only thing that moved. She had a good idea what Emelyn was doing, so she played along and acted like it had just been a normal hug. The frown had never left her face, her eyes being the only thing that changed for a few moments.

As Ambrose squeezed her hand, she squeezed his back. The feeling of the pads on his hands was definatly weird, but not enough to make her cringe or back off in any way. It just proved to her that he definatly needed both of their comfort right now...

"I'd like to make this place home... it's already given me more of a family then I've had in a long while."  

[Emelyn]

Emelyn nodded at his response. She understood that he doubted the ability to escape- and she knew that some of that may be her fault. She'd been such the... bringer of reality, striking not only Ambrose with what her 'reality dose' but also The Dude... Greer... Awen, and even Jamal. So now, she understood if it was difficult for others to truly believe that her mind had harbored thoughts of escape. The hope of leaving. ...All in time, I think they'll understand how serious I am, she thought, giving Ambrose a sort of parting smile as they pulled apart, and turning to Amaya with a thankful nod, understanding that the girl had picked up the hint.

"It's a home for me too, Amaya," she said... less out of believing it, than for Moreau's sake. He was doubtlessly taping this... or perhaps even watching it. So she acted for the benefit of his extensive library of labrats. "I think it can be a home for all of us."  

[Ambrose Maurlias]

Ambrose nodded. He really did value these new friends... and in some cases, a surrogate family. Nothing would ever make him forget the life he had before... he refused to. But... maybe he could find happiness here as well. A different life. It seemed unlikely that one could find such happiness as a prisoner, becoming an animal. But... at least he had friends?

He sighed, with a small smile. "You're a great little sister, Amaya." Ambrose ruffled her hair. "If you'll still have me."

To Emelyn he nodded slowly. "I... should probably mention... Thanks again... for the night we spoke the other night. I think that if you hadn't given me the reality check then, then this would have been so much more difficult than it is now." He scratched at some of the new fur on his arm.  

[Amaya Vaughan]

She managed a small smile and nodded. In some way she hated admitting that, but in another way she didn't. Amaya guessed that it was because she was admitting that Moreau could have done some good in choosing her and the others to bring here... forming a sort of dysfuctional family within his prison of sandy beaches and ocean views. But she was greatful that he had chosen her over any of the other few teenage orphans back at the orphanage... she didn't want anyone else being pulled into Moreau's sea of lies and would rather it be her then anyone else. Amaya had nothing to go back to, but Ambrose... and Hargun... they did.

"Of course, I'm nothing without my big brother and fencing instructor." Amaya gave a genuine smile, her eyes meeting his once more. Even though they were now flecked with yellow, they were still the same.  

[Emelyn]

The praise Ambrose gave her struck home... and she felt guilty for her words. She'd been trying so hard to accustom him to life on the island, to accept what had been dealt and to live a full life here... and now she was trying to rattle that faith with her own thoughts of escape. She swallowed a lump that was forming in her throat, enough to pass through a handful of guilty words.

"Any time," she said, before turning away from this man who seemed to be the midst of such a turmoil in her mind right now.

"Amaya..." she said, rubbing her throat as if to free the sore lump that still resided there, despite the shameful swallowing, "I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to meet you, earlier. You seem to be... a wonderful person."  

[Ambrose Maurlias]

Ambrose beamed at Amaya, the change almost slipping his mind for just the moment and forgetting to try to keep his teeth from showing. "I'm glad, Amaya. Really. Thank you." The long tail behind him started to move slowly from side to side - the muscles still new and sore, but responding to the glimmer of hope once again planted in his chest. No matter what he looked like... he still had friends like this.

Leaning forward he put an arm around each of them and pulled them gently closer. "Thanks." He whispered again. "For everything."  

[Amaya Vaughan]

"Thanks, but I'm no more different then anyone else here." Amaya smiled at Emelyn and blushed slightly from the compliment.

She reached up to give Ambrose a quick hug around his furry neck. "No prob." The fear and sadness seemed to have melted away from her, replaced with her will to keep people happy no matter the circumstances. The only thing that showed she had even cried at all were the puffy redness of her eyes and the tear stains down her cheeks.  

[Emelyn]

"May I ask you a question, Ambrose?" She hoped he'd say yes... because she barrelled forward, anyway. "Are any of your senses heightened?" She stopped herself, and rubbed back the quills from her forehead in an anxious motion. "What am I saying, of course they are. But... how heightened?"