Welcome to Gaia! ::

She had only begrudgingly followed the trail, traipsing along unforgiving ground, her slitted nocturnal eyes turning the red lights into four-pointed stars- the edges stretching up into the Halloween Night Sky. There was wonder in her- and fear... but a thick curiousity had settled in her stomach, not unlike a bile too curdled to be ignored.

Emelyn had not been able to ignore the rats- not when they'd swarmed upon them, or the onslaught of other terrors that graced the trail. She'd never seen such ferocious beasts in her time out in the wild: even those large black river rats that could be seen slinking along the shores at night- they were nothing like these rabid creatures that seemed to have a thirst for half-human, half-animal blood. It was not a natural thirst, this she knew- but on this island, who could discount what was natural... with what was possible? She'd fought them off as best as she knew how, wishing for more than a moment that she had not long discarded her steel-toed behemoth boots: one fair kick to one of the scruffy fiends would have sent it flying through the dark underbrush. As it were, she could contend only with clawed kicks and scratches- and a fierce run down the path as she struggled to keep up with the others who were already dealing with the appearance of the ersatz Annie. Em would, thankfully, be spared from that debacle- though it would mean little to her compared to the others. She had never met the woman, and had not heard word yet of Fiona's demise. Instead, she would come into the presence of the graves well behind the others- her arms and legs peppered with red dots of blood from bites. She had been used to taking care of herself, in the wild- but a hedgehog is a defensive creature at best. She was not to remain unscathed. ...In more ways than physically.

As she stepped out of the presence of the path lights, Emelyn's eyes shifted and she blinked away the red swirling clouds that lingered there, burned onto her eyes for moments more. The blue-white lights that remained added to the cacophony of color, but they were much dimmer, and the hedgehog-woman found that the subtleties of her night vision were returning- not in spades, but well enough that the hauntingly, achingly beautiful picture of death unfolded before her.

A small fence- more decor than true deterrant- ringed a small but perfectly arranged collection of smooth, fine stones. On their faces, dates and names carved in an exquisite story of the macabre: this was death. And upon seeing it, Emelyn felt a chill unrelated to the cold air on her fur run a race up her spine. To imagine the depth of this effect- see yourself not with flesh that can raise in goosebumps, or even fur that can heckle up at the first sign of chilled expectancy: but instead, a menagerie of spines- over 7,000, which, upon warning of fear, can raise up into a sharp, impenetrable fortress.

Emelyn stepped forward, just far enough to the fence that the names became visible, carved forever in stone that would unforgivingly live past those whose names they bore. Those around her- shouting, crying- almost unbelievably- those she could not bring herself to regard. Not when those names stared up at her.

Her spines remained at level. How ironic- that a creature... so impenetrable- could be so vulnerable, and so lost. People were walking back up the path- but there Emelyn stood, her palms gripped too tightly on the low fence.

"Sean." It was not to betray Fiona- whose name she also saw, and grieved for, almost instantly- that the first word out of her mouth was her long-missing friend. The word had come unbidden, and in a low, pleading tone- as if to call him would be to summon him, to bring him back to life, or to draw him away from some hiding spot amongst the graves. But when nothing but a whistle of the wind answered, she swallowed back a lump that had crawled its way into her throat. Then, the girl who believed that life was essentially fair... no matter what had happened to her- fell to her knees before the fence, gripping the slats with the futility of one imprisoned. She felt as if she were barely put together- as if the pieces of her body were ill-matched, and hashed together with a faulty glue that could barely contain her. If any were to move her, she did not wonder that she might fall apart. ...What she had felt for Sean- it hadn't been love. But it had been something. It had been... something. Now, what would it ever be? What had they all ever been...

Fiona. ...Sean. ...Grandpa John. ....Mizzie. It seemed all she had left in her were no feelings... or the worst possible ones. When you feel nothing- when you can kneel at a fence in the midst of a cold Halloween midnight, without a single thought as the time stretches on, it's hard to feel your grief. In fact, it's damn near impossible. And that, in a way, is a 'feeling by omission'. And to any who have known that, it is worse than awful. It's as if you've never existed, she never existed, nothing in life matters. It's beyond depression- it's nihilism.

Her hands were bloodied, and dirtied. But all she wanted to do was kneel there- and feel nothing.

Kikue slipped her paw out of the man's hand, his vague changes -- compared to some of the other Islanders -- almost lost on her completely. "Thank you," she got out hoarsely. "I think I'll go home now."

She had let go of Nita's hand. With that, she turned tail and bounded straight into the jungle, reducing her eyes to slits as she ran as fast as she possibly could straight through the foilage. She gave up on following any path, she merely ran, the thick, close trees and leaves making her feel close to claustrophobic. But it didn't matter -- the plants flashed past her -- she used her nose, stayed away from the dead animals, just ran.

Ran for her room. Ran for the lock on her door.

"Yer... yer alive!" Billy weezed, his eyes wide as he stared at the ink and blood-splattered sheet. "Bloody... feckin'... I though'... I though' I'd... fer sure..." He was doing better, far more talkative and coherent than Sid had ever seen him, but his brain chemicals were still out of wack, his eyes watering and streaming from the emotion of their reunion, "Bloody... feckin'...!"

Sid looked down at Billy in amusement as he was almost coherent sounding. "I mean it usually ******** him up when he gets riled... excited... etcetera."

Tommy steps foreward toward Ginerva, arms spread wide and a grim determination set on his face. Poor b*****d was a sucker for punishment. He looks Ginerva square in the eye and says slowly and clearly, "Do it. Kill me...do irreparable damage to me. Because I don't think you would...not can't mind you, you sure seem like you're enough of a psycho b***h to do it. But you won't. We're too valuable to the big man at the labs. More valuable to him than even you are. So go ahead...slice me open. Because I'll be laughing my a** off in the afterlife just to see you on the other side of the fence."

Miller turned again noticeing another girl, part of his mind was amused, dye her blue and it would be the perfect sonic. However in the light of current events that hardly mattered.

He walked over nealing beside Em frowning, "I... I don't mean to be rude... but who are these people..." He felt bad asking such things of her but no one was left really to ask, except a bunch of psychos trying to kill each other. Carefully he reached out to place a hand on her shoulder trying to comfort the strange girl.

"Nicssse language... didn' answer my question though. Y'have to move on... thissss is it. Y'never gonna see home again. And th'sssooner you get that... through your ssskull..." Zach grinned idiotically at Tommy, despite a mild headache. He pointed deliberately at the long-fingered man, taking a step forward. "Now... how 'bout you... geddaway from her."

There were evidently more people here than he'd counted, or if not then they were just very fast, because just as soon as he'd finished with the bat an old man in a toga was sneering at him. He bared his oversized teeth at the new threat, the words taking a couple moments to really sink in. "Keep talkin'... I'll remove yoursss..." His tail swished back and forth on the ground, displaying his anger.

Zach nodded dimly at Ginerva, almost losing his footing to his bad balance. The alcohol had done its damage. He looked out at all the angry faces. "Lisssten to her..."