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It was late, and Antony was returning to her duplex after a merry little trip to the dumpster and the cafeteria. The former was to drop off her trash, which had been overflowing, and the latter to indulge herself in a late night bowl of ice cream.

She had found that the much cooler though still muggy nights suited her much better. It may have been harder to see in the dark, but at least she didn't run the risk of getting burned and a nifty giant headache from squinting. Sunglasses could only do so much, she had found out the hard way.

Chert could be dead, Billy was Billy, Jamal had tried to Meow Mix her a**, and the fact that there was nothing to really do on the island but the same things over and over again continued to wear on the squirrel woman. Sure, she had finally scratched that orgasm itch, but somehow she still didn't feel satisfied. Maybe it was finding out Billy was on coke, or even a bit of jealousy towards the female doctor.

Alright, a hefty amount of jealousy.

She was normal, and Billy obviously had feelings for her.

It didn't help that her sheets, particularly her pillow, were losing all their comforting smells. Part of her was ashamed that she hadn't washed her sheets since Chert had last stayed over, but she usually blamed it all on apathy and moved onto other thoughts. Perhaps the idea of being even slightly dependent on a man angered her the most, but Antony was pretty sure it was something else. Something more dangerous, in her mind.

Cursing audibly under her breath, she lit another cigarette, having already smoked two or three (she had lost count) since leaving her duplex.

She was frustrated, and not in the easy to fix sexual way either, and Antony dealt with it by turning that energy into anger. Steam was easier to blow off than dealing with the hearts of the problems. At least, as far as she was concerned it was ******** this island. ******** the lack of Chinese take-out. ******** everything. Oh, and ******** fuc--

Her thought was suddenly cut off by a familiar scent that made her squirrelly nerves fire rapidly that she was in DANGER. The second smell didn't register until she laid eyes on the other woman. The other woman, who was practically oozing dominance, was in -her- territory.

And she was with Jamal.

Her tails bristled and her anger overpowered the natural urge to run, despite noticing his newest changes. Against her better judgement, Antony took a pull of her cigarette and headed over towards the pair.

"Hello Jamal..." She trailed off to allow the other to introduce herself, giving an expectant look to the normal female. Something about the fact that she was a good distance taller than this female pleased the squirrel woman because that meant she was bigger. Bigger and undoubtedly stronger.

Obviously, she was the dominant of the pair. Period.

Jamal was about to suggest she pay up tonight, as that was his entire motive in the first place, but that was neatly interrupted when he saw Antony strolling over. That, at first, had him dumbfounded, especially since the last HE knew, they weren't on great terms. He did brighten though...maybe she had forgave him?

"Hey Antony," he said in a hopeful and equally friendly manner, though he had enough sense to know that this was going to be AWKWARD. It shouldn't be, since there was NO relationship between he or the squirrel woman except for nookie as far as he knew, but the tension was thick in the air and Jamal wasn't immune to feeling it. That and the LAST time Jamal had been in the company of an unchanged islander, Antony had a cow about it. "Uh..yeah. This is Maryke. I...helped 'er outta da jungle. She ain't been herr long 'nough ta get the ropes down yet." He left out the part of sexual escapades being involved because he could tell that wasn't a good idea to talk about. Antony had a look of downright challenge on her face. Jamal flicked his whiskers anxiously. What did a guy have to DO around here to get some action?!

He passed Maryke a knowing look, but it wasn't about her getting lost. It was about a payment plan he full expected to have taken care of.

This squirrel woman was almost laughable, and in Maryke's mind she assumed underneath the fur and tails that this Antony woman was just your garden variety slut. Catty and possesive. To ******** a man meant that you were somebody, that you mattered. Someone needed to give her a wakeup call. You were just a quick lay if that's what you presented yourself as. And by the looks and actions Maryke could already tell this woman was trying to play top b***h over all the girls here. Not that the madame really cared. Women like her could never hold a candle to someone like Maryke. Mar'd never dabble in the petty catfights and possive nature that most women had. No she was above such things because it was the plain and simple fact that other things mattered more to her.

"Pleasure's mine," She said darkly, letting the words role off her tongue in a steady and fluid vocalization. It was plain and simple what it meant.

Back the hell off! She didn't want Jamal, this woman could have him and spread her legs for every man on the goddamn island for all she cared. She merely wanted to get back to her duplex and forumalate more ways to get off the island, nothing more.

At length she turned towards Jamal, hearing the 'good hunt' and knowing what he had said early about having already eaten. Ew....gross! But, she didn't really want to stay to here that either. "I should get going..." she said finally.

Possessive? Not really. Being pissed and 'replaced' by yet another normal islander after Jamal had gone and ditched her for the jungle? Quite right. Not to mention that there was the squirrel chattering in her head about how this was -her- territory and there was only room for one dominant female in it.

This, unfortunately, was piled on top of a whole plate of grievances she had been thinking over during her walk. She was angry and still self conscious, though her pride would never let her admit the latter.

Her tattoos were gone, her eyes were gone, and she could no longer walk normally. Sometimes it felt like Antony was gone, and it pissed her off to know that Moreau was having such an effect on her thoughts.

In fact, she had been slowly turning into a pressure cooker since Chert declined her offer of help after his transformation and then left. It was taking most of her strength to keep it all from blowing like Mount St. Helens.

At Maryke's comment, Antony simply laughed for a bit before letting it fade to chuckles and then a soft 'hmm' before smiling sweetly. She could care less what this woman thought of her because all else fails, the squirrel woman was quite self assured that in a fight, tiny tot and her fake bazookas would lose. "It was nice meeting you. I hope to catch you properly another time."

She didn't miss Jamal's comment, but simply waited for Maryke to leave before turning to him, "You never visited me." There was definitely an undertone of hurt in her statement, and it was obvious she was trying to convert all of it into anger to save her pride. Though, her tails did droop a bit, giving her cover-up away.

Jamal listened carefully to Maryke's comment, noting the duplex number. Good to know.
"A'ight. See ya then," he said as pleasantly as he could muster, given the situation, trying to not look too pleased at the retrieval of this important duplex information. When the woman walked away, he truely had to restrain himself from watching her waggling behind as she walked away. Somehow, his guy intuition knew that would go over with Antony about as well as a hampster in a microwave, so instead, he glanced vacantly off into the distance until he was spoken to.

The statement uttered by the squirrel woman sounded vaguely reproachful and accusing, so he had enough sense to look at the least chagrined and idly scratched his now-furry chin.

"Well," he said after a thoughtful pause, looking her in the face. "I didn't figger I was welcome. Afta'...you know..."

"Yeah," he answered faintly as she filled in the blank. He wanted to again assert that it was an ACCIDENT, but he felt it was unnecessary to do so. Maybe if he left it alone, they could just gloss over it and pretend it didn't happen. She didn't -look- angry like he imagined she would be. Her current expression and actions didn't seem right though either, so when she asked to go inside, he decided against declining; he felt that would be a -really- shitty thing to do regardless of what he wanted. She -had- been good to him, all things considered. Antony was probably the ONLY person on the island who would give him the time of day whenever he had the whim.

Jamal didn't answer her question but instead fell in step behind her, eyes drawn to the twitching tails that were nothing more than big cat toys in his eyes. He went to touch one but restrained himself.