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 Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 11:16 pm
"Whether we're in cages or not, it's still a prison. Those scratches in the wall? They're not something I would do if I was truly enjoying my stay here. And I doubt he'd get all the data he wants if we were in cages." Normally he did't care if he was in a prison or not; the armadillo certainly didn't mind the island. But it was something he could use as a retort, even if he really didn't mean it.
Credit where it's due, ha! In any modern country it'd be a death sentence. "Have you ever met a pig named Bobby? She'll never see her kids again, and they'll never see their mother; I'd say she has something to complain about."
Ryan leaned in close as well; his darker side was showing through. The side that enjoyed bringing others down. "He's already taken my life. There's nothing else I could give that wouldn't pale in comparison."
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Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 11:42 pm
Alan frowned at the mention of the pig-woman. He had been craving a family of his own but unable to attain it, making it seem...almost not real. A family? Alan really didn't understand that bond; his family life was too screwed up to really understand Bobby's loss. He chose to ignore it, concerned about the strange emotions it aroused in him.
"The only reason we can't leave this island is because of our own safety. How do you think the violent monsters on the mainland would react to us?" Alan looked at the young armadillo seriously. "With guns. We'd all be shot, killed or chopped up for biology students to practice on. We'll be able to leave, eventually, just not until the good doctor has made the proper preperations on the mainland." The fact that it might take years, or decades, Alan declined to mention.
When Ryan mentioned about taking his life, Alan snorted. "Your life? You already said yourself; you were only a few steps above food stamps. From what I've heard, most of the islanders here didn't have much a life to give. I know mine wasn't worth much." He smiled. "We can give him so much more--our lives here. Our lives for him."
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Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 12:18 am
Ryan understood it. He'd never see his sister again, or his parents. The armadillo thing he didn't mind that much, but not seeing his family, that hurt.
He gave an annoyed little 'pppht' noise. "You really think we're ever going to leave? They're just going to chop us up themselves eventually. Once they get enough data from us when we're done with the treatments, they'll just open us up to see how our insides changed." The doctors he'd talked to may have told him that wasn't the case, but of course they would lie about something like that.
"Yeah, I may have been poor, but there was still one thing I had that I loved; free will. That's the one thing I believe in; and to take it away, is monstrous. And if I have any choices left to me, I'm not going to choose to lick that man's shoes."
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Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 6:07 pm
Alan nodded his head again, as if in sad understanding. "Who told you that? Those naysayers? You have to understand, Ryan, it's all about faith. You could be one of those people who assume a bomb is about to go off at the end of the day, or you could simply look at the glass half full. You can look at this island, free will and all, as a paradise...or you can look at it as a prison. It's that simple, Ryan."
Such extremes were typical of Alan Murrow.
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Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:01 pm
"That's my theory. I have an idea of how much it cost to keep each animal here, and they won't want to have to pay that much for fifty plus years."
He laughed a bit at the faith remark. "Faith." He practically spat the word. He looked Alan straight in the eye, no emotion showing on his face. "My faith is dead; it has been for a long time."
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Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2007 7:15 pm
Alan snorted, a breeze suddenly sucked into his large nostrels. "I doubt we'd be here that long. And even if we are, that's part of the reason we want to give thanks. If the good doctor think that he isn't appreciated, he might have no choice. We need to show him that we DO appreciate all he does for us, so that he won't be convinced to get rid of us in the unlikely scenerio that we're stuck here 50 years down the line."
Alan smiled smugly, thinking that he had won, when Ryan mentioned his lack of faith. His expression changed to shock. "No...faith? How do you live? Don't you trust anyone?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2007 5:48 pm
[Cecil Milner, 100% and PISSED, Northern Mockingbird.]
Cecil felt terrible. He didn't get a wink of sleep last night. The full moon filtering through his window bothered him all night. He wanted to sing all through the night, and instead of indulging on that instinct, he forced himself to stay in bed.
That was a bad idea.
The bird kid rubbed his beak and brushed off his gray feathers. Large wings on his back drooped down, giving the look of overall exhaustion, his large dark eyes shifty, as if he was annoyed. He was surprised he was up at all. The only reason he even bothered walking outside on his clawed feet was that he knew some islanders had pills that helped with various problems, mostly pain killers, but having your bones feel like marshmallow might induce some sleep.
He knocked on Ryan's door. Nothing. He banged the door. Cecil was not in the mood for this.
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Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 11:33 pm
Inwardly, Ryan reveled in the expression on Alan's face. "I live for the moment. There's no future to look forward to here. As far as trusting people, I give most people the benefit of the doubt."
Ryan was about to say something about making a exception for Alan, when he was interruped my a loud knock. "It's open!" He called out, aln ignored for the moment.
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Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 7:01 pm
Cecil wrote something in his notebook before he got in. Well, he tried writing with the pounding headache he had anyway, it almost went into scribbles. The pen's point caught a feather on his hand, and ripped it off. Like the headache wasn't enough. He groaned, trudging into the duplex.
He showed the page to Ryan, it said,
Hey, you don't have any pills or anything on you? I think I'm dying here.
He hardly noticed the donkey preacher.
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Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 10:46 pm
"But isn't the benefit of the doubt--?" Alan began, before the armadillo turned his attention to the door. His anger flared unapologetically; he was the guest, he was the one who was supposed the be the center of attention. Alan's unstable mind began to boil.
When a bird entered, however, Alan started to calm down. He saw, to make a pun, an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Instantly, his donkey-mouth split into a large, overly friendly smile and threw out a hooved hand.
"Hey, there, friend!" Alan said loudly, throwing his hand in between the mockingbird and armadillo and causing the note to fall to the ground.
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Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007 6:32 pm
Cecil stared at Alan. Then at his notebook on the floor. Back at Alan, and he wondered, what the hell was he smiling about?
The mute gave Alan a glare with large wood-brown eyes. He picked up his notebook and pushed Alan's hand aside. Cecil was not in the mood for this guy's antics.
He flipped his notebook to his message, and showed it to Ryan.
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Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:57 pm
Studiously ignoring Alan as well, Ryan took a look at the note. Hocrap, did the guy just change?! "I think I have something, let me look. "
He went to the cubbord, tossing around whatever had accumulated there. There was a smll bottle of Tylenol sitting in the back. "Ah, got some." He tossed it to the bird. "Need any water with that?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 9:08 pm
Alan didn't realize that the two of them were ignoring his obviously irritating techniques, holding his hand out between the bird and the armadillo even as Ryan reached down and read the note. His dark eyes flitted back and forth, waiting for Ryan to introduce him or the newcomer to introduce himself.
When Ryan walked to the cubboard, Alan moved quickly to take his place in front of the bird, still smiling excessively wide. "I'm Alan Murrow!" he said brightly, only slightly flinching when the botle of Tylenol whooshed past his ear.
If he were watching from afar, Alan would think that he looked creepy.
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Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:06 pm
Cecil caught the bottle and opened it, popping the two tablets in his beak dry. Even though the recomended dosage was only one, he really, REALLY needed to get some sleep.
Despite all of the ignoring, Alan still existed in the duplex. Normally, people wouldn't annoy Cecil like this, but this was different. He was sleep deprived and was hating every second of life.
He gave Alan a look.
WHAM!
A feathery fist of sleepless wrath went straight into the guy's face.
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Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 12:36 am
Ryan was just a little shocked when the bird guy punched Alan. The thought occured to him that he still didn't know the bird's name.
It was probably the armadillo, but Ryan wasn't as frightened or as shocked as he probably should have been. He wasn't as worried for himself; the armadillo felt safe.
He scratched the hair around the plate on his head. "Umm, angry much? You'd better be careful, or they'll zap you." No words were spared fo Alan. in truth Ryan was glad someone had shut him up.
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