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 Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:08 pm
"Heheh, yeah...well, almost. I had the barf-bag out and ready to go anyway. The pilot seemed to realize this and got us to fly level somewhat. I just hit the pure oxygen on my mask though and I was okay after a bit." He momentarily wondered if he still had the pictures from his ride saved on his computer...that p.o.s laptop the had given him took forever to load anything so he didn't really bother with it anymore.
At the mention of flying, one way or another, he just smiled sadly, his eyes getting that faraway look once more. He had dreams almost every day of flying. He was so frustrated being stuck in this half-way point that he couldn't wait for the next change, even though it would strip from him what little humanity he had left. He just wanted the feel of the air beneath his wings. "I know his sounds...well...wrong...but in all honesty, I can't wait for the last change...I mean, I hate what they're doing here...but..." he sighed, wondering why he was voicing his intimate thoughts to this stranger...but the floodgate was open, "But, I just want to feel the wind beneath my wings...yaknow?"
Tommy nods a few times, "New Orleans, originally..." he said, trying to get his mind from the thought of flying.
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Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:15 pm
Dee regards him with honest wonderment. He's the first islander she's met who was looking forward to their next change and, after having witnessed two of them, finds it incredible indeed. Thinking for a few more moments however, she figures that it would make sense in his case. Poor guy's obviously crossed with a chiropteran...this must be hideously awkward for him.
"Uh... y-you know? I've never once been to Louisiana, and I've always wanted to go." She shrugs. "But someday!"
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Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:22 pm
Tommy's brain clicked back to the here and now. And he had to contain his horr at what he was doing. Here he was, spouting off about the horrible changes that everyone here undergoes without once thinking about how she must feel about all of it. He could tell she was getting more and more uncomfortable by the moment, and he was also to tell the truth. He just wanted to go back to the beach bar and drown out his worries with some more blood. He shuddered at the thought...his food source...blood. He just hoped she couldn't tell what type of bat he was turning into. The idea of a vampire bat standing in front of you usually set some people off.
"It's a...good place I guess...Haven't been back in a few years, myself. I dunno...I've been here since, what...last July?" he shrugged. "But...yeah, sorry um...Dee. I know how this must look to you...hell, I know how I must look to you...I ah...I think I'll let you get back to your clam diving..." He honestly didn't want to leave...but he was just terrified he may drive off a potential friend, and he had too few around to take that chance.
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Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:30 pm
Dee's brow crinkles in concern. While she's well-versed--and all too willing to engage--in self depreciation, she hates hearing others do the same. "Hey now, what's that? I...I don't care what you look like. Er...I mean, it's not exactly your fault, and you've been a right gentleman this whole time. You've nothing to apologize for."
Her be-finned feet wriggle in the sand as she offers him a hopeful little smile. "And I haven't even started diving yet."
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Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:39 pm
Tommy knew he was whining, but every once in a while it felt good to. And a person like Dee seemed a decent medium to let it out on. He knew that could get tiring also though, so he forced himself to stop. Dee's words made it all the easier too, also. He smiled slightly, one of his few teeth poking through his oddly shaped lips. "Thanks...I appreciate that...I...I really do," he said, spirits slightly lifted. He grinned sheepishly at the gentleman part. "Well...I was being trained to be both an officer and a gentleman before here," he said with mock bravado.
"But yeah," he started to say as he squinted at the dying sun, the light bothering his eyes, "I dunno, I'm just so used to people freaking out over the...animal that I've come to resemble. Vampire bats aren't known for being all cute and cuddly like some out there." His eyes widened a bit as he said this, not realizing it until it was too late. He had let it slip through his emo-ing...he mentally smacked himself to keep that in check.
He quickly tried to change the subject, "But um...how'd you get here? If I may ask that is."
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Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:45 pm
Vampire bat? I thought he looked familiar...interesting....
"Oh, well...I was approached by Feral Labs reps at a symposium, and they said they were looking for a biologist to help document some 'rare and unique species' around their base of operations...so I couldn't help but leap at the opportunity." Her half-smile seems a tad bitter.
Dee has been noting the dwindling light as well. While this will make certain diurnal fish easier to catch and identify, it'll make some invertebrates harder to spot. She grunts and gets to her feet while still trying to maintain a conversational air. "What about you? How'd they rope a good military man like yourself into this?"
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Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2007 11:52 pm
Tommy nodded a few times, breathing a quick mental sigh of relief. She couldn't be on of the lab techs...they had tricked her just like everyone else. Of course...is that just wishful thinking? She could just be lying but...stop it, Tommy...just stop it. Who cares if she really is? There's nothing you can do about it at the moment...so just enjoy the relative peace of the conversation, even if it may only be a facade.
"Heh...yeah, they do love their irony here..." he grins somewhat as he shook his head. "But yeah, I kinda...heh...fell into their laps so to speak. I was going to visit a base in Aviano, Italy during one of my summer periods...they carted myself and a few other cadets into a C-17. Problem was, I think we hit a flock of seagulls or something along those lines...either way, a few engines went out and we all had to parachute out." He chuckled without much humor, "I had trouble getting my chute on...so I was the last one out. By the time I landed in the water, no one else was in sight...I was stranded at sea for days...I think I lost consciousness later on. Anyway, next thing I knew I woke up in my duplex with Sabin giving me some lie about where I was."
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:03 am
Dee's jaw goes slack as Tommy recalls his ordeal. "Oh man...that's terrible. Thank goodness you're okay--ah, well... you know what I mean." Her eyes narrow. "I'd like to have a few words with Sabin myself...smarmy, slick talker he was." Her hand absently drifts up to her opposite shoulder as doubt and horror begins creeping back into her tangental mind. Her fingernails scratch at a certain spot...
But, oh no...there's still something different with me, for sure. I've gotta be here for a real reason. I'm not going to end up like this poor soul...
"I...uh... do you mind if I do a quick preliminary dive, Tommy?" Dee asks, her voice wavering. "I just want to see if there's...uh, anything TO see."
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:09 am
"Heh...yeah...both a blessing and curse I guess," he says with a humorless grin. "You you're not kidding. He tried to convince me I had died and was in limbo..." he said with a rolling of his eyes. Although he had believed him...somewhat...it took the meeting of his first islander to tell him otherwise.
"Oh, sure, no problem," he said, glancing back to the sun once more. He forgot every now and then people's dependance on it. He hardly ever saw it nowadays, the moon being a much more inviting presence. "Yeah, go ahead...don't let me keep you from it."
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:22 am
She shakes her head in disbelief as Tommy relays his encounter with Sabin. "That's...just greeeeaaaat. I truly am sorry." Her mouth is twisted into an uncomfortable grimace, but her eyes are sincere.
"Oh, and thanks...I won't be but a minute. I think I know what I'm looking for."
Dee leans down to grab her mask/snorkel and, with nary a shred of grace, turns while putting it on and plods into the gentle surf. The 'freelance naturalist' is a clumsy person at the best of times, and while wearing snorkeling fins she's no better. As soon as she is able, Dee takes a breath a dives, pausing a moment to get used to the salt water taste in her mouth and the sensation of liquid encroaching on the snorkel. She breathes a mental sigh of relief as the familiar 'weightlessness' of the brine encases her 'frumpy' frame. It's an oddly-reassuring sensation.
Also oddly-enough... that three-week-old injection spot starts to itch shortly after she enters the water.
Dee shrugs it off and kicks upwards, heading for the sanding bottom. Drowsy daytime reef fish scatter lazily amongst the coral nearby, and a few nocturnal hunters--reef squid and eel--hover half-concealed amongst the technicolor backdrop.
She begins sifting through a patch of sand with her free hand until she spots a tell-tale mollusk siphon. Dee works her fingers down along the muscular tube and pulls, wrestling the creature free of it's gritty bed. She grins around her mouthpiece. Moments later she surfaces... hefting her trophy proudly. "Whoo hoo!" she cheers after clearing the snorkel.
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:28 am
Tommy nodded a few times and plopped himself into the sand as she plods off. His arms were tired, still not strong enough to support his own weight for too long. As he watches her ungraceful form, he stretches out his wing/hands, hearing the joints pop audibly. As she dives, he just watches, wondering how he'd fare in the water. He remembered liking the water once upon a time...but some part of him shuddered at the thought. He supposed it was the bat in him...he wasn't sure though. He did want to make it a point to come out here sometime soon though and try somewhat to swim...or at least float. He was sure he could do that at least.
He couldn't help but laugh as she popped up, cheering at the odd creature she had in her grasp. She seemed so excited by it. All Tommy could think though was how a person would look turning into something like that. He shuddered once more, but managed to hold his grin.
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:37 am
"Aye..." Dee growls in a passable--if overly dramatic--'salty sea-dog' accent. "He was a fighter, this one..."
She takes a breath, tucks the clam into her bag, and dives back down for a second quick trip. Angling closer to the shore, she tracks down a pair of the crusty critters, as well as a sea urchin amidst a cluster of rocks. Dee uses one of the clams themselves to brush the bristly urchin into the bag, then surfaces and heads for the beach.
The woman squats in the shallows and removes her mask. "I think I've found a good spot... there's some nice clam beds further out. I'll have to remember this beach for later if I don't catch enough today." Without thinking, she scratches at the injection site again, which seems to be developing a minor rash.
"So I take it now's the time you're out these days? What do you do to keep busy?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 12:46 am
Tommy grin at the pirate accent, an old favorite of his and one he's actually quite good at. "Dyar, a mighty catch if'n I do say so me'self!" he called back out to her. He contemplated pulling out a blood pouch from his cargo-shorts pocket, but decided against it...She was, afterall, unchanged. Even some of the more 'developed' islanders got squeamish whenever he took one out. But...she seemed like one who'd be more curious than anything...still...didn't seem like a good idea at the time.
He watches as she pulls of her mask, he marveled at her normal body for a moment...it's been so long since he's seen one. He shook his head though, as he saw her scratching at her arm. He knew what happened there...that intolerable itching...yes, definately not a lab tech. Poor girl...
"Sweet, glad to hear it. Who're you collecting 'em for, anyway?" he asked, wondering...maybe Alec? No...sharks don't eat clam...I don't think so anyway...
"Me? Ah well...not too many other nocturnal islanders about...so I mostly just hole myself up in the entertainment room and watch movies. I was a huge movie buff back home, and I thought I may as well continue the hobby here. But yeah, you caught me in one of my few forays out of the village."
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:25 am
"Entertainment room, eh? I could use some movie time... never even crossed my mind to check it out, even though I walk past it every other day..." She sniffs, trying to clear some of the brine smell out of her sinuses and winces at the resultant burning sensation. This is new... she thinks to herself as her eyes begin to water. 'Must just be because it's been a while since I've been in the ocean.
Dee tries to shrug it off and hefts her little catch instead. "These are for the infamous lake monster, Billy. He seemed to be awfully sick of fish...and I said I'd try to nab him something more palatable the next time I was at the beach." Dee recalls her encounter with the purple wine-loving cephalopod. "He was quite the character...and I felt sorry for 'im. If I can find enough, maybe there'll be numbers suitable for a proper clam-bake."
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 5:29 pm
"Heh, yeah, you can almost always find me in there. There's not much to do around here at night...don't want to go into the jungle, yaknow...for obvious reasons," he said while glancing over toward the village...and then the jungle. He wasn't too much afraid of the wild islanders out there...he was quite sure his echolocation could pick them up long before they got close enough to him to attack. No...ever since he was stuck out there for three weeks without food or water, he gets something akin to a panic attack whenever he sets wing inside the tree-line. He shook his head and the memory, trying to clear it out with a few hard blinks.
He glanced back to Dee just her eyes began to water. The bat-man frowned, but decided not to comment. "Billy...heh...now there's someone I've always wanted to meet. I hear you either love or hate the guy...but a clam bake...oooh, that does sound good. Heh, I could probably eat something like that...if someone chops it up and grinds it into a mushy paste...now that's good eat'n!"
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