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 Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 8:54 pm
"Well you'll have to introduce me to Victor sometime. He sounds like a good guy, smart too." The manta made sure to lock the break on the wheelchair before trying to get the dog off.
"Okay, I'm going to pull you up and..well... for lack of a better way try to use that momentum to get you into the water, alright? This part of the lake is pretty deep right off the shore, but not deep enough for you not to hit the bottom. It may sting a bit at the jostle but it's better than trying to struggle through the mud..alright? On the count of three...""
"One.... two...three!" Awen pulled up and over on the dog's arms with all her might, hoping that he would as well push himself up and hopefully get him into the water. Once in that far Awen could more easily help him.
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Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 9:09 pm
Jordan nodded. “Alright. I’m ready.” He placed his paws back onto the wheelchair armrests, readying himself to push off, like a child launching from a swing. He rocked himself back and forth, though it had hurt a little to do so, awaiting her signal. He was judging the force needed to make it into the water without falling short and becoming a mud puppy. This seemed crazy, but at the same time, somewhat rational. Jordan knew he could trust Awen. She wouldn’t let him drown.
He used his momentum to their advantage as Awen hefted him to his feet, propelling himself up and out of the chair and waving his arms to stablilize himself. “Whooooooa…” He could feel his legs go limp under him and he had to lean on her shoulder for support or fall down on the spot. Jordan wrapped an arm over her back as he wondered how this was going to work. His legs were seemingly unresponsive and sore from prolonged unuse.
“I’m sorry I can’t do more to help. I feel like I’ll fall over at any moment. My legs feel so weird.. so numb and dead..”
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Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 9:16 pm
"OH geez!" Awen had meant to push the guy over the edge into the water, not just into a standing position besider her. His weight threw her off balance and almost made them both fall to the ground, but by some miracle Awen gained her footing and shouldered Jordan's weight as much as she could. Sure she was hunched over and stressing to keep them upright let alone able to walk to the water. But it was something.
She huffed a bit under pressure. "Alright..." She said with a strain. "Just.. try to keep balance. Once we're at the edge.... I'm going to have to drop you into the water. Sorry I don't think... there is any more...graceul of a way to do this..."
The manta tried to take a wobbling step forward.
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Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 9:27 pm
Leave it to Jordan to make any seemingly simple task difficult. He felt bad for putting so much strain on Awen. “Please don’t hurt yourself on my.” He commented softly, trying to sound less like a burden, but that’s exactly what he was to someone or another, just a burden. That’s why he was better off as a subject than rotting in prison. Or so he would be led to believe.
“Alright. I think I know how to do this.” He nodded to her with a stupid grin. He had to do this in one fall swoop or he’d wind up in the mud, so he jerked his torso off to the side as he let go of Awen, and let his body splash into the water ungracefully.
The water felt so good on his fur-shaven body. His head popped out of the water, leaving his shoulders barely exposed as he looked back, smiling up at the manta. He didn’t panic. There was no need to. He was able to sit in this part of the water comfortably and have his head poke above the surface. “I’ve missed how great this feels.”
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Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 9:34 pm
Awen was once again set off balance bu the sudden weight shift on her shoulders. She hadn't expected Jordan to do that on his own so quickly. She fell to her knees as Jorda splashed over the edge and into the deep-ish water. She grinned as she moved closer to see the dog boy's smile.
"It is wonderful, isn't it?" The girl lowered herself into the lake a little more slowly and gracefully. Looking around Awen found what she wanted. There was a small spot nearby where the river met the lake. It was not too unlike where she and Richard had met for their convorsation, semi-deep but with shallow parts where the water ran over rocks to make enough noise to confuse speak in microphones. She took the dog's arm and tugged a little. "Let yourself float, I'll bring you over there. The flowing water might help a bit more than the more stagnant stuff."
She'd not forgotten why she took Jordan on this little outting.
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Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 9:47 pm
Once more nodding, he allowed himself to be dragged into the flowing waters, smiling at the feeling of moving water over his bared skin, something he missed dearly and knew wouldn’t last. All that fur to grow back sometime.
“Yes it is wonderful.” He felt his body float more as he let his muscles relax. He couldn’t help but smile as he was indeed feeling good in her company, in the water. “Good thing I know the doggy paddle.” He winked at the horrible pun. His anxiety was melting away in the cross-stream. Jordan’s muscles relaxed even more and he let himself soak up the momentary peace.
“I bet you know lots of places like this.” He curiously stated, skimming his arms over the water’s surface once they were settled into the new location. Jordan closed his eyes and sat there, ears flicking every now and again, but it was obvious he was more calmed than he had been.
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Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 9:52 pm
Awen smiled for a moment watching the dog-man just soak everything in. The flowing waters, the warm sunlight the calming gentle words. It was a wonderful moment...
"Yeah... there are a lot of lovely spots I don't think many other people really know or care about." She ran fer fingers along the water watching the tipples and trails it left. "And there are a few wonderful little underwater caves I wish I could show you."
She shook her head slowly. The moment must end.. there was a reason to this, and it wasn't a little pleasure trip.
"Jordan..." Her tone suddenly changed to a more serious one. "I'm worried about you..."
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Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 10:05 pm
It was a grand moment. A shame that it did have to come to an end, but before that had to be, Jordan relaxed his body even more, sinking down till his chin was touching the water. His arms lay at his sides beneath the water. He smiled, still with his eyes closed, as he wished he could see those caves as well. The things Awen was privy to by mere fact that she was aquatic in nature made him envious. Alas, the happy moment had to stop sometime.
Jordan opened an eye just enough to peer out of the corner from his vision. “You are?” was all that he could articulate. Jordan hadn’t anticipated that. He’d thought she was going for the hard material off the bat, like Richard had tactlessly done in his obsession with the loyalty serum that had leaked out in drunken intimidation.
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Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 10:14 pm
"Well, yeah of course." She said and kept her eyes to the water as she tried to work her words carefully. "Last I saw you you were completely irrational. You were irate, rude, and obsessive. I wouldn't have been surprised if you would have took a crack at me for saying something bad about Moreau."
She paused for a second and closed her eyes trying to get things right in her mind. "That's not you Jordan. I mean.. I knew you before your changes... before all..this.." She shook her head. "No. There is something wrong..." She opened her eyes and looked at the dog. "I mean... I know that you sympathised with Moreau... thought he was doing you good. But I mean... he is destroying lives... hurting people... breaking up families and turning... people like Jamal into Jamal." She shook her head. "Why... why risk life and limb for him. Why be so defensive? Why... did you look at me like you wanted to hurt me for my comment about him? Jordan.. that isn't you."
Awen purposefully avoided the subject of a loyalty serum for the time being.
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Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 10:40 pm
“I… don’t know what to say, Awen.. I didn’t mean to involve you.. but I was scared. I didn’t want to die out there.. and I could have potentially killed a human bystander in the process..” He lowered his head in shame. “I came to you because I needed a friend at my side..” he huffed, rubbing at his temples. “Truth-be-told, it was supposed to be Lauren backing me up. Doctor’s orders. Except she was no where to be found. I’m so sorry, Awen..”
“No.. not exactly.. that wasn’t me speaking, per se. I mean, it was and it wasn't. I’d been scared until Lauren had come to my duplex one day maybe two weeks after my arrival. She put things into perspective for me, gave me the sunnier-side-of-the-island speech… Moreau is our salvation. If we work with him and not against him, we can have anything we can desire. I wanted so badly to believe her that I even gave that speech verbatim to a newcomer, myself… and then I transformed infront of her... for the first time” he shook his head, not wanting to divulge the chemical influence. Not yet. “I bought into her persuasive words. It’s hard to explain what’s happening to me, Awen.”
She rose so many good points that he would have difficulty disputing. “I don’t know what to say in my defense. I can’t erase my mistakes/”
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Posted: Tue May 15, 2007 10:56 pm
"I'm not looking for you to apologise Jordan." She said in a rather flat tone. "You really have to stop apologising for every little thing." She shook her head slowly. "I'm worried for you, not angry with you."
Tilting her head back to look up at the sky the manta was backed into a corner. "Truth be told I've heard a very disturbing rumour Jordan... And you may not like it... hell I don't even know if I believe it... but I'm terrified of it and what it could mean. It goes beyond the subjects, beond the lab techs... hell it goes beyond the island."
The girl ran a nervous hand through her hair. "I always looked on the bright side of things. The research here could be used to cure countless diseases, mental conditions and advance mankind in a way nothing else can..." Her hand gripped into a fist and she cursed. "But to think it was going to be used for weapons... just... it disgusts me. Disgusts me that I've embraced this life so much when it will cause a whole lot of pain..."
Looking over to Jordan she frowned. "Loyalty serum. A way of controlling us, the techs... people, military forces, governments... This is so much beyond is....and it scares the hell out of me Jordan."
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 11:31 am
She wasn’t angry with him. That was a good start. He didn’t want to blow up at Awen and she’d called him out on many valid points. One being that he was pissed at her in the jungle with Dee and Thom. And he was ready to slug her for that comment about Moreau then.. Jordan did apologized a lot since being a test subject. It came with the territory of being such a screw-up, despite his efforts. The coming blow had been softened and he looked over to her a bit nervously.
Jordan remained silent, while hanging onto the manta’s every motion, every word. It was best to let her speak her peace, though he hadn’t imagined the research conducted upon the island could possibly be used in biological warfare. Transforming humans into human0animal hybrids, sure he could believe that as it was happening to most everyone on the remote island, but manipulating the technology for global military purposes? That was kinda far-fetched. It sounded like the rumor-mill was huffing paint thinner.
He’d expected her to come looking for information, but Jordan had not anticipated Awen bluntly stating those words that were making his life more difficult thanks to a damned transgender tentacle cat poking her nose where it didn’t belong. His body submerged abruptly, as he splashed in surprise. Loyalty serum?! How the hell did she come to know about that?!
Jordan popped his head back up, spitting out a lung-full of water and coughing. Jordan was wide-eyed as he frantically splashed closer to Awen, his large paws making that easier to tread water without the use of his legs. She’d hit something on the nail and it drove deep as he gripped her shoulders firmly, staring her in the eyes with that wild expression.
“Awen. Listen to me. This is very important.” He lowered his voice in urgent fear. “Where’d you hear that?” there was no point in pretending, with Awen, that he didn’t know about the loyalty serum. He was a terrible liar and she quite possibly knew him better than anyone on the island. “For your own safety, please, don’t get involved. Whoever’s told you is playing a dangerous game that could cause each of us more trouble than anyone in the labs ever could.”
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 12:04 pm
Awen's eyes widened as Jordan revealed his knowledge of the subject. She'd hoped that Richard was exadurating, or just being paranoid. But it was true? She shook her head, her tone become sligtly more harsh, but not angry. "Jordan, I'm already involved."
She looked directly into the pup's eyes with a steady gaze. "We're already in more trouble than the labs could give us. You have to understand that. Why would Moreau develop such a thing, just for his own amusement? To keep us in line? He could put us in chages and be done with it. No. No, no. There is something more in that scheming red head of his. Something bigger. But you know about it? He..." Awen backed up a half inch in the water. "He's injected you with it hasn't he? You're his test first subject?"
Or was Lauren his first? She couldn't tell anymore if the mongoose's love of the man was real or... no, no... Moreau really had saved Lauren from her torment on the streets. She'd reacted favourable to the labs, but so did Awen. Or perhaps... they were experiments first with it? Milder versions? Had Moreau been working on it the entire time? And Jordan was just the first...extreme subject?
Thoughts swirled around in Awen's head as her heart thumped hard in her chest. She had to keep calm.
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 12:24 pm
He’d already assumed that it had been Richard who’d brought her into this. His incessant witch hunt was creating an uncomfortable situation, bringing others into this sick game of his to be used as his pawns. Richard was an a** for involving Awen of all people! He didn’t want to see her get hurt. Jordan sighed. Howe else could he react to such a determined statement.
He trembled as she spoke more about the trouble they were in. His paws shook more and more with every word. Jordan was afraid. So damn afraid of what would come of this. He couldn’t face her once she pulled away, turning his glance down to the rippling water. “Yes.. I’m the first..” he responded hesistantly. “I’ve received two injections since I’ve come to the island. At first Ididn’t know that one was the loyalty serum, but Moreau visited me one day and came clean about everything he’s put me through.” He kept his voice soft, as it wavered. “I was made to inject myself prior to my last change.” He shivered.
“I’m only telling you this as a offering of my good faith…” he looked up at her, with a trembling, fearful half-sneer on his face. “There’s only one person who could have told you. Because it was me who told him. It was a complete accident when I was drunk. I regret ever meeting him… I should say her.. now..”
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2007 12:45 pm
"Richard's a better ma--person than you think." She said softly. The girl rubbed her temples softly. "But that's not the issue. She isn't the only one who is worried." The manta sighed and shook her head. "I was the one who brought to light the world wide consequences of something like this. And from what I can tell no one but Moreau knows of this serum. His lab techs, the guards... not even Sabin and Aubrey were told about it from what I gather."
She bit her lip. "Jordan, I'm just saying that this is serious. It isn't just about you."
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