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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 7:11 pm
Tommy watched Richard go through her routine with mild interest...it was more unsettling than anything. Of course, he didn't even think of his own habit of grooming himself before dawn. Hey! There's a good reason for that! Blood is so hard to get out of fur... He shook his head a few times, his large ears swaying slightly as he watched Richard leave deep grooves into her tree with those wicked claws. "Really? Well...I suppose it's no worse than me watching movies all day...but anyway, yeah...let's go," he said as he began to bat-walk up river. He hesitated slightly as she mentioned getting something to eat. Almost automatically, he fired off a few bursts of echolocation.
"If I catch something on my radar, I'll let you know," he said with a slight grin. "But...what have you been doing these past days, eh?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 7:23 pm
Richard frowned slightly when Tommy proceeded to walk up river. That wasn't the way to the cafe. What was Tommy up to now? Her tail curled upwards with uncertainty before following him.
"Doing?" she gave a feline snort. "Nothing of consequence. Sleeping, eating and reading." Richard had considered informing Tommy of the loyalty serum situation but had decided against it, Tommy would not be much help with Jordan, especially with his history.
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 7:38 pm
Tommy continued to walk on, sending out bursts of echolocation at varying frequencies on order to survey a wide spectrum around him. There were a couple of rabbits hopping about a bit further into the jungle, but Tommy decided not to mention it. The displacer beast seemed distracted enough without having to worry about hunting rabbits...though a nice brunch did sound nice about then...
He shook his head once more before craning his head over toward Richard, quirking a brow. That was odd. He sighed somewhat, wondering just how much her mental changes would go. There was a time when the Richard he knew would have never so much as paused to oversleep ten minutes if there was trouble at hand. He looked back to where he was walking, actually moving pretty fast despite how he looked. "I've been busy, myself," he muttered out. "Trying to get...island business done, I suppse." He was rather annoyed with the fact that, to him at least, it seemed as if Richard had been doing absolutely nothing to help their plight. He injected himself with hopes of Richard's aid in the matter and look where it had gotten him. He muttered inaudibly to anyone but himself.
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 7:55 pm
"Island business, eh? Practicing more crash landings?" She gave a little growl of amusement and tousled his headfur. By this time they had reached the river and Richard quickly slipped into the water, not caring about her clothing. It would dry soon enough in this heat. She dunked her head underwater, enjoying the cool water. Upon surfacing she shook her head like a dog after a bath, spraying Tommy with water.
She smirked, "Or are you talking a more serious sort of business?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:06 pm
Tommy glanced at Richard with a slightly annoyed frown on his bat-face...as much as he liked Richard and all that, he was getting tired of being treated almost like a child by him. Of course, he supposed he had brought it on himself, acting the way he did. He had always used the slightly awkward dumb kid routine as a crutch, and when he needed a good friend to take him seriously...all he got was ruffled head fur. At the tousle though, he gave out a slight squeak and shook his head, his large ears flapping against Richard's paw. He was about ready to just climb the nearest tree and take off as he watched her slip into the water...God he hated water...which was once more infused upon his mind when he was sprayed by Richard. "Ack! Goddamnit," he muttered out as he sprang backwards with surprising agility.
"What other business would force me to inject myself and strip away the little humanity I had left," he said with a little too much venom, looking over his wing at Richard.
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:20 pm
Richard's eyebrows shot up at the remark, she had forgotten about that bit. She had been so focused on Jordan, that she had forgotten all about Sabin's off hand comment and Tommy's confirmation of that little act of insanity. She sobered some but the bat's skitter away from was too amusing not to chuckle a bit. She leaned against the bank and flashed him a toothy grin. "I admit to being quite curious about that. Their is only one other resident of the..." Jordan didn't exactly live in the village. "Island that has done that. I imagine your reasons were, mixed at best." She cocked her head to the side and watched the batman with feline curiosity.
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:36 pm
Tommy felt guilty for getting a bit of pleasure from that surprised look on the cat's face. It was getting harder and harder to read Richard...he could never tell if she actually liked him as a friend anymore...or was just using him. With a sigh, he shook his head and vigorously rubbed his right ear with a wing from when water had dripped in. He gave himself one more shake before walking nearer to Richard in order to keep his voice low. Hearing was no problem for Tommy, mind you, but he was worried just how far he could get without Richard's own hearing getting in the way.
He eyed Richard for a moment, that seriousness back on his face...he was beginning to hate that toothy grin of hers. "What do you know about guerrillas, Richard? Not the animal, mind you. In every war fought in which a stronger nation occupied one in turmoil, it always starts out the same way. First they gain support while keeping below the radar...then they move into guerrilla warfare, disrupting the larger enemy...bringing him down to their level. Finally, the battlefield erupts into a more traditional battle as the guerrillas gain confidence in their abilities," he explained...glad for once in taking that military history course. He was also relatively sure Richard knew some of this...but he wanted to be positive that it was foremost in her mind as he spoke. "And...in case you haven't realized what I'm getting at...I did just such a plan of attack. But, like the Tet offensive before me, I just wasn't up to snuff. So what do I do? Regroup...no matter what the cost."
He sat back on his haunches and waited for Richard to digest this.
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:56 pm
Tommy had obviously forgotten who Richard was or used to be, she perched her head on her hand, sinking her elbow into the graveled bank. She waited for Tommy to finish his little lecture with a patient expression. "Tommy," she reminded him, "I was in Iraq and the Congo for a time. No need remind me of the tactics there. I'm doing what I can here." She grinned, but didn't elaborate. She figured Tommy knew her well enough by now to read between her whiskers as it were.
Her tail made ripples on the surface of the water as it moved beneath the surface of the water. "It was trust gaining measure then? Sabin seemed impressed."
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:04 pm
"Just making sure your head was in the game," he said while glancing about at some faint movement he heard before looking back to Richard. "Of course, one must wonder just what you are doing what with the excess amounts of Nothing of Consequence you claim is going on. There, he had finally caught her in a lie and threw it back in her face. At her following comment though, Tommy tried to give Richard a glare as she summarized that horrible mental torture in so simple a phrase. However, his beady black eyes did not allow this.
"Yeah, well...last time Sabin seemed impressed was when I managed to get a syringe full of drain-o into Aubrey's neck. And we all know how well that scenario turned out." He mused slightly on just why Richard was talking to Sabin...much more so on why he felt need to tell Richard that little bit of information.
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:22 pm
It hadn't been a lie, nothing had happened since Richard's conversation with Awen. She was hoping Nicky would come with word from Jordan and Richard had been unable to find Thom. All she could do was wait for now. She smirked, "Now just because I'm not doing anything at the moment doesn't mean that I don't have things that are brewing." She might as well been talking about the weather as she inspected her claws.
She nodded and gave Tommy her full attention when he mentioned the drain-o. "Planning something more subtle this time?" Richard studied Tommy, trying to decide if he was planning on another suicidal attack his black eyes were difficult to read.
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:32 pm
At this point, he would have dove headfirst into any suicidal frontal assault if he had an idea that it would work. That was something though that Tommy had yet to realize. He, unlike Richard, would gladly give his own life if only it meant that the labs would fall. He did have a few ideas left simmering in the back of his mind for if the situation would ever call for such an attack, but as of now he knew he had better luck doing it in a more subtle manner.
Another rabbit scuttled through his ears' range, and once more he glanced over in that direction...if only by habit. His eyes, as well as being just as bad as the first day he arrived on the island, now could only see in muted colors...a fact which had depressed Tommy considerably. As well as his eyesight, he was also rather depressed on the slow, but steady change in his friend's mentality. A half-truth is a whole lie, his mother always used to say...but Tommy decided against chastising the cat who could pull him into the water with her at any time.
"Possibly...I was hoping to get you in on it...but it seems that you already started without me," he said with a slight smirk, "It all depends on whether they believed me or not I suppose...." He thought back on just how much effort it took to stick himself with that horrible syringe...It had better have been enough.
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Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:55 pm
Richard on the other hand, intended on living through this. Originally Richard would have welcome death, still unable to move beyond his wife's death after ten years. The transformation had changed that with her evolution from a man to a woman, human to an imaginary beast, the grief had slipped away. She barely gave her wife much thought these days and disturbing memories of the not so happy aspects of the marriage seemed to bubble up into memory just as often as the happy ones. Without the grief, there was no deathwish, no drive to prove herself to her long dead loved one. Now she was acting on her own terms for her own reasons. She took her amusement from other people as she saw fit and she would enjoy nothing more than to watch Moreau's little paradise to crumple around him. There were more noble reasons to do it she knew but revenge was just as compelling.
"There's always room for more avenues of attack as they say. What do you have in mind? I have time at the moment." Richard looked quite interested.
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 5:39 pm
That was one thing Tommy would never truly come to grips with. In his own way, revenge was the sole purpose for all of his actions. Sure, prettying it up in his mind allowed him to function guilt free...but at the end of the day, it would all be about revenge.
He gave a sigh as he stretched out his wings a bit. "What we need are intelligence and contacts. First, intelligence on the actual lab complex itself...for reasons I hope are obvious enough...the second...we need someone on the inside. Sadly, there's no other way around it...we have to get one of those bastards on our side," he said this last part in barely a whisper. One word brought back to the labs would ruin all of his prep work so far. "The odds are in our favor though, there's bound to be more than a few fed up with being trapped here. Of course, all this I'm sure you have already realized." He trailed off, contemplating his next words. He wondered just how close Richard and Sabin had become...maybe the sadistic sonofabitch was just the ally he was looking for. "But...to do any of this, I need initial intel. And from what I gather, you're the one to talk to." He didn't try to pretty it up at all...the stupid college kid was gone for the time being.
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 6:22 pm
Richard was hoping for something far more complete than that. Still allies were allies and Richard needed all she could grab. The question was, how much to tell him. "I'm afraid that the operations and facilities of the labs are just as closed to me as they are for most of us. I know a bit about the chips than some people have realized. I'm one of Sabin's..." Her tentacles danced behind her, "projects, that gives me a little leeway with him. He's not all together happy with his current situation." Richard's voice shifted to a whisper, "And if I have anything to do with it he'll become even less happy with it." Richard casually began to clean off her handpaw with her tongue, waiting for Tommy to offer up something specific.
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Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2007 6:37 pm
Tommy himself had been hoping for something a bit more complete. One of his main goals for injecting himself was ruined when they just brought him to a holding cell instead of into the actual lab. He was hoping to get at least a partial layout of the place on his visit. And recently, he hadn't been able to get in touch with anyone who was actively trying to do something well...constructive either. Almost everyone else seemed to be just pretending this was their life now. Although Victor did have a decent plan in mind...it was so simple it could just work. Sure the odds were heavily against them, but it was better than just sitting here, hoping something would just jump in their laps.
He nodded a few times as Richard spoke. That was about what he expected. "Well..." he said slowly, looking about once more, "allow me to list what I have at your disposal then." He stepped closer to Richard, almost touching the water. "Sonar in bats is a wonderful tool...and sonar in a bat the size of myself...well, it's damn near perfect. There is almost nothing I cannot hear...including the locations cameras." This was more or less true. He hadn't been paying attention to it recently, but every once in a while he was able to pick out an odd shape in the trees. If he actually concentrated on that shape, he was sure he would be able to pick them out easily. He sat back and let Richard digest this as he pondered whether or not to tell her about Victor's idea. He was kind of afraid she would just laugh at him.
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