[ORP] The Beach

[Lucas Wickham]

"I bet he didn't even get a punishment after harming you and Vixen."

His mood sunk even lower. "So it really does look that bad to others?" He couldn't remember if Emelyn had ever answered when he asked. It had been a while since it had been removed, and yet he had only dared look at it a total of three times.

"I'd get an eyepatch so people don't have to look at it, but I don't dare call the labs and ask. I bet they wouldn't give me one if I did. So I asked Emelyn to give me a haircut. It doesn't work too well, huh?" He paused when something to occured to him. "Oh God... you don't think...?" he started in a low voice. No, no...that was stupid. They wouldn't go that far after taking his eye. But they had included Nita in Gaius' punishment.  

[Gaius Harper]

Gaius winced, though he didn't look back at Lucas. "Sorry... it's just kinda shocking with the stitches and the pit and stuff..."

He could understand about the lab stuff, that was for sure. After his own incident, Gaius wasn't sure how much freedom he had either. "Well, it kinda does, except when you move, or there's a breeze... but otherwise?" He gave a half-smile shrug. "Though maybe you could make an eyepatch? Or tie something around your head, like a bandage? You know, like the warriors do in movies? I hear that's supposed to look sexy to the women."

For Gaius, that was pretty helpful advice.

He blinked at Lucas's sudden mood-change, completely missing the mental train. "Think what?"  

[Lucas Wickham]

"I don't really have the materials to make an eyepatch. Or the fingers to operate scissors." Without looking at the pegasus, he held up his paw-like hand with two thick fingers making a cutting motion. "I have the bandages they had wrapped around my head when I woke up, but those things make it look like I suffered a massive headwound and they itch. And they draw more attention to it. Other than that, I've got nothing. I don't even own neck ties, and that would only make me look drunk if I wore that around my head." Though...maybe it wouldn't be so bad if everyone mistook him for the Island drunk and not be known as the freaky eye-guy.

He glanced at Gaius, then back down at his lap. "It's Emelyn. After I woke up and realized my eye was gone, she came by and helped me. I still wasn't able to get around, so she took care of Dasher and brought food by. The last time I saw her was a few days ago. She had managed to cheer me up and then left for a walk. She left Reuben behind at my duplex and she was going to come back for him. She hasn't come back. I talked to a labtech, all they'd tell me was that she was fine, but she was being held in the labs. If she's okay, I don't understand why she'd be in here... If Emelyn was being held there because she tried to help me out... I don't know," he rambled.  

[Gaius Harper]

"Hrm..." Gaius made a face. He couldn't think of why they'd be holding Emelyn... He remember her as the nice hedgehog lady from Christmas. She wouldn't do anything to get in trouble, would she?

"I dunno... I don't think whatever's happened was your fault, though. Nita's not the one that gets zapped when I get within twenty-five feet, after all. I am. So the punishment is still mostly on me. I seriously don't think they'd do anything to her... Though with those bastards, you never know," he added in an muttered undertone.

With a grunt, he pushed himself back up onto his spindly feet, flicking his tail to get out some of the sand. There were a lot of possibilities for Emelyn's fate... illness, punishment, testing... complication... Gaius didn't dwell on them, knowing that was the last thing Lucas needed right now. Instead, he managed his best dashing, carefree smile, or what he could muster on a psuedo-muzzle, and planted his fists on his hips. "I'm sure she'll be back before you know it! Don't worry yourself about whether it's your fault or not. I find the best thing to do in this kind of situation is do something to get your mind off stuff. And there just so happens to be that theater needing to be finished..."  

[Lucas Wickham]

It was odd that they'd take Emelyn in. It was a bit extreme. And the labs took one of his eyes. Would they really go out of their way to make him miserable and cut off from others? "Yeah...yeah. You're probably right. If they didn't want me around people or helped by them they probably would have kept me in the labs. I've been assuming the worst lately." He didn't like any of the other reasons as to why she might be in there now, though. It just seemed weird that it happened all of a sudden while she was out on her walk. "I just hope she's okay. She's my friend and they won't even tell me why she's there." He sighed.

Lucas remained sitting, but stared up at the other man. "The theater? I had figured you'd have finished that by now. I'm not sure...." Did he really want to be around more people?  

[Gaius Harper]

Gaius winced sheepishly. "I know... I've been kinda lazy on it. Just... sometimes hard to get up the motivation. But it's almost there! I've had a lot of help, so hopefully if we can get a lot of people together tomorrow, it'll be done and can actually start working!" He leaned closer, grinning down at the dog-boy. "Come oooon, you can't lock yourself up forever! You'd be even worse than me with all those bandages. Remember that? I need all the bodies I can get, so I'd really appreciate it if you did lend a hand..."  

[Lucas Wickham]

The dhole smiled a little at the memory of Gaius wrapped up in bandages, but it quickly faded. "Yeah...I just...If people..." He sighed slowly.

"I...guess," he finally conceeded. "Not sure what help I'd be, but I'll drop by. ...maybe I can steal a neck tie..."  

[Gaius Harper]

Gaius laughed and gave him a nudge with his leg. "There you go! See? And if you get an eyepatch, you've already got your Halloween costume figured out. You can be the roguish pirate! A scurvy sea dog, eh?" he chuckled, amused by his terrible pun.

He lifted his head slowly and looked down the strip of sand gleaming in the sunset, then back at Lucas. "Anyways, I came out here to run, and I think I'd still like to do a little of that. I'll see you at the site tomorrow, right?" He gave the guy another light shove with his knee. "You better!"  

[Lucas Wickham]

He smiled a little at the Halloween costume idea and the pun, though he wasn't all that amused. He could only wonder how many times he'd be hearing that one?

"I'll be there. I'll be there." He waved a hand and lightly pushed the man's knee away. "Enjoy your run."  

[Gaius Harper]

Gaius's grin brightened at having accomplished his task. Turning away, he started to trot down the strip.

"Have a good evening!" he called back.

Vixen gave Lucas's face one last wet kiss before she too hopped up and chased after her master.

Then he was off, an odd black-and-tan form flying along the line between sand and sea.

Somehow, Gaius'd managed to forget much of his worries before even beginning his run.  

[Lucas Wickham]

Smiling at the dog, he wiped the sloppy kiss away and watched her go. Once left alone again, Lucas sighed, ears drooping. Unlike Gaius, Lucas immediately remembered his problems. He had come out here trying to forget things but found himself more troubled than before. Zach had his eye. The sick feeling in his stomach returned. He sat for a while, going over everything he'd heard in his head and stewed and smouldered over it.

After the sun had set and everything went dark, Lucas climbed to his feet. He had no interest in staying outside at night. And he might as well try to get to sleep early since he was sure it would take him a while to fall asleep.

He hoped the construction site would distract him.

[End]  

[Cody Archer]

New RP

Cody was half stranded on the sand, feeling dizzy as hell. Not too long ago he had stumbled on an interesting site, a large underwater pipe that came from the mountain side of the island. Of course the curious dolphin boy had to go investigate, but the water around that area was bad. It made his eyes sting and had a nasty taste
Because of that he didn't stay around long, but apparently it had been enough to upset his still adapting body. He had vomited the contents of his last hunt, which only helped to fog his senses and increase his disorientation
That's how he managed to get stuck on the beach, feeling like he was going to pass out because of the constant urge to expose the contents of his stomach and now the overheating his dark body was causing  

[Gaius Harper]

Gaius strolled down the beach in one of his many outings, Vixen at his side. He'd let her off her leash this time, hoping she'd behave herself. As long as there wasn't any threat around...

So it was with exasperation that he watched Vixen bound off. The canine, having paused as they reached the beach, sensing an unusual, unhealthy smell connected with a person, made a run for the source immediately. She could tell something was wrong. Gaius ran after her as best he could manage, his spindly combination of legs and feet giving him an awkward time on the soft sand.

Vixen reached Cody long before Gaius, bounding into the shallows where the boy lay exposed, and sniffed at his wet hair and face, fur brushing slick skin. Her master stopped short up on the beach as he caught sight of the body and stared wide-eyed. While different, the sandy hair and tail were more than enough for Gaius to recognize that kid he'd played with ages ago. Oh hell, had he been attacked? Suffering something from his serum? Worst case scenarios ran through his head as the winged horse-man ran down into the water, pushing Vixen to the side just enough to be able to brush some hair from Cody's face and place a palm against his slender neck to try to check his pulse. Vixen, whining, licked at the dolphin-boy's hand in concern.

Relieved to find Cody was alive, at least, Gaius spoke up, his voice full of worry. "Cal-no, blast, what was his name... Corry? Cody! Cody, are you hurt? Cody!"  

[Cody Archer]

Cody tried to shake away the licking sensation, half-awaken half-lightheaded from the heat. And when he felt something touching his face and neck he stirred even more, clicking and moaning in a sleepy annoyance

He tried to open his eyes, but the bright light reflected by the sand kept him from focusing straight. All he could see was a large shadow over him, but he didn't even have enough strength to move away. All he managed to do was raise his head enough to rest it on his hands, trying to rub the fogginess away  

[Gaius Harper]

It didn't occur to Gaius that Cody, as a dolphin, must be in bad shape if he was lying up on the beach like he was. Vixen, however, having felt how hot to the touch the boy was and smelling the unhealth about him, took matters into her own paws. Splashing into the water the boy was partly lying in, she turned her back to the two and dug into the water and sand as if she were digging a hole. The resulting splashes splattered both Cody and Gaius with water and muddy sand, drenching them both.

"Gyah!" Gaius squawked in surprise, shielding his face with a hand. "Vixen! VIXEN! Stop that! Bad! Sto-" He spluttered, spitting out a wad of sand that'd just smacked him in the face, and rubbed it off his nose.