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 Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 7:07 pm
As much as she tried not to, the squirrel woman stole a glance of his features when he stepped inside, and suddenly anger replaced her lacking self esteem. With a soft growl she slammed the door shut and locked it, narrowing her eyes down at Chert. It was only then that she noticed her large feet had given her a few inches on the grumpy man.
"Go ahead. Say it," she sneered openly, attempting to mask how she was hurting with her lovely temper. Not that it was much of a stretch anyways. "I'm disgustingly ugly." Her voice cracked, but she quickly hid it by letting an irritated snarl pass by her lips.
Antony was damn set on not crying in front of anyone else. Jamal had been bad enough, but she couldn't take another one of her men looking at her as if she were, well a lowly animal.
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 8:02 pm
Antony's contempuous tone drew Chert's eyes to her face like metal filings to a magnet. He glared up at her, a little disconcerted by the new difference in height but unwilling to show it.
"Bullshit," he snapped angrily, the coals of his own ire quickly sparked to life by the fires of her own. "Don't put words in my mouth."
True, the structure of her face was unfamiliar now, but the cadence of her voice and, ironically, her changed eyes identified the person standing person him as Antony, without a doubt. And they'd had this argument before. He was aggravated to have it come up again... mostly because no miracle solution had magically appeared to him between then and now. How best to reassure her? It was still a mystery. All Chert was certain of was that he'd rather have her infuriated than hurt or self-conscious.
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 8:28 pm
"Then tell me Brian, I'd rather hear the ******** truth then keep getting horrified looks from my friends," she crossed her arms over her chest, continuing to glare down at him. Her eye colors only accentuated how furious she looked, her front holding up well enough for now.
The tails behind her twitched and moved with her mood, generally all doing the same, spastic set of motions.
All of a sudden, she threw her arms up in the air, both hands rubbing over her face and then into her hair, which she messed up nervously, taking a deep breath as slowly as possible. "Just... Be honest," she murmured shakily, eyes catching his a moment before conveniently looking down at the hem of her cami, where her fingers were fidgeting.
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 9:06 pm
The use of his real name caused Chert's eyebrows to twitch indignantly. He was about to respond with an insult he'd probably live to regret, when Antony's anger abruptly vanished into a motion that was oddly similar to the typical face-grooming behavior of a rodent. The heat had vanished from her words, which made him wonder if it had ever been truly sincere and not... Huh. He, of all people, should have picked up on it sooner.
Chert's faced collapsed into a more neutral frown as he forced his frustration away. He rubbed at an imaginary itch at the nape of his neck. "Jesus Christ, Antony," he muttered. "If you leave an apple on the table and you wake up and it's a ******** orange, you're going to be surprised, alright? I just..." His voice trailed off into silence- somehow, the fruit analogy seemed inappropriate for the situation. Chert let out a short sigh, and when he spoke again, his voice was so low as to be nearly non-existant. "I'm sorry I didn't came over sooner."
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 9:21 pm
Antony blinked at his analogy, teeth grinding together as she gave him a glare, mouth opening to mention that she didn't just switch bodies overnight. His sudden apology caught her off guard, and she blinked stupidly, anger suddenly gone from her features.
He apologized?!
Without a dead bug?!
The squirrel woman continued to stand stupified as her brain attempted to process what he had just said. "You're sorry?" She finally asked, voice void of any heat whatsoever as she brought her eyes to search his face for any sort of tell, but there were none to be found. "Why?" Of course she had to know. If he could apologize, then he could explain as well.
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 10:01 pm
Chert looked affronted at the questions. In his mind, they were less incredulous and more disbelieving, as if she were unconvinced of his sincerity. "What do you mean 'why?'" he huffed, folding his arms back into their customary position. He'd said it. He'd meant it. End of story. No explanation pending.
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 10:11 pm
"Why should you have come sooner," she said simply, tails finally relaxing a bit more and pulling against her back, tips flicking every so often. "If you had, then you could have seen this-" she motioned to herself, "-happen." Though she was sure he definately didn't want to do that anytime soon. After a bit, Antony moved to sit down on the nearby couch, wrapping her arms around her waist in a comforting motion.
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 10:56 pm
His eyes tightened at the mention of the transformation- it was impossible to pretend that the thought of witnessing it wasn't disturbing- but he couldn't shake the sharp feeling of guilt that weighed down on his shoulders. "I still should have been here," he muttered, trailing behind her to the couch.
Right, because two freak attacks are always better than one, a small voice in his head sneered. This is what happens when you get involved with other people.
Chert ignored it and sat down heavily beside Antony, resting his forearms on the tops of his thighs.
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 11:18 pm
Despite the fact that he still didn't answer her question, his muttering and the fact that he had voluntarily seated himself next to her. After a long, awkward silence, Antony unwrapped her arms from around her waist, cautiously slipping the one closest to him between his own. She carefully took his hand and gave it a squeeze as a sort of show of good faith, or something like that.
With a deep breath and her eyes still foreword, she cleared her throat softly. "I just... Well... I don't feel... Like myself anymore," she stuttered, having a hard time getting the words out for some reason. Antony ran her other hand roughly over her face and through her shortened hair, wiping away any moisture that would possibly show any more weakness.
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 11:42 pm
Chert looked at once worried and encouraged by the gesture. His thumb ran lightly over the tips of her claws as his mouth tugged to the side in an expression that rested somewhere between a lop-sided frown and a faint smile. "True, you didn't knee me right away," he huffed softly, placing his remaining free hand hesitantly atop hers. "But you still sound like you. You still move like you."
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Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:05 am
Antony let the corners of her lips twitch upwards when he didn't flinch away from her, but instead put his other hand ontop of hers. Usually physical contact like this was something she avoided at all costs, but right now she didn't care. He wasn't fleeing, and if he tried to she had a good enough grip on him to yank him back to hit him. Or something.
She shrugged off his kneeing comment, attempting to chuckle softly, "But I still feel horrid..." Jamal, who was supposed to be her safety net, wasn't even attracted to her anymore. Damned Kaveri. "And that's not me..."
Part of her felt extremely self-conscious that Chert was still completely normal and was getting a sort of glimpse into his future in Rodentia. The other part of her was angry at herself for still feeling this way because truly it wasn't like her to be weak. "I miss my tattoos," she said randomly as her eyes moved to her chest, frown forming at her lips. "And the goddamn fur! I hate it! Even previous to all this s**t I hated being hairy. Period. But now I have no choice!"
Sighing roughly after her mini rant, she slumped her shoulders, "I guess I should be happy it's not black and coarse." Absently, she shuddered, being at least a wee bit thankful that the fur was rather fine and soft.
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Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 1:24 am
But I still feel horrid...
Chert merely grunted at the comment, having exhausted his admittedly miniscule supply of support with his last two verbal reassurances. The problem with being a pessimist was that it meant you were rather ill-suited to play the role of comforter. He was of the opinion that many of the world's people often tended to feel horrible because, by and large, the world people had made tended to fairly a horrible place. So he lost as to what he could say because he was unsure of how she'd avoided coming that conclusion already.
Her tattoos were an unfortunate casuality of her change. Their complexity and bold colors had been pleasing, although Chert had never gotten around to actually telling Antony that directly. Bringing it up would just be throwing salt in the wounds, now. His fingers twitched slightly beneath her hands as he listened to her talk about the fur and tried not to think about how he'd be joining the club soon enough. Although an unfamiliar urge prodded the man into trying to be sympathetic, it had to fight against that natural tendency towards solitude. Through some miracle he was speaking in a rational tone, but there was an uncomfortable sense that any smile he gave her was liable to turn into a panicked rictus, and a part of him desperately wanted to bolt. It was a probably a good thing Antony had a firm grip on his hands.
Chert shuddered with her at the mention of the coarse fur. "Huh, thank you for that image." And then, after a short pause- "... When did it happen?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 9:47 am
"Oh shut up," she snapped when he commented on the mental image, "At least you didn't have to see it... Feel it..." Her extra tails flicked and acted proud of their existance when they were generally referred to, but Antony chose to pay them no attention. Either way it had happened and Rex had had the luxury of having a front row seat to said transformation.
All of a sudden, Antony abruptly released his hand and disappeared into her bedroom almost immediately. She needed a smoke. After a bit of rummaging and the sound of her lighter flipping open, she returned with a lit cigarette dangling between her fingers as she blew out a cloud from her lips. "It happened a week or so ago," she murmured, relaxing somewhat thanks to the nicotine seeping into her bloodstream.
Oh thank the Native Americans for cigarettes, or rather tobacco but that didn't really matter to the squirrel woman.
Out of consideration she remained standing and a good distance away from him, maybe that would make him more comfortable to not be touching her. The animal inside her could smell his urge to run, and that was partly why she needed a smoke so bad. If he wanted to run, the squirrel figured that it should be running as well. Another drag of her cig and she looked as if she had calmed visibly, though her eyes still contained a sort of sadness that was unlike the usually confident woman.
"You want to run," she stated absently, frowning somewhat before sighing, "But you haven't." Obivious statement, but somehow it felt like what should be said. It was possibly a 'thank you' as well.
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Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 4:39 pm
Chert looked after Antony, a hint of puzzlement creeping into his frown at her abrupt depature. The harsh odor of smoke that followed her back into the room cleared up his questions, though. It wasn't a scent he was overly fond of, mostly because of its tendency to cling tenaciously to whatever surface it came in contact with (pants, shirts, hair, breath- take your pick) but he didn't begrudge her the cigarette, considering the circumstances.
Ironically, it was the offhand observation that he wanted to run that pushed him over the edge and made the desire too acute to ignore. Was he that transparent? Maybe Awen's infuriating prodding had poked a hole somewhere, and he was leaking feelings like an old car leaked antifreeze. Christ! He wanted to shove the world back a step and tell it to stay the hell where it was. To stop jabbing at the walls he depended on. Chert rose to his feet, dragging his fingers through his hair in an effort to prevent his hands from clenching into fists.
But before he could go, the indirect thank you had to be answered. "Listen-" he said. Strain made the words rough and clipped. "Six tails or not, you're the least insane out of all the people I've met on this damned rock." The sentence that came after was lost in an incomprehensible growl as Chert made for the door.
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Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 5:27 pm
She continued to smoke regardless of the looks he gave her. It was her duplex and she could smoke if she wanted to, and right now she simply needed to smoke. Period.
When he stood up, Antony tensed somewhat, immediately noticing his change in mood. It was strange how she seemed to be able to 'sense' peoples' moods and feelings now, almost like a sixth sense. One of the few positive things that the change had brought.
Without the heart to correct him on the number of tails she currently had, Antony stepped to the side so that she was blocking his way out. "You're still going to run?" She asked softly as she tried to keep the pain out of her eyes. Though she was appreciative of the hidden thanks, the squirrel woman couldn't help but feel insulted when he attempted to flee the apartment as if it were on fire.
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