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The Dude rolls into the cafeteria, bored and bummed because the waves and the wind have prevented him from doing any diving today. He instead spent most of the day trying to balance his knife on his infex finger. In fact, that is what he is doing right now, too, sitting on one of the chairs backwards.

"CLINK" - the knife falls onto the floor yet again.

The Dude: stare

Ambrose wandered into the cafeteria the next day, once again finding himself motivated to prioritize his day around the first meal.
The days had started to really blur together. Which was a good thing, he reminded himself. It made the day that he would return that much sooner.

Once again spying the Dude in the cafeteria, he stopped by the lunchline to get a helping of some chicken-fried steak and headed towards his usual table.

"Yo, bro. Gimme some skin" - the Dude grined at Ambrose, picking up the kinfe with his left hand.

"Sorry, I split so fast yesterday - figured that it was no good to try adn talk in front of the gorrilla. How's life?"

It had been a few days since she'd washed up on the island, and Emelyn was still getting the feel- quite gradually, of this strange place. The room she'd been staying in looked like some sort of hotel room that had been decorated by a man who didn't believe in color, and the 'village', if that's what it could be called, was filled with people who didn't seem to know anyone around them. She'd not gotten a chance to meet a soul... were they all stragglers from the vicious sea, or perhaps they were part of whatever research this Dr. Moreau had set aside this paradise for.

She found her way into the cafeteria, directed by her nose and by the memory of seeing people streaming in its doors throughout the day. She hadn't seen hide nor hair of any of the people who had rescued her that first day- and so she didn't know how long she was going to be here- so she might as well get to know the people around her.

The first person she spotted was a man with blonde dreadlocks... who looked much more home on an island like this than she did, and another blonde with his back to her. She resisted the reaction to 'size them up', instead settling on walking over to introduce herself. She kept her hand to herself- something about shaking hands seemed a little staged... but she smiled at them instead.

"Hello there."

With a plate of caesar salad, Cassidy wandered into the cafeteria, thinking hard. She was wishing terribly for a certain volume of Asimov that she'd left back in storage, and feeling depressed about not having it.

She could manage for a while, of course. Either she'd end up heading back at some point, and have it, or she'd shell out for the shipping. The thought of that made her wince.

Hey, people. There was the Dude, and that was that... um... Ambrose, that was his name. Cass hoped he hadn't taken offense when she'd run out that day at Greer's. Geez, that would be just like her, too. She wandered over, wondering if it'd be polite to join them.

Ambrose smiled amicably, and this time - was able to mimic the hand-slapping ritual to near-accuracy, mentally congradulating himself.

"No problem... Dude" He sat down, filling his fork with food. "I left shortly thereafter myself." As much as he would have been surprised to admit it several days ago, he was begining to like this fellow. And their similar lunch schedules made him progressively easier to chat with. "I don't think anyone could have gotten too much information out of him."

He looked up as someone new entered the cafeteria and met her with a smile. "Hello there, miss." He stood up and gestured to an open seat. "My name is Ambrose"

Em looked around, not sure if the blonde man was gesturing for her to sit, or to the other woman who'd just come into the cafeteria. However, she was closer to the table, so Em took a chance and sat down in the empty seat.

"Emelyn," she said. "I just arrived a few days ago."

"Cassidy!" - the Dude perked up and pulled up a chair from another table for her.

"Come hang with us." - he grinned

Turning towards the pretty brunette he stretched out his hand and introduce himself: "Hello Emelyn. I'm the Dude here. Just call me that."

The man with the dreds- the one who'd greeted the other woman and referred to himself as... what was it, the 'Dude'?- obviously hadn't heard over the din, so she referred the same statement over to him.

"Hi. I'm Emelyn. ...Just a few days ago." She paused, a little embarassed at the memory. "My boat's sitting somewhere in the bottom of the harbor right now. ...Do you live here on the island?"

Cassidy grinned back and slid into a seat nearby. "Hey," she greeted, and forked up a mouthful of salad.

She blinked at Emelyn in some confusion, and swallowed. "One of these storms got you, too? I'm Cassidy, by the way."

Ambrose smiled to the new brunette. "It's nice to meet you, Emelyn!" He sat back down and held out on taking another bite of food until she had been seated at least.

At which point he spied Cassidy as well (well, technically the Dude had spied her and brought her to his attention). He waved at her, welcoming her over.

Thank god - at least today there didn't seem to be any of the staff about... unless this new "Emelyn" person was one of them... and she didn't seem to be.

"Cassidy," Em said, nodding with a slight smile, so she'd be able to remember the name. "Yep... is that how you got here, too?" She asked, shocked that there were those that shared her situation.

"WOW, join the club, Emelyn. My boat had a bit of a run-in with some cliffs two days ago. Probably was the same storm." - his expression got much grimmer, now that he was reminded of his poor "Manatee". "The old girl had a good death though - like a warrior, perished in battle with the sea ..."

"You seem none worse for wear, though. That's good." - he added

All in all, this cafeteria reminded Emelyn of any she'd ever been in- people talking over one another in the beginning, conversations and introductions overlapping until people paired off, so she just tried to run with the flow and answer everyone at once.

"It's nice to meet you," she chimed to Ambrose, emphasizing 'you' so as to let him know she agreed with his sentiment. She was a little surprised that she was the only darker-haired individual at the table... it almost made her stick out, and she ran her fingers through her insane bangs, wishing she'd made some effort to slick them down before she went out of her little 'cabin' that morning. But how was she to know that she'd be meeting two men today... especially, she thought, irritated with herself for thinking so shallow, such handsome ones.

"Are you new to the island?" She asked Ambrose, hoping he'd have some more information about this strange place.

"Oh no. Not me. I'm the housekeeper." Cassidy was getting used to explaining this, but it didn't feel any less silly. "He did, though." She jerked a thumb at the Dude.

Her last conversation with him reminded her of something. "I guess you got your vaccinations already?"

Em laughed at 'The Dude's' words and, as a response, pulled her aviator's goggles up off her forehead so as to display the egg-bump there, now turning purple with a few days healing.

"I'm lucky to have gotten out with just this," she said. "The boat capsized and split nearly in two with that damn storm. ...And good riddance. I was so sick of the sea." She paused, realizing she was probably being insensitive to someone who obviously cared about their vessel. "I'm sorry you lost yours, though. ...Did you have it long?"

Before The Dude had a chance to respond- or Ambrose, either, for that matter, Em turned head to Cassidy.

"Oh," she said, not knowing how to turn the fact that she was a housekeeper into a conversation where she didn't sound patronizing, "well, I'm glad you didn't get caught in that storm. It was no piece of cake. ...And vaccinations? No, I don't think so." But as soon as the words had cleared her lips, she remembered being seen by that Dr after she was brought up from the beach. "Although I saw a Dr, and I was pretty well concussed. Anything could have happened, really." She laughed. "She could have attached a third arm and I probably wouldn't have remembered. ...Why, are they a staple here? Vaccinations, I mean. Not third arms."

The Dude was about to start to wax poetically about the "Manatee" and how long he had her, and how much she rocked and what lovely time they had together, but when Cassidy asked the questions about the vaccination he stopped himself, and waited to see what Emelyn had to say about that.

In the meantime, a dishevelled lookng red cat entered the cafeteria. Fluffy tail high in the air, he strutted over to the four people and rubbed self against the Dude's leg, then against Ambrose's leg. Cuz Ambrose was the one currenbly with food, of course.

Ambrose nodded to Emelyn. "the pleasure's all mine. And that is really too bad about your boat. THe weather has been absolutely miserable the last couple of days." He chuckled. "OF course.... when you think about it, we ARE in the Bermuda triangle supposedly." He couldn't suppress a benign grin.

He took a bite of his food and chewed thoughtfully for a few moments. "I've been here for about a week now... I think I was one of the first people who arrived here aside from the lab technicians. "

Cassidy winced. "Nasty bump, there. Yeah, the vaccinations seem to pretty standard, I think. I can't... I don't know what they're for, though." The Dude's mention of conspiracy theories the other day still made her giggle inside.

"There's a cat," she said suddenly, peering at the mangy tom in surprise. "Where'd it come from?"

“Well, that’s pretty easy to tell, Emelyn. Roll up your right sleeve, we can see if there is a poke mark there. Mine got all hard and swollen the first day after I got it” – the Dude said.

In the meantime, Captain Morgan stopped rubbing himself against Ambroses’ leg and instead simply jumped onto the table and tried to sniff Ambrose’s plate. One coudl now see that the cat had a dog collar on, with a shiny tag.

The Dude sighed and pushed the cat off the table.

"This is Captain Morgan from the "Manatee"." - he explained simply.

She rolled up her right sleeve, and examined her pale skin- and besides the normal dot of a tiny mole or freckle, there was nothing there. The left arm, however, yielded the sight of a slightly raised bump of skin around a negligible red dot ringed in a faded purple. She was aware of eyes on her as she rolled down her sleeve and shrugged, so she leaned down, putting her hand to the ground and hoping the scraggly cat would come to her hand.

"I guess that means I've been vaccinated as well." She thought back on the conversation- and Ambrose's statement on being here earlier than most reminded her of something else she'd wondered about. She directed her question to him mainly, but still to the group in general. "What do you know about the island? I mean, it seems a little strange that there are so many people here who didn't mean to be. Is there a population of regular locals?"

Ambrose leaned forward to see for himself whether or not Emelyn had received the injection. Of course, having it didn't exactly prove anything, especially as they were talking about the necessity for the injection.

As the orangey tom leaped up onto the table from simply rubbing against his leg a moment before and started taking an interest in his meal, he held up an arm shielding the steak from his searching eyes. "No - bad kitty!" He tried to push him gently towards his master. "I rescued you the other day, that doesn't mean that I owe you my steak." he commented ruefully.
Turning his attention back to the blonde surfer "Dude, can you get your pet off the table..?"

Looking back to Emelyn and the purpose of the Island he smoothed his hair back in embarrassment. "well..." He sighed "From my knowledge, other than you and he" He nodded to the Dude "who shipwrecked here... Cassidy being here for the job... I'm here for a medical study.... other than that I met someone here the other day... a Matthew, who's here on vacation."

"There's Greer, too. She lives upstairs from me. She's an etymologist." She made a face. She'd probably gone and offended her, come to think of it. Stupid.

Something occurred to her. "Wait a minute. A vacation?" Cassidy blinked. "On a privately-owned island used for medical study?" She shook her head in disbelief, and tapped her fork irritably at a cruton. "He could be, I dunno, friends with someone here. But... come to think of it, it's the weirdest thing. When I took this job, I had every reason to believe that I was being employed by a hotel... they said it must've been a mixup of some sort in the job posting I saw."

She frowned. "But they gave me a raise to make up for the confusion." Ah, capitalism.

The Dude nodded, agreeing with Ambrose and Cassidy then remembered.

"Oh and Madison. Doctor Madison Moreau. She also recived an injection - hers is to cure her deafness, she claims. But she is a space case, so ... " - he shrugged and trailed off. Considering it was a surfer dude/beach bumm/sea rat who was calling this Madison a space case, she must have really been a weird one.

Insulted by such rude ejection from the table, Captain Morgan came up to the offered hand and rubbed against it, hoping that the hand would feed him. It's not like he wasn't able to provide for himself. But trying to catch voles in the jungle was tiresome and he was accustomed to a diet of fish. Fresh ocean fish. Or chicken fried steak.

Em gave the cat a good long rub along its back, and scratched its head with her nails- thinking as she did so that it had been too long since she'd had a cat around. ...Even if it was Mizzie who'd always been the cat person. She pushed the thought out of her mind, and peered up instead at the owner of the beast, thinking that he, too, seemed a bit scraggly- but he had a certain, nonchalant allure about him. And those eyes weren't ones that seemed to belong to a a 'beach bum'. She blinked away from them, and chided herself heavily for letting herself get 'crushy', before lapsing back into normality.

"I think I've just watched too many Twilight Zones," she said, referring to her mistaken assumption that everyone on the island was here unwittingly. "But medical research?" She said, her brows furrowing at the unpleasantness of it. "What sort? ...If you don't mind my asking, of course."

Ambrose chewed on these thoughts; the notes about the deafness and how now that Cassidy mentioned it, it DID seem rather strange someone was vacationing on a research Island. Especially after all the nondisclosure papers he had to sign when he was first signing up for the study they seemed a rather paranoid bunch.

Ambrose eventually caved to the cat's mewlings and gave him a small sliver of his steak, hoping that it wouldn't single him out as "the sucker" of the group and thus further begging.

He looked back to Emelyn. "well, they weren't very specific about it beyond saying that they were testing a temporary physical enhancer. Mostly for medical use and for the disabled in some fashion. They couldn't tell me very much - they said - because they are trying to test for potential side-effects and judge just how effective the drugs are." He gave a bit of a reluctant look. "I'm... I'm not usually the sort that would jump at something like this" It sounded almost like an apology.

"But what worries me is that Matthew - the person here "Vacationing" - said that the staff told him that they were doing genetic research... and that doesn't seem to match up with anything other than what that Madison person said about deafness."

He gestured, glancing at Cassidy. "I compete in fencing tournaments, and I can't have anything in my system that will get me disqualified. And they promised that whatever it is they're doing would be gone by the time my two-weeks' study was over."

"They wouldn't dare inject you with something that would keep you from competing without your knowledge. Lawsuit city. They couldn't. It would be crazy." Cassidy swallowed another mouthful of salad and stabbed at the air with her fork. "Geez. We all seem to have contradictory stories, don't we?" Conspiracy theories, indeed. "Come to think of it, if they did vaccinate Emelyn... is that even legal, to vaccinate someone without their consent?"

She peered suspiciously at the freckles on her arm.

"Well, maybe it IS Dengue fever. Even though Greer doesn't think so. We need to wait for her to collect some bugs and tell us if there are any mosquitoes capable of transmitting the fever, anyway. And the Madison chick is full of s**t. Or maybe we jsut all received different types of injections - some for the fever, some for deafness, some for ... whatever Ambrose is here for." - the Dude scratched his beard.

"I mean - it's not like any of us have been harmed by the injections yet, you know?"

He looked at Emelyn, a bit distracted. Was the new chick giving him the "look"?

Em shrugged. "I don't seem to be any worse for the wear. And as to whether it's legal for them to inject me without my knowledge... I really don't even remember that night very well. I was in pretty bad shape- and I was lucky Sabin found me and pulled me off the shore. For all I know, I was trespassing just by laying there." The thought brought a picture of the Wilhemina, laying at the bottom of the harbor, and wondered where The Dude's boat was. It also made her wonder what the man's real name was, but figured if it was important, he'd have told her.

...Not that she really knew any of these people. Especially the ones they spoke of that she hadn't met- this 'Greer'? The deaf lab technician? She barely remembered Sabin and that Doctor- and certainly didn't know the background of these people, or anything about them, besides... well, what sort of lunches they ate, and how they came to be stranded on this strange island. Normally, Em probably would have just chalked these people up to 'temporary acquaintances' and gone on her way... but even if she did have a method off this island, she figured she'd probably still stay a while. After all, where else did she have to go? Back to Europe? Something about travelling didn't appeal to her much anymore, and she found that she had some strange, vested interest in these people.

"That's right!" Ambrose chimed in after Cassidy. "Greer did say that those kinds of mosquitos couldn't carry Dengue here..." He sat back, with an apologetic wince at his outburst. "I don't know much about Dengue - I think I might have heard the name in passing before, but nothing more than that."

"Although you're right, we don't seem to be very bad off. I think perhaps we've just been here too long without television or something" he chuckled.

"Did they tell you how long you were here to stay, Emelyn?" Ambrose inquired. "They told the Dude that they were needing to do background searches of some kind.." he shook his head. "But he washed up here without a passport, which might make getting him back to the US rather difficult."

He gave a snort "Maybe this is where all those people that get lost in the Bermuda Triangle end up" He joked.

"I did a year of nursing school," Cassidy said glumly, "and I certainly couldn't tell you anything about Dengue fever. "Maybe I do read too much science fiction, but this is just a little weird. Maybe I should've expected it, coming to the Bermuda Triangle and all.

"And yeah, I suppose we're all okay. Although I did feel awful the day after I got here, but I'm not exactly used to this heat. I'm Canadian," she laughed. "And my sister always did get sort of sick after the diptheria-tetanus shot. At least you," she pointed at Ambrose with her fork, "are headed home after a few weeks, right?"

"Well, this Matthew guy and Greer both have heard of it. So it is a real disease. But neither of them knows what the symptoms are." - the Dude tried to sound calm and knowledgable, if not for his sake, then at least for the sake of Cassidy, who seem to be starting to worry for real. He now didn't have the heart to bring up what Aubrey had told him a few days ago - the Cassidy was here as part of a study, not as a house keeper. Thus far, noone seems to have been hurt by the injections and the stories that were not adding up - so why worry.

But the suspicions were still eating at his heart, especially since he was feeling so helpless without his boat and his passport and stuff. Ruffling his dreadlocks in frustration, he uttered:

"Ah, s**t. This is all confusing, man. I mean, if they are lying to us, then there's nothing we can do. The Feral labs feeds us our food, gives us the duplexes to sleep in and controls who can and cannot get off this island. And, we are all kinda stuck at their mercy here. So let's just hope all these little lies are to protect them against competition. Cuz there's really very littel we can do about it."

Captian Morgan had wandered off to pester the cook instead, since she had given him leftovers before.

Emelyn... really didn't want to think about it like that- all the conspiracy theories, and the idea that they were stuck here on the island; somehow she just shut it all out- her mind dropped a wall around it, and she convinced herself that if she really wanted a way off the island- she could find it, but until then- she wouldn't play conspiracy with these people.

"I don't think it's so bad as all of that," she said, shrugging and tapping her fingernails on the tabletop. It's amazing how a person who is just coming out of a mind-numbing grief will let themselves gloss over the dark, or the possibility of a terrible thing happening- protection against the sadness.

Ambrose nodded at Cassidy. "Yes! Just about another week left now. Shouldn't be too much longer." He laughed around the last bite of steak. "And all these paranoid ideas will fade away into the sunset behing the chopper." He said, gesturing with his hand moving smoothly palm-down and outwards, pantomiming an easy trip.

"I felt ill for a couple of days after the shot as well. And I've been eating a lot.... but I have been feeling much better since then. Remarkably better you might say. Those are probably due to the medicine for the study, however. Almost a pity it's temporary - I've had so much energy! And also too bad that the weather's been bad - I wanted to work more on my fencing moves to take advantage of it, and the duplex rooms are rather small."

Ambrose swallowed at the Dude's acessment of the situation. "Well they can't just keep us here!" He said it with a forced laugh. Well, they could keep the Dude here, but he was a special case. Ambrose had signed up for a two week study. "Classes start for me again in about a month, and Angelina is expecting me back next week." He fiddled with his fork. "Just because they have control over transportation doesn't mean that they are going to make us stay here...." He didn't sound quite so convinced or convincing.

"Of course they can''t," Cassidy said. "Stuff like that doesn''t really happen, not outside books and movies, anyway." See, she totally had a firm grip on reality, no matter what her mother sometimes accused her of. Conspiracy theories were just that--theories. And fun. And that was all.

She really ought to write her parents, come to think of it.

Seeing both Emelyn and Cassidy be braver and more optimistic then himself, the Dude felt shamed. Go go girl power! And Ambrose, too, albeit Ambrose didn't sound quite so convinced, actually. So the Dude proped his head on his arm and looked at everyone with an amused look:

"Okey okey, well, glad to hear that, then. Hey, it's a tropical island, with a beach, sand and lovely ladies. 'S not like I am gonna complain. 'Sides ... another explanation for this could be that we are just part of some new reality series. You know, "Survivor" or some such stuff. Except we dont' know it yet. Maybe they are filming us right now, watching us trying to figure out what's wrong, agonizing? Maybe we should give them a run for their efforts, ya know?"

And then he winked. To noone in particullar it seemed at first, though more towards the gals, and away from Ambrose.

Ambrose chuckled. "Perhaps so, perhaps so. I shall attempt to enjoy my time as best I can, hope for better weather, and perhaps we are giving some home television audience a show." He picked up his tray and carted it to sit it on top of the trash recepticals.

"I shall see you all around" He said with a nod to Cassidy and Emelyn. "I hope that you two are able to enjoy yourselves about as well, and hope that the discussions haven't caused you too much worry, Emelyn. I think that something entertaining such as a conspiracy theory is addictive and contagious - especially when there isn't any normal methods of entertainment and the weather is preventing conventional beach activities."

Grabbing one of the wrapped ice cream sandwiches to eat on the way back for "dessert" he smiled. "Well, I think that I'm going to go practice some fencing as best I can in my room. If either of you think of anything else to do around here, or wish to add to the paranoia - be sure to let me know" he waved with a good-natured laugh.