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 Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 7:37 pm
New RP
Although Valentine had been intending to find other people, the sound of running water had called to her, and before too long she had found herself walking along the river. It roared along merrily, filling the woman with both yearning and contentment. Her loose, blue top clung to her with the breeze, and her hair, hanging loose, blew behind her.
It was almost a relief, after her walking, to take off her Birkenstocks and sit down next to the river, dangling her feet in the cool water. It tugged her feet along, and she smiled as her feet bobbed and weaved in the froth. Who knew that such a mysterious island could be so beautiful? It was rare to find a pristine river like this at home, and Valentine was almost tempted to strip down and go for a swim. No one was around to see her, after all.
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 7:44 pm
Surely, surely no one would be here. This would be quiet, and Cass could sit and think and be outside and read.
Her tongue flickered as she slithered closer. Someone was here, but not anyone she knew, either. Cass almost turned and headed back, but she clutched her book a bit tighter and pressed on.
She could just catch a glimpse of the stranger, a little ways off, and easier to pinpoint because of her body heat. "Er, hello there!" she called.
Cass wasn't even sure if she could be seen.
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 8:10 pm
Alone in her thoughts, Valentine was relatively startled to hear someone call out. She twisted her torso around, searching the nearby foliage for a flash of color, but didn't see anything. Intrigued, she pulled her feet out of the water and brought her her knees to her chin, hunched into a ball.
"Hi!" the Barbie doll called back, bemused. "Is anyone there? Come closer!" To be sure, the voice was a bit spooky, as there was no body attached to it. The speaker sounded female, though, and pretty far away. Perhaps they just had good eyesight, and could see her when they were still far away...and the ground was flat, so they were invisible. Right.
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 8:17 pm
Cass hovered behind a tree for a moment. Gosh, she was sort of pretty. Was she new?
Oh. Oh, did she ever hope someone had gotten around to telling her what was going on. She slithered out into view, coming closer. She wasn't wearing anything but a halter top, but really, there wasn't much to hide.
She waved a feathered arm. "Um, hi. I didn't actually know anyone was here."
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 7:14 am
Okay...whatever that thing was that had emerged, it was not what she had expected. Valentine gasped, her eyes widening in shock, and leaned back in a futile effort to get away. Then, with a shriek, she fell into the river, her arms windmilling fiercely in an attempt to keep her balance.
The river was an icy shock of cold water to her mind, even if it was comfortable in the heat. It drove all thoughts of disgust and other emotions from her mind. She bubbled and flailed for a few moment, but pulled herself back to shore with steady, if uneven, strokes. Apparently the YMCA was good for something. It didn't even occur to her to see if she could stand up in the river.
She hauled herself back out, shivering, and sat huddled in a pool of cold water. Now, with her makeup smudged, she looked more like a bedraggled rat than a pretty woman. What an embarrassment.
She hadn't been in the water for more than thirty seconds, but it had probably been enough time to make whatever the -thing- was feel miserable. After all, if it could speak (and English, at that) it was probably capable of higher thought. Still, it was no animal she had ever heard of. In fact, the thing looked sort of...human. Dear God, could it be Zach was totally right?! Still, she couldn't picture herself becoming a thing like that.
An apology was in order, in any case. The woman ran her palms over her face, mentally and physically smoothing any trace of betraying emotions such as pity and disgust away. "I'm sorry that I looked so surprised when I saw you. I just...didn't think the rumors were true. I thought the guy who told me was batshit crazy." She couldn't look at Cass, couldn't let her see her shame. "So...yeah. I'm Valentine. Can...can I strip? These clothes are kind of heavy now." Cass was still an animal, albeit an odd one, in Valentine's mind. She felt no compunction about stripping around the snake-girl that she would have felt around any normal human. Besides, who was around to care?
She continued to talk as she stripped, down to her underwear and her bra. All thoughts of bikinis only came to her mind now. Back at her duplex, she hadn't thought she would need one. "Yeah, I wasn't here until a few minutes ago," she explained. "I was looking for someone to talk to, but I love water, and so I stopped to stick my feet in. What're you reading?" The book in Cass's arms had only just caught her eye - before, she had been too distracted by Cass herself.
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 2:38 pm
Cass put a hand to her mouth in alarm when Valentine fell in, but speed without legs was not a thing she'd mastered quite yet, and by the time she'd hurried over, her assistance was no longer required.
"Oh! You're okay?" Thank goodness she could swim. "I'm sorry, too. I didn't mean to... I know I'm a bit of a fright right now." She tried to look away when Valentine started losing clothes, a little perplexed by anyone so apparently comfortable with their body. "I'm Cassidy. Hi."
Books, though. That was a more comfortable subject. "It's some Asimov. The Ugly Little Boy. Just a little light reading." She held it up, peering over the top of it to hide a tongue-flicker.
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 3:56 pm
"Sorry that I just stripped randomly, but you can get sick from wearing wet clothes, and I don't want to be sick on vacation...even if this vacation is getting a little bizarre." Valentine would have held out her hand to shake, but Cass still frightened her a bit. She wanted to say something appropriate that would smooth over her little fright, but she didn't know what to say about Cass. She was just glad she didn't look like that.
She raised an eyebrow skeptically, giving the book a thorough once-over. "I don't know what planet you're from, but in my opinion anything Asimov isn't light reading at all." It helped to not look at Cass, to pretend that she was talking to a human and the girl's appearance was just a trick of the light. She examined her fingernails instead, picking out the dirt that had wedged itself between flesh and nail. "Speaking of planets...where were you from, before you looked like..." Valentine trailed off, unsure how to continue. For that matter, she wasn't even sure if Cassidy had looked any different at any point in her life. She gave the girl a quizzical glance, as if to say "You were human once, right?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 4:10 pm
"Aw, but this is one of his shorter books. It's practically a novella. But to each his own, I guess."
Cass had to grin. Being asked what planet she was from was just about the best thing anyone had said to her in weeks. It fit in so nicely with her fantasy about being a member of an alien race, rather than just a plain old freak. "I'm from Vanderhoof," she said. "But I'm afraid that's not anywhere interesting. It's in Canada, and it's a pretty small town."
She settled herself down at what she hoped was an unthreatening distance, not exactly sitting, but half-coiled in what seemed to be the most natural position for her in an extremely alien body.
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 4:34 pm
Valentine stretched out, having fully stripped, revealing a pair of red boyshorts and a red strapless bra. The sun was pleasantly warm, enough to make her want to bask in it a while longer.
"Vanderhoof," she murmured, "that's a pleasant enough name. Sounds a bit German, actually. I'm originally from Baltimore, but I commute to and from New York and Boston, for business. I'm in pharmaceuticals." She couldn't resist bragging a little, proud of her big-city company.
She fell silent after that, content to merely enjoy the company (however strange it was) and the sunlight while it lasted.
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 4:44 pm
"It could be German," Cassidy admitted, openly puzzled. "I really don't know. It was always just... home."
How... weird. She'd lived there most of her life and she had no idea why it was called Vanderhoof at all.
"Pharmaceuticals? Oh, that's neat." Cass was quite sincere in this. "You get to do that all that travelling, too. I never travelled much... at least not..." She shook her head. "Er. You said you were on vacation?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 5:45 pm
"I know what's that like," Valentine sympathized. "Up until this point, I never wondered why Baltimore is Baltimore, or Boston is Boston. In fact, I have no idea what they mean! All I know is that York is a part of England, so New York is new York...which is fairly obvious."
"Yeah, it's actually my father's company, but he..." she paused, wondering if she should go on. Then she realized she could just gloss over the details. "He got sick, so now I own the company. Blue Vine Institute." She smiled wistfully as she continued. "And the travel is great. It's all east coast business, usually, so I don't get jet lag, and I get to enjoy everything those big cities have to offer." "
I'm on vacation now, yes." She nibbled absently on her lower lip as she thought about everything she had learned. "At least, I think it's a vacation. I went to school with Moreau ten years ago...suffice to say we aren't exactly friends. He says he's put the past behind him, though, and I guess he invited us - me and another person from our high school, Chert - out here to help start things over. Of course, this one guy, Zach, says that we're all out here because Moreau's going to turn us into animals, but..." She trailed off as a thought occurred to her. "Maybe...no." She shook her head and changed the topic.
"So what is there to do around here?" She had reached a certain point of boredom with her duplex, and she needed to explore a little more, find out from another person's point of view what interesting hot spots there were around.
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 5:57 pm
Cassidy was silent for a moment, unsure of how to take this information. "Well. Um."
An acquaintance of Moreau's: either dangerous, or to be pitied. "Well. There are people turning into animals here. It's hard to deny that." She spread her hands to gesture to herself. "I don't know about you in particular."
Eager to change the subject, however (there was a lot of responsibility in being the first to tell anyone this stuff), she continued, "But as for things to do... there's an entertainment room, full of movies and things, down in the town hall. There's the bar." She stared down at the book in her hands, and laughed. "I don't know. I mostly read, I guess. Go for walks. Er." Maybe that wasn't quite the right word anymore.
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 6:29 pm
Valentine's face darkened momentarily, as she remembered her first night on the island. "I guess. You're the first...person...I've met, who's changed. I met this other man, Zach, earlier. I thought he was crazy until you came along. He told me...well, at any rate, I don't know how they do it, but they did give me a shot when I first arrived. There's a variety of things that could have been in that syringe, and I'm not sure what any of them are."
An immediate perk in her mood followed the words The Bar. Not normally a drinker, Valentine nevertheless still had her share of booze at soirees and various other business events. There was a certain lift in mood that accompanied the alcohol, which she wasn't particularly adverse to. "A bar? Where's the bar?" She tried to make the question sound casual, but she ended up sounding a little more eager than she had intended. The sooner she could relax, the better. This island had been one surprise after another since she had arrived.
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Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 6:42 pm
Cass tilted her head. "I know Zach," she said. There seemed no point on commenting on the contents of the syringe, so she said nothing about that. "I've startled him on more than one occassion, actually. Hrm."
She drummed her fingers on her book, unaware that her tongue was flickering as she thought. "But... the bar. That's out on the main beach. They're usually pretty well-stocked. I've been known to sneak down there for a beer on occassion."
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Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 10:03 am
"He seems to be startled easily, I wouldn't be too surprised to hear that you had done so on several occasions." She sounded bitter, she realized, but there wasn't any reason not to be bitter towards Zach. He had told her the island's secret, and she had called him crazy, only to find out just now that he was right.
The tongue flickering was a bit disgusting, she thought, though it was probably unintentional. If Cassidy had become that much a snake, what was to become of her, Valentine? Moreau was bound to be in charge of the operations which made people into those weird hybrids...had he invited Valentine out to the island to do the same to her? The thought sent chills down her spine, even as she reminded herself that he had reformed. Of course, all she had as proof was Moreau's word...and Moreau could nurse a grudge longer than anyone else she knew, assuming he hadn't changed, as he had claimed, in those ten years. Valentine rubbed her arms, feeling her mental chills raise the hairs on her arms and neck.
"As for the bar...Which main beach? West, east, north, south? It's an island, there's bound to be a beach on each side...and do you know if they have cold drinks, right now? I need something icy." Thoughts of a chilled mojito filled her mind, as well as the relaxation that came with the alcohol. She drummed her fingers against the ground anxiously, casting a glance towards her drying clothes. She'd have to go back to the duplex to put them away before she could go have a drink. She didn't want to carry them, though. With a mental shrug and a sigh, she wrung out all the dampness she was able to, and then wiggled back in to them.
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