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 Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:11 pm
Ambrose had been blissfully and obliviously soaking in a smaller tributary of the cool river, floating on this back, where the water was moving more langorously.
Having been relinquished of William's presence several hours ago now, Ambrose had slipped into a state of relaxation that only a half-asleep state in the shade and wet respite from the heat of the island could provide.
His polo shirt, short khaki pants and briefs had been left on a branch near his point of entrance on the banks several meters upstream, and Ambrose had long forgotten his nakedness.
However, when a sudden, and unmistakably feminine "Oh!" roused him from his reverie, his state of clotheslessness came back quickly to him as Ambrose, before even identifying the source, ducked under the water.
His lupine head emerging on its lonesome a few moments later, joined momentarily by a large pawed hand to wipe his long blond tresses from his eyes to give him a better look at one rather surprised hedgehog woman.
"Emelyn..." He spoke the name slowly and sheepishly. "I... wow, the river has become a popular place all of a sudden..."
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:18 pm
Emelyn bit her bottom lip, pulling it inside her mouth for a moment of a surpressed smile before realeasing it again when she felt her composure had returned. It wasn't like there was anything on Ambrose she hadn't seen before... but even so- the fact did little, she was sure, to distill that measure of embarrassment and surprise he must be having.
"Well, perhaps it's just the sake of the... sights," She said, holding back a smile but unable to let the cheekiness lay fallow as she placed a hand on either hip.
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:23 pm
Ambrose sunk a bit deeper into the water, covering his nose as he could feel his cheeks burning. There was a murmured blurbing as a few bubbles escaped to the surface.
For once, Ambrose was glad of his... changed anatomy for the purposes of modesty, although it was true that although the situation was rather embarrassing, she had seen him before. This, however, only questionably releived any potential awkwardness.
Giving another bubbly sigh into the water, Ambrose straightened up a bit in the not-so-deep water, exposing himself down to his waist as he wrung out his hair and resisted the gut instinct to shake himself.
"SO... ah... Emelyn... Aside from the ...obvious.." He gave a wry smile. "What might you be doing about?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:29 pm
Emelyn let the smile spread to her face- now that it was more a happy pleasantry than a teasing grin. She shook her head and lifted her shoulders in a carefree shrug.
"Mm. Not much. Just washing off the 'dirt of the road'. I've been out all day scavenging." She winced slightly in the face of the sun, stepping gingerly into the water as she spoke. There was a pause as she walked up to her chest, and dunked her head backwards into the cool water. Only after she'd resurfaced- standing straight up so that her proto-spines wouldn't flop into her face, did she rub out her eyes and take a good look at the man she guessed she'd always have a special friendship with.
"So. ....How long has it been? Since the change?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:36 pm
Ambrose sidled back to give her some more (unnecessary) room as she walked into the river. Why is it that whenever someone does something, such as skinnydipping, even in the most remote of locations, people seem to flock to them. Had I been wearing swimtrunks, I am willing to wager that I wouldn't have run into anyone.
Directing himself towards the question, Ambrose shrugged, bringing a hand to his prominent muzzle as the subject was breached. "About a week now I'd say..." He glanced down at the surface of the water, glad that the moving water did not do much for its reflective properties. "It still takes some getting used to... even after having changed before, and seen others around me."
He glanced over at her, now freshened from her dunk. "So you're still doing alright... out of the duplexes? I'm honestly surprised... and admittedly somewhat impressed... that you've kept it up this long."
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:43 pm
Emelyn idled in the water, spinning about with her head back, letting the water skim the dirt out of her spines. It was a cool, sweet feeling- as was the warmth that beat down on her furry face. But nothing was sweeter than those delicate compliments that floated through the air to meet her ear.
"Thank you," she said, her eyes still skyward. "It means a lot to me that you feel that way." She lifted her head up to peer at the man. For that's what she saw him as- a man, despite the fur. Too long had she gone without seeing Ambrose's original, human face to see him as that- but rather, she saw him as something more than man or beast- she saw what he projected, those emotions and loyalties that were unique to what he was. And that transcended species.
"And I'm doing fine. ...Since the attack, things have gotten a lot better. ...Well... despite ...everything," she nodded at his fur-covered form, "you still look... like you."
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:53 pm
He watched her turn gracefully in the water, the rivulets of water slipping through her spines, and creating pretty, if fleeting, patterns in the water around her.
He nodded at her acknowledgement. "It... seems to suit you, somehow. I'm sure that sounds strange. I don't mean that you're some sort of wild woman, but it seems you've found a new confidence .... 'living off of the land' and all of that. I just hope that you're getting enough to eat, and that nothing's really been bothering you."
He smiled, the expression starting to feel more natural to him now - the soreness of his muzzle had faded, and the subtle expressions that had seemed ungainly before now integrated themselves almost disturbingly easily on his inhuman features. But this was him now, no mask -and just like before even his first transformation, it was what people saw. It was important that he could clearly express himself. And the lupine features only seemed to sometimes accentuate Ambrose's attitude - aided with the movement of his ears, or small curl of his lip. Perahps the small keys in his DNA that built these features coded also how to use them.
"Thank you... That means a lot to me... although I'm sure that that goes without saying."
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:02 pm
"Mm," she said, smiling at him and inviting her lip back into her mouth in a tender bite once more- this time, more out of happiness than out of a desire to contain embarrassing mirth. ...She wondered- nearly as idly as let the water hold her up- how she'd been so angry with him so long, how she could have shied away from this friendship. ...Emelyn knew that the feelings that had been blossoming within her for Ambrose had died before they'd had a chance to flower, but- now it seemed so long ago, and although the buds of love had died- the branch was not barren. Instead, the fresh green growth of friendship had returned. And it felt right.
"I've been called worse things than a wild woman," she said, beaming in the light. "And I don't think you need anyone to tell you this suits you. ...Hell," she said, tipping her body back to float upon the surface of the river, "I think you'd settle into any skin they'd given you." She hummed a happy, singular laugh. "In fact, I'd like to think that we're all fitting into our new skins with some sort of dignity."
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 1:17 pm
Ambrose settled onto his haunches where the bottom of the stream angled back up to the riverbank, his tail wagging behind him against the resistance of the water. It felt something like a rudder, he thought idly to himself.
He was glad to see her smiling to easily around him again. He had been worreid to speak with her again after the tension during the lockout. Ambrose had originally grown close to her because he found her easy to talk to and a fast friend. More than anything he hadn't wanted to lose that. And after a tremorous period... things seemed to be blossoming again alongside the other spring growth. Not the vibrant passion that had perhaps been the future of the smiles before, but a comfortable friendship. Perhaps the changes over his friend were also ... suiting - not just in the way she bore them with a human dignity, but also setting her aside in her uniqueness. She wasn't just a face that had reminded him initially of Angelina during her absense - but unmistakably her own person.
He grinned wolfishly. "Well, I'm sorry to hear that others' words have not been as favorable, Emelyn."
He gave a rolling shrug. "Perhaps it's just from the bias of familiarity - reading too many books on wolves, but I think I am fairly lucky in my fate by comparison. But maybe it's like horoscopes or vague fortunes - whatever you read you can apply to yourself, and it seems to fit. Of course I'm sure that I have been changed under the surface as well from these injections more than I realize. But I like to pretend that's not the case."
"Some I think better than others, but perhaps in time some of the rest will find comfort. I hope so at least. But some of the newer ones... Jamal... and I've heard rumors of others... don't seem to be taking too well. I don't know if there is a change in the serums, but I've heard of... attacks..." Ambrose shook his head, not realizing Emelyn's own recent encounter. "Maybe it's because I'm a 'predator' myself, but I've yet to at least run into anyone being more hostile than throwing strong words or perhaps growling and showing teeth." He shrugged, trailing his thick, rounded claws through the surface of the water. "Or maybe just different people have more measures of self control.... or maybe the changes for some are the opportunity for an excuse for hostility that they wanted to display. Something to blame?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 4:18 pm
Clouds hold no answers. They are nothing, and they symbolize nothing. Merely in the minutes of chance might they take shape- the winds may form them into the visage of the familiar- or perhaps the mind might change a cloud- likening it to shapes and figures as it projects itself upon such a malleable bit of nature. ...In that moment, the clouds above Emelyn's eyes were nothing... as truly, they are always nothing. But in that moment, they seemed to her to be a herd of beasts, chasing after their prey.
Emelyn could almost hear their feet pounding beneath them- a cavalcade of clawed, misformed hands that struck the earth as their bodies were propelled forward. In her mind- no vision of Jamal or the attack suddenly appeared- no TV movie-esque flashback in which the edges of her memory fuzzed over to allow her to relive those moments suddenly played. Instead, she had to force it to the surface, coaxing the warped threads of that terrible hour to the foreground of her life's tapestry. Only then could she run through the events in her mind, allowing them to run in the background of her consciousness as she turned her head to Ambrose.
"I think... it's a combination of both the serum... and the measure of the man inside the new skin," she said softly, her voice echoing strangely in her mind as her ear was tucked underwater, "Sometimes... Moreau makes the monster..." she looked back up at the sky. "And sometimes Moreau just brings it out."
She paddled back a bit, allowing a soft kick to propel her. And as she floated past Ambrose- almost leisurely, the perfect image of an airy, lighthearted soul- she contradicted both their eyes- and, like a cloud is revealing itself with a gust of wind to be nothing... she shattered the illusion.
"I didn't know... that you hadn't heard," she said. "...Jamal attacked me a few weeks ago. Almost killed me. I woke up in the lab with stitches all down my back. ...Never before have I been so happy to be in a white room."
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Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2006 6:04 pm
Emelyn's leisurely strokes invited a similiar level of comfort and security from the wolfman, he leaned back again, his eyes traveling skywards to see what Emelyn's eyes might glimpse in the clouds.
To his eyes, however, no murderous heard of beasts trampled across the otherwise clear expanses of the sky. Instead, lying picturesque in the open expanse of sky the river carved between the jungle's canopy was the sinuous contours of the female form. He cocked his head, brow furrowing for a moment as the clouds weren't quite right to flesh out the image that it was so close to. Ambrose nodded in agreeance to Emelyn's sage proverb, and was about to vocalize his concordence while picturing that bunch of clouds there perhaps traveling to another prime spot to more accurately reflect his mental image....
But as she changed her course and spoke of her own encounter with Jamal, his words stopped in his throat and his eyes were wrested from their imaginative diversion, now forgotten, and back to his very real companion as they widened with incredularity.
"He attacked you?!" He summarized, aghast. "I had heard that he attacked Awen and Antony shortly after his change... and even Aubrey not so long ago... But the first two I could chalk up to him having a rough time dealing with the change... Aubrey with a violent rebellion against the staff.... but you? ... and that recently!"
He shook his head, a rumbling growl in his chest. "There is no excuse for that!"
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 9:25 am
"He really wasn't himself," Emelyn said- the only thing in her mind that she might liken to an excuse, "he dropped down out of a tree and never said a word. Just growled... and then leapt at me when I ran. I tripped on an upturned root, though... and when he jumped he missed where he was aiming for. I think. I fell to the ground and rolled up." She made small, circular patterns in the water that radiated out into a larger, quieter disturbace across the entire surface of the river. "It's the only time the hedgehog has ever taken over. ...I don't remember anything after that. Just waking up in the labs with Aubrey."
Emelyn hadn't cried since the attack. Not since that night that she'd crawled up the mountain in pain and resigned herself to the dark loneliness of her cave had she let her emotions...fall down her face. It was the true nature of the girl- that she would allow herself so few tears for any one thing. ...Only Mizzie's death had broken that rule. She'd cried so much and so often, her eyes were constantly raw with loneliness, and those around her tried to give her 'space'. It had seemed frightening to them- wrong, somehow- that even such a deep mourning could bring out such apparent, violent weakness. Crying was meant to sort out your feelings, to ease a sudden sorrow- not to constantly moisten ones face as if in protest of loss. Likely, these same people who had avoided Em after her sister's funeral for this uncomfortable reason... would have applauded her now. Such a strong, upstanding child. Such a paramount of optomism. ...But how they might have shirked away at the knowledge that for every tear Emelyn found she could not cry... inside the fear and the loneliness only compounded.
"Do you know... after the attack on Aubrey, someone said they put Jamal in a cage. ...They didn't do the same after the attempt on my life. ...And..." she said, her voice even and low, "I've been thinking. If the staff watches us constantly, if they have cameras all over- surely they'd watched the event as it occured. ...Why didn't any of them do something?" She closed her eyes and swallowed down a suspicious lump that had crept to her throat. But still, no tears waited behind those blue eyes.
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:02 pm
Ambrose's face turned down once again to the moving surface of the water, a solemn expression as he listened to the accounts of an event that should never have occurred.
"I don't know how good of an excuse that is for him. I heard... I heard that he killed a man before ever coming her. He told me himself." Ambrose had declined to mention this to many people.... but he had recently found himself worrying more and more about sharing such a small island with a man like him. At first, when Jamal had thrown it in his face in argument - and an argument that would signal the end of what somehow started as a frienship between the two very different men, Ambrose had sought justification. Now, that seemed justification in itself for Jamal's brutish attitude.
He raised his head again at her query. "I heard a rumor, though I never saw him there myself." He scratched his arm. "I.... I wish I could say I knew... why that happened. Everything I've heard from the staff is their claims that they wouldn't want true harm to befall us. We're too... expensive." He stepped closer to her, treading water as the bank fell away from the base of his feet. Maybe... you say you've been in the jungle? Maybe there aren't as many cameras out here.... Maybe... it can be dangerous out here." Worry laced his voice as he saught to make eye contact.
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:34 pm
Emelyn turned her head to him. She'd heard something... maybe pleading, questioning in his voice.
"It's a very western belief... that it's not acceptable to sacrifice the body for the mind... or the body for the soul. One, you can see... it's tangible, it's flesh and bone and blood..." she put her hand up, stretching- as if to reach the sun. "If it's damaged... people can see it. It scares them. ...But if your mind is hurt... if you've violated a tenet of your soul- no one can gauge that pain. It's... acceptable." Her hand willowed down to the water.
"I'd rather have this...torn to shreds," she said, meaning her body, "and be okay, in here..." she moved her head, languidly where it lay in the water, "then be the most beautiful... most 'safe' traitor to myself." She floated near to Ambrose, and reached out that same hand which had failed to touch the sky, and touched him, instead.
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:48 pm
He took the hand that wandered towards him between his big hands, the rough calloused pads were tickeld by the coarse brown fur that covered her own, smaller hands.
"I suppose you're correct. I have been... brought up to view injury to the body to be the most painful of offenses... they are what people see. Perhaps like the physical changes that this island brings and one reason I think you are one of the people least changed on the inside for bearing some of the most changes. You can look beyond the shell, or more importantly you know that as long as you have the strength and identity on the inside, that no matter what happens you are still you... and you can cope. I wish that some of the other islanders who are still more human onthe outside and yet much less so beneath that facade... could see things like that."
He patted the hand. "I still do admire your courage and determination. FOr your sake, however, I hope that that trial by fire is the fierciest of the physical trials that this exodus puts you through. Even if they are preferable to returning."
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