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 Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 1:18 am
Chubbs tried to keep his distance of Anjali, for her sake really, trying to help her feel more comfortable. She was just as nice as he remembered and as pretty, even covered in dirt.
" No one is around, the village is all locked up. I'm gonna go to my duplex to find Joliette.... I hope they didn't take anyone.. if I don't find her, guard or no guard I'm storming the labs"
Chubbs turned towards his duplex, needing to find out.
" Stick close to the village, see if you can find people, if we are lucky I might get us off the damned place"
With that he took off
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 10:43 am
"Oh... okay," Anjali began, but Chubbs was already moving. "Take care?" she called after him, half-raising one hand in a tentative wave before dropping it to her side.
What was going on? Everyone gone, the Village locked up... what could that mean? What was this? She'd assumed her 'planting' was something related to her injection, but if everyone had gone through it... and Chubbs hadn't mentioned getting an injection THAT recently. He seemed too at ease with the change, relatively speaking, for it to be fresh.
Brow furrowed in thought, Anjali tightened her grip on the trowel and started towards the Village as well. Maybe she could break in and at least get a shower.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 12:09 pm
We're All Mad Here... Anjali Frangipani Anjali had been poking angrily around her duplex. She couldn't get a shower, which she very much wanted at this point... or anything else. The whole Village was bizzarely silent, with no mechanical or man-made noises whatsoever - no hum of various AC units, even. "What on earth has happened?" she murmured, then frowned sourly. Whatever it was clearly wasn't important enough to halt the injection process. Her skin kept prickling, and she wasn't sure if it was the start of a real change or something psychosomatic...
She jumped as a series of screams suddenly echoed through the Village - screams of fright, not of pain, thank goodness. "Hey! Hello?" Anjali called back, making sure the trowel was still in her back pocket before she set off at a trot. She looked around, trying to zero in on the source of the yelling before it abruptly cut off - and then she spotted movement on the cafeteria roof.
There was someone up there.
"HEY!" Anjali bounced on her tiptoes, waving one arm. "Hey, are you okay?" Julian Vorpalle Cheshire's eyes flicked down at the woman, his grin broadening.
"Oh, I'm quite all right," he shouted down to her. "Though I'm afraid Julian isn't. If you'll give me a moment or two...."
Aha - there was a thick metallic pipe protruding from the side of the building, snaking a little ways up and ending a few feet higher. Granted, it didn't quite reach the rooftop - nor did it reach the ground. But there was a tree just below it, some feet away.
Grinning to himself, the Cat bent further over the building's edge, surveying the situation with a twinkle in his bright green eyes. He swished his tail.
"...All right, then. Here goes everything."
Turning around, he grabbed the edge of the building, hanging from the side. Then...he let go, grabbing on a couple of moments later as the pipe rushed up to meet him.
It was an awkward position - arms wrapped around the pipe, knees clenched around it as well. Still too far down to be safe if he fell.
Bracing himself....
He shoved off from the pipe, using his meager weight to spin himself around in the air and catch his claws into a tree branch. Just like a cat might do.
He clawed his way down the trunk towards a lower branch, settling himself upon it with his tail hanging down.
"Now then," he purred, blinking his bright eyes and tilting his head to one side. "...What were we saying?" Anjali Frangipani "Be careful!" Anjali cried out, then gasped as the man swung around as though he were Tarzan himself. She watched wide-eyed at the acrobatics, noticing blankly that the man seemed to have an animal tail and ears as well. At last, he came to rest in a nearby tree... and Anjali slowly walked towards him. "Are... are you okay?" she managed, cautiously. "That was some stunt! I could never have done that... are you a gymnast, perhaps?" Julian Vorpalle Chesh quirked a brow.
"Hardly. I'm a Cat. A Cheshire Cat." He bobbed his head in a sort of bow, the grin never leaving his face. Was he simply insane? Or was he serious?
"...The question is...what...or whom...are you?"
Another swish of his tail. "...And what brings you here? You're the only life Julian or I have seen in a short while." Anjali Frangipani "A Cheshire cat?" Anjali raised one eyebrow, then shrugged. For all she knew, the scientists could have created a serum to mimic a storybook character. Why not? They certainly hadn't stopped at any other boundary of sense. "I'm sure Lewis Carroll would be pleased," she said. "I'm Anjali, I'm the groundskeeper... and a subject too," she added with a frown. "I was just checking to see if I could get into any buildings - I can't - when I heard someone yelling for help... was that you? Who's Julian?" She looked up on the roof as if expecting to see someone else up there. Julian Vorpalle "No, actually...that was Julian. Poor thing is afraid of heights."
He paused, thinking. Explaining who Julian was would be a tricky business. Perhaps it would be easier to just....
"...Would you like to talk to him? I could wake him, if you want. Granted, he may be a bit rattled."
He blinked calmly. Anjali Frangipani "Uh... if he's hurt and worried... maybe he should sleep, to feel better... I've never met him anyway," Anjali said quickly, waving her hands in a negative gesture, voice concerned. "Listen, what's your name? Do you know anything about what's been going on here?" Julian Vorpalle "Very well."
He hung his head over the side of the branch, leaning closer to Anjali.
"...My name is Cheshire. And if you mean the White Rabbit's games, yes. If you mean the sudden silence, I'm afraid not. One moment, Julian and I were resting in our room, the next...he was screaming all the way up there. The poor thing is deathly afraid of heights, you know."
Hugging his arms and legs around the branch, he swung so he was hanging from the underside, looking at the woman upside-down. His face was rather cut and bruised, too. Anjali Frangipani "Cheshire... that's an odd name. Easy to see why they chose a cat for you, then." Anjali sighed. "I bet they thought they were being terribly clever..."
She paused and looked around, thoughtfully. The village was still silent. "Maybe everyone got moved... I ran into Chubbs in the jungle, don't know if you know him... he told me this place was locked up tight as a drum but I had to come see for myself." Anjali frowned and tilted back to look at the sky. "Are we on our own, do you suppose, or is this another one of their experiments?"
After Cheshire finished speaking, Anjali turned to stare up at the cafeteria roof again. "If he's scared of heights, shouldn't we get him down? Julian?" she called, raising her voice a bit, calling towards the roof. Julian Vorpalle "...Hard to say...."
Cheshire actually laughed a bit - a strange, awkward sound. "...Oh, no, no. He's down here already, my dear."
He was still upside-down - the grin looked strained, and the blood was rushing into his pale face, making the silvery fur along the edges easier to see. Anjali Frangipani "Oh... well, that's good." Anjali looked confused, then shrugged again. Enough weirdness had gone on that she really didn't feel like questioning anything further. Not now. "Are you okay? Your face looks kind of banged up... did you hit your head or something? Maybe we can try to break into the first aid area."
A head injury would explain the odd behavior, at least. Or perhaps Cheshire was just an eccentric. She'd seen all kinds here. Julian Vorpalle "Oh, no. These were from beforehand. Don't worry yourself over them." His grin widened.
"...Now...all the buildings are locked, are they? Every last one?" He blinked a couple of times, his grip on the branch loosening. He twitched a bit.
DAMN. I still can't keep control for long periods of time, can I? What a...riddle...hrm.... Anjali Frangipani "I haven't tried all of them, but my own duplex was certainly locked tight - and my keys wouldn't work." Experimentally, Anjali walked over to the cafeteria doors. Sure enough, no matter how hard she pushed and pulled, they wouldn't budge. She turned back to Cheshire with a despairing shrug. "I don't know what's going on, but I don't like it one bit. And..." She rubbed awkwardly at the small welt over her needle wound. "I was injected before all this happened... or during, maybe, I don't know. So if I... start acting funny, or... I don't really know what happens. The serum I have is a plant serum, the sundew," she added, with a sigh. Julian Vorpalle His brows arched.
"A PLANT? Well, then...one of the plants in Wonderland's garden. I knew you looked familiar." His grin widened, then faltered.
"...Ugh...my head hurts a bit. I bet Julian wants to wake." His hands slipped up, leaving him hanging upside down by his knees. "Terribly sorry. Still not strong enough to keep this up for a long time...." Anjali Frangipani "Whoa, hey... don't fall," Anjali said, carefully coming up to him and standing somewhat underneath, arms spread awkwardly to catch him in case he slipped or something. "Are you SURE you didn't hit your head? Or there's something I'm missing...."
He certainly talked about Alice in Wonderland a lot. White Rabbit... Cheshire cat, plant in a garden....? Julian Vorpalle Cheshire looked her in the eyes.
"Of course, there's something you're missing. We're all missing something, or we wouldn't be here, now would we?"
His grin grew...then disappeared, his eyes rolling back in his head....He then fell, body going limp. Anjali Frangipani Anjali quickly moved to try and catch him, though... it didn't quite work.
Instead, she sort of broke his fall as she fell herself, under his weight. "Oof!" she grunted as they both hit the ground. "Ouch..." she winced, carefully squirming out from under him. Her muscles were screaming at her again, but it didn't feel as though anything was broken - one ankle twinged at her, but it didn't feel like more than a small sprain, barely worth worrying about under the circumstances.
She quickly leaned over Cheshire. "Hey... Cheshire, are you okay?" She put one hand on his shoulder and shook, gently. Julian Vorpalle "Mm...."
He groaned softly, head lolling a little bit to the side. Slowly, his eyes opened - but they looked...a lot more gentle all of a sudden.
"...What...? Wh-where...?"
He felt like he was in a fog. Dimly, he noticed the absence of his pocketwatch...but barely moved to verify it.
"...Who...?" He peered in vague confusion at Anjali. Anjali Frangipani "Are you okay, Cheshire?" Anjali repeated, brow furrowing in vague confusion. The man on the ground looked subtly different somehow. How bizzare...
She heard other voices now, she realized, echoing from another part of the Village. So there were others coming now... but were they staff, or more subjects? "Hang on," she said, gesturing to Cheshire/Julian as she stood up. "I'm going to see if there's anyone that can help." Venturing towards the voices, but still keeping an eye on the cat-man, Anjali looked around for the source of the sound. Julian Vorpalle "...Chesh...ire...?"
He blinked a few times...but as Anjali walked a little ways away, he managed to pull himself into a sitting position.
"...Excuse me, ma'am?" His eyes were glazed over. "...Who...who are you?"
Wobbling, he stood up, following her a few steps with a bizarre, serene little smile on his lips. Anjali Frangipani Anjali turned quickly as she realized the cat-man was not staying put... ah well. "I'm Anjali... remember? We were talking earlier..." She frowned slightly. "You were up there, on the roof, and then you jumped down as if you were Tarzan himself. And then you sat in the tree, and we talked, and then you fell out... did you hit your head? Maybe it will help if we find your friend Julian." Julian Vorpalle Julian looked up to the roof, then to Anjali with a strange, hollow little laugh.
"...You were talking to Cheshire. Cheshire jumped down from the roof? Well, he is good about protecting me...." He paused.
"...I am Julian, Miss Anjali." Anjali Frangipani "You... are Julian?" Anjali stared for a moment, then shook her head. "Then Cheshire is....?" she asked, delicately. Julian Vorpalle Julian smiled warmly. Given what he was saying, and the way his body was marred and malnourished-looking with claw marks...this might be creepy.
"...Cheshire is my protector. He cares for me." Anjali Frangipani "I... ah, I see." Well, okay. There was obviously some deep psychological problem going on here, but Anjali certainly wasn't the kind of person to deal with it... especially not now. "Well, he did get you down... are you okay, otherwise? The, ah, village seems to be totally shut down, we can't get into any of the buildings." Julian Vorpalle "Quite all right."
He frowned at this news, rubbing lightly at his arm. "...None of them? Not even the duplexes?"
A vague worry eased behind the dim, strange mist of his green eyes. Anjali Frangipani "No, not the duplexes either. It seems like... well, not that I've spoken to many people, but it appears some folk, maybe all of them, were moved in the night to somewhere else. And... I got an injection... did you?" She wasn't sure if all this might not just be some sort of standard procedure, some kind of bizzare back-to-nature ritual that happened every time - perhaps this time, it was a mass undertaking for everyone. Julian Vorpalle "...Not...recently."
He blinked a couple of times, swishing his tail around to his front. "...As you can see, I've...had a couple, though."
Still smiling.
"...But I changed quite some time ago. That's when Cheshire came to help me." Anjali Frangipani "I see," Anjali said again, feeling a bit peeved that she couldn't find any other response - but, really, what else was there? Sorry your mind can't take the strain of forcibly transforming into an animal?
No.
"I think I'm going to try and find some others, if you're alright," Anjali continued, carefully. "If we can figure out what's going on... maybe we can use it to our advantage. Ah... I'll try and ask people to come back here. To meet. And plan, perhaps." She nodded to Julian and started walking away, though she kept some of her attention on Julian - just in case. Julian Vorpalle "All right. I...I think I'll go look for others. I'm all right...but others might not be."
For some reason, he didn't wait for an answer. Perhaps the Cat was telling him what to do.
He bowed slightly, turning on his heel and wobbling off towards the Jungle.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 5:05 pm
Beach Camp...Anjali Frangipani Anjali carefully watched Julian go, then heaved a small sign of relief. That had been... awkward, and a bit frightening.
Still, she squared her shoulders and kept going. There were still voices, there had to be someone nearby. Peering around the corner of the cafeteria, she spotted another person - a woman? - walking away.
"Hey! Hello!" she called out, trying to get their attention. Lily Delaney Lily follows Antony's gaze towards the smoking helipad, jumping when she sees the smoke- how the hell had she missed that while on the roof? Maybe she'd panicked just a bit much- but now she is off the roof so that's not a major concern.
An explosion- that explained the sound. Torched Helicopter maybe explained the explosion. Her eyes widen at the mention of two people in the helicopter being torched as well, crying out in a hushed, disbelieving voice, "What?!"
She follows after Antony absently, almost hoping she'd provide more information- like she knows everything about it. She starts again when Antony mentions that everything is locked.
Atleast.. that means it isn't just her?
After she steps off of the stairway, she stops following after Antony- a voice off to the side catching her attention. She turns and looks back towards the voice, not surprised to see someone else there.. she just pauses, watching from the dirt.. Antoinette Devereux Her voice was strained as she delivered a sarcastic answer, "Now why would I make s**t like that up?" Antony wasn't that much of a b***h. It seemed like everyone kept hailing her down today. What was she, a cab? Antony didn't stop, she had s**t to do before it got dark, but given their situation, maybe more people would be more helpful. "Come with me!" She answered back, catching a glimpse of the woman before continuing on towards the beach. She was on a mission. Anjali Frangipani Anjali hurried to catch up. Was it her imagination, or was her injected arm throbbing a bit? She couldn't tell what was real and what was her stressed brain going into overdrive. Was this how Julian had been?
There was someone else there too, Anjali realized, and with a final quick sprint she caught up to them. "Where are you going?" she managed, taking a deep breath. "I'm Anjali, by the way - are you both subjects as well?" Lily Delaney With a somewhat unsure look, Lily follows after Antony- though she slows a bit to aid Anjali's catching up. She looks from the determined Antony to Anjali, "The beach bar, it would seem-"
"I'm Lily," she smiles, introducing herself- and realizing at that moment that she hadn't found out the name of the person that was now leading the way to the beach.
"N-" Lily pauses after almost answering the subject question. She settles for just nodding.. Antoinette Devereux "Antony," she answered curtly, choosing to ignore the 'subjects' comment for now. "And what she said... To see if it has any sort of food. Though I doubt we can survive on olives forever... And we need to build a fire..." She was going to continue on, when she caught Lily's slip, a nagging feeling of something not being quite right loomed over her. "You were saying Lily?" It came out a little sweeter than she intended, and it was obvious that it had been added superficially. A voice reminded Antony that while this left the possibility of her being a Carrot Top minion, she had been in the same general situation as her. Obviously, she wasn't behind this drama. At least they were coming up on the beach. Anjali Frangipani Anjali didn't catch the hesitation, and at this point it was the least of her worries - besides, if for some reason they were staff, perhaps they could help her with whatever this injection was going to do to her.
She suppressed the shiver fairly well that time.
"If you're worried about food - I'm a botanist," she said, carefully. "I've gone through this part of the jungle and located a few plants that are edible... it probably would be a good idea to lay plans. Have you any idea what caused this?" Lily Delaney Lily makes a mental note of Antony's name, and tries to follow along with the plans until-
She cursed herself mentally, but recovers quickly realizing there are plenty of reasons you could say no to being a subject- not that she could plead ignorance anymore.
"It's just- hard to accept," she sighs, "It's not like you go to an island expecting-" she cut herself off, frowning. She looks back to Anjali when she explains that she is a botanist and smiles again.
"Plants," she murmurs approvingly- if everything is locked, then it's lucky they have someone who can tell you what is and isn't edible. Antoinette Devereux "Well then, you're my new best friend Anjali." This was in fact -really- good news, "What about fruit in the jungle by the beach?" Antony inquired, knowing from watching Survivor that coconuts were a source of liquid and food. She'd think about how to get them from the tree tops later. Due to the fact that it sounded like what Antony had been thinking these past several days, she thought nothing else of the slip up. "Plans? Well... I'm going to dig a fire pit, and if you all want to help it'd be appreciated," she said, frowning slightly up at the sun before shaking her head in response to her next question, "There was an explosion, but that's all I know." A grin came to her face when her boots met sand, and she immediately stopped to survey the beach halfway towards the water. She was looking for where the tide stopped, but that didn't mean she had missed Lily's recovery. "Can someone check to see if the Beach Bar is open?" Antony wasn't trying to be bossy, well actually she was, someone had to take control of the situation. Anjali Frangipani "An explosion?" Anjali looked startled. "I wonder... if something happened in the labs? If everything just shut down?"
But if it had, why bother moving them all? Why bother injecting her? That didn't make any sense.
"I can go into the jungle here and bring back what I can. Fruit... possibly, it depends on what's ripe and what isn't. Edible leaves, certainly. And..." She paused for thought. "If there is alcohol, you might want to save some of it. Not to drink, but for things like first aid." Anjali glanced towards the woods. "Let me go look for something we can eat before it gets dark... and take this." She handed Antony the trowel. "If I find any good dead wood for kindling, I'll bring it back too..."
She hoped, desperately, that it wouldn't take too long. She didn't want to collapse in the forest alone if the injection worked... but she refused to sit around and sulk and be useless. Lily Delaney Lily, once on the beach, spots what she imagines would be the beach bar. She notes that Antony is good with taking control of distressing situations, and decides she may as well be useful as well- if she's kept busy she might stop saying the wrong things.
"I'll check the bar," she offers, nodding at Anjali's comment about medical uses for the alcohol, "If there is some there I'll get it." Antoinette Devereux "Who knows," she replied. Hopefully, the labs were destroyed, but with the way things seemed to go on this island, she highly doubted it. "Thanks," Antony said as took the small shovel offered to her and smiled graciously. This would help in digging a fire pit. Good, someone that was willing to work instead of whine about everyone else. The island was too big to go search and destroy to find every SINGLE one of your friends. At that moment, she briefly wondered where Jamal was, but then thought better of it, figuring that wherever he had ended up, she was pretty sure he would've started smoking immediately. Nodding towards Lily, Antony began walking towards a place right in front of the natural dunes, between where they were and the Beach Bar. It was well past the highest tide line, which was very good, and she staked the area with the shovel. Now to find wood. With a glance down the beach, Antony was pleased to see piles of driftwood littering the shore. At least she didn't have to go back in the jungle again. Bloody spiders. She went off to start dragging back as much wood as she could per trip. Anjali Frangipani Anjali set off into the forest, though she tried not to go too far in just in case. Hmm. If she remembered correctly, there was a mango tree just over here... she bent down and picked up a long, dead branch. It was a bit damp, but it would serve for knocking fruit off of tall branches.
After a few minutes' searching, she found the mango tree, and was glad to see fruit clinging to the branches. They weren't very ripe, but green mangos were still perfectly edible. A few hard, scraping movements of her stick brought a rain of fruit down from one of the branches. She stripped a large leaf off of a nearby tree and bundled them up.
There was a coconut palm further down the beach, she realized. They were a lot harder to knock down, but after five minutes she had three brown coconuts that she stuck into the impromptu leaf-bag as well.
A dozen good-size mangos and coconuts... good, not perfect, but good.
Another foray into the edges of the forest brought some possible kindling to light, in the form of driftwood pushed way up, maybe during a storm, then abandoned. It wasn't parched-dry, but maybe it would light. Maybe.
Arms full of leaf and sticks, Anjali plodded back down the beach towards the bar. Ugh, she was hungry too, now that she thought of it. And thirsty, but the bar would have bottles to fetch water in if nothing else. Lily Delaney Lily headed directly for the beach bar, and finds the bar in an interesting state. There is still alcohol there, though some is sitting in pools of water, while others are sitting in what would now be a non-functioning cooling system (whatever that may be.)
She picks up several bottles, and eyes the melted ice around the bar- fresh water this close is good. She nods, and makes several trips back and fourth from the bar gathering up alcohol- taking her time so she doesn't drop any- the sand may not smash them, but hitting each other would. This, of course, would be bad because it wasted the alcohol, she's in bare feet, and she feels she's smashed enough glass lately. Antoinette Devereux Not being the kind of girl to shy away from manual labor, Antony soon returned with bundles of sizeable driftwood over each of her shoulders. She could always go back for larger chunks when the fire was good and started. Grunting, a sheen of sweat visible on her brow and back, the sticks were dumped next to shovel, and with a crack of her neck, she meandered off down to the shoreline. Now to collect rocks. Beach tumbled rocks would be good, and lucky for her, the shore was littered with them. When she could find nothing to carry the rocks in, Antony kicked off her boots and began filling them. Once both were full, they were lugged up to where the rest of the stuff was. Damn if she wasn't sweaty. Her eyes drifted towards the beach bar. She was thirsty, but Antony figured that Lily would come back with water soon enough. Better get started on digging the bloody pit. It was painstaking work with the little shovel, but the tattooed woman didn't mind. She liked hard work and it made the island feel a little more like home. Eventually, a hole about two feet deep and three feet in diameter was dug. The sides sloped inward and Antony was damn proud of how good it came out. Wiping sweat from her forehead, she set to lining the sand with all the stones she had found. This, thankfully, was a less physical task than the previous ones. Anjali Frangipani Anjali slowly trudged up the beach - yes, her injection wound was stinging now, though she sincerely hoped it was just from sweat. "Got some," she said, simply, as she finally reached the new sand pit. She whistled appreciatively at the work Antony had done in her absence. "Some coconuts, and about a dozen mangos. They're not ripe, but they're still edible - just not as sweet as you might be used to." She dropped the leaf 'bag' on the sand and sank down to deposit the small bundle of driftwood. "Kindling, perhaps. Most of the wood in the forest is damp - it is rainforest, after all."
Then she half-fell down to sit in the sand, heaving a sigh. "I'll help," she added, picking up a few stones and trying to arrange them as Antony was. Lily Delaney After the trips with the alcohol, Lily returned to the bar to contemplate the removal of the water. The ice in the ice dishes didn't leave the dishes full, so she can pour a couple into the same one, and of course this makes the trips easier.
With the melted ice, she brings back to the fire pit whatever fresh water she can find, in whatever methods are available to her. She carefully digs little holes with her feet so that she can set down opened containers of the water without worrying about it spilling.
"I've got some water," Lily informs them, "It isn't that cold, but it's fresh."
She carefully fills a glass also taken from the bar, and offers one to Antony first. Antoinette Devereux Antony grinned proudly at the whistle, puffing her chest comically and pretending to preen. She was in a much better mood after doing some physical labor. Her eyes went to look over her findings as she listed them off, nodding approvingly. "Better than nothing, and I'm sure there will be tidal pools tomorrow if we need protein." Smiling at the help, she reached over for one of the less enticing alcohols that Lily had brought back, Peach Schnapps. It could be used as fuel if needed. "I think I may have seen some dry palm leaves down shore a bit, do you think those will be worth getting?" Regardless of the answer, Antony stood, dusting sand off of her before looking down past the Beach Bar. She tried to remember what she had seen the days she had come to the beach. Nodding to Lily, Antony took the glass and thanked her before gulping down half the glass. How much water did they even have? She passed the glass to Anjali. They would need more... And then she remembered, eyes lighting up, "Do you think the shower up the path would still be working? I used it to de-sand one day..." If they were, that would be loads of help. Lily Delaney "Well," Lily comments, looking over the stash of alcohol and water she'd gotten from the bar, "This is all I could easily take from the bar, though there are a couple of other things I can go get." She shrugs- alcohol and water seem the most important at the moment to her.
Lily pauses at the question about the shower, glancing down the beach curiously, "I didn't see a shower, where abouts would it be- I can check, water usually works even if electricity doesn't.."
Being pointed in the right direction, Lily goes to check if the shower is source of fresh water that they can use~ Lauren Granger Lauren tracked back, her stomach full of day old sandwhiches and what not from the dumpster but her mouth parched. A trash bag full of day old food, not the best in the world but still things that were edible, was in her possession. She saw life. Great. Hopefully they knew how to get ahold of water. Lauren was totally in survival mode, not really having much time yet to reflect on her ******** up situation at the moment. Anjali Frangipani Anjali quickly took one of the water bottles and drank deeply. "There's no lack of fresh water from the streams," she added after swallowing, in case anyone was going to panic about rationing. "I think we should be fine... and anyway, there should be someone here, somewhere. Otherwise, why bother giving me another injection? You don't do that if you're in panic mode... right?" She rubbed at the wound, then poured some of the water over it to clean the muck away. The welt was raised, but it seemed the puncture had had time to scab over before her 'planting'... fortunately. Infection was not something she wanted to deal with, even if only in such a small wound.
"If you're done with the trowel, I can open the coconuts," she added, nodding at Antony. Then she realized there was movement up the beach...
"Hi," she called out, turning to face the person approaching. Antoinette Devereux Antony nodded towards Lily, eyebrow arching when she notices another person, also female, coming down the beach with a trash bag. She decided not to ask, "Hey." "I'm going to grab some of those fronds, I'll be back in ten or twenty," And with that, she gave them a wave and headed down past the Beach Bar. She had been right, there were piles of dried fronds littering the sand by the jungle's edge. Carefully, she set about collecting as many as possible before throwing those over her back and walking towards their 'campsite'. Lauren Granger Lauren waved, noting the darker skinned woman drinking water. She dropped her trash bag. "WAAATER!!" She exclaimed running up. "UR, uh can I... please?" She looked at the woman giving good begger puppy dog eyes. She felt a little like tank girl at the moment, right in the midst of a post apocalyptic world where water was like gold. Anjali Frangipani "Ah, sure," Anjali said, startled. She quickly held out the half-empty bottle to Lauren. "Just make sure you save it so we can refill it from the stream later," she added.
After handing over the water, she pulled the trowel and one of the coconuts over to her and began trying to crack it. Wedging the nut between two stones to hold it, she hit it smartly with one edge of the trowel. In a few hard whacks, the shell cracked and liquid began to ooze out. Quickly, she picked up the coconut and tried to catch the milk in her mouth. It was fresh and sweet, not rancid at all. "Want some of this as well?" she added to the new arrival, tilting the coconut so that the milk didn't all come out. "I'm Anjali, by the way... and you are?" Antoinette Devereux Meandering back, she tossed the fronds next to the driftwood. "Now," she panted, "We need to build a fire..." Patting around for a bit, Antony soon pulled out her trusty Zippo and showed the two there before shoving it back in her pocket. No sense getting it sandy. "Ah, I'm Antony," she said, waving. Lucky for her she was in a fantastic mood, considering the circumstances. Lauren Granger Lauren picked up the water, drinking a lot but being nice in not wasting it. Even then she probably drank more than she should of. She then took the coconut milk and drank some all of that, feeling full at least for the next 20 minutes. Lauren's metabolism required constant eating most of the time. "Lauren." She said in between guzzling the water and coconut milk. Her tail wagged at something not rotten, she was worried and felt very stupid for her first instinct being the dumpster. But even then, unashamed she pointed to the trash bag. "There's food in there, it's a little old but nothing too smelly. But there is meat." She neglected to tell where she got it from. Her moose was sitting right next the the trash bag. Lauren probably could use it as a pillow just like she did before. "Just like old times I geuss. . ." She muttered to herself looking down and a bit defeated. Having it been 24 hours since Lauren had last slept once her belly was full she crashed. "Goodnight." She said going to reach for her moose plushy then makeing as comfortable of a bed as she could under the shade of the beach bar. She dreamt of her duplex and lessons with Moreau. Anjali Frangipani "Ah... rest well, then?" Anjali was surprised at the girl's quick crash into sleep, but it had been quite an odd day... and she seemed to have some changes. Maybe that affected things.
Once she had the coconut back, she whacked it a few more times until the shell cracked completely, exposing the white nutmeat inside. This, too, was sweet and pleasantly firm. "Do you want some, Antony? It's... not terribly filling but it will do in a pinch, and if this doesn't count... I don't know what does." Antoinette Devereux "Pleasure," she mused before she sat next to the finished fire pit, where she began shredding one of the palm fronds for kindling. Accumulating a large pile of fluffy frond shavings, Antony arranged them in the bottom of the pit before she went about lighting them with her Zippo. They exploded into flames almost immediately and she quickly began to add smaller dry sticks and as they caught fire, she gradually added larger sticks. Soon enough, a fire was roaring and Antony was beaming. "That'd be wonderful," she chirped in response to Anjali's offer, smiling before standing and proceeding to break the driftwood into smaller, more manageable, pieces. Stacking them next to the pit, Antony added a couple more so that the fire wouldn't go out before plopping down into the sand next to it. Anjali Frangipani "Now that is a welcome sight," Anjali remarked, glancing back in the direction of the Village. She supposed the chances of things changing by nightfall were remote, but at least they were on a tropical island - barring storms, the weather was pleasant enough. Camping on the beack wouldn't be too bad... for now, anyway.
"What brings you to the Island, Antony?" Anjali said, after a few minutes of picking the meat out of her own coconut half. Antoinette Devereux "And just think, no man had to help us," Antony mused happily, lips curling into a smile as she reached over to carefully take the coconut from Anjali. She took a bite and chewed on it with a low groan. Food was so great right now, no matter how little it was, but her question made her frown, "I won a vacation. Some bloody vacation." Her voice was quite spiteful. Anjali Frangipani "Oh..." Anjali stared into the flames for a moment. "I'm, ah, sorry... I was brought here. Hired, actually, to be the groundskeeper and gardener... I guess I still am, technically. I'm still paid, though what that money is good for here I certainly don't know. But I didn't read it through all the way... they tricked me, and I tricked myself too." She shook her head. "Do you know what you're going to be...? If it helps, I'm supposedly turning into a, ah, plant."
She looked at the fire again. "They gave me the injection sometime while we were all out. So if I... act funny or... change... I don't know what'll happen, but... maybe you could watch out for me... or something..." The words were hesitant, even frightened. Antoinette Devereux "Not a clue, but not like I can do anything about it right?" Her fingers picked at the white meat of the coconut as she shrugged, giving her a somewhat forced smile. A smile which faded moments later as Anjali mentioned that she was given an injection during this whole ordeal. Glancing down at the coconut in her lap, Antony blinked before nodding in agreement. Usually she didn't do things like this, but she could sense the fear in her tone. That and this girl had worked hard to set up this little 'campsite' by finding food, and Antony couldn't imagine how it must feel to know you're going to change and being helpless. "I promise..." The tattooed woman brought her eyes even with Anjali's as she offered her hand as a way to seal the deal so to speak. "Does this mean you'll end up... What's the word? ...Sessile?" Gods, it had been so long since college biology. Anjali Frangipani Anjali reached out and took Antony's hand without hesitation, offering a grateful smile as she did so. "Thanks... and I really don't know," she added, with a frown. "I was going to become a proper, scientific botanist before I decided that test tubes and sterile labs wasn't how I wanted to approach my passion. It might not be as 'advanced', but I prefer gardening and traditional methods... anyway. I can't fathom how human cells and plant cells, which are so very different, can work together. Maybe... maybe they can't. Maybe it'll fail."
And maybe it will kill me, she left unsaid, though her hands did shake just a bit before she suppressed that reaction.
"If I do root, though, er... this is as nice a place as any. Though... if I need something like that, maybe you could, ah, put me in the earth on the jungle's edge," she said, awkwardly. What a ridiculous conversation.
The subject needed changing, Anjali decided abruptly, not wishing to dwell on it any further. "You mentioned explosions earlier. Did you see the source?" Antoinette Devereux Antony hoped to whatever gods there were that she would not turn into a plant, for she knew that plants and animals were too different at a cellular level. Hopefully, it wouldn't kill Anjali. "My father probably thinks I'm still on vacation, two weeks haven't passed yet..." Trailing off, she pursed her lips before sighing and fumbling for a smoke. Hopefully she didn't mind, and Antony surprisingly made a gesture as if asking permission. If this girl was going to change, she didn't really want her last however long as a human to be miserable. This was indeed a weird conversation, "Um... I'll make sure to find a nice place, though... I'm not much of a gardener. I'm much better with machinery." And then she'll have a nice little 'chat' with Carrot Top. Paid or not, that would be beyond inhumane. She shook her head, "Nope, I was asleep... But a girl named Awen said there had been one, and I saw the helicopter... And the two charred bodies inside." The woman looked as if she was going to be sick for a moment, remembering the smell vividly. It soon passed and she looked out towards the crashing waves. Anjali Frangipani "Oh, go ahead and smoke, you're downwind of me anyw-Helicopter?" Anjali looked up, frowning. "The helicopter... exploded? Crashed?" Her mind was racing. That was the only way off the island... and only official people used it.
"Do you... suppose perhaps Moreau was on it... and... the island shut itself down? No, that's crazy... somebody had to move all of us, and inject me..." She shook her head, but her eyes were narrowed in thought. "Maybe it was somebody trying to escape and we're being punished? Or... ahh, it's too much." She sighed and tilted her head back to look at the clouds. "Maybe it's a test, maybe it isn't. Perhaps if we find more people, we can get a consensus. If it IS a real emergency... we could escape. Go home." The thought sent a thrill through her, and then her heart sank. "But if it isn't, and we try... life could be even more unpleasant very, very easily indeed..." Antoinette Devereux Antony liked this woman even more for not being uptight about her smoking, and with a grin, she reached out and lit the smoke in the fire lazily before brining it to her lips and taking a drawl. She made sure to blow the smoke away from Anjali as well since she was nice enough to let her smoke. "Do not underestimate the lengths a sadist will go to get their kicks," she frowned, knowing all too well and having a few scars to prove it, "Believe me." The idea of escape sounded too good to be true, and a sudden idea dawned on her, face falling, "What if the people in the helicopter... Tried to escape..." The possibility alone made Antony want to stay on this island. Dead she'd have no chance to go home, ever. Anjali Frangipani Anjali shook her head again. "I just don't know. I guess we'll have to find more people and ask them. Maybe tomorrow we can try and see if the lab is open... and if not, if we can get in somehow. There has to be a way... if we speak with the others... some are further along in their transformations. They have enhanced senses, among other things - things that make them, I think, more than human. Not less," she added, with a wry smile. "I always was an optimist."
The coconut meat no longer appealed to her, but she wrapped the remains up in the leaf anyway and set it aside. It wouldn't rot in one night. She felt tired, abruptly - night was beginning to fall and while she had slept quite a bit, apparently, it hadn't been her own choice. She'd had to struggle a lot today, in many ways.
"I may curl up and try to sleep," she said. "I don't think there are any dangerous animals on this island, at least we were never warned of them before and I never saw evidence of them. With the fire, we should be fine... would you like to alternate watches and feed the fire, or do you think we should just save the fire for while we're alert?" Antoinette Devereux She simply nodded. Tomorrow they would see. "Try and sleep, my mind isn't tired enough to sleep yet." It was true, her mind was racing with thoughts of too many things at once. She'd never get to sleep until they were sorted, or unless she an Captain had a bit of a date. Maybe later, she had made a promise after all. There was too much to worry about on this island... Anjali Frangipani "I will. Thanks, Antony." She gave the other woman a grateful smile before shifting in the sand, wiggling to make a sort of 'nest' in the warm softness. The sand here was far softer than most, as was common in the Carribean, and really it wasn't too hard to get comfortable - even if the little grains were a bit annoying. Still, there were worse beds.
Soon, Anjali had drifted off to a somewhat fitful sleep, one hand moving to cover the injection mark. Would she still be the same way when she woke up?
Who knew.
Fortunately, sleep came quick enough that she didn't have to think about it for long.
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Island of Moreau Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:15 pm
As you sleep that first night out of the duplexes, the stinging sensation in your arm seems to intensify. Your body begins to feel warm, strange, your skin prickly. You hear the hum of insects as a few of them seem to leave their buzzing around the fire to insetead flit around your ears. A cold sweat wakes you from your sleep and you feel unplacably odd. You get goosebumps, and many of the fine hairs on your arms stand up straight, and appear much lighter, prickly. Then... your hands begin to ache. The skin becomes smoother, almost waxy, and your fingers stretch... Your nails lengthen and... soften? As the tips become sticky. Meanwhile, the same situation seems to happen to the ends of your hair - lightening to a red, becoming sticky. As you watch, one of the buzzing insects flies into one of the strands, wriggling and buzzing futilely against the sticky substance that the strange bulbs secrete.... and you feel.... hungry. 
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Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 10:30 pm
QuarterAnjali Frangipani Anjali twitched in her sleep, then shivered. Was the wind getting cold? The fire out?
... no, it wasn't, she saw as she roused blearily. Furthermore, someone else had joined them, she could see them over by the edge of the beach... but not quite make them out.
Ugh. She felt warm then, then cold, then warm again. What was going on? She was far too young for hot flashes.
She reached to rub at her bare ams and flinched away as her hands touched something sticky. Her first thought was sap...
Sap...
"ANTONY!" Anjali shouted suddenly, staring at her hands in the firelight. Was it just a trick of the light, or were they... greenish? They were certainly tingling bizzarely at the tips, and aching in a way that was somehow subtly different from the abused-muscle feeling in the rest of her body. Antoinette Devereux The tattooed woman was mid yanking off her tank top when she heard her name yelled from back by the fire. Huh what the ******** was going on? OH ANJALI! In her haste to get her tank top off and turn around, somehow Antony managed to get stuck in it, her arms in a weird position over her head. "********!" She griped, finally managing to get the tank top off with a disgruntled grunt. She ran over and stopped in front of Anjali in nothing but her skeevies and a shirt in her hand. Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth to say something, but she couldn't find the words. Jamal_Reedy Jamal had ALMOST made it to the water but heard the loud "ANTONY" yell from futher up the beach, so he sort of stutter-stepped and nearly tripped face-first into the sand. Instead, he managed to catch himself with his hands and a knee and save himself the embarrassment. "What da HELL, I thought you gonna help," he snapped as he struggled to get up, still dressed in his boxers, which were on the verge of falling off his rear. He couldn't wash by himself because he'd probably drown on accident since he was a lousy swimmer AND his ankle hurt too bad to tread water should he get pulled out deeper than he could handle. What was the big deal anyway? He peered up the beach at Anjali, who looked somewhat scared, and noted Antony had stopped stock-still not far. He was obviously missing something. He cursed to himself and started back up the beach, tugging his boxers back up as to not scare Anjali anymore than she appeared to be, limping like a lame plow horse towards the two women. Anjali Frangipani Anjali was shivering now, her skin covered in goosebumps as prickles - not pain, just something like a bad case of pins-and-needles - swept up and down her body. All the hair on her arms was standing at attention, and she realized the hair on her legs was growing back at a bizzare rate - all to stand up straight, with a faint green tinge.
"I think it's happening," she mumbled as she heard people come up, not inclined to look at them when her body was changing right before her eyes. Antoinette Devereux Antony's eyes widened and she didn't know whether to vomit or to help. But how could she help? She dropped to her knees and moved towards Anjali, forgetting entirely about her lack of clothing. Ignoring Jamal for the most part due to the initial shock of the entire situation, Antony shushed him violently, turning to glare at him. Part of her wanted to keep watching, but the other told her to look away or face the possibility of being sick. On top of that, she didn't know how to be comforting in this situation. In the back of her mind, she remembered the simple phrase that would always make her feel better. "I'm right here... You're safe." It was a surprise to hear herself speak such... heartfelt words, but they seemed to be the right thing to say at the moment. Jamal_Reedy Jamal was taken aback by her shushing and was going to growl back some sort of retort, but saw the odd glinting of green upon Anjali's skin. He didn't remember that last time he'd seen her... "No ********' way," he said in a hushed voice, eyes turning wide as dinner plates as he hobbled painfully a moment, then took a knee since it was easier on his injury. "She's not...no...tell me she ain't..." His eyes searched Antony for confirmation of what he was trying to say. No. She couldn't be changing. There was no way. He couldn't help but turn back to stare in disbelief. Anjali was one of the few people who had been on the island longer than he had been that hadn't transformed yet. He had decided that she too was in the same boat he was; the serums just didn't work on people like them, but to see her changing before his eyes shattered that illusion. He didn't want to believe it. Anjali Frangipani Anjali did glance up at Antony's words, and offered her a wan smile. "Thanks," she said, then shivered again as another wave of discomfort hit her. Her hands tingled again, then suddenly lost all feeling and control, going numb in an instant. Her fingers hung limply.
She looked at the other person to try and clamp down on the panic, and realized it was Jamal. "Jamal... I'm sorry," she mumbled, looking ashamed. "I was the only one left so old... wasn't I..."
Something was happening to her nails, and she winced as the discomfort squirmed into them. Still no pain... but the keratin in her nails was changing color to red, deep red. And something was happening on her head, too, at the roots of her hair, a very odd sensation as though she could feel every strand in a far more sensitve way than ever before possible...
Experimentally, she sort of flopped her trembling fingertips together and winced as the tips of her misshapen nails sagged completely, then began to ooze an odd, sweet-smelling substance that fell in sticky strands. "Sundew sap," she said, and her voice sounded very far away. "It'll attract bugs to eat..." Antoinette Devereux Antony glanced between Anjali and Jamal when the former addressed him, raising an eyebrow at him for an explanation. This transformation was too much for her, so she busied herself by putting her shirt back on and wafting the Stench of Jamal away from her. Somehow, her eyes moved to look at Anjali's fingers on their own, and soon she was unable to tear her eyes away from them as they grew. Then there was sap. "s**t," she muttered, unable to really grasp the entire situation. Jamal looked about ready to s**t his pants, and she had promised Anjali that she'd protect her. In reality, she had no clue what to do and felt entirely helpless. Jamal_Reedy Jamal didn't know what to say to Anjali. Why and how could she be apologizing to him right now. He had no idea how she could even focus on anyone else but her own body, which was betraying her before the audience of three sets of eyes. "I can't watch this," he suddenly said as a fierce tremor struck his own body, catching his voice harshly so it came out choked as he pulled himself away. He half ran, half stumbled towards the ocean in a blind panic but as his feet struck the slightly harder, damp sand that lingered at the edge of where the water reached, he just sort of crashed into a sitting position and inwardly curled in on himself, arms going up over his head and neck in almost in an instinctive manner as he forced his chin to his chest. His stomach heaved painfully as did his lungs, both threatening to overpower him with either a guest appearance of his early meal or hyperventilation from panic and sudden exertion. Anjali Frangipani Anjali cringed not only from the strangeness of the change, but from the reactions of the others. "It's okay... I'll be okay," she managed, her voice still sounding far away. "You don't have to... watch..." Turning away from them and the fire, she hunched in the darkness, staring at her hands.
Sharp pain - she'd been waiting for it, but still jumped and gritted her teeth - shot up each finger as the bones lengthened and changed, human cells twisting into something not quite plant... but not quite human, either. She brushed one of her hands into her leg and felt, with those sudden sensitive hairs, that the greenish skin was a bit harder, and waxy. Like a leaf.
She wasn't sure how long she huddled there, forcing herself not to whimper or cry for the sake of Antony and Jamal. The weirdest thing besides her hands was her hair - she really could feel it now, an odd but not uncomfortable sensation of confinement from the braid. A spot-check told her that the tips of her hair had developed the same sticky strands, clumping together into larger fused masses at the ends.
Sundew... drosera...
And then, suddenly, she could move her hands again, and did so, tentatively.
A bug, attracted by the sweet scent of the gooey nectar her fingers and hair were now secreting, flew blissfully into one of the globs before she could stop it - and simultaneously, she was hit with an odd crawling of hunger, a desire to lean forward and lick the struggling bug up and into her mouth and...
"No," she said, firmly, turning away and flicking her fingers violently until the bug flew free. She kicked sand over it with one foot, and slowly the longing vanished.
A bizzare sense of relief flooded her. It had happened... it was over. There was nothing more to dread for now.
Nothing more than this.
"I... I think it's stopped," she said, carefully, still not turning to look at the other two. She would not inflict her presence on them until they were ready. Antoinette Devereux The tattooed woman glanced over at Jamal at his statement, eyes gaining a bit of surprise at the tone of his voice, worry taking over when his body shook. He had gotten up before she could stop him, and she simply watched as he fell apart, stumbling towards the ocean. A wince hit her when he fell, but her attention was caught by Anjali. She was the one changing after all, and she had promised. Luckily, Antony had missed the rest of the transformation thanks to Jamal's outburst, watching cautiously as Anjali dealt with the insect. Swallowing, she looked from the freaking out Jamal back to the freakishly calm Anjali. Props for Anjali's keen ability to keep composure during her transformation. Antony didn't want to think of how she'd react when... if she herself changed at all. Optimism, two weeks weren't up... "How... Do you feel?" She asked tentatively, tearing her eyes from the gooey fingers to the darker woman's face. Hopefully she was okay, because Jamal didn't seem to be handling it too well. She had accepted the fact that people on the island were going to look different, were going to change, and to Antony, she viewed them as 'body modifications,' conveniently forgetting that they weren't exactly voluntary. Whatever kept her sane. Another glance was sent in Jamal's direction, lips curved downwards in a frown. "Anjali, I'm going to help the hysterical one right quick," she didn't like how he was acting, and with an apologetic look towards Anjali, Antony turned and chased after the black man. With her luck, Jamal would try and drown himself.
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 5:24 pm
AwakeAnjali Frangipani Voices...
Anjali slowly became aware that someone was shouting, very distantly. But she didn't quite feel like moving yet... the sun was so warm, so nice...
But, she began to realize, her muscles were twinging at her. And she was thirsty... and hungry. Why was it so hard to wake up? She moved to twitch the covers over her - and hit only empty air. And when she groped her way down her leg looking for the errant linens, she felt... almost like grass? And sticky stuff...?
Oh, god. The recollection of the transformation shot through her brain like a lightning bolt, and she sat up so quickly that it made her dizzy. She had to close her eyes again until her equilibrium came back, then slowly, slowly opened them again, holding her hands in front of her face.
Her waxy, green, overly-long-fingered, nailless, tentacle-tipped hands.
... so it had happened. Blech, her mouth felt like something had died in it, and she made a face. Well, morning, she could get water and coconut milk and something to get the taste out. Then food. Anjali peered owlishly up at the sun.
... so late? It looked to be mid-afternoon, and she'd gone to sleep at twilight. Ugh. "Antony? Jamal?" she called out, sitting up a bit better in the sand, cursing as grains of it got stuck the mucilage on her fingertips. Antoinette Devereux While Jamal had gone of to dig in the dirt, Antony had sat down to finish his job, ignoring the pain in her arms and chest. The knife was getting dull fast. Antony nearly stabbed herself when Anjali sat up so suddenly, her eyes going wide and hand going to her heart. A wince came to her face when she was reminded of the cuts on her arms. "God damn!" Calming herself, she sighed and gave her an apologetic smile, "Sorry, you scared me... Jamal's off digging a pit trap while I cut these..." She explained, setting the knife down and turning her attention to Anjali. "Are you feeling better? I didn't want to wake you after..." She trailed off, frowning somewhat before glancing up at the sky. Gods she hoped it didn't rain anytime soon, and at that thought her eyes gazed towards the Beach Bar. Anjali Frangipani "Ugh..." Anjali shook her head to clear it. It felt weird... she tapped at her hair gingerly with one finger, and felt it twitch away by some new reflex, as though it were alive. "Feels like a bunch of little arms grew out of my head," she muttered, then concentrated.
After doing a series of bizzare facial contortions, she finally hit on the right neural command to move something that had never been movable before - and one of the hair-chunks that was fusing together at the bottom flipped slightly towards Antony. "... God, that's creepy," Anjali said with a scowl. "What time is it? Feels like I've slept for forever... probably some changes went on that we can't see, deep-down changes at the cellular level."
She paused, then asked, with some concern - "Do we have, ah, anything like a mirror?" She bit her lip and looked down at her hands. Antoinette Devereux Antony blinked at both her comment and the waving of the hair. That was just plain weird, "Uh... No mirror." It was all she could think to say at the moment. Shaking her thoughts back to the situation overall, she looked over at the Beach Bar again a slow smile coming over her lips. "At least we have a shelter if it rains..." She motioned towards the hut/bar and grinned, "We'll be able to keep dry firewood too. I'm scared it's going to rain, I mean... It IS a tropical island... Is there a monsoon season or something?" Anjali Frangipani "I'm not sure," Anjali said, grimacing as she scraped the sand-clogged mucilage off the tips of her finger-tentacles. "I know the season for the Indian Ocean by heart, but the Carribbean... no." She did look up at the sky, though. "Well, you're right - at least we have some kind of shelter, and I can gather more food."
She paused, and slowly got up, swaying a bit on her feet before regaining her balance. "I don't... feel much different," she said, slowly. "Other than the obvious. Maybe the sun is a bit nicer, feels... better, I guess. Warmer. Sustaining. If we weren't out here abandoned I might even be interested in analyzing exactly what was going on. I daresay if it wasn't me - if it was voluntary, it would be a fascinating experiment," she added, regretfully. "But we must do what we can." She nodded to Antony, feeling ready to get back to business. "What now? Has anything changed?" Antoinette Devereux "I got some more coconuts?" She said, motioning to the bloodied coconuts and then to her scratched up arms and chest. "Climbing down the tree didn't go so well obviously..." Pushing herself into a standing position, Antony grinned and began heading down to the beach, "I'm going to try to find a stone to sharpen the knife a bit... Do you know how to fish?" Meat was meat, and maybe she knew some things that Antony didn't. Anjali Frangipani "Fish... hrm." Anjali made a face. "Not really, unfortunately... plants are far more my forte. Though I know the basics of using a rod, and... I saw people spear-fishing on a documentary once? Hardly useful, but I believe a sharpened stick and quick reflexes are needed. As for bait..."
A fly landed on one of her finger-tentacles, and once again she resisted the urge to eat it. "I seem to be good at finding that, now," she said, ruefully as the bug drowned in the mucilage. Antoinette Devereux Antony nodded, "Fruit first then? After that we'll try and think of what to do next?" She couldn't think of much else to say as she went down to the water in search of some more of the stones in which she had used for the fire pit. One was found easily, and she came back to camp, sitting down next to the knife before picking it up and running the stone along the blade. Hopefully it would sharpen the blade a bit. "I'm glad you feel better though, you don't look so bad..." She was being honest, and it was a good subject change from Awen. Anjali Frangipani "I don't?" Anjali said, selfconciously. She reached up as though to straighten her hair before remembering and pausing halfway there, letting the hand drop to her side. "Well.. for now, anyway," she said, ruefully. "Perhaps I will end up like the hamadryads of legend. Tree-women, very wild or very loving depending on what you read. An odd thought."
Fortunately, her feet seemed utterly unchanged and they still fit easily into her flip-flop sandals. "How much more do you think we need? I can just scour deeper for a variety of useful things this time, if you like. Thick leaves for sleeping on, perhaps, in addition to the fruit?" Antoinette Devereux "Whatever you see as useful I guess. If you find anymore coconuts on the ground, and whatnot... I found some bamboo shoots earlier but I don't know how we'd cook them..." She trailed off, eyes going to the container from earlier. After a bit of sharpening, Antony eyed down the blade and tested it on a stalk of bamboo, which, with a little bit of muscle, it cut. Much more cleanly than it had been. Much much better. A few more stakes and they would be done. "I just hope this trap works ya know?" They really did need some meat. Anjali Frangipani "Trap?" Anjali glanced down at the stake and put two and two together. "You're making a pitfall? That'll be tough to dig with just my little trowel, I daresay." She tested her fingers experimentally. "I'm not sure how much I can help with that..." and that burned, that did, the idea of her fingers being too pliant - the tips felt boneless, not weak, but certainly not capable of exerting great force - to be able to dig properly. Well, they'd have to see. Perhaps splinted gloves?
She realized her thoughts had been wandering and turned back to Antony. "I can make a survey and bring back as much as I can carry. Has there been any change, any news since yesterday?" Antoinette Devereux Chuckling at her comment about it being tough, she nodded, "Yes, and that is what Jamal is working on... He's big and strong enough I believe. And don't worry about doing anything too physical. Don't want you to break anything." She had seen Anjali's eyes go to her fingers and understood what she was worried about. The tattooed woman didn't mind, Anjali was helping out with something that neither Antony or Jamal really could. A botanist could find more than just coconuts, and as long as this trap worked, they'd have a pretty good system worked out. Her face fell at the question of news. Mental images of Awen caused her to scowl, but she shook it off the best she could. "No news, we had a few visitors, but that's a story for when there is no work to be done," Antony gave her a weak smile, eyes glancing to her arms before returning to her stake chopping. Anjali Frangipani "Ah... I see." Anjali raised one eyebrow. She had been roused by shouting...
Well, it was obvious that Antony wasn't interested in sharing, and she wasn't going to press. Cooperation and getting along was vital right now. "So Jamal is still with us, then. I was wondering... was he, ah, too badly shaken up by my... change?" She looked ashamed for a moment. "Jamal and I had bonded somewhat over tea once, commisserating in how neither of us had changed despite having been here for quite some time. Those who had arrived after us had changed, so we had some... false hope, I suppose." She looked worried. Antoinette Devereux Antony sighed, stopping her work and just sitting there for a bit before looking up and over to Anjali, she might as well tell her now. "He was fine until Awen came over..." Trailing off, she decided to drop the knife before continuing, "Remember me saying how I thought this was a vacation? Well, for me that meant partying, drinking, and to put it blatently sex. And I met Jamal..." Pausing, she ran a hand through her hair, hoping that Anjali could put two and two together. "Awen found out under complicated circumstances, and apparently things didn't go well. She came over to ask where we found the fruit, and I told her you had somewhere in the jungle. I offered some coconuts to her, she refused, and then she left. Jamal was pretty pissed off." Frowning, Antony glanced towards the jungle, but simply sighed and shook her head, "Figured you'd find out sooner or later, and that it'd be best to hear it from me. I had no clue he and Awen were... But what's done is done, and I do not regret any of it." A smile was visible, but not one of malice, "I do not regret good sex, ever... Nor do I regret being myself, it is unhealthy." So either Anjali would think poorly of her, and/or not care. She'd just have to wait and see. Anjali Frangipani "Ah... I see," Anjali said again, after a pause to assimilate all of that information. "I haven't met this Awen, but I can see how that would, ah, be more than a little awkward for all involved," she said, tactfully. "Hopefully it won't cause serious trouble..."
She looked up at the sky again, then shook her head. "I should be off, then. Don't want to be in the forest after dark. Do you suppose I could have one of those sharpened sticks, if you've an extra? It could be quite useful. Especially if, perish the thought, I have to defend myself." Antoinette Devereux "Be my guest," she said with a half smile. At least she didn't get yelled at or anything, or even worse, lectured on the subject. This was something that Antony respected immensely. "Thank you for not judging me," Antony murmured before Anjali left, her eyes sincere. Reaching up, she handed the plant woman one of the sharpened bamboo stakes that had been cut. "Good luck." Anjali Frangipani Anjali offered Antony a grateful smile. "You too," she added, a bit awkwardly. "About... both things. The judging, and the luck." She hefted the stick experimentally in one hand, testing the way things worked now, and shrugged. "Seems to work fairly well. Let's hope I don't need to to impale anything besides fruit... well, I will see you later." She nodded, then turned towards the jungle and took a deep breath before venturing under the shadows of the leaves.
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Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2006 5:25 pm
Hamadryad
After drinking her fill and grabbing slivers of coconut and lime from the beach bar, Anjali wove her way through the trees, so intent on finding some more sustenance for them that she didn't 'hear' them for a long time... not until she was deep in the jungle. Surrounded.
At first, it seemed to be just the normal susurrus of leaves rustling in the wind, but when Anjali stopped to get her bearings, she slowly became aware of something else lurking on the edge of...
Hearing? No, that wasn't quite right. It wasn't a sound, per se, not to a human point of reference. But it was an odd harmonic, a hum set up point and counterpoint from all around, interweaving into a strange sensation that was very like a song.
"What..." Anjali turned around in place, looking up at the leaves arching above. "Who's there?"
The 'song' paused for a moment, then soared all around her, carrying with it an undefinable sense of curiosity.
"Who's making that...." Anjali's voice faltered. "Noise?" As soon as she said it she knew it was the wrong word. The sound of her own voice cut through the harmonics like a knife through onionskin paper. Whatever she was... sensing... wasn't sound the way she knew it. It was something else.
Something she'd never detected before...
Eyes narrowing, she walked over to the nearest tree, put one hand on it - and stiffened as a particular tone in the harmony increased strongly. "Could it be... that they do communicate...?" Quickly, Anjali stepped away from the tree, and the tone dropped away to join the 'song' at a more normal level.
Her heart pounding with the enormity of the discovery, Anjali ran to another tree and placed both palms on it, the mucilage on her fingertips sticking lightly to the bark. Sure enough, another tone distinguished itself from the masses and strengthened.
"They... they sing," Anjali breathed, all thought of the beach and finding anything gone clean out of her head. All this time they'd been communicating, somewhere beyond where humans could feel and sense, using something man couldn't even measure. No wonder it had never been truly proven... until now.
A giddy feeling was rising in her, and Anjali giggled as she ran from tree to tree, pressing her waxy green hands against them and 'listening' as the harmony shifted and changed. "Hello, hello," she murmured to each one, aware that she was going about it the wrong way by talking in 'human', but unsure how to speak in any other way. Perhaps with further transformation...
After several hours, Anjali blinked as her tree-to-tree movements finally took her out from under the canopy and into the sunlight again - and the pleasant shock of warmth and light was so great that she practically moaned.
She was standing in a clearing in the middle of the forest, where one of the giants had recently fallen, clearing a way for hundreds of desperate, clamoring seedlings to make a bid for precious sun. Anjali stood there still for a moment, soaking in the sunlight too, unconciously slipping off her flip-flops. They were bad, keeping her away from the earth she needed, and oh, the sun, and oh, the song...
The earth was damp, warm and rich under her feet, and she wriggled her toes into it with a happy hazy feeling, very much like the highs that Jamal enjoyed so much. The sun tinted everything warm and gold, like bathing in honey, and around everything was the song of the forest, soaring and moving with indefinable emotion.
Anjali closed her eyes with a giddy grin that probably would have deeply worried anyone familiar with her usual demeanor, and let herself sink blissfully into earth, sun, and song.
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Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:16 am
The Storm of the Self
Anjali wasn't entirely sure how long she'd been there.
At first, she'd roused from the odd dreamlike state a week or so after her entry into the jungle, driven by the realization that she'd not brought Antony any food. That had been enough to send her running through the forest, finding ripe fruit with a strange accuracy and speed, following the song as raw instinct told her which of her fellows bore fresh fruits and where they were.
She had delivered the packet while the others were sleeping, and considered staying... but it was too far from the jungle to bear, and the sand under her feet hurt in a way beyond physical discomfort. It was nothing compared to the rich loam in the clearing.
So Anjali had come back, fleeing gratefully into the embrace of sun, earth and song, and the strange, blissful dreamy state that was in the heart of it all. Did plants feel like this all the time?
She didn't fully understand the song yet, nowhere near, but it was hypnotizing. Plants didn't need to move, not with everything around them providing what they needed in such rich abundance, not with the song to wash around them and carry what passed for emotion and thought.
And so, neither did she.
It wasn't until the storm hit that Anjali truly came back to herself, for the first time since entering the jungle many weeks ago and falling under the spell of the new world her transformation had opened to her. Oh, there had been rain since then, a soft hushing and cool wetness that slid down her body and nourished the soil around her roots - and after it the bugs flocked like crazy, their small bodies sticking to the mucilage on the end of fingers and hair, dissolving away sweet as honey as the tendrils curled reflexively around them.
But when the sky opened up with torrential rain that pounded on her like tiny hammers, thunder and lightning splitting the song apart with explosive force...
Anjali gasped as a tree nearby was hit by lightning, sending a wild shriek through the song as the air sizzled and thunder crashed like a physical blow - and suddenly became aware that she was standing in mud in the center of a ridiculous storm, soaked to the skin, her clothes clinging to her in muddy shreds that barely deserved to be called clothing anymore.
"What..." she gasped, and then the slow memory of the past weeks crept through her mind, laconic and dreamlike.
"No... no, I'm human, I'm human, Anjali gasped, realizing how dry the back of her throat was and raising up her hands to catch the rain in them, guzzling it greedily. While she wasn't starving by any means, she was quite a bit thinner than she had been previously. Once her thirst was sated, she made to move, and cringed as limbs long unused protested, then slowly woke up.
It hurt, again, to pull her feet from the mire. Quick-growing lianas had actually twined around her ankles and grown a bit up her legs, and she stripped them ruthlessly away with a sense of growing horror. How long had she been here, senses lost in... in plantness?
Thunder crashed nearby again, and with a whimper, Anjali managed to pull her feet out of the mud. To her surprise, her toes were actually not trailing rootlets, though for a moment the skin burned as though they'd been the victim of a bad hair-removal wax.
Rain pounding around her, Anjali fled. Being under trees in a storm was bad, but what other choice did she have? There was no shelter!
As she ran, the storm roiling around her, she could sense the song's shape shifting and changing, reacting to the environment, the weather, and even her own movements. "No... I'm human, I'm human... research is one thing, but not this, never this," Anjali gasped as she clambered over a fallen log, vines and twigs whipping at her legs and arms as she moved through the forest.
But it had felt so nice...
Too nice. And that was the frightening thing, how wonderful it had been...
Anjali ran.
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Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 10:17 am
Home Sweet Home
Anjali stumbled into the Village in darkness, just as the rain began to slow and the moon and stars peeked out from beyond the thinning clouds. There were no lights, the duplexes still and silent as they had been for the past... how long had it been? Ungh.
"Let me in... I want to be human again," Anjali whispered, dropping to her knees on her own duplex's doorstep. Oh, she was fascinated by the new discoveries she was making, but... being entranced like that... no, that wasn't right, not right at all. No human should be able to stand enraptured in the middle of a clearing in the jungle for a month and still be alive and sane at the end of it all...
The song here was only making it worse. At the edges, the trees were screaming in a sort of primal ancient anger, raging against the clear-cutting that had driven them back and claimed their former grounds. It was a forboding background hum that made her want to be angry, angry, angry, twine her tendrils around whatever-it-was and engage in the closest plants came to physical violence.
Anjali took a few deep breaths and tried to mentally steady herself. No... rejecting the plant part of her was unwise and ultimately impossible... but neither was rejecting the human part of her. No matter how far she changed she, Anjali, the part of her that made her herself, would always be human.
Right?
But oh, it would help to have some of the trappings of human civilization around her again. But here she was, the doors closed to-
click
The sound made her raise her head, and then she drew back as all around her, lights flickered into sudden brilliance. A hum was rising to drown out the angry song, a familiar, mechanical, electrical noise...
She scrambled to her feet and, heart pounding, turned the doorknob.
And, glory be, it opened.
A giddiness not unlike that which had overtaken her in the clearing rushed through her, and she ran into the duplex and slammed the door, locking it behind her, slick dirty fingers leaving trails of mucilage on the knob. The lights turned on at her touch, and to her surprise she could hear soft welcome emanating from her own collection of plants. They seemed to have their own tune, separate from the cacaphony of the jungle outside, and there was a sense of happiness that calmed and steadied the botanist.
Taking a deep breath, she smiled. "I'm back," she announced, picking up the watering can, the familiar curve of plastic calming her still more. Methodically, she filled the can from the faucet in the bathroom, then watered the plants as per usual. Funny, they seemed in better shape than they should have been, considering the amount of time she'd been gone.
Ritual. Calming, soothing, sane. Water... shower. Oh, god. That sounded better than anything she'd experienced in the jungle.
Feeling far more stable than she had in ages, Anjali stepped into the bathroom and closed the door, ready for a good, long wash, hoping to rinse away far more than mere dirt.
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Posted: Sun Mar 05, 2006 7:30 pm
Cure All
Anjali was settled in one of her chairs by the window, scooted just so she was in the sunlight - it did feel better that way, though she refused to drown in it as she had in the jungle. Never again.
All around her, she could hear the calm, content song of her plants. It was nothing compared to the roaring symphony that was the jungle's song, but the soft... and above all, domesticated... tune from her indoor garden was soothing without being overwhelming.
She wasn't quite sure if she wanted to step outside for a while, just in case the doors locked behind her again.
The little electric kettle began to whistle behind her, and Anjali slowly got up. She was wearing one of her saris today, her favorite green one that she'd worn when she'd arrived on the island. And now she was going to have tea. She hummed a madrigal lightly to herself as she carefully folded leaves into the tea ball, dropped it into a teacup and followed it with hot water.
Cloth, china and steaming hot water. The components of civilization.
Anjali had been worried, earlier, if the part of her that was plant might have an aversion to consuming leaves, but she didn't feel any odd reluctance as she swirled the tea ball around while it steeped. It made sense, really - plants had no qualms about 'feeding' on their own kind. Plants fell and became part of the earth that fed other plants. It wasn't a moral decision, it simply was.
When the tea was rich and dark, she removed the tea ball and lifted the cup to her lips, the curling tendrils on her fingertips clinging stickily to fine china.
Mmm.
Surely everything couldn't be all bad.
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Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:48 pm
Naked CageAnjali Frangipani Anjali had decided to slip out for a walk... tentatively at first, poking her head out around the doorframe with some fear.
Fortunately, the odd hypersensitivity to the 'song' of the plants that had made her cringe as she entered the village after the months in the wild had disappated somewhat, and she no longer felt the outrage of the clear-cut jungle seething around her. Oh, it was still there, as much a part of background noise as the other sounds of the village, but no longer overwhelming.
After reassuring herself, Anjali stepped outside and stretched in the sun, the warmth that much nicer since her transformation. But as she turned, she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye...
What's that? Some metallic object was near her benches, totally ruining any kind of calming effect... what was that monstrosity? How dare they quibble with her landscaping plans?
Anjali huffed her way over to the cage, then stopped, open-mouthed, as she realized what it was - and, furthermore, what was in it.
"Jamal?" she cried out, running up to the side of the cage, her eyes filled with concern. Out of sheer reflex, some of her hair tentacles snapped around the bars and held tight even as her hands did the same. Jamal_Reedy Jamal had spent the entire day pacing back and forth from wall to wall until finally he was too exhausted to continue to do so, curling up in a corner to catch an hour or so of sleep until his tiger instincts pulled him awake with their desire of the jungle. He hadn't eaten all day and his eyes were semi-bloodshot from the poor sleep and general crappiness of being cage-bound. Anjali had approached while he was peering out the opposite side longingly at the foliage he could see around some of the buildings, claws rattling against the bars in a clearly aggitated tempo. Her voice made him growl in reflex and he turned, brow wrinkled into a sneering expression, though it dissolved for the most part when he saw who was there. Anjali was one of those people he considered to be one of the better people on the island; she was up there with Awen and Antony simply because she'd spent that time in the wilderness with him and helped their small group survive. "Yeah, it's me," grunted the man bitterly, a sad note of loneliness and despair in his voice that he tried to hide ineffectively with a forced laugh as he crossed over towards the side she was clinging to. "Glad ta see ya made it outta da forest a'ight..." Anjali Frangipani "Jamal... I'm so sorry about.. the jungle, before the village opened... I kind of disappeared..." Anjali struggled with the words, tryign to articulate what had happened to her. "You have no idea about the jungle, none at all... the trees talk, in a way, and... I was one of them and... oh, I don't know." She shook her head in frustration.
Then, looking up at him, she realized something was different with a quick, indrawn breath. "Oh... you changed. I'm sorry..." She looked down. "I guess we were just late... or something."
Anjali bent to survey the cage, then stood up again with a frown. "Why on earth are you in this cage? Who did this?" She looked irritated. Jamal_Reedy "It's a'ight," he responded to her first stammered statement, understanding somewhat. The tiger in his head never shut up completely and right now certainly wasn't any exception. He tapped a claw to his temple, closing his eyes briefly. "We all get lost in our otha'sides, I think. At least I know I do. I used ta walk in da jungle all da time to relax...Dunno why, but da voice in ma head wanted it. I'd give almost anythin' ta get outta herr jus' so I kin be in there right now." He sighed in a dejected manner, not commenting on her realization of his changed state, not wanting to get into that right then. Think happy thoughts. Right... He wrapped his hands about the bars and peered at Anjali through them, frowning so the tips of his fangs peeked just below his top lip. "Got ma a** thrown in herr 'cause I went afta' Aubrey at da beach bar...tried ta choke her. She told me dat we spent all dat time in da woods 'cause it was a ********' experiment, not 'cause anyone was in trouble or da labs broke down. I was tired of bein' lied too 'n' somethin' inside snapped, I guess." He didn't look the least bit remorseful for his actions as he said this. Anjali Frangipani Anjali let out a long, slow breath. "It was... an experiment? Aubrey's alive?" Her hands curled into fists, the sticky mucilage on the tips of her fingers sliding across her skin. "I... see," she said, finally. She hadn't thought to ask or do much of anything since finding herself back in civilization. "Thanks for telling me."
She frowned again at the cage, more deeply this time. "How long have you been in here? Do you need food? Water... in something a bit more dignified than a bowl? Anything? Do they take care of you, or....?" Anjali felt like she owed Jamal something for her absence in the jungle, and furthermore there was no way she could NOT help anyone in that situation... Jamal_Reedy "Aubrey's alive, but I did ma best ta fix dat," he chuckled darkly, though he still looked distinctly glum about the situation he was in. The urge to pace was again nagging at his thoughts and though Anjali had never done anything bad to him, he also felt the urge to snap at her and make her go away. It wasn't anything she did and he knew it, thus squashed the impulses away for now. "'pparently she 'n' Moreau left da island fo' a holiday o' somethin'. Nice dat they get dat luxury, ain't it? If Aubrey was thinkin' dat news like dat ain't gonna make peope mad, then she's stupider then I was thinkin." He growled and clenched the bars beneath his hands, imagining them to be a staff member's neck. He'd probably never get a chance to get his hands on any of them now. Her other questions drew him away from his fantasy world, which was probably for the best anyway. "Been in herr a coupla days. They don't give me nuthin' 'cept dat bowl ova there dat had wata in it," he said, pointinig at the overturned dish before continuing. "Antony brought me food, smokes, and beddin' last night but them bastards knocked me out again 'n' took all of it. I ain't eaten once yet today." Anjali Frangipani Anjali's frown turned into a stubborn expression. "Very well - tell me what you want and I'll bring it to you. And sit here as long as I can to watch. Hopefully you can at least get some food in you that way..."
Knock out. Could they knock HER out? Probably... but she didn't think feeding Jamal was worthy of that. They wouldn't starve a precious subject to death, would they?
Then again, they had apparently abandoned them all while gallivanting around on vacation.
Something steely resolved itself inside Anjali. Obviously, fighting head-on against their captors did no good... and she would be no good at that anyway. The best weapon she could weild was a shovel. Still, she could try to help the others... Jamal_Reedy "If ya wanna bring me somethin' meaty, dat'll work well enough. I ain't picky, 'specially if its gonna be da only meal I get today. Ain't no sense in bringin' me nuthin' else if they jus' gonna take it they did last night." The thought of meat was enough to brighten his mood a bit. Funny how one's priorities change in odd situations like this. Anjali Frangipani "Meat. Okay. I'll be right back..." With that, Anjali turned away, releasing both hand-hold and sticky hair-hold on the bars at once, and headed for the cafeteria.
Once inside, she grabbed a tray and began loading it up indiscriminately. She thought the workers were giving her funny looks - this was definitely not her usual, more refined and varied eating habits... but she scooped up everything she could with meat. Bacon, what looked like rare steak from one side (and was there another tin of raw?!) and several hamburger patties. She grabbed a bottle of water as well and took the whole thing outside, ignoring anyone else present.
"Okay. Meat, meat, and more meat... and some bottled water," she said, grinning and bowing over the tray like a waitress in a fine restaurant as she approached Jamal. The tray wouldn't fit between the bars, so she carefully folded what she could in a few napkins and stuck them through, followed by the water. The mucilage on her fingers clung to the napkins and bottle. "Sorry," she muttered, a bit embarased by the long, sticky strings. Jamal_Reedy Jamal felt oddly pleased that she was so willing to get him food; he had been getting mixed reactions to his story of attacking Aubrey and had thought maybe she might have thought he deserved what he got. Why, he wasn't sure. He should know better, afterall, thanks to that chat over tea that one day. Still...somedays he wondered who he could trust and who he couldn't. By the time she left the cafeteria, he had started pacing again, unaware he was doing it or the fact that it was being done so at a furious pace, his little tail nub lashing just over the waistband of his jeans and his elongated ears faintly twitching with each rotation. He smelt the meat before he saw her coming with the laden tray and was effectively sidetracked from his repetitive walking to hovering anxiously by the wall she had come to. A pleasured murr escaped his throat as he plopped down indian-style and pulled the napkins and water closer. "Thanks...I was wonderin' if I was gonna eat today or not...I ain't seen anyone today aside from watchin' some commotion wit' dat cheetah girl 'n' two otha people...ya picked real good." He managed a smile in approval, not looking the least put off by her oddy sticky appendages. He had learned to accept weird things like that, apparently. Anjali Frangipani Anjali smiled and sat down on one of the benches, facing the cage over the back of the bench. The mucilage strings had thinned and broken, though as she drummed her fingers on the bench it spread the stickiness a little more, attracting a few gnats. "I'm glad. Enjoy... and I'll see if I can't bring you food every day once, at least. I need to get out of my room and do some work, anyway. But not for them anymore... for us. We deserve some nice things, damn it... and I'll do what I can. It's not much, but it's something." Jamal_Reedy "Antony 'n' Awen said they were gonna bring me stuff ev'ryday, but they get busy, I guess." The bitter quality crossed his voice again but was muffled effectively as Jamal started to tear into the steak first and foremost. Soooo good. He swallowed and bit off another hunk greedily, watching Anjali as he mulled over her statement. "What kinda work ya gonna do?" he inquired once his mouth was emptied of its current mouthful. "Jus' plantin' stuff again o' ya got something else in mind?" Anjali Frangipani Anjali shrugged. "Not much else I can do... I want to study the plants more, anyway." She turned a bit to eye the jungle. "I never imagined they were anything like this... they talk, they sort of... sing, I guess. I don't know how I hear it, but it's not with my ears. Maybe it's a sense only plants have, and I'm just enough of that now to be able to detect it. I'm not sure, but I really want to study it more... it could change history, to really understand..."
She shook her head. "Sometimes I think I should be thankful to them for that," she said, with a hint of bitterness. "But then I see things like.... like this..." One hair-tentacle reached out and wrapped savagely around a bar before letting go. Jamal_Reedy "Da things ya learn when ya get turned inta something not human," he quipped sarcastically, though he looked more somber than he sounded, ripping a hunk of steak off with his mere hands. "I don't figger plants got thoughts like animals got, but if ya say they sing 'n' say things, I believe ya. Ain't no way I'm gonna know ma'self. All I know 'bout da jungle is dat my animal likes it 'n' dat's good enough fo' me." The meat was tossed into his mouth and he swallowed without hardly chewing, frowning deepily at the bitterness he detected in her words. It was not unlike his own resentment or that which he had been hearing a lot lately. "They don't care what they do to us herr. It's all a show ta make us feel betta'....then they ******** wit' us some mo' 'til we can't handle it. Then it's back ta bein' nice." Anjali Frangipani Anjali looked thoughtful. "Well... we'll see. We're changing, after all - we may not be fully human, but maybe we're becoming something better. Something stronger. Perhaps in the future there will be options open to us that aren't now, that we can't imagine..." She tilted her head to one side and frowned at the tentacles that had wrapped around the bars. "Stop that, you lot. I swear, they move when I don't even tell them to do anything..." Jamal_Reedy "I dunno how this could be betta...'bout only thing I'm betta at is smellin' stuff from far away 'n' gettin' mad real easy." He gnawed on the remains of the steak and made sort work of a hamburger patty, his hunger ebbing slowly now to a dull ache as he piled food in. Who knows when he'd get another meal. He watched her sticky tentacles move about with mild interest, wondering how they did that so easily. They were plant-like afterall...not like an octopus. Anjali Frangipani "Well, you know... tigers are powerful creatures," Anjali mused, teasing some of the tentacles away from the bars with one sticky finger. "And the plant I... er... am, I guess... it's drosera, the sundew. They're carnivorous, they eat bugs and they move. That's where the tentacles come from. It's very weird, though, being able to feel your hair..."
Anjali lapsed into silence as she watched Jamal eat, alert for any noises of incoming punishment or anything like that. Jamal_Reedy Jamal paused, looking away from her tentacles to give her a curious headtilt. "....yeah, I guess tigers are pretty badass..." he drawled, looking for a cue from her. He still hadn't figured out what he was turning into exactly. He knew enough that it was a big cat of sort, but how would a tiger turn his skin white? Did she mean that she knew that's what he was turning into? Or was it a random comment? The black man had never heard of a meat-eating plant either. That sounded way too strange to him, imagining a plant attacking and eating bugs like some sort of bird or lizard. Jamal would have thought a plant would need a brain for something like that. Anjali Frangipani Anjali gave him a confused look to match his own curious one. "You... aren't sure if you're turning into a tiger? I figured it was... well, I mean... stripes? Cat? Are there any others with stripes, unless you're a... er... housecat?" She stifled a smile at the idea. "I just asked and they told me... if you're not sure..." Then again, would they tell him? After all this? Maybe not. Jamal_Reedy "I...dunno," he said, feeling foolish about it for the first time. "I neva asked. Neva cared to, anyway." Jamal flicked his whiskers, becoming distracted by the tiger's nagging demands that started to pick up again now that the hunger pains had been satisfied. It wouldn't EVER shut up. "But a tiger...maybe. Makes sense, I guess. If they're turnin' me inta a pansy-a** house cat, I'mma be having some words wit' someone 'bout it." He forced a chuckle and pushed away the remains of his dinner, sufficently full to the point where eating wasn't priority. Getting out of the cage was. If he didn't get out soon, the tiger's constant pleas for the jungle's security and getting away from the cage's confinement was going to drive him bonkers. He was growing restless with sitting there conversing with Anjali; nothing against her, but it was an impulse he couldn't control. Anjali Frangipani "Ah..." Anjali couldn't understand why you WOULDN'T ask. She tried to imagine what her transformation would have been like without knowledge... especially since she was the sole plant serum on the island currently, as far as she knew. "Well, maybe it would put yourself at ease to know for sure? Or you could research... I read through all my books about the sundew once I found out. They were supposed to inject me with my knowledge... though a fat lot of good that promise was," she added, with a snort. "Aubrey, I think that's the one who spoke to me. I may have to talk to her again to let her know what I think of broken promises..." The woman scowled angrily, a rare expression for her. Jamal_Reedy "I can't read dat good...." he mumbled from behind a hand as he rubbed his face, trying to stay focused. "So I dunno how I'd read 'bout bein' a tiger o' whateva'. I dunno...sometimes I like ta jus' pretend that this s**t ain't happenin' ta me. Not knowin' makes it easier." Okay, so that was a stupid reason, but he was sticking with it. The truth was he was afraid to find out that it was going to be something awful. He'd rather not know. An expression of anger looked odd on Anjali's face, in Jamal's opinion anyway, as he didn't think her to be capable of being such. She seemed more calm and rational than anything else. "They ain't 'bout promises herr. It's jus' a word they like ta throw around ta get us ta do what they want. Ain't no meanin' behind it. 'specially wit' dat Aubrey. She's da one who gave me my injection...lied ta me on day one about it. Said it was jus' a shot ta keep me from gettin' sick." Anjali Frangipani Anjali shook her head, the angry look fading from her face. "I thought I could trust people... but I guess not. Maybe all we can trust is ourselves... how odd, though. You'd think they'd appreciate cooperation more than this. Perhaps they're just sadistic." She sighed.
Well, no thunderbolts or other punishment appeared to be forthcoming, and Jamal had been fed. Anjali looked around carefully before standing up. "I have things I need to do... people I ought to talk to, and plans to make. I'll try to check on you later, and bring you food?" Jamal_Reedy "Few people on da island I trust any'mo..." he grunted flatly. "People's attitudes change too fast 'fo me. I like peeps who be honest....I hate liars." Jamal sighed and hauled himself up on his feet out of reflex, seeing Anjali doing the same, even though he couldn't exactly go anywhere. "Good luck talkin' ta da staff, if ya plan on doin' it. I figger they might listen ta you b'fo they listen ta my black a**. Afterall, I ain't exactly on their good side no mo'." Anjali Frangipani "I'll see what I can do." Anjali smiled. "Er... take care, I guess. Try... try not to give them any more excuses, I guess..." She sighed. What was that about, she wasn't his mom... but it was true, she didn't want to see him or anybody else in a cage like this ever again. They weren't animals... well, they sort of were, but... it was the principle of the thing. Jamal_Reedy Jamal smirked. "I got a feelin' I ain't gonna have ta try hard ta give them excuses," he responded flatly, shaking his head slowly in disbelief. "But I'll be a'ight...they can't keep me in herr fo'eva..." Anjali Frangipani "I sincerely hope not," Anjali said, frowning a little. "I'll come by later... be well, Jamal."
With that, she turned and headed back for her duplex, though she paused a few times to look around, just in case.
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Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:40 pm
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Posted: Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:55 pm
Join the Chorus
A series of seedlings sat out on Anjali's dresser - all identical simple alfalfa sprouts, planted at the same time in the same amount of soil, watered in the same way. Her test subjects...
For a moment, she felt a pang of guilt, wondering if somewhere in the tiny, tiny hint of song they produced was fear, worry, a sense of being trapped similar to the one she lived with every day. But she had to know.
Maybe Moreau has to know... no! There has to be a difference. Has to be. We're not the same!
The other plants had been moved into the bathroom temporarily, to shut out their song. Now, as Anjali moved over to stand near the six seedlings, all she could hear besides the hum of the air conditioner was the barely-sensed song emanating from the alfalfa. It was tiny and much higher pitched than the jungle's deep roar, but definitely present.
The botanist closed her eyes and concentrated every fiber of her being on the song until she could detect it clearly. So small, with a harmonic nothing like the sounds of human infants, yet somehow reminiscent of the same. Perhaps all young things are similar, at heart.
Then, steeling herself, she opened her eyes and picked up a watering can, tipping a bit of water into the first seedling's pot. Instantly the song shifted - a tiny twinge of happiness/wet! combined with, a few seconds later, a clamor of need and desire for water from the other five.
... that was interesting. Anjali made a note. They seem to communicate positive stimulus, and also to covet it if they become aware of it but don't have it.
The same thing happened when she dropped a pinch of soil into the next pot, though the watered sprout didn't complain as loudly as the yet untended ones.
Slowly, Anjali worked her way through various stimuli - lifting the pot into the air, flicking the curtain aside to shed light on some plants but not on others, wiggling the sprout's pot, and so on. Each time, she took careful notes on the resulting variations.
Then, finally, she was almost done - except for the last test.
Taking another deep breath, Anjali reached for the last pot. It was awkward pinching the stem of the tiny sprout, as her fingers slipped and stuck to the surface, but she got a grip and -
snap
Anjali recoiled as the snap coincided with a sudden surge of shock, and then a blankness so complete that it made her shudder. Slowly, the other sprouts began singing again, though there was an element of concern - not fear, just worry - woven throughout their song this time.
There was nothing from the broken sprout. But there hadn't been a sense of pain either... and after a moment Anjali let the brief flash of guilt trail away. It wasn't like a human, or even an animal... for plants to be used, cultivated, eaten, destroyed was the way of nature.
Right?
She couldn't quite bring herself, strangely, to do anything to the sprout beyond bury it, in a corner of her garden outside.
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