Welcome to Gaia! ::

Emelyn rattled the little orange bottle, listening to the sound of the small collection of pills inside hit the walls in a furvor. Why do they always have to make the containers orange, she thought, thumping the bottom of the pill container against her palm, exciting the contents once more. Her Grandpa John's house was always full of those orange bottles- above the sink, stuffed into corners of the spice rack, packed into the medicine cabinets. That certain hue of orange, she thought, as she looked at the bottle- would always be associated with illness, and also with her Grandfather's house. ...Even though it was just a bottle of aspirin for the headaches she'd been having in this island heat... it seemed like so much more, and she pocketed the bottle as she came around the corner to leave through the main entrance.

Instead of walking through the double doors and heading back to her duplex, however, she paused in her step, seeing someone that she'd never before come across. She appeared unchanged- so she was either a new islander, or a new employee to work here in the main building with Delia. In any case, Emelyn didn't want to excite her if she didn't know about the transformations, so she turned her head down and tried to slip past the woman.

Emelyn stopped, sighed, and turned to face the woman full in the face. ...Well, she had to look down, but still, she knew it would be rude to continue on her way when she'd obviously been noticed. If the woman had a problem with her animal features... well... they'd jump off that bridge when they came to it.

"Yes, actually- you're in the right building. This is the.... town hall, of sorts. The cafeteria is through that way," Em indicated with a sweeping gesture, "and through the other entrance to your left, is the laundry room." She paused, looking at the hallways that led to the various rooms in the building, and then back at the smaller woman, whose accent was an obvious sign that she was from the UK. "Have you been around for... very long? If you need to know where things are, I'd be happy to give you a tour. I'm Emelyn, by the way." She didn't offer her hand to shake, seeing that her hands were filled with what was probably her laundry bag.

"Whitehair..." Em said, mostly under her breath questioningly. She had no idea what the woman was talking about- but decided not to ask. "Just a few days? So... what brought you here.. Ms...?"

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Joliette," Em said, reproducing the accent she'd used to pronounce her name exactly. Her French was minimal at best, but she'd never had a difficulty with accents at all- they were second nature to her. "...Even under the circumstances."

She wrinkled her brow a bit, considering, drawing a blank when she spoke of 'the actor'. Then she pulled something out of her memory- something that Ambrose had told her, about Vasile DiRossi being here.

"Oh. So you know about the..." she didn't want to say transformations, but tossed her head a little, the limp quills about her forehead dancing as she did.

"Oh. ...Duvert." White hair, Emelyn thought. Duh. "I'm sorry. It will all take some.. time to get used to." And she'd already been injected. How terrible.

"I don't really know what to say- most of us were deceived to get here- it seems you just fell on some... bad luck. That was me, too," she said. "My boat was wrecked in a storm, and I washed up ashore here."

"Hm, she said, feeling a twinge of regret that yet another viable means of escape was being dismantled as they spoke. "Actually, we're the rarer set of the bunch. Most of the people were drawn here under false pretenses. They believed they were coming to work for Moreau, or to study indigenous plants or animals on the island. Those of us who stumbled upon the place are the unfortunate minority. ...Although really," Emelyn said, thinking aloud, "I'd prefer to have fallen here in a stumble of bad luck, than to live out the rest of my life here knowing that I'd been deceived."

"Emelyn," she said again. Obviously Joliette hadn't heard it the first time. "Emelyn White. "And... a hedgehog, actually," she said, twisting a limp quill between her thumb and forefinger before letting it fall back to land on her aviator goggles. "I should be near the next transformation any day now, too..." there was a pause, where she debated whether to ask. "Do you know what you...?"

"Well, for what it's worth, I'm sorry you were injected. ...And yes, there certainly are a variety of animals about. There are some strange combinations, as well. There's a woman on the island turning into a snake. But she has feathers." Emelyn shook her head. "I really don't even understand it myself." She caught sight of the bag still on Joliette's shoulders.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Listen to me, babbling on, when you have laundry to do. I'm sorry, I'll let you get along with it."