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 Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 12:18 am
The girl just stared at him, frightened for what seemed like the longest time. Eventually, the animal that shared her DNA crawled back into the recesses of her mind and she realized that she was perched on the pinball machine. But that still didn't make her move.
"H-Hi..." Half her face hid behind the back of the machine.
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 12:46 am
After glancing between his toes and the horrorstruck iguana-girl a total of seven times, he took a tentative step forward. She hadn't bolted for the door like he'd expected, but there was hardly anything positive about having a pinball machine between them.
He crossed his arms loosely over his chest, once more breaking eye contact. "Hey uh.... I'm sorry about the whole thing that happened in the jungle. It's... not going to happen again. Really."
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 12:49 am
Amaya flinched as he stepped foreward, though still didn't bolt. "R-really...?"
He seemed a lot more... level-headed then the previous times she had run into him. This beat being pointed out on how green she was... or being attacked, for sure.
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 1:04 am
He nodded. His eyes made a sweep of the room, though no camera lenses winked back at him from their hiding spots. Now there was a threat. Constant surveillance for everyone. "D'you want to get down from there? It looks kind of uncomfortable."
Her actions made him frown. Even without a left arm, just a lone person in the wide world, he'd never brought out genuine fear in people. Disgust, yes, and pity, but never fear. All the times he'd almost killed people had been in a haze of madness that Dr. Duvert's serum had twice brought out in him. They feared him, and at the same time he feared himself. Well, fear could be dispelled with knowledge.
"Apparently they made a mistake with my serum and a few other peoples'," he explained darkly. "Things get a little out of control after I change... I didn't mean to.. attack you. I'm really sorry." His tail curled a little. "You seem to be surviving this insane asylum though."
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 1:08 am
The lizard's tongue flickered before she slowly climbed back down from the pinball machine. A mistake?
She watched him for another moment before nodding. "It's... alright. I know of a few other people who have their... bouts."
She shifted out from behind the large game. "I've been... dealing."
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 1:32 am
"Who else?" he asked curiously. "I only heard it was happening, but I'm the only example I know of. Well... Kaveri's been doing some weird stuff too. I guess she can't help it."
"Dealing?" He let his arms fall back to his sides. "No one else has gone after you, I hope..."
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 1:34 am
"Chubbs does sometimes." Amaya said meekly. "And no, no one else has gone after me..." She trailed off for a moment.
"S'just... y'know. The whole turning into a bald, genderless looking lizard I guess." Her scaley shoulders gave a small shrug.
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 1:49 am
"That does sound rough," he said sympathetically. "But it has to be better than becoming one of a few choice animals I've heard about..."
Zach blinked for a moment. Turning into a bald lizard? Zach had not given enough thought to precisely where Amaya or Cassidy's hair had gone, considering it was unlikely they'd come to the island bald. He had once, but that had been before he knew what he was turning into. There was no doubt that he was a reptile at this point, or at least, half a reptile. So there was even more than just the inconvenience of not being classified homo sapiens.
Like the other two reptilian islanders before him, he was going to go prematurely bald.
In one unconscious movement he clutched at his own hair. His eyes were wide with suspicion and fear. "Now... when you say bald..."
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 1:54 am
"Yeah. I admit it's not the worst that could happen..." The teen looked at her feet, then back up at Zach as he felt his hair.
"Uh... yeah... as far as I know, everyone turning into a reptile has become bald. Even Cassidy, though she still has a little hair left. See's like when you change for the third time, it starts to fall out..." She trailed off again, her expression turning sad. She had never, in all of her life, even began to think she would go bald before she turned 17.
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 6:01 pm
After doing an unnecessary count on two fingers, he felt a cold knot of dread. His third time was the next one, whenever it was going to be. Each change seemed to happen in twice the time after the last, if his counting was right. The farther away it was, the better... being bald was merely going to be mentally scribbled onto a long list of reasons why his island experience sucked. Under his breath, Zach hissed a short obscenity, unwinding his clawed fingers from his hair.
"Well, uh, I commend you on having handled that without having beaten one of these doctors senseless. Unless you did - in which case... er..." He trailed off, giving another flickering glance to the room. Loudly approving of violence was not going to help him continue to avoid a cruel and inhuman death at the hands of the doctors. "Nevermind. Uh... so..." He clapped his unevenly-sized hands together, trying to change the subject. The less the baldness issue was talked about, the better for the both of them. "You've been here longer than I have. What do you... do? About... the boredom, and the monotony."
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 6:07 pm
"Well, it happened during the lockout. So at the time I didn't really have any within reach. Plus, I'd rather run from them then stand up and fight." Amaya walked back around to stand in front of the pinball machine again, looking a little more relaxed.
"Not... much." Her frown remained. "I just went on walks and stuff for awhile, talked to a lot of people. Ever since my last..." The reptile broke off one word. "-i've just been keeping to myself a lot. Reading and doing what I can to stay sane. Not much I can do now that they've provided." She held up her hands for a moment before turning back to the pinball machine.
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 7:22 pm
He gave her an unreadable look, a conflicting expression on the border between approval and disproval that was made more confusing by the slitted yellow eyes. It was soon replaced by a more sympathetic look, regarding the lockout. He knew there was nothing that could be said or done to undo what the lab had done. He tentatively offered his concern. "Oh, wow.. I'm sorry."
As she moved he did as well, blindly pulling a board game off the shelf. He studied the box and quickly replaced it. This was not a good time for Operation.
"I guess it's not smart to look for something to do around here, since every time something does happen it always screws all of us over..." He walked along the row of board games, not really giving the various titles a lot of thought. His mind was elsewhere. "I really hope one of these days someone can... well... escape. Get help. Anything, to stop what's happening here."
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 7:27 pm
Amaya just shrugged at the appology. There was nothing that could be done to take that back and it was in the past now.
"Yeah. When you start to get comfortable into a routine, something happens to knock it for a loop. It's good to just live by the day. Act on impulse." She drew back the spring to the pinball machine and let the tiny silver ball go flying outward.
"I heard that if it stops halfway we'll get cancer. Something about our DNA being unstable... though I really wouldn't mind having all this stopped. People don't deserve what's going on. Though..." The iguana trailed off. "I'm not sure where we'd all go after this. Or if we'd just end up being disected in some lab on the mainland."
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 8:27 pm
"I suppose..." He frowned nervously at her back. "Though I have no trust in my impulses now."
He hefted the Life box up, shaking it a little to check if it everything was inside. There was an answering thump and rattle of the board and other pieces within. Amaya's admittance nearly made him drop it. "Unstable? This... this is absurd. If they're so ready to admit that, how do they know it's not going to stay unstable after they're done doing these things to us?" There was no rage, merely disbelief, in his voice. "I'd risk taking that as a lie, though. I don't know... it's really just so difficult to figure out when they're telling us the truth and when they're lying. Oh, we could probably lie about our changes if we ever saw the rest of the world again. Everyone back on the mainlands would just think we're filming for a movie or something else at least ten times less ridiculous than what's really happened. I think we could get by for a while, long enough at least to see about getting anything extra... surgically removed." He glanced down at his tail, then up at his horns.
He shifted his grip on the cardboard box, careful not to puncture it with any claws. "I think I should go lie down or something. This is a little too much..." He quietly made for the door, but turned around poised in the doorframe. "Again, I'm really sorry..." He turned left and vanished out of sight.
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 8:30 pm
"It's okay, I'll see ya around..." Amaya gave him a tiny smile and a wave as he left, then returned to her pinball game.
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