Welcome to Gaia! ::

"God, I'm so bored." Emelyn tipped herself back against a rugged trunk, brushing some foliage that hung down near her cheek away with an apathetic hand. Today wasn't a foraging day- she'd since rebuilt her store of food since that 'dark week' in which she'd let her coffers run dry in her detachment from the world. The hedgehog-girl was so bored, however, in a lack of things to do- that she idled there in the jungle, wondering if she should put her plan to make a fishing net into action... even though its completion would be done well before necessary.

She sighed. All she'd been doing recently was collecting food, drying and storing it.. washing her clothes, washing herself, and making tools. Even with all those, and the hours of thinking and writing she afforded herself up on the mountain- there was still so much dead time in which the girl wondered how she'd ever reconcile herself to this languid lifestyle.

There were only two things that told Emelyn that the advancing figure was Cassidy: the voice, and the fact that she'd known the woman was turning into a snake. Otherwise- and unless you counted the wisps of blonde hair that graced her otherwise smooth, reptilian head- she was indistinguishable. Unrecognizable. And frankly... a little terrifying.

Emelyn took a deep breath, and nodded and smiled- almost too vibrantly, as she came forward to greet the naga-like woman.

"Hey! It sure is me. And you- I've not seen you since... the lockdown fiasco."

Emelyn furrowed her brows in questioning. "My... shirt?" She said, wondering. She'd completely forgotten about having lent it to her, especially since these days she couldn't get much than the bikini top through those spines.

"That's so sweet of you to remember," Emelyn said, genuinely surprised that anyone would have that deep a well of decency and kindness- remembering to return even a simple white shirt. "Oh, and sorry to be... a trouble, I guess. I wouldn't have been at my duplex. ...I never went back after Moreau opened everything back up." She put her arms out, palms up, indicating the dark, moist jungle that surrounded them.

"I've been out here since that first day of the lockdown."

"Ah. Why and how." Something about it made Emelyn laugh. "Well, I'll give you one thing- everyone asks the why question, but I don't think anyone's ever asked the how. ...To make a long story short- I figured if Moreau was so keen to make us realize that he can take away our comfort at his whim, then I'm regaining some control in the slightest way I can- take away his ability to deprive me of comfort. This way..." she shrugged. "It's my choice. ...And as for the how... well, I have quite a cache of food built up- if you've been to the beach, you might have seen the drying rack I set up, near the mountain... and what I don't dry, I eat fresh. Berries, roots, grubs, nuts, some edible plants." She left out mentioning the day that her hedgehog instincts had brought her to decapitate a small snake. ...She doubted Cass had any loyalty to the species, anyway- and besides... it wasn't as if Emelyn was apt to want to eat a python.

It was hard to gauge the true depth of Cassidy's surprise- on the one hand, she had changed so much- her eyes were so intense, so raw- that perhaps she was overcompensating for her lack of readable features with tone of voice. Or perhaps she truly did believe that it had all been some sort of convenient, yet unfortunate coincidence that the staff had been forced to lockdown the facilities on the island- not some ploy by Moreau to throw a monkeywrench into the fragile machine of the islander's lives.

"Well..." Emelyn said, tentatively, "I don't know about the helicopter crash. But it wouldn't surprise me if it had been staged. ...Based on what I've heard- mostly from other islanders who have come to see me out here- and even a few hints from Aubrey herself- it seems like it was all a part of the experimentation. ...Not one that Aubrey seems very happy about. Or, maybe it's just something else that's upsetting her. Anyway," she said, pinning on her out-loud musings on the as-of-recently sullen doctor on as an afterthought.

Emelyn would have put her hands out to touch Cassidy- but she didn't know where on the woman to put her hands, or if she'd even feel comforted by the gesture. ...As she looked at the almost alien form of a person she considered a friend- she thanked whatever fates had forced her to this Hell Island that had at least bequeathed her- if not her humanity- then at least the dignity to remain a mammal. Emelyn couldn't even imagine going through what Cass must be experiencing. There surely could be no escape from remembering where she was, and how her life had played such a nasty trick on her. At least there were those mornings when, without the aid of a mirror or other reflective surface, and a mind keen purely on surviving- Emelyn could forget what she was, and even- in a rare while... where.

"Aubrey never told me it was an experiment... I don't think. But I'm sure I recall someone telling me that she'd called it part of an experiment. But to be honest, I don't think it was me she told. I was a little distraught... no... disheveled is a better word for it," Emelyn's 'writer brain' interjected aloud, "the last time we spoke."

It wasn't quite a speech to console Cassidy- but then again, Emelyn didn't want to tell her that 'everything was alright'- they both knew that was a lie. There was pain in the realization that Moreau was a hypocrite, swearing to vouch for the islander's comfort and happiness, when in reality they were all mere labrats whose lives hung at the tips of his fingers. ...There was pain in the realization... but also power. It had been this realization that had driven Emelyn into the wild. God only knew what it would spur in Cassidy.