[Journal]~Awen Zyn~Special Aquatic Duplex #1~

[Awen Zyn]

Norse Newbie

Rayanya had decided to get her mind of the hideous blasphemies she was committing to the Norse pantheon through not being prepared for Jul by taking a walk and getting some food. One could tell that the goth was not in a very merry mood as she walked from her duplex to the cafeteria -- her head was lower than usual, shoulders slumped far below there norm. Her dark hair hung lank around her shoulders and she hadn't bothered to fix up her make up hardly at all; it was slightly smudged all around her face. Deep bags hung below her eyes and she muttered every so often to herself.

When Ray finally reached the cafeteria door she shoved it open with an irritated sigh, using only her shoulders, and lifted her head only slightly to see who was inside at this hour.

Awen turned from the food line as she heard the doors burst open. She set her glass of juice down on her tray and took in the woman before. The elaborate black clothing must have been hot in the tropical air but she was used to people dressing however they want in the heat. She didn't think it was terribly smart to do so, after all Awen herself had avoided packing anything too warm for her trip. She had...somewhere... a bug coat and a light spring jacket but that was pretty much it.

She turned back to the food thinking of what else to have. She would introduce herselfat a safer time... just barging in the girl didn't seem to be too happy. Awen wondered vaguely if she knew about the island and sighed being now terrible self conscious of the brusie like patches of skin, her papercut like gills, the knobs of horns and even the little stick of a tail. She hunched her own shoulders and picked up a chocolate chip cookie.

Rayanya observed the young woman before her for a few moments, taking in the site of the new person. It didn't surprise her that she was still seeing new people -- she had, after all, spent most of her time sitting in her room, and hadn't Joliette said that there were many people on the Island now?

It took Ray a few moments to realize that the girl was changing -- she didn't know at first whether the blueish patches over her flesh were bruises or something else. But closer observation confirmed to Ray that this was, indeed, a changing inhabitant, not someone badly abused or klutzy. At this point, she realized that she had been staring far too long and took her eyes away, feeling a bit shameful. After all, she never liked it when people stared at her, now, did she?

Closing the door behind her, quietly, she headed her way towards the buffet of the cafeteria, eyes back on the floor again.

Well... no freaking out or anything. This was good. Then again, Awen wasn't that far changed maybe she...had just thought something was wrong, brusies or a skin condition maybe. Those sounded reasonable enough. Hearing footsteps stop beside her somewhere on the foodline Awen forced herself to look up. Glancing over at the other woman Awen smiled softly. "Well hello there. Haven't seen you before." She said in what she hoped was a welcoming tone.

She scratched one of her grayish patches slightly, though she wasn't itchy.

Rayanya looked up at the girl through a curtain of hair, taking a moment to reply during which her face was flat and void of emotion. A moment later she seemed to register that she was being spoken to and lifted her painted lips into a slight smile. "Oh, hello. Don't think I've seen you here yet."

Ray turned her eyes back to the food, gathering up a tray so that she could dine. Her gaze followed along the selection and she pulled a hamburger and a lot of fruit - namely honeydew. She never really cared too much for fruit before, and couldn't figure out what was causing her rabid appetite for it now.

Awen gestured to the tables when the black haired one had finished taking her food. "Can I sit with you?" She asked gently, still sort of cautious of how to deal with the girl. "So many tables it really would seem silly for just two people to sit so far away acrossth empty space, eh?"

Ray distractedly grabbed a can of soda, not really paying attention to what she took, and looked back over to Awen. "Sure, I don't mind sitting with you. My name is Rayanya. You must forgive me any... social downfalls that I may have today; I'm a bit stressed out." She gave another smile and headed towards a table. "Do you have a preference?"

Awen smiled and nodded listening to Rayanya. Such an interesting and pretty name, she noted. "Oh no, no preference sit where you'd like. And don't worry... I certainly won't hold anything against you stress seems to be a bit..common place here." Her smiled faltered a little bit as she followed the confident woman towards the tables.

"Oh, and I'm Awen, by the way. Nice to meet you." She already had picked up the cookie and munched on it a bit.

Rayanya sat down at the nearest table and set her tray before her, looking down at it and prodding a bit at her burger with a claw-ringed finger. She normally loved meat, but for some strange reason the hamburger just didn't look as appetizing as that fruit did right now.

"Nice to meet you as well, Awen. That's a nice name, Awen... And yes... this place is quite stressful. Between wondering what's going to happen to you, and when its going to happen..." Ray sighed. "Plus that doctor didn't get back in touch with me over some stuff I desperately needed." Ray took a bite of the burger, even though she didn't really want to, and set it back down on her tray.

Awen noticed the way she was acting about the burger but didn't say anything as she looked down to the plate of fish she took for her meal. She had always hated fish or any seafood but now she just couldn't help but take some. She smiled at the compliment but soon found herself frowning again. "Moreau usually gets things to people quickly, I don't see why he would take so long. What is it you need, I might be able to lend you if I have something like what you need."

Rayanya picked up a piece of melon, now, and gobbled it down greedily, a bit of juice trickling from the side of her lip and causing the black lipstick there to run along the trail it made. She chewed and swallowed her last bite, then answered Awen. "A few things. Mistletoe and straw most importantly." She took another bite of burger. "That's what others have told me... but he must have lost my voicemail message or something." She shrugged.

Awen squinted a moment in confusion sort of wondering what this Jul was... but then realised when Ray said "gods" it must be some other sort of religious thingy. She wasn't terribly well versed at different religions or she would try to feign understanding, knowing that was a hopeless battle she decided not to try.

"Well, if you miss this...Jul ritual... I'm sure the gods would understand. After all you tried your best to complete it, and it's Moreau's fault that you didn't. They can't really be too unhappy if you tried your best to actually do it. That in itself probably shows more revotion than just a ritual." She hoped she didn't say anything wrong, she was just trying to work things out sort of logically, and it wouldn't be fair to..whatever gods she believed in to be mad if she tried her best, it's beyond her control.

As for the other part Awen sympathised. She hadn't even been too terribly religious, but sometimes she wondered if God, or whatever, hated her or something to send her here. She dismissed it mostly, she chose this path, not even Moreau was to blame.

Rayanya thought over Awen's words for a few minutes, idly chewing yet again on her hamburger. It was about halfway gone now, and Ray still wasn't showing any pleasure in the taste -- she was eating it mechanically.

"Perhaps you're right. Woten has been known to be understanding every so often. Other times, quite vengeful though..." She sighed. "It's just... I feel that its so important to do this stuff. Most of the world has converted to Christianity," she spat the word out like it was poison, "and no one believes the Norse Pantheon any more. I feel that the few of us that still do really need to do all that we can..."

"But enough of my problems, its done, gone, and whatever's going to happen as a result, is going to happen. If you don't mind my asking, any idea yet what you're becoming?"

Awen was taken aback at the spite she heard in the woman's voice of Christianity. Sure she didn't believe in it, and sure the stereotypical Christian was pretty harsh, but Awen knew many people who were devoute Christian and were really nice about it. She didn't like it when people were hating of others for religions... it just never seemed right, it just seemed to defeat the purpose of religion to her, it's supposed to bring hope and peace...or inspire it isn't it? Probably a reason she never made herself too religious.

She was so busy contemplating she almost didn't hear the question of her animal. "Oh..um..." She shook her head a little bit. "Not really, some kind of..mutant fish I think?" She rolled her shoulders and looked down at her plate. She wondered if maybe she was eating what she was going to become. Suddenly she didn't feel so hungry and pushed the plate away a little bit.

Rayanya set down the remaining third of her burger, popped the top of her soda and took a big drink. She set it down, devoured another slice of melon, and wiped the juice from her lips with a napkin. "Mmm. It seems that no one really knows what they're going to become til the signs are more obvious, like with Ambrose. I tried asking the doctor myself, but he didn't give me a very straighforward answer."

Ray glared at her burger once more, like it had offended her somehow, and slid it along her plate with a finger.

"Oh yeah?" She tilted her head. Anyone she knew that asked got a direct answer, and some were pretty complicated like Chubbs. "What did he say then?" She leaned forward and propped her chin on her hand, her elbow on the table, not really thinking about manners at the moment.

Her stomach chruned with a growing dislike of the doctor, even though he hadn't done anything to her directly, except for a rude word...and the transformation but that was her fault for coming and not asking.. but not the point. She didn't like how he was treating everyone else on the island...

"A bit of a riddle, I guess." Ray reclined in her seat, folding her arms over her chest. "He said that I was changing into the same thing as someone else on the island, but a different breed of it. So I don't really know. So far I've seen what I think might be lizards, and what looks to be a wolf or something. And you, of course. I guess it wouldn't be so bad to turn into a wolf, it would be a nice irony, I suppose, that would tie in with the religion I chose. But I really hope its not a lizard." Ray shuddered at the thought of growing scales.

"Its my own fault that the doctor wouldn't tell me what I was to become. I lost my temper with him over the intercom."

"Ah.." She nodded a little bit. The Doctor did have his way of getting back at subjects like that. She shook her head a little bit, it still wasn't right.

Awen tried to think of what else to say. "Well... there's a couple of types of deer on the island already, lcouple of lizards, yeah a wolf..." She went through the list of things she'd seen already trying to match people to the animals..which wasn't too hard but she hadn't though of a few in awhile. She should remember to visit them more often. "A mongoose.... a cat, I think. Oh there's a bat too..and a cheeta..." She was wondering if that helped at all.

Rayanya frowned slightly, wondering what she was going to become and hoping that it wasn't most of those on the list Awen had just rattled off. About the only good animal there, in her opinion, was the noble wolf. Lizards were cool, but she wasn't fond of becoming one, and deer were... well, prey. And that didn't fit her at all. And bats -- guh, such ugly little creatures, with their short, blunt noses and little tiny tails... there were very few species of attractive bats.

"Yeah... I'll just have to wait and see, that's all that I can do." She tried a smile, but looked a tad bit disgruntled.

"Well, at least you could narrow it down after your first change, being able to compair to others." She said, trying to be nice, but a slight bitterness was laced into an undertone. She shook her head slightly reminding herself she wasn't supposed to be having selfish thoughts like this anymore. She decided just to hange the subject.

"So..um... what... is your religion, why are wolves so important?"

Ray nodded her head, slightly taken aback by the new tone in Awen's voice. For the most part, though, she disregarded it.

"My religion? Norse. I worship the pantheon of the Skaal, the old Norse who lived in the North and are responsible for the civilization of a majority of the world. Though people don't realize it... they still have the ideas in their head planted by Catholics that the Norse were disgusting, evil people." She finished the rest of her soda in a drink and pulled the last bit of melon from its rind, then shoved her tray away from herself a bit. "Wolves were known not only as a source of warm fur, but also as holy creatures in some instances -- there were many, many wolves associated with the gods."

"Oh I see..." She said softly nodding. She contemplating something while looking at the remains of her meal with a hard stare, then looked back up to Ray. "It maybe true and unfair what Christians did in hte past." She said quiet suddenly. "But no one can say for certain what is an absolute truth, even if they want to believe they are right, there is still a possibility they might not be. It's not that people don't realize what you do, simply that they do not believe. There are a lot of other people besides Christians who don't believe either. Athiests, Buddists and Muslims for example. It's not that people today believe that the Norse were disgusting or evil, just that the culture they grew up in has been greatly influenced by Christianity and so are more liekly to believe in it." She quieted quickly and looked back down at her food. She didn't like debates but sometimes she culdn't help it, she didn't mean any wrong either.

Ray frowned slightly. "I have... a lot of qualms with Christianity, but I try not to get into them with others. Unless they get into my face about it." She folded her hands before her on the table, peering around the cafeteria. "Besides, its not like its really something that matters right now." It was obvious that Ray did not wish to get into a fight with Awen over Christianity and how much she despised it for everything it was; and since she had taken a bit of a liking to the other girl, she was trying to cut it off as soon as possible.

Awen nodded a little bit. "I understand... I just have some really nice and understanding friend who are Christian... and .... I just hate it when people fight over that kind of thing. The loudest peopl always think their right and everyone else is wrong and that's that. It's just not right for people to fight over something that is really about...at least mostly from what i understand of some religions... peace, outward and in. It just...sort of upsets me is all. Sorry for ranting like that."

She really didn't mean to offend the girl at all so she smiled a little bit. "And I understand about having qualms with certain people though. I got harassed by a small group of Christians just for saying I didn't know if I believed or not...." She tried to offer a little bit of empathy, hoping to just leave it at a common place and carry on other convorsation.

Rayanya shrugged. "Oh, I don't really have qualms with Christians, just the religion and the way that it was made and structured. Granted some people can be real jerks about it, but I don't entirely blame that on the religion -- just the way that the peole who follow it are. Some think too much that they are absolutely right."

Ray stretched a bit, looked around once more. "I should head out soon. Why I don't know. Maybe to sulk more. Or to figure out a way to make Jul at least a little possible."

Awen nodded a little bit. "Alright then... try not to sulk too much though or I'll have to go to drastic measures to try to cheer you up." She said with a small chuckle. "And hey if you need help with anything I'll do my best. I'd like to learn more about this Jul thing and the religion in general sometime if you don't mind?"

Ray's face brightened a bit at Awen's words. No, she wasn't a religion shark, out to snatch whoever she could for her purpose. But it meant a lot to her when people took interest in things that she did, especially strange, obscure things, or expanding their own personal knowledge. "I'd be more than happy to tell you whatever you wanted to know about it," she said. "Just be warned that the similarities between Norse and Christianity well... might disturb you a little bit." She frowned, and chewed a bit on her bottom lip.

Awen laughed a little bit. "Well, from what little I know from the few religions I know there are quite a few similarities already, I don't think it's too shocking. I appreciate it though, it sounds interesting anyway." Positively beaming she stood up. "I should probably go see if Jamal woke up yet anyway..." She said more to herself than to Ray.

Rayanya stood and smiled at Awen, lifting her tray so that she could discard the melon rinds and partially-eaten hamburger. "Oh, it is. Its a wonderful religion, and it has many great stories, whether you consider them a myth or a truth." Ray nodded. "It was nice to meet you, Awen, I hope to see you around. I live in duplex 24, stop by whenever."

"21." She replied and nodded taking her tray to the rack after disguarding the leftovers. "I've always been quite fond of Ancient Egyptian actually... from the Early Kingdom, it was always so neat." She started for the door walking backwards and waved. "But I'll see you later, it was such a pleasure Rayan-ouff"

Awen had just walked into the back of the door and stumbled back forward a little. "Heh..." She turned and push the door open and left, her face going red from embarassment. Not a klutz indeed...

Ray chuckled, discarded her tray, and headed back to her room. She was kind of happy she had gone to grab food... the encounter had made her a bit more cheerful.  

[Awen Zyn]

Joliette in the Jungle

Joliette grumped allt he way out of hte town hall, she figured if the new person was as new as she thought she was it was likely that going to her own duplex or the darkroom or even David's duplex for that matter would make her cross paths with teh woman once more. So instead she turned the opposite direction and headed for the beach

Halfway along the path to the beach Awen stood facing the outer part of the island, her back to the road. Her face was set in confliction, her gaze was deep in her thoughts. She fidgeted a little bit, her foot shuffling forward a little...then back again. She was desiding, wondering, fighting with her own instincts. Terrified yet so certain. This was how Joliette would come across the poor girl, not yet even in sight of the water.

Joliette looked up 'smelling' someone familiar with her tongue "Hello Awen" she sounded a touch grumpy, but who wouldn't after what had just happened "Something wrong?" she asked having a feeling she'd not get the same reaction as she had before

For a moment Awen seemed as if she couldn't hear, or was ignoring Joliette. In fact she gave no reaction at all until she heard the question. She jumped realising a person was suddenly right there. She blinked a few times and recognised the newly scaled face of the island photographer. She smiled instantly. "Everything's fine just.... thinking about going to the beach." She shifted from foot to foot before shaking her head. "Hey! Thanks for the present, that was such a beautiful picture! I'm sorry I didn't get you anything....."

"I'm glad you liked it, and don't worry about it" she smiled weakly "having friends here is enough of a gift" she looked ahead of them "Well I'm going that direction, we could go together"

Awen hesitated a moment. "Can... can we not, for now?" Her brow creased in worry. She didn't know if she could hold out against these instincts for too much longer. She was afraid if she saw the ocean she would just have to give in, and rush right into them, which was just not acceptable. Was it? Her stomach clenched a litle bit thinking of drowning.... she didn't even know how to swim after all. She looked around for an alterative. "The jungle?"

Sure.. less likely to run intot he tattooed ... woman" she bit the word off "in there" she looked for a path and then headed into it

She raised an eyebrow as they went down the jungle path. She went through the lsit of people on the island... she didn't remember anyone besides Jamal with tattoos, though she was happy she didn't end with man (it meant he wasn't causing trouble again), she frowned thinking that Moreau brought a new girl to the island. "I haven't met any tattooed woman, but I take it you guys had a ...disagreement of sorts? Is she new, was it over..changes?"

"I asked her if she was ok... she asked if there was anything that should make me think it was, I told her honestly I didn't think there was much here for anyy of us to be ok.. she in turn jumped up and put her hand around my throat and proceeded to pick me up by it..." Joliette rambled she was venting yes, but didn't mean it to come out harshly at Awen.. it simply just... came out "So I punched her to get her to let go, and she went after my instep so I kicked her... "

Awen's eyes widened and she lost step staring at Joli's back. "She tried to choke you!?" The rest of Joli's actions were obviously in self defence, but this tattooed...crazy person had tried to stranggle Joliette jsut for asking what was wrong? Moreau sure knew how to pick the good one's didn't he? "Are you alright Joli?"

Joli sighs and nods coming to a stop "Jamal kinda intervened partway through... got himself kicked int eh knackers too"

Awen made a face with a little "Ooo..." hearing how Jamal got kicked. That's gotta hurt.... But she smiled soon after. Jamal really was a good guy, proof there of. See he broke up a fight rather than start on, for once. "Well, I'm glad no one got...too hurt. And that Jamal is actually preventing damage rather than causing it. The big guy... just doesn't know how to react to this stuff sometimes... we all don't but ya know he just..handles it badly sometimes but..." She paused and realised she was rambling again. "Anyway, so what happened then, the girl left you alone right?"

"Yeah she was more concerned with Jamal.. the kick that got his knackers was meant for me and came from her... last I heard from their mouths was Jamal needing a smoke, and the woman saying they'd go to her place for it.. and then they left.. and so did I" she sighed, the conversation was definetaly calming her nerves

Something prickled on the back of her neck at Joli's words. Something..vaguely familiar. Like an anxious, nervous feeling when the lights go out- when you haven't been afraid of the dark since you were five. Awen couldn't place her finger on just what this tingle might be, so she just let it drop. If it was important she would feel it more, and know what it was.

"Well good... last time I caught Jamal smoking in my place he got it good." She chuckled softly. "But I'm sorry about that hm? Maybe you should throw in a complaint, or warning to Moreau. I mean..she tried to stranggle you! What would this island be to me and Chubbsie if we didn't have out little Joli to brighten the place eh?" She loved being able to say little and actually mean from her point of view too.... aahh what mear inches to do the ego.

Joliette chuckled, a smile reaching her face for the first time in days. "It would be one less Varanus komodoensis anyways"

"And lacking too many varaneeoose Komwhatchamacallit!" Awen said in a very matter-of-fact tone andnodded a little bit. Even though she had no idea what a Va... whatever was. She was glad to see Joliette smile though, she didn't think the girl had been very happy since the change, and especially not since the incedent earlier.

Joliette chuckled "Varanus komodoensis... Komodo Dragon... it's what I'm becoming" she tried to explain

"Oh hey! Komodo Dragons those things are so-!" Her excited tone stopped and dropped suddenly. "cool-unless you happen to not like meat, which you don't, which is kind of a drag, but that's not really what I'm trying to do with this pep talk, so ya know I'll just keep my trap shut ya?" She ended with the goofiest apologetic smile.

Jolietet chuckled again listening to Awen's runon sentence "No I dont like meat, but I'm having no choice in the matter, the claws came in handy in a fight though... I didn't want to use them though but did she should have a set of punctures in her arms... I could smell them..." she sighed slightly "Some way to spend christmas... "

"Oh Joliette...." She couldn't help it and she just wrapped the photographer up in a warm hug. She hated seeing this girl down, it just wasn't any fun. Might make for some cool pictures though.. they say artists really shine when they are A) In love or B) Depressed. But Awen really didn't want to see art at the price of her friend's happiness. "It'll be okay Joli, really it will be. I mean, let's put it this way, things can't get much worse-right? They'll only go up from here!"

Joliette accepted the hug and even returned it one armed since the other held her laptop. "I guess, we'll see how my birthday goes... if it goes as I expect it too... it'll go down a lil more before going up again"

Awen tilted her head slightly. "Birthday? When?" She gained a mischevious smile.

"Tomorrow" Joliette admitted "December 29th, I was almost a new years baby" she eyed the blue haired girl's mischevious smile

Awen gasped and her eyes widened. Tomorrow? Oh no then she wouldn't have time to prepare anything special! The grin and life faded for a moment before returning less than a moment later. "Me and Chubbs'll make sure you have a happy birhtday!" She nodded definately.

"If David has anything to say about it it's sure to be interesting, he found out on Christmas, when he showed me the mini golf course he jamal and ambrose made" She nodded

Awen smiled bright then all of a sudden spazzed. "GYAH no!" She covered her ears even though it was too late. "Oh no! I wasn't supposed to know until I found Chubbs. I promised I wouldn't peek or ask anyone until I found him. He wanted to see my expression when I found out..." She sighed and smiled again. "Aw well... no big deal."

Joliette frowned "I'm sorry" she said quietly "It's easy to see though, it's all uncovered and the fancing is down and everything, I'm surprised you haven't seen it yet" she looked at the jungle floor and sat on a fallen log

"Yeah I've been avoiding the area." She smiled a little bit. "But it doesn't matter I'll still be surprised to see what it looks like." Leaning against a tree she grinned. "Hey, how about a birthday mini golf tourny? It could bring everyone together for fun and in the spirit of the games..all that stuff. Or maybe just me you Chubbs and Jamal? It;ll be like..uh... a double date or something."

"Uhm Jamal's last time around both David and I he was storming out of the cafeteria and didn't look overly thrilled about mine or David's presense, not to mention what just happened... But if you can convince him... I see nothing wrong with it..." Joliette looked up at her friend

Awen smiled down at Joliette. "Ah he was just pissed at other people... he likes you guys really. He doesn't mean to be angry or anything. Really he's a sweet guy."

Joliette nods right then she didn't have an opinion about Jamal... "Yeah he helped me take the darkroom stuff to 28 when it got dropped off at his place that one day... Speaking of which I have a little more bubblewrap for him from the replacement equipment... I just haven't had a chance to give it to him..."

"I can give it to him, if you'd like me to?" She smiled a little bit. It gives me an excuse to go see the big lug anyway, she thought to herself.

"Sure, that works... It's in the darkroom.. Have you seen the darkroom since I finished setting it up?" she asks glad to be off the fight topic

She shook her head. "Not since the matress went splat..."

Joliette blushes slightly "Sorry about that... I didn't mean to get you... it's done though... thats where I did the photographs I gave for christmas"

"I figured as much, they were really amazingly pretty you know." She nodded. "I'm going to put it right into my scrapbook."

"Thanks, theres a few I didn't use they are still hanging, I thought you might like one that didn't include the ocean..." she knew her friend had a problem with water...

Awen half chuckled. "Good call on that one." She smiled. "But I don't know how much longer that feeling will last."

Joliette smiles "My favorite was the one I gave David, it was a sunset with a silohette of the mountain"

"Oh that would have been pretty.... I should actually get out at sunset and look at it...but ya know I've been hdinig away.. doing this kicking butt with Kilik or Sonic ...." She shrugged a little bit.

"Theres a similar one hanging in teh darkroom, I'll show you later if you like" she places teh laptop in her lap resting her arms atop it "What did you get for christmas from moreau?" she asks

"Ooo Ooo" Her eyes went wide. "Soul Calibur III" Was that drool coming from the corner of Awen's mouth? Naw.... "And a bloody PsP! It is awesome. But a little wonky I think..Moreau modified it or they came out with a new version while I've been away or something. Still works great though. What about you?"

"An ipod and a pile of magazines from the publisher I worked for before I came here... dated from when I left to look for Vasile until now" she sighed

"Oh..well the ipod is sweet anyway." She grinned, unsure of how the girl was feeling about the magazines...

"I already have one, filled with my music, so it wasn't all that fantastic of a gift... The magazines I think they gave to spite me... all of them had articles about me in them" Joliette sat up and opened her laptop, she'd gotten tired of carrying hte magazines around and had scanned them in with her photo scanner and pasted them together. she pulled them open so the oldest was on top and turned the laptop towards her friend

Awen scanned the pages. "Oh dear.." She said softly clicking around a bit. "I'm sorry Joli...."

"Needless to say my hope of rescue is pretty much gone" she sighed, "and I get to know just how much my parents miss me"

Awen frowned a little bit. "Well... there's still hope that someone else will have a rescue party... And.. it's nice to know your parents care right?"

Joliette thought about this for a moment and then started nodding, slowly at first then a lil faster "Yeah... it is nice to know how much they care... I hadn't really thought about it that way..."

Awen smiled a little bit. She bit back a comment that she knew would ruin her friends mood. She couldn't help thinking it very loudly though. You wonder a lot about how your parents would care, when you don't have any. She was really happy though for Joli, and had -should have- gotten over her parent issue a long time ago...

"See? Not so bad, eh?"

Joli nodded and closed the files on her system "Very true" she opened her windows explorer and dug through some files eventually opening one dated a year before "My 21st birthday... seems like so long ago now... how old are you Awen?" she asks looking at hte photo of her with her parents and grandparents before looking up

"19." She smiled a little bit. "Just legal in Canada, not that it matters really...."

Joliette chuckles slightly "Legal here if you really want alcohol I would imagine"

"Does it really matter I wonder? I don't think the Doc cares to regulate.... and I don't like to drink anyway really..."

Joliette chuckles "I think Jamal does, but just cause one of a couple does doesn't mean both will, so I suppose it really doesn't matter. Personal preference I guess"

She nodded a little. "Exactly."

Joliette closes teh laptop once more "Want to see what I did with 28?" she asks

Awen shook her head slowly. "Rain check maybe?" Her stomach growled softly. "I think ym stomach will be angry if I neglect it much longer."

Joliette nods "Sounds good, it'll be there for a long time to come.. or least till it has no further purpose"

Awen nodded a bit and started towards the village again. "Have a good time of it Joliette, and remember you're always cared for ya know?"

Joliette nods and watches her friend wander away before standing and heading for the darkroom now in the mood to develope photos  

[Awen Zyn]

Breakdown

The first of her senses to start working again was her taste. Drawing in slow even breaths Awen shifted slightly. The taste was familiar, comforting, she swallowed softly to clear the small ache in her throat. Her eyes were still closed as she drew in an almost blissful gulp of air. The salt making her tingle all over. A cool sensation washed over her body all the way up to her neck, it felt...wet.

Awen's eyes snapped open as she realised what that feeling was. Suddenly she felt the rough sand under her exposed arms and even embedded under her clothes. As a second wave came up to her Awen scrambled to her feet, her eyes wide, her breath growing shallow.

She was soaked to the skin, she looked to the small imprint in the sand where she was just laying. Her pulse quickened dramatically, she started to hyperventilate. She backed away from the ocean but the smell of salt and the uncomfortable feel of clothes clinging to her skin was something she couldn't escape.

A small noise squeezed through her tightened throat, almost a whimper but not quite audiable enough for that. She kept backing away, slowly, then faster. Her arms flung out as she tried to whipe the water away, to it wasn't touching her. Obviously failing the battle she let out a long terrified scream.

And everything was black again.

-----------

Awen awoke only a short while later. The sun hadn't even the time to dry her clothes. She opened her eyes first this time, not letting any other sense take control. She was now facing the jungle. She heard the crashing waves behind her and slowly got to her feet.

Drawing in a breath she shivered slightly. She couldn't freak out again... she had to stay...stay calm. She closed her eyes and steadied her breathing slowly.

She wondered vaguely what's going on. What happened to everyone else... Was that last night just a crazy dream? Maybe her instincts had taken over and driven her to the water. She didn't know.... but she just...kept walking.  

[Awen Zyn]

Out of the frying pan....

"EEEEEEE!" Came a rather high-pitched and obviously feminine scream from the general jungle area.

Antony had just gotten a face full of spider web and was now pawing frantically at her face and hair. She didn't usually have a problem with spiders, but this one had crossed the line!

A little ways down the beach, the sounds of loud cursing mixed with various forms of 'get it off' were heard before a flailing Antony exploded from the jungle.

Oh there would be a war on all spiders.

Awen was startled from her attempts to calm down. She looked towards the loud crashes and swears bursting from the jungle a little ways to her left. Recognising this as other life, and possibly something to distract her from her little problem she jogged towards the girl.

Awen smiled slightly noting the patch of blue in the girl's hair, that was so cool. The girl was new, or at least someone Awen hadn't seen before. Her mind quickly snapped back to the less casual matters at hand.

"Hey, are you alright there?" She asked approching at a slower pace.

Seeing the tattoos the woman had this situation ran a gong in Awen's mind. This was the person who had attacked Joliette when she jsut asked what was wrong. Remembering this Awen stopped a respectful distance away.


Antony didn't recognize who this was, nor was she even caring at the moment. All thoughts were on the rare tropical spider that was going to bite, and kill her.

Awen looked the other girl over quickly, searching for a spider amidst her intricate tattoos. She couldn't see anything that looked like the spiders she has seen on this island so she simple shook her head.

"Doesn't look like it's there anymore." She replied.

She scratched her left arm, starting to itch from the dried sand and salt on her skin.

Antony sighed deeply in relief, relaxing noticeably before finally focusing on the girl in front of her, grinning sheepishly over her fading anger, "Thanks... Walked into a spider web..." It was explanation enough for her.

Looking over the other girl, she cocked her head to the side before offering Awen a hand to shake, "I'm Antony." She only noticed that this girl was one of the 'strange' ones after her hand was offered, not that the gesture wouldn't have happened either way.

And suddenly it dawned on her, and her bruised brow furrowed. "Hey... Did you wake up where you fell asleep?"

Awen took the offered hand and shook with a small smile. "I'm Awen." But it seemed there wasn't much time for pleasentries.

She frowned a little bit realising this girl must know less than she did at this point. "No, I didn't really fall asleep either. There was a huge explosion last night, the power flickered and died and then... I kind of blacked out myself. I woke up...." The words caught in her throat and she was painfully reminded of her now only damp clothes.

She shifted her weight a little bit adn felt her socks squish. "Well here." She said quickly enough before switching subjects, back to this..Antony girl. "Didn't you hear it last night?"

Antony blinked, that name sounded familiar and she had a nagging feeling that she should KNOW this person, but for the life of her she couldn't remember. Damn that pot.

"Nope, I sleep like a rock, and then there's my lovely forehead decoration too," she gave Awen a strained smile as she motioned to her forehead with another deep sigh.

"And then I woke up in the ******** jungle." The tattooed woman waved irritably towards the greenery she had just exploded from.

The strained paused was noted, but Antony didn't comment on that.

"Yippy skippy." Antony said dryly. She was obviously being sarcastic.

"Ah well hey." Awen let out a short little laugh. "Your forhead decoration is better than mine." She brushed her hair aside a moment and shrugged.

"But either way something happened and I have no clue currently what that something is. It was big though...." She glanced around slowly and scratched some more.

"Haven't seen anyone else have ya...?"

"Eh, that's not your fault though," she shrugged before plopping down onto the sand with another sigh.

She wished that she had seen someone else, but the last time she saw someone was at her duplex. "The last person I saw was Jamal, he took me home after this," Antony referenced to her forehead, "Happened. But after that? Nilch."

The skin on the back of her neck tingled again. Something inside didn't feel right, something Joliette mentioned was just out of Awen's recollection. That reminded her she hasn't actually seen Jamal in a little while... she wondered where he was...

"Oh I hope he's okay...." She said outloud but in a distant tone as she looked back inland. Her stomach tightened, she should go looking for him...or anyone else for that matter.

"He's a good guy, and if we're okay, then he is too." Antony didn't know why she was in fact comforting this girl she just met, but it simply seemed like the sort of situation that called for it. She mentally wondered just how pissed Jamal was at the moment. At least, that was the safest assumption she could make.

Ah well. Turning her attention back to the blue haired girl, she ran a hand through her hair, messing it up more. "I hate this island. Vacation my a**." Anger was starting flood her senses again, but at least this time, Antony had the wit about her to yank out a pack of smokes and shake one free.

Good ol' nicotine. Soon she was taking a long, calming drag and shoving the lighter back into her pocket.

Awen nodded a little bit at Antony's words. That's right Jamal was tough, he could take care of himself. He was probably out there somewhere just as confused as she was.... She frowned. She should find him...

Glancing back to the girl now Awen heard why this new comer was on the island anyway. Not that it really registered. Awen wondered how this girl could be so calm about this, except for being bitter. Wasn't she worried at all? Didn't she care that anyone else might not be fine, that the others might be in danger? That Jamal might be...

Quickly looking away Awen steeled herself agaisnt that flood of thoughts. She was just displacing her anger and worry. The girl was just new, she didn't know many people so it was understandable that she would be more self centered. Right. That was it. It was understandable.

But not for Awen. Her heart raced thinking of what might have happened to not only Jamal, but Joliette, or Chubbs, or Lauren, or Amaya, or that...girl that lived in the upper duplex, the gamer, Kim? Awen shook her head sowly.

"Well I'm going to find someone else." She said determined. "Coming?"

In her mind, people could take care of themselves, and if they couldn't then that was called natural selection. Over population was bad enough anyways, why encourage it?

Hopefully lizard girl would be selected this time around.

Antony was never one to help the hungry in some far off, foreign country. As far as she was concerned, Darwin was finally coming about. That and why help other countries if you haven't finished cleaning up your own? Stupid Bush.

And Awen was right, Antony hadn't met many others, and Jamal was the only one who didn't piss her off. Well Awen hadn't yet, and she really should apologize to that girl from the beach. Chana was it?

Her eyes glanced upwards silently during her thoughtful silence, "It'll be dark soon, and unless you can see in the dark..." She trailed off, looking upwards at the blue haired girl. "It won't help Jamal for you to get lost too you know..."

Blinking, she wondered absently why she had automatically assumed Awen was worried about Jamal?

That look in her eyes... Oh s**t. "Hey... Are you and Jamal...?" Antony made a motion with both her hands, cigarette dangling from her lips, as she squished them together. It was something she had picked up from The Fifth Element.

"I know my way in the jungle at night." She said quickly with much protest. "I've been walking them a lot since I couldn't sleep and I've gotten a feel for it. But I'm not just going to it here and do nothing when the people I've come to care about could be in danger." Her face a getting a little hot then and she knew she was getting angrier with the girl.

"AND not that it's any of your business or anything but yes me and Jamal are a couple!"

Whatever, if this girl wanted to go traipsing around the jungle in the middle of the night looking for a man who probably would be very hard to see in the dark, then that was fine by her.

But damn if she didn't treat her like she was a heartless wench. ******** that s**t.

"Excuse you, but the people I care about are at home, gods know how many miles away. So don't you dare act like I'm heartless!" Antony was irritated, but was doing a pretty damn good job at keeping her temper at bay, for the most part.

What Awen said next made her pale slightly as if this was news to her. For all the tattooed woman could remember, this was the first time that she had heard that.

"Well ******** b*****d!" She growled.

Now she was pissed. Angry that she had not only been wenched at by this little girl, but lied to by a friend. Why couldn't people be honest ever? Time for her to not be a hypocrite...

"Uh, we've been ********," she explained bitterly, eyes dark when she looked up at Awen. "I didn't know..." Trailing off, Antony thought it best not to add that regardless of whether she had known or not, she would have still ******** him. Details details.

Awen had already opened her mouth to give the girl another lashing but stopped when the girl called Jamal a b*****d. She didn't have long to wonder though, her mind ground to a halt hearing her next sentance.

They had been...what...?

She stood frozen for a second, not quite able to grasp what she was told. It worked it's way out slowly in her mind. Jamal was..well Jamal. He and Awen were together... sure they hadn't been for long... but they had sorted a lot of crap out together, and damned if Awen hadn't been..falling in love. This girl, Antony.... was new to the island. She attacked Joliette. And... she and Jamal...

Awen opened her mouth again to speak, but it moved wordlessly. What could she even say? Her throat tightened, her eyes welled with tears.

After all... it did make sense. She knew what Jamal was like before. Had she really expected him to change? Yes. She thought she was special, the way her looked at her.... But she was almost the only girl on the island who wasn't too young or pissed at him or taken. She should have seen it before. Had she really expected it to last? Choking back a sob she knew the answer yes.

Looking over Antony Awen realised a gilr like that was more Jamal's speed anyway. She certainly didn't waste time anyway. She had tattoos, she acted more like Jamal, she smoked so he wouldn't be nagged about that anymore. And.... she was fully human.

Awen became painfully aware of her changed now. She held her arms close to her, squeezing at the rubbery gray patches. Her tail and horn things began to make her stomach chrun. She was hiddeous, or at least would be by the time she transformed again. Jamal.... didn't want that. No... he wanted something... normal. She wanted the same thing, it made her turn to Jamal in the first place, she just wanted to be normal.

So it was Awen's fault after all...

Just like Moreau tricked her... in a different, almost more painful way, so had Jamal.

She nodded slowly and drew in a big breath. She even smiled at the other girl.

"I'm going to find my friends." She said, her voice wavering and tears clearly stinging her now bloodshot eyes.

She turned mechanically towards the jungle. After everything this day brought she did not need this. After everything... this was not what she could handle. She would find....find... Chubbs or Joli or ..or..or..someone. And everything would be okay.

She couldn't hate Jamal... she couldn't blame him at all. After all it was all Awen's fault.

She watched her reactions silently, something inside feeling very bad about all this, but it was soon stomped back to the cavern it had crept from. Opening her mouth to apologize, or something comforting, Antony could find no words.

And then Awen was gone.

Too many thoughts were going through her head right now. Too many emotions as well.

Obviously it hadn't been 'just sex' to this other girl, and she felt bad for crushing this girl's hopes. The feeling didn't last long however. This girl had to learn that mixing love and sex just didn't work, and if she had to learn the hard way, then so be it. And if that made her a cold hearted b***h... Oh well.

s**t happened. The world wasn't fair. Everyone doesn't play by the rules. You're going to get hurt. And you can't do a damn thing about any of it.

Too bad she couldn't apply that to herself nowadays. But that was different. That involved family. At least, mostly.

This situation was slowly going nowhere good fast, and that was her cue to make a visit to the Captain.

Standing, Antony headed in the opposite direction, making a beeline for the Beach Bar.  

[Awen Zyn]

....And Into the Oven

After the encounter with Antony Awen hadn't been thinking much. At least she tried not to. Her plan was so simple, go through the jungle find Chubbs or Joli or someone, anyone and they could figure this out. Unfortunately not thinking was a very bad thing when wandering through a tropical jungle. When her eyes focused again after so long of wandering she realised she didn't know where she was. Though Awen concidered herself and expert of the jungle, all of her tramps through the bush hadn't ever been too bad and she got a lay of the land.

But she should have arrived at the town a long time ago. Looking around all she saw was unfamiliar trees and bushes. None of the markings she knew so well were anywhere. To make things worse Awen's stomach was complaining and her throat was as dry as the sun. She frowned and sat on a stump.

She was tired. She'd been walking for...she didn't know how long. She was hungry, she was aching all over, and alone. Now that she stopped she couldn't help but think back to what Antony had said. Jamal had... How could he? After all they've gone through, after how they had helped eachother so much? Her eyes watered and she curled her legs up onto the stump.

Tears leaked from her eyes and she couldn't do anything about it. She was too exhausted to care, and she was alone so nobody would notice. She was alone...completely alone and lots on this stupid island. She just broke down...and started to cry.

She had no idea someone else was in the area...

Jamal grumbled and tried to haul himself to his feet, wincing horribly as his ankle refused to hold his weight. Oh...woooonderful. He looked around for something like a walking stick to support his weight and found one not too far away. He had to hop a bit to get to it, but once it was firmly in his hands, he found it made a halfway decent crutch. Maybe he could get himself out of this yet.

When he turned around to try and get situtated, he heard some distinct crying noises.

He tried to hop-crutch towards the sound, wondering if maybe it was Kim and she was just as lost as he was, but as the familiar blue sheen of her hair came into sight, he quickened his pace.

"Awen?"

A quick surprised gasp and Awen looked up. The voice had come from behind her, she wasn't alone? She spun around on the stump she had sat on and ...ended up falling backwards to the ground. "Ow..." She groaned and looked up at the canopy of trees.

She recognised the voice, and even saw a flash of dark skin when she spun. and didn't really know if she wanted to get up or not. She didn't want to face him. This wasn't fair. All that had happened and she had to run into him? Of all people.... She decided this wasn't the best time to have a breakdown over their relationship issues... the island... the explosion. There were more important things to worry about.

Taking a breath Awen shoved the personal problem thoughts to the back of her mind. She choked back a few tears and finally sat up. She smiled a little bit, honestly relieved that he was at least okay...

"Jamal..."

Jamal hesitated, sensing something was not quite right, eyeing her tear-streaked face with a mix of apprehension and concern. Well, obviously things weren't quite right, if one went with the fact that people were waking all over the island...but he was surprised she didn't fling herself at him. Did no one care that he had been missing since last night?

"You a'ight?" he ventured carefully, moving forward clumsily as his walking stick continued to snag on stuff on the ground. His bare feet were dirty and had leaf bits plastered to them from mud and whatnot. The injured leg had the jeans rolled up to the knee so he could keep an eye on it in case it started to look way worse than it did already.

He tried to flash her a nonchalant, easy-going grin to lighten the mood.

Awen sniffed and rubbed her eyes a bit before standing up. She quickly put a hand over her mouth when she saw Jamal's leg. Everything else was shoved away as concern flooded her. "Oh my gosh what happened to your leg?"

She also wanted to avoid the question of if she was alright. She frowned a little bit.

Jamal's brow furrowed, flitting a glance down at it. "I fell. Bein' stupid...so it's ma fault," he answered, looking back up. "It ain't gonna fall off, but da ankle's all messed up."

He reached out a hand to touch her shoulder, seeing the frown. He wouldn't have guessed that she'd run into Antony since she was out and about in the jungle. Why be out in a place like this when you had somewhere to be.

She laughed a little bit as she turned away looking at the forest, avoiding his hand. "Big tough guy got lost again eh?" She glanced back over her shoulder with one of her old mocking grins. "And needs the shorty to save him again eh?"

It hurt to try to act like this again, almost like nothing happened. Like.. before they were together. She shook her head a little bit and sighed. "Unfortunately I don't think I can help this time. I've never been to this part of the jungle before... I'm ind of lost too." She turned back to him. "You saw the explosion didn't you? Have you seen anyone else?"

When she moved away from his hand, he let it hang in the air a moment before letting it fall, a confused look on his face.
"Well, when a brotha' wakes up onna cliff 'n' ain't got no idea where ta go, he gonna get lost," he said with a tone that lacked any sort of joviality as he spoke to her back. 'N' I ain't saw no explosion. I was sleepin'."

He paused, a hand rubbing at the back of his neck uneasily. Alright, so they were BOTH lost. "I saw dat Kim girl fo' a lil' bit, but dat's been it. Yous da only otha person I seen. You saw anyone else?"

Yes. Yes I have. I saw that frigid tattooed bicth that you've been sleeping with behind my back. But she knew she couldn't say that. It wasn't Antony's fault... she didn't know. It was Jamal who had decieved the both of them. A swell of anger towards the black man rushed upon her, but it didn't last...

Well.... not the both of them. Jamal might not have said anything to Antony, but Awen knew exactly what she had gotten into when she started this relationship. She knew what Jamal was capable of. She shouldn't have fooled herself, they came from different worlds, he wouldn't follow her ideas, he had his own of what was right. And obviously...Awen wasn't right.

"No... I haven't seen anyone else." She said flatly. "I woke up on the beach in the water. I've been trying to find someone since and... I guess I got lost in the jungle. I should have been back to town by now."

She looked back in the direction she had come from. "Maybe if we head back that way we could find the beach again at least....then we could find the path back to the village?"

She was trying to get through this without breaking down, or exploding. She just wanted to go back to the village and go to bed.

Jamal didn't like the tone of her voice, how she seemed so...distant. Maybe this whole thing with waking up in a random place had her rattled; she was pretty afraid of water, so that had to be it.

"I guess dat's da best idea," he said slowly, almost in a grudging manner, giving her face a close look for a sign of a smile or something that might shake this odd, almost icy wall around her. Again he tried to touch her, this time trying to wrap an arm around her waist. She looked like she needed comfort and that's what he was trying to do. He didn't know he was the source of her pain. Yet anyway.

She gave him a smile, but it never reached her deep purple eyes. It was the emptiest smile she had ever shown Jamal. But she was hoping it passed for a good smile. She didn't feel like it, but she was trying.

Before his arm wrapped around her she started walking, narrowly missing contact yet again. "Let's go then. We can go slow so you won't have too much trouble... Once we get back to the village we can get you to the Doc and get your leg fixed."

If nothing had happened to the Doctor anyway.....

Okay, what was going on. Jamal might be stupid in some aspects, but he was not completely oblivious to the fact that there was something very wrong. A prickling sensation rose at the back of his neck as he was very clearly rejected. Again.

"Hold up," he said in a firmer tone than he had been using previously, the discarded arm falling again at his waist as he was again rejected. "We're gonna stop worryin' 'bout me for a few minutes 'cause I ain't gonna die from a ******** up ankle."

He paused, crossing his free hand over his chest to grab at the stick so he was better balanced, giving her a leveled look. "Ya wanna tell me what's wrong wit' you? Sum'thin' ain't right 'n' you don't even tell me there ain't cause I know better. I been 'round you too long ta not be able ta tell."

Awen stopped in her tracks but still stared forward into the jungle as Jamal spoke. She closed her eyes as she fought a new wave of tears. Why did he have to do that? Couldn't he just go along with her, at least until after they got back to the village? Why did he have to do this now. She drew in a slow breath and turned back to him.

"I'm sorry..." She said softly with a weak apologetic smile. "I've been walking for... I don't know.... and I'm tired, hungry thristy.... I woke up in water the other day and the salt and sand are still itching all over. I want to jsut get back, I didn't mean to make you worry like that. I just... I guess I'm a little bit tweaked right now because of all this. I want to find everyone else and make sure they're okay. I'm really worried about all of this. That explosion rattled me enough, then all this." She gestured around to the jungle. "I guess I'm just anxious to get out of here...." She smiled a bit and looked down at his leg. "And to get you fixed."

Jamal's expression moved to one of mild disbelief; he was a stubborn son-of-a-b***h when he wanted to be.

"Then why do yous keep walkin' away from me? I mean, I unda'stand this whole thing wit' being dropped somewhere on da island is ******** up, but...seems ta me you'd be a lil' mo' happy to see me."

He moved forward, but didn't try to touch her this time since it was clear she didn't want contact for some reason. Tense and irritable being the cause? Maybe...he sure wasn't feeling up to his normal self either, being that he hadn't eaten since the day before the explosion...but he wasn't trying to shy away from one of the people he thought would be glad to see him because of it.

Awen sighed and bowed her head. Suddenly she was very interesteed in the dirt and debrie at her feet. She couldn't look up at Jamal, even if she wanted to she couldn't see his face. She hadn't meant to lie to him but..the alternative was... How could she tart on that when there are bigger problems?

She didn't want to.... but he left her no choice. "I met...Antony." She said in a very small voice.

Jamal's brow lifted significantly. Okay, well, so she lied to him. Not really a big deal...he was used to that.

"You met Antony," he repeated, at first completely dumb to the significance of that. However, a very uncomfortable pause fell as he had an internal "duh" moment, his eyes suddenly becoming very sharp. Well, maybe Antony had just been mean to her. He'd have to tell her to lay off then the next time he saw her. No reason to incriminate himself.

"Uh...how is she?...what'd she say?"

Awen's insides lurched. So he decided to try to play innocent. He didn't want to tell her the truth on his own. He was testing the water, she could tell. He didn't know what she knew, and would avoid talking about what he did, so he couldn't take the blame for it, incase Awen didn't know.

"This really isn't the time or place to be talking about new islanders. I'm hungry, I'm tired, I want to go back home and I'm sure you do too. You're injured and we're both lost. Whave to get back and survive, you know?" Yup. Something was majorly wrong.

But Jamal was avoiding it, so would she.

Jamal sighed in a very resigned manner as he turned around abruptly and hobbled back to a free stump (thankfully not the one he tried to eat), sitting carefully and giving Awen a very mixed expression of irritation and guilt. He knew that she knew. How could she not? She didn't want to talk about anything, she kept saying she just wanted to leave...she'd never been like that with him before.

"...She told you, didn't she," he said, adopting the flat tone that Awen had used earlier. He was -not- leaving until they had this taken care of. That way he'd know if he just needed to go get lost again or if this was even something they could work out.

The walk back to the beach was going to be awkward anyway...it was better to take care of this now before they had a crowd. Most of the villagers didn't like him anyway, so why give them another thing to hold against him.

"Yeah..." She said softly, she looked up to him.At least he..sort of admitted it. It was clear they weren't getting out of there until they talked so she moved and sat down in the dirt near him. Her feet were so sore... Her head hurt... she really didnt want to think about this.

But not thinking for the passed few days was break enough. They had to confront this sometime. She forced herself to look up at him... and not cry.


Jamal facepalmed and tilted his head upwards, making a noise that sounded like a mix between a groan and a curse. As if things couldn't get ANY worse...how COULD Antony blab about thi? God dammit, he TOLD her that Awen was his girlfriend.

The one saving grace was the fact that she hadn't kicked him off the stump in a fit of rage yet. He expected her to be more angry about it...but instead she was so clearly showing how hurt she was and -that- is what made him feel guilty. Not the fact that he got caught doing something stupid, but the fact that she just didn't haul off and release some sort of blind rage on him.

Or maybe she wasn't as mad as he thought she'd be?

He didn't know for certain, but he couldn't even look at her while she was sitting there in the dirt, looking back up at him. What the hell was he supposed to say? He had rehearsed this in his mind but none of it seemed feasible right now.

She tried to smile gently at him. "She didn't mean to tell me." Why was she protecting that girl anyway? "We were having an argument over something... she didn't seem to care about the condition of anyone else. I had mentioned you and she asked if you and I were...? and I said yes. And she just kind of broke and had it slip right then. So she didn't mean to."

She looked at the ground gathering her thoughts. Though she hadn't been trying to think since she saw Antony, Awen knew the back of her brain had been combing everything. She took a deep breath.

"I'm not mad at you... I understand why, really. She... seems more your style more your speed." She rolled her shoulders. "She seemed to have more in common with you. And she's still normal." She bit her lip softly, not haing meant for that last part to come out.

Jamal peered at her through his fingers, then dropped them into a crossed arm position.

"Whoa...wait ah second," he drawled slowly, feeling the guilt-trip being laid on thick. He deserved it, to be sure, but he didn't like it at all. Why didn't she just get pissed off? That's what everyone else had ever done...nice and quick to the point. "It ain't got nuthin' ta' do wit' her bein' mo' like my style OR da fact she's still 'normal', as you put it."

...it was just the fact that Antony was female, of age, got along with him, and liked sex. Other than that, there was really nothing else. The comment about him sleeping with her because she was normal did sting somewhat. He wasn't -that- shallow...was he?

He actually did have to search his thoughts on that account. Was that honestly another reason? It was nice that Antony was normal, yeah, but Jamal didn't have any problems with Awen just because she'd sprouted a tail and weird skin patches.

...was Awen trying to make this out like this was her fault or his? He couldn't tell. It certainly wasn't her fault; it was his because he couldn't keep his pants on. He was used to a way of life like that so it was almost like second instinct to go for the 'kill' if it was presented.

Awen winced and lowered her eyes again. She had been afraid it was...that. She hadn't wanted it to be, but he just confirmed it. That really hurt. Because it does make it her fault. She knew what he was like... she knew....

"Then you have your reasons..." She nodded a bit. She scratched one of the little grey patches on her arm softly. "It's fine Jamal."

But it wasn't fine. It wasn't going to be fine. Her stomach clenched. If she kept making these stupid misjudgements it wouldn't be fine..

"No, it ain't gonna be fine," he said abruptly after a quick inhale of breath, brows furrowing futher. "I -know- you ain't thinkin' it's gonna be fine...I know you betta then dat."

God damn guilt trips. Damn them to hell. However, he still didn't want to admit this was his fault. It bothered him a lot that she wasn't saying much.

She shrugged and sighed little bit. She was determined she wasn't going to break "I just don't know what else to say...."

I thought I knew you better too... I thought you were going to leave behind all this sort of stuff. I was the fool who thought you would change just because of me. Classic really. You didn't do anything wrong. It is my fault I'm the one who knew what you were like and went ahead blindly anyway. Just like I did to get myself onto this island in the first place. I'm not angry at you Jamal, I'm angry at myself.

Closing her eyes she made sure to keep her mouth shut too.

Great. Just ******** great. He was so mad...mad at himself, mad at Awen for being so quiet about it, and madmadmadMAD at Antony.

He suddenly wanted to be out of the jungle more than anything else so he got to his feet, holding back a grunt of pain as he stupidly put weight on his ankle, and countered by putting his weight on the walking stick.

"Let's jus' go," he said, forcing the steely tone back that threatened to sneak into the words.

He was such a b*****d.

She stood up jus a second after she did. She wanted to go...but wanted to stay and...what talk? She knew they wouldn't talk anymore because she didn't let herself. It wouldn't be fair to him if she loaded that onto him. His harsh command had hurt too... more than it meant to. She saw in his eyes that he was angry.

"Jamal... I'm sorry..."

"I dunno why yous sayin' yer sorry," he said, sounding somewhat exasperated, turning and crutch-walking in the direction that he thought Awen had come from. "You don't wanna talk about it. Fine. I ain't gonna make you...I know I ******** up. Lets just get the ******** outta herr and at least fix what can be fixed, like eatin' and sleepin'."

He didn't want to talk about it anymore either. Her evasive guilt-tripping irritated him, whether that was her intention or not. Jamal didn't know what he was going to say to Antony when and if he ran into her again.

She frowned. She did not like the way this was going. He got her talking and now he was trying to turn away? No. Not how this was going to go. She stayed where she was.

"It's not your fault Jamal." She said. "You didn't ******** up. You did what you're used to doing. You were just being yourself. So no I don't blame you, I'm not angry with you, I don't hate you. I'm sorry if you're uncomfortable with this now, I'm sorry for causing that. I don't want you to be upset with yourself just because of me. It was the way you're always been it's not your fault that this happened because you were just acting how you alwasy did, it's who you are so don't feel guilty or angry or whatever about it. It's my fault for getting us into this in the first place. If it wasn't for me thinking that you would change if you were with me, then there wouldn't have been anyone for you to cheat on. It would have been better, but it was my fault. I thought I could change you, I was wrong. It's not your fault Jamal, it's mine. So stop this attitude please...."

That bothered him. A lot.

"I shouldn't have said I coulda handled it be'fo we even made it official," he said, trying his damnest to not sound frustrated, as he peered over his shoulder. She was right...he shouldn't have to change for anyone, but it sounded like to him that she was basically saying that he couldn't be trusted. "-You- didn't do nuthin' wrong."

"Just like I didn't do anything wrong to get stuck on this island." She mumbled and looked away, obvious anger in her voice...but not actually directed at Jamal. Her face was hot and she was hungry and dizzy and getting upset like this wasn't helping any.

She closed her eyes a moment a wave of nausea creeping over her. She swallowed a bit and drew in a breath. She had to calm herself down...

He really had to grit his teeth to not get angry at her. She seemed to irrational to him, even though she was being TOO rational, if anything. Taking the blame in on herself...it didn't make sense.

"Look. Let's jus' get outta herr. We obviously ain't gonna change each otha's mind right now...you don't look well 'n' frankly I feel like s**t, so we best get outta herr and figure out what the hell everyone else is doing."

She frowned and pursed her lips. Fine... fine he started it and appearently was just going to leave it open ended. That did irritate her. He got in a ruff and just stopped there. She wanted to save it until after but nooo he pried it out into the open and all he was doing was leaving it there. Yeah because that solved anything.

"Fine." She almost growled and started walking back the way she had came...which was a little to the left of where Jamal had been heading. She sighed heavily "Let's just go then, be careful or you'll hurt your leg more... like I said we'll go slow..."

Well, what else was there to say? She kept saying the same thing over and over, blaming herself, and it bothered him to hear that so he stopped the conversation.

He moved into a lagging position behind her, limping along with a darkened expression on his face.

Just lovely.  

[Awen Zyn]

A party forms....

Quote:

Awen=blue
Joliette=brown
Jamal=dark blue
Lauren=crimson
Chubbs=burly wood

Joliette gathered up the case slowly and then turned to look towards the village... Chubbs had gone that way, perhaps she'd goo..... this way" and she headed off along hte river carrying hte case in a way that wouldn't send sharp pain to her mind. She could easily have been changing into a lobster if it wasn't already known that she was becoming a lizard... well... Komodo... She had a sunburn from head to toe, and the remaining bits of evidence of her fight with Antony as well...

"Ah..." Came a satisfied voice from down the river a ways. A certain blue haired figure, who would normally not be seen near the river at all, was bent over scoopnig water up in her hand and drinking from her palm.

It had been awhile since she had a drink, she was happy she found the way back this far and she was overwhelmed by the need to quench her thrist than to worry about a silly thing like a phobia. She knew she would die without water..she was only scared she would die with it. Big difference.

Awen had left Jamal back a little ways to rest his sore leg. He needed a rest but Awen had wanted to check out the area, she thought that it was familiar and a little father only confirmed it when she found the river.

She slowly sat back by the river bed. But didn't want to go back right away. She frowned and looked into the water. Jamal seemed very much like this wet bane of her existance. She wanted it, needed it.... but was terrified of getting hurt by it. She sighed heavily. Yeah.. she'd wait jsut a little bit before going back for him.

Joliette looked up at the foliage above as she trudged along hte riverbed kicking small stones lightly with her feet. She had trudged a while and was looking for something possibly edible that wasn't animal based.

Eventually she looked down and caught a glimpse of blue ahead, another minute of walking brought Awen fully into view and she walked up beside Awen looking down into the water too

Awen blinked a little bit as a blurry shadow fell over the water. Startled Awen looked up to see...the photographer. She smiled weakly up at her before... it clicked. Awen jumped to her feet. "Joli! You're okay!" She smiled braodly, the thoughts of Jamal being pushed from her mind.

"You are okay right? Did you see that explosion? Have you talked to anyone else at all?"

Joli looked at Awen and smiled "Yeah I'm ok now, I've only seen you and David.. I saw the explosion though, I got a photograph of it before falling asleep, I dont know much though, Only what David told me" she admitted

"What all happened?"

Awen shook her head slowly and schooled her expression some. "I don't know... I was up playing PSP when it happened. It was weird wasn't it? Next I knew... I was on the beach." She shrugged a little bit. "Jamal's back there..somewhere. He messed up his leg in the jungle somewhere... I've met Antony now too... you were right about her man she's...frigid. I don't know she didn't come with me when I went to find you guys..."

Joliette made a face at hte thought of Antony and then pushed that aside "I don't know she's got a chip on her shoulder the size of a truck... Jamal's ok then? besides his ankle? As for me, I doubt you would have found me too well" she peered in the direction that was motioned for Jamal and then back to Awen

She nodded a little bit. "Well I found you now, and that's the point right?" She smiled at her friend. "And we have an ace journalist to help find out what the hell happened now." She gave her a small grin. "We'll see soon enough..."

Purposefully left out the Jamal responce. She really didn't think he was okay. He was still seeming rather bitter and angry when she eft. That didn't qualify as okay she believed. But oh well.

"I'll try, might find something... we'll see" Joliette smiled and nodded "That you did, yesterday I was on the ocean" she peered around again "Got any idea where to find some food? I haven't eatten since lunch before the explosion

Awen shook her head a little bit. "We were heading towards the cafe, that was my best guess."

Joliette frowned "David said the duplexes were locked and it was like fort knox... I suppose we can only hope the main buildings are open... He said hte electrical fence around the labs is off too..." Joliette pondered what was happening "this is strange, I wonder what happened"

Awen frowned. Everything was locked down? She looked back towards the village. This is not a good sign. "What is the Doc up to...?" She looked back to Joliette. "Maybe someone found us... and didin't like what they found." It would make sense.

Some government found the island and decided to bomb but Moreau tried to defend, thus the explosion in the sky. But knowing people were onto him Moreau fled the island, locking down all the buildings and leaving the islanders to die....

Her stomach tightened again. It's best not to speculate.

Joliette frowned "I have a hard time picturing the doc turning another subject, look at me I found it, and got trapped here too... They'd have to have been a massive force to stop the madman... After all he certainly isn't scared to decieve Interpol..." she sighed "I wish someone had found us... Things just seem... too set up... After all Ambrosse said the doc took apart my rental yacht, and yet I wind up several hundred feet out floating on a chunk of it's hull"

Awen nodded a little bit. "Well, maybe the Doc wanted to screw with us one last time before ditching the island. It probably wouldn't have been a singular person, I mean..explosion was bigger than anything you would have done... but I mean... something had to have happened to make Moreau turtle and lock everyone out, to die."

After taking a well-needed break, Jamal parted the brush with his walking stick and found himself confronted not only with Awen, but Joli. Oh...yay. It wasn't that he didn't like Joli, there was just tension there....a different tension between him and Awen, but tension all the same.

"Oh s**t," he said, as though surprised (he really wasn't having heard their voices), and flashed Joli a forced grin that didn't reflect in his eyes as he toddled out of the thick jungle and leaned against his walking stick for support. "Wow, we all jus' scattered all ova dis ********' island, ain't we?"

Joliette nodded at Awen's words "We can only hope that this is only temporary... As much as I dont want to die or become a Komodo... I'd rather die in the comfort of my own home..." she looked towards the bushes seeing the "Yeah it seems so... and off too," she looked at Jamal's ankle "You ok?" she was putting differences they currently had aside, at least for the time being.

"Oh, Jamal, caught up? I was just gonna go back for ya when Joli happened upon me." Awen tilted her head to the river. "It's not food but at least you could drink some."

She nodded to Joliette's words. "Yeah I don't think I'd like to die like this either..."

"I ain't gonna die, so I guess I'm a'ight," he said slowly, masking the dejection in his tone with a light bit of sarcasm instead. "You look fried tho-...where'd you end up?"

While he waited for an answer, he acknowledged Awen's comment of drinking water by making his way to the river's bank and stooped over to get a drink, trying not to knock his foot on anything hard. Anything to fill that awkward silence...

"Glad you are ok, And Awen, and David, I hope others are too..." she watched him move to the river "Uhm a few hundred feet out to sea" she said honestly even if she wasn't sure she'd be believed

Awen shook her head a bit. She didn't really know what she felt at the moment but her stomach growled to get her mind off of it. She started to wonder where they would get food and things from.

"Yeah... That was crazy really...." Looking at Jamal she was bringing him up to speed. "Chubbs says the buildings are on lockdown. So we're going to have to find something to eat and somewhere to sleep otherwhere from the cafe and our duplexes. I don't know what we're going to do about your ankle..."

He sat up and ran a palm across his chin to wipe away excess water.
"People gotta be groupin' up 'round dis damn island somewhere, I'd figger," he said in a pensive manner as he struggled to his feet, refusing any assistance if it was offered, then glanced skyward. "If da buildin's are all locked, I dunno if peeps gonna hang at the village..." It was then he noted the wispy trails of smoke that were coming from the bonfire on the beach. That was a good sign.

"...It look like someone gotta fire goin', in any case," Jamal commented, a hand lifting from the rough branch in his hands to point at the smoke. "'N if there be fire, then there gonna be people."

Like Antony, he thought sourly. She was the only other person he knew who smoked, so assumed she'd be the cause of starting a blaze somewhere. The fact that one could start a fire without matches or a lighter didn't even cross his mind.

Joliette looked in the direction Jamal was looking and pointing. I think thats the direction of the bigger beach... David went on a people hunt too we were going to start a fire by the river, theres fish in there... He gave me his lighter, I'm not sure why but oh well..."

Awen frowned a bit looking at the beach. Antony no doubt, that was where Awen left her and the selfish git was probably still hanging out there not caring if anyone else had lied or died or what through this.

Awen shrugged a little bit. "Then we should porbably wait until Chubbs comes back before joining up at the beach?" She suggested.

Somehow the prospect of just sitting around and waiting did not appeal in the least to Jamal.

"Well, if yous two wanna wait fo' 'em, then that's fine, but I wanna get outta da damn jungle. Been herr long 'enough, thanks....plus I might find stuff I need ta fix ma leg," he said in a level, rational tone, catching his second wind.

"All I gotta do is follow da riva', I guess. Plus now I see smoke, so I should be a'ight. Hell, I'm so damn slow, yous prolly kin' catch up real easy."

Joliette blinked "Uhm ok... be safe then" she was confused as to why he wouldn't wnat to stick together, but then, there were most times she didn't understand the man... "Okay, David and I were going to meet up a wee ways back so maybe we can find something to eat and then wait for him?"

Lauren trugged down the river from the beach, where she just had a long sleep. Her stomach was growling as she was being very spoiled and not wanting to eat the dumpster food she had collected. So she just left it there to rot.

The only thing in tow on her was a plastic water bottle full of water and her moose plushy. She still was only wearing her black tank and her black panties as that was all she had on. She could find nothing else.

She heard voices and ran towards them, hopeing that some of her friends were ahead and alright. When she saw Awen she dropped her moose and water bottle to give her a big hug.

"AHH! I though you died!!" Then found herself doing this and stopped. "Oh... sorry."
She saw Joliette and waved a huge smile on her face, "I'm glad your not dead too!"

Lauren saw Jamal and just looked at him and frowned a bit thinking, I was hopeing you were dead but just said, "Hey Jamal"

Awen barely had time to turn her head before she felt another body crash into her. "Gyah!" She stumbled back when she was let go. She laughed when she realised who it was. "Lauren! Glad you're not dead too!"

Jamal's eyes narrowed immediately as they were joined by one of his 'favorite' people. Great. Even MORE reason to get going.

He was not fooled by the greeting and had he been in a slightly worse mood, he could have probably flown off the handle. However, he just nodded before doing an about-face.

"See you guys at the beach, if you make it there tonight," he mumbled before lurching off with his crutch, privately seething. Guh, Lauren was one of the LAST people he wanted to see.

The sun-crisped Joli turned at hte new voice and looked a tad shocked at Lauren's attire, least for a moment "Hi Lauren, I'm glad I'm not too though I was starting to think I would... Where did you wind up?" she turned hearing Jamal leave "Au revoir Jamal" she waved before turning back to Awen and Lauren

Lauren looked at Joliette's new lobster skin. She had to be stuck someplace without shade for quite some time. "In a ******** huge hole" Lauren replied. "Lauren sized tunnel to be exact. Built just for me and skunk boy" Lauren's stomach growled, she was very much starving but just drank some of her water bottle to calm it down.

She purposefully neglected to say goodbye to Jamal just glad that he had left.

Awen frowned watching Jamal leave. "Bye...take care of your leg...." She said briefly before sighing and turning back to Lauren.

She seemed a bit distant, but at least responsive. Her frown grew hearing where Lauren was trapped. "Figures. I was out on the beach mostly covered in water. Fun fun....No idea what's going on eh?"

"I would have traded places with either of you rather then spending my day drifting towards thee shore..." she made a face that was plainly half silly and half annoyed though that annoyance was directed at the git "Yeah do you have any information? I only know what Awen told me, I saw in the sky, and what David told me"

Lauren shook her head, "All I know is we're locked out, there is nothing going on in the village it is all shut down and you can't even break into the windows."

She had no clue what was going on, only that she didn't like it. Lauren hoped for everyone's sake that Moreau was alright and that he would fix this soon enough. But she knew everyone probably thought it was his doing so she kept her mouth shut. "Just heard the boom in the middle of the night, when I was sleeping. I woke up then all the power went off and then I was in that ******** forced sleep mode. Then I wake up in a tunnel with skunk boy. You know, I think he's gay" Lauren said almost all at once.

Awen nodded a little bit, starting to sober up to the situation. If Lauren didn't know what was going on... that's bad news. Lauren did after all work with the Doctor last Awen heard. "This isn't good." She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "I hope Moreau's okay... We really need his help. Without what he was giving us.... how are we going to survive here?"

She shook her head slowly. "You don't figure some military unit or something was sent to the island and caused that explosion? I mean... I dunno... Maybe we were left for dead or something..."

The more she started thinking the more it might make sense. "I mean we all woke up in various locations right? By the sounds of it...the locale fits where our animal would be...er except Joli so far but that's probably "the gits" doing anyway... Maybe Moreau was forced into hiding in the complex, or forced off the island. She bit her lip. If that was the case he'd have to cut off supply and things to the island. And I guess there was a mass lockout system... so maybe he had us placed where our animal instincts would wake up...giving us a better chance for survival?"

"I haven't a clue, he spent too much and thers people who are too new here for him to give up that easily, he obviously takes great efforts to make sure noone findds the isle, not to mention about 20 feet past where I woke up their is underwater shards of metal disguised to look like the reef... I'm presuming to chew up any more boats that come near" Joli remembered this one fact, she'd even taken photos of it

Lauren nodded at Awen, "Exactly! I do hope Moreau is ok, he takes care of us after all. This HAS to be someone else's doing." She outbursted. "And as soon as I get my hands on them, I'm going to ******** them up so bad. Especially if they hurt Moreau." She punched her own hand frowning.

Her eyes darted to the howl as her ears perked up, "What was that?!"

Awen Started to nod but heard the howl and froze. She frowned slightly, she'd never heard a wolf on the island before. Except for Ambrose..... He was very wolfish now and.... Awen gulped. She honestly just wanted to get out of the jungle.

It slowly dawned on her, that if people did give into their instincts things would start to get really messy. Carnivores amongst herbavors amongst...er...insectivors? Awen knew she was a fish, and she didn't gain any claws or teeth... she would have nothing to defend herself against.... She did not like this. It just became a whole lot more serious.

"I hope Chubbs gets back soon..." She said softly

Some big made it's way through to the river, sticks snaped and branches cracked through the tree's. There was noise like something being dragged and it was heading into there direction. The noise got louder and louder, and suddenly Chubbs popped into view. He was carrying a whole bunch of blue tarpoline in one arm, his other he had held in his pocket. The bruising had gotten very dark now on his shoulder, he was trying to keep it still. He stopped to put anoter branch on the pile behind him, he'd been collecting some for a fire. Not only that, there was a bottle of vodka, whiskey and rum, and three packets of nuts, one honey roasted, one salted and one unsalted. He looked up when he noticed the blue hair of Awen and then smiled as he noticed the others too. He really wished he had a shirt on.

" Well heya people"

"What was what?" She hadn't heard the low tone of hte howl and she looked around confused

She spun when she heard a very familiar voice "David!" she smiled happily she eyes the bundle he had made her curious, as for his top... she could have cared less, she loved how he looked

Lauren gave a half smile towards Chubbs. "Ur... David?" She said as she pointed towards him. "Hey, I'm Lauren." She reached for a packet of nuts noticing there was three of those and four of them.

Too bad, she ripped open the pack and proceeded to devoir them. Her high metabolism caught the worst of her.

With a mouth full of nuts Lauren replied to Joli, "Iwt twaash shay Howul."

Awen smiled brightly seeing Chubbs around. He is the kind of guy that inspires the feeling of "safe". And she definately would feel safe with the big guy with lots of defence and need to protect.

"Glad to see you Chubbs." She grinned up at him.

Noticing the peanuts that Chubbs brought and lauren devoured her stomach growled....but she wouldn't take any like Lauren, or even ask. Chubbs brought them and Joliette would need them and Chubbs brought them so she wouldn't ask. As for the booze....it's a shame Awen didn't drink.

Chubbs was surprised to see a have naked fuzzy girl practically pounce the peanuts he brought. He should have gotten some more, but he figured someone would get the same idea and he wanted to leave them some too.

He shook his head and grabbed the last two packets before the nut girl, in both terms of the word, took them, and he tossed the plain ones to Joliette and the honey ones to Awen. He was feeling okay, sure a bit hungry but he did eat alot, he could survive for a while.

" Ain't found anyone really, so decided to get some things, glad I did"

He glanced at Lauren at the one

Joli caught the little bag and pulled it open her stomach growling audibly as she did and dug in "Thanks love" she said popping some in her mouth.. "You know Awen, thats Lauren" she motioned the 3rd female, she had no idea David had negative feelings towards the girl

Lauren simply smiled and waved wondering why the furry male was stupid enough to give away his food. He would definately end up starving that way.

"Ur... geuss that leaves you none..." She pointed at the alcohol. "But, there's plenty of booze." Lauren threw the package away carelessly.

A bug started walking across a tree, a very fat tasty looking one at that. Lauren reached for it and put it in her mouth.

OH god... what did she just do. She looked at herself questioning that action but still swallowed the bug. Not bad, not bad at all.

Awen quirked her eyebrow at Lauren when she ate the bug the chuckled. She looked at the bag of peanuts she had caught in her hands she frowned slightly. She held it back out to Chubbs. "I'm fine go ahead."

Though she really was hungry, she didn't want to take food away from him. "I already found Jamal and Antony...I think they're back at the beach. Jamal is anyway..."

Chubbs looked at Lauren, it finally clicked. The name, this had been the one who made Amaya cry. The hand inside his pocket curled into a fist, the rude little b***h needed her head smacked in. But then, two people he cared about deeply were right there, he didn't want to give into the beast right in front of them. Chubbs took a deep breath, trying not to scowl at Lauren.

He noticed Awen holding out the bag of nuts, and thinking ahead, he moved himself over to Awen and closed her hand back over the peanuts. For one thing, he wasn't super starving, the other thing, if Lauren noticed, she'd probably snag them. Chubbs was trying his best not to turn and push her face into the tree. The vision scared him, he hated those thoughts.

" Ya eat hun, I got me a fishin rod round here someways, .. I recon I can rustle up somethin"


"Did you find out anything else while you were kindling hunting love?" Joli asked unaware that he had just about lost his tempter. She put the camera bag down and eyed Lauren when she ate the bug and couldn't help but shiver... Lord help her she prayed she'd never wind up like that

Lauren backed away a bit from chubbs, smelling something different about him but not quite pin pointing what, just that she needed to back away. Nothing really clicked in her mind though, it was more of an instinct and not a fully developed one at that. Otherwise she might of ran or her tail would of gotten to look very much like a pipe cleaner as she growled.

But as of now, she just slightly backed away. "I could find something, a rat or a bunny." She looked towards Awen. "You need food." She then bolted slightly away to get something for Awen. She didn't see anything as right away and was still withing earshot.

Then she heard a rustle in a bush and proceeded to stalk that. She had no idea how she was going to catch anything other than rats and wished she left some peanuts for them as bait.

Awen smiled up at Chubbs and withdrew her hand slowly. That was really nice of him.... She caught lauren backing away from the corner of her eyes and looked over with a slightly confused expression.

Which changed into a wholey confused expression when Lauren ran off in search of food for her. Awen was just getting pampered wasn't she? Blinking she shrugged a bit. "Um...thanks."

Opening the packet slowly Awen ate some of the peanuts conservatively. Hungry as hell but she didn't know when things were going to get back to "normal" so she would just..eat slowly.

"So.... other people are down by the beach should we..meet up with them or... what hm?"

Chubbs shook his head at Joliette, he hadn't bumped into anyone while he went shopping around for items.

" No one round where I looked, smells everywhere though, but it's too confusin, I haven't got a hold of this nose thing right yet"

Chubbs went cross eyes looking at it in curiousity, then turned his head to see Lauren dart off. He couldn't say he wasn't glad, but it gave him a nice view of her backside and he blushed all over. He put a hand over his eyes and looked back to the two remaining.

" Ah lesse umm... dunno why people would go to the damn beach with the water here... but sure, I can go where ever, though I might hang about and see what the fish supply is like"

Chubbs heard Lauren shuffling around in the bushes and looked back to the pair.

" Okay... don't laugh"

Chubbs blushed like crazy as he slipped his shorts down to reveal a pair of black satin boxers with red heart shapes on them. He dropped them near the tarp.

" See if tall frisky and half naked girl there can use them, I'm gonna find my rod"

Chubbs winced as he said that and blushed.

" My Fishing rod"

Joliette watched him go, his boxers ... eh well they distracted her for the time being and her peanut eatting slowed to a crawl... Sheaking her head she sat down "Uhm well Lauren that way David that way I think I'm gonna make a couple quick notes about whats happened" she pulled open her camera bag stashing hte last of hte peanuts in it and pulling out her laptop. She powered it up and opened a notepad file and started typing, her WPM were close to 80 so it didnt' take her long to write out point form notes about what she knew

Lauren tried to reach for the thing rustling in the brush but it escaped before she even got close. ******** too slow She hadn't developed movements fast enough to catch anything yet although she was probably better at it then she was when she was all human.

Looking around, kind of puzzled she caught a glimpse of a birds nest, Lauren proceeded to climb up the tree, something she was very good at, and faced a really angry mamma bird as she snatched the eggs. They were not that large but they were something.

The bird still pecking at her as she came back but finally giving up as it caught sight of all the people, Lauren held her elongated claws out to show her share of the group. It was a mere 5 eggs but it was something. "HAHA! ******** owned that bird!" She lied as she looked down at the boxers. "Ur... I wasn't gone that long was I?" She joked to Joli.

Awen blinked a little bit at Lauren coming back. Eggs... tose would be good to have. Breakfast tomorow maybe? Sweet...peanuts then eggs... But fishing rod? Maybe they could have fish too. Awen grinned. She liked fish...

Looking between Chubbs and Lauren she half blushed half laughed. "Um..so...eggs huh? Good haul Lauren!"
She vaguely remembered something about going to the beach but...sjhe suposed that others were too preoccupied. That's okay she wasn't..in too much of a hurry to join Jamal and what she presumed to be Antony still on the beach where she woke up.

Chubbs eventually found the spot he and Joliette had found before, there was his rod and stick of thorns where he left it. He bent sown and picked up both and suddenly the line went taught. Chubbs blinked and held on, there was something on the end. He saw int the water a fish, nabbed onto his makeshift line. It was bigger than he expected, he new his thread wouldn't handle it.

Chubbs then blinked and did something he hadn't expected himself to do. His face plunged into the water and he chomped onto something wriggling. He lifted his head and shook his face and threw the fish onto the ground. He was amazed at what just happened and brushed his dripping hair back.He walked over and picked up the fish and then his rod and thorn branch. heading back to the others.

Joli looked up and then back down and saved her file shakeig her head "Nope, I just wanted to make some notes..." she hit shutdown on her laptop and closed it then put it away...she stood up making hte mistake of putting her hand on her knee to push herself up "Ouch" she winced and then stood up fullly

Lauren saw Chubbs aproaching without his shorts on, getting a little uncomfortable. Sure she could run around in her panties all day no problem but noo, no one else could do it beside she had a very good reason.

She wraped the eggs into some large leaves to save for later then proceeded to put on the pants. There it was a bit warmer, although she had to tie each end to keep them up and tie the bottoms of the legs together.

She really missed her machedi while in the wild, it was amazing how much use that was. She could cut and tie those things together if she had that handy.

Awen looked between the little party and smiled. She was glad she had these people around, they were the best in such a situation. She smiled softly and sighed. Were it not for the situation.... She grinned a little bit seeing the fish Chubbs had. "Great job!" She licked her lips a bit looking at it, forgettnig the half empty peanut back in her hand. Fish.... She shook her head a little bit. Chubbs caught it, not yours.

She rolled her shoulders and frowned when a sudden thought of a starving Jamal popped into her mind. He would be hungry too. Had the people who started a fire at the beach found food? Were they helping him with his leg maybe...? he hopped that he was okay...despite the situation...she still cared for the lug.

"Yeah there are, and uhm anyone is welcome to join them far as I'm concerned, I'm sticking near David, so if you go David, then I will" she felt comfortable near him and didn't want to be too much seperated.

Lauren looked over at Chubbs, remarking about her underwear. "Ur... I suppose I don't really. Was kind of caught like this but I've been through worse." She shuttered to think about the months old and never washed clothing she arrived in. That was disgusting. But for some reason when you are forced to do such things you never think about it.

Lauren shrugged, "I dont care much, doing fine as it is." She hated being around large groups, was always the crazy psycho b***h in the corner spazzing out or getting into a fight. And if Jamal was going to be there. . .

"We should make a fire, uh... anyone got a lighter." On the streets everyone had a lighter handy to smoke their cigarettes or pot. Lauren didn't know what to do without one.

Awen frowned a little bit. She wasn't ery happy thinking about going to face Jamal or Antony but... "Listen guys.... we don't know what happened here and I think it's better if we do head to where more people are. Sure large groups aren't great. Sure conflict is imminant. But we should stick together before all this gets worse or until this ends. I mean.. this is how horror movies get worse right...? And.. I think we've all had enough of the horror movie aspect of this place."

Chubbs began piling up the wood he had gathered for the fire, he'd set up a nice one here. He looked over at Awen as she spoke, he kinda sighed and nodded, but he hadded his two cents.

" OAky, here's the plan, Lauren and Awen, you guys can hang out here, get warm and have some fish. I'll get ya something to sleep on in a sec"

He sat up and walked over to Joli, reaching into her shorts pocket for the lighter she took from him and while he was at it, squeezed her backside. He grinned and went back to the firespot.

" Joliette wants to stick with me, I'll head to the beach and see what they are up to and if they want to come back here, I mean, this place makes sense to me"

Chubbs popped open the vodka and poured a little onto the sticks and kindling. He flicked his lighter a few times before it came to life and he stuck it into the twigs. There was a woof as the fire raored to life, it didn't take long for it to cling to the wood and begin a nice fire. With that he stood up, went over to the tarp and grabbed a big sheet. even with one arm he managed to hang it over a branch above him. With some rocks to hold it in place, they had a makeshift tent. Chubbs tossed the lighter to Awen.

" Just in case okay, feel free to cook that bad boy up, before it gets too far gone"

Chubbs motioned to the fish

If Joli were't already loster red a blush would have been visible on her cheeks when he did. She giggled softly "Yeah, 2 camps is better then one I would imagine

Lauren kind of looked a little disgruntled of how Chubbs was taking charge of the 'women' of the group. All Lauren had done was find some measily eggs. Still though she was grateful for the help and took what she could get.

"It's not a horror movie Awen besides, I don't die. I've been through worse trust me. You won't believe the horror that comes out in people on the streets" A bit of the old Lauren wondered why she was trusting these people, especially a male running around in his boxers but what choice did she have. The mongoose was taking control now that she was in the wild, it was find your group and socialise or die. So some of what Awen said made total since. Still Lauren was Lauren enough to keep her group small.

She yawned, tired again. It was getting rather dark and that was sleep time for Lauren, turning into a diurnal animal and all.

After cooking and eating the large fish and the eggs Lauren set it aside for Awen to eat, leaving two eggs for herself. She already snuck a couple more bugs when people weren't looking and was rather ful. Devoring the food Lauren grabbed her moose plushy/pillow and went under the tarp to sleep.

"Goodnight Awen, see ya Jolie and Chubbs." She said as she closed her eyes for dreamland.

She frowned up at Chubbs but soon nodded. "I don't like it, but I won't stop you. Goodluck..." She turned back to "camp" and started helping Lauren with the food preparation.

She ate her portion slowly and made sure to leae some for Joli and Chubbs... they must have been as hungry as everyone else so they would need a portion. Awen sat close to the fire warming her body with it. She was still frowning and she felt the heat, questions and lots of things running through her head...all of which gave her a headache.

All Awen wanted right now was sleep but she decided she would keep watch until the others got back though. She grumbled something to herself in the process...but what it was..no one will ever really know.  

[Awen Zyn]

Boar and Blood

It was getting late but Awen didn't feel much like sleeping. She stared at the fire the light dancing across the trees. As she was sitting there in her thoughts she eventually realised that even the normal jungle sounds were deafeningly silent. She frowned a little bit but wasn't surprised. With everything that had happened in the passed few days the animals must be spooked.

Awen shook her head. "Know how you feel critters.... I know..."

Suddenly a sound pierced the night. Turning her head from the fire she heard a rustling from the bushes. She smiled. "About time those two got back..." She was preparing a little joking jibe for when the two came into sight. Nothing seriously just a little friendly tease between friends.

She jumped hearing the loud squeal. That wasn't Chubbs and Joli....

Lauren was just getting to sleep when she heard the squeal and the tromping feet head right towards them. She jumped out of bed hearing Awen question if were Chubbs or Jolli but she knew it wasn't them.

"What the ********?" Was all that she was able to get out before it came close enough to their camp for her to react.

Startled by Lauren's awakening and the screech Awen jumped to her feet just as the...whateer it is bursts out of the bushes. Dumbstuck for a moment Awen didn't react in time to save the tarp. "What the hell is right!" She dove at the creature who was now dragging the tarp on one of it's tusks.

"Aha!" She shouted triumphantly when her hand got a hold of the blue material. Her victory was short lived however as there was a resounding rip as the tarp tears apart.

Not being able to dwell on this for long, the animal was headed straight for.

"Lauren the booze!"

It's good for fire starting and antiseptic.... Awen's not an alcoholic or anything....

The world was a blue plastic color as the creature trampled into the tarp, getting Lauren caught into it momentarily. She was knocked down by the force but not injured at all, just startled.

Lauren jumped up as she saw Awen chasing after the tarp, catching it in a short lived victory as it tore. "WAY TO GO... or not..." Lauren shouted towards Awen.

Then the thing went right towards the booz which she remembered Chubbs saying something about anticeptic. That was REALLY needed, especially if boars came tromping into tents all the time on this island. Lauren tried to run up to save a bottle but fell down as Chubb's shorts fell to her ankles. "********!" Lauren yelled simply at that.

Then, the boar crashed right into the bottles, and the fish, and everything else. The fire caught some of the liquor in a huge swoosh of flames as Lauren hurridly tumbled away to avoid getting burnt.

She spotted Awen as the animal ran away with the trail of blood behind them. Grabbing a the pointiest stick she could find and walking out of the shorts Lauren went towards the trail. "That b***h of a boar is going to die!" She growled as she tromped, revenge being the only thing on her mind. "Are you going to help?" She turned towards Awen briefly not really waiting for an answer but just moving foreward.

Her eyes widened watching the burst of flames that was created by teh booze. Everything was ruined and destroyed and all that they saw was a stupid little creature escaping into the wilderness. They were so suddenly alone and the confusion and hustle so suddenly replaced by quiet Awen's ears felt like poping.

Normally...not tempted to anger at other things, not wanting to harm anything not willing anything bad on other things, Awen realised this was not a normal situation. She growled a little bit and got to her feet. She looked at the tarp in her hand, she looked at the destroyed camp they created. Something in her... snapped. She did not need this. Not now. Not after everything else that had happened. She did not need this!

She followed after Lauren silently....but with fire burning in her normally cool eyes.

Lauren smiled a bit when she noticed Awen was following her. Damnit she wished she had her machedi more than anything, or something sharp. She followed the tracks easily thinking of how she was going to kill the thing. With luck it wouldn't be too tough, all Lauren had was a stick and not the sharpest one either. She tried to widdle it to more of a point with her claws as she walked along, succeeding only slightly. With enough force , she could be lucky and hit it hard enough. She had to be quick.

Finally after a short walk they came face to face with the beast, it was indeed a bore and a very PISSED bore. It dug into the ground a couple of times, huffing. The injury was only a slight superficial one, enough to create a huge blood but it wasn't limping at all. Another stomp into the ground and it went straight for Lauren.

Lauren was surprised, not expecting it to be so fast but her mongoose speed and instincts had full effect of her right now. She dogged out of the way, her tail a pipe cleaner right now and emmitting a slight weird smell Lauren couldn't quite tell what it meant but she geussed it was danger.

Hissing a bit Lauren tried to jab the thing with the her stick, only jabbing it slightly and breaking the tip. "Ho crap." She said as the boar came charging at her again, now barely dodging out of the way. "You son of a b***h" Lauren shouted towards him. The last thing she wanted it to do was attack Awen.

Watching as Lauren fought the boar Awen realised she had no idea what she was going to do. The thing was pissed and not as hurt as she thought it had been. Something inside her wavered but Awen was too far gone to care. Looking around and taking note of their surroundingsher eyes fell on a small set of rocks.

Perfect. Awen used to play baseball in the summer back home...she was a pitcher. Seeing the boar charging for a second time Awen leapt to the rocks and grab one. She glared at the creature and whipped the rock at it.

The first bounced off the boar's side without seeming to harm it too much. But it did turn towards her and away from Lauren. Awen's heart skipped once, things were different now that she was the target. Scooping up another rock Awen gritted her teeth. She threw it and it hit the boar smack between the eyes. Now it was on!

Huffing angrily and boar charge right at Awen, who kept pelting rocks, drawing it away from Lauren.

Lauren noticed Awen trying to get the boars attention with the rocks. Great just as she feared. Now the thing was charging right towards Awen and she didn't seem to be moving.

But it's side was prone right smack towards Lauren. Without hesitating Lauren lunged as hard as she could into it's side with the stick. It actually impaled this time, with the force of Lauren's whole body into it's side knocking the boar down.

"HAHA b*****d!" Lauren fell with a oof, looking up to notice that the stick was broken and half was in the boar who was getting back up and running towards Lauren.

She tried to dodge but the boar ended up glancing her head fairly hard with it's tusks. "s**t!!!" She yelled very loudly hissing just as loud afterwards. It was black for a little while and Lauren was stumbling up with the other half of the stick in her hand. Blood was dripping from a gash in her head.

Hissing and a bit dizzy Lauren tried to impale the other half of the stick into the boar but only glanced it's skin. She fumbled a bit, stumbling almost to the ground again as the boar prepared to charge towards her again just before it ran off.


Awen didn't spare a breath for congratulations when the boar was impaled with the stick. She didn't even move barely. She smirked though.... Lauren did exactly what Awen wanted her to. That stupid creature was getting what it deserved.

However it still had another thing or two left in it. Awen cursed under her breath when she saw it actually hit Lauren, and hard. Her brow creased with concern as she fell to the ground, and even tried to stumble back up. Seeing the boar come around again, Awen grit her teeth.

Grabbing the largest rock near her, a rather heavy one that took her two hand to hold, Awen ran forward to intercept the creature, yelling angrily. It was not going to hurt her friend again. There is no ******** way it was getting away with this!

Startled the boar barely had time to look before the rock cracked against it's skull. It fell to it's side and attempted to scramble to its feet, cutting through Awen's pant leg and into her skin. Before it could get up however Awen was ontop of it with the rock. She kept bashing the poor creature, yelling, all of her rage, all of her pent up frsutrations being taken out on this little trouble maker.

The boar soon stopped moving....but Awen didn't. She couldn't stop herself anymore. Something was wrong. Awen knew she should stop, blood and bits of gore littered the area and hit against her, but soemthing jsut wouldn't let her stop. She wanted to blame the changes, she wanted to say it was the creature inside of her.

But by the docile responce from her instincts, Awen knew that wasn't true. This was her... finally... completely...Awen. Something inside of her cowered in a fear. Whimpering...wanting Awen just to stop.

But she wouldn't.

Lauren stumbled towards Awen, happy that she killed the thing. If they smoked the meat they could have boar jerky for a couple of weeks. But even more so, she was happy the ******** had died.

"Serves you right, ******** pig." Lauren said as she kicked it's limp head. She then noticed that Awen was still bashing the thing over and over again. Oh my, there wasn't going to be anything left to eat at this rate.

"Awen!" Lauren said, seeing two of her. "Aweeen... hello he's dead. You got the ******** now STOP." She didn't want to try to force her to stop, seeing as stopping two blue haired girls was much harder than stopping one. Her hand just kind of moved back and forth in front of Awen.

Stopping for a second, Lauren tasted her own blood. She reached up noticeing a gash in her head. "******** me..." she said to the wound.

Awen froze, the bloody rock in the air above her head. She looked at the absolute mess she had made of the boar and threw the rock away horrified. She crawled backwards until she hit a tree. She stared at the mess. She tried to wipe the blood away but all she did was smear it around on her arms, on her shirt.

She was going to freak out some more when she looked up at Lauren, who was not looking so hot at all. She stood up slowly and chuckled. "Well maybe Lauren, but first we gotta get that cut taken care of." She stepped forward slowly, not letting her eyes down to the boar again. At least she tried not to.

Looking down at it again Awen's stomach clenched, she felt ill.... She...

Nope, cool was officially broken. Awen to a tree before throwing up, propping herself up with one hand on the tree. She was shaking all over when she finally finished. She wipped her mouth off and felt a little dizzy.

Lauren ripped off part of her tank top with the aid of her claws, leaving enough to keep her covered, and wrapped it around her wound. She went towards Awen who was obviously not the sainest right now.

There stopped being two of Awen as Lauren went closer and then there started being some puke too. That was kind of gross, was she that upset, was it smashed boar that made her feel that way?

She reached her hand out and took Awen into a hug. Lauren kind of smelled, she was bleeding but Awen was shaking so much it's all she knew to do to keep the poor girl together.

"I know it sucks." She tried to say. "But we're okay... we'll make it."Awen was one of a few people Lauren HATED to see in torment, and especially now since she was instincually dubbed part of the community by the mongoose growing within.

Lauren had to stay awake but it was becomming hard not to pass out. Still, she seemed to be holding herself together, all be it slightly.

Awen nodded and big and hugs the blond haired girl back tightly. She smelt funny.... but after being in the woods for a few days, who wouldn't? Awen tried to ignore the smell and shook her head slowly stepping back from Lauren. She really didn't look good...

"Let's get back to camp..." She said softly. She would bring the boar back to the camp after she knew Lauren was okay. She put Lauren's arm around her shoulder to keep her steady as she directed them back towards the camp.

Everything was ruined, and it was dark... but she found her way back to the shattered remains of their shelter and fire. The wood still bured slowly... at least that was good. Awen set Lauren down to lean against a tree. She frowned a little bit expecting the cut.

"This doesn't look good." She mumbled.

Awen slowly became aware of the red liquid that was slowly trickling down her leg. Her jeans were slowly soaking up the blood coming from her own wound. It was more superficial though. It really didn't matter.

Even though there wasn't two of Awen anymore, Lauren stumbled as she walked, needing to lean on Awen all the way to the camp.

And the camp, was not so much a camp anymore. Broken glass was everywhere, the fire nearly gone, the tent collapsed. Lauren put back on the pair of shorts because she knew Chubbs might be back soon. She let Awn inspect her wound.

"No s**t." She liked being taken care of though, it felt nice someone being concerned towards her. "We should go back, get that boar. I'll go back." Lauren started getting up and stumbled back down. "or not."

The alcohol all gone there was no anticeptic and Lauren noticed Awen's own wound bleeding. "DAMNIT. We're a sorry sight." She couldn't help but laugh at the situation.

Lauren wanted to scream for Moreau to come save us but considering how long this was lasting, he was dead.

She started bawling all over Awen's shoulder. "We're screwed..." she muttered between her tears.  

[Awen Zyn]

Ummm...Brains

Joliette walked back into the camp empty handed and looked around blinking, she could just barely see in the dim light that the mostly dead fire provided "Sacre bleu..... What happened here!?!" she said in a stunned voice the camp certainly looked nothing like when she had left.

Her tongue flicked and she picked up a scent a ways off that much to her own disgust made her stomach rumble.

Awen patted Lauren back softly and held her tightly as she cried. "It's okay." She said softly. "We'll get through this. We'll fine out what's going on, we'll get thigns back to normal. Don't worry we're not screwed." She said the words though she hardly believed them. She had no idea how to back any of these claims up.

Luckily, before Lauren could question her, Joliette returned to camp.

Awen let Lauren sit back as she stood up slowly and turned to her. Standing before Joliette her whole front covered in someone's blood, her's the boar's Lauren's "A boar attacked us, destroyed our stuff....me and Lauren went hunting. Joliette she's really hurt could you come take care of her, I gotta go get the boar before animals do."

She knew it was a load to drop onto Joli all at once. But Awen couldn't help it really. She turned back and followed the trail of blood back to the boar. And left the two momentarily alone in the ruined camp.

Lauren found a strong comfort in Awen's words, even though she knew they weren't true. Just having someone care enough to say comforting words was soothing.

Joli walked in, and Awen went to get the boar minus the smooshed head. Lauren was sitting there, her hand to the torn shirt around her own sort of smooshed head. "Hey." She waved obviously out of it wiping her tears away to hide them. "I'm fine.. really" and it was obvious she wasn't.

She wondered what gotten into Awen so much to make her tear into that boar. That was more than just revenge for the campsight in her eyes.

Joliette nodded still very stunned. She walked across the camp trying to avoid stepping on glass. She winced when she failed on one step but decided Lauren was far worse off as she took the last few steps and sitting beside Lauren reaching under her foot to dislodge the piece "Are you sure?" she asked looking over at the woman... She wasn't sure if she wanted to believe that she was... instinct said she wasn't

Lauren was off in a daze for a little bit, hearing 'are you sure?' come out of no where and then remembering Jolie was there. "Ur yes, I'm fine nothing you can do the alcohol is all gone." She huffed a bit. "Besides, I've had worse."

Lauren waited for Awen, she was taking a long time. She hoped she was alright especially since she had that crying outburst and the vomitting. "But.. we have food for like a few weeks. We just have to smoke the pig into jerky."

Joliette watched her, she knew enough to make sure Lauren didn't go to 'sleep', it wasn't a concussion but it still it wasn't likely a good idea for her to, so she figured talking was a good way to try to do that.

"Maybe there is more at the beach bar... if Jamal and Antony haven't drank it all..." Her tongue flicked and she sighed "Yeah all I need is some ranch dressing so I can handle eatting it... The beast inside me wants meat... but, it makes the real me nautious... very..."

Lauren cocked her head in confusion, "YOU don't like meat?" She smiled a bit, "well, that's going to go away quickly." She couldn't fathom having the luxery to be picky enough to exclude anything from her diet. And excluding meat would just make her look like a walking skeleton.

Besides, she had no problem killing any animal... besides humans... and half human half whatever the ******** Moreau wants the other half to be.

Joliette shook her head "No, I am.. or rather was a vegan, I have been for about 3 years. In my final year of school we had to do a photographic essay for a class, and we were actually assigned places, just like a journalist would for a company, and I wound up with a meat processing facility. , I haven't been able to handle it since then, so I chose to go full vegan" She tried to explain. "The git truely didn't like that, cause it also means I'm against immunizations and turned his 'immunization' down so he found another means to give it to me...." She didn't say anything about her thinking it's also why Sabin had chosen a full all out carnivore of an animal

Awen grunted a bit as she appeared back at the edge of camp. She frowned a little bit just catching the last bit of what Joliette had said. Yeah...former vegan will not like...

She had returned to the sight and not found a pretty thing. She couldn't believe she had...done that to the.... Her stomach chruned again when she saw it and there was a second pile of Awen's stomach content somewhere back in the forest.

She hauled the beast back into the clearing-ish area. "I really hope someone knows how to cook and preserve things because I suck without a fridge..." She shook her head a little bit. "Sorry Joli..." She mumbled on her way by to the river.

At the moment she didn't care about the water. The animal in her was happy with her progress, but Awen just wanted to get this blood off of her before it dried much more. She started washing her hands and arms. Shaking her head slowly to herself.

Lauren nodded, "Hell, I'd probably be a vegan if I saw one of those. But I didn't so I eat meat. Plus can't really not eat meat considering I'll be all bones." She nodded, "And it's even WORSE now that I'm turning carnivore from omnivore."

Lauren waved at Awen comming back, "OOH Big big big catch from small blue hair woman." She pounded her chest, her voice mimicking a cave person. "YOU good member of tribe." But her enthusiasm was short lived as a huge pounding came to her head. "Me bad weak member. Me go wash in humilation." She muttered to herself, not really meaning that but in some ways she did. She went to wash the wounds hopeing just water would work takeing care to wash her bandage and reaply it as well. She also decided since she was already in the river to wash up all over, going a little further down out of modesty to do so.

Joliette's stomach, dispite her disapproval, growled audibly as the carrion passed her by and her flicking tongue brought it's scent to her senses. "It's ok Awen... honest" and she swallowed hard to keep from throwing up... She was very glad for Lauren's silly distraction for as long as it lasted and got a small laugh from it. She shook her head as Lauren wandered downriver

"give me something to cook it on I can do that despite my veganism, wasn't always one... as for storage... uhmm, we'd need like a cold storage, or Lauren suggested smoking it to make jerky, that means the fire needs to be stoked up again.." She looked down at her lightly bleeding foot and wiped it away

Awen sighed a little bit looking down at her bloodsoaked shirt. She frowned and shook her head muttering a curse. "The fire's still fine just...put more wood on it to keep it going." She turned and grinned. "It might minus our survival, but man it was amazing like out of an action flick when the alcohol hit the flames!" She chuckled a little bit and despite the awkwardness of it she took off her shirt and started washing it in the stream.

She was not about to go dunking herself in like Lauren, still too afraid, but she really needed the blood and ew bits off of her. Setting her shirt aside she wet her hair and face. A small smile pulled at her lips as she felt the water drip to her neck, her partly formed gills.... but she shook away that feeling.

She looked over to where Lauren went. "Don't go too far Lauren!"

Awen yawned softly.

Lauren glimpsed over towards Awen yelling, then noticed she didn't have her shirt on and turned her head quickly to avoid anyone seeing her blush. She was just so akward with things like that, it made no sense to her brain at all. Pushing it away as just a weirdness of the head wound, Lauren jumped out and put back on her clothing, her hair and tail now wet she smelled a tiny bit like wet dog.

She came back over, "But, forgot we have no knife to make the slices thin, can't make jerky and that takes forever and a smoldering fire anyway." She thought a bit remembering an easy simple way to extract salt from sea water. "We can use salt, there is pleny of it in the ocean. We just need a container and sun but first we have to cook it because it's not going to withstand this warm night before smelling like a** and attracting flies." As Lauren spoke, some were trying to get on the meat of the boar.

"I don't know how to tan the hide." She was thinking back to Moreau's teachings. "I remember one of my classes a book saying an animals own brains are the best tannins. I also think we would have to scrape the fur off and leave it by fire, making sure all meat is scraped off as well. And again, we need a knife." Everything she knew how to do, needed a knife.

Lauren was starting to be extremely thankful for the education Moreau gave her.


Without a word Joliette scurried to her feet and ran into the bushes after hearing Lauren describe all that needed to be done, she had barely been holding it in as it was. If one listened they would hear Joliette losing the water and peanuts that made up the contents of her stomach into the foliage. There were times she wished she'd never taken that course, but the fact remained the same, as much as hte beast inside was demanding she was having a very difficult time coming to grips

Awen sighed and got up from the river bank. She grabbed her shirt and started back to the fire. She found a nice big stick and plunked in infront of the remainder of the fire, laying the shirt on the stick so it hung over the fire. Insta drier.

She sat down on the ground and sighed softly. "Well...that's great." She inclined her head towards the bushed. "Joli once your done try drinking it helps sweetie."

She shook her head and looked back to Lauren. "We don't have knives or anything but we could get another stick...or rock.... or..well.. you could use your claws. Not as percise but desperate times...."

She yawned again and blinked, she was really exhausted. It was her time to see two Laurens. "So..yeah I don't think I'll be much help anyway... but...I haven't slept in.... God I don't know and... Yeah..."

She yawned again and stretch. "I...am gonna pass out if I don't willingly..."

Lauren looked very confused at Joli throwing up in the woods and remembered something, "Oh... yeah, vegan." That times she truely didn't mean to mess with Joli's head. She was now part of the community to the mongoose so Lauren couldnt' loose her.

But she still couldn't say sorry.

"Guess we will just cook it now, we need THIN strips for jerky otherwise it won't work, plus we need salt, which we don't have yet. Just cooked will last maybe 4 days though, we will need to find something else by then and maybe prepare to make jerky out of something else." She shook her head. "But we don't have anything, we have to start from scratch. No bowls to help make the salt in, no knives, nothing."

The no knife thing in particular seemed to be the biggest pain for Lauren, she always had one handy except when she was sleeping.

"Can you handle just cooking Joli, I'll go try to make a stone knife... or a bone one." She said looking at the tusk that was remarkably still in tack. Lauren broke it off with a little effort and went off a little ways. "I'll be close by but I need some time to myself. I'm just so used to it, the mongoose says otherwise but I'm still mostly Lauren."

She waved goodnight to Awen, "Get some sleep." She also worried about her. Going off just slightly out of the way, Lauren went to make her tusk knife and hopefully some stone tools as well.

Joliette trudged back into camp and bee-lined for the water drinking some before turning to reply "I think so, long as I keep this tongue in my mouth ... I hope I can... and noone describes anything more to me" She nodded and headed around the glass and located a not so bad place grabbing another stick to poke at the fire "Do you still have David's lighter Awen?"

Awen looked up at Joli in confusion a second before realising. "Oh right!" She took the lighter from her pocket and tossed it over to Joli. "Don't use it though unless these flames die okay? I don't know how much light fluid is left in that and I would really not like to run out...."

Chubb's lighter. Chubbs. Hey where was Chubbs? Awen began to wonder what happened to the big guy. Last he knew he had left with Joliette.... She shook her head slowly and just laid down on her back.

Everything ached, nothing felt right and her stomach still churned with the memorises from earlier. Awen missed the days of big comfortable beds, silk sheets, someone else cooking all the time. She wanted to be home so badly....

As she stared up at the canopy of trees she saw a break in the leaves. She could see clearly out into the sky where Awen could see stars. She smiled a little bit to herself. That's what they didn't have back home....stars.

Awen held onto that thought in hopes of chasing away the inevitable nightmare to come. But obviously.... even the stars can't stop the inevitable....  

[Awen Zyn]

Waking up

Awen shifted in her sleep, tossing and turning on the ground, mumbling something under her breath. All of a sudden she sprung awake, sitting straight up. She looked around slowly and sighed in relief.

Standing up she brushed herself off and ran her fingers through her hair. Which was a bad idea because her hair was knotted. "Ow, ow,ow" She said as her fingers pulled at hte knots painfully.

She sat back down with a tiny growl. This was going to hurt as she tried to straighten the knots out of her hair. She wondered how long she had slept for.... must have been awhile.... But she couldn't tell time without a working clock.

Joliette walked back into camp with David holding his hand and relieved to see no further damage had happened to their little camp "Looks like the fire could use some stoking" she mused "and some wood" a glance around reveiled at least one other of their party was awake

Chubbs could smell the boar all the way here, it was heavenly. His dry throat was soon quench with his own salivating over the meal ahead. He stopped as he looked over the state of the camp. Every thing he'd done to contribute was in disrepair and broken, Chubbs's heart sank deeply. He found a small nearby tree and sat on the ground and rested against it.

" God is an a*****e"

She sighed a little bit and gave up on her hair. "Good morning to you guys too." She mumbled. Letting her hand drop she took a looked around the camp now that it was light out. It was in worse condition than she thought.

Shards of tarp, including the two bigger pieces Awen almost saved that fateful night. Bits and pieced of broken glass, the boar which now seemed a lot better than what it had been. She shook her head a little bit.

"At least we hae good food now." She said softly. Crawling over to the bits of glass and tested a larger piece she smiled. "And cutting utensiles." Remembering the shards of tarp. "You know this might not be as bad as we thought before."

It was so good to be awake and refreshed. "We can make spears and things. Tying the glass to sticks and stuff like that. I don't think this is a complete loss."

Contrary to Chubbs her mood elevated. She felt really good now.

Joliette watched David worried and then turned to Awen listening to her evaluation of hte situation "Those would be good items to have, least in teh mean time.." she headed for teh boar looking it over before trying to pull at a leg near the front "Now all we need is to figure out how to preserve some of this so that it lasts at least a few days" she looked towards David for suggestions... try and make him feel better

Chubbs looked between the two girls, specially Awen. He didn't need to be a downer, not here, not now. It was just getting to him, every up brought a dozen downs of late and he wasn't coping well. He was suppose to be the one that was strong for others.

" S...* cough*... sorry guys... yeah.. ah...spears would do well, ah"

Chubbs rubbed his tired eyes, they were red and he couldn't think straight at the moment, he hald to hold himself up from falling to the side and sleeping.

" Might be some vines for good bindin or somethin.... umm... I dunno, I really can't see a way to make it last, I'd suggest something like umm, eatin ya fill, offering some to others, and saving some for fish bait or crab pots or somethin"

Awen frowned at the big guy. It wasn't that he was a downer, he knew more than she did of this survival stuff, Awen was just improvising. But she felt as though something wasn't right with him. She was concerned now...

"Chubbs are you okay? You don't look so good. Why don't... why don't you just have some eats, go to the river and grab a drink and..maybe take a nap. You look exhausted hun."

And that was the absolute last thing they needed. Chubbs so far had been the provider of this small band... minus the boar of course. She certainly didn't want to loose him to sickness...or instincts.

Joliette gave a hard tug after running a claw along the joint and fell back onto her bottom "ouch" she muttered, shaking herself and standing up with a rub at her bottom where the few inches of tail was thatshe had landed on she walked towards him handing the meat to him "She's right love, you look like you've seen better days"

Chubbs took the leg in one hand and brouth Joliette closer with the other, he brushed down her backside softly and looked up at her before he even looked at the food.

" You ah.. okay hun?"

He smiled and kissed her hand, and decided to eat, he took a big bite out of the leg and closed his eyes as he chewed it.

" I mow oo guys ah girfs an all ... * gulps* .. but don't take this the wrong way... I'm gonna drags ya all into the kitchen one day... mmm god this is good"

Chubbs smiled and ate some more, taking huge bites and chewing quickly. His stomach felt better, like he wasn't going to throw up so much. He looked up at Awen and gave a weak smile.

" I just wanted to get into the tools, or the cafeteria... it's * coughs* .. it's like titanium or something... I just didn't want to give up...I'm just tired hun... I'm stuffed... lil crispy, bit thirsty, and i hurt all over... a lil rest and I should be okay"

Awen looked away while Chubbs and Joli shared a little bit of a couples moment. It sort of hurt and brought back thoughts of Jamal. She'd almost been lucky to have to concentrate on survival to be able to ingore the shards of her heart Jamal had left when he smashed it. But seeing the happy couple was a bit too much, so Awen wouldn't watch.

Only when she was spoken to did she look back. "Hm? Oh... yeah Chubbs. I don't know though, if you couldn't break into them I don't think you should keep trying. We should..uh.. concentrate on survival, instead of wasting our energy on the lockdown." She nodded a little bit. "Moreau wasn't stupid when he built this place. He knew the strength he would be giving his subjects.... he would have made it so that none of us could break into the places if he set a lockdown. Right?"

She shook her head sadly a little bit. "Besides we sort of need you here Chubbs. If you were here well.... the camp probably wouldn't have gotten demolished. A mongoose and a mutant fish could only do so much, ya?"

She looked over to the still sleeping Lauren. That was never a good sign with a head injury. Awen shuffled over to check on the girl, ignoring the pain in her own leg. She ran a hand through the girl's hair then brushed it away to see the strip of fabric over her head. She pulled it aside to examine it a bit. She didn't know what to look for but she knew it didn't look good she put the material back over and resigned herself just to sit by Lauren.

"Thanks love, But dont give me the credit we wouldn't have it if not for Awen and Lauren... I just sat and watched it roast over the fire..." She went silent listening to Awen "She's right again, I dont think we are going to succeed with the village, so the strength we have we need out here, until they finally get everything open once more..." she peered over at Lauren "She going to be ok Awen?"

Chubbs felt like an idiot for trying so much out at the village, why was it when he is needed most, he's never there. Chubbs grew a saddened look as he practically cleaned all the meat off of the bones. He looked over ad Lauren at Awen, noting their injuries. Chubbs was now determined to see these girls through the ordeal, no more stupid ideas.

" I'm sorry I .. I wasn't here ya guys... but I will be now... just... just need a bit of rest.. a little is all I need."

He slightly mumbled that as he rubbed his face, his eyes were almost rolling back, he forced himself to keep awake a little while longer.

" Take any of the pig we won't eat, ... feet... ears.. head..* yawns* .. tail mmm.. and"

Chubbs lay down on the ground, feeling the dread of sleep winning the battle.

" Will use for bait.. for hunting....Make sure Laurens * sighs* breathing okay, ...Awen... keep ya cut covered..... mmm... so tired... smoke the pig mmmfmmf"

Chubbs mummbled the last few words before he passed out again, he needed some time to re-energize and rest his body.

Awen nodded at Chubb's instructions. The poor guy must have been exhausted to pass out in his sentance like that. She hadn't remembered to take care of her own cut and she examined it as it was noted. It was starting to scab over...and it didn't look like there was anything infected like to it. Which was lucky.

Looking over to Joliette now that Chubbs was passed out she shook her head. "I'm not a doctor.... she got hit pretty bad by that damned pig."

Which of course had been one of the major factors of Awen's snappage. She was so very glad that only Lauren was around to witness it. The killing.. she didn't mind so much. It was beating it's head to a pulp that made Awen's stomach chrun even now.

Speaking of her stomach it growled at her. She moved to find a nice big piece of the glass and walked to the river. She still felt apprehensive about the water... but she thought her fear was going away due to nessesity. She washed the dirt and muck off the glass and shuffled her way over to the boar. Cutting a piece of the meat out for herself she started to chew. It... wasn't that bad really.

"I just hope Chubbs doesn't make himself sick with all his work. That's the last thing we need really."

Joliette nods running her fingers through David's hair for a moment before standing "I wish one of us was, we could surely use a doctor that is not connected to feral right now..." she walked up beside Awen and used a claw to pull off a tiny strip from the boar before sitting with her "Yeah, last thing we need is for any of us to, but especially those who are stronger physically"

Awen nodded and sighed. "I'd settle for even one of the doc's connected to feral. I mean.. if we're in this mess.... with the explosion and all.... Moreau wouldn't want us to die. He's done so much for us you know. And we're his lab rats after all. He does want to see a successful experiment right? Not just how we are. So if Moreau walked up right now and offered help, heck, I would take it."

"I've never met Moreau, but i'll tell you right now... I would never acept 'help' from the git, I would rather punch him out again first. Hopefully with enough strength to knock him out before he can say those 3 words again" she sighed nibbling at the meat trying her damndest to ignore the taste and scent "Thats what one would figure though, he spent all this money to bring everyone here or trap us here, to decieve people on the mainland you'd think he wouldn't let us die mid experiment"

She hook her head and chuckled softly. "Joliette, I think you're too stubborn for your own good sometimes." She drummed her fingers against her good leg. What to do what to do...

"Any idea how to smoke meat...?" Obviously it had something to do with the smoke from the fire, but how close how far from to put it. Lauren hadn't held high hope of it. Awen could do all the work she just..needed instructions..

"I gave him trust and he broke it, multiple times, having clothing you are wearing dissolve from your body kinda ruins trust in the one who gave it to you" she shakes her head and looks at hte meat "Uhm I'd guess in pieces, over a fire high enough that the flames don't touch it? I dont really know, thats just a guess" she was clueless on the topic herself

Awen nodded a bit. Even if Sabin had done all that she knew that he wouldn't do anything too serious. For nothing else but for fear of Moreau. But that was besides the point.

Listening to Joliette's guess Awen frowned. "I'd rather not ruin the meat. Lauren or Chubbs when they wake up can tell us... The meat should last for a little while more anyway..."

She shook her head. "But it won't be healthy for us to try and surive on meat alone." She got up and dusted herself off. "I'm sure we could find some plants in the jungle that would be fine to eat right?"

Joliette nods glad for a change of topics away from the git "Yes, we should be able to, the group at the beach looked like they had some fruit, least from the fruit leftovers I saw, I'm going to guess they are from teh jungle, though I'm not sure where exactly" She peered into the trees in search of some fruit, something she'd love just then

She frownd and sighed. "Maybe we should ask where they got it from then. Or maybe we can find out own in hte jungle. You're a vegan, right? You can probably find something ediable, right?"

Awen wanted to avoid going to the beach as much as possible. Three reasons this time. The ocean, Jamal and Antony. She shook her head. But if they were going to survive they probably would have to work together. She just didn't want that self centered girl to go and eat all of the pig her and Lauren worked hard for. All Awen would have to do is ask where they got their fruit, not ask to have some. Then they could findtheir own meat. Yeah that's right.

"Ask Antony? I asked her if they had seem someone else and she said something about having seen president bush coming to see if they were all right or some shite like that, I'd rather take my chances and look for it int eh jungle, I dont think we'd get a straight answer from her even if we tried" She too would rather not tell the pair that their camp had a boar, even if her reasons were a lil different from Awens'

Awen tapped her foot a little bit thinking. "Well...how about you try in the bush and I'll check out the others. I won't say anything about hte boar yet. I know desperate people will go to desperate measures for food, and if all they had was fruit..." She shook her head a little bit.

This was a crappy plan and she knew it. She didn't feel like facing one of those two let alone both. But she knew it was better than Joliette facing the two together.

Joliette nods "I'll stay close to here, least close enough to keep an eye on the camp, I kinda dont like to leave it too much alone, least not after the boar" she stood up and brushed her shorts off her tongue flicked as she did

Awen nodded. "I understand. I'll be back real soon, don't worry." She gave Joliette a smiled before heading towards the beach, bracing herself for what was to come.